Random News and Notes 12 October

On this date:

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas.
• 1576 – Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximillian II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1609 – The song “Three Blind Mice” is published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
• 1702 – Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo.
• 1722 – Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afgan rebels after a seven month siege.
• 1810 – The traditional German festival known as Oktoberfest begins when Bavarian Crown Prince Louis, later King Louis I of Bavaria, marries Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The Bavarian royalty invited the citizens of Munich to attend the festivities, held on the fields in front of the city gates. These famous public fields were named Theresienwiese—“Therese’s fields”—in honor of the crown princess
• 1872 – Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory.

• 1915 – Despite international protests, Edith Cavell, an English nurse in Belgium, is executed by Germans for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners.
• 1918 – A massive forest fire rages through Minnesota killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands homeless. The fire burned at least 1,500 square miles. The fire, known as the Cloquet-Moose Lake fire because that is where the damage was worst, began at rail lines near Sturgeon Lake.
• 1933 – Alcatraz Island is made a federal maximum security prison.
• 1943 – The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
• 1945 – Private First Class Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, is presented the Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a combat medic, the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the nation’s highest military award.
• 1960 – Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, is assassinated during a live TV broadcast.
• 1964 – USSR launches Voskhod I, first spacecraft with multi-person crew; it is also the first mission in which the crew did not wear space suits.
• 1971 – The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.
• 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates at bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; 5 others are killed and 31 wounded.

• 1997 – John Denver dies when his experimental amateur aircraft crashes into Monterey Bay on the California coast.
• 1999 – Chief of Army Staff Perez Musharraf seizes power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup.
• 2000 – Suicide bombers at Aden, Yemen, damage USS Cole; 17 crew members killed and over 35 wounded.
• 2002 – Terrorist bombers kill over 200 and wound over 300 more at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali.

We start the news in the District, where federal agents executed a predawn raid on the residence of Ilhan Omar as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant in the Washington, D.C. area early Monday morning, per the Justice Department.

It is being reported the investigation is related to immigration violations, and the involvement of HSI seems to back that up. Of note is the fact that a DC judge had to sign off on the warrant. Knowing that DC is a liberal cesspit makes me think there is some there there. This is a breaking story and when I know more, you will know more.

President Donald Trump appointed Katie Zacharia, a California native and Pepperdine law graduate, as the next White House press secretary, replacing Karoline Leavitt who left in late August for family time after her second child’s birth. Zacharia currently advises Truth Social and Trump Media, with past roles at the Department of Homeland Security.

In her response, she called it the honor of a lifetime at America’s 250-year mark, while Leavitt offered warm congratulations, and supporters highlighted her life as a Christian wife and mother of four.

There is a change in policy for the TSA. Document checkers will no longer be able to sit while on duty. “TSA officers performing the travel document checker role are the first to interact with the traveling public. This welcome change reinforces both our security posture and our commitment to hospitality by having these officers on their feet and alert,” a spokesperson for the TSA wrote in an emailed statement. “All officers must meet fitness for duty requirements to be capable of performing their vital national security function while simultaneously creating a welcoming and professional environment for travelers.”

Of course the union representing the rank and file TSA employees is mad about it. They want fatass lashonda to be able to rest her kankles while on duty.

Frankly, TSA and the entire federal airport “security” apparatus is useless. The DHS IG consistently finds that the TSA fails north of 80% of the time. The whole thing is security theater and not actual security.