Lightning Fall: a Definitive Novel about an EMP attack on America

EMP attack. We hear the words and kind of fuzzily think "oh the power will be out, better stock up on candles." At least, that was how I looked at it. Faraday cages. Tinfoil hats for our mobile phones. But it's not a laughing matter.

5 years ago, Bill Quick put out a warning in the form of his well-researched, scientifically accurate novel "Lightning Fall". (It's also an exciting adventure story, but we'll get to that part later.)

This past November, the US Military issued a report on the danger of EMP that in many ways paralleled the likely events Quick had identified in 2014: "Military warns EMP attack could wipe out America, 'democracy, world order' "

This week, our President Trump took action to protect us against EMP attack.

In his second National Emergency Executive Order, President Trump again puts our safety first, and established the first ever "comprehensive policy to improve resilience to EMPs".

Congress was first warned about the danger of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack in 2008. Two presidents and five Congresses failed to act to shore up our local defenses against it. But finally, we have a President who does not play "kick the can".

We know we dodged a bullet when we elected Trump instead of Clinton 2.0. A read of Lightning Fall shows us we also dodged an atomic bomb - and how important is our President's action to protect us against just such a disaster.

As for me, if I had not read Quick's book, I might have glossed over this presidential EO without thinking. However, coincidentally, I finally read the book last month. As they used to say "my consciousness has been raised". I understand the danger now. I won't laugh at tin foil any more.

A good storyteller, and a perceptive cultural analyst, Bill Quick's novel can almost be used to blueprint our own preparations for the total disruption of communication and services. Lightning Fall takes snapshots of the consequences from every angle and puts them up for us to see how our particular location would look. Through his characters, who seem like people I already know, we get ideas to adapt to our own circumstances to insure our own survival, the survival of our families and our neighborhoods.

I don't know about you, but I will remember "how" info better when I have a context for it... a scenario creates a full picture of not only how, but of what and why, of when and who.  This is what I found in Lightning Fall.

Lightning Fall is a fast paced, exciting thriller with unpredictable turns that kept me turning pages until late at night, and a solid story peopled with characters who matter.  Quick's characters are ordinary people in different locations around the country, from Mississippi to San Francisco to the heartland to what seemed in 2013 the inevitable Hillary Clinton Whitehouse ("Millicent Carter"). Each faces different problems caused by the EMP attacks and has to handle those problems in different ways, whether prepared or not.

What a battle they face. There's a criminal element in every town, from cities to the smallest hamlet, and those are the first bad guys to take advantage when the lights go out. Threats can also come from unexpected sources: a bank manager who refuses to allow a mother to empty her safe deposit box in order to pay the mortgage, a neighbor alerting a gang member to supplies in the apartment below. But faithful allies are also not as far away as first believed, and the weak uncover strengths they had not needed before, in the nick of time.

A deeper crisis threatens the very foundation of our republic when the national government - unaffected by the EMP - sets a course to abandon the needy and take overtly political action that means the deaths of millions, in order to assure partisan victory in an upcoming election. The individuals in our story are facing not only immediate threats, but the prospect of being left to their own devices indefinitely.

Quick has given his individual characters some advantage: they've been "prepping", each in their own way, so they aren't completely in the lurch immediately. Instead, each faces dangers and threats they had failed to foresee, and has to rely on their wits, and the hand of Providence, to win out over those who would separate their soul from their body without a second thought.

Bill Quick is an astute observer of the culture and politics of our time, and Lightning Fall showcases those observations well. Ever imagine that Mexico's capital might be working behind the scenes to undermine local governments in California? Or that someone else might be pulling the eternally corrupt strings that animate Mexico's political class? Lightning Fall maps the course some of that leverage might take.

His grasp of what a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been like is chillingly authentic... and I suspect if Mrs Clinton or Bill ever read Quick's portrayal of their marriage, they might look around and wonder if he had been listening in, so credibly does he suggest how the fictional "Carters" relate to each other in the intimacy of their private marital relationship, right down to moments that are almost endearing (or would be if the consequences of their ambitions weren't so fatal to the rest of us).

Our heroes, most of them, survive in this story, and are looking forward with strength and hope at the end of the book, thanks to their remarkable American values: personal will and individual resources knitted together with neighbors in a fierce joint determination to procure survival not only for themselves and loved ones, but also for their place and their local civilization: to defend their homes and the ground on which they stand against whatever force evil might throw at them, and to be found standing when morning comes.

Get ready. Stock up on canned chili and fresh water. Buy and read "Lightning Fall: A Novel of Disaster" by Bill Quick.

Ways To Survive An Active Shooter When Trapped Unarmed In A Closed Room: No Martial Arts or Strength Needed

98% of all "survive an active shooting" articles concentrate on the same old things: run away or hide and call 911. Cute slogans: "Run Hide Fight". But when it comes to practical suggestions for the "Fight" part, most include more tips on how to keep the police from shooting you by mistake if you do escape or survive, than information on how to foil the attacker.

This article by Eric Spitznagel at Men's Health, "The Smartest Thing To Do In An Active Shooter Situation" is the most useful Active Shooter video & article that I have seen. Even a handicapped person or kids could do this, even if trapped in a room unarmed. The video actually shows us how to do it.

Filled with practical advice from former member of Israeli Special Forces & self-defense expert Alon Stivi, the article points out details we have all known in our hearts such as:

 "Nobody has ever survived an active shooter by ducking under a desk or a table. It just doesn’t happen. And do you know why?"
"Because they were sitting targets?"
"That’s right. Every shooter knows that’s where people are scrambling to hide, and that’s where they look first. And then they shoot you at point blank range."

Or:

 "Maybe I’m confusing how to survive a shooter with what I learned as a kid about surviving a fire. My instinct is to “Stop, drop, and roll.”
"That’s actually not that far off from the standard operating procedure. It’s called lockdown. Which means, you just stay where you are.
But if you look at most of these shootings, you realize that people died because they were in a lockdown."

I really appreciate that he says we should approach training - practical, like fire drills and unafraid:

 "I haven’t become paranoid, and I’ll tell you why. It’s pretty simple. There is only one antidote to fear. Well, maybe two.
First is the belief in fate. You believe that everything will somehow be fine and you’ll be taken care of by some higher power, and that’s great. "
"And for the rest of us?"
"The real antidote to fear is knowledge. I know what to look for. I know what to do if something bad happens. I have a plan of action.
This knowledge is what allows somebody to live a life free from fear. ...."
"....I’ll give you an example. When you came to the office today, you probably crossed a road, right?... And before you crossed, you looked left and right, just to make sure there wasn’t a car coming. Because if you didn’t, you might die. If you get hit by a car going 60 miles an hour, you will be obliterated.
So you check for that car, and you don’t feel paranoid or stressed about needing to do that, do you?
"Not at all. It’s just something you do."
"Exactly. It’s a part of your life. It’s a part of the world we live in. Two hundred years ago, there were no cars. We looked for, I don’t know, mountain lions."

Go to Men's Health to read the whole enlightening article.

UNICEF/WHO-Sponsored "Botched Vaccine Campaign For Measles Killed 15 Children"

Were the lives of fifteen little boys and girls who died unnecessarily "worth it" for the UN to push its goals of counting vaccines by the numbers, instead of by the person?

The UN/Feminists' continual push to vaccinate against low-fatality diseases without using proper facilities, personnel, and supplies in undeveloped or unstable areas that lack basic services or education, is misguided at best. And as NPR reports, has potentially deadly consequences.

In this case, a WHO/UNICEF program failed horribly, resulting in a Measles vaccine campaign where errors killed 5% of all who received the shots, and sickened 10% of recipients.

Malaka Gharib writes on June 2nd at NPR, in an article titled "A Botched Vaccine Campaign For Measles Killed 15 Children in South Sudan" :
"[Fifteen] children, all under age 5, died of severe sepsis and toxicity due to a botched vaccination campaign, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. ... In addition to the deaths, 32 children were sickened from the 300-person vaccination campaign in South Sudan. "
"...The vaccine had been left unrefrigerated. One syringe was reused over the course of four days.
"The campaign, which took place in early May in the rural town of Kapoeta, was part of an effort by the South Sudanese government to vaccinate 2 million children against measles. The vaccines were provided by UNICEF. The World Health Organization provided some training in how to administer the vaccines." .... "
"...Some reports are saying children as young as 12 years old were administering the vaccine.... "
 According to the CDC in 2015, "Worldwide, an estimated 20 million people get measles and 146,000 people, mostly children, die from the disease each year." That is less than 1/10th of 1%. Most sources cite a higher number of 3/10th of 1%: from 1 to 3 deaths per thousand of all those who fall ill. To give this some context, the mortality rate for measles is far below the Infant Mortality Rate for the United States of 6.9 deaths within 7 days of birth of each 1,000 babies born alive. The Infant Mortality Rate for South Sudan, from all causes, is more than 66 deaths per thousand.

Natural News reports:
"Measles continues to be a huge public health burden in South Sudan. In fact, United Nations (U.N.) data showed that nearly 3,000 people contracted the disease and 28 people died of the infection in 2016 alone. The data also found that 665 people have already been infected and at least one person died of measles so far this year."

With the Nachodokopele village tragedy, half as many people have been killed by UNICEF/WHO's bad planning for the vaccine in South Sudan as died of the disease itself last year.

But fear not! UNICEF/WHO will overcome, and will keep on treating poor children and their families as test subjects for their high "ideals".

From the statement issued by WHO/UNICEF on the deaths caused by their faulty anti-measles program:
"“Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF express our deep regret and sadness at the passing of the children. This tragic event could have been prevented by adhering to WHO immunization safety standards…Vaccination is one of the most basic and critical health needs in emergencies to protect populations from the risk of contracting deadly but preventable diseases. The risk of measles and other Vaccine Preventable Diseases in South Sudan remains extremely high because of the challenges being faced by the health system. The country has experienced significant measles outbreaks among unprotected population caused by a backlog of unvaccinated children in areas of insecurity,” a joint statement by the WHO and UNICEF read.

"The Ministry of Health has tapped a multi-agency administrative committee to assess the AEFI report and provide appropriate recommendations for further actions to improve immunization service delivery."

NPR interviewed William Moss, professor of epidemiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the head of epidemiology at the International Vaccine Access Center, and asked him "What went wrong?" Moss replied:
"South Sudan has been plagued by a civil war, conflict, famine and other outbreaks for three years. Measles vaccination campaigns are complex operations with logistical challenges — and this is a place with poor health infrastructure. That's not an excuse, but it provides some context in understanding how such a thing could have happened."

What did UNICEF hope to achieve by moving so aggressively, without strong ground support, in such a poor nation?

Infogalactic notes: "Measles vaccination programs are often used to deliver other child health interventions, as well, such as bed nets to protect against malaria, antiparasite medicine and vitamin A supplements, and so contribute to the reduction of child deaths from other causes. "

Obviously, in this case, these other interventions were not the objective.

Was this a pilot project to get indigenous people to administer the shots to their own communities? That is what it begins to sound like to me.

Why do the UN, WHO, and all sorts of NGOs think it is ok for them to experiment with people's lives in undeveloped countries of the world? Hmmmm?

Why do they think just handing an offhand apology makes it ok for them to continue on, with no added accountability, with their agendas even after they are responsible for such tragedy?

Remember these questions, the next time UNICEF sends those cute Christmas cards begging for our donations, and throw away their exploitive mailings.

Remember those fifteen little children from Nachodokopele village, and remember their parents, who deserve more than official "statements" or "expressions of deep regret" from elites who are living high while monetizing suffering as a fund-raising mechanism.

Those parents deserve to have their children treated with the same concern and care that would be used for children in the hometowns of UN officials and WHO doctors.

"Fate Of The World": Bernie Sanders' Supporters Can Help Save The World From Hillary Clinton's War-Mongering

"President Obama claims "The fate of the world is teetering."

I hope that Bernie Sanders' supporters will consider voting for Mr Donald Trump, or for one of the other genuine candidates such as Jill Stein. This election should have been between Senator Sanders and Mr Trump, but the elites conspired with Hillary against Bernie, just as on the Republican side our own party is still trying to stop Donald. I have friends who voted for Bernie, and I think we have in common the deep understanding that America needs new leadership that will represent people instead of "donors".  While we may disagree on some policies, we come together on others, and we absolutely share the same urgency to stop the corruption in government (in both parties) and extract America from the careless war-adventuring that is causing such anguish.

 Both Bernie and Donald share a goal to get America out of the FIVE foreign wars that Hillary is lurching to expand and escalate. Both also share the goal to take care of Americans (see Donald's position papers on his website - the media ignores them, but he has good positions on all issues facing our nation and people).

 Donald Sensing writes on his blog:

"President Obama claims "The fate of the world is teetering." Well, Green Party candidate Jill Stein would certainly agree. She said a few weeks ago that a President Hillary Clinton will just continue to attack and bomb other countries: " Under Hillary Clinton, we could slide into nuclear war very quickly from her declared policy in Syria."

"Even the UK's The Independent chimed in: "Could Hillary Clinton start a World War? Sure as [snip] she could – and here’s how." 

"And then there is this: "Don't trust Clinton to avoid stupid wars: The world she had a big hand in making as secretary of State doesn't look very peaceful." In 2010, things in Iraq were so peaceful that Joe Biden was bragging that the administration’s Iraq policy would be “one of the great achievements of this administration.” In 2012, with Clinton still serving as secretary of State, President Obama bragged about “ending” the war in Iraq, which would be news to the thousands of U.S. troops fighting there today. 

"Then there’s Libya. According to The New York Times, Clinton played a "critical” role in persuading Obama to topple Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. This led to what The Atlantic''s Conor Friedersdorf calls her ”failed war in Libya.”

"The fate of the world may indeed be teetering, just as Obama says, but it is teetering all the more because of the last eight years of his administration and very much because of Hillary Clinton's role in it."

The disaster that is Syria is almost wholly on Clinton's shoulders.  In 2012, Hillary Clinton turned her wargaming on Syria, angrily "predicting" that "a coup would take down Assad" after she failed to get UN support for the Islamist rebels, and setting out to make it happen with a plan for the US to arm and train them anyway "with help from a neighboring state", and despite a dire warning from Henry Kissinger "that an intervention [in Syria] would imperil the foundation of world order." 

Which, we now see, it has done.

Please vote. There are three other candidates to vote for, and your vote for any one of them is a vote against corruption, against criminals in high places, and against Hillary Clinton's terrifying bad judgment.

Orlando Nightclub Terror Attack Timeline Review: SWAT Has Become Too Risk Averse

Bringing everything together shows the shameful over-caution of SWAT leadership.  The first officers on the scene engaged the shooter immediately and cornered him. They were prepared to go in, finish him off and save lives but were ordered, no one knows why, to stay put and wait. Twenty minutes later, they were ordered to abandon their mission and leave the building, despite having the upper hand.

When heroes Gruler, Cornwell, Smith, and Backhaus left the building, SWAT was supposed to take over.

But SWAT did not act. The injured and hostages were left to fend for themselves.  One hundred armed police officers of various stripes sat outside that building for nearly three hours before they did anything more than the average grandmother would do.

And the average grandmother would not need to confer and plan and assess and wait for officials for hours before doing what she was equipped to do at the beginning, either.

Police and SWAT leaders' claims of concern about bombs do not stand up to the actual police incident reports, the reports of media on the scene, and the reports of survivors.  SWAT leadership is claiming "rescue" actions that were not police-assisted, or that were accomplished before  the full SWAT Team arrived , or didn't happen until hours later, and what little was done were low risk ventures.

When SWAT leaders did finally get around to doing something, the very thing their unit exists to do, they flubbed the whole thing. Their explosives didn't breach the wall, so they had to ram it with a truck.  They broke through in the wrong place - missed the bathroom completely, and broke into a hallway they could have just walked into from the front door, since the terrorist was holed up in the bathroom.

In three hours, with the nightclub manager on hand, SWAT leadership failed to confirm the locations of the rooms they needed to enter.

There's still no good explanation for why they waited, knowing full well that many hostages in the bathroom had already been shot and were barely clinging to life (at least one of whom died while they dithered), nor for why they finally decided to act after all.  The claim of his threat to put vests on hostages, given that he had already shot and killed so many, does not hold water.

Even after the terrorist was dead, SWAT leadership continued to delay treatment to the injured. Despite having a robot on hand, and knowing the terrorist was in the bathroom, they did not send the robot into the building until after they'd killed him and breached the other walls.   Once the robot was inside, they mistook a broken exit sign for an "explosive device" and further delayed paramedics from entering the building.

It's all on the public record:

[2:00 AM] The Guardian: Terrorist opens fire on the dance floor at Pulse nightclub, and people begin trying to escape.  "Burbano: “By the time it got to 20 to 30 rounds we were already trying to exit the side exitway behind the stage. It was very narrow. There was about 20 to 30 people trying to push themselves through a very small door and there was a huge gaping hole in the fence that looked like people had punched it and kicked it down."

"Imran Yousuf, 24, a bouncer and former Marine who served in Afghanistan, saw people pouring into the back hallway. No one was calm enough to unlatch the exit door.  "I jumped over to open that latch and we got everyone that we can out of there,” he told CBS News, estimating that 60 or 70 people got out that way."

"Hansen was at the bar. “The shooter came in through the front door and was shooting at the dancefloor and the bar,” he recalled. Hansen started crawling towards the club’s outdoor patio.
 Hansen reached the patio and, with others, pushed over a fence. "

"Gonzalez hid behind a bar until he was able to flee.

"Adam Gruler, an off-duty Orlando city police officer who was working security at Pulse that night, began to exchange fire with Mateen. Realising he was outgunned, he called for back-up.

"Gruler and the next ...officers to arrive on scene, Swat team members Scott Smith and Jeffrey Backhaus, went straight into the club and secured a large area where the first victims had been gunned down....."

[2:00 AM]  WNCN:  "Club-goer Rob Rick said it happened around, 2 a.m., just before closing time....  He estimated more than 100 people were still inside when he heard shots, got on the ground and crawled toward a DJ booth. A bouncer knocked down a partition between the club area and an area in the back where only workers are allowed. People inside were able to then escape through the back of the club. "

[2:02 AM]  Adam Gruler, an off-duty Orlando Police Officer who was working security at Pulse, immediately engaged the terrorist and called for back-up.

Belle Isle, Fla., Police Officer Brandon Cornwell, assisting a traffic stop when he heard the call, arrived "within 36 seconds" after hearing the dispatch.

Orlando Police Officers Scott Smith and Jeffrey Backhaus, who were patrolling nearby when they heard the call, were at the scene, pulling their own assault rifles and gear out of their trunks when Cornwell arrived.

The Washington  Post reported: "After an initial burst of fire between Omar Mateen and a security guard at the Pulse nightclub, a group of five or six police officers arrived on the scene within minutes, broke through a large glass window and entered the club."

"Cornwell estimated that “no more than two minutes” had elapsed since he and the other officers arrived, and they were now inside the club.

"Cornwell and the other officers immediately began “clearing rooms” one by one — not knowing if there was more than one shooter — and trying to locate the source of the gunfire. But fairly quickly — “within minutes,” Cornwell said — officers located Mateen in the bathroom area.

[2:05 AM ] CNN: "Patience Carter says the shooter enters the bathroom and shoots several people hiding there. People scream and scramble as blood flies. Then the gunman stops shooting."

Guardian: "For many who prayed the bathroom would provide refuge, it became a death trap. Mateen entered, barricaded himself in and carried on firing, reportedly laughing as he kept pulling the trigger."

WaPo: "At that point, [Cornwell] said, “we took up a tactical position by the bar standpoint in the middle of the club.” As he aimed his AR-15 assault rifle toward the bathroom door, he said, the shooting stopped. And it was then that the “15 or 20 minute” holding pattern began, he said.

"..... he and his fellow officers were [ordered] to hold their position rather than attempt to go into the bathroom after the shooter.

"He kept aiming, waiting for SWAT. More screaming. He and the other officers held their position, focused on the bathroom, where he could see “some movement inside,” he said.

[2:06 AM]  CNN:  Shooting victim Eddie Jamoldroy Justice texts his mother from a bathroom stall, asks her to call police.

[2:18 AM]  WaPo reports: The SWAT team was called in.

[2:20 AM]  The rescue team who confronted and cornered the terrorist is ordered to abandon their mission. Officer Cornwell, who was still aiming at the bathroom the terrorist was in, and who could see movement, reported: “We got word from higher up, and it was communicated to the OPD lieutenant that we needed to withdraw,” he said. “So we came back outside. And waited for SWAT. SWAT arrived. SWAT handled everything from there.”

"Outside, Cornwell said, he spent the next several hours helping  transport victims to ambulances. He arrived back at the Belle Isle Police Department on Sunday afternoon, his uniform and all his
equipment saturated with blood."

[2:21 AM] NYT:  911 log:"One woman, who called at 2:21 a.m., said her body was going numb.
For 24 minutes, the woman, who the log shows was 18, said everyone in the bathroom was injured and groaning in pain. "Just keeps saying I don’t want to die today,” the operator wrote. At one point, she was losing her eyesight and feeling in her body. “Just keeps pleading, please come to the bathroom,” the log says." At 2:45 a.m., the line went dead.

[2:30 AM] WaPo reports: "While some survivors described harried rescues by individual officers during the first half-hour or so, others inside the club remained trapped for hours."

[2:30 - 2:34 AM]  NYT: "The sheriff’s records also showed that callers reported hearing gunshots at 2:30 and 2:34 a.m., raising questions about earlier police accounts. Chief John Mina of the Orlando police had said the gunman did not fire any shots after 2:18 a.m."

[2:35 AM] Terrorist made his first 911 call

[2:42 AM] Hostage Eddie Justice texted his mother that lots of people were hurt. She asked if he was with the police. At 2:46 AM, he wrote “No. Still here in bathroom. He has us. They need to come get us.”

[2:45 AM] CNN reports: "Some 100 officers from the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department respond to the chaotic scene [between 2:02 - 2:47 AM]."

[2:45 AM] LA Times reports: Capt. Mark Canty of the SWAT team arrived on scene.
"Canty said Friday. “We have to step back and position ourselves to contain him and assess what is the best way to enter the building.” [Note: despite the fact that the real heroes had already contained the terrorist within 10 minutes of the attack, and would have neutralized him had they not been ordered to stand down and wait for Canty's SWAT team.]

"Canty and other police began to position themselves outside the darkened building. They considered smashing through a wall to reach the hostages. “We had been discussing the breach from shortly after I got there just because we realized it was going to be difficult to get to the hostages from the interior,” he said.

"An Orange County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was on the way, and Canty asked the commander to prepare an explosive to break through the club’s walls."

"Some of the 44 SWAT team members replaced patrol officers stationed around the club in case the shooter emerged. "

“There was a group in a dressing room. They were kind of isolated from where the shooter was, and we were able to get them out a door on the north side of the building,” Canty said. Outside, officers helped punch holes in a fence so people who had reached a patio could escape. [NOTE: Survivors who reached the patio had escaped through holes in the fence long before SWAT arrived. If police helped with this, it was the original duty officers - not "special" teams. But survivors did not report the presence of police during their escape through the fence. ]

"The club manager was in touch with employees trapped in another dressing room with an air conditioning unit in the wall. “We were able to get that air conditioning unit out and get them out,” he said. About a dozen people were freed from the two dressing rooms. " [NOTE: This did not occur until 3:58 AM, nearly two hours after the shooting started.]

[2:48 AM] Police Negotiator talks to Terrorist for 9 minutes

[2:49 AM ] CNN:  Shooting victim Eddie Jamoldroy Justice texts his mother again. Tells her Terrorist is in the bathroom with them.  Mina Justice told her son the police were there and to let her know when he saw them. “Hurry,” Eddie wrote. “He’s in the bathroom with us.”

[2:50 AM] Eddie Justice sent his final text to his mother. He did not survive. He was killed.

[2:51 AM] NY Times:  "Dispatch log records released on Thursday by the Orange County sheriff’s office showed that officers were first warned about the possibility of explosives at 2:51 a.m., 49 minutes after the shooting began."

 [2:51 AM]  RT:  "“Shooter saying possible explosives in the parking lot,” East reports at 2:51. “Subject is saying that he is a terrorist and has several bombs strapped to him in the downstairs female restroom,” Desk2 reports at 2:54."

[3.03 AM] Police Negotiator talks to Terrorist for 16 minutes

[3:24 AM] Police Negotiator talks to Terrorist for  3 minutes,

CNN:  "While officers are negotiating with the suspect, eight people were able to escape with the help of law enforcement, by removing an air conditioning unit and crawling through the hole created."  [NOTE: this is from the dressing rooms that SWAT commander described. ]
[3:58 AM] Guardian: "police tried creating exit routes for the trapped clubbers. They tore a window air conditioning unit out, after hearing the thumping of fists coming from a dressing room on the other side. At least four people escaped that way." [Note: same dressing room "rescue"]
[4:21 AM] WaPo reports: "Some [survivors] were rescued at 4:21 a.m. — more than two hours after the shooting began — by police working from outside the building. The FBI’s timeline does not describe any SWAT movement into the building until 5 a.m. [Note: same dressing room "rescue"]

[4:09 AM] RT:  "“Subject is in male restroom and is now reloading his guns,” Desk2 reports at 4:09, adding “and is about to start shooting again” at 4:13. "

[5:02 AM] RT (from official Police Incident Report)  "The SWAT team breaches the club at 5:02. Callers report explosions, with Desk1 confirming they can be heard in the background."

[Approximately 5:00 AM]  CNN: "SWAT members detonate an explosive to blow a hole in the wall but its only partially effective. They then use an armored vehicle to breach the final hole in the wall. But it leads them only to the hallway, not to the bathroom. They continue trying to breach using the vehicle.

"They also smash down a door at the club, clearing the way for some 30 people inside to flee to safety."  [ NOTE: is this the other dressing room Canty mentioned above?]

[shortly before 5:00 AM] LA Times:  “He talked about putting vests on the hostages and sending them out to the four corners of the club,” Canty said. Mateen claimed to have a vest for himself too, according to the police chief. And the gunman said he’d take action in 15 minutes.

“We had started prepping [an explosive] charge. We were getting ready as quickly as we could.”

Canty was at the command post a few blocks from the club with Orlando Police Chief John Mina. They reviewed the plan to rescue the hostages, and Mina made the call to use the explosive to break through a wall of the club.

In the bathrooms, Aiken, 29, heard police on a loudspeaker: “Move as far away from the walls as you can.” He said the gunman then started shooting again.

The first explosion didn’t quite break the wall, so the SWAT team used an armored, Humvee-style BearCat vehicle to ram it, Canty said.

“The hole was in the wrong spot. It was in the hall between the two bathrooms. So they attempted to make a second hole,” he said.

[5:00 AM]   When officers heard gunshots inside, they hurled in some nonlethal explosive flash-bang devices to divert the shooter and then rammed the wall a few more times, finally breaking into one of the bathrooms where the hostages were trapped with the gunman.

That’s when they faced off with Mateen. “He starts coming out of the first hole, and that’s where he engages the officers in gunfire,” Canty said. Ten SWAT team members opened fire and killed the shooter.

The team freed more than 20 hostages, helping those who could not walk.

Canty said the rescue showed why police increasingly invest in military-style equipment like the BearCat. He said his team followed “accepted tactics” and did all it could to help those trapped inside the club.

The Guardian:  "For those imprisoned inside, it was the moment of salvation. Torres recalled a loud explosion and the bathroom filling with dust. Within seconds members of the police Swat team had burst in. Torres was dragged up and virtually hurled through the hole in the wall, landing on the hard ground outside the club, grazing his arm and side. He was quickly taken to Florida hospital. Later on Sunday, he was released.

"Santiago, still on the ground in a pool of blood, said he heard the police arrive, yelling: “Drop it! Hands up!” Then he heard police chatter on a distant radio. Unable to walk, he dragged himself under the stall to exit it. He saw a body in front of the door on the opposite side. There was no one else. He dragged himself out of the bathroom towards the bar area and saw the face of a police officer.

"Santiago waved the light of his cellphone so the officers could see him. They told him to lift his hands and drop whatever he was carrying. Santiago complied and dragged himself towards them.

"They grabbed him by the arms and took him outside, where he told them there were at least 15 people in the bathroom needing help.

“At that point they asked me instructions on exactly where the bathroom was,” he said. “After I told them, they put me in an ambulance.”

"Mateen himself came through the hole, still shooting. He hit Swat officer Michael Napolitano’s Kevlar helmet, directly in front of his forehead. But now he was outnumbered, by 14 law enforcement officers, and outgunned."

[5:15 AM]  CNN:  "CNN field team and affiliates report hearing multiple gunshots.
As SWAT officers attempt to breach another wall, the suspect leaves the bathroom and he begins shooting at them. Police return fire and kill him."

[SOMETIME AFTER 5:15 AM]  WNCN:  "Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says at first officers mistakenly thought the gunman had strapped explosives to the dead victims and that the club was booby-trapped. A bomb robot sent back images of a battery part next to a body.

"Dyer says that held up paramedics from going in until it was determined it was something that fell out of an exit sign or a smoke detector.

"The robot was sent in after SWAT team members put explosive charges on a wall and an armored vehicle knocked the wall down in an effort to rescue hostages."

[10:00 AM] LA Times:  "Many SWAT team members stayed until 10 a.m., when they were sent home to rest. By 5 p.m., they were back on duty, Canty said, “ready for anything else that may occur in the city of Orlando.”

WNCN:  "The Orlando mayor says of the 50 victims who died from the shooting, 39 were killed at the club and 11 people died at hospitals."

~~~  ~~~  ~~~~~


SWAT Captain Mark Canty's remark, after leaving unarmed, injured people at the mercy of a terrorist for hours, that "that is why police need military-style equipment" sounds more like the comment of a tone-deaf, self-serving politician than of the police we once trusted to have courage.

The men without equipment  - those officers first on the scene - acted like Men, and the men with equipment - the SWAT team - acted like Insurance Adjusters.

If anything, the actions of Orlando SWAT leadership make a case for every citizen to be trained and armed equally with the police.

The Orlando Terrorist Attack, Self Defense, And A Sobering Reality Check

For your own sakes, people, either walk armed or else refuse to go places that do not allow ordinary people to defend themselves. Gay or straight, black or white, Christian or Jew, children or adults, we have all suffered from the murders of people trapped in those despicable "Gun Free Zones".

The tragedies have become numbing. It was only by the grace of God that Anti-American Anti-Trump rioters in San Jose did not kill some innocent citizen under the very eyes of the police, who watched unmoving as many were traumatized. Last week, nine American soldiers drowned in one of the flash floods that every year kill more people than any other weather event. This weekend, scores of people were gunned down in yet another act of war against our civilization. May our Father God bring comfort to the those whose loved ones were killed, and healing to those who were injured.

After San Jose, we looked for ways to protect oneself against mobs. In the tragic deaths of strong people against rushing water, we saw the need for more urgent flood safety education. And now, looking once again at a group of defenseless people shot down without mercy, we see that self-reliance and self-defense and self-preservation are the only means by which we can assure our own safety and that of our neighbors.

Because nothing any government official or agency or law or employee does is going to save our lives from people bent on killing us. We MUST take charge of our own safety and demand the mealy-mouthed elite stop hiding behind their PAID ARMED GUARDS, stop using us as their shields, and stop gambling with our lives when they won't take an unprotected step with their own.

No one can vote away my right to defend myself - or yours. The ancient, indigenous American culture of gun use and carry - not just for adults or "non-convicted" - that was a part of life in these United States from 1492 until the 1980s, has been eroded by people who HIRE THEIR GUNS while trying to eliminate ours.

Paul and I made a decision several months ago that we will not go into buildings that do not allow the public to bring their guns. Places we can't avoid, such as the doctor's office and Courthouse, we will respectfully make known our opinion. Otherwise, we have choices (such as shopping at Kroger and not at HEB), and we make them.

While we always have to be aware and willing to protect and defend ourselves and our neighbors, there is an additional element when the danger comes from foreign elements - whether or not the "actor" is a US citizen or not. The word for terrorists who happen to hold US citizenship is: Traitors. Traitors are citizens who commit acts on behalf of foreign elements.

Terrorists are people who commit acts on behalf of foreign interests: they are, by definition, "enemies foreign and domestic", and it is the job of our governments to protect us from them. In fact, that is the PRIMARY (and some say ONLY) job of government: to protect citizens and our lands from damage or injury or incursion by foreign interests.

When it comes to terrorists and traitors, Stefan Molyneux has a reality check, and a history lesson for people who really care about saving lives of Americans who believe in liberty. It's long, but you don't want to miss the last part either, because we have hard choices to make. He says it all far better than I can:

Flint Michigan, and the Realities of Water Supplies: DIY Solutions Texans Have Used For Decades

I was glad to see the indictments come down against the local officials who hid problems with Flint Michigan's water quality.  Just as East Orange, New Jersey, faced up to dereliction of duty by employees and local politicians in its water management, so must Flint,

There are health issues that now must be addressed, caused by the unknowns in the past. The website "FlintWaterStudy.org" has good information on what is known so far, and what is being done. They also have factual info about how residents themselves can improve water quality in their homes - in some instances by simply using more water:

"The very low water use rates in some Flint homes, hinders recovery of the system due to the improved corrosion control. Less water use means that the orthophosphate and chlorine added to help improve the water quality and reduce lead and bacteria, are not flowing through the homes as much as is desired. Regular water use is needed to help clean out loose lead deposits and control biofilms within the pipes.  Moreover, occasionally drawing water at a high rate from a tap with unrestricted flow such as a roman bath spout, hose bib or mud sink, will help to achieve velocities inside pipes that are needed to scour deposits that contain lead and iron rust."

It was the city government's responsibility to notify the residents about the acidic water, but at this point, the people - the residents and citizens - of Flint Michigan are now solely responsible for the safety of their future drinking water. No one else. Whatever or whoever caused it, now the people know about it and they need to come together to fix it, just as they would take action to repair their car or their roof or their church.

Waiting on government will just make them feel more helpless.

But they also need to know they are not alone with these problems. Despite the fact that the media pretends this is some new crisis, in reality people all over America have been solving this kind of water problem for themselves, as individuals and as communities, for decades.

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, we knew never to drink water from the hot water tap, and to let the water run for a minute before filling a jug or pot. That advice has been around for as long as indoor plumbing. The folks in Flint (and elsewhere) must not have been taught that, but now they know these measures are essential, just as they were 60 years ago.  People living in other communities need to take note, and apply these safety precautions as well.

I raised my children in West Texas, where we have been buying our drinking/cooking water in gallon jugs or refilling milk jugs at "Water Stores" (seriously) or via under-sink Reverse Osmosis Filtering machines, since the 1970s, due to the high level of salts and minerals in local water supplies. It is the normal way of life for most people in the western half of Texas.

In old houses today, it is easy to run new flexible lines to faucets because the new lines can remain above ground, they don't have to be buried. Neighborhoods can get together and pool their resources and labor to do this work.

When it comes to the original problem that Flint faced, the need for a pipeline to a new city water supply, there is a precedent for that too.

Olney Texas has twice faced the need for new water pipelines that they could not afford.. so they took responsibility and laid those lines themselves.

It was supposed to cost a million dollars and take a year. It took the townspeople 25 hours and cost $350.

ALL the citizens turned out and labored for free, under direction, to solve their problem. Here are the stories, from 1978, and again in 1984. There's no hype, this is what really happened:
  http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20071429,00.html

"A firm of consulting engineers told Mayor Alan Myers Jr. of Olney, Texas that the town's rapidly diminishing water supply would evaporate altogether within 120 days unless a highly unlikely deluge of rains came. In the best of times Olney, a community of some 5,000 in the arid cactus-and-mesquite country west of Dallas, gets no more than 24 inches of rain a year, and for the past four years of drought less than half that amount has fallen. The shortage was compounded by a heat wave that parched Texas with searing temperatures of over 100° every day for 35 days. "It scared me to death," said Mayor Myers. "It looked like we didn't have much farther to go." 

The solution—to pipe in water from lakes out of the drought zone—would cost a million dollars (the entire town budget), the engineers said, and take a year. "The town would have died before we could finish," says Myers, "even if we could afford it." He and Acting City Manager Jack Northrup set out to find an alternate plan. If a pipeline could somehow be built from Olney's cracked and drying Lake Cooper to Lake Kickapoo, part of the Wichita Falls reservoir system 14 miles away, the crisis might be averted. 

The Wichita Falls city council agreed to sell a million gallons a day, but the problem remained of finding pipe and laying it down fast. A friend of the mayor's remembered "invasion pipe," which Army engineers had installed aboveground in combat zones during World War II. "He said there might be some in storage somewhere, so I started calling around to see." 

Meanwhile word of the daring project filtered through the churches, Rotary and Lions clubs and Rodge's, the town's only cafe. "Jack Northrup told me the people were saying they could lay the pipe themselves if I could get it," says Myers. Within a few days he located a supply of 1940 invasion pipe in Texas state warehouses. 

Olney rose instantly to the occasion in the spirit of the town motto: "Lead, follow—or get out of the way." On July 14 some 230 unlikely pipeliners—merchants, lawyers, executives, ranchers, Mayor Myers and the one-armed Northrup—put signs on their homes, offices and shops: "Closed. Gone for water."   Click through to read the rest...

Then, six years later, they had to extend the pipeline (click through to read the newspaper scan:  https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19840703&id=-otiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sHcNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2230,210509&hl=en 

Oh and the latest drought brought the problem back, so this time they are taking a new approach, they are going to reuse their treated sewer water: http://www.newschannel6now.com/story/29173726/olney-takes-final-step-before-water-reuse-construction-phase

Never feel helpless against the problems you face. God created us to be problem solvers for ourselves. Take a new look at whatever challenges your family, your home, your community, and talk to others. Fnd out what YOU can do. We CAN help ourselves and our neighbors, and will have better results and happier lives because of it.

5/11/2016:  Thanks to Bill Quick over at Daily Pundit for the link! 

Why Printed Books Will Always Matter: The Armenian Genocide

I learned about the Armenian Genocide - or one of its  precursors "The Hamidian Massacres" or "The Adana Massacre" - when I was in third grade.

There was an old abandoned house on the block - one of those older than the homes around it, that had either been a rent house until it became too decrepit to rent out, or whose elderly owner had died with no local heirs to help keep it up or care about its gradual decay. Windows were broken out, and someone had taken the front door, leaving it wide open, airy, well-lit with sunshine... and perfect for neighborhood children to explore.

I don't remember whether I wandered through it with a friend or alone. It was empty except for a half-filled box of trinkets, cracked dishes.... and one very old book.

Even back then, I read everything I could get my hands on. This book was old... I want to say the copyright date was 1909, but it could have been Bliss's ""Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities. A Reign of Terror" published in 1896.  I don't think it was the  one known as the "Blue Book", Viscount Bryce's definitive "Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916", published in 1916.

I opened it and started reading explicit, bloody accounts of unimaginable torture inflicted on innocent old men, little children, mothers, by Turkish soldiers in the name of their muslim religion. All because the Armenians were Christians.

I didn't take the book, I just stayed there and read for half an hour or so.

I didn't hear anything else about Armenia until I was grown.

Despite the herculean effort that America made through the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, efforts that are credited with literally saving the Armenian people from extinction, and which served as the model for all relief agencies that have been created since, despite that, Armenia was ignored in public school history classes.  The progressive agenda was already busy in our textbooks, deleting events and adding agendas even in the 60s.

Today, a hundred years later, the cultural descendants of the perpetrators deny those events. Events that look horribly identical to massacres happening right now in the same places, inflicted by people who claim the same reasons and use the same tactics and methods. They deny both the old atrocities and the new ones, and they convince some. Our own President is willing to acede to their fiction.

Over time, I've learned much more from that brief encounter with a book I never saw again. It taught me that a written record can be proof to fly in the face of deceit. It taught me to look for accounts printed within a few years of events, because those are the most accurate. It taught me that the printed word can survive even attempts to stamp out knowledge. It taught me that there was a great deal about the world I would have to learn for myself if I wanted to know what things were really like. And it was a powerful object lesson in the truth of that other "old book" that so many deny and try to destroy.

So thank God for that printed copy of that old book. A copy that can't be edited or deleted or removed from a search engine.  I hope we will remember that we still need printed history books, if only to witness the truth to generations to come. Like the Lord God told Isaiah:

"Go now, and write it down on a tablet in their presence, inscribing it in a book, so that for times to come it may be an everlasting witness" Isaiah 30:8

* The Image is a poster used in one of the many fund raising drives the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. Wikipedia says this about their work: "From 1915 to 1930, Near East Relief saved the lives of over a million refugees, including 132,000 orphans who were cared for and educated in Near East Relief orphanages. Near East Relief also mobilized the American people to raise over $116 million for direct relief. Nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens volunteered to travel overseas. Near East Relief workers built hundreds of orphanages, vocational schools, and food distribution centers. Overseas relief workers were responsible for the direct care of orphans and refugees, including the organization of vast feeding and educational programs. Thousands of Americans volunteered throughout the U.S. by donating money or supplies and hosting special events to benefit Near East Relief's work."

Grocery Diary Middle Of January & Thoughts on Panic Buying Before a Snowstorn

I started keeping a grocery diary to track how my shopping has changed since I began raising and canning much of our own food, and since I resumed stocking up as a part of preparedness. I don't have to shop as often, and spend far less when I do go to the store. It also takes less time to shop now that I only have to walk around the perimeter instead of up and down every aisle! :-)

Top Prepper Websites Voting! :-)

What do you think?  Do you like my blog and my You Tube channel as good sources of preparedness info?   Please vote for me! Your vote will also take you to a list of other great sites. Thanks and please don't forget to subscribe to my You Tube channel! :-)

Frozen Water Pipes: How to Work in the Kitchen Without Running Water

My video on working while waiting for frozen pipes to thaw. :-) I hope this will be helpful to you in keeping "real life" going while conserving water in the kitchen when the water is off or the well is dry!  I am going to use these techniques while camping too! :-)

Ebola's Airborne Potential, US Army Studies, CIDRAP Advisories, and .... Snopes Gets Breitbart Wrong

Infowars reports that a U.S. ARMY 1995 study concludes " Demonstration of fatal aerosol transmission of this virus in monkeys reinforces the importance of taking appropriate precautions to prevent its potential aerosol transmission to humans."    The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland, proved in 1995 that the Ebola goes airborne when the temperature drops below that normal for West Africa. That is a FACT. The study is titled: "Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus."  Here's the US gov direct link to the study, originally published in the International Journal of Experimental Pathology http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997182/   

Here's the direct link to the Info Wars article quoting extensively from the original study: http://www.infowars.com/u-s-army-ebola-goes-airborne-once-temperature-drops/ 

Of course, it's probably a matter of time before people start asking what "Snopes" says, but it is true regardless. If you search "Ebola is Airborne" on Snopes, you will get labels of "False" about other articles - but even those, as of this writing,  are factual, truthful articles that  I think should not be labeled false. 

I don't know why, but Snopes is still mislabeling as "False" the absolutely correct Breitbart Oct 14, 2014 statement "The highly respected Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota just advised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) that “there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles,” including exhaled breath. "   when in fact, that is a direct quote from the the CIDRAP article Breitbart references, which is titled on CIDRAPs own site : "COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola",  The full specific quote on CIDRAP says: "We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.1 ""

So how could that possibly be "False"?????? 

Snopes cites a CIDRAP disclaimer to claim falsehood, but CIDRAP and Snopes both use the same recursive semantic tricks to obscure the issue: chasing a red herring about timeliness of the article, and answering questions that were never asked.  Snopes tries to give the impression that reporting a medical fact is somehow outdated within a month:  " Breitbart's use of the term "just advised" gave the impression that the CIDRAP commentary was recent to mid-October 2014, when in fact it was published prior to the first diagnosis of Ebola in the U.S. in late September 2014." 

The article was published less than a month earlier on Sept 17th 2014 - extremely current as medical research and advisories go, despite the Snopes and CIDRAP pretense that less than 30 days is outdated. (If anything, this is even more damning evidence that the CDC had evidence and good advice that it did not put to use to protect the people of America from this disease. )

Further, CIDRAP ends its own "disclaimer" by saying : "This commentary in question specifically addressed transmission risk within a healthcare setting and does not address community transmission." In other words, the article in question is accurate and an appropriate advisory, just as Breitbart reported.  

The Breitbart articles are clear and factual:  
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/14/CIDRAP-Confirms-Ebola-Transmittable-by-Air

and here: 
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/15/CIDRAP-Director-Airborne-Ebola-Single-Greatest-Concern-of-My-Career

The original CIDRAP article is here:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola

Here's the  link to this Snopes article: http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cidrap.asp  

And the link to CIDRAP's "Response": 
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/response-statements-falsely-attributed-cidrap-regarding-ebola-transmission

Read them all,and decide for yourself. 

It's a shame that Snopes seem to have let politics get in the way of the facts. They had built a solid reputation. I hope they don't squander that, because we need trustworthy sites that can show genuine myths for the falsehoods they are.  Unfortunately, much like Wikipedia, where any article with any political value is tainted with progressive leanings and talking points instead of a pure neutral POV, so it seems that we now have to be skeptical even when reading the anti-rumor sites to be sure they aren't starting one of their own.... 

UPDATED Best Article About Texas Ebola Outbreak as of 10/1/14: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD

As we had surmised, this gentleman is not an American, but is a Liberian national, who was in the US for 8 full days before the hospital decided to quarantine him:

"Mai Wureh says her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to a Dallas emergency room on Friday and they sent him home with antibiotics. She says he said hospital officials asked for his Social Security number and he said that he didn't have one because he was visiting from Liberia."

As of end-of-day on Oct 1st, no one official has bothered to contact the manager or other tenants of the apartment complex where he has been staying, according to KCEN:

"The patient who was diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying at a northeast Dallas apartment complex, according to a Dallas police spokesman.

Lt. Joel Lavender confirmed the patient was transported from the Ivy Apartments to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28.

Residents and the manager at the complex said no one from the CDC or health department have contacted them."

The Dallas Liberian community are very concerned, and say they do not trust the CDC, who have since only quarantined a single person out of all the people - including children who attended 5 different Dallas schools - that Mr Duncan has had contact with since his arrival in the States on Sept 20th:

"Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC's assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.
"We've been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings," Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture."

By the way, KCENTV and WFAA are good local sources for information about this. The national news outlets are still heavily censoring information and details. Read the rest of the article here:

Miles: 5 Dallas Students Possibly Exposed to Ebola - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen


UPDATED:  It gets worse, in the sense of our Federal government failing to do due diligence to protect Americans:  Mr Duncan was deliberately trying to escape Liberia. His  landlord's brother died of Ebola a week before Duncan quit his job as a taxi driver in Liberia and came to the US to "visit relatives" on Sept 20. He became ill on Sept 24th. He went to the ER on Sept 26th. He was then at his family's apartment for two more days before being taken by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept 28th. From an NBC News article:

"Four days before he flew to Dallas to visit family members, cargo driver Thomas Eric Duncan helped his landlords take their 19-year-old daughter, Marthalene Williams, to a clinic that was so crowded with Ebola patients that it turned her away, The New York Times reported. The family, which had tried and failed to get an ambulance, took the convulsing woman back home, where she died hours later. "He was holding her by the legs," a neighbor told the newspaper.

"Williams' brother, who was also in the taxi, started getting symptoms a week ago and quickly died, the family told the Times. Three other women from the same area also got sick at the same time. By then, Duncan was already gone from Liberia.

"After quitting his job on Sept. 4, Duncan left Monrovia on a Sept. 19 flight and arrived in the U.S. the next day. He started showing symptoms Sept. 24 and went to a Dallas hospital for treatment Sept. 26. He was sent home, only to be brought back by ambulance on Sept. 28 and diagnosed with the deadly virus."

So far, none of the people exposed to Ebola by Mr Duncan have been quarantined. The 5 schoolchildren were sent home from school but are not under quarantine.  The hospital has "dedicated a whole ward" to Mr Duncan's quarantine, but has not bothered to quarantine any of the people he exposed:

 "Dr. Zachary Thompson, director of the county health department, told NBC News late Wednesday that he wouldn't be "shocked" if a second case of Ebola were to emerge among those being monitored. But "there has not been any indication that any of the contacts that we have been tracking show any signs or symptoms," he said.

"Officials said five students at two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school had had contact with the patient over the weekend. They are being "monitored" at home but are not quarantined."

I guess they are waiting for those people to become ill and expose even more people.  I wonder if they have bothered notifying people at the apartment complex yet?

The Smartest Question of the Day

Abortionist Nancy Pelosi compared lawbreaking illegal aliens to the Children of Israel fleeing Egypt, and now California Governor Brown  urges "the religious call to welcome the stranger".   On Facebook, APIII%er Andrew Wark  asks the smartest question of the day:

 "So where are all the democrats screaming their make believe "law" of 'separation of church and state'?  The silence is deafening."

US Embassy in Baghdad Surrounded: "Too Late Alamo"; Obama Golfs, Takes Selfies with Costumed American Indians

06/17/14 UPDATE:  Susy Raybon reports "Special Forces troops at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad" but notes that, even though her source reports these troops were cleared for entry to the compound, there is no confirmation whether these are American or Iranian.  Click through the link to read her entire article.

06/15/14 Original Post:

The Examiner is reporting that the American Embassy in Baghdad is surrounded, and phone and internet communication has been cut off.  The article says, in part:

"A three word text was released from inside the Embassy about six hours ago: “Too late Alamo.” That message is open to interpretation.

"Examiner's Note: This Examiner has personal contacts within the walls of the embassy. Those contacts will remain anonymous for their own safety. More information as I am able to get through"

Please go to The Examiner to read the full story. Susy Raybon is reporting.

At yesterday's protest in Anaheim, both Iraqi and Egyptian Christians showed up in their own protest: they are also calling for President Obama to resign.

Meanwhile, the American President enjoys a long weekend vacation, of golf in Palm Springs, playground of another, kinder, gentler, Rat Pack.

He and Michelle also stopped in to watch an American Indian Flag Day Pow-wow in North Dakota - his first visit to "Indian Country". He bemoaned high unemployment, and proclaimed that: "'Every American, including every Native American, deserves the chance to work hard and get ahead,' the President said, adding that young people should be able to live, work and raise a family on the land of their fathers and mothers."  I  SWEAR. That is a direct quote from the UK Daily Mail.

 850 people live on the 2.3 million acre reservation he visited. Perhaps he plans to employ them in warehousing the armies of his Illegal Alien Children's Crusade until he can figure out a way to give California back to Mexico.  If I were a member of this band of Sioux, I would start building a defensive fence as soon as his shiny black fleet of roaring automobiles leaves.