#British Association of Record Dealers

[youryurigoddess]

Aziraphale’s secret investigation and overlooked Clues

Remember this frame from Good Omens S02E06? Apparently Aziraphale had been using the empty carton box brought by Jim to store things in. It became a new home to at least two out of three “Lost Quartos” — the supposedly lost Shakespeare plays briefly but hilariously mentioned in the Good Omens book — as well as a very mysterious legal document.

Thought probably half of the Good Omens analysts here, including the ever so wonderful @fuckyeahgoodomens, who managed to find some information about the deceased John Gibson from New Cumnock (1855 - 1905).

Unfortunately the most interesting thing about this early 20th century provincial postmaster was his youngest child James (1894 - 1973), a quite famous stage (West End!) and film actor immortalized on screen in The Master of Ballantrae (1962), Witch Wood (1964) and Kidnapped (1963).

After that particular discovery the fandom-wide search seemingly led nowhere and the topic died a premature death.

And I almost figured it out seven months ago.

“But Yuri, you’re so clever. How can somebody as clever as you be so stupid?”, you probably want to shout across a busy London street at this point. Well, let me tell you. Much like Aziraphale, I'm blindingly intelligent for about thirty seconds a day. I do not get to choose which seconds and they are not consecutive.

Only tonight the stars have aligned in an ineffable way.

For those of you who don’t follow this account, some time ago I’ve realized that John Gibson isn’t the only testator whose estate was being investigated by Aziraphale right before The Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association monthly meeting.

If you watch S2 finale closely enough, you should notice that Crowley not only stress cleans Aziraphale’s bookshop — he also goes through the books and papers on his desk between the last three angels leaving the bookshop and Maggie and Nina’s intervention. A seemingly permanent arrangement of the props post-shooting, visible in detail both on Radio Times tour and SFX magazine photo shoot, sheds even more light on this detail.

The close-ups published after S2 release are legible enough to refer us to a much more prominent historical figure, Josiah Wedgwood (1730 – 1795) — an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the industrialisation of the manufacture of European pottery.

Long story short, I transcribed the handwritten pages abandoned on Aziraphale’s desk, found out the source and the full text of what could be identified as Wedgwood’s last will and testament, took a walk to visit his Soho workshop, and proceeded to write a lengthy meta analysis about it.

I was today’s years old when I realized that there’s something else connecting those two dead British men.

The Scottish Post Office Directory of 1903 recorded John Gibson from New Cumnock as a “stationer and china dealer” (above) operating from the shop located in the town’s post office building.

Indeed, a close look at his post office shop window in the Henderson Building (below, bottom left) reveals an artful display of fine china and pottery next to postcards printed by Gibson.

There are multiple ways to connect this surprising link with possible S3 plot points, obviously, but it’s getting late, so let’s just name the two most important ones.

You’ve probably heard of the Holy Grail, maybe from Monty Python or Good Omens S01E03 1941 flashback. Depending on the version of the story, if can be a cup, a chalice, a bowl, or a saucer — but almost always a dish or a vessel connected personally, physically and metaphysically to Jesus (unless you’re partial to Wolfram von Eschenbach’s idea that the Grail was a stone, the sanctuary of the neutral angels who took neither side during Lucifer's rebellion).

A slightly more obscure dish related to the Son of God appears in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation as a vital part of His Second Coming. The Seven Bowls (or cups, or vials) of God’s Wrath are supposed to be poured out on the wicked and the followers of the Antichrist by seven angels:

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.  (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

[jones-curtis]

From Bullion to Bank: Selling Gold Safely in the UK

Introduction:

Selling gold can be a prudent financial decision, whether you're looking to liquidate bullion investments or part ways with heirloom jewelry. However, ensuring a safe and profitable transaction requires careful consideration of various factors. In this guide, we will explore the process of selling gold safely in the UK, offering valuable insights and tips to help individuals navigate the selling journey with confidence.

Understanding the UK Gold Market:

Before diving into the selling process, it's crucial to understand the dynamics of the UK gold market. The UK boasts a robust gold market with diverse avenues for selling gold, including bullion dealers, pawnshops, jewelry stores, online platforms, and even banks. The value of gold is determined by factors such as international gold prices, currency exchange rates, and local supply and demand dynamics.

Key Considerations When Selling Gold:

Gold Purity and Weight: Gold purity is measured in karats, with 24 karats representing pure gold. When selling gold, it's essential to accurately assess its purity and weight, as these factors significantly influence its value. Gold is typically weighed in grams or troy ounces, with higher purity and weight commanding higher prices.

Market Conditions: Stay abreast of current market conditions and trends to gauge the optimal time to sell your gold assets. Factors such as economic stability, geopolitical tensions, and investor sentiment can impact gold prices. Monitoring real-time price updates and market analysis reports can provide valuable insights into market dynamics.

Selling Options: Explore the various selling options available in the UK gold market to determine the most suitable approach for your needs. Whether you're selling gold bullion, coins, jewelry, or scrap, consider factors such as convenience, security, and potential returns when choosing a selling method.

Safety and Security: Prioritize safety and security when selling gold to mitigate the risk of fraud or theft. Choose reputable buyers with established track records and positive reviews to ensure a secure transaction. Additionally, exercise caution when sharing personal or financial information and opt for secure payment and shipping methods.

Legal Compliance: Familiarize yourself with the legal requirements and regulations governing the sale of gold in the UK. Ensure that you adhere to relevant legislation, such as anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and tax obligations, to avoid potential legal issues or penalties.

Selling Gold Safely in the UK: Tips and Strategies

Research Potential Buyers: Conduct thorough research to identify reputable buyers in the UK gold market. Look for established bullion dealers, jewelry stores, and online platforms with positive reviews and accreditation from industry organizations. Seek recommendations from trusted sources or consult online forums and communities for insights into buyer reputation and reliability.

Obtain Multiple Quotes: Obtain quotes from multiple buyers to compare offers and ensure that you receive fair value for your gold assets. Consider factors such as pricing transparency, turnaround time, and customer service when evaluating quotes. Be wary of buyers offering significantly lower prices or making unrealistic promises, as they may not have your best interests at heart.

Verify Buyer Credentials: Verify the credentials and legitimacy of potential buyers before initiating a transaction. Check for relevant licenses, certifications, or memberships with industry associations such as the British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA) or the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Reputable buyers are typically transparent about their credentials and regulatory compliance.

Insist on Secure Transactions: Prioritize secure transactions when selling gold to safeguard your assets and personal information. Choose buyers that offer secure payment methods, such as bank transfers or escrow services, to minimize the risk of fraud or payment disputes. Additionally, opt for insured shipping options with tracking capabilities to ensure the safe delivery of your gold items.

Negotiate Wisely: Negotiate the terms of the sale to maximize your returns while maintaining a fair and transparent process. Use your knowledge of market conditions and competing offers to negotiate a competitive price for your gold assets. Be prepared to walk away from negotiations if the buyer is unwilling to meet your price expectations or if you have concerns about their credibility.

Consider Selling to Banks: Explore the option of selling gold to reputable banks or financial institutions that offer buyback services. Banks typically adhere to strict regulatory standards and may provide competitive prices for gold bullion or coins. Contact your local bank or inquire about their gold buying policies and procedures to assess this selling option.

Conclusion:

Selling gold safely in the UK requires careful planning, research, and diligence to ensure a successful transaction. By understanding the nuances of the sell gold uk market, conducting thorough due diligence on potential buyers, and prioritizing safety and security, individuals can navigate the selling process with confidence and peace of mind. Whether you're selling bullion, coins, jewelry, or scrap gold, following these tips and strategies will help you maximize returns and achieve a seamless selling experience in the UK.

[zooterchet]

Assassinations

Hunter S. Thompson: SDF contract, introducing a crime problem to Japan.

Harvey Weinstein: Buddhist League contract, draft of Uma Thurman to the arts with surgery to remove Tibetan High Knights status.

Marisa Tomasic: Canondroga contract, removal of Non-Aligned Movement agent dealing in cheap labor through conjugal housing.

Jeffrey Langier: Midway Games contract, removal of control of internet from Gentiles and Asian-Americans, to Lutheran-German compounds.

Likud: MI-6 contract, counter of Mossad in debt to Britain, as opposing the rights of the Students Revolution of Iran.

Whitey Bulger: Netanyahu contract, as Arab agent of Lebanon.

9/11: LucasArts contract, stopping six planes, out of eleven, eleventh removed by "nil" hack, the film "The Matrix", with self as Cypher.

Berlin Wall: Irish-Catholic contract, removal of influence of Irish Republican Army, Lutherans, over slavery of Polish-Gentiles, for INTERPOL and Cold War Slovaks.

Teamsters Internationale: Jordanian contract, nullification of rich children exploiting writers, from seeming poverty, actually independent wealth in British housing, from labor unions feeding dole of Canada and United Kingdom and Australia; countermand of internet, in NSA command.

National Rifle Association: NSA contract, strip of Code Pink, Raelians, Middlesex County, and Suffolk Courts, of access to firearms, for rogue cop hunts of drug dealers, endowed to Canadian jazz swing culture of Jews.

Hard Candy: Star Trek contract, posture of self in pornography with cougar dominatrix, to confuse older hot women, with big beautiful women, to confuse Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, into arrests as "William Riker", if a hospital CEO, the politicians contract for building a new wing of a hospital, with a psychiatric mass sweep investment.

Arkham Games: FBI contract, game mechanics of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Knight, Arkham Origins, as game theory stolen from Kill Bill 1, as proper FBI procedure, given procedural state department law.

Havana Affair: CIA/USMC contract, as CIA and USMC armed against INTERPOL with foreign manuals, acting out of precinct, over drug law ritual violations, to induce Transvaal disorder, also known as Havana Syndrome.

That Hideous Strength: Narcotics Bureau MI-6, downfall of Elon Musk, as having seized NSA company data, Twitter, to track records of campus mental health, held in bond as foreign gangster, actually Israeli, through Anglican funeral homes.

Cyberpunk: PRCC contract, the communist Chinese, the print of Cyberpunk 2077, to poison any police working out of Poland anti-Boyar, the Bolshevists, for the Red Russian Army, by tricking into assassinating own trained informants.

GTA 3: Prudential Insurance contract, to blend video game mechanics, with applied gaming, to trap any in crime, also beholden to video game mechanics, someone playing Menonite dynamics, as a criminal, instead of using own academic intuition from schools, libraries, or social words of mouth.

Gotham: MetLife contract, teaching American marijuana dealer ethics, American insurance, the method of exchanged ignorance of fronted monetary benefit, mutually refused on revenge of suit if functional; otherwise, Jerome Valeska, gay haze, admission to insanity, or Jeremiah Valeska, theft of job, transgender disorder.

Nolan Trilogy: Comixology contract, independence of comic book contracting, the sales of FBI COIN, DC Comics, to Time Warner Cable, along with Comcast, AOL, and CNN, for American profit share, through popularity of Heath Ledger's role, to save his daughter, raised as a son.

Adolf Hitler: Disney contract, the printing of Max, through John Cusack, to kill Marvel Haganah writer and research man, John Washburne, cousin of Cusack, after Joan Cusack, sent Washburne, to Westen Massachusetts, over molestation of John Cusack's son; deployed in film "Max", shown to campus, to mimic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as ill-fated attorney of fiction, Dr. Gonzo, Oscar Zeta Acosta. "Arm ourselves, to the teeth".

Donald J. Trump: Persian Intelligence contract, hired by Dr. Golden, to inform the FBI, that israeli, MI-6, and ExSec, were taking over entire towns; Dr. Golden, as an IDF defector, in MI-6 secretly, and an FBI source, Dr. Isaiah Friedlander, featured as Sanchez in License to Kill, Snake Plissken in the Carpenter films, and Solid Snake in the Metal Gear games; an act of conscience.

Cuban Catholic: Vladimir Putin, the end of the House of Tudor, and slave farming numbers, through kidnapped naval sailors, from the worldwide merchant and military marine numbers, "Lady Carole"; the death of Queen Elizabeth II in chess, King Charles II's loss of his inheritence, Prince Andrew's vice charge, Prince Edwards' knighting of Andrew Lloyd Weber as King of the Jews, Prince William and Prince Harry's switch between serial killer and mental illness; the takover of the royal family, by own device, Scientology (a refusal of cop charges, in favor of lawyer's term of device, but through police arbiter).

Colbert Report: MKULTRA, the trifecta triple bolo of lawyer/cop/economist, through accusation of gay beaches (Taliban), field hockey bets (Ba'ath), and South Park (Likud), as a British combine, recruiting US Navy quartermaster rations (M3) and North Korean lawyer for Saddam's trial (NYPD) for Colbert Report, "Truthiness", the brainwashing of Barack Obama, to pose as John McCain in public during 2008 election, earning the Nobel Prize.

Bickford Schmeckler: Campus Communist Union, the theft of IRA special education records, for sales to small businesses, for purchase of land by corporate combines, by frame of small business families, as sex offenders (Massachusetts special education students).

[animala2z]

American Foxhound: Dog Breed, Height, Training, Care Full Info

The American foxhound is a medium-sized hound canine strain with a spare and athletic figure, long legs, droopy cognizance, and a short, smooth fleece that’s generally a blend of white, black, and tan.

This distinguished canine strain has a plenitude of history and heart, and while it may partake a resemblance with one of America’s most popular tykes, this hound is much further than a larger Beagle.

The hardworking foxhound is- American despite its British and European heritage, and this leggy, oral strain is stylishly honored for its melodious bay.

Historically speaking, the American foxhound was prized for its pack-stalking prowess, and it was a favorite choice among nimrods( particularly on horseback).

In more recent times, the strain has set up a place in family homes and hearts thanks to its easygoing and friendly nature. American foxhounds are particularly noted for being veritably patient with children, and they are great companions for active households.

However, you’ll be pleased to have the pious foxhound by your side, If you can meet the exertion and environmental requirements of this strain.

Origin: United States

Height: 21 to 25 inches and Bitches 21 to 24 inches

Weight: 65 to 70 pounds and 60 to 65 pounds

Life Span: 10–12 years

Size: Large

Color: Combinations of white, black, and tan

Breed Characteristics

American Foxhounds are good-natured, low- conservation hounds who get on well with kiddies, tykes, and indeed pussycats, but come with special considerations for prospective possessors. They’re nearly associated with Revolutionary icons and the rolling estates of old Virginia.

American Foxhounds are satiny, rangy nimrods known for their speed, abidance, and work ethic. You can tell the American Foxhound piecemeal from their British kinsman the English Foxhound by the length of the leg’ the American’s legs are longer and more finely gutted’ and by the American’s slightly arched loin( back end).

American Foxhounds have large, soft eyes with an expression described as gentle and prayerful. So far, so good. But Foxhounds come with special considerations. They need lots of exercises or they can get depressed and destructive. A Foxhound’s single-inclined prey drive must be managed.

History

This most American of breeds dates back to 1650, with the first record of fox-chasing hounds arriving from England. By the 1700s, riding to the hounds had come extremely popular with the upper class; indeed George Washington set up it as a favorite pastime.

George Washington crossed descendants of these early foxhounds with French foxhounds the Marquis de Lafayette gave him, and these tykes are behind the American Foxhound. significances from England, France, and Ireland helped further shape the strain. Foxhound bloodlines have been recorded in America since 1850.

Around this same time, the sport spread to the southern United States, particularly the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, and nimrods there preferred a brisk canine with the capability to start and chase a fox alone, and also to give chase to deer. The tykes came more streamlined than their English counterparts.

The tykes further developed into different strains, the most popular being the Walker. This strain descends from a canine named Tennessee Lead, contended to have been stolen from a deer chase by a canine dealer, who latterly vended him to George Washington Maupin.

His genealogies to this fast-handling foxhound produced some of the stylish handling tykes seen to that time. tykes from that strain were latterly called Walker hounds. Other strains of foxhounds include Trigg, Goodman, July, Calhoun, and Hudspeth.

These tykes ultimately came technical as either running hounds or show hounds, with the former being indeed further specialized as competitive field trial hounds and pack hounds. The pack type is generally considered the prototypical Foxhound.

These tykes combine great speed, abidance, and jumping capability with a strong nose and amenability to give chase as a pack member. In 1886, the American Foxhound came one of the foremost types to be registered by the AKC, although enrollments have noway been particularly high.

The low AKC enrollment figures belie the Foxhound’s fashionability, still, because utmost Foxhounds are kept by those with little interest in AKC enrollment. The Foxhound can therefore lay claim to being one of the most unpopular popular types in America.

[theindiareview]

A “Priceless” Statue of Gautam Buddha Returned to India

A miniature 12th century Buddha statue which was stolen from a museum in India over five decades ago has been returned back to the country. This is the story of an interesting ‘return’ to take place in the art world. A 12th century statue of Buddha was recently returned by Britain to India after it was spotted and identified by Lynda Albertson (a member of Association for Research in Crime against Art (ARCA)) and Vijay Kumar (from the India Pride Project) when visiting a trade fair in the United Kingdom. After their report the British police handed this statue to the Indian High Commission in London. This Buddha statue made of bronze with silver decoration on it was recognized by Archaeological survey of India (ASI), the government owned organization responsible for archeological research and conservation and preservation of historical monuments in the country. ASI stated that this statue was stolen in 1961 from a museum in Nalanda in Bihar in northern India. This statue changed several hands before arriving in London for sale. UK police informed that various dealers and owners who had the statue were unaware that it was stolen from India and so they rightfully cooperated with the police’s Art and Antiques Unit for the investigation and subsequent return. Almost 57 years ago, around 16 priceless bronze statues went missing from Nalanda in Bihar in India. Each of these statues were an outstanding work of art. This particular statue depicted Buddha sitting in bhumisparsha mudra (earth-touching gesture) and was six-and-half inches long. Vijay Kumar of the India Pride Project was conducting investigation on this missing piece. He belongs to Chennai though currently he works in Singapore as a general manager. While the missing object investigation was going on, Vijay Kumar had several conversations with Sachindra S Biswas, the former director general of ASI. At the time, Kumar didn’t have evidence for it. He says that most museums in western countries require photographic proof of antiquities stolen from their collection, while ASI was not very good at keeping photographic records. Fortunately for Kumar, Biswas had kept few photographs of some of the statues in 1961 and 1962 along with their detailed descriptions. Based upon these details Kumar then decided to keep an eye out for the 16 stolen items in the international art market. Coincidentally, few years ago Lynda Albertson (of ARCA) and Kumar had collaborated on few projects and were well acquainted with each other. So, when Albertson informed about her visit to The European Fine Arts Fair, Kumar accompanied her. At the Fair, as Kumar discovered that the statue was incorrectly listed as belonging to the 7th century instead of 12th. He then compared the photographs with those provided by Biswas and concluded that it was the same piece apart from few modifications and restorations which were done on it. Albertson contacted the head of Art and Antiques Unit of the Netherlands National Police Force as well as Interpol for supporting evidence while Kumar alerted the ASI in India. However, it took few days for the two of them to convince relevant authorities and one worry was that The European Fine Arts Fair was coming to an end. To prevent further sale of Buddha’s statue, Dutch police contacted the dealer on the concluding day of the trade fair. The dealer informed the police that the firm was selling the piece on consignment, its current owner was not in Netherlands and the dealer planned to take the statue back to London if the piece remained unsold. While the statue was being taken back to London, Albertson and Kumar passed on the important and necessary documents to Constable Sophie Hayes of New Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit. Meanwhile, the current Director General of ASI Usha Sharma wrote a letter to the Indian High Commission in London apprising them of the situation. The dealer asked them a proper identification of the piece and for which the documents were provided which matched the points of similarity between this piece and the photographs of the original. The dealer was still adamant that there were around 10 points where the statue did not match the one from ASI records. For due diligence, Constable Hayes contacted the International Council of Museums (ICOM) which then arranged for a neutral expert to study the statue closely. This expert took few months to carefully examine the piece before ICOM sent a report validating Kumar’s and Albertson’s claims. The bronze was made by the cire perdue or “lost wax” process. This means that the wax model for the piece was used only once making the statue a stand-alone piece. Once this was established, it was observed that the same damaged location was seen in this statue as was noted in the ASI’s record. The report concurred with ASI’s description of the bronze’s discoloration due to burning. Among other points of similarity, the clincher was the disproportionately large right hand of Buddha touching the earth, making this statue a very unique piece. Thus, the owner and dealer were asked to give up the piece and they agreed to hand it over. This particular case is a good example of collaboration and cooperation between law enforcement, scholars and traders and maintaining cultural diplomacy between India and United Kingdom. Most credit goes to Kumar and Albertson for their diligence in recognizing that the missing piece has been located after all these years. Once the statue is received by India, it will definitely be placed in Nalanda Museum. Nalanda has a special historical connection to Buddhism. It is also the place where the oldest university of the world – Nalanda University – stands where scholars and intellectuals converged in 5th century BC. This place also saw Buddha giving public talks and sermons. Valuable artifacts and stones have been looted from India for centuries and now they are travel through the smuggling channels. This is hopeful and exciting news and all the people involved who have enabled this successful finding and return. They all feel delighted to be able to facilitate the return of this important piece of Indian heritage. *** Read the full article

[wetsteve3]

REG DEARDEN’S SUPERCHARGED VINCENT 1949 VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING FRAME NO. RC4436 ENGINE NO. F10AB/1C/2536

Sold for £ 221,500 (US$ 304,687) inc. premium Following a glorious era throughout the 1920s period very few British motorcycles were mechanically capable of contesting the rarefied world of Record Breaking. Since WWII the most frequent choice of machine for the Blue Riband of Motorcycling has been Vincent’s 1000cc Black Lightning. Vincent is undoubtedly revered as Britain’s most cherished medium-volume manufacturer but, having begun in 1928, and started manufacture at Stevenage (Herts), regularly producing several hundred machines each year, it was to universal disappointment the firm ceased trading in 1955. However, when arguably at their peak during the late 1940s, the American rider Rollie Free – formidable former Indian racer, and renowned for his hatred of Harleys – gained the World Speed Record at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, for Un-Streamlined Machines on Fuel. This was achieved in September 1947 on a much-modified version of the 50-degree ohv vee twin. The Vincent was owned by John Edgar and, by arrangement, had been especially prepared at the factory. Famously, those last few mph of the Record attempt had proven elusive until Free stripped down to his bathing trunks, whereupon, he thundered through the traps at the magic two-way average speed of 150.31 mph. This important Record saw Vincent’s contemporary advertising proclaim they made the World’s Fastest Standard Motorcycle. And, very soon there after, the firm were prompted to introduce the Black Lightning model, incorporating a similar engine specification to that of the Edgar/Free prototype. Priced in excess of £400 it was easily Britain’s most expensive motorcycle. Is it any surprise, perhaps, but barely 30 examples were ever produced and sold. Today, a Black Lightning is categorically acclaimed as the Holy Grail of post war motorcycles.

  By its very nature Record Breaking is traditionally the most demanding of arenas. The roll call of contestants with a realistic chance of success has never extended beyond the resourceful few. However in 1949 The Motor Cycle, Britain’s leading 2-wheel publication, offered a Trophy, plus a generous £500 prize [more than the price of a new ’Lightning] for the first successful all-British attempt on the absolute World Speed Record, for which full streamlining was clearly a necessary requirement. The Record had been held since 1937 by BMW at 173.54 mph. Inspired by the Blue Un’s offer Reg Dearden, a popular high profile m/c dealer at Chorlton-cum-Hardy [Manchester], purchased a Black Lightning direct from the factory, expressly for the purpose. There was a widely held belief in those days that the guarantee for reaching these targeted speeds was most easily achieved by the fitment of a supercharger. In early 1950, therefore, Reg returned the bike to Stevenage for the retro fitting of a purpose-built Shorrocks ’charger, together with the necessary but complex “plumbing” system, which was fed via an outsize S.U. carburetor and float chamber. Other mandatory tasks included an extension of the gearbox and engine main shafts, the making of a special clutch contained by specially cast alloy casings, fabrication of a dramatically re-shaped ex Grey Flash fuel tank and, in order to correctly install the supercharger within the chassis, the main frame, engine plates, and swinging arm were strengthened-and-lengthened” by about 6 inches. The work was undertaken under the personal supervision of Phil Vincent, MD, with advice and assistance from George Brown and various other luminaries constantly involved at the Stevenage factory. Press reports of the time quote Dearden’s subsequent claims to the effect that every individual part on the bike was virtually now “one-off”, simultaneously admitting in a rueful mode how the work had cost him several thousand pounds! The work in fact proved such a massive undertaking that it took the factory until mid-July to complete.

  Public appearances of the Vincent, thereafter, were infrequent, inasmuch the next reported sighting of the now supercharged Vincent was as part of a spectacular display in a branch of Kings of Oxford, whose 20-odd shops were owned by Stan Hailwood [Mike’s father], an old friend of Dearden. Reg himself, meanwhile, was enjoying a close relationship with Norton over an arrangement that entailed the entering and supporting of a posse of promising young riders to compete in the Isle of Man TT and elsewhere, riding the Bracebridge Street machines. At any one time Dearden had at least 20 Manx Norton competitors “on his books”, a program that continued for many seasons, undoubtedly consuming an immense amount of time and concentration on his part. It is probably this reason, along with the news in 1951 that NSU had now upped the Speed Record to 180.29 mph, which caused the modified Vincent to lay dormant until 1953, when it was briefly announced in the technical press that the intended rider for the Record attempt – presumably at Bonneville – would be Les Graham [father of Stuart]. Les was already 500cc World Champion, and had been assisted by Dearden in his early career. Sadly, he was fatally injured in the 1953 Senior TT, causing yet another delay and a possible reduction in enthusiasm for the Record Breaking project. Even so there are some recorded instances of the bike in use. It was timed at Pendine Sands at 150 mph, but ran its bottom end. Following this setback it was further modified at the Stevenage factory, whose tester briefly rode the machine, fitted with silencers, on the public highway. Reg, too, apparently tried a series of straight-line Burn Outs, using “slave” tyres. And, in a letter to Classic Bike dated April 1992, Ireland’s Vincent agent, Harry Lindsey confirms how he too once rode the bike on an undisclosed aerodrome strip, although his all too brief “blast” was swiftly curtailed due to engine shaft failure.

  The setting by NSU, in 1956, of a new Speed record at Bonneville, at 211.40 mph, seemed somehow to rekindle Dearden’s interest, for it was reported he would now fly the bike to the Salt Flats – although no rider was specified – in his own Cessna airplane, for one last serious attempt. Yet again it came to nought when the CAA refused to certify the aircraft concerned for this particular mode of transportation! The Vincent thus stayed unused and neglected at Dearden’s premises over the next decade, until it was eventually sold to Eric Biddle, a publican friend, in 1970. Biddle never used the machine, but sold it on to Michael Manning, a scientist, who lived in Pennsylvania, USA. In 1977 Manning took the Supercharged Vincent to a Vincent Owners Club Rally in Canada, where it was ridden over a short distance but, after returning to his home in Philadelphia, it again remained in storage until acquired in 1987 by the present owner, a passionate collector and user of Vincents, from Texas.

  The vendor’s association with the Stevenage product is a profound and lifelong relationship. As a true aficionado he knows instinctively if a Vincent needs restoring, or when sympathetic preservation is the better route. In the case of the Dearden Vincent he’s applied the latter philosophy. After his purchase, and following a gentle re-commission, he was struck by the machine’s obvious originality. Considered alongside its minimal Running Time, over a period of sixty years, this originality creates something that is utterly unrivalled. During the last 20 years the vendor confirms that the bike has been run on several occasions. The resultant racket emitted by those huge open pipes, he claims, resembles no other. In 1999 the well-known UK photojournalist Mick Duckworth sampled the Vincent on a remote Texas highway for a 7-page feature in Classic Bike. The generous terrain allowed Mick sufficient space, and enough time, for familiarization. After reaching a speed close to 100 mph in bottom he bravely engaged second gear…at which point he suddenly remembered exactly what a precious artefact he was astride. The test ride concluded happily, however, with the owner stating, “You’ve probably ridden this Vincent further than anyone in living memory!”

  The historic Black Lightning reposes in all its visual potential, slightly oily, yet with its original HT leads and the OE Avon tyres first fitted at Stevenage so long ago; even the rims’ black factory paint remains in place. Original low usage Black Lightnings are rare, supercharged ’Lightnings rarer still. This one is unique

[loadsanta303]

China Post Air Mail Website

ePacket is one of the shipping options offered on eBay, AliExpress, Wish and other online marketplaces. There, while placing an order, you may choose from several postal services, including this one. Delivery time for these parcels is almost always within 30 days. You can trace the status of the order once you get a tracking code.

Air Mail Tracking

Tracking From China To Usa

China Post Air Mail Website Philippines

China Post Air Mail Website Business

Contents

Track China Post Packages. At RapidTrack.net you can quickly find the status of your shipment/package with just a few clicks of the mouse. We are able to easily track shipments from hundreds of carriers. Package tracking has never been easier! Track your shipments and get updates all from one location. China post For the article on the postal system based in the People's Republic of China, see China Post. Registered Put one's name on an official list under such terms (of animals) officially recorded with or certified by a recognized breed association; especially in a.

What is ePacket delivery from China?

ePacket delivery is a subsidiary of China EMS. It is suitable for light-weight packages (under 2 kg). The service was formed specifically for e-commerce purposes, namely for eBay merchants shipping from China to the USA. Many merchants select ePacket by default as it is an affordable and reliable way of delivery.

Some Chinese sellers also use another word for ePacket, which is EUB or e-Youbao (e邮宝). Alternative names for ePacket also include Suzhou EUB, SZ-EUB, FY-GZ EUB, HZ-EUB, ePacket-PT, and ePacket-YW.

What are the requirements for ePacket shipping?

Car and driver best midsize suv. The requirements are as follows:

You can ship to the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary. Ireland, Indonesia (currently in a trial run), Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan (in a trial run), Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand (presently in a trial run), Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam (in a trial run).

A package must not exceed 2 kg in weight. The exception to this rule is Israel, where a parcel can be under 3 kg.

There are allowed dimensions for a parcel:

The sum of the length, width and thickness cannot be greater than 90 cm, and the longest side of a package cannot be more than 60 cm.

Flat mail pieces must be more than 14 cm long and 9 cm tall.

The permissible dimensions for rolled-up packages are under 104 cm (in length and diameter), and the length must not exceed 90 cm.

Small- and medium-sized packages may contain fillers — spare parts, accessories, tools and household appliances (please note that they must meet safety requirements).

The value of the package must be less than $400.

One can track an order using a tracking number (Shipment ID).

Freight rate depends on the weight of a package. For instance, the minimum threshold is 50 g for the US, New Zealand, Russia and Japan, and 10 g for Ukraine.

Are there any restrictions for ePacket shipping?

Yes, there are some restrictions for this shipping option. According to Universal Postal Convention, items like aerosols, explosives, gasoline, poison, etc. are forbidden (unless shipped by licensed dealers).

Who delivers ePacket?

First, China Post EMS delivers a parcel to the Chinese border and then forwards it to the destination country. Upon arrival at the sorting center, the items are picked up by national postal services (e.g. USPS in US, Canada Post in Canada, etc.) and finally delivered to the post office that is closest to the customer.

Where can I get an ePacket delivery?

Once you get delivery confirmation, you can pick up your ePacket at a local post office or check your PO box. The package can also be delivered right to your door if your national postal service offers such mode of delivery.

Does ePacket deliver to my door?

ePacket only guarantees fast delivery to the customs of the destination country. From this point forward, the national postal service deals with the order. You can get your shipment delivered to your door if the local postal service allows this option.

Is ePacket delivery free?

Not really. Whenever you place an order and see free shipping option, that means the merchant has incorporated the delivery cost into the price of the item. Sophos xg active directory. On average, it is $1-3 for small-sized packages and $4-6 for oversized ones.

Can I track an ePacket?

ePacket delivery provides customers with the option of end-to-end tracking. You can check the delivery status on the China Post EMS official website, which is both in English and Chinese, or track it here on Postal Ninja.

As a rule, ePacket tracking number starts with LM, BZ, LX, LN, LZ, LW, LF, LK, KQ, LO or LL, followed with nine digits and CN, e.g.:

LS039769770CN

LT947052932CN

LN832125508CN

LW910983731CN

My ePacket is lost — what should I do?

A false tracking number may be the reason. While tracking your order, you may see a wrong location, which means it refers to another package. Get in touch with the merchant to get an actual tracking code.

If your ePacket goes missing completely, ask the merchant to report the lost package.

How long does it take to get an ePacket from China?

Delivery times vary by the destination country:

Kill sophos process mac. Recovery Instructions: Your options. In the Application Control policy, applications are allowed by default. System administrators choose applications that they wish to block. You can check out who is the parent process: select the process in activity monitor and use the Info button, or via terminal with ps -ax -O ppid if I recall correctly. It might be another process by Sophos but with a stealth name, or maybe even your VPN software. In that case you can just kill 'em all.

Air Mail Tracking

Delivery time to the USA: 10-20 working days;

To Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine: 7-20 working days;

To other countries: 7-30 working days.

It should be pointed out that holidays, bad weather and other factors may delay the shipment.

My ePacket takes too long — what should I do?

First off, contact the merchant to specify the details. It is necessary to extend package insurance and wait for the item to be delivered. In the worst-case scenario, that is if you call your packet a loss, you can ask for a refund. Marketplaces oblige merchants to issue a full refund of missing packages.

ePacket vs China Post Air Mail

ePacket is a fast and convenient shipping option. Most items get delivered safely within 2-3 weeks. In contrast, some packages shipped by China Post get delayed, get stuck at customs, arrive damaged or even get lost.

British Eurosport has today (May 29) launched on Sky Go, the multiplatform service enabling Sky customers to watch live and on-demand television on multiple devices. The Sky Go app is available for all Sky TV customers at no extra cost, so you can watch Sky on the go on your mobile, tablet or laptop. Eurosport su sky go. Watch all 7 Sky Sports channels live on your mobile, laptop or tablet on Sky Go. At no extra cost for Sky Sports TV customers With Sky Go you can watch entertainment, movies and sports live and on. Access all the channels available on Sky Go while you're waiting. Once you're up and running, you'll only be able to watch the channels available in line with your TV package. Sky Go channels. Movies / Sports Entertainment Kids Docs News / International. All Sky Cinema channels.

ePacket vs Aliexpress Standard Shipping

Tracking From China To Usa

The apparent advantage of AliExpress Standard Shipping lies in customer security. In the course of the transaction, a merchant first passes an item to the AliExpress logistics department, where it gets a tracking code, and then a package is forwarded to courier services. In the case of standard delivery, the merchant bears all costs and estimated delivery time is 20-40 days. A customer can choose between paying extra (which ensures fast delivery) or having a package shipped for free but with a slight delay.

China Post Air Mail Website Philippines

In short, here are the pros and cons of ePacket (in comparison to Aliexpress Standard Shipping):

China Post Air Mail Website Business

ProsConsless risk of package lossweight up to 2 kgfaster package processinghigher delivery cost

[conniejoworld]

By KEVIN KRAUSE

Staff Writer kkrause@dallasnews.com

He was a fugitive who had threatened to go to war with the government and had illegally gotten his hands on a powerful firearm after being released from prison.

And he was in contact with another militia extremist who months later would begin plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor, according to the FBI.

“I am now a sought after man, who is going to stand up and NEVER allow them to kidnap me again,” Kevin “KC” Massey said on Facebook.

Massey’s final days were spent running, hiding and talking about a final confrontation. That, however, never happened. The North Texas man who once led vigilante patrols on the Texas-Mexico border shot himself two days before Christmas in 2019 in Van Zandt County, putting an end to the manhunt.

Over a year after Massey’s death, some associates who allegedly provided him with aid and support are now themselves facing prison time. While on the run, Massey, 53, became a powerful symbol of resistance for the resurgent anti-government militia movement that has been radicalizing people disaffected by the pandemic and national politics.

Cody Gene Reynolds, 34, of Hunt County recently pleaded guilty in Dallas to buying Massey an AR-15-style firearm a few months before Massey’s suicide. Reynolds is scheduled to be sentenced in August, according to court records. His attorney declined to comment.

And Barry Gordon Croft, 44, was communicating with Massey on Facebook in the fall of 2019, promising to help him and to train him for a coming war against the government, the FBI says. Croft, of Delaware, has been charged along with about a dozen others with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

A third man, James Russell Smith, was arrested and tried on a charge of harboring Massey at his Hunt County home. But a federal jury in Dallas found Smith, 70, not guilty several months ago.

Massey was already a hero to some other homegrown extremists, and his death only served to make him a martyr in the eyes of like-minded militia members. An Illinois podcaster last year called Massey a “fallen political prisoner.” And a Facebook page created for him called Massey a “patriot who served on the Texas border repelling foreign invaders.”

For federal authorities who are looking to contain the growth of domestic terrorism in the U.S, that is a concern.

“Massey’s status as a fugitive became a symbol of government oppression for individuals like Croft who harbored anti-government and anti-federal law enforcement views,” an FBI complaint in that case said.

Croft was arrested in October. Prosecutors called him a ringleader in the Whitmer kidnapping scheme as well as the “prime mover behind” the construction and testing of “weapons of mass destruction.”

Croft took part in nighttime surveillance of the governor’s house, planned to bomb a bridge and detonated test bombs he planned to use, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said in a filing. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorney declined to comment.

‘They will ... pay’

Croft messaged Massey on Facebook in October 2019 when Massey was a fugitive, the FBI says. Among the things Croft said to Massey were, “They will have to pay for what they have done,” and “I don’t care if we destroy this whole planet in the fight that is coming, but a reckoning is necessary,” an FBI affidavit said.

Croft also allegedly said that “the People” didn’t support what happened to Massey and that “Our hour draws near, brother.”

“I’m going to North Carolina on Saturday to discuss going to war against the government of North Carolina,” Croft allegedly wrote. “They invited me to speak and share tactics. Please come out bro. We need you.”

Croft also told Massey in his messages that he could help him, according to the FBI.

“I can pull you out,” Croft allegedly told him. “Let me get you nourished back to combat ready … I need to recover you, sir.”

Massey, 53, was an electrician from Quinlan, an hour east of Dallas, and a man with “alarming rage” and a love of heavy weaponry, federal authorities have said.

He had gone into hiding around May 2019, several months after being released from prison on probation for a federal weapons charge that stemmed from his armed border patrols, court records say.

In addition to being a militia member, Massey was a Three Percenter, which refers to a far-right, anti-government movement that the FBI is building a conspiracy case against in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and insurrection, according to published reports and court records.

Three Percenters are also referred to as “III%ers” or “threepers.” The term Three Percenter is based on the myth that only 3% of American colonists fought against the British during the American Revolution. Authorities say it’s not a single group but more of a common belief that a small yet determined force of armed citizens can overthrow a government. Many independent militias incorporate it into their names.

Authorities say Croft posted the following comment online in April 2019: “Be it known, any harm to KCI Massey III by the federal government will trigger my 3% [expletive] to action!!!%”

Help from friends

Massey came to the attention of federal authorities in 2014 when he was in Brownsville as a member of a border vigilante group called Rusty’s Rangers. Dressed in military fatigues, he conducted armed patrols with others on the South Texas border to search for immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S., authorities say.

The militia members, displeased with U.S. border enforcement, said they took matters into their own hands after obtaining permission to access private property. Their makeshift “Camp Lonestar” on rural land served as a “staging area for their patrols,” according to the feds.

Massey routinely videotaped his border activities and posted them on Facebook, court records said. He would later say on Facebook that he had the power of citizen’s arrest. In posts, Massey described detaining immigrants at gunpoint and binding their wrists with zip ties.

He vowed to remain at the border until regulators “sealed the border or there’s some sort of civil war,” prosecutors said.

Instead he was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Massey was found with 20 homemade explosive devices and other weapons at the time, court records say. He was convicted and sentenced in 2016 to 41 months in federal prison.

His prison writings, archived online by a supporter, as well as his Facebook posts, show that he fervently embraced right-wing extremist movements.

According to prosecutors, he also expressed support for Timothy McVeigh, whose bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 killed more than 160 people and injured over 680 others.

Massey was released from prison in June 2018 to begin serving his three-year probation term, according to court records. As a felon, he could not legally have firearms.

But Massey drove with Reynolds to a Caddo Mills gun store in December 2018 to buy one, according to court records. Massey gave Reynolds money and told him which gun to buy. Reynolds then purchased the Diamondback Arms DB15 for Massey. The gun, although called a pistol, looks and performs like an assault rifle.

Reynolds pleaded guilty on March 30 to acquiring a firearm from a licensed dealer by false or fictitious statement and to aiding and abetting a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

A warrant was issued for Massey’s arrest in May 2019 after he tested positive for illegal drugs and failed to report to his probation officer, court records show.

While on the run, Massey went to a second man for help, an old friend, prosecutors said.

An acquittal

James Russell Smith is retired from the construction industry and lives in Lone Oak, east of Dallas. He had known Massey for about 20 years and recruited him to join the Cossacks Motorcycle Club years earlier, prosecutors said. Massey told Smith he was broke, hungry and needed a place to stay, according to court records.

In July 2019, Massey moved to Smith’s property near the banks of Lake Tawakoni, court records say. Smith provided him with food and shelter and also allowed Massey to store his property, including firearms, on his land, according to prosecutors.

U.S. marshals learned Massey was there and set up surveillance. Massey was seen coming and going from the home with what appeared to be a firearm on his hip, a federal complaint said.

Agents raided the home with a search warrant but Massey was gone, having “escaped into the woods,” prosecutors said.

Smith told agents he didn’t know where Massey was. The marshals said they found an AK-47-style pistol inside a bag he left behind. While the marshals continued to look for Massey, the government in July 2019 charged Smith with conspiracy to conceal a person from arrest.

Smith’s trial ended in September with an acquittal. Juror notes submitted during deliberations indicate they had an issue with a critical element of the charge — that Smith knew of the existence of a federal arrest warrant for Massey at the time.

‘Key issue’

Smith’s attorney, Keith Willeford, said in an interview that the arrest warrant for Massey had been sealed and therefore wasn’t public knowledge.

“The key issue was the fact that they had to prove that my client knew that KC had a warrant,” he said.

Willeford said Massey stayed at his client’s property for only about four nights. And no one ever called Smith to inform him that Massey was wanted or to ask for his help in locating him, Willeford said.

William Hagen, a federal prosecutor, tried unsuccessfully in 2015 to seek a tougher prison term for Massey, citing his “utter disregard for federal law.”

And he issued a warning that turned out to be prophetic.

“Because the defendant not only disrespects the law, but explicitly rejects the legitimacy of it, he will undoubtedly rearm and reoffend once released from prison,” Hagen wrote.

The 911 call came in on Dec. 23, 2019. Police said Massey’s body was found in a “small wooded area.”

Twitter: @KevinRKrause

[brokenbuttonsmusic]

Howard Tate: A Philadelphia Soul Resurrection

This post is a near- transcript of the Broken Buttons: Buried Treasure Music podcast (episode 1, side B). Here you’ll find the narration from the segment featuring the great Philadelphia soul singer Howard Tate, along with links, videos, photos and references for the episode.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Anchor or Mixcloud.

Music history is packed with bands and artists that had the talent, the songs and even the fully realized recordings to make it big, only to be passed over. Some miss their window, or worse, some get their big break, but somehow  self-destruct or fail to capitalize on it. It’s the reason why I decided to do this show. There is so much overlooked and under appreciated music out there to be found and enjoyed.

This next artist doesn’t quite hit any of those scenarios exactly though. Howard Tate got his break and made it happen. Howard Tate hit big and he hit fast. Tate said he came home from work one day and a big limousine was sitting in front of his door. 

“You gotta get in here right away. You gotta get a suit. You’re playing with Marvin Gaye tomorrow night.”

Between 1966 and 1970 Howard Tate had six top 40 R&B singles. And then he disappeared. Plunging into obscurity, almost as quickly as he soared within sight of the summit. Tate never completely crossed over. While he regularly appeared on the R&B charts, the highest he ever placed on the Pop charts was #63. 

Let’s start our dive into Tate, by hearing his highest charting single. One of three top 20 R&B hits in his catalog. This is Ain’t Nobody Home by Howard Tate. 

Ain’t Nobody Home by Howard Tate.

Here’s what the Rough Guide to Soul & R&B has to say about that recording and the chemistry of the whole crew who made it happen.

“With a groove laid down by keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarist Cornell Dupree, bassist Chuck Rainey and drummer Herb Lovell, the production of Ain’t Nobody Home by Jerry Ragovoy both borrowed from and influenced the music coming from Memphis and Muscle Shoals, and set the precedent for Atlantic’s first recordings with Aretha Franklin. While the music was great, however, it was Tate’s vocals that made the record. Sounding like a less overwrought Percy Sledge, Tate’s simultaneously Northern and Southern phrasing was impeccable, and economical use of his falsetto made it all the more effective.”

Tate had the voice, which many compared to Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye. He also had a distinctive gospel-blues delivery that sticks with you for days. But the tunes came from somewhere else.

Before his quick ascent, Tate was singing in a group with Garnet Mimms. Mimms was the original singer of the Janis Joplin hit,  Cry Baby. He also introduced Howard to record producer Jerry Ragovoy, who co-wrote Cry Baby. Ragovoy is known for writing Time is On My Side for the Rolling Stones and another Joplin hit, Piece of My Heart. Clearly Janis liked the songwriting of Jerry Ragovoy. In fact, she also performed this Ragovoy composition that you’ve probably come across at one time or another.

That’s Janis Joplin singing Get It While You Can from her massive second album Pearl in 1971. What you might not know is that Get it While you Can was originally performed by Howard Tate, five years earlier in 1966.

Ragovoy was taken with Tate’s voice and began recording him as a solo artist for Verve Records. Ragovoy’s memorable, punchy Northern soul production paired with Tate’s soulful blues phrasing was a perfect match.

Here’s Howard Tate’s version, the original version, of the Jerry Ragovoy penned Get It While You Can.

That was Howard Tate with Get It While You Can from the 1966 album of the same name.

American rock critic Robert Christgau had this to say about Tate and his collaboration with Jerry Ragovoy.

“Tate is a blues-drenched Macon native who had the desire to head north and sounds it every time he gooses a lament with one of the trademark keens that signify the escape he never achieved. He brought out the best in soul pro Jerry Ragovoy, who made Tate's records jump instead of arranging them into submission, and gave him lyrics with some wit to them besides. In return, Ragovoy brought out the best in Tate.”

Despite the magical team up on early singles and a debut album, Tate recorded his second album without Ragovoy, instead working with Lloyd Price and Johnny Nash. Released in 1969, Howard Tate’s Reaction is more uptown soul than the grittier southern soul of its predecessor, but it’s another recognition worthy collection of performances.

Ragovoy and Tate reunited for 1972’s eponymous Howard Tate. This time an Atlantic release. Critics knock this album as being a notch below Ragovoy’s best songwriting, but I think it’s a worthy piece of Tate’s catalog. Tate sounds great, as always, and there are a couple of really explosive, interesting covers. The Band’s Jemima Surrender and this one.

Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country. Listen to this voice.

Howard Tate covering Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North County from 1972.

After recording a handful of additional songs—one single for Epic and a few for his own label—Tate retired from the music business. Frustrated with his lack of crossover, but downright bitter about how little he was paid for his successes, which again, included 3 top 20 R&B hits—he quit. Disappeared, really.

But not everyone was ready to forget. And while his name would fade from memories over the coming decades, Howard Tate’s impact was undeniable.

One of Tate’s heroes, BB King, covered Ain’t Nobody Home. So did Bonnie Raitt.

Ry Cooder and Grand Funk covered Look At Granny Run Run

Jimi Hendrix covered Stop

Foghat covered Eight Days on the Road and so did the one and only queen if soul.

And not everyone forgot. Tate’s old partner, record producer and chief songwriter Jerry Ragovoy made many attempts to track down his old friend over the years. He contacted old business associates and got them in on the search. They all came up empty.

A New Jersey DJ named Phil Casden had developed somewhat of an obsession with Tate’s whereabouts. Casden hosted a weekly radio show, spinning soul, blues and R&B and had taken to asking his listeners for any information about the missing (by this time) cult soul legend.

Even Verve, Tate’s old record company, had given up trying to track down the long retired crooner. The 1995 CD reissue of Tate’s Verve sessions included liner notes that flat out said: Howard Tate is probably dead.

''It wasn't sufficient to leave a story like that open-ended,'' Mr. Casden said. ''I had to find out: 'Is the guy alive? Is he dead?' There had to be something more than, 'He just rode off into the sunset.' ''

In 2001 the mystery was solved. Ron Kennedy, singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes recognized Tate at a grocery store and the old pals played catch up after nearly 30 years. They exchanged numbers. Kennedy put the New Jersey DJ, Casden, in touch with Tate. Casden enthusiastically announced the good news to his listeners and the soul fanatics across the internet. Howard Tate was alive! He even put Tate in touch with a lawyer to help him recoup past royalties from his reissues.

Apparently Tate had quite a loyal following overseas. Eventually, a British journalist reached out to Tate’s old partner-producer Jerry Ragovoy for a reaction. The only problem was, Ragovoy didn’t have a reaction to give because he didn’t know Tate had been found. Ragovoy was elated at the news. After reconnecting with his long lost friend and confirming he was doing well, the next thing on his mind: could Howard Tate still sing?

Before we answer that, let’s answer this: where had Tate been all those years after walking away from the music?

After becoming resentful and disheartened by his missing paydays, Tate decided to go missing himself. He didn’t intentionally go into hiding, he just bailed on the industry that he felt wronged had him.

He worked as a securities dealer with Prudential for a while and then darkness hit. He lost his 13-year-old daughter in a house fire. In 1981, after 20 years, his marriage fell apart. Soon after, Tate unraveled too. He tumbled into drug addiction and lost everything. He lived on the streets for years, struggling to get by and feed his habit. Finally, in the mid 90s, he started to climb out of the hole. He cleaned up and found god. He became a minister and dedicated his life to helping the poor and homeless.

And that brings us up to the moment of his big reunion with Jerry Ragovoy and loyal fans awareness that Howard Tate was alive and well after all those years. But now more than your die hard R&B/soul enthusiasts were interested.

But did he still have that voice? Could Howard still sing?

Uh, yeah. Jerry Ragovoy was stunned at how strong Tate sounded after decades of being out of the game. And he was REALLY out of the game. Howard claims he never sang a note all those years. Not until Jerry approached him about recording a comeback album and got him into the studio. Tate also says he had no clue that Janis, B.B., Jimi, Ry or any of the others had ever covered his songs or took an interest in his music.

Howard and Jerry recorded a new album in 2003. It’s called Rediscovered. And remember that Elvis Costello quote from the intro to this episode? Elvis called Tate the missing link between Jackie Wilson and Al Green. Tate asked Costello to write a song for his new album and he agreed. 

Let’s here that now. From his comeback album, Rediscovered, more than 3 decades in the making, here’s Howard Tate with Either Side of the Same Town, written by Elvis Costello.

That was Either Side of the Same Town from Howard Tate’s first album after 30 hears away from the music business. But not his last.

Tate had quite the victory lap. He made numerous tv, radio and festival appearances in the ten years after his reemergence. He recorded two more studio full lengths and a live album. On December 2nd, 2011, Tate passed away of complications of multiple myeloma and leukemia.

With a superb first act and a spectacular resurrection that led to the near doubling of his recorded output, there’s plenty of Tate music to check out and enjoy.

Other sources for this segment are listed below.

I referenced several NPR features in this episode, including the obituary they did for Tate. 

Deep Southern Soul - This blog did a great post on Howard Tate. Lots of other good stuff here, but they recently announced they are closing up.

Gadfly Online - Another nice write up on Tate and his back story.

New Jersey new feature - The clip of Howard talking is from this segment. They did a feature on Tate’s rediscovery.

Trunkworthy - Post about Tate and his comeback. This site digs into music, movies and TV you might have missed. They also did a post about the Elvis Costello song featured in this episode. Elvis’ version is on The Delivery Man album. 

New York Times Obituary for Howard Tate

The Guardian Obituary for Howard Tate

Billboard Magazine, July 26, 2003 - Article about Howard’s return after 30 years.

[jed-thomas]

Addiction as a Political Strategy

On Saturday, the Gaza headquarters of international media groups, including Al-Jazeera and the Associate Press, was felled by an Israeli air-strike.

According to the Independent, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Force revealed that the building housed ‘Hamas military intelligence’, remarking that such a situation is common-practice for the organisation: ‘Hamas deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely-populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip’.

Gaza’s contemporary population is estimated at just over two million. In terms of density, this estimate considers there to be, on average, around five thousand inhabitants per square kilometre. For comparison, according to the 2011 census, the population-density of the City of London is roughly equal. Can an area of this sort of density ever be a legitimate military target? Our nation’s capital remembers the Blitz with a shudder, still.

Indeed, there are serious questions to be asked. Asked of both sides, of course. For starters, if an offensively- and defensively-advanced nation-state is attacked by a far weaker neighbouring power, is it decent to expect some form of restraint from the former? Of course, it depends on the extent of the disparity between the two. But, given that there is such an inequality in terms of firepower, it is hard to discern what a proportionate response to certain attacks could be - one side simply cannot match the other, in any reasonable sense. Therefore, a focus on defence must be the answer. Perhaps, if paired with diplomacy, such a stance could contribute to meaningful, long-term de-escalation. But can a nation-state bare to suffer civilian casualties - or, even, fatalities - as a price? As has been evident from reporting on the latest conflagration, casualties in non-occupied regions of Palestine always outnumber the casualties in Israel. If you know that retaliation will endanger more of your opponent’s civilians as a rule, does it mean you must simply stomach the endangerment of your own civilian population? Nevertheless, that’s treating it like they are mere numbers, not human lives. On this asymmetry of death, however, must we simply reject claims that guerrillas use, to borrow a somewhat cynical phrase, ‘human shields’? Hiding amongst the crowds and the landscape is the recourse of the less armed. This does not, of course, justify the practice morally. But, again, given that you have considerable (but, necessarily, imperfect) defensive procedures, can your opponents’ guerrilla tactics justify your endangering civilians? Finally, is it proportionate to respond to evictions and police brutality with indiscriminate rocketing of civilian areas? In no uncertain terms, this is a terrorist tactic. But if you can expect nothing short of devastation, what do you have to lose? It may not be rational or moral, but it is understandable. It’s all understandable. Who of us would be rational?

In Britain, there is a species of common-sense which draws lines around areas of human activity deemed exempt from discussions of ethics and justice. Of course, in general, words like that tend to get laughed at or ignored - they smack of un-seriousness, a teenager’s petulance at reality. But of these international waters of morality, the war-zone is the most grey. Perhaps, this foggy British intuition grasps something: matters of war are also matters of the human condition, not only matters of geopolitics or morality. Despite the cynical manner in which it’s usually uttered, it allows us to raise questions about the nature of war which side-step the labyrinth of moral calculation as a facet of military strategy.

Last week, in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, former Israeli politician Zehava Galon raised these questions and others, penning a column entitled: ‘Human Beings Are Able to Talk, Not Only to Carry a Club’. Her writing is fiery, polemical, but one turn-of-phrase in particular is fascinating: ‘addiction to the club’.

In Israel, all Jewish citizens over the age of 18 are required by law to undertake at least two years of service in the Israel Defence Forces. Usually, states introduce conscription in times of war. For around a decade, the IDF has adopted a set of strategies with regard to the Gaza Strip that are colloquially referred to as ‘mowing the grass’. In short, it is a strategy of long-term deterrence, periodically weakening militias in the area in order to produce periods of respite. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, which researches ‘Middle Eastern and global strategic affairs, particularly as they relate to the national security and foreign policy of Israel’, produced a study of the strategy, concluding that ‘Israel finds itself in a protracted intractable conflict’ requiring ‘a strategy of attrition designed primarily to degrade the enemy capabilities.’ The Center chalks this up to the nature of the conflict - it being against ‘hostile non-state groups’ - but, as Galon alleges, there may be an additional reason.

Personally and nationally, national service can take on a definitional function. To be blunt, if you have an enemy, you have an identity, a role, a community to which you belong. Perhaps, such negative-identifcations are an inevitable by-product of nation-building. But a video has been doing the rounds on Twitter which compiles a series of vox pops in Jerusalem that portray a violent scorn - ‘I would carpet-bomb them .. It’s the only way you could deal with it’ - for those in Gaza/Arabs/Palestinians - a sort of composite figure of the objects of the IDF’s strategies. One interviewee suggests that ‘Jews should have rights to hate them’. The interviewees justify these attitudes via the facts of the historic embattlement of the Jewish people, casting the state of Israel itself as representative of ‘divine justice’ or an incarnation of some redemptive new direction of history. Another video supposedly recorded by IDF soldiers has been shared widely. From the translated chatter, the video itself appears to have been recorded as part of attempts to capture exciting killings. This particular killing, seemingly of an unarmed young person milling around with another, is terrifically exciting to the group, the cameraman’s voice resounds with sheer glee at having caught it: ‘What a legendary video … He flew into the air and his leg was like…’

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, the founding charter of the organisation now known by a colloquialism, Hamas, abounds with poetic images of war. Article 33 reads:

Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: ‘Hail to Jihad!’. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about.

In the ruins of the Gaza Strip, some may have sought to make a pact with their fear and despair, to discover in it the howlings of history. Let it point the way. The recklessness of the militias’ attacks on Israel resonate with this particular desperation - and the scorn for human life that is its price. In the Covenant, ethnic hatred is expressed openly and in unashamedly violent terms. Article 7 reads:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them.

In the Covenant’s view, the Jewish people represent a grand historic force which all Muslims must devote themselves to curbing. Article 22:

The enemies have been scheming for a long time […] They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about […] They stood behind World War I […] and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains […] There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it.

Organisations like the IDF and Hamas blend claims to land with existential certainties, rationalising violent desires. Like a junkie rhapsodising about his creative break-throughs, these are political and historical arguments which obscure an addiction. A newsletter from the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, notes that at a certain stage of addiction, ‘people often use drugs or alcohol to keep from feeling bad rather than for their pleasurable effects.’ All addicts are, to use a pop-psych phrase, running from something. Under the influence of addiction, one’s despair and fear become engines of joy, pressing you onwards towards release. Therefore, like some anti-Addicts-Anonymous, organisations like the IDF and Hamas provide infrastructures of protection and facilitation for war-addicts.

And that is the kicker: none of this constitutes some personal particular fault with Jewish Israeli citizens or Arabic Palestinian Muslims. Nationalist political organisations are cynically perpetuating themselves through these methods. Indeed, they are the agents of these conflicts, ordinary people are merely their addict-conscripts. Your dealer is not your friend.

Therefore, we raise issues of justice in matters of war to avoid these all-too-human eventualities. Raising those issues retains our focus on the central questions of the validity of a violent action, of vested interests and consequences. What is needed - in any war, anywhere - is an orientation towards the discourse of war which accepts that it is always susceptible to the distortions of the addicted mind. Forever, the question is: should this war-zone exist at all?

Galon and Tair Kaminer - a 24-year-old Jewish Israeli citizen who, having served a short sentence for refusing national service, was arrested in Jerusalem over the weekend for organising a solidarity protest of Jews and Arabs - and the legendary Hanan Ashrawi are pointed examples of a banality which is nevertheless worth re-emphasing: no nation falls totally under the spell of this addiction. The collective delirium of war never swallows populations nor individual minds whole. Always, always there are other ways. For instance, questions of rights to land are the (literal) solid ground to which we can return. Bring them into focus.

Footage from the Snapchat of an attendee at a Free Palestine protest in Nottingham City shows a car aggressively parting a line of protestors. The perpetrator has not yet been identified.

[stone-man-warrior]

January 20, 2020: 7:55 pm:

I just now returned from another socio-terrific shopping experience in Dystopia, Grants Pass Oregon, where all of the current citizens are fake, and are Canadians who are using the name of an American that was killed by the SDA terror army. The conditions are best described as living in the aftermath of a slaughter and depopulation of the citizens who lived in the county twenty years ago, where the original population was all brutally killed, and the new, replacement population is implanted from Canada, mostly Quebec, and are commanded as an army by Screen Actor Guild leaders in Hollywood California. SAG gets their orders from the British Throne, Royal Family, and House of Lords British Parliament.

It’s all fucked up.

The current fake impostor population is instructed by SAG leadership to vote in specific ways, as the leadership commands the individual soldiers to vote. The US Election Ballots are filled with Screen Actor Guild Member Shill Candidates, who also take their commands from the SAG leadership in Hollywood CA.

The Josephine County Oregon population is composed of a mixture of Screen Actor Guild members, who are instructed to create a social atmosphere for cover, to make the county appear as a normal county does. The others are Seventh Day Adventist Christian religious cult, and are an army, armed with swords and Nitrous Oxide airborne gas. They use the gas to kill any outsiders who come the the county. SAG arranges replacement look-a-likes to take the place of the murdered victims. The army is supplies with vehicles, housing, food, clothing for free, all of their needs are supplied as any army is supplied by it’s leadership.

Commerce is all faked with false record keeping and the commerce itself, is used as a means of identifying and then marking, and killing those who attempt to make any kind of purchase, anywhere, for anything. Since the army is supplied for free, anyone who makes a purchase is marked as an outsider by virtue of the transaction of making a debit, credit, or cash purchase.

I went to:

6th Street Market

Walmart

As I was leaving my driveway, members of the Clyde Baum terror cell at 333 “Mystreet” were hovering around the front of my home in Clyde’s Red GMC Pick-up truck. Then, a member of the Monroe terror cell also passed by, and lingered at the mailboxes in front of my home. Monroe was driving a small black Crossover style vehicle, a Nissan “Versa”, Oregon License 976 FAV (976 is questionable, not certain)

I left on my way, members of the Google sponsored terror cell at the corner of Russell Road an Three Pines Road, the “Bad Guy Auto” terror cell, were inside the garage with the door open watching as I left on my way. They alerted the people at 6th Street Market of my location and possible ETA at the store.

A large white pick-up truck with a large white horse trailer came around the blind corner near Oxyoke, “Dead Man’s Curve” with all of it’s driver side wheels in my lane. Had I been near the double yellow line as I went around the corner, there would have been a head-on collision at that time. Fortunately, I am aware of the reasons that corner is called “Dead Man’s Corner“, it’s a popular place that terrorists arrange that victims will be taken there. Hollywood provides the professional Stunt Men for such activities.

I arrived at 6th Street Market. I had to park where the terrorists had arranged that I park. An “L” shaped parking arrangement there is a useful tool to take victims. A man waits in his large truck in a parking spot that is perpendictualr to the one that the victim is parked in, such that the two rear bumper’s of the vehicles are close to one another, and he exits that parking spot just as the victim is also exiting, causing a “T-Bone” in reverse. That allows that the driver of the truck will have a reason to engage with the victim close up and verbally. Victims are exposed to Nitrous gas at that time, and carted away. I avoided the “T-Bone” on the way out, but not by much.

Inside the store, each time I go, the clerk signals for two assassins to come in, sometimes three. Then, she creates some kind of distraction with the debit machine as the two enter the store behind me. Today, the distraction was simply to delay the debit machine, with the indicator that reads, “please do not remove card“ for an extended time after the transaction is otherwise complete. I just stare at  the machine waiting for my card to be released from it. That’s when the assassins shoot the victim in the back. The .25 they use does not pierce my coat, and the bullet bounces away, and the clerk always steps aside right then.

So that happened. I heard the “SnaP! sound the gun makes. I lit my lighter, and one of the two terror assassins launched out the front door, and disappeared somewhere at the empty Christmas Tree sales yard across the street. One of the two store clerks, a large red headed woman about 28 years old, followed the launched terror soldier out the door, and began to use her smart phone to communicate with others about what had happened. She was standing by the drivers side door of my car as I exited the store. Also, whenever I go to 6th Street Market, part of the assassination attempt includes that two young people are entering the store as I am leaving. They are always at the entrence at the exact time that I am going through the door on my way out. Those two are not always the same people, but there are always two, to cart the murdered victim away, and they are summoned and come from the barber shop that is also in that shopping strip mall, Village Center, on 6th Street, across from Lithia Dodge Dealer.

So, at least one dead terrorist at 6th Street Market.

Also, I learned while I was there that one of the three bozo’s that attacked me last week while claiming to be Secret Service, US Army, and FBI, was a man by the name of Rick Manning, of the Medical Democrat Terror cell at 598 “MyStreet”. The one that said he was Secret Service, the oldest of the three, who told me he was “Strong” from 3747 Russell Road, the Strong Family “SAG House” terror cell, was Rick Manning. I cut Rick Manning’s throat and his eyes in defense that day, as well as the other two. Apparently, Rick Manning was BOTH “Strong”, from 3747 Russell, AND Rick Manning from 598 “MyStreet”, playing the role of both men. Rick Manning drives a odd, red Honda Station Wagon, about a 1986 model. They did not make very many of those, and it is easily mistaken for a Ford Taurus Station Wagon.

The other two bozo’s said they were reporters from Los Angeles Times Newspaper after the fighting that day. One of them, the one that said he was FBI, and I described as Italian looking, may have been a member of the Google sponsored cell at “Bad Guy Auto”. I have met Rick Manning once, he used two snarling pit bulls to attack me one day. But I thought I killed him that day. Although the man looked similar to Rick Manning, I am not prepared to agree with what the clerk at 6th Street Market said tonight, that the man was Rick Manning. I have never met “Strong”, so I cannot comment about what “Strong” looks like up close, other than he looks like Manning, from about 500 feet away.

So, what I learned is inconclusive, with exception that Manning was NOT Secret Service, and is NOT LIKELY to be a Los Angeles Times Reporter. I did not learn anything new about the one that said his name was “Dan” and was from “US Army”.

Ok, back to the shopping experience:

I went to Walmart. I saw what looked like Juseph Myers white Crossover style vehicle parked in a driveway at the corner of “A Street”, and Beacon Street, at the South East house of the corner. There is a truck in my yard that belongs to a man that once lived at that house, Zachery White, so, that could be a Confusion Service sort of activity done my Juseph Myers, who is part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police terror cells.

At the Walmart, the parking was not very full, plenty of parking. The store was not very active. The presence of terror soldiers was such that it was obvious that the people in the store were mostly Screen Actor Guild variety of “Bubble Service” terror activity. The Seventh Day Adventist terrorists were in very small number, SAG was in high number.

Nitrous Fogger soldiers were not obvious, there were only very few following me around. I decided to ask about Smart Phones from a store clerk, to learn about the payment, contract, and other things associated with owning a Smart Phone. The young man the helped me was friendly, knowledgeable,  and courteous. He was not wearing a Walmart Vest. He was wearing a black shirt with name tag. I learned something important.

The Apple iPhone is available for only one penny. If you agree to use US Cellular Service Provider, at $75 per month, for two years, the phone only costs one penny. That’s $0.01 for a iPhone. There IS NO PENALTY to CANCEL YOUR CONTRACT with US Cellular, and you can keep the phone. That is where and how the terror army is obtaining some of the iPhone’s that the scouts use without service contract, and only use connectivity of Blu-Tooth networked to all of the other terror cell members such that the Blu-Tooth technology is creating a Blu-Tooth Grid, where each phone behaves the same way as a cellular tower does. There are so many terror soldiers, that they are always connected to one another, and can communicate without a service contract.

I think one terror soldier was ignited shortly after I arrived at the Walmart, and launched away from the shampoo, deodorant, first aid area. “Evac” was announced on the store PA system.

When I was checking out at the self checkout, the debit machine malfunctioned. That was supposed to be opportunity to make a hit attempt on me at that time. Something must have gone wrong, because there was no hit attempt at the time that the clerk came to reset the debit machine. Or, it was done to make it appear as if my debit card is no good, to fool someone who may be investigating terror in Oregon.

As I was leaving, I noticed that there are ZERO motor homes in the parking lot where there are always motor homes and buses. No cars, no buses, no motor homes there. Those buses and motor homes serve as nitrous tank refill area, first aid for injured terrorists, and for torture area’s when victims are taken in the parking lot.

They were all gone tonight.

Upon returning to “MyStreet”, I saw a vehicle come from Sparacino’s terror cell and go to 598 Manning, Medical Democrat (Med-Dems) terror cell. I did not see what kind of vehicle, but it was not a large truck.

That’s all for now.

end terror reporting: 9:42 pm.

[klbmsw]

“Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, leaving some ‘genuinely horrified’

By Carol D. Leonnig, Shane Harris and Josh Dawsey October 4, 2019 at 7:19 PM EDT nytimes.com

“In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner.”

He pledged to Saudi officials in another call that he would help the monarchy enter the elite Group of Seven, an alliance of the world’s leading democratic economies.”

“He promised the president of Peru that he would deliver to his country a C-130 military cargo plane overnight, a logistical nightmare that set off a herculean scramble in the West Wing and Pentagon.”

“And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.”

“Starting long before revelations about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine’s president rocked Washington, Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders were an anxiety-ridden set of events for his aides and members of the administration, according to former and current officials. They worried that Trump would make promises he shouldn’t keep, endorse policies the United States long opposed, commit a diplomatic blunder that jeopardized a critical alliance or simply pressure a counterpart for a personal favor.”

“There was a constant undercurrent in the Trump administration of [senior staff] who were genuinely horrified by the things they saw that were happening on these calls,” said one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations. “Phone calls that were embarrassing, huge mistakes he made, months and months of work that were upended by one impulsive tweet.”

“But Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went beyond whether the leader of the free world had committed a faux pas, and into grave concerns, he had engaged in a possible crime or impeachable offense. The release last week of a whistleblower complaint alleging Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals as well as the release of a rough transcript of the July call led to House Democrats launching an impeachment inquiry against Trump.”

“The Ukraine controversy has put a renewed focus on Trump’s un­or­tho­dox way of interacting with fellow world leaders in diplomatic calls. Critics, including some former administration officials, contend that Trump’s behavior on calls with foreign leaders has at times created unneeded tensions with allies and sent troubling signals to adversaries or authoritarians that the United States supports or at least does not care about human rights or their aggressive behavior elsewhere in the world.”

“Joel Willett, a former intelligence officer who worked at the National Security Council from 2014 to 2015, said he was concerned both by the descriptions of a president winging it, and the realization that the president’s behavior disturbs and frightens career civil servants.”

“What a burden it must be to be stuck between your position of trust in the White House and another obligation you may feel to the American people to say something,” he said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday or Friday.”

“Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally, said the president speaks his mind and diverges from other presidents who follow protocol. Graham said he saw nothing distressing in the president’s July 25 call with Zelensky and said he expected it to be worse, partially given his own experience with Trump on the phone.”

“If you take half of my phone calls with him, it wouldn’t read as cleanly and nicely,” he said, adding that the president sounded like a “normal person.”

“This story is based on interviews with 12 former or current officials with knowledge of the president’s foreign calls. These officials had direct involvement in the calls, were briefed on them or read the transcripts afterward. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s private conversations with world leaders.”

“The first call Trump made that set off alarm bells came less than two weeks after his inauguration. On Jan. 28, Trump called Putin for what should have been a routine formality: accepting a foreign leader’s congratulations. Former White House officials described Trump as “obsequious” and “fawning,” but said he also rambled off into different topics without any clear point, while Putin appeared to stick to formal talking points for a first official exchange.”

“He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my people didn’t tell me you wanted to talk to me,’ ” said one person with direct knowledge of the call.”

“Trump has been consistently cozy with authoritarian leaders, sparking anxiety among aides about the solicitous tones he struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin.”

“We couldn’t figure out early on why he was being so nice to Russia,” one former senior administration official said. H.R. McMaster, the president’s then-national security adviser, launched an internal campaign to get Trump to be more skeptical of the Russians. Officials expressed surprise in both of his early Putin calls at why he was so friendly.”

  “In another call, in April 2017, Trump told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had overseen a brutal campaign that has resulted in the extrajudicial killings of thousands of suspected drug dealers, that he was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

“Trump’s personal goals seeped into calls. He pestered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for help in recommending him for a Nobel Prize, according to an official familiar with the call. “People who could do things for him — he was nice too,” said one former security official. “Leaders with trade deficits, strong female leaders, members of NATO — those tended to go badly.”

“Aides bristled at the dismissive way he sometimes addressed longtime U.S. allies, especially women. In a summer 2018 call with Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump harangued the British leader about her country’s contribution to NATO. He then disputed her intelligence community’s conclusion that Putin’s government had orchestrated the attempted murder and poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.”

“Trump was totally bought into the idea there was credible doubt about the poisoning,” said one person briefed on the call. “A solid 10 minutes of the conversation is spent with May saying it’s highly likely and him saying he’s not sure.”

“Trump would sometimes make commitments to foreign leaders that flew in the face of U.S. policy and international agreements, as when he told a Saudi royal that he would support their country’s entry into the G-7.”

“The G-7 is supposed to be the allies with whom we share the most common values and the deepest commitment to upholding the rules-based order,” the former official said.”

“Russia was kicked out of the group in 2014 for violating international law when it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Trump has publicly advocated for Russia to be allowed back in. Saudi Arabia, which oppresses women and has a record of human rights abuses, wasn’t a fit candidate for membership, the former official said.”

“Saudi Arabia was not admitted to the group. Calls with foreign leaders have often been highly orchestrated events in past administrations.”

“When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders. Preparation for these calls was taken very seriously,” Willett said. “It appears to be freestyle and ad-libbed now.”

“Trump has rejected much of the protocol and preparation associated with foreign calls, even as his national security team tried to establish goals for each conversation.”

“Instead, Trump often sought to use calls as a way to befriend whoever he was talking to, one current senior administration official said, defending the president. “So he might say something that sounds terrible to the outside, but in his mind, he’s trying to build a relationship with that person and sees flattery as the way to do it.”

“The president resisted long briefings before calls or reading in preparation, several former officials said. McMaster, who preferred providing the president with the information he could use to make decisions, resigned himself to giving Trump small notecards with bulleted highlights and talking points.”

“You had two to three minutes max,” said one former senior administration official. “And then he was still usually going to say whatever he wanted to say.”

“As a result, staff fretted that Trump came across ill-informed in some calls, and even oafish. In a conversation with China’s Xi, Trump repeated numerous times how much he liked a kind of chocolate cake, one former official said. The president publicly described the dessert the two had in April 2017 when Trump and Xi met at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort as “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you have ever seen.”

“Trump preferred to make calls from the residence, which frustrated some NSC staff and West Wing aides who wanted to be on hand to give the president real-time advice. If he held the call in the Oval Office, aides would gather around the desk and pass him notes to try to keep the calls on point. On a few occasions, then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly muted the call to try to get the president back on track, two officials said.”

“Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, and critic, said the calls fit Trump’s style as a business leader. “When he had to get on calls with investors on a publicly-traded company, they had to worry that he would break securities laws and lie about the company’s profits,” O’Brien said. “When he would go and meet with regulators with the casino control commission, his lawyers were always worried under oath, in a public setting, that he would say something that would be legally damaging.”

“Though calls with foreign leaders are routinely planned in advance, Trump a few times called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron unannounced as if they were friends, a former administration official said.”

“After some early summaries of Trump calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia leaked to the press in 2017, the White House tightened restrictions on who could access the transcripts and kept better track of who had custody of copies. For example, Vice President Pence still received a courtesy copy of any foreign-leader call, but his staff now had to sign off when they transported it to his office and also sign off when they returned or destroyed the document.”

“Some former officials said that over time staff became used to the oddity of some calls even if they still found them troubling.”

“People had gotten really numb to him blurting out something he shouldn’t have,” one former national security staffer remarked.”

“But officials who had served in the White House through the end of 2018 were still shocked by the whistleblower complaint about the effort to “lockdown” records of Trump’s July 25 call. The complaint said White House officials ordered the transcript moved into a highly secure computer system, known as NICE, which is normally reserved only for information about the most sensitive code-word-level intelligence programs.”

“Unheard of,” said one former official who handled foreign calls. “That just blew me away.”

nytimes.com

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[alyskfromcamptale]

Igor Ledochowski - Achieving Life Long Success

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[vridetv]

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[deniscollins]

Marijuana Legalization in Canada Has Companies Chasing a Green Rush

The top 12 Canadian marijuana companies are now worth nearly 55 billion Canadian dollars, or $42 billion, and investors are snapping up the stock. Should the U.S. follow Canada’s lead and legalize marijuana on a national level: (1) Yes, (2) No? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Millions of dollars worth of marijuana plants sat under lamps brighter than the noonday sun as employees of Canada’s largest cannabis business bustled about the 47 giant growing rooms of its factory, which once made Hershey bars.

Now it’s home to Tweed, whose parent company, Canopy Growth, was the first Canadian marijuana grower to debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Valued at more than $10 billion, Canopy is worth even more than Bombardier, the Canadian manufacturer that is one of the world’s largest makers of planes and trains, offering a stark example of this nation’s new get-rich-quick hope — the marijuana industry.

On Oct. 17, Canada is set to become only the second country in the world and the first major economy to legalize marijuana for all uses. Companies are clamoring to join in what some are calling a green rush.

“It’s like Seagram’s back when Prohibition was in place and just about to end,” said Deborah Weinstein, a lawyer in Ottawa who handled Canopy’s move onto the Toronto Stock Exchange, with the stock symbol WEED. “But it’s more than that. This has never been an industry.”

On the same day that marijuana becomes legal, the government will announce a program to make it easier for Canadians convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana to obtain a pardon, according to an official familiar with the plan.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that because several details must still be worked out, the program will not become active immediately. Pardons are to be available only for people convicted of possessing 30 grams of marijuana or less, the legal limit under the new system.

The law limits the products that can contain cannabis; edibles, for example, will not be legal until next year.

The legislation also heavily restricts advertising and is laden with bureaucratic rules, including licensing and inspection requirements for producers.

But companies are already lobbying for more permissive rules.

The fervor is a little reminiscent of the dot-com boom of the 1990s. The top 12 Canadian marijuana companies are now worth nearly 55 billion Canadian dollars, or $42 billion, and investors are snapping up the stock.

Profits, though, are a dream of the future. At Tweed, for example, sales last year from the medical marijuana business were just 77 million Canadian dollars. The company lost 70 million dollars.

Some investors may be sorry. Not every marijuana producer now taking stock markets by storm will profit and survive, many experts believe.

There are 120 businesses licensed to grow medical marijuana, which has been legal in Canada since 2001. They are now poised to serve people who simply want to get high. In provinces where the private sector will handle retail sales, companies are scrambling for licenses to open stores.

Shoppers Drug Mart, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, has taken out a medical cannabis producer license.

Most big alcohol players appear to be sitting back for now, except for some investments, but analysts expect they will eventually get more involved.

A notable exception is Jakob Ripshtein, who used to head the Canadian operations of Diageo, the British-based liquor giant that makes Guinness beer and owns several of Seagram’s brands.

In May, he became the chief operating officer of Aphria, which owns an expansive and expanding marijuana greenhouse complex near Leamington, Ontario.

“Do I believe there are going to be different players coming into the industry?” Mr. Ripshtein said. “I absolutely do.”

Only dried cannabis, oils and seeds will go on sale this month. But the industry is dreaming up a future that will include products like cannabis-laced candies. At a large lab at Tweed, for example, scientists are laboring away under fume hoods on marijuana drinks.

[For future coverage of marijuana legalization in Canada and other Canadian news, subscribe to our weekly Canada Letter newsletter.]

There is also an industry around the industry, already making money.

Businesses have sprung up to create the software that allows growers to track their plants and final products, as the government requires. Marijuana growers are also voracious consumers of supplies like fertilizers, as well as energy.

And greenhouse makers now have a customer base beyond tomato and green pepper farmers.

Beyond that, abandoned factories, like the one Tweed operates in, have suddenly become hot properties.

Even Canadian news organizations have joined in. In Toronto, The Globe and Mail has hired reporters and editors to produce “Cannabis Professional,” a daily newsletter that will cost 2,000 Canadian dollars a year for a subscription.

David Campbell is one of those profiting from the boom.

Mr. Campbell, 50, has a background in management at companies that make machines dauntingly known as “supercritical fluid botanical carbon dioxide extraction systems.” Typically they decaffeinate coffee.

But they are also ideal for squeezing the active ingredients out of marijuana plants to create oil.

So in 2015, when Justin Trudeau was campaigning for recreational legalization (Uruguay legalized the drug in 2013), Mr. Campbell set up Advanced Extraction Systems in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, just to serve the cannabis industry.

Mr. Campbell hasn’t looked back. The company has sold 12 systems this year, including one to a medical marijuana company in Germany. Advanced has gone from one employee, Mr. Campbell, to 14, most of them engineers.

“We feel this is just the beginning,” Mr. Campbell said. “We’re targeting California hard now.”

Even seemingly minor announcements about the industry can create paper fortunes overnight.

In September, Tilray, a producer with headquarters in Nanaimo, British Columbia, said the Food and Drug Administration in the United States had given it permission to export a cannabis compound to the University of California, San Diego, for medical research.

The value of the sale is so small that the company declined to disclose it. But the news still sent Tilray’s stock price up by 78 percent, adding billions to its value. The excitement soon faded and its shares have dropped back toward their previous value.

Meanwhile, the size of the industry is anyone’s guess.

Statistics Canada, the census agency, estimated that last year Canadians handed over 5.7 billion Canadian dollars for marijuana, with 90 percent of that going to a vast black market of dealers and underground websites.

No one knows what will happen now to the illegal trade, with its greater selection and lower prices, although the government has vowed to stamp it out.

The biggest players in Canadian marijuana, including Canopy, came out of the medical marijuana system, which was greatly expanded about five years ago.

Bruce Linton, Canopy’s chief executive, acknowledged that from the first days of legal medical marijuana his mind was on the day that the much larger recreational market would open for legitimate business.

But he, like most in the cannabis business, sees the government’s tight limits on advertising and marketing as an obstacle to future profits.

The government requires that marijuana be sold in plain packages that feature large health warnings and tiny logos. Advertising is limited to what Health Canada, the federal department that regulates cannabis, calls “information-type promotion” and “brand-preference promotion” all of which must be kept away from the eyes of children.

No ads are supposed to appear until Oct. 17, but several companies have jumped the gun and run advertisements that bend — or possibly break — the upcoming rules.

Health Canada said in a statement that it has cautioned several of the companies.

At the same time, a steady stream of lobbyists to Ottawa has been pushing for looser marketing rules, among other things.

Federal lobbying records show that public servants, political staff members and cabinet ministers have received 583 visits or phone calls from marijuana industry lobbyists since Mr. Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister in November 2015. That includes 92 lobbying visits alone by Brendan Kennedy, the president and chief executive of Tilray.

In the Tweed factory in eastern Ontario, where children used to buy broken candy bars from Hershey, Tweed has a carefully appointed visitors’ center, museum, cafe and gift shop offering clothing and marijuana paraphernalia.

Visitors can learn that Louis Hébert sowed the first cannabis seeds in what would become Canada in 1606, and sniff the scents of the company’s various strains of marijuana.

The atmosphere is a more successful tech start-up than Cheech and Chong, with employees in white lab coats, disposable jumpsuits or black T-shirts, all bearing the company’s retro script logo.

One recent day in the visitors’ center, two of Tweed’s 2,000 global employees talked over social media strategies at a long table of artfully distressed wood.

Mr. Linton was there, too, preparing to meet the civic leadership of Smiths Falls to discuss a mural for an outer factory wall that would depict the history of the town and imagine its future.

He recalled when cannabis was hardly a sure bet.

For much of his career Mr. Linton was involved in several tech start-ups in Ottawa.

When he decided just over five years ago to leave tech behind to start a marijuana business, his associates and family members had a unanimous view that it was a “very, very bad idea.” They were almost proved right.

In its early days, the company twice ran out of money, Mr. Linton said, and narrowly avoided bankruptcy only because of a last-minute infusion of cash from hard-to-find investors.

Now investors have bet billions of dollars on his vision. And Mr. Linton declared that Oct. 17 will be a unique moment in Canada’s history.

“The epicenter of the public policy is here, and everybody’s coming to Canada from all the other countries to see how we do it,” he said. “Actually having home field for the first time ever in anything — this is amazing.”

[kayla1993-world]

Since January 2016, almost 25,000 people have died from opioid-related causes, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, which compiles the data from all provinces except Quebec.

As a crisis of opioid-related overdoses and deaths rages on in Canada, advocates have long been saying that decriminalization would help to reduce stigma associated with drug use and help save lives.

But even though calls for decriminalization have come from within the Liberal caucus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during the 2021 federal election that it's not something his government is looking to bring in.

Under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, jurisdictions can ask the federal government for exemptions to allow people to have small amounts of substances such as cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.

Vancouver formally asked for that in May 2021.

British Columbia was the first province to make its own request, in November 2021. Toronto followed in January.

B.C.’s mental health and addictions minister, Sheila Malcolmson, said that is one of many steps the province is taking to "save lives in the toxic drug crisis."

"The number of people that continue to lose their lives to toxic drug supply while using drugs alone is all the evidence we need that stigma and shame are costing people their lives,” Malcolmson said.

A recent report from the B.C. coroners service showed that between January 2019 and January 2022, more than half of illicit drug toxicity deaths happen at home.

Malcolmson said stigma prevents people from getting help with addictions and shame pushes many to hide their addiction and use drugs alone. That means they risk dying alone.

“Addiction is not a criminal justice problem. It's a health-care problem,” Malcolmson said.

The coroner's report said 2,224 people died of suspected overdoses in B.C. in 2021, the most ever recorded in a year. That’s up 26 percent over 2020.

Malcolmson said responding to the overdose crisis will require multiple approaches.

“It's never going to be decriminalization alone. That alone will not save lives,” she said.

“But if we have the health-care supports for people to turn to, they don't feel the shame and stigma about drug use. They're willing to talk to their primary health care provider,” which can help people get treatment or prescribe a safe supply.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's medical officer of health, said she sees the city’s request as a change in the approach to drug policy.

“An approach that focuses, or that involves criminalization, it actually leads to stigma and discrimination, which in fact, worsens the situation on the ground,” said de Villa.

Criminalizing those who use drugs can also put people in harm’s way when they try to access harm reduction services, employment, and housing, de Villa said.

Mary Clare Zak is the managing policy director for the city of Vancouver, and she led the city's exemption request.

She said half the people who have drugs confiscated by police in the city right now are carrying less than the possession limits Vancouver wants to implement.

Its proposed thresholds for opioids would be two grams, cocaine at three grams, crack cocaine at one gram and amphetamine at 1.5 grams, according to the request submission.

Anyone found with less than these limits won't face charges and won't have the drugs taken away if there's no evidence of other offences such as trafficking.

“People who get their drugs confiscated, who they addicted to drugs, need to go out and find more drugs,” Zak said.

"And this could lead them to having to make a desperate purchase from a dealer or a source that's unknown to them, and put them at higher risk."

So far, Health Canada hasn't decided on any of the exemption requests, and says it won't comment on applications under review.

A spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the government recognizes the different approaches jurisdictions and organizations are taking and is working with its partners to find “innovative solutions.”

“This is a process that requires some time,” de Villa said.

“My sense from Health Canada staff is they're being as helpful as they can,” Zak said. “They tell us that things are still in play and in progress, and that they're having conversations.”

Malcolmson said her staff is also having active conversations with Health Canada about the B.C. application.

"It certainly is something we're calling for urgently," said Malcolmson, noting that even if they get approval, it will take time to implement the changes.

"This is not just a flick of the light switch."

Ending the opioid crisis is complex, but Zak said decriminalization is something governments can do to help quickly.

“Safe supply is hugely important. And it's going to take a long time, unless the minister has a magic wand to make some changes in stigma within the health system, stigma within regulatory bodies,” she said.