Archive for the ‘Uncategorised’ Category
Poor Jane Bashara
American Greed Monday.
This one was a “Deadly Rich” episode about Jane Bashara.
552 Middlesex Road in Grosse Pointe Park is worth about $400,000 and the taxes are almost $11K. It is not far from Lake St. Clair, which is desirable, but it is also only a few blocks from Alter Road, which is the border with Detroit.
Bob Bashara is a gangster, a thug, and a con artist.
https://www.facebook.com/Local4/videos/new-book-about-bashara-murder/10156694754006002/
In terms of the case, it is really hard to cut through to the things that matter. Bob Bashara is as dumb and as guilty as all those other people who think they are going to kill their spouse in the living room and get away with it (e.g., Pamela Smart). They’re going to act like nothing happened and lie to all the cameras and reporters. They are going to fool everyone.
Why do they think like that?
The most important quote from this week of Greed is this:
He is a psychopath. You cannot treat a psychopath.
It was Dr. Michael Stone (Columbia) who said this to a police investigator, referring to Dr. Robert Bierenbaum. He is the one who wrote the Tarasoff letter. It was a “duty to warn” letter directed specifically at Gail. It is extraordinary that he could reach such accurate conclusions after, I believe, about 2 hours of sessions.
“Jane Bashara graduated from Mount Clemens High School. She most recently worked as a marketing manager for an energy consulting company in Detroit after working for Detroit Edison for 25 years.” I forget the name of her then/last employer. That explains the 401K. She went “back to work” when the Detroit real estate market collapsed and Bob turned-out to be such a deadbeat. Apparently he took $10K out early and without her knowledge, that’s how much of a loser he was.
Therein lies a real key: the Detroit real estate market. In a different life Robert Bashara would have been rich and powerful.
As almost-always, shows such as Deadly Rich and Dateline have extremely high production values. They’ve got that genre down pat and they really know how to tell stories. But in this one they have things a little wrong or misleading, especially the NBC Dateline version (there is also a local, Detroit one). Grosse Pointe isn’t great and it isn’t about power and privilege based on the address. The whole thing is pretty much decayed and still decaying. There are some wealthy and powerful people, and beautiful homes, but they are the exception.
Similarly, in the last 30 years there, Bob Bashara definitely was not rich, powerful, or worthy of respect. He was a slumlord working in a very limited area, driving around and partying. Jane–even her name is boring–earned the money and raised the kids. Plus she took care of the old Grosse Pointe Park house and she paid the taxes.
Rotary Club, give me a break. If there ever was a “Grosse Pointe,” and there was at one time, it was based on old money primarily related to the auto industry. Lawyers from Lebanon were usually not invited. But Bashara wasn’t even that. In everything I have read about him and the crime I haven’t heard of a college degree or a job.
He was living a propped-up life and he knew it. He was nothing but a desperate criminal. No one, including his kids, with any credibility has come to his defense.
***
I Bet the Pizza is Great
That is what I have to add to the story: I grew up there.
copy and paste 8/4/19
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/postal-employee-charged-obstruction-mail
Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
(a)
18 U.S. Code § 1703 – Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers
Art Vice
This was uncharacteristic in that it shows honorable motives. The axe is sharp and runs deep.
Notice the word holdings with a “s”. He is a wealthy man and his three websites alone have turned into nice properties (unlike the failed Buffalo aquarium), not to mention Key West real estate at least until the next hurricane. He is a hard worker, although as many of the commenters point out to some of the wild “stories” no one else will even acknowledge they’ve read, the writing is awful. Sometimes he…, well he is the publisher. I bet it totals up to a lot more than a year of effort. He brags about the web hits; a musician he is not. Every day there is something–today it was a stomach-turning, visual smorgasbord of prison food. Yes, there is definitely an axe to grind. He doesn’t like Keith Raniere.
He looks like an exhumed Nazi. That wasn’t nice. He does not look healthy or particularly happy. He still has his own case looming and from a quick review it is mostly about tax evasion–forming companies and moving money around to avoid it–and his defense looks iffy too. In the meantime he is hellbent on showing everyone else is a liar. Is that a defense? No. There was a superseding indictment so they’re still after him.
His journalism is addicting. Now he is on Youtube. He has long been a source to the British tabloids. He is quoted on Wiki and I think even in some DOJ documents. I believe the media empire is basically Frank (aka, Mr. Report) and the one woman who acts as editor in chief. I guess I don’t know because I use adblockers, but I don’t see any ads. I don’t know exactly how he is profiting from his fame.
Proofreading is foreign. Long instances of failed imagery are common. Sentences? Who needs them. Maybe it helps that the feds are looking over his shoulder, because the information is accurate. It may not be described the way you would expect, but it is correct.
He has a bit of a network–people willing to photograph anything in the Clifton Park, NY area and others who will write about it, send emails, or comment on the site. But you can see, in the video, that he does a lot of it himself with a laptop and cellphone.
As for the condo, the owner is probably still responsible if there is a lot of kidnapping and raping going on there. I don’t remember if it was this one or another similar post on FrankReport. And it wasn’t even about the gov’t’s rebuttal, it was the bail request in the first place. Not that they submitted it because most people should not have to sit in jail without being convicted, but that it was so stupid: Who is going to pay for it? Such a request is not the place to beef about the morality police. The part about the expired visa, who cares; one year anniversary, ditto. Family man? Barf. Trying to contact the wrong U.S. attorney because you know you are going to be arrested means nothing. The whole thing–again, one has to try–is a joke. It is reminiscent of the Warren Jeffs’ approach, i.e., ranting with no defense at all.
The posts that day and the comments were almost a celebration. Raniere, you are toast. He has been caught plus he is exposed as lying and covering-up about it and, regardless what he says now, fleeing to escape.
The scientologists tried to do it on a boat.
The prosecutor’s response says something to the effect of ‘a lot of this is so far in left field we’re not even going to respond to it.’ So, beyond the happiness that NXIVM and its leader is past history, there was a general euphoria. It is weird to see people cheering for the Eastern District of New York. Look how dumb and corrupt the lawyers are too; in terms of documents, I could have written a better essay. Money can only buy so much. It was feel-good, enrichment, self-empowerment: I, as a blogger, commenter, or “correspondent” can do just as well. I too can tell right from wrong and I can do something about it.
Mr. Report, even with impure motives and a huge desire to clear himself, set the example.
Time may tell that there are happy campers in the group, Raniere/the document reads. True, perhaps, but there are very angry ones too and they are witnesses. Irrelevant. You are not going to win. You probably will be denied bail. The texts, just the few we have seen so far, show eager women anxious to understand and follow. Add in underage, Mexican, fearful, ignorant, and you can fill in just about every adjective similar to “follower” you like. It is not a fair fight, Rainere, and you are down and going deeper. The only real suspense for him is when. When will he give up? How many texts and witnesses will be enough?
Who else, how and why? We have been told repeatedly there is more to come. It is harder than with legitimate companies and leaders. In those organizations failed individuals may have a legitimate defense and there is a very good chance they will come clean; there are successors and for the good of employees, customers, investors, etc. the business or the enterprise must go on. So far from NXIVM the denials have been lies. Other participants, such as Clare Bronfman, Nancy Salzman, or Allison Mack before she was arrested, have not come forward to lead the company or the defense. How can they because the focus is on what else? Get out in front of the scandal just isn’t a viable strategy.
A&E “Cults” is out too. It is mostly old news but the actors (Ms. Edmondson et. al) are always getting better at telling their stories. Mark Vicente confessed to making the videos. Now, he said, he looks back at them and there is nothing there. Take away the hype and there is nothing there. Raniere himself looks like a bad character actor. His voice is not soothing or inspirational in any way. His torso looks… misshapen.
He/they say he was in Mexico because of all the pressure and people taking his picture. That would be Frank Parlato. He is pretty savvy. He came up with the arrest picture in Mexico AND the video of the chasing women. I believe the tabloids pay for such things.
“Tremendous pressure to recruit others,” Frank Art Parlato Voice says. That of course is what made it different and for a while successful: pyramid marketing, and there could only be one person at the top of it, the great Vanguard.
***
OK, multi-level marketing. But there is almost nothing more effective than one-on-one sales. They are lost, lonely, or mixed-up people, but the motivation was money.
Clare Bronfman is probably going down because of the money trail. Nancy Salzman too, because it is awfully hard to explain $500K in cash.
Salzman and Raniere had a bond and that was certainly at the heart of both the promise of self-empowerment and whatever members were seeking. That bond was based on neurolinguistics and hypnosis; Salzman is a therapist/coo and Raniere is a scam artist. Neurolinguistics is “the branch of linguistics dealing with the relationship between language and the structure and functioning of the brain.” Interesting… Linguistics is a subdiscipline of anthropology. Not to argue. Obviously such a study is legitimate and the brain controls everything. Hypnosis is, to cut and paste, “Hypnosis is a state of human consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion …” The dots are not mine.
Ms. Salzman is not a licensed therapist and her secrets, and exactly why she is a successful counselor, are not clear. She is an in-demand and well-paid private therapist. One has to assume that the rest of the time she and her daughters have been Ranierie’s gophers, but she has an ability to make people feel at ease if not (somewhat) healed. Among the many tidbits that ArtVoice and FrankReport have spewed-out, people, e.g., the Bronfman sisters, pay big money for Salzman’s time.
The bond that Salzman and Raniere shared was manipulating people. For Nancy Salzman it was closer to therapy, for Raniere it was clearcut crime. It actually is a good idea. There is a huge market for self-help. Wealthy Mexicans appearing to learn from wise Americans appears to be a fertile niche. Why not tie it in with a lifetime of studying and carrying-out cons?
Swiped from Frank it is a bizarre look into the business. Salzman does not look particularly fit or perfect, as she usually does. The woman in the center is one of Raniere’s longest-tenured groupies. On the far right is the Harvard-educated son of the former Mexican president. Salzman is on the left. Next to her is Mark Vicente, the video producer. Third from the right is Clare Bronfman.
Most people do not go around worshiping other people, calling them by pompous, childish titles, or submitting to wearing items that distinguish them by group or class. The same thing applies to nondisclosure, lawsuits if you leave, 24/7 communications, and other peculiarities that are legal but easily stretched into illegal. It is not a business. It certainly is not science or education. This is where it becomes a cult.
Even Warren Jeffs cracked in prison and admitted he is a complete fraud. Raniere should do the same. Now.
Maybe it is time to revisit Reddit (apparently Raniere and his cronies did). It has links to the academicians who first studied NXIVM materials when they were released about ten years ago and they declared it to be bunk and dangerous. The professors or psychologists were sued by NXIVM and Raniere. The link relates a little of the history of the lawsuits–Vanity Fair and others–and once again points out that they have all been unsuccessful. Once Raniere tried a second time; I learned what dismissed with prejudice means. A recent comment on ArtVoice mentions the statutes that now go further and outlaws such lawsuits (SLAPP laws); the post again brings up Barbara Bouchey, who was sued 14 times and had to declare bankruptcy.
Why isn’t Frank happier? I’m getting tired of reading it. NXIVM is shut down and it is just vindictive. Save your own skin some other way, please. Or, just say this is fun, this blogging, networking, and making new friends. Friends without NXIVM.
He is just lashing into Clare Bronfman nonstop. U.S. attorneys have said repeatedly more is to come. For now Bronfman looks horrible because of the lawsuits and propping-up of NXIVM and Raniere does not come out without money and she is the one providing it. It is not OK to invest in a business and person such as this. Apparently, she is likely to be indicted. She too should just come clean. Salzman also because after you are sentenced to prison it is too late.
Remember, Keith, your legacy will be who have you hurt.
Civil Rights
Trying to understand civil rights…
The Lawyers for EDNY, in their counterpoints to the request for bail, tear apart the case law cited and make Keith’s lawyers look like a team of third stringers who graduated at the bottom of their law school class. Seriously, were they even trying?. But hey, they don’t care because its all billable to Clare.
I can forgive the snafu on Allison Mack’s rented condo.