Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced on Friday that Dr. Joseph Baptiste, a high-profile figure in Maryland politics, was arrested this week after soliciting bribes from FBI undercover agents posing as investors in a Haitian port development project. He is charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and multiple counts of Money Laundering.
"The Complaint alleges that Baptiste told the agents, in a recorded meeting in a Boston-area hotel, that he would funnel the payments to Haitian officials through a non-profit entity that he controlled---which is based in Maryland and purported to help impoverished residents of Haiti---in order to secure government approval of the project... In telephone calls intercepted by agents, Baptiste discussed bribing an aide to a senior Haitian official, offering him a job on the project. It further alleges that Baptiste ultimately used for personal purposes approximately $50,000 that he received from undercover agents for the payment of bribes to Haitian officials."
Baptiste is currently the Commissioner on the Governor's Commission on Caribbean Affairs for the State of Maryland, a position held since 2012. He was appointed by former Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat. A search of Open Secrets shows that Baptiste gave over 60 donations---most over $1,000---to the DNC, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democratic Party politicians and causes.
The Clinton Foundation, as we know, has been under scrutiny for its own activities in Haiti; and Baptiste and the Clintons have a very cozy relationship. One of the organizations that Baptiste heads---The National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians--- is listed on the Clinton Foundation's website as a 'partner' in the shady Operation Hope Haiti.
Baptiste is also the founder of the Haitian Diaspora Federation. At a 2012 event, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent her chief-of-staff to speak there and offer federal assistance to the organization. He is also the head and founder of PromoCapital, SA---one of Haiti's largest investment banks.
So ends the career of a fairly significant denizen of the Deep State. Operators like Baptiste may not have been household names, but it is the energy and activities of such behind-the-scenes types who keep the Deep State going.
But this is one swamp-shark who's not coming back.
Christopher Cantwell, a Manospherean Red Pill cultist, gave an interview recently to his disciples from his present domicile in the Charlottesville Jail. Cantwell compared his current plight to Adolf Hitler's 1923 conviction for the Beer Hall Putsch. Cantwell is currently being held without bond for a violent attack on some Leftist protestors. Although he and the other Red Pills blame alleged police bias, Cantwell was arrested after bragging about the attack to the media and even posting videos of himself engaging in violence on the Internet.
The interview was conducted by his fellow Red Pill, Jason Kessler. Kessler is no stranger to the Charlottesville Jail himself. Like many in their movement, Kessler has a lengthy criminal record. His includes convictions for shoplifting, obstruction of justice, and numerous misdemeanors.
Kessler was formerly a Left-Wing extremist who was part of the Occupy Movement and was a known Obama supporter. He claims to have been red pilled (converted to the cult) in 2013. Today he's as much of a Right-Wing fanatic as he formerly was on the Left. Kessler was the ringleader of the whole Charlottesville Unite the Right debacle.
Besides playing the victim card, Cantwell urged his minions to engage in digging up dirt on his accusers and raising money for his legal defense fund. To that latter end, he and Kessler have enlisted the aid of another Manospherean, Augustus Invictus.
Invictus, whose real name is Austin Gillespie, is a lawyer by profession. He's a huge advocate of ethnic cleansing via a second civil war. Invictus claims to have been converted about a decade ago after the DEA raided a known pill-mill in which Invictus was employed.
"No comparable job existed for me and I was effectively rendered destitute." Invictus says of his Red Pill epiphany, "I swore vengeance on the DEA and vowed that I would return to college, go to law school, enter politics; and that one day I would shut their office down and put their families on the street."
Cantwell is a regular commenter on Manosphere blogs; Invictus once famously said that women ideally are "the prizes of a conquering hero." His wife divorced him allegedly after his Red Pill delusions led to domestic abuse. He's published several rather lurid poems filled with violent rape scenes and threats of vengeance on women who he believes have wronged him.
And these are specimens of men who hold themselves up as Alpha leaders and the vanguard of a renaissance of American masculinity. Be it known that traditional American men never behaved nor thought like these three. These three are punks; trying to recruit vulnerable men to their shady enterprises. Their pseudo-philosophizing is only a way to cover their characters.
Beware of such men. They are not great heroes leading some great revolution; they are thugs leading their followers on the road to ruin.
During the era of the Deep State---and especially during the Obama Administration---there were active efforts to spread American Cultural Marxism, and Trash Culture generally---to other countries. Forcing homosexual so-called 'marriage' on other nations was a huge part of Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy. Several countries were especially pressured; among them Israel.
Today, however, Israel joined a growing number of Western countries pushing back against the American Left's to corrupt marriage. Outside of a vocal (and mostly foreign-financed) homosexual enclave in Tel Aviv, most Israelis are disgusted and repulsed by these assaults on their traditions. The issue finally went to the Israeli Supreme Court, which ruled that the Israeli Government had no constitutional authority to legalize homosexual unions.
Justice Eliakim Rubenstein issued a statement saying: "For all intents and purposes, Israeli Civil Law does not recognize same-sex marriage. Therefore, the petitioners' request to have the civil courts rule on something under the jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts, which applies under certain conditions is not applicable here. In essence, the petitioners are asking the court to recognize same-sex marriage via court ruling, in spite of the fact that Israeli Law does not recognize it. Under Israeli Law, rabbinical courts hold the final word on marriages; and since the Supreme Court is not an ecclesiastical institution, it has no jurisdiction to allow such a ruling."
The Israeli Supreme Court decision was unanimous, and it was a brilliant ruling. Unlike Israel, most Western countries do not have ecclesiastical courts; but the important thing was that the judges recognized that marriage is fundamentally a religious function. Although the decision referenced Rabbinical Courts, it applies by extension to Israeli Christians and Moslems.
We've seen in Western Countries how ignoring this distinction has brought violations of human rights down upon the majority. In some European countries, churches are forced to perform homosexual 'marriages' regardless of their policies. In North America, businesses and individuals are deprived of Right of Conscience and Freedom of Association by being forced to cater to homosexuals. In all cases, taxpayers and public educators are forced to accept and to promote homosexuality. In some US states, it is now illegal for parents to seek pastoral counseling if their offspring become homosexual.
Israel has avoided all of these injustices. It would be an interesting legal experiment to employ their precedent to overturn the US Supreme Court decision on the subject. Under American Law, the case could arguably be made that the ruling is in violation of the 1st Amendment's prohibition against Establishment of Religion. The argument could be that Freedom of Religion is compromised by forcing recognition of what is essentially a religious rite upon those whose religion forbids it.
In any case, congratulations to Israel for standing up and defending their culture and society.
The American Corporate Media seems to be hitting lower and lower depths as they sink further down President Trump's swamp-drain. Recently they've been trying to exploit the hurricane disaster in Texas and Louisiana, and hitting some really pathetic depths.
Several articles on our blogroll suddenly began appearing indicating that some of these Media degenerates are making a big issue of the fact that Melania wore high-heels during a visit. No, seriously: it's a true story. Mrs. Trump's office even issued a statement about it:
"It's sad that we have an active and ongoing natural disaster in Texas, and people are worried about her shoes." said Stephanie Grisham, Melania's Communications' Director.
These media pundits are sounding increasingly like a bunch of jealous middle-school girls out to get the head cheerleader. And courtesy of Adrienne's blog, we have photos of Lynn Yeager, the ringleader of the anti-Melania booing chorus:
This is a graphic expression of why MAWGA is catching on. The outcome of 30 years of traditional Femininity vs. radical Feminism are most graphically illustrated by juxtaposing these two pictures. These two women are roughly, we think, about the same age. And the jealous bully-girls are still at it.
But we know what kinds of people make up the Mainstream US Media and the anti-Trump 'Resistance' so this kind of behavior from them really shouldn't be surprising. They're not much different in character than the looters, price-gougers, and scam-artists who also surface during times of crisis.
Meanwhile, the Government at all levels, Churches, and private charities are doing good work and pooling their efforts to address the Texas Crisis. Good men and women doing good things: we'll find that in Texas but not in the MSM.
A librarian and a children's reading volunteer were killed yesterday in Clovis, New Mexico after a drug fiend who was "known to law enforcement" burst into the library and opened fire with two handguns. Also seriously injured were a male library patron, a young housewife, a 10-year old boy and his 20 year-old sister.
The shooter's motives are also unknown; although they probably not especially important to the victims or their families. The Corporate Media lavishes attention on the perpetrators of these crimes, but sweep under the rug the fates of the victims and their families.
What is interesting is that the suspect was an attendee at the Living Word Church of God. This has been the subject of some Media commentary: it fits their narrative when some nominal Christian commits an act of violence. There are several red flags, however, that seem to come up around this church.
One is their social media banner which reads: "A Church with the heartbeat of God. There is soooooo much love...honestly!" Right off the bat, most Christians know instinctively where a banner like this is going. The next is what their pastor, one David Stevens, had to say about the shooter. He was quoted by KVIA-7 to the effect that "he had been attending church for three-and-a-half months and gave no indication that he could be violent." He added that the suspect "had been dating his daughter and appeared to be turning his life around."
In contrast, the pastor's daughter has told the press that the shooter was suicidal, heavily into drugs, and had an 'anxiety attack' in church the day before the shooting. Real good discernment, Pastor. And like father, like daughter---her taste in men is highly questionable itself.
The Church's website has little that is objectionable from a doctrinal standpoint; but one does get the sense that it is something of a minor-league version of a megachurch. Although there is a lot of fanfare about their various outreach programs, there's nothing on their site about helping the victims of the Clovis Library Shooting, for example. They do stress that tithing is a doctrinal belief in their denomination: but nothing about raising money for their own community. There's not even a request for prayers for the community; although there is a form to e-mail requests to their "mighty prayer warriors."
Contrast this to a press release from Archbishop Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe:
"On behalf of all the faithful in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, I wish to express our sincere condolences to those who lost loved ones and to those who were injured in the Clovis-Carter Public Library shooting. Our prayers and support also go out to the community of Clovis and to all those affected by this senseless act of violence. I would also like to express appreciation for the pastoral presence of Father Simon Carian, pastor of Sacred Heart in Clovis. We ask our Risen Savior, the Lord of all Life, to fill them with His Grace and Healing during this time of unspeakable sorrow. May those taken from us so suddenly Rest in Peace."
Contrary to the Corporate Media, this is another example of Christ's teaching that by their fruits you shall know them.
As we've heard, President Trump has declared the parts of Texas effected by the recent hurricane a federal disaster area. The Corporate Media naturally has been trying to deflect as much public attention from Trump's efforts as possible. Actually, this is the third such declaration from the Trump Administration; the first two were in Idaho and Iowa.
FEMA and other federal agencies are in the area, as usual in these situations. However, it has been rather noteworthy that accounts of hurricane's aftermath are remarkably free from the kinds of stories we've heard of FEMA abuses during the past administrations. There have been no stories of mass gun-confiscations, warrantless door-to-door searches, or other problems previously seen. Private charities haven't been turned away; nor have we seen the kind of offensive arrogance from FEMA operatives that characterized the Oso, Washington mudslide a few years ago.
In fact, FEMA is actually soliciting civilian volunteer help this time.
It's interesting to note how radically the attitudes of government bureaucrats change when a President is on the side of the people. Readers too young to remember the Reagan Administration never had such an experience until now. We're also seeing cooperation among different agencies for a change. The Pentagon opened Fort Hood for FEMA's base of operations.
We will see how things happen during the relief effort. But it is noteworthy that just a few months ago people dreaded FEMA's presence after a crisis. A change in leadership can make a huge difference.
Berkeley, California is becoming a national problem. Yet another riot broke out in the city between political extremists. 13 people were arrested, joining 'Based Stickman' ---who was pre-emptively arrested on an outstanding warrant this week---in the local jail.
To it's credit, the Berkeley Police actually seem to have taken some measures to prevent this riot---unlike previous outbursts. They had prohibitions against wearing masks and carrying weapons; which were ignored by Anarchists who stormed the police barricade. There were some serious injuries reported, though at this writing it is unknown how many.
This is happening far too often in Berkeley; and there is really no excuse for it. It's no secret that most of these agitators are coming from out of town to disrupt and terrorize the residents living there. Berkeley used to be a nice town. It was formerly a rather quiet college town and the UC-Berkeley was part of a project to create a 'Western Ivy League'; along with Stanford, Cal Tech, and some others. But it's been many years since UCB has produced any alumni of any distinction; and the city has simply degenerated into an American version of Belfast or Beirut.
It's going to take firm and strong measures to restore order in Berkeley, which neither Mayor Arreguin nor Governor Brown seems to have the will to do. This is not a partisan issue; but as President Trump said of Charlottesville, extremists at both ends are equally to blame. Nor is it a First Amendment issue. There's no Constitutional Right to commit violence in the name of 'free expression'.
Title X, United States Code, Section 333 reads as follows:
"The President, by using the militia, or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means; shall take such measures as he deems necessary to suppress in a State any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it
" 1. so hinders the laws within that State and the Laws of the United States within that State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by Law; and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, or privilege, or immunity or fail to give protection. Or;
"2. opposes or obstructs the execution of the Laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws. In any situation covered by Clause 1, the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution."
Note well the bolded part of the law: it is very clear that the President has full authority to deploy the military in any part of the country involved in Civil Insurrection. This is what qualifies the City of Berkeley as a candidate for this type of action: because the course of an average citizen's ability to exercise his rights is continually being impeded by people who have no respect for law. The local authorities have shown that they are unable to control the situation.
Should Trump take a bold step like this? The fact is, that he legally can. President Grant invoked this very statute to suppress the KKK in North Carolina; Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy used it to enforce desegregation laws; and President Bush Sr. used it to put down the Los Angeles Riots. And there are certainly parallels between these and the situation in Berkeley.
Probably a good intermediate step would be for the President to impress upon the California authorities that, if they continue not protecting the residents of Berkeley, the Federal Government will be obliged to intervene.
At any rate, something needs to be done. Mayor Arreguin did make an effort this time; hopefully he's getting the message. Federal intervention should always be a last resort; but the option is there, if needed.
