Party Like It Is 1880!

Posted: December 23, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The new sign defacing the memorial to President John F. Kennedy on December 19, 2025. (Getty Images)

After eleven months of the Trump administration, I am exhausted by the antics, crass behavior, crude language and the methodical destruction of our democracy and cultural foundations. Perhaps you are equally exhausted. However, after a breather to enjoy the holidays and the company of friends and family, we will need to get back to pointing out that nothing this regime does is “normal.” It is not “just politics.” It is a systematic assault on the United States in an attempt to change our fundamental way of life and to establish a kleptocracy that enriches Trump and his buddies and that keeps the rest of us down while they accumulate billions. (Even Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers movies — “one billion dollars” — would be an underachiever and not in their league.) It is said that Trump’s frame of reference is the 80’s. I would suggest that it is the 1880’s. Robber barons? Check. Close down immigration? Check. Discriminate against minorities? Check. Build big, slow outdated battleships? Check. Lesson the power of women in politics, society, and business? Check. Restore gunboat diplomacy? Check. Create banana republics in Latin America? Working on it. Consolidate power in the hands of a few white Christian men? Almost there. Like the old saying goes, history rarely repeats itself but a lot of times it rhymes.

After nearly a year of their relentless pursuit of crazy, I am noticing a pattern. It appears to me that the Project 2025 authors and advocates (Miller, Vought, Vance to name a few) are working to attain their goals while keeping grandpa with the addled brain busy with inane “branding” exercises where Trump runs around doing landscaping and tearing down public buildings and defacing monuments (the newly renamed Trump Institute of Peace is another example). No one is actually governing. While Trump sleeps through Cabinet meetings, they go about developing their individual pet projects and then do them in any manner they see fit. Legality, morality or ethical behavior play no role in the pursuit of their goals. If Trump likes to rename organizations, agencies and monuments then he should rename the Department of Justice (DOJ) the Department of Retribution and Bribe Collecting (DORBC). If you pay, you walk away — no matter the scope of your crimes. If you criticize Trump you may be prosecuted for accidentally checking the wrong box on a form. The Department of Defense (DOD) could be renamed The Department of Toys for the Regime’s Enjoyment (DOTRE). There is no coherent policy coming from Trump as he is focused only on destroying his perceived enemies, adding billions of dollars to his personal accounts and pretending to be powerful. All of his advisors are world class liars. It is no longer about Democrats and Republicans or even MAGA, in my view we should focus only on morality versus immorality. Everything is justified by claiming that it is a national security threat whether it is approved and effective wind farms along the East Coast or tariffs or blowing up small boats in the Caribbean. Everything, legal or not, is justified under the rubric of national security. They clearly believe that there will be no accountability and no one can stop them. They may be incompetent, but they clearly have a plan. Cruelty is the path to achieving their goals. When one steps back and looks at the big picture it is clear that Trump is mostly a figurehead while the boys in the back of the room pursue their agenda. There is a reason as to why they do what they do, no matter how random it may seem in the moment.

Examples abound. The new National Security Strategy is nearly incoherent and undoes eighty years of a working world order. In addition to enumerating why Trump is the best president ever and all the other recent presidencies were horrible, it lays out The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. In other words, according to Trump, we own the Western Hemisphere. All hail! We will do what we want and destroy anyone or anything that gets in our way. It calls for the redeployment of military assets to the hemisphere and away from other regions. It also essentially claims that natural resources in the region should go to the United States through our American companies in order to strengthen our position in the region. The desire for regime change in Venezuela makes sense in that context. Venezuela has the biggest known oil reserves in the world. Trump wants to make the fossil fuel barons happy so that they will keep giving him millions in “contributions.” He will keep repeating that Venezuela “stole” “our” oil and land (they did not — they nationalized the oil industry in the 1970’s and paid the oil companies nearly a billion dollars a piece in compensation). If we are going to be the hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere then his noise about Greenland and Canada makes sense. It is our American destiny, not the rantings of a man that is clearly declining in physical and mental health. (Did you see his prime time address to the nation last week? I watched — a waste of 18 minutes I won’t get back as there was no new news there — and was worried for the man. He is not well.) Borders are arbitrary, in their telling of history, therefore they can be redrawn or even ignored. Denmark, NATO and the European Union, not to mention the Greenlanders, are taking his comments seriously. Putin is loving it. Imagine if Trump takes Greenland by force. That is a NATO country attacking another NATO country — not only the end of NATO but a green light to Russia to take what it wants in Europe. (So long Baltic states.)

And then, there are the Epstein files. Exhibit number 27 that the Trump regime easily disregards any law that they do not want to follow. The law required DOJ to turn over all of the files last Friday. It specifies the way it should be done, exactly what needs to be turned over and other specific details. All ignored. The Attorney General of the United States is purposely breaking a law passed by a nearly unanimous vote in Congress (one Representative voted no) and signed into law by the President of the United States. They do not care. It also indicates to me that something really bad must be in there. Way too much effort to obscure, hide and cover-up for there to be nothing in them. Even Trump’s body language whenever he is asked about the situation shows his fear of what may be in the files. (My own theory is that he knew about the sex trafficking even if he did not personally get involved. In my opinion, his real fear is that his and Epstein’s money laundering operation in Florida and elsewhere in the 1990’s and early 2000’s will be exposed. Real estate deals broke up their friendship. The Russian’s know. A lot of it was for their oligarchs.)

The most disgusting part of the entire Epstein situation is that nobody in the administration — not Trump, not the Attorney General, not the Vice President — has expressed any sympathy or explanation or concern about the hundreds, perhaps thousands of survivors, most of whom were young girls when they were trafficked. Not a word. Trump only cares about Trump. I am still surprised that millions of people, some of whom work for him, believe that he cares about them. All loyalty and concern goes only one way.

As a retired naval officer I must make at least a short comment on Trump’s announcement yesterday that he was, personally, because he is an expert on aesthetics, designing and building the Trump class of “battleships.” There is so much wrong about the whole thing that I do not want to waste your time. I see it as another scheme to keep grandpa occupied and to make him feel like the king that he wants to be. It is yet another branding exercise — the one thing that he knows how to do. That particular ship will never be built. I will leave it at that.

Please take a moment to think about the 15,000 Americans in uniform in the Caribbean Sea that are Trump’s pawns as he and Hegseth pretend to act like they know what they are doing. Those folks will be spending the holidays away from their friends and families on an ill-defined mission to achieve unknown objectives.

Take time to enjoy the holidays be it Chanukah, Christmas or in your own spiritual way, Take some time to contemplate and enjoy the wonderful things that still exist in this world. Best wishes to all for a joyful season!

The Epstein Saga Continues

Posted: November 17, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Donald J Trump and his then Slovenian girlfriend Melania Knauss partying at Mar-A-Lago with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell both of whom were later convicted of sex trafficking girls and young women. (Getty Images)

The House of Representatives is back from their nearly eight week paid vacation and were in session last week. Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) was finally sworn in after Speaker “Little Mikey” Johnson declined to do so for more than seven weeks. It is widely discerned that he delayed her ascent to office to prevent her signature on a discharge petition that will bring a bill to the House floor for a vote on releasing the “Epstein Files.” The files in question cover the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker that died in a New York prison deemed a suicide.

In a separate, but related development, the Epstein Estate turned over roughly 20,000 pages of documents and emails to the House Oversight Committee that released them last week. As a result, Trump is freaking out. He is also mentioned more than any other person in those files.

Nothing in the information released so far implicates Trump in doing anything illegal. Despite speculation and some embarrassing emails, no one else has yet to be implicated in any wrong doing or direct involvement in Epstein’s sex ring. Yet. Which is why there is such a clamor for more from the estate, but especially from the Department of Justice (DOJ) which is believed to have incriminating information. But on who? Or for how many rich and powerful individuals? The common perception is that there was long-standing and wide-ranging knowledge of Epstein’s sex ring among the rich and powerful but that they all worked to protect each other. That, it is believed, is why no information is yet forthcoming. In recent polls eighty one percent of Americans want the DOJ files released. Let the chips fall where they may. For his part, Trump calls the entire Epstein case a “Democrat hoax.” That he would say that only further punishes the estimated hundreds of women and girls that were abused for many years. It implies that the survivors are all liars or in cahoots with the Democrats. Trump is totally disrespectful towards them and further abuses them by claiming that it is a hoax. However, why would he tell Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Democrats mentioned in the documents if it is a hoax? Of course, logic is never Trump’s strongest trait.

Trump is freaking out and according to press reports is doing everything in his power to suppress the files and to make the whole thing go away. So far, no luck. Although only four Republicans joined all Democrats that signed the discharge petition, it is expected that as many as one hundred of them will vote in favor of the bill to release the files. The vote will be viewed in simple terms — do Republican Representatives support bringing pedophiles to justice or do they support pedophilia?

Trump finally realized last night that the bill was going to pass. Consequently, he announced on social media that Republicans should vote for the bill. Since many were going to do so anyway, it is a little like a military officer saying “there go my soldiers — I am their leader — therefore I must follow them.” No one has any misconceptions that Trump really wants the files released. We can openly speculate as to how they will continue to be suppressed even if the bill passes both the House and the Senate. Trump could veto it. DOJ could claim that since there is an ongoing investigation (see above) no information can be released. They could release only select portions that are favorable to Trump or damning to people he dislikes. The possibilities are endless. Passing the bill in the House of Representatives is an important first step. But only a first step.

What about Maxwell? She was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Trump’s personal attorney, now the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche visited her to ask questions about Trump’s involvement with Epstein. A known liar (she was charged with perjury) who desperately wants to get a pardon or commutation to get out of prison, she was, after Blanche’s visit, transferred to a minimum security prison in Texas (commonly referred to as Club Fed — a play on the resort chain Club Med). Such a transfer is totally unheard of for a sexual predator. It is now reported that she gets custom meals delivered to her prison cell, a puppy, late-night private workouts, special accommodations to meet privately with friends and family and other perks not available to the other inmates. Reportedly, inmates or staff that complain about the situation are transferred or fired. It sure seems that somebody (could that be someone in the White House?) sure does not want Maxwell to get mad and tell the truth. When asked numerous times if he would pardon or commute Maxwell’s sentence, Trump dissembles and tries to change the subject. He never says that he will not pardon a convicted pedophile. Of course, he has pardoned a rogues gallery of hardened criminals already, so what’s one more pedophile if it keeps her quiet?

Trump denies, denies, denies. And, again, to date there is nothing that ties him to any illegal acts. However, whatever is in the files must really be bad given the full court press he is instrumenting to keep them secret. The available information to date suggests that he at least knew what was going on with Epstein, Maxwell and the underage girls.

“I’ve known Jeff [Epstein] for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Donald J Trump in 2002

So let’s take a look at what we do know.

  • The Access Hollywood tapes. In 2016 a video tape of Trump bragging about his approach to women included a description of his attempt to seduce a married woman. He then bragged that he might start kissing a woman that he and his interviewer were about to meet saying, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.”
  • In 2018 a story broke about Trump’s alleged one night stand with an adult film star named Stormy Daniels in 2006 while his wife was recovering from the birth of their son. It included a 2016 conspiracy to cover up the incident to protect his presidential campaign and resulted in a $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels. Trump was indicted and later convicted of 34 felony counts related to the conspiracy and his illegal business activities.
  • In 2023 Trump was found guilty at trial of sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and author and was ordered to pay her five million dollars. In a separate case in 2024 Trump was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll 88.3 million dollars in a defamation law suit.
  • While still married to his first wife Ivana, he took his wife on a ski trip and had his then girlfriend Marla Maples stay in the same hotel at the same time. Ivana and Trump later divorced. Trump married Ms. Maples and soon divorced. He is now on his third wife.
  • Trump owned the Miss Universe Pageant organization for nearly two decades until he sold it in 2015. The franchise included the Miss Teen USA and Miss USA pageants. Multiple contestants related how he would enter the dressing areas where the girls and young women were in various stages of being undressed. But don’t take their word for it, here is Trump explaining his activities in his own words on the Howard Stern Show, “Well, I’ll tell you that the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good. You know. The dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”

The Guardian has documented nineteen credible accusations in addition to those above, that Trump forced himself on young women in various locations from the 1980s to 2013.

Need I go on? Whether he joined or not, with such a track record is it totally inconceivable that Trump knew nothing about anything having to do with Epstein’s pedophile ring?

It is going to get worse for him and for us before it gets better. He will try every gambit that he can to change the subject or to obscure his involvement by creating a barrage of other major news developments. To me, the most likely will be military activity in South America, primarily against Venezuela.

Think about that. It is straight from the Autocrat’s Playbook. If you find yourself in trouble domestically, create a military distraction to try and rally the public and to give the autocrat “emergency” powers to suppress press reports and to use extraordinary powers to prosecute the war. Meanwhile, our Sailors, Marines and Airmen are being put in harm’s way for a manufactured crisis involving fantasy narco-terrorists “attacking” the U.S. Nonsense. But dangerous nonsense. Just the word “narco-terrorists” is made up to suit some public relations effort to justify the ongoing extra-judicial killing of people in boats in international waters. As I have previously explained, it is a totally illegal operation. In fact, press reports indicate that at least the U.K. and the Netherlands, who both have interests in the area, have stopped sharing intelligence with the U.S. because they do not want to be a party to murder. Presently, an aircraft carrier strike group is in the Caribbean Sea. The carrier and escorts are strategic assets. Having them there weakens our abilities in other places around the world where there are, you know, real crises such as the Middle East or western Pacific. From my experience, there is also a tendency among civilian leaders in government that in such a situation they think “use it or lose it.” In other words, they cannot keep the strike group there indefinitely so it is time to attack. So much for Trump’s peace agenda.

I am still waiting for Congress to re-assert their power. Until they do, as Bette Davis said in the 1950 movie All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

You Might Be A Terrorist In Trump’s America

Posted: October 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

And all I ever hear about is Aunt Tifa. The president, the people in Congress, all the Republicans are constantly talking about Aunt Tifa. What has she done? Why is she always in the news? I don’t get it.

The word is Antifa.

Oh. Never mind.

— With apologies to Gilda Radner as the character Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live

The late Gilda Radner was one of the best actors on the original Saturday Night Live (SNL). She captured her characters brilliantly and always made me laugh. Unfortunately, the current administration’s fixation on Antifa is no laughing matter. Antifa is short for anti-fascist. In the broadest strokes, anyone that opposes fascism is a part of Antifa. It has no organizational structure, no organized funding, no designated leaders or a chain of command. It is more of an idea. There are people who simply do not want to see authoritarianism replace our Republic. Yet, Trump and his administration and MAGA followers in Congress have come to use the phrase as a substitute for anyone that disagrees with Trump’s policies and actions. They equate it to domestic terrorism. They must be really afraid of the people that elected them.

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, signed by Trump on 25 September 2025, provides the cover for the federal government to investigate, surveil, or apprehend anyone that they deem as being “Antifa” — or in other words, anyone against Trump’s view of the country’s future.

Citing the murder of Charlie Kirk and other violent acts against MAGA supporters — but not the murders of Democrat politicians or supporters — the president directs that a Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF) be formed, bringing in elements from all of the relevant federal agencies, in order to stop political violence as he defines it. Trump thinks, or at least asserts, that there is an organized effort to oppose him through violence. As the NSPM says:

“This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically.  Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.  A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required.“

Under the terms of NSPM-7, which directly mentions Antifa, the definition of “terroristic activities” is described as the following:

“This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties.  Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.“

Apparently, dissent is no longer protected by the First Amendment. Under the guidelines, any individual, journalist, non-government organization (NGO) or any entity that opposes the MAGA and Project 2025 agenda is Antifa and therefore a suspected terrorist. Dissent is now considered an indicator of pre-terrorist behavior and you could be subject to surveillance or even arrested. Welcome to the America of Trump’s dreams.

Words have meaning and impact which is why they constantly talk about Democrats as the “radical left,” “terrorists,” “the enemy within,” “Marxist, communists and fascists,” and so on. Dehumanize opponents and harden the citizenry until they are numb to his hateful rhetoric. Then bring in the troops to remove all of your perceived enemies. Straight from the Autocrat 101 text book.

No Kings Day is on Saturday 18 October. Back in June, millions of Americans in small towns and big cities came out to peacefully demonstrate their opposition to the Trump regime. The same thing is expected this week. But if you listen to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson it is as an attempt to keep the government shut down (more on the shutdown later). Here are his unhinged views of the gatherings as expressed on Fox News last week:

“We’re so angry about it. I’m a very patient guy, but I have had it with these people. They’re playing games with real people’s lives. The theory we have right now: They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the antifa people, they’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event. It’s being told to us that they won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally, ’cuz they can’t face their rabid base. This is serious business hurting real people.… I’m beyond words.” 

There are other even more vicious lies about the peaceful rally from administration and MAGA members of Congress. They must really fear the majority of Americans who disapprove of the MAGA, MAHA and Trump policies and actions (I am never sure that Trump actually has policies. He just does whatever pops into his mind at the time. He recently declared that Joe Biden was the president on 6 January 2021. Is that a big lie or his biggest lie? Or is he simply delusional?)

It is interesting to me that they oppose peaceful national rallies against the United States having a king and demanding due process under the law, respect for our fellow citizens, and opposing authoritarianism. As I recall from grade school, this nation was founded on the desire to no longer bend a knee to a king. And while I am at it, what is wrong with Antifa as a concept? There were anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s. Indeed, we fought an entire world war that was anti-fascist.

Meanwhile the government shutdown continues. There are no plans to bring the House back from a prolonged vacation and no plan to work with Democrats to solve the health care issues. Only stone walling and whining about the Democrats as the enemy. Apparently Speaker Johnson fears the completion of a “Discharge Petition.” Without getting too far down into the rules of the House of Representatives, this is a path for a Representative to bring legislation to the floor without having to go through “regular order” and without the approval of the Speaker and other leaders in the House. It takes a majority of Representatives to literally sign their name to the petition and very rarely succeeds. In this session, that means 218 Representatives need to sign. They have 217 including both Democrats and Republicans. The 218th vote is waiting in the wings. Representative Adelita Grijalva (D- AZ) was elected in a special election weeks ago, but the Speaker claims that because the government is shut down, he cannot swear her into her new job. The petition is to bring legislation to the House floor to vote on releasing the Epstein files. Trump and the MAGA leadership desperately do not want that to happen. (One might wonder why if they are not covering something up?) Thus he will not swear her in. It is unclear how long this can go on, but having the government shut is a convenient excuse. Not to mention that the longer it is closed, the more that Trump and his Project 2025 henchmen Russel Vought and Stephen Miller can expand their power and take ever more extreme actions.

They are trying to press their agenda regardless of its unpopularity. Do not be intimidated. Do not be afraid. Stay peaceful. They are trying to scare anyone that opposes them. They do not understand peaceful protest. They want to rule by fear — physical threats, threats to people’s livelihoods, threats to their families.

I hope to see you on Saturday.

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.