'You know I got a pistol?' the man yelled. So the Uber driver shot him in classic Stand-Your-Ground case
By Darran Simon, Jamiel Lynch and Eric Levenson
CNN
August 30, 2018
After a heated text message exchange with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jason Boek followed an Uber he thought was giving her a ride home.
Driving along a dark stretch of two-lane road in central Florida, Boek swerved his pickup truck early Tuesday morning in front of the rideshare car.
Uber driver Robert Westlake slammed on his brakes.
They narrowly avoided a crash and stopped in the middle of the roadway.
Then, Boek jumped out of his truck and quickly walked toward Westlake's Hyundai Elantra.
"You know I got a pistol?" Boek said, holding an object in the air. "You want me to fucking shoot you?"
Bang. With one shot, the Uber driver killed him.
The fatal confrontation, captured on Westlake's dash camera, was what the Polk County sheriff called a "classic 'stand your ground' case," referring to the controversial Florida law that grants immunity to people acting in self-defense.
"This is a justifiable homicide all day long. You have the right protect yourself," Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. "This was the intent of the law."
Boek, 34, didn't actually have a firearm when he left his truck -- he was holding a cell phone, authorities said.
And Westlake, 38, was no ordinary Uber driver. He's a licensed armed security guard who holds a concealed weapons permit and who had just completed training to be a police officer.
Neither Westlake nor Boek's family members could be reached Wednesday for comment.
The sheriff's office said Westlake is cooperating with the investigation. And the sheriff wanted this much to be clear: "Here's a message for the hotheads of the community: Don't do that stuff," Judd said. "Good people carry guns and they will shoot you. A lot. Graveyard dead."
'He's stalking his girlfriend'
The shooting is the latest high-profile "stand your ground" case to spark controversy. The list includes the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, and Michael Drejka's fatal shooting of Markeis McGlockton in July in a convenience store parking lot.
Zimmerman was acquitted in Martin's death after claiming self-defense, rather than leaning on the "stand your ground" law. Drejka was initially let go but has since been charged with manslaughter.
Tuesday's incident started with a case of mistaken identity.
At a bar in Dundee, Florida, early Tuesday morning, Boek's girlfriend called an Uber for another woman who'd had too much to drink, and she helped her get into the vehicle, police said.
Boek saw her and assumed his girlfriend had gotten into the Uber, though she'd actually gone back into the bar, the sheriff said.
Some time later, Boek and his girlfriend got into a heated text message exchange.
"The boyfriend is explosive," Judd, the sheriff, said. "He's stalking his girlfriend. He's angry with her, and he tells her, 'I'm going to eff up the Uber driver.'"
Then, Boek drove after the Uber in his truck, Judd said.
Boek "tailgates him a minute, then he pulls out beside him, rides besides him a couple of seconds ... and then starts to pass him and forces him to a stop in the roadway," Judd said.
About six seconds after Boek jumped out of his pick-up truck, Westlake shot him, according to the dash-cam video released by police.
"Oh my God," Westlake can be heard saying.
'He came towards me'
Westlake then dialed 911 and tried to save Boek, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.
"He ran me off road, jumped out of his vehicle," Westlake said calmly in the 911 call, which the sheriff's office posted to YouTube. "I couldn't get away. "
"He came towards me, shouted he's got a pistol, reached for his waistband."
Westlake said he fired one shot from a .40-caliber pistol.
"He dropped a cell phone. I kicked it away," said Westlake, who said he didn't realize it was a cell phone at first.
Westlake told the 911 operator he was applying pressure to the wound as Boek took faint, shallow breaths.
Boek died at the scene, the sheriff's office said. Authorities did not find a gun other than Westlake's at the scene, Judd said.
Uber, in a statement, said: "We are saddened by this unfortunate incident and will continue to work with police on their investigation."
The company's policy prohibits drivers and passengers from carrying firearms while using the Uber app to the extent permitted by local law.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Had Boek been black, the streets would have been full of protesters. But since Boek is white, only his family is protesting.
Friday, August 31, 2018
U.S. MAY BE DEPORTING AMERICAN CITIZENS'
Or Maybe Not
by Bob Walsh
Something very interesting is going on along the South Texas border that has interesting implications.
It seems that (allegedly) from about 1950 up almost to 2000 it was common for midwives and even medical doctors to fraudulently register births that actually occurred in Mexico as having occurred in the U. S. The U. S. government is now moving to have the citizenship revoked from these people. There appears to be some concern that some of the wheat may be thrown out along with the chaff.
It was thought that this was resolved during the Bush 43 and Obama administrations when the U. S. denied passports to people who presented questionable U. S. birth certificates, processed by certain specified midwives. A settlement between the government and the ACLU was believed to have settled this problem. Not so. The Trump state department is bringing it up again.
I am not a fan of citizenship fraud. I am also not a big believer in the idea of jacking somebody who is 40 years old and who reasonably believed he was a native-born U. S. citizen. I am glad I am not the decision maker on this one..
by Bob Walsh
Something very interesting is going on along the South Texas border that has interesting implications.
It seems that (allegedly) from about 1950 up almost to 2000 it was common for midwives and even medical doctors to fraudulently register births that actually occurred in Mexico as having occurred in the U. S. The U. S. government is now moving to have the citizenship revoked from these people. There appears to be some concern that some of the wheat may be thrown out along with the chaff.
It was thought that this was resolved during the Bush 43 and Obama administrations when the U. S. denied passports to people who presented questionable U. S. birth certificates, processed by certain specified midwives. A settlement between the government and the ACLU was believed to have settled this problem. Not so. The Trump state department is bringing it up again.
I am not a fan of citizenship fraud. I am also not a big believer in the idea of jacking somebody who is 40 years old and who reasonably believed he was a native-born U. S. citizen. I am glad I am not the decision maker on this one..
NPR DOES SOME GOOD WORK ..... ONE IN A WHILE
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
by Bob Walsh
Mark Twain opined, at one time, that there were three sorts of prevarication, those being lies, damned lies and statistics. NPR may have dug up an interesting case in point.
A commonly quoted statistic among the anti-gun media is the "fact" that in year 2015-2016 there were 235 school shootings in the U. S. They decided to do some actual honest-to-god research to see if this assertion was accurate.
They contacted each school district named. About 75% responded. Of those 235 districts only 11 replied that there had in fact been a school shooting. Cleveland reported in the initial survey from which the dubious statistic was taken that they had 35 shootings in that year. When specifically queried about it, they said they had zero school shootings in that period of time. They said they believed the inaccurate response was a coding error, or maybe somebody just put the wrong number on the wrong line of the survey.
Another district, when contacted about their four shootings that year responded that the collective staff memory in the district office went back over 20 years and that, they were certain, there were NO shooting incidents at any of their schools in 20 years. They did assert that one student had been jacked for brandishing a pair of scissors once.
The point is you should be VERY DUBIOUS about statistics being pimped by people who have a large stake in the statistics going in their direction. (I have often thought that the oft-quoted statistic of 10% of the general population being homosexual was overly generous by a large degree, being pushed mostly by people who had a stake in the normalization and mainstream acceptance of homosexuality.)
EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually British PM Benjamin Disraeli is credited with originating the 'lies, damned lies and statistics' saying.
by Bob Walsh
Mark Twain opined, at one time, that there were three sorts of prevarication, those being lies, damned lies and statistics. NPR may have dug up an interesting case in point.
A commonly quoted statistic among the anti-gun media is the "fact" that in year 2015-2016 there were 235 school shootings in the U. S. They decided to do some actual honest-to-god research to see if this assertion was accurate.
They contacted each school district named. About 75% responded. Of those 235 districts only 11 replied that there had in fact been a school shooting. Cleveland reported in the initial survey from which the dubious statistic was taken that they had 35 shootings in that year. When specifically queried about it, they said they had zero school shootings in that period of time. They said they believed the inaccurate response was a coding error, or maybe somebody just put the wrong number on the wrong line of the survey.
Another district, when contacted about their four shootings that year responded that the collective staff memory in the district office went back over 20 years and that, they were certain, there were NO shooting incidents at any of their schools in 20 years. They did assert that one student had been jacked for brandishing a pair of scissors once.
The point is you should be VERY DUBIOUS about statistics being pimped by people who have a large stake in the statistics going in their direction. (I have often thought that the oft-quoted statistic of 10% of the general population being homosexual was overly generous by a large degree, being pushed mostly by people who had a stake in the normalization and mainstream acceptance of homosexuality.)
EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually British PM Benjamin Disraeli is credited with originating the 'lies, damned lies and statistics' saying.
SUICIDE OR MURDER?
'It's a cover-up': Wife of detective, 43, fatally shot with his own gun REJECTS review board's 'outlandish' conclusion that the father-of-five committed suicide and maintains he was murdered in latest scandal for Baltimore police
By Megan Sheets
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
The wife of a Baltimore detective who was fatally shot with his own gun last November has rejected an independent review board's conclusion that he committed suicide.
Officials had initially said Sean Suiter was fatally shot by a suspect during a struggle in a vacant lot in West Baltimore on November 15, but an independent review panel released a report this week saying the 43-year-old had actually killed himself.
The detective's wife Nicole Suiter spoke publicly for the first time since her husband's death nine months ago on Wednesday, calling the review panel's suicide conclusion 'outlandish'.
Nicole described how less than an hour before the shooting, she had been joking around with the father-of-five.
'Sean was in a great mood and happy spirit. We briefly joked about a video of him dancing that I took,' she told WMAR.
Nicole said nothing about his behavior resembled that of a man preparing to take his own life.
'I knew my husband very well. He wasn't a coward. He wouldn't have went out like that,' she said. 'He wouldn't leave his family like this. He had no reason to.'
The investigation into Sean's death is still open as police and the medical examiner's office look over the report from the independent review board.
Nicole and her attorneys decried the report, claiming that it is full of lies and inconsistencies.
'I’m just shocked at what is contained in this report,' attorney Paul Siegrist said.
'Multiple facts are left out of this report. They give undue weight to certain facts and totally ignore everything else. They don’t interview witnesses. They somehow arrive to Sean’s state of mind without speaking to his wife. This is garbage.'
Sean was scheduled to testify in court in a police corruption trial the day after his death, which the report seems to suggest could have been motivation for his suicide.
The report refers to Sean as a 'subject' - a loose term that could refer to both a witness or a person of interest.
'Not only did the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Attorney’s Office say that Sean was never a suspect but was only a witness, but the second round of indictments that came out involving Wayne Jenkins and several other officers, showed that Sean was an unwitting part of their larger drug conspiracy and their planting of drugs,' attorney Jeremy Eldridge said.
Nicole said she will continue to stand with protesters in Baltimore until she gets 'the truth'.
'Based on the fact that no one knew my husband better than I, I will not accept the untimely death of Sean as nothing other than a murder, which is being covered up for reasons unknown to me or my family,' she said.
Suiter was fatally shot in the head while investigating a 2016 triple homicide with his partner in a high-crime neighborhood in West Baltimore.
Former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, who was fired by the mayor in January, told reporters last year that Suiter approached a 'suspicious' man in a vacant lot between row houses, leading to a violent confrontation.
His partner could be seen on private surveillance video taking cover across the street, according to police.
Baltimore police originally said Suiter had been attacked and launched a manhunt, but after no arrests were made they convened the independent review board earlier this year to look into the homicide investigation.
The report released after months of review says the bullet entered from the right side of Sean's head, and that the detective was right-handed.
It also points out the lack of defensive wounds on Suiter's knuckles, hands or arms, along with the presence of shell casings from Suiter's weapon at the scene and the officer's DNA inside the barrel of the gun.
A spokesman for the city's medical examiner said Monday evening that officials would not discuss any cases still under investigation.
By Megan Sheets
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
The wife of a Baltimore detective who was fatally shot with his own gun last November has rejected an independent review board's conclusion that he committed suicide.
Officials had initially said Sean Suiter was fatally shot by a suspect during a struggle in a vacant lot in West Baltimore on November 15, but an independent review panel released a report this week saying the 43-year-old had actually killed himself.
The detective's wife Nicole Suiter spoke publicly for the first time since her husband's death nine months ago on Wednesday, calling the review panel's suicide conclusion 'outlandish'.
Nicole described how less than an hour before the shooting, she had been joking around with the father-of-five.
'Sean was in a great mood and happy spirit. We briefly joked about a video of him dancing that I took,' she told WMAR.
Nicole said nothing about his behavior resembled that of a man preparing to take his own life.
'I knew my husband very well. He wasn't a coward. He wouldn't have went out like that,' she said. 'He wouldn't leave his family like this. He had no reason to.'
The investigation into Sean's death is still open as police and the medical examiner's office look over the report from the independent review board.
Nicole and her attorneys decried the report, claiming that it is full of lies and inconsistencies.
'I’m just shocked at what is contained in this report,' attorney Paul Siegrist said.
'Multiple facts are left out of this report. They give undue weight to certain facts and totally ignore everything else. They don’t interview witnesses. They somehow arrive to Sean’s state of mind without speaking to his wife. This is garbage.'
Sean was scheduled to testify in court in a police corruption trial the day after his death, which the report seems to suggest could have been motivation for his suicide.
The report refers to Sean as a 'subject' - a loose term that could refer to both a witness or a person of interest.
'Not only did the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Attorney’s Office say that Sean was never a suspect but was only a witness, but the second round of indictments that came out involving Wayne Jenkins and several other officers, showed that Sean was an unwitting part of their larger drug conspiracy and their planting of drugs,' attorney Jeremy Eldridge said.
Nicole said she will continue to stand with protesters in Baltimore until she gets 'the truth'.
'Based on the fact that no one knew my husband better than I, I will not accept the untimely death of Sean as nothing other than a murder, which is being covered up for reasons unknown to me or my family,' she said.
Suiter was fatally shot in the head while investigating a 2016 triple homicide with his partner in a high-crime neighborhood in West Baltimore.
Former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, who was fired by the mayor in January, told reporters last year that Suiter approached a 'suspicious' man in a vacant lot between row houses, leading to a violent confrontation.
His partner could be seen on private surveillance video taking cover across the street, according to police.
Baltimore police originally said Suiter had been attacked and launched a manhunt, but after no arrests were made they convened the independent review board earlier this year to look into the homicide investigation.
The report released after months of review says the bullet entered from the right side of Sean's head, and that the detective was right-handed.
It also points out the lack of defensive wounds on Suiter's knuckles, hands or arms, along with the presence of shell casings from Suiter's weapon at the scene and the officer's DNA inside the barrel of the gun.
A spokesman for the city's medical examiner said Monday evening that officials would not discuss any cases still under investigation.
FAKE NEWS OR NOT?
Trump administration creates secret anti-marijuana committee to combat the public's 'dangerous and positive' attitude towards pot
By Connor Boyd
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
The Trump administration has created a secret anti-marijuana committee to combat the public's positive attitude towards weed.
On July 27 the White House's Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee sat down with representatives from the Justice Department, State Department and Health and Human Services to come up with ways to prove that weed is a national threat.
Fourteen federal agencies were told to collect data showing the negative aspect of weed because there were too many stories highlighting the positives of its use, according to Buzzfeed.
The agencies were instructed to find evidence of 'consequences of use, production, and trafficking on national health, safety and security' and describe how the drug threatens their department.
They were also told to identify 'issues created by state marijuana initiatives.'
Trump had previously hinted in 2016 that he'd let states decide on marijuana laws without much federal government interference.
But that seemed to have been forgotten when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a crackdown on legal weed in January.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, the White House didn't confirm or deny the committee's existence.
Rather, it said that it does not discuss the process of crafting policies to promote the 'President's agenda.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: If the Trump administration is really concerned about pot, it could have the DEA start raiding pot plantations and pot shops in California, Washington, Colorado and other states that have legalized marijuana. I’m sure the DEA is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Jeff Sessions to give it the go-ahead. In my day as a cop, those operations were well hidden, but today the DEA can easily find them.
By the way, BuzzFeed News has not always been reliable.
By Connor Boyd
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
The Trump administration has created a secret anti-marijuana committee to combat the public's positive attitude towards weed.
On July 27 the White House's Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee sat down with representatives from the Justice Department, State Department and Health and Human Services to come up with ways to prove that weed is a national threat.
Fourteen federal agencies were told to collect data showing the negative aspect of weed because there were too many stories highlighting the positives of its use, according to Buzzfeed.
The agencies were instructed to find evidence of 'consequences of use, production, and trafficking on national health, safety and security' and describe how the drug threatens their department.
They were also told to identify 'issues created by state marijuana initiatives.'
Trump had previously hinted in 2016 that he'd let states decide on marijuana laws without much federal government interference.
But that seemed to have been forgotten when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a crackdown on legal weed in January.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, the White House didn't confirm or deny the committee's existence.
Rather, it said that it does not discuss the process of crafting policies to promote the 'President's agenda.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: If the Trump administration is really concerned about pot, it could have the DEA start raiding pot plantations and pot shops in California, Washington, Colorado and other states that have legalized marijuana. I’m sure the DEA is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Jeff Sessions to give it the go-ahead. In my day as a cop, those operations were well hidden, but today the DEA can easily find them.
By the way, BuzzFeed News has not always been reliable.
SMOKING WAS REALLY BAD FOR MURDERER
Discarded cigarette helps police nab 'killer' NINE YEARS after he 'stabbed his neighbor 60 TIMES and sexually assaulted her'
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
A cigarette that had been tossed away has helped authorities in Illinois track down a man who is suspected of brutally murdering a woman nine years ago.
Michael Henslick, 30, has been charged with murdering 22-year-old Holly Cassano in 2009.
Cassano was found dead in her mobile home in Mahomet, Illinois on November 2, 2009. She had been stabbed 60 times and sexually assaulted, according to police reports.
'I still have problems sleeping because of it,' said Toni Cassano, who found her daughter's bloody body that day, the News-Gazette of Champaign reported. 'I don't know why. That's my biggest unanswered question.'
For nearly a decade the police have relentlessly pursued the case, conducting more than 100 interviews and testing 'dozens' of DNA samples.
DNA evidence that was found at the scene of Cassano's murder was matched with various databases including online genealogy catalogs and public records before Henslick was finally identified as a suspect.
Deputies tracked Henslick this past weekend to try and obtain DNA evidence until eventually he gave them a golden opportunity after throwing away a cigarette he had been smoking.
The butt was recovered and sent to a lab for testing.
Henslick's DNA matched with the DNA evidence from the crime scene, the sheriff's office said.
The DNA match was made thanks to a commercial genetic genealogy company sharing information that it had collected in its public records.
A new technique from Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs — for which Champaign County taxpayers paid $8,000 — led to the narrowing of the pool of suspects who could have contributed the DNA found at the murder scene.
Henslick was arrested on Tuesday around 6:15pm outside Market Place Mall in Champaign.
After Henslick’s arrest outside Market Place Mall on Tuesday evening Sgts. Chris Darr and Dave Sherrick, who have also been intensely involved in the investigation over the years, interviewed Henslick for about five hours.
While they were tight-lipped about what they heard, State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said she felt her office has a strong case against Henslick and that “his statements were consistent with that evidence.”
He has since been booked into the Champaign County Jail on $10 million bond and charged with four counts of first degree murder.
He showed little reaction as Judge John Kennedy read him the charges Wednesday afternoon over videolink.
Henslick had lived in the same mobile-home park as Cassano, attended the same high school for a couple of years, and had a number of mutual acquaintances Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh said.
Henslick has been in and out of jail several times since Cassano's murder.
Daily Mail
August 30, 2018
A cigarette that had been tossed away has helped authorities in Illinois track down a man who is suspected of brutally murdering a woman nine years ago.
Michael Henslick, 30, has been charged with murdering 22-year-old Holly Cassano in 2009.
Cassano was found dead in her mobile home in Mahomet, Illinois on November 2, 2009. She had been stabbed 60 times and sexually assaulted, according to police reports.
'I still have problems sleeping because of it,' said Toni Cassano, who found her daughter's bloody body that day, the News-Gazette of Champaign reported. 'I don't know why. That's my biggest unanswered question.'
For nearly a decade the police have relentlessly pursued the case, conducting more than 100 interviews and testing 'dozens' of DNA samples.
DNA evidence that was found at the scene of Cassano's murder was matched with various databases including online genealogy catalogs and public records before Henslick was finally identified as a suspect.
Deputies tracked Henslick this past weekend to try and obtain DNA evidence until eventually he gave them a golden opportunity after throwing away a cigarette he had been smoking.
The butt was recovered and sent to a lab for testing.
Henslick's DNA matched with the DNA evidence from the crime scene, the sheriff's office said.
The DNA match was made thanks to a commercial genetic genealogy company sharing information that it had collected in its public records.
A new technique from Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs — for which Champaign County taxpayers paid $8,000 — led to the narrowing of the pool of suspects who could have contributed the DNA found at the murder scene.
Henslick was arrested on Tuesday around 6:15pm outside Market Place Mall in Champaign.
After Henslick’s arrest outside Market Place Mall on Tuesday evening Sgts. Chris Darr and Dave Sherrick, who have also been intensely involved in the investigation over the years, interviewed Henslick for about five hours.
While they were tight-lipped about what they heard, State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said she felt her office has a strong case against Henslick and that “his statements were consistent with that evidence.”
He has since been booked into the Champaign County Jail on $10 million bond and charged with four counts of first degree murder.
He showed little reaction as Judge John Kennedy read him the charges Wednesday afternoon over videolink.
Henslick had lived in the same mobile-home park as Cassano, attended the same high school for a couple of years, and had a number of mutual acquaintances Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh said.
Henslick has been in and out of jail several times since Cassano's murder.
DISMEMBERMENT IN IN SONORA
"El Chapo" Isidro and "Los Chapitos": the fight for territory in Sonora
By Monica Miranda
La Silla Rota
August 25, 2018
Headlines such as "Three shot in Cajeme", "Dismembered left in ice cooler", "Pistoleros abduct a couple in the south", cease to leave an impression on Sonorans, especially those who live in cities such as Cajeme and Guaymas.
The plaza battles between "Los Chapitos " (Sinaloa Cartel) and "Chapo" Isidro (Beltrán Leyva) have the population of southern Sonora in suspense, municipalities near Sinaloa (Navojoa, Cajeme and Guaymas).
In recent days there have been dismembered bodies found, there are executions in broad daylight, 'levantones', and strong security operations from both the State Secretariat of Public Security and the Army and Gendarmerie.
"The Salazars" are a cell of Sonorans who have been operating for years for the Sinaloa Cartel, recently for the group of "Los Chapitos ", Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, who took more control of the organization after the capture of their father, "El Chapo" Guzmán and later, the arrest of Dámaso López "El Licenciado", with whom they fought for leadership.
On the other side of the camp is "El Chapo" Isidro, (Isidro Meza Flores),also from Sinaloa and who worked for Guzmán Loera before forming his group "Los Mazatlecos", which joined the Beltrán Leyva Cartel for fight for the plaza against the Sinaloa cartel. [BB Note, a factual error, Isidro did not work for Sinaloa Cartel prior to joining BLO]
The capture of Guzmán Loera divided the "Los Salazar" cell in Sonora and made it an easy target for its smaller adversaries operating in the south of the country.
It was thus that the assassins of "El Chapo" Isidro managed to penetrate the security filters in order to try and seize the plaza.
Now, Los Salazar, led by "Los Chapitos ", now known as Gente Nueva Salazar (GNS), seek to recover the places they had held for decades for the planting, transfer and sale of drugs.
"They wanted to make their own group (Chapo Isidro), they left the fight because before they were good with the people here (Los Salazar), they are fighting for the Plaza de Obregón (head of Cajeme)," said a source close to the GNS organization to La Silla Rota.
This fight gained strength in 2018 and is reflected in the deaths recorded in Cajeme, with 126 officially registered homicides.
As of May 2018, there were 64 homicides counted. Since then, in June, 18 murders were counted, 28 in July, and 16 in August so far, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security.
Homicides happen every day in Ciudad Obregón and Guaymas. As indicated by the laws of physics, before any action a reaction occurs and the behavior of these groups responds to the provoked attacks among themselves.
But in this war, innocent victims have had to pay the cost, without fear of it, just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is, the time when the criminals decide to launch their next move against their opponents.
During July of this year the wave of violence in Sonora skyrocketed, to the extent that citizens in Cajeme heard gunshots in broad daylight and close to their homes in different parts of the city.
The lives stolen by the struggle
Alexis Rafael Rivera, at dawn on Sunday, July 22, specifically at 2:00 a.m., told his mother in an agitated voice to open the door of his house as soon as possible, as he had been shot at.
Hours later she was informed that her son had died in the General Hospital of Ciudad Obregón.
The cause was indicated as an assault by the state police of public security, allegedly repelling the shots with a weapon carried by the young man, who was being pursued by the police.
"At 1:42 in the morning I received a call, where he told me, love, open the door for me, they're shooting at me, but it was his strong, firm voice, without hesitation, without any alcohol, you could tell that my son was doing well," said the mother.
The family claims that the police confused Alexis with a hitman, a member of one of the organized crime gangs operating in Obregón, Sonora.
The version sent in a press release indicates that the pursuit began when red alert was activated due to a firearm injury that occurred in the Miravalle neighborhood.
The vehicle reported as the aggressor was a gray Chevrolet Spark, which was driven by Alexis accompanied by three men, who are currently being detained.
During the chase, the Spark vehicle lost control hitting a parked car, from which a person got out and ran, at that time the driver (Alexis) apparently assaulted the officers, who repelled the attack.
In the statement it is indicated that, as the officers approached the car taking preventive measures, they realized that the person they identified as Alexis Rafael was injured, for which they requested the presence of the Red Cross, providing first aid and transfer to the General hospital, where moments later he lost his life.
"We do not believe that version, because of the call he made to my mother, if he was talking on the phone with one hand, how could he go shooting with the other? There are things that do not fit," said the sister of the deceased Uber driver, Johana Rivera.
Later, on July 28 in San Carlos, Guaymas, three young men were "picked up" by state police, and allegedly handed over to a criminal group that operates in the area.
On social networks, the population makes public announcements about missing relatives, mainly these young people who attended a weekend trip to San Carlos.
During the past month, a series of violent events occurred in this region of southern Sonora, such as the disappearance of seven people, four murders, one of them was shot, and a shooting of houses and vehicles in the San Vicente neighborhood, recorded last Sunday at dawn.
State public security points out that through social networks relatives are looking for missing persons between 20 and 40 years of age, and demand that they be found alive.
Faced with this climate of violence, the state, federal and Sedena police maintain security operations in the port of Guaymas and Empalme in order to suspend the travel warning made by the United States Department to its personnel, and also contain the violent acts recorded since last weekend when an armed group fired on vehicles parked during the early morning in the San Vicente neighborhood, confirmed Adolfo García Morales.
The Secretary of Security in Sonora said that work is being done to restore peace among the population of said municipalities, after the information that transpired in social networks about the disappearance of young people in San Carlos, on Saturday 28.
In addition, he said that the presence of municipal police patrolling the area was maintained, a fact that could be corroborated through the GPS system that the police units report, as the supposed absence of the elements in the streets due to threats of organized crime was reported.
"In the C5, the police are monitored by GPS patrols, where they are, there are calls to 911 incidents that were attended to by the municipal police. The GPS allowed us to see that there were municipal police patrolling the city, right now I do not have the exact data how many."
Following these events, an alert was issued by the United States Department calling for a travel ban of personnel from the American consulates to the municipalities of southern Sonora.
Escalating violence with dismemberment
A ice cooler containing human remains appeared on Friday, August 10, on Calle 600, a few meters from Calle Norman E. Borlaug, in the Valle del Yaqui, in Cajeme.
The municipal police received the report, detecting in the area a narcomanta adjudicated to Gente Nueva Salazar.
Elements of the Municipal and State police arrived in addition to expert services to collect the cooler and the official transfer towards the district attorney's office in Cajeme.
The constant violence in Cajeme with multiple murders, the last 4 registered in less than 24 hours on Friday the 10th, caused the population's boiling point to be reached. That is why the responsible authorities are required to rethink the coordination strategies between the different levels of police corporations, said Faustino Félix Chávez.
The mayor of Cajeme said that one of his last duties as a public servant of Ciudad Obregó is analyzing with the state government new measures to stop the murders registered almost daily in Cajeme, and alternatives to inhibit crimes related to organized crime.
"We have to listen to society, it is not something that is only happening in the south of Sonora, we know that it is not foreign to the rest of the country, but we worry about our house, we care where we live, where we have our families and although we said it is something between criminals, we have already seen people who are not criminals having to suffer the ravages of what is happening."
For its part, the government of Sonora has continued with operations in Cajeme, Guaymas and Empalme, where elements of the State Public Security Police, the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie and the Mexican Army arrived.
"For various sectors of Ciudad Obregón, monitoring and prevention points were installed in which elements of SEDENA, PESP, PF and Municipal Police participate," the state agency reported on its Twitter account.
Cajemenses seek to restore peace
Marches for Peace, organized by relatives of "levantadas" or disappeared persons, began with inhabitants of Cajeme and Guaymas going out into the streets to demand that the authorities contain the clashes between members of organized crime groups.
With placards and slogans of "No more violence " and "We want security and peace" they marched to the municipal palace.
Armida Salas Lapizco, denounced to the authority the disappearance of her nephew Miguel Ángel ITSON, student in the Systems Engineering degree, who disappeared on March 27, 2012.
"He was going to graduate in December 2012, he was doing his social service and we do not know anything, the authorities have not given us any response, we have never passed from the PGR window, my nephew's car appeared abandoned."
There are about 70 murders officially registered in Cajeme so far this year, but it should be noted that there is a percentage that is not reported to the judicial authorities, so it is not recorded in the lists reported by the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security.
(Translated August 28 by El Profe for Borderland Beat)
By Monica Miranda
La Silla Rota
August 25, 2018
Headlines such as "Three shot in Cajeme", "Dismembered left in ice cooler", "Pistoleros abduct a couple in the south", cease to leave an impression on Sonorans, especially those who live in cities such as Cajeme and Guaymas.
The plaza battles between "Los Chapitos " (Sinaloa Cartel) and "Chapo" Isidro (Beltrán Leyva) have the population of southern Sonora in suspense, municipalities near Sinaloa (Navojoa, Cajeme and Guaymas).
In recent days there have been dismembered bodies found, there are executions in broad daylight, 'levantones', and strong security operations from both the State Secretariat of Public Security and the Army and Gendarmerie.
"The Salazars" are a cell of Sonorans who have been operating for years for the Sinaloa Cartel, recently for the group of "Los Chapitos ", Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, who took more control of the organization after the capture of their father, "El Chapo" Guzmán and later, the arrest of Dámaso López "El Licenciado", with whom they fought for leadership.
On the other side of the camp is "El Chapo" Isidro, (Isidro Meza Flores),also from Sinaloa and who worked for Guzmán Loera before forming his group "Los Mazatlecos", which joined the Beltrán Leyva Cartel for fight for the plaza against the Sinaloa cartel. [BB Note, a factual error, Isidro did not work for Sinaloa Cartel prior to joining BLO]
The capture of Guzmán Loera divided the "Los Salazar" cell in Sonora and made it an easy target for its smaller adversaries operating in the south of the country.
It was thus that the assassins of "El Chapo" Isidro managed to penetrate the security filters in order to try and seize the plaza.
Now, Los Salazar, led by "Los Chapitos ", now known as Gente Nueva Salazar (GNS), seek to recover the places they had held for decades for the planting, transfer and sale of drugs.
"They wanted to make their own group (Chapo Isidro), they left the fight because before they were good with the people here (Los Salazar), they are fighting for the Plaza de Obregón (head of Cajeme)," said a source close to the GNS organization to La Silla Rota.
This fight gained strength in 2018 and is reflected in the deaths recorded in Cajeme, with 126 officially registered homicides.
As of May 2018, there were 64 homicides counted. Since then, in June, 18 murders were counted, 28 in July, and 16 in August so far, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security.
Homicides happen every day in Ciudad Obregón and Guaymas. As indicated by the laws of physics, before any action a reaction occurs and the behavior of these groups responds to the provoked attacks among themselves.
But in this war, innocent victims have had to pay the cost, without fear of it, just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is, the time when the criminals decide to launch their next move against their opponents.
During July of this year the wave of violence in Sonora skyrocketed, to the extent that citizens in Cajeme heard gunshots in broad daylight and close to their homes in different parts of the city.
The lives stolen by the struggle
Alexis Rafael Rivera, at dawn on Sunday, July 22, specifically at 2:00 a.m., told his mother in an agitated voice to open the door of his house as soon as possible, as he had been shot at.
Hours later she was informed that her son had died in the General Hospital of Ciudad Obregón.
The cause was indicated as an assault by the state police of public security, allegedly repelling the shots with a weapon carried by the young man, who was being pursued by the police.
"At 1:42 in the morning I received a call, where he told me, love, open the door for me, they're shooting at me, but it was his strong, firm voice, without hesitation, without any alcohol, you could tell that my son was doing well," said the mother.
The family claims that the police confused Alexis with a hitman, a member of one of the organized crime gangs operating in Obregón, Sonora.
The version sent in a press release indicates that the pursuit began when red alert was activated due to a firearm injury that occurred in the Miravalle neighborhood.
The vehicle reported as the aggressor was a gray Chevrolet Spark, which was driven by Alexis accompanied by three men, who are currently being detained.
During the chase, the Spark vehicle lost control hitting a parked car, from which a person got out and ran, at that time the driver (Alexis) apparently assaulted the officers, who repelled the attack.
In the statement it is indicated that, as the officers approached the car taking preventive measures, they realized that the person they identified as Alexis Rafael was injured, for which they requested the presence of the Red Cross, providing first aid and transfer to the General hospital, where moments later he lost his life.
"We do not believe that version, because of the call he made to my mother, if he was talking on the phone with one hand, how could he go shooting with the other? There are things that do not fit," said the sister of the deceased Uber driver, Johana Rivera.
Later, on July 28 in San Carlos, Guaymas, three young men were "picked up" by state police, and allegedly handed over to a criminal group that operates in the area.
On social networks, the population makes public announcements about missing relatives, mainly these young people who attended a weekend trip to San Carlos.
During the past month, a series of violent events occurred in this region of southern Sonora, such as the disappearance of seven people, four murders, one of them was shot, and a shooting of houses and vehicles in the San Vicente neighborhood, recorded last Sunday at dawn.
State public security points out that through social networks relatives are looking for missing persons between 20 and 40 years of age, and demand that they be found alive.
Faced with this climate of violence, the state, federal and Sedena police maintain security operations in the port of Guaymas and Empalme in order to suspend the travel warning made by the United States Department to its personnel, and also contain the violent acts recorded since last weekend when an armed group fired on vehicles parked during the early morning in the San Vicente neighborhood, confirmed Adolfo García Morales.
The Secretary of Security in Sonora said that work is being done to restore peace among the population of said municipalities, after the information that transpired in social networks about the disappearance of young people in San Carlos, on Saturday 28.
In addition, he said that the presence of municipal police patrolling the area was maintained, a fact that could be corroborated through the GPS system that the police units report, as the supposed absence of the elements in the streets due to threats of organized crime was reported.
"In the C5, the police are monitored by GPS patrols, where they are, there are calls to 911 incidents that were attended to by the municipal police. The GPS allowed us to see that there were municipal police patrolling the city, right now I do not have the exact data how many."
Following these events, an alert was issued by the United States Department calling for a travel ban of personnel from the American consulates to the municipalities of southern Sonora.
Escalating violence with dismemberment
A ice cooler containing human remains appeared on Friday, August 10, on Calle 600, a few meters from Calle Norman E. Borlaug, in the Valle del Yaqui, in Cajeme.
The municipal police received the report, detecting in the area a narcomanta adjudicated to Gente Nueva Salazar.
Elements of the Municipal and State police arrived in addition to expert services to collect the cooler and the official transfer towards the district attorney's office in Cajeme.
The constant violence in Cajeme with multiple murders, the last 4 registered in less than 24 hours on Friday the 10th, caused the population's boiling point to be reached. That is why the responsible authorities are required to rethink the coordination strategies between the different levels of police corporations, said Faustino Félix Chávez.
The mayor of Cajeme said that one of his last duties as a public servant of Ciudad Obregó is analyzing with the state government new measures to stop the murders registered almost daily in Cajeme, and alternatives to inhibit crimes related to organized crime.
"We have to listen to society, it is not something that is only happening in the south of Sonora, we know that it is not foreign to the rest of the country, but we worry about our house, we care where we live, where we have our families and although we said it is something between criminals, we have already seen people who are not criminals having to suffer the ravages of what is happening."
For its part, the government of Sonora has continued with operations in Cajeme, Guaymas and Empalme, where elements of the State Public Security Police, the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie and the Mexican Army arrived.
"For various sectors of Ciudad Obregón, monitoring and prevention points were installed in which elements of SEDENA, PESP, PF and Municipal Police participate," the state agency reported on its Twitter account.
Cajemenses seek to restore peace
Marches for Peace, organized by relatives of "levantadas" or disappeared persons, began with inhabitants of Cajeme and Guaymas going out into the streets to demand that the authorities contain the clashes between members of organized crime groups.
With placards and slogans of "No more violence " and "We want security and peace" they marched to the municipal palace.
Armida Salas Lapizco, denounced to the authority the disappearance of her nephew Miguel Ángel ITSON, student in the Systems Engineering degree, who disappeared on March 27, 2012.
"He was going to graduate in December 2012, he was doing his social service and we do not know anything, the authorities have not given us any response, we have never passed from the PGR window, my nephew's car appeared abandoned."
There are about 70 murders officially registered in Cajeme so far this year, but it should be noted that there is a percentage that is not reported to the judicial authorities, so it is not recorded in the lists reported by the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security.
(Translated August 28 by El Profe for Borderland Beat)
Thursday, August 30, 2018
JAILER SUING CA COUNTY
by Bob Walsh
Dante Michelucci, 41, is a correctional officer (jail guard according to the newspaper) at the Napa County hospitality center. He is asserting that he was "driven off" of his job by virulent anti-gay harassment (incorrectly perceived) and ended up in a mental hospital due to this. He is, of course, suing.
Michelucci was with the county for over ten years, starting in 2007 and bailing out in April of this year. He is straight and lives with his wife in Sonoma County. He is asserting that, for some reason, his colleagues have decided that he is in fact gay and made him the target of rather nasty anti-gay harassment.
Michelucci says that he reported the abuse to his superiors, and was then labeled a rat and subject to further harassment.
He has a record of good to very good performance reports and was promoted to Field Training Officer duties. He asserts that he was "directed" to give an African-American officer a crappy job review, because the guy "just didn't fit in." This was the triggering incident in his harassment. Michelucci is apparently still on the payroll, on medical leave.
The suit, filed last week in S.F., is asking for unspecified actual and punitive damages.
Dante Michelucci, 41, is a correctional officer (jail guard according to the newspaper) at the Napa County hospitality center. He is asserting that he was "driven off" of his job by virulent anti-gay harassment (incorrectly perceived) and ended up in a mental hospital due to this. He is, of course, suing.
Michelucci was with the county for over ten years, starting in 2007 and bailing out in April of this year. He is straight and lives with his wife in Sonoma County. He is asserting that, for some reason, his colleagues have decided that he is in fact gay and made him the target of rather nasty anti-gay harassment.
Michelucci says that he reported the abuse to his superiors, and was then labeled a rat and subject to further harassment.
He has a record of good to very good performance reports and was promoted to Field Training Officer duties. He asserts that he was "directed" to give an African-American officer a crappy job review, because the guy "just didn't fit in." This was the triggering incident in his harassment. Michelucci is apparently still on the payroll, on medical leave.
The suit, filed last week in S.F., is asking for unspecified actual and punitive damages.
VERY YOUNG LEGAL STONERS IN CA.
by Bob Walsh
The formerly great state of California is about to approve the on-campus consumption of marijuana products (other than by smoking) of elementary school students who have a valid medical marijuana card. You can get one of those by asserting that you suffer from stress because the law does not allow you to consume marijuana. Just thought you might find this interesting.
Anybody got some Twinkies?
The formerly great state of California is about to approve the on-campus consumption of marijuana products (other than by smoking) of elementary school students who have a valid medical marijuana card. You can get one of those by asserting that you suffer from stress because the law does not allow you to consume marijuana. Just thought you might find this interesting.
Anybody got some Twinkies?
CAREER CROOK FACES MULTIPLE COUNTS OF FELONY ASSAULT
Wrong-way driver who hit NY cops faces 40 criminal charges
By Thomas Tracy and John Annese
New York Daily News
August 29, 2018
NEW YORK CITY — The career crook who rammed two police cars during on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge faces a whopping 40 criminal charges after Monday’s wild, wrong-way pursuit, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Peter Guarneri, 47, had three baggies of crack in his pocket and a suspended license when he tried to escape police in a stolen van on the nearly mile-long span during the afternoon rush hour, prosecutors said.
Police suspected Guarneri in a string of burglaries, cops said, when he hopped into a stolen 1999 Ford Econoline van in Brooklyn and headed towards the bridge.
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authorities officers in three separate vehicles started pursuing him, and an off-duty NYPD detective, James McCullough, cut him off and stopped his Toyota Camry in front of the van, authorities said.
Guarneri rammed the Camry from behind, and refused to get out of the van, spurring one of the TBTA officer, Eddie Fung, to smash his hand through the driver’s side window, according to a criminal complaint.
He then maneuvered past McCullough’s Camry, drove all the way down to the Staten Island side of the span, pulled a U-turn, and headed back to Brooklyn.
That’s when he slammed into an unmarked Fusion carrying NYPD Officer Stephanie Mazza and Sgt. Albert Cabello, according to the complaint. He rammed their car several times, trying to power through it, then jumped out and made a final, futile run for it, prosecutors said.
Mazza, who was driving the Ford, suffered neck and back pain, while Cabello suffered a cut to his head and pain to his right knee.
Guarneri has 32 past arrests for robbery, assault, drug possession and other charges dating back to 1988, police sources said. He’s on probation for a 2016 unlicensed driving arrest in Brooklyn, and was out on $10,000 bail after a June 2017 bust in Queens for possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
He was arraigned Tuesday on multiple counts of felony assault and myriad other charges, and ordered held on $200,000 bond or $100,000 bail.
By Thomas Tracy and John Annese
New York Daily News
August 29, 2018
NEW YORK CITY — The career crook who rammed two police cars during on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge faces a whopping 40 criminal charges after Monday’s wild, wrong-way pursuit, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Peter Guarneri, 47, had three baggies of crack in his pocket and a suspended license when he tried to escape police in a stolen van on the nearly mile-long span during the afternoon rush hour, prosecutors said.
Police suspected Guarneri in a string of burglaries, cops said, when he hopped into a stolen 1999 Ford Econoline van in Brooklyn and headed towards the bridge.
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authorities officers in three separate vehicles started pursuing him, and an off-duty NYPD detective, James McCullough, cut him off and stopped his Toyota Camry in front of the van, authorities said.
Guarneri rammed the Camry from behind, and refused to get out of the van, spurring one of the TBTA officer, Eddie Fung, to smash his hand through the driver’s side window, according to a criminal complaint.
He then maneuvered past McCullough’s Camry, drove all the way down to the Staten Island side of the span, pulled a U-turn, and headed back to Brooklyn.
That’s when he slammed into an unmarked Fusion carrying NYPD Officer Stephanie Mazza and Sgt. Albert Cabello, according to the complaint. He rammed their car several times, trying to power through it, then jumped out and made a final, futile run for it, prosecutors said.
Mazza, who was driving the Ford, suffered neck and back pain, while Cabello suffered a cut to his head and pain to his right knee.
Guarneri has 32 past arrests for robbery, assault, drug possession and other charges dating back to 1988, police sources said. He’s on probation for a 2016 unlicensed driving arrest in Brooklyn, and was out on $10,000 bail after a June 2017 bust in Queens for possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
He was arraigned Tuesday on multiple counts of felony assault and myriad other charges, and ordered held on $200,000 bond or $100,000 bail.
PENNSYLVANIA POT GROWER HIGH ON DRUGS SQUASHED BY BULLDOZER
DA: Death of man crushed by bulldozer while hiding from police in pot grove was accidental
By Barbara Barr
WGAK News 8
August 28, 2018
PENN TWP., Pa. -- Berks County District Attorney John Adams has determined that the death of a man who was crushed by a bulldozer while hiding from state police last month was accidental.
Investigators said Gregory Longenecker intentionally crawled under the bulldozer when it came to a stop, and he was caught under the treads when it made a turn as it started moving again.
An employee with the Pennsylvania Game Commission was using the bulldozer to clear heavy brush in a field next to Snyder School Road in Penn Township on July 9 and noticed a suspicious vehicle.
Police were called and found several marijuana plants, investigators said. Police also spotted two men. One of them was taken into custody, but police said Longenecker ran.
A state trooper and the game commission employee used the bulldozer during the search for Longenecker because the brush was too dense to walk through, according to investigators. Longenecker's body was later found under the bulldozer.
According to the autopsy report, Longenecker was under the influence of methadone, amphetamine and cannabinoid, and the levels of methadone and methamphetamine were in the toxic level.
"The decedent's judgement, perception and coordination would have been considerably impaired at the time of his death due to this intoxication," Dr. Neil Hoffman wrote.
By Barbara Barr
WGAK News 8
August 28, 2018
PENN TWP., Pa. -- Berks County District Attorney John Adams has determined that the death of a man who was crushed by a bulldozer while hiding from state police last month was accidental.
Investigators said Gregory Longenecker intentionally crawled under the bulldozer when it came to a stop, and he was caught under the treads when it made a turn as it started moving again.
An employee with the Pennsylvania Game Commission was using the bulldozer to clear heavy brush in a field next to Snyder School Road in Penn Township on July 9 and noticed a suspicious vehicle.
Police were called and found several marijuana plants, investigators said. Police also spotted two men. One of them was taken into custody, but police said Longenecker ran.
A state trooper and the game commission employee used the bulldozer during the search for Longenecker because the brush was too dense to walk through, according to investigators. Longenecker's body was later found under the bulldozer.
According to the autopsy report, Longenecker was under the influence of methadone, amphetamine and cannabinoid, and the levels of methadone and methamphetamine were in the toxic level.
"The decedent's judgement, perception and coordination would have been considerably impaired at the time of his death due to this intoxication," Dr. Neil Hoffman wrote.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
AT WHAT POINT DO YOU SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?
And What Do You Do Then?
by Bob Walsh
I am not a Catholic. I am not a Christian. I am not even a mono-theist. I do, however, understand that there is a difference between GOD, RELIGION and CHURCH. The church is a bureaucracy. In theory it exists to assist and allow the church to minister to it's flock. In practice it seems that it is often used to cover up systemic criminal activity, the abuse of children by the clergy and, to some extent, even to aid in that criminality.
The Pope is the big man. God's vicar on earth. He is, allegedly, INFALLIBLE when it comes to matters of the faith. Theoretically God moves the Pope in the correct direction, his wonders to perform. The problem is it seems not virtually CERTAIN that the current Pope KNEW for YEARS of the deep-seated abusive practices within the church and the fact that the church moved and hid child molesters within the clergy, IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE CHURCH AT THE EXPENSE OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was the Papal Nuncio (ambassador) to the United States. He was recalled in 2016. Vigano has recently pusblished a 7,000 word letter which asserts that he had notified the Pope years ago (2013) of the widespread sexual abuse occurring within the church and that the Pope failed to act. He has called for the Pope's resignation.
He specifically accused the Pope of complicity in covering up accusations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Allegedly Benedict XVI, Pope Francis' immediate predecessor, acted against McCarrick for his known sexual abuse of seminarians and priests. . McCarrick has been "sentenced" to a lifetime of penance and prayer by Benedict XVI. Pope Francis "rehabilitated" McCarrick and started sending him out on missions for the church again. McCarrick became the first cardinal in U. S. history to resign, following charges that he abused boys.
It should be noted that Vigano is not a big fan of Pope Francis. He can't PROVE he notified the Pope of the problem back in 2013.
It is clear that the Catholic Church has known, at very high levels, of the facts. The facts are that there are a LOT of priests and higher-ups in the church doing a lot of nasty shit to their subordinates and members of their flock. In can not be questioned any more that the church has actively moved to conceal and protect this predatory scum and, at a minimum, is complicit by this action.
What will the Pope do? What will the bureaucracy do? What will the secular authorities do? And then the big question, what will the flock do?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Life Site News reports that Monsignor Jean-François Lantheaume, former first counsellor at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., corroborates Viganò’s testimony that Pope Francis and a number of high-ranking prelates helped cover up ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sex abuse.
And Bishop Joseph Strickland has instructed his priests in the Tyler, Texas diocese to read a letter from him this Sunday saying he believes Vigano’s allegations are “credible” and calls for a “thorough investigation” into them.
by Bob Walsh
I am not a Catholic. I am not a Christian. I am not even a mono-theist. I do, however, understand that there is a difference between GOD, RELIGION and CHURCH. The church is a bureaucracy. In theory it exists to assist and allow the church to minister to it's flock. In practice it seems that it is often used to cover up systemic criminal activity, the abuse of children by the clergy and, to some extent, even to aid in that criminality.
The Pope is the big man. God's vicar on earth. He is, allegedly, INFALLIBLE when it comes to matters of the faith. Theoretically God moves the Pope in the correct direction, his wonders to perform. The problem is it seems not virtually CERTAIN that the current Pope KNEW for YEARS of the deep-seated abusive practices within the church and the fact that the church moved and hid child molesters within the clergy, IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE CHURCH AT THE EXPENSE OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was the Papal Nuncio (ambassador) to the United States. He was recalled in 2016. Vigano has recently pusblished a 7,000 word letter which asserts that he had notified the Pope years ago (2013) of the widespread sexual abuse occurring within the church and that the Pope failed to act. He has called for the Pope's resignation.
He specifically accused the Pope of complicity in covering up accusations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Allegedly Benedict XVI, Pope Francis' immediate predecessor, acted against McCarrick for his known sexual abuse of seminarians and priests. . McCarrick has been "sentenced" to a lifetime of penance and prayer by Benedict XVI. Pope Francis "rehabilitated" McCarrick and started sending him out on missions for the church again. McCarrick became the first cardinal in U. S. history to resign, following charges that he abused boys.
It should be noted that Vigano is not a big fan of Pope Francis. He can't PROVE he notified the Pope of the problem back in 2013.
It is clear that the Catholic Church has known, at very high levels, of the facts. The facts are that there are a LOT of priests and higher-ups in the church doing a lot of nasty shit to their subordinates and members of their flock. In can not be questioned any more that the church has actively moved to conceal and protect this predatory scum and, at a minimum, is complicit by this action.
What will the Pope do? What will the bureaucracy do? What will the secular authorities do? And then the big question, what will the flock do?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Life Site News reports that Monsignor Jean-François Lantheaume, former first counsellor at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, D.C., corroborates Viganò’s testimony that Pope Francis and a number of high-ranking prelates helped cover up ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sex abuse.
And Bishop Joseph Strickland has instructed his priests in the Tyler, Texas diocese to read a letter from him this Sunday saying he believes Vigano’s allegations are “credible” and calls for a “thorough investigation” into them.
TRUMP CLAIMS STORMY BENEFITED FROM HIM CALLING HER A LIAR
EXCLUSIVE: Trump demands court DISMISS Stormy Daniels's defamation lawsuit against him saying First Amendment lets him call her a liar - and he's made her RICHER
By Karen Ruiz
Daily Mail
August 28, 2018
President Trump is demanding a judge toss out Stormy Daniels's defamation suit against him claiming he is protected by free speech, DailyMail.com can reveal.
In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, the president argues that his April 2018 tweet, in which he branded Daniels a liar after she alleged she was threatened by man on his behalf, is his 'protected opinion.'
He has also claimed that the porn star, 39, has not suffered any damages from his comments and that she has actually 'capitalized' on the dispute.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Daniels's attorney Michael Avenatti called the motion 'as baseless as Trump's comments about Senator McCain.'
The suit states: 'Politicians, in the course of public debate, are entitled to enter the debate and express their beliefs, including their disbeliefs, of the claims of their adversaries.'
The documents go on to say that Trump's comments about Daniels are no different to when he has 'expressed his opinions regarding multiple adversaries, sometimes referring to his opponents by colorful names such as "Lyin' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary."'
'A defamation standard that turns typical political rhetoric into actionable defamation would chill expression that is central to the First Amendment and political speech,' the suit states.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, filed the suit in April claiming Trump's comment was defamatory because it accused her of a serious crime: 'that she falsely accused an individual of threatening her.'
In the new filing, Trump attorney Charles J Harder fired back saying that merely stating that someone has made a false statement does not count as defamation.
He also slammed Daniels stating 'there is nothing about Plaintiff's career as an adult entertainer that requires a reputation for honesty.'
The lawsuit is only a part of the ongoing saga between Trump and Daniels, who claimed she was paid $135,000 in hush money by attorney Michael Cohen before the election to stop her airing her claims of sex with the then presidential candidate in 2006.
Daniels appeared on an April episode of The View to show the sketch of a man she says threatened her in 2011 to stay silent after she tried to sell her story then.
She claimed she was with her young daughter when the mystery man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot saying: 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.'
Daniels said: 'Then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom." And then he was gone.'
Trump later weighed in on the claims on Twitter, mocking the courtroom artist's sketch and saying: 'A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!'
The president also retweeted a side-by-side comparison of the pencil sketch with a photo of Daniels' husband Glendon Crain, a fellow adult film star who had the porn name Brendon Miller, and a former heavy metal drummer.
In the new motion, Harder also argued that Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti have 'publicly attacked' the president in more than 140 television news appearances in the past five months.
He also claims Daniels is unable to prove that she suffered any damages as a result of the tweet and argues that the porn star has actually 'capitalized on her dispute with the President, embarking on a nationwide tour of adult live entertainment venues (a.k.a., strip clubs) for which she admittedly is being paid at least four times her normal appearance fee because of her public controversy with the President.'
'This suit [...] is nothing more than a public relations move by Plaintiff and her outspoken lawyer to obtain still more publicity and attention.
'This suit improperly injects the United States courts into what is effectively a public debate involving a major politician and one (or two) of his public antagonists.
'This suit is designed to chill the President's free speech rights on matters of public concern.'
By Karen Ruiz
Daily Mail
August 28, 2018
President Trump is demanding a judge toss out Stormy Daniels's defamation suit against him claiming he is protected by free speech, DailyMail.com can reveal.
In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, the president argues that his April 2018 tweet, in which he branded Daniels a liar after she alleged she was threatened by man on his behalf, is his 'protected opinion.'
He has also claimed that the porn star, 39, has not suffered any damages from his comments and that she has actually 'capitalized' on the dispute.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Daniels's attorney Michael Avenatti called the motion 'as baseless as Trump's comments about Senator McCain.'
The suit states: 'Politicians, in the course of public debate, are entitled to enter the debate and express their beliefs, including their disbeliefs, of the claims of their adversaries.'
The documents go on to say that Trump's comments about Daniels are no different to when he has 'expressed his opinions regarding multiple adversaries, sometimes referring to his opponents by colorful names such as "Lyin' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary."'
'A defamation standard that turns typical political rhetoric into actionable defamation would chill expression that is central to the First Amendment and political speech,' the suit states.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, filed the suit in April claiming Trump's comment was defamatory because it accused her of a serious crime: 'that she falsely accused an individual of threatening her.'
In the new filing, Trump attorney Charles J Harder fired back saying that merely stating that someone has made a false statement does not count as defamation.
He also slammed Daniels stating 'there is nothing about Plaintiff's career as an adult entertainer that requires a reputation for honesty.'
The lawsuit is only a part of the ongoing saga between Trump and Daniels, who claimed she was paid $135,000 in hush money by attorney Michael Cohen before the election to stop her airing her claims of sex with the then presidential candidate in 2006.
Daniels appeared on an April episode of The View to show the sketch of a man she says threatened her in 2011 to stay silent after she tried to sell her story then.
She claimed she was with her young daughter when the mystery man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot saying: 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.'
Daniels said: 'Then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom." And then he was gone.'
Trump later weighed in on the claims on Twitter, mocking the courtroom artist's sketch and saying: 'A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!'
The president also retweeted a side-by-side comparison of the pencil sketch with a photo of Daniels' husband Glendon Crain, a fellow adult film star who had the porn name Brendon Miller, and a former heavy metal drummer.
In the new motion, Harder also argued that Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti have 'publicly attacked' the president in more than 140 television news appearances in the past five months.
He also claims Daniels is unable to prove that she suffered any damages as a result of the tweet and argues that the porn star has actually 'capitalized on her dispute with the President, embarking on a nationwide tour of adult live entertainment venues (a.k.a., strip clubs) for which she admittedly is being paid at least four times her normal appearance fee because of her public controversy with the President.'
'This suit [...] is nothing more than a public relations move by Plaintiff and her outspoken lawyer to obtain still more publicity and attention.
'This suit improperly injects the United States courts into what is effectively a public debate involving a major politician and one (or two) of his public antagonists.
'This suit is designed to chill the President's free speech rights on matters of public concern.'
DINE-AND-DASHED HIS WAY TO THE GRAYBAR HOTEL
Man Accused of Serial Dining-and-Dashing, Leaving Women He Met Online to Foot Bill, Faces 10 Felony Counts
By Erika Martin
KTLA 5
August 27, 2018
A man lambasted as the "dine-and-dash dater" after being accused of meeting women at restaurants across the Los Angeles area only to leave them with the bill pleaded not guilty to charges of theft and extortion on Monday, prosecutors said.
Paul Guadalupe Gonzales, 45, allegedly connected with a string of women through dating apps and websites and invited them out to dinner between May 2016 and this April with the intent of using them as a meal ticket, the L.A. County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.
He arranged dates at restaurants in Pasadena, Long Beach, Burbank and Los Angeles, where he ordered and consumed food and drinks, then disappeared before the bill had been paid, the DA's office said.
Eight women told prosecutors they'd footed the bill, one of them under the belief that Gonzales would pay her back. And at least twice, the restaurant paid its own check — making those businesses victims in the criminal complaint, officials said.
In total, Gonzales is accused of defrauding the women of more than $950.
He's also charged with receiving hair salon services, then leaving before paying.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Gonzales on July 3, an inmate records show he was taken into custody Saturday, Aug. 25, in Pasadena.
He was subsequently charged with seven counts of extortion, two counts of attempted extortion and one count of grand theft — all felonies. He also faces two misdemeanor counts each of defrauding an innkeeper and petty theft.
If convicted as charged, the defendant could spend up to 13 years in state prison, prosecutors said.
Gonzales is scheduled to return to court in Pasadena for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 7.
By Erika Martin
KTLA 5
August 27, 2018
A man lambasted as the "dine-and-dash dater" after being accused of meeting women at restaurants across the Los Angeles area only to leave them with the bill pleaded not guilty to charges of theft and extortion on Monday, prosecutors said.
Paul Guadalupe Gonzales, 45, allegedly connected with a string of women through dating apps and websites and invited them out to dinner between May 2016 and this April with the intent of using them as a meal ticket, the L.A. County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.
He arranged dates at restaurants in Pasadena, Long Beach, Burbank and Los Angeles, where he ordered and consumed food and drinks, then disappeared before the bill had been paid, the DA's office said.
Eight women told prosecutors they'd footed the bill, one of them under the belief that Gonzales would pay her back. And at least twice, the restaurant paid its own check — making those businesses victims in the criminal complaint, officials said.
In total, Gonzales is accused of defrauding the women of more than $950.
He's also charged with receiving hair salon services, then leaving before paying.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Gonzales on July 3, an inmate records show he was taken into custody Saturday, Aug. 25, in Pasadena.
He was subsequently charged with seven counts of extortion, two counts of attempted extortion and one count of grand theft — all felonies. He also faces two misdemeanor counts each of defrauding an innkeeper and petty theft.
If convicted as charged, the defendant could spend up to 13 years in state prison, prosecutors said.
Gonzales is scheduled to return to court in Pasadena for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 7.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
TOBACCO IS SAFER THAN E-CIGARETTES
This guy suffered burns to his thigh when his E-cigarette exploded inside his pants pocket. E-cigarettes have been exploding all over the country. One man was killed when his E-cigarette exploded in his face as he was smoking it. The explosions are blamed on cheap Asian lithium batteries.
Maybe it's time to bring back the Marlboro Man.
SUNDAY’S SERMON
Peewee football game got Baptist preacher so exercised that President Trump will have to get rid of football and cheerleaders if he wants to make America great again
BarkGrowlBite
August 28, 2018
Sunday’s fire and brimstone sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Trimble County, Kentucky:
“I see what’s wrong with America today. Right here it is, time to get ready and go to church and the grandstands back here are full up of people. You got all these young’uns out here chasing balls, and it don’t amount to a hill of beans.
So whenever your children have got more emphasis on what’s going on in the football field than they do the house of God, and people jumpin’ and cheerin’ up and carryin’ on like a bunch of banshee Indians over a kid just running and catching a ball. That’s pure ignorance! Pure ignorance!
When these children are burning in Hell, how do you think you gonna feel? But, oh boy, junior can catch a ball, and junior could run. Junior runs straight to hell and you don’t care.
You think it’s something your little girl can dress up like a prostitute? That’s perversion out there whenever they shake their pompoms and shout and cheer and stuff. You need to get them in the house of God, friend. Raise your family up in the house of God.”
So shrieked Baptist preacher Ernie Spence after passing a peewee football game on his way to church. Uhhh, and those seven-year- old cheerleaders dressed up as prostitutes in T-shirts and shorts. They’re going to Hell for sure!
According to the good Baptist Reverend Spence, that’s what’s wrong with America today. Now President Trump will have to get rid of football and cheerleaders if he wants to make America great again.
Hallelujah!
BarkGrowlBite
August 28, 2018
Sunday’s fire and brimstone sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Trimble County, Kentucky:
“I see what’s wrong with America today. Right here it is, time to get ready and go to church and the grandstands back here are full up of people. You got all these young’uns out here chasing balls, and it don’t amount to a hill of beans.
So whenever your children have got more emphasis on what’s going on in the football field than they do the house of God, and people jumpin’ and cheerin’ up and carryin’ on like a bunch of banshee Indians over a kid just running and catching a ball. That’s pure ignorance! Pure ignorance!
When these children are burning in Hell, how do you think you gonna feel? But, oh boy, junior can catch a ball, and junior could run. Junior runs straight to hell and you don’t care.
You think it’s something your little girl can dress up like a prostitute? That’s perversion out there whenever they shake their pompoms and shout and cheer and stuff. You need to get them in the house of God, friend. Raise your family up in the house of God.”
So shrieked Baptist preacher Ernie Spence after passing a peewee football game on his way to church. Uhhh, and those seven-year- old cheerleaders dressed up as prostitutes in T-shirts and shorts. They’re going to Hell for sure!
According to the good Baptist Reverend Spence, that’s what’s wrong with America today. Now President Trump will have to get rid of football and cheerleaders if he wants to make America great again.
Hallelujah!
DEFERRED, NOT EXCUSED
by Bob Walsh
So I drug my dead butt to the jury assembly room on Monday, and thence to court. Turns out it was a civil trial against a large corporation by a local purchaser. They figured 3-4 weeks. I pointed out that I had a firm schedule on some dental surgery right in the middle of things. I also pointed out that I owned stock in the company and would probably be disqualified for that reason alone.
The new courthouse has as VERY NICE jury assembly room.
I was deferred until December, but not excused.
I learned a couple of things. A LOT of people do not get paid for jury duty. Also the homeless population of Stockton likes to use recessed doorways at the courthouse for latrines. Brand new building too and they seems to be real casual about cleaning the shit up.
I also learned that a lot of people pronounce their own name so badly that the clerk has to ask them three or four times to repeat themselves, and finally to spell it.
So I drug my dead butt to the jury assembly room on Monday, and thence to court. Turns out it was a civil trial against a large corporation by a local purchaser. They figured 3-4 weeks. I pointed out that I had a firm schedule on some dental surgery right in the middle of things. I also pointed out that I owned stock in the company and would probably be disqualified for that reason alone.
The new courthouse has as VERY NICE jury assembly room.
I was deferred until December, but not excused.
I learned a couple of things. A LOT of people do not get paid for jury duty. Also the homeless population of Stockton likes to use recessed doorways at the courthouse for latrines. Brand new building too and they seems to be real casual about cleaning the shit up.
I also learned that a lot of people pronounce their own name so badly that the clerk has to ask them three or four times to repeat themselves, and finally to spell it.
FIFTH GRADER JACKED FOR CALLING TEACHER MA'AM
by Bob Walsh
Tamarion Wilson, 10, got jacked up by his teacher for calling her "Ma'am" to her face. In fact the teacher said at the time that, had she had something handy, she would have thrown it at him. She admitted to that, but says it was not meant seriously and she believed that young Mr. Wilson knew that..
Tamarion's parents were puzzled by this situation and went to the school to talk with the teacher and principle to ensure that they understood what happened. They understood correctly. The teacher, at North East Carolina Preparatory School in Tarboro, N.C. was so offended that she directed that Tamarion write the word ma'am several times on a piece of paper, and look up the definition and write it down. (The definition says that it is a term of respect directed to a female person in authority, especially in the uniform services, and also to a female member of royalty.)
Maybe it's just me, but it sounds to me like this woman has a screw loose. I could see she would be pissed if he had called her "bitch", but "ma'am" is completely appropriate I should think.
The parents requested that Tamarion be moved to another class. The principle concurred. The school has declined further comment.
Tamarion Wilson, 10, got jacked up by his teacher for calling her "Ma'am" to her face. In fact the teacher said at the time that, had she had something handy, she would have thrown it at him. She admitted to that, but says it was not meant seriously and she believed that young Mr. Wilson knew that..
Tamarion's parents were puzzled by this situation and went to the school to talk with the teacher and principle to ensure that they understood what happened. They understood correctly. The teacher, at North East Carolina Preparatory School in Tarboro, N.C. was so offended that she directed that Tamarion write the word ma'am several times on a piece of paper, and look up the definition and write it down. (The definition says that it is a term of respect directed to a female person in authority, especially in the uniform services, and also to a female member of royalty.)
Maybe it's just me, but it sounds to me like this woman has a screw loose. I could see she would be pissed if he had called her "bitch", but "ma'am" is completely appropriate I should think.
The parents requested that Tamarion be moved to another class. The principle concurred. The school has declined further comment.
CIVILIAN POLICE COMMISSIONERS DISREGARD FACT THAT MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF COPS NEVER FIRE THEIR GUNS ON DUTY
The LA Police Commission killed Elizabeth Tollison
By Robert Parry
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
August 26, 2018
Cops rarely kill anyone. Over 90 percent of them won’t fire their guns on the street during their careers.
Members of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners never use deadly force. These politically connected civilians set LAPD policy, but they aren’t cops and they don’t carry guns.
But, make no mistake about it: The Police Commission killed Elizabeth Tollison.
No, the commissioners didn’t hold the knife that sliced Tollison’s throat nor did they fire the fatal bullets, but they might as well have.
Tollison is the woman in a stunning set of videos recently released by the LAPD. On June 19, LAPD Van Nuys Division officers responded to a 911 call of a stabbing with the suspect present. The suspect, Guillermo Perez, took more than 24 steps toward them with a bloodied knife in his hands. He ignored 18 commands to drop the weapon and disregarded at least two blasts from a “less-lethal” bean bag shotgun.
But the officers didn’t use lethal force to stop him.
Perez then took a dozen steps backward, grabbed Tollison, a bystander, put the blade to her throat and pushed. The officers had no choice but to risk shooting Tollison in order to save her. They did not.
But while Perez cut her and cops shot her it was the Police Commission that set her up to be a human shield.
In 2017, the commission passed a major change to the LAPD’s Use of Force policy. It prioritized retreat and words to de-escalate situations over force to decisively resolve them.
That the policy was not written with the safety of the community or cops in mind was obvious from the start. When then-Commission President Matt Johnson, an entertainment industry attorney, began pushing to reform the old use of force policy, he penned a lengthy article for a South Los Angeles newspaper. It had many pontifications and promises about changing the LAPD. But, among its 1,571 words (double the length of this column) “safety,” “threat,” “risk” and “self-defense” never appeared.
Imagine that: The head of a major organization promised to reform that organization’s safety policy and made no promises about safety.
The results were predictable.
Following the release of the Tollison video, I spoke to several current and retired officers. Among them were patrol and SWAT cops, supervisors and union leaders. All agreed on one thing: The officers who faced down Perez had plenty of chances to stop him but most likely didn’t in order to comply with the commission’s intent.
But don’t believe me. Believe the commissioners: They made their intent very clear two years ago in a similar case that helped drive changes to the force policy. In October 2015, two LAPD officers confronted 37-year-old Norma Guzman, a mentally ill woman on who brandished a knife and advanced on them on a busy sidewalk near downtown. They warned her until she was within a few feet, then shot and killed her.
Then-Chief Charlie Beck found the shooting was justified, but, the commission overruled him and found the officers were out of policy because they had not retreated from Guzman.
The commission prioritized Guzman over bystanders under the old policy. Six months later, they made the policy even more restrictive. At the time, Johnson told the media he expected the new policy to result in fewer shootings and/or more officers being found out of policy because they didn’t try to de-escalate.
The officers in Van Nuys got the message.
Sadly, it is not the end of the matter. Currently, Assembly Bill 931 is making its way through Sacramento. It seeks to put into criminal law the same sorts of restrictions the police commission put in policy.
Officers across California will face prison if they use lethal force instead of retreating or de-escalating.
Elizabeth Tollison paid for the lesson of the Police Commission’s flawed idea with her life.
The question is: Will the Legislature learn that lesson before someone else pays the same price?
By Robert Parry
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
August 26, 2018
Cops rarely kill anyone. Over 90 percent of them won’t fire their guns on the street during their careers.
Members of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners never use deadly force. These politically connected civilians set LAPD policy, but they aren’t cops and they don’t carry guns.
But, make no mistake about it: The Police Commission killed Elizabeth Tollison.
No, the commissioners didn’t hold the knife that sliced Tollison’s throat nor did they fire the fatal bullets, but they might as well have.
Tollison is the woman in a stunning set of videos recently released by the LAPD. On June 19, LAPD Van Nuys Division officers responded to a 911 call of a stabbing with the suspect present. The suspect, Guillermo Perez, took more than 24 steps toward them with a bloodied knife in his hands. He ignored 18 commands to drop the weapon and disregarded at least two blasts from a “less-lethal” bean bag shotgun.
But the officers didn’t use lethal force to stop him.
Perez then took a dozen steps backward, grabbed Tollison, a bystander, put the blade to her throat and pushed. The officers had no choice but to risk shooting Tollison in order to save her. They did not.
But while Perez cut her and cops shot her it was the Police Commission that set her up to be a human shield.
In 2017, the commission passed a major change to the LAPD’s Use of Force policy. It prioritized retreat and words to de-escalate situations over force to decisively resolve them.
That the policy was not written with the safety of the community or cops in mind was obvious from the start. When then-Commission President Matt Johnson, an entertainment industry attorney, began pushing to reform the old use of force policy, he penned a lengthy article for a South Los Angeles newspaper. It had many pontifications and promises about changing the LAPD. But, among its 1,571 words (double the length of this column) “safety,” “threat,” “risk” and “self-defense” never appeared.
Imagine that: The head of a major organization promised to reform that organization’s safety policy and made no promises about safety.
The results were predictable.
Following the release of the Tollison video, I spoke to several current and retired officers. Among them were patrol and SWAT cops, supervisors and union leaders. All agreed on one thing: The officers who faced down Perez had plenty of chances to stop him but most likely didn’t in order to comply with the commission’s intent.
But don’t believe me. Believe the commissioners: They made their intent very clear two years ago in a similar case that helped drive changes to the force policy. In October 2015, two LAPD officers confronted 37-year-old Norma Guzman, a mentally ill woman on who brandished a knife and advanced on them on a busy sidewalk near downtown. They warned her until she was within a few feet, then shot and killed her.
Then-Chief Charlie Beck found the shooting was justified, but, the commission overruled him and found the officers were out of policy because they had not retreated from Guzman.
The commission prioritized Guzman over bystanders under the old policy. Six months later, they made the policy even more restrictive. At the time, Johnson told the media he expected the new policy to result in fewer shootings and/or more officers being found out of policy because they didn’t try to de-escalate.
The officers in Van Nuys got the message.
Sadly, it is not the end of the matter. Currently, Assembly Bill 931 is making its way through Sacramento. It seeks to put into criminal law the same sorts of restrictions the police commission put in policy.
Officers across California will face prison if they use lethal force instead of retreating or de-escalating.
Elizabeth Tollison paid for the lesson of the Police Commission’s flawed idea with her life.
The question is: Will the Legislature learn that lesson before someone else pays the same price?
REALITY WINNER
by Bob Walsh
Reality Winner is the actual name of a young (26 years) lady who may, or may not, be an actual winner depending on how one figures such things.
Ms. Winner was a contract employee at the NSA when she leaked a classified document to the media. She has just been sentenced to 63 months as a guest of the people, the longest such sentence ever handed out for this offense. She could have gotten 120 months.
The document concerned an investigation into alleged Russian hacking attempts into election software in 2016. She made a copy of the document and smuggled it out in her underwear and mailed it.
Reality Winner is the actual name of a young (26 years) lady who may, or may not, be an actual winner depending on how one figures such things.
Ms. Winner was a contract employee at the NSA when she leaked a classified document to the media. She has just been sentenced to 63 months as a guest of the people, the longest such sentence ever handed out for this offense. She could have gotten 120 months.
The document concerned an investigation into alleged Russian hacking attempts into election software in 2016. She made a copy of the document and smuggled it out in her underwear and mailed it.
SUPERSNAKE MAY THREATEN FLORIDA
by Bob Walsh
There are a LOT of non-native snakes running around Florida and they may present an even bigger problem than previously suspected.
Scientists have recently found that more than 3% of the pythons captured in Florida represent a certain level of DNA mixing between the more typical Burmese Python and the Indian Rock Python.
The Indian Rock Python is smaller and faster than the Burmese Python, and can live in a higher, dryer environment very nicely. This could lead to a very dangerous crossbreed snake developing in the estimated 150,000 population of Pythons slithering around the wilds of Florida. Or maybe not.
I think I am pretty safe in Stockton and I am sure as hell not going to Florida any time soon, so it is of only academic interest to me personally.
There are a LOT of non-native snakes running around Florida and they may present an even bigger problem than previously suspected.
Scientists have recently found that more than 3% of the pythons captured in Florida represent a certain level of DNA mixing between the more typical Burmese Python and the Indian Rock Python.
The Indian Rock Python is smaller and faster than the Burmese Python, and can live in a higher, dryer environment very nicely. This could lead to a very dangerous crossbreed snake developing in the estimated 150,000 population of Pythons slithering around the wilds of Florida. Or maybe not.
I think I am pretty safe in Stockton and I am sure as hell not going to Florida any time soon, so it is of only academic interest to me personally.
HOLY SHIT! OUR CARS AND BARBEQUES ARE DEPRIVING MANKIND OF ZINK, PROTEIN AND IRON NUTRIENTS IN CROPS
Rising CO2 levels could leave as many as 200 million people worldwide malnourished as major crops lose vitamins and minerals
By Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
August 27, 2018
Rising levels of carbon dioxide could be putting millions of people at risk for nutritional deficiencies, a new study has found.
Researchers say that high amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere decrease the concentrations of vital vitamins and minerals such as protein, iron, and zinc in crops.
In 2016, global emissions of CO2 reached record highs, measuring at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in modern history.
The team, from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, warns that if emissions continue at this level, it could result in 175 million people becoming zinc deficient and 122 million people becoming protein deficient by 2050.
'We already know there aren't enough people getting iron, zinc and protein, which is creating a global impact on health,' lead author Dr Sam Myers, a principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School, told Daily Mail Online.
'But our carbon dioxide levels are making our food less nutritious. That's pretty shocking fundamentally.'
The mineral nutrient and trace element makeup of a plant is referred to as its ionome.
Many of these elements come from the soil the plant grows in, but they also come from the process of photosynthesis converting CO2 into carbohydrates and energy.
Past research has shown that when there are higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, the plant's ionome suffers an imbalance.
Scientists are unsure why changing CO2 lebels alter plants' nutritional content.
Some theories include that theratio of carbohydrates to minerals is too high or that the way the minerals are used in the plant changes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that this could present a problem because: 'Micronutrients are not produced in the body and must be derived from the diet.'
Currently, two billion people - or 34 percent of the global population - are estimated to be deficient in at least one nutrient, putting them at risk of diseases and starvation.
According to the researchers, we get 63 percent of our protein, 81 percent of our iron and 68 of our zinc from crops.
However, concentrations of these three nutrients have been shown to be between three to 17 percent lower when they are grown in atmospheres where the CO2 levels are 550 ppm.
For the study, the team wanted to look at nutrient shifts due to CO2 emissions in 151 countries.
They created food supply data sets that were age-specific and sex-specific to estimate what the individual demographic impact would be for each nutrient across 225 different foods.
Previous studies have looked at the impact of CO2 on nutritional deficiencies, but with fewer countries and foods.
In the new study, the researchers found that when carbon dioxide readings hit 550ppm, as they're expected to by 2050, about two percent of the global population - or 175 million people - could be zinc deficient.
In addition, about 1.3 percent of the population - approximately 122 million people - could be protein deficient.
Researchers also say around 1.4 billion women who are of childbearing age and children under five years old are at risk of iron deficiency and they could see their iron intake reduced by at least four percent.
According to the University of California San Francisco, close to 70 percent the body's iron is found in a substance of red blood cells called hemoglobin.
Hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. If iron intake is low, then the body cannot produce enough red blood cells.
'If we were having a beer talking about this 10 to 15 years ago, we would talk about ocean levels rising; that fundamentally makes sense. But no one would think of food being less nutritious,' said Dr Myers.
The study found that countries in the regions of Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East would suffer significant impacts.
India, however, was found to be the country that would be the most impacted from this nutrient deficiency.
The researchers estimate that 50 million people could become zinc deficient, 38 million could become protein deficient, and 502 million women and children would suffer iron deficiency.
'In terms of equity - who is going to be affected, who is going to be hurt as a result of these emissions, the wealthiest people in the world have the heaviest carbon footprint in the world compared to the poorest,' Dr Myers said.
'But they are more insulated from this compared to poorer countries.'
Dr Myers says that while the most direct thing that can be done is to reduce our carbon emissions, there are other courses of action.
'There is dietary supplementation with nutrients, which only works so well; there is biofortification, so develop crops with nutrients, which also only works so well,' he said.
'There is also breeding crops that are less sensitive to these CO2 levels. For example, some rice cultivars (varieties) have less reductions that are less dramatically affected.
'So there are a myriad of different ways of research. We're not making a catastrophic announcement but a call to action.'
By Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
August 27, 2018
Rising levels of carbon dioxide could be putting millions of people at risk for nutritional deficiencies, a new study has found.
Researchers say that high amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere decrease the concentrations of vital vitamins and minerals such as protein, iron, and zinc in crops.
In 2016, global emissions of CO2 reached record highs, measuring at 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in modern history.
The team, from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, warns that if emissions continue at this level, it could result in 175 million people becoming zinc deficient and 122 million people becoming protein deficient by 2050.
'We already know there aren't enough people getting iron, zinc and protein, which is creating a global impact on health,' lead author Dr Sam Myers, a principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School, told Daily Mail Online.
'But our carbon dioxide levels are making our food less nutritious. That's pretty shocking fundamentally.'
The mineral nutrient and trace element makeup of a plant is referred to as its ionome.
Many of these elements come from the soil the plant grows in, but they also come from the process of photosynthesis converting CO2 into carbohydrates and energy.
Past research has shown that when there are higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, the plant's ionome suffers an imbalance.
Scientists are unsure why changing CO2 lebels alter plants' nutritional content.
Some theories include that theratio of carbohydrates to minerals is too high or that the way the minerals are used in the plant changes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that this could present a problem because: 'Micronutrients are not produced in the body and must be derived from the diet.'
Currently, two billion people - or 34 percent of the global population - are estimated to be deficient in at least one nutrient, putting them at risk of diseases and starvation.
According to the researchers, we get 63 percent of our protein, 81 percent of our iron and 68 of our zinc from crops.
However, concentrations of these three nutrients have been shown to be between three to 17 percent lower when they are grown in atmospheres where the CO2 levels are 550 ppm.
For the study, the team wanted to look at nutrient shifts due to CO2 emissions in 151 countries.
They created food supply data sets that were age-specific and sex-specific to estimate what the individual demographic impact would be for each nutrient across 225 different foods.
Previous studies have looked at the impact of CO2 on nutritional deficiencies, but with fewer countries and foods.
In the new study, the researchers found that when carbon dioxide readings hit 550ppm, as they're expected to by 2050, about two percent of the global population - or 175 million people - could be zinc deficient.
In addition, about 1.3 percent of the population - approximately 122 million people - could be protein deficient.
Researchers also say around 1.4 billion women who are of childbearing age and children under five years old are at risk of iron deficiency and they could see their iron intake reduced by at least four percent.
According to the University of California San Francisco, close to 70 percent the body's iron is found in a substance of red blood cells called hemoglobin.
Hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. If iron intake is low, then the body cannot produce enough red blood cells.
'If we were having a beer talking about this 10 to 15 years ago, we would talk about ocean levels rising; that fundamentally makes sense. But no one would think of food being less nutritious,' said Dr Myers.
The study found that countries in the regions of Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East would suffer significant impacts.
India, however, was found to be the country that would be the most impacted from this nutrient deficiency.
The researchers estimate that 50 million people could become zinc deficient, 38 million could become protein deficient, and 502 million women and children would suffer iron deficiency.
'In terms of equity - who is going to be affected, who is going to be hurt as a result of these emissions, the wealthiest people in the world have the heaviest carbon footprint in the world compared to the poorest,' Dr Myers said.
'But they are more insulated from this compared to poorer countries.'
Dr Myers says that while the most direct thing that can be done is to reduce our carbon emissions, there are other courses of action.
'There is dietary supplementation with nutrients, which only works so well; there is biofortification, so develop crops with nutrients, which also only works so well,' he said.
'There is also breeding crops that are less sensitive to these CO2 levels. For example, some rice cultivars (varieties) have less reductions that are less dramatically affected.
'So there are a myriad of different ways of research. We're not making a catastrophic announcement but a call to action.'
Monday, August 27, 2018
HIS SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL NEVER WAVERED
Israeli Leaders Remember John McCain as True Friend of the Jewish State
Israel Today
August 26, 2018
Long-time American senator, war hero, and repeat presidential candidate John McCain lost his battle with brain cancer on Saturday.
Among his many other accolades, Israeli leaders sought to remind everyone of how staunch an ally McCain was of the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of John McCain, a great American patriot and a great supporter of Israel. I will always treasure the constant friendship he showed to the people of Israel and to me personally. His support for Israel never wavered. It sprang from his belief in democracy and freedom. The State of Israel salutes John McCain."
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said of McCain: "He loved Israel and believed in its righteousness and always supported its security. Israel owes him a big thanks. I had the privilege of working with him and will always remember the rare person he was."
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked tweeted: "He loved his land with all his might and he recognized Israel’s challenges. Over 36 years of public service in the House of Representatives and Senate, Israeli governments knew they always had a friend in him."
John McCain first visited Israel in the late 1970s, and he returned to the Holy Land many more times over the following decades.
During his years in the Senate, McCain unwaveringly defended Israel and opposed any measures that might endanger the security of the Jewish state. Most recently, despite supporting a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear crisis, McCain harshly criticized former President Barack Obama's approach to the situation because, among other things, it left Israel vulnerable.
Israel Today
August 26, 2018
Long-time American senator, war hero, and repeat presidential candidate John McCain lost his battle with brain cancer on Saturday.
Among his many other accolades, Israeli leaders sought to remind everyone of how staunch an ally McCain was of the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of John McCain, a great American patriot and a great supporter of Israel. I will always treasure the constant friendship he showed to the people of Israel and to me personally. His support for Israel never wavered. It sprang from his belief in democracy and freedom. The State of Israel salutes John McCain."
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said of McCain: "He loved Israel and believed in its righteousness and always supported its security. Israel owes him a big thanks. I had the privilege of working with him and will always remember the rare person he was."
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked tweeted: "He loved his land with all his might and he recognized Israel’s challenges. Over 36 years of public service in the House of Representatives and Senate, Israeli governments knew they always had a friend in him."
John McCain first visited Israel in the late 1970s, and he returned to the Holy Land many more times over the following decades.
During his years in the Senate, McCain unwaveringly defended Israel and opposed any measures that might endanger the security of the Jewish state. Most recently, despite supporting a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear crisis, McCain harshly criticized former President Barack Obama's approach to the situation because, among other things, it left Israel vulnerable.
NOW THAT WAS REAL MATURE, AND SMART TOO
by Bob Walsh
A fourteen year old boy was kicked out of a Friday night football game at McNair High in Stockton, for being a dick and causing a disturbance. While being walked out by the local constabulary he decided to smack a 9-year old in the face as he was walking by.
The asshole was cited for resisting arrest and misdemeanor battery on a child, and released to his parents, who I hope whopped his ass but probably didn't, which is probably why he is a dick in the first place.
A fourteen year old boy was kicked out of a Friday night football game at McNair High in Stockton, for being a dick and causing a disturbance. While being walked out by the local constabulary he decided to smack a 9-year old in the face as he was walking by.
The asshole was cited for resisting arrest and misdemeanor battery on a child, and released to his parents, who I hope whopped his ass but probably didn't, which is probably why he is a dick in the first place.
CIVIC DUTY
by Bob Walsh
I may, or may not, be on a jury this week. I got my notice for this week (after two postponements due to medical scheduling) and the phone call check-in said; "Report at noon on Monday." As a former peace officer I will PROBABLY not be picked, at least not for a criminal trial.
I have, in the past, landed in the box twice and been booted twice. Once I worked for DMV and that bothered the defendant, who was representing himself and was a drunk and a wife beater. Probably had a beef with DMV and booted me.
And once was when I worked for the CDC and the case was from the prison where I worked. In fact I was likely a witness to it. In any event as soon as I gave my name and place of employment everybody laughed and the judge waved BYEBYE to me. And the damn jury commish made me stay the whole damn day. Since it was my RDO all I got was the $6 for my trouble.
In any event I will keep you posted. They moved the trial of an on-duty Stanislaus County deputy to San Joaquin County, but I can't imagine they would let me land on that one.
I may, or may not, be on a jury this week. I got my notice for this week (after two postponements due to medical scheduling) and the phone call check-in said; "Report at noon on Monday." As a former peace officer I will PROBABLY not be picked, at least not for a criminal trial.
I have, in the past, landed in the box twice and been booted twice. Once I worked for DMV and that bothered the defendant, who was representing himself and was a drunk and a wife beater. Probably had a beef with DMV and booted me.
And once was when I worked for the CDC and the case was from the prison where I worked. In fact I was likely a witness to it. In any event as soon as I gave my name and place of employment everybody laughed and the judge waved BYEBYE to me. And the damn jury commish made me stay the whole damn day. Since it was my RDO all I got was the $6 for my trouble.
In any event I will keep you posted. They moved the trial of an on-duty Stanislaus County deputy to San Joaquin County, but I can't imagine they would let me land on that one.
SWISS PROSTITUTE DRIVE-INS
Publicly funded drive-in sex booths where prostitutes work legally in Zurich are hailed a 'great success'
By Bridie Pearson-Jones
Daily Mail
August 25, 2018
Legal 'sex booths' where customers take their cars and 'drive-in' to meet prostitutes have been deemed a 'resounding success' by city officials in Zurich, Switzerland.
The booths, which look like garages, celebrate their fifth anniversary on Sunday after 52 per cent of Zurich citizens voted in favour of the local government spending $2million (£1,557,020) on 'sex boxes' in 2012.
Prostitution has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s and the booths opened in 2013. Before this, most sex workers stayed on the city's riverfront, but many moved following complaints from locals over traffic and noise.
The legal areas help in preventing human trafficking and violent attacks against sex workers, most of whom are eastern European.
The government spends $800,000 (£623,000) each year maintaining the booths, which includes security and on-site social services.
The sex workers pay taxes, have regular health checks and are healthier overall, officials say.
In 2014, more improvements were made to the booths, including 'plank beds' for people who wanted to leave their cars.
Like many drive-ins, motorbikes and bicylces are allowed, but those on foot aren't. Pedestrians are told to go to another part of the city.
Once the customers arrive, one of the 24 women working agree a price and go to the booth, which is not monitored but has an emergency alarm for safety.
Nadeen Schuster, a spokesperson for the Zurich government told USA TODAY the area was 'effective in preventing violence against sex workers and human trafficking.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Works for me. What will they think of next … sex gates on toll roads?
By Bridie Pearson-Jones
Daily Mail
August 25, 2018
Legal 'sex booths' where customers take their cars and 'drive-in' to meet prostitutes have been deemed a 'resounding success' by city officials in Zurich, Switzerland.
The booths, which look like garages, celebrate their fifth anniversary on Sunday after 52 per cent of Zurich citizens voted in favour of the local government spending $2million (£1,557,020) on 'sex boxes' in 2012.
Prostitution has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s and the booths opened in 2013. Before this, most sex workers stayed on the city's riverfront, but many moved following complaints from locals over traffic and noise.
The legal areas help in preventing human trafficking and violent attacks against sex workers, most of whom are eastern European.
The government spends $800,000 (£623,000) each year maintaining the booths, which includes security and on-site social services.
The sex workers pay taxes, have regular health checks and are healthier overall, officials say.
In 2014, more improvements were made to the booths, including 'plank beds' for people who wanted to leave their cars.
Like many drive-ins, motorbikes and bicylces are allowed, but those on foot aren't. Pedestrians are told to go to another part of the city.
Once the customers arrive, one of the 24 women working agree a price and go to the booth, which is not monitored but has an emergency alarm for safety.
Nadeen Schuster, a spokesperson for the Zurich government told USA TODAY the area was 'effective in preventing violence against sex workers and human trafficking.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Works for me. What will they think of next … sex gates on toll roads?
Sunday, August 26, 2018
BRENNAN AND OTHER OBAMA HOLDOUTS ARE OPENLY AND AGGRESSIVELY PURSUING A COUP D’ETAT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP
People across the world are sleeping soundly tonight, knowing that an incompetent, narcissistic maniac like Hillary Clinton isn’t sitting in the Oval Office
On August 16, retired Admiral William H. McRaven posted an op-ed in the Washington post in which he paid tribute to and defended former CA Director John Brennan whose security clearance had just been revoked by President Trump.
Ray Starmann, a former army intelligence officer, rebuked McRaven with this open letter:
Dear Admiral McRaven:
Your OPED yesterday, which was picked up by every liberal media outlet in the country, was sadly indicative of the current state of mind of many of our nation’s recently retired and active duty senior military leaders.
You stated that former CIA director John Brennan, “is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.”
The man whom you describe as being a cross between George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa is a deep state hack; who, along with other Obama holdouts, is openly and aggressively pursuing a coup d’etat against the current President of the United States, for one reason and one reason only – his side lost the election.
Frankly, I can’t think of any actions that are more un-American, and against the values that Americans hold dear and that which so many Americans died for in the past.
What you call unparalleled integrity, I call honest to goodness treason.
Former CIA director Brennan, whom you state has honesty and character authorized the CIA to spy on American citizens, tried to rig a Presidential election and then lied to Congress about that spying. A man you claim has unparalleled integrity was caught fabricating stories about attacks on US personnel in Libya and providing weapons to ISIS backed militias in Syria.
Mr. Brennan also voted once for a communist candidate. How Mr. Brennan was hired as DCI after voting for a communist and why you support a man who once did, is a mystery to everyone but you and God.
Former members of the special operations community do not share your adoration for Mr. Brennan. Kris “Tanto” Paronto, a former Army Ranger and private security contractor who was part of the CIA team that fought back during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack, accused Brennan of putting his “politics” before those in the field.
On Twitter, Paronto stated: “My principles are greater than clearances too John Brennan, especially when you and the @CIA kool-aid drinkers punishes us for not going along with the Benghazi cover-up story in order to protect you, @HillaryClinton’s & @BarackObama’s failures. You put your politics before us.”
Mr. Brennan was recently referred to by retired Army Brigadier General Anthony Tata as a ‘clear and present danger’ to the nation.
No doubt John Brennan’s complete absence of integrity and his erratic behavior are what convinced the President to revoke his clearance. Mr. Brennan stated that “Trump’s … performance in Helsinki, exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was … treasonous.”
In a recent article, Pat Buchanan stated that had Brennan made the same accusations of treason against former President Andrew Jackson, ‘he would have been challenged to a duel and shot.’
As you know sir, on the security clearance form, Question 29 reads, ‘have you ever supported overthrowing the U.S. Government?’
I think it’s more than apparent, from his nightly rantings on CNN to his Twitter expletives that John Brennan supports over-throwing the President and the current cabinet members of the US government.
You also wrote, sir, in reference to the President, “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,”
Actually, Admiral, the only person who has humiliated the US on the world stage in the last decade is Barack Hussein Obama. During the eight years of the Obama administrations, the world watched as the US cow-towed to Iranian thugs, let the Chinese run rings around us in the Pacific, while ISIS murdered tens of thousands of innocent people in the Middle East. Believe me, Admiral, the children of Syria and Iraq are rejoicing in their liberation from ISIS mass murderers. And, the people of the Middle East and across the world are sleeping soundly tonight, knowing that an incompetent, narcissistic maniac like Hillary Clinton isn’t sitting in the Oval Office.
As far as the nation’s current political schism, you need only look at your fellow liberals who are inciting violence and propagating hatred on a daily basis.
You then dared the Commander in Chief to revoke your security clearance.
I’m sure you’re aware of the following regulation in the UCMJ. Retired military officers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) under Article 2 of the UCMJ, which extends the jurisdiction of military law to “Retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay.” “Retirees are subject to the UCMJ and may be tried by court-martial for violations … that occurred … while in a retired status.”
Article 88 of the UCMJ criminalizes “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State.”
Something to ponder, sir.
No doubt your OPED was designed to whip up some more anti-Trump hysteria and to usher you into the political arena. No doubt you are a serving member of the ‘resistance.’ No doubt, you have your eyes on some office space in the capitol building or in the White House. No doubt, you have your eyes on the prize, all at the expense of the nation you once served.
When I read your OPED, sir, I wondered where and when and why you went wrong. How does someone from a military family, a SEAL, who came of age in the Reagan years; someone who understands what it’s like to be on a team; the camaraderie, the toughness mentally and physically required; someone who grew up reading about people like Patton, MacArthur, Lee, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt and Hal Moore- How does a guy like that end up aligning himself with the party of Pelosi, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, and slime like Hillary who was chanting baby killer back at Wellesley, and “too gutless to serve, I hate the military” Bill…?
How does a guy like you still support the destructive policies of Obama, and furthermore, how does a guy like you support Brennan, when you know damned well Brennan was a communist, and that he perjured himself in front of Congress, how does that happen?
You, sir, are representative of what is, in my opinion, as a former Army Captain and combat veteran of the 7th Cavalry, the worst generation of senior leaders this nation has ever fielded. Bar None. The majority of you, were and are what the late Colonel David Hackworth so eloquently described as ‘perfumed princes.’
It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have; how many combat tours you did and how much fruit salad you earned. It doesn’t matter that you have the SEAL Trident.
Your generation of senior leaders sold and is selling out the nation’s defense to the highest bidder and that bidder is social engineering and leftist ideology. You and your generation of leftist senior leaders have allowed our military to be destroyed for the greater glory of pensions, Tricare and political power, national security be damned. Now, that you’ve overseen the decimation of our military, you are determined to overthrow a sitting President because he represents everything anathema to the left – America First and the fact that the USA IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
You are all nothing more than political hacks; Obama leftists fighting some kind of insurgent anti-Trump campaign like a division of crazed left-wing fanatics holed up in the Beltway National Redoubt, waiting for a last op order from der Fuehrer, Barack Hussein Obama.
I believe sir, that you need to examine your conscience and ask yourself one very important question – what in the name of God Almighty would Hillary Clinton have done for anyone in this country?
The answer is nothing.
Ray Starmann
Editor in Chief
US Defense Watch
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's a shame that far more people will have read McRaven's irresponsible Washington Post op-ed than people who will read Starmann's excellent rebuke.
On August 16, retired Admiral William H. McRaven posted an op-ed in the Washington post in which he paid tribute to and defended former CA Director John Brennan whose security clearance had just been revoked by President Trump.
Ray Starmann, a former army intelligence officer, rebuked McRaven with this open letter:
Dear Admiral McRaven:
Your OPED yesterday, which was picked up by every liberal media outlet in the country, was sadly indicative of the current state of mind of many of our nation’s recently retired and active duty senior military leaders.
You stated that former CIA director John Brennan, “is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.”
The man whom you describe as being a cross between George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa is a deep state hack; who, along with other Obama holdouts, is openly and aggressively pursuing a coup d’etat against the current President of the United States, for one reason and one reason only – his side lost the election.
Frankly, I can’t think of any actions that are more un-American, and against the values that Americans hold dear and that which so many Americans died for in the past.
What you call unparalleled integrity, I call honest to goodness treason.
Former CIA director Brennan, whom you state has honesty and character authorized the CIA to spy on American citizens, tried to rig a Presidential election and then lied to Congress about that spying. A man you claim has unparalleled integrity was caught fabricating stories about attacks on US personnel in Libya and providing weapons to ISIS backed militias in Syria.
Mr. Brennan also voted once for a communist candidate. How Mr. Brennan was hired as DCI after voting for a communist and why you support a man who once did, is a mystery to everyone but you and God.
Former members of the special operations community do not share your adoration for Mr. Brennan. Kris “Tanto” Paronto, a former Army Ranger and private security contractor who was part of the CIA team that fought back during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack, accused Brennan of putting his “politics” before those in the field.
On Twitter, Paronto stated: “My principles are greater than clearances too John Brennan, especially when you and the @CIA kool-aid drinkers punishes us for not going along with the Benghazi cover-up story in order to protect you, @HillaryClinton’s & @BarackObama’s failures. You put your politics before us.”
Mr. Brennan was recently referred to by retired Army Brigadier General Anthony Tata as a ‘clear and present danger’ to the nation.
No doubt John Brennan’s complete absence of integrity and his erratic behavior are what convinced the President to revoke his clearance. Mr. Brennan stated that “Trump’s … performance in Helsinki, exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was … treasonous.”
In a recent article, Pat Buchanan stated that had Brennan made the same accusations of treason against former President Andrew Jackson, ‘he would have been challenged to a duel and shot.’
As you know sir, on the security clearance form, Question 29 reads, ‘have you ever supported overthrowing the U.S. Government?’
I think it’s more than apparent, from his nightly rantings on CNN to his Twitter expletives that John Brennan supports over-throwing the President and the current cabinet members of the US government.
You also wrote, sir, in reference to the President, “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,”
Actually, Admiral, the only person who has humiliated the US on the world stage in the last decade is Barack Hussein Obama. During the eight years of the Obama administrations, the world watched as the US cow-towed to Iranian thugs, let the Chinese run rings around us in the Pacific, while ISIS murdered tens of thousands of innocent people in the Middle East. Believe me, Admiral, the children of Syria and Iraq are rejoicing in their liberation from ISIS mass murderers. And, the people of the Middle East and across the world are sleeping soundly tonight, knowing that an incompetent, narcissistic maniac like Hillary Clinton isn’t sitting in the Oval Office.
As far as the nation’s current political schism, you need only look at your fellow liberals who are inciting violence and propagating hatred on a daily basis.
You then dared the Commander in Chief to revoke your security clearance.
I’m sure you’re aware of the following regulation in the UCMJ. Retired military officers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) under Article 2 of the UCMJ, which extends the jurisdiction of military law to “Retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay.” “Retirees are subject to the UCMJ and may be tried by court-martial for violations … that occurred … while in a retired status.”
Article 88 of the UCMJ criminalizes “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State.”
Something to ponder, sir.
No doubt your OPED was designed to whip up some more anti-Trump hysteria and to usher you into the political arena. No doubt you are a serving member of the ‘resistance.’ No doubt, you have your eyes on some office space in the capitol building or in the White House. No doubt, you have your eyes on the prize, all at the expense of the nation you once served.
When I read your OPED, sir, I wondered where and when and why you went wrong. How does someone from a military family, a SEAL, who came of age in the Reagan years; someone who understands what it’s like to be on a team; the camaraderie, the toughness mentally and physically required; someone who grew up reading about people like Patton, MacArthur, Lee, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt and Hal Moore- How does a guy like that end up aligning himself with the party of Pelosi, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, and slime like Hillary who was chanting baby killer back at Wellesley, and “too gutless to serve, I hate the military” Bill…?
How does a guy like you still support the destructive policies of Obama, and furthermore, how does a guy like you support Brennan, when you know damned well Brennan was a communist, and that he perjured himself in front of Congress, how does that happen?
You, sir, are representative of what is, in my opinion, as a former Army Captain and combat veteran of the 7th Cavalry, the worst generation of senior leaders this nation has ever fielded. Bar None. The majority of you, were and are what the late Colonel David Hackworth so eloquently described as ‘perfumed princes.’
It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have; how many combat tours you did and how much fruit salad you earned. It doesn’t matter that you have the SEAL Trident.
Your generation of senior leaders sold and is selling out the nation’s defense to the highest bidder and that bidder is social engineering and leftist ideology. You and your generation of leftist senior leaders have allowed our military to be destroyed for the greater glory of pensions, Tricare and political power, national security be damned. Now, that you’ve overseen the decimation of our military, you are determined to overthrow a sitting President because he represents everything anathema to the left – America First and the fact that the USA IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
You are all nothing more than political hacks; Obama leftists fighting some kind of insurgent anti-Trump campaign like a division of crazed left-wing fanatics holed up in the Beltway National Redoubt, waiting for a last op order from der Fuehrer, Barack Hussein Obama.
I believe sir, that you need to examine your conscience and ask yourself one very important question – what in the name of God Almighty would Hillary Clinton have done for anyone in this country?
The answer is nothing.
Ray Starmann
Editor in Chief
US Defense Watch
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's a shame that far more people will have read McRaven's irresponsible Washington Post op-ed than people who will read Starmann's excellent rebuke.
SNIVEL DIDN'T WORK ..... MAYBE
by Bob Walsh
Ben Bartlett is a member of the Berkeley, CA city council. He made sure to let Berkeley P D Officer Stephan Cole know that, a BUNCH of times, when she pinched him for blowing a red light. He also didn't have a drivers license with him, or proof of insurance. He then went with the WE ARE VOTING ON YOUR CONTRACT RIGHT NOW, BREAKING MY BALLS ON THIS ISN'T GOING TO HELP.
This happened last month. The asswipe got off with a warning. The asswipe apologized on Friday, AFTER the incident made the news.
Isn't it remarkable how liberal idiots think the law doesn't apply to them?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Or conservative idiots.
Ben Bartlett is a member of the Berkeley, CA city council. He made sure to let Berkeley P D Officer Stephan Cole know that, a BUNCH of times, when she pinched him for blowing a red light. He also didn't have a drivers license with him, or proof of insurance. He then went with the WE ARE VOTING ON YOUR CONTRACT RIGHT NOW, BREAKING MY BALLS ON THIS ISN'T GOING TO HELP.
This happened last month. The asswipe got off with a warning. The asswipe apologized on Friday, AFTER the incident made the news.
Isn't it remarkable how liberal idiots think the law doesn't apply to them?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Or conservative idiots.
THAT MARASCHINO CHERRY PIT BUSTED MY TOOTH CLAIM DID NOT WORK OUT TOO WELL
Nation's 'Most Wanted Deadbeat' dad on the run for 20 years sentenced for $559K in unpaid child support
By Emily Monacelli
Kalamazoo News
August 24, 2018
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A man who ran from a hefty child support bill for decades and became known as a "Most Wanted Deadbeat" has been sentenced to prison.
Joseph Stroup, 65, was sentenced in U.S. District Court this week to two years in prison and one year of supervised release.
Stroup also was ordered to pay $533,724 in restitution.
Stroup pleaded guilty in May to an indictment alleging failure to pay child support from 1998. Stroup, who was captured living in Canada, had amassed $559,000 in arrears when the case was unsealed in 2014. He lived in the country under an assumed name, Joop Cousteau.
Stroup and his wife divorced in 1989, leaving her to care for four children for which Stroup had an obligation to pay child support, according to court documents. Stroup then told a Van Buren County judge he was disabled and unemployed. The judge lowered payments for his four children from $100 per month to $14 per month.
Then, in 1996, according to the U.S. Office of Inspector General, Stroup sold a successful Internet business for more than $2 million. After the discovery, authorities said the order for Stroup to pay child support was modified to account for his unreported income.
Stroup, a fugitive for nearly 20 years, was named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General's "Most Wanted Deadbeat." The second person on the "Deadbeat" list owes $250,000 -- less than half of what Stroup owes.
The Office of Inspector General may get involved in cases where the non-custodial parent doesn't pay child support for more than one year and doesn't live in the state where the child lives; where the non-custodial parent owes more than $5,000 and lives in a different state from the child; or when the non-custodial parent travels to another state or country to avoid paying support, according to the OIG.
Stroup was arrested Feb. 1 on an immigration warrant in Cochrane, Alberta, near Calgary. He was deported and arraigned Friday, Feb. 16 in federal court in Chicago.
Steven Warren, a special agent for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General at the Detroit field office, said Stroup's case was reopened in 2014, and he was able to locate Stroup in the Calgary area using newer technology that wasn't available 17 years earlier.
Warren said he gave the Canada Border Services Agency their leads, but hadn't heard anything back until November 2017.
That's when a restaurant owner contacted authorities saying Stroup -- who he knew as Cousteau -- had frequented his restaurant. The restaurant owner said Stroup had claimed to have damaged dental work on maraschino cherry pits at the owner's restaurant and demanded money.
"He was a big talker," Warren said of Stroup. "He liked to brag about things that he had done in his life."
The owner in turn started doing some online research and found Stroup's picture on the "Most Wanted Deadbeat" page on the Office of Inspector General's website.
The tip was "basically saying this guy comes into my restaurant on a regular basis. This is definitely the guy."
Warren said he next heard from Canadian authorities that Stroup had been arrested Feb. 1. He said Canadian authorities ran him thorugh law enforcement databases and found his active warrant in the United States, then deported him on the immigration violation.
Warren said authorities believe Stroup entered Canada using his real name and then assumed the identity. He said Stroup is believed to have been using the Cousteau name for at least a decade.
By Emily Monacelli
Kalamazoo News
August 24, 2018
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A man who ran from a hefty child support bill for decades and became known as a "Most Wanted Deadbeat" has been sentenced to prison.
Joseph Stroup, 65, was sentenced in U.S. District Court this week to two years in prison and one year of supervised release.
Stroup also was ordered to pay $533,724 in restitution.
Stroup pleaded guilty in May to an indictment alleging failure to pay child support from 1998. Stroup, who was captured living in Canada, had amassed $559,000 in arrears when the case was unsealed in 2014. He lived in the country under an assumed name, Joop Cousteau.
Stroup and his wife divorced in 1989, leaving her to care for four children for which Stroup had an obligation to pay child support, according to court documents. Stroup then told a Van Buren County judge he was disabled and unemployed. The judge lowered payments for his four children from $100 per month to $14 per month.
Then, in 1996, according to the U.S. Office of Inspector General, Stroup sold a successful Internet business for more than $2 million. After the discovery, authorities said the order for Stroup to pay child support was modified to account for his unreported income.
Stroup, a fugitive for nearly 20 years, was named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General's "Most Wanted Deadbeat." The second person on the "Deadbeat" list owes $250,000 -- less than half of what Stroup owes.
The Office of Inspector General may get involved in cases where the non-custodial parent doesn't pay child support for more than one year and doesn't live in the state where the child lives; where the non-custodial parent owes more than $5,000 and lives in a different state from the child; or when the non-custodial parent travels to another state or country to avoid paying support, according to the OIG.
Stroup was arrested Feb. 1 on an immigration warrant in Cochrane, Alberta, near Calgary. He was deported and arraigned Friday, Feb. 16 in federal court in Chicago.
Steven Warren, a special agent for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General at the Detroit field office, said Stroup's case was reopened in 2014, and he was able to locate Stroup in the Calgary area using newer technology that wasn't available 17 years earlier.
Warren said he gave the Canada Border Services Agency their leads, but hadn't heard anything back until November 2017.
That's when a restaurant owner contacted authorities saying Stroup -- who he knew as Cousteau -- had frequented his restaurant. The restaurant owner said Stroup had claimed to have damaged dental work on maraschino cherry pits at the owner's restaurant and demanded money.
"He was a big talker," Warren said of Stroup. "He liked to brag about things that he had done in his life."
The owner in turn started doing some online research and found Stroup's picture on the "Most Wanted Deadbeat" page on the Office of Inspector General's website.
The tip was "basically saying this guy comes into my restaurant on a regular basis. This is definitely the guy."
Warren said he next heard from Canadian authorities that Stroup had been arrested Feb. 1. He said Canadian authorities ran him thorugh law enforcement databases and found his active warrant in the United States, then deported him on the immigration violation.
Warren said authorities believe Stroup entered Canada using his real name and then assumed the identity. He said Stroup is believed to have been using the Cousteau name for at least a decade.
GAMING ASSHOLE TAKES OUT MOTHER AND DAUGHTER BY COMMITTING SUICIDE
Teen Driving $200,000 McLaren in Fatal Crash was Gaming Mogul Trevor Heitmann
By Ken Stone
Times of San Diego
August 24, 2018
Authorities released the name Friday of a teenage computer-gaming entrepreneur who plowed a pricey sports car into oncoming rush-hour traffic while speeding the wrong way on Interstate 805 in the Miramar area, causing a fiery nine-vehicle pileup that killed him along with two people in another vehicle.
Trevor Heitmann, 18, was driving south in a northbound carpool lane at upwards of 100 mph when his 2015 McLaren 650S smashed head-on into a 2010 Hyundai SUV near Eastgate Mall shortly after 4:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The impact obliterated the sports car and mangled the larger vehicle, which became engulfed in flames with a 43-year-old woman and 12-year-old girl trapped inside, said CHP public affairs Officer Jake Sanchez.
Heitmann, who had made a lucrative name for himself online as a combat-video-game aficionado and promoter, died at the scene of the wreck, as did the occupants of the Hyundai, believed to be mother and daughter.
Following the initial collision, several other vehicles also crashed or were struck by debris, including a Honda Pilot whose driver suffered serious injuries, Sanchez said.
The pileup forced a closure of the entire northbound side of the freeway for about six hours.
Exactly how and why Heitmann wound up racing down the interstate against traffic — and whether he did so intentionally or by mistake — remained under investigation Friday afternoon, Sanchez said. Investigators believe he had entered from Carroll Canyon Road, about a half-mile north of the crash scene.
The San Diego teenager evidently had also been involved in a strange reckless-driving episode that took place about a half-hour before the deadly freeway collision, Sanchez told reporters.
About 4 p.m., a black coupe believed to be Heitmann’s high-performance British sports car smashed through a gate at Ashley Falls Elementary School in Carmel Valley and accelerated onto the grounds of the campus near groups of shocked students, according to the CHP and San Diego police.
According to witnesses, the driver stopped briefly, get out of the car and smashed a window on a school building. He then got back into the McLaren and sped away.
Why Heitmann, who lived near the school, might have decided to go on a dangerous and destructive joyride at a school was unclear.
According to Vpesports.com, a computer-gaming news website, Heitmann, using the online moniker McSkillet, had been a popular and successful YouTube purveyor of videos about the first-person-shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and operated a related computer-gambling website, CSGOMagic.
Late last year, Valve, the developer of the game, banned all of Heitmann’s accounts related to the franchise due to concerns over its use by bettors. The move resulted in significant monetary losses to the teen, Vpesports.com reported.
In the aftermath of the freeway fatalities, numerous Twitter users who claimed to know Heitmann contended he was devastated by the demise of his online business. Many opined he caused the collision intentionally as a means of committing suicide.
By Ken Stone
Times of San Diego
August 24, 2018
Authorities released the name Friday of a teenage computer-gaming entrepreneur who plowed a pricey sports car into oncoming rush-hour traffic while speeding the wrong way on Interstate 805 in the Miramar area, causing a fiery nine-vehicle pileup that killed him along with two people in another vehicle.
Trevor Heitmann, 18, was driving south in a northbound carpool lane at upwards of 100 mph when his 2015 McLaren 650S smashed head-on into a 2010 Hyundai SUV near Eastgate Mall shortly after 4:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The impact obliterated the sports car and mangled the larger vehicle, which became engulfed in flames with a 43-year-old woman and 12-year-old girl trapped inside, said CHP public affairs Officer Jake Sanchez.
Heitmann, who had made a lucrative name for himself online as a combat-video-game aficionado and promoter, died at the scene of the wreck, as did the occupants of the Hyundai, believed to be mother and daughter.
Following the initial collision, several other vehicles also crashed or were struck by debris, including a Honda Pilot whose driver suffered serious injuries, Sanchez said.
The pileup forced a closure of the entire northbound side of the freeway for about six hours.
Exactly how and why Heitmann wound up racing down the interstate against traffic — and whether he did so intentionally or by mistake — remained under investigation Friday afternoon, Sanchez said. Investigators believe he had entered from Carroll Canyon Road, about a half-mile north of the crash scene.
The San Diego teenager evidently had also been involved in a strange reckless-driving episode that took place about a half-hour before the deadly freeway collision, Sanchez told reporters.
About 4 p.m., a black coupe believed to be Heitmann’s high-performance British sports car smashed through a gate at Ashley Falls Elementary School in Carmel Valley and accelerated onto the grounds of the campus near groups of shocked students, according to the CHP and San Diego police.
According to witnesses, the driver stopped briefly, get out of the car and smashed a window on a school building. He then got back into the McLaren and sped away.
Why Heitmann, who lived near the school, might have decided to go on a dangerous and destructive joyride at a school was unclear.
According to Vpesports.com, a computer-gaming news website, Heitmann, using the online moniker McSkillet, had been a popular and successful YouTube purveyor of videos about the first-person-shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and operated a related computer-gambling website, CSGOMagic.
Late last year, Valve, the developer of the game, banned all of Heitmann’s accounts related to the franchise due to concerns over its use by bettors. The move resulted in significant monetary losses to the teen, Vpesports.com reported.
In the aftermath of the freeway fatalities, numerous Twitter users who claimed to know Heitmann contended he was devastated by the demise of his online business. Many opined he caused the collision intentionally as a means of committing suicide.
BEWARE OF THIS BUG’S KISS OF DEATH
Dangerous parasitic disease caused by 'kissing bugs' has sickened 300,000 Americans ….. and doctors warn it is spreading across the US
By Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
August 23, 2018
A parasitic illness that can cause strokes and heart failure is spreading across the US, doctors have warned.
Chagas disease is transmitted by an insect known as the 'kissing bug' because it tends to bite people's faces, near their mouths.
Many never shown signs that they've been infected with the disease, which is why it has earned the nickname of the 'silent killer'.
The disease has mostly been limited to Central and South America, but it has entered the States, sickening an estimated 300,000 Americans.
A statement released by the American Heart Association says that if US doctors don't become better at recognizing, diagnosing and treating Chagas disease, it could result in a devastating outbreak.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which lives in the gut of bug that transmits the disease, the triatomine insect, which is also known as the 'kissing bug'.
However, the disease is not spread through the bug's bite, rather through its feces.
After the bugs feed on you, they tend to defecate. If the feces accidentally are rubbed into the wound or the eye, it can result in infection.
Chagas disease has two phases known as the acute phase and the chronic phase.
According to the CDC, the acute phase lasts for the first few weeks or months after the infection.
Despite a high number of parasites circulating in the blood, most symptoms are either mild or absent.
Such symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, rash, or swelling near the bite wound or where the feces were deposited or rubbed into the eye.
During this stage, there are a handful of anti-parasitic medications to treat Chagas with a 60 to 90 percent success rate, according to the AHA.
In the chronic stage, the parasites have entered the heart muscles and the digestive muscles.
About 30 percent will develop an enlarged heart, arrhythmias, or an enlarged esophagus and colon.
These can result in life-threatening complications including strokes or cardiac arrest.
Drugs won't cure Chagas during the chronic stage, but they can help slow down the disease's progression in those age 50 and under.
The CDC estimates that as many as eight million people in Mexico, Central America and South America have Chagas but are unaware of it.
But the statement from the AHA says that doctors outside of these areas are unaware of its existence or that it can lead to such fatal consequences.
They say it has become much more common in countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Japan, the UK and Australia, and that as many as 300,000 in the US are infected.
So far, 27 states, mostly in the south and the west, have reported cases, including Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and California - although cases have been spotted as far north as Pennsylvania.
The authors of the statement say that being vigilant is key to preventing a possible epidemic similar to our neighbors south of the bord
'Early detection of Chagas disease is critical, allowing prompt initiation of therapy when the evidence for cure is strong,' said co-author Dr Caryn Bern, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California in San Francisco.
By Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
August 23, 2018
A parasitic illness that can cause strokes and heart failure is spreading across the US, doctors have warned.
Chagas disease is transmitted by an insect known as the 'kissing bug' because it tends to bite people's faces, near their mouths.
Many never shown signs that they've been infected with the disease, which is why it has earned the nickname of the 'silent killer'.
The disease has mostly been limited to Central and South America, but it has entered the States, sickening an estimated 300,000 Americans.
A statement released by the American Heart Association says that if US doctors don't become better at recognizing, diagnosing and treating Chagas disease, it could result in a devastating outbreak.
Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which lives in the gut of bug that transmits the disease, the triatomine insect, which is also known as the 'kissing bug'.
However, the disease is not spread through the bug's bite, rather through its feces.
After the bugs feed on you, they tend to defecate. If the feces accidentally are rubbed into the wound or the eye, it can result in infection.
Chagas disease has two phases known as the acute phase and the chronic phase.
According to the CDC, the acute phase lasts for the first few weeks or months after the infection.
Despite a high number of parasites circulating in the blood, most symptoms are either mild or absent.
Such symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, rash, or swelling near the bite wound or where the feces were deposited or rubbed into the eye.
During this stage, there are a handful of anti-parasitic medications to treat Chagas with a 60 to 90 percent success rate, according to the AHA.
In the chronic stage, the parasites have entered the heart muscles and the digestive muscles.
About 30 percent will develop an enlarged heart, arrhythmias, or an enlarged esophagus and colon.
These can result in life-threatening complications including strokes or cardiac arrest.
Drugs won't cure Chagas during the chronic stage, but they can help slow down the disease's progression in those age 50 and under.
The CDC estimates that as many as eight million people in Mexico, Central America and South America have Chagas but are unaware of it.
But the statement from the AHA says that doctors outside of these areas are unaware of its existence or that it can lead to such fatal consequences.
They say it has become much more common in countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Japan, the UK and Australia, and that as many as 300,000 in the US are infected.
So far, 27 states, mostly in the south and the west, have reported cases, including Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and California - although cases have been spotted as far north as Pennsylvania.
The authors of the statement say that being vigilant is key to preventing a possible epidemic similar to our neighbors south of the bord
'Early detection of Chagas disease is critical, allowing prompt initiation of therapy when the evidence for cure is strong,' said co-author Dr Caryn Bern, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California in San Francisco.
Saturday, August 25, 2018
CROOKED CONGRESSMAN SAYS THE WIFE DID IT
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter blames his wife for stealing more than $250,000 in campaign funds
BarkGrowlBite
August 25, 2018
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, and his wife were indicted earlier this week for stealing more than $250,000 to support a lavish lifestyle. The campaign funds were spent on trips to Italy, Hawaii, London and other tourist destinations, and on school tuition, dental work, expensive theater tickets and the most exclusive restaurants.
Duncan, being the gallant gentleman that he is, says he’s innocent and that his wife of some 20 years did it. He told Fox News:
“When I went away to Iraq in 2003, the first time, I gave her power of attorney. She handled my finances throughout my entire military career and that continued on when I got into Congress. She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did, that’ll be looked at too, I'm sure, but I didn't do it.”
Duncan, a former U.S. Marine, also blamed his indictment on Democrats in the Justice department who want to see his solid Republican district handed over to a Democratic congressman.
I wonder how much longer his marriage will last? At the very least, this calls for the wife to give Duncan a real good whack over his sorry head with a cast iron frying pan.
What a schmuck!
BarkGrowlBite
August 25, 2018
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, and his wife were indicted earlier this week for stealing more than $250,000 to support a lavish lifestyle. The campaign funds were spent on trips to Italy, Hawaii, London and other tourist destinations, and on school tuition, dental work, expensive theater tickets and the most exclusive restaurants.
Duncan, being the gallant gentleman that he is, says he’s innocent and that his wife of some 20 years did it. He told Fox News:
“When I went away to Iraq in 2003, the first time, I gave her power of attorney. She handled my finances throughout my entire military career and that continued on when I got into Congress. She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did, that’ll be looked at too, I'm sure, but I didn't do it.”
Duncan, a former U.S. Marine, also blamed his indictment on Democrats in the Justice department who want to see his solid Republican district handed over to a Democratic congressman.
I wonder how much longer his marriage will last? At the very least, this calls for the wife to give Duncan a real good whack over his sorry head with a cast iron frying pan.
What a schmuck!
WHAT'S THE POINT OF CIVIL SERVICE IF YOU CAN'T HELP YOUR WIFE?
by Bob Walsh
Barbara Garcia, 61,used to be the Director of the San Francisco Public Health Dept. She isn't any more. It seems she "forgot" to disclose her agency gave a single-source million dollar contract to her wife, Debra Reyna, 61.
Ms. Garcia has just resigned, citing personal reasons.
Barbara Garcia, 61,used to be the Director of the San Francisco Public Health Dept. She isn't any more. It seems she "forgot" to disclose her agency gave a single-source million dollar contract to her wife, Debra Reyna, 61.
Ms. Garcia has just resigned, citing personal reasons.
IN CA. SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD
by Bob Walsh
Steven Kelley was shot to death at a house west of Charlotte, N.C. earlier this month. The circumstances show you how differently people think in CA.
Kelley was an abuse asshole boyfriend. He was shot to death by his lady friend's 15-year old daughter as he was attempting to strangle the girl's mother. She used a Colt SSA .45 caliber revolver. Two shots, two hits. The young lady had been taught to shoot by her late father.
Kelly was an ex-con from Indiana. He had a history of domestic violence. He had previously threatened the woman and fired a gun inside their house.
A 12-year old boy in the house retrieved the Colt and handed it to the 15-year old who ventilated the asshole. In CA they would have prosecuted the mother for having firearms unsecured in the house where they could be accessed by children. In N.C. the cops probably just bought her another box of ammo.
Sounds like a Public Service Homicide to me.
Steven Kelley was shot to death at a house west of Charlotte, N.C. earlier this month. The circumstances show you how differently people think in CA.
Kelley was an abuse asshole boyfriend. He was shot to death by his lady friend's 15-year old daughter as he was attempting to strangle the girl's mother. She used a Colt SSA .45 caliber revolver. Two shots, two hits. The young lady had been taught to shoot by her late father.
Kelly was an ex-con from Indiana. He had a history of domestic violence. He had previously threatened the woman and fired a gun inside their house.
A 12-year old boy in the house retrieved the Colt and handed it to the 15-year old who ventilated the asshole. In CA they would have prosecuted the mother for having firearms unsecured in the house where they could be accessed by children. In N.C. the cops probably just bought her another box of ammo.
Sounds like a Public Service Homicide to me.
CAMERON WRIGHT MUST HAVE BEEN REALLY HARD UP
Hospital security guard 'admits having sex with woman's corpse in hospital storage room after colleagues catch him the act'
By Chris Pleasance
Daily Mail
August 24, 2018
A hospital security guard has been arrested after he was caught having sex with a woman's corpse, police say.
Cameron Wright, 23, is accused of violating the body of 37-year-old April Parham at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis on Wednesday.
Ms Parham had died suddenly just hours earlier and her body was being prepared for organ donation when Wright allegedly carried out his crime.
Two other security guards walked into the body storage room on Wednesday night and saw him having sex with the corpse, police records show.
Wright was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, and has also been fired by his employer.
Police say he has admitted to his crime. He is due to make his first court appearance via video-link on Friday.
It is not clear how Ms Parham died, but posts on her family's social media pages reveal the death was sudden and 'completely unexpected.'
Now, as well as dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one, Parham's family are also trying to cope with this news.
Father James Parham told WMCA 5: 'After you pass, we think finally she's not suffering, she's not hurting no more and to find out this. It's devastating. It hurts.'
Speaking to Fox13, he added: 'What we need is some answers. We need some concrete answers, and somebody held accountable.
'That is what we need right now. It's hard enough.'
Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis said Wright had undergone a background check and was contracted through U.S. Security Associates.
A statement from the hospital said: 'Treating those we serve with dignity and respect is our top priority.
'The behavior of this individual does not represent what our hospital stands for, and these actions are completely unacceptable.
'We are saddened by this incident, and we are empathetic and sympathetic to the family of the patient.'
__________
THIS WILL LOOK BAD ON A RESUME
by Bob Walsh
Cameron Wright, 23, was a security guard at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, TN. He is now under arrest, charged with fucking a corpse. He apparently isn't wildly security oriented personally as two people apparently saw him doing it. They called the cops. The cops arrested Wright, who has admitted to it. He was immediately terminated by U. S. Security Associates, who employed him. His sister says he has some mental health issues. The security company says he passed his background check, which was apparently simply a criminal background check.
He is charged with one count of abusing a corpse. Bail is $3,000. He should have come to California, necrophilia is not illegal here.
By Chris Pleasance
Daily Mail
August 24, 2018
A hospital security guard has been arrested after he was caught having sex with a woman's corpse, police say.
Cameron Wright, 23, is accused of violating the body of 37-year-old April Parham at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis on Wednesday.
Ms Parham had died suddenly just hours earlier and her body was being prepared for organ donation when Wright allegedly carried out his crime.
Two other security guards walked into the body storage room on Wednesday night and saw him having sex with the corpse, police records show.
Wright was arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse, and has also been fired by his employer.
Police say he has admitted to his crime. He is due to make his first court appearance via video-link on Friday.
It is not clear how Ms Parham died, but posts on her family's social media pages reveal the death was sudden and 'completely unexpected.'
Now, as well as dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one, Parham's family are also trying to cope with this news.
Father James Parham told WMCA 5: 'After you pass, we think finally she's not suffering, she's not hurting no more and to find out this. It's devastating. It hurts.'
Speaking to Fox13, he added: 'What we need is some answers. We need some concrete answers, and somebody held accountable.
'That is what we need right now. It's hard enough.'
Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis said Wright had undergone a background check and was contracted through U.S. Security Associates.
A statement from the hospital said: 'Treating those we serve with dignity and respect is our top priority.
'The behavior of this individual does not represent what our hospital stands for, and these actions are completely unacceptable.
'We are saddened by this incident, and we are empathetic and sympathetic to the family of the patient.'
__________
THIS WILL LOOK BAD ON A RESUME
by Bob Walsh
Cameron Wright, 23, was a security guard at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, TN. He is now under arrest, charged with fucking a corpse. He apparently isn't wildly security oriented personally as two people apparently saw him doing it. They called the cops. The cops arrested Wright, who has admitted to it. He was immediately terminated by U. S. Security Associates, who employed him. His sister says he has some mental health issues. The security company says he passed his background check, which was apparently simply a criminal background check.
He is charged with one count of abusing a corpse. Bail is $3,000. He should have come to California, necrophilia is not illegal here.
TAKING A BITE OUT OF ….. HIS BALLS
North Carolina woman, 54, who bit her ex-boyfriend's testicles in 'self defense' is cleared of malicious castration and assault charges
Associated Press
August 24, 2018
A North Carolina woman accused of trying to bite off her ex-boyfriend's testicles has been found not guilty of malicious castration.
A jury also cleared 54-year-old Martinne Delavega on an assault charge Thursday.
Her ex-boyfriend testified Tuesday that he punched her head to stop her as she bit his chest and arms and ripped open his scrotum during an argument in September 2015.
But when Delavega took the stand Wednesday, she asserted she was defending herself from his assault.
Delavega claimed she thought she was biting his leg as he tackled, hit and choked her.
'He was extremely angry, yelling, screaming profanities at me,' Delavaga told jurors while on the stand.
'I thought, he's gonna kill me,' said Delavaga. 'I couldn't get away from him. I just started biting.'
Her unidentified ex-boyfriend said he still has psychological and physical problems.
'I live in this community. I work in this community. It's embarrassing,' he told jurors.
After being arrested in 2015, Delavega's mugshot showed her with blood on her shirt and a bandage around her head.
Jurors deliberated for four hours and found Delavega not guilty on all charges.
If Delavega was found guilty she could have spent up to eight years in prison.
Her attorney Matt Silva says the verdict is 'a poor definition of victory,' given that she 'endured three years of being vilified.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Her ex-boyfriend sings alto now.
Associated Press
August 24, 2018
A North Carolina woman accused of trying to bite off her ex-boyfriend's testicles has been found not guilty of malicious castration.
A jury also cleared 54-year-old Martinne Delavega on an assault charge Thursday.
Her ex-boyfriend testified Tuesday that he punched her head to stop her as she bit his chest and arms and ripped open his scrotum during an argument in September 2015.
But when Delavega took the stand Wednesday, she asserted she was defending herself from his assault.
Delavega claimed she thought she was biting his leg as he tackled, hit and choked her.
'He was extremely angry, yelling, screaming profanities at me,' Delavaga told jurors while on the stand.
'I thought, he's gonna kill me,' said Delavaga. 'I couldn't get away from him. I just started biting.'
Her unidentified ex-boyfriend said he still has psychological and physical problems.
'I live in this community. I work in this community. It's embarrassing,' he told jurors.
After being arrested in 2015, Delavega's mugshot showed her with blood on her shirt and a bandage around her head.
Jurors deliberated for four hours and found Delavega not guilty on all charges.
If Delavega was found guilty she could have spent up to eight years in prison.
Her attorney Matt Silva says the verdict is 'a poor definition of victory,' given that she 'endured three years of being vilified.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: Her ex-boyfriend sings alto now.
Friday, August 24, 2018
PAPER PROBATION IS WHAT YOU HAVE IN HARRIS COUNTY
Probationers in Houston do not get any real supervision and only see their probation officer during scheduled office visits
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 24, 2018
Who is supervising probationers in Houston? Actually, no one. There are no field visits by a probation officer. The only time probationers see their probation officer is during scheduled office visits. When probation relies almost exclusively on reports generated from information given by the probationer during office visits, we call that paper probation.
Recently I sat down with a former Harris County probationer to discuss his probation experiences. He had been convicted on a felony drug possession charge and could have been sent to prison. Instead he was placed on probation. He said his probation required him to abstain from the use of drugs, obey all laws, have a job and to see his probation officer during scheduled office visits.. He was drug tested during those visits. He was also required to perform a number of community service hours.
When I asked him what probation supervision he got, he told me that not once was he visited by his probation officer at his home or work during the years he was on probation. His only contact with her was in her office. There she would ask him how he was getting along.
He usually arrived a half hour before his scheduled visit. Once he had to take a leak just before the time to see his probation officer. He went to the restroom and was a few minutes late in seeing her. He said she threw a fit and told him she was required to report his tardiness to the judge as a probation violation. The judge punished him with additional community service hours.
She was required to report his tardiness as a probation violation? Horseshit! She did not have to do that. I suspect she did that in order to justify her job to show that she was supervising this man.
What about those drug tests? If a drug user knows ahead of time when he is to be tested, he can clean up his act several days before and come up negative for drug use. And the submission of urine was not eyeballed by a probation official, thus giving the probationer an opportunity to submit someone else’s urine.
Probation officers say they cannot make field visits because their case loads are way too big. That excuse just doesn’t fly. Since many probationers live in high-crime neighborhoods, probation officers are unwilling to go there without a police escort. Neither the Houston Police Department nor the Harris County Sheriff’s Department has the manpower to act as bodyguards for probation officers.
As I’ve said on many occasions, probation, as well as parole, is worthless without field visits. Those visits should be surprise visits, not scheduled visits. And the probation officer should also be required to make those visits evenings and on weekends. Mondays-Fridays, 8am-5pm wont cut it! Asking a probationer how he’s doing wont let probation officers know he’s been committing some crimes, something they wont find out unless he’s busted by the cops.
As for my discussion with the former probationer, some will say you can’t believe anything he says. The man is now an upstanding citizen and has no reason to lie. Also during my years as a volunteer at a nature center, I had the same discussion with at least a dozen Harris County probationers while they were there for community service work. Each of them gave me almost exactly the same information. They can’t all be lying.
And what about the probationers who in fact are unsupervised? There are those, like the man I interviewed, who truly want to be productive law abiding citizens. There are those who stay out of trouble only because they fear being sent to prison. There are the probationers that are committing crimes for which they haven't been caught. Then there are those whose probation is revoked, not because they committed a crime, but because they refused or failed to follow their probation conditions. And, of course, there are the probationers who are caught by the police and sent to prison on a new beef … some of those would not have committed new crimes had they been properly supervised.
The citizens of Harris County are not well served by paper probation which is practically worthless.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
August 24, 2018
Who is supervising probationers in Houston? Actually, no one. There are no field visits by a probation officer. The only time probationers see their probation officer is during scheduled office visits. When probation relies almost exclusively on reports generated from information given by the probationer during office visits, we call that paper probation.
Recently I sat down with a former Harris County probationer to discuss his probation experiences. He had been convicted on a felony drug possession charge and could have been sent to prison. Instead he was placed on probation. He said his probation required him to abstain from the use of drugs, obey all laws, have a job and to see his probation officer during scheduled office visits.. He was drug tested during those visits. He was also required to perform a number of community service hours.
When I asked him what probation supervision he got, he told me that not once was he visited by his probation officer at his home or work during the years he was on probation. His only contact with her was in her office. There she would ask him how he was getting along.
He usually arrived a half hour before his scheduled visit. Once he had to take a leak just before the time to see his probation officer. He went to the restroom and was a few minutes late in seeing her. He said she threw a fit and told him she was required to report his tardiness to the judge as a probation violation. The judge punished him with additional community service hours.
She was required to report his tardiness as a probation violation? Horseshit! She did not have to do that. I suspect she did that in order to justify her job to show that she was supervising this man.
What about those drug tests? If a drug user knows ahead of time when he is to be tested, he can clean up his act several days before and come up negative for drug use. And the submission of urine was not eyeballed by a probation official, thus giving the probationer an opportunity to submit someone else’s urine.
Probation officers say they cannot make field visits because their case loads are way too big. That excuse just doesn’t fly. Since many probationers live in high-crime neighborhoods, probation officers are unwilling to go there without a police escort. Neither the Houston Police Department nor the Harris County Sheriff’s Department has the manpower to act as bodyguards for probation officers.
As I’ve said on many occasions, probation, as well as parole, is worthless without field visits. Those visits should be surprise visits, not scheduled visits. And the probation officer should also be required to make those visits evenings and on weekends. Mondays-Fridays, 8am-5pm wont cut it! Asking a probationer how he’s doing wont let probation officers know he’s been committing some crimes, something they wont find out unless he’s busted by the cops.
As for my discussion with the former probationer, some will say you can’t believe anything he says. The man is now an upstanding citizen and has no reason to lie. Also during my years as a volunteer at a nature center, I had the same discussion with at least a dozen Harris County probationers while they were there for community service work. Each of them gave me almost exactly the same information. They can’t all be lying.
And what about the probationers who in fact are unsupervised? There are those, like the man I interviewed, who truly want to be productive law abiding citizens. There are those who stay out of trouble only because they fear being sent to prison. There are the probationers that are committing crimes for which they haven't been caught. Then there are those whose probation is revoked, not because they committed a crime, but because they refused or failed to follow their probation conditions. And, of course, there are the probationers who are caught by the police and sent to prison on a new beef … some of those would not have committed new crimes had they been properly supervised.
The citizens of Harris County are not well served by paper probation which is practically worthless.
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