America's Garden of Dicks

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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:49 pm

Trump Reportedly Fires HIV/AIDS Panel Without Explanation

The remaining 16 members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were told they were being fired Wednesday, via a FedExed letter from the White House. Six members resigned in June in protest of what they called the Trump administration’s inaction on the issue. Gabriel Maldonado, a PACHA adviser, confirmed the firings, but said the “explanation is still unclear.” “Like any administration, they want their own people there,” Maldonado told the Washington Blade. “Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.” Scott Schoettes, a council member who quit in June (and a senior lawyer for Lambda Legal), called the Trump move a “purge,” tweeting that the White House was “eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed.” In September, Trump had renewed PACHA’s brief for another year.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fir ... xplanation


As Gov. of Indiana, Mike Pence started the worst HIV/AIDS outbreak in state history when he cut public health funding, shuttered Planned Parenthood, & ignored pleas for harm reduction strategies.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Jan 04, 2018 7:56 am

Motel 6: We'll Leave The Searchlight On For You

Washington state AG sues Motel 6 over giving ICE info on 9,000 guests
Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Motel 6’s “actions are disturbing and they are unlawful,” saying the motel divulged to Immigration and Customs Enforcement information about more than 9,000 guests in Washington.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... 00-guests/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby norton ash » Fri Jan 05, 2018 9:43 pm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/ ... acbb370162

I read decades of Woody Allen’s private notes. He’s obsessed with teenage girls. His 56-box archive is filled with misogynist and lecherous musings.

By Richard Morgan January 4


It's like with Polanski... I've loved their movies, but these guys are just soooooo fucked up... beyond all recognition.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby PufPuf93 » Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:40 am

norton ash » Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:43 pm wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-read-decades-of-woody-allens-private-notes-hes-obsessed-with-teenage-girls/2018/01/04/f2701482-f03b-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.71acbb370162

I read decades of Woody Allen’s private notes. He’s obsessed with teenage girls. His 56-box archive is filled with misogynist and lecherous musings.

By Richard Morgan January 4


It's like with Polanski... I've loved their movies, but these guys are just soooooo fucked up... beyond all recognition.


That is quite the article. Maybe the most revealing look at Woody Allen.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby Heaven Swan » Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:48 am

Great article about Woody Allen.

If a survivor I interviewed is to be believed (and I believe her) Allen isn’t just a sick, lecherous, step-daughter marrying standard bearer of patriarchy, but a full-fledged and prominent member of an elite abuse network.

His son, Ronan Farrow, wrote the NYT piece on the investigation that touched off the #me too movement. His daughter Dylan alleges that he serially sexually abused her.(1)

Deeper truths are coming out and perpetrators are finally being held accountable. I’m hoping that Woody Allen’s time will come soon.



(1) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/f ... llegations
"When IT reigns, I’m poor.” Mario
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:48 pm

200,000 Salvadorans may be forced to leave the U.S. as Trump ends immigration protection
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 17463742b1
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:42 pm

Top U.S. Government Computers Linked to Revenge-Porn Site

Users connecting from Senate, Navy, and Executive Branch computers bragged about ‘wins,’ or nonconsensual nude photos, posted on Anon-IB, a revenge-porn epicenter.


Revenge porn, where people share intimate images of others in order to intimidate, harass, or embarrass, is rampant. Now, data obtained by a security analyst and shared with The Daily Beast reveals the behind-the-scenes of the epicenter of revenge porn: a notorious image board called Anon-IB, where users constantly upload non-consensual imagery, comment on it, and trade nudes like baseball cards.

The data shows Anon-IB users connecting from U.S. Senate, Navy, and other government computers, including the Executive Office of the President, even as senators push for a bill that would further combat the practice, and after the military’s own recent revenge-porn crisis.

“Wow tig ol bitties. You have any nudes to share?” someone wrote in November, underneath a photo of a woman who apparently works in D.C., while connecting from an IP address registered to the U.S. Senate.

Anon-IB is a free-to-use message board where users post images, typically of women, and which is split into various genre or location sections. Some parts are focused on countries, while U.S. sections may narrow down to a state. Many users pursue so-called wins, which are nude or explicit photos, and may egg each other on to share more images. Anon-IB was also intertwined with a 2014 breach of celebrity nudes referred to as The Fappening.

“Looking for wins of [redacted]. She used to send nudes to my friend all of the time. Would love to see some more,” someone connecting from the U.S. Senate IP address wrote last August.

Whoever is connecting from the Senate appears to have a particular focus on Anon-IB’s so-called Xray section, where users post photos so others can alter the image to make the women appear naked or wearing more revealing clothes, with several Xray posts linked to the Senate. Other posts asked for help from other Anon-IB members editing a photo in this way, including one of a girl the poster says they went to college with. In another message, someone connecting from the Senate shared an image of a model, and identified where they allegedly went to college, likely in the hope that others could dig up more images of the woman.

“Girl I know from [location redacted]. She was a [college redacted] and has the best tits I’ve ever seen,” another message from the Senate IP address reads. “I would love to find some wins.”

Startlingly, at least one post is linked to the Executive Office of the President, according to the data cache.

“I have wins if anyone is ready to post. First one is free,” the Anon-IB member writes, after naming a woman and sharing an image. To be clear, the Executive Office of the President includes a wide range of agencies, such as the National Security Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office of the President.

It is not totally clear which specific organization the poster may be based in, but online records suggest it could be the Office of Administration or the Office of Management and Budget. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the spokesperson for the White House, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Data

Typically, Anon-IB’s users operate anonymously, as the site’s name suggests. Those who share images or post comments are simply referred to as “Anonymous,” followed by a string of characters. Victims may have a hard time identifying who leaked their images based on the website alone, and law enforcement would be hard-pressed to find any identifying information on Anon-IB.

But Einar Otto Stangvik, a security analyst at Norwegian newspaper VG, provided The Daily Beast with a large cache of hundreds of thousands of Anon-IB users’ IP addresses—numerical codes that can show where a user is posting from. A source showed Stangvik a trick for pulling IP addresses from Anon-IB, and Stangvik subsequently wrote a series of scripts to optimize the process and successfully grab the data. Stangvik said the data was obtained legally, and he also helped The Daily Beast analyze the results.

“The data we’re currently working with was obtained and analyzed to better understand who spreads the abusive imagery, and to show that abusers should have no greater hopes of invisibility than their victims,” Stangvik told The Daily Beast. Stangvik also made an archive of the text of Anon-IB posts, making cross-referencing site content with IP addresses that much easier; typically, the site only keeps around 15 pages of posts online for each section at a time.

It is not immediately possible to tell who specifically is connecting to Anon-IB based solely on the IP addresses. An IP address does not necessarily refer to an individual, and it’s not possible to know whether a guest or other visitor on a government network is responsible for the posts. There is also a chance that a hacker may be routing their traffic through government computers, but the Senate and Executive Office of the President IP addresses do not appear in lists of known, previously compromised machines, according to online records.

An administrator of Anon-IB replied to a request for comment, and asked for the list of IPs, but did not provide a statement or response. Seemingly in an attempt to verify the data leak, an administrator of Anon-IB sent The Daily Beast a specific IP address, to check whether it was in the data: The IP, along with a linked post, was included in the cache.

When asked if they had an idea of how much of Anon-IB’s user base was government employees, the administrator wrote in an email, “We do not really check who uses the image board, so I wouldn’t be able to truthfully claim anything.”

The Navy Goes On

Last year, the U.S. Marines faced a revenge-porn crisis in which servicemen nonconsensually shared intimate videos and photos of partners on secret Facebook groups.

Despite an official, wide-spanning investigation into the incident, and the Navy and Marines making posting nude photos of personnel online a criminal offense, people using U.S. Navy computers have continued to post on Anon-IB as recently as late last year, according to the data obtained by The Daily Beast.

“A lot more where that came from!” someone wrote in November 2017, along with a photo of a woman’s exposed breasts while connecting from an IP address registered to the U.S. Navy.

Other Navy-linked posts include one sharing a specific victim’s name so they can be identified on social media, another apparently trying to download a cache of images, and several asking other users for images of specific servicewomen.

“Anyone have [redacted]? She left her husband for another dude while he was deployed. Heard there is win and she is a sex crazed freak,” another Navy-linked post reads.

A U.S. Navy official told The Daily Beast that “In order to have access to a Navy IT system, a user must sign a user agreement which stipulates not to use Navy IT resources in such a way that would be considered incompatible with public service, including pornography,” and that any employees found to have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) or applicable laws will be held accountable.

“The Navy holds all our employees—military and civilian—to the highest standards of personal conduct, expecting everyone to treat each other with dignity and respect. Those who conduct themselves contrary to our core values of honor, courage and commitment will be held accountable,” the official added.

Using the collection of posts it’s also easier to see the activity of a particular user over time. One prolific commenter, who seems to post frequently about Fort Meade, recently asked other users to share images of women who work at the NSA, and named several alleged employees.

An IP address for the Department of Energy, and a selection of other government agencies were also present in the data.

“Goes by [redacted] on facebook.. Used to work at mcdonalds,” the person connecting from the DOE wrote in response to a photo of a young woman, apparently sharing personal details about the woman’s identity. The Department of Energy did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Stangvik, the analyst who provided the data, said, “Stolen, revenge motivated and otherwise abusive imagery posted online has become a very real issue over the last years. I fear that failure to deal with the problem will normalize online abusive behavior and sexual harassment, and that this will further nourish victim blaming and dismissal of the abuse as ‘to be expected.’”

Update: This piece has been updated to clarify the limitations of knowing who exactly is responsible for the posts.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-us-go ... -porn-site
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:00 pm

Not just Amerika but the ruling class in these countries are more similar to each other than they are to their own subjects.

Huge backlash after London journalist goes undercover at 'men only' fundraiser

Washington: Each year, for 33 years, the President's Club Charitable Trust has organised a fundraising dinner at London's exclusive Dorchester Hotel to benefit "worthy children's causes".

The attendees last Thursday were the elite from Britain's business, finance, fashion, entertainment and political establishment, an "esteemed" group if ever there was one, as the club's website says - esteemed to the man because it was, indeed, a "men-only" event.

Men only, except for 130 "hostesses" hired to cater to the needs of the roughly 360 attendees.

Among the hostesses this year, however, were two who were infiltrators, a female journalist from the Financial Times named Madison Marriage and a woman working with her who went undercover to report on the event. They applied for hostess jobs and got them.

The first giveaway of the seedy behaviour that would unfold at the secretive dinner came even before the reporters got there, while they were being prepped as hostesses.

The job requirements included "tall, thin and pretty," the FT's Marriage reported.

While the dinner was black-tie only, for the hostesses it was "BLACK sexy shoes, black underwear" and "short tight black dresses", along with a "thick black belt resembling a corset".

The emcee at the Dorchester event began the evening by welcoming the men "to the most un-PC event of the year".

That gave only a hint of what was to come, as Marriage described it in an explosive story that detailed groping, fondling, lunging, attempts to kiss them, lewd comments and requests to join guests in hotel bedrooms.

Some said men had put their hands up their skirts, the report said, and one complained a guest had exposed his penis to her.

'Simply stomach-churning'

The fallout has been spectacular as the event organisers and several government attendees have rushed to explain, defend themselves against, or brush off the allegations.

One company, advertising and public relations conglomerate WPP, said it would end its association with the event, and a world-renowned hospital that had benefited from the fundraiser said it would return all donations.

The club's Charitable Trust, which says on its website it was founded more than three decades ago to raise funds for under-privileged children, said it was appalled by the story.

"Such behaviour is totally unacceptable. The allegations will be investigated fully and promptly and appropriate action will be taken," it said.

The trust later issued a statement advising it would close.

"The trustees have decided that the Presidents Club will not host any further fundraising events. Remaining funds will be distributed in an efficient manner to children's charities and it will then be closed," the organisation said.



Reporter Madison Marriage goes undercover at one of London's most successful but secretive charity dinners. The Presidents Club Charity Dinner is a fundraiser like ‘something out of the 1970s’.

Read the full story: https://t.co/uUf86pxGm3 pic.twitter.com/OaRFqFQfru
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) January 23, 2018


In a hastily convened debate in Parliament, furious women politicians lined up to denounce the behaviour described in the article as despicable.

The deputy leader of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party, Jo Swinson, called the story "simply stomach-churning".

"More than 300 rich businessmen were perfectly happy to attend such an event, which shows the rotten, sexist culture still alive and kicking in parts of the business community. Time's up on this crap," she said.

Junior Education Minister Anne Milton said the allegations were "extraordinary".

She announced that luxury goods businessman David Meller, one of co-organisers of the event, was stepping down as a non-executive board member at her ministry.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said she had been uncomfortable reading about the event, pointedly noting that, as a woman, she would not have been invited.

She said that Foreign Minister Boris Johnson was not aware a lunch with him was on offer at an auction during the event.

Event compere David Walliams said he was "appalled" by the claims but had not witnessed anything.

I left immediately after I had finished my presenting on stage at 11.30pm. I did not witness any of the kind of behaviour that allegedly occurred and am absolutely appalled by the reports.
— David Walliams (@davidwalliams) January 24, 2018

Officials at the Bank of England said they were appalled that such an event could take place in the City today. One of the lots on offer at the auction was tea with the governor Mark Carney, but the bank said it had not approved the prize.

'Pulling the women into their laps'

Marriage wrote that the brief for hostesses was simple. "Keep this mix of British and foreign businessmen, the odd lord, politicians, oligarchs, property tycoons, film producers financiers and chief executives happy - and fetch drinks when required."

"A number of men stood with the hostesses while waiting for smoked salmon starters to arrive," she wrote. "Others remained seated and yet insisted on holding the hands of their hostesses ... a prelude to pulling the women into their laps."

As burlesque dancers entertained on the stage, dressed in furry hats like those worn by the famous guards at Buckingham Palace, except for the "star shaped stickers" hiding their nipples, a 19-year-old hostess was asked by a "guest nearing his seventies" whether "she was a prostitute", which she was not, Marriage reported.

One hostess recounted to FT a scene of "braying men" fondling her bottom, stomach and legs. Another guest "lunged at her to kiss her".

"According to the accounts of multiple women working that night, groping and similar abuse was seen across many of the tables in the room," FT reported.

Hostesses said men "repeatedly" put their hands up their skirts, with one exposing himself to her during the festivities.

Hostesses who seemed unenthusiastic were prodded by "an enforcement team" to interact with the guests.

"Outside the women's toilets," the FT said, "a monitoring system was in place: women who spent too long were called out and led back to the ballroom."

One unnamed "society figure" grabbed a hostess "by the waist, pulled her in against his stomach and declared: 'I want you to down that glass, rip off your knickers and dance on that table.'"

Marriage told The Washington Post that she, too, was harassed but did not include that detail in her story because she wanted to focus on the young women who were abused.

"I was propositioned and groped and received some very lewd comments," she said.

She said that, after the event, "I genuinely felt incredibly sad and upset by what I had seen, the fact that the upper echelons of our society are operating this way in 2018."

The other hostesses, who were paid about $260, were between the ages of 19 and 23, many of them students, some actors, dancers and models looking for a little extra money because their work is unstable.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:56 pm

Steve Wynn, RNC finance chairman

Casino Mogul Steve Wynn Accused of Sexual Harassment and Assault
Billionaire Steve Wynn, chairman and chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts Ltd., listens to a question during a news conference following the company's annual general meeting in Macau, China, on Thursday, May 15, 2014.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS January 26, 2018
(LAS VEGAS) — Wynn Resorts is denying multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault by its founder Steve Wynn, describing it as a smear campaign related to divorce proceedings from his ex-wife.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that a number of women say they were harassed or assaulted by the casino mogul. One case led to a $7.5 million settlement with a manicurist. The detailed report describes accounts from several female employees.


Shares of Wynn Resorts Ltd. are plunging more than 8 percent in afternoon trading.
http://time.com/5120975/steve-wynn-sexu ... legations/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:03 pm

not only is Kelly a fucking racist...he is down with wife beaters

Ex-spouses are interviewed during background checks - somebody had to decide to ignore it.


West Wing
“BEYOND DISBELIEF”: JOHN KELLY’S DEFENSE OF ROB PORTER ROILS THE WEST WING
Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who has been accused of abusing his former wives, is Kelly’s right hand—and dating Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest confidantes. But Kelly’s declaration that Porter is a man of “true integrity and honor” was seen as deeply tone deaf.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02 ... -west-wing




FORMER WIVES OF TOP WHITE HOUSE AIDE ROB PORTER BOTH TOLD FBI HE ABUSED THEM
Ryan Grim, Alleen Brown
February 7 2018, 12:33 p.m.
AS THE FBI conducted a background check on an incoming senior White House official last year, the bureau learned of the man’s history of domestic abuse. Rob Porter, a top aide to President Donald Trump, physically assaulted both of his previous wives, according to the two women. Porter’s first wife said she was physically abused for years, providing a photograph she took of herself after she said Porter hit her while on vacation in Florence, Italy — a photo she also shared with the FBI.

During the background interviews for Porter’s security clearance related to his senior White House role, FBI agents interviewed the two women. The former wives told the FBI that Porter was abusive during their marriages, according to interviews with the women. For Porter, the FBI interviews marked a collision of his professional ascendancy and his sometimes violent private life.

Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, provided her correspondence with the FBI to The Intercept. (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment, and the agent involved in the exchange declined to speak about the case.) In an interview, she said the pattern of violence in her marriage to Porter began on their honeymoon in the Canary Islands in 2003 and continued from there.

Image
Photo was taken shortly after the alleged incident, in the hotel room in Florence. Photo: Colbie Holderness

“He only punched me once, in the eye,” Holderness said. It was during a vacation in Florence in 2005. She said, “He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face. I think he was shocked that he had lost control to that extent.”

Porter resigned Wednesday, with an undetermined effective date, amid the allegations.

Porter did not respond to requests for comment from The Intercept made through phone calls and text messages. Nor did White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders provide a comment in response to a query about Holderness’s detailed allegations and photo. In remarks to the British tabloid the Daily Mail, which reported some of the allegations of spousal abuse, Porter denied some of the charges and a raft of White House officials and one U.S. senator spoke to the strength of Porter’s character — all before Holderness detailed her part of the allegations to The Intercept.

Porter has kept a low public profile but is reported to be a powerful figure in the White House, a gatekeeper of the flow of information to Trump. According to Politico and the New York Times, Porter, the White House staff secretary, has been part of a two-man team, alongside Chief of Staff John Kelly, who decides what makes it to Trump’s desk.

In Florence, Holderness took photos of her face and emailed herself copies, which she shared with The Intercept.

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“Up until then, he had always done it in a way that didn’t leave marks,” Holderness said. “I don’t know if that was conscious or not. He would get angry and throw me down on a soft surface — to his credit, it was always a soft surface like a couch or a bed — and he would lay on top of me shaking me, or rubbing an elbow or a knee into me. He graduated to choking me, not ever hard enough to make me pass out, or frankly to leave marks, but it was frightening and dehumanizing.”

“He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face.”
“He was always a hair-trigger away.”

Porter’s second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, wrote about her abusive relationship in a blogpost on April 24, 2017, but did not name Porter. After finding the blogpost, The Intercept independently identified Holderness as Porter’s first wife and approached her for an interview.

The blogpost detailed what Willoughby said was Porter’s abuse. “The first time he called me a ‘fucking bitch’ was on our honeymoon,” Willoughby wrote. “A month later he physically prevented me from leaving the house. Less than two months after that, I filed a protective order with the police because he punched in the glass on our front door while I was locked inside.”

On Tuesday, the Daily Mail published an article linking to the blogpost, which Willoughby confirmed to the British tabloid was written about her marriage to Porter. Willoughby and Porter’s marriage ended in 2013.

Before this report detailing Holderness’s account of her marriage, the White House offered broad support for Porter in the Daily Mail article. Porter told the tabloid, “I will not comment about these matters, beyond stating that many of these allegations are slanderous and simply false.”

Kelly praised him to the Daily Mail. “Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him,” Kelly said. “He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional.”

Sanders, the White House spokesperson, offered equally effusive praise in his defense. “I have worked directly with Rob Porter nearly every day for the last year and the person I know is someone of the highest integrity and exemplary character,” Sanders told the Daily Mail.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of Porter’s previous employers, told the Daily Mail that the allegations against Porter came from “character assassins.”

“It’s incredibly discouraging to see such a vile attack on such a decent man,” Hatch said. “Shame on any publication that would print this — and shame on the politically motivated, morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sully a man’s good name.”

Image
Shortly after the attack in Florence, Italy. Colbie Holderness
COLBIE HOLDERNESS, WHOSE maiden name is Paulson, met Porter when she was a freshman at Wellesley College. At the time, Porter was a student at Harvard University, where he served as a leader with the Harvard Republican Club and Harvard Students for Bush, according to Harvard Magazine. Porter had gone on a Mormon mission before returning and meeting Holderness. The relationship made a brief appearance in a 2001 Rolling Stone article about Wellesley, a women’s school.

“Of course, Romantic life depends largely on the individual,” said the Rolling Stone article. “For junior Colbie Paulson, a Mormon and the president of the Wellesley Alliance for Life, a pro-life group, Wellesley’s single-sex environment means taking a step back in time. ‘For me, I find that the fact that our school is single-sex makes it more of a traditional dating experience. The guy comes to my school, he comes to my door, he picks me up, he takes me out, he makes a real effort to get here. So for me, it just reinforces my conservative upbringing.’”

The couple wed two weeks after graduation, following three years of dating. The marriage went bad quickly, she said. On their honeymoon on the Canary Islands, they were standing face to face, arguing, and he kicked her, Holderness said. She was stunned, and also puzzled.

“I don’t know why I remember this so vividly. Many of the physical incidents blend together, but I remember this one so clearly. My mother used to always say about my father that if he ever hit her, she was gone, she was out the door,” said Holderness. “Her saying that flew through my mind when that first happened.” She recalled her reasoning for staying with Porter: “What am I to do? I just married this man. It’s not as if he punched me in the face.”

In her blogpost, Willoughby, the second wife, noted that Porter had kicked his first wife on their honeymoon. Holderness confirmed she had told Willoughby about the incident.

While Porter was at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, Holderness landed a job with the governor of Idaho, her home state, which she said she taken partly to escape Porter’s abuse and further her own political career. She became friends with Trish Stack, who worked with her in the office in 2004 and 2005 and is now a marketing executive in Boise. Holderness confided in Stack about the abuse, telling her how it began on their honeymoon.

Holderness was eventually accepted to the Kennedy School and moved there with Porter in 2005. Stack said Holderness continued to confide in her. “She was trying to get help, and nobody would help her,” Stack said.

Spencer Paulson, Holderness’s brother, roomed with Porter’s younger brother at Harvard for three years. He was interning on a sheep ranch in Idaho in the summer of 2006, he said, when Holderness abruptly flew out to see him. She told him about the honeymoon and the incident in Florence, and showed him the photos. They discussed filing a police report but decided it wouldn’t do any good. “I encouraged her to separate,” he said, but the pull of the institution of marriage was still strong, and other considerations loomed. “There’s just a very warping effect when you think you can’t say things for career reasons, and that’s very sad, but it’s true.”

“I was too afraid to call the police during the entirety of our marriage.”
Holderness, who now works for the Government Accountability Office in Washington, explained that she ended up not going to the police out of fear. “I was too bewildered by the whole thing,” she told The Intercept. “Plus, I was too afraid to call the police during the entirety of our marriage, thinking they would consider the whole thing ridiculous and wouldn’t take me seriously.” She added, “Believe me, not calling the police is something I regret.”

One summer, when she was interning at a federal agency, she had access to a counselor through her job. “When I explained to him what was happening, he had a very different reaction from the Mormon bishops,” she said. “It was weirdly validating to hear that from somebody else.” Speaking about the counselor, she said, “He was very concerned to hear Rob was choking me.”

The counselor had helped her see the situation more clearly. She said, “Rob was constantly blaming me for every problem in my marriage.”

PORTER BLAMED HIS first wife for his abuse of his second, according to Willoughby. “In the first weeks and months, his explanation for his anger was that his first marriage had been very toxic, rooted in arguments, accusations and manipulation and he was carrying over from that relationship,” she told the Daily Mail. “He would say that he was so used to being treated this way by his ex-wife that he was projecting that on to me. That was the explanation.”

Willoughby and Porter met through the Mormon church in 2009 and married after a romance of less than six months. She said that, within two weeks of their marriage, “it was very clear Rob had a temper that was inappropriate for the trigger.”

Willoughby said the first year of their marriage was the most volatile. During a period of separation that spring, Porter showed up at her apartment and refused to leave. According to a protective order, which the Daily Mail published and Willoughby confirmed to The Intercept was authentic, “I asked him several times to leave with his things, but he did not until I picked up the phone to call our clergy member. While he was gone, I took his clothes and put them in a suitcase on the front porch. When he returned a few minutes later, he punched in the glass on the door. I called the police, afraid he would break in.”

In her blogpost, Willoughby wrote, “When I tried to get help, I was counseled to consider carefully how what I said might affect his career.” She told The Intercept that she had described Porter’s anger issues to a lay official in the Mormon church. She said the official had told her to think carefully about what she said publicly about Porter’s behavior. “Keep in mind, Rob has career ambitions,” she recalled the official saying. (The press office at the Mormon church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, declined to comment for this story.)

Willoughby said the couple’s fights only once resulted in a physical attack against her. “We were yelling in each other’s faces. I disengaged and went to take a shower. Rob was not done fighting. He came to the shower and grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me out of the shower to continue arguing,” she said. “I think he saw the look on my face, and immediately released me and apologized. But it happened and there was no coming back from it.”

After their first year of marriage, Willoughby said, things de-escalated but didn’t dramatically improve. “There was name-calling but also insidious commentary on how thin I was or how he liked a look that I didn’t have. There was arrogance about comments I would make or some knowledge I would have and condescension of how would I know that or someone must have told you that,” Willoughby said. “It was low-grade, constant.”

“Slowly, over that first year, I gave up being myself. I prioritized emotional survival.”
“I was a ghost of a person,” Willoughby said, noting her robust social life before her marriage. ”That was very drastically no longer allowed to be part of my life, because the anger or the stress and argument that I would have to endure wasn’t worth it. Slowly, over that first year, I gave up being myself. I prioritized emotional survival.”

By the end of 2012, the couple had separated again and divorced the following year.

Willoughby said she has no regrets about putting up the blogpost. She works as an educator and writer, speaking on issues of compassion and resilience. With that as her platform, she said, “I wrote the post because I wanted people to see that I had been through this and I did have compassion for a man that I loved who was part of that story, and that I was resilient, and I wasn’t seeing myself as a victim.”

Willoughby said Porter repeatedly asked her to take down the post, but she declined.

“For me, it is more compassionate to bring someone to awareness of weaknesses than to scapegoat or tear someone down because of weaknesses,” Willoughby said. “Rob now has awareness if he didn’t before.”

“I have the utmost respect for him professionally,” Willoughby said. “If there was to be a staff secretary in the Trump administration I hope to God it is Rob. However, being charming, intelligent, charismatic, capable at work, and able to be angry and manipulative and antagonistic at home — they’re not mutually exclusive.”

Update: February 7, 2018
This post has been updated to reflect that Porter announced his resignation Wednesday from the White House, with an undetermined effective date.
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/07/rob ... rump-aide/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:13 pm

seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:03 pm wrote:

West Wing
“BEYOND DISBELIEF”: JOHN KELLY’S DEFENSE OF ROB PORTER ROILS THE WEST WING
Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who has been accused of abusing his former wives, is Kelly’s right hand—and dating Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest confidantes.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02 ... -west-wing


First Trump, then Lewandowski, now Porter? What the fuck is wrong with Hope Hicks?! The worst taste in men ever.
"Huey Long once said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.” I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
-Jim Garrison 1967
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby Belligerent Savant » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:43 pm

.


Quentin Tarantino Responds to Uma Thurman as Polanski Comments Resurface

Quentin Tarantino on Monday responded to Uma Thurman’s accusation that he had put her life at risk while making the “Kill Bill” films, calling the decision to make her perform a dangerous stunt one of the biggest regrets of his life and offering his own recollection of what had taken place.

Speaking to Deadline, Mr. Tarantino said that he had encouraged Ms. Thurman to drive a refitted car for one of the movies’ most memorable scenes, despite her trepidation about the plan. Video from the shoot shows Ms. Thurman struggling to control the car, as it swerves on the road and crashes.

Uma Thurman said she didn't want to drive this car. She said she had been warned that there were issues with it. She felt she had to do it anyway. It took her some 15 years to get footage of the crash.


The actress and the director agree that the crash undermined what had been a close relationship between them; they collaborated on the 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction” and the two “Kill Bill” films, which were released separately but created during a single production process. In an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday, Ms. Thurman said that after the crash, which came near the end of the shoot, they were “in a terrible fight for years,” while Mr. Tarantino told Deadline that “a trust was broken.”

Mr. Tarantino said he and Maureen Dowd, the author of the Times piece, had not connected for an interview, telling Deadline, “Me and Dowd never hooked up.” Ms. Dowd said on Tuesday that she had reached out to Mr. Tarantino six times, twice through his agent, twice through his personal assistant and twice through personal numbers. The office of the agent, Mike Simpson, confirmed to Ms. Dowd that the director had received the message, she said. Ms. Thurman had also encouraged Mr. Tarantino to talk to Ms. Dowd.

The director did not dispute most of Ms. Thurman’s account but characterized his interaction with her differently. Ms. Thurman had said he was “furious” when he asked her to do the scene; Mr. Tarantino admitted that he had been irritated but said: “I’m sure I wasn’t in a rage and I wasn’t livid. I didn’t go barging into Uma’s trailer, screaming at her to get into the car.”

He said that he had tested the course, a one-lane strip of road in Mexico, before encouraging Ms. Thurman to perform the stunt, but then he decided to change the direction in which she would drive.

The change of direction “was the beginning of where the crash happened,” he said.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Ms. Thurman praised Mr. Tarantino for helping her obtain the footage when he knew it could do him personal harm. She wrote that while the circumstances of the crash were “negligent to the point of criminality,” she did not believe that his intent was malicious.

But in the midst of the #MeToo movement, Mr. Tarantino’s past actions and remarks have faced the pronounced scrutiny that has unearthed complaints of sexual assault by many in his industry, including his close collaborator Harvey Weinstein. In an interview in October, Mr. Tarantino expressed regret for not having taken a stronger stand against the producer, saying, “I knew enough to do more than I did.”

Ms. Thurman told The Times that Mr. Tarantino spit in her face and choked her while filming scenes in “Kill Bill,” rather than having other actors carry out actions ascribed to their characters. Those details raised eyebrows online as many questioned why the director had felt compelled to take part in such violence himself.

“Naturally, I did it. Who else should do it?” he told Deadline of the spitting scene, adding that he did not trust the actor, Michael Madsen, to execute the take properly. “I’m the director, so I can kind of art direct this spit,” he said.

He said that he had also choked Ms. Thurman with a chain for the film, for a shot that she suggested, and that he had choked the actress Diane Kruger, with her permission, for a scene from the film “Inglourious Basterds.”


In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Ms. Kruger said that her heart went out to Ms. Thurman and “anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault and abuse” but that Mr. Tarantino had treated her with “utter respect” and had not abused his power over her.

Also on Monday, Jezebel republished comments that Mr. Tarantino made to Howard Stern in 2003 in a column arguing that his interview with Deadline was disingenuous. During the interview with Mr. Stern, Mr. Tarantino insistently defended the director Roman Polanski’s sexual abuse of a 13-year-old, Samantha Geimer.

Mr. Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex in 1977, and fled the United States before his sentencing. He has since been accused of sexual abuse by two other women who say they were minors when he preyed on them.

In the 2003 interview, Mr. Tarantino was adamant that Mr. Polanski had not raped Ms. Geimer, arguing that she had wanted to have sex and “was down with this.”



http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/mo ... 0d48340bf1


Tarantino argued that Gailey was willingly dating Polanski when she was 13 and he was in his 40s, and that she was “down with” having sex with him.

“He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape, all right. That’s not quite the same thing. He had sex with a minor, all right. That’s not rape,” Tarantino says in the interview.

“To me, when you use the word ‘rape’, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down — it’s one of the most violent crimes in the world.

“Throwing the word ‘rape’ around is like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It just doesn’t apply to everything that people use it for.”

When asked whether Polanski forced himself on her, Tarantino said Gailey “wanted to have it”.

“We’re talking about America’s morals, we’re not talking about the morals in Europe and everything,” he said.

“Look, she was down with it.”

Polanski will be a key character in Tarantino’s next film, a dramatisation of the 1969 Manson Family killings, which saw members of Charles Manson’s cult break into the director’s Hollywood home and kill his heavily pregnant wife, actor Sharon Tate.


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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 13, 2018 1:35 pm

Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was aware for months that Rob Porter's ex-wives could present damaging information on him, was receptive to promoting him.

It's hard to overstate what a blow FBI Director Wray's sworn testimony is to the White House, which for the past week has been advancing a conflicting timeline of events on Rob Porter.


Rob Porter ex-wife: 'The truth exists whether the President accepts it or not'
by Naomi Lim | Feb 11, 2018, 10:13 PM

The ex-wife of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter who publicly accused him of domestic violence was defiant Sunday after President Trump's defense Porter, saying the truth exists whether Trump "accepts it or not."

"Everyone wants to talk about how Trump implied I am a not to be believed," Jennie Willoughby wrote in an opinion piece published by Time.


"I forgive him. Thankfully, my strength and worth are not dependent on outside belief — the truth exists whether the President accepts it or not," she continued.

Willoughby's article follows a Trump tweet in which the president wrote about how "peoples [sic] lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation."


The online missive has been assumed to be a veiled reference to Willoughby and Porter's other ex-wife, Colbie Holderness, who claims of physical and emotional abuse at the hand of Porter led to his resignation Wednesday.

"While I may have compassion for my ex-husband and recognize his need for help, I do not tolerate abuse," Willoughby wrote.

"While I may understand President Trump and Gen. Kelly’s incredulity at such a counter-image of their golden boy, I do not condone their choice to support him," she added, referring to Trump and White House chief of staff John Kelly's initial decision to stand behind their colleague.


Willoughby, however, admitted abuse "is not a political issue" but a societal one where "the tone has just been reset by the White House."

"Society as a whole has a fear of addressing our worst secrets. It’s as if we have a societal blind spot that creates an obstacle to understanding," she wrote.

Porter's departure has raised questions over why someone who could not obtain a permanent security clearance because of allegations of domestic violence was allowed to work as a top aide in the Trump administration.

It has also earned the White House criticism for its handling of and approach to misconduct allegations made by women.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rob-p ... le/2648798


Porter was up for promotion despite abuse allegations

Porter in talks for promotion when he resigned

(CNN)Rob Porter was involved in serious discussions to be promoted when he abruptly resigned from the White House last week amid allegations that he abused his two ex-wives, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

His anticipated elevation further highlights how top White House officials were willing to overlook indications from the FBI that there were potential abuse allegations in his background in exchange for professional competence in a tumultuous West Wing.

Porter had been actively lobbying to take on new policy portfolios outside the traditional scope of the staff secretary, one person familiar with the matter said, which included speechwriting duties and a role in planning policy rollouts. Neither of those tasks is traditionally carried out by the staff secretary.

FBI director contradicts White House's Porter timeline
One of the areas Porter was set to delve further into was trade policy, according to the person. Porter was a regular attendee at a weekly trade meeting among top-level administration officials.

He was also being considered for the deputy chief of staff position, another source familiar with the situation said. CNN reported Friday that Jim Carroll, who served as the deputy chief of staff for less than three months, was stepping down to helm the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Several White House officials, including chief of staff John Kelly, were receptive to promoting Porter. Kelly had told associates that Porter was one of the few competent professionals on his staff and wanted to ensure that he was being used to his full potential. CNN has reported that Kelly was aware for months of the potential that Porter's ex-wives could present damaging information on him.

Kelly "definitely wanted to expand his role," a source familiar tells CNN.

Senior advisers Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump also viewed Porter as a professional, competent staffer and worked to elevate his standing inside the West Wing, two sources familiar with the situation said.

Aides have stressed in recent days that they were gravely misled by Porter over the allegations.

"That's what the President did up until the time that it became obvious, when the photographs came out, that the person was not being honest with the President," Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "After that happened, we dismissed that person immediately."

But FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicted days of shifting explanations from the administration Tuesday when he said the bureau gave the White House a partial report on problems in Porter's background last March. That is months earlier than the White House has admitted becoming aware of the problems in Porter's past.

FBI: Porter background check done in July 2017

"The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed background investigation in late July," Wray said as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Soon thereafter, we received requests for follow up inquiry and we did the follow up and provided that information in November and then we administratively closed the file in January. And then, earlier this month, we received some additional information and we passed that on as well."

White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters Thursday that Porter's background investigation was ongoing.

"He was operating on an interim security clearance," Shah said. "His clearance was never denied, and he resigned."

As the fallout from the Porter scandal has stretched into a new week at the White House, a frustrated President Donald Trump has spent his days phoning allies and associates for advice on how to handle negative coverage, sources familiar with the conversations say. His two main questions regarding the scandal: When does it end? What do we do?

Trump has expressed concerns that dismissing members of his staff could result in a stalled agenda just as his approval ratings have enjoyed an uptick, a person familiar with the conversations said. He is particularly concerned with advancing his immigration proposals, a policy objective that has been helmed by Kelly.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/ ... index.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby elfismiles » Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:55 pm

RE: Tarantino ...

BREAKING: Vegas Shooter Believed He Was Under CIA Mind Control - The Alex Jones Channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okw0AFZZDCQ

https://youtu.be/Okw0AFZZDCQ?t=4m43s
(Video: Alex goes off on Tarantino @4:43 mark)
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Re: America's Garden of Dicks

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Mar 25, 2018 2:26 pm

Santorum: Parkland students should learn CPR instead of marching

Image

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/ ... uns-484543
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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