Paul D. Thacker

May the 4th be with you

NEW: Police airlift a crocodile with the body of a 59-year-old businessman inside. Local police in South Africa say they suspected the crocodile ate the man after observing it from drones. They then shot it and airlifted it off. When they landed back on the ground, the crocodile was sliced open, and human remains were found. The remains are believed to be those of 59-year-old Gabriel Batista, who had previously been swept away in raging floodwaters. His ring was found inside the animal along with six other pairs of shoes, which authorities fear may belong to other victims. On Monday, Batista reportedly tried to drive over a flooded bridge to reach his hotel and bar, but he and his truck were swept into the water. He was then swept down the river, where crocodiles were waiting for prey. It is unclear if Batista was already deceased when he was eaten, but authorities believe some of his other remains may have been eaten by other crocodiles.

Angela Rasmussen is very upset David Morens was indicted yesterday--calling it "political persecution." FYI: Here's Rasmussen out for drinks w/ David Morens and Peter Daszak, listed as "Co-Conspirator 1" in the Morens indictment.

What is going on in Gaza is heartbreaking and must be addressed but it is not a genocide.

This is how history gets distorted— unintentionally. David Frum tells a powerful story about JFK’s assassination and Jacqueline Kennedy’s empathy for the wife of another victim that day. There’s just one problem. He says Lee Harvey Oswald killed a Secret Service agent. He didn’t. Oswald killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit about 45 minutes after the assassination. Tippit left behind a wife and three children. And yes—Jacqueline Kennedy did reach out. She sent Tippit’s widow a handwritten note, saying the eternal flame at Arlington would burn for her husband as well. The humanity of that gesture is real. The details, as Frum told them, are not. This isn’t about bad faith. It’s about memory—how even well-informed people can reshape events over time without realizing it. And how audiences, hearing it confidently retold, absorb it as fact. That’s how the record gets blurred. A reminder of something I’ve learned after years of reporting and writing history: Listener beware. Not everything you hear—even from influential voices—is true.