Posts Tagged ‘Ted Lieu’

More Rittenhouse Trial Fallout

Sunday, November 21st, 2021

The media gets lots of stories wrong, but the Kyle Rittenhouse story (along with the Russiagate hoax, the “fine people” hoax, and the antifa/BLM “mostly peaceful riots” gaslight) is a story that the mainstream media got intentionally wrong to push a particular narrative. (If you haven’t read it already, this previously linked Bari Weiss piece on the trial is the go-to piece for covering media lies.) As the fallout from media lies continues,

  • Here’s Matt Taibbi

    Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all six charges today, already causing a great exploding of heads in the pundit-o-sphere. Unrest wouldn’t be surprising. How could it be otherwise? Colleagues in national media spent over a year telling the country the 18-year-old was not just guilty, but a moral monster whose acquittal would be an in-your-face affirmation of systemic white supremacy.

    It used to bother me that journalists were portrayed in pop culture as sniveling, amoral weenies. Take William Atherton’s iconic portrayal in Die Hard of “Thornburg,” the TV-news creep who gasps, “Tell me you got that!” with orgasmic awe when an explosion rocks the Nakatomi building. I got that I’d seen that face on reporters.

    But risking the life of hero John McClane’s wife Holly by putting her name on TV, and getting the info by threatening the family nanny Paulina with an immigration raid? We’re bad, I thought, but not that bad. I got that it was a movie, but my father was a local TV man, and that one stung a bit.

    MSNBC Thursday pulled a Thornburg in real life. Police stopped a man named James Morrison who was apparently following a jury bus, and said he was acting at the direction of a New York-based MSNBC producer named Irene Byon. Even if all you’re after is a post-verdict interview, if a jury gets the slightest whiff that the press is searching out their names and addresses, that’s clear intimidation. People will worry about the safety of their spouses and children as they’re deliberating. Not that it matters to anyone but the defense, prosecution, judge, jury, and taxpayers, but you’re also putting the trial at risk. I’ve covered plenty of celebrity trials, from Michael Jackson to the Enron defendants, and know the identifying-jurors practice isn’t unheard of. However, in a powder-keg case like this, it’s bonkers to play it any way but straight.

    We’ve seen Die Hard-level indifference to social consequence from the beginning of this case. The context of the Rittenhouse shootings involved a summer of protests that began after the police killing of George Floyd, and continued in Kenosha after the shooting of Jacob Blake. We saw demonstrations of all types last summer, ranging from solemn candlelight vigils and thousands of protesters laying peacefully on their backs across bridges, to the burning of storefronts and “hundreds” of car thieves stealing “nearly 80” cars from a dealership in San Leandro, California. When the population is on edge, and people are amped and ready to lash out, that puts an even greater onus on media figures to get things right.

    In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer when many if not most of them had a good idea he would be acquitted. But that’s exactly what most outlets did.

    This is separate and apart from the question of whether or not you like Kyle Rittenhouse, or agree with his politics, or if, as a parent, you would want your own teenager carrying an AR-15 into a chaotic protest zone. The huge media error here was of the “Walls are closing in” variety, except the context was far worse. The “Walls are closing in” stupidity raised vague expectations among #Resistance audiences that at some unfixed point in time, Donald Trump would be pushed from office by scandal. In this case, the same people who poured out onto the streets last summer were told over and over that Rittenhouse was guilty, setting the stage for shock and horror if and when the “wrong” verdict came back.

    Media figures got every element of this story wrong. As documented by TK contributor Matt Orfalea, the Young Turks alone spat out all sorts of misconceptions with shocking inattention: that Rittenhouse was “shooting randomly at people” after falling down, that he’d fired first, that there was no evidence that anyone had raised a gun at him, among many, many other errors. Belatedly, the show conceded some of these problems…

    Snip.

    Joe Scarborough on MSNBC said Rittenhouse unloaded “about sixty rounds” into the crowd (it was eight), adding in another segment that he “drove across state lines and started shooting people up,” and in still another that he was “shooting wildly, running around acting like a rent a cop, trying to protect property in a town he doesn’t know.” (His father and other relatives live there). John Heilemann on the same channel said Rittenhouse was “arguably a domestic terrorist” who “crossed state lines to go and shoot people.” Bakari Sellers, CNN: “The only person who fired shots that night was Kyle Rittenhouse” (he didn’t fire first, and protesters actually fired more rounds).

    In the early days after the shooting, there were widespread reports that Rittenhouse either was a “militia member” or “thought of himself as a militia member,” but these turned out to not be true (he was actually only a member of a Police Explorers program). A well-known politician, squad member Ayanna Pressley, whom I wouldn’t by any means characterize as stupid or generally careless, tweeted a slew of accusations paired with a challenge to media outlets to “fix your damn headlines”

    This was followed by other politicians making similar comments. Congressman Ted Lieu in September of last year said Rittenhouse “drove across state lines and he murdered two protesters,” adding, “Americans of all colors and creeds are seeing that racism and white supremacy are problems we can’t ignore.” Stacy Abrams said Rittenhouse was “willing to drive across state lines in order to commit murder.” Of course, the crowning impropriety, already mentioned in this space, was then-candidate Joe Biden putting Rittenhouse in a campaign ad in which he talked about how Trump “refused to disavow white supremacists” in a debate…

    Snip.

    A scant few outlets bothered to do what The New Yorker did in July of this year, in examining each of these claims one by one. This involved simple things like citing the Anti-Defamation League report covering Rittenhouse:

    Quote:
    There is to date no evidence that Rittenhouse was involved with the Kenosha Guard or showed up as a result of their call to action. Nor is there evidence of ties to other extremist groups, either militia groups or white supremacist groups. Rittenhouse’s social media accounts provided no evidence of ties to extremism prior to the killings.

    The New Yorker also took a sober look at the oft-howled objection that Rittenhouse “crossed state lines,” as if this were somehow an offense in itself (see the Matt Orfalea video above) and quickly determined that news outlets simply didn’t bother to ask a few basic questions about the case:

    Quote:
    Because he lived in Illinois, people assumed that he had travelled some distance, for nefarious purposes, and had “crossed state lines” with his rifle. (The Rittenhouse apartment was a mile south of the Wisconsin border, and Rittenhouse had been storing his gun in Kenosha, at the house of a friend’s stepfather.)

    Because of all of these simple factual misconceptions that Rittenhouse was a militia member and a white supremacist who’d traveled a great distance to a town to which he had no connection, then fired first and indiscriminately analysts not only pre-judged Rittenhouse’s guilt, but offered advance explanations for any possible acquittal.

    Since it was not possible that it was real self-defense, the trial could only be an affirmation of white supremacy’s hold on the judicial system. “I know what white people are willing to do to defend white supremacy,” is how Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal put it, in a Democracy Now! appearance that casually explained some of Judge Schroeder’s decisions by saying things like, “That’s what racists do.” There’s simply no requirement anymore for substantiating words like “white supremacist” or “racist” in media. We were once terrified to use these words without a lot of backup, but now, we don’t distinguish between a person who attends Richard Spencer rallies and, say, a judge with a “God Bless The U.S.A.” ringtone, or a member of a Police Explorers program.

    Pretty much any use of the phrase “white supremacy” in current political context indicates the one using it is pushing a radical left-wing social justice agenda.

  • Here’s a quick and dirty takedown of various Rittenhouse lies in meme form:

  • GoFundMe, who blocked fundraising for Kyle Rittenhouse, now says he can fundraise now that he no longer needs it.
  • Tiny problem with GoFundMe’s explanation: at the same time they were denying funding to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense, they were allowing it for accused antifa/#BlackLivesMatter rioters.

    One campaign, titled “CHARGED WITH BANK ROBBERY DURING GEORGE FLOYD RIOT,” has raised $140 of a $40,000 goal for a couple arrested in May last year.

    “My girlfriend was released with no paper, but unfortunately they kept me and charged me with bank larceny,” the description reads, adding that the charges have since changed to “attempted bank robbery.”

    Another titled “Fundraiser for Tuscon Arrestees” is soliciting donations for 12 people who face felony riot charges. The campaign has so far raised nearly $7,200 of a $12,000 goal.

    The “Tia Pugh Legal Defense Fund” is raising money for a 22-year-old Alabama woman arrested for criminal mischief and inciting a riot. The fund has just fallen about $50 short of a $3,000 goal.

    Rittenhouse, however, was unable to collect donations from the website because the then-17-year-old shooter was charged with a violent crime.

  • One cop fired for contributing to Rittenhouse’s defense demands his job back.

    The Norfolk Virginia Police Department fired Sgt. William K. Kelly III for donating anonymously $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense.

    The department only found out because a hacker group released the information of the anonymous users.

    A jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.

    Kelly wants his job back.

  • A lot of the left-wing response to the Rittenhouse verdict is that “juries would never acquit black people who used deadly force in self-defense.” A tiny problem with this argument: It’s not true.

  • One rare Democrat not joining the irrational “Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist murderer” mob: Tulsi Gabbard.

  • There was actually a lot less left-wing rioting after the Rittenhouse verdict than expected. The exception: Portland, Oregon. Of course.
  • Oops! Someone said the quiet part out-loud again: “This Chicago mob shouted ‘the only solution is communist revolution’ after the Rittenhouse verdict
  • Borepatch has a short meme roundup.

    • I hope Kyle Rittenhouse lawsuits prompt media bankruptcies and house-cleaning of SJW radicals far and wide.

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors | 3 Comments »

    Democratic Megadonor Ed Buck Convicted Of All Charges

    Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

    Democratic Party megadonor Ed Buck, the perverted creep who lured young black men to his home to administer frequently fatal methamphetamine overdoses to them, has been convicted of all nine charges:

    Ed Buck, a longtime fixture of West Hollywood politics, was convicted Tuesday of charges that he supplied the methamphetamine that killed two men during “party-and-play” encounters at his apartment.

    After about four hours of deliberations, the jury found Buck guilty of every charge in a nine-count indictment that also accused him of maintaining a drug den, distributing methamphetamine and enticement to cross state lines to engage in prostitution.

    Buck, 66, could spend the rest of his life in prison. The convictions for supplying the meth that resulted in death each carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

    The verdict concluded a two-week trial that featured harrowing testimony by Black men hired by Buck, who is white, to show off their bodies in underwear and get high on crystal meth and the party drug GHB. Excerpts from Buck’s hundreds of graphic videos and photos of the drugs-and-sex sessions were played at the trial.

    Buck’s obsessive pursuit of his dangerous fetish led to the overdose deaths of two Black men in his apartment: Gemmel Moore, 26, in July 2017, and Timothy Dean, 55, in January 2019.

    It was only in September 2019, after a third Black man nearly died of an overdose, that Buck was arrested — a delay that fueled angry protests by activists who accused law enforcement officials of failing to aggressively investigate a politically influential white man. Buck, a onetime candidate for West Hollywood’s City Council, made more than $500,000 in campaign donations over the last couple of decades, nearly all of it to Democrats.

    Because there were interstate drug distribution and prostitution aspects to the Buck case, Buck caught federal charges:

    A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.

    Buck, 65, was arrested in September 2019 after being charged in United States District Court with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously. Since that time, federal authorities have continued to investigate Buck for additional crimes.

    The four additional counts charged today – bringing the total number of charges in this case to nine counts – include one count alleging that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution. Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017.

    Buck also is charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.

    The superseding indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.

    Last year, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging that Buck “engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment,” which is a practice described as “party and play.” Buck allegedly solicited victims on social media platforms, including a gay dating website, and used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.

    Once the men were at his apartment, Buck allegedly prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent, according to the indictment. Buck also allegedly injected victims with more narcotics than they expected and sometimes injected victims while they were unconscious.

    Another victim, Timothy Dean also suffered a fatal overdose in Buck’s apartment, on January 7, 2019, the indictment alleges.

    For years Ed Buck was protected because of the campaign donations he doled out to Democratic politicians:

    West Hollywood politics has a glimmering rainbow surface, but the authentic underlying powers are real estate interests. The City Council controls the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development projects, a fact reflected in their campaign contributions. “Developers don’t drop tens of thousands of dollars in West Hollywood because they like the City’s position on gay marriage, says former West Hollywood Mayor Steve Martin.

    With a huge war chest supporting them, a small handful of politicians reduced the government of West Hollywood to a game of musical chairs. John Duran, John D`Amico, John Heilman, Jeffrey Prang, and Abbe Land would bounce back and forth between the Mayor’s Office and City Council for decades, winning eighteen out of the last twenty-one mayoral elections between them.

    Ed Buck played a variety of supporting roles in the political machinery, buoying the chosen few.

    D’Amico’s political career was launched on the back of Buck’s support, winning a seat on City Council after marching through West Hollywood with Buck promoting his “Fur Free WeHo” campaign. Buck’s donations and connections to other major donors, including billionaire Gary Michelson, brought tens of thousands of dollars to Buck’s friends on City Council through multiple entities sharing the name ANIMAL PAC.

    Buck’s money also bought him a position on the Steering Committee of the Stonewall Democratic Club, the kingmaker of West Hollywood politics. Buck used his position on the Steering Committee to influence Stonewall’s secretive endorsement process, one “designed to protect incumbents and well-financed, well-connected candidates,” says a former Steering Committee member. Stonewall rank and file must have wondered why the LGBTQ group was promoting candidates for County Tax Assessor and Board of Equalization. Buck was so useful, Abbe Land would open City Council meetings by calling him to recite the pledge of allegiance.

    He also appeared to be a lot of local Democratic politicians’ favorite conduit to evade campaign finance limits:

    Officially retired since his early thirties, Buck would not have had the money to sustain his prolific spending habits relating to drugs, escorts, and politics. His biggest payday was in the 1980s when he flipped his friend’s business, Gopher Courier, to profit just over a million dollars, after which he lost money investing into pay-phones and a restaurant.

    After moving to West Hollywood, Buck was suspiciously cash-rich and asset poor, driving a wreck of a car and living in a rent-controlled apartment. Journalists paint Buck as a wealthy social climber, but his finances and lifestyle suggest he was a dirty political operative.

    Data from California’s political contribution records is highly truncated, but campaign finance rules create patterns that highlight alliances.

    One can skirt contribution limits and obscure contribution origins by breaking up large donations into smaller payments and passing them through family members and political allies, so I looked for donors that matched Buck’s donations.

    He donated varying amounts to plenty of politicians and causes, but there were consistent primary beneficiaries such as Jeffrey Prang, John Duran, Scott Svonkin, Honesty PAC, and of course, his ANIMAL PACs. The highly incestuous top donors who also supported Prang, Duran, Svonkin, and Buck’s PACs were real estate interests, chief among them being Excel Property Management Services managed by CEO Arman Gabay. Arman Gabay and his company funded Jeffrey Prang’s successful 2014 Los Angeles County Assessor bid with the help of Ed Buck, Ed Buck’s future attorney Seymour Amster, ANIMAL PAC, John Duran, West Hollywood activists, and various real estate interests. The same donors also funded periphery candidates who endorsed Prang and Svonkin.

    And don’t forget this classic photo of Buck with California Democratic congressman Ted Lieu.

    Or this one:

    Ed Buck was useful, and that’s why Buck (and his deadly fetish games) were protected from public scrutiny and prosecution. Then the New York Times lied and tried to call him a “small-time Democratic donor.”

    More background on Buck can be found in these Grant Baker pieces here, here, and here.

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats | 4 Comments »

    In Which The New York Times Straight Up Lies About Ed Buck

    Saturday, September 21st, 2019

    As an extension of the Democratic Media Complex, it’s never a surprise when theNew York Times lies to help the Democratic Party out. This time it’s calling wealthy gay Democratic Party donor and accused serial killer Ed Buck “a small-time Democratic donor.”

    Does this look like a “small time” donor to you?

    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-10-2008 $500.00 United for A Strong America (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 09-02-2010 $1,000.00 Portantino, Anthony (D)
    Money to Parties BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 12-09-2009 $500.00 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte (D)
    Money to Parties BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-23-2012 $2,000.00 Los Angeles County Dem Central Cmte (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-15-2012 $1,000.00 Israel, Steve (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-03-2012 $1,000.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 01-27-2015 $5,200.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 10-10-2016 $1,000.00 Bonoff, Terri (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-10-2016 $1,000.00 Bera, Ami (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 04-24-2015 $2,700.00 Clinton, Hillary (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-25-2013 $2,600.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-25-2013 $2,700.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-11-2014 $2,600.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-11-2014 $2,600.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Parties BUCK, ED
    W HOLLYWOOD, CA 90056 RETIRED 10-28-2014 $2,500.00 Democratic State Central Cmte/California (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 05-25-2008 $1,000.00 Obama, Barack (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 04-24-2008 $250.00 Obama, Barack (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 08-29-2008 $300.00 Obama, Barack (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-11-2012 $500.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-02-2011 $500.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-31-2010 $600.00 Stonewall Democratic Club (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 05-27-2011 $500.00 Portantino, Anthony (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-02-2012 $500.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-02-2012 $500.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-28-2017 $5,400.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 05-06-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 UNEMPLOYED 07-19-2017 $1,000.00 Gomez, Jimmy (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-10-2016 $1,000.00 Caforio, Bryan (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-20-2017 $2,700.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 01-27-2015 -$2,500.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 01-27-2015 $2,500.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to SuperPAC/Outside Group BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-06-2014 $5,000.00 House Majority PAC
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 11-08-2012 $1,000.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-23-2010 $500.00 Stonewall Young Democrats
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-30-2011 $1,000.00 Frank, Barney (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-29-2008 $2,200.00 Warner, Russell (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 05-31-2017 $1,000.00 Donnelly, Joe (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 UNEMPLOYED 02-27-2017 $1,000.00 Gomez, Jimmy (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-20-2017 $2,700.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-28-2017 $2,700.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 NOT EMPLOYED 10-10-2016 $1,000.00 Gallego, Pete (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-25-2013 -$2,600.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 NONE 05-04-2016 $1,000.00 Vince, Lou (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-19-2015 $2,700.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-29-2007 $500.00 Warner, Russell (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-20-2007 $1,800.00 Warner, Russell (D)
    Money to Parties BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 11-08-2009 $350.00 Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 09-02-2010 $1,000.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 04-22-2010 $1,000.00 Frank, Barney (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 11-03-2009 $1,000.00 Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 05-01-2011 $1,000.00 Portantino, Anthony (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-26-2012 $1,000.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 N/A/RETIRED 04-15-2011 $500.00 Stonewall Democratic Club
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 09-30-2011 $250.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-21-2017 $1,000.00 Krishnamoorthi, Raja (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-15-2016 $5,000.00 Getting Stuff Done PAC (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-24-2015 $5,000.00 Getting Stuff Done PAC (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-25-2016 $1,700.00 Caforio, Bryan (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 12-07-2015 $1,000.00 Lee, Susie (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-10-2016 $1,000.00 Rosen, Jacky (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 10-01-2014 $1,000.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 05-01-2014 $2,600.00 Honda, Mike (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 Not employed 12-13-2014 $1,000.00 Barber, Ron (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 05-12-2008 $500.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 04-22-2010 $1,000.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 09-18-2009 $1,000.00 McNerney, Jerry (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-29-2011 $1,000.00 Portantino, Anthony (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 UNEMPLOYED 05-03-2017 $1,000.00 Gomez, Jimmy (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 Retired 02-24-2017 $10,400.00 Getting Stuff Done PAC (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 02-28-2017 -$2,700.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 03-17-2015 $1,000.00 Ready PAC
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 08-19-2015 $2,700.00 Lieu, Ted (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90046 RETIRED 04-28-2016 $2,700.00 Schiff, Adam (D)
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 01-04-2013 $2,500.00 Sinema, Kyrsten (D)
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 04-07-2014 $1,000.00 Stonewall Young Democrats
    Money to PACs BUCK, ED
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 12-31-2014 $1,000.00 Ready for Hillary
    Money to Candidates BUCK, ED D
    WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90046 RETIRED 06-15-2017 $1,000.00 Aguilar, Pete (D)

    Forgive the cut-and-paste wonkiness. This assumes that all Ed Buck donations from 90046 are the same Ed Buck, even though some list Los Angeles as the city and others West Hollywood, which seems a safe assumption. That’s 77 line items (including three refunds from the Sinema campaign) over two pages of donations, most of $1,000 or more. He gave maximum donations to candidates across the country (Barney Frank in Massachusetts, Pete Gallego in Texas, etc.), and where you see two $2,600 or $2,700 donations to the same candidate in the same year, like he did with California Democratic Representative Ted Lieu in 2014, it indicates he gave the maximum for both the primary and the general election.

    I’m pretty sure Lieu didn’t think Buck was a “small-time donor” at the time.

    According to Excel, minus the returns, that’s a total of $114,900 accused serial murderer Ed Buck doled out to Democrats. I don’t think that fits most ordinary Americans’ idea of a “small time donor.”

    Just before I posted this, I asked three of the four by-lined writers (Arit John, Laura M. Holson, and Mihir Zaveri; the fourth, Emily S. Rueb, does not appear to be on Twitter) why they described Buck as a “small-time donor,” and who made the decision to refer to him that way. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Media Watch | 1 Comment »

    LinkSwarm for April 12, 2019

    Friday, April 12th, 2019

    At long last, the FISA abuse/FBI spying on the Trump campaign scandal is finally being dragged into the light again. At the same time, Wikileaks head honcho Julian Assange has been extracted from the Ecuadorian embassy arrested, pending extradition to the U.S. Coincidence? I report, you decide. “The US department of justice confirmed he has been charged with computer crimes, and added in a statement that if convicted he will face up to five years in prison.” Dang dude, if he had turned himself in when indicted, he’d already be out by now and working the talk show circuit.

    Enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm, and remember that you have to finish doing your taxes this weekend.

  • Stating the obvious: “Barr is right, spying on Trump campaign did occur.”

    The baffling thing was why they were baffled. Barr’s statement was accurate and supported by publicly known facts.

    First, what Barr said. “I think spying did occur,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “But the question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting it was not adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”

    That is entirely accurate. It is a fact that in October 2016 the FBI wiretapped Carter Page, who had earlier been a short-term foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. The bureau’s application to a secret court for that wiretapping is public. It is heavily redacted but is clearly focused on Page and “the Russian government’s attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” Page was wiretapped because of his connection with the Trump campaign.

    Some critics have noted that the wiretap authorization came after Page left the campaign. But the surveillance order allowed authorities to intercept Page’s electronic communications both going forward from the day of the order and backward, as well. Investigators could see Page’s emails and texts going back to his time in the campaign.

    So there is simply no doubt that the FBI wiretapped a Trump campaign figure. Is a wiretap “spying”? It is hard to imagine a practice, whether approved by a court or not, more associated with spying.

    Anyone reading this blog (or any non-MSM news source) knew that Obama’s Justice Department was spying on Trump over two years ago. At this point it’s about as surprising as hearing that James Harden is good at basketball…

  • “Barr Confirms Multiple Intel Agencies Implicated In Anti-Trump Spy Operation.” (Hat tip: J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • In the same vein:

    Democrats seem both angry and frightened, and their kneejerk and perhaps even somewhat panicked response right now is to try to destroy Barr.

    You can feel the frisson of fear they emanate. They waited two years for the blow of the Mueller report to fall on Trump, and now other investigative blows may fall on them. The Mueller report combined with Barr’s appointment could end up being a sort of ironic boomerang (whether or not boomerangs can be ironic I leave to you to decide).

    How could this have happened? they must be thinking. How could the worm have turned? But they are spinning in the usual manner, hoping that—as so often has happened in the past—their confederates in the press will work their magic to make all of it go away and boomerang back to Republicans instead.

    But whatever comes of it all, if anything, Democrats cannot believe that at least right now their dreams have turned to dust and they taste, instead of the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.

    That’s from Neo, formerly NeoNeocon. I can see why she’d want to change the name, given how many neocons became #NeverTrump lunatics. (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

  • Newly released email from Platte River Networks, the firm that serviced the Emailgate server used by Hillary Clinton: “Its all part of the Hillary coverup operation.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • “Who’s Worse – Julian Assange or the NY Times and Washington Post?”

    Deeply sourced? What a laugh. As we now know post-Mueller Report, these “respected” journalists were simply trafficking in collusion lies whispered to them by biased informants. In other words, they were a bunch of gullible, over-zealous propagandists. For that they received their Pulitzers, as yet unreturned, needless to say (just as the Pulitzer for Walter Duranty still hangs on the NY Times’ wall despite decades of pleas from Ukrainians whose countrymen’s mass murder by Stalin was bowdlerized by Duranty).

    So, in other words, these mainstream media reporters have gotten off with nary a slap on the wrist (indeed received fame and fortune) for lying while Julian Assange may be headed for prison for telling the truth. There’s a bit of irony in that, no?

  • Iraqi special forces launch an operation against islamic State remnants in the Hamrin Mountains. If you looked at the livemap, the Hamrin Mountains were the tiny sliver of ISIS-held territory between Tikrit and Kirkuk. No population centers, just some remote mountainous caves.
  • “Avenatti indicted on 36 charges of tax dodging, perjury, theft from clients.”

    Avenatti stole millions of dollars from five clients and used a tangled web of shell companies and bank accounts to cover up the theft, the Santa Ana grand jury alleged in an indictment that prosecutors made public Thursday.

    One of the clients, Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, was a mentally ill paraplegic on disability who won a $4-million settlement of a suit against Los Angeles County. The money was wired to Avenatti in January 2015, but he hid it from Johnson for years, according to the indictment.

    In 2017, Avenatti received $2.75 million in proceeds from another client’s legal settlement, but concealed that too, the indictment says. The next day, he put $2.5 million of that money into the purchase of a private jet for Passport 420, LLC, a company he effectively owned, according to prosecutors.

    You can read the indictment itself here. Hey, remember the MSM treating Creepy Porn Lawyer like a rock star? Pepperidge Farm remembers:

  • When California Democratic Representative Ted Lieu went after Candace Owens, he probably had no idea he’d just make her star shine brighter. “She was a liberal, but during the #GamerGate controversy, she was ‘doxxed’ by the Left, and had a road-to-Damascus awakening: ‘I became a conservative overnight. I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls.'”
  • Wendy Davis is going to run for congress against Rep. Chip Roy. In one way this makes sense, as Roy narrowly won over Joseph Kopser by 2% in 2018. However, Kopser was (by Democratic standards) a well-heeled businessman moderate. I don’t actually see Abortion Barbie being nearly as competitive after the walloping she took in 2014. Also of interest is her running for an Austin-to-San Antonio district rather than somewhere near her previous base of Fort Worth. (I emailed the Kopser for Congress address to ask if he’s running again, but the contact address is no longer valid.)
  • Fritz Hollings, RIP. Hollings was one of the last conservative southern Democrats, and co-sponsor of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act, which temporarily limited spending growth until congress gutted it in 1990.
  • West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin supports the reelection of Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins.
  • Georgia Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath lives in Tennessee.
  • “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned China that his soldiers [are] occupying the island of Thitu in the South China Sea, which is currently surrounded by some 275 Chinese fishing militia and Coast Guard vessels.”
  • Why we need the electoral college:

    he core function of the Electoral College is to require presidential candidates to appeal to the voters of a sufficient number of large and smaller states, rather than just try to run up big margins in a handful of the biggest states, cities, or regions. Critics ignore the important value served by having a president whose base of support is spread over a broad, diverse array of regions of the country (even a president as polarizing as Donald Trump won seven of the ten largest states and places as diverse as Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, West Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Texas).

    In a nation as wide and varied as ours, it would be destabilizing to have a president elected over the objections of most of the states. Our American system as a whole — both by design and by experience — demands the patient building of broad, diverse political coalitions over time to effect significant change. The presidency works together with the Senate and House to make that a necessity. The Senate, of course, is also a target of the Electoral College’s critics, but eliminating the equal suffrage of states requires the support of every single state. A president elected without regard to state support is more likely to face a dysfunctional level of opposition in the Senate.

    Consider an illustrative example. Most of us, I think, would agree that 54 percent of the vote is a pretty good benchmark for a decisive election victory — not a landslide, but a no-questions-asked comfortable majority. That’s bigger than Donald Trump’s victory in Texas in 2016; Trump won 18 states with 54 percent or more of the vote in 2016, Hillary Clinton won 10 plus D.C., and the other 22 states were closer than that. Nationally, just 16 elections since 1824 have been won by a candidate who cleared 54 percent of the vote — the last was Ronald Reagan in 1984 — and all of them were regarded as decisive wins at the time.

    Picture a two-candidate election with 2016’s turnout. The Republican wins 54 percent of the vote in 48 states, losing only California, New York, and D.C. That’s a landslide victory, right? But then imagine that the Republican nominee who managed this feat was so unpopular in California, New York, and D.C. that he or she loses all three by a 75 percent–to–25 percent margin. That 451–87 landslide in the Electoral College, built on eight-point wins in 48 states, would also be a popular-vote defeat, with 50.7 percent of the vote for the Democrat to 49.3 percent for the Republican. Out of a total of about 137 million votes, that’s a popular-vote margin of victory of 1.95 million votes for a candidate who was decisively rejected in 48 of the 50 states.

    Who should win that election? This is not just a matter of coloring in a lot of empty red land on a map: each of these 48 states is an independent entity that has its own governor, legislature, laws, and courts, and sends two senators to Washington. The whole idea of a country called the United States is that those individual communities are supposed to matter.

  • “Can Jewish Exodus from Democratic Party keep Florida red in 2020?”
  • Five debunked feminist myths. Including that hoary 77¢ canard.
  • “On Thursday, Google canceled its AI ethics board after 2,476 employees signed a petition urging the company to remove Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James for opposing transgender activism. An anonymous Google employee told PJ Media the corporate culture resembles the stifling of debate on college campuses, and warned that Google’s caving to pressure on this issue will only embolden activists.”
  • Eurocrats issue absurd takedown commands under a new “terrorist content” law. Include all of Project Gutenberg.
  • A follow-up to last week’s LinkSwarm piece about Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh’s bribes-via-bulk-children’s book-orders scam: Critical Carlos reviews Healthy Holly. And don’t miss the video.
  • Via regular blog reader Howard comes this handy map of fake hate crimes.
  • That “far right extremist crimes are on the rise” talking point is absolute bunk.
  • More than 60 groups are considering suing SPLC. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Antifa gonna antifa:

  • “Man In Critical Condition After Hearing Slightly Differing Viewpoint.”
  • “Casino Profits Collapse In Atlantic City.”
  • Pollen haboob. (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
  • The word for the color orange didn’t exist in English until the introduction of the fruit.
  • “Oh no, not the bees! They’re in my eyes!”
  • You just missed the 50th anniversary of the Japanese Penis Festival. (Hat tip: Ordy Packard on Twitter.)

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Jihad, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud | 1 Comment »

    House: Awan Gang Rampaged Through Dem Servers

    Thursday, January 18th, 2018

    Here’s some breaking news from the other, other, other Democratic scandal in Washington, D.C.:

    House investigators concluded that Democratic IT aides made unauthorized access to congressional servers in 2016, allegedly accessing the data of members for whom they did not work, logging in as members of Congress themselves, and covering their tracks, according to a presentation summarizing the findings of a four-month internal probe.

    Their behavior mirrored a “classic method for insiders to exfiltrate data from an organization,” and they continued even after orders to stop, the briefing materials allege. There are indications that numerous members’ data may have been secretly residing not on their designated servers, but instead aggregated onto one server, according to the briefing and other sources. Authorities said that the entire server was then physically stolen.

    When acting on the findings, Democratic leadership appear to have misrepresented the issue to their own members as solely a matter of theft, a comparison of the investigators’ findings with Democrats’ recollections and a committee’s public statement shows, leading 44 Democrats to not conduct protective measures typically taken after a breach — including informing constituents whose personal information may have been exposed. (A list of the involved members is below.)

    The presentation, written by the House’s Office of the Inspector General, reported under the bold heading “UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS” that “5 shared employee system administrators have collectively logged into 15 member offices and the Democratic Caucus although they were not employed by the offices they accessed.”

    It found indications that a House “server is being used for nefarious purposes and elevated the risk that individuals could be reading and/or removing information” and “could be used to store documents taken from other offices.” The server was that of the House Democratic Caucus, a sister group of the DNC that was run at the time by then-Rep. Xavier Becerra.

    The aides named are Imran Awan, his wife Hina Alvi, his brothers Abid and Jamal, and his friend Rao Abbas, Pakistani-born aides whose lives are filled with reason for concern. Abid’s Ukranian wife Natalia Sova and Haseeb Rana were also involved in the Awans’ activities but departed the House payroll prior to the investigation.

    One systems administrator “logged into a member’s office two months after he was terminated from that office,” the investigative summary says.

    While the rules could have been violated for some innocuous purpose, the presentation indicates that is unlikely: “This pattern of login activity suggests steps are being taken to conceal their activity.”

    The list of affected Democratic Representatives (many of whom have been forcibly retired by voters or otherwise left office), alphabetized for your convenience:

  • Pete Aguilar (D-CA)
  • Brad Ashford (D-NE)
  • Ron Barber (D-AZ)
  • Karen Bass (D-CA)
  • Melissa Bean (D-IL)
  • Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
  • Chris Bell (D-TX)
  • Joyce Birdson Beatty (D-OH)
  • Julia Brownley (D-CA)
  • Tony Cardenas (D-CA)
  • John Carney (D-DE)
  • Andre Carson (D-IN)
  • Joaquin Castro (D-TX)
  • Ben Chandler (D-KY)
  • Katherine Clark (D-MA)
  • Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
  • Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
  • Jim Costa (D-CA)
  • Charlie Crist (D-FL)
  • Joe Crowley (D-NY)
  • Diana DeGette (D-CO)
  • Ted Deutch (D-FL)
  • Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
  • Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
  • Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)
  • Lois Frankel (D-FL)
  • Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
  • Joe Garcia (D-FL)
  • Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)
  • Gwen Graham (D-FL)
  • Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM)
  • Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
  • Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
  • Baron Hill (D-IN)
  • Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
  • Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH)
  • Robin Kelly (D-IL)
  • Dan Kildee (D-MI)
  • Ron Klein (D-FL)
  • Sandy Levin (D-MI)
  • Ted Lieu (D-CA)
  • Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
  • Donald McEachin (D-VA)
  • Kendrick Meek (D-FL)
  • Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
  • Seth Moulton (D-MA)
  • Patrick Murphy (D-FL)
  • Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)
  • Cedric Richmond (D-LA)
  • Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)
  • Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
  • Tim Ryan (D-OH)
  • John Sarbanes (D-MD)
  • Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)
  • Hilda Solis (D-CA)
  • Darren Michael Soto (D-FL)
  • Jackie Speier (D-CA)
  • Mark Takano (D-CA)
  • Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
  • Henry Waxman (D-CA)
  • Robert Wexler (D-FL)
  • Frederica Wilson (D-FL)

    • Plus the House Democratic Caucus server.

    Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine a Republican had broken into one Democratic congressional servers. That would be front page news for weeks. Now imagine a Republican had broken into the servers of 44 Democratic congressmen, plus the DNC. There would be congressional hearings televised by every major network and calls to disband the RNC. But let five Pakistani nationals do the same thing and the MSM just can’t be arsed to even investigate it.

    It’s a huge scandal.

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats | No Comments »