The Katie Johnson (Jane Doe) Interview

What follows is the transcript (auto generated) of the interview with Katie Johnson regarding Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. It has not been edited except to remove the time stamps. Because of auto-generation of captions, there may be some small discrepancies between the text and what was actually said.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/TRZa_cVshcI Katie Johnson’s Full Testimony of 2 11 16

Edit: There is no conclusive evidence proving the video is real or that the woman depicted is genuinely “Katie Johnson” from the lawsuit. The testimony matches the language in a now-dismissed legal complaint but has not been independently authenticated by credible news outlets, fact-checkers, or investigators. The veracity of both the accuser’s identity and her allegations against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein remains unproven and highly disputed. This transcript and the link to the video are presented here as a part of the whole.

I came to this interview on my free will
no there was nothing promised to me for
doing this interview excellent yes
everything that I say at this interview
will be the truth um I met Donald Trump
um at some parties I attend um that I
was working um for Mr Jeffrey
Epstein um there was about three or four
times that I um had encounters with
Donald Trump I was 13
the first time that I met Donald Trump
uh was at uh a party at Jeffrey
Epstein's um
Mansion uh we
were he was there was a um an orgy going
on and he
was kind of watching off in the distance
um
and and he basically asked
um if I could come over
and give him um give him a hand job and
at first I wasn't very comfortable with
it this was like my first you know first
party and I I didn't you know I didn't
think that that was my
responsibility uh but my recruiter told
me that I needed to do it um so I agreed
to and um then he you know I said I
began to sorry this is um a little
difficult but um
before I gave him a hand job he kind of
slapped my hand away and said um you
need to use a glove and the recruiter
ran over and handed me a glove and said
no one touches Mr Trump's penis without
a glove so I needed to use a glove I um
gave him a hand job and then um
immediately after you know he had an
orgasm he left and I didn't see him
again at that party Jeffrey Epstein um
is a billionaire friend of Donald
Trump's that um was responsible for
throwing the sex parties um there was um
I originally um came to New York trying
to be a model and um in my travels I met
a girl named Tiffany there um who um was
very interested in me and said that you
know she that's what she did is that she
helped girls you know get what they
wanted and and and she could help me get
get into modeling that she knew a lot of
um people that were that were higher ups
and that it would be no problem um and
so that's why you know she but I would
just basically have to come model um at
a couple of events and meet some people
there would be no sweat so um of course
I went you know that sounded like no big
deal um and she was recruiting the girls
to come to these
parties um and and they all looked I
mean most of them were you know my age
there was you know maybe a couple girls
that were maybe 14 or 15 but it seemed
to me like we were all very young so
okay um Jeffrey Epstein knew that I was
um 13 years old uh when he interviewed
me um he asked me to get um down to my
BR my just my panties and I thought that
was weird but I mean modeling maybe it
was something about my figure um and he
asked that I give him a massage so
he then he asked me my age he asked me
and I told him you know told him that I
was 13 I told him why I was there um and
and he basically said well you'll do you
know I'm sure that you'll you'll fit
pretty nicely here and then he he tried
to uh basically um slip himself inside
of me and I I pushed him away and I said
you know I'm I'm cuz at that point in
time I still believed that there was
models and then there was the girls that
did that like I thought there was a sep
ation so um I I told him that I wasn't
interested in that but he said that I
would do um and as far as Donald Trump
um he knew that I was 13 and I believe
that Tiffany told him he seemed to take
a liking to me because I was a I was so
young um and um I was also a virgin so I
don't know he's it seemed like he wasn't
really into having um having girls that
that were liked by the other guys he
kind of you know the whole glove he kind
of liked things to be his first you know
that for lack of you know a better term
but he was the one who
wanted to um get to get to a girl before
everyone else did Donald Trump knew that
I was 13 um because the first the first
night that I was there uh Tiffany
actually suggested that and she had a
whole bunch of different wigs and I
express interest in them you know I
always told her that I would love to
walk around with blue hair and so I
tried some on and um there was a blonde
wig that that that she said that looked
great on me so I wore that wig um and
Donald Trump had specifically asked
about me because I remind him of his
daughter and she said well she's 13 as
well so he knew the first time that he
saw me but he took a liking to me
because I look like his daughter
the reason I'm coming out now um is when
it happened originally I just wanted to
forget about the whole incident uh and
when I saw that he was running for
president um I felt it was my
responsibility to come out and tell our
country um what kind of man this person
is um I don't think that he should even
be the dog catcher let alone running uh
the greatest country in the world after
I met Tiffany at the bus station um
she took me to basically went to her
house her apartment and got ready um I
put on a blonde wig because it seemed
fun to pretend to be someone different
but uh we went to the party that that I
was basically inter interviewing for um
and Jeffrey Epstein was the one that was
running the party um he had a quick
meeting with everyone that was um
employed there and then um he had um a
private interview with me the first time
that I met Jeffrey Epstein um he did try
to force
himself um inside of me without getting
to go ahead or anything um and then um
on the it
was probably about the third or fourth
party is when um he basically
um uh forced was it was another massage
and it was basically like it wasn't sex
um but it was there was penetration and
I told him that I didn't want that but
um he kind of got a little irritated so
I don't know there was something about
him that
um I guess I kind of um held him like I
held a lot of resentment towards him by
that time that that happened I I kind of
already started catching on that maybe I
wasn't there for modeling and maybe I
was just getting used for things and I
felt that kind of held him
responsible um I did receive money to go
to these parties after every um party um
I was paid by Mr Mr
Epstein there
wasn't out of all the girls that were
there with me I never I've most of them
were 13 14 I think the oldest one might
have
been 16 just but just turned 16 um and
she'd been there for a
while um it was actually it was Tiffany
um he
was it he was he he liked to watch other
people have sex I I I it was must and he
he's a germ doesn't like germs so he
rather than partaking he just watches so
um and Tiffany had informed him that I
was the Virgin um and
so he was I was
basically um
sorry I I I so it was Tiffany who
introduced us
okay second time that I saw Mr Trump um
was same scenario he was uh on looking
some at an orgy and uh Tiffany came over
to me and said that Donald Donald Trump
had requested that I perform oral sex on
him um and and never I'd never done
something like that with anybody so I
was a little nervous um so I walked up
to him uh and and he was standing
sitting there very proud like and I just
kind of moved in that direction and he
kind of slapped me away and said what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on like I was some like dirty
filter or something without a condom and
Tiffany ran over um and handed him a you
know me a condom and apologized you know
profusely and said that would never
happen again um that that and she looked
at me and and scolded me basically like
a child and said that that's not how you
know Donald Trump always you know any
time you touch his penis it needs to
have a condom on or glove you know you
owe and especially when it comes
performing oral sex so um I apologized
and then um I performed oral sex on him
and once again once he was done he
hopped up and that's the last I saw of
him at that party it's like once he's
done out so okay okay sometimes before
the I some of the things that I noticed
that were weird with him was sometimes
before the parties he would come over um
and him Jeffrey Epstein and himself
would kind of banter back and forth and
he was very uh Donald Trump was very
racist he said a lot of racist things
like there was uh there was a lot of
comments um towards Mr Epstein about you
know being Jewish um and you called him
a Jew bastard you know so that he was
Chap and there was some words I didn't
even understand something about um his
his P you know the shape of his penis um
being directly related to his mole or I
mean I'm I'm not too familiar with the
Jew you know the Jewish tradition so but
I'm pretty sure that whatever he was
saying wasn't very nice um also referred
to you know people of Hispanic or you
know Hispanic n they called him spicks
um was that was around the first time
that the World Trade Center had gotten
the bombed in the in the '90s um and he
was you know talking about the towel
heads and how you know we would just be
better off if we you know uh didn't let
him in or you know basically got rid of
everyone every single one that was
already here and I thought I just that
it made me really uncomfortable really
really uncomfortable he also loved to to
call black people um
[ __ ] and he um Arabic people he
called sand
[ __ ] um the only time that um that he
tried to give me some money was the last
our last encounter
together um where he acted out of rape
fantasy um it just
um I was forced to I was forced to give
that money back because
uh Jeffrey Epstein paid us um after the
party so but he just gave me the money I
I don't even know why he gave it to me
maybe to make me feel more cheap but it
was um it was a pretty I it was a rap
fantasy to him but I I wasn't playing so
there was those there was those two
times um and then there was after the
next the next thing that was that
Tiffany approaching with was that he had
a fantasy where he walked in on his maid
um Maids basically making out and that
he it was some type of fantasy for him
so she asked I mean I was at that point
I was like I don't want to be involved
with anything that has to do with him
but she's like you were just basically
the the other one so there's nothing
that you will have to do just don't you
know just he wants he's requesting you
to be involved so um I
reluctantly I mean I don't I I felt like
I didn't have a choice there but
um it was basically he's walking in his
two Maids I was one of the maids I was
the white maid and there was um a
Spanish girl U Maria who was the
Hispanic maid and we were making out and
he walks in and he gets really angry and
threatens to send call Immigration on
Maria if she doesn't come over and make
things right and give him a
[ __ ] so
while she is over there giving him a
[ __ ] I am just look trying to you
know I'm supposed to look scared like oh
oh no you know and you cleaning try to
cleaning up things and pretending like
I'm trying to go back to my job as a
maid um and then he he's being so rude
to Maria I felt so bad for her um even
though I guess it just didn't seem like
a fantasy it didn't it didn't seem like
it it's the weirdest fantasy
as far as that you know he was
threatening he was threatening to call
Immigration on her you know so that she
didn't know how to you know she went to
she wasn't even near going down to give
him um perform oral sex on him before he
slapped her away and said you know what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on and and she's trying to M you
know I'm so sorry and he's like you
can't even can't even understand what
you're saying you know just you speak
English you know called her derogatory
um comments um and then he's like you
know what you don't know what you're
doing have her come over and show you
how it's done and
so I
again I said that I didn't you know I
had to go over there or else he was
going to call Immigration on Maria I
didn't know if it was true or not but I
felt that you know he said that if I
wasn't if I didn't show her how to
perform oral sex on him then he was
going to
um call Immigration on her and then get
rid of us
both you know it was anything that was
in relation to him getting off or being
satisfied or happy had to do with him
being in power but extreme power and
it's it's very
um it's very hard to even it was it was
always intimidating when he was like
that it was always you didn't really
know if it is true or I mean like if you
refuse to play along would he really
call Immigration on Maria would he
really get rid of us both and I didn't
even want to know what that meant you
know I always didn't it wasn't a
game it just felt like it wasn't a game
yeah the one night that I had the blonde
wig on um he mentioned that I looked
like you know I looked like to you know
that I reminded him of his daughter um
and actually the the the maid
fantasy I didn't have a blonde wig on I
was trying to stay away from blonde wigs
since the time but he actually requested
told Tiffany that that's what he wanted
me to wear like he wanted it and he's
and anytime I put it on anytime I had it
on and he'd see me he would say oh man
you look just and it wasn't like a oh
you remind me of my daughter it was this
sick evil like H you remind me of my
daughter it was just this weird pleasure
sick smile like I I don't even want to
know what he was thinking about I I
could imagine what he was thinking about
after the parties would end uh we were
to report to Mr Epstein and basically
tell him everything that happened uh
with who um what they liked what they
disliked if there was any requests if
there was any um talk about anything uh
that's what you know we told Mr abstein
everything and then he paid us and then
we got to go home and most with me you
know I would either you know I normally
got
taken taken to the airport you know so
to go back home the fact that Trump has
a chance to be the next president makes
me feel disgusting inside I've always
been proud to be an American I think we
live in a beautiful
country but I just see him ruining
everything he's a horrible what he
portrays on the outside isn't even that
great but people don't even know the
half of how evil how sick and twisted
that man is I have a friend that's been
my
friend ever since the school year that I
stopped going you know the the eighth
grade I confided her and she knows all
about it she knows everything I mean I I
destroyed everything of like you know
any planes to I didn't I couldn't risk
my my dad finding out um and now I think
I'm old enough to
where I think I don't think you I at
that point I didn't want to not be his
little girl you know I
didn't want to lose my dad basically I I
any I would never uh as far as keeping
proof of any of the trips um the only
person I never told my parents you know
I there would be no happy you know there
would be no good outcome of telling my
parents you know they would have
grounded me
um I would have never been allowed of
the house you know my my father would
have come unglued um I did tell a friend
my best she's still my best friend of
this day she knows everything she knows
it all I'm prepared to do whatever it
takes to
save the country that I believe that we
have I know what he does behind P like
closed doors like if it if that's all
I'm willing to sacrifice my life to put
our country back to in the right like
going maybe in some type of positive
direction not even there's no right or
wrong but a positive direction this
guy's not going to take us anywhere
positive you know as far as um my life
changing by coming out with this
information I've thought long and hard
about um whether or not I should uh and
I've gone back and forth um but I think
that I I can't I think that the American
people need to know what kind of man
this person is
um and if my life changes because of
that then so be it but the American
people need to know what they're dealing
with if I had the chance to talk to
Donald Trump I would run the other way
I'm scared of him like I've never been
scared of any anything else in my entire
life I I I can't I can't explain it to
you but I just the fear of him even
being in the Next Room
make I have a panic I would have I have
a panic
attack um the last encounter that I had
with Donald Trump um Tiffany approached
me about um a rape scene that was
supposed to be played out and
I didn't like I didn't like the sound of
that at all but um Tiffany prom ured me
that it wasn't going to be if I if it
was anything I wasn't comfortable with
we could stop um that she would be right
there and that um it would it wouldn't
get out of it wouldn't get out of hand
and that um it was just it was a fantasy
like it wasn't really going to happen um
and so she I told her that I would uh
she she basically I mean Tiffany was
always nice to me she wasn't that I felt
I trusted her else I you know and I
wouldn't always trusted her or done what
she asked me to but um she was there
and uh he came in and I was basically
tied to a bed um with panty
hose uh
and he tied him there were so tied I
could it hurt to even like lay there and
I tried to you know triy to say
something and it was like you know he's
just you know shut up you shut up [ __ ]
you know this is was basically like he
was he was being really really rough and
and I understand I don't I mean just
didn't seem like a fantasy um and I
started to get scared and and he was you
know basically like ripping my clothes
off and and I was actually really I
started I got freaked out and um I told
him that I didn't want to do this I was
you know I screamed over for Tiffany you
she was like Mr Trump she's only you
know she's not she's this is scaring her
and he's like oh you shut up too he just
turned into this animal it was like a
completely
different um completely compl different
person um it was like everyone in the
room was scared of him and uh I was um
it was like I
uh I couldn't do anything about
it
and he ripped off all my clothes
and
he started to basically have sex with me
and I screaming cuz I'd never had sex
before it was my first time and Tiffany
was yelling at him too she she was
saying I was a virgin and he told us to
just shut the [ __ ] up and just
basically took my virginity while I was
crying and telling him to stop and
that's basically begging for him to just
stop
uh and I don't I Tiffany
was didn't know what else to do either
she no one was there to help us or
me
um and
[Music]
so so after the fact he he he basically
finishes it you know didn't it didn't
take that long um at all I mean it but
it was just it felt like it was like 5
and 1 half hours like it was a eternity
like I don't even know how long it was
but um he was done and I was crying and
Tiffany was Consulting me and she was
you know apologizing she told me that
she would never she
didn't she just never put me in that
situation again but uh he comes over mad
because I was crying and so that I
should be thankful that someone like
Donald Trump took my virginity but he
basically didn't say took my virginity
he said I should be glad that someone
like Donald Trump popped my cherry and
not some pimply little
14-year-old and I just was like What if
I I I said what if I get pregnant not
even talking to him I didn't want to
talk to him I was talking to Tiffany and
he said well you'll get an abortion then
[ __ ] and then just walked away
um and I I I asked I I I went I told
Tiffany I needed to go home I never went
back again
I guess
um I guess it's for you to decide you
know I mean if I don't have any kids
myself um because I'm afraid to have
kids because I who knows what kind of
damage they can get into but if you have
a 13-year-old daughter and you're I mean
would you be okay with the person person
who's running our country doing that to
your little
girl and I
just I don't know I just want people to
know I think that I I have I have a
faith in our in our society that we'll
make the right
choice he seemed to be taking uh great
pleasure and like dominance and control
and and just the more I screamed the
more I got scared the more he was
enraged and like
power enraged with power and and it was
like he was just charged with it it was
scary my experience um with Donald Trump
and has made it to where um
I
I can't be in a healthy relationship
much less I can't be in a relationship
without um without myself sabotaging it
I don't um I don't do
well I I mean I I've I've been in I've
been in a couple of relationships I mean
they never of interest to me normally
but one in particular that was a a
wonderful he was a wonderful man and I
completely knowing I I I I had like
subconsciously it I couldn't even
control myself it was like I had to get
him out of my life because you know I
don't I don't know why it was like
anytime anyone loves me I don't feel
worth it or you know um
I've I mean
i' I don't even know how to explain it
like I can't friends I can have
acquaintance that guys that are
acquaintances but I just you know
anytime it's maybe someone express any
else besides that I
can't I take some type of pleasure not
some type of I don't take pleasure in it
but
subconsciously whether I mean to or not
sometimes I've meant to it's like i' i'
I've purposely hurt their feelings um
just so they'll never talk to me again
like I make sure that it's not ever a
possibility and Donald Trump Donald
Trump destroyed my feeling of selfworth
and my self-esteem when it was still
like when it was when it just bloomed it
hadn't even had a chance to experience
anything
um I have I have only spoken to to one
therapist about this just recently
actually
um I for the long time I just really
just tried to forget about it just tried
very hard but um I've been to counseling
for other things um and I went to
counseling for a previous the previous
relationship that I was sabotaging and
my counselor said something has happened
to you that where you were just you need
to deal with that that's actually what
kind of was like hm he knew that there
was something that had happened where I
was self self Saab you know sabotaging
these
relationships but you know he said that
it was my responsibility to deal with it
of
course uh this the situation with Donald
Trump has has left it destroyed my
self-esteem and and it's made it to
where I feel like it's destroyed part of
my life um I haven't the only he healthy
relationship I've completely
demolished um and I love to choose the
dysfunctional ones that I know I can
just push away uh
he after what happened with him
I can't trust a man ever
again
I thinking about it just makes
me sick to my
stomach someone when something so
traumatic happens to someone that's so
young you never ever really get over it

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The Old Wolf has spoken, but Katie has spoken more loudly, and her words need to reverberate around the world until these child rapists are brought to justice.

Russia’s Information War on the West

A Twitter thread by Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) from 27 February, 2022. A critical analysis of what is still going on, and why it matters. See the original here.


Ok. Deep breath.

I think we may look back on this as the first Great Information War. Except we’re already 8 years in.

The first Great Information War began in 2014. The invasion of Ukraine is the latest front. And the idea it doesn’t already involve us is fiction, a lie.

It was Putin’s fury at the removal of President Yankovych in Feb 2014 that kicked everything off. Information operations were first crucial step in invasion of Crimea & Donbass. A deliberate attempt to warp reality to confuse both Ukrainians & the world.

This was not new. The Soviets had practiced “dezinformatsiya” for years. But what was new in 2014 was technology. Social media. It was a transformative moment. “Hybrid warfare” on steroids: a golden Willy Wonka ticket to manipulate hearts & minds. Almost completely invisibly.

But it wasn’t just Ukraine. We now know Russia began another offensive in Feb 2014. Against the West. Specifically, but not exclusively, America. How do we know this? Because the FBI conducted a forensic, multi-year investigation. That almost no-one paid any attention to.

The Mueller Report. You’ve heard of it. But probably as a headline about how it didn’t “prove” collusion between the Kremlin & Trump campaign. We can come back to that. What it did prove – BEYOND ANY DOUBT – was that Russia attacked 2016 US election through multiple routes.

And just one of the ways Russia attacked 2016 US election was via the tech platforms. Especially: Facebook. This was a military technique, it pioneered in Ukraine in 2014. By 2016, it refined, iterated & supersized these. Most brilliantly of all, they were entirely invisible

And it wasn’t just Russia. Companies such as Cambridge Analytica. Political operatives such as Manafort. Amoral opportunists such as Cummings. They learned how to exploit a platform that was totally open – anyone could do so. And totally closed – no-one could see how.

But also it was Russia. That’s what the Mueller Report proves. And, again, Ukraine is at centre of it all.(Read @profshaw’s thread here. Note walk-on role for Arron Banks’s business partner & his friend the Russian spy)

In 2016, we knew none of this. Russia & other bad actors acted with impunity &, in some cases alignment. But now, through the sheer bloody hard work of academics, journalists & FBI, we do know.

But it was complex, messy, difficult. So… We brushed it all under the carpet

We failed to acknowledge Russia had staged a military attack on the West. We called it “meddling”. We used words like “interference”. It wasn’t. It was warfare. We’ve been under military attack for eight years now.

This failure is at the heart of what is happening now in Ukraine. Because the first offensive in the Great Information War was from 2014-2022. And Putin won.

And he won by convincing us it wasn’t even a war.

We fell for it. We said it was “just ads” that “don’t work anyhow”. And “a bot didn’t tell me to vote”. Facebook is still an open threat surface. Exploited by authoritarians from Philippines to India to Brazil to Hungary. It’s maybe not a world war. But the world is at war.

Meanwhile, in Britain, we’re a captured state. In America, the institutions of govt worked. Even in spite of Trump. The authorities investigated. Individuals were indicted, charged, jailed. The hostile actions of a foreign state examined & unpicked.

(Not that it mattered.) The US media & therefore public failed to understand the real lessons of Mueller Report. And in the UK? We didn’t even bother trying. We allowed Johnson’s govt to sweep 2016 under the carpet. Nigel Farage. Arron Banks. Facebook. Russia. The lot.

But it wasn’t ‘just ads’. It was war. And it’s absolutely crucial that we now understand that Putin’s attack on Ukraine & the West was a JOINT attack on both.  

That began at the exact same time.

Across the exact same platforms.

And this new front, the invasion of Ukraine, is not just about Ukraine. We are part of the plan. We have always been part of the plan. And Ukraine is not just fighting for Ukraine but for the rest of us too.

And maybe that could be why we’ve failed to understand Putin’s strategy in Ukraine? Because it’s not just a strategy in Ukraine. It’s directed at us too. And that’s what makes this such a uniquely perilous moment. Not least, because we still don’t understand we’re at war.

If it helps, the penny dropped for me with Skripal. Planned by the GRU – Russia’s military intelligence. As was the weaponised hack-&-leak of Hillary’s emails. Military doctrine carried out by military officials in  military operations. Just like the one now in Ukraine.

TL;DR – She’s tired.

The story of Arron Banks is intertwined with every single element of the above. That’s for another time. What matters now is Ukraine. And the key to helping it is to understand that Putin isn’t just coming for us next. He already has.


Russia is not our friend. Russia has never been our friend, despite fighting the Nazis together in World War II. I lived through the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis and Civil Defense and Duck and Cover drills, and it’s all Russia.

“We will bury you!” ¹

Putin is still a KGB agent. Never forget this.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ Some have suggested this is a mistranslation of what Nikita Khrushchev said, which was “Мы вас похороним!” While I am not a Russian linguist, based on the feeling that was coming from the Soviet Union at the time, I dispute this. He meant exactly what he said.

United breaks guitars, and beats up paying customers.

We live in a tumultuous world, with a lot going on around us. There’s a lot that we can’t do much about. But I’ve always felt that corporate douchebaggery and abuse of power need to be called out whenever it happens.

According to a video posted at Facebook, and reported on at the Courier Journal, the following events just took place.

thugs

  1. United Airlines flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. (That practice in itself is worthy of a lot of discussion, but it’s standard operating procedure in the airlines and hotel world.)
  2. Passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and United, offering $400 and a hotel stay, was looking for one volunteer to take another flight to Louisville at 3 p.m. Monday.
  3. Passengers were allowed to board the flight. (Notice: you’ve paid for your ticket, and you have your butt in a seat.)
  4. Passengers were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. (United feels that deadheading employees are more important than paid passengers.)
  5. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats.
  6. The offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.
  7. A manager came aboard the plane and said a computer would select four people to be taken off the flight. (“The Reaping.”)
  8. One couple volunteered as tribute and left the plane.
  9. The man in the video was confronted. He became “very upset” and said that he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning.
  10. The manager told him that security would be called if he did not leave willingly, and the man said he was calling his lawyer.
  11. One security official came and spoke with him, and then another security officer came when he still refused. Then, she said, a third security official came on the plane and threw the passenger against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.

So here’s an elderly Asian doctor who needs to see his patients in the morning, who has a confirmed, paid ticket on a United Airlines flight, and because UA overbooked and wants their employees to have free seats, three armed thugs come on board and knock the old man out before dragging him, bloodied, off the plane, because he wouldn’t surrender his rights.

Great work, United. This beats breaking guitars six ways from breakfast.

This is what should have happened:

  1. United doesn’t overbook their flights (Not likely, it’s common travel practice.)
  2. United continues to bump the incentive – $1,000, $1,200, and free hotel, etc. etc. – until enough people take the offer. It would have happened quite soon, problem solved.

Here’s what I’m hoping happens:

  1. The physician in question does indeed get hold of a high-powered legal firm and sues the company for enough money to buy the entire European Union, plus Canada.
  2. United’s stock ends up in the Mariana Trench because nobody ever flies with them again.
  3. The three armed thugs (security personnel, cops, whatever) are fired and end up spending the rest of their days sweeping up after horses in Texas rodeos.

Here’s what’s likely to happen:

  1. Some sort of settlement, and the affair quietly fades away.
  2. United continues to abuse passengers because, after all, most of us are very comfortable and there will be a Starbucks to go to at our destination. (Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people continue to protest in Serbia and Ecuador and around the world because they are tired of government corruption.)
  3. “Proper procedure was followed.”

Disclaimer: I wasn’t there. I didn’t see the event. There are always more facts to any story than are being reported. But regardless, this looks really bad at first blush. If United’s corporate leadership were any sort of humans, they’d be filling their britches and entering DEFCON-5 damage control mode, but I sincerely doubt they’ll lose a minutes sleep over the event.

Don’t fly United. This is really sad in a lot of ways, because for the longest time United was the best of the best in airlines in the USA, and I have a long history of flying with them since the 50s.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

 

A Taxonomy of Trump Tweets – from On the Media.”

On the Media is “WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our world view. Veteran journalists Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield give you the tools to survive the media maelstrom.”

A recent segment intriguingly addresses the PEOTUS’ twitter-storm, and how the media should appropriately respond.

As we all know, Donald Trump’s tweets have become a potent force in our new era. On the one hand, a single tweet can cripple opponents, activate supporters, move markets, and subsume the news cycle. On the other, they’re a window into Trump’s wee-hours, unfiltered id. But when his tweets are full of half-truths, distortions, and often bold-faced lies, should journalists treat them as normal presidential utterances, or something else? Cognitive linguist George Lakoff believes that the press must understand how Trump uses language if we’re to responsibly report on his tweets, not just magnify their misinformation. He talks with Brooke about the categories he’s come up with for thinking about Trump tweets.

A summary of the categories:

  1. Preemptive Re-framing – Trump’s tweet stated, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” This was rated “Pants on Fire” by Politifact, but it effectively re-frames the popular vote in the minds of those who see the tweet, thus distorting the facts in the public arena.
  2. The Diversion Tweet – This kind of tweet is akin to the magician’s misdirectional “nothing up my sleeve.” While you’re busy looking at his or her sleeve to be sure, jiggery-pokery is happening elsewhere. A good example is focusing on Hamilton, as Trump did when he tweeted “The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!” In this way, people focus on Hamilton rather than the $25 million settlement in the case of  fraud allegations against Trump University.
  3. The Trial Balloon – Send up something and see how the public reacts, so you’ll know what to do in the future. When Trump tweeted, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” he watched to see how the public responded to this idea; in this case there was a brief discussion about nuclear policy which quickly faded from the public consciousness.
  4. Deflection – In which you attack the messenger. After being pointedly called out by Meryl Streep for mocking a disabled reporter, Trump attacked the messenger: “Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never “mocked” a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him “groveling” when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!The video is out there; no matter how much he denies it, Trump’s actions can not be interpreted as anything other than cruel mockery of a man’s afflictions – but attacking Ms. Streep, one of the most accomplished and versatile actresses of this generation, deflect’s the public’s view from the issue at hand. This was also evident as Trump attacked Buzzfeed, CNN, and the BBC around reports on the supposed Russian dossier.

Lastly, Lakoff presents an example of a Trump tweet that uses all four strategies at once:

“Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

  • Pre-emptive framing: “This is fake news.”
  • Diversion – Getting the public to discuss whether or not this is fake news rather than addressing the issue itself.
  • Deflection – Attacking the messengers
  • Trial balloon – Will the intelligence agencies be stopped, and are they working like Nazi Germany?

And, of course, tucked away in the tweet is the invocation of a corollary to Godwin’s Law: In any online discussion, whoever first brings up a reference to Hitler has lost the argument, and the discussion is ended.

Lakoff’s suggestions for the press on how to handle the onslaught of 3 AM tweets, as well as the entire podcast (it’s only about 8 minutes long) are well worth the listen.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Improving the web, one word at a time.

XKCD is a wonderful strip. Sometimes Munroe’s posts are based in deep and often incomprehensible (to me) math, sometimes intriguing science, and sometimes the most violently twisted whimsy one could imagine.

The most recent installment gives some suggestions for making the web-browsing experience more interesting.

substitutions_3

The internet being what it is, and people’s creativity and free time factoring in, it was no surprise that a vehicle has already been created that allows such a list (or any other) to be implemented.

My news feed now looks like this:

news

This courtesy of Word Replacer II, a chrome extension that allows you to wipe out any word in your browser that you might find offensive, tiresome, or annoying, and replace it with any other. Tired of seeing Justin Bieber or Kim Kardashian all over the news? Replace them with “Little Bunny Froo-froo” or “King Koopa.”

Trust me, it will make your daily perusal of the news much more uplifting.

The user interface is a bit hard to use, but the fastest way to get things in is to build a blob with this format and import it. Notice that the closing brace after each segment has a comma after it – all except for the last one.

{
“version”: “2.0.10”,
“replacements”: [
{
“repA”: “Hillary Clinton”,
“repB”: “Her Supreme Corruptness”,
“type”: “Simple”,
“case”: “Maintain”,
“active”: true
},
{
“repA”: “Donald Trump”,
“repB”: “the bombastic blowhard”,
“type”: “Simple”,
“case”: “Maintain”,
“active”: true
}
]
}

It took me a while of fiddling to get them in, but I was able to get about 30 replacements installed and now watching the news feeds actually gives me a smile.

Enjoy.

The Old Wolf has spoken

An Insider’s View of Martin Shkreli

The media has gone nuts about Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharma who “obtained the manufacturing licence for Daraprim, an out-of-patent medicine, and raised its price by 5,455 percent (from $13.50 to $750 per tablet).” (Wikipedia)

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While the company has stated that there will be a price reversal (as of this writing, we don’t know how much yet), Shkreli has now “receded from the public” according to USA Today, and who can blame him with the furious media storm raging out there?

Most analyses focus on rampant greed within the pharma industry, and use Shkreli as the poster boy for the zenith thereof. One redditor (/u/BlueGold), however, offers a different viewpoint which sheds some additional light on the subject. I’ve bowdlerized it a bit for family consumption – the original thread is here if you don’t mind colorful language.

Legal securities transaction experience and a little SEC regulation fluency checking in:

I’ve actually been doing some more research on the guy at work today, and am pretty blown away at how this all went down, should this theory be on point.

I’d like to state first that he’s a total jerk, and that this is a theory, but it’s becoming more and more convincing that he intended for all of this to happen, and it’s been a fun idea to play with – help educate me in what else this would require and each other:

So he knew the 4,700% cost-floor revaluation was an embellishment with a purpose:

He has, from what I can find, $4 – $15 million in shares of borrowed stock in various pharma corp. entities.

So, the moment reddit started raging about the injustice to the AIDS victims, and someone on Hilary’s digital media team said “Mrs. Clinton – appeal to all these voters by coming down on this dude!” he cracked a beer and watched his whole plan unfold.

In realistic share terms, taking taxes, interest rates in the ST contract with his lenders, and estimated holding into account, is probably several million dollars in profit for a day of acting. Someone above said “he’ll make billions short-selling!” Not only could he not make that much on a 20% drop short sale with his highest estimated borrowed holding, but the profit from a short sale like this doesn’t come to light for the market player until days, weeks, even months later when the price is back up to optimal value for cashing out.

So, its safe to say that he made millions with his little PR stunt, and vocationally, in a vacuum, he’s totally brilliant. Again, universally – he’s a jerk, but has an undeniable vocational aptitude for what he does.

If this probable play theory is on point, he knew he’d announce this cost reduction and caving on the 5k% value inflation shortly after reddit, twitter, mainstream media, and Hilary all started airing out their grievances – and he knew that there would be a subsequent revitalization in the pharma. share market base.

Bada bing bada boom. Say what you want about this guy, but he just acted like a jerk in order to troll the outrage bandwagon into actually influencing share values, and it totally worked. He didn’t deprive any dying children, he didn’t put anyone on the street, he probably didn’t even leave his office.

Alas, the predictable freakout hit the exact water mark he wanted it to, maybe even higher, and he bought all he could at the low price the bandwagon created, flipped back his $4-$15 million in borrowed shares to his creditors with presumably a “lets do business againreal soon” interest rate, and will soon profit generously when the market settles back to its regular CFS.

It would be really impressive, entirely because of the ignorance that is the foundation of everyone’s outrage.

I see a lot of people griping and moaning about the “system,” and the “extortion,” and the “broken justice” of SEC regs, and no suggestions other than “Old_Wolf_Censored this psychopath.”

Ya know what the ironic thing about this situation is though? His play will encourage the SEC revision committee to act. Not PI groups, not activists, not media attention. But this guy, who took advantage of the volatility of the market in response to uninformed social justice outcry. The only thing that really gets the attention of the SEC revision committee is economic circumstances, and the potential to not have firm control over happenings in private trading.

From 1934 – 2012, the SEC Regulatory Revision Committee has instituted 7 major acts, all in response to participant profiting, no one went to prison, and ALL THE ACTS were in the interest of non-corporate market participants.

Like it or not, he’s the only one who’ll make a difference for the better, whether it’s his intention or not – and he’s getting rich while he’s doing it, and not actually acting any differently than 80% of the other AIDS med manufacturers in the industry. In fact, he’s lowered his price below many others.

EDIT: Hopefully this adds some umph to anything I’ve said or answers any questions:

This guy is a master at short selling tactics.

He would get in a run of the mill short sale position, but then encourage the FDA via filing of “citizen petitions” to stall the release of certain products from corporations whose stock he was short selling. In doing this, is where his real mastery lies:

Dr. Hayflick, of OHSU (an outstanding medical research facility), “got a call from him in 2012, suggesting she try a different molecular modification to remedy pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration, or PKAN. ‘Damned if it doesn’t do what he thought it would do…It’s impressive. It’s humbling.'”

This isn’t a new thing, at all. I think this outrage is situational discontent with the pharma industry at large, and the for-profit nature of its governance. This, unfortunately, is a product of our privatized medical production realm that happens constantly. He just happened to make a noisy jerk out of himself, but really is one of many players, and still a small one at that.

Gylbera costs 1$ million buckaroos for annual treatment.

Acthar gel was marked 7000% for years.

Cinryze runs 3 times as much as his proposed value.

Short selling, multi-thousand percent mark ups from production-to-sale on drugs, constitutionally-protected systematic deflation of competition, reverse mergers… These are all well established market practices, just usually employed by undeniably smart, exploitive market players and CFOs who keep their mouths shut. This kind of noisy behavior has potential to create a PR nightmare that influences shareholder’s reactionary tendencies. Alas, it’s going back up!!! like our little jerk here has done.

This dude is a jerk. And if this hypothetical situation is on; a really smart jerk.

Once more, it serves to emphasize that this is one person’s theory. But it’s based on substantial experience in the industry, and makes for fascinating reading. There are some possibly good outcomes from this entire debacle:

  1. It has shined the light of reason on some of these scummy financial practices that seem commonplace, and
  2. It has energized the debate over the outrageous costs of drugs in the USA during a bitter election cycle.

Let us hope that some good comes out of this, whether or not Shkreli ever intended such an outcome.

The Old Wolf has spoken, with thanks to /u/BlueGold.

Commentary: Question to the Islamic Terrorist

Published at VG News.

This should be read by every Muslim, preached over every pulpit by every Imam.

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These are the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo yesterday. But there have been many such in recent years.

While the world picks up the pieces and tries to rebuild, I have some questions for you. You whose bloodlust cannot be slaked.

I ask because I’m a Muslim. And you say you are Muslim. And you say you kill for the God in whom we both believe. You are even proud of this, and some Muslims support you. Most do not, and I ask on their behalf:

“What have you really accomplished?”

Yesterday you killed 12 people and freedom of expression. You say that you avenged the Prophet. You were violated because caricatures were drawn. Charlie Hebdo had a circulation of 50,000. You changed this yesterday. Those caricatures you thought were worth killing for, so that no one would ever again dare to caricature our prophet? Those cartoons had a circulation of 500 million yesterday. At the very least.

Newspapers worldwide have the cartoons on the front pagte today, online, on paper. Millions have changed their profile picture to a caricature of Muhammad . You said “Charlie Hebdo is dead.” The world responded by saying “Je suis Charlie,” “I’m Charlie.” You’ve made ​​Charlie Hebdo immortal. And freedom of speech has reemerged stronger than ever. And did you know that many Muslims, who in 2005 and 2006 were hurt and depressed over the Mohammed cartoons, yesterday wrote that they have changed their minds? They say that the killing of the defenseless is a far greater insult against Muslims than caricatures will ever be. They say: “Draw, draw, draw.” This is what you have achieved.

You threaten and kill

You came onto the stage in earnest on 11 September, 2001. You began with the terrorist attacks in the United States. There you killed 2,996 people. You helped start the “war on terror”. It’s not over yet. And perhaps the war will never be won. The war has resulted in 116,657 civilian casualties, and the count is still rising. Most are Muslims like you and me. Children, the elderly, women and men. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by NATO forces, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by you. You call them victims in the war for God, and you butcher them down without blinking, your your fellow-muslims. And your fellow-muslims must answer for your crimes. Hate crimes against Muslims in Western countries are on the rise. This is what you have accomplished.

You say you are going to spread “true Islam.” Your method is automatic weapons, suicide bombs, indoctrination and fear. Pure fear. You threaten to behead, whip and stone your fellow-muslims into believing in what you believe is true Islam. You call yourselves IS and have killed 24,000 people in Iraq: Muslims, Yazidis, Christians. You use children as soldiers and sell women as sex slaves. You are few, but Muslims are numerous. The many will never live as demanded by the few. Therefore you can never make progress with democratic means. So you resort to the sword and call yourself a lion. Over a hundred Muslim eminent scholars, with close to a billion Muslims behind them, call you an insult to Islam. This is what you have achieved.

The day you lost the battle

The last few years have started something new. You go for the most defenseless. Women, children, aid workers and journalists. You shoot one Malala in the head, because you do not like what she says. Today hear a whole world of Malalas. You shoot 132 children, most boys in puberty, because you think Islamic writings demand that, in the head. From close range. You think this will scare the Pakistani military and the Pakistani people. Pakistan responds with airstrikes, mass executions of convicted terrorists, and mass mobilization against you. A mobilization Pakistan has never seen before. So what have you accomplished, really?

Have you ever thought of the following: If you possess the one truth, should not one billion Muslims follow this of their own free will? You’ve had well over a decade to fight for your case, your interpretation. If your arguments had weight, would you not then have managed to convince all cartoonists to put away the pen? Do you see that you lost your case the day you picked up your weapons? I ask because I am a Muslim.

Shazia Sarwar