Random News and Notes 25 June

Today was a busy day in history, so it’s list time. Mostly.

• 1862 – The Seven Days campaign starts. In a series of brutal battles near Richmond, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove Union forces under General George B. McClellan away from the Confederate capital, effectively ending the Union’s Peninsula Campaign.
• 1864 – Union sappers began work on the mine at Petersburg.
• 1868 – Congress enacts legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the federal government.
• 1903 – Marie Curie announces the discovery of radium.
• 1910 – Congress passes the Mann Act. The new law criminalizes bringing women across state lines for “immoral purposes”.
• 1917 – The German high command issues a statement about the use of poison gas at Ypres.
• 1941 – Finland declares war on the USSR.
• 1941- President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8802 prohibiting ethnic and racial discrimination in the country’s defense industry.
• 1947 – Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl was first published.
• 1950 – North Korean forces crossed the 49th parallel starting the Korean War.
• 1996 – The U.S. Air Force military housing complex Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, was hit by a VBIED killing 19 U.S. airmen and wounding nearly 500 others.

There was one other significant historical item for today: The Battle of the Little Bighorn. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th US Cavalry met an allied Force of Indians led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. It was a disaster of epic proportions.

Custer divided his command and they were attacked and defeated in detail – one by one that is. Custer and the 210 men in his detachment were all killed. Another 52 were killed while fighting under Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen. It would be the worst US defeat during the post Civil War Indian Wars. Yet it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne. They would all be penned up in reservations within 5 years.

Now News!

We start in Venezuela where a pair of 7+ magnitude earthquakes have hit the northern coast. The quakes, 7.2 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, hit near the coastal town of Yumare just 39 minutes apart. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez reported at least 164 deaths and nearly 1,000 injuries from the shallow strike-slip quakes along the Boconó fault. Widespread destruction hit Caracas neighborhoods like Altamira and Chacao, Maiquetía Airport, and La Guaira, with high-rises buckling, a baseball game halting amid tremors, and power outages plunging cities into darkness.

The quakes in Venezuela were not the only ones yesterday. A 5.6 hit in California’s Redwood Valley 7 hours before the Venezuela slip-strike quakes. A 6.5 hit just off-shore Kuji, Japan just 25 minutes after the Yumare quakes.

The casualty count has just begun in Venezuela, US search and rescue teams have already been dispatched.

There are a couple of Supreme Court opinions to talk about today. Wolford, Mullin v Doe and Otro Lado all dropped today as well as a case called Monsanto v Durnell. We will dispose of that one first.

Durnell sued Monsanto in state court over cancer claims and the Monsanto Roundup product. A 7-2 SCOTUS (Kavanaugh authored majority, Jackson dissent joined by Gorsuch) held that Durnell cannot sue in federal court because the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act expressly
preempted Durnell’s failure-to-warn claim.

Mullin v Doe is the temporary protected status case. Justice Alito writing for a 6-3 Court ruled that temporary status is indeed temporary. Doe insisted the recission of status for Haitians was racially based.

Mullin v Otro Lado is another immigration related case. This time it’s about where you need to be to apply for asylum. The Alito majority holds that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien “arrives in the United States” for asylum and inspection purposes only when they physically cross the border. Asylum seekers standing at ports of entry in Mexico therefore have no statutory right to apply for asylum or be inspected. The ruling effectively greenlights policies that turn back or “meter” would-be asylum seekers before they enter U.S. territory.

The final case is called Wolford v Lopez. The state of Hawaii banned concealed carry on all private property unless the carrier has the express permission of the owner. A 6-3 court – Alito authored again – held that it was unconstitutional. That case affects me as there is a similar NYS law on the books.

There are still a couple of big SCOTUS cases left. You can be sure that when they drop, you will find out here.

Do we have anyone from Ohio? If so, and you like Mike DeWine, you may want to scroll past this one. The Retard in the Ohio Governor’s manse just vetoed a bill that would have required photo ID to get a mail in ballot. Under House Bill 472, an applicant would need to complete all prior work, plus upload a live-capture photo ID and an electronic signature to an online portal.

I am given to understand that the Republicans in the Ohio house and Senate have veto proof majorities. They should use them. Also; F*ck Mike DeWine.

A couple of days ago on June 22, 2026, a Wright Air Service Cessna lost power 20 minutes after takeoff from Coldfoot Airport in Alaska, forcing a landing on rocky terrain near Gates of the Arctic National Park. The video shows the stall warning blaring, nose gear collapsing, and wing scraping, but the plane settled without flipping, allowing all nine passengers and pilot Louie to walk away unharmed.

Rescue helicopters from a nearby drilling site quickly ferried them to safety. The NTSB is investigating.