From Michelle Malkin's October 24 Townhall column...
If you wonder why Hollywood stayed so quiet so long about casting couch abuse behind closed doors, just look at how the entertainment industry enabled perverted sexual exploitation of women in front of the camera.
Fashion magazine moguls at Conde Nast have now reportedly blacklisted soft-porn celebrity photographer Terry Richardson from working on shoots for Vogue, GQ and Glamour. Count yourself blessed if you've never been exposed to "Uncle Terry's" stomach-turning pictures of women simulating oral sex with bananas and cow teats; models urinating in snow; a college intern (now his wife and mother of twin boys) inside a trash can wearing a diamond "SLUT" tiara while fellating Richardson; or his countless self-portraits standing naked, erect or sucking his thumb with the rich and famous (most in their underwear or topless).
Let's be clear: This new "ban" on contracting with Richardson was not instituted because of industry disgust with his 20-plus years of misogynist images of young models and starlets. It's about protecting business backsides.
"Conde Nast would like to no longer work with the photographer Terry Richardson," a top executive wrote in an email to editors first released to The Daily Telegraph this week. "Any shoots that have been commission(ed) ... should be killed."
The unwritten reason? Reports of Richardson's foul behavior with his subjects resurfaced in British tabloids last week. Print and runway models (several of them underage) had recounted for years how they were manipulated and molested while working with the shady shooter. In the wake of the toxic Harvey Weinstein scandal, industry gurus had no choice but to finally disavow the skeevester with a camera dubbed "edgy" and "controversial" by hipster rags and porn apologists.Here's the thing: These newly woke defenders of women are as full of disingenuousness as a Pathological Liars Club global conference. While they now rush to condemn backroom sexual harassment and the corporate "rape culture," they've capitalized on explicit sexual degradation to sell magazines, clothes and cosmetics. They've commodified and normalized pedophilia, adultery, promiscuity and prostitution. They are the culture.
When social conservatives criticized Richardson's raunchy filth marketed as high-fashion art over the years, we were mocked or dismissed. I wrote about longstanding tales of Richardson's lurid, sex-crazed, drug-infested shoots four years ago. I pointed to his twisted work on Miley Cyrus's phallic-drenched "Wrecking Ball" video (which she now regrets), troubled Lindsay Lohan's photo shoot in which he got her to point a gun at her head, and the group-sex simulation with "Glee" TV stars Lea Michele, the late Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron (which she now regrets).
Liberal feminists laughed. Hillary Clinton campaign alumna Audrey Gelman, Richardson's ex-girlfriend and BFF of actress Lena Dunham (who posed pantless for Richardson for a magazine spread), responded to my criticism on Twitter by posting an animated gif of fellow feminist heroine and comedienne Tina Fey rolling her eyes. Dunham attacked conservatives before expressing mild regret about working with the porn king.
Despite being the mother of a daughter, a female entrepreneur, female writer and female public speaker (who has never dated sicko photogs or shed clothes to promote my work), Dunham's and Gelman's friends at feminist blogs scoffed at my voice as a promoter of women's empowerment. They expressed more disgust for me than they did for Richardson's serial depravity.
When CNSNews.com, a division of the conservative Media Research Center, spotlighted creepy Richardson's 2007 photo shoot with Barack Obama for Vibe magazine, the media outlet was ignored. CNS News noted that several news articles about Richardson's sexually exploitative exhibits and book spreads had been published prior to Obama posing for and with Richardson. One online interview, published several months before Richardson's shoot in Obama's then-U.S. Senate office, quoted Richardson bragging:
"Like I've always said, it's not who you know, it's who you blow. I don't have a hole in my jeans for nothing."
Another piece, celebrating Richardson's "TerryWood" exhibit in New York City in 2004, described how "the whole show consist(ed) of self-made images of Terry thrusting, rucking, prodding, pumping and, sometimes, grinning at the camera like a nerd let loose in porno heaven."
CNSNews.com contacted Obama presidential campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, strategist David Axelrod and Obama White House press secretary Jay Carney for comment on whether Obama regretted giving Richardson credibility "given the sexually graphic nature of Richardson's photography and the way he presents women."
LaBolt, Axelrod and Carney all failed to respond or declined to comment then. Where are they now?
And how about Richardson's most powerful subject, Barack Obama, who last week finally expressed disgust with his former top donor Harvey Weinstein and stated:
"Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status."
Yet, President Obama, father of two daughters, held hands with sleazeball shutterbug Terry Richardson while giving a big thumbs up and grinning from ear to ear (Richardson's signature pose with porn stars, rappers and runway models).
Where's the condemnation and accountability? Children are watching, as they say.
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In the Mueller probe and the incessant probes against Netanyahu we see the new face of the Left.
Monday, after a weekend filled with speculation due to an illegal media leak regarding sealed grand jury indictments, Mueller and his team indicted two former Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, for offenses related to their business and lobbying actions allegedly carried out between 2006 and 2014.
As for Papadopoulos, his story exculpates rather than implicates Trump’s campaign in collusion with Russia.
And yet, despite the apparent absence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, no one expects Mueller to close down shop. To the contrary.
The Manafort and Gates indictments and the Papadopoulos plea tell us that Mueller has abandoned the stated purpose of his investigation. Having found no evidence of collusion – criminal or otherwise – between the Trump campaign and Russia, he has decided to investigate the business dealings of Trump and his associates going back decades.
Mueller’s move demonstrates that he does not view it as his job to incriminate or exonerate Trump regarding alleged collusion with Russia. Indeed, he doesn’t view it as his responsibility to investigate Russian involvement in the 2016 elections at all.
If he thought that was his job, then Mueller would not be expanding his writ to include alleged crimes carried out by Trump’s associates that any US attorney could be investigating. He would be expanding his probe to include the growing mountain of evidence of collusion on the part of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and their attorneys, as well as Mueller’s friend and successor as FBI director, James Comey, with foreign agents, including Russian government officials, during and in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Mueller’s apparent refusal to follow the evidence where it leads him regarding Russian involvement in the 2016 elections and his decision instead to investigate any and all suspicions against Trump and his associates whenever the events in question may have taken place tells us that he views himself as a hunter, not an investigator. His prey is Trump.
Mueller will continue to hunt Trump until one of three things happen.
Mueller may eventually find something – anything – to charge Trump with. Such a finding will precipitate an impeachment hearing in Congress that could lead to Trump’s removal from office.
His hunt may find nothing against Trump, but just as it netted Manafort, Gates and Papadopoulos this week, it may bring down other people related to Trump. At a minimum, his continued probe will keep those close to Trump under continuous investigation. In this case, Mueller’s probe will dominate Trump’s presidency and make it impossible for Trump to govern in accordance with the agenda he was elected to advance.
The third possible outcome is that Trump fires Mueller and ends his probe or that Congress defunds his probe or limits its duration. Such moves would require the unanimous support of congressional and Senate Republicans, which currently is not on offer.
The threat that Mueller’s investigation represents to US democracy couldn’t be clearer.
By making it clear through their actions to date that they will not stop their investigation until they get Trump, Mueller and his associates apparently view their investigation as a means to either overturn the election results or render them irrelevant. If Trump is either pushed out of office or denied the ability to govern in accordance with the agenda he ran on, then Mueller will have achieved that goal.
This then brings us to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and the political Right won a massive electoral victory in 2015. For the first time in many years, the Right won indisputably. There are no coalition partners who place appeasing the PLO at the top of their governing agenda or even in the middle of their agenda.
Netanyahu and his political camp’s victory came as a shock to Israel’s elites. Led by the media, which was itself an adjunct of the anti-Netanyahu campaign, and assisted by the Obama administration, which siphoned US government funds into anti-Netanyahu political groups, Israel’s elites were flummoxed by the election results.
Shortly after the election, the anti-Netanyahu media, with the support of police investigators, went on a hunt to find something – anything – to force Netanyahu from office. In the end, all they could come up with were two otherwise absurd allegations.
First, that Netanyahu received too many gifts from his wealthy friends. Specifically, he allegedly received too many cigars from his friend Arnon Milchen. Second, Netanyahu taped himself discussing with his nemesis, Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes, the possibility of winning less adversarial coverage from Yediot Ahronot in exchange for lobbying Israel Hayom, which is owned by Netanyahu’s friend Sheldon Adelson, to cut back its circulation and so diminish its competitive edge over Yediot. This discussion, which came to nothing, was discovered by police investigators during their investigation of Netanyahu’s former chief of staff for alleged crimes unrelated to Netanyahu.
If the allegations were directed against any other politician, there is no doubt that they would not have led to police investigations. The late president Shimon Peres’s legendary use of the public trough to pay for his lavish parties and lifestyle were never the subject of investigation. Former prime minister Ehud Barak never faced investigation over his allegedly sketchy business dealings or his deeply suspect campaign financing operations. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert was never investigated for the massive collection of expensive pens that he was showered with by “friends” during his tenure in government.
And none the 43 lawmakers who voted in favor of a bill backed by Mozes to shut down Israel Hayom were ever investigated for their votes.
But with Netanyahu, with the prodding and active support of the media the police are pursuing multi-million shekel investigations around the world to find and interrogate Netanyahu’s friends and ask them about their gifts to him. Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich has hired Lior Horev, one of Israel’s top anti-Netanyahu political consultants, to serve as the police’s public relations representative.
As for the probes against Sara Netanyahu, every day the public is treated to yet more salacious, unsubstantiated tales of her alleged abuse of workers at the Prime Minister’s Residence.
While Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit did not initiate the probes against Netanyahu, he has done nothing to stop them. This despite their demonstrably prejudicial nature. Mandelblit is a product of the system that has turned the police, media and state prosecution into a political party united in their common goal of hunting the political Right. As a result, he can be expected to go along with whatever they do. If the police recommend indicting Netanyahu, Mandelblit can be counted on to dutifully indict him, even though the acts he is suspected of committing are not crimes.
Given the current dynamic, the only way for Netanyahu not be forced from office for actions that aren’t even criminal is for his political associates to rein in the out of control police and state prosecution by limiting their authority. So far, the media have cowed them into inaction.
In the Mueller probe and the incessant probes against Netanyahu we see the new face of the Left. Unable to win elections, they exploit their control over the bureaucracy and media to overturn election results.
There can be no greater threat to the health of a liberal democracy than that.
Two things must happen for this situation to be corrected.
First, we must recognize what is happening and what it means for our systems of governance. Second, lawmakers in Congress and the Knesset alike need to stand up to the media and the legal fraternities and bravely restore the power to govern to those in whom the public has vested it.