Random News and Notes 27 June
On this date in 1941, British cryptologists help break the secret code used by the German army to direct its strategic military operations on the Eastern front in the Soviet Union. British and Polish experts had already broken many of the Enigma codes for the Western front. Enigma was the Germans’ most sophisticated coding machine, necessary to secretly transmit information. The Enigma machine, invented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius looked like a typewriter and was originally employed for business purposes. The German army adapted the machine for wartime use and considered its encoding system unbreakable. They were wrong.
The Allied convoy system helped to ensure the delivery of key war materiel. The arctic convoys helped keep the Soviet Union in the fight. On this date in 1942, arctic convoy PQ-17 left Iceland bound for Murmansk and Archangelsk. More than half – 24 of 41 – of the ships in the convoy were sunk by German U=boats and aircraft.
The British Admiralty, acting on erroneous intelligence, ordered the convoy to scatter making them easy prey for the Germans. The convoy was the hardest hit of the entire war.
On this date in 1944, the Allies capture the port of Cherbourg on the Norman coast. The port, though wrecked by the Germans would quickly be repaired and put back into service.
Prior to the capture of Cherbourg, the vast majority of supplies for the invasion force came over the beaches via the Mulberry Harbors in each sector. The Mulberries were big floating piers/breakwaters that were constructed in southern England and towed across the Channel.
On this date in 1950, President Harry Truman orders US air and sea troops into Korea to help the ROK to defend against the North.
At dawn on June 25, 1950 (June 24 in the United States and Europe), 90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel, catching the Republic of Korea’s forces completely off guard and throwing them into a hasty southern retreat.
Truman would order US ground troops into the country just 3 days later.
We start today’s news with a story that involves former transportation secretary Pete Pillowbiter errr Buittigieg. It seems someone reported him and his hubby to CPS for abusing their adoptive children. An anonymous caller claimed Buttigieg confessed to unspeakable crimes at an Alabama conference, prompting Michigan State Police and CPS to separate the family temporarily for forensic interviews with twins Penelope Rose and Joseph August. The children stayed with grandparents overnight while Buttigieg and husband Chasten waited; police quickly deemed the report false, closing the case with no concerns found.
“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life. I tried to get my head around the idea that I had been accused of something so serious that I couldn’t be alone around my own children, and had consented to have them interviewed by strangers, without my knowing where the accusation had come from or even what it contained.”
False reports are bad m’kay? And while I sympathize some with the fairies, their side started this shit and they need to own it. I would also bet some real money that whoever made the call is from Pete’s side of the aisle.
Now for some weather news. A rare late June snowstorm – yes you read that correctly – is forecast for parts of Idaho and Montana this weekend. The National Weather Service upgraded warnings Friday for the Bitterroot, Sapphire, and Anaconda-Pintler mountains, plus nearby Idaho areas, forecasting 4 to 8 inches widely and up to 16 inches on peaks from Saturday evening through Monday morning. Temperatures will plunge 20 to 30 degrees, bringing winter hazards like hypothermia and travel snarls on backcountry passes.
In more weather news, a heat dome is setting up over the eastern half of the country for next week. Temps will soar into the triple digits across much of the Eastern US.
The extended forecast for my AO shows temps in the mid to upper 90’s rolling into the 4th of July weekend.
Drink plenty of water. Or hot cocoa if you’re out west. . .
Staying with weather related news, there is a record setting heatwave hitting most of Europe right now. And what have the EU Ubermenchen in Bruxelles done? Shut off the AC in the lower 7 floors of their headquarters, you know, the floors where the peons work. Ursula Von Der Layen works and lives on the 13th floor and has her Aircon on.
It gets worse. In the UK, local councils are ordering homeowners to remove their AC units to reach retarded net-zero goals.
Admittedly, with their cost per KWH it would be inordinately expensive to run AC there, but still.
A Las Vegas based nurse practitioner has been indicted in a $906 million medicare fraud scheme. Marizel Yukee, 49, owned mobile wound clinics in Texas, Nevada, California, and Hawaii, targeting elderly patients from October 2023 to April 2026. She allegedly paid kickbacks for referrals, falsified records, and billed $906 million for amniotic allografts unsuitable for terminally ill patients, with insurers paying $297 million.
Authorities seized $35.2 million in assets, including luxury cars, jewelry, and properties. Yukee pleaded not guilty after her June 23 arrest and remains on home detention. The case is part of the DOJ’s massive 2026 health care fraud takedown charging 455 people for over $6.5 billion in schemes.