septimasexta

Did more research on Graffiti. It appears that the Connecticut avenue store is closed. According to a photo on their Facebook page, they were there at least until November of 2013. They do a big business installing flat screens. Hmmm. https://www.facebook.com/GraffitiAudioVideo/ Can flat screens be used to bug a place, a la 1984?

Here are two interesting reviews of this business from 2005 and 2006. This is at the Connecticut Ave. location. https://www.judysbook.com/Graffiti-AudioVideo-Stereo-washington-dc-r75195.htm#reviews

A store by the same name is now on Wisconsin Ave. Here is an interesting review:

"You may note that this store smells like a Pet Shop, walking through the door...and then you will notice a red furry dog sprawled out on the hardwood floor. But it's not a Pet Shop, and you shouldn't pet the dogs (there are two): the skinny one snapped at me when I tried.

Anyway, it's still a pretty good store---a user oriented, customer friendly place that seems like a miniature Best Buy (and best of all they will match the lowest price of any other retail store). Upstairs, past a clutter of big-box TVs, there is a internet section where you can go online for just $3.99 an hour."

https://www.yelp.com/biz/graffiti-audio-video-washington-2?adjust_creative=dWJMtmYxpd5N5yoyzSuhtA&utm_campaign=yelp_api&utm_medium=api_v2_business&utm_source=dWJMtmYxpd5N5yoyzSuhtA&hrid=LbzJNXbWOLsh94d7M5Cl6A

Graffiti is NOT BBB accredited. Their site shows two locations; Connecticut Ave. (now closed) and Wisconsin Ave. https://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/electronic-equipment-repair/graffiti-audio-video-in-washington-dc-1015644/reviews-and-complaints https://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/electronic-equipment-repair/graffiti-audio-video-in-washington-dc-1015644/reviews-and-complaints

VERY INTERESTING IF THIS IS THE SAME COMPANY... "GRAFFITTI Pro Audio was born in 1995, by turning our passion for pro audio into business. We have developed from scratch, as most of the Eastern European companies, growing little by little and, as a quality focused company, we have strived to improve the quality of our products / suppliers / services, though being able to supply a solution for every budget, without compromising on quality."

"Portfolio Established originally in 1994, in its current form since 2009 - GRAFFITI PRO team has provided equipment and solutions all around the country for both private , domestic and multinational companies." http://www.grafiti.ro NOTICE THE ".ro" is Romania!

ROMANIA HAS A BIG CHILD TRAFFICKING PROBLEM Police smash Romanian 'child trafficking ring' By Jerome Taylor Tuesday 12 October 2010 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-smash-romanian-child-trafficking-ring-2104694.html

Trafficking, Romania BBC News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjPRzqHbdi4

ROMANIA UNDER HILLARY'S DEPT. OF STATE:

"OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report Report ROMANIA: TIER 2

Romania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking. Romanians represent a significant source of sex and labor trafficking victims throughout Europe. Romanian men, women, and children are subjected to labor trafficking in agriculture, construction, domestic service, hotels, and manufacturing, as well as forced begging and theft in Romania and other European countries. Romanian women and children are victims of sex trafficking in Romania and other European countries. Romani children are particularly vulnerable to forced begging and forced criminality. Romania is a destination country for a limited number of foreign trafficking victims, including sex trafficking victims from Moldova and Poland and labor trafficking victims from Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, and Serbia. Romanians living in privately run institutions for the mentally disabled were vulnerable to forced labor. Government officials have been convicted of human trafficking crimes, and there have been reports of local officials obstructing trafficking investigations.

The Government of Romania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The organized crime directorate led the government’s strong law enforcement efforts, but police and judges lacked training on working with trafficking cases and victims, which had detrimental effects on compensation for victims and sentencing for perpetrators. The government’s protection efforts remained inadequate, particularly in victim assistance. The government and NGOs identified a large number of victims, but assisted only 37 percent, leaving most victims without services and vulnerable to re-trafficking. The government did not provide funding to NGOs offering victim assistance, although the national anti-trafficking commission began to develop mechanisms to provide grants to NGOs. Victims had difficulty obtaining medical services, psychological counseling, and identity protection during criminal trials. Official complicity was not adequately addressed." PLEASE READ ALL! https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2016/258847.htm

Snailracer

I'm not offended that Clarence Thomas like Juggs Magazine.

SecondAmendment

Outstanding find, @septimasexta . Great post, so upvoated. Thank you. These people are so sick. If you're not over on 8chan watching the Storm, I highly recommend everyone go to https://8ch.net/cbts/catalog.html and watch the latest #CBTS (Calm Before the Storm) threads. Fascinating. We are winning.

septimasexta

Thanks for the encouragement! I believe we have already won.

Are_we_sure

septima, how old are you? Do you remember the Clarence Thomas Anita Hill story? Was a big media sensation at the time. Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment and said he talked about pornography at his job. He came back are called it an 'electronic lynching.' Because of the images of white Senators lynching a black justice, Joe Biden who was in charge of the confirmation hearings did not call other women to the stand who would have supported Anita Hill's story. HBO made a movie about it in the last couple of years.

David Brock was a right wing journalist at the time and wrote a book smearing Hill. He later switched parties and claimed he lied in his book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Anita_Hill

septimasexta

Your summary is correct. The memo is actually from sbwhoeop? to "H" in the State Department. This person is forwarding Brock"s memo that is not dated. It appears to me that this is the "inside scoop" that Brock believes is true. I didn't post this to give an opinion on Clarence Thomas, but to VERIFY THE NATURE OF PRODUCTS SOLD AT THE MENTIONED VIDEO STORE. It could be a legit lead. Thanks for your input!

KnightsofHubris

sbwhoeop is I believe not a State Department employee but Sid Blumenthal, a friend of Hillary's

I googled about this memo and there's a lot of stories about it. There was a lot of coverage of what this woman said

The pornography in question appears to be women with huge, huge breasts, not kiddie porn, if that is what you're thinking of.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/justice-clarence-thomas-lover-speaks-tv-interview/story?id=11950662

During their roughly five years together, according to McEwen, the couple occasionally went to a porn shop called Graffiti, where the owner stocked Thomas' preferred products behind the counter.

McEwen said that on several occasions Thomas looked at pornographic materials during intercourse.

"His interest in women's breasts was a fantasy. And when I say women's breasts I mean huge breasts," said McEwen. "He would get porn that emphasized that, that had the photographs of women with huge breasts."

septimasexta

Thanks for the Sid Blumenthal connection. That makes sense. It is marked State Department, I believe, because "H" is Hillary Clinton. It appears they were conniving for dirt with which to impeach Thomas. That is what makes me think the video store is legit.

septimasexta

Does this shop cater to other elected officials or Supreme Court Justices? Who owns it? Do they monitor their clientele? Is it accessible by tunnel? Other clients may have DIFFERENT TASTES. What is on their website? This is the angle I am after. Obviously, it is in a prime location.

migratorypatterns

But this is advanced by David Brock. David Brock wouldn't know where porno could be found?

I can't really tell if this is a smear by using the famous left tactic of accusing someone of what they're doing.

GregChism

Anyone who has been to Dupont circle subway is a suspect

septimasexta

Agreed! Since "secret tunnels" have become the hallmark of Pizzagate, the one's under DuPont Circle might be significant. I wonder if the video store is over a tunnel?

https://dc.curbed.com/2014/8/12/10061584/here-now-the-basic-facts-about-the-dupont-underground What You Need to Know About Dupont Circle's Secret Tunnels By Valerie Paschall Aug 12, 2014

https://dc.curbed.com/2013/1/18/10284952/a-spooky-tour-of-dupont-undergrounds-secret-tunnel A Spooky Tour Of Dupont Underground's Secret Tunnel By Amy Rose Dobson Jan 18, 2013

Art Galleries have been linked to Pizzagate.... D.C.’s hidden tunnels to become underground art space Jan. 23, 2016 https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2016/01/23/dupont-circle-underground-tunnels-exhibits/79185264/ "Julian Hunt was not one of those people. When the Barcelona-trained architect returned to Dupont Circle from Spain in the late 1990s, he was shocked at the city's unimaginative use of public space compared to other global cities.

"You have this famous and beautiful circle in the heart of the District that was underperforming. Coming from abroad, I knew that it could be so much more," says Hunt. "Then I noticed these nine boarded-up entryways. I asked around and everyone thought they were old ventilation shafts. Whatever they were, I wanted to wake them up and bring them back into the public realm."

After years of trying, Hunt finally convinced the city to let him explore the sealed-off entryways with the police. In spite of its neglect, he was immediately struck by the space's unique potential — so much so that he continued studying the site for a year afterward, exploring the passageways with flashlights.

"D.C. has always been skipped over for international shows because there simply isn't the space," Hunt says. "We have great resources in the Smithsonian and smaller galleries, but there's a missing niche."

To help fill that niche, Hunt formed the Dupont Underground and has spent the past several years negotiating terms with the city and submitting proposals to breathe new life into the abandoned space. After successfully securing a five-year lease in late 2014, the nonprofit has spent much of the last year pursuing private grants and the necessary fundraising needed bring the full tunnel system up to code.

To date, Dupont Underground has only raised a portion of the estimated $4 million needed to open up the full 75,000-square-foot space, so the group decided to open the tunnels in phases. Hunt hopes that as the first section of the underground sees the light of day and city embraces it, this unique site can become one of the premier cultural destinations in the District.

"A project like this has the potential to transform the District," Hunt says. "When people from Tokyo or Paris visit, I want them to know that there's something under Dupont Circle.""

septimasexta

Light in the Tunnel: Inside Dupont Underground March 4, 2017 https://ontaponline.com/2017/03/04/inside-dupont-underground/ "I was standing with the nonprofit’s managing director, David Ross, and board member Philippa Hughes of Pink Line Project, staring down the length of a pitch-black tunnel that was suddenly illuminated by bright, kaleidoscopic projections that seemed to pulsate to the beat of the music filling every inch of the immense space. I was completely mesmerized."

“The space is so large, you kind of have to be in it,” Ross says. “75,000 square feet is a lot. I spent a lot of time between 1 and 6 a.m. down there trying to figure out how things worked.”

"Ross says everything changed when he got his own key and could explore after hours; that, and the constant questions from passersby in Dupont Circle peeking down the steps, asking what the space was and when it was opening."

"Dupont Underground reopened on January 6, with nearly every wave of tours selling out. Ross still records live music in the space, and hosts intimate events like Sofar Sound shows and Literaoke (writers + karaoke) nights. But he sees the space becoming home to so much more, “a place that continues to do cutting-edge, inclusive work, and to help create and really shape an artistic movement within the city.” Hughes, who lauds Ross for being a doer and not just a talker, shares his vision. In her mind, the possibilities are endless for using the space as a vehicle for community-driven art and engagement experiences.

“It’s such a weird space that it’s asking for experimentation,” she says. “It is literally this raw space. We can literally do anything in it.”"