90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2001

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.

Visage à trois #1309

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #966

Republicans Say Air Force Released Their ‘Sensitive Data’ To Dem Operative

The Air Force improperly released the service records of Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Zach Nunn of Iowa to a Democratic Party operative, the two lawmakers say.

A researcher for the consulting firm Due Diligence Group requested Bacon’s service records, saying he needed them for “employment and benefits.” The Air Force does not believe that any Air Force employee acted with “malicious intent,” Major General Troy Dunn wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to Bacon. The Air Force began investigating the alleged leaks after the branch improperly released the service records of GOP candidate and veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green to the Due Diligence Group, Politico reported Tuesday.

“I understand the evidence has been turned over to the Department of Justice and I expect those who break the law to be prosecuted,” Bacon told Politico. “This was more than just ‘dirty tricks’ by Democrat operatives, but likely violations of the law.”

“The recent targeting of Members of Congress’s personnel military records [and] the breach of sensitive data … taken by political hacks isn’t only a violation of public trust — it’s criminal,” Nunn added.

The Air Force’s letter to Bacon named Abraham Payton, an analyst with the Due Diligence Group, as the individual who improperly requested Bacon’s information. Payton had access to Bacon’s Social Security number, according to the letter, and the branch subsequently released information to him that should have been protected by the Privacy Act of 1974.

Twelve Air Force veterans, including Bacon and Nunn, currently serve in the House of Representatives. The Air Force did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on whether or not the eight unnamed individuals whose records were released ran for the House during the 2022 midterms. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Politico that “virtually all” of the records were released to...

“Inflation is coming down,” Presidentish Joe Biden insisted in his State of the Union address earlier this month, but new figures show Biden is full of the usual malarkey. “We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.” Meanwhile, I went to fill up my car yesterday but escrow fell through.

At least I’m not in the market for a new car, something most Americans used to look forward to, but which is increasingly out of reach for millions. Fortune reported last week that “new cars are now toys for the rich,” as “the average price for a new vehicle in the US has jumped to almost $50,000.”

That’s up 30 percent since just 2019. Worse, rising interest rates — a harsh necessity to tame inflation — have caused monthly payments to rise even faster. That shiny new car you might have had your eye on will now cost an eye-watering $777 in base payments alone.

“Every aspect of buying and owning a car has gotten more expensive and outpaced the rate of inflation so it’s important to be more knowledgeable,” CarEdge expert Zach Shefska told Buffalo’s WHRZ News last week.

The average monthly loan payment for a used car is up to $544. As a young lad of 19, way back when, I once spent $700 on a good enough used car, if barely. Not $700 monthly. Total.

There is a silver lining to Biden’s dark cloud of inflation — if you’re a car manufacturer, that is. Car sales might be down — 8% since 2021 — but profits are going nowhere but up. “Ford’s gross profit rose 4.4% in 2022 from a year earlier,” according to that Fortune report, “while GM’s adjusted earnings grew by about $200 million to reach $14.5 billion.” Tesla made an annual profit of $12.6 billion in 2022, with revenues up 51 percent over 2021, “despite missing its sales forecast.”

Must be nice.

Did you want to fill’er up, too? Gas prices are “primed to rise in a few weeks,” according to GasBuddy. They’re already on the way up in the West where I live. Here in Colorado, the average price for a gallon of regular is back up over $4 after briefly dipping to around $3 last year. Californians are closing in on $5 once more, already at nearly $4.75.

Somehow though, a gallon of gas in California is still less than a dozen eggs almost anywhere. “The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week. Not only are those eggs more expensive than the most expensive gallon of regular in the country, it’s more than the price for a pound of ground beef — that’s the first time eggs have eclipsed ground beef since BLS started tracking those prices more than 40 years ago.

In states like Colorado, where Democrats have passed strict laws regulating how chickens are kept, prices are even higher. My local Kroger-owned grocery store’s house-brand large white eggs are $4.99. Jumbo size will cost you more.

Home price inflation continues, albeit more slowly than before. Prices rose “only” 7.7 percent annually last November, down from October’s hectic 9.2 percent annualized increase. Nevertheless, monthly payments are going up unabated — just like monthly car payments — due to rising interest rates. “Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the benchmark 30-year rate rose to 6.32% from 6.12% last week,” according to ABC News. “The average rate a year ago was...

Visage à trois #1308

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #965

Undercover DC Police Officer Pushed Protesters Toward Capitol, Climbed Over Barricade: Court Filing

Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers walked behind Ashli Babbitt on the northwest side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One had earlier remarked that "someone will get shot" that day. (William Pope via U.S. District Court/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Three undercover Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers joined the march of protesters up the northwest side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—including one who climbed over a barricade and pushed others toward the Capitol and another who walked behind Ashli Babbitt and predicted that “someone will get shot,” according to newly disclosed court documents.

New filings by Jan. 6 defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, also show MPD bicycle officers stopping four armed men in plainclothes on Jan. 6. The men turned out to be federal agents. Video included with Pope’s filings also shows uniformed MPD officers saying, “We were set up [to fail on Jan. 6].”

Information in the court papers is likely to rekindle the debate about the role that undercover officers and agents played in the riots of Jan. 6 and why the U.S. Department of Justice and federal judges have kept the evidence under seal and away from public view.

“This video clearly evidences undercover law enforcement officers urging the crowds to advance up the stairs and scaffolding towards the Capitol on January 6,” Pope wrote in one motion. “The government may claim that incidents like this did not happen, but the facts show they did.

“Since the government cannot be trusted to disclose these facts, it becomes even more important that defense teams, including Pro Se defendants, be able to directly examine the evidence.”

Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers (in red and grey caps) outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Archive.org/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

The three undercover MPD officers approached the northwest corner of the Capitol grounds at about 1:40 p.m. on Jan. 6, one of the motions states. Officer 1, who was filming their journey, joined the crowd in chanting, “Drain the swamp!”

When a group of men ran past them toward the Capitol, Officer 2—wearing a Trump beanie—remarked, “Those guys are getting shot,” the motion said.

At the base of the scaffold stairs, Officer 1 joined the crowd in chanting, “Whose house? Our house!”

In one motion, Pope describes how Officer 1 climbed over a barricade: “Officer 1 began yelling at people in front of him to ‘Go, go, go!’ As they climbed bicycle racks, Officer 1 yelled for the crowd to ‘help him up, help him up!’ followed by ‘push him up, push him up!’”

“Needing help to get up, Officer 1 asked a nearby man to give him a boost,” the motion reads. “The man gives Officer 1 a lift up, and Officer 1 says ‘Thanks, bro.’”

The motion said that Officer 1 pushed protesters in front of him to advance on the Capitol, shouting, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, let’s go!” People around him climbed over bike rack-style barricades and scaffolding that had been set up for the presidential inauguration.
Right Behind Ashli Babbitt

At one point, Officers 2 and 3 were almost directly behind Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt on the exterior stairs, about an hour before Babbitt was gunned down at the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby, Pope said in a Twitter post on Feb. 18.

“Why hasn’t the government informed the public that undercover MPD officers were chanting, ‘Our house!’ and repeatedly urging protesters to advance up the northwest steps of the Capitol on January 6?” Pope wrote on Twitter under his handle @FreeStateWill. “Officer 2 said someone would get shot and went up right behind Ashli Babbitt.”

Video shot by the undercover officers is under court seal.

Pope argued in his motions that the Department of Justice is trying to prevent him from accessing the full Jan. 6 evidence databases. He is defending himself against seven criminal counts brought by federal prosecutors in February 2021. He asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to compel the department to give him full access to...