— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
===
All the Sunday news shows appear to be Epstein.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 27, 2025 at 11:20 AM
===
"Trump's Epstein mess dogs Republicans in home districts; Scandal follows Trump overseas"
www.msnbc.com/the-briefing…— MGBđ (@wtpmary.bsky.social) July 27, 2025 at 1:55 AM
===
This Is the Most Panicked Republicans Have Been in Years
#Trump— TrumpWatch (@trumpwatch.skyfleet.blue) July 24, 2025 at 4:06 PM
… Republicans canât keep their heads down and trust that the base will keep holding them up, because the Republican base is whatâs causing the current panic. Far-right lawmakers are anxiously trying to navigate around the Scylla of Trump and congressional leadership pushing them to hold off on the Epstein issue, and the Charybdis of the hot-headed multitudes who lifted them into office after getting them to promise to reveal every dark secret of the Epstein case.
Mike Johnson is actually showing signs of stress
In a gaggle with reporters Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly said there is zero daylight between him, the White House, and the rank and file hardliners co-sponsoring Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massieâs resolution calling for the administration to release the Epstein files…But prior to the ten-minute huddle with reporters, a scent of fear was in the air. A Johnson aide scooted the lectern back from photographers, in an apparent attempt to keep their cameras further away. The aide then demanded that everyone there agree not to post pictures of the speakerâs prepared remarks,1 forcing the camera and lighting crew to hastily reframe their shots. I caught a glimpse of Johnsonâs remarks on the lecternâthey looked scribbled over, as though theyâd been intensely edited on the fly.
Elsewhere in the Capitol, Iâve heard from television news producers that GOP lawmakers have been getting upset after being informed before the cameras started rolling that Epstein would be a topic of discussion during their interviews. âEpstein? You asked me about that last week!â crowed one Republican in the Cannon rotunda, according to one producer.
Rank and file defiance
Trumpâs insistence that the Epstein matter be dropped has pushed some House Republicans into a state of open rebellion against both the president and congressional leadership. Democrats know this and are exploiting it to their advantage. In multiple House committees this week, Democrats sought votes and engaged in procedural maneuvers from the minority position in an effort to draw Republicans into debates on Epsteinâand even, in some cases, into temporary alliances on the issue…Campaign season is about to really begin
The August recess could provide a relatively rare occurrence: Republicans hitting the trail in their home districts and being confronted directly by constituents in the process…Democrats are keeping Epstein legislative, not political
Democrats have walked a very thin line on Epstein. On Capitol Hill, Democrats have been gleefully hammering their Republican colleagues about their longheld conspiracy theory suddenly going bad on them. But off the Hill and in the company of journalists, some Democrats have been reticent about the issue.Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chair of House Democratsâ campaign arm, met with a handful of reporters at the St. Regis Hotel just a couple of blocks from the White House on Wednesday. When I asked her about potential political messaging on Epstein, DelBene quickly pivoted the conversation to classic kitchen-table issues…
===
I can't believe Trump went to Scotland to avoid questions about Epstein. Frankly, I would fear Scottish journalists more than American ones in his situation.
— Cheryl Lynn Eaton (@cheryllynneaton.bsky.social) July 25, 2025 at 5:50 PM
===
Musk sought to stoke the Trump-Epstein scandal. Mission accomplished.
The leading role the former âfirst buddyâ took in stoking the Epstein controversy shows how he remains a potent political risk for Trump months after he publicly left the White House.
apple.news/A8miqH1aUTRq…— laurarsi.bsky.social (@laurarsi.bsky.social) July 26, 2025 at 8:11 PM
===
BREAKING: A House panel votes to subpoena files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation as a push for disclosure intensifies.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 23, 2025 at 5:56 PM
===
Iâll note none of this has anything to do w magic procedural tricks, being like McConnell, denying unanimous consent, âfightingâ etc. Weâve just finally hit that moment where Repubs are beginning to fear something &/or someone more than they fear Trump, & Dems finally got a GOP weakness to exploit
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) July 23, 2025 at 7:54 PM
===
I can think of 2 times when leading U.S. officials fled Washington in a panic:
August 1814:
British forces briefly capture the capital and set fire to government buildings.
July 2025:
Republicans fear they'll have to vote on the Epstein files, so they adjourn early and run for the hills.— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) July 23, 2025 at 7:36 PM
===
*this* is how desperate Trump is to distract from Epstein:
-denaturalize Rosie OâDonnell
-cane sugar in Coca-Cola
-threaten Washington Commanders
-Hillaryâs emails
-arrest Obama
-arrest Kamala
-arrest Oprah
-arrest Beyoncé
-arrest Al Sharpton— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) July 27, 2025 at 1:15 AM
===
Democrats getting handed "The entire Republican Party stops governing to further the cover-up of the elite pedophile ring of which their leader, the President of the United States of America, was a prominent member" is like finding the Ark of the Covenant of political scandals
— Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com) July 23, 2025 at 2:42 PM
===
No there there after a decade of ginning up the base on toxic conspiracies, so the botching of this was inevitable: How a Frantic Scouring of the Epstein Files Consumed the Justice Dept. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/u…
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 9:21 PM
===
COLUMN: The Epstein files timeline raises real questions for Trump.
"For starters, there is a conspicuous rhetorical shift that occurs after May, when Bondi and Blanche reportedly briefed Trump" that his name was in the files, writes Ankush Khardori.— Politico (@politico.com) July 25, 2025 at 5:14 PM
===
There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the Epstein case.
I would argue that pursuing whether Donald Trump (an adjudicated rapist who Epstein said was his closest friend) is covering up evidence that he sexually abused children with Epstein isn't a conspiracy theory. It's basic oversight.— Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 11:42 AM
===
I think he's genuinely shocked that his base is holding him accountable for something he said. Its literally never happened before and it shifts the admin's entire governing philosophy
— Gillian Branstetter (@gbbranstetter.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 8:07 PM
===
10 years of people saying we can break off pieces off Trump's coalition by offering them healthcare and rural broadband and what finally broke his base was the revelation that there isn't a Democratic pedophile cult.
— Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs) (@agraybee) July 13, 2025
===
Great thing about these responses is that a lot of MAGA will decide heâs deliberately lying to them, but among those who choose not to believe heâs lying to them many will conclude heâs senile.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
===
I do seem to remember that, yeah.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 6:36 AM
===
Jeffrey Epstein was never 'just a distraction' – not to MAGA which saw him as the embodiment of immoral liberal hypocrisy, and which is much madder about their bubble bursting than any Medicaid cuts
What Dems must learn from the Epstein meltdown. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm…— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
===
The Atlantic:
Trumpâs Epstein Denials Are Ever So Slightly Unconvincing
The president is not behaving like an innocent man with nothing to hide.
By Jonathan Chait
share.google/JDidXkyIAatK…— Frank Amari (@frankamari.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 8:18 AM
… On Truth Social, Trump complained that he had asked Rupert Murdoch, the Journalâs owner, to spike the story, and received an encouraging answer, only for the story to run. Under normal circumstances, a president confessing that he tried to kill an incriminating report would amount to a major scandal. But Trump has so deeply internalized his own critique of the media, according to which any organ beyond his control is âfake news,â that he believed the episode reflected badly on Murdochâs ethics rather than his own…
Baud
Round em up and throw away the key.
trollhattan
Susie has reset the furrow level to 3.5/Freshly disced field.
J. Arthur Crank
I first read that second to last headline as â⊠Epstein dying without Medicaidâ.   Either that headline should be rephrased or I should read more carefully.
Baud
Whether it’s Biden’s debate performance or Trump’s cover up of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring, both sides have a problem with age.
— in honor of Pitchbot.
Princess
Since this is an Epstein thread Iâm going to repost the link to testimony to one of Trump and Epsteinâs victims here. She was 13. You can decide if you believe itâs authentic. Itâs full of triggers but here are some of the things she says about Trump and race:
â
Donald Trump was very racist. He said a lot of racist things. There was a lot of comments towards Mr. Epstein about being Jewish and he called him a Jew bastard, said that he was cheapâŠ.
 He also referred to, you know, people of Hispanic origin, he called them Spicks. That was around the first time that the World Trade Center had gotten bombed in the 90s. And he was talking about the towel heads and how we would just be better off if we didnât let them in and basically got rid of everyone, every single one that was already here. And it made me really uncomfortable, really, really uncomfortable.
He also loved to call Black people n—– and Arabic people he called sand n-âŠâ
katemanne.substack.com/p/the-actual-conspiracy-theory-surrounding?r=pal7t&utm_medium=ios&t…
Suzanne
This makes zero sense to me, even though it matches my observations. Moving forward, mass psychology probably has more to help us understand the current moment than political science.
Elizabelle
Keep the spotlight on Trump and Epstein.
And: have you noticed there is virtually no reporting about the Texas floods now? Â That was a wakeup call as well as a tragedy. Â And. Â Crickets.
Baud
Too much even for scumbag Tapper.
J. Arthur Crank
@Baud:
Ordinarily I would keep the key in case we need to put a few more of them in, but we can deal with that possibility if and when it arises.
trollhattan
@Baud:Â â
Heh. He didn’t take the weekend off.
EarthWindFire
Susan DeBene pivoted quickly to kitchen table issuesâŠcommitting political malpractice. When is our party going to learn that âitâs the economy, stupidâ isnât a universal rule in politics? If this hasnât taught us all, what will?
Suzanne
@Princess: I didnât know Kate Manne had a Substack. Thank you for sharing that, even though it’s obviously upsetting. I have read some of Manne’s other work and I think it’s really insightful.
J. Arthur Crank
@Baud: Â To give him some undeserved fairness, he never had a chance once he was given the name âMarkwayneâ.
Baud
@J. Arthur Crank:
Heh. True.
Peke Daddy
Work the eye.
Suzanne
@J. Arthur Crank: It makes me wonder who hurt his parents. Like, stop passing that trauma to the next generation.
jlowe
Rather worry about where the next loaf of bread comes from instead of Epstein nonsense. Wheat growers in the inland Northwest are complaining to their Congressional representatives because the MAHA report harshes on glyphosate (active ingredient in Roundup herbicide). Would root for injuries here but we do need to think about where our next loaves of bread are coming from, and, for now and the near future, growing the wheat for those loaves will involve using pesticides. Pesticides along with antibiotics represent our largest problem with risk-benefit decision-making, and current experience suggest we’re sucking royally at it.
ruckus
@Baud:
There is nothing wrong with getting or being old.
It’s most often better than not.
Now being old and trying to work above your abilities because of getting old is an issue. Everyone that gets old enough will slow down at some point. Think about a car with 200,000 miles on it, that has never been serviced once. We all age a bit differently but if we live long enough – we age. And at some point we age out. It’s not a strict age or process of course, there are a lot of contributing factors that can differ for all of us. It’s life. In all its ins and outs, in all its playing by the “rules” and in playing against them.
snoey
@EarthWindFire: She’s in a D+15 district and is like a lot of other D incumbents who aren’t very good a electoral politics because they don’t have to do it.
Princess
@Suzanne: The fact that Manne is putting her weight behind this makes me take it very seriously. I have a good deal of respect for her.
Baud
Anne Laurie
IIRC, he was the long-desired son born after five daughters. His parents wanted to honor both his uncles, but they didn’t plan on having any more kids, so…
ruckus
@Elizabelle:
We all live with the weather, good, bad, in the middle.
We don’t all live with child abuse, with a lot of money, and pompous arrogance. Likely most of us don’t. Most of us work for a living, watch our bank account(s) grow slowly if at all, and at least marginally respect others doing the same. Being wealthy enough to have your own full sized jet plane is not something the vast majority of us ever get close to. Or even within a million miles of.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Better than WayneMark.
Suzanne
@Princess: Same. I read some of her work and thought it was great, so I bought one of her books. Then, before I read it, I decided to make 2025 my personal Year of Fiction. So it’ll have to wait for 2026.
I decided to do a year of fiction shortly after the election as a bit of a detox. I remembered what happened to my media consumption habits during the first Reign of Error. And the early-morning doomscrolling during the pandemic’s early days. I made some intentional changes so as to avoid repeating emotional crashout.
Princess
@jlowe: You can buy more of your wheat from Canada. I have American friends who say they canât est American wheat/grain products but can in Canada. I dunno but they think it might be the pesticides or additives.
Of course youâll have to pay the tariffs.
Nukular Biskits
I know good and damned well that ain’t gonna happen here in MS. Neither US Senator nor any of the three GOP reps will hold any type of open-to-the-public forum.
Princess
@Baud: I guess Lutnick wants the market to dip on Monday so he can buy.
Baud
trollhattan
@Baud: Didn’t think it would be conceivable to find a bigger asshole than Wilbur Ross but Trump 2.0 never disappoints.
bjacques
Everythingâs coming up Epstein.
satby
@Baud: Josh Johnson has been the substitute host this week on the Daily Show, and he’s been killing it. Check out this short on the continuing Epstein saga.
Edit to add, the entire routine is great.
Quaker in a Basement
Gosh, remember back when Biden did a government censorship by having a staffer call up Facebook and, you know, shout at them for plastering the joint wall to wall with fake COVID cures?
Of course you do. They’re still yammering about that today!
Jay
Mr. Bemused Senior
Amazing, isn’t it? They think this is going to work. OK, my record on prediction isn’t great, but this doesn’t pass the laugh test.
Jay
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: A lot of people have 2008 stuck in their head for Obama and don’t go on to compute that he was elected in 2008 but took office in 2009. Mullin may be one of those who can’t compute
Steve LaBonne
@snoey: Let’s refresh their political skills by providing them with primary challenges.
MattF
Pastor Mike admits in public that he has a low opinion of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Betty Cracker
Have we all seen this meme?
dc
We have no reason to believe that this asshole cares whether on not something he says is true. That’s just not a factor for these asshole fascists.
Nukular Biskits
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hanlon’s Razor says Mullin’s claim was probably due to ignorance/stupidity, not malice aforethought.
I’m not inclined to give Mullin benefit of the doubt as the level of desperation to change the subject has reached the stratosphere.
piratedan
unsure if it’s ironic or not, but out of all of the lies that this man has told, perhaps there’s a poetic justice of sorts that the one achilles heel ends up being his treatment of women. Somehow I get the feeling that he never saw this coming.
I do wonder if this will finally cause the hinterlands to question their political betrothal to the GOP, unlikely, but who knows.
trollhattan
@MattF: Did he forget to say low opinion of victim Ghislaine Maxwell?
It’s right there in the memo, Pastor Mike.
Nukular Biskits
Since this is an open thread (emphasis mine in bold):
Opinion | State Treasurer: Mississippiâs Unclaimed Money Program Now Requires Citizenship
Nutshell:Â “It’s okay to steal money if it doesn’t belong to REAL Murkans!”
Betty Cracker
If you have Repub reps, this is probably a good time to call them and raise hell.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: Ruh-roah.
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker:
Can’t get mine to answer the phone.
Jay
nitter.poast.org/P_Kallioniemi/status/1949385192562438522#m
Mart
After illegally and secretly meeting with Maxwell; Trumps personal attorney, now USAAG, releases a list of pedo liberal celebrities, intellectuals, and politicians. Press goes wild.
zhena gogolia
@Princess: Thank you for posting this. Everyone should read as much of it as they can stomach. It has the ring of truth.
CaseyL
Not surprising but still somehow heartbreaking:Â Tom Lehrer has died, age 97.
Mart
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was in a business meeting recently when a loudmouth started in on when Obama caused the banks to go under in 2008… I protested – Bush was President in 2008!, but I think they all thought I was wrong.
Steve LaBonne
@Nukular Biskits: The Ohio legislature skipped that fig leaf and is just outright stealing (er, “borrowing”) unclaimed money to help the Browns build a new stadium. And the new budget will let them in the future steal outright, with no pretense of a loan,any money that’s unclaimed for 10 years.
zhena gogolia
@Mart: Someone in the comments on that video says, “Covid would never have happened if Trump had been in office!”
Steve LaBonne
@Mart: And why wasn’t Obama in the Oval Office on 9/11/2001?
trollhattan
@CaseyL:Â â
Awww.
Truly one of a kind, and so very clever.
trollhattan
@Steve LaBonne: Took the week off. Went to Hawaii to forge that birth certificate, then surf and smoke the devil’s weed.
Princess
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I donât believe that. Mullin was sent out there to plant the message that Obama was soft on Epstein and plant it he will, facts be damned.
Steve LaBonne
@CaseyL: It feels like another nail in the coffin of the America we thought we knew.
Miss Bianca
OK, I admit, I read The Bulwark mostly just to get some semi-sane conservative commentary on current events (much the way I started lurking at this place, umpty-ump years ago). But I gotta admit to being cultural snob enough to relish the way they worked “Scylla and Charybdis” into this particular article.
That’s it, really.
Jay
Tony Jay
@Baud:
Iâm aesthetically unsure about that. To my ear Waynemark founds like a repurposed surname. Like a family name that was kept on after the last heiress of the Delaware Waynemarks married a Chicago meatpacking millionaire called MĂŒllein and great-aunt Cristobella threatened to make a scene at any future christening if their name wasnât given to the every generationâs firstborn son.
Markwayne sounds like someone fired from his job bussing tables at Unkieâs Diner because he was stealing floor cleaner to brew homemade meth.
Steve LaBonne
OK, that’s just brilliant.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I know a lot of conservatives that insist Bill Clinton was president tell 2004 when Obama was elected and there was never a President GW Bush.
Jay
@Tony Jay:
“because he was stealing floor cleaner to brew homemade
methbath salts.”Jay
Mystery of ReThug amnesia solved,
Tony Jay
@Jay:
I got my recipe from a Real Merkin, not one of those fancy pants Canuckstanis with their âpeer reviewâ and âscientific methodâ.
Bet you lot put maple syrup in yours too.
Melancholy Jaques
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It is probably deliberate. Right-wingers usually blame Clinton for Ruby Ridge, which happened in August 1992.
Melancholy Jaques
@Nukular Biskits:
The open border millions of illegal immigrants lie is one of the most damaging lies told about Biden & Democrats. It’s a continuing puzzle to me that no one seems to want to tell the truth about immigration, authorized or otherwise.
Jager
@Princess: donny paid close attention to his daddy, didn’t he?
Nukular Biskits
@Melancholy Jaques:
“It’s all the fault of the brown people who talk funny!” is a popular myth on the right.
Scout211
Well, TBH Joe Rogan, yes they think you are babies cuz thatâs how you have been acting toward Daddy. Â Are you saying you are all grown up now? Â Show it, Joe. Â Show it.
Archon
You know this Epstein scandal isnât going away when even Kristen Welker decided her job was something other than stenographer.
prostratedragon
@satby:
Oh, that is funny. Reminds me of this WUMC dad from Winnetka completely losing his rag.
ruckus
@Suzanne:
Reign of Error
I like it. I mean I don’t like IT but I do like your take on it.
But then if you know any of his history, this is the story of his life. It’s like he’s got 11 thumbs. (Think about it, I’m not explaining it, it’s not nice in any way, shape or form)
gene108
@Princess:
Yup.
Obama created the Epstein list. Obama was soft on prosecuting Epstein.
As a counter conspiracy to the QAnon/Epstein scandal, his comments fit nicely into the pattern to create this counter scandal.
JoyceH
Some commentators seem to be rewriting history and claiming the outrage really got moving with the Musk tweet, when actually it was the DOJ stating that no more files would be released and no charges filed and Epstein committed suicide. But on Muskâs tweet, Iâve never seen a definitive answer to this – was Musk just assuming what was pretty darn obvious or did he know for a fact that Trump was in the files, and if he knew for a fact, who told him? Was it Patel? Saw a news report that Patel had told âothers in the governmentâ that Trump was in the files.
Anonymous At Work
gene108
@Melancholy Jaques:
The biggest immigration lie Republicans have successfully sold the public is asylum seekers are selling to illegally enter the country. They succcessfully conflated the waves of refugees, over the last 10 years, with something illegal.
Seeking asylum is legal. Itâs a legal pathway to immigrate to the U.S.
It received no pushback from anyone.
Gretchen
@Suzanne: It makes zero sense to me too, but the book Dying of Whiteness interviews people whose view of themselves conflicts with taking anything that they associate with welfare, like the guy dying of kidney cancer in Tennessee who wonât try to get Medicaid.
Jay
@JoyceH:
mrmoshpotato
The fact that this is true tells you how fucked up the GrOPers’ base is.
Jay
@gene108:
and the, to quote Jeff Tiedrich,
”
a quadrice-indicted twice-impeached once-convicted popular-vote-losing adderall-huffing pedo-bestie-schmoozing insurrection-leading ear-diapering testimony-ducking judge-threatening lawyer-ignoring debate-avoiding witness-tampering disabled-veteran-dishonoring inheritance-squandering rube-fleecing clown-makeup-smearing language-mangling sneaker-hawking serial-sexual-predating draft-dodging casino-bankrupting butler-bullying daughter-perving hush-money-paying real-estate-scamming bone-spur-faking ketchup-hurling justice-obstructing classified-war-plan-thieving golf-cheating stock-manipulating weather-map-defacing war-criminal-pardoning horse-paste-promoting paper-towel-flinging race-baiting tax-evading evidence-destroying charity-defrauding money-laundering diaper-filling 88-count 79-year-old fluorescent-tangerine narcoleptic fart factory”
also known as DJTdiot has constantly conflated legal asylum seekers with “escaped inmates from foreign insane asylums” to his “base”.
base2
/bÄs/
adjective
adjective:Â base;Â comparative adjective:Â baser;Â superlative adjective:Â basest
1.
(of a person or a person’s actions or feelings) without moral principles;Â ignoble.
“the electorate’s baser instincts of greed and selfishness”
trollhattan
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: LOL! That’s great!
Betty Cracker
@gene108: Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has been consistently good about pointing out the asylum thing, but youâre correct that most people donât understand the issue.
geg6
Gotta say, ever since all this blew up, this has been my earworm:
vimeo.com/4500030?share=copy
Kristine
@Princess:
I’ve heard gluten amounts matter as well. I’ve read posts from folks who can’t eat US bread who can eat bread when they visit Europe.
Soprano2
@Mart: If I were Tapper I think I would have asked him to Google it right there on the air and read the answer aloud. When they insist on being dumb asses like that it’s what they deserve.
Suzanne
@Gretchen: Strangers in Their Own Land by Hothschild has similar vignettes. It is insane.
Jay
@Kristine:
Canadian wheat and flour products are higher in protein and lower in gluten than US wheat. Different varietals better suited to the Canadian climate and shorter growing season. It is also grown to EU Ag. standards so a large number of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers commonly used in the US, are not used here, because of health and environmental concerns.
Princess
@Kristine: Canadian wheat is higher protein than US wheat so I think it probably has more gluten in it â itâs better for bread so that makes sense. Now, Europe does use some low protein flours.
Evidently 70-85% of the protein in flour is gluten.
Kristine
@satby: That was great.
KithKanan
@J. Arthur Crank: That’s what trapdoors leading to long slippery chutes were made for, at least according to the movies.
zhena gogolia
@satby: Funny, but I don’t trust Nancy Mace!
zhena gogolia
@KithKanan: I would like to have CĂŒrt JĂŒrgens’s desk with the sharks swimming down below.
Jay
Jay
satby
@zhena gogolia: oh, of course not. The 3 Republicans who voted to subpoena the Epstein files were Mace, Boebert, and Greene. Complete loons.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: I’d be hard pressed to say one is a bigger monster than the other. This was a partnership.
No one seems to know much about their early relationship. I wonder how the f it got to be the sordid disgusting mess we know.
Jay
@MagdaInBlack:
According to the victims, Maxwell was the recruiter, groomer, pimp and also a sexual and physical abuser.
Epstein and his fellow pervs were apparently just sexual and physical abusers.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: There is some suggestion Epstein made his money trafficking girls from the former soviet union. I am not laying this all on her.
Jay
@MagdaInBlack:
I am not putting this all on her, either.
The victims all say she was a monster, as bad or worse than the others.
The ReThugs are trying to frame her as a victim.
gene108
@satby:
1. Three women. Make of it what you will.
2. All very dialed into conspiracy theories.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Ok then.
I think the rethugs will fail in this.
Jay
@MagdaInBlack:
mediaite.com/opinion/trump-pals-spin-ghislaine-maxwell-as-victim-in-batshittiest-epstein-twist-yet/
So far, MAGgot’s seem to be split, with 1/3rd still all “Cosmic Pizza”, 1/3rd still torn between QAnon Deep State pedophiles, and 1/3rd coming out as pro-pedophile/ignore the man behind the curtain.
I don’t know that Epstein will be a MAGgot “deal breaker” because nothing else has been.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@Miss Bianca: Â Then you must read William Goldman’s “Marathon Man.” Most thrilling thriller ever written. Scylla and Charybdis are the code names of two CIA-type assassins.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: I don’t know either.
My thinking (today) is that the techbro freak show and others that put Vance in place, have gotten what they wanted and trump is no longer of use to them.
The Qanon faction of maga just love sifting thru “rubble” so nothing will satisfy them. MGT is part of them, so she’s not buying in (as your article mentions)
Who knows. I’m just watching the show =-)
(with my iced Grizzly Claw)
Liminal Owl
@MagdaInBlack: And it is common, in reports of sexually abusive families, that Mom gets as much blame for not stopping the rapes, as Dad gets for committing them. I see the comments that Maxwell was worse than Epstein as fitting into the âblame the womanâ pattern. Â To be clear, I know that Maxwell was a much more active participant than that âtypicalâ motherâshe groomed, facilitated, and assisted in the rapes. But theyâre both monsters, and I donât see any point in saying one was worse than the other.
Jay
Not that we didn’t expect it to be rigged,
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Have we mentioned that Markus and Blanche are friends? Like, close friends.
Anne Laurie
If you’ve never read anything about Ghislane’s father, Robert Maxwell… well, let’s just say it wasn’t just Epstein who had a weird, twisted old man.
MagdaInBlack
@Anne Laurie: After I wrote that, I watched a short doc on him and how she became his “golden child”, and holy cow, it is no surprise she is a monster, and it reminded me a bit of trump and trumps kids becoming monsters to survive.
And it also answered my own question of how this unholy duo got to be the sordid mess we are seeing. They were tailor made for each other.
Professor Bigfoot
Up next in Republican politics- outright race science.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Well done.
Paul in KY
@J. Arthur Crank: I must admit that had to warp him in some way.
Paul in KY
@ruckus: It sure beats the alternative :-)
Paul in KY
@Baud: Spot on, as always.
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He knows. He’s just hoping his lickspittles don’t.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Also sound analysis. Do think ‘Markwayne’ flows better than ‘Waynemark’.
A ‘Waynemark’ sounds like some proof thing they put on commemorative plates: ‘Oh, you’ll see it’s missing the waynemark. Definitely a forgery.’