Bill Gates Blackmailed Over Sex Crimes? Unarmed Trans Man Killed by Security Guard-No Charges Filed by San Francisco, Protesting "Climate Change" By Poisoning Fish (The Five for 05/22/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Before we dive in…I wanted to disclose my previous political contributions.
Of course, I don’t have to do this, but every journalist brings bias to the job, so here are all my contributions.
In 2004, I made a $20 donation to George W. Bush’s re-election campaign
In 2016—I made a contribution (I forget how much) to a local mayoral candidate in Kenosha, WI—a Democrat.
In 2020, I made a donation (maybe $20) to Andrew Yang—to help him stay on the debate stage in the Democratic Primary. I thought Yang was a unique candidate who deserved to be heard.
In 2023, I have considered making a contribution to long-shot Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
That’s the full list. I have no idea if Vivek has a real shot, but I believe he brings good ideas to the table, and I hope he makes it to the primary debates.
As to who I’ll vote for in 2024…I have no idea. And I recommend you take a similar approach. Make the candidates earn it, rather than falling in love with hype.
This is the first time The Five has covered the primaries with a broad brush, so I wanted to lead with my own bias.
Now let’s get into the news.
The first solid evidence that Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of running “Pedophile Island” and connecting the world’s most powerful men to sex with unwilling minors, committed blackmail has surfaced.
The convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared to threaten Bill Gates and tried to blackmail the multi-billionaire over his extramarital affair with a Russian bridge player, according to a new report published by the Wall Street Journal.
Speaking to the Journal, sources familiar with the matter said that after Epstein found out about the Microsoft co-founder’s affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, he threatened Gates into reimbursing him for tuition costs that Epstein had initially covered for Antonova to attend software coding school.
Epstein’s threat to Gates came in the form of an email he sent in 2017 after he failed to convince Gates to join a multibillion-dollar charity fund he attempted to set up, according to the sources.
Gates met Antonova in about 2010, when she was in her 20s, and went on to play bridge with her. In a 2010 YouTube video, Antonova recounted a tournament that she played with Gates, saying: “I didn’t beat him but I tried to kick him with my leg.”
According to documents reviewed by the Journal, Antonova wanted to establish an online bridge tutorial business and was attempting to secure funds. Through Boris Nikolic, a close Gates adviser, Antonova was introduced to Epstein to help her raise funds for her initiative, which sought to “promote bridge by creating quality tutorials for beginners and advanced players”, the Journal reported.
Antonova and Nikolic met Epstein at his townhouse in November 2013 in New York City, where she presented her fundraising proposals to him and sought half a million dollars, according to the Journal. Antonova told the outlet that Epstein ultimately did not invest in the initiative.
In 2017, Epstein emailed Gates about Antonova after Gates’s extramarital affair ended, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. In the email, Epstein asked Gates to reimburse him for Antonova’s coding school costs.
“The tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it, the people said,” the Journal reported, adding that a Gates spokesperson said that the Microsoft founder “had no financial dealings with Epstein”.
This is the second major celebrity who could crash and burn thanks to a connection with Epstein, the first being Britain’s Prince Andrew, who settled a case out of court in Virginia with an alleged sex abuse victim, who claims to have been trafficked as a minor by Epstein, then raped by the Prince.
Epstein died in prison in 2019, and even the New York Times ran a story on the details of the physical evidence looking more like strangulation (murder) than hanging, and the Washington Post reported on the broken bones in Epstein’s neck pointing to murder.
Despite this…the phrase “Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself” is often dismissed as conspiracy theory. The evidence tipped years ago towards Epstein being murdered to cover up the sex crimes of A-listers (who he was allegedly blackmailing).
The latest report about Gates being extorted is just another piece of evidence…but this story continues to be (mostly) ignored by the corporate press.
[two]
A security guard in San Francisco won’t be charged after shooting a shoplifter who was exiting the store, hands raised.
The security guard who shot and killed a suspected shoplifter at a Walgreens in downtown San Francisco last month will not face criminal charges, the district attorney’s office announced Monday, saying the shooter acted in self-defense.
The district attorney’s office under Brooke Jenkins released surveillance video and a written report Monday regarding Michael Anthony’s fatal shooting of Banko Brown on April 27.
According to the report, the guard said Brown had repeatedly threatened to stab him prior to the shooting. Police did not find a knife in Brown’s possession, the report states, but prosecutors still determined his fear was reasonable.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, including the threat that Anthony believed, and could reasonably believe, the evidence shows that Brown’s shooting was not a criminal act because Anthony acted in lawful self-defense,” the report states. “Thus, Anthony is not criminally liable for the death of Brown.”
The video is age restricted, so I can’t embed it here, but you can view it here.
Banko Brown, who identified as a trans man, apparently became enraged when the security guard used female pronouns, and the pair tussled, over the alleged stolen goods or the perceived insult (or both).
Regardless of those details, Brown was backing up, hands raised, and exiting the store when the guard fired the fatal shot.
This is the exact narrative of the Mike Brown death in Ferguson, MO that helped kick off the Black Lives Matter movement…but despite the fact that we have nearly irrefutable video evidence of “hands up don’t shoot” this time, the city of San Francisco is not interested in prosecuting murder, for some reason.
U.S. laws allow lethal self defense in the case of potential “loss of life or great bodily harm.” It’s difficult to understand how an unarmed person trying to flee the scene posed a threat of either of those two outcomes.
[three]
Elsewhere in San Francisco…setting people on fire is also not a jailable offense.
A man who was found guilty of lighting UC Berkeley students on fire at a boba shop near the Cal campus in 2020 has been released from custody without prison time or probation after agreeing to participate in a diversion program for veterans, court records show.
In late April, according to records reviewed by The Berkeley Scanner, Brandon McGlone was convicted of multiple felonies in connection with the boba shop attack as well as felony assault and gun charges from a separate domestic violence case.
The resolution to the case was the result of a plea deal between the Alameda County district attorney's office and the public defender's office.
As a result of the deal, McGlone was referred to Veterans Treatment Court, according to Alameda County Superior Court records.
If he completes that program, Judge James Cramer said during the April 28 hearing, the cases against McGlone "would be dismissed."
Let’s go over that one more time…a guy SET PEOPLE ON FIRE and isn’t even a felon.
He can go buy a gun tomorrow. And vote.
If shooting an unarmed person isn’t a jailable offense in San Francisco, and neither is lighting up human beings in the style of Nero in the Roman Republic, what exactly is the point of having police or a D.A.’s office at all?
[four]
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott announced his candidacy for President yesterday, with a heck of an announcement speech.
The Five hasn’t reported much on declared candidates Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy, because neither is moving the needle much against presumed frontrunners Trump and DeSantis. (Again, full disclosure, who I currently lean toward Ramaswamy).
However, Scott, the grandson of an impoverished sharecropper who couldn’t read or write, is making waves.
The New York Times opinion section declared a Scott nomination as a “nightmare for Joe Biden.”
Elon Musk, who was presumably backing DeSantis, may be shifting support to Scott.
Billionaire Larry Elison is backing Scott, presumably with a LOT of money.
Even former President Trump is welcoming Scott to the race with a friendly tone, likely because Scott is likely to degrade the voter base that Ron DeSantis is vying for.
As to what happens next…the Presidential primary is a wild ride, and a great opening to a campaign certainly doesn’t mean victory is guarenteed.
But for the record, Scott had a heck of a first day yesterday. If you’d like to know a bit more about him as a candidate, I highly reccomend checking out this interview of Bari Weiss’ Honestly podcast.
[five]
Oh boy. Priceless antiquity may be permanently damaged because…why exactly?
Luisa Regimenti, councilor for personnel, urban security, local police and local authorities in the Lazio region, which includes Rome, condemned the act. In a written statement she said that it was the “umpteenth* demonstrative act of eco-vandals” that hit “a symbol of Rome universally known in the world.”
Calling it an “irresponsible blitz,” she said dying the fountain was “a serious gesture, a worrying escalation that must be stopped with a safety plan for the monuments and the works of art most at risk in Rome and Lazio.”
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri tweeted: “Enough of these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage. Today the #FontanadiTrevi was smeared. Expensive and complex to restore, hoping there is no permanent damage. I invite activists to compete on a confrontational terrain without putting the monuments at risk.”
He told local media on the scene that the 300,000 liter (66,000 gallon) fountain would have to be emptied and that the dyed water would have to be thrown away. “This will involve a significant intervention. It will cost time, effort and water.”
*side note-there’s a word for “umpteenth” in Italian?!
Just so we’re all on the same page here:
A. “Protesting” climate issues now involves poisoning water for fish, wildlife…and people. Smart. Oh, and this is the third time since April activists have poisoned water with charcoal.
B. The fountain site was fully rebuilt in 1762, after 30 years of construction. The original site, was destroyed by Germanic Barbrians in 261 A.D.
If you’re tactics share anything in common with people who wore skins and slept in the mud, clubbed everyone to death and burned civilization to the ground…you’re doing it wrong.
Until the next one,
-sth