Random News and Notes 24 April

On this date in 1863 the US Army issues General Orders #100. That document, consisting of 157 articles that regulated US troop behavior, was also called the Lieber code, after its primary author, Francis Lieber. The articles regulated treatment of prisoners of war, prohibited the wanton destruction of property, and outlined rules for spies and deserters.  It was the first modern codification of the laws of war, influencing international law, including the Hague Regulations and Geneva Conventions.

On this date in 1980 the ill-fated Operation Eagle Claw kicked off. The mission to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. The hostages were taken by Islamic militants associated with the Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionary Islamic government. With the hostage situation stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans. The mission was then canceled at the staging area in Iran, but during the withdrawal one of the retreating helicopters collided with one of six C-130 transport planes, killing eight service members and injuring five. The next day, a somber Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days.

U.S. Air Force Personnel:

• Maj. Richard L. Bakke
• Maj. Harold L. Lewis Jr.
• Tech. Sgt. Joel C. Mayo
• Maj. Lyn D. McIntosh
• Capt. Charles T. McMillan II 

U.S. Marine Corps Personnel:

• Sgt. John D. Harvey
• Cpl. George N. Holmes Jr.
• Staff Sgt. Dewey L. Johnson

Now, News!

So, this one has me torn. One of the Brethren, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, faces federal charges for betting $33,000 on Polymarket markets like ‘Maduro out by January 31,’ earning about $410,000 after the January 3, 2026, Operation Absolute Resolve succeeded. He had helped plan the raid from Fort Bragg and quickly hid the winnings in cryptocurrency and a new account, prompting the first known prosecution for insider trading on a prediction market with classified military details.

Let me be clear, he is not being charged with unauthorized disclosure. The charges are the type of thing you would see when someone launders money or traded stocks on insider information. And that is where I start to have an issue. He did nothing that any one of the 535 members of Congress has done over the course of their careers.

I typically find Anna Paulina Luna an annoying bint, but she’s right about this one: “Unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice. . . There is no “justice” when guys like this get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day. . .”

On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN. I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS.

The soldier’s name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881.

He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it “the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts.”

I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes. The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200.

. . .

I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again.

In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not.

I want to tell you about the soldier again.

He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in.

In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on:

Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee.
Defense appropriations they voted on.
Trade policy they negotiated.
Pandemic response measures they drafted.
Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public.

None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012.

Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases.

. . .

The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop.

. . .

I really recommend you click through and read the whole post. It is eye opening.

In another Polymarket related story, a Frenchman didn’t surrender, but rather gamed the Temperature prediction market on the betting site. How? by pointing a heat gun at the sensor the platform used to track the temp in Paris. The sensor, at Charles De Gaulle Airport’s public weather station showed unusual temperature spikes on April 6 and 15 that triggered payouts totaling around $34,000 on Polymarket’s daily high-temperature markets, which relied on Météo-France data from that site.

Météo-France found no meteorological cause for the sudden 4°C jumps to 22°C and filed a police complaint over suspected physical tampering, like using a heat source on the probe. Polymarket has switched to a more secure station at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, while the incident spotlights risks in real-world data oracles for blockchains, prompting calls for multi-source verification.

It seems homie knew how to structure his payout, because unlike the dumbass above, the French authorities still don’t know who he is and he still has the money.

A big storm that included tornadoes hit Enid Oklahoma and parts of Vance AFB yesterday. The storm destroyed neighborhoods like Gray Ridge southeast of Enid, mangled vehicles, stripped roofs, and snapped power poles. At least 10 people suffered minor injuries but no deaths were reported. Vance Air Force Base nearby saw only minor perimeter damage like torn fences, with all personnel safe and the base temporarily shut for repairs.

First responders from across Oklahoma aided search efforts Friday as residents faced outages and cleanup.