Reflections from the Heart of the Empire: A Ray of Light, Blunders, and a Coup

Plus a kitten

• First, the ray of light thing. Julian Assange decided living was more important than dying as a martyr for journalistic integrity and copped a plea to get out of prison and return home. Anyone who condemns him for that is, IMO, a boor and a turd. Assange has proven his integrity about as clearly as a supernova. Anyway, he’s back in Australia already and all people who believe in simple honor and human decency should be happy for him and his family.

• Israel’s Supreme Court issued a ruling saying the military must draft ultra-Orthodox Jews who heretofore had been exempt from military service. IOW, Zionism trumps Judaism in Israel.

• Ukraine launched a missile attack, using American missiles, on a beach near Sebastopol, Crimea, killing at least 4 people(including two children at the beach) and injuring over 150 more. It seems the more desperate a Fascist regime gets, the more it resorts to terrorism. (Multiple sources)

(London, 1944, after a V-2 missile strike)

• 1000 Kenyan troops will soon be deployed to Haiti to attempt to enforce the will of the US Empire on people who are sick to death of foreign interference, not to mention into a chaotic situation that the Kenyans cannot possibly understand. What could possibly go wrong?

• Meanwhile, back in Nairobi, police shot and killed at least five anti-tax protestors according to the BBC. Fun fact: one of the tax hikes is a 16% tax on bread.

• The US government might have collected the information on all exterior envelopes mailed to or from you since 2015 without a warrant, in spite of at least one court decision saying the practice violates the 4th Amendment. I’m so glad we had a constitutional lawyer as President back then with such a profoundly articulate understanding of the subject!

• See? Sometimes satire does hit.

• Faced with failure in Gaza, not to mention international opprobrium, Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently decided to invade southern Lebanon in an attempt to win a victory over Hezbollah.

• Iran already demonstrated it can saturate and overwhelm Israeli missile defenses. Remember this?

  

• Hezbollah has a lot of the same missiles. No wonder at least 550,000 Israelis have left the country since Netanyahu launched his genocide.

• The National Traffic Safety Board ruled that the decision by Norfolk Southern to vent and burn toxic chemicals after one of its trains derailed in East Palestine, Ohio was a mistake.

• The price of tickets to the Eiffel Tower was increased by 20%, ostensibly to pay for maintenance that was neglected during the Plandemic. Sure, France24, profiteering off of the Olympics never occurred to anyone, and there’s no snow in Minneapolis in the wintertime.

• According to Politico, the Biden campaign is “depressed” because so many people sent Trump money after he was convicted of something nobody really cares about instead of cheering for a blatantly political prosecution.

• There was a recent poll from The Hill showing Trump tied with Biden in Minnesota. Fun fact: The last time Minnesota voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1972.

• A Chinese space capsule successfully returned to Earth after taking soil samples on the far side of the moon. A little singed, but it made it.

• The US Air Force has booted Colonel Charles Clegg from his post as Director of the Sentinel Systems project, a $131 billion and rising program to replace the 1970s Minuteman III ICBMs with Sentinels, when we don’t even need a land-based nuclear deterrent at all anymore! This particular MIC villain is Northrop Grumman, BTW, and the program started in 2020.

• Secretary of Defense and Certified Vampire of the Empire Lloyd Austin talked to his Russian counterpart for the first time in 15 months. It shouldn’t be a surprise. Austin is a servant of Raytheon and they’re making gigabucks off this war. Talking might end the grift train. Here’s a picture of Austin at his last Congressional hearing.

(photo courtesy of this dude who periodically appears in a police box)

• There is a coup attempt going on in Bolivia right now according to BBC. Former President Evo Morales is calling for a national mobilization, including a general strike and closure of roads, to stop it according to RT.

  

• Added 6/27/2024: It seems the coup attempt in Bolivia has miserably failed.

  It looks like the US just failed to coup Bolivia for its lithium again

• Finally, the Ohio State Patrol rescued a kitten that got itself stuck between the tires of a semi-truck. Kitty’s doing fine now.

Thank you for reading, good night, and good luck.

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