First Barbary War: Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America on May 10, 1801

First Barbary War: Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America: During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.”

In June 1801, President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states - Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. After two years of minor confrontations, sustained action began in June 1803 when a small U.S. expeditionary force attacked Tripoli harbor in present-day Libya.

In October 1803, the U.S. frigate Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli and was captured by Tripolitan gunboats. The Americans feared that the well-constructed warship would be both a formidable addition to the Tripolitan navy and an innovative model for building future Tripolitan frigates. Hoping to prevent the Barbary pirates from gaining this military advantage, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a daring expedition into Tripoli harbor to destroy the captured American vessel on February 16, 1804.

After disguising himself and his men as Maltese sailors, Decatur’s force of 74 men, which included nine U.S. Marines, sailed into Tripoli harbor on a small two-mast ship. The Americans approached the USS Philadelphia without drawing fire from the Tripoli shore guns, boarded the ship, and attacked its Tripolitan crew, capturing or killing all but two. After setting fire to the frigate, Decatur and his men escaped without the loss of a single American. The Philadelphia subsequently exploded when its gunpowder reserve was lit by the spreading fire.

Six months later, Decatur returned to Tripoli Harbor as part of a larger American offensive and emerged as a hero again during the so-called “Battle of the Gunboats”, a naval battle that saw hand-to-hand combat between the Americans and the Tripolitans.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica Monticello.org / Office Of The Historian.gov / Mariners' Museum.org / Library Of Congress / National Archives.gov / Battlefields.org / First Barbary War: Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America on May 10, 1801 (YouTube)

American Revolutionary War: The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775

The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga: Located on Lake Champlain in northeastern New York, Fort Ticonderoga served as a key point of access to both Canada and the Hudson River Valley during the French and Indian War.

On May 10, 1775, Benedict Arnold joined Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont in a dawn attack on the fort, surprising and capturing the sleeping British garrison. Although it was a small-scale conflict, the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War, and would give the Continental Army much-needed artillery to be used in future battles.

Background of Fort Ticonderoga

In 1755, French settlers in North America began building a military fortification, Fort Carillon, on the western shore of Lake Champlain. Because of its location, which offered access to both Canada and the Hudson River Valley, the fort saw more fighting during the French and Indian War than any other post. In July 1758, British forces unsuccessfully attacked the fort, suffering heavy casualties. Under the command of General Jeffrey Amherst, the British returned the following year and were able to defeat the French, who destroyed much of Fort Carillon and withdrew to Canada.

With the fort now under their control, the British renamed it Fort Ticonderoga. By April 1775, when hostilities broke out between colonial militiamen and British soldiers at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga numbered barely 50 men.

A Surprise Attack

Fort Ticonderoga was located directly across Lake Champlain from Vermont, where the Green Mountain Boys–a militia organized in 1770 to defend the property rights of local landowners–joined the revolutionary effort without hesitation. On the morning of May 10, 1775, fewer than a hundred of these militiamen, under the joint command of their leader, Ethan Allen, and Benedict Arnold, crossed Lake Champlain at dawn, surprising and capturing the still-sleeping British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga.

As the first rebel victory of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga served as a morale booster and provided key artillery for the Continental Army in that first year of war. Cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga would be used during the successful Siege of Boston the following spring. Because of its location, the fort would also serve as a staging ground for Continental troops before their planned invasion of British-held territory in Canada.

The Revolution & Beyond

Also in 1776, a fleet of small warships under the command of Benedict Arnold fought the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain. In July 1777, Fort Ticonderoga changed hands again, after British General John Burgoyne managed to place a cannon on Mount Defiance and force Ticonderoga’s garrison under General Arthur St. Clair to evacuate. The Redcoats finally abandoned the fort permanently that November, following Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga.

In the years following the Revolutionary War, no military regiment would occupy Fort Ticonderoga, though at times the fort provided shelter for scouting parties or raiding detachments. In 1816, a New York merchant named William F. Pell began leasing the grounds of the fort. He bought the property in 1820, building a summer home there known as The Pavilion, which in 1840 was converted into a hotel to house a growing numbers of tourists in the area. In 1908, Stephen Pell began a restoration of Fort Ticonderoga; the fort opened to the public as a tourist attraction the following year.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica Library Of Congress / National Archives.gov / Battlefields.org / Fort Ticonderoga.org / American Revolutionary War: The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775 (YouTube)

This Day in History May 10

• 1497 Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.

• 1503 Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles.

• 1534 Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.

• 1773 Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.

• 1774 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.

• 1775 American Revolutionary War: The Second Continental Congress> takes place in Philadelphia.

• 1801 War of the First Coalition: Battle of Lodi: Napoleon wins a victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.

• 1801 First Barbary War: Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.

• 1869 First Transcontinental Railroad linking the eastern and western United States, is completed a Promontory Summit Utah with the golden spike.

• 1908 Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States.

• 1933 Nazi Book Burnings Censorship In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

• 1940 World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.

• 1940 World War II: Winston Churchill appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.

• 1941 World War II: House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.

• 1941 World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.

• 1942 World War II: Burma Campaign: Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States.

• 1969 Vietnam War: Battle of Hamburger Hill: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937.

Wikipedia.org

Understanding Military Terminology

Production Base

A contracting officer who initiates and signs the contract.

Joint Publications (JP 4-05) Joint Mobilization Planning

Production Logistics

That part of logistics concerning research, design, development, manufacture, and acceptance of materiel. In consequence, production logistics includes: standardization and interoperability, contracting, quality assurance, initial provisioning, transportability, reliability and defect analysis, safety standards, specifications and production processes, trials and testing (including provision of necessary facilities), equipment documentation, configuration control, and modifications.

Joint Publications (JP 4-05) Joint Mobilization Planning

Joint Publication - Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

The Old Salt’s Corner

Role of the Composite Warfare Commander (CWC)

In deciding the assignment and location of warfare commanders and coordinators the CWC should take into account the tactical situation, size of force and the capabilities of the available assets to cope with the expected threat. Such analysis may lead the CWC to decide to retain direct control of one or more of the warfare areas. When appropriate, a designated commander may be assigned alternate and supporting functions in addition to his primary responsibility.

1. Location of CWC

The battlegroup commander requires a clean tactical picture to control his forces effectively. To maintain such a picture the CWC must be located where he

(a) has ready access to his principal assets;

(b) is minimally handicapped by any emission controls (EMCON) or communications limitations; and

(c) has optimum facilities for receipt, processing, and display of information concerning unit readiness and the tactical situation.

Within the battlegroup, the CWC can best control combat operations from the carrier. Tightly structured rules of engagement (ROE) may require the CWC to maintain more direct control of assets.

Methodologically speaking, the CWC doctrine provides a structure around which tactics can be executed. However, CWC is not a “tactic” unto itself. Individual mission parameters must dictate how much or how little the doctrine is employed.

2. CWC Limitations

As with any command theory or doctrine, the CWC concept has its limitations.

For example, the CWC doctrine is designed for macro battlegroup or task force level operations.

Smaller task units or elements may allow a separate Officer in Tactical Command (OTC) to fulfill all sea control functions himself.

The CWC doctrine also developed during the Cold War for potential multi-threat combat operations against the former Soviet Union.

Contingency operations encompassing lesser threats or politically selective operations involving tightly structured ROEs may require the CWC to maintain even more direct control of assets.

Conceptually, the CWC doctrine provides a framework around which tactics are executed. In all cases however, the assigned mission must dictate how much or how little the doctrine is employed.

Another limitation is the multiple tasking of battlegroup platforms without clear definition of priorities.

Most importantly, the CWC and his individual warfare commanders must understand their responsibilities and how they may change in different tactical situations or as a limited engagement transitions to hot war.

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Prevention is better than cure.”

“War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.”

“He who allows oppression shares the crime.”

“Give light,

and the darkness will disappear of itself.”

“In the kingdom of the blind,

the one-eyed man is king.”

“Women,

can't live with them,

can't live without them.”

“Now what else is the whole life of mortals,

but a sort of comedy in which the various actors,

disguised by various costumes and masks,

walk on and play each ones part until the manager walks them off the stage?”

~ Erasmus

“Thought for the Day”

“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”

“It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.”

“United we stand, divided we fall.”

“Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”

“After all is said and done,

more is said than done.”

“No act of kindness,

no matter how small,

is ever wasted.”

“A liar will not be believed,

even when he speaks the truth.”

“Every truth has two sides;

it is as well to look at both,

before we commit ourselves to either.”

~ Aesop

“What I Learned”

“From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.”

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.”

“God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.”

“I have learned to hate all traitors,

and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.”

“He who learns must suffer.

And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart,

and in our own despair, against our will,

comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”

~ Aeschylus

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 19 - May 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021

Chinese officials say rocket debris landed in the Indian Ocean • Colonial Pipeline shuts down operations following cyberattack • CIA continues new ‘woke’ ad series amid criticism

2020 Census: Unhappy states consider census lawsuit to stop new political map • Parents across the country rally against school COVID-19 protocols • Asian American parent rebukes Virginia school board for admissions policy changes

Quotes of the Week: “The most disappointing jobs reports of all time” • Disney insists U.S. founded on “systemic racism”, leaked documents show • Pelosi shares photo of wrong black MLB player instead of Willie Mays • Cicada Brood X is coming back. Here's what to know

BUSINESS: Economy falls far short of expectations with just 266,000 jobs in April, unemployment rate rises to 6.1% • Restaurant and bar employment surged in April despite disappointing overall jobs growth • What to know about Biden's proposed COVID-19 vaccine patent waivers

MOST READ: More evidence that the Wuhan lab-leak theory is the correct one • Glock wins (and Biden loses) in major liability suit • Company offers truck drivers $14,000 per week amid nationwide driver shortage Washington Examiner

Bombshell Report: Disney Pushing “Critical Race Theory” Training On Employees • Kamala Harris Slammed For Border Absence, Media Giving Her “Free Pass” • Biden’s Plan For Government-Run Child Care Is Exactly What Most Moms Don’t Want

Facebook Is Doing Planned Parenthood’s Bidding In Banning Pro-Life Group LifeSiteNews • Liz Cheney And The Republican’s Trump Litmus Test • Woke Semantics Like ‘Birthing Persons’ Erases Women, Ignores Real Problems In Women’s Health

MOST READ: Climate Of Fear: Colleagues Silent On Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Retaliation Against “Superstar” Scientist Who Tried To Prevent Vaccine ‘Pause’ Disaster • April Job Numbers Are So Bad, CNBC Thought It Was A Typo • “Critical Race Theory” Illuminates Democrats’ Master Plan To End Honest Elections In America

Biden Administration Looks To House Hundreds Of Migrant Children In Shuttered North Carolina School Building • Twitter Employees Are Confused Why Joe Biden Would Draw Comparison To Jimmy Carter • Millionaire “Black Lives Mattter” Founder Admits She’s A Trained Marxist, Says She’s Proud Of Comparisons To Mao Zedong • There’s No Going Back To “Normal” After Trump. The Republican Party Is Changed Forever The Federalist

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: OUTRAGEOUS Trump Ban by Facebook! Biden’s Border Crisis Secrets & More! • Big Tech Censorship & Government Collusion: Judicial Watch Reveals Secret History of 2020 Election

“Investigating the Investigators:” FRAUD! Facebook/Big Tech Lying About Censoring Trump and Conservatives • Judicial Watch Statement on Facebook Oversight Board’s Decision to Support the Censorship of President Donald Trump

Judicial Watch Sues for Records about Abuse of Children Tied to Biden Border Crisis

Judicial Watch Files House Ethics Complaint against Maxine Waters over Incitement and Jury Intimidation Judicial Watch

MSNBC's Ali Velshi: It's a LIE to Say Democrats Will “Turn America Into a Socialist Country” • Beef Control! DEFUND NPR Promotes New York Times Food Writer's 'War on Meat' • CNN, Don Lemon and the Cancer of Identity Politics • TBS’s Sam Bee Just Says It: I “Want to Take your Guns”

FLASHBACK: Want Definite PROOF Late Night “Comics” In the Tank for Biden • New York Times' Carl Hulse Protects Democrats From Republican “Culture Assault” Assumes “Systemic Racism” • MSNBC Contributor: I Have to Wipe “Stink” of Tucker Carlson Out of Air • On DEFUND PBS, New York Times' David Brooks Says Election Laws Won't Affect Much, But a “Horrific Look” for the Republicans News Busters

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Why Is Television Called the 'Boob Tube'?

When television became the trendy new vehicle for news and entertainment in the mid-20th century, some people started calling it the tube. That nickname soon spawned an even catchier one: the boob tube.

The former phrase likely stemmed from the process by which televisions exhibited images. Inside each bulky, antennae-topped box was a cathode-ray tube, which funneled electrons straight to the glass screen. Magnetic coils directed the electron beam into patterns of images, illuminated by a layer of phosphor on the back of the screen. Thus, the device was known by the main mechanical element that brought it to life.

Thrilling though it was, television didn’t evade criticism. As its popularity skyrocketed in the 1950s and 1960s, TV networks began stuffing broadcast schedules with product advertisements and programs aimed at earning the highest ratings. And some people started considering television a guilty pleasure capable of corrupting young minds and corroding society. In a 1961 speech at a conference for the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton Minow encouraged his audience to spend an entire day watching TV so they could witness what a “vast wasteland” it had become.

“You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons”, Minow said. “And endlessly, commercials—many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you’ll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few.”

The feeling that TV was a mindless activity for the mindless masses was captured in its cheeky new sobriquet, the boob tube. Boob, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, then commonly referred to “a stupid, inept, or blundering person; a fool.” In other words, boobs were happy to sit in front of the TV set and fill their brains with a ceaseless procession of low-brow content. Some people did defend the device, praising its ability to educate and engage viewers.

“Why is it that today so many of our citizens are better informed on national and world affairs than they were even 10 years ago?” one columnist wrote in Baltimore’s The Evening Sun in 1968. “Why else but the Boob-tube? Certainly there is mishmash programs which offer little. But these do not have to be listened to. No one is forced to turn the knob.”/p>

Other critics simply advised people to limit their screen time, both for themselves and their kids. “At the moment we see no cure for boob-tubitis but self-discipline by adults and parental supervision of the time the youngsters devote to television viewing. Recreation should involve some sort of effort on our part besides the mere turning of a switch and a dial.” Los Angeles’s The Citizen-News reported in June 1960.

The 21st century ushered in new kinds of TVs—like plasma and LED screens—that didn’t include cathode-ray tubes, and people stopped using boob to describe fools quite so often. But while the phrase boob tube has fallen out of fashion in recent decades, blaming new technology for societal ills is still a popular practice.

Mental Floss / Wikipedia / IMDB / Reddit / Why Is Television Called the 'Boob Tube'? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Skimmer, Skimmer Puke: Surface sailor (this term is also used in other English-speaking navies - the RN, RCN and RAN).

Skipper: Term used in reference to the Commanding officer of any Ship, Unit, Platoon, or Detachment regardless of rank. Generally only applied to someone who has earned the speaker's respect.

Skittles: Sailors who work on the flight deck of a carrier. So named due to the different colored jerseys they wear. For the same reason, they are sometimes referred to as “Wiggles”.

Skivvies: Underwear.

Skivvy waver: Signalman (because of signal flags).

Skosh: Perilously close to minimum acceptable levels. Example: The F-5 usually lands skosh on fuel. Derived from “sukoshi”, the Japanese word for “a little”.

Skylarking: Messing around or not doing assigned work. Everyone else working while you watch the clouds go by.

Sky Pilot: A chaplain or priest.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

Skate: Avoiding work by finding an excuse to be elsewhere or unavailable by doing something easier (but important enough to avoid re-tasking); also used as an adjective to describe such an easier duty.

Skivvies: Underwear: skivvie shirt (T-shirt) and skivvie drawers (underwear).

Skuzz: To wash a deck or floor with a brush or towel (skuzz rag) in place of a mop, used in Boot Camp as a method to physically toughen recruits while cleaning the squadbay.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HSM-48 Helicopter Maritime Strike (HSM) Squadron FOUR EIGHT - nicknamed the “Vipers”

United States Navy - Marine Corps Commander, Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Atlantic - Naval Air Station Mayport, Expeditionary Squadron, Jacksonville, Florida / HSL-48 September 07, 1989 - May 2014 / HSM-48 May 2014 - present

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Bad news travels fast:”

Meaning: The proverbial saying 'bad news travels fast' can be taken literally. In a wider sense it is a comment on human nature being more interested in failure than success.

History: 'Bad news travels fast' is first found in print in the English author Thomas Kyd's tragedic play The Spanish Tragedy, which was written sometime between 1582 and 1592. It includes these lines:

“If he lived, the news would soon be here.”

“Nay, evil news fly faster still than good.”

There's not a great deal more to say about this expression. Unlike many proverbs, it is merely a literal observation on life rather than the more commonplace uplifting metaphorical motto intended to spur us to greater morality or industry.

Phrases.org.uk

Science & Technology

FEATURED: The most distant radio-loud quasar discovered • When memory qubits and photons get entangled

Universal sequence of Chern insulators in superconducting magic angle graphene • Wider horizons for highly ordered nanohole arrays

Glaciers and enigmatic stone stripes in the Ethiopian highlands • Oil in the ocean photooxidizes within hours to days, new study finds Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

FEATURED: France grossly underestimated radioactive fallout from atom bomb tests, study finds • New Ebola outbreak likely sparked by a person infected 5 years ago

Europe moves to exclude neighbors from its quantum and space research • Researchers race to develop antiviral weapons to fight the pandemic coronavirus

‘Blinged out’ female ruler may be evidence of powerful women during Bronze Age • Viral vector unlikely to be cause of leukemia in gene therapy patient Science AAAS

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good - real news story)

There might be many planets with water-rich atmospheres

Source: University of Chicago

Summary: A new study suggests that hot, rocky exoplanets could not only develop atmospheres full of water vapor, but keep them for long stretches.

An atmosphere is what makes life on Earth's surface possible, regulating our climate and sheltering us from damaging cosmic rays. But although telescopes have counted a growing number of rocky planets, scientists had thought most of their atmospheres long lost.

However, a new study by University of Chicago and Stanford University researchers suggests a mechanism whereby these planets could not only develop atmospheres full of water vapor, but keep them for long stretches. Published March 15 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the research expands our picture of planetary formation and could help direct the search for habitable worlds in other star systems.

“Our model is saying that these hot, rocky exoplanets should have a water-dominated atmosphere at some stage, and for some planets, it may be quite a long time”, said Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite, an expert in how planetary atmospheres evolve over time.

As telescopes document more and more exoplanets, scientists are trying to figure out what they might look like. Generally, telescopes can tell you about an exoplanet's physical size, its proximity to its star and if you're lucky, how much mass it has. To go much further, scientists have to extrapolate based on what we know about Earth and the other planets in our own solar system. But the most abundant planets don't seem to be similar to the ones we see around us.

“What we already knew from the Kepler mission is that planets a little smaller than Neptune are really abundant, which was a surprise because there are none in our solar system”, Kite said. “We don't know for sure what they are made of, but there's strong evidence they are magma balls cloaked in a hydrogen atmosphere.”

There's also a healthy number of smaller rocky planets that are similar, but without the hydrogen cloaks. So scientists surmised that many planets probably start out like those larger planets that have atmospheres made out of hydrogen, but lose their atmospheres when the nearby star ignites and blows away the hydrogen.

But lots of details remain to be filled out in those models. Kite and co-author Laura Schaefer of Stanford University began to explore some of the potential consequences of having a planet covered in oceans of melted rock.

“Liquid magma is actually quite runny”, Kite said, so it also turns over vigorously, just like oceans on Earth do. There's a good chance these magma oceans are sucking hydrogen out of the atmosphere and reacting to form water. Some of that water escapes to the atmosphere, but much more gets slurped up into the magma.

This stage could persist on some planets for billions of years, Kite said.

There are several ways to test this hypothesis. The James Webb Space Telescope, the powerful successor to the Hubble Telescope, is scheduled to launch later this year; it will be able to conduct measurements of the composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere. If it detects planets with water in their atmospheres, that would be one signal.

Another way to test is to look for indirect signs of atmospheres. Most of these planets are tidally locked; unlike Earth, they don't spin as they move around their sun, so one side is always hot and the other cold.

A pair of UChicago alumni have suggested a way to use this phenomenon to check for an atmosphere. Scientists Laura Kreidberg, PhD'16, and Daniel Koll, PhD'16 -- now at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and MIT, respectively -- pointed out that an atmosphere would moderate the temperature for the planet, so there wouldn't be a sharp difference between the day sides and night sides. If a telescope can measure how strongly the day side glows, it should be able to tell whether there's an atmosphere redistributing heat.

Science Daily (03/15/2021)

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 19 - May 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: China plans to revamp disused U.S. airfield in the Pacific 1,800 miles from Hawaii amid nation's global military expansion • China was preparing for a Third World War with biological weapons - including coronavirus - SIX years ago, according to dossier produced by the People's Liberation Army in 2015 and uncovered by the U.S. State Department

Fears of gas price surge after “DarkSide” cyber attack shuts Colonial Pipeline between Texas and New Jersey that carries 45% of East Coast fuel: Experts call Eastern European hack “most significant assault on infrastructure to date in the U.S.” • Putin denounces return of “Russophobia” during show of might at annual Victory Day parade to celebrate 76th anniversary of victory in WWII

Biden waives White House ethics rules to allow two former labor lobbyists to work for his administration • Poll shows 79% of people who oppose the COVID vaccine will NEVER change their minds in blow to U.S. herd immunity goals • Biden claims weak jobs report underscores need for MORE spending even as critics demand he scrap $300-a-week unemployment benefit that pays people more than working • Democrats are accused of abusing earmarked funding to spend BILLIONS of tax dollars on “woke” projects including a $436M yoga retreat in New Jersey and $1M for “cultural placemaking” in Los Angeles

BIDEN BORDER CRISIS: Inside the California hotels housing hundreds of migrant families who are provided with free meals, clothing, and even transportation to their final destination - under $500K-a-month government scheme • More than 2,100 migrant children thrown out of the U.S. with their families now have abandoned their relatives to cross border ALONE since Biden took office

Trump's team “began planning Qassem Soleimani's assassination” in 2017 and wanted to wipe out a “whole list of folks that day”, claims new report: Donald approved $15m extra security for Pompeo on leaving office amid revenge attack fears • Taliban blames Islamic State for bomb that killed at least 55 and injured 150 after exploding outside Kabul girls' school, as final U.S. prepare to leave Afghanistan • Rogue Chinese rocket splashes down into Indian Ocean near Maldives after crashing back to Earth amid fears it could have hit NYC

“Birthing people - you mean moms?” Squad member Cori Bush refers to mothers with “woke” gender-natural language: Tucker Carlson leads those mocking her asking if Mother's Day is now canceled • Nancy Pelosi tweets a “Happy 90th Birthday” to Willie Mays but posts a picture of the WRONG Willie instead sharing a snap of fellow Giants legend Willie McCovey • Double blow for Cuomo: State attorney expands sexual harassment investigation to look at whether top aide linked access to COVID-19 vaccines to governor support AND his comms director quits

NYPD hunts for gunman who shot two women bystanders and a four-year-old girl in Times Square amid 83% rise in city shootings • Bill and Melinda Gates “waited until their youngest daughter Phoebe turned 18 before announcing their $130B divorce”, claims new report • Dogecoin falls 22% during SNL after Elon Musk jokes about buying it for his mom: Billionaire reveals he has Asperger's Daily Mail

Education Insanity: Top 10 Stories Of The Week (Vol. 14) • Chinese Military Scientists Discussed Weaponizing SARS Coronaviruses In Document Obtained By U.S. Government: Australian Media

NASA Accuses China Of Failing To Clean Up Space Junk After Rocket Careens Back To Earth • “The Pattern Of Corruption Between Democrats And Big Union Bosses Is Obvious:” Biden Uses Waivers In His Ethics Pledge To Appoint Former Union Officials

Biden Struggles: Disastrous Jobs Report Shows America Is On The “Right Track” • Biden’s Economy Gets More Bad News: Number Of Jobs Added In March Gets Drastically Cut • Detroit Police Chief Readying Republican Bid For Michigan Governor Against Whitmer

Maryland Judge Bans “Thin Blue Line” Clothing For Court Employees • L.A. County D.A. Gascón’s Office Drops Death Penalty For Couple Charged With Murdering, Torturing 10-Year-Old Boy • California’s Population Shrinks For The First Time Ever In 2020

Democrats Earmark Millions Of Dollars To Fund ‘Woke’ Pet Projects • NPR At 50 Years: Still A Liberal Sandbox • Bill Gates Wants “Privacy”, But Divorce Is Not A Private Matter Daily Wire

NASA Criticizes China After Rocket Debris Burns Up Over Indian Ocean • Analysis: How Readers Rated the Media Bias of AP, BBC and The Epoch Times, and More • “Critical Race Theory” Training in Workplace Could Lead to Increased Bullying, Anxiety, Expert Says • Group Launched by Trump Allies Criticizes Biden Administration Over Plan to Teach Children “Critical Race Theory”

Cyber-Attack Shuts Down Biggest Gasoline Pipeline in US–Colonial Pipeline • Arizona Formally Bans Post-Election Signature Fix for Unsigned Mail-In Ballots • Sadiq Khan Re-elected as London Mayor • Bomb Kills at Least 30 Near Girls’ School in Afghan Capital • Three People, Including a 4-Year-Old Girl, Shot in Times Square

Gordon Chang: Communist China Has Committed ‘Mass Murder’ of Americans • Climate Change Presents Opportunity for Beijing to Expand Global Power: Chinese Professor • Blinken Calls for Taiwan’s Participation in World Health Organization (WHO)’s World Health Assembly • World Health Organization (WHO) Approves Emergency Use Listing for China’s Sinopharm Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus Vaccine • Special Report on Controversies Surrounding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus Origins: China in Focus The Epoch Times