In The Mailbox: 07.31.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | July 31, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.31.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Is Intel Headquartered In Mos Eisley?
EBL: 17 year old* arrested in brutal stabbing murders of children at Taylor Swift themed party, Democrat Weirdos for Kamala Harris, Fire Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, and Democrats Threatened the 25th Amendment To Kick Biden Out?
Twitchy: Least Surprising Revelation of the Day – Half Of Young Liberal Women, Have a Diagnosed Mental Illness, Several Airlines Canceling Flights To Israel Amid “Fear Of Wider Conflict”, and Best Economy Ever, Jack!
Louder With Crowder: “White Dudes” embarrass themselves for Kamala, beats “White Women” in biggest Harris cringe-fest, also, So Weird! Kamala Harris campaign BUSTED paying influencers to say nice things about her on social media
Vox Popoli: Pentagon Runs Fake Social Accounts, 100% Pure Hopium, A Carthaginian Counterattack, The Media Won’t Talk About Gaiman, and Why the Media Hates Aaron Rodgers
Toni Airaksinen: Trump Assassination Denialism
Stoic Observations: Stoic Bites #6 – It’s Still Bacchus,
Gab: An Emergency Request From The FBI
Upstream Reviews: Blood Cartel

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Dana Loesch: Yes, Kamala Really Wants To Ban Fracking, also, Kamala Vows “Mandatory Gun Buyback” Via EO In First 100 Days,
Don Surber: Media pushes to elect a coconut
STUMP: Chicago Is My Kind of Town To Beat Up On – Previews For The DNC

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So Far, Israel Has Neither Confirmed Nor Denied It Assassinated Hamas Leader

Posted on | July 31, 2024 | Comments Off on So Far, Israel Has Neither Confirmed Nor Denied It Assassinated Hamas Leader

Khaled Mashaal (left) and Ismail Haniyeh (right) in 2012

There is no doubt that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is dead. He was killed in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president. However, the claim that Israel is behind Haniyeh’s death is being made by Iran, while the Israeli government has so far been silent.

My brother Kirby pointed this out to me. Why should we assume that Iran is telling the truth about this? How could Israel have accomplished this in the Iranian capital? Isn’t it possible — says Kirby, who pays more attention to this stuff than I do — that Haniyeh had enemies? Enemies inside Hamas? Enemies in Hezbollah? Enemies in Iran?

Kirby suspects, or at least he’s not rulling out, that this assassination could be a “false flag” operation, intended to create a pretext for Iran to attack Israel, and all I can say to such suspicion is, I don’t know.

Here’s what we do know, from the Jerusalem Post:

Khaled Mashaal was tapped to be the new Hamas leader on Wednesday, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran early Wednesday morning.
Hamas sources said Mashaal is expected to be chosen as the paramount leader of the terror group to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was eliminated in Iran in the early hours of Wednesday.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, who is based in Qatar and has headed Hamas negotiators in indirect hostage deal talks with Israel, has also been a possibility for the leadership as he is a favorite of Iran and its allies in the region.
Mashaal became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a failed assassination attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Mashaal, 68, became Hamas’s political leader in exile the year before Israel tried to eliminate him, a post that enabled him to represent the Palestinian Islamist group at meetings with foreign governments around the world, unhindered by tight Israeli travel restrictions that affected other Hamas officials.
Mashaal’s relations with Iran have been strained due to his past support for the Sunni Muslim-led revolt in 2011 against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mashaal has been a central figure at the top of Hamas since the late 1990s, though he has worked mainly from exile.
Born in Silwad near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mashaal moved as a boy with his family to the Gulf Arab state of Kuwait.
At the age of 15, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which became instrumental in the formation of Hamas in the late 1980s during the First Intifada.
Mashaal became a schoolteacher before turning to lobbying for Hamas from abroad for many years. He was in charge of international fund-raising in Jordan when he escaped assassination after being injected with poison in the street.
Jordan eventually closed Hamas’s bureau in Amman and expelled Mashaal from the Gulf state of Qatar. He moved to Syria in 2001.
Meshaal ran Hamas from exile in Damascus in 2004 until January 2012, when he left the Syrian capital because of President Assad’s fierce crackdown on Sunnis involved in an uprising against him. Mashaal now lives in both Doha and Cairo.
His abrupt departure from Syria initially weakened his position within Hamas. Mashaal himself told Reuters that his move affected relations with Hamas’s main paymaster and weapons supplier – Iran.
In December 2012, Mashaal paid his first visit to the Gaza Strip and delivered the main speech at Hamas’s 25th anniversary rally.
Friction between Mashaal and the Gaza-based Hamas leadership surfaced over his attempts to promote reconciliation with President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority.
Mashaal then announced that he wanted to step down as leader over such tensions and, in 2017, was replaced by his Gaza deputy Haniyeh, who was elected to head the terror group’s political office, also operating overseas.

So there’s all kind of intrigue involved in the sudden change of Hamas leadership in the wake of Haniyeh’s death and, as I pointed out, Israel so far has had no comment on this incident, which could be to the next World War what the assassination of the Austrian archduke was to the First World War. Gavrilo Princip could not be reached for comment.

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Category: Iran, Israel

In The Mailbox: 07.29.24

Posted on | July 30, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

My Substack debut. “What is this ‘home’ you speak of, my Russian brother?”
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Komi Shouko knows.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: How’s That Criminal Justice Reform Working Out?
EBL: Épater la bourgeoisie! Paris Olympics has a big blue gay Prophet Mohammed, also, Knox Goes Away
Twitchy: Mary Katherine Ham Perfectly Parodies The “White Women For Kamala” Meeting, Speaker Johnson Blasted For Choices For Trump Assassination Task Force, and More Evidence Of Election Interference From Google
Louder With Crowder: Paris is running out of real food after forcing vegan meals on Olympic athletes, After Months Of Gaslighting Customers, Chipotle Admits To Skimping Out On Portion Sizes, and Kamala Harris and deez nuts: Elon Musk DESTROYS Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to stifle free speech
Vox Popoli: Reject the Olympics, Devil Mouse Maoists, Neil Gaiman: “The Tip of a Very Large Iceberg”, God Will Not Be Mocked, and Birds of a Feather
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Wind Power Up Close
Stoic Observations: Stoic Bites #5 – Mind Boggling Goggins, Gymnastic Grace,
Upstream Reviews: Black Sabbath – Anno Domini 1989-1995
Draw & Talk Comics: Every Nerd’s Worst Fear!
Toni Airaksinen: Lawyer Says Autistic Students Disadvantage By Biden’s Title IX Kangaroo Courts

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Biden Coverup Comes Back to Bite the Dems
American Greatness: Democracy in Name Only: How Kamala Harris Became Democratic Nominee, President Biden – A Single Point of Failure for America, Official Olympics YouTube Channel Removes Videos of Opening Ceremony Due to Backlash, and The Bloodless Coup of Joe Biden Will Not Work Out Well for Democrats
American Thinker: Ivermectin Has Surprising Potential Against Cancer, also, Two Critical Battles Lie Ahead For Trump
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuban nun laments the crisis in Cuba: ‘We are in the worst moments of our nation’s history’, With a 50% loss in foreign currency income, the ‘Cuban System’ has collapsed, Surprise! Maduro claims victory in rigged Venezuelan election, Cuba and Russia cheer, and Olympic athletes from Cuban team come face to face with options in Paris
BattleSwarm: Andrew Schulz Roasts Kamala Harris, Wagner Group Column Mangled In Mali, and Austin Electric Busses Busted
Behind The Black: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 resumes launches, successfully launching 23 Starlink satellites, Local billionaire landowner renews his oppposition to the Sutherland spaceport, To guarantee no capsule debris hits inhabited areas, SpaceX to move its manned splashdowns to Pacific, Boeing completes full series of static hot fire engine burns on Starliner while docked to ISS, Senate gives NASA cash to stop its tantrum, and Google monitors and censors Gmail and Googlegroup emails for political content it dislikes
Cafe Hayek: More on Michael Lind’s Inept Case for Tariffs, More on Michael Lind’s Bad History of Trade, and I Ask Again: How Do You Know?
CDR Salamander: July Maritime Free-For-All – On Midrats, also, Debt Slavery With Chinese Characteristics
Chicago Boyz: Sleeping With The Enemy – Updated
Da Tech Guy: Just Remember the Same People Who Will Be Deciding in Court if Election2024 is on the Up and Up, Paris and Majdal Shams: Reality Doesn’t Care About the Left’s Spin, Another bitter harvest of demonization? The My Lai massacre and the Sonya Massey killing, and Why Anyone Would Trust AI is Beyond Me, Trump Assassination Edition
Dana Loesch: Last Week In Legal – All The Appeals Edition, also, Cat Ladies & The Nauseating White Savior Sisters For Kamala
Don Surber: The Twilight Zone predicted this
First Street Journal: Hamas delendum est, also, Welfare for the well-to-do
Gates Of Vienna: Another Migrant Success Story, Covid-19: All Lies. All Crime. — Chapter 14, The Epistemology of Flat Tires and Chiggers, and Is the Islamization of Europe a Conspiracy Theory?
The Geller Report: Iran-Proxy Hezb’Allah Fires Rocket at Children Playground on Shabbat, 10 DEAD ALL CHILDREN, 25 Injured, Iran is Supplying Hezb’Allah with Technologically Advanced New Weapons, The Paris Olympics and the Rise of Jew-Hatred, and Texts Show Trump Assassin Was on Authorities’ Radar More than 90 Minutes Before Shooting
Glenn Reynolds: J.D. Vance, The NYT, and Decency
Hollywood In Toto: 13th Warrior Is as Bad as Advertised, Until…, Sarandon-Midler Romp Fabulous Four Nosedives at Box Office, and Will Kamala Harris Snag Taylor Swift’s Coveted Endorsement?
The Lid: Biden’s Corrupt Dept. of Homeland Security Lets 3 Palestinian Terrorists Into USA
Legal Insurrection: Academic Poll Finds More Than 70% of ‘Hard-Line Lefties’ Wish Trump Assassination Attempt Succeeded, Venezuela Breaks Out in Protests, Accusing Maduro of Stealing the Election, U. of California Regent Proposes Making Anti-Israel Protesters Pay for the Millions in Damage They Caused, Biden on Johnson Saying SCOTUS Reform is Dead on Arrival: ‘He is. Dead on Arrival’, Olympics Back-Tracks on Offensive Drag Queen Opening Ceremonies Mocking Christians, and UK High Court Upholds Puberty Blockers Ban
Michele Catalano: the week in joy
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, also, Another Monday
Outkick: Antisemites At Paris Olympics Chant ‘Heil Hitler’ As Israel Performed National Anthem, White Sox Bullpen Pours One Out For Traded Teammate Michael Kopech In Emotional Goodbye, Dwyane Wade Couldn’t Stop Making Weird Pronoun ‘Jokes’ During Olympic Broadcast, Record NFL Rookie QB Class Has Hit Ground Running With A Couple Of Possible Exceptions, Hooters Is Coming To The Villages & Resident Old Ladies Are Freaking Out, and Danica Patrick’s Butt Rocks America, Internet Cancels A Grandma For Bodyshaming & Cameraman Caught Zooming In
Power Line: Ellison vouches for Walz, How the Left Censors the News, and How Bad Is Kamala?
Shark Tank: Florida Democrats Condemn Maduro Regime
Shot In The Dark: How Every Conversation About “Fascism”, “Naziism”, and “Racism” Should Go, also, Hey, Look, Governor Klink Is Wearing His “Regular Joe” Costume
STUMP: The Week In Meep – The Return Of Stu!
The Political Hat: News of the Week
This Ain’t Hell: About time for Sailors who refused Covid shots, Joe Biden to roll out proposed Supreme Court reform, Hamas admits torture, threatens more, and Kamala Harris questioned JD Vance’s loyalty to the US
Transterrestrial Musings: Stop Turning The Other Cheek, With Little Fanfare, NewsGuard, and Back To Vegas
Victory Girls: JD Vance Being Weird And Childless Cat Ladies
Volokh Conspiracy: Venezuela Illustrates the Perils of “Democratic Socialism”
Watts Up With That: How Will New York’s Energy Madness End? The “Don’t Do It!” Report, Climate Scientists Dishonestly Cherry-Pick Wildfires to Push a Climate Crisis, and Can American Conservation Survive ‘Green’ Energy?
The Federalist: DEI Is Emasculating The FDNY Too – Just Like The Secret Service, How Ian Fleming Birthed James Bond, Anti-Christian Olympic Opening Ceremony Heralds The Rise Of A Neopagan West, Harris Shares Old Federalist Podcast Clip To Claim Vance Supports Project That Didn’t Exist Yet, Targeting Law Professor Turley Again Proves NewsGuard Is A Powerful Scam, Biden Debuts Radical Scheme Designed To Help Democrats Pack The Supreme Court, and The Left Is Trying To Memory-Hole Trump’s Assassination Attempt
Mark Steyn: Möbius Dick, Head Cases: Political Satire and The President’s Analyst, Steyn Gets Sporty, and Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)

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Issues? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Issues!

Posted on | July 29, 2024 | Comments Off on Issues? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Issues!

Although I usually watch CNN (so you don’t have to), for the past week my office TV has been tuned to MSNBC, so that I can see what “news” is being pumped into the veins of the Democratic Party grassroots.

It’s an endless hype-fest for Kamala Harris, interrupted by occasional “news” about some kind of ginned-up controversy around Donald Trump (everything he says or does is automatically controversial). This theme is being echoed in many other media outlets.

Harris raised $200 million in first week of White House campaign and signed up 170,000 volunteers
— Associated Press

Harris campaign reports record-breaking volunteer surge in key swing states
— Axios

Kamala Harris’ Approval Rating Surges as Donald Trump’s Falls
— Newsweek

100 days out, Dems are feeling something unusual: Optimism
— Politico

How Kamala Harris took control of the Democratic Party
— Washington Post

Harris Looks to Maintain Momentum as ‘Honeymoon Phase’ Winds Down
— New York Times

There is a lot of horse-race hype — Democrats are winning, baby! They’re full of optimism! The Harris campaign is surging! What is missing, however — and you’d immediately notice this, if you tuned to MSNBC — is any discussion of the real issues facing the country. Inflation? Immigration? National security? You would get no idea, amid all the pro-Kamala cheerleading being treated as “news,” that the U.S. national debt is $35 trillion, or that Iran is targeting U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, or that U.S. military readiness is at a startling low.

America has a lot of serious problems, and we live in a very dangerous world, but the people who will vote in this election are being ill-informed by the media, who care only about helping elect Democrats.

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Category: Election, Media Bias

Aspiring Rapper Update

Posted on | July 29, 2024 | 1 Comment

Say hello to Charles Andrew Jones II, a/k/a “Julio Foolio” and, while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because Mr. Jones died last month in a hail of gunfire in the parking lot of a Tampa hotel. Because it’s been more than a month since our last Aspiring Rapper Update, I’ll remind you of the definition:

Aspiring Rapper
North American euphemism for a member of the urban criminal class. This unusual occupation is usually mentioned in conjunction with the subject either being slain or being taken into custody for a violent or property-related crime. A relative of the subject usually points out that the subject’s demise or incarceration comes at an extremely inopportune moment, occurring just as the subject was “turning they(sic) life around.”

“Julio Foolio” had done more than merely aspire to be a rapper. He had released several recordings and had more than a million followers on social media. But he was definitely part of the “urban criminal class”:

Charles Andrew Jones II was born on June 21, 1998, in Jacksonville, Florida, where he grew up in the Moncrief neighborhood and was a member of the “6-Block” set of the street gang KTA (“Kill Them All”). His father, Charles Andrew Jones, was murdered in a 2011 shooting in Jacksonville. . . .
In 2017, Foolio’s 18-year-old cousin, Zion Malik Brown, was shot and killed in his home. This is believed to have started the deadly gang war in Jacksonville, as rapper Yungeen Ace was wounded and three men killed in a 2018 retaliatory shooting, and Foolio posted derogatory content about the victims on social media.

It was his social media habits that led directly to his death last month, as “Julio Foolio” was posting his location in Tampa while celebrating his 26th birthday. Police today announced three arrests in the case:

Three people have been arrested and accused in the shooting death of Charles Jones, a Jacksonville rapper known as “Julio Foolio.”
Jones, 26, was shot and killed in June in an ambush attack while celebrating his birthday in Tampa.
Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw, Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez and Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced the arrests Monday afternoon and said there are also warrants out for two other people believed to have been triggermen.
All five suspects, who are from Jacksonville, are accused of premeditated first-degree murder among other charges.
Isaiah Chance, 21, Alicia Andrews, 21, and Sean Gathright were arrested over the weekend in Jacksonville.
Police said Chance and Andrews tracked and followed Jones and his entourage to two locations. At each location, the two got out of their vehicle and Chance used a cell phone, police said. After the cell phone communication, a second suspect vehicle arrived at each location. Both vehicles then followed Jones and his entourage to the Home 2 Suites located on McKinley Drive, where the murder happened.
Police said that Gathright, 18, along with two other outstanding suspects, Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy, fired shots at Jones that night.

All of the people involved in the shooting are affiliated with Jacksonville gangs ATK and 1200 which are rival gangs to 6 Block, the gang Jones had connections to, according to police. The feud between 6 Block and its rival gangs ATK and 1200 has spanned over a decade with dozens of murders by and against both sides, officials said.
“Detectives believe that the ATK and the 1200 worked together to target Jones as part of an ongoing feud in Jacksonville,” Bercaw said.
Chance is a documented ATK gang member, and Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy are documented 1200 gang members, according to police.
During the news conference, Tampa police showed surveillance from the night of the shooting where the suspects can be seen stalking Jones. At one point, the shooters got out of a car parked across the street from the hotel where Jones was staying.
They can be seen on video wearing all black while sneaking around the parking lot before firing multiple shots at the car Jones was riding in.
Police said the three shooters were armed with a handgun and two rifles.
“Today, three dangerous criminals are off our Florida streets and in police custody where they belong,” Waters said. “These individuals have chosen lives of urban terrorism and with arrests we show Tampa, Jacksonville and the rest of Florida, we hold violent criminals accountable.”
Investigators said they used surveillance videos, license plate readers and phone logs to identify the two vehicles involved and tie them to the suspects.
Three other people were injured in the shooting outside the hotel but survived.
“These criminals decided to bring their fight to Hillsborough County. Let me be clear, the feud ends here,” said Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez. “My office will vigorously prosecute each of these defendants to ensure they are held accountable for the calculated murder of Charles Jones.”

Readers will note that “Julio Foolio” resembled “Sideshow Bob” from The Simpsons, which is probably not relevant to the act of “urban terrorism” that ended the rapper’s career, What is relevant is that there are now three fewer criminals on the streets of Florida and, once the two fugitive suspects are apprehended — or die in a shootout with police — the public will be that much safer. And nothing of value has been lost.

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Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, Florida

Rule 5 Sunday: Hangar Queen Double-Scoop Sunday!

Posted on | July 29, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I rather like topless girls in jeans. Here’s one in the aforementioned hangar, thanks to kbdabear on X.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Trump Ascendant Friday, the Saturday Gingermageddon from July 20, Buh-Bye Biden Friday, and this week’s Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns (I), Julie London, Moon, MAGA RNC Keynote Speech, Bob Newhart RIP, NeverTrumper Max Boot’s Wife The Spy, Kai Trump, Eva Vlaardingerbroek Gets Married, J.D. & Usha Vance, Shannen Doherty RIP, Bastille Day, Breathless Bout De Souffle, Early Bastille Day, Project 2025 – It’s Happening! Saturday Night Girls With Guns (II), Paris Olympics, The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, Chunky Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton’s Debut At The Grand Ole Opry, MAGA Kamala Harris Sunlight Is Best, Those About To Die, The Restaurant, Maria Andrejczyk, Kamala Harris Is Ready To Meet The Bidens, and Kate Faasse.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Rachel Whitlock, Fish Pic Friday – The Bikini Angler – Ellie Meuwissen, Gone Fishin’, Thursday Tanlines, Scientists Appreciate Oyster Parasites, The Wednesday Wetness, I’m The Boss, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Random Celebrity News, Palm Sunday, A Long Long Time Ago and Flotsam and Jetsam – Still Abiden’ with Biden, Vikki Lenola, Bear, Step Aside, Make Way for Cocaine Sharknado, Fish Pic Friday – Bree Emilius, Tattoo Thursday, The Wednesday Wetness, Maryland Attempts to Prevent the Invasion of Pennsylvania, Tuesday Tanlines, Maryland Watermen to Get Put and Take Oysters, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Palm Sunday and Assassination Story Gets Stinkier, Biden Hangs In

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. for July 19 and July 26

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

‘Ghost’ Gets 28 Years in Federal Prison

Posted on | July 28, 2024 | 1 Comment

Darrick Dernard Bell was known by a dozen aliases, including “Ghost” and “Tone,” during the years when he made the Victory Inn in Detroit a “house of horrors” before his criminal operation was busted and the sleazy hotel was demolished in 2018. Bell had six prior felony convictions, including second-degree murder in 1996, and why he was ever released from prison is something of a mystery, except to note that Detroit’s last Republican mayor left office in 1962. Even in that very bad city, however, the Victory Inn was notorious:

The building fell under the local spotlight in January 2017, when about 150 people from multiple agencies executed a federal search warrant at the motel as part of an ongoing investigation. The raid, which occurred on Jan. 12, found human trafficking victims, drugs, drug paraphernalia, a gun, evidence of drug use and dozens of cell phones, a federal court document said.
“Several of those human trafficking victims spoke with law enforcement and confirmed widespread and ongoing prostitution and drug distribution from the Victory Inn,” the document said. . . .
According to Detroit police, the Victory Inn, which is flanked by a topless club and an adult bookstore, had been a longtime problem. In 2016, Detroit police made 115 runs to the motel, which saw two shootings, numerous aggravated assaults, robberies and two homicides in which the victims were traced back to the Victory Inn.

I’m old enough to remember when Hollywood made movies like Pretty Woman, which portrayed prostitution as glamorous, and I’m also old enough to remember when rock stars like Glenn Frey sang songs that depicted drug trafficking as an exciting adventure. The squalid reality at the Victory Inn ought to be turned into a movie, as a warning to anyone who might be deceived by such myth-making. When the feds raided the Victory Inn, they didn’t find Bell and he was a fugitive for more than two years before the U.S. Marshals caught him in July 2019.

Bell had cocaine and $12,000 in cash on him when they caught him at a cheap motel in Monroe, about 40 miles south of Detroit. While his accused co-conspirators pleaded guilty, Bell went to trial and was convicted on the drug charges, but the jury couldn’t reach guilty verdicts on the pimping accusations, an outcome perhaps based on the principle of “you can’t believe them lyin’ hoes.” So it would put me at risk of a libel suit were I to call Darrick Bell a pimp, but readers can draw their own conclusions. I’ll merely quote the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

Darrick Bell, the leader of a large-scale drug conspiracy that operated out of the former Victory Inn hotel in Dearborn, Michigan, was sentenced today to 28 years in prison based on his conviction on drug trafficking charges, announced United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison. . . .
Bell, age 55, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Mark A. Goldsmith.
The charges on which Bell was convicted stemmed from the operation of a large-scale drug operation Bell created utilizing the Victory Inn, a motel formerly located next to the main drag for prostitution on Michigan Avenue.
The trial, which began on April 12, 2022, and concluded on June 2, 2022, involved more than 20 witnesses, including several of Bell’s co-conspirators and victims, along with hundreds of exhibits. The jury convicted Bell on three drug-related counts. The jury acquitted Bell on one count involving sex trafficking and was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining four counts involving sex trafficking. . . .
There was often no vacancy at the Victory Inn because the rooms were full of women and victims living in unspeakable conditions as severe drug addicts. Bell would supply drugs to these women. The women would use the drugs, engage in commercial sex acts, and then would use the money from their dates to purchase more drugs. The women were trapped in a vicious cycle of addiction, which Bell exploited for financial gain. Bell and his co-conspirators would use violence or the threat of violence to ensure that the women continuously paid their ever-growing drug debt. This would include physically striking them or withholding drugs so they would go through excruciating withdrawal symptoms. In one instance, Bell shaved the head of one of the women.
“Today’s sentencing closes a chapter on the house of horrors that was the Victory Inn. Just as the motel was demolished, so too was the drug network Bell had organized and led for nearly a year. Bell’s rein and control over the women living at the Victory Inn was nothing short of abhorrent,” said U.S. Attorney Ison. “Bell’s attempt at evading justice for over two and a half years failed, and he will now spend the next 28 years in prison for his actions.”

“No Vacancy at the Victory Inn.” It’s not a romantic comedy. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere won’t be starring in that movie.

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Category: Crime, Michigan

FMJRA 2.0: A Glimmer of Hope

Posted on | July 27, 2024 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: A Glimmer of Hope

— compiled by Wombat-socho

After a couple of weeks getting their faces eaten by various teams, my Senators actually had a 3-3 week. It started badly with us losing two of three games to the Cubs at Wrigley, but we came home and won two of three against the A’s. We’re still a game behind Oakland at 47-65, at the bottom of the division, but even though we’re facing the Twins on Tuesday, we get the Expos next Friday, so we have a chance at another .500 week.
Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t We Department: Going to be launching a Substack this weekend, which seems redundant since I have a Dreamwidth account to record my thoughts and doings while the current unpleasantness in Ukraine continues cutting me off from my LiveJournal, but almost nobody reads that. I look forward to more people not reading my Substack, though for some reason several people are following me on there already. Go figure.
Last but not least, indy writer J.M. Anjewierden has put his reputedly excellent space opera trilogy The Black Chronicles on sale for 99 cents each to help defray the costs of his wife’s surgery. Help a brother out.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.