It’s another one of those days where there’s a bunch going on, but nothing that calls me to write a dedicated piece about. So here are some things you should know.
Starting out in the Philippines. The CCP is big mad that the US sent the Independence class LCS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) to the Second Thomas shoal in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Giffords was conducting a FONOP (freedom of navigation operation) in the Philippine EEZ. The Chinese claim the entirety of the South China Sea as their own despite multiple international maritime court rulings against them.
The area has been a hotspot for decades, with the CCP and the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) building artificial islands to try and claim sovereignty over the area.
There was some weirdness about the explosion in Alexandria VA last night. The guy responsible, James Yoo, is turning out to be an extremely odd duck. I recommend you click thru and read this entire thread.
Our next item comes from South America, where Venezuela decided they want 2/3 of the territory of Guyana. I wrote about it some here, but there’s an update. The plebiscite happened and, to the surprise of no one, the Venezuelan people voted to annex Essequibo. I don’t know what to expect now, but I’ll keep a weather eye out for any movements by Venezuela.
I’m assuming y’all have heard of the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea already. If not, well, the Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a bunch of anti-ship missiles the other day and hit three civilian ships and sank one. The International maritime shipping insurers have taken note. The ‘war premium’ on shipping insurance went from less than .03% of the value of the ship and cargo to .5-1%. That increase adds tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a journey in that area.
Nobody is asking me, but I think it’s long past time for the complete destruction of any and all Iran backed terrorist groups.
Florida State got screwed. That is all.
This next one probably deserves a separate article, but TBH I’m feeling lazy today. Senator Dick Durban D(umbass)-Il, wants to allow illegal aliens to enlist in the military. Yes, you read that right. Here it is in his own words:
Do I need to tell you how bad an idea this is? Doesn’t anyone read history books anymore? I mean, allowing foreigners into the army was one of the proximate causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The Brits allowed non-citizens into their army, but they were not allowed to get any closer to Britain than the Isle of Guernsey.
The land of my fathers seems to be straying from the light a little more each day. There was the knife attack on some kids outside a Gaelic school by an Algerian immigrant and subsequent riots. Then there was the absolutely tone-deaf response of the Taoiseach on the release of an Irish boy who had been taken hostage by Hamas.
Now, the Dáil (parliament) is poised to pass some of the most restrictive speech laws since the breakup of the Soviet Union. This new law would prohibit the simple possession of items considered offensive.
Specifically, the bill targets any “offense of preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.” The bill defines “hatred” as “hatred against a person or a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their protected characteristics”—which include national origin, “transgender” status, and “gender[s] other than those of male and female.”
I’m just waiting for the oxygen bottle mortars and the rattle of me little Armalite to start up again.
Got any news you want to share? Drop it in the comments below.