Nothing is more heinous than crimes committed against a child, and sexual crimes carry an extra nausea factor. The despoiling and destruction of innocence has been going on for millennia, as the annals of history and crime attest. Yet still when we behold the wonders of civilization, art, science, medicine, living standards, technology, we convince ourselves that society has moved beyond such savagery. These terrible crimes are anomalies we insist, despite their frequency. Often they are swept under the rug just like so many of the Epstein files. Cases that do go to trial serve as public ritual exorcisms of these presumed anomalies, though the punishment of one often hides the crimes of a dozen, or a hundred, we never know. Many don’t want to know. Even the term “sex trafficking ring” distances us, as if its particulars are somehow encased in a reality far from our own everyday sphere. And yet the Epstein files are filled with pampered, prominent, powerful, and protected people in positions that place them beyond justice’s pale.
It is likely that many of those whose names appear in the files had only a passing association with Epstein, often as transient as attending the same function. Some were mentioned in regard to projects they believed were legitimate. Others, though, were clearly party to Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. A lot awaits discovery even in those files already made public. When confronted with what appear to be compromising details, the spin-doctor-advised excuses have a trite and tired ring: the passages in question are “taken out of context”, “unsubstantiated”, “harmless goofing around”, or innocent gatherings twisted to appear sinister. Maybe in some cases, but there are enough strong indicators to indicate that rape and trafficking cast a disturbingly wide net.
The pre-Kash-Patel FBI tracked Epstein and Maxwell’s sexual exploitation of countless female minors. Epstein and Maxwell even instituted a pyramid scheme, inducing the girls already enmeshed in their activities to recruit their friends into the fold [File numbers (among many) EFTA00-005707; EFTA00000571]. Well-known people identified in the files made barely cryptic allusions to sex parties with minors. Donald Trump’s name appears 38,000 times, just in the files released last January 30. Hard to sidestep all 38,000.
We need a public reckoning. And if it reveals a deep rot at the core of our financial and political systems, I’m pretty sure that won’t be quite the surprise some people imagine. We should also recognize that this is not an issue peculiar to the United States. Sex trafficking is a global business pursued in almost every country. A U.N. report estimates 30% of the traffickers are women and 80% of human trafficking is sex trafficking of women and children. Epstein’s strange role as a networker among intelligence agencies, tech and finance billionaires, universities, and politicians makes him a rather startling example of how far such corruption can reach but his demise hardly makes a dent in the industry in which he thrived.
The following poem is a sort of meditation on all this. Poetry helps me get a feel for currents too obscure to be precisely mapped but too dangerous and real to ignore. There is a connection between the mentality behind sexual abuse and the ease with which we accept the “collateral” slaughter of innocents in war. Immanuel Kant, the pivotal figure of modern philosophy, whose ideas on integrity and freedom were inspired by the American Revolution, provides a link. Kant framed what he called “the Categorical Imperative”, what he hoped would be seen as a universal moral principle akin to, but more precise than, the Golden Rule. He advised that we treat others as ends in themselves, that is, treating their needs and aspirations as legitimate as our own and deserving of the opportunity for full expression. The opposite means treating them as means to achieve our own ends, as our tools. Epstein’s activities are the lurid canary in the coal mine. What we call politics as usual often involves crimes of equal severity and with far more victims, all to fulfill delusions and fantasies whose motive force we might debate, but whose exercise is undeniably criminal.
Welcome to Dawn’s Barbecue
Jeffrey
welcome to Dawn’s barbecue
featuring a buffet of roasting stars
skewered on white sunbeams
licked at by orange flames
twinkle twinkle little star
once intent on laughter and on games
observe the Devil’s retinue
reveling at perverted rites
everything is just as it seems
“we do it because we can” they claim
“our power flaunts our immunity
if you could you’d do the same”
wealth expands in magnitude
in proportion to sacrifice
flesh the currency sacrifice redeems
whether war or slavery or rape the name
or dark rites in remote desert lair
their motto… “with impunity we reign”
The Crew
the power crew was partying
heavy with jeffrey and ghislaine
the things he tempted them to do
were ever more insane
a royal prince crouches with a leer
over a supine little girl
rape and likely murder too
laced throughout their world
high tech bro-boys and sisters pass
smarmy quips about pizza and jerky
while jeffrey sells his secrets to
intel agents obscure and murky
gene-cloning scientists visit his ranch
peddling promises of longevity
it truly is a devil’s dance
blood an object of great levity
Donald
thus corruption riots as our orange peeled chief,
Jeffrey’s best friend and wing-man, reveals
taking apart the nation he was elected to lead
as all its defenses he unpeels.
health care disease food safety racism war
shredding science and the Constitution
selling out our allies as well as our country’s core
to Putin, Bibi, and sheiks, his high-priced prostitution.
and as files trickle out heavily redacted
he starts a random war to keep us distracted
from his abhorrent complicity
the magnitude of treasonous duplicity.
they call it stormy monday
‘cause we’re still bombing iran
donald says we’ll have peace some day
but on Tuesday threatens Mali out of hand.
Wednesday’s a resort in empty Gaza
and secretive bombing of Somalis
Thursday he dreams of grabbing Havana plaza
and gleefully abandons our closest allies.
Friday more missiles fly over Hormuz’s waters
and once again he betrays Ukraine
Saturday he gets his marching orders
from the masters who pull his string.
On Sunday he rediscovers church
and sinks to his knees to pray
but all he can emit with a lurch
is a hopeless, incomprehensible bray.
Get NationofChange in your inbox
Independent reporting every weekday. No paywall, no advertisers, no corporate owner. Free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.
Subscribe freeYour gift is being matched, up to $2,000.
A member of the NationofChange board is matching every contribution to our summer drive, dollar for dollar, until the $2,000 is used up or the drive ends on 24 August. We take no advertising money and answer to no corporate owner. The article you just read was paid for by readers, and right now what they give counts twice.
COMMENTS