Random News and Notes 15 March
Beware the Ides of March. Those were the words said to Julius Caesar by a soothsayer according to Roman historian Plutarch. Suetonius goes a step further and identifies the seer as Spurinna, a haruspex – a person trained to practise divination by the inspection of the entrails of ritually sacrificed animals.
Plutarch also had this to say about the incident in his writings. While on his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, “Well, the Ides of March are come”, implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, “Aye, they are come, but they are not gone.”
23 stab wounds later, Julius Caesar would be dead and the Roman Republic – which the murderers claimed they were trying to protect – would be plunged into a series of devastating civil wars. The end result would be the Roman Empire with Julius Caesar’s nephew Octavian becoming Emperor Augustus.
Now, news!
The US flag was raised over the US Embassy in Caracas Venezuela yesterday for the first time in 7 years. It was lowered amid tensions with Nicolás Maduro’s government. Maduro’s January capture by U.S. forces on drug charges cleared the way for an interim Venezuelan leadership to reopen the embassy and restore ties.
The ceremony marked a new era of partnership, with agreements for stability, prisoner releases, and economic recovery.
The anti-freedom retards running Virginia have managed to out-retard themselves. They passed House Bill 110, sponsored by Del. Marchant Laufer (D). It sets a civil penalty of up to $500 for visible handguns left in unattended vehicles anywhere in Virginia. It exempts law enforcement and certain officials – which makes some sense – plus General Assembly members – which doesn’t.
Republicans like Sen. Richard H. Stuart criticized the carve-out as special privilege for lawmakers while limiting self-defense for others; the bill passed the House 60-37 and Senate 21-18 along party lines and heads to the spook in the Governors manse in Richmond.
We have a couple of quick sports notes to cover before we move onto the Epic Fury news.
First, it’s selection Sunday for the NCAA men’s basketball tourney. 68 of the top men’s college basketball teams will be seeded. The selection show starts at 1800 eastern with the first of the play-in games tipping on Tuesday.
So MVAP, do we do a bracket challenge this year? Let me know.
The other noteworthy sports item is that Venezuela knocked out defending World Baseball Championship champs Japan.
The Venezuelan team won 8-5 and move on to the semi-finals to face Italy Monday. Team USA faces the Dominican Republic in the first semi tonight at 2000 EDT. The winners of these two games will face off in the championship game on St. Paddy’s day.
Epic Fury News
The last of the Airmen killed in the KC-135 crash has been Identified. I held off publishing their names until they were all publicly known.
- Maj. John A. Klinner (also referred to as John “Alex” Klinner), 33, of Auburn, Alabama (assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida)
- Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana (assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing, Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Ohio)
- Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington (assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida)
- Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio (assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing, Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Ohio)
- Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky (assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida)
- Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio (assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing, Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Ohio)
Until Valhalla
It is day 16 of Operation Epic Fury and I have not offered much of my analysis on the whole deal, so here is a little. Frankly, I think the US is running out of major targets to hit. The majority of the Iranian Navy – less some small, under say 5 meters in length, craft – is either a new artificial reef somewhere or a pile of wreckage alongside. I have seen no evidence of any sorties by Iranian Air Force fighters and all of the Iranian airlift capacity has been destroyed on the ground. The Artesh – the Iranian regular Army – has been hit hard as well, though unlike the situation in Ukraine, the losses aren’t documented.
The Israelis, who I am both sad and happy to report, have much better intelligence on the ground. So much so, that they are targeting small groups of IRGC and Basij troops wherever they gather. It seems they are using a new type of high-endurance loitering munition to do so.
What’s next? I’m guessing the US and Israel will continue taking out iranian missile launch sites, any UAV/drone facilities they can find and try to reopen Hormuz. The blockade hasn’t been all that effective. Admittedly, the delay of the number of vessels involved will necessarily have an effect on the price of oil worldwide. On that subject, most of the damage done by the Iranians on vessels transiting Hormuz has been done with sea drones and not missiles or UAV.