Top adviser to Pope charged with sexual assault offenses, Church Of England ‘Colluded And Concealed’ Bishop’s Sex Abuse, Leader Says
June 30, 2017 Comments Off on Top adviser to Pope charged with sexual assault offenses, Church Of England ‘Colluded And Concealed’ Bishop’s Sex Abuse, Leader Says
– Top adviser to Pope charged with sexual assault offenses
– Church Of England ‘Colluded And Concealed’ Bishop’s Sex Abuse, Leader Says
Top adviser to Pope charged with sexual assault offenses
Laura Smith Spark-Profile-Image
By Joshua Berlinger and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN Thu June 29, 2017
Cardinal George Pell, a senior adviser to Pope Francis and the third-ranking official in the Holy See, is taking leave from the Vatican to fight historical sexual assault charges in his home country of Australia.
The case is the latest black mark against the Catholic Church, which has been reeling from sexual abuse scandals across several countries that date back decades. It could also have ramifications for Pope Francis, who counts Pell among his closest aides.
Australian police have not released a detailed list of charges against Pell and didn’t disclose any information about alleged victims, saying only that there were multiple charges and “multiple complainants.” ….
“I’m innocent of these charges, they are false,” Pell said. “The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”….
Pell has previously denied covering up abuse committed by priests when he served as the Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. But he acknowledged his predecessor, Archbishop Frank Little, now deceased, had destroyed documents to protect priests.
A 2013 Australian government inquiry, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, found that 7% of priests in Australia were accused of abusing children, from 1950 until 2015. At least 1,880 alleged perpetrators were identified and 4,444 victims came forward…..
In the United States, analysis of information on 110,000 priests who served the Church between 1950 and 2002 found that 4% of them had been accused of abuse…..
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/28/asia/cardinal-pell-australia/index.html
Church Of England ‘Colluded And Concealed’ Bishop’s Sex Abuse, Leader Says
June 22, 2017 Colin Dwyer
When faced with allegations of sex abuse against one of its bishops, the Church of England “colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward,” the church’s leader acknowledged Thursday.
“For the survivors who were brave enough to share their story and bring Peter Ball to justice, I once again offer an unreserved apology,” Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement. “There are no excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systemic abuse of trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.”
Welby was responding to the findings of an independent investigation into how the church handled the allegations against Ball, a former bishop who pleaded guilty in 2015 to indecent assault against young men. That report, also released Thursday, found that Ball “abused many boys and men over a period of twenty years or more.”
“That is shocking in itself but is compounded by the failure of the Church to respond appropriately to his misconduct, again over a period of many years,” Moira Gibb, who led the investigation, said in the report. “Ball’s priority was to protect and promote himself and he maligned the abused. The Church colluded with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring itself of the safety of others.”….
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533931155/church-of-england-colluded-and-concealed-bishops-sex-abuse-leader-says
Neil Brick will be speaking at S.M.A.R.T. Child and Ritual Abuse Conference – August 11 – 13, 2017
Neil Brick has developed Internet resources to publish scientific information about child and ritual abuse. He publishes a bimonthly newsletter and organizes informational conferences. The goal of these resources is to help stop child and ritual abuse through public education.
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=210052
The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference
Video Presentations from The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference https://survivorship.org/presentations-from-the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-2017-conference
How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference and Freedom from Mind Control – 2017 Presentation by Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/how-to-avoid-being-mind-controlled-at-a-conference-and-freedom-from-mind-control/
Strong accuracy and validity of ritual abuse research:
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse
Fran and Dan Keller legal case information
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/
College Hazing Gang Rape Rituals, US Customs Officers ‘Rape Table’ Ritual, Secret Facebook rules on what violence, self-harm and child abuse can be posted
May 23, 2017 Comments Off on College Hazing Gang Rape Rituals, US Customs Officers ‘Rape Table’ Ritual, Secret Facebook rules on what violence, self-harm and child abuse can be posted
– New Lawsuit Alleges Baylor Players Gang-Raped Women As ‘Bonding Experience’
– U.S. Customs Officers Allegedly Assaulted Coworkers In ‘Rape Table’ Ritual
– Leak: Secret Facebook rules on what violence, self-harm and child abuse can be posted
Describes violence
New Lawsuit Alleges Baylor Players Gang-Raped Women As ‘Bonding Experience’
May 17, 2017 Camila Domonoske
A new federal lawsuit against Baylor University accuses football players of drugging and gang-raping young women as part of a hazing or bonding ritual — and the university of failing to investigate the pervasive sexual assault.
The players often took photographs and videos as they carried out the gang rapes, the suit alleges. It was filed by “Jane Doe,” who says she was raped by four to eight Baylor players in February 2012. Her Title IX suit says the school’s “deliberately indifferent response” effectively denied her educational opportunities.
The suit also describes dogfighting at football parties and burglaries carried out by football players, without consequence.
The alleged assaults and other criminal activities took place during former head football coach Art Briles’ tenure at the school in Waco, Texas.
Briles and former university President Ken Starr were both removed from their posts last year after a wave of sexual assault allegations against Baylor players.
The school’s regents said last May they were “horrified,” “shocked” and “outraged” to learn about the sexual violence that was happening on campus — and the “mishandling of reports” by the university…..
The suit also describes a culture of sexual assault woven into hazing rituals:
“Upon information and belief, prior to Plaintiff’s arrival at Baylor, members of the Baylor football team had already developed a system of hazing their freshman recruits by having them bring or invite freshman females to house parties hosted by members of the football team. At these parties, the girls would be drugged and gang raped, or in the words of the football players, ‘trains’ would be run on the girls.
“The gang rapes were considered a ‘bonding’ experience for the football players.
“Photographs and videotapes of the semi-conscious girls would be taken during the gang rapes and circulated amongst the football players. Based upon investigation, Plaintiff has confirmed that at least one, 21-second videotape of two female Baylor students being gang raped by several Baylor football players was circulated amongst football players…..
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/17/528804172/new-lawsuit-alleges-baylor-players-gang-raped-women-as-bonding-experience
U.S. Customs Officers Allegedly Assaulted Coworkers In ‘Rape Table’ Ritual
One victim says it’s too extreme to be called “hazing.”
By Hilary Hanson May 13, 2017
Several officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency have come forward with bombshell allegations against their colleagues at Newark Airport in New Jersey.
Three officers told NBC New York they were sexually assaulted as part of disturbing rituals that involved being duct-taped to a table other officers called the “rape table.” The victims said that while no one ever removed their clothes, other officers would forcibly rub their genital areas on the victims strapped to the table, as well as grab them. This practice has been happening for years, according to the officers.
One victim said that “hazing” is an understatement of what happened to them.
“Hazing wouldn’t do this justice,” CBP officer Vito Degironimo told NBC. “This is complete assault. They take you in a room and your fellow officers are all watching as officers grab you.”….
Charlie Smith, who was identified by the Daily Beast as a CBP agent, corroborated the trio’s allegations in an interview with the news outlet, saying he’s heard stories of 17 similar assaults.
“Everybody has the same story,” he told The Daily Beast. “Their MO is always the same. There’s a supervisor who turned the lights off in the room. They’d call [the victim] into the room, so it was pitch-black when he came in. They threw him down on the table and did what they did.”….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/customs-officers-newark-hazing-rape-table_us_5915d7bce4b0031e737d4297
Revealed: Facebook’s internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence
Leaked policies guiding moderators on what content to allow are likely to fuel debate about social media giant’s ethics
Nick Hopkins Sunday 21 May 2017
Facebook’s secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant.
The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm.
Facebook will let users livestream self-harm, leaked documents show
Internal manual shows how site tries to strike balance between allowing cries for help and discouraging copycat behaviour
Read more
There are even guidelines on match-fixing and cannibalism.
The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US.
They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as “revenge porn” – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have “just 10 seconds” to make a decision.
“Facebook cannot keep control of its content,” said one source. “It has grown too big, too quickly.”
Many moderators are said to have concerns about the inconsistency and peculiar nature of some of the policies. Those on sexual content, for example, are said to be the most complex and confusing…..
The Guardian has seen documents supplied to Facebook moderators within the last year. The files tell them:
Remarks such as “Someone shoot Trump” should be deleted, because as a head of state he is in a protected category. But it can be permissible to say: “To snap a bitch’s neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat”, or “fuck off and die” because they are not regarded as credible threats.
Videos of violent deaths, while marked as disturbing, do not always have to be deleted because they can help create awareness of issues such as mental illness.
Some photos of non-sexual physical abuse and bullying of children do not have to be deleted or “actioned” unless there is a sadistic or celebratory element.
Photos of animal abuse can be shared, with only extremely upsetting imagery to be marked as “disturbing”…..
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed-facebook-internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-violence
Leak: Secret Facebook rules on what violence, self-harm and child abuse can be posted
Internal Facebook documents advising moderators on what content is to be censored or allowed has leaked.
By Darlene Storm, Computerworld May 22, 2017
Facebook allows users to livestream self-harm, post videos of violent deaths and photos of non-sexual child abuse, but comments which threaten to harm President Donald Trump are to be deleted, according to Facebook’s secret rule books for monitoring what its 2 billion users can post.
The Guardian got hold of leaked copies of over 100 internal Facebook manuals and documents that tell moderators how to handle content which includes violence, sex, hate speech, terrorism, nudity, self-harm, revenge porn and more controversial content – even cannibalism.
The giant social network has increasingly come under fire for how it handles disturbing content and for depending too heavily on users to report such content. At the beginning of May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would hire 3,000 more people – on top of the 4,500 moderators it had – “to review the millions of reports we get every week.”
The leaked internal guidelines were given to Facebook moderators “within the last year,” the Guardian said. The documents show the fine line Facebook teeters on when deciding what content to censor without being accused of squashing free speech…..
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3197551/internet/leak-secret-facebook-rules-on-what-violence-self-harm-and-child-abuse-can-be-posted.html
Report details decades of sex abuse at all-girls boarding school, Decades of sex abuse at top prep school
April 21, 2017 Comments Off on Report details decades of sex abuse at all-girls boarding school, Decades of sex abuse at top prep school
Report details decades of sex abuse at all-girls boarding school
By Joshua Rhett Miller April 19, 2017
An elite all-girls boarding school in New York has released a report detailing nearly seven decades of sexual abuse and misconduct, with both male and female educators accused of engaging in improper relationships with students.
The 127-page report released Tuesday spans misconduct at the Emma Willard School in Troy from the late 1950s through the 2015-16 academic year, including instances of rape, sexual assault and harassment, as well as the “grooming” of young women for affairs.
In all, more than 75 people from the Emma Willard community participated in what the authors of the report called a candid and “sobering account of alumnae experiences.”….
The report comes just days after the results of a similar investigation was released by officials at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut.
The report is a response, in part, to allegations made last year by former student Kat Sullivan, who said she had been raped by a male teacher, Scott Sargent, in 1998. Sargent, according to the Boston Globe, was fired after the incident but later found a job at a private school in Connecticut and did not face charges in the alleged rape.
“As a community, we collectively offer our compassion and support,” school officials said in a letter accompanying the report….
http://nypost.com/2017/04/19/report-details-decades-of-sex-abuse-at-all-girls-boarding-school/
Investigation uncovers decades of sex abuse at top prep school
By Associated Press April 14, 2017
WALLINGFORD, Conn. — A new report names 12 former faculty and staff members at an elite Connecticut boarding school who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with students that went on for decades.
An investigator hired by Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford released the report Thursday that graphically recounts the alleged experiences of 24 former students.
The report says the alleged sexual misconduct took place between 1963 and 2010 and included “intimate kissing,” ”sexual intercourse” and “forced or coerced intercourse.”….
http://nypost.com/2017/04/14/report-reveals-decades-of-sexual-abuse-at-elite-boarding-school/
The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference – May 19 – 21 Annual conference on May 19 – 21, 2017 – Oakland, CA https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/
Child and Ritual Abuse Research https://ritualabuse.us
Articles by Neil Brick http://neilbrick.com
#Neil_Brick #NeilBrick
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
Fox News and Bill O’Reilly scandal, Vanity Fair – Nightmares on Main Street, Keller Day Care Case
January 13, 2017 Comments Off on Fox News and Bill O’Reilly scandal, Vanity Fair – Nightmares on Main Street, Keller Day Care Case
– Fox News and Bill O’Reilly slammed with yet another scandal
– Investigation Discovery Announces Thrilling New Season of Hit Series ‘Vanity Fair Confidential’ Nightmares on Main Street by Leslie Bennetts
– Facts about Fran’s Day Care – Keller Case
The new Cosby Network? Fox News and Bill O’Reilly slammed with yet another scandal
…. The finger pointing has especially heated up after former chief Roger Ailes was booted from Fox last summer and the network paid out a $20 million court settlement to his accuser, former morning show host Gretchen Carlson. Since then, a veritable avalanche of women have leveled similar accusations, most cite Ailes, but Bill O’Reilly and top executive Jack Abernathy have been accused, too.
With the latest news that Fox had reportedly doled out a chunk of change in the high six figures in defense of flagship talent — and alleged prior sexual harasser — O’Reilly….
Bill Cosby, of course, is accused of forcing himself on several dozen women over many decades. Not for nothing, but Ailes is still fighting two sexual harassment lawsuits and denying accusations by more than 20 women.
This most recent O’Reilly affair centers on accusations by former host Juliet Huddy. In a letter by her lawyers to Fox News that was leaked to reporters, she alleged that, among other things, O’Reilly tried to kiss her on the mouth and would call her frequently at all hours. Lawyers wrote that Huddy believed that during several of those calls the powerful star was masturbating.
Huddy also alleged that Abernathy — who now serves as the channel’s co-president — “trashed” her career at Fox after she rejected his own attempts to pursue a personal relationship with her….
For the record, Ailes, O’Reilly and Abernathy have denied all the accusations….
O’Reilly, has been down this road before. Sure he’s a ratings juggernaut who delivers big money to Fox ($180 million in advertising dollars in 2015, according to Kantar Media), but he was fingered as a harasser in Carlson’s suit and another one 12 years ago — infamously filled with graphic details….
In that 2004 lawsuit, Andrea Mackris, a producer on his show, claimed he had made unwanted sexual advances and lewd comments to her in a series of phone calls and dinner conversations.
According to Mackris, O’Reilly told her on multiple occasions to buy a vibrator, called her when it sounded like he was masturbating and described to her his sexual fantasies, which included using a loofah — which he referred to as a “falafel thing” — on her private parts.
That suit was settled — after two weeks of blistering tabloid headlines — allegedly for millions of dollars, with no admission of liability by O’Reilly….
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/fox-news-bill-o-reilly-hit-sex-scandal-article-1.2942873
Investigation Discovery Announces Thrilling New Season of Hit Series ‘Vanity Fair Confidential’
— A Co-Production from Investigation Discovery, Condé Nast Entertainment and Truly Original, Season Three of VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL Premieres Monday, January 23 at 9/8c –
(Silver Spring, Md.) – Investigation Discovery (ID) announced today the return of the network’s hit series, VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL, from Truly Original, in partnership with Condé Nast Entertainment. Kicking off a thrilling third season on Monday, January 23 at 9/8c, VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL takes viewers deep inside the vaults of iconic publication Vanity Fair to review some of the most sensational true crimes of the century. From salacious sex scandals to cold-blooded murder, the 12-part season explores the real-life dramas of the rich and powerful, and features new, exclusive insights about the crimes from the Vanity Fair writers and editors who worked closest to these cases….
Nightmares on Main Street by Leslie Bennetts – premieres Monday, February 27 at 9/8c
Throughout late summer and fall of 1991, children come forward with chilling accounts of animal and human sacrifices at Fran and Dan Kellers’s day care in Austin, Texas. At the same time, multiple women from across the nation speak publicly about memories of being chained to altars while babies were removed from their wombs. These are stories of horrifying ritual abuse that divided families, communities, mental health experts and law enforcement officials….A judge and jury must assess pleas of innocence and decide who should be locked up for life, and who should go free.
https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/investigation-discovery-announces-thrilling-new-season-of-hit-series-vanity-fair-confidential/
Facts about Fran’s Day Care – Keller Case
State’s highest criminal court throws out 1992 convictions of sexual assault at Austin day care.
Court declines, however, to find Dan and Fran Keller innocent in case involving claims of satanic abuse….
Here are a few facts about the Fran’s Day Care case:
1. Children’s parents were alerted when children returned home from daycare wearing their under clothing inside out or wearing other children’s underwear and sometimes having wet hair.
2. The children who were old enough to speak reported sexual assaults by Dan Keller and other visitors to the school. The older children also reported assaults on younger, pre-verbal children at the school.
3. The Kellers attempted to evade arrest by fleeing to Las Vegas. They were captured there wearing disguises. Fran has bleached her hair blond.
4. A co-defendant, Doug Perry, a sheriff’s deputy, pled guilty, turned state’s evidence, testified against the Kellers, and received a 10-year probated sentence. Perry is a registered sex offender in Texas.
5. The defense did not retain an expert witness in defense of the Kellers. They only produced a copy of Richard Gardner’s book, Sex Abuse Hysteria, in response to the allegations against the Kellers.
6. The prosecution did not discuss ritual abuse until the subject was raised by the defense at which point the prosecution’s expert witness, Randy Noblitt, explained what ritual abuse is and how it works. He also provided testimony in response to the production of the Richard Gardner book intended by the defense to demonstrate in unreliability of sex abuse claims by children. (The book’s theme is that all people are latent pedophiles and that parents receive vicarious sexual gratification from their children’s sexual experiences).
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/
Nightmares on main street
AUTHOR(S) Bennetts, Leslie
PUB. DATE June 1993
SOURCE Vanity Fair;Jun93, Vol. 56 Issue 6, p42
ABSTRACT Examines the phenomena of satanic cults and claims of horrifying ritual abuse in otherwise tame neighborhoods. Memories of childhood experiences; Ritualist sacrifices of babies and people; Forced impregnation; Psychological and physical scars; Imposed fears; Law enforcement responses; Federal Bureau of Investigation files; Social workers responses; Skepticism; Credibility of claims; Children’s testimonies.
http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/9306305772/nightmares-main-street
The 2017 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference
August 11 – 13, 2017 – DoubleTree Hotel Windsor Locks, CT
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
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
