Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case, Epstein’s death, Epstein’s Famous Friends
December 30, 2021 Comments Off on Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case, Epstein’s death, Epstein’s Famous Friends
Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case
– Ghislaine Maxwell Is Found Guilty of Aiding in Epstein’s Sex Abuse
– 60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..Dr. Michael Baden: The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging. I hesitate to make a final opinion, until all the evidence is in.”
Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances
– “Flight logs that put Clinton on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” 26 times between 2001 and 2003.”
– “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in a 2002 profile of Epstein. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Woody Allen The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 7, has made several appearances with Epstein over the years. Allen attended a dinner party for Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, he was pictured walking around the Upper East Side with him in 2013, and his photo is displayed in Epstein’s study. Babi Christina Engelhardt, a former personal assistant to Epstein, also alleged in a Hollywood Reporter profile that she and Allen had an eight-year relationship, beginning when she was 16 and he was 41.”
Prince Andrew The Duke of York, Prince Charles’s younger brother, is a longtime personal friend of Epstein’s and has been directly accused of having sex with at least one underage girl.
Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case
Associated Press
TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER
December 29, 2021
NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts…. During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes — a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case. A housekeeper testified he was expected to be “blind, deaf and dumb” about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul.
Pilots took the witness stand and dropped the names of luminaries — Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump — who flew on Epstein’s private jets.
Jurors saw physical evidence like a folding massage table once used by Epstein and a “black book” that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading “massages.” There were bank records showing he had transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell, his longtime companion — one-time girlfriend, later employee. But the core of the prosecution was the testimony of four women who said they were victimized by Maxwell and Epstein at tender ages….
They said the script would darken when Maxwell coaxed them into giving massages to Epstein that turned sexual, encounters she played off as normal: After one sexual massage, Kate, then 17, said Maxwell asked her if she’d had fun and told her: “You are such a good girl.” Carolyn testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to give massages in exchange for $100 bills, which prosecutors described as “a pyramid of abuse.”….
During their two-day presentation, they called as a witness Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California Irvine professor who has testified as a memory expert for defense lawyers at about 300 trials, including the rape trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein….
Maxwell still awaits trial on two counts of perjury. Lawsuits involving the abuse allegations also continue, including one in which a woman not involved in the trial, Virginia Giuffre, says she was coerced into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Andrew has denied her account and that lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for many months. https://www.aol.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-jury-must-years-161625990-220054892.html
Ghislaine Maxwell Is Found Guilty of Aiding in Epstein’s Sex Abuse Dec. 29, 2021 Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring with him for at least a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls. A federal jury in Manhattan found Ms. Maxwell, 60, the daughter of a British media mogul, guilty of sex trafficking and four of the five other charges against her. She was acquitted of one count of enticing a minor to travel across state lines to engage in an illegal sexual act. Ms. Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the courtroom reckoning that Mr. Epstein never had….
Ms. Maxwell’s conviction closed another chapter in the saga of Mr. Epstein, whose lurid exploits, dealings with the criminal justice system and cast of famous friends made him — and, by extension, Ms. Maxwell — the subject of intense public scrutiny for years. In her trial, the government called four accusers — two used pseudonyms and one only a partial name — who testified that they had been served up to Mr. Epstein to be sexually abused. Ms. Maxwell was present for some of the abuse, according to the testimony, and played a role in enticing and grooming some of the victims….
“Ms. Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” a prosecutor, Alison Moe, told the jury in closing arguments last week. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”…
Mr. Epstein’s name surfaced repeatedly during Ms. Maxwell’s trial, and her lawyers spent much of their time trying to distance her from the man who was once also her boyfriend and is now seen as one of the most notorious sex offenders in modern American history….
Jane testified how Ms. Maxwell, “a tall, thin woman” with a “cute little Yorkie,” strolled up to her, followed by Mr. Epstein, as she sat with friends at the age of 14, eating ice cream at a summer arts camp in Michigan. That chance meeting led to an invitation to Mr. Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Fla., and what prosecutors said was years of sexual abuse…..
“This case is about Ghislaine Maxwell, the crimes she committed,” another prosecutor, Maurene Comey, said in a government rebuttal. “It’s about the children that she targeted, the steps that she took to serve those children up to be abused. It’s about her own participation in that abuse.” Ms. Farmer, one of the accusers who testified against Ms. Maxwell, said in a statement that she was “relieved and grateful that the jury recognized the pattern of predatory behavior that Maxwell engaged in for years and found her guilty of these crimes.” “She has caused hurt to many more women than the few of us who had the chance to testify in the courtroom,” Ms. Farmer said…. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/29/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-verdict
60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein
January 5, 2020 In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. On August 10, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging, but a forensic pathologist who observed the four-hour autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother, Mark, tells 60 Minutes the evidence released so far points more to murder than suicide in his view. Dr. Michael Baden’s key reason: the unusual fractures he saw in Epstein’s neck….
Federal prosecutors say surveillance video “makes clear” that the guards “search[ed] the internet” and “appear to have been asleep” on their overnight overtime shift. One thing the video may not show, according to sources, is Epstein’s cell door and the doors of the other inmates on his unit tier. Sources say the camera that should have captured those angles was corrupted the night of Epstein’s death. Epstein’s cell was about 15 feet away and up a set of stairs from the guards’ station, with a single locked gate between them. As 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told Lindsay in their interview, the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death seem almost unbelievable. “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..
Dr. Michael Baden: The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging. I hesitate to make a final opinion, until all the evidence is in…. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-jeffrey-epstein-kill-himself-60-minutes-investigates-2020-01-05/
Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances
By Adam K. Raymond and Matt Stieb July 10, 2019 After Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest on sex-trafficking charges over the weekend, the Miami Herald reporter behind the paper’s dogged investigations into the wealthy money manager said he isn’t the only prominent person this scandal is likely to ensnare. “There are probably quite a few important people, powerful people, who are sweating it out right now,” Julie K. Brown said on MSNBC. “We’ll have to wait and see whether Epstein is going to name names.”
Over the years, Epstein has counted some of the country’s most powerful political and business leaders among his friends. They’ve visited his private island, flown on his private jet, and had him as a guest in their homes. Most of the well-known figures linked to Epstein have not been accused of any wrongdoing, but a few have been accused of participating in his sex-trafficking ring. Here are some of Epstein’s most prominent connections:
Bill Clinton Clinton and Epstein grew close in the first few years after the former president left office. According to a statement from Clinton this week, he took “a total of four trips” on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003, traveling to Europe, Asia, and Africa. At the time, Clinton told New York that Epstein is a “highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist.”
In this week’s statement, Clinton said he knew nothing of Epstein’s “terrible crimes” and that the two hadn’t spoken in a decade. But the picture of their relationship painted by the former president doesn’t square with flight logs that put Clinton on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” 26 times between 2001 and 2003. Or with Gawker’s 2015 report on Epstein’s little black book, which included “21 contact numbers and various email addresses for Clinton.” Alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre also claimed in a 2015 affidavit that Clinton visited the financier’s private island, though Clinton denies it. The claim has never been corroborated, and there are no Epstein-related allegations of sexual misconduct involving Clinton.
Donald Trump “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in a 2002 profile of Epstein. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” Trump’s comment about Epstein’s taste in women has gotten a lot of attention in the past few days for obvious reasons. But it’s not the only thing connecting the two men. Epstein and Trump lived near each other in Palm Beach, ran in the same social circles, and records show Trump flew on the “Lolita Express.”
Four years ago, Giuffre alleged that while working as a towel girl at Mar-a-Lago, she was recruited by Epstein’s longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell to become one of his sex slaves. The year was 1999, and Giuffre was 16 years old. In court documents, Bradley Edwards, an attorney who represented several of Epstein’s alleged victims, said Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago because he “sexually assaulted an underage girl at the club.” The claim has not been confirmed. Trump has also been accused of assaulting a woman on Epstein’s property.
During the 2016 election, an anonymous California woman filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump and Epstein raped her at the latter’s New York City mansion in 1994, when she was 13. Several journalists expressed confusion or skepticism after looking into the story. Trump denied the allegations and the woman dropped her suit weeks before the election. When Gawker published Epstein’s “little black book” in 2015, a Trump spokesperson told the site, “Mr. Trump only knew Mr. Epstein as Mr. Trump owns the hottest and most luxurious club in Palm Beach, [redacted], and Mr. Epstein would go there on occasion.” But media reports from the early 2000s show multiple interactions between the two in social settings. Trump also called Epstein twice in November 2004, according to message pads seized from Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump and Epstein were the only two guests at a 1992 “calendar girl” competition at Mar-a-Lago. Businessman George Houraney said he arranged the party at Trump’s request….
Alan Dershowitz Two different women have said they were trafficked by Epstein and “directed” to have sex with the prominent Harvard law professor. Giuffre says that after she was recruited to be a masseuse for Epstein and coerced into having sex with him, she was told that she had to have sex with other men, including Dershowitz. Separately, Sarah Ransome, who sued Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for alleged sex trafficking, says she was directed to have sex with Dershowitz. The attorney has denied the claims from both women….
Leslie Wexner The 81-year-old CEO of L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, was once the “main client” of Epstein’s money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. The billionaire began working with Epstein in the early ’90s, and in 2003 Epstein said that people had suggested the two men shared one brain. “Each has a side,” he said….
Prince Andrew The Duke of York, Prince Charles’s younger brother, is a longtime personal friend of Epstein’s and has been directly accused of having sex with at least one underage girl. In 2015 court documents, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, seen here in a photo with Prince Andrew, said she was coerced into having sex with the British royal. She also said she was forced to participate in an orgy with other underage girls and the Prince. Buckingham Palace has denied the claims.
Tom Barrack In Fire and Fury, his first book on the Trump administration, Michael Wolff reported that Trump, Epstein, and private-equity manager and Trump campaign senior adviser Tom Barrack were a “set of nightlife musketeers” in the ’80s and ’90s, managing a phrase that is both ambiguous and terrifying.
Mort Zuckerman Media mogul, billionaire, and former owner of the New York Daily News and the Atlantic Mort Zuckerman invested with Epstein in the gossip magazine Radar in 2004, spending around $10 million to get the first issue up and running. According to Gawker, Zuckerman promptly bailed on the project when he found out about allegations against Epstein, and the magazine shut down just 14 months after its inaugural issue in 2005.
Woody Allen The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 7, has made several appearances with Epstein over the years. Allen attended a dinner party for Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, he was pictured walking around the Upper East Side with him in 2013, and his photo is displayed in Epstein’s study. Babi Christina Engelhardt, a former personal assistant to Epstein, also alleged in a Hollywood Reporter profile that she and Allen had an eight-year relationship, beginning when she was 16 and he was 41.
Larry Summers Former Harvard president and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers connected with Epstein mostly for fundraising purposes for the university….
Stephen Hawking
Steven Pinker According to flight logs of Epstein’s plane, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker hitched a ride on the “Lolita Express” in 2002. Pinker was also pictured at a dinner in which Epstein was in attendance in 2014, along with Lawrence Krauss.
Roger Schank Artificial intelligence expert Roger Schank visited Epstein in jail in July 2008 when he was a professor at Northwastern University…. In 2003, Primedia Inc. was looking to sell New York Magazine, and Mort Zuckerman and then-media columnist Michael Wolff rounded up some investors to purchase the property. The group included TV personality and businessman Donny Deutsch, billionaire Nelson Peltz, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein. (The movie producer, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, is set to be tried on five counts of sexual assault, including rape.) The group’s bid of $44 million was the second-lowest out of four, and investment banker Bruce Wasserstein scooped up the title. (The Wasserstein family still owns New York Media.)
Other Epstein Acquaintances The breadth of Epstein’s social reach was staggering, but most of his famous contacts have never been linked to any of his crimes or alleged misdeeds. Epstein’s 92-page address book, which was published by Gawker, has entries for Alec Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes, Ted Kennedy, David Koch, Courtney Love, and former New Mexico governors Bill Richardson and Bruce King — though it’s unclear what, if any, connection he had to these celebrities and political figures. Guest lists for dinners at his Manhattan townhouse also give a picture of his influence: In 2010, a dinner for Prince Andrew included Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Chelsea Handler, and Woody Allen. Another dinner reported on by New York featured billionaire Mort Zuckerman, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, magician David Blaine, Donald Trump, Les Wexner, and a former British Cabinet member Peter Mandelson. Another cabinet member, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, also reportedly socialized with Epstein shortly after his release from prison in 2011….
Vicky Ward, the journalist who wrote the 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein, told Slate that “You got the feeling that his friends weren’t real friends — he owned them — that he was the kind of man who collected information about people and then used it over them.” Ward has also offered a more scathing assessment, saying, “What is so amazing to me is how his entire social circle knew about this and just blithely overlooked it … all mentioned the girls, as an aside.” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/jeffrey-epsteins-rolodex-famous-friends-and-acquaintances.html
Ex-wife of Trump’s Labor Secretary pick Andy Puzder told Oprah he abused, threatened her, Inside the ‘Satanic’ home where police freed five children from their parents “The children, who all showed signs of malnutrition and abuse,” U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted by Trump Administration from USDA website
February 17, 2017 Comments Off on Ex-wife of Trump’s Labor Secretary pick Andy Puzder told Oprah he abused, threatened her, Inside the ‘Satanic’ home where police freed five children from their parents “The children, who all showed signs of malnutrition and abuse,” U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted by Trump Administration from USDA website
– Ex-wife of Trump’s Labor Secretary pick Andy Puzder told Oprah he abused, threatened her: ‘You will pay for this’
– Inside the ‘Satanic’ home where police freed five children from their parents “The children, who all showed signs of malnutrition and abuse”
– U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted
“Trump Administration, thousands of documents detailing animal welfare violations nationwide have been removed from the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)”
Ex-wife of Trump’s Labor Secretary pick Andy Puzder told Oprah he abused, threatened her: ‘You will pay for this’
The ex-wife of President Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary, Andy Puzder, once claimed he “vowed revenge” after she leaked spousal abuse allegations to the public, according to a new video…. The context of her identity implies she was speaking of Puzder, the CEO of the Carl’s Jr. parent company, CKE, and his repeated attacks detailed in divorce documents. The couple split in 1987, when Puzder was known as an anti-abortion advocate in St. Louis….
The Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee requested the footage in January, along with about 20 other domestic violence-related episodes, ahead of Puzder’s confirmation hearing on Thursday. His appointment is expected to be opposed by Democratic members of the U.S. Senate.
“I wound up losing everything. Everything. I have nothing,” Fierstein recalled.
“He has a Porshe and a Mercedes-Benz. He has the home. He has everything. He was an attorney. He knew how to play the system,” she added. Months after the episode aired, Fierstein recanted to maintain custody of their two children and has denied the allegations against Puzder ever since….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ex-wife-trump-labor-secretary-pick-told-oprah-abused-article-1.2973083
Inside the ‘Satanic’ home where police freed five children from their parents
Charles White Thursday 16 Feb 2017
Five children have been freed by police after they were seen to be malnourished and were reportedly on drugs.
The police have now taken the kids away from their American-Colombian parents after neighbours saw them ‘dancing around’ with ‘Satanic symbols’ on them.
The children were freed after neighbours heard concerning screams from the Bucaramanga, Colombia, flat.
Reportedly the children showed signs of malnutrition and abuse.
Police reported the flat was filled with smoke and that they found ‘burnt offerings’ after breaking open the door….
Messages seen from outside the flat show graffiti such as ‘US=Enemies, 666’ and ‘Mundo de la mentira’ or ‘World of lies’.
http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/16/inside-the-satanic-home-where-police-freed-five-children-from-their-parents-6453142/
DEVIL’S LAIR Inside the chilling ‘Satanic’ home where ‘drugged up’ kids were rescued from parents who ‘practised devilish rituals’
The children, who all showed signs of malnutrition and abuse, were freed after a police raid following a call from neighbours who were worried about screaming
By GUY BIRCHALL 16th February 2017
FIVE kids have been taken into care by Colombian cops after their American and Colombian parents were found to be drugged up and dancing around the property covered with satanic symbols.
The children, who all showed signs of malnutrition and abuse, were freed after a police raid following a call from neighbours who were worried about screaming coming from the flat….
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2876771/inside-the-satanic-home-where-abused-kids-were-rescued-from-parents-who-practised-devilish-rituals/
U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted—What We Stand to Lose
By hiding online records of welfare violations, U.S. agency robs journalists, investigators, and the public of timely information—and takes pressure off abusers.
By Natasha Daly February 6, 2017
Two weeks into the Trump Administration, thousands of documents detailing animal welfare violations nationwide have been removed from the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has been posting them publicly for decades. These are the inspection records and annual reports for every commercial animal facility in the U.S.—including zoos, breeders, factory farms, and laboratories.
These records have revealed many cases of abuse and mistreatment of animals, incidents that, if the reports had not been publicly posted, would likely have remained hidden. This action plunges journalists, animal welfare organizations, and the public at large into the dark about animal welfare at facilities across the country. The records document violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the federal law that regulates treatment of animals used for research and exhibition. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which has maintained the online database, cites privacy concerns as justification for the removal….
In response, animal-rights groups have launched a counterattack. On February 6, the Humane Society of the United States initiated legal action against the USDA, arguing that the removal of records violates a 2009 settlement between the two parties. Other groups, including PETA, the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, and Born Free USA, have filed a joint lawsuit against the USDA, arguing that in removing this data, the department is in violation of FOIA and that the action hinders the groups’ ability to identify violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The USDA has yet to respond to either legal action….
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/wildlife-watch-usda-animal-welfare-trump-records/
Nazi’s defense “just following orders”, 5 year old detained and handcuffed (Trump’s immigration order), Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests, Child Abuse Figures Rise 3rd Year in a Row
February 10, 2017 Comments Off on Nazi’s defense “just following orders”, 5 year old detained and handcuffed (Trump’s immigration order), Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests, Child Abuse Figures Rise 3rd Year in a Row
– How the Nazi’s defense of ‘just following orders’ plays out in the mind “people actually feel disconnected from their actions when they comply with orders, even though they’re the ones committing the act.”
– White House claims five-year-old boy detained in US airport for hours ‘could have posed a security threat’ (reportedly handcuffed)
“detained following President Donald Trump’s immigration order”
– Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests alleged to be involved
– Teenage boy forced by barrister to join in ‘cult’ beating of friends
“John Smyth QC, a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is being investigated by police over claims that he beat 22 teenagers”
– Federal Child Abuse Figures Rose for Third Year in a Row, Neglect at the Top of the List
Child abuse: 7% of Australian Catholic priests alleged to be involved
6 February 2017 Australia
An inquiry examining institutional sex abuse in Australia has heard 7% of the nation’s Catholic priests allegedly abused children between 1950 and 2010.
In one religious order, over 40% of church figures were accused of abuse.
Over 4,440 people claim to have been victims between 1980 and 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse was told.
The commission, Australia’s highest form of inquiry, is also investigating abuse at non-religious organisations.
It has previously heard harrowing testimony from scores of people who suffered abuse at the hands of clergy….
Gail Furness, the lead lawyer assisting the commission in Sydney, said more than 1,000 Catholic institutions across Australia were identified in claims of sexual abuse, with a total of 1,880 alleged perpetrators between 1980 and 2015.
The average age of the victims was 10.5 for girls and 11.5 for boys. On average, it took 33 years for each instance of abuse to be reported….
Abuse survivor Andrew Collins told the BBC it had been “drummed into his head” by the four men who abused him between the ages of seven and 14 – two teachers, a priest and a Catholic Brother – that he was the one who had “done wrong”.
“I did try to tell my mum once and she said it was absolute rubbish and a man of God would never do such a thing,” he said….
The royal commission also detailed the number of abuse claims against 10 religious orders, with data showing that four orders had allegations of abuse against more than 20% of their members. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38877158
Teenage boy forced by barrister to join in ‘cult’ beating of friends
by Patrick Foster Nicola Harley Peta Thornycroft, Johannesburg
5 February 2017
A barrister accused of subjecting teenage boys to savage sadomasochistic beatings forced one of his victims to join in with the attacks, it has emerged.
John Smyth QC, a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is being investigated by police over claims that he beat 22 teenagers in his garden shed in the late Seventies.
A report by the Iwerne Trust, the charity that ran the Christian camps at which Mr Smyth met many of the victims, documents how he persuaded one of the boys to assist with the attacks….
He wrote in the 1982 report: “There was considerable persuasion for anyone who held back. It had almost become a cult, with a powerful group dynamic.
“S, wanting to ‘be the best for God’, beat as hard as he could. “Immediately after the beating, the man lay on the bed, while [Mr Smyth] and/or S would kneel and pray, linking arms with him and kissing him on the shoulder and back.
“[Mr Smyth] and S saw this as a ‘ministry’ from God. But the ‘ministry’ of discipline in this sense was secret, self-appointed and never approved by other Christian leaders.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/05/teenage-boy-forced-barrister-join-cult-beating-friends/
Federal Child Abuse Figures Rose for Third Year in a Row, Neglect at the Top of the List Feb 8, 2017
Neglect tops the list of abuses that children endure, according to a new report that finds cases of abuse and neglect edged up for the third consecutive year during 2015.
The Child Maltreatment 2015 report by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families noted 683,000 victims of child maltreatment or 9.2 victims per 1,000 children. The slight increase from 2014’s 9.1 victims per 1,000 is concerning, experts said, because not all maltreatment is reported and in some cases abuse or neglect exists but there’s not enough evidence to substantiate it, leading to the suspicion that the count is actually undercounted….
Daniel Heimpel, executive director of the nonprofit Fostering Media Connections, which produces three publications for foster and adoptive parents….”The number of kids in foster care also has gone up over this period of time,” he said. “Abuse rates have gone up, reports of abuse have gone up and the number of kids entering the system has gone up after a huge decline for many years.”
The report estimates 1,670 child deaths in 2015 related to maltreatment. Actual reporting from 49 states documented 1,585 child deaths….
Infants were three times more likely to die from abuse or neglect than a year-old child.
Fifty-five percent of child victims who die from abuse or neglect are boys.
At least one parent was involved in 77 percent of the deaths, and alcohol, drug abuse or domestic violence were often factors. Women were more likely than men to be perpetrators, 54 percent vs. 45 percent. In the other cases, gender wasn’t known.
Three-fifths of maltreatment reports to child welfare systems came from professionals, including teachers, lawyers, social workers and police officers.
Demographically, the biggest category of victims were white at 43.2 percent, compared to Hispanic at 23.6 percent and African-American at 21.4 percent…. http://www.wtxl.com/news/federal-child-abuse-figures-rose-for-third-year-in-a/article_110684b6-ee22-11e6-a06e-73fa4a6ae341.html
How the Nazi’s defense of ‘just following orders’ plays out in the mind
A handwritten request for clemency by Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, who said he shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions because he and other low-level officers were following orders from their superiors. A new study released Thursday offers one reason why people can be easily coerced into carrying out heinous orders.
In other words, people actually feel disconnected from their actions when they comply with orders, even though they’re the ones committing the act.
In a 1962 letter, as a last-ditch effort for clemency, Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann wrote that he and other low-level officers were “forced to serve as mere instruments,” shifting the responsibility for the deaths of millions of Jews to his superiors. The “just following orders” defense, made famous in the post-WWII Nuremberg trials, featured heavily in Eichmann’s court hearings.
But that same year Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist, conducted a series of famous experiments that tested whether “ordinary” folks would inflict harm on another person after following orders from an authoritative figure. Shockingly, the results suggested any human was capable of a heart of darkness.
Milgram’s research tackled whether a person could be coerced into behaving heinously, but new research released Thursday offers one explanation as to why.
“In particular, acting under orders caused participants to perceive a distance from outcomes that they themselves caused,” said study co-author Patrick Haggard, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, in an email.
In other words, people actually feel disconnected from their actions when they comply with orders, even though they’re the ones committing the act.
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, described this distance as people experiencing their actions more as “passive movements than fully voluntary actions” when they follow orders.
Researchers at University College London and Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium arrived at this conclusion by investigating how coercion could change someone’s “sense of agency,” a psychological phenomenon that refers to one’s awareness of their actions causing some external outcome.
Unlike Milgram’s classic research, Haggard’s team introduced a shocking element that was missing in the original 1960s experiments: actual shocks. Haggard said they used “moderately painful, but tolerable, shocks.” Milgram feigned shocks up to 450 volts.
According to Milgram’s experiments, 65 percent of his volunteers, described as “teachers,” were willing (sometimes reluctantly) to press a button that delivered shocks up to 450 volts to an unseen person, a “learner” in another room. Although pleas from the unknown person could be heard, including mentions of a heart condition, Milgram’s study said his volunteers continued to shock the “learner” when ordered to do so. At no point, however, did someone truly experience an electric shock.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-the-nazis-defense-of-just-following-orders-plays-out-in-the-mind/
White House claims five-year-old boy detained in US airport for hours ‘could have posed a security threat’
The little boy is reportedly a US citizen who lives with his mother in Maryland
The White House has said a five-year-old boy was detained for more than four hours and reportedly handcuffed at an airport because he posed a “security risk”.
The boy, reportedly a US citizen with an Iranian mother, was one of more than 100 people detained following President Donald Trump’s immigration order.
In a press briefing, Mr Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer was unrepentant about the incident.
He said: “To assume that just because of someone’s age and gender that they don’t pose a threat would be misguided and wrong.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-house-five-year-old-boy-detained-dulles-international-airport-hours-sean-spicer-pose-security-a7554521.html
Child and Ritual Abuse Research https://ritualabuse.us
Articles by Neil Brick http://neilbrick.com
Trump’s not Orwellian. He’s the distracter-in-chief, Media keep falling for Trump’s mind control tricks
February 3, 2017 Comments Off on Trump’s not Orwellian. He’s the distracter-in-chief, Media keep falling for Trump’s mind control tricks
Trump’s not Orwellian. He’s the distracter-in-chief.
Matt Bai Yahoo News February 2, 2017
But Orwell’s dark prophecy isn’t actually the one that best explains the moment we’re living through right now. And to the extent that we focus on fears of statist mind control and mass disinformation, we may miss the subtler thing that’s really going on.
Here I turn again to the late Neil Postman, whose classic critique of mid-’80s culture, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” is as relevant today as it was then. In his foreword, Postman compared Orwell’s vision of fascist repression with the trivial, substanceless society envisioned by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel “Brave New World.”
In Huxley’s vision, Postman wrote, “no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”
It’s worth hearing a bit more of Postman’s comparison: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. … Orwell feared that truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”
As it happens, in 1949, just after the publication of “1984,” Huxley drew much the same contrast in a letter to his countryman Orwell. Much as he liked Orwell’s book, he suggested that tyrannical governments would soon abandon “boot-on-the-face” tactics in favor of “animal magnetism and hypnotism.” Cable TV had yet to be invented….
In some ways, though, Trump is the perfect embodiment of a Huxleyan culture, endlessly distracted by the superficial or the spectacular. He doesn’t want to control what you think — only what you think about, which is him. He cares that you’re watching the performance, and it doesn’t matter whether you watch because you love it or because you find it too grossly compelling to look away.
I’ve written before that Trump is an emotional extremist, not an ideological one. His gift is for channeling the passion in an audience, for provoking adoration or outrage or whatever’s most visceral….
And the danger here is that the constant trivia can too easily distract us from decisions that have deadly serious consequences. Like Huxley’s Alphas and Betas, we can be lulled into thinking that the ephemeral is all there is….
It’s not as if the immigration ban and a seat on the high court aren’t important — they really are. But at the same time, the public is less focused on Trump’s decision, made with no theatrical flourish, to give Steve Bannon, his liaison to the world of white nationalists, a permanent seat on the National Security Council’s principals committee — rather than allotting it to, say, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
There’s not so much discussion about Trump’s prompt withdrawal from the Asian trade pact, which a lot of Democrats applauded but which has grave implications for our economic power in the region. Likewise on Trump’s proposed tariffs on exports, which could lead us quickly into an all-out trade war.
There’s not much focus on what’s happening now in the Middle East, where Israel, emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric, is about to vastly accelerate settlements in the occupied territories. The public isn’t buzzing about the imminent dismantling of the EPA….
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-not-orwellian-hes-the-distracter-in-chief-100035222.html
Schneider: Media keep falling for Trump’s mind control tricks
Christian Schneider , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published Jan. 27, 2017
….But in Trump’s version, it is he who is controlling other peoples’ brains — most specifically, he is directing the hive mind of the American media, bamboozling them into covering superfluous nonsense while his actual policies evade proper scrutiny.
His detractors often chalk up Trump’s erratic behavior to lack of impulse control and a shortage of maturity. And sure, it is hard to deny Trump exhibits those traits — there are likely plenty of 1980s comedy writers who are shocked to find their rejected “Kid President” scripts have become a documentary….
But when journalists wail about Trump’s wild misstatements, they are getting the “story” but missing the “news.” Certainly, Trump’s mistaken belief that between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally is worth covering, as it indicates the president might be living in a world of delusion — but it very well could be a smokescreen to obscure other actions that actually matter far more….
http://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/christian-schneider/2017/01/27/schneider-media-keep-falling-trumps-mind-control-tricks/97141590/
The Many Scandals of Donald Trump, Trump Team Considering Cuts to Federal Violence Against Women Program
January 27, 2017 Comments Off on The Many Scandals of Donald Trump, Trump Team Considering Cuts to Federal Violence Against Women Program
The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet
One of the women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct has sued him for defamation after he labeled her claims false.
David A. Graham Jan 23, 2017
Donald Trump is now president and not just a private citizen, but that doesn’t mean he’s free of the controversies that dogged him in his former life.
Last week, a few days before Trump’s inauguration, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos sued him in New York state, accusing the president of defamation. Zervos, who’s represented by the famous lawyer Gloria Allred, was one of the several women who accused Trump of sexual assault or misconduct prior to the election. She claims that he kissed her and pressed his genitals against her non-consensually. Trump denied those claims, saying all of the women who had accused him had made their stories up. So Zervos sued him for defamation.
“I wanted to give Mr. Trump the opportunity to retract his false statements about me and the other women who came forward,” she said, as my colleague Nora Kelly reported. She added that she would withdraw the suit if Trump said she had been truthful. That seems unlikely, since a spokeswoman dismissed the suit immediately….
Zervos’s suit serves to underscore an even more unusual fact, though, which is that Trump won election despite a raft of allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct lodged by women in multiple places, from different eras.
The 2016 presidential campaign saw a long string of stories showing scandals involving Trump, both large and small—from questionable business dealings to allegations of sexual assault. While they did not derail his presidential hopes, many of them remain live issues as Trump begins his transition to the White House.
The breadth of Trump’s controversies is truly yuge, ranging from allegations of mafia ties to unscrupulous business dealings, and from racial discrimination to alleged marital rape. They stretch over more than four decades, from the mid-1970s to the present day….http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/donald-trump-scandals/474726/
Trump Team Considering Cuts to Federal Violence Against Women Program: Report
By Lucy Westcott On 1/19/17
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is working on plans to make “dramatic cuts” in funding for initiatives to end violence against women, as well as for federal arts and humanities programs, according to a report from The Hill published on Thursday morning.
The article, which quickly sparked widespread social media outrage, says two members of Trump’s team—Russ Vought, a former aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and John Gray, who has worked for Pence, Senator Rand Paul and House Speaker Paul Ryan—are working on the plan for widespread budget cuts after meeting with White House staff ahead of Friday’s inauguration. In total, the cuts would save $10.5 trillion over 10 years, according to The Hill…. http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-violence-against-women-federal-funding-budget-cuts-544710
Trump agrees with the dangerous theory of eugenics, British sex slave held captive and raped nightly for 13 years, Ritual abuse: The ‘Rats’ of Shah Daulah, Manson follower seeks parole after killings, Child abuse in the military
December 30, 2016 Comments Off on Trump agrees with the dangerous theory of eugenics, British sex slave held captive and raped nightly for 13 years, Ritual abuse: The ‘Rats’ of Shah Daulah, Manson follower seeks parole after killings, Child abuse in the military
– Donald Trump believes he has superior genes, biographer claims
– This May Be The Most Horrible Thing That Donald Trump Believes
– Ritual abuse: The ‘Rats’ of Shah Daulah
– British sex slave held captive and raped nightly for 13 years reveals she finally escaped when they planned to take her to Pakistan
– Charles Manson follower seeks parole 47 years after killings
– Child abuse in the military: Failing those most in need
Donald Trump believes he has superior genes, biographer claims
Republican nominee follows ‘racehorse theory’ of genetics
Caroline Mortimer Friday 30 September 2016
Donald Trump has been accused of believing in the “racehorse theory” of genetics, which claims some people are genetically superior to others.
In an interview for US TV channel PBS, the Republican presidential nominee’s biographer Michael D’Antonio claimed the candidate’s father, Fred Trump, had taught him that the family’s success was genetic.
He said: “The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development.
“They believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”
The theory, known as eugenics, first emerged during the 19th century and was used as a pretext for the sterilisation of disabled people until the practice was discredited after the Second World War.
Adolf Hitler’s justification for the Holocaust – in which 11 million people were killed, 6 million of them Jewish – was based on a similar theory of racial hierarchy.
The PBS documentary featured clips of Mr Trump on the campaign trial claiming that he “believes in the gene thing” and saying he had a “very high aptitude”….
He said: “Well I think I was born with the drive for success because I have a certain gene.
“I’m a gene believer… Hey, when you connect two race horses, you usually end up with a fast horse.
“I had a good gene pool from the standpoint of that, so I was pretty much driven.”…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-president-superior-genes-pbs-documentary-eugenics-a7338821.html
This May Be The Most Horrible Thing That Donald Trump Believes
And it just may be the master key to unlocking how he thinks.
09/28/2016
Marina Fang Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post
JM Rieger Producer, The Huffington Post
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has offered a litany of racist comments, which it turns out may be rooted in his deeper belief in the inherent superiority of some people and not others.
The Frontline documentary “The Choice,” which premiered this week on PBS, reveals that Trump agrees with the dangerous and abusive theory of eugenics.
Trump’s father instilled in him the idea that their family’s success was genetic, according to Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio.
“The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development,” D’Antonio says in the documentary. “They believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”
The Huffington Post dug back through the archives and found numerous examples of Trump suggesting that intellect and success are purely genetic qualities and that having “the right genes” gave him his “very good brain.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-eugenics_us_57ec4cc2e4b024a52d2cc7f9
Ritual abuse: The ‘Rats’ of Shah Daulah
December 30, 2016 Majid Bashir
Ritual abuse in the name of religion, not the religious teachings- be they from Islam or any other religion- promote unethical practices that mar fundamental rights of various weaker segments of society.
Since children are among the most vulnerable parts of society, so they have to suffer a lot in terms of their health, education and development due to social and religious rituals.
The conversion of normal healthy children into the so-called ‘rats of Shah Daulah’ at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Daulah in District Gujrat by putting an iron ring over the head of the newly born children to control growth of their heads and minds while allowing rest of the body grow.
According to the tradition, those issue-less parents who come to pray at the shrine vow that if they become fertile, their first-born would be delivered to the shrine administration, so that rest of the children they can grow in their home environment.
They first such babies received by the shrine administration undergo the inhuman practice of being forced to be abnormal so that they can be sent for beggary and other abnormal practices and are dubbed the ‘Rats of Shah Daulah’.
We see them in green dresses in almost every city and they are reportedly controlled by a mafia of beggars.
These children are reportedly abused physically and sexually.
Their deformity renders them only useful for begging as they cannot perform any other income activity.
This is one of the many kinds of ritual abuse occurring in Pakistan.
Ritual abuse is more commonly practiced by the so-called ‘Pirs’ or faith healers who exploit a person’s weak faith or state of mind, either due to a disease or an unfulfilled want.
Occurring of such abuses of human rights are not confined solely to the physical nature of abuse rather they consort to all forms of abuse of child rights in violation of domestic laws and international conventions.
In the name of relieving people from the control of genies or any diseases, the patients are tortured badly; some of them reportedly succumb to their injuries.
In such circumstances, girls are molested or sexually abused by the so-called spiritual healers.
These unethical rituals continue unabated in the absence of a specific laws that deal with ritual abuse.
In the worst-case scenario, if during performing such rituals the victim is severely injured or killed, only then such abuse is considered as crime under various offences governing abuse of child rights in Pakistan….
http://nation.com.pk/columns/30-Dec-2016/ritual-abuse-the-rats-of-shah-daulah
‘I knew they would stone me to death or sell me’: British sex slave held captive and raped nightly for 13 years reveals she finally escaped when they planned to take her to Pakistan
‘Anna Ruston’ penned tragic story of 13 years of abuse from taxi driver ‘Malik’
He abducted her at 15 because he knew no-one would miss the homeless teen
‘Raped her, prostituted her to other men and she had four babies that he sold’
Authorities ‘were afraid to help her for fear of being seen as discriminatory’
By James Dunn and Richard Spillett for MailOnline
29 December 2016
A British sex slave has told how she was abducted aged just 15 by an Asian taxi driver and endured 13 years of horrific abuse while locked up in his home.
Anna Ruston claims that her captor branded her his ‘white s***’ and repeatedly raped her, before prostituting her out to other men and ‘selling’ the four babies she gave birth to during her ordeal.
She was forced to go to the toilet in a can in the corner of the room, and is still haunted by the smell of garlic, which reminds her of her captor.
Authorities have come in for criticism today after it emerged the woman was taken to hospital with injuries on a number of occasions, but was never left alone with doctors or nurses.
She eventually escaped after being told the family were taking her to Pakistan, where she feared she would be ‘stoned to death’ or sold….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4071876/British-sex-slave-tells-held-captive-repeatedly-raped-13-years-Muslim-cab-driver-sold-four-babies.html
Charles Manson follower seeks parole 47 years after killings
Thu Dec 29, 2016 Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Patricia Krenwinkel, once a devout follower of cult killer Charles Manson and now the longest-serving female inmate in California, appeared again Thursday before a parole board — 47 years after she helped kill pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people.
Krenwinkel, 69, has been denied parole 13 times since her conviction in the 1969 slayings.
She acknowledged during her trial that she chased down and repeatedly stabbed Abigail Ann Folger, the 26-year-old heiress of a coffee fortune, at Tate’s home and helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, the following night.
Los Angeles County prosecutors say Krenwinkel carved the word “war” into Leno LaBianca’s stomach, then wrote “Helter Skelter” in blood on the couple’s refrigerator….
Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary when she met Manson at a party. She testified at her previous parole hearing that she left everything behind three days later to pursue what she believed was a budding romance with him.
She wept and apologized, saying she became a “monster” after she met Manson.
“I committed myself fully to him. I committed myself to the act of murder,” she said then. “I was willing to sacrifice others’ lives for my own.”
Prosecutors say the slayings were an attempt to ignite a race war after which Manson and his followers would rise from the rubble to rule the world….
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/usworld/ap/charles-manson-follower-seeks-parole-years-after-killings/article_045f1afd-2ca4-5868-b71e-5e256bde4804.html
Child abuse in the military: Failing those most in need
By David S. Cloud Dec. 29, 2016
In September 2011, Army Sgt. 1st Class Crispen Hanson’s commander at Ft. Bliss ordered him into a military treatment program for child abusers.
Texas child welfare authorities had formally reported a “reason to believe” the 20-year Army veteran had severely beaten his 6-month-old son, Malachi, leaving him with a broken leg.
For the next four months, Hanson met weekly with a therapist from the Family Advocacy Program, a $200-million-a-year Pentagon program known as FAP that seeks to prevent child abuse in the ranks.
When Hanson completed the therapy, FAP officials closed the case and a state judge allowed him to see his infant son.
But three months later, on April 9, 2012, El Paso paramedics called to Hanson’s house found Malachi dead. An autopsy found “blunt force injuries” and “innumerable contusions of the head, torso and extremities.”
The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Last year, Hanson pleaded guilty to two counts of injuring a child after prosecutors agreed to drop murder charges. A state judge sentenced him to probation. The Army gave him an honorable discharge and a full pension of about $28,000 a year….
Previously unreleased reports by the Army, Navy and Air Force reveal numerous cases where military officials knew or suspected that child abuse or neglect was occurring — but failed to intervene or to alert the Family Advocacy Program or state child welfare agencies, The Times found.
In many cases, the reports blamed military personnel for failing to report cases of abuse and neglect to FAP officials.
FAP “is not accessing those most in need due to … failure on the part of others to report concerns or maltreatment incidents,” warned an internal 2014 report on 27 deaths in Army families.
“In several cases, command was aware of ongoing abuse but failed to report it,” it added.
A 2014 report on 50 deaths in Air Force families over five years reached a similar conclusion.
“In numerous cases … Air Force employees and other individuals were aware of suspected child maltreatment or domestic abuse and did not report it to FAP or any other authority,” it said….
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-child-abuse-military-20161229-htmlstory.html
Trump staffer resigns after being caught in alleged sex scandal – cryptic tweet hinting at ‘extra-marital affair’, Halifax children punched in face, locked in bedroom, had no heat and no food
December 28, 2016 Comments Off on Trump staffer resigns after being caught in alleged sex scandal – cryptic tweet hinting at ‘extra-marital affair’, Halifax children punched in face, locked in bedroom, had no heat and no food
Trump staffer resigns after being caught in alleged sex scandal
The Grio Dec 27th 2016
Donald Trump might not be in the White House yet but his staff is already experiencing its first sex scandal.
The president-elect’s newly appointed White House communication director Jason Miller resigned on Christmas Eve just two days after getting the position. He claimed it was to “spend more time with his family.”
This, after people were already talking about how the married Miller was spending time in strip clubs during the campaign with Trump adviser A.J. Delgado.
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/12/27/trump-staffer-resigns-after-being-caught-in-alleged-sex-scandal/21642950/
Donald Trump adviser quits after cryptic tweet hinting at ‘extra-marital affair’
Jason Miller quits after being called ‘baby-daddy’ and likened to exposed cheater John Edwards
Ben Kentish December 27, 2016
….In a statement he said: “After spending this past week with my family, the most amount of time I have been able to spend with them since March 2015, it is clear they need to be my top priority right now and this is not the right time to start a new job as demanding as White House Communications Director.
“I look forward to continuing to support the President-elect from the outside after my work on the Transition concludes.”
It comes after another Trump adviser, A.J. Delgado, posted a series of cryptic tweets about Mr Miller in which she appeared to suggest his involvement in a sex scandal….
Ms Delgado, a fellow member of the President-elect’s transition team, referred to Mr Miller as “the baby-daddy” and called him “the 2016 version of John Edwards” – a reference to the former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate who had an affair with a filmmaker working on his campaign.
She also twice called on Mr Miller to resign, before deleting her Twitter account. ….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-advsier-jason-miller-resigns-sex-scandal-aj-delgado-a7497216.html
Halifax children punched in face, locked in bedroom, had no heat and no food
December 27, 2016 by Jana Benscoter and Matt Maisel
HALIFAX TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Details of the abuse and neglect that three Halifax children endured are forthcoming.
Joshua Ross Weyant and Brandi Jene Weyant, of 1005 North River Road, Halifax Township were investigated by Pennsylvania State Police and Dauphin County Children and Youth Services, regarding suspected abuse and neglect. Police, and children and youth services caseworkers, discovered the allegations were true.
“The kids were starving, nothing more than skin and bones,” said Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico.
The children were ages 4, 5, and 6, according to the police report. Marsico says their deterioration took place over a three-month span.
“These were healthy kids, and while they were in their custody, these parents neglected them, starved them to such an extent they ended up the way they did,” Marsico said. “We’re prepared to prove they neglected these kids to such a point that they were near death.”
The Weyant’s were housing 10 individuals, who resided along with the three young children. The children were ages 4, 5 and 6, an affidavit explains.
The children were found to be in extremely poor health, appearing frail and weak, extremely thin, with identified bruising and abrasions upon their bodies. Photographs were taken of the children that depict them to be extremely underweight and malnourished. The children were independently interviewed by investigators….
http://fox43.com/2016/12/27/abused-and-neglected-halifax-children-were-locked-in-bedroom-had-no-heat-and-no-food/
Child and Ritual Abuse Research
https://ritualabuse.us
Articles by Neil Brick
http://neilbrick.com
Child Abuse Wiki – Ritual Abuse
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse
The Cult of Trump, Bill Cosby ‘a lifetime of sexual assault,’ Child abuse in Army families, Sharia courts have no place in UK family law
December 15, 2016 Comments Off on The Cult of Trump, Bill Cosby ‘a lifetime of sexual assault,’ Child abuse in Army families, Sharia courts have no place in UK family law
– The Cult of Trump
The Trump family has become to America what the Kim family is to North Korea.
– Bill Cosby has shown ‘a lifetime of sexual assault,’ 13 women should be allowed to testify at trial, DA says
– Child abuse in Army families may be under-reported
– Sharia courts have no place in UK family law. Listen to women who know There must be no religious arbitration in family matters. It leaves minority women vulnerable to control by fundamentalists
Election 2016
The Cult of Trump
The Trump family has become to America what the Kim family is to North Korea.
By David Dillard-Wright AlterNet December 12, 2016
As of this writing, Donald Trump is making his cabinet picks, which aside from conspiracy-monger Steve Bannon, look like the usual rightward Wall Street and D.C. insiders. The Trump regime seems so far like it will promote an uglier and more aggressive version of the standard Republican policies: deregulation, privatization and tax cuts for the wealthy. We can expect to see over the coming years the continued decline of the middle class, a shrinking social safety net, an acceleration of environmental catastrophe, unchecked corporate malfeasance, expanding federal deficits, and a deepening of the surveillance state. There will most likely be diversionary tactics in the form of more warfare abroad and the concomitant curtailing of civil liberties at home. Trump will likely fulfill many of his campaign promises, albeit in scaled-down versions. But don’t expect his followers to abandon him even if he reneges on many key commitments from his electric, nationalistic rallies.
The rallies explain Trump far more than his vague policy prescriptions. His followers view him as a sort of prophet of American triumphalism. The stadium becomes the evangelical circus tent of renewal and transformation: a purgation of America through ecstatic trampling of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. The cult of personality around Trump and his family goes a long way towards explaining his popularity. His followers support him through a maneuver of sympathetic magic: by supporting this bombastic billionaire (a euphemistic phrase, but words fail the sheer scope of his ego), they hope to imbibe some of his Midas touch. Ethics and accountability be damned: his fawning admirers want a slice of the proverbial pie even if it comes at someone else’s expense. They are not bothered by Trump University or the Atlantic City bankruptcies—they just want a piece of the action.
The vast majority of Trump’s supporters will fare worse economically under his administration, but this is nothing new in the Republican electorate. What is different about Trump is that he is really more a cult leader than a traditional politician. The term “cult” carries with it associations with Jim Jones and poisoned Kool-Aid, Aum Shinrikyo and the subway attacks, the Moonies and their mass weddings. But the comparison goes beyond its shock value and usefully explains how Trump went from being a glorified carnival barker to the leader of the most powerful country in the world. Trump harnessed some of the fervor that is more typical of religious devotion than adherence to a political ideology, and that explains why he succeeded where Mitt Romney didn’t….
For that reason, the Trump phenomenon is vanishingly unlikely to be a flash in the pan. Trump will pass his real estate empire and his political empire (and I would argue, his religious empire) down to his children. American oligarchy will become more and more like Russian kleptocracy. Constitutional niceties will be eroded. Dissidents will be jailed or slandered. Vast sums of money will disappear. And yet the pageantry of democracy will remain intact. Trump will still give speeches from the White House rose garden and the oval office. Those who wish to pretend that nothing is amiss will be given adequate materials, photo ops to supply their fantasies.
When toxic religion and toxic politics meet, the results cannot be pretty. A plurality of Americans have now joined a death cult of historic proportions, and the rest of us are being advised to “give Trump a chance” and “wait and see what happens.” The warning signs are more than enough to make this foolhardy advice. Those who are not on board the Trump train should do our best to work against the propaganda efforts of Breitbart, Infowars, RT, and Fox News. We should try to dissuade our friends and loved ones from “drinking the kool-aid” of believing in this fraudulent little man who serves only his own interests. A livable future only becomes possible if we resist his regime at every turn….
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/cult-trump
Bill Cosby has shown ‘a lifetime of sexual assault,’ 13 women should be allowed to testify at trial, DA says
NY Daily News THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, December 14, 2016
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — More than a dozen women who accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault should be allowed to testify at his upcoming trial because their stories are so similar that they show the “handiwork of the same perpetrator,” a prosecutor argued Wednesday.
Returning to court for the second day of a key pretrial hearing, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said the 79-year-old Cosby befriended women who saw him as a mentor, knocked them out with pills and drinks and sexually assaulted them.
Steele wants a judge to let 13 of the women take the witness stand at Cosby’s trial next year on charges he sexually assaulted a woman in 2004 at his home outside Philadelphia.
“This is a lifetime of sexual assault on young women,” Steele told Judge Steven O’Neill…..
Cosby was known as America’s Dad for his top-rated family sitcom, “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bill-cosby-showed-lifetime-sexual-assault-da-article-1.2910615
Child abuse in Army families may be under-reported
By HealthDay News Dec. 14, 2016
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 14, 2016 — Child abuse within U.S. Army families may be significantly under-reported, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that only one-fifth of diagnosed child abuse and neglect cases among U.S. Army-dependent children from 2004 to 2007 had a substantiated report with the Army’s Family Advocacy Program (FAP). The program is responsible for investigating and treating child abuse.
That’s less than half the rate (44 percent) of child abuse cases substantiated by civilian Child Protective Services, according to the study. The investigation was conducted by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the U.S. Army FAP.
The implication is that “some children are falling through the cracks of a broken system,” said study senior author Dr. Dave Rubin, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia….
The results were published Dec. 12 in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/12/14/Child-abuse-in-Army-families-may-be-under-reported/5541481740490/
Sharia courts have no place in UK family law. Listen to women who know
Pragna Patel
There must be no religious arbitration in family matters. It leaves minority women vulnerable to control by fundamentalists
We oppose any religious body – whether presided over by men or women – that seeks to rule over us.” So say more than 300 mostly Muslim women, but also others from different faiths who have been abused in their personal lives. These women are voicing their alarm, through a powerful statement published by Open Democracy, about the growing power of religious bodies such as sharia councils, and demand that their voices also be heard in the current debate.
From their own lived experiences, they warn against any attempt to normalise profoundly regressive religious codes of conduct as the basis of social interaction with, and policy development aimed at, minority women. They do so against the backdrop of Louise Casey’s report that warns of minority women who are trapped in abuse and isolation, and two ongoing inquiries into sharia councils: one initiated by the government and the other by the home affairs select committee.
The signatories to the statement have witnessed, experienced or fled from the horrors and degradations of “honour” killings, domestic violence, child and ritual abuse, forced marriage, polygamy, rape and sexual assaults. They speak out against religious impositions that exacerbate their daily struggles to live their lives as they choose. They reject the forces of fundamentalism and patriarchy that seek to divide and govern through surveillance and control of female sexuality…. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/14/sharia-courts-family-law-women
Eassurvey's Weblog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.