Germany delivered the unwelcome news to France that Germany had dispatched the SMS Panther with troops to occupy Agadir, part of French Morocco, on the pretext that it was to protect German citizens there.
Australia introduced compulsory military service for men ages 12 to 26, although half were exempted in various ways.
The Jewish Literary Society was closed by Imperial authorities in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
It was a Saturday, and the Saturday before Independence Day.
Voters in the Territory of Colorado voted to approve a state constitution, in anticipation of being admitted to the Union. The proposed Constitution was published in March 1876,approved on this day with 15,443 voting ‘yes’ and 4,062 voting ‘no’.
Last edition:
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.
Gray needs to suffer the penalty of the law here.
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.
South Korean court extends prison sentence for wife of ousted president
May 5, 2026
Headline in the CST:
Judges reject Trump push to obtain state voter rolls
But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.
May 16, 2026
Smith hasn't been confirmed as US Attorney for Wyoming yet.
May 21, 2026
It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country. That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels. Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone). Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly. It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.
Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.
By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man. Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.
So, a match is on.
May 29, 2026
A court ruled that Trump's adding his name to the Kennedy Center was illegal and ordered it removed within two weeks.
A different judge enjoined the IRS settlement slush fund from going forward.
June 2, 2026
Trump's insurrectionist slush fund seemed to be getting questioned by the court and now the Attorney General is saying it won't occur.
While Wyoming's Congressional delegation didn't protest it, a lot of Republicans in Congress were finding it to be a bridge too far.
June 3, 2026
June 4, 2026
A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.
It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.
Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.
June 5, 2026
All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.
June 15, 2026
Last Friday retired Judge Campbell struck down a series of provisions regarding abortion. There was some chance that these would survive challenge, as they did not directly restrict abortion, such as there being a time delay after seeking one, an ultrasound, etc., but he ruled that the Wyoming Supreme Court's earlier decision meant that these were in the nature of health care and could not stand.
I disagree with him on that, but given the absurd Wyoming constitutional provision on health care I've addressed here before, and the S.Ct. decision, it's an understandable result. It'll go on to be challenged at the Wyoming Supreme Court level, probably.
I keep wondering if anyone has argued the true existential aspect of the questions. I don't know if that's been done or not.
On the nature of things, one of the local news outlets has had photos of a woman protesting holding a sign that says "Forced Birth = Violence".
Almost all abortions in the US are due to people who just had sex, and then sex resulted in what it results in. That's not forced birth, that's nature. The common "well what about ten year olds" and the like brings up a case scenario that's exceedingly rare. The reply to that would be to ask that person if they're opposed to all other abortions, which they are not.
Even at that, however, killing is killing. It would be just as logical to go out and determine every living American who came about due to rape or tike and shoot them dead now. Yes, rape and incest are horrible. Murder is probably the ultimate horrible, however.
Apparently the S.Ct asked, in its opinion, why those challenging abortion in Wyoming don't seek to amend the constitution. It was a constitutional amendment that got us here, so that makes sense. So far nobody's lifted a finger to do that. The likely reason is that they know that amending the provision to allow for making abortions illegal won't pass in the state. Instead, they feel their odds are better litigating about it, or complaining about it.
On other matters, the case challenging the primary system filed by Skovgaard is a pro se case, as I suspected, meaning it has about zero chance of actually succeeding.
June 18, 2026
In other news, some members of the WFC are criticizing Wyoming courts as "activist", an absolutely absurd accusation, for not upholding the most recent abortion laws when the legislature itself is completely responsible for the constitutional amendment that causes those laws to do down in defeat.
The legislature could forward a repeal of that amendment, but it won't, as it's afraid that would go down in defeat. The whole thing is an example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.
June 19, 2026
What could go wrong?
On the topic mentioned above, we'll note that that you heard it here first, but now the drumbeat pointing out the hypocrisy is getting pretty loud:
Tom Lubnau: Sure, Pass Unconstitutional Bills And Blame 'Activist Judges'
Lubnau really throws the gauntlet down, stating:
The fix is simple. Pass a proposed constitutional amendment. I'll draft it for them: Article I, §38 is amended to add subsection (e): Abortion is not healthcare for purposes of this Article.
Come on Sanchez-Williams. Come on Bear. But your legislating where you claimed values are.
June 29, 2026
A good result:
A 5 to 4 decision, with Thomas writing the dissent.
A bad result:
A great result, but again 5 to 4:
Trump's already bitching about this one, complaining that this provides why the SAVE Act needs to be passed.
And another good result:
Cont:
Yikes, that was the right result, but razor thin.
Cont:
And a bad one:
Cont:
And a correct one:
Last edition:
When I was young there used to be periodic calls for a National Identity Card.
The concept was that the card would show you were a US citizen, be your social security card, proof of ID, etc.
Everything in one package.
President Clinton proposed national IDs during his administration as part of his administration's health care plan. Some people on the right and left proposed it as a way to combat illegal immigration.
Frankly, it'd make a lot of sense, or it did, in context. The card could be general proof of your identity, be your SSN card, your medicare card, your draft card, etc.
It was always opposed by the far right. Indeed, opposed fanatically. Ronald Reagan joked that it would be "the mark of the beast", but that was a joke that tapped into the Evangelical element of his base. A halfway joke, basically, pitched at people who were already afraid that the Antichrist was soon to appear.
But the left opposed it too, and adamantly.
I note this for the current irony. The Trump Administration is boosting the SAVE Act as a means of trying to keep the "wrong" people from voting.
We all know who those people are. . . . wink, wink.
And that's because they know that in the fall they're going to lose.
But ironically, they're basically proposing that millions of adults do, and millions won't be able to do, what would have been done decades ago, if they hadn't run around preventing it.
Of course, that wouldn't have required a national seizure of the elections, but that isn't required now, either.
It's funny, we used to think that the state demanding your papers was fascist.
Now, Chuck Gray just gleefully turns voter roles over to the Federal Government. . . . which doesn't mean that the state demanding paper is not, in fact, fascist.
Ihre Papiere, bitte.
The OPA's emergency wartime powers ended at midnight in spite of an effort by President Truman to extend them.
The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) authority also expired at midnight as did the authority of the War Relocation Authority.
Surplus military vehicles were being sold.
A sham election in Poland placed the country under the Communist Party and approved the post war borders with the USSR.
The U.S. Navy acquired a Curtiss A-1 Triad, becoming the first navy the world to acquire an airplane.
The Fuerzas Regulares Indigenas, the "Regulares" was founded as an infantry battalion in the Spanish Army. It was initially composed of Moroccan soldiers under the command of Spanish officers and it still sort of does in that the recruits are from two autonomous Spanish cities on the North African coast of Morocco.
Last edition:
The wounded from the Battle of the Little Big Horn reached the steamer Far West. It was a rainy day.
The steamer departed at 1:40, continually hitting the banks of the river on the way downstream.
The Cheyenne who had been at Little Big Horn had moved down near where they had fought Crook on the Rosebud. They were pursuing game.
Gibbon was left completely in charge of his command at 4:00 p.m. that day. A roster was called of the 7th Cavalry to see who remained.
Crook's troops remained in camp on Goose Creek on what was a rainy day there as well. Scout Frank Grouard went sent scouting and returned finding nothing. In fact, Sitting Bull's camp was moving straight for them.
Three miners strayed into the camp and told Crook that natives had told them of a large battle in which cavalrymen had been wiped out. Crook didn't believe them and began to organize a hunting party into the Bighorns in what would become one of the greatest hunting and fishing expeditions of all time.
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