Archive for the ‘crime’ Category

Is media’s deep interest in fatal Illinois car accident explained by the driver accused of murder pleading guilty to January 6 riot crimes?

Posted: November 27, 2022 by John Ruberry in crime, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

On the evening of November 8, a woman from Skokie, Illinois, which is the town just east of where I live, was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Interstate 55 just south of Springfield, Illinois. 

The victim, Lauren Wegner, 35, by all accounts a wonderful woman, was fatally injured when a GMC Sierra, according to police officials driven by Shane Woods, 44 of Auburn, Illinois, drove the wrong way on the interstate.

The Chicago media and other sources in the Prairie State have been repeatedly reporting on this story. And a primary reason for its deep interest in it appears to be because Woods, also known as Shane Castleman, pleaded guilty in September to assaulting a Capitol Police officer and a media photographer during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in January. Woods faces up to eight years in prison for those crimes. Woods of course faces much more serious prison time if he is found guilty of killing Wegner–from 20 to 60 years. He has been charged with first degree murder, eluding a police officer, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, and aggravated fleeing. Woods is being held in the Sangamon County Jail, bail has been denied.

Once again, and probably not for the last time, I feel it is important that I unequivocally denounce the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Those people who stormed the Capitol on that sad day, including Woods, who destroyed property and attacked people deserve to be punished.

But just like MSNBC, the Illinois media can’t let go of obsessing over January 6. In regard to the Wegner death, the worst example of that obsession in regard to the Woods story is a State Journal-Register article from November 16 that was as much about the Capitol riot and Donald Trump as it was about the victim. The piece even mentions two men from Springfield who also allegedly participated in the riot–both of whom have no connection to the accident that killed Wegner. Was that necessary?

Absolutely, the January 6 angle is a valid part of the story of the fatal accident, as it appears Woods may have been trying to commit suicide when he started his SUV on the evening of November 8.

Here are some of the Illinois media headlines of stories that I found about the deadly car accident after a Google News search. Yes, some national outlets picked up the story too.

Also, Shia Kapos’ Politico Illinois Playbook newsletter linked to January 6/Woods stories on November 14, 16, 17, and 23.

Media obsession over January 6? I believe so. But I expect the drumbeat to continue. As for Woods, he is a despicable person.

Memorial contributions in the name of Lauren Wegner can be made to Community Animal Rescue Effort of Skokie (carenorthshore.org).

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

DaTechGuy’s 3rd Law of Media Outrage Mx Aldrich Edition or What a Difference 24 hours makes. UPDATE the Big Question

Posted: November 23, 2022 by datechguy in crime, media
Tags: , , , ,

Yesterday I was on twitter When I guy named Kyle Clark out of Denver who appears to be a blue checked journalist tweeted out something concerning the murders at the gay nightclub in Colorado that I decided was worth a response:

This led to a long exchange with someone called link12212 who did not care for my response. I pointed out that per the collective guilt argument he was making leftists as a whole responsible for burning of cities, the mass shooting in Milwaukee after an NBA playoff game, the mass murder in Waukesha, the attempted copy cat attack in Winter Garden and of course any attack on any Mosque or member of Islam since they of course happily execute gays simply for being gay.

You can read the full exchange from those tweets as these events are a great example of DaTechGuy’s 3rd law of media outrage which states:

The MSM’s elevation and continued classification of any story as Nationally Newsworthy rather than only of local interest is in direct correlation to said story’s current ability to affirm any current Democrat/Liberal/Media meme/talking point, particularly on the subject of race or sexuality.

This of course fits things to a T as the left as a whole was busy targeting conservatives over this all morning. But while I was at work an interesting development took place:

The public defenders for the suspect in the mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub said in a Tuesday night court filing obtained by a New York Times reporter that their client is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

This is a really devastating to the whole “Blame Tucker Carlson” business that Link closed our exchange on:

https://twitter.com/link12213/status/1595048142365687808

So given what we’ve seen from the MSM in the past I suspect that the Murders at the Colorado gay bar will go from a national story to a local story faster than you can say: Secoriea Turner or as Ed Driscoll put it at Instapundit:

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE MEMORY HOLE OPENS UP

Unexpectedly of course

Now while the loss of Mr. Link122 supposed moral high ground from which he played the collective guilt card might be problematic with a nonbinary killer this of course changes nothing for me as my opinion can remain constant, namely that regardless of his pronouns MX Aldrich be held responsible for his crime and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law rather than blaming others.

See how much easier that is.

Update: The moment the story became a local one live on CNN

Update 2: Two awful thoughts

  1. Could the decision not to prosecute the previous crime and the sealing of the records be related to the killers non-binary status?
  2. How will the families of the dead react when the media suddenly decides the killing of their loved ones are no longer newsworthy?

The mainstream media is avoiding calling disgraced Democrat contributor Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX a megadonor

Posted: November 20, 2022 by John Ruberry in crime, elections, media, News/opinion, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

While increasingly irrelevant, the mainstream media is still a force to be reckoned with in regard to shaping opinion. Despite paywalls at many newspaper and magazine sites, revenue is down, and layoffs are up. The paywalls of course limit readership, and usually, considering what is produced by the MSM, that’s a good thing.

You probably that FTX, a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency firm that is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, filed for bankruptcy protection a few days after Election Day.

Oh, Election Day, is that a non-sequitur? 

Nope.

The co-founder, and until November 11, the CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was the second-largest contributor to Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Nearly $40 million in SBF funds went to the Dems, most of that money ended up in three Democrat-PACs. Only George Soros, who made his fortune in currency trading, donated more to the Dems during the midterm cycle.

Bankman-Fried, often referred to as SBF, has not been charged with any crimes. Still, there are comparisons being made between SBF and Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff, as well as the collapse of Enron. Bankman-Fried’s successor at FTC, John Ray III, who did the best he could in cleaning up Enron, had this to say about his new employer, “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” Larry Summers, alluded to the Enron debacle too. “The smartest guys in the room. Not just financial error but — certainly from the reports — whiffs of fraud,” the former Treasury secretary under Barack Obama said. “Vast explosion of wealth that nobody quite understands where it comes from.”

And I believe there is a bit of the Fyre Fest hoaxster, Billy McFarland, embedded in Bankman-Fried’s mental DNA.

Notwithstanding Summers remark, there have been few if any screams of anger from prominent Democrats about the FTX ruination. I wonder why. Not!

The mainstream media coverage of Bankman-Fried has largely avoided this word–megadonor. Which is of course how the MSM reflexively labels major Republican campaign contributors such as Ken Griffin, Andy Sabin, Ronald Lauder and so many more. When I entered “megadonor” into the Google News site this morning and their names popped up. Not so much with SBF–and most of those mentions came from conservative-leaning sites such as Fox Business and the Washington Free Beacon. NBC News managed to use the word “megadonor” in an article about SBF–but take a look at the mournful headline that accompanied that story: Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall could deprive Democrats of key donor.

We used to see similar media malpractice–until bloggers and conservative journalists repeatedly called the MSM out on it–with the phrase “mass shooting” only being used when the evil perpetrator was a white male. 

You know who else is almost never called a megadonor by the media? 

George Soros. 

Media bias is like the Hydra, a beast from Greek mythology. There are so many heads that need to be sliced off. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Update: Welcome HOTAIR Headline readers John is one of our original magnificent seven writers. He writes here every Sunday.

Democrats Spinning Pelosi Like it’s 1983 not 2022

Posted: November 1, 2022 by datechguy in crime, culture, elections, politics, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.

Louisiana Gov Edwin Edwards 1983

10th Doctor: Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you’re still bone dead stupid.

Doctor Who The End of Time Part 2 2010

For people who are both supposed to be progressives who have rejected the norms of Christianity and the smartest people in the room our democrat friends seem to be not only out of touch with reality but bone dead stupid as they still think it’s 40 or 50 or sixty years ago.

For example if Edwin Edwards running as a Democrat was caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl today, not only would he lose no votes from the party of “Drag Queen Story Hour” but the media would call anyone who objected “homophobic” if it was a live boy or “necrophobic” if it was a dead girl.

Put simply there is not a registered Democrat or Independent today who will vote against any Democrat based on a sexual tryst of any type.

But you know what a Democrat or independent will vote against a Democrat for, if they think their policies put them in physical danger.

This year both crime and illegal immigration are issues that are killing Democrats in Georgia, New York, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and all over the nation. The rise of violent crime particularly and the fear thereof is front and center almost everywhere.

So I ask this question to the Democrats in media, in politics and online: Ignoring for a moment the facts of this particular case, What narrative would you rather have dominating the news in the week before this election?

Paul Pelosi, husband to the person 2nd in line for the presidency while taking part in a tryst with a man in the Gayest city in America, which is nobody’s business but his own, was injured in his own home when it went bad.

OR

Paul Pelosi husband to the person 2nd in line for the presidency residing in the most Democrat City in the Most Democrat state in the country was violently attacked in his own home by a mentally ill illegal alien who somehow gained access to it.

I submit and suggest the first story wouldn’t cost the left a single vote they hadn’t already lost years ago but the 2nd is dynamite because it suggests that under Democrat rule even the spouse of the one of the richest and most powerful Political leaders isn’t safe in his own home in a year when both crime and illegal immigration are issues front and center.

Now the facts are what they are and hopefully they will all be out there quickly but when I see every Democrat pushing the 2nd line thinking it will hurt the GOP all I can do is laugh and think of Casey Stengal’s famous cry when he saw the ineptitude of his 1962 Mets:

Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? 

Older Entries
Newer Entries