Starker on 17/8/2020 at 00:52
Bannon's Nazi Hogwarts doesn't seem to be doing all that well:
Quote:
(
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/1/18648732/steve-bannons-italian-monastery-political-gladiator-school-revoke)
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's plans for a far-right nationalist school have been halted by Italian authorities. Bannon hoped to run the school out of an ancient monastery near Rome, but officials say they are revoking rights to the grounds for failure to maintain the site and pay fees.
In a statement released Friday, Gianluca Vacca, an official with Italy's cultural ministry, said that it was the government's “duty” to revoke the rights to the Certosa de Trisulti monastery that the Human Dignity Institute, a far-right Catholic think tank Bannon partnered with, had obtained. Vacca cited the fact the group failed to pay proper concessions and said it was determined that the institute did not have any experience in cultural heritage custodianship. The ministry also voiced concerns that repairs had not begun that would make the historic property available for public use.
“Political opinions have nothing to do with us,” Vacca said. “We are interested in respecting the law and protecting the national cultural heritage, of which the Certosa is obviously part.”
Bannon, who once served as President Trump's chief strategist, had hoped to train mid-career students “looking to do something different” in the rhetoric and strategy of far-right nationalism at the school. He promised the monastery would become a “gladiator school” and planned to call it the “Academy for the Judeo-Christian West.”
[...]
demagogue on 17/8/2020 at 08:45
I'm putting (
https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-jeffrey-epstein-victims-including-11-year-old-girl-come-forward-in-lawsuit) this here for future reference. One of Tr*mp's alleged statutory rape victims has (possibly) officially joined a new lawsuit against the Epstein estate last Thursday. There's a non-zero chance it's a different 11-year-old-in-1993 girl in this suit, but I think that's unlikely. (Quick review of a few reasons why: researchers were scouring every missing 12-year-old-in-1994 case that could be linked to Epstein and there's only one obvious hit, some statements suggested this girl was by far the youngest, we know T*ffany Doe the main witness in the previous claim is involved in this case,
one of the people that claims to have talked with her recently suggested that we may hear from her soon, the number of incidents, sadly the details, and timeline fit her profile, and a few other things.) So it's not impossible it's someone else, but unlikely, I think. Needless to say it's important to keep information about her tight to keep the crazies & hitmen away from her.
I don't want to be like the conspiratorial-minded among us, hyperventilate and shout out that the biggest bombshell in US political history just had its fuse lit that (almost) nobody noticed, or 'it has begun'. Imma just quietly place this here. Maybe something will come of it and maybe not. But if something does, you heard it here first.
As always, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. T*ffany, Epstein's main girl handler during the period, is involved in the case; so we'll have her testimony. She's going to be testifying on behalf of a lot of girls I imagine, so her credibility should be stronger than it was in 2016. If K*tie joins the case we'll have her testimony too. What I don't know is if the Wexner house had the cameras installed taping everyone already in 1994 or if that came later; and if they were, if the tapes still exist and if Maxwell or anyone else with possible access to them has any mind to turn them in for any reason. If there's other evidence, it's nothing I've read anything about yet. I really hope she stays safe and gets justice for at least the abuse from Epstein. If it's her and she never mentions Tr*mp for her own security, I would completely understand.
Tactically speaking it's smart of them to begin only with the Epstein claim with nine other girls. If she wins that her credibility is much stronger for other cases. They're probably doing that for all the other alleged perps.
Nicker on 17/8/2020 at 14:51
Interesting developments on the tRump sex crimes front.
Meanwhile on the election fraud front, since there is no chance that tRump's personal attorney, Bill Barr, will investigate his master and Louis Dejoy's criminal suppression of the USPS, several states are pushing for criminal investigations of the same persons for (
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/criminal-referral-in-nj-seeks-grand-jury-investigation-of-trumps-arson-of-u-s-postal-service/) violating state laws about mail handling and voter rights suppression.
One of several examples:
Quote:
Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) on Friday asked his state's attorney general to empanel a grand jury to investigate President Donald Trump and several top executives at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Pascrell claimed the Administration's efforts to dismantle the federal agency constitutes election interference in violation of state law.
“Tonight I've made a criminal referral to the New Jersey Attorney General asking him to empanel a grand jury to look at subversion of NJ election laws by Donald Trump, Louis DeJoy, and other Trump officials in their accelerating arson of the post office,”
Accelerating arson - legal poetry.
heywood on 17/8/2020 at 17:47
I will be very surprised if any new bombshells come out of Maxwell's prosecution or the civil suits. The victims will almost certainly settle their civil case against the estate, and I'll bet it happens quietly because the unnamed parties behind Epstein's trust probably value keeping their privacy over getting the maximum payout. That way the girls get to remain anonymous and get a big payout, and you don't have hostile attorneys digging into the trust.
On the criminal front, the statute of limitations is up on everything but the sex trafficking charges, and now that Epstein is dead, there's no bigger fish to go after than Maxwell. So I don't expect the prosecutors to offer any plea deal in return for information, and she has no other reason to talk. I suspect some of the girl handlers will be compelled by prosecutors to testify against Maxwell, but it will be behind closed doors because I'm sure the prosecutors will agree to keep them anonymous. Besides, they've already been speaking through journalists. Multiple books have been written about Epstein's sex trafficking operation. It's a known thing.
There is the civil suit by Jane Doe against Trump, which I'm sure somebody will use in a campaign ad at some point, but Trump will just deny it. Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh only cost him one Republican vote. And this time, given that it's Trump and he already got elected once with a history of allegations against him, what is one anonymous accuser going to do?
Starker on 17/8/2020 at 18:53
I'm siding with the journalist who uncovered the whole thing -- there's still stuff to come out. Remember, everything we know so far isn't so much because Epstein was especially loose-lipped, but because court documents and witness testimony and all the stuff uncovered during discovery that was made public later. I bet that as they throw the book at Maxwell there will be a lot more stuff made public.
heywood on 17/8/2020 at 19:52
Well, the girls can name drop a few more of the Johns, but so what? It might be interesting to find out whether Epstein was really blackmailing people, but I doubt the girls know anything about that. Maxwell might, but she's got nothing to gain from talking about it.
demagogue on 18/8/2020 at 00:44
Quote Posted by heywood
There is the civil suit by Jane Doe against Trump, which I'm sure somebody will use in a campaign ad at some point, but Trump will just deny it. Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh only cost him one Republican vote. And this time, given that it's Trump and he already got elected once with a history of allegations against him, what is one anonymous accuser going to do?
That was some of my point above. It's not one isolated, anonymous accuser this time. This is now the second underage Maria Doe with a (future presumed) claim against Trump, and she's not coming in by herself but in a joined suit with 9 other girls (and however many dozens of other girls in other suits) and the handler in a suit against Epstein's estate.
I'm not denying the force of your point though. History has proven it true so far. To my mind, it's a matter of whether the Cosby-effect will kick in also for the other alleged Johns after they get a payout from the Epstein case. In Cosby's case, there was a shift from his denials making complaints disappear to a point where that became untenable after more than 30 women came together with the same story, once it crossed a very specific line and not before, even after his denials had worked automatically for however many decades.
In this case we have over 100 women with claims against Epstein, with one or two or three underage ones (that we know about from past reports) also having alleged claims against Trump possibly in the mix of joined suits with them. If their claims get collectively framed, it makes it harder to deny any single one of their claims, possibly including against other alleged men, but only if the Cosby-effect goes beyond Epstein and Maxwell to apply to the other men out of the collective action part. I think the Cosby-effect is a real thing that can happen, but it's hard to predict if or how it might work here.
It's like, if the women are presumed truthful for these Epstein claims by sheer force of numbers (the vanilla Cosby-effect, if it triggers), does that carry over to the credibility of these side claims, considering it's the same women we're talking about we just said we believed a minute ago? They wouldn't be presumed credible in isolation, but does the collective nature of this change that? In any event, the collective nature of this suit, and the fact the Trump accuser(s) are part of them, does make it a little different from what we've seen before.
There's more to say about the anonymity and evidence shielding part too, which is another good point you make. I tend to think for reasons that the girls and their evidence & testimony won't be entirely anonymous or invisible to the public by the end of this (Katie Johnson's story is already out there in detail). E.g., I think the credibility of Tiffany, the handler, may get a big boost from this recent action that will give new credibility to everything it touches and be hard to handwave away. But there's reasons to think otherwise too; I can't predict it at all; and I understand that a settlement and evidence and statements staying behind closed doors can help make it disappear for the public and work against the Cosby-effect. Although in Cosby's case, there was a point where even settlements wouldn't help him also.
----
Edit: Oh this is an aside, but the other element that would help is if the Right really absorbed the fact that the Left, especially the post-MeToo mainstream of it, would be happy to see Bill Clinton caught up in this and given the presumption of "believe the women first" in this case. The Right has a projection-like inability to imagine that which you can see in their whataboutism, but you can use that as a sword to push the Cosby-effect. If it triggers for Clinton first and he's given unforgiving scrutiny, it makes it harder to argue Trump should be exempt when Clinton isn't. It's an easy concession because women are literally putting their lives at risk to name names in this case, even if anonymously, and the worst we've gotten is Clinton was flirty with two 20 year old girls on a couch at a party at Epstein's place that Al and Tipper also attended. I can't believe a women wouldn't name him if she suffered abuse by him, with the reams of death threats they've received giving other names. Of course if a women did come out with a complaint against him as part of this mix, then it should be taken seriously because it actually should be taken seriously.
Starker on 18/8/2020 at 01:30
I think people underestimate the effect publicity and dragging things into the light can have here. If it turns out Clinton or any other famous people took part of this abuse, they fully deserve to have it be part of their permanent legacy, if for nothing else than for the sake of historical justice.
Starker on 18/8/2020 at 03:21
Lord Dampnut's people giving less than stellar endorsements to their boss:
[video=youtube;KsLaAbzVb9E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsLaAbzVb9E[/video]
[video=youtube;OgQZExTciQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgQZExTciQM[/video]
Tony_Tarantula on 18/8/2020 at 18:43
Everyone who has ever worked with Lord Dampnut has hated him. He's a raging, narcissistic piece of shit. Every book and documentary written by those who have worked with him says the same thing.
this isn't new news and only dumb boomers and racists believe otherwise.