Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/07/harvey-weinstein-hired-a-team.html
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This man is awful. Sigh.
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This is… I mean, wow.
All I can think here is, did this guy (and others like him) ever even think how bad any of this would look if it ever got out? I can’t even respect (in a villainous kind of way) the “cleverness”, because the guy obviously didn’t even do a good job of hiding all of this.
I’m kind of speechless. I guess between this and TrumpCo’s follies, I have stuff to point to on both sides if anyone ever tries to pull that “they’re on top so they must have some idea what they’re doing”.
No. No, it’s morons all the way up, far more frequently than anyone imagines.
OTOH, it’s a great argument for the estate tax (except we need to make it a lot more aggressive) - you don’t want dumb people inheriting this kind of money and power, because it’s like giving a toddler an armed nuke.
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As an expert in the field - having watched all of The Good Wife…
Isn’t this standard lawyering practice? Sure not everyone hires ex-Mossad spies, but at least they get the local private dick to do some poking.
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Now let’s not rush to judgment here. I mean, who among us hasn’t hired high-priced international spies to follow and discredit the people we either raped or failed to rape? This is just a possibly excessive but nevertheless very understandable reaction to the often complicated business of human relationships. I don’t think we should judge Mr Weinstein too harshly for it.
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This might work when there’s one accuser, or two. But when you start to assert “all those women are lying, and drug addicts too,” only the alt-right is going to believe you.
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It’s a shame Jimmy Tayoun just passed away - he may need his services.
"Tayoun, 65, now is back in business as a $100-an-hour prison consultant, this time with clients who have been referred by the very man who sent him away.
Operating under the name Tayoun Associates, the same organization he once used to filter bribes, Tayoun, whom Howard still calls “the ultimate operator,” has created a business advising white-collar criminals about what to expect when they get to the joint. Howard said Tayoun has repaid his debt to society and so the prosecutor doesn’t see anything wrong with his new entrepreneurial pursuit."
Oh man… I bet those guys felt like they weren’t being used to their full potential.
“Who do you want killed?”
“No no, I just need you to gather information we can use to discredit them. Get their sexual history.”
“Right, so we get their sexual history, drug them, put them in comprising sexual positions, take pictures, then make it look like a murder suicide.”
“No, no murder, I just want information.”
“Right information on how to murder them. Got it.”
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Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do to stay on top of the little people.
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Harvey Weinstein: scumbag status acquired for the life
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Literarily!
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The executive and legislative branches have basically collapsed, and the judicial branch is eroding. If the republic is going to continue at all, it will be because the judicial branch hasn’t sufficiently rotted.
Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a [New York] Times story about Weinstein’s abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times, including in a libel case.
which was pointed out because of the conflict of interest. OK. So, the implication being he could be dis-barred? I hope so, but does it work like that, legally? If you’re on retainer to an organization can you be hired against said organization if the subject involves a separate case, different department, different people within the organization? I doubt it, but I have no real idea.
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Hm. I’m not sure we should be worried about the professional fulfillment of the people he employed to spy on his victims…
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So Weinstein knew he was doing wrong, and then did more wrong to try and protect himself, which pretty much destroys all his denials and excuses (not that anyone believed them anyway.)
NSFW-- turn the sound down.
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That’s far less confounding to me than the fact that he was able to abuse and violate women who were right in front of him crying, distressed, and upset.
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A perfect example of power for power’s sake.
This guy could just have easily gotten sex any number of ways that did not require outright coercion/rape, expensive outlays for hush-payments, extortion, etc. Of course, the fact he felt that all of these things were needed shows that sex was never the point.
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Welcome to the logical eventuality of “rock star” society.
If one kewl enough, one can do ANYTHING and get away with it almost forever.
For all of the outrage, what REALLY is the outcome.
The man is and will be a multibillionaire. His companies have and will continue to prosper ( as have and will all those passively or actively involved in those companies ), “rock stars” will still trash hotel rooms and peoples lives… And the populace will continue to fawn over them.
It’s a complete illustration of “just because one can, doesn’t mean one should”.
This is what “disruptive” really means in extremis.
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True, but it just seems like overkill (pun intended). I mean, what happened to all the fun loving fedora adorned PIs of LA? You know, the kinds who know all about “dames and whiskey”. 
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In the diseased minds of predators such as Weinstein, coercion and sex are one-in-the-same. They literally get off on their victims’ lack of consent. They’re no different from other serial rapists, they just have the money to stay out of jail for the same crimes for which commoners sometimes wind up on death row. There’s this tendency in our fucked-up society to think of white collar and celebrity criminals as different from common criminals, but the the only difference is how willing people around them are to shield them from the consequences of their actions.
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