Stupid is as stupid does: Weinstein hires new lawyer, who will attack his accusers

Patricia Glaser, Esq., who is sworn to file no pleading unless in good faith

Weinstein flees to Europe, but not before hiring a lawyer who promises to discredit the women who claim to be victims of sexual abuse.

I can't claim to have ever been a genius legal tactician, but I was pretty good at big-picture strategy, and the idea of going after a roster of Hollywood stars and low-level, young staffers, all of whom tell the same story, is incredibly stupid. There's no place for strategy here: the war is lost, but dumb tactics will only make the post-war damages worse. Tormenting women who were forced to watch Harvey ejaculate on potted plants? You really want to cross examine a victim on that?

Weinstein's new lawyer, Patricia Glaser, is supposed to be a "top lawyer" — I'd call her a dim-witted, unscrupulous tactician, who'll do anything for a fee, and she brings to mind this lawyer joke:

"Did you know that they're replacing lab rats with lawyers?"

"No, why is that?"

"Well, they're easier to train, the lab researchers don't grow fond of them, and there are some things a rat just won't do."

This seems an unlikely price

Not a big fan of this style: evokes images of certain WW II structures pictured below

Owners of a contemporary at 11 Mohawk Lane have priced it at $5.750 million.

Mohawk Lane, off Stag Lane, off of Stanwich, has rarely commanded anything close to $6 million: under-$2 is more usual. There was a sale in the $5s on the street four years ago: No. 26, for $5.2 million in 2013, but that was a purchase from owners who had foolishly paid $7.5 million for it as "new" construction in 2008 (it had sat on the market since 2006). And it was traditional, rather than bunker-contemporary. My guess is that the $5.2 final price seemed like a bargain because the buyers' agent let her clients be confused by that 2008 price: that was dumb, and they'll probably regret paying so much when they go to resell. 

Just as both buyers of 26 Mohawk might have been better served by their respective agents to dodge a falling knife, I'd be inclined to recommend waiting a bit on this one.

Eagle's Nest

Or Normandy fire control bunker?

How about "Obamacares"?

Your money's safe with me, Harvey — I'll treat it as though it were my own

Weinstein Co. to change its name, looking for suggestions.

Or maybe "What's Happening?"

UPDATE: This New Yorker article is absolutely damning. Walt, you probably knew this, but I didn't, the author Ronan Farrow is not only Mia's son, but Tarzan's girlfriend, Maureen O'Sullivan's grandson!

Related

50 years ago today: "Don't shoot! I'm Che, I'm worth more to you alive than dead!"

They shot

Harvey Weinstein begged Hollywood executives to save his career. 

They shot.

Old and in the way

UPDATE: designer Dona Karan says Weinstein's victims have only themselves to blame because they wore sexy outfits.

I'm so old that I remember when "blame the victim" was considered a horrible, indefensible response to a woman's claim of sexual assault.

But probably no Sam Bridge Christmas trees this year

I can't speak for the staff and owner, but they surely don't find Debra McLaughlin particularly "enchanting"

Junior League to hold its annual "Enchanted Forest" sales event soon. Overpriced Christmas ornaments, gimcracks and gewgaws. For those who can't wait until November to meet Junior League President Debra Mclaughlin, she might be present at the Planning & Zoning hearing on her demand that the Sam Bridge Nursery be shut down, this October 17th. 

Rapist granted joint-custody rights? Someone else is going to have to figure this out

proud (and POSSESSIVE) papa christopher mirasolo

Rapes a 12-year-old, holds her captive for two days, now a Michigan judge grants him joint-custody.

The victim, who is now 21, claims that Mirasolo forcibly raped and threatened to kill her nine years ago. The now 27-year-old was 18 when the attack allegedly happened in September 2008.

Kiesling said that the victim was with her 13-year-old sister and another friend when they snuck out of their home one night to meet up with a boy and his older friend. 

That older friend was Mirasolo, and he asked them if they wanted to go for a ride. 

Thinking they would go to a McDonalds or somewhere similar they got in, but Mirasolo allegedly took their phones and threw them out before driving them to Detroit to steal gas and then back to Sanilac County.

There he allegedly kept them captive for two days in an empty house before finally releasing the 13-year-old in a park. She said he threatened to kill them if they told anyone what had happened. 

A month later the 12-year-old realized she was pregnant and Mirasolo was arrested. 

'She (the victim) and her family was told first-time sex offenders weren't sent to prison because people come out worse after they go there,' [attorney] Kiessling told the News. 

'Nothing has been right about this since it was originally investigated. He was never properly charged and should be sitting behind bars somewhere, but the system is victimizing my client, who was a child herself when this all happened.' 

Though the assault could have carried a life sentence or one no less than 25 years, Mirasolo was given a plea for attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct and sentenced to a year in prison. 

He didn't serve the full year, though, and was let out after six months to care for his sick mother. 

Judge Gregory S Ross made the decision to grant Mirasolo custody, and then disclosed the victim's address to him and ordered her to add his name to the child's birth certificate. 

All of that was done without the victim's consent or a hearing, Kiessling claims. 

Kiessling said that the victim was told she is not allowed to move 100 miles from her current address 'without court consent'.

Since when does an insignificant citizen's letter to a Republican merit front page coverage in Greenwich Time?

Greenwich Time's sole political "reporter"

Since GT hired Ken Borsuck, a committed Democrat who attends local Democrats' political rallies as a fellow-member while also purporting to report on them as a disinterested reporter.

First, here's the paper's caption for the citizen's picture: "Dita Bhargava, the Democratic candidate for State Representative for the 151st District, at the Greenwich Time, Greenwich, Conn., Friday, Oct. 14, 2016." That implies that the lady has some kind of active political career going, but no. You have to read all the way down to the final paragraph of Borsch's breaking news to learn the actual status of his friend and political ally:

Bhargava ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature in 2016, challenging incumbent state Rep. Fred Camillo, R-151st. In January, Bhargava was named vice chairman of the state Democratic Party. She resigned in August to begin exploring a run for state office.

In other words, Miss Bhagavad-gita is just an ordinary citizen like the rest of us; there's nothing newsworthy in her writing a letter to the editor of the local rag, but Democrat operative Borsuck, in collusion with the editor of that paper, if there is one, has moved her letter from the editorial to the front page.

Of course, all of Borsucks" content has been similarly shifted, so no surprise here, but it's still sad to see such an utter abandonment of journalism standards.

No further comment necessary

Excellent article on domestic abuse in, of all places, Greenwich Time

Cop friends have told me that responding to domestic "disputes" is one of the more dreaded duties, and I think that's true nationwide, as well: often there's alcohol involved, and violence can explode, from one party or the other, or even both, and some of the scenes are absolutely heart-breaking. Today's GT article captures some of that, in a non-hysterical, factual, way, and even includes a case of female-on-male violence, because this is not a crime restricted to boozy men in wife-beater Tees going after their women. Neither, the article points out, is it something limited to  our lower-income neighborhoods in Byram. In fact, as the article makes clear and my cop friends will attest, some of the worst cases occur in the back country.

This subject is very much not a left wing, tree-hugger issue, and the Greenwich Time doesn't cast it that way. Nice job.

One aside: I told my daughters, probably too often, when they were beginning to date, that they should never, ever give a boy a "second chance" if he struck them. Someone willing to exceed the boundaries of decency like that was revealing a character flaw so deep, and so irredeemable, that they should never trust him again, regardless of whatever excuse he gave, or what he promised.

Years on, one of my kids said she'd remembered what I'd preached and walked from a relationship after just such an incident, when he slapped her. The "boy" was picked up by one of my daughter's friends, and he proceeded to beat that friend, very badly. Since my girls rarely took my advice back then (wisely, I''' admit), I'm glad that lecture stuck.