and just in time for New Year’s…we have wild fires in Boulder, Colorado caused by fallen electric lines… grass fires fueled by 110 mph winds…thousands evacuated while over five hundred homes go up in fames, along with a hotel and shopping center…in December…December!…the sky was orange above Boulder…I don’t have to tell you that fires have become more worsened in the last years…as well as extreme weather…we have over half a million people becoming infected with the Omicron in one day…the sky is falling with Omicron spreading quickly as well…and we have another type of infection racing through America…death threats…from Reuters by Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Linda So and Sam Hart: “Anatomy of a death threat: Trump supporters have waged a campaign of intimidation against the state and local officials who administer U.S. elections. This visual analysis explores hundreds of menacing messages – and explains why they’re difficult to counter.: Reuters has documented more than 850 threatening and hostile messages aimed at election officials and staff related to the 2020 election. Virtually all expressed support for former President Donald Trump or echoed his debunked contention that the election was stolen. The messages spanned 30 jurisdictions in 16 states. They came via emails, voicemails, texts, letters and Internet posts”…from Linda So and Jason Szep: “( This story contains text, images and audio clips with offensive language. ) In Arizona, a stay-at-home dad and part-time Lyft driver told the state’s chief election officer she would hang for treason. In Utah, a youth treatment center staffer warned Colorado’s election chief that he knew where she lived and watched her as she slept.
In Vermont, a man who says he works in construction told workers at the state election office and at Dominion Voting Systems that they were about to die.
“This might be a good time to put a f‑‑‑‑‑‑ pistol in your f‑‑‑‑‑‑ mouth and pull the trigger,” the man shouted at Vermont officials in a thick New England accent last December. “Your days are f‑‑‑‑‑‑ numbered.”
The three had much in common. All described themselves as patriots fighting a conspiracy that robbed Donald Trump of the 2020 election. They are regular consumers of far-right websites that embrace Trump’s stolen-election falsehoods. And none have been charged with a crime by the law enforcement agencies alerted to their threats.
They were among nine people who told Reuters in interviews that they made threats or left other hostile messages to election workers. In all, they are responsible for nearly two dozen harassing communications to six election officials in four states. Seven made threats explicit enough to put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the U.S. federal standard for criminal prosecution, according to four legal experts who reviewed their messages at Reuters’ request.
These cases provide a unique perspective into how people with everyday jobs and lives have become radicalized to the point of terrorizing public officials. They are part of a broader campaign of fear waged against frontline workers of American democracy chronicled by Reuters this year. The news organization has documented nearly 800 intimidating messages to election officials in 12 states, including more than 100 that could warrant prosecution, according to legal experts.
The harassers expressed beliefs similar to those voiced by rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, trying to block Democrat Joe Biden’s certification as president. Nearly all of the threateners saw the country deteriorating into a war between good and evil – “patriots” against “communists.” They echoed extremist ideas popularized by QAnon, a collective of baseless conspiracy theories that often cast Trump as a savior figure and Democrats as villains. Some said they were preparing for civil war. Six were in their 50s or older; all but two were men.
They are part of a national phenomenon. America’s federal elections are administered by state and local officials. But the threateners are targeting workers far from home: Seven of the nine harassed officials in other states. Some targeted election officials in states where Trump lost by substantial margins, such as Colorado – or even Vermont, where Biden won by 35 percentage points.
“These people firmly believe in the ‘Big Lie’ that the former president legitimately won the election,” said Chris Krebs, who ran the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security. Krebs was fired by Trump last year for declaring that the 2020 election had been conducted fairly. By terrorizing election officials, he said, they’re effectively acting as Trump’s “foot soldiers.”
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.”
Others who threatened election officials told Reuters they were directly inspired by Trump or his prominent allies, who have denounced specific election offices nationwide for allowing voter fraud, turning them into targets.”…in a lot of ways, these death threats are like the wild fire in Boulder…burning everyone in its path…and if the fires don’t get you or the omicron doesn’t get you…the “Doomsday Glacier” will…from By ABC7 Chicago Digital Team: “Here’s why scientists are concerned about a so-called ‘doomsday glacier’ as big as Florida: ANTARCTICA (WLS) — Scientists have been warning the public of a so-called “doomsday glacier” that could break within a few years.
The Thwaites glacier in Antarctica is about the size of Florida and is the widest glacier in the world.
Researchers have said that the ice sheets around the glacier are fracturing. Experts said they fear that the fractured sheets around the glacier could shatter within the next three to five years. A breakage of that magnitude would pose the biggest threat for sea-level rise in the 21st century and would put coastal communities and low-lying nations at risk, researchers said.”…Miami would be under water…Long Beach Island ( it’s been threatened forever ) would be under water…Mar-A-Lago would be under water if the Thwaites glacier takes the surrounding glaciers with it…sea level could raise from 2 feet to 10 feet…
at midnight, on Turner Classic Movies, they showed The Last Picture Show…I urged Julia to record it and watch it later…from Wikipedia: “the 1971 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1966 novel The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry.”…McMurtry died on March 25, 2021…Cloris Leachman died January 27, 2021…”The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd” and Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager and Randy Quaid…”Set in a small town in north Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is a story of two high-school seniors and long-time friends, Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges).”…the film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Johnson and Bridges, and Best Supporting Actress for Burstyn and Leachman”…Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman won the Supporting Actors awards”…a great film in black and white…McMurtry, an American novelist, essayist, bookseller, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry’s works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins).
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove, was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and cowriter Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.”…
in the sky is falling theme, on Netflix – Don’t Look Up…a satire on climate change…and literally, the sky is falling as a comet heads straight for Earth, which would completely demolish the planet…from Wikipedia: “the 2021 American satirical science fiction film written, produced, and directed by Adam McKay. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an approaching comet that will destroy human civilization. Supporting cast include Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, with Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep. The film is a satire of government and media indifference to the climate crisis. Grande and Mescudi also collaborated on the song “Just Look Up” as part of the film’s soundtrack. The film is dedicated to Hal Willner, who died in 2020.”…funny and timely, check it out on Netflix…either way you look at what’s going on in the world today, the sky is falling…everything is closing in on us…we are all Chicken Little…at least I am, running around yelling “the sky is falling”…especially in light of voting rights, the attempted coup and trump in general…yes, the sky is falling…the original Henny Penny…the name of Nancy’s father’s farm…in Ivyland, PA, where she spent the first 8 years of her life…a chicken and egg farm…I think the original sign is with my niece Sally…
Art Salazar 