August 7, 2018
Liz Writes Life
Garden
Yep, picked two red tomatoes on Aug. 1st! Made our
first bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner. Pretty tasty! Hopefully,
we won’t have to wait very long for more to ripen.
Last week, I reported on my flowers that are blooming. Since
then the double orange Tiger lilies are in full glory, some lemon yellow cosmos
popped-out and the giant dahlia has three multi-colored blooms. I had forgotten
to mention the bright pink impatiens are doing really well this year and the
gladiolus had started with big white ones and now dark orange and lavender blooms
are spiking-up.
The sad zinnias I purchased in June (they were the last ones
at the nursery) must have liked the heat, cuz the sunny yellow ones have spread-out
and the orange plants are growing taller – with lots of flowers. I noticed the
miniature purple asters are blooming and a couple early-spring type of Shasta
daisies and California poppies have volunteered in mid-summer in the flower
beds. I broke-off the spent snap dragon stems and found a second-round of
colors coming on.
Only four of the Sweet Williams are blooming. I guess they
don’t like it where I have them planted. Maybe they get too much shade. I
remember Sweet William doing real well in full sun. Well, I think my flower
report is now complete!
LaVoy Finicum
Jeanette Finicum, wife of LaVoy, who was shot in the back
with three bullets and died, on January 26, 2016, in Eastern Oregon, has been
attending the trial of an FBI agent, who is accused of lying about the
situation. Jeanette is making videos and posting them on
facebook.com/cowboystand/videos. I watched the first one, where she was shocked
to hear Judge Robert E. Jones continually refer to LaVoy as a “militia leader”
during his opening statement and instructions to the jury. While Jeanette does
not like the fact that the government, courts and media has demonized the term
“militia,” she is adamant that LaVoy was not a member of any militia. He went
to support the Bundy’s, because he believes in the U.S. Constitution and the
Bill of Rights.
To get caught-up on the trial of FBI agent Joseph Astarita, I
read Jeanette’s posts on facebook, then I checked Redoubt News.com,
Freedomoutpost.com and a new really good blog called Next Rush Free.blogspot.com.
I even read reporter Maxine Bernstein’s articles in OregonLive.com. It is worth
checking these sites out. A lot happened that we don’t know about and it just
looks bad for these bureaucratic agencies.
Agent Astarita is charged with lying under oath and
falsifying an FBI report. Surprisingly, it is the FBI that has accused him of
discharging his firearm during the shooting and then claiming he did not. He is
not accused of shooting LaVoy. The shooters that killed LaVoy are referred to
as Officers #1 and #2 and were Oregon State Police.
It was learned during the trial opening statements that FBI
did not follow its normal protocols and procedures before, during and (more
importantly) after LaVoy was killed. The crime scene was not preserved,
official reports were not prepared and firearms were not properly secured or
inspected. Jeanette said, “It’s almost as if the FBI didn’t want to preserve
the evidence.”
An FBI agent of 47 years on the force testified that protocol
was not followed. No officers are allowed to pick up any items. Piles of shell
casings were noticed and mentioned and then disappeared in reports. A video
from a (second) high-flying plane with infrared was viewed by the jury. It
showed there were three people that night picking up items at the crime scene.
A huge no-no. It was also learned there were over 300 FBI officers involved
with the entire Bundy Malheur Refuge situation.
Bundy
Ammon Bundy has sent out a call to the jurors of the
Bunkerville Trial to view newly-gathered evidence that was hidden during the
case. This information was vital for the defense, which it did not receive. A
major example is the fact that the U.S. prosecutors willfully claimed the
Bundys were spreading lies about a military operation with snipers surrounding
their ranch homes. In fact, it was the U.S. prosecutors that were found to be
the liars, which is why the Bundy trial was dismissed.
Many documents that were withheld from the Grand Jury and the
first jury, who convicted Greg Burleson and Todd Engel in the case of the USA
vs Cliven Bundy et al, are now available. Ammon has them and will share them.
He is also asking media outlets to contact him and will conduct interviews to
share these important court documents.
And the Dept. of Justice prosecution just won’t quit. Now,
they are attempting to try the Bundys a third time as the DOJ is appealing the this
year’s misconduct trial to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Cliven
Bundy’s legal counsel, Larry Klayman, said Cliven will fight the DOJ’s attempt
to retry him. Klayman added that, in this case, the Dept. of Justice has become
the Dept. of Injustice.
Smart meters
Because residents showed up to a special meeting held by the
Mt. Shasta City Council, last week, more complaints are being exposed regarding
PacifiCorp’s process of removing existing Analog Home Power Meters and
installing new electrical SMART meters. Situations occurred this summer on
homes in Mt. Shasta. Residents are frustrated, because the company installing
the SMART meters is not complying with “do not remove” signs and opt-out
letters. These residents have found new SMART meters on their homes, when they
have verification from PacifiCorp they have opted-out.
Another huge complaint by residents is the ambiguous cost
they will receive from PacifiCorp by opting-out. Through many phone calls to
PacifiCorp, it has been learned no specific costs, terms or conditions that
have been set for opting-out.
As a result, the Mt. Shasta City Council approved a
resolution requesting the California Public Utilities Commission institute a
temporary moratorium within the City of Mt. Shasta on the replacement of
ratepayers’ analog meters with SMART meters until after the CPUC actually sets
the financial cost to ratepayers, who may be considering the opt-out option.
SMART meters have become extremely controversial with
complaints they short-out (or something like that) actually igniting a fire.
The company installing the SMART meters is scheduled to begin work north of Mt.
Shasta very soon.
Irony
Well this is interesting. Environmentalists have filed suit
to stop construction of Obama’s Presidential Center in Chicago. The non-profit
called “Protect Our Parks” claims an unlawful “bait and switch” was pulled when
Obama’s project went from being a Presidential Library to the Obama
Presidential Center. The group also claims the parkland, which is the site for
the center, cannot legally be transferred to a non-government entity.
POW
Scott Valley Protect Our Water will hold its next meeting on
Thurs., Aug. 30, 2018 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m.
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in
newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan.
Call her at 530-467-3515. Check out her blog at: LizWritesLife.blogspot.com
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