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When Art Imitates Life
Donald J. Trump
I once held a SECRET Clearance
During the mid-1960s I was employed at Explosive Technology (ET) an R&D company in Fairfield, California with Security-based contracts awarded from NASA and the Department of Defense. ET, designated as a SECRET facility, was located on the grounds of a dismantled Nike missile station. Employees were either granted SECRET or CONFIDENTIAL Clearances.
My SECRET Clearance included responsibility as Assistant Security Officer, protecting the CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET documents secured in a combination-locked single drawer filing cabinet next to my desk. A cardboard sleeve with the word LOCKED rested in the cabinet’s handle and if the cabinet was not locked, on the other side of the card, was the word OPENED. I was authorized to record the names of employees (also with clearances) whenever they requested access to any document. Each document inside the cabinet was listed in a log with a number that tracked the activity of any specific document when handled and/or read by a cleared employee.
On occasion we were visited by a DOD Security Inspector who would review my log’s register or question me about anything pertaining to the classified documents under ET’s control. We were not authorized to declassify any document; however on some visits the Inspector ordered me to declassify an item which he then instructed me to burn and record its demise next to its title in the register.
If I had ever left a classified document on my desk, I would’ve been fired on the spot!
A FAILED KINGMAKER
Yesterday, August 3 #TFG appeared in US Federal Court, Washington, DC. Also yesterday I finished reading the #Indictment detailing the allegations filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith, United States Department of Justice in the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida. The #Indictment is against former president Donald J. Trump and his personal aide, Waltine Nauta. Wow, what a read!
From the first page to the last, the #Indictment depicts the perfidious activity in words and photographs of #TFG and his flunky shuffling highly classified documents around as if engrossed in a game of musical chairs. Some of the images in the #Indictment displayed boxes stacked on boxes, with some lids rumpled and torn. I gasped in anger viewing those photographs; and infuriated when reading the #Indictment which listed documents marked either:
CONFIDENTIAL//SECRET//TOP SECRET//SI//NOFORN //SPECIALHANDLING//ORCON
If you’re curious about those acronyms, google them. I shudder imagining the “visitors” who had possibly walked or roamed throughout the halls and rooms of Mar-a-Lago and out of curiosity, opened then rummaged through any of those boxes containing highly classified documents.
#TFG has been charged with 37 Counts that fall under Sections of U.S.C. 18. All of them are related to Concealing, Withholding, Obstructing, Conspiring, Making False Statements and Retaining National Defense Information associated with Classified Documents.
Waltine Nauta’s Counts also fall under Sections of U.S.C. 18: Concealing, Withholding, Scheming, Conspiring and Making False Statements. Prison time for Nauta and/or #TFG Counts is 20 years each; a few are 5 years. And each Count carries hefty fines.
Please Dear Followers, download the #Indictment. It’s a good read and will take about an hour out of your day.
WHAT IS RULE 53?
The talking heads on cable have begun discussing the #TFG possibly never spending one day in prison and the need to televise his trial. Unfortunately Federal trials are not allowed to be televised. Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibits the photographing or broadcasting of judicial proceedings in criminal cases in Federal courts.
Only *John Roberts* Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, can lift the Rule, allowing this trial to be seen by all of America.
Time to petition Chief Justice John Roberts!
Stay #Woke because this will be The Trial to #SaveAmericanDemocracy.
Bring back ‘Teach-Ins’
Teach-Ins were all the rage during the 60s to educate citizens about the Viet Nam War. Last I can recall Teach-Ins happening was during New York City’s Occupy Wall Street. But as millions of us continue to grieve the presidential election results, now’s the time to bring back the teach-in.
In the early 1980s a couple dozen of us anti-nuke “pinkos” succeeded in raising the consciousness within our community. We were the Central Bucks Clean Energy Collective with a message to stop a pumping station at Point Pleasant Pennsylvania from sucking water out of the Delaware River for diversion to a nuclear power plant under construction in Limerick, Montgomery County Pennsylvania. We marched in protests, attended public hearings, wrote letters to newspapers and even managed local television media coverage. But most importantly we knocked on the doors of our elected local-state-and federal officials. We actively supported other environmental groups that filed lawsuits to Stop the Pump. There was even a brief appearance in Bucks County by the late Abbie Hoffman.
Awareness of the dangers of nuclear power spread when on March 28, 1979, a near meltdown occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The time was ripe for a Teach-In
We decided to poll our activist-colleagues and found individuals who volunteered to share their energy or alternative energy knowledge at 20-minute workshops. Also invited to our Teach-In were local entrepreneurs and non-profits to exhibit energy-saving products and messages. We succeeded in bringing in a Keynote Speaker–former Massachusetts U.S. Congressman Ed Markey who is now a Senator along with Elizabeth Warren.
After January 20, 2017: Bring Back Teach-Ins
What are those issues that drive your colleagues to bring about better change–locally or globally?
I’m confident that among your like-minded brother and sister activists, are individuals who will–backed by confidence and knowledge–share their passions with your community. Who are your Jewels of Knowledge who can educate citizens about Climate Change; or the Rights of either Workers-Women-Humans-Voting ; or Racism; or Veterans; or Immigration; or Social Security/Medicare; or Health Care; or Redistricting; or Religious Tolerance; or Public Education; or Citizen Lobbying; or Criminal Justice; or the Power of Voting?
What’ve I left out? What’s on your Issue List for a one day Teach-In? This can happen in your community.
Venues are out there–churches or large spaces that will welcome your message. Lobby that high-profile supporter in your group who can persuade a powerful person to become the Keynote Speaker at your Teach-In. We lobbied and for a minimal fee, brought in former Congressman Markey.
Knowledge IS Power. Our Up-start Clean Energy Collective activists may not have stopped Limerick. But how many nuclear power plants have been built since Three Mile Island?
Do It! The Time Is Now. Need direction? Search http://www.IndivisibleGuide.com
BE THERE: Women’s March on January 21 in Washington, DC.
The Bucks Underground Railroad 