Posted on 10/01/2007 9:27:38 AM PDT by CHEE
A purported pyramid-scheme operator who was run out of Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor has reinvented himself as the head of an upstate group accused of being a "cult" - and his devotees have pumped thousands into Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential run.
Executives and top associates of the Albany-based NXIVM group - along with their family members - donated $29,900 to Clinton's presidential campaign, according to federal records.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Some very seriously weird people are attracted to this woman.
Liberalism is a death cult.
SECT APPEAL: Members of the NXIVM organization, an alleged "cult" headed by Keith Raniere (above), have donated $29,900 to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The revelation comes in the wake of her scandal involving fun-raiser Norman Hsu.
The NXIVM Files
These are the essays the NXIVM cult (aka ESP, or Executive Success Program) is suing Rick Ross over, trying to have their publication suppressed.
NXIVM is apparently a mixture of Scientology and Landmark/EST.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/NXIVM/
More information at above URL!
High court rejects Nxivm appeal
Company had sued researcher over cult label, criticism on Web
Times Union/December 3, 2004
By Dennis Yusko
Albany — The U.S. Supreme Court denied without elaboration an appeal to review a case involving a Colonie human potential training company, free speech and the Internet.
The top court refused this week to hear from Nxivm, which hired the Washington law firm Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood to have allegations that the company is a cult struck from the Web site of cult researcher Rick Ross.
The decision moves the case and a $10 million suit filed by Nxivm back to U.S. District Court in Albany, which, along with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, already has rejected the injunction requests.
Nxivm sued Ross, two mental health experts and a former Nxivm student last year on the grounds that the student gave a Nxivm manual to Ross after signing a confidentiality agreement. Two doctors then characterized Nxivm as a cult.
The Supreme Court’s decision did not surprise Ross, who has criticized Nxivm’s founders, Halfmoon residents Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman, on his site with each court decision. “This is Mr. Raniere’s third and final strike. Now it’s official: He struck out,” Ross said Thursday.
Salzman released a statement: “We’re obviously disappointed with the court’s decision, which we believe is a blow to the sanctity of copyright protection. We believe there are fundamental property rights issues at stake, and we intend to continue to pursue vigorously all possible causes of action against the defendants.”
Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ee-um) claims in its lawsuit that dissemination of confidential material caused the company to lose prominent members, thousands of dollars a day and more. But Ross’ Albany attorney Thomas F. Gleason has portrayed the postings on Ross’ Web site as Internet free speech. He has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which is pending before U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe in Albany. The court will discuss the case before setting a return date, Nxivm’s attorney Justin Heller said.
Nxivm — originally Executive Success Programs — trains people in Raniere’s “Rational Inquiry” theory on New Karner Road. Plans to build a headquarters off Woodin Road in Halfmoon have collapsed since last year, when town leaders asked for more details and residents opposed it, Planning Board Chairman Stephen Watts said.
Raniere’s Knox Woods neighbors have complained about cars parked around the town houses owned by Nxivm Properties LLC, Watts said, adding the town had investigated and found no unauthorized parking or uses.
ping last post (FYI)
(backyard cultists funding hillary)
Woman is so corrupt it’s not even funny.
the Devil’s advocate all
**********************EXCERPT*********************
Hillary Clinton seems to attract all the right money from all the wrong people. Right on the heels of Norman Hsu, the New York Post reports that another Ponzi-scheme operator has pumped almost $30,000 in contributions to her campaign (via Michelle Malkin):******************************snip*************************
Among the donors were Seagrams heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman, whose father called NXIVM a "cult". If so, their idol appears to be Hillary Clinton. She's certainly the beneficiary. It's the second Ponzi scheme operator shown to be handling the bundling for the Clinton campaign, further demonstrating their failure to vet their contributors or their complete disinterest in doing so.
Carnies, drug dealers, cultists, Puerto Rican terrorists, convicted felons, agents of the Chinese Communists, homosexual activists... Don’t all presidential candidates have a base of support?
********************EXCERPTS*********************
Subject Area(s): Copyright, Trade Libel, Trade Secrets, Trademark
**********************snip************************
Details
Rick Ross is the moonbat who advised the FBI and Reno on the Davidians. So we got moonbats suing moonbats.
I would like to buy another vowel, Alex...
Suits Against Anti-Cult Blogger Provide Test for Online Speech
***************************EXCERPTS**************************
Lawsuits are occupational hazards for anti-cult blogger Rick Ross.
Sued a half-dozen times during the past decade for his public pronouncements, especially on the Internet, he's managed to win all but one case, with the help of pro bono counsel. His latest close call came in December when Landmark Education, a promoter of self-help seminars, withdrew with prejudice its federal suit in Newark alleging defamation.
**********************************snip********************************
Ross says his interest in cults began in 1982 when the Jewish nursing home where his grandmother resided was infiltrated by members of a sect seeking to convert residents to Christianity.
New business
The man they call “Vanguard” today is described as a “scientist, mathematician, philosopher and entrepreneur.” And he is now selling something called “Rational Inquiry.” This is what NXIVM says is a “science based on [a] belief.”
Learning this “science” in-depth includes 16 consecutive days of intensive training 12 hours a day. This comes to 192 hours of structured coaching classes. Students may then take additional intensives, courses and attend various events and classes.
Expert opinions
Forensic psychiatrist and noted cult expert John Hochman, who reviewed the NXIVM program warns, “Mind control represents indoctrination without informed consent. It relies on calculated strategies to mislead and to misinform. It particularly relies on emotional manipulation.”
Hochman concluded, [NXIVM] is a kingdom of sorts, ruled by a Vanguard, who writes his own dictionary of the English language, has his own moral code, and the ability to generate taxes on subjects by having them participate in his seminars.”
Psychologist Paul Martin whose work is focused upon the treatment of cult victims also reviewed the NXIVM programs and compared them to thought reform often called “brainwashing.”
Martin said, “ESP has characteristics that are consistent with the themes of thought reform.”
He also offered this observation within a separate critical analysis. “What then are some of the consequences of those subject to thought reform programs? [Robert J.] Lifton [author of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism] observed certain clinical symptoms in the subjects he studied. For example: ‘borderline psychotic state, split identity, fear ’”
Tragic Death of 35 year old Linked to NY Cult
February 01, 2004 ::
“Cult” refused refund despite participant’s death The Albany Times-Union picked up the story about the tragic death of Kristin Snyder in a featured article today.
Snyder was an active participant in the controversial group NXIVM, which Forbes Magazine called a “Cult of Personality.”
“I do, indeed, feel that her involvement in ESP was a first-cause factor in her death. I do not believe that Kris wanted to kill herself. She cried out for help for almost a week, but was totally ignored,” her father told the upstate New York newspaper.
NXIVM leaders Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman did not respond to repeated requests for an interview from the Albany Times-Union.
NXIVM attorney and supporter Arlen Olsen claimed he knew nothing about Snyder and refused to comment.
It was disclosed that Nancy Salzman, called “Prefect” by her NXIVM students, personally led Kristin Snyder’s first 16-day-intensive in Anchorage.
I have a friend who is a family lawyer. She is an extremely smart woman, success in her practice. Yet she think Hillary is the smartest woman in the world and despises Trump.
Her brother is a family doctor and voted for Trump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Description:
NXIVM provides a course manual for the paid subscribers of its exclusive and expensive seminar training program, "Executive Success." The course manual contains a copyright notice on almost every page and all seminar participants sign non-disclosure agreements, purporting to bar them from releasing the manual or the proprietary techniques learned in the seminars to others.
Rick Ross runs nonprofit websites, www.rickross.com and www.cultnews.com, in connection with his work as a for-profit "cult de-programmer." The websites provide information to the public about cults and other controversial groups. Ross obtained a copy of NXIVM's course manual from fellow defendant, Stephanie Franco, a one-time NXIVM participant. Ross commissioned two self-styled experts, Paul Martin and John Hochman, to write reports analyzing and critiquing the course manual. The reports quoted sections of the manual in support of their analyses and criticisms and were published on Ross's websites. The reports also made statements that, according to NXIVM, misled readers into believing that the Executive Success program is a "cult." The websites also included Executive Success on a list of organizations designated as "cults."
NXIVM sued Ross and various co-defendants for copyright infringement, trademark disparagement under federal law, interference with contractual relations, and product disparagement. On the basis of the copyright claim, NXIVM moved for a preliminary injunction to require that Ross remove the copyrighted information from his websites. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York denied the preliminary injunction, finding that NXIVM had no likelihood of success on the merits of its claim because the defendants' use of quotations from the course manual constituted fair use. On appeal, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, finding that the websites' use of quotations from the manual to support their critical analyses of the seminars was transformative, and that this outweighed the concurrent commercial purpose of Ross's use (in connection with his for-profit business as a de-programmer of cult victims) and his (assumed) bad faith in obtaining the manuscript in violation of NXIVM's non-disclosure agreement. The court also held that the defendants' use of portions of 17 pages out of a 500-page manual was not unreasonable in light of their purpose, and that any damage to the market for NXIVM's work was a result of criticism (which weighs in favor or fair use), not substitution (which weighs against fair use). NXIVM Corp. v. Ross Institute, 364 F.3d 471 (2nd Cir. 2004) (Second Circuit website version attached). The Supreme Court denied certiorari. NXIVM Corp. v. Ross Institute, 543 U.S. 1000 (2004).
The case was then transferred to New Jersey on 03/07/2006 (Case No. 06-CV-01051). NXIVM amended its complaint, apparently dropping its trademark claim and adding a trade secrets claim. Morris and Rochelle Sutton moved to dismiss the product disparagement, interference with contractual relations, tortious interference with contractual relations, and copyright infringement counts of the amended complaint. The court dismissed the product disparagement claim, holding that the challenged statements were statements of opinion protected by the First Amendment. It dismissed the tortious interference claims on the same grounds, holding that, where a claim for tortious interference with contractual relations or prospective economic advantage implicates constitutionally protected speech, the constitutional privilege for statements of opinions applies. The court also dismissed the vicarious copyright infringement claims against the Suttons, finding that they had no right or ability to control the statements published on the websites.
This case is linked to NXIVM v. O'Hara, Civil No. 05-1546 (N.D.N.Y.) where a New York magistrate ruled that efforts by a former attorney working for NXIVM to discredit Ross were discoverable by him.
STATUS:
4/20/2004 - Second Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction on the copyright claim as to Ross and other defendants
6/27/2007 - United States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed the trade disparagement, tortious interference with contractual relations, and vicarious copyright infringement claims as to the Suttons