rigorousintuition.ca

I'm sure most people here have seen the news. Paul Pelosi, the investment manager husband of Democratic majority leader / current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his home last Friday (the 28th). The police were summoned to do a welfare check, and arrived just as Paul and his assailant David DePape were struggling over a hammer; at that point, DePape managed to grab the hammer and attack Paul with it before he was subdued.

It's portrayed as a politically-motivated attack on DePape's part, and at first glance, all the signs are there. He reportedly broke into the home, encountered Paul, and then said he was going to wait for Paul's wife (i.e. Nancy Pelosi) to arrive. The ideologies expressed by DePape mirror a trajectory that much of the (co-opted) alternative media has followed: from a nudist activist registered with the Green Party, to an all-around bigot ("directed at people of color, women, Jewish people, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community and immigrants") and QAnon believer. Or in other words, to my cynical mind, he moved from one programmed archetype on the left to another programmed archetype on the right. His beliefs in his more recent QAnon phase were of course said to include "conspiracy theories" about vaccines and election fraud, mixed in with violent rhetoric against anyone disputing those claims.

Through nudist circles, he met fellow activist Gypsy Taub. He even helped her set up her 2013 wedding to a 20-year-old guy (she was 44 at the time). Note that all three of her children, the oldest being 13, were part of the ceremony, in which many adult participants went nude. DePape lived with her family at that point, serving as a "father figure" to her three kids. Taub was a Russian expat who left in 1988 to attend MIT (also working as a stripper in Boston during that time) and afterwards relocated to California. Originally there to study pre-med, she dropped out, became a Grateful Dead fan, and then opted to become a "Russian-style revolutionary" after the birth of her first daughter in 2000. After the September 11 attacks, she became a member of 9/11 truth circles (which have pretty much always been a Petri dish of covert operators and MK subjects), hosting a public access TV show where she discussed the subject while nude. Hence began a long period of nude progressive (?) activism on her part. Taub has been incarcerated since 2021 for grooming and trying to abduct an underage boy. Part of her grooming involved getting the boy into some New Age meditative practice called Lazaris.

Taub's oldest daughter Inti Gonzalez wrote a now-deleted blog post about living with DePape as her stepfather. Her younger brothers, born 3 and 5 years after her, were fathered by DePape. The relationship between DePape and Taub only lasted approximately 3 years, but he remained with the family until around the time of Taub's marriage to the 20-year-old, at which point she kicked him out for "his toxic behavior". Soon after that, all three children began recovering memories of physical and sexual abuse by DePape. Taub reported him to police but "the case was not managed properly so nothing was done about it in the end". (To my once-again cynical mind, this reeks of the possibility that DePape was some kind of protected asset.) An abuser to Taub's three kids, he was apparently a child abuse victim himself: he was severely beaten by his mother, and was, for whatever reason, so scared of his grandparents that he would stay far out in the ocean for hours when his mother had him visit them. Gonzalez indicated that DePape was, like Taub, interested in Lazaris.

What is Lazaris? It's said to be a "nonphysical entity" that central Florida resident Jach Pursel discovered in 1974 while meditating. Oddly enough, he had begun meditating 2 years earlier after his wife introduced him to a "thought power"-type practice known as Silva Mind Control; a Seattle-area splinter group of Silva Mind Control operating in the same timeframe was linked to a Ted Bundy victim who was directly associated with an MKUltra player. Pursel had no memory of these channeling sessions (a.k.a. dissociative states), but his wife Peny recorded them and indicated that Lazaris was speaking through him to get to her. Supposedly, Lazaris is a benevolent, loving being who serves as a spiritual guide for how to live with oneself and others. The Pursels made it into a business, moved to California, and got some fairly well-known celebrities (such as actors) as followers. Paralleling the situation with DePape, Taub, and Taub's new young husband, the relationship broke up and Peny married a Lazaris business partner, but the three remained incredibly close to the point of living together. They returned to Florida, first to Palm Beach in 1988 (just 2 years before Jeffrey Epstein bought his property there; also the same year Taub emigrated from Russia) and then to Orlando in 1997. Tragedy followed in 2001, when Peny allegedly overdosed and then her husband allegedly committed suicide hours later. Their deaths left Pursel inheriting over $6 million.

Anyway, it sure sounds to me like DePape fits the profile of an individual steeped in MK programs. So what actually happened with his attack on Paul Pelosi? Rumors abound that he and Paul were actually having some kind of sexual encounter that went wrong. I can't rule that out but haven't seen any especially convincing evidence of that yet either. There is, however, a fair question raised: is it likely that the home of the House Speaker (second in line to the presidency) and her husband would lack any sort of alarm system, such that an outsider could break in without authorities immediately being notified? Maybe he had some "help" (e.g. alarm system conveniently off), or perhaps he was outright let in by the resident.

There is something weird and still, as far as I can tell, unexplained about the circumstances of that morning. According to Politico (emphasis added):

David DePape forced his way into the home through a back entrance, Scott said. Officers arrived at the house, knocked on the front door and were let inside by an unknown person. They discovered DePape and Pelosi struggling for a hammer, and after they instructed them to drop the weapon, Scott said, DePape took the hammer and “violently attacked” Pelosi.

Who the hell is this "unknown person" at the home who let the cops in? It clearly wasn't Paul or DePape, as both were engaged in a struggle that the police only discovered once inside.

I hope this can be a thread to compile ongoing research and analysis about this very strange event.

.
It's been interesting to observe how this story seems to be a test subject for what's been developing more overtly, incrementally, since 2020: two distinct 'realities' based almost entirely on one's partisan political views (that is, among those that subscribe to the standard Red v Blue/Left Wing v Right Wing tropes as presented in dominant social media & network news/newspapers, etc).

Sifting beyond the white noise may be a challenge, but I appreciate the effort in the OP.

I believe we can rule out that this man was 'right wing', however.

This piece further amplifies certain partisan talking points but also includes some useful bits of info.

Pelosi Attack Suspect Was A Psychotic Homeless Addict Estranged From His Pedophile Lover & Their Children

Berkeley resident David DePape was more in the grip of drug-induced psychosis than ideology-induced fanaticism.
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Leading politicians yesterday blamed the political Right for the brutal attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul. “This is despicable,” said President Biden. He noted that the alleged attacker, David DePape, 42, shouted the same line, “Where’s Nancy?” as the supporters of Donald Trump, who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. “And what makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections?” said Biden. “COVID being a hoax? It’s all a bunch of lies.”

California political leaders agreed. “This heinous assault is yet another example of the dangerous consequences of the divisive and hateful rhetoric that is putting lives at risk and undermining our very democracy and Democratic institutions,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom. “This attack,” said San Francisco’s state Senator, Scott Weiner, “is terrifying and the direct result of toxic right-wing rhetoric.”

Journalists, en masse, agreed with their assessment. DePape “appears to have made racist and often rambling posts online,” noted AP, in a report this morning that encapsulated the media narrative, “including some that questioned the results of the 2020 election, defended former President Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.”

But DePape’s politics have little rhyme or reason. In past years DePape shared a post about Stephen Colbert’s 2006 roast of President George W. Bush at the White House Correspondents dinner; linked to videos of Disney films altered to make it look like the characters were swearing; and claimed, “Jesus is the anti-Christ” — not exactly a litany of right-wing tropes.

And, as I discovered yesterday, DePape lived with a notorious local nudist in a Berkeley home, complete with a Black Lives Matter sign in the window and an LGBT rainbow flag, emblazoned with a marijuana symbol, hanging from a tree. A closer look reveals the characteristics of a homeless encampment, or what Europeans call “an open drug scene.” In the driveway, there is a broken-down camper van. On the street is a yellow school bus, which neighbors said DePape occasionally stayed in. Both are filled with garbage typical of such structures in homeless encampments. People come and go from the house and the vehicles, neighbors say, in part to partake in the use of a potent psychedelic drug, ibogaine.

Neighbors described DePape as a homeless addict with a politics that was, until recently, left-wing, but of secondary importance to his psychotic and paranoid behavior. “What I know about the family is that they’re very radical activists,” said one of DePape’s neighbors, a woman who only gave her first name, Trish. “They seem very left. They are all about the Black Lives Matter movement. Gay pride. But they’re very detached from reality. They have called the cops on several of the neighbors, including us, claiming that we are plotting against them. It’s really weird to see that they are willing to be so aggressive toward somebody else who is also a lefty.”

Not all of the news media missed DePape’s history of drug use, psychosis, and homelessness. CNN reported that a woman named Laura Hayes, who said she worked with DePape 10 years ago making hemp bracelets, said he had been living in a storage shed. “He talks to angels,” she said, and told her that “there will be a hard time coming.”

Another woman, Linda Schneider, told CNN and KRON4, that she got to know DePape around 2014 and that he was still homeless, living in a storage unit, and using hard drugs. “He (was) likely a mindless follower of something he saw on social media because I don’t think he had the courage to be part of any political or terrorist group,” said Schneider. “His drug use began again and he went off his rocker.”

But much of the rest of the news media, particularly local journalists who could have interviewed DePape’s neighbors, were swept up in the narrative that DePape was more like John Wilkes Booth, the fanatical but sane assassin of Abraham Lincoln, than John Hinkley, Jr., the mentally ill man who shot Ronald Reagan. DePape is much more like one of the hundreds of psychotic homeless people I’ve interviewed in recent years than the fanatical climate ideologues who I’ve been writing about in recent weeks.

Wrapped up in their own obsession with Trump Republicans, most journalists have missed the real story. David DePape is not a microcosm of the political psychosis gripping America in general. Rather, he’s a microcosm of the drug-induced psychosis gripping the West Coast in particular.

Drugs, Paranoia, and Pedophilia



Yesterday afternoon I visited the Berkeley house where DePape had lived with his former lover, Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, 53, a charismatic Russian immigrant 11 years David’s senior. DePape appears to have fallen under the spell of Taub around 2003, when DePape was a quiet, video game-obsessed 20-year-old in Powell River, a town of 14,000 people that is a four-hour drive up the coast of British Columbia from Vancouver.

A November 27, 2008 article in the Oakland Tribune said Taub and DePape were married with three children. But DePape’s stepfather, Gene, told AP yesterday that Taub was his stepson’s girlfriend, not wife; that David and Taub had two, not three, children together; and that David’s third child was with another woman.

The article, which carried the headline, “Need is great on Thanksgiving Day in the East Bay,” described Taub, Pape, and their three children eating Thanksgiving dinner with the homeless. Taub told the reporter that they were there for the community, not because they couldn’t afford to eat at home.

Taub was in the news again five years later when she, then 44, married a 20-year-old man, Jamyz Smith, naked, at City Hall in San Francisco. A photo in the December 16, 2013 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle shows DePape, Taub, Smith, and the three children huddled under a blanket watching television together. The caption describes DePape as “a family friend.” As in The Oakland Tribune article, the focus was on Taub, with no quotes from DePape.

...

https://michaelshellenberger.substack.c ... -psychotic

Is anyone here curious enough about this to listen to the relevant police calls?

Excellent post Marion and reminiscent of this board's glory days. Hope it won't devolve into low-level waxing about big trends but stay focused more on the details of an episode that is, at bare minimum, not what it has been reported to be by MSM as an attempt at political capital and big narrative undergirding. Oedipa's Tweets are really good on this.

It's been a minute since a story started to check out as likely MK related but there's too much that is too damning here to think otherwise, as a starting point at least.

What I would contend is that DePape may have never been sufficiently in control of himself to have a real political ideology. Instead, he may have just been maneuvered between various causes, made to fill certain archetypes. The first archetype would be the hippie-type persona he had for a number of years, backed up by his association with Gypsy Taub (the "notorious local nudist" mentioned in the article Belligerent Savant shared) and Green Party registration. More recently, however, he would at least appear to be espousing a more right-wing outlook in the style of QAnon. His blog indicates such, but the website was also registered just a couple months ago (on August 8th) and conveniently under his real identity despite most domain services offering privacy features; thus it reeks of being suddenly created so that it could be found. He has reportedly confessed to SFPD investigators about targeting Nancy Pelosi, and his friend/employer Frank Ciccarelli also claimed that DePape was into right-wing politics in more recent years. Of course, there's a potential for this information (especially law enforcement claims, if they aren't corroborated by a recorded statement) to be manipulated.

Overall, my inclination is that DePape really did express right-wing beliefs after a long period of association with left-wing beliefs. I just doubt he had any ideological attachment to either.

I was initially very interested in the dispatch audio that stickdog99 posted about DePape being called a "friend". Upon further reflection, though, it felt more likely that they were relaying a claim by DePape himself of being a "friend". It doesn't make much sense to me that Paul would claim DePape was a friend and also that he doesn't know DePape. This doesn't take away from all the other weird circumstances, and I would like to get an actual recording of the 911 call to know what was said, but I don't think the dispatch audio is as compelling of an anomaly as it first seemed.

As the official narrative begins to revise the more anomalous details that were initially reported, I think the 911 call recording and the bodycam recordings are both necessary to cut through the spin. The official narrative (laid out in a DOJ filing) has denied the presence of a third man who opened the door, claiming based on DePape's statement that Paul "ran over and opened" it. Only after opening the door did he then grab onto DePape's hammer. That seems to contradict the account that as soon as the door was opened for police, they witnessed Paul and DePape struggling over the hammer. Even the DOJ filing backs that up: "When the door was opened, Pelosi and DEPAPE were both holding a hammer with one hand and DEPAPE had his other hand holding onto Pelosi’s forearm." I mean, sure, maybe the confrontation happened immediately after Paul opened it, and there was a delay between the door opening and police noticing what went on, but it feels weird. Plus if Paul felt in danger from DePape, and was able to reach the door, why not flee instead of fighting an armed man? (You could argue he didn't want to run directly at police and make himself look suspect in their eyes? I don't know...)

Marionumber1 » Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:01 pm wrote:More recently, however, he would at least appear to be espousing a more right-wing outlook in the style of QAnon. His blog indicates such, but the website was also registered just a couple months ago (on August 8th) and conveniently under his real identity despite most domain services offering privacy features; thus it reeks of being suddenly created so that it could be found. He has reportedly confessed to SFPD investigators about targeting Nancy Pelosi, and his friend/employer Frank Ciccarelli also claimed that DePape was into right-wing politics in more recent years. Of course, there's a potential for this information (especially law enforcement claims, if they aren't corroborated by a recorded statement) to be manipulated.

Overall, my inclination is that DePape really did express right-wing beliefs after a long period of association with left-wing beliefs. I just doubt he had any ideological attachment to either.

It's precisely what you point out above (the portion i bolded, along with the other quoted content), among other data points I've observed (though admittedly not via any 'deep dive' at this point) that leads me to be more inclined to believe that whatever he expressed more recently (re: 'political beliefs') is not the result of fully formed, autonomous expression on the part of DePape, but rather a combination of embellishment by various sources/entities and perhaps even certain 'suggestive' /conditioning mechanisms in play, depending on the extent DePape's mind may have been compromised by substances or forms of influence of his own agency, or aided by agency of others.

Of course, it could also be that DePape is no different than the average American: his recent political views may be largely influenced by media conditioning and suggestions.

All of the above is little more than (informed) speculation at this point, needless to say.

In any case, the chances of this event actually being politically motivated, in my view, is slim/none.
(Well, to clarify: politically-motivated by DePape himself. Of course there are political motivations for the timing and framing of this story, by both/any 'sides' involved).

There is good cause for skepticism about the sincerity of the political beliefs he's recently projected to the world. However, I don't like the trend I'm seeing of right-wing alt media sources basically saying "He's not a Trump supporter, he was actually liberal!" and using things like his association with Gypsy Taub as evidence of that. They are, like you say, just framing the story in another politically-motivated manner to counter the liberal/centrist framing. Everything about DePape's background, Taub's background, and the spiritual practices he and Taub both engaged in reeks of MK programs in my estimation. So I wouldn't expect his political causes, or Taub's for that matter, to be any more sincere back then either. Her association with the 9/11 truth movement, which was filled to the brim with an odd cast of characters that I suspect includes many "Manchurian bloggers", feels like a major red flag in that regard.

But of course, any discussion of mind control leads to a fine line between trauma-based conditioning of individuals and pervasive society-wide psychological warfare. Trump-era psyops like Russiagate and QAnon are arguably mind control on a more minor (but much farther-reaching) level. And I genuinely have seen people in progressive communities who followed DePape's supposed path from the Green Party-aligned left to the Trump-aligned right. (I don't mean the inane practice of labeling all anti-establishment sentiment "right-wing". I'm talking about, for instance, formerly-left-wing NYU professor Michael Rectenwald getting fed up with "woke" ideology/"political correctness" and ending up transitioning into a full-blown right-winger on issues across the board like economic policy that had nothing to do with the initial outrage. Forced all-or-nothing association with one ideology is quite potent.) But in DePape's case, I think the details of his background, the signs that his blog was set up to be found, and the oddities of the Paul Pelosi attack suggest there's more to it than that.

I would like to see if there is evidence of him expressing right-wing political beliefs any further back than August 2022, beyond his friend/employer Frank Ciccarelli's claim.

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Astute/sound observations.
It wouldn't be a stretch, if indeed this is an MK-style Op, that it goes much further back than this recent incident.

whether or not bodycam footage is released publicly will be the tell. they could be sitting on the footage until the trial to give conspiracy theorists rope to hang themselves with. or perhaps they are waiting to reinvigorate the incident in hearts and minds just before midterms. lots of political reasons to delay release of further information at the moment. but if they never capitalise on that footage it's reasonable to assume the worst.

it could be something utterly bizarre where both sides are right and yet wrong. that Depape and Pelosi met up for some nefarious reason(prostitution, drugs, whatever), and when Depape found out it was Nancy Pelosi's husband then it became a politically motivated attack. perhaps that unidentified third person who opened the door for police was a child.

How would we EVER know?
Truth Cops
Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/

Example exibit A) https://archive.ph/5r1SV
Who doesn't use troll farms?



David DePape pleads not guilty to Pelosi attack in 1st court appearance


Only Drawings, tones of Maxwell?

The @TODAYshow has now DELETED this clip and @NBCNews has scrubbed it from their website because it “did not meet” their “reporting standards.”
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1588585442005618692?t=jM1UKZAcMaPuSVr95DEwpQ&s=19


Better watch the vid before they 'pull it'...

Thank you for sharing this. Amazingly enough, the details in this NBC report contradict the narrative laid out in the charging document shown onscreen at 1:10. NBC, citing "sources familiar with what unfolded in the Pelosi residence", claim that Paul Pelosi opened the door for police and then walked several feet back into the home towards David DePape. The charging document indicates that the two men were standing together when Paul opened the door, with DePape grabbing Paul's right arm and each holding onto the hammer with one hand; thus no distance between the men for Paul to walk "towards" DePape. This account from the charging document (both already holding onto the hammer) is consistent with early news accounts and the DOJ filing I shared further upthread, while the account given to NBC (Paul goes over to DePape after opening the door for police) is consistent with DePape's confession.

I am no longer particularly convinced about the presence of a third man in the home: the "struggling for a hammer" phrase from that Politico article could just mean they were both holding it (as the DOJ document and charging document say), even if they weren't outright fighting yet. But even so, why have we gotten two different versions of Paul and DePape's interactions that morning? Supposing the NBC report is true, is Paul's strange decision to go back towards DePape instead of seek the police's protection being covered up?

Skeptical as I've been of the "hookup" theory (because it's constantly getting asserted uncritically with no real backing thus far), I do now wonder if Paul had been doing something that left him in an altered mental state.

Just to be clear, there is basically no doubt that this report was scrubbed by NBC. A cached copy of the Twitter profile (note that this cache will eventually expire from Google's servers, so I've archived the cache itself) for one user who retweeted it shows that the video tweet in question was made by @TODAYshow: "EXCLUSIVE: New details emerge about the attack on Paul Pelosi. @Miguelnbc shares what happened once police arrived." The tweet link is https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/1588490301164994564, and if you visit that link you will indeed be told "Sorry, that Tweet has been deleted", confirming it did exist. Searching recent tweets by @TODAYshow and @NBCNews, I find no indication that this story has been reuploaded or even retracted; it's just been flagrantly memory-holed.

Well there is a retraction, but not a very well-publicized one. Here's the today.com link to the original story: https://www.today.com/video/paul-pelosi-returns-home-after-hammer-attack-left-him-hospitalized-152517701534 There is a video player but the video is no longer present, and the caption underneath says:

Paul Pelosi was released from the hospital on Thursday and is now recovering from a fractured skull and several other serious injuries at home. NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reports for TODAY. Editor's note: This piece has been removed from publication because it did not meet NBC News reporting standards.

Deadline fills in more details from an anonymous source at NBC:

According to a network insider with knowledge of the situation, the decision was made to remove the segment after it was determined, shortly after it aired, that the main source for the information was unreliable regarding the question of the circumstances that the police encountered when they arrived at the house, specifically what the police saw and how far the attacker was from the door.

So they just accidentally used an "unreliable" source, nothing else to see here.

Except the version given by this "unreliable" source is, compared to the narrative laid out in government's charging documents, still a better match for the story that DePape himself confessed to. The discrepancy won't go away just because they've retracted a report bolstering one of the two discrepant narratives. Maybe the discrepancy is a tiny little detail that doesn't matter anyway, but the fact that this is being silently buried, with the thinnest semblance of a mea culpa that only comes up if you really dig for it, suggests otherwise.

drstrangelove » Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:36 pm wrote:whether or not bodycam footage is released publicly will be the tell. they could be sitting on the footage until the trial to give conspiracy theorists rope to hang themselves with. or perhaps they are waiting to reinvigorate the incident in hearts and minds just before midterms. lots of political reasons to delay release of further information at the moment. but if they never capitalise on that footage it's reasonable to assume the worst.

released to detract attention away from the project veritas video and give liberals a "told you so"/"this is dangerous to democracy" narrative to focus on.