Tag Archives: Jeffrey Epstein

That’s how Virginia Roberts Giuffre quotes Jeffrey Epstein’s misogny: “a woman is a life-support system for a vagina.” It’s an attitude I suspect many of the rich, influential men entering Epstein’s world of subordinate, controlled women would agree with. Probably many men beyond that, the same way they’d agree with neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin’s claim that women’s wombs belong to men.

This is patriarchy, the belief that any man outranks all women; no matter how much of a failure you are, you can always look down and see women securely under you. It’s the world of misogyny. Sexists believe (for example) that all women want to be tradwives; misogynists don’t care what they want, they’re going to force them into that role anyway. Anglin, for example, claims that as women don’t know they’ll be happiest as a submissive tradwife, men have to force them into it.

Another variation is Stephen Miller’s Katie Miller declaring that having multiple babies is biological destiny; having a womb defines women and women’s purpose in life. No, it doesn’t. The ability to have babies does not equate to an obligation or destiny to do so. Katie Miller, like so many female misogynists, is a special snowflake who has her own career, money and obviously doesn’t feel any qualms about Republicans making it ever more difficult for moms, whether it’s cutting off SNAP benefits or watching ob/gyns move out of red states.

Right-wing misogynists are increasingly open about how much they resent women who insist on being people rather than vaginal support systems. Jesse Watters of Fox News, for instance, dismissing Hilary Clinton as a woman who did a man’s job and in his opinion, badly. Though “opinion” implies he’s actually put some thought into it rather than spitting out whatever insult comes to mind.

For some in the forced-birth movement, women’s only value is, similarly, that they serve as incubators for the fetus. We know contraception reduces abortion rates; nevertheless, the Toddler Administration destroyed $10 million in contraceptives intended for USAID. Avoiding pregnancy is a sensible decision if you don’t want a baby but for Republicans it’s a sign you’re an irresponsible slut.

As they’re continuing to assert the right not to be pregnant, even after the Dobbs decision, enthusiasm for treating women who get abortions as murderers is growing among forced-birthers. It’s not something the entire movement agrees on — some disagree strongly, some merely see it as bad optics — but a lot of them would sooner see women dead than let them control their own bodies. And plenty of cops and prosecutors are already eager to prosecute women. And to cooperate with their abusers. As Jessica Valenti says at the link, it’s “the predictable outcome of living in a reproductive police state bent on surveillance and punishment.”

Women have turned themselves in for drug treatment when they learn they’re pregnant and gotten locked up instead. They’ve been arrested for being on legal prescription meds while pregnant, for drinking while pregnant (it’s legal), arrested for painting while pregnant (fumes might have hurt the baby!) and for getting shot in the belly while pregnant (she should have de-escalated the confrontation instead of putting the baby at risk!). In many cases, the victims of this persecution are POC. My apologies for not providing links, but you can find most of these examples in Undead Sexist Cliches, with footnotes.

As Jessica Valenti notes, until they can completely criminalize abortion and abortion pills, they’ll settle for little cruelties, like forcing women who have miscarriages or abortions to collect the blood and tissue and give it to a doctor. They’re also targeting websites that provide morning-after pills. And of course, harassing women. Even women with nonviable pregnancies, as noted at that last link. Georgia Republican Terry England, more than a decade ago, said it was no big deal if a woman carried a dead fetus to term — cows and pigs do it all the time! Ectopic pregnancies? Many forced birthers and doctors don’t support abortion for those either. The woman at the link lost her fertility as a result.

They’re also lying that the reason for the witch trials was to fight abortion. This fits into the speaker’s (Noleen Sedra) worldview — feminism is modern witchcraft! — but we have ample records of trials and accusations and no, that is not what the witch trials were about. She’s either ignorant or lying.

To end on an up note, sort of, here’s a great profile of an abortion clinic escort who’s not backing away despite forced-birther hatred.

E. Jean Carroll won a defamation lawsuit against the Toddler with the jury agreeing that he sexually assaulted her. As the Toddler believes he should never suffer any consequences for anything he’s done, his mob mouthpiece Todd Blanche— is now suing her. More detail here. As Paul Campos says, “we should judge every lawyer working in that office, and in every other office in the DOJ, on the following basis: You have found yourself in a position where you are working as an attorney not for the United States of America, which is the job you thought you signed up for, but rather for Donald Trump, because the DOJ is now Donald Trump’s personal law firm. Do you want to be Donald Trump’s lawyer, which means being a mob lawyer for a mob boss, doing mob lawyer things? No? Then quit. Today.” The corruption is inescapable.

2)The Toddler sent a suggestive nudge-nudge, wink-wink birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein, something the Wall Street Journal wrote about. The Toddler is once again suing the WSJ for hurting his snowflake fee-fees and reminding everyone how desperate he and Todd Blanche are not to dig too deeply into the Epstein files. Hmm, wonder why? Pam Bondi, ex-AG, refuses to talk about the cover-up to Congress, and says it’s all Blanche’s fault.

“Three teenage boys have walked out of court in Hampshire without having served a single minute of jail time between them, despite being found guilty of raping two girls. The girls, then aged 15 and 14, were attacked in separate, deeply harrowing incidents in November 2024 and January 2025 by two 14-year-old boys. A third boy, then 13, was convicted for his involvement in the second assault, during which the boys egged one another on, laughed, and filmed the assault on their phones, later sharing the footage online …. The judge, Nicholas Rowland, said that he wanted to avoid “criminalising” the “very young” boys. Boys who, you might say, criminalised themselves the moment they decided to subject two young girls to prolonged sexual attacks from which they will never fully move on, one of them at knifepoint.”

Young, yes. So young they couldn’t conceive what they were doing was bad? Nope. Young people do stupid shit but this ain’t stupid or an error in judgment, it’s deliberate cruelty. And yet “the judge also praised the boys for their conduct during the trial. These girls were forced through the ordeal of a five-week criminal trial in which the boys denied responsibility and sought to discredit them. One claimed the second victim had been “flirting” with him and lied to explain her absence to her parents. He denied using a knife.” One of the mitigating factors the judge cited was that one boy had a “limited concept of consent.” That’s an argument against him, not for him.

“[Deepak] Chopra and Epstein were in regular contact, joking about picking up girls, attending retreats, brokering lucrative deals and relaxing at Epstein’s residences. Part guru, part wingman, Chopra’s advice to Epstein includes the now widely circulated comments: “God is a Construct. Cute Girls are Real.” “Come to Israel with us. Relax and have fun with interesting people. If you want use a fake name. Bring your girls.” “Anything we share is between us. I share nothing with anyone but trust you.”

When Epstein informed Chopra that a woman had dropped a civil case claiming that he and Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her when she was age 13, he responded “good.”

In a recent conference Melanie Trump denied any connection to Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s some speculation why she spoke up.

AG Pam Bondi, queen of the Epstein cover-up, is out of the administration. It’s true her Toddler-toadying successor Todd Blanche has declared he’s so over the Epstein files so it’s not like he’s an improvement (he’s also said that if the Toddler fires him, his response will be “I love you, sir.”). Even so “it is good when people who show a disregard, or even disdain, for the rule of law leave this government — our government — and it’s OK to take a moment to appreciate that.” And Rep. Nancy Mace is calling bullshit on Blanche (though she’s still a transphobe).

“The same man who built an empire trafficking girls was also grooming boys to hate them. He monetized girls’ bodies and radicalized boys against them. He hunted girls and recruited boys. Those aren’t separate phenomena. They run on the same logic. If you normalize the idea that women are owed, that consent is negotiable, that power excuses everything, you don’t just get one trafficking ring. You get an ecosystem. Epstein didn’t have to abuse every girl personally to profit from a world that already excused men who did.” — from an article about how Epstein promoted the manosphere. Which may also explain henchwoman Ghislaine Maxwell’s online activity.

As noted at that link, Epstein made the world worse for women and gender equality. It’s not just him, though. If you remember #metoo, you remember how many women spoke up and said “me too!” They need the support of the system and of individual men: “It would be good if courage changed sides too. This isn’t impossible: one of my male friends, discovering the sexual abuse (this time of young men) rife in his faculty, became a whistleblower, sticking to the facts through counter-accusations and gaslighting. I think, too, of many other male friends, who love their partners, raise their boys well and must want more for their daughters than that they learn, aged fourteen, how to give a rich old guy a great blow job.”

“It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that [Attorney General] Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files.”

Jeffrey Epstein talked a lot about pizza. That doesn’t mean pizzagate was real.

“Epstein argues that teaching children to write may be harmful because writing forces “linear” and “narrow” patterns of thinking, whereas the greatest thinkers never wrote.”

“Billionaires really like thinkers who see their exploitation of the weak as a good and natural thing.” — from a look at how Epstein came to influence the Edge intellectual conclave.

Edge member Stephen Pinker offers what he considers controversial ideas: “Do most victims of sexual abuse suffer no lifelong damage … Do men have an innate tendency to rape … Are Ashkenazi Jews, on average, smarter than gentiles because their ancestors were selected for the shrewdness needed in  money lending?” Got to say, I’ve never found ideas like these to be cutting edge (the rape thing, for instance, is bullshit) but I can see why a bunch of older white men might find them appealing.

“Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has claimed that the Department of Justice intervened to block a state investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in 2019.”

“The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.”

“Democratic members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee told reporters that Bondi, who was joined by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, would not commit to complying with the subpoena for her sworn testimony April 14 to answer questions about the Justice Department’s handling of records related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”

“The 2014 visit to Newport was not the first time Epstein tried to get his “girls” onto a Woody Allen set. Emails from the latest DOJ document release show that between 2010 and 2017, he attempted to influence or aid Allen’s casting process.”

How predators like Epstein can manipulate their victims into believing they have agency.

Jeffrey Epstein’s circle included lots of scientists and lots of businessmen. And royalty. Some of whom, like Prince Andrew at the third link, are paying a price. As Paul Krugman says, this doesn’t mean they all committed statutory rape. They probably included people seeking money, people who wanted to hang out at a cool party, people who saw networking or business opportunities, people who found Epstein charming and flattering. And some how wanted to have sex with underage teenage girls.

As Anand Giridharadas puts it, “He was not only grooming teenage girls, he was grooming all of these people. This was all grooming, and it was a continuum of grooming from light consensual grooming of bankers all the way to the most depraved and criminal grooming of teenage girls.”

Some of them may not have known how bad Epstein was; some of them actively gave him advice on fixing his reputation. Some of them joked about how much he liked them young. Larry Summers asked for advice on picking up a younger (adult) woman; one correspondent recommended Epstein read Lolita. Others grumbled that young women were honeypots destroying the lives of older men. I find some of that stuff incredibly disgusting. I’m pretty sure that’s not criminal but it’s creepy enough some sortr of sanctions seems appropriate.

Some of the network, as Girirdharadas says, didn’t care: “These people are actually not that serious about character. In fact, character may be a liability for some of them, may be an unnecessary source of friction.” If you know the right people, well, soliciting a minor may seem trivial by comparison. Peter Attia (in the Girirdharadas piece): “At that point in my career, I had little exposure to prominent people, and that level of access was novel to me. Everything about him seemed excessive and exclusive, including the fact that he lived in the largest home in all of Manhattan, owned a Boeing 727 and hosted parties with the most powerful and prominent leaders in business and politics.”

Not everyone’s facing consequences — and to be fair, some of the people in the outer circles probably shouldn’t. Going to a glamorous party hosted by a notorious creep is bad judgment but not necessarily immoral. The further in you get, the worse it looks. The CNN article says lying about your ties to Epstein is currently a big Danger sign. Hanging around Epstein after his statutory rape conviction is another. In some cases it’s simply the fear that having damaged goods as the head of your firm will be very bad for business. In Andrew’s case, he did some insider trading with Epstein (Paul Campos: “Child rape is one thing, but manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate is going a bit too far, apparently.”). And some people knew Epstein but didn’t hang out, or went to one party and decided they’d had enough.

The Toddler of the United States has no interest in facing consequences. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, his solution is to start claiming he’s been completely exonerated. He hasn’t. And the Department of Justice is still hiding files that may say otherwise.

For bonus thoughts, Celeste Davis makes a good case the problem isn’t networking or glamorous parties, it’s patriarchy. Which includes a lot of contempt for women in STEM (” Epstein responded: “It’s the tail of distribution , no really smart women – none.” )

A friend of mine made a good point on FB recently: “The most depressing thing about the Epstein files is how very very boring billionaires are. All the money that ever existed and they use it to perv on 13-year-olds. If I were a billionaire, I would commission the *HMS Surprise* with 24 guns of confetti cannons, and I would require the crew to wear Lord Nelson-era uniforms. If I wanted a second yacht, I would build the *Queen Anne’s Revenge* and have the crew dress and talk like movie pirates.”

How Karen chooses to spend her billions is not the way I’d do it but her point is still valid. These are men who could probably find willing, attractive partners; in many cases they have the income to hire adult sex workers. They can travel around the world, afford to live pretty much anywhere — Paris, Cairo, London — trek up the Amazon. Pay $50,000 to charity so Bon Jovi or Bad Bunny will give them and their friends a private concert. Or simply sit on the beach with a piña colada and a good book and chill. Instead, they opted to hang out with a notorious pedophile on Statutory Rape Island, write smirking birthday cards about how Epstein liked ’em young or tell Epstein how underage girls are slutty temptresses.

As several women have observed online, sexualizing underage girls isn’t something Epstein came up with. It’s common. Epstein’s inner ring weren’t uniquely depraved slimeballs. Rape culture is a thing and plenty of other people in the same boat would have looked at those girls and said “yummy!” That is not an excuse. That other men do what Epstein did and get away with it is not a reason to shrug and not care about him or his cronies. Nor, contrary to Attorney General Pam Bondi, should we stop worrying about the victims because the economy’s doing well (as noted at the link, not as well as she implies). Hey, at least some of Epstein’s BFFs are suffering consequences.

The web of connections around Epstein keeps spreading wider. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for instance: “Lutnick has in the past vehemently denied having any association with Jeffrey Epstein, insisting that he severed all contact with the pedophile ringleader in 2005. But even the highly limited, extremely redacted release of the Epstein files — everything we’ve seen reeks of a major coverup — shows that he was flat-out lying. Not only did he stay in close contact with Epstein, the two men appear to have gone into business together.” Steve Bannon gave Epstein advice on rebuilding his reputation, such as “crush the pedo/trafficking narrative.” You can’t get much more morally bankrupt.

Paul Krugman: “I believe (and hope) that only a small minority of the hundreds and hundreds in Epstein’s extended circle received sexual favors. A larger number of people were probably receiving financial favors, but most weren’t … I believe that a lot of his reach came from his skill at seducing people by providing them with a sense of exclusivity and privilege. To be associated with Epstein meant receiving invitations to participate in fancy dinners or to stay at one of his many luxurious residences in all the best places, including his private island. If you were chums with Jeffrey Epstein, you felt that you were a member of a glittering set of insiders. And that was enough to make you look away when the young woman pouring your drink looked just a little bit too much like your teenage daughter.” C.S. Lewis makes the same point about the appeal of joining the cool kids: “It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face—that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face—turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected.”

Or consider Valeria Chomsky’s account of her husband Noah Chomsky (yes, the Chomsky) and how Epstein charmed him: “Epstein began to encircle Noam, sending gifts and creating opportunities for interesting discussions in areas Noam has been working on extensively. We regret that we did not perceive this as a strategy to ensnare us and to try to undermine the causes Noam stands for.” That I can understand. However Chomsky sympathizing with him over the “horrible way” the media had treated Epstein — that’s getting sucked in further than I think is excusable. It’s along the lines of refusing to believe your buddy/father/kid/roommate could possibly have done what that chick says he did, regardless of the evidence.

It’s possible some of the people in Epstein’s orbit were genuinely unaware of his activities beyond rumors — I certainly hadn’t heard of him until about eight years ago. But others, as Krugman says, were willing to turn a blind eye for the chance to hang out at glamorous parties or suck up to Epstein for research funding. And some, judging from the jokes or the chatter in their emails weren’t that blind. Knowing about it or suspecting it and continuing to hang out isn’t as bad as having sex with Epsteion’s underage victims. But it’s bad enough.

One of the standard takes on well, almost anything the Necrotic Toddler does is that it’s “a distraction from the Epstein files.” Or from the murder of Good and Pretti in Minneapolis. Or Good and Pretti are a distraction from whatever other atrocity he’s pulled lately.

Nope. The Felon of the United States doesn’t do distractions. Neither do his people. They want the world, they want it now, and they don’t seem to grasp their might be blowback. As Paul Krugman says about their strategy in Minneapolis, “the obvious answer is that there isn’t any strategy. These people aren’t evil masterminds — evil, yes, but masterminds, no. They’re just thugs too crude and undisciplined to control their own thuggishness. They were caught off guard by the strength of the resistance because the very concept of citizens standing up for their principles is alien to them, and they still can’t believe it’s real.”

As others have said, if you’re trying to figure out why the hell they’re doing X, the usual answer is going to be “They’re stupid.”

However it is very easy with everything going on to forget about the Epstein files, about Epstein’s long, horrible history of raping girls with impunity, and the horrifying number of people who seem to have turned a blind eye. Let’s not forget, and let’s not forgive. In that spirit, a few links:

“This fake Medvedev interview plays into that, suggesting that Russia has leverage because they have the Epstein files.”

“”Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected. That is outrageous.”

Still some embarrassing information is coming out. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick planned to visit Epstein’s island. Musk was apparently a good chum. Musk denies this but “even if you do your absolute damndest to read this guy’s freshly released Epstein emails in a positive light, what you get is the story of a tech tycoon stating unambiguously that he wanted to attend an absolute rager on a sex criminal’s private island.” Perhaps it’s no surprise Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wants us to know that partying with Jeffrey Epstein is not a crime. Because I’m sure Musk isn’t alone.

France, investigating Musk over Grok’s ability to make child porn, reminds him he’s not on Epstein’s island now.

“A Duke University professor appears in more than 700 of the newest Epstein files released by the Justice Department, one of which asks the convicted sex trafficker to provide the name and email of a “redhead” he wished to see again.”

Neither is attorney Brad Karp who had to step down from his leadership role at the Paul Weiss firm (he’s still employed) due to his gushing emails about fun parties with Epstein.

“Documents published last week by the U.S. Justice Department contain new revelations, including papers suggesting Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis, and records of payments totaling $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 from Epstein to accounts linked to Mandelson or his husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva.” — from a still-unfolding British side to the story.

No wonder the Felon likes Kid Rock, with lyrics like “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ‘em underage/See some say that’s statutory/But I say it’s mandatory.” A reminder that as many people point out, Epstein was extreme but his attitudes weren’t an anomaly.

Oddities in the latest release.

““The essence of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is one man doing terrible things to girls – we can kind of understand that. But having so many powerful men who were enablers, who all just thought this was a joke – it’s so sad,” she says. “Everyone’s just laughing, it’s so funny how Jeffrey Epstein enjoys young women giving him massages. There are these secrets they all have together – it just makes my stomach turn.”

“Included in the documents released Friday was an exchange from 2015 in which Attia had written a note — redacted by the Justice Department — that bore the subject line, “Got a fresh shipment.” Epstein responded, “me too,” with a photo that was also redacted. Attia responded, “Please tell (me) you found that picture on line … bastard.”

Woody Allen’s wife Soon-Yi Previn corresponded with Epstein years after his perversions were known, complaining that MeToo had gone too far and saying the horrifying thing about Anthony Weiner, in his fifties, hitting on a 15-year-old, is that the girl was a “manipulative” predator. Um, no. I can’t help thinking of her sister Dylan Farrow, who accused Allen of assaulting her as a child and how much of a subtext to Previn’s comments that might be.

Prominent scientists were friends of Jeffrey too. And complained to him about how unfair it was they’d been accused of being lechers and sexual harassers. Creepy game apparently does recognize creepy game.

No, Zohram Mamdani is not Epstein’s son.

Dems say they’ll subpoena the Toddler over the Epstein files.

I’ll conclude with a quote from my friend Karen: “The most depressing thing about the Epstein files is how very very boring billionaires are. All the money that ever existed and they use it to perv on 13-year-olds.” Well said.