Posts Tagged ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’

LinkSwarm for November 22, 2019

Friday, November 22nd, 2019

Another week of the impeachment farce, another week of an embarrassing nothingburger and bombing ratings for Democrats:

  • Week one impeachment farce summary: “None of those three witnesses were have met with the President, none of them were on the July 25th phone call, and none of them have firsthand information, and none of them are aware of any criminal activity or impeachable offense. In short, why are we here?” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • The so-called “Whistleblower” has no statutory right to anonymity.
  • The impeachment farce is boring American voters to sleep. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)
  • “Impeachment Inquiry Canceled After 5 Episodes Due To Low Ratings.”
  • How the impeachment farce has actually validated reports of Democrat skullduggery in Ukraine:

    The half dozen seminal columns I published for The Hill on Ukraine were already supported by overwhelming documentation (all embedded in the story) and on-the-record interviews captured on video. They made three salient and simple points:

    • Hunter Biden’s hiring by the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings, while it was under a corruption investigation, posed the appearance of a conflict of interest for his father. That’s because Vice President Joe Biden oversaw US-Ukraine policy and forced the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor overseeing the case.
    • Ukraine officials had an uneasy relationship with our embassy in Kiev because State Department officials exerted pressure on Ukraine prosecutors to drop certain cases against activists, including one group partly funded by George Soros.
    • There were efforts around Ukraine in 2016 to influence the US election, that included a request from a DNC contractor for dirt on Manafort, an OpEd from Ukraine’s US ambassador slamming Trump and the release of law enforcement evidence by Ukrainian officials that a Ukraine court concluded was an improper interference in the US election.

    All three of these points have since been validated by the sworn testimony of Schiff’s witnesses this month, starting with the Bidens.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • Schiff and Pelosi are racing two clocks: The narrative clock for dropping the Horowitz IG report into FISA, etc. abuse, and the judicial clock against three different court cases that might derail the farce. And since they just went into their Thanksgiving break, the House only has eight voting days in December to do it and pass a budget before leaving for the Christmas brealk.
  • “Former FBI lawyer under investigation after allegedly altering document in 2016 Russia probe.”

  • Trump is surging with suburban women, raking in more donations than any of the Democratic candidates.
  • Trump Administration to start enforcing new asylum rules by sending asylum-seekers back to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • “[Democratic] Former Baltimore Mayor Pugh indicted on 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion in ‘Healthy Holly’ book scandal.” (You only have to get six paragraphs in to learn that Pugh is a Democrat. Progress!)

    Federal prosecutors have charged former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh with 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy in what they allege was a corrupt scheme involving her sales of a self-published children’s book series.

    In a grand jury indictment made public Wednesday, prosecutors allege Pugh defrauded area businesses and nonprofit organizations with nearly $800,000 in sales of her “Healthy Holly” books to unlawfully enrich herself, promote her political career and illegally fund her campaign for mayor.

    Though her customers ordered more than 100,000 copies of the books, the indictment says Pugh failed to print thousands of copies, double-sold others and took some to use for self-promotion. Pugh, 69, used the profits to buy a house, pay down debt, and make illegal straw donations to her campaign, prosecutors allege.

    At the same time, prosecutors said, she was evading taxes. In 2016, for instance, when she was a state senator and ran for mayor, she told the Internal Revenue Service she had made just $31,000. In fact, her income was more than $322,000 that year ― meaning she shorted the federal government of about $100,000 in taxes, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

    The charges Pugh faces carry potential sentences totaling 175 years in prison. Prosecutors are seeking to seize $769,688 of her profits, along with her current home in Ashburton, which they allege she bought and renovated with fraudulently obtained funds.

    Uncle Sam is not omniscient, but if you’re a public official and you’re taking in ten times as much money as you declare, yeah, I bet they’re gonna figure that one out, Crooked Kathy.

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • Speaking of Democratic Party mayors being indicted, Mayors Against Illegal Guns member Dennis Tyler, mayor of Muncie, Indiana, was arrested by the FBI as part of a corruption probe. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • More background on corruption in Muncie.

    Last January, former Muncie Building Commissioner Craig Nichols pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

    Others charged in the federal corruption probe include Muncie Sanitary District Administrator Debra Nicole Grigsby, Muncie Sanitary District official Tracy Barton; and local businessmen Jeffrey Burke, Tony Franklin and Rodney A. Barber.

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • The U.S. just extradited a top Russian cybercriminal from Israel.

    The Russian government has for the past four years been fighting to keep 29-year-old alleged cybercriminal Alexei Burkov from being extradited by Israel to the United States. When Israeli authorities turned down requests to send him back to Russia — supposedly to face separate hacking charges there — the Russians then imprisoned an Israeli woman for seven years on trumped-up drug charges in a bid to trade prisoners. That effort failed as well, and Burkov had his first appearance in a U.S. court last week. What follows are some clues that might explain why the Russians are so eager to reclaim this young man.

    On the surface, the charges the U.S. government has leveled against Burkov may seem fairly unremarkable: Prosecutors say he ran a credit card fraud forum called CardPlanet that sold more than 150,000 stolen cards.

    However, a deep dive into the various pseudonyms allegedly used by Burkov suggests this individual may be one of the most connected and skilled malicious hackers ever apprehended by U.S. authorities, and that the Russian government is probably concerned that he simply knows too much.

    There seem to be very few elite Russian hacking organizations Burkov, AKA “K0pa,” didn’t have a key administrative role in.

  • Speaking of hacking: “Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai.” Somebody in Shanghai has been spoofing GPS signals to make ships (and anything else using GPS) appear they’re someplace else, and GPS experts don’t understand how they’re doing it. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • China is stealing our secrets from inside our own government:

    Foreign-born researchers working at U.S. agencies secretly joined China’s payroll, sending sensitive U.S.-funded research to the country while U.S. government agencies took almost no defensive measures against a major recruitment operation, a Senate investigation found.

    Researchers linked to the Chinese government formed a Chinese cell within the Department of Energy, attained access to American genomic data, and recruited other U.S. researchers to join, the bipartisan report stated.

    China’s Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) aims to get foreign governments to finance the communist power’s military and economy by buying off researchers who are doing work abroad. The experts apply to the program, and if approved by the Communist Party, they join China’s payroll and sign secret side agreements that the experts will share their research with that country, according to the investigation.

  • China’s looming class struggle. As always, the proletariat get screwed by communism…
  • The Clinton Foundation suffered a $16.8 million loss in 2018. It’s a great mystery how that could have happened…
  • The upcoming UK election is no longer an election about Brexit, it’s an election about how incredibly unpopular Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson enjoys a mere plus 4% favorability rating. Corbyn has a minus 43% favorability rating. “This election is no longer primarily about Brexit, it’s primarily about Corbyn and his extreme socialist policies! Corbyn is rightfully getting clobbered.”
  • Snipers kill protestors in Iran.

    The sudden move by the oil-rich regime to ration gasoline and hike fuel prices is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s strategy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran. While the regime thrived under the Obama administration, which handed billions of dollars to Tehran for signing the nuclear deal, the current administration has reinstated stiff sanctions against the ruling Mullahs.

    After President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 deal, the sanctions have crippled Iran’s state-run oil, shipping, and banking sectors. The U.S. government implemented the sanctions against the regime’s top brass and the IRGC, which controls critical sectors of the Iranian economy.

  • “Reuters Deletes Story Meant to Make Trump Look Bad After Realizing it Made Obama Look Bad.” The Ministry of Truth confirms that this story has been rectified.
  • Google Is Blacklisting Conservative News Sites, Despite Denials Made Under Oath.”
  • Trump appointment flips the 11th circuit court, which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
  • Jeffrey Epstein evidently had cameras in every bedroom…and every toilet. Makes the “honeypot for blackmail” idea seem all the more likely…
  • The MSM doesn’t trust you to handle the truth.
  • Woke Charlie’s Angels is the latest box office disaster.
  • “Call us old-fashioned, but we don’t think the chairman of the Homeland Security committee should fly cocaine from the Mexican border into the interior.”
  • How NBA executive Jeff David stole over $13 million from the Sacramento Kings. That amount of money will get people’s attention…(Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Climategate refresher.
  • Heh:

  • Florida Man, meet Wisconsin Man: “Man arrested for 4th OWI, fake license plates made of cardboard beer case.”
  • “Democrat Finally Releases Something Of Substance.”
  • Your Lazy Saturday Anti-Gun Control Tweet Repost

    Saturday, June 28th, 2014

    Pretty much what the title says. Consider it a cheap but tasty add-on to your regular blogging menu, like those “crumblies” at Long John Silvers…

    Gun and Crime Roundup for May 7, 2014

    Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

    Time for another roundup of gun and crime news. As always Democrats are trying to take guns away from the good guys, while the good guys are shooting the stupidest of the bad guys:

  • Supreme Court refuses to hear Drake v. Jerejian, leaving intact New Jersey’s anti-Second Amendment law requiring citizens to “show need” before being allowed a concealed carry permit. This leaves Heller nominally in place, but allows states to deprive law-abiding citizens of the Second Amendment rights for essentially capricious reasons.
  • The big news in the gun-grabber ranks, just in case you hadn’t noticed, is Bloomberg merging two of his gun-grabbing front groups into the single Everytown for Gun Safety. The goal, of course, remains the same: The complete disarmament of American civilians. But you couldn’t tell that from their website or spokespeople, who are deliberately vague when asked for specifics. Hint: Your need to keep changing your name is a sign you’re losing.
  • In related news, the head of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against illegal guns quits.
  • Louisiana wants to give lawmakers gun rights not enjoyed by ordinary citizens. I think you’ve got some equal protection clause issues there, Catou… (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Hillary Clinton attacks “gun culture.” How nice of Hillary to remind gun owners that she’s a genuine foe of the Second Amendment prior to 2016. (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Bonus:

  • Is the NRA falling victim to its own success and losing focus?
  • Missed this earlier: Smith & Wesson and Ruger leave California over unworkable microstamping law.
  • New Orleans teen shot in the head during a burglary attempt is arrested for another burglary attempt just blocks away from where he got shot Dude, being shot in the head is a giant clue that you should be pursuing a different career path…
  • Two burglars shot dead in Sacramento.
  • Murderer has sentence reduced and is to be released into the hands of director Richard Linklater, who made the movie Bernie about him. Uh, I don’t think this is the way the justice system is supposed to work… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Man shot through door by fake policeman.
  • Try to steal a man’s worktools from his truck three times? That’s an ass-shooting.
  • If I had a hammer/I’d hammer the pizza delivery guy/But if he had a gun/He’d shoot my stupid thug ass.
  • Bad gun use in popular media. With an entire section on The Walking Dead. (Hat tip: Say Uncle.)
  • LinkSwarm for February 10, 2014

    Monday, February 10th, 2014

    These LinkSwarms tend to get pushed back to days when there’s not a big story jumping up and requiring my attention. It seems like the Olympics have created a bit of a news lull

  • Democratic congressmen abandoning ObamaCare in droves.
  • Obama’s fake recovery sucks in comparison to Reagan’s real recovery. Why? ObamaCare.
  • People who overestimate their income, thus getting a subsidy rather than thrown into Medicaid, might be in for a nasty surprise come tax time.
  • Today’s Democratic representative retiring after getting caught with his hand in the till comes to you from Rep. Ron Andrews of New Jersey.
  • Today’s example of a Democratic member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns being convicted of a felony (in this case bribery) also comes to you from New Jersey, in the form of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack. But as you observe all this Democratic malfeasance in New Jersey, never lose sight of the truly important thing: Chris Christie might have closed a bridge!
  • Here’s a fascinating piece from Ace of Spades HQ on class identification among the gentry left.
  • And this piece on “Love in the Time of Obama” is well worth reading on its own.
  • Massachusetts state Democrat Rep. Carlos Henriquez’s schedule: 1. Smack my bitch up, 2. Mark my bills up. Yes, assaulting a woman is evidently no reason to keep him from working as a legislator…
  • More black Chicago residents question what the Democratic Party has done for the black community.

    Heartening, but I can’t help but notice that some of the same people appear in this video as the one from that town hall meeting in December. Makes it hard to gauge just how widespread black America’s dissatisfaction with Obama is…

  • The Turncoat Diaries: “The conversions of Charlie Crist, from Republican to independent to Democrat, make up one of the least inspiring tales in modern politics. To take it seriously is to admit you’re the sort of person who takes Scientology stress tests and supplies credit card info to anyone who claims to need help from Nigeria.”
  • People move from high tax, high regulation states bleeding jobs to low-tax, low-regulation states gaining jobs. Gee, who knew?
  • How Russia is trying to keep control of Ukraine.
  • NBC calls the end of the Soviet Union “bittersweet”. Much like Hitler’s suicide…

  • Tweets from Sochi: Missing floors, open manholes, yellow tap water, and “cakes in ass.”
  • More: “Three of the nine mountain hotels have not been completed.”
  • Title company executive dead in nailgun “suicide.” Patrick Bateman wanted for questioning.
  • Inside the Red Light Camera Bribe Machine. Redflex has done business with several cities, including “Austin, El Paso, Plano, Corpus Christi, Grand Prairie, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Port Lavaca, League City, Carrollton, Killeen, Mesquite, and Longview.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Even Howard YEAGGGGHHH Dean thinks the Iran deal sucks.
  • When principled lefty Alan Derschowitz says the Dinesh D’Souza case is “selective prosecution,” perhaps we should listen.
  • New York City schools Harrison Bergeron a gifted students course because of their unacceptable albedo index. (Hat tip: Indapundit.)
  • Michael Totten visits some of the least-crappy parts of Cuba.
  • When I think “high tech giants,” certainly the first name that comes to mind is Chelsea Clinton. Nepotism much, SXSW? (Hat tip: Jim Geraghty in NRO.
  • Slashdot users in open revolt over a redesign. Take one look at the Beta site and you know why: It is indeed a big, festering mound of suck.
  • Adobe to release new DRM scheme that’s annoying, useless, and screws older customers.
  • Ten scenes from Blazing Saddles too politically incorrect to be made today.
  • Did Bill Clinton add Elizabeth Hurley to his list of in-White House conquests?
  • Round Rock ISD committee chairman tries to bypass laws to make changes to sex ed.
  • On tour with the Sex Pistols in Texas.