Richard V. Rupp

October 27, 2021

Good Wednesday afternoon. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from Burbank, California. Welcome to RUPP'S NOTES/FBI SPECIAL AGENT HARTMAN SERIES posts. I'm sending this out later in the day than usual for the second regular post in a row. I wanted to watch the Rust press conference first and then do a little more research.

 

I've got a few years on Senator Bernie Sanders, and I will leave the concept of what type of government structure the United States should be using up to him and the younger generation.

 

My advocacy days are over, but my perspective days are in full swing. In researching my novel SKYWARD, it became evident that for my Bowman Moony Colony to work, it needed a socialist or cooperative structure. Further research indicated that young Americans (and one old senator) like the concept of socialism. According to a 2018 Gallup Poll, young Americans (18-29) are souring on capitalism. Less than 45% view capitalism positively, while 51% have a positive view of socialism. My feeling is that this number has increased since 2018.

 

I don't know if this was a tweet in jest or for real, but here is what Elon Musk tweeted on June 16, 2018 – "By the way, I am actually a socialist. Just not the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good while actually causing harm. True socialism seeks the greatest good for all."

 

In a 2015 interview with the ATLANTIC Bill Gates said that, "capitalism isn't working, and that socialism is our only hope to save the planet."

 

Steve Jobs has indicated that he is a social liberal. He believes in progressive views on environmental issues, race issues, and other progressive views toward society.

 

The concept of the metaverse, "a place where people can come and create, work, and spend time together," supports the idea of socialism. As Earth becomes more fragile through climate change, aging, and overpopulation, socialism seems to work better than capitalism.

 

My take on the above is that the United States is in the process of moving toward socialism. It's also interesting to note that an essential part of capitalism – entrepreneurship exists in all forms of governmental structures. Both China and Russia embrace entrepreneurs who can expand their economies. There are billionaire examples in both countries to prove it.  

 

I continued to follow with interest the shooting on the set of the movie "Rust," which I mentioned in my last post titled, "Something Is Rotten in Hollywood." This morning's news conference by the Santa Fe Sheriff and District Attorney brought several things to light. One was that the local FBI Field Office had been brought into the investigation and that the FBI Crime Lab in Quantico was processing the evidence. This includes the .45 Long Colt Revolver fired by Alec Baldwin and the bullet that killed Halyna Hutchins, which was removed from the chest of Joel Souze. The Sheriff explained that they wanted to confirm by the striations on the bullet that it came from the gun Baldwin fired and whose fingerprints were on the shell casing.

 

Carmack-Altwies, the District Attorney, seemed to have eliminated the possibility of malice or intent from the equation from the labor problems that had cropped up on the production. This was indicated because of the cooperation with authorities by the three people principally involved in the shooting. The possibility of involuntary or criminal negligence has been narrowed down to those same three people. The DA indicated that "Everything at this point, including criminal charges, is on the table."

 

What worries me is this statement made by Kaplan Marino, a local Santa Fe attorney, "If a local agency in New Mexico was going to go forward with criminal charges, that would have a real chilling effect on further filming taking place in New Mexico, and I think New Mexico appreciates the business."

 

The District Attorney confirmed that detectives from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office are focusing on who placed the ammunition in the gun. Numerous movie industry professionals have reiterated that live ammunition is never to be brought onto a set and that the armorer, assistant director, and actor should have checked the gun before it was used. She also clarified that while "prop gun" has been used to describe the firearm that killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, the terminology could be misleading. The weapon used on set was, in fact, "a legit" working gun and, more specifically, "an antique-era appropriate gun."

 

Alec Baldwin's production company El Dorado Pictures is listed as the principal producer of Rust. In media posts by Baldwin, he has started out with, "We at El Dorado Pictures (that's me and Casey Bader) . . .  Interestingly, the company website has been deleting and changing information since I have been looking at it. What else is being deleted or shredded? Rust Movie Productions LLC, a limited liability company, was created just to film the movie. It was noted by a Hollywood reporter that that various media sites are doing a blitz to deflect blame off of actor and "producer" Alec Baldwin. Note that the hiring of a movie production film crew is the responsibility of the production company.

 

"Rust" has been reported as a "passion project" of Alec, who plays the part of Harland Rust. It was being produced on a small budget of $6–7 million. As a result of the low budget, the production had limited resources and a tight filming schedule of 21 days.

 

Responsible for overseeing all weapons on set was the production's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, daughter of long-time industry armorer Thell Reed. It was only her second film serving as lead armorer after the movie "The Old Way. In September 2021, Reed said loading a prop gun with blank cartridges was "the scariest thing" to her. Why did the production company hire this inexperienced armorer?

 

Dave Halls "Rust's" assistant director faced complaints in 2019 about his behavior on two episodes of "Into the Dark," in which he disregarded safety protocols and ignored blocked exits and lanes. Halls was fired from working on the film "Freedom Path" after a firearm was discharged unexpectedly on set, injuring a crew member in the same year. Why did the production company hire this tainted assistant director? Why did Halls select the loaded revolver for a scene rehearsal over the simulated plastic revolver and a similar .45 revolver modified so that it could not fire bullets?

 

There are still a lot of questions to be answered.

 

Cheers,

 

Richard V. Rupp, Author

Website – www.richardvrupp.com

Email – rupprisk@gmail.com

Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp