Jehovah’s Witnesses at natural disasters seeking only their own: A first-person report

A couple of times recently in our discussions with Lloyd Evans, the issue of Jehovah’s Witnesses and natural disasters has come up. Jehovah’s Witnesses are obsessed with the idea that a bloody, global apocalypse is imminent, and so we’ve wondered how the organization is dealing with the actual localized catastrophes that come up from time to time.

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Park rangers nice enough to retrieve rhino poacher’s skull for his grieving family

Family is family, and even if your family member is the lowest form of life on earth — a rhino poacher — relatives are going to want his remains, even after he was crushed by an elephant and eaten by lions.

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Judge grants Keith Raniere’s wish, Nxivm leader will get personal info on jurors

[Judge Nicholas Garaufis and Keith Raniere]

Now this is an interesting development. Yesterday we told you that Nxivm leader Keith Raniere had submitted an objection to Judge Nicholas Garaufis, saying that keeping the jury anonymous in the upcoming Nxivm trial not only to the public and press but also to the parties involved would harm his chances at a fair trial.

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NXIVM: Keith Raniere to judge — jury anonymous to public, but not to Vanguard!

Keith Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo filed an interesting objection to Judge Nicholas Garaufis today, asking him to change his mind about the anonymity of the jury that the court will begin selecting on Monday.

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Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s father worked for Nxivm: What is it with Dem dads?

[Kirsten Gillibrand and Tulsi Gabbard]

There’s a fun report at Big League Politics today thanks to Frank Parlato, who gave the politics site a document proving that New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s father, attorney Douglas Rutnik, was paid a $100,000 retainer by Nxivm, the group whose leaders are now facing sex slavery charges in a federal trial slated to start in a few weeks.

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Can sandwich maker Jimmy John Liautaud shake off his big game past?

You probably know the backstory: Sandwich maker Jimmy John Liautaud, proprietor of the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches chain, got a ton of heat when some photos from a 2010 African safari turned up online, showing the Chicago businessman celebrating over the carcasses of a couple of elephants, a rhino, and a leopard.

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A Jehovah’s Witnesses official responds (unofficially) to ‘Bottlegate’

We’re still buzzing over a video that Lloyd Evans posted of Jehovah’s Witnesses Governing Body member Anthony Morris III buying a cartload of expensive hooch.

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It’s simple: we get to kill exotic animals because we are the superior species

At some point, all of the defensive posturing by trophy hunters that they are conservationists with the best interests of animals in mind really does get old and it’s time they came clean.

Continue reading It’s simple: we get to kill exotic animals because we are the superior species

NXIVM: Kathy Russell argues prosecutors hid evidence of her guilt, so she should go free

[Kathy Russell and Clare Bronfman]

An interesting new document from Nxivm bookkeeper Kathy Russell’s attorney hit the court file today. It’s a memo supporting her motion to dismiss charges against her, and it argues that she was taken advantage of by prosecutors when they asked her to testify to the grand jury last May.

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Jehovah’s Witnesses learn that scaring children in Sweden comes with a price

[From the Metro investigation]

What an interesting and odd story coming out of Sweden today. We were alerted to it by a Lloyd Evans tweet, and then spent part of the morning reading translations of articles from the Swedish version of Metro, the free daily newspaper.

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