Verdict Is In But Not Out On The Pacific Palisades Fire Arsonist (Update: Apparently Not So Much)

The jury has reached a verdict ion the case of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the left wing arsonist who set the Lachman fire that became the Palisades Fire in California.

NBC News: Jury reaches a verdict in trial over deadly, destructive Palisades Fire

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, faced three federal charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce and timber set afire for the January 2025 Palisades Fire. 

 The former Uber driver pleaded not guilty in October and faces up to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht intentionally and maliciously started a previous fire on a popular hiking trail known as Skull Rock on Jan. 1, called the Lachman Fire, that smoldered for days before metastasizing into the giant Palisades Fire six days later.

“On Jan. 1, 2025, Jonathan Rinderknecht started a fire on a hill in the Pacific Palisades,” prosecutor Danbee C. Kim said in closing statements. “He was angry all the time. He believed he was enslaved by the wealthy. He didn’t understand why the ‘rich losers’ and the ‘motherf----- at the top’ had it all.”

In short, he bought fully into the DSA and progressives propaganda, tropes, and bromides about the rich and apparently acted on it, as shown in his digital footprint showing his researching about setting fires at being at the ignition point of the fire right before it was reported.

As of now, they still haven't released the verdict.

Well, update a few hours later. 

 The Narrator: They do not, in fact have verdict. 

Instead, they have a deadlocked and potentially hung jury.

The same link above now goes to this page: NBC News:       Jury deadlocked in trial over deadly, destructive Palisades Fire 

Guess they called that one a tad early.  We will see if they are hung tomorrow or can get to a verdict.  

Further Update:  It ended in a hung jury and a mistrial.   New trial is set for October.

A Convenient Scandal: Swalwell, The Media, and the California Democratic Shakeout

Democrats and the mainstream media have a rather incestuous relationship, where they benefit and cover for each other.

Now that the Democrats need to whittle down the field of potential Democrats running for governor of California due to the jungle primary system that they created, Eric Swalwell has to go.

You see, California Democrats instituted a jungle primary where the top vote-getters, regardless of party end up on the ballot.

The idea behind the jungle primary was to eliminate Republicans as candidates for office.

However, with such a large field of Democrats running this time, with none of them willing to conceded, this has created the potential for the unthinkable - the two Republican candidates may end up being the sole survivors of the primary with the larges share of the primary vote.

The Democrats can't have that. Would seriously upset the one-party apple cart.

So, the Democratic field of candidates must be reduced and if they won't leave, willingly, conditions must be arranged to make them drop out.

PJ Media: The Morning Briefing: Eric Swalwell's Gubernatorial Bid Gets Hit By the #MeToo Train

So, and funny how that happens, credible allegations of serious sexual assaults that happened over many years, on the part of Swalwell have suddenly and most conveniently surfaced now. 

It knocks him out and serves as a message pour encourager les autres  that if there's dirt on them and they're not a star of the party, they may want to step back.

So why reference the media?  Because the Democrats and the mainstream media both knew about his activities, and both covered it up so long as he was a party member in good standing:

 

Yep, this reporter is stating Swalwell's behavior towards women was known - since 2013 - yet neither he, nor other reporters, nor the Party, breathed not a word of it or gave it any coverage til now when it is politically convenient to do so. 

Democrats talk about a War on Women and they sure are fighting the War on Women all right - on the women. 

The Dems are cosplaying with Handmaid's outfits while tolerating sexual harassment and outright assaults on women so long as the perpetrators have  (D) behind their name, and the media both covers it --and covers it up -- for them.

More On California's High-Speed Train Corruption

Not only is the corruption and over-spending in the California high speed rail project bad enough that it is at 135 Billion dollars in spending with no tangible results -- from a budget that was supposed to be 10 billion dollars total for the project when it was announced in 2009 with no end in sight.

It's now bad enough that the Democrats in California are pushing a law to make the  news of how corrupt the high-speed rail project has been, and continues to be, a secret from Californians.

Daniel Greenfield:  California Politicians Propose Law Hiding Corruption from the Public

 You could say the California Democrats are running a train on the residents of California, and you wouldn't be wrong.

Oh, and if you're not reading Daniel Greenfield on a regular basis, you are missing out.

The Democrats Have Made Their Choices, Let Them Live With Them

The selections were all in blue strongholds, and Democrats made their choices.

In New York City the Democrats had a choice of Democrat-authoritarian Cuomo and a Democrat-Islamo-Socialist Mamdani, and they went for Mamdani for Mayor.  After all it was an easy sell when even as he's never held a managerial position ever he offerered free stuff and socialism as the panacea for NYC.  Not a particularly great choice either way, but that is the Democrat bench right now.

I guess if Democratic Socialists figure if they can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

But, given how the DSA's version of socialism has so far failed everywhere it has ever been tried, leading to financial ruin and social harm, I'd bet against them succeeding in New York City, too.

Good luck NYC, you're going to need it as you're about to get what you asked for, good and hard.  

California voted to gerrymander the Republicans out of existence in their state.  I guess as a result they won't have the Republicans to blame for the state of their state but will still blame them anyways.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, the NAACP endorsed a white woman over an African American woman, not that there's anything wrong with that.

More importantly, the Democrat voters of Virginia put into office as Attorney General a candidate who advocated and fantasized about shooting his opponent and the deaths of his opponent's family.

The next time a Democrat prattles on about "stochastic terrorism" tell them to text someone who cares, as they surely do not. At least, they do not so long as the stochastic terrorist is a Democrat. 

The Narrative Is Nothing If Not Predictable

The California mass killing at a dance hall that left ten dead has followed the by now rather predictable narrative:

1.  First, the claim is made before the facts are out that it was a race-based attack and blame is placed on white supremacy or "hate".

2,  When the facts then show it was an Asian man attacking other Asians, the narrative shifts immediately, without missing a beat, to "gun violence".

The shift from blaming the attacker to blaming a tool is as rapid as it is predictable.

The New York Times: Good morning. Once again, America is confronting the aftermath of a gun massacre.

. . .


The gunman, whom the authorities identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, is believed to have then gone to a dance hall in the neighboring city of Alhambra. But he fled, according to the authorities. Officers later found him in a parked van after he reportedly shot himself to death.

The gunman used “a magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol” that is probably not legal in California, Luna said. His motives remain under investigation.

“Gun violence needs to stop,” Luna said. “There’s too much of it.”

This kind of mass shooting has become tragically common in the U.S.; what would be a rare horror in any other developed country is typical here. Yet the cause is no mystery. America has an enormous amount of guns, making it easier for someone to carry out a deadly shooting.

. . .

If anything, the chart, which uses data from 2017 and 2018, understates America’s problem. The U.S. rate of gun homicides has increased in recent years, according to the Small Arms Survey.

And just like that, right on cue, the narrative jumped from  the bugbear of a race-based attack (and one should note that in the US, the vast majority of attacks on Asians from non-Asians are committed by African-Americans, not whites) to "gun violence". 

Funny how the NYT notes gun violence has "increased in recent years"  but doesn't look at all into the reasons for that like the Ferguson effect, the Defund the Police Movement, the End Cash Bail Movement, and the fact that the majority of violence is confined to a small but active criminal subset of the population that gets the revolving door treatment from the justice system.

Gun Banners Show They Are Not About Reducing Crime With Guns

the Progressive Gun Banners keep talking about banning guns, ostensibly to reduce crime committed with guns,  but at the same time refuse to enforce already existing firearms laws against criminals using guns in crime.

Let's take LA's prosecutor George Gascon for example.

While he's all in favor of gun control  - read gun bans and disarmament of the law-abiding, he's been very open and vociferous about not prosecuting criminals who actually use guns in their crimes.

He eliminated enhanced sentences for using firearms in crimes, leading criminals using guns to get paltry sentences that let them out to commit crimes again.   

He eliminated the enhancement for being in a gang and committing crimes, thus allowing gang violence to flourish.

He eliminated cash bail, allowing criminals to speed up the already quick-moving revolving door form arrest back to the streets.

This has consequences: Gunman who shot dead two cops at motel near Los Angeles was on PROBATION for carrying a gun and has been banned from owning a weapon since 2011: Woke LA DA George Gascon is slammed for 'soft-on-crime' policies

The deaths of those two police officers on June 14, 2022 is on two heads - the scum who shot and killed them, and the scum George Gascon who made sure the killer was released and free to commit murder when he should have been locked up with enhanced sentences for his multiple felonies - includign his beign a felon in possession of a firearm -  laws already on the books to incarcerate dangerous criminals using firearms in crime applied.

Gun banners are demonstrably not acting in good faith when they seek to disarm the law-abiding, yet go out of their woke way to release criminals actually using firearms in crimes back onto the streets to commit more crimes. 

Gun control is demonstrably not about a reduction in crime or crime control. 

Instead, it is about disarming the law-abiding and leaving them at the hands of criminals constantly allowed to commit crimes, often using guns that these progressives claim they want banned.

California Continuing To Slouch Towards Anarcho-Tyranny

The Detroit News: 76K California violent, career felons get earlier releases

With little notice, California on Saturday is increasing early release credits for 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, as it further trims the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system.

More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017.

Criminal justice reform tends to be done to both reduce the state's costs and appease woke criminal supporting activists, resulting in the release of unreformed criminals to prey upon the (in California very much disarmed) population, increasing the costs to the population in terms of losses from crime.

 Note that this was done by Governor Newsom's executive order and going into immediate effect, bypassing administrative review or the law-making process. It also most conveniently gets 76,000 likely supporters out of jail and eligible to vote for Newsom in the upcoming recall referendum.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with this release.  Well, at the very least the politicians making these edicts won't face the consequences directly.

While California Is Undergoing An Electric Power Shortage With No Expected Relief In Sight

Governor Newsom announces that by 2035 only electric cars may be sold as new vehicles in California.

The Detroit News: California moves to end sales of new gas-powered cars

California will halt sales of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, a move he says will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35% in the nation’s most populous state.

 As there's no simultaneous push to increase reliable electric power generation in the state of California to meet the demand of all these new electric cars, and they can't even keep up with electrical demand as it stands now.

  I think we can have a pretty good idea as to how this is going to end up.

If Only The Place Had California Levels Of Gun Control.....Oh, Nevermind

The shooting took place in California.

The Detroit News: California police say 10 shot, 4 killed at backyard party

Funny how such strict gun laws in California just don't seem to keep the criminals from breaking those same laws and committing crimes.

There oughta be a law against doing that, right?

Youtube Shooter Identified?

Reports are coming in stating that the shooter was a woman and this was likely a domestic dispute brought to work.

Not so fast.

You simply can't assume her gender like that. After all, his is YouTube/Google.

This may instead very well be the first murder ever committed by a Dragonkin or perhaps even a Unicorn.

Good thing it took place in a gun-free zone,and therefore is in-possible.

Update: Shooter is identified as a hot, crazy Iranian, Muslim, Vegan probably a devotee of Crossfit. It was not a "domestic situation" but apparently she was angry over her YouTube channel being demonetized and hated the company. No news on how she self-identified yet. She wounded three and only killed herself.

Disney DACA Protesters Miss An Opportunity

So some DACA dreamers decided to blockade Disneyland yesterday, accomplishing little more than annoying those trying to get in.

Los Angeles Times: DACA recipients temporarily block Disneyland entrance as an act of civil disobedience.

Rather ironic on two counts:

First, they're stopping someone from entering, sort of demonstrating the value of border security and restictive immigration, if you will.

Second, why the heck did they stop outside the entrance? As people with experience going through borders without permission, I would have expected them to hop on in and become undocumented guests to the theme park and enjoy the delights of Disneyland gratis on a deferred admission plan . . .

Why Do Anti-Gun People Hate Women, Or So What Additional Law Would Have Stopped Him?

The scum that shot his wife, a teacher in San Bernadino yesterday along with hititng two students had prior convictions for domestic violence, drugs and weapons charges.

So, let's see how many laws he broke:

Federal felon/prohibited person in possession law, a felony.

Federal Gun Free School Zone Act - possession of a firearm in a school zone - a felony.

Federal Gun Free School Zone Act - discharging a firearm in a school zone - a felony.

California's felon with a firearm prohibition -Penal Code 29800 PC California's "felon with a firearm" law, another felony.

California's Gun Free School Zone Act - a felony.

California's carrying a loaded weapon in public statute - a felony as he had already committed a felony.

California's concealed carry law based on how he transported the firearm and then took it into the school - another felony violation.

Don't forget California's penalty for discharging a firearm in a Gun Free School Zone - another felony.

He also violated California's law against using a firearm against school employees, a wobbler but probably a felony in this case.

That's 9, count 'em, 9 felonies already and we haven't even looked at California ammunition transport statutes that he violated, nor likely his violating a PPO assuming she had one, nor the California assault with a type of handgun statute as I'm not sure what firearm he used, nor other firearms-related statutes that he violated. I have also not looked at the County Ordinances, nor of course have we added in the ultimate felony he committed - murder.

So anti-gunners, do tell what additional law would have stopped him from killing his estranged wife in a gun free zone?

LA Police Commission Advocates A Brave Sir Robin Policy For LA Police

California is its own special place, and LA gets referred to as La La Land for a reason, and their Police Commission there seems to be drinking from the same fountain of crazy.

The LA Police Commission has actually advocated that Los Angeles Police officers, when confronted by an armed assailant run away from the threat rather than use deadly force to respond. The Commission found fault with an officer in a shooting when a lady armed with a knife charged at officers and closed from 70 feet to 5 feet in under 10 seconds.

Yes, they actually want the Police there to act as Brave Sir Robin:

Los Angeles Police Protective League: Police Commission tells officers to run away, or else

When faced by an attacked charging with a knife, the Commission apparently believes the appropriate response is to run backwards from an advancing threat, which is hardly a safe move for either the officer or the general public.

Advocating police run away from armed individuals in the process of attacking them and finding fault and potentially disciplining police if they do not is not only seriously problematic to the officer's safety but to the safety of the public at large.

The Implications From The San Bernardino Terrorist Attack Are Rather Worrisome

The really frightening implication from the San Bernardino terrorist attack isn’t so much that they chose to leave their 6 month-old baby behind and give up what seemed to be a rather nice American lifestyle with good secure government jobs and instead go forth and get themselves killed in the name of jihad.

Instead, the far more disturbing implication is that this guy described as a "devout Muslim but not outwardly radical" just up and mowed down co-workers that he had happily worked beside and known for years without warning and with happy abandon for the simple reason that they were not of his religion and ideology.

The last bunch we got serious about dealing with that went around killing with abandon their neighbors who had religions differing from them, we had to intern lots of those that lived here, bomb their cities to rubble, outlaw their ideology, and occupy them for about 70 years. Haven't had serious trouble from them since.

It also shows the absolute fallacy that strict gun control laws, gun free zones and unarmed security guards are going to keep anyone safe, but we already knew that.

Oh and Democrats - Prayers are not enough at a time like this, right?

Well, It's Not Exactly "Workplace Violence" Now Is It?

The Detroit News: Wife in shooting pledged allegiance to IS

Of course, the Obama administration even after learning this latest tidbit is still going on the "sudden workplace rage" theory:

At the same time, law enforcement officials from local police to Attorney General Loretta Lynch cautioned it could have been work-related rage. Or a twisted hybrid of religion and personal vendetta.

The narrative blaming white males and the NRA sure fell apart quickly and quite conveniently only after it was caterwauled from every proggy news outlet, now didn't it?

In LA It's Fun To Be An Illegal Alien

Unlike lawful immigrants and citizens in the same circumstance, you won't get your car impounded for driving without a license.

Fox News:  LAPD policy for impounding cars deemed lawful

A state court determined Friday that a Los Angeles Police Department policy that makes it easier for unlicensed drivers to keep their cars instead of having them impounded after police stops is lawful and can remain in place.

The policy has been supported by the city attorney and immigrant rights groups, who said the old impound policy was unfair to immigrants who cannot obtain a driver's license.

So it's good to be an illegal in LA - you'll be treated better and far moire favorably than others on the basis of you're being there illegally and illegally driving without a license.

Sorry, Can't Do Nothing For You In California And Life's About To Suck For You In Michigan Too.

Met someone with a thorny firearms problem.

He's been an avid shooter for years, responsible, and all that stuff. Has bought many a firearm. Appears to be a pretty much decent peaceful fellow.

Until he applied for his Michigan Concealed Pistol License.

That's when he found about about a misdemeanor he had over 16 years ago in California. No trouble with the law since then. I stated I can't help him with any California legal issues as I'm not a California attorney, but he wanted to tell me the tale.

The misdemeanor was based on a dispute between him, his live-in girlfriend and her not-live-in ex-boyfriend who had friend status(it's California, just go with it).

You see, according to him, the boyfriend (this part was apparently verified with later criminal charges) had been busy stealing and selling his guns and other possessions to buy pharmaceutical items which are less than legal to purchase. This led to a vociferous dispute to which the boyfriend called police and claimed that both he and the girlfriend had been threatened with violence by our guy (note, no physical contact, merely an alleged threat as verified in the court papers), and the prosecutor decided to pile on the charges.

Some of you see where this is going - it starts with Lauten and ends in berg, as in the Lautenberg Amendment.

But then it gets weirder.

See, California doesn't like domestic violence and if you're convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor you lose your gun rights there for 10 years (This is in addition to the Lautenberg lifetime ban. Again, California.

Now, the guy pled out to what he thought was a simple misdemeanor threatening charge and dropping of other charges, doing so according to him only because he had to leave the state to work as his employer required the move, and he was told at the time that it was not a domestic violence charge. Indeed, the terms of sentence of probation even give him his firearms back after 1 year - 9 less than if it had been a domestic violence conviction. He did in fact get his firearms back after one year and thought he was all done.

Unfortunately, sometime after he did the plea and completed all the terms of his probation, someone in the court system stamped the file "Domestic Violence" and guess what? Yep, it's picked up on the CPL background check, and that's when he first learned it was considered to be a domestic violence conviction.

Amazingly enough, it is not picked up by NICS as he's been able to buy firearms from dealers for over 16 years since the conviction date with no problem on NICS, including filling out Form 4473.

At that point I told him that:

1. He needs to get a California attorney ASAP to get this sorted out if possible and try for an expungement or to fix the classification of the case (But, there's apparently a twist in California law or procedure that makes their expungement not a true expungement for Lautenberg purposes and good luck with fixing a 16 year-old case where you pled to it); and

2. He needs to transfer his firearms immediately out of his possession as unbeknownst to him all this time he's committing a felony by owning firearms.

Some laws have very bad intended consequences, and this guy fell right int one of them.

Gun Banners Coming To Realization That Emotional Fact-Free Rants Don't Work

So they're desperately trying to find a Plan B after finding out that Plan A, dancing in the blood of the dead is failing.

The Detroit Free Press: Grief, photos no longer inspire change in gun debate

Yes, no longer can a blind appeal to emotion sway most Americans from realizing that gun owners are not responsible for the acts of the few insane individuals that committed spree killings.

The Gn Controllers using the Santa Barbara incident are realizing they're haivng an uphillclimb, one fathers public rant notwithstanding because:

1. Yet again, its a narcissistic individual with a very long history of mental problems that commited the crime.

2. Yet again the authorities failed to intervene after clear warnings that he was a danger to himself and others.

3. In addition to using a firearm, the killer also killed just as many people with a knife and also used a BMW as an attempted murder weapon - blaming the gun alone when it was only used for 50% of all deaths incurred is hard to do.

4. it took place in California, an A rated state with the Gun Controllers for its ridiculously restrictive gun laws. Even with all those laws, the system still failed to prevent it, thus showing these laws to be pretty darn useless in deterring such spree killings,

So the transition to plan B is hard, instead of pure emotions, they're going to shift to emotions and lies at a local level.

Since last Friday, when Elliot Rodger murdered University of California-Santa Barbara student Christopher Michaels-Martinez and five others in Isla Vista, Michaels-Martinez’s father has publicly processed his grief and rage on viral videos by calling for gun control and blaming “craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA.”

But even as the videos racked up views on YouTube, political journalists across the country spent the week writing soberly about how Martinez’s grief won’t affect the gun debate.

Thay is why gun-control advocates are already experimenting with new tactics after grieving fathers like Daniel Barden (Sandy Hook), John Green (Tucson) and Tom Teves (Aurora) failed to spur action at the federal level.

Again, blaming the NRA for this is ridiculous and is a nonsensical appeal to emotion that doesn't fit the facts. All the progressive journos covering it were wondering why it didn't work, 'cause as usual it worked on them and fit their world view even as it didn't fit the facts.

So now they're trying to have people ensure their 401Ks don't have gun companies as part of their investments.

The film was released in April by the Campaign To Unload, an initiative backed by 20 to gun-violence prevention groups that encourages 50 million Americans with 401(k)s to check whether their retirement funds invest in gun companies.

Good luck with that bit of BDS insanity. The firearms sector, thanks to Obama and the gun banners has been doing very good business-wise with excellent profitability. If they are dumb enough to "unload" that will create an excellent buying opportunity for the rest of us.

But as usual, don't expect common sense form gun grabbers. They're still in the early stages of realizing they're losing.

et since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, almost every state has enacted at least one new gun law, according to the San Francisco-based non-profit Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Nearly two-thirds of those laws eased restrictions or expanded the rights of gun owners.

The really amazing part is they now that they are losing, even with millions of Bloomberg and Joyce Foundation money and politicians in their pockets are trying to cast themselves as the underdog and being for civil rights.

“I look to the gay-rights struggle, the civil-rights struggle, for inspiration,” Budde said.

The civil rights model has four steps: a group must self identify; establish leaders; create a public face, including marches, acts of civil disobedience or message-filled art; and it must promote its goals by electing members to political offices and creating institutions, such as magazines, newspapers and academic programs.

Here's the difference folks, the gay rights and civil rights campaigns succeeded as they were correctly advertised as steps to gain people rights. The gun controller's aim is to take away the majority of American's civil rights. That is why they will fail.

Indeed, it is the NRA, its members, and gun rights proponents in general that have been following the civil rights model as depicted, not the gun banners with their AstroTurf organizations, big money donors and lies and emotional appeals to authority.

FIAT Losing Money On Every 500e Electric Car

It seems that Chrysler's Italian savior has adopted the Big 3 policy of losing money on cars they sell but making it up in volume.

The Detroit News: Marchionne: Fiat loses $14K on every electric 500

So why are they selling the 500e when every car is a $14k hit to the bottom line?

Basically it's due to perverse environmental incentives and regulations with which the company must comply.

Marchionne last year had estimated the company would lose about $10,000 on each subcompact 500e, which went on sale last summer and was created to comply with California’s zero-emissions vehicle rule. Fiat will expand sales to Oregon this summer.

Without the regulation, it's unlikely FIAT would willingly produce a loss-leader car like the 500e.

The Fiat 500e, has a starting price of $32,300, but can be purchased for as little as $19,300 when accounting for tax credits and incentives.

In other words, the rest of the US via the electric vehicle income tax credit is subsidizing California car buyers picking up electric vehicles for below cost. The vehicle is only environmentally (and that's only if you don't look to where the electricity in the electric car comes from) but not economically viable.

On top of losing on the 500e, FIAT must also buy emissions credits:

FCA — which has had to buy emissions credits to comply with U.S. guidelines

FIAT has found itself fouled by government fiat.

It's Always In The Last Place You Look

Hidden fortress found under Alcatraz

Previously thought to have been destroyed, it turns out that the Civil War era fortress was instead buried under the prison.

From The Detroit Free Press:

A surprising find under what used to be America’s most notorious prison: Texas A&M researchers using ground-penetrating radar have discovered the remains of an old military fortress long believed to have been completely destroyed, reports the BBC.

. . .

The radar has revealed old fortifications along with buried magazine buildings and tunnels dating from long before the main prison building was erected in 1915.

Yet another neat find, and an excavation of the prison's parade ground should turn up some interesting parts of the fortress.

Meanwhile, it looks like another lost fort, Fort Caroline, thought to have been in Florida may instead have been in Georgia all this time.

Some people lose their keys, but it takes a country to lose entire forts....