AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN ELDERLY, OVER-EDUCATED CHILDLESS (AS PER J.D.VANCE) CAT LADY BEAVERING AWAY IN ONE OF THE BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

Saturday 8 August 2026

BOOKS: Unger, Craig (2024) “Den of spies: Reagan, Carter, and the secret history of the treason that stole the white house.”

· “As the 1980 presidential campaign neared the end, Republican LIFE operatives did something extraordinary to make sure the hostage crisis played out in the favor; they made a secret deal to send weapons worth millions of dollars to Iran.”

ART: Rey, Jean-Dominique (2010) Berthe Morisot.

https://www.artchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Summers-Day-Berthe-Morisot-1879–scaled.jpg

This is Berthe Morisot, one of my favorite painters. Born in 1841, she was one of two famous women who were part of the Impressionist movement. She was selected six times to exhibit her work in the Salon, an esteemed exhibit of painters chosen by a panel in Paris. Then in 1874, she joined the “rejected” Impressionists, a group of more daring painters which included Paul Cezanne, Edgar Deas, Moet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

Saturday 8 August 2026

RUSSIA

ARTICLE: Seligman, Lara and Shelby Holliday (8/8/26) “U.S. intel links Russia to explosive drone at German airport. Wall Street Journal.

· The explosive-laden drone discovered at an airport in Germany is reported by the Wall Street Journal as likely belonging to the Russians.

· The drone was spotted on the tarmac in a secure area near a Ukrainian cargo jet. The airport was shut down for the night. There was also a second unidentified object that collided with a cargo plane aborted its landing due to the closure of the airport.

· The sightings of drones is not new, but an explosive-laden drone is new. German publications reported that the drone’s detonator failed.

According to a report. Last month from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, from August 2024 to February of 2026, suspicious drones were spotted at least 144 times in 13 countries.

ARTICLE: AFP and Reuters (8/8/26) “Drones spotted in Bulgaria and Germany raise concerns of Russian escalation.

· A drone exploded in Bulgaria near the Trans-Balken gas pipeline. “…the rone exploded near the Romanian border and the gas pipeline, which links Turkiye to Ukraine.”

· Two drones were spotted on Thursday (8/6/26) at a military base in Merhernich in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a few miles from the Belgian border. The site in Merhernich has “a high security underground storage facility for equipment and spare parts for military hardware ad is a base for personnel responsible for the maintenance of US Patriot air defense systems.”

· Officials believed up until recently that Russia would not dare to provoke NATO by risking small scale incursions, but this changed recently as Russia came under increased pressure. “NATO Members believe Putin is already conducting probing attacks to test and fracture the alliance.”

· Speculation is that Putin’s troops could cross over into Poland and target vital infrastructure. The plan is to scare Western nations into stopping their support for Ukraine.

· In 2024, a parcel containing a sophisticated incendiary device caught fire at the airport’s DHL hub shortly before it was loaded onto a plane. Similar packages then ignited in the UK and Poland, causing extensive damage.

· Last September. Lithuanian prosecutors said that investigators had also seized RDX explosives meant for other terrorist attacks. The amount was significant, equivalent to 6 kilograms of TNT.

· Germany is one of Kyiv’s biggest suppliers of military aid.

· “It’s a message. You get something like that bomb into one of the biggest European airports and you send the message that guys, we can do that, remember?

NEWS NOTES: SHORTS

· Private prisons are making more profits then ever.

· After Supreme Court win, there is pressure to deport Haitians.

CUBA

ARTICLE: Pager, Tayler et. al., (8/7/26) “U.S. squeezes Cuba even as it searches for a new regime leader. New York Times.

· The Trump administration is looking for a new official who might be persuaded to take over Cuba, something like they did in Venezuela.

· The administration is pressuring spy agencies to identify such a person but the consensus is that this will be much more difficult than Venezuela.

· The plan is to capture Raul Castro, former president of Cuba. “The Trump administration has oscillated between wanting to work with Cuba’s communist government and developing plans to overthrow it. U.S. officials presented a list of demands to Cuban leaders in recent weeks, offering incentives if Cuba made progress.”

· “The Trump administration wants Cuba to liberalize its economy. Open up to American businesses, buy oil from the United States and push out Russian and Chinese intelligence operatives.”

· “Cuba has announced major economic changes allowing in more private enterprise, but the measures appear to have fallen short of what the Trump administration has demanded.”

· The Cuban government appears to be supporting Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, a grand nephew of Fidel Castro, as a potential successor. He would almost certainly be unacceptable to the United States. The United States might be acceptable to another Castro relative., Raul G. Rodriguez Castro, Raul Castro’s grandson.