Enemies of Success

 On this day:

1689
The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.
1770
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales
1808
Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.
1831
Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.
1863
Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill’s Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
1879
The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears at Knock Shrine in Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
1918
World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
1942
World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop Mount Elbrus.
1942
World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru
1945
Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1961
Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.
1963
Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
1968
Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
1991
Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

***

Life never knows the return of spring. --John Gay in Beggar's Opera

***

When President Biden's mental faculties declined, his responsibilities were subsumed by those around him. Taken over. By the same people proclaiming threats to voting honesty and to democracy itself.
Biden's implosion, a threat to the integrity of the government, the very foundation of the government, was not seen as a crisis; it was seen as an opportunity, a breach in the constitutional dam restraining man's tyrannical tendencies to exploit.
That is a coup. Treason.

And yet, no response.

Why has there been no reaction? No leap to the barricades? Where are the wild-eyed street radicals? The cold, intense legal guardians of the republic?

Was that less important than whatever is in the Epstein Files? Than who Natalie Harp is?

***

During the last three years, an average of 270 orbital rockets have launched from Earth, a more than threefold increase from only a decade ago.
Analysys Mason forecasted that more than 37,000 satellites will need to be launched between 2023 and 2033.

***

Alice's report from Wonderland: NYC has suggested using tax dollars to prop up private grocers hurt by competition from Mamdani’s city-owned supermarkets — a program anticipated to cost $70 million for five stores across the boroughs. Ah, redistribution.

***

U.S. Treasury buybacks are like paying your mortgage with your credit card.--Morgan's Sullivan

***

Enemies of Success

California has become the fourth-largest economy in the world, surpassing Japan's.

Think about that. A state with Karen Bass running one of its largest cities, that actually encourages the immigration of homeless, unemployed foreigners, whose infrastructure encourages the native homeless and insane, a state that is subject to terrible natural risks, continues to be one of the most productive economies in the world.

Or consider this: The poorest American state, Mississippi, has a higher per capita GDP than Britain, France, or Japan. Mississippi.

Any serious student of government would want to explain this economic success. As would any serious politician. One would expect flag-waving and chest-thumping.

So why would anyone consider the policies of America's declared economic and military enemies, policies that historically have led to death, destruction, and ruin? How could anyone even consider its vacuous standard-bearers like Hong or Mamdani as serious political leaders? 

With all the threats to democracy that are identified every minute in this country, is this not the obvious, dangerous one?