Random News and Notes 5 May
Today in 1821 Napoleon Buonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena. The Corsica-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reins of the French government and save his nation from collapse. By 1807, Napoleon controlled an empire that stretched from the River Elbe in the north, down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees to the Dalmatian coast.
.
.
.
.
.
Beginning in 1812, Napoleon began to encounter the first significant defeats of his military career, suffering through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat against an allied force by 1814. Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped to France in early 1815 and raised a new Grand Army that enjoyed temporary success before its crushing defeat at Waterloo against an allied force under Wellington on June 18, 1815. Napoleon was subsequently exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa.
In 1862, an outnumbered and thrice whipped Mexican force pulled an upset over French forces at the Battle of Puebla. For reasons beyond me, what is considered a very minor and very local celebration in Mexico – Cinco de Mayo – became the Mexican Identitarian holiday in the US.
Anyway, go have a taco and a Tecate (Cemite and a Corona? Menudo and a Modelo?) and celebrate the temporary defense of Puebla de Los Angeles by General Ignacio Zaragoza and an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 Mexicans.
65 years ago today, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Now News!
I told you about Callais v Louisiana when the opinion dropped last week. As a reminder it is the Voting Rights Act case where the Court held race cannot be a factor in drawing Congressional district maps. A 6-3 Court expedited the return of the case to the lower courts and instructed them they had 3 days to inform SCOTUS of the plan to get rid of the racially gerrymandered district.
It gets better. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, took aim at the retarded Justice Jackson and the other dissenters in the order. He took great pains to note that the Justices ‘conferenced’ this case back in October. That means the case was essentially decided then and we were waiting on the opinions, pro and con.
It should be noted that Thomas and Gorsuch joined Alito’s opinion. Nobody, not even the other retards, joined in Jackson’s retard manifesto.
The Iranians must be huffing their own farts. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry claimed Iran is a superpower.
The question and response come with the backdrop of the US operation to reopen the Strait by force. Two Burke class destroyers – USS Truxtun and USS Mason – made the passage yesterday as Project Freedom ramps up. Two US flagged merchant vessels made the outbound passage yesterday.
It isn’t all wine and roses. A ROK flagged container ship was hit by an Iranian missile in the engineering spaces. None of the crew were injured and the vessel completed the passage before putting in at a UAE port facility.
I expect more fireworks today.
The AWFL mayor of Seattle wants to ban CCTV cameras in that city. Why? She claims they put refugees at risk. Like the refugees that beat a 77 years old man badly enough that he spent two weeks in the hospital.
Remember when childless harpies like this just collected cats?