PDF Download (Paid Subscription Required): I’m a Superstitious Man
I’m a superstitious man, and if some unlucky accident should befall him — if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightning — then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room.
Vito Corleone, “The Godfather” (1972)
Same.
Vito Corleone was speaking of his son, Michael, and these were some of the people he intended to blame for an “unlucky accident”.
I’m speaking of a monster, Jeffrey Epstein, and these are some of the people I intend to blame for this “unlucky accident”.
So … I want to be careful with what I am saying and what I am not saying.
I am NOT saying that Epstein was murdered, and I am certainly not saying that he was murdered on the orders of anyone in this picture.
Well, certainly not by Melania or whatever Playboy model Bill was boffing at the time.
JK! JK! I really and truly am not accusing Trump or Clinton of having anything to do with Epstein’s untimely demise, not even in a “who will rid me of this troublesome priest” sort of way.
What I am saying is that sociopathic oligarchs – of which club I consider Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew to be charter members – are the necessary and sufficient conditions of the specific evil that was Jeffrey Epstein as well as the more general evil of sexual predation of children.
What I am saying is that Epstein’s direct testimony – AND ONLY EPSTEIN’S DIRECT TESTIMONY – had the potential to create a Common Knowledge moment like the one that destroyed Harvey Weinstein through the direct testimony of Rose McGowan.
What I am saying is that Epstein’s direct testimony – AND ONLY EPSTEIN’S DIRECT TESTIMONY – had the potential to create a Common Knowledge moment that could bring down – not just specific sociopathic oligarchs like Mob Boss Donald or Mob Boss Bill or Mob Boss Andrew if they were the specific targets of that testimony – but the entire Mob system of sociopathic oligarchy.
Jeffrey Epstein was the Missionary to bring down the monsters behind the monster, to bring down the SYSTEM of monsters.
Jeffrey Epstein’s books and records are not.
The individual voices of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims are not.
And that’s what makes me angriest of all.
That while the individual victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes will maybe (maybe!) get some smattering of “justice” and recompense from the show trial of a monster’s estate, there will be no Justice served against the monsters behind the monster, that the Mob system of sociopathic oligarchy that CREATED this Jeffrey Epstein and the next Jeffrey Epstein and the next and the next will continue unabated. Untouched. Golden.
“Yay, justice!”
What I am saying is that there are enormous vested interests spread across multiple avenues of violence and power that will not allow that Mob system of sociopathic oligarchy to collapse on a single point of failure like Epstein’s direct testimony.
And so it didn’t.
And so Jeffrey Epstein is dead, victim of an “unlucky accident”.
Was it murder? Was it suicide?
I’m a superstitious man. I don’t care.
Is a murder committed more heinous than a suicide allowed? In its act, sure. In this context? NO.
An “unlucky accident” like this is the ONE THING that a non-corrupt State must prevent. It’s the non-corrupt State’s ONE JOB to keep Epstein alive for trial, and everyone knows that everyone knows this is their ONE JOB.
It is impossible to violate this common knowledge without premeditation and malice, without conspiracy and criminality aforethought. It is impossible to have an “unlucky accident” like this in a non-corrupt State.
I’m a superstitious man. I’m blaming the people in the room.
What room?
The room of violence and power and wealth.
The room of the corrupt State.
The room that is swarmed by the Nudging Oligarchy. The room that is supported and propped up by the apparatchiks and hangers-on and wannabes and “journalists” of District One.
I DON’T CARE how deeply Mob Boss Donald or Mob Boss Bill or Mob Boss Andrew was part of this specific criminal conspiracy, either in its operation or its cover-up.
They are mob bosses all the same, and I blame them all the same, and they are guilty all the same, regardless of their specific interest in this specific crime and regardless of whether this was murder or suicide.
Many readers will think I’m naive when I tell you that I was genuinely shocked that Jeffrey Epstein suffered this “unlucky accident.” As the kids would say, I was shook.
I haven’t felt this way since October 2008 when the US Treasury put the full faith and credit of the United States behind the unsecured debt of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan and Bank of America.
Then as now, the pleasant skin of “Yay, democracy!” has been sloughed off to reveal the naked sinews of power and wealth and violence beneath. There’s no crisis like there was in 2008. The world isn’t ending like it was in 2008. But I’m telling you that it feels the same to me.
They’re. Not. Even. Pretending. Anymore.
The Nudging State and the Nudging Oligarchy cannot be defeated on a single point of failure like Jeffrey Epstein’s testimony at trial. Or like the bankruptcy of AIG.
The sociopathic oligarchs will win every direct confrontation. That’s what sociopathic oligarchs DO.
But a million effin’ points of failure? A rejection of the ATTENTION that sociopathic oligarchs require, in both markets and politics? A refusal to vote for ridiculous candidates and buy ridiculous securities? A refusal AT SCALE? A modern movement of disengagement from a market casino and an election sideshow in favor of what is REAL?
Yeah.
Yeah, that can work.
What does a movement of refusal and disengagement look like? Start here …
And then go here …
The Second Foundation hides in plain sight.
PDF Download (Paid Subscription Required): I’m a Superstitious Man
Thank you for being outraged over this suicide-by-neglect - particularly pointing out that a non-corrupt state could prevent this. The conspiracy theorists are foolish - the result that takes the least amount of effort is more likely.
Before Harvey Weinstein was Father Porter, who was brought down by the brave testimony of many victims.
Following up on the Catholic angle, as a resident of the Boston metro area, I find it very disturbing that people who helped broker peace in Ireland could be a part of Epstein’s web of abuse. O.k. – not much might surprise me about Clinton anymore – note that I’m trying to be cautious about stating that. But former Sen. George Mitchell?
The Epstein affair has also revealed something new to me (but perhaps not to all of you): that on a wide scale individuals may have been chosen for positions of power and influence specifically because they could be blackmailed. See the story of Elon Musk’s search for a new Tesla chairman https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-interview.html
Like you, to me this has shaken my concept of the USA in ways the daily accumulation of softer corruption had not. At what point does prudence require preparation to move?
Seems like “THEY aren’t even trying anymore” is THEM trying. This wasn’t only THEIR best move given Epstein’s real testimony/voice turning him into a “Missionary”, but it was pretty much THEIR only move, because won’t the victims (and their attorneys) now have a clear shot at his reportedly “oddly acquired” mega-estate, and there certainly won’t be much of a fight to pay them (off)? This best case scenario for ‘THEM’ even turns into a major win for the victims - not like they can change the past, but for a few $10s of millions each, they go away,… this all goes away. Even regardless of any well intentioned investigations by the DOJ/FBI (I know lolll), ‘THEY’ win again.
I was 16 when I, like many, watched Jack Ruby shoot and kill Lee Harvey Oswald at point blank range with all those law enforcement officers “protecting Oswald”. Just what came out of that? Oswald acted on his own and Ruby died in jail without a trial. I was not surprised at Epstein’s death while in Federal custody. I’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. Epstein is just the latest episode.
I don’t generally believe in grand conspiracy theories… I don’t think the government is efficient enough are able to keep secrets well enough to pull them off. So I must go with Occam’s Razor and say that he killed himself. That being said, a lot of powerful people are very relieved that this guy is dead. Some were complicit in his atrocities and others either enabled him or simply looked the other way. The one news item that really sticks with me was reported by Vicky Ward, a respected journalist who has covered the Epstein saga for 15 years:
"Epstein’s name, I was told, had been raised by the Trump transition team when Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Miami who’d infamously cut Epstein a non-prosecution plea deal back in 2007, was being interviewed for the job of labor secretary. The plea deal put a hard stop to a separate federal investigation of alleged sex crimes with minors and trafficking.
“Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?” Acosta had been asked. Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no comment when asked about this.)". https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epsteins-sick-story-played-out-for-years-in-plain-sight
Everybody involved is so dirty on this…
I don’t get why he didn’t have some sort of dead man switch that would ejaculate 5 TB of data to Wikileaks if he didn’t check in every so often…
I generally agree with the article’s point that data isn’t going to help people get over their zealot-like devotion to this filthy system that they’ve lived with their entire life. It took me years to get over the brainwashing that I lived through in primary school after I started discovering the truth in college.
We’re just over 4 years removed from the Epstein “suicide” and reading Ben’s note on Oliver Anthony & Greta Thunberg strangely got me thinking about this debacle.
Everything today is politicized by opportunists. The ball game last night, the dress an actress wears at an awards ceremony, today’s weather, the mediocre light beer I enjoy; everything is used by the political high priests as a tool to promote their respective narratives. “Oh My Gosh have you seen! Bud Light sales are tanking! Get Woke Go Broke!!!”.
But somehow the Epstein “suicide” was ignored by these people? THIS was the event excluded from political tribalism?
The sitting President in August of 2019 was the Chief High Priest of political opportunism. And Epstein was a known associate of Trump’s main political adversary, the Clintons. Imagine the circus? A Trump tweet in the dead of night announcing Epstein was being placed under Secret Service protection. Trump live tweeting the trial. Every member of the blue team having to answer for the Clintons.
Will leave it to our collective imagination to wonder why THIS was the one opportunity Trump passed up on. Suffice it to say I don’t think Trump was dissuaded by fear of meddling with a specific sex offender case as being beneath the conduct expected of the office of the Presidency…
The silence from the political high priests is deafening to this day. Had we ever learned the truth the fallout from this scandal is perhaps the only News event post 2008 that could not have been assigned blue team, red team talking points. The rot would have been too widespread, too deep.
I’m probably being naive, but I think most people are genuinely fed up with the political culture wars and want to reclaim their autonomy of mind. THIS could have been something which brought that about, not in mass but at least for some of us.
Precisely why Epstein had to die.