The Bitemaster reveals Trump’s future

As everyone knows, the Bitemaster rarely engages in prognostication but, just this once, he’s going to reveal what Special Counsel Robert Mueller has in store for Donald Trump:

A RICO indictment.

At least in the Eighth Circuit*, a proper RICO claim must allege the following four elements:

  1. conduct
  2. of an enterprise
  3. through a pattern
  4. of racketeering activity.

How does Trump qualify under RICO?

  1. conduct — this requirement is met when the defendants carry out the directions of the enterprise, or direct the enterprise themselves.
  2. of an enterprise — I’m less sure about this one, but the Trump Organization might qualify
  3. through a pattern — Oh, Lordy, is there a pattern!
  4. of racketeering activity — many different crimes qualify for this, such as obstruction of justice.

Q.E.D.

* Different circuits have slightly different rules on this, but the Eighth Circuit was the easiest to find in a quick Web search.

NRA is now the voice of the Alt-Right culture warriors

The NRA may be quiet in public in the days following the latest mass school shooting—but its online TV outlet has not missed a beat.

Over the past two days, NRA TV has gone after both law enforcement for bungling the shooting and media outlets for calling for more expansive gun laws. Host Dan Bongino accused the New York Daily News of being both “pure filth” and “not worthy of collecting dog excrement”—aka actual filth. Host Dana Loesch called for protesters to march “to the FBI offices” for its failure to act on the numerous reports it received that the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was dangerous and potentially unstable. Grant Stinchfield, another NRA TV host, added his thoughts on the Fourth Estate on Monday, suggesting reporters were eager for another shooting to push a gun control agenda.

Source: NRA Usually Shuts Up After Mass Shootings. Not This Time.

More fun on the privacy front : Fitbit!

A nosy boss snooping on your off-the-clock peccadilloes may be the least of your worries. Fitness trackers can upload a nearly complete record of where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to …

If you want some privacy in the modern world, join us here in the Transbaikal away from civilization and off the grid. We’ll leave the light on for ya.

Source: Do fitness trackers pose a privacy risk?

How am I doing? — de Blasio edition

The Bitemaster winters in the breathtakingly beautiful Transbaikal where it’s so cold that the politicians keep their hands in the own pockets, where we have to light a fire to thaw out our words just to know what we’re saying, where we measure the ambient temperature in degrees Rankine because it feels warmer (today, it’s 450 degrees Rankine outside).

Though we’re a bit isolated, we do manage to keep up with the news from North America on our short wave radio, thanks to late-night “skip” propagation.

One figure who’s been in the news a lot lately is New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. He’s now in his second term. and here’s how we think he’s been doing:

  • Affordable Housing — this was always a scam. It wasn’t going to happen and it will never happen, unless we repeal the fundamental laws of economics. And de Blasio is smart enough to know he was lying when he made his campaign promises.
  • New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) — NYCHA houses 400,000 people in 300 developments. The housing stock is aging, and the money from the state and federal governments is drying up. It’s not going to get any better in the near future no matter what de Blasio does.
  • Rikers Island — the Rikers Island jail has an average population of 10,000 inmates. Current plans call for the jail to be closed and the inmates to be housed “in the community.” The idea of closing Rikers is a complete scam. Nobody wants a bunch of prisoners moved from an isolated island to their block. Even if it were to happen, what will they do with the island? It will probably go to Trump for $1.
  • Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) — If ACS takes too many children away from their parents, there’s a hue-and-cry in the media. If they let too many die at home with their parents, there’s also a hue-and-cry. It’s a perpetual “can’t win” and it doesn’t matter how much money you spend, either.
  • Education — every administration claims to have “fixed” the city’s education system but none has succeeded. The problem is not money — the city spends plenty. The problem is that the city has no coherent education policy. Biteme has attempted to fill the void here and elsewhere on this blog.
  • Police — the citizens want to be safe on the streets but don’t want to be harassed (or worse) by the police. It’s a difficult balancing act and I’m not sure any other city has done better.

So how does de Blasio’s report card look? We grade on a pass-fail system and give him a “pass.”

D.A. (“Dumb Ass”) Cyrus Vance bows to the mighty Biteme.ME

Following a blistering series of blog posts here at Biteme.ME, New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., has capitulated and agreed to stop taking campaign contributions from attorneys who have cases before him.

When reached for comment, Jerome Biteman, Executive Editor at Biteme Worldwide Media Holdings, said, “It’s about fucking time.”

See the ABA Journal article.

Deep thoughts from the Bitemaster

The tsunami of sexual assault allegations and swift punishments that have followed the October, 2017, revelations about Harvey Weinstein seem to me like a moral panic. See also tulip mania, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and McMartin preschool trial. Also, anyone who didn’t agree with the prevailing view was immediately attacked (see Mayim Bialik, Lindsay Lohan, Donna Karan).

I read a bit of the Paul Manafort indictment. The indictment includes: not registering as a foreign agent and money laundering. While the indictment doesn’t charge Manafort with tax fraud, it does say, “In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income.”  So will Manafort do some serious time in a federal prison? It’s hard to say. Right after Manafort pleaded not guilty, his attorney, Kevin Downing, said there’s no evidence of collusion between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and the Russian government. To me. that sounds like Manafort signaling the White House that he’ll keep quiet if the President will grant him a pardon. I see only two problems: 1) Trump is a liar, so Manafort better get his pardon up front; and 2) Manafort will also need a wad of state pardons.

“We’re cops: we know donuts”

I don’t know where the quote at the top of this post comes from, but I do know that the police in Orlando FL don’t know Krispy Kreme doughnut glaze from methamphetamine.

The City of Orlando paid $37,500 to a man to settle a lawsuit after police officers arrested him for what they thought was meth but actually was glaze from a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins pulled Daniel Rushing over after seeing him fail to come to a full stop when pulling out of a 7-Eleven store. She then used one of those “presumptive” field-test kits to determine that the flakes on the floor of Rushing’s car were meth, and took him to jail.

Fortunately, Rushing was able to post bail, and eventually the Florida Department of Law Enforcement did a more thorough test and determined that the substance in his car was sugar from a doughnut.

The scary part is that many people plead guilty based solely on the field test, and the substances are never re-tested by a crime lab. Yikes!

Source: Man arrested after cops mistook doughnut glaze for meth gets $37,500 from Orlando – Orlando Sentinel

Further reading on drug analysis: http://www.ncids.com/forensic/drugs/drugs.shtml

D.A. (“Dumb Ass”) Cyrus Vance Didn’t Prosecute Harvey Weinstein

In justifying his decision to let the movie mogul walk, the New York DA conflated two sex statutes.

According to media reports, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had the goods on sleazy Harvey Weinstein (NOT Harvey Fierstein) since 2015, but chose not to prosecute.

We know that a $10,000 campaign donation from a Weinstein lawyer didn’t influence Vance because

  1. Vance told us so, and
  2. Vance is immune to such blandishments, like the time he received $25,000 from a Trump lawyer before dropping an investigation into Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr.

Be sure to read the Daily Beast article: Is This the Real Reason Cy Vance Didn’t Prosecute Harvey Weinstein?

And then peruse the Bitemaster’s previous posts on Cy Vance.