Random News and Notes 12 August

On this date:

• 30 BC – Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic Pharaoh, commits suicide.
• 1099 – 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem at Ascalon.
• 1676 – King Phillip’s War ends when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, is assassinated by a Native American in the service of the English.
• 1687 – Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary.
• 1762 – The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
• 1812 – Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, chases the French from Madrid after defeating French Marshal Auguste Marmont at Salamanca.
• 1863 – Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.
• 1896 – Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.

• 1898 – The Spanish American War officially ends after three months and 22 days of hostilities.
• 1908 – The first Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line.
• 1935 – FDR signs the Social Security Act.
• 1941 – French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announces full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
• 1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet on board a ship at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to confer on issues ranging from support for Russia to threatening Japan to postwar peace.
• 1961 – Construction begins on the Berlin Wall.

We start the news in Wisconsin where they held their primaries last night. The results of the Dem governor’s race are notable. The contest pitted DSA candidate Francesca Hong and Tony Evers backed David Crowley. All the polls had the commie Hong winning handily. The average advantage was ~ 15 points. When the actual votes were counted, Crowley came out on top.

I am not sure what to make of this outcome. I am seeing there might have been some shenanigans with the count in Milwaukee county. It also makes me wonder what is going on with the polling. Frankly it probably would have been easier to beat Hong – who is a certifiable nutbag – than it will be to beat Crowley.

The CPI (consumer price index) numbers are out. The CPI is used as a measure of inflation. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported U.S. consumer prices rose 0.1% in July, slowing the annual inflation rate to 3.4% from 3.5% in June. Energy prices fell 1.5% in July, led by a 2.9% decline in gasoline costs, though year-over-year energy prices remain 14.7% higher, reflecting ongoing tensions in the Iran war. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, core inflation rose 0.2% monthly and 2.5% annually.

The numbers fall pretty close to the expected rates. The markets have taken this as good news.

Back on May 15, 2026, an explosion at Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, Maine, killed three people and injured at least 13 others. A federal report released this month from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggests firefighter tactics inadvertently caused the blast by spraying water into an oxygen-limiting silo.

At the scene, firefighters flowed water into the silo, though the manufacturer’s emergency procedures warn against that, the report said. “The document warns against spraying water or foam into the oxygen-limiting silo as it will force air in and may create a potentially explosive mixture,” the report states. “The application of water into the silo in this incident likely entrained oxygen into the silo headspace, stirred up dust within the contents, and caused it to become suspended in an explosive concentration.”

The explosion took place in the small town about 95 miles northeast of Portland and triggered a response of 299 firefighters from 46 departments across a four-county area. It took them hours to contain the fire. The Searsmont Fire & Rescue assistant fire chief, Wayne Woodbury, 76, died from injuries suffered in the explosion. Andrew Cross, 27, of the Morrill Volunteer Fire Department, also died. Alden Robbins, the co-owner of the mill, died from injuries weeks later.

A “Canadian” man has been charged with making a bomb threat against US Consulate in Halifax.Halifax Regional Police charged 54-year-old Ali Assakereh with uttering threats and public mischief following a bomb threat against the U.S. consulate in Halifax on Sunday. Officers located Assakereh’s vehicle in the Purdy’s Wharf parkade on Monday at 8:10 a.m., discovering a propane tank and flammable liquid containers that prompted downtown evacuations. Police arrested the suspect on Thomas Raddall Drive in Clayton Park at about 8:35 a.m. Monday; authorities confirmed by 2 p.m. the vehicle posed no public risk.

Assakereh – an Iranian national – appeared in Halifax bail court Tuesday via video link with an Arabic interpreter to face the charges of uttering threats and public mischief.

There was a time when I was irritated about the increased border control between the US and Canada. Prior to 2009, travel to Canada only required a citizenship declaration at the border. It now requires a passport or Real ID type document.

This one . . . Well you’ll see.

A university-run ‘U.S. Government Internship Program’ placed Chinese students from schools like Communication University of China in congressional offices from 2018-2019. They handled constituent calls, policy briefings, research, and speech drafts, paying around $4,000 through a partnership with the Midwest U.S.-China Association’s Chicago Education Center. Participants like Zhang Xiaoyi from Beijing International Studies University described their roles as external propaganda efforts, with some later advising Chinese government on U.S. Congress.

The facilitating group faces a House investigation over ties to Beijing’s influence operations, prompting questions about intern vetting in sensitive settings.

I do not say things like this lightly, but that is the textbook definition of treason: giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Any-and-everyone involved in this mess needs to face criminal charges.