Showing posts sorted by date for query mccullough. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query mccullough. Sort by relevance Show all posts

June 6, 2023

Doug Mastriano's Latest Mis-Information Meeting

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Take a look:

We've done this before, haven't we?

Yes, we have.

But let's take a look at the "experts" PA State Senator is having in this discussion.

Dr Peter McCullough

The AFP wrote this about McCullough in November 2021:

A video has been shared repeatedly on social media that shows American cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough urging Malaysia to dismantle its Covid-19 vaccination program because vaccines are purportedly unsafe and create virus mutations. The claims — many of which have previously been debunked by AFP — are misleading, according to experts.

The nine-minute and seven-second video was posted here on Facebook on September 25, 2021.

The video shows Dr Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist who has previously been exposed for promoting virus misinformation, speaking to the camera about the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines.

And the link in that piece leads here:

Video of a cardiologist claiming that there is no reason for healthy people under the age of 50 or those who have recovered from Covid-19 to be vaccinated against the virus has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media. But medical experts say younger people should be inoculated because they can still be affected by the virus, and that the shots also benefit those who have already had the disease.

And some facts from the AFP:

Healthy people younger than 50 do not need a Covid-19 vaccine: FALSE

The CDC says on its website that risk of severe disease from the novel coronavirus increases with age, but National Center for Health Statistics data shows that people under age 50 account for four percent of deaths involving Covid-19.

And a March 26, 2021 article in Science also found that by mid-August 2020 “the resurgence in the United States was largely driven by adults 20 to 49 years of age.”

Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity Unit at the Pasteur Institute, told AFP by phone: “It is obvious that people under 50 who are in good health should be vaccinated” because they can still be affected by the disease.

That was back in April of 2021.

So Dr McCullough has been spreading Covid misinformation for some time now.

Attorney Thomas Renz

This is what The Washington Post (by way of The Seattle Times) had to say about attorney Renz:

In one of dozens of recent media appearances, Ohio attorney Thomas Renz was claiming that coronavirus vaccines were more harmful than the virus itself. “The people that are dying are vaccinated,” he said on a conservative online talk show in July.

As Renz spoke, a message flashed across the screen with his website address. “Donate to his cause,” it urged.

And: 

Renz’s quick public ascent illustrates how promoting misinformation about the pandemic can be an effective fundraising tool and lead to renown within the portion of the country that remains suspicious of coronavirus vaccines, despite their general acceptance by the medical and scientific communities. The legal challenges are similar to the courtroom wrangling that followed the presidential election, when groups supporting former President Donald Trump raised money and made headlines by filing lawsuits — or promising to file them — based on dubious claims of widespread election fraud.

Oh, and there's this:

Anti-vaccine groups, conspiracy theory enthusiasts and far-right media have embraced him, and his best-known client, the group America’s Frontline Doctors, calls him part of a “Legal Eagle Dream Team.”

So he's been spreading Covid misinformation for some time.

Steve Kirsch

This is what Politifact had to say about Steve Kirsh: 

Kirsch’s presentation said: "Pfizer vaccine kills more people than it saves." 

There is no evidence that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has caused death. Available data indicate just the opposite: Vaccines are overwhelmingly effective at preventing death and serious illness from the virus that causes COVID-19.

We rate the post Pants on Fire!

That was back in September 2021.

Steve Kirsch has been spreading Covid misinformation for some time now.

Graham Hetrick

This is what ABC27 wrote about Graham Hetrick:

The Dauphin County Coroner is an outspoken critic of mask mandates and believes the COVID vaccines aren’t safe. Public health officials say arguments like these are dangerous.

And Lancaster Online: 

Hetrick also told ABC27 that he doesn’t wear a mask, saying “this is uncomfortable, and it’s not a good thing to do.” He added that he’s not getting a vaccine since he already had COVID-19, and that “God vaccinated me … As a matter of fact, it might be more harmful for me to have the vaccine.”

He's also not a doctor.

That was back in August of 2021.

Graham Hetrick has been spreading Covid misinformation for some time.

Yea, that's PA State Senator Doug Mastriano "expert panel" set to discuss "Medical Freedom."

Sure.

 


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May 26, 2023

So It's A "No" From Doug?

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Oh. My. God.

First Judge Patricia McCullough loses the GOP primary for a seat on the PA Supreme Court and now this:

MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano said on Thursday that he is not running for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2024.

“At this time, we have decided not to run for the U.S. Senate,” he said, “but to continue to serve in Harrisburg.”

What are the Christian Nationalists to do?


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May 17, 2023

Congratulations!

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From The Trib: 

Allegheny County Council: Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam on Tuesday night won her Democratic primary race against challenger Joanna Doven for an at-large seat on Allegheny County Council, unofficial tallies showed. With more than 154,000 votes tallied and about 96% of precincts reporting results just after 10:30 p.m., Hallam had collected 56.4% of the votes counted compared to 42.9% for Doven, according to the Allegheny County Elections Division.

I put this on top because I wrote about one piece of dishonest Doven literature last week.

The AP is reporting:

Democrat Dan McCaffery and Republican Carolyn Carluccio won their parties’ primaries for a vacant seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday, setting up a fall contest to join a high court that is at the center of cases on guns, abortion and elections in a presidential battleground state.

Each nominee won a two-way primary race. McCaffery defeated Deborah Kunselman, a colleague on the Superior Court, and Carluccio defeated Patricia McCullough, a Commonwealth Court judge who lost a primary for a high court seat in 2021. Party allies reported spending nearly $1 million to help her beat McCullough.

On the campaign trail, McCullough repeatedly boasted of being the “only judge in 2020 in the presidential election in the entire country” to order a halt to her state’s election certification.

She's also Chuck McCullough's wife. Chuck spent some time in jail after being found guilty of abusing his power of attorney when he cut some checks "on behalf" of his client, an elderly dementia patient.

He cut some checks to a number of Pittsburgh area politicians and one charity.

As Dennis Roddy the (pre-strike) PPG noted in 2007:

An Upper St. Clair woman's last-minute gift to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh created a stir among staff members, one of whom said they were told to keep quiet about it when they found out hours before the charity's annual banquet last year.

The charity this week returned the gift "just out of caution" after a week of reports that the woman's attorney had helped dispense tens of thousands of dollars in political donations the woman later said she did not approve. The attorney, Charles P. McCullough, is also the husband of Patricia McCullough, executive director of Catholic Charities. [Emphasis added.]

Such a relief not to have to revisit this over the next few months.

Back to The Trib:

Allegheny County executive: State Rep. Sara Innamorato declared victory Tuesday night in the crowded Democratic primary race for county executive, unofficial tallies showed. With nearly 168,000 votes tallied and 96% of precincts reporting results, Innamorato had collected 37.5% of the votes counted compared to 29.6% for Weinstein, 19.6% for Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb and 9.7% for former Allegheny County Councilman Dave Fawcett, according to the Allegheny County Elections Division.
Khari Mosley won:

And then finally this from WTAE:

Matt Dugan is the projected winner in Tuesday's Democratic primary for Allegheny County district attorney, defeating longtime incumbent Stephen Zappala.

TAE says Zappala was seeing a seventh term - that's a long time.

How long? He was in the office more than a decade before I wrote (for the pre-strike PG) about how Cyril Wecht called him a goombah.

This blog's been around a long time. Stephen Zappala was DA longer.


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March 13, 2023

In Case You Missed It - Judge Patricia McCullogh At Mastriano's NAR Rally

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Kira Resistance has a snippet:

What the good Judge failed to mention to Mastriano's crowd is this:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday rejected a last-ditch bid from Republicans including Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.) to halt the certification of the 2020 election results in the Keystone State. 

The court’s decision delivered the latest blow for Republicans, President Trump and his campaign to overturn election results in a battleground state that President-elect Joe Biden won by more than 1 percentage point. 

In an order released Saturday night, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated a preliminary order by the Commonwealth Court and dismissed the case.

Judge McCullough's decision was dated November 25, 2020. That decision was overturned 3 days later by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court:

AND NOW, this 28th day of November, 2020, pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 726,1 we GRANT the application for extraordinary jurisdiction filed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Governor Thomas W. Wolf, and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar (“Commonwealth”), VACATE the Commonwealth Court’s order preliminarily enjoining the Commonwealth from taking any further action regarding the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election, and DISMISS WITH PREJUDICE the petition or review filed by the Honorable Mike Kelly, Sean Parnell, Thomas A. Frank, Nancy Kierzek, Derek Magee, Robin Sauter, and Wanda Logan (“Petitioners”). All other outstanding motions are DISMISSED AS MOOT.
The Court describes what that case was trying to do:

Petitioners filed the petition for review in Commonwealth Court on November 21, 2020, setting forth a facial challenge to those provisions of Act 77 of 2019, establishing universal mail-in voting in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Petitioners sought a declaration that the aforementioned provisions were unconstitutional and void ab initio, and injunctive relief prohibiting the certification of the results of the General Election held on November 3, 2020. As a remedy, Petitioners sought to invalidate the ballots of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who utilized the mail-in voting procedures established by Act 77 and count only those ballots that Petitioners deem to be “legal votes.” Alternatively, Petitioners advocated the extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the General Election and instead “direct[] the General Assembly to choose Pennsylvania’s electors.” [Emphasis added.]

Sound familiar?

The Court's next sentence sums up the decision to dismiss:

Upon consideration of the parties’ filings in Commonwealth Court, we hereby dismiss the petition for review with prejudice based upon Petitioners’ failure to file their facial constitutional challenge in a timely manner. 

And we read from Justice Wecht's concurring decision, after point out the huge burden of proof needed to overturn an election:

Petitioners cannot carry their enormous burden. They have failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted. Notably, these Petitioners sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit in which the campaign of President Donald J. Trump—an ostensible beneficiary of Petitioners' efforts to disenfranchise more than one-third of the Commonwealth's electorate—explicitly disclaimed any allegation of fraud in the conduct of Pennsylvania's General Election. See Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Secretary Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, No. 20-3371, 830 Fed.Appx. 377, 381-82 (3d Cir. Nov. 27, 2020) ("[A]s [Trump Presidential Campaign] lawyer Rudolph Giuliani stressed, the Campaign `doesn't plead fraud. ... [T]his is not a fraud case.'" (quoting Mot. To Dismiss Hr'g Tr. 118:19-20, 137:18)). The absence of fraud allegations from this matter—not to mention actual evidence of fraud—alone is fatal to Petitioners' claims.

This is how Judge Patricia McCullough's decision was dismissed - and all other motions dismissed as moot.

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March 6, 2023

Tying Up Some Old Threads (A McCullough In The News)

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We'll start here:

This is Judge Patricia McCullough, of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

So is this:

And this is Pat, at a Wendy Bell rally, saying that "All law is based on natural law. And all law is based on divine law."

This is Judge Patricia McCullough, of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

Living deep in the sacred heart of the National Apostolic Reformation - Pennsylvania local. 

She's also Chuck McCullough's wife.

You remember Chuck, right?  Member of the Allegheny County Council who was arrested in 2009 for the misuse of some estate funds (among other things).

I wonder if Chuck and Pat ever discussed how "all law is based on natural law" when he was writing those checks he had no legal authority to write. Or when he was arrested. Or found guilty. Or (finally) sent to jail.

This weekend, an astute reader sent me a note, letting me know that Chuck's was paroled on February 19, 2023.

He was incarcerated for 1 year, 10 months and 13 days (or thereabouts).

Which seems ludicrous considering it was:

  • 6 years, 2 months, 4 days between Chuck's arrest and the beginning of his trial.
  • 5 years, 11 months, 25 days between Chuck's sentencing and the beginning of his incarceration. 
  • 12 years, 1 month, 28 days between Chuck's arrest and the beginning of his incarceration.

The wheels of justice certainly move slowly for some, eh your Honor?

Also, remember how Trump lost all but one of those court cases designed to keep him in office?

Guess who presided over that one. Judge Patricia McCullough.

It was dismissed by the PA Supreme Court:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed a Republican lawsuit seeking to invalidate the state’s mail-in ballots on Saturday evening, the latest legal defeat for Donald Trump in his unprecedented effort to overturn the result of the 2020 election. 

The latest Pennsylvania lawsuit, led by Republican congressman Mike Kelly, was unanimously rejected by the state’s Supreme Court judges, who described it as an “extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the general election”. 

Five of the seven judges argued the case should be dismissed because the challenge had come too late, considering that the absentee voting procedures in the state had been established a year ago. 

The court’s decision overturns an earlier hold on the state’s certification process made by Commonwealth Court judge Patricia McCullough.

Context is everything.

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February 22, 2023

It's 2023 And Doug Mastriano Is STILL Pushing Vaccine Misinformation

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Take a look:

See that line across the top of the image? It reads:

Senator Doug Mastriano Retweeted

That means he saw it and wanted others to see it as well. And with that he's pushing more vaccine disinformation.

But let me just first offer sincere kudos to Charlie Kirk for misspelling Peter McCullough's name. Shows a deep deep respect for the facts over there. Bravo.

Next, do we have to say again that Peter McCullough is not an epidemiologist? He's not an expert in Covid or the Covid vaccines. In fact he's been debunked by such experts.

And then there's the science about myocarditis and the vaccines.

For instance, take a look the abstract from this paper. There's this:

Background: Myocarditis is more common after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection than after COVID-19 vaccination, but the risks in younger people and after sequential vaccine doses are less certain. [Emphasis added.]

And this:

Conclusions: Overall, the risk of myocarditis is greater after SARS-CoV-2 infection than after COVID-19 vaccination and remains modest after sequential doses including a booster dose of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. However, the risk of myocarditis after vaccination is higher in younger men, particularly after a second dose of the mRNA-1273 vaccine.

Huh?

Or the abstract from this paper:

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe and effective. Systemic side effects of the vaccines are usually mild and transient. The incidence of acute myocarditis/pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination is extremely low and ranges 2-20 per 100,000. The absolute number of myocarditis events is 1-10 per million after COVID-19 vaccination as compared to 40 per million after a COVID-19 infection. Higher rates are reported for pericarditis and myocarditis in COVID-19 infection as compared to COVID-19 vaccines. [Emphasis added.]

Whah?? The chances of getting myocarditis is greater after getting Covid than after taking the vaccine? Does Peter McCullough know this? Does Doug Mastriano?

The only reason to fearmonger with this myocarditis story is to steer people away from taking the vaccine.

How many more people got sick/will get sick because they believed this?


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September 5, 2022

Well, Well, Look Who Showed Up!! Judge Patricia McCullough! Details Inside!

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I've been doing some deep dives recently into some of the religious/social/political contexts framing St Sen (and now GOP Cand for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano and this morning I happened upon this from WHYY:


Typical Mastriano Christian Nationalist BS, right?

But look a few paragraphs down when you get to this:

A growing number of Republican lawmakers across the country are calling for Christianity to be explicitly intertwined with government affairs. One went so far as saying the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state shouldn’t exist. 

In Pennsylvania, the idea that religion should be part of governing has caught on with people beyond Republican lawmakers. Mastriano, Dush and the others were joined at last month’s rally by a sitting Commonwealth Court Judge, Patricia McCullough.

You do see where I'm heading? Don't you?

I'll let WHYY continue:

She talked with the crowd about Sir William Blackstone, an 18th-century English jurist who’s still cited by U.S. Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas in cases. 

Blackstone was a controversial figure in his time. As a member of the British Parliament, he supported things like the Stamp Act, which drew condemnation from people like Thomas Jefferson. 

McCullough, formerly the head of Catholic Charities in the Pittsburgh diocese, summarized Blackstone’s legal theory:

“Blackstone taught that all law is based on the natural law, and the natural law is based on the divine law of God, and that any law that doesn’t comport with those laws is not a valid law,” McCullough said before leading the crowd in prayer.

Here's a snippet of what the good Judge had to say:

And here's a partial transcript:

And what did this Justice Blackstone teach about the law? 

He's still cited by the United States Supreme Court in their opinions. 

Blackstone taught that all law is based on the natural law and the natural law is based on the divine law of God and that any law that doesn't comport with those laws is not a valid law.

Very fitting if you're looking to impose the religious dogma of but one sliver of the population on everyone else.

Who defines what "natural law" is? How about "divine law" then? A Christian gatekeeping "divine law" will make very different choices from a Buddhist (or an Atheist) attempting the same thing.

Frighteningly, I think that's the whole point for Mastriano's Christian Nationalist crowd. 

Have you remembered where you've seen the name "Patricia McCullough" yet?

I'll give you a hint.

Got it now? Judge Patricia McCullough, who says that the only valid laws are those that "comport" with divine law, is married to a man who is currently doing time for multiple charges of theft and misapplication of funds:

Former Allegheny County Councilman Charles P. McCullough has been ordered to comply with his prison sentence next month following his recent loss at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

McCullough, who was convicted of multiple charges of theft and misapplication of funds, has a hearing in front of Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman set for April 6 to comply with his 2½- to 5-year prison sentence.

What part of "divine law" did McCullough's husband break?

Did you know that the story of Chuck's crimes gets even closer to Patricia?

From the Post-Gazette:

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report revealed that Ms. Jordan was upset by a number of political contributions that had been made in her name to Republican candidates — county council members Vince Gastgeb, Jan Rea and Susan Caldwell, and Cheryl Allen, then a candidate for Superior Court. In the story, she said the donations were orchestrated by Mr. McCullough.

“The donor was saying it was against her will to give such a donation,” Mr. Goetz testified.

At the time, Mr. McCullough’s wife, Patricia, was serving as the executive director of Catholic Charities, and just before the annual Bishop’s Dinner in May 2006, she announced that their fundraising goal of $600,000 had been met after a $10,000 donation was made by one of her husband’s clients.

How convenient for her to achieve the fundraising goal! And just before the annual Bishop's Dinner, no less? Must've been divine intervention, right?

Or a felony, which is what it was.

Oh, and one more thing:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed a Republican lawsuit seeking to invalidate the state’s mail-in ballots on Saturday evening, the latest legal defeat for Donald Trump in his unprecedented effort to overturn the result of the 2020 election. 

The latest Pennsylvania lawsuit, led by Republican congressman Mike Kelly, was unanimously rejected by the state’s Supreme Court judges, who described it as an “extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the general election”. 

 Five of the seven judges argued the case should be dismissed because the challenge had come too late, considering that the absentee voting procedures in the state had been established a year ago. 

The court’s decision overturns an earlier hold on the state’s certification process made by Commonwealth Court judge Patricia McCullough.  [Emphasis added.]

Yep, that was her, too.


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March 17, 2022

PA State Senator Doug Mastriano Is STILL Spreading Covid Misinformation

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Were you to stumble across Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano's Facebook page within the past day or so, you'd find this:


The text:

During our expert panel earlier this month, Dr. McCullough confirmed what many have us had said two years ago when we tried to reopen the state. “As each person becomes ill with the syndrome, they can indeed pass it to a susceptible person, but transmission is only from acutely ill to susceptible person only. Someone who has no symptoms poses no threat to someone else, whether they be susceptible or not susceptible. That means there should never have been any lockdowns, there should never have been any social distancing or any other measures for people who are well."

Let me say right off that I am not an expert in epidemiology.

But then again, neither is Dr Peter McCullough - he's a cardiologist.

But there is that adage, that old saying, that goes, "Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day" so perhaps Cardiologist (and not-Epidemiologist) McCullough is correct.

And that would be incorrect.

In fact he's been fact checked before on this very issue (asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus):

AFP: 

McCullough also repeats another previously debunked claim about virus transmission that he made in this testimony to the senate of the US state of Texas.

He claims the virus does not spread from infected people who are asymptomatic and says in this recent misleading video: "Once an individual recovers from Covid-19, they have robust, complete and durable immunity with a negligible risk of ever getting Covid-19 again."

He also states: "We don’t need to treat everybody but high risk people over age 50 with medical problems should receive early treatment to reduce hospitalisation and death."

These claims are also false.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that infected people without symptoms can still transmit the virus.

"Whether or not they have symptoms, infected people can be contagious and the virus can spread from them to other people," according to the WHO's website here.

Do I need to tell you that the WHO is filled with actual experts?

AFP (again): 

McCullough testified: “One of the mistakes I heard today as a rationale for vaccinations is asymptomatic spread and I want you to be very clear about this -- my opinion is there is a low degree, if any, of asymptomatic spread.

“Sick person gives it to sick person. The Chinese have published a study in the British Medical Journal, 11 million people, they’re trying to find asymptomatic spread. You can’t find it,” he said.

And:

Fujian Song, one of the report’s authors, said in an email on January 6, 2021 that, “It is misleading/incorrect/wrong to conclude that ‘all asymptomatic’ individuals infected with Covid-19 are not infectious, based on the results of the paper.”
And:

[Bruno Lina professor of virology at the University of Lyon] confirmed that it is incorrect to claim that asymptomatic people can’t spread the virus.

He explained that asymptomatic people often have lower amounts of the virus so they may be less contagious, but “as this virus is very transmissible, in particular the British variant, there can be transmission from asymptomatic carriers.”

Being a professor of virology makes him an expert, by the way.

But what if the vérificateurs de faits at the Agence France-Presse got it wrong.

Is there any science to show that there, in fact, is asymptomatic virus transmisstion?

In fact, there is.

JAMA 12/7/2020:

Under a range of assumptions of presymptomatic transmission and transmission from individuals with infection who never develop symptoms, the model presented here estimated that more than half of transmission comes from asymptomatic individuals.

PNAS 02/10/2021:

The contributions of asymptomatic infections to herd immunity and community transmission are key to the resurgence and control of COVID-19, but are difficult to estimate using current models that ignore changes in testing capacity. Using a model that incorporates daily testing information fit to the case and serology data from New York City, we show that the proportion of symptomatic cases is low, ranging from 13 to 18%, and that the reproductive number may be larger than often assumed. Asymptomatic infections contribute substantially to herd immunity, and to community transmission together with presymptomatic ones. 
And that's just the tip, as they say, of the science iceberg (though in this town, it's spelt ICEBURGH).

By pushing people away from the medical science, Doug Mastriano is putting people's health at risk.

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March 4, 2022

PA State Senator Doug Mastriano Holds A Medical Misinformation Panel Discussion

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This is how Doug describes it on his Facebook Page:

A brave group of doctors and experts have dared to challenge the status quo on COVID. Their studies and findings are often ignored by the corporate media, big pharma, and our leaders in Washington and Harrisburg. I'm honored to have some of these experts join us in Harrisburg

And here's the poster:

Let's take a look at his Covid-19 experts, shall we?

Dr Peter McCullough

This is how Dr McCullough shows up on Healthfeedback:

The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast hosted by actor and comedian Joe Rogan, interviewed cardiologist Peter McCullough in December 2021. During the interview, which spanned about two hours and 45 minutes, McCullough made multiple inaccurate, misleading and/or unsubstantiated claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines.

Among McCullough's inaccuracies and then the actual expert information:

“Masks only filter out about three microns. The virus is one micron.”:

The claim that masks don’t work because the pore size is larger than the virus was a popular one in 2020. It was previously reviewed by Health Feedback and found to be misleading. The claim shows a lack of understanding about how virus transmission works. While it is true that a virus particle is smaller than one micron (a millionth of a meter) and thus smaller than the pore size of a mask, virus particles cannot travel in the air on their own. Instead, they need to be carried by liquid droplets, and these are larger than the pore sizes of masks. By blocking the liquid droplets, masks also block the spread of the virus contained within.

“But in the case where it’s well-documented and you’re sick, you’re done. You basically have permanent immunity.”:

It’s false to claim that people who have had COVID-19 develop “permanent immunity”. We know this because reinfections occur[3-6]. Researchers at Imperial College London also obtained data suggesting that the risk of reinfection posed by Omicron is higher than for Delta. This indicates that infection-induced immunity isn’t permanent and the protection it provides will vary depending on the variants in circulation. However, Clive Dix, the former chair of the U.K. Vaccine Taskforce, told Reuters that “we still don’t have sufficient data” and that certain variables, like cellular immune response, weren’t accounted for in the study.

 “The vaccines are research. They are all investigational research. And so nobody can encourage somebody to take a vaccine. By the way, that violates the Nuremberg Code.”

At this point in time, the COVID-19 vaccines are no longer investigational. Their safety and efficacy were established in clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people before EUAs were granted[7,8]. Furthermore, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine now has full FDA approval.

COVID-19 vaccination campaigns don’t violate the Nuremberg Code either, as Health Feedback explained previously. The Nuremberg Code specifically addresses experimentation on human subjects and was created in 1947 during a trial of Nazi doctors that conducted experiments on concentration camp prisoners. But COVID-19 vaccines aren’t experimental, therefore the Nuremberg Code doesn’t apply. 

There's more in Healthfeedback's debunking but you get the gist. Here's their summary of just how inaccurate Dr Peter McCullough was:

Inaccurate: The COVID-19 vaccines aren’t experimental. Their safety and efficacy were demonstrated in clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people. Previously infected people don’t have “permanent immunity”, given that reinfections can and have occurred.
Unsupported: No evidence was presented for the assertions that the pandemic was planned or that scientists and/or public health authorities are conspiring to prevent people from getting early treatment. There’s also no evidence for the claim that the spike protein generated by mRNA vaccination is dangerous. 

Then there's Mastriano's other "expert" Dr Bryan Ardis.

Dr Bryan Ardis is not a medical doctor. He's not an MD or a DO. His training is as a Chiropractor.

That alone invalidates him as any sort of expert on Covid-19.

However he's done some pretty nasty stuff regarding Covid.

Take a look at this from the AP:

CLAIM: Lungs filling with fluid and kidney failure are actually side effects of remdesivir, a treatment approved for COVID-19, not symptoms of the disease itself.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Critical COVID-19, not the drug remdesivir, has been known to cause fluid in the lungs and renal failure.

THE FACTS: Remarks made by a former chiropractor are circulating online, spreading false information about an antiviral medicine used to treat COVID-19.

Bryan Ardis falsely claims that COVID-19 is not killing millions of Americans, and that the deaths are actually being caused by the use of remdesivir to treat hospitalized patients. His inaccuracies about the drug have been widely shared in text and video posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Ardis has heavily criticized remdesivir on talk shows where he spreads falsehoods about the drug. Medical professionals who have studied the drug have dismissed Ardis’s claims, saying that the symptoms described are clear signs of critical COVID-19 and are not caused by remdesivir. Ardis could not immediately be reached for comment.[Emphasis added.]

These are the "experts" PA State Senator Doug Mastriano is using on his Covid-19 misinformation panel; A non-epidemiologist who spreads medical misinformation and a non-medical doctor who spreads medical misinformation.

Shouldn't Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano be concentrating, instead, on the Congressional subpoena he was sent a few weeks ago?

He was subpoenaed to appear before Congress to testify about what he knows about Donald Trump's possible criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people.

Also, the more he pushes his followers away from actual medical science (the vaccines are safe and they work, for example) the more he's putting those very same followers' health at risk.

Shame on him for that.

at

May 19, 2021

Not Sure How I Feel About This (Judge Patricia McCullough LOSES)

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ICYMI, here is the result of last night's Republican primary election for the open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court:

Judge Patricia McCullough, Judge on the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania (and, of course, Chuck McCullough's wife) lost last night by around 159,000 votes.

I am not sure to be happy or sad about this news.

It would have been loads of fun blogging about her campaign, reminding the public of her part in her husband's felonious actions.

Alas, this was not to be.

The winner, Judge Kevin Brobson (also of the Commonwealth Court) seems to be a (relatively) old school conservative jurist.

From his campaign website:

All Pennsylvanians deserve to have faith in a fair and impartial judiciary. I entered this race to offer a new voice and a new perspective for Pennsylvanians on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I will not legislate from the bench.

Luckily for Pennsylvania, he's doesn't seem to be Q-tinged at all.

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May 11, 2021

THIS Is How Judge McCullough Hopes To Win Votes?

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Ok, so here's the frame from our friends at KDKA:

One seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is up for election this year.

That’s to succeed former Chief Justice Tom Saylor, a Republican, who retires at the end of this year.

There is a heated battle for the Republican nomination for this seat.

There are three Republicans vying for this nomination and one of them is Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough.

Long time readers of this blog will remember something our friends at KDKA chose not to tell you - that her husband, Charles P. McCullough, is now doing time in prison for misappropriation of funds and that she's part of the story.

But back to Pat. This is how she's promoting herself to the voters in this primary:

“I am the only candidate I know that had a tweet from President Donald Trump, and Donald Trump actually tweeted that I was a brilliant woman of courage,” says Judge Patricia McCullough.

McCullough of Allegheny County serves on the Commonwealth Court, and she says no one beats her work on the bench for upholding conservative principles.

“I was the only judge in the entire country to enter an order to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results,” says McCullough.

Your Honor, I am not sure this is as good a point to make as you might think. Were you to win this nomination, are you really going to try gain the trust of the many many Democratic voters in this state by pushing the big lie about the 2020 election?

While that might work with Pennsylvania Republicans, it won't work with Pennsylvania Democrats or with reality in general.

Good luck with this, Your Honor.

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April 12, 2021

Ok, One Last Post About Chuck McCullough

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Unless something else bubbles up in the newz, this will probably be my last McCullough posting.

I'd like to take you back 13 years, 11 months and 30 days to where it all began.

The date was April 13, 2007 (hey, that's exactly 14 years tomorrow!) and the main story at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was Bob Hoover piece on the death of Kurt Vonnegut.

That day, The Dow ended the day up at 12,609.85 and a copy of The P-G would have cost you $.50. 

So it goes.

Anyway, just below the Vonnegut obituary and right next to a Washington Post piece about a suicide bomber breaching the Green Zone in Iraq and killing 8, there was this piece by Dennis Roddy.

It began thusly:

The single largest donor to Allegheny County candidates this year is a 90-year-old Upper St. Clair widow who hasn't voted for seven years and says she never agreed to give $10,000 each to four Republican candidates, including one for Superior Court and three for Allegheny County Council.

Her name was Shirley Jordan and during a discussion with her about the donations she said: 

My God, that's terrible. I would never give $10,000 to politics. I can tell you that.

This follows directly:

She blamed the donation on her attorney, Charles McCullough, himself a candidate for County Council. Mr. McCullough took control of Mrs. Jordan's affairs following a court dispute that began after she was taken in 2005 to St. Clair Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with moderate dementia. A Common Pleas Court judge later declared her incapacitated.

"I have an attorney who is ambitious to be active in politics," she said. "It was not my decision. I knew nothing about it. Then I find he has control of everything and he's spending it right and left. He's a cheap politician."

Thus began the long long unraveling of Charles P. (Chuck) McCullough.

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April 8, 2021

Another McCullough In The News!

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We all saw what happened yesterday:

Former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough is in the custody of the sheriff’s office this morning — more than five years after he was sentenced to prison for stealing from an elderly widow.

The 66-year-old from Upper St. Clair reported to the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman Tuesday morning to begin serving his 2½- to 5-year prison term imposed for five counts each of theft and misapplication of funds. McCullough’s adult son and daughter and a priest were present.

And astute reader emailed me a link with this added message:

And AP is now curious about Patricia.
"Patricia" would be Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, Chuck's wife.

The Trib even said so in yesterday's coverage. Here is the next paragraph from Paula Reed Ward's piece:

His wife, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, was not there. She is running for state Supreme Court in this year’s Republican primary. She has served on Commonwealth Court since 2010.

So Chuck's kids (and, of course, a priest) were with him in his last minutes of freedom, but his wife, who's running for a seat on the State Supreme Court) wasn't.

Hmmm.

Anyway, here's some of the ways that Judge McCullough shows up in the AP reporting on Felon McCullough reporting for prison:

The husband of a Pennsylvania appellate judge who is running for the state’s highest court began serving a prison sentence Tuesday in a long-running case involving taking money from an elderly woman’s trust fund to benefit several political campaigns and a charity connected to his wife.

That's the first paragraph. 

A few paragraph's down there's this:

[McCullough] had argued at his trial that he had the widow’s approval to use the money and had remained free on appeal since his sentencing. Asked if Patricia McCullough had ever intervened on her husband’s behalf, [Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen] Zappala’s office said it knew of no evidence presented in court to indicate that.

Well that's good. The next paragraphs? Not so good:

Charles McCullough spent the money in 2006 and 2007, using $40,000 for campaign contributions and sending the other $10,000 to a charity, according to court records.

That charity was Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where Patricia McCullough was the executive director and the organization was lagging behind a fundraising goal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in 2007.

“She said to keep quiet about it,” Mary Ann Krupa, who had worked in the charity’s development office, told the newspaper. “I said ‘I don’t understand.’ She said ‘You don’t have to understand. It’s a total secret.’”

Catholic Charities gave back the donation and Patricia McCullough’s alleged attempts to keep the donation a secret later came up in trial testimony.

The P-G link has this:

Mary Ann Krupa, who worked in the charity's development office from 2002 until June, said employees were preparing for their annual fund-raising banquet and were short of a $600,000 fund-raising goal when she was called by Mrs. McCullough. She said Mrs. McCullough told her of a last-minute $10,000 donation by an elderly client of her husband.

And the trial testimony link has this:

Prosecutors also called a former fundraiser from Catholic Charities to testify about a $10,000 donation from the Jordan trust. McCullough's wife, Patricia McCullough, a Commonwealth Court candidate, was then the executive director of the charity and demanded the donor be kept secret, said Mary Ann McGlashon, a former associate director.

The pledge came just before the black-tie Bishop's Annual Dinner where McCullough had to announce whether she met the year's fundraising goal.

So let's see if I am reading this right. The charity was short of it's $600K fundraising goal and it's executive director, Patricia McCullough, was going to have to announce that fact at the charity's annual banquet. This is when a surprise donation of $10K arrives by way of the executive director's husband, Charles McCullough.

And what happened to Mary Ann Krupa? The woman who questioned the secret donation? The P-G has an answer for that, too:

One month after the banquet, Ms. Krupa said she was called into Mrs. McCullough's office and told her job was being "bifurcated," in essence, divided into two posts. She was offered neither of the jobs and now works at another area charity.

Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, more recently:

All law is based on divine law.

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April 7, 2021

A Chapter Closes - Chuck McCullough

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Chuck McCullough has been incarcerated.

It even says so in the paper:

Former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough is in the custody of the sheriff’s office this morning — more than five years after he was sentenced to prison for stealing from an elderly widow.

"More than five years" doesn't begin to tell the half of it. Let's go over some of the dates:

Look at the chronological gaps, my friends. 

  • 6 years, 2 months, 4 days between Chuck's arrest and the beginning of his trial.
  • 5 years, 11 months, 25 days between Chuck's sentencing and the beginning of his incarceration. 
  • 12 years, 1 month, 28 days between Chuck's arrest and the beginning of his incarceration.

All for sentence of 2-1/2 to 5 (with the minimum dropped to 22-1/2 months).

And the gaps get even bigger when you consider when Chuck committed the crimes. From the original complaint we learn that one of the misappropriated checks was actually cut on February 22, 2007. That's 14 years, 1 month, 15 days between the crime and his incarceration. 

For some context about that date, the iPhone (the FIRST iPhone) had been introduced to the world only 44 days before.

This part of the original complaint will probably bubble up in the news:

We'll see. One chapter closes and another one opens.


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April 6, 2021

More On Charles P. (Chuck) Mccullough (UPDATED)

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An astute reader emailed me this link this morning:

Former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough has lost his last chance to avoid complying with a prison sentence for theft and is set to appear Tuesday before a county judge.

The state Supreme Court on Monday denied his application for extraordinary relief and motion to stay the sentence.

McCullough is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Tuesday before Judge David Cashman for a hearing to comply with a 2½- to five-year sentence.

This is set to happen today. 

Ever a McCullough-skeptic, I will believe it when I see it. He's weaseled out of this before. Perhaps Former Allegheny County Council member Charles P. (Chuck) McCullough has one more trick up his sleeve.

In any event, The Trib has more info on our good friend Chuck:

McCullough, now representing himself, was found guilty in a bench trial of five counts of theft and five counts of misapplication of funds, stemming from work he did as a power of attorney for an elderly Upper St. Clair woman.

He initially was charged in 2009. It took six years before the case went to trial, and it has been more than five years that he has tried to get out of the prison sentence imposed on him in December 2015.

In February, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to accept his appeal, clearing the way for him to begin serving his sentence. [Emphasis added.]

I guess the "Now representing himself" part means he's run out of attorneys. I think he's now on the other side of a half-dozen. Rudy Giuliani was busy? 

The Trib also has something else that can't be found at the P-G (and kudos for The Trib for the deeper coverage) - more on Chuck's application for extraordinary relief:

However, in his emergency motions, McCullough, 66, outlined a number of reasons why he should not be required to go to state prison.

Among them, he listed medical conditions — including a shoulder with torn tendons that requires surgery — and a fear of contracting covid-19 in the prison system.

Including, what amounts to a note from his doctor outlining why he shouldn't go to prison.

Then there's this:

“Defendant would be defenseless in prison which is for the most part populated by much younger men, some being no more than one-third of defendant’s age and who will outweigh defendant by more than 100 pounds,” he wrote. “He would be at great risk of being seriously injured or killed by other inmates if incarcerated.”

Instead, McCullough suggests that he could have surgery as his doctor recommends and avoid covid by being allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest.

“The commonwealth is not prejudiced at all by the presentation of this motion as it will be spared the expense of having to house, feed, treat and care for defendant,” McCullough wrote. “The current sentence of 2½ to 5 years of incarceration may well be tantamount to a death sentence for defendant due to his age, health issues, susceptibility to covid-19 and his vulnerability to deadly assault by other inmates.”

See? Everyone would have won had Chuck just gotten house arrest!

What did Sammy sing in 1976?

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Don't do it.)

Let's see how this turns out today.

I wonder how this will effect Patricia McCullough, a judge on the Commonwealth Court and Chuck's wife, and her campaign for Supreme Court.

Did you know she was at Wendy Bell's rally recently? And this happened:

Which divine law did Chuck break when he misappropriated that $40,000, your honor?

UPDATE: This morning the Allegheny County DA tweeted:


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March 21, 2021

Wendy Bell Gaslights The Public At The Americans For Freedom Rally!

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Ok, so yesterday's "Americans for Freedom Rally (Pittsburgh)" came and went with little or no fanfare.

Watching the rally unfold via the twitter feed of WESA's Katie Blackley, I found it was more or less what I expected it would be.

With one big exception. This:

This would be the same Patricia McCullough who's currently a judge of the Commonwealth Court, the same Judge McCullough who did this last November:

A Pennsylvania appeals court judge ordered state officials on Wednesday to halt any further steps toward certifying election results, a day after Gov. Tom Wolf said he had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

Only to have the State Supreme Court reverse her decision a few days later.

Oh, and she's also Chuck McCullough's wife. In case you didn't know, Chuck's going to jail for a few years for theft and for misapplication of some entrusted funds. The P-G also reported:

...McCullough also used the trust to make an anonymous donation of $10,000 to Catholic Charities, where his wife, Patricia McCullough, served as executive director. (Patricia McCullough is currently a Commonwealth Court judge).

Remember kids, all law is based on "divine" law. Judge McCullough (whose husband is going to jail for breaking the law) said so.

Like Manna from heaven, my friends.

BTW, what is "divine law" anyway? A strict adherence to all the rules in The Bible? But aren't the defenders of so-called "divine law" the same folks who scream about how "Sharia law" is an existential threat to our way of life? Isn't "Sharia law" just "divine law" for those who are Muslim?

But let's get on to the headliner of the day - Wendy Bell, The Angel of Death.

The rally was organized by local Trumper Lucie Guzzie and lucky for me, she broadcast Wendy Bell's speech on her Facebook page.

Transcribing it took only a few gut-wrenching, skin-crawling, dry-heaving minutes.

Wendy begins by thanking the police officers guarding the rally and then goes straight into gaslighting the crowd:

Brock sent me – my producer Brock. Brock wave your hand. Here you go. He's back there - Brock sent me an article last night. From one of our local TV stations talking about how our Pittsburgh Police had this special unit on stand by for a potential problem with the frickin freedom march!

I was like, what?

This is the narrative of the media and the left. That if you carry your American flag (right on, right on), if you're carrying your concealed firearm (right on, right on), that you are somehow – oh that you love America and you believe in your freedom to think for yourself, that you are somehow a threat!

Luckily, we (all) have access to the internet and so we can go find the leftist narrative media spin to which Wendy refers.

Guess what? It doesn't actually say what Wendy told the crowd it says. Take a look:

Following the death of Antwon Rose in 2018, protests were organized throughout the city of Pittsburgh.

Because of those protests, the police department launched a civil affairs unit, which is a division dedicated to keeping the peace through community engagement.

The division was very active over the summer of 2020 due to the Black Lives Matter movement.

And: 

But the office has gone quiet in recent months, and as Channel 11′s Rick Earle discovered, officers are regrouping ahead of this weekend’s planned rally on the North Shore.

“We are ready to go as needed. I know we will be there this Saturday for the protests or rally,” said Sgt. Tiffany Costa, of the Pittsburgh Police Department’s civil affairs unit.

On Saturday, a group called Americans for Freedom will rally on the North Shore to voice their opposition to mask mandates and business closures.

Ok. So far so, um, neutral?

A few paragraphs later, we read:

Law enforcement sources told Target 11 they are concerned that there has been little or no communication with protest organizers from last year and if those protesters return this year they are worried that could lead to problems. The organizers for the rally planned for this weekend have been in constant contact with Pittsburgh Police and obtained a permit from the city to march.

Costa told Channel 11 that the communication has to be ongoing. And Police don’t expect any issues. [Emphasis added.]

I'm like, what?? Where is any reference to "the narrative" about how the police are expecting problems from the frickin Freedom March??

Was Wendy Bell just making shit up?

Then, immediately following and only few seconds after thanking the police for their presence, Wendy Bell said this:

I bet some of you guys were at the big insurrection on January 6 [crowd cheers], peacefully assembling, listening to the real president of The United States [crowd cheers again] who, under no circumstances encouraged what ended up happening.

Which was wrong, we all know that.

But by golly, I am so tired of us, we the people who love this country, who believe in election integrity and know that it didn't happen, being blamed for something that was obviously planned.

And anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is full of garbage.

Alright?

"Peacefully assembling"? While it's absolutely true that the "real" president of the United States was Donald Trump on January 6, his supporters who did this:


were doing anything but assembling "peacefully." They were looking to cancel the election Donald Trump lost.

In their anything but peaceful "assembly," Trump supporters did this:

The Capitol assault resulted in one of the worst days of injuries for law enforcement in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At least 138 officers — 73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington — were injured, the departments have said. They ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious damage such as concussions, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.

Indeed the NYTimes piece opens with this:

One officer lost the tip of his right index finger. Others were smashed in the head with baseball bats, flag poles and pipes. Another lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her into stairs as they tried to reach the Capitol steps during the assault on Jan. 6.

How is that "peaceful," Wendy? How? It was a coup attempt. And yes, it was encouraged by then-president Donald Trump:

The speech that President Trump delivered to his supporters just before they attacked the Capitol last week is a central focus as House Democrats prepare an article of impeachment against him for inciting the deadly riot.

Mr. Trump had urged supporters to come to Washington for a “Save America March” on Wednesday, when Congress would ceremonially count President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win, telling them to “be there, will be wild!” At a rally just before the violence, he repeated many of his falsehoods about how the election was stolen, then dispatched the marchers to the Capitol as those proceedings were about to start.

Some of those arrested for their participation in the "insurrection of January 6" (as you called it) have gone on record saying that they were there at Trump's behest:

A man from Kentucky told the FBI that he and his cousin began marching toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 because “President Trump said to do so.” Chanting “Stop the steal,” the two men tramped through the building and snapped a photo of themselves with their middle fingers raised, according to court documents.

A video clip of another group of rioters mobbing the steps of the Capitol caught one man screaming at a police officer: “We were invited here! We were invited by the president of the United States!”

So how much gaslighting did you do at The Point this weekend, Wendy? Because it looks like a lot. 

I'll end with this:

You got an hour or so? How often have I blogged that your BS board is, actually, BS.

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February 13, 2021

A Chuck McCullough Update (It's About EFFING Time!!)

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Yesterday, as I happily toiled at home (at my lockdown job), I received an email from an astute reader. The subject line to this email read simply:

Chuck McCullough

(Long time readers of this blog will know instantly to whom that refers.)

Intrigued, I opened the email and the message read in its entirety:

Tee-hee.

Whah?  What happened? Hey Davey, what's the story?

There's an update to Chuck McCullough's story!  Take a look at this from Mick Sintelli of the P-G:

The long and winding legal road of former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough ended Thursday when the state Supreme Court denied his appeal, affirming his theft conviction from more than five years ago.

Really, Mick? "The long and winding...road"? A Beatles reference in your first half dozen words? You Can't Do That. Remember Orwell's first rule in writing well:

Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

It's just Something had to be pointed out, Mick, but couldn't you just Let It Be?  I've Got A Feeling that It Won't Be Long for Chuck McCullough to get a Ticket To Ride to some minimum security prison somewhere but In My Life, making light of someone's Misery is a bad idea.

I Want To Tell You that I'm So Tired of seeing cheap Beatles literary references Here, There and Everywhere. It's All Too Much - Help!

In The End, you did what you did and you're gonna Carry That Weight (for a long time), Because it's just Nowhere, Man. 

Back to Chuck. Mick Not-Jagger of the P-G continues:

The denial from the state’s highest court means McCullough, 65, probably will have to serve the 2-1/2 to 5 year prison sentence that has been on hold for years while the case made its way through the appeal process.

"On hold for years" to say the least.

Let's look at some dates:

  • February 9, 2009 - Chuck arrested. That's 12 years and 4 days ago. In other words, this was only 20 days after Barrack Obama's first inauguration. The rest of his two terms as well as all of Trump's hellscape time in the Oval happened between then and now.
  • April 13, 2015 - Chuck's trial begins. That's 5 years, 10 months ago and 6 years, 2 months and 4 days after his arrest.
  • July 31, 2015 - Chuck found guilty. That's 5 years, 6 months and 13 days ago and 6 years 5 months and 6 days after his arrest.
  • December 15, 2015 - Chuck sentenced. That's 5 years, 1 month and 29 days ago and 6 years, 10 months, and 6 days after his arrest.

Considering Chuck's looking at 2 1/2 to 5 years away, the above time spans seem more or less absurd. Here's the thing: had he started doing his time when he was sentenced (and is there anyone who believes he would have had to do the full 5 years?), he'd be out by now, doing whatever it is disgraced former GOP politicians do once they've been released from prison. Fox News? OAN? Newsmax? 

One final Beatle reference. Chuck McCullough is 65. If only he were 64.

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June 5, 2020

Chuck McCullough In The News! (UPDATED)

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My god, this is getting old. But I have to cover it to the end.

From the P-G:
A day after former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough received an order to report to the courthouse to begin serving his 2½- to 5-year prison term his defense attorney has filed an emergency application with the state Superior Court to block the move.

Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman issued his order on Tuesday asking McCullough, who has remained free on bond pending appeal since he was sentenced in November 2015, to report to his courtroom at 9 a.m. on Monday.
If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know this story. I've been writing about it since 2009.

Here's the core:
McCullough was convicted of writing more than $40,000 in checks for political contributions from the accounts of Shirley Jordan, an elderly widow he represented, without her permission.
Yea, that was July of 2015.

Remember, he was arrested in February of 2009.

February 19, 2009, to be exact.

That was 4,124 days ago. So how long is that?

It's 11 years, 3 months and 17 days ago.

By contrast, there are only 3,923 days between the Gulf of Tonkin incident (August 2, 1964) and the fall of Saigon (April 30, 1975).  Think of that for a moment - the total duration of US involvement in Vietnam is shorter than the duration between McCullough's arrest and today.

Perhaps I should deal with the time since his conviction (July 31, 2015). Perhaps that's fairer.

It's been 1,771 days since Chuck's conviction.

The Second World War began, for the U.S., with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. 1,771 days after that is...October 13, 1946.

The length of time between Chuck's arrest and today is longer than the entire US involvement in WWII.

Mindboggling.

When will this ever end?

Never, it seems.

From the P-G, yestiddy:
The state Superior Court said Friday that former Allegheny County Councilman Charles McCullough does not have to report to start serving his 2½- to 5-year prison sentence on Monday, despite an order from the trial judge to do so.

Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman issued an order on Tuesday asking McCullough, who has remained free on bond pending appeal since he was sentenced in November 2015, to report to his courtroom at 9 a.m. on Monday to begin his incarceration.

The next day, McCullough’s attorney, Adam Cogan, filed an application for emergency relief with the Superior Court asking that it direct Judge Cashman to rescind his order since McCullough’s appeal is still pending.

The Superior Court granted the request.

It's never ending.



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