Thursday, January 25

Heed Judge Aquilina's Call for a "Massive Investigation"

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina rightfully sentenced Larry Nassar to 175 years, however her call for a "massive investigation" is much more important.

By
Ray Blehar
January 25, 2018. 9:32 AM EST

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina's sentencing of Larry Nassar will put him in prison for life and will ensure he never touches a child again.  That was pretty much expected given the amount of suffering Nassar caused. However, the Judge went well beyond expectations by calling for "a massive investigation" over the "inaction" and "silence" about Nassar's crimes.  


Aquilina's call for a "massive investigation" of "inaction" is on the mark


If her call for such an investigation is heeded it will be more beneficial than any of the partial (i.e., sports) investigations that have been initiated and/or are being proposed.  

As notpsu.blogspot.com reported on January 18th of this year, the Nassar case was veering in the wrong direction and becoming a sports story.  Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, in a column seemingly unaware of the scope of Nassar's crimes, is calling for a Congressional investigation into USA Gymnastics.  That won't help stop another Nassar.

The decision by the NCAA to send a letter of inquiry to Michigan State University (MSU) regarding compliance with the NCAA Constitution -- similar to its actions in the Penn State University (PSU) Sandusky matter - will be similarly unhelpful.

Only the "massive investigation" (all-encompassing) that includes every organization that had an opportunity to stop Nassar, but didn't, will have the potential of educating the public about "nice guy" offenders and possibly prevent future abuse across our nation.


That's something that former FBI Director Louis Freeh's investigation at Penn State University (PSU) completely failed to do. 

The failures in the Nassar case involved numerous organizations, including Michigan's Children's Protective Services (CPS), which absolved him of abusing Kyle Stephens starting in 1998 and continuing through 2004.  By the way, 1998 was the same year Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare (DPW) cleared Jerry Sandusky of abusing two boys in a PSU shower.

The Meridian Township police and prosecutors also couldn't rein in Nassar.

To be clear, Michigan CPS and the police are the people that would have been called by USA Gymnastics, Twistars, and MSU had they appropriately acted on complaints.  

When people on the front lines who are paid with tax dollars to identify child molesters and protect society from people like Larry Nassar are unable to do it, why should anyone expect that coaches, athletic trainers, and educators should fare any better?

Only an all-encompassing investigation, including a review of Michigan CPS, can get to the answers.

The scope of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's investigation (requested by MSU) must be expanded to include every instance when there was inaction and/or a failure to recognize Nassar's actions as inappropriate.

"This is not Penn State"
The collective ignorance of MSU officials was prominently on display when they were asked to compare the Nassar case to the Sandusky scandal.  

Jason Cody told the Detroit News that PSU officials "illegally ignored" allegations against Sandusky.  

MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson, in response to the possibility of an NCAA investigation, scoffed: "This is not Penn State."

No, Joel, it's worse on a couple of different levels.

First, MSU employees didn't act on complaints about Nassar in 1998 and 2000.

Comparatively, there is no evidence of a lack of action or that PSU "illegally ignored" allegations against Sandusky.   

The failure to report charges in the case were dismissed.  It is also a fact that PSU officials made reports outside the University to entities that had responsibility for the welfare of the victims both times (1998 and 2001) they were made aware of Sandusky's inappropriate conduct.  Those who received the reports, including the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Centre County Children and Youth Services, and The Second Mile charity, all failed to take any action to stop Sandusky's access to children.  

The evidence of that is in the Freeh Report -- if you bothered to read it.

Unfortunately, it seems no one at MSU or on the NCAA Executive Committee (e.g., Ed Ray, Lou Anna Simon, etc.) bothered to read past the Executive Summary of the Freeh Report -- if they read that far.  It is likely that they, like the NCAA VP for Communications, Bob Williams, simply listened to Freeh's press conference or got their information from media sound bites.

The second reason that MSU's inaction is worse is because it happened at the highest levels of the University in 2014 -- after the Clemente Report was made public by the Paterno family.

 The Clemente Report
Many of PSU alumni who are still dealing with the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal already know some of the answers Judge Aquilina's "massive investigation" will bring because we're fortunate enough to have leaders like Sue Paterno and her family do what the Freeh Report failed to do...

...Figure out what really happened.

The Paterno family hired retired FBI Supervisory Agent James Clemente, a top profile in child sexual victimization cases, to evaluate the evidence in the Sandusky case and write a report explaining how Pillar of the Community/Nice Guy offenders -- like Sandusky -- fool nearly everyone.  

Clemente's report recounted the case of Richard Taus, a decorated Viet Nam veteran who had a sterling reputation in his Long Island (NY) community for his work with children.  He founded a youth soccer league and surreptitiously molested many of the children that he coached.  Taus was so adept at pulling off his deceptions that he molested a young boy while bouncing him on his knee in full view of the child's mother.

Taus's methods used deception in the same manner that Nassar was able to molest young girls as their parents were present at their "treatments."

I doubt that few people at MSU, and especially Lou Anna Simon, bothered to read the Clemente Report.  If they had, things might have turned out very differently during its 2014 Title IX investigation.  Perhaps there would have been a few less victims.

It is sad that two institutions of higher learning -- two Land Grant Universities -- neither taught nor learned the lessons of the Sandusky scandal.

What is the job of a University if not to educate?


Educate the Public
While addressing the court, Judge Aquilina also asked Nasser why, as a physician, he didn't recognize his problem and seek treatment.

The Judge's remarks also lay bare the need for public education about "Nice Guy" offenders and pedophiles, in general.   Nassar didn't seek treatment because of a mental disorder (i.e., pedophilia). 


"One difficulty with the diagnosis of the disorder is that persons with pedophilia rarely seek help voluntarily from mental health professionals. Instead, counseling and treatment is often the result of a court order." 

For the most part, pedophiles believe they are not doing anything wrong and that their crimes against children are acts of love.   When questioned directly, as Nassar was on a number of occasions, he didn't show a hint of guilt because he believed he had done nothing wrong.  They can use plays on words to convince themselves (and others) they are telling the truth, such as:  "I would never do those disgusting things with a child."  

To Nassar, it's not "disgusting;" it's "love."  And he and others like him are incredibly convincing -- just ask the people they've fooled and the expert investigators who bring them to justice.

The people who were “silent” or did not take “action” were either convinced by Nassar’s reputation or by Nassar's explanations that he was doing nothing wrong. That’s not an MSU or USA Gymnastics problem.  That happens to nearly everyone who crosses paths with "nice guy" offenders. 

Nice Guy, not "Monster"
As I write this, the drum beat is escalating. The media is already undermining the potential for public education by referring to Nassar as a “monster” and questioning how no one could have identified his nefarious behavior.

The "monster" moniker is completely wrong.  Nassar did not appear to be a "monster" and his methods were such that they allowed for plausible deniability.   Jerry Sandusky operated in a very similar manner.  What happened at USA Gymnastics is pretty much a carbon copy of what happened at The Second Mile charity.  

Nassar is just one “nice guy” offender among thousands across our country, but his case can – and should -- become a national public service effort to teach society how to identify “nice guy” offenders. Sadly, that opportunity was missed in 2012 and 2013 with Sandusky. 


We can only hope that heeding Judge Aquilina’s call for a “massive investigation,” perhaps even using the Clemente Report as an important roadmap, will lead to a comprehensive study of every instance where there was inaction and/or a failure to recognize Nassar’s actions as inappropriate. That means taking a deep dive into Michigan's Children's Protective Services (CPS) agencies, MSU, USA Gymnastics, Twistars, and law enforcement. 

Only then, by sharing the outcomes with the goal of preventing future victimization of children in Michigan and nationwide, will the victims of Nassar, Sandusky and other pedophiles receive the justice they truly deserve.

22 comments:

  1. Massive Investigation??? ... let's hope they do it right, not like Mr "Fact" Freeh did (with the help of the media, especially ESPiN, the NCAAsses and our "Bored of Traitors")

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    1. ESPN came up with a few things that never came out in the Freeh Report or in court, including Mike McQueary's gambling addiction and McQueary telling his players that he was a victim of child sexual abuse.

      ESPN also uncovered McQueary's sexting of nude photos of himself but didn't include that in their story for unknown reasons.

      MSU already did an internal investigation led by former federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, but has kept it secret. The MI Attorney General is demanding to see it.

      In a strange twist, Fitzgerald told the AG he prepared no report and found no one at MSU helped to conceal Nassar's abuse. He said Nassar simply “fooled everyone” at MSU.

      Too bad Penn State didn't hire Fitzgerald because that's really what happened at Penn State.

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    2. Becky and Steve,

      Yeah, "massive investigation".....as in massive price tag? Gee, everyone gets rich off of these melodramatic media rape scandals. Lawyers and "investigators" working hard with the MSM to misdirect the public. And it's all a mutually beneficial racket for them both---victims and their lawyers on talk shows for years to come.

      Ever notice how the ones calling for "investigations" seem to be the ones that are hiding something---Ken Frazier, Louis Freeh?

      Michigan is the number one most corrupt state in the nation. And we're talking about state government corruption. Do we really think this Judge Aquilina, for as long as she has been a government official, wants to expose this culture of corruption? No, of course not. So the plan, with the help of the globalist MSM, is to sensationalize the fiasco, portraying it all as the "government empowering hundreds of female victims". It keeps the public eye only on the perp and the "empowered" victims, and not on the government child protection agencies that now just take our money and do nothing to help kids.

      This is why the complicit media again, is only focusing on the University and its President and not government agencies.

      Sound familiar? It's pretty much identical to the government corruption playbook in Pennsylvania. The media circus works for corruption by turning these situations into a melodrama of victimology. This works to mislead the gullible public, forcing us to only focus on "victim empowerment" and not the government corruption that condones these child exploitation environments.

      And for what reason may a corrupt government condone these environments? Hmmmmm, powerful "nice guy" politicians and corporate CEOs need environments like these to access children.

      Nassar, like Sandusky, is a media fall guy---a red herring to lead our thoughts away from the bigger picture.

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  2. Totally agree.

    MSU seems like they want to beat Penn State for worst managed crisis with silence or tone deaf comments by their President, trustees and basketball coach. MSU should have urged the Attorney General do the comprehensive investigation right after Nassar's arrest, not over a year later.

    MSU spokespeople should have been talking about "nice guy" offenders every chance they got. They should have been saying Nassar was part of the epidemic of doctors abusing patients, which is not restricted to sports. MSU just totally failed to get any message out beyond their unpreparedness to effectively deal with a crisis.

    I'm not sure it is accurate to say Nassar is a just a pedophile because many of his victims were adults. It's too bad no news reporter bothered to make a count of how many of the 156 victims at his sentencing hearing were abused as adults. Reporters also didn't bother to tally how many victims were abused at MSU compared to those abused at USA Gymnastics facilities.

    I don't know if even a massive investigation by the Attorney General Bill Schuette would be in the best interests of MSU given that he is running for governor, just like Corbett was. He might want to make political hay at the expense of MSU. Ironically, a major theme of his 2014 election campaign was justice fr rape victims.

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  3. Something to consider when trying to make sense of Judge Aquilina's ridiculous melodramatic and unprofessional behavior at the Nassar sentencing: Michigan has been established as THE most corrupt state in the nation which means its judges serve that corruption or they don't last.

    It's all over the internet that this gypsy-looking "judge" Aquilina, couldn't stop talking about herself (every other word from her was "I"). This would indicate she is obviously some kind of narcissist auditioning for a higher spot in her state's criminal underworld. And her reference to our Constitution not allowing cruel and unusual punishment as the reason she can't sentence Nassar to be continually gang-raped until dead is disturbing to say the least. But she got close enough with her statement, "I'm signing your death warrant".

    So what's going on in Michigan folks? We have this Bill Schuette clown, Michigan's Attorney General, publicly spouting the same 'monster' death and torture talk about Nassar almost a year ago. A fair trial after that unprofessional and corrupt name-calling by Bill Schuette? Guilty before proven innocent?

    So hate speech and melodrama appears to be the norm for Michigan corruption leaders that call themselves politicians. No composure or professionalism, just ready, camera, ACTION!

    We are not getting the straight dope on any of these melodramatic, society-dividing rape trials that the globalist MSM perpetually offers up as entertainment news---big money folks, big money.

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  4. Truthseeker - Schuette is running for MI Governor so he may want to talk to ex-Governor Corbett about how attacking your state's land grant university because of a child sex scandal worked out for Corbett in his reelection campaign.

    MSU's Nassar scandal is substantially different than the Sandusky scandal. Nassar was an MSU doctor mainly abusing his patients. Sandusky abused boys he met at a charity he founded.

    In the Sandusky scandal, Freeh and the Attorney General claimed that PSU administrators covered up to protect their highly ranked football program from bad publicity. I haven't heard a similar claim that MSU covered up for Nassar to protect their women's gymnastics team. Such a claim would be laughable because the MSU women's gymnastic's team is mediocre and has never been close to national championship.

    The first victim in the Nassar case was abused at Nassar's home from 1998 to 2005. She told her parents in 2004, and they never reported it to police. They took her to counseling, and multiple therapists and counselors never reported it to police. The police were notified in 2016 when the attorney of the victim reported it.

    Where are the child endangerment charges against the parents, therapists and counselors?

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  5. “government corruption that condones these child exploitation environments. ” - ->. I’ve thought not so much corruption as grossly underfunded. I’ve read about state family services who hire recent college grads with no exp and are given a hundred cases, just an impossible task for them. Here that problem was recognized as CT State hired North American Family Services, seasoned professionals but even they are challenged. But I think it put a small dent in fixing things. - - Of course the state will say “So you want competent family services? That will take time and your taxes will be going way up.”
    So nothing changes.

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  6. The Boy Scouts had a huge child abuse problem but they put in place strong programs to protect scouts from sexual abuse including,

    "One-on-one contact between adults and youth members is prohibited."

    "The policies of two-deep leadership and no one-on-one contact between adults and youth members also apply to digital communication."

    https://www.scouting.org/training/youth-protection/

    If universities, children's charities, youth sports groups, etc. put in place the same policies, it would go a long way stopping guys like Nassar and Sandusky.

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    1. Thanks, Tim.

      My next blog will focus on those policies and other things that can be done to help the situation.

      Delete
  7. Doesn't look like any massive investigation by the MI AG, Schuette. He seems to be focusing just on MSU and ignoring Nassar abuse at his home and Twistars Gym in Lansing.

    Even before the investigation starts he's publicly criticizing the MSU trustees so doubtful it will be an objective investigation. Among his criticisms, he said "frankly they [MSU trustees] should be the last ones to provide advice given their conduct."

    It's looking like a witch hunt to help Schuette's run for governor.

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    1. Tim,

      Yes, this whole MSU rape drama curiously follows the same formula that the PSU fake shower rapes followed: University and President blamed; States Attorney General running for Governor grandstanding in the media before a trial; no talk of state youth advocacy and protection agencies role in prevention; a media-forced one perpetrator only narrative; and as the playbook predicts----no vetting of claims-----just continuous payouts with University money; and finally, years and years of juicy entertainment "news" and interviews to boost ratings for the corrupt owner's of the world news media.

      Sandusky's story is now getting old, and he must give up his crown and title as the "most hated university rapist in America" to Larry Nassar. There's more magazines to sell and more talk shows and entertainment news that need more viewers and more money.

      The more victims involved, then the more each one and their story translates into ongoing big money for the globalist entertainment news industry.

      When are Americans going to realize that this is fraud and deliberate subversion of our country?

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  8. You seem to have totally bought in to the false narrative, Ray. No physical evidence, no porn, only a handful of derelict men who were ruthlessly manipulated by over zealous prosecutors, greedy civil attorneys, and quack therapists. Call me the Skeptic from Hell!

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    1. Gregory,
      I didn't fall for anything but you did.

      Plenty of physical evidence. BTW, I happen to recall an interview in which Dottie said that Jerry didn't know how to use a computer. That kind of renders the no porn on the computer argument moot, does it not?

      The two year delay in the investigation gave TSM plenty of time to cover its tracks -- and get rid of evidence.

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    2. Ray - Dottie's testimony is not physical evidence.

      If Sandusky didn't know how to use a computer that is supporting evidence that he didn't view child porn online and had no desire for it.

      It's not hard to learn how to use a computer. Sandusky had plenty of boys to teach him while he held them on his lap.

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    3. Tim,
      Sorry for not clarifying the issues.

      Physical evidence in the Sandusky case included phone call logs (he contacted AF numerous times after he was indicated for abuse), camper lists, letters he wrote to victims, and the gifts that he gave his victims.

      Document forensic experts determined that Sandusky's 1999 retirement requests were composed on a typewriter. Also, note that there were no Sandusky emails recovered at PSU nor were there any emails recovered between he and the victims.

      In the Moulton Report, you'll find an AG document discussing the need for a search warrant that states Sandusky was not a computer user.

      Dottie's interview (not testimony) revealed Jerry did not learn to use email until he was under house arrest. Her story is confirmed by the aforementioned evidence.

      BTW, the search warrant for Sandusky's home was to search his computer for pornography files that were downloaded. That warrant did not include checking with his internet service provider to find out the web-sites he visited. That may have been done under another warrant, however.

      Given the AG's two year delay in getting the warrant for his home, Sandusky had ample time to destroy or get rid of any hard copy pornographic materials.

      All that said, I don't believe pornography was part of his M.O. like it was for many other child molesters. None of the victims testified to being shown pornography.

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    4. Ray, it is beyond scientific plausibility that Jerry did even 10% of what he is accused of, and the testimony given at the trial by each "victim" is provable perjury. It is also provable that the perjury was suborned by the OAG and some greedy attorneys. If Jerry had been represented by Michael Jackson's attorney, he would be playing golf today.

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    5. Ray - The physical evidence against Sandusky was circumstantial at best.

      Like I said before, I think the best evidence against Sandusky was the fact he was investigated by the police and CPS in 1998 because of his showering alone with a boy.

      An innocent man would never do that again just to protect himself and the boys. Sandusky said he was very remorseful that the boy in 1998 was traumatized by the shower hug. Yet he did it again in 2001.

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  9. Why are we not hearing from other osteopathic doctors about accepted treatments in their field? Wouldn't Larry Nassar and his lawyer want to seek other experts in his field to testify on his behalf? Shouldn't we be seeing charts and diagrams on the news about these procedures?

    Why is there only a fixation on hundreds of victims? Why is there no desire to educate the public about osteopathic techniques? Can some osteopathic treatments be misconstrued as abuse after the fact? Is this too boring? No money in it? May even exonerate Larry Nassar of some charges even though he probably abused his practice? Why go there, right?

    Our country is being groomed by powerful wealthy globalists. We are being groomed to assume and accept a victimology theme in everything we are fed at the news trough. Each victim and their mother, coach, lawyer, and counselor translates into mega bucks for the divisive globalist media. The MSM and the fake judges champion themselves as "empowering" victims. When actually, they are falsely creating their own fame and wealth. And this is nothing less than an empowering of their ability to continue deceiving us.

    Rape themes translate into societal gender division. Staged "white supremacy" events obviously cause racial division. And "Black lives Matter" is an intelligence-created group to foster more racial tension. And Antifa is a globalist creation to cause political division.

    Globalist media, many of our university administrators, and most of our sold-out politicians are now on the same team. Their desperate and unbelievable goal is to try and destabilize this country from within. Theirs is a cult with the twisted hope of ushering in fascism that they call globalism----making it appear that our government and its institutions are too dysfunctional to serve us. In other words, we have traitors among us throwing wrenches into the wheels of our democracy. Since when did a Congressional inquiry become ineffective? Maybe since our Congress has become overrun with globalist traitors?

    Trump is the President of destabilization---throwing wrenches into everything. Bill Clinton and Bush Jr. were the Presidents of demoralization, and Obama was the President of division. Order out of chaos---we are being led by the rings in our noses, just like hogs. We consume and digest what we're shown and what we're told, but we never question the substance of what we're fed.

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    1. It is unclear why Nassar pleaded guilty rather than go to trial and defend himself. He certainly could not have gotten more than the life sentence he ended up with.

      Four doctors did defend his treatments in the Title IX investigation, which found no abuse. The FBI and two police investigations also resulted in no criminal charges and presumably consulted other doctors about the type of treatments Nassar employed.

      Without trials, many issues in his case have not been publicly explored. In excerpts from a Nassar letter the state judge read at his sentencing, Nassar maintained that his treatments were medical and not sexual. He claimed he only pleaded guilty to save the alleged victims and community from the stress of a trial.

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/larry-nassar-letter-elicits-gasps-in-packed-courtroom/

      Nassar also claimed the porn found on his computer was from a 4 month period in 2004 and had all been deleted then. He claimed he had shared his computer, which implied that someone else downloaded the porn and then deleted it.

      After the state judge read excerpts from Nassar's letter, she refused to publicly release the entire letter.

      It does not make sense why Nassar would only have viewed porn for 4 months in 2004 when he was allegedly an active pedophile for at least 20 years. It does not make sense why he would not have destroyed or disposed of that hard drive if he knew there had been porn on it.

      The Attorney General does not seem interested in those kind of questions, he is now on a witch hunt to catch all Nassar's evil enablers, which he apparently hopes will carry him into the Governor's office.

      Even though the former federal prosecutor, Fitzgerald, charged over $4 million to investigate MSU and found no crimes by MSU officials, I bet the Attorney General will trump up some charges.

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    2. Isn't Aquilina's public reading of excerpts from Nassar's private letter to her a violation of his right to privacy? Possibly his 5th amendment rights that protect against self-incrimination? It just seems to be more melodrama created to sell the whole fishy story.

      And the headline, "FBI finds child porn on Nassar's computer" is just too convenient. It kind of cinches the deal and leads the whole country to, "yep, he's guilty, no trial needed---FBI said so". And as you say, makes no sense in just a 4 month time period. Sadly, I'm beginning to realize the FBI will say and do anything in exchange for the right amount of media coverage that portrays them as honest, heroic, and actually serving the interests of the people.

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    3. Judge Aquilina seemed within her rights to present the letter at the hearing because Nassar sent the letter to her.

      She read excerpts into the court record so probably should have had the letter put into evidence, if only to be sure she quoted it correctly.

      CBS news reported that "Judge Rosemarie Aquilina quoted the letter with disdain and tossed it aside when she was finished." She seemed to be using it as a prop for a dramatic effect.

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  10. Okay, it took me awhile, but after much reading on this Nassar circus, it becomes apparent to me that the desired end to all of this melodrama was the passage of the SafeSport Authorization Act. And this in turn then paves the way for this first ever "non-profit" corporate entity that can basically usurp our government and our Constitution as the law of the land.

    And ironically, but not surprisingly, our intentionally broken government is now pushing for government funding of this SafeSport corporation. This then will lead to blatant corporatization of all of our supposedly incompetent government institutions. It's a racket to gradually dismantle our democracy, replacing it with globalist corporate rule.

    The new "CEO" of this so-called U.S. Center for SafeSport is Shellie Pfohl. She's an Obama holdover and now has her reward in her new promotion as CEO of a government institution.

    Do a little reading on this and it should come together for you as to why these University "tragedies" keep happening. It's a gradual push to give corporate authority power over our own democracy---globalism. Make our democracy appear to be wildly dysfunctional, and bring in the global corporate oligarchy.

    This is why all of the disproportionate rapes and tragedies keep happening at our universities and schools. People are being misled to participate in these events. And not all of those recruited know just how ultimately destructive these deceptions will be for the U.S.

    And of course, this is all just my opinion formed by much research. You can take it with a grain of salt if you wish.

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