Random News and Notes 11 July

Yet another busy day in history, so yet another list:

• 1533 – Pope Clement VIII excommunicates Henry VIII from the Catholic Church. This leads to the formation of the Church of England.
• 1782 – The British evacuate Savannah GA after the surrender of General Cornwallis.
• 1804 – Aaron Burr shoots and kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
• 1862 – Union forces defeat a smaller Rebel Force at Rich Mountain in Virginia.
• 1914 – George Herman “Babe” Ruth makes his Major league debut. He pitched seven strong innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians 4-3.
• 1944 – Count Claus von Stauffenberg attempts to off Hitler at the Wolfsschanze HQ in Rastenburg East Prussia (now Kętrzyn in Poland). The attempt fails.
• 1975 – Archaeologists uncover the Terracotta army in China. More than 8000 full-sized and exquisitely detailed clay soldiers were found. The sculptures depicted the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
• 1979 – SkyLab reenters the atmosphere. Debris lands in the Western Desert of Australia and the Indian ocean.
• 1995 – Two decades after the fall of Saigon, the United States and The Peoples Republic of Vietnam normalize relations.

We start the news in Ft.Worth where the local PD is in a bit of hot water. Why? Because of something a clearly un-or-under trained female officer did to a couple of people at pride parade. Patrolthing Sarah Stogner warned preachers Rich Penkoski and David Grisham that offensive speech could lead to citations. What was the ‘offensive speech’? Apparently it was the objective truth.

Well, Assistant AG for civil rights Harmeet Dhillon has launched an investigation into the Ft. Worth PD over this – and previous – incidents involving this cop and her supervisor that day. This is going to end badly for the department, as there is clear evidence of a pattern and that the chain of command endorse the behavior, which is clearly and incontrovertibly unconstitutional.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a request for proposal for two executive jets and seven passenger planes to handle deportations, emergencies, and official transport on short notice. This follows purchases of about 10 jets since late 2025 and supports the Trump administration’s mass deportation push, with over 2,250 removal flights to 79 countries from January 2025 to January 2026—a 46% jump from the prior year.

The usual suspects are up in arms. The main talking point is that DHS misused FEMA funding for deportations. According to the DHS, no FEMA funds have been used for that purpose.

Treasury’s OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) just slapped sanctions on a man named Ali Ansari. Ansari is an Iranian financier based in Qatar. The Treasury Department said that Ansari has embezzled from the Iranian regime, diverting publicly funded wealth into an overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, regime elites, including notable senior figures within the Supreme Leader’s Office and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

OFAC also levied sanctions against a number of Iranian monetary exchange houses that move billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the regime’s illicit financial activity.

RyanAir, the ultra low cost Irish airline has been mentioned in this space before, mostly for funny or slightly odd reasons. This one is a bit more serious. A RyanAir 737 had just left Thessaloniki in Greece bound for Memmingen Germany when a window blew out. Video of the incident (watch below) made the rounds on social media. It shows a woman holding on to her husband for dear life as he was being sucked into to window opening.

The man was hospitalized for his injuries and the plane returned to Thessaloniki without further incident.

Christopher Howarth, The father of three from Idaho was visiting family near Lake Oroville in California in late May when he was bitten by a Northern Pacific rattlesnake. The bite caused rapid swelling, numb tongue, and a dangerous clotting disorder called DIC. Doctors at Adventist Health Feather River Hospital used all 36 vials of their stock of antivenom over six days before airlifting him 185 miles to Stanford Medical Center for 18 more vials and further care.

After 12 days in hospitals Chris is now 80% recovered at home. He shared a video recalling writing final letters to his kids during the ordeal, while a GoFundMe helps with bills.

Two things; one, don’t mess with Jake, two, pay attention to your surroundings. Despite messing with all kinds of snakes, this editor has never been bitten by a vemenous snek, and never by any snake that I wasn’t actively messing with. You know why? Because this editor looks where he’s stepping when he is in snake country.