[PM] A Florida Democrat official has been arrested on federal child sex crime charges. Matthew A. Inman, 39, of Orlando, the treasurer of the Orange County Democratic Party, was taken into custody after allegedly sending child sexual abuse material to an undercover law enforcement officer. He expressed interest in boys as young as nine, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the Department of Justice.
According to the complaint, Inman received and saved several videos of adults sexually abusing children on his phone between August and October 2024. He traveled to Las Vegas in October 2024 and began chatting online with an undercover law enforcement officer masquerading as the father of a 9-year-old boy, expressing a desire to meet and sexually assault the alleged child.
The FBI seized Inman's electronic devices while executing a search warrant on his residence. Authorities said Inman allegedly attempted to delete the evidence from his phone, and hid in the attic of his house during the raid, per the release.
Ngo scoop: Matthew A. Inman, the treasurer for the Orange County Democratic Party @OrangeDemsFL in Orlando, Fla., has been federally arrested on child s—x crime charges.
Now what about Pfizer?
[BBC] Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family who controlled it have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn (£6bn) to settle claims regarding its powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.
The deal represents an increase of more than $1bn on a previous settlement that was rejected in 2024 by the US Supreme Court, according to news agencies AP and Reuters.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5bn and Purdue to pay $900m.
Oxycontin, often an entryway into harder drugs like heroin, has been blamed for supercharging the deadly opioid crisis in America, and generated billions of dollars for the Sackler family.
The New York Attorney General's office said the agreement would fund support for opioid addiction treatment and prevention across the US.
"We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives," Purdue said in a statement.
The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out, but AP said it is among the largest settlements reached in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for the deadly epidemic.
Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal, according to AP.
Connecticut attorney General William Tong told Reuters that the settlement would help provide closure to victims of the opioid crisis.
"It's not just about the money," Tong said. "There is not enough money in the world to make it right."
Under the previous rejected plan from last year, the Sacklers would have been granted immunity from lawsuits in exchange for a payment of $6bn.
The current court order blocking lawsuits against Sackler family members is set to expire on Friday, AP said, but a US bankruptcy court judge has been asked to keep it in place throughout February pending final details.
One woman, who has been in recovery for 17 years after becoming addicted to the painkiller following a back injury, praised the deal.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Kara Trainor said: "Everything in my life is shaped by a company that put profits over human lives".
Purdue became a household name in the US as the maker and promoter of OxyContin - a prescription painkiller it promoted as safe, despite being aware it was both highly addictive and widely abused.
Since 1999, a few years after the drug became available, deaths from opioid overdoses surged to tens of thousands annually.
Court filings allege the Sackler family was long aware of the legal risks, and withdrew some $11bn from the company in the decade before its bankruptcy. They stashed much of the money overseas, while using some of it to pay company taxes, making recovery difficult.
[NewsMax] Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' approval rating has tanked in the aftermath of the wildfires that destroyed parts of the city, according to a new independent poll released Friday. One indicator showed "opportunity for new leadership."
The poll, sponsored by Los Angeles-based media firm Madison McQueen, shows that 54% of likely L.A. voters disapprove of Bass' handling of the fires, with 37% approving.
Further, Bass trails fellow Democrat Rick Caruso, whom she defeated in the 2022 mayoral election, by 7 points — 43% to 36% — in a hypothetical rematch in 2026, according to the poll.
"Rather than follow predictable partisan patterns, voters in L.A. are fed up with failure and are demanding more competence from their elected officials," said Owen Brennan, co-founder of Madison McQueen. "Clearly, there is an opportunity for new leadership, new ideas, and new direction for Los Angeles."
Bass is facing intense scrutiny on a number of fronts, most notably for being in Ghana when the fires broke out despite warnings that high winds were coming. Further, fire hydrants ran out of water, the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty when the Palisades Fire broke out, and more than half the city's fire trucks sat idle in disrepair, thanks to Bass' budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department that left it short of mechanics to fix them.
#4
There are California wildfires every year. If they threaten Merced, Fresno, or Copperopolis, not a problem. Bass and Newsom let it burn up the bedroom communities of LA through their own incompetence. They cut maintenance funding for fire stations and delayed basic repairs to reservoir tarps for years. Both of them are so toasted that Kelloggs wants to slather them in frosting and give them a fruit filling enema.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 12:07 Comments ||
Top||
We are writing to give you an update regarding the status of Tom's pardon situation. Please read the information below written by Tom's awesome attorney, David (Dave) W. Fischer.
To the loyal supporters of Tom and Sharon Caldwell:
Tom has not been pardoned. On Monday, President Trump issued blanket pardons for virtually all previously convicted J6 defendants, ordered the Department of Justice to seek dismissal in all pending J6 cases, and "commuted" the sentences for 14 defendants, including Tom. The commutation ended all prison time for these remaining 14 defendants, all of whom were tried either in the two Oath Keeper trials or the Proud Boys trial. As Tom was just sentenced to time-served (53 days) and a $100 fine, the President's commutation has no impact other than to prevent the Government from appealing Tom's sentence (in federal court, the prosecution has the right to appeal a sentence as being too lenient).
We are unsure as to why Tom was not pardoned, as he is first among equals in deserving such relief. My surmise is that President Trump wants the appeals process to play out with the hope that an appellate court rules that there was no "seditious conspiracy" that took place on J6. Another surmise is that President Trump plans to pardon the remaining defendants, but did not do so in an effort to stem negative news coverage on the first day of his term. I seriously doubt that the President or his legal team have fully studied Tom's case.
Accordingly, I will be filing an appeal on Tom's behalf next week to challenge his technical conviction as to the felony of evidence tampering. Tom's "crime" was literally deleting a Facebook thread with another J6er. Tom's judge characterized our request to grant judgment of acquittal on this charge as a "close case." In other words, the Government's evidence was very weak, but strong enough that a "rational jury"—made up of D.C. progressives--could vote "guilty." That's why he punished Tom less severely than a speeder in traffic court. Also, I will be organizing a media blitz next week to get Tom's story back in the news so that President Trump is aware that Tom deserves a pardon.
In short, the legal fight for Tom and Sharon is not close to being resolved. In addition to the appeal, the Caldwells are facing separate civil suits filed by Soros-linked progressive law firms. We are dealing with evil people. Once again thank you for your prayers and financial support.
Dave David W. Fischer, Esq. , Fischer & Putzi, P.A, Empire Towers, Suite #1007, 7310 Ritchie Hwy,. Glen Burnie, MD 21061
Thank you for sticking with us! We will prevail. Sharon & Tom Caldwell
Note to Mods. This is an email sent to me from Caldwell's attorney. I linked the site for Caldwell because there is no other link. The saveourfarm site has a request for donations. I know this is not permitted on Rburg. Please edit as necessary.
We occasionally allow it for extraordinary causes, my dear. Thank you for your delicacy in asking for permission. And now excuse me while I go explore the linked website.
— tw for the moderators
Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed ||
01/25/2025 08:40 ||
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Link ||
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#3
Ref #1: The American people need to know the truth. Discovery must proceed regardless of the pardons. I doubt all the rats managed to get pardons and sworn testimony under oath must pass the burden of truth, pardon or no pardon.
#4
All these evil judges and bureaucrats remind me of the two elders 13.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 12:23 Comments ||
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#5
All judges serve based on "good behavior". Deliberately ignoring a legal pardon by the President of the United States is not "good behavior". Those judges who think they are more important than the President and don't have to follow the lawful orders coming from the office should be immediately dismissed. It would go a long way toward correcting judicial overreach.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/25/2025 18:08 Comments ||
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#6
Two elders in Daniel 13.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 20:18 Comments ||
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#2
Very much enjoyed watching that POS mayor get her mic yanked practically mid diatribe. The game has changed and it's glorious to watch Dems not know what to do.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/25/2025 10:20 Comments ||
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#3
If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd have an obvious explanation for the strange insistence of California's bureaucracy to legally ban property owners from going to their property for weeks and months (@ 3:00+).
The bureaucracy would unofficially lure squatters to the area, who would erect irregular shantytowns over the next weeks and months.
The police would enforce the emergency powers bans on owners but wouldn't act against the squatters.
The owners would sell their de facto expropriated land to connected developers.
The connected developers would construct climate friendly high density housing, or whatever the bureaucracy wanted.
But since I's not a conspiracy theorist I don't actually have any explanation for their strange insistence.
</sarc>
#4
Trump is requiring two things:
1. Open up the water
2. Voter ID
The politicians could claim that they are getting a shakedown, but eventually, the recalls will roll them up and Trump will make the same deal with their replacements.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 11:57 Comments ||
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#5
#4, Super Hose, they need the money. They've squandered all of their money on high speed rail to nowhere and luxury apartments for hobos. Trump is putting the squeeze on them. If they don't make the deal with Trump, voters will turn on them. But if they implement Voter ID, it'll be a lot harder for them to rig elections and they'll end up losing their jobs anyway. This is gonna be fun...for some of us anyway.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2025 13:34 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] Trump signed executive orders to end EV mandates, climate standards
The global climate movement is already feeling the sting of the "Trump effect" after green energy policies were a target of President Donald Trump's first executive orders, according to energy experts who reacted to the president's first week in office.
Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States Monday, signing numerous executive orders aimed at unraveling former President Joe Biden's climate agenda.
"President Trump has not wasted any time to undo Biden’s many climate policies designed to make energy more expensive and less affordable. America and the world can look forward to a brighter future because of the actions that President Trump has started on his first day in office," Myron Ebell, chairman of the American Lands Council, said in a statement.
But Ebell added that "it’s going to be a long, hard fight because of ferocious opposition" from climate groups.
This week, Trump signed an executive order to ax the U.S. climate standards, which aimed to reduce emissions 61-66% by 2035.
Additionally, the president ended the electric vehicle (EV) mandate and withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, a legally binding treaty among more than 190 parties committed to international cooperation on climate change.
"President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accords is a victory for American workers and families, rejecting policies that prioritize the Chinese Communist Party’s interests over our own," said Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute and a former Texas state representative.
Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress plan on going even deeper on reversing green energy policies enacted over the past four years. Republicans in the House have already introduced legislation to block Biden's climate standards on household appliances
#3
Interesting thought experiment:
What would week 1 of a Harris presidency looked like?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 20:14 Comments ||
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#4
Global Warming/Climate Change is the biggest science scam since the Piltdown Man. Even now, people of the future are laughing at us, the same way we snicker at that Lysenko business and marvel about how things can go so wrong.
The Science is never settled. Feel free to mock anyone telling you otherwise. Especially if it is your government. They are trying to sell you something.
[PJMedia] Update 9:50 p.m.: JD Vance broke the tie with his yes vote moments ago, making Hegseth's confirmation official.
Original story:
Pete Hegseth will have enough votes to become Secretary of Defense, which is a tremendous victory for Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... . The vote was 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance is expected to break the tie.
All eyes were on the votes by Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), as Sens. Lisa Daddy, can I be a senator? Murkowski ... representing K Street ... (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) had previously indicated they were going to vote against Hegseth. McConnell voted no, but Tillis ultimately decided to vote for Hegseth's confirmation. Alaskan Snow Blower Murky and Droopy Dog need to be slapped back into line. The Turtle just needs to retire or die
"From the beginning, I have been clear about my position: if President Trump’s nominees were reported favorably out of the relevant committees, I would support their confirmation on the Senate floor absent new material information about their qualifications," Tillis said in a statement posted to X. "Once Pete Hegseth’s nomination was sent to the floor by my colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I conducted my own due diligence, including asking tough questions of Pete and I appreciated his candor and openness in answering them."
Tillis continued, "Pete has a unique perspective as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is unquestionably passionate about modernizing our military and supporting the brave patriots like himself who serve our nation. I will support his confirmation and look forward to working with him to rebuild our military and advance President Trump’s peace through strength agenda."
Back in 2017, then Vice President Mike Pence had to break the tie to confirm Betsy DeVos as Trump’s education secretary. It was the first time a vice president had cast the tie-breaking vote for a cabinet nomination. Vance's vote will be the second in U.S. history.
Hegseth advanced from the Armed Services Committee by the narrowest margin, a 14-13 party-line vote. On the Senate floor, cloture was invoked at 51-49, barely avoiding a situation where Vice President JD Vance would’ve had to cast the deciding vote.
Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... fought aggressively against Hegseth’s nomination, taking issue with his views on women in combat and raising questions about alleged alcohol abuse and misconduct, even resorting to dusting off their playbook from the Kavanaugh hearings when, earlier this week, senators received an affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law alleging behavior that he purportedly made his second wife fear for her safety. However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt... even Hegseth’s ex-wife says these allegations are not true.
Samantha Deering, Hegseth’s ex-wife, told NBC News, which first reported on the accusations, that the allegations were false.
"First and foremost, I have not and will not comment on my marriage to Pete Hegseth. I do not have representatives speaking on my behalf, nor have I ever asked anyone to share or speak about the details of my marriage on my behalf, whether it be a news hound, a committee member, a transition team member, etc.," she wrote.
"I do not believe your information to be accurate, and I have cc’d my lawyer," she added.
#4
Gratz to Pete Hegseth on his appt to Legatus Legio MAGA.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/25/2025 10:22 Comments ||
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#5
Thune is facilitating some of these early wins. His donors will want him to knife Kash, Tulsi and RFK Jr. Those votes are Bastogne for me. Any Republican that balks at any of those folks need to go. Trump took out all the IGs except two last night.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 11:49 Comments ||
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#7
Those that voted no for him voted "yes" for that stupid DEI Supreme who admitted under oath that she didn't know what a woman is. That's where we're at.
#8
Trump said yesterday that somebody invited Adam Schiff, California's new junior senator, to come along on his trip to Los Angeles. Schiff declined saying he had to participate in senate confirmation votes but his vote failed to keep Hegseth or Noem from being confirmed. Too bad. Schiff could have flown with Trump anyway...awkward as that might have been.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2025 13:52 Comments ||
Top||
#9
On J.D. Vance breaking the tie to get him confirmed: "It's not the first time the headline reads - 'junior enlisted Marine bails out junior Army officer.'" lol
Transgender women will now serve their sentences in men's prisons, and medical services related to gender transition will no longer be available in correctional facilities.
… the U.S. would officially recognize only two genders — male and female. Today, it was also revealed that the State Department has stopped processing applications for gender changes in passports and issuing passports with "X" as the gender marker.
#5
Surely we still are paying. This is but one head of the hydra. The next head will be state’s using Federal funding for the same purpose. Then there will be NGO grants. USAID is probably also doing some shady stuff that they would like us not to know about.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/25/2025 11:42 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Simply follow the ☺PHYSICAL☺ Science and start treating the mentally ill.
[NY Post] Dr. Anthony Fauci had his taxpayer-funded security detail pulled, President Trump confirmed during a press conference Friday.
“I think when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off, and you know, you can’t have them forever,” Trump told a reporter at a hurricane response briefing in Asheville, NC.
“We took some off other people too,” he noted, apparently referring to former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“They can hire their own security too. … I can give them some good numbers of very good security people,” Trump added. “Fauci made a lot of money. They all did.”
Asked if he would feel “partially responsible if something were to happen” to Fauci or Bolton, Trump responded: “Certainly I would not take responsibility.”
Fauci, who is still facing threats over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, has hired personal security since having the government detail revoked on Thursday, according to CNN.
The longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has been accused of funneling taxpayer money oversees for dangerous gain-of-function research — including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from where many believe SARS‑CoV‑2 leaked to kick off a worldwide pandemic.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) had requested security for Fauci back in 2020 due to the death threats he was receiving for the role he played in advising the government during the pandemic.
He did not have Secret Service protection and was instead being protected by federal marshals, and then a private security contractor for which the government was paying, per the New York Times.
While some are outraged at the idea that Trump is stripping Fauci of his security detail, the truth is that he hasn’t left Fauci a sitting duck to security threats. As Trump pointed out, he’s got plenty of money, and Fauci has been using his own private security detail for months now.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci is no longer getting a taxpayer-funded security detail and SUVs after the U.S. Marshals Service quietly dropped his nearly two-year $15 million deal,” the Daily Mail reported back in December.
Despite retiring from his $480,000-a-year government job in December 2022, the nation's top COVID doctor received a security detail for almost two years.
Dr. Fauci, who has an estimated $11 million net worth, was constantly surrounded by U.S. Marshals at the time whether he was at home or going to TV studios to film interviews.
That cost taxpayers $15 million in total, a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Marshals and the Department of Health and Human Services obtained by DailyMail.com first revealed.
That taxpayer-funded security arrangement quietly ended on September 30, 2024, the documents show, days before the election.
Fauci’s taxpayer-funded security detail ended during Biden’s presidency, not Trump’s. No one cried foul back when this was first reported.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
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BREAKING: New proposed bill in Mississippi would pay $1,000 to bounty hunters for each successful deportation of an illegal that they help facilitate pic.twitter.com/Q312LDoR5W
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Argentina's president Javier Milei has used his speech to the World Economic Forum to slam 'woke ideology' and condemn Western governments and institutions as being 'colonized' by it.
The Argentine premier took aim at the WEF as he denounced it for promoting 'deeply wrong' ideas around gender ideology, feminism, climate change, mass migration and left-leaning politics in general.
He also singled out the United Kingdom in his wide-ranging speech, implying that it is 'imprisoning citizens for revealing aberrant, truly appalling crimes committed by Muslim migrants that the government wants to hide'.
The rambling speech went on for half an hour and covered topics from the role of the European Union to terror attacks and abortion - but had one recurring theme throughout - the eradication of so-called 'wokeism'.
The 54-year-old argued that what he called the 'woke mind virus' - a term he did not define - is an 'epidemic that must be cured and the cancer that must be eradicated.'
The libertarian leader praised other leaders he sees as likeminded, such as Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele.
'Slowly an international alliance has been formed of all those nations that want to be free and that believe in the ideas of freedom,' he said.
Turning his sights on the Davos conference which he was addressing, Milei said: 'I must say, forums like this one have been protagonists and promoters of the sinister agenda of 'wokeism' that is doing so much harm to the West.'
He told the audience of global business and political A-listers: 'If we want to change, if we want to truly defend the rights of citizens, we first have to start by telling them the truth.
'And the truth is that there is something deeply wrong with the ideas that have been promoted in forums like this one.'
He said 'the mental virus of woke ideology' was 'the great epidemic of our time that must be cured. It is the cancer that must be removed'.
Among other things, he hit out at what he called 'invented' quotas created under the guise of diversity, which he claimed undermine the 'excellence' of public and educational institutions.
His comments on this come after his American ally Trump made good on a campaign pledge to sever diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government and as Mark Zuckerberg's Meta announced the end of such programmes at the company.
Milei also said 'wokeism' was to blame for turning migration policies from those which focused on attracting foreign talent to ones which promote mass migration - 'not by national interest but by guilt.'
He described 'images of hordes of immigrants abusing, raping or killing European citizens' and declared that people did not question this for fear of being 'branded a racist'.
Taking aim at feminist beliefs, he claimed that women are valued more than men and also labelled abortion a 'bloody and murderous agenda'.
He hit out at the use of gender blockers in children, describing it as 'criminal ideology' and saying their victimhood is covered up in 'accusations of homophobia or transphobia and other inventions.'
'In its most extreme versions gender ideology constitutes simply as child abuse,' he argued.
'This is what Wokeism is all about. It is the result of the inversion of Western values,' Milei declared.
'Each of the pillars of our civilization was changed by a distorted version of itself through the introduction of various mechanisms of cultural succession,' he continued.
He concluded his lengthy speech by calling for the restoration of the Western values he felt had been lost.
'Today, just like 215 years ago, Argentina has broken its chains and invites — as our anthem says — all mortals of the world to hear the sacred cry: 'freedom, freedom, freedom',' Milei said.
'May the forces of Heaven be with us. Thank you all very much and long live freedom, dammit!'
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...every time you hear the phrase 
[NY Post] Dr. Anthony Fauci had his taxpayer-funded security detail pulled, President Trump confirmed during a press conference Friday.
