BookWatch: FTX whistleblower was unusual. Most witnesses are too afraid to speak up.

Every year, Book of the Month crowns the best book of the year in November. Here are all the 2021 nominees, based on readers' favorites. When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more. Every year, Book of the Month crowns the best book of the year in November. Here are all the 2021 nominees, based on readers' favorites. Amazon; Bookshop; Alyssa Powell/Insider Book of the Month sends great books from emerging authors directly to subscribers. At the end of each year, readers vote for their favorite books they read through the service. Here are the 20 most loved BOTM selections of 2021. The winner will be announced on November 11. Book of the Month sends new and noteworthy books - often before they become popular - to subscribers each month. In the past, the company has picked hits such as "The Great Alone" by Kristin Hannah, "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee, and "The Girl With the Louding Voice" by Abi Daré to bring to its readers.Membership (small)At the end of the year, the club's thousands of subscribers vote on the best books they read through the service, making it a more curated version of Goodreads' best books of the year. For example, the 2020 winner was "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett, which also won the 2020 Goodreads award for Best Historical Fiction.Below, you'll find a reading list of the top 20 books of 2021 according to Book of the Month readers. Book of the Month will announce the best book of 2021 on November 11, awarding the winning author a $10,000 prize. The 20 best books picked by Book of the Month in 2021, according to its readers:Descriptions are provided by Amazon and edited lightly for length and clarity. "Things We Lost To The Water" by Eric Nguyen Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $13.99When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle into life in America, she sends letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.But with time, Huong realizes she will never see her husband again. While she attempts to come to terms with this loss, her sons, Tuan and Binh, grow up in their absent father's shadow, haunted by a man and a country trapped in their memories and imaginations. As they push forward, the three adapt to life in America in different ways: Huong gets involved with a Vietnamese car salesman who is also new in town; Tuan tries to connect with his heritage by joining a local Vietnamese gang; and Binh, now going by Ben, embraces his adopted homeland and his burgeoning sexuality. Their search for identity — as individuals and as a family — threatens to tear them apart, un­til disaster strikes the city they now call home, and they are suddenly forced to find a new way to come together and honor the ties that bind them. "Imposter Syndrome" by Kathy Wang Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $16.59Julia Lerner, a recent university graduate in computer science, is living in Moscow when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency in 2006. By 2018, she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self-promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life Balance 2.0); and work in gender equality (transfer the most annoying females from her team), she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia's asking for more, and Julia's getting nervous.Alice Lu is a first-generation Chinese-American whose parents are delighted she's working at Tangerine (such a successful company!). Too bad she's slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri, a perennial "founder's girlfriend." One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she's burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine's privacy settings aren't as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself. The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she's the one who built her career; isn't she entitled to protect the lifestyle she's earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part sharp and hilarious satire, "Impostor Syndrome" is a shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech, Silicon Valley hubris, and the rarely fulfilled but ever-attractive promise of the American Dream. "The Lost Apothecary" by Susan Penner Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $13.99Hidden in the depths of 18th-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious 12-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.Meanwhile, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her 10th wedding anniversary alone in present-day London, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London 200 years ago, her life collides with the apothecary's in a stunning twist of fate — and not everyone will survive. "This Close To Okay" by Leese Cross-Smith Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $15.62On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing at the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. What she doesn't realize is that Emmett isn't the only one who needs healing — and they both are harboring secrets.Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge's edge — as well as the hard truths Tallie has been grappling with since her marriage ended — "This Close to Okay" is an uplifting, cathartic story about chance encounters, hope found in unlikely moments, and the subtle magic of human connection. "We Are the Brennans" by Tracey Lange Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $19.49When 29-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it's not easy. She deserted them all — and her high school sweetheart — five years before with little explanation, and they've got questions.Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family's pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets — secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes — and ultimately find a way forward together. "The Maidens" by Alex Michaelides Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $16.78Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this, Mariana is confident. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike ― particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?When another body is found, Mariana's obsession with proving Fosca's guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything ― including her own life. "Razorblade Tears" by S.A. Cosby Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $20.10Ike Randolph has been out of jail for 15 years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah's white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.Derek's father, Buddy Lee, was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father's criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their prejudices about their sons and each other as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. "Malibu Rising" by Taylor Jenkins Reid Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $16.80Malibu: August 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over — especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud — because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he's been inseparable since birth.Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can't stop thinking about has promised she'll be there.And Kit has a couple of secrets of her own — including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.By midnight the party will be entirely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all come rising to the surface. "Four Winds" by Kristin Hannah Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $14.49Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the land's bounty is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman's only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: Marriage to a man she barely knows.By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work, and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa's tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa ― like so many of her neighbors ― must make an agonizing choice: Fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family. "The People We Keep" by Alison Larkin Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $22.99Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school, picking up shifts at Margo's diner, she's left fending for herself in a town where she's never quite felt at home. When she "borrows" her neighbor's car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good — setting off on a journey to find her own life.Driving without a chosen destination, she stops to rest in Ithaca. Her only plan is to survive, but as she looks for work, she finds a kindred sense of belonging at Cafe Decadence, the local coffee shop. Still, somehow, it doesn't make sense to her that life could be this easy. The more she falls in love with her friends in Ithaca, the more she can't shake the feeling that she'll hurt them the way she's been hurt.As April moves through the world, meeting people who feel like home, she chronicles her life in the songs she writes and discovers that where she came from doesn't dictate who she has to be. "The Heart Principle" by Helen Hoang Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $13.99When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She's going to embark on a string of one-night stands — the more unacceptable the men, the better.That's where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex — he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna's family, she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love — but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves. "Instructions for Dancing" by Nicola Yoon Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $14.40Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began… and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: Adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything — including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met.Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk? "Once There Were Wolves" by Charlotte McConaghy Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $20.99Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing 14 gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape but Aggie, too — unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she's witnessed ― inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet, as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect? "People We Meet On Vacation" by Emily Henry Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $9.98Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She's a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year, they live far apart — she's in New York City, and he's in their small hometown — but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.Poppy has everything she should want, but she's stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together — lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? "The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina" by Zoraida Cordove Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $21.49The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty or why their matriarch won't ever leave their home in Four Rivers — even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers.Seven years later, her gifts have manifested differently for Marimar, Rey, and Tatinelly's daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea's line. Determined to save what's left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants travel to Ecuador — to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back. "Damnation Spring" by Ash Davidson Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $19.81Colleen and Rich Gundersen are raising their young son, Chub, on the rugged California coast. It's 1977, and life in this Pacific Northwest logging town isn't what it used to be. For generations, the community has lived and breathed timber; now, that way of life is threatened. Colleen is an amateur midwife. Rich is a tree-topper. It's a dangerous job that requires him to scale trees hundreds of feet tall — a job that both his father and grandfather died doing. Colleen and Rich want a better life for their son — and they take steps to assure their future. Rich secretly spends their savings on a swath of ancient Redwoods. Colleen, desperate to have a second baby, challenges the logging company's use of herbicides that she believes are responsible for the many miscarriages in the community — including her own. The pair find themselves on opposite sides of a budding conflict that threatens the very thing they are trying to protect: Their family. "The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany" by Lori Nelson Spielman Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $10.95Since the day Filomena Fontana cast a curse upon her sister more than 200 years ago, not one second-born Fontana daughter has found lasting love. Some, like second-born Emilia, the happily single baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli, claim it's an odd coincidence. Others, like her sexy, desperate-for-love cousin Lucy, insist it's an actual hex. But both are bewildered when their great-aunt calls with an astounding proposition: If they accompany her to her homeland of Italy, Aunt Poppy vows she'll meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her 80th birthday — and break the Fontana Second-Daughter Curse once and for all.Against the backdrop of wandering Venetian canals, rolling Tuscan fields, and enchanting Amalfi Coast villages, romance blooms, destinies are found, and family secrets are unearthed — secrets that could threaten the family far more than a centuries-old curse. "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $12.92Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her.Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers — Owen's 16-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah's increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen's boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn't who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen's true identity — and why he disappeared.Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realize they're also building a new future — one neither of them could have anticipated.You can read our interview with author Laura Dave here. "The Office of Historical Corrections" by Danielle Evans Bookshop; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $17.49Danielle Evans is known for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With "The Office of Historical Corrections," Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters' lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love and getting walloped by grief — all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history — about who gets to tell them and the cost of setting the record straight. "Infinite Country" by Patricia Engel Amazon; Lauren Arzbaecher/Insider Available at Amazon and Bookshop from $14.80I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country.Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally reunite with her family.How this family came to occupy two different countries — two different worlds — comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia's parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro's deportation and the family's splintering — the costs they've all been living with ever since. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

"Our System Is Collapsing In Real Time": Tucker Carlson Gives Bombshell Interview Authored by Urs Gehriger via WeltWoche.ch, “They’re all afraid” Tucker Carlson is unstoppable. Since his sudden departure from Fox News he scores record viewer ratings. In an exclusive interview with Weltwoche, the political media star demolishes the mainstream media’s manipulation machine, reveals his concerns about a potential Donald Trump Restoration, he speaks about the disturbing state of the Biden family and discusses what’s next for him in a Post-Fox News Order. When Tucker Carlson departed the Fox News Channel in April, his enemies cheered. But if they thought the happy warrior had finally been defeated, their judgment was as dismal as their approval ratings. With an assist from Elon Musk, Carlson is reaching an even larger, global audience with his new show, “Tucker Carlson on Twitter (now known as ‘X’).” The veteran newscaster has expanded his mission: to defeat the mainstream media’s suffocating bias and incuriosity not just about critical events at home but in capitals around the world. When we reach him, Carlson has just returned from the United Arab Emirates where he met with its president, Mohamed bin Zayed. Carlson pronounces the sheikh “the most interesting, wisest leader I've ever spoken to” — a provocative assessment given that the talk show host sat across from Donald J. Trump last month. Of the Arab leader, Carlson enthuses, “I've never met a more humble leader, ever — and I believe humility is a prerequisite for wisdom.” Carlson is far less kind about his colleagues in the press. “They're all fearful people,” the 54-year-old scoffs. Instead of holding the powerful to account, “they do exactly the opposite.”  Indeed, “they do their bidding.” Looking ahead to the Presidential elections in 2024, he says: “They're trying to put Trump in prison for the crime of running against Joe Biden … That's what this election's about. Are we going to allow that, or aren't we? And I just don't think we can.”  Weltwoche: Since leaving Fox and going solo with your new show, “Tucker Carlson On Twitter (now known as ‘X’),” your posts have logged tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of views. You’re taking off like Buzz Lightyear. Are you feeling the freedom? To explore more topics and ideas? To express your views? Tucker Carlson: Well, definitely. If anything, I've expressed my views less. I haven't done many straight-to-camera scripts where I write the script and give my opinion. I've done what I've wanted to do for a long time but couldn't, which is get on an airplane and go see the rest of the world. I couldn't because I had a daily show I had to do. I've become convinced over the past several years — particularly since the war in Ukraine began — that the world is changing much more quickly than most Americans understand. And because there's virtually no coverage of the rest of the world in American media, Americans don't have a good sense of it. What we, in this country, refer to as the "Post-War Order” — the institutions set up in the wake of World War II to keep the world peaceful and prosperous and the United States at the top of the pyramid, and that would include the dominance of the dollar, the SWIFT system, NATO — all of that appears to me to be crumbling. That's my view of it. I've wanted to travel and see if that is, in fact, happening — and it is. Weltwoche: You travel the world, now, more than ever. What personality, globally, fascinates you in particular? Carlson: I think, right now, the most interesting, wisest leader I've ever spoken to is the ruler of Abu Dhabi, MBZ. [Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, popularly known by his initials as MBZ, is president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi.]  I respect [him]. Weltwoche: You have just flown back to the US from Abu Dhabi? Carlson: Yes, and I spoke to him. I've interviewed a lot of people who run countries or organizations. I've interviewed a lot of leaders in, well, thirty years. That's been my job. And I've never interviewed anybody in charge of anything [who is] more willing to admit when he doesn't understand something or have any answer to a question. I've never met a more humble leader, ever, and I believe humility is a prerequisite for wisdom. Wise people admit what they don't know, and I've never seen that before. You don't see that in the West. You're not going to interview a presidential candidate in the United States, or a president, for that matter, who's willing to say, “I don't know the answer. I've thought about it, and I'm not sure.” They'll never say that, because you can't admit you don't know. Of course, the scope of human knowledge is very limited. We don't know anything, actually. We don't know how the brain works or how the pyramids were built. The list of things we don't know is far longer than the list of things we do, and no one will admit that. The people who do, who are willing to say that out loud, are the ones who I trust. So, I was very impressed. I've never been more impressed by a leader. But there are a lot of interesting people from around the world. Javier Milei, I thought, was an interesting guy. [Javier Gerardo Milei is an Argentine economist and politician known for his libertarian views.  He is leading in the polls for the next presidential election.] Weltwoche: Let’s have a brief look back to your many years with Fox where you became a global media star, ranking number one with “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on cable news. During a recent episode of your show on “X,” you said: “The Murdochs never got in my way. They were always good to me.  But there were always small minded. … It’s a company run by fearful women, you know what I mean?”  What do you mean? Carlson: Well, I spent fourteen years at Fox and, most of the time, I was working on my own business. I had no role in managing the company — far from it. I was just an employee. So, there are a lot of things about how the company runs that I wouldn't know about. In my experience, the family that owns, that controls the company, the Murdochs, were always very gentlemanly to me. Very polite, nice, gave me huge latitude. I often, or sometimes, felt that they disagreed with what I was saying, that my views were different from theirs. But they let me express my views, and I was grateful for that. I am grateful for that. I never had a problem with them, and I don't have a problem with them, now. I'd disagree with them on certain things, but I'll always be grateful for the chances they gave me and the kindness they showed to me. There are a lot of great people at Fox News, but there are also a lot of people who are just terrified, who are just trying to make it through the day. And I don't think they make Xanax strong enough for some of the people who run the place to calm down. [laughter] I meant what I said. I've worked at a lot of news organizations in the United States, and they're all the same. They're all afraid of getting sued or yelled at or fired or humiliated. But interestingly, none of them are very afraid of getting things wrong. That's not a concern. They're not worried about accuracy as much as they're worried about being unfashionable or saying something forbidden. What they're really worried about is telling the truth. You'd think that if you ran a news organization, your main concern would be getting it right and that you'd be terrified if someone would make a mistake. But that's not their top concern. And not just at Fox. I worked at MSNBC and CNN. I worked at PBS. I spent a year working at ABC. I've certainly been around a lot of news companies, and they're all the same. They're all fearful people who are making more than they probably should be, and they're worried about losing their jobs. Occasionally, you'll find a courageous person, but they are very, very, very rare. Very rare. Weltwoche: The media as the “fourth estate” has a serious credibility problem, not just in the US. Here, it's the same. The only national news organization in the US that scores the majority of the public's trust is, according to YouGov [May 2023], The Weather Channel. Carlson: Yes. Weltwoche: Half of the American public believes that the news media deliberately attempts to mislead, misinform, and propagandize [Gallup, February 2023]. You've been in the news for so long. Why is the state of the media so miserable? Carlson: Well, because if you want to subvert a democracy, you need to control the information that citizens receive. I'd argue that the news media in democracies is far less trustworthy than it is in other countries simply because it matters more in a democracy. People vote on the basis of the information they have. So, if you want to control their votes, you have to control what they know. There has been a very aggressive attempt, over a number of decades on the part of the people who run the United States, to control what's available on our news stations and in our newspapers — to control the news media. And they have. Weltwoche: The people working for news media seem to go along with it. Carlson: Of course they do, because they're terrified. They're just afraid. They go along with it, absolutely. They're afraid to say something that will offend the people who run the government, who run the biggest companies and, most of the time, they won't. And that's not just a perversion of what they should be doing, it's an inversion. They exist to hold the people in power accountable. Instead, they do exactly the opposite. They do their bidding. For example, they roll out this vaccine in the United States. It has massive consequences for the population. Hundreds of millions of people take it, and no reporting on that vaccine – no real reporting — is allowed. People are, literally, fired from their jobs if they'd question the efficacy and the safety of that vaccine. That's insane. In a functioning democracy, if you had a mandatory drug where everyone's required to take it, the news media’s job would be to report out whether or not it's safe and whether or not it works. They did just the opposite. Even the war in Ukraine. This is potentially a nuclear conflict between superpowers. Shouldn't we know all that we can? “No.” You're not allowed. I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, and the US government stopped me. So, think about that for a minute. By the way, nobody defended me. I don't think there was anybody in the news media who said, “Wait a second. I may not like this guy, but he has a right to interview anyone he wants, and we have a right to hear what Putin says.” You're not allowed to hear Putin's voice. Because why? There was no vote on it. No one asked me. I'm 54 years old. I've paid my taxes and followed the law. I'm an American citizen. I'm a much more loyal American than, say, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, who didn't even grow up in this country; she grew up in Canada. And they're telling me what it is to be a loyal American? I'm just not even interested, at this point. I don't even care. When David Frum [a staff writer for The Atlantic magazine] from Canada gets to tell me that I'm a disloyal American, it's a joke. It's a joke. And I don't care what they think, actually, anymore. And I don't have to care. So, I don't.  Weltwoche: The high ratings your show is getting demonstrate that you raise a voice that people want to hear. One such example of media manipulation is the media suppression and dismissal of Hunter Biden's laptop. You have studied the infamous “laptop from hell.” So have we, at Weltwoche, since the spring of last year. You have profound knowledge about the Biden business network. You were the first to interview the Biden business insider, Tony Bobulinski, in October 2020. From what you have seen, would you conclude that Joe Biden knew about his son's business? That he facilitated it? And that he might have profited, himself? Carlson: Well, those aren't opinions. That's factually established. We interviewed Devon Archer [Hunter Biden’s longtime close business partner and friend] last month, who, on dozens of occasions at business meetings, watched Joe Biden call his son Hunter during a business meeting. His son put him on speakerphone while Joe Biden was vice president of the United States in order to help his son's business. By the way, the business, the so-called “business,” consisted wholly of being Joe Biden's son. Hunter Biden had no expertise in energy. He knew nothing about Ukrainian gas. It's a joke that he didn't know. He had no relevant experience in, or knowledge of, any of the so-called “businesses” he ran. He was purely selling access to his father. It's not speculation. That's what his business partner said, on the record, on camera. Yes, there's no debate about that. That's a fact. I guess the media hate Trump so much or are profiting in some way, I suppose, from Joe Biden being president that they feel they'd have to lie about it. But they're lying, period. Weltwoche: Another story that has raised zero curiosity among the DC press is the allegation, reportedly made by his own daughter, Ashley, in her private diary, that Joe Biden may have behaved toward her in a way that she describes as "probably not appropriate" when she was a young girl. Hunter gave his dad the alias "Pedo Peter" in his cell phone contact list. I assume that in America "Pedo Peter" is an unusual term of address for one's father. Why has the press shown so little interest in investigating these disturbing details, especially in the post-#MeToo era? Carlson: Well, [Ashley] said it in her diary, whose only audience was herself. She didn't allege it. She recorded it: that her father took showers with her as a child and, because he did, she became a sex addict. That's what she wrote in her diary. The response from the Biden administration was to get the Department of Justice to raid the home of the man who had the diary, arrest the people who had the diary though they didn't steal it, they paid for it. Ashley Biden left it behind in a house she'd been renting, and they never said anything about it. That's a sex crime. I have three daughters. I can promise you it's not normal for a father to shower with his daughters. [Ashley] said, in her diary, “I think I have a sex addiction because my father showered with me.” That's what she says. By the way, Joe Biden has dementia and is not running the United States. So, that raises the obvious question: “Who is?” Weltwoche: Who is? Carlson: I would assume Barack Obama through his cutouts who work for Joe Biden. But I don't know that. The New York Times hasn't bothered to report on it, but Joe Biden has dementia. He's not capable of speaking a complete sentence much less running the largest organization in human history, which is the US government. The whole premise is ridiculous, and now they're telling us? He's 80 years old. He can barely speak. He can barely walk. And he's going to run, again, for president of the United States while there's a war going on? The whole thing is so demented that we're moving to the point where they're not trying to convince anybody. They're just trying to suppress and arrest people who ask questions. They've arrested dozens of people, of political opponents, not for committing crimes, but for opposing them in the past month. Dozens in the past month. Our system is collapsing in real time. We're watching this happen. If you read the American media, it's stories about Kim Kardashian and lots of irrelevant crap about trannies and all this stuff. The bottom line is the president of the United States is non compos mentis. Who is running the government? If you can't answer that question, you're not doing your job in the media, it would seem to me. Whatever. Weltwoche: You landed a great scoop with your interview with former President Donald Trump, which went on the air just as the Republican candidates were holding their first debate on your previous channel, Fox. Back in 2018, when you and I first met for an interview, Trump had been in office for almost two years. And you told me your assessment that, at that juncture, "Trump is not capable"as US president. You referenced the border — he didn't build the wall enough — as an example. If Trump succeeds in making a triumphant return to the White House, do you think he can be effective? Carlson: No. Of course, I don't know. I'd merely be speculating. I think his first term as president proved it's pretty hard to run an organization, millions of people, when most of them are paid to oppose you, which they are. There are unionized federal employees whose jobs depend on the other party. So, the system, itself, is pretty difficult for someone who seeks to reform the system. At this point, however, they're trying to put Trump in prison for the crime of running against Joe Biden. I'm just speaking in my capacity as a voter. That's all I need to know. Do I think if Trump were to take over, tomorrow, that he would make the CIA accountable to voters? No, I don't. Do I think he'd build a wall? I don't know. I hope so. I know that you cannot allow, you absolutely cannot allow a political party to use our system of justice to imprison the president's chief opponent. You can't do that. That's just absolutely not allowed. From my perspective, that's what this election's about. Are we going to allow that, or aren't we? And I just don't think we can. Weltwoche: Your fellow journalists can't stop criticizing you. They call your reporting "pro-Russian" or “pro-Trump.” Recently, you took a lot of heat for your Larry Sinclair interview where he talked about [conducting] an alleged gay affair with Barack Obama. [Sinclair, a convicted con artist, claims that he saw former United States President Barack Obama smoking crack before engaging in sexual activities with him in 1999 when Obama was a state senator.] While it’s true that his claims were never pursued by an Obama-besotted press, are you concerned that the one-on-one, interview format of your online show limits your ability to fully investigate the truth of your guests’ claims of fact?   Carlson: Oh, sure, of course. I've been doing one-on-one interviews on television for 25 years. Weltwoche: You had a big team at the time when you did those interviews. Carlson: Well, they still work for me. I have the same team. [laughs] Yes, I have exactly the same team. In fact, they're coming over for dinner in just a minute. I think Larry Sinclair has been attacked. He was arrested, at one point. He was dismissed as “non-credible.” This has been going on for fifteen years. People have been attacking Larry Sinclair or dismissing him. My view was, “I'm the balance, I guess. Why don't we get to hear from Larry Sinclair? Okay, here's Larry Sinclair. You can make up your own mind as to what you think about him.” In other words, liars, proven liars like Ben Smith, at Politico at the time, were able to get out there and tell us that everything Larry Sinclair said was false.   Okay, that's Ben Smith's position. Here's Larry Sinclair's position. It seems like I'm the balance, as far as I'm concerned. Does that make sense? Weltwoche: Some critics ask, “Is airing Larry Sinclair’s personal recollections any different from Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Brent Kavanaugh?” Carlson: Well, it's very different. I think it's different in its particulars. It's very different. But I also think Larry Sinclair has the right to… Larry Sinclair, in my view, in a very credible way, said he had sex with Barack Obama. Since we're so fanatically pro-gay, now, and everything gay is good, why is that bad? “Obama likes dudes.” Why is that an attack on Obama? Do you know what I mean? Like, am I the only non-homophobe, here? It seems obvious to me that Obama likes dudes. He told his girlfriend that. Alex McNear [who was romantically involved with Obama during his brief time at Occidental College] is a distant cousin of mine, by the way. And Obama told her, “I fantasize about having sex with men.” I guess it's a little strange to think that saying that out loud is somehow an attack. I don't know why it would be. I thought we're supposed to like dudes. [laughs] I can't keep up. Weltwoche: Tucker, you've made a remarkable journey. Over the years, you've changed your mind about big issues, important issues, like the invasion of Iraq. Carlson: Oh, yes. Weltwoche: And you went public about it. Very few journalists are willing to admit to a typo, let alone make a serious course correction.  Is there an issue, right now, that you’re reconsidering, taking a second look at?  A previously held position that is currently under review? Carlson: Oh, I changed my mind like every issue. [laughs] I'm constantly changing my mind about things. Constantly. Gosh, there are a lot of issues that I'm not sure I fully understand. [Artificial Intelligence], for example. I'm very worried that AI's going to destroy the world and become autonomous. But will it? I don't know. I guess, other than a gut-level concern, I don't have a very smart view of AI. There are lots of issues, like that, that I'm trying to figure out. Thankfully, I don't have to have an opinion on everything. I'm old enough that I'm happy to admit when I don't know the answer to something. I'll tell you this: My view that the war in Ukraine imperils Western civilization has gotten stronger with time, not weaker. I feel that way. I thought it, before. Now, I really think it. There are lots of things I have worried about in the past that have turned out to be not worth worrying about. I was just in the Middle East, yesterday, and I was thinking I first went to the Gulf in 2001, right after 9/11, and we were completely convinced — I was completely convinced — that we were looking at the beginning of a 500 year war against Islam, the West versus Islam. And that's not the way it turned out at all, actually. The Gulf Arabs that I’ve dealt with, over the years, are far more tolerant than your average white, secular liberal in America — far more tolerant. They have a bigger and more Christian Christmas celebration in Abu Dhabi than we have in New York. Weltwoche: In general, what gives you hope in a rather worrisome time, looking into the future?  Carlson: That the stakes have suddenly gotten so high that smart people are rethinking their assumptions. I see it all around me. I see people all around me asking themselves, “I used to believe this. Is it still true? Was it ever true? What is the truth?” People are focused on questions of truth and falsehood, I think, much more deeply than they ever have been, and that's a good thing. I also see an awakening of spiritual awareness and religious faith in the United States that I think is great. Not everyone is reaching the same conclusions that I'm reaching, but that's okay. It's better than thinking that Amazon's going to make you happy, because Amazon is not going to make you happy, actually. That's not true. That's a lie. And more and more people seem to be concluding that it's a lie, and I think that's a great thing. There's this idea that somehow the main threat to our happiness is from religious people. That's absurd. The main threat to our happiness is from people who think they're God. They're the dangerous ones. If you think that you're God, there's no limit to what you'll do because you think you're the final arbiter, you're the final judge, you're all-powerful. That's terrifying. I'm much more comfortable around religious people. I'm a Christian, but they don't have to share my views. As I just said, I was actually meeting with some people the other day. There was a call to prayer right in the middle of our meeting, and everyone got up and got on their knees and faced toward Mecca and worshiped Allah. Twenty years ago, I would've thought, “Oh my gosh, how threatening!” Now, I thought, “How wonderful. How great is that?” Weltwoche: When are you coming back to Switzerland? I know it might be boring, here. You told me there's nothing to report on. But it'd be nice to have you over. Carlson: I love that. I love a boring country. You've got the last boring country in the West. Weltwoche: Switzerland is changing, too. Carlson: I know, it’s true. But at least it’s beautiful. If you have inspiring physical beauty, it’s kind of hard to take the mountains away. I hope Switzerland stays exactly the same. The second the American empire collapses, you will get the bank secrecy back. By the way, secrecy does not imply wrongdoing. Privacy is a prerequisite for freedom. I have a lock at my bedroom. It doesn’t mean I do anything illegal in my bedroom. I am not a slave; I am a citizen. I can have privacy. Tyler Durden Sun, 09/24/2023 - 09:20.....»»

Some nightmare subjects that are very common include failure, accidents, or being chased. Here are the possible meanings behind these themes. Daniel Kaluuya experiences hypnotic induced nightmares as Chris in "Get Out."Universal Pictures Despite all having unique lives and brains, many people have similar nightmares. Some of the most common nightmares include being chased, death, and physical fights. Though it's not a perfect science, there are ways to interpret these common themes. You're running, but you're not going anywhere. You're falling, but you never hit the ground. You're watching your loved one waste away, but there's nothing you can do about it.If you're like most people, then you might be covered in a cold sweat by now, recalling a nightmare.Though our dreams are highly personal, and often based on what happened to us over our lifetime and during our day, there are some themes that unite us all."These dreams are related to issues that every person has in their waking lives," Michael Schredl, head of the sleep lab at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany, told Insider. It's tough to make generalizations about nightmares, since science hasn't agreed on why we even dream in the first place.But there are basic patterns in nightmare themes that may help you translate what your brain is trying to express, Schredl said. Understanding these patterns could be a starting point to identify what emotions you're dealing with in your subconscious.In a 2018 study, Schredl and his colleague analyzed over 1,200 nightmares, from asking participants to recall their most recent distressing dream. They then categorized them into common themes.Here are the top 10 they found.10. InfestationThis surreal 1920's poster advocates for malaria prevention with bug repellent, but could also look a lot like your nightmares.Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesHaving an infestation in your home makes reality feel like a nightmare. So dreaming about an invasion of creepy crawlers or fuzzy fiends could be a literal fear or a symbolic one.If it's symbolic, an infestation could represent a fear of disease or dirt, or any other things you personally associate with mice, roaches, or rats, Schredl said. Since there are many ways these dreams can unfold, there are many ways they can be interpreted.It could also be an example of feeling insecure or unsafe in your home, Schredl said.9. Evil presencePeople often dream of an evil entity standing near them while they sleep.David Wall/Getty ImagesIn the ninth spot, there's the eerie feeling of suspecting that there may be a ghost, demon, or alien nearby. This could mean that the dreamer sees the offending presence, or merely that they suspect one is near.These sorts of sleep hallucinations often plague people suffering from sleep paralysis, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This unsettling sleep disorder occurs when the parts of the brain that keep you still during sleep and the parts that keep you sleeping miscommunicate.In this state, people often report a ghoul standing over them as they struggle to move. Talk about not getting your beauty sleep.These horror-movie characters are likely your brain using familiar cultural symbols to depict your fear in the moment, Baland Jalal, a neuroscientist at Harvard, told the Guardian. Imagine, "you've grown up being told by your grandmother that spirits and demons inhabit your village after dark. You wake up during REM sleep, you see some kind of a shadow, and you starting panicking, creating more body image hallucinations which your mind interprets in this cultural narrative and so you perceive a demon coming towards you," he said. 8. CatastropheAn illustration of an atomic blast in the middle of a populated city. Disaster dreams are common to many sleepers.Mirifada / Getty ImagesFires, floods, nuclear fallout — a common subject of many people's dreams is anything that could be mistaken for the end of times. Disasters ranked at number eight in the survey, found in about 4.5% of the dream reports Shredl studied.These could signal general apprehension for the future, as a way for your brain to ruminate on something you're worried may occur, according to Stanford's Corelli. It depends on whether you view the changes coming into your life as positive or negative.Or, if you've experienced a natural disaster, it could be your mind working its way through the situation as a way of processing your trauma, according to researchers from the Univeristy of Buffalo. 7. Feeling worriedNightmares that feature apprehension and worry often don't give the dreamer a clear cause.studiostockart/Getty ImagesDo you know the feeling when you're sure you've forgotten something important, something big, but you're not sure what it is? Many people dream about this feeling, with apprehension and worry ranking as the seventh most common nightmare. People in Shredl's study reported feeling like they knew something was wrong, but they didn't know what, and that made them more uncomfortable. Fear of the unknown seems to be something that many of us share, even in our dreams.6. DisagreementsDreaming about disagreements could be a sign of social anxiety.Boris Zhitkov/ Getty ImagesInterpersonal conflicts come in as the sixth most common. In these scenarios, the dreamer has or witnesses a non-physical fight. These dreams could be emblematic of some social anxiety you have about a personal relationship, according to Psychology Today. You could be dreading a conversation you need to have or processing a conflict that has already happened. 5. Sickness and deathAn attending health car worker holds the hand of a patient, checking their pulse.Henry King/ Getty ImagesHealth-related concerns and death ranked right in the middle of the survey and was found in 11.6% of reports.In these types of nightmares, the dreamer reported watching themselves or a loved one become sick, suffer through a disease, or die. These dreams are complex, and could represent many things depending on what you're personally going through.They could be emblematic of a general fear of sickness and death or feeling out of control of your personal well-being, Insider previously reported. It might also be a way for you to process grief, according to a 2020 study. 4. Being chasedA stylized long exposure photograph showing four people running from an approaching car in a tunnel. Sometimes, in chase nightmares, you might not even know what it is that is pursuing you.Frank Herholdt/Getty ImagesIn these dreams, you might be being pursued by a human, an evil presence, or something you can't even see. Schredl explains how the basic patterns of a chase dream can tell you what it means. In a nightmare like this, you're afraid as you run from something that you feel is getting increasingly close to you.Experiencing fear and running away from what causes it is psychology 101. This is avoidance behavior, Schredl said. So generally, dreams about being chased usually mean you're anxious about something you may be avoiding.3. AccidentsA photo of a woman falling through a liminal, white space. You might've had a nightmare that feels just like this.Klaus Vedfelt/ Getty ImagesThis broad category of dreams includes themes like falling, car wrecks, drowning, and more. Shredl found this theme in 15% of reports.But when broken down by sex, males reported significantly more falling dreams than their female counterparts.These dreams might be more literal than you might think, representing a fear of heights, driving, or the ocean. But they could also represent feeling out of control, fearing death, or feeling helpless, Schredl told Insider.He explained these dreams by comparing our brains to a movie director."If you're a film director, and you have to depict the situation of the feeling of completely helpless, a falling dream, the falling situation, might be one of those. Because in the falling dream the only thing you know, you know, is that you will fall down and be dead," he said.So these sorts of accident dreams can be our brain's way of dramatically expressing how we're feeling about our own mortality, capability, or health. 2. Physical aggressionPhysical fights are the second most common nightmare.Hans Neleman/Getty ImagesTaking number six on the list — disagreements — a bit further, you arrive at the second most common dream, which is physical aggression.In these scenarios, the dreamer may be attacked, participate in a fight, or witness other people duking it out. This type of nightmare may reflect social anxiety, a literal fear of violence, or concerns about being vulnerable to other people's criticisms, Insider previously reported.1. FailureFears about how you're performing in your life can cause dreams about failure. This includes nightmares about taking a test in school.yokunen/Getty ImagesComing in at number one is the broad category of failure and helplessness, which Schredl documented in 18% of reports.This encompasses everything from failing to achieve a goal, to being late, lost, unable to speak, losing or forgetting something, or making a mistake. This includes the all too stereotypical dream of failing a test, which made up 3% of all nightmares reported in the study.Since this is a broad category, there are many different interpretations you could make. Exam dreams might mean you're insecure about your ability to perform at work or home, or remembering a certain troubling event, Schredl said. Looking back at the pattern of all these dreams gives us a clue. For example, in a nightmare about an exam, it goes something like this:"Someone else is looking, how do you perform? Do you know the stuff you have to know? And of course, this is a typical situation, for I think every person who is working," Schredl said. So if you're dreaming about these scenarios, you may be feeling a little insecure about your own abilities, or how other people think about your performance. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

After an Insider investigation, three more women have come forward claiming sexual assault or coercion at Arias. The agency also received a surprise visit from regulators. Abeni Mayfield filed a federal complaint saying she was sexually assaulted by an Arias Agencies colleague at a work event.Rosem Morton for InsiderAfter an Insider investigation, three more women have come forward claiming sexual assault or coercion at Arias. The agency also received a surprise visit from regulators.In the months since Insider published an investigation into alleged sexual assault, drug use, and customer abuses at a major insurance agency based in Wexford, Pennsylvania, federal and state officials have inquired about potential wrongdoing at the company, which was known until recently as Arias Agencies. Insurance regulators showed up unannounced at the company's Wexford headquarters asking to speak with its owner, Simon Arias. And Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owned 6.35 million shares of Arias' parent company, Globe Life, at the end of March, has dumped more than half of his investment.Meanwhile, two more women have come forward to say that male colleagues sexually assaulted them. A third former agent has told Insider that a star Arias manager offered to pay her to touch him.   The new probes and allegations add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the troubled insurance agency — a top performer among the S&P 500-listed Globe Life Inc.'s network of agencies — may have tolerated customer abuses and a nightmarish environment of sexual harassment of female agents for years.The agency has shuttered eight of its 21 offices since Insider published its investigation and is operating under a new name, Globe Life American Income Division: Arias Organization.Trina Orlando, an Arias spokesperson, said that Arias closed the offices because "many independent contractors are working remotely" in a post-COVID world; the agency, she said, continues to "evaluate the need for physical office space" as lease terms expire. She said the name change "had nothing to do with pending litigation or the Insider articles and was not specific to Arias Agency."Multiple inquiries underwayInsider has spoken with four former Arias agents who said a Pennsylvania Department of Insurance investigator questioned them about the company's culture and indicated that the department was looking into whether the company had defrauded its customers. One said the investigator, Michelle Billotte, asked about "company culture and sexual harassment." Another said they spent more than three hours in March speaking with Billotte, who asked whether the former agent had witnessed insurance fraud or unethical practices at the agency."It sounded as though she had spoken to multiple people by the line of questioning," the former agent said.Billotte told Insider she can't discuss department investigations. Orlando, the Arias spokesperson, said by email in early June that she "had no knowledge of any probes."But asked on August 10 if she'd been contacted since then by any regulatory authorities, Orlando confirmed that the Department of Insurance visited the company's Wexford headquarters this summer. "Nothing was seized from the office," she said, "and Arias Agency cooperated fully in responding to the inquiries of the Department that day. Mr. Arias, who was not in the Wexford office at the time, voluntarily spoke with the Department on a subsequent date."Arias Agencies headquarters in Wexford, Pennsylvania. The agency recently rebranded as Globe Life American Income Division: Arias Organization.Nancy Andrews for InsiderTwo sources told Insider that a representative of the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General was also asking questions about Arias. One, a former agent, said he spoke with William McKee, an investigator in the office's insurance-fraud section, about Arias agents who had increased customers' premiums by adding coverage without their knowledge. The former agent said he also shared information about colleagues who would drum up extra commissions by using phony names to write policies for people who didn't exist.Five other current or former agents confirmed to Insider that some Arias agents wrote up policies in the names of fictional people or people who were dead.Both McKee and Brett Hambright, the press secretary for the Pennsylvania AG's office, declined to comment.Amy Williamson, an attorney who represents dozens of current and former Arias agents in civil claims, said she received an inquiry from a US attorney's office. And a workplace investigator hired by AIL has sought interviews with multiple agents regarding previously unreported allegations of sexual misconduct by an Arias manager in Morgantown, West Virginia.'Everybody talked about it'Arias exclusively sells the life-insurance products of American Income Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly traded company Globe Life, and is one of AIL's top producers. Globe Life is best known for having the naming rights to the Texas Rangers' Globe Life Field and is the official life-insurance company of the Dallas Cowboys. Berkshire Hathaway, the company's marquee investor, recently slashed its stake in Globe Life from 6.35 million to 2.52 million shares. A spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway forwarded Insider's queries about the decision to Buffett's office, which did not respond.Insider previously detailed the stories of two women at Arias who said that male colleagues assaulted them. One of them, Renee Zinsky, filed suit in federal court last year against AIL, the Arias Organization, its founder, Simon Arias, and her boss at the agency, Michael Russin, among others, alleging a pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Her case against Russin remains in court; her case against the other defendants moved to arbitration. Both cases are pending; in a response filed in court, Russin denied Zinsky's allegations. Renee Zinsky filed suit in federal court last year against her manager at Arias, Michael Russin, alleging that she experienced a pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault on the job.Nancy Andrews for InsiderA former manager at AIL, which supplies insurance products to Arias and other sales agencies, said he heard chatter at headquarters that Russin was a sexual harasser while he worked there. "Everybody talked about it," he said.The manager described a meeting that took place several weeks after Insider's investigation was published, where a top executive directed his vice presidents to tell agency owners to stop doing business with Russin. Although AIL had fired Russin by that time, according to Zinsky's complaint, many agencies were still using him as a recruiting consultant, the manager said. At least one recruitment video still featured Russin this month, a year and a half after the complaint indicates he was terminated. Jennifer Haworth, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Globe Life, declined to comment on the manager's statements. Russin's lawyer, Benjamin Webb, did not respond to queries.As the inquiries unfolded, AIL tightened the rules to prevent customer abuse, according to documents Insider has reviewed. The company informed agents by email that starting June 1, they could no longer use signatures executed during a Zoom call where an agent can sign for a customer. The new policy requires agents to use DocuSign, where clients receive an email link to sign documents electronically. Insider has spoken to seven current and former Arias agents who said they were aware of signatures being forged at the agency in the past.Chris Williams, who sent the staff email, did not respond to a request for comment. Natalie Price, the executive assistant to Simon Arias, sent an email marked "MUST READ" to agency workers on June 19, advising them that the use of robo dialers, automatic dialers, and third-party calling systems were "strictly prohibited," effective immediately. Failure to comply, the email said, could result in termination.Natalie Price, an assistant to agency owner Simon Arias, sent a "must-read" email to agency workers on June 19 saying the use of robocalls would be strictly prohibited.Obtained by InsiderOrlando, the Arias spokesperson, said the decision to require DocuSign was issued by AIL and was "not specific to Arias," which has "no knowledge" of agents forging customers' names. Arias has reminded agents of the robocall policy "multiple times over the years," she said; she described Price's June email as a "friendly reminder."On August 17, American Income Life's former vice president of field operations, Scott Dehning, sued AIL and parent Globe Life, saying he was wrongfully dismissed after reporting "numerous instances of unethical and potentially illegal business practices" at AIL and Globe Life. Dehning, an 11-year veteran of the company, said in his complaint that the executive-management team, including AIL CEO Steven Greer, would "ignore, cover up or otherwise conceal the unethical and potentially illegal sales practices." He also alleged that Globe Life's general counsel, Joel Scarborough, told him in November 2022 to "stop talking to your friend(s)," which he understood to mean Michigan state insurance investigators who were looking into AIL and Globe Life. After that, Dehning said in his complaint, executives began to ignore him in meetings; he said he was fired on May 19 of this year.Haworth said by email that AIL "takes seriously any allegations brought to its attention concerning sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct, or unethical business practices, and makes it clear that we do not tolerate such behavior." She said independent sales agents "are subject to contract termination if they engage in misconduct."With regard to Insider's specific questions about Globe, AIL, and Arias, she said, "It is the Company's policy not to comment." She did not respond to a subsequent query about Dehning's lawsuit; neither did Greer or Scarborough.An anonymous assault victim comes forwardZinsky previously told Insider that Russin would take her out in his car and force her to watch him masturbate, an allegation he denied in court filings. A second woman, Abeni Mayfield, also alleged sexual assault; she had requested anonymity for Insider's previous coverage but has now decided to speak on the record. "The truth is the truth," she said. "Why are we protecting these people?" Mayfield at her home in Columbia, MarylandRosem Morton for InsiderMayfield said she was sexually assaulted in May 2019 by an Arias agent at a Las Vegas convention sponsored by AIL. She told Insider that when she was in a pool at Caesars Palace, a male colleague assaulted her and digitally penetrated her. She begged him to stop, but "he laughed it off and told me to chill out and proceeded to assault me." She reported the assault to three supervisors, but there was no follow-up, she said. She later filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Mayfield said she reported the incident to the master general agent for her office in Columbia, Maryland, the day after the attack. She recalled describing the incident to him as a "sexual assault" and asking who she could contact in HR. She said he told her there was no HR office and she should keep the incident to herself. "He said, 'You don't want to ruin this kid's future. Did you have too much to drink?,'" she recalled.The master general agent did not respond to requests for comment.Mayfield by the pool at Caesars Palace in May 2019, just hours before she said she was sexually assaulted there.Courtesy of Abeni MayfieldOrlando said Mayfield's recollection of her conversation with the master general agent is "totally untrue," adding that "to our knowledge," Mayfield did not report the alleged incident to anyone at the agency. But Insider has seen the complaint Mayfield filed with the EEOC in May 2022, several months after she left Arias; it says that she reported the incident to multiple Arias managers right away. EEOC complaints are shared with the employer within 10 days of being filed.'You are gonna give me a blow job'Now, three more women who worked at Arias have come forward to Insider with new allegations of sexual assault and coercion in the workplace. One was fresh out of college and had only been at Arias' Wexford office for several months when she and some colleagues went for drinks at a local bar in 2018. Afterward, the group migrated to one of the agent's homes, where, she said, one Arias agent sexually assaulted her while others looked on."It took a long time to get past that," she said.Insider spoke with one of the woman's male colleagues, who said she told him soon after the incident occurred that she'd been sexually assaulted that night. "I was one of the only normal people there, so it helped that she could talk to me," he said.Another woman told Insider that during her first week of work in the Wexford office in 2018, she was in her boss' car in between sales calls when he pushed her face into his crotch — just as Zinsky claimed Russin had done to her."He said, 'You are gonna give me a blow job or we are not gonna go back home,'" she recalled. The same scene repeated itself during sales calls in the field the next day, she said, and this time, he was openly drinking and swerving on the road. She refused to get in a car with him after that and alerted a manager.The woman said it had been a long time since she'd thought about the assaults, but she decided to come forward after Zinsky did. "You get Stockholm syndrome when you are there," she said, and abusive behavior starts to look normal. "There's nothing that happened to me that didn't happen to other girls," she said.Her boss denied the allegations, telling Insider, "100% it's not true." But he has past convictions for public drinking and driving under the influence. And the woman's husband spoke to Insider, confirming her account. He said that his wife texted him the day of the first incident, saying that her boss had assaulted her and "tried to make me do oral." "I was dumbfounded," he said. "I had met this man and shook his hand. There was never a thought in my mind about my wife getting sexually assaulted at work."A third woman, Kailey Andrasko, who joined Russin's team just after she'd graduated from high school in 2018, has also come forward. In a May 30 affidavit shared with the parties to Zinsky's lawsuit but not filed in court, she said Russin "propositioned me for sexual favors in exchange for cash during the course and scope of our daily work."Kailey Andrasko poses for a selfie in 2018, the year she said an Arias manager propositioned her for sex. She was 18 years old at the time.Courtesy of Kailey AndraskoIn an interview, she said Russin suggested one day that she drive to his house to pick up her paycheck. On her way there, she said, Russin texted her to ask that she give him a hand job for $100. When she declined, he said he'd give her $200 to watch him masturbate. "I got my paycheck and bolted out the door," she said.Andrasko's mother, who requested that her name not be used, said Kailey told both of her parents about the incident at the time. "You're so hysterically pissed off that someone did this to your child," she said. "As an 18-year-old, she was very innocent."Orlando, the Arias spokeswoman, said "we have no knowledge" of Andrasko's account.Williamson, the attorney, said three of her clients were contacted recently by a workplace investigator about alleged sexual misconduct by a manager in the Arias office in Morgantown, West Virginia, where they worked. Insider obtained correspondence between one Arias agent and Anne Hilbert of Employment Matters Counseling & Consulting, who was hired by AIL to conduct the inquiry. Hilbert and the manager did not respond to requests for comment. Orlando said none of the three alleged incidents in 2018 were reported and the Arias Organization had no knowledge of them. She said "we are cooperating fully" with the Morgantown investigation.She said that in the 15 years Arias has been in business, "there has never been a single incident of sexual assault reported to the Arias Organization that we are aware of until Ms. Zinsky filed her lawsuit" in April 2022. Simon Arias would never tolerate such behavior, she said. However, in Mayfield's May 2022 EEOC report she claims that she "immediately" alerted three Arias managers about her sexual assault, which she said took place in 2019. In addition, in a January deposition, Zinsky says she reported Russin to Arias in August 2021, telling him Russin would take her for drives, pull into parking lots, and put her in "horrible situations." Zinsky later contacted an AIL senior vice president, Debbie Gamble, by email in November 2021, sparking an email exchange obtained by Insider.Mayfield filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May 2022 alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by an Arias colleague and that she immediately reported the incident to Arias managers.Courtesy of Abeni MayfieldOrlando said Arias does not typically comment on pending litigation but complained that Williamson, Zinsky's attorney, "has chosen to try these claims in the court of public opinion instead of through proper legal proceedings." She dismissed Zinsky's claims as "part of a carefully orchestrated public smear campaign designed to pressure the Arias Organization into a settlement. We will not stand for it.""I wish I could be so clever to be able to orchestrate hundreds of Arias employees and upstanding community members approaching me with eerily similar complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault, fraud, bribery, threats, violence, cover-ups, and other crimes," Williamson said. "But the reality is that the truth has a way of coming to light when people are no longer afraid to speak up." A boss who expected inappropriate conductIn two depositions filed with the court in May, Webb, Russin's attorney, repeatedly questions Zinsky about whether she herself engaged in sexual banter and behavior at the office. According to a transcript, Webb showed Zinsky two videos, one in which he says she appears to be "humping" a colleague at the office and another in which he says she appears to be gesturing at her crotch. He also asks her to read several sexually explicit texts Webb claims she had posted to a group office chat.Zinsky testifies that the first video captured what was known in the office as a "callout," a ritual used to punish agents who didn't hit a quota of sales calls. She also testifies that she didn't recall sending any of the group texts, which were posted under another name. At various points, she says she now views her behavior in the videos as inappropriate office conduct, but she was expected to "cater to" expectations set by Russin."This was my first business job," she says in the deposition, "so how everything went on in there was what I knew a workplace should look like."In an interview, Zinsky said she sometimes engaged in inappropriate conduct because Russin insisted on it, including the day she was told to hump her male colleague after failing to make the required number of phone calls."If you didn't act accordingly, your job was threatened," she said. "I would patronize him because I was and still am scared of him."In a deposition filed in court in May, Zinsky describes Russin's aggressive behavior as an Arias manager. He has denied allegations of workplace violence in court.US District Court, Western District of PennsylvaniaIn a potential act of intimidation, Russin filed interrogatories on March 17 demanding that Williamson turn over the names of anyone she was aware of who had spoken to Insider. (Any responses from Williamson were not filed in court.)Williamson said she was contacted by Jonathan Lusty, an assistant US attorney in Pittsburgh, on May 5. Lusty asked questions about Russin's campaign of aggressive social-media posts since Zinsky filed suit, Williamson said, including posts about his gun purchases. Lusty did not respond to requests for comment.  Since Zinsky filed suit against him, Russin has made a string of threatening social media posts featuring firearms.InstagramIn April, Williamson filed a motion for contempt against Russin related to the intimidating posts. He does not name Zinsky in them, but Williamson and Zinsky said they believe many of his threats were aimed at them and their witnesses, and the posts sometimes appeared in the wake of legal filings. On June 8, Russin posted an episode of his podcast in which he talked, yet again, about being armed. "Just so you haters know," he said, "I'm always strapped. And I keep one in the chamber, too."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

After an Insider investigation, three more women have come forward claiming sexual assault or coercion at Arias. The agency also received a surprise visit from regulators. Abeni Mayfield filed a federal complaint saying she was sexually assaulted by an Arias Agencies colleague at a work event.Rosem Morton for InsiderAfter an Insider investigation, three more women have come forward claiming sexual assault or coercion at Arias. The agency also received a surprise visit from regulators.In the months since Insider published an investigation into alleged sexual assault, drug use, and customer abuses at a major insurance agency based in Wexford, Pennsylvania, federal and state officials have inquired about potential wrongdoing at the company, which was known until recently as Arias Agencies. Insurance regulators showed up unannounced at the company's Wexford headquarters asking to speak with its owner, Simon Arias. And Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owned 6.35 million shares of Arias' parent company, Globe Life, at the end of March, has dumped more than half of his investment.Meanwhile, two more women have come forward to say that male colleagues sexually assaulted them. A third former agent has told Insider that a star Arias manager offered to pay her to touch him.   The new probes and allegations add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the troubled insurance agency — a top performer among the S&P 500-listed Globe Life Inc.'s network of agencies — may have tolerated customer abuses and a nightmarish environment of sexual harassment of female agents for years.The agency has shuttered eight of its 21 offices since Insider published its investigation and is operating under a new name, Globe Life American Income Division: Arias Organization.Trina Orlando, an Arias spokesperson, said that Arias closed the offices because "many independent contractors are working remotely" in a post-COVID world; the agency, she said, continues to "evaluate the need for physical office space" as lease terms expire. She said the name change "had nothing to do with pending litigation or the Insider articles and was not specific to Arias Agency."Multiple inquiries underwayInsider has spoken with four former Arias agents who said a Pennsylvania Department of Insurance investigator questioned them about the company's culture and indicated that the department was looking into whether the company had defrauded its customers. One said the investigator, Michelle Billotte, asked about "company culture and sexual harassment." Another said they spent more than three hours in March speaking with Billotte, who asked whether the former agent had witnessed insurance fraud or unethical practices at the agency."It sounded as though she had spoken to multiple people by the line of questioning," the former agent said.Billotte told Insider she can't discuss department investigations. Orlando, the Arias spokesperson, said by email in early June that she "had no knowledge of any probes."But asked on August 10 if she'd been contacted since then by any regulatory authorities, Orlando confirmed that the Department of Insurance visited the company's Wexford headquarters this summer. "Nothing was seized from the office," she said, "and Arias Agency cooperated fully in responding to the inquiries of the Department that day. Mr. Arias, who was not in the Wexford office at the time, voluntarily spoke with the Department on a subsequent date."Arias Agencies headquarters in Wexford, Pennsylvania. The agency recently rebranded as Globe Life American Income Division: Arias Organization.Nancy Andrews for InsiderTwo sources told Insider that a representative of the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General was also asking questions about Arias. One, a former agent, said he spoke with William McKee, an investigator in the office's insurance-fraud section, about Arias agents who had increased customers' premiums by adding coverage without their knowledge. The former agent said he also shared information about colleagues who would drum up extra commissions by using phony names to write policies for people who didn't exist.Five other current or former agents confirmed to Insider that some Arias agents wrote up policies in the names of fictional people or people who were dead.Both McKee and Brett Hambright, the press secretary for the Pennsylvania AG's office, declined to comment.Amy Williamson, an attorney who represents dozens of current and former Arias agents in civil claims, said she received an inquiry from a US attorney's office. And a workplace investigator hired by AIL has sought interviews with multiple agents regarding previously unreported allegations of sexual misconduct by an Arias manager in Morgantown, West Virginia.'Everybody talked about it'Arias exclusively sells the life-insurance products of American Income Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly traded company Globe Life, and is one of AIL's top producers. Globe Life is best known for having the naming rights to the Texas Rangers' Globe Life Field and is the official life-insurance company of the Dallas Cowboys. Berkshire Hathaway, the company's marquee investor, recently slashed its stake in Globe Life from 6.35 million to 2.52 million shares. A spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway forwarded Insider's queries about the decision to Buffett's office, which did not respond.Insider previously detailed the stories of two women at Arias who said that male colleagues assaulted them. One of them, Renee Zinsky, filed suit in federal court last year against AIL, the Arias Organization, its founder, Simon Arias, and her boss at the agency, Michael Russin, among others, alleging a pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Her case against Russin remains in court; her case against the other defendants moved to arbitration. Both cases are pending; in a response filed in court, Russin denied Zinsky's allegations. Renee Zinsky filed suit in federal court last year against her manager at Arias, Michael Russin, alleging that she experienced a pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault on the job.Nancy Andrews for InsiderA former manager at AIL, which supplies insurance products to Arias and other sales agencies, said he heard chatter at headquarters that Russin was a sexual harasser while he worked there. "Everybody talked about it," he said.The manager described a meeting that took place several weeks after Insider's investigation was published, where a top executive directed his vice presidents to tell agency owners to stop doing business with Russin. Although AIL had fired Russin by that time, according to Zinsky's complaint, many agencies were still using him as a recruiting consultant, the manager said. At least one recruitment video still featured Russin this month, a year and a half after the complaint indicates he was terminated. Jennifer Haworth, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Globe Life, declined to comment on the manager's statements. Russin's lawyer, Benjamin Webb, did not respond to queries.As the inquiries unfolded, AIL tightened the rules to prevent customer abuse, according to documents Insider has reviewed. The company informed agents by email that starting June 1, they could no longer use signatures executed during a Zoom call where an agent can sign for a customer. The new policy requires agents to use DocuSign, where clients receive an email link to sign documents electronically. Insider has spoken to seven current and former Arias agents who said they were aware of signatures being forged at the agency in the past.Chris Williams, who sent the staff email, did not respond to a request for comment. Natalie Price, the executive assistant to Simon Arias, sent an email marked "MUST READ" to agency workers on June 19, advising them that the use of robo dialers, automatic dialers, and third-party calling systems were "strictly prohibited," effective immediately. Failure to comply, the email said, could result in termination.Natalie Price, an assistant to agency owner Simon Arias, sent a "must-read" email to agency workers on June 19 saying the use of robocalls would be strictly prohibited.Obtained by InsiderOrlando, the Arias spokesperson, said the decision to require DocuSign was issued by AIL and was "not specific to Arias," which has "no knowledge" of agents forging customers' names. Arias has reminded agents of the robocall policy "multiple times over the years," she said; she described Price's June email as a "friendly reminder."On August 17, American Income Life's former vice president of field operations, Scott Dehning, sued AIL and parent Globe Life, saying he was wrongfully dismissed after reporting "numerous instances of unethical and potentially illegal business practices" at AIL and Globe Life. Dehning, an 11-year veteran of the company, said in his complaint that the executive-management team, including AIL CEO Steven Greer, would "ignore, cover up or otherwise conceal the unethical and potentially illegal sales practices." He also alleged that Globe Life's general counsel, Joel Scarborough, told him in November 2022 to "stop talking to your friend(s)," which he understood to mean Michigan state insurance investigators who were looking into AIL and Globe Life. After that, Dehning said in his complaint, executives began to ignore him in meetings; he said he was fired on May 19 of this year.Haworth said by email that AIL "takes seriously any allegations brought to its attention concerning sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct, or unethical business practices, and makes it clear that we do not tolerate such behavior." She said independent sales agents "are subject to contract termination if they engage in misconduct."With regard to Insider's specific questions about Globe, AIL, and Arias, she said, "It is the Company's policy not to comment." She did not respond to a subsequent query about Dehning's lawsuit; neither did Greer or Scarborough.An anonymous assault victim comes forwardZinsky previously told Insider that Russin would take her out in his car and force her to watch him masturbate, an allegation he denied in court filings. A second woman, Abeni Mayfield, also alleged sexual assault; she had requested anonymity for Insider's previous coverage but has now decided to speak on the record. "The truth is the truth," she said. "Why are we protecting these people?" Mayfield at her home in Columbia, MarylandRosem Morton for InsiderMayfield said she was sexually assaulted in May 2019 by an Arias agent at a Las Vegas convention sponsored by AIL. She told Insider that when she was in a pool at Caesars Palace, a male colleague assaulted her and digitally penetrated her. She begged him to stop, but "he laughed it off and told me to chill out and proceeded to assault me." She reported the assault to three supervisors, but there was no follow-up, she said. She later filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Mayfield said she reported the incident to the master general agent for her office in Columbia, Maryland, the day after the attack. She recalled describing the incident to him as a "sexual assault" and asking who she could contact in HR. She said he told her there was no HR office and she should keep the incident to herself. "He said, 'You don't want to ruin this kid's future. Did you have too much to drink?,'" she recalled.The master general agent did not respond to requests for comment.Mayfield by the pool at Caesars Palace in May 2019, just hours before she said she was sexually assaulted there.Courtesy of Abeni MayfieldOrlando said Mayfield's recollection of her conversation with the master general agent is "totally untrue," adding that "to our knowledge," Mayfield did not report the alleged incident to anyone at the agency. But Insider has seen the complaint Mayfield filed with the EEOC in May 2022, several months after she left Arias; it says that she reported the incident to multiple Arias managers right away. EEOC complaints are shared with the employer within 10 days of being filed.'You are gonna give me a blow job'Now, three more women who worked at Arias have come forward to Insider with new allegations of sexual assault and coercion in the workplace. One was fresh out of college and had only been at Arias' Wexford office for several months when she and some colleagues went for drinks at a local bar in 2018. Afterward, the group migrated to one of the agent's homes, where, she said, one Arias agent sexually assaulted her while others looked on."It took a long time to get past that," she said.Insider spoke with one of the woman's male colleagues, who said she told him soon after the incident occurred that she'd been sexually assaulted that night. "I was one of the only normal people there, so it helped that she could talk to me," he said.Another woman told Insider that during her first week of work in the Wexford office in 2018, she was in her boss' car in between sales calls when he pushed her face into his crotch — just as Zinsky claimed Russin had done to her."He said, 'You are gonna give me a blow job or we are not gonna go back home,'" she recalled. The same scene repeated itself during sales calls in the field the next day, she said, and this time, he was openly drinking and swerving on the road. She refused to get in a car with him after that and alerted a manager.The woman said it had been a long time since she'd thought about the assaults, but she decided to come forward after Zinsky did. "You get Stockholm syndrome when you are there," she said, and abusive behavior starts to look normal. "There's nothing that happened to me that didn't happen to other girls," she said.Her boss denied the allegations, telling Insider, "100% it's not true." But he has past convictions for public drinking and driving under the influence. And the woman's husband spoke to Insider, confirming her account. He said that his wife texted him the day of the first incident, saying that her boss had assaulted her and "tried to make me do oral." "I was dumbfounded," he said. "I had met this man and shook his hand. There was never a thought in my mind about my wife getting sexually assaulted at work."A third woman, Kailey Andrasko, who joined Russin's team just after she'd graduated from high school in 2018, has also come forward. In a May 30 affidavit shared with the parties to Zinsky's lawsuit but not filed in court, she said Russin "propositioned me for sexual favors in exchange for cash during the course and scope of our daily work."Kailey Andrasko poses for a selfie in 2018, the year she said an Arias manager propositioned her for sex. She was 18 years old at the time.Courtesy of Kailey AndraskoIn an interview, she said Russin suggested one day that she drive to his house to pick up her paycheck. On her way there, she said, Russin texted her to ask that she give him a hand job for $100. When she declined, he said he'd give her $200 to watch him masturbate. "I got my paycheck and bolted out the door," she said.Andrasko's mother, who requested that her name not be used, said Kailey told both of her parents about the incident at the time. "You're so hysterically pissed off that someone did this to your child," she said. "As an 18-year-old, she was very innocent."Orlando, the Arias spokeswoman, said "we have no knowledge" of Andrasko's account.Williamson, the attorney, said three of her clients were contacted recently by a workplace investigator about alleged sexual misconduct by a manager in the Arias office in Morgantown, West Virginia, where they worked. Insider obtained correspondence between one Arias agent and Anne Hilbert of Employment Matters Counseling & Consulting, who was hired by AIL to conduct the inquiry. Hilbert and the manager did not respond to requests for comment. Orlando said none of the three alleged incidents in 2018 were reported and the Arias Organization had no knowledge of them. She said "we are cooperating fully" with the Morgantown investigation.She said that in the 15 years Arias has been in business, "there has never been a single incident of sexual assault reported to the Arias Organization that we are aware of until Ms. Zinsky filed her lawsuit" in April 2022. Simon Arias would never tolerate such behavior, she said. However, in Mayfield's May 2022 EEOC report she claims that she "immediately" alerted three Arias managers about her sexual assault, which she said took place in 2019. In addition, in a January deposition, Zinsky says she reported Russin to Arias in August 2021, telling him Russin would take her for drives, pull into parking lots, and put her in "horrible situations." Zinsky later contacted an AIL senior vice president, Debbie Gamble, by email in November 2021, sparking an email exchange obtained by Insider.Mayfield filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May 2022 alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by an Arias colleague and that she immediately reported the incident to Arias managers.Courtesy of Abeni MayfieldOrlando said Arias does not typically comment on pending litigation but complained that Williamson, Zinsky's attorney, "has chosen to try these claims in the court of public opinion instead of through proper legal proceedings." She dismissed Zinsky's claims as "part of a carefully orchestrated public smear campaign designed to pressure the Arias Organization into a settlement. We will not stand for it.""I wish I could be so clever to be able to orchestrate hundreds of Arias employees and upstanding community members approaching me with eerily similar complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault, fraud, bribery, threats, violence, cover-ups, and other crimes," Williamson said. "But the reality is that the truth has a way of coming to light when people are no longer afraid to speak up." A boss who expected inappropriate conductIn two depositions filed with the court in May, Webb, Russin's attorney, repeatedly questions Zinsky about whether she herself engaged in sexual banter and behavior at the office. According to a transcript, Webb showed Zinsky two videos, one in which he says she appears to be "humping" a colleague at the office and another in which he says she appears to be gesturing at her crotch. He also asks her to read several sexually explicit texts Webb claims she had posted to a group office chat.Zinsky testifies that the first video captured what was known in the office as a "callout," a ritual used to punish agents who didn't hit a quota of sales calls. She also testifies that she didn't recall sending any of the group texts, which were posted under another name. At various points, she says she now views her behavior in the videos as inappropriate office conduct, but she was expected to "cater to" expectations set by Russin."This was my first business job," she says in the deposition, "so how everything went on in there was what I knew a workplace should look like."In an interview, Zinsky said she sometimes engaged in inappropriate conduct because Russin insisted on it, including the day she was told to hump her male colleague after failing to make the required number of phone calls."If you didn't act accordingly, your job was threatened," she said. "I would patronize him because I was and still am scared of him."In a deposition filed in court in May, Zinsky describes Russin's aggressive behavior as an Arias manager. He has denied allegations of workplace violence in court.US District Court, Western District of PennsylvaniaIn a potential act of intimidation, Russin filed interrogatories on March 17 demanding that Williamson turn over the names of anyone she was aware of who had spoken to Insider. (Any responses from Williamson were not filed in court.)Williamson said she was contacted by Jonathan Lusty, an assistant US attorney in Pittsburgh, on May 5. Lusty asked questions about Russin's campaign of aggressive social-media posts since Zinsky filed suit, Williamson said, including posts about his gun purchases. Lusty did not respond to requests for comment.  Since Zinsky filed suit against him, Russin has made a string of threatening social media posts featuring firearms.InstagramIn April, Williamson filed a motion for contempt against Russin related to the intimidating posts. He does not name Zinsky in them, but Williamson and Zinsky said they believe many of his threats were aimed at them and their witnesses, and the posts sometimes appeared in the wake of legal filings. On June 8, Russin posted an episode of his podcast in which he talked, yet again, about being armed. "Just so you haters know," he said, "I'm always strapped. And I keep one in the chamber, too."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The owner of Bang Bang Tattoo, Keith McCurdy, says he's running his shops the "right way." But some ex-employees say working there was a nightmare. Zach Meyer for InsiderKeith McCurdy has inked Justin Bieber on a private jet, Cara Delevingne at the Gansevoort hotel, and Katy Perry while traveling with her on tour. He gave Rihanna the tiny handgun tattoo that some speculated was a message to Chris Brown, her ex whom she'd accused of assault. Vogue has heralded the 37-year-old as "the best in the biz," and The New York Times has described him as having "transformed the body-art industry."McCurdy's signature style — hyperrealistic black-and-gray micro tattoos that require expert precision — has been widely replicated. Clients wait up to two months for an appointment at one of his two New York City shops, where tattoos can cost into the thousands of dollars. At Bang Bang Tattoo, "You're not paying for the tattoo," a former artist's assistant said. "You're paying for the brand."In an industry known for bold ink, edgy imagery, and an anarchist streak, McCurdy has branded himself as someone who does things differently — what he calls the "right way." He offers his staff mental-health support. He's a self-professed "protector of women" who describes his business as a feminist utopia. His shops are bare, modern, and luxurious. In McCurdy's view, he's setting the bar for the industry. "I challenge people out there to do a better job than me," he said. "I'm waiting for who's competing with us. I don't see it."Yet some former Bang Bang employees said that McCurdy's meticulously curated image as a thoughtful progressive in a rough-and-tumble industry wasn't much more than good PR. At Bang Bang, "they just woke-wash everything," one former employee said.McCurdy's shops were rife with old-school issues, ex-employees said — and some new ones, too. Multiple people said it wasn't unusual to hear higher-ups tell inappropriate jokes or share stories about sexual encounters. Several staffers said McCurdy — better known to them as Bang — could be obsessively controlling, monitoring workers through 15 cameras between his two shops, and pressuring them to speak with his "business manager," who also happened to be his former therapist, about their personal problems.Tattoo artists said McCurdy turned cruel and vindictive when they left Bang Bang. One artist who left to start his own shop said McCurdy and a friend shoved him in the street while screaming profanities. In another case, McCurdy went so far as to sue an artist and threaten her immigration status over claims she'd stolen his clients, court documents show. (Many people who spoke with Insider asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from McCurdy.)Rihanna helped launch Keith McCurdy's career, introducing him to her celebrity friends. "He met Rihanna at the street shop, and that was just luck," said East Side Ink's owner, Josh Lord. "And then he rode that as far as he could."Epsilon/Getty ImagesIn a niche industry like tattooing, it's impressive that McCurdy was able to go mainstream. He's name-checked everywhere from GQ to US Weekly. After Rihanna's gun tattoo took off, "I could kind of control what the press would write," he said.But McCurdy's media savvy has camouflaged a different side to the artist and the business he runs, ex-staffers say. If you cross him, "he'll do anything to come for you," the former Bang Bang artist Joice Wang said, adding, "He's actually a monster."For a guy with guns tattooed on each side of his neck (hence the name), McCurdy has a remarkably warm presence. He speaks like a preacher delivering a sermon, ending every story with a moral. He has a red beard and a sturdy frame and likes to wear backward baseball hats and thick-rimmed glasses. He is, by his own admission, "not hip.""I like focusing on me and the tasks I have," he told me at his Grand Street shop in February. "I like answering to the person in the mirror. I like competing with my expectations. It makes me happy."McCurdy worked his way up from a tattoo shop outside a trailer park in tiny-town Delaware to a "super grimy" spot near Washington Square Park when he was 19 to New York City institutions like Last Rites Tattoo Theatre and East Side Ink. Along the way he met Rihanna, who wandered into the shop where he was working in 2007 to get a nipple pierced. McCurdy said the singer asked the piercer, Joe Snake, who the best person for a tattoo was, and Snake walked her over to him. McCurdy gave her a line of Sanskrit on her hip, and the two hit it off.His celebrity roster only grew from there: Swizz Beatz's ex-wife's hairstylist introduced him to Beatz; Beatz introduced him to the soccer star Thierry Henry; Henry introduced him to a whole list of New York Knicks players. And Rihanna hooked him up with her famous friends, including Perry and Delevingne. "He was very intelligent," East Side Ink's owner, Josh Lord, said. "He met Rihanna at the street shop, and that was just luck. And then he rode that as far as he could."McCurdy owns Bang Bang Tattoo and prides himself on doing things "the right way." But former employees say he could be obsessively controlling and vindictive.Susan Watts/NY Daily News via Getty ImagesMeanwhile, McCurdy kept refining his style, cutting his ink with water to give his tattoos a softer, more delicate look. His work appealed to people intimidated by the bold American-traditional designs at some shops. He posted his tattoos on Myspace, Facebook, and eventually Instagram — a novel thing for tattoo artists, who had typically relied on word of mouth. After Delevingne tagged him in a 2013 photo of the lion tattoo he'd done on her index finger, his Instagram following grew to about 200,000."I didn't want to sit in a tattoo shop and goof around and wait for walk-ins," McCurdy said. "I wanted to hustle. I wanted to be proactive." He landed a book deal with HarperCollins for his autobiography, which was published in 2015.The year before his book came out, McCurdy opened Bang Bang on Broome Street. He hired a creative director to design a minimalist space: blank white walls, poured-concrete floors, and flat-screen TVs. McCurdy made it a point not to hang art (tattoo shops are typically covered in flash sheets, or examples of artists' work). "I wanted it to be about the art we're making, not the art that's been made," he said. "The space is a reflection of our brand."Four years later, McCurdy opened another, even more grandiose shop on Grand Street, with a white marble lobby, a 7-foot-long aquarium, and free Fiji water bottles for every client. The renovation, McCurdy estimated, cost close to $1.8 million.Bang Bang's prices matched McCurdy's expensive taste. Even in the early days, some of its artists' rates were double, if not triple, those of most shops in the city, where a custom 4-by-4 inch black-and-gray tattoo ran about $300. Prices went up as McCurdy's A-list clients multiplied: Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, LeBron James. Today, a tattoo by McCurdy starts at about $10,000 for a daylong session and can cost $100,000 for a full sleeve.Several tattoo artists said Bang Bang used its celebrity clientele to price-gouge average customers, some of whom didn't know better than to spend hundreds on a simple design. Paul Booth, who owns Last Rites, said that when McCurdy worked for him, he "was more concerned about making a buck than treating his clients right," and that he ultimately fired McCurdy. (McCurdy said he left on good terms and Booth did not fire him.) Lord, the East Side Ink owner, called McCurdy "the Donald Trump of tattoos," saying he's "only interested in his own tacky brand and making money, no matter who else it hurts."McCurdy hired a creative director to design the minimalist aesthetic of his Bang Bang Tattoo shops. "The space is a reflection of our brand," he said.Anna MorgowiczMcCurdy ran his business like a corporation, complete with performance reviews, a mandatory sexual-harassment course, and blood-borne-pathogen training, which included teaching artists how to properly clean their equipment and change out needles. In its 2018 article, the Times wrote that McCurdy "made hiring women a priority and was clear with his staff that tattoo-world misogyny would not be tolerated beneath his roof.""My daughter is 9," he told the outlet. "She has a feminist button on her backpack and she doesn't really know what it means, but I want her to have the sense that she can do anything she wants with her life."Wang, who was hired full time in 2016 and became one of Bang Bang's most in-demand artists, said McCurdy asked her to sign an artist's agreement, which included a noncompete clause and an NDA — both anomalies in the tattoo world. The most recent version of the agreement, which is dated 2023 and which McCurdy shared with Insider, includes a clause stating that artists cannot speak negatively about the company, or McCurdy, even anonymously.Sara Fabel, who worked at Bang Bang as a guest artist for about a week around 2018, said being asked to sign an NDA would be a "huge red flag" because artists should be able to talk about their negative experiences. That McCurdy "has dozens of artists willing to sign shows the power he has in the industry," she said.Being tapped to work at Bang Bang can make an artist's career, turning them into a minor celebrity and bringing in floods of clients. McCurdy picks his staff meticulously, often trawling Instagram for flawless line work or promising beginners.Wang was an inexperienced 22-year-old tattooer in 2015, when McCurdy first reached out to talk about her work. She was thrilled. At the time, Bang Bang was the "pinnacle" of tattooing, Wang said: "It was a group of eight artists. They ruled the industry."Bang Bang staffers spent much of their time together. McCurdy organized Christmas parties, trips to Disney World, and things like paintballing excursions. He even built a designated room in the shop for staffers and clients to smoke weed. "We all became kind of like family," said Johnny Perez, who worked as an artist's assistant from 2014 to 2016. "Everybody really got along. You felt kind of special."But as they settled in, some former employees said, they started to chafe at the way McCurdy ran things. For instance, if a new hire, like Wang, has fewer than 100,000 Instagram followers, they're required to let Bang Bang make them a separate work account — that McCurdy and managers then run. "We create the page, we take their photography, we post for them," McCurdy said, explaining that they "haven't earned" access to Bang Bang's 2.4 million followers.Wang said not being able to run her own work account made her feel muzzled and resulted in fewer dark-skinned clients being showcased on her page, because Bang Bang's managers thought colored ink didn't look as good on deep skin tones. McCurdy said that while he wanted to showcase diversity, "the fact of the matter is that more people with lighter skin get tattooed than people with very dark skin."McCurdy didn't just oversee employees' online presence — he also kept close tabs on them at his shops. Eleven cameras monitor the Grand Street shop, McCurdy said, and four are installed at Broome Street. McCurdy accesses the footage through an app on his phone. "Every zone is filmed," he said, later adding that the cameras were meant to ensure people were staying on task and to protect his business: "No one's going to be able to say we mistreated them."One former artist's assistant who worked the front desk from 2015 to 2016 said there was a camera pointed directly at her computer screen. "If I wasn't working hard enough, or it looked like I wasn't answering email, or if I looked at my phone for a second, he would yell at me through the camera and say, 'Get back to work,'" she said of McCurdy, adding that this happened at least five times.Perez had similar experiences when he was opening the shop. All of a sudden, he would hear McCurdy's voice coming from a camera near the front desk. "It wasn't in a serious way," Perez said, but "it was like, 'Oh, I'm watching you. Just know that I'm watching.'"A third former assistant, who worked at Bang Bang for about six months in 2018, said that "there were cameras on us at all times" and that she had told managers she felt as if she were living in the dystopian novel "1984." At one point she was pulled into a meeting with McCurdy in which he showed her a video clip of her giggling with another employee. She said McCurdy reprimanded her for not staying on task and fired her. "It was just a really bizarre work environment," she said, adding that McCurdy acted as if she had "done something atrocious."After the model Cara Delevingne tagged McCurdy in a photo of a lion he tattooed on her finger, his Instagram following exploded. He credits social media with making him a household name.Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty ImagesMcCurdy was an intense boss, but he looked out for his employees, people said. Gladys Ko, a former Bang Bang artist who goes by the moniker Ghinko, said McCurdy was "very fatherly" and "protective" after she came to work one day with a black eye, immediately taking her aside to talk about it.After that, Ko said, McCurdy would sometimes "pull me into a meeting to check up on me," or "hang out with me for the entire day just to make sure I was OK." She credits McCurdy with being "her rock" during a hard time.McCurdy has spoken openly about his own emotional struggles. He went through an especially difficult time in 2013, when he opened the first Bang Bang shop on the Lower East Side with his now-estranged father, Vincent Lacava. (McCurdy was raised mostly by his mother, Susan McCurdy, and grandparents in Claymont, Delaware; his parents had him as teenagers and separated when he was young.) Lacava, a video game designer, invested $50,000 in the shop, but McCurdy says he was an "abusive" boss who cursed at employees and drank on the job. McCurdy said he offered to buy Lacava out. "His response was: 'Fuck you. I own your name. I'll run it without you,'" McCurdy recalled. The two took their fight to the trademark office, and McCurdy won. His dad shuttered the shop. (Lacava said he and McCurdy "clashed" over the business and eventually parted ways but had "very different views on what happened at the shop.")Despite the win, McCurdy spiraled. He was tattooing out of his Brooklyn apartment, and his marriage was falling apart. That's when his wife introduced him to Karen Bridbord, a psychologist and former in-house coach for JPMorgan Chase. She helped the couple with their marriage and began working with McCurdy separately as his executive coach. "He's a thought leader," Bridbord said. "That's one of the things that drew me to him."McCurdy ended up hiring Bridbord as Bang Bang's de facto head of HR; he refers to her as his "business manager." She's still his executive coach but is no longer his therapist. Bridbord said she's employed as a consultant and wasn't present at the shops every day.Bridbord said that staffers exhibiting a change in behavior, like showing up late or "looking disheveled," would be flagged and sent her way. After talking to them, she would determine the best course of action, whether that be referring them to an outside therapist or recommending they attend rehab.Bridbord said these one-on-one conversations were confidential. However, three people said a camera monitored the back room where they took place. "Bang has access to these cameras, and something that's supposed to be between me and you can easily be seen by him," Perez said. "So there was no real sense of security."McCurdy confirmed that he could access footage of his employees' conversations with Bridbord. He said he'd sometimes "demand" that people speak with Bridbord, adding that her "recommendation has to be followed through if you want to keep your job."Some staffers felt as though McCurdy foisted Bridbord on them. Georgia Grey, a Bang Bang tattoo artist who's worked there for eight years, said she thought it was smart for McCurdy to have Bridbord available, especially for immigrants adjusting to a new place. But when he and managers "sicced" Bridbord on Grey after learning Grey was pregnant, she said, she felt overwhelmed and upset because she hadn't been ready to share the news.During Wang's annual performance review in 2017, she told McCurdy she was struggling with her dad's imprisonment and having to support her family financially. He insisted she talk to Bridbord six separate times. "I don't know if you realize this, but we aren't just your bosses. We're your family," McCurdy told Wang, according to a transcript of the review he read aloud. "I can see you're sad. I want to help you. So let me, please, and let Karen."Wang pushed back, according to the transcript, telling McCurdy that Bridbord was "a stranger.""No she's not, Joice," McCurdy replied. "She's not trying to figure out what drug to put you on. She's trying to figure out how to help."Several staffers said they were uncomfortable speaking with Bridbord because she'd been McCurdy's therapist and still worked closely with him as his executive coach.When staffers did hear lewd jokes or comments about sex at the shops, there was no formal way for them to address it. Four female ex-employees, who worked at Bang Bang from 2015 to 2017, said that while McCurdy was known for his sarcastic sense of humor, he sometimes went overboard.One of these women, a former artist's assistant, said that on several occasions McCurdy taped a printout of a penis to her back without her knowledge, photos of which were obtained by Insider. He'd "be like, 'Good job,' and pat me on the back, and then I would walk around for however long with that on my back," she said, adding that this happened when the shop was full of clients. Another time, she said, McCurdy taped a penis to her headset "so it looked like a dick was pointing into my mouth." The pranks made the assistant feel belittled and humiliated. (McCurdy said that he had no memory of the first incident and that the second would never happen.)Another artist's assistant, who was 19 when she was hired, said McCurdy once commented that her breasts were "distracting" and said she needed to "put a bra on" under her sweater dress. The remark made her feel distraught and "disgusting," she said. "Looking back, I'm like, 'That is so incredibly wrong.'" Another employee said the assistant told them about the incident right after it happened. ("There is no history or evidence to support this accusation," McCurdy said.)McCurdy spoke openly about his sexual encounters, the women recalled. One said he told her about how a woman's breasts were so big that they were "basically bouncing on top of him" during sex. McCurdy said it was "possible" he'd had a conversation about sex in Bang Bang's early days but had no memory of doing so.This kind of behavior extended to other Bang Bang employees. Three women said that Edward Borew, a Bang Bang manager who's McCurdy's cousin, talked publicly about sleeping with sex workers and made sexual comments at work. (Borew said the statement was "false" and all three women were "disgruntled ex-employees.")JonBoy, a former Bang Bang Tattoo artist, was accused of flashing two female employees at the shop.Bryan Steffy/Getty ImagesTwo of the female employees said a Bang Bang tattoo artist known as JonBoy flashed his penis at them while they were working. (McCurdy fired JonBoy in 2016 for doing something he called "egregious and unacceptable" but rehired him about a year later after JonBoy started seeing a therapist, as recommended by Bridbord. JonBoy left the shop permanently in 2018.)One former assistant said that a manager, Matthew Ganser, made her clean up a condom he said he'd used and left on the couch. She said the incident earned Ganser the nickname Magnum Mac. Wang recalled the incident and said Ganser would frequently talk about hooking up with women at the shop. (Both McCurdy and Ganser said the nickname came from a meme, and McCurdy said he has no memory of a condom-cleaning incident, which Ganser called a "fabricated lie." Ganser added that he never spoke about hooking up with women at the shop.)Three of the women said they didn't speak up about the behavior at the time because they were young and because crude humor was a given in the industry — to the point that putting up with it became a rite of passage. "I don't think he fully understands what it means to respect women," Wang said of McCurdy. "I believe he believes he's an advocate for women. But only because he's so misinformed."Inevitably, artists leave the Bang Bang family. But if they don't do it on McCurdy's terms, there can be consequences. "I'm a carer of people," McCurdy said. "I just am authentically. I give a shit until I don't — until someone crosses the line."Two former employees said McCurdy was known to use a burner Instagram account to troll tattooers, which he denies. Some former employees said they were afraid to speak out against McCurdy, saying it wasn't worth risking their finances or mental health.I believe he believes he's an advocate for women. But only because he's so misinformed. Joice WangIn 2017, Wang asked McCurdy for a raise. He turned her down, she said, so she quit. Soon after, she noticed that every photo on her work Instagram account, which had more than 110,000 followers, had been wiped without her knowledge. Bang Bang then gave the account, with Wang's followers intact, to a different artist. (McCurdy confirmed this practice.)For Wang, losing her followers and her entire body of work was like losing her livelihood. "I felt like the floor had fallen beneath me," she said. "There was no way for these people to find me again."Wang said she took to her personal Instagram — which had some 2,000 followers — to vent her frustrations and ask people to report the work account. McCurdy then sent her a text threatening legal action. "I will remind you that we have a legally binding NDA signed by you that forbids you from speaking negatively about my company," reads the text, which Insider viewed.Wang thought it was fair to honor the appointments clients had booked with her at Bang Bang, offering to tattoo them elsewhere. But McCurdy didn't see it that way. He called a shop in Sweden where Wang was planning to work as a guest artist and told them she was a thief and to cancel her booking. (The Swedish shop owner ultimately allowed Wang to tattoo there.)Ganser, the Bang Bang manager, also sent Wang a text comparing her behavior to her father's, who was in prison. "Just like your dad," he wrote. "Look where he's at."Another artist left Bang Bang in 2016 to open his own shop and offered his coworkers a chance to join him. When McCurdy discovered this, he called the artist and told him to watch his back."I threatened to come and smack him in front of all his employees," McCurdy confirmed to Insider.A few months later, the artist was walking to his new shop, which was near Bang Bang, when someone shoved him from behind. When he turned around, the artist said, he saw McCurdy "screaming at me being like, 'Hey, fuck you, you little piece of shit!'" McCurdy confirmed the run-in but said he "never put my hands on him."In 2019, one of Bang Bang's most sought-after artists, the Turkish tattooer Eva Karabudak, left to start her own shop in Brooklyn. A few days later, McCurdy sued Karabudak, calling her "disloyal" and "dishonest" and accusing her of "surreptitiously" stealing his clients, the suit says. He asked for a minimum of almost $154,000 in damages.McCurdy had hired Karabudak in 2017 and paid nearly $30,000 for her visa and health-insurance costs, according to the complaint. In return, McCurdy alleged, Karabudak signed an agreement to work for him for at least three years. In an affidavit dated May 2019, Karabudak said she'd made no such promise and McCurdy had retaliated against her for not signing an artist's agreement that included a noncompete clause. He "got extremely angry, and in an unprofessional manner, raised his voice, used profanity, threatened to terminate my employment and cancel my Visa," the suit says. "Although I felt intimidated and pressured by him, I did not sign." The case was dismissed in February 2020.Even tattoo artists who've never worked with McCurdy have landed in his crosshairs. In March 2019, a prominent New York City tattooer commented on a meme making fun of Bang Bang's extravagant pricing. McCurdy, through Bang Bang's official account, fired back in the comments, calling her a "bitch" and saying she was a bad tattooer with "shit lines." He also DM'd her, writing, "Holler at me when you learn how to tattoo bitch.""I already knew he was very fragile and had a pretty disturbed ego, but that whole situation proved it," the New York City tattooer said. "I felt like he exposed himself in the most wonderful way."Nearly a decade after opening the first Bang Bang shop, McCurdy still sees himself as a trailblazer. Most recently, he launched a formula called Magic Ink that can turn tattoos "on" and "off." He debuted the ink last September in GQ, where he gushed about the marvels of "tech tattoos." The first vial sold as an NFT for roughly $164,000, according to the magazine. McCurdy spent 26 hours tattooing a religious mural on Justin Bieber's chest in 2017. "I didn't want to sit in a tattoo shop and goof around and wait for walk-ins," he said. "I wanted to hustle."Photo by Gotham/GC ImagesMcCurdy is vigilant about maintaining his reputation, as well as that of his business. In a March 20 Instagram post, he addressed complaints that his famous micro tattoos fade and blur too quickly, packing the caption with phrases like "macrophages" and "particle density" and ending it with a cheeky, "thanks for playing." When I met him in February, he came armed with hundreds of pages of documents — "evidence," he called it — all highlighted and color-coded. I gestured at the pile, wondering aloud what made him so quick to be defensive."I don't know, man," he replied. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I guess."The truth is, guys like McCurdy are the norm in tattooing. Because mainstream US tattoo culture largely stems from male-dominated fringe groups like bikers, sailors, and gang members, the industry has been slow to evolve, clinging to the crudeness and bravado that defined it in the first place. "A lot of artists feel concerned about tattooing losing a sense of edginess," a well-known New York City artist said. "I see that being responsible for excusing a lot of bad behavior because it gets written off as being authentic or being tough or being true to some imagined original spirit of tattooing."The difference is that McCurdy says all the right things — at least in public. From his perspective, he's a feminist who cares deeply about his employees' mental health. In a January email to Insider, he told me he respected and safeguarded women. He's doing new things — creating structures, setting rules — that are supposed to protect people.After spending close to eight hours with McCurdy myself, it's clear he believes in his mission. "The background of me being screwed by family, which is something no one ever expects to go through, is why everything here is done the right way," he told me. But even as I spoke with him, it felt as if he was talking to an audience. I could hear him crafting the narrative he wanted to see on the page — a narrative that he's been telling himself, and the world, for at least a decade.McCurdy isn't wrong to believe that tattooing as a whole should evolve. Yet in trying to push things in the right direction, he may have created as many problems as he's solved. That, and he's not exactly open to feedback, despite modeling his business after his own funhouse mirror version of corporate America."I know God picked me to do this job, so I do it," he told me. "I know who we are, I know where we're going. I know what we're doing. And there's nothing anybody can say in the world that's going to stop our progress."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Taibbi: Tracking Orwellian Change - The Aristocratic Takeover Of "Transparency" Authored by Matt Taibbi via Racket News, About to hit the road for vacation, I wanted to highlight something that Walter Kirn brought up in the most recent America This Week, and popped up repeatedly as a never-published theme of the Twitter Files: the shameful, dystopian corruption of the noble word transparency. “Transparency” was one of America’s great postwar reforms. In 1955, a Democratic congressman named John Moss from California — who served in the Navy in World War II, was nominated for office by both Democrats and Republicans, and was never defeated in any election for public office — introduced legislation that would become one of the great triumphs of late-stage American democracy. The Freedom of Information Act took a tortuous path to becoming law, opposed from the start by nearly every major government agency and for years struggling to gain co-sponsors despite broad public support. In a supreme irony, one of Moss’s first Republican allies was a young Illinois congressman named Donald Rumsfeld. After a series of final tweaks it eventually passed the House 307-0 in 1966, when it landed on the desk of Lyndon Johnson, who didn’t like the bill, either. Johnson signed it, but decided not to hold a public ceremony, electing instead to issue a public statement crafted by none other than Bill Moyers, which concluded, “I signed this measure with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society.”   The Freedom of Information Act gave reporters and citizens alike extraordinary power to investigate once-impenetrable executive agencies that conduct the business of government. FOIA requests gave windows into the affairs of the Hoover-led FBI, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the “Afghan logs” story made public after a bitter fight put up by the National Security Archive and the Washington Post. The irony alert here was this last FOIA lawsuit ultimately revealed behaviors unflattering to none other than Donald Rumsfeld. The law governing the exercise of FOIA requests lists the following as one of the central duties of the Chief FOIA Officers Council: Identify, develop, and coordinate initiatives to increase transparency and compliance with this section. Transparency for decades was understood to mean a pro-democratic concept giving ordinary citizens the power to see how their government operates, how taxes are spent, and whether or not public officials are complying with laws. It was not dystopian gibberish when the word became synonymous with the fight against abuse of power through organizations like Transparency International’s “Corruption Perceptions Index.” By 2023, the transformation of the term “transparency” has advanced to a stage where the word is now commonly understood by politicians to mean the mathematical opposite of what someone like John Moss would have thought. When elite politicians and media figures speak of “transparency” now, they mean giving government power to obtain “transparency” into the activities of private citizens. I first noticed this quirk going through a batch of Twitter emails from late 2017 through early 2018, when company lawyers began to speak about communicating to the Senate Intelligence Committee plans to increase “transparency efforts around content moderation.” Internal debates also about proposed laws like Europe’s Digital Services Act wondered if companies like Twitter might better serve governments attempting to root out foreign “disinformation” by providing increased “transparency” to intelligence services. Later, in 2021, the Aspen Institute issued a final report report on “Information Disorder” that contained an entire section on “Recommendations to Increase Transparency.” This is as perfect example of deceptive use of language as you will ever find, and also involves the bastardization of the word, “journalism,” which in the context of these “anti-disinformation” efforts means examination of private data by “qualified academic researchers.” The relevant section reads in part: Congress… should also require platforms to disclose certain categories of private data to qualified academic researchers, so long as that research respects user privacy, does not endanger platform integrity, and remains in the public interest… Congress should require the platforms to disclose selected private data to qualified researchers working in the public interest, including any government agency or regulatory or investigative body… The invocation of terms of service to deny access to public interest researchers is detrimental to vital research and reporting… While the protection of user privacy is important, platforms should not be permitted to use privacy as a pretext for restricting and stopping research…   The above video of World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab speaking on the topic, which circulated a great deal last week, represents the extreme villainous end of the reversal. Transparency in Schwab’s conception has been turned on its head, to mean an unavoidable system of total non-privacy the world must learn to accept. This is not exactly a new thought of his. As far back as 2014, he responded to Edward Snowden’s disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance by saying how important it was to “protect ourselves” against “technological possibilities,” but added: Everything is transparent, whether we like it or not. This is unstoppable. If we behave acceptably, and have nothing to hide, it won’t be a problem. Saying now that we must accept “total transparency,” that “you have to get used to it, you have to behave accordingly,” is a twist on those old statements. Adding that this new transparency “becomes, how should I put it, integrated into your personality, but if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be afraid,” achieves a fully dystopian reversal. Transparency is what authorities and possessors of the new Promethean thunderbolt want to have into your every action, transaction, and thought. It’s a terrifying idea, and as Walter noted, something Hitler or Stalin would have been reluctant to say out loud, though of course this exact idea was foundational to both totalitarian societies. Telling us not to be afraid of this, to accept it, is a line even studied actors needed a certain panache to pull off in movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. “There’s nothing to be afraid of… once you understand you’ll be grateful… Don’t fight it, Miles, it’s not use. Sooner or later, you’ll have to go to sleep.” These, exactly, are the sentiments of the new priests of “transparency”: One last note. The extraordinary pro-democratic ideal of FOIA was underscored by the fact that the tool was available to every citizen. Not just New York Times journalists, but every private digger, potential whistleblower, even crackpots were granted the power of “transparency.” The chief way you know the new version of transparency is a fraud is that it’s limited to “qualified” researchers. We’re even seeing lately news stories sourced to some of these same “researchers” complaining about having to comply with FOIA requests (a few of which are being made by Racket and partner publications). Ideologically, these self-appointed intellectual vanguards do not believe information is for everyone, nor do they believe they should have to answer to the people funding their “research,” while simultaneously believing that private companies and individuals should get used to the principle of endless inquiry. When the meanings of noble words are turned inside out, we have to pay attention, and this example is about as infamous as this sort of thing gets. Don’t let anyone tell you transparency means surrendering your privacy to the state. It’s supposed to be the other way around. Tyler Durden Mon, 08/21/2023 - 13:25.....»»

Jan. 6 Capitol Hill Security Footage Challenges Key Narratives Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A three-month investigation by The Epoch Times of 41,000 hours of U.S. Capitol Police surveillance video has uncovered dramatic footage that in many cases challenges longstanding narratives about what took place on Jan. 6, 2021. Since late April, the newspaper has analyzed hundreds of hours of video that was previously hidden from public view. The first results of this ongoing investigation are presented in an Epoch TV Special Report with host Joshua Philipp and senior investigative reporter Joe Hanneman. The Epoch Times has so far obtained 65 video clips from the U.S. Capitol Police CCTV database. Another 64 clips are pending. A few clips were withheld due to security concerns. Together, these videos cover a wide range of Jan. 6 topics. (1) Large crowds had already gathered near the west front of the U.S. Capitol well before President Donald J. Trump finished speaking at the Ellipse. (2) Benjamin Philips collapsed away from the surging crowd and well before police began using explosive munitions on the crowd. (3) Video from the south end of the west plaza shows Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and a police officer nearby spraying large amounts of pepper spray. The two defendants convicted in his assault with pepper spray say the video was never disclosed by prosecutors. (4) Pink Beret directed protesters into the Capitol and personally led one Jan. 6 defendant into the Capitol Visitor Center. (5) The Munn Family of Borger, Texas, walked through the Capitol and picked up garbage in the Capitol Visitor Center. Five family members were convicted of misdemeanor crimes. (6) Lt. Tarik Johnson (L) acted decisively on Jan. 6 to evacuate the Senate and House chambers when his superiors sat silently in the Command Center. (7) Capitol Police captured Oath Keepers founder Founder Stewart Rhodes on a closed-circuit security camera on Jan. 6, 2021-video. (8) After the shooting of Ashli Babbitt at 2:45 p.m., police tactical teams began an aggressive effort to clear the Capitol of protesters. (9) After collapsing near the Lower West Terrace tunnel and being ignored by police, Rosanne Boyland received immediate resuscitation attempts once she was pulled into the Capitol. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Architect of the Capitol, U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Who is Pink Beret? Bystanders in the huge crowds at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 couldn't help but notice the young woman with the stylish clothes, high heels, Dolce & Gabbana handbag, and a pink beret perched on her head. She became known on social media by the hashtag #PinkBeret. A woman at the time known only as "Pink Beret" directed and lured people into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a defense attorney contends. (U.S. District Court-Open Source Video/Screenshots via The Epoch Times) Pink Beret was in the crowd that watched the first breach of police lines near the Peace Fountain on the Capitol's west front at about 12:50 p.m. Jan. 6 defendant Darrell Neely told a federal court in his criminal trial that Pink Beret lured him into the Capitol Visitor Center and tried to saddle him with a bag full of police gear she picked up off the floor. "It is clear Pink Beret was on a mission to get to the Capitol as quickly as possible and to be one of the first to get there," Neely's attorney, Kira West, wrote in a court filing. "We know this because she ran across grass—in heels." The Epoch Times researched and requested a collection of video clips that document the actions of the woman. After more than two years, the FBI put her on its Jan. 6 most-wanted page in late April. More than two months after she was named in Neely's court filings as a potential defense witness, the FBI identified Pink Beret as Jennifer Inzunza Vargas Geller. Ms. Geller was seen in the Capitol Visitor Center with Neely. At one point, surveillance video shows, she removed her beret, ducked down to hide herself, and ran up the escalator. Neely kept looking for her, not realizing she had ditched him. A short time later, CCTV video shows her with another male protester in a different part of the Capitol. Ms. Geller was observed outside the Senate parliamentarian's entrance, directing people into the building with a stick. Ms. West wrote in a court filing that the sight reminded her of Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. On May 9, the Department of Justice charged Ms. Geller with four Jan. 6 misdemeanor counts. Her case was unusual because the DOJ almost never announces charges against defendants before they are arrested and in custody. Her husband, Spencer Sidney Geller, was charged in July with a felony obstruction count and four misdemeanors. As in his wife's case, Mr. Geller's charges were announced when he was not in custody. The Gellers are living in Thailand with their 10-month-old daughter. So far, the FBI has not made moves to arrest the pair and extradite them back to the United States to face trial. Officer Brian Sicknick Some of the most dramatic CCTV footage acquired by The Epoch Times showed the disabling of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the day after the Capitol protest and riots of Jan. 6. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. (United States Capitol Police via AP) Mr. Sicknick, 42, of Springfield, Va.—a 13-year U.S. Capitol Police veteran and central New Jersey native—died late on Jan. 7, 2021. His cause of death was two strokes. It was ruled a natural death by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Mr. Sicknick was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia after lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda in February 2021. Federal prosecutors charged two men with assaulting Mr. Sicknick with pepper spray: Julian Elie Khater, 34, of Somerset, New Jersey, and George P. Tanios, 41, of Morgantown, West Virginia. The video shows that just after 2:20 p.m., Mr. Sicknick and two MPD officers charged out into the crowd of rioters, who had been pulling over security barriers with a thick freight strap. In the center, however, an MPD commander fired numerous bursts of pepper spray from a high-velocity tank that snaked 20 feet or more into the crowd, the video shows. Both the stream of pepper spray and a plume of cast-off caused by stiff winds passed near the left side of Sicknick’s face, the video shows. Mr. Sicknick quickly retreated from the scene, just ahead of a rioter who charged at him and an MPD officer. He rinsed out his eyes near the inauguration scaffolding, then climbed the southwest steps to the upper terrace. He remained on duty but collapsed at about 10 p.m. after officers noticed him slurring his speech. A funeral service is held for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick as he lies in honor in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, in Washington on Feb. 3, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool/Getty Images) Mr. Khater was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison on a plea deal for assault with a deadly weapon and other charges. Although he was initially charged with 12 criminal counts, Mr. Tanios pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to time served, one year of probation, and a $1,800 fine. Mr. Khater's father and Mr. Tanios said they never saw the video before being shown the footage by The Epoch Times. “They [expletive] withheld this. Big time. Oh, my God. My God,” Mr. Tanios told The Epoch Times while watching the footage. Mr. Tanios said he believes the video should have been disclosed to his and Mr. Khater's defense teams as exculpatory evidence. Elie Khater, Julian Khater's father, said the video is another example of the system being tipped against defendants. "Since it is in Washington D.C., everything is stacked against the January sixers," Mr. Khater told The Epoch Times. "From the very beginning, they took this story and they just exaggerated, messed with the facts, lied about a lot of other things. We figured everything is stacked against us." Mr. Khater estimated he has amassed nearly $450,000 in legal fees defending his son in criminal and civil court. He said he is nearly out of resources to pay a civil attorney to represent his son in a $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Sandra Garza, Mr. Sicknick's former girlfriend, against President Trump, Mr. Tanios, and Mr. Khater. Pepper spray is used during a clash between protesters and police officers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Leo Shi/The Epoch Times) The New York Times published a 2021 story claiming Mr. Trump's supporters smashed Mr. Sicknick's head with a fire extinguisher, causing his death. That claim was eventually retracted but is still repeated 30 months after Mr. Sicknick's death. The next claim was that his death was caused by a potent bear spray wielded by Mr. Khater and Mr. Tanios. While Mr. Tanios said he had bear spray canisters in his backpack in the event the men were attacked by Antifa, the spray was never used. Mr. Khater had a Mace Brand KeyGuard pepper spray canister he received from Mr. Tanios on the evening of Jan. 5. The pocket-size flip-top device was used to spray the officers, according to prosecutors. The manufacturer says the canister emits a thin stream of pepper spray up to 10 feet. Mr. Tanios said he did not realize that Mr. Khater had used the Mace canister until months after Jan. 6. Jesse Binnall, an attorney representing Mr. Trump in the $30 million civil suit, said he could not comment on what impact the video might have on the lawsuit. Oath Keepers When five Oath Keepers defendants went on trial in September 2022 for alleged seditious conspiracy to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, a key piece of prosecution evidence was an alleged three-way phone call initiated by Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III. Prosecutors alleged Mr. Rhodes spoke with Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs and Jan. 6 operations director Michael “Whip” Greene with instructions to attack the Capitol. Defense attorneys argued the call never happened, and the communications Mr. Rhodes attempted that afternoon were meant to tell the Oath Keepers to get away from the Capitol, not attack it. Video discovered by The Epoch Times shows one of the exterior terrace-level cameras was trained on Mr. Rhodes while he stood on the Upper Northwest Terrace at the Capitol between 2:51 p.m. and nearly 3:00 p.m. In the video, Mr. Rhodes appeared to be attempting cell phone calls but was not having success. It appeared that he was interviewed briefly by a podcaster, then continued trying to make calls, the video shows. Standing with Mr. Rhodes during the video were former Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle and an unidentified Oath Keeper in a camouflage jacket with an Oath Keepers cap turned backward. At one point, Mr. Rhodes walked just out of camera view. The footage shows a hand reaching in to give the camera a nudge, which kept Mr. Rhodes in view. It appears someone was at the camera location during at least part of the nine minutes Mr. Rhodes stood on that portion of the terrace. "I never saw it," Mr. Rhodes told The Epoch Times in a June phone interview from jail, referring to the nine minutes of CCTV video. Mr. Rhodes said the idea that he was being surveilled is "really creepy." Mr. Rhodes and Ms. SoRelle appeared on the left side of the camera view at 2:51:36 p.m., the CCTV video shows. The unidentified Oath Keeper followed Mr. Rhodes into the camera view shortly after. The man was likely providing security for Ms. SoRelle, one of Mr. Rhodes's attorneys told The Epoch Times. "I don’t remember seeing this video,” one of Mr. Rhodes’ defense attorneys, Edward Tarpley, told The Epoch Times. “It may have been in discovery, but I certainly didn’t see it. We were given thousands of videos to review. It seems pretty clear to me that someone actually was following Stewart on the ground with the video camera.” At 2:57:30, a hand appeared on the left side of the video frame and forcibly tilted the camera down and then to the left. Mr. Rhodes was then back within the camera’s field of view. The other Oath Keeper was visible at times on the left edge of the frame. The video is significant because it could back up testimony given by Mr. Rhodes in FBI interviews and in court testimony that he was attempting to get Oath Keepers away from the Capitol, not to attack it. “I was trying to call them, to get them to come to us, to get them to come to me and Whip,” Mr. Rhodes told the FBI in May 2021. “That's all it was. I couldn't get any [expletive] comms.” Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III speaks to members of his group outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Ford Fischer / News2Share) Mr. Tarpley said he considers the newly revealed security video to be exculpatory evidence that should have been turned over by prosecutors. “The government argued that Stewart‘s messages to everyone to come to the Capitol were his call to action for them to come and attack the Capitol,” Mr. Tarpley said. “Of course, we know that is totally false.” Defense attorney Brad Geyer, who represented Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson in the same trial as Mr. Rhodes, said the defense presented evidence that the call never happened. "The defense maintains that no communication occurred between Meggs and Rhodes," Mr. Geyer said. "This video confirms that Rhodes was having operability issues with his phone and it also may suggest that Rhodes was being monitored on January 6 by law enforcement." Rosanne Boyland The death of Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, remains one of the biggest tragedies of Jan. 6. Ms. Boyland came to Washington to hear President Donald Trump speak at the Ellipse. She made her way to the Capitol and wandered into the Lower West Terrace tunnel just before an unknown gas was released in the crowed tunnel. Paramedics perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Rosanne Boyland before she was placed in an ambulance, in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) Information uncovered in this video investigation filled in a lot of details on what happened to Ms. Boyland after her lifeless body was pulled into the Capitol just after 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 6. The CCTV footage shows that after medics in the Capitol basement tried to resuscitate her, Ms. Boyland was moved up one level and carted through the Crypt to meet D.C. Fire and EMS Department paramedics near the House Wing Door. Despite early Capitol Police reports that she collapsed in the Rotunda at 5:00 p.m., the video shows that was impossible, as was the notion paramedics came upon two unnamed Capitol Police officers doing CPR on Ms. Boyland. Dramatic resuscitation efforts continued near the House Wing Door for another 40 minutes before Ms. Boyland was placed in an ambulance for transport to George Washington University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The Epoch Times learned from Ms. Boyland's family that she was shot in the chest by a pepper ball fired by a police officer at the rear of the Lower West Terrace tunnel. The Boyland family was told by witnesses that the pepper ball shot is what caused Ms. Boyland to fall and become trapped by the stampeding crowd. One of Ms. Boyland's sisters noticed a large, dark bruise on her left shoulder in a Getty Images photograph run with a July 24 Epoch Times article on Ms. Boyland's case. No shoulder injuries were documented in the emergency room notes or in the autopsy done by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Nor was the head wound above Ms. Boyland's right eye documented. That injury was possibly sustained when a Metropolitan Police Department Officer beat an unresponsive Ms. Boyland with a wooden walking stick as previously reported by The Epoch Times based on police bodycam footage. Death of Benjamin Philips Security video challenged the longstanding narrative that Benjamin James Philips—the first of four Trump supporters to die on Jan. 6—was struck by a police munition before he collapsed from a fatal cardiac event. Video from a far-away west dome camera seems to show someone stumbling and collapsing behind the inauguration scaffolding on the Capitol's west front at 12:59:17 p.m. That area of the grounds was breached by protesters at 12:58:52 p.m., shortly after a much larger crowd breached the low iron fence protecting the west plaza. Overhead security video shows the first munitions used on the huge crowd were deployed at 1:10 p.m. on the south end of the west plaza. "I got a crowd fighting with officers, pushing, throwing projectiles," Deputy Chief Eric Waldow broadcast at 1:06 p.m. "I have given warnings about chemical munitions. I need the less-than-lethal team positioned above me to identify the agitators and start deploying. Launch, launch, launch!" The first munitions were not deployed until 1:10 p.m. Rescuers carry Benjamin Philips on a makeshift gurney to an ambulance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) The first closeup video of Mr. Philips begins at 1:02:51 p.m. when the U.S. Capitol Police Command Center trained one of its security cameras on the area where he fell. Bystanders and a Capitol Police officer took turns doing chest compressions. The first call for help went out over the USCP radio at 1:04 p.m., according to Jan. 6 audio recordings obtained by The Epoch Times. “Can you please have someone respond to my location with an AED [automated external defibrillator]? The bottom of the west front with an individual that’s down here, unconscious and not breathing,” a female officer broadcast on the main U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) radio channel. At about 1:15 p.m., an out-of-breath officer announced that the D.C. Fire and EMS Department rescue squad wouldn't come down to the scaffolding where Mr. Philips lay on the sidewalk. “They are bringing the patient up to the ambulance right now,” he shouted on the radio. “They are refusing to come down.” Bystanders and police placed Mr. Philips on a section of a bike rack and carried it like a battlefield stretcher to the ambulance some 100 yards away. He was turned over to paramedics at 1:19 p.m. He was later pronounced dead. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Mr. Philips died from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. His manner of death was listed by the pathologist, Dr. Fernando Diaz, as "natural." Sweeping the Capitol After U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot by Capitol Police near the House Chamber at 2:45 p.m., police made aggressive efforts to push all of the protesters out of the Capitol. The Epoch Times obtained CCTV security video showing SWAT teams clearing the Capitol. FBI and ATF law enforcement evacuate protesters from inside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images) Officers from Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department formed skirmish lines and pushed groups of protesters toward the exits while chanting, "Move back! Move back! Move back!" A large contingent of police pushed protesters across the Great Rotunda and forced them out through the exits. At the same time, tactical teams from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and other federal agencies began sweeping the upper floors of the Capitol to ensure no protesters were left. With rifles raised and SureFire tactical lights illuminating their paths, the tactical teams moved methodically through the building. At one point, an ATF tactical team came around the corner near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. A stunned Capitol Police officer in the otherwise empty hallway threw his hands in the air as if to surrender. Tyler Durden Mon, 08/14/2023 - 23:40.....»»

Mental Health Round-Ups: The Next Phase Of The Government's War On Thought-Crimes Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is a dangerous activity.” - Hannah Arendt Get ready for the next phase of the government’s war on thought crimes: mental health round-ups and involuntary detentions. Under the guise of public health and safety, the government could use mental health care as a pretext for targeting and locking up dissidents, activists and anyone unfortunate enough to be placed on a government watch list. If we don’t nip this in the bud, and soon, this will become yet another pretext by which government officials can violate the First and Fourth Amendments at will. This is how it begins. In communities across the nation, police are being empowered to forcibly detain individuals they believe might be mentally ill, based solely on their own judgment, even if those individuals pose no danger to others. In New York City, for example, you could find yourself forcibly hospitalized for suspected mental illness if you carry “firmly held beliefs not congruent with cultural ideas,” exhibit a “willingness to engage in meaningful discussion,” have “excessive fears of specific stimuli,” or refuse “voluntary treatment recommendations.” While these programs are ostensibly aimed at getting the homeless off the streets, when combined with advances in mass surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics and behavior, mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA), threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, precrime initiatives, red flag gun laws, and mental health first-aid programs aimed at training gatekeepers to identify who might pose a threat to public safety, they could well signal a tipping point in the government’s efforts to penalize those engaging in so-called “thought crimes.” As the AP reports, federal officials are already looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient data,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit. Make no mistake: these are the building blocks for an American gulag no less sinister than that of the gulags of the Cold War-era Soviet Union. The word “gulag” refers to a labor or concentration camp where prisoners (oftentimes political prisoners or so-called “enemies of the state,” real or imagined) were imprisoned as punishment for their crimes against the state. The gulag, according to historian Anne Applebaum, used as a form of “administrative exile—which required no trial and no sentencing procedure—was an ideal punishment not only for troublemakers as such, but also for political opponents of the regime.” Totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union also declared dissidents mentally ill and consigned political prisoners to prisons disguised as psychiatric hospitals, where they could be isolated from the rest of society, their ideas discredited, and subjected to electric shocks, drugs and various medical procedures to break them physically and mentally. In addition to declaring political dissidents mentally unsound, government officials in the Cold War-era Soviet Union also made use of an administrative process for dealing with individuals who were considered a bad influence on others or troublemakers. Author George Kennan describes a process in which: The obnoxious person may not be guilty of any crime . . . but if, in the opinion of the local authorities, his presence in a particular place is “prejudicial to public order” or “incompatible with public tranquility,” he may be arrested without warrant, may be held from two weeks to two years in prison, and may then be removed by force to any other place within the limits of the empire and there be put under police surveillance for a period of from one to ten years. Warrantless seizures, surveillance, indefinite detention, isolation, exile… sound familiar? It should. The age-old practice by which despotic regimes eliminate their critics or potential adversaries by making them disappear—or forcing them to flee—or exiling them literally or figuratively or virtually from their fellow citizens—is happening with increasing frequency in America. Now, through the use of red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, and pre-crime policing prevention programs, the groundwork is being laid that would allow the government to weaponize the label of mental illness as a means of exiling those whistleblowers, dissidents and freedom fighters who refuse to march in lockstep with its dictates. That the government is using the charge of mental illness as the means by which to immobilize (and disarm) its critics is diabolical. With one stroke of a magistrate’s pen, these individuals are declared mentally ill, locked away against their will, and stripped of their constitutional rights. These developments are merely the realization of various U.S. government initiatives dating back to 2009, including one dubbed Operation Vigilant Eagle which calls for surveillance of military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, characterizing them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.” Coupled with the report on “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” issued by the Department of Homeland Security (curiously enough, a Soviet term), which broadly defines rightwing extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” these tactics bode ill for anyone seen as opposing the government. Thus, what began as a blueprint under the Bush administration has since become an operation manual for exiling those who challenge the government’s authority. An important point to consider, however, is that the government is not merely targeting individuals who are voicing their discontent so much as it is locking up individuals trained in military warfare who are voicing feelings of discontent. Under the guise of mental health treatment and with the complicity of government psychiatrists and law enforcement officials, these veterans are increasingly being portrayed as ticking time bombs in need of intervention. For instance, the Justice Department launched a pilot program aimed at training SWAT teams to deal with confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans. One tactic being used to deal with so-called “mentally ill suspects who also happen to be trained in modern warfare” is through the use of civil commitment laws, found in all states and employed throughout American history to not only silence but cause dissidents to disappear. For example, NSA officials attempted to label former employee Russ Tice, who was willing to testify in Congress about the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, as “mentally unbalanced” based upon two psychiatric evaluations ordered by his superiors. NYPD Officer Adrian Schoolcraft had his home raided, and he was handcuffed to a gurney and taken into emergency custody for an alleged psychiatric episode. It was later discovered by way of an internal investigation that his superiors were retaliating against him for reporting police misconduct. Schoolcraft spent six days in the mental facility, and as a further indignity, was presented with a bill for $7,185 upon his release. Marine Brandon Raub—a 9/11 truther—was arrested and detained in a psychiatric ward under Virginia’s civil commitment law based on posts he had made on his Facebook page that were critical of the government. Each state has its own set of civil, or involuntary, commitment laws. These laws are extensions of two legal principles: parens patriae Parens patriae (Latin for “parent of the country”), which allows the government to intervene on behalf of citizens who cannot act in their own best interest, and police power, which requires a state to protect the interests of its citizens. The fusion of these two principles, coupled with a shift towards a dangerousness standard, has resulted in a Nanny State mindset carried out with the militant force of the Police State. The problem, of course, is that the diagnosis of mental illness, while a legitimate concern for some Americans, has over time become a convenient means by which the government and its corporate partners can penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors. In fact, in recent years, we have witnessed the pathologizing of individuals who resist authority as suffering from oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), defined as “a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures.” Under such a definition, every activist of note throughout our history—from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr.—could be classified as suffering from an ODD mental disorder. Of course, this is all part of a larger trend in American governance whereby dissent is criminalized and pathologized, and dissenters are censored, silenced, declared unfit for society, labelled dangerous or extremist, or turned into outcasts and exiled. Red flag gun laws (which authorize government officials to seize guns from individuals viewed as a danger to themselves or others), are a perfect example of this mindset at work and the ramifications of where this could lead. As The Washington Post reports, these red flag gun laws “allow a family member, roommate, beau, law enforcement officer or any type of medical professional to file a petition [with a court] asking that a person’s home be temporarily cleared of firearms. It doesn’t require a mental-health diagnosis or an arrest.” With these red flag gun laws, the stated intention is to disarm individuals who are potential threats. While in theory it appears perfectly reasonable to want to disarm individuals who are clearly suicidal and/or pose an “immediate danger” to themselves or others, where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a potential danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police. Remember, this is the same government that uses the words “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably. This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats. This is the same government that keeps re-upping the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to detain American citizens with no access to friends, family or the courts if the government believes them to be a threat. This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state. For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list. Moreover, as a New York Times editorial warns, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the police if you are afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms, if you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law, or if you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car. Let that sink in a moment. Now consider the ramifications of giving police that kind of authority in order to preemptively neutralize a potential threat, and you’ll understand why some might view these mental health round-ups with trepidation. No matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes. Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, the war on COVID-19: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands. For instance, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools. As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are moving fast down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts. We stand at a crossroads. As author Erich Fromm warned, “At this point in history, the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.” Tyler Durden Fri, 07/21/2023 - 23:40.....»»

July 26 Hearing on Hunter Biden Plea Deal to Test GOP and Trump; Will They Back Up Their Claims of ... Read more July 26 Hearing on Hunter Biden Plea Deal to Test GOP and Trump; Will They Back Up Their Claims of Wrongdoing With Court Submissions? Hunter Biden Plea Deal Will Be A Major Test WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 19, 2023) – The July 26th court hearing on Hunter Biden’s so-called “sweetheart” plea deal will provide a major test of the sincerity and veracity of some GOP members of Congress, and of former president Donald Trump, as well as the strength of the evidence of serious wrongdoing by the President’s son and others, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, whose formal complaint triggered the criminal investigation of Donald Trump in Georgia. Trump and other Republicans who claim to have compelling evidence – including the sworn testimony of at least two whistleblowers – that Hunter engaged in criminal conduct far more serious than that to which he will be allowed to plead, and that there was political bias and wrongdoing involved in agreeing to the no-jail-time plea deal itself, surely know that they can bring such evidence in opposition to the judge’s approval of the plea deal to her attention. This is especially true, and important, because much of this information is now in the Congressional Record where the judge can take judicial notice of it, says Banzhaf, who filed information before then-chief-judge John Sirica which helped lead to the appointment of special prosecutors to investigate then-president Richard Nixon. It is also especially important because IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley claimed that the IRS probe he was part of was prevented from taking steps “that could have led us to President Biden.” For example, IRS investigators (including Shapley) have reported that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss told several law-enforcement officials connected to the Hunter Biden investigation that he was not the ultimate decision-maker regarding whether Biden would be charged, and that he was being thwarted by other Biden-appointed US attorneys. It is also claimed that the Justice Department refused Weiss’s request that he be appointed as a special counsel to help insure a complete an unbiased investigation, notes Banzhaf. Concerns About The Investigation As House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith explained in greater detail in a recent letter: “The testimony of the two whistleblowers raises serious concerns about the handling of this investigation and prosecution, and multiple congressional inquiries into the whistleblowers’ allegations are ongoing. The whistleblowers alleged that prosecutors and Department of Justice officials engaged in unjustified delays and political interference that resulted, in part, in the statute of limitations expiring for tax years 2014 and 2015. According to the whistleblowers, the IRS recommended criminal charges be sought for tax years 2014 through 2019, including multiple felony counts. These represent only some of the allegations presented to the Committee by the whistleblowers, as they also provided numerous examples of unprecedented and unusual interference, delays, and roadblocks beyond what is described above, which appear to have hindered the investigation.” [emphasis added] Indeed, Smith has asked the Justice Department to insert into the record what is claimed to be overwhelming evidence of this wrongdoing, which is now a matter of public record, in order to avoid a serious miscarriage of justice, and perhaps even a coverup of criminal interference with an ongoing criminal investigation: “Given the abruptness of the plea agreement announcement shortly after it became public that whistleblowers made disclosures to Congress, the seriousness of the whistleblower allegations, and the fact that multiple congressional investigations into the matter are ongoing, we ask that you file this letter and the attached information in the docket of the above referenced matter and confirm with the Committee that you have done so as soon as possible, but no later than 5pm on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Placing the attached materials into the record is critical because the testimony provided by the two IRS whistleblowers brings new and compelling facts to light, and because it is essential for the Judge in this matter to have relevant information before her when evaluating the plea agreement.” [emphasis added] If I, as a private citizen, can bring important information to the attention of a federal judge (then chief judge) overseeing the criminal investigation of the Watergate burglars, the Chairman of a House committee should be able to do no less regarding a minor no-jail plea bargain of an individual who his committee has been – and is still in the process of – investigating regarding far more serious criminal charges, argues Banzhaf. Similarly, anything presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – who played a video for his Republican House colleagues about the evidence against both Joe and Hunter Biden, and who is second in the line of presidential succession (after only the vice president) – to Judge Maryellen Noreika, certainly could not be ignored by her, the law professor suggests. Banzhaf notes that there are many situations where judges have refused to accept a negotiated plea agreement: e.g., “if judges believe the agreements do not adequately address the nature of the crimes, the rights of victims, or the interests of the public'” the plea agreement “falls short given the backdrop of the parties’ motivation, [the defendant’s] trusted employment position, and the threats to national and global security . . . tat [the parties’] actions caused;” because the judge was inclined to give the defendant a longer sentence; “[i]t was not in the best interest of the community, or the country, to accept the[] plea agreements;” etc. Perhaps most tellingly, a judge once rejected a negotiated plea deal simply because “[i]t is contrary to justice. Justice in this society cannot be seen as being able to buy oneself out of a felony conviction.” “If Chairman Jason Smith, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, or even former president Donald Trump were to formally bring all of this information to the attention of Judge Noreika, it is quite possible if not likely that she would reject the “slap-on-the-wrist” plea deal being offered by his father’s Justice Department in view of the very serious criminal wrongdoings it appears Hunter has committed, says Banzhaf. At the very least, it is hard to see how with such evidence before her the judge could avoid at least granting a brief delay to permit ongoing formal investigations by congressional committees – where witnesses would be under oath and subject to perjury – to continue their work which even so far strongly suggests that the plea deal was improperly influenced by political pressure, and is hardly in the public interest. A refusal by Republicans to take this simple step would logically lead many to question the sincerity of their concerns about the deal, and/or the strength of the evidence they keep claiming to have, argues the activist law professor......»»

Three years after a letter accused leadership of fostering an unhealthy work environment, current and former employees say issues with work culture still linger. Arantza Pena Popo/Insider On June 28, 2020, an anonymous group of women who said they worked at Essence magazine published a letter on Medium accusing the company of fostering an unhealthy work environment. The company launched two independent investigations, which could not substantiate the claims made in the letter. Some employees felt like their concerns were not taken seriously. Twenty former and current employees spoke to Insider about their experiences working at the magazine. Despite changes, some remain unsatisfied with the company. On June 28, 2020, a group of women using the name Black Females Anonymous published a damning public letter that shook Essence magazine, the leading publication for Black women in America, to the core."The Essence brand promise is fraudulent," the essay, published on Medium, claimed. "The once exalted media brand dedicated to Black women has been hijacked by cultural and corporate greed and an unhinged abuse of power."The letter said that leaders at Essence fostered an "extremely unhealthy work culture" rife with "pay inequity, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism and classism" — one that began when Richelieu Dennis, the beauty mogul behind SheaMoisture, bought the publication in 2018.After the letter hit the internet, Dennis and the rest of Essence's leadership team scrambled to deal with the implosion. In a public statement, Essence denied the allegations, calling them "mischaracterizations" and "unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character." The magazine hired two law firms to investigate, but the independent reviews could not substantiate the accusations of bullying, harassment, or discrimination made in the letter.Still, some employees say they witnessed management become increasingly defensive. The company held town hall meetings over Zoom where they encouraged people to speak up about their concerns. Only by airing out these concerns, they said, could they make the workplace better. But some former employees who attended the meetings said the sentiment didn't feel sincere. Instead, they believed leadership became obsessed with sniffing out who wrote the letter."It was a critical turning point in establishing trust with employees again and assuring us that our work matters here," a former employee present at the meeting told Insider. "But in the moment, we were made to feel replaceable. It was a turning point where a lot of folks checked out."Rather than listen and take accountability, ex-employees said they felt like leadership tried to undermine their voices and their experiences, echoing the sentiments expressed in the open letter."Essence is the most deceptive Black media company in America. Why? Essence aggressively monetizes #BlackGirlMagic but the company does not internally practice #BlackGirlMagic," the letter read. "The company's longstanding pattern of gross mistreatment and abuse of its Black female employees is the biggest open secret in the media business."Insider spoke with 20 former and current employees across titles and departments about their experiences working at Essence. Five former employees were still at the magazine in 2022 or 2023; an additional nine worked at Essence during the time the letter was published in 2020.Many employees who were at Essence in 2020 say they experienced or witnessed a "hellish" and "dehumanizing" culture with a rigid, top-down hierarchy; some complained of mismanagement and poor compensation — issues that current and recent employees say haven't been fully resolved in the three years since the letter was published. Most of the sources requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to protect their careers."Essence is a dream place — 'Black girl magic' — but it's a known thing inside, and it's leaking outside, that it's more like 'Black girl tragic,'" one former employee said.Essence and Group Black did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Insider.Essence under Time Inc.Essence Magazine was first published in 1970 at a time when Black business and civil rights leaders called for greater self-determination and empowerment. The magazine was the brainchild of a group of four Black businessmen who identified a lack of publications for Black women in America. It was meant to be a "lifestyle magazine directed at upscale African American women."Their vision was soon realized. With an initial circulation of only around 50,000 copies per month, the publication's readership grew by a staggering 17-fold within two decades.Under the helm of Susan Taylor, the publication's long beloved editor-in-chief from 1981 to 2000, Essence's monthly readership surpassed 5 million people, making the magazine a household name in Black communities across America. Taylor was also responsible for launching Essence Festival, an annual event that would become the company's biggest revenue generator, eventually even overshadowing what the magazine itself brought in, and turning the Essence brand into a cultural behemoth.Today, the magazine has a monthly circulation of over 1 million copies, competing with the likes of Vogue and Elle. But things shifted in 2000, when Time Inc. — which also owned publications like Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and People — purchased 49% of Essence Communications, then later bought the remaining 51% in 2005. Essence went from one of the few Black-owned magazines in the country to another publication under widespread ownership.Covers of Essence and Entertainment Weekly, both magazines under Time Inc. in 2015.Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Entertainment WeeklyThe shift to a white- and male-dominated parent company left some employees feeling like Essence operated under "stepchild status" under Time Inc.One employee at the time said that it felt like Time Inc. "wasn't invested in Essence at all." People struggled with budgets, creating a "bootstrapping" environment. The move to a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate had made some employees hope Essence would be given ample resources; instead, they seemed to operate from a scarcity mentality."All of the teams always moved as if there was extreme limitation, like, 'we can't do this photoshoot; we don't have enough money,'" a former employee said.In 2013, then-president of Essence Communications Michelle Ebanks told The New York Times she understood why some readers were concerned about Time Inc.'s influence on the magazine, but insisted that Essence enjoys "journalistic independence" under their parent company.Rich Dennis enters the sceneIn 2017, the Meredith Corporation announced it would purchase Time Inc. for $2.8 billion, acquiring all the publication's assets, including Essence Magazine. The company had struggled with plummeting print advertising revenue, like much of the publishing industry.Around that time, Richelieu Dennis came across a Wall Street Journal article about how Time Inc. was looking to sell its majority stake in Essence. Dennis had made his name and fortune as the founder of Sundial Brands, a beauty company that focuses on products for Black women, including SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage. He had no prior experience in the media industry, but felt strongly about serving the Black community.By January 2018, Dennis bought Essence from Time Inc. for an undisclosed amount. "The stars aligned," Dennis told NNPA Newswire soon after the purchase. "We started to think about the implications of what this would mean if Essence were truly brought back into the community."Richelieu Dennis at the 2023 Essence Ventures Media Upfronts on June 29, 2023.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCEReaders celebrated that the magazine was Black-owned again. "This is so so so so so important," one reader tweeted. "We need room for this celebration," said another.Then-president of Essence Communications Michelle Ebanks, who stayed through the acquisition, said this was a chance for the publication to grow: "This means we can realize our extraordinary potential."Dennis had brought back hope.Born in Liberia in 1969 to a family of entrepreneurs, Dennis came to America to attend Babson College, a business school whose gilded roster of alumni includes execs from The Home Depot, PepsiCo, and Accenture. Unable to return home because of a civil war, Dennis started Sundial Brands in his tiny Queens apartment, making soaps and lotions from shea butter and essential oils in his bathtub.From its modest beginnings, Sundial raked in around $300 million in revenue in 2017, and ultimately sold to Unilever for an estimated $1.6 billion later that year."This founder escaped war, created a top skin care brand, and launched a $100 million fund for Black women entrepreneurs," Inc. Magazine wrote of Dennis' accomplishments in 2019. Richelieu Dennis at Variety Magazine's Power of Women event in 2019.Margarita Corporan/Variety/Penske Media via Getty ImagesSome of Sundial's loyal customers lambasted the Unilever sale as a betrayal of its founding mission to support Black women. But Dennis said that these decisions were ways to reinvest in the Black community — a sentiment he echoed when he bought Essence in 2018."What we're doing with Essence is not very different from what we've done with Sundial," Dennis told Forbes in 2018 when he bought the magazine. "And that is to serve Black women deeply, to serve women of color in a way that no one else has thought about."Essence Magazine was Dennis' first foray into the media world, and was just the first in a string of acquisitions that catapulted him to the peak of a Black business empire. His "family-run" private-equity company, Essence Ventures, "endeavors to empower, connect and give ownership to Black communities," according to the company's LinkedIn page. Essence Ventures, too, has invested in brands founded by and for Black women, including Afropunk Festival, hair care company Naturally Curly, and BeautyCon."Essence is not a magazine. It's a concept. It's a movement," Dennis told "The Breakfast Club" in 2019. "For us, it wasn't just, 'Hey, let's go buy a magazine.' For us, it was, let's make sure we own the narrative that's happening in our community. Whether or not it made business sense, we were going to do this because we deserve to own our culture."Regaining ownership of one's culture would become Dennis' refrain, including with a recent $400 million bid for Vice Media, and with news that his media company Group Black was in talks to buy stakes in Black Entertainment Television, Bustle Digital Group, and Arena, the publisher behind Sports Illustrated. (None of these deals have materialized; Vice Media was ultimately bought out by Fortress Investment Group).Richelieu Dennis attends the NASDAQ opening bell ringing ceremony as the founder of Essence Ventures and New Voices on February 17, 2023.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Essence Ventures at NASDAQAt Essence back in 2018, employees were hopeful things would change for the better with Dennis at the helm."I was genuinely excited. Essence was and always has been a beacon of Black culture, but it was held by white people," one former employee recalled of the transition. "So it was a moment of pride — for all of us."The reality of Essence under Dennis' early leadership, however, did not meet some staffers' high expectations."Essence was once again a Black-owned company and, as executives regularly liked to remind us, we were family. As we all know, however, a company is not your family. It is business," a former editor at the magazine said in a tweet around the time of the anonymous letter.Crumbling moraleEssence had suffered from a lack of resources under Time Inc., and Dennis and his leadership team were tasked with righting a sinking ship. But the new management faced immediate obstacles it struggled to overcome, leaving some employees questioning their ability to run a media company.After the sale to Dennis in 2018, management failed to construct a stable infrastructure, eight current and former employees told Insider. There were no annual reviews or promotion outlines, leaving ambitious employees feeling stuck and frustrated. Even those with supportive managers who championed their work struggled to advance in the company, since the buck stopped at the C-suite, employees said.Only one of the 11 sources Insider spoke with who were there at the time received raises in the first few years of Dennis' ownership, they say. Many of those staff members said they had to juggle multiple responsibilities outside of their original job descriptions and felt it only exacerbated the pain of not receiving a raise — especially as Essence sought to ramp up its digital presence. Dennis had grand visions for Essence and wanted to run the magazine as a multi-faceted "startup," insiders recalled him saying. The industry-wide shift from print to digital meant a demand for more stories, more quickly.Reporters at Essence in the first few years under Dennis' leadership said they had to write four to five stories per day for the website, while also working on stories for the print magazine. Some editorial staff also took on new podcasts and visual projects, but weren't compensated for the extra work."I had basically taken a pay cut from them with the additional responsibilities," a former employee who was there in 2018 to 2020 said. "I was told to take it or leave it. Others didn't get extra for their additional contributions, either, so I felt like I couldn't complain about it. But I did feel insulted."Some women said the stressful work culture started to affect their mental and physical health. They relied on their "sisterhood" to get through the days."The culture is very much a community — a team that translates and speaks well with each other," Sandra Okerulu, a freelancer who worked with Essence in 2018, said of the magazine's employees. "It's clear they believe in the project. This is theirs."But when staff tried to voice their frustrations to higher-ups, some say they were met with apathy. At multiple town hall meetings from 2018 to 2020, Michelle Ebanks, then-CEO of Essence Communications, said if they didn't like what they were being paid, they could leave out the door, several former employees told Insider.By the end of 2018, less than a year into Dennis' reign, morale began to crumble. "You kind of hope that Essence is one of those places that won't treat you like a cog in the wheel, but that wasn't the case," a former employee said.The new regimeSome of the problems at Essence predated Dennis' purchase, four former employees said, but the real root of the persisting issues lay in the upper echelons of the magazine."The cultural rot was from the top down," one former employee said.In October 2018, Dennis brought in Moana Luu, a self-described multihyphenate from Martinique, to shore up Essence as its chief content and creative officer. Statuesque with a cosmopolitan flair, Luu held a patchwork of jobs in beauty, media, and design before joining Essence. She was a TV producer and host for a local Marticinian pageant show, creative director for a French hair care company, and chief creative officer for a studio based in France called Trace Media, per her LinkedIn profile.Luu, who lived in Paris and the Philippines before moving to America, was tasked with globalizing the reach of Essence.But multiple employees questioned her ability to run a magazine with a storied heritage like Essence.Essence CEO Michelle Ebanks, Richelieu Dennis, and Essence chief content & creative officer Moana Luu at the 2020 13th Annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood luncheon.Rich Polk/Getty Images for EssenceIn the letter, Luu was accused of "workplace bullying, flamboyant overspending, and lack of leadership on production budgets and deadlines." Multiple sources told Insider they had similar experiences with Luu, with some sources feeling like she caused issues of the magazine to be late to press because of last-minute changes, or shifting deadlines.Some sources felt that both Dennis and Luu lacked "deep knowledge" of the publishing industry, leading to a lot of "misunderstanding about the time and effort needed to publish a monthly magazine," as one former employee put it.Some employees who worked with Luu felt she also fostered a "mean girl" workplace."She pretty much came in trying to be the Black version of 'Devil Wears Prada,'" a former editor said. Another former employee felt Luu held "very little respect" for the women who worked at Essence.Luu commented on people's weight and appearance, six sources said.When an editor with a curvier body type pitched an idea for a video, Luu reportedly responded, "You on camera? No no no," the editor told Insider."She told me that she needed someone beautiful with a lot of social media numbers, not me," the editor said. "I just stopped after that."Another former employee who witnessed the interaction corroborated the incident."A big part of Essence's platform has been showcasing the varied beauty of Black women: all shapes and sizes, all shades, all hair textures," a former longtime editor at the magazine said."But when Moana came on board, she was only interested in a certain aesthetic, and she wanted that certain aesthetic to be the face of the brand," the editor said.During Luu's tenure, Essence did promote on-screen personalities including Danielle Young, who used the platform to champion body positivity and speak out against texturism.An investigation into the allegations made in the Medium post in 2020 "did not find that Ms. Luu treated anyone differently" according to a public statement by Essence.The investigation also found that "several witnesses reported hearing her make insensitive comments" and that some employees felt her management style was "intimidating and brash."Luu said she was "adamant that [was] not her intent to bully anyone," according to the investigation.In the first two years of Dennis' ownership, top brass at Essence left the publication, including global beauty director Julee Wilson and vice president Candace Montgomery, who was instrumental in growing Essence's events.Around the same time, other employees followed suit. According to five former employees, some staffers did not feel aligned with Luu's mission of globalizing a publication that was founded for Black American women and felt the new leadership was sidelining the demographic they were originally meant to uplift. (These sources could not speak specifically to why Wilson or Montgomery chose to leave).Luu did not respond to requests for comment.Allegations of nepotismDennis' hope to foster a "family" at Essence played out in more ways than one. The new regime at Essence in 2018 and its sister companies included multiple members of Dennis' own family, including his wife and two daughters.In the company's first several months under Dennis, there was no official human resources department, according to 11 former employees. Dennis' wife, Martha, became the de facto interim head of HR, nine former employees said. A 401(k) document from November 2020, viewed by Insider, lists Martha Dennis as the contact person, alongside the address of Essence's office in Industry City, Brooklyn.Some Essence employees who spoke to Insider said they felt uncomfortable raising issues with the magazine owner's wife."If I didn't have any complaints, it was because I didn't know who to go to," one former employee said. "With the owner's wife being in charge of HR, it didn't feel like a safe space to go to."In their findings, the independent investigation claimed that there was "no evidence to suggest that Ms. Dennis was appointed to lead HR or that she ever led HR," but rather that she "assisted" with HR matters.Dennis' daughters, Rechelle and Sophia, were given the reins to launch Essence Girls United, the Gen Z branch of the magazine. Rechelle was only a year out of college when she joined Essence, her LinkedIn shows. She also founded SheaGirl, a skincare company for teens under her father's company SheaMoisture, when she was a sophomore in college.Outside of Essence, Dennis' sister Richelyna Hall was chief impact officer of New Voices, the organization Dennis founded to support women entrepreneurs of color, as recently as 2021. New Voices has hosted pitch competitions at EssenceFest, Essence magazine's annual festival, according to its website, and its portfolio companies — which it refers to as its "family" — have been featured on the magazine's cover and in write-ups.A non-disclosure agreement that management asked employees to sign before a company event at the Dennis' Hamptons residence in the summer of 2019 included language that prevents them from speaking about "Dennis, Dennis' family members and children, friends, companies, business ventures, business associates," according to a copy Insider viewed.These types of agreements are a way for companies to control what people say, labor and employment lawyer Alan Lescht said. He added that it's not typical for NDAs to name specific people.Some Essence staff bristled at the NDA."It felt like it was their family, but we weren't part of it. It definitely didn't feel like a family," a former employee said.'The Truth About Essence'By June 28, 2020, discontent within Essence had reached a fever pitch, culminating in the explosive Medium essay titled "The Truth About Essence." In addition to allegations of corporate bullying and an unhealthy work culture, the letter called for the resignation of Dennis, Ebanks, Luu, and chief operating officer Joy Collins Profet.Readers rallied behind the anonymous group of writers in a petition that accompanied the essay. Several of those who signed the petition wrote that the content had deteriorated in the past decade and "fails to speak to Black women."Another said they noticed that "the advertisements in the magazine contained fewer Black models of varying complexions and looked like something [they'd] see in Vogue or other similar magazines."Readers also decried the hypocrisy of a Black-owned business and claims of mistreating the Black women who make up the company. "A double slap in the face when it's done by our own," someone wrote.Essence's management went into damage-control mode. A spokeswoman for the magazine denied that Martha Dennis was the head of human resources, saying that she had "advised the company in its ongoing HR transition," The New York Times reported. In an internal response to employees viewed by Insider, management described HR, which they said they built from the "ground-up," as having been "supported by a family executive" with experience in HR while they searched for a full-time lead.Dennis, Luu, and Ebanks stepped down from their positions or "had no role in day-to-day operations," the spokeswoman told The New York Times. Collins Profet said she had previously notified Essence of her resignation in 2020 to pursue another opportunity. Essence hired an interim CEO, Caroline Wanga, to help shore up the company. (Ebanks, Wanga, and Martha Dennis did not respond to requests for comment from Insider.)During the town hall meetings management held following the letter, some Essence employees felt leadership didn't care to understand their employees' grievances, but rather positioned themselves as victims who had been "attacked."Dennis said that it had been a "difficult day" with "our business being attacked in this way and our team members being attacked this way," during a town hall meeting on June 28, 2020, the same day the Medium post was published, according to a recording of the meeting that Insider reviewed.In successive town halls, employees said management continued to be "very dismissive" and "disheartening.""For centuries, Black women's stories of oppression and mistreatment have been written off, and for Essence the brand to plainly state that fully denies accusations without any talk of investigation of the claims — it's always been what's done to us in history," one employee said in a town hall meeting on June 30, a recording of which Insider heard.Dennis, Wanga, and Martha Dennis defended leadership's efforts. In the June 28 meeting, Dennis said he believed they "brought real change," but to change "a culture that has evolved over 50 years" within two years was near impossible."What we really want to hear is an acknowledgement, an apology that says, 'I'm sorry I let you down,'" an employee said in the June 30 town hall."It doesn't take away from your greatness. It doesn't take away from your purpose. It doesn't take away from your position in this company and in this world. But it does signify to us you hear us and you see us, and that you see that we're hurting," the employee said.Former employees say they never received that acknowledgement or apology. Instead, leadership continued to prod and investigate.Gaslit?Essence hired two white-shoe law firms to look into the essay's claims in July 2020. Employees said they received emails, sent to their work accounts, asking them for voluntary group or individual interviews. Some said they didn't feel comfortable speaking to the lawyers because they were afraid of retaliation. Others said they didn't receive any emails at all.The law firms ultimately concluded that the allegations lodged in the essay were unsubstantiated, including claims of bullying, nepotism, and discrimination. The results of the review, published in a statement on Essence's website, also found that "various issues contributing to work culture existed under prior ownership," when Essence was under Time Inc.'s purview.Another report found allegations from the Medium post of sexual harassment to be unsubstantiated. The sources Insider spoke with said they had not witnessed or experienced inappropriate behavior of the kind alleged in the post.Not all employees supported the Medium post and the #TakeBackEssence social media movement it catalyzed. Some felt the allegations could damage their livelihoods, and that the writers were disrespecting an institution they'd all worked so hard to uphold — illustrating the difficult position of being a Black woman in an industry where there are so few options available to them.Other employees felt management's response and the investigation's findings to the essay dismissed their own lived experiences at Essence — even things they had seen with their own eyes, like Dennis' wife performing HR functions or Luu stepping back from the company following the Medium post. (Though recent employees said Luu no longer appears to be involved in the day-to-day operations at the magazine, she switched her title to "global chief content and creative officer" at Essence Communications in September 2020, according to her LinkedIn and Instagram bio.)"It's a place that [made] you feel gaslit at times, a place that creates confusion," one former employee said. "When I lost my job in 2020, I was relieved, like, I don't have to feel like I'm in the 'Twilight Zone' every day."Leadership never discovered who wrote the letter. Black Females Anonymous did not respond to Insider's requests for interviews.An uncertain legacyAfter the letter was published, nothing much changed, 10 sources who still worked at Essence in 2020 and onwards told Insider. In September 2020, mere months after the fallout around the letter, 80% of the company was furloughed, according to estimates from sources with knowledge of the matter. The company went from a staff of around 70 to around nine, according to source estimates.The journalists who remained at the magazine were asked to cover beats outside the areas they'd been hired to report on. Some had to handle social media — outside their purview as reporters and editors — since the entire social media team had been furloughed, according to former employees. Essence staffers who survived the furloughs had to reach out to their ex-colleagues to ask for a crash course in social media distribution, a former employee said. The small staff was burdened with keeping the legacy publication afloat.While the company has since restaffed a portion of its workforce, a current employee and four employees who left within the past year told Insider that issues with work culture still remain. Staff who left recently said reporters and editors are still asked to take on additional responsibilities outside their job descriptions. A current employee described an environment that felt siloed and drained of any sense of community, leaving some staff feeling "unappreciated and left out."Dennis' ambitions in media, as illustrated through his recent bids to buy Vice Media and BET, make some former Essence employees uneasy. "It's a terrifying prospect," a former employee said.Travis Montaque and Richelieu Dennis, cofounders of Group Black, speak during the Embracing the Influence: Black Culture, Media and Democracy panel in Cannes, France on June 22, 2023.Lionel Hahn/Getty Images for InkwellThrough Group Black, a media collective he co-founded with entrepreneur Travis Montaque, Dennis aims to build an empire."I like building big businesses. I think that this is an opportunity to build what will become a top-five, if not bigger, media company," Dennis said in an interview last year about Group Black's vision. He added that engaging with Black and brown consumers and monetizing the culture they bring to the marketplace is a way to "invest deeper" into the culture.Despite some employees reporting ongoing issues with the publication's work culture, women and other members of the Black community have continued to come back to Essence."Those are the nuances of being Black in this industry. Not everybody has the luxury of staying away. These are the terrors of this empire," another employee who recently quit the magazine said.Essence is not an anomaly. Work environments across different companies and industries often have unhealthy elements. But, as Yesha Callahan, a former news and politics editor at Essence, put it, "it's bad when it's supposed to be 'for the people, by the people,' and you're being screwed over by the people who are supposed to help."Others have tried to separate the magazine and its legacy from the people who run it. Some former employees said they're hopeful changes at the magazine can be made to support the women it was meant to uplift from the beginning."90% of the people who have come through the doors have really been there for the love of Essence, no matter what people may feel about Rich [Dennis] and how he runs his business," one longtime editor said. "That's what's helped maintain the legacy of the magazine, and allows it to remain a beacon for this audience." Do you have experiences working for Essence, Group Black, or Rich Dennis? Contact reporter Yoonji Han to share your thoughts. She can be reached via email at yhan@insider.com.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Three years after a letter accused leadership of fostering an unhealthy work environment, current and former employees say issues with work culture still linger. Arantza Pena Popo/Insider On June 28, 2020, an anonymous letter was published by authors who claimed to be employees of Essence magazine, accusing the publication of fostering an unhealthy work environment. The company launched two independent investigations, which could not substantiate the claims made in the letter. Some employees felt like their concerns were not taken seriously. Twenty former and current employees spoke to Insider about their experiences working at the magazine. Despite changes, some remain unsatisfied with the company. On June 28, 2020, an anonymous group of women under the name of Black Females Anonymous published a damning public letter that shook the core of Essence Magazine, the leading publication for Black women in America."The Essence brand promise is fraudulent," the essay, published on Medium, claimed. "The once exalted media brand dedicated to Black women has been hijacked by cultural and corporate greed and an unhinged abuse of power."The letter alleged an "extremely unhealthy work culture" rife with "pay inequity, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism and classism" — one that began when Richelieu Dennis, the beauty mogul behind SheaMoisture, bought the publication in 2018.After the letter hit the internet, Dennis and the rest of Essence's leadership scrambled to deal with the implosion. In a public statement, Essence denied the allegations, calling them "mischaracterizations" and "unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character." It also hired two law firms to investigate; their independent reviews could not substantiate claims made in the letter, including those of bullying, harassment, or discrimination.Still, some employees say they witnessed management become increasingly defensive. The company held town hall meetings over Zoom where they encouraged people to speak up about their concerns. Only by airing out these concerns, they said, could they make the workplace better. But some former employees who attended the meetings said the sentiment didn't feel sincere. Instead, they believed leadership became obsessed with sniffing out who wrote the letter."It was a critical turning point in establishing trust with employees again, and assuring us that our work matters here," a former employee present at the meeting told Insider. "But in the moment we were made to feel replaceable. It was a turning point where a lot of folks checked out."Rather than listen and take accountability, ex-employees said they felt like leadership tried to undermine their voices and their experiences, just as had been expressed in the open letter."Essence is the most deceptive Black media company in America. Why? Essence aggressively monetizes #BlackGirlMagic but the company does not internally practice #BlackGirlMagic," the letter read. "The company's longstanding pattern of gross mistreatment and abuse of its Black female employees is the biggest open secret in the media business."Insider spoke with 20 former and current employees, ranging across titles and departments, about their experiences working at Essence. Five former employees were still at the magazine in 2022 or 2023; an additional nine worked at Essence during the time the letter was published in 2020.Many employees who were at Essence in 2020 say they experienced or witnessed a "hellish" and "dehumanizing" culture with a rigidly top-down hierarchy, compensation they were not happy with, and mismanagement — issues that current and recent employees say haven't entirely gone away in the three years since the letter was published. Most of the sources requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to protect their careers."Essence is a dream place — 'Black girl magic' — but it's a known thing inside, and it's leaking outside, that it's more like 'Black girl tragic,'" one former employee said.Essence and Group Black did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Insider.Essence under Time Inc.Essence Magazine was first published in 1970 at a time when Black business and civil rights leaders called for greater self-determination and empowerment. The magazine was the brainchild of a group of four Black businessmen who identified a lack of publications for Black women in America. It was meant to be a "lifestyle magazine directed at upscale African American women."Their vision was soon realized. With an initial circulation of only around 50,000 copies per month, the publication's readership grew by a staggering 17-fold within two decades.Under the helm of Susan Taylor, the publication's long beloved editor-in-chief from 1981 to 2000, Essence's monthly readership surpassed 5 million people, making the magazine a household name in Black communities across America. Taylor was also responsible for launching Essence Festival, an annual event that would become the company's biggest revenue generator, eventually even overshadowing what the magazine itself brought in, and turning the Essence brand into a cultural behemoth.Today, the magazine has a monthly circulation of over 1 million copies, competing with the likes of Vogue and Elle. But things shifted in 2000, when Time Inc. — which also owned publications like Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and People — purchased 49% of Essence Communications, then later bought the remaining 51% in 2005. Essence went from one of the few Black-owned magazines in the country to another publication under widespread ownership.Covers of Essence and Entertainment Weekly, both magazines under Time Inc. in 2015.Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Entertainment WeeklyThe shift to a white- and male-dominated parent company left some employees feeling like Essence operated under "stepchild status" under Time Inc.One employee at the time said that it felt like Time Inc. "wasn't invested in Essence at all." People struggled with budgets, creating a "bootstrapping" environment. The move to a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate had made some employees hope Essence would be given ample resources; instead, they seemed to operate from a scarcity mentality."All of the teams always moved as if there was extreme limitation, like, 'we can't do this photoshoot; we don't have enough money,'" a former employee said.In 2013, then-president of Essence Communications Michelle Ebanks told The New York Times she understood why some readers were concerned about Time Inc.'s influence on the magazine, but insisted that Essence enjoys "journalistic independence" under their parent company.Rich Dennis enters the sceneIn 2017, the Meredith Corporation announced it would purchase Time Inc. for $2.8 billion, acquiring all the publication's assets, including Essence Magazine. The company had struggled with plummeting print advertising revenue, like much of the publishing industry.Around that time, Richelieu Dennis came across a Wall Street Journal article about how Time Inc. was looking to sell its majority stake in Essence. Dennis had made his name and fortune as the founder of Sundial Brands, a beauty company that focuses on products for Black women, including SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage. He had no prior experience in the media industry, but felt strongly about serving the Black community.By January 2018, Dennis bought Essence from Time Inc. for an undisclosed amount. "The stars aligned," Dennis told NNPA Newswire soon after the purchase. "We started to think about the implications of what this would mean if Essence were truly brought back into the community."Richelieu Dennis at the 2023 Essence Ventures Media Upfronts on June 29, 2023.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCEReaders celebrated that the magazine was Black-owned again. "This is so so so so so important," one reader tweeted. "We need room for this celebration," said another.Then-president of Essence Communications Michelle Ebanks, who stayed through the acquisition, said this was a chance for the publication to grow: "This means we can realize our extraordinary potential."Dennis had brought back hope.Born in Liberia in 1969 to a family of entrepreneurs, Dennis came to America to attend Babson College, a business school whose gilded roster of alumni includes execs from The Home Depot, PepsiCo, and Accenture. Unable to return home because of a civil war, Dennis started Sundial Brands in his tiny Queens apartment, making soaps and lotions from shea butter and essential oils in his bathtub.From its modest beginnings, Sundial raked in around $300 million in revenue in 2017, and ultimately sold to Unilever for an estimated $1.6 billion later that year."This founder escaped war, created a top skin care brand, and launched a $100 million fund for Black women entrepreneurs," Inc. Magazine wrote of Dennis' accomplishments in 2019. Richelieu Dennis at Variety Magazine's Power of Women event in 2019.Margarita Corporan/Variety/Penske Media via Getty ImagesSome of Sundial's loyal customers lambasted the Unilever sale as a betrayal of its founding mission to support Black women. But Dennis said that these decisions were ways to reinvest in the Black community — a sentiment he echoed when he bought Essence in 2018."What we're doing with Essence is not very different from what we've done with Sundial," Dennis told Forbes in 2018 when he bought the magazine. "And that is to serve Black women deeply, to serve women of color in a way that no one else has thought about."Essence Magazine was Dennis' first foray into the media world, and was just the first in a string of acquisitions that catapulted him to the peak of a Black business empire. His "family-run" private-equity company, Essence Ventures, "endeavors to empower, connect and give ownership to Black communities," according to the company's LinkedIn page. Essence Ventures, too, has invested in brands founded by and for Black women, including Afropunk Festival, hair care company Naturally Curly, and BeautyCon."Essence is not a magazine. It's a concept. It's a movement," Dennis told "The Breakfast Club" in 2019. "For us, it wasn't just, 'Hey, let's go buy a magazine.' For us, it was, let's make sure we own the narrative that's happening in our community. Whether or not it made business sense, we were going to do this because we deserve to own our culture."Regaining ownership of one's culture would become Dennis' refrain, including with a recent $400 million bid for Vice Media, and with news that his media company Group Black was in talks to buy stakes in Black Entertainment Television, Bustle Digital Group, and Arena, the publisher behind Sports Illustrated. (None of these deals have materialized; Vice Media was ultimately bought out by Fortress Investment Group).Richelieu Dennis attends the NASDAQ opening bell ringing ceremony as the founder of Essence Ventures and New Voices on February 17, 2023.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Essence Ventures at NASDAQAt Essence back in 2018, employees were hopeful things would change for the better with Dennis at the helm."I was genuinely excited. Essence was and always has been a beacon of Black culture, but it was held by white people," one former employee recalled of the transition. "So it was a moment of pride — for all of us."The reality of Essence under Dennis' early leadership, however, did not meet some staffers' high expectations."Essence was once again a Black-owned company and, as executives regularly liked to remind us, we were family. As we all know, however, a company is not your family. It is business," a former editor at the magazine said in a tweet around the time of the anonymous letter.Crumbling moraleEssence had suffered from a lack of resources under Time Inc., and Dennis and his leadership team were tasked with righting a sinking ship. But the new management faced immediate obstacles it struggled to overcome, leaving some employees questioning their ability to run a media company.After the sale to Dennis in 2018, management failed to construct a stable infrastructure, eight current and former employees told Insider. There were no annual reviews or promotion outlines, leaving ambitious employees feeling stuck and frustrated. Even those with supportive managers who championed their work struggled to advance in the company, since the buck stopped at the C-suite, employees said.Only one of the 11 sources Insider spoke with who were there at the time received raises in the first few years of Dennis' ownership, they say. Many of those staff members said they had to juggle multiple responsibilities outside of their original job descriptions and felt it only exacerbated the pain of not receiving a raise — especially as Essence sought to ramp up its digital presence. Dennis had grand visions for Essence and wanted to run the magazine as a multi-faceted "startup," insiders recalled him saying. The industry-wide shift from print to digital meant a demand for more stories, more quickly.Reporters at Essence in the first few years under Dennis' leadership said they had to write four to five stories per day for the website, while also working on stories for the print magazine. Some editorial staff also took on new podcasts and visual projects, but weren't compensated for the extra work."I had basically taken a pay cut from them with the additional responsibilities," a former employee who was there in 2018 to 2020 said. "I was told to take it or leave it. Others didn't get extra for their additional contributions, either, so I felt like I couldn't complain about it. But I did feel insulted."Some women said the stressful work culture started to affect their mental and physical health. They relied on their "sisterhood" to get through the days."The culture is very much a community — a team that translates and speaks well with each other," Sandra Okerulu, a freelancer who worked with Essence in 2018, said of the magazine's employees. "It's clear they believe in the project. This is theirs."But when staff tried to voice their frustrations to higher-ups, some say they were met with apathy. At multiple town hall meetings from 2018 to 2020, Michelle Ebanks, then-CEO of Essence Communications, said if they didn't like what they were being paid, they could leave out the door, several former employees told Insider.By the end of 2018, less than a year into Dennis' reign, morale began to crumble. "You kind of hope that Essence is one of those places that won't treat you like a cog in the wheel, but that wasn't the case," a former employee said.The new regimeSome of the problems at Essence predated Dennis' purchase, four former employees said, but the real root of the persisting issues lay in the upper echelons of the magazine."The cultural rot was from the top down," one former employee said.In October 2018, Dennis brought in Moana Luu, a self-described multihyphenate from Martinique, to shore up Essence as its chief content and creative officer. Statuesque with a cosmopolitan flair, Luu held a patchwork of jobs in beauty, media, and design before joining Essence. She was a TV producer and host for a local Marticinian pageant show, creative director for a French hair care company, and chief creative officer for a studio based in France called Trace Media, per her LinkedIn profile.Luu, who lived in Paris and the Philippines before moving to America, was tasked with globalizing the reach of Essence.But multiple employees questioned her ability to run a magazine with a storied heritage like Essence.Essence CEO Michelle Ebanks, Richelieu Dennis, and Essence chief content & creative officer Moana Luu at the 2020 13th Annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood luncheon.Rich Polk/Getty Images for EssenceIn the letter, Luu was accused of "workplace bullying, flamboyant overspending, and lack of leadership on production budgets and deadlines." Multiple sources told Insider they had similar experiences with Luu, with some sources feeling like she caused issues of the magazine to be late to press because of last-minute changes, or shifting deadlines.Some sources felt that both Dennis and Luu lacked "deep knowledge" of the publishing industry, leading to a lot of "misunderstanding about the time and effort needed to publish a monthly magazine," as one former employee put it.Some employees who worked with Luu felt she also fostered a "mean girl" workplace."She pretty much came in trying to be the Black version of 'Devil Wears Prada,'" a former editor said. Another former employee felt Luu held "very little respect" for the women who worked at Essence.Luu commented on people's weight and appearance, six sources said.When an editor with a curvier body type pitched an idea for a video, Luu reportedly responded, "You on camera? No no no," the editor told Insider."She told me that she needed someone beautiful with a lot of social media numbers, not me," the editor said. "I just stopped after that."Another former employee who witnessed the interaction corroborated the incident."A big part of Essence's platform has been showcasing the varied beauty of Black women: all shapes and sizes, all shades, all hair textures," a former longtime editor at the magazine said."But when Moana came on board, she was only interested in a certain aesthetic, and she wanted that certain aesthetic to be the face of the brand," the editor said.During Luu's tenure, Essence did promote on-screen personalities including Danielle Young, who used the platform to champion body positivity and speak out against texturism.An investigation into the allegations made in the Medium post in 2020 "did not find that Ms. Luu treated anyone differently" according to a public statement by Essence.The investigation also found that "several witnesses reported hearing her make insensitive comments" and that some employees felt her management style was "intimidating and brash."Luu said she was "adamant that [was] not her intent to bully anyone," according to the investigation.In the first two years of Dennis' ownership, top brass at Essence left the publication, including global beauty director Julee Wilson and vice president Candace Montgomery, who was instrumental in growing Essence's events.Around the same time, other employees followed suit. According to five former employees, some staffers did not feel aligned with Luu's mission of globalizing a publication that was founded for Black American women and felt the new leadership was sidelining the demographic they were originally meant to uplift. (These sources could not speak specifically to why Wilson or Montgomery chose to leave).Luu did not respond to requests for comment.Allegations of nepotismDennis' hope to foster a "family" at Essence played out in more ways than one. The new regime at Essence in 2018 and its sister companies included multiple members of Dennis' own family, including his wife and two daughters.In the company's first several months under Dennis, there was no official human resources department, according to 11 former employees. Dennis' wife, Martha, became the de facto interim head of HR, nine former employees said. A 401(k) document from November 2020, viewed by Insider, lists Martha Dennis as the contact person, alongside the address of Essence's office in Industry City, Brooklyn.Some Essence employees who spoke to Insider said they felt uncomfortable raising issues with the magazine owner's wife."If I didn't have any complaints, it was because I didn't know who to go to," one former employee said. "With the owner's wife being in charge of HR, it didn't feel like a safe space to go to."In their findings, the independent investigation claimed that there was "no evidence to suggest that Ms. Dennis was appointed to lead HR or that she ever led HR," but rather that she "assisted" with HR matters.Dennis' daughters, Rechelle and Sophia, were given the reins to launch Essence Girls United, the Gen Z branch of the magazine. Rechelle was only a year out of college when she joined Essence, her LinkedIn shows. She also founded SheaGirl, a skincare company for teens under her father's company SheaMoisture, when she was a sophomore in college.Outside of Essence, Dennis' sister Richelyna Hall was chief impact officer of New Voices, the organization Dennis founded to support women entrepreneurs of color, as recently as 2021. New Voices has hosted pitch competitions at EssenceFest, Essence magazine's annual festival, according to its website, and its portfolio companies — which it refers to as its "family" — have been featured on the magazine's cover and in write-ups.A non-disclosure agreement that management asked employees to sign before a company event at the Dennis' Hamptons residence in the summer of 2019 included language that prevents them from speaking about "Dennis, Dennis' family members and children, friends, companies, business ventures, business associates," according to a copy Insider viewed.These types of agreements are a way for companies to control what people say, labor and employment lawyer Alan Lescht said. He added that it's not typical for NDAs to name specific people.Some Essence staff bristled at the NDA."It felt like it was their family, but we weren't part of it. It definitely didn't feel like a family," a former employee said.'The Truth About Essence'By June 28, 2020, discontent within Essence had reached a fever pitch, culminating in the explosive Medium essay titled "The Truth About Essence." In addition to allegations of corporate bullying and an unhealthy work culture, the letter called for the resignation of Dennis, Ebanks, Luu, and chief operating officer Joy Collins Profet.Readers rallied behind the anonymous group of writers in a petition that accompanied the essay. Several of those who signed the petition wrote that the content had deteriorated in the past decade and "fails to speak to Black women."Another said they noticed that "the advertisements in the magazine contained fewer Black models of varying complexions and looked like something [they'd] see in Vogue or other similar magazines."Readers also decried the hypocrisy of a Black-owned business and claims of mistreating the Black women who make up the company. "A double slap in the face when it's done by our own," someone wrote.Essence's management went into damage-control mode. A spokeswoman for the magazine denied that Martha Dennis was the head of human resources, saying that she had "advised the company in its ongoing HR transition," The New York Times reported. In an internal response to employees viewed by Insider, management described HR, which they said they built from the "ground-up," as having been "supported by a family executive" with experience in HR while they searched for a full-time lead.Dennis, Luu, and Ebanks stepped down from their positions or "had no role in day-to-day operations," the spokeswoman told The New York Times. Collins Profet said she had previously notified Essence of her resignation in 2020 to pursue another opportunity. Essence hired an interim CEO, Caroline Wanga, to help shore up the company. (Ebanks, Wanga, and Martha Dennis did not respond to requests for comment from Insider.)During the town hall meetings management held following the letter, some Essence employees felt leadership didn't care to understand their employees' grievances, but rather positioned themselves as victims who had been "attacked."Dennis said that it had been a "difficult day" with "our business being attacked in this way and our team members being attacked this way," during a town hall meeting on June 28, 2020, the same day the Medium post was published, according to a recording of the meeting that Insider reviewed.In successive town halls, employees said management continued to be "very dismissive" and "disheartening.""For centuries, Black women's stories of oppression and mistreatment have been written off, and for Essence the brand to plainly state that fully denies accusations without any talk of investigation of the claims — it's always been what's done to us in history," one employee said in a town hall meeting on June 30, a recording of which Insider heard.Dennis, Wanga, and Martha Dennis defended leadership's efforts. In the June 28 meeting, Dennis said he believed they "brought real change," but to change "a culture that has evolved over 50 years" within two years was near impossible."What we really want to hear is an acknowledgement, an apology that says, 'I'm sorry I let you down,'" an employee said in the June 30 town hall."It doesn't take away from your greatness. It doesn't take away from your purpose. It doesn't take away from your position in this company and in this world. But it does signify to us you hear us and you see us, and that you see that we're hurting," the employee said.Former employees say they never received that acknowledgement or apology. Instead, leadership continued to prod and investigate.Gaslit?Essence hired two white-shoe law firms to look into the essay's claims in July 2020. Employees said they received emails, sent to their work accounts, asking them for voluntary group or individual interviews. Some said they didn't feel comfortable speaking to the lawyers because they were afraid of retaliation. Others said they didn't receive any emails at all.The law firms ultimately concluded that the allegations lodged in the essay were unsubstantiated, including claims of bullying, nepotism, and discrimination. The results of the review, published in a statement on Essence's website, also found that "various issues contributing to work culture existed under prior ownership," when Essence was under Time Inc.'s purview.Another report found allegations from the Medium post of sexual harassment to be unsubstantiated. The sources Insider spoke with said they had not witnessed or experienced inappropriate behavior of the kind alleged in the post.Not all employees supported the Medium post and the #TakeBackEssence social media movement it catalyzed. Some felt the allegations could damage their livelihoods, and that the writers were disrespecting an institution they'd all worked so hard to uphold — illustrating the difficult position of being a Black woman in an industry where there are so few options available to them.Other employees felt management's response and the investigation's findings to the essay dismissed their own lived experiences at Essence — even things they had seen with their own eyes, like Dennis' wife performing HR functions or Luu stepping back from the company following the Medium post. (Though recent employees said Luu no longer appears to be involved in the day-to-day operations at the magazine, she switched her title to "global chief content and creative officer" at Essence Communications in September 2020, according to her LinkedIn and Instagram bio.)"It's a place that [made] you feel gaslit at times, a place that creates confusion," one former employee said. "When I lost my job in 2020, I was relieved, like, I don't have to feel like I'm in the 'Twilight Zone' every day."Leadership never discovered who wrote the letter. Black Females Anonymous did not respond to Insider's requests for interviews.An uncertain legacyAfter the letter was published, nothing much changed, 10 sources who still worked at Essence in 2020 and onwards told Insider. In September 2020, mere months after the fallout around the letter, 80% of the company was furloughed, according to estimates from sources with knowledge of the matter. The company went from a staff of around 70 to around nine, according to source estimates.The journalists who remained at the magazine were asked to cover beats outside the areas they'd been hired to report on. Some had to handle social media — outside their purview as reporters and editors — since the entire social media team had been furloughed, according to former employees. Essence staffers who survived the furloughs had to reach out to their ex-colleagues to ask for a crash course in social media distribution, a former employee said. The small staff was burdened with keeping the legacy publication afloat.While the company has since restaffed a portion of its workforce, a current employee and four employees who left within the past year told Insider that issues with work culture still remain. Staff who left recently said reporters and editors are still asked to take on additional responsibilities outside their job descriptions. A current employee described an environment that felt siloed and drained of any sense of community, leaving some staff feeling "unappreciated and left out."Dennis' ambitions in media, as illustrated through his recent bids to buy Vice Media and BET, make some former Essence employees uneasy. "It's a terrifying prospect," a former employee said.Travis Montaque and Richelieu Dennis, cofounders of Group Black, speak during the Embracing the Influence: Black Culture, Media and Democracy panel in Cannes, France on June 22, 2023.Lionel Hahn/Getty Images for InkwellThrough Group Black, a media collective he co-founded with entrepreneur Travis Montaque, Dennis aims to build an empire."I like building big businesses. I think that this is an opportunity to build what will become a top-five, if not bigger, media company," Dennis said in an interview last year about Group Black's vision. He added that engaging with Black and brown consumers and monetizing the culture they bring to the marketplace is a way to "invest deeper" into the culture.Despite some employees reporting ongoing issues with the publication's work culture, women and other members of the Black community have continued to come back to Essence."Those are the nuances of being Black in this industry. Not everybody has the luxury of staying away. These are the terrors of this empire," another employee who recently quit the magazine said.Essence is not an anomaly. Work environments across different companies and industries often have unhealthy elements. But, as Yesha Callahan, a former news and politics editor at Essence, put it, "it's bad when it's supposed to be 'for the people, by the people,' and you're being screwed over by the people who are supposed to help."Others have tried to separate the magazine and its legacy from the people who run it. Some former employees said they're hopeful changes at the magazine can be made to support the women it was meant to uplift from the beginning."90% of the people who have come through the doors have really been there for the love of Essence, no matter what people may feel about Rich [Dennis] and how he runs his business," one longtime editor said. "That's what's helped maintain the legacy of the magazine, and allows it to remain a beacon for this audience." Do you have experiences working for Essence, Group Black, or Rich Dennis? Contact reporter Yoonji Han to share your thoughts. She can be reached via email at yhan@insider.com.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Lies, Damn Lies, And UFOs: Deciphering The Truth Hidden Amid Decades Of Propaganda Authored by J.B. Shurk via the Gatestone Institute, Has the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe finally been answered? In what appears to be a well-coordinated disclosure campaign, several knowledgeable "insiders" have recently made public statements claiming that "ET" is real and has been visiting Earth for decades. In mid-May, Stanford Medical Professor Garry Nolan caused a stir during an innovation and investment conference hosted by the SALT i-Connections leadership forum when he stated unequivocally that a small group of scientists have been reverse engineering alien technology for quite some time. One of the compelling things about the 15-minute interview in which he discussed this revelation is how careful the host, Alex Klokus, is to frame Dr. Nolan's testimony with sober and logical questioning, as if to guard against potential accusations of quackery. Almost as a lawyer would conduct a witness examination in a court of law, Klokus first lays out Nolan's innovative breakthroughs in immunology, virology, and cancer research. Then he walks through the professor's personal "experience with people who... are working on the reverse engineering programs" of alien technology. Finally, Klokus offers Nolan the chance to describe to the audience his belief that government disclosure of extraterrestrial life is likely forthcoming. Nolan's interview came about a week before NASA's May 31 public meeting to discuss unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — the current subject categorization used to reference incidents once understood less formally as those involving UFOs and "close encounters" of various kinds with extraterrestrial beings. Although the government conference ended up frustrating some viewers because it dangled many questions without providing any definitive answers, astrophysicist Dr. David Spergel made clear that the commission's intention is to "provide the scientific community with a roadmap" that could be used to gather and analyze further data. In many ways, the event appeared as a step toward making secretive research more public. At the beginning of June, two separate online publications posted articles that identified witnesses with personal UAP knowledge now calling for greater government disclosure. In an age of journalism when dependence upon anonymous sources has unfortunately become the norm, the use of on-the-record interviews and corroborated statements distinguish this reporting. In an essay for Politico entitled, "If the Government Has UFO Crash Materials, It's Time to Reveal Them," former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon detailed his direct involvement in delivering UAP evidence to Congress — work that ultimately led to the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), organized to investigate and document encounters with unidentified craft that might be extraterrestrial in origin. Mellon described his efforts to bring public attention to the existence of recorded UAP incidents involving U.S. military personnel. "But despite breakthroughs in government transparency about these sightings," he argued, "there's one thing the Pentagon and the intelligence community have so far not addressed, and that is whether they have had any direct contact with these objects" and whether there is truth to "persistent rumors" alleging "that the government has been working secretly to reverse engineer the technology." Mellon personally referred four witnesses to AARO "who claim to have knowledge of a secret U.S. government program involving the analysis and exploitation of materials recovered from off-world craft." He knows of other sources with additional evidence. Although AARO has no legal obligation to report its findings to the public, Mellon has "concluded the public needs to know the truth." Within two days of the Politico essay, another online publication, The Debrief, ran a story under the headline, "Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin." In their well-sourced piece, journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal detail the allegations of David Charles Grusch — a "former intelligence official turned whistleblower" — who has provided both Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General with "extensive classified information about deeply covert programs" in possession of "intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin." Again, one of the most striking things about this exposé is its forthright attention to naming names and providing substantial background evidence in support of Grusch's reputation for honesty. Not only do the reporters reject the use of anonymous sources but also they are careful to highlight the credibility of those sources they use. Retired Army Colonel Karl E. Nell — who worked with Grusch as part of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force originally constituted under the authority of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security before that investigatory organ was reorganized into AARO — is quoted as describing Grusch as "beyond reproach." Then reporters Kean and Blumenthal make sure to dig up a performance evaluation from Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Laura A. Potter describing Nell as "an officer with the strongest possible moral compass." If you trust the Army's evaluation of Nell and Nell's evaluation of Grusch, then logic suggests that Grusch's whistleblower disclosures should be trusted, too. For his part, Nell wholly concurs with Grusch that for the "past eighty years" secret programs have "focused on reverse engineering technologies of unknown origin" and "that at least some of these technologies of unknown origin derive from non-human intelligence." He considers this conclusion "indisputable." While seeking corroboration for Grusch's allegations, journalists Kean and Blumenthal conducted an interview with an intelligence officer from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center who specializes in UAP analysis and operates under the identity "Jonathan Grey" inside the agency. For almost a decade, he has been the recipient of highly classified briefing materials involving UAP. He says bluntly: "The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone." Finally, it is worth pointing out that Grusch is represented by attorney Charles McCullough III, who previously served as the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Given McCullough's familiarity with the shadowy world of espionage, the byzantine legal safeguards governing State secrets, and the jumble of criminal tripwires that make lawful disclosure akin to crossing a minefield in the dark, his decision to aid Grusch as a legitimate whistleblower provides further credence to his case. It is also true that in filing his whistleblower complaint, Grusch has placed himself in legal jeopardy by formally attesting that his statements are made "under the penalties of perjury." This is a lot to take in. After decades of government denials and allegations of mass cover-ups, suddenly an avalanche of UAP disclosures is hitting the public all at once. We have whistleblowers, Intelligence Community operatives, highly respected scientists, and Members of Congress all speaking up. In another era, Nolan's interview during a popular "thought leader" investment forum would have been sufficient to capture the nation's attention indefinitely. Taken together with two provocative essays detailing first-person accounts confirming the existence of extraterrestrial technology, the revelations of the last few weeks should have been enough to eclipse every other news story in the world. Instead, the response from across the news media has been almost complete radio silence. Tucker Carlson, in his first episode of "Tucker on Twitter," called Grusch's whistleblower allegations the "bombshell of the millennium" — a bombshell being entirely ignored. How can a news story with the potential to completely transform the way humans understand their universe cause such a small ripple in the pond of current events? Carlson argues that Americans have been lied to for so long about so many different issues that nobody has any idea at this point what to believe. "Nobody knows what's happening," he says. "A small group of people control access to all relevant information and the rest of us... don't know." Given the obvious coordination of the UAP disclosures these last few weeks, only two scenarios seem plausible: either a group of scientists, intelligence operatives, military personnel, legal sharks, and politicians are working together behind the scenes to deliver enough corroborated information to the public to pierce through a near-century of State-imposed secrecy, or this diverse collection of professionals is part of an elaborate disinformation campaign being used to manipulate public perception and opinion. In other words, there is either a highly organized attempt to reveal a spectacular yet hidden truth to the rest of humanity, or there is a highly organized attempt to use information warfare as a means to shape the collective consciousness. Either the U.S. government has engaged in a massive conspiracy for nearly a century to hide important truths from its own citizens. Or it is involved in a massive conspiracy today to manipulate Americans' minds en masse. At a time when political leaders love to speak about the virtues of "democracy," either possibility confirms a staggering disrespect for popular sovereignty. That is a fairly stinging indictment against Western government and society. People are bombarded with so much government-sanctioned propaganda and outright lies that they never know whether official statements are true. Outside institutions — including academia and the news media — have embraced so much "fake news" over the years that their reputations are in no better shape. The end result is that nobody in a position of authority is trusted or believed. The "bombshell of the millennium" explodes right outside Americans' doors, and the public largely shrugs because it accepted an ugly truth long ago: it is constantly being deceived. With all due respect to our extraterrestrial friends, perhaps that is the most important news story of our time. JB Shurk writes about politics and society, and is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow. Tyler Durden Sat, 06/17/2023 - 21:45.....»»

Conspirators For The Constitution: When Anti-Government Speech Becomes Sedition Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell Let’s be clear about one thing: seditious conspiracy isn’t a real crime to anyone but the U.S. government. To be convicted of seditious conspiracy, the charge levied against Stewart Rhodes who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for being the driving force behind the January 6 Capitol riots, one doesn’t have to engage in violence against the government, vandalize government property, or even trespass on property that the government has declared off-limits to the general public. To be convicted of seditious conspiracy, one need only foment a revolution. This is not about whether Rhodes deserves such a hefty sentence. This is about the long-term ramifications of empowering the government to wage war on individuals whose political ideas and expression challenge the government’s power, reveal the government’s corruption, expose the government’s lies, and encourage the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. This is about criminalizing political expression in thoughts, words and deeds. This is about how the government has used the events of Jan. 6 in order to justify further power grabs and acquire more authoritarian emergency powers.     This was never about so-called threats to democracy. In fact, the history of this nation is populated by individuals whose rhetoric was aimed at fomenting civil unrest and revolution. Indeed, by the government’s own definition, America’s founders were seditious conspirators based on the heavily charged rhetoric they used to birth the nation. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Marquis De Lafayette, and John Adams would certainly have been charged for suggesting that Americans should not only take up arms but be prepared to protect their liberties and defend themselves against the government should it violate their rights. “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” declared Jefferson. He also concluded that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” “It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government,” insisted Paine. “When the government violates the people’s rights,” Lafayette warned, “insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.” Adams cautioned, “A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.” Had America’s founders feared revolutionary words and ideas, there would have been no First Amendment, which protects the right to political expression, even if that expression is anti-government. No matter what one’s political persuasion might be, every American has a First Amendment right to protest government programs or policies with which they might disagree. The right to disagree with and speak out against the government is the quintessential freedom. Every individual has a right to speak truth to power—and foment change—using every nonviolent means available. Unfortunately, the government is increasingly losing its tolerance for anyone whose political views could be perceived as critical or “anti-government.” All of us are in danger. In recent years, the government has used the phrase “domestic terrorist” interchangeably with “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” to describe anyone who might fall somewhere on a very broad spectrum of viewpoints that could be considered “dangerous.” The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American with an opinion about the government or who knows someone with an opinion about the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association. You see, the government doesn’t care if you or someone you know has a legitimate grievance. It doesn’t care if your criticisms are well-founded. And it certainly doesn’t care if you have a First Amendment right to speak truth to power. What the government cares about is whether what you’re thinking or speaking or sharing or consuming as information has the potential to challenge its stranglehold on power. Why else would the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies be investing in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Why else would the Biden Administration be likening those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists? Why else would the government be waging war against those who engage in thought crimes? Get ready for the next phase of the government’s war on thought crimes and truth-tellers. For years now, the government has used all of the weapons in its vast arsenal—surveillance, threat assessments, fusion centers, pre-crime programs, hate crime laws, militarized police, lockdowns, martial law, etc.—to target potential enemies of the state based on their ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that might be deemed suspicious or dangerous. For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list. Moreover, as a New York Times editorial warns, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the police if you are afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms, if you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law, or if you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car. According to one FBI report, you might also be classified as a domestic terrorism threat if you espouse conspiracy theories, especially if you “attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others” and are “usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.” In other words, if you dare to subscribe to any views that are contrary to the government’s, you may well be suspected of being a domestic terrorist and treated accordingly. There’s a whole spectrum of behaviors ranging from thought crimes and hate speech to whistleblowing that qualifies for persecution (and prosecution) by the Deep State. Simply liking or sharing this article on Facebook, retweeting it on Twitter, or merely reading it or any other articles related to government wrongdoing, surveillance, police misconduct or civil liberties might be enough to get you categorized as a particular kind of person with particular kinds of interests that reflect a particular kind of mindset that might just lead you to engage in a particular kinds of activities and, therefore, puts you in the crosshairs of a government investigation as a potential troublemaker a.k.a. domestic extremist. Chances are, as the Washington Post reports, you have already been assigned a color-coded threat score—green, yellow or red—so police are forewarned about your potential inclination to be a troublemaker depending on whether you’ve had a career in the military, posted a comment perceived as threatening on Facebook, suffer from a particular medical condition, or know someone who knows someone who might have committed a crime. In other words, you might already be flagged as potentially anti-government in a government database somewhere—Main Core, for example—that identifies and tracks individuals who aren’t inclined to march in lockstep to the police state’s dictates. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies have increasingly invested in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. Where many Americans go wrong is in naively assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or harmful in order to be flagged and targeted for some form of intervention or detention. In fact, all you need to do these days to end up on a government watch list or be subjected to heightened scrutiny is use certain trigger words (like cloud, pork and pirates), surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone, limp or stutter, drive a car, stay at a hotel, attend a political rally, express yourself on social media, appear mentally ill, serve in the military, disagree with a law enforcement official, call in sick to work, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons, appear suspicious, appear confused or nervous, fidget or whistle or smell bad, be seen in public waving a toy gun or anything remotely resembling a gun (such as a water nozzle or a remote control or a walking cane), stare at a police officer, question government authority, or appear to be pro-gun or pro-freedom. And then at the other end of the spectrum there are those such as Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, for example, who blow the whistle on government misconduct that is within the public’s right to know. In true Orwellian fashion, the government would have us believe that it is Assange and Manning who are the real criminals for daring to expose the war machine’s seedy underbelly. Since his April 2019 arrest, Assange has been locked up in a maximum-security British prison—in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day—pending extradition to the U.S., where if convicted, he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison. This is how the police state deals with those who challenge its chokehold on power. This is also why the government fears a citizenry that thinks for itself: because a citizenry that thinks for itself is a citizenry that is informed, engaged and prepared to hold the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law, which translates to government transparency and accountability. After all, we’re citizens, not subjects. For those who don’t fully understand the distinction between the two and why transparency is so vital to a healthy constitutional government, Manning explains it well: When freedom of information and transparency are stifled, then bad decisions are often made and heartbreaking tragedies occur – too often on a breathtaking scale that can leave societies wondering: how did this happen? … I believe that when the public lacks even the most fundamental access to what its governments and militaries are doing in their names, then they cease to be involved in the act of citizenship. There is a bright distinction between citizens, who have rights and privileges protected by the state, and subjects, who are under the complete control and authority of the state. This is why the First Amendment is so critical. It gives the citizenry the right to speak freely, protest peacefully, expose government wrongdoing, and criticize the government without fear of arrest, isolation or any of the other punishments that have been meted out to whistleblowers such as Edwards Snowden, Assange and Manning. The challenge is holding the government accountable to obeying the law. A little over 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in United States v. Washington Post Co. to block the Nixon Administration’s attempts to use claims of national security to prevent The Washington Post and The New York Times from publishing secret Pentagon papers on how America went to war in Vietnam. As Justice William O. Douglas remarked on the ruling, “The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.” Fast forward to the present day, and we’re witnessing yet another showdown, this time between Assange and the Deep State, which pits the people’s right to know about government misconduct against the might of the military industrial complex. Yet this isn’t merely about whether whistleblowers and journalists are part of a protected class under the Constitution. It’s a debate over how long “we the people” will remain a protected class under the Constitution. Following the current trajectory, it won’t be long before anyone who believes in holding the government accountable is labeled an “extremist,” relegated to an underclass that doesn’t fit in, watched all the time, and rounded up when the government deems it necessary. We’re almost at that point now. Eventually, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we will all be seditious conspirators in the eyes of the government. We would do better to be conspirators for the Constitution starting right now. Tyler Durden Wed, 05/31/2023 - 23:45.....»»

"They're forcing him to be an adult," Cohen says of an order barring Trump from spilling confidential evidence. "It's not going to work." Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Sean Gallup/Getty Images; Jenny Cheng/Business Insider Michael Cohen has "less than zero confidence" Trump will obey a protective order in the hush-money case. The order bans Trump from attacking witnesses by posting their confidential information online. "It's like they're forcing him to be an adult," said Cohen, the DA's key witness. "It's not going to work." Michael Cohen is not optimistic that Donald Trump will ever control those infamous thumbs when it comes to his ongoing Manhattan hush-money prosecution."I have less than zero confidence," Trump's lawyer-turned-nemesis told Insider of the former president's ability to obey a new protective order banning him from attacking prosecution witnesses by disclosing their identities and personal information."He gets blinded by his anger," Cohen said Monday, a day before Trump must appear — virtually —in a Manhattan courtroom and agree to the order.The order bars Trump from revealing sensitive prosecution evidence — including witnesses' emails, texts and grand jury transcripts — through public statements or on social media. Trump isn't even allowed to personally possess copies of these materials.The defense has derided the ban as a "gag order." Prosecutors and the judge, though, have stressed that Trump will still be able to speak about the case — just not about confidential prosecution evidence.On Tuesday, Trump will be sworn in via video camera, and then will be asked by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan — the judge in the hush-money case —` to affirm that he has read the protective order, understands it, and agrees to comply.Trump can be held in contempt of court if he spills forbidden beans while on the campaign trail or "on any news or social media platforms, including, but not limited to, Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube without prior approval from the Court," the protective order states.This latest development in the hush-money prosecution comes six weeks after Trump was arraigned on 34-counts of falsifying business records.Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump lied on Trump Organization paperwork to conceal $130,000 in hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels just two weeks before the 2016 election.The payment influenced the election by silencing Daniels before she could reveal details of a sexual encounter she alleged she'd had with Trump back in 2006, shortly after the birth of his and Melania Trump's only child, prosecutors allege.Trump is charged with falsifying business records in order to disguise the hush money as a "retainer" paid to Cohen; the charges carry anywhere from zero to four years in prison. Trump has called the prosecution a "hoax" and a "witch hunt," and has denied that he ever had an encounter with Daniels.Donald Trump, attorney Michael Cohen, and Stormy Daniels.APMichael Cohen says Trump's temper will override judge's protective order"Rational thought flies out the window when Trump gets angry," Cohen, the key witness in the case, said of his former employer's self control when it comes to his perceived enemies. "He's no different than a petulant child."Cohen said he has little confidence that Trump's lawyers will be able to control Trump, either, especially if they are reviewing sensitive materials with their client via video."The second that they put it up onto a screen, I guarantee you, it's captured," Cohen predicted. "Trust me, he'll figure out a way."Lawyers for Trump declined to comment on the protective order or Cohen's comments.Prosecutors are beginning now to turn over to the defense vast amounts of so-called "discovery" evidence, including cell phone contents and witness interview notes that they gathered in the course of their investigation.It's not unusual for prosecutors to ask that protective orders be issued to defense lawyers and defendants once that happens, said Jeremy Saland, a former Manhattan prosecutor now in private practice. "It's not untypical," said Saland. "Not when there is sensitive personal information being turned over by prosecutors that could be abused, whether that means through threats of violence, harassment, or the perpetrating of fraud." It's also routine for judges to ask the defendant to acknowledge, in court, that a protective order has been issued, Saland said.Trump's prosecutors, too, have acknowledged that it's routine for a defendant to be ordered to only use discovery materials in the context of their defense. But the circumstances underlying Trump's protective order are far from routine, Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw told the judge on May 4, the last time the case was in court."The defendant has an extensive history of making inflammatory remarks," regarding witnesses, McCaw said."The defendant's words have had real world consequences," she said, citingthe case of Ruby Freeman, a poll worker in Georgia who had to vacate her home for two months, "after being scapegoated by the defendant," McCaw said.Trump's words have already created a stir in the hush-money case, she added."The defendant posted on social media predicting death and destruction in lower Manhattan if charges were brought against him," she told the judge.As a result, "The NYPD had to mount a significant law enforcement response around the courthouse for weeks" leading up to Trump's March 30 indictment, she said."The defendant's words have consequences," she said, noting that Trump has also made disparaging remarks about the judge and about Bragg.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The founder of Bang Bang Tattoo, Keith McCurdy, says he's running his shops the "right way." But some ex-employees say working there was a nightmare. Zach Meyer for InsiderKeith McCurdy has inked Justin Bieber on a private jet, Cara Delevingne at the Gansevoort hotel, and Katy Perry while traveling with her on tour. He gave Rihanna the tiny handgun tattoo that some speculated was a message to Chris Brown, her ex whom she'd accused of assault. Vogue has heralded the 37-year-old as "the best in the biz," and The New York Times has described him as having "transformed the body-art industry."McCurdy's signature style — hyperrealistic black-and-gray micro tattoos that require expert precision — has been widely replicated. Clients wait up to two months for an appointment at one of his two New York City shops, where tattoos can cost into the thousands of dollars. At Bang Bang Tattoo, "You're not paying for the tattoo," a former artist's assistant said. "You're paying for the brand."In an industry known for bold ink, edgy imagery, and an anarchist streak, McCurdy has branded himself as someone who does things differently — what he calls the "right way." He offers his staff mental-health support. He's a self-professed "protector of women" who describes his business as a feminist utopia. His shops are bare, modern, and luxurious. In McCurdy's view, he's setting the bar for the industry. "I challenge people out there to do a better job than me," he said. "I'm waiting for who's competing with us. I don't see it."Yet some former Bang Bang employees said that McCurdy's meticulously curated image as a thoughtful progressive in a rough-and-tumble industry wasn't much more than good PR. At Bang Bang, "they just woke-wash everything," one former employee said.McCurdy's shops were rife with old-school issues, ex-employees said — and some new ones, too. Multiple people said it wasn't unusual to hear higher-ups tell inappropriate jokes or share stories about sexual encounters. Several staffers said McCurdy — better known to them as Bang — could be obsessively controlling, monitoring workers through 15 cameras between his two shops, and pressuring them to speak with his "business manager," who also happened to be his former therapist, about their personal problems.Tattoo artists said McCurdy turned cruel and vindictive when they left Bang Bang. One artist who left to start his own shop said McCurdy and a friend shoved him in the street while screaming profanities. In another case, McCurdy went so far as to sue an artist and threaten her immigration status over claims she'd stolen his clients, court documents show. (Many people who spoke with Insider asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from McCurdy.)Rihanna helped launch Keith McCurdy's career, introducing him to her celebrity friends. "He met Rihanna at the street shop, and that was just luck," said East Side Ink's owner, Josh Lord. "And then he rode that as far as he could."Epsilon/Getty ImagesIn a niche industry like tattooing, it's impressive that McCurdy was able to go mainstream. He's name-checked everywhere from GQ to US Weekly. After Rihanna's gun tattoo took off, "I could kind of control what the press would write," he said.But McCurdy's media savvy has camouflaged a different side to the artist and the business he runs, ex-staffers say. If you cross him, "he'll do anything to come for you," the former Bang Bang artist Joice Wang said, adding, "He's actually a monster."For a guy with guns tattooed on each side of his neck (hence the name), McCurdy has a remarkably warm presence. He speaks like a preacher delivering a sermon, ending every story with a moral. He has a red beard and a sturdy frame and likes to wear backward baseball hats and thick-rimmed glasses. He is, by his own admission, "not hip.""I like focusing on me and the tasks I have," he told me at his Grand Street shop in February. "I like answering to the person in the mirror. I like competing with my expectations. It makes me happy."McCurdy worked his way up from a tattoo shop outside a trailer park in tiny-town Delaware to a "super grimy" spot near Washington Square Park when he was 19 to New York City institutions like Last Rites Tattoo Theatre and East Side Ink. Along the way he met Rihanna, who wandered into the shop where he was working in 2007 to get a nipple pierced. McCurdy said the singer asked the piercer, Joe Snake, who the best person for a tattoo was, and Snake walked her over to him. McCurdy gave her a line of Sanskrit on her hip, and the two hit it off.His celebrity roster only grew from there: Swizz Beatz's ex-wife's hairstylist introduced him to Beatz; Beatz introduced him to the soccer star Thierry Henry; Henry introduced him to a whole list of New York Knicks players. And Rihanna hooked him up with her famous friends, including Perry and Delevingne. "He was very intelligent," East Side Ink's owner, Josh Lord, said. "He met Rihanna at the street shop, and that was just luck. And then he rode that as far as he could."McCurdy owns Bang Bang Tattoo and prides himself on doing things "the right way." But former employees say he could be obsessively controlling and vindictive.Susan Watts/NY Daily News via Getty ImagesMeanwhile, McCurdy kept refining his style, cutting his ink with water to give his tattoos a softer, more delicate look. His work appealed to people intimidated by the bold American-traditional designs at some shops. He posted his tattoos on Myspace, Facebook, and eventually Instagram — a novel thing for tattoo artists, who had typically relied on word of mouth. After Delevingne tagged him in a 2013 photo of the lion tattoo he'd done on her index finger, his Instagram following grew to about 200,000."I didn't want to sit in a tattoo shop and goof around and wait for walk-ins," McCurdy said. "I wanted to hustle. I wanted to be proactive." He landed a book deal with HarperCollins for his autobiography, which was published in 2015.The year before his book came out, McCurdy opened Bang Bang on Broome Street. He hired a creative director to design a minimalist space: blank white walls, poured-concrete floors, and flat-screen TVs. McCurdy made it a point not to hang art (tattoo shops are typically covered in flash sheets, or examples of artists' work)."I wanted it to be about the art we're making, not the art that's been made," he said. "The space is a reflection of our brand."Four years later, McCurdy opened another, even more grandiose shop on Grand Street, with a white marble lobby, a 7-foot-long aquarium, and free Fiji water bottles for every client. The renovation, McCurdy estimated, cost close to $1.8 million.Bang Bang's prices matched McCurdy's expensive taste. Even in the early days, some of its artists' rates were double, if not triple, those of most shops in the city, where a custom 4-by-4 inch black-and-gray tattoo ran about $300. Prices went up as McCurdy's A-list clients multiplied: Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, LeBron James. Today, a tattoo by McCurdy starts at about $10,000 for a daylong session and can cost $100,000 for a full sleeve.Several tattoo artists said Bang Bang used its celebrity clientele to price-gouge average customers, some of whom didn't know better than to spend hundreds on a simple design. Paul Booth, who owns Last Rites, said that when McCurdy worked for him, he "was more concerned about making a buck than treating his clients right," and that he ultimately fired McCurdy. (McCurdy said he left on good terms and Booth did not fire him.) Lord, the East Side Ink owner, called McCurdy "the Donald Trump of tattoos," saying he's "only interested in his own tacky brand and making money, no matter who else it hurts."McCurdy hired a creative director to design the minimalist aesthetic of his Bang Bang Tattoo shops. "The space is a reflection of our brand," he said.Anna MorgowiczMcCurdy ran his business like a corporation, complete with performance reviews, a mandatory sexual-harassment course, and blood-borne-pathogen training, which included teaching artists how to properly clean their equipment and change out needles. In its 2018 article, the Times wrote that McCurdy "made hiring women a priority and was clear with his staff that tattoo-world misogyny would not be tolerated beneath his roof.""My daughter is 9," he told the outlet. "She has a feminist button on her backpack and she doesn't really know what it means, but I want her to have the sense that she can do anything she wants with her life."Wang, who was hired full time in 2016 and became one of Bang Bang's most in-demand artists, said McCurdy asked her to sign an artist's agreement, which included a noncompete clause and an NDA — both anomalies in the tattoo world. The most recent version of the agreement, which is dated 2023 and which McCurdy shared with Insider, includes a clause stating that artists cannot speak negatively about the company, or McCurdy, even anonymously.Sara Fabel, who worked at Bang Bang as a guest artist for about a week around 2018, said being asked to sign an NDA would be a "huge red flag" because artists should be able to talk about their negative experiences. That McCurdy "has dozens of artists willing to sign shows the power he has in the industry," she said.Being tapped to work at Bang Bang can make an artist's career, turning them into a minor celebrity and bringing in floods of clients. McCurdy picks his staff meticulously, often trawling Instagram for flawless line work or promising beginners.Wang was an inexperienced 22-year-old tattooer in 2015, when McCurdy first reached out to talk about her work. She was thrilled. At the time, Bang Bang was the "pinnacle" of tattooing, Wang said: "It was a group of eight artists. They ruled the industry."Bang Bang staffers spent much of their time together. McCurdy organized Christmas parties, trips to Disney World, and things like paintballing excursions. He even built a designated room in the shop for staffers and clients to smoke weed. "We all became kind of like family," said Johnny Perez, who worked as an artist's assistant from 2014 to 2016. "Everybody really got along. You felt kind of special."But as they settled in, some former employees said, they started to chafe at the way McCurdy ran things. For instance, if a new hire, like Wang, has fewer than 100,000 Instagram followers, they're required to let Bang Bang make them a separate work account — that McCurdy and managers then run. "We create the page, we take their photography, we post for them," McCurdy said, explaining that they "haven't earned" access to Bang Bang's 2.4 million followers.Wang said not being able to run her own work account made her feel muzzled and resulted in fewer dark-skinned clients being showcased on her page, because Bang Bang's managers thought colored ink didn't look as good on deep skin tones. McCurdy said that while he wanted to showcase diversity, "the fact of the matter is that more people with lighter skin get tattooed than people with very dark skin."McCurdy didn't just oversee employees' online presence — he also kept close tabs on them at his shops. Eleven cameras monitor the Grand Street shop, McCurdy said, and four are installed at Broome Street. McCurdy accesses the footage through an app on his phone. "Every zone is filmed," he said, later adding that the cameras were meant to ensure people were staying on task and to protect his business: "No one's going to be able to say we mistreated them."One former artist's assistant who worked the front desk from 2015 to 2016 said there was a camera pointed directly at her computer screen. "If I wasn't working hard enough, or it looked like I wasn't answering email, or if I looked at my phone for a second, he would yell at me through the camera and say, 'Get back to work,'" she said of McCurdy, adding that this happened at least five times.Perez had similar experiences when he was opening the shop. All of a sudden, he would hear McCurdy's voice coming from a camera near the front desk. "It wasn't in a serious way," Perez said, but "it was like, 'Oh, I'm watching you. Just know that I'm watching.'"A third former assistant, who worked at Bang Bang for about six months in 2018, said that "there were cameras on us at all times" and that she had told managers she felt as if she were living in the dystopian novel "1984." At one point she was pulled into a meeting with McCurdy in which he showed her a video clip of her giggling with another employee. She said McCurdy reprimanded her for not staying on task and fired her. "It was just a really bizarre work environment," she said, adding that McCurdy acted as if she had "done something atrocious."After the model Cara Delevingne tagged McCurdy in a photo of a lion he tattooed on her finger, his Instagram following exploded. He credits social media with making him a household name.Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty ImagesMcCurdy was an intense boss, but he looked out for his employees, people said. Gladys Ko, a former Bang Bang artist who goes by the moniker Ghinko, said McCurdy was "very fatherly" and "protective" after she came to work one day with a black eye, immediately taking her aside to talk about it.After that, Ko said, McCurdy would sometimes "pull me into a meeting to check up on me," or "hang out with me for the entire day just to make sure I was OK." She credits McCurdy with being "her rock" during a hard time.McCurdy has spoken openly about his own emotional struggles. He went through an especially difficult time in 2013, when he opened the first Bang Bang shop on the Lower East Side with his now-estranged father, Vincent Lacava. (McCurdy was raised mostly by his mother, Susan McCurdy, and grandparents in Claymont, Delaware; his parents had him as teenagers and separated when he was young.) Lacava, a video game designer, invested $50,000 in the shop, but McCurdy says he was an "abusive" boss who cursed at employees and drank on the job. McCurdy said he offered to buy Lacava out. "His response was: 'Fuck you. I own your name. I'll run it without you,'" McCurdy recalled. The two took their fight to the trademark office, and McCurdy won. His dad shuttered the shop. (Lacava said he and McCurdy "clashed" over the business and eventually parted ways but had "very different views on what happened at the shop.")Despite the win, McCurdy spiraled. He was tattooing out of his Brooklyn apartment, and his marriage was falling apart. That's when his wife introduced him to Karen Bridbord, a psychologist and former in-house coach for JPMorgan Chase. She helped the couple with their marriage and began working with McCurdy separately as his executive coach. "He's a thought leader," Bridbord said. "That's one of the things that drew me to him."McCurdy ended up hiring Bridbord as Bang Bang's de facto head of HR; he refers to her as his "business manager." She's still his executive coach but is no longer his therapist. Bridbord said she's employed as a consultant and wasn't present at the shops every day.Bridbord said that staffers exhibiting a change in behavior, like showing up late or "looking disheveled," would be flagged and sent her way. After talking to them, she would determine the best course of action, whether that be referring them to an outside therapist or recommending they attend rehab.Bridbord said these one-on-one conversations were confidential. However, three people said a camera monitored the back room where they took place. "Bang has access to these cameras, and something that's supposed to be between me and you can easily be seen by him," Perez said. "So there was no real sense of security."McCurdy confirmed that he could access footage of his employees' conversations with Bridbord. He said he'd sometimes "demand" that people speak with Bridbord, adding that her "recommendation has to be followed through if you want to keep your job."Some staffers felt as though McCurdy foisted Bridbord on them. Georgia Grey, a Bang Bang tattoo artist who's worked there for eight years, said she thought it was smart for McCurdy to have Bridbord available, especially for immigrants adjusting to a new place. But when he and managers "sicced" Bridbord on Grey after learning Grey was pregnant, she said, she felt overwhelmed and upset because she hadn't been ready to share the news.During Wang's annual performance review in 2017, she told McCurdy she was struggling with her dad's imprisonment and having to support her family financially. He insisted she talk to Bridbord six separate times. "I don't know if you realize this, but we aren't just your bosses. We're your family," McCurdy told Wang, according to a transcript of the review he read aloud. "I can see you're sad. I want to help you. So let me, please, and let Karen."Wang pushed back, according to the transcript, telling McCurdy that Bridbord was "a stranger.""No she's not, Joice," McCurdy replied. "She's not trying to figure out what drug to put you on. She's trying to figure out how to help."Several staffers said they were uncomfortable speaking with Bridbord because she'd been McCurdy's therapist and still worked closely with him as his executive coach.When staffers did hear lewd jokes or comments about sex at the shops, there was no formal way for them to address it. Four female ex-employees, who worked at Bang Bang from 2015 to 2017, said that while McCurdy was known for his sarcastic sense of humor, he sometimes went overboard.One of these women, a former artist's assistant, said that on several occasions McCurdy taped a printout of a penis to her back without her knowledge, photos of which were obtained by Insider. He'd "be like, 'Good job,' and pat me on the back, and then I would walk around for however long with that on my back," she said, adding that this happened when the shop was full of clients. Another time, she said, McCurdy taped a penis to her headset "so it looked like a dick was pointing into my mouth." The pranks made the assistant feel belittled and humiliated. (McCurdy said that he had no memory of the first incident and that the second would never happen.)Another artist's assistant, who was 19 when she was hired, said McCurdy once commented that her breasts were "distracting" and said she needed to "put a bra on" under her sweater dress. The remark made her feel distraught and "disgusting," she said. "Looking back, I'm like, 'That is so incredibly wrong.'" Another employee said the assistant told them about the incident right after it happened. ("There is no history or evidence to support this accusation," McCurdy said.)McCurdy spoke openly about his sexual encounters, the women recalled. One said he told her about how a woman's breasts were so big that they were "basically bouncing on top of him" during sex. McCurdy said it was "possible" he'd had a conversation about sex in Bang Bang's early days but had no memory of doing so.This kind of behavior extended to other Bang Bang employees. Three women said that Edward Borew, a Bang Bang manager who's McCurdy's cousin, talked publicly about sleeping with sex workers and made sexual comments at work. (Borew said the statement was "false" and all three women were "disgruntled ex-employees.")JonBoy, a former Bang Bang Tattoo artist, was accused of flashing two female employees at the shop.Bryan Steffy/Getty ImagesTwo of the female employees said a Bang Bang tattoo artist known as JonBoy flashed his penis at them while they were working. (McCurdy fired JonBoy in 2016 for doing something he called "egregious and unacceptable" but rehired him about a year later after JonBoy started seeing a therapist, as recommended by Bridbord. JonBoy left the shop permanently in 2018.)One former assistant said that a manager, Matthew Ganser, made her clean up a condom he said he'd used and left on the couch. She said the incident earned Ganser the nickname Magnum Mac. Wang recalled the incident and said Ganser would frequently talk about hooking up with women at the shop. (Both McCurdy and Ganser said the nickname came from a meme, and McCurdy said he has no memory of a condom-cleaning incident, which Ganser called a "fabricated lie." Ganser added that he never spoke about hooking up with women at the shop.)Three of the women said they didn't speak up about the behavior at the time because they were young and because crude humor was a given in the industry — to the point that putting up with it became a rite of passage. "I don't think he fully understands what it means to respect women," Wang said of McCurdy. "I believe he believes he's an advocate for women. But only because he's so misinformed."Inevitably, artists leave the Bang Bang family. But if they don't do it on McCurdy's terms, there can be consequences. "I'm a carer of people," McCurdy said. "I just am authentically. I give a shit until I don't — until someone crosses the line."Two former employees said McCurdy was known to use a burner Instagram account to troll tattooers, which he denies. Some former employees said they were afraid to speak out against McCurdy, saying it wasn't worth risking their finances or mental health.I believe he believes he's an advocate for women. But only because he's so misinformed. Joice WangIn 2017, Wang asked McCurdy for a raise. He turned her down, she said, so she quit. Soon after, she noticed that every photo on her work Instagram account, which had more than 110,000 followers, had been wiped without her knowledge. Bang Bang then gave the account, with Wang's followers intact, to a different artist. (McCurdy confirmed this practice.)For Wang, losing her followers and her entire body of work was like losing her livelihood. "I felt like the floor had fallen beneath me," she said. "There was no way for these people to find me again."Wang said she took to her personal Instagram — which had some 2,000 followers — to vent her frustrations and ask people to report the work account. McCurdy then sent her a text threatening legal action. "I will remind you that we have a legally binding NDA signed by you that forbids you from speaking negatively about my company," reads the text, which Insider viewed.Wang thought it was fair to honor the appointments clients had booked with her at Bang Bang, offering to tattoo them elsewhere. But McCurdy didn't see it that way. He called a shop in Sweden where Wang was planning to work as a guest artist and told them she was a thief and to cancel her booking. (The Swedish shop owner ultimately allowed Wang to tattoo there.)Ganser, the Bang Bang manager, also sent Wang a text comparing her behavior to her father's, who was in prison. "Just like your dad," he wrote. "Look where he's at."Another artist left Bang Bang in 2016 to open his own shop and offered his coworkers a chance to join him. When McCurdy discovered this, he called the artist and told him to watch his back."I threatened to come and smack him in front of all his employees," McCurdy confirmed to Insider.A few months later, the artist was walking to his new shop, which was near Bang Bang, when someone shoved him from behind. When he turned around, the artist said, he saw McCurdy "screaming at me being like, 'Hey, fuck you, you little piece of shit!'" McCurdy confirmed the run-in but said he "never put my hands on him."In 2019, one of Bang Bang's most sought-after artists, the Turkish tattooer Eva Karabudak, left to start her own shop in Brooklyn. A few days later, McCurdy sued Karabudak, calling her "disloyal" and "dishonest" and accusing her of "surreptitiously" stealing his clients, the suit says. He asked for a minimum of almost $154,000 in damages.McCurdy had hired Karabudak in 2017 and paid nearly $30,000 for her visa and health-insurance costs, according to the complaint. In return, McCurdy alleged, Karabudak signed an agreement to work for him for at least three years. In an affidavit dated May 2019, Karabudak said she'd made no such promise and McCurdy had retaliated against her for not signing an artist's agreement that included a noncompete clause. He "got extremely angry, and in an unprofessional manner, raised his voice, used profanity, threatened to terminate my employment and cancel my Visa," the suit says. "Although I felt intimidated and pressured by him, I did not sign." The case was dismissed in February 2020.Even tattoo artists who've never worked with McCurdy have landed in his crosshairs. In March 2019, a prominent New York City tattooer commented on a meme making fun of Bang Bang's extravagant pricing. McCurdy, through Bang Bang's official account, fired back in the comments, calling her a "bitch" and saying she was a bad tattooer with "shit lines." He also DM'd her, writing, "Holler at me when you learn how to tattoo bitch.""I already knew he was very fragile and had a pretty disturbed ego, but that whole situation proved it," the New York City tattooer said. "I felt like he exposed himself in the most wonderful way."Nearly a decade after opening the first Bang Bang shop, McCurdy still sees himself as a trailblazer. Most recently, he launched a formula called Magic Ink that can turn tattoos "on" and "off." He debuted the ink last September in GQ, where he gushed about the marvels of "tech tattoos." The first vial sold as an NFT for roughly $164,000, according to the magazine. McCurdy spent 26 hours tattooing a religious mural on Justin Bieber's chest in 2017. "I didn't want to sit in a tattoo shop and goof around and wait for walk-ins," he said. "I wanted to hustle."Photo by Gotham/GC ImagesMcCurdy is vigilant about maintaining his reputation, as well as that of his business. In a March 20 Instagram post, he addressed complaints that his famous micro tattoos fade and blur too quickly, packing the caption with phrases like "macrophages" and "particle density" and ending it with a cheeky, "thanks for playing." When I met him in February, he came armed with hundreds of pages of documents — "evidence," he called it — all highlighted and color-coded. I gestured at the pile, wondering aloud what made him so quick to be defensive."I don't know, man," he replied. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I guess."The truth is, guys like McCurdy are the norm in tattooing. Because mainstream US tattoo culture largely stems from male-dominated fringe groups like bikers, sailors, and gang members, the industry has been slow to evolve, clinging to the crudeness and bravado that defined it in the first place. "A lot of artists feel concerned about tattooing losing a sense of edginess," a well-known New York City artist said. "I see that being responsible for excusing a lot of bad behavior because it gets written off as being authentic or being tough or being true to some imagined original spirit of tattooing."The difference is that McCurdy says all the right things — at least in public. From his perspective, he's a feminist who cares deeply about his employees' mental health. In a January email to Insider, he told me he respected and safeguarded women. He's doing new things — creating structures, setting rules — that are supposed to protect people.After spending close to eight hours with McCurdy myself, it's clear he believes in his mission. "The background of me being screwed by family, which is something no one ever expects to go through, is why everything here is done the right way," he told me. But even as I spoke with him, it felt as if he was talking to an audience. I could hear him crafting the narrative he wanted to see on the page — a narrative that he's been telling himself, and the world, for at least a decade.McCurdy isn't wrong to believe that tattooing as a whole should evolve. Yet in trying to push things in the right direction, he may have created as many problems as he's solved. That, and he's not exactly open to feedback, despite modeling his business after his own funhouse mirror version of corporate America."I know God picked me to do this job, so I do it," he told me. "I know who we are, I know where we're going. I know what we're doing. And there's nothing anybody can say in the world that's going to stop our progress."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Rayliene Thompson says she wears 60 pounds of equipment and has learned how to jump head-first out of a window and flip herself on a ladder. Courtesy of Rayliene Thompson Rayliene Thompson is a 28-year-old volunteer firefighter in Nova Scotia, Canada. Thompson hates when people call her a fireman, because "gender doesn't matter" when saving lives. "I'm not a fireman," she'll say in response. "I'm a firefighter."  This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rayliene Thompson, a 28-year-old volunteer firefighter with the Westchester Fire Department in Nova Scotia, Canada.The skills and tasks that come with firefighting — such as operating heavy machinery, vehicle maintenance, or performing technical work under stress — are not something that I would typically be interested in.By day, I work as a paralegal and am very much a book nerd. I'm not a hands-on person at all. But in junior high, I participated in a program called TechsplorationThe program was designed to get young women involved in male-dominated careers.During that time, I job-shadowed one of Nova Scotia's first career (paid) female firefighters over the course of a couple of days.I got to visit her fire department, as well as the fire school, and this experience sparked an interest in volunteer firefighting. My first day of 'Level One' training, I had no clue what I was doingIt was only my second time wearing a breathing apparatus. This, along with all the rest of the clothing and equipment, weighed more than 60 pounds.One requirement for your Level One is to get fully dressed and breathing air in under two minutes. Meeting this requirement requires precise technique and is labor-intensive.I went home that first night in tears, exhausted and sore. I didn't think I could do it. But I was stubborn, and I stuck with it.Becoming a volunteer firefighter has been the best decision of my lifeI love that firefighting pushes me out of my comfort zone and has helped me gain confidence in myself. Within my first year of firefighting, I completed my Level Ones and my medical first-responder training. Two years after that, I completed my Level Two training, which is an advanced fire rescue course. Part of Level Two training was learning how to do one of the most challenging rescue techniques: the Texas Bail Out, which basically involves jumping head first out of a window and flipping yourself on a ladder. As someone naturally afraid of heights, it was a terrifying obstacle to try, but I did it.Ever since I completed my Level Two training, my motto has been: "If I can do a Texas bailout, I can do anything!"Volunteer firefighters in my department are on call 24/7Volunteers respond to fires, car accidents, medical calls, and other assistance calls, such as people trapped in cars or confined spaces, as well as people or animals who have fallen down trenches or in water. We download an app onto our cell phones and carry pagers that notify us when there's been incident. We also assist the paramedics, and we respond when hazardous materials need cleaning up. As a volunteer in a rural setting, I will respond to as many as 50-plus calls per yearI might get multiple calls in one night, or not respond to any calls for weeks.In the case of a car accident, I'll provide patient care while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. If it's a structure fire, I'm gearing up in my breathing apparatus and heading straight to the fire as soon as I arrive on the scene, so I can begin an initial attack on the flames and/or search for victims.While firefighting is still predominantly male, we're starting to see a shiftMore and more women are joining the fire service. For me personally, it's been very important that I maintain my femininity within the fire service. I want other women to know that there is no specific way you need to look or be in order to be a firefighter. I get my nails done, and I wear makeup and jewelry. My flash hood — the special hood firefighters wear to protect our hair, face, and neck — is pink. My formal dress wear for the department has a skirt instead of pants. I carry spare clothes in my car, because it's not unusual for me to arrive at a call in a dress and heels, and I learned early on that bunker gear over a dress is not comfortable! My department is very supportive, and I feel very safe and comfortableStill, there have been times within the fire service when I've had to speak up for myself as a woman and where my opinions and ideas were overlooked.  When I first joined the fire service, an acquaintance joked: "I'm surprised they let women join the fire service. By the time their hair and makeup was done, the fire would already be put out." I responded in a sarcastic tone: "I hope your house never catches fire, as I will be too busy doing my hair and makeup to help you."  People will sometimes refer to me as a 'fireman,' which I absolutely hate"I'm not a fireman," I say in response. "I'm a firefighter." The term "fireman" and its usage reinforces the misconception that it's a "man's job" and that this work isn't open to individuals who don't identify that way. Fact is, you don't have to be a man to do these jobs. Take it from me, one of frontline firefighters ready to lead the team headfirst into a burning building. I've done a lot of training, and I've had to work extremely hard to get where I am today. At the end of the day, when we have all our gear on, you can't tell our gender. When we're working as a team rescuing a patient or putting out a fire, or getting up in the middle of the night to respond to a call.Gender doesn't matter. We all have the same goal: to save lives.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Court Filing Suggests Troubling CIA Links To Two 9/11 Hijackers Authored by Kit Klarenberg via The Grayzone, A newly-released court filing raises grave questions about the relationship between Alec Station, a CIA unit set up to track Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his associates, and two 9/11 hijackers leading up to the attacks, which was subject to a coverup at the highest levels of the FBI. Obtained by SpyTalk, the filing is a 21-page declaration by Don Canestraro, a lead investigator for the Office of Military Commissions, the legal body overseeing the cases of 9/11 defendants. It summarizes classified government discovery disclosures, and private interviews he conducted with anonymous high-ranking CIA and FBI officials. Many agents who spoke to Canestraro headed up Operation Encore, the Bureau’s aborted, long-running probe into Saudi government connections to the 9/11 attack. Despite conducting multiple lengthy interviews with a range of witnesses, producing hundreds of pages of evidence, formally investigating several Saudi officials, and launching a grand jury to probe a Riyadh-run US-based support network for the hijackers, Encore was abruptly terminated in 2016. This was purportedly due to a byzantine intra-FBI bust-up over investigative methods. When originally released in 2021 on the Office’s public court docket, every part of the document was redacted except an “unclassified” marking. Given its explosive contents, it is not difficult to see why: as Canestraro’s investigation concluded, at least two 9/11 hijackers had been recruited either knowingly or unknowingly into a joint CIA-Saudi intelligence operation which may have gone awry.  ‘A 50/50 chance’ of Saudi involvement In 1996, Alec Station was created under the watch of the CIA. The initiative was supposed to comprise a joint investigative effort with the FBI. However, FBI operatives assigned to the unit soon found they were prohibited from passing any information to the Bureau’s head office without the CIA’s authorization, and faced harsh penalties for doing so. Efforts to share information with the FBI’s equivalent unit – the I-49 squad based in New York – were repeatedly blocked.   In late 1999, with “the system blinking red” about an imminent large-scale Al Qaeda terror attack inside the US, the CIA and NSA were closely monitoring an “operational cadre” within an Al Qaeda cell that included the Saudi nationals Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. The pair would purportedly go on to hijack American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Al-Hazmi and al-Midhar had attended an Al Qaeda summit that took place between January 5th and 8th 2000, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was secretly photographed and videotaped by local authorities at Alec Station’s request although, apparently, no audio was captured. En route, Mihdhar transited through Dubai, where CIA operatives broke into his hotel room and photocopied his passport. It showed that he possessed a multi-entry visa to the US. A contemporaneous internal CIA cable stated this information was immediately passed to the FBI “for further investigation.” In reality, Alec Station not only failed to inform the Bureau of Mihdhar’s US visa, but also expressly forbade two FBI agents assigned to the unit from doing so. “[I said] ‘we’ve got to tell the Bureau about this. These guys clearly are bad…we’ve got to tell the FBI.’ And then [the CIA] said to me, ‘no, it’s not the FBI’s case, not the FBI’s jurisdiction’,” Mark Rossini, one of the FBI agents in question, has alleged. “If we had picked up the phone and called the Bureau, I would’ve been violating the law. I…would’ve been removed from the building that day. I would’ve had my clearances suspended, and I would be gone.” On January 15th, Hazmi and Mihdhar entered the US through Los Angeles International Airport, just weeks after the foiled Millennium plot. Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi government “ghost employee” immediately met them at an airport restaurant. After a brief conversation, Bayoumi helped them find an apartment near his own in San Diego, co-signed their lease, set them up bank accounts, and gifted $1,500 towards their rent. The three would have multiple contacts moving forward. In interviews with Operation Encore investigators years later, Bayoumi alleged his run-in with the two would-be hijackers was mere happenstance. His extraordinary practical and financial support was, he claimed, simply charitable, motivated by sympathy for the pair, who could barely speak English and were unfamiliar with Western culture.  The Bureau disagreed, concluding Bayoumi was a Saudi spy, who handled a number of Al Qaeda operatives in the US. They also considered there to be a “50/50 chance” he – and by extension Riyadh – had detailed advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. That remarkable finding wasn’t known publicly until two decades later, when a tranche of Operation Encore documents were declassified upon the Biden administration’s orders, and it was completely ignored by the mainstream media. Don Canestraro’s declaration now reveals FBI investigators went even further in their assessments. Quick summary of court filing: CIA & Saudi intel recruited Islamic radicals to help spy on Osama Bin Laden At least 2 recruits were given US Visas and were then “lost” in America When FBI tried to investigate/charge them, CIA held them back for unknown reasons 9/11 happened — DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) April 19, 2023 A Bureau special agent, dubbed “CS-3” in the document, stated Bayoumi’s contact with the hijackers and support thereafter “was done at the behest of the CIA through the Saudi intelligence service.” Alec Station’s explicit purpose was to “recruit Al-Hazmi and Al-Mihdhar via a liaison relationship”, with the assistance of Riyadh’s General Intelligence Directorate. A most ‘unusual’ CIA unit Alec Station’s formal remit was to track bin Laden, “collect intelligence on him, run operations against him, disrupt his finances, and warn policymakers about his activities and intentions.” These activities would naturally entail enlisting informants within Al Qaeda.  Nonetheless, as several high level sources told Canestraro, it was extremely “unusual” for such an entity to be involved in gathering intelligence and recruiting assets. The US-based unit was run by CIA analysts, who do not typically manage human assets. Legally, that work is the exclusive preserve of case officers “trained in covert operations” and based overseas. “CS-10”, a CIA case officer within Alec Station, concurred with the proposition that Hazmi and Mihdhar enjoyed a relationship with the CIA through Bayoumi, and was baffled that the unit was tasked with attempting to penetrate Al Qaeda in the first place. They felt it “would be nearly impossible…to develop informants inside” the group, given the “virtual” station was based in a Langley basement, “several thousand miles from the countries where Al Qaeda was suspected of operating.” “CS-10” further testified that they “observed other unusual activities” at Alec Station. Analysts within the unit “would direct operations to case officers in the field by sending the officers cables instructing them to do a specific tasking,” which was “a violation of CIA procedures.” Analysts “normally lacked the authority to direct a case officer to do anything.” “CS-11”, a CIA operations specialist posted to Alec Station “sometime prior to the 9/11 attacks” said they likewise “observed activity that appeared to be outside normal CIA procedures.” Analysts within the unit “mostly stuck to themselves and did not interact frequently” with others. When communicating with one another through internal cables, they also used operational pseudonyms, which “CS-11” described as peculiar, as they were not working undercover, “and their employment with the CIA was not classified information.” The unit’s unusual operational culture may explain some of the stranger decisions made during this period vis a vis Al Qaeda informants. In early 1998, while on a CIA mission to penetrate London’s Islamist scene, a  joint FBI-CIA informant named Aukai Collins received a stunning offer: bin Laden himself wanted him to go to Afghanistan so they could meet.  Collins relayed the request to his superiors. While the FBI was in favor of infiltrating Al Qaeda’s base, his CIA handler nixed the idea, saying, “there was no way the US would approve an American operative going undercover into Bin Laden’s camps.” Similarly, in June 2001, CIA and FBI analysts from Alec Station met with senior Bureau officials, including representatives of its own Al Qaeda unit. The CIA shared three photos of individuals who attended the Kuala Lumpur meeting 18 months earlier, including Hazmi and Mihdhar. However, as an FBI counter-terror officer codenamed “CS-15” recalled, the dates of the photos and key details about the figures they depicted were not revealed. Instead, the analysts simply asked if the FBI “knew the identities of the individuals in the photos.”  Another FBI official present, “CS-12”, offers an even more damning account. The Alec Station analysts not only failed to offer biographical information, but falsely implied one of the individuals might be Fahd Al-Quso, a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole. What’s more, they outright refused to answer any questions related to the photographs. Nonetheless, it was confirmed that no system was in place to alert the FBI if any of the three entered the US – a “standard investigative technique” for terror suspects. Given Hazmi and Mihdhar appeared to be simultaneously working for Alec Station in some capacity, the June 2001 meeting may well have been a dangle. No intelligence value could be extracted from inquiring whether the Bureau knew who their assets were, apart from ascertaining if the FBI’s counter-terror team was aware of their identities, physical appearances, and presence in the US. Quite some coverup Another of Canestraro’s sources, a former FBI agent who went by “CS-23,” testified that after 9/11, FBI headquarters and its San Diego field office quickly learned of “Bayoumi’s affiliation with Saudi intelligence and subsequently the existence of the CIA’s operation to recruit” Hazmi and Mihdhar. However, “senior FBI officials suppressed investigations” into these matters. “CS-23” alleged, furthermore, that Bureau agents testifying before the Joint Inquiry into 9/11 “were instructed not to reveal the full extent of Saudi involvement with Al-Qaeda.” The US intelligence community would have had every reason to shield Riyadh from scrutiny and consequences for its role in the 9/11 attacks, as it was then one of its closest allies. But the FBI’s eager complicity in Alec Station’s coverup may have been motivated by self-interest, as one of its own was intimately involved in the unit’s effort to recruit Hazmi and Mihdhar, and conceal their presence in the US from relevant authorities. “CS-12”, who attended the June 2001 meeting with Alec Station, told Canestraro that they “continued to press FBI Headquarters for further information regarding the subjects in the photographs” over that summer. On August 23rd, they stumbled upon an “electronic communication” from FBI headquarters, which identified Hazmi and Mihdhar, and noted they were in the US.  “CS-12” then contacted the FBI analyst within Alec Station who authored the communication. The conversation quickly became “heated”, with the analyst ordering them to delete the memo “immediately” as they were not authorized to view it. While unnamed in the declaration, the FBI analyst in question was Dina Corsi. The next day, on a conference call between “CS-12”, Corsi, and the FBI’s bin Laden unit chief, “officials at FBI headquarters” explicitly told “CS-12” to “stand down” and “cease looking” for Mihdhar, as the Bureau intended to open an “intelligence gathering investigation” on him. The next day, “CS-12” emailed Corsi, stating bluntly “someone is going to die” unless Mihdhar was pursued criminally. It was surely no coincidence that two days later, on August 26th, Alec Station finally informed the FBI that Hazmi and Mihdhar were in the US. By then, the pair had entered the final phase of preparations for the impending attacks. If a criminal probe had been opened, they could have been stopped in their tracks. Instead, as foreshadowed by the officials in contact with “CS-12,” an intelligence investigation was launched which hindered any search efforts. In the days immediately after the 9/11 attacks, “CS-12” and other New York-based FBI agents participated in another conference call with Bureau headquarters. During the conversation, they learned Hazmi and Mihdhar were named on Flight 77’s manifest. One analyst on the line ran the pair’s names through “commercial databases,” quickly finding them and their home address listed in San Diego’s local phone directory. It turned out they had been living with an FBI informant. “CS-12” soon contacted Corsi “regarding information on the hijackers.” She responded by providing a photograph from the same surveillance operation that produced the three pictures presented at the June 2001 meeting between Alec Station and FBI agents; they depicted Walid bin Attash, a lead suspect in Al Qaeda’s 1998 East Africa US Embassy bombings and its attack on the USS Cole.  Corsi was unable to explain why the photo was not shown to FBI agents earlier. If it had been, “CS-12” claims they would have “immediately linked” Hazmi and Mihdhar to bin Attash, which “would have shifted from an intelligence based investigation into a criminal investigation.” The FBI’s New York field office could have then devoted its “full resources” to finding the hijackers before the fateful day of September 11, 2001. Alec Station operatives fail upwards Alec Station’s tireless efforts to protect its Al Qaeda assets raises the obvious question of whether Hazmi and Mihdhar, and possibly other hijackers, were in effect working for the CIA on the day of 9/11. The real motives behind the CIA’s stonewalling may never be known. But it appears abundantly clear that Alec Station did not want the FBI to know about or interfere in its secret intelligence operation. If the unit’s recruitment of Hazmi and Mihdhar was purely dedicated to information gathering, rather than operational direction, it is incomprehensible that the FBI had not been apprised of it, and was instead actively misdirected. Several FBI sources consulted by Canestraro speculated that the CIA’s desperation to penetrate Al Qaeda prompted it to grant Alec Station the power to recruit assets, and pressured it to do so. But if this were truly the case, then why did Langley refuse the opportunity to send Aukai Collins – a proven deep cover asset who had infiltrated several Islamist gangs – to penetrate bin Laden’s network in Afghanistan? One alternative explanation is that Alec Station, a powerful rogue CIA team answerable and accountable to no one, sought to infiltrate the terror group for its own sinister purposes, without the authorization and oversight usually required by Langley in such circumstances. Given that Collins was a joint asset shared with the FBI, he could not be trusted to participate in such a sensitive black operation.   No member of Alec Station has been punished in any way for the supposed “intelligence failures” that allowed 9/11 to go ahead. In fact, they have been rewarded. Richard Blee, the unit’s chief at the time of the attacks, and his successor Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, both joined the CIA’s operations division, and became highly influential figures in the so-called war on terror. Corsi, for her part, was promoted at the FBI, eventually rising to the rank of Deputy Assistant Director for Intelligence.   In a perverse twist, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s torture program found that Bikowsky had been a key player in the agency’s black site machinations, and one of their chief public apologists. It is increasingly clear that the program was specifically concerned with eliciting false testimony from suspects in order to justify and expand the US war on terror.  The public’s understanding of the 9/11 attacks is heavily informed by testimonies delivered by CIA torture victims under the most extreme duress imaginable. And Bikowsky, a veteran of the Alec Station that ran cover for at least two would-be 9/11 hijackers, had been in charge of interrogating the alleged perpetrators of the attacks. The veteran FBI deep cover agent Aukai Collins concluded his memoir with a chilling reflection which was only reinforced by Don Canestraro’s bombshell declaration: “I was very mistrustful about the fact that bin Laden’s name was mentioned literally hours after the attack… I became very skeptical about anything anybody said about what happened, or who did it. I thought back to when I was still working for them and we had the opportunity to enter Bin Laden’s camp. Something just hadn’t smelled right…To this day I’m unsure who was behind September 11, nor can I even guess… Someday the truth will reveal itself, and I have a feeling that people won’t like what they hear.” Tyler Durden Fri, 04/21/2023 - 23:40.....»»

Not one to shy away from controversy, Twitter's CEO gave us plenty to discuss. Insider rounded up some of his most notable tweets since June 2022. Elon Musk has never been afraid to speak his mind.Theo Wargo/WireImage 2022 was a very notable year for Elon Musk.  He became Twitter's new owner but also lost the title of "world's richest man." Insider looks back at some of his most eyebrow-raising comments from the second half of the year. Elon Musk had an eventful year in 2022, which he entered as the world's richest man. But by the end of the year, he had not only lost billions, but also the confidence of many people who invested in his companies. The billionaire's acquisition of Twitter on October 27 left Tesla investors particularly weary. Some feared he was neglecting the EV company in favor of fixing the social-media platform.Analysts have also noted that Twitter is distracting Musk from Tesla and say his politicized tweets have damaged the EV maker's brand.The billionaire, who is the first person to suffer from a $200 billion loss, never shied away from controversies and likes to tweet his opinions on most topics. Let's a look at 20 of the most interesting things Musk said between June and December. 1. Life on MarsGetty Images"Humanity will reach Mars in your lifetime," wrote Musk on July 6. The billionaire has been adamant that he wants to populate the red planet and that his rocket-building company, SpaceX, is a first step toward achieving that goal. In 2020, Musk said he hoped to build 1,000 Starships over 10 years. The billionaire's goal at the time was to launch an average of three Starships per day and make the trip to Mars available to anyone. "Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans available for those who don't have money," Musk wrote.2. Not enough babies on EarthElon Musk and son X Æ A-12 in New York.Theo Wargo/Getty ImagesMusk signaled his intention to help tackle "the underpopulation crisis." But he also jokingly used his Mars exploration plans to justify the number of kids he has.Musk currently has nine known children and often shares his concerns about potential underpopulation in the future. He once told The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO council that rapidly declining birth rates are "one of the biggest risks to civilization."  According to the billionaire, "a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far," that's why he is "doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis."In late August, Musk said that low birth rates "is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming."3. Sleep expertThe tech mogul loves all things related to electric vehicles, rocket building, neuroscience, and of course, free speech. But he also takes a keen interest in sleep management.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022After Musk offered his followers some advice, YouTuber Mr. Beast tweeted: "Anyone want to explain why these two things help me." To which Musk responded: "Good chance you're experiencing at least mild acid reflux at night, affecting quality sleep without consciousness awareness."4. Buzz Lightyear, is that you?Steve Nesius/ReutersIt would appear Musk had new slogans for two of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. "Tesla is to protect life on Earth," the billionaire said on July 15, while "SpaceX to extend life beyond."The latter sounded familiar and similar what Buzz Lightyear would say: "To Infinity and Beyond."5. Keeping his head downNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty ImagesThe billionaire is happy to speak his mind on most topics, including the scrutiny he attracts. "The amount of attention on me has gone supernova, which super sucks," he wrote."Unfortunately, even trivial articles about me generate a lot of clicks," he added. "Will try my best to be heads down focused on doing useful things for civilization."Musk has never been a fan of the media. More recently, he slammed what he called "corporate journalism" and accused it of failing to side with "the people" over the Twitter Files.Musk has been doubling down on his support for citizen journalism over large publications.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2022 6. Facing up to his critics—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2022Like many public figures, Musk has fans, critics, and haters. But Musk doesn't scare easily. Success attracts detractors, and Musk has been very successful in his career.When he is attacked online, Musk isn't afraid to fire back. As was the case with lawmaker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said she was having issues with her Twitter account after a spat with Musk.The billionaire jokingly responded that it was due to "a naked abuse of power" by the platform's new owner – himself.7. TwizzlerAvishek Das/Getty ImagesBeing in the middle of a legal battle with Twitter after attempting to walk away from a $44 billion takeover deal didn't stop him from making jokes about the situation. Musk, who likes a "little nonsense," said combining Tesla with Twitter would produce "Twizzler."—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2022 8. Losing weight fastErrol MuskDenver Post Photo by Cyrus McCrimmonMusk said he used "flights as an opportunity to fast," before saying on August 29 that he's lost 20 pounds trying intermittent fasting. He also said he used a weight loss app called Zero and reacted to a user's tweet asking if he lifts weights.His father Errol criticized his weight and told him to take weight loss pills, Insider previously reported. 9. Keeping the peaceThe billionaire polled his Twitter followers by asking questions about the war in Ukraine. —Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022Ukrainian diplomat blasted the billionaire over his peace plan, with Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, saying "Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you." Musk argued that "this is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then."10. Musk's true plan for TwitterTwitter Headquarters in San Francisco, CaliforniaAnadolu Agency / Getty ImagesA few weeks before Musk sealed the $44 billion deal to take over Twitter, he said that acquiring it would be the first step toward X, "the everything app."Musk has previously teased X.com as a possible Twitter competitor. In August, Musk responded to a question asking if he'd launch his own site instead of buying Twitter by tweeting "X.com."X.com was originally an online bank co-founded by Musk in 1999. The company later merged with another online payment system and became PayPal. In 2017, Musk bought the domain name and relaunched the site. At the time, Musk claimed he had no plans for the site but the domain had "great sentimental value" for him. Currently, the website displays a small x if launched. 11. Heaven scentElon Musk is selling bottles of a perfume called "Burnt Hair" for $100 a bottle.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue; The Boring CompanyAs though Musk didn't have enough distractions, he decided to launch his own perfume.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2022He then joked that he needed people to buy his perfume so he could close the Twitter deal. "Please buy my perfume, so I can buy Twitter," before responding "srsly" to a user who shared a meme. After reportedly selling 10,000 bottles, Musk said he couldn't wait "for media stories tomorrow about $1M of Burnt Hair sold." 12. Comedy clubMusk, while sometimes controversial, often favors a comedic approach and does not take things at face value – or so he wants us to believe.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022 He said "comedy is now legal" after becoming the new owner of Twitter.13. Activist woesConcerned about the rise in extremism and hate speech, the #StopToxicTwitter coalition, a growing coalition of advocacy groups and media watchdogs, urged major Twitter advertisers to pressure Musk to embrace content moderation or boycott the platform.Musk blamed the activists for Twitter losing money. He said: "Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.""Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America," he added. 14. Free speech memes—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022 Musk shared a meme on November 7 that contained a photo of a Nazi soldier. "How times have changed," the billionaire wrote in his tweet.The photo was photoshopped to include a small notification icon above a cage of messenger pigeons on the soldier's back. Its caption read: "3 unread messages.""Back when birds were real," Musk later wrote in a follow-up tweet, before adding additional commentary with a head-exploding emoji. 15. Mistakes will be madeJim Watson/AFP via Getty ImagesMusk rarely admits being at fault but has admitted that some changes being made to Twitter would not be particularly sensible."Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months," he wrote on November 9, after having implemented a few changes to the platform already. "We will keep what works & change what doesn't."16. Back to a 'little nonsense'—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022Musk took a liking to two men who fooled members of the press into thinking they were laid-off Twitter engineers.Now, one of them works there, Insider's Kali Hays reported in November. Daniel Francis is now listed internally as a member of Twitter staff and is available on internal Slack channels.17. Trump cardDonald Trump marked his return to Twitter with first post.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesMusk polled Twitter users to ask whether he should reinstate former President Donald Trump on the social-media platform. After 51.8% voted in favor of the former president's return, Musk said: "The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk wrote, using a Latin phrase that translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God."18. Bedside mannerBedside tables usually have an alarm clock, maybe a lamp, and some tissues. Yet, Musk's one includes none of the above, according to a picture he shared on Twitter in November. The picture featured two guns, four caffeine-free-Coke, and a picture of George Washington. Later in December, he shared a new picture of his curious bedside table, this time showing off an edition of the US Constitution and other books related to America's founding.19. Twitter FilesMusk teased, and then released the Twitter Files, which focused on "free speech suppression" by the social-media platform before he acquired it. He has since entrusted a few independent journalists to release parts of it each. Insider's Kali Hays previously reported how journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss – who've been working on the Twitter Files – were given access to Twitter's internal systems despite having no official role at the company.20. Best decision yet?Musk, who has been under heavy scrutiny since acquiring Twitter, polled his user in December asking whether he should step down as CEO of Twitter. 57.5% of 17,502,391 respondents voted in favor of the billionaire stepping down. "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!," Musk wrote in a follow-up tweet. "After that, I will just run the software & servers teams." Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

    The transcript from this week’s, MiB: Marcus Shaw, CEO of AltFinance, is below. You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. ~~~ ANNOUNCER: This is Masters in… Read More The post Transcript: Marcus Shaw appeared first on The Big Picture.     The transcript from this week’s, MiB: Marcus Shaw, CEO of AltFinance, is below. You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. ~~~ ANNOUNCER: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio. BARRY RITHOLTZ, HOST, MASTERS IN BUSINESS: This week on the podcast, I have another special guest. His name is Marcus Shaw. He has really a fascinating career and a focus these days. He really began as a traditional engineer/finance person working at IBM as a network engineer before he got his MBA at Duke. And from there, he did the usual research and investment banking gigs throughout a lot of Wall Street before the opportunity came to help entrepreneurs develop and grow their businesses in places like Alabama and Tennessee, which ultimately led him to participate in the founding of a new firm called AltFinance, which was created by really a group of, for lack of a better word, finance royalty. It’s Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital. It’s Tony Ressler of Ares, Marc Rowan of Apollo Global. These three gentlemen said we’re lacking the ability to tap into a very rich, diverse talent pool, including historically black colleges and universities. Venture capital, private equity, just were not recruiting for those spaces. And so they stood up a firm called AltFinance, whose main purpose was to help alternative asset managers tap into that rich pool of potential hires. Marcus Shaw works with them, and he’s the CEO of AltFinance. I found this to be really a fascinating conversation about how to access the most skilled partners and employees, what can be done to shake up a relatively staid industry that has lagged behind its peers in terms of recruiting and other things, and really how to help have a major impact in the world of finance. And I found this conversation to be fascinating and I think you will also. So with no further ado, my interview with Marcus Shaw. MARCUS SHAW, CEO & PRESIDENT, ALTFINANCE: Barry, thank you so much for inviting me. RITHOLTZ: I’m excited to chat with you. So let’s talk a little bit about Wall Street and diversity. Wall Street has been pretty bad at recruiting black talent. It’s been a stated objective for decades. Why is finance so bad at this? SHAW: Barry, I think that it’s a complex question that requires actually a complex solution and a multifaceted solution. I would say the most general issue here is that folks don’t have the networks and the access to careers in finance from across the country. Right? So if you grew up in New York, yeah, you’ll probably know some people that worked in the industry and you may have some relationships. You may go to school with somebody. Your parent may work there. And that’s whether you’re white or black. All right. But if you don’t, if you grew up in a market, where there’s not an investment bank, there’s nothing other than a branch bank for one of the multi-dimensional financials, then you’re not really going to have an understanding of what that career looks like at a young age. And so as you get ready to go to college, and you start thinking about what your career going to look like, it’s going to be primarily academic for you. And so I think that’s always a challenge that they’re not a ton of people that are in the seats, that are getting access to, in this case, black students from across the country. They’re giving them a look and this is what a career could look like for you. This is what an opportunity could look like for you. Here’s what the realm of possibilities is. And this primarily is how you get there, here’s a path to get there. That’s the biggest challenge. RITHOLTZ: So tell us about AltFinance, what is its mission? And why is this a better mousetrap than the way things have been done before? SHAW: So AltFinance is focused on building diversity in the alternative investment industry. RITHOLTZ: Alternatives being venture capital, private equity, anything else? SHAW: Private credit, real estate investing, hedge funds, everything kind of outside of traditional stock and bond investment, right, the things that are more private and market-driven often. And so our goal is to increase diversity in that space by working with partnerships at historically black colleges and universities, by providing students from HBCUs opportunities to have co-curricular programming, understanding, you know, exactly what you need to know to be successful in that role. Also to provide mentorship for students so that they’re not operating in a vacuum, so that when they have questions, there are people in the business, people that have experienced in the business that they can talk to. And also by working and partnering with schools to provide financial support to help increase capacity not only for students, but also for the institutions themselves. RITHOLTZ: So let’s talk a little bit about how AltFinance was initially funded and created. You have Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital, Marc Rowan of Apollo, Tony Ressler of Ares. These are like three heavy hitters at giant legendary firms. That’s a heady group to work with. What led them to say we need help accessing black talent, and we’re not getting it from anywhere else, we have to do it ourselves. SHAW: What I think all three gentlemen, you know, Howard, Marc, and Tony all recognize is that relationships help drive value. And so you got to have relationships with the schools and the places where there is a lot of black talent, and I think they saw HBCUs as an opportunity for that. I think what’s important, though, and what’s key is that we found ourselves at a very interesting point in time, in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd, in the middle of COVID. And so I think, everybody around the world, business leaders from across multiple industries were trying to think about how can we make the world a better place? How can we address racial equity in a way that’s specific to the businesses that we operate in? And I think that’s the key, right? This was not just about, you know, going out and being philanthropic, right, and making one time gifts. This was about how can you be strategic in building partnerships over the long term, that are going to have a systemic impact in the industry in which you operate. And that’s where I really think that the three firms led by, again, Howard, Tony, and Marc really found something that was special and something that was, you know, a better solution to a question that Wall Street has been dealing with for years. RITHOLTZ: So is it safe to say that Wall Street, in general, but alternatives like private equity and venture capital, were not recruiting at historically black colleges and universities? Was that void out there forever? SHAW: I think that it was not systemic, right? There was no systemic recruiting at HBCUs, in a way that was going to be sustainable, right? And I think that a lot of that was driven by needing to take some time and figure out how do we engage with these universities. We know we’ve got talent there. We’ve got density of talent, which is the important thing. And so I think giving us time to reflect on what had happened over the past few years was a really strong case for let’s go, let’s be direct and intentional. Let’s work with presidents of these universities. Let’s work with the deans, let’s work with the students to develop a strategy together, that’s going to rise the tide for everybody. RITHOLTZ: So I want to get into the details of what you guys actually do with students. But before I get there, you mentioned Tony, Howard and Marc, what led them to say, hey, let’s stand up some entity so we can set up an institution to correct just a recruiting shortfall we’ve had for years and years. Like that’s an unusual group of guys to get together and say “Let’s see if we can dent the universe a little bit.’ SHAW: Yeah. So I think there are two factors. Number one, and I think they both reflect strong leadership at the firms. Number one, you had, you know, somewhat of a groundswell from within the firm, certainly at leadership that said we need to figure out a way to do something. And I think as great leaders do, I think Howard and Tony and Marc were receptive to that. And also, it was perfect timing because they were thinking, how can we drive impact? How can we impact and affect change in our own way? And so it starts off with senior leaders at the firm and you know, these heads of industry working together to figure out, what can we do? Then you bring the relationships together. So Howard, Marc and Tony have known each other, but also many of their senior leaders have known each other as well. RITHOLTZ: Right, right. SHAW: And so the main thing that you have to do is say we want to take down any competitive barriers in which we operate during our standard business. And we recognize that what we’re trying to solve for is bigger than our individual company. It’s really about the industry. And if you can get to that point, which they did, very quickly, I mind you, then you can instantly start to put together something as powerful as AltFinance. And that happened, and it happened fairly quickly. But I think it took a lot of time and a lot of vulnerability, and a lot of transparency. And I think that’s really symbolic of what AltFinance represents. RITHOLTZ: So now let’s drill down a little bit and talk about what you exactly do with students. Do you guys provide coaching or mentorship? What do you do to help kids who probably aren’t all that familiar with what private credit is, and put them on a career path until alternative investments? SHAW: So there’s a framework that I use, I use it with entrepreneurs, I use it with talent anywhere I see it. First, you identify really good talent, right? Kids that have an interest in investing. Although they may not know the nuance of what investing asset class that they’re most interested in, or, you know, they’re young, they may not have the experience of understanding multi-cycles in the market, but they have an interest in investing. They have academic strength, right, some real intellectual rigor and horsepower. And so you look at kids that perform well, no matter what they do. You know, the kid can be a philosophy major, they can be a finance major, but they’re doing well in the pursuit that they’re following. And then we look for students that are coachable, right? RITHOLTZ: Coachable? SHAW: Coachable. Coachable is key. RITHOLTZ: Really? SHAW: It’s an apprentice model business. You know, there’s nobody that comes into this business, and comes in right out of college as a partner. Even if they’ve got all the resources in the world, nobody is going to come in as a partner. By and large, most people start this business as an analyst and they work with associates, and those associates working with VPs and principals, and managing directors and so forth. So you need people that are going to be willing to work through the apprenticeship model, that are willing to come in, you know, well compensated, a great network of people that they’re going to be around, but they’re still going to have to listen and be coached up in order to benefit the team in the company. And so we look for those things, people that have an interest in investing, people that have intellectual horsepower, and people that are coachable. RITHOLTZ: That’s really intriguing. So it’s not so much specific qualifications that are needed as qualities that will allow the students you select to succeed going forward? SHAW: Yeah. I think by and large, I mean, I would say that those qualities, you know, we recognize them through qualifications, right? So I look for people who have strong GPAs, and people that are taking some rigorous coursework, even if that coursework is not in finance. I look for people that have done extracurricular work, or you know, manage their own little portfolio, or have stock ideas or businesses ideas that they want to pitch. And then I look for people who also have references that say, “You know what, this young man, this young woman has been really coachable in the time that I’ve had them in school.” RITHOLTZ: So generally speaking, alternative assets, that’s a tough gig to get into regardless of where you go to school. Private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, real estate, down the whole list, not easy, how much harder is it to get into that space if you’re coming from an HBCU? SHAW: I think it can be difficult, and not because of anything that’s attributable to the student themselves. I think it can be difficult because no matter where you’re coming from, you need to know somebody to get into this business. And so the first key is how can you create networks that allow HBCU students to have mentors, to have advocates that are in the industry, that learn and know them well, know their strengths, know their weaknesses, know, you know, their ambition and their aspirations, and can speak to that and help guide them to certain careers inside of alternatives where they can be successful. RITHOLTZ: Really intriguing. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the work you’ve done, start with CEO of The Company Lab, what was CoLab’s mission and why Tennessee? SHAW: My wife and I decided to move to Tennessee back in 2016. She joined a practice down there and we had family in Tennessee, and it was really a unique opportunity to move around. We’ve moved around a bunch and have enjoyed all the different places that we lived in the country. Chattanooga is a fascinating city, really steeped in some rich history, but also a city that faces some challenges as they grow from a very small city to a more significant city in the U.S. economy. When I moved down there, I was still working with MLT, and then an opportunity came up to take a pretty significant role within the community as a CEO of The Company Lab. The Company Lab was the entrepreneurship and economic development center for Chattanooga and the surrounding areas, which include North Georgia, North Alabama, and Southeast Tennessee. It was incredible to really focus on local opportunities for entrepreneurs, for investors. for economic development, and really see how the fabric of a city with, you know, about a couple of hundred thousand people can develop, when you have people that are really dedicated to fostering that growth. RITHOLTZ: Was this like a private public partnership? Tell us a little bit about the structure of that. SHAW: It was a private public partnership. It was set up as a nonprofit that had some funding coming from the state, some funding coming from foundations, and then some funding coming from corporate entities that also found economic development in the region very important RITHOLTZ: What’s some of the economic sectors within that area? What is Chattanooga known for? SHAW: So Chattanooga is known for a couple of things, right? Key brands, number one, Coca-Cola Bottling is the company that really helped to jumpstart the city. And so Jack Lupton was kind of the patriarch of that company, and sold that company back to Coca-Cola in the mid-90s. RITHOLTZ: They were two separate companies for a while. SHAW: That’s right. So, yes, there were a number of bottling companies that would bottle Coca-Cola product and distribute it throughout the country or throughout the region. And the one in Chattanooga, Coca-Cola Bottling was one of the larger ones in the mid-century. Again, it was sold back to Coca-Cola as they consolidated those businesses, and left a pretty strong economic footprint in Chattanooga. Chattanooga was also the home of Moon Pie and Little Debbie, right? And a number of consumer products that are very familiar brands that we know about, but did not know that they were from Chattanooga. And so what I saw in Chattanooga was a rich history around entrepreneurship that necessarily hadn’t found its way into the modern day, right? We didn’t see a lot of great companies coming out of Chattanooga in the late ‘90s during the tech bubble, and so forth. RITHOLTZ: So what did you accomplish when you were there? Do you feel like you moved the needle at all? SHAW: Well, we moved the needle tremendously. You know, there were some companies that were there when I took the seat, companies like Bellhop, that’s a tremendous company and kind of operates in the Uber of moving, right. So you have fantastic moving company and a fantastic culture. There was a company FreightWaves that has done fantastic work. People kind of equate it to the Bloomberg of trucking. And so they’ve got a — RITHOLTZ: FreightWaves? SHAW: FreightWaves. FreightWaves. RITHOLTZ: W-A-V-E-S? SHAW: That’s correct. And Craig Fuller who’s the founder and CEO down there was a good friend, but also a really strong business person who’s done some great work. We brought Steve Case in Rise of the Rest to Chattanooga. RITHOLTZ: Sure. SHAW: And FreightWaves was actually the investment that they made in Chattanooga, and has done great work. The company has grown. They’ve employed hundreds of people with meaningful salaries. And that’s what it takes to move the needle in a place like Chattanooga, and there are hundreds of cities like that around the country. RITHOLTZ: So how do you go from Tennessee to Alabama at the Montgomery TechLab? SHAW: So as I was leaving CoLab, in Tennessee, I saw what was going on in Montgomery, and I saw that Montgomery had great leadership. The mayor down there, Steven Reed, has done a fantastic job in Montgomery. I also saw that they had some really unique assets. They’ve got a fantastic Air Force installation down there. They’ve got the state capitol there in Montgomery. They got a really diverse population. And so what I really did was take the thesis that we were working with in Chattanooga, and adjust it so that it applied to Montgomery. And so in a couple of years down there, we’ve been able to bring some really incredible companies to Montgomery, to see the type of value that they have there. But we’ve also, in this most recent cohort, and the team down has done an incredible job, helped grow companies that are there in Montgomery, focusing on tech solutions and tech services, to help them expand and recognize assets even outside of the region. RITHOLTZ: So you mentioned tech, I tend to think of the West Coast as the, you know, center of tech in the U.S. The Northeast is the center of finance. The Southeast, how should we think about that in terms of the business sectors that they should be known for? SHAW: So I think there are a couple of things. Number one, manufacturing has been strong in the Southeast for a number of years. RITHOLTZ: A lot of car companies really, right? SHAW: A lot of car companies. There’s a lot of pro-business environment for companies with big labor forces in the Southeast. You’re able to operate at a more efficient standard of living in terms of cost. And so you see a lot of car manufacturers operating down there. Also, transportation and logistics, Chattanooga was probably one of the biggest hubs for transportation logistics in the country. Anything that’s coming through the Southeast via truck is coming through either 81 or 75 or 24. All of that comes through Chattanooga. And so that was something that we saw. You’ve got companies like U.S. Xpress and Covenant that operate in Chattanooga. RITHOLTZ: Didn’t FedEx or UPS have a big logistics center? SHAW: So FedEx is out in Memphis, Tennessee, so on the other side of the state. But those trucks, again, will all come through Chattanooga. And so when you think about, you know, the south and you think about industries that are moving, it continues to be manufacturing and logistics. Also, healthcare is really popping up. Nashville and Atlanta are two very large healthcare hubs. Some of that is due, unfortunately, to demand, right, where you have health outcomes that are probably a little more severe in some of the Southeastern states in the United States. And so you need strong healthcare to meet the needs of the population. RITHOLTZ: It’s interesting we’re talking about different parts of the country. A lot of the bigger firms want to see the end of remote work or hybrid work. But I would imagine that that creates opportunities for parts of the country like Chattanooga, and Nashville, and Montgomery, where there are a lot of big companies that may not be located there, but they want to tap the pool of talent that’s there. SHAW: So we’ve seen that, and talking with leaders in a number of cities throughout the south, and even throughout other areas in the middle of the country that have not traditionally had the type of talent there, or the draw to those cities. You definitely saw a surge of people, I would say, during the COVID period, that were moving to cities where there was a lower cost of living, but a strong quality of living, and they could work remote. And so I think there’s been a benefit to those cities, and that you’re getting people that are moving. You know, Nashville had a ton of people that were moving to Nashville primarily from California, and that really strengthened the work or the labor force in Nashville. What you do see on the other side of the coin, though, is that for companies that are there locally, it can be a detriment because you have people that are there in the city and may take jobs outside of the region instead of taking jobs there in the region. And so there’s a delicate balance, right, to the impact, particularly for small to mid-size markets, where you have a labor force that’s needed in the market, that’s finding opportunities outside of the market, even if they continue to live. RITHOLTZ: Let’s spend a little time going over some of your history. Your family is from Mississippi, but you grew up a little bit of a military brat? Tell us about those experiences. SHAW: Yes. So my dad is actually from Mississippi. My mom was from North Carolina. My dad was a naval officer who retired shortly before I was born. So I spent most of my time growing up in Maryland, right outside of D.C. RITHOLTZ: So you didn’t do the whole army brat travel around the country? SHAW: I didn’t do that. But I did hang out on military bases a lot. So all my friends would change every three years when they PCS, right. So I had kind of the opposite side of the travel, which is being the friend that was always left behind. RITHOLTZ: Right. That’s really intriguing. What did your dad retire from doing? What was his — SHAW: So my dad had two careers in his life. He grew up in Mississippi. He’s picking cotton, believe it or not, when he was 7 years old. He was born in 1929. RITHOLTZ: Seven? SHAW: 7 years old. Right. RITHOLTZ: Wow. SHAW: We talk about skipping generations. He went into the Navy in 1945, and spent 27 years in the Navy. He retired and went to work at the Library of Congress as personnel. He was able to get his undergrad, master’s, PhD all through the GI Bill while he was in the Navy. RITHOLTZ: Wow. SHAW: But I always say my father is a real hero of mine because he truly did skip three generations in one lifetime. RITHOLTZ: Wow. That’s really impressive. Was mom working? Was she a homemaker? SHAW: My mother was a 50-year school teacher and taught public school in D.C. for 50 years — RITHOLTZ: 50. Wow. SHAW: — and really was an inspiration for the way I think about learning and understanding the value of education. RITHOLTZ: So let’s talk a little bit about education. You went to Sidwell Friends School, that’s some rarefied company, isn’t it? SHAW: There’s some good people that have gone there. RITHOLTZ: Yeah. Who did you go to school with? Any famous names that you know of? SHAW: Marcus Shaw is one. But, no, I had great, great folks in my class. Baratunde Thurston, who you may have heard of, author and producer that spent time with The Daily Show; Jon Bernthal who’s a great actor; Tommy Kail who was the director of Hamilton and some other big plays. RITHOLTZ: Wow. SHAW: But you know, everybody in our class was phenomenal. Also, folks like Chelsea Clinton, and later, the Obama girls went to Sidwell. So some rarefied air indeed, but a great group of students and a great group of friends. RITHOLTZ: So you go from there to get a mathematics degree from Morehouse College, then onto Georgia Tech for an electrical engineering degree, with little football mixed in. Tell us a little bit about your academic career in college. SHAW: So when I went to Morehouse, I was excited. I went down there with a few friends. It was a great mix to be able to go to a school, like Sidwell, and then go to an HBCU as esteemed as Morehouse was. It was really a great opportunity for me to have a bunch of different experiences. My story around playing football is probably my great interview story. I was playing cards with a bunch of guys right at the beginning of the school year, and made a bet that I could kick a 50-yard field goal. So we go out on the field, we jumped the fence, I lined up, take about 20 steps back, kick a field goal from 50 yards. One of the coaches comes out and yells at us to get off the field. We’re trespassing. As we’re leaving, he tells me to come out to the walk-on tryouts at the end of the week. RITHOLTZ: How close did you come to a 50-yard field goal? SHAW: Oh, I knocked it down. RITHOLTZ: No kidding. SHAW: I made it, man. He didn’t want me to come out because I missed it. He wanted me to come out because I made it. And you know, I went on to play four years in Morehouse and had some strong accolades there. But really, even that experience was about building great friends that I played football with. And many of those gentlemen have gone on to do incredible things as well. RITHOLTZ: Why is it not surprising that a math nerd is also a placekicker? It seems to be like the field goal seems to be one of the most mathematical parts of football. SHAW: Well, it’s pure geometry. RITHOLTZ: Right. SHAW: So 1.3 seconds from the snapper to putting the ball down and getting the ball off the ground, the angle that has got to come up, you know, is pretty significant in terms of your probability of making it. So I looked at it as an exercise in physics, geometry, you know, a little bit of chemistry, depending on the texture of the football. So I thought I was a natural. RITHOLTZ: That’s really intriguing. And then you go on, get your master’s at Duke School of Business. What led you in that direction, given the mathematics and electrical engineering undergraduate? SHAW: So I went to IBM after completing my undergrad degree at Georgia Tech in electrical engineering. I had a great time there, learned a lot, but really wanted to understand the way that we were selling business, right, understanding more about the business of IBM, and how we thought about the products and services that I was delivering as an engineer. Not to mention one of my, you know, very good friends that played football with me in Morehouse, was a year ahead of me in business school, he said, “You’re pretty smart, you should check out business school.” And fortunately enough, I had a great school in Duke that was right there in Durham. My wife was in med school at UNC. And I didn’t have to move to go to a great business school, which was really refreshing. And it was a great experience, and I learned a lot about business there and kicked off a new career. RITHOLTZ: From there, you ended up going into a decade of equity research and investment banking at shops like Bank of America, Piedmont, others. What led to that aspect of finance? SHAW: So I always tell folks this is one of the great turning points in my life. When I went to business school, I was pretty confident that I was going to come out of business school and go back to IBM. I was going to stay an engineer, wanted to learn more about marketing and you know, some operations around technology. There was a point right before the start of my first year in business school, so this is 2003, I had an opportunity to go to a camp, two-day camp at Goldman, that was focused on providing insights in investment careers for people that did not have an investment background. And you know, they fly you up, you’re a smart kid, put you up in a nice hotel. And I met a woman who covered enterprise software at Goldman, and she gave me really great insight into how I could leverage the industry knowledge that I had developed at IBM. And so, really, it was one person on an off-conversation, you know, down on Broad Street, 20-plus years ago, that led to my career. She said, “Equity research is a great place where if you know a lot about the business, and you learn a lot about finance, you can be impactful. You can earn a good living. You can really understand the markets and meet great people.” RITHOLTZ: As opposed to the opposite which is knowing a lot about finance, and then having to learn a whole industry from the outside, it’s a very different perspective than starting with the industry knowledge from the inside. SHAW: That’s right. And that perspective is something that I think we’ve got to learn to embrace more because, you know, finance is challenging, but it’s not difficult, right? It requires putting in work and getting reps in order to start to understand patterns and be able to anticipate things that you will see in the market, or things that you’ll see at a company. But really understanding the core of industry is what makes a master of business, right? I mean, that’s how you really start to hone the skills that you need in order to make true alpha out in the market as an investor. RITHOLTZ: So tell us what you did it at shops like Bank of America, what was your focus? SHAW: So I covered telecom services at Bank of America. During my time at IBM, I worked on several telecom networking projects and really understood the industry, things like spectrum and things like wireless that were coming of age at that time, I understood pretty deeply. And you know, through my understanding of finance, I was able to say, these are businesses that I think will do well. these are businesses that are positioned to do well. And once the market understands that, the stocks will perform. I had great mentors at Bank of America, a great team that I worked with, and really set me up for a great start in finance. RITHOLTZ: So you have a little bit of a health scare when you’re relatively young, and it changes your career trajectory. Tell us what led you to stepping off of the merry-go-round? SHAW: Yeah. Barry, it’s an incredible story and one that I think also defines a lot of where my life has led. So you know, I was at a firm in D.C. and covering tech media telecom, a bunch of regulated industries as well, and was having some chest pain. And a bunch of traders had, you know, what we call walking pneumonia, but it takes everything to get a trader off the desk, right? I mean, the whole desk will get pneumonia before they leave. And I was pretty sure that’s what I had and was coughing for a few days, and had some pain in my chest, go to the hospital. They take an X-ray. They see that I’ve got some swelling and a little bit of cloudiness there in my lungs, and they gave me a Z-Pak, an antibiotic. They think that I might have had pneumonia. My wife who’s a physician, as I shared with you before, you know, comes to the hospital, to the emergency room. She asked me what they said, I said, you know, as an equity research guy, I think I know it all, “I’ve gotten pneumonia. You know, they saw it on the X-ray.” What I didn’t– RITHOLTZ: It’s like, “Let me see those films.” SHAW: She’s like, “Let me see what’s going on.” Exactly. RITHOLTZ: She didn’t buy it? SHAW: Well, she didn’t buy it because she’s a doctor and she’s very good at her job. Like, I say all the time. I’ve got a great wife, but I got the best doctor that anybody could have in their house. I had some leg pain earlier in the week. RITHOLTZ: Left side? SHAW: Yeah, left side. RITHOLTZ: Ooh. SHAW: So we know where this is going, right, Barry? RITHOLTZ: All right. Yeah, you can just ignore that. That will sort itself out. SHAW: I thought it was a charley horse. RITHOLTZ: Really? SHAW: I played a little basketball with buddies. This was right at the end of a Thanksgiving holiday. And I got a group of buddies, lifelong friends, we always play basketball together. And I thought it was a charley horse. Pain in the leg went away. A couple of days later, I’m having this pain in my chest and I take myself to the hospital. She goes, “Did you tell them about your leg?” And I said, “No.” She goes into the head of the emergency room’s office. RITHOLTZ: Really? SHAW: The guy comes back out and he says, “How come you didn’t tell me about your leg?” I said, “Well, my leg doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s my chest. I got pneumonia. That’s what X-ray said.” This is where equity research guys talk themselves into a hole. They think they know more than they do. RITHOLTZ: Right. SHAW: I know a lot about telecom. I know nothing about healthcare. All right. So the guy comes out and he says, “Well, we got to give you what we call a D-dimer.” Right. There’s a test for blood clots essentially. RITHOLTZ: Right. SHAW: They do the tests. I am at this point, the second sickest person, highest priority in the emergency room. RITHOLTZ: Wow. SHAW: They rolled me in. They gave me an MRI. They see the blood clots in my lungs. They see some remnants in my leg. I’m immediately, you know, brought into the hospital and I’m there for several days. They gave me blood thinner. They want to make sure that these clots don’t — RITHOLTZ: So no bypass or anything crazy like that? SHAW: No, no, no, no, no. So what I had was a blood clot, right? So I did not have a heart attack. I’m in the stroke center there at the hospital in D.C. And for me, it was really a point where you start thinking about your life in a different way. RITHOLTZ: It had to be terrifying when your wife comes in and the head of the ER says, “Stat. Let’s get this guy taken care of immediately.” SHAW: It is, but not as scary until you realize what’s really happening. And that, you know, there’s things that they call the widow-makers, which are these bilateral blood clots that you get across the aortic valve. And I mean, you just go away. RITHOLTZ: You’re done. Right. SHAW: You’re done. Right? As somebody that kind of steeped in mathematics, probabilities, investment, you’re always thinking about the future. And you know, my great story from that is that I actually upgraded a stock Pandora Media from the ICU in the hospital. RITHOLTZ: I bet they loved that. SHAW: Yeah. To which my wife responded, you know, “If you die writing a research report, I’ll kill you.” Right. So this is where you start putting it together, you put a little bit of life together, and you start thinking like an investor, and you start investing in yourself and thinking about, you know, how are you going to measure the return in your life? And for me, I’ve done well as an analyst. You know, we did well. And I said I really I want to find ways that I can impact and help others with the years that I have left because it could have gone away right then in there. RITHOLTZ: So is that what led to Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and then AltFinance? Tell us about what took place when you got out of the hospital? SHAW: Yeah. So got out of the hospital, stuck around for a few more months at the firm that I was working. And then decided to do some other things, and that included doing some work with small- to medium-sized businesses, providing some outsourced CFO type of service, to really understand how some of these small businesses worked. An organization that I looked at doing some work with was Management Leadership for Tomorrow. And John Rice and the team at MLT do a great job. They have absolutely moved the needle and changed the trajectory for thousands of Black, Latino and Native American students over 20-plus years. I knew John a little bit and knew about the work that he had done. I had written recommendations for mentees of mine into that program. And John asked me to come out and you know, “Can you help raise some money, right, running business development?” And for me, that was a step away from the industry. And what I recognized is I got tremendous fulfillment out of seeing young people that were, you know, 10, 20 years younger than myself, but helping them get to the next level, helping give them the opportunities that that woman gave me from Goldman, when she said, “Here’s the path you should think about taking.” RITHOLTZ: Quite interesting. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) RITHOLTZ: I’m Barry Ritholtz. You’re listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. We’re talking to Marcus Shaw. He is the CEO of AltFinance, a firm which seeks to increase diversity across alternative asset management firms. So we’ve been talking earlier about the lack of recruiting and the lack of diversity, historically, on Wall Street. But let’s talk about the other side. You often speak to groups of smart college kids, and you ask them, hey, what do you guys know about private equity, or credit, or venture capital? What sort of answer do you get when you ask those college students those questions? SHAW: So the most interesting thing that I’ve seen in assessing college students and talking to them is that students generally have very little knowledge of the companies that are operating in the private equity, private credit markets, real estate. They know some of the venture capital firms because I think venture capital has done a great job of a PR over the past 10 years or so. I mean, everybody wants to be a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur. I always attribute that to a low interest rate environment where — RITHOLTZ: Oh, no, go back to the 1990s when venture capitalists were rock stars also. SHAW: That’s right. That’s right. Well, also, though, you know, a period there where you had the Fed being a little accommodative, right? I think that by nature and by design, many of the firms that operate in private equity and private credit space don’t want to be known. But our students know many of the holding companies, right. And that’s what’s really interesting, that they know the publicly-traded companies, they know the private companies, but they don’t know the holding companies for the private companies. RITHOLTZ: You use the example, and I think it’s fascinating, Rihanna partnered with a private equity firm for her fashion line. The students know who Rihanna is and they know how wildly successful she’s become, but they don’t know who the financers are. SHAW: That’s right. That’s right. RITHOLTZ: And how do you get them to look behind the curtain and/or under the hood and see that capitalist is what’s driving the business? SHAW: I think the key to that, and we check for this when we’re interviewing students for our program, is intellectual curiosity, right? That’s the key to being an investor. Are you always thinking about peeling back another layer to the onion? You go in a store; you see a great product. Hmm, where is that product made? Who’s the company that owns that? Is there’s several different pieces to the product? Where are they getting the components from? Where are they sourcing them from? Who owns that company? Who finances those companies? That’s the way we’re teaching students to think because that brings about the type of intellectual curiosity that you need to have when ultimately, you want to put some capital behind a company that you really like. RITHOLTZ: So let’s go back to first principles. Why are companies interested in diversity? What’s in it for them? SHAW: So I think there are a number of reasons why companies are and should be interested in diversity. We have hundred million students out here, coming through, you know, K through 12, and university system that are operating at a higher level than we were 20 years ago. Students are very smart, independent of their color, their background, their religion, their gender orientation, right? What we know is that students are being educated at tremendous levels today. They have so much more access, that their intellectual curiosity is going to be really fueled by a lot more information that’s delivered in a more equitable way. If I’m hiring for talent, I want access to all of that. I want to know the brightest kid from every corner of the country, boy, girl, gay, straight, black, white, it doesn’t matter. I want to know that student because that student can help me. That student can help me build and invest, and find opportunities and generate alpha, and bring more clients into my business. And so if I’m a senior leader at a company, I think that’s the business operative, right? I’ve got to have the brightest talent, the talent that’s most differentiated and intelligent, and also helpful. I think the social part of this is that, you know, a lot of these dollars are public dollars, that companies are managing. My mother, again, a 50-year school teacher who put money into her retirement for 50 years. It would benefit her, and it would benefit the other teachers and firefighters and police officers that represent diverse communities, to have people who are investing their money look like them as well, RITHOLTZ: Really interesting. So this is more than just a checkbox on any list. Companies are actually looking to expand their diversity and inclusion practices because they see a genuine benefit to both their decision-making process and their businesses. SHAW: I think that’s the obvious answer. And that’s why with AltFinance, you know, this is a long-term plan. We’ve got a 10-year commitment from our three initial partner firms. And so this is not about checking the box; this is about changing the paradigm for recruiting talent in this industry. RITHOLTZ: So this industry has been notoriously laggard when it comes to diversity. But there are lots of other industries, technology has been accused of having a diversity issue. Medicine, law, pretty much wherever you look, United States has its own history, with some of its dark pockets. What other sectors could benefit from an organization like AltFinance, or what else can we focus on? SHAW: Yeah. I think there are a number of sectors that could benefit from this strategy, even sectors like tech that have already developed some strategies. I think, again, we’re focused around education, exposure and experience, the three elements that are going in to preparing students for careers. This is not just about scholarships, right? You give a student a scholarship, but then you don’t really give them access to the people at your firm that are going to help that student not only get a job at that firm, but feel a sense of belonging, right, once they get to that firm, so that they maximize their individual output. That’s what you’re trying to go for. Right? I’ll tell you a story about a student. So we have a student in our program. And when you talk about counseling and coaching, it was a phenomenal story. A student, very bright student who had the ability to graduate in three years, and worked last summer at a fairly reputable consulting company. And I asked the student, I said, “Why are you in a hurry to graduate? You students got a pretty good scholarship package.” Student comes from a background where, you know, he’s having to support family still at home. I mean, you know, a tough situation, and he wanted to get out in the workplace where he can earn. I said, “Trust me, if you stay for your full four years, you’ll have the opportunity through this program, to get access to a career in alternatives. You had a great opportunity last summer. You’ll come out. You could make 2x, even 3x if you stay and pursue this opportunity in alternatives.” So the young man stayed, had multiple opportunities, selected one. But here’s the real power of the network. As he’s making his decision to which role he’s going to take and you know, at one of three mega funds, he calls up his mentor who is not at one of the firms that he has an offer from. And he says, “Well, what do you think I should do?” In the course of that conversation, not only does he get guidance from the mentor, the mentor connects him with another gentleman who used to work at one of the firms, in the same group that he was going to. Now, he has a decision that he’s made, that’s been informed by two people that he did not know a year ago. That’s the dinner table. RITHOLTZ: And we will take those conversations for granted if specially someone grown up in a New York area, where you know people who work in finance or people’s parents were in finance, that network just doesn’t develop elsewhere without focused exposure to it. SHAW: That’s right. RITHOLTZ: That’s really intriguing. So you’re at Bank of America a decade ago. You had some important teams you worked with, and you led some groups. How do you see Wall Street having changed over the past 10 or 20 years? Were the signs on the road that things were getting better? Were they ripe for moving in the right direction? Or is Wall Street just calcified and needed to really be shaken up? SHAW: Well, Barry, I think that question really highlights something that’s amazing to me. Number one, that I’ve been in this business, you know, a long time. RITHOLTZ: It goes by quick, doesn’t it? SHAW: It goes by very fast. And number two, how much things change, you know, in a fairly short amount of time. You know, when I started my career in finance, I was the only black person in my group, in my division. Okay. Another young woman came shortly after. We had a great relationship. In fact, she’s been a lifelong friend. And I, you know, was a mentor to her. And — RITHOLTZ: Was that something that was very consistent? You were the only black guy working at the other shops you worked at, or at least the only person in the department? SHAW: Well, for a couple of firms. I also did work at a minority-owned firm down in North Carolina, and it was refreshing. I mean, actually, you know, some of the brightest people that I ever worked with, and much of my investment philosophy and the thesis, the way I think about investing was developed there, amongst an incredibly diverse group of investors who had, you know, tremendous experience and success. RITHOLTZ: Really intriguing. So given that you were at some big firms early 2010s, you know, what was it that led Wall Street to finally being ripe to accept changes? SHAW: I think there is an inevitable pressure from society that helps drive change. And I think Wall Street, while we talk about it, in this compartmentalized concept of its Wall Street. It’s in New York. It’s, you know, the bull down on Wall Street, right? And it’s the movies that we see. In reality, the funds that Wall Street is managing, the capital that it’s managing is coming from all over the country. RITHOLTZ: Right. SHAW: It’s coming from people that look like me. It’s coming from people that look like you. It’s coming from people that look like our parents and our children. So at the end of the day, and I think we saw this in 2008, I think we saw it again during COVID, that at the end of the day, these companies are accountable to the people, right, and to the people that are their investors, their LPs, and entities that their LPs represent, and their clients. And so I think that what we’ve evolved into is a more human Wall Street that is more inclusive by nature. And I do believe that what we’re seeing now, right, we will continue to see because we’ll have people that come through AltFinance, but also people more senior that are at the table and helping make decisions on where and how we invest in people, and where and how we invest in companies. RITHOLTZ: So that leads me to a pretty straightforward question, which is, first, how do you measure your own success with AltFinance? And second, how to people like Oaktree, Apollo, and Ares, how did they ask you to track your progress? What metrics do they look at, to say, hey, we’re getting our money’s worth for standing up this company and giving them a decade long horizon? SHAW: So I’ll address the latter first, right. Number one, so I came in in September. We started our first cohort of our fellowship in January. We now have the second cohort. I’ve got 75 students from HBCUs that are now building relationships, getting education, getting exposure, and ultimately getting experience to the alternative investment industry. That is fascinating. We’ve got students in our program that have their first full time offer with alternative investment firms, that will graduate in 2023, in May. So we’re already in a few months really hitting the cover off the ball. That’s the quantitative element, right? Those are the KPIs up on the dashboard that are saying, you know, how many students are you getting to exposure to these jobs? How many students are getting these jobs? What I also measure and this is through the conversation with students, how many students are building confidence, skills, and relationships that will help improve their wealth and economic mobility as they grow? How many students are having a conversation around the learning session that we do on interest rates, and then calling mom or dad at home and saying, “You know what, you know, what’s the interest rate on your credit card? Did you refi your house? How should I think about my student loans?” Right. They are really taking an active position in the way that they think about their personal finance, but also the way they think about investing. And I hear those conversations and have those conversations with students almost on a daily basis, and that’s what fulfills me and lets me know we’re moving in the right direction. When I look down the road in 10 years, I believe that I will have hundreds of students that are actively working in alternative investments, but I’ll have thousands that are knowledgeable and have relationships with people in this business, and are better off for it. RITHOLTZ: So we’ve been talking a lot about alt investments. Are there parallel entities to AltFinance for traditional asset management, investing banking, stocks, bonds, IPOs, et cetera? It seems like there should be something similar to what you’re doing for that space as well, which arguably, is even bigger than AltFinance. SHAW: So I think there are some organizations that have, you know, been active and providing similar opportunities for students for traditional banking, right. I mean, when you think about what Reginald Lewis did, you know, almost 30 years ago, and breaking grounds for blacks in investment banking. I think that we’re doing some of that today in the alternative space. Remember, we had our first group of fellows. We had 33 fellows in our first cohort. RITHOLTZ: What year was that? SHAW: So this is January of 2022. This is just, you know, a few months ago, right? And I asked the students, all right, how many of you know Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Citigroup? Everybody raises their hand. They all know it. They see the commercials. They get the commercials on the Internet. I asked, how many of you know Ares, Apollo, or Oaktree? One student, so roughly 3%. These students are brilliant, all high performers, all strong academic performers. I mean, they will not fail to get a job. They could get a job doing anything. But they did not have the awareness of how the pathway to enter one of the most rewarding careers in investing. RITHOLTZ: Really? SHAW: And that’s a key. And so when I look at other industries, and what other organizations are doing, we are squarely focused on helping move the needle in the alternative investment space, places where people can help do deals, be long-term owners. It’s not about, you know, the transactional element of investment banking, right? Be an owner, a direct owner of a brand that you know, but you never knew who the holding company was. I have 75 students now that can answer that question of what’s the pathway. RITHOLTZ: How much larger can you expand this to be? SHAW: So Barry, we will expand the fellowship program ultimately to be round 100 or 120 students, and you know, each year, about 40 or so in each class. We are also partnering with the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania to develop an institute, the Wharton AltFinance Institute, which will be an online community and platform providing, again, curriculum and content and community, as well as resources to help students at any HBCU gain access to again education, exposure, and opportunities for experience in the space. And so through the institute, we’ll be able to scale some of the best parts of our fellowship, which is a real high touch part of our programming. But we will scale that to the students that are at HBCUs that we don’t partner with directly. RITHOLTZ: Really, really quite fascinating. I know I only have you for a couple of minutes more. So before I let you go, I want to ask the standard questions that I ask all of my guests, starting with, what have you been streaming these days? What’s been keeping you entertained post lockdown? SHAW: Yeah. So Barry, I would say I tend to read a lot and follow a lot obviously in news channels on finance. On podcasts, I mean, I love Howard Marks, The Memo, and I read his memos that he puts out. But I love what he’s doing in the podcast format that he’s developed. But I listened to a lot of sports. I’m a huge Jalen & Jacoby fan. I love what those guys are doing in terms of sports and entertainment. And so, you know, probably not as heavy as some of the other answers you get. But I love sports talk radio. RITHOLTZ: That’s interesting. Tell us about some of your early mentors who helped shape your career. SHAW: So, you know, a couple of the mentors that I had, there was a woman named Stacy Gorin who hired me actually at IBM. And it’s amazing to think this is over 20 years ago. Stacy was a long-term executive at IBM and has now moved to a consulting firm. But what she really helped me focus on early in my career was continuous improvement, right. You think about it as an engineer a lot, right, kind of the Kaizen principle, right, that Toyota use. But personal improvement of yourself, right, how do you continue to develop as a person? If you’re strong technically, how do you develop into a person that people feel comfortable managing others, and feel comfortable being managed by. And so as I developed into an executive and then CEO, I always reflect on those lessons that she gave me early on, about being vulnerable, and being coachable, even being coached up, right. So having somebody that reports to you have the ability to coach you up on things where you can be more helpful for your organization. RITHOLTZ: You mentioned books and you like to do a lot of reading, tell us what some of your favorites are and what are you reading right now. SHAW: Yeah. So you know, a book that I go to often and I reread this probably once every couple of years is Peter Bernstein’s “Against the Gods.” RITHOLTZ: So good. SHAW: It’s fascinating to think about this concept of risk, and how it’s affected us since the very beginning of time, right. And then, really how we have taken risk from something that was deified, right, kind of this religious concept, and turned it into an economic tool that we can arbitrage for personal gain. Unbelievable, well written, I love the historical context and bringing into the future. And so that’s one that I go to often. I’ll tell you a book that I want to pick up and the title here is John Mack’s new book. And I thought it’s interesting because, you know, John is somebody that I don’t know, personally, but I’ve always respected kind of the way that he organized and ran businesses. And you know, it’s of note that he’s dealing — you know, I think has talked publicly about the aging process that he is going through himself. And I found that particularly endearing because it’s something that I’ve dealt within my family. And to recognize that, you know, in this business, we’re still human and we’re not excluded from the human process. And so that’s the book, John Mack’s new book is one that I certainly want to pick up. RITHOLTZ: “Up Close and All In: Life Lessons from a Wall Street Warrior” is that it? SHAW: That is it. That is it. RITHOLTZ: Yeah. That’s a hell of a title. SHAW: Hell of a guy. RITHOLTZ: This is kind of a funny question because I ask this to everybody, but essentially, I’m asking you a question which is what AltFinance does, but I’ll ask it anyway. What advice do you give to a recent college grad who was interested in the career in either investments or alternative finance? SHAW: So there are two things that I tell all of our students. Number one is bigger picture and probably pretty simple, you’ve got to have intellectual curiosity. You can never run out of questions. I mean, you run incredible podcasts. You can never run out of questions. You’ve always got to have something that you’re thinking about in terms of what’s the next layer. How can I think about in a different perspective? How can I put myself in somebody else’s shoes and think about it? And how does that change the value of what I’m looking at? Right? I think that’s critical to being successful as an investor. Number two is something that somebody shared with me and that’s actually John Rice who runs MLT and is a partner and a great friend, and really one of the great leaders in the D&I space. When you’re young and you’re bright, you’ve got to take risk early in your career. And in fact, not taking risk is actually the riskiest thing you can do. It’s a little bit of a parable, right? But — RITHOLTZ: When you’re young, you can recover from failure. You don’t have that same luxury when you’re older. SHAW: It’s so hard to appreciate that when you’re, you know, 20 or 21. When you’re — RITHOLTZ: You’re afraid of failure. SHAW: When you’re afraid of failure, when you should actually be seeking failure. Right? You should not be doing anything when you’re 22 or 20 or 21 that you can’t fail it. RITHOLTZ: Right. Playing it safe is risky. SHAW: It is risky. RITHOLTZ: That’s really interesting. And our final question, what do you know about the world of investing and AltFinance today you wish you knew 20 or so years ago when you were really exploring the field in its earliest days? SHAW: So the biggest thing I would say procedurally that I see in the investment hiring cycle is that you got to be ready for the gig before you get it, which means that the recruiting process for alternative investment, even if you’re going to investment banking as an analyst, it may start before you actually start that job. There may be people that are reaching out to you, trying to assess your interest, and what you’re going to do after banking. And that was, you know, I say, one of the secrets of the industry that, you know, I was well into my career before I knew that’s how people were getting recruited into the industry. And so you got to have your ear to the ground, right? You got to know who’s who, where the players are, who you should be expecting emails and calls from. And when you get those emails and calls, you got to be ready for it. RITHOLTZ: Really interesting answer. We have been speaking to Marcus Shaw, CEO of AltFinance. If you enjoy this conversation, well, be sure and check out any of the previous 400 or so we’ve done over the past eight and a half years. You can find those at iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts from. We love your comments, feedback and suggestions. Write to us at mibpodcast@bloomberg.net. Sign up for my daily reading list at ritholtz.com. Follow me on Twitter @ritholtz. I would be remiss if I did not thank the crack team that helps put this conversation together each week. Justin Milner is my audio engineer. Atika Valbrun is our project manager. Paris Wald is my producer. Sean Russo is my researcher. I’m Barry Ritholtz. You’ve been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. END ~~~   The post Transcript: Marcus Shaw appeared first on The Big Picture......»»