Can we walk and chew gum please?

No question, obtaining justice for the victims of Epstein is vital, and the mission to deliver it should be relentless. But distraction is the enemy of the freedom we seek.

As I mentioned previously, I am the father of a sexually abused daughter. I understand the life-changing devastation it imposes on both the victim and their family. I have lived with the consequences of an action that all too often destroys people’s lives. The Epstein files have been a political weapon for BOTH parties for years, and that is a curse on both their houses. It is an indictment of the state of US politics that the sexual abuse of children has become the weapon of choice to bring down or replace a government. While our sole focus is on incriminating emails, the economy is on the edge of collapse. Can we no longer chew gum and walk at the same time?

I know from bitter experience that prosecutions for these heinous violations of the innocent are not secured in the court of public opinion; they are rightly secured in a court of law. If you are a Democrat limbering up to do a victory lap as Trump is forced to resign his presidency, can I suggest you pop to the bathroom, splash some cold water on your face and WAKE UP! You are about to get played, I fear.

Trump campaigned on the release of the Epstein files; he tapped into the frenzy of pizzagate and the 2000 Mules lie. He used it to feed red meat to a base ravenous for retribution as a result of a carefully constructed narrative painting Democrat lawmakers as enablers of mass pedophilia. It was a ludicrous narrative, but in these times, truth is what you want it to be; while the real truth is banished to the land of inconvenience.

It’s also important at the outset not to forget we don’t even need these political games; Trump is the president, he could have instructed the DOJ to release the Epstein files at any point and save everyone the trouble. Alas, he’s protecting himself or more likely, people who have given him lots of money, who are asking for payback.

I want to make my position absolutely clear. I have lived on this planet for 66 years, and I can hand on heart say I have never held hate in my heart for anyone other than the abuser of my daughter, and Donald J Trump. I have long made no secret of my contempt for him and what he has done to a country that I consider close to my heart. The US holds many happy memories for me over many decades—the time I spent there, both for work and for pleasure —long lingers in my mind.

I am no fan of organised religion, given the damage I believe it has done to society over the years. I was brought up a catholic, where it was not unusual to pray to God on Sunday morning, get drunk at lunchtime and go home and beat your wife in the afternoon. We unfortunately live in a world where men seeking high office understand the power that religion has exerted over populations for centuries.

It is not for nothing that religion has long been regarded as the opium of the masses. Trump soon identified the value of adopting and inserting evangelical Christian nationalism into his political vision for America. It was just the kind of Christianity that perfectly suited a greed-focused agenda. There was no danger in placing it at the heart of a fake Christian government. After all, it represents the antithesis of Christian values.

As for child sexual abuse, if you want to root out the perpetrators, the best place to start is in churches and state-run orphanages. Beyond the family, the secret to gaining access to children in order to abuse them is to place yourself in a position of trust. What better place to do that than in a church or a care home? Pedophiles hide in every corner of society, often in plain sight. From priests, pastors, judges, teachers, police officers, to celebrities, they live among us. It should come as no surprise that young girls and children were the victims of wealthy men. It has been part of life since Roman times.

The question is not whether it exists, but rather what society should do to protect the innocent from such predators who can use trust, wealth and power to treat women and children as disposable sex toys. The argument coming from Democrats is ‘This is all about the victims. Somebody has to say it, so I might as well be me. Frankly, that’s bullshit, and they know it. This is about a party that failed to counter the threat of a convicted criminal and adjudicated rapist. He was allowed to win an election as they chased the middle class vote, abandoning the working class, black and Hispanic men at the mercy of a political predator who subsequently played them to win the House, the Senate, the White House and the public vote.

Let’s stop with the bullshit and deal with the harsh truth. The Epstein files have become a last resort weapon of political war, being used as a substitute for a failed response to Project 2025 that was four years in the making. A threat Democrats weren’t even aware of until a couple of months before the election. Should Donald Trump be exposed and held legally accountable if he played any part in the rape of children or was complicit in the actions of his long-term friend and ‘wingman’, Jeffrey Epstein? A man who ran an industrial-scale child trafficking and global sex exploitation operation? Absolutely, he should, as should EVERY individual who played ANY part in this depraved, sick sex circus, which has destroyed so many lives.

Society should have a zero-tolerance policy for such abhorrent behaviour. Involvement or association with it should lead ANY holder of high public office to resign in shame and face prosecution if proven to be an active participant. Sadly, those days are long gone, as they say, ‘There is no honour among thieves, ’ and those that took part in this highly organised cesspit of deviant, unconscionable behaviour were the very worst type of thieves; they stole the innocence of thousands of children and young girls as they were passed around like a pack of cigarettes for the sexual gratification of wealthy men. Thousands of lives were changed forever, and for some, that change was so catastrophic that they could no longer cope with the pain, and as a result, they took their own lives.

These women deserve justice; there is no question of that, and this video has played an important role in placing Trump in a position where he has been forced to provide cover for Republicans to vote for the release of the Epstein files. He had no choice, because too many of those he had been able to control, were about to break with him if required. They don’t fancy becoming political kamikaze pilots in the midterms. Let’s be very clear, they could not give a damn about the victims; this is purely about political self-preservation.

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking Trump has lost. His support to release the files is just another political sleight of hand move, which still leaves him in the driving seat. John Thune could refuse to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote, but I think that is highly unlikely because it would threaten the Republican Senate majority in the midterms. The big question is whether the House delivers a veto-proof vote. Assuming this does happen, the Senate will politically have little choice but to pass it and deliver it to Trump’s desk for signature.

This is where it gets interesting. If he can veto it, he’s placed in a position where he’s encouraged his House Caucus to support the bill, but then refuses to sign it, so that’s not really an option even for Trump. This is where the genius move of his comes into play. He instructed Pam Bondi three days ago to open an investigation into Bill Clinton, banks JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, as well as Democratic donor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. This provides him cover to safely sign the bill into law. Because there is an open investigation, the DOJ can and will claim that releasing the files will prejudice the investigation. Democratic outrage will follow, and Republicans will turn around and say we are just doing what the Biden administration did when the excuse they gave was that the files could not be released because of an ongoing open investigation.

Be in no doubt, Trump is surrounded by very smart people who strategise every move he and the administration make. They have gamed this scenario out while cooking the Epstein books behind the scenes, redacting any names Trump wants to protect. This will have all been done while preparing for the inevitability of this moment. I fear Democrats will once again be left holding a political nothing burger as the DOJ begins a snail-paced investigation into Clinton and a hand-picked group of Democrats and their donors.

To add the cherry on the cake, all of this will be done in the glaring spotlight of the court of public opinion, allowing them to shield any Republican donors or participants. At the same time, they will claim to be exposing Democrats, whom their base always saw as the perpetrators of this crime. It’s an elegant and genius solution to a massive threat to Trump’s presidency. Tragically, the ones paying the true price will I fear be the victims, who will suffer yet a further long delay in the delivery of justice for the unspeakable crimes committed against them.

If we are going to talk about child rape and sexual abuse, then let’s talk about it properly and not through the politically weaponised lens in which we pray it will bring down an adjudicated rapist that is the President of the United States. As stated by Equality Now, based on data from 2024:

‘ [In the US] Child marriage is currently legal in 34 states, and 4 U.S. states do not require any minimum age for marriage, with a parental or judicial waiver.

Nearly 300,00 children were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018. The vast majority were girls wed to adult men.

I have linked the webpage above from which this data was extracted, because it also provides some excellent resources for people really interested in this issue, beyond the political feeding frenzy of this moment. If you would like to support Equality Now, you can use the link here to make a donation

I also wanted to include this important quote, too because it goes to the very heart of this epidemic of abuse happening in plain sight:

The “statutory rape exception”

Statutory rape occurs when one of the parties to sexual activity is below the age of consent. It does not have to be forcible, because a minor is not legally able to provide consent. In most states, child marriage is considered as a valid defense to statutory rape. The marital defense to statutory rape also used to be permitted under federal law in 18 U.S.C. Section 2243(c)(2).

While 18 U.S.C. 2243 was amended by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022 to eliminate this statutory rape defense, a similar defense still exists in the United States Military Code under 10 U.S.C. Section 920b.

The exception under 10 USC Section 920b, and similar exceptions under state laws, suggests that the US Government condones the practice of child marriage, giving sexual predators an incentive to force a child to marry them to evade criminal liability. The law can effectively turn child marriage into a “get out of jail free” card for predators. These laws must be repealed to align US laws with international standards and discourage child marriage and rape in the country.

THE FACTS

According to CDC data from 2024, one in 4 girls and one in 13 boys are the victims of sexual abuse. That’s before we examine the shocking statistic that an estimated 558,899 children (unique incidents) were victims of abuse and neglect in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year for which there is national data. That’s eight children out of every thousand. If you would like to find out more about child sexual abuse or neglect, I would strongly advise you to visit the website of the National Children’s Alliance, where you can find out more information and how you can get involved in their vital work.

As you will have gathered, I’m pretty angry right now because I find the political weaponisation of child sexual abuse abhorrent to say the least. While the Epstein files are creating lots of engagement and money for those riding this horse, I think there should be some serious reflection on politically pimping an issue for political and financial gain.

When all this has died down, which it will, because Trump is about to suck the air out of it with the help of his puppet masters, then what? Democrats will be left holding NOTHING, having just handed the only leverage they had during the shutdown, and Trump will march on.

I so wish I were wrong, but I am of the opinion that there is no political solution to this problem; the American people have to do what they did in recent off-season elections and show up. This is the reason I remain optimistic for the future. I believe ins the American people. They just need to turn up and have access to the tools, they need to be better informed. That’s where I believe my ‘Democracy Sniff Test’ project can play a part. I’ve linked more information below:

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