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Good Day!!
Autumn Portrait of Lydia Cassatt, by Mary Cassatt, 1880
Last night, Lawrence O’Donnell opened his show with a scathing rant on the results of the Republican crusade against legal abortion titled, “Women are dying. They got what they wanted.” He talked about the ProPublica article about Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in a Georgia hospital because doctors were afraid to give her the basic procedure (dilation and curettage or D&C) that would have saved her life. They then continued to withhold treatment until she died of sepsis. As a result, Thurman’s 6-year-old son has been left without a mother. O’Donnell then talked about what happened to his own mother when he was 6 years old. His mother had a miscarriage and was immediately given a D&C. This was before abortion was legal. O’Donnell choked up as he told this story. You can watch the video at MSNBC.
Today, Kavita Surana posted the story of the second Georgia woman known to have died because of the state’s anti-abortion laws: Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died.
Candi Miller’s health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.
“They said it was going to be more painful and her body may not be able to withstand it,” her sister, Turiya Tomlin-Randall, told ProPublica.
But when the mother of three realized she had unintentionally gotten pregnant in the fall of 2022, Georgia’s new abortion ban gave her no choice. Although it made exceptions for acute, life-threatening emergencies, it didn’t account for chronic conditions, even those known to present lethal risks later in pregnancy.
At 41, Miller had lupus, diabetes and hypertension and didn’t want to wait until the situation became dire. So she avoided doctors and navigated an abortion on her own — a path many health experts feared would increase risks when women in America lost the constitutional right to obtain legal, medically supervised abortions.
Miller ordered abortion pills online, but she did not expel all the fetal tissue and would need a dilation and curettage procedure to clear it from her uterus and stave off sepsis, a grave and painful infection. In many states, this care, known as a D&C, is routine for both abortions and miscarriages. In Georgia, performing it had recently been made a felony, with few exceptions.
Her teenage son watched her suffer for days after she took the pills, bedridden and moaning. In the early hours of Nov. 12, 2022, her husband found her unresponsive in bed, her 3-year-old daughter at her side.
An autopsy found unexpelled fetal tissue, confirming that the abortion had not fully completed. It also found a lethal combination of painkillers, including the dangerous opioid fentanyl. Miller had no history of drug use, the medical records state; her family has no idea how she obtained them or what was going through her mind — whether she was trying to quell the pain, complete the abortion or end her life. A medical examiner was unable to determine the manner of death.
Her family later told a coroner she hadn’t visited a doctor “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.”
The conclusion of experts:
When a state committee of experts in maternal health, including 10 doctors, reviewed her case this year at the end of August, they immediately decided it was “preventable” and blamed the state’s abortion ban, according to members who spoke to ProPublica on the condition of anonymity.
They came to that conclusion after weighing the entire chain of events, from Miller’s underlying health conditions, to her decision to manage her abortion alone, to her reticence to seek medical care. “The fact that she felt that she had to make these decisions, that she didn’t have adequate choices here in Georgia, we felt that definitely influenced her case,” one committee member told ProPublica. “She’s absolutely responding to this legislation.”
This is the second preventable death related to abortion bans that ProPublica is reporting this week. Amber Thurman, 28, languished in a suburban Atlanta hospital for 20 hours before doctors performed a D&C to treat sepsis that resulted from an incomplete abortion. It was too late. “This young mother should be alive, raising her son and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Vice President Kamala Harris said of Thurman on Tuesday. “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down.”
There are almost certainly other deaths related to abortion access. Georgia’s committee, tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, has only reviewed cases through fall 2022. Such a lag is common in these committees, which are set up in each state; most others have not even gotten that far.
Path in the garden of the asylum, Vincent Van Gogh
The situation women are dealing with now is far worse than what happened in the years before Roe. Old right-wing men without even basic knowledge of the female anatomy and medical procedures are making decisions that can condemn women to death and their families to the loss of a mother or daughter who becomes pregnant in a red state. Of course none of this could have happened without six monsters on the Supreme Court. As Lawrence O’Donnell said, “Women are dying. They got what they wanted.”
Here’s another horror story out of Georgia; this one is about election interference. Justin Glawe at The Guardian: Network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine 2024 result.
Emails obtained by the Guardian reveal a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials throughout Georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast, and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement.
The emails were obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) as a result of a public records request sent to David Hancock, an election denier and member of the Gwinnett county board of elections. Crew shared the emails with the Guardian.
Spanning a period beginning in January, the communications expose the inner workings of a group that includes some of the most ardent supporters of the former president Donald Trump’s election lies as well as ongoing efforts to portray the coming election as beset with fraud. Included in the communications are agendas for meetings and efforts to coordinate on policies and messaging as the swing state has once again become a focal point of the presidential campaign.
The communications include correspondence from a who’s who of Georgia election denialists, including officials with ties to prominent national groups such as the Tea Party Patriots and the Election Integrity Network, a group run by Cleta Mitchell, a former attorney who acted as an informal adviser to the Trump White House during its attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The group – which includes elections officials from at least five counties – calls itself the Georgia Election Integrity Coalition.
These emails go way back:
Among the oldest emails released are those regarding a 30 January article published by the United Tea Party of Georgia. Headlined “Georgia Democratic Party Threatens Georgia Election Officials”, the article was posted by an unnamed “admin” of the website, and came in response to letters sent to county election officials throughout Georgia who had recently refused to certify election results.
“In what can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate elections officials,” the article began, “the Georgia Democratic party sent a letter to individual county board of elections members threatening legal action unless they vote to certify upcoming elections – even if the board member has legitimate concerns about the results.”
The letter had been sent by a lawyer representing the Democratic party of Georgia to county election board members in Spalding, Cobb and DeKalb counties. Election board members in each of those counties had refused to certify the results of local elections the previous November. In their letter, Democrats sought to warn those officials that their duty to certify results was not discretionary in an attempt to prevent further certification refusals, including in the coming presidential election. In response, the United Tea Party of Georgia took issue with the letter, calling it “troubling” and saying that it was “Orwellian to demand that election officials certify an election even if they have unanswered questions about the vote”.
While the author of the article was not named on the United Tea Party of Georgia’s website, the emails obtained by Crew show that it was Hancock, an outspoken election denier and member of the Gwinnett county board of elections, who has become a leading voice in the push for more power to refuse to certify results.
There’s more at the link.
Autumn in Honfleu Cote de Grace, cir. 1906, byEmile-Othon Friesz
More efforts at election interference were reported by ABC News: Suspicious mail containing white powder was sent to election offices in at least 16 states.
The FBI and Postal Service are investigating suspicious mail containing a white powder substance that was sent to election offices in at least 16 states this week, according to an ABC News canvass of the country.
None of the mail has been deemed hazardous so far – and in one case, the substance was determined to be flour – but the scare prompted evacuations in some locations.
Election offices in New York, Tennessee, Wyoming, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Colorado received the suspicious packages. Similar suspicious mail was addressed to offices in additional states – Arizona, Georgia, Connecticut and Maryland among them – but investigators intercepted them before they reached their destination.
The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in a statement Tuesday that they were investigating letters containing white powdery substances. A law enforcement source said at this point none of the packages were believed to be hazardous.
“We are also working with our partners to determine how many letters were sent, the individual or individuals responsible for the letters, and the motive behind the letters,” the statement read.
At least some of the packages were signed by the “United States Traitor Elimination Army,” according to a copy of a letter sent to members of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center obtained by ABC News.
The Saga of Springfield goes on and on. The Wall Street Journal learned that before he began spreading rumors of dogs and cats being eaten, he was told by city officials that the stories were baseless. We know this from a story in The Wall Street Journal. It’s behind the paywall, so this is a summary from Raw Story: J.D. Vance shared pet-eating claims after being told ‘point blank’ they were lies: report.
A representative for J.D. Vance was told “point blank” that the Republican vice presidential nominee’s claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio were not true, but he continued to smear them anyway as bomb threats were called in to local schools and government offices.
The Republican senator posted about the rumors on X, where he’s got 1.9 million followers, and he did not delete the post even after one of his staffers called Springfield city manager Bryan Heck on the morning of Sept. 9 to ask whether Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating cats and dogs, as other social media users had alleged, reported the Wall Street Journal.“
He asked point-blank: ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” Heck told the newspaper. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” [….]
Vance has admitted the claims are false, but he continues to make dubious and debunked claims about Haitian immigrants in the state he represents in the U.S. Senate, such as his claim that communicable diseases have spiraled out of control in Springfield.“Information from the county health department, however, shows a decrease in infectious disease cases countywide, with 1,370 reported in 2023 — the lowest since 2015,” the Journal reported.
“The tuberculosis case numbers in the county are so low (four in 2023, three in 2022, one in 2021) that any little movement can bring a big percentage jump. HIV cases did increase to 31 in 2023, from 17 in 2022 and 12 in 2021. Overall, sexually transmitted infection cases decreased to 965 in 2023, the lowest since 2015.”
Another claim by Vance fell apart after a spokesperson provided the Journal reporter with a police report involving a woman who alleged that a Haitian immigrant may have taken her cat.“But when a reporter went to Anna Kilgore’s house Tuesday evening, she said her cat Miss Sassy, which went missing in late August, had actually returned a few days later — found safe in her own basement,” the newspaper reported. “Kilgore, wearing a Trump shirt and hat, said she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a mobile-phone translation app.”
The Autumn, by Alphonse Mucha, 1896
Trump says he wants to visit Springfield, but the mayor would prefer that he didn’t. NBC News: After false pet claims, Springfield mayor says Trump visit would be ‘an extreme strain’ on resources.
The Republican mayor of Springfield, Ohio, the city that has been the target of unfounded claims from former President Donald Trump and his running mate about Haitian immigrants’ eating residents’ pets said Tuesday that a visit from Trump would tax the city’s resources.
“It would be an extreme strain on our resources. So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit,” Mayor Rob Rue said at a news conference at City Hall.
NBC News reported Sunday that Trump planned to visit the city “soon,” according to a source familiar with his planning, after he amplified during the presidential debate a baseless claim that had circulated in right-wing spheres online for weeks, saying Haitian immigrants were “eating the dogs” and cats of local residents.
Officials in Springfield have said the allegations are meritless, with city police issuing a statement that said there were “no credible reports” of Haitian immigrants’ harming pets.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, had also “panned the claims as “garbage,” and he visited Springfield Tuesday as the city responds to dozens of bomb threats, deemed hoaxes that have led to temporary closings and evacuations of schools and city buildings.
DeWine said a campaign visit from a presidential candidate is “generally very, very welcomed,” but he acknowledged that it would pose challenges.
“I have to state the reality, though, that resources are really, really stretched here,” he said.
Trump and Vance should stay the hell out of Springfield, Ohio.
Trump is holding a rally on Long Island tonight–a strange use of campaign resources in a blue state this close to the election. Anyway, there’s been a “suspicious occurrence.” Newsweek: ‘Suspicious Occurrence’ Near Donald Trump New York Rally: What We Know. “
Nassau County police responded to a “suspicious occurrence” near the location of former President Donald Trump‘s Wednesday night rally in Long Island, noting that no explosives were located, the department confirmed to Newsweek.
“We did respond to a suspicious occurrence in the vicinity of the Nassau Coliseum, however there was no validity of an explosive device being found,” a public information officer told Newsweek after a report about an explosive device at the rally site circulated online.
“We’re unsure where this information originated, but we can confirm that no explosives were discovered.”
I suppose we’ll be dealing with these false alarms from now on.
More Republicans are backing Kamala Harris every day now. This is from The New York Times: 111 Former G.O.P. Officials Back Harris, Calling Trump ‘Unfit to Serve.’
More than 100 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday after concluding that their party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is “unfit to serve again as president.”
In a letter to the public, the Republicans, including both vocal longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, argued that while they might “disagree with Kamala Harris” on many issues, Mr. Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.” Those include, they said, “unusual affinity” for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.”
John Everett Millais, Autumn Leaves, 1855–1856
“As president,” the letter said, “he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.”
The letter condemned Mr. Trump’s incitement of the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aimed at allowing him to hold onto power after losing an election, saying that “he has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country.” It quoted Mr. Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, who has said that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”
The letter came not long after former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both said they would vote for Ms. Harris. Democrats featured a number of anti-Trump Republicans at their nominating convention last month, including former Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Mr. Pence has said he will not endorse Mr. Trump but has not endorsed Ms. Harris.
The 111 signatories included former officials who served under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush. Many of them had previously broken with Mr. Trump, including two former defense secretaries, Chuck Hagel and William S. Cohen; Robert B. Zoellick, a former president of the World Bank; the former C.I.A. directors Michael V. Hayden and William H. Webster; a former director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte; and former Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts. Miles Taylor and Olivia Troye, two Trump administration officials who became vocal critics, also signed.
But a number of Republicans who did not sign a similar letter on behalf of Mr. Biden in 2020 signed the one for Ms. Harris this time, including several former House members, like Charles W. Boustany Jr. of Louisiana, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dan Miller of Florida and Bill Paxon of New York.
I’ll end with this piece by conservative Stuart Rothenberg in Roll Call: So, you’re sure the presidential race will be close?
If there is one thing on which liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, journalists and political partisans all agree, it’s that the 2024 presidential race is too close to call.
Vice President Kamala Harris may have a slight advantage nationally and in a couple of competitive states, but polling in at least half a dozen swing states – including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin – shows that the presidential race between Harris and former president Donald Trump is separated by only a percentage point or two.
As the New York Times wrote on Sept. 8 and updated three days later, “The national results are in line with polls in the seven battleground states that will decide the presidential election, where Ms. Harris is tied with Mr. Trump or holds slim leads, according to New York Times polling averages. Taken together, they show a tight race that remains either candidate’s to win or lose.”
But if you are something of a gambler and everyone you know believes the 2024 presidential contest is and will remain extremely close, you probably should put a few dollars on the possibility that November will produce a clear and convincing win for Harris.
That assessment isn’t based on the most recent survey numbers but on the current dynamics of the race and the advantage of taking a contrarian position.
Harris has plenty of momentum going into the fall election. She has become a strong speaker at her rallies, and she should have a considerable financial advantage over the next couple of months.
Her coalition, which includes some high-profile Republicans and conservatives, stretches from former Vice President Dick Cheney and conservative intellectual Bill Kristol on the right to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left.
Harris clobbered Trump in their first (and possibly only) debate, and another debate would be extremely risky for Trump, who can’t afford another bad performance.
Harris wasn’t merely good on one or two topics during the debate. She successfully deflected Trump’s attacks and baited him so that he spent more time defending himself than defining his opponent. Harris was particularly effective on abortion/reproductive rights and foreign policy/national security.
The Democratic ticket is drawing huge crowds in the key states where Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are campaigning, and it’s quite possible that pollsters are underestimating the turnout that the Democrats will generate in the fall.
Read the whole thing at the link.
Have a nice Wednesday, everyone!!
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/09/18/wednesday-reads-69/
#abortion #AmberThurman #CandiMiller #DC #electionInterference #Georgia #JDVance #LawrenceODonnell #SpringfieldOhio
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From Detailedpedia: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Last updated at 2024-08-21
"Discharge to ocean, treated water
Advanced Liquid Processing System (2013–)
"To prevent the reactor meltdowns from worsening, a continuous supply of new water is necessary to cool the melted fuel debris. As of 2013, 400 metric tonnes of water was becoming radioactively contaminated each day. The contaminated water is pumped out and combined into the reactor-cooling loop, which includes strontium–cesium removal (KURION, SURRY) and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
"In October 2012, TEPCO introduced the "Advanced Liquid Processing System" (ALPS, Japanese: 多核種除去設備), which is designed to remove radionuclides other than tritium and carbon-14. ALPS works by first pre-processing the water by iron coprecipitation (removes alpha nuclides and organics) and carbonate coprecipitation (removes alkali earth metals including strontium elements). The water is then passed through 16 absorbent columns to remove nuclides.
"Wastewater is pumped to ALPS along with the concentrated saltwater from desalination. As some tritium still remains, even treated water would require dilution to meet drinkable standards. Although carbon-14 is not removed, the content in pre-treatment water is low enough to meet drinkable standards without dilution.
"Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the design of ALPS in March 2013. ALPS is to be run in three independent units and will be able to purify 250 tons of water per day. Unit "A" started operation in April. In June, unit A was found to be leaking water and shut down. In July, the cause was narrowed down to chloride and hypochlorite corrosion of water tanks; TEPCO responded by adding a rubber layer into the tanks. By August, all systems were shut down awaiting repair. One unit was expected to come online by September, with full recovery planned by the end of 2013.
"By September 2018, TEPCO reports that 20% of the water had been treated to the required level.
"By 2020, the daily buildup of contaminated water was reduced to 170 metric tonnes thanks to groundwater isolation installations. TEPCO reports that 72% of the water in its tanks, some from early trials of ALPS, needed to be #repurified. The portion of ready-to-discharge water raised to 34% by 2021, and to 35% by 2023.
"Some scientists expressed reservations due to potential #bioaccumulation of #ruthenium, #cobalt, #strontium, and #plutonium, which sometimes slip through the ALPS process and were present in 71% of the tanks.
[...]
"Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said regarding dilution that bringing in living creatures makes the situation more complex. Robert Richmond, a biologist from the University of Hawaiʻi, told the BBC that the inadequate #radiological and #ecological assessment raises the concern that #Japan would be unable to detect what enters the environment and 'get the genie back in the bottle'. Dalnoki-Veress, Richmond, and three other panelists consulting for the #PacificIslandsForum wrote that #dilution may fail to account for #bioaccumulation and exposure pathways that involve organically-bound tritium (#OBT)."
Read more [includes references]:
https://www.detailedpedia.com/wiki-Discharge_of_radioactive_water_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #TEPCOLies #FukushimaIsntOver #NoDumping #NuclearPowerPlants #PacificOcean #MarineLife
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From Detailedpedia: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Last updated at 2024-08-21
"Discharge to ocean, treated water
Advanced Liquid Processing System (2013–)
"To prevent the reactor meltdowns from worsening, a continuous supply of new water is necessary to cool the melted fuel debris. As of 2013, 400 metric tonnes of water was becoming radioactively contaminated each day. The contaminated water is pumped out and combined into the reactor-cooling loop, which includes strontium–cesium removal (KURION, SURRY) and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
"In October 2012, TEPCO introduced the "Advanced Liquid Processing System" (ALPS, Japanese: 多核種除去設備), which is designed to remove radionuclides other than tritium and carbon-14. ALPS works by first pre-processing the water by iron coprecipitation (removes alpha nuclides and organics) and carbonate coprecipitation (removes alkali earth metals including strontium elements). The water is then passed through 16 absorbent columns to remove nuclides.
"Wastewater is pumped to ALPS along with the concentrated saltwater from desalination. As some tritium still remains, even treated water would require dilution to meet drinkable standards. Although carbon-14 is not removed, the content in pre-treatment water is low enough to meet drinkable standards without dilution.
"Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the design of ALPS in March 2013. ALPS is to be run in three independent units and will be able to purify 250 tons of water per day. Unit "A" started operation in April. In June, unit A was found to be leaking water and shut down. In July, the cause was narrowed down to chloride and hypochlorite corrosion of water tanks; TEPCO responded by adding a rubber layer into the tanks. By August, all systems were shut down awaiting repair. One unit was expected to come online by September, with full recovery planned by the end of 2013.
"By September 2018, TEPCO reports that 20% of the water had been treated to the required level.
"By 2020, the daily buildup of contaminated water was reduced to 170 metric tonnes thanks to groundwater isolation installations. TEPCO reports that 72% of the water in its tanks, some from early trials of ALPS, needed to be #repurified. The portion of ready-to-discharge water raised to 34% by 2021, and to 35% by 2023.
"Some scientists expressed reservations due to potential #bioaccumulation of #ruthenium, #cobalt, #strontium, and #plutonium, which sometimes slip through the ALPS process and were present in 71% of the tanks.
[...]
"Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said regarding dilution that bringing in living creatures makes the situation more complex. Robert Richmond, a biologist from the University of Hawaiʻi, told the BBC that the inadequate #radiological and #ecological assessment raises the concern that #Japan would be unable to detect what enters the environment and 'get the genie back in the bottle'. Dalnoki-Veress, Richmond, and three other panelists consulting for the #PacificIslandsForum wrote that #dilution may fail to account for #bioaccumulation and exposure pathways that involve organically-bound tritium (#OBT)."
Read more [includes references]:
https://www.detailedpedia.com/wiki-Discharge_of_radioactive_water_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #TEPCOLies #FukushimaIsntOver #NoDumping #NuclearPowerPlants #PacificOcean #MarineLife
-
From Detailedpedia: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Last updated at 2024-08-21
"Discharge to ocean, treated water
Advanced Liquid Processing System (2013–)
"To prevent the reactor meltdowns from worsening, a continuous supply of new water is necessary to cool the melted fuel debris. As of 2013, 400 metric tonnes of water was becoming radioactively contaminated each day. The contaminated water is pumped out and combined into the reactor-cooling loop, which includes strontium–cesium removal (KURION, SURRY) and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
"In October 2012, TEPCO introduced the "Advanced Liquid Processing System" (ALPS, Japanese: 多核種除去設備), which is designed to remove radionuclides other than tritium and carbon-14. ALPS works by first pre-processing the water by iron coprecipitation (removes alpha nuclides and organics) and carbonate coprecipitation (removes alkali earth metals including strontium elements). The water is then passed through 16 absorbent columns to remove nuclides.
"Wastewater is pumped to ALPS along with the concentrated saltwater from desalination. As some tritium still remains, even treated water would require dilution to meet drinkable standards. Although carbon-14 is not removed, the content in pre-treatment water is low enough to meet drinkable standards without dilution.
"Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the design of ALPS in March 2013. ALPS is to be run in three independent units and will be able to purify 250 tons of water per day. Unit "A" started operation in April. In June, unit A was found to be leaking water and shut down. In July, the cause was narrowed down to chloride and hypochlorite corrosion of water tanks; TEPCO responded by adding a rubber layer into the tanks. By August, all systems were shut down awaiting repair. One unit was expected to come online by September, with full recovery planned by the end of 2013.
"By September 2018, TEPCO reports that 20% of the water had been treated to the required level.
"By 2020, the daily buildup of contaminated water was reduced to 170 metric tonnes thanks to groundwater isolation installations. TEPCO reports that 72% of the water in its tanks, some from early trials of ALPS, needed to be #repurified. The portion of ready-to-discharge water raised to 34% by 2021, and to 35% by 2023.
"Some scientists expressed reservations due to potential #bioaccumulation of #ruthenium, #cobalt, #strontium, and #plutonium, which sometimes slip through the ALPS process and were present in 71% of the tanks.
[...]
"Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said regarding dilution that bringing in living creatures makes the situation more complex. Robert Richmond, a biologist from the University of Hawaiʻi, told the BBC that the inadequate #radiological and #ecological assessment raises the concern that #Japan would be unable to detect what enters the environment and 'get the genie back in the bottle'. Dalnoki-Veress, Richmond, and three other panelists consulting for the #PacificIslandsForum wrote that #dilution may fail to account for #bioaccumulation and exposure pathways that involve organically-bound tritium (#OBT)."
Read more [includes references]:
https://www.detailedpedia.com/wiki-Discharge_of_radioactive_water_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #TEPCOLies #FukushimaIsntOver #NoDumping #NuclearPowerPlants #PacificOcean #MarineLife
-
From Detailedpedia: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Last updated at 2024-08-21
"Discharge to ocean, treated water
Advanced Liquid Processing System (2013–)
"To prevent the reactor meltdowns from worsening, a continuous supply of new water is necessary to cool the melted fuel debris. As of 2013, 400 metric tonnes of water was becoming radioactively contaminated each day. The contaminated water is pumped out and combined into the reactor-cooling loop, which includes strontium–cesium removal (KURION, SURRY) and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
"In October 2012, TEPCO introduced the "Advanced Liquid Processing System" (ALPS, Japanese: 多核種除去設備), which is designed to remove radionuclides other than tritium and carbon-14. ALPS works by first pre-processing the water by iron coprecipitation (removes alpha nuclides and organics) and carbonate coprecipitation (removes alkali earth metals including strontium elements). The water is then passed through 16 absorbent columns to remove nuclides.
"Wastewater is pumped to ALPS along with the concentrated saltwater from desalination. As some tritium still remains, even treated water would require dilution to meet drinkable standards. Although carbon-14 is not removed, the content in pre-treatment water is low enough to meet drinkable standards without dilution.
"Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the design of ALPS in March 2013. ALPS is to be run in three independent units and will be able to purify 250 tons of water per day. Unit "A" started operation in April. In June, unit A was found to be leaking water and shut down. In July, the cause was narrowed down to chloride and hypochlorite corrosion of water tanks; TEPCO responded by adding a rubber layer into the tanks. By August, all systems were shut down awaiting repair. One unit was expected to come online by September, with full recovery planned by the end of 2013.
"By September 2018, TEPCO reports that 20% of the water had been treated to the required level.
"By 2020, the daily buildup of contaminated water was reduced to 170 metric tonnes thanks to groundwater isolation installations. TEPCO reports that 72% of the water in its tanks, some from early trials of ALPS, needed to be #repurified. The portion of ready-to-discharge water raised to 34% by 2021, and to 35% by 2023.
"Some scientists expressed reservations due to potential #bioaccumulation of #ruthenium, #cobalt, #strontium, and #plutonium, which sometimes slip through the ALPS process and were present in 71% of the tanks.
[...]
"Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said regarding dilution that bringing in living creatures makes the situation more complex. Robert Richmond, a biologist from the University of Hawaiʻi, told the BBC that the inadequate #radiological and #ecological assessment raises the concern that #Japan would be unable to detect what enters the environment and 'get the genie back in the bottle'. Dalnoki-Veress, Richmond, and three other panelists consulting for the #PacificIslandsForum wrote that #dilution may fail to account for #bioaccumulation and exposure pathways that involve organically-bound tritium (#OBT)."
Read more [includes references]:
https://www.detailedpedia.com/wiki-Discharge_of_radioactive_water_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #TEPCOLies #FukushimaIsntOver #NoDumping #NuclearPowerPlants #PacificOcean #MarineLife
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From Detailedpedia: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Last updated at 2024-08-21
"Discharge to ocean, treated water
Advanced Liquid Processing System (2013–)
"To prevent the reactor meltdowns from worsening, a continuous supply of new water is necessary to cool the melted fuel debris. As of 2013, 400 metric tonnes of water was becoming radioactively contaminated each day. The contaminated water is pumped out and combined into the reactor-cooling loop, which includes strontium–cesium removal (KURION, SURRY) and reverse osmosis desalination processes.
"In October 2012, TEPCO introduced the "Advanced Liquid Processing System" (ALPS, Japanese: 多核種除去設備), which is designed to remove radionuclides other than tritium and carbon-14. ALPS works by first pre-processing the water by iron coprecipitation (removes alpha nuclides and organics) and carbonate coprecipitation (removes alkali earth metals including strontium elements). The water is then passed through 16 absorbent columns to remove nuclides.
"Wastewater is pumped to ALPS along with the concentrated saltwater from desalination. As some tritium still remains, even treated water would require dilution to meet drinkable standards. Although carbon-14 is not removed, the content in pre-treatment water is low enough to meet drinkable standards without dilution.
"Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the design of ALPS in March 2013. ALPS is to be run in three independent units and will be able to purify 250 tons of water per day. Unit "A" started operation in April. In June, unit A was found to be leaking water and shut down. In July, the cause was narrowed down to chloride and hypochlorite corrosion of water tanks; TEPCO responded by adding a rubber layer into the tanks. By August, all systems were shut down awaiting repair. One unit was expected to come online by September, with full recovery planned by the end of 2013.
"By September 2018, TEPCO reports that 20% of the water had been treated to the required level.
"By 2020, the daily buildup of contaminated water was reduced to 170 metric tonnes thanks to groundwater isolation installations. TEPCO reports that 72% of the water in its tanks, some from early trials of ALPS, needed to be #repurified. The portion of ready-to-discharge water raised to 34% by 2021, and to 35% by 2023.
"Some scientists expressed reservations due to potential #bioaccumulation of #ruthenium, #cobalt, #strontium, and #plutonium, which sometimes slip through the ALPS process and were present in 71% of the tanks.
[...]
"Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said regarding dilution that bringing in living creatures makes the situation more complex. Robert Richmond, a biologist from the University of Hawaiʻi, told the BBC that the inadequate #radiological and #ecological assessment raises the concern that #Japan would be unable to detect what enters the environment and 'get the genie back in the bottle'. Dalnoki-Veress, Richmond, and three other panelists consulting for the #PacificIslandsForum wrote that #dilution may fail to account for #bioaccumulation and exposure pathways that involve organically-bound tritium (#OBT)."
Read more [includes references]:
https://www.detailedpedia.com/wiki-Discharge_of_radioactive_water_of_the_Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#NoNukes #WaterIsLife #OceansAreLife #TEPCOLies #FukushimaIsntOver #NoDumping #NuclearPowerPlants #PacificOcean #MarineLife
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Timothy Mellon,
a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, has reached the stratosphere of American political influence as
the top supporter of Donald J. Trump, doling out millions to try to elect the former president and his allies.To his neighbors in a Rhode Island beachfront enclave, he is better known as the prime suspect in the Narragansett Runestone Affair.
A hulking boulder once positioned just offshore in Narragansett Bay, the runestone bears inscriptions that some believe were left by Viking explorers. It was the stuff of local lore and attracted visitors at low tide
— to the consternation of Mr. Mellon, the pedigreed businessman whose home looked out on the rock.And then one day it was gone.
A criminal investigation yielded a witness who had heard sounds of heavy machinery at night.
Mr. Mellon refused to talk and hired a former state attorney general as his lawyer.Nearly a year later, the matter was resolved quietly:
Mr. Mellon agreed to return the stone, and prosecutors agreed not to bring charges.
The episode was a rare glimpse into the private life and the public dealings of Mr. Mellon, 81, a reclusive heir and railroad magnate who has recently turned himself into a political force.
He has surprised even political insiders with the size of his contributions this year,
throwing♦️ $75 million behind Mr. Trump’s attempt to return to the White House
and an additional ♦️$25 million toward Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential run,
making him both candidates’ single largest benefactor.All told, he has given♦️ $227 million in contributions to federal candidates and political committees since 2020,
nearly all to Republicans
— a sum that puts him in the top echelon of the party’s donors,
alongside far better-known megadonors like Miriam #Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, who died in 2021, and Liz and Dick #Uihlein.Yet for all his financial influence, Mr. Mellon and his interests
— and what exactly is motivating his largess — have remained largely a mystery.Interviews with his associates, along with a review of court documents and other public records, reveal
an ideologically driven conservative with a combative streak.Mr. Mellon spent most of his life leveraging his family fortune to create his own.
His freight railroad, a regional line that 🔸repeatedly ran afoul of worker and environmental protections,🔸 was recently sold for $600 million.Over time, Mr. Mellon’s politics shifted far to the right.
In the 1970s, his charitable giving supported feminist and ecological causes and Native Americans.By 2014, he was posting comments in an online chat room
🔹comparing climate-change scientists to ISIS 🔹and worrying that terrorists could attack America using “donkeys coming over our Southern border.”
Most recently, he became a significant donor to Mr. Kennedy’s 🔹anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense.
In an interview, Mr. Kennedy said Mr. Mellon’s contribution had come during the height of the Covid pandemic and appeared to be motivated by a shared concern over government lockdowns and🔹 “suppressing constitutional rights.”Mr. Kennedy, who said he had met Mr. Mellon only twice, described him as “intensely curious, skeptical towards orthodoxies and passionate about personal freedoms.”
(He added that Mr. Mellon takes long cross-country drives alone “to talk to ordinary Americans” and has a fascination with Scandinavia.)Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Mellon rarely engages with the news media and did not respond to interview requests.
Even some of the candidates who accept his checks have little contact with him.The most detailed accounting of his life comes largely from two sources:
an autobiography Mr. Mellon first published in 2014 and the paper trail he has left in court.He has frequently become mired in disputes, some of them oddly small-bore and some just odd.
In May — the same month he made a $50 million donation to support Mr. Trump — he filed a lawsuit against a family-owned car dealership in Connecticut, complaining that he had spent $7,300 on a failed engine replacement for a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Years ago, he sued a group of explorers he had helped finance,
claiming they had deliberately overlooked the wreckage of #Amelia #Earhart’s long-lost plane so they could keep raising money for their expeditions.Mr. Mellon was convinced he had seen Earhart’s head on the seafloor in a cellophane bag.
He lost the case, appealed, and lost again.
Testifying in a 2014 civil case, he estimated he had undergone depositions “15 to 20” times in his life and could not recall how many lawsuits he was involved in.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-2024-campaign-timothy-mellon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare -
AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Sunnata – Chasing Shadows
By Dolphin Whisperer
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.”
Does Poland evoke the heated and stinging breeze of the open desert to a lost mind? No? Sunnata likes to think otherwise, or at least it’s their life’s mission to expand on the ideas of exotic scales, eerie harmonization, and chanting repetitiveness to match the power of shifting sands in their homeland. Back in 2021, our very own Cherd had a tough time coming to terms with what these Eastern bloc mystics conjured on Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth. But now a few years wiser, ever iterating,1 and pursuant of their own self-produced visions, can Sunnata sway both our grumpy grandpa Cherd and his crack rodeo crew with Chasing Shadows? – Dolphin Whisperer
Sunnata // Chasing Shadows [May 10th, 2024]
Cherd: I wasn’t terribly keen on Sunnata’s 2021 record Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth, so I passed on reviewing their follow-up when it landed in the promo sump. Then Dolph decided to go and write a whole damn Rodeö about Chasing Shadows, so I figured I’d better give my two cents after all. Chasing Shadows is a definite step up, thanks to the heavy dose of 90s grunge these Poles have injected into their psych/stoner doom. I’m sure you’ll be sick of reading the name Alice In Chains by the end of this article, but good god do the vocal harmonies call them to mind. The strongest tracks, like “Torn” and “Saviour’s Raft” rely heavily on these. Meanwhile, when the band leans into their “exotic” side—vaguely Middle Eastern motifs—as they do on “Wishbone” and “The Tide,” the songs drag. There’s fat to trim across the album’s 60+ minutes, especially the throwaway closing quasi-dance track. That said, the eight-minute “Hunger” earns its entire runtime with a hypnotic tempo and the record’s best build up. There’s a lot to like in Chasing Shadows, even if there is some bloat. 3.0/5.0
Maddog: Sunnata’s Chasing Shadows is an hour of shameless psychedelia. Take Dvne riffs, add a pinch of Mayhem in Blue-era Hail Spirit Noir, and pour a bucket of fuzzy stoned melodies on top, and you get the gist. This recipe is a blessing and a curse. Chasing Shadows’ most well-formed pieces hit hard. When Sunnata focuses on developing melodies, they hold me transfixed, like on album highlight “Torn.” When Sunnata focuses on buildups, they whisk me out of the world and onto a dramatic ride (“Chimera”). When Sunnata focuses on rhythmic sections that hypnotize the listener, they conjure a beautiful soundscape, like the primordial chorus of “Hunger.” When Sunnata focuses on rock-solid bass lines, they add power and depth to their atmosphere (“Adrift”). But sometimes, Sunnata focuses on nothing. Even the strongest cuts overstay their welcome with meandering fuzz. As the album progresses, some full tracks get swallowed by tedium, and the moaned vocals become grating; neither undivided attention nor psilocybin can save songs like “The Sleeper” from fading into the background.2—Still, Sunnata has a talent for writing sludgy psychedelic passages that stand out from their peers. If they can trim some low-hanging fat and focus on their strengths, their next record could be a gem. 2.5/5.0
Dolphin Whisperer: Chasing Shadows seems to know exactly what it is—a dry, desert-wandering, bass-heavy affair that leans into psychedelia via shifting repetitions. And Sunnata seem to have figured out exactly how they want to explore this meditation—heavy and dark Alice in Chains vocal melodies, twangy stoner guitar refrains, and song drives that creep ever faster into their snaking swirl. Though, throughout this dusty adventure, guitar passages resemble less of the easy-to-digest percussive draws of a band like Kyuss and more of the modal and trilling explorations of similar sounds that you’d hear in an occult act like Sabbath Assembly. (“Chimera,” “Wishbone”). And on longer cuts, at least before Sunnata achieves maximum throttle, doom inflections, fat bass rumbling, and laser-pointing drone that bubbles and bakes and broils the experimental madhouse of Obake. But most importantly, as a fever dream like this sound, Chasing Shadows maintains a warping yet consistent tonality that slowly and sneakily lures as the rattle of a hissing pit viper to a lost and dazed traveler. It does, however, require a hefty dose of patience and practice to maintain a footing the whole way through its hour-long trial, its various interludes and strange darkwave closing adding little. To curious ears, though, Chasing Shadows will be an easy listen, despite its limited bag of tricks and hefty presence, and those who buy in fully to its tonal landscape may find even more rewards. 3.0/5.0
Itchymenace: Chasing Shadows reminds me of the Albert Camus story, The Adulterous Woman. In fact, the cover art seems plucked directly from the final scene in which the protagonist runs out into the Algerian desert a changed woman after realizing life with her husband will never fulfill her. The music provides the perfect soundtrack for the existential metamorphosis she goes through, or that anyone might go through when they peel back the delicate layers of life and search for deeper meaning. I did not expect to like this as much as I do, but Sunnata has created a masterpiece. This album drags you across a jagged desert landscape and drenches you in rich, dreamlike musical passages that leave you questioning your very existence. The music is complex, varied, heavy and meditative. The arrangements are deceptively simple to make the journey seem easy—until you realize you’re not in Kansas anymore. Especially noteworthy is how the bass guitar drives the compositions. Bassist Michal Dobrzanski’s tone is massive but somehow leaves plenty of room in the soundscape for Szymon Ewertowski and Adrian Gadomski’s intricate guitars and vocals. Drummer Robert Ruszczyk keeps a ritualistic tempo that seamlessly moves the caravan forward through the heart of darkness. If I were to try to describe this to a metalhead, I’d say imagine Alice in Chains trying to play Gorguts by way of Earth. Brilliant! Original! Frightening! And a new experience with every listen. 4.5/5.03
Mystikus Hugebeard: True to Sunnata’s desert prog premise, Chasing Shadows is a mirage: captivating, frustrating, and an incomplete vision of something spectacular. At sixty-two minutes long, the length will likely prove to be as controversial as it is intentional; repetition is key to Sunnata’s songwriting, as it weaves a surreal soundscape through thick, drawn-out riffs. Sometimes, it’s entrancing. Other times, I’m just bored. The more evolutionary tracks are where Chasing Shadows come to life. The off-key vocal layers and thick, fuzzy guitars are in “Chimera” and “Saviour’s Raft” take their time to progress into explosive riffs that feel earned by the buildup. Even a less progressive track like “Torn” works just by nature of how palpable the desert atmosphere is, with the chugging bass, elusive guitar lines, and hallucinatory vocals hypnotizing the listener. “Hunger” and “The Sleeper” also have a satisfying chug to them but feel emptier, with resolutions that are satisfying in the moment but still less memorable than those from earlier tracks. The worst offenders, “Wishbone” and “The Tide,” are almost completely aimless and are fully devoid of the strong atmospheric qualities that makes the rest work. The emulation of an endless trek through an endless desert is uncanny, and the aimlessness can work when paired with hypnotic songwriting like in “Torn,” but overall the lack of a meaningful destination or payoff within the already less engaging tracks only gets worse as the album drags on, and it slowly begins to drown out the parts that work well. I really love the thematic intent behind Chasing Shadows, which only makes the final result all the more frustrating that it falls short of being a truly great desert odyssey. 2.5/5.0
#2024 #AliceInChains #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo2024 #ChasingShadows #DoomMetal #Dvne #Earth #HailSpiritNoir #IndependentRelease #Kyuss #Obake #OccultRock #PolishMetal #PostMetal #PsychedelicDoomMetal #PsychedelicRock #SabbathAssembly #SelfRelease #StonerRock #Sunnata
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AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Sunnata – Chasing Shadows
By Dolphin Whisperer
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.”
Does Poland evoke the heated and stinging breeze of the open desert to a lost mind? No? Sunnata likes to think otherwise, or at least it’s their life’s mission to expand on the ideas of exotic scales, eerie harmonization, and chanting repetitiveness to match the power of shifting sands in their homeland. Back in 2021, our very own Cherd had a tough time coming to terms with what these Eastern bloc mystics conjured on Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth. But now a few years wiser, ever iterating,1 and pursuant of their own self-produced visions, can Sunnata sway both our grumpy grandpa Cherd and his crack rodeo crew with Chasing Shadows? – Dolphin Whisperer
Sunnata // Chasing Shadows [May 10th, 2024]
Cherd: I wasn’t terribly keen on Sunnata’s 2021 record Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth, so I passed on reviewing their follow-up when it landed in the promo sump. Then Dolph decided to go and write a whole damn Rodeö about Chasing Shadows, so I figured I’d better give my two cents after all. Chasing Shadows is a definite step up, thanks to the heavy dose of 90s grunge these Poles have injected into their psych/stoner doom. I’m sure you’ll be sick of reading the name Alice In Chains by the end of this article, but good god do the vocal harmonies call them to mind. The strongest tracks, like “Torn” and “Saviour’s Raft” rely heavily on these. Meanwhile, when the band leans into their “exotic” side—vaguely Middle Eastern motifs—as they do on “Wishbone” and “The Tide,” the songs drag. There’s fat to trim across the album’s 60+ minutes, especially the throwaway closing quasi-dance track. That said, the eight-minute “Hunger” earns its entire runtime with a hypnotic tempo and the record’s best build up. There’s a lot to like in Chasing Shadows, even if there is some bloat. 3.0/5.0
Maddog: Sunnata’s Chasing Shadows is an hour of shameless psychedelia. Take Dvne riffs, add a pinch of Mayhem in Blue-era Hail Spirit Noir, and pour a bucket of fuzzy stoned melodies on top, and you get the gist. This recipe is a blessing and a curse. Chasing Shadows’ most well-formed pieces hit hard. When Sunnata focuses on developing melodies, they hold me transfixed, like on album highlight “Torn.” When Sunnata focuses on buildups, they whisk me out of the world and onto a dramatic ride (“Chimera”). When Sunnata focuses on rhythmic sections that hypnotize the listener, they conjure a beautiful soundscape, like the primordial chorus of “Hunger.” When Sunnata focuses on rock-solid bass lines, they add power and depth to their atmosphere (“Adrift”). But sometimes, Sunnata focuses on nothing. Even the strongest cuts overstay their welcome with meandering fuzz. As the album progresses, some full tracks get swallowed by tedium, and the moaned vocals become grating; neither undivided attention nor psilocybin can save songs like “The Sleeper” from fading into the background.2—Still, Sunnata has a talent for writing sludgy psychedelic passages that stand out from their peers. If they can trim some low-hanging fat and focus on their strengths, their next record could be a gem. 2.5/5.0
Dolphin Whisperer: Chasing Shadows seems to know exactly what it is—a dry, desert-wandering, bass-heavy affair that leans into psychedelia via shifting repetitions. And Sunnata seem to have figured out exactly how they want to explore this meditation—heavy and dark Alice in Chains vocal melodies, twangy stoner guitar refrains, and song drives that creep ever faster into their snaking swirl. Though, throughout this dusty adventure, guitar passages resemble less of the easy-to-digest percussive draws of a band like Kyuss and more of the modal and trilling explorations of similar sounds that you’d hear in an occult act like Sabbath Assembly. (“Chimera,” “Wishbone”). And on longer cuts, at least before Sunnata achieves maximum throttle, doom inflections, fat bass rumbling, and laser-pointing drone that bubbles and bakes and broils the experimental madhouse of Obake. But most importantly, as a fever dream like this sound, Chasing Shadows maintains a warping yet consistent tonality that slowly and sneakily lures as the rattle of a hissing pit viper to a lost and dazed traveler. It does, however, require a hefty dose of patience and practice to maintain a footing the whole way through its hour-long trial, its various interludes and strange darkwave closing adding little. To curious ears, though, Chasing Shadows will be an easy listen, despite its limited bag of tricks and hefty presence, and those who buy in fully to its tonal landscape may find even more rewards. 3.0/5.0
Itchymenace: Chasing Shadows reminds me of the Albert Camus story, The Adulterous Woman. In fact, the cover art seems plucked directly from the final scene in which the protagonist runs out into the Algerian desert a changed woman after realizing life with her husband will never fulfill her. The music provides the perfect soundtrack for the existential metamorphosis she goes through, or that anyone might go through when they peel back the delicate layers of life and search for deeper meaning. I did not expect to like this as much as I do, but Sunnata has created a masterpiece. This album drags you across a jagged desert landscape and drenches you in rich, dreamlike musical passages that leave you questioning your very existence. The music is complex, varied, heavy and meditative. The arrangements are deceptively simple to make the journey seem easy—until you realize you’re not in Kansas anymore. Especially noteworthy is how the bass guitar drives the compositions. Bassist Michal Dobrzanski’s tone is massive but somehow leaves plenty of room in the soundscape for Szymon Ewertowski and Adrian Gadomski’s intricate guitars and vocals. Drummer Robert Ruszczyk keeps a ritualistic tempo that seamlessly moves the caravan forward through the heart of darkness. If I were to try to describe this to a metalhead, I’d say imagine Alice in Chains trying to play Gorguts by way of Earth. Brilliant! Original! Frightening! And a new experience with every listen. 4.5/5.03
Mystikus Hugebeard: True to Sunnata’s desert prog premise, Chasing Shadows is a mirage: captivating, frustrating, and an incomplete vision of something spectacular. At sixty-two minutes long, the length will likely prove to be as controversial as it is intentional; repetition is key to Sunnata’s songwriting, as it weaves a surreal soundscape through thick, drawn-out riffs. Sometimes, it’s entrancing. Other times, I’m just bored. The more evolutionary tracks are where Chasing Shadows come to life. The off-key vocal layers and thick, fuzzy guitars are in “Chimera” and “Saviour’s Raft” take their time to progress into explosive riffs that feel earned by the buildup. Even a less progressive track like “Torn” works just by nature of how palpable the desert atmosphere is, with the chugging bass, elusive guitar lines, and hallucinatory vocals hypnotizing the listener. “Hunger” and “The Sleeper” also have a satisfying chug to them but feel emptier, with resolutions that are satisfying in the moment but still less memorable than those from earlier tracks. The worst offenders, “Wishbone” and “The Tide,” are almost completely aimless and are fully devoid of the strong atmospheric qualities that makes the rest work. The emulation of an endless trek through an endless desert is uncanny, and the aimlessness can work when paired with hypnotic songwriting like in “Torn,” but overall the lack of a meaningful destination or payoff within the already less engaging tracks only gets worse as the album drags on, and it slowly begins to drown out the parts that work well. I really love the thematic intent behind Chasing Shadows, which only makes the final result all the more frustrating that it falls short of being a truly great desert odyssey. 2.5/5.0
#2024 #AliceInChains #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo2024 #ChasingShadows #DoomMetal #Dvne #Earth #HailSpiritNoir #IndependentRelease #Kyuss #Obake #OccultRock #PolishMetal #PostMetal #PsychedelicDoomMetal #PsychedelicRock #SabbathAssembly #SelfRelease #StonerRock #Sunnata
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It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
===
From the article:For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
-
It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
===
From the article:For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
-
It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
===
From the article:For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
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It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
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From the article:For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
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It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
===
From the article:For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
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This drone photo of the vent area in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows the building in the upper left-hand corner where the shooter’s body was found.
Dear Sky Dancers, this is not a good day for our Republic.
Judge Cannon used this moment to distract the press from what I believe might be a staged coup attempt by Donald on Donald. He golfed right after the shooting and had no bandages or marks to be seen. I have reached this theory of the case after spending a day and a half asking questions and reviewing materials with JJ, BB, and a friend of my friend PB from the late Fire Dog Lake site. The press is characterizing people like us as BlueAnon conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I just have questions about things. I’m up to being proved wrong. I’m just someone who has watched decades of Law and Order and Criminal Minds, and I’m also smarter than your average bear.
The Cannon decision was based on the bone she was thrown by corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the shocking presidential immunity case. Human Rights Lawyer Qasim Rashid had this to say today on @Threads.
Understand what Judge Cannon did. She saw the non-stop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling’s favor, & dismissed Trump’s classified documents case. This is how republics collapse.
To be sure, Cannon’s absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever.But Cannon’s indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump’s trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along. And the DOJ delayed & delayed & that helped Trump get away with this. Smh.
Judge Aileen Cannon and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/USDC for the Southern District of Florida)
This is from Eric Tucker at the AP. “Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment.”
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which can be appealed and may later be overturned by a higher court, brings at least, for now, a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.
…
It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. Though he was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, the sentencing there has been postponed following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will result in significant delays in a separate case brought by Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed by prosecutors in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and a special prosecutor.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging and found this article from Salon on May 7. “Judge Cannon’s secret right-wing getaway: Why didn’t we know about this? Federal judge in Trump’s documents trial didn’t tell us about those right-wing conferences at a Montana resort.” It’s reported by columnist Lucian Truscott IV.
Let me ask you a question: How many all-expenses-paid vacations at luxury hunting and fishing lodges have you enjoyed over the last few years? I’m not talking about a motel in the boonies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or a drafty log cabin on a lake in Maine or Minnesota. We’re talking about a luxury resort on 1,200 acres alongside the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park. We’re talking about a lodge featuring rooms with stone fireplaces that go for upwards of $1,000 a night in high season, meals that include “house-cured meats from local ranches, garden-fresh produce from nearby farms, and, of course plenty of Northwest craft beers and spirits,” as the resort’s website describes the offerings.
It’s called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long “colloquium” every year or so. Paid for by the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, the “colloquium” held at the Sage Lodge in 2021, for example, featured lectures on such subjects as “Woke Law!” – and yes, the exclamation point is part of the lecture topic — by one Todd J. Zywicki, who is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and a senior fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives of the Cato Institute. Another juicy topic covered at the Sage Lodge in 2021 was “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State,” also featuring a lecture by Zywicki, a topic that rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year.
The Antonin Scalia Law School, by the way, was established and largely funded by the efforts of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who helped put together $30 million from conservative donors, including Leo himself, to rename the law school after the late legendary right-wing justice, who it will be remembered died of a heart attack in 2016 at another luxury hunting lodge, that one in Texas, while on a trip paid for by wealthy conservative “friends of the court,” I guess we could call them. The other major donor to the Scalia Law School was the Charles Koch Foundation, which threw in a handy $10 million.
Why are we talking about luxury hunting lodges and right-wing “colloquiums” for judges? Because one of our favorite federal judges, Aileen Cannon of Florida, currently presiding over the case against Donald Trump over the secret documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was a guest at that same 2021 “colloquium” at the Sage Lodge, and the one held in 2022 as well. The thing is, Cannon failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed. The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar. Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck.
So why do we suppose Judge Cannon was so shy about who’s paying for her luxury trips and what she might have learned there? Oh, I don’t know … might it be because she didn’t want anyone to know about her links to the Leonard Leo wing of legal theory? Could it have been that she didn’t want it known that she had taken money from an organization that was in large part funded by billionaires friendly to the man whose case she was presiding over?
All these corrupt Republican Judges seem to lead right back to Leonard Leo, don’t they? Something is very rotten here. Marcie of Empty Wheel reads the 93 pages, so we don’t need to.
Procedurally, this may actually not help Trump in the way he’d like (because DOJ has the option of appealing it or having a US Attorney charge Trump).
But it’s also hilarious, since Aileen Cannon has been treating herself like an Appellate Judge that she hasn’t been confirmed to be.
Update: One thing Cannon appears upset about is Merrick Garland’s invocation of Section 533, which appoints FBI-like figures.
Special Counsel Smith argues that Section 533(1) confers on the Attorney General the authority to appoint special counsels, specifically, constitutional officers wielding the “full power and independent authority . . . of any United States Attorney.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6. After careful review, the Court is convinced that it does not. Congress “does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes.” Whitman v. Am. Trucking Associations, 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). Special Counsel Smith’s interpretation would shoehorn appointment authority for United States Attorney-equivalents into a statute that permits the hiring of FBI law enforcement personnel. Such a reading is unsupported by Section 533’s plain language and statutory context; inconsistent with Congress’s usual legislative practice; and threatens to undermine the “basic separation-of-powers principles” that “give life and content” to the Appointments Clause. Morrison, 487 U.S. at 715 (Scalia, J., dissenting). The Court explains below.
33 Order No. 5730-2023 (appointing David C. Weiss); Order No. 5588-2023 (appointing Robert K. Hur).
That is her only mention of Robert Hur, whose appointment would be unconstitutional under her theory as well. (I’m still trying to figure out whether Cannon will help Hunter Biden go free, too.)
Update: Okay, I’ve read the thing.
It’s hilarious.
It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t create any delay that Cannon was not pursuing anyway. Indeed, Jack Smith could immediately appeal this and try to get her tossed, so it may hasten things (unless Trump wins!).
It’s hilarious because it is unbelievably hubristic. The only credible future for Judge Cannon now is Trump’s first SCOTUS appointment in a second term.
It’s hilarious because the way she did this, if it were upheld (not an impossibility given how nutty SCOTUS has gotten), it would be even more useful for Hunter Biden than Donald Trump (especially if Trump didn’t win reelection), because the statutes of limitation on Hunter’s alleged crimes have started to expire.
So, back to Donald and his surprising recovery from a shooting that killed one and critically injured two. So my Nancy Drew senses started tingling when I saw how composed Donald was after the shooting; he was more worried about getting his shoes than leaving the scene. Posing for pictures all along the way. PB first contacted me with this bit.
Talked to a friend who’s a Psych and body language expert. 100% staged. Look at their unified messaging.
All I could remember where all the times Trump on the last two campaign trails and seemed afraid of everything. This is from Chris Cizzilla and CNN from April 28, 2022. “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.”
Donald Trump feared being killed by thrown fruit.
Yes, you read that right.
In a recently released transcript of a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards at a 2015 campaign rally, the subject of fruit – and fruit being flung, in particular – came up.
Here’s the full – and fully epic – back-and-forth between Trump and Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.
Dictor: Okay. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?
Trump: Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous.
Dictor: What was very dangerous?
Trump: We were threatened.
Dictor: With what?
Trump: They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.
Dictor: How did you become aware that there was a threat that people were going to throw fruit?
Trump: We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.
Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman: A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.
Just enough time for a NAZI salute also, which is being used by the Press right now. They’re using the fist bumps. The campaign is now using for fundraising and political materials.
And where did Donald get the idea to lead an assassination attempt on himself? This is from Newsweek, May 3, 2023. “Russia Staged Putin ‘Assassination’ to Justify Mass Mobilization: ISW” I know now about self-coups and staged assassination attempts as political tools of fascists. What a world! Funny how Donald has disappeared from the campaign trail for a few weeks but suddenly was paling around with Viktor Orban last week, too.
The alleged attempt to “assassinate” Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely staged by the Kremlin to justify a future effort to mobilize troops for the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian government on Wednesday issued a statement alleging that two Ukrainian drones had been destroyed near Putin’s official residence in Moscow. The Kremlin said that the drones were attempting to carry out “a planned terrorist attack” by assassinating Putin just before “Victory Day” celebrations on May 9. Ukraine has denied any involvement.
While video of the drones dramatically exploding over Kremlin grounds appeared online soon after the purported attack occurred, the incident immediately raised eyebrows, with a number of experts and commentators suggesting that it may have been a staged “propaganda” event intended to drum up Russian support for the war.
ISW, the U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that the Russian government “likely staged” the purported assassination attempt “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
And then there’s good old Alex Jones, the father of seeing everything as staged with crisis actors. Listen to this. It’s from Patriot Takes. This is a conversation with Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s Secretary of Retribution. Check him out on TNR: “Trump Ally Exposed for Horrific Hit List of Political Enemies. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “secretary of retribution” is even more bloodthirsty than the former president.” He’s an absolute skinhead. Both BB and I have posted on him before. Please follow the link to Patriot Takes and watch him talk. It’s bone-chilling. BB found this one.
5 months ago, Alex Jones and InfoWars guest Ivan Raiklin discussed how assassinating Trump would be beneficial, according to them, because it would lead to retaliatory “in kind” assassinations of a “deep state” list which includes President Joe Biden.
Ivan Raiklin: “If they [assassinate Trump], option 2, behind Trump, is going to be so much better for us and so much worse them.”
Alex Jones: “I was about as to say, If they kill him, that’s best case scenario from a sick level. From a sick level medium, ‘Oh, please kill him.’ I mean, it’s so good after that.”
Raiklin: “Oh, it’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I guaran—, I access, with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”
There’s no way to blame Biden for the shooter, given his personal history as a gun-toting right-wing Republican, either. “FBI probing motives, the background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt. Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a “loner.” Authorities believe the AR-15-style rifle he used belonged to his father.” This is from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump’s would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks — a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center — began to emerge.
He had no criminal history, almost no presence on social media, and lived in a middle-class suburb about an hour away from the site of the shooting.
His political leanings were not immediately apparent. Though he was registered as a Republican, according to state voter rolls — and this year’s election would have been the first in which he was eligible to cast a ballot for president — campaign finance reports show a man with the same name gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in January 2021, on the day Biden was sworn into office.***
Crooks’ father, Matthew, reached by CNN late Saturday, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell [was] going on” and declined to comment further until he had spoken with authorities. Attempts to reach other family members were unsuccessful Sunday.
Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s field office in Pittsburgh, told reporters Sunday that agents recovered bomb-making material from inside Crooks’ car and his residence. The rifle he used in the attack, which was believed to have been purchased at least six months earlier by his father, as well as Crooks’ cell phone and other evidence had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., “for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said.
Meanwhile, several former classmates offered conflicting characterizations of Crooks. Some described him as a loner who had been bullied during his high school years. Jason Kohler, who graduated alongside Crooks, told reporters that students had harassed him “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said.
*** Author note: There’s some evidence this was not the shooter but a 69-year-old man with the same name from Pittsburg.
Here are some additional things I have questions about. Most of these are based on photography at the scene. For example, Kim Wexler’s Ponytail shows this TikTok of a New Angle of Trump at Rally shooting. It basically shows either Donald’s bodyguards or the Secret Service moving photographers close to the stairs. Perhaps for a better shot of the exit act? The TikTok comes from
Why was there such lackluster Security at the Rally?
I had a lot of weird things from early on that I thought were just not right. One was the interview by an MSNBC reporter of a man who was supposed to be standing next to Donald at the podium from the onset. He told the reporter something to the effect that he got up there, introduced himself, and was then told by Donald to go ahead and come up to the podium, only to be quickly told, wait, let’s do that later, and shuffled him off to sit somewhere else. I cannot find that clip by my neighbor across the street, who I had been with earlier for cocktails, who told me that she had seen it, too.
I also heard Frank Figluzzi discuss the fact that it was odd that the roof wasn’t in the area where the check-for-weapons zone was. He also said that on the other side was where the protestors were allowed to gather and even march. My thought was, wow! Sounds like a setup to blame a protestor and let the guy onto the roof. The fact that he was a right-wing Republican gun nut just really puts that on display as planning.
One of the most questionable things is that photos of Trump show him looking in the direction of the building where the shooter was. This is precisely when he turned his head to point to his whiteboard. At that point, local police went to the roof, saw him, and went back down the stairs. There was also a hesitation by the Secret Service Sniper to shoot him. Acyn, the Senior Digital Editor for MeidasTouch.com, captured this on CSPN. He’s looking directly at the shooter and then angling towards the White Board. The shooter was only about 165ish feet away from Donald. That’s definitely a distance that a good sniper could handle.
So, several things I noticed from this bit. First, when you speak to a large audience, you look straight ahead. You do not fixate on a spot to your right. Nowadays, politicians use teleprompters, but the ones that are guarded by the Secret Service have bulletproof shields. Do you see one?
I had another conversation with a neighbor this morning who has friends who have been military snipers, and their hypothesis on this I would put under the conspiracy theory. They’re saying they think the Republican Party mainstream was working with the Secret Service to take him out. That’s pure speculation. It’s obvious, though, that there’s something wrong with the security there.
This is from NPR. “The Secret Service is investigating how the man who shot Trump got as close as he did.” House leaders have already ordered a full investigation and demanded the head of the Secret Service testify before them while they have already had a briefing. It is already a bit of the usual zoo since Jim Comer is likely to lead the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
Some of the weirdest Republican attacks have been on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is a 27-year-old veteran of the force. She is being called a DEI hire by really nasty Republican pols. She is the second woman to have the office. Of course, these black faces and the woman who heads the agency are suspected of being in a “deep state.” I won’t go deeper into any of these cringeworthy moments.
On Monday, Cheatle said in a statement: “Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt.”
She added that the Secret Service is working with other law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. … We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
Neither Cheatle or the Secret Service’s communications office have weighed in on criticism of women in the agency more broadly.
I have a few more weird angles from various drones and photogs that make me even more suspicious, but according to White Christian Nationalists, it’s all just a miracle. I’m sticking with a staged attempt ala Putin because that seems more in line with Trump’s lack of anything decent.
So, I’m open to comments and criticism, but this is my case so far. I’m likely not going to leave this rabbit hole for a while. Keep an eye on the things Republicans don’t want you to know. And please, don’t take in any of the stupidity of the Republican Convention. This one is going to be insane.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Preview of the Republican Convention
More Questions from Friends
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/15/monday-reads-i-have-questions/
#AlexJones #CannonDropsStolenDocsCase #CorruptingJudges #IvanLaiklinOnTheBenefitsOfAssassinatingTrump #JudgeLooseCannon #PutinStagedAssassination #republicanPolitics #TrumpStagedAssassination_
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This drone photo of the vent area in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows the building in the upper left-hand corner where the shooter’s body was found.
Dear Sky Dancers, this is not a good day for our Republic.
Judge Cannon used this moment to distract the press from what I believe might be a staged coup attempt by Donald on Donald. He golfed right after the shooting and had no bandages or marks to be seen. I have reached this theory of the case after spending a day and a half asking questions and reviewing materials with JJ, BB, and a friend of my friend PB from the late Fire Dog Lake site. The press is characterizing people like us as BlueAnon conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I just have questions about things. I’m up to being proved wrong. I’m just someone who has watched decades of Law and Order and Criminal Minds, and I’m also smarter than your average bear.
The Cannon decision was based on the bone she was thrown by corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the shocking presidential immunity case. Human Rights Lawyer Qasim Rashid had this to say today on @Threads.
Understand what Judge Cannon did. She saw the non-stop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling’s favor, & dismissed Trump’s classified documents case. This is how republics collapse.
To be sure, Cannon’s absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever.But Cannon’s indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump’s trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along. And the DOJ delayed & delayed & that helped Trump get away with this. Smh.
Judge Aileen Cannon and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/USDC for the Southern District of Florida)
This is from Eric Tucker at the AP. “Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment.”
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which can be appealed and may later be overturned by a higher court, brings at least, for now, a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.
…
It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. Though he was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, the sentencing there has been postponed following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will result in significant delays in a separate case brought by Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed by prosecutors in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and a special prosecutor.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging and found this article from Salon on May 7. “Judge Cannon’s secret right-wing getaway: Why didn’t we know about this? Federal judge in Trump’s documents trial didn’t tell us about those right-wing conferences at a Montana resort.” It’s reported by columnist Lucian Truscott IV.
Let me ask you a question: How many all-expenses-paid vacations at luxury hunting and fishing lodges have you enjoyed over the last few years? I’m not talking about a motel in the boonies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or a drafty log cabin on a lake in Maine or Minnesota. We’re talking about a luxury resort on 1,200 acres alongside the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park. We’re talking about a lodge featuring rooms with stone fireplaces that go for upwards of $1,000 a night in high season, meals that include “house-cured meats from local ranches, garden-fresh produce from nearby farms, and, of course plenty of Northwest craft beers and spirits,” as the resort’s website describes the offerings.
It’s called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long “colloquium” every year or so. Paid for by the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, the “colloquium” held at the Sage Lodge in 2021, for example, featured lectures on such subjects as “Woke Law!” – and yes, the exclamation point is part of the lecture topic — by one Todd J. Zywicki, who is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and a senior fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives of the Cato Institute. Another juicy topic covered at the Sage Lodge in 2021 was “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State,” also featuring a lecture by Zywicki, a topic that rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year.
The Antonin Scalia Law School, by the way, was established and largely funded by the efforts of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who helped put together $30 million from conservative donors, including Leo himself, to rename the law school after the late legendary right-wing justice, who it will be remembered died of a heart attack in 2016 at another luxury hunting lodge, that one in Texas, while on a trip paid for by wealthy conservative “friends of the court,” I guess we could call them. The other major donor to the Scalia Law School was the Charles Koch Foundation, which threw in a handy $10 million.
Why are we talking about luxury hunting lodges and right-wing “colloquiums” for judges? Because one of our favorite federal judges, Aileen Cannon of Florida, currently presiding over the case against Donald Trump over the secret documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was a guest at that same 2021 “colloquium” at the Sage Lodge, and the one held in 2022 as well. The thing is, Cannon failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed. The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar. Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck.
So why do we suppose Judge Cannon was so shy about who’s paying for her luxury trips and what she might have learned there? Oh, I don’t know … might it be because she didn’t want anyone to know about her links to the Leonard Leo wing of legal theory? Could it have been that she didn’t want it known that she had taken money from an organization that was in large part funded by billionaires friendly to the man whose case she was presiding over?
All these corrupt Republican Judges seem to lead right back to Leonard Leo, don’t they? Something is very rotten here. Marcie of Empty Wheel reads the 93 pages, so we don’t need to.
Procedurally, this may actually not help Trump in the way he’d like (because DOJ has the option of appealing it or having a US Attorney charge Trump).
But it’s also hilarious, since Aileen Cannon has been treating herself like an Appellate Judge that she hasn’t been confirmed to be.
Update: One thing Cannon appears upset about is Merrick Garland’s invocation of Section 533, which appoints FBI-like figures.
Special Counsel Smith argues that Section 533(1) confers on the Attorney General the authority to appoint special counsels, specifically, constitutional officers wielding the “full power and independent authority . . . of any United States Attorney.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6. After careful review, the Court is convinced that it does not. Congress “does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes.” Whitman v. Am. Trucking Associations, 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). Special Counsel Smith’s interpretation would shoehorn appointment authority for United States Attorney-equivalents into a statute that permits the hiring of FBI law enforcement personnel. Such a reading is unsupported by Section 533’s plain language and statutory context; inconsistent with Congress’s usual legislative practice; and threatens to undermine the “basic separation-of-powers principles” that “give life and content” to the Appointments Clause. Morrison, 487 U.S. at 715 (Scalia, J., dissenting). The Court explains below.
33 Order No. 5730-2023 (appointing David C. Weiss); Order No. 5588-2023 (appointing Robert K. Hur).
That is her only mention of Robert Hur, whose appointment would be unconstitutional under her theory as well. (I’m still trying to figure out whether Cannon will help Hunter Biden go free, too.)
Update: Okay, I’ve read the thing.
It’s hilarious.
It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t create any delay that Cannon was not pursuing anyway. Indeed, Jack Smith could immediately appeal this and try to get her tossed, so it may hasten things (unless Trump wins!).
It’s hilarious because it is unbelievably hubristic. The only credible future for Judge Cannon now is Trump’s first SCOTUS appointment in a second term.
It’s hilarious because the way she did this, if it were upheld (not an impossibility given how nutty SCOTUS has gotten), it would be even more useful for Hunter Biden than Donald Trump (especially if Trump didn’t win reelection), because the statutes of limitation on Hunter’s alleged crimes have started to expire.
So, back to Donald and his surprising recovery from a shooting that killed one and critically injured two. So my Nancy Drew senses started tingling when I saw how composed Donald was after the shooting; he was more worried about getting his shoes than leaving the scene. Posing for pictures all along the way. PB first contacted me with this bit.
Talked to a friend who’s a Psych and body language expert. 100% staged. Look at their unified messaging.
All I could remember where all the times Trump on the last two campaign trails and seemed afraid of everything. This is from Chris Cizzilla and CNN from April 28, 2022. “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.”
Donald Trump feared being killed by thrown fruit.
Yes, you read that right.
In a recently released transcript of a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards at a 2015 campaign rally, the subject of fruit – and fruit being flung, in particular – came up.
Here’s the full – and fully epic – back-and-forth between Trump and Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.
Dictor: Okay. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?
Trump: Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous.
Dictor: What was very dangerous?
Trump: We were threatened.
Dictor: With what?
Trump: They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.
Dictor: How did you become aware that there was a threat that people were going to throw fruit?
Trump: We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.
Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman: A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.
Just enough time for a NAZI salute also, which is being used by the Press right now. They’re using the fist bumps. The campaign is now using for fundraising and political materials.
And where did Donald get the idea to lead an assassination attempt on himself? This is from Newsweek, May 3, 2023. “Russia Staged Putin ‘Assassination’ to Justify Mass Mobilization: ISW” I know now about self-coups and staged assassination attempts as political tools of fascists. What a world! Funny how Donald has disappeared from the campaign trail for a few weeks but suddenly was paling around with Viktor Orban last week, too.
The alleged attempt to “assassinate” Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely staged by the Kremlin to justify a future effort to mobilize troops for the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian government on Wednesday issued a statement alleging that two Ukrainian drones had been destroyed near Putin’s official residence in Moscow. The Kremlin said that the drones were attempting to carry out “a planned terrorist attack” by assassinating Putin just before “Victory Day” celebrations on May 9. Ukraine has denied any involvement.
While video of the drones dramatically exploding over Kremlin grounds appeared online soon after the purported attack occurred, the incident immediately raised eyebrows, with a number of experts and commentators suggesting that it may have been a staged “propaganda” event intended to drum up Russian support for the war.
ISW, the U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that the Russian government “likely staged” the purported assassination attempt “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
And then there’s good old Alex Jones, the father of seeing everything as staged with crisis actors. Listen to this. It’s from Patriot Takes. This is a conversation with Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s Secretary of Retribution. Check him out on TNR: “Trump Ally Exposed for Horrific Hit List of Political Enemies. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “secretary of retribution” is even more bloodthirsty than the former president.” He’s an absolute skinhead. Both BB and I have posted on him before. Please follow the link to Patriot Takes and watch him talk. It’s bone-chilling. BB found this one.
5 months ago, Alex Jones and InfoWars guest Ivan Raiklin discussed how assassinating Trump would be beneficial, according to them, because it would lead to retaliatory “in kind” assassinations of a “deep state” list which includes President Joe Biden.
Ivan Raiklin: “If they [assassinate Trump], option 2, behind Trump, is going to be so much better for us and so much worse them.”
Alex Jones: “I was about as to say, If they kill him, that’s best case scenario from a sick level. From a sick level medium, ‘Oh, please kill him.’ I mean, it’s so good after that.”
Raiklin: “Oh, it’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I guaran—, I access, with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”
There’s no way to blame Biden for the shooter, given his personal history as a gun-toting right-wing Republican, either. “FBI probing motives, the background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt. Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a “loner.” Authorities believe the AR-15-style rifle he used belonged to his father.” This is from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump’s would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks — a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center — began to emerge.
He had no criminal history, almost no presence on social media, and lived in a middle-class suburb about an hour away from the site of the shooting.
His political leanings were not immediately apparent. Though he was registered as a Republican, according to state voter rolls — and this year’s election would have been the first in which he was eligible to cast a ballot for president — campaign finance reports show a man with the same name gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in January 2021, on the day Biden was sworn into office.***
Crooks’ father, Matthew, reached by CNN late Saturday, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell [was] going on” and declined to comment further until he had spoken with authorities. Attempts to reach other family members were unsuccessful Sunday.
Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s field office in Pittsburgh, told reporters Sunday that agents recovered bomb-making material from inside Crooks’ car and his residence. The rifle he used in the attack, which was believed to have been purchased at least six months earlier by his father, as well as Crooks’ cell phone and other evidence had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., “for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said.
Meanwhile, several former classmates offered conflicting characterizations of Crooks. Some described him as a loner who had been bullied during his high school years. Jason Kohler, who graduated alongside Crooks, told reporters that students had harassed him “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said.
*** Author note: There’s some evidence this was not the shooter but a 69-year-old man with the same name from Pittsburg.
Here are some additional things I have questions about. Most of these are based on photography at the scene. For example, Kim Wexler’s Ponytail shows this TikTok of a New Angle of Trump at Rally shooting. It basically shows either Donald’s bodyguards or the Secret Service moving photographers close to the stairs. Perhaps for a better shot of the exit act? The TikTok comes from
Why was there such lackluster Security at the Rally?
I had a lot of weird things from early on that I thought were just not right. One was the interview by an MSNBC reporter of a man who was supposed to be standing next to Donald at the podium from the onset. He told the reporter something to the effect that he got up there, introduced himself, and was then told by Donald to go ahead and come up to the podium, only to be quickly told, wait, let’s do that later, and shuffled him off to sit somewhere else. I cannot find that clip by my neighbor across the street, who I had been with earlier for cocktails, who told me that she had seen it, too.
I also heard Frank Figluzzi discuss the fact that it was odd that the roof wasn’t in the area where the check-for-weapons zone was. He also said that on the other side was where the protestors were allowed to gather and even march. My thought was, wow! Sounds like a setup to blame a protestor and let the guy onto the roof. The fact that he was a right-wing Republican gun nut just really puts that on display as planning.
One of the most questionable things is that photos of Trump show him looking in the direction of the building where the shooter was. This is precisely when he turned his head to point to his whiteboard. At that point, local police went to the roof, saw him, and went back down the stairs. There was also a hesitation by the Secret Service Sniper to shoot him. Acyn, the Senior Digital Editor for MeidasTouch.com, captured this on CSPN. He’s looking directly at the shooter and then angling towards the White Board. The shooter was only about 165ish feet away from Donald. That’s definitely a distance that a good sniper could handle.
So, several things I noticed from this bit. First, when you speak to a large audience, you look straight ahead. You do not fixate on a spot to your right. Nowadays, politicians use teleprompters, but the ones that are guarded by the Secret Service have bulletproof shields. Do you see one?
I had another conversation with a neighbor this morning who has friends who have been military snipers, and their hypothesis on this I would put under the conspiracy theory. They’re saying they think the Republican Party mainstream was working with the Secret Service to take him out. That’s pure speculation. It’s obvious, though, that there’s something wrong with the security there.
This is from NPR. “The Secret Service is investigating how the man who shot Trump got as close as he did.” House leaders have already ordered a full investigation and demanded the head of the Secret Service testify before them while they have already had a briefing. It is already a bit of the usual zoo since Jim Comer is likely to lead the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
Some of the weirdest Republican attacks have been on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is a 27-year-old veteran of the force. She is being called a DEI hire by really nasty Republican pols. She is the second woman to have the office. Of course, these black faces and the woman who heads the agency are suspected of being in a “deep state.” I won’t go deeper into any of these cringeworthy moments.
On Monday, Cheatle said in a statement: “Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt.”
She added that the Secret Service is working with other law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. … We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
Neither Cheatle or the Secret Service’s communications office have weighed in on criticism of women in the agency more broadly.
I have a few more weird angles from various drones and photogs that make me even more suspicious, but according to White Christian Nationalists, it’s all just a miracle. I’m sticking with a staged attempt ala Putin because that seems more in line with Trump’s lack of anything decent.
So, I’m open to comments and criticism, but this is my case so far. I’m likely not going to leave this rabbit hole for a while. Keep an eye on the things Republicans don’t want you to know. And please, don’t take in any of the stupidity of the Republican Convention. This one is going to be insane.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Preview of the Republican Convention
More Questions from Friends
I have an update from the FBI.
Update on the FBI Investigation of the Attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump
Update: July 15, 2024, 3:05 p.m. EDT:The FBI continues to investigate the shooting incident at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and as potential domestic terrorism. The investigation is still in the early stages, and the FBI is providing the following updates:
FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices.
The search of the subject’s residence and vehicle are complete.
The FBI has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses. That work continues.
The FBI has received hundreds of digital media tips which include photos and videos taken at the scene, and we continue to review incoming tips. We encourage anyone with information that may assist with the ongoing investigation to continue to submit it online at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
While the investigative work continues, FBI victim services personnel have offered assistance to the victims of Saturday’s incident.
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/15/monday-reads-i-have-questions/
#AlexJones #CannonDropsStolenDocsCase #CorruptingJudges #IvanLaiklinOnTheBenefitsOfAssassinatingTrump #JudgeLooseCannon #PutinStagedAssassination #republicanPolitics #TrumpStagedAssassination_
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This drone photo of the vent area in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows the building in the upper left-hand corner where the shooter’s body was found.
Dear Sky Dancers, this is not a good day for our Republic.
Judge Cannon used this moment to distract the press from what I believe might be a staged coup attempt by Donald on Donald. He golfed right after the shooting and had no bandages or marks to be seen. I have reached this theory of the case after spending a day and a half asking questions and reviewing materials with JJ, BB, and a friend of my friend PB from the late Fire Dog Lake site. The press is characterizing people like us as BlueAnon conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I just have questions about things. I’m up to being proved wrong. I’m just someone who has watched decades of Law and Order and Criminal Minds, and I’m also smarter than your average bear.
The Cannon decision was based on the bone she was thrown by corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the shocking presidential immunity case. Human Rights Lawyer Qasim Rashid had this to say today on @Threads.
Understand what Judge Cannon did. She saw the non-stop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling’s favor, & dismissed Trump’s classified documents case. This is how republics collapse.
To be sure, Cannon’s absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever.But Cannon’s indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump’s trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along. And the DOJ delayed & delayed & that helped Trump get away with this. Smh.
Judge Aileen Cannon and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/USDC for the Southern District of Florida)
This is from Eric Tucker at the AP. “Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment.”
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which can be appealed and may later be overturned by a higher court, brings at least, for now, a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.
…
It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. Though he was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, the sentencing there has been postponed following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will result in significant delays in a separate case brought by Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed by prosecutors in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and a special prosecutor.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging and found this article from Salon on May 7. “Judge Cannon’s secret right-wing getaway: Why didn’t we know about this? Federal judge in Trump’s documents trial didn’t tell us about those right-wing conferences at a Montana resort.” It’s reported by columnist Lucian Truscott IV.
Let me ask you a question: How many all-expenses-paid vacations at luxury hunting and fishing lodges have you enjoyed over the last few years? I’m not talking about a motel in the boonies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or a drafty log cabin on a lake in Maine or Minnesota. We’re talking about a luxury resort on 1,200 acres alongside the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park. We’re talking about a lodge featuring rooms with stone fireplaces that go for upwards of $1,000 a night in high season, meals that include “house-cured meats from local ranches, garden-fresh produce from nearby farms, and, of course plenty of Northwest craft beers and spirits,” as the resort’s website describes the offerings.
It’s called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long “colloquium” every year or so. Paid for by the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, the “colloquium” held at the Sage Lodge in 2021, for example, featured lectures on such subjects as “Woke Law!” – and yes, the exclamation point is part of the lecture topic — by one Todd J. Zywicki, who is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and a senior fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives of the Cato Institute. Another juicy topic covered at the Sage Lodge in 2021 was “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State,” also featuring a lecture by Zywicki, a topic that rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year.
The Antonin Scalia Law School, by the way, was established and largely funded by the efforts of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who helped put together $30 million from conservative donors, including Leo himself, to rename the law school after the late legendary right-wing justice, who it will be remembered died of a heart attack in 2016 at another luxury hunting lodge, that one in Texas, while on a trip paid for by wealthy conservative “friends of the court,” I guess we could call them. The other major donor to the Scalia Law School was the Charles Koch Foundation, which threw in a handy $10 million.
Why are we talking about luxury hunting lodges and right-wing “colloquiums” for judges? Because one of our favorite federal judges, Aileen Cannon of Florida, currently presiding over the case against Donald Trump over the secret documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was a guest at that same 2021 “colloquium” at the Sage Lodge, and the one held in 2022 as well. The thing is, Cannon failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed. The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar. Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck.
So why do we suppose Judge Cannon was so shy about who’s paying for her luxury trips and what she might have learned there? Oh, I don’t know … might it be because she didn’t want anyone to know about her links to the Leonard Leo wing of legal theory? Could it have been that she didn’t want it known that she had taken money from an organization that was in large part funded by billionaires friendly to the man whose case she was presiding over?
All these corrupt Republican Judges seem to lead right back to Leonard Leo, don’t they? Something is very rotten here. Marcie of Empty Wheel reads the 93 pages, so we don’t need to.
Procedurally, this may actually not help Trump in the way he’d like (because DOJ has the option of appealing it or having a US Attorney charge Trump).
But it’s also hilarious, since Aileen Cannon has been treating herself like an Appellate Judge that she hasn’t been confirmed to be.
Update: One thing Cannon appears upset about is Merrick Garland’s invocation of Section 533, which appoints FBI-like figures.
Special Counsel Smith argues that Section 533(1) confers on the Attorney General the authority to appoint special counsels, specifically, constitutional officers wielding the “full power and independent authority . . . of any United States Attorney.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6. After careful review, the Court is convinced that it does not. Congress “does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes.” Whitman v. Am. Trucking Associations, 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). Special Counsel Smith’s interpretation would shoehorn appointment authority for United States Attorney-equivalents into a statute that permits the hiring of FBI law enforcement personnel. Such a reading is unsupported by Section 533’s plain language and statutory context; inconsistent with Congress’s usual legislative practice; and threatens to undermine the “basic separation-of-powers principles” that “give life and content” to the Appointments Clause. Morrison, 487 U.S. at 715 (Scalia, J., dissenting). The Court explains below.
33 Order No. 5730-2023 (appointing David C. Weiss); Order No. 5588-2023 (appointing Robert K. Hur).
That is her only mention of Robert Hur, whose appointment would be unconstitutional under her theory as well. (I’m still trying to figure out whether Cannon will help Hunter Biden go free, too.)
Update: Okay, I’ve read the thing.
It’s hilarious.
It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t create any delay that Cannon was not pursuing anyway. Indeed, Jack Smith could immediately appeal this and try to get her tossed, so it may hasten things (unless Trump wins!).
It’s hilarious because it is unbelievably hubristic. The only credible future for Judge Cannon now is Trump’s first SCOTUS appointment in a second term.
It’s hilarious because the way she did this, if it were upheld (not an impossibility given how nutty SCOTUS has gotten), it would be even more useful for Hunter Biden than Donald Trump (especially if Trump didn’t win reelection), because the statutes of limitation on Hunter’s alleged crimes have started to expire.
So, back to Donald and his surprising recovery from a shooting that killed one and critically injured two. So my Nancy Drew senses started tingling when I saw how composed Donald was after the shooting; he was more worried about getting his shoes than leaving the scene. Posing for pictures all along the way. PB first contacted me with this bit.
Talked to a friend who’s a Psych and body language expert. 100% staged. Look at their unified messaging.
All I could remember where all the times Trump on the last two campaign trails and seemed afraid of everything. This is from Chris Cizzilla and CNN from April 28, 2022. “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.”
Donald Trump feared being killed by thrown fruit.
Yes, you read that right.
In a recently released transcript of a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards at a 2015 campaign rally, the subject of fruit – and fruit being flung, in particular – came up.
Here’s the full – and fully epic – back-and-forth between Trump and Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.
Dictor: Okay. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?
Trump: Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous.
Dictor: What was very dangerous?
Trump: We were threatened.
Dictor: With what?
Trump: They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.
Dictor: How did you become aware that there was a threat that people were going to throw fruit?
Trump: We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.
Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman: A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.
Just enough time for a NAZI salute also, which is being used by the Press right now. They’re using the fist bumps. The campaign is now using for fundraising and political materials.
And where did Donald get the idea to lead an assassination attempt on himself? This is from Newsweek, May 3, 2023. “Russia Staged Putin ‘Assassination’ to Justify Mass Mobilization: ISW” I know now about self-coups and staged assassination attempts as political tools of fascists. What a world! Funny how Donald has disappeared from the campaign trail for a few weeks but suddenly was paling around with Viktor Orban last week, too.
The alleged attempt to “assassinate” Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely staged by the Kremlin to justify a future effort to mobilize troops for the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian government on Wednesday issued a statement alleging that two Ukrainian drones had been destroyed near Putin’s official residence in Moscow. The Kremlin said that the drones were attempting to carry out “a planned terrorist attack” by assassinating Putin just before “Victory Day” celebrations on May 9. Ukraine has denied any involvement.
While video of the drones dramatically exploding over Kremlin grounds appeared online soon after the purported attack occurred, the incident immediately raised eyebrows, with a number of experts and commentators suggesting that it may have been a staged “propaganda” event intended to drum up Russian support for the war.
ISW, the U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that the Russian government “likely staged” the purported assassination attempt “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
And then there’s good old Alex Jones, the father of seeing everything as staged with crisis actors. Listen to this. It’s from Patriot Takes. This is a conversation with Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s Secretary of Retribution. Check him out on TNR: “Trump Ally Exposed for Horrific Hit List of Political Enemies. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “secretary of retribution” is even more bloodthirsty than the former president.” He’s an absolute skinhead. Both BB and I have posted on him before. Please follow the link to Patriot Takes and watch him talk. It’s bone-chilling. BB found this one.
5 months ago, Alex Jones and InfoWars guest Ivan Raiklin discussed how assassinating Trump would be beneficial, according to them, because it would lead to retaliatory “in kind” assassinations of a “deep state” list which includes President Joe Biden.
Ivan Raiklin: “If they [assassinate Trump], option 2, behind Trump, is going to be so much better for us and so much worse them.”
Alex Jones: “I was about as to say, If they kill him, that’s best case scenario from a sick level. From a sick level medium, ‘Oh, please kill him.’ I mean, it’s so good after that.”
Raiklin: “Oh, it’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I guaran—, I access, with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”
There’s no way to blame Biden for the shooter, given his personal history as a gun-toting right-wing Republican, either. “FBI probing motives, the background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt. Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a “loner.” Authorities believe the AR-15-style rifle he used belonged to his father.” This is from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump’s would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks — a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center — began to emerge.
He had no criminal history, almost no presence on social media, and lived in a middle-class suburb about an hour away from the site of the shooting.
His political leanings were not immediately apparent. Though he was registered as a Republican, according to state voter rolls — and this year’s election would have been the first in which he was eligible to cast a ballot for president — campaign finance reports show a man with the same name gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in January 2021, on the day Biden was sworn into office.***
Crooks’ father, Matthew, reached by CNN late Saturday, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell [was] going on” and declined to comment further until he had spoken with authorities. Attempts to reach other family members were unsuccessful Sunday.
Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s field office in Pittsburgh, told reporters Sunday that agents recovered bomb-making material from inside Crooks’ car and his residence. The rifle he used in the attack, which was believed to have been purchased at least six months earlier by his father, as well as Crooks’ cell phone and other evidence had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., “for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said.
Meanwhile, several former classmates offered conflicting characterizations of Crooks. Some described him as a loner who had been bullied during his high school years. Jason Kohler, who graduated alongside Crooks, told reporters that students had harassed him “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said.
*** Author note: There’s some evidence this was not the shooter but a 69-year-old man with the same name from Pittsburg.
Here are some additional things I have questions about. Most of these are based on photography at the scene. For example, Kim Wexler’s Ponytail shows this TikTok of a New Angle of Trump at Rally shooting. It basically shows either Donald’s bodyguards or the Secret Service moving photographers close to the stairs. Perhaps for a better shot of the exit act? The TikTok comes from
Why was there such lackluster Security at the Rally?
I had a lot of weird things from early on that I thought were just not right. One was the interview by an MSNBC reporter of a man who was supposed to be standing next to Donald at the podium from the onset. He told the reporter something to the effect that he got up there, introduced himself, and was then told by Donald to go ahead and come up to the podium, only to be quickly told, wait, let’s do that later, and shuffled him off to sit somewhere else. I cannot find that clip by my neighbor across the street, who I had been with earlier for cocktails, who told me that she had seen it, too.
I also heard Frank Figluzzi discuss the fact that it was odd that the roof wasn’t in the area where the check-for-weapons zone was. He also said that on the other side was where the protestors were allowed to gather and even march. My thought was, wow! Sounds like a setup to blame a protestor and let the guy onto the roof. The fact that he was a right-wing Republican gun nut just really puts that on display as planning.
One of the most questionable things is that photos of Trump show him looking in the direction of the building where the shooter was. This is precisely when he turned his head to point to his whiteboard. At that point, local police went to the roof, saw him, and went back down the stairs. There was also a hesitation by the Secret Service Sniper to shoot him. Acyn, the Senior Digital Editor for MeidasTouch.com, captured this on CSPN. He’s looking directly at the shooter and then angling towards the White Board. The shooter was only about 165ish feet away from Donald. That’s definitely a distance that a good sniper could handle.
So, several things I noticed from this bit. First, when you speak to a large audience, you look straight ahead. You do not fixate on a spot to your right. Nowadays, politicians use teleprompters, but the ones that are guarded by the Secret Service have bulletproof shields. Do you see one?
I had another conversation with a neighbor this morning who has friends who have been military snipers, and their hypothesis on this I would put under the conspiracy theory. They’re saying they think the Republican Party mainstream was working with the Secret Service to take him out. That’s pure speculation. It’s obvious, though, that there’s something wrong with the security there.
This is from NPR. “The Secret Service is investigating how the man who shot Trump got as close as he did.” House leaders have already ordered a full investigation and demanded the head of the Secret Service testify before them while they have already had a briefing. It is already a bit of the usual zoo since Jim Comer is likely to lead the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
Some of the weirdest Republican attacks have been on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is a 27-year-old veteran of the force. She is being called a DEI hire by really nasty Republican pols. She is the second woman to have the office. Of course, these black faces and the woman who heads the agency are suspected of being in a “deep state.” I won’t go deeper into any of these cringeworthy moments.
On Monday, Cheatle said in a statement: “Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt.”
She added that the Secret Service is working with other law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. … We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
Neither Cheatle or the Secret Service’s communications office have weighed in on criticism of women in the agency more broadly.
I have a few more weird angles from various drones and photogs that make me even more suspicious, but according to White Christian Nationalists, it’s all just a miracle. I’m sticking with a staged attempt ala Putin because that seems more in line with Trump’s lack of anything decent.
So, I’m open to comments and criticism, but this is my case so far. I’m likely not going to leave this rabbit hole for a while. Keep an eye on the things Republicans don’t want you to know. And please, don’t take in any of the stupidity of the Republican Convention. This one is going to be insane.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Preview of the Republican Convention
More Questions from Friends
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/15/monday-reads-i-have-questions/
#AlexJones #CannonDropsStolenDocsCase #CorruptingJudges #IvanLaiklinOnTheBenefitsOfAssassinatingTrump #JudgeLooseCannon #PutinStagedAssassination #republicanPolitics #TrumpStagedAssassination_
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This drone photo of the vent area in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows the building in the upper left-hand corner where the shooter’s body was found.
Dear Sky Dancers, this is not a good day for our Republic.
Judge Cannon used this moment to distract the press from what I believe might be a staged coup attempt by Donald on Donald. He golfed right after the shooting and had no bandages or marks to be seen. I have reached this theory of the case after spending a day and a half asking questions and reviewing materials with JJ, BB, and a friend of my friend PB from the late Fire Dog Lake site. The press is characterizing people like us as BlueAnon conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I just have questions about things. I’m up to being proved wrong. I’m just someone who has watched decades of Law and Order and Criminal Minds, and I’m also smarter than your average bear.
The Cannon decision was based on the bone she was thrown by corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the shocking presidential immunity case. Human Rights Lawyer Qasim Rashid had this to say today on @Threads.
Understand what Judge Cannon did. She saw the non-stop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling’s favor, & dismissed Trump’s classified documents case. This is how republics collapse.
To be sure, Cannon’s absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever.But Cannon’s indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump’s trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along. And the DOJ delayed & delayed & that helped Trump get away with this. Smh.
Judge Aileen Cannon and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/USDC for the Southern District of Florida)
This is from Eric Tucker at the AP. “Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment.”
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which can be appealed and may later be overturned by a higher court, brings at least, for now, a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.
…
It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. Though he was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, the sentencing there has been postponed following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will result in significant delays in a separate case brought by Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed by prosecutors in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and a special prosecutor.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging and found this article from Salon on May 7. “Judge Cannon’s secret right-wing getaway: Why didn’t we know about this? Federal judge in Trump’s documents trial didn’t tell us about those right-wing conferences at a Montana resort.” It’s reported by columnist Lucian Truscott IV.
Let me ask you a question: How many all-expenses-paid vacations at luxury hunting and fishing lodges have you enjoyed over the last few years? I’m not talking about a motel in the boonies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or a drafty log cabin on a lake in Maine or Minnesota. We’re talking about a luxury resort on 1,200 acres alongside the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park. We’re talking about a lodge featuring rooms with stone fireplaces that go for upwards of $1,000 a night in high season, meals that include “house-cured meats from local ranches, garden-fresh produce from nearby farms, and, of course plenty of Northwest craft beers and spirits,” as the resort’s website describes the offerings.
It’s called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long “colloquium” every year or so. Paid for by the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, the “colloquium” held at the Sage Lodge in 2021, for example, featured lectures on such subjects as “Woke Law!” – and yes, the exclamation point is part of the lecture topic — by one Todd J. Zywicki, who is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and a senior fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives of the Cato Institute. Another juicy topic covered at the Sage Lodge in 2021 was “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State,” also featuring a lecture by Zywicki, a topic that rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year.
The Antonin Scalia Law School, by the way, was established and largely funded by the efforts of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who helped put together $30 million from conservative donors, including Leo himself, to rename the law school after the late legendary right-wing justice, who it will be remembered died of a heart attack in 2016 at another luxury hunting lodge, that one in Texas, while on a trip paid for by wealthy conservative “friends of the court,” I guess we could call them. The other major donor to the Scalia Law School was the Charles Koch Foundation, which threw in a handy $10 million.
Why are we talking about luxury hunting lodges and right-wing “colloquiums” for judges? Because one of our favorite federal judges, Aileen Cannon of Florida, currently presiding over the case against Donald Trump over the secret documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was a guest at that same 2021 “colloquium” at the Sage Lodge, and the one held in 2022 as well. The thing is, Cannon failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed. The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar. Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck.
So why do we suppose Judge Cannon was so shy about who’s paying for her luxury trips and what she might have learned there? Oh, I don’t know … might it be because she didn’t want anyone to know about her links to the Leonard Leo wing of legal theory? Could it have been that she didn’t want it known that she had taken money from an organization that was in large part funded by billionaires friendly to the man whose case she was presiding over?
All these corrupt Republican Judges seem to lead right back to Leonard Leo, don’t they? Something is very rotten here. Marcie of Empty Wheel reads the 93 pages, so we don’t need to.
Procedurally, this may actually not help Trump in the way he’d like (because DOJ has the option of appealing it or having a US Attorney charge Trump).
But it’s also hilarious, since Aileen Cannon has been treating herself like an Appellate Judge that she hasn’t been confirmed to be.
Update: One thing Cannon appears upset about is Merrick Garland’s invocation of Section 533, which appoints FBI-like figures.
Special Counsel Smith argues that Section 533(1) confers on the Attorney General the authority to appoint special counsels, specifically, constitutional officers wielding the “full power and independent authority . . . of any United States Attorney.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6. After careful review, the Court is convinced that it does not. Congress “does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes.” Whitman v. Am. Trucking Associations, 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). Special Counsel Smith’s interpretation would shoehorn appointment authority for United States Attorney-equivalents into a statute that permits the hiring of FBI law enforcement personnel. Such a reading is unsupported by Section 533’s plain language and statutory context; inconsistent with Congress’s usual legislative practice; and threatens to undermine the “basic separation-of-powers principles” that “give life and content” to the Appointments Clause. Morrison, 487 U.S. at 715 (Scalia, J., dissenting). The Court explains below.
33 Order No. 5730-2023 (appointing David C. Weiss); Order No. 5588-2023 (appointing Robert K. Hur).
That is her only mention of Robert Hur, whose appointment would be unconstitutional under her theory as well. (I’m still trying to figure out whether Cannon will help Hunter Biden go free, too.)
Update: Okay, I’ve read the thing.
It’s hilarious.
It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t create any delay that Cannon was not pursuing anyway. Indeed, Jack Smith could immediately appeal this and try to get her tossed, so it may hasten things (unless Trump wins!).
It’s hilarious because it is unbelievably hubristic. The only credible future for Judge Cannon now is Trump’s first SCOTUS appointment in a second term.
It’s hilarious because the way she did this, if it were upheld (not an impossibility given how nutty SCOTUS has gotten), it would be even more useful for Hunter Biden than Donald Trump (especially if Trump didn’t win reelection), because the statutes of limitation on Hunter’s alleged crimes have started to expire.
So, back to Donald and his surprising recovery from a shooting that killed one and critically injured two. So my Nancy Drew senses started tingling when I saw how composed Donald was after the shooting; he was more worried about getting his shoes than leaving the scene. Posing for pictures all along the way. PB first contacted me with this bit.
Talked to a friend who’s a Psych and body language expert. 100% staged. Look at their unified messaging.
All I could remember where all the times Trump on the last two campaign trails and seemed afraid of everything. This is from Chris Cizzilla and CNN from April 28, 2022. “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.”
Donald Trump feared being killed by thrown fruit.
Yes, you read that right.
In a recently released transcript of a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards at a 2015 campaign rally, the subject of fruit – and fruit being flung, in particular – came up.
Here’s the full – and fully epic – back-and-forth between Trump and Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.
Dictor: Okay. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?
Trump: Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous.
Dictor: What was very dangerous?
Trump: We were threatened.
Dictor: With what?
Trump: They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.
Dictor: How did you become aware that there was a threat that people were going to throw fruit?
Trump: We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.
Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman: A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.
Just enough time for a NAZI salute also, which is being used by the Press right now. They’re using the fist bumps. The campaign is now using for fundraising and political materials.
And where did Donald get the idea to lead an assassination attempt on himself? This is from Newsweek, May 3, 2023. “Russia Staged Putin ‘Assassination’ to Justify Mass Mobilization: ISW” I know now about self-coups and staged assassination attempts as political tools of fascists. What a world! Funny how Donald has disappeared from the campaign trail for a few weeks but suddenly was paling around with Viktor Orban last week, too.
The alleged attempt to “assassinate” Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely staged by the Kremlin to justify a future effort to mobilize troops for the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian government on Wednesday issued a statement alleging that two Ukrainian drones had been destroyed near Putin’s official residence in Moscow. The Kremlin said that the drones were attempting to carry out “a planned terrorist attack” by assassinating Putin just before “Victory Day” celebrations on May 9. Ukraine has denied any involvement.
While video of the drones dramatically exploding over Kremlin grounds appeared online soon after the purported attack occurred, the incident immediately raised eyebrows, with a number of experts and commentators suggesting that it may have been a staged “propaganda” event intended to drum up Russian support for the war.
ISW, the U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that the Russian government “likely staged” the purported assassination attempt “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
And then there’s good old Alex Jones, the father of seeing everything as staged with crisis actors. Listen to this. It’s from Patriot Takes. This is a conversation with Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s Secretary of Retribution. Check him out on TNR: “Trump Ally Exposed for Horrific Hit List of Political Enemies. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “secretary of retribution” is even more bloodthirsty than the former president.” He’s an absolute skinhead. Both BB and I have posted on him before. Please follow the link to Patriot Takes and watch him talk. It’s bone-chilling. BB found this one.
5 months ago, Alex Jones and InfoWars guest Ivan Raiklin discussed how assassinating Trump would be beneficial, according to them, because it would lead to retaliatory “in kind” assassinations of a “deep state” list which includes President Joe Biden.
Ivan Raiklin: “If they [assassinate Trump], option 2, behind Trump, is going to be so much better for us and so much worse them.”
Alex Jones: “I was about as to say, If they kill him, that’s best case scenario from a sick level. From a sick level medium, ‘Oh, please kill him.’ I mean, it’s so good after that.”
Raiklin: “Oh, it’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I guaran—, I access, with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”
There’s no way to blame Biden for the shooter, given his personal history as a gun-toting right-wing Republican, either. “FBI probing motives, the background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt. Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a “loner.” Authorities believe the AR-15-style rifle he used belonged to his father.” This is from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump’s would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks — a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center — began to emerge.
He had no criminal history, almost no presence on social media, and lived in a middle-class suburb about an hour away from the site of the shooting.
His political leanings were not immediately apparent. Though he was registered as a Republican, according to state voter rolls — and this year’s election would have been the first in which he was eligible to cast a ballot for president — campaign finance reports show a man with the same name gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in January 2021, on the day Biden was sworn into office.***
Crooks’ father, Matthew, reached by CNN late Saturday, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell [was] going on” and declined to comment further until he had spoken with authorities. Attempts to reach other family members were unsuccessful Sunday.
Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s field office in Pittsburgh, told reporters Sunday that agents recovered bomb-making material from inside Crooks’ car and his residence. The rifle he used in the attack, which was believed to have been purchased at least six months earlier by his father, as well as Crooks’ cell phone and other evidence had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., “for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said.
Meanwhile, several former classmates offered conflicting characterizations of Crooks. Some described him as a loner who had been bullied during his high school years. Jason Kohler, who graduated alongside Crooks, told reporters that students had harassed him “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said.
*** Author note: There’s some evidence this was not the shooter but a 69-year-old man with the same name from Pittsburg.
Here are some additional things I have questions about. Most of these are based on photography at the scene. For example, Kim Wexler’s Ponytail shows this TikTok of a New Angle of Trump at Rally shooting. It basically shows either Donald’s bodyguards or the Secret Service moving photographers close to the stairs. Perhaps for a better shot of the exit act? The TikTok comes from
Why was there such lackluster Security at the Rally?
I had a lot of weird things from early on that I thought were just not right. One was the interview by an MSNBC reporter of a man who was supposed to be standing next to Donald at the podium from the onset. He told the reporter something to the effect that he got up there, introduced himself, and was then told by Donald to go ahead and come up to the podium, only to be quickly told, wait, let’s do that later, and shuffled him off to sit somewhere else. I cannot find that clip by my neighbor across the street, who I had been with earlier for cocktails, who told me that she had seen it, too.
I also heard Frank Figluzzi discuss the fact that it was odd that the roof wasn’t in the area where the check-for-weapons zone was. He also said that on the other side was where the protestors were allowed to gather and even march. My thought was, wow! Sounds like a setup to blame a protestor and let the guy onto the roof. The fact that he was a right-wing Republican gun nut just really puts that on display as planning.
One of the most questionable things is that photos of Trump show him looking in the direction of the building where the shooter was. This is precisely when he turned his head to point to his whiteboard. At that point, local police went to the roof, saw him, and went back down the stairs. There was also a hesitation by the Secret Service Sniper to shoot him. Acyn, the Senior Digital Editor for MeidasTouch.com, captured this on CSPN. He’s looking directly at the shooter and then angling towards the White Board. The shooter was only about 165ish feet away from Donald. That’s definitely a distance that a good sniper could handle.
So, several things I noticed from this bit. First, when you speak to a large audience, you look straight ahead. You do not fixate on a spot to your right. Nowadays, politicians use teleprompters, but the ones that are guarded by the Secret Service have bulletproof shields. Do you see one?
I had another conversation with a neighbor this morning who has friends who have been military snipers, and their hypothesis on this I would put under the conspiracy theory. They’re saying they think the Republican Party mainstream was working with the Secret Service to take him out. That’s pure speculation. It’s obvious, though, that there’s something wrong with the security there.
This is from NPR. “The Secret Service is investigating how the man who shot Trump got as close as he did.” House leaders have already ordered a full investigation and demanded the head of the Secret Service testify before them while they have already had a briefing. It is already a bit of the usual zoo since Jim Comer is likely to lead the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
Some of the weirdest Republican attacks have been on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is a 27-year-old veteran of the force. She is being called a DEI hire by really nasty Republican pols. She is the second woman to have the office. Of course, these black faces and the woman who heads the agency are suspected of being in a “deep state.” I won’t go deeper into any of these cringeworthy moments.
On Monday, Cheatle said in a statement: “Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt.”
She added that the Secret Service is working with other law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. … We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
Neither Cheatle or the Secret Service’s communications office have weighed in on criticism of women in the agency more broadly.
I have a few more weird angles from various drones and photogs that make me even more suspicious, but according to White Christian Nationalists, it’s all just a miracle. I’m sticking with a staged attempt ala Putin because that seems more in line with Trump’s lack of anything decent.
So, I’m open to comments and criticism, but this is my case so far. I’m likely not going to leave this rabbit hole for a while. Keep an eye on the things Republicans don’t want you to know. And please, don’t take in any of the stupidity of the Republican Convention. This one is going to be insane.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Preview of the Republican Convention
More Questions from Friends
I have an update from the FBI.
Update on the FBI Investigation of the Attempted Assassination of Former President Donald Trump
Update: July 15, 2024, 3:05 p.m. EDT:The FBI continues to investigate the shooting incident at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and as potential domestic terrorism. The investigation is still in the early stages, and the FBI is providing the following updates:
FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices.
The search of the subject’s residence and vehicle are complete.
The FBI has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses. That work continues.
The FBI has received hundreds of digital media tips which include photos and videos taken at the scene, and we continue to review incoming tips. We encourage anyone with information that may assist with the ongoing investigation to continue to submit it online at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
While the investigative work continues, FBI victim services personnel have offered assistance to the victims of Saturday’s incident.
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/15/monday-reads-i-have-questions/
#AlexJones #CannonDropsStolenDocsCase #CorruptingJudges #IvanLaiklinOnTheBenefitsOfAssassinatingTrump #JudgeLooseCannon #PutinStagedAssassination #republicanPolitics #TrumpStagedAssassination_
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This drone photo of the vent area in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows the building in the upper left-hand corner where the shooter’s body was found.
Dear Sky Dancers, this is not a good day for our Republic.
Judge Cannon used this moment to distract the press from what I believe might be a staged coup attempt by Donald on Donald. He golfed right after the shooting and had no bandages or marks to be seen. I have reached this theory of the case after spending a day and a half asking questions and reviewing materials with JJ, BB, and a friend of my friend PB from the late Fire Dog Lake site. The press is characterizing people like us as BlueAnon conspiracy theorists. Frankly, I just have questions about things. I’m up to being proved wrong. I’m just someone who has watched decades of Law and Order and Criminal Minds, and I’m also smarter than your average bear.
The Cannon decision was based on the bone she was thrown by corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the shocking presidential immunity case. Human Rights Lawyer Qasim Rashid had this to say today on @Threads.
Understand what Judge Cannon did. She saw the non-stop media coverage of the shooting, used that distraction to overturn decades of legal precedent without citing a single case in her ruling’s favor, & dismissed Trump’s classified documents case. This is how republics collapse.
To be sure, Cannon’s absurd ruling is so extreme that only one of the MAGA justices supported it in his immunity decision (Thomas). Her decision will likely be reversed because it has absolutely zero basis in precedent whatsoever.But Cannon’s indefensible opinion still serves its purpose of delaying Trump’s trial long enough to prevent any form of accountability before the November election. That was the move all along. And the DOJ delayed & delayed & that helped Trump get away with this. Smh.
Judge Aileen Cannon and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images/USDC for the Southern District of Florida)
This is from Eric Tucker at the AP. “Federal judge dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns with prosecutor’s appointment.”
The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which can be appealed and may later be overturned by a higher court, brings at least, for now, a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted.
…
It’s the latest stroke of good fortune in the four criminal cases Trump has faced. Though he was convicted in May in his New York hush money trial, the sentencing there has been postponed following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. That opinion will result in significant delays in a separate case brought by Smith charging Trump with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Another election subversion case filed by prosecutors in Atlanta has been delayed by revelations of a romantic relationship between the district attorney and a special prosecutor.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging and found this article from Salon on May 7. “Judge Cannon’s secret right-wing getaway: Why didn’t we know about this? Federal judge in Trump’s documents trial didn’t tell us about those right-wing conferences at a Montana resort.” It’s reported by columnist Lucian Truscott IV.
Let me ask you a question: How many all-expenses-paid vacations at luxury hunting and fishing lodges have you enjoyed over the last few years? I’m not talking about a motel in the boonies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or a drafty log cabin on a lake in Maine or Minnesota. We’re talking about a luxury resort on 1,200 acres alongside the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park. We’re talking about a lodge featuring rooms with stone fireplaces that go for upwards of $1,000 a night in high season, meals that include “house-cured meats from local ranches, garden-fresh produce from nearby farms, and, of course plenty of Northwest craft beers and spirits,” as the resort’s website describes the offerings.
It’s called the Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, and it’s where George Mason University sends gaggles of federal judges for a week-long “colloquium” every year or so. Paid for by the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, the “colloquium” held at the Sage Lodge in 2021, for example, featured lectures on such subjects as “Woke Law!” – and yes, the exclamation point is part of the lecture topic — by one Todd J. Zywicki, who is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and a senior fellow at the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives of the Cato Institute. Another juicy topic covered at the Sage Lodge in 2021 was “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State,” also featuring a lecture by Zywicki, a topic that rings what we might call a rather different bell after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program last year.
The Antonin Scalia Law School, by the way, was established and largely funded by the efforts of Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who helped put together $30 million from conservative donors, including Leo himself, to rename the law school after the late legendary right-wing justice, who it will be remembered died of a heart attack in 2016 at another luxury hunting lodge, that one in Texas, while on a trip paid for by wealthy conservative “friends of the court,” I guess we could call them. The other major donor to the Scalia Law School was the Charles Koch Foundation, which threw in a handy $10 million.
Why are we talking about luxury hunting lodges and right-wing “colloquiums” for judges? Because one of our favorite federal judges, Aileen Cannon of Florida, currently presiding over the case against Donald Trump over the secret documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago, was a guest at that same 2021 “colloquium” at the Sage Lodge, and the one held in 2022 as well. The thing is, Cannon failed to file the form known as a Privately Funded Seminar Disclosure Report, which lists whoever paid for the judge to attend the seminar, who the speakers were and what topics were discussed. The form is supposed to be posted on the website of every federal court within 30 days of the time a judge attending such an all-expenses-paid seminar. Cannon, however, somehow forgot to do so, so anyone who might be interested in learning who was paying for Cannon’s vacations and the nature of her judicial education would have been out of luck.
So why do we suppose Judge Cannon was so shy about who’s paying for her luxury trips and what she might have learned there? Oh, I don’t know … might it be because she didn’t want anyone to know about her links to the Leonard Leo wing of legal theory? Could it have been that she didn’t want it known that she had taken money from an organization that was in large part funded by billionaires friendly to the man whose case she was presiding over?
All these corrupt Republican Judges seem to lead right back to Leonard Leo, don’t they? Something is very rotten here. Marcie of Empty Wheel reads the 93 pages, so we don’t need to.
Procedurally, this may actually not help Trump in the way he’d like (because DOJ has the option of appealing it or having a US Attorney charge Trump).
But it’s also hilarious, since Aileen Cannon has been treating herself like an Appellate Judge that she hasn’t been confirmed to be.
Update: One thing Cannon appears upset about is Merrick Garland’s invocation of Section 533, which appoints FBI-like figures.
Special Counsel Smith argues that Section 533(1) confers on the Attorney General the authority to appoint special counsels, specifically, constitutional officers wielding the “full power and independent authority . . . of any United States Attorney.” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6. After careful review, the Court is convinced that it does not. Congress “does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes.” Whitman v. Am. Trucking Associations, 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). Special Counsel Smith’s interpretation would shoehorn appointment authority for United States Attorney-equivalents into a statute that permits the hiring of FBI law enforcement personnel. Such a reading is unsupported by Section 533’s plain language and statutory context; inconsistent with Congress’s usual legislative practice; and threatens to undermine the “basic separation-of-powers principles” that “give life and content” to the Appointments Clause. Morrison, 487 U.S. at 715 (Scalia, J., dissenting). The Court explains below.
33 Order No. 5730-2023 (appointing David C. Weiss); Order No. 5588-2023 (appointing Robert K. Hur).
That is her only mention of Robert Hur, whose appointment would be unconstitutional under her theory as well. (I’m still trying to figure out whether Cannon will help Hunter Biden go free, too.)
Update: Okay, I’ve read the thing.
It’s hilarious.
It’s hilarious, because it doesn’t create any delay that Cannon was not pursuing anyway. Indeed, Jack Smith could immediately appeal this and try to get her tossed, so it may hasten things (unless Trump wins!).
It’s hilarious because it is unbelievably hubristic. The only credible future for Judge Cannon now is Trump’s first SCOTUS appointment in a second term.
It’s hilarious because the way she did this, if it were upheld (not an impossibility given how nutty SCOTUS has gotten), it would be even more useful for Hunter Biden than Donald Trump (especially if Trump didn’t win reelection), because the statutes of limitation on Hunter’s alleged crimes have started to expire.
So, back to Donald and his surprising recovery from a shooting that killed one and critically injured two. So my Nancy Drew senses started tingling when I saw how composed Donald was after the shooting; he was more worried about getting his shoes than leaving the scene. Posing for pictures all along the way. PB first contacted me with this bit.
Talked to a friend who’s a Psych and body language expert. 100% staged. Look at their unified messaging.
All I could remember where all the times Trump on the last two campaign trails and seemed afraid of everything. This is from Chris Cizzilla and CNN from April 28, 2022. “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.”
Donald Trump feared being killed by thrown fruit.
Yes, you read that right.
In a recently released transcript of a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who alleged they were assaulted by Trump’s security guards at a 2015 campaign rally, the subject of fruit – and fruit being flung, in particular – came up.
Here’s the full – and fully epic – back-and-forth between Trump and Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.
Dictor: Okay. And you said that, ‘If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them would you.’ That was your statement?
Trump: Oh, yeah. It was very dangerous.
Dictor: What was very dangerous?
Trump: We were threatened.
Dictor: With what?
Trump: They were going to throw fruit. We were threatened. We had a threat.
Dictor: How did you become aware that there was a threat that people were going to throw fruit?
Trump: We were told. I thought Secret Service was involved in that, actually. And you get hit with fruit, it’s – no – it’s very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.
Trump attorney Jeffrey Goldman: A tomato is a fruit after all, I guess. … It has seeds.
Just enough time for a NAZI salute also, which is being used by the Press right now. They’re using the fist bumps. The campaign is now using for fundraising and political materials.
And where did Donald get the idea to lead an assassination attempt on himself? This is from Newsweek, May 3, 2023. “Russia Staged Putin ‘Assassination’ to Justify Mass Mobilization: ISW” I know now about self-coups and staged assassination attempts as political tools of fascists. What a world! Funny how Donald has disappeared from the campaign trail for a few weeks but suddenly was paling around with Viktor Orban last week, too.
The alleged attempt to “assassinate” Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely staged by the Kremlin to justify a future effort to mobilize troops for the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian government on Wednesday issued a statement alleging that two Ukrainian drones had been destroyed near Putin’s official residence in Moscow. The Kremlin said that the drones were attempting to carry out “a planned terrorist attack” by assassinating Putin just before “Victory Day” celebrations on May 9. Ukraine has denied any involvement.
While video of the drones dramatically exploding over Kremlin grounds appeared online soon after the purported attack occurred, the incident immediately raised eyebrows, with a number of experts and commentators suggesting that it may have been a staged “propaganda” event intended to drum up Russian support for the war.
ISW, the U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that the Russian government “likely staged” the purported assassination attempt “to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”
And then there’s good old Alex Jones, the father of seeing everything as staged with crisis actors. Listen to this. It’s from Patriot Takes. This is a conversation with Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s Secretary of Retribution. Check him out on TNR: “Trump Ally Exposed for Horrific Hit List of Political Enemies. Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “secretary of retribution” is even more bloodthirsty than the former president.” He’s an absolute skinhead. Both BB and I have posted on him before. Please follow the link to Patriot Takes and watch him talk. It’s bone-chilling. BB found this one.
5 months ago, Alex Jones and InfoWars guest Ivan Raiklin discussed how assassinating Trump would be beneficial, according to them, because it would lead to retaliatory “in kind” assassinations of a “deep state” list which includes President Joe Biden.
Ivan Raiklin: “If they [assassinate Trump], option 2, behind Trump, is going to be so much better for us and so much worse them.”
Alex Jones: “I was about as to say, If they kill him, that’s best case scenario from a sick level. From a sick level medium, ‘Oh, please kill him.’ I mean, it’s so good after that.”
Raiklin: “Oh, it’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I guaran—, I access, with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”
There’s no way to blame Biden for the shooter, given his personal history as a gun-toting right-wing Republican, either. “FBI probing motives, the background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt. Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a “loner.” Authorities believe the AR-15-style rifle he used belonged to his father.” This is from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump’s would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks — a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center — began to emerge.
He had no criminal history, almost no presence on social media, and lived in a middle-class suburb about an hour away from the site of the shooting.
His political leanings were not immediately apparent. Though he was registered as a Republican, according to state voter rolls — and this year’s election would have been the first in which he was eligible to cast a ballot for president — campaign finance reports show a man with the same name gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in January 2021, on the day Biden was sworn into office.***
Crooks’ father, Matthew, reached by CNN late Saturday, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell [was] going on” and declined to comment further until he had spoken with authorities. Attempts to reach other family members were unsuccessful Sunday.
Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI’s field office in Pittsburgh, told reporters Sunday that agents recovered bomb-making material from inside Crooks’ car and his residence. The rifle he used in the attack, which was believed to have been purchased at least six months earlier by his father, as well as Crooks’ cell phone and other evidence had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., “for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said.
Meanwhile, several former classmates offered conflicting characterizations of Crooks. Some described him as a loner who had been bullied during his high school years. Jason Kohler, who graduated alongside Crooks, told reporters that students had harassed him “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said.
*** Author note: There’s some evidence this was not the shooter but a 69-year-old man with the same name from Pittsburg.
Here are some additional things I have questions about. Most of these are based on photography at the scene. For example, Kim Wexler’s Ponytail shows this TikTok of a New Angle of Trump at Rally shooting. It basically shows either Donald’s bodyguards or the Secret Service moving photographers close to the stairs. Perhaps for a better shot of the exit act? The TikTok comes from
Why was there such lackluster Security at the Rally?
I had a lot of weird things from early on that I thought were just not right. One was the interview by an MSNBC reporter of a man who was supposed to be standing next to Donald at the podium from the onset. He told the reporter something to the effect that he got up there, introduced himself, and was then told by Donald to go ahead and come up to the podium, only to be quickly told, wait, let’s do that later, and shuffled him off to sit somewhere else. I cannot find that clip by my neighbor across the street, who I had been with earlier for cocktails, who told me that she had seen it, too.
I also heard Frank Figluzzi discuss the fact that it was odd that the roof wasn’t in the area where the check-for-weapons zone was. He also said that on the other side was where the protestors were allowed to gather and even march. My thought was, wow! Sounds like a setup to blame a protestor and let the guy onto the roof. The fact that he was a right-wing Republican gun nut just really puts that on display as planning.
One of the most questionable things is that photos of Trump show him looking in the direction of the building where the shooter was. This is precisely when he turned his head to point to his whiteboard. At that point, local police went to the roof, saw him, and went back down the stairs. There was also a hesitation by the Secret Service Sniper to shoot him. Acyn, the Senior Digital Editor for MeidasTouch.com, captured this on CSPN. He’s looking directly at the shooter and then angling towards the White Board. The shooter was only about 165ish feet away from Donald. That’s definitely a distance that a good sniper could handle.
So, several things I noticed from this bit. First, when you speak to a large audience, you look straight ahead. You do not fixate on a spot to your right. Nowadays, politicians use teleprompters, but the ones that are guarded by the Secret Service have bulletproof shields. Do you see one?
I had another conversation with a neighbor this morning who has friends who have been military snipers, and their hypothesis on this I would put under the conspiracy theory. They’re saying they think the Republican Party mainstream was working with the Secret Service to take him out. That’s pure speculation. It’s obvious, though, that there’s something wrong with the security there.
This is from NPR. “The Secret Service is investigating how the man who shot Trump got as close as he did.” House leaders have already ordered a full investigation and demanded the head of the Secret Service testify before them while they have already had a briefing. It is already a bit of the usual zoo since Jim Comer is likely to lead the investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
Some of the weirdest Republican attacks have been on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is a 27-year-old veteran of the force. She is being called a DEI hire by really nasty Republican pols. She is the second woman to have the office. Of course, these black faces and the woman who heads the agency are suspected of being in a “deep state.” I won’t go deeper into any of these cringeworthy moments.
On Monday, Cheatle said in a statement: “Since the shooting, I have been in constant contact with Secret Service personnel in Pennsylvania who worked to maintain the integrity of the crime scene until the FBI assumed its role as the lead investigating agency into the assassination attempt.”
She added that the Secret Service is working with other law enforcement agencies to “understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. … We will also work with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
Neither Cheatle or the Secret Service’s communications office have weighed in on criticism of women in the agency more broadly.
I have a few more weird angles from various drones and photogs that make me even more suspicious, but according to White Christian Nationalists, it’s all just a miracle. I’m sticking with a staged attempt ala Putin because that seems more in line with Trump’s lack of anything decent.
So, I’m open to comments and criticism, but this is my case so far. I’m likely not going to leave this rabbit hole for a while. Keep an eye on the things Republicans don’t want you to know. And please, don’t take in any of the stupidity of the Republican Convention. This one is going to be insane.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Preview of the Republican Convention
More Questions from Friends
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/07/15/monday-reads-i-have-questions/
#AlexJones #CannonDropsStolenDocsCase #CorruptingJudges #IvanLaiklinOnTheBenefitsOfAssassinatingTrump #JudgeLooseCannon #PutinStagedAssassination #republicanPolitics #TrumpStagedAssassination_
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Report By Amy Corbin
Posted October 1, 2004
Updated April 1, 2010"For more than two decades, the #Shoshone and #Paiute peoples, scientists, #environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain. The federal government had selected the mountain to become the nation’s primary dumping ground for deadly, high-level #NuclearWaste, but the long-contested project is at last on its way to being closed. Meanwhile, the #WesternShoshone fight off federal efforts to sell their land in order to give multinational #corporations access to its #mineral resources. But the Western Shoshone stand firm. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said, 'Western Shoshone title is still intact… We’ve never accepted their money and never will — our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.'
The Land and Its People
"Yucca Mountain is located within the Western Shoshone Nation and has long been a place of powerful spiritual energy for the Shoshone and the Paiute. To the Western Shoshone it is #SnakeMountain, a place with rock rings that transmit prayers to the Great Spirit and messages back to the people. The late Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney told a traditional story that Snake Mountain will one day be awakened and split open, spewing out poison. This prophecy may predict the potential disaster of #volcanic activity and nuclear waste leakage. Shoshone ancestors are buried in the mountain and the water in the area is sacred, as it is with many desert peoples.
"The 60 million acres of Western Shoshone territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California, which includes Yucca Mountain, was never deeded to the U.S. government. According to the 1863 #RubyValleyTreaty that the Shoshone signed with the government, most of the area now used by the U.S. military for #NuclearWeapons testing and the proposed waste storage site was explicitly recognized as Shoshone land. However, the U.S. government now claims 80 to 90 percent of it, meaning that the Shoshone are unable to control what happens on their ancestral land. Legislators continue to try to persuade the Shoshone to accept financial compensation for this land, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims, easing the way for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage, as well as resource #extraction.
"In the late 1970s government scientists began to study Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for nuclear waste, and since 1987 it has been the only site considered for 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. While the Yucca Mountain Project has been debated, the amount of nuclear waste needing burial has already surpassed what the repository was designed to hold. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to sit in steel-lined pools or casks near power plants throughout the country that produce 2,000 tons of high-level waste per year. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years."
[...]
"The Yucca Mountain Project calls for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an assumption that environmentalists and many scientists say is flawed and dangerous. Surface water percolating into the mountain will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions that produce food products for the entire country.
"In 2005, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman confirmed that internal department e-mails allude to the #falsification of data on how quickly water flows through Yucca Mountain. This revelation caused a federal investigation, and condemnation from Congress triggered the Department of Energy to completely reorganize the project and lay off 500 employees. Robert Hager, attorney for the Western Shoshone, said that the Yucca site would have been disqualified years ago if the true nature of the subterranean water flow was known.
"With several local #FaultLines and a #volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste. There are also grave concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste over long distances through several U.S. states, particularly in an era of terrorist threats. During the later Bush years, as environmental concerns mounted and citizens from other states grew more leery, the project began to look more and more unlikely."
Read more:
https://sacredland.org/yucca-mountain-united-states/#EnvironmentalRacism #Pauite #PauiteShoshone #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #RespectTheTreaties #NoNukes #NoDumping
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Report By Amy Corbin
Posted October 1, 2004
Updated April 1, 2010"For more than two decades, the #Shoshone and #Paiute peoples, scientists, #environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain. The federal government had selected the mountain to become the nation’s primary dumping ground for deadly, high-level #NuclearWaste, but the long-contested project is at last on its way to being closed. Meanwhile, the #WesternShoshone fight off federal efforts to sell their land in order to give multinational #corporations access to its #mineral resources. But the Western Shoshone stand firm. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said, 'Western Shoshone title is still intact… We’ve never accepted their money and never will — our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.'
The Land and Its People
"Yucca Mountain is located within the Western Shoshone Nation and has long been a place of powerful spiritual energy for the Shoshone and the Paiute. To the Western Shoshone it is #SnakeMountain, a place with rock rings that transmit prayers to the Great Spirit and messages back to the people. The late Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney told a traditional story that Snake Mountain will one day be awakened and split open, spewing out poison. This prophecy may predict the potential disaster of #volcanic activity and nuclear waste leakage. Shoshone ancestors are buried in the mountain and the water in the area is sacred, as it is with many desert peoples.
"The 60 million acres of Western Shoshone territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California, which includes Yucca Mountain, was never deeded to the U.S. government. According to the 1863 #RubyValleyTreaty that the Shoshone signed with the government, most of the area now used by the U.S. military for #NuclearWeapons testing and the proposed waste storage site was explicitly recognized as Shoshone land. However, the U.S. government now claims 80 to 90 percent of it, meaning that the Shoshone are unable to control what happens on their ancestral land. Legislators continue to try to persuade the Shoshone to accept financial compensation for this land, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims, easing the way for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage, as well as resource #extraction.
"In the late 1970s government scientists began to study Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for nuclear waste, and since 1987 it has been the only site considered for 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. While the Yucca Mountain Project has been debated, the amount of nuclear waste needing burial has already surpassed what the repository was designed to hold. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to sit in steel-lined pools or casks near power plants throughout the country that produce 2,000 tons of high-level waste per year. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years."
[...]
"The Yucca Mountain Project calls for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an assumption that environmentalists and many scientists say is flawed and dangerous. Surface water percolating into the mountain will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions that produce food products for the entire country.
"In 2005, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman confirmed that internal department e-mails allude to the #falsification of data on how quickly water flows through Yucca Mountain. This revelation caused a federal investigation, and condemnation from Congress triggered the Department of Energy to completely reorganize the project and lay off 500 employees. Robert Hager, attorney for the Western Shoshone, said that the Yucca site would have been disqualified years ago if the true nature of the subterranean water flow was known.
"With several local #FaultLines and a #volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste. There are also grave concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste over long distances through several U.S. states, particularly in an era of terrorist threats. During the later Bush years, as environmental concerns mounted and citizens from other states grew more leery, the project began to look more and more unlikely."
Read more:
https://sacredland.org/yucca-mountain-united-states/#EnvironmentalRacism #Pauite #PauiteShoshone #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #RespectTheTreaties #NoNukes #NoDumping
-
Report By Amy Corbin
Posted October 1, 2004
Updated April 1, 2010"For more than two decades, the #Shoshone and #Paiute peoples, scientists, #environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain. The federal government had selected the mountain to become the nation’s primary dumping ground for deadly, high-level #NuclearWaste, but the long-contested project is at last on its way to being closed. Meanwhile, the #WesternShoshone fight off federal efforts to sell their land in order to give multinational #corporations access to its #mineral resources. But the Western Shoshone stand firm. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said, 'Western Shoshone title is still intact… We’ve never accepted their money and never will — our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.'
The Land and Its People
"Yucca Mountain is located within the Western Shoshone Nation and has long been a place of powerful spiritual energy for the Shoshone and the Paiute. To the Western Shoshone it is #SnakeMountain, a place with rock rings that transmit prayers to the Great Spirit and messages back to the people. The late Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney told a traditional story that Snake Mountain will one day be awakened and split open, spewing out poison. This prophecy may predict the potential disaster of #volcanic activity and nuclear waste leakage. Shoshone ancestors are buried in the mountain and the water in the area is sacred, as it is with many desert peoples.
"The 60 million acres of Western Shoshone territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California, which includes Yucca Mountain, was never deeded to the U.S. government. According to the 1863 #RubyValleyTreaty that the Shoshone signed with the government, most of the area now used by the U.S. military for #NuclearWeapons testing and the proposed waste storage site was explicitly recognized as Shoshone land. However, the U.S. government now claims 80 to 90 percent of it, meaning that the Shoshone are unable to control what happens on their ancestral land. Legislators continue to try to persuade the Shoshone to accept financial compensation for this land, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims, easing the way for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage, as well as resource #extraction.
"In the late 1970s government scientists began to study Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for nuclear waste, and since 1987 it has been the only site considered for 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. While the Yucca Mountain Project has been debated, the amount of nuclear waste needing burial has already surpassed what the repository was designed to hold. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to sit in steel-lined pools or casks near power plants throughout the country that produce 2,000 tons of high-level waste per year. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years."
[...]
"The Yucca Mountain Project calls for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an assumption that environmentalists and many scientists say is flawed and dangerous. Surface water percolating into the mountain will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions that produce food products for the entire country.
"In 2005, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman confirmed that internal department e-mails allude to the #falsification of data on how quickly water flows through Yucca Mountain. This revelation caused a federal investigation, and condemnation from Congress triggered the Department of Energy to completely reorganize the project and lay off 500 employees. Robert Hager, attorney for the Western Shoshone, said that the Yucca site would have been disqualified years ago if the true nature of the subterranean water flow was known.
"With several local #FaultLines and a #volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste. There are also grave concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste over long distances through several U.S. states, particularly in an era of terrorist threats. During the later Bush years, as environmental concerns mounted and citizens from other states grew more leery, the project began to look more and more unlikely."
Read more:
https://sacredland.org/yucca-mountain-united-states/#EnvironmentalRacism #Pauite #PauiteShoshone #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #RespectTheTreaties #NoNukes #NoDumping
-
Report By Amy Corbin
Posted October 1, 2004
Updated April 1, 2010"For more than two decades, the #Shoshone and #Paiute peoples, scientists, #environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain. The federal government had selected the mountain to become the nation’s primary dumping ground for deadly, high-level #NuclearWaste, but the long-contested project is at last on its way to being closed. Meanwhile, the #WesternShoshone fight off federal efforts to sell their land in order to give multinational #corporations access to its #mineral resources. But the Western Shoshone stand firm. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said, 'Western Shoshone title is still intact… We’ve never accepted their money and never will — our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.'
The Land and Its People
"Yucca Mountain is located within the Western Shoshone Nation and has long been a place of powerful spiritual energy for the Shoshone and the Paiute. To the Western Shoshone it is #SnakeMountain, a place with rock rings that transmit prayers to the Great Spirit and messages back to the people. The late Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney told a traditional story that Snake Mountain will one day be awakened and split open, spewing out poison. This prophecy may predict the potential disaster of #volcanic activity and nuclear waste leakage. Shoshone ancestors are buried in the mountain and the water in the area is sacred, as it is with many desert peoples.
"The 60 million acres of Western Shoshone territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California, which includes Yucca Mountain, was never deeded to the U.S. government. According to the 1863 #RubyValleyTreaty that the Shoshone signed with the government, most of the area now used by the U.S. military for #NuclearWeapons testing and the proposed waste storage site was explicitly recognized as Shoshone land. However, the U.S. government now claims 80 to 90 percent of it, meaning that the Shoshone are unable to control what happens on their ancestral land. Legislators continue to try to persuade the Shoshone to accept financial compensation for this land, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims, easing the way for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage, as well as resource #extraction.
"In the late 1970s government scientists began to study Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for nuclear waste, and since 1987 it has been the only site considered for 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. While the Yucca Mountain Project has been debated, the amount of nuclear waste needing burial has already surpassed what the repository was designed to hold. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to sit in steel-lined pools or casks near power plants throughout the country that produce 2,000 tons of high-level waste per year. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years."
[...]
"The Yucca Mountain Project calls for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an assumption that environmentalists and many scientists say is flawed and dangerous. Surface water percolating into the mountain will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions that produce food products for the entire country.
"In 2005, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman confirmed that internal department e-mails allude to the #falsification of data on how quickly water flows through Yucca Mountain. This revelation caused a federal investigation, and condemnation from Congress triggered the Department of Energy to completely reorganize the project and lay off 500 employees. Robert Hager, attorney for the Western Shoshone, said that the Yucca site would have been disqualified years ago if the true nature of the subterranean water flow was known.
"With several local #FaultLines and a #volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste. There are also grave concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste over long distances through several U.S. states, particularly in an era of terrorist threats. During the later Bush years, as environmental concerns mounted and citizens from other states grew more leery, the project began to look more and more unlikely."
Read more:
https://sacredland.org/yucca-mountain-united-states/#EnvironmentalRacism #Pauite #PauiteShoshone #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #RespectTheTreaties #NoNukes #NoDumping
-
Report By Amy Corbin
Posted October 1, 2004
Updated April 1, 2010"For more than two decades, the #Shoshone and #Paiute peoples, scientists, #environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain. The federal government had selected the mountain to become the nation’s primary dumping ground for deadly, high-level #NuclearWaste, but the long-contested project is at last on its way to being closed. Meanwhile, the #WesternShoshone fight off federal efforts to sell their land in order to give multinational #corporations access to its #mineral resources. But the Western Shoshone stand firm. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said, 'Western Shoshone title is still intact… We’ve never accepted their money and never will — our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.'
The Land and Its People
"Yucca Mountain is located within the Western Shoshone Nation and has long been a place of powerful spiritual energy for the Shoshone and the Paiute. To the Western Shoshone it is #SnakeMountain, a place with rock rings that transmit prayers to the Great Spirit and messages back to the people. The late Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney told a traditional story that Snake Mountain will one day be awakened and split open, spewing out poison. This prophecy may predict the potential disaster of #volcanic activity and nuclear waste leakage. Shoshone ancestors are buried in the mountain and the water in the area is sacred, as it is with many desert peoples.
"The 60 million acres of Western Shoshone territory in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California, which includes Yucca Mountain, was never deeded to the U.S. government. According to the 1863 #RubyValleyTreaty that the Shoshone signed with the government, most of the area now used by the U.S. military for #NuclearWeapons testing and the proposed waste storage site was explicitly recognized as Shoshone land. However, the U.S. government now claims 80 to 90 percent of it, meaning that the Shoshone are unable to control what happens on their ancestral land. Legislators continue to try to persuade the Shoshone to accept financial compensation for this land, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims, easing the way for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage, as well as resource #extraction.
"In the late 1970s government scientists began to study Yucca Mountain as a possible repository for nuclear waste, and since 1987 it has been the only site considered for 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. While the Yucca Mountain Project has been debated, the amount of nuclear waste needing burial has already surpassed what the repository was designed to hold. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to sit in steel-lined pools or casks near power plants throughout the country that produce 2,000 tons of high-level waste per year. The waste is lethal for 10,000 years and dangerous for 250,000 years."
[...]
"The Yucca Mountain Project calls for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an assumption that environmentalists and many scientists say is flawed and dangerous. Surface water percolating into the mountain will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions that produce food products for the entire country.
"In 2005, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman confirmed that internal department e-mails allude to the #falsification of data on how quickly water flows through Yucca Mountain. This revelation caused a federal investigation, and condemnation from Congress triggered the Department of Energy to completely reorganize the project and lay off 500 employees. Robert Hager, attorney for the Western Shoshone, said that the Yucca site would have been disqualified years ago if the true nature of the subterranean water flow was known.
"With several local #FaultLines and a #volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste. There are also grave concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste over long distances through several U.S. states, particularly in an era of terrorist threats. During the later Bush years, as environmental concerns mounted and citizens from other states grew more leery, the project began to look more and more unlikely."
Read more:
https://sacredland.org/yucca-mountain-united-states/#EnvironmentalRacism #Pauite #PauiteShoshone #CulturalGenocide #NativeAmericans #nuclear #nuclearwaste #WaterIsLife #RespectTheTreaties #NoNukes #NoDumping
-
From Boom to Bust (Part 4)
I have talked about my frequent sleep disturbances in the form of nightmares, but I should also mention that I often sleepwalked as well. We camped all the way up and down the west coast, as far as British Columbia in the north; as far as Carpinteria to the south. At the far end of one of these adventures we visited my dad’s extended family in Riverside. During that stay my mother remembered me sleepwalking into their room, urinating in the corner, then curling up to sleep in an open suitcase. I also wet the bed until I was seven. Exasperated, my parents decided one time to humiliate me by putting me in a cloth diaper with plastic pants. I vividly remember the embarrassment and discomfort of the tight elastic and the fear of getting poked by the safety pins as they struggled to secure the diaper while I squirmed in resistance. I think it actually worked though: I finally stopped peeing the bed.
A month before my seventh birthday I came home for lunch looking forward to a nice toasted-cheese sandwich and some Campbell’s tomato soup, only to find my mother seated at the big round dining table, sobbing with her tear-stained face in her hands. “What’s wrong, Mom?” I asked. I had never seen her like this. She looked up at me and said, despairing, “They shot Robert Kennedy! They’re assassinating all of our leaders.” Only two months earlier our family had reeled from the blow of Martin Luther King being killed. He was a hero to us. Now this. At six years old I had no words. I just tried to absorb the horror. It was bad enough seeing the Vietnam war and the civil rights struggles on the news every night. It did seem the world was coming apart. I also recall her saying on more than one occasion, “Heaven forbid Ronald Reagan ever be elected president: he will call up the National Guard and end democracy.” This was way back in the 1960s when Reagan was still Governor of California. She knew all about the rightwing conspiracies that were already afoot; the white panic over civil rights and the militarism that permeated our culture. It certainly shaped my worldview and created a fatalistic sense of anxiety about the future. And let’s not even talk about the overarching sense of dread the Cold War induced.
Later that summer we found out that my father had received a Rockefeller fellowship, which meant he would be going to Bellingham, Washington for two years to get his master’s degree. I felt his absence keenly. Long-distance phone calls were very expensive and thus few and far between, but he did mail us tape-recorded messages regularly. We would gather around the reel-to-reel tape recorder in his now empty study to listen, then we each had a turn to record a message of our own to be mailed to him in return. It was fun, but it was a poor substitute for actually hanging out with him.
My mother decided that with my father gone, I might benefit from being enrolled in the Catholic school that my older siblings had been attending. I had been thriving socially at the public elementary school half a block from our house. I was very popular with the kids and teachers alike. I liked it being so close. Now I had to ride my bike half a mile to the Catholic school where I didn’t know anyone. It did not go well. My teacher was the notorious Sister Anne Joachim (pronounced “Joke ’em”), a tiny old Irish nun with a thick accent who was known for brandishing a wooden rod. Everyone but me seemed to know she was no longer allowed to actually strike the kids with it. I’m sure I visibly flinched whenever she slapped a ruler on the corner of my desk. She would yell, “Gawk, you idiot!” whenever I failed to instantly name the capitol of a state. Flash cards were the worst. We were supposed to memorize our multiplication tables up to thirteen. I was trying to learn them, but my brain would freeze whenever I was confronted with a flash card, and whereas I was considered the smartest kid in class at the public school, I now felt like a complete moron and was treated as such. The bullying from the altar boy clique was unbearable. I felt like I had been sentenced to a gulag.
Even boys a year younger learned they could pick on me at recess and get away with it. My mom was a devout Catholic and had taught me to be Christlike, turning the other cheek and choosing non-violence. So I took it, trying to rise above it all. But one day on the playground I hit my limit. This one second-grader (I was in third) just kept after me, endlessly taunting. A switch flipped in my brain. I lost all restraint, deciding it was time to beat his brains in. I tried to grab his jacket, intending to hold him with my left hand and beat his face with my right fist until he was dead. But he slipped out of my grasp and ran away. I went after him. I was always among the three fastest boys at my old school and I was sure I could catch this twerp, but he kept getting away. Round and round the blacktop we went, other kids scurrying to avoid us. I summoned one last sprint to catch him on a curve, but I ended up facedown in a large puddle. Everyone was screaming and laughing at me, and the last thing I remember was looking up to see my eldest sister a few feet away looking at me, then turning away in disgust. I had hit bottom.
A day or two later my mom told me that she was pulling me out of that school and re-enrolling me in my beloved public school! I was confused but elated. After months of silently staring out the window of the classroom, watching the clouds move outside while daydreaming I was on an old wooden sailing vessel on the high seas, I was going to be back in my element with my old friends. (Years later I found out from my eldest sister, who had been thirteen at the time, that she had had a talk with my mom that night, advising her to get me out of there. Bless her!) I will never forget the moment the principal brought me into the third grade classroom. The teacher (who I didn’t know yet) stood before the class and said, “Kids, we have a new student joining our class today, his name is…” Before she could even finish three boys literally jumped over a table and ran towards me yelling, “Kirk!” The king had returned from exile!
Unfortunately, the damage was done. Years later, in psychotherapy at the age of thirteen, the two topics we centered on initially were the pants-down spankings and the Catholic school. But by then there was so much more going on.
-
This symbol of the endless knot features the Green Wood-Dragon. Wood Dragon years come every 60 years. The dragon is associated with incredible strength, positive transformation, and challenges. The element wood symbolizes creativity and adaptability.
𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗔𝗥 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗛𝗜 𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗞!
Happy New Year of the Wood Dragon, Sky Dancers!
It would be now if we ever needed an auspicious Lunar New Year prediction. Fortunately, we are in the year of the Green Wood Dragon. So, here’s the soothsaying for the year from CNN. “What’s in store for the Year of the Dragon?” The Dragon is the only mythical creature in this zodiac. That’s special.
“This year will also be significant because it’s the year when the world enters a new chapter from the eighth period to the ninth period of Xuan Kong flying star.”
She explains that there are nine Xuan Kong flying stars that affect the feng shui of the world. Each of them lords over us for two decades before passing the torch to the next star.
The year 2024 marks the beginning of the next 20-year reign under the ninth flying star.
“The number nine star represents feminine energy – so ladies are going to take over in a lot of the areas. It also represents technology, art and design as well as spirituality,” says Chow.
I always see reading these forecasts as aspirational; in other words, if we think about them, we can make them happen. We certainly need to make something happen right now.
Yesterday was an insane news day. The SCOTUS hearing on the Colorado 14th Amendment was heard yesterday morning. There weas a live stream broadcast of the voices only. I heard Clarence Thomas fall asleep a few times and leave early via a young activist I follow on Threads. I also found out that was not unusual. When you’re just a paid vote, there’s not much to say, do, or think about.
I will make this our top story today, even though it appears the media is more interested in parsing every word President Biden spoke while looking through one of the more opinionated special counsel reports I’ve ever seen. The press is less involved with the idea that Joe was not determined to have any grounds for prosecution than with the description of him as an elderly man who forgets many things. If I were questioned on the past 40 years of my life while trying to handle the US response to the Hamas attack on Israel, I’d be a bit muddled, too. We also learned that Special Counsel Jack Smith is questioning a decision on how flooded everyone will be with various top-secret documents that the folks who moved the boxes around probably didn’t even see.
This is from NBC News. “Supreme Court signals unlikely to let Colorado kick Trump off the ballot. Trump is appealing a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that said he could be barred from the Republican primary ballot because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”
he Supreme Court on Thursday signaled deep skepticism that Colorado had the power to remove former President Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot because of his actions trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
A majority of the justices appeared to think during the two-hour argument that states do not have a role in deciding whether a presidential candidate can be barred from running under a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that bars people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
Justices from across the ideological spectrum raised concerns about states reaching different conclusions on whether a candidate could run, and several indicated that only Congress could enforce the provision at issue.
Throughout the argument, the justices barely touched upon the meaty issue at the center of the case: whether Trump participated in an insurrection. The ruling is unlikely to hinge on that question.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is tackling several novel and consequential legal issues concerning Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, enacted in the wake of the Civil War. Colorado voters filed a lawsuit saying Trump should be barred because of his efforts to defy the 2020 election results in events that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Section 3, aimed at preventing former Confederates from returning to power in the U.S. government, says anyone who had previously served as an “officer of the United States” and was then involved in an insurrection would be barred from holding federal office.
But during the oral argument, justices pushed back on the idea that the provision can be enforced by states.
So many of these oral arguments were framed around various words. Trump’s lawyers have been arguing various things around the applicability of the presidency to the idea of an “office.” I just have one question. If that’s the case, why have a big parade and inaugural whoop-ti-do surrounding the president taking “the oath of office.” If we’ve done this inaugural oath for a long time and named it as taking an ‘oath of office’, doesn’t that mean he’s an “officer of the United States.” I hate word games, and this seemed a lot like one.
You might find it interesting that this case is known as Trump V Anderson. Norma Anderson is a 91-year-old Legislator from Colorado and a lifelong Republican. This is from Politico.
Norma Anderson — the Anderson in the Trump v. Anderson case that the Supreme Court will hear on Thursday — is taking on Trump over whether he is eligible to serve as president after his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Anderson, a lifelong Republican who rose through the state party to become one of the top GOP lawmakers in Colorado, said she immediately agreed to participate when recruited by an attorney working with the liberal government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
“When asked, and when duty calls, you do it,” she told POLITICO. “My reason for doing it is saving democracy. Because Donald Trump will destroy our democracy.”
The case rests on an interpretation of a clause in the 14th Amendment that says those who “engaged in” an insurrection against the United States after taking an oath to “support” the Constitution are ineligible to hold future office.It takes a lot of chutzpah and bravery to face down the crazies in the Trump Cult. This is from The Atlantic. “The Supreme Court Is Eager to Rid Itself of This Difficult Trump Question. It just doesn’t know how.” This analysis is written by Quinta Jurecic
Two things seemed clear after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson, the case concerning whether Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment bars Donald Trump from the presidency as an insurrectionist. First, most of the justices want to rule in Trump’s favor. Second, they’re struggling to figure out how to do so.
Maybe Section 3 doesn’t apply to the presidency per se, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson said—and perhaps, along those same lines, it doesn’t prohibit oath-breaking former presidents from holding future office either? Or perhaps, Justice Samuel Alito pondered, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits insurrectionists from holding office, but not from running for it? Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed enamored of the idea that the amendment doesn’t allow states to disqualify candidates for federal office—as Colorado did here—without Congress first giving the go-ahead. In a related line of inquiry, which the justices seemed to coalesce around as arguments went on, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan suggested that perhaps there’s something inappropriate about allowing individual states to make decisions that could potentially determine a national election.
Brandi Buchman reports on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s move last night in the Stolen Documents Case. This is from Law & Crime. “‘Relentless and misleading’: Jack Smith shreds new Trump motion as proof he will ‘stop at nothing’ to delay Mar-a-Lago documents case.” Judge Loose Cannon is at it again.
In a new motion, special counsel Jack Smith shredded Donald Trump’s latest attempt to indefinitely delay the classified documents case in Florida before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, urging the court to resist the former president’s efforts to “stop at nothing” to delay facing a jury.
“Their objective is plain — to delay trial as long as possible. And the tactics they deploy are relentless and misleading — they will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens. The Court should promptly reject the defendants’ motion,” Smith wrote in the 9-page brief filed in Florida late Thursday.
A tentative May 20 trial date has been set but it increasingly looks like that won’t get off the ground as Cannon has agreed to extend deadlines for other pretrial issues. For now, the next hearing approaches on March 1 when federal prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers will convene to discuss the schedule.
Meanwhile, Smith is eager to keep things on track and in the terse motion, lamented to Cannon that Trump’s pretrial motions for the indictment were due in November and yet, he reminded her, that deadline was vacated the same day.
Trump’s lawyers were either simply unprepared or were flatly ignoring court orders, according to the special counsel, and now, three months on, as Trump’s team has filed requests to adjourn the case completely, they still come asking for more time to file pretrial documents.
“This sequence of events fully exposes the defendants’ motive here: to achieve delay,” Smith wrote.
So, I have to write about the Hur Report, which basically showed a contrast between a President who did everything to hold on to documents he purposefully heisted and one who thought his aides were doing everything correctly and didn’t check on them. It’s turned into a discussion about Biden’s mental state, which is way out of this guy’s pay level. Now, we’re just endlessly hearing about the age thing. This is from Josh Marshall, who wrote it in Talking Points Memo. People age somewhat differently. My mother was unable to fend off dementia in her 70s. My father was good up until his 90s. I have senior moments, but I can’t do my job or live my life. Trump’s got advanced dementia. Biden has senior moments.
Let me share a few thoughts on the Biden special counsel report.
First off, this is another example of the universal rule: Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Democrats. And Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Republicans. It may not have been a great idea for Merrick Garland to have a two-time Trump appointee investigate Joe Biden. But here we are. Robert Hur totally slimed Biden with these gratuitous comments about his mental acuity and memory, referring to him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Even if you assume they are the product of a good faith evaluation they are still wildly inappropriate.
DOJ guidelines make clear that if you’re not bringing charges you don’t bash the subject of the investigation in your announcement (a la James Comey). You certainly aren’t supposed to affirmatively attempt to demean the subject of the investigation with clearly political attacks that aren’t even related to what you’re investigating. Hur might as well have called him “Fake News Joe Biden.” It’s really that transparent and that bad.
Are we sure that Hur let his political bias get in the way of his professional judgment? Can we draw that from his background as a politically connected Republican lawyer? I don’t even think it’s a serious question. The lengthy and gratuitous comments speak for themselves. Of course he did.
The descriptions in the report sound bad because they are designed to sound bad. These are from a five hour discussion the day after the October 7th attacks on Israel when I’m sure Biden was focused on that unfolding crisis. Without watching the interview we have no way of knowing whether these are representative of the tenor of the conversation or cherry-picked gotchas.
But there’s no crying in baseball. Entirely justified outrage from Biden supporters won’t counter whatever damage these comments will have. The White House will need to get Biden in front of interviewers, where he actually does quite well, and in widely seen venues, to counter it. It’s really as simple as that.
On the merits, some of these quotes that Hur came up with really do suggest that Biden knew in some sense that he had classified material in the documents or at least made references to it being in his possession. I need to look more closely at the specifics. And it’s still a prosecutor’s brief. But that did surprise me. And not in a good way.
Emptywheel has a few things to say about the report, too. “ROBERT HUR’S BOX-CHECKING.” She really breaks it down for us.
This is a closing argument. This language is wildly inappropriate in a declination memo, because Hur didn’t find the evidence to back this story!
Worse still, it’s stupid. Because all Biden needed for vindication was that 40-page memo, the one he mentioned in the very same sentence as he mentioned the classified documents. The one stored inside the house, not in a discarded box in the garage. The one he never used during the 2020 election.
But Hur was undeterred by a stupid motive argument.
Next, after admitting that the FBI never succeeded in tracing the Afghan documents, much less proving they were in the basement of the Virginia house, he used this photo analysis to claim that the box found in the garage is the same one that appeared in two pictures taken in Biden’s Wilmington office in 2019, shortly after everything was shipped from Virginia to Delaware.
If you look at news aggregators like Memorandum, you’d think this was the only story in the world to follow right now. What we have here is a failure to communicate. A few articles like this are up today, given Nevada’s debacle of a primary/caucus vote. Blocking votes is a Republican strategy. “How Trump turned the GOP into the party of lawless disorder. Can Republicans win by promoting contempt for the rule of law? We’re about to find out.” It’s written by David R Lurie at Public Notice.
In the wake of his loss, Trump gave up any pretense of standing for law and order. He schemed to undue the outcome of the election, culminating in a violent attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters in a desperate attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory.
With his recent victories in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, Trump made it a virtual certainty that he will again be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. But as he prepares for his third general election campaign, Trump is making clear that he will be a very different candidate this time.
It is Trump the insurrectionist who will be running at the top of the 2024 GOP ticket. Trump has discarded even the pretense that he intends to “fix” the nation, let alone foster order and respect for the rule of law. The upcoming election is therefore lining up as a test of whether an anti-law and order Republican can win the presidency. Trump and his supporters have made that all the more clear over the past several weeks, after Trump’s early primary victories sealed his status as the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.
Trump celebrated his New Hampshire win by setting out to further alienate women voters. During his “victory” speech, he relentlessly engaged in misogynistic and racist attacks on his sole remaining primary opponent, Nikki Haley.
Trump them flew to New York for the apparent purpose of drawing further attention to the fact that a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting and then defaming E. Jean Carroll. He devoted his short time in the courtroom to expressing contempt for Carroll, the judge and even the jury, which proceeded to award Carroll more than $83 million.
Unsurprisingly given all this, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found that, just over the past several weeks, Trump managed to widen the already gaping gender gap he faces in November. Women voters now support Biden over Trump 58 to 36 percent, versus 53 to 41 percent in December 2023. Apparently pleased with that debacle, Trump indicated that he plans to spend the campaign shuttling between courtrooms wherein he is a criminal defendant.
Then, after the GOP successfully forced Biden to accept a “border security” bill filled with GOP priorities in return for providing funding for Ukraine, Trump stepped in to successfully pressure Republicans to scuttle the Republican bill.
Trump, and his most loyal MAGA acolytes, were open and transparent about the reason for their about face: They want the Department of Homeland Security to remain as overwhelmed and under-resourced as possible during the months prior to the election. In short, they want to maintain an appearance of chaos.
All this chaos is really tough on this old lady. But I’m now near the incoherent stream of blather from the Orange One. Neither too much wine or lack of sleep or signs of aging make me sound this insane. Trump sounds like he has an inchoate understanding of reality day in and day out.
Krugman: 'Disgusting' obsession with Biden’s age ignores Trump’s 'incoherent rambling' https://t.co/GHhZB0hbDB
— Raw Story (@RawStory) February 9, 2024
This is only early February, and I already feel overwhelmed by the election stupidity. Do we have any functional institutions anymore?
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/02/09/finally-friday-reads-news-from-the-damned-edition/
#14thAmendmentCaseSCOTUSHearings #DonnieDotard #DonnieDotardAndTheChaosCult #JudgeLooseCannon #MotherOfDragons #TashiLosar #TheHurReport
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Climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve: health workers speak out at COP28
The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh spoke today at the COP28 Health Pavilion in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Watch the speech at COP28…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMTMaMBOq-E
Good afternoon. I am Charlotte Mbuh. I have worked for the health of children and families in Cameroon for over 15 years.
I am one of more than 5,500 health workers from 68 countries who have connected to share our observations of how climate is affecting the health of those we serve.
“Going back home to the community where I grew up as a child, I was shocked to see that most of the rivers we used to swim and fish in have all dried up, and those that are still there have become very shallow so that you can easily walk through a river you required a boat to cross in years past.”
These are the words of Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi, a health worker from Nigeria.
Dr Kumbha Gopi, a health worker from India said: “The use of motor vehicles has led to an increase in air pollution and we see respiratory problems and skin diseases”.
Climate change is hurting the health of those we serve. And it is getting worse.
Few here would deny that health workers are an essential voice to listen to in order to understand climate impacts on health.
Yet, a man named Jacob on social media snapped: “Since when are health workers the authority on air pollution?”
Here are the words of Bie Lilian Mbando, a health worker from my country: “Where I live in Buea, the flood from Mount Cameroon took away all belongings of people in my neighborhood and killed a secondary school student who was playing football with his friends.”
Climate change is killing communities.
Cecilia Nabwirwa, a nurse in Nairobi, Kenya: “I remember my grand-son getting sick after eating vegetables grown along areas flooded by sewage. Since then I resolved to growing my own vegetables to ensure healthy eating.”
And yet, another man on social media, Robert, found this “ridiculous. As if my friend who sells fish at his fish stall comes as an expert on water quality.”
I wondered: why such brutal responses?
Well, unlike scientists or global agencies, we cannot be dismissed as “experts from on-high”.
What we know, we know because we are here every day.
We are part of the community.
And we know that climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve.
We are already having to manage the impacts of climate change on health.
We are doing the best that we can.
But we need your support.
The global community is investing in building a new scientific field around climate and health.
Massive investments are also being made in policy.
Are we making a commensurate investment in people and communities?
That should mean investing in health workers.
What will happen if this investment is neglected?
What if big global donors say: “it’s important, but it’s not part of our strategy?”
Well, in 5, 10, or 15 years, we will certainly have much improved science and, hopefully, policy.
Yet, some communities might reject better science and policy.
Will the global community then wonder: “Why don’t they know what’s good for them?”
I am an immunization worker. For over 15 years, I have worked for my country’s ministry of health.
Like my colleagues from all over the world, I know more than a little about what it takes to establish and maintain trust.
Trust in vaccination, trust in public health.
Trust that by standing together in the face of critical threats to our societies, we all stand to do better.
Local communities in the poorest countries are already bearing the brunt of climate change effects on health.
Local solutions are needed.
Health workers are trusted advisors to the communities we serve.
With every challenge, there is an opportunity.
On 28 July 2023, 4,700 health workers began learning from each other through the Geneva Learning Foundation’s platform, community, and network.
Thousands more are connecting with each other, because they choose to.
And because they want to take action.
It is our duty to support them.
In March 2024, we will hold the tenth Teach to Reach conference.
The last edition reached over 17,000 health workers from more than 80 countries.
This time, our focus will be on climate and health.
We invite global partners to join, to listen and to learn.
We invite you to consider how you, your organization, your government might support action by health workers on the frontline.
Because we will rise.
As health workers, with or without your support, we will continue to stand up with courage, compassion and commitment, working to lift up our communities.
Our perseverance calls us all to press forward towards climate justice and health equity.
I wish to challenge us, as a global community, to rise together, so that the voices of those on the frontline of climate change will be at the next Conference of Parties.
By standing together, we all stand to do better.
Thank you.
#CharlotteMbuh #climate #climateCrisis #COP28 #Dubai #health #healthWorkforce #HRH
-
Climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve: health workers speak out at COP28
The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh spoke today at the COP28 Health Pavilion in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Watch the speech at COP28…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMTMaMBOq-E
Good afternoon. I am Charlotte Mbuh. I have worked for the health of children and families in Cameroon for over 15 years.
I am one of more than 5,500 health workers from 68 countries who have connected to share our observations of how climate is affecting the health of those we serve.
“Going back home to the community where I grew up as a child, I was shocked to see that most of the rivers we used to swim and fish in have all dried up, and those that are still there have become very shallow so that you can easily walk through a river you required a boat to cross in years past.”
These are the words of Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi, a health worker from Nigeria.
Dr Kumbha Gopi, a health worker from India said: “The use of motor vehicles has led to an increase in air pollution and we see respiratory problems and skin diseases”.
Climate change is hurting the health of those we serve. And it is getting worse.
Few here would deny that health workers are an essential voice to listen to in order to understand climate impacts on health.
Yet, a man named Jacob on social media snapped: “Since when are health workers the authority on air pollution?”
Here are the words of Bie Lilian Mbando, a health worker from my country: “Where I live in Buea, the flood from Mount Cameroon took away all belongings of people in my neighborhood and killed a secondary school student who was playing football with his friends.”
Climate change is killing communities.
Cecilia Nabwirwa, a nurse in Nairobi, Kenya: “I remember my grand-son getting sick after eating vegetables grown along areas flooded by sewage. Since then I resolved to growing my own vegetables to ensure healthy eating.”
And yet, another man on social media, Robert, found this “ridiculous. As if my friend who sells fish at his fish stall comes as an expert on water quality.”
I wondered: why such brutal responses?
Well, unlike scientists or global agencies, we cannot be dismissed as “experts from on-high”.
What we know, we know because we are here every day.
We are part of the community.
And we know that climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve.
We are already having to manage the impacts of climate change on health.
We are doing the best that we can.
But we need your support.
The global community is investing in building a new scientific field around climate and health.
Massive investments are also being made in policy.
Are we making a commensurate investment in people and communities?
That should mean investing in health workers.
What will happen if this investment is neglected?
What if big global donors say: “it’s important, but it’s not part of our strategy?”
Well, in 5, 10, or 15 years, we will certainly have much improved science and, hopefully, policy.
Yet, some communities might reject better science and policy.
Will the global community then wonder: “Why don’t they know what’s good for them?”
I am an immunization worker. For over 15 years, I have worked for my country’s ministry of health.
Like my colleagues from all over the world, I know more than a little about what it takes to establish and maintain trust.
Trust in vaccination, trust in public health.
Trust that by standing together in the face of critical threats to our societies, we all stand to do better.
Local communities in the poorest countries are already bearing the brunt of climate change effects on health.
Local solutions are needed.
Health workers are trusted advisors to the communities we serve.
With every challenge, there is an opportunity.
On 28 July 2023, 4,700 health workers began learning from each other through the Geneva Learning Foundation’s platform, community, and network.
Thousands more are connecting with each other, because they choose to.
And because they want to take action.
It is our duty to support them.
In March 2024, we will hold the tenth Teach to Reach conference.
The last edition reached over 17,000 health workers from more than 80 countries.
This time, our focus will be on climate and health.
We invite global partners to join, to listen and to learn.
We invite you to consider how you, your organization, your government might support action by health workers on the frontline.
Because we will rise.
As health workers, with or without your support, we will continue to stand up with courage, compassion and commitment, working to lift up our communities.
Our perseverance calls us all to press forward towards climate justice and health equity.
I wish to challenge us, as a global community, to rise together, so that the voices of those on the frontline of climate change will be at the next Conference of Parties.
By standing together, we all stand to do better.
Thank you.
#CharlotteMbuh #climate #climateCrisis #COP28 #Dubai #health #healthWorkforce #HRH
-
Illicit goings-on beneath the New Town setts: the thread about the life and crimes of the Scotland Street Tunnel
Scotland Street, on the northern firnge of Edinburgh’s Second or Northern New Town; not the grandest or longest such street, but certainly one of the more interesting. But what draws me to it is what you cannot see – the 1,052 yard long tunnel running a few tens of feet beneath its granite setts. Previous threads have looked in detail at the construction, engineering and operation of the tunnel, its terminus at Canal Street Station or tragic accidents during its service life. No, as the title suggests this story is about the various criminal goings-on that it attracted in its short service life from 1847-1868.
Looking south up Scotland Street. CC-by-SA 2.0 Jim Barton via GeographThings start getting going in our story in February 1858 when an urgent telegram arrived at the Leith Police station with a description of a man wanted in Aberdeen for thefts and who had fled that city on the steamer Sovereign, bound for Granton.
Advert for the Aberdeen, Leith & Clyde Shipping Co. steamer “Sovereign” in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 26th June 1858Two detectives were despatched from Leith to Granton station which was adjacent to the steamer quay. Here they managed to identify their mark but instead of clapping him in irons then and there, they boarded the same compartment on the Edinburgh train as him, and only announced themselves to him once they started heading south towards Scotland Street.
Granton Harbour and Pier, c. 1880, from Grant’s Old & New Edinburgh. The trains in the foreground are running on the railway embankment, Granton Middle Pier, where the station buildings are, lies beyond, with the steamers tied up alongsideThey made the suspect “aware of his predicament” but did not handcuff him. At Scotland Street Station their train was detached from the locomotive and attached to the haulage rope which would pull it up the tunnel incline to its destination at Canal Street. With a jerk, the train moved off into the darkness – there was no carriage lighting.
So you can imagine the look of surprise on the detectives’ faces when they emerged into the light at Canal Street Station only to find they were now alone in the compartment! Their man had somehow managed to slip silently out of the carriage in the pitch darkness of the tunnel! After alerting the railway authorities, the detectives trudged off back down the tunnel to search Scotland Street Station. On arriving there and interrogating the staff, it was found that a porter had seen a man emerging from the tunnel who had climbed over a fence, never to be seen again. The police had to be consoled in retrieving their suspect’s luggage, in which the items he had been accused of stealing in Aberdeen were found.
You would think that police accompanying prisoners through the tunnel would have been more careful in future. You’d think, but they weren’t, and in January 1864 a prisoner by the name of Peter Brown managed to pull off the same trick. Brown, (aka John Graham, aka John Farrel, aka Robert Young) had been detained in Larbert a few days previously by Superintendent Gray for the crime of stealing a silver watch, a pair of trousers, a vest and a shirt from the house of Widow McKay in the High Street of Falkirk. He had been cooling his heels in Perth Prison ever since, but was now to be brought to Edinburgh for the purposes of identifying him for other offences. A single officer was to accompany him, who at least took the precaution of handcuffing him. They took the 145PM from Perth, which had to cross the Forth by steamer from Burntisland to Granton, before picking up the train again for the short ride into the city centre via the tunnel. Once again, an unlucky officer emerged at the Canal Street terminus without his charge.
“A watercolour showing an east view of Edinburgh taken from the Scott Monument”, with a train emerging from the Scotland Street Tunnel to the terminus of the railway at Canal Street Station. Beyond lies the station that would grow into Waverley. Princes Street is on the left, Waverley Bridge in the foreground. Joseph Ebsworth, 1847, © Edinburgh Museums & GalleriesHe had actually noticed his prisoner missing while in the tunnel but groping around in the dark for him, all he had managed to do was to upset his understandably surprised fellow passengers. Telegraphs were sent off and the policeman ran off down the tunnel in pursuit. Half way back down, the prisoner’s cap was retrieved. Back at Scotland Street Station, a porter once again described seeing a man emerge from the tunnel before existing the station, never to never be seen again. Once again, the Police were left empty handed and with egg on their faces. The Stirling Observer expressed surprise that a felon who was so “peculiarly dull-looking” could have managed to outwit the authorities with such “a daring piece of cleverness.”
Looking up to Scotland Street – marked by the street lamp – from the tunnel portal. A staircase was once fixed to the iron supports on the right. Photo © SelfThefts were common on the railway. That very same day that the fugitive from Aberdeen had given the Leith Police the slip in the tunnel – Friday 12th February 1858 – James Ross, “a perfect adept in the light-fingered art” plead guilty at the Edinburgh Police Court to pickpocketing eight half-crowns from a lady at the station the previous day; for his efforts he received 60 days hard labour. In July 1859, a woman travelling from Leith to Edinburgh was relieved of £6, 17s 3d from her purse by three “Cockney gentlemen” who joined her in a first class compartment at Bonnington Station and left again in peculiar circumstances at Scotland Street, loudly claiming to all in the carriage that they had bought the wrong tickets and wanted instead to go to Granton. The victim arrived at Canal Street to find her purse empty, and immediately gave a description to the Police. There was a problem with a “Swell Mob” of Cockney pickpockets in Edinburgh that summer and the Police knew where they liked to hang out in the howffs of the West Port. Detectives Youdall and Leadbetter were efficient in their duties, picking up Richard Myars in a “thieves den” before finding John Tonner and James Clark hiding under a bed in their lodging house in the nearby Grassmarket. They had £7 between them, despite previously pleading to the Police that they had insufficient funds to leave the city. For their troubles their £7 was given to the victim in compensation and each got 60 days in the Calton Gaol, before being run out of town.
“The Thieves Den”, an engraving of an 18th century William Hogarth illustration.In October of that year, a most unusual “crime” took place in the tunnel – the transport of illicit cookies! A Mr Nottman had bought six cookies from Mr Robert Young, the licensee of the refreshment rooms at Canal Street Station and was observed to do this by PC Donald Bain. Nottman and his cookies boarded the train for Scotland Street Station and was followed by PC Bain, followed in fact all the way to his house in Bonnington where he intended to eat said cookies. The consumption of the cookies “off premises” was a clear violation of the Forbes Mackenzie Act under which premises were licensed.
Canal Street Station, with the refreshment rooms on the left and the ticket office on the right. In the background is the North Bridge and in the foreground is the Waverley Bridge. CC-by-NC National Galleries ScotlandThe Procurator Fiscal (in Scottish law, the Public Prosecutor), Mr Linton, was keen to enforce this particular act to the full extent of his powers and had Robert Young and Nottman sent before Sheriff Hallard to explain themselves. Despite a good defence by the solicitor Mr Rollo, WS, and good character references, the Sheriff said he had no alternative but to fine Young £1 5s for his crime of selling off-sales cookies (the alternative was 10 days imprisonment!); Nottman escaped with a ticking off. This was the third such conviction within a week in Edinburgh, on Friday October 7th, Bailie Cassels at the Police Court applied the same fine to David Doull of Princes Street for selling “a few penny tarts” and Mr Ridpath of the North British Railway refreshment room for selling “a number of muffins” for consumption off premises.
The northern portal of the tunnel at Scotland Street Station, with a recently-affixed plaque by the National Transport Trust. Photo © SelfThis was not the only time the railway found themselves on the receiving end of the Edinburgh Sheriff Court. On this day, November 29th, in 1861 the Edinburgh Evening Courant reported that Sheriff Jameson awarded 5 guineas damages to Mr Robert Riddel, a merchant of Blairpark, Ferry Road. The defendant in the case was the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway company which ran the Scotland Street tunnel. Riddel sued the Railway for their treatment of him on the 6th November when, after buying a 1st Class ticket from Bonnington to Edinburgh with friends, they found the carriages full so they sat instead in 2nd class. Riddel was annoyed that this sort of thing happened too often, and so at Scotland Street station he asked the ticket collector to refund him the difference. When the collector declined, Riddel kept hold of his ticket (he was meant to hand it in) and said he’d take the matter up instead at the Canal Street terminus with a higher authority. The ticket collector was having none of it, fetched the station master and the pair physically ejected Riddel from the train. He was “severely sprained in one of his hands” and detained against his will at Scotland Street before being refused a refund or onward transport. In finding for Riddel, the Sheriff set a precedent that passengers were entitled to a refund if they could not travel in the means which they had paid a ticket for due to a fault of the railway. Riddel let it be known that he was contributing his damages to the relief fund for the victims of the recent “Heave Awa Land” disaster.
Our last “crime” goes back to the previous year, a “laughable incident” that was widely reported in July 1858 under the tongue in cheek heading of “A Merchant’s Last ‘Stroke of Business’“. It involved an unfortunate but persistent woman of “prepossessing appearance“, one who ultimately had the last laugh. Our heroine arrived in Edinburgh from London in early July by steamer. Her purpose was marriage to “a commercial gentlemen belonging to this city“, their courtship having taken place by correspondence. She had with her all her possessions and with these boarded the train for Scotland Street where she was met by her lover.
Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard have a Brief Encounter out of a railway carriage window. Still from the 1945 film. Carlton-ITC/LFI CFD0079-Brief-S001“After many tender words were said” her fiancée went to retrieve her luggage from the van only to find it was empty. Both were astonished and after an hour of enquiries the man began to start having doubts about his bride and came to believe she was not whom she claimed to be. He imagined he was to marry a comfortably off woman, but now feared she had nothing to her name besides the clothes she stood up in. They had planned to be married then and there but he managed to put her off and “excuse himself” on account of his business arrangements. His jilted bride-to-be retreated back up the tunnel to the City to make more enquiries at Canal Street and find herself a hotel. From here, she sent word to her lover to please come and join her when he was done with work. But he never did. Distressed by her lack of spouse and lack of luggage, she returned to the station and was advised to take the train back down the tunnel to the steamer quay at Granton in case it was there. Imagine her surprise when at Scotland Street she saw all her belongings on the platform!
Disembarking from the carriage, she hurried up the stairs and down again to the other platform. To her horror she found not only her luggage but also her late fiancée, “waiting evidently to proceed on a long journey” and directing a porter to load her things onto a train for Leith! “He could make no answer when interrogated by the lady“, being “completely dumbfounded” at seeing her. In the most persuasive terms, she made him agree to “put off his journey” and marched him and her luggage back up the hill to Edinburgh and married him on the spot! His “business speculation over”, he instead was obliged to “retire to spend the honeymoon in the quiet seclusion of the country“.
A Victorian Couple on the Street, Girl’s Own Paper, 1883.The Scotland Street Tunnel soldiered on for a few years more but its new owners, the North British Railway, couldn’t wait to get rid of it when the acquired the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway. They built and opened a diversionary line and closed the tunnel on May 22nd 1868 with all traffic through it ceasing immediately. The tunnel spent the next 20 years doing nothing and was largely forgotten about, but popped up in the newspapers every now and again. Commander J. C. R. Johnston wrote to the Scotsman in April 1870 suggesting that it be used for horse carriages and carts, to bypass the gradients of the New Town, an idea still suggested for cycling and walking.
Letter to the Scotsman, 20th April 1870Ten years after closure Robert Kerr & Co., a whisky broker and blender in Leith, announced in the Scotsman that they intended to use the tunnel as a bonded warehouse for Wine and Spirits. Nothing came of this idea either. It would be almost another decade before a permanent use was found for the tunnel – from 1887 to 1902 the Scottish Mushroom Co. used it as an industrial-scale mushroom farm! Two tons of mushrooms a week could be harvested (when mould wasn’t killing them off).
“A Tunnel of Mushroom”, the only photo I have seen showing the old platform buildings at Scotland Street Station or an engine entering it. Photo courtesy Old Weird Scotland.The mushrooms grew on immense quantities of manure which was hauled straight into the tunnel by a steam engine on the old rails. Workers deep inside and working in the darkness with only the flicker of candles banked it up in huge piles as mushroom beds. The railway yard at Scotland Street was used as a manure transfer, storage and mixing depot. Horse manure was the main source – it came straight from Piershill Cavalry Barracks and also from the council’s manure depots where the “scaffies” deposited their collections.
“Removing Street Refuse”, London street sweepers at work in c. 1900 cleaning up horse manure. From Living London, vol. 2, 1902The manure was mixed when it was at the peak of fermentation, resulting in “a strong effluvia aris[ing]“. As you can imagine this did not go down too well with the residents of Scotland Street and their neighbours. The city’s energetic Public Health officer, Dr Henry Littlejohn, was also alert to the danger it posed and had the midden relocated to Warriston, 500 yards from human habitation. After these initial teething troubles, the Scottish Mushroom Co settled down to business and once again the tunnel faded from popular consciousness. And that might have been that for our story had it not been for a rather amusing and farcical occurrence in 1889.
In November of that year it was announced that Arthur James Balfour, the Irish Secretary, was due to attend a banquet dinner of Unionists and Tories in the Waverley Market on December 5th.
Arthur Balfour in 1890. Glasgow University collection, PD.Balfour was from the Maitland Balfour family of Whittingehame, East Lothian, and a distant relation of the Balfours of Pilrig and enjoyed significant local interest and popularity. The organisers could not find an establishment large enough to host the event and so had turned to the city’s covered fruit and vegetable market, with fully three quarters taken over for the banquet. The same could not be said of Balfour’s popularity back in Ireland where his ruthless actions against Irish Nationalists earned him the moniker “Bloody Balfour“. The authorities therefore feared the dinner at Waverley would be targeted by Nationalist reprisals and become “a modern Guy Fawkes“. They feared a bomb would be smuggled into the undercroft of the Waverley Market, or even worse, into the Scotland Street Tunnel itself. Such a device it was said “would extinguish Unionism and Toryism in Scotland perpetually” given “every member of any note” was to be present.
Waverley Market, 1885, by George Morham. The man in white trousers is a “scaffie” or street sweeper, the word comes from “scavenger”, which is the caption written above the title of the photo. © Edinburgh City LibrariesA significant police detail was therefore imported to provide protection for Balfour and the dinner, and set about combing the venue for signs of anything untoward. It is important to note that these were not local officers and so were naive about local matters. The police were able to obtain duplicate keys to the gates of the tunnel at its southern end, and entered to search. They neglected to tell the North British Railway what they were up to and set off down the dark tunnel with only a few lamps to guide them. The police didn’t understand what the funky piles along the tunnel were. They boldly pressed on down but their courage failed them when some of the men working the mushroom beds suddenly popped their heads up from behind the manure banks and enquired “Wha’s there?” The officers fled back up the tunnel and could not be convinced to return until it was explained to them what went on down there those days. A thorough search was made of the operation, but all that could be found was manure, mushrooms and the “spawn” used to sew the beds
The only illustration I know of that shows the Scotland Street Tunnel “in operation” dates from about 20 years after its closure, when it was being used as a mushroom farm. The proprietors laid a track some way into the tunnel to bring in the manure on which the mushrooms were grown. The scale is definitely subject to artistic licence. From “Mushrooms for the Million, 1884The Evening News reported that “the mushroom men were left laughing both at the timidity of their visitors and the fruitlessness of their visit”. Balfour’s dinner passed off uneventful with a banquet for 3,000, “1,000 ladies in the galleries” and seats for 8-10,000 public spectators.
“Graphic” newspaper, December 14th 1889You may wonder why I’m writing about the Scotland Street Tunnel yet again. Well I do have an ulterior motive, as my learned friend Leslie Hills just so happens to have a new book out now about two centuries of life above ground in Scotland Street. Most conveniently, it’s out in all good bookshops and is launched on Friday 1st December! “10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence“. If you are reading this and you like my threads about Edinburgh and Leith history, then you probably like going down the sort of historical rabbit holes and off on tangents, so you’re sure to like Leslie’s book too as it will take you from a door on Scotland Street and around the world! I find a pleasing symmetry that Leslie’s book details what was going on just a few tens of feet above the tunnel at the same time as the shennanigans I have just been relating to you were going on tens of feet below the people in her book. Be there! I was very honoured to be able to contribute in a small way to this book and am only too pleased to commend it to you too.
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The thread about Old Edinburgh as it never was; the elaborately crafted fake for nostalgic Victorian spectators
There’s a photo of “Old Edinburgh” that pops up now and again online that purports to show the City as it was back in 1886; usually from one of those context-less, “random old photos” social media accounts. But not all is quite what it appears to be with this image. It’s a fake! In fact it’s a very good fake.
But it’s not a fake in the sense that the image itself has been doctored – it is the whole scene that is an elaborately staged Capriccio: a recreated tableau of various parts of Old Edinburgh, in no particular order, as they may (or may not) have been over a period of some three centuries. A 200 feet by 65 feet section of the City was recreated, loosely modelling parts around the old Netherbow Port but including interlopers from other parts. It contained 21 painstakingly recreated buildings, all of which had been demolished in the living memory of the time. The whole lot was an industrial-scale fantasia which was assembled for the the International Exhibition of 1886, located in a vast, temporary show-hall on the West Meadows.
The 1886 pavilion of the International Exhibition on the West Meadows, a temporary building believe it or not! Peter Fletcher Riddell bequest to National Galleries ScotlandThe reconstruction was the idea of the Exhibition organisers who appointed a Committee to oversee it and who held a design competition in 1885. There was an increasing awareness at this time of just how much of Old Edinburgh was rapidly and unsympathetically being swept away and replaced by – what was then – modern architecture. As a result there was a growing nostalgia for what had been lost in recent memory and also a recognition of what a lot of those buildings had represented in the context of Scottish statehood and national identity. It was hoped that this revival of a semi-forgotten national architecture might go hand in hand with a revival of the country as a whole, on its own, distinct lines. The convenor of the Committee – John Charles Dunlop – said “I trust one of the early results of this first great Scottish Exhibition will be a return to a style of building at once suited to the varied scenery and the changeful skies of Scotland, and to the character and history of the Scottish people“.
“Mercat Cross & Old Assembly Rooms”, Marshall Wane, 1887On 27th October 1885 the Old Edinburgh Committee picked its competition winner – Sydney Mitchell, a Scottish revival architect behind such vernacular style buildings as Well Court in the Water of Leith (Dean) Village, part of Patrick Geddes’ Ramsay Garden and the restoration of the old Mercat Cross to the city. Mitchell’s entry – entered under the nom de plume Tolbooth – featured twenty four “passed away” buildings and structures. The official handbook (which you can read at archive.org, here) commissioned by the Committee includes this helpful street plan of the buildings:
Ground Plan of The “Old Edinburgh” Street, from “The Book of Old Edinburgh” published to accompany the exhibitionThese were picked from locations scattered across the city as can be seen on the map below, and the handbook pointed out that they were not from any specific period of time, stretching from those built in the 15th to the early 18th century, but “they had with each other a long contemporaneous existence“:
The locations of “Old Edinburgh”, marked on the map of Edinburgh by James Gordon of Rothiemay in 1647, Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThe installation was in a section of the exhibition hall that was open to the air and was constructed from wood, plaster and paint – with “realistic but illusionary finishes” to mock up age and weathering under the expert eye of Mr Smythe, the scenery artist at the Theatre Royal. The workmen were encouraged to add to the authenticity by chipping paint, cracking chimney pots, splintering wood, etc., so that the effect was not a “pristine original, but of undisturbed ageing: the illusion that the buildings had survived undisturbed into the present“. An electric arc lamp was installed to simulate moonlight in the evening, and weak incandescent bulbs simulated candle light behind the windows. Actors in period costumer were employed to add to the visual spectacle of the recreation.
Actors hired to represent the “Old City Guard” at the entrance to “Old Edinburgh”. The uniforms and equipment are seemingly accurate for the 18th century when compared to some contemporary illustrations, although the size of the bicorne hats may be somewhat accentuated.Briefly, the chosen subjects, their location, relevance and when they had been lost were:
- The Netherbow Port. The old eastern entrance, and principal gate, to the City. It stood on a spot near where St. Mary’s Street now intersects the High Street, and the latter becomes the Canongate. Built 1606, demolished 1764.
- Robert Gourlay’s House. An immense 16th century house that once stood on Old Bank Close which was swept away in 1834 for the construction of George IV Bridge. Gourlay enjoyed the patronage of King James VI.
- Cardinal Beaton’s House. A 16th century house on the corner of Blackfriar’s Wynd where it met the Cowgate, it had been the residence of the Archbishop of Glasgow, James Beaton and then his nephew, Cardinal David Beaton, a prominent figure in 16th century Scottish history. It had a prominent octagonal tower projecting from its first storey and was demolished in 1874.
- Twelve Apostles House and French Ambassador’s Chapel. A building demolished in 1829, named for the “apostles’ heads” that decorated its gable and reputed to have contained a chapel for the French Ambassador. Located on the Cowgate at the foot of Libberton’s Wynd and taken down in 1829 to allow construction of George IV Bridge. The gable, and other ornamental stones, were saved and incorporated in Easter Coates House where they remain to this day.
- House in Dickson’s Close. A 16th century house exemplifying the old style of a stone ground floor, with projecting timber and render upper stories and reputed to have been built by Robert Mylne, the Seventh Royal Master Mason.
- Paul’s Wark. A 17th century workhouse built by the City at the foot of Leith Wynd, where it met the Calton, part of which later became a reformatory. It was demolished around 1844 to make way for the North British Railway.
- Symson the Printer’s House. This early 16th century house, at the foot of Horse Wynd, was the oldest house in the Cowgate at the time of its demolition in 1871 to make way for Chambers Street. It took its name from its late 17th century occupant – Andro Symson – an Episcopal clergyman who had turned to poetry and printing.
- Bowhead House. The archetype of the above style in the city, a sprawling building on the top corner of the West Bow whose tiers got ever wider and more precarious as they rose higher. It had been demolished in 1878.
- Major Weir’s House. An early 17th century house that was located off of the West Bow, demolished when Victoria Street was constructed between 1829-34. The resident after whom it was named was the notorious Major Thomas Weir a soldier and “warlock” who was executed in 1670 for bestiality, incest and adultery.
- Earl of Hyndford’s House – also known as the Earl of Selkirk’s House. A large and most impressive house in the Old Town which was demolished in the 1870s. It was accessed off of Hyndford’s Close and had passed into the hands of Dr Daniel Rutherford, credited with the discovery of Nitrogen and grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. This house had been a favourite haunt of the young Walter when he was at the High School.
- Laus Deo House. A late 16th-century house on the Castle Hill at the head of Blyth’s Close, decorated with the legend “LAUS DEO” (Praise be to God) in large letters on its façade. This had been a focus of antiquarian interest in the first half of the 19th century when a stunning original ceiling was discovered hidden above a later one. There was a theory that this may have once formed part of the residence or “Palace” of the Regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise.
- The CunȜie House. A purported one-time location of the old Royal Mint of Scotland in the 16th century at the head of the Cowgate, where it met Candlemaker Row, with a distinctive “timber-arched porch, outside stairs and ancient ballusters“. Demolished around 1870.
- Mary of Guise’ Oratory. A private chapel situated on the Castle Hill on the east of Blyth’s Close, built some time after 1544 in connection with the residence (or “palace”) of the Regent of Scotland, Mary. It was demolished in 1845 when the New College of the Free Church of Scotland was being built.
- The Royal Porch. An ornamental gateway to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, built around 1490 by Abbot Bellenden. It was demolished in 1753 by the hereditary keeper of the Palace, the Duke of Hamilton.
- Assembly Rooms. Long before they were on George Street, Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms were on the Bow, the steep route up from the Grassmarket to the Lawnmarket. This was a “tall, picturesque building” that was demolished in 1836 when the street was remodelled as Victoria Street.
- The Black Turnpike. A few doors up from the Tron Kirk, it was demolished in 1788 (along with parts of that Church) to form Hunter Square as part of the South Bridge development. A very large building for its time (15th century), it was a “sumptuous residence” for high status nobles. Access to its upper floors was by a prominent turnpike stairwell on its façade, hence its name.
- House Fornent the Mint Close. An old house on the Cowgate fornent (Scots – opposite) the Mint Close, the last site of the Royal Mint of Scotland, it was one of the last surviving examples of a timber-fronted building of a burgher, with a small piazza on its ground floor and an open gallery above it. This particular house was also opposite that of Cardinal Beaton (above) and cleared in 1874 at the same time to allow the Cowgate to be widened.
- Parliament Stairs and Parliament Hall Gable. The “back stairs” led from the Cowgate up to the Parliament Close through the city’s Meal Market. At the head of the stairs was the south gable of the Parliament Hall of Scotland. The stairs were removed after the Great Fire of Edinburgh of 1824, and the gable of the Parliament Hall disappeared from view when the Outer House of the Court of Session was extended out from it.
- Tolbooth. One of the best known of Old Edinburgh’s buildings, this ugly, multi-storey building adjacent to St. Giles cathedral performed a variety of civic functions from guard house to prison to council chambers, court room and even a meeting space for the Parliament of Scotland. It had stood on this spot in one form or another since the late 15th century and was finally demolished in 1817 to widen and improve the High Street.
- The Mercat Cross. The ancient meeting point on the middle of the High Street, it had been taken down in 1756 and its stones scattered amongst other buildings and gardens, the cross and its shaft finding its way to Drum House, from where it was restored to the High Street in 1866. As a result of this, it was unique in being the only exhibit in the reconstruction that still existed (even though it was a restoration)
The stunt was a roaring success. On June 5th 1886, the Dundee Weekly News described to its readers “A Saunter Round the Old Edinburgh Street” at night, in a long, 3-column report complete with in-depth descriptions of each building and illustrations. They said it was “A fine replica of early Scottish architecture – a group of ancient buildings with which are associated much of Edina’s romance and history” and that Mitchell was “worthy of all praise for the truthful representation he has given as of those historic edifices which have long since corroded under the rime of years“.
Thank you to Alan Faichney for reminding me that I never wrote this thread up at the time, and for bringing it back to my attention 4 months later!
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