The Bread Riots

History, Uncategorized 4 Minutes

During the early spring of 1863 in Richmond, Virginia—the capital of the Confederacy—thousands of working-class Southern women were struggling as their husbands were either off fighting the Civil War or had died in battle. Then, hyperinflation from spending and a weak Confederate currency drove the prices of food and other goods way up, and families started to go hungry.

The nation had convulsed in division and the lives and futures of America’s enslaved hung in the balance, but frustration also simmered among white people within the Confederacy. Seething class resentment was building among working-class white women at the seemingly fruitless sacrifices they were making. Wealthy, families who owned several enslaved people weren’t affected as much by conscription and the economic struggles. By the beginning of April, it reached a boiling point, leading to one of the largest civilian uprisings during the Civil War. The Richmond Bread Riot became one of several throughout the South led by women.

“They had as many reasons to be mad as possible,” says Edward L. Ayers, a Civil War historian with the University of Richmond and founding chair of the board of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond.

“Not only are they losing their husbands, but they are losing them for a cause that doesn’t seem to offer any award for them,” says Ayers, Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities.

Richmond Leaders ‘Alarmed’ by Women’s Actions

The women had tried demanding help from the government—to no avail. In fact, the government had recently made things worse with the March 26, 1863 passage of the Impressment Act, which empowered Confederate forces to seize food and other supplies as needed in the field. So, on April 2, the Thursday of Easter week in 1863, hundreds of women (and some men) took to the streets of Richmond and attacked and raided businesses.

Gregg D. Kimball, director of public services and outreach for the Library of Virginia, says that Richmond leaders were alarmed by the women’s actions, and did their best to downplay it and condemn the rioters. Many said the participants “are from the dregs of society.”

“For women to do something this provocative in Southern society was not something that was looked upon positively,” Kimball says. “It went against this whole notion of the Southern woman that was constructed.”

The Bread Riot Ringleaders

History records two main women who planned and instigated the protest: Mary Jackson and Minerva Meredith. Jackson was a 34-year-old mother of four and a huckster who worked in the Richmond open market selling groceries, and loudly complaining about rising food prices to anyone who would listen. Little is known about Meredith, but she had a reputation of being very tall with a robust, and somewhat imposing presence, Kimball says.

Jackson and Meredith initially met with a small group of women on April 1 at Belvidere Hill Baptist Church. They resolved to meet at Capitol Square the next morning and demand to speak to Virginia Governor John Letcher, and word spread. On April 2, Jackson and Meredith and a group of as many as 200 to 300 women went to the George Washington Equestrian Statue, erected in 1857.

The leaders demanded to the governor’s aide that they speak to Letcher. There are some conflicting accounts: Some say the governor refused to see them, while others say he did speak to the women.

Regardless, the women were displeased with the governor’s dismissive attitude and unwillingness to help them. The protesters, many armed with knives and pistols, stormed off down Richmond’s 9th Street, crying out: “We celebrate our right to live! We are starving! Bread or blood!”

They marched along the cobblestones of 9th Street right by the capitol building, both of Virginia and the Confederacy itself. As onlookers watched the march, hundreds joined in. Some men also joined, most likely as opportunistic looters for merchants like jewelry stores rather than crusaders for hungry families, Kimball and Ayers say.

The rioters—at least 400 to 500 of them, by estimates—plundered warehouses where bacon and flour and other foods were stored, along with grocers and other stores. The Bread Riot name reflects stealing flour for baking bread more than stealing loaves of bread, Ayers explains. The word “bread” served as a general word for food.

Although some injuries were reported, nobody was killed during the incident, which was more like a mass looting and protest than a violent riot. The mayhem lasted about two hours, during which both Gov. Letcher and Confederate President Jefferson Davis reportedly went out to the streets to tell the rioters to stop. Richmond Mayor Joseph Mayo read the protesters the Riot Act—a British edict for stopping insurgents that the American government adopted in the Militia Act of 1792, and individual states personalized. Law enforcement then came in to squelch the riot.

Aftermath of the Riot

Many participants later were brought to trial and charged with crimes for their rioting, but fewer than 100 were punished, Kimball says. A lot of the older and poorer women were convicted, but younger, better-dressed women were not.

Douglas O. Tice Jr., author of The Richmond Bread Riot: Women at War, says there are many conflicting accounts about details, and like war battles, it’s not likely any one person witnessed the whole thing. But the Richmond Bread Riot got women noticed, and the effects were lasting.

“Women, up until this event, were basically ignored as far as their needs and desires were concerned,” Tice says. “This was a desperate act, which took great courage and stamina to put in place. It was an enormous act to acquire the very basics for their struggling families and in doing so gave them some attention into the gravity of their circumstances. … They stood up for once and were noticed.”

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

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128 thoughts on “The Bread Riots”

  1. Good Morning All!

    got up almost an hour ago–stripped the bed, got the laundry started and took out the butter for toffee cookies later this morning. We have about 30* and cloudy, misty skies. I hope things dry up soon, the driveway is a muddy mess!

    Lat night at walmart, I picked up a bag of gharideli (SP?) chocolate bits because I want to try a new recipe–pretzel bark–and when I put it in the cart, chocolate wafers went all over the place. Someone had opened the bag and put it back. I tried to get as many as i could but they fell on the floor and all over the stuff in the cart.

    I left the cart and found a clerk I gave him the bag and apologized and told him chips were all over on the floor and in my cart. He said thanks and he’d take care of it. I went back to my cart and got as many as i could easily see and put them in a pile on the floor, but i was dropping chips here and there in the aisles I’m sure. When i got to the register and we took out the items, a whole bunch more fell on the ground and i picked them up and have them to the cashier and told him what happened. He said, kids think it’s funny–it happens all the time. Lesson learned.

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    1. Good morning! Wow! That sucks! I’ve never encountered that at any stores, even WM. Temp is 39, cloudy and misty here, too. Wheezer was sleeping on the chair – most of the dry food was gone so I mixed some tuna in with what remained. He jumped down and ate some of it but is back up in the chair sleeping. He’s really wheezing in his chest….

      Another article about the riot:

      EXCERPT: “…..The city fathers of Richmond also moved in the aftermath of the riot to insure there was no further breakdown of public order. The city had a long tradition of poor relief and the City Council resolved to expand its efforts in that area. Richmond’s lawmakers were quick to distinguish between the “worthy poor,” those who did not participate in the riot, and the “unworthy poor,” those who did. Soon the city would operate special markets where the “meritorious poor” could obtain provisions and fuel at significantly reduced prices.

      The bread riot in Richmond was not an isolated affair. People in the Confederate capital would read about similar revolts in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, and Macon, Georgia; in Salisbury and High Point, North Carolina; and in Mobile, Alabama. Local officials in those cities tackled the problem of poor relief in much the same way. But the stark reality was that people could not afford to buy food because prices in 1863 were almost ten times higher than they were in 1861. As one scholar has noted, a nation of farmers was, indeed, going hungry.

      The situation would only grow worse as the Confederate transportation network broke down and as Union armies occupied more and more of the Confederacy’s arable land. The bread riots of 1863 underscored how desperate the situation had become on the home front. They also highlighted the slow but steady demoralization that profoundly affected the Confederate cause.”

      https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/bread-riot-richmond/

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  4. JoeLange

    @JoeLang51440671

    Here’s another thing that is being missed by most people….

    ALL mail in ballots will not only be from an approved list of “citizens,” they will also be easily tracked and audited.

    Anybody remember this big story in Trump’s first term, that quickly became forgotten?

    “The United States Postal Service (USPS) has filed a patent application to use blockchain technology to streamline and secure mail-in voting. The ‘Secure Voting System’ patent application, published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office last week, describes how the same technology that supports bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be used to “track and secure the vote by mail system”.

    https://independent.co.uk/tech/usps-mail-in-voting-us-postal-service-blockchain-patent-a9675576.html

    Just a coincidence?

    Our ENTIRE election system is going to be “secured.”

    The ball is ALREADY rolling.

    The midterms are ALREADY safe.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. Charlotte99

    April 2, 2026 3:55 am

    EXCLUSIVE:

    Eric Swalwell PANICS when I ask about his Chinese spy girlfriend Fang Fang, and whether that’s a bigger “national security threat” than Elon Musk
    I sat next to a drunk Swalwell at dinner for 90 minutes.

    He was IMMEDIATELY compromised by a group of lobbyists he’d JUST MET, spilling intimate details about his job and asking for HELP CHEATING ON HIS WIFE. MASSIVE national security threat.

    This guy should have his clearances revoked.

    Swalwell spent his dinner bragging about “ORGlES” on Capitol Hill, telling them he’s bored of his wife and “only wants to f*ck tens.”

    Worse, he spoke about ABUSlNG his power on the House Intel Committee (which he’s since been booted off of), saying he pushed to SUBPOENA Ivanka Trump because she’s “hot as f*ck”

    THIS GUY MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE.

    He CANNOT keep his freaking mouth shut.

    After I began questioning him, Swalwell jumped back into the group of lobbyists to hide from me, but I pressed on.

    Dude looked absolutely TERRIFIED and 100% guilty.

    He knows he’s been caught. More to come later.

    I have about an hour and a half of audio to go through

    And big shoutout to @LauraLoomer for assisting me with digging into this clown while I was focusing on listening in!

    https://nitter.poast.org/nicksortor/status/1894448074795241978#m

    Feb 2025

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  8. Good morning!

    34* Blustery morning here in w. mi.

    Never heard about Richmond Bread Riot. Interesting 👍

    (need to go back and read what’s going on with you guys 😊)

    Thanks, God Bless 🙏

    Liked by 2 people

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  9. Shipwreckedcrew

    @shipwreckedcrew

    Nightmare:

    Eventually 10 million Chinese nationals become U.S. citizens via birthright citizenship.

    Vote by mail adopted nearly nationwide.

    Vote by mail ballots forwarded en masse to US citizens who are actually Chinese nationals.

    CCP directs mass mail-in of ballots all in favor of the same candidate.

    CCP controls outcome of U.S. POTUS elections.

    Liked by 2 people

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  12. Jake

    April 2, 2026 8:03 am

    Ever Wonder Where $7 Trillion Goes?
    “Bottom line, the government now spends $7 trillion each year. And they can’t figure out where it goes.”

    https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/ever-wonder-where-7-trillion-goes

    The national debt isn’t an abstract number on a screen in Washington. It’s higher interest rates on mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.

    And the government borrowing is only accelerating.

    Over the past year, the debt grew by $2.7 trillion; that’s a sharp increase from the $1.8 trillion federal deficit in fiscal year 2025.

    So not only is the national debt growing, but the rate at which the national debt is growing… is growing. (If you’re a math wonk, the second derivative is positive.)

    At the current trajectory, the debt will cross $39 trillion by the end of this month. And $40 trillion by the summer… not long after America celebrates its 250th birthday.

    What’s crazy is that the people in charge of tracking all of this spending can’t figure out where the money goes.

    On March 5, a government auditor reported that the Office of Management and Budget cannot even produce a complete inventory of federal programs, despite being legally required to do so.

    It’s not that the OMB is lazy or incompetent; it’s that there are simply too many federal programs… and the complex web of spending makes it virtually impossible to tally up all the various offices, agencies, sub-departments, committees, special advisory boards, emergency programs, etc. that exist in the federal government.

    Bottom line, the government now spends $7 trillion each year. And they can’t figure out where it goes.

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. so because a foreigner has to obey a country’s laws (which ILLEGALS do not), they should have privileges that citizens enjoy? she’s a complete idiot.

    Charlotte99

    April 2, 2026 7:49 am

    JUST IN:

    SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Jackson argues for illegal aliens having birthright citizenship by saying if she steals somebody’s wallet in Japan, she has “allegiance” to that country

    She has to freaking go. This is absurd. Actually. “I was thinking, you know, I’m a U.S. citizen, am visiting Japan. And what it means is that, you know, if I steal someone’s wallet in Japan, the Japanese authorities can arrest me and prosecute me. It’s allegiance, meaning can they control you as a matter of law?”

    “So there’s this relationship based on—even though I’m a temporary traveler, I’m just on vacation in Japan, I’m still locally owing allegiance in that sense. Is that the right way to think about it?”

    “And if so, doesn’t that explain why both temporary residents and undocumented people would have that kind of, quote-unquote, allegiance, just by virtue of being in the United States?” I guess it is April Fools

    https://nitter.poast.org/EricLDaugh/status/2039379351301489014#m

    KBJ IS AS DUMB AS A BAG OF ROCKS

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. now do the UN

    Charlotte99

    April 2, 2026 7:40 am

    @USronaldcarter
    12h

     NOBODY KNOWS HOW FU*KED NATO ACTUALLY IS RIGHT NOW. In the last 72 hours, watch who walked away: 

     France: Blocked US military overflight for weapons to Israel — FIRST TIME since war began Feb 28. Israel cut ALL defense procurement from France. 

     Italy: Denied Sigonella air base landing to US bombers. Defense Minister said relations are “solid and loyal.” DAYS after blocking US planes. 

    Spain: Closed ENTIRE airspace to US operations. Blocked Naval Station Rota AND Morón Air Base. PM Sánchez called it “not NATO collective defense.” 

     Poland: Refused to redeploy Patriot batteries. US burned through 1,200+ interceptors in 16 days. Poland said no. 

     Switzerland: Denied 2 US reconnaissance flights. Suspended $120,000,000 in weapons exports under “neutrality laws.” 

    UK: PM said “this is not our war.” Trump told them to “build up some delayed courage.” 

     Germany: President Steinmeier called war “possibly illegal.” WHILE hosting Ramstein — largest US base outside America. 

    That is: France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, UK, and Germany. 

    All in ONE week. 

    When this many allies abandon you at once, it’s not a disagreement. It’s a collapse.

    https://nitter.poast.org/USronaldcarter/status/2039475142921978164#m

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. The Gipper Lives

    April 2, 2026 9:18 am

    Reply to  sync

    Speaking of Chinee prep, here’s the thing about Reric:

    He went to college in Maryland, where he interned for a Congresswoman. That’s where he was recruited. He went home to California and later became a small-town councilman. News flash: China doesn’t hand out girlfriends to small-town councilmen on the off-chance that they’ll go to Congress one day.

    He was already on China, Inc.’s payroll. And Pelosi and Feinstein were ordered to install him in Congress and put him on the Intel Committee, which they did.

    In other words, they didn’t give him a honeypot handler because he was already in Congress. They gave him one because they were going to put him in Congress.

    And now China wants to make him their next Colonial Governor to replace their current Proconsul Newsom.

    Alas, Gavin; you’ll always have the Chinese Space Lasers that burned down LA.

    Fang Fang’s handler, Eric, Eric’s handler (not shown: Pelosi and Feinstein)

    Rest in the Vine: Reric Swalwell, Agent of C.H.Y.-N.A.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  19. Huh – interesting – never heard of her!

    Just The News: “Alina Fernández Revuelta, the daughter of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, claimed in an interview published Wednesday that Cuba should have had a regime change in the 1980s. Fernández, daughter of Castro and Havana socialite Natalia Revuelta, claimed that a regime change in her home country is long overdue and the regime should have ended when her father died if not earlier.

    “For me, it’s been time for a regime change since the late ‘80s,” Fernández told The Epoch Times. “At the time Fidel Castro died, we were all thinking [his regime] had come to an end, because it was a very personalized and paternalist … narcissistic government. … But it survived.”

    Fernández, who fled Havana for Miami when she was 37-years-old, in 1993, said she opposed her father’s rule and that she learned from a young age about the realities of communism. She was raised by her mother and step-father.

    “I became a dissident, I mean, publicly … in the late ‘80s. So I was scared. I was afraid for my daughter, that something might happen to her,” Fernández said. “I was on the dissident side, so it’s kind of a double burden on her. She was a teenager.”

    The comments come as the United States pushes a maximum pressure campaign on Cuba by severely limiting oil shipments to the Latin American country and imposing strict travel restrictions on U.S. tourism to the island.

    The Trump administration’s actions have led to nationwide blackouts in Cuba, which has seen its economy grind to a halt amid a de facto blockade imposed by the U.S.”

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. i didn’t either. these liberal idiots here in America WHO HAVE IT SO GOOD AND DON’T KNOW IT–should have to live in a country with the ideology they support before being allowed to protest OURS!

      Liked by 1 person

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  21. Just The News: “U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker on Wednesday echoed comments from President Donald Trump and other Cabinet leaders this week suggesting that Washington could leave the bloc.

    “I think that it’s very clear right now that President Trump is evaluating and reevaluating everything,” he said on Newsmax. “Whether that is our involvement with NATO, whether that is our support to the European effort in Ukraine or whether that is anything else the United States is doing.”

    Whitaker, who served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term, made the remarks as Trump himself and Cabinet Secretaries Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth have both questioned the merits of the alliance in light of NATO members refusing to help the U.S. amid the Iran war.

    Hegseth, for his part, told reporters that “[a] lot has been shown to the world about what our allies would be willing to do for the United States of America when we undertake an effort of this scope. When we ask for additional assistance… we get questions, or roadblocks, or hesitation.”

    “Why are we in NATO?” Rubio asked during a Fox News appearance. “You have to ask that question. Why do we send trillions of dollars and have all of these American forces stationed in the region, if in our time of need, we won’t be allowed to use those bases?”

    Trump himself told The Telegraph on Wednesday that he was open to a withdrawal from NATO. “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” he said.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  22. Oh, yes….his privacy…SMDH!!!

    Just The News; “A Florida judge Wednesday granted golf legend Tiger Woods’ request to seek treatment at an in-patient facility located outside of the United States as he faces another driving-under-the-influence charge. Woods announced he was stepping back from public life and the sport Tuesday to focus on his recovery after he was arrested last week in a roll-over crash that took place near his residence on Jupiter Island. No injuries were reported.

    The sports icon has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanors, including driving under the influence with property damage, and a breathalyzer found no alcohol in his system. However, investigators believe drugs could be behind the impairment, and two hydrocodone pills were allegedly found in his pocket.

    Woods’ attorney Douglas Duncan made the request in a court filing, where he noted that Woods requires an individualized program, “continuous monitoring,” a “highly controlled environment” and privacy during the treatment process, per CBS Sports. 

    “Based upon the Defendant’s treating physician, the out-of-country treatment facility recommendation is based upon the Defendant’s complex clinical presentation and the urgent need for a level of care that cannot safely or effectively be done within the United States, as his privacy has been repeatedly compromised,” Duncan wrote. “Ongoing medical scrutiny and public exposure create significant barriers to his care and would result in setbacks and an inability to fully engage in treatment.”

    It was not clear what country the treatment would take place in or how long the treatment would last.

    The latest charge comes after Woods was arrested in 2017 on a DUI charge after Florida police found him asleep behind the wheel of a damaged vehicle. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. Ummmm…..not our business what Spain chooses to allow in their own country.

    Liked by 1 person

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  25. R Green

    April 2, 2026 10:22 am

    MP Petr Bystron DESTROYS Jamie Raskin in the EU: ‘Jim Jordan should be speaking here instead of you’

    FTA – At a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on the (IMCO) on March 24, 2026, Raskin launched into an 18-minute tirade targeting President Donald J. Trump, the MAGA movement, and the European Right.

    Promoting the Digital Services Act, Raskin claimed: “Their obsession with attacking your tech rules serves one purpose: to dismantle any laws worldwide that might limit far-right propaganda, disinformation, and hate speech.”

    German AfD MEP Petr Bystron blasted what he described as a dishonest attempt to promote European censorship and warned: “We have serious problems with freedom of expression here and with election manipulation in recent years.”

    He went on to claim that the European Commission has played a dual role — censoring opposition voices of legitimate, democratically elected politicians on social media, while at the same time funding mainstream media outlets to spread its propaganda.

    Bystron also vented his anger over Raskin’s invitation to the committee, fuming: “After this is discussed in the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, you invite this person to advise us here in the European Parliament — a multiple failed Trump hater — as he used ten minutes of his speaking time to spread hate tirades against Trump.”

    He added that it was disastrous that Raskin had portrayed the United States as a dictatorship, likening it to regimes such as North Korea and Iran.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/04/mp-slams-raskin-eu-jim-jordan-should-be/

    He called out USAID/NGO’s role as well…. “For  decades NGOs were funded by USAID, from within the United States, such as OCCRP, which includes major media organizations as its members, that manipulate public opinion leading to election results being influenced here in the EU.  That’s the problem.” 

    The video of Bystron is remarkable and worth watching.

    Liked by 1 person

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  26. “I didn’t know Kuwait is a State – but it is, at least technically. The State of Kuwait (Dawlat al-Kuwait) is a sovereign country in Western Asia, situated on the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It is a constitutional monarchy ruled by an emir, known for its significant oil wealth, high foreign national population, and independent political history. Only 30% of the people who lives there are actual citizens. Weird data point.”

    “A Florida woman thought her cat was just disappearing on Sunday mornings – turns out Deacon’s been attending church like he pays property taxes there.

    For two months, he’s been slipping out early, crossing the street like he owns it, and casually walking into a local church before service even starts. No rush, no chaos, just vibes. Witnesses say he takes his usual spot in the back pew, sits through the entire service without making a sound, and occasionally stares out the window like he’s contemplating life choices – or lizards.

    Pastor confirmed nobody questioned it because in Florida, if a cat walks into church and behaves better than most people, you just let it happen. At this point, Deacon isn’t just attending – he’s a regular. And honestly? Probably one of the most well-behaved members in the whole congregation.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  28. Who knew? I knew!

    “The idea that the U.S. was founded on Deism – a belief in a creator who does not intervene in human affairs – is a significant part of the debate regarding American origins. While some argue for a purely Christian founding, many historians note that key founders like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams held deistic or non-orthodox beliefs, favoring reason over dogma. 

    Influence of Deism: Historian Frank Lambert noted that the Enlightenment and Deism significantly influenced the birth of the American republic.

    Thomas Paine, whose writing was critical to the revolution, was a known proponent of Deism, arguing against mixing church and state. Other scholars and activists argue the founders were largely influenced by Judeo-Christian values.

    A 1797 treaty, signed by John Adams, stated, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This debate often centers on whether the “Creator” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence refers to the Christian God or a more general Deistic concept.” 

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Some do, some don’t but almost every horse likes to splash in the water tank now and then and if you ride a horse over the smallest stream, many will try to roll in the water. They like playing in it.

        Liked by 1 person

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  35. “Artemis II Co-Pilot: A.I.: From Pocket Calculators to Super Advanced Technology”

    Sharyl Attkisson, Apr 02, 2026

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA’s Apollo program achieved what many called impossible: sending astronauts to the Moon using technology that today fits in a child’s toy. The Apollo Guidance Computer, the spacecraft’s onboard brain, had just 4 kilobytes of Random Access Memory (RAM) and 72 kilobytes of Read Only Memory (ROM)—less processing power than a modern pocket calculator.

    Astronauts relied on banks of switches, manual controls, and constant voice contact with Earth-based mission controllers who performed most complex calculations on the ground.

    Today, with Artemis II—the first manned lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972—NASA is sending four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of the Moon using the Orion spacecraft. And this time, Artificial Intelligence serves as a tireless digital partner, transforming how humans travel into deep space.

    Note: Artemis II is the name of the mission. The rocket itself is called Orion.

    Read on for details.

    astronaut standing on gray sand

    When it comes to this modern day manned mission to the Moon, the leap in raw computing power alone is staggering. Orion carries four redundant flight computers, each built around ruggedized IBM PowerPC processors derived from commercial airliner technology. These systems operate 20,000 times faster than the Apollo Guidance Computer and boast 128,000 times more memory.

    While Apollo’s single computer handled narrow tasks like lunar descent guidance, Orion’s computers manage virtually every system. This means life support, navigation, power, and propulsion. There are almost no manual switches except for rare emergency overrides.

    Everything from trajectory adjustments to system checks runs through these high-speed, radiation-hardened machines, allowing the spacecraft to fly autonomously for long stretches, a capability proven during the unmanned Artemis I test flight.

    But you might say the real revolution lies in how AI turns the computing power into intelligent oversight. During Orion’s development and testing, Lockheed Martin integrated NEC’s System (Japanese technology) Invariant Analysis Technology (SIAT). This AI tool examined data streaming from more than 150,000 sensors across the spacecraft and mapped out over 22 billion logical relationships between systems.

    The result is an anomaly-detection engine that spots subtle behavioral shifts in everything from power distribution to life-support equipment long before they become problems. SIAT continues to operate during flight, providing real-time monitoring that was impossible in the Apollo era. Crews and ground teams had to catch issues through limited telemetry and human judgment alone. In many ways, it’s incredible we made it to the Moon!

    Working with SIAT are digital twin simulations. These are virtual replicas of Orion and its systems running in parallel with the real spacecraft. Obviously, this is a huge safety and performance addition over the Apollo days.

    The AI-driven models constantly compare predicted performance against actual sensor readings, flagging drifts in oxygen levels, temperature, radiation exposure, or propulsion health.

    On Artemis II, the vast majority of trajectory planning, life-support monitoring, and navigation decisions happen autonomously through advanced algorithms. Astronauts still take manual control at key moments to test handling and build experience, but AI handles the relentless data crunching that would otherwise overwhelm a crew thousands of miles from Earth.

    Communication delays with mission control, which can stretch for seconds or minutes in deep space, are less risky when onboard AI can analyze options and suggest solutions instantly. The missions themselves highlight this shift. Apollo flights aimed for bold objectives such as lunar orbit insertion, landings on the surface, and precise returns, often with crews performing critical maneuvers by hand while Earth teams calculated every burn.

    But Artemis II follows a safer free-return trajectory. This is where the Moon’s gravity acts as a natural slingshot to bring the crew home without relying on a major engine firing. This prioritizes testing deep-space systems over immediate landing, with AI ensuring the spacecraft stays on course and healthy throughout the roughly 4-day outbound leg and high-speed lunar flyby.

    In the Apollo era, astronauts were pioneers operating at the edge of human and machine limits. I have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing a number of these pioneers. Some of the stories they told will be featured in an upcoming podcast I’m planning.

    Today’s Artemis II crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—operate as a skilled team supported by AI that processes sensor data at scales no human could match. It predicts issues proactively, and frees the humans to focus on science, observation, and the experience of deep space.

    Orion itself offers 30 percent more habitable volume than the Apollo command module, powered by solar arrays rather than fuel cells, and features a modern glass cockpit with digital displays instead of toggle switches.

    This evolution does not undercut the human courage and ingenuity it takes to plan and serve on a Moon mission. But you have to really think with wonder about how man reached the Moon in the Apollo era with little more than slide-rule precision and raw determination. The next chapter is being written through a true partnership between astronauts and intelligent machines. AI is truly acting as co-pilot. (Let’s hope it doesn’t all turn out like it does too often in the movies.)”

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  36. Megan Basham

    @megbasham

    I don’t know what the Supreme Court will decide on the question of birthright citizenship. But I know this, if the courts continue to enforce practices that increase chaos, destruction, and division within the United States, like allowing 1.5 million Chinese nationals to vote because they happened to be born in an American hospital, people will very soon stop respecting the courts.

    And then things will really get dangerous.

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    1. Pam Bondi already fired as attorney general, Cabinet official teed up as replacement: sources EPA Director Lee Zeldin is reportedly being considered as Bondi’s replacement after a White House meeting Tuesday

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  41. Just The News: “President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that Pam Bondi will leave the role of attorney general and take a position in the private sector.

    He further confirmed that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would take over the role in an acting capacity.

    “Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” he posted on Truth Social. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”

    “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” he added.

    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116336247856387679

    The announcement followed reports that Trump would soon fire Bondi and others saying she had already been dismissed. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has emerged as a potential replacement.

    Bondi’s public popularity took a nosedive early in her tenure after she organized a botched PR stunt on the Epstein files in which she distributed binders of largely public information to influencers.

    She has since faced scrutiny over the DOJ’s handling of the files after Congress passed a bill demanding their release. Other critics have pointed to the myriad legal difficulties her agency faced in prosecuting alleged wrongdoers involved in Russiagate and other supposed deep state operations.”

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  42. this is RIDICULOUS!

    2 11 year twin boys in Maryland caught breaking into cars to steal one (NOTE: these SAME 2 boys were caught in 2024 breaking into cars) were RELEASED to their mom because 10-13 can only to be charged in crimes of VIOLENCE.

    FTA

    The legislation, known as HB 459, passed in 2022, raised the age for charging juveniles with all but the most serious violent offenses to 13. The legislation was enacted into law without the signature of then-Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

    “10-to-13[-year-old children] can only be charged for crimes of violence, such as, you know, the different crimes of violence defined by the state of Maryland, murder, rape, that kind of thing,” Harford County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Keith Smithson told the DCNF. “Anybody over 13 can be charged for most stuff, and anybody under the age of 10 cannot be charged with any crime in the state of Maryland.”

    Despite the fact that the two had previously been caught breaking into cars in 2024, they would not have been charged had they been successful in stealing a vehicle, and charges might not be filed even if they injured or killed someone in an accident while driving a stolen car, Smithson told the DCNF.

    “You’d have to have the intent of the homicide there for it to be considered a crime of violence,” Smithson told the DCNF.

    https://dailycaller.com/2026/04/02/blue-state-allows-juvenille-suspects-breaking-into-cars-to-walk-free/

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    1. I’ve always believed that the parents should be charged when children under the age of 16 commit crimes – fine the SHIT out of them!!!!

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  43. “Pam Bondi’s Two Gigantic Failures Overshadowed Her Middle Management Skills or Fox News Appearances: From the moment she was announced as the nominee, I was cringing. Her firing is exactly what I expected, though it came sooner than I thought.”

    JD Rucker, Apr 02, 2026

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “There is a particular irony in Pam Bondi’s departure from the Justice Department that the political class seems determined not to discuss. She was confirmed as Attorney General last February with the explicit mandate to restore discipline, accountability, and purpose to a department that had spent four years operating as the enforcement arm of progressive political ambition.

    By every measure of institutional loyalty, she delivered. She fired officials connected to the prosecutions of Donald Trump. She gutted the Civil Rights Division’s most ideologically compromised corners. She bent the levers of the Justice Department toward the priorities of the administration and, on paper, seemed to be doing the job. And she was never shy about doing interviews, especially with friendly Fox News hosts. But in the end, she boarded a plane back to Florida without her job.

    She was good at middle manager tasks and loved to be on camera, but there were two major failures she couldn’t overcome.

    The first reason she’s gone is a bit complicated. She couldn’t get any high-profile indictments or arrests to stick. None of them. And even though she did a very poor job at executing, the justice system moves like molasses. President Trump and his team know this, so if that was the only thing not going for her she would have likely been given another few months, at least until the midterms. But the lack of arrests and convictions wasn’t the reason she was canned so early.

    The second, bigger reason she’s gone is not complicated at all, and it has nothing to do with the usual Washington parlor game of “palace intrigue.” Bondi was removed because she committed what is, in this administration, the cardinal sin: she managed a high-profile political liability with all the grace of a man trying to defuse a bomb with oven mitts.

    The Epstein files debacle — a slow-motion disaster of mismanagement, contradictory statements, and stagecraft that backfired spectacularly — illustrated that competence at institutional loyalty is not the same as competence at governance. And in the end, the president needed someone who could demonstrate both.

    The Epstein Problem Was Always Manageable

    Let us be clear-eyed about what happened with the Jeffrey Epstein files, because the media has done its level best to dress this up as something far more sinister than it was. Congress passed a law requiring the Justice Department to release its investigative files on the disgraced sex trafficker. That is a legitimate, bipartisan demand — one that emanated not from Democratic opponents of the administration, but from Trump’s own base and Republican members of Congress like Rep. Nancy Mace, who ultimately introduced the subpoena motion against Bondi herself.

    Bondi said in a February 2025 interview that an Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” only for the department to later assert that no such list existed. She has since explained that she was referring to the broader collection of Epstein-related paperwork, not a specific client list — but the damage was done. When you make a statement to a politically charged audience hungry for accountability, precision is not optional. She had stoked expectations she could not meet, and then tried to walk it back in a way that satisfied no one.

    After initially promising to release the files, she released a statement that poured cold water on the theories that had animated the MAGA base’s interest in the case, acknowledging that no such client list existed. The result was a situation in which the very people most inclined to defend the administration felt betrayed. When even your allies are subpoenaing you — as Mace did in March, with the House Oversight Committee voting 24-19 to compel Bondi’s deposition — you have lost the thread entirely.

    Even White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, one of Bondi’s strongest allies within the administration, acknowledged in remarks to Vanity Fair that Bondi had “completely whiffed” in her handling of the Epstein files. That is a remarkable statement from a chief of staff about a sitting Cabinet member she was actively defending. It tells you everything about the scope of the damage.

    The Deeper Problem: Justice Without Results

    The Epstein file mismanagement was the most visible failure, but it was not the only source of Trump’s frustration. Grand juries have rejected some of the administration’s efforts to charge Trump critics, including Letitia James and Democratic lawmakers, and judges have blocked other attempts by the administration to build legal cases as lacking evidence. The targets were real. The intent was genuine. But the execution kept falling short of indictments that could survive judicial scrutiny.

    This raises a question that goes beyond personnel and touches something more fundamental about the nature of the Justice Department’s current mission. If the goal is to pursue legitimate cases against people who may have genuinely abused their authority — and there is a serious argument that James, Jim Comey, Adam Schiff, and many others warranted serious legal scrutiny — then the failure to build airtight prosecutions is a failure of legal strategy and institutional discipline. If the goal is simply to demonstrate aggression toward political enemies as a political performance, then the problem is the goal itself, not the attorney general’s execution. Either way, the Department’s ledger showed far more activity than results.

    Bondi oversaw the firings of officials who worked on Trump’s criminal investigations and the January 6 cases, the gutting of the Civil Rights Division, and the targeting of the president’s critics. She also sat for a combative hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, during which she insulted Democrats on the panel and deflected on questions about Trump’s prosecution of his enemies. This is not the portrait of an attorney general who lacked loyalty. It is the portrait of an attorney general who lacked the institutional deftness to translate that loyalty into durable outcomes.

    The Zeldin Question

    The president is reportedly considering EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as Bondi’s replacement, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also in the mix. The choice of Zeldin is interesting precisely because it is unexpected. Zeldin is a lawyer by training — he became the youngest attorney in New York State in 2004 at age 23, and served 22 years in the military, including a deployment to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. He is a close Trump ally, having defended the president through both impeachments and every storm in between. And at the EPA, he has demonstrated that he can take command of a large federal agency and move quickly to reshape its mission. Alongside the president, Zeldin announced what he described as the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, while also pursuing operational savings at the agency adding up to roughly $30 billion.

    The left-leaning press has already begun working through the predictable objections — that Zeldin is a “climate denier,” that his background is too thin, that moving him from the EPA is somehow destabilizing. These objections are worth taking seriously, but only to a point. Zeldin is an attorney who has run a major federal agency with speed and discipline, who commands the loyalty of a president who prizes loyalty above all, and who has demonstrated a willingness to make politically difficult deregulatory decisions and defend them publicly. These are not nothing. What remains to be seen is whether he has the prosecutorial instincts and the institutional steadiness that the Justice Department specifically demands.

    The attorney generalship is unlike any other Cabinet position. It sits at the intersection of law, politics, public trust, and institutional legitimacy in a way that no other office does. The department that Bondi leaves behind has been significantly reshaped. It is leaner, more ideologically aligned with the administration, and stripped of many of the career bureaucrats who functioned as a permanent slow-walk on executive priorities. What it needs now is leadership that can convert that restructuring into actual legal wins — prosecutions that hold up, institutional decisions that survive judicial review, and communications that do not create new political liabilities in the process of managing old ones.

    What This Moment Demands

    There is a broader lesson here that the conservative movement would do well to absorb. Personnel is policy — that much is axiomatic by now. But personnel is also performance, and performance is not simply a matter of ideological alignment or personal loyalty. The attorney general of the United States is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. That role requires not just a willingness to fight, but a capacity to win within the constraints of a legal system that, for all its current dysfunction, remains bound by evidentiary standards, judicial scrutiny, and the procedural architecture of a constitutional republic.

    Strength without wisdom, in the context of law, produces exactly what the Bondi tenure ultimately produced: energy and motion that failed to yield durable results. The administration would do well to evaluate the next attorney general not merely on the basis of who will fight hardest, but on who will fight most effectively — and with the judgment to know the difference.

    Pam Bondi is not a villain in this story. She was a loyal public servant who took on a difficult assignment at a politically turbulent moment and made some costly mistakes in managing an inherited minefield. The president’s decision to move on is understandable and within his authority. What matters now is whether the person who follows her brings not just willingness but wisdom to an office that, more than any other in the executive branch, demands both.”

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    1. OK, I know – it’s not feasible any more – but it would just be soooo delicious if they would simply eliminate the CIA entirely!!!

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