Random News and Notes 4 February
Billie Eilish is a musician. She, at least to this editor’s ear, is a pretty talented singer-songwriter, but her music may not be to everyone’s taste. Unfortunately, she has a bad habit of opining on things would be better off staying silent about. She did so at the Grammy Awards the other night.
As part of her acceptance speech for Song of the Year she had this to say:
““As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything, but no one is illegal on stolen land. It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now. I feel really hopeful in this room, and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter. Fuck ICE.”
Funny that. The Tongva Indians, apparently the most recent native occupants of the LA basin took notice.
I feel compelled to highlight that the Tongva just are the most recent occupants, not the first people to inhabit the LA basin. As I have said previously, with very few exceptions in the extreme north and the deep Amazon basin, no tribe of natives in the Americas can make the claim of being first.
The legacy media is struggling. In the latest example the Washington Post is dumping at least 300 employees – nearly a third of their workforce. So far it looks like the sports department, the book review and international news rooms were hardest hit. Some reports are saying the entire sports department got the ax.
While mass firings like this are never good, in this case they are probably overdue. For legacy outlets like WaPo to survive they need to figure out how to operate effectively in the new media era.
President Trump has approved the award of the Medal of Honor to SSG Michael Ollis. Ollis was killed during a major attack on Forward Operating Base Ghazni 28 August 2013. SSG Ollis, who was serving with the 10th Mountain Division, stepped in front of wounded Polish Lt. Karol Cierpika to protect him from a suicide bomber. Ollis’ actions that day saved several other troops. The attack produced another Medal of Honor award. MSG Earl Plumlee was awarded the Medal for his actions that day.
Ollis was previously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions that day.
His actions also have become part of military lore in Poland, which recognized Ollis with the Polish Army Gold Medal for valor.
The dining facility at the U.S. Army’s Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan also bears Ollis’ name. At a 2023 ceremony that christened it the Staff Sgt. Michael Harold Ollis Warrior Grill, Cierpika was on hand. Over the years, the Polish officer forged a bond with the Ollis family.
A 13 year old Aussie boy is being hailed as a hero after swimming 4km to save his family that had been swept out to sea on paddleboards. Austin Appelbee, 13, his mother, 47, brother, 12, and sister, 8, were paddleboarding and kayaking off the coast of Quindalup, in Geographe Bay, on Friday when they were pushed away from the coast.
Austin first paddled, and when his kayak swamped, swam more than 4km back to the beach to get help for his family. He then had to run another 2km to get to a phone to call for help. Oh, and the beach was filled with non-Australians that refused to help him.
You read that right. The beach was filled with foreigners that refused to help Austin.
A rescue helicopter found the missing family clinging to a paddleboard about 14km offshore after spending nearly 10 hours in the water.
File this next one under nobody could be this incompetent could they? ICE arrested New Orleans Police recruit Larry Temah at the NOPD academy. Why you ask, well the 46 year old has an active 2025 deportation order.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick claimed during a press conference that the department had no knowledge of Temah’s immigration status when hiring him in 2024. Keep in mind, this is the same woman who admitted she was unaware the NOPD had anti-vehicle bollard emplacements before the January 2025 Bourbon Street truck attack that killed 15.