Geese, wonderful Canadian Geese. They are always a welcome sound and sight, no matter whether they are coming or going. From Kengi, who notes: Once on the lake, one of them decided to conduct the horn section for a serenade. Click for full size.
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
I had begged Kengi for some bird shots, because unless I go digging in files, I’m out for the moment, I haven’t had time to dinosaur watch. Kengi gracefully obliged, starting with photos of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and you should have seen my jaw drop, amazing captures! Click for full size.
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
Some of America’s biggest stars — including actors Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson — appear in a short video, taking potshots at Donald Trump while rallying voters to the polls on election day.
[…]
Save the Day was founded by Joss Whedon, director of two installments of the hit “The Avengers” films, among other works.
Via Raw Story.
Reynier Miranda at his home in Southwest Miami-Dade on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. (Photo: Roberto Koltun [email protected]).
MIAMI — Raynier Miranda had committed no crime. He was no threat. And he was in the hallway of his building when he was shot by a cop — who had no idea she’d shot him.
Now the South Miami-Dade maintenance worker is recovering at home after surgery and Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Wanda Roman has been suspended.
Last week, the South Miami-Dade maintenance worker was cleaning the hallway at the West Kendall apartment complex where he also lives. At the same time, Roman was inside her apartment cleaning her revolver. The gun went off.
The bullet went through the front door and struck the unsuspecting cleaning man. It wasn’t until he reached the hospital that Miranda learned he’d been shot — the bullet piercing the aortic artery in his left arm and passing through his chest half an inch from his heart.
“I had no idea what happened. I didn’t see anybody around. I had no idea,” Miranda said Thursday, speaking in Spanish. “I was bleeding. I saw a lady coming and I started yelling for help.”
Miami-Dade police had little to say about the shooting, calling it an open investigation. They did say Roman is a 10-year veteran and has been suspended with pay pending a criminal investigation into the shooting. Her personnel file wasn’t available Thursday.
A source familiar with the investigation, however, said Roman wasn’t suspended because of the accidental discharge. She was relieved of duty because she delayed telling her supervisor that her gun went off. That happened, the source said, because Roman had no idea Miranda had been shot until the incident was investigated.
Okay, hands up, who believes this load of nonsense? An open investigation. I should hope so. Cops are supposed to be trained in weapons safety. Pretty sure that includes unloading any ammunition prior to cleaning, buuuut that’s not what gets Ms. Roman in trouble, no. And she delayed mentioning this (translation: wasn’t going to say anything about it at all) because she had no idea she shot someone. Let’s see, if I’m cleaning a loaded weapon, and if that weapon fires, I can hear and see that happening. Pretty sure I’d notice a hole in my door, too. Not being a complete asshole, I’d rush to the door to make sure there wasn’t anyone in the hall at that time, because my first thoughts would be along the lines of “oh fuck, please don’t let anyone be outside, please don’t let anyone be outside, oh gods, what if I killed someone?” We’re expected to believe she just carried on, with no curiosity whatsoever about shooting through her door? This sounds like an episode of Keystone Kops.
The bullet that hit Miranda passed through his body and came out his back. He underwent surgery to close the artery in his arm and is now recovering at home. A sling holds up his left arm. Stitches run through his chest.
[…]
Married and the father of a 2-year-old, Miranda has been working at the apartment complex where he lives for three years. He moved to Miami from Cuba about five years ago. He has no plans to move because of the Sept. 15 incident and said he intends on returning to work after he recovers.
Miranda said he only knows Roman from exchanging pleasantries when they pass in the hallway. He said Roman hasn’t spoken with him since the shooting. If she did, Miranda said, he wouldn’t know what to say.
“I’m very frustrated. She’s caused me a lot of frustration,” he said. “It was very bad. I was in a lot of pain.”
Not even a “Oh hey, so sorry I almost killed you.” Apparently, Ms. Roman either does not care in the least, or is the most oblivious, unthinking, and uninquisitive person on the planet. If I had come that close to killing a young man, leaving his partner and child alone, I’d be crushed by guilt, sorrow, and regret. A terrific example of those who are supposed to protect and serve. At the very least, I hope to hell someone took Ms. Roman’s gun[s] away.
Via Raw Story.
Most people are familiar with my work, so will readily understand my attraction to this particular piece of art examination, a microscopic look at the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry.
Triumph of Bacchus, design overseen by Raphael, ca. 1518-19; design and cartoon by Giovanni da Udine. Brussels, workshop of Frans Geubels, ca 1560. Paris, Mobilier National, inv. GMTT 1/3. Image © Le.
This photomicrograph shows the warp and weft threads used to create a background detail in the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry.
The horizontal threads are the undyed wool warps that are the backbone of the underlying weave structure to the tapestry.
The decorative vertical threads include both crimson colored silk wefts as well as precious metal weft threads.
The Metal threads are made of very thin strips of gilt silver wrapped around yellow dyed silk.
How exactly was the gilding of tapestries done in the 16th century? These microscopic images reveal all.
These images show the warp and weft threads used to create a background detail in the Triumph of Bacchus tapestry recently exhibited in “Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV.”
Viewed from a distance (like when the tapestry is hanging high up on a wall), the combo of the crimson silk with the gold threads looks like a bright copper, and here we can see all the separate colors and textures that build up that look.
Detail from the Triumph of Bacchus Tapestry. It was woven with wool, silk and metal threads.
The Getty has a fascinating tumblr, Art Under the Microscope, examining all manner of art in microphotographs.
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby (Photo: Tulsa PD).
The white Tulsa police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man was charged with manslaughter on Thursday and a warrant has been issued for her arrest, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler said.
Officer Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the death of Terence Crutcher, 40. The incident, captured on widely broadcast police videos, is one in a series that has raised questions of racial bias in U.S. policing.
“Although she is charged, she is presumed innocent until a judge or jury determines otherwise,” Kunzweiler said. “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.”
Manslaughter? Really? How about 1st degree murder? “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.” Oh for fuck’s sake! What kind of grade A idiot says something like that? A man was murdered for no reason at all by yet another cop out of control, and with a head stuffed full of stereotypical bigotry. We aren’t talking about some great mystery here, or an unexplained phenomenon. This is an all too regular occurrence, a cop murdering a person of colour. Depressingly fucking normal and typical. Don’t even start with such utter isht, making this out to be something remarkable. The only remarkable thing about this case is that it’s not in the least remarkable.
A lawyer for Shelby has said she acted because she feared for her life, believing Crutcher was reaching into his vehicle for a weapon during the encounter, which took place last Friday.
Yet another cop pleading scaredy-pants. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m sick of this. If you are so scared, you need to be stripped of your weapons and ersatz authority, stat. Find another job. Shelby’s partner had his taser out and armed. And her excuse for gunning Mr. Crutcher down? “I was scared.” This disgusting excuse must not be accepted, in any way whatsoever. Cops have all manner of weaponry besides their damn gun. How about they use it, instead of us getting to hear about yet another person of colour being murdered by cops? Instead of hearing about yet another family devastated by trauma and grief?
This constant narrative of cops having such an incredibly dangerous job has to stop. Policing doesn’t even make the top 10 in a list of most dangerous jobs. Lumberjack, deep sea fisherman, bush pilot, miner, personal transport driver, sanitation worker, search and rescue, welder and metal worker, mechanic, electrician, roofer, and firefighter are all dangerous jobs, and all of them are more dangerous than being a cop. That’s not to say that there’s no danger or risk in policing, of course there is, however, it’s not up to what is always claimed, either. This narrative of constant, extreme danger is mostly swallowed whole by cops themselves, and it whips them up into a froth of fear and deep paranoia, which amplifies implicit bigotry, and you get “scared, so I gunned them down.”
Tulsa police have said Crutcher was unarmed and there was no weapon in the vehicle. In a bid for transparency, they released the videos, one of which was taken from a police helicopter and the other from a dashboard camera in a patrol car.
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a separate investigation to see if the officers on the scene violated Crutcher’s civil rights.
:Chokes: Violated Mr. Crutcher’s civil rights? Is not being murdered in cold blood a violation of his rights? You have to check around to see if he was violated? Christ. This day, I seriously hate this damned country. (Yes, I know this can be used for additional charges. That does not take the inanity of it away.)
Via Raw Story.
There’s an in-depth, heart-rending article at Solitary Watch, about William “Billy” Blake, now in his 29th year of solitary confinement, having been sentenced to 77 years in solitary. Blake wrote an essay which has been included in the slim volume Hell Is A Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement. The editors naturally sent a copy of the book to all those writers who contributed, but the powers who be have decided that it’s much too dangerous for Blake to read his own writing. Yep. I highly recommend the whole article, just excerpts here.
One of Blake’s essays about living in isolation, “A Sentence Worse Than Death,” was published in the first anthology of narratives about solitary. Although the book, titled Hell is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement, was released in February, Blake has yet to hold a copy in his hands.
Jean Casella, co-director of Solitary Watch and co-editor of the book, reports that two copies of Hell Is a Very Small Place were mailed to Blake at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where he is currently incarcerated. They were sent directly by the publisher, in accordance with policies laid out by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), but the copies never reached him.
Great Meadow Correctional Facility—referred to by most individuals serving time there as “Comstock,” after the small town where it is located—forwards all books entering the prison to the Facility Media Review Committee (FMRC). In deciding whether to allow access to a publication, the FMRC operates under a code of directives, or rules. After the evaluation, incarcerated individuals are issued an Inmate Disposition Notice, informing them of the FMRC’s decision.
Weeks after it was sent to him, Blake received a notice informing him that he was being denied access to his book.
The reason for the denial of Blake’s book reads: “Publication which incites disobedience towards law enforcement officers or prison personell [sic], presents clear and immediate risk of lawlessness, violence, anarchy, or rebellion agiainst [sic] governmental authority.” The notice flags fourteen page numbers but fails to mention the content in violation or where on the pages that content can be found—both of which are required by DOCCS Directive 4572.
Dave Archambault Sr. has a terrific column up at Native Sun News Today:
…Nothing much has changed for Indian Nations and their tribal members since Dee Brown’s book was written 46 years ago. Nothing – Until just recently! For some unexplainable reason, the book has miraculously come to life near a small Indian village in North Dakota, called Cannonball. In live and living color, just as the book revealed tragic treatment of Indian Nations in chapter after chapter, comes Tribal Nation after Tribal Nation announcing their arrival to the “Spirit Camp.” Here throngs of water and land protectors are gathering in a fight against corporate greed. Accounts of injustices and struggles in Indian country echoes throughout the camp and serves to strengthen the resolve to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I want to cheer and cry I’m so happy to see the support that arrives daily and hourly,” said Chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II.
The words to describe the happening are hard to find. Never in the history of the America’s has so many Tribes come together is such a unified way. This joining is about expressing solidarity in behalf of Mother Earth and to also condemn the number one enemy of Mother Earth – Greed.
It is here beside the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers, that it appears the world is watching. It is here, that the Standing Rock Sioux have drawn the line against a history of crooked dealings and disrespect for all Native rights.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II, flanked by (left) United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Andrea Carmen, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, at the 33rd Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 20. Courtesy Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II called on the United Nations on Tuesday to halt construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline through tribal treaty territory and formally invited United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz to visit the reservation.
“I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction of our sacred places and burials,” he told the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva on September 20. “Dakota Access wants to build an oil pipeline under the river that is the source of our nation’s drinking water. This pipeline threatens our communities, the river and the earth. Our nation is working to protect our waters and our sacred places for the benefit of our children not yet born.”
Speaking at the 33rd Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which runs from September 13 through 30, Archambault outlined the ways in which the pipeline and the treatment of water protectors by the company’s employees had violated the protectors’ human rights.
“Thousands have gathered peacefully in Standing Rock in solidarity against the pipeline,” he said in a statement from the tribe afterward. “And yet many water protectors have been threatened and even injured by the pipeline’s security officers. One child was bitten and injured by a guard dog. We stand in peace but have been met with violence.”
Donald Trump in Cleveland prayer huddle — (YouTube screen grab)
Right Wing Watch reports that there was an evangelical huddle yesterday, with laying on of hands and praying to block out a satanic attack on Trump. A concentrated one. Is that the same thing as concentrated juice? Lucifer gets such a bad rap. (See Drunk With Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible by Steve Wells.) It’s that nasty Jehovah you need to worry about, well, if they were real.
Today, Donald Trump attended the Midwest Vision and Values Pastors Leadership Conference in Cleveland alongside his vice presidential running mate Mike Pence and campaign surrogates Ben Carson, Michael Cohen and Omarosa Manigault. The event was hosted by pro-Trump pastor Darrell Scott and co-hosted by Trump’s “liaison for Christian policy” Frank Amedia. Boxing promoter Don King introduced Trump at the gathering.
Scott, who hosted the event at his New Spirit Revival Center, told the audience that a “nationally known” preacher warned Trump before he launched his campaign “that if you choose to run for president, there’s going to be a concentrated Satanic attack against you.”
“He said there’s going to be a demon, principalities and powers, that are going to war against you on a level that you’ve never seen before and I’m watching it every day,” Scott said.
Later, Scott’s wife, Belinda Scott, prayed over Trump: “God we ask you right now that Your choice is this choice.”
“God, I ask that you would touch this man, Donald J. Trump,” she continued, “give him the anointing to lead this nation.”
I’m pretty sure Trump is touched already. I’m not sure with what, but it’s not good. Via RWW.
Shutterstock.
Hagerstown MD cops are feeling the heat, and rightly so, after video of them assaulting a 15 year old girl who had been struck by a car has gone viral. In an ideal world, I’d say this story is flat out unbelievable, but unfortunately, these days, it’s all too believable. I hope that every charge against the girl is dropped, and I hope to hell that cop shop is sued into the bloody ground. These armed assholes obviously think they are god, and are allowed to do whatever the hell they want to anyone.
Robin Ficker, the College Park, Md.,-based attorney who represents the girl’s family, said Wednesday that he met with the 15-year-old alleged victim and her mother on Monday morning and was informed the girl was riding her bike when she was struck by a vehicle Sunday afternoon. The impact, he said, caused the girl to strike her head and lose consciousness for about 30 seconds.
“She was dazed, then she got up and realized she was OK,” Ficker said.
An ambulance was called and the girl told paramedics that she didn’t want to go to the hospital. Ficker said police arrived and pulled the girl, who is 5 feet tall and weighs about 105 pounds, off her bike when she tried to ride away.
At this point, Ficker said, a police officer lifted the girl’s hands above her head from the rear and slammed her face into a wall.
“Her face hit the windowsill,” Ficker said.
He conceded that the girl, who has a white mother and a black father, resisted when officers tried to put her in the back of a cruiser.
Pastor Robert Wyatt (Screen cap via KDVR).
Harking back to the latest study, where it states:
The new study also attempts to find out why atheists are so reviled by what its authors call “dominant group members” — aka religious Americans. The findings pinpoint three things: Religious Americans associate atheists with “criminality,” materialism and “a lack of accountability.”
And where I wrote of being staggered at the association of atheists with criminality because of that actual association religious people have, and here’s a fine example of it. I hope with all my heart the young woman receives the support and help she deserves, and those of you sensitive to abuse details might want to avoid the link to the local news article.
Local news station KDVR reports that Pastor Robert Wyatt repeatedly had sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl who was parishioner at the Agape Bible Church in Thornton. What’s even more disturbing about this case, however, is the fact that court documents show church officials knew about Wyatt’s sexual abuse and did nothing.
According to an arrest affidavit for Wyatt, both head pastor Darrell Ferguson and the 12-year-old girl’s adoptive parents agreed that it would be best to not go to the police because they were concerned about what would happen to Wyatt.
Instead, the affidavit claims, the church and the parents agreed that “biblical counseling they would receive through the church was sufficient” to fixing the problem.
The officer who interviewed the girl’s adoptive father said that the man “made it clear his interest was in protecting the church and its reputation more than protecting his daughter.”
Police only learned about the pastor’s abuse because another parishioner told them about it after being disgusted by the church’s inaction.
I don’t think I need to say anymore about the religious link to criminal and immoral acts. What makes it all the more disgusting are the excuses on the part of those who are supposed to love that child and protect her.
Via Raw Story.
Florida Highway Patrol wrote Judy Jones a ticket for having vinyl lettering on her truck’s windshield. However, she claims the trooper did it because of her faith.
“First thing he said to me, he said, ‘I want you to know that you are breaking the law.’ And I said, ‘How am I breaking the law, sir?’ He said, ‘With that sign up there, that Jesus thing up there,’” she said.
Jones got a $100 ticket and is fighting her case.
“I’m going to court for Jesus,” said Jones.
Florida law says no one can drive a car that has any signage or material on a windshield that is not transparent. Jones claims her decals are legal.
“It is not obstructing any, my sight at all,” Jones said. “I was picked out to be picked on in the name of Jesus.”
Florida Highway Patrol says that in no way did the officer write Jones the ticket because of its content. They say it was simply in violation of state law.
Okay, I know this is all rather silly, and while driving a Jesus testament truck wouldn’t be my thing, I do question the law here. I’m not in Florida, but I see all manner of vehicles here with sports teams names spelled out, and front and back windows littered with such stuff. I doubt that’s terribly legal here, either, but no one seems to care much. I can’t see how the lettering on Ms. Jones’s truck would obscure her vision any, and I do wonder if the truck was minus the Jesus stuff, and the lettering was sports related, whether she would have been targeted in the first place. A hundred dollars is a hefty ticket, I wouldn’t be happy about having to pay that for not actually doing anything dangerous or wrong. I do wish Ms. Jones good luck in court.
Story and video here.