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“Many people need desperately to receive this message: ‘I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1617, Pocahontas dies while in England
1806, Lewis and Clark begin their trip home
1858, British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny
1963, Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California, closes
1975, As North Vietnamese forces advance, Hue and other northern towns in South Vietnam are evacuated
Reference: History Net
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 The Butcher of Bosnia Sentenced To Life In Prison: Following World War II, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Over the next 40 years growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics began unraveling the union. When Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic rose to power in the mid 1980s, he intensified the discord between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Croatian, Bosniak and Albanian neighbors. In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence.
Bosnia’s population of 4 million was Bosniak, Serbian and Croatian, but Bosniak Muslims were by far the largest religious community. A coalition government was formed following elections in late 1990. But Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic wanted a more powerful Serbian nation, so his Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from the government, formed the “Serbian National Assembly,” and declared the existence of the “Republika Srpska.” In May, 1992 Karadzic and his right-hand military commander, General Ratko Mladic, with the backing of Milosevic and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, ordered Bosnian Serb forces to attack Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. For three years Bosnian Serb forces conducted a brutal “ethnic cleansing,” murdering, raping and forcibly expelling Bosniaks and ethnic Croats from the self-proclaimed Serbian Republic. Then in July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces advanced on the town of Srebrenica, where they raped the women and girls, and murdered some 8,000 men and boys. NATO forces ultimately ended the war, but Karadzic escaped and went into hiding. 100,000 people had been killed and 2.2 million left homeless.
The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague, Netherlands, would eventually indict 161 individuals, including Karadzic and Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia,” for genocide and other war crimes. Karadzic, captured in Belgrade in 2008, was tried, found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016. He appealed his sentence, but on March 20, 2019, the appeals court not only upheld Karadzic’s guilty verdict for his role in the worst massacres of civilians in Europe since the 1940s, but increased his sentence to life in prison. Tragically, because Karadzic had justified the horrific ethnic cleansing as a defense of western civilization against Muslim encroachment, he has become an iconic figure among violent right-wing extremists. Additional graphic novel: Safe Area Gorazde. This is a book that all junior military officers should read. The book won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Album.
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There’s No Prescription For Redemption: The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, the company that has made billions of dollars off the opioid drug OxyContin. The Sacklers are also major donors to museums, galleries and theaters in the US and Europe. But so much negative publicity has emanated from allegations the company pressured doctors to prescribe the drug, while also misleading the public about its dangerous addictive qualities, one reporter said: “Artists and activists are now putting pressure on those institutions to stop taking [Sackler] money.” Consequently, a $1.3 million donation offered to the UK’s National Portrait Gallery has been retracted for fear it could be overshadowed and become a distraction. (NPR)
You Got A Political Ally In Me, You Got A Political Ally In Me: Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen is traveling to the South Pacific Thursday to visit three of the 17 nations that still recognize Taiwan as a country: Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands. China has been actively expanding its influence in the region, pouring aid and investment into the Pacific islands in what some believe is an effort to strip Taiwan of more of its few remaining diplomatic allies. China considers Taiwan an extension of the mainland and has long sought to reduce the number of countries that recognize it as independent. The US has tried to dissuade the small developing countries from switching their recognition to China, arguing that relying too heavily on Beijing is risky, and providing data about debt traps other countries have fallen into after accepting Chinese money. A spokesman for Taiwan’s presidential office wouldn’t comment on whether any aid or investment packages would be announced during Tsai’s eight-day trip, but a political analyst in Taipei said with elections upcoming in Nauru and the Marshalls, it was likely Tsai would pledge assistance of some kind. (NYT) Additional read: How Canada Gets Squeezed Between China And The U.S. (NPR)
There She Blows: Popocatepetl is an active volcano some 40 miles southeast of Mexico City. Monday evening it sent a fiery plume of ash and gas more than two miles into the night sky, raining glowing rocks back down onto its slopes. The name literally means “smoking mountain” in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Dormant for 50 years before awakening in 1994, the volcano’s activity has gradually been building since, and explosions have become more visible. Even so Monday’s eruption caught residents off guard. Volcanologist Ana Lillian Martin del Pozzo said: “We do know there is magma in the upper part of the crater that hasn’t come out yet. The main thing is to stay away from the 12-kilometer exclusion zone” which is the radius over which rocks have fallen in earlier explosions. Popocatepetl is a newer volcano sitting astride several older ones. Historically it has produced large eruptions every 500 to 1,000 years. Since 1994 several eruptions have sent ash as far as Mexico City. In 1996, five mountain climbers were killed when the mountain erupted. (NYT)
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NRA In The Crosshairs This Time: Gun issue lobbyists, both pro and con, and firearms experts say the politically powerful National Rifle Association is finally being challenged on several fronts, ranging from an emboldened Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, to state and federal regulatory fights, and better financed groups seeking to curb gun deaths. Longtime NRA member and president of the Independent Gunowners of America Richard Feldman said: “I think it’s a very serious confluence of issues that the NRA is facing…[It’s] a growing storm.” The NRA had spent a record $30 million to help elect Donald Trump president but his victory has been a mixed blessing with the group currently facing a bevy of political, regulatory and financial headaches. (Guardian)
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Mickey Mouse x Marvel Muscles = Monopolistic Media for the Masses: At 12 a.m. ET Wednesday the Walt Disney Co. became an even bigger entertainment behemoth when it officially swallowed up 21st Century Fox. The $71.3 billion with a ‘B’ acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets means all the Marvel characters will finally be united under one Ginormous Big Top. Disney’s portfolio now includes the Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars brands, plus Deadpool, additional Marvel characters like X-men and Fantastic Four, FX Networks and National Geographic Partners, plus another 30 percent of Hulu to make up a controlling share of 60 percent. For Netflix and other streaming companies, look out—Disney launches its own streaming service, Disney+, later this year. Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Corp. will retain ownership of its broadcast network, owned and operated network affiliates, the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and Fox Sports. Oh, and joining the board of directors of the new Fox Corp. is former House speaker Paul Ryan, who will no doubt enjoy this new gig way more than his last. (NPR)
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LAST MORSELS
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“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” – Kurt Vonnegut,
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