Carpy Diem

Yesterday, this happened as brought to you via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 11.06.17": Fake News About Koi – Why Nobody Trusts The Press

President Trump has begun a 13-day trip through Asia, beginning in Japan. His meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have gone very well. Abe presented Trump with hats saying, “Donald and Shinzo…Make Alliance Even Greater.”

But of course, in the eyes of the liberal media, the president must never be allowed a success of any kind. So the press invented a “gaffe” for Trump. At one point during his visit, Trump and Abe both fed koi, i.e., Japanese carp. Big deal. But reporters ridiculed the president for ultimately dumping the remainder of his box of food into a pond. CNN, in particular, went nuts on this theme. It is hard to imagine anything more trivial, but for the press, no opportunity to smear President Trump can be foregone.

President Trump feeds fish with PM Shinzo Abe in Japan, then pours the entire box of food into the koi pond. pic.twitter.com/CQjGGf5k0J

— Veronica Rocha (@VeronicaRochaLA) November 6, 2017

CNN went so far as to publish a misleading video. It failed to show, and the derisive tweets failed to acknowledge, that Prime Minister Abe first dumped his box of fish food into the pond, and Trump followed suit.

MSM getting upset over how Trump feeds fish is bad enough. But refusing to report that Abe dumped his food first takes it to next level. pic.twitter.com/9heAA7BDGN

— Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) November 6, 2017

So it was a complete and total lie. Remember, they lie every chance they get.

Back From Fishing

Trevor, Dan, Tom and I had a charter with Walleye Pete today. The forecast was for overcast and moderate NE winds early, then rain  with more wind later. The forecast was spot on. Temperatures dropped overnight from 65 to high 40s-low 50s.

Pete with his patented technique for removing a line wrapped around the prop (if left there, it could damage the seal, and allow water into the low gear case oil).

Dan and I holding a couple.



















The final tally of keepers, mostly 24-28 inch fish, a limit. Two fish per customer, plus one "for the boat."

A short video Pete shot at a particularly good spot

Reason #5770 That Trump Was Elected

Trump's spectacular first year

Upon election last November 8, President Trump did something none of his predecessors did. He began his presidency the very next day.

From high atop Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, Trump held court with businessmen, celebrities, and the prime minister of Japan.

The stock market soared. The economy rebounded because after eight years of Marxism, capitalism was back, baby, and kicking down the door.

K Street is dead.

Long live Main Street.
. . .
Obamacare requires congressional action.

The Senate dragged its hoofs in approving his Cabinet choices which meant Cabinet officers were not available to appoint people.

The Wall is under way as contractors just completed their demonstration projects.

But President Trump's policies are being implemented. His administration already repealed 1,000 regulations. McArdle may dismiss this as "some regulations have been eased," but this is what has driven the stock market to climb 20%-plus since the morning after the election.

One would think that a business news organization would know this, but news organizations stopped caring about the quality of their product at least a generation ago.

President Trump was well prepared for the job. He's been a CEO for 45 years. Contrast that to being president of a choom club, and a law review.

The world changed for the better on November 8, 2016.

Gone Fishing

A little like this. Unfortunately, it's 50 F and likely to rain, so no bikinis. Besides, it's an all guy crew.



I would call them big, but not huge. I don't believe that's a 16 lb fish, unless they're denser in Tennessee.

Wombat-socho has "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: Twin Peaks" up at The Other McCain.

And Perhaps the Most Disgusting

Best. Headline. Ever?

Teen Vogue Shutters Shortly After Publishing 

‘Guide to Anal Sex’ for Teen Girls

So how does this happen?

That the politicalization of journalism has reached fashion magazines — which exist as advertising vehicles for cosmetics, clothing brands, etc — shows that the radical Left’s influence in academia cannot be restricted to university campuses. Young people who are indoctrinated with feminism and other “social justice” ideologies in the classroom will take those ideas with them into the workplace after they graduate. The academic Left is intolerant of dissent, and intellectual conformity is enforced on campus, so that even if Teen Vogue had wished to hire college graduates who are critical of feminist ideology, they would have had difficulty finding them. So why did the editors of Teen Vogue wish to tutor young girls about anal sex? Perhaps because the magazine’s digital director is a young gay man, Phillip Picardi and, beginning in 2015, the magazine deliberately decided to shift its focus to “activism” and identity politics:

“I am an activist [said the magazine’s editor Elaine Welteroth]. And I think the readers that we reach would all consider themselves activists, too.”
What issues are most important to their young readers? “Identity is big. We want to help make them feel better about themselves, whether that’s giving beauty tips, or empowering them with political information to have smarter conversations and feel they can stand up for themselves.”

That identity-politics activist mentality worked out about as well for Teen Vogue as it did for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The politicization of the magazine lead to a mother's campaign to shut down the magazine:

If you want to talk about empowering women, you must talk about Elizabeth Johnston, “The Activist Mommy” who led the boycott against Teen Vogue:

I was beyond thrilled to learn today that Teen Vogue magazine will no longer be in print. The publisher, Condé Nast, has shuttered the print publication, while other Condé Nast publications will remain in print. Operation Pull Teen Vogue was a grassroots campaign by concerned parents who don’t believe anal sex and sex toys should be peddled to their children under the guise of a fashion magazine. Teen Vogue editors Elaine Welteroth and Phillip Picardi ignored our concerns and mocked our campaign, but we gave them a black eye from which they never recovered. Let the watching world take note: If you pander obscenity to our kids, especially for a profit, we will destroy you.

Share the news! 😁Your activism matters! 🙌🏻 #PullTeenVogue pic.twitter.com/7btmwk7wnJ

— The Activist Mommy (@activistmommy1) November 2, 2017

When this controversy erupted in July, Teen Vogue‘s Picardi openly boasted of his pro-homosexuality agenda: “Gen Z will be our queerest and most fearless generation yet,” and posted this to Twitter:

It's hard to know if the mother's campaign contributed to the demise of the print version of Teen Vogue; magazines are dying left and right as the internet drains their blood, but it certainly didn't help. To Picardi:

Reason #5769 That Trump Was Elected

You Can't Beat Something With Nothing: Democrats are so focused on tearing down the GOP they can't see their own shortcomings.

. . . The Democrats seemed shocked the race between Clinton and Trump remained relatively close because they seemed to stop talking to the white working-class voters who, for decades, had defined their base.

So when they lost the election, there was a reckoning. The leadership of the Democratic Party was drummed up and new, forward-looking leaders took the reins and offered an alternative to what they saw as the disaster of Donald Trump. Wait, no. That isn't what happened. Instead, they re-elected Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house. They elected Chuck Schumer as Senate majority leader and completely sold out to the New York and California wings of the Democratic Party.

Instead of talking about middle-class tax cuts, they talked about transgender bathroom access. Instead of talking about fixing Obamacare, which was crushing many in the middle class with high premiums and complicated doctor selections, they walked right into the trap of the alt-right and began tearing down Civil War statues . . .

Both the Democrats and the GOPe rejected the middle class, who rejected them in turn.

Juliana Margulies Beat Off Weinstein and Seagal

Ah, Harveygate, the gift that keeps on giving: Julianna Margulies Claims Sex Harassment By Harvey Weinstein, Steven Seagal

Actress Julianna Margulies said in an interview that producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Steven Seagal both tried to sexually harass her earlier in her career. The former star of CBS’ The Good Wife claimed that she was led to their rooms by female assistants ostensibly for business reasons. However, “These women were leading me to the lion’s den.”
. . . . .
In the Seagal case, Margulies was 23 when a female casting director asked her to go to the actor’s hotel room at 10 PM to go over a scene. She was told it was between her and another actress for a role that would get her the coveted Screen Actors Guild card.

Margulies said when she arrived at the hotel, the casting director wasn’t there, but Seagal was. When she entered his hotel room, “I saw his gun, which I had never seen a gun in real life.” Somehow, Margulies said, she got out of the room “unscathed. I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room. … I sorta screamed my way out.”

It would be a much better story if she beat the shit of him.

Shaken by the encounter, a far more wary Margulies recounted a 1996 encounter with Weinstein. She was in her third season of NBC’s ER and told that if she met with Weinstein, she would get a screen test. She also was promised that the woman accompanying her would be in the room at the Peninsula hotel with them.

“She knocked on the door, and she was standing behind me,” Margulies recalled. “And he opened the door in a bathrobe. I could see that there were candles lit in the room, and there was a dinner for two. And I saw him stare at her, daggers.”

It's interesting how no one has come forward to name Harvey and Steven's female accomplices. Surely they knew what was coming next.

Margulies turned to look at her companion. “And I caught her in a shrug — like, “What could I do?” And he looked at me, furious, and he took the door and he said, ‘Just wanted to say good audition.’ And he slammed the door.”

Margulies did not get the part. And although she now is established enough to avoid future such incidents, she asked, “What’s a 16-year-old actress supposed to do?”

I guess that depends on whether she wants the part, or her honor.

Wombat-socho has "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: Twin Peaks" up at The Other McCain.

Another Double Bay Day

We took the usual walk with Skye. It was 65 and overcast, with a hint of drizzle at one point, and very calm.

A pretty good day for tooth hunting. I found this nearly perfect, large Snaggletooth partially buried. Unfortunately, camera decided to focus on the background, not the tooth.

And all in all some 22 other teeth (and sometimes fragments of teeth), between the two of us. Skye didn't help at all.

In the afternoon, I took off for a little fishing. No actual fish pictures, but the forest over the cliffs is coloring up nicely. I did, however, get one keeper Striped Bass, and, somewhat surprisingly, a 3 lb Bluefish.

Frank Underwood Apparently Forgot About Edwin Edwards

"The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy". - Edwin Edward, the day before election day.

Netflix dumps actor from 'House of Cards,' shelves film

The Sexual Harassment Apocalypse: More Accusations Against Kevin Spacey

Folks, the bonfire of sexual harassment accusations — in Hollywood, in the news media, in politics — is now an inferno raging out of control. There are so many women accusing so many men of so many wrongdoings that it’s impossible to keep up. Dustin Hoffman? That one shocked me, but it’s 2017, and maybe nothing is really shocking anymore.

As disappointing as the Hoffman story was, Kevin Spacey’s situation is far more serious. Sunday, Spacey was rocked by actor Anthony Rapp’s accusation that Spacey attempted to sexually assault him when Rapp was only 14. That was very bad, and in commenting on it, I noted that there was a lot of online chatter to the effect that Spacey was promiscuous, with a predilection for younger men and was said to solicit sex from male crew members on House of Cards more or less routinely. At the time, that was merely chatter, but Friday morning it became actual news:

Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix’s “House of Cards” into a “toxic” work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN. One former employee told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him. . . .All eight people, each of whom spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions for speaking out, described Spacey’s behavior as “predatory,” saying it included nonconsensual touching and crude comments and targeted production staffers who were typically young and male.

This confirms the online chatter and, just in case Spacey’s career had not yet been completely destroyed, another man came forward to say that in 1983, when he was 14, he had a sexual affair with Spacey. This ended, he said, when Spacey, then 24, attempted to anally rape him.

OK, how many more teenage victims are there? It doesn’t matter. No matter how many Oscars you’ve got, one 14-year-old exceeds the limit. And have I mentioned lately that Kevin Spacey is a close personal friend of Bill Clinton? Because this probably ought to be mentioned.

Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner . . . Do the Clintons have any close personal friends who aren’t sexual predators?

Bill probably takes some comfort in the fact that Spacey is not competing with him for buxom blondes. 

Reason #5767 - #5768 That Trump Was Elected

Justice Department Jamming Shut The Revolving Door For Illegal Aliens

One of the running complaints raised against opponents of border security is the proliferation of criminal illegal aliens who enter the United States repeatedly, are apprehended and then sent back to their home countries. That part of the formula would be fine were it not for the fact that so many of them keep crossing the border multiple times, only to be found committing additional crimes. In some of the worst cases, you wind up with a result along the lines of the murder of Kate Steinle. But less high profile situations clog the system on a regular basis.

This year that destructive pattern has finally begun to change, albeit slowly. With new laws on the books and a more aggressive Attorney General, prosecutions are on the rise and sentences are at least somewhat more appropriate for the perpetrators. One such case came through this week in Louisiana, where Juan Carlos Rigoberto-Martinez had been caught in the country illegally multiple times after committing multiple crimes. The citizen of Honduras encountered a different sort of reception this time and found himself in federal court where he was summarily sent up the river for more than a decade. (Justice.gov)

BATON ROUGE, LA – Acting United States Attorney Corey Amundson announced that yesterday U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles sentenced JUAN CARLOS RIGOBERTO-MARTINEZ, age 33, of Honduras, to serve 130 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States after removal. The defendant’s extensive criminal history, including his status as an aggravated felon, contributed significantly to the lengthy sentence.
Yesterday’s sentence stems from the defendant’s federal conviction on April 12, 2017, for illegally reentering the United States after removal. Immigration authorities first removed the defendant from the United States on January 7, 2008, after he completed a state prison sentence in Georgia for burglary and theft.
Several months later, on June 5, 2008, the U.S. Border Patrol found and arrested the defendant in Texas for illegally reentering the United States after removal. The defendant plead guilty to the offense, resulting in a 77-month federal prison sentence from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. On December 27, 2013, immigration authorities again removed the defendant from the United States following the completion of his prison term.

This is an encouraging development which will hopefully send a strong message to the illegal alien community. Too often in the past we’ve seen illegals who have been deported as many as seven times being brought in on charges and we essentially focus on the new crimes they have committed. If those are sufficiently “minor” in nature they are frequently given yet another free ride back to their homeland and the cycle begins anew.

Refugee Admissions Plummet to 1,242 in First Month of FY 2018

The number of refugees admitted into the country during the first month of FY 2018 by the Trump administration plummeted to 1,242 – an 87 percent decline from the 9,945 admitted during the first month of FY 2017 by the Obama administration.

The percentage of refugees admitted who are Muslim declined dramatically as well, from 45 percent in October 2016 to 23 percent in October 2017, according to the State Department interactive website.

Of particular note is the precipitous drop in the number of refugees admitted from the seven countries whose citizens were temporarily banned from traveling to the United States under the first travel ban, Executive Order 13679, issued by President Trump on January 27, 2017.

In October 2017, the first month of FY 2018, only 275 refugees from these seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudian, Syria, and Yemen — were admitted to the United States under the Refugee Admissions Program.

In contrast, in October 2016, the first month of FY 2017, a total of 4,581 refugees from these seven countries were admitted into the United States under the Refugee Admissions Program (1,352 from Somalia, 1,323 from Iraq, 1,297 from Syria, 414 from Iran, and none from either Libya or Yemen.)

Should refugee admissions continue at this same pace for the remaining eleven months of FY 2018, the total number of refugees admitted for the entire fiscal year would be less than 15,000, which is 30,000 below the 45,000 cap for refugees set forward in the Trump administration’s presidential determination announced in September.

A Porn Star Takes on the President . . .

. . . of Russia: Porn star announces she will stand against Putin in Russian elections and vows to bring in the death penalty for sexual harassment in the wake of Weinstein scandal

An ex-Russian porn star is the latest woman to announce she'll be standing against President Putin in next year's presidential elections.

Busty brunette Elena Berkova from the city of Murmansk in northwest Russia, who also stood for mayor of Sochi, posted a video on Instagram outlining her plans.

What is it with good looking women wanting to be President of Russia?

The 32-year-old mum-of-two, who will be the fourth female candidate to run for office, said she would introduce the death penalty for sexual harassment because she was fed up with people like Harvey Weinstein.

She also said she would make it almost impossible for men to divorce, introduce sex education in schools, and make it an offence to wear a skirt longer than 40cm.

The model who is known for posting saucy videos on social media said: 'I made this decision recently, because women are actively taking part in the presidential campaign.

I'm sure the death penalty for sexual harassment is a sure loser for Russian male voters, and I doubt the short skirt provision is enough to win them back.

'Some of them are from show business, I ran for mayor of Sochi and took have taken part in politics, so I decided to run for the President of Russia.

'I plan to make divorces almost impossible for men, as these days women bear almost all the responsibility for children.

'I plan to introduce sexual and legal education in schools. And to introduce a mandatory sex exam.
'Often our youth still do not know about sexual legal norms, hygiene, not to mention pleasure.'

Wanna have some fun with Russia? Get the NSA to carry out a campaign to promote her candidacy on Russian social media. And yes, she is a for sure ex-porn star (NSFW links).

Wombat-socho has "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: Twin Peaks" up at The Other McCain.

At Least It's Not Swimming

Click to enlarge:

More from the beach:

Reason #5766 That Trump Was Elected

An older Tucker Carlson piece, from Jan. 16: Donald Trump Is Shocking, Vulgar and Right

. . .American presidential elections usually amount to a series of overcorrections: Clinton begat Bush, who produced Obama, whose lax border policies fueled the rise of Trump. In the case of Trump, though, the GOP shares the blame, and not just because his fellow Republicans misdirected their ad buys or waited so long to criticize him. Trump is in part a reaction to the intellectual corruption of the Republican Party. That ought to be obvious to his critics, yet somehow it isn’t.

Consider the conservative nonprofit establishment, which seems to employ most right-of-center adults in Washington. Over the past 40 years, how much donated money have all those think tanks and foundations consumed? Billions, certainly. (Someone better at math and less prone to melancholy should probably figure out the precise number.) Has America become more conservative over that same period? Come on. Most of that cash went to self-perpetuation: Salaries, bonuses, retirement funds, medical, dental, lunches, car services, leases on high-end office space, retreats in Mexico, more fundraising. Unless you were the direct beneficiary of any of that, you’d have to consider it wasted.

Pretty embarrassing. And yet they’re not embarrassed. Many of those same overpaid, underperforming tax-exempt sinecure-holders are now demanding that Trump be stopped. Why? Because, as his critics have noted in a rising chorus of hysteria, Trump represents “an existential threat to conservatism.”

Let that sink in. Conservative voters are being scolded for supporting a candidate they consider conservative because it would be bad for conservatism? And by the way, the people doing the scolding? They’re the ones who’ve been advocating for open borders, and nation-building in countries whose populations hate us, and trade deals that eliminated jobs while enriching their donors, all while implicitly mocking the base for its worries about abortion and gay marriage and the pace of demographic change. Now they’re telling their voters to shut up and obey, and if they don’t, they’re liberal.

It turns out the GOP wasn’t simply out of touch with its voters; the party had no idea who its voters were or what they believed. For decades, party leaders and intellectuals imagined that most Republicans were broadly libertarian on economics and basically neoconservative on foreign policy. That may sound absurd now, after Trump has attacked nearly the entire Republican catechism (he savaged the Iraq War and hedge fund managers in the same debate) and been greatly rewarded for it, but that was the assumption the GOP brain trust operated under. They had no way of knowing otherwise. The only Republicans they talked to read the Wall Street Journal too.

On immigration policy, party elders were caught completely by surprise. Even canny operators like Ted Cruz didn’t appreciate the depth of voter anger on the subject. And why would they? If you live in an affluent ZIP code, it’s hard to see a downside to mass low-wage immigration. Your kids don’t go to public school. You don’t take the bus or use the emergency room for health care. No immigrant is competing for your job. (The day Hondurans start getting hired as green energy lobbyists is the day my neighbors become nativists.) Plus, you get cheap servants, and get to feel welcoming and virtuous while paying them less per hour than your kids make at a summer job on Nantucket. It’s all good.

Apart from his line about Mexican rapists early in the campaign, Trump hasn’t said anything especially shocking about immigration. Control the border, deport lawbreakers, try not to admit violent criminals — these are the ravings of a Nazi? This is the “ghost of George Wallace” that a Politico piece described last August? A lot of Republican leaders think so. No wonder their voters are rebelling. . .

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady in "Maria Miri Domark." Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links.

Rule 5 Saturday - From Austria, Nadine Leopold

That's about all Wikipedia seems to know about Nadine Leopold, today's Rule 5 subject:

Nadine Leopold (born January 7, 1994) is an Austrian model.

In 2014, she covered Glamour (France) and Grey and posed for Cosmopolitan.

In 2015, she covered Glamour (Germany) and Fashion Week Daily and was in editorials of Vogue.com, A and Marie Claire (UK). She was featured in the Botkier New York fall campaign as well as several Victoria's Secret shoots.

I wonder if she speaks Austrian?

She may be from Austria, but she currently resides in Tribeca, and had this to say on Twitter:

Omg coming home to the saddest news :(( Tribeca is my home and I’m speechless.. my heart goes out to everyone hurt 💔

— Nadine Leopold (@NadineLeopold) October 31, 2017

Her IMG page. Her Instagram. A couple of NSFW shots.

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady in "Maria Miri Domark." Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links. Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Whatever Happened To…" and "FMJRA 2.0: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" up and running.

Brazile Spills the Beans

Hiroshima for the DNC: @DonnaBrazile Devastates Democrat Corruption

Democrats don’t just deceive, cheat and swindle the voters and taxpayers, they also deceive, cheat and swindle each other:

My predecessor [as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee], Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt. As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.
Debbie was not a good manager. She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party — she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was. . . .
The Saturday morning after the convention in July, I called Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Hillary’s campaign. He wasted no words. He told me the Democratic Party was broke and $2 million in debt. . . .
Officials from Hillary’s campaign had taken a look at the DNC’s books. Obama left the party $24 million in debt — $15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign — and had been paying that off very slowly. Obama’s campaign was not scheduled to pay it off until 2016. Hillary for America (the campaign) and the Hillary Victory Fund (its joint fundraising vehicle with the DNC) had taken care of 80 percent of the remaining debt in 2016, about $10 million, and had placed the party on an allowance. . . .

There’s a lot more where that came from. This is devastating beyond words. Everybody’s talking about how Brazile has confirmed the suspicion of Bernie Sanders that the Democrat primary process was basically rigged for Hillary, but the larger revelations are even worse:

1. Democrats have been squandering their donors’ money in much the same way they routinely squander taxpayers’ money;
2. The triumph of Obama’s two-term presidency, which should have yielded a fund-raising windfall for the DNC, instead left the party more than $20 million in debt; and
3. The DNC’s indebtedness was exploited by the Clinton campaign to defraud Democrat primary voters.

It was this perception of a rigged nomination process that made Trump’s “Crooked Hillary” charge resonate with working-class voters in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. And so the corruption of the Democrat Party — profligate spending, irresponsible management and insider favoritism at DNC headquarters — was a major cause of their devastating defeat last year.

I have a hard time working myself into high dudgeon over Hillary cheating the Democrat party and then losing.

I don't think anyone is shocked by finding out that Hillary is a corruptocrat, willing to use anyone's money for her own ends. The shock is a high Democratic official coming out with it, clearly signalling the ending of Clintons hold on the Democrat party.

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady in "Invanka's Big in Japan."

State Cuts Back on Oyster Restoration

State slashes oyster restoration acreage goal

The state of Maryland has decided to reduce the large-scale oyster restoration project goal in the Little Choptank River after boaters ran aground at another sanctuary and some of the man-made reefs there had to be rebuilt.

Well, you should put them far enough below mean low tide that it's not likely to happen.

The sanctuaries are among five planned to be built as part of a federal-state agreement to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The project, which grows and plants oysters on man-made beds in protected waterways, has been touted by environmentalists and generally opposed by watermen. Numerous agencies have agreed to a longterm goal of growing oysters on at least 50 percent of restorable oyster habitat.

The habitat goal for the Little Choptank River sanctuary has been cut by 118 acres — about one-fourth of the original target.

This means there will be roughly 19.5 million fewer oysters at this site alone — enough to filter up to 1.03 billion liters of water per day.

But then, when they're spat, you can fit a million oysters in 20 gallon tank. Ask me how how I know. But that doesn't' mean there are 19.5 million less adult oysters. And you can only filter water so many times before you run out of food.

Oysters’ capacity to filter water can vary widely depending on temperature, salinity and other factors, according to Matthew Gray, an assistant professor specializing in oyster feeding habits at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

That's quite a specialization. I wonder what he dreams about at night?

A construction error in Harris Creek — Maryland’s first large-scale oyster restoration site — caused damage to multiple boats, as vessels grounded or scraped against stone-based reefs that did not meet five feet of navigational clearance, officials said.

That's one way to get the barnacle off your hull. Not the right way.

Skeptical of oyster restoration from the start, watermen have complained of trotlines getting stuck in new stone river bottoms and boats being damaged by oyster reef “high spots” in Harris Creek. A trotline is a long, heavy fishing line with short, baited lines suspended from it. They are often used to catch blue crabs in Maryland.

Watermen depend on their boats to earn a living. No boat means no fishing. No fishing means no income.

And they should be more careful, being on the water almost every day, and know their home waters.

Remember the Fritz oyster restoration plan. No fishing on "wild" oysters for 10 years. If oysters haven't recovered, they're not going to. Go ahead and plant other species that will succeed.

You Can Go, But Leave Kate

Prince William warns that there are too many people in the world

Reason #5765 That Trump Was Elected

Maryland high school has posters saying "It's OK to be White", and they're treating it like a hate crime: Md. high school won’t ‘fall victim’ to ‘okay to be white’ flyers

Flyers stating “It’s OK to be white” were found at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring on Wednesday morning.

In a letter sent to parents, the school’s Principal Renay Johnson writes that “Montgomery Blair is a very smart, diverse and inclusive community and we will not fall victim to attempts to divide us.”

The fliers were found on 10 exterior doors to the building by staff before students arrived, the letter states.

“We are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident,” Johnson writes.

Security footage released by the school system shows a person in a hooded sweatshirt posting one of the fliers. And police have been contacted, a school spokesman said.

The fliers seemed to be prompted by the 4chan message forum, according to school officials, that promotes racial and political tensions.

So it's not OK? What do I do? about it?

Fish Pic Friday - Flatties

Darcizzle with a little Summer Flounder

The subject of this Friday's pics are flatfish:

A flatfish is a member of the order Pleuronectiformes of ray-finned demersal fishes, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through or around the head during development. Some species face their left sides upward, some face their right sides upward, and others face either side upward.

Dr. Julie Ball

Not the best fighters, they are among the best eating fish.

Many important food fish are in this order, including the flounders, soles, turbot, plaice, and halibut. Some flatfish can camouflage themselves on the ocean floor.

Obviously, there are a lot of different flatfish, but only a few are fished recreationally in the North America. Prime among these are the Summer Flounder of the Atlantic coast, the Winter Flounder of Atlantic coast. and the Halibut of both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Cindy Nguyen

The Summer Flounder was once common enough in Chesapeake Bay that it was commonly targeted by recreational anglers; now it is rare enough, and the limits are strict enough that they are mostly incidental catches while fishing for other species (they love small baits jigged or trolled near the bottom). It's not entirely clear why, the population in the Atlantic is reasonably healthy although there is considerable dispute over what the fishing quotas should be.

I used to catch quite a few of them before the 9/11 attacks caused my favorite hole to be closed.

Winter Flounder, a more northern species, favorite targets in more northern states, are reputed to live in the Bay, but I have never heard of anyone catching one.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links. Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Whatever Happened To…" up and running.

Sturgeon on Sonar!

I started with a flasher but Imaging sonar has gotten pretty good lately:

The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office recently did some work mapping critical habitat for endangered Atlantic sturgeon in Virginia. While surveying a 5 km stretch of the James River, using side-scan sonar, they captured this image, which includes 13 sturgeon. Sturgeon are visible as the light “contact” streaks; dark shadows of those fish appear in the lighter area along the righthand side of the image. 

I guess a B- is good enough for sturgeon.

While under way, the team observed multiple sturgeon breaches, part of a possible fall spawning run. NCBO’s efforts related to habitat support a larger NOAA effort on sturgeon. For example, NCBO’s sonar work and habitat analysis in the Nanticoke River and Marshyhope Creek (Maryland) were used by the Office of Protected Resources as they developed Final Rule designating critical habitat for Atlantic sturgeon.

I've seen big Striped Bass on Pete's side scan sonar. I've tried on my own, and never had the right opportunity.

Reason #5764 That Trump Was Elected

EPA to reform its science advisory boards

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Tuesday he planned to curtail the practice of distributing research grants to scientists appointed to the agency’s scientific advisory boards to improve their “independence and transparency and objectivity.”

“If we have individuals who are on those boards receiving money from the agency, sometimes, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, that calls into question the independence of the recommendations that come our way,” Pruitt said, speaking at a Heritage Foundation event. “Next week, I will issue a directive that addresses that, to ensure the independence and transparency and objectivity with respect to the scientific advice that we are getting at the agency.”

“Reforming EPA’s advisory boards will strengthen public trust in the EPA and the science the agency uses to justify its policies,” Thea McDonald, communications director for the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, told Western Wire.

“Chairman Lamar Smith has long advocated for a more balanced and transparent membership on the advisory boards, especially after conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency became prevalent during the Obama administration,” McDonald said. “In fact, the committee and the full House this year passed a bill by committee Vice Chairman Frank Lucas, the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act, to accomplish these goals.”

“It’s terrific that EPA chief Scott Pruitt is taking this long overdue step to eliminate the Obama EPA practice of stacking scientific advisory boards in order for them to rubberstamp EPA overregulation as science-based,” Steve Milloy, lawyer and author of “Scare Pollution: Why and How to Fix the EPA,” told Western Wire.

“For too long EPA paid outside scientists to publish agency friendly ‘science’ and then had the very same scientists review and approve their own research under the guise of independent peer review,” Milloy said.

Milloy, who served on the Trump EPA transition team, praised the work of the Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for calling attention to this EPA practice, which Milloy called “corrupt” in a March 2012 op-ed.

For this, a  Forbes Editor said the  EPA Administrator Is Scarier Than Radical Islamic Terrorists

I wish them well, but I doubt this will work. Without to promise of EPA funds why would anyone want to waste their time on these advisory boards?

The Wisdom of the Hollywood Crowd

The Hollywood/Harvey Weinstein scandal is the gift that keeps on giving: CBS “Looking Into” Jeremy Piven Sexual Assault Allegations By ‘Entourage’ Actress, HBO Also Responds

As claims against Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey remain fresh, Jeremy Piven, star of the new CBS drama series Wisdom of the Crowd, today found himself in the spotlight of sexual harassment allegations. On Monday, reality TV personality/actress Ariane Bellamar made specific accusations on social media that Piven groped her on the set of Entourage and at the Playboy Mansion several years ago.

“We are aware of the media reports and are looking into the matter,” a CBS spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline on Tuesday.

I've watched the show. It won't be missed.

The network offered no additional details of what form or function any investigation was taking. Wisdom of the Crowd, from CBS TV Studios, is still be in production on its original 13-episode order.

CBS is currently mulling the fate of the modestly rated series. We have learned that the network had ordered three backup scripts while deciding on a possible episodic pickup beyond the initial 13.

CBS’ statement by the net follows a trio of tweets by Bellamar on October 30 about the Emmy-winning actor and his alleged unwelcomed interactions with her:

Hey @jeremypiven! ‘Member when you cornered me in your trailer on the #Entourage set? ‘Member grabbing my boobies on the 🛋 without asking??

— Ariane Bellamar (@ArianeBellamar) October 30, 2017

I guess you can blame a guy for trying after all. For his part, Jeremy denies the allegations.

Ariane has been involved in previous abuse allegations with  Entropic CEO Patrick Henry: Beverly Hills Nannies star displays injuries after 'technology tycoon she met on MillionaireMatch.com beat her while on date at Sundance Festival'.

Ariane Bellamar, known as one of the high-maintenance moms on now-cancelled reality show Beverly Hills Nannies, told Radar Online that Patrick Henry, the 51-year-old CEO of Entropic Communications, beat her up in a drunken fight following the festival in Park City, Utah.

The new images appear to show Bellamar with heavy bruising to her arms, legs and buttocks, and cuts to her left hand and lower back.

Unlucky in love?

Ann Althouse speculates the the Hollywood sex scandal would never have broken open if Hillary! had been elected, that the desire to keep Bill's back story out of the limelight would have won over the desire to implicate DJT in sexual harrassment: Hyper-politicizing sexual harassment. Analysis, probably true.

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady in "Invanka's Big in Japan" and "Angharad Rees." Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Whatever Happened To…" up and running.

James Gets a B-

Health of the James River graded a B– : The condition of the James River increases ten points since tracking began a decade ago

The James River Association has measured an improvement in the overall health of the James River, retaining the 2015 grade of a B -, but increasing by three points.

Grades are based on four categories including river health, fish and wildlife populations, habitat, pollution reduction, and restoration and protection actions. Within those categories are a combined 19 indicators, 14 of which showed improvement since the previous report, while three remained the same and two declined. For example, the report shows incredible progress in regard to wastewater pollution controls, which have achieved 118 percent of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 2025 goal.

Each of the indicators are given a score, which is then turned into a percentage to determine the grade. 2017 saw a one percent increase since the previous assessment to 62 percent, which is a rise of three points overall. Notably, this year’s grade is an increase of ten points since the report was first published in 2007.

“Increasing ten points in ten years shows that our collective commitment and investments in water quality are really paying off,” says Bill Street, chief executive officer for the James River Association. “Improvements can be seen not only in the health of the river, but also in the benefits that the river provides to the surrounding communities in terms of drinking water, quality of life and economic opportunities.”

Areas of concern include a significant decline in underwater grasses after two decades of steady expansion and struggling populations of the American shad, despite decades of re-stocking efforts.

I'm not a great believer in the letter grade system for judging progress, but it sounds like the James has made some.

Femen Piles On Polansky

Hoping to get some mileage from the ongoing Hollywood controversy, the bare-chested babes of Femen have decided to pay attention to that fugitive from the US convicted of sodomizing a 13 year old actress: Women activists stage topless protest at Roman Polanski event as new rape allegations reported

Around 80 protesters outside the Cinémathèque Française, which is showcasing Polanski’s films next month, banged on windows and carried placards with slogans such as, ‘If rape is an art, give Polanski all the (French movie award) Cesars’.

A few members of the Femen group exposed their breasts and shouted ‘no honours for rapists’ in the presence of Polanski before security pushed them outside.

 These are political tits. They don't count.

Polanski, who had entered the building through a back entrance, was set to present his new movie ‘Based on a True Story’ at the event.

Earlier this month, Swiss prosecutors said former German actress and model Renate Langer had told authorities that Polanski raped her at his mountain chalet in 1972 when she was 15 years old. Langer is one of four women who have publicly accused Polanski, 84, of sexually assaulting them when they were teenagers.

In the past, I have said that I am for whatever FEMEN is against, just to keep their protests going, but supporting Polanski might be a bit too far.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Whatever Happened To…" up and running.

DNC: Straight White Cis Males Need Not Apply

New Jobs At The DNC! (Cisgender, Straight, White Males Need Not Apply)

Remember back during the summer when Clinton insider Mark Penn advised the Democratic Party to get out of the business of identity politics if they want to win back power in Washington? Somebody clearly missed that memo at the DNC. The Daily Wire has a bit of a scoop this week with a copy of an internal announcement from the DNC’s Data Services Manager, Madeleine Leader announcing some new job openings on the committee’s data management team.

That probably sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry since both parties hire plenty of worker bees for such positions all the time. But it’s the “personal note” from Ms. Leader at the bottom of the memo which is generating the most interest. She wants party insiders to send this announcement around to interested parties so they can submit their resumes, but only to the right sort of people.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns and feel free to forward on to your contacts. I personally would prefer that you not forward to cisgender straight white males, since they’re already in the majority.

By way of Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 10.31.17", Powerline has the goods. Click to enlarge:

To be fair, straight white males aren't known for voting the DNC ticket either.

Darn Lutherans are Acting Up Again

Lutheran yelling "God is Great" mows down Manhattans. Just kidding, it's a Muslim again: ‘This Was an Act of Terror,’ NYC Mayor Says; 8 People Killed in Attack

Details are still sketchy, and early reports of such incidents are often wrong, but it is now being reported that a man used a rental truck to run over pedestrians and bicyclists in New York City. The driver was reportedly shot and wounded by NYPD and taken into custody. Six people are reported dead. Fox News says they have been told by law-enforcement officials that this is being treated as a terrorist attack.

UPDATE 5:15 p.m. ET: New York Daily News:
At least six people were killed Tuesday afternoon when a speeding Home Depot truck plowed along a Lower Manhattan bike path, running down helpless riders from behind, sources said.
Eyewitnesses told police the driver yelled “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” — after leaving the mangled bodies scattered behind his rental truck.
The Middle Eastern man was arrested after police shot him in the rear end. Sources said he was waving a pair of guns when cops reached the scene.
The truck jumped the curb near Houston St. at 3:04 p.m. and began bearing down on the unsuspecting bicyclists, sources told the Daily News. Video showed crumpled two-wheelers and four bodies left in the vehicle’s deadly wake.

And Uber driver, Uzbekistan native: A look at NYC attack suspect

The man who police say transformed a New York City bike path into a terror scene was an Uzbekistan native who made 1,400 trips as an Uber driver and formed two commercial truck businesses.

A family friend called Sayfullo Saipov hard-working and neighbors said he would play with the children in a Florida apartment complex. President Trump derided the suspect as "sick and deranged."
. . .
Here's what is known so far:

Officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity identified Saipov as the attacker and said he is 29 and originally from Uzbekistan.

He came to the U.S. legally in 2010, the officials said, and it is believed that he lived first in Ohio after his arrival.

An acquaintance, Dilnoza Abdusamatova, said Saipov briefly stayed with his family in a Cincinnati suburb upon immigrating.

"He always used to work," Abdusamatova told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "He wouldn't go to parties or anything. He only used to come home and rest and leave and go back to work."

Terror suspect in NYC truck attack had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

SO IS THIS AN APPLE OR A BANANA? Actual CNN Chyron today: “WITNESSES: SUSPECT WAS YELLING ‘GOD IS GREAT’ IN ARABIC.”

And even that isn’t correct, as Robert Spencer writes: “‘Allahu akbar’ doesn’t mean what media says it means.”

Reason #5763 That Trump Was Elected

Fewest Jobless Claims Since 1973 Show Firm U.S. Job Market

Filings for unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level since 1973 as workers affected by hurricanes Harvey and Irma continued to return to their jobs, Labor Department figures showed Thursday.

The larger-than-projected decrease in claims probably reflected difficulty adjusting for the Columbus Day holiday. At the same time, the report showed further declines in claims in hurricane- affected states. The storms initially led to a spike in applications in Texas and the southeastern U.S. in late August and early September.

The latest period also encompasses the reporting week that the Labor Department surveys for its October employment figures. Claims are at the lowest level in more than four decades, indicating employers have little desire to cut staffing levels amid a shortage of qualified workers.

Get people back to work and they won't care about Twitter.

Some Halloween Visitors

Some digital visitors:

Elle Johnson

Maitland Ward

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Whatever Happened To…" up and running.