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chickensarentcheap · 9 months

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Lost and Found- Chapter 18

Fandom: Extraction

Pairing: Tyler Rake and Esme Drummond (established OFC. Although you do not need to read the others to understand this one)

Warnings: profanity

Because this a deviation from the original series, this fic will include more tie-in’s to Extraction 2 and characters and events mentioned in the movie :)

Tagging: @tragiclyhip @youflickedtooharddamnit @thebewingedjewelcat @munstysmind @themaradwrites @secretaryunpaid @ninjasawakenedmystar @asirensrage @karimac @kmc1989 @residentdormouse @timbradfordsboot @arrthurpendragon @ocappreciationtag, @occommunity

My tag list is OPEN. Just let me know if you’d like to be added.

Link to Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43179357/chapters/123580417

******

Tyler finds himself drifting towards a warm, comfortable sleep when his cell phone vibrates against his chest; expecting a call from Nik with updates on that morning’s incident but instead finding Delaney’s number splashed across the display.

Biting back a groan of irritation, he briefly considers his options; whether to allow it to go to voicemail or to just gather both the balls and the patience to finally -and permanently- deal with the inevitable. There’s never an easy way to sever ties; someone is going to have their heartbroken regardless of how gently the other handles the situation. Not only will being blunt and straightforward result in hurt feelings, but so will allowing things to drag on and her expectations and hopes for both him -and their future- to continue to grow.

He hates it; those fragments of emotional cowardice that still exist inside him. He’d been holding out hope that simply ignoring the voicemails and texts would send a crystal-clear message; she’d ‘get the picture’ and simply surrender and just peacefully disappear into the sunset. But the continued attempts to contact him are becoming increasingly annoying; Delaney either refusing to take the hint or remaining completely delusional when it comes to the status -and the future- of their relationship.

Deciding on the more difficult and potentially painful course of action, he presses the heels of his palms into his weary eyes before answering the call. “Yeah?”

“So, you ARE alive.”

For the first time ever, her voice grates on his nerves; an irritation that causes his jaw to clench and travels straight to his bones. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a side effect of the morning he’d had; his temper already on a slow boil and growing in intensity with every minor inconvenience and tiny annoyance.

“What do you want?”

“What do I want?” Delaney gives a dry laugh. “What does every woman want, Tyler? When it comes to their partner? Love, attention, affection. To at least know they’re not lying dead in a ditch somewhere.”

He scowls at the word ‘partner’; a gross exaggeration of the role he’d played -at least in his mind- in their relationship. Not once had he felt that kind of connection; the want and the need that comes with desiring a life with someone. And he realizes now she’d been nothing more than a filler; a presence to help alleviate -at least temporarily- some of the heartache and loneliness. There’d been good times; he’s not denying that. He’d particularly enjoyed moments of companionship; those brief and fleeting instances when he’d smiled and laughed for what seemed like the first time in decades.

Those five years had been hell; desperately trying to navigate life without the person solely responsible for his mere existence. And he’d manage to go weeks without reminiscing or dreaming of their time together before unexpectedly stumbling upon pieces of her; the intensity and enormity of his loss quickly -and painfully- returning. Times when he’d turn on the radio in the truck and discover one of the songs she used to dance around the kitchen to; her hair tossed up into a ponytail or messy bun and her tiny frame drowning in one of his t-shirts. Or when he’d catch sight of that cheap, tacky mug he’d hidden away at the very back of the top shelf above the sink, gingerly removing it from its resting place and then running a fingertip along the rim she’d once rested her lips upon before tucking it away again.

And every so often -while out on the street- he’d catch a brief glimpse of a tiny brunette out of the corner of his eye; his throat becoming impossibly dry while his stomach clenched and his heart hammered in his chest. It was those moments that would hurt the most; logic screaming that it couldn’t possibly be her while his heart desperately clung to some semblance…some sliver…of hope.

“Tyler?”

“I’ve been busy.” It sounds lame, even to his own ears.

“So busy you couldn’t be bothered to talk on the phone for five minutes? Or send even one text? What could possibly have you so busy that you can’t even give me the bare minimum?”

He glances down at the culprits. Esme and Millie both fast asleep, securely tucked into either side of him.; the latter’s face pressed into his ribs and one of her tiny arms thrown across his chest. It had felt so damn good; lying there with the two most important people in his life. Confident in the knowledge that they felt calm and safe in his presence. Being wrapped in his arms enabled them to temporarily push aside the nightmare that had occurred less than two hours before; both having the utmost faith in his ability to protect them.

“Why ARE you there?” Delaney inquires. “New York City of ALL places. Why…?”

“Someone needed my help. I couldn’t turn them down.”

“There wasn’t anyone remotely close by that could help them? Why did they need you? What…?”

“They asked for me. By name.”

“And who are they, exactly?”

“An ex. She ran into some trouble. Needs me to help get her out of it.”

“An ex? From how long ago? Must have been way before me because you’ve never talked about any exes. Other than your wife.

“She wasn’t that long before you. A few years.”

“And you never talked about her before because…”

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Delaney. And she’s one of them.”

“This is all very confusing. I don’t understand what the hell is even going on. What do you mean asked for you? By name? I don’t get why…?”

“This is a side job of mine. People get themselves into trouble and call my handler, and my handler calls me.”

“Your handler? What…?”

“I help people. Get them out of tight spots. She called and asked for me. I wasn’t going to say no. Especially not to her.”

“Tyler…” She sighs in exasperation. “…I don’t know if you’re purposefully trying to make things more confusing than they need to be or if you’re just playing some game with me, but none of this is making any sense. An ex-girlfriend gets into trouble and calls someone you call ‘your handler’ because they need your help? You realize how…weird…this all sounds, yeah? A handler? What does that even mean? What kind of talk is it that? And what kind of trouble? What kind of help do they need? That no one else could give it. What...?”

“I’m a mercenary.”

Silence descends. And just as he's about to inquire if she's still on the line, Delaney gives a loud, incredulous laugh.

“If you’re going to continue to bullshit me, Tyler, at least try and make it believable.”

“I’ve been a mercenary for years. Long before I met you. Nik isn’t just a friend of mine. She’s my boss. My handler.”

“You expect me to believe all of this? That Nik is some kind of organized crime boss? That she’s…”

“She runs her own business. A couple of them, actually. This is just her side gig.”

“You’re being serious about this, aren’t you. This isn’t some wild, bullshit excuse to…”

“I’m dead serious. After I left the military, I was introduced to Nik and she brought me on board.”

“How would ever hear about a job like you THAT? Who would you get into that sort of thing? How’d you’d ever meet Nik in the first place? How…?”

“None of that matters. Let’s just keep it to the basics, yeah? This is who I am. Or at least PART of who I am.”

“That’s typical of you, you know. Keep so much back. I thought maybe it was just a quirk of yours; that you’d eventually get over it and you’d open up to me a bit more.”

“I’m not one for opening up to people. It’s a very short list; of those I trust enough.”

“And I take it I’m not on that list.”

“No. You’re not. And I don’t know if you ever would have been.”

“Well that’s just…” She sighs heavily. “…an asshole thing to say.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just the truth. Which I should have been telling you all along. Especially when it came to you.”

“Don’t you mean ‘us’?”

“No. Because there was never an ‘us’. Not the way you wanted there to be, anyway.”

“Wow. Just…”. She gives a dry laugh. “…wow. So what is this? This little talk we’re having. All the surprises you’re dropping on me. What…?”

“I owe you some transparency. I supposed I’ve owed you that all along. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“How much is a lot?”

“Enough.”

“And you didn’t think being a mercenary…a hired killer…was something I should know? We were getting serious, Tyler. We were sharing a bed. We were sharing a LIFE. We…”

“No. We weren’t. Not really. The bed was pretty much all we shared.”

“And whose fault is that? Who is the one that just kept closing himself off? Every time I tried to get closer, you just battened down the hatches even more and…”

“It was never going to happen. I was never going to open up like that. Not the way you wanted me to, anyway. And that’s no bearing on you, believe me. You’re an amazing woman; you’re beautiful and you’re smart as hell and any guy would be lucky to have you. Just…”

“I’m not what you want.”

“No. You’re not WHO I want.”

“The ex. Who you went to New York City to help. She’s who you want?”

“Only for the last five years. She’s the love of my life and…”

“You love her that much why did it ever end? She didn’t feel the same way? Now all these years she suddenly wants you back?”

“It’s none of your goddamn business why it ended. But it was no fault of hers. Or mine. It was a bad time. There was a situation beyond both our control. A dangerous one. And she left.”

“What kind of situation?”

“Didn’t I already say it’s none of your business? I don’t owe you that information. I don’t owe ANYONE that. My life with her? The time we spent together and why it fucked up? That’s shit you could never begin to understand.”

“So much for transparency.”

“Delaney...” His trails off as he struggles to keep his temper in check; his anger towards the events of the morning on a permanent boil and his patience running extremely short. And he glances down when he feels Esme stir against him; nuzzling his ribs with the tip of her nose and then stretching languorously as she gives a long, quiet yawn.

She smiles when his free hand smoothes messy hair away from her cheeks and off her forehead, then jerks a thumb towards the door and whispers, “Do want some privacy? Do you want me to go?”

Shaking his head, he drapes an arm across her shoulders and pulls her closer; lips meeting her brow before he pushes his fingers through her hair and firmly guides her head towards his chest.

“She’s there right now, isn’t she,” Delaney snarls. “Isn’t she.”

“She is,” Tyler confirms. “She’s right here.”

“What’s her name?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“What does she look like?”

“You don’t need to know that, either.”

“A woman likes to know her competition.”

“There’s no competition. It’s only her. It’s always been only her. It always will be ONLY HER.”

“So that’s it? You’re magically reunited with your ex? An ex I never even knew existed? You’re back together like nothing ever went wrong? That sounds healthy.”

“It was no fault or hers or mine; why things ended. And now we’ve got a second chance. To have the life together that we talked about and started planning.”

“It was that serious?”

“We lived together. At my old place. And The house? MY house? It was ours. We bought it together.”

“And you never thought of telling me about this? About HER?”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you what you wanted. Be WHO you wanted.There’s no choice to be made. It’s her and no one else. I just thought it was better to tell you all this now. Instead of coming back and risking you showing up at the house and finding her and our daughter there.”

A long, pregnant pause. Delaney’s voice a low, sinister hiss when she finally speaks. “Excuse me? Your WHAT?”

“I have a daughter. She’s four. And she’s beautiful and she’s perfect and she deserves her mum and dad together. So that’s what we’re going to give her.”

“Have you always know about this kid and just never told me or..?”

“I just met her. When I got here. And you don’t need to know the story behind that or why things were kept from me. All you need to know is that I have a little girl and I’m going to throw myself into having a life with her. And her mother.”

“Like that’s healthy. A relationship solely because there’s a kid involved.”

“I’m in the relationship because I love my daughter’s mother. More than I’ve ever loved someone. Or thought was even possible. She’s the love of my life; whether you want to hear that or not. When I get back to town, I’ll pack up anything you left at the house and leave it on the porch. Give it a few days and I’m come and get it. I don’t want to see you, I don’t want to talk to you. Just get your shit and go.”

“Tyler...” Esme whispers, and lightly pinches his stomach. “…try to be gentle, please.”

“So just like that? You’re dumping me? After everything we’ve shared and the things we’ve done together and falling in love…”

“I never loved you. I never once told you I did. Or gave you a reason to think I was. And I was never going to. I told you time and time ago I was never going to give you what you wanted: I wasn’t going to commit or settle down or get married. You chose to stay knowing all of that. That’s a ‘you’ problem, not a ‘me’ problem.”

“But I bet that all changes now. Now that this bitch ex-girlfriend has crawled out of the woodwork. I bet you live with her and marry her and…”

“I’m only going to tell you this once. You DON’T talk about her like that. That’s my future wife. The mother of my child. And you will NOT disrespect her.”

“What are you going to do about it? If I do? What…?”

“Just come and get your shit in a few days. Chapter closed. Goodbye, Delaney.”

“You can’t do this. Trade me in. For someone lesser than me. Now one could EVER top this. No one..”

“I said goodbye, Delaney. Fuck off.” Disconnecting the call, he tosses the phone onto the nightstand, then glances down at Esme. “That went well.”

“She seemed a little…mad.”

“Just a bit.”

“I heard that last little part. She certainly thinks very highly of herself.”

“For absolutely zero reason.”

“You must have found her attractive and appealing. To hook up with her. You must have…”

“I was lonely. And horny. Don’t read too much into it.”

“And you weren’t lonely and horny when you showed up here? And seduced me that first night?”

“Baby, I’m always horny when it comes to you. But as far as seducing…”

Sliding further up the bed, she presses a kiss to his cheek and then nuzzles his temple with the tip of her nose. “You very good at it, by the way. The whole seducing me thing. First in Dhaka, now here.”

HIs hand falls to the small of her back and slips under the back of her t-shirt. of her t-shirt, fingers “Don’t start with that shit. You seduced ME. Here and in Dhaka.”

“Yeah… right…” Pulling back, she trails a gentle fingertip along the length of the scar on the left side of his brow, followed by its ‘companion’ that resides near the corner of his eye. “You okay?”

“A little pissed. Some of the things she said. About you.”

“Don’t even give any of that a second thought. She’s just hurt. Lashing out. Hurt people hurt OTHER people.”

“Something tells me she’s not going to go away quietly. That we’re going to have a bit of an issue with her.”

“Well considering the sizes of the issues I’ve dealt with in the past, I don’t think I’ll have a problem handling her.”

Millie murmurs in her sleep and moves against him; rolling onto her back, head nestled in the crook of his elbow. When she shoves her thumb into her mouth, he quickly yet gently removes it; whispering words of comfort and reassurance in an effort to keep her immersed in her slumber. And he runs a fingertip down the bridge of her nose and rests his palm on the top of her head; his thumb repeatedly caressing her brow as his eyes take in her incredibly long, dark lashes, the freckles she’d inherited from her mother, and the glistening, pink lips.

Placing her chin upon his chest, Esme reaches across his body; a fingertip sweeping strands of Millie’s off her forehead. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

“She’s perfect.”

“We did good, didn’t we? I mean, I always knew we’d make incredibly pretty babies. There was never a doubt in my mind. But we did an exceptionally good job with her.”

“YOU’VE done a good job with her. I haven’t done anything. Yet. When I think about how you went through all of it alone; finding out about her, the pregnancy, the first four years…”

“It wasn’t easy,” Esme admits. “It was hard and it was lonely and every second of every day I wished that things could be different. That you could be there. And I AM sorry, Tyler. That I never contacted you. That I was stupid and immature and…”

“You had your reasons. Ones that we don’t talk about right this second. All that matters is I’m here now. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Smiling, she pecks the corner of his mouth and then places her head on his shoulder. And she presses the tip of her nose against the side of his neck as her hand wanders and explores his body; broad shoulders and wide, solid chest, the little bit of ‘extra’ that sits just below his ribs, the definition to his abs that’s noticeable through the fabric of his t-shirt. While he’s changed over the last five years, so much remains the same. Familiar. The scent and the warmth that clings to him, the goosebumps and the sighs and the shivers that his hands so easily draw from her, the love and adoration and protection that’s found in his arms.

“Did you really mean it?” Her palm slides up the front of his shirt; a fingertip repeatedly tracing slow, lazy circles around his navel. “What you said to Delaney?”

“Which part?”

Her hand travels across his stomach and then slips down to the scar that graces his lower abdomen; one of the many ‘souvenirs’ he’d collected during the attempt to get his ex-sister-in-law and her children to safety. “When you called me your future wife. Was that true or was it just something you said to further piss her off?”

“I can’t believe you’re actually asking me that. I’m almost offended.”

“I didn’t know if you’d still even consider getting married. Especially to me.”

“What’s THAT supposed to mean? We talked about it, didn’t we? Five years ago.”

“Well, that’s exactly it. It WAS five years ago. A lot has changed since then. WE’VE changed.”

“Yeah, but THAT hasn’t changed. At least not for me.” He scowls as he looks down at her. “It’s changed for you?”

“No! God no. I still want that. I still want to get married. To YOU. I just wasn’t sure if you still wanted it. To marry ME.”

“I wouldn’t have said if I didn’t. When do I ever say things that I don’t mean?”

“That’s a very good point.”

“Once we’re somewhere safe and things settle down, we can talk about all that. Make plans if you’re up to it. For now…” His back arches off the bed when her fingertips travelling along the bottom of his rib case; eyes closed, a grimace on his face. “…FUCK!:

She quickly pulls her hand away, alarmed. “What’s wrong? You’ve got some kind of pain? What…?”

“That tickled.”

“And THAT’S the reaction you have? Like you’ve been shot?”

“I don’t like it. I hate it. Being tickled.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Esme grumbles, and rolls her eyes. “Don’t be a baby. You’re the only person I know who can keep straight-faced with broken ribs yet lose their shit over being tickled.”

“You know I don’t like it.”

“Because you think it’s girly’. You think a man being ticklish is feminine. I am telling you, one day, Tyler. One day I will rid you of every last bit of toxic masculinity. If it takes me until my last, dying breath!”

“Which may end up being sooner than you expected if you keep tickling me.”

“I’m barely touching you!”

“Your hand is really far down. You’re getting into dangerous territory. There’s a child in the room, Esme. Control yourself.”

“You and your ‘forever teenage boy’ hormones,” she huffs, and removes her hand from his shirt; palm smoothing down the wrinkles in the fabric before settling on his chest.

Their eyes close as they fall into a quiet, companionable silence. And Esme finds herself once lulled once more towards sleep by feel of his fingertips repeatedly skimming along her upper arm and the sound of Millie’s soft, rhythmic breathing.

“Tyler?”

“Yeah?”

Laying a hand on his cheek, she turns his head towards her. “Let’s get married.”

Smiling, he presses a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Okay.”

******

Wick approaches as she stands at French doors that lead out onto the expansive, rooftop patio. Behind them, various members of the team begin to arrive for the hastily scheduled meeting; finding themselves suddenly running on an even tighter schedule; prepared to burn the midnight oil in regard to strategizing and the eventual extraction itself.

What had started out as three days until ‘go time’ has now become forty-eight hours. If that. Winston demanding they leave the property as soon as possible; regardless of how bloody or deadly the outcomes. Furious about the damage done to his property as opposed to being concerned about the situation itself. And it had broken Esme’s heart when she not only showed little no compassion towards Tyler’s life nearly being cut short, but had barely blinked an eye when told of Millie being put in harm’s way.

Wick sidles up beside her; giving a small smile in both comfort and greeting, then offering her a mug of tea.

Esme accepts the drink with a smile of appreciation, then turns her attention back to the outdoors. She feels as if she’s operating on auto-pilot; not fully seeing or appreciating the sunshine, not really hearing the voices of others in the room. Colours seemed subdued, sounds are muffled. And her body moves on memory and instinct alone; even when it comes to even the smallest and most mundane of things.

“You’re a good friend, Jonathan.”

“It’s just a tea. The bare minimum of friendship.”

“It’s not just that. It’s everything. All the things you’ve done for us in the past week. You didn’t even hesitate when Nik called you; about what Alessio’s family had planned and needing your help to get Millie and me away from them. And here you are now; so willing to lend a hand. Even if it means pissing Winston off. You know it’s not going to sit well, right? You being on Tyler’s side?”

“I know that they’re not exactly the biggest fans of each other. And I know that Tyler has very valid reasons for feeling the way he does. Winston on the other hand…”

“Do you really think it’s true? That he hates Tyler because of me? Because he thinks I deserve better? That he believes he’s the one who can give me that?”

“I think in Winston’s mind, he believes he’s doing the right thing.”

“But?”

“But I think he’s horribly misguided. I think somewhere along the line of helping out and protecting you, he went beyond…far beyond…seeing you as a daughter. When he started, he had the best of intentions; he saw you as someone younger who needed comfort and protection. He looked at you like his own. Like a daughter he never had; someone he could nurture and mould and keep something. And then suddenly you grew up in front of him and…”

“I’ve always been an adult. For as long as he’s known me.”

“Not in his eyes. To him, you went from being this helpless and scared little girl to being a mature, strong-willed woman. And when he started recognizing you in that way…”

“I can’t even stand to think about it. Winston seeing me that way. Never mind feeling those things. I appreciate everything he’s done for us; giving us a safe place to hide out and treating Millie like she’s his own flesh and blood. But I don’t appreciate it that much. To ever look him in that way.”

“I imagine he’s hopeful. That he’s thinking if Tyler was out of the way…”

“Tyler or no Tyler, it would NEVER happen. I would never feel a thing for him. Not in the way he wants me to, anyway. Has he talked about this stuff to you? I know that you’re pretty close and…”

“Just little comments here and there. In passing. And I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And it goes far beyond something fatherly and innocent.”

“Just…” Esme grimaces. “…ewwww.”

“And speaking of being looked at a certain way…” He glances over his shoulder, to where Tyler chats with Yaz and Nik. “I know someone else that does that. When it comes to you.”

“Yeah, but he’s allowed. I like when he looks at me. Other people? Especially Winston? That’s a ‘no’ from me.”

“So you and Tyler are…”

“We’re together. Working on things. We figured it would be better that way, especially for Millie. If we formed a united front; help each other through everything. I know that probably sounds weird, huh? Just jumping right back into things?”

“I don’t think it’s weird at all. It was a horrible five years; for both of you. And it wasn’t that you didn’t love each other; that’s not why you had to leave Australia. It was a messed-up situation. And you weren’t given much of a choice; when it came to handling things.”

Esme stares down at her drink, thoughtfully swirling the contents around in the mug. “I never wanted to leave. That was the LAST thing I wanted. We had it all planned. We bought a house, Tyler applied to the fire academy, and I was looking into going back to school. We even talked about getting married and starting a family. US. Of all people. We’d both sworn that kind of stuff off; we didn’t have the best track records regarding marriages.”

“You can make all the promises to yourself you want. Swear up and down that you’ll never get mixed up with that kind of thing again. And along comes that one person…”

“I told myself I’d never trust anyone again. That I’d learned my lesson; about giving my heart away. I was perfectly content to spend the rest of my life by myself. I’d already dealt with one Mark; no way in hell was I putting up with another. And then Nik took me to that little shack in the Australian outback, and that was it. The second he looked at me with those eyes? I was a goner.”

“And I’m sure you don’t regret it. Going against everything you planned.”

“Not for a single second. I have no regrets when it comes to Tyler and how we met or how things started between us. I’m the first to admit it; it wasn’t the right time or place. We crossed a lot of boundaries; when we decided to mix business with pleasure. It’s not like you go into a job expecting to fall head over heels with someone. But it happened. We happened.”

“And you ended with an amazing little girl in the process.”

“Millie is the most beautiful, incredible gift anyone could have ever given me. I’d wanted to be a mom for so long. And I honestly thought between Mark and you turning down my…’business proposal’…that it would never happen. I just didn’t think I could ever get that close to anyone. Then I met Tyler. It was wild and crazy; how attached I got to him and quickly things got so serious between us. In that moment…in that shack…it was like the whole universe had transpired to bring us together. I know…” She gives a small laugh, then sips her tea. “…it sounds pretty corny, doesn’t it.”

“No. It sounds like something that would come from a woman in love.”

“I do love him. I’ve always loved him. Even during every second of every day for the past five years. I would have given anything for things to be different; to just go back to Australia or have him here. And it killed me, not even being able to let him know where I was. Especially when I found out about Millie. It was so bittersweet. I was finally going to be a mom, yet I couldn’t even be with him. The person that helped make me one. I missed him, John. I missed him so much.”

“And now you’ve got him back. You’ve got a second chance. And it’s nice to see you’re not wasting a single second of it. You deserve to be happy, Esme. Of all the people caught up in this world and deserve to be away from it? You’re first on the list. And don’t take this the wrong way, but as much as I love you and enjoy having you around? I hope when you get out of here…out of this city…this country even…I never have to see you again. At least not like this.”

“You’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”

“I won’t deny that. But this? This life? It’s time. To get away from it. For good. And you’ve got the chance; to leave it all behind. So don’t screw that up, you hear me?”

“You’ll have to promise to come and visit at least. Wherever we end up. Can’t just let Uncle John disappear from Millie’s life now, can I?”

“Wherever you all end up, I’ll make sure I’ll get there. But you’ve got to promise me. That it’s over. This part of things. That once you’re out of here, you’re out of here for good. I want you to promise that you’ll go on to bigger and better things. That you’ll have a normal life. Because that’s what you deserve. Normal.”

Smiling, she raises her mug to her lips. “I’ll say it again, Jonathan; you’re a really good friend.”

“And about what you brought up…the whole ‘business proposal’ that never was…”

“Let’s not revisit that, okay? It’s not one of my finer moments. It was humiliating as hell. I’m still embarrassed. All these years later.”

“I didn’t say no because I was against it. In theory. Had it been another place, another time, another life, I would have gladly helped out.”

“I can’t believe I ever thought it was a good idea. Recruiting a friend to help out like that. I know I always wanted to be a mom, but…”

“I was flattered. That I was at the top of your list. And had things been different…had our lives been different…I wouldn’t have thought twice about going along with it. I just wanted you to know it was never about you; why I said no when you brought it up. It wasn’t because I was disgusted or thought less of you for asking. And I know you’ve probably thought it for years. That you were out of line.”

“I was, though. I was completely out of line. It’s a crazy thing to ask of someone. But thank you; for setting my mind at ease. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the issue. At least not in a bad way.”

“It wasn’t a good situation. With both of us being caught up in this life. Even if you’d walked away, I still would have been knee-deep in it. And that isn’t who you would have wanted to have a kid with. Someone like me. All the enemies I’ve made. That’s why I said no. Because you deserved so much better than that. Better than me. And I knew that guy was out there. Somewhere.”

“What’s the saying? ‘All’s well that ends well’? Had we gone that route, I never would have met Tyler. Which means I wouldn’t have Millie. And I wouldn’t give her up for anything. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Aside from her dad, of course.”

“And as far as this being a good friend? Being there the other night, all the help I’m giving now. I guess in a way, I feel owe you.”

“Not The High Table stuff again. I thought we agreed; it’s all water under the bridge.”

“I was thinking of something more important. More…personal.”

Esme smiles up at him. “Helen.”

Wick nods

She returns to looking at the window, drink clutched in both hands as fingernails repeatedly tap against the porcelain of the mug. “She was one of a kind.”

“She certainly was.”

They’d met in a coffee shop in Brooklyn, strangers living in nearly identical brownstone apartment buildings within a block and a half from one another. Two women living very different lives; Helen, a famous and world-renowned photographer, and Esme, only six months into working under The High Table. Frequenting the same cafe twice daily, their busy schedules, sought-after skills, and expertise had made anything more than warm smiles in greeting and simplistic, minor chit-chat impossible. But they had been paying attention; learning each other’s standing orders and one often treating the other. A rather simple gesture that means so much; signifying a door left open when it came to a potential friendship.

Fate intervened three months into ‘knowing’ one another; both finding themselves at the receiving end of some well-deserved downtime. An extremely rare occurrence of clear schedules that allowed them to stop, breathe, and take in the world around them. Helen was already seated when she’d spotted Esme stepping through the front door; calling out a greeting and then flashing that brilliant smile before gesturing to the various offerings on the table. It had been the start of something so beautiful; both surrounded by the sea of humanity that ruled over New York City, yet never feeling more alone. And they’d spent hours in that cafe; drinking countless cups of tea and coffee, sampling various desserts, and lamenting about ‘single girl life’ in The Big Apple. There’d been o talk of their respective careers; instead, they’d chatted about their hometowns and large yet fractured families.

After that, they’d prioritized meeting every morning, whether at the cafe, each other’s favourite breakfast spots, or even for jogs through Central Park. Helen quickly became not only her best friend, but a sister figure. Only four years separated them, but at times Helen had seemed so much older; wise, learned, brimming with positivity and always prepared with the perfect advice for any situation. Ad she’d been more of a sibling to Esme than any of her blood relatives had ever been; suffering through even her very early years with five older brothers that lived to torment her.

“I think about her all the time,” Esme swallows around the lump of emotion sitting square in her throat. “Even now, after all these years. She was my first friend…my ONLY friend...here. Outside of the circle, anyway.”

“It’s hard. Making any connections beyond all this. Most people…regular people…wouldn’t understand. Why we do what we do.”

“I’m right in the middle of it all and most of the time I don’t even understand it. And I know it sounds horrible; to say I’m at least glad she was gone before I left the city and moved to Prague. Had she been alive, I don’t know if my heart could have taken it. Saying goodbye.”

“She thought very highly of you. Always had something amazing to say about you. She valued your friendship. She would tell me that you were the sister she never had. Say how she would have given up all four of hers for one of you.”

“She was an incredible woman. Just so beautiful and so talented. And she was so perfect for you. You were perfect for EACH OTHER.”

“And that’s why I feel like I owe you. Because you were the one that brought her into my life. I got a chance at normal because of you.”

“It was merely a blind date. I just thought you’d be good together. And you were. You were so good.”

“Helen was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never thought I’d get away from this life. I thought it would always be ‘live by the gun, die by the gun’’. It never occurred to me that I could have anything more than that. Or that I even deserved to.”

“You sound so much like Tyler. The number of times he used to question the same thing; whether or not he deserved having me in his life. When really, it’s always been me that hasn’t deserved him. And considering five years ago…what I did to him…how badly I hurt him…I honestly don’t. I don’t deserve him. He should hate me. Not want anything to do with me. Yet here he is.”

“He loves you. Just as fiercely as he did back then. If not more. And there’s an extra layer to that now. You’ve made a human being together. He’s a dad again. How could he ever hate you? You’re the mother of his child. You talk about Millie being the greatest gift you’ve ever been given? I bet he’s thinking the same thing.”

“He’s so good with her, John. He’s so patient and loving and attentive and looks at her like she’s the most incredible thing on earth. And that’s not even him going ‘all in’ when it comes to the whole dad thing. He’s been holding back; until we’re ready to tell Millie the truth. Yet he’s already so amazing with her.”

“After you took off, he probably never thought he’d get another chance at raising a kid. I don’t think he ever moved on. Not really.”

“He was seeing someone. But he admitted he just couldn’t invest in her. That he couldn’t be what she wanted. He tried, but…”

“It’s pretty hard to get over; meeting the one and then losing them. And sometimes you never do. You just accept it. That you missed your chance.”

“Do you think you’ll ever meet someone? Get a second chance? At love?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he stares out the window. Taking in the brilliant blue sky and the sunshine that bounces off the windows of surrounding buildings and the leaves on the patio trees; brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red.

It’s been a long time since he’s paid attention to the details of the outside world; his entire existence has been painted in shades gray and black since the death of his wife. There’s a change coming; rolling in as quickly as the frigid temperatures that accompany late fall in New York City. And he can’t quite put a finger on it; if it’s a promise of re-birth or the warning of something dreadful and sinister.

“I’m not exactly looking for that kind of thing. Or remotely interested. I had my chance. And unfortunately, fate didn’t think I deserved it. A guy like me? Having someone like Helen? Getting a normal life? It was bound to happen; being punished for the things I’ve done. People I’ve hurt.”

“That’s not why Helen was taken from you, John. You weren’t being punished. You weren’t paying the price for your sins. She was sick. It was the luck of the draw. Unfortunately, very horrible luck. And I know that’s probably very easy for me to say because I’ve never been through that kind of loss, but...”

“Viggo said it to me. When I was going after his son. He mentioned how people like us are rewarded for our misdeeds. Which is why God took my wife from me.”

“That’s NOT true. Viggo was a horrible man. I was at the receiving end of his particular brand of bullshit many times while working for him. He was evil. Why would you believe anything he said?”

“I haven’t been able to get past it. I can’t seem to let it go. He talked about how we’re cursed. How this life follows us; it clings to you and infects everyone that comes close to you.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you? A lot of people in this life have managed to escape. They’ve closed that chapter and started a whole new one. Lots of guys have walked away; they’ve found normal jobs and have gotten married and had kids.”

“The ones who are lucky. Who didn’t stick around for too long. Which is why you and Tyler need to get out here. Out of the mercenary world. Because if you guys keep going the way you are, one of you will end up just like Viggo said. The life WILL find you. It will find you and it will suck you back in and you won’t get another chance to leave. It WILL destroy you. And you both deserve better than that.”

*****

“Hey…” Tyler greets as he joins them; hands settling on Esme’s shoulders as he stands behind her. “…sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but…”

“No apologies needed,” Wick assures him, and gives a brotherly clap on the shoulder. “I’ve kept her from you far too long.”

Esme watches as he goes; the slight limp to his left leg, the slouch to his shoulders and the locks of dark hair that fall across his forehead. Frowning when she sees him approach the fully stocked bar; nodding in greeting to the lone barkeep and ordering a bourbon on the rocks. And she isn’t aware of just how tense she is until she feels calloused fingertips press into her shoulders; her eyes closing as strong, calloused fingers gently massage the tight, aching muscles. Smiling when he presses a kiss to the back of her head; her body relaxing back against his when he lays a forearm across her collarbone.

Always her rock and her protector. Effortlessly and selflessly able to put his own fears and worries and issues aside to tend to hers. And she knows she doesn’t deserve it; not after the way she’d betrayed him and the hurt that she’d caused. Yet he’s here; so attentive and adoring and gentle. And still looking at her as if she’s the most beautiful woman in the entire world.

“You alright?” Tyler drops a kiss on the top of her head. “Things looked a little…intense.”

Turning to face him, her hands settle on his hips as she looks up at him, managing a reassuring smile. “I’m okay. It’s just we got talking about Helen and it’s all still pretty raw. Especially for him.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine what he goes through. What he’s going on in his head twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I mean, I know what I went through; how bad off I was when I lost you. But I at least could hold out hope; that you were out there somewhere and maybe you’d just show back up one day.”

“It makes me feel so bad for him. Not just losing Helen and grieving like he still is, but having to watch us together. Our second chance is playing out in real time. Right in front of him. And he’ll never have that. Helen’s gone. Permanently.”

“He’s been pretty hard-core about it; all the advice he’s been giving me.”

“Advice?” Wrapping her arms around his waist, she struggles to lock her fingers together at the small of his back. “About…?”

“You. Us. How not to let any of the bad emotions control things.”

“You have a lot of those? Still?”

“Not a lot. A few hanging in there.”

“Towards me?”

“Towards the situation you were put in. You never should have had to make that kind of decision. They should have just let it go. You made a mistake and you were allowed to walk away; that should have been enough for them.”

So you’re angry at them and not me? Because I do deserve it, you know. It’s totally understandable; if you’re pissed at me and hurt and feel even the slightest bit of animosity towards me…”

“Esme…” Cradling her face in his palms, he brushes the pads of his thumbs along the tops of her cheeks. “…there wasn’t a single second in the last five years that I hated you. Yeah, I was angry. And hurt. But you know what else I was? Worried. Terrified. Hopeful. But I NEVER hated you.”

“I would be understandable if you did though. I did a terrible thing. Especially after things settled down. I had no reason to keep hiding. To keep your daughter from you. I didn’t…”

“You were scared. The whole rejection thing. And it might not make complete sense to me YET, but I’m starting to get it. So can you please…especially right now when we’re going through some pretty heavy shit…not dwell on it? We’ll have lots of time to talk about things. When I have you and Millie somewhere. But right now? With everything else going on?”

“I’m just having a hard time. Wrapping my head around it. Why you’re being like this. Why you’re being so calm and understanding and…”

“Because I love you.”

“But I don’t deserve that. I don’t…”

“Because I love you,” he sternly repeats. “I always have. I always will. And one day, I hope you believe me when I say that.”

“I do believe. It’s just that…”

“I have never hated you. I never could. And believe me, you deserve EVERYTHING. You deserve the world. And I would give it to you if I could. But I am asking…no, I am BEGGING you…to please let this go. Just for right now. Because as much as I do love you, I can’t do this right now. Not with everything else going on.”

Tears sparkle in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be like this. So neurotic and annoying and…”

“Esme…” With one hand on the nape of her neck and another on the small of her back, he draws her tightly into him. “…I need you to take a breath, okay? Take a breath and listen to what I’m saying to you. Can you do that?”

Nodding, she wraps her arms around his waist and rests her forehead against his chest. Her eyes closing as one of his palms rubs her back in slow, comforting circles.

“I don’t hate you. I never have. I love you. I will always love you. And I know it’s been a shit day and it’s not even close to being over with. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in a very short period of time. And I know what happened this morning completely freaked you out; having to hear the gunshots and Millie losing it like she was. But I need to just take a breath and get yourself together. For BOTH of us. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Because I’m not handling all of this very well. I’ve got a lot dumped in my lap. Just in the last twelve hours alone. I can’t do this by myself. Be the only one to keep it together. We need to be in this together. Or we’re not going to get out of here. Not alive anyway.”

“I’m scared,” she admits, her hands desperately clinging to the back of his t-shirt. “I never used to be like this. THIS afraid of things. Not when it came to the job. And now…”

“That’s ‘cause this time it’s personal. This isn’t just some job. You’re a mum now. And your baby is in danger. I’d be worried if you weren’t scared.”

“I can’t lose her. She’s everything that’s amazing and beautiful and perfect in my life. She’s all I had of you for the longest time. The only connection between us. And if something happens to her…”

“Nothing is going to happen to her. I won’t let anyone or anything hurt her. And I’m going to get her somewhere safe and…”

“You have to promise me, Tyler…” She looks up at him with tearful, pleading eyes. “If you can only save one of us, it has to be Millie. It HAS to be.”

“Esme, don’t. Don’t talk like that. Don’t…”

“I’ve had a good life. That time I spent with you? It was the happiest I’ve ever been. And the five I’ve years I’ve had of being your daughter’s mother…”

“Don’t do this. Because this is starting to sound an awful lot like goodbye. So please don’t finish what you’re about to say.”

“She is the most amazing gift anyone could have ever given me. You made me a mom. And it has been everything I’ve ever wanted. SHE’S been everything I ever wanted. But if for some reason you can’t help both of us…”

“Esme…please…”

“No!” she snaps, and glares up at him in defiance. “Let me finish! Let me say this! Just give me this!”

Tyler relents; chewing anxiously on the inside of his cheek as he waits for her to continue. His heart aches; hearing the desperation in her voice and seeing the tears that sparkle in her eyes and the quivering of her bottom lip and chin. He’s never been able to handle it; seeing desperation and heartache so clearly etched upon her face. And it’s much more intense now; a fierce and devoted mother that would gladly give up her life to save that of her child.

“You HAVE to choose her. She’s a baby still. YOUR baby. If something happens to me, she’d at least have you. Her dad. She has a long life ahead of her. With YOU. So promise me; if you have to make a choice, you’ll choose her.”

“Don’t make me do this. Please. I can’t…”

“I love you, Tyler. Sometimes I swear I loved you from the moment I met you. And there hasn’t been a single moment in the last five years where I haven’t loved you; where I haven’t missed you and wanted to be with you. And I want what we didn’t the first time around; the happily ever after and the always and forever. But if that can’t happen, please tell me you’ll pick her. And that you’ll protect her and love her and take care of her.”

“I already DO love her. I already would protect her. At all costs. But…”

“No ‘buts’, okay? I need to know that you’d choose her. And give her a long life. I already know you’re going to be an amazing dad. Look how much you adore her already. Please promise you’ll pick her. IF it comes down to that.”

Swallowing noisily around the lump of motion sitting square in his throat, he gives a curt nod.

“No. You have to say. You have to say it for it to be true. Promise me, Tyler.”

“I promise. If I have to, I’ll pick Millie.”

Giving a shaky smile, she once more embraces him; affectionately rubbing her cheek against the fabric of his t-shirt before laying her head on his chest. “Thank you. For everything.”

“I haven’t done anything. Not yet.”

“You’ve done more than you realize. You saved me. In every way a person can be saved.”

“Esme, I…”

“And thank you for her.” She gives him a tight, loving squeeze. “Especially for her.”

#Tyler Rake #Tyler Rake fanfic #Tyler Rake fan fiction #Extraction #Extraction 2 #Extraction fanfic #Extraction fan fiction #Tyler Rake x OFC #Tyler and Esme series #Chris Hemsworth #Esme Rake #Esme Drummond

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maryflorlovyblog · 10 months

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"Ancient Love lives of itself, not from the cultivation of others or presence. Nothing demands or asks. nothing waits, but of vain fate denies the sentence. Ancient love has deep roots, made of suffering and beauty. For those dives into infinity, and by these it supplants nature. If everywhere time collapses that which was great and dazzling, the old love, but it never fades and every day there is more lover. More ardent, poorer in hope. More sad? No. He conquered the pain, and shines in its dark corner, the older the more Love."

- Carlos Drummond de Andrade -

#maryflor #gratidão #poesiasepoemas #sentimentos #meuspensamentos #positividade #espiritualidade #pazeequilibrio #my love #mylove #citações #natureza #flores #deusvida

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longliverockback · 6 months

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Neil Young Time Fades Away 1973 Reprise ————————————————— Tracks: 1. Time Fades Away 2. Journey through the Past 3. Yonder Stands the Sinner 4. L.A. 5. Love in Mind 6. Don’t Be Denied 7. The Bridge 8. Last Dance —————————————————

John Barbata

David Crosby

Tim Drummond

Ben Keith

Graham Nash

Jack Nitzsche

Neil Young

* Long Live Rock Archive

#NeilYoung #John Barbata #David Crosby #Tim Drummond #Ben Keith #Graham Nash #Jack Nitzsche #Neil Young #Time Fades Away #Live #Country #1973

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zvaigzdelasas · 11 months

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The current Colombia head of coal miner Drummond Co Inc (DRMND.UL) and his predecessor will be tried for allegedly funding right-wing paramilitaries, the country's attorney general's office said on Wednesday, as the U.S.-based company denied any wrongdoing by the executives.

There is "abundant proof" current head Jose Miguel Linares, who took up his post in 2013 after serving as vice-president of legal, and Augusto Jimenez, who headed the company's Colombia operations between 1990 and 2012, conspired to finance a paramilitary group, the prosecutor said in a statement.

"Linares Martinez and Jimenez Mejia, between 1996 and 2001, increased the value of a food provision contract with a provider company to obtain additional resources and use them to cover previously-agreed illegal obligations with...the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)," the statement said.

The effort was a bid to protect assets and ensure the free operation of Drummond's mine in Cesar province, the statement added. Drummond rejected the accusations, saying in its own statement that they are the product of "a cartel [sic] of false witnesses."[...]

Drummond - Colombia's largest producer of thermal coal - has three mining contracts in the country and also holds a port concession on the Caribbean coast. It expects to export around 30 million tons of coal this year, Linares said this week.

31 May 23

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news4dzhozhar · 1 year

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Shocking Parole Board Vote Clears Way for Richard Glossip’s Execution in Oklahoma

**One of the most maddening cases and a clear wrongful conviction but the state is out for blood. Its always sad to see a victims family be so oblivious to reality and still fight for something that even the AG doesn't belive is the truth. Watch the 2017 documentary “Killing Richard Glossip.**

Three weeks ago, Richard Glossip was contemplating a possible future outside prison walls. In an extraordinary move, the Oklahoma attorney general had filed a motion with the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals asking that Glossip’s conviction and death sentence be overturned. If granted, the request would send his case back to the district court for a new trial — or a plea deal. After more than two decades in prison for a crime he insists he did not commit, Glossip was imagining life with his wife in Oklahoma City.

But in a stunning rebuke, the court rejected the attorney general’s request, triggering the 35-day protocol that precedes an execution. Perhaps most critical: a hearing on April 26 before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, whose members are empowered to recommend clemency to the governor, serving as a final check against a wrongful execution.

There was every reason to expect the board would vote to spare Glossip’s life. Among the witnesses who appeared on Glossip’s behalf on Wednesday was Attorney General Gentner Drummond himself, along with prominent Oklahoma lawmakers who have come to believe in Glossip’s innocence.

Yet in another stunning reversal of fortune, the board voted to deny clemency. Barring intervention by the courts or Gov. Kevin Stitt, Glossip will be executed by lethal injection on May 18.

“It’s horrifying,” Don Knight, Glossip’s lead attorney, said. But “we’re not done, by a long shot.”

Glossip was twice tried and sentenced to death for the January 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese inside a seedy Best Budget Inn that Van Treese owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. No physical evidence linked Glossip, the motel’s 34-year-old live-in manager, to the crime. Instead, the case against him was built almost exclusively on the testimony of 19-year-old Justin Sneed, who worked as a handyman at the motel. Sneed admitted to bludgeoning Van Treese to death but claimed it was all Glossip’s idea. Prosecutors claimed Glossip killed Van Treese in a scheme to take over the low-rent motel and painted Sneed as a meek dolt who would do anything Glossip asked of him. In exchange for testifying against Glossip, Sneed avoided facing the death penalty and was sentenced to life without parole. Glossip has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and over the years, evidence of his wrongful conviction has steadily mounted.

Counter to the state’s fanciful narrative, the evidence supports Glossip’s contention that Sneed — a chronic drug user with a penchant for unpredictable bouts of violence — initially planned to rob Van Treese, killed him when the plan went sideways, and then later, during a highly suggestive police interrogation, named Glossip as the mastermind behind the crime. Witnesses who were ignored by police and prosecutors have since come forward with evidence that Sneed was cunning, manipulative, and quite capable of killing a man on his own.

Knight has spent nearly a decade investigating and presenting to the court new evidence that undercuts Glossip’s conviction. Still, at every turn, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has willfully ignored the myriad problems with the case — including prosecutorial misconduct and the state’s destruction of evidence. That same evidence, meanwhile, has led a contingent of conservative, pro-death penalty lawmakers to advocate on Glossip’s behalf over fears the state might execute an innocent man.

The State Got Away With It

The clemency hearing took place at the Kate Barnard Community Corrections Center, a women’s jail complex in Northeast Oklahoma City. The fluorescent-lit room was packed compared to most clemency hearings, with seven rows of chairs assigned to attendees in advance. As in all such proceedings, victims’ family members sat on one side of the room, alongside representatives of the state, while advocates for Glossip sat on the other. Unlike most hearings, both sections included current and former elected officials, most notably Drummond, who was there representing the state and advocating for clemency, the first time an Oklahoma attorney general has ever done so.

“If the defense would’ve destroyed that box of evidence, there would have been charges brought against them. But the state seemingly got away with it.”

Among the most conspicuous attendees was former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, whose office sent Glossip to death row. Before his retirement in January, Prater aggressively defended Glossip’s conviction, intimidating witnesses who came forward with new evidence in 2015 and accusing Glossip of waging a “bullshit PR campaign.” Prater also previously targeted the parole board for recommending clemency in other cases, accusing members of having an anti-death penalty bias. Wearing a dark pinstriped suit, an American flag pin, and a permanent scowl, Prater sat in the fifth row alongside prosecutors from other parts of the state. While he did not speak before the board, Prater shook his head as witnesses described the state’s destruction of evidence and other prosecutorial misconduct.

Each side had 40 minutes to present their case, followed by remarks by the Van Treese family and Glossip himself. A large digital clock faced the speakers, while TV monitors faced the board. One of the five board members, Richard Smothermon, was absent, having recused himself due to the fact that his wife was the prosecutor who sent Glossip to death row.

Knight told the board that Glossip grew up in a chaotic household where family members struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Unlike a number of his 15 siblings, Glossip managed to avoid running afoul of the law, and after dropping out of school, he worked hard to build a quiet and successful life for himself. He became a manager at Domino’s Pizza before turning to management of a string of motels. “It may not seem like much, but for a guy with a seventh-grade education … it was pretty good,” Knight told the board. The idea that Glossip was scheming to take over the Best Budget Inn was inconceivable, Knight said. It was a fiction dreamed up by Sneed, “a man who now everyone, even the state, admits is a liar.”

“People rarely begin a life of crime at 34,” Knight went on. In contrast, Sneed had a long history of criminal behavior before he killed Van Treese at 19, including threatening to kill his middle school teacher. “The worst thing on Rich Glossip’s record? A traffic ticket.”

Republican state lawmakers described how they had come to believe in Glossip’s innocence. Each said he was skeptical at first; they didn’t believe that an innocent person could wind up on death row. But as they learned more about the case, and new evidence continued to emerge, they concluded that Glossip’s conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

Central to their conclusion was the work of law firm Reed Smith, which undertook a pro bono investigation into the case at the behest of a larger group of lawmakers led by Republican Rep. Kevin McDugle. Reed Smith spent more than a year on its investigation, interviewed more than 40 witnesses, and gathered records from multiple state agencies, producing five reports that paint the clearest picture yet of Glossip’s wrongful conviction. McDugle told the board that he asked the investigators to go where the facts took them. “I simply want them to find the truth in this case,” he said.

“In reading their findings, I was sickened that something like this could happen in the state of Oklahoma,” McDugle said. “Their investigation concluded that based on the complete record, old and new evidence, no reasonable jury hearing it all would have convicted Glossip of murder for hire.” McDugle was especially disturbed by the state’s destruction of a box of evidence before Glossip’s second trial in 2004, including the motel’s financial records and crime scene evidence that could have been tested for DNA. “If the defense would’ve destroyed that box of evidence, there would have been charges brought against them. But the state seemingly got away with it.”

Justin Jackson, a political ally of the governor’s, struck a more personal note. He said that he’d gotten to know Glossip during visits to death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Today he describes him as a friend and “brother in Christ.” “Rich has never wavered once in his claim of innocence,” Jackson said. He held up a painting of a hummingbird that Glossip made for Jackson’s mother, who was dying of cancer. Glossip said that for him, the hummingbird represented freedom from death row — but for Jackson’s mother, he hoped it would represent freedom from pain and suffering. When his mother died in 2020, Jackson said, “Rich had no way of knowing of my mom’s passing but by happenstance he called me later that morning. And he spent the next 30 minutes consoling me.”

An Unprecedented Hearing

When it was the state’s turn to present its case to the board, Drummond began by acknowledging each speaker, along with Van Treese’s loved ones. “I know that this has been an extremely difficult process for the family to endure.”

“I’m not aware of anytime in our history that an attorney general has appeared before this board and argued for clemency.”

“I want to acknowledge how unusual it is for the state to support a clemency application of a death row inmate,” Drummond said. “I’m not aware of anytime in our history that an attorney general has appeared before this board and argued for clemency. I’m also not aware of any time in the history of Oklahoma when justice would require it. Ultimately that is why we are here.” As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Drummond said, it was his duty to consider “what justice is for the state of Oklahoma.” That’s what led him to finally release evidence that had never been turned over to Glossip’s legal team. It’s also what led him to launch an investigation of his own into the case.

Christina Vitale, a lawyer who was part of the Reed Smith investigation, presented a PowerPoint laying out critical new evidence that had come to light in the past year. This included multiple letters from Sneed to his attorney expressing a desire to recant his testimony against Glossip. It also included the contents of a box of evidence belonging to the district attorney’s office, which was turned over to investigators in January. The box contained prosecutors’ handwritten notes revealing that after Van Treese’s murder, Sneed had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed lithium to manage it by a psychiatrist who evaluated him at the Oklahoma City Jail. At trial, Sneed denied that the evaluation ever took place.

Drummond had highlighted Sneed’s misstatements in his brief to the Court of Criminal Appeals seeking to vacate Glossip’s conviction. He argued that Sneed’s mental health disorder combined with his chronic drug use could have negatively affected “Sneed’s ability to properly recall key facts” at trial. “The state has reached the difficult conclusion that the conviction of Glossip was obtained with the benefit of material misstatements to the jury by its key witness,” Drummond wrote.

Sneed lying about his diagnosis and prosecutors’ failure to correct the record were key factors for Rex Duncan, a former prosecutor whom Drummond retained to conduct the second investigation of Glossip’s conviction. Duncan was the last witness for the state. “This is a first for me, to agree with the defense attorney that their client deserves clemency,” he said. After 600 hours spent reviewing the case, Duncan said, he concluded that “Richard Glossip did not receive a fair trial and the state of Oklahoma cannot stand behind his conviction. Further, the state of Oklahoma cannot stand behind an execution given what has been discovered.”

“If anybody deserved to be on death row, it’s Justin Sneed,” Duncan said. “Richard Glossip has been on death row for most of his adult life, has been served his last meal three times and been within minutes of execution. The state of Oklahoma can extract its pound of flesh from Richard Glossip, but I believe it has already extracted three pounds.”

Enough Is Enough

When it was time for the Van Treese family to speak, their message was clear: They wanted their ordeal to be over and felt betrayed by the state’s call for clemency. Donna Van Treese, Barry’s widow, echoed her testimony from Glossip’s 2014 clemency hearing, describing the impact of her husband’s murder and the lasting trauma for her children. “We do not feel justly represented today,” she told the board. Barry’s son, Derek Van Treese, decried the years of investigation and publicity that had made Glossip’s case famous. “This case has been pushed from being a legal matter to being a political issue; has been pushed from the court of law to the court of public opinion,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

“Today has been a travesty,” Van Treese’s sister, Alana Van Treese Mileto, said. While she acknowledged that Drummond’s concerns should be considered, “at the same time, this is so one-sided.” The state’s presentation “feels like a giant stab in the back, to be honest with you.”

Asked if Drummond’s office had contacted the family prior to the hearing, Donna Van Treese spoke indignantly of a phone conversation with the attorney general. Drummond told her that he believed Glossip was guilty, she said. In response, Drummond repeated what he had previously stated: His personal belief was that Glossip was guilty of “at least accessory after the fact” for his failure to tell detectives about statements Sneed made following the murder. “More likely than not he’s guilty of murder,” he said. “But I do not believe that the evidence presents that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” He maintained that the board should recommend clemency. “I believe it would be a grave injustice to allow the execution of a man whose trial was plagued by many errors.”

Glossip was given 20 minutes to speak on his own behalf. He spoke for less than three, appearing by Zoom from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He wore maroon prison scrubs, and his wrists were handcuffed together, making it difficult for him to raise his hand to be sworn in by the board chair. Glossip dabbed at his eyes with a tissue while delivering remarks he had prepared on sheets of white paper. He told the Van Treese family that he was sorry for everything they’d been through. And he thanked all the people who had supported him, including McDugle, Jackson, and Drummond.

His voice cracking with emotion, Glossip asked the board to grant him clemency. “I’m not a murderer, and I don’t deserve to die for this.”

Unlike Glossip’s previous clemency hearing in 2014, where board members challenged his account of what happened the day Barry Van Treese died, this time the board asked no questions. Instead, they announced a 10-minute break to deliberate.

After several hours of careful, comprehensive presentations by advocates for Glossip and representatives of the state laying out all the reasons that clemency should be granted, the end was shockingly abrupt. Board members quickly announced their votes: two votes for clemency, followed by two votes against. Under the rules of the Pardon and Parole Board, a tie is weighted in favor of the no votes, meaning the default is denying clemency and blessing an execution.

The Van Treese family cheered, cried, and hugged upon hearing the vote, gathering before a line of TV cameras. Everyone else filed out of the room.

Knight, Glossip’s lawyer, vowed to pursue every remaining avenue to save his client’s life. On Wednesday afternoon, he filed an unopposed stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also challenging the makeup of the board, arguing that the fifth board member, Smothermon, should have been replaced to avoid a tie that would result in a denial of clemency. Knight also plans to challenge the appellate court’s ruling dismissing Drummond’s request to vacate Glossip’s conviction. Finally, he said, he would ask the governor for a reprieve to allow the legal process to take its course, “because the execution of an innocent man would be an irreversible injustice.”

In the meantime, Glossip faces the torment of yet another execution countdown. As his wife, Lea, told the board, they have already undertaken the excruciating task of planning for his state-sanctioned murder: deciding who will attend the execution, what Glossip will choose for his final meal, and where he will be buried. “He is now on the brink of his ninth execution date, all for a crime that he did not commit,” she said. “This ordeal has been absolutely psychologically terrorizing.”

Leaving the hearing, McDugle called the outcome “ridiculous.” “Oklahoma’s got some systemic problems with the judicial system,” he said. “Any reasonable person who would have been in that room would have voted yes for clemency.” Although McDugle has always maintained that he supports capital punishment, he reiterated what he has previously said about the case: If Glossip’s execution is carried out, “I will fight against the death penalty in the state of Oklahoma.”

#vengeance is not justice #prosecutorial misconduct #abolish the death penalty #abolish capital punishment #end capital punishment #end the death penalty #Oklahoma is wrong #richard glossip

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cyarsk52-20 · 1 year

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Sounds About White: Oklahoma Sheriff Says Recording Of Officials Discussing Killing Reporters Was Illegal

Denver Sean

A southeastern Oklahoma sheriff’s office says the recording in which the sheriff and others are reportedly heard discussing killing two journalists was illegal and predicted felony charges will be filed.

via Huffington Post:

A statement on the sheriff’s office Facebook page, the first public statement since the comments by Sheriff Kevin Clardy and others were reported by the McCurtain Gazette-News, does not address the recorded comments about killing journalists and hanging Black people, but calls the situation “complex” and one “we regret having to address.”

The statement calls the past 72 hours “amongst the most difficult and disruptive in recent memory” and says the recording was altered and involves many victims.

“There is and has been an ongoing investigation into multiple, significant violation(s) of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act … which states that it is illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties,” according to the statement.

Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, said under Oklahoma law, the recording would be legal if it were obtained in a place where the officials being recorded did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News, said the recording was made March 6 when he left a voice-activated recorder inside the room after a county commissioner’s meeting because he suspected the group was continuing to conduct county business after the meeting had ended in violation of the state’s Open Meeting Act.

Willingham said he twice spoke with his attorneys to be sure he was doing nothing illegal.

The newspaper released portions of the recording in which Clardy, sheriff’s Capt. Alicia Manning and District 2 County Commissioner Mark Jennings appear to discuss Bruce and Chris Willingham, a reporter for the newspaper who is Bruce Willingham’s son. Jennings tells Clardy and Manning “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” and the sheriff responded, “I’ve got an excavator.”

Jennings also reportedly says he’s known “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding “they’re very quiet guys.”

In the recording, Jennings also appears to complain about not being able to hang Black people, saying: “They got more rights than we got.”

Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix was also present during the conversation.

The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the recording. None of the four have returned telephone calls or emails from The Associated Press.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s office in Oklahoma City said the agency’s policy is not to confirm or deny any ongoing investigation. Phil Bacharach, a spokesperson for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, said the agency had received an audio recording and is investigating the incident, but declined to comment further.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and state Rep. Eddy Dempsey, a Republican who represents the area, have called for Clardy, Manning, Jennings and Hendrix to resign.

More than 100 people gathered outside the McCurtain County Courthouse in Idabel on Monday, with many of them calling for the sheriff and other county officials to resign.

The sheriff’s office statement said there have been “a large number of threats of violence including death threats” against unspecified county employees, officials, their families and friends since the conversation was first reported.

The statement said the sheriff’s office will issue news releases until its investigation concludes “and findings are forwarded to the appropriate authorities for felony charges to be filed on those involved.”

This is upsetting, but not surprising.

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airasilver · 7 months

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Oklahoma judge upholds Legislature’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge on Thursday upheld a state law banning gender-affirming care for minors, saying the measure does not discriminate against transgender children.

Judge John Heil III declined to put on hold the new law that bans gender-transition surgeries and hormone treatments for minors following a lawsuit from five transgender youth and a medical professional.

Implementation of the law had been on hold since May pending the ruling due to an agreement between the parties involved in the lawsuit.

It can now be enforced.

Calling the decision “completely out of step with all other federal trial courts,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP said they will appeal Heil’s decision.

“This is a devastating result for transgender youth and their families in Oklahoma and across the region,” the groups said in a joint statement. “Denying transgender youth equality before the law and needlessly withholding the necessary medical care their families and their doctors know is right for them has caused and will continue to cause serious harm.”

Senate Bill 613 is not an outright ban on gender-affirming care because it only tells minors they must wait until they reach a certain age to seek treatment, Heil wrote in a 36-page order detailing his decision. The judge, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, added that the law does not discriminate against those who deviate from stereotypical gender norms.

The issue of setting parameters for gender-affirming care relates to the state because it pertains to the Oklahoma Legislature’s interests in protecting children, public health and the integrity of the medical profession, wrote Heil, a judge in the Northern District in Tulsa.

“This (is) an area in which medical and policy debate is unfolding and the Oklahoma Legislature can rationally take the side of caution before permitting irreversible medical treatments of its children,” he wrote.

Need to get in touch?

Have a news tip?

The transgender Oklahoma youth, a doctor who specializes in gender-affirming care, the ACLU of Oklahoma and other legal groups challenged the law on the grounds that it unfairly targets trans children and denies them their right to care under equal protection laws.

Because the judge only ruled on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, litigation in the case will continue.

Stitt signed in May a new law that immediately banned gender-transition surgeries for minors, which are rare. The law also imposes a ban on puberty blockers and hormone-therapy treatments for minors, although there is a six-month grace period before that provision takes effect.

The governor praised Heil’s ruling.

“I am pleased with the court’s decision to uphold Oklahoma’s common-sense law protecting children from dangerous, permanent sex change surgeries,” Stitt said in a statement. “Here in Oklahoma, we protect our kids. Plain and simple.”

The governor has railed against irreversible gender-transition surgeries since last year when the Oklahoma Legislature gave OU Health an ultimatum to stop offering some gender-affirming care or risk losing millions of dollars in federal funding earmarked for hospital improvements.

At the time, Stitt urged the Legislature to send him a bill to ban gender-transition surgeries and hormone therapies for minors. The GOP-led Legislature quickly delivered on his request with SB 613 from Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, and Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin.

While legal proceedings were ongoing, Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office agreed the state would not enforce the provisions of SB 613. Stitt’s office criticized the agreement that Drummond’s office said should not be interpreted as any sort of legal concession.

“The Attorney General’s Office continues to fulfill its duty to defend Senate Bill 613 and has won a ruling that results in full enforcement of that law,” Drummond spokesperson Phil Bacharach said in a statement Friday.

Health care providers who knowingly violate SB 613 could be charged with a felony and have their medical license revoked. They could also face a civil lawsuit from a friend or family member of the child receiving gender-affirming care.

The law defines banned health care procedures as “medical or surgical services performed for the purpose of attempting to affirm the minor’s perception of his or her gender or biological sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex.”

SB 613 does not ban behavioral health services, counseling or medication to treat depression or anxiety.

Republicans in state legislatures across the nation have filed a raft of bills to limit or ban gender-affirming care. Judges in several other states have paused, blocked or overturned some laws limiting gender-affirming care.

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I agree with this. They can wait until they are of age. It's making sure no one, including themselves, are putting the children up to this. It's protecting, not hurting them.

#oklahoma #children #government #sexuality #transgender

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masterofd1saster · 7 months

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CJ current events 29sep23

Contaminated how?

Oklahoma executed an inmate Thursday for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student, in a case that went unsolved for years until DNA from the crime scene was matched to a man serving prison time for burglary. Anthony Sanchez, 44, was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. following a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Even though he maintained that he had nothing to do with the killing of 21-year-old Juli Busken, he took the unusual step of opting not to present a clemency application to the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, which many viewed as the last chance to spare his life. “I’m innocent,” Sanchez said as he was strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber. “I didn’t kill nobody.”*** Sanchez was convicted of raping and murdering 21-year-old Juli Busken, a Benton, Arkansas, native who had just completed her last semester at the university when she was abducted on Dec. 20, 1996, from the parking lot of her Norman apartment complex. Her body was found that evening near Lake Stanley Draper in far southeastern Oklahoma City. She had been bound, raped and shot in the head.*** Years later, Sanchez was serving time for a burglary conviction when DNA from sperm on Busken’s clothing at the crime scene was matched to him. He was convicted and sentenced to die in 2006.*** Sanchez has long maintained his innocence and did so again in a phone call to The Associated Press earlier this year from death row. “That is fabricated DNA,” Sanchez said. “That is false DNA. That is not my DNA. I’ve been saying that since day one.” He told the AP that he declined to ask for clemency because even when the five-member Pardon and Parole Board takes the rare step of recommending it, Gov. Kevin Stitt has been unlikely to grant it. “I’ve sat in my cell and I’ve watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency,” Sanchez said*** A sample of Anthony Sanchez’s DNA “was identical to the profiles developed from sperm on Ms. Busken’s panties and leotard,” Drummond wrote last month in a letter to a state representative who had inquired about Sanchez’s conviction. Drummond added there was no indication either profile was mixed with DNA from any other individual and that the odds of randomly selecting an individual with the same genetic profile were 1 in 94 trillion among Southwest Hispanics. “There is no conceivable doubt that Anthony Sanchez is a brutal rapist and murderer who is deserving of the state’s harshest punishment,” Drummond said in a recent statement. *** A private investigator hired by an anti-death penalty group contended that the DNA evidence may have been contaminated and that an inexperienced lab technician miscommunicated the strength of the evidence to a jury.*** https://nypost.com/2023/09/21/anthony-sanchez-executed-for-the-1996-killing-of-a-university-of-oklahoma-student/

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pretty cocky adult

The teen driver who allegedly mowed down a retired police chief in a fatal hit-and-run told Las Vegas police he would be back on the streets in under a month, according to a report. Jesus Ayala is accused of driving a stolen Hyundai Elantra on Aug. 14 along with Jzamir Keys, 16, and deliberately crashing and killing Andreas “Andy” Probst, 64, who had been riding his bike, a disturbing video showed. Ayala, who just turned 18, was arrested hours after Probst was killed and told the police while in custody, he wouldn’t be locked up for long. “You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,” Ayala told the cops, according to KLAS. “It’s just ah, [expletive] ah, hit-and-run — slap on the wrist.”*** The two teens’ mothers have both spoken out about their sons’ heinous actions but they don’t share the same views. “I don’t know why he did this,” Ayala’s mother told KLAS Wednesday. “I don’t know if God can forgive this.” “My son’s side of the story will be told, ‘the truth,’ not the inaccuracies the media will try to portray,” Keys’ mother said in a text to the station.***

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Alarming Illinois case

Illinois officials are investigating what appears to be a quadruple homicide in a small, quiet neighborhood outside of Chicago after police discovered the bodies of a family of four in their home. Two adults and two children, along with their three dogs, were fatally shot in their home in Romeoville, Illinois. The deaths do not have the markings of a murder-suicide, and officers are investigating the incident as a murder, Deputy Chief Chris Burne of the Romeoville Police Department said during a news conference on Monday. Here's everything to know about the murders in Romeoville. What is known about the murders? Police responded to the home in the 500 block of Concord Avenue for a welfare check on Sunday night after one of the family members did not show up for work, and calls from relatives went unanswered and prompted concern, Burne said. Upon entering the home, police discovered Alberto Rolon, 38, Zoraida Bartolomei, 32, their two boys, ages 7 and 10, and their dogs had been shot to death. While the Will County Coroner's Office did not name the children, Bryana Barolomei, sister to Zoraida Bartolomei, named them as Adriel, 10, and Diego, 7.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/chicago-shooting-everything-to-know-murders-romeoville

***

DHS intelligence?

DHS Sec Mayorkas has created an intelligence experts group. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/09/19/secretary-mayorkas-announces-establishment-homeland-intelligence-experts-group. Members of the group include

Jim Clapper, Former Director of National Intelligence

John Brennan, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency

Paul Kolbe, Former Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

You may recall that these three signed Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails dated October 19, 2020 that said e-mails from the laptop "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

The FBI “verified” the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in November 2019 and a federal computer expert assessed “it was not manipulated in any way,” IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley told Congress*** https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fbi-verified-authenticity-of-hunter-biden-s-abandoned-laptop-in-november-2019-irs-whistleblower/ar-AA1cU3Iu

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AG comments on gov kidnapping plot acquittal

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan’s attorney general suggested conservative politics played a role in the acquittal of three men in the final trial related to a plan to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, told a liberal group Monday the trial was held in a "very right-leaning county." She said Friday’s verdicts were "perplexing, confusing but terrifying." The Detroit News obtained a video of Nessel’s remarks to a group called Protectors of Equality in Government.*** "Three of them were acquitted by a jury in Antrim County, not because we didn’t have great evidence but because essentially, it seemed to me as though the Antrim County jurors, (in a) very, very right-leaning county (were) seemingly not so concerned about the kidnapping and assassination of the governor," Nessel said, according to the newspaper. Matthew Schneider, who was U.S. attorney in Detroit in 2020 when the FBI broke up the kidnapping plot, said Nessel’s remarks were inappropriate. "We might disagree with jurors, but I don’t think it’s helpful to trash them and the American jury system when things don’t go our way," Schneider told The Associated Press. "That’s especially true here where the AG’s office selected these jurors and agreed to have them serve during jury selection."*** Molitor said FBI informant Dan Chappel, who was inside the group for months, had "glued" the scheme together. "He helped set people up. He drove people. He paid for stuff. He did trainings," Molitor told the jury. "If it wasn’t for him actually bringing people together and setting stuff up, the majority of people would not have gotten together to do this or even talked about stuff."

***

Presumed innocent, etc

A U.S. government contractor was arrested on Aug. 24 based on espionage charges in a complaint unsealed today. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Ethiopian descent, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is charged with delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government, conspiracy to deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government, and the willful retention of national defense information. According to the criminal complaint, between on or about Dec. 19, 2022, and Aug. 7, 2023, Lemma copied classified information from intelligence reports and deleted the classification markings from them. Lemma then removed the information, which was classified as SECRET and TOP SECRET, from secure facilities at the Department of State. This material related to a specific country and/or geographic region. Lemma accessed, copied, removed, and retained this information without authorization. According to the charging documents, Lemma used an encrypted application to transmit classified national defense information to a foreign government official associated with a foreign country’s intelligence service. In these communications, Lemma expressed an interest and willingness to assist the foreign government official by providing information. In one communication, the foreign official stated, “[i]t’s time to continue ur support.” Lemma responded, “Roger that!” In other chats, the foreign official tasked Lemma to focus on information related to particular subjects, and Lemma responded “[a]bsolutely, I have been focusing on that all this week . . . .” As alleged in the criminal complaint, the classified national defense information Lemma transferred to the foreign official included satellite imagery and other information regarding military activities in the foreign country and region. The two espionage charges carry a potential penalty of death or any term of years up to life in prison, and the willful retention charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. *** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-government-contractor-arrested-espionage-charges

***

Who wore it best?

Police returned articles of clothing to a Tanzanian fashion designer they obtained while executing a search warrant of disgraced ex-Department of Energy (DOE) official Sam Brinton's home. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police Department confirmed the clothes were returned to Asya Khamsin, who has alleged Brinton publicly wore clothing she designed, but which was in her bag she reported missing at Ronald Reagan National Airport years ago. In May, MWAA police officers executed a search warrant in connection with the case at Brinton's Maryland residence. "The MWAA Police Department can confirm we returned the victim’s property and police retained photos of the evidence for prosecution," MWAA spokesperson Crystal Nosal told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday. "The case is still under adjudication and we cannot release more detailed information." Weeks after the search warrant was executed, Brinton was charged with felony grand larceny of items worth more than $1,000. The preliminary hearing in the case, which was filed in Arlington General District Court, has been delayed until December.*** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/police-find-female-designers-stolen-clothes-ex-biden-official-sam-brintons-home

Other instances of stealing clothes from female travelers, presumed innocent, etc.

***

Sen Bob Menendez, indicted, yawn, again

He was originally tried around 2015 for taking bribes from a doctor in Florida. The doc was convicted, but there was a mistrial in Sen Menendez's case, and he wasn't retried.

Current charges allege he and his wife took bribes in return for protecting and enriching "HANA, URIBE, and DAIBES and [benefiting] the Arab Republic of Egypt. Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value****"

He presumed innocent, etc.

Harmeet Dillon is a conservative former federal prosecutor from NY. She asked

Menendez has been a corrupt degenerate representing NJ for years while being credibly accused of human trafficking of girls in Nicaragua, flying them on private planes like Epstein, bribery charges dating back to at least 2015. Why the indictment now? 🧐 https://usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/24/feds-say-corroborating-evidence-backed-menendez-prostitution-claims

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Fidelity, Bravery, Income

Charles F. McGonigal, 54, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, pleaded guilty today to concealment of material facts for his undisclosed receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe while McGonigal was supervising counterintelligence efforts. The plea was accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who scheduled sentencing for Feb. 16, 2024. According to papers filed with the court, from August 2017, and continuing through his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, McGonigal concealed from the FBI the nature of his relationship with a former foreign security officer and businessperson who had ongoing business interests in foreign countries and before foreign governments. Specifically, McGonigal received at least $225,000 in cash from the individual and traveled abroad with the individual and met with foreign nationals. The individual later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying over which McGonigal had official supervisory responsibility.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/retired-fbi-special-agent-charge-pleads-guilty-concealing-information-fbi

McGonigal took the cash from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

McGonigal participated in triggering the Russiagate/Crossfire Hurricane probe. https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/charles-mcgonigal-indicted-ex-fbi-head-helped-trigger-russia-probe/ https://www.newsweek.com/charles-mcgonigal-trump-russia-2016-investigation-muller-1776049

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Colorado & jails

All jails in Colorado are now required to offer the gold-standard opioid treatment to inmates who need it, expanding a proven intervention to one of the front lines of the state’s deadly overdose crisis. At least half of Colorado’s jails were not offering full medication-assisted treatment — the use of medications like methadone plus counseling — before a statutory requirement kicked in on July 1. Amid broader debate about how to handle record-breaking overdoses here, experts have hailed the requirement as among the most consequential policies to come from last year’s controversial fentanyl bill. While several expressed concern about how the state would monitor jails’ compliance in the years to come, the change means a required expansion of treatment for hundreds of the state’s most vulnerable drug users.*** https://www.denverpost.com/2023/08/06/colorado-opioids-medication-treatment-jails/

Increased risk of overdose due to loss of tolerance.

For the first time in state history, Colorado’s patchwork system of local jails will soon have a baseline set of standards guiding how they feed, house, restrain and care for the thousands of people who move through their facilities each year. It’s just not clear how the state will ensure jails are complying with those rules. A state commission that is finalizing the new standards has arrived at what one official called a “counterintuitive” compromise: allowing those jails, and the sheriffs who run them, to police each other. The Jail Standards Commission — made up of sheriffs, attorneys, county commissioners and mental health advocates — settled on that idea after finding no state law enforcement agencies willing to take on the responsibility.*** https://www.denverpost.com/2023/09/23/colorado-legislature-jail-standards-oversight-sheriffs/

Jails are ordinarily a county or city responsibility. Nobody wants to police the jails.

***

What "Keep Portland Weird" means.

***

Is there some right to possess dirty pics of little kids?

Sen Durbin, Illinois has proposed S.1199 “Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act of 2023.” It updates and expands existing federal laws that prohibit possession and transmission of internet Cpr0n. You can look at 18 U.S.C. §2258A. Reporting requirements of providers for the gory details at present.

The American Civil Liberties Union called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) not to pass a bill strengthening restrictions on child sexual [abuse] material on the basis that the legislation violates the First Amendment. The ACLU and a coalition of 60 other civil rights and industry groups wrote to Schumer on Monday, asking him not to pass Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-IL) STOP CSAM bill. The coalition argues that the legislation, which would update the law regarding CSAM to pressure Big Tech companies to crack down harder, would discourage the platforms from hosting speech related to abortion, gay and transgender people, and sexual health. They also argue it would stifle discourse on the internet and threaten user privacy.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/aclu-calls-on-schumer-not-to-pass-bill-child-exploitation-content-stop-csam

If you go to S.1199 you'll see that it never mentions "abort," "gay," "trans," or "gender." The only reference to health it completely irrelevant to the to ACLU argument about censoring sexual health information.

***

1st time I've heard of such

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Dozens of Oakland small business owners are poised to strike planning to shut down for a portion of the day Tuesday. They are fed up with feeling as though the city is not protecting them from the rising tide of crime. Restaurateur Ryan Dixon got emotional about the crime happening in Oakland now and how it's threatening the small business ecosystem that makes Oakland what it is. "We are all dying figuratively and literally. The business community has just gotten to the breaking point where everyday someone is having to choose to close their doors because they can no longer stay in business," said Dixon, who is a managing partner of Calavera, a restaurant on Broadway. "Whether they're getting broken into repeatedly, whether their staff is being held up or assaulted, shootings in front of our businesses. People are afraid to come to downtown Oakland right now," he said.*** https://abc7news.com/oakland-business-strike-businesses-close-tuesday-crime-robberies/13830589/

Even doctors are going on strike.

***after tues

And this is after the Raidfilth moved to Vegas

Crime in Oakland has gotten so bad that residents actually expect to have their cars broken into, or even stolen, on a daily basis. There have been 10,547 reported vehicle thefts in Oakland this year through Sept. 17, which averages out to just over 40 vehicle thefts every day. It’s a 51% increase compared to the same time period last year. Police say there have also been 10,335 reported car break-ins over this same time period, though that number is higher because officers say most people don’t even bother to report when their car has been broken into in Oakland anymore. It’s the latest report in a series of terrible developments in Oakland this year. In August, police told residents to carry air horns with them and to add security bars to the doors and windows of their own homes to protect against criminals, with burglaries up 41% and robberies up 20% compared to last year. Violent crime has also increased, with women being the easy targets for violent career criminals.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/soros-district-attorney-oakland-stolen-cars

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Pls complete the safety & security module!

The court-martial of an Air Force Academy cadet started Monday over allegations he sexually assaulted a fellow cadet in 2021 at a vacation rental house in Tabernash on the Western Slope. Cadet Eamon McHugh and nine other cadets started drinking during the afternoon of Saturday, May 16, 2021, to celebrate receiving their class rings, a tradition for the junior class, lawyers said. The party continued into the evening with a bonfire. While sitting around the bonfire, McHugh and a female cadet started kissing, according to a photo showed during the trial. The two later went into a bedroom at the home, where the alleged assault happened, lawyers said. *** https://gazette.com/military/usafa/air-force-academy-cadet-faces-court-martial-in-sexual-assault-case/article_46af80de-5bdc-11ee-b5d9-731dc81dd1fd.html

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Shame

A former judge in Chicago lost her license to practice law following accusations that she robbed her uncle, a World War II veteran of the Tuskegee Airmen, of more than $240,000 to purchase cryptocurrency. Patricia Martin stated she misappropriated funding that had been entrusted to her by Oscar Wilkerson Jr., her uncle, and his power of attorney, according to a report. The misappropriation purportedly occurred while the former Tuskegee airman stayed in a nursing home and Martin was disbarred on consent, Thursday filings from the Illinois Supreme Court noted. "She intentionally used for her own purposes more than $240,000 she had agreed to hold for an elderly relative who was residing in a nursing home, made false statements to the physician who held her relative's power of attorney about the balances in his bank and investment accounts, and did not produce documents in response to an ARDC subpoena," according to the court's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/former-judge-loses-law-license-robbing-tuskegee-airmen-uncle

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different state, different judge, different result

A Missouri judge rewrote the ballot summaries for six proposed initiative petitions to institute abortion rights into the state constitution to remove language such as "unborn child," "end the life," and "the right to life" — a setback to the anti-abortion rights side. In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge Jon Beetem wrote that 13 of the phrases used in the summaries written by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft were "argumentative" and obscured the intention of the amendment to protect abortion rights and other rights related to reproduction.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/judge-rewrites-ballot-questions-abortion-amendment-remove-unborn-child

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forgot about this case

Jury selection began on Monday in the New Mexico terrorism and kidnapping trial of five family members accused of running a terror training camp and using malnourished children as pawns in a deadly scheme to target schools, law enforcement, and the military. The charges against two men and three women stemmed from a 2018 raid on their desert compound by agents attempting to locate a missing 3-year-old boy who suffered from seizures. His mother told authorities in 2017 that his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, one of the defendants, had taken him to perform an exorcism because he thought the boy was possessed by the devil. During the raid on the Taos compound, agents found 11 children and five adults living in squalor and wearing rags. They also uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition. The search of the compound, which was partly buried underground, also turned up the decomposing body of the missing toddler, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, in an underground tunnel. The family members allegedly believed that after the boy died, he would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and provide instructions on who in the U.S. government and private institutions needed to be exterminated.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/new-mexico-terrorism-kidnapping-trial

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2022 - 2011 = a lot less than 30, right?

Jason Billingsley beat to death a Baltimore woman, Pava LaPere, in her apartment around 24sep23.

insta

Billingsley has a violent past. He was convicted of a “violent” crime in 2011 and received a 30-year sentence. He was also arrested in 2009 and 2013 on charges related to sex offenses, assault, and robbery, according to police. He was convicted of sex offenses in 2015. He was released on parole in October 2022. It is unclear if he broke parole. *** https://nypost.com/2023/09/26/suspect-32-wanted-for-murdering-tech-ceo-26-in-her-baltimore-apart/

Police have asked B-man to surrender. If murdering women doesn't break your parole, what does.

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fed issue or state issue?

Gianno Caldwell, whose 18-year-old brother was fatally shot in Chicago last year, called on federal lawmakers Tuesday to help address the city's glaring violent crime rates, which have remained elevated in recent years. Caldwell, a Fox News analyst and consulting firm owner, made his appeal to congressional Republicans during a field event they hosted as part of a series of stops to bring attention to crime in urban locations. "The police have repeatedly said that my brother was not the target, that he just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Caldwell told the lawmakers. "But in Chicago, being at the wrong place at the wrong time could be sleeping in your bed and a bullet comes through your window or in the backseat of a car at a McDonald's drive-thru, as 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams was murdered." Christian Caldwell was shot and killed by an unidentified male on the south side of Chicago on the morning of June 24, 2022, according to local media. The suspect shot and injured two others before fleeing the scene in a black sedan.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/murder-victims-brother-slams-chicago-district-attorney-war-zone

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instagram

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Target closing stores

At Target, we take the decision to close stores very seriously, and only do so after taking meaningful steps to invest in the guest experience and improve business performance. With that said, we have made the difficult decision to close nine Target stores across four states, effective Oct. 21. In this case, we cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance. We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.*** https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2023/09/Target-Closes-Select-Stores-to-Prioritize-Team-Mem

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Least criminal act in Philly

Rioters looted "an Apple store, a Foot Locker, a Lululemon and a liquor store" in Philly Tues night. Police arrested about 20 people. https://nypost.com/2023/09/27/influencer-meatball-livestreamed-philadelphia-looting/

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Great way to catch something

A former correctional officer at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell to sexual abuse of a ward. According to his plea agreement, beginning on Sept. 3, 2022, through Sept. 19, 2022, while employed as a correctional officer at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Dustin B. Sparks, 29, knowingly engaged in a sexual act with an inmate on one or more occasions.*** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-federal-correctional-officer-pleads-guilty-sexual-abuse-ward

PREA - prisoners can't consent to s3x.

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on the other side of the law

A man accused of stabbing another motorist after a crash on the Howard Frankland Bridge on Tuesday is a former assistant U.S. attorney who spent about a decade at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa. Patrick Douglas Scruggs, 38, of Tampa, worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office from September 2012 until April of this year, according to his LinkedIn page. His time there included appearing on behalf of the federal government during hearings for Florida residents accused of taking part in the riots at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. In May, he joined Barnes and Thornburg, an Atlanta-based private law firm, as an “of counsel” attorney, the page says. The page describes Scruggs as “a seasoned litigator and investigator with experience in various practice areas of criminal law.”***

Two other cars in minor accident/incident on bridge.

Scruggs pulled over, got out and walked up to the driver of the vehicle that hit his car. According to the Highway Patrol, Scruggs broke a window and started stabbing the 35-year-old man with a pocketknife. The couple returned to the vehicle to help the man being stabbed, but Scruggs then tried to stab them and they fled, troopers said. A St. Petersburg Police Department officer driving past saw the commotion and pulled over to help, the Highway Patrol said. The officer detained Scruggs and called for assistance. The 35-year-old man was taken to a local hospital with injuries authorities described as serious but not life-threatening.*** https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2023/09/27/howard-frankland-stabbing-suspect-is-former-assistant-us-attorney/?s=03

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state judge applying state law

A Montana judge blocked a law requiring abortion clinics to be licensed. Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Christopher Abbott issued a temporary restraining order against the law, set to go into practice Saturday, on the grounds that Montana has not yet developed a process by which clinics could become licensed. The move is temporary, and it is “aimed at protecting the parties' positions until a hearing can be held.” The bill being blocked, sponsored by state Rep. Lola Sheldon-Gallowa, states, “A person may not operate or advertise the operation of an abortion clinic unless the person is licensed by the department.” All Families Healthcare, Blue Mountain Clinic, and Helen Weems filed a lawsuit to block the bill before it went into effect Saturday. Abbott approved the temporary injunction and asked that Montana first outline the rules by which clinics can be licensed. “Before licenses can be issued, the Department must first promulgate rules," Abbott wrote. "The department, however, has neither adopted nor even publicly proposed temporary or final rules to implement H.B. 937, nor has it otherwise given providers guidance on how they can avoid violations of Section 2(1) in the interim.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/montana-blocks-law-abortion-clinics-licensed

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not at all CJ, but Annie Agar is funny, https://youtu.be/RYgZQpu_hkQ

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The remains of Suzanne Morphew, a Colorado woman who went missing on Mother’s Day 2020 while on a bike ride, have been found, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Morphew, 49, vanished after going cycling in the area of County Road 225 and West Highway 50 near Maysville, Colorado. Her remains were found Friday in Saguache County – approximately 50 miles south from where she was reported missing, the bureau said in a news release.*** Morphew’s husband, Barry, had faced a first-degree murder charge in 2021 in connection with his wife’s disappearance. But his trial was scrapped in April 2022 after prosecutors moved to dismiss the case while investigators continued the search for her. A judge ruled prosecutors can still pursue the same charges against him in the future. “Barry is with his daughters and they are all struggling with immense shock and grief after learning today that their mother and wife whom they deeply love was found deceased,” Barry Morphew’s attorney, Iris Eytan, said Wednesday. “They had faith that their wife and mom would walk back into their lives again. The news is heartbreaking.*** https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/us/suzanne-morphew-remains-found-colorado/index.html

#Instagram

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prosedumonde · 24 days

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#Denis Drummond #Le Dit du Vivant #livre #book #citation #littérature #littérature française #blog #blogger #bookblogger #article

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bigmacdaddio · 10 months

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Blood on the Tracks...1975

Classic Album SaturdayBob Dylan / Blood On The Tracks (1975)

Blood on the Tracks is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 20, 1975, by Columbia Records. The album marked Dylan's return to Columbia Records after a two-album stint with Asylum Records. Dylan began recording the album in New York City in September 1974. In December, shortly before Columbia was due to release the album, Dylan abruptly re-recorded much of the material in a studio in Minneapolis.

The final album contains five tracks recorded in New York and five from Minneapolis.Critics often rank Blood on the Tracks as one of the greatest albums of all time. Blood on the Tracks initially received mixed reviews, but has subsequently been acclaimed as one of Dylan's greatest albums by both critics and fans. The songs have been linked to tensions in Dylan's personal life, including his estrangement from his then-wife Sara. One of their children, Jakob Dylan, has described the songs as "my parents talking". In interviews, Dylan has denied that the songs on the album are autobiographical

.The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts and No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart, with the single "Tangled Up in Blue" peaking at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The album remains one of Dylan's best-selling studio releases, with a double-platinum U.S. certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2015, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was voted number 7 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000), in 2003, the album was ranked No. 16 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, rising to the No. 9 spot in the 2020 revision of that same list. In 2004, it was placed at No. 5 on Pitchfork's list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s

.At the conclusion of his 1974 tour with the Band, Dylan began a relationship with a Columbia Records employee, Ellen Bernstein, which Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin has described as the beginning of the end of Dylan's marriage to his wife Sara. In spring 1974, Dylan was in New York for several weeks while he attended art classes with the painter Norman Raeben. Dylan subsequently gave Raeben credit in interviews for transforming his understanding of time, and during the summer of 1974 Dylan began to write a series of songs in a series of three small notebooks which used his new knowledge

:[Raeben] taught me how to see ... in a way that allowed me to do consciously what I unconsciously felt ... when I started doing it, the first album I made was Blood on the Tracks. Everybody agrees that was pretty different, and what's different about it is there's a code in the lyrics, and also there's no sense of time.Dylan subsequently spent time with Bernstein on his farm in Minnesota and there he completed the 17 songs from which Blood on the Tracks was formed—songs which Heylin has described as "perhaps the finest collection of love songs of the twentieth century, songs filled with the full spectrum of emotions a marriage on the rocks can engender

.Before recording the songs that would constitute Blood on the Tracks, Dylan previewed them for a number of friends in the music world, including David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Tim Drummond and Peter Rowan. Nash recalled that Stills disliked Dylan's private performance of his new songs; immediately after Dylan left the room, Stills remarked to Nash, "He's a good songwriter ... but he's no musician.

"Initially, Dylan considered recording Blood on the Tracks with an electric backing group, and contacted Mike Bloomfield who had played lead guitar on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album. When the two met, Dylan ran through the songs he was planning to record, but he played them too quickly for Bloomfield to learn. Bloomfield later recalled the experience: "They all began to sound the same to me; they were all in the same key; they were all long. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life. He was sort of pissed off that I didn't pick it up." In the end, Dylan rejected the idea of recording the album with a band, and instead substituted stripped-down acoustic arrangements for all of his songs. On August 2, 1974, Dylan signed a contract with Columbia Records. After releasing his two previous albums, Planet Waves and Before the Flood, on Asylum Records, Dylan decided his new album would benefit from the commercial muscle of the record label that had made him famous, and his new contract gave him increased control over his own masters.

Dylan commenced recording at A & R Recording Studios in New York City on September 16, 1974. Bernstein has stated "the theme of returning ran through the sessions", so "it made a lot of sense to do it at A&R". A & R Studios was the former Columbia Records "Studio A", where Dylan had recorded six albums in the 1960s. The musicians quickly realized that Dylan was taking a "spontaneous" approach to recording. The session engineer, Phil Ramone, later said that Dylan transitioned from one song to another as if they were part of a medley. Ramone noted:

Sometimes he will have several bars, and in the next version, he will change his mind about how many bars there should be in between a verse. Or eliminate a verse. Or add a chorus when you don't expect

Eric Weissberg and his band, Deliverance, originally recruited as session men, were rejected after two days of recording because they could not keep up with Dylan's pace. Dylan retained bassist Tony Brown from the band, and soon added organist Paul Griffin (who had also worked on Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde) and steel guitarist Buddy Cage. After ten days and four sessions with the current lineup, Dylan had finished recording and mixing, and, by November, had cut a test pressing of the album. Columbia began to prepare to release the album before Christmas.

Dylan played the test pressing for his brother, David Zimmerman, who persuaded Dylan the album would not sell because the overall sound was too stark. Robert Christgau also heard the early version of the album and called it "a sellout to the memory of Dylan's pre-electric period". At his brother's urging, Dylan agreed to re-record five of the album's songs in Sound 80 in Minneapolis, with backing musicians recruited by David. The new takes were accomplished in two days at the end of December 1974. Blood on the Tracks was released into stores on January 20, 1975.

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daimonclub · 11 months

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100 admirable quotes

100 admirable quotes 100 admirable quotes and aphorisms by famous and great authors and writers to help improving your ideas and thoughts, to inspire and motivate your behavior, to foster your critical abilities. The only thing that elevates man above the animal is speech; and it's also the one that often puts it underneath. Emil Cioran Do not take life quite so seriously, you surely will never get out of it alive Elbert Hubbard You'll never know how truly damaged a person is unitl you try to love them. Anonymous There is only one virtue, justice; Only one duty, to be happy; Only one corollary, not to overvalue life and not to fear death. Denis Diderot A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind. Thales The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. Helen Keller. I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. Abraham Lincoln And when nobody wakes you up in the morning, and nobody waits for you at night, and when you can do whatever u want. What do you call it, freedom or loneliness? Charles bukowski The high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them. Aristotle The only true "philosophy" is that of the hermit who wants nothing to do with the world. Emil Cioran One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist. Stephen Hawking Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do. Aristotle You should not honor men more than the truth. Plato The greatest difficulty arises from persuading people to abandon the old ideas. John Maynard Keynes

100 best admirable quotes The man who first flung a word of abuse at his enemy instead of a spear was the founder of civilization Sigmund Freud The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. Albert Einstein Only a few know, how much one must know to know how little one knows. Werner Heisenberg What is important in life is life, and not the result of life. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I must be on the road to stupidity; I could not follow Oppenheimer's student speech. He was so learned and difficult that I didn't understand anything. I consoled myself only with the last sentence, which I understood; he said: ... and this is Fermi's theory of beta decay. Enrico fermi If a man know more than others, he becomes lonely. Carl Jung Hoping the world treats you right because you're a good person is like hoping a bull won't attack you just because you're a vegetarian. Dennis Wholey Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses. Plato Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read. Francis Bacon Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear. Albert Camus The opinions of others do not pay your bills. Anonymous The truth triumphs by itself, the lie always needs accomplices. Epictetus He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave. William Drummond This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities. Bertrand Russell The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master. Diogenes

Admirable quotes and aphorisms Although I had no regrets, I told myself sadly that growing up was not the painless process one expected it to be. Maya Angelou I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. Bertrand Russell The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school. George Bernard Shaw Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein If we lasted forever Everything would change Since we are mortal Much remains as before. Bertold Brecht The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic. Søren Kierkegaard See, people with power understand exactly one thing - violence. Noam Chomsky The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance. Herodotus Don’t bother with churches, government buildings or city squares; if you want to know about a culture, spend a night in its bars. Ernest Hemingway The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. Plutarch Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Henry David Thoreau Every action has its pleasures and its price. Socrates The older I get, the less I feel the need to be included, understood or accepted. Anonymous We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that stupid people won’t be offended. Anonymous Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy. Robert A. Heinlein

100 admirable aphorisms Mark Twain argued that humor is born of pain, that's why the true philosopher can only be a humorist. Carl William Brown It's strange. I felt less lonely when I didn't know you. Jean Paul Sartre The learning and knowledge the we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant. Plato If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place. Lao Tzu Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. Gottfried Leibniz Happiness resides not oin possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul. Democritus I opened my eyes and saw the real world, and I began to laugh, and I haven't stopped since. Søren Kierkegaard It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours. Diogenes See, people with power understand exactly one thing - violence. Noam Chomsky He who dares not offend cannot be honest. Thomas Paine Poverty is the schoolmaster of character. Antiphanes To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralph Waldo Emerson Don't just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything. The value of an education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think. George Carlin Sic lusus animo debent aliquando dari, ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi. (Così, di tanto in tanto, devi lasciare svagare la mente, perché torni a te più pronta quando occorre pensare.) Fedro, Favole, 3, 14. Without love living is easy; but it's meaningless. Leo Tolstoy

100 admirable great quotes Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed. Heraclitus If you know how quickly people forget the dead, you will stop living to impress people. Christopher Walken He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at. Epictetus Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge. Dante The pessimist complains about the wind the optimist expects it to change the realist adjusts the sails. William Arthur Ward Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life. Bob Marley Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein Philosophers have never killed priests, but priests have killed many philosophers. Dennis Diderot Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground. John Lennon Make peace with your broken pieces. They're your mosaic. Anonymous There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous. Hannah Arendt The greatest wealth is to be content with little. Plato No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. Charles Dickens A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots. Mark Twain Being poor is only romantic in books. Sydney Sheldon

Admirable aphorisms Our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. Karl Popper Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75. Benjamin Franklin The measurement of a man is what he does with power. Plato As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot. John Lennon The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself. Thales Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind. Dale Carnegie The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts. Marcus Aurelius Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence, But never tax'd for speech. William Shakespeare Dirty water doesn't stop plants from growing, so don't let negative words stop your progress. Anonymous He who fights, can lose. He who doesn't fight, has already lost. Bertolt Brecht Rest, nature, books, music, such is my idea of happiness. Leo Tolstoy To withhold from living is to die; the more you give of yourself to life the more life nourishes you. Anais Nin Being against evil doesn’t make you good. Ernest Hemingway Knowledge will give you power, but character respect. Bruce Lee He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another. Epicurus

100 great admirable quotes All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge. Bruce Lee The longer I live, the more convinced am I that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum. George Bernard Shaw They muddy the water to make it seem deep. Friedrich Nietzsche The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. Plato One ought to go too far, in order to know how far one can go. Heinrich Böll My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world. George Bernard Shaw The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing. Herodotus We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight. John Lennon Every word has consequences. Every silence too. Jean Paul Sartre Quando il sole della cultura è basso, i nani hanno l’aspetto di giganti. Karl Kraus Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self requires strength. Lao Tzu To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Don’t miss these similar articles: 100 best quotes and aphorisms 100 magnificent quotes and aphorisms 100 brilliant quotes and aphorisms 100 golden quotes and aphorisms 100 famous quotes and aphorisms 100 memorable quotes and aphorisms 100 top great quotes and aphorisms 100 excellent quotes and aphorisms 100 great quotes and aphorisms on Love Great and famous philosophy quotes Quotes by authors Quotes by arguments Thoughts and reflections Read the full article

#100 #action #admirable #aphorisms #authors #behavior #ideas #inspirational #motivational #quotes #thoughts #writers

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