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Midweek links

  • The prosecution of Cody Wilson for having sex with an underage prostitute absolutely reeks of being a setup by enforcers pissed off that they couldn’t get him any other way. (H/T MP)
  • In July, it became the first cannabis company to go public on the Nasdaq. Tilray is making a lot of people rich. But it’s partying like it’s 1999, says The Motley Fool.
  • The fedgov gives itself permission to spy on journalists — another delightful use of the FISA system.
  • Yes, generally when you’ve been the victim of a sexual assault that left you in fear of your life you remember the details a hell of a lot more vividly than Dr. Ford does.
  • Philadelphia — one of the most notorious hubs of asset theft in the nation — has been beaten back by a determined family and will have to curb its uncivil asset forfeiture practices.
  • I’d never heard of this until Shel posted the link in comments. But something called Safe Harbor legalized hospitals (through their group purchasing organizations) taking kickbacks from drug vendors. How can something so big, so damaging, so outright criminal, be so far off our radar?
  • The editor of the New York Review of Books gets canned for daring to print an essay by a man acquitted of sexual crimes.
  • In the Golden Age of television, Emmy award viewership hits a new low. Yes, celebs, we’re all tired of you congratulating yourself on your “diversity.” And the rest of your politics, too.
  • Money can buy happiness. Or luxury spending can — when done for the right reasons.
  • Three clergymen try to ban a display of banned books.
  • Researchers discover a major cause of inflammatory bowel disease.
  • From the People Are Good department: An evacuated family leaves food and drink for firefighters.
  • And kids buy back dad’s 1993 Mustang, which he had to sell to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment.

23 Comments

  1. david
    david September 19, 2018 6:35 pm

    “…major cause of inflammatory bowel disease.” Progressives?

    Ha!

  2. kentmcmanigal
    kentmcmanigal September 19, 2018 8:00 pm

    Cody Wilson– There are very few 16 year-olds who are still children. I seriously doubt she, if she was a prostitute, was one of them. Of course, I’ve known people who were over 20 who were children.
    I just get really disgusted by supposed liberty-lovers who buy into the State’s twisted definition game.

  3. david
    david September 20, 2018 6:29 am

    Wilson may be the latest victim of the secret government. He’s learning that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and they’re trying to skin him.

    I wonder if they are alleging he knew she was 16 and not 17? She may have misrepresented herself. Wouldn’t that be a defense? Or is the standard now going to be that whores need to carry government issue ID so their clients can verify they are old enough to screw?

    I knew girls in school who claimed to be old enough to drink, but weren’t. And also was never told by any girl that she was ‘saving herself’ for her 18th birthday.

  4. E. Garrett Perry
    E. Garrett Perry September 20, 2018 8:58 am

    Hunter Thompson described this sort of thing brilliantly in “Fear And Loathing; On The Campaign Trail ’68.” The Mark is seduced by a working girl or fixer whom he has every reason to believe is of legal age. He is taken to compromising location, photos are clandestinely taken, perhaps some of them showing the girl roughed up as if from an exceptionally kinky or even abusive encounter. The Mark is drugged, shown a “good time” in every sense, and sent on his way. 24 hours later, the Fixer appears at The Mark’s door, photos in hand. And from that moment on, The Mark belongs to The Fixer, blood and bone. If The Mark gets antsy, a couple of months in The Fixer shows up with “proof” that the girl is pregnant. A child, real or fictitious, ties The Mark to The Fixer for life. If mere discreditation and incarceration is all that’s desired, the game becomes much simpler. This game’s as old as the sky, and Cody Wilson should have been looking out for a honey trap like this since Day One.

  5. Claire
    Claire September 20, 2018 9:17 am

    Bear — Even after reading your updates, I’m not sure what evidence points to this NOT being a setup. Wilson staying out of the country? But he might do that if he thought he couldn’t get justice. The surveillance data? Yes, it sounds as if he did what they’re accusing him of doing, but that’s the way the honey pot trap works.

    Of course, we don’t know that he was set up — only that this has pretty classic elements.

    How many 16-year-old prostitutes just “happen” to contact police of their own free will to rat out a client who paid them $500? That part’s just weird. Did she incriminate herself as her “civic duty” because she’s an anti-gunner who on her own believed Wilson should be put away? Hm. That stretches credibility. How did this young woman really come in contact with the police, and why?

    Your point about her having to declare herself to be at least 18 to use the Sugar Daddy site is a good one — pretty strong evidence that Wilson had every reason to believe she was of age.

  6. E. Garrett Perry
    E. Garrett Perry September 20, 2018 11:03 am

    The working girl was turned in by her therapist, a “mandated reporter.” Once the therapist heard about what happened, they became liable for mega-beaucoup-oodles of trouble if they didn’t report that shizzit -yesterday-. Additionally, as far as I’m aware, all 50 States hold that a minor’s misrepresentation of their age is explicitly denied as a defense to the charge of Statutory Rape. No matter what proofs they present- if they’re one day under the Age Of Consent, you’re humped. Wilson’s screwed absent a rock-solid alibi that he simply was not there. Even if the Stat. Rape charge goes nowhere, he’s nailed on Solicitation.

  7. Claire
    Claire September 20, 2018 11:14 am

    Ah. Thank you, E. Garrett Perry.

    One more reason never to go to a therapist …

  8. Bear
    Bear September 20, 2018 11:46 am

    Claire, I’m not saying that I now believe it was NOT a setup. Just that I’m less sure that it was. I’m still cognizant of 1) someone using an anonymous site to tell a stranger exactly who he is, 2) a hooker suddenly deciding to self-incriminate to a “counselor,” and 3) a “counselor” possibly violating client (and HIPAA?) privacy to report to the cops. I want to see the alleged incriminating video. And 4) it just happens to be someone who has pissed off some powerful people in government.

    I can still see a couple of different ways for this to be a setup, one in which Wilson isn’t even involved (it’s rather complicated; I may write it up at my blog, depending on data in the next several days).

  9. Paul Joat
    Paul Joat September 20, 2018 12:08 pm

    I think Cody not being involved at all is possible but not likely. Cody actually meeting the girl and going to the hotel while thinking she was an adult is reasonably probable. The information for the SugarDaddyMeet.com might or might not be true. I think it’s a very low probability that it was random chance that he met up with a girl who was underage and who disclosed the meeting immediately after.

  10. ProGunFred
    ProGunFred September 20, 2018 12:31 pm

    I read Bear’s (interim?) conclusion. Interesting. Watch the back half of this after Wilson gets prosecuted. Dollars to doughnuts the girl ends up having an “accident” or new found monies or both. This ain’t your daddy’s 2A fight anymore.

    Don’t be standing on the Refer Stock rug when it gets pulled out. Tilray (TLRY) round tripped 400 percent in total market moves yesterday and still was up 50% percent at market close. Much of this action was in the single last hour of trading. Some traders, brokers, and middle managers, especially some Options guys, will very likely lose their jobs. I seriously doubt that anybody, except perhaps Nvidia’s new GPU, could have made money on these swings, noting of course that GPU’s are not anybody.

  11. MP
    MP September 20, 2018 3:55 pm

    Even if Wilson did engage in sexual activity with the girl, it seems quite likely that he believed she was not a minor. Certainly she would have lied about her age to get an account on the web site. As said, without a picture it is hard to say how old she appears. The timing and circumstances are certainly odd. If she was soliciting sex online, why would she go to a counselor within days of this specific incident and reveal it, name and all? Still sounds like a setup to me. And if it is, and if she is indeed underage, a felony has definitely been committed by someone other than Wilson.

  12. Mike
    Mike September 20, 2018 5:46 pm

    I don’t know if he did or didn’t, all I know is that Cody Wilson story stinks with a capital S.

  13. Jim B.
    Jim B. September 20, 2018 8:05 pm

    Unfortunately, I don’t think it helps that Cody went to Taiwan, a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S., right before they were about to arrest him. Now, no matter what happens, people are going to think he’s guilty because of this.

    Should’ve stayed and fought this, but that’s IMHO.

  14. ~Qjay
    ~Qjay September 20, 2018 10:34 pm

    He can fight from anywhere. It’s a lot harder from jail.

  15. larryarnold
    larryarnold September 21, 2018 9:45 am

    As said, without a picture it is hard to say how old she appears.

    How old she appears isn’t the criteria, actual age is.

    I have two daughters. One looked like she was in high school at 30, the other looked 20-something when she was 14. Age appearance, in a photo or IRL, also has a whole lot to do with how the woman is dressed, and her makeup.

    you remember the details
    That depends on a lot of factors, including how intoxicated the victim was. Knowing the location can be problematic if she was driven there and didn’t pay attention. And people react differently to traumatic events. I’ve met rape survivors who remember everything, those who remember nothing, and in between. I’ve also met some who unconsciously revise memories as time goes on.

    All that said, politically everything about the accusation stinks.

    This is a last-ditch effort to deny President Trump a nomination, and has little to do with Judge K’s qualifications. I really think had Trump nominated an anti-gun, pro-abortion flaming socialist, the Democratic response would have been the same.

    The Democrats and the msm predicted, before the end of the 2016 election, that chaos would result when the losers refused to accept the results. Turns out they were right.

  16. MP
    MP September 21, 2018 10:34 am

    How can US Marshalls arrest someone in another country, especially a non-extradition country? This does make me wonder if Cody Wilson will survive the trip home. I would not be terribly surprised if he was shot “attempting to escape” or some other such nonsense.

  17. Jim B.
    Jim B. September 21, 2018 10:59 am

    The Marshalls didn’t arrest him, the Taiwan cops did, apparently for not making his flight back. The Marshall were just asked to go get him.

  18. Claire
    Claire September 21, 2018 11:10 am

    Yes. You don’t need an extradition treaty if the “crime” you’re committing is a visa violation in the country you’re visiting. It still seems hinky to ask U.S. marshals to fetch Wilson, but there is that agreement for law-enforcement assistance between the two countries.

  19. larryarnold
    larryarnold September 21, 2018 2:17 pm

    I would not be terribly surprised if he was shot “attempting to escape” or some other such nonsense.

    That would mean no show-trial. Marshals fetching is SOP; it’s one of their duties.

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