The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act, signed into law in 2017 by President Trump, designates March 29 of each year as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
Vietnam Veterans represented nearly 10% of their generation.
The U.S. actions in Vietnam began slowly with the deployment of advisors in the early 1950s and expanded incrementally to include the deployment of combat forces in July 1965.
The conflict continued until January 1973, when representatives of the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement in Paris. U.S. forces returned home over the next few months, with the last military unit leaving on March 29, 1973.
March 29 is a fitting choice for a day honoring Vietnam Veterans. March 29, 1973, was when the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. In addition, on and around this same day, Hanoi released the last of its acknowledge prisoners of war.
On behalf of the crew here at MVAP I thank all of you.
Last month, a source called me. As usual in D.C., he wanted to talk on Signal. The encrypted communications app long ago replaced Blackberries as the default way to message in D.C.
So it wasn’t that surprising that a magazine editor somehow got added onto a Trump administration Signal chat involving J.D. Vance and other administration figures discussing air strikes against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. Since everyone under 50 in D.C. is constantly messaging each other and media contacts, something like this was eventually bound to happen.
In an age where high-level remote government meetings have become the norm, important decisions in America and Europe are arrived at by video chat and text.
But there may be bigger reasons why the Trump administration and everyone in D.C. should be wary about using Signal. While the app is ubiquitous because it’s perceived as being more ‘private’ than WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, Brian Acton, the man behind WhatsApp, created the Signal Foundation and is a major liberal donor. Moxie Marlinspike, Signal’s other founder and coder, claims to be an anarchist, and no fan of the Trump administration.
Liberal foundations helped fund Signal’s rise and the initial fiscal sponsorship for Signal was provided by the Freedom of the Press Foundation whose key figures, Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, are better known for leaking damaging government information to leftists, rather than for keeping it secret.
Signal continues to be run today by leftists who passionately hate the Trump administration.
The Signal Foundation’s president, Meredith Whittaker, described as the “woman in charge of the secure communication channel”, became famous leading a revolt against Google when it dared to add the black female president of the Heritage Foundation to its AI council.
“There is zero proof that anti-conservative bias exists. In fact, these companies bend over backwards to not enforce their terms of service for people like President Trump,” Whittaker falsely claimed.
Other foundation board members include Katherine Maher, the current head of NPR and former head of Wikimedia, who famously claimed that “our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”
Maher had said that, “the number one challenge that we see here is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States.” She had cheered Hillary and Kamala, and denounced President Trump as a “deranged racist sociopath.” Rounding out the board are Jay Sullivan, a former Twitter exec ousted by Musk and Amba Kak, a Whittaker protege with ties to the Biden administration.
Signal is a leftist activist group which makes it all the more strange that so much of D.C. is convinced that their privacy is secure using it. So much so that key Trump administration figures, including the vice president, could chat about an upcoming military strike on Signal.
For now there’s no evidence that Signal calls or chats were compromised by anything other than ‘user error’ of the kind that leads random people to occasionally try to add me to groups on Skype, WhatsApp, Signal and every known communications app in the free world.
Signal’s leaders continue to boast that they are committed to the security of the app and the organization’s actual CTO, Ehren Kret, occasionally retweets Elon Musk, but the fundamental difference between WhatsApp and Signal lies not in the technology, but its credibility.
“Signal either works for everyone or it works for no one. Every military in the world uses Signal, every politician I’m aware of uses Signal. Every CEO I know uses Signal because anyone who has anything truly confidential to communicate recognizes that storing that on a Meta database or in the clear on some Google server is not good practice,” Whittaker said.
The question is whether there might be a tipping point at which the value of sabotaging the ‘right’ takes priority over operating a credible platform, as it did when Whittaker went to war against having even one single conversative sit on Google’s AI ethics review board.
Signal is just a digital incarnation of leftist civil libertarianism of the kind that created the ACLU and other free speech movements because they believed that privacy and speech innately favored insurgent revolutionary movements over establishment conservative ones.
“I champion civil liberty as the best of the non-violent means of building the power on which worker’s rule must be based. If I aid the reactionaries to get free speech now and then, if I go outside the class struggle to fight against censorship, it is only because those liberties help to create a more hospitable atmosphere for working class liberties. The class struggle is the central conflict of the world; all others are incidental. When that power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatever,” ACLU co-founder Roger Nash Baldwin wrote in ‘Soviet Russia’.
The entire quote is important because it makes it all too clear that civil libertarianism for groups like this is a strategy, a means, not an end, a way to bring down the system and then rule over it.
The ACLU’s current Case Selection Guidelines lay out a more sophisticated version of this argument calling for a consideration of the “impact of the proposed speech and the impact of its suppression” on the organization’s leftist political agenda. And in the last election, you could find the ACLU holding events on “ways to combat the spread of disinformation”.
The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation still, for the most part, oppose the government use of big tech companies to engage in censorship, known as ‘jawboning’, but other digital civil libertarian groups, notably the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have come out on the side of some government censorship. The Knight Foundation, which helped fund Signal and retains ties to it, has sympathies for ‘jawboning’ censorship.
Katherine Maher, a Signal board member, described taking “a very active approach to disinformation,” based on “conversations with government” in her past career.
Privacy on Signal, like that on any platform or app, depends on the commitment of those in charge to maintaining its integrity. Where WhatsApp is seen as an information gathering tool for Facebook’s data hungry operation, Signal emphasizes that it’s a non-profit and has no reason to spy on you. But Facebook does things to make money whereas Signal’s motives are ideological. And that ideology is hostile to conservatives and the Trump administration.
I use Signal, the way I use every communications app or service, with the assumption that anything I send is vulnerable to being intercepted, seen and heard if there is a sufficiently motivated party inside or outside the organization behind it. That’s not paranoia, it’s pragmatism. Privacy can be improved, but it can’t ever be absolutely ensured.
Conservatives should use Signal cautiously and Trump administration officials would do well not to hold meetings using a supposedly secure app run by some of their worst enemies.
Sergeant Joe Harris, who was believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper died on 15 March in Los Angeles. He was 108.
Harris was born on June 19, 1916, in West Dale, Louisiana. He began his military service in 1941 when he was 24. By the time he was honorably discharged in November 1945, he had completed 72 parachute jumps.
After the war, he worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. He also spent more than 60 years in Compton, California, where Pittman said he was the neighborhood patriarch, a man everyone on the block knew and gravitated to.
Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. The battalion did not serve overseas during World War II, primarily because it never reached full strength for an Airborne Infantry Battalion. Instead they were shipped to the west coast to battle fires started by Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs.
He is survived by his son and two daughters along with five grandchildren. His wife, Louise Harris, died in 1981.
He will be honored with a full military funeral on April 5.
That’s the look when I look I have when stepping outside, seeing the world. Engaging my pronouns XYFU
For those with teevee, can you imagine charles manson being invited onto a talk show to discuss his murders and continues to do so
You can see it ole Isaac Newton’s face expression
Chance, now you’re just showing off
Try to keep up Mophead
I see the religion of pieces is being peaceful again
Yeah, right and ok world Knowing the storm was heading in thought I would go check Armydog’s blood pressure early, seen his wifey first. Where is he? ” in his workshop, been out there 2 hours with my vacuum cleaner, I’m not allowed in his shop, you go check on him”
Ok
Dog, what you doin man
“I’m making a family heirloom”
Needs a better bridge
“The wife sent you out here didn’t she, you back in and tell her, I’ll have her vacuum tuned up soon”.
In case you were unaware, a new species has been discovered.
We have a disturbing then and now. Of course, yours truly knows this would never be something our MilVap members would consume. (Quickly hides French fry container evidence.😳😎)
The American system was founded on a simple idea: three branches of government, each with its distinct role. The president executes the law, Congress creates it, and the judiciary interprets it. However, at some point, activist judges became more than just referees; they began seeing themselves as emperors, wielding gavels like scepters and rewriting the rules to fit their desires. These black-robed radicals believe they possess more power than the president, and it’s time for conservatives to confront them as the tyrants they have become.
Consider the immigration saga under Donald Trump. In 2017, Trump issued an executive order—a travel ban targeting countries plagued by terrorism. It was bold, unapologetic, and squarely within his constitutional authority to protect national security.
Then came the activist judges. Federal courts in Hawaii and Washington state blocked the order, with unelected judges like James Robart and Derrick Watson acting as armchair commander-in-chief. Their rationale? Trump’s campaign rhetoric caused hurt feelings, so the policy must be discriminatory. Forget the Constitution or the will of the voters who placed Trump in office—these judges concluded that their moral superiority outweighs executive power. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban, but not before years of chaos demonstrated the reality: activist judges do not interpret the law; they create it.
Image by Grok.
Then there’s the abortion racket. For decades, Roe v. Wade stood as a symbol of judicial overreach, a 1973 decision concocted from thin air by justices who discovered a “right” to abortion lurking in the shadows of the Constitution. Fast forward to 2022, when Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health finally overturned it, returning the issue to the states.
You’d think that would settle things, but activist judges aren’t finished. In states like Ohio and Michigan, lower courts have rushed to block pro-life laws, twisting state constitutions into pretzels to keep the abortion mills operational. These judges don’t care that Dobbs stripped their federal protection; they’ll concoct new rights faster than you can say “living document.” They’re not answering to voters or executives; they’re answering to Planned Parenthood and the progressive elite.
What about guns? After Trump’s ATF tried to crack down on bump stocks—those nasty little devices that turn rifles into machine guns—activist judges swooped in again. 2023, the Fifth Circuit struck down the ban, with judges like Jennifer Walker Elrod arguing that the agency had overstepped.
Fair enough, except the pattern repeats: courts don’t just check the executive—they supplant it, deciding policy from the bench. Meanwhile, in blue states, judges uphold every gun control scheme the Left dreams up, ignoring Bruen (2022), in which the Supreme Court demanded strict historical scrutiny. These aren’t rulings; they’re power grabs, with judges picking winners and losers based on their politics, not the Second Amendment.
The arrogance is staggering. Millions elect presidents, and these presidents are accountable to the people every four years. Judges, however, are appointed for life, so they’re insulated from consequences, yet they behave as if they run the show.
When Trump attempted to end DACA—Obama’s illegal amnesty-by-fiat—courts blocked him, with judges like Nicholas Garaufis in New York asserting that the move was “arbitrary.” But when Biden pushes climate edicts or vaccine mandates, activist judges support him, and rubber-stamping executives overreach as long as it’s their guy. The double standard is evident, but the message is clear: these judges believe they’re above the Oval Office, holding veto power that no election can challenge.
This isn’t what the founders intended. Article III of the Constitution assigns courts a limited role: to resolve “cases” and “controversies,” not to dictate national policy. Alexander Hamilton referred to the judiciary as the “least dangerous” branch, lacking the purse of Congress or the sword of the executive. But tell that to the modern judiciary, where lifetime appointees like Ruth Bader Ginsburg (before her passing) and Sonia Sotomayor treat the bench as a progressive throne, issuing decrees that undermine tradition and sovereignty. They don’t just see themselves as ranking above the president—they consider themselves above us all.
Conservatives must act. Demand that Senate Republicans thoroughly question judicial nominees—no more stealth activists slipping through. Advocate for term limits for federal judges; life tenure was never intended to create demigods. And when rogue judges act, eventually, they will force a situation in which governors and presidents find themselves channeling Andrew Jackson: “The court has made its decision; now let them enforce it.” The judiciary has no army—its power depends on compliance, and we don’t have to go along with it.
Activist judges aren’t the guardians of justice; they are usurpers in robes, intoxicated by their authority. They have transformed courts into super-legislatures, bypassing both presidents and voters. The Right cannot remain passive while these petty tyrants dismantle our republic. It’s time to strip the emperor’s clothes and remind them: in America, the people rule—not the gavel.
This is verging on a crisis and how to rein these individuals in is a controversial topic.
Opening day of the baseball season was yesterday and it included several firsts. Austin Wells was the first Yankee catcher to hit in the leadoff spot. He had the first hit of the season and the first home run with a solo shot in the first.
Orioles outfielder Tyler O’neill hit an opening day homer for the 6th straight season.
Nats starter Mackenzie Gore fanned 13 Phillies yesterday. That feat – 13 K in an opening day game – had only been done once before, by the great Bob Gibson.
Now on to our regularly scheduled shenanigans. . .
Pearls before Swine
Political Commentary
Dad Jokes
Memes
This week’s musical selection comes from one of the most influential Hardcore/Punk bands of the late 80’s, Hüsker Dü.
Reported Arrests of China’s Top Military Brass Indicate Political Crisis, Experts Say
from the Epoch Times
In what has been described by one China expert as potentially among the “most dangerous developments in the world today,” Gen. He Weidong, the third-in-command of communist China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and several other military leaders, have reportedly been arrested amid the Chinese regime’s ongoing military purge.
It’s unclear whether Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping or his political enemies were behind the alleged purge of the Fujian clique, one of two groups considered to be Xi’s allies. The possibility of the second scenario has raised some concerns that Xi may become more aggressive on the international front if he believes that he’s on the verge of losing power.
He, the second-ranked vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the Party’s Politburo, has not been seen in public since March 11, when he attended this year’s closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Chinese regime’s rubber-stamp legislature and the highest state organ of power.
During the two weeks, He and the CMC’s first-ranked vice chairman, Zhang Youxia, were both absent from a seminar that marked the CCP’s enactment of the Anti-Secession Law 20 years ago. The law targets so-called Taiwan separatists. Neither were they seen by Xi’s side during his visit to China’s southwestern Yunnan Province. Their absences were considered unusual because such events had previously been attended by at least one of the two CMC vice chairmen.
Zhao Lanjian, a former investigative journalist in China who is now based in the United States, recently told The Epoch Times that at least three sources had confirmed to him that He had been detained on March 11.
According to Zhao Lanjian, who first reported He’s alleged arrest on social media platform X on March 13, the PLA general was taken away shortly after the NPC session and subsequently had a heart attack and was detained at the 301 Hospital, a top PLA hospital that treats the CCP’s high-level officials. The hospital is often mentioned in rumors concerning political assassinations within the Chinese regime.
Zhao Lanjian cited one of the sources, saying that the CMC is reviewing He’s speeches as CMC vice chairman, along with documents, photos, and videos involving him, to remove his influence.
The information was corroborated by Cai Shenkun, a China affairs commentator who previously broke the stories of the removals of former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and Adm. Miao Hua from their posts.
In a YouTube livestream on March 24, Cai said the PLA’s theater command leaders have been notified of He’s arrest.
More Rumored Arrests, Absence
Besides He, several other PLA commanders from the Fujian faction are also said to have been placed under investigation, according to Zhao Lanjian and Cai.
Zhao Lanjian said that He’s secretary has been investigated, possibly for leaking information. Zhao Lanjian also said those arrested include Zhao Keshi, former head of the PLA’s General Logistics Department, and several other military commanders from Fujian Province, where Xi spent 17 years before his rise to power.
On March 25, Cai said Lin Xiangyang, commander of the Eastern Theater Command, was arrested on March 24 for leaking a “so-called Taiwan Strait battle plan.” It’s unclear to whom the information was allegedly leaked.
Meanwhile, the absence of Defense Minister Dong Jun from a plenary meeting of the State Council earlier this month also raised some eyebrows.
So far, Beijing has not commented on the reported arrests or provided an explanation for Dong’s absence.
China’s foreign ministry didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ inquiry about the individuals’ whereabouts by publication time.
‘Unprecedented’ Infighting
Since Xi assumed power in 2012, the CCP leader has launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. According to a recently unclassified document published by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, nearly 5 million officials were investigated and found guilty by 2022.
However, the campaign “more deeply reflects a party-directed securitization, or a targeting of political indiscipline and ideological impurity, particularly at the highest levels of government, in an effort to preserve the CCP’s domestic control and legitimacy,” the report stated.
Xi’s policies, particularly his anti-corruption campaign and centralization of power, created enemies within the regime, such as Party elders, so-called CCP princelings, and some of the PLA’s top brass.
In the past two years, a number of senior CCP officials and PLA commanders have been dismissed or suspended following their unexplained disappearances.
Some analysts have said that Zhang, who’s from the Shaanxi gang, another faction that was considered to be Xi’s ally, may have been behind the more recent purges, which targeted the Fujian clique.
Political commentator and China expert Gordon Chang said the rumored arrests of He and Zhao Keshi “could be the most dangerous developments in the world today,” as the PLA “does not look either stable or loyal to China’s paramount leader,” no matter who was behind the purges or whether the rumors are true.
“The fact that they are circulating tells us that there are elements trying to destabilize the Chinese ruler,” Chang wrote in an articlepublished in The Hill on March 19.
“A Xi under siege could decide to lash out.”
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Zhao Lanjian said the latest development suggests that the CCP’s internal struggle has reached an “unprecedented” level.
Either Xi has “completely abandoned” his old subordinates or “anti-Xi forces within the military” are eliminating Xi’s people, he said.
Zhao Lanjian said the instability within the PLA means that it won’t be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan in the near future.
Shen Ming-Shih, research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research and director of the institute’s division of national security research, told The Epoch Times that Zhang’s power appears to be growing with the reported downfall of Xi’s followers and the presence of Zhang’s allies in key military positions.
Shen said that as Xi fends off those who want to oust him, the control of the military “has become crucial.”
Chi Yue-yi, a PLA expert at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he believes that Xi is still steadily maintaining his power.
While there may be “different voices” within the CCP and PLA cliques that oppose Xi, they don’t seem to be “enough to form an anti-Xi force,” he told The Epoch Times.Cai said on his YouTube livestream that if the Chinese leader’s position was under great threat, he could start a war in the Taiwan Strait to change the status quo.
Featured Image: The Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. The Polo Grounds were the home to the NY Giants before they moved to San Francisco and the NY Mets until Shea stadium opened in 1964. It was approximately a quarter mile from Yankee stadium in the Bronx across the Harlem River.
Major League Baseball returns today with 28 of the 30 MLB teams playing. Tampa Bay and Colorado are the two not playing.
First pitch for the first game – the Brewers at the Yankees – is 1505 EDT. That matchup features Freddie Peralta (11-9, 3.68 ERA last year) facing off against Carlos Rodon (16-9, 3.96 ERA). The game time temp is expected to be a sunny but chilly 49°. That kind of thermometer reading is pretty normal for the Bronx at the end of March.
L-Freddie Peralta, R-Carlos Rodon
Other marquis matchups include Last year’s NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale and his Atlanta Braves facing Michael King in San Diego and last years AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and the Tigers up against the Dodgers and two time Cy Young winner Blake Snell in Chavez Ravine.
Among the story lines for the 2025 season is the question of whether the Dodgers can repeat as World Series Champs. They picked up the above-mentioned Snell, starter Roki Sasaki from the All Nippon League and lefty reliever Tanner Scott. Scott posted a 1.75 ERA and reached his first All-Star Game last year after splitting the season between the Marlins and the Padres.
Will Aaron Judge hit 63 homers this year? Will he win the Triple Crown after just missing it – he led in homers and RBI but was 10 % points behind Bobby Witt jr for Average – last year? Can Shohei Ohtani be the first member of the 60-60 club? Who will be this years Cy Young winners?
Well, we’ll start finding that out starting today.
