WA Government - Lockdown Information
WA Government Infographic - Summary
WA Health - Locations visited by confirmed cases
HealthyWA - COVID Clinic Locations / Operating Hours
Lockdown Rules Summary (ABC News)
ABC COVID Live Blog - Sunday 31/01
Premier's Annoucement:
--- IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING COMMUNITY CASE OF COVID-19 IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AND PERTH, PEEL AND SOUTH-WEST FIVE-DAY LOCKDOWN ---
This morning, I convened an urgent meeting of the Emergency Management Team.
We have a serious update to provide the WA community.
This morning we received news of a positive COVID-19 test result.
That positive result has come from a male hotel quarantine security guard, in his 20s.
The information we have is fast-evolving. As you can understand, immediately our teams moved into place to begin contact tracing and put in place emergency response systems.
This is all underway, and I ask everyone to be cooperative and understanding of what is going to take place.
Here is what we know about the male who tested positive:
He was working at one of the State’s hotel quarantine facilities – the Sheraton Four Points in the city. He had tested negative for COVID-19 on January Friday 15, January Sunday 17 and Saturday January 23 – as part of the weekly testing system in place. When the man was working at this hotel, there were four active cases of COVID-19. Of those four cases, we have at least three confirmed variant strains, two UK and one South African. We are told the guard was working on the same floor, as a positive UK variant case. The guard completed two 12-hours shifts on both the 26th and 27th of January. Exactly how the infection was acquired remains under investigation.
The Health Department contact tracing team has pulled together a list of potential exposure sites of where this positive case has been in recent days. These locations currently include:

• Coles Maylands supermarket on 25 January from 8pm to 10pm
  
• KFC Maylands on 27 January from 6pm to midnight
  
• Mitsubishi Motors car dealership in Midland on 27 January from 7pm to close
  
• Spudshed, Coventry Village in Morley on 27 January from 8pm to midnight
  
• ECU Joondalup on 28 January from 11am to 2pm
  
• Consulate General of India on St Georges Terrace in Perth on 28 January from 12pm to 5pm
  
• Halal Grocery Store in Cloverdale on 28 January from 7pm to 9pm
  
• Venus Ladies and Gentleman Hair Design Maylands hairdressers on 29 January from 1pm to 3pm
  
• Perth Convention Centre on 29 January from 4pm to 6pm
  
• Nedlands Family Practice GP surgery on 29 January from 5pm to 6pm
  
• Chemist Warehouse North Perth Pharmacy on 29 January from 5.30pm to 7.30pm
  
• 7-Eleven Ascot petrol station on 29 January from 8pm to 9pm
  
• Coles Maylands supermarket on 29 January from 8pm 9pm
  
• Puma Service Station in Burswood on 30 January from 11am to 12 midday.
  
• Coles Express/Shell Service Station in Cloverdale on 30 January from 12 midday to 3pm
  
• Pharmacy 777 at Maylands Park Shopping Centre 30 January from 2.30pm to 4pm.
  

People who have been to these venues on these dates and times must get tested.
In addition, people who live or work in the Falkirk Avenue, Maylands area including Coles, Liquorland and the Maylands shopping precinct should present for a test. They must then go home and isolate until their negative test results are returned.
The investigation is on-going by our public health team, and it is likely more locations will be added following further discussions with the man.
Close contacts will be contacted by public health officials and asked to quarantine for 14 days.
More information on testing clinics will be available on our website – the WA Health and WA Gov websites.
The man’s immediate household contacts have been contacted, tested and placed in isolation at State managed quarantine facilities to complete a 14-day quarantine period in a quarantine facility.
All three have tested negative this morning. However, we can expect that they will become positive in coming days.
Genome sequencing is underway on the positive case and results will be known by Tuesday morning.
However, based on the information we have, it appears possible that this new positive case has the highly transmissible UK variant.
The past year has been unlike any other – Western Australia has done an incredible job. It’s something I am so proud of.
But as we have always known with COVID – it can change very quickly.
Today – we need to go back to what we know best, to ensure we limit community transmission of COVID-19 in our State.
Even though it was nearly 10 months ago – WA has experienced community transmission of this virus before.
We all did the right thing and we crushed it.
And it worked.
So beginning at 6pm tonight, the whole Perth metropolitan area, the Peel region and the South West region will be going into a full lockdown.
This lockdown will run until 6pm on Friday.
A five-day lockdown.
It’s crucial we act quickly, to keep the community safe.
We cannot forget how quickly this virus can spread, nor the devastation it can cause.
Following our discussions with the Chief Health Officer and Police Commissioner, the following measures will be put in place from 6pm for people in Perth, Peel and the South West:
People in these regions are required to stay home, except for the following four reasons:

• Shopping for essentials like groceries, medicine and necessary supplies.
  
• Medical or health care needs including compassionate requirements and looking after the vulnerable.
  
• Exercise, within their neighbourhood, but only with one other person and only for one hour per day.
  
• Work, where you cannot work from home or remotely.
  

In addition to this Stay Home rule.
If you do leave home, for one of the four reasons you will be required to wear a mask at all times outside and if you need to work indoors, then wearing a mask in the workplace is also mandatory.
To be clear, mask wearing on public transport is also mandatory.
People in the Perth, Peel or South West region need to stay inside their region for the next five days, unless for an essential reason.
We are strongly encouraging that everyone in this area, who is from another WA region, stay here and do not travel further outside of this area until the lockdown is over.
If you do need to travel outside the region you are in now, that can only occur if you need to return to your place of residence or exceptional circumstances.
The transport of essential goods into this region, is permitted, under our existing transport guidelines.
This lockdown means the following businesses, venues and locations in the relevant regions need to close for the next five days:

• Pubs, bars and clubs
• Gyms and indoor sporting venues
• Playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor recreational facilities
• Cinemas, entertainment venues, and casinos
• Large religious gatherings and places of worship
• Libraries and cultural institutions

Restaurants and cafes will close, and provide takeaway service only.
10 people can attend funerals, weddings are cancelled for the next five days.
No visitors are permitted to your home, unless caring for someone vulnerable or an emergency.
No visitors will be allowed in aged care homes, unless exceptional circumstances.
No visitors to hospitals and/or disability facilities, unless exceptional circumstances.
Elective surgery and procedures for categories 2 and 3 will be suspended from Tuesday, 2 February. Category 1 and urgent category 2 surgery will continue.
For a majority of schools in these regions, school was due to start tomorrow.
That has now been put on hold and schools will be closed until next week – following the lockdown measures.
It is, in effect, an extension of the school holidays.
I have been in contact with the Prime Minister and my fellow State and Territory colleagues to advise them of this situation.
I have recommended that they put a stop to any travel into WA – as an extra precautionary measure.
Border controls are important here – and I 100% support them to ensure we can get through this.
All these measures will be reviewed regularly and the Chief Health Officer will continue to monitor the serious situation and provide more ongoing advice. This is an extremely fast-moving situation.
I know for many Western Australians this is going to come as a shock.
Western Australians have done so well for so long but this week it is absolutely crucial that we stay home, maintain physical distancing and personal hygiene and get tested if you have symptoms.
This is a very serious situation and each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to help stop the spread in the community.
We have acted decisively and swiftly given these circumstances.
I want to thank everyone in advance for their patience.
In effect, for a short period of time, we are going back to what we experienced in March and April.
This is a highly unpredictable virus. But it is important to act calmly and take sensible precautions.
Leaving your home to purchase food and essentials will be permitted during the lockdown.
I say this, so people understand that you do not need to rush to the supermarket today.
Take care of your loved ones and be respectful of others including those who are working, to keep essential services and supplies ticking over.
Our State is well equipped to handle this situation.
We have systems in place throughout the health system that are swinging into action as we speak.
We have the capacity to manage this situation.
Throughout the pandemic, the response of Western Australians has been second-to-none.
The community has done everything we have asked of them.
They have made great sacrifices, and it has kept our State safe.
I could not be more proud and thankful of the way Western Australians have carried themselves.
Now we’re asking for your help once again.
We will provide further updates as they come to hand.
All relevant information will be posted on websites as it comes to hand.
Thank you WA.

West Virginia has filed a new bill in an attempt to legalise online casino and poker. The state has previously attempted to legalise online gambling but failed to do so. Yet the the legalisation of sports wagering within West Virginia in 2018 may add fresh momentum to the campaign. The state’s Lottery Commission will conduct the regulation of online casino gaming if the bill is passed. Under the new bill, licenses can only be granted to existing West Virginia gambling facilities. The state would be allowed to process online casino applications 90 days after the legislation becomes law. Each license would cost $50,000 and every licensee would have to pay a 14% tax on internet gaming revenue. The bill also proposes to prohibit the use of poker bots, alongside any other form of collusion between online players. The West Virginia bill states: "Authorised interactive gaming, once fully developed, will allow persons in this state to participate in interactive games; not only with other persons in this states, but with persons in other cooperating jurisdictions in the United States where interactive gaming has been authorised." Source: Gamblinginsider.com

Appeal delayed on food truck lot
[A hearing on a controversial effort to turn a vacant lot into a food truck hub in Las Vegas’ Arts District has been delayed a month, leaving the future of the so-called Urban Food Lot in question until at least February. An appeal to the project had been set to be heard in front of the City Council on Wednesday, but it was delayed by city lawmakers until Feb. 17 at the request of applicant Main Street Investments II, LLC. The company plans to convert a roughly 7,000-square-foot lot on the west side of Casino Center Boulevard, just south of California Street, into a destination for up to 10 food trucks to sell their cuisine. The project was approved by the city’s Planning Commission last month, but local business owners have pushed back against lacking infrastructure including restrooms, which they say will burden adjacent establishments with food truck customers seeking to use their bathrooms. A petition circulated by local businesses garnered 16 signatures. Paul Murad, president of Metroplex Realty, is representing the project and has said that the food lot is not meant for people to sit down and therefore no public bathroom is necessary. The first phase, he recently said, will primarily serve people in downtown who order food to go, returning either home or to a nearby office, and to enable delivery drivers to pick up food for customers.]

I have missed out on so many of what are supposed to be the most important moments of my life. My graduation, my first year of university, my 18th birthday, hell I never even got to say goodbye to my old classmates because I was sick on the last day of school. I was a good person and followed all the health orders, naively believing that if we could all just show some goddamn solidarity and have some of that good old human resolve we could get through this.
Of course Alberta had to do what they do best and LARP as Texas. Feed right into all the crazy conspiracy theorists and drag their feet when proposing ways to manage this virus. Sucks, but one of the joys of living under a conservative government, freedom amirite! (except for those indigenous people on reserves and struggling workers, they don't count)
Something about these last few weeks just fucking broke me. They say they were hesitant about restrictions for mental health, cause nothing's better for the old noggin than a trip to the casino to play some slots and drink your feelings away. Because that is obviously so much safer than having a single, also socially distanced friend over to watch a movie together.
The UCP had the gaul to say that restaurants and stores aren't causing spread and that indoor gatherings are the real issue, when we don't know where 80% of cases come from and tons of studies worldwide have shown this claim to be bullshit. I get banning indoor gatherings, but then restraunts and non-essential businesses should be off the table too.
And of course today Kenney gets up on his little stepstool podium to announce new restrictions. Thank God. Oh wait? What's that first one? No outdoor gatherings at all? You mean the THING THAT NEARLY ALL HEALTH EXPERTS HAVE UNILATERALLY AGREED UPON BEING ONE OF THE SAFEST ACTIVITIES RIGHT NOW?
But thanks Kenney, thanks for keeping my mental health in check. My mental state totally wasn't hinging on that date I planned to go for a walk and look at the lights downtown with a girl I've had a crush on for ages. At least I can go to West Edmonton Mall and spend all my money on useless garbage surrounded by antimaskers and inbred trailer trash, I'm sure that'll keep me off the ledge for awhile longer!
But now stores are limited to 15% of fire capacity, that'll definitely help right? Anyone ever looked at fire capacity numbers? They are fucking absurd. The tiny little Dollar Tree near my house can have 30 people inside and still be under 15%, Best Buy can have over 100. A Best Buy with 100 people inside is still busy, I don't care what the fire code says. 15% sounds low, but it's not, and I can only assume it's a misinformation tactic to calm people down.
If you've read this far I think you might be just as insane as me, but what else do you have to do but stay inside and doomscroll through social networks while the world falls apart. But hey. Mental health is important right? After all that's why we avoided this lockdown until the one time of year where lonely people are known to kill themselves.
I wish I could tell Jason Kenney to go fuck himself, but he already jerked himself off for 2 hours straight today on live TV.

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ? Theories on the San Francisco killings ? Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73 Summary:The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator.There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled) The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman Vehicle: Tire went flat On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford Vehicle: Headlights Went Out January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged. On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada) Vehicle: Found Untouched A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner Abduction method: Unclear On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham Vehicle: Ran out of Gas On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber Abduction method: Hitchhiking On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen Abduction method: Hitchhiking On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello Vehicle: Tire was punctured On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa, Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez Abduction Method: Unclear On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang Abduction Method: Unclear Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas Abduction Method: Unclear Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis Abduction method: Hitchhiking Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville. Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell Abduction method: Unclear Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant Abduction method: Unclear Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun Abduction method: Unclear On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos Vehicle: Ran out of gas On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson Abduction method: Unclear Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon) On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana) On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information: http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read) https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

On September 11 of 2001, 19 men hijacked four planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into an open field in Shanksville PA. These men were al-Qaeda terrorists doing the deeds in the name of a holy war against the West and not much about the attack remains a mystery unless you subscribe to the inside job theory, which isn't my case. What authorities haven't been able to explain is the hijackers' several trips to Las Vegas despite what has been dubbed to be the broadest investigation in city. All these trips happened within a few months before the attacks, but the men behind them left very little evidence of their activities in the area.
TIMELINE
May 24 - Marwan Al-Shehhi, the pilot who crashed the United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Towers of the WTC, arrived to Las Vegas from San Francisco and rented a room at Travelodge as a walk in customer. Once there, he called eight other motels.
May 25 - Al-Shehhi walked in the St. Luis Manor, a hotel that wasn't on the call list. At 12:52 pm, he rented a different car, but didn't return the first car until 3:58pm. The unaccounted mileage in both vehicles summed up to 29 miles. FBI believes that these unusual patterns were a conscious attempt to avoid detection.
May 27 - Al-Shehhi made it to New York.
June 7 - Ziad Jarrah, pilot of the United Airlines 93 that crashed in Shanskville while on its way to the Capitol Building, arrived to Las Vegas and rented a car at 3:13 pm. He was accompanied by an unidentified man described as "middle eastern looking". When Jarrah asked for directions to Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, the a rent-a-car employee tried to give him an answer but was interrupted by the unidentified man who suggested another route. The man's knowledge of the address suggests that he was familiar with the area or that he had been in Las Vegas before.
June 10 - Jarrah took a flight to the Baltimore Washington International Airport leaving his rented car with a mileage exceeding 200 miles and no trace of his Las Vegas whereabouts .
June 28 - Mohamed Atta, pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into the North Tower of WTC and leader of the hijackers, arrived to Las Vegas at 2:41 pm and rented a car at 4:25 pm. At 6:40 pm Atta established an account at Cyberzone internet café and used the computer for one hour and thirty five minutes.
June 29 - Atta checked into Econo Lodge Motel at 1:01 pm. He logged in at Cyberzone again at 2:21 and 6:21 pm. Once done, the FBI believes he went back to his hotel.
June 30 - Atta accessed his Cyberzone accounts at 1:56 pm, 6:30 pm and 9:33 pm. The mileage analysis indicated that he returned to his hotel afterwards. This day as well as the day before, Atta had placed several call to Al-Shehhi as well as to two different number in Houston, TX. One number was unassigned and the other one belonged to a mobile salesman.
July 1 - Atta returned his rented vehicle at the airport at 5:12 am and took a flight to New York that connected in Denver. The vehicle had 73 unaccounted miles of usage which the FBI believes would cover a round trip to the Hoover Dam.
July 31 - Waleed al-Shehri, hijacker of the Flight 11, took a flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas where he stayed for 45 minutes while waiting for another flight to Miami. It is unclear to me whether this was a tactical flight - the hijackers were believed to take flights to study their trajectory as well as entrance to the cockpit-, or just a connection.
August 13 - Hani Hanjour and Nawaf al-Hazmi, pilot and hijackers of the American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon arrived to Las Vegas at 11:18 am. At 11:58 am, Atta arrived to Las Vegas to and rented a vehicle at 1:46 pm. The FBI assumed that the three men met, but no activity from Hanjour and al-Hazim was recorded from that trip. Atta accessed a room at the Econo Lodge at 2:55 pm and connected at the Cyberzone at 11:26 pm, getting back to his room at 12:46 am.
August 14 - Atta returned his rented car at 11:09 am leaving no unaccounted mileage and took a flight outside Las Vegas. Hanjour and al-Hazmi boarded a flight at 11:29 am.
THEORIES
A) Al-Qaeda was looking to target Las Vegas area
As noted in Atta's first trip, the unaccounted mileage added up to a round trip to the dam from his hotel. However, Atta's vehicle was not among the recorded license plates in the parking garage of the dam. If the hijackers had connections in Las Vegas area, which seems to be the case with Jarrah, Atta might have traveled to Boulder City or any other town close to the lake and gotten to the dam with someone else in a different vehicle. It should also be noted that both Atta and al-Shehhi stayed in hotels close to the Stratosphere, a hotel and casino located in the highest building of the city. Being known as the Sin City, Las Vegas could have been a attractive target for jihadists looking to rebel against what they perceived to be the westernization of their home countries and culture.
B) Hijackers were exchanging information with other Al-Qaeda members
The FBI emphasized the short duration on hijacker's trip to Las Vegas saying that it was just long enough to exchange information. Authorities believe that Atta was not only looking at flight on the East coast but he also kept in communication with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a potential 20th hijacker who had been denied entry to the United States and acted as an intermediary between Al-Qaeda and the other hijackers. Jarrah's mystery companion and the complete lack of evidence of his whereabouts point to possible terrorist acquaintances residing or staying in Las Vegas that are yet to be identified. The FBI summary mentions two persons of interest: Lotfi Raissi and Zakaria Hassan Ibrahim.
Raissi started attending the Sawyer School of Aviation in 1998 one month after Hanjour quit. Two days after Jarrah left Las Vegas, Raissi arrived to the city with his wife and stayed there until June 18. His stay didn't overlap with that of the hijackers and he claims he went to Las Vegas to celebrate his honeymoon. On September 21, Raissi was arrested near Colnbrook, UK, where he had been living at the time of the attacks. Prosecutor Arvinder Sambei claimed that the FBI had footage of him celebrating an event with Hanjour and that his flight logs from March 2000 to June 2001 were missing. It has also been claimed that Raissi was training five of the hijackers. No such proof was presented to the courts and the man in the footage turned out to be his cousin and not Hanjour, as it had been previously claimed.
Hassan Ibrahim had previously been convicted for trafficking in fraudulent passports and visas. He was the person to provide Mir Aimal Kansi, CIA headquarters shooter , and Mohammed A. Salameh, perpetrator of the 1993 WTC bombing, with fake documents. He was reported to have spent most of July in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, not much information about this individual is accessible so I could not verify if any connection between him and the hijackers was formally established.
C) Hijackers went to Las Vegas as a final pleasure stop before committing suicide
This theory was briefly mentioned by Evan Thomas, journalist, and quoted by criminologist Adam Lankford in his psychological autopsy of Mohamed Atta. According to the author, Atta and the other hijackers - Hanjour and al-Hazmi - might have visited Las Vegas because maybe " they wished to be fortified for their mission by visiting a shrine to American decadence".
While not much is known about Hanjour and al-Hazmi, Atta has been alluded to by the people who knew him as a sexually repressed man who experienced extreme discomfort around women and the mildest hint of sexuality. When years of repression build up an uncontrollable sexual urge, the individual might end up participating is risky sexual activities. Nevertheless, the circumstances of the trip make sex and gambling very unlikely motives. Their stays were short, happened across different months and there was no evidence of them visiting casinos or any similar venues. Strippers supposedly identified al-Shehhi as one of their patrons, but evidence was not conclusive. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that a quick visit to the strip club was anything more than a fun opportunity while pursuing a bigger goal.
I personally believe that the hijackers visited Las Vegas to coordinate the attacks with other members from Al-Qaeda who flew under the radar (no pun intended).
SOURCES:
Las Vegas investigative summary
Theories on why 9/11 hijackers visited Las Vegas
David C. Henley: 9/11 hijackers visits to Nevada remain a mystery
Wikipedia entry for Mir Aimal Kansi
Wikipedia entry for Mohammed A. Salameh
Cracking the terror code
EDIT: Thanks for the awards people!

(Note: be warned, kind of long background info here, but I think it’s needed)
As far as interesting lives, few can beat Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel. Born February 28, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, Siegel came from a poor Jewish family. Before he was even twenty, he’d established a profitable protection racket and a lengthy rap sheet, including armed robbery, rape, and murder. Siegel had connections—he was childhood friends with Al Capone and familiar with many of the well known New York City mobsters of the day—and he also had a taste for violence. Soon, he’d established a small mob specializing in hits for the numerous bootleg gangs of the time with Meyer Lansky, a fellow mobster. His violence and short temper led some to say he was “crazy as a bedbug,” giving him his famous nickname ‘Bugsy,’ which he even more famously despised.
Siegel was making money, which he was happy to flaunt, but he wanted more. He carried out several hits for Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and eventually formed Murder Inc. with his associates, establishing himself as a skilled hitman for the National Crime Syndicate, an organization of mob families. But Siegel was already making enemies, and several assassination attempts were made on his life, some of which came very close to being successful. So, it was time to move out west.
In California, Siegel helped establish gambling rackets, drug trade routes, and prostitution rings. His star was rising outside of the Underworld too, and in addition to the numerous politicians and police on his payroll, he befriended stars like Cary Grant and Clark Gable. Incredibly, while in Italy with a socialite in 1938, he met Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels, whom he immediately disliked and offered to kill. The offer was declined by his lady friend. Yet Siegel was not always looked upon fondly by the upper echelons of Hollywood; he borrowed exorbitantly from celebrities, knowing he would never be asked to pay it back, and began to develop extensive plans to extort movie studios. After several trials and acquittals for failed and successful hits, it was time to leave California.
Siegel’s next stop was Las Vegas where, in 1945, he purchased and developed the Flamingo Hotel & Casino, the first luxury hotel on the Vegas strip. As you might imagine, that was expensive, and over the course of its construction, costs were equivalent to over $61 million in today’s money each year. Siegel’s checks were bouncing, and many of the locals felt threatened by him. Mob bosses were beginning to lose patience with Siegel too, and he was refusing to report on business, claiming he was running the California Syndicate himself. For now, they left him alone—he'd been valuable in the past, after all.
The Flamingo Hotel was a dismal failure, and people—very powerful people—were starting to get tired of waiting for the promised money to materialize. By 1947, it was gradually turning around—with the help of Meyer Lansky, now in Vegas—but for most, it was too little too late.
Death:
On June 20, 1947, Siegel was gunned down in the Beverly Hills home of his sometimes-girlfriend Virginia Hill. He was 41. Somewhat suspiciously, Hill had taken an unscheduled flight to Paris the day (or by some sources, week) before. As Siegel sat reading the newspaper with associate Allen Smiley, an unknown assailant fired with a .30 caliber military M1 carbine through the window, striking Siegel many times (NSFW). Two shots hit his head, with one passing through his right cheek and the other his nose. Though he was not hit directly through the eye (NSFW), a bullet-in-the-eye death became a popular trope in Mafia media, including in the Godfather, where a character based on Siegel is murdered in the same manner.
The death was covered extensively in the media, which portrayed Vegas as a bastion of sin and mafia activity. As early as the day after Siegel’s death (or, as some sources have it, during Siegel’s death), however, more personal things were changing: Lansky walked into the Flamingo and took over operations.
Theories:
The mob is famously tight-lipped, and Siegel’s death was no exception. Despite the extensive speculation, no precise motive has ever been confirmed. There was a massive police investigation, but in a case like this, that doesn’t mean much, nor does the media coverage. The media in particular salivated over the potential for splashy crime stories, and the circumstances of this case have been complicated by contemporary coverage. Several days after Siegel’s death, for example, one newspaper ran the headline “BUGSY'S BLONDE EX-WIFE GIVES CLUES TO HIS KILLERS,” while another read “BUGSY'S EX NO AID IN HUNT.” As far as the most popular theories:
A Mob hit: A mob hit seems like the most obvious cause, and it's a theory that’s been popularized by several novels and the 1991 movie Bugsy. It would certainly make sense; it was the mob’s money Siegel had been spending wildly on his unsuccessful hotel after all, and he’d been growing uncooperative. Of the proposed hitmen, the most often mentioned are Frankie Carbo (Ralph Natale, former Philadelphia boss and Mob squealer, claimed Carbo as the true killer) and Eddie Cannizarro, both Syndicate hitmen. But even here, there are several proposed reasons for the hit. As some have it, mob money from the Flamingo’s funding was going missing and Siegel was skimming off the already meager profits. Skimming could have been forgiven, if the Flamingo was a success. It was not. After a meeting of the Syndicate’s “Board of Directors,” it was allegedly decided that Siegel would die, with Lansky reluctantly agreeing. Others believe that a hit might have been ordered whether Siegel was skimming or not; the Flamingo was simply too expensive. As one historian put it, “Bugsy was a dreamer. And he was dreaming with other people’s money.”
Yet many have also argued against this theory. According to one of Siegel’s emissaries in Vegas, for example, no one would have dared to order a hit on Siegel. He and Lansky were close until the end of their lives, and Lansky would never have agreed to it. And if Lansky would not agree, then Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who was “the head of everything,” would never have agreed either. And as others have argued, the method of execution (NSFW) didn’t match with typical mob methods; firing a weapon from outside a house increased the risk of missing as well as the risk of being seen. The preferred method was a clean shot to the back of the head. According to some, the oft-referenced money problems of the Flamingo also wasn’t an issue. At the time, Lansky was paying back any investor who wanted out, and the gradual uptick in its profits was quickening by the day. Personally, I don’t think the financial uptick invalidates the theory. If the hotel was starting to make more money, then that might be all the more reason to get rid of the difficult-to-manage Siegel and take over.
Wire Business: At the time of his death, Siegel was embroiled in a dispute with Jack Dragna, dubbed the Capone of Los Angeles. Siegel and Dragna had had an uneasy partnership in previous years, but Dragna, far less powerful than Siegel and the New York gangs, resented the income and respect Siegel commanded. This came to a head when a racing wire service (a way of cheating on bets) between the two of them soured. Siegel wanted control for himself, and ordered Dragna to turn it over or be killed, to which Dragna agreed. After Siegel’s death, control was returned to Dragna. He had a motive, but his story would only have been one among many for a man as ruthless as Siegel, which, in a way, complicates things further—there’s a real possibility that the culprit in Siegel’s murder was someone never even considered. His list of enemies was long, varied, and probably mostly unknown. Yet another man who had reason to want Siegel dead, for example, was his bodyguard and muscle Mickey Cohen. A Cleveland gangster, Cohen was given control of the Syndicate’s West Coast gambling operations. If Siegel still lived, he would never have gotten it. Interestingly, he, like Al Capone before him, was eventually felled by tax evasion.
Virginia and/or brother: The same emissary of Siegel who shot down the mob hit theory believed that Virginia Hill’s brother had carried out the murder. The brother, a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton named Bob or Bill, had seen Siegel and Virginia fighting outside the Flamingo as well as the bruises Siegel had left on her and threatened to kill him. Another of Virginia’s brothers, Chuck, was also at the Beverly Hills house when Siegel was murdered.
Virginia herself has also been the subject of suspicion. Nicknamed the “Queen of the Mob,” Hill worked, among other powerful jobs, as a cash courier, laundering money and stolen goods as well as blackmailing high-ranking men through sexual liaisons. Her relationship with Siegel was tempestuous at best, and she may have been embezzling from the Flamingo. She’s also been accused of two-timing with rival mob operations, though this is unconfirmed. Eventually fleeing to Europe permanently, Hill died of an overdose in 1966, though some have alleged that she was actually murdered after she, completely broke, attempted to leverage her intimate knowledge of the Mob.
Rival Mobs: Unfortunately, I can’t find much concrete information about this theory (note: story of my life researching these posts haha), but some believe that rival mob operatives wanted Siegel gone. He was a powerful—and very public—figure, which made him something of an obvious target in the cut-throat world of Mafia politics.
Moe Sedway: This is a relatively new theory, emerging after Robbie Sedway was interviewed for LA Magazine after his mother’s death. Here, he alleged that Siegel’s murder was ordered by his mother Bee, the wife of powerful mobster—and childhood friend of Siegel’s—Moe Sedway. According to Bee, who wrote and scrapped a book proposal called Bugsy's Little Lunatic (Siegel’s nickname for her), Siegel had threatened her husband, who was the Flamingo’s numbers man, and therefore watching Siegel—who, remember, had been accused of skimming—closely. So Bee contacted Mathew “Moose” Pandza, a truck driver whom Bee married after Moe’s death. Moose, the perfect killer, since he had no connection to the Mob, then shot Siegel to death. The problem with this theory, however, is that Bee is the only source; as she herself said, anyone who could contradict her was dead. She also squandered most of the fortune left to her by Moe over the course of her life, and died almost penniless.
All of the above: Some believe that almost all the suspects were involved. Usually, it goes something like this: “Virginia supplied the location and received some reward. Cohen knew Bugsy's schedule for the evening, but happened to not be watching him that night…Dragna ordered the hit, with the approval of Lansky and Luciano.” It’s unlikely, but it certainly has its believers, if only for the convenience of it.
Final Thoughts & Questions:
This case is interesting to me because of the sheer number of suspects. In the end, a mob hit seems the simplest and most likely explanation. But there were so many people with means, motive, and opportunity. So:

• Why was Siegel killed and who killed him? The Syndicate, rival mobs, Virginia Hall, her brother, Mickey Cohen, Jack Dragna, Mathew Pandza (as ordered by Moe and/or Bee Sedway), several of the suspects, or someone else entirely?

Sources:
https://www.lamag.com/longform/mobster-murder-moll-secret/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-bugsy/
https://themobmuseum.org/blog/killed-benjamin-bugsy-siegel/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel
https://themobmuseum.org/blog/virginia-hill-queen-of-the-mob-was-no-ones-pushove
To many, Siegel’s legacy exceeds his mob connections, and in some ways, even his death; without him, many believe, there would be no Vegas. So if you take anything away from this write-up, let it be this: The Blue Man group’s Vegas residency is Bugsy Siegel’s fault.

It's not a debate about whether to plan things. It never has been. Things are already planned and that's how conservatives like it. The question is how things should be planned and by whom. In capitalism, production is planned by the rich, who have no goal in mind but their own profit. To frame the debate as though it were about capitalism versus central planning, like attempts at characterizing capitalism as an 'emergent order,' has only ever been propaganda for the rich.
Why can't things be run differently? In 1920, an economist tried to devise an answer when he wrote about the economic calculation problem (ECP). To make economic decisions requires we have a common value to compare things by. How else do we know what to produce? A shipment of steel could be used to make cars. It could also make pipes, or microwaves, or any other number of things. How do we decide? There isn't a simple, objective answer you could produce in a lab test. It's a matter of finding the right proportion of what everybody wants. So the critical question is, what do people want? How do we determine that? The argument people are making when they invoke the ECP is a socialist economy couldn't determine this, and will thus always mismanage resources. (This is the origin of the 'commie no food' meme.)
The capitalist price system does provide some information about demand, as prices do reflect how real people are spending their money and thus implies an expression of preference. But how much information this actually produces is exaggerated, along with just how meaningful that information is, while its various problems and shortcomings are swept under the rug. Ludwig von Mises, the economist who first described the ECP, meanwhile does nothing to make the case for why no other method to gauge demand is feasible. He asserts the price system itself couldn't be replicated in socialism, but only because his grasp of socialism was basically if one big company bought the whole economy and prices were arbitrarily set by bureaucrats sitting in a room somewhere. The only point he made in the end is planning requires information, which is mundane.
There's numerous ways to gauge demand. The one I'm most interested is just plainly asking, which I have no problem calling the survey method. Take a random sample of the population every so often, have them rank things by importance. That's it. It would create the same type of information as the price system currently does, if not better. What interests me about this method is its simplicity. It could of course be built upon and expanded over time, and other methods could be incorporated in addition to it, but a general belief of mine is that movements require simple ideas as their foundation, and on this subject I can think of nothing more straightforward and easy to understand than 'to determine what people want, ask them.' It's the ideal starting point.
A big objection I always hear to this idea is people wouldn't answer realistically. People would say they want caviar and lobster every meal, or something like that. But obviously we could present choices and trade-offs in such a way that reflects how difficult things are to provide. It's not a choice between bread and lobster, it's a choice between lots of bread and some lobster, because lobster takes more labour and resources to obtain. The suggestion we couldn't figure out something so basic helps to betray how much of the 'skepticism' about socialism is just dull status-quo bias. The argument is practically 'an idea must be bad if I can imagine it being implemented poorly.'
The other big objection is people don't know what they want. After all, how they reply to a survey doesn't always align with how people really behave. And I suppose that's true, but I also don't accept that it's a disadvantage. In fact, I assert the opposite. This objection touches on a big reason why socialist planning would be so advantageous.
There are those who think what people say they want can be discarded. It's what people do, in practice, that matters. To put that differently, it's not people's stated preference that we should care about, but only their revealed preference. That's what reflects our true desires. To put it mildly, this couldn't be more wrong.
If asked clearly and given time to think and produce a deliberate answer, what people say they want is a much better way to determine their values than observing what they do when put in a system designed to influence their behaviour otherwise. The simplest example: a person can be on a diet and want to lose weight, but if we leave a box of doughnuts in the break room every day their behaviour might not reflect that.
And the capitalist economy is one big 'break room with a box of doughnuts.' It's an environment we have no control of, built to modify our behaviour in whatever way is most profitable for the rich. There's obviously a significant disconnect between what people truly want from life and how they end up behaving in capitalism, and to suggest that's not a problem because however they behave is their 'true selves' is an astoundingly stupid oversimplification of human behaviour. It's logically akin to arguing drug addiction isn't a problem because the addict chooses to keep doing drugs, which proves that must be what they want.
Most people fall into traps they'd vote against if they could. Like how supermarkets put all those impulse-buy candies and chocolates near the checkout till, or put common staples like rick, milk, or eggs at the very back of the store to ensure you have to walk through all the aisle to get to them. CostCo, the second largest retailer in the world, regularly moves all their inventory around for no fucking reason beyond ensuring people don't know where anything is and they have to wander around the store looking for stuff, because that way they're forced to walk by and look at more products, and on average end up buying more. Can you imagine if we had an economy that was designed to be efficient, instead of there being whole industries dedicated to this kind of manipulative bullshit?
And capitalists love peddling addiction. Tobacco isn't as cool as it used to be in the West, but it's still a huge problem in some countries, and nicotine products are making a comeback. Meanwhile, alcohol is still going strong. Where I live, they've been putting beer and wine in supermarkets now, predictably always near checkout. And let's not forget sugar and caffeine are highly addictive, and many products have both, including products marketed to children. Did you know in the USA, obesity has doubled over the last two decades?
Gambling can be addictive. That includes not only predatory bullshit like casinos and lotteries (which should all be burned to the ground), but an increasingly large part of the video game industry, as developers incorporate more and more gambling elements into popular titles to better manipulate people into spending money they'll regret.
Pornography is addictive. Food in general can be an addiction. Arguably shopping, consumption, the thrill of going out and spending money and getting to open new things, can itself be an addiction.
This could veer off into a debate about when exactly a behaviour becomes an addiction, but the exact application of that terminology is far from the point. No, the point is how in the moment of consumption, people aren't as rational and in-control-of-things as it's convenient to portray them. So much of our consumption is impulsive, irrational, and manipulated for the benefit of producers. A system where normal people were able to exert actual control over production would naturally be much, much better at determining what things people truly value than what we have.
And as far as I could tell that was the best critique of the survey idea they could muster.

People have criticized the Ghost in the Shell adaptation by Hollywood as a whitewashed movie. However, i see there is a sinister message behind the move that seems good for Westerners and bad for Japanese. The movie isn’t an entertaining one but it is a prophetic vision. Most Hollywood movies have social and political commentaries that send messages for wisest observers. As a long time observer of Japan, I realized the message. The movie doesn’t simply speak against the wrongness of transhumanism unchecked but it also revels the gospel of globalist capitalism.
In the movie, you see the Neo-Japan as an exciting place for international players of all kinds. It’s a world financial hub. In today, Japanese neoliberals are trying hard to turn Japan into London.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Suga-Tokyo-can-be-global-financial-hub
This seems all good but people of UK weren’t happy when the Iron Lady demolished British economy for American corporations. The UK is increasingly getting poorer and on verge of collapse after Brexit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-05/the-cost-of-failure-what-s-at-stake-if-brexit-talks-collapse
London became the world capital for crooks and global elites, while British people don’t see any benefit. This is what Japanese cronies want to bring into Japan.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/12/d8928a66c1ed-casino-winnings-by-nonresident-foreigners-to-be-untaxed-in-japan.html
They already think of destroying the Japanese economy through allowing massive tax breaks for foreigners. Exactly like what Tories in the UK did.
In the movie, you see all people of non-Japanese backgrounds. There are very little Japanese people in the movie. What happened? Population displacement, as Tokyo is too expensive for Japanese people to afford, while rich foreigners can. This movie is parallel to the real world cases where massive foreign capitals ruin local lives. Djibouti is a cautionary tale of massive foreign capitals creating more inequalities and ruining local businesses.
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/DJI.pdf
The case of Japan is no different today. Japan suffered three great economic recessions and got deteriorating conditions each time. Japan, similar to Thailand, has wage stagnation due to a deflationary economy. This means that everyone can no longer become rich in the long run if they work within Japan since their wages keep falling. It’s good that an appreciated currency can increase your buying power (if you have a lot of money already); however, it killed growth. Like Thailand, Japan has no choice to seek a service economy that caters for tourists as a way to accumulate more USD.
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00646/amp/
This was the original plan for the Olympics 2020 which failed miserably. As Japan gears towards service economy, real estates become sky high as foreigners purchase them.
https://japan-forward.com/chinas-wealthy-out-to-buy-japanese-ryokans-that-suffered-losses-during-pandemic/
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3011062/private-equity-funds-pour-money-hot-spring-resorts-japan
As a result, Tokyo to Osaka see many expensive real estate assets that are mostly owned by foreigners. Japanese locals can’t afford the rents, and they now migrate to the countryside.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/japan-tokyo-cities-city-countryside-pandemic-coronavirus-covid-19/
All of these have been symptoms that we saw in London and San Francisco. Japanese elites keep spinning reasons but we know the answers. The movie portrays a future where Japanese people are either kicked out of Tokyo or stucked in caged apartments to make rooms for foreigners.
The biggest theme of the movie is the rampant corporatism - a big critical theme in the movie. However, the movie merely points it at the foreign corporations who are villains in the first place. All corporations in the movie are foreign and operated by the West. There is little to no Japanese. Today, it’s the trend in the Japanese corporate world as more companies get acquired by foreigners. These foreigners do not give a damn about Japanese people.
https://www.ft.com/content/bdf8abd2-f84c-11e3-a333-00144feabdc0
It’s all about the mighty dollars for the Globalists, not the nation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/business/nissan-ghosn-lawsuits.html
Now, it’s much worse for Japan as the foreigners figured ways to skiffle Japanese sovereignty for profits. These foreigners can control Japan without even calling the US government.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-11/masa-son-s-softbank-takes-to-discipline-from-paul-singer-s-elliott-management
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Spotlight/Warren-Buffett-s-Japan-trade-The-changing-world-of-sogo-shosha
https://www.ft.com/content/6e18f816-de9b-44d0-9541-1daf758a6c01
Now, it’s even much worse as their successes becoming more prevalent when Japanese power leverages wither with the rampaging pandemic.
https://www.ft.com/content/fc4ea0f4-d54e-4b59-ae4b-da2e32fce286
The movie sees many non-Japanese people around as well as Japanese cultures and thought don’t exist in the movie. Why? Globalism diluted cultures into a melting pot. Japan in the movie has become American. In real world, we already see this through massive efforts from Western NGOs and liberals trying to penetrate and disrupt Japanese archaic cultures. Not for Japanese people, it’s better for smoothing the process of Globalism where any foreigner in Japan won’t be attacked by Japanese for being rich and different - like the Bakumatsu period where foreigners were attacked by local Japanese.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Nike-shrugs-off-Japan-boycott-threats-after-controversial-ad
Nike simply shrugs off the critics from Japan because their globalist agenda has been succeeding after 1990s. Japan has lost all power leverages and become an open book for Westerners to freely manipulate Japanese consciousness.
————-
The movie is a prophecy of what Japan will be. An American territory for dark money and unfettered corporatism. All of these are now happening in Japan, and no one cares.
It stunned me to see how close the movie is to the current deteriorating situation of Japan and the rise of Western influences over Japan in negative ways.

New Music Friday is the weekly thread dedicated to cataloging all the Album/EP releases that came out this week, including non-subreddit relevant releases. This is also a great place to discuss these albums, or bring to our attention other albums released this week.

❓ "this seems intriguing after a cursory look"
⭐ "im interested in this for one reason or another"
❤️ "ive been waiting for weeks, months/i'm absolutely in love with this"

⭐ Goat Girl - On All Fours
Label: Rough Trade
Genre: Art Rock, Neo-Psych, Indie Rock
⭐ Madlib - Sound Ancestors
Label: Madlib Invazion
Genre: Instrumental Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Spiritual Jazz
Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams (animated cover)
Label: Transgressive
Genre: Bedroom Pop, Neo-Soul, Trip Hop
⭐ The Body - I've Seen All I Need to See
Label: Thrill Jockey
Genre: Power Electronics, Drone Metal, Death Industrial, Sludge Metal
Baio - Dead Hand Control
Label: Glassnote
Genre: Indietronica, Indie Pop
LNZNDRF (side project of The National + Beirut) - II
Label: self-released
Genre: Indie Rock, Krautrock
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (Demos)
Label: Island
Genre: Alternative Rock, Singesongwriter, Downtempo
❓ Spills - Reflexions
Label: self-released
Genre: Synthpop, Dream Pop
Steven Wilson - THE FUTURE BITES
Label: Universal/Caroline
Genre: Art Pop, Progressive Pop, Art Rock
Katie Dey - urdata (remixes)
Label: Run for Cover
Genre: Glitch Pop, Hyperpop
❓ Lucero - When You Found Me
Label: Liberty & Lament
Genre: Alt-Country, Folk Rock
❓ Celeste - Not Your Muse
Label: Polydor
Genre: Pop Soul, Contemporary R&B
Portrayal of Guilt - We Are Always Alone
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Genre: Screamo, Black Metal, Sludge Metal
Two Suns - Isolated Incidents (EP)
Label: self-released
Genre: Heavy Psych, Garage Rock
Martin Gore (of Depeche Mode) - The Third Chimpanzee (EP)
Label: Mute
Genre: Electronic, Ambient Techno, IDM
⭐ Tamar Aphek - All Bets Are Off
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Genre: Singesongwriter, Psychedelic Rock, Blues Rock
The Notwist - Vertigo Days
Label: Morr Music
Genre: Indietronica, Krautrock
❓ Zeahorse - Let's Not (And Say We Did)
Label: Copper Feast
Genre: Noise Rock, Punk Rock
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings
Label: Full Time Hobby
Genre: Indie Rock, Neo-Psych
The Sonder Bombs - Clothbound
Label: Take This to Heart
Genre: Power Pop, Pop Punk
Fergus McCreadie - Cairn
Label: Edition
Genre: Jazz-Folk
❓ Motorama - Before the Road
Label: I'm home records
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Pop, Dream Pop
Dr. Dog - Live 2
Label: We Buy Gold
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Lia Ices - Family Album
Label: Natural Music
Genre: Art Pop, Indie Folk, Singesongwriter
❓ Albertine Sarges - Sticky Fingers
Label: Moshi Moshi
Genre: Singesongwirter
❓ Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit
Label: Invada
Genre: Drone Metal
Langhorne Slim - Strawberry Mansion
Label: Dualtone Records
Genre: Alt-Country, Americana
James Ferraro - Terminus
Label: n/a
Genre: Progressive Electronic, Post-Industrial, Aggrotech, Dark Ambient, Glitch
❓ Anna B Savage - A Common Turn
Label: City Slang
Genre: Psychedelic Folk, Singesongwriter
Minotaur Shock - Qi
Label: n/a
Genre: IDM, Electronic
Rats On Rafts - Excerpts From Chapter 3: The Mind Runs a Net of Rabbit Paths
Label: Fire
Genre: Post-Punk
Keaton Henson - Supernova (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Label: Lakeshore
Genre: Modern Classical
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So
Label: Colemine
Genre: Jazz-Funk, Soul
❓ Cathedral Bells - Ether
Label: Spirit Goth
Genre: Dream Pop, Coldwave, Post-Punk
The Quincey - Eolia (EP)
Label: Nice Guys
Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock
❓ Cobalt Chapel - Orange Synthetic
Label: Klove
Genre: Neo-Psych, Art Pop
Babehoven - Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation (EP)
Label: self-released
Genre: Lo-Fi Indie, Bedroom Pop
The Luka State - Fall In Fall Out
Label: AntiFragile
Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Punk Revival
Joe Vann (of Indian Lakes) - Found In The Smoke
Label: self-released
Genre: Indie Rock, Singesongwriter, Synthpop
Casino Versus Japan - Echo Counting
Label: n/a
Genre: IDM, Ambient, Downtempo
DMX Krew - Overseer (EP)
Label: Cultivated Electronics
Genre: Electro
Ani DiFranco - Revolutionary Love
Label: Righteous Babe
Genre: Singesongwriter, Art Pop, Indie Folk
⭐ Black Pistol Fire - Look Alive
Label: Modern Outsider
Genre: Blues Rock, Alternative Rock
The Crayolas - Post-Modern Days
Label: self-released
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Buzzy Lee - Spoiled Love
Label: Future Classic
Genre: Indie Pop, Singesongwriter, Alternative R&B
The Planes - The Oracle of Marcy
Label: n/a
Genre: Indie Rock
Buke and Gase and So Percussion - A Record Of...
Label: Brassland
Genre: Math Rock, Avant-Prog
Weezer - OK Human
Label: Crush
Genre: Chamber Pop, Pop Rock, Baroque Pop
Marcus Skeen - Irrational
Label: self-released
Genre: Pop
ISÁK - Roasut
Label: Universal
Genre: Synthpop, Alternative R&B
Seeb - Sad in Scandinavia
Label: Universal
Genre: Electropop, Dance-Pop, Future House
Videoclub - Euphories
Label: n/a
Genre: French Pop, Synthwave, Synthpop
❓ BONES - BURDEN
Label: self-released
Genre: Cloud Rap, Emo Rap, Trap
Fendi P - Art of Finessing 2
Label: Jet Life
Genre: Southern Hip Hop, Trap
Haiti Babii - Trap Art
Label: Empire
Genre: West Coast Hip Hop
5AM - You're Going To Be Fine
Label: Interscope
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
Chip - Snakes & Ladders
Label: Cash Motto
Genre: UK Hip Hop, Grime, Afrobeat
⭐ Soen - IMPERIAL
Label: Silver Lining
Genre: Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal
Accept - Too Mean To Die
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Heavy Metal
Annisokay - Aurora
Label: Arising Empire
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Metalcore
⭐ Trillionaire - Romulus
Label: Nefarious Industries
Genre: Hard Rock, Progressive Rock
And Now The Owls Are Smiling - Dirges
Label: Clobber
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Blackgaze
⭐ Demon Head - Viscera
Label: Metal Blade
Genre: Occult Rock, Gothic Rock
Eximperitus - Šahrartu
Label: Willowtip
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal
Meer - Playing House
Label: Karisma
Genre: Orchestral Pop, Prog Rock
❓ Nopes - Djörk
Label: Magnetic Eye
Genre: Noise Rock, Garage Punk
⭐ WOWOD - Yarost’ I Proshchenie
Label: Church Road
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Sludge Metal
Hån - Breathing the Void
Label: Northern Silence
Genre: Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal
Knife the Glitter - Breakfast Time (EP)
Label: self-released
Genre: Mathcore

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a place where misadventure could begin, you can’t go past Mbargo. The nightclub’s streetfront is painted a purple so bright you’ll see it in your dreams. Strings of giant sequins shimmer in the breeze. Its phonically inventive name is spelt in silver letters that climb its three-storey terrace facade. Inside are strips of burning neon, a few booths, floorboards so marinated in drink that they have an ingredients list. Bristol is a student city on England’s south coast crowded with music and nightlife and street art. This is Banksy’s home town, and the tourism board suggests in rather strong terms that ‘you would be a fool not to see his amazing work firsthand’. The same organisation describes Mbargo as ‘intimate’, which is fair for a place where you can catch an STI standing up. Students cram into its modest dimensions while people with names like DJ Klaud battle for billing with £1.50 drink deals over seven sloppy nights a week. To get a sense of the story about to come, consider that it’s the kind of place open until two o’clock on a Monday morning, and that at two o’clock on a Monday morning, Ben Stokes still thought it had closed too early.
The Ashes of 2017–18 had disciplinary bookends. It was after that series that Australia’s two leaders went off the rails in South Africa. It was a few weeks before that Ashes tour that England’s biggest star windmilled his way into his own disaster.
In the early hours of 25 September 2017, Stokes and teammate Alex Hales were barred from re-entering Mbargo after a night out on the piss. A Sunday thrashing of an abject West Indies in an ignored series at the fag-end of the season apparently required ample celebration. After arguing with the bouncer and hanging about at the door for a while, they wandered off to find a casino in the hope of more drinking. They’d barely made it around the corner before getting in the middle of a conflict between four locals. As is said on the internet, it escalated quickly.
The 26 September reporting was bloodless. Withholding names, police stated that a man ‘was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm’ while another went to hospital with facial injuries. England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss separately confirmed that Stokes was the arrestee, adding that he had been released without charge and that Hales had gamely offered to ‘help police with their enquiries’. Administrators had a good chance of hiding behind that investigation, and the next day Stokes was named in the upcoming Ashes squad as expected. But that night the video emerged.
Bristol student Max Wilson had shot it on his phone, then offered it to The Sun. What he thought was playing hardball was actually lowball: his opening price of £3000 was snapped up by a tabloid that would have paid ten times that. The Sun went on to make a mint by syndicating the rights worldwide. From a window above the fray, the vision showed six men on the street below performing the muddled choreography of a melee. One was right at the centre of it. One was waving a bottle, one dipped in and out, one tried to calm it. Two others floated around the edges. The central figure was unmistakable: red hair burning even in the streetlight as he launched into a series of blows against two of the men, falling to grapple with them on the ground, then following both across the street, swinging punches the whole way. Hales trailed behind, repeatedly and impotently shouting ‘Stokes! Stop! Stokes! Enough!’ The ECB could fudge issues that existed only in thickets of legalese, but not those captured in moving colour. Stokes was stood down from the next West Indies match, then suspended indefinitely. It emerged that he had broken his hand during the fight, something he’d done twice before while punching objects in dressing rooms.
The response in Australia was fierce: Stokes was a thug, a lowlife, a selection that would disgrace England. It was not entirely coincidental that a ban for England’s best player would be handy for the Aussie team, but there was also a cultural split. In England, plenty of people still minimise pub fights as lads letting off steam. In Australia, heavy media coverage as a succession of young men were killed had inverted that tolerance. The discourse now saw any punch as potentially deadly and accordingly reckless. This was more poignant in a cricket context given that David Hookes, the dashing Test batsman and state coach, was killed in 2004 by a pub bouncer’s fist.
The PR situation was bad for Stokes as details emerged of the injuries to the men he’d hit, and that one was a young war veteran and father. Stokes wasn’t officially removed from the Ashes squad through October but stayed behind when his teammates left, hoping for police to dismiss the matter in time for a late dash to Australia. His annual contract was renewed on the due date in case that came to pass. Then 29 October brought a twist in the tale.
‘Ben Stokes praised by gay couple after defending them from homophobic thugs,’ ran the headline. Kai Barry and Billy O’Connell had emerged. Not entirely out of nowhere: while Stokes had made no public comment, this story in his defence had initially been leaked to TV host Piers Morgan after the fight, as soon as the video appeared. Police body-camera footage played in court would later show that Stokes had given the same story to the arresting officer on the night. But no-one knew the identities of the fifth and sixth men in the video, and police appeals had turned up nothing.
It was The Sun again with the breakthrough. Kai and Billy were perfect for a readership not keen on nuance. ‘We couldn’t believe it when we found out they were famous cricketers. I just thought Ben and Alex were quite hot, fit guys,’ said Kai, who was memorably described as a ‘former House of Fraser sales assistant’. The paper had the pair do a full photo shoot: layering the fake tan, showing off chest waxes, mixing Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton into a range of outfits. Their best shot had them standing back to back, heads turned to the camera, in a mirror-image Zoolander moment.
Suddenly The Sun was the England team’s best friend. ‘Their claims could lead to the all-rounder being cleared over the punch-up and freed to play in the First Test in Australia next month,’ it gushed, then gave a tasting platter of quotes: ‘We were so grateful to Ben for stepping in to help. He was a real hero.’ ‘If Ben hadn’t intervened it could have been a lot worse for us.’ ‘We could’ve been in real trouble. Ben was a real gentleman.’ Would it be known forever as Kai and Billy’s Ashes? No. While the Bristol boys provided spin for Stokes’ reputation they didn’t influence the police. With charges still pending there was little choice – not given Strauss had previously sacked Kevin Pietersen for being annoying. Stokes remained suspended through the Ashes and a one-day series in Australia, and lost the vice-captaincy. It was January 2018 before the Crown Prosecution Service laid a charge.
That charge surprisingly came in as affray, a crime that can carry prison time but is classified as ‘a breach of the peace as a result of disorderly conduct’. The men he had punched, Ryan Ali and Ryan Hale, faced the same count, charged as equal participants in a fight rather than Stokes being charged with assaulting them. Alex Hales was not charged, despite being seen in the video to aim several kicks when Ryan Ali was lying on the ground. Given the underwhelming standing of the offence, Stokes was cleared by the ECB to tour New Zealand, and kept playing until his trial in August 2018, which he missed a Test to attend. None of the three defendants would be convicted.
The reasoning behind the charges was never released and was attributed vaguely to ‘CPS lawyers’. The service gave the case to Alison Morgan, a prosecutor of a class known as Treasury Counsel who usually handle serious criminal matters. Morgan had a scheduling clash and never ended up court for the case, but in 2018 and 2019 she would go on to win damages and admissions of libel from The Daily Mail, The Times and The Daily Telegraph variously for incorrectly reporting that she had been responsible for the inadequate and inconsistent charging decisions.
Morgan’s successor on the case was Nicholas Corsellis QC, who on the first day of trial was permitted by the CPS to request two assault charges be added against Stokes. ‘Upon further review,’ claimed a CPS statement, ‘we considered that additional assault charges would also be appropriate.’ This was patent nonsense from the service that eight months earlier had chosen the lesser charge. Any lawyer knows that no judge will allow new charges once a trial has begun, because the defence hasn’t had time to prepare. But such a request could deflect criticism of the prosecution service by technically making the judge the one who disallows the charge.
Working through the story from the trial and the tape is complicated. You had a Ryan and a Ryan, a Hale and a Hales, a Billy and a Barry and a Ben. You had several versions of events as to who knew whom, who was drinking with whom, who had insulted whom and who had merely engaged in ‘banter’, a word that in modern Britain has to do an unconscionable amount of lifting. The reporting had constantly mixed up the Ryans as to who had which injury, who was in hospital, who had played which part in the fight, and whose mum had which stern words to say about it.
Let’s agree that from now Ryan Ali is Ryan One, the firefighter who ended up with a fractured eye socket and a cracked tooth. Ryan Two can be Ryan Hale, the soldier who scored concussion and facial lacerations. Mr Barry and Mr O’Connell are best known per The Sun as Kai and Billy. In scorecard parlance we’ll leave the cricketers as Stokes and Hales.
Amid the confusion, Stokes and his lawyers built his case in a straightforward way. The UK legal definition of affray is ‘if a person threatens or uses unlawful violence or force towards another person, which causes another person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for their safety’. That means it doesn’t account for violence that harms a target, but violence that might frighten a theoretical bystander. The wiggle room for Stokes was with ‘unlawful’, because the charge excuses violence in defending oneself or others.
This interpretation hinged on the beginning of the video, where Ryan One waves a beer bottle about and takes a swing at Kai. The version from Stokes was that he was minding his own business walking down the street when he heard homophobic abuse. He intervened verbally and was threatened verbally by Ryan One – something that Ryan One denied but that couldn’t be proved or disproved. In fear for his safety Stokes had to nullify that threat by bashing Ryan One before it went the other way. He registered Ryan Two in his peripheral vision as another possible threat, and again had only one recourse.
Stokes also had to convince the jury to disregard testimony from Mbargo’s bouncer that he had been looking for a fight. A solid lump of a man, Andrew Cunningham had not enjoyed his patron’s attempts to get back into the club after the bouncer declined an offer of a bribe. ‘He got a bit verbally abusive towards myself. He mentioned my gold teeth and he said I looked like a cunt and I replied, “Thank you very much.” He just looked at me and told me my tattoos were shit and to look at my job.’ Cunningham described these words as coming in ‘a spiteful tone, quite an angry tone’, and said that Stokes still seemed angry as he walked away.
These were details the doorman had nothing to gain by inventing, but each of them Stokes denied. By his own accounting he had drunk a beer at the game and three pints at his hotel, then ‘potentially had some Jägerbombs’ along with half a dozen vodkas at the club. He insisted that after all of this he was not drunk.
If I may take a moment here to call upon the wisdom of experience – a person who cannot definitively say whether they have had any Jägerbombs has definitely had some Jägerbombs. A Jägerbomb is an experience that does not pass one by. Further to that, a person who says they have ‘potentially’ done something has definitely done that thing and doesn’t want to admit it. A person who has had between 15 and 24 standard drinks in one evening is shitfaced. A person who tries to bribe a bouncer £300 – three hundred quid! – to get into Mbargo – Mbargo! – is beyond shitfaced.
If Stokes admitted that he was drunk then the prosecution could say he was out of control. He claimed clear recall of assessing a threat, feeling fear and deciding to protect himself with force. He confidently denied details from the bouncer’s testimony, like using the word ‘cunt’ or mentioning gold teeth. Yet on other details he claimed a ‘significant memory blackout’. He didn’t remember the punch that saw Ryan One taken away by ambulance. He didn’t remember what the Ryans had said to Kai and Billy, only that those words were homophobic. With no head injury, as one of the few people who hadn’t been hit, he had supposedly suffered this memory loss despite being sober.
The version from Kai and Billy was compatible but vague: they had been walking along, they ‘heard … shouts’ of abuse from an unspecified source, then Stokes ‘stepped in’ and thus they avoided possible harm. They claimed to have been bought a drink by Stokes at Mbargo, although CCTV showed them meeting outside. The overall implication from both accounts was that the cricketers had been pals with Kai and Billy, while the Ryans as per The Sun’s headline were a roving band of thugs.
The reality though is that the Ryans were the ones hanging out with Kai and Billy at Mbargo. Police discussed CCTV from inside the club in questioning and at trial. On that footage the four Bristolians bought drinks for one another, danced together, and Kai was noted to have variously touched Ryan Two’s crotch and Ryan One’s buttock. Ryan One told police that all of this was taken lightheartedly and wasn’t a problem. Indeed, when the Ryans called it a night the other two left with them.
This much is clear from footage out the front of Mbargo, which shows Kai and Billy exit the club and start talking with a subdued Hales and a demonstrative Stokes, who are stuck outside. The vision was played in court to determine whether Stokes was antagonistic towards Kai and Billy, as he appears to impersonate them and to throw a lit cigarette their way. More interesting is that after a few minutes the Ryans emerge, and all six actors in the fight video briefly form a prequel in the one frame.
Ryan Two pats Billy on the chest in friendly fashion with his right hand before clapping him on the back with his left. He moves past and does the same to Kai before leaving the shot. Ryan One stops to speak to Kai. They lean in for a moment, talking, then Kai turns and they walk out of frame together. Billy hangs around for a few seconds at the door and then looks after them and races to catch up. Stokes and Hales remain outside the club to remonstrate further with the bouncers. Whatever discord develops around the corner is between four men who left amicably together minutes earlier.
There’s no way to know what caused that friction. If Ryan One did use homophobic slurs, he might have been drunkenly obnoxious for no reason. He might have had an insecure macho response to some extra flirtation. He might have thought unkindness was funny – ‘banter’ once again. Or he might have said something that was misunderstood, as both Ryans insisted in court that they had not used nor had the impulse to use any abusive language.
What clearly didn’t happen was an attack by bigots on random passers-by. This kind of crime is regular enough that an audience understands the horror of it, and this is what was evoked by the public accounts of Stokes, Billy and Kai. All we know is that there was some verbal dispute among the Bristol locals, and that Stokes came along behind them and put himself in the middle of it. Ryan One responded to the interference aggressively and away they went. There are plenty of reasons to look sideways at the idea that Stokes was a saviour. Foremost, neither Kai nor Billy was called upon as witnesses in court. You’d think it would be ideal to have Stokes’ story backed up by those who benefited from his selflessness. But his defence team had developed the impression that the pair had shown a changeable recall of events amid a hard-partying lifestyle, and would be dismantled by the prosecution on the stand.
That raises the question of whether The Sun coached their quotes for the 2017 interview. Despite missing court, Kai and Billy clearly enjoyed the attention. In 2018 after the trial they did a follow-up spread in the same paper about how poor Ben had been mistreated. They got a television spot on Good Morning Britain and glowed about his heroism. In 2019 The Sun wheeled them out once more to say that Stokes should get a knighthood. In 2017 they had ‘never watched cricket’ but by 2019 were supposedly volunteering sentences like, ‘He saved us, now he’s saved the Ashes.’ Whether they were paid for these appearances is not known, but the chance to be famous for a day can be lure enough.
If you find this cynical, consider that on the night in question, the Bristol boys were so deeply moved and thankful for Ben’s intervention that they left him to be arrested and never attempted to find out who he was. Seconds after the video ended, an off-duty policeman reached the scene. You might think that someone grateful to a saviour would speak on his behalf. Instead, said Kai, ‘it all got a bit scary so we walked off. It was too much for me and we went to Quigley’s takeaway for chicken burgers and cheesy chips.’ They didn’t give their hero a thought for over a month while police issued multiple appeals for witnesses.
As for Stokes, he told his arresting officer that ‘his friends’ had been attacked. After three minutes of chat outside a nightclub, these friends were so dear to him that he has never contacted them again: not after the newspaper piece, not after the verdict. He didn’t want to see how they were or thank them for their support. He didn’t mention them by name in his solicitor’s statement after the trial.
The Stokes defence rested on Ryan One’s bottle, which he had carried out of Mbargo to finish a beer, not to use in a Sharks versus Jets amateur production. But once he turned it over to hold it by the neck it became a weapon. Intent and interpretation can change the material nature of things. Part of Stokes’ justification in court was that the bottle implied that the two Ryans might have ‘other weapons’ hidden away. You can understand how a jury could decide that created doubt.
Not being convicted, though, doesn’t give the contents of the video a big green tick. It does not, as his lawyer claimed, vindicate Stokes. Looking in detail, Ryan One is belligerent but his movements telegraph a bluff. Hales is the person he’s gesturing at, but they’re several metres apart when Ryan One cocks his arm ostentatiously, showing off the bottle rather than bracing to swing. He skips forward but Hales skips back and Ryan One doesn’t follow. Kai stretches out an arm to impede Ryan One, who has a drunken stumble, nearly eats pavement, then staggers towards Kai and hits him in the back. That hand is still holding the bottle, but his strike is a side-arm cuff on a soft part of the body. It’s all pretty tame.
This is where Stokes gets involved. Having moved across to protect Hales, he now takes three large steps to run around Kai and booms his first punch at Ryan One. They fall to the ground and the bottle clinks away. Stokes gets to his feet to punch down at the fallen man, while Hales arrives to kick him ineffectively then runs off across the street for some unknown reason. Ice-cream van? Stokes is soon back in the grapple having his shirt pulled up to show off his Durham tan. Ryan Two steps in for the first time to pull Stokes away, prompting a couple more random punches at this new target, then Stokes trips backwards over Ryan One and sprawls in the street. Hales chooses this moment to return and aim some solid kicks at the head of the man on the ground. Nothing so far is a triumph of moral philosophy or the pugilistic arts. But if it all stopped here, perhaps you could say it was somewhere approaching fair. Ryan One has behaved like a turnip and it’s not an entirely unjust world that would give him a whack across the chops. The antagonists have disentangled, Stokes has some distance, it’s time to dust off and go home. Ryan Two steps forward for this purpose with his palm raised in conciliatory style and says, ‘Settle down, stop.’
So Stokes punches him.
It’s roughly his fifth punch overall, and he really winds up into this one. He misses so hard that he stumbles away into the shadows of the shop awnings along the road.
Hales starts shouting for him to stop. Ryan Two backs into the street, still holding his palm up. Stokes closes on him from about five metres away, six large steps, to where Ryan Two is standing on his own. Stokes pushes him a couple of times, as Ryan Two keeps trying to placate him and saying ‘Stop.’ Stokes throws his sixth punch, largely missing as his target ducks.
Ryan Two keeps pulling away and reversing, into the middle of the street now. Stokes follows him, grabbing his sleeve to drag him back. By this point Ryan One has found his feet and walked around behind his friend. Both of them are in the same line of sight for Stokes, and both are backing away. Stokes aims his seventh and his eighth punches, which Ryan Two tries to deflect, as Hales walks up behind Stokes to grab him.
Stokes yanks away from his friend and switches to Ryan One instead, taking seven paces to grab him before throwing his ninth punch of the night. He grabs again; Ryan One blocks that arm and pushes himself back away from Stokes. Ryan Two again intercedes, putting himself between the two with his palms up and his arm extended.
Stokes throws his tenth punch, a right-hander at the face of Ryan Two, then shoves him backwards. Ryan Two backs away once more, four paces. Stokes follows, steadies, lines up, then launches his strongest punch yet, his eleventh, a proper right hook from a solid base, one that cracks across the man’s head and gives him concussion. Ryan Two ends up flat on his back in the middle of the street, his hands still outstretched for a moment in useless protest until they twitch and drop to the blacktop.
Stokes isn’t done. He once more shoves away the restraining Hales and follows Ryan One, who keeps backing away saying, ‘Alright, alright, alright.’ Five more paces from Stokes before another blow at the man’s head. Kai and Billy are now standing over the poleaxed Ryan Two. The video ends, but seconds later Stokes will punch Ryan One hard enough to knock him out too, before off-duty cop Andrew Spure arrives on the scene to bring down the curtain. When the body-camera footage kicks in some minutes later, Stokes is in handcuffs but Ryan One is still laid out in the street. Ryan Two has regained consciousness, folded his shirt under his friend’s head and is asking police for an ambulance.
‘At this point, I felt vulnerable and frightened. I was concerned for myself and others.’ This was how Stokes described that sequence to the court. An elite athlete with years of gym work and training to snap a bat through the line of a ball with astounding power and precision, swinging fists as hard as he can at men with none of those advantages. Punching so hard that he breaks his hand, and repeatedly shoving away a friend so he can punch some more. Frightened and threatened by two targets shouting ‘Get back!’ and ‘Stop!’
The off-duty officer testified that Stokes ‘seemed to be the main aggressor or was progressing forward trying to get to’ Ryan One, who was ‘trying to back away or get away from the situation’. The student who filmed the video can be heard on the tape at one stage exclaiming ‘Fuck!’ and testified that it was because ‘I felt a little bit sorry about the lad that had been punched and it looked like he had his hands up’. That tallied with the prosecutor’s depiction of ‘a sustained episode of significant violence that left onlookers shocked at what was taking place’.
The defendant stuck to his strategy. ‘No, my sole focus was to protect myself.’ All up, in the 33 seconds of footage after he falls over, Stokes takes 35 steps forward to keep hitting two men who keep trying to get away. Not once is he hit back.
After the verdict, Stokes’ solicitor positioned him as the victim. It had been ‘an eleven-month ordeal for Ben … The jury’s decision fairly reflects the truth of what happened that night … He was minding his own business … It was only when others came under threat that Ben became physically engaged. The steps that he took were solely aimed at ensuring the safety of himself and the others present …’ The statement was impossibly self-righteous and self-absorbed.
If there was anyone to feel sorry for it was Ryan Hale, the second of our two Ryans. He’s the one who emerged from the club with a friendly arm around the shoulder for Kai and Billy. He’s the one who interposed himself to end the fight, then kept putting himself back in the firing line, trying to calm an intimidating stranger while dodging blows. For his show of restraint he got laid out regardless, concussed in the street, then was issued a criminal charge equal to that of the man who hit him, and described in national media as a violent bigot in an untested story to support that man’s defence.
Lawyers for Ryan Two made a more convincing post-trial statement, noting that Kai and Billy, ‘neither of whom were relied upon by the prosecution or the defence team for Mr Stokes, have taken the opportunity to speak with various media outlets about the alleged homophobic abuse that they received in the early hours of September 25. Mr Hale has passionately denied this allegation throughout the course of this case,’ it continued.
‘It is upsetting to Mr Hale that although he was acquitted, the accusation that he was the author of such abuse remains. Both Mr Hale and Mr Ali were knocked unconscious by Mr Stokes, and although Mr Stokes has been acquitted of an affray, Mr Hale struggles with the reasons why the Crown Prosecution Service did not treat him as a victim of an unlawful assault.’Good question. Avon and Somerset police were the investigating force, and they were frustrated by the decision. Ryan Two was filmed clearly not hurting anyone, but police were instructed by the CPS to proceed with a charge. Hales (the cricketer) was filmed fighting but ‘a decision was made at a senior level of the CPS’ not to proceed. Police expected Stokes to be charged with assault but the CPS declined. It doesn’t take a wild cynic to think that placing the same lukewarm charge on three men for vastly divergent behaviour might ensure that none would be convicted, even as the trial would maintain the pretence that a defendant of influential standing had not been given a free pass.
A couple of years down the line, the original interview with Kai and Billy has disappeared. All traces have been scrubbed from The Sun website, its social media history, and even from the Wayback Machine internet archive. Given its headline of ‘homophobic thugs’ and text that names Ryan Two but not Ryan One, the libel liability isn’t hard to spot. Later interviews with Kai and Billy take the passive voice – they ‘suffered homophobic slurs outside a Bristol nightclub’.
The article that was once claimed to exonerate brave Ben Stokes now links only to a missing content page, with a picture of a dropped ice-cream cone and the phrase ‘legal removal’ inserted into the web URL. In terms of consequences, Stokes missed one tour. When he resumed his career in January 2018, the Australians hadn’t yet ruined theirs. Their year-long bans looked much more stringent. But the Stokes case dragged on in other ways. With no criminal liability, the Australians confessed promptly enough for the sporting world to give them the full length of the lash. Their situation was ugly but there was closure. Stokes got stuck in legal stasis, unable to be fully backed or condemned. Instead his issue was always present, a browser full of open tabs that the ECB swore they would read any day now.
Through 2018 Stokes was back but he wasn’t back, in the sunglasses and finger-guns sense. In his return one-day series he nearly cost England a match with 39 from 73 balls in Wellington. His first Test hit was a duck as England got rolled in Auckland for 58. At Trent Bridge while Stokes was injured, England posted a world record 481 against Australia. With Stokes three weeks later at the same ground they made 268. He crawled to 50 from 103, the second-slowest any Englishman had reached that milestone in 20 years. That span covered Alastair Cook’s whole career. It was apologetic batting, acting out responsibility via the scorecard. Stokes was creeping back into the team like he’d been kicked out in a blazing row and was hoping to tip-toe to the sofa.
It was December 2018 before the ECB disciplinary committee ruled on him and Hales. In a ‘remarkable coincidence’, wrote Simon Heffer in The Telegraph, ‘the punishment both players faced in terms of bans from playing at international level was covered by the amount of games they had already missed when dropped by England’s selectors, in the furore that followed the incident’. The verdict compounded the omissions around the case by not addressing the violence at its heart. Nor did Stokes, apologising only ‘to my team-mates, coaches and support staff’, and then ‘to England supporters and to the public for bringing the game into disrepute’.
The implicit next step was to rebuild that reputation. It might have been easier had his court defence not meant that he wasn’t game to admit any fault at all. It might have been easier if he or his advisers had been willing to change tack once the trial was done. Imagine a world where Stokes had stood outside court and apologised for overreacting, for the injuries he’d caused, and for the time and energy he had sucked out of other people’s lives. That would have been a show of responsibility beyond a scorecard. When the time came around to assess forgiveness, it might have meant forgiveness was deserved.