What is #Pizzagate?

[liminalOyster]

I genuinely really appreciate your thinking and parsing, Wombat. And the reminder to watch Mirage Men again too - I was too sleepy and distracted when I did before. I also wonder what Assange looks like to you through this lens - he seems like one of few figures who may be both principal and onstage. No idea really anymore, though.

[SonicG]

So, apparently this Mike Cernovich character is going to be on 60 Minutes tonight, perhaps focusing on "fake news"?
This article is the first time I have read anything about him...

How Mike Cernovich Is Pizzagating His Latest Victim
Vic Berger IV is not — and this is going to sound weird, but bear with me — involved in an online pedophilia ring. If you take one thing away from this story, it should be that. Berger is a Tim & Eric collaborator and video editor who recently made something of a name for himself publishing surreal videos built mostly from presidential campaign footage. Yet a disturbingly large number of people have sent him hundreds of tweets and messages accusing him of being connected to a nonexistent Twitter pedophilia ring.

The reason for this is that Mike Cernovich, a leading alt-right and manosphere figure, has implied as such, over and over and over, in tweets and Periscope videos. He appears to have done so because he is mad at Berger over a Twitter fight. Berger has, indeed, repeatedly made fun of Cernovich. Cernovich has responded by escalating their insult war into accusations of horrible crimes, and weaponizing his hundreds of thousands of followers into a sustained campaign of harassment and threats. This is the 2016 internet.
http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/12/how- ... ictim.html

[Luther Blissett]

Vic Berger now?

[liminalOyster]

Protesters outside White House demand ‘Pizzagate’ investigation
By Michael E. Miller March 25 at 3:12 PM



Several dozen people assembled outside the White House Saturday to demand an investigation into the unfounded Internet
rumor known as “Pizzagate.”

Wearing T-shirts and holding banners defending the conspiracy theory — which falsely linked Hillary Clinton to an alleged
child-sex-trafficking ring operating out of a D.C. pizza parlor — protesters took turns climbing onto an elevated stage in
Lafayette Square to demand politicians and mainstream news media take their claims seriously.

“I don’t have any doubt that Pizzagate is real,” said Kori Hayes, a corrections officer who drove with his wife and three kids to
Washington from Middleburg, Fla., on Friday night for the event. “But nothing is being said about it.”

The demonstration came a day after the widely debunked conspiracy theory suffered two further blows.

On Friday, a North Carolina man pleaded guilty to weapons and assault charges in connection to an ill-fated attempt to expose
the alleged sex-trafficking operation.

Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, admitted traveling to Comet Ping Pong in Northwest Washington on Dec. 4, anticipating a violent
confrontation over his personal investigation of Pizzagate. He entered the restaurant holding an assault rifle, prompting a
panicked evacuation by workers and customers. Welch fired the rifle at least once while searching for evidence of child sex
abuse.

After finding none, he surrendered to police.

Also on Friday, Alex Jones, a conspiracy-loving media personality who pushed the Pizzagate narrative, apologized for his role
in spreading the viral story.

Jones posted a 6-minute video on his website, “InfoWars,” in which he apologized to James Alefantis, the owner of Comet
Ping Pong.

“I made comments about Mr. Alefantis that in hindsight I regret, and for which I apologize to him,” Jones said. “We relied on
third-party accounts of alleged activities and conduct at the restaurant. We also relied on accounts of [two] reporters who are
no longer with us.”

“To my knowledge today, neither Mr. Alefantis nor his restaurant Comet Ping Pong, were involved in any human trafficking as
was part of the theories about Pizzagate,” he added. The story, he said, “was based upon what we now believe was an incorrect
narrative.”

Neither of those developments dissuaded the 50 or so protesters from demonstrating outside the White House on Saturday.
Hayes called InfoWars “the only place you can get the news nowadays where it’s not opinion,” but said he wasn’t bothered by
Jones’s about-face on Pizzagate.

“This paper in my hand is at least enough for an investigation,” the 25-year-old said, holding a flier labeled
“Pizzagate/Pedogate” that listed “pedophile code words and symbols” supposedly found at Comet Ping Pong.

Hayes wore a shirt saying “Pizzagate is Not Fake News.” His wife, Danielle, 31, wore one reading “Investigate Pizzagate.”

Their three children, ages 9, 5 and 2, each wore shirts saying “I Am Not Pizza #pizzagate.”

“We’ve been watching since the [John] Podesta emails came out on Wikileaks,” Danielle said. “And we just followed it down
the rabbit hole.”

They said they learned of Saturday’s protest from a video posted to YouTube by David Seaman.

Seaman, who spoke at the rally, declined to speak to The Washington Post, calling the newspaper “fake news” and screaming
expletives at a reporter.

Several protesters said they were motivated to attend the event because of abuse they themselves had suffered or witnessed.

George, an editor from New Hampshire who declined to give his last name, held up a banner reading “Pedophilia Ruined My
Childhood” and “Investigate #Pizzagate.”

“I was a victim of childhood abuse for 12 years,” he told The Post. “I don’t know if [PizzaGate] is legit or not, but I think it
should be investigated.”

Keith Clark from Maryland said he had witnessed child sex abuse as a kid and felt like Pizzagate wasn’t being taken seriously.
“People don’t believe the victims,” said Clark, 30.

Dawn Wolf, a 55-year-old respiration therapist from southern Michigan, said she and her family drove eight hours Friday to
attend the rally after watching Seaman’s YouTube videos on Pizzagate.

“Pedogate is a spiritual darkness,” she said, wearing a pink T-shirt with the words “Ephesians 6:12″ on it — a Bible verse about
a struggle “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.”

One by one, protesters took to the stage, in front of a banner reading “Our Children Matter,” to insist that Pizzagate was real
and what was fake was the media ignoring it.

“Don’t you dare imply that we are crazy ones,” said one woman into a megaphone.

“Right?” said Danielle Hayes as she watched from the audience, pushing a baby stroller.

“Hold my hand baby,” she said, reaching for her 5-year-old daughter in the Pizzagate t-shirt and casting a quick glance at the
city around her.

“This is where the monsters live,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/loc ... stigation/

[Elvis]

Keith Clark from Maryland said he had witnessed child sex abuse as a kid and felt like Pizzagate wasn’t being taken seriously.
“People don’t believe the victims,” said Clark, 30.

Yikes.

They said they learned of Saturday’s protest from a video posted to YouTube by David Seaman.

[82_28]

Well here is the deal and it is no palliative but as the great Carl Sagan and of course others have said we are all the products of abuse and rape somewhere down the line. Ain't fair and ain't cool but dems the troof. What this all has to do with pizza, I have no idea.

BUT

If we bought Domino's stock 8 years ago we would all be millionaires today. I think it went from 8 bucks back then and now sits at $109 per share.

[liminalOyster]

This is brilliant.



edit:

Here's a timely Kinja comment on Jones apology:

I would gladly contribute to Alefantis’ legal fund (though where are the left’s billionaire sugar daddies?) if he can take down Alex Jones as Peter Thiel did Gawker. Both sides can play at that game.

I predict Alefantis and crew will announce a lawsuit against Jones within two weeks.

[Iamwhomiam]

Some quirky Texas law's in play. Jones had 30 days to apologize from the time Alefantis demanded him to. I believe Alefantis can still sue even though Jones' apology was timely.

Let's hope it's a turning point rather than a mere pivoting in Jones' career.

[elfismiles]

He's issued a follow-up since his public apology...

EXCLUSIVE: Alex Jones Responds To Pizzagate Controversy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsrMuuG9tro

A Note to Our Listening, Viewing and Reading Audiences Concerning Pizzagate Coverage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgE2rbrqQoI

Some quirky Texas law's in play. Jones had 30 days to apologize from the time Alefantis demanded him to. I believe Alefantis can still sue even though Jones' apology was timely.

Let's hope it's a turning point rather than a mere pivoting in Jones' career.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Let's hope it's a turning point rather than a mere pivoting in Jones' career.

Rrrrrrreally doubt that. Jones is just too useful and Alefantis is too peripheral.

[liminalOyster]

Worth a footnote here that Gawker Media began at least a few forays into dangerous territory during theThiel/Hogan case - Nick Bryant's Epstein piece and staff overlap with the Intercept among other things probably escaping me at moment.

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Anybody seen the MSNBC report from (allegedly) 2013 that's featured in this video and aware of any mainstream journalistic follow-up?
On edit: full link (as the embed doesn't function where I am).
https://youtu.be/_7OoUQ2KFt4

[Wombaticus Rex]

We've discussed that here, sure. (The Pedophile File is a huge thread.)

It got memory holed like any other such allegation does. The video you're posting seems eager to imply that a completely unrelated incident years earlier vindicates Mike Thernovith's accusations about a pizza parlor in Washington, DC, though ... that's ... just bullshit.

Anyway: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-depar ... tigations/

(CBS News) CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

The Diplomatic Security Service, or the DSS, is the State Department's security force, charged with protecting the secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors overseas and with investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of the 70,000 State Department employees worldwide.

CBS News' John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General's memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples. Among them: allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut "engaged in sexual assaults" on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security detail "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries" -- a problem the report says was "endemic."

The memo also reveals details about an "underground drug ring" was operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and supplied State Department security contractors with drugs.

Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator with the State Department's internal watchdog agency, the Inspector General, told Miller, "We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases."

In such cases, DSS agents told the Inspector General's investigators that senior State Department officials told them to back off, a charge that Fedenisn says is "very" upsetting.

"We were very upset. We expect to see influence, but the degree to which that influence existed and how high up it went, was very disturbing," she said.

In one specific and striking cover-up, State Department agents told the Inspector General they were told to stop investigating the case of a U.S. Ambassador who held a sensitive diplomatic post and was suspected of patronizing prostitutes in a public park.

The State Department Inspector General's memo refers to the 2011 investigation into an ambassador who "routinely ditched ... his protective security detail" and inspectors suspect this was in order to "solicit sexual favors from prostitutes."

Sources told CBS News that after the allegations surfaced, the ambassador was called to Washington, D.C. to meet with Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, but was permitted to return to his post.

Fedenisn says "hostile intelligence services" allow such behavior to continue. "I would be very surprised if some of those entities were not aware of the activities," she said. "So yes, it presents a serious risk to the United States government."

A draft of the Inspector General's report on the performance of the DSS, obtained by CBS News, states, "Hindering such cases calls into question the integrity of the investigative process, can result in counterintelligence vulnerabilities and can allow criminal behavior to continue."

John Miller spoke with Mike Pohelitz, a retired Senior Agent at the DSS who was involved in one of the cases listed in the Inspector General's memo. Pohelitz said he was told to stop investigating one of the cases and that the order likely came from the upper ranks of the DSS.

"I got the information through my DS channel," he told Miller. "But it had to come from somebody higher than DS, I'm sure."

According to Fedenisn, when a high-ranking State Department security officials was shown a draft of their findings that investigations were being interfered with by State Department higher-ups, he said, "This is going to kill us." In the final report however, all references to specific cases had been removed.

"I mean my heart really went out to the agents in that office, because they really want to do the right thing, they want to investigate the cases fully, correctly, accurately ... and they can't," Fedenisn said.

Fedenisn, a DSS agent for 26 years, was a part of the team that prepared the draft report and is now a whistleblower who has taken her concerns to Congress.

Two hours after CBS News made inquiries to the State Department about these charges, investigators from the State Department's Inspector General showed up at her door.

Speaking at a press briefing Monday, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said: "We hold all employees to the highest standards. We take allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate thoroughly. All cases mentioned in the CBS report were thoroughly investigated or under investigation, and the -- the department continues to take action. Finally, the department has responded to the recommendations in the OIG report regarding the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's of Investigations and counter-intelligence. Diplomatic Security has taken the further step of requesting additional review by outside experience law enforcement officers on top of the OIG inspection so that officers with law enforcement experience can make expert assessments about our current procedures."

Psaki went on to say the "notion that we would not vigorously pursue criminal misconduct in a case, any case, is preposterous ... ambassadors would be no exception." Without speaking about specific cases, Psaki described any misconduct as "hardly endemic."

A statement provided to CBS News by the Inspector General's office said:

OIG does not comment on drafts of reports.

On its own initiative, OIG Office of Investigations has been conducting its own independent review of the allegations made. This is our standard procedure.

We staffed it independently and appropriately and they were people hired specific for this review at the end of 2012. They are on staff. We staffed it with the best people we can find at hand to do the job.

DS does not speak for us.

[Spiro C. Thiery]

The video you're posting seems eager to imply that a completely unrelated incident years earlier vindicates Mike Thernovith's accusations about a pizza parlor in Washington, DC, though ... that's ... just bullshit.

Yeah, I suspected there'd be no actual evidence of that kind. And his tag at the end, which involved his logical leap to the presence of "a ring", is absurd. Still, I'd never seen the story and a cover-up invites such speculation. Interesting that NBC went unbridled with "paedophilia" and CBS leaned on the "drugs and prostitutes" angle.

[tapitsbo]

The venerable ISGP weighs in:

https://isgp-studies.com/pizzagate