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Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

nytimes.com

131–140 of 770 posts

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! Now do the one about Bill Clinton taking 27 flights on the Lolita Express! Or the one about Trump banning Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2008 when he started to suspect...

We should indeed be focusing on Bill Clinton too, but one of them is president now, and the other is not.

[deleted]

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#132
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is precisely zero need for assumption here. The only way Epstein's behavior could have been more in the open is if he were advertising screenings of the "home movies" he made with these girls. When you continue to associate with that guy, you're saying, "People who do that are okay with us." That's normalization. Especially when, say, your day job is as the head of a pretty damned prestigious institution like J…

I don't get this. If it was so clearly obvious that he was breaking the law, why was he not in jail? Isn't that a bigger scandal?

> Isn't that a bigger scandal?

It was/is. That angle of the story has received a great deal of attention.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#133

Good. Here’s a particularly damning passage from Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker article [1]: > According to Swenson, Ito had informed Cohen that Epstein “never goes into any room without his two female ‘assistants,’ ” whom he wanted to bring to the meeting at the Media Lab. Swenson objected to this, too, and it was decided that the assistants would be allowed to accompany Epstein but would wait outside the meeting room. >…

Sorry, I don't get it. Somebody having assistants who look like models and are from Eastern Europe is suspicious of trafficking women? How? Why? I have heard about Epstein, obviously with hindsight all sorts of things he did can be seen in a new light. I just don't understand what is so damning about the passage above. Would somebody who is trafficking women really take them everywhere he goes? I thought it would be…

"Would somebody who is trafficking women really take them everywhere he goes?"

The simple answer to this question is: Yes. He did.

And it was precisely the people who didn't take it at face value that allowed him to get away with it for so long.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#134

“The trouble with tainted money is t’aint enough of it.” - William Booth. Playing devil’s advocate here: Accepting tainted money as charity is not the problem. Promoting the donors, giving them prestige, contacts, access or some other benefits as a result of donations is the problem.

It is absolutely, very much a problem to take money from an unrepentant abuser and predator who is still publicly flaunting his abusive and predatory ways. You could argue that, perhaps, such institutions should also not cater to the merely wealthy and vain. But you can enable vanity without enabling sex trafficking.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#135
post #113
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Joi shouldn’t be hung for giving someone the benefit of doubt. Epstein had already been convicted and banned from MIT donations. In a position of leadership you are responsible to keep a healthy and safe workplace. That’s part of the job of running a lab. If you are unable or unwilling to do that, you should not be in a leadership role.

Ok maybe I’m missing something. Joi allowed him to visit the lab after he was banned?

All of this is in the linked article.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#136
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people would if it’s normalized. Not long ago Saudi Arabian money and PRC money was just fine. It’s hard not to take it when it’s about survival.

> Not long ago Saudi Arabian money and PRC money was just fine Wait, did something change this morning? AFAIK it's still fine and dandy to take Saudi money (esp. if you're the US government) and Chinese too.

If you work in tech you have to launder the Saudi money through Softbank but otherwise it's fine.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#137
post #130
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, I suspect his prior conviction for “solicitation of prostitution involving a minor” may have played a part. But, the details could be interesting.

I wonder how that happens, like what would have caused them to take notice and add him to a list? In part, I wonder if it has any connection to Gregory Benford's description of Minsky's interaction with Epstein: https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/339725/

I'm just spitballing here, but if someone is involved in delivering millions of dollars' worth of donations to you, it would be reasonable to perform a basic background check on them, just to guard against huge potential PR problems. I doubt that they do the same over, say, $500 donations from random people, but once you're into the millions of dollars, you really need to know who you're dealing with. Background checks are used in many situations involving much smaller amounts of money (like entry-level jobs), so why not here?

And hi!!

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#139

[flagged]

This is about continuing to maintain ties with Epstein long after how problematic he was was known, to the point that the university had banned having any involvement with him because of his pedophilia conviction and Joichi Ito still associated with him and took his money, while lying to the greater university and covering up that he was still involving himself with him.

No, this definitely could not have happened to 90% of us.

Re: Joi Ito Resigns from M.I.T. Media Lab After Outcry over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

#140

Adjacent: that’s well-written PR spin from the Gates’ camp: > “Epstein was introduced to Bill Gates as someone who was interested in helping grow philanthropy. Although Epstein pursued Bill Gates aggressively, any account of a business partnership or personal relationship between the two is simply not true. And any claim that Epstein directed any programmatic or personal grant making for Bill Gates is completely fals…

> Why does it matter if Epstein was aggressive or not if Gates wrote the check? To respond to concerns that the two were spotted together frequently. This is an answer to a question. Figure out the question and you will understand.

Surely Bill Gates hires big burly men who can enforce his personal space. I find it hard to believe that Bill Gates could earnestly be the victim of such hounding for more than a brief moment.
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