Mamdoni, Scarcity Among the Well-To-Do, and a Change

On this day:
1520
Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.
1559
King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel de Montgomery.
1688
The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William (continuing the English rebellion from Rome), which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.
1905
Albert Einstein publishes the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity.
1908
The Tunguska event occurs in remote Siberia.
1934
The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.
1971
The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft was killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
1997
The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

***

"The invisible hand of the market, my ass. That hand is white and wearing a ring with a conflict diamond in it." --Mamdoni, humorously speaking from his narrow box of caste, caste hatred, and inherited guilt.  

***

Germany arms up. 

It must grapple with a procurement bureaucracy that once took seven years to select a new main assault rifle and more than a decade to procure a helmet for helicopter pilots. It will have to oversee an enormous ramp-up by an arms industry already struggling with capacity. And billions must go towards tasks such as upgrading barracks, some of which are in “disastrous” shape with crumbling plaster and mould, according to the armed forces watchdog.--FT

***

Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati is being treated in hospital for viral meningitis.

***

One of the authors of an anonymous Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) review published in May, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday detailing how the report found that “gender-affirming” procedures for minors “rests on very weak evidence.”

This may be true, but it is much more revealing that the review was originally published anonymously.

***

The P-G's article on the Stop the Violence fund is pretty shocking.

***

Mamdoni, Scarcity Among the Well-To-Do, and a Change

"The goal of socialism is communism." - Vladimir Lenin

The impending election of Mamdoni in NYC reminds us why the drama masks symbolic of the theater are both tragic and comic. The worldwide symbol of American capitalism is about to elect a socialist mayor.

Because socialism doesn't work, its profile changes over time as it mutates in search of a pathway. It was once the religion of the working poor, but in NYC, its target market has changed to the educated middle class. This may not be simply indicative of declining education quality.

They have no rallying cry; there will be no singing marches, arm-in-arm. They don't represent a universal outrage and have little in common with historical revolutionaries. By most national standards, they would be successful, comfortable, and productive. But they are different; they are working people who want to live in a city they cannot afford.

One doesn't hear the usual socialist jealous claptrap; there is no unexplainable misallocation of assets to redistribute, no congenital animosity to resolve. These people feel they have a right to live in this expensive town, and they want money from others to facilitate it.

In a way, it is the gentrification of the entitlement mentality.

The attempt to govern has always been challenging because these local politicians lack the vision, integrity, and imagination to resist the countless tugs and pulls of special interest groups. Nor do they have a thoughtful, watchful Press. This election has introduced a new element, scarcity among the successful, an affliction historically of frontiers.

Some will say this will be a great educational experiment. But, aside from the customer, there is nothing new here. And high-speed wrecks don't teach much more than the obvious. Moreover, this has serious overtones. The city, country — even the West — has less money than expenses. That will impact what can be bought, what plans can be developed, what schools attended, and what charities continued. And what money can be transferred to whom. This, in a free and energetic culture, would ordinarily bring it to the point of challenge and choice, a point it should love but has learned to fear.

Is this a beginning or an end?

New York will dabble with the question first through Mr. Mamdoni. 

So I'm going to change this format for a while to include more comments on economic, especially socialist, questions.

Sunday/A Question

On this day:1613
The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground.
1956
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1974
Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina. Her husband, President Juan Peron, had delegated responsibility due to weak health and died two days later.
1974
Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with Bolshoi Ballet.
1995
Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

*

Defenseman Charlie Trethewey was drafted in the third round by Pittsburgh. He grew up with his dad, Bob, in Mt. Lebanon. When Charlie was 13 years old, he and his father moved from Maryland to western Pennsylvania so that he could play for the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Penguins Elite. They lived with Charlie’s grandpa while building a house in Cranberry, right across from the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. They lived there during Charlie’s time with the youth hockey organization for the 2020-21 and ’21-22 seasons.

These hockey guys are something else.

Trethewey plans to attend Boston University this fall.

*

The Danish parliament has voted overwhelmingly to grant the US sweeping access to three bases on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula.

*

Cristiano Ronaldo signed a two-year contract to continue playing soccer in the Saudi league. He will make $211 million per season.

*

Sunday/A Question

Today's gospel is the declaration of Peter. It contains a rare use of the word "church," in Greek meaning a religious assembly. It also contains a question by Christ, often startling, for what does Christ not know?

“But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

This is, again, another example of Christ's demanding a conclusion from what has been seen, a collection of observations leading to a result. It is an edgy problem, creating local conclusions from small events when a gigantic, far-reaching event could have convinced the world. And it allows for a profound uncertainty, "Who do you say that I am?" as if part of the story is the quest.


The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,–the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.


Gerard Manley Hopkins

SatStats

On this day:
1776
American Revolutionary War: Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
1807
Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelock lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals.
1896
An explosion in the Newton Coal Company’s Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
1914
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.
1919
The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending World War I between Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, the United States and allies on the one side and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other side.
1969
Stonewall Riots begin in New York City marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
1987
For the first time in the military history, a civilian target was attacked by chemical weapons when Iraqi warplanes dropped mustard gas bombs on the Iranian town of Sardasht in rwo separate bombing rounds, on four residential areas.
1989
The 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle, which is later interpreted as foreshadowing the Yugoslav Wars. 600 years.
1994
Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan; 7 people are killed, 660 injured.
2005
War in Afghanistan: Three U.S. Navy SEALs, 16 American Special Operations Forces soldiers, and an unknown number of Taliban insurgents are killed

*

An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. -Orlando Aloysius Battista, chemist and author (20 Jun 1917-1995)


***


Someone tossed a grenade at the Norwegian ambassador’s residence near Tel Aviv. There’ve been no injuries, but it’s stirred alarm within a foreign ministry long focused on Israel-Palestinian issues (eg, the Oslo Accords).

***

The UK’s new foreign intelligence agency (MI6) spymaster will be Blaise Metreweli.

***

Over the past 60 years the share of disposable personal income that Americans spend on food at home has steadily fallen. Just under 12 percent in 1964, this share today is around five percent. In the 1950s the typical supermarket in the U.S. offered 6,000 items; today it offers 50,000. Still, Mamdani's going after this business--with a profit margin of 1.6%
"People talk about capitalism and socialism and communism. There’s only two kinds of economic systems: the market-driven and the government-directed. That’s it! The more you move toward a state-directed economy, the less efficient and more corrupt it becomes."--Smith

***



SatStats

Only 10% of crimes in Mexico are reported, and of those, only 16% are resolved.

*

Social Security’s shortfall now equals 3.82% of taxable payroll or roughly 22% of scheduled benefit obligations. Avoiding insolvency eight years from now would require an immediate 27% benefit cut, according to former Social Security and Medicare trustee Charles Blahous.

Alternatively, legislators could raise the payroll tax from 12.4% to 16.05%. That’s a 29.4% increase. Or they could restructure Social Security so that only people who need the money would receive payments

*

The share of U.S. households earning more than $100,000 (adjusted for inflation) tripled over the past five decades, and the share earning less than $35,000 fell by 25 percent.

* 

Last year, Norway’s $1.5tn sovereign wealth fund revealed that it had lost NKr980mn, roughly $92mn, on an error relating to how it calculated its mandated benchmark.

*

Americans spent $186 billion pets last year, more than was spent on childcare.

*

1 million people now owe more than $200,000 in federal student loans.

*

Roughly 50% college graduates have jobs that don’t use their degrees.

*

Allen Iverson, who went broke despite earning nearly $200 million in salary and endorsements, is hanging on to reach his 55th birthday seven years from now, when he will receive $32 million from Reebok, thanks to a lifetime contract he signed with the shoe company in 2001.

*

At the end of June, 8.5% of U.S. homes are worth $1 million or more, the highest share of all time.

*

In 1960, the average American woman had 3.65 children in her lifetime. That’s fallen to about 1.6. But people will not have children for a tax break. Governments are responding with tax incentives.

Children are many things, not just an expensive asset, as a boat is. But you can repossess a boat.

*

34% of Americans now use social media as their main source of news, second only to Brazilians at 35%.

*

Apparently following the orders of a Farc rebel offshoot, locals in the cocaine-producing Micay Canyon have reportedly kidnapped 57 Colombian troops.

*

The federal government’s debt is now over $28 trillion by one measurement. That’s $2 trillion more than last year and $6 trillion more than when the Biden-Harris team entered the White House. This debt stands at 100% of America’s GDP, which, other than a one-year exception at the end of World War II, is the highest ratio we’ve ever had. Unlike in 1946, today’s debt is only going to grow. Indeed, debt-to-GDP took a nearly 30-year dive to reach 23% in 1974. Today, federal debt is projected — again, under the rosiest scenarios — to rise to 166% in 30 years.

*

The Refinitiv Lipper database gives the median turnover of a US mutual fund as 39%, implying a holding period of just 2.5 years.

*

The global proportion of people now using TikTok for news each week is 17%, up 4% in just a year.

*

Forty percent of people say they avoid the news.

*

The Swiss and the Norwegians both cut their rates
The Fed (plus the Bank of England) held theirs steady, and
Brazil’s central bank hiked rates for the seventh straight meeting to 15%

*

Private capital funds have taken more money from investors than they’ve distributed back to them in gains for six straight years, for a total gap of $1.56 trillion over that period.

*

Germany will more than double its military spending by the turn of the decade under a new defense spending proposal approved by the government this week.

Weekend Catchup

On this day:
1759
General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec.
1844
Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.
1905
Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war.
1941
Romanian governmental forces, allies of Nazi Germany, launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iaşi, (Romania), resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.
1950
The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
1954
The world’s first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.

***

Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary, patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit it is the first. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (24 Jun 1842-1914)

***

Last month, the steering committee of the progressive organization Indivisible PA asked Fetterman to resign.

***

Baseball fans will tolerate a lot, but they will not tolerate being asked to love a team like the Pirates that does not respect the game as much as they do.


***

The number of babies born in South Korea rose at the fastest pace in 34 years in April from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, driven by a rise in marriages and demographic changes.

A total of 20,717 babies were born in April, up 8.7 percent from 19,059 babies born a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

***

 



Weekend Catchup

A 23-year-old Mexican social media influencer was shot dead while live streaming on TikTok, the state prosecutor's office said.

Valeria Marquez was killed when a man entered her beauty salon in the city of Guadalajara "and apparently fired a gun at her", according to the Jalisco state prosecutor's office.

The motive for the fatal attack has not been identified but the case is being investigated as a femicide - when women and girls are killed because of their gender, the state prosecutor said.

Femicide.

* 

Several critics of the U.S. attack on Iran, especially on BBC, raised the possibility of Iran rebuilding its sites in the future, as if the U.S. could bomb the future.

And you can bomb places, but not thoughts.

*

Iran declared victory; the Western press declared failure, essentially agreeing with Iran.

***

The Silurian Hypothesis asks: if an industrial civilization arose millions of years ago — say, during the Devonian or the Paleocene — would we find any trace of it today?

Ocean crust, where much sediment settles, recycles every 170 million years or so. On land, surface preservation is even rarer. “The current area of urbanization is less than 1% of the Earth’s surface,” the researchers note, and ancient surfaces that remain intact are scarcer still.

So UFO intervention in our world cannot be disproved.

*

Roughly four in 10 millennials and Gen Zers have side jobs, according to new research by Deloitte. Those juggling multiple jobs say they’re padding their finances for a potential downturn, writes columnist Callum Borchers.

*

The majority of the Democratic Party sat quietly by as Joe Biden ordered strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen and Barack Obama ordered attacks on Libyan government forces and used drones to take out terrorists, including U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. Democrats seem to get exercised only when Republican presidents strike against threats to the country, as they are doing now, and as they did back in 2020, after Trump targeted and killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

*

The FBI alerted federal agencies to fraudulent U.S. driver’s licenses from China being shipped to the United States, then recalled the advisory and requested the destruction of the file.
The advisory in question was dated August 24, 2020, weeks after U.S. authorities announced the seizure of nearly 20,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses, mostly from China, intended for college-age students.

Plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver’s licenses and ship them into the United States were to facilitate fraudulent mail-in ballots—allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public,” Kash Patel said.

Wonder why.

*

New York plans to build one of the first new U.S. nuclear plants in a generation.

*

Holtec, a key provider of services for the nuclear industry, plans to go public.

*

The U.S., left and right, is horrified by Mamdani's nomination. They focus on his many glaring, offensive positions. But there is little curiosity about the people who voted in favor of this problem.

*

Mamdani's mother said he is Indian and African, not American. Is that a good thing?

*
Remember the Mendoza Line, named for the Pirates' slick fielding, bad-hitting shortstop, when .200 was a terrible batting average? Suwinski and Davis are hitting for a .300 average, combined.

*

In-store and online purchases for 18- to 24-year-olds fell 13% year-over-year between January and April.

*

Artificial-intelligence chatbots tend to flatter users and be overly agreeable.

*

Anthony Bernal, former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the First Lady, is now refusing to appear on June 26, 2025, for a transcribed interview as part of the Committee’s investigation into the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s mental decline and potentially unauthorized use of autopen for sweeping pardons and other executive actions.

When Navarro refused to testify at a hearing, they put him in jail.

*

More than a third of Tuvalu citizens have applied for a world-first climate visa, which would allow them to permanently migrate to Australia.

*

When Tyler, the Creator was asked about his desire to ban the digital medium, the two-time Grammy winner said, “I think we give a lot of people who aren’t smart and just want attention platforms to be loud and incorrect, and other stupid people follow them. Where are the people with skills? We need electricians, we need more drummers, painters, teachers. Everybody with a mic is crazy."

*

This is fun. Do not buy this. HYMC recently sold $40 million of stock and warrants. Including its $128 million in debt (coming due in 2027), the market says the company is currently valued at $300 million. AI says Hycroft Mining’s proven and probable reserves include approximately 12 million ounces of gold and 481 million ounces of silver. Total AI estimated gross metal value: ~$41.55 billion. Human vs AI valuation.

Sunday/Corpus Christi 2

On this day:

1284
The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany
1409
Western Schism: The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
1848
End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
1917
The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain and France against Germany in World War I.
1948
The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
1948
William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
1996
Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin

***

It seems the expectations that Trump would ruin NATO were less than accurate.

***

China is confiscating the passports of rare earth experts.

***

Why would the press fasten on the early, tenuous, "preliminary and low-confidence" report from DIA and run with it?

Is it reasonable to ask if these guys are on our side?

***

Can the culture expect students to maintain self-discipline when their representatives, such as the representative at the holding facility in New Jersey, do not?

***


Zohran Mamdani, the "globalize the intifada" candidate for New York mayor, clearly is a new politician. Mamdani, a Muslim, broke down in tears as he described the vitriol he has faced over his faith on the campaign trail.

The poor dear.

When asked about Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, Mamdani said he would be arrested if he visited New York City because of a warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC)—a self-appointed UN organization that reviews global issues like war crimes and genocide, even though Israel is not a member of the ICC. Nor is the ICC recognized by the United States. It also has no enforcement power. Yet, Mamdani sees his job as mayor of an American city as enforcing the powerless wishes of some faceless external group because he claims to have a mystical loyalty to what he calls "international law."

This moral freelancing by vague, shallow thinkers is why the Constitution limits political behavior and highlights how vital the quality of politicians—and their overseers on the Supreme Court—truly is.

***

So much has gone on in the last week, I'm still catching up from Sunday.

Sunday/Corpus Christi 2

Is the command "Do these things in commemoration of me" the most obeyed commandment? It is a component of every Christian church and is certainly more manifested than loving God or neighbor. And it is a difficult request. Many Church fathers were confused by it; St. Augustine himself was ambivalent about Transubstantiation. And it seemed to have a subsidiary but real social element that the Catholic Church at least has scorned.

Sunday's readings center on this, one directly, one symbolically, and two mysteriously. Paul quotes Christ--one of his rare quotes--at the Last Supper in his letter to the Corinthians. The Gospel reading is of the loaves and fishes, certainly a reflection of the meal at the Last Supper.

But the other two readings, from Genesis and the Psalms, are stranger. In Genesis, Abram meets Melchizedek after several successful battles. Melchizedek is introduced as the king of Salem--the early name of Jerusalem--and his name is translated as "my king is righteousness." Melchizedek brings bread and wine--like the Last Supper to come--and then, after a mention of Abram's victories, it is stated, "And [he] gave him tithe from all." It is generally translated that the giver of the tithe is Abram and the receiver is Melchizedek.

What does all this mean? How could Abram give tithes to this desert king? Who was he?

Later in Psalms is written: The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: 'Thou art a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek.'" And Paul says in his Epistle to the Hebrews that Melchizedek is "without father, without mother, without genealogy." Whoa.

Psalms and Paul present Melchizedek as a representative of God who predated the Aaronic priesthood, perhaps descended from God Himself, before all people and clans, races and nations. Before the establishment of religious history itself.

Post Iran

On this day:

1876
Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
1906
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White.
1910
The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come.
1950
The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.
1960
Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union.

***

The NYT called Mamdani, the socialist running for NY mayor, a "rising star."

***

In the top of the seventh in the game against the Brewers, Cruz ended the frame by hitting into a 5-6-3 double play. One of the fastest players in baseball, he was seen slowing up on his way to first base, resulting in an out that would’ve likely been avoided had he maintained his speed out of the box.

Pirates manager Don Kelly confirmed after the loss that Cruz’s effort on the play led to his removal from the contest.

***

Post Iran

*

The Defense Intelligence Agency continues its strange relationship with the nation. It has had several leaks in 2019, with Henry Kyle Frese arrested for leaking classified information to reporters.

Nathan Laatsch, a 28-year-old IT specialist, was accused of trying to pass sensitive intelligence materials during a sting operation conducted by the FBI. He stated his reason for his treason was he doesn’t “agree or align with the values of this admin,” so he was willing to divulge secrets.

A slew of leaks have been stimulated by the decision to cancel DEI programs.

And there are the strange connections between the government and the Clinton campaign calumny.

*

Only in America could an anonymous opinion be published so eagerly around the world. There are some reasonable conclusions:

--Many in America who work for the government are rooting against its success. The source of this animosity is sometimes ideological, sometimes simple hatred of Trump.

--The success of the bombing attack is unknown, but the impression so far is that it appears very successful. It is likely the Israeli assessments will be more accurate than anonymous leaks from Washington armchairs.

--The image of a successful America is important in the world. One can only wonder as to the mindset of government and media employees to undermine it using such unverified, superficial, and uncredited declarations.

*

The voters have advanced a Socialist as the Democrat nominee for mayor of NYC. Is socialism compatible with the Constitution? He campaigned on a platform that looked like it was stolen from The Onion.

*

SpaceX Dragon Axion4 launched successfully to ISS for 2 weeks.

*

The vice-mayor of a small LA town has gone on social media and asked local criminal gangs to stand up for themselves and fight for their territory against ICE intrusion.

*

Iran's last-minute gratuitous bombing was an attempt to wring the last few drops of death out of the conflict before the ceasefire. 

*

One wonders how the circumstances arose to guarantee Iranian oil flow (particularly to China), despite war and bombing, and the tremendous leverage it offered. 

From Hell's Heart

On this day:

109
Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 km north-west of Rome.
637
The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada. It is the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
1374
A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1916
World War I: the Battle of the Somme begins with a week-long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1947
Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

***

Stephanie Hockridge, a former Phoenix news anchor-turned-fintech entrepreneur, has been convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID relief funds.

***

If Iran has hidden some Uranium, Israel will find it. And steal it.

***

Did the diffident Obama administration and the ineffectual Biden Regency teach the Iranians false lessons?

***

From Hell's Heart

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!

                                                    *

Fight for peace. Buy more, save more. Our world reverberates with Orwellian weirdness, but nowhere as much as the Middle East, where the intensity of feelings overrides all logic and practicality. Iran has had the very purpose of its government removed by the American air attack. The nuclear destruction of the hated Israelis is no longer possible, and the inability to recreate the circumstances necessary to attempt it again has been revealed.

Now Iran is fighting off its back, has violated the ceasefire, and allowed Israel to rationalize restarting Iran's punishment. Iran must be convincing even the dithering Press of the danger they present. Iran's willingness to suffer for an unachievable goal should be alarming to all. If anything, it proves Trump's point and justifies his actions. Iran is beyond all restraint in its obsession. The sensible argument that Iran would not destroy the Straits of Hormuz because that would destroy their own economy and their own people clearly does not apply.

Conniving Israel may be the only reasonable player in the field: Iran cannot be hurt too much.

Ahabism is not in the OED, so we are not constrained by a definition. Our definition of Ahabism: narrow, focused, monomaniacal, tyrannical, and single-minded pursuit of a goal that results in self-destruction.

Ahab's destruction is probably deserved, but he does take the Pequod with him.

Sunday/Corpus Christi 1

On this day:1314
First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins.
1611
The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson’s fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.
1758
Seven Years’ War: Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760
Seven Years’ War: Battle of Landeshut – Austria defeats Prussia.
1917
In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.
1942
World War II: the first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train full of Jews from Paris.
1959
Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.
1972
Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
1982
Chinese American Vincent Chin is beaten to death in Highland Park, Michigan, by two auto workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies.

***

A fascinating little sidelight to the attack. 

"I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them [Iran] about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil," Rubio had said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

"If they [close the Straits]... it will be economic suicide for them. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries' economies a lot worse than ours."

Around 20% of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, with major oil and gas producers in the Middle East using the waterway to transport energy from the region.

***

The IAEA chief, Grossi, has been talking as if nothing has happened.

***

For a people who say they oppose war, we show a lot of admiration when it is done well


***


CNN objected yesterday that the Iranians did not have the capacity for developing a nuclear weapon but the attack may not have successfully hit all of their capacity. So, which is it?

***

A curiosity is that the nullification policy of individual sanctuary cities places non-sanctuary communities at risk..

***

Are the Europeans and the Iranians still having nice dinner meetings?

***

The Penguins will learn by Wednesday if the New York Rangers will surrender their 2025 or 2026 first-round pick.

***

Police were called to the area of North Saint Clair Street and Broad Street near Garland Park around 11:45 p.m. after two separate ShotSpotter alerts, which totaled 14 rounds.

***

Will sanctuary cities protect Iranian sleeper cells?

***

Sunday/Corpus Christi 1

The gospel is the Loaves and Fishes Gospel from Luke. It occurs after a day of preaching:

As the day was drawing to a close,
the Twelve approached him and said,
"Dismiss the crowd
so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms
and find lodging and provisions;
for we are in a deserted place here."

A deserted place. Christ answers in that peculiar way:

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."

What could He mean by that? Was He kidding them? Being wry and provocative? Raising every question to a monumental concept?

At the Passion, "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king."

Every opportunity Christ has to close a door, He opens one.

On this day:
1633
The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
1848
Beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris, France.
1898
Spanish–American War: United States Marines land in Cuba.
1941
Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
1944
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
1945
World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.

***

About 300,000 people in Israel are American citizens.

***

Gunfire broke out at a Juneteenth celebration Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing one person and wounding seven others, according to police and the organizers of the event.


***

Attack on Iran

The Americans delivered an astonishing, precise, obliterating attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran. Some notes on the attack:

The attack was done with remarkable efficiency and secrecy for such a complex project. The planes entered, bombed, and left Iran without being detected. A mammoth undetected military strike, complete with fake "ghost" radar readings. That, as a modern possibility, must be a frightening realization for the world.

Where does the U.S., or any country, get the authority to determine the internal workings of another state? We are reasonably afraid of the implication of a maniacal, homicidal theocracy that has threatened its neighbors and the U.S. and periodically killed our citizens. They are, without question, a malignant threat to the U.S. and the world. The world will rejoice at the effort, albeit probably silently. But where does the justification for such a huge military action come from?

The government boasts of the fact that no shots were fired. There is a bizarre element here. Certainly, it is notable that the attack was carried out without extraordinary risk to American soldiers. However, there is the implication that this attack would be less warlike if fewer people were killed. Certainly, this seems an attack on material is less invasive and less serious than an attack involving people. But it does look like war.

Trump has made this a defensive act to protect a friend; a limited act with limited aims. Like an older brother, he asks only that his smaller brother not be hurt or killed. Iran and their agents are more clearly defined as the vicious maniacs they are. Being America's friend might become desirable again. His requests for a compromise here seem sincere. Interestingly, his stance on his peculiar tariff policies supports this sincerity.

Limited warfare is not new and can be very strange. The War of the Flowers and Mourning Wars seem to have been taken with the agreement of the victims. Even if the victims were not of the same culture.

Pakistan has suggested that Trump get the Nobel Prize for his actions in the Pakistan-India conflict. Will this strike decrease or raise the value of this claim?

Gabbard's comments on Iran's nuclear willingness and readiness in the Senate will haunt this event. She is an attractive, commanding presence, but, like Hollywood, may not be terribly bright.

Trump is decisive, which makes him particularly jarring as president. Iran has attacked American personnel and interests for forty-five years. Obama became a "red line" punch line. Biden was addled and incoherent. Indulgence has been the watchword, as if the Democrats were the parents of bad kids. But these kids are heavily armed.

If this raid was as successful as it looks, the political geometry of the Middle East has radically changed. It has become safer and more optimistic. The U.S might be seen again as a positive internal force.

How is that conference between Iran and the European governments going? Has any conference been sillier, a cease-fire discussion between non-combattants?

The Death to America crowd might be taken a little less seriously now. It will be interesting to see if the Gaza supporters pivot to support Iran. There will be cries against the attack by lukewarm friends and internal enemies on campus and in Progressive boardrooms. 

They will fret that suicidal Iranian agents--particularly those allowed by the Biden Regency non-administration--will become active and harm us. That might be true. But if it happens,  it will not be because of this attack; it will be despite it. The cause of such attacks will be mental derangement, a disregard for the wellbeing of man, the ineptness of the American system which declares it demands war leadership from a group of people who cannot balance a budget or deal with our debt, Obama's fear of consequence which prefers form over substance, and the republic-threatening Biden Regency which, with the Obama frontrunners, preferred bribery to policy.

The Democrats in Congress have a decision to make. AOC has already moved her dislike for Trump to the astonishingly un-Democrat position of limited governmental power, saying the president has no power to launch warlike actions without Congressional approval. But no one believes in the validity of the War Powers Act. Not even Obama, who attacked around the globe and ruined Libya. This will be interesting to watch, as most of these people essentially oppose America's success and integrity. 

I wonder if the Israelis would be willing to subcontract their intelligence.

The inactivity of the Iranian proxies has been stunning.

A commentator has said that Iran is in the driver's seat now. How is that, exactly? Like a suicide bomber has control over his future? The Pirates, behind by ten runs, decide who's going to pinch-hit?

SatStats

On this day: 

217 BC
The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
1734
In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.
1791
King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.
1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.
1877
The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants convicted of murder, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.
1900
Boxer Rebellion. China formally declared war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Dowager Empress Cixi.
1942
World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.
1964
Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
2001
A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.
2004
SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

***

A strain of bacteria found aboard the Tiangong space station in 2023 appears to be a variety never previously identified on Earth.

Following its discovery by members of the Shenzhou-15 mission, the crew swabbed the space station with sterilization wipes, froze the samples they collected, and sent them back to Earth for review.

Sent them back to earth?

***

On Sam Haggerty's single to center, former infielder Oneil Cruz ran over to field the ball, but it went under his glove. Rather than chase after the ball, Cruz stood and watched it roll away, allowing Adam Frazier, a second baseman and another volunteer outfielder, to back up the play. Had Cruz immediately run after the ball, he probably would have gotten to the ball first. 

The Press called this "a bad look."  

***

What if, as AI learns, it becomes unimpressed with us?

***

Re: bad looks. Is anyone disturbed about Gabbard's opinion about Iran's nuclear program?

***

SatStats


The Earth rotates on a tilted axis, about 23.5 degrees off vertical, possibly the result of a collision early in its history/ This tilt si responsible for the seasons and the summer solstice, the day with the longest exposure to sunlight in the year. The longest day--today--with apologies to Cornelius Ryan.

The Gregorian calendar has 365 days, but the Earth actually takes about 365.25 days to orbit the Sun. That extra quarter-day is why we have leap years — and why the solstice shifts between June 20 and June 21.

The U.S. fertility rate in 2023 was just 54.5 births per 1,000 women, a historic low.
Since peaking in 1957 at 122.9 births per 1,000 women, the rate has been in steady decline.
More women are having children later in life, with women aged 30–34 now showing the highest birth rates.


The data shows the U.S. general fertility rate peaked in 1957 at 122.9 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
By 2023, that rate had fallen to 54.5—less than half the mid-century high. The sharpest declines came post-1960s, but the downward trend continues in the modern era.

There will be more deaths than births in the US by 2036
Factoring in immigration, the US population will peak in 2080

The median age in the US is 38.5, up from 34.3 in the year 2000
Without immigration, the working-age US population would not have grown since 2000

Three-fifths of advanced economies worldwide already have more deaths than births
Two-thirds of the global population live in countries where fertility is below the replacement rate

The global population is projected to peak at 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s
China is forecast to lose over half of its current population by 2100

Investigations have confirmed the presence of hybrid termite swarms every year since 2021, including in April 2025.
The team genetically tested the termites and found that they had genes from both species.

A new organism.

Drug overdose deaths have been falling for the last 18 months.

Since 2010, the UK has cut every public sector department's expenditure in real per capita terms apart from health. It has moved the country to the bottom of the G7 in spending and taxation.

Private capital funds have taken more money from investors than they’ve distributed back to them in gains for six straight years, for a total gap of $1.56 trillion over that period.

Immigrants have started more than half (44 of 87) of America's startup companies valued at $1 billion or more.

Energy, Properly Used

 

On this day:
1972
Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex
2009
During the Iranian election protests, the death of Neda Agha-Soltan is captured on video and spreads virally on the Internet, making it “probably the most widely witnessed death in human history”.

***

Are the speeches about the Iran threat new, or do they use the old Iraq WMD speeches to save paper?

***

28% of people surveyed recently feel that the Biden White House was open and honest about Biden's decline.

***

Energy, Properly Used

Kevin O’Leary commented that the recent meetings at the G7 showed that "the country that has the energy, has the AI, has the economy, has the productivity, and eventually is superior in warfare."

“This is all going to go to drones and robotics one day, and the country with the best AI,” he added.

O'Leary recently warned investors not to conflate AI enthusiasm with real capacity. "You can't just pull that from the local grid without sending electricity bills soaring. Cities won't allow it, and communities push back hard," he said last month, calling power availability the new prime metric for tech valuations.

So AI is the gatekeeper for future security and economic development, despite requiring a tremendous energy supply, a supply that has to be either developed or sacrificed elsewhere and diverted. 

How is this different from the internal combustion engine debate of old? We were told then we simply had to sacrifice energy production and move on to more responsible energy use--i.e. electric car engines--despite the inconvenience and cost, for a greater good. Now we're told we must ramp up our energy production, regardless of its source, with its recently cursed side effects, inconvenience, and cost, for the greater good. The tech race is on, and anyone can win. But anyone without great energy production will fail. AI has got to be fed. 

And what about bitcoin mining? I've seen energy farms for bitcoin mining as big as Section 8 housing projects. Certainly, bitcoin wealth enriches society and is for the greater good.

It should be clear that unexpected sacrifices must be made in our complex, modern world. The only certainty is who has to make those sacrifices.

Some Questions About Iran

On this day:

1269
King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
1306
The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1586
English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
1846
The first officially recorded, organized baseball match is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired.
1953
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1982
The body of God’s Banker, Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.

*

Is Caitlin Clark being targeted in the WNBA despite her remarkable impact on fans and on the game's popularity?

*

Karen Read was found not guilty. Very interesting case, essentially, showing 'unanswered question' replacing 'reasonable doubt.' And, of course, the privilege given to white women with good jawlines and high cheekbones.

*

Some Questions About Iran

Iran and Israel are beating each other to a pulp. Iran is particularly damaged and seems to no longer control its airspace. so Israel theoretically could continue air attacks until it runs out of armaments. How come one has declared war on the other? What would war look like if not this?

*

It is said that Iran is months away from a nuclear weapon. This has been the war chant for at least the last decade. Iran is always just a step away from destroying the Middle East. The last version of this was the chant of WMDs in Iraq, which created a military black hole for years. And, of course, we poor citizens are inundated with other imminent crises: global cooling, climate change nee global warming, population growth leading to global starvation, population shrinkage leading to welfare state collapse, social security bankruptcy, falling test scores, and growing adolescent stupidity. These are legitimate concerns for thinking people, but do they deserve a national war footing?

*

Have we become numb to the war drums of crisis? The endless war chants of the Press: Trump is Hitler, threats to democracy, WMDs? How can a democracy make reliable decisions when its information system is as warped as a midnight infomercial? Will we have to rely on outsiders with their own agendas, like Israel?

*

The silence of America's enemies is deafening. No one is supporting Iran in the Middle East. Vicious theocracies are biting their collective tongues. Even China is quiet. What does this mean? Are all these countries aware of the Iranian threat? Is everyone worried?

*

There is also silence from America's friends. The G7 actually voted on innocuous wishes for peace. Ciphers.

*

War does expose the comic. The dithering Europeans, Putin's clownish offer to mediate peace, the American Left's stunned silence. 21% of responding Americans are "unconcerned" over Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

*

What does this say about a nation's internal politics? Is the Iranian theocracy representative of the Iranian citizen? Because they wear clerical robes, do the religious leaders get more of a vote because, presumably, they are closer to God? Does anyone care about the poor Iranian citizen caught in this mess?

*

If Iran is a threat to the world because of their homicidal theocracy, what about North Korea? Should they have a bomb? 

*

Where does the U.S. get the authority to declare who should have a nuclear weapon and who should not?

*

What would be the model for a government that gives up its nuclear ambitions for the betterment of world peace? Libya?

*

Everyone was upset about the Russian attack near the reactor in Ukraine. Is an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facility okay?

History and Its Discontents

On this day:

618
Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China.
1178
Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon’s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
1429
French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
1815
Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
1830
French invasion of Algeria
1858
Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
1994
The Troubles: the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) open fire inside a pub in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, killing six civilians and wounding five.

***

Altman says Meta is offering $100 million signing bonuses, plus substantial annual compensation, to attract AI researchers.

***

The leader of Iran is 86.

***

Israel and Iran are bombing the devil out of each other, but neither has declared war. Why is that?

***

Is there scientific evidence of dye toxicity, or is this just another fad?

***

Rep. Omar, an immigrant from Somalia, believes the U.S. has become "one of the worst countries in the world."

***

History and Its Discontents

History weighs heavily on us. Theories abound. History is fulfilling itself, creating an inevitable future. We are psychologically prone to the same motives and emotions that have made the past, so the future will resemble it. Traditions mold us; institutions contain us.

We may be too young a country to exhibit this phenomenon, but Europe is very good at it. They have wars that last for decades, sometimes even centuries. They even reuse battlegrounds in addition to claims. Conservation. Despite this, not much has changed. Animosities, hatred, homicidal philosophies, and men are chewed to a pulp--and it starts again.

When this land was discovered, it was pristine. No wheel, no horse, some metal jewelry, little agriculture. The Europeans brought the things they could carry. They did not bring their enemies, only the memories of them. 

The Europeans struggled with the hostile environment, against an unfortunate Stone Age people, against their memories, and created a government out of the best of European thought. Contemplative. Based on the limits of rule, the best of man and what he could achieve when he was not suppressed for the advantage of others. A new start for the world.

As America has developed, it has had problems. It became an agricultural power, fought a war with itself to finish its vision, and struggled through the nascent industrial period. Throughout its growth, it has endured a lingering curse: some people who come here cannot embrace the future. They cannot escape their history.

Their memory created ghosts they think must be fought. Ethnicities battled in the cities over problems thousands of miles--and often years--away. Embittered European anarchists moved here and remained embittered despite not having an oligarchic enemy. When America entered the world community, some Americans took international positions based on their family origins. German-Americans joined isolationists in opposition to joining the European war. Israel created several opposition alliances. The homicidal caste vision of the homicidal Marxists has morphed like a malignant pest into CRT.

None of these problems is native to the nation. They are imported, like a new competitive fish species dumped in the ballast of ocean-going vessels that destabilize port environments. Furious Arab students might have an argument about Israel (although, to my mind, it is three generations too late). But it is not an argument for the New York streets. It is an argument for the Europeans and the Middle East. Our concern with the Middle East is shipping safety. And preventing nuclear insanity. The students involved might bring wonderful talent to the nation, but these angers are simply dislocated and should be repatriated.