The Epstein Files

Posted: July 30, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As Donald J. Trump continues to reign over his kakistocracy — have you noticed that he has the least competent members of his Cabinet in the most important roles — and to pursue affirmative action for white Christian males, you may have noticed that over the last couple of weeks he has been distracted by what are now commonly called the Epstein Files. Unfortunately, this is not the name of a new television program or a new Netflix series. It is short hand for the investigation into the people that may have been involved with an infamous sex trafficker who exploited girls and young women and who died in jail by committing suicide. The news cycles have been full of developments surrounding the evolution of the entire caper and in particular, Trump’s level of involvement with Epstein. The subject repeatedly comes up in Trump’s constant interaction with the press reporters that cover the White House, including during his taxpayer funded — at a cost of at least 10 million dollars — trip to Scotland to promote his businesses and to play golf.

I will attempt to explain the current situation and why it continues to dominate the headlines, but first, I must lament that all of the coverage surrounding the Epstein Files crowds out important developments that impact all of our lives. Trump and his administration continue to implement the tenets of Project 2025 and to attack the First Amendment ability to express one’s beliefs and opinions without fear of retribution. He is systematically going after the media, the education system (especially colleges), law firms, the judiciary and any other person or institution that dares to criticize him. More than that, he is working hard to establish that anything that upsets him, in any form, or that does not reflect his own view of the world is to be attacked, eliminated or otherwise punished unless they bend the knee to his highness. It is pure Mafia tactics. “Nice little university you have there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.” 220 million dollars and the installation of a government overseer seems to be the current price for getting out from under his attacks. Just ask Columbia University. Or soon, Harvard at a cost of 500 million dollars. Oh, and let’s not forget that Trump demanded that Texas redraw it’s map for districts for the House of Representatives to give the Republicans (MAGA) five new seats — meaning the Democrats lose five — and the state legislature did just that.

I could go on and on. Please keep an eye on the ball as to the destruction of the norms and values of our country as we dive into the abyss of the Epstein Files. I would not go into this territory were it not for the fact that it exposes the dark corners of MAGA land, and for once, it is Trump’s own supporters that will not let it go. It may be the first time that I know about that Trump might not be able to con his way out of trouble. May be.

Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier that ran in the fancy circles of power, money and prestige in the U.S. and elsewhere. He was also perhaps the world’s biggest child sex trafficker. His convicted accomplice is Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving twenty years in jail for child sex abuse as the recruiter and procurer of under age girls for Epstein. Epstein was first arrested in Florida in 2008 and pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl under the age of 18. He got what was considered a sweetheart deal of 18 months in the county jail on a work-release program. The prosecutor in that case who agreed to the plea bargain was Alex Acosta who later became Trump’s Secretary of Labor during his first term. Epstein was arrested a second time in New York in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors. He committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial. Please note the dates. Despite Republican politicians attempts to blame Presidents Obama and Biden for the whole mess, note that President George W. Bush was president when Epstein was first arrested and sentenced and Trump was president the second time he was arrested and committed suicide.

Nice people. The evidence suggests that Epstein and Maxwell abused hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand, young women and girls from around the world. Pure evil. Of Epstein’s many friends, one was Trump as can be seen in many videos and photographs of the two together. To date, no one other than Epstein and Maxwell have been indicted or convicted of partaking in their crimes. However, to many MAGA believers, that is a problem. In their eyes, there must be a massive cover-up. More on that in a moment. Many MAGA podcasters and others spent years focusing on the Epstein case as a major source of criticism of Democrats and the “elite.” Of those people, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were front and center stoking the conspiracies behind the Epstein case. They are now, respectively, the Attorney General of the United States, the Director of the FBI and the Deputy Director of the FBI. They all promised to release any and all documents and information relevant to Epstein and to expose the cover-up for what it was. Ooops. Not so fast. According to the Wall Street Journal there are numerous mentions of Trump in the files. So, the DOJ and FBI announced that there was really nothing of value in the files and therefore they would not be releasing them.

Cue the fire storm. MAGA land went ballistic. Trump had betrayed them. So far, everything that Trump the con man has tried to do to change the subject has either made it worse or did not work as a distraction. Right now the world’s greatest con man is running scared that he cannot change the narrative. Here’s why.

Remember that I do not make this stuff up. I am not sure that my imagination is good enough to come up with the following. From my perspective, there are two levels of MAGA folks that are riled up about the lack of transparency about Epstein. There are the hard core MAGA believers that think the world is run by a cabal of pedophiles that are rich, powerful and secretive. Sometimes referred to as the “elite” sometimes as the “deep state” sometimes both. The deep state is not just the civil servants in the government that always foiled Trump in his first term. They are, but in the sense that they do the bidding of the real deep state that controls all of our lives and are never held accountable. Think Pizzagate in 2016 where code words, satanic symbols and other clues indicated that Democrats (sometimes Hillary Clinton) had a secret underground lair in a neighborhood pizza shop in the Washington D.C. area where pedophiles feasted (in some tellings, literally) on young children. A man from North Carolina shot up the place in an attempt to break up the pedophile ring. (No such ring existed. Only pizza.) These folks think that Epstein was part of that world. (Part of the Trump administration policies and actions is to wrest control of our institutions, government and civilian, in every walk of life, from the elites. He is doing it for his own power, but it satisfies his base to claim he is doing it for them.)

The second level of Epstein conspiracists do not quite match the level of depravity that the hard core believers do. However, they do think that there is a class of people that get away with things that ordinary citizens cannot. The elites control outcomes in many of our lives and the ordinary person cannot catch a break because all of the best outcomes are hoarded and controlled by the elites. Think of it as Pizzagate light. They are not necessarily into the pedophilia and really dark aspects of the really deep conspiracies but they do believe that they never get a fair shot.

Trump promised to expose all of those people controlling the world, expose their networks, their plots and bring them all to justice so that the MAGA faithful will have their retribution (his campaign promise) and finally get a fair chance at “the good stuff.”

He was to be their savior. Thus the Christian overtones and appeals to the Evangelicals. He survived the assassination attempt because God chose him to be the one to bring light to all of the darkest secrets. It gets complicated, but you get the idea.

For him to now say that “there’s nothing to see here, move along” means either that he betrayed the MAGA faithful or that he, in fact, is one of the elites and is trying to protect himself or them or both. He either lied when he said that he would release all of the files or he lied when he said that there is nothing in them. Which then begs the question that his followers now ask, if he lies about this what else is he willing to lie about?

It has taken me quite a while to comprehend all of this. I am not sure that I do now. The attempt to over throw the government? No big deal. Adjudicated sex offender? Rigged. Prices continue to go up? We will survive. The war in Ukraine did not end in 24 hours? Not our problem. I could go on and on but his true blue followers allow or explain away all kinds of things that impact them daily that Trump promised and never delivered. But the Epstein Files? Traitor!! Their existence is at the center of everything they believe and at the center of the way they view the world. If they do not exist then what are they to think?

The con-man-in-chief is now trying to figure a way out. So far, it is not working. It is his supporters that are after him the most. Democrats and other never-Trump folks are happy to keep bringing up the subject but he still cannot assuage his supporters. (The Democrats have to be careful not to pin it all on Trump. They should push to have the files released and then let the chips fall where they may, even if some prominent Democrats or their supporters are revealed in the files.) The Democrats are working to have the files released and have proposed legislation to have it happen. Republicans are caught in a bind. The solution? Shut down the House of Representatives and send every one home until September — even though there was still important work to do — as the Speaker of the House did last week. I guess he hopes that it all blows over by then.

Trump is getting ever more desperate. He is calling the whole thing a hoax — his go-to attack. But if it is a hoax then why did Epstein and Maxwell go to jail? Why have hundreds of victims asked for justice? Then, he tried the move to ask the courts to release the grand jury testimony. I am not an attorney, but my understanding is that only very rarely happens in specific cases and it takes a very long time to make it happen. And that testimony would be very narrow. Only enough to get an indictment on Epstein and Maxwell. It would not include all of those that might be involved. A stalling tactic? We are trying but those darn judges are standing in our way again. Then he sent the Deputy Attorney General of the United States to interview Maxwell over two days at her prison. Also unheard of in proper prosecutorial practice and procedure. By the way, the Deputy AG was Trump’s personal attorney prior to joining the administration and is good friends with Maxwell’s attorney. Coincidence? Oh, and did I mention that Maxwell is a known liar officially charged with perjury? And that Trump keeps hinting about a pardon or commutation for her? Could this be a diversion to make Maxwell’s testimony a substitute for releasing the files? And why has no one asked the victims about all of this? Trump has expressed no concern or empathy for the many victims. Indeed, he speaks about how Epstein “stole” one of “his” employees. According to his own telling, Trump broke up with Epstein for stealing his employees, talking about them as if he owned them. He doesn’t say anything about breaking up with him for what he was doing to the girls. Trump has made many other weird statements that indicate he doesn’t seem upset about what was going on. (One of the employees was a 16 year old girl at the time that worked in Trump’s spa at Mar-a-Lago. Hmmm.)

I have no idea how any of this is going to end. I tend to think that Trump will survive without serious consequences as he has his entire life. But then, he has never been attacked by his own supporters before. Meanwhile, we are all talking (well, a lot of people are talking) about the Epstein Files while Trump and his minions continue to turn our country into an autocracy.

Trump Hates Me (And Maybe You Too)

Posted: July 7, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”

— Trump referring to Democrats at a “Salute to America” rally on 3 July 2025

I am still trying to figure out how I morphed from being a moderate, maybe slightly left of center on social issues, into a “lunatic” and a “radical left Democrat.” I don’t feel any different today than I did, say, a year ago. Maybe I am just not self aware. Or maybe the President of the United States does not care about half of the citizens of those same United States. Or worse. Perhaps he is radicalizing his followers into committing acts of political violence so that he can promote his own autocratic agenda.

Whether or not you believe this is “just Trump being Trump,” his increasingly violent language has consequences. He calls undocumented immigrants “scum” and “animals” and “people with bad genes” among many other, even worse, characterizations of other human beings. There is a long historical record of how words used to vilify “others” eventually always leads to violence. Increasingly, it is apparent that Trump has an agenda to depict our country as under attack from “within” by people that, as he says, “hate our country.” Apparently, eventually or tomorrow, I am one of those people. Imagine my surprise! He is only six months into his term. He has three and a half more years to continue to implement his autocratic plan. Am I fear mongering? I don’t think so — and I am certainly not doing it on purpose — but to me, the evidence is there.

Trump has figured out that all he has to do is demand that something happen and refuse to back off when dealing with our institutions. His cabinet, in my opinion, is filled primarily with sycophants that are too busy designing photo ops to impress the boss, rather than running their departments. There is no pushback. Other institutions seem to take the same approach, impress Trump by giving him what he wants and hopefully he will back off — which of course no bully ever does if they keep “winning.” Whether it is the party formerly known as the Republican Party, Congress, the Supreme Court, institutions of higher learning, corporations, tech bros, or countless other groups, they cave. If the guardrails are still there, they are hanging on by one slightly rusty bolt. Perhaps some state governors and legislatures continue to do the right thing and to follow the law, but it isn’t clear to me how long they can keep it up. When the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) goes to California for a photo op with the National Guard and combat Marines protecting Los Angeles from a non-existent threat, there are already warning signs. When she declares “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country” as she did on 12 June 2025, there is an imminent threat to our democracy. Like them or not, the governor of a state and the mayor of a city are duly elected representatives of their constituents. The DHS cannot implement a coup d’etat just because they disagree with an elected official’s legal policies.

Mass deportations are underway. When will they stop? Who knows, but given the pace of things and impotence of the Congress and the willingness of the Supreme Court to do Trump’s bidding, I expect them to continue to expand. When due process is not enforced, and apparently it isn’t really being enforced except in a few publicized cases, and masked men without identification can whisk anyone away off the streets with no restraints, we are already living in a police state. What is to stop it from expanding to others that merely disagree with this administration? When the president declares that he hates half of the country, what he is really saying is “fall in line or else.” I worry about the “or else” for the citizens of our great country.

With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Trump has a para-military force (ICE) that is bigger than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Agency, Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service combined. Add to that the use of the military in the form of federalized National Guard troops and combat Marines in Los Angeles. But why stop there? The Trump administration is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to “help” ICE and has approved plans for deploying up to 700 Marines in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Think about that. They are gradually increasing the numbers and locations of combat Marines throughout the United States. I seriously doubt that that will be the end of it. Coming soon to a city near you! The U.S. Marines! We should be so thankful. Believe me when I tell you that the Marine Corps absolutely does not want to do this. It impedes their readiness and training for, you know, their actual duties (the Marines are an expeditionary force to, as they like to say, “kick open the door” for the other services in foreign combat — hopefully they will not soon be kicking open my door), not too mention it uses Department of Defense (DOD) money that could be better spent elsewhere and takes those Marines away from their families, when they already have precious little time to spend with them to begin with.

I do not have a good feeling about the 2026 elections when the president declares that Democrats are unpatriotic and hate their country, with increasing numbers of troops deployed around the country, with a Department of Justice (DOJ) that is Trump’s personal law firm, and other warning signs. Trump continually debases our country and rants about how dangerous it is. What assurances do we have that the 2028 election won’t include Trump? Here is my “canary in the coal mine” concern about upcoming elections. Neither Trump nor his MAGA supporters in Congress seem to care about the political damage the OBBBA and other policies are causing. In what might be considered normal elections, the “Republican” party would be likely to take heavy election losses turning Congress over to the Democrats. They seem totally unconcerned about that — especially Trump. Why?

As Trump and his cronies continue to dismantle the federal government, from the National Security Council to our health care institutions, to environmental agencies, to education agencies, to just about anything you can name, Trump and his fiercest loyalists are consolidating power under the Executive branch. He likes to say that he loves Article II (of the Constitution) because I have “the right to do whatever I want as president.” Constitutional experts would disagree, but let’s look at the evidence. The Supreme Court says the president is immune and only they can rule on whether what he does is Constitutional or not. His Project 2025 minders continually tell him that he is the ultimate decision maker on almost everything. Truthfully, who has stopped him?

Here is the kicker. The following is a peek into the future for us and the current mind set of this administration.

Remember Tik Tok? The scourge of the youth of America? The one that was banned by a bipartisan vote in Congress, signed into law by the president and upheld in a 9-0 decision by the Supreme Court? Trump continues to ignore the law. He continues to give Tik Tok extensions for its sale, even as he campaigned that it was a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans. Stay with me, yes, who cares about Tik Tok, but here is where it gets scary.

Attorney General Pam “Whatever You Say Boss Barbie” Bondi declared that the president can decide which laws to enforce and further more, she declared that the companies carrying Tik Tok can continue to do so “without incurring any legal liability” and that DOJ was “irrevocably relinquishing” any legal claims against them for their actions.

How did she decide this? Quite simple actually. She declared that shutting down Tik Tok would impinge upon Trump’s “constitutional duties” because the law interfered with his “unique constitutional responsibility for the national security of the United States, the conduct of foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.” Hmm. If they will do this because Trump thinks Tik Tok helped him win the 2024 election, imagine what lawless lengths they will go to to do what they want, much less to interfere with any future elections.

I am sorry to be so negative. I see what is happening (and more) and worry greatly about the future of our democracy for our kids and grandkids. I see too many comments that “it can’t happen here.” It is already happening here and increasingly Trump and his loyalists are more and more brazen about it. I remember back in the fall when a voter focus group was asked if they were worried that we would lose our democracy under a Trump presidency. They all said “no.” Why? Because as long as we can vote we will have a democracy, they declared. To that I can only ask if they mean like in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), or like Russia, or like the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) or numerous other countries where the people vote, but they definitely do not have a democracy?

No one pays attention until they are impacted. By then it is too late.

Let Freedom Ring

Posted: July 3, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.“

Abraham Lincoln in a speech to the One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Ohio Regiment –August 22, 1864

Tomorrow is the 249th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, a time to celebrate our nation and our heritage. On our way to our landmark 250th birthday, I cannot help but wonder what kind of nation we will be in a year.

As I write, the House is about to vote in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that incorporates provisions to rob the poor to pay the rich. Almost immediately, Trump and his Mar-A-Lago buddies will benefit. Their tax breaks and financial incentives will help to make billionaires and corporations richer. To pay for it, while still adding over three trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP — commonly referred to as food stamps) will be cut substantially, along with other programs. The Medicaid cuts alone impact 12 million Americans. Along with other changes to the Affordable Care Act, numerous projections all agree that about another four million Americans will lose their health insurance. Those 16 million Americans set to lose their health care are not the perpetrators of waste fraud and abuse as Trump constantly falsely claims. The OBBBA is devious. The bill has many critics — the aggregate of reliable polls show that only about 33 percent of Americans approve of the bill. Knowing that, MAGA Republicans wrote the bill so that the tax cuts for the rich take place in the near term, but cuts to social services don’t kick in until December 2026, after the mid-term elections. Digging deeper, it is apparent that more than those on Medicaid will be impacted. Medicaid funds are the main source of income in many rural hospitals and medical clinics, retirement homes and other institutions that take care of our poor and elderly. Without Medicaid, many will close. In those areas, whether or not you personally have insurance, where are you going to go to get healthcare even if you can afford it? Cutting back Medicaid by about a trillion dollars will also lead to the loss of jobs. Several studies calculate that 500,000 healthcare workers will lose their jobs over the next ten years as a result of these cuts.

The bill is about 900 pages long. I do not believe that as I write today, a single Senator or Representative knows everything that is in the bill. There so many other provisions installed to satisfy the many competing interests of MAGA Senators and Representatives that the impact — and surprises — from the bill will be felt well into the future. Some significant changes include, for example, increased financial rewards for fossil fuel companies while it penalizes clean energy companies to such an extent that experts are worried about the future viability of the programs. As a result, thousands of jobs will be lost in what is currently one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S.

With all of that, my biggest concern is the immediate impact on Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE). Over the next four years, spending for Trump’s border security and mass deportation plans will increase to a total of 150 billion dollars. For example, the bill allocates 45 billion dollars for adult and family detention centers. That is up from the current 8 billion dollars. Look for more punitive detention centers such as the newly minted “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp. Just this week Trump and his factotums joked about how much “fun” living in the Everglades in cages without air conditioning would be. There are also equally significant increases in spending for more masked, unidentified men grabbing people off the streets and putting them into unmarked cars and sending them to jail without due process, a warrant or any other legal justification. Some who have lived here for decades, raising families, working hard and paying taxes even though they are not eligible for social security or many other tax payer funded services. By this time next year most of us will know or know of someone taken away for wanting to have a better life. This worries me a lot. I do not just worry about those that are currently being rounded up. I also worry about the rest of us — what if we look “foreign”? Will we have to carry our passports proving our citizenship just to go to the grocery store? Where does it stop as the Trump Administration digs deeper and deeper into our society to remove those who they decide do not belong here? We already have National Guard troops and combat Marines deployed in a peaceful Los Angeles. What other demonstrations of unleashed power are we going to see?

To my surprise, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is helping him to change our societal norms. Last week it was a ruling on nation-wide injunctions and birthright citizenship. In Trump v CASA, Inc, the justices put serious restraints on the ability of a district federal judge to issue a national injunction. A good argument can be made that the practice of “judge shopping” and looking for an amenable judge to stop anything that a particular group opposes should be eliminated. Practically speaking, however, really? This was the case that they chose? A violation of the Constitution? (Trump issued an Executive Order ending birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.) Not to mention that the Biden Administration tried several times to get the SCOTUS to take up the issue and they never did. (According to the Congressional Research Service, 28 nation-wide injunctions were issued during President Biden’s term.) There are arguments for and against these injunctions. The system was beginning to be abused. However, it seems to me that a case involving a president trying to eliminate a Constitutional right by fiat should not be limited to the plaintiffs that brought the case. The Court did delay their decision for thirty days so that the plaintiffs could pursue other avenues to address the issue. Without going into the legalese, legal experts disagree on how effective those work-arounds might be. One, is to file a class action lawsuit, however this SCOTUS has been continually refining and narrowing what cases are allowed under a class action. No one knows what will happen going forward. The result? Probably chaos. Trump always takes advantage of the loopholes in any ruling or law and then lies about it. Right now twenty two states, and some immigrant rights groups, have sued to stop Trump’s Executive Order. Does that mean at the end of July Trump can start taking away the citizenship of those in the other 28 states that are citizens by birth? How do you or I prove we are a citizens? Trump is also threatening to denaturalize citizens that oppose him. Whether we agree with his critics or not, we do not kick citizens out of the country because of their political views. This is part of a larger administration effort to punish people for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. Trump is also threatening to send US citizens to “shithole” third countries because of their beliefs. He says he will only send hardened criminals (there are already laws to imprison criminals in the US) but he gets to define who is a criminal.

Congress is impotent and unwilling to challenge him in any way. I had hope that the judicial system would temper him and keep his wildest impulses in check, but now SCOTUS says only they can do so. Not district courts or appellate courts. So in one sense, those courts are now exhibition matches because only the SCOTUS has the authority to rule on Executive Branch actions. By the way, on this court are the same people that said Trump as president is immune for prosecution no matter what he does in an “official” capacity. (Trump v United States) He has already shown a willingness to pardon hardened criminals if they do his bidding. Scary.

While we were not paying attention because of all of the drama surrounding the OBBBA, this week the Trump Administration withheld 7 billion dollars in education funds the night before they were to be disbursed. Those funds were duly appropriated and authorized by Congress. Once again Trump is going against the law. As a result, tens of thousands of summer programs and adult education and other activities to help kids and adults are cancelled. In addition the teachers, counselors and others have lost their jobs. This is yet another test of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act that Trump and his Project 2025 henchmen unilaterally declare to be un-Constitutional. Their belief is that the Executive Branch has sole discretion on how to spend funds appropriated and authorized by Congress.

Also this week, while few were paying attention, Trump severely limited military aid to Ukraine even as Russia mounts a major offensive and continues the largest aerial attacks of the war. Why would any of our friends or allies trust us?

In every instance I see the increasing power of the Executive Branch as they ooze into areas that give them more and more power. Appease Trump (bribe him — I am looking at you Paramount Studios), you get what you want. Oppose him for any reason and you are vilified, investigated, shut down or otherwise pursued in retribution. (“I am your retribution.” — 2024 campaign slogan) As time goes by he feels untouchable and ever more powerful.

Looking back over our 249 year history, clearly our country has been in some tough spots before and survived. We will eventually get through Trump, but I fear that it could be at least a generation of hard work to get back to where we were just a year ago. I cannot predict how things will look a year from now. When I put together everything that is happening (and the above is only a part of what is happening right now), however, along with his continued claims that the 2020 election was stolen and therefore election “reform” is necessary, I do not think that those of us that care, about our freedoms, our rights and our fellow human beings, are going to like it.