August 21-22: An Eclipse, Disasters, and Suicides?

On August 21, 2017, the shadow of a total solar eclipse will cross the entire continental United States, the first time since 1918, and astrologers, according to Newsweek and other sources, say perhaps it will be a disaster for President Trump. But he may not be the only one looking to the heavens to a troublesome late August.

There are some who are waiting for "something" to happen on August 21 or August 22. We all know that there will be specific talk of certain known events for those days. It is the unknown that is causing some fears to build. 

The solar eclipse has a good deal of people quite excited. Here is a sterling state by state breakdown (here) that you might wish to consult.

The path of the totality will cross several interesting locations.

Bucky Fuller, a Fortean and architect, by Andy Finkle; 

a painting permanently on exhibit at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Take for instance Carbondale, Illinois, the home of Southern Illinois University, claimant to the seat of all good Buckminster Fuller followers, and right in the middle of the mysterious Little Egypt triangle. 

See #9: The Little Egypt Triangle, Illinois:

Teeshirts are for sale, already, on the Internet.

Then there is also Hopkinsville-Kelly, Kentucky, where the visit of the total eclipse will exactly match the August 21st anniversary of the infamous little creature invasion. I devote an entire chapter to these beasties in Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures.

On the evening of August 21, 1955, five adults and seven children arrived at the Hopkinsville police station claiming that small creatures were attacking their farmhouse and they had been holding them off with gunfire "for nearly four hours." Two of the adults, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor, claimed they had been shooting at "twelve to fifteen" short, dark figures who repeatedly popped up at the doorway or peered into the windows. (See more here.)

The creatures association with "aliens" and "spaceships" would be added later in the popular mind. The look of the creatures appear to have influenced the appearance of the Gremlins in the movie of the same name.

Will the New Madrid Earthquake, in some kind of a 2017 version shake the middle of America? Will an asteroid hit the Earth? Is there disaster written in the interaction between the Sun, Moon, and Earth? Some people use to talk about suicides when comets were flying by. Is there really going to be any human impacts due to this well-publicized eclipse? Only time will tell.

We all shall get through it, and August 22, 2017, will come and go. Correct?

Or will some choose suicide? This is actually a dangerous time for "Grunge suicides." And I have asked for people to talk to those who may feel suicidal around this time of the month. There is a traditional one-month syndrome with some suicides, and Chester Bennington did die by hanging on July 20, 2017. 

As I posted on July 26, 2017, "Will Grunge Suicide Copycats Continue?" Specifically I am looking at the date of August 22, for it is the birth date of Layne Staley, a member of Alice in Chains, who OD'ed on April 5, 2002, the anniversary date of Kurt Cobain's suicide.

Buckle your seat belts for August 21 and 22, 2017.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Another Aurora Copycat? Or Overreaction?

The name Alemar is of Arabic origin, meaning "coated in gold." 

Alemar is a form of the Spanish name Alamar.

West Virginia law enforcement authorities feel they had a potential domestic terrorist on their hands on Monday, August 20, 2012, and several media outlets used the phrase "Aurora copycat" in their headlines. The incident unfolded in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The Journal of Martinsburg noted:

A man wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15 training rifle, two knives and several unloaded magazines was arrested...after he was seen running in the area of Bulldog Boulevard, police said.
At about 7:17 a.m. [on Monday, August 20, 2012], the Martinsburg Police Department received several calls in regards to an individual running and carrying a rifle near the area of Bulldog Boulevard and Raleigh Street in Martinsburg.
"One of our primary concerns was that he was sighted in the general proximity or area of the high school on Bulldog Boulevard and we also believe that's what generated a lot of calls," Detective Lt. G.B. Swartwood said.

Officers responded to the scene and located the man, later identified as 23-year-old William Everett Alemar, of South Raleigh Street, near the intersection of Silver Lane and Raleigh Street. When Patrolman M. Jones, Patrolman C.M. Richmond and Patrolman First Class E. Herb encountered the individual, he was dressed in full military desert camouflage and a ballistic vest and with what appeared to be an assault rifle across his chest, police said.
All three officers engaged Alemar at gunpoint and ordered him to his knees to be taken into custody.
"The subject was then ordered to lie prone on the ground and the officers secured his weapon an AR-15(M-4) training rifle. The suspect also had two knives and several unloaded magazines, (and) his ballistic vest also contained ceramic panels to make it more bullet resistant," a police news release said.

The entire news item can be read here.

Alemar was charged with "committing a terroristic act under 61-6-24 subsection (b) and subsection (d) of the West Virginia State Code."

Police executed a search warrant at Alemar's apartment, located at 1013 S. Raleigh Street in Martinsburg. The department utilized a Loudoun County, Va., explosive detection K-9 due to concerns regarding the possibility of explosives. No explosives were located, but more military equipment and a pistol were located and seized as evidence, police said.

Stephen Alemar told The Hagerstown Herald-Mail that he believes his 23-year-old son, William Alemar, was just trying to stay in shape for his next military assignment when he was arrested near two Martinsburg schools on Monday. The younger Alemar is a member of the Virginia National Guard who served a tour of duty in Iraq.

The Octopus: The Secret Government and Death of Danny Casolaro (1996) by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith, details the strange and mysterious death of Danny Casolaro, who was an American freelance writer who came to public attention in 1991 when he was found dead in a bathtub in Room 517 at the Sheraton Hotel, Martinsburg, West Virginia. Casolaro's wrists were slashed 10–12 times, and Thomas and Keith write that the death was a "fake suicide."

"Martinsburg was founded in 1778 by General Adam Stephen who named it in honor of Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron....In 1863, Isabelle 'Belle' Boyd, a famous spy for the Confederacy, was arrested in Martinsburg by the Union Army and imprisoned, according to what you can read here.  For more on Bell, click on "The Bell Name...."

Weekend Watch: Theaters On Alert

Theaters are gearing up for the first month anniversary of the July 20th movie shooting. Today, there were bomb threats to 233 theaters in 35 states.

As you will recall, the Aurora mass shooting left 12 dead and 58 injured at a Century 16 theater in Colorado.

Sparks on the Horizon

The same chain was hit again. It was at a Century 14 theater at 8:40 p.m. on Tuesday night, August 14th, in Nevada, which found another moviegoer hurt in a shooting. But this time it occurred when a 56-year-old man shot himself in the buttocks during a showing of The Bourne Legacy.

Witnesses inside the theater told officers the gun fell from the man's pocket as he was adjusting himself in the seat. It fired when the revolver dropped to the floor, striking him.

No one else was hurt in the theater at 1250 Victorian Avenue, Sparks, Nevada.

“There was no panic in the theater as only five people heard the shot out of the approximate 30 people in attendance,” police said.

Nationwide Theater Alert

Then on Friday afternoon, August 17th, law enforcement authorities checked theaters in several states playing The Expendables 2. They were investigating several bomb threats made to a Georgia-based movie theater company. Callers identifying themselves as employees of a vendor used by Columbus-based Carmike Cinemas made the threats to theaters, Terrell Mayton, company spokesman, said Friday afternoon.

The threats were made in multiple states, but nothing suspicious was located, Mayton said. A threat was also phoned into the corporate office.

All of the threats concerned the action movie The Expendables 2, which opened Friday, Mayton said.

"We acted very quickly to make sure our patrons are safe," Mayton said by phone Friday afternoon.

Officers were dispatched to check Carmike theaters through the South. Carmike owns 233 theaters with 2,236 screens in 35 states. It the fourth largest theatre company in the United States. Carmike was founded when Carl L. Patrick, Sr. acquired Martin Theatres from Fuqua Industries in 1982. The theater name comes from a combination of Carl L. Patrick, Sr.'s two sons, Carl Jr. and Michael, hence Carmike.

Carmike theaters are largely positioned in rural or suburban areas with populations under 200,000. The company bills itself as "America's Hometown Theater."

Media outlets Friday reported police searching theaters in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and North Carolina. NBCChicago.com showed aerial video of law enforcement agencies setting up outside a theater in Morris, Illinois, southwest of Chicago.

Man Carrying Gun Arrested

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a coincidence (?), reported a man carrying a gun and knives was arrested Thursday night, August 16th, at the Carmike 15 theater in Columbus, Georgia. Investigators said they do not believe the 23-year-old man is responsible for the bomb threats.

Joshua L. Vardeman, 23, who faces three misdemeanor charges, had purchased a ticket for a special screening of The Expendables 2 and tried to enter carrying a computer bag, police said.

Vardeman was stopped by an officer, who found a 9 mm automatic handgun and several bullets.

Investigators also searched Vardeman's car and home, but no explosive devices were found. Vardeman was released from jail at 5 a.m. after posting $1,076 bond, police said.

Not Batman, But Are Bats Expendable?

The Expendables 2, which opened Friday, stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In this sequel, the mercenary group gets together for what they think is an easy paycheck, but when one of the crew is murdered on the job, the quest for revenge puts them deep into enemy territory.

The Devetashka cave is considered to be one 

of the most significant natural habitats 

of bats in Europe. Photo by Evgenidinev

Wikipedia reported,

On November 16, 2011, the production received a fine (of between $343–$3,440) from the Bulgarian environmental protection agency for unlawfully removing shrubs and small trees from the entrance of Devetashka Cave. Although permits had been obtained, allowing sets to be built in the area, including a bridge directly to the cave, environmentalists complained that filming may damage the cave, the habitat of approximately 40 endangered species. To avoid further problems, the producers agreed to not film explosions, car chases and fires near the cave.However, later that month Bulgarian environmentalists claimed that the bat population in the cave had been reduced by up to three quarters-from approximately 30,000 recorded in 2010 to 8,000 in 2011. Nikolay Simov of the Center for Bat Studies and Protection at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences blamed The Expendables 2's production for the reduction...On February 23, 2012, a Bulgarian court ruled that the crew had violated the law of their filming permit.

Kun Liu, a Chinese stuntman, was killed in Bulgaria on October 27, 2011, during the making of The Expendables 2. The stunt took place on the Ognyanovo Reservoir/Dam in the town of Elin Pelin, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Sidereal Month

The first month anniversary is here, marking four weeks since the red dawn shooting in Colorado's Aurora. It happened on July 20th, early Friday morning. 

August 17th is another Friday, another opening for new movies, and a New Moon. In between, the Sikh Temple shooting happened on a Sunday, August 5th, near the two week anniversary.

On August 10th, in "Religious Red Dawn?," I wrote, "Will August 19th (a Sunday) or August 20th (Monday, the calendar month anniversary since the Aurora red dawn event) be especially dangerous? The shooters' killing clocks work much differently than yours and mine. We need to be aware."

We do.

As I continued, on the 10th, "The conjunction of several threads are coming together when you begin to realize that many religious groups are holding their services in movie theaters during non-movie mornings."
Be alert. Be safe.