Guest View: Dr. Roberts Wrong to Brand Women Without Disclosing Raniere Initials – Medical Board Right
By FMN
First and foremost: I am not a NXIAN. I am an outsider, with these caveats:
–I don’t live far from where the NXIVM headquarters used to be and it was always in my face.
–I used to (and sometimes still do) hang out at a coffee shop called Moca Lisa’s, and there was always a group of NXIVM members there–mostly attractive females–with notebooks open, working diligently on their projects;
–My wife is a spitting image in her younger years of one of the women featured in “The Lost Women of NXIVM” (The resemblance is shocking). My wife WAS approached by a NXIVM member to “come check us out.”
–My interest in this is multi-fold. I absolutely love Frank’s reporting and writing style. No one does investigative reporting anymore–it’s a lost art. 60 Minutes doesn’t even do it. So I have absolute respect for the mind-bending journalism featured in The Frank Report.
That aside, let’s clarify some issues:
1. I actually never said Dr. Roberts was in a ‘harem’. I said some followers seemed to be. Harem implies sexual devotion, adhesion, and she said she only was the recipient of a kiss. I have no reason to doubt that.
2. However, I do believe in the general context of an “emotional harem”, which, at this point, I will describe as a blinding adhesion to someone who has spiritual power, real or imagined, bestowed upon them, resulting in blind allegiance. I am not saying this applies to anyone. I am saying I see this as a potential.
3. A cauterizing pen is a medical instrument. I had surgery two months ago, and when I smelled my burning flesh and saw smoke waft in the operating room, I asked the doctor if that was a cauterizing pen.
“Yup,” he said. “It is used to seal the capillaries so you don’t bleed.”
To that end, I agree completely with the Board that Dr. Roberts was using a medical device.
Cautery pen can be used for a umber of medical purposes. It can also be used to brand people, including branding them with Keith Raniere's initials.
A cautery pen can be used for a number of medical purposes. It can also be used to brand people, including branding them with Keith Raniere’s initials.
4. As for the “practice of medicine”, that’s not up to me, that’s up to the Board–and the Board said it was. If they say it was, it was–they have the sole authority. If on appeal the Board changes its mind, then “No”, it’s not the practice of medicine. But as of now, it is.
5. In my humble opinion, it was horrible to brand women, in their pubic areas, with the initials of another man and not disclose this.
While some people tout societal views on cults, I ask: Who is there to represent the interest and rights of those “injured” by a permanent scar of a man’s initials,when it was not disclosed? The answer: The Board, and the court system. That’s the system Americans use.
What Is a Cult?
In my opinion, a cult is similar to the Supreme Court holding, “I don’t know what pornography is, but I know it when I see it.”
NXIVM reeks of cult.
One difference between a “cult” and a “religion” is you can leave a religion; you can’t leave a cult. Can one voluntarily leave being a Krishna? A Catholic? If yes, it’s a religion, not a cult.
It may look like a cult and perhaps it is, but one can leave the Roman Catholic Church without fear of being attacked or persecuted on earth, although at one time this was not true. People were previously killed for leaving the church. Today the worst that can happen if you leave the Roman Catholic Church is that you will be threatened with permanent residence after your earthly demise in a very warm climate for eternity.
They may look like a cult, and some might argue that their beliefs, like many religions, are far more cultic than anything taught in NXIVM, and provided with less evidence, one can still leave Judaism without being persecuted.
Can one voluntarily leave NXIVM? That is open to further debate, but there’s testimony in the court proceedings that say “not always.”
Ask these two women, Barbara Bouchey and Toni Natalie, if it was possible to leave NXIVM without being persecuted,
Ask these two women, Barbara Bouchey and Toni Natalie, if it was possible to leave NXIVM without being persecuted.
There’re swingers, and threesomes and polyamory– not one of these use starvation, sleep deprivation, and blind allegiance to one Vanguard, along with other attributes, and none of them without these practices appear to be prosecutable.
My prediction: RICO was brilliantly and effectively used, and will be upheld on appeal. There’s a lot of case law of criminal RICO.
My next prediction: Criminal RICO has a civil component, and with the convictions in place, subject to appeal, the Plaintiffs’ lawyers have a great case and are going to steamroll the Defendants. Many of the components are the same, and the Burden of Proof is lower.
Dr. Danielle Roberts answer when asked about branding women.
Danielle Roberts
My next hope: Dr. Roberts dusts herself off, lifts her chin up, and takes herself to higher levels than ever before because I have no doubt she can do it.
It is wrong whether the defendant is Kyle Rittenhouse or Keith Raniere.
From the New York Post
Kyle Rittenhouse defense accuses prosecutors of withholding key video
By Lee Brown
November 17, 2021 7:49am Updated
Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team accused prosecutors of holding back key video footage that is at the heart of their case in a formal motion for a mistrial, court documents show.
Lawyers for the 18-year-old Kenosha gunman already called for a mistrial during the hearing, and filed a formal seven-page request less than an hour before closing arguments Monday, the Chicago Tribune noted.
The motion argues any conviction should be overruled and seeks to forbid any chance of a retrial if Rittenhouse is cleared of the five felonies he faces for the deadly triple shooting at last year’s Kenosha riots.
It highlighted some of the prosecutors’ missteps that already had Judge Bruce Schroeder railing at them, including mentioning evidence they’d been warned not to use and also making a play on the teen’s right to silence.
But it also accused prosecutors of holding back the high-resolution drone footage used to try to suggest that Rittenhouse had been the aggressor when he claimed self-defense before the first shooting.
Prosecutors gave the defense a hard-to-see, low-res version in a 3.6MB file — less than a third of the high-res file they actually had, the motion states.
They only got the better-quality clip, already used by prosecutors, on Saturday, after testimony had concluded, the motion stated.
“The video footage has been at the center of this case,” the defense motion states, further calling it the “linchpin in their case.
“The failure to provide the same quality footage in this particular case is intentional and clearly prejudices the defendant,” the motion insisted.
The defense insisted that prosecutors’ missteps during the hearing were “clearly intentional” — even suggesting they wanted a retrial to “get another ‘kick at the cat’ because the first trial is going so badly.”
“The testimony in this case up to that point had not gone very well for the prosecution,” the motion stated, citing witnesses who appeared to corroborate Rittenhouse’s claim that he was under attack when he opened fire.
The motion to dismiss has yet to be formally addressed in court. It will likely be addressed after the jury finishes its deliberations, which on Wednesday are entering a second day.