The UK and Iceland came to an agreement ending the Cod Wars.
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French High Commissioner Georges Thierry d'Argenlieud recognized a French controlled "Autonomous Republic of Cochin-China" in French Indochina in violation of the Ho-Sainteny agreement. The proto state, which had been a pre World War Two administrative unit, would later become South Vietnam and would lead directly to the French Indochinese War.
Ho Chi Minh was in France negotiating under presumptions raised by the Ho-Sainteny agreement at the time.
Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu is an unusual figure as he was a French diplomat, Admiral, and a Catholic Priest. From a family of naval officers, he started off in life in that path before becoming a Priest in the 1920s. During World War Two he was recalled to naval service and would serve the Free French. He was an ardent Gaullist and it was that, rather than an opposition to Communism, that pushed him towards the creation of Cochin China.
Seriously devout, upon retiring from naval service in 1947, he entered a monastery, where he died in 1964 at age 75.
The Senate granted Truman emergency powers to end strikes. The House had done so the prior week.
Second World War Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu was executed.
Romania tends not to get that much attention in the West and therefore Antonescu, who remains a large and controversial figure in Romania, does not. His reign was abhorrent and attendant with all the crimes that the Nazis afflicted during World War Two. He none the less retains a small following.
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Norma Jeane Mortenson was born in Los Angeles to Gladys Pearl Baker, nee Monroe, who was married at the time to her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, but who was not her father.
Newton Baker and Gladys had married when she was only 14 years old. Baker was reportedly abusive. The couple had two children. Interestingly, she was born to an American family living in Mexico but one that had strong connections to California, where she grew up.
In 1923 the Bakers divorced and obtained custody of all three of the couple's children. He, however, kidnapped the oldest two and moved to Kentucky. Baker was effected by the Roaring 20s and conducted herself to some extent as a flapper and participant in the early feminist movement, which then as later advocated sexual laxity. She was pregnant when she married Mortensen, who she soon found to be boring, leading to divorce.
Norma Jean's father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, where she was working.
Baker was likely mentally unstable ,which seems to have run in her family. Based on what evidence exists, it seems like that there was a genetic component to this and she's spend much of the later years of her life institutionalized.
The rest of this story is, of course, well known. While its speculation, it would seem likely that at least some of the genetic component of her mental instabilities visited themselves upon her daughter, who of course lived a very disrupted early life.
She outlived her daughter and died in 1984.
Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was at first a voice comedian and later a famous television actor, best remembered for the Andy Griffith Show. He was strongly connected to North Carolina his entire life.
The Andy Griffith Show almost defines a certain vision of rural America to this day, and it retains a very strong following. Unlike the Sheriff protagonist of the show, Griffith married three times and had an affair with one of the shows love interests while it was running. Irrespective of those failings, he remains widely admired.
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The first Indian Motorcycle prototype was demonstrated in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Milton Hershey, age18, opened his first candy store in Philadelphia after having served a four year apprenticeship in the trade.
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April 30, 2026
Secretary of Defense Hegseth testified the war had cost the US $25B so far.
We clearly have absolutely no idea how to get out of it or win it.
May 1, 2026
Iran responded to King Donny's threats to ramp up the war on Iran, now in a ceasefire, with threats of their own.
They seemed rather unimpressed by Donny.
Donny's administration says it doesn't have to comply with the sixty day provision of the War Powers Act due to the ceasefire.
May 3, 2026
Iran sent the US a fourteen point peace plan.
May 4, 2026
The U.S. rejected Iranian peace proposals and is now going to escort ships through the Straits of Hormoz. Iran threatened to strike the ships and has already claimed to have hit a U.S. Navy craft with missiles, which the U.S. denies.
cont:
Iran attacked ships in the straits today with small surface vehicles and it resumed drone strikes on the UAE.
May 6, 2026
Yesterday was Taco Tuesday, and so we have this headline from the Tribune.
Trump paused his latest version of the illegal war with his escort program in the Straits of Hormuz. We have no way out of the war that anyone in D.C. grasps.
The US has clearly and absolutely lost this war, not succeeding in a single one of its objectives. At this point, absent ground operations, this is humiliating US defeat, worse than the loss in Vietnam.
May 7, 2026
Taco's flip on the most recent operation is because Saudi Arabia denied the US use of its airspace.
It seems to be the case that Taco didn't inform the kingdom of the operation before coming up with it.
cont:
So, now we're hitting targets in Iran again, the war we won several weeks ago, and which was definitely over before we started blockading Iran.
Compared to this, the Allied landings at Gallipoli in World War One were an absolutely stunning success.
May 10, 2026
Headline from the CST:
The US sent a counter proposal to Iran. They haven't replied.
What is new is that the UK and France are deploying ships to the region in anticipation of using them to keep shipping lanes open.
We'll remind everyone once again that this war is completely illegal, and Trump should be impeached and removed from office for the illegality.
May 11, 2026
Iran's counter proposal was rejected by the US.
May 18, 2026
The UAE was hit by drones yesterday, and an attempt was made on Saudi Arabia.
Donald Trump warned Iran it was running out of time.
The New York Times informed readers that Israel had constructed a secret base over a period of a year in Iraq for the war.
May 19, 2026
Trump threatened Iran with massive devastation and then called it off claiming that regional states asked him to.
Whatever.
The ignoramus has backed himself and the entire country into a corner and has no idea what to do.
May 20, 2026
Aided by a defecting Bill Cassidy and some other defecting Republicans who finally decided they weren't a complete pack of cowardly little sissies, Congress advanced a War Powers bill.
This isn't the same as voting on it, they're just advancing it so it can be voted on. Still, it's a blow to the Big Sissie.
May 24, 2026
Contrary to what reports are holding, no lasting solution to the conflict with Iran has been reached, particularly in regard to the nuclear material.
We appear to be on our way to something no better than what Trump ripped up in the form of what President Obama had negotiated.
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To all of this, the media and digital dimensions are adding new and decisive elements. Communication networks, fragmented information environments and algorithms that reward conflict can magnify polarization and resentment, increase propaganda and make shared discernment more difficult. Thus, war is not only fought, but also culturally conditioned through simplistic narratives, a friend-or-foe mentality, disinformation and fear. When historical memory fades and the ethical principles that protect civilians and the most vulnerable are weakened, it becomes easier to justify violence as necessary, inevitable or even “sanitized.” It is in this context that humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on, but as a fragile interval between conflicts. Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the “just war” theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated. [182] Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness. The use of force, violence and weapons reflects a relational poverty that always has disastrous consequences for civilian populations.
Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas.
When first released, almost all of the attention given to Magnifica Humanitas was on his discussion of Artificial Intelligence, but then somebody noticed is comments on the Just War Theory, and now people are freaking out. Conservative Catholic pundits have already come out with the "Pope is wrong" commentary, and even an Anglican journal came out with an article to the same effect.
He isn't wrong.
And this isn't really new.
First of all, the Just War Theory was always that, a theory. It's not doctrine, and in some quarters its never been accepted. Moreover, since World War Two the Church has really made significant modifications to what can be considered a "just war".
So, what did Pope Leo really say here.
First, what's the Just War Theory hold?
Well, let's look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It states:
According to CCC 2309, the following conditions must be met in order for war to be just:
(1) The damage inflicted by the aggressor must be lasting, grave, and certain.
(2) All other means of putting an end to it must have shown to be impractical or ineffective.
So, presently, those are the criteria set out in the Catechism. Will this be changed? I suspect it will be modified. And frankly, based on prior statements by the last three Popes, the Catechism does not support the view that the Pontiffs have been stating. The thing that they've repeatedly stated is that war is only justifiable for defensive purposes. Hence the comment; "Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the “just war” theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated."
So, with this in mind, what we might suppose (although I'm treading on dangerous grounds here as I'm not a theologian) is that the Church would modify the material set out above to read:
A country may legitimately act in self defense when:
(1) The damage inflicted by an attacking aggressor must be lasting, grave, and certain.
(2) All other means of putting an end to it must have shown to be impractical or ineffective.
(3) There must be serious prospects of success.
(4) The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated (the principle of proportionality).
Is that a big change in what the Popes have been saying? Not really.
But does it effect some sort of a change? Well, yes. A clarifying one, in my view.
What I think the Pope's statement makes clear that the moral laxity in interpreting the Just War theory is not justified. It never has been, but all too often those citing it go on to hold that whatever war they're speaking of is kind of sort of justified by the theory. That should not have been the case, and it needs to come to an end.
It's needed to come to an end for a long time.
There's no way that, for example, the US and Israeli war upon Iran is a just war. No way. At least from the U.S. prospective, it's an illegal war as it defies the requirements of the U.S. Constitution for Congress to declare war, making it immoral to a certain extent from the onset. But the criteria required for a just war even as the CCC states it cannot be met. The first criteria alone, that Iran was inflicting damage upon the United States in a way that is lasting, grave, and certain, was never met. The repeated baloney that "they've been attacking us for 47 years" didn't come close to meeting this criteria. Yes, Iran is a sponsor of terrorism. Terrorism, however, is an act of the weak and is largely ineffectual. Launching a massive offensive against Iran was not justified by the fact that Iran acts immorally.
Indeed, on that score, the war does not meet, in my view, the requirements of the forth criteria. And it never met the requirements of the second criteria either.
A war launched to change the regime, which was an earlier excuse for the war, was certainly not justified.
And it turns out that the third criteria cannot be met either. The war has actually made the regime more hard line. The only chance for success would require a massive ground invasion of the country, which is certainly not proportional to the hoped for outcome.
What Pope Leo has clarified is something that other Popes have said, to some degree, and which follows the history of the discussion on the death penalty. Pope St. John Paul the Great made statements to the effect that the death penalty could not be justified in the modern world. The following two Popes amplified that. Catholic conservatives have still refused to accept that, but that's completely correct. In the modern world, the criteria which would allow for the imposition of the death penalty simply to not exist.
And with Pope Leo's statements, it seems fairly clear that the criteria for launching an offensive war never exist either. That's been somewhat presumed all the way back to the 1940s, but now its clear.
And, it should also be clear, this is not a mere academic discussion.
War is killing people and breaking things. There's no two ways about it. Killing people intentionally is gravely evil, except in self defense. Supporting killing people except in self defense is likewise gravely illegal. The same Catholic beliefs that hold that murder is immoral, that abortion is immoral, lead directly to war and the death penalty being immoral. You cannot, no matter how much you might want to stretch it, supporting abortion if you are a Catholic, and frankly at this point, you cannot support immoral wars.
It was Pope St. John Paul, I think, who instructed that Catholic lawyers should not represent people in divorces. Judges can still preside over them however. Which brings us to this next point.
Catholic politicians can clearly not support immoral wars. When people like Chuck Gray and Megan Degenfelder come around seeking votes, as they are Catholic, their position on this war should be asked of. If they support it, as Trump supports it, they're willing to condemn their souls to Hell for their ambitions, or at least risk that. Those Catholics in the Trump administration supporting the war, and we don't really know who they are (we know that Vance wasn't in support of it) are doing the same, to a larger degree. The military raid on Venezuela that occurred earlier likewise presents the same problem. Any invasion of Cuba, which it seems likely we will do, poses the same situation.
But beyond that, can Catholic servicemen morally serve in these wars?
I'm sure opinions will vary, but I don't think they can.
And that is a real change. And given that war involves death, that's a change for the good.
Related threads:
It was Memorial Day for 1976.
Indeed, it's probably just a trick of the calendar and memory, but this year's Memorial Day seemed freakishly early to me. We probably went fishing.
I was a newly minted teenager as of a few days prior.
Syria invaded Lebanon, occupying part of the country until 2005. In the weird way that history works, the first column which was targeting Sidon was stopped by the PLO, a second by the Lebanese Army, and a third column by Christian militias.
That says something about how crappy the Syrian Army was, and frankly always was. They endured huge casualties.
The goal was to annex Lebanon into Syria. They'd never achieve a full occupation of the country, but they would over time expand the amount of territory they were occupying.
The Indonesian installed "People's Assembly of East Timor" voted unanimously in favor of the "Act of Integration" to make East Timor Indonesia's 27th province.
The UK and Iceland entered into negotiations to end the Cod Wars.
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Porfirio Díaz, declaring "Moriré en México" (I shall die in Mexico), departed the country forever on board the steamer Ypiranga.
His statement, which seems delusional now, was not wholly irrational. Large elements of the Mexican Army supported him, and Mexico's prior history had seen at least one exiled leader, Antonio López de Santa Anna, return.
The White Star liner RMS Titanic was launched from Belfast at 12:13 pm. The ship was incomplete and was towed to a berth to have its superstructure and the interior completed.
Terrorists bombed the Nicaraguan Army barracks at Fort La Loma, killing 130.
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The best posts of the week of May 24, 2026.
The Feral Week:
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This is completely sick.
Or evil.
On the sick item, a recent video shows Donald Trump getting off of Marine Corps 1 (which frankly shouldn't be a thing) and veering all over as he walks.
FTD is notoriously hard to diagnose while a person is alive. It's slow moving as a rule and the person afflicted with it often just seems weird and mean before it's really advanced. It's horrific to watch up close. Pneumonia ends up being what kills most people with FTD.
A person with the affliction shows these signs.
Socially inappropriate, impulsive, or repetitive behaviors
Loss of interest in normal daily activities
Emotional withdrawal from others
Trouble planning and organizing
This is what Trump appears to have.
It if isn't this, then he's otherwise severely mentally ill, or actually seeking to sabotage the country for some reason, with being a foreign agent the only good explanation. This would fit into that, as it would seriously impair the value of U.S. currency.
The good news, if there is any, is that this would take an act of Congress and it appears to be unlikely that smiling sycophant Bessant aside, anyone is going to be able to convince a sufficient number of Congressmen to go along with this, particularly by July 4, 2026.
May 31, 2026
The "yips"?
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