Phillip Vito DiGirolamo
N. D. Cal. 1984

Conspiracy to import #marijuana, 21 U.S.C. § 963; willfully subscribing to a false tax return, 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1)
______

And this wasn't some dime bag weed dealer. Phil and a guy named Bruce Perlowin (Google it) ran $985,000,000 through

The man on the left is David Armanasco. He has been doing free public relations for @MCoSheriff Steve Bernal. 🤔

He is best buds with Leon Panetta.

The @mcweekly met with Armanasco as Steve Bernal was poised to enter office (from deputy to sheriff) and agreed to go easy.

* 2003

#DefundThePolice

A @MCoSheriff Sgt. Mike Richards asks newly elected Sheriff Mike Kanalakis for permission to fraternize with a convicted drug trafficker. #Sheriff Kanalakis gave it to him.

* 2010

A group of #corrupt local officials attached letters to the court during a "Certificate of Rehabilitation" effort which is the first step in a #Pardon process.

It was scandalous and partly caused Mike Kanalakis' loss to Scott Miller in 2010.

Fmr. @SalinasPD cop Joe

* 2010

Gunter was on board. So was two term sheriff Mike Kanalakis and soon to be fired Commander Mike Richards of the @MCoSheriff Department.

As was Supervisor John Phillips (a former DA and Judge) along with another @SalinasPD copper Gary "the grey fox" Edwards.

#Salinas

* 2010

and Mayor Dennis Donohue (who abruptly retired in 2012) - the fix was in.

But this #Pardon was not at all straight forward.

Dave Drew was a multiple time convicted felon with a huge rap sheet for narco and gun trafficking. He would need not only a willing Governor but

the Chief Justice of the #California State Supreme Court. This took planning, coordination and timing. It also took a handful of public relations consultants and @RepJimmyPanetta's dad's hand on all of this. This was big stuff.

In 2018 all that work paid off and a corrupt gov.

... it's not that hard to figure out who the corrupt fucks are in my community.

Mike Hackett is a convicted cocaine trafficker and major marijuana kingpin in Monterey County.

Monterey County supervisors claimed no felons would be working in "legal" #cannabis.

2/

Mike Hackett's @RiverviewFarms_ is being sued (again) for various torts.

In a nutshell people who do biz with Hackett later and often soon end up accusing Hackett of being a scumbag.

The lawyer representing Hackett is lying Larry Biegel a local criminal defense attorney.

3/

Jennifer Rosenthal is representing Riverview Farms.

Who is Jennifer Rosenthal?

She is a @RepJimmyPanetta campaign cash bundler.

Rosenthal is also a marijuana lawyer (of course) and represents a guy named Sal Palma Jr.

Junior's grandfather was also named Sal Palma.

4/

Sal Palma is a well known name in the @CityofMonterey. Palma co-owned the hotel where the Monterey Marriott now sits. Named the restaurant on top Ferrante's. Sal Palma also developed millionaire housing at Markham Ranch in Corral de Tierra where billionaire Bruce Taylor lives

5/

Sal Palma was a new immigrant to our community and a non-citizen. In the 1940's in his early 20's Sal Palma because a United States Citizen.

In his later 20's he was accused of sexual assault and arrested by @MontereyPolice.

Sal Palma was convicted. But, he was a new

🧵
Asst Chief Filice (@rfSalinasPD),

I'd like to report crimes in your jurisdiction:

1. Louie Alejo (@SupervisorAlejo) took bribes from Mike Hackett of Casa Sorrento fame. (cocaine dealer and @maryrduan's soft spot) - it's on recording.

2. Dave Drew was involved in a fraud

2/

scheme involving Frankie Lane, Anthony Lane (Cotroneo boys from Montreal), Jimmy Gilbert (deceased Monterey wharf biz owner) and McGilloway (accountant with an office in Unicool's W. Market office complex) and the Fox Theater in Oldtown Salinas.

The fraud was documented in

3/

a civil suit laid out by Monterey attorney Hugo Gerstl (smart man) in 2016 - two years before @JerryBrownGov pardoned Drew.

3. The Bankers Casino boys are involved with narco-trackers and money launderers. They also have ties to organized crime figures.

Please let me know

4/

how you wish to proceed?

Also, @Kelly_McMillin has a troubling connection to all of these issues.

I'm also concerned about reports a @SalinasPD officer has received financial assistance to buy a house on the border with Mexico 🇲🇽 with the help of Rolando Cabrera who is a

5/

member of the Cabrera crime family.

Would you please enlighten the public on this relationship between the Cabrera's and one of Salinas' "finest"?

Thank you for your immediate attention.

Exhibits to follow:

THE BATTLE OF TALIKOTA and the destruction of Vijaynagar (Hampi)
26 January 1565

A tale of valor, deception and decimation.

A grim reminder that if we fail to protect our heritage, it will eventually crumble under the onslaught of "forces of anarchy".
(Elaborate thread)

This decisive battle was fought between the Vijayanagara empire and the Deccan sultanates resulting in a rout of Vijayanagara and ending the last major medieval era Hindu kingdom in south India.(1)

The seeds of 1565 encounter were sown more than 250 years earlier when the forces of the Delhi Sultanate, during the time of Alauddin Khilji and later Md Bin Tughlaq swept through southern India in an expansion spree.(2)

By middle of the 14th century, facing rebellions, Tughlaq withdrew to Delhi, leaving behind 2 empires, Bahmani, which ruled the Deccan from Kalaburagi, and Vijayanagara, which ruled most south India with its capital at Vijayanagar.(3)

The Raichur Doab, between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, existed as a natural boundary between these two kingdoms, with wars often breaking out over control of this territory.(4)

As America celebrates its defeat of an authoritarian in the middle of consolidating power, it is critical to stay vigilant.

In my @BylineTimes interview with historian @ruthbenghiat she cautions these so-called “strongmen” often remain in the party’s

1/ Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, details the precise moment in time when fascism was born.

2/ “World War One was this cataclysmic change,” she told Byline Times. “Multiple empires fell, including the Russian Empire, Hapsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire. It created death on a scale no one had seen before. It created wounds no one had seen before because of new weapons.”

3/ In addition, the Great War led to a profound crisis in maleness.

4/ “It created this entire class of men who were damaged, many were killed, and it created this huge crisis of masculinity,” she said. “So fascist rulers came up during this crisis period of unrest and instability in their individual countries and Italy was first.”

So. I loved #TheDig. Despite being set in the 30's it evoked a lot of my early fieldwork experience in the 80's and some of the things archaeologists were gushing about are still pay of the experience today. And it also evoked the fantasy that I became an archaeologist to chase>

If you just want to enjoy it, and bask in the glow of archaeologists being happy for once, stop reading here >

Because, being aware of that fantasy, I'm also aware of corrosive elements, things that structure how archaeology works, both practically & in the collective imagination which work against that other fantasy, that my work can 'make a difference' contribute to progressive change>

The primary driver of the story is class & it's connection to skill & to land. EP has the right to the land, the choice to dig, the ownership of the artefacts because she is the landowner. We are meant to cheer along when the coroner decides in her favour>

BB is a man of the land, he literally knows the soil of Suffolk by feel. His skill & sense are central to the story. And they are credited with the discovery, which is the most important part of the process, not the analysis, care or interpretation>

Accountancy is more likely to be mocked than celebrated (or condemned), but accountants, far more than poets, are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

1/

Though "bean counters" are employed by firms, they are notionally bound by a professional code of ethics every bit as serious as the Hippocratic Oath: "count things honestly." Without an accurate accounting of quantities, you can't make good decisions on quality.

2/

Though accountancy concerns itself with counting things, it is inextricably bound up with the realm of ideas, and accounting conventions (how you account for things) are philosophical matters, not empirical ones.

3/

It's no coincidence that #ModernMonetaryTheory owes more to accountancy than it does to economics. Economic accounts of the economy have an unfortunate tendency to proceed from first principles, creating models based on pure reason, without checking in on the actual world.

4/

For example, neoclassical econ's "homo economicus," the rational value-maximizing actor who populated so many models; or economists' insistence on targeting inflation with interest rates; or treating national "debts" like they were household debts.

5/

On this day in 1945 Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was the largest concentration and death camp. 1.1 million people, 90% of them Jews, were murdered there. Today it is an international day of commemoration, to honor the memory of all victims of Nazi extermination.

A few things to keep in mind on International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

1) The Soviet liberation of Auschwitz is a deeply symbolic event, but it is worth noting that allied forces were liberating Nazi camps until May of 1945. Unspeakable suffering and death continued for months

I bring this up because the popular perception of events is informed by primary school practices which present them with clean start and stop dates. Useful for repeating dates, but less useful for having an understanding of what forces you unleash and what it takes to unwind them

When we talk about the lessons of the Holocaust, too many fall into the trap of "if it's not identical to Auschwitz, it's not worth invoking the Holocaust."

The seeds for the Holocaust were laid long before Auschwitz was opened, and the Holocaust continued after its liberation.

2) Every year on this date you can reliably expect a debate on what it is we are commemorating. A small but loud group of people use this date as an opportunity to play suffering olympics. Resist the urge to engage with these fools.