Some people have been surprised that the Epstein files issue has had such an impact on our politics. Personally, I am not; in fact, it should have had a larger impact long ago – which is probably a testament to the misinformation bubble that most Trump supporters live in.
While Robert Reich correctly points out that there are various really important issues – arguably much more important than what’s in the “Epstein files – that we are dealing with, this issue is frankly far more salacious and eye-catching than whatever else is happening. We need to realize that, for Republicans in particular, politics has become a reality show and a sport. Tragically, it has become another form of entertainment, which helps explain Trump’s popularity among Republicans.

The other factor which makes the Epstein Files different from other issues, such as voter rights, what’s in Trump’s bill, Project 2025, and so forth, is in the title of this post. Trump can’t lie his way out of this one with his base, or anyone else. With other issues, he could simply make something up — sometimes an obvious lie, sometimes a delusion – and his base would believe it, while Republican politicians and dedicated Republicans who might be skeptical of Trump, would find it easier to go along with than to risk opposing their chosen tyrant.

This strategy of “Deny, Deflect and Distract,” which Trump apparently learned at an early age from his mentor in malignant narcissism, Roy Cohn, has tragically worked well for him throughout his life for the most part. However, this is not the case with the Epstein Files, largely because this has been cynically used by Trump and his cronies to gain support by promoting the idea of a sex-trafficking ring of pedophiles run by Democratic politicians, even knowing that Trump was the real pervert among them, or the worst among them. Now, the gig is up, and Trump is being exposed for what the amoral, perverted narcissist that he is. Thus, he is now pretending that he had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes, and that we should all just shut up about it, which of course, we are not doing.

The amazing thing to me is that much of this has been known since Trump first decided to run for president, if not earlier, yet, somehow it was not an issue except for Q-Anon types who kept calling for the release of all information related to Epstein.
Since conspiracy theorists love to “connect the dots,” and since we are being exposed to much of this information piecemeal, let’s do a little dot-connecting “off the top of my head.” (I will surely miss many dots, but it would take me days to do a thorough online investigation of all the “dots,” but even what we know from a casual recounting amounts to a mountain of circumstantial evidence against Trump.)

1. Trump and Epstein were “good friends” for many years – some in their social sphere would say “best friends”;
2. Trump’s Mar-A-Lago mansion and Epstein’s mansion in Florida were so close together that they were within walking distance of each other. They also both maintained residences in New York City;
3. Trump flew on Epstein’s private airplane at least 7 times. According to Epstein’s brother, Jeffrey Epstein also flew on Trump’s airplane multiple times. (Remember, they didn’t need to travel on each other’s airplanes in order to be in cahoots, since they were usually in the same neighborhood, anyway.);
4. Ghislaine Maxwell is known to have recruited victims from Mar-A-Lago, including the recently deceased Virginia Giuffre (known as Virginia Roberts at the time); however, there were others who were not as outspoken or as well known as Giuffre;
5. Donald Trump and Melania met through a mutual friend of Epstein’s. In fact, according to accounts (I think from Epstein’s brother, again), they first had sex on Epstein’s airplane;
6. Trump spoke of his friendship with Epstein and that both of them “like women on the younger side” in a now infamous quote;
7. They often partied together with adolescent and young adult females;
8. There are at least 26 accusations of sexual abuse against Trump that we know of, including the case of Katie Johnson, who gave a statement detailing how she says that Trump sexually abused her, and ultimately raped her when she was 13 years old. (Her lawsuit against Trump, which was later dropped, was filed from my hometown of Riverside, CA, where Katie Johnson now lives, probably from the same courthouse where I spent a week this April during jury selection for a murder case. I was ultimately excused from the jury pool.);
9. A new revelation is the 50th birthday card, with salacious content mentioning “secrets” and enigmas,” that Trump is said to have written to Jeffrey Epstein. This is said to be included in a book that Maxwell put together.
There are several characteristics of people that are unique to each individual. Aside from DNA and fingerprints, there is writing style and handwriting, which are also unique. We have the words of the card in question, which can be analyzed to determine if they are a match with Trump’s writing style – which I think it will be. If we can analyze the original card itself, handwriting analysis can be done on it, as well, if this is not already being done. Let me just recount that in a recent video I saw with an interview of a former girlfriend of Epstein, she laughed heavily when told of Trump’s claim that the card was a forgery, and that it didn’t match him at all. She said it was totally in character for Trump, in her experience with him.

So, here we are, with at least a portion of Trump’s most devoted base turning on him. Even Rupert Murdoch, whose Wall Street Journal first published the story about the birthday card, seems to be turning against him. I can feel the walls closing in on him.

As I said earlier in this post, what puzzles me is why Trump’s apparent involvement in Epstein’s sex crimes, was not an issue from the beginning. However, I am glad that “the chickens are finally coming home to roost,” and this scandal is gaining traction now.
Hopefully, I am not being overly optimistic in sensing the end of MAGA approaching.
Keep up the good work, folks!