This article talks about what I see as a pattern of behavior from Mike Zullo. I’ll be the first to admit that two points don’t make a pattern, but perhaps there are more points.
“Bloviate” is a word that means to talk at length and not say anything. An early use was to describe speeches by President Warren G. Harding. Mike Zullo has for over a year now talked about unspecified evidence gathered by his Cold Case Posse (if indeed there is anyone but him looking into conspiracy theories about the President’s identity documents). You can read the sorry history on RC’s MSCO Cold Case Posse Timeline. After Mike Zullo’s evidence was proven to be fake, and his experts shown to be crackpots, Mike Zullo took a different tack: promise everything and deliver nothing. It was pure bluster. After failing to keep various promises, he even stopped setting time frames.
Unable to produce any real evidence, Mike Zullo substituted vacuous talk, and the recent appearance by Zullo spokesperson Carl Gallups on the Peter Boyles radio program attracted huge criticism from birthers for repeating Zullo’s themes, and talking for an hour and not saying anything.
In response, the Cold Case Posse through Gallups did finally say something that won’t blow up their face, copying their material from a reliable source (this and other opposition blogs). Loren Collins proved TWO YEARS AGO that the Joel Gilbert photos, allegedly of Obama’s mother, could not have been her. Now the Cold Case Posse announces the same thing, only attaching the technobabble phrase “digital forensic.”
Former Cold Case Posse member, now CCP critic, Brian Reilly called the Boyles show and talked at length of his perspective on the entire affair. Reilly later called into the RC Radio show, and delivered a shocker that Zullo was once promoting a loony theory about President Obama attending a human sacrifice in Kenya. Just as Zullo responded to the debacle of his failed press conferences with empty rhetoric, he responds to this new damaging information with more rhetoric, this time the veiled suggestion that he will sue Brian Reilly for defamation. Zullo’s quotes are found in an article at the Post & Email web site, reprinted at Birther Report. Did Zullo defend himself with substance? No, he bluffed. Here’s what Zullo said:
We have been monitoring him for the last eight months, and on that broadcast, Mr. Reilly gave me a gift: we have been waiting for him to come off of an internet broadcast and finally do the slanderous hit-job that he did on public airwaves.
Brian Reilly is fueled by those who are entertained by his trashing of the investigation and his own self-fulfilling motivations. However, there are aspects of his past – facts – that, when they come to light, in my opinion, people are going to find extremely troubling.
Since when does anyone call alleged slander a “gift”? Zullo makes a veiled threat, but again says nothing. He will do nothing because he has nothing. It is Zullo who is the coward, smearing through innuendo. This is the same thing he did to me and Bill Bryan, never actually saying anything, but making vague suggestions. Pathetic.
“However, there are aspects of his past – facts – that, when they come to light, in my opinion, people are going to find extremely troubling.”
We know Brian Reilly’s reason for resigning from the CCP. He has said it a number of times. He was uncomfortable and did not like the way the investigating was going.
That’s Brian Reilly’s story
What is Zullo’s and CCP’s side of the side.
Might be interesting to hear unfortunately, Zullo did not reveal anything. As usual for Zullo and Carl Gallup – nothing of substance is ever revealed bu it does make people curious.
What cracks me up, is how some of the folks at Gerbil Report are reacting to Zullo’s latest “revelation” as new.
Come on, give them a break. Their short-term memory ain’t what it used to be, it’s all new to them…again.
I’m also amused by the gerbilers’ conviction that certain members of their horde have incriminating evidence that will “take down” Brian Reilly. Birdboy, for example, has claimed to be familiar with this material ever since Reilly began to speak against the CCP. Now some of his fellow rodents are saying Mike Zullo also knows about it.
Nothing reflects better on a bona fide law enforcement officer conducting a bona fide investigation than getting involved in a public, pretty spat among conspiracy theorists. But then, neither Zullo nor his investigation are real law enforcement.
I don’t understand how it’s relevant to Zullo’s “investigation” whether or not the woman in the pictures is Obama’s mom. Am I missing something?
Yeah, how little it takes for Zullo and Gallups to consider some long-debunked, non-issue as “Universe Shattering”. And how much less it takes for the folks at BR to believe them.
I think it boils down to Zullo’s ego: he wants his version of the myth to be sacrosanct, and bristles when heretics try to claim a piece of the action with unauthorized accounts.
Gerbils are rodents and rodents like crumbs and The Rodent Whisperer Zullo throws the gerbils some crumbs every couple of months and they are very, very grateful.
Since when does anyone call alleged slander a “gift”?
Zullo appears to be operating under the delusion that a defamation on a local AM radio station is somehow more actionable than an online one.
Which is kinda-sorta true in the sense that having a radio station with (perceived) deep pockets might make it easier to get a lawyer to take the case.
But the CCP is alleged to include multiple volunteer lawyers, so that shouldn’t really be a concern.
Let’s just hope that Corporal Zullo ignores their advice about the madness of allowing himself to be examined under oath.
Question for the lawyers: if Zullo actually sues, can the defense force him to answer any and all questions about claims Reilly has made, to establish his overall credibility, even if they’re not included in the complaint? E.g., about how much money the CCP has taken in, and where it went. Or the real story behind the false BC coding allegations.
T&A is always inherently relevant, regardless of what you’re doing: it’s A Guy Thing™ 😉
I’m really, really hoping that the Maricopa County board has the same question next time Arpaio appears before them. “Sheriff, you told us that you haven’t used _any_ County resources on this investigation. But now we hear that, not only have you assigned someone to look at porn, you assigned him to look at porn that had already been conclusively proven to have absolutely no connection to the case you assured us you’re not working on”.
Someone in Aussie politics – I think it was ex-Prime Minister Paul Keating when he was Treasurer, but I’m not sure – once invited an opposition MP who had just made some rather incendiary remark about his ancestry during ‘Question Time’, to repeat the remarks on the Parliament steps because “I have wanted a nice yacht for some time”.
There is another angle I hadn’t thought of, and that is that Zullo is trying to get back at Peter Boyles for his treatment of Gallups. Back in March of this year, Gerbil Report had an article in which Boyles says he believes that Obama’s father is Frank Marshall Davis, and Joel Gilbert had claimed FMD had taken nude pictures of Obama’s mother and was his biological father. Perhaps by discrediting the photographs, he’s trying to discredit Boyles?
Oh, but that’s not possible: Gallups says that “Zullo has been sitting on this for several years”, so he obviously couldn’t have have sent the porn to the crime lab in response to Gilbert’s appearance on Boyles’ show in March.
Of course, this “several years” claim seems odd, since Zullo says he didn’t get involved in the snipe hunt until late 2011. They say that even the Neanderthals counted to three before they gave up and just said “many” 😉
I suspect that they will conclude that the nude photos in the Gilbert film are of Reilly.
Ran, it is my opinion that Zullo made himself a public figure. That means he has to prove the statements were false. Absolutely, every aspect of the phony investigation would be subject to discovery.
Then, of course, in order for it to be slander, Zullo has to demonstrate not only that Reilly’s remarks were untrue, but that his reputation has been damaged by them. That means Zullo has to have a reputation to protect in the first place. 🙂
Doc, the top Google image result for “human sacrifice Kenya”…Yikes!
He didn’t just discredit Boyles during that. He also discredited Carl Gallups who previously has had Gilbert on his show. For some reason that interview is missing on the gallups podcasts as well as the entire year of 2013. Here is an article that Gallups put up previously: http://ppsimmons.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-double-life-of-president-obama-and.html
In it he also believes the Obama is gay angle and the nude photos and the frank marshall davis story:
“It was also discovered that she posed nude in vintage bondage magazines.
Frank Davis published a pornographic novel titled “Sex Rebel Black: Memoires of a Gash Gourmet,”(download lettershere) where he described a swinging lifestyle in which he and his wife had sex numerous times with an underage girl named “Anne”.”
I have the 2013 shows, except a few. Both the Gilbert appearances (10/19/2012 and 5/24/2013) were not available on June 7, 2014 when I checked.
[Edited to add, thanks to hint from Dr. Ken]
Here’s the first appearance via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5ux7bB4bdQ
That’s a feature, not a bug.
They never reveal anything, yet you continue to give them the benefit of the doubt. Because you are a racist troll, who is willing to believe anything and everything that casts the President in a bad light, even if it’s unspoken and only implied.
If they had something, anything, they would have revealed at least a tiny bit after all this time, but they have never released anything that wasn’t proved a lie. Ever. Not once. Yet stupid people continue to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Think about that: if they have never, ever revealed anything, what reason is there to believe them. Why do you believe the things you believe?
Fascinating. The ability of these fellows to discredit themselves while retaining supporters is amazing. I’d like to do a social experiment in which I’d somehow convince Zullo to remark that “Dr. Conspiracy is definitely not a communist, homosexual, or traitor” and see how the gerbils would react.
Excellent point. Don’t they kind of a remind you of carnival barkers? You know, the guys who try to separate the rubes from their money by getting them curious about what’s inside the freak show tent. But at least the folks at a carnival actually get to see something–birthers never do. And yet they keep buying tickets and standing in line, even as they assure each other that the tent flap is just about to open and the show will begin.
Or of Michelle Obama?
In case you missed Arthur’s point, john: YOU are the RUBE in this scenario. How many times does this have to be explained to you? NO Birfer has EVER delivered on a promise. It’s a perfect, unending string of failure for SIX YEARS.
Arthur: Or of Michelle Obama?
No, that would disprove their entire theory of Michelle being a transvestite by the name of Michael…
Of course, this would assume that birthers care about being logically consistent.
Yeah they’re still not available you have to find them on youtube for the most part.
Don’t make it too easy for him . . . let him work for it. 🙂
Right! Never expect consistency from a birther if if he sees the opportunity to smear the First Family.
And yet your stupid ass keeps waiting and hoping.
This is a textbook example of how con artists work. They never deliver the goods, but keep their marks on board with misdirection and by making promises which they have no intention of keeping. To use your word, “keep them curious.”
Zullo’s threats about Reilly are misdirection, an attempt to change the subject and distract from the fact that he has nothing regarding Obama’s birth certificate.
But it doesn’t matter if Zullo has evidence that Reilly is a lying wife beater, because Reilly has never been essential to debunking Zullo’s “Investigation.” Everything Zullo said had already been debunked before Reilly went public. All Reilly did was fill in some gaps in our knowledge about how the CCP operates.
This one still cracks me up.
http://birtherthinktank.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/squeeky-deposes-deputy-zullo-video/
He’s a nothing. I stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.
John,
Did you consider that they might be trying to make people curious in order to distract them from realizing that they have never (and almost certainly will never) released any substantive (and correct) information?
Now why would John ever want to consider that?
What I do find disturbing is that evidently Zullo thinks it’s okay to attempt to intimidate his critics with not so veiled threats. But then, that’s Arpaio’s M.O.
Zullo is a bully only in a cartoonish sort of way. He struts around with his faux badge, in make believe uniform, with a gun on his hip, apparently with no other job in life. When I called him and let him know that I knew I thought his attempts to implicate me in some short of shadowy conspiracy were laughable because he was nothing more than a private citizen he became agitated. He said if I came to the county he would put me in a room full of people with badges. He didn’t mention his badge though.
That is pretty pathetic. On what basis did he imagine he could detain you in involuntary custody? Was he going to get a warrant? For what kind of offense? For exercising your rights to free speech?!? This man is truly troubled.
Where you’d probably end up shaking all those fine officers’ hands and make jokes about Zullo’s faux investigation. “Can you believe that idiot Zullo thinks any MCSO officer cares about his pretend cop investigation?” BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Would you say Zullo’s intent was to induce you to submit to his pretended official authority? Would it be unreasonable to infer that Zullo has engaged in conduct with the intent to induce others to rely on his pretended acts?
Can we say “Deprivation of civil liberties under color of law” children…?
I mean we know Our Piehole doesn’t really understand such minor matters and regards the Maricopa County treasury as his personal toy to pay for his indiscretions, he does however have a keen understanding of bad publicity.
If Zooloo tried to rope in some fellow birfoons who are MCPD officers to play out this sad and sordid fantasy all that would happen would be the fastest throwing under the bus since a Wile E Coyote cartoon.
What an idiot.
Consider for a moment what he seems to be saying: He would make you do something you otherwise probably wouldn’t do? Hmm.
Would he he force you to do it? Does he even understand the laws of arrest in Arizona? False arrest?
Be still my heart and start counting the money!
Zullo the Used Car Huckster is not a cop. If he tried something like this, he’d be personally liable. He may think he’d be protected by Maricopa County, but he’d be foolish to think that.
So this would be a real test: just how stupid is Mike Zullo?
That, john, is what in the real world is referred to as a “clue”.
They reveal nothing because they have nothing.
Nah….they think she is a transsexual….in case you haven’t read BR lately.
As a general rule, his buddy Arpaio doesn’t need an excuse to detain someone.
“What is your name, sir”
“Reality Check”
“So you are an illegal alien from come place in Europe that Heir Schicklegruber over ran on his way to Moscow, huh. We got a place for brown skinned, illegals like you, I hope you like pink.”
“No sir, Mister Faux-officer. I’m not Czech and I’m not brown-skinned.”
“Oh, I see, trying to hide your identity? Do you use the same chemicals as Michael Jackson?” Well, I’ll have to take you in for impersonating a blank check or maybe Michael Jackson identity theft. I hope you like pink”.
(disclaimer: I have never met Reality Check. I dunno whether he is or is not ‘brown-skinned’. I just need him to be not ‘brown-skinned’ in order to maintain the literary flow of the dialog. If you want historical accuracy, read the book, don’t wait for the movie.
Actually……..if he took RC to the sheriff’s office and the room was full of real sworn officers the county would be in deep doo doo right along with Zullo
As it regards your question: I don’t think we’ve reached the depths of that one yet.
Yes, the county would be in trouble… but those (real) officers may or may not be personally liable. Zullo absolutely would be. One wonders how deeply he believes his cop fantasy.
You’re absolutely correct……on all counts.
When BR wins he can attach Zullo’s Crown Vic.
Surely you mean RC.
BR never, ever wins.
Oh, lordy!! Yes indeed.
Isn’t it fair to say that, at least up to this point, Reilly has been honest with us. Only now does Zullo, after eight months of monitoring Reilly’s communications and comments, find something that he considers to be factually inaccurate enough to take action against Reilly?
Wouldn’t this statement inadvertently confirm most of what Reilly has already told us?
I mean, it seems to me what Zullo is saying is, “we have been waiting for eight months for Reilly to slip up in his statements, and now we finally got him!”
Well, Zullo is insinuating that, but he won’t really be saying that until he files the lawsuit. Which no doubt will happen on roughly the same time scale as the press conference.
I am thinking that the next Fogbow Meet-up should be in Scottsdale, Arizona and it should be well publicized. Might be kinda fun to see if Arpaio’s storm troopers really took the bait. I could use a new car at Maricopa County’s expense.
And having someone recording it. Falcon and BSE over at Gerbil Report will be gnashing their teeth to dust at the “sheer audacity” of it all. You can almost hear the cries of agony that the Obots showed up in A&Z backyard, and yet no one laid so much as a finger on them.
I’m still confident that his phrasing says he thinks “an Internet broadcast” isn’t “real”, or “serious”, somehow, but a “public airwaves” broadcast is.
Which has some validity in everyday life: $DEITY knows that we get proof many times per day that any incompetent nutbar can put videos on Youtube or do a live audio stream, but it takes real skill and resources to license and operate even a peanut-whistle rural AM station.
But I think the lawyers will confirm my belief that the legal _principles_ are the same for both, and the only difference is a practical one of whether it’s financially worth suing.
I was wondering, Doc. Have you ever heard back from Garret Papit? It was August of 2013 IIRC that we found the hilarious video of him trying to get a Xerox WorKCentre to work, and that he told you that “Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to discuss it at this point. But sit tight. It will be covered in due time. … Once I am allowed to discuss it I will be more than happy to address your point.”
I’d say more than a year should be “due time.”
Ya think?
Well, aren’t you the historian, Dude!
Which would be exactly the kind of stuff you’d expect from a snake oil salesman referring to his critics.
Vague threats of “now we’ve got you” is usually all these people have.
They think talking like that will intimidate people, ideally causing them to shut up altogether.
Since I don’t think Zullo actually believes this kind of childish play will silence anybody, maybe he thinks a lawsuit will make birthers believe he’s doing something, or that “the dominos are beginning to fall” or whatnot.
At best this will end up like Donald Trump suing Bill Maher and then retracting the suit because he could not prove he was not the child of an orang-utan.
I believe Zullo was inviting me to come see all the real deputies in badges he could assemble if I came to Phoenix. Too bad I don’t live there. I might take up his offer. 😆
I believe the term is “leather-sniffer.” Real cops do not find them flattering.
Seeing as Historian Dude has raised a question about things awaited from the past I’d like to take the opportunity of asking Doc a similar off topic question about the passport records of Obama’s mother.
I recall that part of your FOIA request in relation to her passport applications seemed to be stalled in the system for an inordinate amount of time. Did you ever get that long awaited information or an explanation from them as to why not?
If I missed this being dealt with before I apologise for the inconvenience.
566 comments on zullo’s photo claims at GR and only one ( with one reply ) mentions loren’s debunking. i know i shouldn’t but i do find that fact amazing.
Kind of reminds me of lyrics from a Simon and Garfunkel song, “The Boxer,”
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
I don’t know whether this is the same Garret Papit but someone with that name comments using a Disqus account at WND and other conservative outlets. I cannot find any comments concerning his work for the CCP. I believe this is he. He is from Dallas as is this commenter. He is a Creationist too.
http://disqus.com/garrettpapit/
A birther and a creationist, what a combination!
I should think one would naturally be found accompanying the other, what with both requiring a selective(?) disregard for objective reality, hefty indulgence in patternicity, addiction to confirmation bias, and high tolerance for cognitive dissonance.
Preferred realities … can’t have just one!
You’ve evoked the fundamental connections with economy and style.
One of the amazing things about birthers is their willingness to embrace not only multiple realities, but contradictory realities. I wonder if this trait is expressed outside of birtherism, and if it is, what kind of problems it causes for people who have to live or work with them. I mean, birthers often acknowledge that birtherism has caused them to lose friends and alienate family members, but maybe the problem isn’t birtherism, but the stress of being around someone who is so astonishingly volatile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FPELc1wEvk
No.
No.
I don’t think the problem is family members shunning the birther but the other way around. Every family can live with a crazy uncle, but a birther can never tolerate someone who supports Obama or just doesn’t go “hang the traitor!”. That’s why I think it’s usually the birther who stops talking to his family than the other way around.
i find it so amusing that bird-boy has been saying for months how he has dirt on brian reilly, but is just waiting for `the right time’ to release it.
he has learnt a lot from his hero zu-lo
Zullo and Gallups are, according to Gerbil Report, to appear on Peter Boyles’ show this Friday.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the internet… 🙂
Actually, I think this is delightfully entertaining. These people have no idea just how silly they look.
I am reminded of little kids playing “cowboys and Indians” and arguing over who shot who first.
It’s certainly a factor with people who have Obama Derangement Syndrome. All birthers have ODS, but not all people with ODS are birthers.
Recently I have seen people with ODS criticize Obama for “negotiating with terrorists” (the Berghdal prisoner swap); then criticize him for not negotiating with ISIS for the release of the two Americans who were beheaded; then criticizing Obama for not taking military action against ISIS; then blaming Obama for the beheadings which, according to ISIS, were in response to Obama taking military action.
Outgoing Republican Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) had this to say about Syria in yesterday’s New York Times:
“A lot of people would like to stay on the sideline and say, ‘Just bomb the place and tell us about it later’ It’s an election year. A lot of Democrats don’t know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don’t want to change anything. We like the path we’re on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long.”
Yeah, that would be a hoot. But we wouldn’t tell Zullo where the meeting is (to see if he could find it). We’d put up signs, though.
This week my favorite example is that the same people who think Common Law Grand Juries, AGs, etc. are an inviolable God-given right… that Common Law trumps Statutory Law… but who vehemently deny that Obama is a jus soli NBC as under British Common Law.
And there you have hit upon it. Self-loathing. The birfer himself is unwilling to act on his faux convictions, and thus he is what he espouses to despise.
If self-actualization requires an assassination attempt, you need to re-examine your mental life choices!
Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
I can picture it now! He’s outside, across the street from the restaurant, excitedly pointing at a hole in the ground exclaiming “Hey! Hey Joe! I found it! I found my ass!”
—-
I’ve long noted that such “contradictory realities” is a telling feature of bigotry. For example, regarding some minorities, bigots will often say “they are too lazy to work” while also saying “they are taking all our jobs.” Another example, regarding the minority I belong to, haters say “they are all greedy capitalists” while also saying “they are all communists and socialists”. Bigotry, like birtherism, is irrational baseless hatred.
If Zullo, or Crazy Joe, or anyone on Crazy Joe’s Cold Case Junket Squad, should sue anyone for defamation involving the birth certificate business, the defendant, whoever he is, can demand answers to questions – questions that, so far, these clowns have refused to answer. Even other persons involved in the investigation, such as Crazy Joe himself, can be interrogated for evidence. This they – or at least several of them – don’t want to do. Result: Crazy Joe and others, especially those actually on the govt payroll, will restrain the rest from filing lawsuits against anyone.
Individual episodes can often be aberrations. Not at all revealing of an individual’s nature or intent. It’s the consistencies revealed over time that are a dead giveaway 😉
Actually, I can imagine any number of real lawyers who’d probably donate their time just for the opportunity to get a few minutes with those liars on a witness stand or in a deposition, which is why they’ll never ever follow through as they have far too much to lose. The last thing they want is a fair, honest, and open forum.
Sue, that is a brilliant insight. I had missed it, and I collect these damn things!
Thanks for pointing it out.
ah! but what you don’t understand is they are taking all the EASY jobs!