EXTRA! EXTRA!

Hi! It is Vic, and the Crowd left me behind to watch the screen and answer the phones while they spend the afternoon trying to catch a break from all the messaging going around town on the seven or eight crises in progress.

Miles got a mention in for most of them this morning, but there are two breaking stories you should have in the “Potential Action” folder on the phone.

First off, the Gulf.

The IRGC folks are putting up a good show of defiance and the Straits are either ‘open,’ or ‘closed.’ The lull in talks has permitted Mr. Netanyahu to resume tightening the siege of the Hezbollah command bunker near Beirut. The hardest of the hard-core Hezbollah leadership is down there, and we expect the IDF is going to kill them all.
Iran can do little to stop it, and Mr. Trump may be willing to let this play out and give Lebanon a chance to live in peace while the folks down in Yemen have attention turned toward them.

It is 80 days to the mid-terms, and the carnival in our Fifteen Minute Counties continues.

Some panel of experts has voted to put Mr. Trump’s name back up on the Kennedy Center, inviting conflict with the Judge who told them to take it off.

The Reflecting Pool vandalism saga is still in the news, with a fight between the President and Jeanine Pirro, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. She is a member of the cast of news-readers from the Fox Network who are currently running the Cabinet.

The current struggle is over former Olympic swimmer David Hearn’s arrest and release after the pool’s basin was slashed—or damaged during construction—a few weeks ago.

“Judge Jeanine’s” tenure may be at some risk with the tension over reflecting pools and names going up and coming down, but the major story is one we just want to note right now.

After all the publicity surrounding the fantastic laundering of the Union Station fountains and the brightened pool, someone attacked the World War II Memorial yesterday.

The implements used were soapy water and red spray paint, bearing the words:

“CLEAN HANDS, DIRTY $$$$.”

The Park Service is cleaning things up, and the Police—and Judge Jeanine—are on the case.

I may stop by around lunch on the way to the County Fair and check it out.

I’ll keep you posted!

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com