With all due respect to the Epstein survivors—and they deserve justice and a culture shift—we’re now getting to the larger Epstein scandal, the one harder to address. It’s the way global elites operate, trading the lives, safety, and well-being of the rest of us as commodities in their power games. Bless the UK for keeping its eye on the big picture.
Your final paragraph indicated where we (the US) are…a monarchy is showing it is more of a democracy than the nation credited to be the founder of Constitutional democracy… and as the trump US scuttles our nation, we can’t avoid the conclusion that under trump, we are failing.
“Epstein Class” captures a reality that cannot be dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory: a global network of powerful men, linked by wealth and influence, pursues a world they can rule without legal or moral accountability.
Exposing who these men are and holding them fully accountable for any crimes they have committed are essential to reclaiming our Republic and the principles of our Constitution.
It is not the country at fault, it is the governing class, the elected elites, the Epstein Class that is denying justice. The country is obviously ready to arrest, indict, try and jail. Trump was elected to protect this group of men, and he is doing a damn good job at it, ain't he?
The political system has always been pretty corrupt, but the Citizens United decision was a supercharger. Billionaire cash swirling around in politics was a little under 1% of the total; since Citizens United, it has grown to be closer to 20% of the total. Naturally, Paul Klugman has a chart & a substack: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/billionaires-gone-wild. Of course, that's just what's measured. These billionaires are the ones who put Trump into the White House, and it appears they are also the ones in the trafficking ring. Trump isn't going to investigate himself, & he's surrounded by hacks who owe him their position & wealth, and are otherwise mostly unemployable. It's going to take someone from outside this cosy network to break things open, & good for the UK for making a start.
John Lukacs is worth re-reading. He stressed this for decades, from his conservative, Catholic viewpoint: constitutional monarchies behave like democracies; presidential republics behave like aristocracies. He also continually stressed a couple other points relevant to today (he died at the age of 95 in 2019): 1. By 1942, he argued, all countries in the world were "national socialist", especially the Soviet Union. It was a structural assessment, about how power flowed through the state, not an assessment of ideology, ie he wasn't saying they were all "Nazi". 2. The two great 20th century populists, he argued, were FDR and Hitler. Not populism as currently described, ie a force of the extreme right alone, but an assessment, from his Catholic point of view, that both FDR and Hitler manipulated popular opinion and used popular opinion to direct policy. An arguable assessment, but not a foolish one or without merit, and continually relevant in the light of current political trends. Chomsky always proposed something similar, and was loved for it by the Left. Curious that, speaking from an equally reactionary point of view from what is called the Right, Lukacs never gained such populist traction. Given Chomsky's current entanglements, and the trajectory of the current Pope, it's not a bad time to reread Lukacs.
With all due respect to the Epstein survivors—and they deserve justice and a culture shift—we’re now getting to the larger Epstein scandal, the one harder to address. It’s the way global elites operate, trading the lives, safety, and well-being of the rest of us as commodities in their power games. Bless the UK for keeping its eye on the big picture.
Your final paragraph indicated where we (the US) are…a monarchy is showing it is more of a democracy than the nation credited to be the founder of Constitutional democracy… and as the trump US scuttles our nation, we can’t avoid the conclusion that under trump, we are failing.
“Epstein Class” captures a reality that cannot be dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory: a global network of powerful men, linked by wealth and influence, pursues a world they can rule without legal or moral accountability.
Exposing who these men are and holding them fully accountable for any crimes they have committed are essential to reclaiming our Republic and the principles of our Constitution.
Trumps appointees are there not for their competence but to do as they’re told. They all abhor leaks.
I suspect that if asked, Charles lll will simply ask “Andrew who?”
And here, Republicans are not even showing up... think about that.
It is not the country at fault, it is the governing class, the elected elites, the Epstein Class that is denying justice. The country is obviously ready to arrest, indict, try and jail. Trump was elected to protect this group of men, and he is doing a damn good job at it, ain't he?
Brown trousers make come back in Oval Office ? 🤣🤣
The political system has always been pretty corrupt, but the Citizens United decision was a supercharger. Billionaire cash swirling around in politics was a little under 1% of the total; since Citizens United, it has grown to be closer to 20% of the total. Naturally, Paul Klugman has a chart & a substack: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/billionaires-gone-wild. Of course, that's just what's measured. These billionaires are the ones who put Trump into the White House, and it appears they are also the ones in the trafficking ring. Trump isn't going to investigate himself, & he's surrounded by hacks who owe him their position & wealth, and are otherwise mostly unemployable. It's going to take someone from outside this cosy network to break things open, & good for the UK for making a start.
John Lukacs is worth re-reading. He stressed this for decades, from his conservative, Catholic viewpoint: constitutional monarchies behave like democracies; presidential republics behave like aristocracies. He also continually stressed a couple other points relevant to today (he died at the age of 95 in 2019): 1. By 1942, he argued, all countries in the world were "national socialist", especially the Soviet Union. It was a structural assessment, about how power flowed through the state, not an assessment of ideology, ie he wasn't saying they were all "Nazi". 2. The two great 20th century populists, he argued, were FDR and Hitler. Not populism as currently described, ie a force of the extreme right alone, but an assessment, from his Catholic point of view, that both FDR and Hitler manipulated popular opinion and used popular opinion to direct policy. An arguable assessment, but not a foolish one or without merit, and continually relevant in the light of current political trends. Chomsky always proposed something similar, and was loved for it by the Left. Curious that, speaking from an equally reactionary point of view from what is called the Right, Lukacs never gained such populist traction. Given Chomsky's current entanglements, and the trajectory of the current Pope, it's not a bad time to reread Lukacs.
Publicly DJT and his cronies shrugged, but I bet privately he is sending Caroline Levitt out for a box of Depends