This Is No Party at All. Maxwell Stands Alone.
Chris Hedges thinks there are a few people missing at the Ghyslaine Maxwell trial:
Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, the, J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barack, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell, Harvey Weinstein and many others who were at least present and most likely participated in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia, are not in court. The law firms and high-priced attorneys, federal and state prosecutors, private investigators, personal assistants, publicists, servants, drivers and numerous other procurers, sometimes women, who made Epstein’s crimes possible are not being investigated. Those in the media, the political arena and the entertainment industry who aggressively and often viciously shut down and discredited the few voices, including those of a handful of intrepid reporters, who sought to shine a light on the crimes committed by Epstein and his circle of accomplices are not on trial. The videos that Epstein apparently collected of his guests engaged in their sexual escapades with teenage and underage girls from the cameras he had installed in his opulent residences and on his private island have mysteriously disappeared, most probably into the black hole of the FBI, along with other crucial evidence. Epstein’s death in a New York jail cell, while officially ruled a suicide, is in the eyes of many credible investigators a murder. With Epstein dead, and Maxwell sacrificed, the ruling oligarchs will once again escape justice.
Epstein's playmates, his fellow child rapists, and their enablers are conspicuously missing from the dock. Hedges goes on to indict entire industries - the media, the entertainment industry and (let's face facts folks) the political industry. Yes, politics has been transformed into an industry but that's another day.
Which means Ghyslaine's goose is cooked. Someone must be sacrificed to the volcano god and those "higher purpose persons" no matter how venal really have more important things to occupy their time.
The old saying has been changed ( it was never true anyway ). It's not important that justice be done only that a show of justice be produced.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the spirit of the post, Mound, but even a modicum of justice is better than no justice. From what I have read, Maxell played an indispensable role in procuring the young girls that were so horribly abused. Even if justice stops with her, at least an important penalty will have been exacted.
ReplyDeleteShe deserves to be prosecuted and, if convicted, imprisoned, Lorne. No doubt about that. That, however, is not really justice. Justice must be seen to be done and, in this case, that's not going to happen. That calls justice into disrepute when, in fact, the judiciary are limited in what they can do. They cannot, for example, indict Clinton or Trump or Prince Andrew.
DeleteThose that might care about such things know that justice isn't being done and the wrench in the gears is almost invariably the doing of some attorney-general, federal or state. The cops seem to have done their legwork, albeit reluctantly.
Taking out Ghyslaine Maxwell without the others is akin to taking out a mid-grade drug peddler. Those they served are served elsewhere, by others. And the abuse goes on, sooner or later.
No, rumley, that's not the "old saying." You're way off. The principle is that, "It is not enough that justice be done. Justice must be seen to be done."
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot packed into those two sentences just not what you contend.
Well at least
ReplyDelete"You can have all the justice you can afford."
stayed the same
That's quite true, Lungta. I recall a particular chartered bank that distributed retainers to every significant law firm in Vancouver so that anyone seeking to hire a heavy hitter to sue the bank could be thwarted by a "conflict of interest" claim. "Oh, I am sorry but this firm provides services to that bank so we simply can't help you."
DeleteAnd it is also true that the most experienced, skilled and accomplished counsel often command the highest fees. They're also often the most efficient, not having to re-invent the wheel, and they do tend to provide a better outcome.
I'm saying that things have changed and the original you quote has been replaced by the political and economic expedient.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in a comment above: 'the wrench in the gears is almost invariably the doing of some attorney-general, federal or state. The cops seem to have done their legwork, albeit reluctantly.'
DeleteI rose to defend the judiciary, at least in Canada.
Our prime minister, however, is much akin to his predecessor in upholding justice. There are plenty of examples from SNC Lavalin to the KPMG scandal to the failure of his government to bring the tax haven scofflaws to justice. I don't suggest that Trudeau is as bad as Harper, far from it. They do, however, share some similar instincts.
Maxwell must be shitting herself at the prospect of a prison sentence knowing the end-times of her former "employer"
ReplyDeleteShe has much to divulge that will ,likely, be kept from the public's eye.
How the courts are going to justify this will be interesting.
This case has international connections , Tony Blair included.
The privileged class have indulged in such activities for life immemorial.
Yet we love them!!
TB