On June 15, 1992, The US Supreme Court ruled in US v Álvarez-Machaín
that it is perfectly cool to forceably kidnap foreigners abroad and bring them to the US for trial. LexisNexis summarises the holding as follows:

The Court held that the fact of Alvarez-Machain's forcible abduction from a nation with which the U.S. has an extradition treaty does not prohibit his trial in a United States court for violations of the criminal laws in the U.S. The Court construed the treaty and concluded that there were no express provisions concerning obligations to refrain from forcible abductions, or the consequences under the treaty if such abduction occurred. The Court concluded that the language of the treaty, in the context of its history, did not support the finding that the treaty prohibited abductions outside of its terms. Nor did the Court find that the treaty should be interpreted so as to include an implied term prohibiting prosecution, where a defendant's presence was obtained by means other than those established by the treaty. The Court noted that the violation of any principle of international law did not constitute a violation of the treaty. The Court thus refused to imply in the treaty a term prohibiting international abductions.

https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-united-states...

This turns out to be but a continuation of the Kerr-Frisbie doctrine named after two prior Supreme Court Cases. In Kerr v Illinois, dealing with a US citizen kidnapped from Peru, the court held:

forcible abduction is no sufficient reason why the party should not answer when brought within the jurisdiction of the court which has the right to try him for such an offence

and in Frisbie v Collins the court held that kidnapping a suspect in Chicago to be be tried in Michigan was copacetic despite the violation of federal kidnapping statutes involved.

On this day in history:

763 BC – The Assyrians recorded a solar eclipse, later used to date Mesopotamian history.

1215 – King John put his seal to the Magna Carta.

1648 – Margaret Jones was hanged in Boston for witchcraft. Served her right I'm sure.

1667 – The first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity

1800 – The Provisional Army of the United States was dissolved, because everybody knew that standing armies sucked for innumerable reasons, duh.. **

1844 – Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanizing rubber.

1846 – The Oregon Treaty set the 49th parallel as the border between the US and Canada from the Rockies to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

1859 – The US - UK "Pig War" was fought over the continuation of the above boundary through the San Juan Islands. Total casualties 1 pig.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper was the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

1878 – Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study became the basis of motion pictures.

1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

1921 – Bessie Coleman earned her pilot's license, becoming the first female pilot of African-American descent.

1944 – In the Saskatchewan general election, the CCF was elected and formed the first socialist government in North America. Stalin is said to have been elated.

1977 – The first democratic elections in Spain, after Franco's death in 1975.

1985 – Rembrandt's Danaë was attacked by a man using sulfuric acid and a knife.

1992 – The US Supreme Court ruled that it is permissible to forcibly kidnap suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without the approval of those other countries. (United States v. Álvarez-Machaín)

2001 – The People's Republic of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Clearly seriously evil of them and threatening to US goal of total global hegemony.

** This should not be confused with the U.S. Army that celebrated its 250th anniversary on June 14, 2025, that United States Army was formally created by Congress on September 29, 1789. Nobody knew that Congress had created it retroactive to June 1775 until his most illustrious excellency Donald J Trump found an addendum to the Congressional Record inscribed on a golden tablet in a sand trap on a Florida Golf Course in 2025.
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Some people who were born on this day:

moonflowers--
one by one the wind
rustles them

~~ Issa

1479 – Lisa del Giocondo, model, subject of the Mona Lisa
1542 – Richard Grenville, captain and explorer, colonist and oppressor
1618 – François Blondel, architect
1763 – Kobayashi Issa, Buddhist priest and poet; one of "The Great Four" (haiku masters)
1809 – François-Xavier Garneau, poet and historian
1843 – Edvard Grieg, pianist and composer
1888 – Ramón López Velarde, poet and author
1894 – Nikolai Chebotaryov, mathematician and theorist
1906 – Gordon Welchman, mathematician and author
1910 – David Rose, pianist, composer, and conductor
1911 – Wilbert Awdry, author, co-created Thomas the Tank Engine
1921 – Erroll Garner, pianist and composer
1922 – Jaki Byard, pianist and composer
1934 – Ruby Nash Garnett, R&B singer (Ruby & the Romantics)
1937 – Waylon Jennings, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1939 – Ward Connerly, activist and businessman, founded the American Civil Rights Institute
1941 – Harry Nilsson, singer and songwriter
1943 – Johnny Hallyday, singer and actor
1946 – Noddy Holder, singer. songwriter, musician, and actor
1946 – Demis Roussos, singer, songwriter, and bass player
1951 – Steve Walsh, singer, songwriter, and musician (Kansas)
1954 – Terri Gibbs, country music singer and keyboard player

Some people who died on this day:

The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the world-wide scientific community.

~~ Kenneth G. Wilson

1381 – Wat Tyler, rebel leader
1768 – James Short, mathematician and optician
1968 – Wes Montgomery, guitarist and songwriter
1984 – Meredith Willson, playwright, composer, and conductor
1995 – John Vincent Atanasoff, physicist and inventor, invented the Atanasoff–Berry computer
2013 – Kenneth G. Wilson, physicist and academic
2018 – Matt "Guitar" Murphy, guitarist

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Global Wind Day
Magna Carta Day
National Electricity Day (USA)

Today's Tunes

Global Wind Day

Edvard Grieg

David Rose

Erroll Garner

Jaki Byard

Ruby Nash Garnett

Waylon Jennings

Harry Nilsson

Johnny Hallyday

Steve Walsh

Wes Montgomery

Matt "Guitar" Murphy

So Here It Is

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Wind Day, kidnapping, Witches, Issa, Goodyear, Pig War, Edvard Grieg, Matt Murphy, Errol Garner. Wes Montgomery