History is filled with politicians who believed they were untouchable. But the pattern always cracks. Always. The lie gets too big. The system bends just far enough. The coverup fails…
Great advice. More Democratic “leadership” should follow it more forcefully. They haven’t, which is why we are where we are. No “psy ops” here, just irrefutable evidence.
The rich can scarcely be pushed into a prison of any kind for even the most horrific crimes, while completely innocent people are snatched off the street without a charge or a trial and thrown into a pitiless hellhole and tortured. The system of justice is systemically unjust and completely inverted and everted from its intended purpose.
I have been thrown into a pitiless hellhole and tortured for two decades of 24/7. I have not been given a say court and the mess they created is their own.
Day to day I have to decide who deserves my truth and how I present it given that the illicit surveilling of me continues. What they hear me say or write is gained by subterfuge and I continue to face their hubris with whatever I decide to say that day. EVERYONE is involved and dare not even honestly confront me personally. Their malignant hubris follows me day by day.
Allen - I don't know who you are. When you like my comments, I eagerly await your feedback on why you like them.
If you were the subject of this terrorizing, I would not condone it. I see your time stamp in your 'reply'. Nein/ '9' to '8' and '4 ' are coded numbers to which I have consistently told my truth to those who matter - my children. To others, the need to know has morphed into accepting lies about me; therefore, I play back at them the games they play with me for more than two decades, all the while, each one of them has repeatedly told me, 'What are you talking about? I don't hear any surveillance information; maybe you are paranoid." 'They' even convinced my husband of this.
People like Peter Marto and Vera Moldt here in San Diego look right at me as they make this claim. What I say in my own home and why I say it is my own private business, and to claim they know my mind is hubris because they do not know my intent.
I say they could have ended this surveillance 30 years ago after two weeks and would have had all the necessary information about me. Believe me, no court would consider this a case they would agree to hear. Milton Silverman, here in San Diego, a former friend and retired lawyer, operates within his personnal perceptions with no valid reason or proof except revenge for perceived untruths about me and my relationship with my husband.
Why are you participating in this massive denigration of me?
Exactly what they were aiming for. In my case my neighbors are enlisted, corporations and businesses plus government nationally and internationally.
I can’t even hire a lawyer and as many times as I have written about my plight NOT ONE PERSON will come forward to say how that this is legally possible -sideways surveillance 24/7 of more than two decades - eroding every minute my civil rights. As I wrote before two weeks of surveillance locally would tell them everything they need to know.
I am desperate to talk with someone of consequence to help me.
TRump has shot someone in the middle of 5th Ave---her name is Justice
The real story is not that Trump was a participant, he was a perpetrator. Many of the modeling agencies and pageants were fronts for trafficking girls, the younger the better. Then came the blackmail and intelligence agencies from several countries, including Russia Russia Russia.
One high-fashion model explained that the "supers" were invited to these parties to lure the high powered men, but it was the young vulnerable girls that were on the "menu". These teens were often from overseas, trapped. They were hungry to become famous and they knew they would not be booked for jobs if they did not play along. There was cocaine to stay skinny, booze, chance to snag a rich guy, and fancy clothes on the surface, but all that rot and regret under it all. Or worse?
Too many people have come forward. It is all over the internet. Melania knows, because she saw the "system" and was part of it---genius visa and all. Ivana knew even as she "fell" down the stairs. BUT, there are too many living witnesses. Maybe Justice survives the shooting and TRump goes down, cover-up and all. See you in the streets.
Just learned last week that Melania was Epstein's "friend" first; he introduced her to the Donald. Maybe she was "too old?" Ms. Maxwell knows ALL the secrets, including just how close Jeffrey and Donald were for decades (Epstein's flight logs show him multiple times, etc).
Pyschos can have kindred spirits. She is entirely transactional. Crudely put, Melania seems to be one of those wives that let him have whoever he wants---probably encourages that so she doesn't have to "do it". Ghislaine's the same way. I saw one of the victims interviewed, and she said Maxwell told her she hired the girls so she wouldn't have to take care of Jeffrey.
Shaun Attwood has been interviewing the victims and models on his YouTube channel.
"...cut a deal with the Mullahs to hold the Iranian hostages until after the election." Worse than that: He had them hold the hostages until he had been inaugurated, thus depriving Carter of a glimmer of credit. And what about the coverup of Nixon's henchguys sabotaging the 1968 Paris Peace Talks? It was the death blow to Humphrey's campaign, and literal death to tens of thousands of Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians when the war dragged on for nearly 7 more years.
Why all the worry. By now it should be obvious that even if Trump had a bevy of 14-15 girls for his amusement at Mar-a Lago or even the White House, he couldn't be touched. He has Congress and all the government departments in his pocket. Who would even think of prosecuting him for something so trivial when is systematically destroying the Government with impunity.
I think that's a bit soon. He's been sued almost 400 different times so far, and federal district courts seem to be holding up ok. The Supremely Complicit Court would have to go completely in the tank on all the big cases to lose all hope. And his polling approval is 20 points underwater, suggesting Repubs may very well lose the House next November. But I know it's pretty damn depressing.
Need to add that Trump and Maxwell had a relationship starting in the 1980's when she worked for her father's New York Daily News. At the time Trump went to Russia, met with Gorbachev, met with Maxwell's father, a triple agent.
Lies are shadowy weaknesses, desperation, failures masking failure. With just one lie, simply covering it, in 5 iterations, yields 32 lies. Each weaker and more ridiculous than the one before it. It is like unpacking yellow cake, the radioactivity just flies further from the source, frying more cells as it expands. And then there are the radon daughters, the invisible gas that kills as it swirls about the domain of lies that accompany all who engage.
The coverup is the Lie that shields the Truth. Yet, all roads lead to Rome, so all lies lead back to the Truth. This truth almost all humans already know - debauchery is rife, has been rife, among human civilizations for many centuries. With the lies told from the beginning, virtually No Human is free from their cancer. Since the beginning of all the lies. It is remarkable how the zenith of lies swirls around, perhaps, the most audacious LIAR of modern times, a being who cannot exist without LIES, whose very essence is a LIE.
Since Gilgamesh, if not earlier, societies have attempted to expose and punish LIES. Hence the Codes, the Rules, the Laws, the Commandments, the morality, the ethics, the Honor regimes, the Oaths we humans have conjured up to try and keep us from Harming Ourselves and Innocent Others.
And we mostly have Failed, because we are quite weak and compromised. So to protect our very imperfect selves, We Now Will Descend With FURY on the false gods parading on the top of Olympus. We Will EAT the flesh of the worst of our Liars, in order to cleanse Ourselves of our own very petty and venal sins. This is the curse of Leadership, the Catch 22 of hubris and vanity.
TFG will fall, and most of those with it will turn to dust, since virtually if not actually, all of them are completely FAKE and grossly incompetent. But will we Learn Anything this time around? We have about 3 years to turn human civilization Inside Out, or humanity will become, in this solar system and beyond, the biotic Lie that becomes a Cosmic Joke. Planet EARTH will see to this. The Quantum Field cares nothing for humanity, it just rumbles along, flicking mistakes off like horses shake of flies. Entropy is a BITCH.
Pedophiles always operate incognito never revealing themselves, allowing others to cover up for them and the victims to swing in the wind hence the bitch entropy ensues.
Clinton is not in the same league as the GOP traitors. Monica had ZERO to do with Whitewater (itself a nothing burger manufactured by the GOP and broadcast by The NY Times). Fiske had finished his Whitewater report, finding nothing. GOP did not like it, forcing Fiske out, replacing him with Ken Starr. The object of that exercise was to get Clinton under oath about his sex life. Monica's handler, Linda Tripp, reported to the odious Lucianne Goldberg, who worked for the GOP as well as Israeli intelligence. Monica was a Netanyahou honey trap for Clinton, and he fell for it. A private affair, between consenting adults. Compare and contrast. See https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-President-Ten-Year-Campaign-Destroy-ebook/dp/B00AAYFAME/
Alas, Clinton's corruption and Biden's senility are serious cover-up handicaps the DNC needs to address, accept, and atone. So far Zzzz.
Dems are only less corrupt than Trump; not sinless. They have been winning elections because they are the lesser of 2 evils, which explains why the Dems have no high-profile leaders (well, Granny Pelosi?). Then the fools boot out David Hogg for suggesting they primary their geezer legislators? Then they attack Mamdani after he wiped out 2 establishment corrupt-as-hell Dems!
Dems need leadership with a moral compass if they hope to regain power. Good only triumphs over evil when it tries.
Atone for Clinton and Biden? LOL. Donnie Jr, is that you?
Politics is ALWAYS about the lesser of two evils. Good triumphing over evil is a fairy tale for children. The purists on the left would condemn the Dems to permanent minority status. In the real world you get McCarthy, McGovern, Anderson, Dukakis, Nader, Bernie, Stein enabling GOP Presidential victories. As a result we get Nixon, Reagan, Scalia, Thomas, Cheney, Kavanaugh, Trump, Miller. Lenin would call these people "useful idiots" for the GOP. The GOP has been known to secretly fund all of these people. The object is to win, not keep your hands clean.
Politics is the art of the possible - Otto von Bismarck.
Starting in 2019, but before Epstein’s arrest that year on federal sex trafficking charges, some Democratic lawmakers including Representative Lois Frankel and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both of South Florida, launched a years-long quest to release Epstein records.
The Democrats called for former US Attorney Alex Acosta, who served as labour secretary during Trump’s first term, to testify about Epstein’s plea deal. They asked the Justice Department to investigate and release records. Democrats later pursued other strategies, including asking a Palm Beach, Florida judge to release records.
“A full accounting for these heinous crimes is lacking,” Wasserman Schultz told PolitiFact in an August 1 written statement. “Those prospects changed when Republicans momentarily joined the call for full disclosure.”
Bismarck was responsible for 3 wars, in part by deliberately altering the truth to support his goal of unifying the German state. Perhaps politics is the art of the possible, which includes lies and coverups to advance personal agendas, or in Trump's case, to deflect involvement in a heinous crime. Politics can also be the art of deception, manipulation, and manifested contempt. If politics doesn't try to honor the truth it is corrupt and a threat to the commonweal.
And your point is? Honor the truth? Whose truth? How has that worked out? Pleased limit yourself to the last 500 years. Letting the Death Star survive so that you can honor the truth is a fool's bargain.
Writer Finley Peter Dunne quotes from his fictional character Mr. Dooley, an Irishman who pontificated on the day’s issues from a Chicago pub (1895):
“Sure, politics ain’t bean-bag, tis a man’s game, an’ women, childer, cripples an’ prohybitionists’d do well to keep out iv it.”
My primary issue regards Bismarck's "art of the possible" though in actuality he used a rather limited palette based on Realpolitik. He was less than forthcoming when he manipulated France into initiating the Franco-Prussian War. Art? Sure. Art is a sufficiently ambiguous concept that you can shove a large number of alley cats into its sack. That particular act of art caused the deaths of approximately 200,000 soldiers and 250,000 civilians. A minor argument can be made that the humiliating surrender of the French and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine contributed to the impetus for the Great War, which in turn was a major factor in the initiation of World War II, etc, etc.
So I don't believe Bismarck is a particularly good role model for this day and age. The art of the possible includes Hiroshima, Dachau, the Rwandan Genocide, the deliberate starving of children in Gaza, cutting Medicaid to 13,000,000 people, again etc, etc.
As far as "honor the truth is a fool's bargain" what I actually said was "try to honor the truth". I hope the difference is obvious. Of course truth is nebulous, relative, situational. Perhaps "honest" would have been a more apposite choice of words but then maybe you don't want your politicians to be honest. Do you or would you have them lie?
The lady doth protest too much, methinks! The Nazis tried to honor the truth, as they saw it. The Spanish Inquisition too. Don't forget Jefferson Davis!
" . . . not in the same league . . ." Still, Clinton wide-swiping the official documents, etc, off the top of the president's desk in the oval office so he could have kinkies with poor, hapless, starry-eyed Monica is no great claim for exemption from matters of official conduct.
Never imagined I would see the day when we were ruled by a mindless, thoughtless, cruel demagogue like Trump. Our path has always been flawed but Trump is a giant step too far. Thanks Louise for your contributions.
"Then got a room with Elizabeth Holmes and a smoothie."
Nice.
Faux is already calling Maxwell "victim." I had hoped faux would follow suit after the WSJ article on the drawing and letter. I keep hoping, but I am gradually running very short on hope. Friends and family have decided to ignore the madness. They just want to get on with their lives - without the noise of the ever present and expanding insanity, so they can remain sane. I still see hope. We have some new and seasoned muscular pols speaking loudly - especially AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, Murphy, Crockett, and more. They inspire hope - that we will return to sanity one day. The sooner, the better.
Who remembers that when we were focused on Watergate, the world economic system changed. The petrodollar was created and Chinese labor became available .
This report by Zev Shalev is damning of Trump , Epstein, Black and Barack (not Obama) —the four thieves that have been systematically stealing from Americans for decades. A stunning story that puts the puzzle pieces of the vast betrayal together:
I hope Senator Wyden, who has been following the money for 3 years, is well acquainted with Shalev's work. I think I'll call his office to find out.
Zev was on substack's The Left Hook with Waj; it's in the archive under "Why Was Ghislaine Maxwell Moved to a Cushy Prison Camp, and What is Trump Hiding?" They mention Senator Wyden.
Orchestrate bankruptcy, have a fire-sale, wash-rinse-repeat. I think you are ahead of the curve on this Jenny, and I'd like to think I am as well.
So many people are still alive to tell the sex, blackmail, espionage, and financial crime story. I hope the dam keeps breaking. Those f-ers better tell Congress the TRUTH, and it needs to be on C-Span.
There are no consequences. There will be no accountability. They own the machine. The worst that can happen is maybe not getting an invite to a strategic dinner party. What happened to Bezo's sex snafu? - Nothing.
Maxwell may get knocked off, there will be more than enough natural disasters to fill all the headlines, maybe even another Texas flood massacre, or another Texas school shooting. China is not waiting for a dance partner - just biding time.
Remember The Great Satan - The Great Deceiver. Deception is the key to billionaire success.
I've gained 5 pounds with anxiety just reading this stuff.
"They own the machine." Because they own that part of the machine called the Supreme Court, the explanation for their completely ignoring any and all laws needs no great pondering. They occupy the top floor, pouring their acid down daily with elitist smirking on the complete structure of the law. Some credible judges here and there are fighting back, but they need massive support from voters and sitting democrats, but there is little to none. Where are the lawyers across the country voicing strong rebuttal? And sitting democrats? With the cauldron- stirring Pelosi manifesting from the mists to urge ignoring the Epstein tapes, few in the cause would have the temerity to summon her support, lest they, too, would be betrayed.
The best advice right now is to keep the pressure up. If Trump get's away with the coverup, then all is done. We might as well accept our lot as another poor, authoritarian dictatorship.
Do you think he will be impeached? I doubt it, given what Ghislaine wants, which is a pardon by Trump; I think she just absolved him in the taped interview.
Only if the democrats retake the congressional halls. Maxwell will say whatever it takes to keep her seat in the camp or prevent herself from ending up like Epstein. She's was already convicted for perjury so why would anyone believe her?
He'll soon be in a cleft stick with many clefts - and nowhere to wiggle out of his Epstein, medicaid, EPA, DOE, Education, jams - Go go MAGA go - get him outa here...
Maybe even some of those super rich guys will see their fortunes crumbling because of HIS stupidity.
Note to Democratic politicians everywhere: “Wait and see” isn’t a strategy, which is why Repugnicans don’t do it. Attack. Now.
There you go again. Pick on Republicans.
Great advice. More Democratic “leadership” should follow it more forcefully. They haven’t, which is why we are where we are. No “psy ops” here, just irrefutable evidence.
We are here because people like you are divisive.
And the Repugnants are not???
Repukenics? Rethuglicons?
There. Fixed it.
The rich can scarcely be pushed into a prison of any kind for even the most horrific crimes, while completely innocent people are snatched off the street without a charge or a trial and thrown into a pitiless hellhole and tortured. The system of justice is systemically unjust and completely inverted and everted from its intended purpose.
I have been thrown into a pitiless hellhole and tortured for two decades of 24/7. I have not been given a say court and the mess they created is their own.
Day to day I have to decide who deserves my truth and how I present it given that the illicit surveilling of me continues. What they hear me say or write is gained by subterfuge and I continue to face their hubris with whatever I decide to say that day. EVERYONE is involved and dare not even honestly confront me personally. Their malignant hubris follows me day by day.
Allen - I don't know who you are. When you like my comments, I eagerly await your feedback on why you like them.
If you were the subject of this terrorizing, I would not condone it. I see your time stamp in your 'reply'. Nein/ '9' to '8' and '4 ' are coded numbers to which I have consistently told my truth to those who matter - my children. To others, the need to know has morphed into accepting lies about me; therefore, I play back at them the games they play with me for more than two decades, all the while, each one of them has repeatedly told me, 'What are you talking about? I don't hear any surveillance information; maybe you are paranoid." 'They' even convinced my husband of this.
People like Peter Marto and Vera Moldt here in San Diego look right at me as they make this claim. What I say in my own home and why I say it is my own private business, and to claim they know my mind is hubris because they do not know my intent.
I say they could have ended this surveillance 30 years ago after two weeks and would have had all the necessary information about me. Believe me, no court would consider this a case they would agree to hear. Milton Silverman, here in San Diego, a former friend and retired lawyer, operates within his personnal perceptions with no valid reason or proof except revenge for perceived untruths about me and my relationship with my husband.
Why are you participating in this massive denigration of me?
Exactly what they were aiming for. In my case my neighbors are enlisted, corporations and businesses plus government nationally and internationally.
I can’t even hire a lawyer and as many times as I have written about my plight NOT ONE PERSON will come forward to say how that this is legally possible -sideways surveillance 24/7 of more than two decades - eroding every minute my civil rights. As I wrote before two weeks of surveillance locally would tell them everything they need to know.
I am desperate to talk with someone of consequence to help me.
TRump has shot someone in the middle of 5th Ave---her name is Justice
The real story is not that Trump was a participant, he was a perpetrator. Many of the modeling agencies and pageants were fronts for trafficking girls, the younger the better. Then came the blackmail and intelligence agencies from several countries, including Russia Russia Russia.
One high-fashion model explained that the "supers" were invited to these parties to lure the high powered men, but it was the young vulnerable girls that were on the "menu". These teens were often from overseas, trapped. They were hungry to become famous and they knew they would not be booked for jobs if they did not play along. There was cocaine to stay skinny, booze, chance to snag a rich guy, and fancy clothes on the surface, but all that rot and regret under it all. Or worse?
Too many people have come forward. It is all over the internet. Melania knows, because she saw the "system" and was part of it---genius visa and all. Ivana knew even as she "fell" down the stairs. BUT, there are too many living witnesses. Maybe Justice survives the shooting and TRump goes down, cover-up and all. See you in the streets.
Just learned last week that Melania was Epstein's "friend" first; he introduced her to the Donald. Maybe she was "too old?" Ms. Maxwell knows ALL the secrets, including just how close Jeffrey and Donald were for decades (Epstein's flight logs show him multiple times, etc).
Pyschos can have kindred spirits. She is entirely transactional. Crudely put, Melania seems to be one of those wives that let him have whoever he wants---probably encourages that so she doesn't have to "do it". Ghislaine's the same way. I saw one of the victims interviewed, and she said Maxwell told her she hired the girls so she wouldn't have to take care of Jeffrey.
Shaun Attwood has been interviewing the victims and models on his YouTube channel.
"...cut a deal with the Mullahs to hold the Iranian hostages until after the election." Worse than that: He had them hold the hostages until he had been inaugurated, thus depriving Carter of a glimmer of credit. And what about the coverup of Nixon's henchguys sabotaging the 1968 Paris Peace Talks? It was the death blow to Humphrey's campaign, and literal death to tens of thousands of Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians when the war dragged on for nearly 7 more years.
Why all the worry. By now it should be obvious that even if Trump had a bevy of 14-15 girls for his amusement at Mar-a Lago or even the White House, he couldn't be touched. He has Congress and all the government departments in his pocket. Who would even think of prosecuting him for something so trivial when is systematically destroying the Government with impunity.
I think that's a bit soon. He's been sued almost 400 different times so far, and federal district courts seem to be holding up ok. The Supremely Complicit Court would have to go completely in the tank on all the big cases to lose all hope. And his polling approval is 20 points underwater, suggesting Repubs may very well lose the House next November. But I know it's pretty damn depressing.
I hear "points under water" a lot. What does that mean?
It means his Approval is 37% but Disapproval is 57%. Too bad it's 10 months too late for the election.
Bend over....
Oh so right.
Three infographics to illustrate Thom's post:
Follow the Russian money behind Trump and Epstein
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/08/03/follow-the-russian-money-behind-trump-and-epstein/
Mar-a-Lago Crime Scene
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/23/mar-a-lago-crime-scene/
Follow the Trump — Epstein Timeline with this interactive chart.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/16/trump-epstein-timeline/
Need to add that Trump and Maxwell had a relationship starting in the 1980's when she worked for her father's New York Daily News. At the time Trump went to Russia, met with Gorbachev, met with Maxwell's father, a triple agent.
Lies are shadowy weaknesses, desperation, failures masking failure. With just one lie, simply covering it, in 5 iterations, yields 32 lies. Each weaker and more ridiculous than the one before it. It is like unpacking yellow cake, the radioactivity just flies further from the source, frying more cells as it expands. And then there are the radon daughters, the invisible gas that kills as it swirls about the domain of lies that accompany all who engage.
The coverup is the Lie that shields the Truth. Yet, all roads lead to Rome, so all lies lead back to the Truth. This truth almost all humans already know - debauchery is rife, has been rife, among human civilizations for many centuries. With the lies told from the beginning, virtually No Human is free from their cancer. Since the beginning of all the lies. It is remarkable how the zenith of lies swirls around, perhaps, the most audacious LIAR of modern times, a being who cannot exist without LIES, whose very essence is a LIE.
Since Gilgamesh, if not earlier, societies have attempted to expose and punish LIES. Hence the Codes, the Rules, the Laws, the Commandments, the morality, the ethics, the Honor regimes, the Oaths we humans have conjured up to try and keep us from Harming Ourselves and Innocent Others.
And we mostly have Failed, because we are quite weak and compromised. So to protect our very imperfect selves, We Now Will Descend With FURY on the false gods parading on the top of Olympus. We Will EAT the flesh of the worst of our Liars, in order to cleanse Ourselves of our own very petty and venal sins. This is the curse of Leadership, the Catch 22 of hubris and vanity.
TFG will fall, and most of those with it will turn to dust, since virtually if not actually, all of them are completely FAKE and grossly incompetent. But will we Learn Anything this time around? We have about 3 years to turn human civilization Inside Out, or humanity will become, in this solar system and beyond, the biotic Lie that becomes a Cosmic Joke. Planet EARTH will see to this. The Quantum Field cares nothing for humanity, it just rumbles along, flicking mistakes off like horses shake of flies. Entropy is a BITCH.
Pedophiles always operate incognito never revealing themselves, allowing others to cover up for them and the victims to swing in the wind hence the bitch entropy ensues.
Clinton is not in the same league as the GOP traitors. Monica had ZERO to do with Whitewater (itself a nothing burger manufactured by the GOP and broadcast by The NY Times). Fiske had finished his Whitewater report, finding nothing. GOP did not like it, forcing Fiske out, replacing him with Ken Starr. The object of that exercise was to get Clinton under oath about his sex life. Monica's handler, Linda Tripp, reported to the odious Lucianne Goldberg, who worked for the GOP as well as Israeli intelligence. Monica was a Netanyahou honey trap for Clinton, and he fell for it. A private affair, between consenting adults. Compare and contrast. See https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-President-Ten-Year-Campaign-Destroy-ebook/dp/B00AAYFAME/
Alas, Clinton's corruption and Biden's senility are serious cover-up handicaps the DNC needs to address, accept, and atone. So far Zzzz.
Dems are only less corrupt than Trump; not sinless. They have been winning elections because they are the lesser of 2 evils, which explains why the Dems have no high-profile leaders (well, Granny Pelosi?). Then the fools boot out David Hogg for suggesting they primary their geezer legislators? Then they attack Mamdani after he wiped out 2 establishment corrupt-as-hell Dems!
Dems need leadership with a moral compass if they hope to regain power. Good only triumphs over evil when it tries.
Atone for Clinton and Biden? LOL. Donnie Jr, is that you?
Politics is ALWAYS about the lesser of two evils. Good triumphing over evil is a fairy tale for children. The purists on the left would condemn the Dems to permanent minority status. In the real world you get McCarthy, McGovern, Anderson, Dukakis, Nader, Bernie, Stein enabling GOP Presidential victories. As a result we get Nixon, Reagan, Scalia, Thomas, Cheney, Kavanaugh, Trump, Miller. Lenin would call these people "useful idiots" for the GOP. The GOP has been known to secretly fund all of these people. The object is to win, not keep your hands clean.
Politics is the art of the possible - Otto von Bismarck.
Starting in 2019, but before Epstein’s arrest that year on federal sex trafficking charges, some Democratic lawmakers including Representative Lois Frankel and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both of South Florida, launched a years-long quest to release Epstein records.
The Democrats called for former US Attorney Alex Acosta, who served as labour secretary during Trump’s first term, to testify about Epstein’s plea deal. They asked the Justice Department to investigate and release records. Democrats later pursued other strategies, including asking a Palm Beach, Florida judge to release records.
“A full accounting for these heinous crimes is lacking,” Wasserman Schultz told PolitiFact in an August 1 written statement. “Those prospects changed when Republicans momentarily joined the call for full disclosure.”
The Dems did try, but possession is 9/10 of the law...
Bismarck was responsible for 3 wars, in part by deliberately altering the truth to support his goal of unifying the German state. Perhaps politics is the art of the possible, which includes lies and coverups to advance personal agendas, or in Trump's case, to deflect involvement in a heinous crime. Politics can also be the art of deception, manipulation, and manifested contempt. If politics doesn't try to honor the truth it is corrupt and a threat to the commonweal.
And your point is? Honor the truth? Whose truth? How has that worked out? Pleased limit yourself to the last 500 years. Letting the Death Star survive so that you can honor the truth is a fool's bargain.
Writer Finley Peter Dunne quotes from his fictional character Mr. Dooley, an Irishman who pontificated on the day’s issues from a Chicago pub (1895):
“Sure, politics ain’t bean-bag, tis a man’s game, an’ women, childer, cripples an’ prohybitionists’d do well to keep out iv it.”
My primary issue regards Bismarck's "art of the possible" though in actuality he used a rather limited palette based on Realpolitik. He was less than forthcoming when he manipulated France into initiating the Franco-Prussian War. Art? Sure. Art is a sufficiently ambiguous concept that you can shove a large number of alley cats into its sack. That particular act of art caused the deaths of approximately 200,000 soldiers and 250,000 civilians. A minor argument can be made that the humiliating surrender of the French and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine contributed to the impetus for the Great War, which in turn was a major factor in the initiation of World War II, etc, etc.
So I don't believe Bismarck is a particularly good role model for this day and age. The art of the possible includes Hiroshima, Dachau, the Rwandan Genocide, the deliberate starving of children in Gaza, cutting Medicaid to 13,000,000 people, again etc, etc.
As far as "honor the truth is a fool's bargain" what I actually said was "try to honor the truth". I hope the difference is obvious. Of course truth is nebulous, relative, situational. Perhaps "honest" would have been a more apposite choice of words but then maybe you don't want your politicians to be honest. Do you or would you have them lie?
The lady doth protest too much, methinks! The Nazis tried to honor the truth, as they saw it. The Spanish Inquisition too. Don't forget Jefferson Davis!
" . . . not in the same league . . ." Still, Clinton wide-swiping the official documents, etc, off the top of the president's desk in the oval office so he could have kinkies with poor, hapless, starry-eyed Monica is no great claim for exemption from matters of official conduct.
Helpless? LOL. She chased after him. Read the Starr Report. What adults do legally and consensually in private is none of our business.
Never imagined I would see the day when we were ruled by a mindless, thoughtless, cruel demagogue like Trump. Our path has always been flawed but Trump is a giant step too far. Thanks Louise for your contributions.
"Then got a room with Elizabeth Holmes and a smoothie."
Nice.
Faux is already calling Maxwell "victim." I had hoped faux would follow suit after the WSJ article on the drawing and letter. I keep hoping, but I am gradually running very short on hope. Friends and family have decided to ignore the madness. They just want to get on with their lives - without the noise of the ever present and expanding insanity, so they can remain sane. I still see hope. We have some new and seasoned muscular pols speaking loudly - especially AOC, Mamdani, Pritzker, Murphy, Crockett, and more. They inspire hope - that we will return to sanity one day. The sooner, the better.
Who remembers that when we were focused on Watergate, the world economic system changed. The petrodollar was created and Chinese labor became available .
Excellent piece. Onward with truth and love.
This report by Zev Shalev is damning of Trump , Epstein, Black and Barack (not Obama) —the four thieves that have been systematically stealing from Americans for decades. A stunning story that puts the puzzle pieces of the vast betrayal together:
https://open.substack.com/pub/narativ/p/the-greatest-heist-chapter-5-the?r=hksiy&utm_medium=ios
I hope Senator Wyden, who has been following the money for 3 years, is well acquainted with Shalev's work. I think I'll call his office to find out.
Zev was on substack's The Left Hook with Waj; it's in the archive under "Why Was Ghislaine Maxwell Moved to a Cushy Prison Camp, and What is Trump Hiding?" They mention Senator Wyden.
Orchestrate bankruptcy, have a fire-sale, wash-rinse-repeat. I think you are ahead of the curve on this Jenny, and I'd like to think I am as well.
So many people are still alive to tell the sex, blackmail, espionage, and financial crime story. I hope the dam keeps breaking. Those f-ers better tell Congress the TRUTH, and it needs to be on C-Span.
There are no consequences. There will be no accountability. They own the machine. The worst that can happen is maybe not getting an invite to a strategic dinner party. What happened to Bezo's sex snafu? - Nothing.
Maxwell may get knocked off, there will be more than enough natural disasters to fill all the headlines, maybe even another Texas flood massacre, or another Texas school shooting. China is not waiting for a dance partner - just biding time.
Remember The Great Satan - The Great Deceiver. Deception is the key to billionaire success.
I've gained 5 pounds with anxiety just reading this stuff.
"They own the machine." Because they own that part of the machine called the Supreme Court, the explanation for their completely ignoring any and all laws needs no great pondering. They occupy the top floor, pouring their acid down daily with elitist smirking on the complete structure of the law. Some credible judges here and there are fighting back, but they need massive support from voters and sitting democrats, but there is little to none. Where are the lawyers across the country voicing strong rebuttal? And sitting democrats? With the cauldron- stirring Pelosi manifesting from the mists to urge ignoring the Epstein tapes, few in the cause would have the temerity to summon her support, lest they, too, would be betrayed.
The best advice right now is to keep the pressure up. If Trump get's away with the coverup, then all is done. We might as well accept our lot as another poor, authoritarian dictatorship.
At the end of the day it is not about the cover-up but about the heinous crime.
True but the coverup is what will get him impeached.
Do you think he will be impeached? I doubt it, given what Ghislaine wants, which is a pardon by Trump; I think she just absolved him in the taped interview.
Only if the democrats retake the congressional halls. Maxwell will say whatever it takes to keep her seat in the camp or prevent herself from ending up like Epstein. She's was already convicted for perjury so why would anyone believe her?
He'll soon be in a cleft stick with many clefts - and nowhere to wiggle out of his Epstein, medicaid, EPA, DOE, Education, jams - Go go MAGA go - get him outa here...
Maybe even some of those super rich guys will see their fortunes crumbling because of HIS stupidity.