Twitter And the Coming Storm
Because the real bomb cyclone has yet to arrive
First Up: America’s Newsroom — Your narrator was privileged to appear again today with Dana and Bill, on the best straight news show in the biz, to discuss the tragedy that is Philadelphia. As the co-hosts pointed out, Philly will again see over 500 murders for the year — a threshold the town hit last year as well, and that it had not seen since 1990 and the height of the crack epidemic.
As I said on the air: This is progressivism, yes… but it is not progress.
Thanks are due to Mayor Kenney, DA Krasner, and the not-so-invisible hand of George Soros, who are helping turn Philly into the City of Brotherly Bloodshed. Congrats guys. By what metric do you believe you’re succeeding?
A point I didn’t get to raise (due to time constraints): Temple University, Philadelphia’s largest college (approximately 40,000 students) saw, in a single week last month, three (!) separate home invasions of student housing.
The school also saw another student housing location firebombed the same week.
The incidents occurred — as in the Idaho murders — just off-campus. Nonetheless, the school has formed a task force to address what is becoming an untenable situation. And parents are asking for a fence (!), or for The National Guard to be deployed.
Meanwhile, the school president has announced he will move with his family to on-campus housing — clearly, in an attempt to demonstrate solidarity with an institution under siege.
(The situation is not all that unique — America’s campuses are truly besieged. See here, for a foxnews.com piece I wrote before the Idaho murders).
DA Krasner — who is currently under impeachment from the Pennsylvania legislature and who melts-down whenever challenged — can rant all he wants. I offer a single metric:
In light of the above, would you send your child to school in that city?
Prosecution rests.
Twitter Fritters: The alleged collusion between the FBI and Twitter is a story that is going to be with us awhile — perhaps into the 2024 election. And things could get quite ugly. Here’s why.
At present, what is emerging is only what Elon Musk has unearthed — presumably from reviewing relevant email conversations in the Twitter servers.
But that is only one side of the story. What is not visible to the public at this point is what resides in the FBI’s own internal communications.
Will that come to light?
Well, there is the likelihood of a Congressional-level investigation in the House — which will certainly show much.
But what we will also certainly get are the lawsuits. Anyone who can demonstrate that they were potentially harmed by the government seeking to censor their Twitter accounts will have a cognizable First Amendment claim.
And many of those plaintiffs will want their day in court — refusing to be bought off by a settlement offer.
Why does that matter? Because that means extensive civil discovery. In other words: the government side of this dispute will have to be turned over.
Folks, there’s nothing more dangerous to a civil defendant who is at risk of exposure than a plaintiff who simply refuses to settle. And many of the plaintiff’s in this case are public figures, with a real axe to grind.
This is going to get dramatic. Stay tuned.
Idaho, continued: Your narrator still contends that this case will be solved at some point, and that it is far from “cold.” What is important to remember is that the police know much that we don’t. Three points in regard:
Physical forensics: A professional review of the internal crime scenes — that is, the two bedrooms — likely revealed at least a few basics. For instance:
Was the perp left or right-handed? From the angle of the stab wounds, there is a good chance this could be discerned by the Medical Examiner.
Further, as the scenes have been described as “graphic,” there is a good chance the perp had at least some blood residue on his shoes — potentially providing the ability to track his steps, thereby determining the order in which he visited the two bedrooms, etc. (Even if he attempted to clean his shoes, crime scene techs have the ability to discern even trace blood amounts that are invisible to the naked eye).
DNA? Hair samples? Blood type determined? We just don’t know at this point. But strong possibilities.
Basic premises: There are a few things that have become sort of “given” in this case — i.e, that Maddy or Kaylee was the primary target, that a student was likely involved, etc. But those assumptions reside on the public’s side of this — and so, necessarily, are not fully informed. There could be information that undercuts these assumptions — even if the police believe them too. That is, in fact, the idea behind “cold case” squads. Fresh eyes, taking an entirely different approach, often see things the original investigating squad did not. There may be game-changing information in the case file that the public is simply unaware of.
Means of escape: A common point of debate surrounding the case from the beginning has been how a perp who was likely bloodstained and in possession of a large, bloody knife managed to flee the scene unobserved. Yes, it was late at night, but the area is rife with student housing — students who would’ve been returning from downtown Moscow on a Saturday night (just as Madison and Kaylee had done). It seems unlikely that he would leave the area on foot, walking the neighborhood. So many — me included — have leaned towards his leaving by a car parked nearby (the elusive white Elantra may go to that). But…
Have a look at the below map. The circled area is the house, the “X” is the fraternity house. What do you notice?
The point: What if the perp did leave on foot — but just not in the direction of the populated area? Having walked the vicinity, I noticed a lot of open greenery. What I did not realize until I looked at a map (which I grabbed from a nearby hotel) is that the victims’ house borders a large arboretum — which itself borders a golf course.
At 4:00 a.m. in the morning, someone fleeing the scene could enter that large green area, and almost certainly remain unobserved. There are even small bodies of water visible there (I wonder if they’ve been dragged for the knife?).
One would think the bloodhounds Moscow PD deployed would’ve picked this up (and maybe they did).
I am actually surprised that no one reporting on the case has mentioned this yet.
Is it relevant? Who knows.
An observation, nothing more.
Viktor Bout, cont’d: As mentioned last time, your narrator had a window into the Bout investigation and prosecution as it was underway back in 2011. He’s not a pleasant man. Now that he has been returned to Russia, one salient question jumps out: Why did Putin want him so badly?
There is, first, the propaganda effect. Bout allows Putin to crow about “never leaving a man behind.” In light of Bout’s reported GRU connections (that is, Russian military intel), this is a good look for Vlad — especially as a former KGB officer himself, who runs his nation through his former KGB cronies.
And a time when the war in Ukraine is going less-than-perfectly, a propaganda win for the general public on his homefront doesn’t hurt either.
(Another possibility is that Putin feared Bout was tired of prison and was looking to flip, providing intel in exchange for his release. I personally don’t buy this one).
But then there are Bout’s undeniable capabilities. He is a known money launderer and arms dealer, with global contacts. At a time when Russia desperately needs hard currency and is seeking alliances for weapons sales with the likes of Iran… well, you get the picture.
A last subtlety that Bout brings to the table: A maniacal hatred for the west, especially America. And you can’t imagine he feels much better about us after a dozen years in jail.
Personally, it seems all-but obvious that this entire thing was a Russian intel operation, well-executed. More on that next time.
But a final point: One hopes that somewhere inside the beltway, a multi-agency “Viktor Bout Desk” has been stood up to track this guy (a good place would be where the original case came from — DEA Special Operations Division).
I somehow feel we haven’t heard the last of Viktor Bout.
(An interesting tidbid: Bout is ethnically Ukrainian. Go figure).
Bullets
Speaking of Twitter: Amazing how the FTC has only gotten interested in investigating the place since Musk took over….
Here in NYC, while major crimes are all up, murder is down — except for women….
New York’s Gov. Hochul and NYC Mayor Adams held a secret meeting last week to devise a plan to fix New York’s disastrous bail laws (call it, “The Zeldin Summit”). The problem? Their answer is a new law — that neither of them has the power to enact….
Your narrator has worked in restaurants before — very demanding work, long hours, sucky pay. But I would’ve paid to wait on this table, just to see what I could overhear….
Newsflash: Chuck Schumer is likely corrupt….
There’s an old saying re: socialism: Would you rather use a public bathroom or a private one? Extending the metaphor: Here’s what happens when you let a city be your landlord….
Your narrator had ocassion to work with the NYPD Bomb Squad over the years — the first in the nation, and the best in the biz (truly — these were folks with technical skills and brass cojones). But for all that, I would love to have called them to the scene for this — just to see the Lieutenant’s face:
Man with WWI explosive lodged in his rectum sparks bomb scare, hospital evacuation
(And he was 88! Ah, the French…).
And finally…. I was running over to the Fox studios earlier this week when I spotted a nemesis right here in my nabe…. He gave me a look like Luca Brasi:
(In case you’re wondering, I was polite, and just walked on) (plus, I was running late).
If only DA Bragg deployed that same look against Manhattan’s predicate felons, in a court of law.
That’s all for now, gang. Chris will be back with a Weekend Buff this Friday, and we should have the new website up for the new year!
If I don’t get another opportunity, I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas, Hanukkah, and anything else you desire to celebrate. We all made it another year. That’s not a small thing, these days.
So by any name — it’s that special time of year. I wish you peace.