Daily Archives: September 9, 2022

I am responding to Capt. Bill Luksha (Safety of waterways, Sept. 4) and other letter writers on the boating tragedies that have recently occurred. I, too, have been boating on Lake Michigan and anchoring in the Playpen for more than 40 years. Unlike Luksha, I am a recreational boater and have a different perspective.

Tragedies have always occurred and will continue to occur during all recreational activities. You can break a leg skiing, trip and hit your head while hiking, fall off your bike or drown while playing in the water. Rather than a politicians knee-jerk response to do something by making more rules, I prefer to help and educate new and old boaters.

I have found fellow boaters to be a friendly and helpful group. Everyone needs help sometimes, and no one has experienced it all.

The woman losing her feet is a terrible accident. The calls to increase rules and restrict boaters come before even knowing all that happened. I have not seen any official reports from the state, the Coast Guard or the captain involved. I was anchored in the Playpen that day. It was definitely a higher-risk day to be there due to the strong winds causing rapid drifting of boats while they werent anchored.

Luksha wants to restrict rafting and the number of boats allowed in the Playpen. Rafting is a national phenomenon. Is it more unsafe? I have not seen any data that drownings are more likely to occur. Neither the woman injured or the captain involved was part of a rafted group of boats. Maybe it is more safe to raft up.

If restrictions are placed on the number of boats or rafting, the issue simply gets moved to somewhere else, rather than improving safety. It is also a bit self-serving, as commercial vessels would most likely have priority for access.

I am happy to see so many new boaters learning to enjoy the lake. Education, patience and a friendly attitude will go a lot further in making boating safer for everyone.

Michael Less, Burr Ridge

I noted something in Clarence Pages Sunday column This time Donald Trump makes the election stakes unusually high. If Donald Trump saying the election was fixed makes him a threat to democracy, are Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams also threats to democracy? They fit his definition.

Clinton said the 2016 election was hijacked by the Russians and told Joe Biden in 2020 to not concede under any circumstances. Abrams said she lost because the election was stolen; she never conceded.

Why is it we never hear in the media about these election deniers? They are a threat to democracy as well.

David Bohac, Willow Springs

We learned that over one day, the former president took the Fifth Amendment 440 times in response to questions in a lawsuit about his business practices. We heard at least two Republicans, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Chuck Grassley, warn that 87,000 armed Internal Revenue Service agents are going to be coming to the doors of homes and small businesses. We learned that the former president unlawfully took hundreds of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, lied about them and refused to return them.

In response to the FBI search to obtain those documents, we saw the FBI condemned by several Republican lawmakers. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham went so far as to warn that there would be riots in the streets if Donald Trump was indicted.

The political fallout from all this is now that the Republican Party is totally united behind the former president. The only question is: Should he declare his 2024 candidacy now or after the midterms?

Thats quite a political party you have there.

Bob Perlstein, Morton Grove

After reading the stories about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending immigrants from Texas to Chicago, part of me feels like sending him a bill for the cost of feeding and housing his residents. But part of me feels like sending him a note thanking him for sending us the ambitious active workers who just want to work to support their families and contribute to our expanding work force.

Maybe we can do both.

Frank L. Schneider, Chicago

Order is based on laws that deter crime. We have jails, and police wear uniforms and carry firearms to deter crime.

I propose that those convicted of violating traffic laws by drifting and endangering the public through reckless driving should register with the Chicago Police Department for two years.

Without deterrence, we will have anarchy.

Roberto Garcia, Chicago

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Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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Letters: Boater offers different perspective on the Playpen - Chicago Tribune

BATAVIA, N.Y. The crowd swayed on its feet, arms pumping, the beat of Twisted Sisters Were Not Gonna Take It thumping in their chests. The people under the revival tent hooted as Michael Flynn strode across the stage, bopping and laughing, singing the refrain into his microphone and encouraging the audience to sing along to the transgressive rock anthem.

Well fight the powers that be just/Dont pick our destiny cause/You dont know us, you dont belong!

The emcee introduced him as Americas General, but to those in the audience, Flynn is far more than that: martyr, hero, leader, patriot, warrior.

The retired lieutenant general, former national security adviser, onetime anti-terrorism fighter, is now focused on his next task: building a movement centered on Christian nationalist ideas, where Christianity is at the center of American life and institutions.

Flynn brought his fight a struggle he calls both spiritual and political last month to a church in Batavia, New York, where thousands of people paid anywhere from a few dollars to up to $500 to hear and absorb his message that the United States is facing an existential threat, and that to save the nation, his supporters must act.

Flynn, 63, has used public appearances to energize voters, along with political endorsements to build alliances and a network of nonprofit groups one of which has projected spending $50 million to advance the movement, an investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE has found. He has drawn together election deniers, mask and vaccine opponents, insurrectionists, Proud Boys, and elected officials and leaders in state and local Republican parties. Along the way, the AP and FRONTLINE documented, Flynn and his companies have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for his efforts.

This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and FRONTLINE that includes the upcoming documentary Michael Flynns Holy War, premiering Oct. 18 on PBS and online.

The AP and FRONTLINE spoke with more than 60 people, including Flynns family, friends, opponents, and current and former colleagues, for this story. The news organizations also reviewed campaign finance records, corporate and charity filings, social media posts and similar open-source information, and attended several public events where Flynn appeared. Reporters examined dozens of Flynns speeches, interviews and public appearances. Flynn himself sat down for a rare on-camera interview with what he calls the mainstream media.

I dont even know why Im talking to you, honestly, Flynn said as the interview got underway.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, Flynn made more than 60 in-person speeches in 24 states, according to a count by the AP and FRONTLINE. When he speaks, the former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump spreads baseless conspiracy theories, stoking fear and fueling anger and division and grievance.

Flynn is one of the most dangerous individuals in America today, said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and expert on authoritarianism and fascism who wrote the book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.

He is spearheading the attack on our democracy, which is coming from many quarters, and he is affiliated with many of these sectors, from the military to Christian nationalism to election denial to extremist groups, she said. All of this comes together to present a very live threat. And hes at the center.

Flynn has, with mixed success, supported like-minded candidates around the country, and has said his immediate goal is to influence this years elections. In Sarasota, Florida, where he lives, he has worked in concert with members of the extremist group the Proud Boys to influence local politics. Their favored candidates in August won control of the county school board.

Local action has a national impact is his mantra.

We need to take this country back one town at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time, if thats what it takes, he told a crowd in Salt Lake City.

Flynns advocacy of falsehoods and conspiracy theories hardly makes him unique in a fact-challenged America, but his pedigree, military career and high-powered Washington contacts set him apart. Hes retired a three-star general who less than two decades ago developed wartime strategies for countering insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His selection as Trumps first national security adviser made him the ultimate insider, giving him nominal control if only for a matter of weeks of the administrations national security strategy. When he later found himself in legal trouble on suspicion that he had lied to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States, he cooperated with the same government establishment he now crusades against.

In the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election, Flynn picked up a presidential pardon granted to forgive his guilty plea to lying to the FBI. He immediately became a chief promoter of the Stop the Steal effort and championed bogus claims about foreign interference and ballot tampering that werent supported by credible evidence. But for some voters, Flynns status as a retired general and top intelligence officer gave weight to the empty theories.

He falsely said Trump won, called the election outcome part of a coup in progress, suggested Trump should seize voting machines and said Trump could order up the military in some states and rerun the election. In December 2020 he even made his way into the Oval Office to push his ideas directly to Trump.

Called before a congressional committee investigating the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, Flynn refused to say whether he believed the violence was justified or even whether he believed in the peaceful transition of power. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Retired Brig. Gen. Steven M. Anderson, who served with Flynn in Iraq, called Flynns ideas antithetical to core values of the American military and the nation itself.

Anderson worries that Flynn is a role model for thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers and former soldiers, and that his ideas can empower them to take actions that hurt the country.

Weve got a retired three-star, former NSA, who says we can overthrow the election, use our military, Anderson said. The thinking goes, he said, Well, then yes, sign me up for the Proud Boys.

Flynn uses the three stars he earned in the military as his symbol, a shorthand that reminds people he came from the highest levels of the nations power structure and that suggests he has a special knowledge of how things work in the shadowy world of Washington and global affairs.

Its a crying shame that essentially he has evolved into the person he is now, said Anderson, who described his former colleague as a subservient buffoon that unfortunately has forsaken his oath of office.

Doug Wise, a former CIA and military officer who knew Flynn for decades and briefly served as Flynns deputy at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said even in the military, Flynn often pushed the envelope of what was permissible and demonstrated extreme thinking. He believes Flynn hasnt transformed, hes just become more comfortable acting on the anger that burns inside him.

I understand the reasons why he gravitated to the right wing because as his behavior and beliefs became more bizarre, I think they were very welcoming. Because who wouldnt want a highly respected Army three-star to join your group? Wise said.

I think he believed, post-government, and he was right in this that he was too well-connected to fail, Wise said. And he got pardoned.

Flynn sees conspiracies in just about every corner of American life.

Hes repeated falsehoods about Black Lives Matter and said that so-called globalists created COVID-19. He tells the tens of thousands of people who have paid to see him speak that there are 75 members of the Socialist Party in Congress, and has said the left and Democrats are trying to destroy the country. He asserts, above all else, that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values. The bedrock, he warns, is crumbling.

The country, Flynn often says in speeches and interviews, is in the midst of a spiritual war, and he goes after many of the institutions and ideas that stand as pillars of American democracy.

He has told audiences he doesnt trust the U.S. government or government institutions that oversee the rule of law. He called the media the No. 1 enemy and said it has done a horrible, horrible disservice to the country by just constantly lying and trying to deceive us. He says elementary schools are teaching filth and pornography. He continues to assert, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, that elections cant be trusted. He says, over and over, that some of his fellow Americans are evil.

They dress like us and they talk like us, but they dont think and act like us, he told a podcaster recently. And they definitely do not want what it is that we want.

Survey data shows many Americans believe what Flynn says that the 2020 election was stolen and have bought into COVID-19 misinformation and other conspiracy theories that he spreads, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who studies the evangelical movement.

Any of these factors alone could be considered dangerous. But all of them together and the distrust it is sowing in our democracy, Du Mez said. I think its extremely dangerous in this moment.

She points to Flynns role as headliner of a multicity roadshow known as the ReAwaken America tour, an event that is a potent mix of politics, religion and commerce that has become a prime example of the Christian nationalist movement.

Flynn helped found the tour in 2021 with Clay Clark, an entrepreneur from Oklahoma who had been running business conferences before the pandemic. In his interview with the AP and FRONTLINE in February, Flynn said he considered himself a senior leader of the team thats running it.

The thread of Christian nationalism runs through many of Flynns events. At one fundraiser, a preacher prayed over him saying that America would stay a Christian nation and that Flynn was heavy armaments in the Lords quiver. At the Christian Patriots Rally at a church in Northern California, Flynn was presented with an assault-style rifle on stage. In Virginia in July, he said pastors need to be talking about the Constitution from the pulpit as much as the Bible. In Texas last November, Flynn told a crowd this is a moment in time where this is good versus evil.

If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God, right? he said.

Christian nationalism seeks to merge the identity of Christians and Americans, so that to be a true American is to be Christian and a certain type of Christian. The ideology pushes the idea that the United States was founded on biblical principles and has a favored relationship with a Christian God, said Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma who studies conservative Christianity and politics.

It is distinct from the practice of Christianity, and Perrys research has found that many Americans who are inclined toward Christian nationalism dont go to church.

This has nothing to do with Christian orthodoxy. It has nothing to do with loving Jesus or wanting to be a good disciple or loving your neighbor or self-sacrifice or anything like that, Perry said. It has everything to do with Christian ethno-culture and specifically white Christian ethno-culture.

Flynn casts himself as a victim of the deep state who paid a steep price for supporting Trump. Besides Trump, his supporters say, no one has been persecuted more than Flynn.

Flynns rhetoric us versus them, good versus evil, the idea that God is on our side has been a staple among conservative Christians for decades, and is mainstream in conservative evangelicalism, Du Mez said.

The thinking, she said, can fuel violence.

Theyre out to get us. Therefore, we need to strike first. And the threat is always dire, Du Mez says the thinking goes. And if the threat is dire, then the ends justify the means.

These values are not unconnected from the violence that we saw on Jan. 6, she added.

(When the AP and FRONTLINE asked Flynn in February if he is ascribes to Christian nationalist views, he dodged. He first asked what the term meant, then said he was an Irish Catholic then a follower of Jesus, before criticizing the reporter: That was a stupid question to ask me, he said, because that means that you really have not studied Mike Flynn.)

Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, speaks to attendees as he endorses New York City mayoral candidate Fernando Mateo during a campaign event on Thursday, June 3, 2021, in Staten Island, N.Y. He has, with mixed success, supported like-minded candidates around the country, and has said his immediate goal is to influence 2022s elections. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

Last October, Flynn was the star attraction at the WeCANAct Liberty Conference, a gathering in Salt Lake City for Utahs Platform Republicans PAC.

The program included dozens of speakers and exhibitors talking about a grab bag of ideas and causes that have seized and panicked the right about vaccines, human trafficking, elections and the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Among the sponsors and exhibitors were the John Birch Society; businesses selling everything from texting services for political campaigns to food dehydrators; Ammon Bundys anti-government Peoples Rights group; and Americas Frontline Doctors, which has spread false information about COVID-19 and promoted unproven treatments such as ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic infections. State lawmakers from Arizona and Utah spoke, and members of the Utah Republican Partys governing committee were among the organizers.

The program kicked off with an invocation by a preacher who brought the crowd to its feet as he described a prophecy of a Great Awakening where Americans are going to rise up and defeat the cabal.

We are in a spiritual war, and you cant win a war without attacking, he said.

The preacher ended by leading the crowd in what he called a new version of the Lords Prayer that fits the Great Awakening. The crowd repeated after him as he said: Deliver us from the cabal, and from Satans influence. For yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory. Forever and ever and ever. Amen.

Flynn appeared a few times throughout the day, at one point sitting in the audience. Across the Salt Palace Convention Center, people jostled their seatmates to point him out and craned their necks to see him.

That evening, he gave a meandering speech that he referred to as an ass-chewing from a general. He falsely declared once again that Trump had won the 2020 election, said our government is corrupt, and called for the FBI to be abolished, a surprising applause line in October 2021 that has now being taken up more broadly by some Republicans.

He called the left our enemies and said they are godless and soulless.

One of Flynns companies, Resilient Patriot LLC, was paid $58,000 by the conference. An AP and FRONTLINE review of state and federal campaign finance filings documented nearly $300,000 in payments to Flynn and his businesses from candidates and political action committees since 2021, for things such as speaking fees, travel, book sales and campaign consulting. (Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer reported paying his company $1,100 in May for public relations services.)

After Flynns keynote concluded, a podcaster helping to wrap things up for the evening came onstage and called him one of the new founding fathers of this republic.

As Flynn speaks and stumps to persuade people to join his movement, he has also been busy building a network of political candidates at the federal, state and local levels.

The AP and FRONTLINE found that Flynn has endorsed 99 candidates for the 2022 election cycle. (He subsequently withdrew a handful.)

The countrys most influential Republican is paying attention. Flynns brother Joseph told an interviewer in May that during a visit the Flynns made to Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate this spring, Trump himself produced a list comparing the success of his endorsed candidates with Flynns.

At least 80% of Flynns chosen candidates have publicly spread lies or sown doubt about Trumps 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden, or even participated in efforts to overthrow the election, the AP and FRONTLINE found. Several have suggested they would use their power if elected to change the way elections are run and how people are allowed to cast their vote.

About two dozen were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5-6, 2021.

One-third have served in the military.

At least 38 have used Christian nationalist rhetoric. Keith Self, a congressional candidate in Texas, has said hes running for Congress to defend the Judeo-Christian foundations of this nation. Christine Villaverde, a congressional candidate in North Carolina, has vowed to fight to keep America a Christian nation. Anthony Sabatini, a Florida state lawmaker who just lost a bid for Congress, recently posted on Facebook, Only when Christians stand up & get loud, will we take this country back.

Flynns support can be a sought-after prize. An AP and FRONTLINE analysis of Facebook and Instagram ad data found ads from more than 20 candidates promoting their endorsements. Jackson Lahmeyer, an Oklahoma pastor who was defeated in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate by Sen. James Lankford, mentioned Flynn in 48 Facebook and Instagram ads, more than one-quarter of his total buy on the platforms.

Pastor Leon Benjamin, a Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia who denounced homosexuality and called gay marriages illegal in an August speech, said in an interview that Flynns endorsement represents that affirmation and that understanding that weve got to have the right candidates in, and its not always popular, not always goes along with the grain.

If we keep doing the same things over and over again, thats the definition of insanity, he added. So we got to do some different things to get different results.

More than 40 of Flynns endorsements were for candidates seeking state or even local posts, the AP and FRONTLINE found. Flynn endorsed two school board contenders in Camdenton, Missouri, candidates for sheriff in Florida, Nevada and Illinois and a city council candidate in North Carolina. He endorsed candidates for the state legislature in Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Missouri. In Arizona, Michigan, California and Colorado, he gave his approval to candidates for secretary of state, a position that typically involves the administration of elections.

A dozen gubernatorial candidates won Flynns backing, including Pennsylvanias Republican nominee, Doug Mastriano, a state lawmaker whom Flynn introduced at his campaign launch. Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel, floated a plan to undo Bidens victory in his state, organized buses to the U.S. Capitol for Jan. 6 and was filmed walking past barricades and police lines that day. Mastriano has denied breaking the law and has not been charged with any crimes. Another Flynn endorsee, Dan Cox, who also organized buses for Jan. 6, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Maryland.

Still, Flynns endorsement doesnt guarantee a win. Josh Mandel, the Ohio U.S. Senate candidate, was defeated by JD Vance, who got a late endorsement from Trump. Some Flynn-backed candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert in Nevada and Colorado secretary of state candidate Tina Peters, made baseless claims of election fraud after they lost.

Flynn and his allies have suggested he wants to get back into government, and the growing influence that flows from the network hes building may help him get there, said Ron Filipkowski, a lawyer in Sarasota and longtime Republican activist who now tracks Flynn and other far-right figures online.

Hes going to build this grassroots movement, local elected officials beholden to him, loyal to him, Filipkowski said.

Flynn has expanded his influence further through well-financed groups that advocate, among other things, changes to the way elections are run, based on the false premise that there is widespread voting fraud.

Flynn and Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com, last year launched The America Project, with Flynns brother Joseph as president. The group said it planned to spend $50 million in the 2021 budget year, according to a filing with North Carolina charity regulators. But Joseph Flynn and Byrne separately told AP that it had spent tens of millions less, though each gave different totals.

While Flynn himself is not listed among its officers, he is the face of the group, and its described as General Flynn and Patrick Byrnes America Project. Byrne says Flynn is his closest adviser, telling the AP and FRONTLINE that Flynn is his Yoda and rabbi.

In April 2021, Flynn was named chairman of Americas Future, one of the countrys oldest conservative nonprofit groups. The organization was founded in 1946 and was previously led by ultra-conservative stalwarts, including Phyllis Schlafly and retired Maj. Gen. John Singlaub. Since Flynn took over, the group hired his sister, Mary ONeill, as executive director and appointed Joseph Flynn to its board of directors. The group had about $3 million in assets at the end of 2020, its most recent IRS filings show. Flynn told the AP and FRONTLINE in February that he had raised an estimated $1.7 million for Americas Future since becoming chairman.

The two groups worked in close coordination last year, together donating more than $4.2 million for a widely criticized and misinformation-driven review of the 2020 presidential election results commissioned by Arizona Republicans.

Michael Flynn, Jr., talks to people as he sits at the merchandise booth for his father, a retired three-star general who served as Trumps national security adviser, during the ReAwaken America tour at Cornerstone Church, in Batavia, N.Y., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. The elder Michael Flynn has drawn together election deniers, mask and vaccine opponents, insurrectionists, Proud Boys, and elected officials and leaders in state and local Republican parties. Along the way, AP and FRONTLINE documented, Flynn and his companies have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The America Project has given about $5 million to grassroots organizations around the country, Joseph Flynn said in a July appearance on an online show.

Many of the groups they support back what they call election integrity, a term often used by election deniers to justify making it more difficult to vote based on the falsehood that American elections are corrupt.

Campaign finance records show The America Project has given more than $150,000 to Conservatives for Election Integrity, a group that has supported several secretary of state candidates who have worked to undermine trust in 2020 election results.

The America Project gave $100,000 to a Colorado group, Citizens for Election Integrity, which used it for ads and text messages attacking a Republican candidate for secretary of state who ran against Flynns endorsed candidate. In Michigan, The America Project gave $100,000 in May to Secure MI Vote, which has reportedly pushed to roll back voter access.

In Georgia, they just announced theyre backing an effort to challenge voter registrations for tens of thousands of people.

Joseph Flynn said during a speech in May that The America Project also funded and advised many of what he termed audits of elections around the country, including in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, though he did not give specifics.

In February, Flynn stood in a burger joint in Orlando, Florida, to announce The America Projects most public initiative, Operation Eagles Wings, the goal of which is to mobilize and train poll watchers and precinct captains, and to drive get-out-the-vote efforts.

I think every single person in this country, every American citizen, now has to pay attention to politics. You know, when people go, I dont get involved. I dont do that political stuff. Thats for the politicians. Well, thats exactly why we are here. OK? Flynn told the AP and FRONTLINE during a contentious interview. So, its something else that you wont write or speak about or itll be edited out.

As part of Operation Eagles Wings, The America Project has created affiliate groups in at least nine states. Its Florida affiliate said in a Facebook post last month its seeking America First Poll Watchers and will train organizations for free. State affiliates in Illinois and Virginia advertised trainings in July and August on grassroots social activism, poll watching and how to get out the vote. The promotions also promise to teach attendees to expose weaknesses, monitor and evaluate absentee voting and conduct investigative canvassing.

The initiative has raised alarm bells with pro-democracy advocates.

If people who tried to overturn the 2020 election, or who are fueled by election conspiracies, are trying to recruit their followers or allies to be election workers or volunteers as part of an election denial agenda, that poses real risks to fair and free elections, said Jacek Pruski, of the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy.

With his speeches, endorsements and outreach groups, Flynn has built a legion of acolytes who are listening closely to what he says and are ready to take action. They include Karen Ballash, 69, vice chair of the Summit County Republican Party in Utah, who heard Flynn speak in Salt Lake City.

I totally believe in his message. We have to be the ones who make the change, she said. If we dont do it, we wont have a country.

They include neophytes like Delainna Prettyman, who said shes just become politically engaged in the past year. That sent me deep down a rabbit hole. I dont watch any news, any TV, anything. And I do a ton of research, said Prettyman, who lives in the Salt Lake City suburbs.

She came to love Flynn, and believed everything he says.

Hes got a lot of intel and insight about everything thats going on. Of course, he cant say everything, she said. We need more people like General Flynn.

Under the tent in Batavia, the crowd thrilled to Flynns pronouncements from the stage. The general they claim as their own confirmed their feeling that the U.S. is changing, and not for the better. He validated the belief that the community they have built together is under attack.

They know many people some of their very own friends and loved ones, and even Biden say they are a destructive force. But inside the tent, Flynn assured them, they have found their tribe and they are in the right.

Were not alone in this is what Im telling you. OK? Were not alone in what it is that we are doing, Flynn said. Were not alone. I want you to know that.

See the rest here:
Michael Flynn: From Government Insider to Holy Warrior - PBS

GREENFIELD An Athol man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, roughly an hour after 12 deliberating jurors found him guilty of killing 26-year-old Kelsey Clifford in 2019.

Keith D. Hamel, 25, was convicted of murder in the first degree with extreme atrocity or cruelty following roughly 15 hours of jury deliberation in Franklin County Superior Court. He was also found guilty on two counts of intimidation of a witness/juror/police/court official, and four counts of withholding evidence from an official proceeding. The jury found Hamel not guilty of one count of armed robbery.

He was also sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison for each of the intimidation and withholding evidence charges. The first sentence for intimidation is set to begin after the life sentence for murder, while the second intimidation sentence runs concurrently or at the same time with that one. The first sentence for withholding evidence will begin after the murder sentence, while the other three will run concurrently with that one.

The state accused Hamel, who had a girlfriend, of using a claw hammer to murder Clifford, who was dating Hamels best friend, in the early hours of Nov. 11, 2019, to conceal a sexual encounter between the two. Hamel had also been accused of stealing $400 in cash and a cellphone from Clifford after she was dead.

The prosecution rested its case on Aug. 31 and the defense rested the following day. Jury deliberations began on Friday afternoon.

The victims parents, Paul and Allison Clifford, held each other in an embrace when the first guilty verdict was read aloud shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Hamels mother exited the courtroom. Her screams of grief could be heard down the hallway. Hamel remained stoic as the verdict was read.

During her victim impact statement, Allison Clifford recalled the night of Nov. 11, 2019, when a police officer arrived at her home with the news of her daughters death.

Every horrendous emotion ripped through me devastation, heartbreak, sadness. The impact was unbelievable. I felt I couldnt breathe. I thought I was going to die, she read. My darling, beautiful daughter Kelsey was gone and I never even got to say goodbye, or hold her one more time. There hasnt been a day that has gone by that I dont think of Kelsey.

Keith, she continued, you not only took my daughter; you took a mama from her little boy, you took a niece, a granddaughter, a cousin, a sister, a sister-in-law, an aunt and a friend.

Allison Clifford also told Hamel she has the potential to hate him for this, but she would like to think that is not what God intended.

I actually forgive you and feel sorry for you, she read. I have to believe that your upbringing, environment and the influence of your family and friends have made you an angry, cold and callous person with disregard for human life. I will pray that you get the help you so desperately need and that no one else has to suffer the tremendous loss our family now has to endure for the rest of our lives.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Webber, who prosecuted the case with Chief Trial Counsel Jeremy Bucci, read a statement from Paul Clifford. In the letter, Kelsey Cliffords father recalled watching the evening news on Nov. 11, 2019, and knowing in his heart his daughter was dead after hearing about a young woman killed in Athol.

Kelsey Clifford grew up in Leominster and had recently moved to Athol from Fitchburg. Her fathers nightmare became a reality a couple of hours later when the police arrived at his door.

In the letter, Paul Clifford recalled sharing doughnuts with his daughter and coaching her in T-ball. He also said he is now overly protective of his grandson, whom he and his wife have taken under their care. He also said he is hesitant to ride in the same vehicle as his wife out of fear of an accident that robs the child of two loving grandparents.

Brian Campbell, who said he is Kelsey Cliffords uncle and godfather, thanked the police and the Northwestern District Attorneys Office for their hard work during this case. He later said in an interview that his family acknowledges Hamels relatives are dealing with their own trauma but said the jurors reached the correct verdict.

Based on the evidence, the timeline and everything that was presented, they got it right, he said in the hallway.

The DAs office said in a statement the prosecution appreciates the careful thought the jury gave to this case and it was a just verdict.

On Tuesday, Leo Hamel III, Keith Hamels father, told the Recorder his family members extend their heartfelt condolences to Cliffords loved ones. He said he knows the pain of experiencing a childs death, having lost his son, Raymond Hamel, in August 2019, just three months before Cliffords murder.

Hamel, represented by attorney Joshua Hochberg, has been adamant about his innocence. He chose to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights not to take the stand during his trial, and the jury was advised not to hold that decision against him. Hochberg declined to provide comment to the Recorder.

Immediately before sentencing, Hochberg asked Judge John Agostini to take into consideration Hamels struggles with drug addiction and his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. He also said Hamel is the father of a 6-year-old.

Agostini, who said he has been a judge for 20 years, addressed the court before sentencing, expressing his sympathy to both families involved with the case. He acknowledged there are no words of solace sufficient to relieve their suffering.

There are still some things that I will never understand, the judge said, referring to Hamels actions as despicable. And this case is one of them.

The state spent a week building its case in court, starting on Aug. 25. The jurors began the trial with a view, in which they were driven by bus to six Athol locations associated with the case.

A sweatshirt linked to Hamel was recovered from Leonard Street, which is between the Athol Wastewater Treatment Plant where Cliffords body was found and where Hamel was living on Silver Lake Street. The sweatshirt had his DNA and Cliffords blood on it, prosecutors said.

Also, saliva and DNA matching that of Hamel were recovered from Cliffords body, according to the prosecution. However, during a cross-examination, Hochberg got a Massachusetts State Police crime lab employee to confirm that no one processed the clothes Clifford was wearing when she was murdered.

Tony Audet, Hamels fellow inmate at the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction, testified during the trial that Hamel told him where the murder weapon was and asked him to tell jail officers the information came from Kevin McGann, Cliffords boyfriend.

Audet explained he drew a map based on Hamels description of the weapons location (a sewer grate at the corner of Ridge Avenue and Union Street in Athol) and later made a copy of it. The hammer was recovered from that location on Jan. 28, 2021.

Hochberg grilled Audet on the stand, however, telling him he has made a bit of a career out of being a jailhouse snitch. Audet explained he cooperates with jail officers in exchange for money on an account to spend at the jails canteen, where inmates can buy snacks and other items. But, he said, he is honest about the information he forwards.

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Hamel found guilty of Athol murder, sentenced to life in prison - The Recorder

Politico noted that Biden has never had a more productive stretch of his presidency, with wins stacking atop wins at a most opportune time.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

As Donald Trump told New York prosecutors that hed invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, President Joe Biden sat behind a desk at the White House, where he signed into law the PACT Act, legislation that expands health care benefits for veterans who developed illnesses because of exposure to toxic substances at U.S. military bases.

The PACT Act is the least we can do for the countless men and women, many of whom may be in this room, who suffered toxic exposure while serving their country, Biden stated.

This new law matters. It matters a lot.

Facing unrelenting criticism because of high gas prices, inflation, and his low-approval rating, Biden has built a track record that has gone almost overlooked.

If he continues the string of success he has enjoyed in getting his mandate through Congress, historians might revisit Bidens presidency as one of the most consequential in American history.

Despite Republican leadership vowing to do all they can to stunt Bidens agenda, the president has pushed through game-changing legislation like the PACT Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the American Rescue Plan, and the CHIPS and Science Act.

Hes displayed a steady hand in returning affordability to gas prices, succeeded in expanding NATO, and monthly jobs reports continue to show increases.

You can say what you will, that Biden is too old, hes not a deal maker, hes sleepy Joe, or whatever, but hes getting things done even though hes not getting the credit he deserves, Stacey Rouse, a D.C.-based utility worker opined.

Its funny. When the other guy [Trump] was in office, you heard so much talk and bragging about what hes doing, and the media blanketed him with coverage, Rouse asserted.

Now, you got the F.B.I. raiding Trump. Hes pleading the Fifth at depositions, and Biden is conducting business the way you would want your president to conduct himself. I think hes accomplished so much, but we dont hear about it. I think ten years or so from now, and people will look back and realize what a good president this man is.

Rouses colleague, Scott Anthony, agreed.

I was a skeptic because that thing about sleepy Joe seemed true, Anthony said.

But, it seems other people are doing the sleeping because Biden is getting things done and hes just not getting the credit.

Upon signing the CHIPS and Science Act on August 10, Biden also peeked into the future and prognosticated what historians and others might determine.

I honest to God believe that 50, 75, 100 years from now, people who will look back on this week, theyll know that we met this moment, Biden declared.

An acronym for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors, the CHIPS Act provides $10 billion to invest in regional technology hubs across the country and a 25% investment tax credit for expenses for manufacturing of semiconductors and other equipment.

The bill earmarks about $100 billion in spending over five years on scientific research and $80 billion for the National Science Foundation.

Those early aspirations to being another Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, the ones that felt like so much hubris in the past few months, are being heard again in the halls of the West Wing and the Capitol, Peter Baker wrote about Biden for the New York Times.

House aides argue that the string of congressional victories capped by the package of climate, health and tax provisions that finally cleared the Senate compares favorably to the two-year legislative record of most any other modern president, even perhaps F.D.R. and L.B.J., Baker penned.

Politico noted that Biden has never had a more productive stretch of his presidency, with wins stacking atop wins at a most opportune time.

Already the victories have enlivened beleaguered supporters and injected new optimism across the West Wing, Politico reported.

Aides describe a burst of energy in the executive mansion Biden and his staff suddenly find themselves with a host of successes to talk about, from the reconciliation bill to the China competitiveness bill, from legislation to give health benefits to veterans harmed by toxic burn pits to a robust jobs market.

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Biden Slowly Winning LBJ- and FDR-Like Praise As Legislative Victories Mount - Seattle Medium