Chaos, Cruelty and Corruption.

I have been afraid that today will be a very interesting one in the United States of America, and as we all know, interesting is rarely good.

And we have started with a series of attacks on Minnesota state representatives, leaving one member of the state House and her spouse dead, and another and his spouse seriously injured after being shot multiple times. Is this the start of something bigger, or has the shooter(s) accomplished what he/she (they) had set out to do?

The No-King movement is sponsoring demonstrations all around the country, except here in the District of Columbia. Nevertheless, there are sui generis demonstrations going on here, including a group of maybe one hundred or so sign and flag carrying men and women lining Connecticut Avenue near the Van Ness Metro Station, and others are scheduled for later.

The day here is warm and muggy and the skies are cloudy; the feeling (to me) is sort of Caribbean. According to Weatherbug on my phone, there is only about a 15% chance of rain right now and for the rest of the first half of the day. When the Trumparmy parade is scheduled to start at 6 p.m., the chance of rain is 65% and remains at about that level until about 10. With luck (IMHO), the parade crowd (if there is to be a crowd under any circumstances) will be diminished because of the rain, and the aerial parts of the display (the flybys, the helicopters, the parachuters) will be canceled. That, we shall see.

Whether the Minnesota shootings were timed to coincide with the other events today, of course we don’t know. But there is concern that there might be other tragedies before us, particularly in those states where governors have called out their National Guards, and particularly in California, where the federal government has both taken over the National Guard (this is in the courts, with a hearing set on Tuesday) and activated or sent out into the streets a significant number of U.S. Marines. And I don’t know if you saw the video clip, but the sheriff of Brevard County FL, at a press conference, said that if anyone attempts to interfere with law enforcement, they will, no questions asked, be shot “graveyard dead”.

Keep your eyes open today; anything could happen. Here, for example, law enforcement is going to be focusing on the events at the Mall and the parade. This will undoubtedly make the rest of the city less secure. I drove by the Israeli Embassy this morning, for example. The front of the embassy is on a restricted street called International [ ], one side on Van Ness and the back on Reno Road. Obviously, with the additional problems in the Middle East as a result of the attacks on Iran, the Israeli embassy is in an even higher risk situation. Yesterday, I saw a police car (maybe a Secret Service car) posted on Reno Road in back of the embassy. That car was not there today; there was a Secret Service car on International in front of the embassy, but the side and back (other than the open fencing) seemed not to be secured.

There will be other crowds today in this area. For example, in the suburb of Kensington, about 6 miles north on Connecticut Avenue, today is the day of their Juneteenth celebration. And I am sure there are other things going on – I know there is a festival in a suburban Virginia park where our friends, Little Red and the Renegades, are playing. And there is a 1 p.m. baseball game at Nats Park.

Speaking of the poor Nats who once again seem to be dropping lower and lower, there was great hope as they started a home stand against the last place Miami Marlins yesterday. And in fact, the Nats did score 9 runs and get 16 hits. Unfortunately, the Marlins scored 11 runs and got 17 hits. The Nats, which had brought their season record to within a couple below .500, are now once again 9 below .500.

I have also been trying to follow what is going on in Israel and Iran. I am hearing conflicting things. Most everyone is saying that Israel’s strike was very successful and very professionally done. The nuclear capacity of Iran has certainly been diminished, but many are saying that there is much more to be done, that there are some nuclear sites that have not yet been attacked, particularly the Fordu site near Qom, hidden deep in a mountain. Whether they can affect Fordu is unclear.

In the meantime, Israel has now apparently destroyed most of the Iranian defensive facilities surrounding Tehran, so the capital is now vulnerable. The two goals of Israel are presumably the destruction of the country’s nuclear program and its ability to defend itself or to institute attacks through the air. Because Iran is separated from Israel both by Iraq and Jordan, a land fight is very, very unlikely. And one thing we know is, whenever there is an initial attack that looks successful, that is when the trouble starts. Do you remember the U.S. attack on Iraq and G.W. Bush proclaiming victory shortly thereafter on an aircraft carrier?

Why is this day different from all other days?

Chaos, Cruelty and Corruption.