The Sanders Movement As of 6/2/16


May 31, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-killing-evokes-1996-incident-brookfield-zoo/

Gorilla killing evokes 1996 incident that had very different outcome
CBS/AP May 31, 2016, 10:07 AM

Play VIDEO -- Jack Hanna agrees "1000 percent" with zoo's decision to kill gorilla
Play VIDEO -- Controversy rages after the death of a gorilla at Cincinnati zoo
Photograph -- gorillachildap9608170826.jpg, Binti Jua, an 8-year-old female gorilla, carries an injured three-year-old boy to a service gate after the child fell 18 feet to a concrete floor in the primate exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo, Friday, Aug. 16, 1996, in Brookfield, Ill. AP PHOTO/WLS-TV
28 PHOTOS -- Critically endangered species and beloved animals at risk


Controversy continues to swirl after an endangered western lowland gorilla was fatally shot to protect a 4-year-old boy who had entered its exhibit.

The director of the Cincinnati Zoo on Monday defended the decision to kill the popular gorilla to save the boy. However, there has been growing criticism about whether the animal had to die, as well as the zoo's barrier keeping the public out and animals in.

While Saturday's incident ended in tragedy, there was a much different outcome 20 years ago when a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla den at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago.

As CBS Chicago reported, it happened on Aug. 16, 1996, in the days before everyone had a cellphone that could capture video. Yet someone did record the moments after the child got away from his mother and fell into the ape pit.

A zoo visitor captured an image of the 3-year-old lying unconscious on the exhibit floor, but it's what happened next that captured hearts.

A female gorilla named Binti Jua, with her own baby on her back, picked up the child and carried him to safety. Workers who were there said it's an image they will never forget.

"She was somewhat protective, too. Part of the video, she takes the child and sort of turns a shoulder to the other gorillas," zoo worker Jay Peterson said.



"She carried him up around this part of the exhibit, through the river, made a right turn ... went over to that log," zoo worker Craig Demitros said. "She was gently kind of rocking the kid in her right arm."

After being rushed to the hospital, the child made a full recovery. The story and images were carried around the world, making Binti Jua an international sensation, and a hometown hero to many.

Zookeepers said Binti Jua was raised by humans, so she was more "people-oriented," and that could have played a role in her gentle handling of the child.

They also said it was fortunate that the child was unconscious because had he been moving or crying he might have been perceived as a threat.

By contrast, the 4-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo was alert and moving.

Video taken by zoo visitors showed the gorilla at times appeared to be protective of the boy but also violently dragged him through the shallow moat.

Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard said the decision to kill the gorilla was the right one. He said the gorilla was agitated and disoriented by the commotion during the 10 minutes after the boy fell. He said the gorilla could crush a coconut in one hand and there was no doubt that the boy's life was in danger.

Jack Hanna, host of "Jack Hanna's Into the Wild," said the zoo made the right call by shooting the gorilla. Hanna said he saw video of the gorilla jerking the boy through the water and knew what would happen if the animal wasn't killed.

"I'll bet my life on this, that child would not be here today," Hanna told CBS affiliate WBNS-TV.

In an interview with Boston television station WFXT, conservationist and television host Jeff Corwin suggested that the boy's family should shoulder some of the blame, saying "zoos aren't your baby sitter."

"I don't think this happened in seconds or minutes. I think this took time for this kid, this little boy, to find himself in that situation. Ultimately it's the gorilla that's paid this price," he said.

A Cincinnati police spokesman said no charges against the parents were being considered. A spokeswoman for the family said Monday they had no plans to comment.



I did use this article yesterday but today’s is more inclusive, and a better video is attached. Corwin’s statement about the parental lack of attention here echoes my feeling. Little kids this old are willful, curious, capable, and naïve to all logical danger. Parents, pay attention! “In an interview with Boston television station WFXT, conservationist and television host Jeff Corwin suggested that the boy's family should shoulder some of the blame, saying "zoos aren't your baby sitter." "I don't think this happened in seconds or minutes. I think this took time for this kid, this little boy, to find himself in that situation. Ultimately it's the gorilla that's paid this price," he said. A Cincinnati police spokesman said no charges against the parents were being considered. A spokeswoman for the family said Monday they had no plans to comment."



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/horses-help-veterans-cope-with-ptsd-through-unique-therapy/

Horses help veterans cope with PTSD through unique therapy
CBS NEWS
May 30, 2016, 3:24 PM


Retired Marine Kevin Sakaki did not expect to find peace at a rural farm in Virginia.

Like many men and women who have served in the military, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but says spending time with former race horse Clayton is helping him cope.

"There is something peaceful about being around the horses," he told CBS News' Weijia Jiang. "It's just really relaxing."

Sakaki was diagnosed with PTSD after serving tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I just had short temper but being a sergeant in the Marine corps, it's kind of that expectation that are you doing your job well when you are kind of on that edge a little bit," he said. "The problem was carrying that home."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that almost 20 percent of veterans suffer from PTSD. But many patients say it can be difficult to seek help.

That's where people like Suzi Landolphi come in. She leads the equine-assisted therapy program at Boulder Crest Retreat and says veterans can learn to manage stress and begin to feel at peace through walking and grooming the animals.

"When you have gone through traumas you have to put up defenses. So you have to find a way to deal," Landolphi said. "It's not always helpful to yourself. You think it is, but it's not. What the horses offer is an opportunity to let down all your defenses."

But one thing the veterans don't do with the horses is ride them.

"We're about relationship, companionship, partnership and connection," Landolphi said. "Not about control."

When army reservist Mike King returned from Iraq, he suffered from alcohol abuse and anxiety. He says spending time with the horses is calming.

"You guys start to feed off each other and the energy is intertwined and that's when the work starts," he said.

In addition to bonding with the horses, the retreat offers free stress recovery programs for veterans and their families.

After spending about a week at the ranch, many veterans say they feel they are moving in the right direction.



"I just had short temper but being a sergeant in the Marine corps, it's kind of that expectation that are you doing your job well when you are kind of on that edge a little bit," he said. "The problem was carrying that home." The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that almost 20 percent of veterans suffer from PTSD. But many patients say it can be difficult to seek help. …. When you have gone through traumas you have to put up defenses. So you have to find a way to deal," Landolphi said. "It's not always helpful to yourself. You think it is, but it's not. What the horses offer is an opportunity to let down all your defenses." But one thing the veterans don't do with the horses is ride them. "We're about relationship, companionship, partnership and connection," Landolphi said. "Not about control."


The use of animals to help people has appeared in many modern instances, from emotionally or mentally disturbed children, to hospital patients, to “hardened” criminals in prison. All warm-blooded animals, with the exception of wolverines or Tasmanian devils, have an affinity for each other and a need for contact; and anyone who grew up with an animal knows how comforting the touch of their fur is. I’ve met a handful of adults who fear or hate animals, but most at least find them interesting. Horses and humans have been linked up since the Neolithic, as well as dogs and cats. A trainer who prepared a grizzly bear to appear in a number of movies was on a great documentary video, and on both his part and the bear’s, the feeling between them was obviously love. For a good read, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_the_Bear. The trainer/companion and his wife are Doug Seus and Lynne Seus of Utah.[3]

I love and find all animals calming except bats, spiders, scorpions, sharks, leeches, etc., and even they are an important part of life on earth. To those who have fed a horse from their hand or, better still, stroked their silky soft nose, that experience is truly beautiful. Having the horse respond with fondness is thrilling; that such an impressively powerful and elegant animal would choose us as a friend really is healing.

The psychological conditioning and personal battle experiences of soldiers are something that often strip a great deal of compassion, positivity and gentleness from them and induce, understandably, fear and anxiety. That’s a bad combination. Many PTSD patients behave threateningly because they have terrible delusions and visions, and as a result they are frightened.

The physical abuse of family members by people with PTSD is mentioned here, and I’ve read about it before. I tend to blame people pretty harshly when they consciously physically or emotionally abuse anyone, especially if it happens more than once. Once is a loss of control, but twice is a bad habit. In some cases their behavior is because they have endured horrific events like these soldiers, but so often they are the type of personality called a sociopath, who is characterized by narcissism and an extreme lack of feeling for other life forms. They have often been treated cruelly by a parent or other family member themselves, and have been emotionally scarred by it. The sociopathic behavior often starts with torturing or killing animals. So if your kid abuses an animal or a family member, for heaven’s sake, stop him decisively. You don’t want to beat him up, but make it clear that you aren’t going to allow that again!

I personally think that in an all-volunteer army there are a certain percentage, between 10 and 20% or so, of individuals who do specifically want to kill, torture rape, etc. to boost their self-esteem or simply for the fun of seeing the other's pain. The police departments are the same kind of situation in that officers are almost totally without supervision in too many cases. Those individuals need to be carefully selected for such duty to weed out the neurotic, psychotic, racist, uneducated or merely unintelligent, rather than selecting them because they conveniently showed up and are “gung ho.”

In my last job I worked in the office of a security guard firm. A heavyset and overly eager and macho acting man showed up to interview. He was a "wannabe" cop, obviously, and I was literally afraid of him. He was not hired. A lot of the problem with the city police forces is that they haven’t been trained well about getting along with humans or given a thorough battery of psychological tests that do more than merely scratch the surface. Meeting several times with a psychologist should be part of that. I know, it costs money, but maybe paying large financial settlements whenever the city is sued would be expensive, too, and there will be fewer citizens backing down from the system since Ferguson. People used to be afraid, but now they are angry. I also want to see criminal charges brought against the people who abuse their power in those ways. That would go a long way toward stopping the abuse problem.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/physicist-stephen-hawking-baffled-by-donald-trumps-popularity/

Physicist Stephen Hawking baffled by Donald Trump's popularity
CBS/AP May 30, 2016, 11:25 PM

Photograph -- rtx2eqsu.jpg, Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally to highlight POW-MIA issues on Memorial Day weekend in Washington, U.S. May 29, 2016. REUTERS/JONATHAN ERNST
Play VIDEO -- Trump speaks at Rolling Thunder biker rally in D.C.


LONDON -- Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking may have a good grasp of the workings of the universe, but he says he can't understand Donald Trump's popularity.

Hawking tells ITV's "Good Morning Britain" show that he has no explanation for the success of the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee.

In a prerecorded interview set to air Tuesday, Hawking says Trump "is a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator."

Hawking has a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, that has gradually paralyzed him since he was first diagnosed at age 21.

Hawking, who speaks through a computer system operated with his cheek, also made a plea for British voters to choose to remain in the European Union in the June 23 referendum. He said it is important not only for economic and security research but also to further scientific research.

Meanwhile, Trump is expected to provide a full accounting of the Trump Foundation's donations to veterans' groups on Tuesday.

He told a Washington rally that an announcement about the donations would be made Tuesday, after telling reporters in North Dakota last week that there would be a news conference Tuesday morning. The presumptive GOP nominee is expected to clear up how much the campaign raised in January at a veterans' fundraiser it organized when he skipped a GOP presidential debate.

After the Washington Post pressed Trump to clarify how much has been given to veterans' groups from that event, the billionaire businessman fulfilled his promise to give $1 million of his own money to a charity for veterans.

Trump could announce gifts Tuesday to up to two dozen charities -- some of them have already received the donations, the report said.

Last week, Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told "CBS This Morning" that Trump will give $5.5 to $6 million to veterans’ groups. At the January fundraiser, Trump claimed that the event had raised $6 million.

"We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million," Trump said at the time.

Lewandowski told CBS News that $4.5 million had already been "attributed" and that the total amount going to veterans' groups will be "somewhere between $5.5 and $6 million total, which would be given to the veterans."

He also said that the remainder would be distributed to groups by Memorial Day.



“Hawking tells ITV's "Good Morning Britain" show that he has no explanation for the success of the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee. In a prerecorded interview set to air Tuesday, Hawking says Trump "is a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator." …. Hawking, who speaks through a computer system operated with his cheek, also made a plea for British voters to choose to remain in the European Union in the June 23 referendum. He said it is important not only for economic and security research but also to further scientific research.”


What Hawking and many of us don’t understand is that an increasing number of our citizens are poorly educated, living on very tight budgets, often jobless, highly involved in cultlike religions that actively stifle the logical thought pattern of their members, and lacking in empathy or emotional connection with people in general. People like that feel they have been cheated in life, especially in the racial/status competitions, and they are both nervous about their future, and very angry. An angry demagogue like Trump seems good to them because he seems to be a LEADER who is “really going somewhere.” Sanders, I will point out, has the same kind of appeal because he’s so spunky and energetic, but he isn’t fascist-leaning and is very positive in personality rather than negative. He has “the common touch,” and is interested in the lives of the 90% of our population. He's one of the good guys!



http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/30/panic-hillary-clinton-rush-back-california-week/

Panic: Hillary Clinton to Rush Back to California This Week
by JOEL B. POLLAK
30 May 2016

Photograph -- Clinton with microphone


Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has a canceled campaign event in New Jersey and will be rushing back to California this week to hold off a late surge by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The Washington Post‘s Abby Phillip reports that Clinton intends to return to the campaign trail in California on Thursday, and to campaign continuously in the state through the primary on Tuesday — though most votes will already have been cast by mail.

Phillip writes:

NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton has upended her campaign schedule, adding more stops in California, in an effort to prevent an embarrassing loss there to Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton originally planned to campaign for two days this week in New Jersey, but at the last minute canceled an event on Thursday and will instead return to California for a five-day swing.

The schedule change comes as Sanders has barnstormed California, not leaving the state in more than a week. Meanwhile, a recent poll found the race closing significantly. Clinton’s lead over Sanders had narrowed to just two points.

Details are scarce, but Clinton now plans to hold events in California from Thursday until the day before the state’s June 7 primary.

Clinton, needing fewer than 100 delegates to reach a majority, is almost certain to clinch the Democratic nomination on June 7, even if she loses California. But the political damage caused by losing California could hurt — or even halt — her campaign.

In the background is the symbolic importance of California for Democrats in the last year when the Golden State played a role in deciding the party’s nomination — namely, 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy crossed the threshold, only to be assassinated mere minutes later by a Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan.

For Clinton, clinching the nomination by winning California would represent the party coming full circle from its troubled, radical days of the late 1960s.

For Sanders, denying Clinton a victory lap would represent the best chance of re-creating the chaos of the Chicago Democratic National Convention of 1968 on the convention floor in Philadelphia this July — and possibly in the streets outside as well.

Sanders has been campaigning at a grueling pace, drawing large rally crowds from Southern California to the Central Valley to the Bay Area and beyond. He has also taken the time to meet with farm workers, union members, and representatives of the black and Latino communities.

With momentum pointing towards a possible Sanders win — Breitbart News has already predicted he will win more delegates on July 7 — the only question is whether Clinton has more to lose by trying hard and failing, or by staying away and letting Sanders have what she hopes would be a last hurrah.

Photo: File

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new e-book, Leadership Secrets of the Kings and Prophets: What the Bible’s Struggles Teach Us About Today, is on sale through Amazon Kindle Direct. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.



Breitbart EXCERPT -- “For Clinton, clinching the nomination by winning California would represent the party coming full circle from its troubled, radical days of the late 1960s. For Sanders, denying Clinton a victory lap would represent the best chance of re-creating the chaos of the Chicago Democratic National Convention of 1968 on the convention floor in Philadelphia this July — and possibly in the streets outside as well. Sanders has been campaigning at a grueling pace, drawing large rally crowds from Southern California to the Central Valley to the Bay Area and beyond. He has also taken the time to meet with farm workers, union members, and representatives of the black and Latino communities. …. Clinton, needing fewer than 100 delegates to reach a majority, is almost certain to clinch the Democratic nomination on June 7, even if she loses California. But the political damage caused by losing California could hurt — or even halt — her campaign.”


Sanders is not merely assertive, clever, quick-thinking and courageous; he is a strategist. He has outflanked Clinton several times now, and has earned the moniker “the Energizer Bernie!” He also, while clearly serious about achieving his philosophical and political goals, is having a great time! He’s always been popular among his home constituency and the progressive Democrats, he was never in the center of the whole world’s attention as he is now. I’m enjoying this race as much as the Gore/Bush fight over Broward County, Florida. When that hit the news, I happened to be watching CNN, as the very appealing Bill Hemmer was doing a live report on the sidewalk.

He apparently got the word through his earpiece that Gore had challenged the election, and that he was to rush to Broward County. He was a young guy at that time and suddenly grinned like a boy, announced what was going on and took off down the street at a rapid clip followed by the camera crew. Within a couple of hours Florida was full of camera trucks and street interviews.

There are few things more exciting than a hard-fought political campaign. I’ve always enjoyed politics, and this year is one of the best. Go, Bernie! You’re doing well, too, Hillary. Read about the unforgettable 2000 election below, and an hour-long documentary is also available on Youtube, “Bush v. Gore: The Endless Election (2015) – YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcz6NSyxrfQ.”



http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-cnn-bush-gore-20151102-story.html

15 years later, CNN's 'Bush vs. Gore' recalls the longest election night ever
By Stephen Battaglio, Contact Reporter
November 2, 2015


Fifteen years ago, America watched the wildest election night in history and the start of a 36-day legal battle for the White House.

TV network news divisions had awarded Florida’s electoral votes to Al Gore, putting the Democratic nominee a path to victory against his Republican opponent George W. Bush. By the end of the night, they reversed the call and gave the state and the election to Bush, only to have it become too close to call when more votes came in. For the next month, recounts, butterfly ballots and hanging chads became the hot topics on network and cable news.

CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger recounts the conflict that gripped the nation’s attention in an hourlong documentary "Bush vs. Gore: The Endless Election" premiering Monday at 6 p.m. PST on CNN. She talks to many of the attorneys and political operatives involved in the conflict that was ultimately decided on Dec. 13 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the Florida State Supreme Court that called for a statewide recount.

After sitting down with James Baker, Ben Ginsberg, Karen Hughes and Ted Olsen from the Republican side and Ron Klain, David Boies and Bill Daley who fought for the Democrats, Borger said there was one characteristic they all had in common.

“They all acted like it happened yesterday because it was such an important moment in their lives,” she said. "Nobody has forgotten a minute of it."

Even though Gore vs. Bush was the first presidential election of the 21st century, the media and technology of the time make it play like a period piece.

There was no Twitter, Facebook or social media at the time. The network anchors of the time – Borger talks to three of them, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and CNN’s Bernie Shaw – were considered the final authority on when the race was over. Once the networks erroneously called the election for Bush, it was difficult to reverse course when the Florida vote count showed how close the race was in the state.

“The communication was so different 15 years” ago. she said. “The people in Gore’s boiler room had no idea that Gore had conceded to Bush and was on his way to the War Memorial to give his concession speech. They were all trying to page each other but the Gore people were all so depressed half of them had turned their pagers off. Today there would be no way not to communicate.”

Follow me on Twitter @SteveBattaglio

LAW VS. LAW -- MAY 31, 2016


I know I’m getting old when I start saying that the country is going to hell in a handbasket, but these NPR and follow-up articles are adding another straw onto the camel’s back. Please contact your US and State legislators to fight this kind of perverse vision of “the Constitution” and “just laws,” because they not only threaten public safety, they threaten our societal structure, justice system, ideas of what good citizenship is, etc.

It isn’t that I’m not aware that this is coming from the Rightwing Fringe groups, it’s because there are too many of those folks out there since 9/11 and the resulting panic among some, the election of a black man to the presidency, and the rise of David Koch’s Tea Party Movement. Persistently and increasingly they are spreading their intellectual and emotional poison. Worse still, they are forming an ARMY of true believers to their causes, taken from our poorly educated and borderline psychotic elements in this country.

It’s the same old ball of tangled threads – RACE, Class, States’ Rights, Religious Fundamentalism of a very aggressive kind, untreated poor physical and mental health found in a widespread way among the poor, economic deprivation, crime at the hands of our law enforcers as well as against them, and a damaging level of poverty among all races in rural and city areas. Those things are causing our population to become desperate and literally unhinged. We are turning against each other like animals in rut. Vote for liberal candidates and, please, not for Donald Trump!

See the articles below. This excerpt is from the Washington Post:

“I asked a local sheriff if he wanted to take the survey, but he declined. I asked the National Sheriffs Association, with 20,000 members, for their thoughts on the CSPOA, and they also declined. The deputy executive director, John Thompson, told the CPI that his association doesn’t take a position on how individual sheriffs carry out their duties. There are 3,080 sheriffs in 47 states, according to the association, though not all oversee full law enforcement agencies, with some primarily handling county jail oversight.”

“It’s terrifying to me,” said Justin Nix, a criminology professor at the University of Louisville who specializes in police legitimacy and procedural fairness. “It’s not up to the police to decide what the law is going to be. They’re sworn to uphold the law. It’s not up to them to pick and choose.” Nix pointed out that officers use discretion all the time in deciding whether to charge someone with a crime. “But to be on the record, that you don’t want officers enforcing laws, that is pretty bold.”



http://www.npr.org/2016/05/31/480100279/utah-sheriff-threatens-to-arrest-rangers-if-they-try-to-close-public-lands

Utah Sheriffs Threaten To Arrest Rangers If They Try To Close Public Lands
KIRK SIEGLER
May 31, 20165:10 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

Photograph -- A truck displaying a bumper sticker at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Jan. 5 near Burns, Ore. Armed anti-federalists took over the wildlife refuge in Oregon for 41 days. The occupation ended on Feb. 11. Rick Bowmer/AP
Related -- Rancher Cliven Bundy Refuses To Enter Plea In Federal Court
Related -- Oregon Authorities Justify Shooting Of Militant At Wildlife Refuge
Related: Even With Bundy Behind Bars, 'Range War' Lives On For Some Ranchers


Even with Cliven Bundy and many of his militia supporters in jail, anger toward the federal government is still running high in some parts of the West.

Clashes between ranchers and federal land managers over grazing rights are continuing. In southern Utah, things have gotten so bad lately that some local sheriffs have threatened to arrest federal rangers who try to close forest roads and cut off access to ranchers and other users.

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Garfield County Sheriff James "Danny" Perkins is serious or pulling your leg.

Many Western ranchers don't own much land themselves and rely on vast tracts of federal land for grazing.

U.S.

"Now you are in a police vehicle, you understand that right?" he asks, while gesturing toward the center console in his pickup truck. "There is a gun in here, if you happen to ever need a gun, I don't think you will."

Garfield County is roughly the size of Connecticut, and it's up to Perkins and a half dozen deputies to patrol all of it.

"The country's big and it's vast," Perkins says. "I mean it's like this for miles and miles and miles."

Federal land makes up 94 percent of this county, so you'd think that Perkins would welcome the help of federal authorities. Think again. In the sage brush hills outside the one-stoplight town of Panguitch, he pulls off the highway and points to a dirt track.

"This is a conflict, and you're gonna see just a little bit of it. Here's a road right here, that was put here with teams and wagons," Perkins says.

"We're talking pioneer wagons here. Boulders lie in front of it and a bulldozer chewed it up so pickups or ATVs can't drive up it anymore. Federal rangers did this recently," he says. Locals have had access here for generations.

"There is an agenda — and don't kid yourself — there's an agenda to get rid of the grazing, there's an agenda to shut down our roads," Perkins says.

Tensions over federal land — who gets to do what on it, and who is in charge of it — are as high as they've been out here since at least the 1990s. Perkins and many others in his position will give you an earful about how they believe federal agencies have been taken over by environmental extremists. But this is more than just a turf battle. Perkins, too, has an agenda. He proudly refers to himself as a constitutional sheriff.

"Because I raised my arm to the square and I swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," he says.

A few miles away, in his office, he swivels back in his chair and starts digging through a file cabinet. He keeps copies of the papers and the Constitution on hand. Nowhere in them, he says, does it say anything about Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service law enforcement officers, let alone whether they have authority to pull people over for driving off-road or arrest people for illegal campfires. He says, as sheriff, he answers to the state of Utah.

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined," he says. "I can even understand that!"

There are a few dozen or so sheriffs mostly in rural Western states who refer to themselves as "Constitutionalists." It's not really a movement, but they are outspoken and rarely do they hesitate to get in very public fights with the Obama administration — over everything from gun control to whether the BLM should have law enforcement powers.

It's clear that Sheriff Perkins, who's also a rancher, wants to push some boundaries. He talks openly about detaining, or as he says "Mirandizing," federal rangers. He recalls one case recently.

"I told the Forest Service ranger that if he went out and closed a road that Garfield County has jurisdiction on, I would arrest him," he says.

And then there was the time that his deputies did arrest a BLM ranger they said was illegally issuing citations to campers.

"Wasn't me that pulled the trigger on that deal. Do I think he needed to come to jail? I do, the guy's a fruitcake," Perkins says.

For federal land managers, this was the latest instance of threats and intimidation directed at their field staff in the West. There's been an increase in reported confrontations lately.

But the BLM's second in charge in Washington, D.C., Steve Ellis, downplays the tensions, saying they're actually not that common.

"The key thing is working cooperatively with local law enforcement, with these sheriffs, that's our desire," Ellis says.

Ellis also says that the BLM's mission is inherently controversial.

"This is the national system of public lands, so we manage these lands for all Americans," he says.

Still the BLM is worried, especially after the armed standoffs in Nevada and Oregon. And there are sheriffs in the West who sympathize with the now jailed Cliven Bundy and his militia followers. A lot of the principles these "Constitutional" sheriffs espouse are some of the same things you hear from the Bundys.

Sheriff Perkins told me he was invited, and in some instances pressured, by local ranchers to join the Bundys. But he would have none of it.

"I said it at the time, and I'll stand by it, that is nothing but domestic terrorism," he says. "Yes, there's been a story, a lot of these guys have been bullied around by the BLM, but you don't handle it that way."

So despite all his tough talk, Perkins is being careful, still working within the system. He and other sheriffs have been going to Washington, D.C., a lot lately, lobbying. And in the past few weeks, he says, after Utah Republicans introduced a bill to strip law enforcement powers from the BLM, relations out here are getting better.



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/constitutional-sheriffs-cops-who-think-government-our-greatest-threat-n557381

Constitutional Sheriffs: The Cops Who Think the Government Is Our 'Greatest Threat'
by JULIA HARTE and R. JEFFREY SMITH
APR 18 2016, 12:19 PM ET

Play' -- Domestic terrorists' in custody for Vegas plot 1:11
Photograph -- Suspended Liberty County Sheriff Nick Finch talks with reporters on the courthouse steps in Bristol, Fla., on Oct. 31, 2013 after his acquittal on charges of official misconduct and falsifying official records. Finch admitted freeing a concealed weapons suspect who had been frisked in a traffic stop, but said he did so because he believes the Second Amendment gives citizens a legal right to bear arms. Bill Cotterell / AP
Photograph -- Richard Mack, the former sheriff of Graham County, Ariz., speaks at the 10th annual Second Amendment Action Day rally on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., on May 12, 2015, AP
Photograph -- Heavily armed civilians with a group known as the Oath Keepers arrive in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 11, 2015. Jeff Roberson / AP


The full version of this story was originally published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.

Sheriff Nick Finch let a pistol-packing man out of the Liberty County, Florida, jail, a decision that led state authorities to charge Finch with a crime — but also made him a hero to a radical and growing movement among sheriffs across the country.

It's a movement that doesn't just reject gun control — it encourages law enforcement officers to defy laws they decide are illegal. And it sometimes puts police on the same side as "sovereign citizens," a fringe group that the FBI considers one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats.

On March 8, 2013, one of Sheriff Finch's deputies pulled over a driver and found a loaded pistol in his pocket, according to the deputy's sworn statement. Carrying a concealed firearm without a license is a felony in Florida, so the deputy arrested the driver.

Finch, however, ordered the driver released, and someone whited out his booking record. Finch later said he decided that "I know what law rules the day, and it's the U.S. Constitution."

Gov. Rick Scott ordered Finch's suspension. But then a former Arizona sheriff named Richard Mack called, and a group that Mack heads — the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association — became engaged.

Mack has referred to the federal government as "the greatest threat we face today," and describes his association — which states on its website it is supported by the John Birch Society and Gun Owners of America, as well as annual dues payments of $50 — as "the army to set our nation free." He said in an interview with CPI that he has grown the army by training more than 400 sheriffs in how to interpret the Constitution and how to resist authorities and laws that violate it.

Mack claims the dues-paying support of several hundred of the nation's more than 3,000 sheriffs and the sympathies of hundreds more, but it's hard to assess how many endorse his denunciation of the federal government as the corrupt and illegitimate enforcer of laws that trample on states' rights.

On occasion, however, his group's sheriffs have found themselves expressing views that resemble those of the sovereign citizens' movement, which was also founded on claimed rights of legal defiance.

Dozens of sheriffs around the country — including John Hanlin, the sheriff of Douglas County, Ore., the site of last October's mass shooting of eight students and a professor at Umpqua Community College — joined Mack in an aggressive letter-writing campaign to the White House after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, in which they vowed not to enforce any federal laws that tightened gun restrictions.

After the armed standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge earlier this year, Mack traveled repeatedly to Oregon, appearing at high schools and fairgrounds, and giving interviews in which he criticized federal authorities. He's also promised to help elect new sheriffs in the region who share his views. Gun laws are a focus of his ire, but federal lands restrictions and tax laws have also been in his sights.

After Sheriff Finch's suspension, Mack organized a fundraiser in nearby Panama City and brought in Stewart Rhodes, head of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, the same group that made headlines last August for patrolling the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, with guns. (Mack is on the Oath Keepers board of directors.) Sympathizers created a Facebook support page for Finch, and online commentators expressed outrage at what they called an unconstitutional attempt by the state to interfere with his support for gun rights.

During Finch's boisterous trial in October 2013, he was joined in the Liberty County courtroom by Mack, several other Florida sheriffs, and dozens of new supporters. The judge had to admonish the crowd not to laugh as the state presented its case against Finch, and in the end, the jury acquitted him of misconduct and falsification of records. He was reinstated as sheriff, and later granted back pay as well as attorney's fees of more than $160,000. Finch, 53, remains the sheriff of Liberty County.

Winning over law enforcement officials

On a chilly morning last October, roughly 60 people — mostly older white men — sat at long plastic tables beneath the fluorescent lights of an auditorium in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to attend a "Tribute to Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers."

At the meeting, four or five political groups — the local chapters of the Tea Party, Freedom Works, United Conservatives Fund — laid out their literature, candy, and swag on folding tables at the back of the room. The speakers included two local police officers, the president of Mississippi's Gulf Coast Rangers citizen militia, a veteran who tracks gun laws in Mississippi, an investigator for the state's attorney general, and finally, the star attraction: Sheriff Richard Mack. But only one Mississippi county sheriff showed up: Billy McGee, from the surrounding Forrest County.

Mack, who is over six feet tall and bears a passing resemblance to Ronald Reagan, stood before the crowd in a casual, desert-hued suit. Audience members queued to have him sign their copies of a booklet summarizing his case against the Brady Act, called "The Victory for State Sovereignty." In America, he said as audience members nodded, "gun control is against the law. And we don't get to violate the law just because we have a shooting in Oregon or Sandy Hook or anyplace else."

"What we want now is for many of you to come to our certification training," he said. "You come to a two-day seminar, get certified, and then you get back here to your state and you start providing this training, bam, bam, bam, go to every sheriff's office, go to chiefs of police, go to county commissioners and show them this training." Details about how to get the certification training, Mack assured the audience, would be forthcoming.

A local named Paul Boudreaux, 53, raised his hand from the third row. "What do you do about the sheriffs that are complicit with the federal government?" he asked.

'TELL THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 'YOU'RE NOT GOING TO ABUSE CITIZENS ANYMORE.'"

"Ignore them," Mack replied. He reminded the audience that there are nearly 3,100 sheriffs in the country and that the association is aiming to get approximately one fourth of them to support its mission: "If we get that 600 or 700, there's going to be no stopping. And then everybody in this country has at least two or three places in each state where they can go for refuge, find a true constitutional sheriff who'll tell the federal government, 'You're not going to abuse citizens anymore.'"

Asked later what the worst abuses were that the federal government had committed in his community, Boudreaux brought up the gopher frog: an endangered species native to the Gulf region. To protect it, Boudreaux said, some of his neighbors have had hundreds of acres of land condemned as habitat where the frog can live. "Fortunately, because of our Second Amendment, we've still got the freest country on Earth," Boudreaux added, crossing his arms.

"But the sheriff needs to know," Boudreaux said, expressing a view that most legal scholars vigorously dispute, "that he can forbid federal agents from coming into his county and trying to enforce laws that are unconstitutional."

Roots of the movement

Mack first made it to the national stage in 1996 as a sheriff from Arizona, when he and a sheriff from Montana challenged a provision of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. Using attorneys paid by the National Rifle Association, they argued it was unconstitutional for the federal government to require local chief law enforcement officers to run background checks on prospective gun buyers — and won, in a 5-4 ruling that struck down that provision of the act.

But Mack was defeated in the Democratic primary that year, and has since lost three more elections in two states for different offices. He nonetheless became a popular speaker, initially at John Birch Society and National Rifle Association banquets, and later at Tea Party events. In May 2011, he registered the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association with the state of Texas, but is just now filing for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. As a result, the group's financing is largely opaque.

According to Mack, more than 100 sheriffs have shown up at the annual conventions his group has organized, including many in 2014 when Finch received the group's top honor: Constitutional Sheriff of the Year. Finch and 40 other sheriffs signed a resolution there declaring they would not tolerate any federal agent who attempted to register firearms, arrest someone, or seize property in their counties without their consent.

Mack says he envisions the sheriffs' "take back" of the United States as a peaceful event. But he uses apocalyptic language to depict social conditions in America, describing sheriffs as a bulwark to forestall the violence for which armed, angry citizens around the country are preparing. Finch, too, said he sees sheriffs as a safeguard against all-out civil war. "If all the sheriffs would get on board and stand in the gap, then maybe we can avoid the violence that I believe probably is going to come at some point," Finch said.

The constitutional sheriff movement, according to the teachings of Mack and his supporters, is rooted in the historical definition of sheriffs as the most powerful law-enforcement officers within their counties. The idea harkens to medieval England, when Anglo-Saxon kings tasked sheriffs with enforcing their edicts. English colonists brought the tradition to the Americas, and began electing their own sheriffs in the mid-1600s, entrusting them with overseeing the judicial process, carrying out legal decisions, and keeping the peace. Under the latter authority, they could organize citizen brigades to catch outlaws or defend against attackers, an arrangement known as "posse comitatus."

In the 1970s, a minister in the white supremacist Christian Identity movement, William Potter Gale, wrote a series of articles that would come to be known as the handbook of the Posse Comitatus movement. Gale described sheriffs as the only "legal" law enforcement officers in the country and urged citizens to form their own militias to resist encroachments on their rights if sheriffs did not. The constitutional abuses he cited included the federal income tax system, gun control, federal education, and civil rights laws. He advised citizens to form their own "common law" courts to try officials who violated the constitution, and prescribed archaic punishments, such as hangings.

Contemporary "sovereign citizens," who generally reject federal authorities, are inspired partly by Gale's rhetoric and partly by past bloody clashes between federal officials and citizens charged with illegal gun sales and ownership. Terry Nichols, who is now in prison for planning the Oklahoma City federal center bombing that killed 168 people 21 years ago this week, is a member of the sovereign citizen movement, according to the FBI.

That April 19 bombing deliberately coincided with the date of three iconic events in the radical right's historical pantheon — the "hot heard round the world" at the Battle of Lexington & Concord in 1775; a violent FBI battle in 1985 with members of an extremist Christian group in Arkansas known as the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord; and the FBI's climactic confrontation in 1993 with religious extremists belonging to the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, starting a fire that killed 76 people.

Nowadays, sovereign citizens number in the hundreds of thousands, and U.S. law enforcement agencies consider them the top terrorist threat in the country, according to a July 2014 survey by a University of Maryland-led terrorism study consortium. At least 14 police officers have been killed and another 14 injured in 62 incidents involving sovereign citizens since 9-11, according to J.J. MacNab, a frequent writer on anti-government extremism who consults for government agencies. Most of their attacks are "unplanned, reactive violence targeting law enforcement officers during active enforcement efforts," the Department of Homeland Security said in a Feb. 5, 2015, report.

In one such incident, West Memphis police officer Brandon Paudert and another officer pulled over a sovereign citizen named Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son in a van with out-of-state plates in May 2010. The duo had been traveling around the country peddling debt-avoidance seminars based on sovereign citizen beliefs. Kane had been threatening anti-government violence for years on his Internet radio show, and the traffic stop escalated rapidly into a tussle in which the younger Kane shot both cops dead with an AK-47. Police officers caught up with both Kanes hours later in a Walmart parking lot, where they were killed.

Mack and his supporters dismiss the idea that they are supportive of the violent measures taken by sovereign citizens. But some of his association's members have found common cause with the group. In March 2011, for example, New Hampshire sheriff Christopher Conley — who was listed as a member of the council of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association from November 2012 until 2015 - expressed support for claims made against the Internal Revenue Service by a sovereign citizen named Charles Gregory Melick. A deputy federal marshal had served a summons on Melick at Conley's office, requiring him to appear in court about unpaid taxes, but Conley decided to write to a judge on Melick's behalf, arguing that the service was not legally valid. "I have a duty to protect people's Constitutional rights and protections," Conley said in his note.

Conley was never directly punished for his choice not to detain Melick, but lost the 2012 election.

In 2014, at least three sheriffs showed up with constitutionalist citizen militia groups and members of the Oath Keepers to support Cliven Bundy's standoff against the federal Bureau of Land Management at his ranch in southern Nevada. In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. a few months after the Bundy Ranch standoff, Oath Keepers President Steward Rhodes gave those sheriffs a special shoutout. "You had Brad Rogers [of Indiana] there, he came on our behalf, you had Sheriff Peyman from Kentucky, you also had Jeff Christopher from Delaware," he told the audience.

"So if we're a bunch of radical anti-government crazy cop killers, why were there police officers standing right there with us?" Rhodes asked. "It's cause we're all in this together."

Bob Paudert, Brandon's father and the chief of the West Memphis police at the time of the deadly traffic stop, said he is troubled by the number of sheriffs and police officers who adopt the ideology of armed resistance embraced by sovereign citizens, but he can understand why they do. "Even I agree with a lot of what they say," he told the Center for Public Integrity, such as the principles of standing up for states' rights and reining in the federal government. "But law enforcement is not the enemy."

Executive editor Gordon Witkin contributed to this article.

The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/04/28/national-group-of-sheriffs-opposed-to-federal-government-overreach-gains-size-momentum/

National sheriffs’ group, opposed to federal laws on guns and taxes, calls for defiance
True Crime
By Tom Jackman April 28

Photograph -- Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Ariz., and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, in Phoenix, January 2011. (Gage Skidmore)

“… sheriffs typically swear to enforce the laws of their state. But a group called the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is intent on strictly enforcing their view of the U.S. Constitution and, according to a long new piece by the Center for Public Integrity, “its ambition is to encourage law enforcement officers to defy laws they decide themselves are illegal.” In essence, they are troubled by the overreach of the federal government in matters concerning guns, taxes and land management, and founder Richard Mack has described the federals as “the greatest threat we face today,” and his association as “the army to set our nation free.”

In an interview with Julia Harte and former Post reporter R. Jeffrey Smith, Mack said he had enlisted “several hundred” of the more than 3,000 sheriffs around the country as members of the CSPOA, and that hundreds more are sympathetic. At the association’s 2014 convention, dozens of sheriffs signed a declaration that they would not tolerate any federal agent who attempted to register firearms, arrest someone or seize property in their counties without their consent.

Mack struck a blow for states’ rights in the 1990s as a sheriff from Graham County, Arizona, when he and a sheriff from Montana challenged the Brady Bill’s interim requirement that local law enforcement agencies perform background checks on gun buyers. The Supreme Court ruled in Mack’s favor, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the opinion affirming the states’ sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and that the federal government could not enlist the local police in 50 states to do its bidding. The decision did not have lasting impact because a national database was put in place to enable gun dealers to run the checks themselves, removing local law enforcement from the process.

But Mack became popular in conservative circles and he launched the CSPOA in 2011. At a recent training for local police, the CPI reported, Mack declared that “gun control is against the law” and that his goal was to sign up about one-fourth of the nation’s sheriffs to join the association. “And then everybody in this country has at least two or three places in each state where they can go for refuge,” Mack said, “find a true constitutional sheriff who’ll tell the federal government, ‘You’re not going to abuse citizens anymore.'”

What bothers some people about statements like that is the appearance that a local law enforcement official is substituting his or her legal judgment for that of a state or federal legislature. So I called Mack to ask him about his views and he willingly expounded on them, though he was not happy with the CPI article and even though The Post is not highly regarded in some conservative circles.

Mack’s philosophy is largely reinforced by his successful challenge to the Brady Bill, in which “we went through a lawful process to show the government is out of control, to force sheriffs to comply.” He said U.S. District Judge John Roll, who was killed in the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011, neatly summed up every sheriff’s dilemma: “He said I was forced to choose between obeying the law or keeping my oath of office. He described my problem in one sentence.”

Certain that any gun regulation violates the Second Amendment, Mack said “the government was forcing me to participate in a gun control scheme that I knew was unconstitutional. When all law enforcement is forced into that position by state or federal legislators, which one do we side with? And I believe there is a proper way to conduct oneself in knowing the difference between enforcing stupid laws and enforcing the principles of the Constitution.”

He compared the situation to that of officers in Alabama who enforced segregation laws against Rosa Parks, or military officers of Nazi Germany who committed genocide. “The cop who arrested Rosa Parks said,” according to Mack, “‘The law is the law.’ The officers at Nuremberg said the same thing, ‘We were just following orders.’ Well the court determined that following orders when you’re committing a crime, or genocide, doesn’t cut it. We say the same thing. Do not say, ‘I’m just following orders.’ Do what’s right. We stand for people being abused. I don’t care if it’s gun rights, land rights, Amish rights, the federal government should not get a free pass and we should stand against their abuses.”

Mack was adamant that “I have never advocated violence. I spent 20 years in law enforcement without ever beating up anybody.” But “when you have no place else to go, when all the courts are against you, all the legislators are against you, where else do you go? I believe to the local county sheriff…and if that means standing against the federal government, then so damn be it.”

Some like-minded sheriffs have turned up at the two recent standoffs between the federal government and local ranchers, at the Bundy ranch in Nevada and then on behalf of the Hammond family ranch at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, both times after the federal government tried to exercise control over public land adjacent to the two ranches. “Most Americans think that federal authority is ever most powerful and can usurp any governing entity below it,” Mack writes on the CSPOA website. “Though somewhat logical, that is simply a fallacy when one would consult the constitution. It is not the job of the federal government to interpose between you and the local law, it is your local government that will interpose.” Dozens of sheriffs, mostly from western states, sent letters to the White House in 2013 saying they would not enforce federal gun laws, including Douglas County, Ore., Sheriff John Hamlin. Hamlin’s view were later scrutinized after a mass killing in his county last October at Umpqua Community College.

In February, Mack’s group launched a campaign called “Vet Your Sheriff,” with a “Sheriff Survey” to be given to local sheriffs to see where they stand on the freedom spectrum. “Should the Federal Government,” asks Question 4, “come into your county and serve warrants and make arrests without informing you first of their intentions?” Question 9 asks, “According to the principles of our Constitutional Republic, who is responsible for keeping the Federal Government in check?”

I asked a local sheriff if he wanted to take the survey, but he declined. I asked the National Sheriffs Association, with 20,000 members, for their thoughts on the CSPOA, and they also declined. The deputy executive director, John Thompson, told the CPI that his association doesn’t take a position on how individual sheriffs carry out their duties. There are 3,080 sheriffs in 47 states, according to the association, though not all oversee full law enforcement agencies, with some primarily handling county jail oversight.

“It’s terrifying to me,” said Justin Nix, a criminology professor at the University of Louisville who specializes in police legitimacy and procedural fairness. “It’s not up to the police to decide what the law is going to be. They’re sworn to uphold the law. It’s not up to them to pick and choose.” Nix pointed out that officers use discretion all the time in deciding whether to charge someone with a crime. “But to be on the record, that you don’t want officers enforcing laws, that is pretty bold.”

Mack spoke in southwest Virginia earlier this month at a citizens meeting where he shared the bill with Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Van Cleave joked, “What a horrible thing it is, asking the sheriff to honor the Constitution.” He said that both state and federal laws have been passed which violate the Constitution, and “if we ignore them, then the government can do whatever they want. It’s chaos out there, without somebody putting boundaries in and honoring that those boundaries mean something.”

Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Post since 1998, and now anchors the new "True Crime" blog. Follow @TomJackmanWP



NPR EXCERPTS -- “In southern Utah, things have gotten so bad lately that some local sheriffs have threatened to arrest federal rangers who try to close forest roads and cut off access to ranchers and other users. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Garfield County Sheriff James "Danny" Perkins is serious or pulling your leg. Many Western ranchers don't own much land themselves and rely on vast tracts of federal land for grazing. …. Federal land makes up 94 percent of this county, so you'd think that Perkins would welcome the help of federal authorities. Think again. In the sage brush hills outside the one-stoplight town of Panguitch, he pulls off the highway and points to a dirt track. "This is a conflict, and you're gonna see just a little bit of it. Here's a road right here, that was put here with teams and wagons," Perkins says. "We're talking pioneer wagons here. Boulders lie in front of it and a bulldozer chewed it up so pickups or ATVs can't drive up it anymore. Federal rangers did this recently," he says. Locals have had access here for generations. …. There are a few dozen or so sheriffs mostly in rural Western states who refer to themselves as "Constitutionalists." It's not really a movement, but they are outspoken and rarely do they hesitate to get in very public fights with the Obama administration — over everything from gun control to whether the BLM should have law enforcement powers. It's clear that Sheriff Perkins, who's also a rancher, wants to push some boundaries. He talks openly about detaining, or as he says "Mirandizing," federal rangers. He recalls one case recently. "I told the Forest Service ranger that if he went out and closed a road that Garfield County has jurisdiction on, I would arrest him," he says. And then there was the time that his deputies did arrest a BLM ranger they said was illegally issuing citations to campers. …. For federal land managers, this was the latest instance of threats and intimidation directed at their field staff in the West. There's been an increase in reported confrontations lately. But the BLM's second in charge in Washington, D.C., Steve Ellis, downplays the tensions, saying they're actually not that common. "The key thing is working cooperatively with local law enforcement, with these sheriffs, that's our desire," Ellis says. Ellis also says that the BLM's mission is inherently controversial.” …. And in the past few weeks, he says, after Utah Republicans introduced a bill to strip law enforcement powers from the BLM, relations out here are getting better.”



See above for an authoritative article on the spurious and ignorant idea that LAW ENFORCEMENT is not under FEDERAL CONTROL. They share that view with the Sovereign Citizens group in that they respect no controls on their behavior, and rationalize it as being their “right as a citizen.” That is called, by a growing group of anarchic and fascist law officers called the “Constitutional Sheriffs Movement.” In other words, if a law enforcement officer thinks that a law is “unconstitutional” according to Former Sheriff Richard Mack, of Graham County, Ariz., and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, in Phoenix’s views of the Constitution, he not only doesn’t have to enforce it, he SHOULDN’T enforce it! This sheriff is actively recruiting other sheriffs and law officers to follow his dangerous and bizarre views, and he is teaching them HIS interpretation of the US Constitution via a training course. It is my opinion that this constitutes “advocating the overthrow of the US government,” and should be punishable by a prison term of at least fifteen years. Let him out on parole if he’s behaves himself “in the pen.” While he’s in there give him psychotropic drugs and a talk therapist. See if that turns him around.

Obviously this looks like the seedling of an ad hoc police state which isn’t even ruled by a Hitler figure from above, but by a general insurrection against due process and legitimate societal order. This kind of thing is horrifying and ugly. It reminds me of the TV show that I do love to hate – “Zombie Apocalypse,” or “The Walking Dead.” All those good old boys and their handful of compatriots are walking around with shotguns, patrolling their very poor dwelling and protecting themselves against the Zombies. Sick and sad, but it has its’ appeal in this country these days. I’m hoping that something intelligent is going to come out of this group insanity.

As for what actually is in the Constitution about the ownership of land by government, businesses, or private citizens, I don’t know what it is. I took a quick look through Google on the matter. See the following choices, if you want to pursue them further on your own. I’m taking snippets from several, especially those that sound the least like wild-eyed right or left wing rants and most like a true account of what lawyers and Supreme Court justices actually think.

Wikipedia speaks on the free cattle grazing issue clearly, giving the US Supreme Court rulings as the controlling interpretation: “The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that this section empowers Congress to retain federal lands, to regulate federal lands such as by limiting cattle grazing, and to sell such lands. …. The United States Supreme Court has upheld the broad powers of the federal government to deal with federal lands, for example having unanimously held in Kleppe v. New Mexico[4] that "the complete power that Congress has over federal lands under this clause necessarily includes the power to regulate and protect wildlife living there, state law notwithstanding."[1]



WIKIPEDIA -- Federal lands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Federal lands are lands in the United States for which ownership is claimed by the U.S. federal government, pursuant to Article Four, section 3, clause 2 of the United States Constitution.[1] The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that this section empowers Congress to retain federal lands, to regulate federal lands such as by limiting cattle grazing, and to sell such lands.[2] As of March 2012, out of the 2.27 billion acres in the country, about 28% of the total was owned by the Federal government according to the Interior Department.[3] The United States Supreme Court has upheld the broad powers of the federal government to deal with federal lands, for example having unanimously held in Kleppe v. New Mexico[4] that "the complete power that Congress has over federal lands under this clause necessarily includes the power to regulate and protect wildlife living there, state law notwithstanding."[1]
MAP -- Ownership of Federal lands in the 50 states, including subsurface rights.”



http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/4/essays/126/property-clause
Property Clause

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.... ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3, CLAUSE 2

The federal government owns or controls about thirty percent of the land in the United States. These holdings include national parks, national forests, recreation areas, wildlife refuges, vast tracts of range and wasteland managed by the Bureau of Land Management, reservations held in trust for Native American tribes, military bases, and ordinary federal buildings and installations. Although federal property can be found in every state, the largest concentrations are in the west, where, for example, the federal government owns over eighty percent of the land within Nevada.

The primary constitutional authority for the management and control of this vast real-estate empire is the Property Clause. The exact scope of this clause has long been a matter of debate. Broadly speaking, three different theories have been advanced.

The federal government owns or controls about thirty percent of the land in the United States. These holdings include national parks, national forests, recreation areas, wildlife refuges, vast tracts of range and wasteland managed by the Bureau of Land Management, reservations held in trust for Native American tribes, military bases, and ordinary federal buildings and installations. Although federal property can be found in every state, the largest concentrations are in the west, where, for example, the federal government owns over eighty percent of the land within Nevada.

The primary constitutional authority for the management and control of this vast real-estate empire is the Property Clause. The exact scope of this clause has long been a matter of debate. Broadly speaking, three different theories have been advanced.

The narrowest conception, which can be called the proprietary theory, maintains that the Property Clause simply allows Congress to act as an ordinary owner of land. It can set policy regarding whether such lands will be sold or retained and, if they are retained, who may enter these lands and for what purposes. Under this conception, the clause confers no political sovereignty over federal landholdings. Unless one of the enumerated powers of Article I applies, such as the power to raise armies or establish a post office, political sovereignty over federal lands remains with the several states in which the land is located.

The broadest conception, which can be called the police-power theory, regards the clause as conferring not only the powers of ownership but also general sovereign authority to regulate private conduct that occurs on federal land or that affects federal land. In default of any federal rule, state law applies. But if Congress determines that a federal rule "respecting" federal land is "needful," it may adopt federal legislation that supersedes state law. Thus, the Property Clause gives Congress the authority to adopt any type of legislation for federal lands, including codes of criminal law, family law, and exemptions from state taxation for persons residing on federal lands.

Although most commentators have polarized around the proprietary and police-power theories, there is also an intermediate conception of the Property Clause, which can be labeled the protective theory. This conception would go beyond the proprietary theory in regarding the clause as a partial source of sovereign authority. But it would stop short of the police-power theory by limiting that authority to legislation designed to protect the proprietary interests of the United States. Under this intermediate conception, for example, the clause would permit Congress to pass federal legislation regulating the sale of federal land, protecting federal land from trespasses and nuisances, or exempting federal land from state taxation. On the other hand, the clause would not permit Congress to enact a general code of criminal law or family law, nor would it permit Congress to exempt persons residing on federal land from general rules of state taxation.


FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE SUBJECT GO TO THESE SITES:

**What Does the Constitution Say About Federal Land Ownership ...
tenthamendmentcenter.com › Constitution › Enclave Clause
Feb 10, 2016 - The “Bundy stand-off” in Oregon at a federal wildlife refuge has triggered (or, rather, re-triggered) questions about the constitutionality of federal land ownership. Westerners in particular question why the federal government should own nearly 30% of the country. In the West, the issue is particularly important.

**Property Clause in the US Constitution - Heritage Foundation
www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/4/...
The Heritage Foundation
Property Clause. The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.... The federal government owns or controls about thirty percent of the land in the United States.

**Federal lands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_lands
Wikipedia
Federal lands are lands in the United States for which ownership is claimed by the U.S. federal government, pursuant to Article Four, section 3, clause 2 of the United States Constitution.
‎Primary federal land holders - ‎Laws regarding federal lands - ‎See also - ‎References

**Napolitano: Washington lacks constitutional right to own land in ...
www.politifact.com/.../napolitano-washington-lacks-constit...
PolitiFact.com
Apr 28, 2014 - "The Constitution simply does not authorize the federal government to .... "The constitutional basis of federal land ownership is not subject to ...

**federal land ownership – Independence Institute
https://www.i2i.org/tag/federal-land-ownership/
Independence Institute
... Founders' Night 2016 · Video, Watch&Listen; May 20, 2016. Most Read; Commented. What Does the Constitution Say About Federal Land Ownership? 3585 ...

**The U.S. Constitution and Federal Lands
https://www.nccs.net/2002-07-the-u-s-constitution-and-federal-lands.php
"It is obvious that if there were no such thing as 'ownership' in property, which means legally protected exclusiveness, there would be no subduing or extensive ...

**Inside The Backwards Ideology Driving The Right-Wing Militiamen ...
thinkprogress.org/.../inside-the-backwards-ideology-drivin...
ThinkProgress
Jan 4, 2016 - The U.S. Constitution limits United States government. ... The federal government may own land, it may enact regulations governing that land, ...

**The Constitution of the United States on Federal Land Ownership
bundyranch.blogspot.com/2015/.../the-constitution-of-united-states-on.ht...
Dec 7, 2015 - Where in the Constitution have we given Congress, (i.e. the Federal Government) the right to control or administer land, and under what ...

**Does the US Constitution prohibit the federal government from owning ...
https://www.quora.com/Does-the-US-Constitution-prohibit-the-federa...Quora
Jan 6, 2016 - Congressional Research Service: Federal Land Ownership: Constitutional Authority and the History of Acquisition, Disposal, and Retention.

** Key things to know about federal land ownership in the West | US News
www.usnews.com/.../key-things-to-know-abo...
U.S. News & World Report
Jan 4, 2016 - Key things to know about federal land ownership in the West and ... The group calls itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom and ….

May 29, 2016


News and Views


Gorilla Killed To Save Boy At Cincinnati Zoo
MERRIT KENNEDY
May 29, 20169:47 AM ET


After a 4-year-old boy slipped into the gorilla enclosure on a crowded day at the Cincinnati Zoo, a security team killed the gorilla to save the child.

The zoo said in a statement that the boy "fell into the exhibit's moat." A male Western Lowland gorilla was in the yard with the child – and "the Zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team responded to the life-threatening situation and made the difficult decision to dispatch the gorilla (Harambe)."

Harrowing video released by the WLWT television channel shows 17-year-old Harabe handling the child and standing over him in the enclosure's moat. The boy's mother can be heard pleading for help.


WLWT YouTube
The child was rushed to a local hospital and according to the zoo, he was alert while transported. Police said the boy "was treated for serious, but non-life threatening injuries," Cincinnati.com reported.

"The Zoo security team's quick response saved the child's life. We are all devastated that this tragic accident resulted in the death of a critically-endangered gorilla," Zoo Director Thane Maynard said in the statement. "This is a huge loss for the Zoo family and the gorilla population worldwide."

"You're talking about an animal that's over 400 pounds and extremely strong. So no, the child wasn't under attack but all sorts of things could happen in a situation like that. He certainly was at risk," Maynard tells WLWT.

"All of a sudden you heard this 'Bam,' and you knew they had shot the Gorilla, and you heard the other gorillas just go crazy," Mary Freeman, a zoo visitor from Lexington, told WLWT.

Firefighters tell WLWT that the child "was in between the gorilla's legs at the time of the kill-shot." A tranquilizer shot was deemed "too dicey."

Maynard explains to Cincinnati.com: "In an agitated situation, it may take quite a while for the tranquilizer to take effect. ... At the instant he would be hit, he would have a dramatic response. You don't hit him and he falls over.

Cincinnati Zoo ‎@CincinnatiZoo
Details on sad incident at Cincinnati Zoo today: http://ow.ly/1JTg300GLiX
7:42 PM - 28 May 2016

The zoo says it will open as usual today – but the gorilla exhibit "will be closed until further notice."

This isn't the first time a child has fallen into a gorilla enclosure. But when a 3-year-old child fell into the den at Illinois' Brookfield Zoo in 1996, the story had a very different ending. The female gorilla Binti Jua gently cradled the child and eventually carried him over to paramedics – and it was caught on camera. The boy, who was never identified, reportedly made a full recovery.


I did see the video and the gorilla did drag the boy around by his arm, appearing to be “agitated” as the article said when the crowd began to scream and shout. I understand the keepers’ fear that he would end up hurting the child seriously or even killing him. This is one of those sad stories, though, because not many gorillas are left in the wild. Some zoos are part of breeding programs on many wild animals, so hopefully they are doing that with gorillas also.



https://www.yahoo.com/gma/mom-writes-message-stranger-disciplined-her-child-playground-133403266--abc-news-parenting.html

Mom Writes Message to Stranger Who Disciplined Her Child on the Playground
NICOLE PELLETIERE, Good Morning America
Fri, May 27 6:52 AM PDT

One mom’s blog post is drawing tons of Internet buzz after she thanked a stranger for disciplining her son at the playground.

“My guess is when that mom told my son to knock it off, that might not have been an easy decision to make,” Karen Alpert of Chicago told ABC News. “Most moms are biting their tongue before they tell another kid to stop it.”

She added: “I would like other parents to have that courage and I feel like if another parent does that for me, then, ‘Thank you’ – you deserve the applause for having that courage.”

Alpert, who’s mom to Zoey, 7, and Holden, 4, said it was earlier this week when she brought Holden and his buddy to play on the playground.

While Holden was swinging on the monkey bars with another child, Albert noticed he hadn’t waited his turn. A nearby mom asked him to stop, Alpert said.

“He’s a nice, sweet kid, but he really wasn’t stopping to think about this other child,” she said. “I kind of saw it going on in the corner of my eye. You walk over, and you’re so angry at them for doing that instead of thanking the other parents for helping.”

So Tuesday, Alpert took to her blog babysideburns.com, to show her gratitude for the mom who helped out that day.

The post read, in part:

“Now before I continue, I just want to say that yes, I know I should have been there when this all went down, but unfortunately I was on the other side of the playground with my son’s friend who was crying. So no, I wasn’t there, but does that give you a right to discipline my kiddo? Does that give you the right to talk to him sternly and tell him to knock it off? Does that give you the right to act like you are the person in charge when he is actually MY child?"

"Ummmm, yes. YES IT DOES.”

She added: “I didn’t get the chance to say this today, but THANK YOU.”

The letter received 317,000 Facebook “likes” and a slew of comments in three days.

"Omg! I was almost scared for the same type of blog," one person commented. "I totally agree with this! The beginning sounded like it was gonna go the complete opposite way! LOVE THIS. It takes a village to raise a child."

Another argued: "If there is something my child is doing, by all means politely come up to me and inform me. Disciplining a child without first acknowledging the issue with the parent is largely overstepping the boundary."

Alpert said she was surprised of her post’s going viral.

“I guess it’s a hot-button issue," she said. "It seems to me that most parents agree with this and they realize how difficult parenting alone is and we need to rely on each other.

“[I’ve heard] friends complaining – that not everyone feels this way,” Alpert added. “ … But if your kid is doing something to bother my kid and there’s no parent around, I’m going to say something. Maybe one less child will get hurt physically or emotionally when another parent speaks up.”

Alpert hopes her blog encourages parents to support one another.


This is a great letter. I have wanted to stop a kid from doing naughty things several times. Parents do need to AVOID leaving them alone, though, because a young kid can hatch up and execute some very bad plans while their back is turned. When what the kid is doing is abusive or otherwise dangerous it is very important that they be stopped. Usually words will do it, without a touch.



http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sanders-vs-the-dnc-will-convention-committee-appointments-backfire

Sanders vs. the DNC: Will convention committee appointments backfire?
By Adam Howard
05/30/16 10:05 AM

RELATED: Sanders’ supporters refuse to bend


Just when you might have thought the Democratic presidential primary race couldn’t get more into the weeds, a new turf war has emerged over who gets to sit on the party’s platform and rules committees at the convention in Philadelphia this summer.

This weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for the DNC to remove to prominent Clinton supporters – Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank – from panels that help determine policy positions and procedures for the Democrats because both men have allegedly displayed “political and personal hostility” toward the Vermont lawmaker.

Malloy, whose state was rocked by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012, has taken Sanders to task for not being a stronger advocate for gun control. Frank has been even more frank, accusing the senator’s campaign of “McCarthyite” tactics and arguing that “Bernie Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years with little to show for it.”

The DNC has rejected Sanders’ request – which may wind up prolonging an already ugly rift between Sanders and Clinton forces, which appear to be clashing more over process at this point rather than the ultimate primary result. Sanders has long been an outspoken critic of controversial DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and has endorsed her primary opponent Tim Canova.

“Clearly, I favor her opponent,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month. “His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz’s. Let me also say this, in all due respect to the current chairperson: If [I am] elected president, she would not be re-appointed chairwoman of the DNC.”

Meanwhile, Clinton holds what appears to be an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, and Sanders may be beginning to see the writing on the wall. He recently suggested that the Democratic front-runner’s VP pick will play a crucial role in winning his voters’ support and didn’t take his own name out of consideration for the second spot on a general election ticket.

Polls show that Sanders holds considerable leverage over the fate of the Clinton campaign. The former secretary of state, who is currently locked in a dead heat race against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, would have a substantial lead outside the margin of error should Sanders exit the race and his supporters lined up behind her, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In the past, Sanders has pledged to provide full-throated support for whoever the Democratic nominee is, in order to prevent a Republican victory in November.

In some ways, Sanders has already scored some significant concessions. He was able to get Dr. Cornel West, one of President Obama’s harshest critics on the left (he’s called him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface), and James Zogby, a Palestinian rights activist, on the platform committee, although their selections have led to some concern about whether this will lead to a floor fight over the party’s position on Israel.

While Sanders has suggested the party’s convention will be “messy,” he is still holding out hope that he will win the Democratic nomination outright through semi-traditional means. Besides winning the major primary in California on June 7 (a race that appears to be tightening), Sanders will be forced to persuade hundreds of superdelegates (who overwhelmingly favor Clinton) to switch over to his side.

“We’re going to make the case for the superdelegates, ‘Your job is to make sure that Trump is defeated, that Bernie Sanders, in fact, for a variety of reasons, not just polling, is the strongest candidate,‘ “ he told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday.

And while many Democrats have been troubled by the tone of some of Sanders’ attacks on the party’s establishment, others have argued that Sanders has earned the right to play hardball.

“This is exactly what Sanders should be doing,” wrote Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum this weekend. ”He won a lot votes. He has a lot of delegates. He has a substantial following that’s willing to take cues from him. There’s no intelligent politician in the country who wouldn’t use that to push the country in a direction he deeply believes in. Hillary would do the same thing in his position.”



“This weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for the DNC to remove to prominent Clinton supporters – Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank – from panels that help determine policy positions and procedures for the Democrats because both men have allegedly displayed “political and personal hostility” toward the Vermont lawmaker. …. In some ways, Sanders has already scored some significant concessions. He was able to get Dr. Cornel West, one of President Obama’s harshest critics on the left (he’s called him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface), and James Zogby, a Palestinian rights activist, on the platform committee, although their selections have led to some concern about whether this will lead to a floor fight over the party’s position on Israel. …. “We’re going to make the case for the superdelegates, ‘Your job is to make sure that Trump is defeated, that Bernie Sanders, in fact, for a variety of reasons, not just polling, is the strongest candidate,‘ “ he told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday. And while many Democrats have been troubled by the tone of some of Sanders’ attacks on the party’s establishment, others have argued that Sanders has earned the right to play hardball.”


“The DNC has rejected Sanders’ request – which may wind up prolonging an already ugly rift between Sanders and Clinton forces, which appear to be clashing more over process at this point rather than the ultimate primary result.” Process is the most important thing that needs to change, from Superdelegates over directly earned delegates, and caucuses rather than primaries, to several Sanders haters being on the DNC governing body and committees. One article said that Sanders, who is only recently a Democrat, hasn’t always played nice with others and is considered stubborn about his views and not a team player. Clinton isn’t always nice either, as has been pointed out numerous times, but she is the anointed choice.

The fact remains, however, that the DNC has moved toward the right in order to gain conservative leaning voters, and Sanders, by comparison, is a Democratic Socialist causing conflict. Bill Clinton was in office when a Rightward movement among blue collar workers, especially men, was noted with alarm, as a group called “Reagan Democrats” emerged; and the party decided to compromise their principles in order to win some of them back.

Others point out that it is Koch Brothers contamination. Clinton was accused in one news article recently of CHANGING HER VOTE because of a large donation to her war chest. Whatever the primary cause of the shift is, the Dems aren’t interested in a proper economic and social balance anymore, at least to the degree that I would like. Barney Frank used to be one of the most liberal members of Congress, and now he isn’t, and Ted Kennedy is dead.

In the old days there were unions which, while hated by the business interests, did force them to moderate their influence on wages and prevented layoffs, keeping enough people “in the money” that non-professional citizens successfully bought houses and helped their kids go to college. As a result, we had a growing Middle Class rather than a diminishing one.

Sanders strongly stands up for the progressives and offers concrete aid to the poor and lower Middle Class in the form of a $15.00 an hour minimum wage, free college tuition at state supported universities and a one payer medical program. Those things are expensive but apply directly to the needs of the Middle Class and the Poor. At least if they don’t have those good jobs anymore, they won’t have to live in crippling privation. Their kids can get a college degree.

We don’t have prosperity, not because business isn’t making enough money and the “trickle” isn’t coming down, but because the few jobs that exist in the USA don’t pay enough. Our well-paying industrial jobs are being taken away by technological development, or have been sent overseas, and laws enacted in the last fifteen years or so have cramped the style of unions, which had a powerful influence on business in my day. The jobless situation has improved somewhat, but it’s still a problem. Like the business with Sanders and the DNC, it is a “process” problem. The prosperity grows upward rather than coming down.

Besides there is still hard core poverty in this country despite the “social safety net” which is continually being reduced by “conservatives” in Congress; and the relief systems don’t pay as much as the costs of daily life require. Some members of the legislature make it their daily goal to restrict certain things like Medicaid, SS, and Unemployment, which they consider to be “coddling the poor” who are basically just lazy or stupid. That’s partly because they think that “give away” programs only weaken the lower classes by robbing them of the “incentive” of starvation; and partly because the businesses “can’t afford” to pay well. (That’s why they make millions and nowadays billions of dollars a year on their businesses.)

Bernie is doing the right thing in tackling the DNC upfront, because reform takes struggle. Those in power will not give it up voluntarily in most cases, so Bernie has entered the fray. I’m proud of his courage and persistent vision for a better nation. I’m surprised at how well he has done. He’s the dark horse who comes up from the back and surprises everybody. Go, Bernie!



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hey-hey-the-monkees-are-back/

Hey, hey, The Monkees are back!
CBS NEWS
May 29, 2016, 10:52 AM

Photograph -- the-monkees-good-times-cover-rhino-244.jpg, RHINO RECORDS
Watch: An original music video of The Monkees performing "Pleasant Valley Sunday"
Photograph -- monkees-interview-620.jpg, The surviving members of the '60s TV phenoms - Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork - are back with a 50th anniversary album, featuring newly-recorded songs, and a track with the late Davy Jones. CBS NEWS
22 PHOTOS -- The Monkees


How's that for a blast from the past? Pleasant Valley Sunday by The Monkees. They first swept onto the pop music scene 50 years ago. And though time has claimed one of their number, the others are still very much with us, and talking with Anthony Mason FOR THE RECORD:

In the fall of 1966, four madcap musicians -- a mix of The Beatles and the Marx Brothers -- made their debut on American television. Over the next 58 episodes, "The Monkees" would turn pop culture upside-down.

Half a century later, Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork are still monkeying around.

The Monkees would outsell The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1967. Their first four albums went to #1. A "made-for-TV" band, they were assembled by the show's producers, Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who put an ad in Variety seeking "four insane boys."

Nesmith was playing at the Troubador when a friend came in and said, "'I just saw this ad in Variety. I think you should go down and try out for it.' So I did. I got the job." He went to the audition in the same knit cap he'd wear for the show.

Dolenz didn't go to the cattle-call; as a child actor he'd had the lead in a show called "Circus Boy."

Tork, a folk singer, heard about the auditions from his friend Stephen Stills, who'd been passed over: "So Stephen had to settle for Crosby Stills Nash & Young. He's never forgiven me!"

Davy Jones, a British actor who'd already had Broadway experience, completed the cast:

Mason asked, "Did the four of you connect pretty quickly?"

"Instantly," said Dolenz. "It was scary."

"There were no duds among us -- except me!" said Tork. "But I wasn't really a dud. I played one on television."

Nesmith recalled, "Bob Rafelson said, 'Well, we coulda hired any four guys.' I said, 'Yeah, but you didn't. You hired us four.' And he said, 'Well, but any four guys could do what you're doin'. I said, 'No, they couldn't have. Because what we are, we bought the force of our character to it.'"

But the boys would butt heads with the show's music producer, Don Kirshner, who used outside session musicians to make The Monkees' first records. "I thought they wanted me to play for them," Tork said. "No, I was mistaken."

"And how did you feel about that?"

"I was mortified. They were doing 'Clarksville,' and I wrote a counterpoint -- I had studied music. And I brought it to them, and they said, 'No, no, Peter, you don't understand. This is the record. It's all done. We don't need you."

Mason asked if there was truth to the story that Jones had once dumped a Coca-Cola on Kirshner's head.

"That was me!" said Dolenz.

"Great moment of life!" Nesmith said, recalling, "I'd lost it. And I think when I lost it, I think it really just made Donnie, 'Oh no, they're laughing at me!'"

"Oh, those silly Monkees!" exclaimed Dolenz.

The fictional band became such a phenomenon, fans wanted to see them live. As Nesmith reasoned, "It was like, 'Well, now what?'"

So the producers finally allowed them to play, and their third album, "Headquarters," was entirely their own.

But critics had already branded The Monkees the "Prefab Four."

"There was a kind of, 'You guys aren't real,'" Nesmith said. "Well, define your terms."

"You were a fake band that became a real band, that wasn't really real?"

"Well, yeah. See, now you're off in the weeds with me! 'Cause I don't know the answer to that question. And Mick doesn't know. And if Peter says he does, he's lying."

"So you felt like a band?"

Tork replied, "Well, you know, it's -- no. Yes. Maybe."

Dolenz offered, "It's like Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan!"

"Davy was something," said Tork, who called his death completely unexpected. "The youngest of us, to go first."

Nesmith described performing for the first time without Jones: "Micky said, 'Well, how'm I gonna sing 'Daydream Believer?' And I said, 'Well, you can't. It doesn't belong to us anymore. It belongs to them.'"

So the crowd sings "Daydream Believer."
Schlesinger reached out to other indie rock stars who love the band. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie; Britons Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher; and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo have all written songs for the new Monkees record, titled "Good Times!"

"It's a pretty impressive list," Mason said.

"It's a great list, isn't it?" said Nesmith. "And again, me, lucky!"

"You Bring The Summer," from The Monkees' new album, "Good Times!"

They also unearthed an unreleased vintage Monkees track, "Love To Love" by Neil Diamond, that features the late Davy Jones, who died of a heart attack in 2012

"Davy was something," said Tork, who called his death completely unexpected. "The youngest of us, to go first."

Nesmith described performing for the first time without Jones: "Micky said, 'Well, how'm I gonna sing 'Daydream Believer?' And I said, 'Well, you can't. It doesn't belong to us anymore. It belongs to them.'"

So the crowd sings "Daydream Believer."

Mason asked Tork, "You think this could be your last tour?"

"No. We're gonna re-tour again next year. We'll tour 'til one of us drops. Then the other will go on as The Monkee! 'Hey, hey, it's the Monkee! And people say I monkey around...'"

For more info:
monkees.com (Official site)
"Good Times!" by The Monkees (Rhino); available on CD and vinyl, and via digital download (Amazon, Google Play and iTunes)


“The Monkees would outsell The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1967. Their first four albums went to #1. A "made-for-TV" band, they were assembled by the show's producers, Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who put an ad in Variety seeking "four insane boys." …. The fictional band became such a phenomenon, fans wanted to see them live. As Nesmith reasoned, "It was like, 'Well, now what?'" So the producers finally allowed them to play, and their third album, "Headquarters," was entirely their own. But critics had already branded The Monkees the "Prefab Four." …. Mason asked, "Did the four of you connect pretty quickly?" "Instantly," said Dolenz. "It was scary." "There were no duds among us -- except me!" said Tork. "But I wasn't really a dud. I played one on television." …. "Davy was something," said Tork, who called his death completely unexpected. "The youngest of us, to go first." Nesmith described performing for the first time without Jones: "Micky said, 'Well, how'm I gonna sing 'Daydream Believer?' And I said, 'Well, you can't. It doesn't belong to us anymore. It belongs to them.'" So the crowd sings "Daydream Believer." …. "Davy was something," said Tork, who called his death completely unexpected. "The youngest of us, to go first." Nesmith described performing for the first time without Jones: "Micky said, 'Well, how'm I gonna sing 'Daydream Believer?' And I said, 'Well, you can't. It doesn't belong to us anymore. It belongs to them.'" So the crowd sings "Daydream Believer."


"Daydream Believer," unlike most Rock’ n Roll, was absolutely beautiful, and the Monkeys TV show was hysterically funny. Please do go to the website and watch the video interview with the surviving Monkeys. Put your feet up and think back!



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alleged-sexual-assault-black-football-player-dietrich-idaho/

Alleged rape of black football player divides Idaho town
CBS/AP
May 30, 2016, 11:33 AM

Photograph -- Dietrich, Idaho High School GOOGLE MAPS
Photograph -- john-rk-howard.jpg, John Howard TARRANT COUNTY JAIL VIA CBS AFFILIATE KTVB


DIETRICH, Idaho - Teaching her children how to peacefully respond to racist comments in a tiny Idaho town was not new for the mother of 20 adopted children, many of whom are black. She often found herself echoing the virtues taught in Dietrich's only church.

Kindness and patience can overcome ignorance in the mostly white, rural community, she told her kids. Forgive. Turn the other cheek.

Then her black teenage son joined the football team. Within months, three of his teammates used a coat hanger to sexually assault him in a school locker room, prosecutors say. The attack came after the woman said she spent months trying to convince school officials that her and her husband's concerns about the repeated racist harassment directed at their children needed to be treated seriously.

The allegations of prolonged racist taunts and physical abuse were revealed this month when the family filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Dietrich School District. It claims the school failed to prevent the abuse even though much of it happened in front of football coaches and school officials.

Three teens have been charged in the Oct. 23 assault: two with felonies in adult court and one in juvenile court. In the lawsuit, the victim contends one of his teammates pretended to want to hug him but instead held him down so 17-year-old Tanner Ward and 18-year-old John Howard could assault him.

CBS affiliate KBOI writes: "The victim said two of the teammates gave him a "power wedgie" before practice on the day of alleged rape. The wedgie tore the victim's underwear. Then after football practice the victim said he was coaxed into hugging a teammate, but when the victim wrapped his arms around his friend, the oldest teen, shoved the hanger up the teen's rectum while the other teen kicked it several times."

Ward has pleaded not guilty, and Howard has not yet entered a plea. The juvenile court case is sealed.

The oldest teen was from Texas and sent to Idaho because of "his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas," according to the lawsuit, reports KBOI.

"Sometimes I wish I hadn't said anything," the mother said. "Then we could have lived a quiet life. But when you're right, you sometimes have to stand alone."

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual abuse and is withholding the woman's name to avoid identifying her son.

Ward's attorney declined to comment, saying he was court-ordered not to discuss his client's case with the media. Howard's attorney did not return a request for comment.

The victim's mother, who is white, said her son was not alone in experiencing hurtful comments from fellow students. Another son was called the N-word in grade school, a daughter was called "Aunt Jemima," and another child was told by fellow students to "go back to Africa." The school district treated the taunts with indifference, she said.

School officials have repeatedly denied requests for comment from the AP and local media outlets like KBOI. However, other residents of the town that revolves largely around church and school sports say it's a safe and welcoming place. They're stunned by the allegations, but some are unhappy the family took the district to court.

It's not the first time the family has been on the wrong side of local public opinion. The teen's father, a teacher at the school, received an ethics complaint in 2013 for saying the word "vagina" during a biology class. The complaint was eventually deemed unfounded, but the incident made national headlines, and the mother said residents who treated their family with disdain a few years ago have returned with the same anger.

Melissa Towne, 37, who has spent her whole life in the town of about 330 people, says Dietrich is a good place despite the negative attention. People wave at one another as they pass on the mostly gravel roads, and Towne makes it a point to welcome the occasional new neighbor.

"We never had this kind of attention when I was in school," she said. "But I still like it here. We have good people here. I like living in a small town, and so do a lot of people who live here."

Most residents attend church in the simple Mormon building that marks the town's main entrance. Basketball is the favored sport because of a series of state championships, but the high school football program is gaining popularity thanks to a recent winning streak and new equipment donations.

"In this town, it's all about your name and how athletic you are," the victim's mother said.

She and her husband have lived in Dietrich for more than two decades, though many of their children are older and have moved away. Large families and adoptions are common in the Mormon faith.

Most families in Dietrich, about 125 miles east of Boise, tally their time there in decades, not years.

"Everyone who is from here pitches in and helps each other," said Clay Divine, who has lived in the town for more than 30 years. "Those kids were not from here. This is a nice community."

Still, Ward is practically a next-door neighbor in the rural region where the nearest Wal-Mart is 40 miles away. He hails from Richfield, a slightly larger town of about 480 just 16 miles away.

Howard, accused in the lawsuit of being the ringleader in the attack, moved to Dietrich last year from Keller, Texas, a city nestled inside the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.

But he's related to a Dietrich celebrity - Acey Shaw, a beloved girls' basketball coach who led the team to a record five state championships. The town rallied around Shaw after he contracted a rare bovine disease that stole his ability to walk and most of his ability to talk.

The victim's lawsuit cited that family connection, arguing school officials looked the other way on Howard's behavior because of his relatives.

It also said the victim has mental disabilities, though it does not elaborate. His mother declined to discuss specifics about the boy and the case.

Divine said he felt bad for the victim and understands why the state pressed charges against his teammates. But the lawsuit has given the town another black eye, Divine said, and in the insular community, that offense can be hard to forgive.

"This lawsuit really has people divided," Divine said. "But it happened on the coaches' watch, and this is something that young man is going to have to live with his whole life."

Divine's children grew up in the Dietrich school system, where they played sports and studied hard in a safe environment. He's not sure that's the case now.

"This is a good town for my grandchildren. I just don't think I would send them to the school anymore," he said.

KBOI reports a sister of the victim was detained by police after visiting the school and not announcing her presence to administrators. The family claimed she had visited the school -- where she is an alumnus -- regularly without problems prior to the filing of the lawsuit.

Just down the road, the victim's mother was working in her front yard, waiting for a call back from a real estate agent. After 21 years in Dietrich, they're searching for someplace safer.


“Kindness and patience can overcome ignorance in the mostly white, rural community, she told her kids. Forgive. Turn the other cheek. Then her black teenage son joined the football team. …. The attack came after the woman said she spent months trying to convince school officials that her and her husband's concerns about the repeated racist harassment directed at their children needed to be treated seriously. …. In the lawsuit, the victim contends one of his teammates pretended to want to hug him but instead held him down so 17-year-old Tanner Ward and 18-year-old John Howard could assault him. …. Ward has pleaded not guilty, and Howard has not yet entered a plea. The juvenile court case is sealed. The oldest teen was from Texas and sent to Idaho because of "his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas," according to the lawsuit, reports KBOI. …. The victim's mother, who is white, said her son was not alone in experiencing hurtful comments from fellow students. Another son was called the N-word in grade school, a daughter was called "Aunt Jemima," and another child was told by fellow students to "go back to Africa." The school district treated the taunts with indifference, she said. School officials have repeatedly denied requests for comment from the AP and local media outlets like KBOI. However, other residents of the town that revolves largely around church and school sports say it's a safe and welcoming place. They're stunned by the allegations, but some are unhappy the family took the district to court. …. KBOI reports a sister of the victim was detained by police after visiting the school and not announcing her presence to administrators. The family claimed she had visited the school -- where she is an alumnus -- regularly without problems prior to the filing of the lawsuit.”


"Everyone who is from here pitches in and helps each other," said Clay Divine, who has lived in the town for more than 30 years. "Those kids were not from here. This is a nice community." Still, Ward is practically a next-door neighbor in the rural region where the nearest Wal-Mart is 40 miles away. He hails from Richfield, a slightly larger town of about 480 just 16 miles away.” I love the beauty of rural settings and very small towns, especially if they have old homes that were built in the early 1900s or even earlier.

It is a fact, though, that relative poverty among both blacks and whites is usually the status quo in those places unless the people inherited money, and with that comes social isolation and lack of education. There are very few job sources, after all. I will mention, too, that these people are Mormons, who can be very much closed to outsiders. The victim's mother said "In this town, it's all about your name and how athletic you are.” Whenever I see a high level of stress on athletics, I see less respect for education and a greater amount of violence, especially with football as the sport of choice. In this case both a football coach and another faculty member or two WATCHED the bizarre sexual assault and did nothing. The boys, luckily, were identified and arrested. I just hope this young man will get mental health treatment after the event. Things like that can cause PTSD, not to mention major depression.

It’s a little strange, though, that the victim’s sister was arrested for entering the school without notifying the administration, which had never been a problem before the lawsuit. Unless they thought the sister was spying on the school administration or something like that, it would appear to be simple malice. One of the residents said that some were angry that a suit had been filed because it “gave the town a black eye!” If they don’t want a black eye, they shouldn’t let such things go on without stepping in to stop it. I am glad to see that the two older boys are being tried in adult court. Seventeen and eighteen year-old kids, especially boys, are not children.



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/30/479975975/wwii-veteran-who-fought-to-expose-secret-mustard-gas-experiments-dies

WORLD WAR II SECRET MUSTARD GAS TESTING

WWII Veteran, Who Fought To Expose Secret Mustard Gas Experiments, Dies
CAITLIN DICKERSON
May 30, 2016 9:45 AM ET

Photograph -- World War II veteran Charles Cavell — a test subject in the military's secret mustard gas experiments — at his home in Virginia. Ariel Zambelich/NPR
Photographs -- Charles "Lindy" Cavell could never forget what the U.S. military tried to hide. Cavell fought to bring to light the secret mustard gas testing program he had participated in during World War II and for VA compensation for the test subjects. He died at home Wednesday at 89.
Photograph -- Cavell holds his wife Hilda's hand during a visit to the VA facility in Richmond, Va., in May 2015 for a series of exams to re-evaluate whether he can qualify for disability benefits after being exposed to mustard gas testing during his time in the military. Ariel Zambelich/NPR
Related -- The VA's Broken Promise To Thousands Of Vets Exposed To Mustard Gas
Photograph -- Three test subjects enter a gas chamber, which will fill with mustard gas, as part of the military's secret chemical warfare testing in March 1945. WORLD WAR II SECRET MUSTARD GAS TESTING
Photograph -- While in the Navy, Cavell (center, No. 27), then 19, volunteered for the military's secret chemical testing program in exchange for two weeks' vacation. Ariel Zambelich/NPR. Original photo: Courtesy of Charlie Cavell
Photograph -- While in the Navy, Cavell (center, No. 27), then 19, volunteered for the military's secret chemical testing program in exchange for two weeks' vacation.
Ariel Zambelich/NPR. Original photo: Courtesy of Charlie Cavell
Photograph -- Cavell and his wife, Hilda Cavell, at their home in January 2015.
Ariel Zambelich/NPR


Cavell was featured prominently in an NPR investigation last year that found the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to notify mustard gas test subjects — who had been sworn to secrecy about the testing — of their eligibility for compensation, and routinely denied help to those who qualified for it.

During the last year of his life, Cavell was finally granted additional benefits and some back pay after a 26-year battle with the VA, according to his daughter, Linda Smith.

"I think he felt like he had finally accomplished something, and he was relieved that other service members were being recognized" as a result of the stories he was featured in, Smith said.

Cavell was a 19-year-old Navy recruit fresh out of boot camp in 1945 when a commanding officer offered the chance to participate in a "special program." The officer gave few details, but said volunteers would get two weeks' vacation and an award in exchange for participating.

"We were just a bunch of young kids. We didn't know any better," Cavell told NPR last year.

More than 60,000 Army and Navy troops raised their hands for the experiments, which ranged in severity from a few beads of toxic gas dropped onto the undersides of their wrists, to full-body inundation.

Cavell said when officers ordered him and 11 other test subjects into a heated gas chamber at the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington, D.C., it was too late to back out.

"We had ceased to be volunteers," Cavell told NPR last year.

Officers locked the chamber door from the outside and piped in mustard agent.

The military kept the tests off of the troops' personnel records — and swore the troops to secrecy under threat of dishonorable discharge or court-martial.

Half a century later, in 1990, Cavell and a few other test subjects went public with their stories, pressuring the Pentagon into declassifying the experiments and releasing test subjects from their oaths of secrecy. But even after the secret was out, and despite assurances from the Pentagon and VA, trying to obtain compensation proved futile for many.

The first heart attack hit Cavell at age 40 — and was followed by decades of chronic vascular and respiratory ailments requiring more than 20 operations at the VA hospital near his home in Midlothian, Va. He also developed congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

For decades, the VA refused to cover his medical expenses, saying Cavell hadn't proved his participation in the tests — even though he had more proof than most: From the Navy, he'd obtained copies of the laboratory notebooks from the experiments. They described the tests in great detail, including the temperature and humidity levels inside the gas chamber. Down the left side of the page, the names of test subjects are listed, with Cavell's name written in neat handwriting. But that wasn't enough for the VA.

"They say, 'We need more information,' " Cavell told NPR last year. "It doesn't make sense."

Cavell and his wife, Hilda Cavell, at their home in January 2015.
Ariel Zambelich/NPR

Cavell waged a steady fight for benefits while he worked long hours at the TV repair shop he owned, to support his wife Hilda and four daughters.

"He never wanted us to be involved in any of that. But behind the scenes he was working on paperwork," according to his daughter Linda Smith.

Her father loved people, Smith told NPR, but he was a quiet presence at home. During retirement, he often spent time in the garage, sitting at an old metal desk under fluorescent tube lights, fixing household appliances.

"He didn't share a whole lot. I think the tinkering and working on computers kept the mind away," Smith said.

But sometimes the memories of being inside a gas chamber overcame him.

As part of NPR's reporting on mustard gas experiments during World War II, we put together a searchable database with more than 3,900 test subjects who had "full body exposure" to the gas. Were you or someone you know exposed?

Courtesy of the families

"There was no handle on the door. You couldn't get out," he told NPR last year. "And that's what I have problems with today. If I go to a locked door, I panic sometimes to try to get out."

Cavell's health declined rapidly in the final years of his life, according to his family.

Earlier this month, he chose to go off of dialysis because of the pain.

Five days before he died of kidney failure, he took his final project out to the garage — a white Sunbeam toaster that wouldn't engage — but never got to finish it.

He is survived by his wife, Hilda Cavell, and three daughters — Linda, Mary and Joan. His daughter Margaret died in 2010.

A warm sun blanketed his family at his funeral in Richmond, Va., on Saturday. Two Navy officers folded an American flag and presented it to his wife while a third played taps.

In his obituary, Cavell's daughter Smith wrote that her father "went on a new journey to a place where there are no more wars to fight mentally or physically."

Charles "Lindy" Cavell could never forget what the U.S. military tried to hide. Cavell fought to bring to light the secret mustard gas testing program he had participated in during World War II and for VA compensation for the test subjects. He died at home Wednesday at 89.

Cavell was featured prominently in an NPR investigation last year that found the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to notify mustard gas test subjects — who had been sworn to secrecy about the testing — of their eligibility for compensation, and routinely denied help to those who qualified for it.

During the last year of his life, Cavell was finally granted additional benefits and some back pay after a 26-year battle with the VA, according to his daughter, Linda Smith.

"I think he felt like he had finally accomplished something, and he was relieved that other service members were being recognized" as a result of the stories he was featured in, Smith said.

The VA's Broken Promise To Thousands Of Vets Exposed To Mustard Gas

Cavell was a 19-year-old Navy recruit fresh out of boot camp in 1945 when a commanding officer offered the chance to participate in a "special program." The officer gave few details, but said volunteers would get two weeks' vacation and an award in exchange for participating.

"We were just a bunch of young kids. We didn't know any better," Cavell told NPR last year.

More than 60,000 Army and Navy troops raised their hands for the experiments, which ranged in severity from a few beads of toxic gas dropped onto the undersides of their wrists, to full-body inundation.

Cavell said when officers ordered him and 11 other test subjects into a heated gas chamber at the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington, D.C., it was too late to back out.

"We had ceased to be volunteers," Cavell told NPR last year.

Officers locked the chamber door from the outside and piped in mustard agent.

The military kept the tests off of the troops' personnel records — and swore the troops to secrecy under threat of dishonorable discharge or court-martial.

Half a century later, in 1990, Cavell and a few other test subjects went public with their stories, pressuring the Pentagon into declassifying the experiments and releasing test subjects from their oaths of secrecy. But even after the secret was out, and despite assurances from the Pentagon and VA, trying to obtain compensation proved futile for many.

The first heart attack hit Cavell at age 40 — and was followed by decades of chronic vascular and respiratory ailments requiring more than 20 operations at the VA hospital near his home in Midlothian, Va. He also developed congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

For decades, the VA refused to cover his medical expenses, saying Cavell hadn't proved his participation in the tests — even though he had more proof than most: From the Navy, he'd obtained copies of the laboratory notebooks from the experiments. They described the tests in great detail, including the temperature and humidity levels inside the gas chamber. Down the left side of the page, the names of test subjects are listed, with Cavell's name written in neat handwriting. But that wasn't enough for the VA.

"They say, 'We need more information,' " Cavell told NPR last year. "It doesn't make sense."

Cavell waged a steady fight for benefits while he worked long hours at the TV repair shop he owned, to support his wife Hilda and four daughters.

"He never wanted us to be involved in any of that. But behind the scenes he was working on paperwork," according to his daughter Linda Smith.

Her father loved people, Smith told NPR, but he was a quiet presence at home. During retirement, he often spent time in the garage, sitting at an old metal desk under fluorescent tube lights, fixing household appliances.

"He didn't share a whole lot. I think the tinkering and working on computers kept the mind away," Smith said.

But sometimes the memories of being inside a gas chamber overcame him.

As part of NPR's reporting on mustard gas experiments during World War II, we put together a searchable database with more than 3,900 test subjects who had "full body exposure" to the gas. Were you or someone you know exposed?

Courtesy of the families

"There was no handle on the door. You couldn't get out," he told NPR last year. "And that's what I have problems with today. If I go to a locked door, I panic sometimes to try to get out."

Cavell's health declined rapidly in the final years of his life, according to his family.

Earlier this month, he chose to go off of dialysis because of the pain.

Five days before he died of kidney failure, he took his final project out to the garage — a white Sunbeam toaster that wouldn't engage — but never got to finish it.

He is survived by his wife, Hilda Cavell, and three daughters — Linda, Mary and Joan. His daughter Margaret died in 2010.

A warm sun blanketed his family at his funeral in Richmond, Va., on Saturday. Two Navy officers folded an American flag and presented it to his wife while a third played taps.

In his obituary, Cavell's daughter Smith wrote that her father "went on a new journey to a place where there are no more wars to fight mentally or physically."

Cavell holds his wife Hilda's hand during a visit to the VA facility in Richmond, Va., in May 2015 for a series of exams to re-evaluate whether he can qualify for disability benefits after being exposed to mustard gas testing during his time in the military.
Ariel Zambelich/NPR


“More than 60,000 Army and Navy troops raised their hands for the experiments, which ranged in severity from a few beads of toxic gas dropped onto the undersides of their wrists, to full-body inundation. Cavell said when officers ordered him and 11 other test subjects into a heated gas chamber at the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington, D.C., it was too late to back out. "We had ceased to be volunteers," Cavell told NPR last year. Officers locked the chamber door from the outside and piped in mustard agent. …. Half a century later, in 1990, Cavell and a few other test subjects went public with their stories, pressuring the Pentagon into declassifying the experiments and releasing test subjects from their oaths of secrecy. But even after the secret was out, and despite assurances from the Pentagon and VA, trying to obtain compensation proved futile for many. …. For decades, the VA refused to cover his medical expenses, saying Cavell hadn't proved his participation in the tests — even though he had more proof than most: From the Navy, he'd obtained copies of the laboratory notebooks from the experiments. They described the tests in great detail, including the temperature and humidity levels inside the gas chamber. Down the left side of the page, the names of test subjects are listed, with Cavell's name written in neat handwriting. But that wasn't enough for the VA.”


This really looks like war crimes to me, and then to “accidentally on purpose” fail to notify these men that they were eligible for compensation is simply despicable. “Winning is the only thing” cannot be derived from the Christian religion, yet most Americans who believe in these things claim to be Christians. One flaw in the Christian religion as it being practiced since the 1950s is that it stresses a blind “acceptance” of Jesus’ virgin birth and rising from the dead, while allowing people to do just any kind of crime and then “repent” of it and confess. After that they will be “saved,” unless of course they have doubted the basic truth of the myth!

This shocking news story sounds a great deal like the Tuskegee experiment in which black men were purposely given syphilis, but not TREATED in order to watch, scientifically, the progress of the disease. Another case is the 1970s CIA experiments to test LSD as a truth serum. That story came out when a test subject, unaware he had been drugged and driven mad by his hallucinations, jumped out of a city building, NYC I think, to his death. All these things were not events that happened in Nazi Germany, but the work of the US government. I can see why some people hate and distrust such an opaque and (hopefully occasionally) brutal power structure. The good news is that these things are not the ordinary course of events.

For the LSD story, see the New Yorker article on this website -- http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/high-anxiety-lsd-in-the-cold-war.