#keith raniere

[oscarealejandro]

I just learned about this villain, Jennifer Bonjean, a defense lawyer who has represented R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and potentially P. Diddy.

Earlier this year she filed a petition in case of her client R. Kelly for a writ of certiorari, a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case to review.

"The argument set forth by Kelly’s attorneys centers on the the 2003 PROTECT Act, which extended the federal statute of limitations for such cases. The petition for writ of certiorari states that the conduct for which the singer is convicted — specifically creating child pornography and enticing minors into illegal sexual activity — occurred prior to the law being passed. Because the acts date back to the Nineties, lawyers argue, the statute of limitations would have expired."

R. Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his sexual crimes against children (In a victory for the defense, the judge ruled that all but one year of the prison sentence would be served at the same time as a previous 30-year sentence that Mr. Kelly received after a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of racketeering and sex trafficking charges) and if those charges are overturned it would not only negate every victim who has had their lives severely traumatized, but also potentially allow R. Kelly to see the light of day much sooner than expected assuming he is granted parole. The basis for Bonjean filing this petition is that Kelly's actions exceed the statute of limitations and whether or not that is true would normally be important because it's the due diligence of the justice system to abide by the regulations they swore to enforce, but in this specific case we're arguing semantics. The man paraded around for decades and was praised as a cultural icon for a majority of my lifetime before he was punished for acts that everybody knew he was committing.

This clip from the renowned satirical series, The Boondocks, does a great job of touching on the cultural phenomenon that is R. Kelly and how we as a society played a role in him avoiding justice. I was in elementary school when I learned about R. Kelly's marriage to Aliyah and the video recording of him urinating on a 14-year old girl and even at ~8 years old I was curious as to why everyone was just okay with it.

This New York Times article discusses his accusations in further detail and why so many ignored the signs.

This is the man Bonjean is aggressively advocating to be released into society. I would advise that you save your breath before you gasp out of shock because this is far from unusual behavior for someone like her. As mentioned earlier, she represented Bill Cosby in his infamous case involving sexual misconduct, and also worked to overturn his conviction of 3-10 years in prison stemming from more than 50 women accusing Cosby of a range of sexual assault and misconduct, including rape.

Bonjean is a despicable, vile excuse of a person who lacks shame and is equally evil as the perverts she elects to represent. Another New York Times article writes that she "Called one woman who accused R. Kelly of sexual abuse 'a pathological liar.' She accused another of extortion. She tried to pick their accounts apart, and attacked prosecutors for stripping her client, the former R&B star, of 'every single bit of humanity that he has.'"

Bonjean's biography on her firm's website details what motivated her to attend law school:

Bonjean’s life took an unexpected turn when she began volunteering for the women’s services division of the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago. At the YWCA, Bonjean was a rape crisis counselor and victim’s rights advocate for under-served and marginalized women who were victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

One would think that the exposure to the suffering and traumatizing impact left on these victims would influence her to pursue a path where she could provide a sense of support, but not Bonjean..

While in law school, Bonjean quickly began to identify with the underdog, which in the criminal justice system is the accused.

I'll end this with a case that was lesser known to me. In June 2019, Keith Raniere, the founder and leader of Nxivm (a human trafficking cult disguised as a self help group), was tried and convicted of all seven counts of a superseding indictment charging him with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy (including predicate acts of extortion, identity theft, and production and possession of child pornography); sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy; forced labor conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. On October 27, 2020 he was sentenced to 120 years in prison after 15 victims testified against Raniere in a Brooklyn federal courtroom. Less than 3 months after this sentencing, Bonjean joined Raniere's legal team to assist with the appeal. An appeal that was supported by the clam that by definition, the actions should not be considered a commercial sex act.

Raniere's arguments turn on the meaning of "commercial sex act," which the statute defines as "any sex act, on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person." 18 U.S.C. § 1591(e)(3). He principally argues that to qualify as a "commercial sex act," there must be a monetary or financial component to the "[ ]thing of value" that is given or received, and the sexual exploitation must be for profit.

Bonjean did what she does best. She did not argue that her client was innocent, but rather that the justice system failed him. I believe the justice system is not perfect and there are shades of corruption but to use it as a primary source of defense multiple times when there's clear proof against you is asinine. This woman is a diabolical spawn of Satan and a walking ironic figure. To cry corruption as a way of freeing your client is proof of failure in so many areas, including the justice system itself.

Yes, the government conspires to put a lot of innocent black men in jail on fallacious charges but R. Kelly is not one of them... You want to help R. Kelly? Get some help for R. Kelly

[caffeinatedhope]

I looked into E.L.F Cosmetics (alleged) Cult Connections So You Don’t Have To!

[mostly-potato]

This morning I dreamt I was cuddling with Tom Welling. He had broad shoulders and a soft smile. I told him I would stop watching Smallville if there was too much Allison Mack and NXIVM.

[whatsyourghoststory]

Rick Alan Ross on How Cults Work, & How to Get Out (Deprogramming, NXIVM, Waco, Heaven's Gate & more)

Rick is a fascinating guest as he's been a part of the story of some of the largest cults in recent memory, from working with both the Branch Davidians and the FBI in Waco, to working with a family to free their daughter from Keith Raniere & NXIVM.

Our season 3 finale was one of my favorite episodes of “The Fantastic Story Society.” We were able to get into the nitty gritty of the variety of ways cults operate and some of the most famous and/or unusual cuts of all time. The biggest point of this episode was to bring awareness that 1) cults exist and they’re more ubiquitous than one might imagine 2) literally ANYONE is susceptible to getting…

[landunderthewave]

WOAH. I didn’t read that part at the time.

[CN cults, alleged murder]

Excerpt von Keith Raniere’s Wikipedia entry:

“A number of Raniere's alleged lovers suffered untimely deaths. Gina Hutchinson was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Kristin Snyder disappeared and was last seen at a NXIVM event. Live-in girlfriends Barbara Jeske and Pam Cafritz both died from what was diagnosed as cancer at the time but is alleged to have actually been subtle poisoning. Raniere's partner Kristin Keeffe survived cervical cancer. In 2009, Raniere was filmed claiming, "I've had people killed because of my beliefs." In 2019, Investigation Discovery aired a documentary titled "The Lost Women of NXIVM", speculating that Raniere committed homicide. According to that program, a woman who lived with Raniere and developed bladder cancer submitted a hair sample that reportedly revealed the evidence of dangerous levels of bismuth and barium.“

I didn’t read the background so I don’t know how much I would give on the speculations, but based on the info we do have? He is absolutely vindictive and he goes after people who’ve “wronged” him for decades, if he feels like it. Also plainly, he loves to make people suffer. So could I believe this? Absolutely.

[taraljc]

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate how you've been aggregating and responding to the Neil Gaiman stuff. You and @screampotato are scraping the tag of misinformation and carrying the actual facts around, and that's some heavy lifting. No ask, just thanks.

Unfortunately I have practice--I ran a fan website for Allison Mack back in the early aughts and interviewed her a half dozen times before Keith Raniere targeted her to abuse and groom into an abuser. his entire trial was about SA and coercive control. He kept her sleep deprived and on a 300 calorie a day diet so she was literally starving to death, with impaired judgment for a solid decade*.

And the way I dealt with my anger and grief was by doing exactly what I'm doing now which is gathering all of the facts, sifting through them for the truth, and discarding the bullshit.

It helps that I used to be a journalist a long time ago when the world was young and dinosaurs ruled the earth. those skills never really go away, they just fade into the background.

while I'm pretty sure Neil will never speak to me again, the last thing I said to him was to get his whole entire head out of his ass and stop acting like a gobshite.

so there's that, at least.

(*If you ever want to hear how incredibly furious I was that the pretty pretty princess whose grandmother is literally a princess got a book deal and a television series and spent not even a single hour doing community service because she was Hollywood royalty, while Mack's working-class parents were bankrupted by legal fees and two different documentaries straight up ignored the fact that the woman who ran the Vancouver centre who made tens of thousands off Allison, and the videographer who laughed about how Raniere planned to break her got off scot-free, you'll probably need about 3 hours and at least a copy of Excel so I can show you the spreadsheets I made.)

[meandmybigmouth]

The cult of Donald Trump

We have seen them come and go, shattering lives and leaving devastation behind. Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, Charles Manson, Keith Raniere, David Berg, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh — each had an almost supernatural hold on their followers and led them to tragedy.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4192325-the-cult-of-donald-trump/

[zeep-xanflorp]

m: i promise to stop. [...] if you help me, i promise i'll never look under the curtain at a rick thing to figure out what's bad about it ever again.

r: and you can never say no to me.

m: what are you, keith raniere? [a cult leader]

r: for two weeks.

m: fine.

this is an interesting part of the episode for me. morty's morals aren't only being challenged, they are being dismantled. by seeing the galaxy at its worst, he's developed a taste for the immoral. he can understand why rick is trying to keep him from the truth and there's almost a defence of rick's actions behind what he's saying. like this idea that rick is protecting him from harsh cold reality by being dishonest. and that morty is thankful for that instead of being like "why are you even doing this in the first place?" like he did in the past.

and IDK. i think rick is manufacturing an environment where he can continue to get away w more and more fucked up stuff. the family doesn't care but morty was always the one who kept rick in check morally but he's just agreed not to do that anymore.

i think that opens some interesting future potential for the pair. there has to be sometime in the future where this will come back and i'm excited for it.

[himedanshicult]

watching this docuseries on keith raniere and nxivm is rlly a case study in "charisma is relative" fr me bcs most every clip of him speaking is like 50% pushy corporate motivational talk and 50% condescending libertarian rationalist dude

[mariacallous]

Hear me out: guilfoyle in silicon valley OOP

not saying no, but I am also saying he's giving me keith raniere vibes tbh

[originallandlockedmariner]

For three years running…

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global asshole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little bitch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet. Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a cunt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the shit on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the fucking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Holiday Magic’s implosion did not mark the end of pyramid-shaped sales, as new companies stepped in to fill the gap. Amway changed the game by waging an expensive, politically connected legal battle against the FTC in 1975 and winning the right to continue its chain distribution sales under the banner of “multi-level marketing.” The company argued it had instituted rules that distinguished its dealings from that of a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. The so-called Amway rules became an industry-led response that covered the most obviously exploitative elements of a pyramid: don’t charge a huge upfront fee; don’t require people to endlessly stock up; have some fine print somewhere that allows people to return product, even if restrictions apply. While the FTC continues to prosecute smaller multi-level marketing scammers who make wildly false claims and run away with money, the industry has gained staying power, if not full-on legitimacy, through the size and influence of players like Avon and Amway.

from Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman

[kammartinez]

At Raniere’s trial, psychologist and expert witness Dawn Hughes named threats, isolation, gaslighting, surveillance, subjugation, and economic control as forms of nonphysical violence that can take away someone’s ability to freely give consent. I kept this in mind when reviewing Camila’s contradictory replies: at one moment she’d vow to trust and obey Raniere forever, and at another she’d say that this commitment made her feel dead inside. There were times when she was interested in sex and wanted to be tied up, and other times when she explicitly said she didn’t want to be touched. Hughes’s testimony was a reminder that threats and gaslighting can create a state of terror in which the need to placate an abuser comes before personal safety. “I had to become good at figuring out how to stay in his good graces,” Camila later recounted in court. “He had made himself my only lifeline and I was not going to mess with that.”

from Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman

[fierceawakening]

So I’ve been watching some podcasts by the guy who helped expose NXIVM, and I really like what he has t9 say. Also he has a super soothing voice? The man is full of (justified) rage but his voice is so calm. I could listen to it all day.

But I’ve noticed that he’s very much the kind of dude Tumblr would not like. “Keith Raniere is a malignant narcissist and psychopath, that’s all there is to it. To get out of cults you have to recognize that some people just are not good people, and that’s really hard for people with normal levels of empathy to do.”

To the point where even I, who tend to think both those diagnostic labels are USUALLY only given to people who persistently behave badly (with some exceptions of course because some clinicians are incompetent or actively malicious), winced a little.

But then I thought about it, and… I mean, this guy just (relatively soeaking) left *NXIVM* of all cults. I think I can excuse him for being like “narcissists are all pure evil” given that, yeah, I don’t doubt the person he was interacting with in thrall to was probably narcissistic to the point of pathology, and yeah enslaving and branding women while starving them to make them pretty for him is pretty darn close to pure evil?

Like I think some of this “what does empathy mean” / “are narcissists monsters” is competing access needs?

The people saying “maybe I’m dehumanizing people but it’s not that big a deal” are typically dehumanizing not everyone but have in mind AN ABUSER THEY KNOW who they think has these traits.

Where the people making general statements about what empathy is are typically people who have been over diagnosed or pathologized for being unusual, rather than cruel.

I think where I’m landing is… dehumanization is always at least a little bad. Ideally, even if you have been abused, you should eventually be able to recognize that your abuser is a person, not just a pair of snapping jaws.

But if you have trouble doing that, or you need to round things off to “avoid narcissists in your life!” that’s not that horrible.

Dehumanization for the hell of it is pure evil.

Dehumanization because you’re in literal acute pain from someone doing you actual harm is… still wrong, but understandable and also… not a right now issue? It’s solvable once you’re safer.

[exitrowiron]

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire

This quote best describes my reaction to watching the conclusion of 'The Vow', the HBO series on the self-improvement group NXIVM – whose leader was convicted of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and other crimes – to reveal the emotional toll of unfolding events on these individuals. 

The leader, Keith Raniere, used psychological techniques to warp his followers' strong desire to improve the world and themselves. The interesting thing is that these were smart, highly motivated people. Some of the techniques of NXIVM could be considered useful, but most of what comes out of Keith's mouth is 'word-salad' - phrases which sound insightful but which fall apart into nonsense upon closer examination.

It is a fascinating series and because the leader was a narcissist and insisted on everything being video recorded, it is as if you're in room as the organization degenerates from an executive success program to a sex cult.

NXIVM included all the hallmarks of a cult and as the documentary exposes them, I couldn't help but find similarities to varying degrees in organized religion and especially the cult of Trump. Again, this quote from Voltaire says it all.