All posts by cjjohns08

Criminologist, writer, actor, storyteller, painter and a lover of all things feline.
Ahmaud Arbery, CORPORATE MEDIA, Georgia, Glynn County, Glynn County Georgia, Government

Glynn County, Georgia Newspaper Taking Race Seriously: The Brunswick News

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glynn county, georgia

Glynn County, Georgia is where three men chased down Ahmaud Arbery, shot and killed him in the middle of the afternoon for jogging through their neighborhood.

It is also the county where the scandal-ridden Glynn County Police declined to arrest the three men.  The County Commission (which includes a man who narrowly escaped being prosecuted for insurance fraud by letting his wife plead to the charges) is trying to protect the Glynn County Police by blaming the County Prosecutor.  The County Prosecutor recused herself because one of the men who killed Arbery had worked for the police department and also was a recently retired investigator for the prosecutor’s office.

The local newspaper, The Brunswick News, just won an award from the Georgia Press Association, but this newspaper is one of the worst local newspapers.  It publishes nothing but right-wing articles and editorials, evidently has no mechanism for spell checking its headlines, and actively contributes to the culture which produced the Arbery killing.

One example:

Richard Yarborough is called a “humor columnist.”  But, a few months after the arrest of the three men who killed Arbery, the Brunswick News published a “humorous” article in which Yarborough mocks the removal of obviously racist branding.

The hysterically funny joke is that bottles in the supermarket are talking to him.  He says that other bottles on the shelf in the grocery store are “feeling threatened by what is happening.”

According to Mrs. Butterworth, “A group of people dressed like wennies came into the store dragging a statue of some old dude on a horse behind them.  Before we knew it, they had snatched Aunt Jemima right off the shelf!  And when Uncle Ben started to protest, they grabbed him too, saying that he should be ashamed of himself for being a symbol of racial inequality by promoting he white race.”

Yarborough goes on to blame “the politically correct police.”

Mrs. Butterworth explains that they are after her because “they can’t decide if I am Black or White.”

Then Quaker Man “he is like, uh, very Caucasian.”  “That’s not a plus these days.  And then there is his religion…now we are into the question if separation of church and state.  The ACLU will be all over this…”

Yarborough concludes: “It seems that the inmates are running the asylum these days.”

This is how seriously the local newspaper is taking the issue of race.

“Talking political correctness with  a bottle of syrup.” By dick@dickyarborough.com

Authoritarianism, Bill Barr, Clinton, CORPORATE MEDIA, Israel, Jeffrey Epstein, Law and Justic, media

Podcast: Broken Jeffrey Epstein

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Podcast: Broken Jeffrey Epstein

This is a fascinating and heartbreaking podcast about two of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims.  The choice of these two victims in particular illustrates the class nature of the exploitation.

The stories also illustrate another crucial point about the media coverage of the Epstein case.  Journalists are presenting the Epstein/Maxwell story as if it exists outside of the context of the international political blackmail scheme of which it was a part.  The host of the podcast even talks about Epstein’s “pathology” as if this is a story about mental illness.

The Epstein/Maxwell story is not only about sexual exploitation, it is about political power.  It seems to me to be perfectly obvious that Bill Barr’s father, himself with a history of clandestine activity, saw early on the potential Epstein had to advance the goals of compromising political enemies.

What Epstein and Maxwell ran was a ruthless systematic, methodical  recruiting, grooming, and utilizing business.  They recruited, groomed, educated and placed the right young women in strategic places to compromise and secure the complicity of important people for political purposes.

To discuss this operation as the raging mental illness of one man, or a man and a woman is to completely distort the nature and purpose of this operation.

The stories of two victims are talked about in this podcast – Melissa, a talented cellist and Michelle, a high school student in Palm Beach.  Michelle fits the profile of the hundreds of girls the pair lured into Epstein’s property, abused and then discarded.  Melissa is an example of a young woman who was recruited, groomed over a period of years and then discarded partly due to her own lack of willingness to comply.  Even though a substantial amount of time and money was spent on the long-term grooming of Melissa, she was never sexually assaulted.

The host of the podcast explains the long-term investment in Melissa as an example of Epstein’s “pathology” of power.  She argues that Melissa illustrates Epstein’s obsession, indeed “addiction” to power games.

The host, however, completely ignores what is the more obvious explanation for Melissa’s experience.  Epstein and Maxwell were not just sexually exploiting young women for their own sexual gratification.  They were methodically grooming young women and placing them in strategic positions to compromise political targets.  You don’t just send a lower class little girl into a high society environment and expect her to seduce Prince Andrew.  You groom, make beholden, and place a Julliard cellist in the room with Prince Andrew and then use that young woman to compromise the target.

That is exactly what they tried to do with Melissa.  They spent years supporting her financially, working her into a pseudo-family situation with them and then even demanding that she attend the higher status school, Julliard, to make her a more attractive lure.  Epstein’s “pathology” didn’t prevent him from spending years cultivating this girl.  But, the journalist here, doesn’t even discuss this.  Instead she launches off on a discussion of Epstein’s supposed power mad psychology.

The issue here is not psychology.  That’s not even what’s interesting or significant about the case.  But, the corporate media will turn the story into a lurid tabloid narrative to avoid talking about this massive, international kompromat ring.  That is not only a shame.  It is yet another example of the corporate media distorting reality, maintaining a delusion which protects powerful people who are aggressively pursuing an authoritarian agenda.

 

 

 

CORPORATE MEDIA, Corrupt Governmen, District Attorney, Jeffrey Epstein, Justice Department, White Collar, Corporate and Political Crime

Julie Brown and the Epstein Case

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jeffrey epstein

This is a podcast well worth listening to.

Broken: Jeffrey Epstein

Season 1 Episode 5 “An Outsider’s Way In.”

Broken: Jeffrey Epstein

This is a fascinating story about the reporter Julie Brown and her history of digging in the Epstein case.  It makes an important point about journalism.  Brown’s history was much like that of the girls who were exploited by Epstein.  She was not a child of privilege and connections like most of the corporate press today.  Chris Cuomo, the white haired guy on CNN.  I like to think of this group as the “Bonfire of the Mediocre.”

Someone recently said that the music industry doesn’t look for talent anymore.  They look, she said, for a certain loon and a compliant personality.  That just about sums up the corporate media.  It’s a waste of time.

 

 

 

Corrupt Governmen, Democracy, Graft, Greed and Corruption, Israel, Jeffrey Epstein, Justice, media, White Collar, Corporate and Political Crime

Maxwell, Epstein and Political Context

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jeffrey epstein

There are two documentaries out about Jeffrey Epstein.  One, “Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein?” is part of a series by Investigation Discovery.  The other is a Netflix release “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” based on a book by James Patterson.

But, as Elizabeth Vos points out in an article in the Consortium News (6/18/20), neither covers Epstein’s place in a larger political narrative.  In treating Epstein’s activities as separated from their political context, they turn Epstein into a sexual predator, committing crimes that float free of their political context.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were part of an international scheme to compromise and then blackmail influential people.  There is evidence that this operation was part of the compromising of the Republican party long before Trump became the nominee.

Even though Epstein’s death in prison is widely accepted and indeed repeatedly reported as a “suicide” no thinking person can accept that narrative on face value.  There is so much that is suspicious about the death and there is a plethora of evidence of the interests of powerful and rich people in his silence.  Epstein knew the secrets of a lot of powerful people and his death was essential to protect those people.  The refusal of the media to question that death is just part and parcel of their subservient status with regard to those in power.

Ghislanie Maxwell, who had finally been arrested in New Hampshire on July 2, 2020, is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, the former owner of the New York Daily News and The Mirror.  He was given what Vos describes as a “state funeral” in Israel after his mysterious death in 1991.  Maxwell “fell off” his yacht in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, much like enemies of the Russian state repeatedly “fall” out of windows.

Israeli sources say that Epstein worked for Israeli military intelligence.   Ari Ben-Menache, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told Consortium News that Robert Maxwell introduced his daughter and Epstein to Israeli intelligence after they engaged in a blackmail operation for Israel.

According to Ben-Measche’s book “Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “[Epstein] was taking photos of politicians f**king fourteen-year-old girls — if you want to get it straight. They [Epstein and Maxwell] would just blackmail people, they would just blackmail people like that,” he says in the book.

 

Corrupt Governmen, Democratic Elite, Graft, Greed and Corruption, Jeffrey Epstein, Justice Department, Law, media, MSNBC, Uncategorized

Epstein and MSNBC

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jeffrey epstein

  • Cornell Belcher, former Obama pollster and part of the corporate Democratic elite, tells progressives to “Shut the hell up and grow up.” Silence your criticisms of Biden, Belcher chides, and “fall in line.”  Make no mistake, that is their attitude to all progressives.  Obama and his administration purposefully squelched progressive participation in his administration.  Obama refused to prosecute members of the Bush administration who engineered and carried out torture.  He refused to prosecute those responsible for the 2008 crash.  Those two decisions helped get us where we are.  Biden will do the same.
  • Ghislaine Maxwell was finally arrested today. There are those who believe that Barr’s firing of Berman was to get more control over this investigation and prosecution.  I am not one of the people who find Berman’s behavior in this situation commendable.  He finally resigned and securing a promise to have his next in command take over the operations is not enough.  He should never have resigned.  He should have made them fire him.  It’s not enough.  I am not optimistic about the Maxwell prosecution.  This is one of those situations where too many powerful people have too much to lose to allow this to go forward.  They will stop it.  We don’t know how exactly, but trust me, they will stop it.
  • Chris Hayes on MSNBC tonight described narratives that question Epstein’s “suicide” as “conspiracy theories.” MSNBC can always be trusted to maintain the corporate Democratic line.
  • The two documentaries on Epstein fail to probe Epstein’s connection with intelligence.  https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/18/epstein-case-documentaries-wont-touch-tales-of-intel-ties/
Authoritarianism, District Attorney, Drugs, Glynn County Georgia, Government, Graft, Greed and Corruption, Justice, Law, Police, Political crimes, Rule of Law, Southern Justice, Whistleblowers, White Collar Crime, White Collar, Corporate and Political Crime

Glynn County, Georgia: Site of the Aubery Killings

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browning Michael Browning, Glynn County Commission

 

It was in Glynn County, Georgia that three men stalked and killed Ahmaud Arbery.  One of the men documented the killing on video.  But, when police from the Glynn County Police Department arrived at the scene of the murder, they made no arrests.  One of the three men, Gregory McMichaels, is a former police officer and investigator for the Glynn County DA’s office.  Gregory McMichaels, his son Travis, and a neighbor who filmed the murder were allowed to go home after pretty much dictating the police report.

Later, another officer from the Glynnn County Police Department phoned the mother of jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, and told her that her son had been killed in a burglary.  This was untrue.

The DA in the county promptly recused herself from the case giving as the reason that Gregory McMichael had worked as a police officer in the 1980s and in the district attorney’s office until 2019.  She passed the case on to another DA who maintained that the two men were acting in self defense and should not be charged.

The case was later shifted to another DA.

Meanwhile, the Aubery family’s lawyer released the videotape of the killing and there was a public outcry as citizens watched these three men shoot and kill another man in broad daylight.

After bringing in investigators from the state, the three men were eventually charged, but only after a public outcry and national coverage of the murder.

Much of the attention in the case has been on the District Attorneys involved and their unwillingness to bring charges against the three men.  What should also have been brought out was the history of the Glynn County Police Department which not only failed to make an arrest in the case, but for whom one of the assailants (Gregory McMichael) used to work as a police officer and investigator.

The Glynn County Police Department has a history and it is not a proud one.  As Page Page, a criminal defense attorney in Glynn County stated in an interview, “There is not just one prior case.  There are many prior cases.  And each one is a separate Netflix episode.”

In 2018, Glynn County Police Lt. Robert Sasser killed his estranged wife and a man she had been seeing.  He then took his own life.  This final act followed a history of problematic behavior, much of it witnessed by members of the very police department he worked for.  But, that police department failed to act.

The family of Sasser’s wife is now suing the police department arguing that the department’s failure to act led to their daughter’s death.

In 2010, Sasser and another officer were involved in a brutal police shooting of a woman who led them on a low-speed chase.  The officers opened fire on her.  Nevertheless, Sasser avoided any punishment for the act and remained on the force.  The family of this woman is also taking legal action.

In 2018, the police department saw its certification with the state taken away because it did not meet basic police standards.  Part of the report that led to the de-certification noted that even though African Americans make up 26% of the population in the county, they make up only %12 of the police force.

In 2019, the county’s drug task force was disbanded after a state-led investigation.  This investigation found misconduct by Glynn County police officers, one of whom was having sex with an informant.

Then, Glynn County Police Chief John Powell, was indicted for perjury and witness tampering.  This was four days after the Arbery shooting.  This police chief remains on administrative leave.

County Commissioners have defended the police department handling of the Arbery case.  They blamed the DA for the decision not to arrest the three.  Commissioner Peter Murphy said that the police were told by the DA’s office not to make an arrest.

The DA, Jackie Johnson, says her office didn’t tell the police whether to make an arrest.  Johnson maintained that the police and the county commission wanted to smear her.

“I think it’s retaliation for me being the whistleblower on their police department multiple times over the last year.”

We have no idea what this means.

In June of 2020, the Glynn County Commissioners (some of whom are lame ducks leaving office) met to approve creating a new job for the Police Chief, John Powell.  Approximately $150,000 of county “reserve” funds were to be used to make a job for the indicted Police Chief.

But, the local newspaper, the Brunswick News, reported that the vote was to occur.  When the County Commissioners met at a scheduled meeting all had agreed to, two of the members were missing.   One of the Commissioners gave a statement to the local newspaper that it would be “unfair” for the Commission to go ahead without the missing two members.

I suspect that what he meant was that they didn’t want to go ahead unless all the Commissioners were implicated in the decision.

The members present voted to “defer” the decision about using county funds during a pandemic to create a job for the indicted police chief.  The Commissioners failed to reveal when they planned on meeting again.

The outrage about the history of the Glynn County Police Department had led to a bill passed by the Georgia legislature allowing the citizens of Glynn County to vote on whether they wanted to dissolve the Police Department entirely.

The Glynn County Commissioners announced through one Michael Browning (one of the lame ducks) that the County Commission would hire lawyers and pay them with county funds to sue the state of Georgia if they went ahead with plans to allow the citizens of Glynn County to vote on dissolving the police department.

 

American exceptionalism, Authoritarianism, Books on Politics, Capitalism, CORPORATE MEDIA, Corrupt Governmen, Democracy, Law, Law and Justic, money in politics, Political crimes, Putin, Rule of Law, Russia, White Collar Crime, White Collar, Corporate and Political Crime

Notes from “Hiding in Plain Sight” by Sarah Kenzior

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hiding

The Bellwether of American Decline

“…the facts make you wish they were fiction, but that is all the more reason we need to hear them.”

Greitens, governor of Missouri

“Whereas once mere publicity about his scandals would have prompted resignation, Greitens proved that hanging on to executive power to dodge or manipulate prosecution remains a viable option in an era of unfettered corruption—a lesson the Trump administration knows well. One of the most awful things about the Greitens case is that Missourians felt lucky he left, like peasants relieved at the passing of an evil king. There was never accountability, there was never transparency—there was just luck, otherwise known as dead expectations.
“When asked to vote on a specific issue, Missourians chose the most progressive options. But when asked to vote for a politician, over half of Missourians chose Republicans who sought to strike down the very ballot initiatives for which they had voted.”

 

The 1980s: Roy Cohn’s Orwellian America

 

“In 1984, one year after the tower’s completion, Soviet army veteran David Bogatin purchased five luxury condos for six million dollars—a purchase so substantial that Trump made sure to personally oversee the closing.”

 

“In 1987, Bogatin admitted he had purchased the Trump Tower condos “to launder money, to shelter and hide assets…”

 

“…a Senate investigation revealed him to be a leading figure in the Russian mafia. The Russian mafia had been growing in New York City due to a wave of Soviet émigrés and a crackdown on the Italian mob…”

 

“…Comey, who replaced Mueller as FBI head in 2013, the FBI removed Mogilevich—the dangerous Russian mafia head who had been ancillary to Trump since the 1980s—from the Ten Most Wanted list in December 2015 and replaced him with a bank robber. “

 

“When the press works against its own financial interest—as it did by rejecting the harrowing truth of Trump—there is a deeper problem.”

 

“…documents to claim that, beginning in 1977, Trump would remain “completely tax-exempt for the next 30 years” thanks to a mysterious arrangement between his company and the American government; that he was contractually bound to have three children with Ivana (which he did); and that he was being groomed to run for president in 1988 (which he nearly did).”:

 

“February 20, 2017, one month after Trump’s inauguration, Churkin died suddenly at the age of sixty-four….Churkin had been the fifth Russian diplomat to die unexpectedly and in an unexplained fashion since Trump won the election.”

 

“…1987, he (Trump) told journalist Ron Rosenbaum that he sought to partner with Russia on nuclear weapons with the aim of threatening other countries into compliance.”

 

“Stone was involved in every Trump presidential run thereafter as well as in Trump’s near-run for New York governor in 2014.

 

“Trump had one condition for entering a race: his win needed to be preordained.”

 

“…crime committed brazenly is over time redefined as something other than crime. It is entertainment, and then it is autocracy, and then it is too late.”

 

“That a significant number of today’s high-profile journalists did know the Trump family personally is cause for concern.”

 

“These powerful sectors of society have been overtaken by connections rather than merit, and dynasties rather than unbiased workforces.”

 

“The deep secret of all Trump coverage is that it is cost-effective news—”

 

“David Cay Johnston, author of multiple bestsellers about Trump, noted that in addition to refusing to cover the rape of Ivana, the 2016 press would not report on Trump’s documented ties to organized crime.”

 

“..confessed drug trafficker. [The trafficker is Joseph Weichselbaum,”

 

“This is called “normalcy bias”: the idea that if a situation is truly dangerous, if massive crimes are being committed in plain sight, someone will intervene and stop them.”

 

“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past,” Orwell wrote in 1984. “Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.”

Authoritarianism, Books on Politics, Capitalism, Corrupt Governmen, Democracy, Graft, Greed and Corruption

Notes From “Hiding in Plain Sight” by Sarah Kenzior

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Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

Kendzior, Sarah

“To millionaire elites, many of whom already had an apocalyptic bent, a depopulated world is not a tragedy but an opportunity—…”

“American exceptionalism—the widespread belief that America is unique among nations and impervious to autocracy—is the delusion that paved Trump’s path to victory.”

“Oligarchs and government officials have a synergistic relationship aimed at streamlining state corruption and facilitating white-collar crime.”

“Deutsche Bank—is notorious for facilitating Russian money-laundering.”

Harry “Reid wrote that Russian operatives sought to falsify election results and begged Comey to give the American people the full story before they went to the polls.”

“Comey refused, and refused again after Reid wrote a follow-up letter in October.”

“Once an autocrat gets into office, it is very hard to get them out. They will disregard term limits, they will purge the agencies that enforce accountability, they will rewrite the law so that they are no longer breaking it. They will take your money, they will steal your freedom, and if they are clever, they will eliminate any structural protections you had before the majority realizes the extent of the damage….That is why it is important to act early…”

“Trump is part of a complex illicit network including individuals from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, and more—some of whom do not have loyalty to any particular country. Their loyalty is to themselves and their money. Many are criminals without borders who have moved from hijacking businesses to hijacking nations. Some call them fascists; I avoid this term because being a fascist requires an allegiance to the state. To these operatives, the state is just something to sell.:

“This elite criminal network has been building for decades. It is linked to other groups: right-wing Republican extremists, apocalyptic religious movements of varied faiths, social media corporations, advocacy groups like the National Rifle Association, and parts of the mainstream media.”

“But over the course of decades, disparate parties have joined together to destroy democracy.”

“Naomi Klein phrases it, “disaster capitalists” who see opportunity in a dying planet, and who will spare no expense in pursuit of their own preservation.”

“His rise was made possible by a coterie of criminals who do not want to be punished but delight in being caught. Flaunting their criminal impunity is part of the thrill.”

“Their belief that they would never be held accountable is logical since they had never faced serious consequences despite spending decades committing illegal acts. In fact, they had reaped ample rewards. Now, finally, they had the greatest reward of all: the power to rewrite law itself.”

“…vulnerable people waited for responsible officials to intervene. They are still waiting.”

“Pundits and politicians like to say that “No one saw it coming,” but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one.”

“February 2014, he went on Fox News to defend Russia. Why a reality TV host was on Fox News defending Russia is its own story, but here is what he said about his desired outcome for the United States: “You know what solves it? When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster. Then you’ll have a [chuckles], you know, you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great.”

“Public leverage is disappearing along with the concept of the public good as a priority of the powerful.”

“What they’re trying to do is establish power: they are lying to flaunt power. They are saying to us: ‘We know that you know that this is a lie, and we don’t care, because there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.’”