A tale of two courts-martial

(Nov. 30, 2007)

The court-martial of Lt. Jeremy Logan, the Watts Bomber, ended today. He will be spending the rest of his life at hard labor in Leavenworth. Which at this point probably means working on a farm run for benefit of the FEMA system. However, and this is the reason he was spared a firing squad: (they still do that) damning evidence was presented which specifically points fingers at high-level officers, and even as far up as the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The inference is clear. This order was at least signed off on by the Commander in Chief. Will we finally see impeachment hearings? Finally? Is complicity in bombing the country you swore to defend finally enough to bring Bush and Cheney into the dock? If not, we're in REAL sad shape.

China and Russia are now rattling sabres at each other where once they were making googly eyes at each other and courting. China wants Russia's oil. Russia wants a pretty penny for it. Considering how hard it is to extract their oil from the ground, they can demand it. China knows it has the numbers. Russia still has a technological edge, although with the Daibei Accords China now has former Taiwanese scientists on their side. How long did the accords between Mao Zedong and Khruschev last? Not long. I think that there's been a mutual hate between the two countries that runs a lot deeper and further back in time than the Cold War between the US and the former USSR. There's little we can do but just watch. China does have Iranian oil to fuel its war machine.

Oh yeah, and what about that other court-martial? I finally found out what became of Especialisto Equis. Someone told me his name was Rigoberto Ruiz De La Madrid, and he was executed by hanging. A street light served as his gibbet. He apparently had filched a phone off of a dead body in Watts and sent the email from the phone. It took them a while but they found out the whole story. His family was in Mazatlan, working the tourist trade for pennies a day. Rigoberto looked to purchase citizenship for his family with his service. Now his family get nothing but a body that was first hanged, then mutilated by an angry mob, and the need to scrape together the money for his burial. I am in awe of his bravery.

What's next? I haven't a clue. It looks like gas at or about $5.50/gallon is reality now. It looks like we need to get off the petroleum teat and do so ASAP. We need to rebuild the railroads, using alternatives like hybrid locomotives and Bio-Diesel. We don't necessarily need Shinkansen or TGV but just plain old locomotive power will be fine. The plans to electrify the Alameda Corridor are being put into action, so that's a start.

Farmers are coming back to the Sepulveda Dam Basin, and community gardens are springing up all over the place. Here in the San Gabriel Valley, park land and vacant land are being considered for conversion to agricultural use. However, the weather pundits are predicting a drier-than-normal Winter. Eventually irrigation will come up at loggerheads against human water needs. And eventually the shaky compacts that keep water flowing from areas outside Los Angeles will fall apart, and Los Angeles will have to deal with the consequences of development of arid land for human habitation and agriculture.

Let me leave you with some lyrics from The Police, from a song that's been running through my head all these past months.

Fifty million years ago
You walked upon the planet so,
Lord of all that you could see
Just a little bit like me

Walking in your footsteps

Hey mr. dinosaur
You really couldnt ask for more
You were gods favourite creature
But you didnt have a future

Walking in your footsteps

Hey mighty brontosaurus
Dont you have a lesson for us
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past
You were built three stories high
They say you would not hurt a fly
If we explode the atom bomb
Would they say that we were dumb?

Walking in your footsteps

Fifty million years ago
They walked upon the planet so
They live in a museum
Its the only place youll see um.

This is Ms. Geek, signing off, from beautiful downtown Duarte, California. Hope everyone gets through the Winter ok. Peace, out.

Picture in Southwestern Los Angeles ugly, getting uglier.

(Sept. 1, 2007)

Let's sum up the new, ugly picture out of Southwestern Los Angeles, which seems to be the most afflicted part of Los Angeles County.

1.) The body count from the Watts Bombing is dramatically understated in what remains of the media. We are looking at the worst case of terrorism on US soil, period.

2.) The Alameda Corridor is being furiously worked on to to fix. Not only is China concerned, but we mustn't forget the 49th State of the Union, Hawaii, which is exquisitely dependent on goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Freeway and light rail damage will be dealt with later.

3.) Some of the labor is apparently being performed by individuals in neon orange jumpsuits, which are marked, in bold letters, FEMA. Some of these individuals appear to witnesses to be shackled together, chain-gang style. Some are not shackled. However, all of them seem not to be volunteers, but to have been "volunteered" in some way for their duties. Rumors of a sinister aspect to the FEMA relocation camps seem to be proving to be more than rumor.

4.) The assertions made by Lt. Logan through his Naval defender seem to be backed up by others. He may very well been acting on orders from superiors. The suspicion is that the clearances went all the way up the Chain of Command...make of that what you will. This suggests that Logan is being set up to take the fall for a decision made way above his station.

5.) The cordon around Watts is very tight, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice is being ignored in the case of those servicepersons who might leak information about ops in Watts. Meaning: drumhead courts-martial and summary execution as punishment for leakers.

6.) This all raises the question: Cui bono? Who is benefiting from this? Who is benefitting from the destruction of vital infrastructure in Los Angeles? Who is benefitting from the use of FEMA relocatees for labor? That's the $64,000,000,000 question here. I will leave that for you to ponder.

The Especialisto X communique.

(August 30, 2007, second post)

This is what I got in my email box. I will not reveal the email address but it came from the Cingular domain. This is intense stuff.

Hey. Especialisto X here.

1st & last comm 2 u. Risky 2 do more. Army. Pvt. UCMJ susp. in Watts restrict. zone. Summ. exec. 4 media leaks.

Cas figs way off. 5K-7K dead, 10K to 15K wounded. Pulped bodies in craters. We may never know how many ded.

Much labor on AC FEMA. Pressure 2 finish quick. Camp res. "Earning their keep." 90% Blk/Ltno men. Occas Wht. Some chn gng, some not.

+ly devst'd.

Lt. L. telling truth. Orders hi up. C in C signoff prolly.

Hasta.

Here's my sense of what Especialisto Equis is trying to say.

This is my first and last communique to you. It's risky to write again. I'm in the Army, I'm a private. Unified Code of Military Justice has been suspended in the Watts Restricted Zone. Summary executions are the punishment for media leaks.

The casualty figures reported to the press are way off. 5,000 to 7,000 casualties. 10,000 to 15,000 wounded. Severely mutilated bodies in the craters left by the bomb. We may never know how many died.

Much of the labor on the Alameda Corridor is from FEMA. People who have been relocated to FEMA camps are being forced to work to "earn their keep." 90% of the laborers are either Black or Latino. Occasionally there are a few non-Hispanic Whites. Some are chain gang labor, some are not.

I am positively devastated by what I see here.

Lt. Logan is telling the truth. Orders are coming from high up. The Commander in Chief probably signed off on this.

So there you go. Someone trusted me enough to entrust me with their information. I'm sure this is a big risk to post this, but it's now my responsibility to get it to you.

I do not know who this person is. All I know is the communication came from a Cingular cellular phone. That's it.

I hope that Especialisto Equis does not get in trouble for this. He's a brave guy. Braver than me.