It Must Be Tanlines Thursday Again

I got nothin' else.

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy working toward your amusement and education.

British Warship Found in Chesapeake Bay

Revolutionary War Shipwreck Discovered

Researchers have just made a major discovery in the York River: the wreckage of a previously hidden British ship from the Revolutionary War’s last major battle.

After General Charles Cornwallis surrendered in 1781, some 26 ships were sunk or scuttled in the area now nationally recognized as the Yorktown Shipwrecks. Only about ten had been identified, until now.

The newly discovered ship has been buried by oyster shells, but last Wednesday a researcher from JRS Explorations found a metal object peeking out from the river bed that turned out to be an iron cannon. The find led the team to a wooden hull that they now believe may be the Shipwright, a British transport vessel that collided with another ship, then caught fire and sank.

The discovery is a significant step in JRS Explorations’s new effort to survey, map, and identify the rich history of the Yorktown Shipwrecks. JRS just confirmed the news to Bay Bulletin on Tuesday, asking us to share the following account of their discovery:

The Battle of the Virginia Capes, 1781

On June 19, 2019, researchers from JRS Explorations discovered a new shipwreck within the Yorktown Shipwrecks National Register District. The wreck appears to be an armed British transport sunk during the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.
The wreck is completely buried in oyster shells, but Bill Waldrop, an experienced volunteer member of the research team, spotted a partially-buried metal object protruding a few inches above the river bed. Upon closer examination, the object proved to be an iron cannon, almost completely covered by oyster shells. On a subsequent dive Joshua Daniel, another experienced member of the team, discovered a second, and possibly a third cannon lying nearby. He and John Broadwater, the team leader, both probed into the riverbed and located what appears to be the wooden hull of a large ship, buried from one to several feet beneath the riverbed.

The HMS Charon merrily burns to the waterline: October 10, 1781

That's a lot of oyster shells! There have been a few eaten since then.

The new find, located near the wreck of HMS Charon, could be the Shipwright, one of two British transport vessels that were anchored and reported to have collided with Charon and were set afire and sunk. The team recovered what appears to be a piece of charred wood that needs to be further analyzed; if verified to be a piece of timber that was charred by fire, this shipwreck would be part of that missing puzzle that has eluded researchers for nearly 238 years. Mapping and identifying this wreck will be difficult due to the deep layers of oyster shells, strong river currents, and near-zero visibility.
The shipwrecks in this historic district played an important role in the Siege of Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War. The battle ended on October 19, 1781 after Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered the British army under his command. The battle was won by a combined army consisting of American Continental Army troops commanded by General George Washington, and French units commanded by Comte de Rochambeau. What many do not realize is that the battlefield in Yorktown only shares half the story, the other half remains sunken in the York River. As many as 40 or more British ships were sunk by enemy cannon fire or deliberately scuttled near shore by Cornwallis to prevent the French from landing troops on the beach behind the British position.

Beach Report. 6/26/19

To spare Skye the heat, we drove down to the beach this afternoon.

This was probably unnecessary, as the heat wasn't as bad as I anticipated, into the low 80s maybe, with occasional clouds to provide some relief.

This Green Heron was fishing from a thicket of downed

Right after it moved to this set of branches to get a little distance from us, it flew down, and snagged a fish!

Georgia stoops to check for a tooth, while another beach goer uses the sit and sift technique. I've never had much patience for this.

MDDNR Issues Warnings on Summer Striper Handling

Striped Bass Advisory System Helps Anglers Protect Species

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is launching a new awareness campaign to reduce striped bass mortality during the summer fishing season. A color-coded recommendation system will advise of fishing conditions, allowing anglers to plan their striped bass fishing trips up to seven days in advance.

Seasonal high water and air temperatures as well as low oxygen can cause fish to become sensitive and stressed, with increased mortality during catch-and-release fishing. Larger striped bass – 24 inches or larger – have the most difficulty with these conditions.

The department will monitor temperature forecasts and announce a general recommendation each day during the months of July and August, using the following advisory system:

Red: Air temperatures are forecast at 95 degrees or higher. Anglers are encouraged not to fish for striped bass after 10 a.m. and should target other species of fish.
Yellow: Air temperatures are forecast at 90-94 degrees. Anglers should use extreme care when fishing for striped bass; fish should be kept in the water when caught and released on these days.
Green: Fishing conditions are normal. Proper catch-and-release practices are encouraged.

Announcements will be sent through department emails and social media postings. A weekly forecast will also accompany the Maryland Fishing Report each Wednesday, allowing anglers to plan their fishing around these recommendations.

Maryland continues to address the most pressing problem facing the Chesapeake Bay’s striper population: the significant volume of “dead discards” in the recreational fishery, where many striped bass are caught and released, but do not survive when they are returned to the water.

As a reminder, non-offset circle hooks are required to be used in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries, regardless of targeted species, from May 15 through December 15 when live-lining, chumming, or chunking. Live-lining is the use of any live fish, such as a minnow, bluegill, or spot, as bait on a hook. Chumming or chunking is placing fish, parts of fish, or other natural or manmade attractants in the water, not attached to a hook, in order to attract fish to a particular area. When using cut bait, crabs, worms, or other types of bait, a non-offset circle hook or a J hook must be used.

The department further encourages all anglers to do their part by implementing voluntary conservation measures, including handling fish more carefully and reducing the number of fish they catch and later release. The department has several recommendations and resources, including new videos, available online for easy reference.

Today's temperature at home have reached 87.6, while the temperature recorded on the water at Cove Point has reached 83. Temperatures in Washington D.C. area have reached 91, the second in a string of 90+ days expected to constitute the districts first heat wave of the year. Thank the Urban Heat Island Effect.

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy working toward your amusement and education.

Reasons #6381 - #6383 that Trump was Elected

Ace: Winning: Mexico Sends 15,000 Troops to Border to Curb Immigrant Flow to the North

So tired of all the winning. From the very first day Donald Trump could call himself "president," we've heard leftists and establishment conservatives say that his aggressive diplomatic style -- of negotiating with other governments -- won't produce anything useful. Trump was just angering them, and by doing so, he would actually end up undermining America's national interests.

Well, I think we can put that criticism of the president to rest:

BREAKING- Mexico has deployed almost 15,000 troops to the US-Mexico border to curve migration flow. An additional ~2,000 National Guard elements have also been deployed across the country’s southern border with Guatemala & Belize.: MX Secretary of Defense Luis Sandoval #CNN

— Nick Valencia (@CNNValencia) June 24, 2019

Tariffs and economic sanctions never work. You know what does work, every single time? Sending US troops to invade and then nation-build other countries. That works every time, 60% of the time.*

* Caution: May not work 60% of the time.

90 Miles from Tyranny: Deported Illegal Alien Arrested for Allegedly Raping Tennessee Woman

An illegal alien who was already deported from the United States has been arrested on rape charges after returning to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Javier Morales, an illegal alien, allegedly raped a woman in January, pinning her to a wall and sexually assaulting her, according to local police. Before being prosecuted for the rape, the illegal alien was deported back to his native country.

Local officials placed warrants on Morales in the event that he returned to Knoxville. This week, Morales was arrested and charged for the rape after he arrived back in Knoxville after being deported, according to WVLT.

Currently, the illegal alien is being held at the Knoxville County Jail.

The rape case is the latest incident in Tennessee in which American citizens have been reportedly victimized by illegal aliens. 22-year-old Piece Corcoran was killed last year in a crash caused by an illegal alien who has yet to be prosecuted for his death.

Similarly, in April, Debbie Burgess was allegedly killed in Knoxville by an illegal alien driver. That same month, in Shelby County, Tennesee, a five-time deported illegal alien was charged with murdering a four-month-old baby by kicking the child to death. In Dyersburg, Tennessee in January, a pair of illegal aliens were charged with gang-raping a...

WaEx,  Illegal immigrants learn a trick to sneak in: Dress like drug smugglers

Single adults racing across one part of the U.S.-Mexico border are dressing as drug smugglers to make it less likely they'll be caught.

Approximately 90% of unauthorized immigrant adults arrested by federal agents based in Tucson, Ariz., are dressed in head-to-toe camouflage and wear carpet booties that are also covered in a camouflage pattern.

Historically, individuals who were arrested near the border and dressed in camouflage and carpet booties were drug smugglers. Agents refer to these types of drug smugglers as “mules” because they carried 40- to 50-pound backpacks of marijuana and ArmaLite Rifles through the desert.
. . .
Since the start of the fiscal year in October, more than 31,000 single adults have been apprehended in the Tuscon area after illegally crossing.

"Of that 31,000, I would estimate more than 90% to be in camo," Pete Bidegain III, a regional spokesman for the Border Patrol, wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.

Before crossing from Mexico’s northern state of Sonora, smugglers make each person who has paid thousands to get into the U.S. put on a sweatpants-type material camouflage outfit over the clothes they are already wearing.

“The smugglers on the south side of the border in our sector essentially require it,” Bidegain said during a phone call.

The camouflage outfits allow people to blend in with the desert landscape while the carpet booties prevent them from leaving behind tracks that would otherwise lead agents right to them. Only single adults, not families and children, are being apprehended in the camo outfits. Bidegain explained that families do not need to blend in with the terrain because they are seeking out law enforcement to claim asylum and not trying to avoid U.S. officials.

Any illegal alien arrested wearing camo should be assumed to be an enemy combatant. 

Sorry, Kids!

From the Atlantic, but it still has grains of truth: The Boomers Ruined Everything, The mistakes of the past are fast creating a crisis for younger Americans.

The Baby Boomers ruined America. That sounds like a hyperbolic claim, but it’s one way to state what I found as I tried to solve a riddle. American society is going through a strange set of shifts: Even as cultural values are in rapid flux, political institutions seem frozen in time. The average U.S. state constitution is more than 100 years old. We are in the third-longest period without a constitutional amendment in American history: The longest such period ended in the Civil War. So what’s to blame for this institutional aging?

One possibility is simply that Americans got older. The average American was 32 years old in 2000, and 37 in 2018. The retiree share of the population is booming, while birth rates are plummeting. When a society gets older, its politics change. Older voters have different interests than younger voters: Cuts to retiree-focused benefits are scarier, while long-term problems such as excessive student debt, climate change, and low birth rates are more easily ignored.

But it’s not just aging. In a variety of different areas, the Baby Boom generation created, advanced, or preserved policies that made American institutions less dynamic. In a recent report for the American Enterprise Institute, I looked at issues including housing, work rules, higher education, law enforcement, and public budgeting, and found a consistent pattern: The political ascendancy of the Boomers brought with it tightening control and stricter regulation, making it harder to succeed in America. This lack of dynamism largely hasn’t hurt Boomers, but the mistakes of the past are fast becoming a crisis for younger Americans. . . .

Russiagate: Mueller in the Hot Seat?

Just broke on Drudge last night from the Peacock, Robert Mueller to testify publicly before House committees on July 17

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to testify in public about his two-year Russia investigation at a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee on July 17. The announcement came from the chairmen of the two panels, who issued a subpoena compelling his testimony.

In a news release issued late Tuesday, Judiciary Committee Chairmen Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that Mueller had agreed to testify next month.

“Pursuant to subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence tonight, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has agreed to testify before both Committees on July 17 in open session,” the chairmen said in a statement.

 I have a lot of questions for Mueller myself. But here's a good place to start, 25 Questions for Robert Mueller. It will, of course, be circus, with Democrats asking questions leading towards evidence of non-existent Russian collusion, and Republicans, to the extent that the committee chairmen allow them to question him, trying to dig into the bizarre matters of "spygate." Politico notes, Mueller’s team may think it is done. Democrats have other ideas.

It’s the latest twist for the special counsel’s attorneys who spent nearly two years working on one of the most scrutinized investigations in American history and now are resurfacing at major law firms touting their work on the Russia probe. Some are even giving interviews to journalists, a big change from the “no comment” mantra they practiced to almost comical extremes, while another has a reported book deal.

Democrats struggling to find witnesses to guide their probes of Donald Trump say they’ve noticed the recent uptick in activity — and they want in.

These are, after all, the same attorneys who personally interviewed the president’s aides and a wide cast of characters connected to Moscow’s election interference campaign. They worked closest with the special counsel in deciding who merited prosecution or even a mention in his final report. As a result, they could offer new investigative leads, suggest ways to stymie the foreign assistance Trump seems open to accepting and further the congressional probes fueling impeachment calls. In short, they could do what Mueller himself has yet to do, although the special counsel did agree late Tuesday to testify on July 17.

I imagine if the House hearings are the circus I expect, Senate leaders may demand an equal opportunity. Meanwhile, Sundance at CTH is still on the case of Michael Flynn's persecution, prosectution, guilty plea, and still a yet undone sentencing with three different posts. DOJ Confirms Flynn Defense Team Never Received Transcript of Flynn/Kislyak Phone Call…

During a court appearance today by new attorney Mrs. Sidney Powell, the topic of needing a classified security clearance -to review documents- was raised.  The DOJ responded to the assertion by saying no classified information was provided to the prior Flynn defense team, therefore Ms. Powell doesn’t need not carry that concern.

However, by admitting the DOJ provided no classified information to the defense, the prosecution is simultaneously admitting they never provided Flynn with a copy of the phone call transcript (December 29, 2016) between President-elect Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.  The content of that phone call lies at the heart of the FBI interview that took place on January 24th, 2017.

Judge Emmet Sullivan originally asked for the Flynn/Kislyak transcript; however, the prosecution said it was irrelevant to their case.  The judge accepted the non-production.

Wow, the main piece of evidence in the case that Flynn lied to the FBI the contents of his talk with Kislyak, the transcript (which was leaked to the press by someone, presumably at the FBI or DOJ), was deemed by the prosecution to be irrelevant to the case? Why, because they have a carefully crafted 302 from Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe that swears he lied? Michael Flynn Was Not “Unmasked” – Evidence Flynn Was Under Active, FISC Authorized, Surveillance…. The collection of his call with Kislyak was not "incidental", Flynn was under active surveillance from far earlier, using the excuse of his "Russian contacts", but in fact, because of his opposition to Obama policies. Transcript of Michael Flynn Status Hearing – June 24th (full pdf)

One of the reasons why the Flynn legal situation is so interesting is not really because of Flynn himself; but rather because the Flynn situation is a likely example of President Obama’s surveillance network in operation.

Tenuous legal theories (Logan Act) and obscure laws (technical FARA violations) appear to have been exploited by DOJ administration officials, in close ideological alignment with the Lawfare Group. In association with overall Obama administration officials, the fellow travelers used the legal system to create a DC surveillance network.

At the 30,000 ft. level Obama’s surveillance network looks like this:

• White House identifies a target; •passes request to the DOJ National Security Division (middlemen); •who then use the auspices of possible FARA violations to pass the instructions to the FBI contractors; •who data-mine the NSA database.
•The FBI results are then passed back to the DOJ-NSD; •who weaponize the information for FISA applications (becomes legal cover); and •pass the authorized surveillance (spying) results back to the White House etc.

It’s a circle of surveillance activity that could encompass almost every politician in Washington DC as they network with foreign lobbyists and special interests.

 Sebastian Gorka at AmGreat, What Hillary and Obama Actually Did

Just imagine if Norway were running a double-agent in the Kremlin who could prove that Bernie Sanders was recruited as an asset by the KGB when he and his wife honeymooned in the Soviet Union in 1988 and that he had been given the mission to run for president, implement socialism in America and so weaken us in our geopolitical contest with Russia. Not only should the president be open to the receipt of such information, it would his sworn duty to do so and to act upon the information given his primary responsibility to protect our nation from all enemies “foreign and domestic.”

Yet the media has proceeded hysterically to misrepresent the president’s words, saying his willingness to be open to such information provided by an ally such as Norway is the same as being open to “opposition research” proffered by adversaries such as China or Russia. He said no such thing. He never once indicated his willingness to work with our enemies in a way that could affect a U.S. election.

This is in contrast with Hillary Clinton, who actually conspired with foreign agents and the government of Russia to do exactly that.

According to the handful of true investigative journalists and actual experts, we have only uncovered a fraction of the truth pertaining to what Dan Bongino has called “SpyGate” and Gregg Jarrett has dubbed “the Russian Hoax.” But given the massive amounts of misinformation swirling around the internet and the egregious and willful negligence by the “mainstream” media in reporting the truth about just how deeply foreign actors were allowed to penetrate and influence the last presidential election, it is crucial to catalog what we already know for sure about Hillary Clinton and the DNC’s collusion with actors inimical to our Republic and our values as Americans.

 Jeff Carlson at ET, Tracing the Origins of Congressional Democrats’ ‘Obstruction’ Strategy

Less than six months after Mueller’s appointment—on Oct. 10, 2017—the Brookings Institution published the first of two reports titled “Presidential Obstruction of Justice: The Case of Donald J. Trump,” which outlined, among other things, a scenario whereby Mueller would refer his obstruction findings to Congress, which would then take up the matter and continue investigating. The report also discussed ways in which Congress could impeach the president, mentioning the word “impeachment” a total of 90 times.

Norman Eisen and Barry Berke, two of the authors of the Brookings report, were later retained by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on a consulting basis as special oversight counsels to the Democrat majority staff.

As Nadler noted in an announcement, the two men would have a particular focus on reviewing Mueller’s investigation and would be advising the committee. It also appears Nadler intended for the two lawyers to question Attorney General William Barr.
. . .
Wittes was also the author of an article in October 2016 that discussed the need for an “insurance policy,” which, according to Wittes, was a “cross-ideological network of lawyers and philanthropists” dedicated to fighting Trump in court, should he win the election. Wittes was very forthright in his feelings, noting:

“If Trump wins it, the Coalition of All Democratic Forces needs to be prepared to see him in court,” Wittes wrote.

So, it was the insurance policy from the beginning. CR, The framers never intended for impeachment to be a political weapon, former federal judge tells Levin

Earlier this year, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., publicly said that impeachment was a “political act” and rested upon the “will of the American people” while explaining the supposed justification for impeachment proceedings against the president.

In contrast to these ideas, Levin asked the constitutional scholar about how this view played out during the Constitutional convention, specifically bringing up a dispute between James Madison and George Mason over whether or not impeachment should happen over charges of “maladministration” — i.e., doing a bad job.

“George Mason proposed that the president be impeachable for ‘maladministration’ and Madison objected to that, saying that that would effectively make him serve at the pleasure of the Senate — meaning that they could get rid of him whenever they wanted to and that would destroy his independence,” McConnell explained. “It’s pretty clear that Madison, at least, believed that the president needed to be insulated from impeachment for anything that isn’t really truly a high crime or misdemeanor.”

Fox, Hans von Spakovsky: Sorry, media -- talking to foreigners does not violate federal campaign laws

Here’s the bottom line: a federal candidate who is freely given information is not receiving a “contribution” or “thing of value” and is thus not violating federal campaign finance law or the regulations issued by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). I know. I served as an FEC Commissioner.

If getting dirt on an opponent were a “thing of value,” then any adverse information concerning a candidate—even informed criticism of a rival’s policy proposals—would also have to be considered a “thing of value,” and both would have to listed as a financial “contribution” to a campaign. Such a broad interpretation of the law would be potentially unconstitutional and impractical to administer or enforce. Moreover, it is not a position that has been taken by the FEC.

Federal law (52 U.S.C. §30121) prohibits a foreign national from contributing or donating money or a “thing of value” to a federal, state, or local candidate or political committee. Foreigners are also banned from engaging in independent political expenditures. That means that the Chinese government, for example, can’t give money directly to a candidate, nor can it buy an ad in the New York Times telling Americans they should vote for or against a particular candidate.

This ban doesn’t prevent foreign nationals from volunteering to help a campaign, as long as the foreigner does not “dictate, control, or directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process” of the campaign under a regulation issued by the FEC (11 CFR §110.20). The federal statute also says that the term “contribution” does not include an “individual who volunteers to behalf of a candidate.” The FEC specifically notes that a foreign national “may volunteer personal services to a federal candidate or federal political committee without making a contribution.”

According to prior FEC enforcement actions and advisory opinions, this means that a foreign national can, for instance, develop intellectual property such as a website, logos, and trademarks for a campaign as a volunteer (Advisory Opinion 2014-20, Make Your Laws PAC). Under the FEC’s reasoning, a foreigner who volunteers could also do research and share the results with the campaign.

Furthermore, foreign volunteers can speak at campaign events and even solicit contributions for a federal candidate as long as they solicit only Americans and not other foreigners (Advisory Opinion 2004-26, Weller). Why, a talented foreign musician can even contribute an uncompensated performance at a candidate’s fundraiser (Matter Under Review 5987)—as Elton John did at a Radio City Music Hall concert that raised $2.5 million for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

A foreign national who simply volunteers to provide information to a campaign would certainly seem to fall within this regulatory exemption.

However, the FEC says that this exemption for a foreign volunteer applies only “as long as the individual performing the service is not compensated by anyone.” Makes you wonder why the FEC hasn’t investigated a certain presidential campaign in 2016 that allegedly paid a former British intelligence agent (i.e., a foreigner) to do political opposition research, doesn’t it?

Julie Kelly at AmGreat, The Steele Dossier Has Been Discredited—Is the IC Report Next?

A special prosecutor appointed by Barr to oversee the probe is supposed to interview senior CIA officials who helped produce the report. According to a June 12 New York Times story disclosing the inquiry, the impending inquiry “has provoked anxiety in the ranks of the CIA.”

It should.

The ICA is an embarrassment to U.S. intelligence services, an obvious piece of government-sanctioned propaganda that would make Putin green with envy. Two of Obama’s henchmen—Comey and former CIA director John Brennan—signed off on the report then briefed both the former and the incoming president on its contents in early January 2017. (In his briefing with Trump, Comey also added a two-page summary of the Steele dossier, including the ludicrous claims about Trump’s alleged dalliances with prostitutes in Moscow.)

Reeling from Trump’s shocking win and desperate to place blame, Obama in early December 2016 ordered a full review of Russia’s election meddling. Twenty days later, the review was completed—hardly sufficient time for an adequate investigation of how a global adversary infiltrated a U.S. presidential election that cost more than $2 billion and involved 130 million American voters.

Nonetheless, in less than three weeks, the agencies claimed to have collected and verified reports from “multiple sources” to affirm their findings.

“To my mind the assessment is very peculiar,” former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy told the House Intelligence Committee earlier this month. “Ordinarily the kind of assessment that you’re talking about there would be something that would take well over a year to do, certainly many months to do . . . seems to me, in this instance, there was a rush to get that out within a matter of days.”

The hastily prepared report is akin to a last-minute term paper, carefully formatted with plenty of white space and graphics. Odd anecdotes are stitched together in a hodgepodge manner. It’s filled with repetition and hearsay. One vague passage insists that Putin “holds a grudge for comments [by Clinton] he almost certainly saw as disparaging him.” Another factoid is that a Putin pal said Russia would “drink champagne” if Trump won. Not exactly the kind of conjecture that would pass muster in a court of law.

The document was released in declassified form; readers repeatedly are assured that highly-classified information supports the Intelligence Community’s conclusions but that “the release of such information would reveal sensitive sources or methods and imperil the ability to collect critical foreign intelligence in the future.” (Where have we heard that before?) It strained to make a connection between the Kremlin, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

Maybe I'm Not Drinking Enough Coffee?

It works for the girl of the week!

Or maybe my brown fat is just saturated. Coffee could help you burn fat, new study says

A new study has suggested a link between coffee and the activation of fat fighters in your body.

Michael Symonds, a professor at the University of Nottingham and co-director of the study, said researchers found that coffee can stimulate what's known as brown fat. "Brown fat is a unique organ that is used for producing heat. It's present in quite small amounts in the body," he told USA TODAY.

Brown fat cells are the body's internal fat fighters, the University of Nottingham said in a news release. When the body produces heat, it uses energy, thus burning calories. This is the first study that shows a cup of coffee can impact how brown fat functions, Symonds said in the release.

 One? How about 25?

Brown fat, or brown adipose tissue, impacts how quickly one's body burns calories. This type of tissue was thought, in the past, to exist only in hibernating mammals and babies, the university said.

However, it has been found in human adults, too. People with a lower body mass index have more brown fat than people with a higher body mass index, according to the university. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

Adults have between 50 and 100 grams of brown fat in their bodies, Symonds told USA TODAY, and when it is activated, it has the unique ability to produce 300 times more heat than any other organ in the body.

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy working toward your amusement and education.

Circular Study Finds Oyster Restoration Good for Fish, Crabs

She's from Maryland
She can handle it

Study finds Maryland oyster sanctuaries likely to boost crab, perch fisheries

The restoration of reefs in Maryland oyster sanctuaries may be unpopular with watermen, but a recent study predicts the effort will eventually yield a bonanza for the commercial seafood industry, with bigger harvests of blue crabs and white perch.

Ecological modeling done by Morgan State University’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory in Calvert County projects an 80% increase in blue crab harvests and a 110% jump in white perch catch in the Choptank and Little Choptank river systems, where large-scale oyster restoration projects have been under way since 2011.

The Morgan study, underwritten by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, assumed that the restored oyster reefs will attract and support a diverse community of marine organisms, such as barnacles. Those, in turn, will draw crabs and finfish, which feed on them. “There are potentially large benefits to commercially valuable species from an enhanced food web in this area,” said Scott Knoche, the lab’s director.

White Perch

"The Morgan study . . . assumed that the restored oyster reefs will attract and support a diverse community of marine organisms, such as barnacles." So, in effect it assumed it's own conclusions. That's not science. That's propaganda, and what they were basically paid to find. I strongly suspect it's true, though.

While another computer modeling study last year found that the restored reefs in Harris Creek were helping to rid the water there of nutrient pollution, this is the first research into the potential economic impacts of large-scale oyster restoration. While oyster harvesting is prohibited in the sanctuaries where restoration took place, crabbing and fishing are still permitted.

Overall, the study concludes, increased harvests of all fish and shellfish could put extra money in watermen’s pockets, including an additional $4.5 million in dockside sales just from a more bountiful crab catch. That could boost the local economy as the additional income from seafood harvests is spent on goods and services in the region.

Maryland and Virginia have pledged to restore native oyster habitat and populations in a total of 10 Chesapeake Bay tributaries, five in each state. In Maryland, restoration work is complete in Harris Creek and partially done in the Tred Avon and Little Choptank rivers. When finished, those three projects are expected to restore 964 acres of reefs at a total cost of $72 million.

Yellow Perch

 But the usual suspects are unhappy.

The projects have drawn fire from watermen, who contend that they are ineffective and exorbitantly expensive. They have pressed the state to let them resume limited harvests in at least some sanctuaries.

It’s not clear how long watermen should have to wait before they can realize the increased crab and perch harvests. Tom Ihde, a Morgan research assistant professor and the study’s co-author, said it could be three to eight years after all restoration is completed before the effects of an increased marine food web start to materialize.

Striped Bass

Sounds a little long to me (a crab rarely survives 2 years, let alone three, but the fish take a little longer to grow to catchable size. At the same time, the amount of restored bottom is so small that the added benefit to the crab and fish population will likely be undetectable, except to local anglers and crabbers.

One factor could undermine the study’s projections: Watermen have complained that reefs built of stone in Harris Creek and the Tred Avon interfere with their use of trotlines to harvest crabs. Trotlining — deploying a heavy, baited line in the water — is the only allowable gear for commercial crabbing in Maryland’s tributaries.

“There’s things that we’re not able to account for,” Knoche said. “One of those challenges is the way fishers use their gear and how the different environment might affect the use of that gear.” He suggested that would warrant a further study.

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy working toward your amusement and education.

Stories from the Home Planet

Humboldt County threatened cannabis fines. They were growing peaches and tomatoes.

Farmer Tom O’Gorman, a self-described “old hippie” who took part in the 1970s back-to-land movement, admits he matches the profile of a cannabis grower, right down to his large greenhouse in rural Willow Creek, along with the notice he received earlier this month to shut down his illegal marijuana operation.

Just one issue with that picture: O’Gorman says that while he fully supports cannabis legalization, he’s never grown the plant himself. The Trinity River Farm he owns harvests fruits and vegetables as well as local jams, jellies and sauces.

But O’Gorman’s greenhouse is large enough to have been flagged on Humboldt County’s satellite mapping system, the same one that helped the county increase its cannabis code enforcement by 700% in 2018.

It’s all turned out fine for O’Gorman, who received a retraction from county officials about a week after the mishap. But the day he received his abatement notice was quite a bit more stressful.

“I asked the gentleman who served me the papers how he was doing,” O’Gorman said. “He said, ‘I’m fine, but you might not be as well as you think you are.’ Then he handed me an abatement notice.”

Over the next week, O’Gorman heard from friends that he was mentioned in the classified pages of the Times-Standard, where the county publishes each abatement notice twice over. It was an embarrassing moment in an overall “unfortunate” process, O’Gorman said.
. . .
Eugene Denson, a Southern Humboldt County-based attorney representing small-farm cannabis growers, said he has assisted farmers in similar positions to clear their status with the county. The county’s abatement system, he says, demands money first and asks questions later.

“You get a piece of paper saying, ‘We’re going to fine you thousands and thousands of dollars a day,’” Denson said. “That’s stressful and scary.”

A simple solution Denson proposes is to give the abatement messenger — like the man who served O’Gorman his papers — more authority to square away mistakes as soon as they arrive.

Verifying with a human eye that a satellite-flagged greenhouse isn’t a pot farm would save belabored farmers a great deal of hassle, he said.

Me, Georgia and Alex, 2004.

It's an interesting thing legally. Prove you're not growing weed, or face ruinous fines.

Georgia's sister Mary has one of her two houses in Mad River, in heart of this country, where she and John taught school until their retirement. In the bad old days, before quasi-legalization, the illegal pot farms were a definite threat, including booby traps, and a bit of violence.

Now that the state of California has abandoned the criminal enforcement, and gone with the notion of trying to extract as much income as possible via taxes, it's more peaceful, but not without some issues.

Dragonflies, Butterflies, Horseflies on the Walk.

It's been a big year for dragon flies. It must be because of all the rain last year, and so far this year. This one appears to be a male Common White Tail, and indeed they are very common.

This one may be the Green Darner, and they have been way more common this year than usual.

I thought I had a different one here, but it turns out to be the female White Tail.

The weed of butterflies, the Cabbage White.

The American Lady on a Cone Flower.

Another shot, showing the underside of the wings.

A big New Guinea Impatiens. Georgia has a few of these, sharing the deck with peppers and tomatoes. They like full sun.

A Clouded Sulphur on a Dandelion.

Skye and I did make it to the beach today, and despite the mid 80's temperature, the north breeze kept it tolerable to the Siberian. A big Horsefly bit my leg on the way home

The next two photo shows the Cormorants hanging out on the channel markers at the harbor.

Some Hot and Sticky Russiagate

Well, it looks like we're in for a streak of hot and sticky weather. Hot news from Daniel Chaitin at WaEx, Trey Gowdy: FBI gave 'two different kinds of defensive briefings' to Trump and Clinton in 2016 and dropped another bomb

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Gowdy referenced how the campaigns of both Clinton and then-candidate Donald Trump received counterintelligence "defensive" briefings, but claimed they were not the same. Gowdy said the FBI provided "two different kinds of defensive briefings to candidates depending on who you like and who you don't," and coupled with how the FBI withheld transcript material from the FISA court, "then your bias begins to impact the investigation."

But concerns remain. Trump's briefing was coordinated by Strzok, which raised red flags among Republicans. According to Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, it made no mention of the counterintelligence investigation into members of the Trump team that he opened less than three weeks prior.

In recent weeks Gowdy, who was chairman of the Oversight Committee until he left Congress at the beginning of this year, has spoken out about classified information he claims “has the potential to be a game changer.” Last month he discussed unreleased transcripts of recorded conversations between FBI informants and former Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos. Gowdy said “one in particular has the potential to actually persuade people" and noted this "exculpatory evidence related to Papadopoulos was not included in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page."

Soon afterwards, Trump delegated Attorney General William Barr sweeping powers to declassify documents on surveillance activities into Trump campaign as part of his investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation.

In his interview with host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Gowdy called for the transcript to be released so the American public can view them. Gowdy, now a contributor of Fox News, said they were persuasive enough for him to change his mind after initially being "supportive" of the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to carry out the Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Sundance at CTH, Sunday Talks – Devin Nunes Notes: “Two Parallel Tracks” Used To Target Donald Trump…



Chuck Ross at Da Caller noticed how Trey Gowdy admitted Mystery FBI Transcript ‘Actually Changed My Perspective’ Of Russia Probe

Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said Sunday that his “perspective” of the special counsel’s investigation changed after he saw a transcript of an interaction between the FBI and a Trump campaign associate believed to be George Papadopoulos.

“I was supportive of [Robert] Mueller. I was supportive of the idea to initiate, to investigate what Russia did, but when I saw this transcript, it actually changed my perspective,” Gowdy said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Republicans have hinted at the existence of a transcript that contains exculpatory information for Papadopoulos, who the FBI claims was the catalyst for its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

Papadopoulos had encounters with several mysterious figures during his stint on the Trump campaign. He met Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, Australian diplomat Alexander Downer and Stefan Halper, a former Cambridge professor who was identified as an FBI informant in 2018.

Ace, Trey Gowdy: I Supported Mueller, Until I Saw the Still-Classified Papadopolous Transcript and the Exculpatory Information Therein - And withheld from the FISA court.

Courtesy of the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 06.24.19 Dan Sobieski at AmThink tells us how Clapper Hears Barr's 'Chilling' Footsteps. I hope he's losing sleep over this.

Close scrutiny of the Intelligence Community's actions should send chills up Clapper's spine. In the search for the answer as to how the whole Mueller collusion probe and spying on Team Trump originated, one does not have to look far. One needs only to revisit the interview Deep State conspirator and perjurer James Clapper gave with CNN's Anderson Cooper. He points his finger directly at Barack Hussein Obama as leader of the coup against Donald Trump:

Former Obama administration director of national intelligence James Clapper admitted that former president Barack Obama gave the order to Peter Strzok to kick off his Operation Crossfire Hurricane targeting of President Donald Trump.
Obama — who also gave a stand-down order on stopping alleged Russian hacking — was personally implicated in the plot according to Peter Strzok and Lisa Page's texts. Clapper confirms the obvious.
This is James Clapper's interview with Anderson Cooper, which confirms that Obama ordered Strzok to carry out an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which became the basis for the entire Mueller probe.
"If it weren't for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably Special Counsel Mueller's investigation. President Obama is responsible for that. It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place," Clapper said in his Anderson Cooper interview.

That Intelligence Community assessment would have included in it the "unverified and salacious," as former FBI director James Comey described it, dossier paid for by Hillary and the DNC and compiled from Russian disinformation source by British agent Christopher Steele in the only real collusion with Russia in this whole affair.

Sundance at CTH, Devin Nunes Threatens Criminal Referrals for Chris Wray and Dana Boente….

Boente took over for former chief legal counsel James Baker, after the discoveries around Baker and McCabe could no longer be hidden. After being removed from responsibility eventually Baker resigned and went to work with the Lawfare group.  Boente’s job at FBI was/is to bury information, block congressional inquiry, and protect the crew. Boente, along with Christopher Wray, is still there.

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Nunes said “someone at the FBI” appears to have been “determined to hide” then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s notes from both the FISA court and Congress.  Our research identified that “someone” as Dana Boente and crew more than a year ago. . . 

Also, President Trump on AG Jeff Sessions: “That was my biggest mistake”… It might be a high bar, but it also might be true. And Sunday Talks: Shifty Schiff Outlines Coordinated Plan With Mueller For “Testimony”…



From Axios, Massive leak of Trump transition vetting documents shows "red flags" deliberations but from Matt Maroglis at PJ Media, 15 Reasons Why No One Should Care About the Leaked Trump Transition Vetting Documents

Margot Cleveland at Da Fed has a pair of articles on Hope Hick's congressional testimony, How Hope Hicks’s Testimony Again Destroyed The Trump-Russia Collusion Narrative

Democrats on the committee nonetheless pushed the Russia collusion narrative by attempting to portray an email Hicks received from the editor-in-chief of the Russian internet newspaper Vzglyad as evidence of a Russian conspiracy. Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse flipped to the much-referenced Robert Mueller report to read the special counsel’s finding that “one day earlier the publication’s founder and former Russian parliamentarian Konstantin Rykov had registered two Russian websites, Trump2016.ru and DonaldTrump2016.ru.”

But Neguse’s attempt to implicate the Trump campaign in Russia’s online efforts to interfere in the election failed badly. “I don’t recall receiving the interview request,” Hicks noted, “I received hundreds of interview requests, sometimes daily.” Because Trump had no intention of participating in the interview, Hicks explained, she was not concerned about the identity of the outlet, and hadn’t even realized until after the fact that the email had come from a Russian.

Concerning the WikiLeaks hacks, Hicks made clear that the only discussion the campaign had was “speculation about if there would be more emails or information released, but that was prompted by things in the media,” and it wasn’t with certainty that more leaks would happen, but “with speculation and skepticism.”

“No,” Hicks stressed, Trump did not talk about WikiLeaks or the hack, nor did anybody else in the campaign, other than what was discussed in the public domain. Hicks also testified that during the campaign she had heard nothing about Roger Stone and his supposed relationship with WikiLeaks or its founder Julian Assange, or about WikiLeaks’ “divulgence of information about the emails of Hillary Clinton and Mr. Podesta,” beyond media coverage.

And  Top 8 Takeaways From Hope Hicks’s Congressional Testimony 1. It Was a Dog and Donkey Show, 2. The Media Lapped Up Democrats’ Narrative, Of Course, 3. More Proof Against Trump Collusion, 4. Much Questioning Unconnected to Congress’s Oversight, 5. Hope Wasn’t About to Jump Through Their Hoops, 6. Democrats Were Too Dense to Notice Hicks Threw Lots of Shade, 7. Hope Hicks Is Hilarious, 8. Hope Hicks For Congress.

Congress? Hell, she'll be eligible for President in 2024, just in time to succeed Ivanka. Anyway, read the whole thing. And now, after falling off the cliff and having the anvil land on their heads with Hope Hicks, Democrats plan to tackle Kelly Conway. Reuters, U.S. lawmakers threaten to subpoena Trump aide Conway

The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Democrat Elijah Cummings, said it would vote on a potential subpoena if Conway does not testify before lawmakers at a scheduled Wednesday session focused on her alleged violations of the Hatch Act.

The 1939 law prohibits executive branch employees from engaging in some political activities.

Kellyanne and some fat dude

So, from the WaPoo, White House moves to bar counselor Kellyanne Conway from testifying to Congress about alleged violations of Hatch Act

The Hatch Act is a useful tool to keep rank and file government workers from abusing their authority, but for the inherently political jobs in the upper administration, it's just silly.

It wasn't just the FBI and DOJ who had their fingers on the scales, Insider Blows Whistle & Exec Reveals Google Plan to Prevent “Trump situation” in 2020 on Hidden Cam. James O'Keeffe at Project Veritas, of course.

• Insider: Google “is bent on never letting somebody like Donald Trump come to power again.”
• Google Head of Responsible Innovation Says Elizabeth Warren “misguided” on “breaking up Google”
• Google Exec Says Don’t Break Us Up: “smaller companies don’t have the resources” to “prevent next Trump situation”
• Insider Says PragerU And Dave Rubin Content Suppressed, Targeted As “Right-Wing”

WaFreeBee: Podesta’s CAP Fuels Dark Money Group Hitting Trump with Lawsuits, Democracy Forward received $1M from Center for American Progress, marks same address on legal docs

The Democracy Forward Foundation, a D.C.-based 501(c)3 nonprofit, was founded in 2017 to "help expose the rampant corruption in the Executive Branch and fight in court on behalf of the people it hurts." The group also has a 501(c)4 "social welfare" arm that goes by Democracy Forward. The foundation has filed suit against numerous government agencies, such as the Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, and the Office of Management and Budget, and has aided other entities with similar litigation, including Baltimore's lawsuit against the Trump administration over immigration policy.

The group, which has maintained a relatively low profile despite its litigation efforts against the administration, dubs itself "nonpartisan" and is referred to as "anti-corruption" by major media outlets. The group's leadership, however, is made up of Democratic operatives, including Podesta himself.

Democracy Forward's initial tax returns, which cover a time span of just over a month from May 19 to June 30, 2017, does not disclose its donors but shows that the group received $705,000 in seed money. The group lists a P.O. Box in D.C. as its address on the forms, the same contact address that is listed on its website.

Jonathon Toobin at Da Fed, If ‘Lock Her Up’ Was An Outrage, So Is ‘Let’s Put Him In Prison’

One needn’t excuse anything Clinton, Trump, or any other Democrat or Republican has done to understand that this mindset is toxic to our political culture in ways that go far beyond the damage we think our opponents will do if they gain control of the government. The most distressing aspect of this trend is the lack of faith in the ability of our constitutional systems to survive bad presidents.

And some lightness from AllahPundit at Hot Air. Livestream: Famous Liberal Actors Gather To … Act Out The Mueller Report?

To cleanse the palate, I … guess it’s worth watching Luke Skywalker ham it up as Corey Lewandowski or whoever? There’s nothing better to do on a slow news night.

Plus, hey: It has the official John Kerry seal of approval.

And Alyssa Milano!

The live cast, as it stands now, includes, Annette Bening, Kevin Kline, John Lithgow, Frederick Weller, Ben McKenzie, Michael Shannon, Noah Emmerich, Justin Long, Jason Alexander, Gina Gershon, Wilson Cruz, Joel Grey, Alyssa Milano, Kyra Sedgwick, Alfre Woodard, Piper Perabo, Zachary Quinto and Aidan Quinn, with additional participation by Sigourney Weaver, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Mark Hamill.

That’s a weird mix of actors whom I’d pay to see — Kline, Lithgow, Weaver, the “Seinfeld” twins — and actors whom you couldn’t pay me to see. Like Alyssa Milano. The livesteam starts below at 9 p.m. ET. Exit question: Who plays Mueller? Gotta be Kline, right?

If Alyssa Milano were to play Hope Hicks, in the nude (NSFW), It might make it worth suffering through the BS to watch....

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy and FMJRA 2.0: Even Better Than The Real Thing working toward your amusement and education.

Tuesday Morning Wake Up

Karolina Witkowska

She's been a Playboy model (NSFW)

Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cheryl Ann Tweedy working toward your amusement and education.