New Orleans It is impossible to have much doubt that Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex criminal, was a scumbag. That’s been proven in a court of law, and he did time for it, until committing suicide in jail. There’s been a lot of whoopy-whoop about his relationship with Trump, who admits that they were friends, until he says, they were not. I don’t particularly see any reason not to believe Trump on that score. The rest is speculation, and anyone can pick a side or stake out a position one way or another, but without a voice from the grave, it will always likely be a matter of opinion. I’ve lost interest in all of the Epstein mess so, so long ago, but that’s just me.
Reading about the emails between Epstein and the rich and famous is another matter, and it is way past creepy. The level of impunity and entitlement is world class, both before and after his conviction. I’m not saying that the rich and famous don’t have the right to have sketchy friends, but it’s amazing that they seem so oblivious to his predation and the harm he caused through his criminality. The only time anything seemed to penetrate their walls of indifference is when they worried that they might be personally swept up in the slipstream of condemnation and derision by the public and the media.
Steve Bannon, a Trump consigliere, in the 2016 election, and in and out of his graces, but still close enough to be pardoned by Trump, didn’t hesitate to seek advice and assistance from Epstein in trying to take his rightwing activism to Europe. He seems to have enjoyed support and favor until he corresponded that the firestorm was at a heat unknown to him and abruptly cut off communication.
Larry Sommers, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard president, has always been a hard pill to swallow. His Harvard tenure was ushered out when he undiplomatically let it be known that he considered women to be second class and inferior scientists. From the record of these emails, his opinions about women seem never to have evolved. He asks Epstein for advice about a woman – not his wife – and does so repeatedly. Why would anyone in their right mind ever think that you should ask advice from a sex predator and pedophile about romantic matters? Just stunning!
Independent journalists seem to have virtually functioned as Epstein press advisors. It just goes on and on.
These are just examples. Epstein hosted Clinton, Prince Andrew Bill Gates, and a number of the superrich billionaires. Many have apologized, but that’s just PR blather or similar to their mothers making them go next door and apologize to the neighbor for a baseball breaking their window. It’s not about any moral compass. It’s about “go along to get along.” Men wanting to believe common standards of right and wrong were irrelevant to them because of their position and bank accounts. Everything this says about American society at that level seems corrupt. To me that’s all more troubling that who did what to whom and when. There was rot there from top to bottom, and even as one after another stepped their shoes in it, they just kept stepping without a second thought.
Disgusting!