Society's ChildS


Bug

SOTT Focus: Ghislane Maxwell Finally Arrested by FBI. Is She The Center of The Entire Epstein Case?

ghislaine Maxwell
Two senior law enforcement officials say that Ghislane Maxwell was arrested on charges that she conspired with Jeffery Epstein to sexually abuse minors and is expected to appear in federal court later Thursday. The six-count indictment in Manhattan federal court alleges that Maxwell helped Epstein groom girls as young as 14 years old, going back as far as 1994. "In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims," the indictment says.


Comment: As of 2 July 2020, at 22:30 CET, Maxwell remains unsuicided, and has been taken into custody by US Marshals.

'Q' followers are all excited about this, apparently believing it heralds sweeping imminent mass arrests of Swamp creatures the whole Empire over.

If only.

More likely, it's taken an entire year to follow up on Maxwell because LOTS of backroom deals had to be worked out first. For instance, also reported today is a ruling by the judge in the defamation case Alan Dershowitz brought against Virginia Giuffre that her legal team must "destroy all files" they have on Epstein - over 1,000 of them - because her lawyers allegedly "came into possession of them improperly."

We do wonder, however, if some action finally took place today because of last week's sacking of Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), by US Attorney General William Barr, apparently at Trump's insistence.

The fact remains, however, that everyone who's anyone is either implicated in this scandal, or stands to lose a lot from it 'going wrong'. For one thing, former FBI director James Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, remains one of the SDNY prosecutors handling the Epstein case, and Maxwell has just been transferred from New Hampshire to that jurisdiction to face criminal charges...

Update (July 3): The details of the charges against Maxwell have been released by acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss, and they are revolting:
Strauss described in detail how Maxwell "played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse," pretending to take an interest in the girls' lives, taking them shopping and to the movies, and convincing them to let Epstein pay for their schooling and travel, thus placing them in his debt.

"Maxwell then tried to normalize sexual abuse" by discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the girls, even being physically present while the girls gave Epstein massages, the prosecutor explained, thereby putting the victims at ease and leaving them "susceptible to sexual abuse."

As for her false testimony, "Maxwell lied because the truth as alleged was almost unspeakable," Strauss stated. "Maxwell enticed minor girls, got them to trust her, then delivered them into the trap that she and Epstein had set for them."
Former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe has claimed Maxwell was a Mossad agent like her father and that the pair used underage girls as bait to blackmail world leaders. This would hardly be the first time an intel agency used the "honeypot" trap to gain leverage on politicians. That particular spy operation is most well-known for having entrapped Mordechai Vanunu after he blew the whistle on Israel producing nuclear weapons at the Dimona plant. He was arrested in Rome by the Mossad, drugged and taken back to Israel where he served 18 years in prison for "treason," 11 of those years in solitary confinement.

Another piece of damning info on Maxwell is that she apparently inquired to her realtor in New Hampshire about the flight patterns over the property she would eventually purchase. The realtor described the inquiry as "very strange." It's only strange if you're not wanted by the FBI!


Bizarro Earth

24 killed in armed attack on Mexican drug rehab clinic, second deadly attack in a month

Mexican soldiers
© Reuters / Luis CortesFILE PHOTO: Mexican National Guard soldiers protect a crime scene, June 3, 2020.
Twenty-four people were shot dead after a group of gunmen stormed a drug rehab center in Central Mexico and opened fire on patients and employees. It was the second deadly attack on the facility since last month.

The alleged mass shooting in the city of Irapuato on Wednesday was first reported in local media and later confirmed by Pedro Zavala, secretary of Municipal Citizen Security, who said the armed assailants entered the rehab clinic and started shooting, wounding seven in addition to the 24 killed. Graphic images have emerged on social media purporting to show the aftermath of the attack.

Pills

Record 15 tons of Daesh-linked 'Jihadi drugs' seized from ship, caught on video by Italian authorities

drugs isis
© Twitter/Guardia di Finanza
Around 15 tons (14 tonnes) of the amphetamine captagon were recently seized from a ship that Italian authorities believe was en route to supply the black market for synthetic drugs in Europe - which has been suffering amid the COVID-19 novel coronavirus lockdowns.

"We know that [Daesh] finances its terrorist activities mainly by trafficking drugs made in Syria, which in the past few years has become the world's largest producer of amphetamines," Italian police said on Wednesday, as reported by CBS News.
According to Italy's Guardia di Finanza military police force, an estimated 84 million tablets were seized after authorities became suspicious of three containers that were expected to arrive at the Italian port of Salerno, around 32 miles south of Naples. The drugs are estimated to be worth some $1.12 billion.



Comment: Syria is apparently the world's largest producer, which is similar to how after the West wrought destruction in Afghanistan it saw poppy production soar, but were these drugs initially Made in America?


Comment: See also: 'Jihadist drug': 137kg of Captagon seized at French airport, partly bound for Saudi Arabia


Yoda

The trans ideology of less than 1% of the UK population is bullying the other 99%

real women transgender ideology protest
© Getty Images / nito100
Here's why I, as a real woman, reject it

We're repeatedly told that males, replete with penises and beards, can become the opposite sex simply by saying: "I am a woman." This is simply wrong, dangerous and is stifling free speech. I'm determined it shall not triumph.

Transgenderism has taken root in our institutions and is eroding women's rights, putting children at risk, and stifling free speech. This is the damning conclusion I reach in a new report, The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology, published by the think tank Civitas this week. I explore how, in under two decades, the term "transgender" went from describing a tiny number of individuals to representing a powerful political agenda, embraced by activists and campaigning organizations, and driving significant social change.

The total number of transgender people remains small (government estimates are 200,000-500,000 trans people in the UK, way less than one percent of the population), but - as a social movement - transgenderism punches way, way, way above its weight. The belief that sex, as inscribed in our bodies and chromosomes, is irrelevant and, instead, we all need to reveal our inbuilt sense of "gender identity" to a readily-accepting world, is now taken for granted by those in charge of our schools, prisons, police force, media and health service.

Comment:


Attention

Police investigating 'it's okay to be white' posters put up in town centre

okay to be white
Posters with the message 'it's okay to be white' have been put up in Nailsea town centre
An investigation has been launched by police after a number of "it's okay to be white" posters were put up in a town centre.

Trainee train driver Shane Jones, 40, tore down five posters bearing the message in the underpass of Crown Glass Shopping Centre in Nailsea yesterday morning (June 28).

"It's okay to be white" is a statement which has been linked to far-right groups in recent years after being popularised by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.


Comment: "Has been linked." It's also simply a benign statement of fact. "Black lives matter" is a statement that "has been linked" to far-left groups who have advocated for the destruction of western civilization. That doesn't make the statement any less true. Even staunch conservatives will agree that black lives matter, even if they don't agree with the movement itself and its ideological underpinnings. But good luck getting the same number of people to agree that it's okay to be white. Because it isn't, apparently.


Mr Jones was "at first shocked, then very angry" when he saw they had been displayed and reported the posters to police after he was left "disgusted" by the slogan.


Comment: It must be difficult to be so sensitive to such insignificant slights. Statements are only as hurtful as you let them be.


He told Bristol Live: "I have no time for this kind of intolerance to people who are suffering and fighting for equality, not just in the UK but worldwide.

"I've been living in Nailsea for four years now and I've found it a very friendly and open town. I'm actually quite embarrassed to see that this kind of racism exists here."


Comment: Get a grip on yourself, Mr. Jones.


Comment: An important use of police resources, apparently.

Modern progressive morality: telling 'people of color' (i.e. people) how to think. Can we stop pretending that woke warriors have anything interesting to say?


Star of David

Palestinian civil society calls for immediate targeted sanctions against Israel to stop annexation and Apartheid

protest palestinians annexation Israel
© Mahmoud Ajjour/APA ImagesPalestinians take part in a protest against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the occupied territory and against US President Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century.
Editor's Note: The following statement was released today by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
Israel's extremist government decided today to keep everyone in the dark about if and how it will make use of the "golden opportunity" offered by the Trump administration to embark on de jure annexation of large swathes of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. No one should be misled, however. Israel will continue to quietly de facto annex occupied Palestinian territory, as it has done for decades, while trying to appease its Western allies. But as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said, "Annexation is illegal. Period. Any annexation."

Hundreds of international law scholars agree. They write that Israeli annexations of occupied territory are "null and void, entail consequences of international wrongfulness, and - under certain circumstances - lead to individual international criminal liability," regardless whether such annexations are effected "through 'extension of sovereignty,' 'extension of law, jurisdiction, and administration,' or explicit annexation." They concluded, "de facto annexation entails the same legal consequences as de jure annexation."

Comment: The pressure on Israel is gradually getting stronger. Will Netanyahu feel the backing of the U.S. is enough cover to complete his goal?


Blackbox

Princeton prof proves current civil rights campaigns are nothing like abolition of slavery with one simple question

blm uk
© REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA participant takes part in a Black Trans Lives Matter rally in London, UK.
A Princeton professor has deftly highlighted how modern social justice movements and their proponents are not comparable to their historic counterparts, and may, in fact, be the polar opposite.

In a time of mass protest against systemic racism, coupled with 'woke capitalists' cashing in on social justice for the sake of a quick buck, activism and opportunity seemingly go hand in hand, with those taking a stand, or a knee, often being rewarding both socially and financially.

The risk-to-reward ratio is highly skewed in their favor in this era of online 'slacktivism,' where posting a black square on Instagram can win you brownie points that can, and often do, turn into greenbacks.

But this was not always the case, as Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University points out in an enlightening Twitter thread.

George explains how, as expected, his students insist that they would have risked it all to abolish slavery if they were white and living in the South before abolition.


"Of course, this is nonsense... Most of them - and us - would have gone along. Many would have supported the slave system and happily benefited from it," George continues.


He then unveils his gambit, offering to credit his students' claims if they can show that, "in leading their lives today they have stood up for the rights of unpopular victims of injustice whose very humanity is denied, and where they have done so knowing" that they would be abandoned by their friends, loathed and attacked by the powerful, and denied professional opportunities.


Comment: This is why many of the recent protests across the western world are nothing but empty virtue signalling. There is no risk involved, because they are largely protesting against something which doesn't exist. They are espousing official morality, and patting each other on the back for doing so. No courage required. But there is nothing easy about virtue.


Георгиевская ленточка

Russian people overwhelmingly back changes to constitution - almost 78% voting for & 21% against

russia vote constitution
© Reuters/Evgenia NovozheninaMembers of a local electoral commission count ballots at a polling station following a seven-day nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia, July 1, 2020.
The majority of Russians have endorsed changes to the constitution in a week-long vote. Some 78 percent approved the amendments, while 21 percent were opposed, the Electoral Commission announced after all ballots were counted.

Voters were able to exercise their franchise either for or against the 206 proposed amendments from June 25 until July 1. The vote, initially set for April, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the period of voting itself was extended to allow for social distancing. Residents of Moscow, the city hit hardest by the coronavirus, and those in Nizhny Novgorod could also vote online.

However, the final day of voting - Wednesday - still saw millions going to the polls all over the country to cast their ballots in person. Turnout has been estimated at some 65 percent.

Comment: Turnout for the vote was 65%, or nearly two-thirds of those eligible. Moscow declared the day a national holiday to make it easier for its citizens to cast their ballot in person.

Historians declared the vote as the first truly Russian Constitution to be adopted by the people:

The Atlanticist fifth-column was not slacking off though, with perennial malcontent Alexei Navalny leading off:
Moscow protest leader Alexei Navalny rejected the legitimacy of the plebiscite and asked his followers not to engage in "despair and anxiety," but instead to focus on "mobilization." The populist activist, who has attempted to appeal to both nationalists and liberals, is prominent in the Western media's coverage of Russia.

"I woke up and found out78 percent voted for zeroing Putin's terms. That is, even more than in the presidential election in 2018 (76 percent). Russia has broken the record of fake votes. The announced result doesn't even have anything to do with people's opinions," he wrote on Telegram.

The election-monitoring organization Golos agreed with Navalny's assessment of the nature of the vote, believing the turnout and results to be rigged. Golos is registered in Russia as a 'foreign agent' and once received funding from the United States Agency for International Development.

"This is not a vote, not a referendum, but a show," said Lyubov Sobol, an opposition politician and lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund. Sobol thinks the vote was manufactured, allowing Putin to declare that serving further terms is the will of the people.

The constitutional amendments were also opposed by the country's biggest opposition parliamentary party, the Communists. In the weeks before the vote, the party's leader, Gennady Zyuganov, called on Russians to vote against it, citing a rushed process. On polling day, he tweeted, "Amendment voting is not a referendum. This is an all-Russian survey, which, in addition, is going ahead in accordance with incomprehensible rules. In such a situation, you cannot allow your voice to be stolen."

Another 'systematic' opposition politician, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, supported the amendments, however. Last week, when the political veteran voted, he said it was "imperative to support" the "major overhaul of the constitution."



Black Cat

The Purge: "Woke" censorship's natural progression ends in tyranny

dictator dictatorship old boss new revolution
© Pawel Kuczynski"Revolution"
As I have noted in the past, in order to be a conservative one has to stick to certain principles. For example, you have to stand against big government and state intrusions into individual lives, you have to support our constitutional framework and defend civil liberties, and you also have to uphold the rights of private property. Websites are indeed private property, as much as a person's home is private property. There is no such thing as free speech rights in another person's home, and there is no such thing as free speech rights on a website.

That said, there are some exceptions. When a corporation or a collective of corporations holds a monopoly over a certain form of communication, then legal questions come into play when they try to censor the viewpoints of an entire group of people. Corporations exist due to government sponsored charters; they are creations of government and enjoy certain legal protections through government, such as limited liability and corporate personhood. Corporations are a product of socialism, not free market capitalism; and when they become monopolies, they are subject to regulation and possible demarcation.

Chart Bar

COVID deaths in Canada: A questionable statistic

coronavirus canada
"COVID is unquestionably much worse than a bad flu season," says Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, in an interview with the CBC.

McGeer cites government statistics (as of June 17) showing a COVID mortality rate of 22 deaths per 100,000 Canadians.
By comparison, the death rate for influenza in Canada on an annual basis is usually between nine and 13 deaths per 100,000 people..."
Does this one statistic really make COVID "unquestionably" worse than the flu?

Are not questions a fundamental part of the scientific process, whereby a theory is tested over the fires of inquiry?

Is not the act of questioning at the heart of true journalism?

Would you not agree that our ability to question the decisions, motives and actions of our government protects our democracy from descending into tyranny?

Comment: See also: