This Day in History

One of the biggest battles you have probably never heard of, the Battle of Fontenoy: 

The three year Carolingian Civil War culminated in the decisive Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye, also called the Battle of Fontenoy, fought at Fontenoy, near Auxerre, on the 25 June 841. The war was the contention over the territorial inheritances —the division of the unified lands of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire between his grandsons, the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious. Despite provisions by Louis the Pious, war broke out between his sons and nephews. It was a defeat for the allied forces of Lothair I of Italy and Pepin II of Aquitaine and a victory for Charles the Bald and Louis the German. While hostilities continued until another two years into 843, the Treaty of Verdun ending

Not to be confused with the Battle of Fontenoy fought in 1745.

The two armies, of about 150,000 men each, met on 25 June. According to tradition, Charles established his camp at Thury, on the hill of Roichat. Lothair and Pepin initiated battle and took the upper hand until the arrival of Guerin and his army of Provençals. While Pepin and his contingent continued to push back Charles men, Lothair was slowly pushed back himself by Louis the German and the Provençals. Finally, when victory seemed sure for Charles, Bernard of Septimania entered the conflict on his side and the victory became a rout. According to Andreas Agnellus of Ravenna a total of 40,000 men died, including Gerard of Auvergne and Ricwin of Nantes, who fell at Charles' side.

By way of comparison, the Allies lost approximately 10,000 men on D-Day. All because Charlemagne didn't leave clear title.

Fontenoy they call its fountain, manor to the peasant known,

There the slaughter, there the ruin, of the blood of Frankish race;

Plains and forest shiver, shudder; horror wakes the silent marsh.

Neither dew nor shower nor rainfall yields its freshness to that field,

Where they fell, the strong men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,

Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept.

And this deed of crime accomplished, which I here in verse have told,

Angibert myself I witnessed, fighting with the other men,

I alone of all remaining, in the battle's foremost line.

On the side alike of Louis, on the side of Charles alike,

Lies the field in white enshrouded, in the vestments of the dead,

As it lies when birds in autumn settle white off the shore.

Woe unto that day of mourning! Never in the round of years

Be it numbered in men's annals! Be it banished from all mind,

Never gleam of sun shine on it, never dawn its dusk awake.

Night it was, a night most bitter, harder than we could endure,

When they fell, the brave men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,

Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept.

Now the wailing, the lamenting, now no longer will I tell;

Each, so far as in him lieth, let him stay his weeping now;

On their souls may He have mercy, let us pray the Lord of all

Why Skye Hates Iran

Or would if she understood: Iran cracks down on ‘vulgar Western’ dog owners

Dog lovers in central Iran are in uproar after authorities began confiscating their pets in an apparent crackdown on the “vulgar Western culture” of canine ownership, Iranian media reported Saturday.

One unnamed dog owner in Shahin Shahr in Isfahan province told Iran’s Shahrvand newspaper that officials had shown up suddenly at his house last week.

“We were shown a piece of paper indicating they were from the municipal veterinary office. They came in and took away our dogs under the pretext of vaccination,” he said.

The owner was told he could recover the dog after its vaccination, but when he went to the vet’s office they had no record of his case.

Yeah? What about due process! What, you mean there's no such thing as due process in Iran? No wonder President Obama is such a fan boy!

Instead, the newspaper said the confiscations were the result of a crackdown launched by local prosecutor Mohsen Boosaidi.

“Keeping and caring for dogs is haram (forbidden) according to religious leaders,” Boosaidi told the Fars news agency on June 19.

“If we find out that anyone is keeping and caring for dogs and so is promoting vulgar Western culture, we will deal with them firmly.”

Dog confiscations in the town began three days later, Shahrvand reported. It did not give precise numbers, but said a number of families had lost their pets.

“Ever since our dog was taken away, you only hear the sound of crying and sobbing in our house,” the Shahin Shahr owner said.

I could see the liberals in the US deciding that dogs are a waste of resources, and can be used as a weapon, therefore the liberal version of haram, and must be confiscated and destroyed.

Javid Al-e Davood, the head of Iran’s Society For Protection of Animals, said such confiscations were illegal and that the prosecutor was “absolutely wrong” about the Islamic attitude to dogs.

“Keeping dogs has not been regarded as haram in any religious book. Associating keeping dogs with Western culture is distorting the history of Islamic and Iranian civilisation,” he said.

Dogs are considered najes (unclean) in Islam and police often stop and fine dog walkers. However, Iran’s authorities have stated that dogs with a clear role — such as guarding property or guiding the blind — are permitted.

I can't approve of any religion than can't tolerate dogs.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. Wombat-socho brings the "Rule 5 Sunday: Independence Day Weekend Edition" to life at The Other McCain.

Half Way to Christmas at the Beach, June 25, 2016

Before lunch today, Skye "persuaded" us to go down to the beach for a walk. Not a bad choice, it's sunny, 75 F and a bit breezy, from the east.

 Like most nice summer weekends, it was pretty well used, not like winter, when we mostly have it to ourselves.

 Somebody has been watching "Game of Thrones". Now all they need is some blood.

Seconds after this shot, a wave broke over Skye and drenched her all over.

 Serious fossil hunters, with actual sieves. It was a rather poor day for us, with only three teeth.

A few seconds after I took this picture, the eagle dived to the water and grabbed a fish, a task he or she probably took on because there were no Ospreys nearby to steal from.

 This Sheltie needed a higher vantage point to watch Skye from. The picnic table was perfect.

Mmmm, crab flavored potato chips! How Maryland can you get?

I'm Sure This Is All My Fault

Oh Great: Medicare to be bankrupt sooner than expected

Concerning entitlements, an issue that’s fallen by the wayside since the horrific Orlando attacks, there’s more bad news. Social Security will dole out additional money to beneficiaries. Is that a good thing? Not really—it’s only increasing by a whopping $2.50, which The Associated Press aptly noted is enough to maybe buy a gallon of gas. It’s Medicare; that’s where the cliff becomes more apparent after 10 years (via AP):

Meanwhile, Medicare is expected to go bankrupt sooner than expected – 12 years from now. And some beneficiaries could face higher monthly premiums next year.
The annual report from the trustees of the government’s two bedrock retirement programs warned that politically gridlocked Washington needs to act sooner, rather than later, to shore up finances and avoid upending the lives of millions of retirees and their families.
Social Security’s trust funds are expected to be depleted in 2034, unchanged from the trustees’ projection a year ago. Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient care will be exhausted in 2028, two years earlier than previously projected.
If Congress allows either fund to run dry, millions of Americans living on fixed incomes would face steep cuts in benefits.

With my 65 birthday coming  up real soon now, we have been wending our way through the paperwork to sign me up for Medicare. To be honest, without Georgia, and external help, I doubt I would have had the persistence to make effective decisions. And now I find out, it may all fall apart in 12 years, or less, as the general trend of these things is to get worse rather than getting better.

Bad Moon Rising Over Clinton.com

Repercussions of "Brexit" have all but choked off any other news stories, yet, still a few tales of the perfidy of the Clinton crime family have percolated up through the noise:

Even the State Dept, confronted with evidence that Hillary was tampering with the public record of her meetings as Sec. of State, has stopped defending her:

On Friday, State Department spokesman John Kirby would not defend the discrepancies, citing both the AP's lawsuit and the passage of time.

“Regardless of the ongoing litigation I am not in a position — nor should I be expected to — to speak of the scheduling habits of a previous secretary of State,” Kirby told reporters. “I’m not able to do that.”

“It’s a case of ongoing litigation and I’m simply not able to discuss it further.”

The AP located the discrepancies with Clinton’s schedule by comparing a 1,500-page official calendar with separate plans compiled by Clinton’s aides each day.

1 Hillary Email SHOWED Terrorists How to Kill Amb. Chris Stevens 

An email released Monday pertaining to the Benghazi investigation from Hillary Clinton’s private email server revealed that a message detailing the location of murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens passed through the unsecured server, raising the possibility that terrorists could have intercepted the message.

According to Breitbart, the April 10, 2011, email from State Department employee Timmy Davis was forwarded to the server by Clinton’s aide, Huma Abedin.

“The situation in Ajdabiyah has worsened to the point where Stevens is considering departure from Benghazi,” Davis’ email read.
. . .
The email is the latest in a chain of emails that reveal Ambassador Stevens‘ location was readily available to anyone who could hack into Hillary Clinton’s unsecured private email server.

But our friends the Russians would never do anything like that, would they?



From Althouse: "Britain’s stunning vote to leave the European Union suggests that we’ve been seriously underestimating Donald Trump’s ability to win the presidential election." but Team Hillary nudges media: No, Brexit doesn’t mean Trump is going to win

Someone sounds nervous.

The bad moon rising over Hillary

Hope you got your things together.

Hope you are quite prepared to die.

Looks like we're in for nasty weather.

One eye is taken for an eye.

Rule 5 Saturday - Ava Sambora

This week's Rule 5 honoree is Ava Sambora, daughter of TV/movie star Heather Locklear, and rock star Richie Sambora, who came to my attention through the American Power blog who provided the link to: Ava Sambora puts on an eye-popping display for sizzling photo shoot as she parades her enviable bikini bod in Malibu. And indeed she does.

She's 18 this year, and has worked in movies, playing in Judd Apatow's "This is 40" (2012) and doing modeling work. Assuming she manages to avoid the pitfalls of Hollyweird living, she has all the connections, and assets for a good career:

While she clearly loves the celebrity lifestyle, the youngster is making sure she gets a quality education under her belt, as she is a student at posh Loyola Marymount University.

It is a private, co-educational college located in the secluded Westchester community of Westside Los Angeles

The youngster - who starred in Judd Apatow film This is 40 - is clearly relishing university life, as she has joined the exclusive Alpha Phi sorority.

The only child of Heather and Richie, who were married from 1994 until also filmed a You Tube reality show with her Calabasas friends documenting their summer break.

Elizabeth Taylor's eyebrows grace this weeks issue of GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (247th a Issue). Plus, lots of space out science and BIG brother teaches little brother how to make an alphabet soup! Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America" and "
FMJRA 2.0: Day Late And A Dollar Short, Salt Lake City Edition."

Floron du Jour

Raderius Glenn Collins and Marcus Terrell Parker

Florida man brags about burglary on Facebook, lands him in jail

A Florida burglar who posted a Facebook video bragging about a $500,000 jewelry haul has landed himself and one of his accomplices in jail, police said on Thursday.

Officers from Pinecrest, Florida said they arrested Raderius Glenn Collins, 18, after he uploaded the video to Facebook on May 27. His friend, Marcus Terrell Parker, 27, was arrested after another burglary on June 9, police said.

They are still searching for a third suspect, who is seen in the video in the passenger seat of the car flashing $100 bills to the camera. 

The video, which runs more than seven minutes long and has over 3,000 views, showed the men bragging about their illegal earnings, exclaiming: "We got a safe" and "Can someone say check please?"

The man in the driver's seat makes sure the traffic light is still red and proceeds to proudly reveal his bag of cash to the camera while the other two men cheer.

The burglars stole a safe from a home with jewelry valued at more than $500,000. Police say Collins and Parker later burglarized a second home and stole jewelry valued at more than $10,000 and a screwdriver that would later tie one of the arrested men to the burglary.

One of the arrested subjects told police that he and the other two subjects sold the stolen jewelry to a jewelry and watch shop and received $1,300 each in return.

Note to 18 year olds. Not everything you do needs to go up on Facebook.

Pew! 2000 Bushels of Menhaden Spilled onto Virginia Beach

Cleanup crews pick up fish spill on Chesapeake Bay beach

Cleanup crews have begun picking up thousands of dead or dying menhaden fish that washed up on a Chesapeake Bay beach in Virginia.

Local news outlets report that the fish spilled after a fishing net on a bait boat ripped open Tuesday morning off Silver Beach.

James Kellum, the fishing boat’s owner, says the tear in the net was an accident. He says about 2,000 bushels of fish have washed up on the bay.

Well, you wouldn't do it deliberately, since catching and keeping menhaden was the idea to start with. 2000 bushels is a lot of fish.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission says Kellum reported the spill immediately and has hired cleanup crews to begin picking up the fish. The cleanup efforts started Thursday and Kellum says the crews will work for a few days until the fish are gone.

Menhaden don't smell good fresh, even by fish standards, so a few days in the current delightful 80+ degree weather, and that beach is going to be just lovely. Skye, however, would volunteer to do her very best to eat all the dead fish, and roll in the rest after they get to the "toothpaste" stage of decomposition.

Clinton.com on Brexit Day

It appear that the Brits have voted decisively to give the finger to the wankers in Brussels, and told them all to sod off. Hillary, who was firmly in the Bremain camp, apparently blamed Donald Trump for the disappoint to her base, the Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers:

Declaring the aftermath of Brexit a "time of uncertainty," Hillary Clinton on Friday said the United Kingdom's decision to exit the European Union raises the stakes for the November election against Donald Trump, as her campaign's top advisers laced into the Republican as unfit to handle the weight of the moment.

"This time of uncertainty only underscores the need for calm, steady, experienced leadership in the White House to protect Americans' pocketbooks and livelihoods, to support our friends and allies, to stand up to our adversaries, and to defend our interests," the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a statement. "It also underscores the need for us to pull together to solve our challenges as a country, not tear each other down."
Story Continued Below

Clinton foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in a conference call that the presumptive Republican nominee "proves again and again that he is temperamentally unfit for the job," on the same day Trump devoted a significant portion of a news conference in Scotland to discussing his renovated Turnberry golf course."The American people need a steady hand at times of uncertainty, not a wreckless egomaniac," Sullivan said.

Said the spokesman for the woman who threw a lamp at her husband and a bible at a Secret Service agent.

Paranoid Hillary drove demoralized Secret Service to drink, drugs and hookers, says officer who protected 'Bridezilla' Clinton in the White House and Secret Service Tell-All: Clintons Believed They Had Magic Pot of Royal Money to Pay For Their Every Whim. There's your steady hand.

Hillary Clinton struck another blow for transparency when she failed to hand over a key email to the State Department, you know, the one explaining why she didn't want to use a State Dept. email account:

Former Secretary Hillary Clinton failed to turn over a copy of a key message involving problems caused by her use of a private homebrew email server, the State Department confirmed Thursday. The disclosure makes it unclear what other work-related emails may have been deleted by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

The email was included within messages exchanged Nov. 13, 2010, between Clinton and one of her closest aides, Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin. At the time, emails sent from Clinton's BlackBerry device and routed through her private clintonemail.com server in the basement of her New York home were being blocked by the State Department's spam filter. A suggested remedy was for Clinton to obtain a state.gov email account.

"Let's get separate address or device but I don't want any risk of the personal being accessible," Clinton responded to Abedin.

This, apparently, was one of the 30,000 or so "personal" emails that Hillary had deleted off the server before the FBI confiscated it, emails that she referred to as yoga routines and Chelsea's wedding plans. It sort of leads you to wonder what she meant by "personal."

Before turning over her emails to the department for review and potential public release, Clinton and her lawyers withheld thousands of additional emails she said were clearly personal, such as those involving what she described as "planning Chelsea's wedding or my mother's funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends as well as yoga routines, family vacations."

Clinton has never outlined in detail what criteria she and her lawyers used to determine which emails to release and which to delete, but her 2010 email with Abedin appears clearly work-related under the State Department's own criteria for agency records under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Speaking of Chelsea: Watchdog Accuses State Department of Slow-Rolling Release of Chelsea Clinton Emails

Citizens United has been suing the State Department to turn over correspondence between department officials and Chelsea Clinton, who used the pseudonym “Diane Reynolds” in many of her emails. It is also asking for emails between State Department officials and the Clinton family’s long-time aides Amitabh Desai, Justin Cooper, and Oscar Flores.

The D.C. district court ordered the State Department to release portions of the records to Citizens United on a rolling basis every four weeks, but did not specify an end date to complete the production.

On June 1, the State Department said it had found nearly 4,000 documents responsive to the Citizens United request, but over the past two months it has released just 17 of them.

Without doing the math, it would appear that the State Dept.  has no intention of finishing by the end of her first term. Chelsea is a fully grown, made woman in the Clinton Mafia, so her correspondence is of great importance.

Clinton's State Dept. Calendar Missing Scores of Entries:  You want the truth? You can't handle the truth.

An Associated Press review of the official calendar Hillary Clinton kept as secretary of state identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded or omitted the names of those she met. The fuller details of those meetings were included in files the State Department turned over to AP after it sued the government in federal court.

Hillary aide mocked appointment of donor to International Security Advisory Board. It's good to have a sense of humor:

Newly released emails show one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides mocked the appointment of a Clinton campaign bundler to the International Security Advisory Board. McClatchy reports:

. . . “Couldn’t he have landed a spot on the President’s Physical Fitness Council?” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines wrote in a State Department email in 2012 to two other Clinton aides.

He paid way too much for post that trivial.

538 thinks that The Clinton Campaign Seems To Think Pennsylvania Is In The Bag but says she shouldn't count on it. Liberal Michelle Goldberg fears Trump’s Speech About Hillary Was Terrifyingly Effective. The truth often is.

By way of Wombat-socho's "In the Mailbox, 06.23.16",  “Clinton Seems To Fancy Herself The Cher Of Politics”, Obama Administration To Release Hillary E-Mails…In 75 Years, and from Larwyn's Linx, Brexit: Britain votes with Trump, against Hillary, Obama, Ex-Secret Service: Clintons Thought They Had ‘Magic Royal Pot Of Money’, Hillary IT Guy Pleads The 5th 125 TIMES In 90 Minutes – What Is He Hiding?, and Is Facebook targeting Kathleen Willey?,

Zep Wins Stairway Verdict

Led Zeppelin did not copy 'Stairway to Heaven' intro, jury finds

Music history will not be rewritten. A jury found Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page not guilty of copyright infringement on perhaps their most famous song, "Stairway to Heaven."

A Los Angeles jury deliberated for about five hours before deciding the band did not steal its most famous licks from another band.

In a statement issued after the verdict was announced, Led Zeppelin said they were "grateful" that the jury "ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the origins of 'Stairway to Heaven' and confirming what we have known for 45 years."

The case centered on claims that Led Zeppelin copied key note patterns in the first two minutes of their hit from a song by the 1960s psychedelic band, Spirit. That song, "Taurus," is an instrumental ballad released four years prior to "Stairway to Heaven." The suit was filed for partial song writing credit and compensation by the estate of a deceased Spirit musician, Randy Craig Wolfe.

The plaintiff failed to show that Plant and Page were familiar with "Taurus," and that the works were substantially similar.

I covered this before, but what is music for but to build off? I think this calls for the Jess Greenberg cover.



She needs to learn to hold that guitar a couple of inches lower. Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America".

Midnite Music - "Black Hole Sun"

Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America".

More Haley Reinhart:

Potomac River Coming to Terms With Snakeheads

Biologist: Snakehead population likely dropping in Potomac River

. . . a study indicates the population of northern snakehead has stabilized, and has probably started to drop in at least some areas of the river.

John Odenkirk, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, co-authored a paper about it that was published last week in the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

The study looked at snakehead population changes over as long as 12 years in four Virginia tidal creeks: Aquia, Dogue, Little Hunting and Pohick.

During that time, the department has been using electrofishing to capture snakeheads and estimate their populations in those creeks.

In every creek except Aquia, the study found population growth followed by stabilization. In Little Hunting Creek, population estimates dropped every year from 2013 to 2015.

“What we think is happening is intense exploitation, because everybody now likes to eat them, they like to catch them. The bow fishery has taken off. People are hunting them at night with bows and arrows and lights,” Odenkirk told WTOP.

He said the snakeheads appear to be doing what many invasive species do in a new environment; their populations go up, and eventually level off.

Which is pretty much what I predicted would happen. Snakeheads have certainly leveled off or even decline in Mattawoman Creek, much to the dismay of Capt. Mike, who likes having them as a sports target. I caught one there once a few years ago, and I have a bass/snakehead trip there planned for the near future.

Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America".

Security Shut Down on Clinton.com Server

You know that secret highly secure server that Hillary had installed in her basement in Chappaqua because she wanted to conduct state business free from the worry of FOIA?  Yeah that one. New emails reveal that State Dept. personnel (ie Bryan Pagliano) disabled the security features it did have for several days when it started to malfunction. Later there was an attack on the server:

State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem that affected emails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's home email server, causing them to temporarily disable security features on the government's own systems, according to emails released Wednesday.

The emails were released under court order Wednesday to the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has sued the State Department over access to public records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

The emails, reviewed by The Associated Press, show that State Department technical staff disabled software on their systems intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses. They were trying urgently to resolve delivery problems with emails sent from Clinton's private server.
. . .
Days after the technical crisis, on Jan. 9, 2011, an IT worker was forced to shut down Clinton's server because he believed "someone was trying to hack us." Later that day, he wrote, "We were attacked again so I shut (the server) down for a few min." It was one of several occasions when email access to Clinton's BlackBerry smartphone was disrupted because her private server was down, according to the documents.

The AP reported last year that in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2011, Clinton received infected emails, disguised as speeding tickets from New York. The emails instructed recipients to print the attached tickets. Opening an attachment would have allowed hackers to take over control of a victim's computer.

Now that was pretty stupid. Clinton hasn't driven a car since the 1996. But now you understand why Bryan Pagliano took the 5th more than 125 times in the course of his 90 minute deposition in the Judicial Watch suit. It also suggests why the RNC demands Clinton aides’ emails be released before election. I'd sure there's more good stuff out there. Hypocrisy alert: Clinton Signed NDA Laying Out
Criminal Penalties for Mishandling of Classified Info. I'm still a little shocked that the State Dept. let her get her hands on actual classified info. Donald Rumsfeld says he'll vote for Trump – 'It's not a close call!' – as 9/11-era defense secretary says Hillary Clinton 'would probably be indicted' over emails if she were a soldier or sailor. I saw the interview, and yeah, he's right. As noted by Instapundit: Hillary doesn't care what happens to America, so long as her political dirt remains hidden.

Trump made a speech and laid into Hillary: Trump, in speech, attacks Clinton as 'world-class liar'. She's not, though, really, we can tell when her mouth is moving. "She Gets Rich By Making You Poor" when you pay for the favors she sells to her friends. "For amount Hillary would spend on refugees, we could rebuild every inner city." It's still a bad idea; if people valued them they'd rebuild them themselves. "We Got Here Because We Switched From A Policy Of Americanism To A Policy Of Globalism". I have no problem with free trade, as long as it's fair trade. Hillary Takes Millions from Anti-Gay, Anti-Woman Regimes, Wants Sharia Migrants. Sure looks true. Predictably, Clinton was not happy to be confronted like that.

Clinton, campaigning in North Carolina, called Trump's charges "outlandish lies."

"He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance," Clinton said. "All he can try to do is try to distract us."

11 Explosive Clinton Cash Facts Mainstream Media Confirm are Accurate
More goodies from Guccifer 2.0 (the Russian government?): Memo Reveals Clinton Foundation Donor’s $100 Million Registration, Turnout Push

A Swiss billionaire and seven-figure Clinton Foundation donor is pouring millions of dollars into a nonprofit voter registration and turnout operation and appears to have shared information about the project with the Democratic Party, a leaked document reveals.

Hansjörg Wyss is accelerating a $100 million registration and get-out-the-vote plan in order to more quickly impact elections and the U.S. policy landscape, according to a document detailing the proposed work by his charitable group, the Wyss Foundation.

The document details the scope of Democratic efforts to boost grassroots organizing, and sheds light on how some of the left’s deepest pockets are facilitating those efforts through nonprofit vehicles generally restricted to charitable activity.

Hillary will be the best female president money can buy.

And now a moment of levity as Young people are shocked by Hillary's infamous quotes



Nearly Half of Sanders Supporters Won't Support Clinton. Heh. We'll see. Bernie-backing activists to 'crash' Democratic convention. They should hold a sit-in up on the stage. Can Trump Make A Play For Hillary’s Gays? Why not; he was pro-gay before the Clinton's got the religion.

200 since Hillary Clinton held an actual press conference. TV reporters are starting to laugh about it.

Via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 06.22.16":  Trump Hillary, and Clinton IT Specialist Pleads The Fifth 125 Times In 90-Minute Deposition On E-Mail Scandal, Baldilocks – Remembering A 2008 Entitlement War

Larwyn's Linx: Security Personnel Revolt Against Hillary and Obama, Clinton to take hold of storied Obama email list, Clinton staff disabled security of private email server: report, State Department IG Investigation Records Related to Hillary Clinton Emails Released,

Bikini Bandit Strikes Southern California

Bikini-Clad Woman Sought in Home Break-Ins

A bikini-clad woman was wanted for questioning Tuesday after she entered two homes, one that was locked, and stole valuables, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Santa Clarita Valley station said.

The woman, pictured on surveillance footage wearing a yellow and green swimsuit, broke into and stole from a locked home in the 28000 block of W. Avenue C-6 in Lancaster on Saturday, according to the sheriff's office.

Riverton, Wyoming "Bikini" Bandit

 And then, she did it again!

Later that day, she entered an unlocked home in the 47000 block of Three Points Road in Lake Hughes — about 14 miles away — and stole valuables, deputies said.

The woman, who appeared to in her 30s, was seen taking off in a tan-colored sedan.

I wonder if this is the same "bikini bandit" who struck Riverton, Wyoming this fall,  a Fort Meyers, Florida Victoria's Secret, a Darwin, Australia, beachwear shop, and one in Queensland, Australia.  Probably not, since one was arrested, three were black women, and two were in Australia. Clearly, though, something needs to be done about the the bikini crime problem. I propose registration, and a waiting period. Except for good looking women. They should get free bikinis, paid for by tax money, so they don't have to turn to a life of crime to acquire them.

Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America".

Blue States Have More Mass Murders Per Capita

From blog friend William Teach, who usually blogs at Pirate's Cove, but from Doug Ross@Journal, this interesting, but not really surprising piece of statistics: VOX QUIETLY REVEALS: Democrat-Run Blue States Have About 50% More Mass Shootings Than Red States

And what are Democrat-run states? They’re the ones with the most gun restrictions.

Blue states have 42 percent more mass shootings than red states after adjusting for population, according to data published by Vox, a progressive media outlet, and examined by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Vox published its data after the Orlando terror attack last Sunday, and it suggests that blue states, which tend to have extremely strict gun laws, are ironically much more likely to have mass shootings than red states with less strict gun laws.
TheDCNF’s analysis found that 543 of the mass shootings listed by Vox occurred in blue states while only 330 occurred in red states. If adjusted to account for differences in the size of population, blue states have .381 mass shootings per 100,000 people, while red states have a mere .267.

This all means that mass shootings are “42 percent more likely to occur in a blue state after accounting for population differences.”

I suspect several things play into this. Red states tend to be more predominantly rural than blue states, and while guns are more common among rural residents as tools, they aren't used as much in crimes as they are in more urban areas. In rural areas, it might even be difficult to get three or more victims in one place. Plus, there's the added danger that they'll be well armed and shoot back.

Do Chesapeake Bay Farts Cause Global Warming?

Estuaries like Chesapeake Bay could contribute more to global warming than once thought

Estuaries and coastal systems are thought to be a relatively small source of atmospheric methane, as little as 3%. However, a new study from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) found that the methane building up in the Chesapeake Bay alone, if released, would be equal to the current estimates for all the estuaries in the world combined.

"This is just one estuary and there are many others that go anoxic in the summertime," said study author Laura Lapham of UMCES' Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. "We need to look at these eutrophic estuaries as perhaps a larger source of methane than we thought. This is a side effect of eutrophication that hasn't been investigated in the Bay."

Like many bodies of water, the Chesapeake Bay is overwhelmed with nutrients that cause a type of pollution called eutrophication. Every spring, an influx of nitrogen and phosphorus from lawns, farms, and sewage treatment plants runs into the water of the Bay. These nutrients feed algae as the water warms up in the summer, causing blooms that suck the oxygen out of the water, causing large areas of low oxygen (hypoxia), known as "dead zones," that make it difficult for fish, crabs and other underwater life to live. Some areas closer to the bottom and in the surface layers of the mud may suffer from no oxygen at all (anoxic) during these periods.

Since dead zones in the coastal ocean and estuaries are expanding throughout the world, Lapham decided to look at the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, to understand what happens to methane release in a body of water that undergoes dead zones on a regular basis.

"We wanted to capture the dynamic nature of oxygen and methane concentrations in one of the most well-known eutrophic estuaries," said Lapham. "We found that places like the Chesapeake Bay could be a more significant input of methane to the atmosphere than we thought."

I've seen methane bubble out of the sediments in the mainstem of the Bay, usually about this time of the year, as the water warms, and fresh organic carbon deposited from spring blooms starts to decay in the sediments. You can see them clearly rising on the depth finder, and breaking the surface.

If the Bay, and by extension, other estuaries are a bigger part of the methane budget than previously predicted, that part of the problem is already included in budgets, just not accounted for properly. Methane production in the Bay, and in other estuaries in the civilized world are likely to get better as nutrient pollution controls cut down the organic carbon production that fuels methane production.

I'm not waking up nights worried about the contribution of methane to global warming, although it was a little sweaty last night. Methane inputs into the atmosphere aren't very high compared to carbon dioxide, although it is a more powerful green house gas, and it's not rising particularly rapidly.

Another Storm, Another Sewage Overflow from Baltimore

Today’s Yesterday's storm: sewage spews into the Middle Branch

“When the thunderstorm started today, I looked over there to see if it would happen again,” said Woollen. “Sure enough, there it was.”

The engineer said he knew  sewage was mixed into the gushing runoff because of the telltale odor.

“It was definitely smelly,” he said. “It subsided after a while.”

Woollen sent some photos and videos of the outflow to The Brew hoping to shine additional light on an issue that’s been in the news lately – Baltimore’s sewage backups into inland basements and repeated sewage spills into city waterways and Chesapeake Bay.

“Hopefully this can bring further attention to our aging infrastructure,” said Woollen, a sailor who noted that water around Port Covington can be crystal clear and filled with marine life.

It happens every time it rains hard, and yet the regulators are focusing on agriculture.

Increasing the Chocolate Ration Downward at Clinton.com

A lovely morning here, after a quick moving thunderstorm hit us last night, and gave us 2 1/4 inches of rain in about a half hour. The same storm flooded the already troubled Washington D.C. Metro system, sending water cascading into one of the stations.

Clinton Foundation Said to Be Breached by Russian Hackers. But I'm sure all the state secrets on Hillary's basement server were perfectly safe.

The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation was among the organizations breached by suspected Russian hackers in a dragnet of the U.S. political apparatus ahead of the November election, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The attacks on the foundation’s network, as well as those of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, compound concerns about her digital security even as the FBI continues to investigate her use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

Among the things hacked in the latest Russian cyberattack on the DNC and the Clinton Foundation were DNC investigations of Clinton's travel and speeches. So now they know who owes who and how much. One Secret 42-Page Memo Reveals Clinton Foundation Scandal ‘Vulnerabilities’ for Hillary Clinton.

Revolt by Security Personnel May Define Hillary as the Weak Candidate Help, help, the bureaucrats are revolting! "Good news: America still has federal employees who will risk their careers to express profound disagreement with major policy errors." And the public isn't so thrilled either: CROOKED HILLARY: CNN poll shows public trust deteriorating on Emailgate.

Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 06.21.16" helpfully provides Eleanor Mondale and Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, The Insidious Power Of The Media’s Disinformation Campaign For Hillary Clinton, in addition to myriad non-Clintonian follies, while Larwyn's Linx sends up Uh Oh --- Democrat Terrorist Mateen a Clinton Supporter, Hillary slams Obama economy in major speech, Dossier on Hillary Clinton from DNC, DNC Researched Clinton Speeches, Travel Records, State Dept. sued over failure to recover deleted Clinton emails, The Insidious Power of the Media Disinformation Campaign for Hillary Clinton, Benghazi Hero Kris Paronto Blasts Hillary Supporter That Dismissed Benghazi, 75 Years to Produce Clinton Emails? RNC’s Response to State Dept. is Pretty Epic, and 'If It's Hillary Clinton It's War,' Says Vladimir Putin To Frightened Russian People:

More tales from the Secret Service agent Gary Byrne’s book. Sacrilege! Raging Hillary Clinton Threw Bible at Agent’s Colleague. And she wants to control the nuclear arsenal. And Secret Service officer tells how Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were caught having sex on Oval Office desk and how the intern was transferred to work for HILLARY - but the President brought her back to the West Wing in a PAID position. The book "Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate" is to be released Monday, June 27. Hillary's campaign is not amused "'It's trash for cash,' a campaign official warned one producer." Neither was Politico; "Secret Service veterans denounce anti-Clinton tell-all book" "Former agents blast writer Gary Byrne for having 'underlying motives.'" And Deep Throat (aka Mark Felt) was just a disgruntled FBI agent with a grudge. Which doesn't mean he wasn't right.

Breaking the talking points, Latino radio host tells Hillary — his family’s voting for Trump! Because even Mexican-Americans prefer honest businessmen to crooks.

Not knowing when to stop digging deeper, Juanita Broaddrick gets daily fundraising call from Hillary’s campaign. Just because my husband raped you is no reason not to vote for the vagina!

Via Instapundit, Ann Althouse:

Snippet from the new CNN poll showing who’s better — Clinton or Trump? — on the economy, terrorism, immigration, and foreign policy. “Note that Clinton lost ground on all of these important matters, and she’s below Trump on what may be the 2 most important things — the economy and terrorism. Trump picked up 3 points on terrorism while Clinton lost 5 in this survey that was taken after the Orlando massacre.”

Plus: “I just got email from something called the ‘Conservative Campaign’ saying: ‘A series of new polls show Hillary Clinton with a growing lead, including a new Monmouth poll out today showing her up by 8%.’ But the previous Monmouth poll had her up by 10.”

So her lead, like the chocolate ration, has been increased from 10 to 8. . . .

Another Altouse comment, in response to The NYT reports: "Donald J. Trump enters the general election campaign laboring under the worst financial and organizational disadvantage of any major party nominee in recent history..."

Yeah, well, at least it deprives Hillary Clinton of her big talking point about that terrible Citizens United case.

Money in politics is bad, right up to the point that it's your politician. In response, Donald Trump claimed Hillary Clinton is raising "blood money", and accused her of laundering State Dept. money to Bill.

"She will do horribly on the economy. You look at what she did as Secretary of State. What China did to this country it was pillage. They pillaged this country," Trump said.

Asked how he can run a campaign without adequate fundraising, Trump said he's not concerned with raising money.

"I don't want to devote the rest of my life to raising money from people," he told O'Donnell. "All of the money [Clinton] is raising is blood money."

And a hearty Heh! from Instapundit: SO HILLARY’S CAMPAIGNING FOR “PRESIDENT TRUMP” NOW?

I'd just move the scare quotes from "President Trump" to "progress."

Eight Miles High . . .

and then you touch down: Selma Blair reportedly carried off of plane on stretcher following outburst

Selma Blair was reportedly removed from a Delta Airlines flight Monday following a strange outburst.

TMZ reports the actress was flying from Cancun, Mexico to LAX with her son Arthur, 3, when she taken off of the plane on a stretcher.

According to the gossip site, witnesses on the flight said she allegedly put something in a glass of wine and mixed it in. She then started crying and screamed, "He burns my private parts. He won't let me eat or drink."

She reportedly continued, "He beats me. He's going to kill me."

Two nurses were reportedly called to assist and checked her bag for pills. Sources told TMZ the pilot told passengers that there was a person on board who mixed alcohol and medication.

The 43-year-old was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital following the outburst.

You have to be careful mixing pills and booze. I hope she's OK, and this isn't indicative of a deeper problem.

Wombat-socho is only a day late with "Rule 5 Monday: Utes Of America".

Democrats for Denying Due Process

Immediately after the horror show in Orlando, the call went out from the usual suspects to do something about controlling guns. The first thing that came to mind, when it was shortly thereafter discovered that Omar Mateen, a second generation American citizen, a registered Democrat, a Hillary supporter, and quite likely a gay man had been investigated at least twice by the FBI for terrorist connections and cleared, was to propose to ban anyone, including American citizens on the terror watch list or the no fly list, or any of the various lists the government keeps on all of us, from buying guns. Never mind it wouldn't have stopped Mateen, he had passed his checks and was no longer on any such list.

There's only one thing between the Democrats and doing this, and that's the Due Process clauses of the 5th and 14th amendments:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

As Joe Manchin (D- WV) noted:

 The latest attempt has been incredibly direct, with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., declaring that "due process is what's killing us right now."

Manchin's comments came in response to the Orlando terrorist attack that killed 49 people and injured 53 more. Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Manchin said that due process was keeping legislators from banning those on the Terrorist Watch List from purchasing guns.

"The problem we have, and really the firewall we have right now, is due process," Manchin said Thursday. "It's all due process."

Darn that pesky due process and its constitutional protections!

Charles Cooke catches Harry Reid in flagrante: Guns and the no-fly list: Whatever happened to due process?

When Reid and his accomplices argue that nobody on the “terror watch list” should be permitted to buy a gun, they are saying in effect that the government should have the power to deprive you of your enumerated constitutional rights purely by entering your name into a database.

This is unacceptable. Even if the “terror watch list” were transparent and well-regulated, there would be serious philosophical problems with such an arrangement. But for the government to propose using a system that is as opaque, as messy, and as downright bloated as is this one . . . frankly, it beggars belief.

Yes, the pesky 2nd amendment gives US citizen the liberty, the right as it were, to keep and bear arms, which isn't much good without the means to buy them.

And just what do we mean by due process, which is not, itself, clearly defined in the constitution (apparently it was considered too basic to explain; a certain naivete on the founders part)?

The article "Some Kind of Hearing" written by Judge Henry Friendly created a list of basic due process rights "that remains highly influential, as to both content and relative priority." These rights, which apply equally to civil due process and criminal due process, are:

1. An unbiased tribunal.
2. Notice of the proposed action and the grounds asserted for it.
3. Opportunity to present reasons why the proposed action should not be taken.
4. The right to present evidence, including the right to call witnesses.
5. The right to know opposing evidence.
6. The right to cross-examine adverse witnesses.
7. A decision based exclusively on the evidence presented.
8. Opportunity to be represented by counsel.
9. Requirement that the tribunal prepare a record of the evidence presented.
10. Requirement that the tribunal prepare written findings of fact and reasons for its decision.

Now, consider how one gets on the terror watch list, or the no fly list. Are any of these tests met? No. A government bureaucrat, at the request of, who knows? makes a determination that you may be a dangerous person, and your name is added to the list. No tribunal, no notice, no chance to rebut, no chance to see evidence, no right of cross examination, no right of counsel, no public record, and no findings. And it might just be a name you share with some other person. This was amusing when Ted Kennedy found he was on the no fly list. It took a US Senator 3 weeks to get that cleared up. But what about the 8 year old Cub Scout flagged for the no fly list? His parents don't have the pull of US Senator.

Donald Trump, in his usually inclusive, sloppy style, has been all over both sides of the issue: I’d like to see people on terror watch lists barred from buying guns, but…

He’s aware of the due-process issue, as you’ll see, but he’s cagey about how committed he is to it. Would he veto a Democratic bill that let the Justice Department summarily strip watch-listers of their gun rights or would he sign it while mumbling half-heartedly that he would have preferred legislation with some right to appeal built in? As usual when he’s outside his build-the-wall/bar-the-Muslims comfort zone, he won’t say clearly what he intends to do.

“We have to make sure that people that are terrorists or have even an inclination toward terrorism cannot buy weapons, guns,” Trump told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl in an interview to air Sunday on “This Week.”
Asked by Karl if his position is that those on the no-fly or terror watch list should not be able to purchase a gun, Trump responded, “I’d like to see that, and I’d like to say it. And it’s simpler. It’s just simpler.”…
“Now, but what they say, and I understand that also, is the Second Amendment, they’re depriving them of those rights. And that it could be that people are on there that shouldn’t be on, you know, etc. etc.,” Trump said.
“I’ll talk to them,” Trump added. “I understand exactly what they’re saying. You know, a lot of people are on the list that that really maybe shouldn’t be on the list and you know their rights are being taken away so I understand that.”

He understands the due-process objection but so do a lot of Democrats, I’m sure, who’d nonetheless prefer to give the DOJ the final say here. I think he’s destined to adopt the GOP/NRA position for the simple reason that he can’t afford any more turmoil on the right at this point.

Republicans gave Democrats a chance to put a gun buying ban on the terror watch list with due process protections added, and predictably the Democrats preferred an issue to a solution: Democrats Tanked Gun Control To Up Their Election Chances

Senate Republicans agreed to vote on four gun control proposals—two offered by Democrats and two offered by Republicans. The Democratic proposals included Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bill linking a terrorism watch list to a gun sales ban. On the Republican side, Sen. John Cornyn also offered legislation that would link a terrorism watch list to a gun sales ban, but his version added due process protections for Americans who are put on the list. The other two proposals expanded the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, although the Republican version did not go as far as the Democratic version. For a brief moment it seemed as if the Senate would take some kind of action.

Then all four gun control proposals were voted down because of the Democrats.

Rather than agree to the incremental gun control measures Republicans proposed, the Democrats chose to pass no gun control legislation at all. At some point after loudly demanding legislation for more than a week, Senate Democrats decided it would be better for their reelection prospects that no gun control bills pass the Senate during the election season. Their decision was hypocritical, unprincipled, and pure politics.

At this point, I would believe that no fly list is a violation of the due process, denying you the liberty to fly on a commercial carrier, with no adjudication, presentation of evidence, opportunity to rebut, etc. If they want to put US citizens on a list to deny their rights, at least go through the proper motions.