Tymaine Sellman was shot to death in December 2014. His shooting happened long before current the unrest over the death of Freddie Gray.

Police said the 19-year-old Black man died at a local hospital after being shot multiple times. So far, no one’s been arrested in connection with his murder.

If #BlackLivesMatter really mattered, you might have heard Tymaine’s name on the national news. But his death doesn’t fit the Progressive agenda.

He wasn’t killed by a White police officer.

Fidel Casto celebrated his 89th birthday by arguing the U.S. must pay for damages caused by our embargo of his nation. The old dictator didn’t say how much we owe; however, in January 2015 he did demand Naval Base Guantanamo Bay be handed over.

“Cuba is owed compensation equivalent to damages, which total many millions of dollars, as our country has stated with irrefutable arguments and data in all of its speeches at the United Nations,” he writes in the state-run Communist Party newspaper Granma.

And knowing President Obama — he may give it to him.

Contra Costa County Deputy Sheriff Carlos Francies, a former Humboldt State University football player, died in an accidental drowning at South Lake Tahoe, August 13. He saw his sister and her male friend fall in the water and begin to struggle.

While Francies was able to save them, he failed to reach the shore, sinking in 15 feet of water. He was pronounced dead after being taken to Barton Memorial Hospital.

“He is a hero and an example of exactly what is right in law enforcement today,” his boss, Contra Costa County Sheriff David O. Livingston said.

It was around 11:30 Saturday night, April 25, 2015, when shots rang out at a home on McLemore Court in Spanish Springs. As the gun smoke cleared, two men lay dead at the foot of the drive.

Detectives say the residents of the home claim they heard a disturbance outside and when checking on it, were ‘confronted’ by ‘two strangers.’ The alleged confrontation left 20-year-old Ryan Robins and his 29-year-old brother Glen Robins dead.

The shooter, in his late-50’s, also wounded his 75-year-old father. The Washoe County Sheriff’s office also says neither of the dead men had a weapon.

The sheriff’s office continues to characterize the events leading up to the shootings as some sort of ‘domestic disturbance.’ On the other hand, neighbors say the brothers were ‘horse playing,’ with a third man before the confrontation in the street.

Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Harmon went on record to say of the homeowners, “I would say that there was definitely a confrontation in which the men felt threatened.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Lieutenant Tom Green contradicted parts of Harmon’s statement.

“It would be too early for me to say that this is going to be self-defense or that it was self-defense,” Green said, adding, “but that is certainly an option.”

The sheriff’s office also stated no one’s been arrested and that the shooter continues to cooperates. Meanwhile, the Medical Examiner’s Office says Glen died from multiple gunshot wounds, while Ryan died from two gunshots to the torso.

A neighbor told the Reno Gazette-Journal that jus’ before he went to bed, a fight outside broke the neighborhood’s silence.

“It sounded like several adults arguing, men, I couldn’t get the gist of the conversation, but one of them yelled something I couldn’t catch it and then I heard three shots fired,” he said.

“The cul-de-sac was lit up from the lights from the police officers, so I came out of my garage and I look down and I see two bodies laying in the driveway,” he added.

Another neighbor said deputies threatened her with arrest if she didn’t return to her home after seeing them arrive on scene. She lives near the home where the killings happened and said her adult son had been outside, skateboarding with the two brothers’ before the shootings took place.

Five months after the murders’ she has yet to be questioned by detectives, though they’ve supposedly told the dead men’s mother that the woman had refused to make a statement.

Nevada is one of 30 states with “stand-your-ground laws” that allow the use of deadly force against attackers posing an imminent threat regardless of whether the aggressor is armed. Nevada law also says the shooter cannot be the original aggressor.

The question in this case is who was ‘the original aggressor’?

From the sounds of it, it wasn’t the Robins brothers. From everything I’ve been able to gather, the two men in the home went outside and began an argument with the brothers and when the confrontation became physical, the son pulled a firearm and shot the pair to death.

UPDATE: March 8, 2016 — The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office says that an exhaustive investigation into the 2015 shooting deaths of two Spanish Springs men has determined the shooter acted in self-defense, and in defense of his 50-year-old brother and 75-year-old father making this a justifiable homicide per Nevada Revised Statutes.

Sometimes sadness gets the better of me and becomes full-blown depression. It’s the down side to being a manic-depressive or rather ‘bi-polar disordered.’

This bout came on after a lengthy week of ups and downs. Everything from being overly tired, to the death of a friend, to news our housemate is retiring and moving to Las Vegas.

That last bit hit me like a ton of bricks. In the end though, I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off and I’ll press on.

Gotta admit its difficult when life happens in such rapid fashion.

 

An EPA crew inspecting the Gold King mine near Silverton, Colorado, released at over three million gallons of water laden with toxic heavy metals, including zinc, iron, copper, lead and arsenic among other heavy metals into the Animas River on August 5. High levels of these metals can cause all sorts of health problems from cancer to kidney disease to developmental problems in children.

Interestingly, a letter to the editor published in ‘The Silverton Standard and The Miner,’ on July 30, 2015 predicted the ‘accident.’ Authored by retired geologist Dave Taylor a week before the EPA’s mining mishap, it warned of an EPA “Superfund blitzkrieg.”

Taylor’s letter described how EPA officials would pollute the river on purpose so they could secure Superfund money. He also explained how the fouled-water would be released because of the buildup of too much pressure by the EPA’s plugging of the mine.

The EPA quickly admitted they misjudged the pressure in the gold mine – just as the editorial predicted. Under the scenario described, Taylor claimed the EPA would need instant funding to build a treatment plant for the clean up process.

EPA regional administrator Shaun McGrath claimed, “This was not intentional, obviously. The EPA was out doing this work to try to address what is an ongoing problem. In terms of why it happened, we are doing a complete look back at that to try an understand it.”

McGrath promised to hold people accountable in the same way the EPA would respond to a similar disaster caused by anyone else. But so far, no one’s been fired or disciplined.

The agency has pushed for nearly 25 years, to apply its Superfund program to the Gold King mine. If declared a Superfund site, this would end all future mining development in the area.

Though President Obama’s EPA opposes all mining in the U.S., the idea that this could’ve been on purpose is too awful to contemplate – but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Recently, the FBI released an alert to law enforcement agencies about men described as being of Middle Eastern descent intimidating military families. The alert specifically named Greeley, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming, as locations where military families had been approached and harassed.

The bulletin described an incident in May in which the wife of a military member was approached in front of her home by two Middle Eastern men. The men said she was the wife of a U.S. interrogator.

Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Denver office says it can’t confirm the authenticity of that alert. Special Agent Amy Sanders, spokeswoman for the FBI Denver Bureau, said the office didn’t release any such alert.

However, Nathan Hunerwadel, a spokesman for the state division of homeland security, said his agency was aware of the FBI bulletin, but that his office did not know the details of any specific cases of harassment in Greeley, Cheyenne or elsewhere. Furthermore, F.E. Warren Air Force Base confirmed the existence of the alert on August 5 when it posted a “heads up” on its Facebook page.

The bulletin and its denial are connected to President Obama’s “Refugee Resettlement Program.” Most Americans are unaware of the program and that under it, “whole Muslim communities from hostile nations are (being) imported into the U.S.”

In the last three years, 300,000 Muslims migrated to the U.S. It’s expected that 9,000 or more Syrian refugees will arrive this year with a plan to bring at least 75,000 over the next five years.

Then there’s the ‘Preferred Communities Program,’ which considers small towns and rural areas to be most suited to refugees and migrants because they’re best able to offer the kinds of services needed. The over-saturation in large metropolises’ like New York City and Chicago has drained those city’s resources dry.

Finally, these so-called refuges are being moved into Colorado and Wyoming with a singular purpose; to get subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers to take to other states. Waitlists for voucher in big cities are often years long, if not closed all together, making small cities like Cheyenne and Greeley more attractive because of shorter wait times.

Follow this up with the knowledge that the United Nations is the one determining who’s a refugees and whose not. It is also interesting to note that the U.N. is driven largely by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference.)

Finally, there’s Hijra, or the Islamic doctrine of immigration, which works in concert with violent jihad to overwhelm a society until Islam becomes the single dominant force. And let’s not forget how Obama has eased requirements for potential migrants who have links to “soft” terror.

We are importing Islamic terror – but the FBI wasn’t supposed to let that ‘cat out of the bag’ by issuing that bulletin.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush — who championed federally funded Common Core standards — continues distancing himself from them. During the recent FOX News GOP debate, Bush said he didn’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of education standards.

“I don’t believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the creation of curriculum or content. It is clearly a state responsibility,” he said.

He added, “If states want to opt out of Common Core, fine; just make sure your standards are high.”

For Bush to approve Common Core and to claim he doesn’t believe the federal government should be involved is a paradox that wasn’t challenged by debate moderators. Bush’s statement that it’s okay to opt out of Common Core, but to “make sure your standards are high” also shows he doesn’t believe in state control of education, but rather having states adhere to federal regulations.

Bush will hold a noontime meet-and-greet Wednesday in Reno. Later in the evening, the Progressive GOP presidential candidate’s scheduled to attend a North Las Vegas town hall meeting.

Speaking of Nevada and Common Core, state lawmakers have given the final go-ahead to adopting Common Core math standards for high school students. A 12-member Legislative Commission voted 11-1 to approve the regulations, which have supposedly been reviewed several times.

Unfortunately, the move was the last piece needed to fully apply Common Core-aligned standards in high school. In the past, they were excluded from regulations because of technical problems.

Those problems included a widespread computer crash in Nevada, Montana and North Dakota. Furthermore, computer errors started appearing three weeks into the 12-week testing window, with only 30,000 students completing the required tests in English language arts and math before the servers overloaded.

The Nevada Department of Education filed a lawsuit against New Hampshire-based Measured Progress, the company hired to oversee testing, citing breach of contract. This year, Nevada has hired a new testing service, CTB/McGraw-Hill at a cost of $51 Million to the citizens of Nevada over the next four years.

In the end, whether regulated by the states or the federal government, Common Core is nothing more than a re-education platform, aimed at instilling Progressive beliefs in our children without their knowledge and without parental consent.

Trump is directly connected to Hillary Clinton and so is his decision to campaign as a Republican. As reported by the WaPo:

“Former president Bill Clinton had a private telephone conversation in late spring with Donald Trump at the same time that the billionaire investor and reality-television star was nearing a decision to run for the White House, according to associates of both men.

Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.”

Recently, Trump self-identify as a Democrat and donated a lot of money to them, giving around $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. MSNBC points out:

“He donated to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns in 2000 and 2006, her presidential campaign in 2008, and has given at least $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. And Clinton sat in the front row of Trump’s 2005 wedding.”

Trump also criticized Scott Walker, railing against a man who won three elections against a Progressive state-run machine, curtailed the government unions’ power and restored the state budget. He faulted Walker for falling short of budget projections and changing his position on Common Core education standards.

Now, many Republicans are afraid Trump is hurting the party. That’s because the GOP’s filled with Progressives, who can no longer tell the difference between the truth and playing to the crowds.

Meanwhile, Trump continues playing both to and down too Conservatives, with his ‘no-hold’s barred’ rhetoric. In the end, he’ll implode, much like Ross Perot did in 1992 for Bill, giving the White House to Hillary.

On the upside, their plans could fall through, as ‘Havana on the Willamette,’ (better known as Portland, Oregon) set the record for a rally held by Bernie Sanders, with 28,000 people in attendance. The avowed Socialist pledged to fight for universal health care, free college tuition, $15 an hour wage,” three months of paid leave for mothers and fathers, higher taxes on corporations, and the ‘corruptive influence of big money’ on American politics.

Clinton can only dream of such numbers when it comes to supporter’s attending her rallies. And it’ll become even more difficult if the media suddenly starts reporting on Sander’s with the same intensity they fake for both Clinton and Trump.

And as we wait, the same media continues to investigate if Megyn Kelly bleeds, or if she’s indeed yet another broadcast zombie.

FOX’s GOP debates were watched by 24 million viewers, making it the highest-rated primary debate in television history. For perspective, the first GOP primary debate four years ago, also on Fox, attracted 3.2 million viewers and the most-watched primary debate that year, broadcast by ABC, reached 7.6 million.

You might disagree over which candidate fared best in the Republican debate, but one thing is indisputable — Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace all lost. For over two hours, they demonstrated that Fox News offer’s no safe harbor for Conservative values.

It was clear from the get-go that Fox News had nothing but softball questions for Jeb Bush aimed at highlighting his family legacy and accomplishments. Meanwhile, the questions directed at Donald Trump were accusations and insults, which had nothing to do with running the country.

And jus’ as the Democrats have already crowned Hillary their nominee; Progressive Republicans have crowned Jeb theirs. If this continues, we’ll all get to go to the voting booths next November and once again choose the least offensive candidate.

But as we begin the low-road to ever-more Progressive governance and leadership, the debate is also the beginning death-knell of Fox News. This follows the departure of Rupert Murdoch as the head of the parent company – 21st Century Fox.

Murdoch is one of two people who created Fox News. The other is Roger Ailes, whose contract is running out and most likely won’t be renewed.

That’s because Murdoch has two sons — James, who was publicly characterized as an “effing dope” by Ailes and Lachlan, who was fired by Ailes. Unfortunately for Ailes, James will become the new CEO while Lachlan will become an executive co-chairman.

And if that wasn’t enough, the candidates had to share the stage with Facebook, who co-sponsored the debates. The three FOX News moderators reportedly used questions taken from the popular social networking site.

Social media users tend to be younger and generally more Progressive in their mind-set. And now you can understand more fully, why softballs were lobbed at Bush, and missiles fired at Trump.

Oh, and if there’s any doubt that FOX News missed the mark — The New York Times praised Kelly, Baier and Wallace for their so-called ‘fair and balanced’ approach to the questions asked.