Random News and Notes 28 July
On this date in 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.
4 years and 4-ish months later, the War to end all wars would end. Some 20 million people would die in the conflict.
The Bonus Army was a group of WWI Veterans who wanted their Veterans Bonuses paid out. The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded all U.S. World War I veterans “bonuses” in the form of certificates but they could not redeem until 1945. In the depths of the Depression, these Vets wanted the payouts early.
The first thousand of them arrived in DC in April of 1932. By June, the numbers had swollen to more than 20,000. By mid July, there were about 2000 left after the federal government paid for return trips. On this date in 1932, President Herbert Hoover ordered General Douglass MacArthur to disperse those who remained. At 4:45 pm, the 12th Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by five M1917 light tanks commanded by Patton, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of civil service employees left work to line the street and watch. The Bonus Marchers, believing the troops were marching in their honor, cheered the troops until Patton ordered the cavalry to charge them.
After the cavalry charged, the infantry, with fixed bayonets and tear gas (adamsite, an arsenical vomiting agent) entered the camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. No shots were fired. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River to their largest camp, and Hoover ordered the assault stopped. MacArthur chose to ignore the president and ordered a new attack, claiming that the Bonus March was an attempt to overthrow the US government. 55 veterans were injured and 135 arrested.
The action should have ended the careers of the senior officers involved, but as history tells us, the only one who paid any price was Herbert Hoover, who lost the election that fall to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
On this date in 1942, Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227. The order came to be known as the “Not one step backward” order. It was issued in light of German advances into Russian territory. The order declared, “Panic makers and cowards must be liquidated on the spot. Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters! Commanders…who abandon a position without an order from higher headquarters are traitors to the Motherland.”
The order created ‘blocking battalions’ that were authorized to shoot anyone who fled from the front.
There was a 7.1 initial magnitude earthquake in Japan this morning. The quake’s epicenter was near Uki in Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu. A tsunami warning has been issued.
At least 50 people have been injured and damage is said to be extensive. This is an ongoing story and will be updated if anything noteworthy comes out.
The Autopen lost his bid to keep the transcripts and audio from the interviews with Special Prosecutor Robert Hur private. Those records include his taped interviews with his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. The clips I’ve heard so far are bad. Really bad. Biden repeatedly and knowingly discloses national security information to Zwonitzer. Across five of these interviews, with no cleared person in the room, Biden pauses to flag his own notes as classified or too sensitive to hand over. On one tape he says it out loud:
“Some of this may be classified, so be careful.”
All well and good, but we know nothing is going to be done about it.
On a related note, a bunch of documents regarding Anthony Fauci have been released. These docs include emails, memos and a diary. And oh boy. The memos and emails are bad enough. They show a pattern of Fauci being a self-promoting tool bag, something we already knew. The diary however is at a whole new level.
Among other things, he admits he knew the WuFlu did not originate in the wuhan wet market as his minions said. He just pushed that idea as a way to obfuscate the fact the NIH was funding the lab that it actually came from. Senator Rand Paul has issued a subpoena that will force Fauci to appear before his committee and any ‘misstatements’ Tony makes this time are not covered by the pardon the autopen issued.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is growing increasingly disenchanted with his party. And he is not shy about saying so. In a recent NBC interview Fetterman said “If the Democratic caucus doesn’t want me, they could just let me know,”
The commie takeover of NYC moves apace. Zohran Mamdani’s finance department just released a fully downloadable list of people who own properties that could be affected by the new pied-a-terre tax. The list contains about 31,000 properties, including 6,800 homes over $5 million and 24,700 co-ops and condos above $1 million, that could face the annual surcharge unless proven as primary residences. Owners have until August 21 to submit proof like tax returns or utility bills. The tax was enacted in the May 2026 state budget and is aimed at raising $500 million yearly for schools, parks, and libraries.
Backlash has been fierce, with figures like Uniswap’s Hayden Adams decrying it as mass doxxing and others warning of burglary or protest risks, especially after the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Too bad it is going to end up decreasing tax revenue just like it has everywhere else it has been tried.