Lunatic Fringe

La Passion Beatrice - A Film to Destroy Your Illusions

2026-07-05T12:50:54.286-04:00

La Passion Beatrice

Just watched a vastly underrated French film called “La Passion Beatrice.” I had one regret, which is that I couldn’t get decent subtitling. What I got was some leftover 1990s tech that left me guessing on every frame.

Great acting and great directing but you won’t be able to recover from the eighteen-year-old Julie Delpy’s performance as the daughter of a squire and landowner in the 14^th Century France. She’s beautiful in both fleshly and spiritual ways.

I wanted to press pause just to admire her in certain scenes. She says much more in her facial expressions than a person could say with words.

This was early in Delpy’s career. She later moved to Hollywood where the real money is but her face (visage?) and halting performance reminds me of the cherubs on the Sistine Chapel. That innocence, freshness, and devotion to God becomes sullied by her father, who returns home from war a broken, cynical, and sadistic man.

“Sullied” is perhaps too delicate a word but why am I being squeamish? This film is not squeamish though American critics would rather it was. Plain fact is he raped his daughter in one scene, and presumably wanted to rape Beatrice some more.

The film has a kind of brutal realism that serves as a good antidote to the American flight to fantasy and sanitized romanticism. As an offshoot of its intellectual properties, I couldn’t help but think of Celine and his ‘blackening’ literary style.

Critics have found this too real a picture of rural life during the Hundred Years War. American audiences want the sanitized version of nobility. This film’s not a fork and spoon historical drama. People ate with their hands and fingers, were unkempt and bedraggled, were hungry, ate weird stuff, and ignored the disabled, including a rather touching four-year-old boy who doesn’t speak and has no parents.

For all of the ugliness, the cinematography is wondrous. When Francois and his men mount their horses and go raiding, the filming is like the very best American western scene of the same type—thundering horses trampling everything beneath them, with mounted demons in the saddles.

The castle owned by nobleman Francois de Cortemare is dirty, dank, and has people sleeping on the floor in dark corners.

Pima Country Sheriff Ninos Butting Heads in Nancy Guthrie Case

2026-02-24T12:43:00.001-05:00

It was a question I kept asking. The public was shown two photos of the masked man at Nancy Guthrie’s door. Were they taken on the same day, same time, or different days, different times?

But now it comes out that, according to a source, the images were taken at a different time, leading to headlines in major outlets that Nancy’s abductors or killers had visited before the Feb. 1 date she is thought to have been taken.

So the drama takes a new turn. Sheriff Ninos doesn’t exactly lie about it but says the information doesn’t come from his department nor from the FBI. Of course ti didn’t. But that is not the same things as saying the report is false.

Where it did come from? First report came from ABC, referring to an unnamed but supposedly reliable source. With regard to this case alone, I’m quite sure ABC has a reliable source. I don’t think they would have published if there was a risk the report would be discredited later.

Here is a copy of the Sheriff’s statement to media: "There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative."

SAMANTHA GUTHRIE: A MOTHER MISSING

2026-02-03T13:38:00.005-05:00

The widespread interest in the case of the missing celebrity mother stems from the unlikelihood of the crime. You have an 84 year old female crime victim in a scene that makes no sense.

What would make sense is a simple and easy robbery, in spite of the security cameras stationed around the house. In that case, the robbers would just wear hoods and be gone.

Nancy Guthrie’s house would be an easy target for thieves. The obvious question to ask yourself is that, if robbery were the motive, then why is Mrs. Guthrie missing?

Another thought that must be entertained, no matter how ridiculous, is that Nancy is being held for ransom. Kidnappers who expected any sort or ransom would have to be the dumbest criminals in the world.

It’s been stated that the woman can’t walk 50 yards unaided. Moreover she needs medications and, according to investigators, could die without them.

For that matter, Pima County Sheriff may be speaking in code to whomever has Mrs. Guthrie. An abduction could easily turn fatal and result in additional murder charges in addition to others.

Summ security camera footage abounds. More video could come from other home security systems in the area. Mrs. Guthrie’s cellphone and wallet were left at the home, addressing any notions that she’d left home of her own accord.

Yesterday, the language used by investigators was that the home was in disarray. Today the sheriff went a little farther in telling news reporters he was waiting for lab results before he could answer certain questions. Lab results were mentioned because it’s being widely reported there was blood DNA at the home. I’m guessing but fairly sure investigators can already tell whose waiting to ascertain whose blood it was or whose blood it wasn’t.

As in all criminal cases, police know far more than they can say. I wish I could be more hopeful of a positive outcome.

Alex Pretti: What Made Him Carry a Loaded Gun to a Street Demonstration?

2026-01-28T19:37:00.000-05:00

Alex Pretti is the man shot in Minneapolis demonstration against ICE agents. First of all, I’m sorry for his family.

Judging from the videos, the fatality has all the marks of a ‘bad shooting,’ i.e., a mistake on the part of an ICE agent. Available video seems to support the conclusion of a fatal mistake.

I’m going to go with that, a mistake. But there is much that will never be discussed. How and why exactly did Pretti come to bring a gun and ammo to a demonstration where he’d already been involved in a tense standoff between ICE agents and the demonstrators?

People don’t like the question, I know. They’re quite suddenly devout Second Amendment acolytes. So am I. Alex Pretti had a right to carry an absolute right to have a loaded pistol and two clips (?) filled with 9mm ammo and also a right to protest.

But I’m curious: Alex Pretti got out of bed that morning, got dressed, and then decided he would carry his pistol and ammo to the demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Did he do that every day? Did he carry when he went to the grocery store, to church, to his job at the VA hospital?

How did he carry his pistol and ammo? Was it in a holster, stuck into his belt, or did it fit in his pocket? And when he decided to carry his loaded pistol to the demonstration, did he think about what might happen?

Was he thinking he would shoot it out with ICE agent(s)in a gun battle if he felt threatened? Or would he say “No, I would never do that” thereby leaving you to believe the weapon was for ornamentation only, a fashion accessory, deadly jewelry, so to speak.

No one really knows what was on his mind when he brought a gun to a volatile situation but lethal weapons are not fashion accessories. Nor can you say he was naïve about the clashes between ICE agents and demonstrators.

He’d fought with ICE agents before, according to CNN reporters Jeff Winter and Priscilla Alvarez. Their story was based on anonymous sources close to Pretti.

To paraphrase the CNN report: . . ‘he (Pretti) stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing. . .a family on foot, and began shouting an blowing his whistle,” accord to the unidentified source.

And more: “Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene. . . . Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN.”

There’s a hearsay addendum to the article in which the unidentified third party ‘source’ says: “That day, he thought he was going to die.”

It sounds a bit dramatic, since the CNN story goes on to say he was immediately released.

UPDATE: Interestingly, David Muir on the ABC nightly news this evening (Jan 28) played a video clip in which Pretti is shown spitting at and kicking the taillight out of a presumably ICE SUV. The same clip shows a pistol tucked into his belt at his back, identified as such by the network news.

To be clear, this was not on the day Pretti was killed, but several days before.

Lawyer says Brendan Banfield will take the stand in his own defense in Au Pair Murders

2026-01-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

According to his lawyer, Brendan Banfield will testify in his own behalf in what is being called the "Au Pair" murder trial. The former IRS special agent is accused of killing his wife and another man and staging the crime scene.

According to the Au Pair Juliana Peres Magalhães , hired to take care of the Banfield's daughter, she helped stage the crime scene and participated in the murder firing one shot into the body of Joseph Ryan.

According to the prosecution, Ryan was lured to the Banfield home for a sexual tryst with murder victim Christine Banfield. The role-playing activity that drew Ryan to the residence was to participate in a rape fantasy, according to prosecutors.

Magalhaes testified against Brendan Banfield, saying she saw him shoot Ryan and stab his wife to death. . In exchange for her testimony she received a lesser sentence. She pled guilty to a manslaughter charge instead of murder.

Lawyers generally do all they can to persuade defendants to stay off the witness stand. One can only guess that Brendan's willingness to do so is a last desperate attempt to save himself.

Not By Robert Frost These Woods

2026-01-02T14:20:00.004-05:00

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

Russian Film 2015: "What is my name?"

2025-08-10T10:48:00.004-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2025-08-03T10:15:00.001-04:00

Sirens:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Late Show with Colbert was Losing multi-Millions

2025-07-18T20:42:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

2024-08-05T21:31:00.004-04:00

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

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

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

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

Mr. Lunatic of the Fringe

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

2023-09-18T20:29:00.001-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evidence Suggests Ukrainian Missile Caused Market Tragedy:

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

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

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

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

2023-09-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

Let’s look at some of the responses:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023-09-09T20:27:00.003-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Silence" "a short film)

2023-05-12T22:10:00.002-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bryan Kohberger Defense and the Straw Man Argument

2023-01-12T21:32:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is Kaylee Goncalves Former BF Jack DuCoeur being Persecuted?

2022-12-26T12:38:00.006-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drip-Drop on the #Idaho Student Murders

2022-12-07T17:32:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022-12-02T21:34:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022-10-28T22:06:00.005-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022-09-22T12:29:00.004-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ukrainian Border Guards Fake Action on Front Line

2022-08-02T21:50:00.001-04:00

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

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

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

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

2022-07-27T10:54:00.002-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Madness of Ukraine News Coverage

2022-07-26T22:17:00.151-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Greek God's Account of The Ukraine Russia War

2022-04-22T11:13:00.005-04:00

Ukranian Azov Nazi band, weaponized by U.S.A.

Listen to the thunder. The guns, the bombs, the heavy artillery.

The gods are fighting, the gods are at war. Some more powerful than others. They marry amongst themselves, have children. There’s the problem.

Bred from their own families, the marriages produce idiots. And because the gods seek entertainment, they send these idiots to live among mortals.

To make matters worse (and more entertaining), the gods have chosen their blighted progeny to become heads of government. Fulfilling the purposes of the gods, these cretinous heads of government are assigned duties.

Duties are prioritized. Top priority is to find reasons to wage war. Only this will satisfy the gods that their investment in mortals was worth the time.

The gods have succeeded. Ukraine defined us according to the addresses on the letters and bills we received from the postal service. Those said we belonged to Ukraine. Russia identified us in accordance with the language we speak, the culture we share, and the customs we inhabit.

It was an uneasy peace we shared, but a peace nonetheless. Until one day the gods, bored and disposed toward mischief, decided to add a third element into the mix. “We shall declare ourselves independent,” they proclaimed. In their declarations, they tried valiantly to avoid offending Ukraine, directly to the west, nor Russia, directly to the east.

Not offending neighbors made a great deal of sense, but only for a little while. As it often does, reality came knocking. So did the heavy artillery. The gods were having a field day.

Not so for the rest of us, who spend much of our time explaining ourselves. We must explain to the Ukrainian militias that we are patriotic Ukrainians. We explain to the Russians that we are patriotic Russians too.

But the bombs keep coming, the missiles keep flying, the soldiers keep dying, the mothers and children keep crying, while governmental idiots like President Joe Biden in Washington D.C. feed weapons into this hell and are applauded by false gods.

Force Majeure: Can a Man Admit to Cowardice in the Face of Danger?

2022-04-10T21:38:00.000-04:00

I just watched a Swedish sub-titled film called “Force Majeure.” (BTW, an acquaintance tells me the film is titled “Snow Therapy” in France) The crazy thing is that it’s listed on IMDb as a comedy-drama. I get the drama part. And yeah, if you like to laugh at other people’s relationship problems you might get a few chuckles out of it.

Uncomfortable moments are always funny. That would be all though; it’s not laughing out loud funny. You’ve have to be borderline psychotic to double over in laughter at the unraveling relationship of Ebba and her husband Tomas.

The style of “Force Majeure” is minimalist, objective, and realistic. Characters don’t make speeches that move the plot. Communication between Ebba and Tomas is broken, often interrupted as life with children is. There are abrupt and jarring jumps between scenes alternating between majestic mountains and the daily round of necessary human activity.

You see much brushing of teeth. You see a little boy’s difficulty in taking a pee after peeling off layers of winter clothing. You see a mom squatting in a grove of fir trees on the mountain doing the same. You see the family sleeping four abed, the children irritable and sensitive to their parents’ anxieties. Yeah, and there’s a lot of snow. In fact, there are constant explosions reverberating in the night as the caretakers detonate dynamite to lesson the chance of avalanches.

Okay so the story is about a married couple on vocation at a chic ski resort in the Alps. They have two beautiful blonde children, a boy maybe six, a girl maybe eight. Parents are attractive with middle-class sensibilities and interests. After a day of skiing, they’re at a restaurant overlooking the mountain. Suddenly, and with muffled dynamite blasts in the distance, a mountain of snow begins rolling down the mountain toward the outdoor restaurant where people are dining and drinking.

The panic is comprehensible your next thought it is that film is too predictable. It’s not, though. The avalanche stops at the resort’s edge. Even so, the diners are lost in a snowy fog, shepherding their children, and in Ebba’s case looking for her husband.

That introduces the plot. With this clear and present danger of avalanche, the husband has fled, leaving the wife to shelter the children. Ebba first takes it in stride, doesn’t make a big deal of it. Yet it irks her. Until this wall of snow threatened to crush them, she felt safe, safe with her handsome charming husband.

Ebba’s thinking the male should be a protector of the species. It’s a kind of unwritten law which goes all the way back to the cave man era. However, now she’s thinking her husband is a coward. ‘Wow I have two kids with this man and he ran when the snow came down.’ Can she ever feel safe with him?

I think all couples of longstanding relationships have experienced what comes next. You’re in the company of friends, maybe having dinner together, a few drinks at the local pub, a coffee klatsch. Something or other. Your wife/partner/sig-other/whatever is of course telling the story of the near crushing avalanche. And horror of horrors, she tells the guest how you ran off and left her with the children. She’s telling it in a matter-of-fact way, not at all vindictive, with a look of mild disappointment.

But you’re a man, see, and men are supposed to take care of women and children. So the husband takes issue. He tells the story in a different way. Ebba says ‘no it wasn’t that way.’ It goes on. The guests become uncomfortable in the extreme. They try to change the subject but neither Ebba nor her husband Tomas will let it alone.

I point out this happens with a thoroughly modern couple, not a couple of stranded Neanderthals from the Ice Age. Buried, repressed, mocked or scorned, the male ego is built on the bedrock of masculinity and, in the eyes of others, is expected.

I hope I didn’t say too much. It’s a film worth watching even if I did. There’s much about the film I did not say.