Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Did a Government Intel Asset Plant Key Evidence in Proud Boys Case?
We should be suspicious of weird coincidences.
It’s week five of the Justice Department’s most high-profile—and high-stakes—criminal trial related to the events of January 6, 2021. Five members of the Proud Boys face the rare “seditious conspiracy” charge. Guilty verdicts—almost certain given the government’s near-perfect conviction rate for January 6 defendants—would build legal momentum for a similar indictment against Donald Trump. (The trial is so crucial that Matthew Graves, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia responsible for prosecuting every January 6 case, has shown up in the courtroom on at least three occasions.)
Trump is a major figure in this trial, an unindicted coconspirator of sorts. Last week, Judge Timothy Kelly allowed prosecutors to play a clip of Trump’s extemporaneous comment for the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”—a remark uttered during a presidential debate in September 2020 more than three months before the Capitol protest. The Justice Department wants to portray the comment as a call to arms, tying the alleged “militia” group to the former president.
The clip is just another thin reed of evidence in the government’s landmark domestic terrorism case. In fact, much of the “evidence” amounts to nothing more than worthless trinkets, braggadocious group chats, and otherwise protected political speech.
It now appears that one key piece of evidence was not the work of any defendant in this case but rather written by a one-time government intelligence asset with unusual ties to both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, another group involved in January 6.
A document titled “1776 Returns” is cited by the government to indicate the group had an advanced plan to “attack” the Capitol. In two separate criminal indictments, prosecutors explained how the document ended up in the hands of Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys: “On December 30, 2020 [an unnamed] individual sent Tarrio a document—[that] set forth a plan to occupy a few ‘crucial buildings’ in Washington, D.C. on January 6, including House and Senate buildings around the Capitol, with ‘as many people as possible’ to ‘show our politicians We the People are in charge.’”
Calling the document a “high-level summary,” a prosecutor last week combed through each page of “1776 Returns” with an expert witness even though the government conceded there was no proof Tarrio opened the file or shared it with others.
“The plan, essentially, is to have individuals inside these buildings, either cause a distraction, or—pull fire alarms in other parts of the city to distract law enforcement so that a crowd can then rush the buildings and occupy the interior so they can demand a new election,” FBI Agent Peter Dubrowski told the jury.
In other words, an “insurrection!”
But a bombshell motion filed over the weekend debunks the Justice Department’s suggestion that the document was a product, or at least a roadmap, used to guide the group’s conduct on January 6. The filing suggests that the handling of “1776 Returns,” like so much of January 6, was yet another sting operation.
“It appears that the government itself is the author of the most incriminating and damning document in this case, which was mysteriously sent at government request to Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio immediately prior to January 6 in order to frame or implicate Tarrio in a government created scheme to storm buildings around the Capitol,” wrote Roger Roots, attorney for Dominic Pezzola, in the motion seeking a mistrial. “As such, [the document] and the government’s efforts to frame or smear defendants with it, constitutes outrageous government conduct.”
Turns out, the person responsible for preparing the document is a man named...
The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #1295
Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,
Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.
If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.
Please Leave Silently Into The Night......
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #1995
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
After Train Crash 'Nuked' Ohio Town With Toxic Chemicals, Buttigieg Focuses on Bigger Threat: White Construction Workers
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| Drone footage shows the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 6, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released by the NTSB. NTSBGov/Handout via REUTERS |
In one of his first public appearances since a massive train derailment released poisonous chemicals in eastern Ohio, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg avoided discussing the disaster—instead criticizing construction workers for being too white.
U.S. Shuts Down Montana Airspace Amid Flurry of Military Activity
"We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood," Buttigieg said Monday at the National Association of Counties Conference.
The transportation secretary made no mention of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which has forced authorities to release toxic chemicals such as phosgene and vinyl chloride to avoid an explosion and get the tracks operable.
"We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open," Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, told a local news outlet.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), whose state borders the affected towns, said it was safe to return home as air and water tests appeared acceptable.
Caggiano said he was surprised at how quickly authorities told people they could...
‘The Only Solution:’ Yale Prof Suggests Mass Suicide for Elderly in Japan
“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” Narita, an assistant professor of economics at Yale. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?”
Seppuku refers to “an act of ritual disembowelment,” noted the New York Times, which also described the Yale professor as an individual who has “taken on the question of how to deal with the burdens of Japan’s rapidly aging society.”
Last year, after being asked to elaborate on his mass suicide ideas, Narita suggested it could be a “good thing” to “work hard toward creating a society” like the one depicted in the 2019 horror film Midsommar, in which a Swedish cult has elderly members of its community commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.
“Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question to answer,” the Ivy League professor said. “So if you think that’s good, then maybe you can work hard toward creating a society like that.”
When it comes to euthanasia, Narita has suggested “the possibility of making it mandatory in the future.”
After facing some backlash, the 37-year-old professor said his comments were “taken out of context,” and that he was mainly addressing a growing effort to push seniors out of leadership in business and politics in order to make room for younger generations.
While not everyone agrees with Narita’s remarks about mass suicide for the elderly, he has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on social media in Japan, many of whom are frustrated young people who think their economic success is being hindered by older generations in their society, NYT pointed out.
As the Yale professor grows more popular, he has appeared on magazine covers, comedy shows, in an advertisement for energy drinks, and has even “spawned an imitator” on the China-owned TikTok app, the report added.
In response to pushback, Narita claimed that he was using the phrases “mass suicide” and “mass seppuku” as “an abstract metaphor.”
“I should have been more careful about...
Visage à trois #1294 Valentines Day Edition!
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