Sometimes politics is easy, and Republican voters in Arizona have a no-brainer in next year’s U.S. Senate race against “independent” Kyrsten Sinema. The Democrats are going to pick one of the various “progressive” kooks in their clown-car primary, and Sinema will run for re-election as an independent, creating a dream scenario for Republicans, who will probably need just 40% of the vote to win in the resulting three-way race. The candidate for Arizona Republicans is obviously Mark Lamb:
Sheriff Mark Lamb is a husband, father, grandfather, and God-fearing patriot. Lamb has served as Sheriff of Pinal County since 2017. Lamb serves on the frontlines at the Southern Border, fighting the criminal cartels to prevent the flow of deadly fentanyl and human trafficking. In 2020, Sheriff Lamb took a courageous stand against COVID lockdowns, as well as mask and vaccine mandates, ensuring that his people lived free, businesses remained open, and children stayed in school. Through this steadfast dedication to liberty, Lamb earned the nickname “America’s Sheriff”.
Now, Lamb is determined to take his fight to the U.S. Senate. Our Constitutional rights are under attack, the timeless values of our Republic are eroding, and America’s standing on the world stage has been imperiled by the failed leadership of Joe Biden and the Democrats. Lamb will fight to secure the border, stand up for Law and Order, protect the Second Amendment, bring fiscal sanity to Washington, and restore American strength on the world stage. Sheriff Mark Lamb is the conservative fighter Arizona needs to defend our values of God, family, and freedom.
“Gee, Stacy, what caused you to endorse this candidate?”
The answer: Research. Because of his frequent appearances on Live PD, I was already familiar with Sheriff Lamb, but it was while researching a completely unrelated topic that I came across this story:
Talk about a backhanded endorsement! Left-wing writer Matt Shuham has exactly one job at HuffPo, doing smear-jobs on Republicans, and if he’s attacking Lamb as “far right,” what more do you need to know?
He’s repeatedly referred to immigration at the southern border as an “invasion” and called for labeling drug cartels as terrorist groups “just like we did to ISIS.” As sheriff, he refused to enforce anti-COVID measures in his county — even saying at one anti-vaccine rally, “We’re going to find out who is willing to die for freedom.” He also teamed up with True the Vote, the conspiracy-theory-driven group that spent years fundraising on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats.
On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Lamb blamed the mob in D.C. on Democrats, and on the Supreme Court not “hearing our voices.”
Lamb may still find willing ears in Arizona’s electorate, and his presence in the Senate would swing the relatively moderate caucus, at least compared to their House counterparts, sharply to the right. . . .
(Please, please, stop begging! I endorse him 100%!)
During an interview last October with Jack Posobiec — a far-right media personality who the Southern Poverty Law Center noted months prior had “extensive ties to white supremacists” — Lamb echoed the so-called “Great Replacement” theory, or the racist idea that Democrats are attempting to “replace” Americans (typically portrayed as white Americans) with immigrants. . . .
“He is very much both a mouthpiece for, and a creation of, the far-right movement in Arizona and nationally,” [left-wing activist Devin] Burghart said.
In April 2021, the president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce was assaulted on the streets by a man who yelled, “F–k you Chinatown! F–k you Chinaman!” A week later, 25-year-old James Lee Ramsey was charged with felony assault and a hate crime against Carl Chan, and the case was scheduled for trial in August 2021.
Ramsey, 25, pleaded no contest to assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in exchange for the hate crime allegation being dismissed.
“As long as he’s receiving help and not going out into the community hurting people. I think that’s the important thing,” says Chan.
The district attorney’s office has the option to ask the judge to sentence Ramsey to serve his time in a secured mental health facility. He faces up to four years in state prison.
On April 29th, James Ramsey, a 25-year-old Black Oakland resident with a documented history of serious mental illness, allegedly knocked over, potentially by accident, 62-year-old Chinatown Chamber of Commerce President Carl Chan.
Mr. Ramsey has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and told officers he had been off of his medication for about a month when he was arrested for the alleged assault. Instead of being provided sufficient treatment, James is potentially facing years in prison.
[The Oakland Police Department] is using this alleged assault as justification to get more money from the City, and Carl Chan, in his role as Chinatown Chamber of Commerce President, is pushing for more policing.
The Anti Police-Terror Project condemns anti-Asian hate and stands in solidarity with Asian people and oppressed people everywhere. However, in this case, we see a man with disabilities in need of intensive care, not someone committing a hate crime.
James Ramsey’s sentencing hearing was rescheduled for Thursday, November 18th at 9:30am.
Join us at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse at 1225 Fallon St, Oakland, CA 94612 to demand the charges be dropped!
Whoa! It’s one thing to give the guy a plea bargain — proving “hate crime” charges can be difficult — but it’s something else entirely to “demand the charges be dropped.” Crazy is as crazy does. The state cannot be in the business of policing people’s delusions and fantasies, so whatever was going through Ramsey’s mind while he was off his meds is between him and whatever psychiatrist may be assigned to treat him. But assault? We’re going to just give crazy people a free pass on assault?
The Anti-Police Terror Project is a radical-left anti-police activist organization based in Oakland, California. The organization advocates defunding the police, supporting cutting half of the budget of the Oakland Police Department and redirecting those funds towards various social welfare programs including mental health and wellness services.
The group has alleged that the police have caused “community trauma” in the Black community and other communities of color. It has demanded more resources to research “police-related trauma” and the use of any research to shape the policies of the police. . . .
Cat Brooks is the co-founder of the organization. . . .
According to its 2021 tax return, the organization the organization had $5,709,289 in revenue and $313,631 in expenses. It had $5,403,517 in assets.
So, what do we know about Cat Brooks? Conn Carroll explains, “In June [2021], the Oakland City Council voted to cut $18 million from the city’s police budget and spend that money instead on a variety of social programs.” Cat Brooks actually organized a protest at the home of one of the two council members who voted against this measure:
Foremost among those advocates [of defunding the police] is Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, one of the main groups pushing for defunding the Oakland Police Department. She was brought up in Las Vegas by a white mother who was an anti-domestic violence activist. Her father, a black man, struggled with substance abuse and ended up in prison. “I watched him be terrorized and traumatized by law enforcement,” she recalled.
While pursuing a career in acting in Los Angeles, Brooks stumbled into political activism, which eventually brought her to Oakland. In 2018, she ran for mayor, coming in second with about a quarter of the vote.
When I asked Brooks about the two Council members — both black — who voted against the reduction in the police budget she was unambiguous in her contempt. They are “representing the interests of the police, and they’re representing the interests of development,” she said. “If they were representing the interests of the people, then they, too, should want black bodies to stop falling.” . . .
When I asked Brooks if she supports the abolition of police, she said, “Absolutely. Unapologetically.” Describing the role of the police in society, she said, “Their job is to maintain the status quo. And the status quo is race-based capitalism. And so they are the front line soldiers of the larger system of white supremacy, which is the engine of this country, both here locally and globally.”
So, her father was a dopehead who went to prison and therefore, the cops are the bad guys, “front line soldiers . . . of white supremacy.” And rich people gave her $5.7 million to promote this lunatic idea.
James Lee Ramsey, a 27-year-old Oakland resident, was arrested on July 21 after kicking and assaulting an 88-year-old Asian woman and reportedly attacking a witness at the scene, NBC News reported. Ramsey avoided prison in 2021 after having hate crime charges against him dropped by former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.
The elderly woman was rushed to the hospital and is currently in stable condition, according to NBC News.
Ramsey is now in police custody and is being charged with elder abuse, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and battery causing serious bodily injury. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and is being held without bail. San Fransisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called the crime “horrific” and promised Ramsey would finally face proper justice, according to NBC.
“The crimes that Mr. Ramsey is accused of are horrific. I am grateful to the witness who was able to detain him until police arrived ensuring that he did not flee,” Jenkins said in a statement. “My office, on behalf of the victims, and every San Franciscan who is fed up with brazen violence like this, will stand for justice and seek to hold him accountable for his crimes.”
O’Malley previously dropped hate crime charges against Ramsey in 2021 after he assaulted Carl Chan, president of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Ramsey plead no contest and walked free after his public defender cited mental health challenges, the San Fransico Chronicle reported.
It is not mercy to let crazy people run around the streets attacking innocent strangers, and certainly it is not justice. It is folly to permit our sympathy for those afflicted with mental illness to override the need to protect public safety, which is the first duty of any government.
Almost as soon as the July 14 shooting happened in Fargo, North Dakota, the media rushed to emphasize that nothing was known about the gunman’s motive. On a Friday afternoon, on a busy street just blocks away from the city’s Downtown Street Fair, there was a traffic accident. When police responded to the accident, they were targeted by gunfire that killed one officer and wounded two others. A civilian was also struck by gunfire during the shootout, in which the suspect was killed.
It is a profound mystery, you see, why a guy named Mohamad would want to kill policemen in Fargo, North Dakota. But how did Mohamad get to Fargo? We now know how that part happened:
Barakat arrived in the U.S. from Syria in 2012 as part of former President Barack Obama’s massive wave of Syrian refugees, where nearly 20,000 were admitted from October 2011 to December 2016. Eventually, Barakat gained a green card, allowing him to permanently reside in the country. In 2019, Barakat was allowed to become a naturalized American citizen.
Authorities said they don’t know why Barakat was planning the attack downtown or why he stopped to shoot officers Friday afternoon.
“In regards to motive, if we had clear evidence of that, we would share it,” North Dakota U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider said.
I’m sure he would. Mac Schneider was a [Democrat] politician who lost a congressional race and got nominated as U.S. Attorney by Joe Biden.
Schneider declined to say if Barakat was on the FBI’s radar.
The FBI’s too busy rounding up Trump supporters to bother investigating guys from Syria named Mohamad. Finally this week, we were informed that the Syrian named Mohamad had a vast arsenal of weapons:
The heavily armed man who ambushed Fargo police officers investigating a fender bender last week likely had a bigger and bloodier attack in mind, with at least two fairs taking place at the time in and around North Dakota’s largest city, authorities said Friday.
Mohamad Barakat killed one officer and wounded two others and a bystander before a fourth officer shot and killed him, ending the July 14 attack.
Over the past five years, Barakat, 37, searched the internet for terms including “kill fast,” “explosive ammo,” “incendiary rounds,” and “mass shooting events,” state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Friday during a news conference in Fargo, a city of about 125,000 people. But perhaps the most chilling search was for “area events where there are crowds,” which on July 13 brought up a news article with the headline, “Thousands enjoy first day of Downtown Fargo Street Fair.”
Had Officer Zach Robinson not killed Barakat, authorities said they shudder to think how much worse the attack might have been. All evidence suggests that Barakat came upon the traffic crash by “happenstance” and that his ensuing ambush was a diversion from his much bigger intended target, Wrigley said. . . .
On the day of the attack, the downtown fair was in its second day and was less than 3 miles from the crash scene. It’s unclear if it was the intended target, though, as Barakat also searched for information on the Red River Valley Fair, which was just a 6-mile drive from the scene, the attorney general said.
After driving by the fender bender, Barakat pulled into an adjacent parking lot to watch from his parked car, Wrigley said. He said Barakat’s car was loaded with guns, a homemade grenade, more than 1,800 rounds of ammunition, three “largish” containers full of gasoline, plus two propane tanks, one completely filled and the other half-filled not with propane, but with “explosive materials concocted at home, purchased lawfully.”
With police and firefighters busy helping, Barakat watched for several minutes until the officers walked by him, when he lifted a .223-caliber rifle out of his car window and began firing, Wrigley said.
The rifle had a binary trigger that allowed it to fire so rapidly that it sounded like an automatic weapon, he said. A binary trigger is a modification that allows a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released — in essence doubling a gun’s firing capacity. The three officers who were shot had no time to react and fell in rapid succession. He also shot and wounded a fleeing woman, Karlee Koswick, who had been involved in the fender bender, he said.
Robinson, who was badly outgunned but was the only officer at the scene who hadn’t been shot, engaged Barakat in a two-minute shootout. It ended with Robinson shooting and killing Barakat as bystanders crouched nearby.
Wrigley described Robinson as “the last man standing in that blue line at that moment.”
“What he was standing between was not just the horrible events that were unfolding there, but between the horrible events that Mohamad Barakat had envisioned, planned and intended and armed himself for — beyond fully — that day,” he said.
Barakat killed Officer Jake Wallin, 23, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard, and wounded Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes. Wallin and Hawes were so new that they were still undergoing field training.
Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley said, adding that he didn’t appear to have any ties to the Muslim community in Fargo. He said Barakat had some family in the U.S., but not in the Fargo area, and that investigators are still looking into his history before he arrived in the country.
In recent years, Barakat amassed his arsenal. And his internet searches about causing mayhem date back to 2018, with periods in which they abated before picking back up, the attorney general said. . . .
Wrigley said Barakat was wearing a vest that was “absolutely stuffed” with magazines and that he “was putting the finishing touches on his shooting skills in the last hours before this assault.”
As for the propane tanks, Wrigley said it was “quite dramatic” when the bomb squad detonated them. He suggested the tanks contained something similar to Tannerite, a commercial explosive that can be easily detonated with a shot from a high-powered rifle.
“Obvious motive to kill,” Wrigley said. “I mean, driven by hate. Driven by wanting to kill. Not particularized to some group that we can discern at this moment, not particularized to one individual that we can see.”
Barakat had worked odd jobs, and briefly trained as an emergency responder at a nearby community college. He had no criminal record or social media presence and had so little contact with other people that the only photo law enforcement could provide was a blurry image of him lifted from a video.
Mohamad from Syria arrives here about 10 years ago, and only “worked odd jobs,” so how could he afford all this weaponry? Really, 1,800 rounds of ammunition? A gun with a modified trigger? Notice that the information about Barakat is coming from the state Attorney General, rather than from federal officials. The feds want to make this case disappear, so they can go back to their usual business of investigating Trump voters and giving sweetheart plea deals to Democrats.
Last month, I told you about former New Hampshire state legislator Barry Charles “Stacie-Marie” Laughton (“The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’”), a Democrat who had been charged with child pornography in a case involving his/“her” ex-girlfriend, Lindsay Groves.
Not even going to transcribe that. Feel slimy just posting the screencap. Everything about this case is weird, including how they got caught:
On June 20, 2023, the Nashua Police Department (NPD) responded to a report that LAUGHTON had shown child sexual abuse images to other adults. One adult (hereinafter,
PERSON 2) reported that on June 20, 2023, LAUGHTON disclosed that her former intimate partner, Lindsay GROVES, sent LAUGHTON inappropriate images of children.
According to PERSON 2, LAUGHTON then showed PERSON 2 three images, which were on LAUGHTON’s phone in a text conversation with a contact titled “Lindsay.” Upon
viewing the three images, PERSON 2 recognized them as children and that each image depicted a separate child. PERSON 2 described each image as depicting children with
their genitals exposed.
The responding NPD officer interviewed another adult (hereinafter, PERSON 3), who reported that on June 16, 2023, LAUGHTON disclosed that GROVES sent her inappropriate images of children. LAUGHTON then sent PERSON 3 four images of nude children by text message, which PERSON 3 deleted. During the interview on June 20, 2023, PERSON 3 was able to recover the images to provide them to the responding NPD officer. The officer observed that the images were of naked children and also observed a text, purportedly from LAUGHTON, that read, “I don’t like that I have these but I wanted to show you the proof. I am not a kid pervert.”
NPD detectives conducted a voluntary interview with PERSON 3 on that same date, June 20, 2023, at the Nashua Police Department. During the interview, PERSON 3 showed the four images to the detectives.
So, Laughton showed these images to two different people, and actually sent them via text message to one of them, like, “Hey, want to see evidence of the federal felonies that I’m involved in?”
BTW, Libs of TikTok is probably incorrect in saying that O’Rourke and Swalwell “campaigned” for Laughton. Almost certainly, the photos were taken at some post-event “grip-and-grin” session following local Democratic Party events in New Hampshire, which as the traditional first primary state gets a steady parade of national political figures showing up for fundraisers, etc. Still, the fact is that Democrats in New Hampshire twice elected Laughton to office, despite his/“her” obvious craziness.
“In 2014, he had a mental breakdown and was in the VA hospital for 10 days. And after he came out, he wasn’t the same again. He just kept deteriorating until now. I tried to get some help for him, but they kept saying that he has to commit a crime or, you know, like, break up the house or anything, try to hurt himself,” said Dennis. “But if he wasn’t doing that, he has to come in voluntarily to get medical attention, but he said he doesn’t need it and doesn’t want it.”
Her son lived with her in Hampton, Georgia, a suburb 30 miles south of Atlanta, on a quiet street called Dogwood Lakes Drive, until the day last week he got a gun and murdered four neighbors:
After a nearly 24-hour manhunt, the man accused of shooting and killing four people Saturday in a Henry County subdivision was shot and killed by law enforcement officers after a shootout on Sunday.
“The monster is dead,” Henry County Sheriff Reginald B. Scandrett said during a press conference on Sunday.
“The citizens of Hampton, the county of Henry, the metro Atlanta area, and the entire state of Georgia can breathe a little easier tonight. The suspect is off our streets.”
The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Andre Longmore, is accused of opening fire in the Dogwood Lakes area at about 10:45 a.m. on Saturday.
On Sunday, a Henry County Deputy made contact with the vehicle the suspect was driving and requested backup at around 1:30 p.m. When Clayton County officers responded, they learned the suspect ran to a nearby wood line.
Officers were then led to an apartment building on Wagon Wheel Court in Jonesboro. When officers got there, the suspect tried to run again and gunfire was exchanged, Scandrett said.
“Gunfire was subsequently exchanged, leaving Longmore fatally wounded,” the Clayton County Police Department said in a statement.
They said two Clayton County Police officers and one Henry County Sheriff’s deputy suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting. . . .
The victims were identified as Scott Leavitt, 67, Shirley Leavitt, 66, Steve Blizzard, 65, and Ronald Jeffers, 66.
The gunman’s motive is unknown, but of course, schizophrenia is sufficient in that regard. No one has suggested race as a motive, but do you think the national media would just ignore that angle if the gunman had been white and his victims were all black? I don’t think so.
Philadelphia police are searching for a 15-year-old suspect who is wanted in connection with a deadly attempted carjacking last week. Michael Salerno, 50, was shot and killed around 10:45 p.m. on July 12 at 12th and Porter streets.
Investigators say Salerno was shot when three males, thought to be between 15 and 20 years old, were trying to carjack his vehicle.
A female friend was inside the car.
“The offenders approached the vehicle, and the offenders were aggressive and violent from the start,” said Lt. Hamilton Marshmond.
While trying to stop them, Salerno was shot once in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Friday, police identified one of the suspects as 15-year-old Rasheed Banks Jr, who is considered armed and dangerous.
Salerno was not inside the vehicle at the time of the carjacking, police said.
It appears the suspects may have been looking for a target. Police say they were circling the neighborhood in a Red Kia Soul with out-of-state plates.
“We do see the offenders’ vehicle ride past in the area several times. It appears that the offenders were in the area to either rob a person or attempting to take a vehicle,” said Marshmond.
Jackeline Ortiz heard the commotion then saw the victim on the street.
“Slowly there started to form a pool of blood. The lady was screaming and she came back – she was screaming over the man on the ground,” said Ortiz.
The suspects got away in the Kia Soul. The vehicle was last seen going south on 12th Street.
Nothing to see here. Just a 15-year-old killer at large.
Here’s another fact: Last year, Massachusetts voters passed a referendum approving a 4% “millionaire tax” in addition to the state’s existing 5% income tax, so that all income over $1 million a year earned by Massachusetts residents is now taxed at 9%. So in order for the New England Patriots to be competitive with the Tennessee Titans in bidding for the services of All-Pro free agent wide receiver Deandre Hopkins, they would have had to add about 10% to whatever the Titans offered.
And this competitive disadvantage, which the voters of Massachusetts have imposed on the Patriots, will also apply to athletes for the Celtics in the NBA, the Bruins in the NHL and the Red Sox in baseball.
It’s not just Tennessee that has zero state income tax — Texas, Florida and Nevada also don’t have a state income tax, so top free agent athletes now have an incentive to sign with Houston, Dallas, Miami, Tampa, or Las Vegas, rather than to go to Boston and get ripped off for 9% of their salary because of stupid liberal voters in Massachusetts.
Hey, math quiz: What’s 9% of zero? Because you’re not going to get any tax revenue from millionaires, if millionaires leave your state.
Or, Taking Back SF One Convention At A Time. Our mascot, Fission-chan.
Every year in June, there’s a science fiction convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that is so popular, memberships sell out in a matter of hours when they become available. Part of this is because (thanks to some arcane rules I don’t pretend to understand that don’t have anything to do with fire marshal regulations) Libertycon limits its membership to around 750 people. The other part is that unlike most SF conventions, the people who run Libertycon are adamant about maintaining a convention free of the ridiculous woke crap that has made a lot of SF conventions, big and small, places where conservative and libertarian authors and fans aren’t welcome. So Libertycon memberships are very much in demand, despite the facts that 1) Chattanooga is damned hard to get to unless you live in driving distance, and B, every year the hotel that hosts it seems to change hands and forget how to do room reservations.
Well, I think there ought to be more conventions like Libertycon, and having some experience at starting & running these sorts of conventions, I decided to do something about it. Thus: Son of Silvercon. I’m starting small this first year, aiming for a membership of 100+ people, and hoping in subsequent years to grow to 1000 or more, which would allow us to move from a Best Western to one of the larger hotels in downtown Las Vegas – the Plaza, say, or one of the Station hotel/casinos, which have the kind of function space I’m used to from running Anime Detour in Minnesota. My intention is not to compete with Libertycon, which has been around quite a while and has a rich tradition -not to mention a couple of anthologies- but to supplement it, provide a place for people who can’t make it to Libertycon because Chattanooga is too far/too big a pain to fly to or because they just couldn’t score a membership. We have a guest of honor (M.C.A. Hogarth) and a couple of special guests (Sarah* & Daniel Hoyt, and Jon Del Arroz) who are most definitely not part of the Pink Wave that wants to make SF as dull and intersectional and hateful as mainstream literature, and who I expect will have interesting things to say about ignoring what traditional SF/comics publishers want and going your own way. We’re going to have a con suite where you can hang out, drink sodas of various types, nibble on snacks, and talk to your fellow fans as well as our guests and other pros who wandered in from the desert. We even have a blog to keep you posted on how things are coming along.
So if you happen to live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, or Utah (or someplace else with cheap airfares to/from Vegas), think about coming down to Son of Silvercon the weekend of October 13. Hop in the car, book a flight or a bus ride, and come on down! If you can’t make it for some reason, consider a supporting membership to help make it happen (It’s only $20) and mention us to someone who might be interested. If you’re a veteran or an N3F member, we offer a $5 discount off the attending membership price. We also have a limited number of vendor tables available, if you’re interested in flogging some books or games to the masses. Do your part for the culture war! Buy stuff from authors and artists who don’t hate you! Come to Son of Silvercon!
*Some of you may recognize Sarah as the occasional overnight blogger at Instapundit, as well as mistress of her own blog, According To Hoyt.
