The latest on the Paul Pelosi attack
You can find the federal criminal complaint here (narration of facts are on pages 4-7), and a brief summary here.
The first federal charge: “18 U.S. Code § 115 – Influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a Federal official by threatening or injuring a family member.”
The second federal charge under Title 18 U.S.C. § 1201(d): “attempting to seize or kidnap a United States official, to wit, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.” The latter charge was based on Depape’s verbal statements to both Paul Pelosi and to investigators, as well as equipment he carried with him.
My observations:
(1) This is such a strange incident, there have been so many conflicting facts released and published, the FBI and DOJ have lost so much trust, and the entire thing has been so utterly politicized, that conspiracy theories about what really happened will probably be floating forever.
(2) That said, I think that Depape was an intruder unknown to Paul Pelosi, dressed in regular clothing and not underwear (at least, when he entered the home), and is also a bona fide crazy person as well as a Canadian who overstayed his visa by 20 years. His politics are probably a jumbled and delusional mess that could roughly be described as some form of anarchism with both right and left elements, but his politics are the least of it although the left will try to make the most of it.
(3) There remains the glaring lack of any mention of a security system, turned on or off, good or bad, malfunctioning or nonexistent. The home is in San Francisco. The Pelosis are mega-wealthy, mega-famous, and of sufficient notoriety to have received all sorts of death and/or assault threats. It would be foolhardy – and that’s a kindly way to put it – to not have some sort of very good system or even guards on hand, which they can easily afford. It matters not that Nancy Pelosi herself wasn’t home – although almost certainly there would have been better security had she been there. The Pelosi’s extraordinary wealth alone would ordinarily have sufficed to dictate some sort of system.
This is the sort of wealth I’m talking about:
The nonpartisan OpenSecrets estimated in 2009 that Pelosi’s average net worth was approximately $58 million, ranking her 13th among 25 wealthiest members of Congress. In 2014, OpenSecrets reported Pelosi’s average net worth almost doubled to approximately $101 million, ranking her 8th out of the 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Business Insider reported that Pelosi’s worth was $26.4 million in 2012 and made her the 13th richest member of Congress. In 2014, Roll Call estimated that Pelosi’s net worth was $29.35 million, ranking her the 15th wealthiest member of Congress.
Roll Call said Pelosi’s earnings are connected to her husband’s heavy investments in stocks that include Apple, Disney, Comcast and Facebook. Roll Call reported that the couple have $13.46 million in liabilities including mortgages on seven properties. According to Roll Call, Pelosi and her husband hold properties “worth at least $14.65 million, including a St. Helena vineyard in Napa Valley worth at least $5 million and commercial real estate in San Francisco”.
As of 2021, Pelosi’s net worth was valued at $120 million, making her the 6th richest person in Congress.
It wasn’t that long ago that some other nutter took a dump on the Pelosi driveway. I think the home security question is deliberately being avoided because it would force something about their private lives into the open. (Like VP Biden swimming nekkid) And the left’s mouthpieces in the media know to stay away from topics like that.
That we now have 2 wacky Paul Pelosi stories in the headlines in just a couple of months seems to me to indicate all is not at peace with the D leadership structure and maybe someone is sending Nancy a message.
Wait what? BLM, Druggie in a hippie commune showing support for LGBTQXYZ+-=
Ummm, where is the evidence to support left/right equivalence?
Note — I don’t care about what did or didn’t happen in the house.
There’s only one issue that matters — the Democrats immediately smeared Republicans without any evidence to support the slander. They doubled and tripled down on the vile smears even after enough evidence was available to know they were lying viciously.
That’s it. That’s what really should concern all of us. A wacko took a whack at Pelosi’s hubs. It had nothing to do with the GOP. Nada, zilch, nothing, zero.
The nasty, ugly viciousness needs to stop. Rub their damn noses in their s***. Hit back twice as hard. Make them pay.
stan:
Do you know what an anarchist is? It has nothing to do with the GOP, or with some sort of “equivalence.” Anarchists come in two basic types: anarchists of the left and anarchists of the right (leftist anarchists are somewhat more common though). This guy – from his writings and statements, which have been reported on in many venues – seems to have had elements of both, but was mostly crazy. One of the things he’s quoted as having said or written about is some sort of belief in QAnon stuff.
I think I made those points about left and right anarchism quite clear when I wrote “His politics are probably a jumbled and delusional mess that could roughly be described as some form of anarchism with both right and left elements.”
Take a look here.
A line in one of the reports on this story—sorry, can’t find it again—also said that Pelosi was refusing to give police footage from the surveillance cameras inside the house.
Now, if true, why would that be, do you think?
1. The State of California will defer to the DOJ; Nancy being the Speaker and all.
The Defendant will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He will be found not competent to stand trial. There will be no trial. He’ll be in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Just like John Hinckley.
2. I take a certain satisfaction in knowing that the Pelosi family – like the Bidens and the Clintons – is one giant corrupt lie. And decent people know it. How these criminals every got put in charge is a giant black mark on the Republic.
Paul was already rich from real estate but he and his so-called wife got richer trading on inside information.
The Democrat Party is hardly any different that the Mafia. Both are criminal organizations that are ruled by omerta.
Snow on Pine:
I don’t think that’s the case. Although who knows? This is a very foggy incident so far.
But here’s what Politico says, for what it’s worth:
As Neo states, for me the real sticking point is the security system. All the details about the perp’s dress etc is somewhat irrelevant. Why wasn’t the system turned on? If it was, what did it show? Why won’t the Pelosi’s and the law enforcement release any existing video? Until such questions are answered this thing sinks to high heaven.
Another just written take on the “security”:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11377303/Nancy-Pelosis-former-neighbor-questions-home-invasion-triggered-no-warning.html
Read comment somewhere papers served at a few places for the Pelosi and finally at the San Francisco estate was well secured and maned. As said those people have 0 credibility left. So still thinking David was let in, there has to be video surveillance tape of the episode and none of it will ever get out.
They will make up the story and you will get nothing else.
>He’ll be in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Just like John Hinckley.
Hinckley was released about seven weeks ago.
(cont.) https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/John+Hinckley+Jr.
The last house I lived in had a security system. It was always “on” as long as there was power, or the battery backup was good (about a week as it turned out). Every sensor (door, window, motion, I had no glass break audio sensor, but it was an available option) would signal every trip. There was a panel in the master bedroom. Every zone trip flashed on the panel armed or not. You could also enable an audio chirp. It had preprogramed one button arming for things like arm the perimeter while leaving inside motion and master bedroom balcony disarmed. On one occasion a sensor failed while we were on vacation. The alarm monitoring company with my permission, disabled that one sensor remotely.
Just like John Hinckley.
Hinckley was acquitted at trial.
Read comment somewhere papers served at a few places for the Pelosi and finally at the San Francisco estate was well secured and maned.
Nancy’s out of town and none of the precis of statements taken have mentioned any security staff on the property. Suggests that’s because the security staff are only there intermittently.
Why wasn’t the system turned on?
Possiblities:
1. He forgot
2. He had too much to drink and nodded off reading.
3. He’s set off so many false alarms over the years that he’s decided not to use it.
One interesting story. His brother was killed in an automobile accident in 1958. Paul Pelosi was the driver. They were in a convertible which flipped over because little brother took a curve at an excessive speed, having been warned by a police officer about that curve. His brother was wearing a neck brace consequent to a previous car accident. More than 60 years later, here he is at age 82 driving while intoxicated. He’s not a risk-averse guy. Nancy likely gave up pestering him on the subject decades ago.
I’m reminded of the New Year’s Day when Sen. Harry Reid was beaten black and blue by his exercise equipment.
I wasn’t satisfied with the explanation then. I don’t imagine I will be this time either.
Democrats experience the darnedest mishaps.
From the criminal complaint,
DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE.
Another individual who’s more important than Nancy?? I suppose we’re talking about “more important” in Depape’s deranged mind.
I wasn’t satisfied with the explanation then. I don’t imagine I will be this time either.
Did you have any evidence at the time above and beyond Harry Reid’s explanation?
SFPD also have their own video of their entry and engagement with those inside. So far we haven’t seen it.
Art Deco:
I’m not interested in interacting with you, nor hearing your pronouncements.
Of course, I can see where you’re going, and sure, I don’t know and I don’t claim to know exactly what happened.
But by my standards of commonsense — not yours — both stories smell funny and the people involved lie as well as they breathe.
“Did you have any evidence at the time above and beyond Harry Reid’s explanation?”
We must accept a liar’s explanation unless we have actual evidence?
“huxley on November 1, 2022 at 5:10 pm said:
Of course, I can see where you’re going, and sure, I don’t know and I don’t claim to know exactly what happened.”
Sometimes we have to resort to common sense, not “known facts”, “the science”, etc. In fact most of the time, certainly in human interactions, our common sense readings of others is paramount.
With respect to issues like covid policy, global warming, and many other areas, common sense works much better than what many think are established facts.
The big problem with this episode is that the information we’ve all received has been run through the Marxist spin cycle — i.e. the San Francisco Police Department. Each iteration is less and less true; each is more and more a protective cocoon for the San Francisco nomenklatura.
Luckily, I’ve been on the internet, digging up the facts. This all started with the SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) running a gay stripper business for the city’s wealthy old men, including Paul Pelosi. I’m sure you’ve all seen stripper shows with fake cops that rip off their clothes, which are held together with nothing more than velcro. Well, in SanFrancisco, this is sooooo passé. People like Pelosi need the real thing, with real uniforms and real handcuffs. And David DePape ran this whole business.
So, what about the 911 call? That’s all part of the show. It’s how the cops know where to go, so they can do their act. That’s why there was no security. Pelosi wanted the gay cop strippers to come right in. Unfortunately, DePape was so stoned that he thought the cops were real — I mean really real — and he became enraged. To escape, he used his hammer to break the window glass between the living room and the patio. When his efforts failed, he turned his hammer upon Pelosi.
The two gay stripper cops stood there stunned. One was in his underwear. The other grabbed DePape’s hammer and called for an ambulance. After the ambulance arrived, the EMTs noticed that one of the men was in his underwear. Of course, in San Francisco, that doesn’t begin to qualify as odd. But that bit did, unfortunately, slip into early police reports.
As I learn more, I’ll report back.
well stranger things have happened, I suppose, this felllow is certifiable, clearly his legend was manufactured, perhaps like that filipino kickboxer, that appeared around this time, four years ago, but more like the tucson shooter, who was used conveniently to
kill the tea party at its moment of triumph
we already he was an illegal overstay, does he have a criminal record, anything from simple possession to pandering to assault (the wife is in prison for abduction, so that’s a crazy notion
none of the local press, demanded any evidence of the crime be displayed, he was in communication with no one, phone or email in the previous 30 days, there was no evidence he was casing the property
Cornflour,
Does the SFPD run the gay, stripper business out of the basement of a pizza parlor?
Contradictory statements by the cops (where else did the media get the early reportage? Not from Pelosi or DePape who were the only ones who could know) and official nontransparency = information the public must not be allowed to know! Of course some if not most of the media reportage may well have been invented and if so, we can be certain that it served the narrative.
We must accept a liar’s explanation unless we have actual evidence?
I’m not saying you have to accept anything. The information on Reid is much thinner than the information on Pelosi and consisted of Reid’s say so. In the Pelosi case, if the three statements to police are not garbled and edited, it appears a cigar is just a cigar here. Some more information would be helpful. Speculation which you insist is ‘more plausible’ may serve to amuse you, but it gets you no closer to the truth. (The Grindr trick discourse is particularly silly).
Thanks for the well-researched report, Cornflour.
Awaiting your promised updates!
one neighbor said they saw a bag, one saw a backpack, which is it, did he know he was going to face minimal resistance, did he see her car in the parking lot, or failing that in the driveway, he walked at near dawn hours from berkeley did he have ticket stubbs, I doubt anyone gave him a ride, it begs credulity,
Cornflour that story is delicious; and I am trying to decide whether or not you got if from the Babylon Bee.
I am prepared to believe anything about anyone who goes near SF; but some things are just too good to be true without corroboration.
I regret to say that statements coming from SF police, the Justice Department, and Politico lack credibility. As Neo and Physicsguy indicate, the lack of footage from security systems, and the system evidently not sending an alarm of an intruder, are suspicious. We probably will never know what the situation really was.
The basic fact, that Paul Pelosi was assaulted with a hammer and that the assault caused serious injuries, is a fact and I hope he recovers.
I regret to say that statements coming from SF police, the Justice Department, and Politico lack credibility. As Neo and Physicsguy indicate, the lack of footage from security systems, and the system evidently not sending an alarm of an intruder, are suspicious. We probably will never know what the situation really was.
The system’s not going to send an alarm if he did not turn the system on.
Did you ever ask yourself what of % of violent crimes which make the police blotter does the police department make it a point to immediately release all the evidence a curious member of the public wishes to see? C’mon, this happened a few days ago.
Media and police blackouts create information vacuums that magnify speculation. Was there an “unknown minor” with Paul Pelosi during his recent DUI arrest? Was the incident at the Pelosi home a “Grindr hookup gone bad”? Sounds plausible.
So Grindr-hookup-gone-bad it is. Prove us wrong, please.
did he see her car in the parking lot, or failing that in the driveway,
The garage is at street level and abuts the sidewalk. You could park your car on the space in front of the garage door, but you’d be blocking the sidewalk and your rear end might just protrude into the street.
https://copblaster.com/uploads/images/nancy-pelosi-house.jpg
Was the incident at the Pelosi home a “Grindr hookup gone bad”? Sounds plausible.
About as plausible as the thesis that the Ukraine needed liberation from the Azov Regiment courtesy big daddy Putin.
I’m not interested in interacting with you, nor hearing your pronouncements.
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/senior-man-closing-ears-fingers-not-wanting-to-hear-something-i-don-not-want-to-hear-senior-man-curving-his-lips-138930064.jpg
The review [of the incident] will also include the Capitol Police’s command center, which was monitoring the security camera feed from Pelosi’s home, according to a person familiar.
Gerald Ford’s press secretary offered years ago “Nobody believes the official spokesman. Everyone trusts an anonymous source”.
What we’re seeing here is a prime example of what happens when the press is no longer adversarial to the government, but protective– at least for favored groups.
The press should be pressing authorities to release details about the incident and would be if this were a conservative household.
It highlights how the press is just the public relations department for the Democrat left.
Neo,
What did you make of this portion of your Wiki link on anarchism?
Anarchism has been historically identified with the socialist and anti-capitalist movement, with the main divide being between anti-market anarchists who support some form of decentralised economic planning and pro-market anarchists who support free-market socialism, therefore such terms are mainly used by anarcho-capitalism theorists and scholars who recognize anarcho-capitalism to differentiate between the two.[48][49][50] For similar reasons, anarchists also reject categorizations such as left[51] and right anarchism (anarcho-capitalism and national-anarchism),[52] seeing anarchism as a libertarian socialist and radical left-wing or far-left ideology.[19]
“Anarchists also reject …”? All anarchists? Most anarchists?
There are more disclaimers within that whole section as well.
Political wikipedia is usually a battle zone between competing editor factions. If the reader is lucky, he/she will get a hint that what someone is trying to sell just ain’t so. Individual anarchism and free-market anarchism sounds like made up nonsense intended to muddy the waters. Although nearly all anarchism types do seem to lay claim to some libertarian principles.
Check this out. I think it comports with most of the material I researched about 20 years ago before the obfuscators got busy. There were the anti-industrial movements like the Luddites that predates Marx, but the Proudhon, Blanqui, and Bakunin branch of anarcho-syndicalism is where the main power has been for 100 years or more. There are also subcategories within that.
Most security video systems are continuously recording. Especially one being remotely monitored.
TommyJay:
I was always intrigued by anarcho-syndicalism, which seems to have been anarchism with a strong labor movement piece:
____________________________
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in broader society. The end goal of syndicalism is to abolish the wage system, regarding it as wage slavery. Anarcho-syndicalist theory generally focuses on the labour movement.[2] Reflecting the anarchist philosophy from which it draws its primary inspiration, anarcho-syndicalism is centred on the idea that power corrupts and that any hierarchy that cannot be ethically justified must be dismantled.
–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism
____________________________
Chomsky once called himself an anarcho-syndicalist and a libertarian socialist. He was intrigued by anarchist collectives which emerged for a brief period during the Spanish Civil War — touched upon in your link.
There was a ton of old-timey leftist branches and sub-branches back then.
Heigh-ho.
I use a video security system to make the videos I linked to in the open thread. It has a lot of control over when and how it records. Features like start recording on motion detection of a vehicle or person and automatically track the target. I don’t use any of it since I am not using it for security.
Curiouser and curiouser: According to the SF DA, DePape was on a “suicide mission”: According to a motion obtained by The Post and filed by the DA to keep [DePape] in jail, he told [the cops who arrested him]: “I’m sick of the insane f—ing level of lies coming out of Washington, DC. I came here to have a little chat with his wife. I didn’t really want to hurt him but he knows this was a suicide mission. I’m not going to stand here and do nothing even if it costs me my life. Hurting him was not my goal, I told him before I attacked him that he’s escalating things.”
When cops asked what else he was planning, DePape, 42, told them he “cannot be stopped” and that “has other targets” including what the government document described as a local professor and several prominent state and federal politicians and their relatives.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/01/accused-paul-pelosi-attacker-david-depape-was-on-suicide-mission-targeting-other-top-politicians/
There are other details– taken from the SF DA’s narrative– at the link concerning the choreography of the pas de deux inside the house. I’ll leave it to other readers to figure out whether the DA’s account of the “bizarre interaction” makes sense– and whether anyone believes that DePape actually said what the cops reported that he said.
As for the perp, I wonder whether he was given a toxicology screen at the hospital to see whether he was drunk or high on some other drug at the time of the attack. Not that we’re ever likely to be told, of course. And while there’s a difference between being drunk/high and crazy, drug or alcohol intake can make crazy a lot worse.
The perimeter security cameras caught the action in real time, but nobody was watching the feeds.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/01/capitol-police-cameras-caught-break-in-pelosi-home-no-one-was-watching/
A Google street view of Pelosi’s Broadway home is blurred out – but there are three black Suburbans parked along the street there. The cross-street view where the garage entrance is, is not blurred out- and the array of security cameras on the residence perimeter walls is plainly evident.
My guess is that the US security (Capitol Police) were not the only ones with responsibility for live-access video stream monitoring. That kind of layered approach is the most common, and it’s unlikely that people like the principles here would (a) have no background-level constant security in force that they don’t have to pay attention to, and (b) would rely only on self-activated security systems, like the kind that normal people have, a keypad. Looks like a Swiss cheese type failure to me, JMHO.
“The basic fact, that Paul Pelosi was assaulted with a hammer and that the assault caused serious injuries, is a fact…”
Why is this a “fact?” Because the Democrats, the Democrat media, the SFPD, and the Federal Bureaucracy of Insurrection said so?
Not good enough for me.
For cryin’ out loud, the dude thought he was Jesus and was carrying a hammer.
Oh, wait…
Scandal-Ridden San Francisco FBI Field Office Involved in Pelosi Investigation
Given the highly partisan nature of the FBI, and the San Francisco field office in particular, there is no reason to believe FBI brass will do anything more than run cover for the Pelosis.
Shilling and running cover for Dems has become the top priority mission for the MSM, DOJ, and FBI.
Democrats are having a field day making baseless accusations that it’s all the Republicans’ fault that Pelosi got hurt.
I found this substack writer while tracking through some links on Neo’s Emily Oster “can’t we all be friends now” post.
The author is referring to an article at The New Republic which is so far out in left field it’s unbelievable — unless you never read anything except leftist media aka MSM.
https://davidgriffey.blogspot.com/2022/11/making-pathological-liar-seem-seem.html
The post he linked:
https://newrepublic.com/article/168391/political-violence-is-republicans-problem
“The Paul Pelosi attack was no aberration. Only one party counts violent insurrectionists as a constituency it dare not alienate.”
And it goes downhill from there.
The New Republic used to be respectable.
(So, for that matter, did The Atlantic Monthly….)
Sad…(deplorable?).
Ah well…in any event, there’s still time to sign up for TNR’s upcoming Cuba excursion…(discursion?)…where one can rub shoulders with the finest “minds” of their generation….
Just gonna leave this here —
https://notthebee.com/article/politico-just-accused-republicans-of-spreading-baseless-conspiracies-about-paul-pelosi-because-they-repeated-a-report-from-politico
It’s about the mysterious “third person” who has now been disappeared, but was clearly part of the early information given to the press.
So the standard is: if you print what we said, and then we retract it, you are the problem.
Breaking news —
https://babylonbee.com/news/after-ignoring-attacks-on-churches–pro-lifers-media-decides-political-violence-worth-covering-again
The Bee is covering all the bases today, but this may be the best on the Pelosi attack.
https://babylonbee.com/news/paul-pelosi-claims-intruder-shouted-this-is-maga-country-while-throwing-hammers-at-him
“The Pelosi’s extraordinary wealth…” Should be “the Pelosis’…,plural possessive.
Thank you, David. You are correct and – as you were described in the 911 call – a friend as well.
I’ll see myself out.
Well, at least he wasn’t attacked with a nail gun, just a plain old hammer. Could have been much worse. A mass nailing incident. Where do you think “bump firing” came from? Some of those nail guns are pneumatic, some battery powered, some powder actuated. Many can carry hundreds of nails (round, they are in part) when loaded. Anyone can buy a nail gun and many are killed and injured by them every year.
We need tighter Federal Nail Gun contol! MAGA Republicans are blocking this! You know what to do with your hammer. (sarc)
Some of those nail guns use cartridges of fossil fuel to power their deadly steel missiles. Truly a threat to the Planet!
Chomsky once called himself an anarcho-syndicalist and a libertarian socialist.
He was actually a handsomely compensated salaried employee with comprehensive job security. He was also feted wherever he went. (Critics of his have contended that for all the citations to his writings, he’s had no successful research programs in psychology or linguistics). Ya think he would have happily settled for factory work in an anarcho-syndicalist society?
My guess is that the US security (Capitol Police) were not the only ones with responsibility for live-access video stream monitoring. That kind of layered approach is the most common,
My guess is that they set priorities with their manpower. Pelosi was not in Frisco, so staring at security cam feeds of her house was not a priority.
“Art Deco on November 1, 2022 at 6:59 pm said:
Speculation which you insist is ‘more plausible’ may serve to amuse you, but it gets you no closer to the truth. (The Grindr trick discourse is particularly silly).”
Your claim that the broken glass is actually paint dust is speculation, too. You are full of speculation, you just don’t like it when others do it, if it goes against whatever is floating around in your head.
“My guess is that they set priorities with their manpower. Pelosi was not in Frisco, so staring at security cam feeds of her house was not a priority.”
More speculation.
I doubt anyone stares at security camera feeds. That is what automation is for. To alert a human who might be bored or otherwise distracted and not really paying attention.
More speculation.
The person who first used the phrase ‘my guess’ was Aggie.
Your claim that the broken glass is actually paint dust is speculation, too. You are full of speculation, you just don’t like it when others do it, if it goes against whatever is floating around in your head.
No, that’s an assessment under uncertainty, not speculation.
without actual evidence its conjecture,
https://tinyurl.com/ydk5bds7
about 10 years ago, eli lake was one of the few that pointed out the video feed, that was streaming into the diplomatic security office in dc, that would have put the kabosh on the benghazi narrative,
Learn to use punctuation; a new trick.
Part of…one…report has Depape and Pelosi engaged in some fashion, the cops knock, Pelosi opens the door and returns to Depape’s location at which time Depape hits him.
Odd thing to do when in fear of your life. So…either he didn’t do it and the report is wrong for some reason, or he did it and thus was not likely in fear for his life. But if this is the case, he guessed wrong and got hammered.
And people wonder where conspiracy theories come from.
Check out James Kunstler’s view in his blog.
Why? It’s all a function of Mr. Kuntsler’s literary imagination.