Not By Robert Frost These Woods

 

There's quite a lot of snow outside. Usually stamped with lots of foot traffic, the path today has only a few brave souls trekking through the single digit temperatures.   So I go along myself this way because the cold puts things in a better light than when I'm comfortable and warm and well-fed.  

Russian Film 2015: "What is my name?"

Russian Soul:  Strong, Wild, and Out-of-Control

The relationship between two urban Muscovite girls is intense and becomes more so when they go to a Crimean resort town to meet the father Olya has never seen before.  

Sergey's daughter gets cold feet at the last moment but Sasha pushes the plot and offers to stand-in for the real daughter.  The acting is convincing, the plot a bit chilling when the wheels come off and the girls  (and Olya's father too)  are faced with the sad reality of their lives.

  Both women are attractive but Sasha is far more adventurous than she should be.  There's an added element of sexy, even to the tease of incest.  You knew Sasha was going to be trouble for the male species when she appears in the first frames in her denim Daisy Duke jeans cut even higher than the ones in "Dukes of Hazzard." 

There's more to the film than the suggestion of free-wheeling teenagers facing the full bloom of their sexuality.  Both girls grow up without fathers (though Olya gets a step-father) and this creates a deficit in their lives which has much to do with the unresolved issues they have in finding themselves. 

 It's a good film with only a few stumbles, and different from how its themes would be addressed in an American film. You know that Russian soul - strong, wild, and out of control.

Directed by Nigina Sayfullaeva. With Konstantin Lavronenko, Aleksandra Bortich, Marina Vasileva, Kirill Kaganovich.

Netflix Series "Sirens" Not Enough to Lure Me Onto the Rocks

 

Sirens:

In spite of the fact that it provides work for actors, I would avoid this one. Maybe avoid my review too, because I quit after about three quarters into the first episode.  Perhaps it morphs into something beautiful, riotous, or mysterious but I haven’t got that far. 

 Seemed like every trope and cliché of modern film was there. The chasm between rich and poor was there from the opening scenes, hyper-colorized in the style of La La Land.  Another too obvious cliché is that of a young girl in bed with an older rich guy in a scene that is neither cute, clever, nor meaningful.   

So there are two sisters from Buffalo on different paths. Devon works at a fast-food restaurant while Simone is a sort of Devil-Wears-Prada assistant to an Anna Wintour type on some super-rich planet like Nantucket Island (it’s not really that – it’s much richer) .

Their old man has senile dementia and appears to be dying back in Buffalo.  I think every film family must have a head of family with Alzheimer’s, or some form of body paralysis, or cancer, or. ..   Well you can make your own list. 

So of course Devon is going to go to her sister seeking help with her dad.  She’s everything princess Simone is not. She smokes, curses, dresses Goth-like.  Of course she’s going to embarrass her sister in front of her high-society employers. 

But the dialogue is mostly terrible throughout and doesn’t give the actors much to work with.  While on a ferry boat out to the island, for example, the boat captain berates her for trying to smoke a cigarette (which is not allowed on board). 

Devon pouts and says ‘but I need something in my mouth’.  Jump cut to someone’s bright idea and a long shot where she’s fellating the captain.  Ha-ha, how funny!   Low humor, like Shakespeare!  Except that Shakespeare was talented and knew the difference between talent and degradation.

Okay so why am I giving it three stars?  Well, because it’s tough being and actor and they’re often unemployed. The people who produced this film did a public service by lowing the ranks of the unemployed.  Besides, there are plenty of desperate people out there with nothing better to do.  I indict myself there for spending almost a whole hour watching this. 

The Late Show with Colbert was Losing multi-Millions

 

When news of Stephen Colbert being fired from CBS first broke, the collective gasp of indignant media watchers was predictable.  Those of more sober reckoning became suspicious when the left-wing media's most earnest political puppets, Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, and  Bernie Sanders came out in chorus to announce the Late Night Show with Colbert was being cancelled as the result of a bribe by the Trump Administration.  This slur ignores the fact  that Colbert's show had been losing tens of millions of dollars for the past three years, this according to the New York Times.

The "bribe" referred to was the announcement of a 16 million dollar court settlement with Donald Trump as the result of a defamation lawsuit.  

And what would such a 'bribe' pay for according to this line of thinking?  Well, it seems there's a big financial deal involving the proposed merger of a movie production company called SkyDance with Paramount. (Paramount being the parent company of CBS) So according to this canard, the Federal Communications Commission  (FCC) will approve the merger in exchange for the bespoke Trump defamation settlement money.   

All this b.s. about bribes is one last joke by the departing Stephen Colbert. The difference though is that instead of laughing with the talk show host, many people are now laughing at him. 

 

Will #KamalaHarris have enough smarts to pick Shapiro as VP?

 Yeah, so tomorrow we’ll find out if Kamala Harris is smart and chooses Shapiro as her VP.  If she does, it could be a real threat for Trump. The announcement will be made from Philadelphia. Is that a clue?    

On the brighter side, Shapiro is coming up against strong anti-semitism within the Dem Party from two far-left (they call themselves ‘progressive’ but that’s a joke)  donor groups because he’s an observant Jew who has supported Israel.  

If Harris chooses Shapiro she’ll lose the Dearbornistan types who are a significant portion of the Kamala electorate.  If she doesn’t pick him , she could lose many of the formerly liberal American Jewish contingent who have traditionally voted Democrat but, given the way the Biden has undermined Israel, may vote off the reservation. 

So that’s what I’m thinking.  When you get a minute maybe you’ll share a guess on her VP pick and how you think it might play out.

Mr. Lunatic of the Fringe

 

 

 

New York Times Breaks Ranks, Tells Story of Ukraine Self-Harming Missile Strike

 Truth is the first casualty of war, it’s often said, and nowhere is this borne out more than in Ukraine.  When a September 6 missile strike on the town of   Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine killed 15 civilians and injured more than 30 others, Ukraine’s President Zelensky blamed Russian “terrorists” just two hours later.  A team of New York Times journalists and weapons experts debunked that.  The missile was fired by Ukrainians on Ukrainians.

The missile was packed with metal fragments according to design and had the explosive power to pierce walls and to maim victims beyond recognition. American big media has entered a new period and enjoys one-sided, and   the story played across the American continent and Europe.  A similar self-harming missile strike occurred earlier in the war, and was weeks later determined to have been launched from Ukraine.

 You’d think American media would at least strike a cautious note, and seek verification from original sources, but none did — except for the liberal New York Times.  Give them credit, liberal does not always mean lying any more than conservative means always telling the truth.  

So what happened is that the New York Times sent its own investigative team to the area to find out what happened.  Now everyone knows, or should know by now, that Zelensky and Co. holds free speech and communication behind an Iron Curtain which would have been the envy of the old Soviet Union.  Ukrainians who speak out, or even look like they’re thinking   beyond the tightly controlled press releases are tied to lampposts, beaten,  jailed and even murdered. 

The New York Times headline of today writes thusly of the obstacles in front of them in reporting the true story:  Ukrainian authorities initially tried to prevent journalists with The Times from accessing the missile debris and impact area in the strike’s immediate aftermath. But the reporters were eventually able to get to the scene, interview witnesses and collect remnants of the weapon used.

  I’d like to know who said what in trying to stop the news from getting out but even the New York Times must have its limitations in today’s political and economic environment. Still, credit is due; journalism is wounded but not entirely dead.  The full story is in an article titled

Evidence Suggests Ukrainian Missile Caused Market Tragedy:

“. . . evidence collected and analyzed by The New York Times, including missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts, strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of an errant Ukrainian air defense missile fired by a Buk launch system.”

There is a great deal of additional verifying information in the article and there is no substitute for reading it in full. I’ve paraphrased only a little of it because it’s behind a pay wall but they offer a horribly inexpensive promotion where you can get an online version for less than the price of a chocolate bar .  I don’t know if they give Pulitzers for team effort but if they do, the people who wrote this article should be considered.  All credit to these folks   accomplished a feat worthy of the name “Journalism.”

 

 :

 John Ismay, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Haley Willis, Malachy Browne, Christoph Koettl and Alexander Cardia

 

 

 

  

How America Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Shades of Dr. Strangelove)

 

Someone on Twitter a.k.a. X dared to ask the question: What would you do in the event of a nuclear war?

I was glad someone asked, given the dangers of current U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis the war between the ‘Allies’ of Ukraine and those of Russia.  It’s pretty clear the countries supporting Ukraine don’t want Americans and Europeans to think bad thoughts. But how can you not?

There’ s continuing escalation as the U.S. warmongering politicians keep pouring money and military equipment into Ukraine.  Not only is this killing off generations of Ukrainians and Russians, too, but it’s effecting a world wide malaise in inflated food prices, housing prices, automobile prices and industrial production. 

Terrified as I am, I was surprised by the blitheness with which many people responded.  There seem to be two sides.  At the prospect of a nuclear war between the U.S., China, and Russia, I would be on the side that simply gives themselves up for a horrible death.  On the other said, there are people saying, in effect, oh well, it’s not so bad as you think.

Let’s look at some of the responses:

Here’s a sober thought from “Thinking Creature” :  I’ve been in one of those bunkers in the Russian Far East: they could accommodate thousands, pretty amazing indeed. Now I am in Australia and all our buildings won’t withstand a wolf huffing and puffing. So we just turn into  a star dust. Very quick & hopefully painlessly.

 Meanwhile, bright boy Tor Vizsla says:   Nuclear weapons are less of threat then people make them out to be - the two weeks of radiation and the end of global trade that comes afterwards. That I am prepared for. 

Ah, very good there Tor!  I can rest easy, though my first thoughts run to the “end of global trade.”  Yeah, that would be an awful thing when you’re incinerated.

Then there’s the relatively moderate ‘The Nothing to See’ : You have to find a way to survive until radiation levels are low enough. Moreover, the entire infrastructure will likely be severely affected, particularly critical aspects like electricity, as nuclear plants are obvious targets. This is not just a matter of trade; the level of chaos is expected to be incredibly high.

I like this one.  You know he’s stocked up with plenty of ammo, a good supply of thirty round clips,  and has converted his AR-15 to full automatic. 

You will not breathe a sigh of relief from what cc cw who “likes playing guitar on the Louisiana Bayou” has to say about a tri-partite nuclear war between the U.S, China, and Russia:  the entire manufacturing complex in the USA; the gulf, east and west coasts are toast as are the major cities and especially the states where icbms and military bases are primary targets and will be hit with an over abundance of missiles from planes, subs, ships and icbms and small bombs that i imagine are already in position in certain places ( i hope I am wrong about this and that I am just being a little paranoid).

He hopes he’s wrong about this and is just being paranoid.  I hope he’s wrong about this too but as for the ‘paranoid’ I would say not, given the morons who are rattling China and pouring billions into Ukraine to fight the Russians.

 I mean, really, wouldn’t you rather hear lonesome cc cw playing his guitar on the Louisiana Bayou than the explosive sound of, wait for it - “The Sausage” Ivy Mike H-Bomb  Maximum Yield: 10.4Mt  Length: 24 feet 7 inches
 Weight: 39,000 – 42,000 pounds  Date Created: 1952

 

 

 

 

 

Short Film: The Tailor — (A choice that sometime you have to make)

 

“The Tailor” is an interesting SHORT Italian film which in the first scene poses a quandary that lasts through the entire movie.  During the German occupation of Italy during WWII, a tailor and a German officer become friends of a sort.  The German officer brings cigarettes and food and in exchange wants the tailor to make him a dashing suit for an upcoming ceremony.

It’s the ‘of a sort’ that requires you to examine your own conscience.  Do you engage with the people who have a presence in your country and are the guests of Il Duce?   His wife doesn’t seem to understand he has no choice. She tells him they should have done what her father did – flee the country.  That’s a choice many Ukrainians made recently as Russian troops took up residence in the eastern part of the country.

 Poland was a common destination, but so was Russia.  The   numbers of people who fled Ukraine are known, but kept secret. 

Not long after the German Nazi leaves, Paolo’s sister Lucia arrives with the news she’s about to marry Mauro, a leader of the local partisans.  She wants a suit made for her soon-to-be husband.  As with the German, there’s a time limit.  The German officer wants the suit within five days, while his sister Marisa wants the suit made within four days. 

If this is not unsettling enough, Marisa tells Paolo that the Allies are creeping forward and will soon be near.  “I don’t want to know anything about that,” Paolo says fearfully.

He can’t work on two suits at the same time.  “You have to choose,” says Paolo’s wife, reminding me of a less drastic ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ a film requiring the heroine to choose one child for the gas chambers and one for the work farms. 

The ante for Paolo is upped when the Nazi officer comes for a measurement and invites Paolo and his wife to attend a ceremonial dinner. “You’ll become the foremost tailor of the Third Reich,” the German officer says.  It’s a test of nerves and loyalties for Paolo who looks stricken.  Like most of us, you see, all Paolo wants to do is live peacefully, do his job, and care for his family.

You ask yourself though.  When does acquiescence become participation?  Paolo’s peaceful aspirations are shattered when the Nazis discover her perfidy and execute Lucia.  Paolo’s wife is contemptuous of him for his passivity in the face of Nazi brutality.  She expects her husband to do something — take a side. 

As for cinematography, it’s sepia toned, nostalgic rather than stark.  Supporting Nazi characters are gray and occasionally cartoon-like. It’s a low-budget film, holding faithful to plot if not to the actions and dialogue of the film’s extras, but the plot is a good one and the conundrum it poses is appropriate to our own times.  

It’s an excellent short film, directed by Antonio Losito. You couldn’t spend a better fifteen minutes watching  as it comes to a surprising ending. 

 

 

 

   

"The Silence" "a short film)

   Sometimes I don’t have time to watch two-hour films.  “The Silence” last 15 minutes. If you can make an impactful film within fifteen minutes, you’re doing well. Professional critics thought so too for “The Silence” was nominated in short categories at film festivals.

  The plot? Well, there is no plot, a condition which corresponds pretty much to real life.  It’s only in books and movies that life has a plot. We will find out while watching this film that the two characters of consequence, a mother and daughter, are in free-fall.

Opening scene is a waiting room in what we soon find out is a hospital. A cool and fateful mood is established with blue filters. There is no music, a quiet austerity dominates.

Twelve or thirteen-year-old Fatma (yes, that’s the correct spelling) and her Kurdish mother are sitting on plastic airport style seats along with seven or eight others waiting to be seen by a doctor.   Fatma’s  mother wears a head scarf, according to her Kurdish custom.  There is a language problem.  

Location is Italy but that matters not. It just happens to be where the filmmakers were living. Fatma’s mother is grievously ill, according to the doctors; she’s got an advanced stage of breast cancer. The doctors call for immediate hospitalization.    Devastating news to Fatima and her mother.

 Fatima and her mother are grimly quiet throughout.    The acting is realistic, understated, unsentimental. This is what makes it work.  If given the Lifetime treatment with cascades of tears and anguished sobs, it wouldn’t work. 

Fatma has a nervous habit of picking at her fingernails, one of two signs of   emotional distress. The other is when she puts her fingers into her ears because she’s a child and can’t bear to hear any more.

Film ends with Fatma and her mother staring into a future which may not be one.  There is no mention of husband or brother or anyone who might provide support. 

Why would you watch this film?  I don’t know, maybe to confirm your frailty.       

Bryan Kohberger Defense and the Straw Man Argument

 

According to Kai Eiselein of the New York Post, accused killer Bryan Kohberger “appeared to have two gashes near his chin and bruises on his neck” during his court appearance Jan. 12, 2023. Whether these abrasions are real or caused by shadows, I couldn’t tell from video. Chanley Painter of Court TV suggested the abrasions were the result of shaving.    

But that’s not the topic du jour so far as I’m concerned.  I’m very much interested  in legal matters pertaining to the Idaho Student Murders.  I’ve informally come in contact with a few attorneys on Twitter  to ask about the process of discovery.  While answers varied slightly, I got the impression the process is already in motion 

I’m particularly focused on a story from Inside Edition.  The defense discovery requests to the prosecution asks for the things you might expect.  But there is one item  which states as follows: "Any written or recorded statements by a co-defendant, and the substance of any relevant oral statement made by a co-defendant whether before or after arrest in response to interrogation by any person known by the co-defendant to be a peace officer or agent of the prosecuting attorney, or which are otherwise relevant to the offense charged."

This is a reference to what Inside Edition referred to as a “mystery co-defendant.”    The "mystery co-defendant" is a straw man argument, designed to put the prosecution on its back foot.

You can be sure Kohberger has read a lot of case work during his academic career.  In his planning or contemplation of his attacks, he likely   came up with ideas of how to throw prosecution off if caught.  Didn’t Ted Bundy use these same words: "Was anyone else arrested?”

If this defense strategy is allowed into the case, the prosecution will have to respond to it.   If prosecution responds with a "no co-defendant,” the defense will say prosecutors didn't follow up. 

Imagine the havoc that would occur if either defense or prosecution does come up with another individual with connection to the murders. I don’t think there is one, but a phantom ‘mystery co-defendant’ could accomplish the same purpose.  

I can tell you right now there are thousands of people ready to believe in a mysterious accomplice to the crimes.  The defense knows this.  They   will hire PIs to find a host of potential ‘co-defendants.’ They will manage to get these phantoms into the court record.  The intent is that the prosecution will find itself chasing  shadows.

It doesn’t matter if a thousand clowns believe that Bryan Kohberger was not the criminal mastermind of these murders and was a mere accomplice. The danger is rather that a single juror might believe Kohberger's attempt at thwarting justice.  

Is Kaylee Goncalves Former BF Jack DuCoeur being Persecuted?

 

On the day before Christmas, the New  York Post published this story:  Vilified ex-boyfriend of slain Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves is devastated: family .  The “vilified” ex-boyfriend mentioned here is Jack DuCoeur, a young man and University of Idaho student who lives now with his parents in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. 

The article addresses concerns of his family through the voice of his aunt, Brooke Miller, who describes DuCoeur as a devastated innocent who has lost the love of his life.  This needed to be said, in the interest of fairness, and in the context of presumed innocence.

It is wise to protect the innocent from false accusations. However, suspicions of Jack DuCoeur, in the context of his relationships, are inevitable. In fact, he’s not the only one hurt by unfair insinuations of guilt. The attention focused on the case is   immense.  Few people have been spared from suspicion of committing the murder or assisting.

 One Inan Harsh, a garrulous restaurant chef, is but one example.  One Jack Showalter is another. The driver who drove Kaylee and Madison home was suspected.  Fanciful 'suspects' seem to crop up everywhere.  In one of the most egregious  examples, even the two women who lived on the first floor have been suspected of participating in the murders.  

They too must be “devastated.” Some reports have them traumatized from discovering the crime.    Rampant speculation about the murders has also suggested serial killers, cult killers, boastful fraternity bros, and even a parent or two. 

  No one is safe from suspicion of murder in this case, a condition that creates massive problems for police who have to sift through a massive adulterated crime scene to separate DNA, thousands of tips, conduct hundreds of interviews, and who knows what else.

Yet the slaughter of four young people at the dawn of their lives is an occurrence so horrible that wounded feelings must be secondary to the task of finding the killer(s) and making him/them pay.  I don’t think Jack DuCoeur has been any more the subject of suspicion than others.

Quite the contrary. Even alternative media has been largely silent about him. There has been little mention of where he lived and what he was doing the morning of the murders, except to say he was playing video games and then fell asleep.  

Similarly, there is no mention of how and when Murphy (the dog) went from the apartment in the video of Adam L. (cleared by police) and dog Murphy (cleared by police) (and some have conjectured that DuCoeur lived there too) to the murder victims’ house.

Much of the suspicion stems from the end of his his long-term relationship with Kaylee Goncalves. This is not unusual. Close family members and friends are first to be interviewed in many murder cases.  Too, some suspicions arise from the vagaries of police public statements. 

Some of the principals in this nightmare of a case have been ruled out definitively, others less clearly.  With regard to Jack DuCoeur, the   New York Post story mentioned above quotes a  Facebook post by Moscow police:  “Detectives do not believe the male Kaylee and Madison attempted to contact numerous times on November 13th is involved in this crime.”  

The  ‘male’ in the Facebook post is said by Kaylee’s sister Alivea to be “Jack.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drip-Drop on the #Idaho Student Murders

 One of the smartest True Crime commentators, better than major media, is this crazy looking kid who calls himself "Drip-Drop," has tattoos under his coal black beady eyes, and runs a YouTube channel called "Crime Circus."

He's smart, well-spoken, clear in his locutions, and best of all, puts the facts and rumors together with   a dead-pan style  reminiscent of a media icon  .  I don't know how old he is, maybe   late teens, early twenties, hard to tell with his makeup style. 

  I've been reading lots of MSM stuff and a smaller amount of 'alternative' stuff because I don’t have time to register and navigate the deep, dark Web.  But this boy’s videos on YouTube  (I think  he has a Patreon too but I don’t go there) about the Idaho student murders are better than what I've got from the too gullible MSM. 

The FBI and/or major TV news/crime networks should dip him in water, remove the tats, dress him in Gucci, pay him a lot of money, and put him on network TV. Or leave him just the way he is because that's his business, not mine. 

You can find him by googling "Crime Circus." He's worth a look. 

Idaho Student Murders: How to Make Sense of the “Unconscious Person” Call

  +

If it happened in a novel, people reading it would say it didn't make sense. But what happened in real life during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022 wasn’t  meant to make sense.

 Everyone with a heartbeat knows the score by now:  Four University of Idaho students were murdered in a rented house during the wee hours of November 13.  

The murder victims are: Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, aged 20. Also living in the house where the four were murdered were  Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke,   two female students who were not attacked. 

There are as yet no suspects, as the investigations moves into a third week. The Moscow community of about 26,000 people lives in terror of a prowling psycho-maniac. Authorities speaking to media have walked back statements describing the horror as a “targeted attack, and then reiterated the characterization.” 

 An additional irony is that authorities have said  that the building, not the occupants, may been the target of the attacks, a speculation that makes little sense. Targeted buildings are typically attacked by arsonists.

The murder scene was horrific, described as a “mess,” all four victims being stabbed to death with a K-Bar style military knife. Such a bloody mess was the murder scene that the police forensics teams assigned to the case will take weeks to process blood and other evidence found at the scene. Some of it is just now coming in.

Astonishing to many people is the fact that two other female students were at home at the time of the vicious attacks.    Police say Dylan and Bethany came back to their apartment roughly an hour earlier than the four murder victims. 

Police won’t say specifically where each of the four victims were found but did say the murders took place on the second and third floors of the three-story building.  It is believed, yet unconfirmed, that Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were found dead on the second or middle floor where the kitchen and common living room were located. A sliding door to the second floor kitchen was open when police arrived.

Also unconfirmed is that Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, close friends since elementary school, were found slain on the top floor. During a memorial service, the father of one of the girls let slip that the two victims lay dead in the same bed.

 People were puzzled by the language used by authorities when the crimes were first reported.  A police spokesman said it was approximately 11:58 a.m. November 13^th when they received a call regarding an “unconscious person” at the house where the four victims were stabbed to death.  

Public reaction to this statement was and still is one of  incredulity. A person phoning in to police describing   an abattoir as an “unconscious person” seems outrageous without details. In the statement, there is a level of cognitive-dissonance  on the order of describing Attila the Hun as a mean guy.  

But there is an alternative explanation circulating on social media, not  confirmed by authorities, that makes perfect sense.  It requires some imagination. The two survivor girls on the bottom floor wake up in the morning, go upstairs to the second floor, where they discover an unimaginable horror.

They are panicked,  so distraught they   can only think to run screaming out of the house to the street.  One of the girls, Bethany or Dylan, tries to call police   but is so unnerved she can   cannot put words together.   She faints, drops her cell phone. 

Another person  comes to her aid, picks up the cell phone, and tells the police dispatcher   there is an “unconscious person” lying on the ground in front of the apartment. The “unconscious person” referred to by police is not one of the slaughtered victims. It is one of the young surviving women on the bottom floor. This version of the “unconscious person” phone call makes sense where nothing else would.    

Police respond to the report of the "unconsciouis person." They find the four murder victims. 

Also puzzling is how four students could be stabbed to death in their bed on two floors above without the bottom floor occupants hearing it. CourtTV interviewed a detective and investigator of many crime scenes who said that it was not an uncommon occurrence.    

Aside from academics, college culture involves socialization, relationships, parties, passion, music, and angst.  Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke believed the sounds coming from the upper floors were the sounds of partying. Or perhaps it was just as authorities suggested; the two surviving women were asleep.

 In any case, police have taken pains to make clear that Dylan and Bethany had nothing to do with the evil on the floors above them.  Same for the person who drove Maddie and Kaylee home.  Also for the boy who spoke to them by the food truck.    Police have also been careful to say that the six phone calls made to Kaylee’s on and off boyfriend, Jack (DuCoeur, according to a New York Times article)   were a separate private matter unrelated to the investigation.

With those avenues ruled out, the case is wide open to speculation. There is good reason for wild theories. Police are holding facts close and being extra careful of information released.  Touching off the investigation was indeed a phone call about an “unconscious person” at the address.

Note: Police are rightly holding information close to the vest so as not to despoil a criminal prosecution. I don’t want to make their jobs more difficult, nor do I want to create more suffering, more anguish for the victims’ parents, relatives, friends.  I’m trying to be constructive, rather than destructive, I’m motivated by anger that such horror could be inflicted on young lives just as I would feel if the victim was my own daughter.. I’m not in Idaho. Most of what I’ve written has been put into public discourse from sources I deem reliable.   I want the case to be solved. I believe it will be solved.

   

Paul Pelosi Attacker Said to Live in "Hippie Collective."

 They don’t call it Berserkly for nothing.  Because Berkley, California is where Crazy Davey David Depape called home until he was jailed for violent assault and attempted murder in the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

  Speaker Pelosi was the alleged target of the attack but it happens she was in D.C. with her multi-person armed guard.  Eighty-two-year-old Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, was not so lucky. He became a victim of the vicious attack.

Paul Pelosi survived the bludgeoning and is expected to recover from life-threatening wounds, a cracked skull among other injuries.  According to Pelosi family members, Depape brought a hammer to the Pelosi house, used it to smash windows and gain entrance. There he confronted Paul Pelosi and demanded to know where Nancy Pelosi was.

An NBC report describes David Depape and Paul Pelosi both holding on to a hammer when police arrived for a “welfare check” at approximately 2:30 a.m.. The same article says police arrived in time to witness the attack with Depape striking Mr. Pelosi multiple times in the head and body.  It is unknown whether police were alerted by a direct alarm from the Pelosi residence or whether Mr. Pelosi called 911 before the violent attack.

Police quickly disarmed Depape but one wonders if they might have saved Mr. Pelosi from near fatal injury if they’d shot him.  Perhaps there were good reasons police did not fire on Depape. Or perhaps there were poor reasons why they didn’t. 

Were the two men tangled so close that a police bullet might have accidentally struck Pelosi? Or were police worried about police department policy more inclined to sanction officers who use their weapons than the dangerous and violent criminals who require their presence.

Police are still in the early stages of the investigation. A neighbor who wished to remain anonymous  said   Depape lived in a school bus parked in a driveway of a Berkley home.  The home itself was described as a “hippie collective.”  A resident of that home refused to speak in detail with FBI visitors who arrived on his doorstep to inquire about Pelosi’s attacker. Another person says that he lived in a different school bus parked nearby.

More details will emerge with a police press conference set to begin moments from now.

Noah Hawley's Novel "Before the Fall" : Review

 

 Before the Fall is a novel written by Noah Hawley in 2016.  You may have heard of Hawley, mainly through television. He’s been as showrunner for FX Productions, best known for Fargo, but also wrote the scripts for other productions.  He’s won literary awards and accolades from the publishing set.   ?’ 

Okay so while I had trouble in the beginning of the novel I found it interesting anyway.  The author makes use of typical American TV cultural memes to keep the pot boiling. It makes for an entertaining read.

What gave me trouble in the beginning was that it required a great deal effort to accept the novel’s basic premise — that hero-protagonist Scott Boroughs swam to shore from   a plane crash  about ten miles out from Martha’s vineyard with a four-year-old on his back.    The indelible bond between the four-year-old child and the man, an aspiring but failed artist,  figures in later plot developments. 

    Hawley goes a long way and does much research in order to convince you  as to how the Great Swim occurred.  (Hint: It has to do with a once well-known body-builder/health-nut character named Jack LaLanne.) That was a tale in and of itself,  

I had already made the leap because what’s wrong with bypassing a device or two if awork is entertaining and you feel like reading? .   

Jacket blurb has it right that this is a character driven novel.  Character is one of the novel’s strengths, not only with reference to hero Scott, but with several of the other characters like the flight attendant, the crash investigators, the pilot, the co-pilot. . .    

I liked what I learned of private airlines and the way they operate.  This was well researched, I thought.   Once I got over the   hurdle that the MC would swim all that way, I began to enjoy the plot development. There was a certain consonance in events which gave the rest of it a strong sense of reality.    

While the story gets bogged down and fat in the middle as many novels do, the author generally keeps the action flowing at a high level.  This is one of the writer’s earlier novels.  I’d pick up another one if it so happens.   

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                               

Ukrainian Border Guards Fake Action on Front Line

 

You tap into the internet where your eye catches a headline:  “Ukrainian Border Guards Pummel   Russians on Front Line.”  Open the site and up pops a video made by a digital marketing firm called Viral Press.  All the video shows (with a thrumming soundtrack) is a few supposedly Ukrainian soldiers (you can’t even be sure of that) loading ammo into small artillery, light machine guns, and a tank. 

Now unless you’re a complete idiot, you will realize no ‘Russians’ are being ‘pummeled’ and that the video is up for sale to anyone with a motive for buying it.  Likely buyers might be the Ukrainian propaganda arm, financial facilities with investments in the Ukraine (purposeful “the”), and the U.S. state department under Anthony Blinken.

Note: Viral Press and other sites are making money from playing off on your bad instincts.  Be careful of what you read no matter where it comes from.  Especially consider the source.  Journalism has deteriorated from the days when responsible organizations required verification of facts through three different and respected sources before they’d even think of publishing the story.

Don't Bother to Read, You already Know: Fake News and the One-Trick Western Media

 So. . . . one of today's headlines from a news aggregator site called Benzinga:   Vladimir Putin Has Extended The War In Ukraine To 'A Second Front' In Europe: Expert

 Notice first of all that the headline is tagged "Expert" after the eye-catching phrase "Second Front." Who is this so-called 'expert'?  That would be Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global.   

Note also that all information about this 'news' is derived from a Yahoo Finance article, previously published, the purpose of which is to sell advertising. 

 In other words, this is a low content article ripped off from another news source.  There are dozens of articles just like it all over the 'meta'. . .(spare me)  which are actually wobbly repetitions of what everyone with two brain cells to rub together already knows:

The EU countries are in energy crisis mode. Germany stands out because that's where the Russian gas pipeline comes into western Europe.  There are two other pipelines, one through Ukraine, the other through Poland, but these were  closed due to Ukraine and  political pressure from the U.S.  

With Russian energy coming through these pipelines at 20 percent capacity, you know that western Europe can't stockpile enough gas/oil to last through a Russian winter.  The German recommendation is that the European countries should right now cut down their energy usage by 15 percent.  This is a largely symbolic  as-if'we-are-doing-somethingfeel-good message because it can't be enforced and is strictly voluntary.  The economies of western Europe are not a monolith, much as the U.S. , the British, and Germany would like you to believe.  They're all different, all with different needs, capacities, strengths and weaknesses.  

This "second front" idea has little or nothing to do with the military fight in Ukraine.  It's the result of a U.S. led cabal of western leaders putting harsh sanctions on Russia, openly attempting to destroy the Russian economy, and forcing them to withdraw troops from Ukraine.  The hypocrisy of the sanctions are phenomenal in that the EU/US expect Russia to continue delivering oil and gas even as they punish Russia's economy with largely failing sanctions.  

There is no 'second front,' there is only the same front, the same conditions that existed at the start of the war, with the difference  now that conditions are far worse in Ukraine than they were before the EU/US sponsored sanctions began to have some effect.  

So far the sanctions have boomeranged.  Responding to the sanctions against them, the Russians have found new allies and new markets for  in India, China, and throughout the developing world. The Russian Ruble is stronger than ever.  While people in the U.S. are suffering high energy prices and food inflation, people in other countries are dying because of the immense stupidity of the Russia-Ukraine war, to which there is no end in sight. 

The Madness of Ukraine News Coverage

 

If the war between Russia and Ukraine were a TV comedy show you’d laugh your ass off.  But it’s not.  It’s a meatgrinder, a war that started in 2014 and has gotten deadlier with the Russian Special Military Operation’ Feb 2022,  conceived to rid Ukraine of Nazi infiltration and to protect the persecuted Russians of the Donbass region. 

If a person wanted to find any hilarity at all in it, you would look to the headlines in American media.  Not surprisingly, you would find that most reporters would have been given hand-written notes by MI6 and CIA flaks about what to say in the day’s ‘coverage.’

There are, of course, hard and fast rules for westerners covering the war in Ukraine:

 You must always mention that Russian targets are civilian occupied apartment houses,  aid workers,   churches, hospitals, food supplies and especially mothers pushing   tots around in strollers.

You must always remember that Ukraine soldiers, foreign mercenaries, and native Banderite militias always hit only military targets squarely and without ancillary damage. 

You must always emphasize that foreign mercenaries rally to Ukraine’s flag out of moral outrage and not for the $1000 to $2000 dollars a day they are paid from Ukraine or, more likely, from American and British coffers.  If we are to believe Ukraine’s claim that there are 20,000 of them fighting against the Russians, you’d come up with a figure of $30 million a day (using the mid 1500 dollar figure) and where does a besieged Ukrainian government get a billion a month to pay the mercenaries?  You can guess that the piggy-banks of the western powers are increasingly stressed  while their citizens are hurting from high inflation, crime (in the U.S), supply shortages,  bad leadership or none at all.

You must ignore the existence of Azov and Right Sector Nazis and other groups similarly espousing anti-semitism, white power, ethnic cleansing, and other forms of hate.

You must never mention that Ukraine's President Zelensky is fueled by amphetamines and has degenerated into a raving mad and psychotic paranoid driven by blood-lust.  

You must never point out that Russia now owns approx. one-third of The Ukraine and is on its way to owning more of it.  

So. . . . one of today's headlines from a news aggregator site called Benzinga:   Vladimir Putin Has Extended The War In Ukraine To 'A Second Front' In Europe: Expert

 Notice first of all that the headline is tagged "Expert" after the eye-catching phrase "Second Front." Who is this so-called 'expert'?  That would be Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global.   

Note also that all information about this 'news' is derived from a Yahoo Finance article, previously published, the purpose of which is to sell advertising. 

 In other words, this is a low content article ripped off from another news source.  There are dozens of articles just like it all over the 'meta'. . .(spare me)  which are actually wobbly repetitions of what everyone with two brain cells to rub together already knows:

The EU countries are in energy crisis mode. Germany stands out because that's where the Russian gas pipeline comes into western Europe.  There are two other pipelines, one through Ukraine, the other through Poland, but these were  closed due to political pressure from the U.S.  

With Russian energy coming through these pipelines at 20 percent capacity, you know that western Europe can't stockpile enough gas/oil to last through a Russian winter.  The German recommendation is that the European countries should right now cut down their energy usage by 15 percent.  This is a largely symbolic  as-if'we-are-doing-somethingfeel-good message because it can't be enforced and is strictly voluntary.  The economies of western Europe are not a monolith, much as the U.S. , the British, and Germany would like you to believe.  They're all different, all with different needs, capacities, strengths and weaknesses.  

This "second front" idea has little or nothing to do with the military fight in Ukraine.  It's the result of a U.S. led cabal of western leaders putting harsh sanctions on Russia, openly attempting to destroy the Russian economy, and forcing them to withdraw troops from Ukraine.  The hypocrisy of the sanctions are phenomenal in that the EU/US expect Russia to continue delivering oil and gas even as they punish Russia's economy with largely failing sanctions.  

There is no 'second front,' there is only the same front, the same conditions that existed at the start of the war, with the difference  now that conditions are far worse in Ukraine than they were before the EU/US sponsored sanctions began to have some effect.  

So far the sanctions have boomeranged.  Responding to the sanctions against them, the Russians have found new allies and new markets for  in India, China, and throughout the developing world. The Russian Ruble is stronger than ever.  While people in the U.S. are suffering high energy prices and food inflation, people in other countries are dying because of the immense stupidity of the Russia-Ukraine war, to which there is no end in sight.