#organized crime allegations

[teg-report]

This P Diddy Situation Looks Bad: Is He the Small Fish in a Bigger Net?

The world of entertainment is no stranger to controversy, but the recent allegations surrounding Sean “Diddy” Combs have sent shockwaves through the industry. Once hailed as a music mogul and cultural icon, Diddy now finds himself embroiled in a series of accusations that read like a criminal thriller. From bizarre demands like sending someone to Brooklyn for a tiny piece of cheesecake to more…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Seek Girl Witness In Slavery Charge,” Toronto Star. December 13, 1932. Page 1. ---- Claim Montreal Men Imported Girls Into Resorts --- Special to The Star Montreal, Dec. 13. – A young girl – a missing witness – whose evidence is needed to shed light on the white slavery charges faced by three men in the court of sessions before Judge J. O. Lacroix was ordered arrested on a bench warrant when she failed to appear in court.

Louis Marchand, 51, Adelard Menard, 48, and Maurice Cote, 28, are alleged to have brought girls from small country villages into disorderly houses.

Startling court procedure took place late yesterday when Mrs. Louis Mrchand stated briefly she had seen her husband bring two girls from Montpellier into the house she kept for her sister about June of this year.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door. The longtime activist who for over 35 years has worked to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in south Texas, cautiously peered out the door. Standing on her doorstep were nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying firearms. After showing her a search warrant, Martinez’s home was searched as she was forced to stand outside in her nightgown in her driveway in full view of her neighbors. Martinez was later questioned for three hours after which the police seized her phone, computer, personal calendar and more.

[...]

These bad faith searches orchestrated by Paxton were predicated on the claim that the people being investigated were registering non-citizens to vote—despite zero evidence presented of wrongdoing. Very alarmingly, if Donald Trump and House GOP have their way, these types of raids would be happening nationwide with federal law enforcement under a GOP President.  That is why GOP House Speaker Johnson is now demanding the proposed SAVE Act be included in any deal to provide funding to keep the government open.

To be clear, federal and state law already makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote. But this new federal legislation would establish criminal penalties for registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentation proving U.S. citizenship.  That means that what we are seeing in Texas is coming attractions of what the GOP wants to do nationally.

Keep in mind despite Texas AG Paxton’s two year investigation, no charges  have been filed against any of the people whose homes were searched.  Indeed, there may never be charges because even Paxton’s basis for the search is BS. In his press release announcing the investigation, the Texas AG presents no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, Paxton makes baseless claims like these organizations have set up voter registration booths outside state agencies where people could register inside. Paxton’s press release literally includes this question with no answer: “Why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” But nowhere in his press release does he even allege any criminal conduct—only questions.

And Paxton—a close ally of convicted felon Trump—showed his bad faith earlier in August on a radio show when he peddled lies about non-citizens voting. Paxton declared, “There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally. I’m convinced that that’s how they’re going to do it this time, they’re going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people?” adding, “He brought them here to vote.”   That is nothing more than the type of BS you hear on Fox News. But now Paxton has weaponized government by targeting people registering those he believes will vote for Democrats. The backlash to Paxton’s actions have been swift. LULAC requested that the Department of  Justice investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, summed up well what is really going in their letter to the DOJ: "These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape.”

The Texas GOPs voter intimidation tactics are based on the faux outrage campaign against noncitizen voting.

[etz-ashashiyot]

Generally radicalized people are radicalized for a reason: their radicalization does something for them and/or they believe that their desire to reshape society in a way that they believe will fix things does something for them. The key to deradicalizing them, then, is to figure out what that need is and fill it with something else.

Most of the time, people don't actually want rivers of blood, they want justice for wrongs that they feel aren't being heard.

Most of the time, they don't actually hate [X] minority - they don't even know anyone of that minority! They hate the false strawman version of that minority that is completely detached from reality, but that's been sold to them as the source of their problems.

And most people are honestly kinda lazy, lol. They are not going to physically fight for their fucked up ideas unless either (1) they are backed into a corner and literally must, or (2) they get swept up as part of a larger mob where the bully mentality takes over and the few people leading it decide to turn it into a violent mob.

So you gotta suck the wind out of their sails.

This works best if they are in or adjacent to your own communit(ies), because you will have more insight into what this is doing for them.

For the goyische leftists that have been radicalized into Jew hate lately, it's a combination of things. It's a feeling of powerlessness as the world slides rapidly towards fascism and climate crisis. It's the ghosts of unaddressed colonialism that they are choosing to impose their emotional catharsis on this unrelated and falsely analogous situation to enact what they feel would be just in their own society on people safely half the world away. Why there? Well, it's because it's a very small area with all of the culturally significant places that they grew up hearing about from the Bible in church, so it carries emotional weight. Most importantly, both parties are small and neither party has much international power to stop them, so they are able to impose their own narrative on the situation and speak over everyone actually there. Anyone who tries to correct them is drowned out. And, it's the history of Soviet antisemitism that is baked into the DNA of most western leftist movements and which Jews have never had the numbers or power to force them to actually confront.

Jew hatred is extremely convenient and Jews have been murdered in large enough numbers that we are easy to talk over.

Now usually, when you start pointing these things out, and especially when you start pointing out how ineffective and self-serving their "activism" on behalf of Palestinians is, they are too radicalized to do anything but react emotionally. They will spit out talking points, but none of these things actually address any of the above. They usually just devolve into "but but, Israeli war crimes!!" like it's a talisman against accurate allegations of antisemitism.

Why won't they listen to reason? When you show them how what they're saying is literal Nazi propaganda with the swastikas filed off and "Zionists" being used as a stand-in for Jews while they simultaneously vociferously deny any connection between Jews and Zionism? Why won't they take any accountability for their bigotry? Why won't they, at a minimum, listen to the Palestinians who want peace even if they won't listen to Jews advocating for the same thing?

It's because then they would have to give up the major benefits that they've been reaping from this situation: the social capital, the excuses to act out, the glow of feeling totally righteous in their fury, the catharsis - and trade it for the extremely unappealing process of actually becoming a decent person and a better advocate for their cause. It's hurting people they don't care about and they have a whole lot of organizations and institutions and people with actual power who materially benefit from their misdirected anger stoking the flames, and helping them lie to themselves that they are actually helping someone besides themselves and the handful of true beneficiaries behind the conflict.

They are being used.

And in twenty years they'll wake up and realize that they spent their youth shouting Nazi and Stalinist slogans of hatred that only benefitted right-wing hawks on both sides who make actual money and power off this conflict at the expense of two persecuted minorities. But they will be ashamed and will bury that behavior underneath silence and excuses.

This happens in every generation, by the way. Every 70 - 100 years, people find a socially plausible reason to hate and kill Jews because it is easier than standing up to the people with actual power. We are people they know they can hurt, and so long as they lie to themselves about who they're hurting and why, it feels really good.

Overcoming that directly has never worked.

It doesn't work because catharsis and punching down or laterally feels productive and owning their biases and bigotry and developing practical long-term strategies is tedious and often feels like shit.

What I've seen real activists do is to address the need for catharsis, praise, and to feel useful in other ways, because they are often less attached to the specific lowest hanging bigoted fruit and more in the rewards it gives them.

If we want to see this change, yelling at leftists that they're being bigoted morons feels good (productivity! feeling a sense of reclaiming control and power from helplessness! catharsis! We are not immune to these human needs either) but it's counterproductive. You don't convince a toddler to give up the shiny dangerous toy by trying to just snatch it away - if anything, you've now cemented this as an epic struggle for all time against the cold, cruel, injustices of the parental controls. No, you have to give them a new, safer toy.

My position is that if we want to see movement on this, we need to suck it up, stop yelling at the radicalized, and start finding ways to help Palestine that both feel gratifying and are actually pro-peace.

And, for the true sick fucks who really do want rivers of Jewish blood (and if a bunch of Gazans are martyred in the process, oh well)? That's where we need our true allies to help us fight back the most. This type of person will never respond to anything but power, so they will back down if they feel that they are truly threatened. To get the rest of the fair weather friends on board, we need to show how these violent tantrums are actually threatening their new catharsis, gratification, and progress so that they aren't swayed by the bullies and instead want to guard their new emotional investment and moral high ground.

Ultimately, we all want to feel like we're the good guys. We want catharsis. We want instant gratification. We want to see movement. We want justice for the wrongs committed against us and those we choose to see ourselves in community with. Many of us have real-world serious grievances that are intractable and that we don't have the individual power to fix, but are intolerable as things currently stand. These people aren't special; they aren't different from us and we aren't different from them in those ways. The problem is that activism - real activism that actually moves the needle - will typically not give you that satisfaction or meet those needs, and most people don't have the mental space to meet those needs in a better way, so punching laterally becomes the quick fix solution. Meanwhile, the people in actual positions of power benefit from this gladiator fight.

And until actual activists reckon with that reality, we are going to see more and more of the same.

[flagellant]

I am now having to follow two entirely distinct leads at once. Appleton may actually exist because there's at least one contemporary news article referencing her by name and working for the GHQ. But the alleged photograph of Appleton also has Toshihiro Shoda, an heir to a major brewery, standing next to her.

Shoda Shoyu was set to inherit Kikkoman company assets in a trustbusting investigation which found Kikkoman and four other major brewery corporations guilty of price fixing. There's also a growing pile of evidence of major dissension intracompany at Kikkoman during this period of rapid expansion into American markets during postwar, at which point the clan leader of Kikkoman family interests got involved with the U.S. Supreme Court. I can't say for certain but there might very well be illegal aspects/involvement with organized crime in this story at its root.

I'm a fucking fashion design major. Why is this happening to me. No I'm not going to stop until I get to the bottom of this, but still.

[crimethinc]

In today's bond hearing for the organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund that Atlanta prosecutors are charging with “money laundering” and “charity fraud,” the defense emphasized that the charges are baseless:

"The allegations include $37.11 to make yard signs... They have receipts for all of these expenses. [One of them] gets reimbursed for her travel expenses, and that is being misrepresented as charity fraud."

Contrary to the demands of the prosecutor, who is trying to make it a crime to provide basic legal support to arrested activists, the judge set bond for the arrestees, saying:

"I'm concerned about some of the same things that the defense attorney mentions about the line between legitimate free speech and illegal violent acts... Paying for camping supplies and the like—I don't find it very impressive. There's not a lot of meat on the bones of the allegations that thousands of dollars are going to fund illegal activities."

Background:

http://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023

[dark-konohagakure2]

heya ~ i love you deidara stuff and im a heavy simp for that man qwq can you write someting like "Deidara being jealous" kinda stuff? bc i see him as someone who likes to "mark" his property. Maybe something sfw and nsfw only if you d'accord with it 👀

tw: dubcon, possessiveness, jealousy, biting, cockwarming, exhibitionism, degradation, marking, manipulation

All characters depicted are 18+

Deidara is a hot-headed young man and he can get jealous rather easily, and he just barely has enough self control to hide it. He's especially possessive of his Akatsuki partner that he's had for a few months now, she's cute and seems to like his art, and that's all he needs to become smitten.

His jealousy won't flare up until he sees that damn Uchiha talking to her, not even flirting with her or being friendly, just... talking to her, but seeing someone he loathes so much being around his partner is enough to start his possessiveness streak.

Needless to say, Deidara doesn't take his eyes off her for even a moment now, treating her like a wandering child instead of his equal and an adult. Part of him wants to put a leash on her to keep her next to him at all times, but these thoughts only come to him late in the night when he's fisting his cock to thoughts of her.

Eventually his jealousy reaches a fever pitch one day seemingly out of nowhere, and he's dragging her away to berate her about her alleged infidelity towards him for the horrible, unforgivable crime of talking to her male teammates.

"What have I told you, hmm?! Not to talk to other guys, especially that goddamn Uchiha! But you never learn do you, dummy?!"

He decides that it's time that he marks his property, and Deidara can mark her up with three times the efficiency thanks to the mouths on his hands and the one on his face, he'll leave the bite marks on her neck, shoulders, chest, and he'll even bite into her cheek, wanting to make sure she can't hide the marks of his ownership.

But much to his anger, she does somehow find a way to hide all bite marks, even using makeup to cover the one on her cheek. Deidara is furious and can only come to one conclusion; she has to be doing it on purpose, and she's forced his hand into taking drastic measures.

He'll force her to sit on his lap during the next Akatsuki meeting, his cock hurried deep inside of her, the sensation making her squirm and tremble, but she can't do much in front of everyone, since she'd lose all their respect if they found out what was happening, although the members with Dojutsu such as Pain and Itachi (and Tobi unbeknownst to her and Deidara) are able to tell what's going on almost instantly.

The humiliation is enough to make the poor girl cry, much to Deidara's satisfaction, and he'll coo comforting words into her ear while still keeping his cock buried deep inside her womb. He'll teach this entire thing like a lesson she just has to learn, and Deidara is more than happy to be her teacher.

"Aww don't cry, I know how embarrassing this is for you, but this is what you get when you go ahead and make me all jealous on purpose, un!"

That little lesson he gave her should be enough to convince her to never leave his side or provoke his jealous side again, but if she does, Deidara wouldn't mind taking things up a notch and fucking her in front of the entire organization next time.

[esyra]

These days, I have long debated what to write regarding Palestine-Israel, and questioned why I should write anything at all. The idea that celebrities and the loudest chronically online people you've ever met, blessed in their ignorance and indifferent to livehoods different than theirs, feel the need to opinate on social and geopolitical issues is absolutely insane. Most of the time, they do more harm than good—spreading misinformation like wildfire. Such opinions are what convinced me to ultimately talk about it.

Rest assured I'm not particularly qualified to talk about any of this, then again no one seems (or tries) to be. This is not a statement, simply questions about selected nuance. Full disclosure: I am of Palestinian descent. And I tried my hardest to be all-encompassing and empathetic; if I fail at any moment, my sincerest apologies.

All around social media I've seen only two kinds of posts regarding Palestine and Israel; they're either completely favorable to Israel and dehumanize Palestine or they treat Palestines as a footnote, in which it's made to assure its author doesn't endorse murder but also to point out that Palestine "deserve what's coming." There's a certain nuance required to support Palestine that's not asked when supporting Israel.

I've seen Jamie Lee Curtis reposting a picture of Palestinian children watching Israelis air strikes as if they were of Israeli children. There's no doubt it was a malicious-intended post considering she credited the photographer while deleting the original caption which explicitly explained who the ones pictured were. After being severely corrected in the comments, she simply deleted and made no mention of it. Guess children don't matter if they're Palestinian. I've seen way too many celebrities responding to the conflict with worries about how they might be affected by it, as self-centered and selfish as you can imagine.

I've seen a journalist claim that 40 Israeli babies were beheaded and multiple newspapers (many of them British, because what else can you expect from them?) and public figures reposting as a fact, only for the same journalist to later claim she actually "never said that" (she absolutely did). Also the IDF explaining they have no information confirming the allegations that 'Hamas beheaded babies'. I've seen people using statements from Sabra and Shatila massacre survivors and trying to rewrite Palestine, which were the victims of said crime, as the perpetrators. I've seen people using videos of Russian attacks as Palestinian ones. I've seen a British journalist fabricating a harmful statement from a Palestinian Ambassador to help dehumanize Palestine, and being proud of such. I've seen BBC using the nuances of language to their liking, reporting how Israelis were 'killed' while Palestinians 'died'. Always heard journalists avoid adjectives in favor of being unbiased. Again, guess that's unimportant when it comes to Palestine. Most of all, I've seen people equate supporting Palestine to anti-semitism.

If that belief steams that Palestine and Hamas are one-and-the-same, and the latter is a anti-semitism organization, then that's another concern I'd like to add the recently appraised 'nuance'.

Hamas first appeared during the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. The signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 marked the end of the uprising—an agreement between Israel and Palestine meant to lay the groundwork for the formation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Instead, it has erased Palestine's recognition as a State. In its history, Hamas have equate the liberation of Palestinians with the destruction of Israel, likely the reason they're a highly divisive organization that has often been at oddens with more mainstream Palestinian politicians. However, Hamas backtracked on its aims in a 2017 proclamation, making it clear that what it wants is to end a “racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project.” In its 16th topic, they state "Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine."

The description of the Israeli occupation as fascist most likely comes from the similarities of Palestine to an "open air prison". They have no control of their own borders (IDF controls who and what enters or leaves) and are deemed stateless. "In defiance of international law, Israel considers all Palestinians inhabitants of the occupied Palestinian territory as non-citizens and foreign residents." Meaning if they leave their territory, they won't be allowed back in. Their rights in the Arab World are uncertain, particularly in Lebanon and Egypt where they are denied rights to secure residency, employment, property, communal interaction and family unification. Procedures to allow non-residents to apply for naturalisation in Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia do not apply to stateless Palestinians. So while those asking for Palestinians to be evacuated for their safety certainly have noble intentions, I ask of you: where they will go? Can you imagine walking away from home knowing you're heading into nothing? What's the difference between living in the rumbles of their homes and being homeless in another country?

The ones who decide to stay (and the ones unable to leave) are likely not making it for much longer. According to the United Nations, roughly 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis have been killed in the ongoing conflict since 2008, not counting the recent fatalities. Is it truly a war if one side is so overpowering in its resources and retaliations? I feel the need to point out these stats to question why the notion that "violence is never the answer" is only used now. When it has been the only response until now.

Then again, Hamas remains a polarizing force in Palestinian society. They're an organization that's slaughtering families and less than a third of Palestinians think the group deserves to represent them. There has not been an opportunity, however, for elections to change their representatives. Palestinians living in Gaza must endure an unstable political reality with an unrepresentative government implementing repressive policies against LGBTQ people and abusive policies against detainees. Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu purposefully propped up Hamas and there has been speculation that Iran has supported them. I've seen many post as if it's a fact, so I'd like to reinforce that it's speculation. In essence, Hamas is a terrorist group with questionable history and even more questionable allies. None of which has the Palestine's best interests at heart.

This has been overly long, and I still haven't touched on all topics I wished to address. Some I probably couldn't express properly since it's such a complex geopolitical issue. Then again, no one seems to try while all seem very comfortable in being as biased as they wish to be. So I thought I add my compassionate two cents in favor of Palestine and all the years of oppresion they've endured. I still hope you'll read this to the end, and extended to Palestine the same sympathetic hand you've rightfully extended to Israeli citizens.

My heart aches for the innocent people murdered, Palestinian and Israeli. Settlers aren’t innocent, but people who were born there didn't really choose to be one. Jewish people following matters of faith don't deserve to die. No one has (or should have) the right to take someone's life away. People at the Gaza Strip that are either just trying to survive or attempting to protect their homes also don't deserve to die, as flawed as their logic and actions might be, and many are missing that nuance. The denial of food, water, and medical aid, violates the Geneva convention. And it's a kind of retaliation that Palestine in its entirety will never be able to match.

Currently, the Israeli government is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza. An anonymous Israeli official said they would turn Gaza into “a city of tents.” A parliamentarian said that Israel should not concern itself with the safety of any Gazans who “chose” to stay in the Gaza Strip, as if every crossing hasn't been blocked.

Soon, the 'war' will end. And when it does, I can assure you Palestine won't be the last one standing. They've never had a real chance. I'd like to remember everyone that, despite Netanyahu's claims that they are "human animals", Palestinians are human beings. People. All of which deserve to live, deserve compassion and deserve protection. They also deserve to be remembered.

[taviamoth]

🚨 Government Media Office:

—

The "israeli" occupation engages in deception and spreads false news about the horrific Flour Massacre on Al-Rashid Street, aiming to evade and escape from its heinous crime, we we hold the American administration and the occupation responsible.

The "israeli" occupation, through a group of its spokespersons across media outlets, attempted to mislead, spread false news, and lie to the public, conjuring a fabricated narrative regarding the horrific Flour Massacre committed this morning on Al-Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City. We deny the occupation's false claims alleging that the martyrs of this massacre ascended due to stampede and internal conflict.

The occupation committed this atrocious massacre with the premeditated intention to cause this large number of martyrs and wounded. All injuries and martyrs from this massacre—exceeding 360 in number—were direct casualties of bullets owned and fired by the "israeli" army, as well as internationally banned shells, deliberately targeting civilians. This was evident on the bodies of the martyrs and the wounded.

Hundreds of civilians in the area, who came for a bag of flour or food aid to feed their children and families amid the deepening and ongoing famine in North Gaza and Gaza governorates, where 700,000 people live, have been prevented by the occupation from receiving any aid to these governorates for 146 days.

We hold the American administration, the international community, the "israeli" occupation, and also the international organizations that have shirked their responsibilities fully responsible for the mass killings, the horrific massacre, the genocide, and the starvation war carried out and still being executed by the "israeli" army to this day.

We appeal to all countries of the world, all Arab and Islamic states, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to immediately and urgently intervene to pressure the occupation to stop the genocide against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, halt the bloodshed, and stop the killing and targeting of civilians, children, and women.

The Government Media Office

Thursday, February 29, 2024

[queer-geordie-nerd]

People should be VERY careful when sending money to 'poor people in Gaza'. Funding terrorism is a serious crime. I'm not even kidding. I've seen so many people on here re-blogging these GoFundMe asks that are blatantly scripted scams. It's staggering. Do people not know they could get in serious trouble for this?? (The US state department offers multi-million dollar rewards for information on people alleged to have funded terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hizballah. And GenZrs are just out here on Tumblr blatantly sharing their GoFundMe links! It's insane. Do they send money to those poor Nigerian princes too?) Anyone re-blogging these GoFundMe links are just advertizing themselves as easy marks. 'Useful idiots' is an understatement.

I couldn't agree more. I mean, I do understand the desire to want to feel like you're doing something to help people in real need, and that is exactly what these scammers rely on. Exploiting people's feelings of helplessness at witnessing suffering is the lowest of the low, tbh.

[mightyflamethrower]

A now-former president of an LGBTQ organization in Canada was just arrested for committing sex crimes with children, who were all under the age of 16.

But more than just the sex crimes, he was also involved in distributing child pornography.

Here’s the news:

The former president of a northern British Columbia pride organization has been arrested and charged with committing sex crimes against children under 16, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service. The charges against Sean Gravells, 39, include touching a person under 16 for sexual purposes, sexual interference of a person under 16, possession of child pornography, and importing or distributing child pornography, BCPS spokesperson Dan McLaughlin told CBC News in an emailed statement on Monday. The alleged offences all took place in or near Fort St. John, B.C., about 800 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, McLaughlin said. The interference and exploitation charges are for alleged offences on Dec. 29, 2023, while the child pornography charges occurred on Dec. 31, he added. Gravells served as board president for the North Peace Pride Society (NPPS) since 2018, according to a now-deleted biography on the organization’s website, but the NPPS says it recently removed him from the role. In a statement on social media on Friday, NPPS said the board took “swift action” to remove a member who was arrested on Dec. 31 and is now facing “severe charges,” but did not name the member. “In response to the gravity of the charges, we have immediately removed this person from our board, emphasizing our commitment to our community’s values,” the post on NPPS’s Facebook page read. “We want to clarify that the society itself is not implicated in any charges; these are isolated to the individual.”

File This Under: "Things That Don't Surprise Me"

[teg-report]

This P Diddy Situation Looks Bad: Is He the Small Fish in a Bigger Net?

The world of entertainment is no stranger to controversy, but the recent allegations surrounding Sean “Diddy” Combs have sent shockwaves through the industry. Once hailed as a music mogul and cultural icon, Diddy now finds himself embroiled in a series of accusations that read like a criminal thriller. From bizarre demands like sending someone to Brooklyn for a tiny piece of cheesecake to more…

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — Nearly 50 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel left 1,200 dead, and after weeks of criticism over its silence about allegations of sexual violence during the attack, the  women’s rights group UN Women issued a statement condemning the terror group on Friday.

Then it deleted the post.

“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, posted on UN Women’s instagram page. It was soon replaced with a statement that dropped the condemnation of Hamas and only called for the release of the hostages.

Word spread quickly among Jewish women activists and Israelis, reigniting their contention that UN Women — an official arm of the United Nations focused on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment — holds a double standard when it comes to gender-based violence against Israeli women. Some of the critics — including Sheryl Sandberg, a former top Meta executive — have lobbied openly on the topic. Many have used the hashtag “#MeToo_UNless_UR_A_Jew.”

Reached for comment, UN Women told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Instagram post had been scheduled in advance and was deleted because the message in it no longer reflected where the organization wanted to put its main focus.

“In any social media team managing multiple campaigns and during a very busy time like the one we are now with 16 Days of Activism, mistakes can occur,” a representative for UN Women said in a statement sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

In particular, said the media specialist, the release of some hostages over the weekend as part of a temporary truce changed the organization’s priorities.

“UN Women social media team had pre-planned days in advance [of] this particular post, but then the news broke on the release of hostages and we really wanted to focus on that,” she said. “UN Women has condemned the attacks by Hamas and the deaths of Israeli civilians from the beginning as well as called for the release of hostages, and we will continue doing so until the conflict ends. We have also called for all allegations of gender-based violence to be rigorously investigated, prioritizing the rights, needs, and safety of those affected.”

In late October, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but voted down a provision condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. On Monday, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, held a session on crimes against humanity committed against women during the Oct. 7 massacre.

After an initial statement on Oct. 13 condemning the attacks on civilians in Israel, all of UN Women’s public comments about the war and its impact on women had centered only on Palestinians. Last week, Sima Bahous, the group’s executive director, called for an extension of the current temporary truce into a permanent ceasefire and for the release of all hostages.

The National Council for Jewish Women, which had previously criticized UN Women’s silence on sexual violence against Israeli women, said the group’s second statement last week was inadequate.

“The delayed issuance of a statement that fails to explicitly address the severity of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel — such as the brutal murder of over 1,200 people in Israel, torture, and rape of women, as well as the targeting of civilians and families — is equally reprehensible,” the statement said. “Immediate and unequivocal acknowledgment of these atrocities is imperative, given the blatant violation of international law.”

[theinfernalcollective]

RAMCOA and SRA

This is a very long post so we apologize in advance.

Do we believe in RAMCOA? no. And no this is not saying we don't believe that the people saying they went through RAMCOA is lying. We simply do not believe in it because of how suddenly is had just shown up. The title satanic and ritual abuse has been around since the 80s. However it was also satanic panic. And while even SRA is very exaggerated. RAMCOA is the rebranded name for SRA.

RAMCOA stands for ritual abuse, mind control, and organized abuse. However the name RAMCOA doesn't get used in clinical settings. And after discussing this with both our therapist and psychiatrist neither have even heard of it, or RSA.

Cults and trafficking are most definitely real, and those affected by their actions are also real. We're not invalidating victims by saying this but none of the cults that SRA/RAMCOA were believed to come from in the 80s and 90s even existed. They were fears and conspiracy theories. Otherwise meaning not real. unfounded conspiracy theories of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) as a cause of mental illness – particularly dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD).

The problem

Satanic Panic — broadly, the fear that devil-worshiping Satanists engage in criminal, antisocial acts on a massive scale – exploded in the 1980s, primarily in the United States. During this time, a fear that Satanists were sexually abusing and sacrificing children in bizarre rituals gripped the nation. For many, skepticism regarding these invisible crimes was tantamount to complicity, fostering a situation in which even the most improbable of claims went unquestioned by jurors and the public at large. Individuals were imprisoned for crimes stemming from unsubstantiated SRA allegations – often the product of recovered memory therapy techniques. Families were torn apart by gruesome and impossible accusations. Some were repaired after supposed victims learned they were suffering from false memories; others remain destroyed to this day. This moral panic over nonexistent Satanic cults arose out of an unholy alliance between well-meaning but misguided mental health professionals, law enforcement, prominent feminists, and Christian leaders. And it was catapulted into living rooms across the country by credulous television hosts – such as Geraldo Rivera and Oprah – who platformed self-proclaimed survivors, opportunistic “ex-Satanists” who asserted past involvement in Satanic crime, and reckless therapists who demanded the public believe these strange accounts.

Although Satanic Panic began to dwindle by the mid-1990s, the mental health field has not entirely rid itself of this plague. In fact, many of the same licensed therapists who contributed to Satanic Panic during that time continue to do so today, including as members of respected professional societies – such as the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). These professional organizations sponsor conferences – eligible for continuing education credit – featuring presentations that promote pseudoscientific recovered memory therapy and SRA. We refer to licensed mental health professionals who practice recovered memory therapy and/or promote Satanic Panic conspiracy theories as “conspiracy therapists.”

The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) is a mental health organization for professionals and students. The organization focuses on psychological trauma and the dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). The ISSTD has held annual international and regional conferences since its founding in 1984, with most presentations rewarding attendees with continuing education credits required to maintain clinical licensure. The organization promotes pseudoscientific recovered memory therapy, other dangerous treatment techniques, and fictitious conspiracy theories including ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, and widespread, abusive, Satanic cults. ISSTD members, speakers, researchers, staff, and board members continue to promote the long-disproven notion that these Satanic conspiracies have caused mental illness in thousands or even millions of people. As such, the ISSTD is the primary structure around which conspiracy therapists organize. But contrary to their assertions that they are healing the abused and traumatized, many prominent ISSTD members – including its founders and presidents – have been the subject of disturbing misconduct allegations and lawsuits from former patients.

Two issues after the publication of the Goodwin and Hill article, Dissociation printed a scathing letter to the editor from Richard Noll, a psychologist and historian of science. Noll charged that the Goodwin and Hill article relied on weak sources, ignored important context, and evaded the fact that their examples were almost invariably hoaxes, rumors, and forgeries. ”The truth of the matter is this: distinguished historians of witchcraft and of ritual magic… do not find evidence that satanic cults practicing the Black Mass, with cannibalism, ritual murder, worship of Satan, etc., have ever existed.”

bipolar disorder. Objectives of the presentation include being able to identify “at least five presentation clues that indicate a possible diagnosis of ritual abuse, mind control, or organized abuse” and “describe some hallmark features of Monarch mind control.” Danylchuk’s lecture covered how to recognize patient “patterns” that indicate ritual abuse victimization and how to identify “the most common role reenactments that emerge during therapy.” Salter’s lecture explained how “dissociative symptoms and traumatic attachments can be manipulated by perpetrators to coerce vulnerable people into organised abuse.” Though Salter’s presentation denounces “simple dichotomies of ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ abuse,” his constant references to perpetrators and survivors lay bare his allegiance to believing alleged victims no matter how self-falsifying the narrative.

- Vayu

Source and half of the post is directly from greyfaction.org

[simply-ivanka]

Now the Trump Jurors Can Be Told

Without the limits placed on witness testimony, they can now learn why the case was faulty.

Wall Street Journal - James Freeman

In the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump, it seems that partisan judge Juan Merchan insisted on so many limits on the potential testimony of former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith that the defense decided it was pointless to put him on the stand. But now the jurors can learn what Journal readers have known for more than a year—hush-money payments to alleged mistresses are not campaign contributions.

This weekend Mr. Smith noted this again on X and also explained in a series of posts why there was a big chronological hole in the claim that a 2016 payment to alleged mistress Stormy Daniels was improperly reported to avoid damaging news prior to that year’s election:

The payment to Daniels was made on Oct. 27. So the payment would not have been reported on the Pre-election report… The next report is the Post-Election Report…

In 2016, the Post-Election Report was required to be filed on December 8, one month after the election. So the prosecution’s theory, that Trump wanted to hide the expenditure until after the election, makes no sense at all…

Even if we assume, incorrectly, that it was a campaign expenditure, it wouldn’t have been reported until 30 days after the election. But again, none of this got to the jury, either through testimony or the judge’s instructions…

Merchan was rather obviously biased here, but I’ll give him the benefit of a doubt and say he was just thoroughly ignorant of campaign finance law, and had no interest in boning up on it to properly instruct the jury.

Mr. Smith sums up the issue under relevant federal law:

There was no illegal contribution or expenditure made, and no failure to report an expenditure. And even if we assume otherwise, the prosecution’s theory made no sense, suggesting no criminal intent.

Could this case look any worse? It seems that even if one made the error of regarding the hush-money payment as a campaign contribution, there would still be ample reason to question the constitutionality of the verdict. Steven Calabresi, who teaches law at Northwestern and Yale, writes for Reason magazine:

In 2010, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, the Supreme Court held 5 to 4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by closely allied corporations and groups like The Trump Organization. Under Citizens United, it was perfectly legal for The Trump Organization to pay Daniels $130,000 in hush money to conceal her alleged affair with Donald Trump…

Groups contributing to election campaigns can pay for advertising to promote candidates, and they can also pay hush money to keep bad or false stories out of the news. The effect either way is to help the candidate. You can contribute money to generate good publicity.  And, you can contribute money to avoid bad publicity.  The First Amendment protects freedom of speech in both cases.

Mr. Calabresi adds:

The U.S. Supreme Court needs to hear this case as soon as possible because of its impact on the 2024 presidential election between President Trump and President Biden. Voters need to know that the Constitution protected everything Trump is alleged to have done with respect to allegedly paying hush money to Stormy Daniels. This is especially the case because the trial judge in Trump’s Manhattan case wrongly allowed Stormy Daniels to testify in graphic detail about the sexual aspects of her alleged affair with Trump. This testimony tainted the jury and the 2024 national presidential electorate, impermissibly, and was irrelevant to the question of whether President Trump altered business records to conceal a crime. The federal Supreme Court needs to make clear what are the legal rules in matters of great consequence to an election to a federal office like the presidency.  A highly partisan borough, Manhattan, of a highly partisan city, New York City, in a highly partisan state, like New York State, cannot be allowed to criminalize the conduct of presidential candidates in ways that violate the federal constitution.

The Roman Republic fell when politicians began criminalizing politics. I am gravely worried that we are seeing that pattern repeat itself in the present-day United States. It is quite simply wrong to criminalize political differences.

Some readers were disappointed in your humble correspondent for suggesting on Friday that Gov. Kathy Hochul (D., N.Y.) should pardon Mr. Trump. Given the logical and constitutional flaws in the case, these disgruntled readers think it would be better to have this outrage exposed in the appeals process and completely repudiated, whereas a pardon might appear to some to be a merciful response to a legitimate prosecution for the sake of political comity. Perhaps such readers needn’t worry. Jon Levine reports for the New York Post:

A person close to Hochul said a pardon was “unlikely.” 

“I cannot image a world where she would consider doing this, this makes no sense,” said the insider.

[soon-palestine]

THE HAGUE

Dutch lawmakers on Friday called for a probe into allegations of espionage and intimidation by Israel to obstruct International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations into Israeli officials.

A written question submitted by House of Representatives member Kati Piri urged ministers to investigate the alleged activities. Piri is a member of the Green Left-Labor Party alliance, led by former European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans.

A query, which received backing from other Green Left and Labor Party members, was directed at Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot, Interior and Kingdom Relations Minister Hugo de Jonge and Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius.

Citing international media reports, the motion requested that the three ministries, along with Dutch intelligence services, look into Israel's alleged espionage and intimidation efforts against the ICC.

The efforts are reportedly aimed at disrupting investigations into war crimes committed in Palestinian territories.

Special responsibility

The motion stressed that as the host state of the ICC, which is based in The Hague, the Netherlands has a duty to prevent any attacks or threats against the international court.

It questioned how Dutch authorities plan to ensure that ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and Court judges can operate independently and without interference.

The motion also took note of an incident involving former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, whose home in The Hague was searched by two individuals believed to be working for Israeli intelligence.

Bensouda had reported the incident to Dutch authorities.

Piri's motion also requested that the ministers disclose the number of complaints received from the ICC, Palestinian non-governmental organizations and individuals about intimidation, bribery, blackmail or espionage attempts by Israel or other countries since 2015.

Sabotage of ICC investigations

The motion asserted that Israel's alleged espionage activities are intended to sabotage the ICC's investigations into crimes committed by Israeli officials in Palestinian territories.

It raised concern about whether witnesses to the crimes might feel intimidated to testify before the ICC and questioned whether the Netherlands could adequately protect witnesses and victims.

The motion called on Dutch ministers to clarify their stance on the Israeli government's designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as "terrorist organizations" in October 2021.

It requested an assessment of the designations and of allegations against the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA.

Furthermore, it demands an investigation into the possible involvement of Israel's diplomatic mission in The Hague in alleged intimidation activities against the ICC.

"Will you summon the Israeli ambassador to demand an explanation and convey the message that espionage and intimidation campaigns on Dutch soil are unacceptable?" it asked.

It called for an investigation into whether Israel has committed crimes aimed at obstructing the administration of justice, referring to Article 70 of the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, which regulates crimes against the administration of justice.