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Today we continue our trip through northern New York and I get down to the nitty-gritty.

You can say My God, why did it take so long.  Or, Thank God it is finally over.  But all I can really say is I can see why they pieced it together like they did because they had to do something.

Talk about playing the online information (collateral) game.

Mr. Report says Allison Mack is next but I keep Googling Nancy Salzman.

RICO – ongoing criminal enterprise.  It is just the start.  It was right to stop it.

A little history helps.  You have to read between the lines but the information is very real.  He is the source of the video and snapshot of Raniere.

He is also the protagonist of this and that.  It is interesting that someone could be in a position to be a publicist and a dealmaker for a failed real estate venture.  He is quite skilled and experienced at something.  His blogs are extremely well done; “MLM” even, you could say, in that he is awfully good at recruiting content.

But of course, he chose to work with these people.

“Can we get indictments on these people?”  That is a bizarre world to live in.  That is pretty much confirmation that they’re all so far in it anyone could be guilty and anything can happen.  And as we’ve seen very recently, e.g., the NCAA basketball sting and scores of search warrants at Michigan State University, anything will happen when the FBI starts confiscating computers and eavesdropping on phone calls.  It could be underage porn, failure to pay taxes, or that old catch-all, wire fraud.  It has been said a million times:  their goal is to get the top person and to shut it down.  They’re going to pressure the underlings until they crack, and then they’re going to send them to jail because they are guilty too.

It sounds to me like Parlato is going to lose.  So far his responses have been retarded.  Wait!  I think he already lost to the Bronfmans, RE the fee (was there a contract?).  This one?  I don’t know how it fits in, except to say that is (financial) fraud.

I don’t know.  I wouldn’t be very happy either, sitting around waiting to go to jail and writing about Keith Raniere.

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Christopher Bathum.  Keith Raniere is similar.

I am fascinated by these people who have no idea and leave nothing but a trail of dead, arrested, or mentally-crippled people behind.  One of the first I noticed is Aaron Hernandez.  He is dead but the persona remains and it is going to be resurrected by someone.  Raniere is a stunning example.

A page a day is a book…

Amazing how the FBI can do good things.

Frank report link.  It is one of those weird ones that you can’t just paste.  He’s on some kind of mission that seems illegitimate but the site is accurate.

Bouchey said ‘He’s gonna be after me the rest of my life and I just have to accept that.’  She added:  ‘unless he is in prison.’

CORRECTION:  It was Toni Natalie who said that:  “I live by the premise that it’s going to come; it’s just when is it going to come,” she said. “Because until he’s dead or in jail, this is what my life is.”  It is difficult to keep the characters straight.

Oh, I’m in a non sequitur, rambunctious mood.  She did get involved, she gave away the $1.7 million, but she was smart enough to walk away.  Once again 20/20 tells the story–it always sounds like hyperbole–in an amazing way and Bouchey finally comes to life.  The characters are complicated.  Anyway, don’t invest money with her; small, individual investment advisors like her are a risky place to invest.

Keith Raniere.  Women are submissive and inferior, he said.  Then he went out and proved it.

He is a con man from early on.  Just like so many of the main characters on American Greed he started early–legal system, Amway, shuttered companies.  He relied on friends and family and he swindled them.  He was a money-losing commodities trader.  It is a combination of money, sex, and power; probably the power is at the top of the pyramid.  He had little or no concern for the victims.

For Raniere nothing is sadder than the story of the 12-year old girl.

It is a story worth following.  The guy is in it up to the top of his 5’7″ head.  Homes are being raided and probably more will come out as they follow the money.

This is like the blog underworld:  people who join or study cults.  I don’t know what this is but it is good:  “Several students have achieved a high enough rank to qualify for a 20% commission on their new recruits.”

There sure are a lot of stories about victimized women.  And there are also a lot of good stories, ones that make you want to think or say, what would I do?  But the thing that grabs me about this one–almost certainly there is more to come–is schadenfreude.  People use the word often in sports writing–taking joy in the loser.

Here is a guy who wasn’t happy being in love, having friends and family, and running a legitimate business.  He is a con (confidence) man who was good enough to know his strengths and what others would fall for.  It worked much better on women than it did on men.  What is unique to each and every page/person is 1) victims and 2) a lack of empathy for them.

Obviously it is circuitous logic:  say you care, reel them in, and prove you don’t care.  It is extremely similar to ripping-off medicaid, perpetrating a stock swindle, or running off with people’s savings.

Again, the characters are sketchy and, aside from following the latest arrest news, I’ll wait for the movie.  Bouchey, Natalie, and Keeffe; during a period of around 1995 to 2005 he went through all three.  There are quite a few other really serious victims–suicide, rape, physical torture.  The numbers, well, I’m sure Mr. Report will add them up.

They’re heinous things, that were done, that contributed to berating these people  And that’s the thing–he could never leave well enough alone.

Now, Frank Report and others have turned the tide completely.  What were once “secrets” are now an internet offensive so pervasive that it is unstoppable.  Exactly the opposite is happening.  It will grow too and you could even say Raneire created another another cult and anther way to heal.  Kick him while he’s down.  The FBI, IRS, and now criminal courts will take care of other things.

Watch.  The Bronfman sisters will learn so freaking fast they’ll leave the “Capital Region” altogether.  Don’t throw good money after bad and especially don’t waste it on a reputation mired in crap.  No one else had any money because Raniere already took it all.  Now the priority is to stay away from fines, lawsuits (as the defendant), and jail.

One of the more bizarre aspects of this case is, many of these people “defected” some 8 or 9 months ago and the Times Union series ran over six years ago.  Most of this was exposed around 2010-2012.  Many lawsuits and depositions also exposed the facts, but nothing happened.  Don’t they have police in New York state?  Homeowners associations, businesses, neighbors–nothing happened.  There were bloggers too, as well as the rather organized group of scorned women.  They were up against well-paid attorneys for sure, but the reporting and exposure seemed more like armchair reporting than street-pounding, action reporting.

Schadenfreude for the victims?  Sadly, there’s a little of that.  Did any of them stop to ask, What is the guarantee, or money back policy, for your courses if I am dissatisfied?  I didn’t see any companies at all among the clients.  Why are you taking executive training courses when you are not an executive anyway?  There is no way you should be paying money to work for that company.

I’ve known a few people briefly on the periphery of “motivational training.”  Broader, more legitimate terms could be “organizational psychology” because to be a personal therapist you should be educated in it, licensed, and supervised in some capacity.  Boulder, Colorado is a real hub.  They all have fancy websites and instant, nationwide networks of experts.  Some serve a purpose and companies and individuals have discretionary budgets…

Raniere’s genius, or criminal culpability if you will, is combining self improvement teaching with Ponzi marketing.  You are paying for nothing with money or work and I/we want you to recruit more people to pay for it.

To the victims I say this.  You wanted to stand up for yourselves and hopefully you have learned to do that.  I don’t think ‘my life is now a reaction to Keith Raniere’ is a great plan either.

They responded with threats

1.  we’re gonna make it worse (more runways)
2. you’ll lose
3. your medical records will be public

Refused responsibility:

• no airport in the world would care about noise 60 miles away
• it’s the FAA!

They have a noise monitoring system but they haven’t used it to stop noise.

Every blogger who has seen the documentary Tabloid thinks they can write a better review or one with a unique perspective.

“You can’t rape a man. Either he has an erection or he doesn’t.”

If only Joyce McKinney knew. But she does know. I’ll say for sure, that she does know. But that’s about all.

It is a fantastic story and I have known women exactly like that, now that I realize. She wanted to marry him and it is that simple. He said no but she knew. That, and that only, she knew.

—

It makes me want to watch more Errol Morris films because the man has a gift. Tabloid (2010) contains no action whatsoever and on the surface it promises to be a real snoozefest. Sure it is about an engaging woman and the title speaks for itself, but the film is 90% interviews and the rest is either black and white snapshots or footage that has been recycled for 40 years. The format, sans the story and the only personality that makes it work, is dull.

Of course Morris has the advantage of an ancient story, with nothing new, that has already been told. And told. Plus there is very little there. His only role was to tell, not to investigate, and this he managed brilliantly.

From there, Joyce carries it. “Do do dipper?” She is fun to watch. In the process we get a little about tabloids in Britain.

I thought I knew North Carolina but I had never heard of Newland or Minneapolis. It is north and east of places I considered the boonies, toward Tennesse and West Virginia. She was an only child of two teachers, beautiful and smart. 168 smart? No way. But she went to East Tennessee State, the University of North Carolina, and Brigham Young.

That’s a total redo. Errol Morris is hackneyed sort of old news. His interview method has been around for a while. All he is really doing is filming and editing. After Vietnam I might have called Robert McNamara my idol; I should watch The Thin Blue Line again now that I am old enough to understand it.

It’s a damn good piece of film because, for me at least*, it made me think. I’ve known quite a few similar women and also a lot more who are dissimilar. Joyce McKinney is mesmerizing but she is destructive as hell.

She sued Morris because, while entertaining, she is pathetic and she comes out looking like it. She definitely was not gorgeous in a drop-dead, Southern California way. I’ve used that phrase before too: “any heterosexual man would.” She had sexuality and a flair and she used it. Her entire life was her looks and using men. She learned it well, from Wyoming to Utah to L.A. But she didn’t have that look or the wherewithal to actually make it a career. Seemingly, she never held a job in her life. She took a different path–soft porn, very soft porn, Utah style porn.

In the early-middle there is this bizarre story.

That story is she wanted to marry him. Aside from it being absolute true love on her part, she never really says why. Now that we’ve all had 40 years to study it carefully, every bit of evidence and logic suggests it is because he was gullible and malleable, plus he said no.

It raises some interesting questions. In England they didn’t know how to deal with it because there were no precedents for a woman raping a man; they also didn’t bother to extradite her. The film also points to what could be the birth of modern tabloid journalism, the economy and proletariat, and of course the Mormon church.

Apparently she had tried to get pregnant–she even had a miscarriage or something, had a lawyer send a letter to him saying he’d better marry her, or something like that.  But that part is still a mystery; I mean, how can you do it without actually doing it?

So really.  She is nothing but a woman scorned.  He left her.  Then he tried “missionarying” in two U.S. cities to get away.  Finally he went to rural England, and how did that work?

I’ve heard of Donny and Marie, but who the heck is Wayne Osmond?

* At first I thought, man, that is a brilliant film but then I remembered, what would women think?  Probably it only works if you’ve got a little of this going on–buxom woman shakes chest back and forth.  That may be a limited audience, or at least one without genius IQs.  And for Miss McKinney, those days are waning quickly and she needs a new gig.

***

Joyce McKinney, Joyce McKinney, Joyce McKinney.  Blah blah blah.  Kirk Anderson is not mentioned a lot because he has never told his story.  He has not only not sought publicity (e.g., the tabloids) but he has hidden every chance he has had.  Digging into the easy internet stuff, his involvement in “the story” ended 40 years ago; her public life has continued while his has been 100% un-newsworthy–intentionally–ever since.

After the incident that more or less provided her life’s income and persona, Anderson called the police.  Then he seemingly lured her into a situation in which she was captured.  She and her accomplice were then jailed for 3 months without a bail hearing?  Finally one occurred because her mental state was deteriorating??  Anderson testified at it.  Numerous real quotes, printed in a tabloid or not, are available.  He left, he called, he waited 3 months and…  He did not want it to happen.

The Mormon church uses it as an example of things gone haywire.  That is of course anyone’s prerogative.  Maybe it should be everyone’s prerogative.

At the bail hearing she said something like “I love him and I want him.  Why can’t I have him?”

He must have been quite a star at BYU.  Video of him driving a K-car through dreary Salt Lake City (it is out there) or pictures of him answering the doorbell aside, he was or is tall and good looking.  He was a freshman in drama class and he also drove a Corvette.

He was and is a big man and he honestly wanted to do other things.

—

It’s a damn good piece of film because, for me at least, it made me think. I’ve known quite a few similar women and also a lot more who are dissimilar. Joyce McKinney is mesmerizing but she is destructive as hell.

Errol Morris doesn’t come off as the most likeable guy.  Maybe it is just that The Thin Blue Line is angry; correction:  it is angry and great.  Still, considering him as a private investigator rankles a bit.  Most of what he did or does can be done with a good cell phone today.

There is some bizarre innuendo surrounding Tabloid.  Her lawsuit made it past the SLAPP process and one of McKinney’s accusations appeared to have legs.  They’re still too ridiculous to mention–killing her dog and not signing contracts?

There’s no question she participated voluntarily.  We’ve all seen it.  There were no guns or shackles, at least on camera.

As for Morris, if you can do better let’s see it.  It is an amazing film because the characters are…  Oh my gosh, what are they?  They’re characters.

Me?  I’ve known women like that.  I’ve never experienced rubber guns or ropes, but I’ve known women like that.

California vexatious litigants list.

Link:

Afterwards, McKinney sued Morris and others responsible for the documentary. There were wild and bizarre allegations worthy of its own documentary. Among other things, McKinney said she was tricked into giving an interview for the film based on the representation that it would be a Showtime television series about the paparazzi that would help clear her name. She alleged that defendants wrongfully took control over some of her property, including photographs and home movies, and that co-defendant Mark Lipson, a Tabloid producer, broke into her home with a release form and said if she did not sign the paper, her dog would die. She even had a professor of psychology declare that Tabloid included subliminal messages that led its viewers to “the development of rogue beliefs.”

I found The Thin Blue Line (1988) really hard to watch.  Maybe it is because, with the internet, I already knew so much about it it seemed to move at a snail’s pace.  The wider historical approach is better.  The deceased psycho David Harris was interesting, but again, mostly because I already know how it ends.

If McKinney deserves an Oscar for dramatic performance–as Morris has said–why wasn’t she well-paid?  He appears to have a lot in common with Harvey Weinstein and he abuses just about everyone (e.g., Randall Adams, whose story he didn’t own).

McKinney’s is a pathetic story and she comes out looking that way.  She’s right, Morris made her look bad.  But she shows herself to be a naive, self-centered, dumb model just the same.

I intended to post a screenshot of Tabloid here because it is that powerful, but I’d rather not give Morris the credit either.  The end of the movie–it is that much better than a documentary–is nothing more than a few snapshots of McKinney behind the credits.  The film was released in 2010.  At that time she had fled North Carolina because of three arrest warrants in that state and Tennessee.  If she is picked-up for anything she will go to jail.

She was living with an older man, I read somewhere, and you can see the pictures of the house, neighborhood, and her truck at the end of the film.  It isn’t exactly fertile Southern California.  She is talking about how her book materials were stolen from her truck, and the truck doesn’t look good at all.  This is the book she has been writing for 30 years.