Okanogan Sheriff Gestapo Stormtroopers Terrorize Tonasket Washington Family

Tonasket is a little town in Eastern Washington, about 20 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border, with a current population of around 995.

Tonasket was named after Chief Tonasket of the Okanogan tribe. Many descendants of the families that first settled Tonasket still reside there. A son of one of those early pioneer families, Walter H. Brattain, attended Tonasket schools and went on to share the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the transistor.

Another well known Tonasket native goes by the name of Tootsie. I call her Tootsie Tonasket. Tootsie left a bizarre message on my phone Friday evening.

The message said, "The police have surrounded my house and are yelling at me to come out with my hands up. Do I have to?"

I did not hear this message til Saturday morning. I called Tootsie, but no answer. Today I called again and Tootsie answered.

I thought the police using Gestapo Stormtrooper type thing was something more prone to happen in my current location in Texas, not in bucolic rural Eastern Washington.

Tootsie's next door neighbor, we'll call him Worm, called the police to report that someone had shot a deer behind his house. Worm told the police that he's seen Tootsie's son Blade and Blade's friend, Nosh, hiking the backyard hills, armed with rifles.

So, with no eye witness account of someone shooting a deer, several Okanogan Sheriff cars and a couple Game Warden cars showed up at Tootsie's, with someone knocking on her door, demanding to be let in. Tootsie refused. Tootsie insisted they needed a search warrant. The Gestapo then yelled at Tootsie to come out with her hands in the air. Tootsie refused, called me and went back to playing Farmville on Facebook.

After awhile Nosh voluntarily walked out. Nosh was handcuffed and thrown into a sheriff's car, where he was interrogated. The Gestapo took Nosh out of the car 3 times, each time tightening the handcuffs, to the point it was extremely painful.

Also inside the house was Nosh's well connected girl friend. The girl friend tried to leave. The police acted threatening.

While this was going on Tootsie called Delbert, her ex-husband, as of this past Thursday, to ask Delbert to come over to be a witness to the bizarre scene.

Nosh's girl friend, unable to leave, came back inside, and called her lawyer in Seattle.

While Nosh's girl friend was talking to the lawyer Delbert arrived. By then there were more police vehicles and a SWAT team, which had stationed snipers on the hill behind Tootsie's house.

Delbert was ordered out of his car. Then handcuffed. Then searched for weapons. Delbert was led over to the Game Warden Gestapo agents who knocked Delbert to the ground, badly hurting his knees.

Around that time Nosh's girl friend's lawyer had called to Okanogan sheriff, telling the sheriff to either charge Nosh, or let him go.

Nosh was set free.

Meanwhile another sheriff showed up with the search warrant that Tootsie insisted they produce before she'd let them in.

As Tootsie's house was searched, looking for a deer shooting rifle, Delbert was hauled away and booked into the Okanogan jail. Where he spent the night. Charged with resisting arrest.

The police eventually found a 22 caliber rifle in Tootsie's son Blade's room. They also found a couple bullets and spent shells and other items I'm forgetting. All supposed evidence of the "deer murder."

Delbert is talking to a lawyer about suing whoever needs to be sued. Same with Nosh. Tootsie is also going to talk to a lawyer.

Tonasket is one crazy town. All this activity because someone found a dead deer and saw someone walking around the area with a rifle? Aren't there concepts like "probable cause" or something like that before you go intruding on people like this?

Like I said, Okanogan Gestapo Stormtroopers.

I'm embarrassed this took place in Washington.

Chilean Earthquake Sends Tsunami to Hawaii & Possibly West Coast as Far North as British Columbia

I've got the TV on, listening to ongoing coverage of the 8.8 magnitude Chilean Earthquake, waiting for the first Tsunami wave to hit Hawaii in about 30 minutes, at 4:05pm Eastern Time.

I do not recollect live coverage of such a thing before.

If I remember right the Seattle bus tunnel can supposedly survive a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. I would not want to be in that tunnel when that gets tested.

Nor would I want to be anywhere near the Alaskan Way Viaduct. I have mentioned before that I think Seattle, and Washington should err on the side of caution and take the Viaduct down now, before Mother Nature does.

I did not know til today's Chilean Earthquake that the highest magnitude earthquake on record was in Chile. 9.5 on the Richter Scale.

I just heard the West Coast as far as British Columbia is under a Tsunami Advisory, which I guess means, be advised a Tsunami may be on the way.

20 minutes to go til the first wave hits Hawaii. I do not recollect ever watching such a thing live before.

The Five Natural Wonders of the World You Must See in Washington Before You Die

I recently thumbed through a book titled 1001 Natural Wonders of the World You Must See Before You Die.

I was not too shocked to learn I have not seen very many of the World's Natural Wonders. I've seen 50 of them. That leaves 951 left to see.

Of the 50 Natural Wonders of the World that I have seen, 5 are in Washington.

Some of the Washington choices seemed goofy to me. Of course Mount Rainier and Mt. St. Helens make sense to be on a list of the World's Natural Wonders.

But, the Upper Skagit River Valley? Yes, it's scenic. I used to live in the Lower Skagit River Valley. It's also scenic. Much of the Upper Skagit River is rendered unnatural due to dams.

The other 2 must sees in Washington are The Grand Coulee and Dry Falls. The book claims that Dry Falls is at the center of the Grand Coulee. Now my memory of Washington may be fading, but isn't The Grand Coulee, for the most part, under the Lake Roosevelt reservoir that is formed by Grand Coulee Dam?

Dry Falls is at the terminus of an entirely different Coulee, one that begins at Soap Lake. Maybe I am totally off with my Washington geography memory.

The Columbia Gorge is on the list of the World's Natural Wonders that you need to see. But, the book sticks the Gorge in Oregon. Other Oregon Natural Wonders are Crater Lake and Mount Hood.

Beacon Rock, on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge, is not on the list. I believe Beacon Rock is the world's 2nd biggest rock monolith, after Mount Gibraltar.

The Olympic Rain Forests are not on the list. Nor is the Olympic National Park section on the Pacific Coast.

Neither Mount Baker, in Washington, or Mount Shasta in California is on the list. But, Mount Lassen, in California, is.

Neither Craters of the Moon, in Idaho, or Lava Beds National Monument, in California, is on the list. But Natural Bridges Caverns in Texas is. Having been to all 3, I would put the moon craters and lava beds on a list of Natural Wonders and leave the alleged Texas wonder off the list.

The Earthquake Knocking Down Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct Nightmare

I go through phases of thematic nightmares. Variations of the themes will repeat and then fade away.

Currently my recurring nightmare themes are...

1) I get in a situation where my dad is driving. I ask him to slow down. He then careens out of control and we are airborne, flying off a high precipice. Yet somehow my dad safely lands the car, every time.

2) A rattlesnake will slither out of a light socket and then chase me.

3) I can not get light switches to turn on lights for me. I know. Deep Freudian meaning there. Same with the snake. And probably my dad's driving.

4) I am parking my car under Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct when the Big One strikes.

I think I began having the Alaskan Way Viaduct nightmare after I watched a YouTube video simulating what would happen to the Viaduct if an earthquake similar to the 2001 Nisqually shaker, lasted 20 seconds longer, was 10 miles closer and a .2 magnitude greater.

I think the reason I'm parking under the Viaduct in my nightmare is because the last time I was in Seattle I had a hard time finding a parking space under the Viaduct, then gave up and went elsewhere and had some more trouble finding a parking place. Parking in Seattle used to be so easy. Not anymore.

After the 2001 Nisqually Quake damaged the Viaduct it was pretty much unanimously agreed that something had to be done to remove the danger. There had been talk of that danger ever since the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake knocked down a structure similar to the Viaduct, that being the Cypress Street Viaduct on Interstate 880 in Oakland, killing 42.

Now that agreement has been reached to spend a few $billion to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel, ready for vehicles, hopefully, in about 5 years, I'm thinking the Viaduct needs to come down now. Why take a 5 year chance on an earthquake knocking it down?

I'm guessing if the Viaduct were taken down now it would expedite the building of the new tunnel. Yes, it would cause some traffic problems. Already trucks are not allowed on the Viaduct. The voluntary loss of the Viaduct would likely get more people on mass transit. That would be a good thing.

It would be more than horrible for a quake to take down the Viaduct, with the solution in motion, killing people, doing damage, slowing up construction.

I have always disliked the Alaskan Way Viaduct. It's been there all my life, noisy, casting a shadow on the waterfront, putting up a wall between downtown Seattle and the waterfront.

Take it down. NOW.

And if you want to risk Alaskan Way Viaduct Earthquake nightmares, watch the YouTube video below....