The Wednesday Wetness

Cherrylan@heyitscherrylan your solo travel bestie

Cherrylan Shin Palo

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: SecTreas Taking The Long Position? up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

 

I'd never heard of her before.

Tattoo Thursday

Lyna Perez

MSN, This Island Is Offering Tourists A Free Tattoo For Visiting

In a groundbreaking move, the Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.) has introduced the “Tattoovenir,” offering tourists the chance to receive a free Aruba-themed tattoo as a lasting memento of their stay on the One Happy Island.

With the introduction of this novel concept, Aruba is leaving an indelible mark on the souvenir industry. This initiative allows visitors to carry a piece of the island’s joy and vibrancy with them for a lifetime. According to ATA, the Tattoovenir isn’t just a keepsake. It’s a lasting connection to the One Happy Island.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: One Last Glimpse Of Bikini up at The Other McCain. 

Rule 5 Saturday - Jessica Gismondi

This week's Rule 5 wonder is:

Jessica Gismondi is a self-made, digital entrepreneur from Switzerland. With over 1 Million Followers on Instagram and a global network, she continues to grow her brand through various international projects. She started her career as a fitness model, was very successful for more than 7 years. She subsequently changed her career and became a fashion and travel Influencer! Furthermore, she is traveling around the world as a global ambassador for many prestigious brands. 

Within just four years, Jessica has used her education with a Degree of Economics focused on Business Communications from University of Applied Sciences in Economics, Zurich. That means she is an experienced blogger with a demonstrated history of working in the performing online marketing and digital finance industry. Skilled in consulting, education, strategy, market research and management. She has worked continuously to become a worldwide digital phenomenon.

Instagram, Facebook

Linked at The Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Best Wrench Wench And Gun Bunny Too? and FMJRA 2.0: Don’t Lean On Me, Man, Because You Can’t Afford The Ticket up at The Other McCain more or less on time. Linked at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama.

Rule 5 Saturday - Lucy Aragon

Lucinda Aragon@lucyaragon UGC🎥

Free spirit🦋Citizen of the world✈️101 countries🌎
Strangers are just friends waiting to happen✌🏽💖

The Bachelor's Controversial Lucy Aragon

 According to her bio page on reality TV show The Bachelor's website, Lucinda "Lucy" Aragon is 5'9", 24 years old, has two tattoos, and describes herself as "charming, charismatic, and entertaining." Her Instagram account corroborates this: Though Aragon lists her occupation as "free spirit," she has no trouble blessing us all with her smile and nearly nude body around all the best beaches of the world. (Perhaps she gets help from her boyfriend, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel.)

Lucinda Aragon. 26 years young. Perpetual optimist. Travel enthusiast, part time mermaid. Lover of pranks, Steve Jobs and Burning Man. I grew my own roses before anybody ever gave me one. I once kicked a shark in the eye. Seriously though I enjoy living freely, talking to strangers and embracing the crazy. Ask me where I live or where I went to school and I will bore you to death, but ask me where I've been and what I've done and I will tell you stories of riding camels across deserts, diving in underwater caves and jumping naked out of airplanes. My life is bananas and that's the way I like it. If I could have any super power I think I'd like to teleport.

Facebook, Twitter, CreatedbyLucy

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Communication Failure and FMJRA 2.0: National Radio Waves – On The Wire up at The Other McCain on time and under budget. Linked at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama.

Flotsam and Jetsam - And We're Back

Yeah, we're back, after a 300 mile detour on the way home to see the New River Gorge. Neat, but a long way around. I won't even pretend today's offering is comprehensive.

Da Caller risks treason by pointing out how University Housing Biden Center Took Funds From Firm Controlled By China’s ‘Supreme Organ Of State Power,’ Docs Show. One wonders how the get 10% to "the big guy." Also, Former Trump Officials Sound Alarm Over Biden Family’s National Security Risk. 1945 says Joe Biden Should Be Impeached. He should but he won't be. At Hat Hair, President Loon. 

At NRO, Biden Says He Has Authority to Invoke 14th Amendment as Debt-Ceiling Negotiations Stumble. They're not stumbling, he tripped them. At the Free Bacon, Libs Hardest Hit: Biden Spending Cuts Could Lead to Spike in STDs admits Politico. 

PJM's Ben Bartee sees Kaitlan Collins Parlays Cringe Trump Town Hall Into Primetime CNN Slot. They really need him.

Hat Hair's KT reports Nervous NAACP issues travel advisory in Florida

The NAACP insists that black people are at risk if they visit Florida because of the policies Governor DeSantis has signed into law. The group says that black Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ people are entering a state that is openly hostile toward them. Heh. Haven’t any members of the NAACP ever been to South Beach? Key West? Let’s be clear – this is targeted at family tourism and especially those planning a trip to any of the Disney properties. Busy parents don’t have a lot of spare time to keep up with news from around the country. The NAACP wants to misinform them as to what the governor has signed into law in order to demonize him. The long knives are out.

At NewsBusters,  MSNBC Previews DeSantis 2024 By Labeling Him 'Pro-White Supremacy.' When all you have is a hammer. . . And the Victory Girls see Casey DeSantis Becomes Politico’s Target.

At Breitbart, Tucker Carlson’s Net Favorability with Republicans 62 Points Higher than Fox News’s. Well yes, but people are more generally popular than things. Melisa Mackenzie at Am Spec speculates about  Life After Tucker Carlson: Is Fox News Finished? "Fox seems to be hurting more than Tucker." Yes, but the Murdoch family still has "fuck you" money. And they are.

Dan Greenfield at Front Page explores The Dirty Money Behind the Lynching of Clarence Thomas. "The money that brought down banks is trying to bring down a Supreme Court Justice."

At Da Fed, John Davidson thinks The Unspoken Warning In The Durham Report us that American Self-Government Is Collapsing. "Durham is right, as is Cleveland. The abuse of power laid out in the report is terrifying, not just because what the FBI undertook in 2016 amounted to an attempted coup, but because it’s unclear how to prevent it from happening again." 'Trust us' just doesn't cut it anymore.  From Spiked, The FBI is a danger to democracy "By obsessing over ‘Russiagate’, it let its anti-Trump prejudices get ahead of the truth." Dave Strom at Hat Hair asks The FBI or the Stasi? Jude Russo at Am Con wants to Hang the DJ "In the wake of the Durham report, we must ask whether our state security apparatus is compatible with republican government." At I&I, Durham Report Is Utterly Damning, So Where Are All The Indictments? Why bother, if you can't convict an obvious Russian agent (Igor Danchenko) in a DC court because that would damage the Democrats, there is not hope. Virginia Kruta at Da Wire takes note of a ‘New Level Of Denial’: Jonathan Turley Rips Into WaPo’s Last Defense Of ‘Russian Collusion’ “With the release to the Durham report, the media went into total spin mode,” Turley tweeted. “However, the Washington Post (which won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Russian collusion) set a new level of denial with a column by Philip Bump …” At NYPo, FBI dropped 4 probes into Hillary Clinton, family’s non-profit ahead of 2016 election: Durham report. Only 4? Bob Spencer at Front Page, is amused by Your Tax Dollars at Work: When the FBI isn’t Framing Presidents….. "It’s holding a ‘Happiness Seminar’ for agents."

At Breitbart, Weaponization Committee: FBI ‘Disparaging Whistleblowers’ After Revoking Their Security Clearances. Mary Chastain at LI cites one of the FBI whistleblowers, ‘The FBI Will Crush You’: Whistleblower Tells Future Whistleblowers to Come to Him or Congress to Expose Corruption “This government will crush you and your family if you try to expose the truth about things they are doing that are wrong.” Eggs and omelets. Also,  Rep. Sanchez Tries to Discredit FBI Whistleblower With His Twitter Account…Except It’s Not His, "Sanchez acted like she “got” Marcus Allen but the account does not belong to him."  At Da Caller, Harold Hutchison sees a ‘Target On Their Backs’: Ex-FBI Agent Explains Why More Feds Don’t Speak Up About Abuses and Laurel Duggan, FBI Used Cash Bonuses To Encourage Agents To Wiretap More Americans, Whistleblower Says. Jazz Shaw at Hat Hair finds Da Beast disingenuous Whistleblowers admit accepting aid after they were silenced.

Jordan Boyd at Da Fed notes Biden’s DOJ Refused To Prosecute Disgraced U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins For Lying Under Oath Months Before Her Corruption Scandal Broke. The redoubtable Julie Kelly at Am Great recommends we Look Ahead, Not Backwards, to Hold the Justice Department Accountable, "The minimal tools to, at the very least, embarrass top officials and expose the existing rot within the Justice Department are in the hands of House Republicans. They would do well to use them." Also at Am Great, Roger Kimball thinks we should Abandon the Swamp. "The only hope for the republic is to downgrade the place of Washington in our public life. The business of Washington is to make government bigger—forever. That is not what the people want."

Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice that I have for the former president should he be elected again: Stay out of Washington as much as you can. Stop the newspapers. Have your mail forwarded. Washington really is a swamp and it will consume you. And here are a few particular bits of advice:

1) Have the inauguration in Mar-a-Lago.

2) Govern from Florida as much as you can.

3) If you decide to indulge in the theater of the State of the Union Address as it has evolved, deliver it from, say, Kansas.

4) Disband the FBI. We should never have allowed a national police force to come into being.

Move the bits of the government you can’t actually destroy to other parts of the country.

Do these things instantly—the day you take office. The deep state will howl. The bureaucrats will oppose you. The lawyers will sue you. Do it anyway. Act first, deal with the consequences later.

PJM's Athena Thorne thinks Deep State Quietly Starting to Fear the Worst: the Return of the Trump Wrecking Ball and this time he won't be so polite about it.

Richard McDonough at Am Think thinks The Trump Rape Accusation was A Team Effort. 

At Twitchy, The AP got BLASTED by Twitter after claiming Fetterman’s sloppy clothes are a sign of progress.

At WaEx, Biden Title IX transgender sports rule ignites 156K comments: 'Voices in opposition.' 

Insty, STEVEN HAYWARD: “I don’t know whether it is an overstatement to suggest people with ‘gender dysphoria’ have a mental illness, or whether there is a social contagion at work (like the anorexia epidemic among young women a couple decades ago that ultimately faded out to a large extent), but scenes like this state legislator in Nebraska aren’t reassuring that there’s a rational defense of the trans-phenomenon. . . . This video is about one minute long, but it seems much longer.”

Where do they find these people? pic.twitter.com/edMPmViFxX

— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) May 20, 2023

  John Hinderacker at Power Line, Is DEI Training Unconstitutional?

It wouldn’t be if it were imposed by a private party, although there might be other problems with it. But can a government entity require its employees to assent to a series of political propositions, and to take what is effectively a loyalty oath? I don’t think so.

That’s why my organization has moved to participate in the case of Henderson v. Springfield R-12 School District, now on appeal in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, as an amicus. The Henderson case is horrifying, and yet typical of what is going on in contemporary America. Plaintiffs are school district employees who were required by the district to undergo “anti-racism” training. The district’s “training” was a series of Maoist struggle sessions. The evidence and allegations in the case include the following. :

1) The District commanded the employee Appellants that they “must commit to” the District’s description of equity and anti-racism;

2) The District defined anti-racism as requiring proactive advocacy against what the District defines as racism;

3) The District told employee Appellant Henderson that her views on American race relations were “confused and wrong”;

4) The District told employee Lumley that she was wrong that people can only be racist based on skin color, and her failure to acknowledge that means Lumley should engage in “additional self-reflection”;

5) Appellants’ co-workers “berated [Lumley] during training for opposing equity and anti-racism”;

6) The District told Appellants that “white people failing to speak out against racism,” as the District defines it, “constitutes white supremacy”;

7) The District required Appellants to attend the “training to receive professional development credit and financial compensation,” and that “failure to attend the training would result in less pay”;

8) The District asserted during the training that “equity and anti-racism generally require advocacy and proactivity”;

9) The District “taught that white supremacy is not just a label for the KKK—it includes anyone who believes in colorblindness or says that all lives matter”;

10) Appellants alleged and argued that the District “warned staff that denying one’s white privilege is in itself white supremacy”;

11) Appellants alleged they were literally required to speak in response to cues using survey-type responses indicating agreement or disagreement with principles of anti-racism; and,

12) Appellants alleged that they were forced to complete multiple choice questionnaires with particular answers in order to complete training modules (their preferred answers were rejected by the module).

I can easily imagine the Smithsonian brass attempting this. 

Rule 5 Saturday - Globe Trotting with Christina Cindrich

You have to admire someone who seems to get paid to go to exotic places, do exotic things, eat exotic food, wearing expensive, or almost no, clothes. That seems to be the life of Christina Cindrich: 

Christina Cindrich (born August 26, 1981) is an American television producer, host, and actress, of Italian and Croatian descent. She is the producer and host of Private Islands and Global Passport and has won three Emmy Awards.

Her IMDB bio is a little more complete, but sounds suspiciously like she, or her staff, wrote it: 

An extreme work ethic, a careful eye for detail and a strong dedication to her craft have not only earned Christina Cindrich the title of being a 3X Emmy-Award Winning Television Producer, Host, and Writer, but have also landed her in over 20 acting roles for feature films and television.

While some people explore their craft, Christina has encapsulated the Entertainment Industry over the past 15+ years with a resume that includes working one-on-one with the likes of Steven Spielberg in Catch Me If You Can, and other high-profile productions such as Spider-Man 3, Frasier, CSI and Desperate Housewives. Christina's career started long before most people enter the first grade as she spent her youth training in ballet, tap, jazz, singing, piano, acting and musical theater in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As she continued to turn heads, Christina was asked to represent the state of Pennsylvania in the nationally televised Miss Teen USA pageant. Shortly after, she moved to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Marymount University, found an agent and a manager and began working in TV, films and national commercials.

 Somebody has to, these things don't write themselves, yet

However, it was a vastly different undertaking that allowed Christina to expand in her diversity when she sacrificed Hollywood to become a news anchor in Boone, North Carolina, a sacrifice that allowed her to produce, host and write her own content. This pivotal role ultimately set Christina up for a return to the West Coast and the opportunity of a lifetime to take those same talents and apply it to a show called "Private Islands" on AWE TV. The results were nothing short of stellar, as she took the show to a No. 1 rating for the network with over 25 million viewers and garnered her two Emmys in the process.

Christina has also produced and hosted several other television series in over 40 countries with some of the world's premier executives and CEOs across a multitude of industries - from luxury, travel, real estate, and environmental conservation, bringing inspiring messages and campaigns to international audiences.

Facebook, Instagram, christinacindrich

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Atago-sama’s Wedding and FMJRA 2.0: Rubycon up on time and under budget at The Other McCain. Linked at Proof Positive in the weekly Best of the Web* and at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama.

Rule 5 Saturday - Lara Ghraoui

This weeks lovely is Lara Ghraoui, a Lebanese model. Don't ask me how to pronounce her name. A Victoria's Secret girl before Victoria's Secret girls became fat, trans or both.

Lara Ghraoui is well-known as a model. She has been associated with many renowned and famous companies. Lara was cast for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2018 in NY. Moreover, she has also made appearances in many ad shoots and commercials. 

Born in 1995, 5' 9", and skinny slender. Not much else seems to be out there.

Her job has taken her to a variety of interesting places.

Facebook, Instagram

One NSFW pic.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and linkfest. Linked at Proof Positive in the weekly Best of the Web* and at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama. The Wombat is back from the hospital and cleaning up old business with Rule 5 Sunday: Clearing Out The Bodacious Babe Backlog

On The Way Home

Halfway home, at Sideling Hill, we stopped at the rest area to pee and switch drivers. The buzz of the Brood X cicadas, which have Washington D.C. all a flitter was omnipresent, and the black, clumsy things were flying around all over.

They stayed with us until we pass the Calvert Count line coming south, and then petered out a few miles south. In some places, you could hear the cicadas even through the highway noise, in our closed car.  The car was pretty thoroughly splattered with bug goo by the time we reached Prince Frederick, and at Georgia's suggestion, we stopped at a car wash to get off the worst of it.

Here in lower Calvert County, we have Brood II cicadas, last seen in 2013, and due in 2030.

On the way down, Georgia suggested some sight seeing along the C&O Canal track. We got off the highway at a sign that promised McCoy's Ferry, and after a short drive down a small twisty road, we found a nice campground and boat ramp on the Potomac River, and no sign of a ferry, which apparently long gone.

The Montour Trail

Alex’s house backs on to the Montour Trail, an old railroad track that has been converted to a walking, jogging and biking trail. After the drizzle stopped this morning we set out on a family hike up to an old tunnel nearby

 

So, What Else is New?

From Stacy McCain, New Yorkers Are Infecting America

Yesterday, we took note of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis imposing a two-week quarantine on visitors arriving from New York-area airports. New York City is the epicenter of the Chinese Bat Soup Flu pandemic, with more than 17,000 reported cases — including more than 3,000 added in just the past 24 hours. Two states, New York and New Jersey, account for 65% of reported cases. This is a risk to the rest of America:

The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator said Tuesday that anyone who has recently left New York should self-quarantine for 14 days in an effort to slow the spread of the virus in the US.
“To everyone who has left New York over the last few days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York,” Dr. Deborah Birx said at a White House press briefing, adding that “everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread to others.”
“No matter where they have gone, whether it’s Florida or North Carolina or out to the far reaches of Long Island,” Birx said.

So, this disease that began in Communist China because people eat bats there has now moved to New York and is spreading across America. We’re destroying our economy — spending trillions of dollars for an emergency rescue bill — because of bat-eaters and New Yorkers.

Densely packed, extremely progressive New York City leads the way with many things. Not all are good.

Also,  ‘Chinese Bat Soup Flu’ Update

Hat-tip to Kurt Schlicter for giving this pandemic a memorable name. It’s going to get worse — perhaps a whole lot worse — before it gets better, but in the meantime, we can figure out what went wrong, and caution about what’s still going wrong. The first and most important thing President Trump needs to do now is to halt domestic flight departures from New York City-area airports. . .

I gonna stick with WuFlu

A Letter from Italy

I've been fairly light on WuFlu (aka Covid-19, coronavirus) coverage. It's all over the news, and if you consume news at all, you can't avoid it. While I'm a retired scientist, this is not my area of expertise, so I have little to contribute, except maybe an appreciation for exponential curves.

As you may remember, Georgia's family is Italian, and we have visited Italy twice, and once met with her family there near Lucca.

Yesterday Georgia's sister, Mary received a letter from one of the Italian relatives that I would like to share:

How are you? Are you back home?

We are still fine.

But the situation is worsening. Italy is at war. Especially in northern Italy.

To date we have exceeded 30,000 infections. The official ones. Because there are those that cannot be known. There are in fact many elderly people who die without having been diagnosed with the virus, but with symptoms. In a nursing home with about thirty people present, 11 or 12 elderly people died in three days. They have not been counted, but the rest are all positive. And other retirement homes are in the same situation.

The most affected city is Bergamo. Last year there were three deaths a day; at least 100 a day this year. For a few weeks, they made a burial every half hour, including nighttime. They also use crematory ovens, but they can no longer dispose of the coffins.

And they also say that they no longer have coffins available.

The TV shows us raw images: We have seen about fifty military trucks that take a hundred coffins away from Bergamo to take them to the crematoria of other cities.

We saw the line of many funeral wagons entering the cemetery. Only funeral cars without relatives. Yes, because relatives cannot assist their own dead and sick people. They have to stay at home in quarantine. The sick are alone in hospitals. Alone in suffering and alone in death. And what is worse is that they have a clear mind: they understand what is happening to them. They cling to the looks of nurses and doctors. And they cry together.

The first deaths were older people; now even younger and younger people die. One of 27 years old; one of 32… 50…

Mayors, sportsmen and important people died. Only politicians hold up!

We saw nurses and doctors crying. Rest, from long work shifts, on the floor in the corners of hospitals. We have seen them with bruises on their faces made by anti-counting masks, those of the type for swimming. We heard them beg us: STAY AT HOME! STAY AT HOME!

We don't have enough intensive care facilities in hospitals. They are doing it in other emergency locations. The old Campo di Marte hospital has also reopened in Lucca.

We do not have suitable clothing for doctors and nurses: 10% of them are infected, sick or dead.

Tonight an intensive care nurse who was diagnosed with the virus took her own life because, they say, she couldn't think of having to suffer in her illness as she saw her patients suffer.

They also heal and what they tell us makes us understand that this virus IS NOT A SIMPLE INFLUENCE!

The images of the cities that TV shows us are bleak. Despite this, there are always too many people around who do not give a damn about the ban on leaving home for trivial things with the risk of infecting their family members and those who cross the street because this is forced by work or urgent needs.

I know from my colleagues (the banks are open !!!) that there are people - and generally old people - who go to the bank to ask for futile things that they would absolutely not need.

We're fine. Very worried, but good.

We are self-quarantined. We do not approach them or the baby.

Xxxxx and Xxxxxx are at home. Xxxxxx's firm closed almost at the beginning of the crisis. Xxxxx is home from today. They would have the job, but they cannot ship because the borders are closed for shipping and they work a lot with foreign countries.

I leave the house only in case of real need, both for us and for Xxxxx and Xxxxxx. But I'm only going to the grocery store and to the pharmacy. And I put on the rubber gloves and the mask. I made the masks because, since the beginning of the problems in Italy, I have never been able to find them. But at least they are happy: I made them with remnants of colored cloth.

We thank God that we live in the countryside. I can't imagine how people can live in those buildings in the cities.

I recommend you: stay at home. Do not be in contact with others. It can be very dangerous. STAY AT HOME!

I hug you

Xxxxxxxxx

Hopefully, the United States' experience will not match the Italians. The Italians haven't been able to agree on anything since they killed Benito Mussolini.

Linked by the Wombat in In The Mailbox: 03.20.20 at The Other McCain. Linked at 357 Magnum in
A Letter From Italy.

The Weed du Jour - Mountain Misery

We decided to take a hike in the woods today, our last full day in the Sierras. We picked a short trail near Arnold, up above Murphys a few miles, up among thick Douglas fir, Ponderosa Pine, and Incense Cedar forests.

The weed of the day was Mountain Misery:

Low, spreading shrub with pungent, sticky, fernlike leaves, often forms dense carpets

Mounntain Misery got its name from what many forest visitors consider to be an unpleasant combination of sticky leaves and a medicinal aroma. The shrub forms dense carpets in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer stands in the Sierra, often covering extensive areas. Hikers walking through such tracts soon discover that the plant’s black gum sticks to boots and clothing. The resin makes Mountain Misery highly flammable, and it is among the several Sierra shrubs that invade recently burned areas. California’s Miwok Indians, who called the plant Kit-kit-dizze, drank a tea steeped from the leaves as a cure for a number of ailments.

According to Monika, Mountain Misery often interferes with rescues, because it can make search dogs nose blind, requiring a rest before resuming searches, which are apparently all to common in this area.

I had hoped the butterfly was a new species, but it appears to be an ordinary, common Pearl Crescent  However, we did see several California Sisters  a Common Ringlet or two, and a tiny blue of some sort. Sorry, no pics.

From the left, Brigitte, Mark, and Monika.