In the fall of 2020, Daniel Muessig urged everyone he knew to go out and vote. He lived in the swingiest of swing states, and while he’d backed Bernie in the primary, he was now convinced of how important it was to Joe Biden to carry Pennsylvania.
Millions of people who share Daniel’s policies had come to the same conclusion. The difference is that Daniel was facing federal prison — and he had every reason to believe a Biden presidency would save him.
As for the federal drug charges, the one he faced was nothing. Daniel has not been charged with doing anything violent and apart from a minor run-in with the system when he was a juvenile, this was the first time he had ever been arrested.
To put it bluntly, by his own gleeful admission, he sold a much weeds over the years. He was what a kingpin looked like in Squirrel Hill – a pleasant and affluent Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s East End. But he didn’t mess with hard drugs or associate with people who did. And he constantly told the people who worked for him not to carry guns.
He knew all about the additional legal risks this would entail. He was a practicing attorney before changing careers and becoming the leader of what later became the Orange Box Gang.
If I interviewed Daniel, I had the unsettling feeling that he was both nothing like me and just like me. We’re both overeducated leftists. We’d both probably be in better shape if we weren’t so fond of specialty pizzas, and yes, we’ve both smoked our fair share of weed. I even lived in Squirrel Hill for a year.
But Daniel has a wild streak that I just don’t have – an urge to push all boundaries in sight. He comes from a nice Jewish family. His father received his PhD in Russian history from the University of Chicago before his mother became pregnant. His brother is him Business and Technology Editor In the Los Angeles Times. But Daniel got into trouble as a teenager, staying out with girls until 3 a.m., rapping, selling small batches of weed and running from the police. Before deciding to settle down and go to law school, he toured the United States and Europe as a freestyle rapper. And when he needed an innovative way to do business for his law firm, he found a way to get his name out there that worked so well it destroyed his career.
in one viral ad this could be a Mr Show Sketch, we are introduced to a bunch of shady characters. The image of the character freezes again and again and a list of petty crimes such as prescription fraud and receiving stolen goods appears on the screen. As the music continues, the character smiles warmly and says, “Thanks, Dan!”
