Pope: Critics help us grow, but I want them to say it to my face (click here)
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
In a rare interview:
It is the job of the Secret Service to know where danger lies for the people they protect.
United States Secret Service (click here)
Nearly three-quarters of assailants (click here) used guns to carry out mass-casualty attacks between 2016 and 2020, according to a study released by the federal government Wednesday.
Over one-third of the attackers experienced unstable housing within two decades of their attack. And nearly one-quarter shared "final communications" in the run-up to launching them, including calling people to say goodbye, authoring suicide notes and posting writings online.
The 72-page report, authored by the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center, analyzed 173 incidents that resulted in three or more individuals injured or killed across public or semi-public spaces, including businesses, schools and houses of worship. Researchers hope new insights into the behaviors of attackers will prevent future tragedies by informing bystander reporting.
The findings — which span 37 states and Washington, D.C. — come as a community in Monterey Park, California, mourns the death of 11 people after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom during Lunar New Year celebrations over the weekend. Less than two days later, seven people were killed in a mass shooting at two mushroom farms in the Northern California city of Half Moon Bay. Three people were fatally shot in an attack at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, on Tuesday....
Nearly three-quarters of assailants (click here) used guns to carry out mass-casualty attacks between 2016 and 2020, according to a study released by the federal government Wednesday.
Over one-third of the attackers experienced unstable housing within two decades of their attack. And nearly one-quarter shared "final communications" in the run-up to launching them, including calling people to say goodbye, authoring suicide notes and posting writings online.
The 72-page report, authored by the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center, analyzed 173 incidents that resulted in three or more individuals injured or killed across public or semi-public spaces, including businesses, schools and houses of worship. Researchers hope new insights into the behaviors of attackers will prevent future tragedies by informing bystander reporting.
The findings — which span 37 states and Washington, D.C. — come as a community in Monterey Park, California, mourns the death of 11 people after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom during Lunar New Year celebrations over the weekend. Less than two days later, seven people were killed in a mass shooting at two mushroom farms in the Northern California city of Half Moon Bay. Three people were fatally shot in an attack at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, on Tuesday....
The Good Guy with a Gun strategy is not working. It never really has.
January 25, 2023
By MaryClaire Da;e
January 25, 2023
By Danny Westneat
“It’s not the gun,” said state Sen. Phil Fortunato, of Auburn, at a news conference earlier this month against gun control. “Go tell the guy who rented a Home Depot truck and drove it through a crowd. … What are you going to do, ban automobiles?”
You can also kill somebody by dropping an anvil on them from the 10th floor. What are you going to do, ban anvils? Ban tall buildings?
Seriously: What are we going to do?
Just since Saturday, there have been at least eight mass shootings in the U.S., with at least 25 killed and at least 45 injured. I keep saying “at least” because this doesn’t count the Yakima rampage, and also there probably will be a new one by the time this sentence is published....
If it is not the gun, then what is it? The so called checks and balances that are supposed to detect anticipated dangerous gun behavior doesn't work either.
January 25, 2023
By Denise Lavoie
Newport News - Concerned staff warned administrators (click here) at a Virginia elementary school three times that a 6-year-old boy had a gun and was threatening other students in the hours before he shot and wounded a teacher, but the administration “was paralyzed by apathy” and didn’t call police, remove the boy from class or lock down the school, the wounded teacher’s lawyer said Wednesday.
Diane Toscano, an attorney for Abigail Zwerner, said during a news conference that she has notified the school board in Newport News that the 25-year-old teacher at Richneck Elementary School plans to sue the school district over the Jan. 6 shooting, which left Zwerner with serious injuries....
There was an attempted coup d'état of a free and fair election in 2021 at the time the electoral votes were being tallied according to the law within the USA Constitution. We have seen many members of extremist racist groups tried and convicted for sedition conspiracy. There is every reason under the sun to ban assault weapons from import into the USA. Now. Today. Through a presidential order they can be banned. The Second Amendment stops at the overthrow of the USA Constitution.
On the US Senate website is George Washington's Farewell Address after two terms of leading the country of 13 states after the Revolutionary War.
...Washington’s principal concern (click here) was for the safety of the
eight-year-old Constitution. He believed that the stability
of the Republic was threatened by the forces of
geographical sectionalism, political factionalism (also known as partisanism or partisanship), and
interference by foreign powers (like Russia) in the nation’s domestic
affairs. He urged Americans to subordinate sectional
jealousies to common national interests. Writing at a
time before political parties had become accepted as
vital extraconstitutional, opinion-focusing agencies,
Washington feared that they carried the seeds of the
nation’s destruction through petty factionalism. Although
Washington was in no sense the father of American
isolationism, since he recognized the necessity of
temporary associations for “extraordinary emergencies,”
he did counsel against the establishment of “permanent
alliances with other countries,” connections that he
warned would inevitably be subversive of America’s
national interest....
I suppose one has to walk a mile in the shoes of the great George Washington at the time of his resignation in order to understand how protective the people of the USA were at the time of their precious new democracy, but, he is very clear about his concerns.
The threats to our democracy are real. There are people dying everyday in this country of which democracy still stands. They are dying by gun violence and while there are a few instances whereby a moral person ends the killing with their own gun, that is not the overwhelming reality of this country.
The extremism that has existed due to the lavish monies of the gun lobby is now destroying lives in the face of every attempt to stop it. This is not unique, the same pattern manifests in other countries where guns became popular to empower individuals. The problem is the gun. It absolutely is the gun that is the problem in the USA.
The Second Amendment is not about economic gain of an industry.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
We no longer have a national militia comprised of patriots with weapons used to shoot game for the sake if eating it.
The Second Amendment strongly implies that armed citizens are necessary for the security of the country. Those ideas were born from the fact colonists had limited ability to kill and the ability they had was vital as a national security strategy.
...These included bladed weapons (click here) used for thousands of years and black powder firearms that had only been used for a few hundred years. All of the firearms that were used had flintlock technology. Flintlock firearms utilized a firing mechanism whereby when the trigger was pulled, a piece of rock (flint) would strike a piece of steel creating a spark that would ignite black powder to discharge the piece....
If the soldiers of the Revolutionary War were alive today to witness the magnificent strength of the USA military while there was carnage in our communities there would be no Second Amendment.
National Security today in the USA is based in alliances with countries we once fought for our independence. It also includes some of the most sophisticated armaments known. The National Security today includes dimensions such as cyber and terrorism. The USA does not need small arms within it's borders to protect from foreign invasion. Never once did the authors of the USA Constitution ever expect the country to have a problem with carnage of it's own people for ideologies that favor petty factionalism, to use President Washington's own words.
The elections of 2016 were driven by a failing millionaire with the assistance of a foreign power, namely Russia. We know for a fact the two entities dovetailed for their own enrichment. There is no denying it. It doesn't matter that the Mueller investigation never turned up direct links between Russia and Trump, but, only affiliations that lend itself to suspicions that cannot be resolved even today. All that means is the law can't bring its weight to complete the picture, but, cooperative interests by the two parties existed.
The desire by Trump to destroy the USA Constitution by assailing it's authority to bring to bear a free and fair election is well known today. There is no doubt. He fought his own security detail to achieve his goal to deliver himself to the bloody scene of the attack on the USA Capitol. The only reason Trump was not there to assail the Vice President's authority during this joint session of the Congress was because his Secret Service officers refused to let it happen. If anything the Secret Service on January 6th protected the USA Constitution with their own lives. The question remains, if Trump was armed would he have killed those in his way? He literally was desiring the disarming of the protections (the magnetometers) afforded him when he stated the armed crowd at the Ellipse was there for him and would never kill him with their guns.
Where in the Secret Service is the unspoken rule never to let Presidents arm themselves against their security agents? I don't think it exists, heck, Cheney shot his hunting friend in the face. So, the idea the Presidents can't have guns is not realistic. Maybe it was just Trump himself and his ludicrous values that allowed Helsinki to happen that came into play on January 6th. Maybe it was just the agents longing to live through the day that became all to obvious. Pence's agents wanted to put him in that car and speed away from the Capitol in the worst way, but, the Vice President's lack of cooperation stood in their way.
The Republicans (click here) have benefitted from monies of the gun lobby to the point where a Russian operative was working the crowd with smiles and money pouring from the NRA. In return, the Republicans have eliminated gun laws uniformly through another organization named ALEC (click here), hence, facilitating profits for the gun industry. I don't care how covert it was it is simply Quid Pro Quo that allows profits vs. life.
We know from the past that "The Assault Weapons Ban" worked to reduce the number of dead Americans. It is time to question the wisdom of allowing assault weapons on the street of the USA and return to sane and safe policy to roll back the unmitigated access to guns of every kind.
Freedom is a great part of being American, but, freedom ends where gun rights begins. Freedom to kill at will within the borders of the USA must end and the country secured from violence against it's political processes. It has gone to far. It is time to end the carnage.
I say again. This level of killing is not unique to the USA. Every country that has experienced the onslaught of the NRA and other such gun lobbies motivated by profit are and have experienced the rise of violence to the point of instability of government.
Monday, January 23, 2023
The Germans always have the best tanks.
Since WWII, Germany has always exhibited reluctance to enter any conflict. The military culture of Germany requires caution before engaging any form of war, including one that is carrying out genocide of a people. I respect Germany's self-measuring of their technology and it's distribution.
The military culture of Germany will be honorable in selling the tanks to Ukraine. I wish everyone in Germany involved with these technologies well and peace. I would be good if these tanks helped establish a peace for Ukraine.
The Genocide of Ukraine is real.
January 22, 2023
By Lindsay Bahr
By Lindsay Bahr
Park City, Utah - Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov (click here) had just broken out of Mariupol after covering the first 20 days of the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian city and was feeling guilty about leaving. He and his colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, had been the last journalists there, sending crucial dispatches from a city under a full-scale assault.
The day after, a theater with hundreds of people sheltering inside was bombed and he knew no one was there to document it. That’s when Chernov decided he wanted to do something bigger. He’d filmed some 30 hours of footage over his days in Mariupol. But poor and sometimes no internet connections made it extremely difficult to export anything. All told, he estimates only about 40 minutes of that successfully made it out to the world.
“Those shots which went out were very important. They went on the AP and then to thousands of news outlets,” Chernov said. “However, I had much more. ... I thought I should do something more. I should do something more with that 30 hours of footage to tell a bigger story and more context to show the audience of the scale.”...
The day after, a theater with hundreds of people sheltering inside was bombed and he knew no one was there to document it. That’s when Chernov decided he wanted to do something bigger. He’d filmed some 30 hours of footage over his days in Mariupol. But poor and sometimes no internet connections made it extremely difficult to export anything. All told, he estimates only about 40 minutes of that successfully made it out to the world.
“Those shots which went out were very important. They went on the AP and then to thousands of news outlets,” Chernov said. “However, I had much more. ... I thought I should do something more. I should do something more with that 30 hours of footage to tell a bigger story and more context to show the audience of the scale.”...
Trump's Oath was never about the USA.
By Michael Kunzelman and Alanna Durkin Richer
Washington - Four members of the Oath Keepers (click here) were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power.
The verdict against Joseph Hackett of Sarasota, Florida; Roberto Minuta of Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel of Punta Gorda, Florida; and Edward Vallejo of Phoenix comes weeks after after a different jury convicted the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, in the mob’s attack that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
It’s another major victory for the Justice Department, which is also trying to secure sedition convictions against the former leader of the Proud Boys and four associates. The trial against Enrique Tarrio and his lieutenants opened earlier this month in Washington and is expected to last several weeks....
The DOJ should release an unredacted transcript of Robert Mueller's investigation into the role of Russia in the election of Donald John Trump.
April 24, 2019
...It seems that Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin was hot to build a new aluminum milling plant, but that the proposed location was not suitable for such a large operation. The cost of finding a new location drained the project's funds. And along came the Volga Bagmen to the rescue....
...Two of the three votes needed to maintain the sanctions against goons like Deripaska came from senators representing a state into which his company was pumping money he'd obtained god knows where or how, and one of whom is the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate into whose PAC Deripaska's partner dumped $3.5 million between 2015 and 2017. Oddly, one of the stories that has sunk like a stone over the past few years is the story of how much Russian ratfcking money went into Republican campaigns generally over the past few cycles....
A little help from the FBI couldn't hurt, right Mitch?
September 29, 2022
A name that arose (click here) during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was that of Oleg Deripaska, a wealthy self-made businessman, and according to the U.S. government, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. In a rare interview with Deripaska, special correspondent Ryan Chilcote asks the aluminum magnate about the Mueller report....
A former high-level FBI agent (click here) is facing several charges for his alleged work with a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
Charles McGonigal, the former special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI's New York office, is accused of working with Oleg Deripaska, who has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2018.
McGonigal's involvement with the Russian billionaire involved taking secret payments for investigating one of Deripaska's rivals. He also worked to get Deripaska off the U.S. sanctions list, in violation of federal law, prosecutors said....
Russian Oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska and Associates (click here) Indicted for Sanctions Evasion and Obstruction of Justice
U.S. Citizen Arrested for Her Role in Facilitating Illicit Travel by Deripaska’s Girlfriend and in Real Estate Transactions
The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging a U.S. citizen and three citizens of the Russian Federation with violating new U.S. sanctions imposed earlier this year in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.
According to court documents, Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, aka Oleg Mukhamedshin, 52; and Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova, aka Natalya Mikhaylovna Bardakova, 45, both citizens of the Russian Federation (Russia), and Olga Shriki, 42, a New Jersey resident and naturalized U.S. citizen, are charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska and one of Deripaska’s corporate entities, Basic Element Limited (Basic Element). Shriki is further charged with obstruction of justice based on her alleged deletion of electronic records relating to her participation in Deripaska’s sanctions evasion scheme following receipt of a grand jury subpoena requiring the production of those records. Bardakova is charged with one count with making false statements to agents of the FBI. Additionally, Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina, aka Ekaterina Lobanova, 33, is charged with making false statements to agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the time of Voronina’s attempted entry into the United States for the purpose of giving birth to Deripaska’s child. Shriki was arrested this morning.
“In the wake of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I promised the American people that the Justice Department would work to hold accountable those who break our laws and threaten our national security. Today’s charges demonstrate we are keeping that promise,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will not stop working to identify, find, and bring to justice those who evade U.S. sanctions in order to enable the Russian regime.”...
The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging a U.S. citizen and three citizens of the Russian Federation with violating new U.S. sanctions imposed earlier this year in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.
According to court documents, Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, aka Oleg Mukhamedshin, 52; and Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova, aka Natalya Mikhaylovna Bardakova, 45, both citizens of the Russian Federation (Russia), and Olga Shriki, 42, a New Jersey resident and naturalized U.S. citizen, are charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska and one of Deripaska’s corporate entities, Basic Element Limited (Basic Element). Shriki is further charged with obstruction of justice based on her alleged deletion of electronic records relating to her participation in Deripaska’s sanctions evasion scheme following receipt of a grand jury subpoena requiring the production of those records. Bardakova is charged with one count with making false statements to agents of the FBI. Additionally, Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina, aka Ekaterina Lobanova, 33, is charged with making false statements to agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the time of Voronina’s attempted entry into the United States for the purpose of giving birth to Deripaska’s child. Shriki was arrested this morning.
“In the wake of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I promised the American people that the Justice Department would work to hold accountable those who break our laws and threaten our national security. Today’s charges demonstrate we are keeping that promise,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will not stop working to identify, find, and bring to justice those who evade U.S. sanctions in order to enable the Russian regime.”...
August 16, 2019
January 23, 2023
By Jaclyn Diaz
A former high-level FBI agent (click here) is facing several charges for his alleged work with a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
Charles McGonigal, the former special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI's New York office, is accused of working with Oleg Deripaska, who has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2018.
McGonigal's involvement with the Russian billionaire involved taking secret payments for investigating one of Deripaska's rivals. He also worked to get Deripaska off the U.S. sanctions list, in violation of federal law, prosecutors said....
Racism and White Supremacy are as much a stressor leading to gun violence as any.
By Morgan Winsor, Lisa Siverstsen and Laryssa Demkiw
Brandon Tsay is seen in surveillance video wrestling a gun away from Huu Can Tran, 72, who is alleged to have killed 10 people in nearby Monterey Park, in a dance hall in Alhambra, California, on Jan. 21, 2023.
The night was winding down (click here) after a Lunar Near Year celebration at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, California, on Saturday, when Brandon Tsay heard the front door click close behind him.
"That's when I turned around and saw that there was an Asian man holding a gun. My first thought was I was going to die here, this is it," Tsay, 26, told ABC News' Robin Roberts during an interview Monday on "Good Morning America."...
..."I thought he would run away, but he was just standing there contemplating whether to fight or to run," Tsay recalled. "I really thought I would have to shoot him and he came at me. This is when he turned around and walked out the door, jogged back to his van. I immediately called police with the gun still in my hand."
Tsay did not know it at the time but would later learn that this same man -- identified by authorities as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran -- had allegedly opened fire at another dance studio in nearby Monterey Park about 20 minutes earlier, killing at least 10 people and wounding 10 others.
The night was winding down (click here) after a Lunar Near Year celebration at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, California, on Saturday, when Brandon Tsay heard the front door click close behind him.
"That's when I turned around and saw that there was an Asian man holding a gun. My first thought was I was going to die here, this is it," Tsay, 26, told ABC News' Robin Roberts during an interview Monday on "Good Morning America."...
..."I thought he would run away, but he was just standing there contemplating whether to fight or to run," Tsay recalled. "I really thought I would have to shoot him and he came at me. This is when he turned around and walked out the door, jogged back to his van. I immediately called police with the gun still in my hand."
Tsay did not know it at the time but would later learn that this same man -- identified by authorities as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran -- had allegedly opened fire at another dance studio in nearby Monterey Park about 20 minutes earlier, killing at least 10 people and wounding 10 others.
January 23, 2023
By Scott McFetridge and Josh Funk
Des Moines - Two students were killed Monday (click here) and an adult employee was injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at a Des Moines school that is dedicated to helping at-risk youth, and three suspects were arrested afterward.
The shooting was at an educational program called Starts Right Here that is affiliated with the Des Moines school district.
Police say emergency crews were called to the school, which is in a business park, just before 1 p.m. Officers arrived to find two students critically injured, and they started CPR immediately. The two students died at a hospital. The adult employee of the school who was injured is in serious condition and was headed into surgery Monday afternoon.
About 20 minutes after the shooting, police said officers stopped a car that matched witnesses' descriptions about two miles away and took three suspects into custody. Police said one of the suspects ran from the car, but officers using a K-9 were able to track that person down....
An average of 124 people died from gun violence every day in 2020,(click here) according to a new report from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions
Firearm deaths continue to be a significant and growing public health problem in the United States. In 2020, 79% of all homicides and 53% of all suicides involved firearms. From 2019 to 2020, the firearm homicide rate increased about 35%, and the firearm suicide rate stayed high. The firearm homicide rate in 2020 was the highest recorded in over 25 years.
Long-standing systemic inequities and structural racism limit economic and education opportunities. They contribute to unfair and avoidable health disparities among some racial and ethnic groups. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the substantial increase in the firearm homicide rate, along with notable increases in firearm suicide rates for some groups, has widened racial, ethnic, and other disparities. For example, young people, males, and Black people have the highest firearm homicide rates and experienced the largest increases in 2020. The reasons for the increasing rates and widening disparities are likely complex. Multiple stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the increases, including:
Firearm deaths continue to be a significant and growing public health problem in the United States. In 2020, 79% of all homicides and 53% of all suicides involved firearms. From 2019 to 2020, the firearm homicide rate increased about 35%, and the firearm suicide rate stayed high. The firearm homicide rate in 2020 was the highest recorded in over 25 years.
Long-standing systemic inequities and structural racism limit economic and education opportunities. They contribute to unfair and avoidable health disparities among some racial and ethnic groups. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the substantial increase in the firearm homicide rate, along with notable increases in firearm suicide rates for some groups, has widened racial, ethnic, and other disparities. For example, young people, males, and Black people have the highest firearm homicide rates and experienced the largest increases in 2020. The reasons for the increasing rates and widening disparities are likely complex. Multiple stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the increases, including:
Changes and disruptions to services and education
Mental stress
Social isolation
Economic stressors, including job loss, housing instability, and difficulty covering daily expenses
Stopping firearm violence now and in the future requires a comprehensive prevention approach focused on reducing inequities. Strategies should address the underlying physical, social, economic, and structural conditions known to increase firearm homicide and suicide risks. Some prevention strategies will be more immediate, and others will have more long-term effects.
Mental stress
Social isolation
Economic stressors, including job loss, housing instability, and difficulty covering daily expenses
Stopping firearm violence now and in the future requires a comprehensive prevention approach focused on reducing inequities. Strategies should address the underlying physical, social, economic, and structural conditions known to increase firearm homicide and suicide risks. Some prevention strategies will be more immediate, and others will have more long-term effects.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Classified documents
Former Senators and US House Representatives, and members of Cabinets and Committees need to come clean with any classified documents they have. Current members of Congress need to be sure classified material is secure and in appropriate and secure places. Any former or current members with classified documents need to inform DOJ and/or FBI.
I don’t think the country knows how extensive this looseness with classified material has been. I am confident our enemies are planning to find out for themselves. Not that after Trump they need any help locating them.
The President should not be the lone determinant of classification either. President Biden should write an addendum to the declassification order. Congress needs to legislate as well as to determining classification and declassification.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Alec Baldwin is 64 years old.
If he is ever charged with the maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter with a gun of 15 years he will be 79 at the end of his sentence.
Not good enough!
To think the Supreme Court can't come up with the person(s) who leaked the report is an outrage. It adds to the incompetence this court exhibits in many ways. There is a coverup. The FBI needs to examine the findings of the investigation. The FBI can either make recommendations to further the investigation or simply do it themselves.
By Dan Mangan
An investigation into the leak of a bombshell Supreme Court ruling (click here) overturning the federal right to abortion — weeks before it was officially released — failed to identify the culprit, the court said Thursday.
The inconclusive end to the probe was another embarrassment for the Supreme Court, which called the leak “one of the worst betrayals of trust in its history” and “a grave assault on the judicial process.”
Investigators interviewed nearly 100 court employees in the probe, 82 of whom had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft majority opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito.
But neither Alito nor the court’s other eight justices were eyed in the investigation, according to an official report....
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Violence is an illness.
Solomon Pena (click here) is accused of paying four men to carry out shootings at Albuquerque-area homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators. No one was hurt.
A defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature (click here) was arrested this week on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, an alleged scheme that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called “horrifying and shocking.”
“It’s a miracle that no one was hurt,” she said at Wednesday’s briefing. “The president has spoken out repeatedly and emphatically about how our nation rejects violence as a political tool. That is a bedrock principle of our democracy. It is important for leaders in both parties to reaffirm that particular that particularly as we’ve seen an increase in violent rhetoric and political violence like seen most recently again in New Mexico.
A defeated candidate for the New Mexico legislature (click here) was arrested this week on charges that he orchestrated a plot to shoot up the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, an alleged scheme that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called “horrifying and shocking.”
“It’s a miracle that no one was hurt,” she said at Wednesday’s briefing. “The president has spoken out repeatedly and emphatically about how our nation rejects violence as a political tool. That is a bedrock principle of our democracy. It is important for leaders in both parties to reaffirm that particular that particularly as we’ve seen an increase in violent rhetoric and political violence like seen most recently again in New Mexico.
Violence when it is linked to power and the desire for it is a very bad state of mind. The democratic principles we all embrace carry a sense of fairness in elections. Every vote is suppose to count. It empowers citizens to be a contributing member of society with all the responsibility that goes along with being informed and not brainwashed or apathetic.
The idea a single man casts his vote through violence is the epitome of mental illness. It removes the citizen from a responsible act of citizenship and replaces it with a person that has the desire and ability to overpower the government. It is illegal, but, the lack of mental health in that is also important. This type of power thirsty ideology is not addressed by psychiatry. At least it wasn't in 1997.
Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci. 1997;34(1):3-15; discussion 16-7.
A personality disorder of excessive power strivings (click here)
By I. W. Charny
Abstract
None of the existing formal diagnostic categories in psychiatry today addresses adequately the issues of excessive power-seeking, corruption and destructiveness. Excessive power strivings both poison the personality of the individual who is obsessed in his spirit and mind with power and do unacceptable harm to other peoples' lives. The present proposal of a diagnostic category of a Personality Disorder of Excessive Power Strivings is intended to fit into current diagnostic schema of DSM as well as into an earlier proposal (1) to examine in all psychopathology not only the burdens and damage people do and impose on their own selves and their own functioning, but also the harm they do to other peoples' lives and functioning. The diagnosis is to be used when the individual displays prolonged and severe manifestations of the following listed criteria: The basic feature which is always present in this personality disorder is:
1. Intense and extensive power strivings. In addition, at least three other of the following characteristics should be present;
2. Lack of empathy for people, and indifference to the suffering of others;
3. "Street smart" alertness and remarkable cunning committed to seizing and expanding power;
4. Ruthlessness in cultivation of power;
5. Scapegoating and projection of blame on to targeted individuals or a group, an insistent need to identify certain others as lowly, worthless and intended victims; 6. Corruption by power and addiction to power;
7. Demands of other people to be dependent on one's powerful personality, or that they become one's obedient followers;
8. Emphasis on symbolisms of pure vs. impure, holy vs. infidel, chosen vs. condemned;
9. A basic disrespect for the lives of others evidenced in callous or indifferent exposure of others to undue risks;
10. An absence of conscience in contexts of self-interest and opportunity;
11. A homicide/suicide orientation.
Previous to Trump's rampage on January 6, 2021, there were always those that would take issue with the government and government officials in a way that called up violence. There are people serving time in prison for threatening a president. It only takes one with an opportunity to carry out his ideology and the country is faced with a tragedy.
Karine, the President's Press Secretary is absolutely correct, it was nothing but a small miracle no one was hurt or worse. It is also excellent police work to find a plot like this and end it's potential.
In the abstract above I found the characteristics interesting. There was a significant number of people on January 6, 2021 that were involved with strivings to achieve power regardless of the power of the USA Constitution and the excellent work of law enforcement. The election of 2020 was considered by those in law enforcement to be the best protected election in USA history. The people of January 6, 2021 had no conscience as they committed violence against Capitol police, destroyed parts of the building to gain entrance and proceeded to attempt a hunt of freely elected officials in their legally obligated roles in placing a President in the highest seat of power of the USA government. You can call it what you want, but, it was nothing short of mob violence inspired by a man that lost an election.
Solomon Pena is attempting a resolve no different. There is an underlying desire for power outside that of which is provided by the USA Constitution. It is wrong, illegal and a mindset that brings about an ideology of violence. How is it that a person even conceives of such plans? A person of this ideology is not living with reality. There is no way a group of men can conspire to take power of government away from elected persons through violence and expect to hold that power. It is so far afield there is no reconciling the idea could be successful, yet, they believe it is.
Emotional fits like this scare the very people that are elected in a peaceful manner and causes them to reconsider their victory as too dangerous to continue on their path of leadership. That is a rational reaction. It takes bravery of which they did not consider before they placed their names on the ballot.
The politically violent mindset has far reaching and disastrous outcomes for our country at every level of government. It cannot be allowed to continue and must be removed from society.
The title of this blog is "The Revolt and the Revolting," not, "The Killer and the Killing." There is a huge difference in those concepts and that difference must carry brevity in society and return peaceful power to our elections and those elected.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
The World Economic Forum is out of place in the year 2023.
Everyone likes to think of wealth as a benefit to all people. It isn't. The world economy is systematically being destroyed by Vladimir Putin.
The United Nations is the only forum that matters these days. All those that will fly their private jets to Davos for a meeting to decide how the wealthy can help the poor or whatever it is they decide at these gatherings have no answer to the atrocity beset the world not quite a year ago.
I guess these folks haven't noticed that Ukraine grain shipments are vital to the world. In 2021 Ukraine's GDP was $200.1 billion. That has been basically wiped away by a genocide invasion by Putin.
Vladimir Putin is capable of killing without thought or regard to any idea of a global economy. If he will do this to a neutral country like Ukraine what does anyone think his plans are for all of us?
This invasion into Ukraine is a wake up call for all those that believed mutual economic ties would solve all problems and bring about peace. It won't and Ukraine is proof. It is time to stop looking to solve problems with huge economic dependence and realize the best way of this tangled mess is for people to find the way forward.
This is not a proxy war, it is genocide and the world wants it to stop!
January 17, 2023
By Dan Lamothe
...The Kremlin has sharply criticized Western efforts (click here) to help Ukraine, accusing Washington and its NATO allies of waging a proxy war against Moscow and raising concerns that Russia could at some point grow intolerant of the intervention and target the United States or another NATO country. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently named Milley’s Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov as his top commander in Ukraine, a move observers have said is a strong indication Moscow has no inclination to end its invasion as the war nears its one-year mark with more than 100,000 dead or wounded on both sides....
By Dan Lamothe
...The Kremlin has sharply criticized Western efforts (click here) to help Ukraine, accusing Washington and its NATO allies of waging a proxy war against Moscow and raising concerns that Russia could at some point grow intolerant of the intervention and target the United States or another NATO country. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently named Milley’s Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov as his top commander in Ukraine, a move observers have said is a strong indication Moscow has no inclination to end its invasion as the war nears its one-year mark with more than 100,000 dead or wounded on both sides....
There is a lot going on in the world. The communists post Trump have decided to attack democracy and freedom. I am grateful for General Milley's leadership. He is as brave as he is wise. Those are characteristics that aren't necessary found in all those that lead.
The genocide in Ukraine is profound and it is continuing. There are 6.48 million Ukrainians displaced (click here) with $564 billion in damage to Ukraine's infrastructure and lost economic growth and 10 million square meters (2471 acres) of damaged and destroyed housing.
Before the genocide it is estimated there were 43.8 million people in Ukraine. It is estimated there are still approximately 43 million still alive today. Russia has removed Ukrainians from the homeland and sent them to settlements in Russia.
This genocide is anything but a proxy war. The USA would never engage in a proxy war that kills so many of the people the world wants to protect.
Monday, January 16, 2023
There are more climate deaths in California as well as the deaths in Alabama.
Landslides are a guarantee tragedy after sustained drought. That is not a flood, it is a torrent.
By Dani Auguiano and Gabrielle Canon
The Los Angeles River flows at a powerful rate as a huge storm brings flooding and landslides to the west coast.
As more dangerous storms bear down on California, (click here) the state is only just beginning to grapple with the destruction and death left by weeks of extreme weather that wreaked havoc in nearly every region from the northern coast to Los Angeles.
The series of storms that have pummeled California since late December have killed at least 19 people, brought hurricane force winds that toppled trees and power lines, cutting energy to thousands, and flooded roads and rivers, covering swaths of land in dense mud and debris that stretches for miles. Entire communities have been forced to evacuate while road closures and power disruptions left some rural regions isolated and almost cut off from the outside world.
Authorities are still documenting the toll of the disaster, an effort that’s been hampered by a fresh onslaught of more storms. Joe Biden has approved emergency declarations from 41 of California’s 58 counties.
“These storms are among the most deadly natural disasters in the modern history of our state,” Nancy Ward, the director of the governor’s office of emergency services said at a briefing on Friday.
After a grueling drought and California’s driest years on record, the latest turn of extreme weather, which some experts have called hydrological “whiplash”, has highlighted the challenges that come with such a rapid deluge, particularly in a state more accustomed in recent years to disasters related to heat and wildfire....
This has been a sustaining pattern for some time now. Severe storms in California while at the same time the south is receiving a lashing from tornadoes with people dying. That is not a normal pattern of weather, especially for winter months.
January 14, 2023
Montgomery - The National Weather Service has confirmed (click here) that the deadly tornado that swept across Autauga County on Jan. 12 was of EF3 strength, having peak winds of 150 mph. NWS says the tornado was on the ground for 76 miles and was more than three-quarters of a mile wide at its peak as it tore through parts of Autauga, Elmore, Tallapoosa and Chambers counties before lifting.
Storm surveys are ongoing. Hundreds of homes in the areas of Old Kingston, Posey’s Crossroads, White City, and Marbury have been damaged or destroyed from this tornado.
The tornado claimed the lives of seven people. The Autauga County Sheriff’s Office shared the victims’ names on Saturday and said their deaths happened in Old Kingston, one of the hardest hit communities of the county.
Four of the victims were related, though the sheriff’s office did not provide details on how....
Taking a cue from Elon Musk.
There should be removal of any and all that accepted monies from Russian oligarchs. It is a threat to national security. It is an automatic ethics referral at the very least. The State Attorney Generals might have to be involved.
By Evan Simko-Bednarski
The rep, who defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman (click here) by almost 22,000 votes in the race to represent the Nassau County- and Queens-based Third District, has a history of blaming his misstatements on listeners’ ears.
When criticized for claiming Jewish heritage by referencing his grandparents’ purported escape from the Nazis during World War II — for which genealogical records show no evidence — Santos took a similar tack....
..“I was elected by 142,000 people — until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me … we’ll find out in two years,” he said...
New York had a bill to recall elected officials, but, it may not apply to statewide federal seats or House district seats. The guy is a problem. He is affiliated with Russia. He will bring problems to the USA legislature. Those Russians helped elect him and he has divided loyalties.
Zimmerman (click here) received a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and a master's in business administration for Fordham University. In 1988, Zimmerman co-founded a marketing communications company. He served on the John F. Kennedy Center's Presidential Commission on the Arts and the National Council on the Humanities, nominated by Presidents Bill Clinton (D) and Barack Obama (D), respectively. As of 2022, Zimmerman was a Democratic National Committee member.
Zimmerman sounds like a New York Congressman, not this sleaze bag. Zimmerman lost by 12,000 votes, now 142,000.
There needs to be an investigation. New York State federal elections did not turn out as expected. It is why the US House turned red. Something isn't right. I stinks as a matter of fact.
By Brian Mann
When Republicans take control of the U.S. House (click here) next month, they'll have voters in New York to thank for roughly a third of their national gains.
In the midterm elections, one of the bluest states in the country saw a relative red wave that led to a net gain of three seats, helping give the GOP its razor-thin majority.
But many of these Republican victories were by narrow margins and came in moderate suburban districts on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.
And the centrist candidates who won have signaled they have little interest in the partisan clashes favored by the GOP's far-right MAGA wing....
One other thing, Michigan is showing up as a concern at the county level. The county authorities supervise voting in the state and that is true of any state. My understanding is that this is a countrywide phenomena. Someone is not paying attention to the decision makers where voting will be most threatened.
January 6, 2023
Last November, Michigan Democrats (click here) scored huge victories as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer easily won reelection and her party took control of the Senate and House.
But while Whitmer and fellow Democrats scored big in state-level races, that didn’t happen at the county level, where local politicians still redraw political boundaries.
Of the 619 county commissioners elected in Michigan last year, 444 (72 percent) were Republicans — an increase of five from 2020, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis of county commissioner lists compiled by the Michigan Association of Counties....
January 15, 2022
Martin Luther King Jr. (click here) often spoke about institutional and systemic racism, saying that true racial equality cannot be reached without “radical” structural changes in society, says a Texas A&M University sociology professor.
“Justice for black people will not flow into this society merely from court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory…White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society,” King wrote in an essay published in 1969 titled “A Testament of Hope.” In his 1958 book Stride Toward Freedom, he wrote, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
Joe Feagin, the Ella C. McFadden Professor in Sociology and Distinguished Professor, said those are just two of the many times King spoke of structural changes needed to achieve equality, but first and foremost of the need for white and Black people to agree on what “equality” actually means.
Feagin said King noted in a speech not long before his 1968 assassination that a major problem was getting white people to understand the meaning of the civil rights movement because there isn’t even a common language when the term “equality” is used.
King said that many white people, even well-meaning people, think that equality means Black people have to improve.
Feagin said King’s commentary on what equality means to many white people, and how some do not want to face that, is as accurate now as then.
“We whites created slavery, Jim Crow segregation and contemporary racial discrimination over 400-plus years now,” Feagin said. “Whites are the main racial villains in this story and have most of the political and social power to change that racial discrimination and inequality now. We cannot have a truly free and democratic society, with ‘liberty and justice for all’ until we do that.”
“The first step to do that is for whites of all ages to learn an honest history of this country’s systemic racism and the Black movements against it—something many whites today are not even willing to begin doing.”...
Martin Luther King Jr. (click here) often spoke about institutional and systemic racism, saying that true racial equality cannot be reached without “radical” structural changes in society, says a Texas A&M University sociology professor.
“Justice for black people will not flow into this society merely from court decisions nor from fountains of political oratory…White America must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society,” King wrote in an essay published in 1969 titled “A Testament of Hope.” In his 1958 book Stride Toward Freedom, he wrote, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
Joe Feagin, the Ella C. McFadden Professor in Sociology and Distinguished Professor, said those are just two of the many times King spoke of structural changes needed to achieve equality, but first and foremost of the need for white and Black people to agree on what “equality” actually means.
Feagin said King noted in a speech not long before his 1968 assassination that a major problem was getting white people to understand the meaning of the civil rights movement because there isn’t even a common language when the term “equality” is used.
King said that many white people, even well-meaning people, think that equality means Black people have to improve.
Feagin said King’s commentary on what equality means to many white people, and how some do not want to face that, is as accurate now as then.
“We whites created slavery, Jim Crow segregation and contemporary racial discrimination over 400-plus years now,” Feagin said. “Whites are the main racial villains in this story and have most of the political and social power to change that racial discrimination and inequality now. We cannot have a truly free and democratic society, with ‘liberty and justice for all’ until we do that.”
“The first step to do that is for whites of all ages to learn an honest history of this country’s systemic racism and the Black movements against it—something many whites today are not even willing to begin doing.”...
Example of racism. The minority populations always have to accept watered down meanings of justice. The same is true of confederate flags and statutes. Somehow that is okay. The injustice is that when minority members of the USA have to face objects of hate from the civil war, that it hurts them and the legitimacy of our country's leveraging of equality in all that is the USA. The symbols of hate must be removed forever for the sake of young minority people. The biggest injustice right now that lingers in the USA is segregation and it is not even discussed in a way that allows resolve in political dialogue.
Steph Sommer, Feature's Editor
February 2, 2017
Every third Monday in January, (click here) Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist who was shot in 1968. In 49 states, this federal holiday is explicitly referred to as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but here in Wyoming the holiday is called Equality Day.
It took 10 years for Wyoming to originally accept Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday, but with the help of Wyoming Senator Harriet Elizabeth (Liz) Byrd- the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of government they eventually accepted it as a holiday. Wyoming accepted it on one condition-
It had to be called Equality Day....
February 2, 2017
Every third Monday in January, (click here) Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist who was shot in 1968. In 49 states, this federal holiday is explicitly referred to as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but here in Wyoming the holiday is called Equality Day.
It took 10 years for Wyoming to originally accept Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday, but with the help of Wyoming Senator Harriet Elizabeth (Liz) Byrd- the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of government they eventually accepted it as a holiday. Wyoming accepted it on one condition-
It had to be called Equality Day....
IT IS NOT EQUALITY DAY!
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Schumer is correct. There is no equity in the way the Trump and Biden cases are handled.
So much for equal treatment under the law. It seems as though immunity from investigation is only for Republicans. Under Bill Barr no one could touch Trump and his family. All of a sudden all that has changed (click here).
By Ben Blanchet
...“It’s not just, hold on, it’s not just us buzzing around (click here) — you’re the Democratic head of the Senate,” said Lemon after Schumer remarked that all the hosts want to do is “buzz around” on the case.
“This is a really important issue. It’s not just buzzing around. This is serious stuff.”
Schumer said prosecutors will get to the bottom of the matter and suggested that if there wasn’t a special counsel there’d be a “different thing to say” on the situation.
“I think we should have a special prosecutor on each,” said Schumer regarding both Biden’s case and former President Donald Trump’s case involving classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.
“I don’t mind [that] you’re asking these questions, but my view is I’m not going to say anything. Let the special prosecutors do their job,” the Senate Democratic leader said....
...“It’s not just, hold on, it’s not just us buzzing around (click here) — you’re the Democratic head of the Senate,” said Lemon after Schumer remarked that all the hosts want to do is “buzz around” on the case.
“This is a really important issue. It’s not just buzzing around. This is serious stuff.”
Schumer said prosecutors will get to the bottom of the matter and suggested that if there wasn’t a special counsel there’d be a “different thing to say” on the situation.
“I think we should have a special prosecutor on each,” said Schumer regarding both Biden’s case and former President Donald Trump’s case involving classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.
“I don’t mind [that] you’re asking these questions, but my view is I’m not going to say anything. Let the special prosecutors do their job,” the Senate Democratic leader said....
The greatest difference between the two cases is transparency. Biden's attorneys willingly handed the found documents to the National Archives. Trump's attorneys lied about the documents, eventually turned them over after they negotiated the return. Negotiated? What is there to negotiate? What did they negotiate, freedom vs. prosecution? The attorneys for the President have no right to negotiate with the National Archives. The National Archives are not part of the Justice Department as if they could actually guarantee Trump immunity from prosecution.
Furthermore, in his statement, Sauber, Biden’s special counsel, indicated that Biden’s attorneys voluntarily turned over the documents found at the Penn Biden Center and then notified NARA of their existence. As we also have written, in Trump’s case, federal officials contacted his team about the missing presidential records and then had to negotiate the return of the materials over a series of months before the FBI obtained a court-authorized search warrant for Mar-a-Lago because Trump wasn’t fully cooperating.
In January 2022, Trump representatives initially transported 15 boxes containing presidential records to the National Archives and said they were searching for any additional records, according to a NARA statement. That was after NARA made multiple requests between May and December 2021 for the missing documents, according to the Justice Department. (For more, read “Timeline of FBI Investigation of Trump’s Handling of Highly Classified Documents.”)...
The Timeline is ridiculous (click here). Trump had plenty of time to make everything right and he did nothing but obstruct. When it comes to dealing with Republicans there is nothing but corruption of the processes of the Rule of Law the USA Constitution demands.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
In its 1867 decision Mississippi v. Johnson, the Supreme Court established that the President is largely beyond the reach of the judiciary by holding that it could not direct President Andrew Johnson in how he exercised his purely executive and political powers. The Court stated, it had no jurisdiction . . . to enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.
In subsequent decisions, however, the Court made clear that Johnson does not stand for the proposition that the President is immune from judicial process. For example, in United States v. Nixon, the Court held that President Richard Nixon was amenable to a subpoena to produce evidence for use in a federal criminal case. There, the President had argued that he was immune to judicial process, claiming that the independence of the Executive Branch within its own sphere insulates a President from a judicial subpoena in an ongoing criminal prosecution.4 The Supreme Court unanimously disagreed, holding that neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances. The Court noted that the constitutional duty of courts to do justice in criminal prosecutions was counterbalanced by the claim of presidential immunity. To accept the President’s argument, the Court further reasoned, would undermine the separation of powers that was at the core of a workable government as well as gravely impair the role of the courts under Art. III....
Schumer is correct, there is no equal treatment under the law for President Biden in comparison of Trump's obvious obstruction of justice.
Saturday, January 14, 2023
He is still killing innocent people for pure political volleys.
Kyiv - Russia unleashed a major missile attack (click here) on Ukraine on Saturday, smashing a nine-storey apartment block in the city of Dnipro, killing at least five people and striking vital energy facilities, officials said.
Ukraine's energy minister said the coming days would be "difficult" as months of Russian bombardment of the power grid threaten the supply of electricity, running water and central heating at the height of winter....
The bombing Putin is carrying out are not military targets. The bombs are falling on innocent civilians.
January 14, 2023
Chisinau - Missile debris (click here) was found in the north of Moldova following the latest barrage of Russian air strikes on Ukraine, Moldova's interior ministry said on Saturday.
"Following Russia's massive bombardment of Ukraine, a border police patrol discovered ... the remains of a missile, originating from Russia's air attacks on Ukraine," the ministry said on Facebook.
Russia did not immediately comment on the report.
Belarus President (click here) Alexander Lukashenko appeared to release military plans on TV which include invading the Transnistria region of Moldova.
January 14, 2023
Chisinau - Missile debris (click here) was found in the north of Moldova following the latest barrage of Russian air strikes on Ukraine, Moldova's interior ministry said on Saturday.
"Following Russia's massive bombardment of Ukraine, a border police patrol discovered ... the remains of a missile, originating from Russia's air attacks on Ukraine," the ministry said on Facebook.
Russia did not immediately comment on the report.
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