Random News and Notes 18 June
Oh the year was 1778. And on this date in that year, the British Army evacuated Philadelphia. They had captured the city on September 26, 1777, following General George Washington’s defeats at the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of the Clouds. British General William Howe had made Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, the focus of his campaign, but the Patriot government had deprived him of the decisive victory he hoped for by moving its operations to the more secure site of York one week before the city was taken.
The British position in Philadelphia became untenable after France’s entrance into the war on the side of the Americans. To avoid the French fleet, General Clinton was forced to lead his British-Hessian force to New York City by land. Loyalists in the city sailed down the Delaware River to escape the Patriots, who returned to Philadelphia the day after the British departure.
June 18, 1812: The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law—and the War of 1812 begins.
Thomas Macdonough’s American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh Bay on Lake Champlain turning the tide of the war to the Americans. The invading British army was forced to retreat back into Canada. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812.
Well, kinda. British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans.
Napoleon Bonaparte, 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, now -emperor 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.
On this date in 1815, he met his match in a man famous for his boots, one Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Napoleon had been deposed less than a year earlier by a coalition of continental powers and England. He escaped from exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba in early 1915 and immediately started fighting again.
He met a force commanded by Wellesley at a place just south of Brussels called Waterloo. The fighting continued for nine hours and generated more than 65,000 casualties.
After the crushing defeat, Napoleon returned to Paris and on June 22 abdicated in favor of his son. He decided to leave France before counterrevolutionary forces could rally against him, and on July 15 he surrendered to British protection at the port of Rochefort. He hoped to travel to the United States, but the British instead sent him to Saint Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. Napoleon protested but had no choice but to accept the exile. In May 1821, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. He was only 51 years old.
We start the news with an admission that this Editor is not perfect. He missed an important anniversary yesterday; the founding of the US Navy Hospital Corps. Established on June 17, 1898, by President William McKinley, the Hospital Corps created dedicated medical ratings for sailors, replacing ad hoc support before the Spanish-American War. Known as ‘Docs’ or ‘Devil Docs’ with Marines, they have earned 22 Medals of Honor, 179 Navy Crosses, and countless other valor awards, with 20 ships named in their honor.
A map has been making the rounds on social media that asks a question; where does the south begin?
So, let us know,where does the South begin.
We talked a bit about the UFC drone attack plot recently. Well, there is some news to share, and you’re not going to like it one bit. The DHS has confirmed that a DACA recipient, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, a 31-year-old Mexican national from Nebraska, was the main organizer behind the plot.
The FBI arrested Alvarez and four others across four states after Tycen Proper’s mother alerted authorities on June 11 about the plot.
Once again, the Feds know – or should – the name and location of every DACA recipient. It is time to round them up and send them back where they came from.
Three Supreme Court Opinions dropped this morning. The Court handed down judgements in United States v. Hemani, Hunter v. United States and T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation. Only Hemani is of any real interest to this editor, so we’ll look at that one last.
In Hunter v US the Court held in an 8-1 opinion by Justice Kagan that an appeal waiver in a plea agreement is unenforceable when enforcing it would result in a “miscarriage of justice”—specifically, when it would leave in place an egregious error (such as a blatantly unconstitutional sentence or one exceeding statutory limits) that would bring the judicial system into disrepute. The Court vacated and remanded the Fifth Circuit’s dismissal of Hunter’s appeal (which challenged a mandatory medication condition on supervised release), directing the lower court to apply this standard. This provides a narrow but important safety valve for extreme cases while generally upholding appeal waivers.
In T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation the Supreme Court held 5-4 in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars federal district court jurisdiction over claims by state-court losers seeking review and rejection of state-court judgments, even if those judgments remain subject to further review or appeal in the state court system. The case arose from T.M.’s challenge to a state-court consent order (entered to secure her release from involuntary commitment and forced medication) that she alleged violated her due process rights and was obtained under duress; the Court affirmed the lower courts’ dismissal of her federal suit, emphasizing federalism, comity, and the principle that only the U.S. Supreme Court can exercise appellate review over state judgments. Justice Thomas concurred, while Justice Barrett dissented (joined by Roberts, Kagan, and Gorsuch). The ruling reinforces the doctrine’s application without expanding or narrowing it.
That leaves us with Hemani. This is the first of the 2A decisions handed down this term.
In United States v. Hemani the Supreme Court unanimously (9-0) affirmed the Fifth Circuit in an opinion by Justice Gorsuch, holding that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3)—which prohibits firearm possession by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance”—violates the Second Amendment as applied to Ali Danial Hemani, a marijuana user who possessed a firearm for self-defense while not actively intoxicated. The Court ruled that the statute lacks a sufficient historical analogue under Bruen; while founding-era laws could disarm those who were presently impaired (like habitual drunkards via judicial process), there was no tradition of broadly disarming sober individuals based solely on past or occasional drug use. Concurring opinions were filed by Justices Thomas, Jackson (joined by Sotomayor), and Alito (joined by Kagan, concurring in the judgment). The decision provides important protections for lawful gun owners amid shifting cannabis laws but leaves room for narrower restrictions targeting active intoxication, addiction with proven danger, or other individualized risks.
There are about 10 cases left to be decided n this term they include:
- Trump v. Barbara (birthright citizenship challenge to Trump’s executive order limiting citizenship for children of non-citizens).
- Trump v. Cook and Trump v. Slaughter (presidential power to fire independent agency officials at the Fed and FTC).
- Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. (transgender girls/women in women’s sports).
- Watson v. Republican National Committee (mail-in ballot deadlines).
- National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC (campaign finance limits on party spending).
- Wolford v. Lopez (Second Amendment challenge to Hawaii’s gun property rules).
A pair of urban teens were arrested after riding a dirt bike through a mall in Myrtle Beach. The incident happened around 10:54 a.m. Wednesday. Myrtle Beach police responded to reports of the dirt bike inside the shopping center. The riders crashed into a kiosk, ditched the bike, and tried to flee but were apprehended by officers on the scene.
We need to bring back the pillory specifically for crimes like this.
Cats are dicks. . .