Florida State Seminoles

[Tree]

New Rule. Fuck off.

Coming soon to a theater near you. As soon as you stop letting me live rent free in your head.

[hedge]

That’s not new…

Indeed, that's our founding principle...

[hedge]

Also, what's up with that chair? And look at him at the 25 second mark, goddamn, his pants are halfway up his shin...

[hedge]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/us/t ... cking.html

To the World, He Is an Anti-Trafficking Hero. Women Tell a Different Story.

Tim Ballard’s work on sex trafficking became the basis of the hit movie “Sound of Freedom.” But a series of women, in lawsuits and interviews, have accused him of being a sex predator.

Tim Ballard had fashioned himself into a made-for-Hollywood hero.

For years, he led a nonprofit that proclaimed daring undercover missions to rescue children from the horrors of international sex trafficking. Politicians embraced his call for more barriers on the Southern border to block smuggling. President Donald J. Trump brought him on as an adviser. Last year, the hit movie “Sound of Freedom” showcased his life and work, making more than $250 million and becoming one of the most successful independent films of all time.

But while the world knew him as a champion of the vulnerable, many of the women he worked with now tell a much darker story: that Mr. Ballard himself was grooming, manipulating, harassing and sexually assaulting women. In lawsuits beginning last year, the women said that Mr. Ballard preyed on their desire to help trafficking victims, coercing or forcing them into sexual encounters as part of their undercover work in brothels, strip clubs and massage parlors.

A former Homeland Security agent, Mr. Ballard had built his nonprofit, Operation Underground Railroad, at a time when the issue of child sex trafficking was already on the rise. High-profile cases — some of them appallingly real, some of them inventions of conspiracy theorists — drove outrage about minors being forced into sexual servitude and exploited by U.S. elites.
...

In Utah, where the organization’s leadership is based, Mr. Ballard talked up his close connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at times appearing alongside one of the church’s 12 powerful apostles
As concerns about his conduct began percolating last year, the empire he created appeared to be crumbling. In June 2023, he stepped down from Operation Underground Railroad. The Latter-day Saints church last September denounced Mr. Ballard’s “morally unacceptable” activities in a statement to VICE News, which had published a series of stories raising questions about the nonprofit’s operations.

And yet, in many conservative circles, Mr. Ballard’s star keeps rising.

...

But questions about Mr. Ballard’s conduct at Operation Underground Railroad have continued, and more women have come forward. The New York Times interviewed 10 who worked with Mr. Ballard at the organization and now describe their time there as a nightmare of sexual harassment, coerced sexual contact and sexual assault.

Many had long ties to the Latter-day Saints and said in lawsuits and interviews that they initially trusted Mr. Ballard because of his broad acclaim and the support he had received from the church leadership, and they believed deeply in the cause of saving children.
Image
...

In interviews and legal papers, the women described similar scenarios: Mr. Ballard recruited them to act as his romantic partner in undercover operations in which they would pose as wealthy sex tourists, a tactic he referred to as a “couple’s ruse.” It had two purposes, he told them: It provided an easy excuse to avoid having sexual contact with the sex workers, and some people might be more open to confiding in a woman.

But many of the women say that Mr. Ballard turned the “ruse” into an opportunity to assault them.

Six women filed lawsuits accusing Mr. Ballard of sexually assaulting them, with some describing situations in which he used his strength to overpower them despite their explicit pleas to stop.

Three of the women told The Times that they witnessed Mr. Ballard engaging in erotic encounters with sex workers, ranging from lap dances to oral sex.

The women recalled being stunned and confused by Mr. Ballard’s conduct, alarmed not only by how he acted on operations but how much he expected the women to “practice” their romance in private. Many described feeling isolated and fearful as Mr. Ballard warned that disclosing operational details could allow powerful traffickers to identify and kill them.

Amy Morgan Davis, a former Miss Utah who worked as Mr. Ballard’s makeup artist on a variety of occasions over several years, is among the women who said that Mr. Ballard exploited her desire to participate in the cause of rescuing children. She recalled meetings with Mr. Ballard in which he repeatedly told her to prove that the two of them had a “connection” and then made escalating sexual advances that included caressing her body with his hands.

[innocentbystander]

hedge,


I know that was just a "copy-and-paste" but mine will not be. I am not going to get into how I know the Utah prosecutors who were looking into charging Tim Ballard but I do know them. And I will tell you what they told me, the same thing the feds told them, there will be NO state or federal charges against Ballard. None. The reason for that is partially location: the inappropriate behavior happened in Jamaica, or Haiti, or Columbia, etc. That is outside their jurisdiction. But even if they could find a judge to let them argue their way around that, what are they going to charge him with? These women were consenting. There is ZERO evidence of Ballard forcing himself on any of them. They can say whatever they want. Saying something to the press is one thing. Going into a court of law with their husbands sitting there (getting their hearts broken) as Tim Ballard's defense attorney cross examining them as he asks them WHY did you agree to give this man a blow job or agree to sleep in the same bed as him in Columbia, that is something else entirely. And the ones who are married, the last thing they want to do is be cross examined.

So, go to the press. And hope people do what you just did, copy-paste. That is really the only way any of them have any hope of getting any money.

This was consensual. It was gross, sick, deviant, and "ick" for sure, but these women allowed themselves to be used as props to make child traffickers in Guatamalla, Haiti, the Dominican, or wherever, feel comfortable with Ballard so that they would not be scammed. And that was exactly what Ballard was doing, scamming them. And making the #MeToo argument that the consensual sex was NOT really consensual (or years later they just regret it and Tim should have known better than to act on their willingness) is not a great argument to be made in court for civil proceedings.

Moreover, unlike Harvey Weinstein (who never actually denied any of it), Ballard is claiming that the majority of these women are lying like a rug! And unlike Harvey Weinstein, there was no "financial gain" to be made on her part for giving Tim a blow job. Now, the LDS church may not care if these are lies or not. Obviously (to them) something terribly inappropriate happened. That is more than good enough to ex-communication. But these are not great arguments to be made if the only goal here is the same goal Paula Jones had, how can I get some money?

[hedge]

You should've copy and pasted, you just wasted a lot of time typing some shit that nobody is going to read...

[Jungle Rat]

Heh. Scrolled right past it.

[Tree]

Scrolled past the last 2 mega-snowflake liberal posts. What's new here. Been gone a few days.

[Tree]

Kamala is a joke. She's in Orwellian territory, which the Dem voters eat up nonstop with her incessant fearmongering. Puppet nothingburger with no redeeming qualities. Not one.

[hedge]

Sounds like you're describing yourself. It's all projection with you people...

[innocentbystander]

i don't scroll past anything

does that make me one of "those people" who are "projecting?"

[DooKSucks]

I wish you were decapitated by a massive projectile

[innocentbystander]

All they will do, is nick the top of my ear

[Jungle Rat]

I'm surprised nobody posted the 9-11 day of timeline from here.

[Jungle Rat]

Nevermind. Puter did.

[innocentbystander]

Maybe the mayor of Springfield should take a page out of the Abbott/DeSantis playbook and offer to pay for a free bus ticket for all of them to migrate to New Albany?

[Tree]

Dementia Joe hasn't been around much lately. Who were the tards who voted for him again?

[hedge]

"Maybe the mayor of Springfield should take a page out of the Abbott/DeSantis playbook and offer to pay for a free bus ticket for all of them to migrate to New Albany?"

Those people are legal immigrants who the town advertised jobs to...

[innocentbystander]

And if that Springfield Ohio boy in the school bus had not been killed by the Haitian, maybe none of us would know that these people who the town said they are giving jobs, spend their weekends at the park catching geese to cook them in their homes? That is when they can't catch dogs and cats.

I certainly hope that the house that eCat bought for his son is not in Springfield Ohio. If it is, I would recommend that his son keep any pets he has, IN the house.

[innocentbystander]

Awesome

hedge and jungle rat are prohibited from watching this since they are going to scroll. plus, they wouldn't understand it anyway so



Here is someone who is wayyyyyyyy the fuck smarter than any of us explaining a very complicated global structure that is put in place that perfectly explains why people like Trump are forbidden from being in the White House. Eric's comment about the people of this country not understanding that certain things simply have to exist (like this support wall over here such as NATO and this other beam over here such as NAFTA) and an executive who threatens that, could ruin everything that has been delicately put in place since the end of World War II.

I don't see any conspiracy theory here. Looks pretty straight forward to me.