The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The First Rule of Censorship Club

Posted on | July 18, 2021 | Comments Off on The First Rule of Censorship Club

“The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.”

Something very similar is at work in the operations of Big Tech, acting as a political arms of the Biden administration. Using the pretext of suppressing “misinformation,” Facebook and other platforms are identifying and silencing the administration’s opponents and, even though this is happening in full view of anyone paying attention, you’re not going to know anything about it if you get your news from CNN, MSNBC or one of the broadcast network troika of NBC/ABC/CBS.

In fact, the liberal media are engaged in “fact-checking” that labels reporting about this censorship as (you guessed it) “misinformation.”

Politico reported last week that the Democratic National Committee is going to “work with SMS carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages.”

Repeat: “text messages.”

The DNC is going to censor your text messages?

A lot of people (among them our friends at Gateway Pundit) were startled by this news, but then the Thought Police “fact-checkers” at USA Today went to work to label this as “misinformation,” explaining that what they were actually talking about was mass-delivery text messages sent via software platforms (known as SMS APIs), the kind of messages you get from political campaigns when you sign up to get text alerts. So the White House is not monitoring your private text messages, but instead is trying to silence groups like Turning Point USA, which sends its members alerts like, “Biden is sending goons DOOR-TO-DOOR to make you take a Covid-19 vaccine. Sign the petition to: No medical raids in America.”

Let us stipulate that a certain amount of hyperbole is to be expected in the messages that political organizations deliver to their followers. How is what TPUSA does any different than what the DNC itself sends to its supporters? If you’re signed up for such text-message alerts from any political outfit, you have volunteered to receive this stuff, and why is it that the effort to suppress “misinformation” is only directed toward opponents of the Biden administration, not its supporters?

It’s the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 all over again.

No, wait — that’s hyperbole, and perhaps even “misinformation,” but my point is that the Biden administration’s behavior is comparable to what the Adams administration was attempting to do, to suppress the publication of material deemed “dangerous” to the public interest:

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that the White House is not only working with Facebook to flag disinformation on vaccines — it’s also asking Facebook to share data on the reach and engagement of posts deemed disinformation.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” the White House press secretary said.
Facebook, which did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, was one of several social media platforms that attempted to suppress discussion of the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab. Evidence has since been uncovered suggesting the theory holds merit.
Senior Biden administration staff and members of the COVID-19 team are targeting misinformation, specifically on coronavirus vaccines and the pandemic, by keeping “in regular touch” with social media platforms, Psaki said Thursday.
The Biden administration has also proposed four key requests to social media platforms, Psaki said: the first, that social media platforms “measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform.”
“Facebook should provide, publicly and transparently, data on the reach of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, not just engagement, but the reach of the misinformation and the audience that it’s reaching,” Psaki said. “That will help us ensure we’re getting accurate information to people. This should be provided not just to researchers but to the public so that the public knows and understands what is accurate and inaccurate”
The Biden administration also wants platforms like Facebook to “create a robust enforcement strategy that bridges their properties and provides transparency about the rules,” to take “faster action against harmful posts,” and to promote “quality information sources in their feed algorithm.”
“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” Psaki said. “All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including Facebook, ones that Facebook owns.”

This raises so many questions, it’s hard to know where to begin, but try this: Why is it that “smart” people, like Jen Psaki, believe that they are capable of discerning the difference between facts and “misinformation,” yet they believe the rest of the country is full of people too stupid to tell the difference? Like, “We need to censor Facebook or otherwise your grandmother is going to die from drinking bleach.”

What is at the heart of the White House crusade to suppress “misinformation” about COVID-19 is not an issue of fact, as to the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but rather an issue of power — the Biden administration seeks the authority to control what people are allowed to publish on social media platforms, not just about COVID-19 vaccines, but about anything it might deem to be dangerous in some way. The issue is not about the specific content of any particular message on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., but instead whether these companies are going to be taking orders from the White House. Saagar Enjeti nailed it:

Exactly — censorship of social media has escalated drastically since 2016 because, in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat, Democrats decided that “misinformation” was to blame. Even while all the major media were lined up to support Hillary, your grandma’s Facebook feed was full of content that wasn’t aligned with the pro-Hillary message strategy, and therefore DONALD TRUMP IS HITLER! ZOMG! #RESISTANCE!

The Democratic reaction to their 2016 defeat has shaped everything that they’ve done ever since, and this reaction is apparent everywhere. One of the guys who gets this is Matt Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone reporter who I used to loath for his left-wing views — he was very much an advocate of the “Occupy” movement and “Anonymous” cyberterrorism, back during the Obama era. Much like Glenn Greenwald, however, Taibbi has become disillusioned with Democrats in the past few years, and is now concerned about the anti-“misinformation” censorship crusade.

Taibbi has a fascinating account about video producer Matt Orfalea’s recent experience with YouTube censorship. Orfalea says this:

You have all these people who’ve been complaining about fascism since Trump, and then this [the White House encouraging social-media censorship] is actual, by-definition, fascism. According to the classic definition, it includes the merging of corporate and state power.
Look, I’ve done a lot of videos that are very critical of Biden. So the thought does go through my head, “Is this why my channel was targeted?” Now that Jen Psaki admitted that the government does have this direct relationship with the social media companies, picking targets, telling them who needs to be [flagged], it’s hard not to think about it.

Are any left-wing or pro-Biden accounts being censored? Don’t be silly. This censorship goes in only one direction, and we know how it works.

What we must focus on is not the nature of the messages being censored, but rather the abuse of power involved. There are a million and one things on the Internet that, were it up to me, might be banished, but this is not a Third World banana republic, and I’m not the leader of a military junta with the autocratic power to make my enemies quake with terror. Oh, what the imaginary McCain Junta Regime might do, if ever I had such power to punish those on my personal Enemies List! But as it is, in the real world, I’m just a law-abiding citizen of a constitutional republic, and so I must tolerate the fact that people are free to publish all kinds of dangerous nonsense on the Internet. Actual murderers post videos brandishing pistols and boasting about their crimes — almost 30 million views for “Who I Smoke,” mocking the victims killed by ATK in Jacksonville — but that’s fine with YouTube, I guess.

The collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech is more fascist than anything Donald “Orange Hitler” Trump ever did. And if you think this is just about COVID-19, you’re part of the problem. It’s time to wake up and smell the Orwellian dystopia, people.




 

Category: Media Bias

Aspiring Podcaster Update

Posted on | July 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Aspiring Podcaster Update

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, John Hoge, Dianna Deeley and myself will take to the digital airwaves for another episode of The Other Podcast. Relevant to tonight’s discussion, from the Urban Dictionary:

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.”

That’s probably RAAAAACIST, but I’m just quoting the source. If you miss tonight’s episode, be sure to check the archives at Podbean.




 

Category: The Other Podcast

Mystery Gunmen in D.C.

Posted on | July 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Mystery Gunmen in D.C.

Police are baffled:

Six people were injured and one 6-year-old girl killed in a shooting that took place in Washington, D.C., Friday night.
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia released a video statement regarding the shooting, which took place shortly after 11 p.m.
Executive Assistant Chief Ashan M. Benedict said police heard shots of gunfire at 2900 Block of Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue, Southeast, and rushed to the scene to find six victims injured: three male adults, two female adults and one child.
The 6-year-old girl was shot and killed at the scene and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, Benedict said.
The five adults were being treated at area hospitals Friday night with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooters are unknown, and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying them.
“We’re asking for the public’s assistance to bring these shooters to justice,” Benedict said.

Here’s a clue: I don’t think Trump supporters did it.




 

Category: Crime

‘Build a Path to Citizenship’

Posted on | July 17, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Build a Path to Citizenship’

Quietly, proceeding by stealthy cat-like steps, the open-borders lobby has decided that permanent legal status for illegal aliens is something that Congress must cram into the “reconciliation” legislation:

Sen. Alex Padilla, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, said Tuesday it was his “understanding and expectation” that a pathway to permanent status for undocumented immigrants would be included in Democrats’ budget reconciliation package.
“I do think it could be a matter of just a couple of months, if all the necessary steps are taken,” the California Democrat said regarding a timeline to green light relief for millions of undocumented immigrants, including those brought to the U.S. as children.
“And thus far, my understanding and expectation is that immigration is included in that reconciliation package,” he said in a call with reporters and advocates. “It seems pretty optimistic and ambitious, and it is, but it’s also very realistic. We just need a few important things to fall in place.”
Padilla also said he believes the White House supports efforts to establish a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants through reconciliation.
“Are they aware of my interest and my request? Absolutely. And I haven’t been told no,” he said. “I believe the White House is supportive of both an ambitious infrastructure package, and as substantive immigration reform as you can achieve in any way possible.”
Advocates have called on Democrats to include immigration provisions in a budget reconciliation package, which would include trillions of dollars for party priorities such as child care and climate change, in acknowledgment that a standalone immigration bill would be unlikely to garner the Republican votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

In other words, because amnesty for illegal aliens cannot be passed as stand-alone legislation — with both sides having a chance to debate and vote on it directly — they’re going to ram it through by the dishonest process of “reconciliation,” cramming it into a multi-trillion-dollar budget deal that everybody can be made to feel obligated to vote for.

By the way, nobody ever elected Alex Padilla to the Senate. He was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the seat vacated when Kamala Harris became vice president. So an unelected Senator is advocating the use of anti-democratic processes to give amnesty to illegal aliens.

And all of this was planned in advance — not kidding, not a conspiracy theory. Since at least May, the open-borders lobby has been running advertisements with titles like, “Build a path to citizenship for immigrant essential workers so recovery includes everyone!”

Whatever it is, this is certainly no accident. Look at how many results you get if you Google the phrase “build a path to citizenship.”

As my brother Kirby pointed out this morning, however, there already is “a path to citizenship” for immigrants, a path that begins by following U.S. law, applying for a visa, and coming here legally. But this is not what the open-borders lobby wants. What they want to do is to reward millions of law-breaking foreigners who have no legal right to be in this country at all, and who therefore should be deported. The same people who claim that “Our Democracy” is threatened by people suspicious of election fraud are not willing to go through the normal democratic process of passing legislation — committee hearings, a debate directly on the issue, ending in an up-or-down roll-call vote — on a matter of great importance to the future of our country. Why is this so?

To understand what is wrong with America’s immigration system, the best place to start is by reading Peter Brimelow’s 1995 book, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster, which points to the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, as the root of our current problem. Ted Kennedy was the leading advocate for passage of this measure in the Senate, at a time when Democrats had a 66-seat filibuster-proof Senate majority.

Buried in the details of that legislation were “family reunification” measures which were supported by many Democrats of immigrant ancestry — Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish, etc. — who seemed to believe that these provisions would mainly be used by their constituents to bring over Uncle Guido or Cousin Greta from the Old Country. What happened instead, of course, was that “family reunification” became the machinery of what is called “chain migration” — just get one member of your family into the country, and then everybody can come. And then there was the matter of “refugee” status which has been used, for example, to give Salvadorans preference over Mexicans, and to give Somalis preference over Cubans. Every effort to “reform” the 1965 immigration law has been hijacked by liberals (and/or Big Business interests who see immigrants as a source of cheap labor) and the fundamental flaws of the legislation have never been fixed, mainly because the open-borders lobby has a habit of screaming “RAAAAACIST!” at anyone who raises the subject of whether the American people actually want the kind of wholesale demographic transition that our broken immigration system is producing.




 

Category: Immigration

In The Mailbox: 07.16.21

Posted on | July 16, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.16.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

How I feel after reading the news since last November

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Bring A Knife To A Gunfight
Red Pilled Jew: Collection Of COVID Info
EBL: The Battle of Stony Point NY
Twitchy: “People Have No Clue Who You Are, Grow UP”, also, Juanita Broaddrick Uses Left’s Favorite Anti-Trump Talking Point To Drop Gen. Milley
Louder With Crowder: NAACP Leader Viciously Attacks Anti-CRT Parents While Crowd Cheers Her On
Vox Popoli: Asians Are “Invasive”, also, The Vicar Of Antichrist
According To Hoyt: Nobody Knows The Trouble, also, Monsters Of The Id
Monster Hunter Nation: Plushy Wendell Update, also, Fun With The Oversight Board
Jon Del Arroz: Embattled 2021 Worldcon Goes Full Tilt SJW Train Wreck

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Critical Race Theory Is Not The Problem
American Greatness: Rep. Nunes Still Expects Durham To Deliver Damaging Report, also, Arizona Audit Finds Massive Irregularities 
American Power: Many Jobs Lost During The Pandemic Are Gone For Good
American Thinker: Forget About Booting Biden, also, Barr’s Mistaken Choice
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Hunter’s Laptop Friday
Babalu Blog: Unarmed Protesters Defend Themselves Against Police Gunfire With Rocks
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For July 16
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Engineers Report Hubble Fix Appears Successful
Cafe Hayek: Who Said COVID Derangement Syndrome Isn’t Real?
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Five Chosen Thoughts Under The Fedora, also, Critical Race Theory+Teachers Unions=Bad Trouble For Our Republic
Don Surber: Where Are The Never Obama Democrats? also, Inflation Heads To Double Digits – Democrats Smile
First Street Journal: It’s Being Set Up Again! also, Overreact Much?
The Geller Report: AZ State Senator Demands Recall Of Electors, New Election, also, FBI Director, Agents, & Bureau To Be Sued For Gestapo Tactics In January 6 Crackdown
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Before & After, also, A Revolution Walks Into A Bar
Hollywood In Toto: The Streaming Wars Are About To Get Interesting
The Lid: JCS Chairman Milley Disgraced His Uniform
Legal Insurrection: U. Alabama Huntsville Sued For Violating Free Speech Law, also, Providence Teachers Union Confirms They’re A Bunch of Commie Racist Finks
Nebraska Energy Observer: The Friday Report
Outkick: Apparently The Science Changed In Canada – Blue Jays Can Come Home, also, Reviews Say LeBron James’ Space Jam Sucks
Power Line: Shapes Of Things – Ministry Of Truth Edition, also, The Perils Of Corporate Virtue Signaling
Shark Tank: Democrats Fighting Each Other Over Cuba
Shot In The Dark: Unexpectedly, also, So Let Me Get This, Er, Straight
The Political Hat: Toward A Critical Race Theory Of Education, also, Firing Line Friday – Shockley’s Thesis
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, also, First Female Sailor Completes Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman Training
Transterrestrial Musings: 52nd Anniversary, also, What Does Branson’s Flight Mean?
Victory Girls: Shock! Occasional Cortex Doesn’t Understand The Cuba Embargo
Volokh Conspiracy: District Court Declares DACA Unlawful
Weasel Zippers: Boston Pride Dissolves After 50 Years Because #BLM Whined It Was Too White, also, Chicago Gangs Reportedly Outnumber Police 10:1
The Federalist: GA SecState Explains Why He’s Just Now Discovering More Than 10,000 Illegal Votes From 2020, also, It’s Not Okay For Journalists To Parade Lies As Fact While Shutting Down Debate
Mark Steyn: Silence & Submission, also, We Have Met The Enemy Part XII

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Linkagery

Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update

Posted on | July 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update

Say hello to Abdul Kareem Robinson, Jr., who is now in police custody, but who nearly died in 2015, when he was targeted in a shooting the Grand Park neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. News accounts noted that Robinson is “one of the sons of Abdul Karim Robinson, 44, who was among the city’s most notorious drug dealers in the 1990s”:

Police linked the elder Robinson to at least three deaths, but he was never charged in two and the charges were dropped in the third. . . .
Robinson, released from prison in 2009, also is the father of Malik Abdul Khalid Robinson, 18, who was arrested this month [May 2015] and charged with the March shooting of a 16-year-old in Jacksonville Beach. That Robinson spent weeks using social media to dare police to catch him.

Crime is the family business for the Robinsons of Jacksonville, who have been at the center of an ongoing gang war between their crew, known as ATK (“Ace’s Top Killers”) led by rapper Kenyatta “Yungeen Ace” Bullard and the rival gang KTA (“Kill Them All”) led by rapper Charles “Foolio” Jones. This gang war has been going on for four years and is the subject of international attention, with the various members of these Jacksonville rap crews releasing “diss tracks” bragging about who they murdered and disparaging dead members of the rival crews. The war reportedly started in May 2017 with the killing of 19-year-old Zion Brown, cousin of “Foolio.” In June 2018, KTA struck back in a shooting that killed three people — Trevon Bullard, 18 — the brother of “Yungeen Ace” — and their two friends, Royale D’Von Smith Jr., 18; and Jercoby Da’Shad Groover, 19. “Yungeen Ace” was shot eight times in that incident, but survived.

There have been numerous other shootings as part of this war, and “Yungeen Ace” survived again in March 2019 when three men from Jacksonville shot up a Hampton Inn in Waycross, Georgia, killing one of Ace’s associates and wounding another. So, this brings us back to the recent arrest of Abdul Robinson Jr.:

A sixth suspect sought in the early 2020 shooting death of 23-year-old Charles Quentin McCormick in a Jacksonville shopping center has been tracked down to Atlanta, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Abdul Kareem Robinson Jr., 26, will be extradited back to Jacksonville where six others already await trial in the attack in the Dames Pointe Plaza at 7001 Merrill Road, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
While Robinson’s arrest completes the search for suspects in the death of McCormick, aka rapper Lil Buck, it is part of a larger inter-gang fight also waged via rap music videos, according to court records.
Some suspects also face murder charges in the Feb. 25, 2019, shooting death of 16-year-old rapper Adrian Gainer, aka Bibby, in the Hilltop Village Apartments, court records said.

(This is a complicated story, but it helps to remember the two different victims — “Lil Buck” McCormick and “Bibby” Gainer.)

McCormick was gunned down about 11 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2020, witnessed by an off-duty officer who said the gunman stood over the victim and shot him with a rifle before getting into a Nissan Altima, the warrant said. The officer chased the car until it crashed on nearby Townsend Boulevard, and three people inside ran away.
Two of the men ran into a house where the homeowner tried to flee. But the men grabbed her by the neck, shoved her on a sofa and held her hostage before calling someone to get them, the warrant said. The intruders dressed in clothing found in her husband’s closet, then someone drove up and fled with the pair.
The ensuing police investigation saw 22-year-old Hakeem Armani Robinson arrested on Sept. 10 and charged with second-degree murder, police said. Hakeem Robinson’s 50-year-old father, Abdul Karim Robinson, also was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Robinson Jr. is Hakeem Robinson’s brother, and a member of the ATK, or Ace’s Top Killers gang.

(So, Robinson Sr. was arrested with two of his sons, Abdul and Hakeem, and keep in mind that a third Robinson, Malik, was already jailed for a 2015 shooting. The family business, you see.)

Arrests continued with Dominique Jerrod Barner, 27, charged on March 19, 2020, with second-degree murder and aggravated fleeing an officer. Police also charged 23-year-old Janera Jaranee Smith with accessory after the fact, jail records show.
Investigators had found a rifle left in the Nissan along with a handgun when they searched the car, the warrant said. A fingerprint on the handgun was found to be Hakeem Robinson’s, while a hair found on a T-shirt nearby was also identified as his after a lab test.
Further investigation revealed photos of guns on Hakeem Robinson’s Instagram account, plus a music video by McCormick with the caption “Byeeee byeeee” and emojis of waving hands, the warrant said. Another video, also posted after McCormick’s death, showed Hakeem Robinson getting a pedicure as a caption read “Kill a n—– then go get my toes done.”
Barner told detectives he was driving the Nissan with Hakeem Robinson and Leroy G. Whitaker as they searched for McCormick “with the specific intent of killing him,” the warrant said. Barner said the reason for wanting McCormick dead was that he had made a song that “talked despairingly” about Hakeem Robinson’s dead brother, Willie Addison Jr.

(Willie Addison was a known gangster.)

Addison, a rapper known as Boss Goon, was shot on Jan. 16, 2019, after he performed at a late-night rap music event at the Paradise Gentlemen’s Club at 8669 Baymeadows Road. Police said Addison and others left the club and were on Emerson Street when the shooting took place near Spring Park Road. Someone fired from another vehicle that pulled alongside their Chevrolet Tahoe, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Addison’s father, Abdul Robinson, was among those shot but not killed inside, according to news partner First Coast News. The Sheriff’s Office said that shooting “was a targeted act of violence against the occupants of the Tahoe.”
Just over a month after Addison’s death, 16-year-old Adrian Dennard Gainer Jr., a rapper known as Bibby, was shot dead in the Hilltop Village Apartments. Hakeem Robinson was also charged on March 10 with second-degree murder in that case, court records show.

(Are you following the logic of this feud? The Robinsons, part of ATK crew, blamed the KTA gang for the shooting that killed Willie “Boss Goon” Addison, and struck back against “Bibby” Gainer, a young KTA protégé of “Foolio” Jones. The mayhem continues . . .)

The arrest warrant said Gainer and another man were in a gazebo at the complex at 1646 W. 45th St. at about 3 p.m. Surveillance video spotted a gray or silver Nissan Altima drive into the complex. A witness saw Hakeem Robinson and another man identified later as Whitaker get out with semi-automatic rifles and begin shooting, the warrant said.
Gainer and the other man heard gunfire, split up and tried to flee. A witness said he saw Gainer fall to the ground as he was shot, trying to protect himself, the warrant said.
“Robinson ran up to Bibby and shot him at close range in the back of the head or neck as Bibby continued trying to shield himself,” the warrant said.
Investigators found 45 shell casings at the crime scene. And Hakeem Robinson posted several photographs and videos “bragging about the murder of ‘Bibby,'” the warrant said. . . .
Whitaker was arrested on April 15, 2020, on charges of home-invasion robbery and armed burglary at the home off Townsend Boulevard after McCormick was killed, court records show. A second-degree murder count was later added.
Meanwhile, Robinson Jr. remained at large. Then on June 24 the U.S. Marshals Service offered a $5,000 reward for information that led to his arrest. It said he was wanted by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office “for an ambush-style homicide,” according to its reward notice. . . .
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office records show he was arrested Friday in the Atlanta area on a warrant for fugitive from justice on a murder charge, awaiting extradition back to Jacksonville.

So six suspects are now in custody for these two murders, committed by Youngeen Ace’s ATK crew against members of Foolio’s KTA crew. Excuse me if I’ve lost count of all the shootings and arrests connected to this Jacksonville rap-gang war. You get the idea that there might not be any black people left alive in Jacksonville if it keeps going and guess what? It ain’t over yet. In March, Youngeen Ace’s crew released a diss track called “Who I Smoke” that’s gotten nearly 30 million views on YouTube. Foolio responded in April with a diss track called “When I See You” that begins with audio of news coverage of the 2018 shooting that put eight bullets in Youngeen Ace and killed his brother and two friends.

As for Youngeen Ace himself, he’s reportedly hiding out in Houston, and police won’t even let him perform in Jacksonville, but he knows he’s a target and somewhere there’s a bullet with his name on it, because Foolio’s KTA must avenge the murder of Bibby and Lil Buck. Just sending six people to jail won’t be enough. Youngeen Ace is a dead man walking.

PREVIOUSLY:




 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, Crime, Florida

Another Aspiring Rapper Update

Posted on | July 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Another Aspiring Rapper Update

Say hello to Zerail Dijon Rivera, a/k/a “Indian Red Boy.” You can also say good-bye to him while you’re at it, because the screenshot above depicts the moment when Indian Red Boy, who was doing an Instagram Live chat with a fellow rapper, looked up to see the gunman who killed him:

A young Los Angeles rapper was shot to death last week while livestreaming with a friend on Instagram, and his final tragic moments have shocked the internet.
Indian Red Boy, whose legal name is Zerail Rivera, was killed on Thursday [July 8] as he sat in his car in Hawthorne, the Hawthorne police said in a press release on Saturday. His identity was confirmed by the LA County coroner.
Police stated that “officers located a 21-year-old male slumped in the front seat of a vehicle” after he had suffered “multiple gunshot wounds.”
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Indian Red Boy was laughing and smiling while chatting with a friend when he was ambushed with gunfire. The video captures how quickly a happy moment turned deadly. He turns to his side with a look of shock. Gunshots can be heard as the car fills up with smoke. Blood then runs from the rapper’s head and nose as he tries to mouth “help” to his friend. He is clearly gasping for air and scared in his final moments.
“It appears to have been a walk-up shooting, and he appears to have been targeted,” Lt. Ti Goetz of the Hawthorne Police Department said, adding that Rivera “appears to be a gang member.”

“Appears to be a gang member”? Indian Red Boy and the friend he was talking to on IG Live, known by the nickname “Kapone,” were affiliated with a gang of Bloods from Inglewood. The rumored motive for Indian Red Boy’s assassination was that he had “dissed” the late rapper known as “Nipsey Hussle” (Ermias Joseph Asghedom) who was a member of the rival Crips gang, murdered in 2019 by a fellow Crip. Allegedly, Indian Boy Red and Kapone had defaced a mural tribute to Nipsey Hussle, although it has elsewhere been claimed that Indian Red Boy was “set up” by an angry ex-girlfriend. Of course, this isn’t an “either/or” choice — it may be that Indian Red Boy’s ex-girlfriend set him up for assassination by ratting him out to the Crips. Whatever the motive, crimes like this call into question the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement because where are they when black people are killing each other?

Nothing BLM does is aimed at reducing the deadly violence that takes so many lives in the black community, indeed quite the opposite. BLM is against the cops, and therefore objectively pro-criminal. You don’t reduce violent crime by promoting an anti-law-enforcement agenda, and this bloody mayhem certainly does nothing to reduce racism.

This will not be the last “Aspiring Rapper Update” today. There is a very long list of such stories to choose from recently.




 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, California, Crime

Aspiring Rapper Update

Posted on | July 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Aspiring Rapper Update

Say hello to Jacquavius Dennard Smith, a/k/a “9lokkNine,” whose stage name is pronounced “Glock 9,” like the pistol, see? Regular readers may have noticed that “aspiring rapper” is a dangerous gig:

The Death of ‘Quono’
— Sept. 13, 2020

Rapper Killed by ‘Systemic Racism’ and
Semiautomatic Pistol Fire, But Mainly …
— Nov. 6, 2020

Dallas Rapper ‘Mo3’ Dies of Structural
Oppression and Gunfire, But Mainly …
— Nov. 11, 2020

Timothy ‘Lil Tim’ Leeks, 22, Charged
With Murdering Rapper King Von in Atlanta
— Nov. 11, 2020

64 Shots: Londre ‘KTS Dre’ Sylvester
Gunned Down Outside Chicago Jail
— July 12, 2021

There would appear to be a significant overlap between the rap entertainment industry and the criminal community, and while perhaps not every “aspiring rapper” is also a gang-banger, that’s the smart way to bet. Certainly 9lokkNine is an excellent role model for young thugs:

9lokkNine released his first mixtape, Kold Face Kold Case with nine tracks on January 2, 2018. He released his second mixtape, Bloodshells Revenge with 18 tracks on April 17, 2018. On May 8, 2018, 9lokkNine released a music video for his single “I Don’t Need No Help”. On July 23, 2018, he released his 17-track mixtape, Loyalty Kill Love. On August 3, 2018, he signed to Cash Money Records and Republic Records. According to a press release, the contract was worth $2 million.

TWO MILLION DOLLARS? You might expect that getting a $2 million recording contract at age 18 would be enough to induce even the most hardened outlaw to go legit. Alas, thug life is habit-forming, and 9lokkNine already had an extensive criminal record:

In September 2015, 9lokkNine, 15-years-old at the time, was arrested in connection to a shooting that left a 17-year-old hospitalized. Smith was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and unlawful discharge of a firearm and also had a violation of probation for trespassing. . . .
On October 3, 2018, 9lokkNine was arrested on multiple charges, including possession of a concealed weapon by a convicted delinquent, grand theft in the third degree, and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.

Dope, guns, grand theft, attempted murder — these are reputation-enhancers for any aspiring rapper, and 9lokkNine was quite popular. His May 2020 video, “Why You LYING” got 20 million views on YouTube, where he had more than 350,000 subscribers to his channel.

You might think that such success would suffice to turn this young man away from criminality, but if so, you would be wrong:

Already facing racketeering and attempted murder charges in state court, Orlando rapper Jacquavius ‘9lokkNine’ Smith pleaded guilty to identity theft and weapons charges on Tuesday, records show.
Smith, 21, fraudulently applied for and received $10,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program funds meant to help struggling businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, his plea agreement said.
He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm, aggravated identity theft and felon in possession of a firearm.
According to records, Smith was in possession of a sawed-off semi-automatic rifle which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. The rifle was stolen during a burglary in 2019, the plea agreement said. It was found in the garage of Smith’s grandparents’ home when the Orlando Police Department served a search warrant, the document said. Smith’s thumbprint was on the rifle magazine and his DNA was on the grip area, records said.
Because the barrel of the rifle was about nine inches instead of 16, it had to be registered, according to the plea agreement.
In the aggravated identity theft charge, Smith used the name, social security number and address belonging to a person identified in the plea agreement as “S.S.” to apply for the PPP loan and open a bank account in March, records said. A deposit arrived in the account for more than $10,000 on April 16, records said.
Smith shared an Instagram message to friends showing the loan application which was intercepted by a wiretap obtained by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the agreement said.
Smith also was caught with a weapon during an OCSO raid last month at a home on Hazenridge Way, south of Curry Ford and Dean roads. Smith was found in a bedroom where there was a duffle bag with a loaded firearm and several rounds inside. He also had 13 “auto sears” which allow semiautomatic firearms to become automatic, records said.
Smith, who has a felony record dating back to when he was 16, is prohibited from having firearms.
A judge is scheduled to sentence Smith on Oct. 6.
Authorities earlier this month announced racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) charges and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges against Smith and more than 20 other people in connection with an ongoing gang feud that has resulted in multiple shootings and homicides.
At the heart of the battle is rivalry between Smith, a key figure in the All Friends No Family gang, and fellow rapper Javarri “Hotboii” Walker, of the 438 gang, officials have said. Walker also is facing racketeering charges and was arrested Monday, jail records show.

Gosh, I wonder what’s causing the “mass incarceration” problem?




 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, Crime, Florida
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