Random News and Notes 1 June

Welcome to Pride Month.

AHHAHAHAHA!

The court-martial of Benedict Arnold convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on this date in 1779. After a relatively clean record in the early days of the American Revolution, Arnold was charged with 13 counts of misbehavior, including misusing government wagons and illegally buying and selling goods. Abruptly interrupted at its outset by a British attack north of New York City, the court-martial did not get underway again until December 23 in Morristown, New Jersey. Although Arnold was cleared of most charges, General George Washington issued a reprimand against him.

This episode, fueled by Arnold’s growing resentment toward Congress and perceived slights, set the stage for his infamous treason the following year when he attempted to betray West Point to the British.

A fireworks factory in Malta has exploded. The explosion occurred at the Ta’ Lourdes fireworks factory in Magħtab at around 6:36 local time. Residential buildings, cars, and other structures in the vicinity of the plant were damaged.

Early reports say two men were taken to hospital with minor injuries and shock. No one was inside the building at the time. Damage to surrounding homes and farmland is already being assessed.

There are reports out of Iran indicating that President Mahmoud Pezeshkian has tendered his resignation to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. According to the reports Pezeshkian is unhappy being sidelined by the IRGC.

Does this mean the regime is cracking? Maybe, but I’m not so sure considering that the regime just announced it was suspending all communications with the US over Israeli strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

For reference, Hezbollah has launched a couple of hundred rockets at Northern Israel over the past few days. Enough rockets that the authorities have ended the school year early in the North.

Iran itself launched missiles at US facilities in Kuwait. They were both intercepted.

I am of the opinion that the US needs to stop pussyfooting around and end this. Sink every vessel – Iranian or not – in every port on the Iranian coast, seize every Iranian flagged tanker anywhere they are found, destroy every missile launch site, even the ones that are just suspected sites, and let the Israelis take out the rest of the IRGC leadership including Mojtaba Khamenei.

Kirill Basin is a Dem candidate for congress from Hawaii. He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening after pulling a gun on two Maui county employees after storming the municipal office building.

I’m starting to think there would be a really big drop in gun violence if we prevented democrats from having guns.