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6/26 Council on Foreign Relations reminding of the supposed incompetence of the Trump Administration in foreign policy:

For the past year, the Trump administration has been slowly renewing relations with Belarus, partly to enhance that country’s autonomy and thus diminish Russia’s ability to use Belarus to pressure NATO’s eastern flank. The warming fits a broader pattern of U.S. outreach to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus and to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, also with the goal of restricting Russia’s influence. But Washington needs to tread carefully. The challenge is to reduce Russia’s sway over Belarus without provoking Russia to formally annex the country, while preparing for that eventuality regardless.

Russian annexation would be an admission that Putin does not trust Lukashenko to be his puppet. Nor should he. Belarus' army is woefully inadequate compared to Ukraine. Belarussian reliance on Russian air defense systems after the last few days of wildly successful attacks on Russian petroleum refineries should be a hint that directly going to war with Ukraine might end badly for them. To quote Lukashenko:

In the interview, the leader went into great detail and spoke very frankly about this position.

“First, Belarus is highly vulnerable militarily should Ukraine begin attacking Belarus in the same manner it attacks Russia (we recognize this reality, so we have no desire to engage in war). Belarus is laid out like an open palm before the Ukrainian military. We are fully aware that our critical life-support systems, production facilities, and logistics hubs would come under attack. They have stated, they have already identified 500 such targets on the territory of Belarus.,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Second reason, the head of state continued, is that the Belarusian people hate wars: “We have already suffered enough throughout our history; we understand that many of our military personnel would die. For what? Why should they die?”

Third reason: if Belarus joined the war, the front line would be extended significantly. “If Russia were to attack Kiev from Belarusian territory, the front line primarily for Russia (and naturally for us) would be extended by 1,500 km along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “We and the Russians would be unable to defend this sector.” 

Police said the bail agents positioned their vehicles to block the man's vehicle and exited their vehicles in an attempt to take him into custody. The man then got back into his vehicle and tried to escape by driving away. 

During that attempt, the man pinned a bail bond agent who was standing between the vehicles. The man then accelerated his vehicle, trying to push the bail agent's vehicle away. 

Another bail agent broke the front driver-side window of the suspect's vehicle and tried to shift the vehicle's transmission into park. Police said the bail agent and driver fought, and the agent fired one round, with the bullet striking the suspect in the arm. The bail agents then got the man into handcuffs.

More Here 

Tomorrow is Father's Day here in the States.  I don't know where you are but this is what's Top Of Mind here.

From a musical perspective only Country Music really speaks to this.  But it speaks in different voices as your kids grow up.  Yeah, Country music takes you on that journey.

Three chords and the Truth. 

When they're young

This is the easiest time for fathers.  Trace Adkins sang about this better than anyone.  I posted about this a long, long time ago.  Reader Mark left a comment there:

The other day my oldest son, who is a freshman at UND (North Dakota, not that other 'ND') asked me if I remembered taking him, and a couple of his friends to Pizza Hut for lunch one day. He remembered it like it was yesterday. I lied to him. I told him I did, and I feel terrible about it.

Folks, it's not what we recall, it's what our kids do.

Amen, and amen.

The Queen Of The World likes this one.  I think it reminds her of the time her Daddy took her fishing and she won the tournament.

When they grow up

Yeah it sucks, but kids grow up, and have to find their place in the world.  Sometimes that means pushing back against The Man. As I posted at the time:

For years, Dad and I wouldn't talk.  I had a lot of anger in me then, and it came out in strange ways.  Bad ways.  Sorry, I won't talk about what happened with #1 Son, but that he came out right side up didn't have much to do with me.

This Father's Day weekend, I think on both of those.

Growing up, I knew that my Dad was a great father.  He set an example: he was a fine provider, although we didn't grow up with a lot.  Not wealthy, not weepin'.  He was someone who I could look up to, never doubting for an instant that we were everything to him.  He adored Mom.  And so it was a terrible shock to find out, in my forties, that he was made of flesh and blood.  For a while, I couldn't forgive him for that.

I like to think of myself as a smart guy, and I must confess that it's very nice indeed when someone refers to me as a "wickid smaht bahstid".  But I sure was an idiot when it mattered.  Like Dad, I found - perhaps for the first time - that I, too, was mere flesh and blood.  Full of Foolish Pride, and driving myself into a ditch.

I'll swallow my pride if you will. 

That post is worth reading. 

Sometimes they don't come back

We ask a lot of our sons.  Some times we we ask them to to go to far away places.  Sometimes they don't come back.

Reflections on Father's Day

I remember this being hard to write.  It's hard to read now.

What I remember the most about being a father is is this:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

- Kalil Gibran, The Prophet

 So let it be written.  So let it be done.

He pulled out a gun and attempted to rob the store. However, the clerk working in the smoke store also brought out his weapon, and police said the two got into a tussle.

As a result of the fight, the suspect ended up shooting the store clerk in the leg, police said. He then took the employee’s weapon and ran out of the store. 

More Here

6/18/26 College Fix:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a state-funded scholarship program Thursday that awarded financial aid to college students based on certain racial categories — a decision that drew praise from conservative legal groups.

Dan Lennington, an attorney at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which represented taxpayers in the case, celebrated the ruling as a “major win.” 

“Wisconsin Supreme Court holds that [Gov. Tony] Evers Admin cannot offer scholarships based on race. This is a huge win for equality & provides a ROADMAP for Wisconsin Taxpayers to challenge many other programs worth BILLIONS,” he wrote on X. 

Sarah Parshall Perry, an attorney and vice president of Defending Education, also praised the ruling in an X post Thursday.

“The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Perry wrote. “Wisconsin got the message. Their Supreme Court just ruled the governor cannot administer scholarship opportunities based on race.”

 This is a sensitive subject for me because when I graduated from high school 27th in a class of about 1000, it seemed as though poor white kids were outside the scope of what university knowledge. I had a classmate of East Indian origin, back when East Indians were considered a victim group, who ended up with a full-ride scholarship to one of the Poison Ivy League universities.

If scholarships are awarded based on poverty or socioeconomic class, this will still award a lot to blacks and Hispanics, but not Robert L. Johnson's kids. 

 When I lived on Bayuo Derbonne in southern Natchitoches pariah, I learned about flatland flooding.  Three days of rain and the creeks, sloughs and bayous are full.  Two days later, the water comes down from the hills with no place to go and all the creeks jump their banks.

When I lived on the bayou, it was simple luck that my house never flooded.  The old man who built it knew that floods happen and built the house on a tiny elevation that stayed dry. There were several times when we were flooded in, but the house stayed dry.

That's what is happening in Avoyelles parish right now.  Moreauville, Simmesport, Cottonport are all going under.  The old folks, who knew where the high spots are, built on those high spots.  The younger folks bought a piece of land and built a house may not have noticed that slight elevation and built their house in a place that floods once every ten years.  Worse yet, urban sprawl changes the way that water flows.  New rads, new shopping centers, new parking lots move water in new ways.

I feel empathy for those folks because I have been there.

Next week this blog turns 18 (!).  That's a milestone that makes you think back on the journey.

This journey began in the lead up to the release by the US Supreme Court of the Heller v. District of Columbia opinion - in other words, this blog pre-dates Heller.  Looking back on the last 18 years here, things are really different for the Second Amendment.

It's all well and good to have a Constitution that's written down in black and white, but that doesn't help much if the Legislatures ignore it and the Courts refuse to strike down infringing laws.  That has changed, and while there are still pieces of broken Gun Control on the floor needing to be swept up, the change is profound.  Let's take a quick recap on that and then talk about what it means.

Heller v. D.C. (2008) stated as the plain law of the land that Second Amendment rights apply to individuals, not just to State Militias.  It kind of seems ridiculous to actually have to write this today, but that was the "accepted" legal understanding prior to Heller.

McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) held that Heller applied not just to the District of Columbia, but to all the States (via the 14th Amendment).

New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) was the hammer blow.  It established that the meaning of the Second Amendment as it was understood at the time was what it really meant, and that gun control laws had to demonstrate that the laws are consistent with that.  This flipped the switch - no longer would citizens have to demonstrate that they have a right, but the government has to demonstrate that they don't.  

This is what has left all those broken pieces of Gun Control cluttering up the floor.  Sure, they still need to be swept up, but look where things are now:

1. Gun permitting is not dead, but it's coughing up blood.  "Shall Issue" permitting is the law of the land - governments have to prove that you shouldn't be allowed to carry rather than you justify why do need to.
2. Most States were "Shall Issue" in 1990.  None are today.  In fact, half the States don't require you to have any permit at all to carry a firearm. 
3. "Assault Weapons" Bans are the last refuge of the desperate.  Liberal Legislatures that pass these today know for certain that they will be struck down.  Increasingly, the Courts are imposing restraining orders preventing the laws from going into force while they are being litigates.
4. The National Firearms Act of 1934 is a pale shadow of its former self.  Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" (which was anything but) repealed the tax on suppressors.  The Tax Code is really the main way for the Fed.Gov to impose the law here; no tax, no law.

So what does all this mean?  The biggest advancement in Second Amendment rights has been the normalization of the idea of firearms.  The biased media has a really hard time today in painting us as a fringe community. 

Heck, SCOTUS just ruled that the Fed.Gov cannot prevent firearms purchases by people who smoke pot.  The ruling was unanimous.  Conservative Alito and liberal Kagan co-authored a concurring opinion.  It's cats and dogs living together.

This has even been absorbed by the lower courts - the District and Circuit Courts of Appeals.  It's great if SCOTUS makes a ruling, but if the lower courts don't enforce it then it doesn't carry much weight.  We saw a fair amount of this during the years after Heller.  Now we don't.  Sure, there will always be the rogue District Judge who allows a plainly infringing gun control law, but these are getting struck down on appeal.

We're no longer the weirdos, the weirdos are on the other side.  The Class War against gun owners is pretty much over.

That's one heck of a change in 18 years.

According to authorities, a male, around the age of 40, sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, with what appears to be a rifle.

The victim was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Deputies have identified possible suspects who had fled the scene before law enforcement arrived.

Four people have been detained for questioning, but at this time, none of them has been identified positively as the suspect.

One of those detained had also sustained a gunshot wound, which deputies say may have been the result of a homeowner attempting to defend himself.

More Here

 Sitting on the patio at dusk, I noticed a few bats circling over the pool.  I've noticed them the past several nights just after dark.  Someone must have a bat house around here.  Louisiana has several species native to the area and I'm no expert on bat identification.

I mentioned salmon patties earlier.  My standard recipe is one can of pink salmon, one egg, and one sleeve of Ritz crackers, crumbled.  Salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Fry in good oil at 350F until golden brown.  Old NFO says that they always used saltines. Interesting.

It's nice to watch the bats zip around in the early evening.

An historian at Boston University both praises a couple robber barons (Carnegie and Rockefeller) and then compares the UFC event at the White House to lynching.

She said during the Gilded Age there was no “open display of denigration of American symbols and American values” like there supposedly is now.

She then praised people like JD Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie for saying they were “offering a way forward for the United States.”

Richardson then said Trump “is deliberately tear that apart and he is doing so on the same cultural argument of course that people used to back the first Gilded age that is these cultural wars that turn white Americans against marginalized people of color.”

UFC does not appeal to me. I would not have hosted it at my home. But this comparison is just absurdly stupid. If there is anyone tearing apart our culture today and denigrating American symbols and values, look at the Poison Ivy League universities and the Democratic Party.

Lynching usually involved dragging men out of jails, frequently castrating them, hanging them or burning them to death.

6/18/26 CBS News:

 Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a Texas man who challenged a federal law that bars certain drug users from having firearms.

In a unanimous decision in the case U.S. v. Hemani, the justices found that Ali Hemani's prosecution for having a firearm while he was an unlawful drug user is inconsistent with the Second Amendment. Hemani allegedly was only an occasional user of marijuana when the FBI found a handgun at his Texas home in 2022.

9-0. Language in decision emphasizes that disarming someone requires some sort of due process (criminal conviction, involuntary commitment).

The decision is here. Interestingly enough; Hemani's house was searched out of concern that he might be terrorist-adjacent. The government found nothing of that nature so file some charge, any charge 

By Dave Workman The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that the government’s prosecution of a man convicted of casual marijuana use while owning a firearm “is inconsistent with the Second Amendment.” The case is known as United States v. Hemani. The ruling amounts to a tectonic shift in how the government deals with […]

The post SCOTUS Rules Marijuana Prosecution ‘Inconsistent with Second Amendment’ appeared first on Liberty Park Press.

 The tail end of Arthur is overhead, and it is raining like a heifer pissing on a flat rock.  This is nt news in semi-tropical Louisiana where rain is a constant threat.  This too will pass and thankfully we have no wind to speak of.  It is supposed to rain, on-and-off for the rest of the day.  The ditches are full.  We sit atop a hill, so flashfloods are not a concern.  Not so for my neighbors who live in the flat river bottom.

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union troops entered Galveston, TX and posted the Emancipation Proclamation. It is considered by many to be the date where slavery was ended in the United Staes.  Lots of towns and communities have celebrations.  For many across the South, tomorrows celebrations will be damp. Very damp.

But that, as they say, is for tomorrow.  Today we watch it rain.   I'm going to cook some crab cakes and salmon patties for no other reason than Belle loves them.   First, I need to chop and onion and crush some Ritz crackers.

Deputies immediately began life-saving measures until Shelby County Fire transported the man to a nearby hospital in critical condition.

On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office determined the detained man acted in self-defense, and no charges will be filed. The shooting victim is now in non-critical condition.

More Here

 6/16/26 Time:

A second probe reportedly relates to an investigation into Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, that had been opened during the Biden Administration. Williamson was indicted last year on federal charges that she was involved in a scheme to steal $225,000 from a dormant campaign account belonging to former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is now the Democratic nominee to succeed Newsom as California governor. Williamson pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, filing a false tax return, and making false statements to federal investigators.[emphasis added]

So dirty that even Biden started looking. 

 Checking in at 1:00 pm, I see that we now have Tropical Storm Arthur in the northern Gulf and that he is expected to roll across my acre tonight.

Lovely, just friggin lovely.

 6/17/26 CNBC:

The oil supply shock caused by the Iran war has eroded global demand for crude — but a lasting resolution to the conflict could drive a surge in supply volumes and trigger a major oil overhang next year, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

Free markets are amazing things: capable of adjusting demand to changes in supply in a way that government bureaucrats can only wish to do  

 6/16/26 New York Times Magazine examines evidence concerning Epstein's suicide including this interesting piece of evidence:

We obtained about a dozen pages of other notes handwritten by Epstein in jail that were also previously unseen — including some in which he tried and failed to come up with significant information he might have on Donald Trump to offer to prosecutors....

His attorneys discussed with federal prosecutors the prospect of a proffer: giving them information that might be useful in other cases in exchange for the possibility of some leniency in his own. Epstein was particularly preoccupied with what he might have on Donald Trump, who was then serving his first term in office. Jotting on a legal pad, he returned to the president again and again, trying to dredge up anything to offer prosecutors. But his scribblings — “Trump is a total con artist — smoke & mirrors” and “Never had money”— suggest that he could come up with little that wasn’t already known.

 Epstein had nothing to give to prosecutors to implicate Trump, something that would have led to a devastating and probably unsurvivable indictment.