(The following guest post is from Jello333 – presented in it’s entirety)

I know we all enjoyed watching Bernie go off the deep end in his response to the sanctions motions. But to make things even better, it appears that the meltdown may have been helped along by some things Sundance has done. And not only did Bernie make a fool of himself, but much more importantly this could have a real impact on the case as we move forward.

You all know there’s been a pretty major rift here at the Treehouse over Mark O’Mara. Some of it has to do with the feelings by some here that he isn’t always forceful enough in his defense of George, and that he sometimes goes off on tangents that don’t seem helpful (like saying “We should have a discussion about race”). But another major issue has been how MOM handled the whole PayPal Fiasco way back when.

Some people here thought it was a big deal; others not so much. But regardless, most of us agreed that it probably WAS something that the prosecution was hoping to use as some kind of leverage over him.

Clearly they have already tried that with the perjury charge against Shellie. No doubt the State’s hope was that, at a minimum, the charge would cause more stress for George and the family, cost them more money; and might even get George to take a plea. Unfortunately for Bernie and the others though, George, Shellie, and the rest of the family were too strong to cave in to lying, hypocritical extortionists.

Still, even though the State seemed to be ignoring it, the PayPal issue would occasionally come up here at the Treehouse. My opinion was usually along the lines of “What is the point?”

I wasn’t sure exactly how much of it was MOM’s fault, but more importantly, I couldn’t see any reason to keep bringing it up, to keep rehashing what had happened. After all, nothing could be done to change the past. So anyway, a little over a month ago Sundance was hinting that he was about to make another O’Mara expose-type post. In my mind, I was thinking, “Not again!” And so I sent him an email with my thoughts on the matter. A hearing had just taken place, and we were waiting to see if MOM/West would file anything aggressive.

I suggested to Sundance that maybe he should wait and see, before making any more negative posts about MOM. But of course he didn’t listen to me! 😉 He posted something the next day, but for some reason it didn’t strike me the same way as earlier ones had. So I sent a follow-up email. After suggesting to SD that perhaps his new post might help convince George to stand up to MOM, if that’s what was needed, I added what I REALLY hoped the effect of the post (and his earlier ones) would have:

“But what I’d really prefer to see happen is that it makes MOM himself have a change of heart. Where maybe he had been hoping that this subject never came up again… that everyone had just forgot about it, and that he was gonna do his best to keep it hidden. But now that he sees that’s not the case, maybe it’ll be a ‘liberating’ moment for him. Sorta like when someone is being blackmailed (by Bernie et al), they sometimes reach the point where they say, ‘You know what, I’m gonna expose this MYSELF, so these people no longer have leverage over me.’ “

You guys know me. You know I’m always trying to be optimistic where various aspects of this case are concerned; trying to look for something positive to come out of what first looks to be negative. But still, I didn’t know if what I said in that email had any actual basis in reality. I was just “hoping”.

Fast forward to a week or so ago. MOM and West file the motions for sanctions. We all thought, GREAT, about time! They hadn’t yet gone nearly far enough, but it was a start. Apparently to Bernie, though, it was way more than just a “start”. It was like the ultimate insult, and he was NOT gonna stand for it. So along with all the lying, libeling, hypocrisy, and frothing insults, what else did Bernie throw into his reply? “Well so what? If I did something wrong, so did O’Mara! He did it too! Waa waa waa!” And what was that “something wrong” that he accused MOM of? That’s right… the PayPal Fiasco.

As I read through that, I was thinking this could actually be a GOOD thing, finally getting it all out in the open. In an OFFICIAL court document, no less. Then I read John Galt’s comment ( https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/03/28/oh-fugghit-another-zimmerman-post-toldyaso-edition/#comment-358443 ), which expanded greatly on the little thought that was floating through my head, and also reminded me of what I had written to Sundance in my February email. A few excerpts from John’s comment:

Until recently, “MOM appeared fettered by the leverage BDLR held against him with respect to the paypal – indigency issue.”

“Sundance has repeatedly and intensely directed his Q Beam on the paypal – indigency leverage issue, and the case as a whole. CTH coverage of the case has rankled BDLR to the point that he railed against CTH by name, in open court. At some point, did it occur to MOM that the indigency – paypal issue was actually no longer a secret? How do you blackmail somebody if the secret that you wield against them is repeatedly published on a web site referenced in open court?”

“There appears to have been a recent change in tone and tactics in MOM’s approach to the case. They have gone from allegations that BDLR has ‘taken a formalistic approach’ to motions for sanctions which personally attack BDLR’s lack of ethics and discovery stonewalling.”

Which, as John notes, has seemingly resulted in Bernie now going, “clearly off the rails,” and causing him to do two important things in his insane rant of a reply.

For one, “he attempts to club MOM with the paypal – indigency issue.” For another, he includes the strange Dee Dee “letter”. Bernie may have thought that both of those are in some way helpful to him and the prosecution, but quite the opposite is likely true.

As John says, the letter appears to be the “mere sprout of a lie which subsequently progressed through different versions into a towering tree of lies.” Of course it’s also more proof that Bernie has been hiding exculpatory evidence (which ironically was the very point of MOM’s motion!). And as for the PayPal accusations? Well, as John asks, and which is the main point I’m trying to get across:

“Did Sundance cut the bonds which chained MOM and thereby lead to the disclosure of substantial exculpatory evidence?”

But I’ll go further than that, which I think John agrees. This may not be just a one-off temporary benefit. The disclosure of the Dee Dee “letter” is important, but what may be even more important is if this really HAS “unchained” MOM from any real or perceived threat he had hanging over his head.

That could be a very, very good thing. He had already, recently, started to become more aggressive. And now that Bernie has used up the only ammo he may have possibly had against MOM – the threat of making an official complaint about the PayPal Fiasco – that threat is no longer there. Rather than being upset over what Bernie did, I suspect that, as I said in my email to SD, this was a “liberating moment” for MOM.

Or as Sundance announced yesterday: “Operation Q-Beam held one objective – To remove the weakness in the Defense Team ability due to the ‘influence’ the state held over Mark O’Mara.”

So what all this amounts to is yeah… I now think that the “exposes” by Sundance over the PayPal stuff will have a positive impact. It really may be that without the “sunlight” shined on that, it would have stayed mostly underground unless and until Bernie decided to pull it out and use it against MOM “at just the right moment”. And if that’s the case, then MOM was likely concerned about it, at least subconsciously.

I understand why some people (which at times included ME) thought Sundance’s posts were a bad idea. At times it DID feel like we were slamming MOM for no good reason. One comment the other day suggested that this was helping Bernie “gather the info needed” to attack MOM:

“Did this site help remind him of weapons or leverage he had? Did this site save him hours of gathering the info needed for the paypal, passport ect.. info that was layed out nicely?”

Well, I think that could be right; the site may HAVE made it a little easier for Bernie. But the difference is, the person who wrote that thinks it was a bad thing to do, while I now think it will probably turn out to be a very GOOD thing. I know that even if there wasn’t an attempt to pull off some kind of reverse psychology on either Bernie or MOM, Sundance would probably still have posted “the truth”, and “let the chips fall where they may”.

So it’s just great that it seems that all the “exposing” is gonna have a real, tangible benefit for this case as it moves forward. As SD notes, it appears that Operation Q-Beam has been successful. Now I don’t think Don West ever really needed anyone’s help to get riled up.

But Mark?… well. What’s that again? Oh yeah, as John Galt says…

Operation Q-Beam = MOM Unchained!