Random News and Notes 28 May
In the first engagement of the French and Indian War, a Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeats a French reconnaissance party in southwestern Pennsylvania on this date in 1754. In a surprise attack, the Virginians killed 10 French soldiers from Fort Duquesne, including the French commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and took 21 prisoners. Only one of Washington’s men was killed. The French and Indian War was the last and most important of a series of colonial conflicts between the British and the American colonists on one side, and the French and their broad network of Native American allies on the other.
On this date in 1830, President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act into law. The bill enabled the federal government to negotiate with southeastern Native American tribes for their ancestral lands in states such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. As a result, some 60,000 Native Americans were forced westward into “Indian Territory”. The mass migration resulted in more than 4,000 deaths and became known as the Trail of Tears.
In the first sustained American offensive of World War I, an Allied force including a full brigade of nearly 4,000 United States soldiers captured the village of Cantigny on this day in 1918. The commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), General John J. Pershing, gave the order that no inch of Cantigny was to be surrendered. Over the next 72 hours, the Americans in Cantigny endured seven German counterattacks, maintaining control of the village despite high casualties, with 200 soldiers killed and another 200 incapacitated by German gas attacks. By the time relief finally came, total U.S. casualties at Cantigny had reached over 1,000.
On this date in 1957, National League owners voted unanimously to allow the biggest travesty of all time Dodgers and Giants to move to California. There were, however, conditions attached to the owners’ decision. First, either both teams had to move or neither could. Second, both teams had to announce their plans before October 1, 1957. As we know, both teams moved, the Dodgers to LA and the Giants to San Francisco.
On this date in 1987 Mathias Rust, an 18 year old form West Germany lands a Cessna 172 in the middle of Red Square in Moscow. Rust began his journey from Uetersen Airport near Hamburg, West Germany, on May 13, 1987, touring northern Europe (including the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Norway) before reaching Helsinki, Finland. From Helsinki – after telling the controllers he was flying to Stockholm – he flew some 550 miles to Moscow, nearly all over Soviet territory. He spent between 5 and 7 hours in the air on that last leg.
Rust flew a rented Cessna F172P at low altitude to avoid radar, covering Soviet airspace for several hours despite being detected.
The official White House Xitter account paid tribute to Harambe today. Today marks 10 years since the Cincinnati zoo shot and killed the silverback mountain gorilla after he dragged a toddler who fell into his enclosure. The boy escaped with minor injuries and probably lifelong PTSD.
Look, I am all for the memes and LOLs from official accounts, but this goes a smidge too far. For all that his death is a cultural touchstone, I really doubt that he was a patriot.
The DOJ has announced a criminal perjury probe into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll. According to the announcement, Carroll perjured herself when she said she received no outside funding for her fees against Trump; her lawyers later disclosed support from a nonprofit backed by resistance ringleader and billionaire Reid Hoffman.
. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan found no credibility issues and kept the funding details from jurors, but the Justice Department referred the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office in Illinois.
On May 26 in Maverick County, Texas, U.S. Border Patrol and Texas DPS apprehended 12 illegal immigrants on a private ranch, including six Special Interest Aliens from China wearing camouflage gear as they evaded detection near Eagle Pass. Earlier that evening, K-9 unit Bona and her handler tracked seven more migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, India, Ecuador, and Cuba on a nearby ranch, who were then handed to federal authorities.
The arrests fell under Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push, amid rising encounters with Chinese nationals at the southwest border—tens of thousands in recent fiscal years—prompting extra national security vetting due to their evasion tactics.
I wonder why military aged males from adversary countries aren’t just dealt with under Rule .303.
.
.
.
.
Four Supreme Court decisions dropped today. The decisions dropped too late for me to add them to RNN today, but there will be some analysis tomorrow. For now the cases are:
- Fernandez v. United States
- Rutherford v. United States
- Pitchford v. Cain
- Flowers Foods v. Brock
The first three have to deal with criminal law, while the last is about arbitration. The mix of who voted which way is interesting.
Officials including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cut the ribbon on the fully restored 1912 Beaux-Arts fountain and plaza at Columbus Circle at D.C.’s Union Station. The restoration is funded by $11.8 million from the National Park Service as part of a $54 million push to revive seven D.C. fountains before America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
The site, plagued by disrepair, homeless encampments cleared in 2022, and graffiti from 2024 protests, now features upgraded landscaping, new paths, and period lampposts. The newly restored fountains had not flowed in more than 20 years.