Flotsam and Jetsam - Walz Sics State Smokies on Seditionists

Georgia and I chipped out the path for our car to get out of the garage yesterday so she can go shopping today, and it was even worse than the day before. Under the influence of sun and air temperatures that continue to stay well below freezing, the snow/sleet/freezing rain combination has hardened almost like concrete. We are not expected to break into the thaw zone until Tuesday, and predictions show more snow (hopefully real snow) on Sat-Sun, of a few more inches. Pete reports the harbor is totally iced over. Maybe I'll get down to the Bay today and get some photos.

The madness in Minnesota continues. Bonchie at RedState thinks you should Watch: Tim Walz-Led State Patrol Unleashed on Rioters, As Trump Shift Already Appears to Pay Dividends. Matt Whitlock @MattWhitlock "Alarming that Tim Walz and Jacob Frey had the ability to do this the entire time, but they allowed lunatic activists to harass federal law-enforcement officers and create an unnecessarily violent environment." Quote Anthony @anthonycabassa, "BREAKING : About a dozen more protestors have just been arrested for refusing to disperse the area." The way Don Surber sees it, The Walz is caving in to Trump, "Talk softly and carry a big Insurrection Act of 1807." Democrats, of course are calling TACO. Jim Geraghty at NRO thinks Trump Isn’t the Only One Changing Course in Minnesota. At Hat Hair John Sexton claims Democrats Are Over-Celebrating Their Win and Dave Strom reports Tim Walz Wants to Beat the S*!T Out of JD Vance. I think Vance should challenge him to an MMA style bout. Insty, AND I WANT TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST WITHOUT OXYGEN, USING ONLY YOGIC BREATH CONTROL: Tim Walz Wants to Beat the S*!T Out of JD Vance. Insty at substack, Of Squids, Ink, and Minnesota's Corrupt Machine "Tim Walz, et al., try to change the subject, even at the expense of supporters' lives."

At Hat Hair, Chloe looks at how Cam Higby Infiltrates ANTI-ICE Group Chats. I Break Down What He Found and What It Proves, Beege Welborn thinks it Seems Kind of Funny How All the 'Organic' Cockroaches Scatter When the Signal Light Comes On and Capt. Ed cites Patel: You Better Believe the FBI Is Following the Money in MN. Calling all Rush Babes, goes *Behind the Scenes in Downtown Minneapolis…and Portland…and Los Angeles…and New York City. At News Wax, Patel: Funders of Minneapolis Protests Identified by FBI. Rick Moran at PJM, Andy Ngo: Here's What I Saw When I Got Inside the Signal Chats Used by Extremists in Minnesota. From Twitchy, You Can Run, But You Can't HIDE: DataRepublican NUKES Every Alleged Donor to MN Anti-ICE Signal Group. Tyler O'Neil at Da Signal, Why Is Peggy Flanagan Backing Organizers of Resistance to ICE? Coddled Affluent Professional @feelsdesperate, "These were engineered spectacles. The confrontations were coordinated at a high level and the police were held back to allow them. The libs who died were fed ideological programming to engage the way they did. Nothing spontaneous about this - it was cynical political strategy." Quote captive dreamer @captive_dreamer, "Alex Pretti and Renee Good died because Tim Walz and Jacob Frey refused to allow local and state law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. It's that simple." The Center Square sees Systematic organization behind riots in Minnesota probed by FBI. Athena Thorn at PJM, Can We Get These Guys a Pulitzer? Mike Netter @nettermike, "LAWYER UP”: Former DOJ Chief of Staff Issues Grave Murder Charge Warning to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan The legal walls are closing in on Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor. Following the explosive revelation that Peggy Flanagan allegedly operated as a “dispatch admin” for the radical ICE-interference network under the handle “Flan Southside,” one of the nation’s top legal minds has issued a chilling warning about her future. . . " The Felony Murder Warning Chad Mizelle, former Chief of Staff at the Trump DOJ and Acting General Counsel at DHS, stated plainly that if the Signal chat is tied to the Alex Pretti shooting, Flanagan is in "serious trouble." Mizelle explained the "felony murder" reality: if you are involved in a conspiracy—in this case, interfering with federal ICE operations—and someone dies as a result, every participant in that conspiracy can be charged with murder. . ." Elon Musk @elonmusk, "They must be hiding something very big in Minnesota to send their foot soldiers there from all over the country" Quote Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters, "Let me get this straight: 1. prior administrations deported millions of people, and riots were basically nonexistent 2. the moment trump took office, a coordinated campaign by politicians/legacy media *directly called for resistance to ICE* 3. once riots happen and people are die, the spotlight shifts to stopping deportations and defunding ICE. If this was such a crime against humanity, why did no one riot in 2024? The intention behind the unrest is NOT empathy. Empathy is being manufactured on false grounds to achieve political aims. And people are getting hurt."

Susie Moore at RedState, (Updated) U.S. 'Border Patrol-Involved' Shooting in Arizona Leaves 1 Person Injured. "U.S. Border Patrol shot a man with an active arrest warrant after he fired at federal agents Tuesday during a foot chase near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. The man, identified by federal authorities as Patrick Gary Schlegel, 34, escaped from a facility in December while serving a 36-month sentence for human smuggling, according to court documents." At NYPo, the Divine Ms. Devine: More martyrs for cynical Dems after fatal Alex Pretti shooting. John Sexton notes Pretti Was Allowed to Carry a Gun to a Protest. Yep, he was. But he did it wrong. Dave Strom, Democrats and the Media Now Suggesting that ICE Agents Should Be Shot; UPDATE: ABC Predicts More Guns and Did MSNOW Photoshop Alex Pretti's Picture to Make Him Look More Attractive? Yep, they did. C3 @C_3C_3, "See what the Media does? Everything they do is to manipulate. To propagandize. They truly are the enemy of the people." From Twitchy, When ‘Reporting’ Sounds Like a Pep Rally: ABC’s Trevor Ault and the Gun-Toting Protester Hypothesis. Lauren Chen @TheLaurenChen, "They didn't bring weapons to a protest. They stood outside their house as rioters invaded their neighborhood. It's crazy how these people lie so casually." Quote Climate Defiance @ClimateDefiance "Patricia and Mark McCloskey brought weapons to a protest. They were honored as keynote speakers at the 2020 RNC." A Larry video at Hat Hair catches the Fox News Panel Erupting As Jessica Tarlov Spews Anti-ICE Lies: Liberal Media Panics. From Shooting News Week, The Minneapolis Insanity Has Some People Thinking About Gun Ownership and the 2A for the Very First Time. Mitch Berg at Hat Hair, The Administration and the Second Amendment: Damage Control. 

Matt Vespa at TownHall thinks The Reactions to This Anti-ICE Clown Getting Wrecked by a Flashbang Were Amazing. Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok "Meet Melinda, a healthcare worker at @VCUHealth. She posted a series of videos encouraging people to inject ICE agents with succinylocholine, a temporary paralysis drug, and spray poison on them. She also encourages woman to go on dates with agents and drug their food. Any comment @VCUHealth? How can you have such a vile person working with patients? How can anyone feel safe at your facilities if you employ such people?" then BREAKING: VCUHealth confirms Malinda has been placed on administrative leave. Leave?! She needs to be fired immediately, have her license revoked, and potentially face charges. She literally called to poison and drug ICE agents. Sorry but this is not enough." From WaEx, DHS investigating woman who tried to buy guns to ‘kill ICE Agents.’ Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol, "My favorite anti-ICE protest clip of all time is when a woman here in Asheville NC shows up to a protest wearing a mask, spells her FULL NAME LIVE ON THE NEWS... ...gets asked why she is wearing a mask "It's a protective measure against fascism..." ...YOU SPELLED YOUR FULL LEGAL NAME LIVE ON AIR." As PJM's Stephen Kruiser notes Anarchist Dems Are SO Lucky That Trump Isn't the Guy They Say He Is. The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee "J6ers Wishing They Had Thought Of Branding Themselves 'Legal Observers.'" 

From Fox, Trump admin wins court victory freeing ICE agents from Minnesota protest restrictions, "The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that blocked certain tactics against anti-ICE agitators in Minnesota." Ace, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Overrules Lawless Lowly District Judicial Insurrectionist, Removing Bullshit Restrictions on How ICE Can Handle Violent "Protesters", "Who knows, it's possible that this judge's lawless diktat that "protesters" should be allowed to be violent and ICE is barred from responding with non-lethal munitions like tear gas and pepper spray actually led to the death of the violent protesters. MXM News:" At News Wax, Judge Threatens ICE Chief Over Minn. Immigration Enforcement. "A U.S. District judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons to appear in Minnesota federal court "and show cause why he should not be held in contempt."" Capt. Ed says Hmmm: DoJ Withdraws Lemon Arrest Warrant Request – But ...

Logan Hall @loganclarkhall, "Average blue state elected Democrat: “We want to burn everything to the ground and hunt down our enemies and jail them for life.” Average red state elected GOP: “I’m certain we can find a good compromise here.”" Quote End Wokeness @EndWokeness, "BREAKING: Philly DA Krasner vows to "hunt down" ICE agents, labels them "WANNABE NAZlS!" Mickey Kaus @kausmickey, "An amnesty deal now seems further away than ever because it’s now 100% clear Dems will never keep their half of the bargain if it involves any significant restrictions on future migration. They’ll pocket the amnesty & reopen the border Biden-style as soon as they get the chance." Quote Mickey Kaus @kausmickey, "This is a good way to attract millions and millions of illegals, who (as Paul admits) would prefer living in the richest country in the world as non-citizens to living wherever they were before. (Paul's claim that his plan is a novel idea is ridiculous. "Non-citizenship" has x.com/Rothmus/status…"

ABC whines DHS increasing self-deportation stipend from $1,000 to $2,600 "The administration previously offered $1,000 for those who self-deported." RNS, As Springfield's 15,000 Haitians brace for deportations, local churches train to resist ICE. From AMAC, Don’t Believe Media Lies – Americans Want Immigration Enforcement. 

At Althouse, "DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary." "Writes Senator John Fetterman to President Trump, quoted in "Fetterman calls on Trump to fire Noem: 'Americans have died'" (The Hill). When I first read that line — "Americans have died" — I thought he meant to say the entire nation has lost its soul. But he meant the simpler, concrete reality: Renee Good and Alex Pretti have died. There's also this: "Trump Holds 2-Hour Meeting With Noem Amid Backlash to Minneapolis Shooting" (NYT): . . . The referenced "grossly incompetent" Biden DHS Secretary was Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversaw the 10+ million illegal border crossings. Why didn't Biden fire him? A cynic would say Biden approved of what was happening. And yet even if he approved, he should have signaled that he did not approve, and firing the Secretary is a showy way to express disapproval."

From Sundance at CTH, President Trump Interview with Will Cain in Iowa - Full Video, President Trump Delivers Remarks on the Economy from Clive, Iowa, President of European Parliament Bans EU Nations from Purchasing Russian Gas Without Paying Commission to Third Party, Big Picture: President Trump and Trade Using the Art of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Ontario Premier Doug Ford Appears in Awkward Presser - We Love Chinese EVs Now. BeGee Welborn, Calgary, Alberta Held an Independence Round Up Yesterday. News Wax notes US Steel Surpasses Japan, Boosted by Trump Tariffs. David Harsanyi @davidharsanyi, "No one is in charge. That's why they're cheap." Quote Joseph Brown @heresyfinancial, "Whoever is in charge of TV prices should be put in charge of healthcare, education, and housing prices."

MD Kittle at Da Fed, says the Plummeting Murder Rate Shows ‘Law And Order Works.’ Mark Hemingway @Heminator, "The only unsafe places in America are all run by the people he actually agrees with." Quote Giles Coren@gilescoren, "This morning I cancelled our family holiday to America. I cannot in good conscience take my wife and children there and tell them they will be safe. The United States is no longer a place for decent people." Amanda Head at JTN, tells the Tale of two managements: Trump's prep and readiness vs. Biden's 'no comment' "Fears of FEMA cuts unfounded, Trump administration has not met with disaster fumbles, such as Hurricane Katrina under President Bush's watch, or the East Palestine, Ohio toxic spill after a train derailment under President Biden."

At the Euro Con, “This revolution will succeed but we need external help to reduce the price of victory”—Iranian dissident. Insty, HILLARY DEPOSED QADDAFI AND SLAVE MARKETS APPEARED IN LIBYA. "BIDEN BUGGED OUT OF AFGHANISTAN AND NOW": Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat, "TALIBAN ANNOUNCE RETURN OF SLAVERY TO AFGHANISTAN The old Ghulam system in which children were taken as sexual slaves and servants has officially returned Where is the left crying out against this? Where are the marches? Where are the speeches? Silence."

Sarah Anderson at PJM, That's the Night That the Lights Went Out in Cuba? Mexico Cuts Oil Shipment.

Susie Moore at RedState, (Updated) MN Rep. Ilhan Omar Sprayed With Unknown Substance at Town Hall Event. Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh, "WOW! Big evil MAGA man who sprayed Ilhan Omar turns out to have far-left gender questionable kids Imagine that."

John Sexton sees that In a Major Setback for Dems, Judge Rules Against Virginia Redistricting Effort. "Hurley struck down the legislature’s move on several grounds, ruling that lawmakers last year failed to vote on the amendment before the public began casting ballots in the November 2025 election and did not publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by state law." Law! We don't need no stinkin' law! Chad Mizelle @chad_mizelle, "Let’s talk Judicial Lawfare. Over 4 years of the Biden administration, 9 district court rulings against the administration were later overturned on appeal. About 2.25 per year. In 2025 alone, the first year of President Trump’s second term, 32 District Judges have issued 133 rulings against the Trump administration that were stayed or overturned on appeal. Simplified, District Judges are now issuing rulings that ultimately fail on appeal at more than 50x the rate compared to the previous presidency. And for the record, when these cases reach the Supreme Court, President Trump’s win rate is roughly 90%."

Reason reasons, What Mamdani Gets Wrong About the NYC Nurses Strike: State Regulations, Not Greed, Are the Problem "Zohran Mamdani had a chance to pursue health care reform in the New York State Assembly. He didn’t take it."

Stacy McCain identifies one of The Worst People in the World, and she's a jourolist at the Slantic. John Ocasio-Rodham Nolte @NolteNC, "We might care if it weren't for all the lying. Y'all shouldn't have done all this lying: · The ICE Detains Five-Year-Old Hoax · The Hegseth ‘Kill Everybody’ Hoax · Trump “Destroying” White House Hoax · Photo of Starving Gaza Baby Hoax · Israeli Troops Murdered Food-Seeking Palestinians Hoax · Trump Tariffs Will Explode Prices Hoax · Maryland Man Hoax · Black Newborns Much More Likely to Die If Doc’s White Hoax · Elon Musk Nazi Salute Hoax · Mass Hysterectomies Performed on Immigrants Hoax · The All-White Trump Party Hoax · Springfield Bomb Threat Hoax · Trump Called for Liz Cheney to Be Executed Hoax · Violent Crime Down Under Biden/Harris Hoax . . . " Quote, Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM, "Our journalist colleagues at The Washington Post here in Ukraine provide vital coverage, particularly of the human impact of Russia's ongoing war. It would be a major loss for The Post if it closes or downsizes this team or its other excellent foreign bureaus. But it would especially be a loss to the communities they cover and the American public, too. Hoping The Post leadership comes to its senses." The Hollywood Reporter reports Bari Weiss Unveils Sweeping Vision: “I Am Here to Make CBS News Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century” "Weiss rallied the troops and outlined her vision at an all-hands meeting Tuesday morning, naming a lineup of new contributors: "Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. If we stick to that strategy, we're toast."" I wish her luck, but I don't hold out a lot of hope. Driscoll at Insty, FIRED NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST DISHES ON HER COWARDLY, CENSORIOUS NYT EDITORS.

Mazelit Airaksinen observes the NYC Therapist Who Wished Hitler “Ended” Jews Still Practicing "No consequences for antisemitism in healthcare at the state level."

Jamie Wilson at PJM, Amelia Victorious: How to Lose the Culture War With a Video Game. Quotulatiousness, Amelia was not created by the “extreme right”. She is lovely. 

More at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.26.26 and In The Mailbox: 01.27.26. The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: One Big Crunch ready for your clicks at The Other McCain.

Maryland, My Maryland

TNP, Democrat Lawmakers Override Governor’s Veto to Establish Slavery Reparations Commission

State lawmakers in Maryland overrode a veto from Governor Wes Moore (D) to adopt Senate Bill (SB) 587, legislation that establishes a government commission to study reparations for residents whose ancestors had been enslaved. Late Tuesday, the Maryland state Senate voted 31 to 14 to override the veto, while the state House of Delegates voted 93-35 to override. Both chambers surpassed the three-fifths threshold needed to circumvent the governor.

The Maryland Reparations Commission, established by the legislation, is now tasked with studying and making “recommendations relating to appropriate benefits to be made to individuals whose ancestors were enslaved in the State or were impacted by certain inequitable government policies.” A preliminary report to the Maryland General Assembly is required to be submitted by January 1, 2027, and a final report must be submitted to the governor and state legislature by November 1, 2027. The commission will explore potential reparations, including monetary compensation, property tax rebates, childcare support, debt forgiveness, and tuition waivers for higher education.

Gov. Moore had initially moved to veto the bill in May of this year, contending that the state already has engaged in multiple studies on slavery reparations and that the lawmakers pushing the issue would better serve their constituents by focusing on policies that directly address alleged racial disparities. In the veto letter sent to Senate President Bill Ferguson (D), Gov. Moore noted that the Maryland state government had established numerous commissions and panels over the last 25 years examining a myriad of related issues.

The legislation drew uniform opposition from Republican lawmakers. Speaking on the state House floor on Tuesday, Delegate Matthew Morgan (R) warned the bill was a move toward “race-bait handouts.” He stated, “This bill betrays the original intention, the unifying event of the civil rights movement. It’s immoral, and it’s fiscally ruinous to this state, and it sends a message to the generations out there now in Maryland that if you’re concerned about fairness, dignity, opportunity… flee Maryland.”

To the best of my knowledge (it's a little unclear on my mother's side) all my ancestors immigrated to the United States from Germany after the Civil War. Similarly, all of Georgia ancestors immigrated from Italy and Ireland after the civil war. So we won't have the pay the special "reparations" tax, am I right? 

However, I am surprised Gov. Moore vetoed it.

The Monday Morning Stimulus

Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine,  Slavery-Like Conditions Reported

Cooxupé, Brazil’s largest coffee cooperative that accounts for approximately 10% of the country’s coffee exports, has suspended five farms for labor-rights violations, including conditions analogous to slavery, according to a recent Repórter Brasil investigation. The report follows Brazilian Ministry of Labor inspections earlier this year. There are approximately 19,000 Cooxupé member farms, with coffee supply reaching buyers throughout North America and Europe. Repórter Brasil includes comments from Cooxupé and Starbucks.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Boots & Bikinis up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

Happy Juneteenth!

America Celebrates Juneteenth, The Day Republicans Freed All The Democrats' Slaves https://t.co/ME5YEBeOSQ pic.twitter.com/2TVwGuuWeT

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 19, 2025

h/t Driscoll at Insty

Maryland, My Maryland

 Dan Greenfield at Front Page, Black Governor Vetoes Racial Reparations Bill

Slavery reparations are dead. How dead are they? Dead enough that not even black governors want them.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore vetoed a measure that would have created a commission to study reparations in the former slave state.

Moore vetoed the bill on Friday but said he will propose other methods to address the effects of slavery, Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination against blacks in Maryland.

The proposed commission would have explored options for addressing the state’s past and subsequent laws deemed discriminatory toward blacks from 1865 to 1965.

The options would have included a formal apology, cash payments or enacting laws that would make amends for past wrongs.

Why did Moore veto it? California’s experiment with racial reparations was probably an influence. After authorizing commissions to study reparations, they did nothing except stir up controversy. California let the process go far enough that it produced massive potential payments that could never be authorized, raising hopes in the black community of huge checks while touching off outrage among white residents.

And then there’s the whole awkward problem of whether reparations would be limited to actual descendants of slaves or anyone who is black which created its own divisions in the black community.

Besides, they all ready got reparations. Remember 40 acres and a mule? I asked Grok what an acre of farmland in Alabama is worth currently; the answer is approximately  $3,409, but of course, it varies by region. And a mule? "The cost of a mule in Alabama in 2025 typically ranges from $1,000 to $8,000, with most mules sold between $1,000 and $3,000" So the value of the reparations they received is worth on the order of $137,000 in today's money. Now, of course, that was per family, not per person. Still, not insignificant.

Stones Cave

to wokeness. From Da Mail, Rolling Stones are forced to CANCEL 'Brown Sugar' over slavery lyrics: Keith Richards says 50-year-old song is about 'horrors' of the trade but he's tired of fighting with people 'trying to bury it' and band will not play it anymore. The title just about says it all. A tolerable cover:

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields

Sold in the market down in New Orleans

Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright

Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good? Uh huh

Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, uh huh, oh (Woo)

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot

Lady of the house wonderin' when it's gonna stop

House boy knows that he's doing alright

You shoulda heard 'em just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good now?

Brown sugar, just like a young girl should now (Yeah)

Ah, get on, brown sugar, how come you taste so good?

Ah, got me craving the, the brown sugar

Just like a black girl should, yeah

Ah, and I bet your mama was a tent show queen

And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen

I'm no schoolboy, but I know what I like

You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby?

Ah, come down, brown sugar

Just like a young girl should, yeah

I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

How come you, how come you taste so good?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

Just like a, just like a black girl should

Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Kate Upton ready and waiting at The Other McCain. 

Harriet Tubman's Childhood Home Found on Eastern Shore

 Bay Journal: Harriet Tubman historic site discovered at Blackwater wildlife refuge

The homesite where famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman likely spent time with her father before escaping slavery and leading others to freedom has been discovered in Dorchester County, MD. The forested site is located on land added last year to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

Maryland and federal officials announced Tuesday that a state archaeological team uncovered a trove of artifacts at the site believed to be where Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, had lived in a cabin during his enslavement and which he owned outright as a free man by the 1840s.

The site was found on a 2,600-acre tract that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought last year on Peters Neck, a mostly wooded peninsula southwest of Cambridge. It was purchased for $6 million to give the extensive marsh at the Blackwater refuge room to migrate inland as climate change raises sea level around the Chesapeake Bay.

The property includes 10 acres that records show had been bequeathed in the early 1840s to Ben Ross by Anthony Thompson. Ross had been enslaved by Thompson, who in his will directed that Ross was to be freed and granted the land five years after Thompson’s death, which occurred in 1836.

A team of archaeologists from the Maryland State Highway Administration began investigating the tract in November 2020. The team returned in March and found numerous artifacts dating to the 1800s, including nails, brick, glass, dish fragments and even a button. Their discovery confirmed the location of the Ross homesite.

If Google Earth is to be believed, the site is just about 14 miles due east of us, across the Chesapeake Bay, Taylors Island and into the Blackwater Wildlife refuge. It would be 2+ hours by car, up to Annapolis and back down.

Sea Level Rise, Erosion Threaten Destroy Harriet Tubman's Home

Harriet Tubman

If they can ever find it. Historic Harriet Tubman Sites at Risk of Rising Seas on Eastern Shore "New study from Climate Central finds several sites on Harriet Tubman Byway could face chronic flooding this century"

As a tour guide on the Eastern Shore’s Harriet Tubman Byway, Alex Green has an up-close view of historic landmarks associated with the iconic abolitionist.

Such as Long Wharf, now a park on the water’s edge of Cambridge, which once served as a hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Stewart’s Canal, a seven-mile logging waterway dug by enslaved and free Black people. And the Bucktown General Store, where a young Tubman sustained a brutal head injury during her first act of defiance against an enslaver.

“This is African American heritage and history in this area,” said Green, who calls this part of the world Tubman Country.” “I’ve done tours where people just cry.”

Those greenheads and mosquitos can have that effect.

Harriet Tubman experienced a life-changing head injury while she was in this store as a child. Learn how a family in the area brought this historical site back to life.

But Green, who has lived in the region for decades, has noticed something changing on those historic sites as the years have passed. The water, he said, “is coming closer and closer.”

Green is well aware that rising seas are affecting communities like his. The seas are rising faster along the mid-Atlantic than in most parts of the world, with the sinking of land from natural forces conspiring with sea level rise from climate-changing pollution to push coastlines inland.

That's not just threatening communities, roadways and buildings. In this section of coast, it’s threatening historical Tubman treasures.

Sea level is rising in this area, slightly faster than the world average of about 2 mm/year due mostly to settling, but it has been going on as long as men have been keeping accurate records in the area. Climate change caused by CO2 release has nothing to do with it, other than the slow melt of the ice left over from last ice advance.

The science and news group Climate Central used its coastal database to pinpoint risks from rising seas to some of this area’s most precious Tubman landmarks. The group published its findings on Tuesday, showing many of the most significant sites along Maryland's portion of the Tubman Byway are already experiencing or are in jeopardy of chronic flooding from sea level rise.

Climate Central analyzed 45 sites along the byway, which stretches from Maryland to Delaware, and found 16 of the sites will experience significant flood risk by 2050; 25 of them face such threats by century's end. The report singles out 10 significant places around Dorchester County as likely to face occasional, frequent or chronic risk of flooding this century.

"It's entirely possible that some of the sites are going to be so badly flooded that they really won't be very accessible to the public anymore," said Karen Florini, the non-profit's vice president for programs, adding: "The main message is that climate change is real, it is serious, there is scientific consensus and there are things to be done.”

Nobody ever asked for my vote. Yes, sea level rise will continue, at least until the start of the next ice advance, which will be bad news for civilization. If we're lucky, our adding CO2 to the atmosphere will forestall or even avert that event. It's the least we can do for our descendants. 

Maryland Honors Chesapeake Native

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Celebrates Anniversary

The Maryland Park Service is celebrating the first anniversary of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center in Dorchester County March 10 and 11, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Special events are planned throughout the weekend, along with the debut of new audio-visual exhibit enhancements and a fully-stocked research library, dedicated to telling the story of the fabled American abolitionist and hero, born and raised in Maryland.

Born a slave on Brodess Farm in Dorchester County, across the Bay not far away at the edge of what is now Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Harriet Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, but returned to save her family, and later became active in the underground railroad helping slaves escape to the north. She also served the Union Army as a spy behind enemy lines in the Civil War and as a commander of troops in combat.

The Cost of Electric Cars

Child miners aged four living a hell on Earth so YOU can drive an electric car: Awful human cost in squalid Congo cobalt mine. . .

His name is Dorsen and he is one of an army of children, some just four years old, working in the vast polluted mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where toxic red dust burns their eyes, and they run the risk of skin disease and a deadly lung condition. Here, for a wage of just 8p a day, the children are made to check the rocks for the tell-tale chocolate-brown streaks of cobalt – the prized ingredient essential for the batteries that power electric cars.

And it’s feared that thousands more children could be about to be dragged into this hellish daily existence – after the historic pledge made by Britain to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and switch to electric vehicles.

Eight-year-old Dorsen is pictured cowering beneath the raised
 hand of an overseer who warns him not to spill a rock

It heralds a future of clean energy, free from pollution but – though there can be no doubting the good intentions behind Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s announcement last month – such ideals mean nothing for the children condemned to a life of hellish misery in the race to achieve his target.

Dorsen, just eight, is one of 40,000 children working daily in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The terrible price they will pay for our clean air is ruined health and a likely early death.

Almost every big motor manufacturer striving to produce millions of electric vehicles buys its cobalt from the impoverished central African state. It is the world’s biggest producer, with 60 per cent of the planet’s reserves.

The cobalt is mined by unregulated labour and transported to Asia where battery manufacturers use it to make their products lighter, longer-lasting and rechargeable.

The planned switch to clean energy vehicles has led to an extraordinary surge in demand. While a smartphone battery uses no more than 10 grams of refined cobalt, an electric car needs 15kg (33lb).

So how do you like your Prius?

Alicia Keys Celebrates Slavers

Useful idiot Alicia Keyes dons bosomy burka, sparking outrage: “glamorizing the veil”

Hollywood stars and entertainment blockheads continue to flout their stupidity and useful idiocy.

The burka is iconic of gender apartheid, misogyny, oppression and subjugation. What next, Alicia, swastika epaulets in the name of diversity and enlightenment?

Pop music star Alicia Keys may have gone a leg too far in attempting to celebrate “diversity.”By Adan Salazar, March 30, 2017:
In a recently-deleted Sunday evening tweet, Keys stirred outrage with a photograph depicting her in a tight-fitting niqab, an orthodox Muslim piece of attire meant to be loosely worn. Keys also flashed her leg in the photo, a defiance of Islamic dress codes which often leads to brutal penalties in some Muslim populations.

It's no skin off my nose if she chooses to emulate the dress of the people who enslaved 28,000,000 black people  or so. But she has worn more attractive clothes in the past.

Over 28 Million Africans have been enslaved in the Muslim world during the past 14 centuries While much has been written concerning the Transatlantic slave trade, surprisingly little attention has been given to the Islamic slave trade across the Sahara, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

While the European involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade to the Americas lasted for just over three centuries, the Arab involvement in the slave trade has lasted fourteen centuries, and in some parts of the Muslim world is still continuing to this day. A comparison of the Muslim slave trade to the American slave trade reveals some interesting contrasts.

 It was brutal slavery, even by the standards of the American South.

While two out of every three slaves shipped across the Atlantic were men, the proportions were reversed in the Muslim slave trade. Two women for every man were enslaved by the Muslims.

While the mortality rate for slaves being transported across the Atlantic was as high as 10%, the percentage of slaves dying in transit in the Transsahara and East African slave trade was between 80 and 90%!

While almost all the slaves shipped across the Atlantic were for agricultural work, most of the slaves destined for the Muslim Middle East were for sexual exploitation as concubines, in harems, and for military service.

Local Legend's Landmark Vandalized

Frederick Police Department investigating red paint dumped on Taney bust

The Frederick Police Department is investigating a statue in front of City Hall after officials got a call on Sunday around 8:18 a.m. that it had been defaced, according to a press release.

The bust of Roger B. Taney had red paint dumped on it, police say.

Police say the paint was still wet to the touch and they are unsure when exactly the vandalism occurred.

The Frederick Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division will be assuming the case and conducting a follow-up investigation.

Taney, a Supreme Court Chief Justice, ruled in 1857 that a Missouri slave was constrained to the boundaries of slavery, despite traveling into free territory with his master.

The Fourteenth Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision in 1868, granting all people born in the U.S. citizenship regardless of color.

Taney Place - E.H. Pickering - Historic American Buildings Survey,
Library of Congress, call Number: HABS MD,5-PRIFK.V,1-1

Roger B. Taney may have practiced law in Frederick, but he was a Calvert County boy, having been born and raised on a farm out in Adelina, just outside of Prince Frederick.

Until recently, tobacco farming was a big business in Calvert County, and slavery was a big part of that. All the old mansions around here have slaves quarters, and old time families, black and white, share the same surnames.

Aside from the Dred Scott decision, which arguably led the United States into it's ugliest war, later justices have been rather kind to Roger:

Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis, author of one of the dissents on Dred Scott, held his former colleague in high esteem despite their differences in that case. Writing in his own memoirs in 1872, Curtis described Taney:

He was indeed a great magistrate, and a man of singular purity of life and character. That there should have been one mistake in a judicial career so long, so exalted, and so useful is only proof of the imperfection of our nature. The reputation of Chief Justice Taney can afford to have anything known that he ever did and still leave a great fund of honor and praise to illustrate his name. If he had never done anything else that was high, heroic, and important, his noble vindication of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the dignity and authority of his office, against a rash minister of state, who, in the pride of a fancied executive power, came near to the commission of a great crime, will command the admiration and gratitude of every lover of constitutional liberty, so long as our institutions shall endure.

Modern legal scholars have tended to concur with Justice Curtis: that despite the Dred Scott decision, Taney was both an outstanding jurist and a competent judicial administrator. His mixed legacy was noted by Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey: