Group of Jimmy Buffett Diehards Latest to Fall Ill in Dominican Republic

A group of diehard Jimmy Buffett fans from Oklahoma is among the latest in a growing list of tourists to fall sick while visiting the Dominican Republic. According to the New York Daily News, members of the Buffett-loving Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association—dubbed the Parrotheads—traveled to Punta Cana’s Hotel Riu Palace Macao in April of this year and shortly after their arrival became violently ill. Among them was travel agent Dana Flowers, who said that four days into the group’s excursion, he and other members began showing symptoms of a mysterious illness.

“I can’t even explain how sick I was,” Flowers told Oklahoma’s News 4. He added that he “lost 14 pounds during that time and was really sick,” adding that by the end of the vacation, 47 of the 114 Oklahomans reported being unwell. Flowers was cited in the report as saying that many of the tourists were so sick they didn’t even leave their rooms. “It wasn’t just any kind of normal sickness. It was putting them down and in their room for two-three days at a time. Some people were even longer than that,” Flowers told KOKH. Flowers himself remained ill for 19 days. “I thought I was going to pass out in the bathroom, just because the cramps were so bad,” said Kimberly Ridlen, who was also on the trip and got sick. Ridlen said she got better before getting sick again. “About a week later, after I was home again, which was a Friday morning around one in the morning, I got hit with it again and had really, really severe cramping and diarrhea with bloody stools,” Ridlen said.

It is unclear what caused the Jimmy Buffett fans to fall ill. Flowers said some people tested positive for salmonella, but he did not. He added that one common factor to all the people who got sick was that they all swam in the resort pool, which had a swim-up bar. “We feel very fortunate that nobody has died and it wasn’t any worse than it has been but there are still a few people, at least one, that has been sick from that time on until now,” Flowers said. The case of one of the sickened group members, Sarah Ciancio, was so severe that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an investigation. “It lasted four days for me. My sister-in-law had it for more than two weeks,” Ciancio said.

Contaminated Alcohol? The latest report of illness comes amid a spate of unexplained deaths on the island nation since January. The death count rose to eight on Friday, when the family of a 78-year-old Ohio man revealed he died suddenly after dinner and drinks at the Dreams Punta Cana Resort & Spa. Other Americans have reported getting sick after drinking from the minibar at the hotels, including a Brooklyn woman who claimed she vomited blood after drinking 7UP that tasted like bleach. “My mouth was on fire,” Awilda Montes told CBS New York last week. “When I spit it out in bathroom sink it was blood. I was just irrigating my mouth.” Sources have told The New York Post that authorities are looking into the possibility that bootleg liquor served at the hotel could be the killer. The Post sent a reporter to one of the resorts and they said the vodka had a “strange, potent smell resembling pure alcohol.”

Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, was cited in the report as saying that the reported symptoms were consistent with methanol or pesticide poisoning. Methanol isn’t safe for human consumption. “Adulterated alcohol is usually methanol added to alcohol or just plain methanol, which is very, very toxic,” Kobilinsky said. “It looks to me, from what I’ve heard and read, is that something was added to the drinks or bottles in those little refrigerators.” The expert said that in alcohol for human consumption, “there should be no methanol.” “If it’s there, it means it’s been adulterated or put there deliberately,” he told the Post.

The government of the Dominican Republic claims the deaths are an isolated phenomenon and insists its resorts are safe. According to Inside Edition, they have hired a crisis management team to help counteract the PR fallout from the bad press. “I will not be going back to the Dominican any time soon,” Flowers said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/group-of-jimmy-buffett-diehards-latest-to-fall-ill-in-dominican-republic_2965488.html

UK Deploying 100 Elite Royal Marines To Gulf After Tanker Attacks

Iran says it has summoned the British ambassador over the weekend after the UK publicly came out in support of the White House assessment pinpointing Iranian forces behind last Thursday's two tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman. Last Friday Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the attacks were “almost certainly” carried out by Tehran. Hunt also warned of the "great risk" of Iran drifting toward war against the US and its allies during a television interview. Crucially, Britain is set to deploy 100 Royal Marines to the Persian Gulf in order to form a "rapid reaction force" to protect UK assets in the region.

According to the Sunday Times: Military sources said that 100 marines from 42 Commando, based near Plymouth, will form a rapid reaction force, Special Purpose Task Group 19. They will operate from ships patrolling the region from Britain’s new naval base in Bahrain. The marines are expected to arrive in Bahrain "within weeks" as well as a team of British experts to assist in investigating precisely what materials were used in the tanker attacks, which contradictory accounts say could have been mines or torpedoes, or even an aerial projectile. UK defence minister and MP Tobias Ellwood told Sky’s Ridge on Sunday: “We have a substantial presence in the Middle East that looks after our interests there. We understand the Middle East, we have a number of allies there as well.” He added that Britain would beef up its presence in coordination with US forces: “We will be working with the United States to make sure this area is safe and to make sure that we actually deescalate the tensions there but I don’t think Iran should be under any doubt [about] that fact that we will be determined to protect our assets and our interests in the region.”

Among the more interesting quotes from the Sunday Times report suggests the ease with which a direct firefight between US-UK allied forces and Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces - which patrol the vital Strait of Hormuz - could erupt: A military source said that having marines with machine guns on the decks of warships or merchant ships was likely to see off any Iranian speedboats trying to sneak up on them.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday that while the US maintains the view that it is “unmistakable” that Iran is responsible for the attacks, and that it has “lots of data, lots of evidence” — the White House does not actually want war. “President Trump has done everything he can to avoid war. We don’t want war,” he said. “The United States is going make sure that we take all the actions necessary, diplomatic and otherwise that achieve that outcome,” Pompeo added. But given the potential for a rapid build-up of western forces in the already crowded Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, and with Iran's IRGC on a heightened state of alert, it could be too little too late given both sides appear "war ready" and are already blundering precisely toward that dire scenario.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-16/uk-deploying-100-elite-royal-marines-persian-gulf-after-tanker-attacks

>>6769282

Rum, Tequila, Beer are more widely consumed in South America than Vodka, aren't they?

Not sure if this was noticed..Q attached this Jpg to this post.. Catch the message, here, kekd

>>6769663

indeed, just a thought wonder if the employees are actually in the water..hmm..look at the actual involved facilities might be a good place to start I thinks

>>6769312

Second

Notable

>>6769312

Going to out on a limb here and say that this information is probably a good reason why FBI Vault is down..the excuse will be routine maintenance, and we will undoubtedly find that WJC's file has been removed!

>>6769721

Thank you:)