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I’m not suicidal: the Epstein cover-up

Opinion

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November 23, 2019

It’s been a little over two months since Jeffery Epstein’s death. His death was, to anybody with knowledge about him, not a surprise. When Epstein was arrested in July, people began speculating that he would die, with remarks like “So we all agree Jeffrey Epstein is going to kill himself, right?” From the moment he was arrested, people were saying he would die and it would be ruled as “suicide.” And, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Now with Epstein dead, the investigation into his sex crimes, and investigation into many of his wealthy and influential friends, who were also involved, has ended.

In the immediate aftermath, the Internet came alive with people from both sides of the political spectrum speculating who killed him. Some believed it was the Clintons, others Trump and others the Royal Family. However, the key takeaway is this: nobody believes Epstein killed himself. However, after a few weeks, things eventually subsided. People still talked about it, most still not buying the official story, but life went on, and Epstein’s name faded from the headlines.

Then, two weeks ago, two bombshells came out that reignited the story. First, the medical professional hired by the Epstein family to study the body reported that the marks on Epstein’s neck were more consistent with strangling instead of hanging, something that had been hinted at in earlier medical examinations, and was of no real surprise to anyone.

However, the real bombshell came from James O’Keefe’s journalist group Project Veritas, who released video footage of ABC anchor Amy Robach stating that ABC had a story on Epstein back in 2016, only to bury it instead. In the aftermath, an official statement given by ABC stated that the story did not have enough evidence for their journalistic “standards.” If this wasn’t about the biggest scandal in decades, maybe even the century, I’d say that excuse was the funniest joke I’d heard.

Let’s go through what has passed ABC’s “standards” as of late. Roughly a month ago, ABC aired a story on the conflict in Syria but used cropped footage of explosions from a Kentucky gun range. Last time I checked, that’s called fake news. And let’s not forget Brett Kavanaugh, who was scrutinized by the entire media on what amounted to hear-say and 40-year-old accusations, and was cleared by the FBI. All of this was up to their journalistic “standards.”

This excuse that the Epstein story was squashed because of “standards” is laughable. Instead, look at Robach’s own words. On the tape, she said that the Royal Palace had pressured ABC to keep the story quiet, as Prince Andrew was an associate of Epstein accused of being in on the abuse. According to Robach, this pressure, as well as the fear that they wouldn’t be allowed to interview Prince William and Kate Middleton, was part of the reason for ABC squashing the story.

Something else that comes to mind is the date. The footage released by Veritas was from earlier this year, after Epstein’s suicide. According to Robach, they had this story three years ago, 2016. What else was going on at that time? The US Election between Trump and Clinton. Also worthy of note is who, besides Epstein and Prince Andrew, Robach says they had dirt on: Clinton. She doesn’t specify which one, but most likely Bill, as he was a known associate of Epstein and regularly took trips to Epstein’s island. Imagine how much damage that info would have caused Hillary’s campaign, had it been released.

Also worthy of note is that she never mentions Trump. Given the antagonistic relationship between Trump and the press, had they had any damning evidence against Trump, one would think Robach would mention it. To be fair, the main source in Robach’s story was Virginia Roberts, only one woman. There may be evidence against Trump, and Robach simply didn’t have it. Many more powerful individuals visited Epstein’s island that Roberts probably never encountered.

However, the scandal didn’t end with the leak. Not long after the Project Veritas leak, Ashley Bianco was fired from her position at CBS. Why? Bianco had previously worked for ABC, and ABC, believing her to be the source of the leak, contacted CBS, resulting in her firing. The fact that ABC tried to punish someone who leaked such important information, not to mention the fact that they worked with another news network to do so should send a chilling message: the news media would rather cover for the corrupt establishment and will punish anyone who tries to hold them to account.

But wait, there’s more! Not only did they fire someone over this, but they also fired the wrong person. According to Bianco, she is not the whistleblower, who she says is still inside ABC. So not only are the news media corrupt, they’re incompetent as ever.

Don’t forget Epstein. The establishment wants you to forget about this so they can keep doing this. They want us to go back to our everyday lives, to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of business as usual so that we won’t learn the truth and hold them accountable. Epstein was only one monster among many, one piece of a horrific puzzle. For all their biases, Project Veritas has done a public service by releasing this. I only hope James O’Keefe doesn’t end up committing “suicide” for his service.

Car Talk with Buck: How to jump-start your battery

Lifestyles

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November 23, 2019

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Car Talk with Buck: How to jump-start your battery

Have you ever been left stranded in a parking lot because your car died? Maybe you left your lights or radio on and it killed your battery. Don’t worry. If you read this you will know how to jump-start your car. To jump-start your car you will need 3 things:

Jumper cables are a necessity for anyone driving a car. You never know when you may be in this situation. A good pair of jumper cables can be bought for around, 20 to 30 dollars.

If you think that’s expensive, try calling a wrecker service. It could cost you upwards of 50 dollars for them to jump you off. Because my truck’s battery fails me, I always keep a pair in my truck to get my truck started or to help those in need.

The first thing you must do is pop both vehicles’ hoods. Find the battery in both vehicles and position the cars where the batteries will be the closest to one another as possible. Some car manufacturers like Lincoln or Dodge place batteries in the trunk. If this is the case for your vehicle, there should be a jump point located under the hood.

Before hooking up the jumper cables, locate the positive and negative terminals for each battery. The positive terminal will have a + sign to one side of the battery post. The negative terminal will have a – sign to one side of its post.

Once both cars’ battery terminals are identified, start the friend’s car. Take the black jumper cable clamp and clamp it onto your battery’s negative terminal. Then place the second black clamp and clamp it onto your friend’s negative battery terminal.

Next, clamp one red clamp onto your vehicle’s positive battery terminal. Then clamp the other red clamp onto your friend’s positive battery terminal.

Wait about 5 minutes or so and try to start your vehicle. If it doesn’t turn over, wait about 10 or 15 minutes and try again. Once your car cranks, remove jumper cables in the opposite order from the way you put them on.

Remove the red clamp on your friend’s battery followed by the red clamp on your car. Then undo the black clamp from your friend’s car and remove the clamp on your vehicle’s negative battery terminal.

If your vehicle does not start, make sure each clamp is securely placed onto each post. Sometimes it helps to clamp the terminal and wiggle the clamp to ensure it has a good contact surface between the clamp and the terminal.

Make sure when jump-starting your vehicle that you do not place one red clamp onto a positive terminal and the other on a negative terminal. The same goes for hooking a negative terminal to a positive one. This will result in damage to both the vehicle’s electrical systems. The best way to ensure this does not happen is take your time and always look at the terminal’s identification marks each time you hook up a clamp.

Tiftarea Panthers push forward in state playoffs

Sports

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November 23, 2019

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Tiftarea Panthers push forward in state playoffs

CHULA– The Panthers seemed to be feeling themselves again after defeating the Deerfield-Windsor High School Knights in the Panther Pit 35-0. The Panthers advanced their season record to 6-2 with one game left in the regular season.

Starting quarterback Logan Crosson and his offense played a hard first series but unfortunately suffered a turnover. Senior running back and linebacker, Jaden Jones, played both sides of the field that night with intensity. With Jones and Jackson Hoover on defense, the Panthers did not give up a first down to the Knights after turning the ball over.

Senior wide receiver Will Ross had an incredible game in the first half. Ross caught the first touchdown and started the night off for the Panther’s right. Instead of going for two-point conversions all night, Soliday had Jayk Sailer kick an extra point for all five. Sailer completed five out of five extra-point attempts. After the first touchdown, things on the field began to get tense. Initially, the Knights received the first flags for non-sportsmanship conduct and pass interference.

The double flag from the refs helped Crosson push his team closer to the endzone and he was able to use a quarterback keep completing the second touchdown of the night.

The Knights looked helpless on the field in the first half against both the Panther’s defense and offense. The halftime score was 14-0 and the Panthers ran off the field looking and feeling confident for the second half.

Unfortunately, after Crosson returned to the field, he threw his one and only interception of the night to Knights defensive back Harren Bettis. However, the Knights offense had no success moving the ball towards the endzone and once again had to punt the ball away on fourth down.

Crosson was given another chance to score, so he threw the ball to his most trusted senior running back, Adam McKinney, who came inches from getting a touchdown. With the prime field location McKinney fought for, Crosson easily ran the ball inside for a touchdown on the next play.

The score moved to 21-0 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter and the Knights still couldn’t put any points on the board. Before the third quarter could end though, Crosson found Ross in the endzone for a fourth touchdown for the Panthers and Ross’s second touchdown of the night.

Unfortunately, the referees deemed a celebration by Ross as un-sportsmanlike, and Ross was ejected from the game. Head Coach Erik Soliday stormed after the referee hoping to change his mind but once Ross was ejected, the decision was made final.

The Panthers used the ejection of one of their players as motivation to punish the Knights even harder. Tiftarea started running the ball and taking as much time away from the Knights as they could.

An unfamiliar sight, Dylan Harbor played as quarterback during the fourth quarter. He earned the last and final touchdown of the night by using a quarterback keep and running for the touchdown.

Unlike the two losses before the game against the Knights, Soliday reported that he was very pleased with how the team played.

“We came out and played with a little emotion tonight and we had a good week of preparation that paid off in the game,” said Soliday. “And we played with a little enthusiasm that we haven’t played with in a while and this is what we are capable of when we do play that way.”

The Tiftarea Panthers played their final regular-season game on Nov. 8, against the Southland Academy Raiders. The Panthers were defeated 14-7, and according to Soliday, the team didn’t play a complete game.

Coley scored the only touchdown of the game when the Panthers were down 14-0, but they couldn’t pull together to push the Raiders off. The loss impacted the placement of the Panthers in the playoffs.

For many fans, they thought this would be the end of the road for the Panther’s season. The loss against Southland Academy sent the Panthers on the road to a neutral stadium in Statesboro to play against the Bulloch Academy Gators.

For many of the stars on the field, the game against the Gators came close to be their last night on the field as a player in a high school football game.

The Panthers fought and clawed their way to a victory in the fourth quarter when Sailer kicked the game-winning field goal, 14-7.

Crosson, McKinny, Harbor, Jones, Coley and Sailer will have their next chance to stay in the running for the GISA Class AAA State Championship. The Panthers will meet Heritage Acadamy for a re-match in the second round of the playoffs.

The last time the Panthers played against Heritage, the team left defeated, 29-6. Hopefully, the Panthers will lineup on Friday ready to serve up a much-needed victory.

Manna Drop seeks volunteers to fundraise

News

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November 23, 2019

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Manna Drop seeks volunteers to fundraise

This Saturday will be the seventh Manna Drop. This local charity event provides meals to families in advance of Thanksgiving. However, this year’s may be the last Manna Drop for some time. Landon Rowe, one of the event organizers, explained the current situation. “This is a crossroad we’re at now where everyone that’s part of the group is graduating.”

The Manna Drop program currently consists of Rowe, Cheyenne Colson, Loren Lindler, Lane Riley, Will Bostleman and Dr. Tom Grant. Of the members, Bostleman was recently brought on to recruit new people in order to continue Manna Drop.

“Will came on late in the year,” Grant said, “At this point, we don’t have anyone other than Will who’s even going to be around next year.”

Rowe, who graduates in December, expressed the same concerns. “So, we’re in a predicament now where we are looking for people with the right experience to take Manna Drop over,” Rowe said. Manna Drop was originally started in the Stafford School of Business, under the former deans, Dill and Susan Driscoll. Funding was originally provided by Stafford, as well as Ameris Bank and former ABAC student Caroline Langdale.

The Driscolls have been involved in the project up until last year. Now, without access to its previous funding sources, Manna Drop is in need of members willing to donate. “People willing to volunteer isn’t the issue,” Grant said.

“Plenty of people are willing to hand out baskets. But, we’re not just gathering food from the food bank. We’re purchasing food from Publix in order to put together these nice Thanksgiving baskets.”

For any students interested in joining Manna Drop, or who simply want to volunteer for this year, contact Dr. Tom Grant at tgrant@abac.edu, or visit him at The Stallion office in the Branch Student Center.

GSA’s response ‘We’re not going anywhere’

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November 18, 2019

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GSA’s response ‘We’re not going anywhere’

Slurs against gay rights supporters and alleged vandalism to a hay bale decorated as a rainbow sheep for an ABAC contest sparked an uproar on social media last week, reaching hundreds of people and drawing attention from a Tallahassee news station.

ABAC’s police chief and administration have dismissed the complaint as “storm damage” even though many still see it as a hate crime and act of vandalism. One student who admitted to using the slur “f**king queers” made an apology to the ABAC Police Department.

General Provisions, from the ABAC student handbook, states, “all individuals expressing themselves on ABAC’s campus must comply with the following provisions: 1. Disruptive Activity – Obstruction, disruption, or interference with classes, administrative functions, or other college activities or events is not permitted. Likewise, infringement on the rights of others is prohibited. Any attempt by repeated demands, threats, or otherwise to coerce passerby into stopping and participating in debate or discussion is prohibited.”

Club members say the dean said no punishment would be assessed because students have freedom of speech. Dean of Students, Bernice Hughes has declined requests for an interview.

The ABAC GSA is a club dedicated to unifying the LGBTQ+ community with the rest of ABAC’s campus. Their hale bale was decorated as a rainbow sheep with the sign, “Be the rainbow sheep in the family.” It was one of several decorated hay bales entered in the ABAC Horticulture Club Contest. Even with GSA’s mission of tolerance and inclusion, this is just the latest act of harassment and vandalism against the group.

In 2009, the club, then known as SPECTRA, was initially refused status as a club by student government. After they were allowed club status, club members complained that their signs would be torn down and their efforts were disrespected.

According to a February article in The Stallion, “GSA members are accustomed to getting dirty looks, eye rolls or the occasional snarky remark.” The article describes an event at Lakeside where a group of people took candy from their table. The club members offered them a flyer.

Ari Penne, a GSA club member, said, “I guess they didn’t like that because on their way out they threw a flyer and a stress ball at us.”

The latest conflict began on Wednesday, Nov. 6, when GSA members noticed that a part of their hay bale for the Horticulture Club contest had been ripped off.

“We discovered it around two or three,” Alex Griffin, the acting GSA co-president, stated. Griffin is also the Agriculture Editor at The Stallion but did not take part in the writing or editing of this article.

Not wanting to assume the worst from minimal damage, the members went to repair their entry later that day. “Wednesday night, we were going to finish our hay bale by decorating it and putting the last details on it. That’s when the truck drove by and said something, but we weren’t sure what.”The black GMC Sierra drove back to the hay bale as members finished decorating their entry. This is when the occupants of the truck began making threats and slurs to the members. “They stopped in front of our haybale and started saying ‘Look at that sh*t, we should tear it down,’ and ‘I’m gonna rip that off.’ They were basically talking about how they were going to destroy it and that’s when they screamed ‘f**king queers.”After the incident, the members called the ABAC police around 6:15 p.m.

The police report states, “OfficerWisenbaker received a call about students threatening to damage a decorative bale on Perimeter Road.”

Griffin said, “The police came and basically was like, ‘it’s going to be your word versus their word.’ They told us not to engage with them and that they would have someone watch after our hay bale and have surveillance on it.”

“My folks stayed with it until they got off at eleven o’clock, just watching because they said there were threats,” Frank Strickland, the ABAC Chief of Police, said.

Even after the police said they would watch the hay bale, it managed to receive more damage on the next night.

“Friday morning, we woke up and it was like the pictures with the netting ripped down. I woke up to a message from one of the members of what had happened to the hay bale and she said, ‘I know that we had a storm last night, but I don’t think the weather did that,” stated Griffin.

The ABAC and Tifton community found out about the incident through two posts on Facebook.

“The social media reports were from a third party that are family members of the members from GSA,” Isabella Sauls, co-president of the GSA, said.

The original post was by Meagan Celeste on Friday, Nov. 8, around 4 p.m. This post contains screenshots of a conversation between Celeste and Griffin stating what had occurred. It received over 250 shares and numerous comments.

“We’ve got major support from people who’ve commented on the posts, but we’ve also gotten hate. There are people who think that we don’t belong here at ABAC because it’s an agriculture school,” said Sauls.

Many people online were concerned that the school delayed making a statement about the matter for over a week, some complaining that the school would take more action if it were a different club on campus.

Dr. Jay Baldwin, the Assistant Professor of Communication, said, “You can’t wait to respond because we live in an age of social media where the narrative is going to get formed. That discussion is going to happen whether you engage with it or not. As an organization, if you don’t engage with that, you have no input on what that narrative is going to be.”

Dr. Jess Usher, the Assistant Professor of History and Rural Studies and the faculty adviser for the Student Government Association (SGA), also commented, “The thing with the administration side of this is they are often handcuffed by USG policy. There are very strict guidelines about what you can say and not say. Especially when you have investigations underway, you want to protect the victims above all, but you also want to protect the rights of anyone who might be accused of what I considered are the crimes involved.”

“With everyone’s emotions and everything that’s been said and everything that’s been done, people want to believe that it was intentional, but I don’t think it was,” Strickland said.

Strickland said he believes a thunderstorm damaged the GSA hay bale entry.

“We had a pretty good thunderstorm around 1:30 or two o’clock in the morning with wind and rain. There were four or five other hay bales that had damage from the storm. It’s my belief based on the way that this is damaged that it was the storm also,” Strickland said.

The reason he believes this was storm damage is that the netting came off at the anchor part in the hay bale. The wind picked up the pieces of cotton, took hay with it and strung it across the ground around the bale. The face of the sheep and the sign were also left unbothered, which led to the conclusion that the storm caused the damage.

Strickland backs his statement up with his personal opinion on the matter. “If you were gonna damage something and tear something up, why would you leave the head on it and why would you leave the sign alone,” Strickland said.

Lindsey Roberts, The Director of Marketing and Communication, issued a statement on Friday, Nov. 15, a week after the incident.

“ABAC has reviewed the matter and was unable to determine any vandalism occurred. The damage is believed to be attributed to the storm that occurred early on the morning of November 8, which also damaged other hay bales. The language used by one individual is not representative of ABAC nor what we aspire to be as a community. ABAC is working with the students involved,” Roberts stated.

“Even if it is 100 percent true that the weather did this damage, it’s already been perceived in the minds of people in the community that this was an act of vandalism. That’s the risk that you run when you don’t make a statement earlier,” Baldwin said. “I seriously doubt that that statement is going to be met with anything but a bunch of ridicule and part of that reason was because of a more forceful statement wasn’t made immediately.”

Griffin doesn’t believe that the weather was to blame for the hay bale damage. “Ours was the only one that got destroyed. The others had a few things knocked down but nothing like ours where it was torn, cut, ripped or shredded,” she said.

Chief Strickland also said, “We identified the folks involved in the first incident. They came by and hollered whatever they hollered. We talked and interviewed all four. One of the boys admitted to saying something pretty ugly. That’s been referred administratively to Dean Hughes and student affairs.”

Griffin said, “Today (Nov. 15), we were called in and she (Dean Hughes) told us that this is now a closed investigation. The one boy said that he’s very sorry and the ABAC lawyers have now said that it was free speech and the hay bale being torn apart was just the weather.”

The GSA still hopes for something more positive in the future of their club. “Hopefully, people will learn that they can’t get away with this kind of stuff on campus. Unlike administration, we are not going to let this go or forget about it,” said Sauls.

The first post from the GSA Facebook page after the incident supported their statements, “By now everyone should know about what happened to our hay bale. Unfortunately, it was vandalized. However, we cannot let this stop us from showing that we exist at ABAC. What was done to our hay bale shows more about those that did it than it does us. We are not going anywhere.”

Usher said, “I want to know about what we need to do to keep problems like this from happening again. That takes the whole community. That takes administration. That takes faculty and staff and, most importantly, that takes students. I think you’ll see a response from (the student government) that there will be a call for some sort of campus event, forum, the discussion so that these problems are not ignored. The last thing that student government should do is say let’s pretend it didn’t happen and that’s not the stance of the student government president or any of the other officers at (the student government).”

A mass email sent to all ABAC students said the student government will be meeting on Nov. 18 to discuss how to prevent these incidents from happening in the future. According to the email, “Topics for discussion include developing student discussion events to support GSA and help prevent hate speech on campus.”

The student government struggled with this issue for a week. On Saturday following the incident, The Stallion staff reached out to Student Government President Jake Harris for a statement. Harris, who is also an ABAC Ambassador, said on Saturday, Nov. 9, “Please direct all of your questions to the ABAC Office of Marketing and Communications.”

Harris said, “I do not know all the details of what happened, so I was instructed by the Dean of Students to refer questions to the ABAC Office of Marketing and Communications.” As an Ambassador, Harris’ adviser is Lindsey Roberts of the Office of Marketing and Communications. As SGA President, Harris’ adviser is Jess Usher. A week passed and Harris issued a second statement on Friday, Nov. 15.

“The ABAC Student Government Association (SGA) is dedicated to uniting all stallions by creating an atmosphere of excellence and respect. Therefore, we condemn any act of violence towards any person no matter their race, class, sexual orientation or religion. In response to the recent event concerning the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), SGA is working with the GSA to do its part in preserving a spirit of harmony among our student body,” Harris said.

If any students are affected by this incident or any other incident, they are encouraged to visit the Student Development Center located in Branch 216. Their operating hours are from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. on Fridays.

Shuba Chatterjee, an ABAC counselor and lecturer of psychology, wants all students to be aware of the free services provided by the center.

“I am here for my students and they mean a lot to me. Whether it’s this incident or any other incident or for anything that any student is going through,” Chatterjee stated, “ABAC is a family and I really believe in that, that we can together, we can help each other. I would like our students to do well and have peace in their life. They shouldn’t be in fear of talking to us.”