Joseph Addison:
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
Small Town Oregon Mayor Comes Under Fire For Not Being “Conservative” Enough
A True Homie
Sara Bristol was born in Grants Pass, Oregon and went to grade and high school here. Sara comes from a family who believed in community service. She saw their rhetoric in action as they worked tirelessly for, and with their neighbors, to make Grants Pass a great place to live. Sara saw volunteerism and public service firsthand and has spent her life following their example. Sara’s father, Mike Murphy, once served as Grants Pass mayor.
College Break
During summer break from college Sara worked as an intern at the Daily Courier in Grants Pass, where she met future husband Chris Bristol. Sara followed her heart and left school in Colorado to return to Oregon. Back in Oregon, Sara continued her studies at Southern Oregon University, where she graduated with a degree in Journalism. Sara and her new husband, like many young couples, were destined to leave their hometowns due to job considerations.
A Call To Service
The young couple and their two children moved first to Portland and then to Yakima, where Sara and Chris both worked at local newspapers. Despite her growing work and family responsibilities, Sara still felt the call to serve her community. Supported by the ideals of independence, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and honesty, Sara decided to run for a city council position in Yakima, WA. No surprise this spirited dynamo won easily.
A Big Move
A big job change for Chris was coming and it would bring Sara and her family back to Grants Pass. Leaving Yakima was hard, but coming home to Grants Pass was an exciting prospect; and as always, the family leaned into the move and all the changes the move promised.
City Government
It wasn’t long after moving back to Grants Pass that Sara saw real problems in the Grants Pass city government. She became quite alarmed at what appeared to be a city government run by a crowd of bullies who were playing fast and loose with taxpayer money. After her father’s years as Grants Pass mayor and her experience as councilperson in Yakima she decided she had to run for Grants Pass mayor. As an independent, unaffiliated candidate she won handily.
Recall Petition
Recently, a group, providing the address of the local Republican committee office as their headquarters, attacked Sara’s performance as mayor. Suzanne Barber and several Republican precinct workers began collecting signatures for a recall election. The reason for the petitioned recall, according to the petition is Sara Bristol’s insufficient conservativism.
Independent and Unaffiliated
Grants Pass voters wanted an independent and unaffiliated voice at City Hall, that’s why Sara was elected. Standby our mayor. Vote No on the recall, September 12, 2023. At a time when our national headlines are filled with vitriol and hate Sara wants to be sure that divisiveness does not contaminate our local government. Sara believes in calm, transparent, confident leadership, not hysterical extremism. Join Sara to turn back a small but vocal minority.
SUPPORT SARA BRISTOL AT THESE COMMUNITY EVENTS:
Friday, August 25, 2023: Anne Basker Auditorium at 6 pm
Saturday, August 26, 2023: Josephine County Courthouse at 12 Noon
Tuesday, August 29, 2023: Fruitdale Grange at 6pm
The Biggest Flag Wins
When all the votes for 2020 presidential election were counted, Joe Biden won 81,283,098 votes, or 51.3% of the vote. Donald Trump won 74,222,958 or 46.8% of the vote. Miscellaneous other candidates captured a meager 1.8% of the vote. In other words, Joe Biden, kicked Trump’s butt, besting Trump by over 7 million votes. But, those numbers were obviously against Trump’s plan. Votes were counted and recounted and lawsuit after lawsuit brought by Trump challenging the election were dismissed. Everyone from the bloated and lawless Bill Barr to Cybersecurity Director Chris Krebs called Trump’s claim’s of voter fraud, “bullshit.” But, still you see signs saying, “Biden Lost!” usually accompanied by an oversized American flag.
As It Plays Out
We should be celebrating that more people turned out to vote in the 2020 election than at any other time in history. But, we aren’t. In fact, because of Trump’s lies our country is more divided than ever. Instead of the bloated orange fruit fly conceding the election, to Joe Biden like every man before him has, he chose to create chaos.
More Violence and More Lawsuits
In 2016 the Trumpers told us “elections have consequences” as we progressives huddled in our fetal positions, terrified of a Trump presidency. It is now 2023 and those same Trumpers are telling us that despite Trump’s staggering loss both in the Electoral College and the popular vote we libs should sit down and shut up, ‘because it’s obvious Trump won’. If Trump becomes the Republican nominee in 2024 I am sure we will see more armed election observers, more lawsuits, more threats of violence, more white supremacist saber rattling, and more talk of Trump as a lifetime president.
Is It That Bad?
A majority of Americans, especially Black, Brown, Native Americans, Asians, and other marginalized communities, who are at the mercy of this country’s historic, systemic, police abuse and seemingly incurable racism, voted Donald Trump out of office. I want us to celebrate that so many Americans voted to oust his criminal ass, but there is much need for introspection and intense soul searching about those who continue to feverishly support him in his fight to propagate the big lie. My god the brazen fucker is running for president again.
A Cup Of Coffee
I’m ready this morning to have a cup of coffee, eat an apple and reflect on why more than 74, 000,000 Americans would chose a man like Donald Trump to lead this country? His incompetence and stupidity is legendary. We’d already seen the chaos in operation, day after day, over four years in office. Some close to him have called him a “fucking moron.” These words come from those who know him best, yet these voices are ignored by his minions. Or should I be calling them cultists.
Nothing Moves His Base
For the last several days I’ve scoured old newspaper and magazine articles putting together a list of the known criminal activities of Donald Trump. Although well-known to his followers, his criminality seems to have no effect on their loyalty or their intoxicated enthusiasm. Monster flags whipping off the back of pickup trucks advertise their loyalty to Trump, not the United States. Wake up guys. Trump is a fraud and you, his small donors, are his biggest suckers. Recent reports indicate $40 million dollars of donor money has been spent so far this year on Trump defense attorneys. Get real, please, Trump and his whole crew belongs in Sing-Sing, not the Oval Office.
The Habit Of Corruption
Trump is no stranger to corruption and criminality. He has been embedded in it his entire life. As President, he took it to a new level. The Trump administration was without a doubt the most corrupt presidency in American history. No wonder he keeps screaming “fake news” when responding to reporter’s questions. Trump desperately needs to undermine the legitimacy of the fourth estate. Donald John Trump has so much to hide. If his devout followers would listen to the information that is available everywhere, they would drop him like the proverbial hot potato. But, for some reason they are both deaf and blind to the truth. Truth matters, and Trump couldn’t find truth with both hands. Just to refresh the reader on Trump’s criminal history:
It All Started With Daddy Trump
1.) Donald and his father blatantly participated in housing discrimination against people of color and they were sued by the Justice Department.
2.) The Mafia and Donald worked together through the construction trades in New York city.
3.) He hired undocumented Polish workers to rehab the Trump Tower and then refused to pay them.
4.) Trump was fined $750,000 for anti-trust violations during his attempt to take over a rival casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
I had several advantages going for me when I called writer, author, editor, publisher, D. S. Mitchell to ask her for an interview. The first big advantage is that I have known Darlene Mitchell for nearly forty years, the second was I wanted to do a story about her. I hoped our long term friendship and my appeal to her vanity would seal the deal. So after a few hiccups we got together at her home in beautiful southern Oregon and I started asking questions. Here is the result of that interview.
David: When we first met you were an RN. How and when did you decide you wanted to abandon the bedpan for the ink pen?
Darlene: You’re funny. It wasn’t like that. I’ve been writing short stories and bad poetry since I was a young kid. I spent my school years in advanced creative writing classes, encouraged and mentored by a number of wonderful teachers along the way. But, so few writers find success that I chose a “reliable” career. Professional nursing was a sure paycheck, not a hope and a prayer. My mother said a hail Mary on that choice, thankful that the four years of college she paid for wouldn’t be wasted on a low paying unpredictable career as a writer.
I’ve been journaling and writing short stories since I figured out which end of the pencil held the lead. Most of my writing has been for my own mental health. In 2016 I started the Calamity News and Politics website. The website has given me a platform to talk about the things that are important to me, the news and the politics of the day. I have been able to write articles about issues that mean something to me and to the community.
I fully intend to continue the website. I’m just asking for a little patience as I finish up book three of my adult thriller series Chasing the Spider. The three books are Chasing the Spider, Stalking the Spider, and Embracing the Spider. If you are interested you can find book one on Amazon. The second book should be available next month.
Thanks again for being a Calamity fan, you are loved and appreciated.
Thanks again for your understanding and patience.
D.S. Mitchell
Channel Surfing
I started off the morning watching Sam Stein filling in for Velshi on MSNBC. I switched over to Smerconish, when the commercials came on, to see what was top of the conversation at CNN. Both CNN and MSNBC were featuring lead stories on the tragic case of a 10-year-old Ohio child who was raped and impregnated by her attacker. Since we are in a post-Roe world, she was denied an abortion in her home state of Ohio, and was forced to travel to Indiana to undergo treatment.
Out of the Blue
When the story went viral a whole lot of anti-abortion agitators opened fire on the girl, her family and the MD who provided her care. Out of the blue, the Indiana Attorney General, Todd Rokita (R), said on the FOX channel, of course, that his department intended to investigate the doctor who did the abortion. On air, he quite plainly accused Dr. Bernard of malfeasance and overt criminality, suggesting that although abortion is legal in Indiana, this particular doctor, “most likely committed a crime.” He went on to say “she often fails to submit required notifications and documents” to the state of Indiana regarding abortion procedures. Dr. Bernard’s attorney returned fire sending a Cease and Desist notice to Rokita, advising him he is likely to be the target of a lawsuit for defamation.
Political Provacteurs
This came after a week of right-wing bloggers, pundits, and political provacteurs, the likes of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, assailing this tragic story as a falsehood; arguing that it was a “story searching for confirmation.” Sadly, it was not a made-up story by the crazy liberals, attempting to win public support for abortion. The perpetrator, 27 year-old Gershon Fuentes has been arrested, and he has confessed. It was a true story about a real person, a child, no less, and a doctor trying to make life better for someone who’s life would be forever altered. But, over at FOX there will be no apologies, no retractions, just a quick jump to another hot button issue.
Really, Laura?
Maybe Laura Ingraham can’t remember being a 10 years old little girl, but I can. I was still playing with dolls for ‘effin sakes. Playing with dolls. . .so instead of dolls, I should have been suckling an infant for the state? Barbaric. What will the next horrific decision be from the Robert’s SCOTUS? Forced state female circumcision? That may sound outlandish, even outrageous, but in the old days a woman wasn’t supposed to enjoy sexual relations, so better make sure she doesn’t.
In any Universe
I don’t know much about god (s) but I do recognize unbelievable cruelty when I see it; and I am convinced there is no god in this or any other universe, blessing the behavior of FOX and its clones on the pulpits of “Christian” churches, across the United States. My hope is that all the evil done in the name of god, hopefully has harsh punishments, for those who use His name to facilitate their own worldly agenda.
Journalists are supposed to be impartial. A basic course in every journalism school is ‘journalistic ethics.’ Students with other educational backgrounds who want to write journalism are also encouraged to take a course in ethics. This was the path I took after my degree in History. Sadly, it can be difficult to tell sometimes whether mainstream reporting has lost its sense of ethics or if it ever had any at all.
During the continuing coverage of the Derek Chauvin Trial on CNN I have heard the defendant called a “murderer” and the incident called “murder” in connection with the case. Not in the metaphorical sense or that of potentiality, using qualifiers such as “alleged” or “accused” but as a statement of fact. Except the trial is ongoing and Chauvin hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. To refer to him as a murderer as a statement of fact is at best a gross breach of professional ethics and could be grounds for a defamation case if he is found not guilty.
Take Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic school student seen in the notorious video in which he seems to be smiling and mocking a Native American elder. Sandmann, who is a minor, received multiple threats of violence and death after publication of the video. Some of those threats came from high-profile celebrities, who faced no backlash, or legal ramifications, for making such threats against a minor. Turns out everyone got it wrong. The inflammatory chants were apparently coming from a group of Black Hebrew Israelites off to the side of the school group. And, the elder had gotten into Sandmann’s face, rather than the other way around. Sandmann and his family sued several media outlets including CNN and The Washington Post for slander and defamation.
The root issue in the case of the “Covington Kids” was that mainstream news outlets were reporting information that was going up online without checking it. A clear, and dangerous violation of the trust the public up in them to be a impartial and reliable media source.
The Court of Public Opinion can be a powerful force in society, possibly turning dangerous when applied to actual court cases, particularly in terms of jury trials. A factor brought into sharp focus by the case of the Central Park Five. There was a wide-spread fear of black youth crime in New York in the late 1980s. The problem magnified by the news media, which could also can be said to be a contributing factor to the guilty verdict. In addition to such outrage as full-page “ads” by Donald Trump demanding the death penalty. Five African-American and Latino youths ended up falsely convicted of raping a female jogger, during a string of sexual assaults in Central Park in the summer of 1989. The youths served sentences of six to twelve years, only to have their charges dropped and records expunged when someone else, a known criminal confessed.
One of the most egregious cases of mistrial by media is that of the West Memphis Three. A trio of teenaged Metalheads with the misfortune to live in West Memphis Arkansas in 1994. The teens were convicted of murder. This was done toward the end of a media driven Satanic Panic. A stupefying case of mass hysteria, almost on par with Salem, which saw everyone from elected officials, to media outlets and parent’s groups believing that there was an organized Satanic conspiracy gripping America. Geraldo Rivera stated on his show that there were “over one million Satanist in America,” Not least because the news media were reporting on utterly debunked claims such as *backmasking and Satanic Ritual Abuse, most of which were associated with Metal music at the time.
Such reports directly influencing the jury when they found Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin guilty of the killing of three young children the year before. Echols was sentenced to death. Misskelley Jr. was sentenced to life plus to twenty year sentences and Baldwin was sentenced to life. All on evidence so flimsy as to be considered laughable, much of which revolved around the three dressing in black and listening to Metal. They we’re essentially convicted of being Metalheads.
At least that was how it was suppose to be. In an interesting case of fighting media lies with media truth, Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky produced a trilogy of documentaries on the case. Those productions included, Paradise Lost, Paradise Lost: Revelations and Paradise Lost: Purgatory. Each film was strongly critical of the case, and make it abundantly clear that Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin were basically railroaded by a system dead-set against them. The three were released in 2011 on plea deals which basically amounted to time-served, their convictions still standing, despite new physical and DNA evidence points to two other men.
The media and its influence are incredibly powerful, and need to be held to account. If not by their parent companies or advertisers, then the public they seek to influence and manipulate rather than inform. If you are wondering why you should trust me, when I am part of the media myself, keep in mind I am not a journalist. I’m a historian and I have a firm grasp on how bad things can get.
Definition:
*Backmasking is a recording technique where by a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional. Wikipedia
Probably one of the most talked about stories of 2018 was that of Jamal Khashoggi. His story is one tragedy that no one saw coming. At the age of 59, Jamal Khashoggi was a well-known Washington Post journalist. His career spanned more than 35 years, back to the 1980’s.
Jamal Khashoggi was born on 10/13/1958 in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He was born to a well-connected Saudi family. Jamal was the nephew of notorious Iran-Contra arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi who had an estimated wealth in 1984 of over $4B US. His first cousin, Dodi Fayed made headlines in 1997 when he was romantically linked to Princess Diana. Fayed and Diana were both killed in a car accident in Paris that same year. Jamal Khashoggi’s grandfather had been the personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi attended elementary and high school in Saudi Arabia. He came to the United States for his college education and went to Indiana State University, graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He married his first wife while in college and they later would have four children. Two of the children are American citizens.