One of the great miscarriage in American justice was the fix put in for Jeffrey Epstein accused of raping and sexually molesting young girls by a US attorney who is now Trump’s secretary of labor. Trump, a long-term buddy of Epstein, apparently has no trouble that his labor secretary schemed to help this child molester by lying to a judge and deceiving the victims in conjunction with Epstein’s lawyers.
Speaking of Epstein, it seems Bob Kraft is following his lead. He’s got his lawyers trying to walk him out of his charges by hard ball tactics. He’s not taking a plea deal which makes it look like he committed a crime which apparently he denies at the same time he wants to suppress the evidence, a tape of his activity. Do you think he wants to do that because it exonerates him?
What is it about Florida’s judicial system that these shenanigans happen? Speaking of that what about the case of FBI agent John Connolly.
Then we have Trump. If ever the expression “walk the talk” or “actions speak louder than words’ had any relevance it’s with him. He’s supposed to be against Maduro and is supporting the other guy Guaidó, but does nothing while Maduro rounds up Guaidó’s supporters. I shouldn’t say does nothing – he tweets attacks on the dead and other people. He’s the man who mistakes tweeting with doing something.
As for Maduro, Trump’s working together with Putin for a solution. Putin’s busy pouring troops and supplies into helping Maduro. How did that work out in Syria? It’s clear to all who want to see that Trump is little more than a wind bag, or better put a tweet bag.
Sometimes people should get their stories straight: Headlines in the New York Times: “The Golan Heights Was Once an Arab Rallying Cry. Not Anymore.” Same day headlines in Washington Post: “Trump shift on Golan Heights inflames tensions in the region.”
Ever get the idea that Benjamin Netanyahu runs the United States policy in the Middle East. Don’t forget he has been threatening to bomb Iran since back in the Clinton days and every so often pretends he is going to do it. His goal is to force the Americans into doing it. Clinton, Bush, Obama all resisted. How long before Trump will succumb with the pressure being put on him not only by Netanyahu but also by Israel’s strongest supporters in the United State the Evangelical Christians.
Netanyahu has gotten Trump’s blessings to annex the Golan Heights. Are we to expect the next deal will be annexing the West Bank with Trump’s approval?
Which brings me to one of the scariest things I read in recent years. This is from a CBN interview: QUESTION: “Could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace? “
SECRETARY POMPEO ANSWER: “As a Christian I certainly believe that’s possible.”
More and more do I appreciate the doctrine of separation of state and religion. We have seen what the radicals in all religions have done to the world: India Hindu vs India Muslim; Northern Irish Protestants vs Northern Irish Catholics; Egyptian Muslim vs Egyptian Coptic Christians; Israeli Jews vs Israeli Muslims; just to mention a few recent examples. Fortunately in the United States to date we have done our best most of the times to avoid religious wars. You can thank our policy on immigration for that.
But we did err. Around the end of the 18th Century the WASP reformers gained an ascendancy in the country and we invaded to the Philippines to bring the enlightened American WASP religion to the backward believers in the religion of Rome. That by the way was the first time concentration camps were used and a genocide was committed. Since then we stepped back from trying to turn other nations into wise Protestant countries.
Sad to see that the Christian philosophy is now embedded back into our country’s leadership. Are we about to go on another crusade? Secretary Pompeo would say it is possible.
Think of John Connolly’s 5 “crimes” this way.
He’s a cop for 20 plus years then retires.
1. While a cop he commits one crime: he gives an envelope with $1,000 to his boss.
While a private citizen, five to ten years after he retires, he does these four things.
2. He writes a letter to a judge
3. He tells someone he’s heard an indictment is coming down
4. He tells an FBI agent he did not call a particular lawyer’s office
5. He tells someone to tell someone in prison to keep telling the truth about him
FOR THIS JUDGE TAURO SENTENCES HIM TO 10 YEARS JUST LIKE JAN VAL JEAN GOT 5 YEARS FOR STEALING A LOAF OF BREAD AND 15 MORE YEARS FOR TRYING TO ESCAPE
THE SYSTEM OF JUSTICE IN AMERICA IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE
Bill:
1. While a cop he commits one crime: he gives an envelope with $1,000 to his boss. The envelope is in a case of wine. It is given to him by Whitey Bulger and Steve Flemmi two top criminals. What the jury found was that he passed on a bribe.
While a private citizen, five to ten years after he retires, he does these four things.
2. He writes a letter to a judge. The letter wrongfully accuses good cops of doing criminal things. It causes a federal judge to hold hearings over a matter of days to determine if the allegations in the letter are true. It is written as if it is from the Boston Police. Not such a good thing for a former FBI agent to be doing.
3. He tells someone he’s heard an indictment is coming down. Connolly tells some of the worst criminals in Boston, Steve Flemmi, Whitey Bulger, Frank Salemme, that the grand jury will be coming down with indictments so they can avoid facing the consequences of their criminal acts. Not such a good thing for a former FBI agent to be doing.
4. He tells an FBI agent he did not call a particular lawyer’s office. When the FBI was conducting an investigation as to how Steve Flemmi was able to get an FBI wiretap tape it asked Connolly if he was in contact with Flemmi’s defense lawyers. He lied about it by denying that he was in contact when the facts were otherwise. Not such a good thing for a former FBI agent to be doing.
5. He tells someone to tell someone in prison to keep telling the truth about him. He handed Flemmi a tape recording from the FBI and told Flemmi to tell the court that it came from John Morris and that John Morris was the one who tipped him off about things. Not such a good thing for a former FBI agent to be suborning perjury and to be working to allow some hardened criminals to escape justice.
You leave out the essence of the charges. Why. Its like saying on December 7, 1941, some Japanese planes flew over Pearl Harbor or that on September 11, 2001 a plane hit the World Trade Center. Facts matter.
Wrong take. The “G” end-run on the double jeopardy defense is at the heart of the matter.
Epstein was the worst form of BULLY ….. he bullied children, girls as young as 12.
Of course, power abusing FEDs are also bullies.
Epstein’s actions are indefensible . . . .I do throw stones at child predators, to this extent, they should be severely prosecuted to the fullest extent by the law. EPSTEIN’S deals were obscence, outrageous, outlandish. EPSTEIN was CODDLED. MONEY BOUGHT HIM A LIGHT TAP ON THE FINGERS, WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUT ON THE RACK AND LASHED FOR YEARS.
2. THERE WERE TWO YOUNG WOMAN WILLING TO COME FORWARD WHO WERE ABUSED AS CHILDREN, 12 OR 13, WHO WERE NEVER INFORMED OF THE ABSURDLY LENIENT “SENTENCE” EPSTEIN GOT, according to what I’ve read.
LAWYERS are great at RATIONALIZATION. They think every side since it can be argued, is equally valid, valued. So they defend the Epstein treatment, with legalese, rationalizations.
Lawyers need more education in psychology, psychiatry, philosophy . . . .just because you can glibly JUSTIFY Epstein’s sentence, does not mean JUSTICE has been served.
With Epstein, JUSTICE has been SUBVERTED and PERVERTED.
The FEDs in Boston and DC have subverted and perverted justice in the Schwartz, Kenny Conley, John Connolly, Probation Officers, Caswell Motel, SEnator Joyce, Congressman’s Money Laundress Wife, Councilman Turner’ million dollar sting over a 200 dollar preachers handshake, and so many many more cases.
The FED Prosecutors, and their abetting black robes and leaking clerks, are POWER ABUSING BULLIES, as are the Prosecutors and JUdges who dealt with EPSTEIN and og course,, Epstein, an abuser of children, deliberate, systematic, multiple times over many, many years . . . .not in the heat of passion, not one time a loss of control, not one time out of character, not a mistake . . .but a year after year planned attack on girls 12 years of age, seducing them, luring them to his Garden of Delights, his Evil Island, and the FEDs give him a year with all days off for recreation, and he only has to report at night to sleep in a HALF WAY HOUSE.
JUSTICE, MY FOOT . . . .YOU CANNOT DEFEND THE OBSCENE AND INDEFENSIBLE .. . .
2. Nothing wrong with consenting adults giving and getting massages . . . .I remember that newspaper in Boston, THE PHOENIX, used to advertise licensed masseuses, BU students majoring in physical therapy, nursing, pre-med, anatomy, who were not afraid of the human body, who used to give great massages . . .a boon to Boston
There was an Italian prisoner of war camp in Savin Hill during WWII and the men got treated pretty good.
Epstein’s “sentence” included his being out of jail from early morning to after sunset, so he could continue working and contributing to society. Worse than a slap on the wrist, it was a worse miscarriage of justice, abuse of power, as the leniency shown the Congressman’s money laundering wife, and the obscenely lenient deals the Sterns Gang and Wyshak cut with serial killers, attempted murders and serial perjurers.
So are saying that Trump is trying to solve a Western Hemisphere problem with Putin, an Asian/European potentate.(Apparently Putin is extending the Russian Ukase to the extreme.) Monroe Doctrine? Where was it in mid-19th century blockades of S. American nations by France and Britain ?
Where was it when the Brits invaded the Malvisas (Faulklands) with Reagan juicing over the whore of #10 Downing? Platitudes, Platitude–where will these platitudes end? (Thank you Burt Bacharac.)
good insightful comments, Hutch. We wonder what doctrine gets applied when? It’s like Wyshak saying to Judge Young the reason he recommended probation for the woman who laundered four million dollars of her brothers’ offshore gambling proceeds was because she was the Congressman’s wife. Equal justice for the high and almighty according to Wyshak and Judge Young; rough justice for the nurse who deposits her bookie husband’s earnings . .one to eight years in prison. And yes, the Monroe Doctrine may or may not be applied depending on whose ox is being gored, it’s like when they stole Kosovo from Serbia, ignoring U.N. resolutions that borders were fixed and set.
Tne hypocrisy, the corruption runs deep. Remember, again, what Judge Justice Tauro, the FED, sentenced John Connolly to ten years in prison for (1) giving a case of wine with $1,000 in it to his boss (the only crime committed during 20 plus years as a highly decorated FBI agent most responsible for taking down the entire New England Mafia, according to many, Donny Brasco being one. The other four crimes JOhn Connolly was convicted of in Boston occurred five to ten years after he left the FBI and while he was a private citizen. Consider the enormity of these crimes: #2 writing a letter to a judge #3 telling Kevin Weeks he heard through the grapevine Indictments were coming down (both free speech actions by a private citizen, fully legal) #4 telling an FBI agent he did not call a particular lawyer’s office (THE FBI agent said he did) and #5. Telling Weeks to tell Flemmi not to lie.
So, here’s the bottom line. Matt sees Tauro’s 10 years as justifiable, commendable, I see it as an enormity, a vile abuse of power, a miscarriage of justice, akin to Jean Val Jean getting 5 years for stealing a loaf of bread.
Here’s the bigger matter: Based on the same facts, Matt and I draw far different conclusions. Men Matt reveres, I revile; Men whose actions Matt defends and commends, I condemn.
We are in two different camps. It’s as if Matt is on the side of the Loyalists, the Tories, the Red Coats, the King in Vermillion Robes, and I on the side of the REBELS who despise the power abusing FEDs in Black Robes and Suits, the Prosecutors and Clerks who leak and abuse power, the JIHADI JAVERTS.
ONE MORE DAY, and I hope more people see it my way . . . .but we all, each of us can decide this at least, 10 years for these five petty-shit crimes, based on serial liars testimony, no less, is JUST or UNJUST
Matt gets out his Trump loofahs and has himself a nice Sabbath Day sponge. Don’t throw the Country that is thriving now out with the bathwater.
Hi Matt:
You covered a lot of ground here. I’m fearful Trump will take us into a war with Iran, but I’d be very happy to be proven wrong. I’d love to see the president terminate the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Mideast, and I’m still praying that he will do so. But the elevation of John Bolton, a largely empty suit who enthusiastically supported the war in Iraq, doesn’t auger well for the future.
As for Krafty, my opinion hasn’t changed. He should resolve this as quickly as possible and move on. The legal maneuvering only reminds the public that this pillar of the community has a penchant for getting hand and/or blow jobs in sleazy, storefront massage parlors. Who told him that hiring one of the lawyers who defended Jeffrey Epstein was a good idea?? After all, Kraft is no more than a horny old man, not a major league sex fiend. You don’t want Kraft and Epstein mentioned in the same breath, right?
Dan, good comments. Kraft proves the legal axiom, the case, about the fertile octogenarian, eighty year old, an estate case. My hero long has been the Irish-Mexican Actor Anthony Quinn, who at age 80 had his tenth child with his 37 y ear old wife, his fourth bride.
you are correct. Bolton is a neocon, who could get us involved in more foreign wars.
Remember, be kind to animals and horny senior citizens just looking to have some fun.
Who’ll throw the first stone!
Epstein and Kraft are prime examples of bourgeois decadence. Up against the wall with both of them. While we’re at it, let’s toss the health insurance CEOs from the roofs of their corporate skyscrapers, and, liquidate their major stock holders. Nationalization of all private capital is the answer. All power to the dialectic!
Matt: Have you seen “The Death of Stalin,” yet?
Not yet. Maybe I’ll see if I can get it this week. Thanks for reminding me.
“[W]e invaded to the Philippines to bring the enlightened American WASP religion to the backward believers in the religion of Rome.”
Not exactly.
https://www.historynet.com/learned-moro-rebellion.htm
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/pershing-trump-terrorism/537300/
From dictionary.com:
“con·cen·tra·tion camp
/ˌkänsənˈtrāSHən ˈˌkamp/
noun
a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. The term is most strongly associated with the several hundred camps established by the Nazis in Germany and occupied Europe in 1933–45, among the most infamous being Dachau, Belsen, and Auschwitz.”
Look to Deer Island in Boston Harbor for an earlier concentration camp:
https://www.nps.gov/boha/learn/historyculture/native-american-memorial.htm
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/deer-island-nipmuc-memorial
https://nativenewengland.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/when-deer-island-was-turned-into-devils-island/
Ed. Indeed, America was a late-comer to the quest for empire, but, lost time was regained by US neo-colonialist creativity. Let’s talk.
Ed: The term “concentration camp” was coined during the Boer War. Good bless Britain, the author of many inhuman concepts.
Khaid,
The British may have coined the term but the US was engaged in the practice either before or at same time.
True, that.
One might assume that settling a federal case ten years ago would have meant approval by the then Attorney General. Was it Eric Holder?
Rene Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969) is an American attorney, academic, and politician who is the 27th and current United States Secretary of Labor. President Donald Trump nominated Acosta to be Labor Secretary on February 16, 2017, and he was confirmed by the Senate on April 27, 2017. Acosta is the first, and as of February 2019 the only, Hispanic person to serve in Trump’s cabinet. A Republican, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Labor Relations Board and later served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida. He is the former dean of Florida International University College of Law.
In late 2018, a Miami Herald report critical of a federal non-prosecution agreement with serial child molester and influential billionaire Jeffrey Epstein — which had been approved by Acosta a decade earlier while he was serving as US Attorney for Southern District of Florida — became a focus of Congressional concern and led to calls for an independent investigation and for Acosta’s resignation from the Trump Administration. Previously, Acosta had publicly stated that the federal agreement (which required a guilty plea in state court and restitution to victims) was determined by prosecutors to be the best way to assure a conviction. When the controversy resurfaced, Acosta said he welcomed the opportunity to participate in any inquiry, and the US Justice Department notified Congress in early 2019 that it had opened an investigation into the federal handling of the Epstein case.
Epstein’s lawyer was Ken Starr.
Former federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Sloman, echoed this view, writing: “Our priorities were to make sure Epstein could not hurt anyone else and to compensate Epstein’s victims without retraumatizing them. Our team worked diligently to build a federal case against Epstein. Throughout the investigation, we took care to be respectful of the pain Epstein’s victims had endured. As we continued, however, it became clear that most of Epstein’s victims were terrified to cooperate against him. Some hired lawyers to avoid appearing before a grand jury. One of the key witnesses moved to Australia and refused to return calls from us. We also researched and discussed significant legal impediments to prosecuting [in federal court] what was, at heart, a local sex abuse case. Given the obstacles we faced in fashioning a robust federal prosecution, we decided to negotiate a resolution. ….You can disagree with the result we reached, but our whole team — from Alex [Acosta] on down the chain of command — always acted with integrity and in good faith.”
point of history, the British had concentration camps for the Boer non-combatants during the second Boer War a few years before the US went into the Philippines. although many died as a result of the US intervention/invasion etc genocide was not a policy of the US, although war crimes were committed by some US troops.
Niall: Pershing was mighty rough on the Muslim population. Reprisals by the colonial power were quite bloody, and, aimed to rule by terror.