The Supreme Court found its mandate and told the administration no. In ordinary times, this would have been met with said administration backing off, reexamining its goals, and quietly looking for ways around the ruling or taking the hint and backing away from what ought to be accepted as a legal rebuke to bad policy. These are not ordinary times.
So we are treated, almost immediately, to name-calling, jeremiadic hissy-fits, and declarations that “we’re gonna do it anyway!” Much of this is blather. We are becoming, possibly, inured to the loud reactions, most of which are designed (if they are designed) to rally thoughtless support, exhibit full-throated chest-pounding defiance, and deflect attention from substance to spleen.
I think it fair to say most of us no longer credit these reactions.
The problem to this point has been the almost complete obeisance the rest of our government has displayed to the inanity.
Tariffs do not do what is claimed. There was a time perhaps when they might have served the purpose being advanced—protection of native business from cheaper foreign imports—but even then it was mixed bag and resulted in problems on the other end, with disproportionate trade imbalances that took their toll on Americans in other ways. It should tell us something when historically the only people who liked them have been the very wealthy and heads of large corporations who used them to milk profits from price-fixing, suppression of wages, and stock bets. Average Americans have never benefited from tariffs, except accidentally and only for short periods. That we keep hearing that they are being paid by other governments is so patently false…
Tariffs are a tax on us.
The trade deals he claims have been a bonus from them are almost uniformly subpar and most of our traditional trading partners are looking for ways to cut the United States out of global trade.
This is not debatable.
At best, this has been gross mismanagement. The question is, on whose part? And how does this tie in to the Epstein Files?
Because it does. At base, both these are about the flow of money. Capital.
If there is one aspect of the current mess that will bring about some kind of beneficial reaction on the part of the uber-wealthy, it is the erratic, unpredictable twists and turns that defy stability. That certain people prefer that capital flow in particular directions is not at issue—we know that, we’ve known that for decades, and have somehow managed to do little about it—but even they need to have a dependable path forward. The wholesale destruction of longstanding institutions and the rejection of precedent, while perhaps desirable in some small ways for certain folks, has been a catastrophe even for them, one that will continue to vex them, again in unpredictable ways.
Be that as it may, this ultimately ties into the Epstein Files in a very fundamental way, one which will continue to reveal itself over time as more and more players in more and more countries are revealed to be involved. Former-prince Andrew is just the beginning. Many of these people may never face consequences because of where they are, but the shield is crumbling.
Epstein’s network would appear to be sort of the Skull and Bones of those in the international extortion business. Even those who may not have partaken of the more salacious aspects of his enterprise may well have done business within the matrix of clandestine meet-ups he provided. Epstein was a conduit. The girls were not, as it may turn out, the only illicit indulgence on offer. He put people together and put them in rooms where admission came with consequences, because once there you were in on it. Once a deal is done, no matter what was done before and after, it behooved the participants to say nothing about it.
The chaos being created by this administration may well be an attempt to so delegitimize the usual mechanisms of the law as to allow consequences to be slipped by. Top to bottom, every institution we have relied on for decades has been damaged, their felicities questioned, their utility compromised. Public trust has been severely harmed. In such a tornado of mangled priorities, it may well be that we will not support these institutions sufficiently to see justice done, because we have also been told that we don’t know what justice is. All this may be the attempt to pull off the greatest piece of stage magic and theater ever, in order for all the “right” people to get away with it.
Away with what? In a word, pillage. Monetary, political, and moral pillage. We may well find out who to blame, but who will we then trust to hold them to account?
The pedophilia may be the Achilles Heel of this whole thing, the one thing we cannot stomach, individually or collectively. Through that we will pry open the vaults and find out what else has been going on. I doubt any of it will a surprise, if we’re honest with ourselves, but seeing it all exposed and detailed will have a greater effect than what we have till now experienced.
Of course, then there are those not directly—or even tangentially—involved who still support all this. Some of them will continue to offer support because they won’t believe the charges. But then there are those who never saw anything wrong with any of this, because they’d like to participate in it themselves.
After all this, it would be easy to surrender hope. I mean, the depths of depravity and the cynicism of unbridled opportunism are hard to square with a moral sense that has any purchase against it. But I do have hope. I’m seeing glimmers. I’ve actually been surprised a time or two of late not only by the pushback but by who’s doing the pushing.
One thing I caution: we can’t just put a band-aid on it this time. A few trials, some jail time, and then resume as usual as if it’s all better. The rot runs deep and it is well-funded. We can’t just treat this like a bad cold. This will take time and it will take resolve.
The Distal Muse
One Year In
The Supreme Court found its mandate and told the administration no. In ordinary times, this would have been met with said administration backing off, reexamining its goals, and quietly looking for ways around the ruling or taking the hint and backing away from what ought to be accepted as a legal rebuke to bad policy. These are not ordinary times.
So we are treated, almost immediately, to name-calling, jeremiadic hissy-fits, and declarations that “we’re gonna do it anyway!” Much of this is blather. We are becoming, possibly, inured to the loud reactions, most of which are designed (if they are designed) to rally thoughtless support, exhibit full-throated chest-pounding defiance, and deflect attention from substance to spleen.
I think it fair to say most of us no longer credit these reactions.
The problem to this point has been the almost complete obeisance the rest of our government has displayed to the inanity.
Tariffs do not do what is claimed. There was a time perhaps when they might have served the purpose being advanced—protection of native business from cheaper foreign imports—but even then it was mixed bag and resulted in problems on the other end, with disproportionate trade imbalances that took their toll on Americans in other ways. It should tell us something when historically the only people who liked them have been the very wealthy and heads of large corporations who used them to milk profits from price-fixing, suppression of wages, and stock bets. Average Americans have never benefited from tariffs, except accidentally and only for short periods. That we keep hearing that they are being paid by other governments is so patently false…
Tariffs are a tax on us.
The trade deals he claims have been a bonus from them are almost uniformly subpar and most of our traditional trading partners are looking for ways to cut the United States out of global trade.
This is not debatable.
At best, this has been gross mismanagement. The question is, on whose part? And how does this tie in to the Epstein Files?
Because it does. At base, both these are about the flow of money. Capital.
If there is one aspect of the current mess that will bring about some kind of beneficial reaction on the part of the uber-wealthy, it is the erratic, unpredictable twists and turns that defy stability. That certain people prefer that capital flow in particular directions is not at issue—we know that, we’ve known that for decades, and have somehow managed to do little about it—but even they need to have a dependable path forward. The wholesale destruction of longstanding institutions and the rejection of precedent, while perhaps desirable in some small ways for certain folks, has been a catastrophe even for them, one that will continue to vex them, again in unpredictable ways.
Be that as it may, this ultimately ties into the Epstein Files in a very fundamental way, one which will continue to reveal itself over time as more and more players in more and more countries are revealed to be involved. Former-prince Andrew is just the beginning. Many of these people may never face consequences because of where they are, but the shield is crumbling.
Epstein’s network would appear to be sort of the Skull and Bones of those in the international extortion business. Even those who may not have partaken of the more salacious aspects of his enterprise may well have done business within the matrix of clandestine meet-ups he provided. Epstein was a conduit. The girls were not, as it may turn out, the only illicit indulgence on offer. He put people together and put them in rooms where admission came with consequences, because once there you were in on it. Once a deal is done, no matter what was done before and after, it behooved the participants to say nothing about it.
The chaos being created by this administration may well be an attempt to so delegitimize the usual mechanisms of the law as to allow consequences to be slipped by. Top to bottom, every institution we have relied on for decades has been damaged, their felicities questioned, their utility compromised. Public trust has been severely harmed. In such a tornado of mangled priorities, it may well be that we will not support these institutions sufficiently to see justice done, because we have also been told that we don’t know what justice is. All this may be the attempt to pull off the greatest piece of stage magic and theater ever, in order for all the “right” people to get away with it.
Away with what? In a word, pillage. Monetary, political, and moral pillage. We may well find out who to blame, but who will we then trust to hold them to account?
The pedophilia may be the Achilles Heel of this whole thing, the one thing we cannot stomach, individually or collectively. Through that we will pry open the vaults and find out what else has been going on. I doubt any of it will a surprise, if we’re honest with ourselves, but seeing it all exposed and detailed will have a greater effect than what we have till now experienced.
Of course, then there are those not directly—or even tangentially—involved who still support all this. Some of them will continue to offer support because they won’t believe the charges. But then there are those who never saw anything wrong with any of this, because they’d like to participate in it themselves.
After all this, it would be easy to surrender hope. I mean, the depths of depravity and the cynicism of unbridled opportunism are hard to square with a moral sense that has any purchase against it. But I do have hope. I’m seeing glimmers. I’ve actually been surprised a time or two of late not only by the pushback but by who’s doing the pushing.
One thing I caution: we can’t just put a band-aid on it this time. A few trials, some jail time, and then resume as usual as if it’s all better. The rot runs deep and it is well-funded. We can’t just treat this like a bad cold. This will take time and it will take resolve.
That’s all I have to say, for now.
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