The Consequences Of A Sex Cult
October 28, 2020
The Daily Pnut strongly encourages all of our readers to practice their civic duty in the upcoming week by voting in the general election. Whether it be through the mail, early, or in-person on Election Day — have a plan in place to ensure that your voice is heard. Regardless of your politics, everyone can agree 2020 will go down as the most important election of our lifetime — so make sure you make your mark on history.
“Treat men as pawns and ninepins and you shall suffer as well as they. If you leave out their heart, you shall lose your own.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”― Voltaire
From Self-Help To Life Sentence
(Amy Luke via Getty Images)
Keith Raniere, the 60-year-old founder of Nxivm, a purported self-help organization for women, spent Tuesday sitting in a Brooklyn courtroom awaiting sentencing after having been found guilty of operating what’s been called a “sex-cult.”
Raniere co-founded his company in 1998, promising a path to a happier, more purposeful life and offering self-empowerment workshops that were taken by Hollywood celebrities and business leaders. Over the years, some 18,000 people in the US, Canada, and Mexico took his courses. Much of the company’s funding came from Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune who spent over $100 million of her inheritance supporting the organization and suing Raniere’s enemies. She even purchased an island in Fiji that Nxivm leaders used as a retreat. A former television actress, Allison Mack, was one of Nxivm’s top recruiters; her glowing testimonials helped bring celebrities into the organization.
Behind the scenes, it was a much different story. In July 2018, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Raniere and five women in his inner circle, including Bronfman and Mack, with racketeering conspiracy involving an array of crimes, including identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. Raniere’s co-defendants pleaded guilty; Raniere went on trial in 2019.
During his six-week trial, former Nxivm members said Raniere and his inner circle preyed on insecure people. Even highly-educated people became trapped inside the system, which Raniere sold as the only way to overcome their fears; anyone who tried to quit was shamed. The jury found Raniere guilty on multiple counts.
This week, several victims testified at Raniere’s sentencing hearing. The first to speak was a woman who said she was 15 years old when first sexually assaulted by Raniere. The abuse went on for 12 years during which time she was repeatedly assaulted; nude pictures were taken of her that were used as blackmail. She was among a group of several women, called “slaves,” who were branded in a secret, videotaped ceremony with the initials of the “Master” — i.e. Raniere.
Raniere still has many supporters who believe he was wrongfully convicted and that anything that happened was between consenting adults. His lawyers have said their client “is not sorry for his conduct or his choices.” The defendant himself has shown no regrets; instead he’s accused the trial judge of corruption, and demanded a new trial. Prosecutors say Raniere deserves a life sentence, a punishment typically reserved for cases involving murders or deaths.
The trial judge agreed with prosecutors. Tuesday afternoon, he sentenced Raniere to 120 years in prison.
Masks Invade Moscow
(Dimitar Dilkoff via Getty Images)
- On Tuesday, the Russian government mandated wearing masks in public after recording more than 114,000 new cases in the past seven days. The order was a surprise because President Vladimir Putin has resisted taking any nationwide measures to stop the spread of the virus ever since a shutdown in April and May took a widespread economic toll. But the infection rate has reached new heights in recent weeks, with over 16,000 new cases in each of the last five days.
- A number of top officials have been exposed or infected, including foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who went into self-quarantine this week after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. On Monday, the speaker of the lower house of parliament told Putin that 91 of the assembly’s 450 representatives have now or have had COVID-19, and that 38 are currently hospitalized. Overall, Russia has recorded more than 1.5 million cases of COVID-19, and 26,000 deaths. (NYT)
The New Republican Resemblance
- A sophisticated international study carried out by a Swedish University — using newly developed methods to measure and quantify the health of the world’s democracies — has evidenced a dramatic shift in the Republican Party over the past two decades. The shift has both led to and been driven by the rise of Donald Trump, with his shunning of democratic norms and encouragement of violence.
- The study was conducted by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg and is the largest of its kind ever done. V-Dem’s “illiberalism index” gauges the extent of commitment to democratic norms a party exhibits before an election. The institute calls it “the first comparative measure of the ‘litmus test’ for the loyalty to democracy.”
- The study shows that the GOP has become demonstrably more illiberal since 2000, and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former center-right equivalents in Europe. The Republican party has followed a similar trajectory to Fidesz, which under Viktor Orbán has evolved from a liberal youth movement into an authoritarian party that has made Hungary the first non-democracy in the EU.
- India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been transformed in similar ways under Narendra Modi, as has the Justice and Development party (AKP) in Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Law and Justice party in Poland. Trump and his administration have sought to cultivate close ties to the leadership of those countries. V-Dem’s deputy director said the GOP transformation was “certainly the most dramatic shift in an established democracy.” (Guardian)
Additional World News
- U.S. And India Sign Military Agreement During Pompeo, Esper Trip (NPR). Anti-China rhetoric enters a whole new Modi.
- The Pattern and Purpose of China’s Actions (Real Clear Politics)
- Alibaba rakes in billions: What is Jack Ma’s Ant Group and how does it make money? (Yahoo!)
- Typhoon Molave battered the Philippines. Vietnam is next. (Vox)
- Tanzania’s democracy faces a critical test in Wednesday’s election (WaPo, $). Across the globe, democracy is on the defense.
- Hearings begin into killings of Nigerian protesters (CNN)
- Nigeria police brutality inquiry hears graphic testimony (BBC)
- Women on Qatar Airways Flight Say They Were Strip-Searched (NYT, $)
- ‘Old and unsafe’ cars sent to developing world fuelling air pollution, report finds (Guardian). It’s time to clean out the clunkers.
- When she graduates, we win: Keeping girls in school seen worth billions to developing nations (Reuters)
- Killing of Teacher, Samuel Paty, Raises Doubts on French Integration (NYT, $)
- The Erasure of Arsenal’s Mesut Özil (NYT, $)
In Case Of Emergency, ACB Is On The Case
- After a 52-48 party-line vote in the Senate Monday afternoon, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed as a justice on the nation’s highest court. Less than two hours later, she was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas in a ceremony at the White House. There is now a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the court, which will likely mean the overturning of longstanding protections for women, workers, LGBTQ, environmental and voting rights, as well as health care coverage for millions.
- But even before those cases come to the court, the addition of Justice Barrett could mean that a state’s ability to protect the right to vote for its citizens could be curtailed in such a way as to hand Donald Trump an unearned second term. Here’s how.
- In 2000, the Supreme Court effectively handed George W. Bush his first term, not by confirming his chief legal argument — a breathtaking assault on state sovereignty which was too radical and contrary to the basic principles of democracy and federalism for even two of the conservative justices — but by fabricating a novel illogical and unsupportable theory, and then instructing lower courts never to rely on it.
- However, three of the justices at the time did accept Bush’s argument. Now, 20 years later, that original argument has been revived by Republicans in fraught election cases, and today it appears there are five justices prepared to embrace it. The result would be an immediate invalidation of thousands of disproportionately Democratic ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina — two swing states that could decide the outcome of the election. In other words, Barrett’s first decisions as justice could be to decide in President Trump’s favor. (Slate)
The Fall Of The Firewall
- The Voice of America (VOA) was founded in 1942 during World War II to combat Nazi propaganda with credible news reports. The service followed that practice during the Cold War, along with its sister networks. It was codified in a charter drafted in 1960 and signed by President Gerald Ford in 1976, which promised VOA’s news would be “accurate, objective and comprehensive” and “represent America, not any single segment of American society.”
- On Monday night, a regulatory “firewall” intended to protect VOA and its affiliated newsrooms from political interference in their journalism was swept aside by the chief executive of the federal agency which oversees the government’s international broadcasters, Michael Pack. Pack is President Trump’s appointee who assumed leadership of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) in June.
- Pack has already come under fire for revelations that his senior aides investigated the agency’s journalists for bias against Trump and pushed for their dismissals and reassignments. Pack purged USAGM and its broadcasters of top executives whom he believed to be insufficiently loyal. One of six whistleblowers who have come forward since Pack took over in June said: “The firewall protects the networks by insulating their editorial decisions from political interference. That is what differentiates the Voice of America and the other USAGM-funded networks from the state-sponsored propaganda of Russia, China, Iran, and others.”
- In addition to VOA, the USGM includes the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Collectively, the networks reach more than 350 million people across the world each week. (NPR)
Additional USA News
- A Flood Of Outside Money Is Pouring Into 2020 Races, Alarming Transparency Advocates (NPR)
- Biden’s Bay Area sugar daddies: The 15 Silicon Valley millionaires spending the most to beat Donald Trump (Vox)
- An Anonymous Republican on Power vs. Contempt for Trump (NY Mag)
- Undercover Video Shows California ‘Trump Store’ Collecting Ballots (Vice)
- Trump Is the Best Candidate for the Illiberal Left (Atlantic, $)
- Will the Lone Star state lean left? Not so fast: Biden Trails in Texas Due to Weakness Amongst Hispanic Voters (NYT, $)
- Keys to the Keystone: The demographic that could tip Pennsylvania (Politico)
- Minority rule is here, and this is what it feels like. (Slate) Let history be the judge.
- Trump’s conservative imprint on the federal judiciary gives Democrats a playbook — if they win (WaPo, $)
- Missing From Supreme Court’s Election Cases: Reasons for Its Rulings (NYT, $)
- As the future of Obamacare heads to the supreme court, so do trans rights (Guardian)
Borat’s Homeland Gets In On The Joke
- Sacha Baron Cohen first introduced us to his fictional character Borat Sagdiyev, who hails from Kazakhstan, in his 2006 mockumentary comedy film entitled Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In the film, reporter Borat Sagdiyev leaves Kazakhstan, at the behest of the Kazakh Ministry of Information, to travel to the “US and A”, the “Greatest Country in the World,” to make a documentary about American society and culture.
- He leaves behind his wife, Oksana; his companions are his producer and a pet hen. Much of the film features unscripted vignettes of Borat interviewing and interacting with real-life Americans who believe he is a foreigner with little or no understanding of American customs. He worries that he will be executed if the film isn’t a success.
- Controversy surrounded the film prior to its release; afterwards some participants spoke against, and even sued, its creators. It was banned in almost all Arab countries, and the government of Kazakhstan denounced the film. Cohen has recently released Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, in which his fictional journalist character describes his homeland as misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic — just like he does in the original.
- But this time there’s a twist. Kazakhstan has literally adopted Borat’s catchphrase “Very Nice!” for their new tourism campaign. An official said the phrase “offers the perfect description of Kazakhstan’s vast tourism potential in a short, memorable way.” Apparently all is forgiven. (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- What Is Self Care Now, Anyway? (NYT, $)
- Monkey see, monkey do. Humans mimic the monkey crew: How’d we get so choosy about friendships late in life? Ask the chimps (NSF)
- These Oceanographers Want to Turn Marine Slime Into Drugs (Wired)
- Is giving out free money the best way to help homeless people? (Vox)
- Misremembering the British Empire (New Yorker)
- The 20 best sandwich recipes (Guardian)
- Tricks of the tube: The Best Apps to Download and Archive YouTube Videos (Lifehacker)