Some time earlier, Cook had ordered his sailors to dismantle the wood platform of a local heiau and burial ground, with the intent to use it for repairs to his two ships, HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery.

He did so without ever once bothering to understand the significance of that heiau as a sacred site in native Hawaiian religion, as white men of stature and privilege were often wont to do at the time with indigenous cultures. In retaliation, Hawaiians then stole one of Resolution's two longboats several days later, and their attitudes made it obvious to the British that they were no longer welcome.

Cook then made the fateful and extraordinarily foolish decision to go ashore personally and take hostage the island's ruling ali'i nui, Kalaniopu'u, and hold him as ransom for the return of the longboat. And so on the morning of February 14, the earnest captain rowed to shore with a party of Royal Marines and made his way to the royal compound.

As Cook and his shore party returned to the beach with a captive Kalaniopu'u, who initially thought Cook was inviting him to the ship for a meal and parley, they were confronted by several thousand natives led by Kānekapōlei, first wife of Kalaniopu'u and the island's kuhina nui, who had watched Cook from her own compound and hurried to the shoreline ahead of the British.

As Kānekapōlei pleaded with her husband to stop, Kalaniopu'u suddenly realized that Cook was not his friend but instead a likely enemy, and he immediately sat down and refused to move. Kānekapōlei then stepped forward and demanded that Cook release her husband. The native crowd with her also moved toward Cook's party to support their kuhina nui, and did so with clear belligerence.

According to native Hawaiian accounts, when Cook responded by attempting to pull Kalaniopu'u to his feet, Kānekapōlei then inserted herself between him and her husband and ordered Cook to immediately leave with his men. Not being able to speak Hawaiian, Cook ignored her and further prodded her with the broad flat side of his sword as an inducement to move out of his way.

When Chief Kana'ina stepped up and started to protest the imperious manner in which Cook was treating the kuhina nui, Cook then turned around and struck him hard with his sword's broadside, not unlike how he might have struck an impudent subordinate, before turning his attention back toward Kalaniopu'u and Kānekapōlei.

Cook's brazen physical assault proved the breaking point for Kana'ina, who immediately hit the captain upside the head from behind with a war club and knocked the famed navigator to the ground, whereupon the native crowd furiously set upon the British shore party to protect their ali'i nui and kuhina nui.

According to Ensign William Bligh of HMS Resolution, who wrote about having witnessed the disaster unfold onshore through his spyglass, the shoreline skirmish was over in but a matter of moments. The shore party's survivors rowed back to the ships, while Hawaiians carried the bodies of Capt. Cook and the four Marines up the hill to the village, where they dismembered them ritually.

Although some British secondary accounts claim otherwise, it appears that their remains were never repatriated to the British, even upon request, for a proper burial at sea. One week later, HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery departed Kealakekua Bay emptyhanded, and now under the command of Capt. Charles Clerke of Discovery.

Regardless, when all is said and done, it was a rather ignominious end for the illustrious Captain Cook. While contemporary British accounts of the time lament his demise at the hands of "savages", one can only conclude from the actual historical record that Cook courted his own fate with his ignorance and highhanded behavior, and that it ultimately cost both him and four of his men their lives.

WH junk yard dog

How do you pronounce a Midwest supermarket's name

Neighbor drove me to get groceries because tomorrow more ice, around an inch they are saying, then Sunday 8-12 inches of snow.  It's 4 miles form our neighborhood to a road that isn't gravel, way scary in the mountains, but then once on the highway, they were clear of ice.

It's weird being trapped in, but I am stocked up with a good deal of booze.  Also it's suppose to get to 1 degree before windchill, I was in Houston last week, 79 degrees.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the Congress "will establish an outside, independent commission to review the `facts and causes' related to the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency," The Guardian reports.

Pelosi said the commission would be modeled on a similar one convened after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on Washington and New York.

I would love to get a couple of these on a T-shirt.

And as a noted funny, the photographer Sandro Miller list these on his curriculum vitae:

High point: "Being born."

Low points: "Cancer diagnosis, Trump being nominated for president, and the last four years."

Former President Donald Trump will appear on Sean Hannity's primetime Fox News show tonight, "just hours after breaking his media silence for the first time since leaving office," The Hill reports.

Trump will "discuss the life and legacy of radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh."

Trump is also scheduled to be interviewed on Newsmax tonight.

Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water; yes! But I'll be damned if I'm going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!" the mayor of Colorado City wrote.

He could not get up my driveway.  

The first set is states above 5%, the second is below 4%.  Everyone else is in the 4% arena.

Alaksa            8.5
W Virgina        7.9
New Mexico    6.7
North Dakota  6.4
Connecticut    6.2
S Dakota       5.9
Lousiana        5.5
Vermont         5.5
Colorado       5.4
Florida          5.4
Michigan       5.4
Oklahoma      5.2
Hawaii          5.0
Maine           5.0

Idaho           3.9
Iowa           3.9
Kansas         3.9
Pennsylvania 3.9
California      3.8
Georgia        3.8
Missouri       3.8
S Carolina    3.8
Utah           3.7
Arizona        3.6
Delaware     3.5
Illinois         3.5
Nevada      3.5
Alabama     3.2
DC             3.2

In April 2019, Mr. Hifter launched a blistering assault on the capital, Tripoli, but formidable obstacles stood in his way, including newly arrived troops from Turkey supporting the U.N.-backed government. So Mr. Hifter turned to Mr. Prince, the U.N. investigators found.

At a meeting with Mr. Hifter in Cairo, 10 days after the start of the campaign to seize Tripoli, Mr. Prince made his pitch for the $80 million mercenary operation, the UN inspectors revealed.

Four days later, Mr. Trump publicly endorsed Mr. Hifter, reversing American policy towards Libya and supporting the assault on Tripoli.