Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial has given the world a glimpse of her strange, luxe life with Jeffrey Epstein
So she did what she needed to do to keep her close relationship with him. She helped to give him what he most wanted: sexual variety. So she remained a huge part of his life emotionally and otherwise, which was what she wanted. She not only held on to her man but strengtheded her relationship with him. They became closer than ever.
She would not be the first woman to tolerate or even facilitate her man having sexual adventures. I know a bit about that myself. I too have known "tolerant" women, rather remarkably so at times.
So did she do wrong? Is it wrong to introduce women to a man who would likely be attracted to them? Hardly. But did she facilitate rape? That would be wrong but it seems more accurate to say that she facilitated prostitution. But prostitution is not illegal in most jurisdictions these days so that is not really an offence either. The "madam" of a brothel is not normally prosecuted
So the dramatic ending of her great love is a real tragedy. She deserves compassion not infamy
Did an Oxford-educated heiress enable a wealthy paedophile to systematically target and sexually abuse vulnerable young girls and women, or is Ghislaine Maxwell being made a scapegoat?
After a three-day adjournment, jurors will return to the courthouse in lower Manhattan tomorrow, as the defence gets its chance to address the question at the heart of the former socialite's sex trafficking trial.
Dozens of witnesses are expected to be called in an attempt to prevent the 59-year-old daughter of publishing magnate Robert Maxwell from spending the rest of her life behind bars.
The defence's job is to counter the narrative presented by the prosecution that, behind closed doors, the high-society heiress was a "dangerous predator" who "served up" young girls to try to satiate the sexual perversions of Jeffrey Epstein.
Ms Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six counts of enticing minors and sex trafficking over a 10-year period from 1994 to 2004.
In the trial's opening testimony, jurors were given a glimpse into a life of almost unimaginable luxury, in which Ms Maxwell and Epstein jetted between his Palm Beach home, a sprawling ranch in New Mexico, a private Caribbean island and a Manhattan mansion.
Guests on those flights ranged from a series of female passengers, the court heard, to the likes of former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, actor Kevin Spacey and Prince Andrew.
None of Epstein's high-profile former associates, whose names have been dropped several times in court, are accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the case.
Larry Visoski — a long-time pilot for the secretive financier — told the court he was never aware of underage girls on board his jet and never saw any sexual activity at all.
The court was told that employees — such as Mr Visoski, whose job it was to facilitate Epstein and Ms Maxwell's lavish lifestyle — were amply rewarded.
Mr Visoski also told the court Epstein had funded his daughters' education and gifted him land to build a home.
While wealthy clients often expect discretion from staff, prosecutors said Ms Maxwell created a "culture of silence" among employees.
A manual for household staff at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion commanded them to "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed at you".
Staff were also directed to "NEVER disclose Mr Epstein or Ms Maxwell's activities or whereabouts to anyone."
At the time of the alleged crimes, Ms Maxwell was managing Epstein's properties. In Mr Visoski's words she was "Number 2" in the financier's hierarchy.
Four alleged victims have taken the stand to allege Ms Maxwell's duties also saw her recruit and groom young girls and women for sexual abuse.
The locations vary — from New Mexico to New York, Florida and London — but the women's accounts are of a strikingly similar pattern of procurement and abuse.
The alleged modus operandi saw Ms Maxwell befriend women and girls, normalise sexual contact and then encourage them to give Epstein massages which soon turned to abuse.
Ms Maxwell, it's alleged, sometimes participated in the abuse, touching the victims' buttocks and breasts.
The girls, often from troubled backgrounds, would regularly receive hundreds of dollars in cash afterwards.
One alleged victim, known only as Carolyn, told the court she had more than 100 sexual encounters with Epstein at his Florida mansion, beginning when she was aged 14.
But, she told the court, that when she reached the age of 18, she realised she was no longer as attractive to the financier.
"He asked me if I had any younger friends, and I said no," she said. "That's when I realised I was too old."
Some clues have been offered as to the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the defendant. But it, like Ms Maxwell herself, remains largely unknown.
Photographs tendered in evidence suggest that Epstein and Ms Maxwell were in an intimate relationship over a number of years.
They include holiday snaps where they are seen kissing, a never previously published image of a slightly dishevelled Ms Maxwell giving Epstein a foot massage on his private plane, his foot planted firmly in her cleavage.
One photograph of the couple shows them looking relaxed and happy at a cabin on what appears to be the Queen's Balmoral Estate in Scotland.
Then there's the curious document, created in 2002 on the hard drive of a computer registered in Ms Maxwell's name, which states: "Jeffrey and Ghislaine have been together, a couple, for the last 11 years".
"Ghislaine is highly intelligent and great company with a ready smile and an infectious laugh," the document states.
The alleged victims have been pressed about payouts running into the millions of dollars they received from a compensation fund set up with Epstein's estate.
"These are women who were manipulated by their desire for a jackpot of money," defence lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said in opening arguments.
Money has been hinted at as a possible motivating factor for Ms Maxwell, with the court shown bank statements indicating she received upwards of $42 million from Epstein's accounts between 1999 and 2007.
Beyond suggestions of a financial motive, the prosecution has not delved into the psychology of Ms Maxwell's alleged criminality, but argues the socialite was "essential" to Epstein's alleged abuse.
The question of why a woman would allegedly enable and participate in the abuse of other women and girls is ultimately not for the court to decide.
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Supply Chain Hell Ignites Economic Boom Along U.S.-Mexico Border
Wedged up against the southern edge of the Rio Grande, the sprawling desert city of Juarez has seen its share of economic booms over the years. But perhaps none quite like the one that’s taken hold today.
There are excavators and bulldozers seemingly everywhere, pushing dirt into tall piles and leaving everything — and everyone — covered in a coat of wind-blown dust. The space they are carving out of the desert floor will house a long list of new factories that were ordered up by anxious CEOs across the world when the pandemic roiled their global supply routes.
Ambu A/S, a Danish medical device maker, is erecting a facility on the outskirts of the city. Several miles away, Keeson Technology Corp., a Chinese furniture maker, is building a second plant here just months after opening its first. Boyd Corp., a California-based conglomerate, recently inaugurated one factory and plans to build three more. And MGA Entertainment, a California-based toymaker, began cranking out Little Tikes Cozy Coupes from its plant last month even before construction crews had cleared out debris piles or paved the parking lot.
What’s the rush at MGA?
The company has 750 containers of toys stuck in supply chain hell at ports around Los Angeles. Produced in China, those items were supposed to be on U.S. store shelves this holiday season. That won’t happen, says Isaac Larian, MGA’s chief executive officer. But the Juarez plant is now shipping two truckloads of toys into the U.S. each day and that number will soon grow to 10. What’s more, Larian plans to break ground on a second factory in Mexico next year and will begin shifting some of MGA’s Chinese production to these plants.
“We have big ambitions and big plans for Mexico,” he says.
This, in the lingo of corporate executives, is near-shoring, one of the biggest economic transformations sparked by the pandemic: Shrink the length of the supply chain to keep production closer to its final destination and reduce the risk of some snag messing things up along the way. A shorter chain is a stronger chain, the thinking now goes, and there’s a growing sense that this new approach will remain in vogue in C-suites long after Covid fades.
For the multinationals that do business in the red-hot U.S. economy, near-shoring often means northern Mexico, where labor costs are cheap, land is plentiful and the border is just a short ride away. El Paso, Texas, is less than 10 miles to the north of most of the new plants in Juarez.
Other border cities — Tijuana, along the west coast, and Reynosa, Matamoros and Piedras Negras, far to the east — are undergoing similar industrial booms, providing a much-needed lift to a Mexican economy that has been slow to recover from last year’s collapse.
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America First! DeSantis Says 'We Can’t have People from Foreign Countries Displacing Needs of Americans'
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reiterated that America and Americans come first, before any foreign country or illegal immigrants.
On Friday, he appeared on FNC's Tucker Carlson and explained how he plans to take on the companies and NGOs that are aiding the illegal immigrants flooding into Florida.
DeSantis began, “For one, any of these contractors that are facilitating Biden’s illegal policies by bringing people into Florida, oftentimes flying in at two o’clock in the morning with no notice to the State, anyone who is doing that forfeits the ability to have contracts with State and local government in the State of Florida, and they are going to be responsible for providing restitution to the State of Florida for every single person that they bring because when they dump somebody, a lot of costs end up being borne by the State in the future, whether that’s education, healthcare, whether that’s the criminal justice system."
"Unfortunately, we had somebody brought from Biden that murdered somebody in Jacksonville just a few weeks ago, and so we’re very concerned about doing that, and we want to basically say, this is not the right decision to be making to be facilitating, which is basically an illegal human smuggling operation," he continued. "We are also saying to some of the institutions in Florida like non-profits, we’re not going to be giving license to folks who are actively helping Biden do this."
DeSantis added, "And so, we want people focusing on our own citizens. A lot of people do a lot of great work. We’ve got a lot of people in our state that need help, and we can’t just have people who are from foreign countries displacing the needs of our own people.”
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Bigoted alternative medicine group
A Byron Bay woman is taking legal action after she was allegedly sacked for getting the COVID jab.
Lainie Chait was working as a client care consultant for the Newcastle-based Church of Ubuntu (COU).
The group promotes and sells alternative health remedies including hemp products.
Ms Chait said she lost her job in October, when it became known she was vaccinated.
"For the past 25 years I've been going 'I don't want, I don't need the Western approach', but in this particular scenario I did," she said.
Ms Chait said she supported freedom of choice in healthcare and was shocked to learn she was being dismissed for making a personal decision to be vaccinated.
"It seems extremely hypocritical and I think there are a lot of people in the wellness industry that are hypocrites," she said. "Because really, you're in the industry to help people, not judge them.
"A lot of the customers that come to them are vaccinated, so why are you still serving customers that are vaccinated and not employing people that are vaccinated? "That part I don't get, and that's the hypocrisy that pisses me off the most."
The ABC has seen a letter sent to Ms Chait when she was dismissed.
It laid out the reasons behind the decision, describing Ms Chait as a highly valued subcontractor with the Ubuntu Wellness Clinic Newcastle, who was also recognised as a full member of the Church of Ubuntu.
It cited frustration with the NSW Government's "enforced medical apartheid" and "a highly disproportionate response to the Sars Cov 2 virus".
"As a consequence of this ... the Church Of Ubuntu has taken a position that no committee members or full members can be accepted if they consciously chose to, and then complete injections, with any of the current or future planned injections purported to protect from the COVID-19/Sars Cov 2 virus.
"It is the position of the COU that to receive the COVID-19/Sars Cov 2 injection consciously and deliberately with intent is in contradiction with our Constitution and contrary to our position on what is required of us by our Lord God and Creator.
"As a consequence Lainie can no longer be a full member of the COU. She can however in keeping with the Ubuntu Philosophy still remain as an associate member if she chooses.
Mark Swivel, from Barefoot Law, said the decision went completely against the current trend of vaccine mandates. He said the case might hinge on whether his client was classified as an employee or a contractor.
"The upshot of it is that we're in the Fair Work Commission," Mr Swivel said. "The dispute about whether someone is an employee or a contractor is a really common one that the Fair Work Commission deals with, so that's a perfectly normal part of it.
"Then the question of whether the dismissal was fair, well I think it's a fairly open and shut case.
"We were supposed to have a conciliation recently but the organisation did not appear, so we're now looking for a new date.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-16/byron-bay-church-of-ubuntu-worker-covid-vaccination/100703588
****************************************My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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