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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34925 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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Sam Brinton is in the news this week.

For those who don't know, Sam is the first non-binary, gay drag queen to hold a federal government leadership position. I know him for his distinctive appearance, with moustache, bald head, and typical cross-dressing clothing and makeup. Here's another piece about him, from several months ago. The culture war angle should be obvious, as this man was highlighted, along with Rachael Levine, as examples of progressive hiring in the Biden administration. Suffice to say that he is not the kind of person I can take seriously, and I do not think he should have been hired, and certainly shouldn't have been celebrated. But that's not why I'm posting.

Now, why was he in the news this week?

Brinton was caught stealing luggage from an airport terminal. I'll notice that this article has no pictures of him. A summary, from here:

On Sept. 16, a female traveler alerted the Airport Police Department at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport that she was missing a piece of luggage.

Law enforcement officers who reviewed surveillance footage that same day saw Brinton remove a navy blue, hard-sided, 26-inch roller bag made by Vera Bradley from Carousel 7, according to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.

The victim confirmed, through a digital still of surveillance footage, that it was her bag with total contents worth $2,325, according to the complaint.

The same style of Vera Bradley luggage sells for $295 from VeraBradley.com.

Law enforcement confirmed that Brinton arrived at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport at 4:27 p.m. Sept. 16 on a flight from Washington, D.C., and had not checked a bag when he departed Washington.

Law enforcement learned that Brinton stayed at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel, and video surveillance from that hotel showed Brinton checking in with a bag that fit the description of the stolen luggage.

So he's been put on leave, for now, and he's due in court on the 19th of this month. At first, I wouldn't have considered posting this, as I simply found it funny in an absurd way, but then I ran across what is really the reason why I posted. I ran across a thread on twitter explaining why this was actually serious, and reflected a dangerous escalation of perverse behavior. I'll quote the main points:

The public needs to understand that this sexual deviant did NOT accidentally pick up the wrong suitcase, as he checked no bags on the flight. This was likely a targeted attempt at gaining access to a woman's underwear. This is what the Biden Admin desperately wants to keep quiet.

With nearly 13K clinical contact hrs, over 14+ years, working in a clinical capacity with men who sexually offend... with men who've done very deviant and heinous things to women and children... I can assure you that, once you see a man steal female items, it's really serious.

Go ahead and read the whole thread.

I hadn't considered this angle, at first, but once it's been pointed out to me, I can't shake it. It's the most plausible argument I've heard of for why Sam would steal the woman's luggage, given that all others make no sense.

So, to wrap up, my questions. First, should he be fired for stealing? Second, how likely is it that Sam stole the luggage specifically for underwear? And third, does this move the needle for you in any way, when considering whether to trust, hire, or promote people like Sam?

He's going to appear in court, say "I took it by mistake I was tired after a long voyage", nobody is going to check if he has a similar type of bag and it's going to end there. It's probably even true. Either way nothing is going to come out of this.

PS. I'm surprised it even went this far. This retroactively justifies every time I double-checked the tag on my bag at the airport.

He had no checked luggage at all, so that's going to be a hard sell.

Depends the forum it is brought in. The FBI only has a good J6 record because they are allowed to bring them all in DC.

He's going to appear in court, say "I took it by mistake I was tired after a long voyage", nobody is going to check if he has a similar type of bag

I can't find a pic of the luggage, but if it is Vera Bradley most of that stuff is super-duper patterned, unless he had the exact same pattern you'd never confuse it. They do list one plain black suitcase, but the rest are wild stuff you'd never mistake for something else.

I always use distinctive suitcases, and on the list of paranoid things I do is take a picture of myself with my suitcase on my phone, in case I get in a dispute at luggage claims.

If the price they report is right it could be this one: https://verabradley.com/collections/rolling-luggage/products/hardside-large-spinner-2813515185?variant=40622072627244 which does come with garish floral patterns but also in generic black and silver. All other models have one or two "boring" (sane?) variants. Regardless, none of this is a unique piece.

nobody is going to check if he has a similar type of bag and it's going to end there

Eh, maybe not:

Surveillance footage showed Brinton allegedly grabbing the luggage from the carousel and removing the ID tag identifying the owner. Brinton was later captured on surveillance using the same suitcase on at least two trips to Washington, DC, on Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, according to authorities.

If it was innocent mistake "I took the wrong case", you would expect that they would try and return it or find the owner. I can't find the report now, but another article on this described them as 'walking briskly' away or some such phrase which was newspaper-speak for "they took the case then ran out of the airport before they could be stopped".

EDIT: It was from the "Statement of Probable Cause" filed with the court

"DEFENDANT removed the blue bag’s tag and put the bag tag in the handbag they were carrying. DEFENDANT then left the area at a quick pace."

Best defence is to claim they were drunk as a skunk after coming off their flight, grabbed the case in a drunken daze, and were too scared to return it once they sobered up. That still doesn't explain "so why were you using the suitcase as your own property?" for further trips, but everyone knows this was theft, we're in the face-saving phase here.

Best defence is to claim they were drunk as a skunk after coming off their flight, grabbed the case in a drunken daze

Also possible

That still doesn't explain "so why were you using the suitcase as your own property?" for further trips

The bag used in further trips could also be his, which happens to be the same model. That he stole it for personal use is the least likely explanation, surely he's paid enough that he can afford to buy a $300 bag.

They've already confirmed that he didn't check a bag on that flight, he did not act to return the item when prompted by police, he has been formally indicted and placed on administrative leave. I think his goose is cooked.

Dems are done with this shit, they are swinging back to the center on race and sexuality issues and focusing on abortion and bread and butter liberal economic issues like healthcare and student debt forgiveness since the midterm proved it works. They passed a statute codifying same-sex marriage, and that is the face they want to put on "LGBTQ" issues, not this rolling disaster of a person. SCOTUS is going to deep-six affirmative action and that is not a winning issue for the Dems, plus it doesn't work to motivate their racial client groups, so don't expect any more BLM-branded racialist muckraking. We're going back to First Term Obama, minus the drone strikes.

From your lips to God's ears.

Though I wonder how that'll play out in the primary, if Biden doesn't run again. I do suspect that Dems can wash their hands clean enough of the past couple years to blunt Republican arguments.

Sure seems to me like Biden is running again.

I think that's extremely optimistic and mirrors a lot of what was said about Clinton repudiating the left excesses of the late-80s. Will come back to this later, but Left inc has always been very good at correcting oversteps by publicly signalling a change in course while simply preparing for another push in the original direction.

See how long repudiating BLM extremism lasted after 2015. They just quietly worked to make the next rollout overwhelming shock and awe while everyone else was thinking "thank God that's over with."

I dunno, Clinton actually did pass harsh mandatory minimum sentences, overhauled welfare to replace it with TANF which generally required people to get a job, etc. He wasn't just talk.

I'm surprised it even went this far.

You should read the Daily Signal link.

Investigators called Brinton on Oct. 9 and asked him whether he took anything from the Minneapolis airport that didn’t belong to him.

“Not that I know of,” Brinton replied, according to the complaint.

Brinton later admitted to taking the wrong bag, but said that he didn’t have the clothes and other contents that the woman said were in the suitcase.

“That was my clothes when I opened the bag,” the Energy Department official said, according to the complaint.

Brinton confirmed that he still had the bag.

Two hours later, Brinton called investigators and apologized for not being “completely honest.” He admitted to taking the Vera Bradley bag and said he was tired at the time and thought it was his.

Brinton told investigators that when he opened the bag and realized it wasn’t his, he got nervous and didn’t know what to do, according to the complaint.

So, Brinton said, he left the clothes from the bag inside drawers in his Saint Paul hotel room. He admitted to checking the bag at the airport Sept. 18 for his return flight to Washington.

When asked why he took the bag with him Sept. 18, Brinton said it would be “weirder” to leave a bag in the hotel room than the clothes, according to the complaint.

I don't see many ways for prosecutors to fail on this one (though I wouldn't be at all surprised if they deliberately failed). From this account I am more inclined to believe that he stole what he recognized as a very expensive piece of luggage, rather than what he expected to be women's underwear. But it is also presumably possible for both of those things to be true at once.

Didn’t he get caught on camera looking at and removing the luggage tag?

Just to be clear - the entire contents of the bag are worth over $2K while the suitcase is only worth $295 brand new. It would really shock me that someone in this position would a) risk a government job for petty theft B) steal a non-collectible, relatively inexpensive suitcase. What's the max you could even resell a used $300 suitcase for?

Obviously this story is really weird. But life is crazy enough that something like this could happen and at this point it was likely a mistake.

"It was a mistake" works right up to the moment when they opened the case and saw the clothes weren't theirs. Even then, "oh crap what do I do?" is excusable as a panic reaction, but first claiming "the case might be wrong but the clothes were mine" (that's a terrible lie, how do you expect to be believed?) and then "I took the clothes out and left them but took the case with me" isn't any better. Surely it would be easier to either take everything with you, or else leave everything behind. Granted, people don't act rationally when in a panic, but unless they can produce the other case that really belongs to them and have both cases for comparison, then "I thought it was mine" doesn't work, and unless there are two identical cases where they can do "This is mine and the one I was using on other trips, this is the case I took by mistake", then it does look like deliberate theft.

Why? I honestly have no idea. Maybe it was one moment of craziness. Maybe they are a kleptomaniac and it's going to come out that they've taken other stuff before.

Reacting to that situation with panic at all is just pathetically terrible judgement. Act like a fucking adult, and call the airport to explain what happened.

How about him just stealing for the momentary thrill as opposed to the money? Crimes are not generally committed by people acting rationally anyway.

Since we don't know the full story, that could be a possibility too. However, given what we know, it doesn't seem likely that this crime was committed for the adrenaline rush for the reasons mentioned earlier.

And Bill Clinton risked his presidency for a BJ, people do stupid things all the time so it seems perfectly plausible to me. Every sign points to this being theft. He made no effort to return it, ditched the clothes, used the bag after knowing it wasn’t his and lied to police. What more do you need? If he never admits: “Yep I stole it” is he all good?

From this account I am more inclined to believe that he stole what he recognized as a very expensive piece of luggage

I too tend towards that explanation, but goodness gracious me, even for $295 price tag, if they had to steal it then what salary is a poor, downtrodden deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition expected to scrape by on and eat cold beans straight from the tin? 😁

I've read it now. His story is weird but not impossible. If there is no sexual motive (which, if the bag doesn't have a garish floral motive, there probably isn't) then it's going to be even harder to prove anything.

I haven't seen a picture of it but people on Reddit were saying that that brand of suitcases is known for having garish floral patterns.

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