Mid-Week Expresso - Ephesians 6:12-13

*June 17, 1987
Bernhard Goetz, the so-called NY subway shooter or vigilante, is acquited for  attempted murder of four teen-agers who threatened to rob him on a Manhattan subway  train in December 1984.

There are different accounts of the shooting, and how many times each man was shot,  but the bottom line is that all four of them were hospitalized, two in critical  condition. One would-be robber was paralyzed from the waist down. He would later  tell newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin that they were intending to rob Goetz  because he looked like “easy bait,” according to the New York Times.

After the shooting, Goetz went on the run for over a week before turning himself in  to police. He was charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment,  and several firearms offenses. Initially, Goetz came to symbolize New Yorkers'  frustrations with the high crime rates of the mid 1980s - a common man who was  defending himself against would-be attackers, especially in light of the prior  criminal records amassed by three of the four men. However, (without evidence)  others saw Goetz’s actions as racist and an overreaction to the men, all of whom  were black. A Federal civil-rights investigation concluded Goetz's main motivation  had been fear rather than race.

After a tumultuous seven-week criminal trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan,  Bernhard Goetz was acquitted for 12 of the 13 charges in the indictment against  him, including 10 major felonies, but the jury convicted him of illegal weapons  possession for the gun used in the shootings. Goetz served eight months of a one- year sentence.

Bernhard Goetz still lives in NYC where he sells, and services electronic test  equipment through his company 'Vigilante Electronics.'

On to today's targets

Friday Expresso - If you want peace, prepare for war

Never  forget - the totalitarian Left has declared WAR against the USA. To quote Lincoln,  "Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the  nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the  war came."

The Left is vicious; violent; it hates you. Assimilation into the collective is  forced, stripped of your God given rights as an individual. The Left is iconoclast;  well-funded, organized battalions arrayed to destroy, deface, or erase (like  Lincoln's memorial, history, your business, etc.). Democracy or debate convicts objectors as enemies to be destroyed.

The Left is totalitarian, yet feigns democracy. 
The Left is violent as it denounces violence.
The Left is 'open borders' until it builds walls (see: Seattle).
The Left is systemically racist while it condemns racism.
The Left is 'antifascist' while brutal in fascist tactics.
The Left hates the USA as founded, but demands its right to 'protest.'

The Left is 'for the people' - until they deplatform YOU; doxx YOU; assault YOU;
loot YOU; destroy YOU. No due process; no justice; no accountability - all the  while demanding justice and accountability for 'the other.'

The Left is a liar from the father of lies - vicious; violent; it hates you. Again,  and never forget - the totalitarian Left has declared WAR against the USA.

"Igitur  qui desiderat pacem, praepa ret bellum."

Mid-Week Cappuccino - Best of the interwebs

 "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will  be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

*June 10, 1977
Apple ships its first Apple II personal computer.

The first motherboard-only Apple II computers shipped on May 10, 1977, for those  who wanted to add their own case, keyboard, and power supply (or wanted to update  their Apple-1 "system" with the latest and greatest). A month later, on June 10,  1977, Apple began shipping full Apple II systems.

The Apple II was promoted as an extraordinary computer for ordinary people. The  user-friendly design and graphical display made Apple a leader in the first decade  of personal computing. The self-contained unit housed electronics, keyboard and  power supply, with the BASIC language in permanent memory.

The Apple II used a MOS 6502 chip for its central processing unit. It came with 4  KB RAM, but could be extended up to 48 KB RAM. It included a BASIC interpreter and  could support graphics and a color monitor. External storage was originally on  cassette tape, but later Apple introduced an external floppy disk drive.

In 1979 Software Arts introduced the first computer spreadsheet, Visicalc for the  Apple II. This "killer application" was extremely popular and fostered extensive  sales of the Apple II.

By the end of production in 1993, somewhere between five and six million Apple II  series computers (including about 1.25 million Apple IIGS models) had been  produced. The Apple II was one of the longest running mass-produced home computer  series, with models in production for just under 17 years.

On to today's stuff

Morning Coffee - Saturday Throwed Rolls

RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders. -  The Devil's Dictionary

*May 30, 1806
Future U.S. president Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel

Former Congressman Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson were prominent lawyers and  plantation owners in Tennessee. They were also known for their dueling  proclivities; Dickinson was renowned as “the best pistol shot in all of Tennessee,”  according to The Commonwealth of Kentucky Web site, while Jackson would allegedly  fight in more than 100 duels over his life (most likely an exaggeration).

Dickinson had accused Jackson of cheating on a horse race bet, deriding him as a  “coward and an equivocator.” He then insulted Jackson's wife, Rachel, publicly  shaming her as a “bigamist,” since Rachel’s earlier divorce had not been complete  by the time of her new marriage. Jackson then challenged Dickinson to a duel, and  Dickinson chose pistols.

On May 30, 1806, Jackson and Dickinson met at Harrison's Mills on the Red River in  Logan, Kentucky. At the first signal from their seconds, Dickinson fired. Jackson  received Dickinson’s first bullet in the chest next to his heart. Jackson put his  hand over the wound to staunch the flow of blood and stayed standing long enough to  fire his gun. Dickinson’s seconds claimed Jackson’s first shot misfired, which  would have meant the duel was over, but, in a breach of etiquette, Jackson re- cocked the gun and shot again, this time killing his opponent. Although Jackson  recovered, he suffered chronic pain from the wound for the remainder of his life.

Jackson was not prosecuted for murder, and the duel had very little effect on his  successful campaign for the presidency in 1829. Many American men in the early  1800s, particularly in the South, viewed dueling as a time-honored tradition. In  1804, Thomas Jefferson’s vice president Aaron Burr had also avoided murder charges  after killing former Treasury secretary and founding father Alexander Hamilton in a  duel. In fact, Rachel’s divorce raised more of a scandal in the press and in  parlors than the killing of Dickinson.

On to today's challenges

Morning Coffee - mailing it in

CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another. -  The Devil's Dictionary

*May 29, 1954
First of the annual Bilderberg conferences was held in the Hotel de Bilderberg,  Oosterbeek, Netherlands. This year's meeting will take place in Sierra City, CA.,  unless cancelled due to Wuhan Corona Virus concerns.

The annual Bilderberg Meeting has been a forum for informal discussions about major  issues between Europe and North America. Every year, approx. 130 political leaders  and experts from industry, finance, labour, academia and the media are invited to  take part. The Meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that  participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor  the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor of any other participant may be revealed.

As a result of this secrecy, conspiracy theories abound. According to some, the  Bilderberg Group is the leadership committee for the Council on Foreign Relations  (CFR), IMF, World Bank, Trilateral Commission, EU, and powerful central bankers  from the Federal Reserve, the ECB’s Jean-Claude Trichet, Bank of England’s Mervyn  King, and ex-nazi, billionaire globalist, George Soros. The Broad Street Beacon  quotes Bilderberg expert Skyy Wolford, "Whatever its early mission, the Bilderberg  Group is now a shadow world government threatening to take away our right to direct  our destinies by creating a disturbing reality very much harming the public’s  welfare. In short, Bilderbergers want to supplant individual nation-state  sovereignty with an all-powerful global government, corporate-controlled, and  check-mated by militarized enforcement.”

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm more of an Occam's Razor guy than a conspiracy theorist, but  there sure is a lot of smoke in those words for there not to be any fire.

On to today's razors

Morning Coffee - blues skies from now on

"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it." - Steven Wright

*May 28, 1936
English mathematician and logician Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for  publication, describing what came to be called the "Turing Machine." It was  officially published on Nov. 30 and Dec. 23, 1936 in the Proceedings of the London  Mathematical Society.

Undoubtedly the most famous theoretical paper in the history of computing, "On  Computable Numbers" is a mathematical description an imaginary computing device  designed to replicate the mathematical "states of mind" and symbol-manipulating  abilities of a human computer. Turing conceived of the universal machine as a means  of answering the last of the three questions about mathematics posed by David  Hilbert in 1928: (1) is mathematics complete; (2) is mathematics consistent; and  (3) is mathematics decidable. Turing's 'machine' proved "No," "No," and "No."

In 1937, Turing and physicist & engineer John von Neumann had their first  discussions about computing, and what would later be called “artificial  intelligence” (AI). During WWII, Turing applied his mathematical genius to  cryptanalysts (code breaking) at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. His work (along with many colleagues) supplied  the Allies with large quantities of German military intelligence.

After the war, Turing was a founding father of artificial intelligence and of  modern cognitive science. Turing proposed what subsequently became known as the  'Turing test' as a criterion for whether an artificial computer is thinking (1950).  Turing sidestepped the debate about exactly how to define thinking by means of a  very practical, albeit subjective, test: if a computer acts, reacts, and interacts  like a sentient being, then call it sentient. Ironically, this is little more than odd  sophistry from such a brilliant man, and definitely falsifiable. To date, no  computer has come close to this standard.

Alan Turing died of suicide in 1954.

On to today's news

Morning Cappuccino - a day which will end in 'Y'

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then  beat you with experience." - Mark Twain (ex.: twitter)

*May 27, 1930
The 1,046 foot Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure  at the time, opens to the public. The building was formally opened in a ceremony that coincided with the 42nd Street  Property Owners and Merchants Association's meeting that year. In the lobby of the  building, a bronze plaque that read "in recognition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution  to civic advancement" was unveiled.

The Chrysler Building was designed by architect William Van Alen, and often cited  as the epitome of the Art Deco skyscraper. Its sunburst-patterned stainless steel  spire remains one of the most striking features of the Manhattan skyline. The  decorative scheme of the facade and interior is largely geometric; at the request  of Walter P. Chrysler, who commissioned the building, stainless steel automobile  icons (e.g., radiator caps in the form of Mercury) were incorporated in the frieze  on the setback at the base of the tower and in decorative work on other parts of  the building. The building’s pierless corners and sleek design are typical of the  modernism of the 1920s. It served as the Chrysler corporation's headquarters from  1930 until the mid-1950s.

Built between 1928 and 1930, the Chrysler Building was briefly the tallest in the  world, and held the record until the Empire State Building opened in 1931. The  building was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National  Historic Landmark in 1976, and designated a New York City landmark in 1978. A major  restoration of the Chrysler landmark structure was conducted in the early 1980s.

On to today's stuff

Morning Coffee - best of the interwebs

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.” - Gen. George S. Patton

*May 26, 1868
The impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson ends with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote. The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against  President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War  Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made  President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history.

The Tenure of Office Act (1867-1887) was a controversial federal law meant to  restrict the ability of the U.S. president to remove certain officials that  Congress had already approved. Bluntly, TOA was a bogus law designed to remove the  unpopular Johnson from office (sound familiar?). It was repealed by Congress in  1887 and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1926. Simply put, the  president has plenary power to fire whomever he wants from his administration. Congress has no say. The repeal of the Tenure of Office Act strengthened the power of the executive branch  of the U.S. government.

On February 24, Johnson was impeached, and on March 13 his impeachment trial began  in the Senate under the direction of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. The trial ended on May 26 with Johnson’s opponents narrowly failing to  achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him.

On to today's news

Morning Cappuccino - sign petition to remove Judge Sullivan from bench

We the People ask the federal government to call on congress to act on an issue: Impeach & remove Judge Emmet G. Sullivan for obvious hyper-partisan buffoonery in the trial of Lt Gen. Michael T. Flynn.

Description: To maintain the integrity of our judicial system; not for personal vendettas.

Please copy & paste this link and spread it around the interwebs. To quote Instapundit, "Punch back back twice as hard."

*May 23, 1934

Murderous American armed robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed by  police and killed on a rural road in Bienville Parish, near the small town of  Gibsland in northern Louisiana.

The young criminal couple traveled the Central United States with their gang from 1932-34, and were known for their daring bank robberies, although they preferred to  rob small stores or rural gas stations. They are believed to have murdered at least  nine police officers and four civilians.

Their crime spree occurred at the height of the Great Depression, which hit  particularly hard in states such as Oklahoma. Several bank robbers during this period became famous as “Robin Hood” figures who struck back against the banks, which many people viewed as oppressive. Their exploits captured the attention of  the American press which sensationalized their bloody exploits and flamboyant  encounters with police during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era."

Bonnie & Clyde were eventually betrayed by a friend, and police officers from Texas  and Louisiana ambushed the couple on a rural road that fateful afternoon in May. After the  criminal couple attempted to flee the roadblock, police opened fire, killing them.

Police eventually towed the bullet-riven car to a nearby town, with the bodies still inside. That too became a spectacle; some 16,000, by later estimates, lurked  around town hoping for a glimpse of the infamous pair. The car in which Bonnie and  Clyde died is still viewable in the casino at Whiskey Pete's in Primm, Nevada.

Officially, the coroner found 17 entrance wounds on Clyde and 26 on Bonnie. The  bodies were so mangled that the funeral home had trouble embalming them. “When all was said and done,” one officer said later, “they weren’t nothing but a bunch of  wet rags.”

Both criminals are buried in Dallas, Texas.

On to today's stuff

Morning Coffee - The business of America is business

"One day, youtube, twitter, and facebook will merge, and be called 'Youtwitface.'"

*May 22, 2011

A huge, catastrophic EF5 rated, multiple vortex tornado obliterated much of Joplin,  Missouri in the southwest corner of that state, near the Kansas, Oklahoma, and  Cherokee Indian Nation state lines. It was part of a larger tornado outbreak  sequence from May 21-26, 2011 - one of the largest tornado outbreaks on record  which affected the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States. The Joplin  tornado was the first F5/EF5 tornado in Missouri since May 20, 1957, when an F5  destroyed several suburbs of Kansas City, MO. It was the third tornado to strike  Joplin since May 1971.

The Joplin tornado was unusual in that it intensified in strength and grew larger  in size at a very fast rate. It reached a maximum width of nearly 1 mile (1.6 km),  with wind speeds that exceeded 200 mph (320 km/h), and traveled on the ground for  over 22 miles (35.6 kilometers). From formation to dissipation was only 38 minutes,  but its aftermath on the frightful Sunday afternoon revealed a horrible, barren  wasteland: the tornado killed 158 people (with an additional eight indirect  deaths), injured some 1,150 others, destroyed one-third of the city, and caused  damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion.

Also in its aftermath was the predictable potus photo-op: Obama to View Destruction  in Joplin on Sunday. And again, I asked "Why? No, seriously. What's the point?"

Even though the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri, was able to  issue a tornado warning 20 minutes before it hit, the Joplin tornado is still the  deadliest in the U.S. since April 9, 1947, when an intense tornado killed 181 in  the Woodward, Oklahoma area.

Joplin has since re-built, and is thriving.

On to today's news 

Morning Coffee - Sic Semper Tyrannis

"The central conservative truth is that it's culture, not politics, that determines  the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a  culture and save it from itself.” - US Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan(D)

Morning Coffee - a day which will end in 'Y'

 "Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math." - Ambrose Bierce

*May 20, 325 A.D.

The First Council of Nicaea was opened by Constantine the Great (288-377), the  first Roman emperor to profess Christianity. It was the first ecumenical council of  bishops held at Nicaea in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The purpose was to resolve  disputes in the church - primarily those concerned with Arianism - an ancient  heresy which denies the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Historian Lars Brownworth wrote: (Arianism) started in Egypt when a young priest  named Arius started teaching that Christ was not fully divine and was therefore  inferior to God the Father. Such a teaching struck at the heart of the Christian  faith, denying its main tenet, which held that Christ was the incarnate word of  God, but Arius was a brilliant speaker, and people began to flock to hear him  speak. The church was caught completely off guard and threatened to splinter into  fragments.”

However, the Christian Church was not a monolithic institution. Various factions  and practices had taken root over the years, and Constantine saw the need for a  unity of doctrine and a clearer organization for the church's hierarchy. In  response he called a universal council. The prime result was the Nicene Creed; the  only ecumenical creed accepted by all of Christendom (Roman Catholic, Eastern  Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, etc). God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy  Spirit were described as “of the same substance.” The Greek word used was  “homoousios.”

On to today's lottery

Morning Cappuccino - best of the interwebs

POP QUIZ: Name the one government official who has not accepted a penny in salary  during the Pandemic Panic.

*May 19, 1921

President Warren Harding(R) signed into law the Emergency Quota Act which  established national quotas on immigration.

The Emergency Quota Act restricted the number of immigrants to 357,000 per year,  and also set down an immigration quota by which only 3 per cent of the total  population of any ethnic group already in the USA in 1910, could be admitted to  America after 1921.

Following the end of World War I, both Europe and the United States were  experiencing economic and social upheaval. In Europe, the destruction of the war,  the Russian Revolution, and the dissolutions of both the Austro-Hungarian and  Ottoman empires led to greater immigration to the United States; while in the  United States, an economic downturn following post-war demobilization increased  unemployment. The combination of increased immigration from Europe at the time of  higher American unemployment strengthened the anti-immigrant movement. 

The Emergency Quota Act was intended to be a temporary measure but the National  Origins Formula continued until 1965 (when the execrable Hart-Celler Act replaced  it).

On to today's quiz answer

Morning Coffee - #Resist!

 "If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play it, it's recreation. If you work at it,  it's golf." - Bob Hope

**May 17, 1769

George Washington launches a legislative salvo at Great Britain’s fiscal and  judicial attempts to maintain its control over the American colonies. With his  sights set on protesting the British policy of “taxation without representation,”  Washington brought a package of non-importation resolutions before the Virginia  House of Burgesses. The resolutions, drafted by George Mason largely in response to  England’s passage of the Townshend Acts of 1767, decried Parliament’s plan to send  colonial political protestors to England for trial.

In the years after the Townshend Acts, the British responded to their rebellious,  often violent, colonial subjects with more draconian actions, including the  military occupation of Boston, beginning on October 2, 1768, and Virginia’s royal  governor disbanding the dissenting House of Burgesses legislators in 1769. These  steps failed to frighten New Englanders into silence, but it did succeeded in  rallying Southerners to the New England cause. By impugning colonial courts and  curtailing colonial rights, this British action backfired: it created an American  identity where before there had been none.

*May 18, 1958

USAF Captain Walter W. Irwin piloted the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to set a world  speed record for an airplane by flying 1404.19 mph over a 15 mile course. The  aircraft was the first ever to hold both the world speed record and the world  altitude record at the same time (91,243 feet on May 7, 1958 - pilot USAF Major  Howard C. Johnson).

Known by a variety of nick-names, including “Missile with a man in it,” “Lawn  Dart,” “Flying Coffin,” “Widow maker,” and “Zipper,” the airplane was plagued with  safety and operational issues - particularly, poor stall reactions and 'T-tail  flutter,' resulting in a high crash rate.

The F-104 became the basis of the U-2 spy plane, and was adapted for use by NASA as  an ultra-high altitude (120,000 feet) astronaut training plane. Jackie Cochran  became the first woman pilot to fly at Mach 2 in an F-104, and a civilian owned F- 104 holds the world low altitude speed record.

On to today's resistance

Morning Coffee - with more stuff!

 "Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

*May 16, 1771
The Battle of Alamance

It was the final battle of the War of the Regulation, a rebellion in colonial North  Carolina by local farmers and backcountry residents. They rebelled against the  wealthy and corrupt colonial British officials over issues of taxation and local  control. Named for nearby Great Alamance Creek, the battle took place in what has  since become Alamance County situated six miles south of present-day Burlington,  North Carolina.

The War of the Regulation had been brewing in western counties for several years,  but included only minor, scattered acts of violence, followed by refusal to pay  fees, disruption of court proceedings, and continued harassment of government  officials. In response to Regulator violence, the Carolina Assembly passed  Johnston's Riot Act, which, among other stipulations, empowered royal governor  William Tryon to call out the militia to maintain order and enforce the law.

On May 16, 1771, after several failed attempts at communication to avoid bloodshed,  Tryon directed the militiamen to move toward the Regulator encampment. Though  greater in number, the Regulators, who did not have a true commander or sufficient  ammunition for a lengthy engagement, were no match for Tryon's militia and  artillery, which included two field pieces and four swivel guns.

It was still a deadly encouinter for both sides. Tryon reported 9 militiamen killed  and 61 wounded. Regulator casualties were more numerous: estimates range from 9  killed and an undetermined number wounded to as high as 300 killed and wounded.

Tryon took 15 prisoners, one of whom was hanged on the battlefield that evening. In  trials at Hillsborough, 12 Regulators were found guilty of treason; 6 of these were  executed and the others pardoned. On the day following the battle, Tryon offered to  pardon all Regulators who would swear allegiance to the Crown. Within six weeks,  more than 6,000 backcountry settlers had taken the oath and received pardons from  the new royal governor, Josiah Martin.

Some historians considered the battle to be the opening salvo of the American  Revolution, however, modern historians reject this, since there wasn't any intent  to rebel against the king or crown, merely to protest taxation and corrupt local  government.

On to more stuff

Morning Coffee - Mailing it in

"Money won't buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff  to study the problem." - Bill Vaughan

*May 15, 1940
The original McDonald’s restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.

In 1940, Dick and Mac Mcdonald opened McDonald’s Barbecue Restaurant in San Bernardino, California, at 14th st. and E St. They had a staff of 20 carhops and a 25 item menu that included barbecue ribs, beef, and pork sandwiches. They soon became the #1 teen hangout in the San Bernardino.

In October of 1948, the brothers took the plunge (against the advice of all their customers) and closed their successful restaurant, terminated all their carhops, reduced their menu to cheeseburgers, hamburgers, milkshakes, and fountain sodas, and reorganized their kitchen in order to specialize in speed of service, simplicity of menu, and low prices. Their revolutionary thinking forever changed the restaurant industry.

It is always debated as to whether this location is the first, since the Des Plaines McDonalds in Illinois also claims that, but the Illinois one was opened 15 years after this original one.

On to today's mail

Morning Coffee - Sic Semper Tyrannis

 May 14 is the 135th day of the year 2020. There are 231 days remaining until the  end of this year, and only 225 days until Christmas.

*May 14, 1796
Early smallpox vaccine is tested by Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823), an English country  doctor, when he administered the world’s first vaccination as a preventive  treatment for smallpox, a disease that had killed millions of people over the  centuries.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, scientists following Jenner’s model developed new  vaccines to fight numerous deadly diseases, including polio, whooping cough,  measles, tetanus, yellow fever, typhus, and hepatitis B and many others. More  sophisticated smallpox vaccines were also developed and by 1970 international  vaccination programs, such as those undertaken by the World Health Organization,  had eliminated smallpox worldwide.

Jenner's work is widely regarded as the foundation of the modern science of  immunology.

On to today's rebellion

Morning Coffee - Doubleshot on Matrix, topped with Matrix, and extra Matrix

"A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths." - Steven  Wright

*May 12, 2008: Postville Raid Largest Illegal Immigrant Raid by ICE in US History

"The massive raid was conducted with hundreds of Federal agents involved, using  helicopters and buses to transport the large law enforcement contingent to arrive  at the site simultaneously so illegals would not escape. Among those arrested were  4 Ukrainians, 2 Israelis, 93 Mexicans and a whopping 290 people from Guatemala.  About 18 of those arrested were under 18 years old. The massive haul came as a  surprise to authorities who expected only about 100 illegal aliens to be on the  scene when the raid was first planned all the way back in 2000, a raid cancelled  for political reasons. In 2000, most of the illegals were expected to be from  Eastern Europe.

Arrests for identity theft, document fraud, social security number fraud and other  fraud related crimes numbered 400 in the largest such mass arrest in the US up to  that date. "

On to today's Red pill

Morning Coffee - Keep on the sunnyside of life

“He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.”  – Samuel  Taylor Coleridge

*The transcontinental railroad was completed May 10, 1869, in Promontory, Utah,  when the Union Pacific Railroad of the East met the Central Pacific Railroad of the  West. The presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in  remote Promontory, Utah, to mark the occasion, driving a ceremonial last spike to  connect their rail lines.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law on July 1, 1862.  The act gave two companies, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific  Railroad, responsibility for completing the transcontinental railroad and  authorized extensive land grants and the issuance of 30-year government bonds to  finance the undertaking. Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad was a pivotal  moment in the United States, ushering in a period of progress and expansion  nationwide to expedite travel, communication, and business.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2015 an estimated $623  Billion of goods were transported by train within the United States, not including  goods that merely passed through the U.S. from foreign countries with destinations  to other foreign countries.

*As for May 11, nothing happened on this day anywhere in the world.

On to today's news

Morning Coffee - You or I would be in prison by now.

“I saw that publishing all over the world was deeply constrained by self-censorship, economics and political censorship, while the military-industrial complex was growing at a tremendous rate, and the amount of information that it was collecting about all of us vastly exceeded the public imagination.” – Julian Assange

*May 8, 1945: VE Day
Seventy-five years ago this month, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, bringing to a close the European war. On that day in 1945, huge crowds took to the streets to drink and dance the night away in Paris and Brussels, just as they did in London. But according to the French newspaper Libération, “It was only the young who felt exuberant” – among the older generations there was, instead, an air of indefinable melancholy.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations… has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”

On to today's news