Thursday

Cool Stuff




Inequality

How much justice can you afford?  The headline hits on Trump but this story is more about how our justice system favors the wealthy. Epstein had both R and Ds involved but they were all wealthy, powerful and elite.

How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime -

Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life.

But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck — an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and the number of people involved.

Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal — called a non-prosecution agreement — essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes, according to a Miami Herald examination of thousands of emails, court documents and FBI records.

The pact required Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Epstein and four of his accomplices named in the agreement received immunity from all federal criminal charges. But even more unusual, the deal included wording that granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators’’ who were also involved in Epstein’s crimes. These accomplices or participants were not identified in the agreement, leaving it open to interpretation whether it possibly referred to other influential people who were having sex with underage girls at Epstein’s various homes or on his plane.

As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls — or anyone else — might show up in court and try to derail it.

For more on Epstein and his famous friends, this from Naked Capitalism

"How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime Miami Herald. It’s good that the Epstein sack of pus has been lanced, again, but see Gawker back in 2015, before Hulk Hogan and Peter Theil mortally wounded it: Flight Logs Put Clinton, Dershowitz on Pedophile Billionaire’s Sex Jet, and Billionaire Pervert Jeffrey Epstein and His Famous Friends: A Primer. It makes sense, when you think about it, that private planes would be a lawless hellscape where elites, very much elites plural, indulge their worst (and thoroughly bipartisan) impulses with even more impunity than they already have. Private planes are like private equity in that way."

Propaganda

Fox planting seeds of fear. (the top image on the website 11/29/2018). I am a little surprised they didn't mention the middle-east, criminal, or terrorist.

Drudge doing its part, passing along Trump's misinformation. (Top of the page 11/29/2018)

Trump and the Middle East

More on Trump, The Saudis and Israel.

If The Saudi's Oil No Longer Matters Why Is Trump Still Supporting Them?

Support for the Saudi war on Yemen will not help to achieve that. Pandering to MbS is not MAGA.

What’s Behind the US-Saudi Nuclear Mega-Deal? Up to 16 nuclear power plants for civilian purposes? Really?

"Either, that the electricity-needy Saudi kingdom is truly embarking on a nearly half-trillion-dollar endeavor to bring reliable, carbon free energy to its people and perhaps the region as well. 

Or, that this is merely a cynical ploy to dangle an enormous contract in front of gullible Americans in order to obtain nuclear fuel enrichment technology." 

Politics

Why Trump Won?

This chart found here [Restoring middle-class incomes: redistribution won’t do]

The Rs look out for the rich. The Ds look out for the poor. No one was looking out for the middle class.