The Greek Parliament decided that the official language of Greece would be Demotic Greek, "Demotiki", the modern colloquial form of the Greek language, rather than "Katharevousa" an updated version of Ancient Greek. The latter had been the official form.
The Greek language question (γλωσσικό ζήτημα) had been going on since the 19th Century.
The British fishing trawler Arctic Corsair rammed the Icelandic Coat Guard vessel ICGV Óðinn.
The ship continued to serve until 2006, and appears as a US vessel in Flags of our Fathers. It's presently a museum ship.
Muhammed Ali barely clung on to his heavyweight title in a fight against Jimmy Young in Landover, Maryland.
Both boxers health declined enormously after their boxing careers, due to their boxing careers. Young died at age 56.
Famous African American aviator Bessie Coleman was killed along with passenger, her mechanic and promoter, William D. Willis when her Curtiss JN-4 crashed. A post accident investigation found a wrench jammed in the controls which jammed them.
The airplane was newly purchased and in poor mechanical condition. Her friends had urged her not to fly due to the condition.
The GOP is really playing with fire here. It's correct that as a private organization the government shouldn't tell it who it can and cannot endorse. But then, the laws of the state shouldn't give a preferential position to a private organization, let alone a political party. As a "major party" it has a role in nominating replacement for some positions and has pride of place in primaries. When challenged in court, and it could be, this might be the first step towards an open primary in Wyoming. That is, one with no parties noted at all.
In other races, the amount of money being violently hurled by Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner at the House race is simply nuts. Weekly flyers now arrive, printed obviously by the same company, by both candidates, and television ads appear constantly. Frankly Rasner's television ads are a little better than Gray's, the latter of which basically amount to a swooning expression of love, albeit by a man who comes across as so angry its unhinged, and absolute fealty to Donald Trump. Rasner has, in my view, less than zero chance of winning the seat, but if he has any success at all it will be due to his media blitz. At any rate, both campaigns are largely self funded, which gives rise to the "well, it's their money" comment. None the less, the expenditure of this sort of money is obscene and is reason enough that neither man should win office . . . any office.
The Star Tribune ran an article about the Democratic candidate taking on Art Washut, one of the best members of the Wyoming legislature. Stewart McAdoo turns out to be a South Carolinian, so we'd put him in the carpetbagger category, and he's running on the predictable Democratic seas of blood support of infanticide.
April 30, 2026
Protect Wyoming ran an ad this morning in the Tribune against Bill Allemand.
Hunters and fishermen should really oppose Allemand, who following the corner crossing ruling of the Federal Court sponsored a Draconian bill on hunting trespassing. While he claims no present interest in it, he's from a well known Powder River Basin Wyoming ranching family, a region of the state that features very limited land access. He's fighting a charge for drunk driving in Johnson County presently.
He's being challenged by Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, who got cross wise in a Bar Nunn town council meeting according to news reports. Allemand quixotically adamantly opposed a proposed nuclear generator project north of the small Natrona County Casper bedroom community. The WFC seemed to align with that opposition, showing it thinks so little that its only concept of the energy industry is grounded in fossil fuels.
Democrat Keenan Morgan is also running against Allemand. Morgan and Boyer are from Bar Nunn, Allemand from Midwest. The district covers a large amount of territory but uniquely features three small towns, Midwest, Edgerton and Bar Nunn, with Bar Nunn being by far the largest of the three. House District 58 also includes a sliver of Casper and the large unincorporated area north of Highway 20/26 in Natrona County.
It'll be interesting to see how Allemand, who has a semi uncontrollable temper, reacts Protect Wyoming's advertisement.
It's been a while since we hand an entry in this category as the rank stupidity of King Donny has put the entire Middle East at war while he simultaneously declares its not a war, it is a war, and that we've won and haven't won, while asking for help from Allies and declaring we need no help.
That's what happens when the formerly most powerful nation in the world elects a demented narcissist octengenarian to office.
While the rest of the world watches the United States circle the drain, the following has been going on.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
Matthew, Chapter 24.
When spring-time flushes the desert grass,
Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass.
Lean are the camels but fat the frails,
Light are the purses but heavy the bales,
As the snowbound trade of the North comes down
To the market-square of Peshawur town.
In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill,
A kafila camped at the foot of the hill.
Then blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose,
And tent-peg answered to hammer-nose;
And the picketed ponies, shag and wild,
Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;
And the bubbling camels beside the load
Sprawled for a furlong adown the road;
And the Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale,
Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale;
And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;
And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Jumrood;
And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk
A savour of camels and carpets and musk,
A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke,
To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke.
2
The lid of the flesh-pot chattered high,
The knives were whetted and—then came I
To Mahbub Ali the muleteer,
Patching his bridles and counting his gear,
Crammed with the gossip of half a year.
But Mahbub Ali the kindly said,
“Better is speech when the belly is fed.”
So we plunged the hand to the mid-wrist deep
In a cinnamon stew of the fat-tailed sheep,
And he who never hath tasted the food,
By Allah! he knoweth not bad from good.
We cleansed our beards of the mutton-grease,
We lay on the mats and were filled with peace,
And the talk slid north, and the talk slid south,
With the sliding puffs from the hookah-mouth.
3
Four things greater than all things are,—
Women and Horses and Power and War.
We spake of them all, but the last the most,
For I sought a word of a Russian post,
Of a shifty promise, an unsheathed sword
And a gray-coat guard on the Helmund ford.
Then Mahbub Ali lowered his eyes
In the fashion of one who is weaving lies.
Quoth he: “Of the Russians who can say?
“When the night is gathering all is gray.
“But we look that the gloom of the night shall die
“In the morning flush of a blood-red sky.
“Friend of my heart, is it meet or wise
“To warn a King of his enemies?
“We know what Heaven or Hell may bring,
“But no man knoweth the mind of the King.
“That unsought counsel is cursed of God
“Attesteth the story of Wali Dad.
4
“His sire was leaky of tongue and pen,
“His dam was a clucking Khuttuck hen;
“And the colt bred close to the vice of each,
“For he carried the curse of an unstanched speech.
“Therewith madness—so that he sought
“The favour of kings at the Kabul court;
“And travelled, in hope of honour, far
“To the line where the gray-coat squadrons are.
“There have I journeyed too—but I
“Saw naught, said naught, and—did not die!
“He hearked to rumour, and snatched at a breath
“Of ‘this one knoweth’ and ‘that one saith’,—
“Legends that ran from mouth to mouth
“Of a gray-coat coming, and sack of the South.
“These have I also heard—they pass
“With each new spring and the winter grass.
5
“Hot-foot southward, forgotten of God,
“Back to the city ran Wali Dad,
“Even to Kabul—in full durbar
“The King held talk with his Chief in War.
“Into the press of the crowd he broke,
“And what he had heard of the coming spoke.
“Then Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief, smiled,
“As a mother might on a babbling child;
“But those who would laugh restrained their breath,
“When the face of the King showed dark as death.
“Evil it is in full durbar
“To cry to a ruler of gathering war!
“Slowly he led to a peach-tree small,
“That grew by a cleft of the city wall.
“And he said to the boy: ‘They shall praise thy zeal
“So long as the red spurt follows the steel.
“And the Russ is upon us even now?
“Great is thy prudence—await them, thou.
“Watch from the tree. Thou art young and strong,
“Surely thy vigil is not for long.
“The Russ is upon us, thy clamour ran?
“Surely an hour shall bring their van.
“Shout aloud that my men may hear.’
6
“Friend of my heart, is it meet or wise
“To warn a King of his enemies?
“A guard was set that he might not flee—
“A score of bayonets ringed the tree.
“The peach-bloom fell in showers of snow,
“When he shook at his death as he looked below.
“By the power of God, who alone is great,
“Till the seventh day he fought with his fate.
“Then madness took him, and men declare
“He mowed in the branches as ape and bear,
“And last as a sloth, ere his body failed,
“And he hung as a bat in the forks, and wailed,
“And sleep the cord of his hands untied,
“And he fell, and was caught on the points and died.
7
“Heart of my heart, is it meet or wise
“To warn a King of his enemies?
“We know what Heaven or Hell may bring,
“But no man knoweth the mind of the King.
“Of the gray-coat coming who can say?
“When the night is gathering all is gray.
“Two things greater than all things are,
“The first is Love, and the second War.
“And since we know not how War may prove,
“Heart of my heart, let us talk of Love!”
Rudyard Kipling, Ballad of the King's jest
March 23, 2026.
Pakistan v. Afghanistan
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fighting a border war.
March 28, 2026
Mexican Drug Wars
Self defense militias are forming in the cartel ridden portion of Mexico, armed with military style semi automatic rifles, AKs and ARs, smuggled in from the US.
This actually provides a good example of the utility of something like the 2nd Amendment. Mexican civilians are having to illegally arm themselves, which in the US they would not have to.
Russo Ukrainian War
If we had to be fighting a war, we should have been fighting this one. But then, Donald Trump loves Vlad Putin.
Russia is losing more men per month in Ukraine than it can recruit.
This war has seemingly been forgotten in the US, but then the US is now an aggressor nation as well.
April 30, 2026
A second U.S. Ambassador has resigned over the embarrassing American conduct towards the embattled country.
Donald Trump, whose declared that the US has won the war its losing against Iran, declared that Ukraine lost the war its winning against Russia.
Trump repeatedly shows himself to be one of Putin's best friends.
Ukraine destroyed a Russian oil facility in a major long range drone attack and followed it up with a second drone attack yesterday on a different facility.
Since the White House Correspondence Association's Dinner attack, Donald Trump has gone full gonzo on his pet project, a ballroom.
In the United States of 2026, with a massive deficit, declining world status, a war its loosing, a culture that's moved beyond balls, only Trump and his acolytes, most of whom have never been in a ballroom, care about this project. Probably for that reason we're hearing all sort of excuses on why this is an absolute necessity. It's for the safety of the President and for a military command and control bunker.
Both of which are two really good reasons not to build it.
Underneath the ballroom would be a giant command and control structure. It would replace the secret but not so secret Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) dating back to World War II. The PEOC was itself an example of paranoia. It was probably much more useful during the Cold War than it was during World War Two.
It probably is obsolete. Times change.
All of which is a good reason not to build it.
The fact of the matter is that since the start of World War Two security and privilege has attached to the office of the President at an ever increasing rate. Special cars, special aircraft, a dedicated helicopter and a house with a bunker.
In recent years some paranoid Americans who like to imagine the world turning to shit, by which they mean the United States as the rest of the world doesn't count, have built their own bunkers. It's fun. It provides them with a false sense of security. But they can't launch wars.
The President can and he's launched two so far with a third nearly inevitable. Surrounded by security as he is, he probably feels perfectly safe, although the dinner attack would tend that isn't really true. Anyhow, people feeling perfectly safe do dumb and destructive things.
Trump himself is a perfect example of that. His income has made him feel perfectly safe from economic disaster and convinced himself that he's an intelligent man. And during his administration men who raped teenage girls have been safe, due to their association with him. The amount of financial oddities going on during Trump's administration has shown that lots of people associated with him feel pretty safe doing things they would not otherwise do.
And Trump has felt free to participate in a war that murdered the oppositions political leadership.
Nobody should feel that safe.
That is, I realize, as shocking thing to say, but a leader should, at least to some degree, share the fate and dangers of his people. Lots of Americans go about their daily activities knowing they could be killed at random and nobody is going to do anything about it. Servicemen in the Middle East no doubt knew right from the onset that they were not safe from Iranian attacks. Quite frankly, Americans here in the United States aren't free from Iranian attacks either, we've just been oddly lucky so far.
The President of the United States, whomever he is, ought to be in the same situation as the rest of us, no matter who he is. No one man is that valuable such that he should benefit from billions of dollars of effort to set him aside in safety from the people he serves.
And the same for the military. We have command and control facilities already. We have enough. If we don't, well, that would be odd and so be it.
Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump. Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.
It wasn't.
This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now. We are in monumentally dangerous territory. It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.
And the spirt of the age has spread:
What Gray did was flat out illegal. Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived. The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege It's being pretty assertive about it.
Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am. I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will. But this is really beyond the Pale. Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.
Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.
Former Japanese Prime Ministers Hideki Tojo, Hiranuma Kiichirō, Kōki Hirota, Kuniaki Koiso, and 24 co-defendants were indicted in Tokyo for war crimes.
James White, the discoverer of Carlsbad Canyon, died at age 63.
Donald J. Trump, who fancies himself a Wile E. Coyote level genius, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business.
It certainly doesn't show, or Wharton isn't all it has been cracked up to be.
Having gotten the United States into an illegal war as Bibi Netanyahu talked him into it, Donny appears to have been taken off guard that Iran could and would close the Straits of Hormuz, hit tankers, and hit oil and gas facilities throughout the Middle East.
Why wouldn't they?
Perhaps if Melania lets Barron go see his father over Spring Break, assuming they're not perusing travel brochures entitled "where we can go to live after Don dies where people won't know we're Trumps", and assuming that Barron isn't doing the right thing and enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, they can break out some hex and counter games and play Naval based Superpower v. Land based regional power" and see how that works out.
Anyhow, Donny Trump (did we mention that he fancies himself a Wile E. Coyote level genius?) has lifted sanctions on already loaded oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, which means that Iran now has a source of cash it didn't before the war started.
So, we didn't wipe out their nuclear capabilities in the Twelve Day War, their government hasn't fallen in this one, people have not risen up to toss out the Iranian government, the Straits of Hormuz are closed, we didn't stockpile oil before the war, the price of oil has skyrocketed, and now the Iranians can legally transport some oil
Assuming that Trump isn't secretly trying to destroy the American economy and benefit Iran (and Russia), it's hard to see the smarts in any of that.
Petroleum is back up over $100/bbl, basically because King Donny is a liar.
March 26, 2026
And the war inflation hits packages:
U.S. Postal Service Announces Transportation-Related, Time-Limited Price Change
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service filed notice today with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) regarding a time-limited price change to better align its costs of transportation with the market. This temporary price adjustment will provide needed flexibility for the Postal Service by helping to ensure that the actual costs of doing business are covered, as required by Congress.
While this price increase is a time-limited adjustment, it will provide a necessary bridge to a permanent mechanism to reflect market conditions in prices for competitive products that can support the Postal Service’s ability to achieve the universal service obligation in a more financially sustainable manner going forward.
The planned price change, which was approved by the Governors of the Postal Service on March 24, is an 8 percent increase that would affect base postage prices on the following retail and commercial domestic competitive products: Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select. No other products or services would be affected, including First-Class Stamps. Pending favorable review by the PRC, the price change would go into effect at midnight Central Time on April 26 and would remain in place until midnight Central Time on Jan. 17, 2027. At that time, the Postal Service can determine if a different long-term approach is needed.
Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges. We have steadfastly avoided surcharges and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone, so even with this change, the Postal Service continues to offer great value in shipping with some of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.
The time-limited price change is consistent with industry practices and will support the Postal Service’s ability to continue achieving its public service mission — providing a nationwide, integrated network for the delivery of mail and packages at least six days a week — in a cost-effective and financially sustainable manner over the long term, just as the U.S. Congress has intended.
The PRC will review the proposed price change before it is scheduled to take effect on April 26. Complete USPS price filings, with prices for all products, can be found on the PRC website’s Daily Listings section at prc.arkcase.com/portal/filings. Price tables are also available on the Postal Explorer website at pe.usps.com/PriceChange/Index.
# # #
March 27, 2026
More than 90% of new renewable power projects worldwide in 2024 were cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Guess they aren't as woke as Chuck and demented Don would claim.
And this two years ago before the tin pot dictator decided to destroy the world's oil importation system.
March 30, 2026
West Texas is at $100/bbl this morning. Brent is at $115/bbl.
With the Houthis now in the war, there's a fairly good chance the Red Sea will be effectively closed, massively widening the war, and propelling the world into a King Donny causes severe recession.
March 31, 2026
Brent is at $114.88. West Texas at $104.
The price of almost everything is rising.
This is your economy at war. An undeclared war by a demented octogenarian.
Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended, on Natural Gas Transmission, Processing, Storage, and Liquefied Natural Gas Capacity
Presidential Memoranda
April 20, 2026
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
SUBJECT: Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended, on Natural Gas Transmission, Processing, Storage, and Liquefied Natural Gas Capacity
On January 20, 2025, I issued Executive Order 14156 (Declaring a National Energy Emergency), under the National Emergencies Act. That order found that hostile foreign actors have weaponized America’s reliance on foreign energy and used it to cause dramatic swings in international commodity markets, leaving the United States and its allies dangerously exposed. It emphasized that America must develop its capacity to supply reliable, diversified, and affordable energy to international allies and partners to compete with hostile foreign powers, strengthen relations with allies and partners, and support international peace and security.
Consistent with that declaration, I find that ensuring sufficient natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity is critical to sustaining United States defense operations and ensuring allied energy security. Inadequate pipelines, processing, storage, or natural gas and LNG export capacity would leave the United States and its partners dangerously exposed in times of crisis.
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the “Act”) (50 U.S.C. 4533), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 303(a)(5) of the Act, that:
(1) natural gas and LNG capacity, including gathering and transmission pipelines, compression, processing plants, underground storage, LNG liquefaction, storage and marine load, export facilities, and critical distribution infrastructure, are industrial resources, materials, or critical technology items essential to the national defense;
(2) without Presidential action under section 303 of the Act, United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide these capabilities for the needed industrial resource, material, or critical technology item in a timely manner due to financing constraints, long-lead equipment and construction schedules, permitting delays, and infrastructure bottlenecks; and
(3) purchases, purchase commitments, financial support for the development of production capabilities, or other action pursuant to section 303 of the Act are the most cost-effective, expedient, and practical alternative methods for meeting this need.
I have declared a national emergency under Executive Order 14156, and I further determine that action to expand domestic natural gas transmission, processing, storage, and LNG capacity is necessary to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability. Therefore, pursuant to section 303(a)(7) of the Act, I waive the requirements of section 303(a)(1)-(a)(6) of the Act for the purpose of expanding such capability.
You are authorized and directed to implement this determination, including making necessary purchases, commitments, and financial instruments to enable these projects, and to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
DONALD J. TRUMP
April 27, 2026
I listed to all three weekend shows. They were grim.
This Week made it clear we're headed into an economic crisis thanks to the damage to oil infrastructure. It may take years to repair and prices are not going to decline very soon, if ever.
