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My night with Epstein pal Jean-Luc Brunel and his very young and terrified models

Michael Gross
The Daily Beast
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:45 UTC
Jean-Luc Brunel
© Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Handout
I don't remember why I was in the nightclub Les Bains Douches that evening, but what happened there and afterward is a crystal-clear memory.

It was 1993 or 1994 when I first encountered Jean-Luc Brunel, the controversial French modeling agent, at a then-trendy South Beach restaurant called The Strand in Miami. A table near mine, set for six, expanded to seat ten, then shrank for eight, then enlarged to fit a party of twelve, and was finally occupied, as I finished my meal, by a pack of extremely young women, teenagers, really, with the willowy frames and lovely faces of neophyte models, and a smaller number of older men who appeared to be ... well ... smug probably sums it up best.

A quarter century later, I was reminded of that dinner when Brunel suddenly riveted the world's attention in the hours immediately before the suicide of the notorious pervert pederast Jeffrey Epstein, when it was alleged that the Frenchman had provided underage women to the very freaky financier.

Comment: See also: Jeffrey Epstein's 'fixer' Jean-Luc Brunel who ran major modelling agency has vanished 'like a ghost'

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Newspaper

Blaming Bosnia for 'alt-right' and mass shootings is both ignorant and wrong

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 20:25 UTC
Sarajevo
© REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina (file photo)
Yet that is precisely what Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept has done in a piece published over the weekend, playing the guilt-by-association game to find a common thread to Anders Breivik's 2011 rampage, the Christchurch mosque shootings in March this year, and even the El Paso mass shooting in Texas last month.

Hussain's argument is that "white nationalists" in the West are inspired by the Bosnian Serbs and their "genocide" of Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-1995 conflict. As proof of this, he points to Breivik's statements, writings on the rifle of the New Zealand mosque shooter, and even the obsession of the El Paso attacker with birth rates.

The rest of the article is a regurgitation of mainstream talking points about Bosnia, recycled endlessly since the 1990s - and applied since to justify intervention and death, from Iraq to Libya. This is perhaps not surprising, since Hussain has written about Bosnia in the same vein last year, and actually lamented the decline of US hegemony the year before, as pointed out by journalist Aaron Mate.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Pistol

57 murders each day: Over 450,000 South Africans endorse death penalty amid widespread violence


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
South Africa murders

Reeva Steenkamp (left) and Uyinene Mrwetyana (right) were inspirations for the petition.
Over 450,000 South Africans have signed a petition calling for the death penalty to be reintroduced, following several high-profile murders and widespread violence.

The campaign was set up after a student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, was raped and murdered at a post office in Cape Town. Its founder cited several other high-profile deaths, including the 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, as the inspiration for the petition.

"We as a movement must find our voice to bring back the death sentence for crimes against women and children in the hope of saving this great country," the petition reads.

The most recent crime statistics reveal that there were 20,336 murders in South Africa between April 2017 and March 2018, a 7 percent increase on the previous year. This puts the country's murder rate at 57 murders each day.

Comment: The unrest is due in part to the escalating tensions between authorities and foreign nationals over efforts to shut down illegally operated businesses, including taxis and commercial trucking. Rioters have been looting shops, creating flaming barricades on roads and are fighting with police. See: South Africa descends into chaos amid widespread riots, looting and violence against foreigners

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No Entry

Palestinian Harvard freshman deported after visa revoked over friends social mediaposts - UPDATE

Shera S. Avi-Yonah and Delano R. Franklin
The Harvard Crimson
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 23:00 UTC
Harvard freshman deported Palestinian
© Amanda S. Yu
Freshmen will move into their dorms in Harvard Yard on Tuesday while incoming student Ismail B. Ajjawi '23 — a Palestinian resident of Tyre, Lebanon — is still fighting to make it to campus.
While most Harvard freshmen settle into their dorms Tuesday, one new student, Ismail B. Ajjawi '23, faces ongoing negotiations with immigration officers to allow him to enter the United States and study at the College.

U.S. officials deported Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday night shortly after he arrived at Boston Logan International Airport. Before canceling Ajjawi's visa, immigration officers subjected him to hours of questioning — at one point leaving to search his phone and computer — according to a written statement by Ajjawi.

University officials are currently working to resolve the matter before classes begin on Sept. 3, Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain wrote in an email.

"The University is working closely with the student's family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days," he wrote.

Harvard both employs immigration lawyers at the Office of the General Counsel and staffs the Harvard International Office. Both groups work to resolve visa-related problems like Ajjawi's. Ajjawi wrote that he has been in contact with HIO Director of Immigration Services Maureen Martin.

Comment: One has to wonder if the deportation has more to do with the fact that he is Palestinian than any other factor.

UPDATE Sept 3: Democracy Now reports that the student has been allowed to return to the US and will start classes at Harvard:
A 17-year-old Palestinian student who was denied entry into the U.S. last month will start classes with his fellow Harvard freshmen today after he returned to the country over the weekend. Ismail Ajjawi was turned away at Boston's Logan Airport just under two weeks ago after being interrogated by immigration officials about his religion and social media posts by friends that were critical of U.S. policy. He was then forced to return home to Lebanon, but his case provoked outrage on the Harvard campus and among some Palestinian rights and academic freedom groups.

Theodore Kattouf, the president of AMIDEAST, the educational nonprofit that granted a scholarship to Ajjawi, said in a statement, "We are pleased that Ismail's Harvard dream will come true after all. Ismail is a bright young man whose hard work, intelligence and drive enabled him to overcome the challenges that Palestinian refugee youth continue to face in order to earn a scholarship."


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Eye 2

What ceasefire? Ukrainian shells explode just 40 meters from OCSE observers' position

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ News
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:11 UTC
OCSE Ukraine
© Vesti News
OSCE observers came under fire in Donbass yesterday. According to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, it happened in Kominternovo. The observers and the center's representatives arrived there to record the effects of shelling that happened a day prior.

This isn't the first time OSCE came under fire from the Ukrainian Army. It also happened in early July. Ukrainian Army's leadership is well aware of the fact that OSCE reporting independently about the war is not in their interest.

The Western-installed puppets want to portray Russia, or at least Novorossiya as the aggressor, which means they don't really want the truth to come out. Thus far, OSCE's reports have been very different from Ukraine's version of "truth".

Comment:

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NPC

Fighting dirty: Feminists are replacing ring girls with men to create the patriarchy they crave

Danny Armstrong
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:57 UTC
ring girls
© AFP / Josh Lefkowitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
As if tired of 'the patriarchy' having all the fun in taking jobs away from women, radical feminists last week canceled 'objectifying' boxing ring girls and replaced them with their sworn enemy: white middle-aged men in suits.

We've all heard those age-old feminist moans and groans about men with no previous experience or qualifications taking jobs away from women because of their boundless 'privilege'.

Now the radicals have doubled down on their endless quest to prove women are equal to their patriarchal oppressors, by themselves actively putting women out of work at the expense of white, middle-aged men, after boxing promoters in Australia banned ring girls after caving to pressure from local councillors and female advocate groups that the role "objectifies women."

Ring girl trio Tammy Bills, Demey Maconachie and Kalista Thomas were knocked out of the 'Battle of Bendigo' boxing show in Bendigo, Victoria, on Saturday in favor of male 'fight progress managers' (yes, you read that correctly) for the evening.
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Star of David

Tapper criticized for Palestinian smear: Israel's troll army comes to the rescue

Ali Abunimah
Electronic Intifada
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Jake Tapper
© CNN.com
Jake Tapper used massacre of 22 people by a white supremacist in El Paso, Texas as an opportunity to egregiously smear Palestinians.
Israel has activated its propaganda app in support of CNN's Jake Tapper.

This comes as Tapper faces withering criticism for his anti-Palestinian comments made in the wake of last month's massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. In an outrageous and egregious move, Tapper tried to tie the kind of white supremacist rhetoric that motivated the gunman to target Latinos to the way Palestinians "talk about Israelis."

That smear prompted more than 17,000 people to sign a petition urging CNN to "hold Jake Tapper accountable for his anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian comments."

But now Israel's troll army is riding to the rescue. Propaganda officials are employing the Act.IL app to urge users to send Facebook messages to Tapper to encourage him to stand by his anti-Palestinian declarations:
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People 2

Our least finest hour: Britain is in the grip of mass hysteria

George Galloway
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:46 UTC
brexit
© REUTERS/Simon Dawson
Eighty years ago this week, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Within months, we stood alone with the Hitlerite hordes, at the Channel ports, preparing to invade us.

Our people then kept calm and carried on.

"Children queued in parks for their gas masks, men were digging air-raid shelters," I heard several eyewitnesses tell the BBC this week.

One family, the Walkers, had six children in the war. On the homefront, in India, then Burma, North Africa, and then Italy. Two of them were working as doctors in St Thomas' Hospital opposite Parliament... where my fourth child was born. The hospital was bombed three times in one week. After each raid (and a cup of tea) both doctors were back at work, attending to patients.

Eighty years later, in this September crisis, Britain is in the grip of mass hysteria.
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Bullseye

Identity politics, a victim of its own success

Adam Garrie
EurasiaFuture
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
MLKing
© ceert.org.br
Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the reasons that social conservatives have been almost entirely on the defensive in western politics for the last fifty years is due to the remarkable ability of such conservatives to lie to themselves about their own failure to influence anything outside of their own homes. The truth is that the long neo-liberal/neo-radical march of identity politics has been a remarkable triumph. No longer are the western political class content to follow the words of the Christian Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. which attempted to convince society as a whole that people ought to be judged by the "content of the character" rather than by accidents of birth.

Instead, today's radical liberals assert (often through grossly illiberal intimidation tactics) that one's virtue and social worth are indelibly linked to one's unchangeable personal characteristics. The corollary to this is that anyone who looks, sounds or even acts in the manner of a prototypical westerner from the early part of the 20th century (let alone before) is inherently inferior to everyone else.

Although many have grown fed up with this trend and wish to return not to an era of discrimination against minorities but instead to the ideal set forth by Martin Luther King, such a mood is but a reaction among those who cannot bring themselves to admit that whilst they may not have lost the argument, they clearly lost influence over the liberal elites who shape inorganic social trends and author new political creeds.
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Handcuffs

Over 40 arrested as 'potential mass shooters' since terrorist attack in El Paso

Bob Bingham
Raw Story
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
artwork shooter
© Unknown
Image of El-Paso shooter
Authorities have been aggressively investigating potential mass shooters since the white supremacist terrorist attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

"In the four weeks since a 21-year-old alleged white nationalist was charged in the slaughter of 22 people inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, law enforcement authorities have arrested more than 40 people as potential mass shooters — an average of more than one per day," the Huffington Post reported Saturday.
"A HuffPost survey of these arrests likely didn't capture every one, but it offers a snapshot of the types of cases that law enforcement officials face in a country with easy access to weapons capable of killing a lot of people quickly.

"The cases range from allegations of vague social media threats from juveniles that set parents on edge to well-developed plots from people who had access to weapons and appeared to authorities to have been planning a mass murder.

"There were roughly a dozen cases involving right-wing ideology. There were at least a dozen alleged threats against schools. There were half a dozen cases involving alleged threats against Walmarts."
Patrick Crusius was arrested for the El Paso attack, which killed 22 people and injured 24. He reportedly published a right-wing manifesto on 8chan shortly before the shooting.

Read the full report, which includes background on the individual cases.

Comment: More from Huffington Post, 31/8/2019:
A number of the alleged threats, if carried out, would have qualified as instances of domestic terrorism. A top FBI official told reporters this year that domestic terrorism cases were "challenging" for the bureau.

The disparate handling of right-wing and Islamic terrorism has set off a debate over the need for a domestic terrorism law, and one prominent lawmaker has introduced such legislation, which has already raised objections from civil liberties advocates.

As of late July, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee that the FBI had already been involved in 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests in the first three-quarters of the 2019 fiscal year, which began in October 2018.

The rapid pace of new cases suggests that the number of domestic terrorism-related cases in the 2019 fiscal year could outpace the 2017 and 2018 fiscal year figures. Bureau officials said they'll use any tool they can to take out a potential threat, and a review of the cases suggests the FBI was involved in a number of cases that resulted in local charges.

"It may not be evident in the face of the crime or who's involved working it that it's a domestic terrorism suspect who was arrested," an FBI official previously said. "We use anything [in federal law] we can that fits, that's appropriate."
See also:

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