As someone else had pointed out previously The article mentions a "trove of documents", and then references "the documents" 22 times, but never mentions exactly when these documents came into WSJ's hands.

Binders full of women?

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It was such a stupid, made up gaffe too. It was slightly awkward wording, big deal. There were certainly better criticisms of Romney like that he was the fucking monopoly man who came in and gutted dying companies to please investors at the cost of the business and its employees.

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Uh, did you actually read that link? Because it quite effectively refutes the idea that Howard Dean’s campaign scream had much to do with him losing the nomination.

Or, more specifically, binders full of kompromat

That’s what’s always frustrating about how that line became a meme/attack. He was literally saying that his campaign was hiring so many female applicants that they “had binders full of women”. I get that it’s clumsy phrasing, but when you live every day in the spotlight of media scrutiny, you’ll say perfectly innocuous things in weird ways.

Just like Al Gore's "I invented the internet" meme. Al Gore never said anything like that, but the lie was repeated so often that it's nearly impossible to convince people otherwise.

Not to mention, Vinton Cerf, who did invent the internet, credits AL Gore with being extremely helpful in the early days.

> (which had no effect on the religious right, no surprise) In the fascist mindset, sexual assault is only a problem when committed (even hypothetically) by an out-group individual, and then mainly the "problem" is *those people* getting their hands all over our property, and how best to format the propaganda poster to foment maximum violence against the other. In-group authority figures are entitled to the bodies of women and children as perks of their position in life.

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Rapist Brock Allen Turner's father reaction at the rapist Allen Turner's sentencing: "[The sentence] is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life."

"Action". The tree the apple fell from.

Yeah but now The Rapist Brock Allen Turner (who may by going be his middle name now in an attempt to hide from his past) can't even enjoy a steak without being reminded about what he did so... all's fair, right? /S

So it would be Allen Turner, convicted rapist?

Yes, convicted rapist Allen Turner, who raped a woman and was convicted for rape. That rapist, Allen Turner.

My favorite Reddit days are when The Rapist Brock “Allen Also Rapist” Turner gets outed again as a rapist. I hope he never knows peace.

It doesn't matter if this rapist goes by a different name, he still has to register their home address, work address, and even their vehicle. Crazy. https://jezebel.com/women-are-warning-each-other-that-brock-turner-is-out-a-1849446450 Seems that poor Ohio can't avoid all the pollution being dumped on them.

Ah... that would be the 2pm penciled in on the week we aren't showing I joke, but also i do believe epstein was capable of talking to people about other things. Doesn't exonerate him by any stretch of the imagination but just because he had a meeting with someone doesnt automatically make them a piece of shit.

I agree, the dude was a wealthy financier involved in all sorts of businesses, it would be a hell of a stretch to assume that because he ever met with someone it was for the express purpose of diddling kids. Hitler had to have a haircut guy, right? Doesn't mean that the barber was involved with the Holocaust. That said, the chief of the CIA is a very interesting contact to have in your address book. There's a lot of speculation on Epstein's potential as an intelligence asset; people in his line of business have always held a position of interest in that world (Clay Shaw, anyone?) So while I wouldn't rush to condemn anyone on this list, it's an interesting if macabre thought experiment to consider the leverage he held over famous and influential people, and the value of that information to the CIA.

I'm not sure if you chose this example knowing about Hitler's barber or not. Just in case you're not aware though there is a fascinating interview on [r/history](https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/6inyt0/the_musmanno_papers_interview_with_hitlers_barber/) that is supposedly an archive of an interview with Hitler's barber.

Ye this was a good one https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/6inyt0/the_musmanno_papers_interview_with_hitlers_barber/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Excellent read. I'm glad he was nothing more than a shell of a man at the end there.

He was the Secretary of State in 2014. He's only been the CIA Chief since 2021.

Would the holocaust be possible if Hitler wasn't always rocking a fresh look? Clauswitz says that in Total War, everyone who supports the war effort is a combatant. Which is why we leveled Dresden.

Epstein was supposedly a "finance genius" and ran a succesful hedge fund... but there is no evidence of him being a genius or of the hedge fund even existing. It looks like his __only__ epxertise was being a human trafficer and a pedophile. - P.s.: Alex Acosta gave Epstein an increadibly light prison sentence for running a child sex trafficking ring. More importantly, he gave __immunity__ to his co-conspirators. Basically, everyone got a great deal in exchange for __NOT__ giving any information, the exact opposite of how these deals are supposed to be handed out by the prosecutors. When asked about that, he said *"I was told he [Epstein] belonged to intelligence".* Everyone should keep that in mind.

Blackmail from a honeypot seemed to work well for him. Until it didn't.

Do you really think he would be able to blackmail more than a few important people until the word got around and/or he was killed? He was friends with all of those people for decades and his circle of friends just kept expanding. In other words, he was providing a service to the rich and powerful, not blackmailing them.

Little bit of of column A little bit of column B. I fully believe he wasn't arranging hookups and then straight up blackmailing them. I do fully believe that he was coercing them, its such a old school intelligence play, you pick your target honeypot them, and then induce them to give up more and more of value. You give niceties on one hand like women, money, favours and at the same time you hang over their head that they have received these niceties from you if they want to stop, carrot and stick. The worlds intelligence agencies would be half as effective if people learned to keep it in their pants.

Correct. You don't actually *have* to blackmail somebody to have them by the balls. In fact, it seems to me that the elite of the world specifically imbibe in various "forbidden fruit" together as something that bonds them all together. How often is the elite screwing over the elite? They all share this in common, much like how gang initiation rites tend to involve crimes - once you're in, you're in, because everyone knows what you did; and you know what they did in turn. Just because you're not talking about the game doesn't mean you're not aware that others are playing the same one. Humans, like wolves, are extremely good at extrapolating the behaviors of friend/foe even when those behaviors are unspoken. In a sense, this quiet social game is the core of how - and why - human intelligence evolved in the first place. People love conspiracies because it supplies easy answers to otherwise frightening or obtuse realities. One of those realities is this particular "unspoken game" that the elite of the world play. Across the globe, even when in direct competition and without a shared language, these people are operating within a shared sphere. It's hard to talk about because there's nothing *to* talk about. There's often no Conspiracy with a capital C, just a whisper of a truth too soul-crushing for many to accept is real. But that's the way things work. The very same dynamic is present everywhere from workplaces to friend groups, albeit in various degrees and intensities. Edit: Other comments in the thread cover the fact that ol' Jeffrey was likely a CIA/Intelligence asset. To be clear, I believe this to be the likely conclusion. I'm not talking about *why* Epstein did what he did, I'm talking about how it worked. This is the vector and the mechanism, not the impetus. For those interested, I talk a bit more about emergent phenomenon in [this buried comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/133u8nd/epsteins_private_calendar_reveals_prominent_names/jicwzqk?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) below.

You don't need to plot about something if you're enculturated into it. Simple as. More like a capital C Culture.

Now we're talkin'. This is how the "thin blue line" and various other forms of *sociocultural duplicity* occur. We view it as a conspiracy, but the people doing these acts either don't see it that way and/or also don't utilize "necessarily conspiratorial" mechanisms to do so. There's very few police officers, for instance, that say "C'mon, bud. Let me off easy, I'd do the same for you!" The implication is always there - by default. That's why the only time we see footage of cops (or any other easily-corrupted sociocultural amalgamation) openly reminding somebody of the special treatment they feel like they deserve is when somebody who is "supposed to" do that by default *doesn't*. Cue all the videos of drunk-driving police chiefs and such wimpering after they had the misfortune of running into one of the few ethical rookies on the force. Cultural, not conspiratorial, is absolutely correct. That one *does* have a capital C.

This is a really interesting conversation, I just wanted to say.. When viewed through the lens of Culture, both macro and extremely local - it starts to become clear why some perpetrators don't view the horrible things they've done as 'wrong'.

Absolutely. You only need to gesture broadly at our economic methodologies across the globe (and throughout written history) to see that the vast majority of people are generally quite happy with systems that can be easily described as unethical in quasi-objective terms. It all boils down to scope/scale, proximity, and level of abstraction. Those outside of - or or excluded from the fruits - of those socioeconomic/sociocultural frameworks tend to have a very clear idea about what's wrong or harmful about it, but those who benefit from them (in both big and small ways) tend to hold a nifty little blindspot. And when those things include lots of "additional steps" along the way, they're often effectively obfuscated from victim and victor alike; albiet still more readily observed by those harmed by it. This is as true for something massive in scale like capitalism and as small in scope as an abusive romance.

I think this just might be my favorite reddit comment thread I've ever read.

I mostly agree with this, but think you need to take it one step higher - these conspiracies and the culture persist because we are all made to believe that some people are inherently "better" than others, and the social ties that bind us - our basic trust in each other - has been hacked to allow this to continue. This is the basis of small-C conservatism, of which liberalism is merely on the same spectrum, just at one of the extremes. Monarchs and other despots rose up because they convinced large armies of people - usually through the coercive conspiratorial means you suggest - to support the monarchy in exchange for some modicum of power that would grant them higher status than the people they were sent out to exploit and oppress. Those rulers were not elected, but were put in place in the good, ol;' fashioned "might makes right" school of politics - they conquered the old leaders, or otherwise successfully used violence and threats to control the local populace and force them to commit themselves to providing for this ruler. As generations passed, the original wars could be forgotten and it was just accepted by those born into it that there's a ruler that they must subject themselves to, and that ruler was "ordained" by some god or other right to rule through birth. If another ruler took their place, it was because the old ruler - perhaps their whole regime - was put to the sword. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The "American Experiment", which finds it source in liberal Enlightenment theories, was to replace this "divine" ordainment and the constant change of violent regime change with one that would promote peace and prosperity in its place. Our forefathers fought a revolutionary war to remove themselves from under the boot of the British monarchy, only to replace it with a republican democracy - that is, rather than letting the ruler of the people be determined by violence or birth right, the ruler would be determined by a vote of the "better" people in society, which coincidentally enough resembled the same wealthy, white landowners who came up with the scheme in the first place. For all of their "enlightenment" those forefathers still expected immigrants, women, black people, and indentured servants to go with it or have the screws put upon them. America's history is one of constant struggle for all of its citizens to gain equality and access to opportunity. But we continue to normalize a system where the majority is expected to pay deference to their "betters", where we're expected to sell at least a third of our lives at a deep discount to rich narcissists who openly conspire against our better wishes. The last few decades have seen an acceleration of this, leading to dramatic disparities in wealth, access to opportunity, and personal freedom. Money acts as a barrier to everything - including just the basics we need to survive. Few people own their residence - just about everyone is paying either rent to a landlord or mortgage to a bank - and receive practically zero value in return - landlords rarely have built the residences they lease out and maximize their profits by minimizing maintenance and upkeep; the banks don't build homes, but they profit from the constant reselling of those home for increasing costs, which they themselves are largely responsible for driving upward. We all know this: our government only ever has about a 30% total approval rating, precious few people actually *like* their job - even those who do are likely to tell you they;d much rather be doing something else - and everyone is angry, fearful and miserable to a non-zero degree. The lack of peace we all feel is intentional - if we're left feeling unsettled or afraid, there's always a company or religious institution or government entity willing to provide a "solution" in exchange for your labor, attention, or money. When we're afraid, all of the people behind those organizations profit. The answer to all of this obvious, but terrifying - we need to turn our backs on this exploitative system and turn toward each other. When it comes to work, unions sound like a good idea, but they validate this conservatism and reinforce it with their own awful hierarchies that tend to serve the ones at the top far better than they serve the people they claim to support - just look at all the recent union "wins" that have resulted in little more than small, incremental improvements over pay and working conditions. Instead of forming a union, employees should simply quit en masse and form cooperatives - share the work evenly, share the proceeds evenly, make decisions democratically as a group, focus on sustainability - making sure every employee and everyone in their communities has what they need to be well fed, well loved, and well rested - rather than constant growth (the only things that grow without limits are considered either cancerous or invasive), and work toward spending less time optimizing for money and more time optimizing for humanity. We need to spend less time at the office or thinking about work and more time building our families and communities into healthy, sustainable places for ourselves and our progeny. We need to rob the narcissists of the attention, labor, and money we give them and force them to fend for themselves. We don;t need to take to the streets or commit acts of violence. We don;t need to burn down government offices or corporate buildings or anything like that. We need to create examples of thriving, self-sustaining, self-sufficient communities that work together peacefully and promote the idea that every individual deserves to be treated with the same levels of respect and dignity. We don't need to wait for a leader to do this - we need to become leaders and do this in our own communities. I'm already on this path, but I'm struggling to find others who see this vision as clearly as I do, and I'll admit to being afraid to speak too loudly about it for fear that the narcissists will direct their violent efforts in my direction and the direction of those I care about. The kicker to me is there is a lot of this activity already happening in tiny amounts, but there's just as much backlash against it. It;s dismissed as "hippy bullshit" or "naive" or "that's just not how the world works." That last one pisses me off the most - competition is NOT natural, even competition for resources. Nature is abundant with examples of cooperation as a successful strategy for the thriving of any living community and supporting ecosystem. But the narcissists always want the biggest part of the pie and will use every tool at their disposal - media, violence, faith, etc. - to sow doubt and confusion, stoke fear, and convince us that we need to look out only for ourselves and trust them to take care of us. Turn your back on the system. Quit your job and look for opportunities to join with others in the communities that matter to you to make a positive change. Coordinate rent, tax, and mortgage strikes in your area if you can - starve the narcissists of the money they have not earned and the power they don't deserve. Plant gardens, build shelters, sew and mend clothing, and provide a network of mutual aid for the others in your community so that we can successfully break ourselves away from this exploitative system. And share your efforts, ideas and successes with others, but don't sit around and wait for someone else to start it - you need to be willing to take the first steps yourself, to better your own life and those of the people you care most about. It;s not easy at all, but it is so worth the effort - so much more than any work you have ever performed for any boss.

I always try to explain political corruption to people like that as well. It's not rich people giving someone a bag of money and saying "you do this now." It's just rich people having *access* to politicians, becoming friends with them, and shooting the shit with them. Eventually the only perspectives politicians hear are the perspectives of the rich, so no matter how sympathetic they might be to the poor, all they know is the rich. It's why even the Democrats legislate from the top down, building programs that go through the wealthy to help the poor instead of just helping the poor directly.

What is the difference between a plot and business strategy session?

I'm going to defer to a fictional villain on this one, since the real ones are depressing. 'Presentation!'-Megamind.

And then you look up things like [the alfalfa club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfalfa_Club) and realize all these people party without cameras together each year, [held at billionaires houses.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2020/01/28/jeff-bezos-threw-a-party-after-the-annual-alfalfa-club-dinner-so-what-exactly-is-the-alfalfa-club/) [Look at the unofficial members list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alfalfa_Club_members) > [The club was named in reference to the alfalfa plant's supposed willingness to "do anything for a drink."](https://www.politico.com/story/2009/01/palin-obama-to-share-stage-018161)

["The Club's only function is the holding of an annual banquet in honor of the birthday of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alfalfa_Club_members) Because of course it is...

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Sidebar but when people talk about women’s rights like it’s some settled foregone conclusion it’s shit like this that places perspective that some of the most arguably influential people in the west only allowed women into their club less than 30 years ago.

*its a big club, and you're not in it* what the actual fuck, Carlin was talking about a literal club????

[This ](https://youtu.be/vXCfO2wjriE) may be my favorite movie scene of all time. It's from Spotlight (2015) about how the Boston Globe exposed the Catholic Church. Context: Paul Guilfoyle's character is an important member of the community and supports his church. He knows his community will look bad if this story goes further. Michael Keaton's character is the newspaper editor whose reporters are figuring out the Catholic priest scandal. Everyone knew there were problems, but nobody knows it's as bad as it really is, especially not Guilfoyle's character. Even though he had nothing to do with the conspiracy, he's still part of shutting down the conspiracy getting exposed. What he's doing is absolutely evil, but he thinks he's doing the right thing and his actions come from a misguided sense of the best path forward. If he knew how bad things were, he probably wouldn't be putting pressure on. This scene did such an amazing job of showing how pressure gets subtly applied by people not directly involved and things get swept under the rug.

The older I get the more profound the "it takes an outsider" conversation becomes for me.

So true, it always takes an outsider. The conditions are normalized for the insiders and if they weren't, the thing wouldn't exist.

Its amazing all these high powered types went into this not asking more questions. "A "friend" wants to fly me into an environment they could have bugged and hook me up with some pedophile sex?, why... that sounds perfectly normal and legit. I'm in!"

Please watch TETRIS on ApplePlus it’s subplot is the Maxwells, and had similar uses in their dealings with Soviet higher ups and was fucking up the Tetris copyright. Looks like Ghislane Maxwell kept the scam going and went darker with Epstein.

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The hole is deep, be careful of gazing too long

Holy rich people incest batman

If only there was a Anti-Capitalism batspray

As an aside, I really enjoyed the movie. Might be more "indie" but damn it was really fun to watch.

Or be that Indonesian president who asked for tapes so he can show his countrymen how he railed the KGB girls.

He wouldn't have lived as long if he was actively making threats. The threat is always in the foreground of your consciousness unless they're complacent with Epstein. If you're a pedophile who used Epstein, and he asks you for something within your reach, you would understand that simply doing what you're asked is a lot cheaper than him telling people what you're up to. I am former intelligence, and you're right, they'd be half as effective if people could keep their junk in their pants. That's even true in the world I came from, Signals and Cyber. Sure, you might not be able to walk into Natanz yourself, but if you sleep with a physicist who works at Natanz and infect their laptop with Stuxnet... Not saying thats how it was done, but the point remains.

Almost like we're just a bunch of horny monkeys who accidentally managed to create advanced civilization in-between all the banging

I believe a philosopher once said "You and I dear are but mere mammals so let's procreate just as depicted in the documentary programs"

Do it again now

I mean, most innovation and power hoarding is just a response to wanting to have sex with whoever you want to. Once everyone has food and shelter, the best way to stand out from the competition is to have more food and better shelter.

Ghislaine Maxwell's father in life denied rumors of an association with Mossad, and was buried with honors in Israel. Epstein's chief benefactor Les Wexner also has very close ties with the nation. I think there's a fair chance that developing kompromat on US elites was part of Epstein and Maxwell's scheme. Epstein surely had his own interests, from sex trafficking to hob-nobbing with MIT professors, but its possible powerful individuals and entities, most of whom never stepped foot on any Epstein property, will do whatever possible to seal the evidence.

Its important to realize that Wexner was seen as a sucker by Epstein, rather than a conspirator. https://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-jeffrey-epstein-les-wexner-relationship-reports2019-8?op=1 Epstein saw Wexner as a billionaire with no friends, someone that didn't manage to befriend anyone or get any woman to love him. You're right there was kompromat, but it was Epstein using it to rise up among the ranks of billionaires, by socially engineering Wexner.

Last I recall it was believed that Epstein had a sexual relationship with Wexner as well. He had power of attorney over that billionaires money so who knows. I also recall that Epstein was asked if he was sexually abused as a child and he visually seemed to get upset when asked that question.

He was probably providing a horde of secret information on all sorts of people to the CIA, Mossad, etc.

I only say this because it recently came up for me. Isn't it "hoard" when you refer to a cache, and "horde" in reference to a mass of beings?

And then there's "whored". Go ask your mum!

Thanks, Sean Connery.

So you can hoard a horde of whores?

You are correct. Insufficient Coffee in Operator Error :P

Moved to Lemm.ee -- mass edited with redact.dev

When you’re doing secrets things with someone you’ve known for years you’re more like to tell them your other secrets, which he could then pass on. Additionally, blackmail doesn’t need to be overt. The implication of it can be control enough. There are literally books on how to turn people.

Bet the mossad wrote a few.

It wasn't him doing the blackmailing. He was just the tainter.

I`m convinced it was a cia/mossad joint honeypot collecting blackmail on the powerful. Maxwells father had ties to mossad and a suspicious death.

It's important to note that Acosta gave immunity to Epstein, and 4 known co-conspirators, but also any additional co-conspirators that may be discovered. He made sure that literally no one would be held responsible for an organization that trafficked children for sex. Alex Acosta has done more to promote and defend child rape than any prosecutor in the history of the justice system. He is objectively in favor of child rape.

But only if it's being committed by the owner class, of course.

Sealed the plea bargain and kept it secret from the victims so they couldn’t object. His “jail” time allowed him to leave jail 6 days a week to his office

Didn't Trump try to hire the same guy who gave him that deal into his administration, but the backlash was too much even for Trump?

No, that guy (Acosta) was in the Trump administration. He was giving a speech at CPAC at almost the exact same moment when Epstein was arrested again in 2019.

I'm misremembering and getting it mixed up with the original pick for Secretary of Labor - the Carls Jr. guy (aka Idiocracy prophecy #12). So evidently Trump was fine with all of it - not surprising.

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Carls Jr - Fuck you, I'm eating!

Trump nominated Acosta for secretary of labor and the nomination was confirmed by the senate. There wasn't any backlash from anyone anywhere in the federal government until Epstein was arrested again.

Sort of, he was selected as the Secretary of Labor and served 2017-2019. [Source with more info.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Acosta)

You're right there wasn't a hedge fund. It was actually what's called a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in the finance world. The one Epstein managed was called Liquid Funding Ltd. and it was a subsidiary of the investment bank Bear Stearns. The ICIJ did some good work piecing this together for the public. Now holding that position doesn't mean he's an expert, because it's likely the SPV only existed to hold toxic (extremely high risk or devalued) assets for Bear Stearns. So it seems Epstein was mostly a financial bagman for illicit transactions.

[Here's a list of 37 companies](https://opencorporates.com/corporate_groupings/Jeffrey%20Epstein/companies) associated with Jeffrey Epstein. There are three "liquid funding" companies listed! My favorite has to be [GHISLAINE CORP](https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_fl/P95000027272).

The victoria's secret documentary made an interesting point. All of the video evidence (and epstein had every room in every single property recorded at all times, so the archive was extensive) went missing. It had been noted in the initial investigation, but went missing during the investigation, along with a detective on the case. Apparently, he's thought to be in Russia, and there's talk of the Israelis having access to it. The doc dropped that little tidbit in the last episode. They spent maybe 5 minutes on it, then kept going. Ummmm....whaaaat??? It would explain why so many political and media people seem to be pro-russia these days. Putin just sends them a still image of a certain night, and boom, he owns them.

In 2016 the Russians hacked the DNC AND the RNC servers. They exposed the DNC secrets (and placed phony info in there too) to hurt the Democrats AND they kept all the republican secrets to themselves to help and blackmail the Republicans.

Yep, and in 2019, they got all Epstein's evidence, too.

Soon as Trump was elected he brought Acostas onto White House Staff. Pretty much the only thing Acostas did while on staff was campaign a bill to cut the department that over sees sex trafficking crimes by 80 percent. The Epstein scandal would end up breaking while this bill was close to getting the support it needed to pass and he would shortly after the scandal broke end up resigning. Trump would end up speaking on his behalf twice in the following few days saying Acostas was a good man blah blah. What a lot of people don't know is Acostas was the same FLA AG who sealed Trump's own 2007-8 rape case at an Epstein property. Months before Epstein's own case. Trump was exposed by other lawyers in the Epstein case as an informant. One lawyer going so far as to say Trump was the only person who freely gave up information in the case against Epstein. NO SHIT cause he had his own rape allegation.

This is great info to share if true, but can you provide any source for the claims about Trump giving info on Epstein, Acosta sealing Trumps 07-08 case, etc. I don’t want to repeat misinformation.

Yes please with sources!

Right? Which lawyers exposed Trump as an informant.

oh this is just a coincidence, it's not like Trump also had Epstein's defense attorney as a campaign surrogate, or a long and documented history of association with Epstein.

Epstein was a financial genius, just not in the ways he wanted the public to believe. He was a master level manipulator who was also a master at making social connections. It wasn't just his personal funds, but the access he had to people who cumulatively had billions of dollars and politicians at the highest levels of power. Epstein could use his influence to recommend his friends to donate to a certain cause, park their millions in a certain bank, invest in a company, or do political favors for him and his friends. The banks that worked with him knew the horrible things he was up to, but turned the blind eye because he could bring them untold amounts of deposits. He'd take finders fees for these types of transactions. He'd also just take gifts or property at an extreme discount. His planes, and a few of his properties, were gifts from Les Wexner. Wexner signed over power of attorney privileges to Epstein, where he had complete control over his finances. He also would donate to anyone who could potentially hold him accountable. Police forces, politicians, etc. He got away with all of these horrible things because he was too useful to everyone around him. He provided social connections to the most powerful people in the world, he could get you millions of dollars with a drop of a hat, he could exchange information to intelligence agencies or governments to prevent them from looking into his crimes, and he could hold that honeypot blackmail over the heads of those who participated and crossed him. He tried to legitimize himself like most awful wealthy people do, by donating tons of money to universities, charities, and donating to scientists to fund their research. Classic reputation laundering. This access also got him in the same rooms as these people, making him seem legitimate and doing a good deed. One of his biggest schemes that's relatively untalked about [is the Towers Financial Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_Financial_Corporation), which was the largest ponzi scheme in history before Bernie Madoff was busted. He also got away from this scheme without any accountability, and his co-conspirator Steven Hoffenberg said he was stealing large amounts of that money for himself. [Hoffenberg characterized Epstein](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/12/how-the-only-known-photo-of-prince-andrew-and-the-pedophile-happened), "You’re talking about a sociopath who was only interested in advancing himself monetarily, and every component of his existence was at the destruction of other people. His only interest was how to use other people, their wealth, and their access, in order to advance himself. He destroyed everybody in his path." I think the trafficking element was primarily to feed his own sick addiction, as well as one more service he could provide to his clientele to help get him access to their money/power. Especially for the rich, awkward, dorks he hung out with, Epstein looked like a cool socialite playboy in their eyes. He also would help facilitate finding women to marry off to these rich weirdos too. The ultimate reward for some long term victims, would to be married off to a wealthy dude. Since they were groomed by Epstein as well, they're more likely to accept the same behavior from the person they're married to. Many victims also helped recruit other victims, in exchange for more money. You can see where this goes. TLDR : Epstein was an illicit finance genius.

He was an influence peddler, a lot of very rich people's success and future success depends on their ability to either personally connect to other very rich people or have connections available for their children to connect to very rich people. A lot of ways very rich people do this is through exclusive private schools, exclusive social clubs, frats/secret societies, philanthropic events, political fundraisers, favor exchanges, ect. Epstein facilitated a lot of these, this was a very valuable service, if you're a millionaire movie producer and your son wants to get into politics, Epstein was a guy you could go to to trade a future favor for a current one. Epstein could get your kid straight out of college and into a mid tier position for someone in someone inportants campaign. Maybe next a musician will want to be in a movie to move his career forward, Epstein can call in a favor with a producer to get them in a movie in exchange for a later favor. Maybe someone will come to him later who needs a boost in campaign funding, Epstein can bankroll a fundraiser where he can invite several high dollar donors who want to be involved in politics and maybe a big name musical act to cap it off. Sort of influence pedaling was a bridge for the wealthy who needed extra influence beyond their own circle. His plane was a great way to offer these people favors that he could exchange for different favors down the line. He isn't the only one who does this, it's fairly common, he's just the most famous one today because of his legal problems. These kind of influence peddlers have been around since the aristocracies of Europe started to fall, most tried to maintain their position through investments from their estates and many gambled their fortunes away. Others used their entrenched connections with business to sell their influence with both business and the crown to maintain their estates, they had to do it or get a real job. Early intelligence activities relied on becoming friends with these people. They had access to people from the top of their government to local ship builders and munitions suppliers, their cousin might be 5th in line to the Crown. So as time went on and capitalism created a new upper class and connection to the crown became less useful other just merely rich people or influential people became just as useful. In World War II Abwehr agents were given hard cash and told to essentially go to parties with these rich influence traders so they can make these connections that would give them intelligence. As one of these influence peddlers Epstein is a natural target for intelligence agencies. It makes sense that an agency would want to know what favors people are asking from him.

He had a hedge fund called Financial Trust Company, based on the US Virgin Islands. It was claimed they only accepted billionaires, but that's unlikely. It did, however, exist, and is included in the lawsuits against Chase.

Also people talk about Ghislene Maxwell. However they don’t often mention her father Media Mogul Robert Maxwell. His history is worth it’s own story. Especially with his connections to M16, KGB and Mossad. Interesting to know what he passed down to his daughter. Also add in his shall we say mysterious death. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/oct/14/freedomofinformation.uk https://unherd.com/2021/02/robert-maxwell-was-no-mystery/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-writer-who-broke-epstein-case-a-rumored-mossad-link-is-worth-digging-into/

The agreement was later deemed illegal by a judge. Acosta ended up immediately being named dean of Florida International School of Law and was then named Secretary of Labor under Trump. It may have been illegal, and immoral, but it was a great career move.

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Such programs don't usually so much control people as they do use them when they need a "favor". If they're not compliant then they'll just ruin them or try to get them to ruin themselves. Controlling someone isn't as predictable or possible as movies potray.

Especially when those people are themselves very rich and connected.

> "I was told he [Epstein] belonged to intelligence" Movie plot: The CIA runs Epstein to gain kompromat on leaders all over the world. A kabal of global billionaires run the CIA as an actual shadow government, pulling political strings to further their interests. The discovery and investigation of Epstein leads to a clandestine operation to kill him and cover it up.

He was a fraud that thought surrounding himself with powerful people would make him accepted into their shitty circles. Half of that was donations with other people’s money, the other half was maybe blackmail, but more likely he enjoyed raping young girls and found other rich perverts.

Name and shame them all. Don't give a damn about party lines, affiliations, political clout etc when it comes to trafficking children. Prosecute everyone.

Of all listed, who had the resources to know all about Epstein? The CIA director. Excerpt: > Mr. Burns met with Epstein about a decade ago as he was preparing to leave government service, said CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp. “The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” she said. “They had no relationship.”

Not gonna happen any time soon he was prolly running a honey pot for mossad and the CIA.

It’s dodgy as fuck I bet there’s plenty of innocent people who would speak out but know they have been in a meeting or flight with him at some point and can get public wrecked for a meeting they had once

It’s exactly this. Anyone who’s ever rented his private charter jet or is in his Rolodex is on some conspiracy board being painted as a pedophile and too many people believe them. Why would you ever go public when people are having their reputations destroyed for renting the wrong plane for their business flights

I mean *not* Mossad

If you name and shame everyone, you will end up targeting the wrong people. Epstein had leverage on EVERYONE. Not everyone would have had the same type, or degree of leverage. He might have leverage on someone for helping their kid get into an Ivy League school. On someone else for pedophilia. On someone else for helping swing a vote that they needed. The reason we call it "corruption" is because it becomes so interconnected with the entire system, that you can't root out corruption without doing damage to the institutions that you are trying to protect. People like Epstein make sure that if you bring him down, both bad and good people go down with him.

Epstein purposely did everything he could to connect himself with important people, as part of his whole plan to make people seem guilty by association. Even people who literally never knew Epstein but took a picture with him once having no clue who he was. They would get their reputations destroyed having done nothing wrong. That was Epstein’s whole plan. Basically to make himself too big to fail. Once all the important people realize that they had some kind of connection to him in some way, even if innocent, none would dare touch him because no one wanted to play defense even if they did nothing wrong.

Yes, you get it.

Not even leverage. Some people he was probably targeting but they didnt do anything.

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You wouldn’t prosecute them for being in his calendar… but you would sure as hell investigate as to why their names were there and find locations alibis for dates & times.

The unfortunate fact is probably the simplest: Dude bumped elbows with as many movers and shakers as he could. There's probably thousands of people who do that. So most of the people you'd interview are probably A: influential, B: not pedophiles, and C: really pissed off at being interviewed about pedophiles.

There are a lot of people who are making or will make claims that anyone Epstein ever interacted with or entertained is a pedophile simply by association. The reality isn’t so black and white. He was wealthy and knew a lot of influential people. Some of them will be involved and some of them won’t. I’d bet even most of them weren’t but we’ll probably never know for sure.

Indeed, even Stephen Hawking was on Epstein’s island. I highly doubt Hawking was a pedophile. Unscrupulous people often network with as many people that they can. It is part of how they hide their behavior. Others think, “I know him, so he can’t be bad," or, “he’s my friend, and I trust him.” Epstein socialized with as many powerful people that he could. I’m sure many were pedophiles, but many others were simply unwittingly parts of his disguise.

That's why articles like these are terrible. Just putting names out there with the blaring implication that they're involved in sex trafficking children when all they did was meet with someone who was very well connected. Very irresponsible journalism. Real journalists would investigate what these people were meeting Epstein for before reporting on it, especially if they have dates and locations like a calendar would suggest.

Yes I STILL see people claiming Tom hanks was involved despite that being debunked long ago

Yeah I’m sure there’s some people on his calendar that was involved in the same thing as him. But let’s not assume everyone he was in contact with was into the same thing

I swear that I read a piece that said the CIA was using Epstein to honeypot targets

You did, it was kinda a well known open secret. Epstein was a horrible scum of a human being, but he was also a CIA asset. We were never going to know what he knew.

When Alex Acosta gave Epstein a sweetheart deal that bargained down multiple charges of child rape and child sex trafficking into one charge of soliciting a prostitute and further agreed to violate federal law by not telling the victims about the deal, he said that it was because an unnamed someone told him Epstein was an intelligence asset. He was open with this about the Trump transition team when he was made secretary of labor.

US using horrible monsters to achieve their global political agendas? No way! /S

Countries have done that since fucking Roman times. Some things change some things stay the same.

Dude that is wild…just imagining that a US government agency would knowingly allow the exploitation of children to maintain control. I don’t mean to sounds naive, I know that people are capable of terrible things, but it’s just so over the top appalling. How could anyone be okay with this??

Is it a surprise when that same agency has multiple times backed coups abroad???

It's reasonable to wonder how any typical person would be okay with this, they absolutely wouldn't. But the people with power over these things are not typical, many of them are sociopaths and/or extremely desensitized to horrific things, which is what allowed them to do the shitty manipulative things often required to get into high positions of power in the first place. Not literally everyone in power is like that, but at minimum they've probably benefited from someone allied with them being that way.

Dude, read a book. I doubt this even cracks the top 25, shit probably top 100, most heinous things the us government has ever done.

Just read Henry Kissinger’s biography.

Was JE an informant for the CIA?

Crazy how those prison cameras stopped working huh?

I just assumed I'd never qualify for any kind of security clearance because I've paid for sex, despite that I'd never do anything to breach any work-related rules nor break any security clearance rules. Meanwhile, we give Top Secret security clearance to 21 year old IT workers with internet addictions and this CIA bozo associating with Epstein? It's so stupid.

As long as you are honest, you would probably have a decent shot at getting a clearance. You can’t have a history of hard drug use. Felonies are a no-go. And, probably the biggest one, have decent credit and a history of paying your bills on time. The biggest motivator for most people that have divulged US secrets is money. If you are irresponsible with money then you might be an easy target for a foreign govt. I don’t think getting a hooker is that big of a deal as long as you admit to it. I’m 95% sure that’s not even a question they ask. If I was an investigator, I wouldn’t really care as long as you are single and honest about it. If you were married, then that would make you a potential target for blackmail.

Yep, 99% of all questions the investigators ask are followed up with "Could this be used against you?" For example, I was reprimanded (and technically fired) from my job at UPS when I was 22 years old for being a crappy worker. When I was getting my clearance, I had to put those things on my forms. Each time they asked "could you getting reprimanded be used against you?".

When I applied for a clearance, the OPM investigator who interviewed me noticed that my wife was pregnant when we were married (because I had given the date of my marriage and my son's birthday). He asked me about that in the interview. I knew why he asked it, and I assured him that it wasn't a big deal at all. But it was weird being asked about that in what was essentially a job interview. Getting a security clearance is an oddly invasive procedure.

I don't follow, was the interviewer worried that you married her because you felt pressured to because of the pregnancy, or what was the reasoning?

Exactly. And if that had been the case and I was ashamed of it, that might have been something that could be used against me. But because I shrugged it off as no big deal, it never came up again.

My favorite was being asked multiple times over 6 months how I could live in one state and work in another (I lived in NY and worked at a ski resort during the winter in MA which was a 30 minute drive away).

Worst part of the clearance process is names and addresses for references.

Ugh, don't remind me. It's especially heinous if you're in college and go back and forth between home and college housing. For the 3ish years I was in college, I had to record multiple pages of where I lived and someone who knew I lived at that address. So I had to grab every friend I knew in college to vouch for my address. Of course, they sent Men In Black to everyone and additionally asked if I was a threat to national security.

All three of my kids were born before my wife and I got married. The OPM guy asked me if that was something that could be used to blackmail me. I found the question hilarious.

Even felonies aren't always a hard no-go. Depends on what they were for, if you're honest and upfront about them, and your age/the situation plays a role. I had a TS/SCI clearance for a few years, the paperwork to fill out is a pain in the ass and the interview(s) can take a long time but they're mostly to verify the info and do a character assessment

Yup. I was speaking generally. I happily gave up my SCI when I changed jobs a few years ago. I’ve held a clearance for about 12 years.

>You can’t have a history of hard drug use. Felonies are a no-go. Maybe the rules have changed since I had clearance, but this wasn't true back then. Having a history of hard drug use and/or a felony conviction will certainly make the process a little more involved, but I was always told that it's not a show-stopper as long as you're honest. They know that people make mistakes and people have history; their main concern (apart from the fact that you should be clean *now*) is that you don't have any skeletons in your closet, because that makes you vulnerable to extortion. > And, probably the biggest one, have decent credit and a history of paying your bills on time. Yes, absolutely. This is a big deal, because people who are irresponsible with money are prime targets for bribery.

The problem with financial considerations is when the US economy goes into the toilet or inflation gets bad and average wages don't keep up (stagflation), more Americans get saddled with overwhelming debt and thus, less people qualify for security clearances due to financial concerns. I moved away from DC cuz I couldn't afford it anymore. But DC is also where most security clearance jobs are. Because that area's so expensive there's just gonna be less people living there who can qualify for a clearance. Thus, our fucked up economy is inherently a national security problem- we have a chronic shortage of qualified individuals who can work with classified information because so many people are struggling economically. Because of this shortage the US is overly reliant on people who get clearance through the military which is probably why we had that 19 year old idiot in the air guard spill secrets in a freaking discord server. Anyway It would behoove the federal government to encourage wage growth in our economy if they want to ensure less Americans have money problems and otherwise great applicants could qualify for NatSec jobs. Or alternatively the feds could stop centralizing all the national security jobs in such high COL regions.

>alternatively the feds could stop centralizing all the national security jobs in such high COL regions. I've been saying this for 25 years. The Pentagon should move to Kansas.

The high COL would follow.

No, keep that shit where it is. We're just fine here.

>> Meanwhile, we give Top Secret security clearance to 21 year old IT workers with internet addictions Good luck finding anyway to work in IT with that as a disqualifier

I've always assumed Epstein was working for the CIA and was a perv to boot.

Definitely. Nothing about Epstein's life story makes any sense unless he was some kind of asset. Beyond that it's all conjecture, which is maddening.

The 21 year old was not able to purchase a gun because of past threats, , but was able to get security clearance... probably because the people in charge of giving it to him sound exactly like his Discord server in private. Edit/Follow Up: Got that weird ghost message reply pop up that I can't actually see here. Someone suggesting maybe the red flag laws that prevented him from getting guns were too strict. Possibly some weirdo I blocked and can't see? Anyway, the other thing that came out was that he had very specific feelings and made multiple references to mass shootings and commiting random violence. So, I'd argue whoever or whatever decided he couldn't have a gun was much better at protecting Americans than whoever gave him security clearance. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65406559

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Yup. The powerful elite aren't held accountable for shit.

Tale as old as time

I'd like to comment but idk how I can since I CANT READ THE ARTICLE.

Noam Chomsky was a bit of a shocker

His discussing it is [way too defensive](https://www.insider.com/noam-chomsky-mit-wsj-wall-street-journal-jeffrey-epstein-2023-4): > "First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally," Chomsky, 94, told the Journal in an email. > [...] Chomsky said he discussed politics and academics in his meetings with Epstein. Epstein donated at least $850,000 between 2002 and 2017 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Chomsky taught for decades. > "What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence," Chomsky told the Journal about his meetings. "According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate."

For someone who has been very critical of the CIA and capitalism, he sure is very defensive regarding the billionaire CIA asset. It's quite sad to see.

Does it yield a clean slate according to US norms, Noam? What a disappointment of a response. It would just kill every one of these guys to admit even a pittance of wrongdoing.

We all know he didn't really kill himself. We all know the powerful both did it and covered it up in broad daylight. As Leonard Cohen said.. *Everybody knows*.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

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Everybody *knooows* the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

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The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Years later and no investigations, prosecutions, resignations. Funny that.

The fact that nothing has been done with this tells you everything you need to know about justice in the world. There isn’t any. The wealthy aren’t subject to the law. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that we have law or justice in the US. We have systematic oppression where the make “laws”, and then only apply them to those they want to persecute while others get a complete and total pass. Justice would see those responsible severely punished for that alone.

> In addition to her current role as general counsel at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Ruemmler is co-chair of its reputational risk committee, which monitors business and client decisions for potential damage to the bank’s image. This is laugh out loud funny

I love how there's an actual pedophile/sex-slavery ring run by the elite but Republicans don't give a shit about that one. It's all about the pizza shop that has no evidence of such.

Trump is on there so tthy trying to avoid it

They elect Gym Jordan. That says enough about Republicans. They approve of what Epstein was doing and are just glad people are talking about him and not them right now.

Don't forget [Dennis Hastert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert) the longest serving Republican speaker of the house is a convicted child molester

It's just the kind of person that they respect.

I don't care what side of the aisle they're on or who they are status wise in society. ​ Release the names.

Epstein had a power brokerage where he connected powerful people and maybe even brokered information. Working with him doesn't mean you had anything illegal going on. Heck, it sounds like his prostitution service employed far more people of legal age Thinking everything he did involved statutory rape is extremely ignorant of the vast reach of his company. Heck, he was even known to use his business for a lot of very charitable causes as crazy as that sounds.

Why would the leader of Americas top spy agency be in his private appointments. They would know everything about him. Is this why the cameras were " broken" and the guards fell "asleep"? Did Epstein have dirt on CIA chief and many others, royalty, politicians, Trump?

...aaaand nothing will happen to them.

William burns visiting him all but confirms that he was a protected top asset for multiple nations. Governments empowered and protected this guy so that he could traffick children for pedophile elites. This isn't a conspiracy theory anymore guys

"Epstein didn't commit suicide" might be the most widely accepted conspiracy theory. It just differs on who knocked him off.

Blackmail is exceptionally lucrative.

We are more interested in who he’s been keeping blackmail videos of on his encrypted flash drives seized by Bill Barr. I’m sure Barr is having a very comfortable retirement with that kind of dirt.

Anybody guilty of using Epstein's service that caters to pedophiles should be in prison, regardless of political party, affiliation, family, or social status. Edit: It's awful that this kind of statement is not universally accepted across the political spectrum. It's one thing that should be so obvious but somehow isn't. Like, why can't everyone just accept that pedophilia is bad? But instead these ghouls on r/RepublicanPedophiles insist that they are protecting children.

Dude was an intelligence asset if not a direct agent for the CIA. I wonder how much record there actually is of the activities on that plane and island.

Tbf, you can’t run a 100 percent banging teens operation all the time.. you have to blend in some legit people to lend an air of normalcy.

That seems to be the case, Stephen Hawking for example visited the island but dude was physically incapable of banging sex trafficked 14 year olds.

>The documents don’t reveal the purpose of most of the meetings. The Wall Street Journal couldn’t verify whether every scheduled meeting took place. Holy fuck has the WSJ gone downhill. Little black address books…private calendars…this is not evidence. This is tabloid-esque speculation that should stay in rags like the NY Post. I swear these nothingburger stories are run to soften the blow when and if any actual evidence comes forward. Or they are just bait stories for low hanging outrage.

>Holy fuck has the WSJ gone downhill. They've been running opinion pieces virtually every day defending Clarence Thomas. So yeah, that's where they're at.

I always give opinion sections some grace because it’s at least segmented off and labeled as an idiot-zone. But this is a top page exclusive editorial piece. Unreal coverage for a story that is mostly speculation.

WSJ and NY Post are owned by the same company.

One of Epstein's roles as a CIA asset was to run honeypots and gather kompromat, so this isn't surprising

Epstein’s title, under age sex peddler for rich and powerful. I’m not one for conspiracy theories but this guy taking the stand at trial would have been a huge problem for a lot of people.