Getting into other people's fights.

In our current era, there appear to be two ironclad rules of Republican politics.  These are 1) you criticize Biden for everything, and 2) you endorse Donald Trump even though he should be in prison.

On the weekend shows, specifically Meet The Press, one GOP personage back in D.C. blamed President Biden for Iran's actions in the shadow war between Israel and Iran.  The logic was that as Iran has been hitting US sites in Syria via Iranian proxies, we should have massively retaliated.

We have been retaliating.  The only thing we could do that we haven't would be to strike Iran inside of Iran.  That would have been over the top.  Now, that's exactly what this person wants us to do.  Irrespective of what Israel does, he wants us to hit Iran in Iran.

Isn't this the same party that chickened out in Afghanistan and surrendered to the Taliban (which interestingly doesn't like Iran) on the basis that we need to end "forever wars"?

So, we surrendered to one group of Islamic fundamentalist so they could establish a theocracy, and now we're going to take on another one?

Eh?

And why do we need to do this when it seems like Israel is pretty capable of defending itself.  Most in D.C. right now are complaining that Israel is going too far in Gaza.  That can be debated, but they certainly seem to be able to more than defend themselves, granted with U.S. material aid.

Meanwhile, a democratic county that is fighting one of the largest armies in the world can't get our  help, because Donald Trump is a fanboy of the autocratic opposition.

There's no consistency in this at all.  If it makes sense for us to get into a shooting war of some sort over the skies of Iran because they're a lethal annoyance that has staged a massive rocket attack on a democratic state, well then it makes just as much sense to do that in Ukraine.  Probably more sense, due to the civilian death toll that's resulted in.

If it doesn't make sense for Ukraine, it doesn't make sense for Israel either.

And let's be honest.  Ukraine isn't getting our aid right now because of Donald Trump.  That's the only reason.   Israel is getting help as it's always gotten our help, in part, but also because a certain part of the rising Evangelical populist wing of the GOP has certain millennial and religious ideas about that.

I'm not saying don't aid Israel.  And frankly, I'm aghast at the people who are effectively supporting Hamas, which is a brutal terrorist organization.  Nobody is looking at a long term solution, and there is one, but its Wilsonian and won't make every feel good.  What I am saying is that the GOP position right now is completely hypocritical.

Oh, and does the GOP dislike or like Taiwan right now?  I've lost track.  Maybe somebody better ask Don during a break in his trial.

Iron Domes and Chutzpah

“Iran lobbed 200+ missiles at Israel yesterday and we’re really worried that Israel will use this as an excuse to start a war”

What that lacks in intelligence, it makes up for in consistency: no matter what they are forced to endure, it’s somehow always the fault of the Jews.

Fr. Joseph Krupp on Twitter, with the quoted text paraphrasing the meaning of two Arab officials worrying that Israel will respond.

We should note that the Iranian assault was itself a response to the Israeli targeting the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in Syria to kill a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.  Attacking an embassy is classically regarded as an act of war.

Of course, Iran and Israel have been in a shadow war for years. 

Israel should not have done that.  But the Iranian response was inept.  Since they engaged in it, there's been a lot of commentary to the effect that Israel should not respond.

Really? To an assault like that?  That's asking for a lot.

Basically, where this is at is here, by analogy.  If Japan, on December 7, 1941, had lost all of its aircraft carriers and none of the ships in Pearl Harbor had been sunk, or even seriously damaged, would Japan have been allowed to come back with, "well there, we certainly taught you a lesson, now let's not overreact".

I doubt it.

Lots of people are hoping Israel doesn't respond, and it might not.  Iran should certainly hope that, as its airborne offensive capabilities have been proven to be worthless against Israel and there's now an open question about what its defense capabilities are like.  If it can't stop a serious Israeli counterstrike, it's fresh meat for the dogs in the neighborhood.  "Oh look. . . Iran is bleeding. . . "

What this also shows is what Ukraine could do if it was provided with enough air defenses to take on Russian strikes. Russia's capabilities in this area really aren't much better than Iran's, and indeed, they're using Iranian drones.

Monday, April 15, 1974. The Hibernia Bank Robbery.

The Symbionese Liberation Army committed an armed robbery on the Hibernia bank in San Francisco.  "Tania", aka Patty Hearst, was, a member of the group, carrying a cut down Iver Johnson M1 Carbine "Enforcer".

A coup overthrew the government of Niger.  Aissa Diori, the First Lady of Niger, was killed in the event.

Ivor Bell, leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, escaped from the Maze Prison in Belfast.  In the facility for only seven weeks, he posed as another prisoner who was getting a furlough to attend a wedding.  He was captured thirteen days later.

Bell was a hardliner was expelled from the IRA in 1984.  He remains alive today, suffering from dementia.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 4, 1974. I wanted to note Hank Aaron. . .

1960s, 1966, 1970s, 1974, 1994 Irish Ceasefire, baseball, Crime, Disaster, Ireland, Jordan, Northern Ireland, Sports, The Troubles, Ulster, Ulster Volunteer Force, Weather, Women

Saturday, April 15, 1944. Romania attacked from the air, Teenagers lose at Tarnopol, Politics in Minnesota, Hydro-Québec

PB4Y Photo Reconnaissance Liberators on a photo mission in the South Pacific , April 15, 1944.

PhoM1c E.S. Ujvarosy and PhoM1c R.M. Rhodes check their cameras, magazines, and data sheets before taking off on a mission in a Navy PB4Y photo reconnaissance plane. Cameras, left to right: F56-40”, two K-18’s 24”, K-17-12” and a K-17-06”. Lying on its side is vertical view finder. April 15, 1944.

The US 15th Air Force sent 500 sorties to Bucharest and Ploesti.  The war had reached the point where the Western Allies air attacks were now directly assisting the Soviet offensive in the east.

The Red Army took Tarnopol. German commander Gen. von Neindorff was killed in the fighting and nearly the entire German garrison was lost.

The original German commander at Tarnopal had deemed the defense hopeless and had reported it so.  The garrison of the doomed city was made up of new troops, most of whom were recent German teenage conscripts.  Only 55 of some 4,000 troops escaped the city.

British X class submarine, in this case the X25.

In Operation Guidance a British midget mine laying submarine, the X24 attacked the floating dock at Bergen, but the raid was not successful as the boat's charges were placed on a large German merchant vessel rather than the dock.

Aircraft from the USS Yorktown raided Chichijima and Iwo Jima.

African American troops on Bougainville, April 15, 1944.

The Minnesota Democratic Farm Labor Party was founded by the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the larger, yes larger, Farmer–Labor Party.

The left wing Farm Labor Party had been hugely successful in Minnesota. Founded in 1918, it's run to 1944 is one of the most successful state third party stories in the US.

Montreal Light, Heat & Power was taken over by provincial entity Hydro-Québec.

Last prior edition:

Friday, April 14, 1944. Indian drama.

1940s, 1944, Bangladesh, Battle of Kohima, China Burma India Theater, Eastern Front, India, Indian Army, Indian National Army, Pakistan, The Law of Unintended Consequences, Ukrainian National Army, World War Two

Tuesday, April 15, 1924. Opening day.

Baseball didn't make the front page on this day in 1924.  The House passing the Japanese Exclusion Act did.

But it was opening day.

The silent one shook the hand of Bucky Harris.

Other athletic endeavors were going on as well.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 13, 1924. Greeks decline a king.

1920s, 1924, Aircraft, Alaska, First Around The World Flight, Greece, Monarchy, United States Air Force

Blog Mirror: The Wurst Article

An item by a German expatriate living in the UK on what Germans call what most Americans call "hot dogs"

The Wurst Article

Note the presentation.

I'm surprised that in Frankfurt, Wieners are regarded as a delicacy.  When I was a kid, we had them all the time, and I liked them.  I particularly liked "hot lunches" at school, which we rarely got, when we were served steamed hot dogs.

I still like the recollection of how those tasted.

Now days, I only eat hot dogs if I'm at a baseball game. That's about it.  Otherwise, I never do.  I probably had too many fried hot dogs as a kid. 

Yes, my mother fried them. But she was an awful cook.

Anyhow, my grandfather was a meat packer and this article caused me to think of what we called these sausages.  We called them "hot dogs" the American standard word, but my father would call them Wieners.  His father was of 100% Westphalian extraction and had grown up speaking German.  My father could speak it too, but sort of kept that to himself, like many other things in his very quiet personality.  Anyhow, maybe that's why my father used that term for the little mild sausages.

The packing house did make them.  Apparently they made a lot of them during World War Two, as the Army ordered them.  When the war ended the contract for them was suddenly canceled and it turned out to be a big problem for the packing house, as the Army wouldn't order them with the added red dye that is what actually causes them to be that color.  That was an unnecessary added expense, in the Army's view.  

But not for civilians.  The hot dogs turned out to be hard to sell to grocery stores as they weren't the expected pink.  Without it, they're white.

I love sausages, FWIW.  It's probably one of the things that will get me in the end, but then I don't have the American expectation of living perfectly fit until I'm 120 years old. But I'm not keen on Wieners.  Brots, yes, other sausages, you bet.  But these aren't my favorite.

Maybe they would be in Frankfurt.

Roads to the Great War: "Seemed Like a Good Idea": American Subchasers in ...

Roads to the Great War: "Seemed Like a Good Idea": American Subchasers in ...: Three Submarine Chasers in Port The U.S. Navy employed a type of anti-submarine craft from which much was expected. These were the 70-ton, 1...

Interesting article.  An aspect of the US role in World War One you don't hear much about.

Indeed, you don't hear much about the Navy in World War One in general, even though the U.S. Navy had a major role in it, and originally, the Administration thought our role would be principally naval. 

Friday, April 14, 1944. Indian drama.

The Bombay Explosion occured at Mumbai, India) when the British SS Fort Stikine caught fire and exploded, creating mass destruction and killing around 800 to 1,300 people.

Kohima was relieved with a British breakthrough.

Col. Shaukat Ali Malik of the Indian National Army entered Moirang with his troops and raised the flag of the Azri Hukumat e-Azad Hind for the first time on Indian soil.

The stories above illustrate the complicated nature of India and the Indian people in World War Two. Col/ Sjailat Ali Malik was a Muslim Indian who had previously served in a British Indian police force, the latter being quite militarized.  The INA was a collaborationist army in combat against the Allies, while of course the British Indian Army was an Allied Army, but subject to the British Empire and therefore not really a "free" army.  

Following the war, the INA would be regarded with sympathy by many Indians.  I don't know what happened to Col. Malik, but the Muslin portions of Indian broke off from it immediately with independence, forming Pakistan. Today, what had been East and West Pakistan are Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Red Army reached the Carpathian foothills.

Gen. Nikolai F. Vatutin died of wounds received in an ambush by Ukrainian partisans on February 29, 1944.

The U-448 was sunk off of the Azores.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 13, 1944. Soviet advances in Crimea.

1940s, 1944, Australian Army, Clothing, Crimea, Eastern Front, Hawaii, New Guinea, Normandy, Operation Overlord, Royal Air Force, U.S. Air Force, Women

Blog Mirror: Why I Don’t Live Like the Sky is Falling

This from one of the blogs linked in here:

Why I Don’t Live Like the Sky is Falling

It is an interesting prospective, and isn't apocalyptic as some agrarian stuff can be.  I was frankly a little surprised as I have mixed feelings about this blog, and I really did after I briefly subscribed to the podcast which was a little out there on some things, I thought. But frankly that's my view on the entire "homesteading" movement.

Best Posts of the Week of April 7, 2024

The best posts of the week of April 7, 2024.

A week in which the younger Taft's went riding.

Wednesday, April 7, 1909. A busy day for the Tafts.

We looked, in part one of a two part series, with the second part not written yet, on giving Ukraine a boost.

Turning the Tide in Ukraine (maybe) or at least helping them a bunch. What President Biden could do while Michael Johnson tries to reconcile his conscience to Putin Fanboyism. Part One

And at efforts to rename Easter.

Resurrection Sunday?

And discussed a probable aviation myth.

Holy Saturday, April 8, 1944. The invasion of Romania, maybe. Luftwaffe trans Russia flights, maybe. Battle of the Tennis Court,

And police shootings.

96 shots in 41 Seconds.

A baseball tragedy was written about.

Monday, April 12, 1909. Doc Powers falls ill.

The war in the Middle East took a disturbing turn.

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 4. "Maybe I shall find them among the dead."

The 2024 Election, Part XVI. The Compromised Morals Edition

No excuse.

A reminder that the Armenian Genocide was a prolonged affair came up.

Tuesday, April 13, 1909. The Aadna Massacre.

Locally, the 2026 election campaign has commenced.

The 2026 Election, 1st Edition: Spring Training Edition.

Observations on a murder.

Observations on a murder.

Earlier this week Robert Maher Jr., age 14, was murdered by Dominique Antonio Richard Harris, born in 2008, and Jarreth Joseflee Sabastian Plunkett, born in 2009.  The killing seems to have been planned for several days prior to the assault in the Eastridge Mall that lead to Maher's death.  Plunkett did the actual killing, with Harris slamming Maher to the ground beforehand.  

The technical origin of the fight was that Maher had called Plunkett and Harris "freaks" during Spring Break (something that didn't exist when I was in school) and that enraged the two of them.  He called them that has they went into a porta potty at a local park together, which is odd, but insulting them wasn't very smart.  This raises the specter of the Matthew Shepherd killing, which had elements which never really seemed to be accurately reported.  More likely, however, in the exaggerated juvenile maleness of the rootless and (I'll bet) fatherless mid teenage boy, that was an implied insult that had to be addressed.

Maher never seems to have gotten in a single punch in the assault.  The two assailants, who had stolen their weapons along with Red Bulls and candy that day, acted in such a fashion that, whether Harris intended it or not, gave Plunkett the opportunity to viciously knife him.

There's no reason here, we'd note, to use the classic "alleged" assault language. The two teenage boys killed the third. They're going to be tried as adults. They ought o be put away, forever.

But what else does this event tell us?

Casper's a rough town.

One thing that I saw soon after the murder was a comment by somebody on Facebook noting how they have moved from New Mexico, where their son had been knifed in a fight, to Casper under the belief that this was a quite safe town.

In another context, we've already spoken about immigrants into the state being delusional about it, and this is one such instance. Casper has never been a nice town.

Casper was founded in 1887, and it was violent from day one to some degree.  It was, however, originally a rial stop in cattle company, although it always had its eye on oil.  It was the jumping off spot for the invaders in the Johnson County War, which at least gives it a bit of a footnote in that violent event.  Casper's first murder occured on Saturday, September 20, 1890, when bartender John Conway shot and killed unarmed A. J. Tidwell, an FL Cattle Company cowboy in Lou Polk's dance house, following a round of fisticuffs.  The blood has been flowing ever since.

Casper really took a turn towards the wild side of life starting in World War One.  1917, as we've addressed here before, is when the Great War Oil boom really took off, and with it came a lot of men and a lot of vice. One of the things that created was Casper's infamous Sandbar district, in which prostitution was carried out openly and prohibition flaunted.  Repeated efforts to close it down utterly failed, until finally a 1970s vintage urban renewal project (yikes, the government taking a hand!") destroyed it.

With the booze and the prostitutes came murders (and no doubt disease) but it went on and on.  By and large, however, as odd as it may seem, people just acclimated themselves to it.  You got used to a town having a red-light district, and as there were some legitimate businesses in it, you'd go into it for legitimate reasons.  As a boy, we walked into the Sandbar in the early 70s to go to the War Surplus Store, which nobody seemed to think was a big deal. The America and Rialto movie theaters were just yards from the district, and the district's bars lapped up out of it into downtown Casper, with some of them being places were to walk around, rather than past, if at all possible.

Casper had quasi ethnic gangs when I was young, and at least in the schools that I attended, that was a factor of attending them.  You were careful about it.  It was impossible to get through junior high and high school without having been in a fight.  Most fights were hand to hand, but a teacher was knifed when I was in junior high breaking up a knife fight, so not all of them were.  In high school we all carried pocket knives and none of us were supposed to.  They were for protection.  While I was in high school, one of our classmates, who had been held back more than once, was killed outside a bar in a shooting, the result of a fight he provoked, which resulted in an ethnic riot at the school in which shots were fired.  The father of one of our classmates was killed by our classmate after he turned his molesting attention on her sister, having molested her for years.  Neither of these crimes resulted in prosecution.

The point is, for those who are shocked by the arrival of violence in Casper. . .well, it's been here since 1890.

The abandoned males

I keep waiting to hear the circumstances of the murderers' family lives and have not read any yet.  I'm sure it'll come out as the story advances.  While It's dangerous to speculate, there are reasons to suspect a few things, one being the killers likely had no fathers in the picture.   We're going to hear at some point that they were raised by their mothers, or in irregular homes.  I could of course be wrong, but I'll bet not.

Fatherless males are a major societal problem.  Fatherless males that are raised in an environment of sexual license are an even bigger problem.  Indeed, they're often fatherless for that reason in the first place, and they'll go on to spawn further fatherless children, who grow up in poverty and with little societal direction.  A minority will find that structure in the Old Law, the law before the law, which reaches back to tribalism in the extreme.  It's in the DNA.

The Old Law demanded death for transgressors too, something modern society has moved away from in large measure.  I've already heard it suggested that Harris and Plunkett should receive death, but due to their ages, I think that not very likely.  It'd be ill-advised, no matter what.  But tribalism spawns more tribalism.  The real personalities are lost of both the assailants and the victims.

Thursday, April 13, 1944. Soviet advances in Crimea.

The Red Army took Feodosia, Evpatoriya and Simferopol in Crimea.  The Axis forces of the 17th Army fell back on Sevastopol.

Australian troops took Bogodjim on New Guinea.

The U.S. Army Air Force and RAF raided numerous coast batteries in Normandy.

Operation Overlord had effectively already begun.

Martial law was lifted in Hawaii.

In April 1944, Vogue covered fashions in Texas, Florida and California.

It's worth noting that all of these dresses were fairly plain, reflecting the wartime view on the same.

The last model (must have been teenage girl's clothing there) doesn't look very comfortable with the pony.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 12, 1944. Soviet invasion of Romania fails, Withdrawal of Crimea commences, Victor Emmanuel makes retirement plans.

1940s, 1944, Conservation, Crimea, First Battle of Târgu Frumos, German Kriegsmarine, Italy, Oregon, Protestant, Radio, religion, Romania, Romanian Navy, World War Two

Sunday, April 13, 1924. Greeks decline a king.

Flag of the Second Hellenic Republic.

Greek voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots to abolish the monarchy and endorse the Second Hellenic Republic.

The king, however, wouldn't be gone forever. . . this time.

The round the world flight made impressive progress.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 12, 1924. Madeline Blair and the USS Arizona.

1920s, 1924, boats and ships, Crime, Dawes Plan, Immigration, Navy, Panama, Panama Canal, Sex, Women

Going Feral: Going Feral: No excuse.

Going Feral: Going Feral: No excuse.: Going Feral: No excuse. :  I have nothing against wolf hunting, but there's no excuse for behavior like thiss. Photo Shows Wyoming Man W...

Going Feral: No excuse.

Going Feral: No excuse.:  I have nothing against wolf hunting, but there's no excuse for behavior like thiss. Photo Shows Wyoming Man With Tormented Wolf Before ...

It's increasingly clear that there's going to be a prosecution here.  The only question is for what. After initially indicating it was more or less helpless in the matter, the Game & Fish has retracted that statement and made it clear that it's condemning this behavior.  The Governor has condemned it.  And Suzette County is indicating its looking at prosecution, for something.

Going Feral: No excuse.

Going Feral: No excuse.:  

No excuse.

 I have nothing against wolf hunting, but there's no excuse for behavior like thiss.

Photo Shows Wyoming Man With Tormented Wolf Before It Was Killed

Rod Miller of the Cowboy State Daily wrote an op-ed about it:

Rod Miller: Of Wolves and Assholes

In it, he stated the following:

Any cowboy, hunter or serious outdoorsman with a modicum of ethics and respect for creation should be just as pissed off. Roberts’ malicious stupidity will give political ammunition to those outside our borders who are convinced that they can manage the Cowboy State better than we can.

I think that, in Roberts’ case, there is a disconnect between the laws we have on our books and the ethics we have in our hearts. And maybe its not possible for our code of laws to adequately express our code of ethics. 

That should in no manner diminish the impetus to live an ethical life with respect to our neighbors and our surroundings, particularly in a place as unique and sparsely peopled as Wyoming. Morality shouldn’t always need to be written down to be lived.

Roberts would do himself and his state a great service if he humbled himself and publicly apologized to he fellow Wyomingites for his very public display of a lack of ethics. That would mean a helluva lot more than the two-hundred and fifty bucks from his wallet.

And maybe this situation warrants us adding another article to our official Wyoming Code of Conduct, alternatively called the Code of the West. Since some folks need to be reminded from time to time, we can amend our Code to include one final item. It could read something like:

#11 – Don’t be an asshole.

I agree.

Roberts would really do the state a favor if he just left it, permanently. 

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 4. "Maybe I shall find them among the dead."

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.

I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

Chief Joseph upon his surrender, 1877.

March 6, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Ukrainians sank the Russian patrol ship Sergey Kotov with a drone strike.

It's clear that Black Sea is not safe for the Russian Navy.

March 8, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

The U.S. is setting up an artificial port on the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid.

Russo Ukrainian War

As s direct result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden has entered NATO, ending centuries of neutrality.

March 9, 2024

Indian/Chinese Border

Indian is sending an additional 10,000 troops to its border with China.

March 10, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Pope Francis stated in an interview with a Swiss journalist:

In Ucraina c’è chi chiede il coraggio della resa, della bandiera bianca. Ma altri dicono che così si legittimerebbe il più forte. Cosa pensa?

“È un’interpretazione. Ma credo che è più forte chi vede la situazione, chi pensa al popolo, chi ha il coraggio della bandiera bianca, di negoziare. E oggi si può negoziare con l’aiuto delle potenze internazionali. La parola negoziare è una parola coraggiosa. Quando vedi che sei sconfitto, che le cose non vanno, occorre avere il coraggio di negoziare. Hai vergogna, ma con quante morti finirà? Negoziare in tempo, cercare qualche paese che faccia da mediatore. Oggi, per esempio nella guerra in Ucraina, ci sono tanti che vogliono fare da mediatore. La Turchia, si è offerta per questo. E altri. Non abbiate vergogna di negoziare prima che la cosa sia peggiore”.

Anche lei stesso si è proposto per negoziare?

“Io sono qui, punto. Ho inviato una lettera agli ebrei di Israele, per riflettere su questa situazione. Il negoziato non è mai una resa. È il coraggio per non portare il paese al suicidio. Gli ucraini, con la storia che hanno, poveretti, gli ucraini al tempo di Stalin quanto hanno sofferto….”.

Translated:

In Ukraine there are those who ask for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“It's an interpretation. But I believe that those who see the situation, those who think about the people, those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger. And today it can be negotiated with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, look for some country to act as a mediator. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey offered itself for this. And other. Don't be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.

Have you also offered to negotiate?

“I'm here, period. I sent a letter to the Jews of Israel to reflect on this situation. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide. The Ukrainians, with the history that they have, poor things, the Ukrainians at Stalin's time, how much they suffered...”.

This has been reported, in accurately, as the Pope calling upon the Ukrainians to surrender, which isn't exactly what he said. 

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was in the US, calling up Congress to free up support for Ukraine.

Hamas Israeli War

Israel has built a road bisecting Gaza.

March 11, 2024

Haiti

Haiti is in internal turmoil as gangs threaten to topple the government.  The US has sent in additional forces to its embassy.

Russo Ukrainian War

The Pope's comments of yesterday have brought rebuke.

March 12, 2024

Hezbollah v. Israel

Israel struck Hezbollah targets from the air yesterday.

March 13, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Pentagon is sending $300,000,000 in weapons to Ukraine, but also revealed its $10B overdrawn in replenishing weapons it has sent already.

Democrats are using the discharge petition process to go around Donald Tump controlled Mike Johnson for funding in the House.

The All-Russian pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR), and Siberian Battalion a limited cross-border raid into Belgorod and Kursk oblasts yesterday.

Ukraine hit an oil refinery with drones.

Haiti

Haiti's prime minister resigned.  It's largely expected that the gangs that control the capital will play a role in choosing the next government.

Hamas Israeli War

Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh presented Hamas’ delusional demands in ceasefire and hostage negotiations in a speech marking the start of Ramadan on March 10. They included a comprehensive ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip, the complete return of displaced Gazans, and the resolution of humanitarian issues, and ending restrictions on the movement of people and goods out of the Gaza Strip.

Israel isn't going to agree to that.

March 14, 2024

Haiti

Florida is deploying 250 law enforcement officers and an air-and-sea fleet to address a potential wave of Haitian immigrants.

March 15, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev called for the total elimination of the Ukrainian state and its absorption into the Russian Federation.

Hamas Israeli War

Hamas killed the head of the Palestinian Dughmush clan, claiming it had stolen humanitarian aid and cooperated with Israel. The armed clan vowed to retaliate.

March 17, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian rebels in Ukrainian service have been conducting cross border strikes while Russia is conducting an election whose results are basically preordained.  The raids have been fairly successful.

The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) conducted a series of successful drone strikes against Russian oil refineries in Samara Oblast.

March 23, 2024

ISIS v. Russia, Russia v. Ukraine, Syrian Civil War

ISIS launched a major terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk on the same day that it launched the largest series of combined drone and missile strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure since the start of the war against Ukraine.

The ISIL attack was a reprisal for Russia supporting the Syrian state.

The ISIL terrorist attack was horrific, and directed against civilians, which can be also said of much of Russia's airborne campaign against Ukraine.  Essentially, a terrorist entity has attacked a terrorist state.

cont:

Casualties from the ISIL attack in Russia are now at 153.

March 26, 2024

Afghanistan

The Taliban, whom Donald Trump surrendered to in 2019, is going to start stoning women to death for adultery.

March 27, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Ukrainians struck the Konstantin Olshansky, which was formerly a Ukrainian Navy ship that was taken into Russian custody in 2014, with an anti shipping missile.

And of interest:

Ukraine destroys unique Russian ‘Doomsday Tank’

March 29, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

March 29, 2024

The House of Representatives will see Speaker Mike Johnson push for funding for Ukraine through a bill that's been sitting in the dysfunctional House for a month when they return from their recess from not getting anything done.

Donald Putin, who loves Putin and hates Ukraine, has frustrated the advance of the Bill.  Marjorie Taylor Green will push to being Johnson down.

Absolutely pathetic.

And this while Ukraine fights for its life.

Hamas Israeli War

The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to open up more corridors for relief in Gaza.

March 30, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

In an absolutely shocking action, The World Russian People’s Council, chaired by Patriarch Kirill, who reportedly worked undercover for the KGB during the Soviet era, declared the war in Ukraine “sacred" and called for its completely dominance under Russia.

Hamas Israeli War

The US, which can't get its act together due to the Trumpite dominated House of Representatives and Trump's admiration of Vlad Putin, is sending Israel more arms and ammunition, including more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs.

How we can somehow manage one, and not the other, is beyond me, particularly as the Ukrainian need is greater.

April 1, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

Huge protests occured yesterday in Israel over the war.

The War Against ISIL

Retired Marine Corps general Frank McKenzie appeared on this week to warn that ISIL strikes in the US are inevitable, and put the blame squarely on the Trump surrender in Afghanistan.

April 2, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to attempt to legislatively shut down Al Jazeera broadcasts in Israel.  It accuses the news organization of agitating Palestinians.

Iran v Israel

Israel killed Iranian senior military commanders in Syria Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and some of his top subordinates in an airstrike in Damascus.

The building hit was next to the Iranian Embassy.

Russia v The West

A joint investigation by 60 Minutes, the Insider, and Der Spiegel strongly suggests that the Kremlin has waged a sustained kinetic campaign directly targeting US government personnel both in the United States and internationally for a decade, with the likely objective of physically incapacitating US government personnel. The investigation, which the outlets published on March 31, indicates that the infamous Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) Unit 29155 (the same unit whose operatives attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal with the Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom in 2018) may be using nonlethal directed energy or acoustic weapons to target a large number of US government personnel, each of whom has reported experiencing an “anomalous health incident” (also called “Havana Syndrome”) of varying severity between 2014 and as recently as 2023.[1] The investigation cites intercepted Russian intelligence documents, travel logs, call metadata, and eyewitness testimony that places GRU Unit 29155 operatives at many of the locations where US officials experienced Havana Syndrome, either shortly before or during each attack. The investigation suggested that GRU operatives conducted a directed energy attack against an FBI agent in Florida a few months after the agent interviewed detained undercover GRU officer Vitaliy Kovalev at some point between June and December 2020.[2] Other US government officials claimed they were attacked by the directed energy weapons while they were in the United States, including in Washington, DC. The joint investigation interviewed US Army Colonel Greg Edgreen, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)’s working group investigating Havana Syndrome, who believes that Russia is behind the Havana Syndrome incidents and that the incidents consistently have a “Russia nexus.”[3] Edgreen stated that the incidents all targeted the top five to ten percent “performing DIA officers” and that the victims were either experts on Russia or had otherwise worked to defend US national security interests against Russia. The investigation noted that many affected personnel were assigned to roles aimed at countering Russia following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine after these personnel had previously worked on other portfolios. The investigation reported that these incidents have affected senior US personnel, including a senior official in the National Security Council who served at some point in 2020-2024 and CIA Director Bill Burns’ then-deputy chief of staff who experienced an anomalous health incident in September 2021 in Delhi. Several of the US officials who experienced Havana Syndrome have severe life-altering and career-ending injuries. Many US officials’ spouses and children also experienced Havana Syndrome while deployed overseas.

ISW

April 4, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine has dropped its conscription age from 27 to 25.

Both of those are, I'd note, remarkably high conscription ages.  

On March 30-31, 2024, the Russian Army launched its largest armored assault of the war but was repulsed with significant losses.

According to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, during "the last couple of months that Russia has almost completely reconstituted militarily".

A Ukrainian drone struck a Russian Shahed 136 drone production facility in Tatarstan, over 1,100km from Ukraine.

Wow.

Iran vs. Everyone

An Iranian militia is threatening a major expansion in Jordan.

April 7, 2024

Ecuador v. Mexico

Ecuador raided the Mexican embassy in their country and arrested the former Vice President.  Mexico responded by severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

Ajerbaijan v. Aremenia

There have been exchanges of artillery fire, apparently, recently although I don't really have the details.

Romania

Romania is about to pass a law allowing for military intervention outside of Romania to protect Romanian citizens. Moldova would be the only logical place for the application of such a law, or perhaps Ukraine.

April 8, 2024

Hamas v. Israel

Israel has withdrawn from Khan Younis bringing its troop presence in Gaza to one of the lowest levels since the war began.  This is likely in preparation for entering Rafah.

Israel also announced it had killed Hamas brigade commander Ali Ahmed Hassin.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine hit a Russian controlled nuclear reactor within Ukrainian territory in a drone strike.

Zylenskyy stated that it would be difficult for Ukraine to remain in the war without US aid, which brings up this we posted yesterday:

Turning the Tide in Ukraine (maybe) or at least helping them a bunch. What President Biden could do while Michael Johnson tries to reconcile his consience to Putin Fanboyism. Part One

April 10, 2024

Hamas v. Israel

An Iranian official, in a press interview, threatened the UAE, which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel, trying to pressure it to sever relations with the country.

Russo Ukrainian War

The US is supplying parts for the Ukrainian Hawk missle defense system on an emergency basis.

April 11, 2024

Japan told us today to get our act together:

I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be...At a time when our world is at history's turning point...Freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe.

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida addressing Congress

April 13, 2024

Iran v Israel

Iran is really saber-rattling in regard to Israel, and its warning the US as part of that.  The US has warned it back.

It appears almost certain that the war that started with the Hamas terrorist raid is about to expand.

Russo Ukrainian War

The U.S. and U.K. will begin restricting the trade of new Russian-origin metals including aluminum, copper and nickel.

China, yes, China, is supplying huge numbers of drones to Ukraine, showing that China isn't as pro Russian as might be imagined.  China's drones are much cheaper and less technological, and hence less susceptible to electronic interference, than American ones.

Last Edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 3. The Putin's Cheerleaders Edition.