Monday Musings - August 11, 2025

 

1. Greetings. It is the second Monday of August. There are 20 Mondays remaining in the year. Labor Day is coming soon and summer will be over.

2. The Orioles snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday. They gave up two runs in the top of the ninth inning and lost 3-2. They are 12 games under .500 again and headed for a last place finish in the division. All hopes of making the playoffs have vanished and the team and fan base are in a "wait until next year" mode.

Woodchuck on the 8th
Carroll Park, Baltimore, MD
August 10, 2025

3. Jeremy, Julie, Chris, and I golfed yesterday. We went to Carroll Park, a nine hole course in Baltimore, and enjoyed a bright Maryland summer's day. The pace was slow and we spent some time looking at diversions, such as this woodchuck on hole 8. 

4. Apparently Washington, DC, is about to become a militarized city. Wait, I thought this was America and we  had police and not military to patrol our streets. What city is next? New York? (Reuters)

5. So, Putin is a wanted war criminal with an international arrest warrant. He is apparently meeting with Trump in Alaska. If the U.S. does not arrest Putin and hand him over to the international courts for prosecution, does that make the U.S. a criminal nation? Apparently not. The U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

6. Today in History. A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay, on August 11, 1934. The convicts—the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary—joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island’s days as a U.S. military prison.

Alcatraz was an uninhabited seabird haven when it was explored by Spanish Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775. He named it Isla de los Alcatraces, or “Island of the Pelicans.” Fortified by the Spanish, Alcatraz was sold to the United States in 1849. In 1854, it had the distinction of housing the first lighthouse on the coast of California. Beginning in 1859, a U.S. Army detachment was garrisoned there, and from 1868 Alcatraz was used to house military criminals. In addition to recalcitrant U.S. soldiers, prisoners included rebellious Indian scouts, American soldiers fighting in the Philippines who had deserted to the Filipino cause, and Chinese civilians who resisted the U.S. Army during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1907, Alcatraz was designated the Pacific Branch of the United States Military Prison.

Israel strike kills Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza - ReutersIn India, Trump's tariffs spark calls to boycott American goods - ReutersTrump escalates crime rhetoric ahead of Washington crackdown announcement - ReutersPam Bondi has a new probe into the handling of 2016 Russian meddling. John Durham already spent four years investigating it - CNNTrump needed an Epstein distraction. A conspiracy theory explains what came next. - MSNBCAfter a deadly shooting at the CDC, shaken scientists demand answers from RFK Jr. - MSNBCHigh-stakes summit with Putin over Ukraine war tops Trump's agenda this week - FoxNews

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD