Random News and Notes 8 July
On this date in 1853, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, sails into Tokyo Bay, Japan, with a squadron of four vessels. For a time, Japanese officials refused to speak with Perry, but under threat of attack by the superior American ships they accepted letters from President Millard Fillmore, making the United States the first Western nation to establish relations with Japan since it had been declared closed to foreigners two centuries before.
Only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed to continue trade with Japan after 1639, but this trade was restricted and confined to the island of Dejima at Nagasaki.
The day after the U.N. Security Council recommended that all U.N. forces in Korea be placed under the command of the U.S. military, General Douglas MacArthur is appointed head of the United Nations Command by President Harry S. Truman on this date in 1950.
MacArthur would command the war effort until his relief for insubordination by President Truman less than a year later.
On this date in 1959, Maj. Dale R. Buis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand become the first Americans killed in the American phase of the Vietnam War when guerrillas strike a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) compound in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The group had arrived in South Vietnam on November 1, 1955, to provide military assistance.
The organization consisted of U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel who provided advice and assistance to the Ministry of Defense, Joint General Staff, corps and division commanders, training centers, and province and district headquarters.
Staying in Vietnam, or more correctly leaving, on this date in 1969 A battalion of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division leaves Saigon in the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops. The 814 soldiers were the first of 25,000 troops that were withdrawn in the first stage of the U.S. disengagement from the Vietnam War.
There would be 14 more increments in the withdrawal, but the last U.S. troops did not leave until after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973.
On this date in 1994, Kim Il-Sung, the communist dictator of North Korea since 1948 and grandfather of current DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, dies of a heart attack at the age of 82.
In the 1930s, Kim fought against the Japanese occupation of Korea and was singled out by Soviet authorities, who sent him to the USSR for military and political training. He became a communist and fought in the Soviet Red Army in World War II. In 1945, Korea was divided into Soviet and American spheres, and in 1948 Kim became the first leader of the DPRK (North Korea).
Apparently, the MOU and ceasefire with Iran is done. After several attacks on shipping by the Iranians yesterday, CENTCOM hit a bunch of Iranian targets.
During remarks given at the NATO summit in Ankara (As an aside, why is Turkey still a NATO member? And why are they meeting in Ankara?) President Trump was asked about the MOU and the ceasefire by a reporter.
“To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore, but they’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum, they’re sick people, they’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,”
I think I’ve been pretty clear about my position on this from the start. There shouldn’t have been a MOU, there shouldn’t have been a ceasefire. The US should have destroyed any-and-all Iranian military capabilities, killed every person in IRGC leadership and flattened every facility the regime was even suspected of using to enrich uranium.
Unfortunately, President Trump listened to the retards around JD Vance, and gave the Iranians a lifeline. Hopefully the adults are back in charge and we end them rightly.
There was a “mass attack” at a high school in Germany today. A 16-year-old male suspect was arrested following a stabbing attack at Welfen-Gymnasium high school in Schongau, Bavaria, Germany, where four people were injured, including two girls seriously wounded.
Initial reports described the incident as a possible school shooting or mass attack, but authorities confirmed it involved knife injuries. Police responded with a major operation, detaining the suspect shortly after he fled the scene.
This is going to be another example of Coulter’s Law: the longer it takes for the mainstream media to identify the perpetrator of a mass shooting, the less likely that individual is to be a white male. My money is on a snackbar being the perp.
ICE agents shot and killed an illegal yesterday in Houston. A Mexican illegal alien was stopped by federal authorities. Agents gave the alien verbal commands which were ignored. The illegal attempted to escape by ramming an ICE vehicle before trying to run over the agent. The agent returned fire in self defense, striking the illegal.
The illegal alien was transported to the hospital and declared deceased soon after.
This is the second incident of this kind in just a week, as an ICE agent was forced to open fire on a vehicle in self-defense in Pennsylvania.
This is a PSA for anyone in the Northeast. The Five Sisters Cup is starting. It is a race from New York Harbor to Boston by tall ships. Among them is the Coast Guard training vessel the USCG Eagle. The 4 ships participating are all 3 masted Barque rigged ships and they all came out of the same yard, Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany in the 1930s.
If you are anywhere near the New England coast this week, you should check to see if any of these beauties are anywhere near you so you can see them.