Blackmail at Clinton.Com?

Lots of stuff. The hits just keep coming. I had some breakfast with bunch of folks I used to work with in academia, so they're all pretty much dyed in wool liberals. They all seemed to think Hillary's done for either before the nomination or in the election, but they had no consensus on who would replace her, if anyone. I had a hard time concealing my glee.

Hacker Threatens To Sell Hillary Clinton’s ENTIRE UNRELEASED Private Emails For $500K

Just as email-gate looked to be winding down, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned a person claiming to be a computer specialist has come forward with the stunning news that 32,000 emails from Hillary Clinton‘s private email account are up for sale. The price tag — a whopping $500,000!

Whopping?  That's kind of a Dr.Evil kind of sum. I would think of they were the genuine article they'd be worth several million at least, and you could start a bidding war.

Promising to give the trove of the former Secretary of State’s emails to the highest bidder, the specialist is showing subject lines as proof of what appear to be legitimate messages.

“Hillary or someone from her camp erased the outbox containing her emails, but forgot to erase the emails that were in her sent box,” an insider reveals to Radar of the Presidential contender’s latest nightmare.

Radar has learned that some of the topics discussed in the email appear to include everything from Benghazi to the Algerian hostage crisis — with subject lines such as:

“H Libya security latest. Sid” (with attachment)
“H FYI, best analysis so far of hearing Sid,’ about the latest security
in Libya”
“H Algeria latest French Intel on Algeria hostage Sid”
“H Latest French Intel in Algeria hostage Sid” (with attachment)
“H Latest Libya intel internal govt discussions high level” (with
attachment)
“H HIGHLY IMPORTANT! Comprehensive Intel Report on (with attachment)”

Warns the insider, “If these emails get out to the public domain, not only is Hillary finished as a potential Presidential nominee, she could put our country’s national security at risk

Ace tentatively tosses in the bullshit flag: Update: Hacker Now Claims He's Turned the Emails Over to the FBI

Real? Bullsh*t?

I think Rush Limbaugh said he was thinking about buying them, and donating them to the FBI. Of course, he can't do that -- the Espionage Act forbids Limbaugh from having classified info in his possession. And of course buying it.

See, Hillary's Mom and Pop Server Company can have it, but not Rush.

So... no one can actually take this hacker up on his offer, except foreign intelligence services, who of course already have her emails.

An interesting point, if, as Hillary and her minions claim, there are no secrets to be found there, why would there be any problem with Rush Limbaugh or any other private person buying the emails? Well, they do keep finding secret squirrel stuff in them. Like this stuff. . .

Another 57 Clinton email threads contain foreign governments' information

"Here's my personal email," Hillary Clinton wrote to U.S. special envoy George Mitchell on a summer Sunday in 2010 as he telephoned one European official after another in an effort to keep peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians on track.

"Pls use this for reply," Clinton wrote in her email, sent from the clintonemail.com account she set up on an unsecured, private server in her New York home for her work as secretary of state. Over the following hours, Mitchell wrote back to Clinton with summaries of his conversations, including one with Spain's foreign minister, who had briefed him on discussions with Palestinian leaders. The State Department has redacted the summary of the minister's thoughts, saying it is classified information.

The exchange is among dozens in a new batch of Clinton's emails released this week that shed further light on how Clinton handled information while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
. . .
The Clinton-Mitchell correspondence is one of 57 email threads found by Reuters in the latest batch of emails released on Monday that the State Department has marked as including the same type of information.

In all the 87 email threads examined by Reuters, the State Department has blanked out the confidential information in the public copies, adding the classification code "1.4(B)", denoting foreign government information.

This is the only kind of information that presidential executive orders say is "presumed" to likely harm national security if wrongly disclosed. State Department regulations describe it as the "most important category of national security information" its officials encounter.

So even if the material was not marked when it arrived on her server, it would have been presumed secret from the start.

Emails reveal that Hillary Clinton helped out a for profit school that paid Bill millions

Among the latest batch of emails to be released we find Hillary Clinton getting right to work shortly after she took her seat at the State Department. The “work” in this case was to immediately start doing favors for friends, arranging a seat at a prestigious dinner for a for profit education company. And through what I can only imagine is a remarkable coincidence with absolutely no causal relationship between the two events, her husband landed a position with them shortly thereafter which paid off in a very big way. (Daily Caller)

New emails released from Hillary Clinton’s email server reveal that while she was secretary of state, Clinton did a favor for a for-profit education company that later paid her husband more than $16 million.
In 2009, just a few months after Hillary took over at the Department of State, she was involved in planning a private dinner on education policy that featured herself, several State Department staff, and about a dozen individuals involved with higher education…
A second email shows that Clinton’s wish was carried out, as Laureate Senior Vice President Joseph Duffey was one of 20 guests at the Aug. 17 dinner. Laureate wasn’t the only school to be invited due to Clinton. Methodist-run Africa University had a representative at the dinner after Clinton proposed it (Clinton is a United Methodist)…
Just a few months later, in spring 2010, Bill Clinton was named as Laureate’s honorary chancellor, a post he held until stepping down in April 2015. His pay at the time wasn’t disclosed, but in July, Hillary’s publication of her tax returns revealed that Bill was paid over $16.5 million by Laureate from 2010 through 2015.

Landing a position as an “honorary chancellor” doesn’t generally entail a lot of back breaking work or even showing up for the most part. Institutions such as that love having big, high profile names on their roster and are willing to lay out some big bucks to get those names on their letterhead. Nothing illegal about that. And there really doesn’t seem to be anything technically illegal about Hillary “suggesting” that the organization be invited to a private dinner. Of course, when you pair the two together it certainly has the odor of some quid pro quo going on. And let’s also remember that this wasn’t an arrangement which was driving donations to the Clinton Foundation’s charitable causes… this was a paycheck going right into Bill and Hillary’s personal bank account.

Sweet gig!

Now a Hillary Aide Also Claims He Doesn't Know What the Words "Wipe a Server" Mean

What, with a cloth??!!

But hey, there’s nothing criminal here–move along–because according to Media Matters, there is no evidence that Clinton “knew” that she was mishandling classified information. This shows utter ignorance of what the “knowing” scienter standard means in criminal law. According to the Model Penal Code, “knowingly” means:

(b) Knowingly.
A person acts knowingly with respect to a material element of an offense when:
(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or the attendant circumstances, he is aware that his conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist; and
(ii) if the element involves a result of his conduct, he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause such a result.

So Clinton (and/or her aides) had to be “aware that [her] conduct [of using a private server to send and receive classified information] is of a “nature” that such mishandling could exist, or alternatively had to be “aware that it [was] practically certain that [her] conduct” would cause such a mishandling of classified information. Under either approach, the use of a private server while Secretary of State, alone, indicates such culpable awareness.

FBI Scours Clinton Server for Evidence of Spying

The FBI has begun a probe into whether foreign intelligence services compromised Hillary Clinton's e-mail server during and after her tenure as secretary of state, according to U.S. intelligence and Congressional officials.

The damage assessment, which is part of the bureau's investigation into whether the former secretary and her staff mishandled classified information, will hunt for digital traces of cyber-espionage by foreign governments. Even mundane and unclassified Clinton e-mails could provide important insights into the inner workings of the U.S. government and the actions of its top officials.

Clinton herself has dismissed the prospect that her e-mails were hacked. Speaking in March, she said the system used for the private e-mail "was set up for President Clinton's office. And it had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the Secret Service. And there were no security breaches."
. . .
Outside experts assume Clinton's server was hacked. Private servers typically have fewer protections than government systems, which in recent years have been penetrated by foreign intelligence services as well. Indeed, Clinton's successor at the State Department, John Kerry, acknowledged last month that it was very likely his government e-mail had been hacked by Russia and China.
. . .
"There are ways the FBI can recover data from servers that have been wiped clean," Bob Gourley, a former chief technology officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency, told us. Gourley, who is now a partner at the cyber-security firm Cognitio, added that these techniques don't always work.

Michael Hayden, a former CIA and NSA director who served under President George W. Bush, agreed. He told us, "We were able in the past to recover things where the target thought the machine had been erased."

Uh oh. So is the Obama admin trying to scuttle Hillary's nomination in favor of somebody with more "Obamacentric" leaning? Monica Crowley thinks so: The Clintons’ plan to counterattack Obama

Has the Clinton counterattack against President Obama begun?

The Clintons have never taken a political hit lying down. But given their weak and panicky reactions to Mr. Obama’s current, well-orchestrated hit on her — the FBI investigation into her alleged mishandling of classified material as secretary of state — they have appeared to passively absorb the escalating attack. Until now.

As he presses his attack, Mrs. Clinton has two choices. Option one: fold early and negotiate a mild end to the investigation in exchange for dropping out of the race. But Mr. Obama is not a forgiving sort, and now that he’s drawn blood, he’s likely to go for the kill.

That suggests that the Clintons are going with option two: fight him — as part of an elaborate, unspoken negotiation between them over their secrets and futures. That requires a plausible defense. Their go-to strategy has always been to blame others, or inanimate objects such as documents, servers, “processes” — and to designate a fall guy (or gal) to take the rap.

Huma! Huma!

We're Number 1!

Murder City, U.S.A.

Violent crime in Baltimore has escalated to the point it’s actually worse than Detroit. Baltimore’s homicide rate has increased 56% this year compared to 2014, and every day brings new headlines about the bloody crime wave:

The son of a high-ranking Baltimore police commander has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of his roommate Monday in Southwest Baltimore, police said.
Melvin Russell, 28, the son of Lt. Col. Melvin Russell, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the killing, police said. The elder Russell leads the Police Department’s Community Collaboration Unit and has been at the forefront of neighborhood outreach efforts at a time of heightened tensions.
The younger Russell was charged with first- and second-degree murder, assault and weapons violations. Police said he and his 49-year-old roommate got into a fight in the 4900 block of Challedon Road and both sustained stab wounds. Both were taken to hospitals, where the roommate was pronounced dead, police said.

#BlackLivesMatter could not be reached for comment.

As Instapundit says continually, (citing someone else) "What I love about the Obama era is all the racial healing.

Our default "there's nothing on TV" show recently has been the old HBO show "The Wire", which we get using our Amazon Prime account and the Amazon Fire Stick. If you don't know, it's a crime drama set and filmed in Baltimore in the midst of the drug war in the early to mid 00's. If anything, the drama failed to catch the massive scale of the dysfunction there.

NY Democrats Make War on Tattoos

Via Moe Lane via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit: Tattoo Artists In An Uproar Over "Unnecessary" Ink Law

NYC tattoo artists are up in arms (sorry) about a new law that will go into effect in December requiring New York tattoo artists to use single-use ink shots. A petition surfaced yesterday regarding the law, which Governor Cuomo believes is necessary to prevent "potentially serious and life threatening health risks." Tattoo artists, however, are firmly against the language being used in the bill regarding the ink requirements, which they believe are completely unnecessary.

We asked tattoo artist Brad Stevens at NY Adorned (one of the best) to explain his concerns, which he describes as "major."

Scratch a Democrat and find an autocrat.

Some tattooers spend their entire career seeking pigments and perfecting recipes for ink. The best inks that are used by the best artists have been time tested for quality and safety. There are many companies that make cheap tattoo supplies and prey on bad tattooers by selling them inferior products. These companies are run by businessmen looking for untapped markets, not knowledgeable tattooers lovingly crafting high quality products for better results.
What sounds fishy about this situation is that "ink shots" sounds like a brand name, or at least a product line of one specific brand. Since this issue surfaced tattooers have been speculating that the manufacturer of this product must have been the one pushing for reform. It's suspicious because I have been tattooing for almost a decade and I obsess over the products I use, and I have never heard of an ink shot.

It would be entirely consistent with democrats and their crony capitalist donor to create a mandate for their products.

Cheap, mass produced tattoo inks can contain plastics and many tend to fade or completely fall out of the skin eventually. To put it simply we would be tattooing with inferior products. It would make your tattoo worse. It's like if New York State told Gothamist that they have to build their website with Goecities.

Or Clinton.com's email provider.

If this goes through you can expect every reputable tattooer to either have a hidden stash of their preferred, time tested ink, or simply decide to take their business out of New York.

As you can see here, some people put a lot of time, money and thought into their tattoos (appropriately, since they are very difficult to remove cleanly), and you want the ink to look as good as possible as long as possible.

The petition can be found here, and is simply requesting the wording of the bill be changed to allow inks from larger bottles "to be poured into single use disposable receptacles, aka ink caps.

Seems like a reasonable request.

As noted by Moe Lane, the ostensible reason for this rule change was to address an outbreak of hepatitis C, which can be spread by contaminated needles. If, in fact, Hep C is being spread by commercial tattooing, licensing, and training of tattoo artists in how to prevent contamination should be advanced.

However, as we've seen before, tattooing is associated with other "risky behaviors", alcohol, drugs and sex. I doubt that direct transmission with reputable commercial tattoo artists is a significant risk factor.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Summertime Girls" ready at The Other McCain.

Cinton.com Taking the Fifth

Shades if Lois Lerner: Staffer who worked on Clinton’s private e-mail server faces subpoena

A former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself.

The move by Bryan Pagliano, who had worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009, came in a Monday letter from his lawyer to the House panel investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The letter cited the ongoing FBI inquiry into the security of Clinton’s e-mail system, and it quoted a Supreme Court ruling in which justices described the Fifth Amendment as protecting “innocent men . . . ‘who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’ ”
. .
Pagliano, who worked in the State Department’s information-technology department from May 2009 until February 2013, left the agency when Clinton departed as secretary. He now works for a technology contractor that provides some services to the State Department.

Because what he was doing seemed so innocent.

Clinton aides pushed to view top-secret material on handhelds, emails show

Hillary Clinton's aides appear to have pushed for handheld devices capable of handling classified material soon after Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state -- a request that was discussed by senior security personnel at the agency, according to newly-disclosed emails.

Some of those top-level security officials also appeared to have concerns about requests from Clinton's aides that they be permitted to view "SECRET" and "TOP SECRET" material on personal electronic devices, the heavily-redacted emails indicate.
. . .
The newly-disclosed emails shed some light on that mystery by indicating that the State Department's senior leadership on security issues had at least some knowledge of devices Clinton and her senior aides used. However, the messages don't definitively show that anyone at State formally approved Clinton's account or made an assessment of potential security risks posed by her using the family server, housed at the time at the Chappaqua, N.Y. home she shares with President Bill Clinton.
. . .
An official with Judicial Watch, the conservative group that obtained the emails last week, said the messages support the notion that Clinton's aides wanted to use classified information in ways other officials did not approve or authorize.

"I read that to mean that [Clinton aides] pushed and to no avail thus far for secret or TS capable PDAs," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an interview. "Evidently, they wanted that and the security people were unwilling to give it to them, so they did whatever they wanted to do."

Rules are for the little people. Not for people who have people like Lanny Davis:

Lanny's Letter to Hillary Is D.C.'s Most Cringe-Inducing Document Ever

The latest stash of emails from Hillary Clinton's private server released by the State Department has (once again!) revealed Washington to be a particularly unbearable place, employing particularly insufferable people. From Clinton's email correspondence with her senior staff we can observe how those with proximity to power engage in rare forms of backstabbing, obsequiousness, pettiness, bad humor, and self-obsession.

There was the revelation that Huma Abedin, Clinton's aide-de-camp who held down multiple six-figure salaries at outside consulting firms while making $135,000 at State, apparently complains about not getting "paid enough." Another top Clinton aide, Philippe Reines, was seen tattling on a colleague directly to the secretary. "I for one loved that you finally called out the ogrish males on your staff who roll their eyes at womens [sic] issues and events," Reines wrote to Clinton before calling out one such male staffer by name.

The Reines email might be the second most cringe-inducing document in Washington ever. The top (so far!) prize, however, certainly goes to Clinton lawyer, advocate, and all-around flunky Lanny Davis. In September 2010 Davis sent his "dear friend Hillary" an email with the subject line "Personal - a personal favor." What follows are two pages of over-the-top praise for the former first lady, more than a healthy dose of self-promotion on Davis's part, several hand-wringing apologies for even bothering the great and powerful Hillary Clinton with such a terrible request, and four groveling "pleases."

The email has to be seen to be believed:

Go look at the letter itself. It sound like it was written by a courtier of the Sun King, praying to be granted a duchy, but fearing execution instead. 

Hillary Clinton is not an email crook

Last month, famed Washington Post reporter andWatergate investigator Bob Woodward said that the
email scandal engulfing former secretary of State Hillary Clinton “reminds me of the Nixon tapes: thousands of hours of secretly recorded conversations that Nixon thought were exclusively his."

Woodward’s impression is justified, and not just by the steady drip, drip of new secrets in the latest batch of Clinton emails released by the State Department on Monday. There is also a remarkable resonance between Nixon’s statements during the evolving Watergate crisis and Clinton’s public statements regarding her emails:

The people come first

Nixon: I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.

Clinton: I think it's kind of fun. People get a real-time behind-the-scenes look at what I was emailing about and what I was communicating about.

Go to the article to see the rest of the list. It brings back memories, if you're old enough to remember Watergate.

Morning Music- "Freight Train"

Humming House, with Leslie Rodriguez.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Summertime Girls" ready at The Other McCain.

Virginia Bay Plagued by Algal Blooms

VIMS reports intense and widespread algal blooms

Water sampling and aerial photography by researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science show that the algal blooms currently coloring lower Chesapeake Bay are among the most intense and widespread of recent years.

VIMS Professor Kimberly Reece reports that water samples collected near the mouth of the York River on August 17 contained up to 200,000 algal cells per milliliter, the densest concentration she has seen in nearly 10 years of field sampling. A sample with a concentration of even 1,000 algal cells per milliliter is visible to the naked eye and considered dense enough to be called a bloom.

The current blooms are dominated by a single-celled protozoan called Alexandrium monilatum, an algal species known to release toxins harmful to other marine life, particularly larval shellfish and finfish. Since mid-August, VIMS has received sporadic and localized reports of small numbers of dead fish, oysters, and crabs from the lower York River and adjacent Bay waters associated with nearby blooms, although a direct cause/effect relationship has not been established for any of these events.

Alexandrum is one of a group of microalgae called dinoflagellates, many of which can form blooms, and a good number of which are violently toxic. It has long been dogma that the dinoflagellates in Chesapeake Bay are non-toxic, although there have been a few exceptions. We often have red-tides caused by dinoflagellates here, but we rarely have toxicity issues. However, as they say in the investment community, past performance is no guarantee of future

Aerial photography and water sampling by VIMS Professor Wolfgang Vogelbein between Aug. 17 and 27 confirmed the blooms’ intensity in the lower York River, and revealed that they extended much farther up the York River and out into Chesapeake Bay than previously reported. The flyovers were facilitated by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

“This is new and important information,” says Vogelbein, “as we have never appreciated that Alexandrium extends so far into the mainstem of the Bay or so far up the York River.” Bloom patches in the mainstem reach from the York River to the mouth of the Rappahannock River, across the Bay to within three to four miles of Cape Charles, and as far south as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The bloom patches are most dense on the western side of the Bay, with other areas experiencing less activity. “The main body of the bloom is several miles off shore,” says Vogelbein, “and thus wasn’t appreciated prior to the recent flyovers.”

Alexandrium monilatum is one of several species of harmful algae that are of emerging concern in Chesapeake Bay. It was first conclusively detected in Bay waters in 2007, when Reece and colleagues used microscopy and DNA sequences to identify it as the dominant species of a bloom that persisted for several weeks in the York River. There are generic reports of Alexandrium in the Bay from the mid-1940s, and specific reports of A. monilatum in the mid-1960s, but none in the intervening decades. 

Most dinoflagellates, including Alexandrium, are marine and prefer a higher salinity than we have in our neck of the Bay. Hopefully we won't be seeing them any time soon.

Can Dry Wall Save the Bay?

Or at least the main ingredient in dry wall: Using Gypsum to Help Reduce Phosphorus Runoff

Phosphorus runoff is causing blooms of harmful algae that deplete waterways of oxygen, resulting in “dead zones” that damage ecosystems vital for aquatic life. It’s a problem in many of the waterways we all depend on for recreation and drinking water, including the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay.  Just last year, Maryland’s outgoing governor proposed land use regulations designed specifically to reduce phosphorus runoff in the Chesapeake watershed.

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have been looking for ways to address the problem by using gypsum, which binds with phosphorus in the soil and prevents it from running off. There is no shortage of gypsum. In fact, one type is a byproduct of scrubbing the sulphur out of power plant emissions and is used to make wallboard.

Studies by ARS soil scientist Allen Torbert, Dexter Watts and their colleagues at the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory in Auburn, Alabama, have shown that when this industrial gypsum is applied to the soil with poultry litter, it reduces phosphorous runoff by 50 to 60 percent. Torbert and colleagues working in Beltsville, Oxford and elsewhere, also have found that gypsum reduces the potential for pathogens, such as E. coli, in poultry litter and cow manure to be transported in runoff and reach drinking water supplies. The gypsum improves soil infiltration and curbs algae growth by binding with phosphorus in the soil, so that less phosphorus is available to algae as a nutrient.

Coal fired power plants, particularly one with the newer pollution control systems produce a lot of gypsum, far more than can be used by the wall board industry. Perhaps the farmers on the Eastern Shore could become customers, and use the gypsum to reduce phosphorus runoff.  This is one of main goals of the "Bay Diet."

If this article is to be believed, gypsum is the magic secret for agriculture: 37 ADVANTAGES TO USING GYPSUM

Speaking of Balls . . .

Stacy McCain remind us: Testicles Are Not a Social Construct. I checked. . .

The science is settled:

However much we’d like to think of gender as a social construct, science suggests that real differences do exist between female and male brains. The latest evidence: a first-of-its-kind European study that finds that the female brain can be drastically reshaped by treating it with testosterone over time.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.) Feminist gender theory — the social construction of the gender binary within the heterosexual matrix, to summarize Judith Butler’s influential ideas as succinctly as possible — must be seen for what it actually is, a War Against Human Nature.

 . . .
You don’t have to be a neuroscientist to understand this. Just read the testimony of a lesbian feminist who spent 18 months on testosterone as a male-to-female transsexual before changing her mind. Why? Because she “never knew anger like this until going on testosterone,” experiencing psychological disturbances that included “a lower frustration threshold . . . burning rage” that was ultimately “unbearable.” Even after quitting testosterone, she found that her moods and attitudes seemed to have been permanently affected by this artificial masculinization of her brain.

As I said before, you get used to it after a few decades. At least I did. But then as you get old, the testosterone slacks off too.

This tells us a lot about the biological basis of male/female differences. Once we realize that these differences are inherent to who we are as men and women, the question is how we can teach young people to deal with the reality of human nature, rather than trying to abolish these differences in pursuit of utopian schemes of “equality.”

Which prompts me to bring in this other story via Elizabeth Foley at Instapundit:


He's Just a Crossdresser:

More than 150 Hillsboro High School students in Missouri walked out to protest a male student being allowed to use the female locker room because he self-identifies as “transgender.” Good for them for resisting the siren of political correctness.

The 17 year-old student, who goes by “Lila” Perry, has not had any surgery or medical procedures to alter his male body. He wears a wig and wears girl’s clothing. So in my book, that makes him a crossdresser, and merely because he “thinks” he is a female cannot make it so. And of course, in true “victim” mentality, Perry is accusing all of the (actual) young ladies who are protesting his presence in their locker room as bigots:

“There’s a lot of ignorance, they are claiming that they’re uncomfortable. I don’t believe for a second that they are. I think this is pure and simple bigotry,” Perry told local news station KMOV.

This is typical far-left hyperbole, branding those who disagree with you as “bigots.” Transgender should be a label confined to those who undergo surgical alteration of their physical genitalia–you know, those who actually change their gender. It should not be so broad as to encompass those who subjectively “think” they are another sex, whilst still objectively possessing the genitalia associated with their genetic makeup. If it is a term that has any meaning at all, it must be judged by objective, not subjective, standards.
And I’m sorry, but “Lila” is clearly just a dude with a wig, and I wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to share a locker room with him/her/it:

It's hard to say it better than that. If the boy is sincere (I rate the odds at 10%), and truly thinks himself to be a woman, then he needs to come to grip with the fact that he is in the far left end of the bell curve, beyond the point at which reasonable accommodation is possible. Having to dress in a boys locker room should give him just a taste of what he is asking the girls to tolerate, being gawked at by what they believe is an unrepentant male.

If the boy is just making this shit up to be able to enjoy the girls locker room, he's got big balls. Until he doesn't, I wouldn't make any accommodation to him other than allowing him to dress "elsewhere" safe from any prying eyes, an accommodation he's already expressly rejected as insufficient capitulation to his new found femininity.

When this kind of controversy first surfaced, us men all claimed that some guy (usually us) would inevitably claim to be a "girl in a boy's body" so we could claim access to the girls locker room. I think we finally a guy with enough balls.

Clinton.com Totally Busted

The old excuse was Hillary didn't send or receive any classified information on her "private" Clinton.com email account and if she did it was someone else's fault. The newest "tranche" (I love that word) shows she not only received it, she sent it. It's all over the blogs, of course, but  hey, let's check out the Washington Post:

Clinton, using private server, wrote and sent e-mails now deemed classified

While she was secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote and sent at least six e-mails using her private server that contained what government officials now say is classified information, according to thousands of e-mails released by the State Department.

Although government officials deemed the e-mails classified after Clinton left office, they could complicate her efforts to move beyond the political fallout from the controversy. They suggest that her role in distributing sensitive material via her private e-mail system went beyond receiving notes written by others, and appears to contradict earlier public statements in which she denied sending or receiving e-mails containing classified information.

The classified e-mails, contained in thousands of pages of electronic correspondence that the State Department has released, stood out because of the heavy markings blocking out sentences and, in some cases, entire messages.

Now remember, all these emails were on her private, non-secure server, and were probably read by multiple foreign intelligence agencies in real time.

The State Department officials who redacted the material cited national security as the reason for blocking it from public view.

Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, was one of about four dozen State Department officials whose e-mails were redacted because of national security concerns, according to a Washington Post review. Those officials included top aides such as Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills, some of whom would be likely to fill out senior roles in a Clinton administration. All told, 188 of the e-mails the State Department has released contain classified material.

But it wouldn't be the Post if they didn't at least try to give old granny Clinton an excuse:

The extent of the redactions in e-mails sent by Clinton and others, including ambassadors and career Foreign Service officers, points to a broader pattern that has alarmed intelligence officials in which sensitive information has been circulated on non-secure systems. Another worry is that Clinton aides further spread sensitive information by forwarding government e-mails to Clinton’s private account.

But it also highlights concerns raised by Clinton and her supporters that identifying classified material can be a confusing process, and well-meaning public officials reviewing the same material could come to different conclusions as to its classification level.

It's just all too confusing for Clinton and her staff to handle.

Some other contents, Hillary telling someone to email her classified info: "Just Email It!" 

Getting plans to impeach Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas from David Brock

A reminder: 

When she's lost Chuck Todd: Todd: The convenience argument is the worst Hillary can use, you know

Actually, under 18 USC 793, one does not have to knowingly transmit classified material in order to be charged and convicted of a crime. Paragraph (f)(1) makes that clear — and the material does not require classification in order to qualify prosecution under this statute:

Smoking guns in latest Hillary e-mail release? Update: Another?

Did the latest release of Hillary Clinton server e-mails uncover a “smoking gun” proving a criminal violation of the law? Chuck Todd earlier said no, but The Federalist’s Sean Davis says yes indeedy. The smokiest of these “guns” is this e-mail, written by Hillary to Sidney Blumenthal in November 2009, redacted as classified almost in its entirety:

There are other classified e-mails in this tranche that originated with Hillary and went to other State Department officials. This e-mail is more notable because of its transmission outside of State’s personnel. Sid Blumenthal did not work in the Obama administration — Rahm Emanuel expressly forbid him to be hired anywhere in the federal government, especially State — and thus was out of the need-to-know loop, especially on top-level diplomatic talks. Where was Blumenthal working when this message (and others) went out? At the Clinton Foundation.

Sid the shiv Blumenthal is a bad habit the Clintons can't quit.

Clinton emails contained spy satellite data on North Korean nukes

One of the most serious potential breaches of national security identified so far by the intelligence community inside Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails involves the relaying of classified information concerning the movement of North Korean nuclear assets, which was obtained from spy satellites.

Multiple intelligence sources who spoke to The Washington Times, solely on the condition of anonymity, said concerns about the movement of the North Korean information through Mrs. Clinton’s unsecured server are twofold.

But Hillary just doesn't understand the concept of secure right? Hmmm. . .

the intelligence community uncovered evidence early on that her private email account was used to coordinate sensitive overseas calls through the department’s operations center, which arranges communication on weekends and after hours on weekdays.

The coordination of secure communications on an insecure break with protocol would give foreign intelligence agencies an opportunity to learn about a call early, then target and intercept the call, U.S. officials told The Times.

The concern is in full display in emails that Mrs. Clinton originated and that the department has already released under the Freedom of Information Act.

“As soon as I’m off call now. Tell ops to set it up now,” Mrs. Clinton wrote from her personal email account on Oct. 3, 2009, to top State Department aide Huma Abedin on Oct. 3, 2009, seeking the department’s operations center to set up a high-level Saturday morning call with two assistant secretaries of state and a foreign ambassador.

The email thread even indicated where Mrs. Clinton wanted to receive the call, at her home, giving a potential intercept target.

. . except when she does - sorta.

A pretty good revies of the multiple issues reveal this week here: Hillary Intentionally Originated And Distributed Highly Classified Information

Clinton email markings changed to hide classified info

At least four classified Hillary Clinton emails had their markings changed to a category that shields the content from Congress and the public, Fox News has learned, in what State Department whistleblowers believed to be an effort to hide the true extent of classified information on the former secretary of state’s server.

The changes, which came to light after the first tranche of 296 Benghazi emails was released in May, was confirmed by two sources -- one congressional, the other intelligence. The four emails originally were marked classified after a review by career officials at the State Department. But after a second review by the department's legal office, the designation was switched to "B5" -- also known as "deliberative process," which refers to internal deliberations by the Executive Branch. Such discussions are exempt from public release.

The B5 coding has the effect, according to a congressional source, of dropping the email content "down a deep black hole."
. . .
A search of this week’s 7,000-page release found 694 emails with the B5 coding, about 10 percent of the total.

How convenient.

Last word to Ann Althouse: "The USA Today opinion page scored a nice little coup yesterday, getting an op-ed by a donor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign who argues that 'there has been no evidence of criminal conduct' by the inevitable Democratic presidential nominee."

Try to confuse the public can be an effective strategy, and I think it may work for the email thing. The process is: 1. People realize they're supposed to be concerned about something, 2. They start to pay attention, to fulfill their civic duty to understand something that's supposed to be important, 3. They experience difficulty, confusion, and shame, 4. Now, we're ready for the lifeline to save our time and our pride: The problem has been looked at by experts, and they've said it's not a problem anymore. 5. You want to believe those other people who are still pressuring you to understand this business, or do you want to be free to move on to other things, like maybe, ha ha, did you know the sprinkler system went off at hoity-toity Hillary fundraiser in Southampton and lots of well-dressed, fancy richies like Anna Wintour and Martha Stewart got all wet? Oh, that Hillary! It's just one absurd screw-up after another, but the old dame rolls with the punches.

So Hillary set off the smoke detector? Where there's smoke. . .

Did Neandertal Go to the Dogs?

Did Dog-Human Alliance Drive Out the Neanderthals?

In her new book, The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction, Pat Shipman, retired adjunct professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, sets out a groundbreaking new argument.

Talking from her home in North Carolina, she explains how reading about invasive species while holidaying on a Caribbean island inspired her, why more accurate carbon-dating methods have revised the timeline for Neanderthal extinction, and how the discovery of "wolf dog" remains at woolly mammoth sites in Central and Eastern Europe may hold the key to understanding why humans went on to build the Sistine chapel and send a robot to Mars while Neanderthals became a footnote in popular culture.

Except that there's a little Neanderthal (~5%) left in most of us non-Africans as a result of a small amount in interbreeding.

First of all I want to say that when I use the term wolf dog, I don't mean a hybrid between a wolf and a modern dog. It's not clear if it's appropriate to call these things wolves or dogs. They're not modern dogs, and they're not modern wolves. They're not ancient wolves, either. They're a distinctive group. Forty individual specimens, at a number of different sites, have been identified as what I'm calling wolf dogs.

They're large, have big teeth and all those predatory, dog/wolf characteristics. You have to assume from the anatomy that they could track very well from the scent of an animal. They were built to be fast running, as wolves and most dogs are. Humans don't run terribly fast. We have a crappy sense of smell. We do cooperate with each other, which is helpful, and we had long-distance weapons, like spears and bows and arrows.

Some of the work on these "proto" dogs suggest they were the size and shape of large huskies.

Neanderthals seem to have specialized in stabbing an animal at close quarters with handheld weapons and wrestling it down. We had weapons we could launch from a distance, which is a very big advantage. There's a lot less risk of personal injury.

Add into that mix the doggy traits of being able to run for hours much faster than we can, track an animal by its scent, then with a group of other wolf dogs surround the animal and hold it in place while you tire it out. The advantage for wolf dogs is that humans can come in and kill from a distance. The wolf dogs don't have to go and kill this thing with their teeth, thereby lowering the risk of injury and death from very large animals like mammoths. For humans, it meant you could find the animals a lot quicker and kill them more efficiently. More food, less risk, faster.

People have been using dogs to hunt for a long time. Plus people tend to leave a lot of edible garbage behind, at least from a dog's point of view.

A lot of the new evidence from your claims came from an archaeological site in Předmostí, in the Czech Republic. Describe this place and how these finds revolutionized our understanding of Neanderthals.

Předmostí is one of a series of archaeological sites in Central and Eastern Europe. They're really weird sites because they're full of dead mammals. Before modern humans came into Eurasia, there was little evidence that Neanderthals were killing mammoths on a regular basis. They're huge! Attacking them with handheld weapons was probably too intimidating, unless you came across a baby mammoth.

 I've heard the Pygmies kill elephants in the Congo by stabbing them in the gun with spears, and then tracking them until they die.

But once modern humans arrive on the scene, you start finding these sites with dozens and sometimes hundreds of dead mammoths. At some, the bones are so concentrated that if the mammoths were alive they couldn't stand in the territory where their bones are.

Neanderthals didn't have the chops to bring down woolly mammoths, but modern humans hunted them successfully, thanks to their wolf dog partners.

 I think the scientists should try the experiment with modern elephants, and their own dogs.

These mammoth megasites, as they became known, contain an outrageous amount of mammoths. So what's changed that is going to enable modern humans to kill all these animals? Neanderthals couldn't, and they weren't inept. Distance weapons of the kind that humans had might have been helpful, but you had to track the darn thing as it died.

And that's where wolf dogs come in, because wolf dogs are found with lots of mammoth bones. Some of these sites even have beautiful tent-shaped huts made out of mammoth bone. This suggests people were there for a long time. They were living there and building these settlements where the animals died.

This is an elaboration of a theory that we've seen before, that dogs and modern humans co-evolved, that in the process of "domesticating" the wolf both the domesticated wolf and modern humans evolved to work together. This theory goes on to suppose that this is the reason that the dog-human collaboration made the difference between modern human dominating the modern world or not, and thus overwhelming the Neanderthal, who had survived fairly well in Europe up until that point.

True? It's hard to tell, and I think it will be different find anything more than correlative evidence. Dog bites on a Neanderthal skeleton?

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Summertime Girls" ready at The Other McCain.

Navajo Nation to Sue EPA

Navajo Nation preps lawsuit against EPA over mine spill

The Navajo Nation is preparing for a legal battle against President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The tribe contends that the EPA's Aug. 5 accident in Colorado, which made national headlines after turning portions of the Animas River bright yellow, also leaked hazardous substances into the San Juan River — one of the Navajo Nation's primary water sources.

Now, they've hired law firm Hueston Hennigan LLP to represent them in what some are predicting could be a multibillion-dollar lawsuit expected to be filed in the coming weeks, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill prepare for a round of hearings examining the issue.
. . .
"This expansion into Navajo lands via the San Juan River has critically impacted the River and its dependent ecosystems including wildlife, fish populations, and the land base adjacent to the River," Begaye wrote in the letter, first obtained by The Hill.

He said that "the nature of this toxic chemical spill will acutely and chronically impact the River and dependent ecosystem if immediate and effective corrective actions and remedies are not taken."

Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch said in a statement that the hazardous-material spill "has been devastating to our culture and economy, as well as to the peace of mind of our people.

I think that's a bit of an overstatement, but sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

I don't think that a regular governmental agency, like a city, state or county would stand much of chance in this suit. EPA would just claim sovereign immunity. But given that the Navajo nation is a sort of sovereign nation within the US, they may have better luck.

More Sturgeon From Maryland

From MD DNR Fisheries Service Facebook Page:

Atlantic Sturgeon in Marshyhope Creek:

Yesterday, DNR biologists caught two Atlantic Sturgeon on the Marshyhope Creek. Atlantic Sturgeon were thought to be extirpated in Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay until recently. These two fish caught today brings our total catch in 2014 and 2015 to ten fish, all in spawning condition.

This project in the Nanticoke River and its tributaries is a cooperative effort with University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and MD DNR Fisheries Service.

It's good to see at least one species of fish making a comeback in the bay, if only in a few limited rivers and creeks.

A New Tooth at the Beach

 Sept. 1 finds the beach warm and humid.

Not too much relief even here, and this exposes you to the Sea Nettles which have come on moderately strong after a very slow start this season.

We had a pretty decent day for shark's teeth, with 21 teeth, including this first for me, a Cow Shark symphyseal tooth. This is the tooth from the exact center of the lower jaw. Sorry about the awful picture.

 The obligatory Osprey shot.

Five flowers growing on the cliff. White Sweet Autumn Virgin's Bower, yellow Evening Primrose, white and yellow Honeysuckle, orange Jewelweed, and red Trumpet vine.

 A close up of the Jewelweed flowers. . .

. . . and the Sweet Autumn Virgin's Bower.

A cloud trying to become a thunderstorm over the Eastern Shore. Only traces on the radar. No rain in sight, and we could use some. The grass and Dogwoods have turned crispy.

Chesapeake Wreck May Be Revolutionary War Relic

A few days ago we saw how an old wooden timbered wreck was found under the Rt. 50 bridge on the Nanticoke River. It seems it may be a ship scuttled during a Revolutionary War engagement:

Nanticoke River shipwreck could be linked to Revolutionary War skirmish

Evidence of age and repairs suggests it could have been intentionally scuttled, perhaps because it was no longer seaworthy. Charring could indicate an accidental fire, or could offer a more historically significant clue — that this ship was among at least a dozen that British sympathizers looted and burned in Revolutionary War skirmishes known to have taken place in Vienna in 1780 and 1781.

It may prove true, as archaeologists continue to search archives and scrutinize the soggy timbers. But even if it can't be tied to any specific incident, the wreckage discovered in April and revealed this week could offer a rare glimpse into the state's maritime history, as the oldest Maryland-made ship found in local waters, Schablitsky said.

Archaeologists plan to develop a three-dimensional model showing it to be a precursor to the schooners or clippers for which the Chesapeake Bay is known.

I suspect it will be a long time, if ever, before we find out. They are still looking for remnants of Commodore Barney's fleet in the Patuxent. 

About 10 Years Too Late. . .

50 is the new 42: technology is making brains of middle-aged younger

50 is the new 42, scientists have concluded, after discovering that the brains of middle-aged people are getting sharper and younger to keep up with the demands of modern technology.

People over age 50 are scoring increasingly better on tests of cognitive function and researchers believe it is because of the increased mental stimulation of computers and mobile phones.

Although experts have previously worried that technology was causing people to stop thinking, in fact, it appears that the mental skills needed to operate increasingly complex gadgets are making people smarter.

The average person now needs to remember 10 passwords a day to access work computers, open email, use internet banking, pay online bills or log on to social networks.

Now where did I leave that book of passwords?

I guess this means I should give in and buy a smart phone?

Clinton.com: Ho Hum Another Day, Another 125 Classified Emails

Another batch of email released by the State Department out of the trove of 30,000 emails (some 55,000 printed pages) that she deigned to release back to the State Department two years after she left.

State Department releases thousands of Clinton emails, 125 contain classified information

The State Department released thousands of pages of Hillary Clinton's emails Monday night that a department spokesman said contained 125 messages with material now considered classified.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the emails in question were "subsequently upgraded" to classified. He stressed that none of the emails was considered classified at the time.

Of course, the responsibility for classifying the emails belongs to the agency, and the person who originated them. If they material from other agencies (CIA, NSA, DOD) most likely the classification marks were stripped off them to give Ms. Clinton implausible deniability. If they were State Dept. info, she and her staff should have been doing the classification, and not waiting until State was forced to release them. So either way, Clinton should not have been passing them around from a non-governmental server.

However, the sheer number of emails that have been redacted stands as the latest example of how much sensitive material was contained in Clinton's email transactions. The FBI is conducting an investigation into whether classified information that passed through Clinton's so-called "homebrew" server was mishandled. Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The emails with redacted sections discussed global issues in countries from Haiti to China to Sudan.

One April 2010 email from Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin containing a report from then-ambassador to China Jon Huntsman was redacted entirely, while a message from that September about "calls" Clinton said she was willing to make regarding trilateral talks over Sudan was likewise blacked out.

Why? Surely the Chinese have read them already. Oh, and the server? She shared it with Clinton.com the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton’s private email server was housed at the same physical location and on the same network as an email server used and operated by the Clinton Foundation, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.

Records reveal that Hillary Clinton’s private clintonemail.com server shared an IP address with her husband Bill Clinton’s email server, presidentclinton.com, and both servers were housed in New York City, not in the basement of the Clintons’ Chappaqua, New York home.

Web archives show that the Presidentclinton.com Web address was being operated by the Clinton Foundation as of 2009, when Hillary Clinton registered her own clintonemail.com server.

Numerous Clinton Foundation employees used the presidentclinton.com server for their own email addresses, which means that they were using email accounts that, if hacked, would have given any hacker complete access to Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails, as well.

Hey, it saves Clinton.com a dime or two that could go to Sid Vicious' salary, or to Clinton comforts, so who cares if it puts national security at risk?

Don't for get to read Jonah Goldberg's The Third World Mind of the Clintons

The tragedy for Hillary Clinton is that she is all too human. As Bill’s mortal sidekick, she’s had a good ride. But whereas Bill has an almost Jedi-like ability to lie convincingly — “these aren’t the interns you’re looking for” — Hillary has no superpowers to fall back on. She just has to grind it out. Like Syndrome in The Incredibles or the entire cast of Kick-Ass, she has to compensate for a lack of raw superpowers through guile and technology — and minions, lots and lots of minions. They do her dirty work for her. They burrow into the bureaucracy and cover for her. They get appointed to commissions and erect firewalls against accountability. They tell her what she wants to hear and explain how all bad news is someone else’s fault. They scrub the paper trail. They even shove classified evidence in their pants, if that is what is required. As Renfield to her huband’s Dracula, Otis to his Lex Luthor, . . . (you get the idea), she has amassed considerable resources and abilities of her own. There’s now an entire Clinton-Industrial Complex that fuels and funds the vast interconnected network of minions. They are like agents of Hydra, embedded in the media, in government, and in academia. Places like Media Matters are like huge industrial farms for breeding Clintonian hacks where the larvae are grown in vats.

My bold. And that is what I call Clinton.com

Cooties from Selfies?

Worth the risk?

Selfies could be linked to head lice

. . .Samples from 30 states, including Texas, found a gene mutation in lice that turns it into a superbug and resistant to over-the-counter chemicals.

If that's not bad enough, there is also a new way adults and teens are getting it: selfies.
Lice used to be a childhood problem eventually outgrown, like when youngsters bumped heads as they played together in tight quarters.

There used to be an old way of showing how radioactive contamination works. Put a fluorescent white powder on a sign in sheet at a radiation safety seminar. At the end of the session, break out a UV light.  A similar approach might work here.

Now, as adults and teenagers almost constantly put their heads together while taking selfies, they’re unknowingly giving lice a new host on which to feed.

Loren Hickman works at Hair Fairies in Dallas, which specializes in lice removal. She says it's impossible to pinpoint exactly where someone gets lice.

However, Hickman says she's seen an uptick in the number of teens with lice who don't have siblings.

“They're holding the phone up, putting their head close to their friend,” said Hickman. “It only takes a second.”

Damn jumping lice. . .

Picked up and linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links. Thanks, Teach! Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Summertime Girls" ready at The Other McCain.

Dam Trouble with EPA

EPA hits farmer with $16M in fines for building stock pond

It was just this weekend when we saw the EPA moving head with sweeping regulations which redefine the meaning of the Clean Water Act, seeking to extend their control over every pool of water in the country, despite the fact that a federal judge had put enforcement of the regulations on hold in 13 states. Today we’ll take a brief look at a case which has been percolating for quite a while and demonstrates the way that the agency can impact the lives of farmers and rural landowners. Andy Johnson, a farmer from Fort Bridger, Wyoming, made the bold move in 2012 of building a small earthen dam across a creek which runs through his property to create a stock pond for his horses and cattle. We’re not talking about a hydroelectric dam on a river here.. this is a stream that you can walk across without getting the tops of your socks wet for most of the year.

How this attracted the attention of the EPA isn’t exactly clear, but they came down on Andy like a ton of bricks, hitting him with fines which now total more than $16M.

Even though the Clean Water Act exempts stock ponds, and Mr. Johnson had obtained the necessary state permits, the EPA ordered him in January 2014 to restore the area to its original condition or accumulate fines of $37,500 a day. Instead, Mr. Johnson hired a lawyer.
“The EPA is out to expand its power, and I’m a test case,” said Mr. Johnson in a statement. “We’re going to fight them all the way.”
Last week, his attorneys — including the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Budd-Falen law firm in Cheyenne — filed a lawsuit against the agency to stop it from enforcing the compliance order.

Since the land in question is in the western region where the courts have ruled against the new interpretation of the Clean Water Act, one would think that the EPA would withdraw this suit, at least for now.

Because the creek feeds into the Green River the EPA seems to feel that they hold jurisdiction over it, though calling that stream “navigable waters” would require expanding the definition of “boats” to include “galoshes.” Also, the “dam” in question was composed of sand, gravel, clay and concrete blocks, which the agency decided met the criteria for “pollutants.” (Aside from the cinder blocks, those materials are also locally known as “the ground.”) Amazingly, Johnson had filed for and been granted the appropriate local and state permits to have a stock pond, and stock ponds are specifically excluded from the traditional wording of the Clean Water Act. No matter… the agency felt that action was required to save the world and they were going to leap to the rescue.

The truly ironic part is that Johnson had the water in the creek tested above and below his pond and the results indicated that the downstream water was actually cleaner than when it came in because the pond allowed sediment to settle out.

My bolds. My guess is that while sediment may be collected in the pond, if the pond serves as a stock pond, it may well be a collector of nutrients. On the the other hand, nutrients from cow waste may well run off the property as fast with no dam.

Let’s remember that the EPA was doing all of this long before they submitted their new guidelines which will allow them to regulate the water in your dog’s drinking dish. With these new rules they’re just looking to codify their ability to continue the meddling they’ve already been engaged in. Keep that in mind as this battle moves forward because Mr. Johnson’s property is all of eight acres in size. His pond wouldn’t support a self respecting brook trout. And the EPA wants to fine him $16M dollars. Something has to be done to bring this agency in check.

The EPA had a similar case here in the Chesapeake Bay region, concerning the Alt Farm, where they tried to enforce a new vision of the Clean Water Act on a poultry operation. They used a similar fine system, threatening $37,500 daily fines while the matter was in dispute, then claimed the Alts could not benefit from legal help from the Farm Bureau, and finally tried to drop the suit without a decision (and without prejudice) when it looked like they were likely to lose. The Alts, with the help of the Farm Bureau, forced them a judicial decision, which they won handily.

But that was before the Obama Administration lost all interest in separation of powers, and decided to operate largely as a monarchy.