The legendary aviation mystery of Flight 19 occurred when five Grumman TBFs disappeared in a training flight between Florida and Bermuda, together with a PBM Mariner that was sent to look for the missing aircraft.
The PBM is believed to have exploded.
No doubt because none of the aircraft have ever been found, the mystery remains an enduring and popular one, and it is part of the Bermuda Triangle set of myths.
The French government nationalized five banks.
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Lost love
The big news this past week is that Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came to prominence as one of the most notable and frankly disagreeable figures on the far right, and then who moved away from Trump, is leaving the 119th Congress in January after her pension vests.
What's exactly going on here is really unclear, but Green's transformation was remarkable. She used to come across like an ignorant howler monkey. If Eva_Vlaardingerbroek is the "Shieldmaiden of the far right", she was more like an buffoonish bouncer.
All of a sudden, however, she really came around to opposing Trump and in fact suddenly sounded like a different person completely. That suggests her antics were always an act put on for her constituents.
Given her change, she was drawing the direct opposition of Trump who was opposing her in next year's Congressional election. She already had stout opposition and may just be taking off because she doesn't want to spend the next year dealing with a pack of extremists. Her transformation did not cause her to be loved by moderates who were baffled on her transformation, save perhaps for Thomas Massie, whom Trump also hates. Trump is vicious to all who oppose him.
Well, as W. E. B. Dubois famously said, only a food never changes their mind.
The Seditionist accuses others of Sedition.
Donald Trump is a seditionist insurrectionist. He has not had his act of sedition excused by Congress, so he's actually ineligible to be President of the United States, and legally, isn't.
So that makes it all the more ironic and hypocritical that he's gone after a collection of Congressmen and Senators, all veterans, who reminded service members that they can, and must, obey an illegal order, under certain circumstances (they can't for instance, just assume an order may be illegal).
Some of this has actually already been happening. Resignations of senior officers, and some firings, have hit the news, usually with a "gosh, I wonder why this is happening" sort of commentary. It's happening because they're opposing illegal orders. It's also the case that National Guardsmen have started a backchannel internet communication discussion that includes the same topic.
Trump seems to be in a full blown panic about this, and probably for good reason. The US is currently murdering people on the seas in extrajudicial killings using military force that some regard as being on the edge of illegality. Trump has sent National Guardsmen to cities with Courts repeatedly intervening to stop the deployments. Trump is constantly rumored to be on the edge of using the Insurrection Act. But as time goes on he gets more and more erratic.
The majority of American people already disapprove of Trump's presidency. There's no national stomach at all for using the military against the population, but the administration has constantly flirted with it, and to some extent, already done it. The legality of Trump's actions on all levels are in the Courts. There's a reviving movement to impeach him, and his behind the scenes support may well be reaching the breaking point. We still don't know what was in the Epstein files, other than that rich and powerful men feel they can get away with whatever they want, including screwing teenage girls.
Declaring the politicians who spoke to be seditionist is absurd. They were no such thing. But it does paint a target on their backs. This was reprehensible.
It's also a sign of extreme desperation. We'll note that below.
Piggy
One of the increased signs of Trump's dementia is his inability to hold his tongue. Last week he called a reporter who asked a question he didn't like "Piggy". It was a female reporter.
He's demented.
Any other politicians in the US who said such a thing would be howled down to the point they'd offer an apology. Not Trump, of course. The fact that he hasn't been is evidence of what redneck trash this country has become. It's appalling.
It's also a sign that at this point Trump is so stressed by something that the wheels are really coming off of his psyche.
Articles of Surrender
One of the most notable things about Donald Trump is the degree to which he truly seems to abhor war.
Or does he?
It's actually a bit difficult to tell.
Regarding the Russo Ukrainian War, Trump has repeatedly issues statements that approach being homo erotic about the war and how it needs to end, due to all the "beautiful" young men it kills. At the same time, of course, he doesn't mind killing South American men very much.
Going back to that, however, Trump has being trying and promising to end the Russo Ukrainian War for well over a year now. He's flip flopped on positions, but one of those that he periodically occupies is acting as an agent for Russia. We're back at that point again.
The West promised to secure Ukraine's sovereignty when it gave up its nuclear weapons. The West has not fulfilled that promise fully. President Biden did a good job of helping Ukraine right from the onset, but didn't go as far as he should have. The various European nations have done far, far more than they've gotten credit for.
Trump desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and although he may have convinced himself that he ended "eight wars", so far, he's not really ended any, if we consider that the only real claim he could have made to that effect was the war in Gaza, where Israel conducted a bombing raid yesterday. Most people who have really looked at the situation in Gaza don't expect the peace to hold permanently.
A real peace between Ukraine and Russia would be a major accomplishment, however. The thing is, however, that the "peace plan" that Trump presented was basically that Ukraine surrender. Indeed, it resembles the treaty that ended the Great War to some extent, in that Ukraine gives up land and limits the size of its army, which are two of the things Germany did at the end of World War One.
That worked out oh so well.
Of course, to realize that would require a sense of history, which Trump lacks. That the plan smacks of the Munich Accords also would require that.
So, back to a couple of things .Why is Trump the only Western leader outside of Viktor Orban who likes Putin? It isn't because he's on the populist right. Giorgia Meloni is on the populist right and she's not a Putin fan.
But Meloni also is very intelligent and not trying to suck up unwarranted praise all the time.
It might be just because the Russians know that Trump is demented and a narcissist, and they play into that. But it's hard to wonder if it isn't something else.
At any rate, member of the Administration are already attempting to walk the document back. That's interesting, as Trump seemed very solidly behind it. That suggest that there are some forces behind the scenes that can operate a bit independently of Trump.
Voting no on Socialism while Trump cozies up to it.
The House voted on a resolution to disapprove Socialism, which is just about as stupid of thing as they could done. What on earth was that exactly supposed to prove?
The GOP has really gone off the rails on this topic in that it now asserts routinely that Socialism=Communism. It doesn't. All Communists are Socialist, but not all Socialists are Communists, and those who maintain the opposite need to go back to school.
Ronald Reagan's big French buddy Francois Mitterrand was a Socialist. He was also completely democratic.
Of course, Donald Trump isn't completely democratic, but interestingly, some of his policies are socialist, and now he's had a fawning meeting with the new Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City. He declared that they had a lot of views in common.
Look for the GOP to now propose joining the Comintern.
Turning Point at CC
One of the things that the assassination of Charlie Kirk seemed to do was to boost the creation of Turning Point USA chapters. There's one at one of the local high schools now, and one at the local community college.
At that one, there was just an event at which the far right Secretary of State and a far right politician who wants less government but who is a major landlord, thereby occupying a role in society that only exists due the major support of the government, or else people would ignore your claim to property rights, spoke.
Wyoming's far right is sounding more and more irrelevant, so its interesting how these things are a bit behind the curve. Of course the Secretary of State, in order to try to keep ahead of the curve, has been sounding like a member of Greenpeace recently. I thought this would have generated some news, but it doesn't seem to.
Interesting.
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The Republican Party lost control of the House of Representatives. The 62nd Congress would have 230 Democrats, 162 Republicans, one Progressive Republican, now an extinct species, and the first Socialist ever elected to Congress, incoming U.S. Representative Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee.
Overall, politics were swinging leftward, with the Democrats, which had been the conservative party, beginning their slow migration to the left.
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They can be, sometimes, an indicator of things to come.
June 25, 2025
New York City Mayoral Race
Progressive Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary.
Mamdani, who immigrated with his parents as a child from Uganda to the US, is a self declared democratic socialist. He's a Shi'a Muslim. All of these things are setting off the populist far right.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, won the Republican primary for New York City mayor, but was unopposed. He stands no chancing of winning the general election.
September 22, 2025
Texas
Texas has an election this year, and it includes a bunch of ballot propositions, which are:
So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.
Mamdani is obviously going to win.
Republicans will freak out.
Mike "Smarmy Smile" Johnson will be in full bullshit mode for weeks. "I'm not keeping the House in perpetual recess because I'm afraid of the Epstein files but because a Communist Marxist Islamist has been elected to Mayor in New York and that means that we can't look at the Epstein files".
Trump will wax poetic, "My Mommy, that's what I call him, mommy. . . I loved my mommy, she was from Scotland, where they invented golf. Are we in Mar A Lago, no, well, the Communists, Marxists, Monarchical Islamist don't want me to build a ballroom, that's because they can't dance and their legs are thin. The Wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things tops are made out of rubber their bottoms are made out of springs Their bouncey, trouncey, ouncey, pouncey fun, fun, fun, fun, fun But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'm the only one. Tiggers are cuddily fellows Tiggers are awfully sweet everyone el'es is jealous That's why I repeat and repeat The wonderful thing about Tiggers Is Tiggers are marvelous chaps They're loaded with vim and vigor they love to leap in your laps They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy fun fun fun fun fun But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers Is I'm the only one I-I-I'm the only...-oof Ouch. I've decided to kill the entire population of South America. . . "
John Thune will say something, with an earnest looking John Barrasso behind him, but nobody will remember what it was, as nobody was paying attention to him to start with.
And then a weird thing will happen.
Mamdani will probably govern more or less from the center, as he'll have to, which is likely to make his administration a success.
Which is the biggest Republican nightmare of all.
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The United Nations came into existence with the ratification of the UN Charter by the Soviet Union.
Czechoslovakia nationalized banks, insurance companies, and 27 industries.
Vidkun Quisling was executed.
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Women voted in a French election for the first time as France chose a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution for a Fourth Republic.
The elections were won by an alliance of the French Communist Party, the Christian Democratic Popular Republican Movement and the Socialist French Section of the Workers' International.
A disaster for French conservatives, the coalition saw the Communists take the most votes, drawing 26.08% and taking 148 seats, followed by the Republican Movement taking 24.91% and 141 seats. The Socialists took 23.77% and 134 seats. The pre war far left, the Radicals, took a beating, as did all the conservative parties, given that they had supported the government of Petain.
Basically, all the parties that had not participated in prewar French politics came out on top, which resulted in an alliance, albeit one that was temporarily very much left wing. Socialist Guy Alcide Mollet became the Prime Minister, with Communist Maurice Thorez the deputy prime minister.
The Fourth Republic would last until 1958, having seen, in spite of its hard left origins, the French effort to retain Indochina and much of its efforts to retain Algeria.
In Luxembourg the Christian Social People's Party won the general election.
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This one should be short. I'm very tired, and I'm in a bad/despondent mood. Nonetheless. . .
Some observations.
Mike Johnson, toady.
Mike Johnson is a complete toady . I don't know how he can stand himself. Those interviews with his little shit eating smirk in which he spouts lies. . . uff.
Johnson claims to be a Christian. He claims to be a Southern Baptists, and perhaps he is, but he seems to solidly be in the New Apostolic Reformation camp, and if I had to guess, he feels that lying to the heathens is justified if it brings about an Evangelical Republic. That view wouldn't be sanctioned by the views of most branches of Christianity.
Johnson is going to be remembered as one of the worst Speakers in American history due to his complete toadyism. He probably figures he'll be exalted for helping to bring about an Evangelical republic.
People who accuse others of being a Communist should be forced to live in a Communist country.
Johnson is one of those people who now run around calling the Democrats Communists, or Marxists. They are not, and its totally absurd. It's particularly absurd coming from a camp that is completely fascistic in real terms.
Johnson should be required to live in North Korea for a decade so he can learn what a Communist actually is.
Freaking out about New York
Part of the reason the "Marxist" term is getting thrown around is because Zohran Kwame Mamdani is about to be elected the Mayor of New York City.
Mamdani is a Democrat but he's also a Democratic Socialist. He's an observant Muslim and a member of the political far left, which is something that can only really happen in a Western country.
New York City has always been a Democratic stronghold. There are some Republican New Yorkers who are well known to history, such as Theodore Roosevelt, but the city's connection with the Democratic Party is very strong historically That shows in this race as the Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, who has less than zero chance of taking the office. Democrat Andrew Cuomo is running as an independent after having already lost to Mamdani in the primary. His chances are obviously very poor.
Oh well.
Bernie Sanders is also a democratic socialist and the country back in the past had some outright Socialist hold high office. All the bedwetting by the GOP is just stupid, but stupidity is really setting in around Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is truly weird.
The entire administration's desperate struggle to slander the No Kings rallies over the weekends really declined into the absurd. The weirdest thing was a completely juvenile AI depiction of a King Trump dumping shit on No Kings protestors. It's the sort of bathroom humor that juvenile boys like.
Juvenility is increasingly a hallmark of the Trump administration as his acolytes grasp on to his descent into dementia. The thing is, however, the blind refusal to face reality and invoke the 25th Amendment means that the country has been, by this time, almost completely destroyed as a serious entity. We will not rapidly recover from Trump, if we ever do.
Trump supporters dismiss all of this as "that's just his style" or as TDS. Derangement is the key word. Trump is increasingly deranged.
Gaza
Among the weird claims that Trump keeps making, I'd note is that he's ended eight wars.
The one war he might be able to claim he ended, the one in Gaza, seems to be teetering on the edge of a resumption of fighting. Added to that, quite frankly, there's no way whatsoever that Hamas is going to lay down arms. None.
If the peace is to hold, Gaza will need to be rebuilt as it's destroyed at practically a Hiroshima level, employment found for its people, which has never existed, and a real government put in place. It's not impossible, but nearly so.
Covert Operations
The Administration has authorized covert operations in Venezuela, which makes them non covert. Anyhow, our "peace president" is waging a small war against a foreign power illegally.
And its been revealed by the New York Times that during Trump's first term an attempt was made to insert Navy Seals into North Korea to plant a listening device. The mission went wrong as it encountered North Korean fishermen, all of whom were killed.
The details of this are unclear, but basically, that's murder unless its a case of mistaken identity.
In the Special Ops community the Seals are getting a bad reputation.
What is in those files?
Donald Trump last Friday called for Rep. Thomas Massie to be "thrown out" of Congress "ASAP".
Isn't that interesting?
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Truman ordered Lead Lease be terminated immediately.
The first major Japanese surrender ceremony in China took place at the Zhijiang Airport in Hunan Province.
The Japanese government appealed to kamikaze pilots to immediately cease operations.
The Japanese government ordered that "there will be no direct contact between the general public and the Allied landing forces." That order would rapidly break down.
In fact, the Japanese on this day were already working on breaking it down, as they determined, on this day, to form the Recreation and Amusement Association (特殊慰安施設協会) or as it is more accurately translated the '"Special Comfort Facility Association". It extended the horrific "comfort women" system but with Allied servicemen in mind, in fear that failure to do so would lead to rapes.
55,000 women would be employed by the RAA, of which 2,000 were prostitutes.
American physicist Harry Daghlian accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium bomb core resulting in an exposure to radiation at the lethal level. He died a couple of weeks later.
His hand on August 30:
The new British government announced its intention to nationalize the Bank of England.
The Romanian Royal Strike commenced during which King Michael I refused to sign the bills enacted by the Petru Groza cabinet or to receive its Ministers in audience in protest of Petru Groza's refusal to resign his position on the King's request. Resignation would have been the Romanian norm, but the Soviet backed Groza simply refused to do so.
The first post war kosher slaughter to be performed in Germany occurred with Rabbi Zweigenhaft performing the same.
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Wyoming’s biggest hospital gets mixed performance review following ownership transition: In 2024, Banner Wyoming Medical Center met the majority of its 17 contractual covenants — such as maintaining essential services and adding new technologies. It fell short in four areas.
No surprise.
Wyomingites may claim to prefer the government to be out of everything, but Casperites liked their county owned hospital.
Nostalgia combines regularly with manifest respectability to give credence to old error as opposed to new truth.
New products take backseat amid Trump tariffs
Companies work to overcome staff incivility
This perpetual Golden Share prevents any of the following from occurring without the consent of the President of the United States or his designee:• Relocate U.S. Steel’s headquarters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.• Redomicile outside the United States• Change the name of the company from U.S. Steel• Reduce, waive, or delay the $14 billion of Near-Term investments into U.S. Steel• Transfer production or jobs outside the United States• Close or idle plants before certain timeframes other than normal course temporary idling for safety, upgrades, etc.• Other protections regarding employee salaries, anti-dumping pricing, raw materials and sourcing outside the U.S., acquisitions, and more.
Man who says he can move TikTok to South Dakota is a bust in Wyoming politics: Reid Rasner lost by 43 points in a U.S. Senate race and has offered few details in support of his multibillion-dollar bid, but has won over the Rushmore State’s governor.
June 26, 2025
Wyoming oil positioned to weather Middle East conflict, analysts say: Nation's soaring oil and natural gas production may buffer energy prices if Israel-Iran conflict disrupts global supplies, some industry officials predict.
U.S. Ballistics plans on opening an artillery projectile plant in Cody.
cont:
The Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to the chamber’s procedural rules.
June 28, 2025
The US broke off tariff negotiations with Canada, the US's largest trading partner.
Aluminium costs are pressing beverage manufacturers.
June 29, 2025
The Senate voted to take up The Big Ugly, which doesn't mean that it's passed.
For the sake of the country, it should not pass, but it likely will.
Elon is taking note of the impact, which won't please his former ally.
June 30, 2025
CBO on The Big Ugly, as reported by the CST.
CBO PROJECTS TRUMP BILL WILL RACK UP DEBT
As a doctor in Wyoming for over 20 years, I’ve cared for Medicaid patients my entire career. I understand Medicaid’s importance for the people it is intended to serve. I have also seen its shortcomings.Thanks to Wyoming being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Medicaid reforms included in the bill are unlikely to negatively impact our state. Wyoming’s policies are already aligned with a majority of the Medicaid provisions. This includes work requirements for all able-bodied adults enrolled in Medicaid.Medicaid was established to help children, pregnant women, seniors and the disabled. We need to make sure that high-quality care is accessible and reliable to those who qualify for Medicaid. This bill does that.
Dr. John also supported Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for his current position even though he no doubt privately believes Kennedy is a quack. And he hid under his desk for the most part during the recent public lands issue. Reaction to this story brought out a lot of anger by people remembering that, as it should.
Eight Republican Senators are currently holding out against The Big Ugly.
The GOP leadership has been struggling with getting the Big Ugly passed in general, and in meeting King Donald's arbitrary July 4 deadline. Now the monarch has indicated he has sort of a "m'eh" view on the deadline and he doesn't want things cut too deeply, which must be causing Grover Norquist fits.
cont:
The Big Ugly passed the Senate with J.D. Vance casting the tie breaking vote.
Now its back to the House where the House Freedom Caucus has already criticized it due to its increasing the deficit.
The most amusing vote on the Senate side was Lisa Murkowski, who voted for it, but indicated she was agonized by the whole thing. That seems to be Murkowski's theme. If the Senate proposed a vote to run over kittens, she'd vote for it, but note that the whole thing really bothered her.
Murkowski:
My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we're not there yet.
Gutless.
July 2, 2025
The US dollar suffered its worst first-half decline in more than 50 years due to tariff concerns.
Lisa Murkowski is taking a lot of flak for selling her vote for changes to the Big Ugly that benefitted certain constituents in Alaska, including whalers, while she acknowledges the Big Ugly is ugly. She seems utterly surprised that she's now the subject of outright deserved contempt.
Murkowski was just playing politics the old fashioned way, trading her vote for something she thinks her constituents needed, while still not liking the bill. It's the way things are done, in normal times, which these are not.
Murkowski is 68 years old, which I'll mention as the Big Hugly contains tax breaks for seniors.
Well of course it does.
Old Boomers Never Die
They control away. . . *
Footnotes:
*From Old Soldiers Never Die.
