July 1, 2013

Before returning to the last of the Tang images, I have an interesting photo here that I just stumbled across the other day. Pretty much all of the other images that I have seen of the first smoke cloud were taken from the finish line, which offered an obstructed view of the scene. This one though was taken from the other direction and offers a much clearer, less obstructed view. And I have to say that, from this angle, it does not look to me like that smoke cloud resulted from an explosion on the ground. 

In the next two images, we get an unobstructed view of the now-vacated scene. These pics are notable primarily for what is not visible. We don’t, for example, see any leftover body parts littering the pavement. Not even any chunks of bloody flesh. There is not, as far as I can see, any biological matter whatsoever on the pavement. There is some of what is supposed to be blood, but not nearly what there would have been had scores of people been ripped apart by a bomb.

There is also no sign of any scorched material that would account for the smoldering fire that kept the victims’ area shrouded in smoke through much of the ‘rescue’ operation. And there is one other thing that is noticeably absent: an abundance of blood-soaked towels, rolls of gauze, bits of clothing, etc.. Dozens of people were allegedly treated on this pavement, many of them suffering from amputation or near-amputation injuries. Efforts to staunch the flow of blood and to clean up the wounds so that injuries could be assessed should have resulted in scores of blood-soaked articles left behind, but there is no indication of that in these images.

In the second image, we can though see that the wooden table, which had been minding its own business, has been pulverized for unknown reasons (blue arrow). I guess someone had to improvise a leg splint or something.

Before leaving behind the Tang images, I have just one more question: what the fuck is this guy doing? Practicing his tightrope act? Or maybe working on his America’s Got Talent audition?

After the show was over, pink vest and her sidekick casually strolled off the scene, passing by a waiting ambulance along the way (red arrow). I think we can all agree that in this image, as well as in all the other images we have reviewed, it is perfectly clear that the pink lady did not sustain any injuries in the blast, despite the fact that she was standing almost alongside the girl who was supposedly hit with lethal force, as can be seen in the second image below (red arrow), the very first clear shot captured by Thorndike.

In this next shot, we get a fairly detailed view of pink vest and her Cheneyesque partner-in-crime, and once again it is perfectly clear that neither suffered any injuries. We can also see once again that Li’l Jeff, despite media reports to the contrary, was clearly not hit in the back of the head by shrapnel – which is a good thing since shrapnel ejected with enough force to literally blow peoples’ legs off would have surely killed him had he taken a direct hit to the head.

It is perfectly clear from the photographic record that pink vest was in fine shape just moments after the blast, just as it is clear that she moved freely about the blast area throughout the rescue operation. In the dozens of images in which she appears, it is painfully obvious that she did not suffer any injuries and she was able to leave the scene on her own two feet. Moments later though, she was videotaped being paraded out for the cameras as though she was a wounded victim with a leg injury.

In all fairness though, there appears to have been a serious shortage of actual victims, so the people running the show had to make do with what they had. As the video linked below reveals, there was not, as Quinn and others have claimed in their feeble attempts at ‘debunking’ this series, a shortage of ambulances and gurneys. To the contrary, the problem was that there were not nearly enough victims to fill the massive convoy of responding ambulances.

This is, I have to say, perhaps the most bizarre interview clip to emerge from the Boston fiasco. The reporter on the scene, who seems rather baffled by what he is seeing, explains that although all the known victims have been transported off the scene, there is still a solid line of ambulances extending for at least four city blocks, all parked nearly bumper-to-bumper with their lights flashing. Also rather bizarre is that as the reporter is questioning yet another surgeon who just happened to be on the scene ready to spring into action – and who is spinning the usual tall tales of tending to phantom victims with missing body parts – he gestures toward the doctor and indicates that he is covered in blood, despite the fact that we can clearly see that he isn’t! As with all other aspects of this sordid tale, we are supposed to believe what we are told rather than what our own eyes tell us is true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjFxjXOPVZQ

There is one more curious aspect to the saga of the lady in pink. She and the Cheney guy, whom she left the scene hand-in-hand with, appear to be a couple. Why then were they not together before the explosion? As it turns out, her sidekick was across the street in the VIP section (red arrow), separated from his significant other by two temporary barricades. He ultimately made his way over to the blast site – though not in a frantic, “Oh my God! The love of my life has just been blown up by a bomb!” kind of way. But he was only able to do that because the bomb went off and chaos ensued. Otherwise, the two would have been completely cut off from one another.

Moving on now to other alleged victims, I’m sure that all of you are, like me, concerned over how Christian “Hoody” Williams has been faring in his struggle to recover from his life-threatening wounds. As it turns out, “his legs and hands are gnarled and scarred.” But as I always say, it is better to have gnarled and scarred legs that no legs at all. As the story goes (or at least one version of it), Hoody was waiting near the finish line with his girlfriend, Caroline Reinsch, when, “The bomb blew him into a tangle of bodies. His legs and right hand were ripped open and bled profusely. She put pressure on one of his wounds and on her own at the same time and pleaded with him to stay awake. Soon they were being whisked away, in separate wheelchairs, to separate hospitals.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/15/woundedcouple/cvtcSZksFxRnZYqnow0XIO/story.html?event=event12

I’m sure that everyone remembers seeing that in the sequence of images. We all remember seeing Hoody with his hand and both legs blown open and bleeding profusely, just as we recall seeing Reinsch alongside of him, applying pressure to one of his wounds and struggling to see to it that he didn’t lose consciousness. We all recall that sequence of events, don’t we? Because I’d hate to think that Caroline Reinsch is yet another despicable liar. Here she is, by the way, being whisked away by wheelchair (wheelchair, gurney … what’s the difference really?) to the hospital. I have no clue though where she was picked up from. Hoody, as we have already seen, was also transported by gurney.

But Hoody was also, as can be seen at about the 5:55 mark in the following video, transported by wheelchair. I assume that the wheelchair ride came before he was loaded onto the gurney and outfitted with the oxygen mask, but who the fuck knows? Also of considerable interest in the video is the initial description of the first bomb site provided by the ABC News reporter: “We are getting more reports from law enforcement officials and other sources on the scene … it’s not clear whether it was inside or outside the store but it blew out windows in about four buildings in the area. Fifteen to twenty people injured, according to those sources.” (emphasis added)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UDMRT9bLBmY#t=354s

You may have also noticed that the pink lady’s sidekick can briefly be seen in the opening minutes of the video as he passes by the cameraman, in the area beyond the finish line where the victims were being paraded out for the cameras. Homeboy really got around that day – from the VIP section to the blast site to the photo-op area and then back to the blast site. Funny how numerous people can be seen and heard on videotape steering people away from the blast site but certain people seem to have had the freedom to wander about as they saw fit.

Let’s now revisit Nicole Gross and her attentive hubby Michael. As will be recalled, “The Charlotte couple was there to offer support to Nicole’s mother, Carol Downing, who was running in the 26.2-mile race. Nicole’s sister, Erika Brannock of Maryland, was with them.” According to one media report, “Michael Gross received third-degree burns to his head, face and arms, as well as lacerations … Nicole and Erika were about 10 feet away when the blasts occurred. One of Erika’s legs was partially amputated, and one of Nicole’s legs was fractured. It would take Michael Gross three or four hours to locate his wife before they both finally ended up at the same hospital.”

http://thetandd.com/news/opinion/charlotte-family-survives-explosions/article_c99ea184-a7b3-11e2-892c-001a4bcf887a.html

Other reports, as we have already seen, have claimed that Nicole suffered much more serious injuries than just a fractured leg. According to the Charlotte Observer, “Nicole Gross was hospitalized with a broken leg, a broken ankle, a severed Achilles tendon and other injuries.” International Business Times reported that, “The explosion resulted in two breaks in her left leg, an ankle fracture in her right, a severed Achilles’ tendon and multiple wounds for Gross.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/20/3994014/nicole-gross-face-captured-the.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/nicole-gross-blonde-woman-boston-marathon-bombing-scene-photo-undergo-fourth-surgery-1201899

Now that we have gotten to know some of our cast members a little better, let’s take another look at a photo we have looked at once or twice already. In it, we find that Michael Gross (blue arrow), while fighting through the pain from the severe burns on his head, face and arms, is desperately searching for Nicole (light green arrow). It will be another three to four hours before he finds her, possibly after belatedly deciding to run the marathon. If he had located her sooner, he might also have found and returned her other shoe, which is sitting right behind her (dark green arrow).

Meanwhile, Hoody (purple arrow), who is drifting in and out of consciousness and in imminent danger of bleeding out, is being tended to by Caroline Reinsch (no arrow, because she’s not actually there and never was). Elsewhere on the scene, The Director (red arrow) and all three scream queens (yellow arrows) are on the set doing whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing. I might have to change pink vest’s job description though from Scream Queen to Set Designer.

Next up is a close-up view of the amazingly durable material that was covering the front of the temporary barricade. The section in the image is directly in front of the blast site (pink vest, by the way, can be seen bending over just behind the cops). Not a single piece of shrapnel appears to have ripped through the fabric. Word on the street is that the company that manufactured this material is soon going to introduce a line of bomb-proof clothing that is expected to sell like hotcakes. For protection from Boston-type bombings, of course, a full suit will not be required so smart shoppers can save money by only buying the pants.

Let’s leave off for now with another image of Eric Whalley, who had a very serious case of bomb-hair. Original Jeff, The Other Jeff and Li’l Jeff all were afflicted with bomb-hair as well, which is characterized by the hair on a person’s head curling into a short Afro and taking on an ashen appearance. In very severe cases, such as with Whalley, it can also include a heavy accumulation of unidentified foreign matter. Luckily it is a very rare condition that only a handful of victims were afflicted with.

In the first close-up view, it appears as though Whalley has some type of poorly-applied latex appliance over his right eye. In the second close-up, taken when he was still on the ground, the eye injury looks more convincing, but it also looks like he is sporting a rug. And some funky fake eyebrows, which are no longer visible in the first close-up – or in the third close-up, in which his face has gotten a bit bloodier. The last image is what Whalley is supposed to look like when he’s not decked out in a rug, fake eyebrows and vampire blood.