Parallax Redux? Shots Fired During French President Hollande's Speech

"We're in the business of reporting the news, not creating it," 

says the skeptical editor Bill Rintels, 

in The Parallax View.

When is an "assassination attempt" not an "official assassination attempt?" Apparently when the shots are fired from your own security detail.

Like a scene from a modern conspiracy movie, President François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande was in the midst of a speech to inaugurate a new fast train line in the western town of Villognon when a shot suddenly rang out. The speech was briefly interrupted and commotion ensued. 

"I hope it is nothing serious."

"I think not."

Who fired?

As it was revealed, a police sharpshooter had accidentally fired his weapon during a speech, injuring at two people.

Despite the shot, once his security team concluded he was in no imminent danger, France's Socialist leader continued talking, saying at one point: "I hope it's nothing serious."

"In fact, a police sniper stationed outside the marquee where the speech was taking place had unintentionally opened fire while changing position. One local report said the safety catch was unlocked and the gun discharged," noted the U.K.'s Telegraph.

One bullet passed through the thigh of the head waiter of a local hotel and ended up in the calf of an employee of a railway maintenance company, according to Pierre N'Gahane, state prefect of the Charente region.

Unconfirmed local media reports said that the sniper shot himself in the foot and could be seen jumping up and down.

"The sniper was on high ground when the shot went off accidentally," Mr N'Gahane told reporters. "We heard the noise, the president continued his speech. After, he came back down and entered the next room to talk to the people and to see the injured. He spoke to them for a bit and left as planned."

h/t to JP

+++

The Parallax View is a 1974 American political thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from a 1970 novel by Loren Singer.
The plot centers on TV newswoman Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), who is one of many witnesses to the public assassination of presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (Bill Joyce) atop the Seattle Space Needle. A waiter armed with a revolver is chased but falls to his death. Meanwhile, a second waiter, also armed, leaves the crime scene unnoticed. A congressional special committee determines that the assassination was the work of a lone gunman.

Three years later, Carter visits her former boyfriend and colleague, newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty). Lee tells Frady that she feels there is more to the assassination than was reported at the time. Six of the witnesses to Carroll's assassination have since died, so she fears she will be next. Frady does not take her seriously. Carter is soon found dead and her death is judged by the police to be either a voluntary or accidental drug overdose.

(Rest of the plot, here.)

Warren Beatty? Really?

Waiters in the plot? A waiter was injured in France today.

Reminds me of another kitchen staff pictured in the midst of a June 5, 1968 assassination.

Boris Yaro's photograph of presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy lying wounded on the floor immediately after his June 5, 1968 assassination at the Ambassador Hotel. Kneeling beside him is 17-year-old busboy Juan Romero, who was shaking Kennedy's hand when Sirhan Bishara Sirhan fired the shots.

What Shocker Will Happen on Mardi Gras 2017?

The days leading up to Mardi Gras have been ones filled with precursor events. What are we to assume is in the works for today, or more likely tonight?

New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration already has figured as the background for one violent incident. Twenty-one people were injured Saturday night, February 25, 2017, when a pickup truck crashed into spectators at the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of Crescent City. The crash was reported at about 6:45 p.m. at North Carrollton and Orleans avenues. 2/25. On cable television, the old film Speed, where bus number 2525 has to be driven above 50 mph or a bomb goes off, played the same night.

In recent days, Jewish bomb threats and act of Jewish cemetery vandalism have been occurring throughout America.

Hollywood has gained our attention too, with the death of Bill Paxton (derived, in one etymological analysis, from the Latin pax, meaning "peace" + ton meaning "town"), who had pink sync links to JFK in time and space, and with the Oscars' name games.

What does this all mean? What is to be expected on Mardi Gras? No one anticipated a terrorist truck ramming in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, did they? What deeper meaning bubbles forth from Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras, also called Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, in English, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday," reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

Related popular practices are associated with Shrovetide celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. In countries such as England, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is derived from the word shrive, meaning "confess."

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, President Donald J. Trump, in the United States Capitol in the House Chamber, also known as the "Hall of the House of Representatives,” will address Members of both the House of Representatives and Senate in his first address to a Joint Session of Congress.

Will President Trump unconsciously "confess" something significant to the listening audience?

Will something startling happen in New Orleans, Brazil, or some other site of a Mardi Gras celebration today?

Or via one of indicators already in the wind?

Stay tuned. 

Posted at 11:23 am, Eastern, February 28, 2017.

Update/ I just turned on Headline News at 11:29 am, Eastern, and discovered this has occurred:

Gulf Shores, Alabama – Emergency crews have responded to an incident at the Mardi Gras parade in Gulf Shores. According to WKRG, the CBS affiliate in Mobile, a driver crashed into a crowd of people before the start of the parade.
Specifics are still being determined, but there appear to be multiple injuries, according to WKRG.
Portions of Highway 59 and surrounding roads are closed at this time.

Reports are that a car crashed into a high school band and the parade has now been cancelled.

Warning:

Flashing body parts is done to obtain beads, which are thrown in appreciation in the flashers' direction. Be prepared for this event, if you travel to New Orleans, as I did with my sons, over a decade ago, during Mardi Gras.

Fayette Factor at the Oscars

It was one of those little details that often gets lost in the mess left in the wake of a massive mistake, as was witnessed at the 2017 Academy Awatds.

Many blamed Warren Beatty for announcing La La Land as the Best Picture of the Year, instead of the real winner, Moonlight. 

But it was Faye Dunaway who actually read the card. She was the Fayette Factor of the evening.

On Monday, February 27, 2017, a fatal plane crash occurred in Riversiide, California, one-half block from Beatty Drive. (Also, please note, Nicholas Park nearby, which Jim Brandon has also pointed to as a name to watch.)

Three people were killed and two were injured Monday when a plane nosedived into a Riverside neighborhood shortly after takeoff, destroying two houses and starting a fire that burned for hours.

At an evening news conference, Riverside Fire Chief Michael Moore had said four people were dead, but late Monday night he said three were killed, and said all had been on the airplane. No residents of the damaged homes were injured, he said.

The plane was carrying five people - a husband and wife and three teenagers - who had attended a weekend cheerleading competition at Disneyland, Moore said.

The Cessna 310 piloted by the wife had just taken off from Riverside Municipal Airport to return home to San Jose when, for reasons still unknown, it went down about 4:40 p.m. a mile east of the airport, setting several houses ablaze on Rhonda Road.

H/T for the Beatty Drive awareness to Matthew Deagle.

Jewish Threats

Bomb threats forced evacuations at Jewish schools and community centers in 11 states Monday, February 27, 2017, with the Jewish Community Center Association confirming threats in states ranging from Florida to Michigan. In Ann Arbor, Mich., police gave the all-clear after a Hebrew day school was threatened, forcing students to leave.

Some of the February 27, 2017, threats

"Today, bomb threats were called into schools and/or JCCs in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia," the JCC Association of North America says. "Many affected institutions have already been declared clear and have returned to regular operations. All previous bomb threats to JCCs this year were determined to be hoaxes."

In Ann Arbor, police are working with the FBI after receiving an "unusually specific" threat about a bomb in a backpack, Michigan Radio's Kate Wells reports. After detection dogs were brought in, police allowed students to return to school — but Wells calls the scene "surreal," with news crews and police still hovering around the school.

"My instincts tell me this is all part of a coordinated effort," an Ann Arbor police detective tells Wells, saying that there have been at least two bomb threats against the Ann Arbor Jewish Community Center.

January 18, 2017 Jewish center threats around the country.

January 31, 2017 threat locations in the two above maps.

February 20, 2017 threat locations

Bomb threats forced evacuations at Jewish schools and community centers in 11 states Monday, February 27, 2017, with the Jewish Community Center Association confirming threats in states ranging from Florida to Michigan. In Ann Arbor, Mich., police gave the all-clear after a Hebrew day school was threatened, forcing students to leave.

"Today, bomb threats were called into schools and/or JCCs in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia," the JCC Association of North America says. "Many affected institutions have already been declared clear and have returned to regular operations. All previous bomb threats to JCCs this year were determined to be hoaxes."

In Ann Arbor, police are working with the FBI after receiving an "unusually specific" threat about a bomb in a backpack, Michigan Radio's Kate Wells reports. After detection dogs were brought in, police allowed students to return to school — but Wells calls the scene "surreal," with news crews and police still hovering around the school.

"My instincts tell me this is all part of a coordinated effort," an Ann Arbor police detective tells Wells, saying that there have been at least two bomb threats against the Ann Arbor Jewish Community Center.

The Anti-Defamation League says there have been reports of bomb threats at a wide range of locations in and around New York, including "three in Staten Island, one in New Jersey, one on Long Island, one in Westchester."

The ADL confirms threats were made Monday against a Jewish day school in Miami, a JCC in Asheville, N.C., and the upper school of Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md. It also says there are unconfirmed reports of a threat in Birmingham, Ala.

Vandals knocked over headstones the weekend of February 18-19, 2017, in the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, University City, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri.

Vandals attack tombstones at the Jewish Mount Carmel Cemetery 

on February 26, 2017, in Philadelphia.

The threats come after a weekend in which vandals damaged approximately 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia — an act that came less than a week after a similar attack on a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis, where more than 150 graves were targeted.

Since the start of 2017, dozens of bomb threats have been made against Jewish community centers; this is at least the fifth wave of threats in the past two months.

President Trump, who had been criticized for not vigorously responding to earlier threats against Jewish community centers, took on the issue more directly last Tuesday, saying the threats "are horrible and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil."

As news of Monday's wave of threats spread, David Posner, director of strategic performance at the JCC Association of North America, issued a statement that reads, in part:

"Anti-Semitism of this nature should not and must not be allowed to endure in our communities. The Justice Department, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the White House, alongside Congress and local officials, must speak out — and speak out forcefully — against this scourge of anti-Semitism impacting communities across the country."

Highway 61 Revisited: Bill Paxton Dies

Bill Paxton died on Saturday, February 25, 2017, a day before the Academy Awards were to be handed out on Sunday.

William "Bill" Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and director. Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas.

The films in which he appeared include The Terminator (1984), Weird Science (1985), Aliens - see above - (1986), Predator 2 (1990), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), and Titanic (1997). Paxton also starred in the HBO series Big Love (2006–2011) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.

On the film front, Paxton's final (known) film role is playing the father of Emma Watson's character in The Circle, co-starring Tom Hanks, which will be released on April 28, 2017.

One of the famous "Forrest Gump moments" in Paxton's life concern his being photographed, in a crowd (the child seen raised above the crowd) before President John F. Kennedy emerged from Hotel Texas on November 22, 1963, the day JFK was shot. This was in Fort Worth, three hours before the President would die in Dallas.

Fifty years later, in 2013, Bill Paxton served as the narrator for the documentary, JFK: The Day That Changed Everything.

The historical drama film Parkland (2013) recounts the chaotic events that occurred following John F. Kennedy's assassination and was produced by Bill Paxton with Exclusive Media's Nigel and Matt Sinclair and by Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. (Thanks, KT, for mentioning this.)

This is another angle of Paxton (being held up, in the pink shirt).

Paxton died suddenly at the age of 61, apparently in California, after he underwent heart surgery and had complications post-op when he suffered a fatal stroke.

Paxton

English surname derived from the names of several locations in Britain. Of Old English origin, and the meaning of Paxton is "Poecc's settlement". Poecc was an Old English name whose meaning has been lost.

May also be derived from the Latin pax, meaning "peace" + ton meaning "town."

By extension, the word "cross" is associated with the name.

Highway 61 Revisited

Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was the OCP Vice-president Bob Morton in the 1987 film RoboCop. He is the main character in Toto's music video for the song "I Will Remember" (1995). He also voiced the antagonistic Hun leader Shan Yu in Mulan (1998) and Big Boss in Rio 2. Ferrer's other notable roles include Dr. Garret Macy on Crossing Jordan, NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on NCIS: Los Angeles, Vice President Rodriguez in Iron Man 3, and FBI forensic pathologist Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks(above) and, reportedly, in the new reboot.

Ferrer's cousin, George Clooney, on the left.

Ferrer was born in Santa Monica, California, and died at age 61 of throat cancer, in his Los Angeles home, on January 19, 2017.

Highway 61 Revisited
 by Bob Dylan

Oh, God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God said, "No" Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but
The next time you see me comin', you better run"
Well, Abe said, "Where d'you want this killin' done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61"

Rest of the lyrics, here. 

Watson

In my 1983 Mysterious America, I wrote:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things.

Thanks to SL for some hints.

Bellingham's Ramming: Bell Name Game Again

After rammings in Heilelberg and New Orleans, there has been another. On Sunday, February 26, 2017, a car ramming took place in London.

At about 8:20 am on Sunday, February 26, 2017, a car rammed into pedestrians on Bromley Road, Bellingham, southeast London. Five people have been injured, with at least one person trapped under the vehicle at the site.

Allegedly, the driver reportedly lost control and crashed into the group of pedestrians before hitting a wall.

The driver was detained at the scene by an off duty police officer before being arrested on suspicion of drink driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The road remains closed as investigations are carried out.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said:

Five people - four men and a woman, believed to be aged between 25 and 46 years - were treated at the scene before being taken to south and east London hospitals.
Three of the pedestrians - a 35-year-old woman and two 25-year-old men remain in a critical condition.
Two other men, aged 36 and 46 are in a stable condition; their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
The driver of the car was detained at the scene by an off-duty police officer before being arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
He was also arrested on suspicion of drink drive before being taken to a south London hospital with a head injury.

The crash happened opposite a car wash outside Catford bus garage.

Photos posted online show a Mercedes sedan that appears to have come off the road and rammed into the end of a hedge, its hood and trunk popped open by the impact. 

Bellingham, U.K.

Bellingham is an area of southeast London, Within the London Borough of Lewisham. It lies south of Lewisham and north of Beckenham.
The Bellingham Estate is an London County Council cottage estate bordered to the east and west by railway lines running south from Catford. Along the south it is bordered by Southend Lane, the A2218 main road. The River Ravensbourne runs through Bellingham, although it is either underground or part of a man-made section of the river. The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Bellingham.
Randlesdown Road serves as a mini "High Street" for Bellingham providing a local supermarket, men's and women's hair dressers, dry cleaner, off license, newsagent, fish and chip shop, pub, various takeaways and a recently built gym (situated on Bellingham playing fields). Source.

Bellingham, Washington State, U.S.A.

Bellingham in America is a well-known site of strangeness. "Bellingham alone has been linked to no less than four serial killers in the last 30 years," writes Ali LeRoy in "Bellingham's Most Violent Visitors." (Thanks, RDS.)

Bellingham has been a focus of Bigfoot cases, conferences, and even the tragic death of a Sasquatch conference organizer, Star Sams, in 2006. Source.

The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" has the Air Force pilot, dressed as an alien, as being shown to be born in Bellingham, Washington. (Thanks, AWG.)

Bell Green

Bell Green is an area in the London Borough of Lewisham, between Perry Vale and Bellingham. The area was historically known for its gas works and the poverty of the local workers, in what Charles Booth called "the one really poor district in this quarter of London." The gasworks closed in 1968 and the whole area redeveloped; it is best known today for the eponymous retail park. Source.

Bell Name Game, Again

Are we seeing a bit of the The Name Game this weekend? Should we watch what monikers come our way through Tuesday, Mardi Gras?

In Jim Brandon's 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, he writes, regarding the "name game":

I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson. I have others on file, but these are the ones which I have accumulated the most instances.

Besides detailing the Fayette Factor often, in my 1983 Mysterious America, I noted:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon, and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.

See also:

Bell Name Game

Vehicle Rammings: Heidelberg & New Orleans

On February 25, 2017, a car and pickup truck rammings occurred in Germany and the United States.

Three people have been injured in the German city of Heidelberg after a man drove a car into a pedestrian area, in the central square named Bismarckplatz. The attacker drove what is thought to be a rental car into pedestrians in front of a bakery, hitting three, one of whom died. The dead man was a 73-year-old German. The two injured people were a 32-year-old Austrian national and a 29-year-old Bosnian woman, police said. Their injuries are said to be minor and they have been discharged from hospital.

The suspect jumped from the car, ran down the street, armed with a knife. He was tracked down and shot by police near an old swimming pool, after a brief standoff.

The attacker was injured and said to be a 35-year-old German man with no immigration history.

His motives are unclear, but terrorism is not suspected and he is thought to have acted alone, police say. Police were unable to confirm local media reports that the attacker was mentally disturbed. Some witnesses claim to have heard "Allahu Akbar."

Also, today in New Orleans...

Twenty-one people were injured Saturday night (Feb. 25) when a suspected drunken driver crashed a pickup truck into spectators at the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, police said. The crash was reported at about 6:45 p.m. at North Carrollton and Orleans avenues.

"He took out rows of people," witness Greg McNeely said.

Officials said 28 people, including a police officer and a child, were taken to seven hospitals. Five were in critical condition. Seven declined treatment.

Neilson Rizzuto's booking photograph.

Update: The suspect is said to be 25-year-old Neilson Rizzuto. His name was given in the daily Major Offense log.

#######

On December 19, 2016, an Islamist attacker drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 49. 

The 2016 Bastille day truck ramming attack in Nice killed scores.

Delphi Twins

Update:

32

2/13/17

7/13/12

"The Temple of Apollo at Delphi" by Giovanni Ruggero

Delphi, Lafayette, Fayette Factor, Twin Pines, Down the Hill, Oracle, Railroad Trestle, 501.

Twin Pines.

The Trestle.

The bodies of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams were discovered on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2017, close to an abandoned railroad bridge near Delphi, about 20 miles from Lafayette, and around 60 miles from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Delphi, Indiana*

The Fayette Factor.

Down the Hill.

Liberty German, 14, one of two teenage girls killed along a northern Indiana hiking trail used her mobile phone beforehand to capture video of the man who killer her and her friend, Abigail Williams, 13.

Indiana State Police played a clip of the man’s voice during a news conference, where he can be heard saying: “down the hill.”

Liberty also captured a grainy image released by police of a man walking near the hiking trail outside Delphi about the time she and Abigail disappeared on February 13, 2017.

The police tip line for the case is: 844-459-5786.

501 Steps.

*Delphi, Indiana.

General, Samuel Milroy, "one of the most noted men of the Wabash valley," was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, on August 14, 1780. He came to Carroll County Indiana, in the spring of 1826 and was a leader in establishing that county in 1827–1828 as well as the originator of the name "Delphi" for its county seat. He was a representative for Carroll County to the state legislature in 1837 and again in 1838. For further details of his life, see John C. Odell, History of Carroll County (Indianapolis, Indiana., 1916), 175–176. From "The Logansport Telegraph and the Monster of the Indiana Lakes" by Donald Smalley, Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 42, Issue 3, pp 249-267, 1946