Where to next?

SCOTUS throws a spanner in the works for Trump, as he remains covered in the stench of the Epstein files. Now what?

Your now daily reminder, which I hope you don’t mind me leading with, because it’s important:

Americans CAN stop this anytime without being arrested or punished in any way for their actions. STOP SPENDING on all but essential items and shift as much of that essential spending to local businesses. No need to stop eating out, just eat in locally run family eateries (NOT corporate chains). It’s about strategic spending decisions. It’s all about common sense, but if you need more detail, click here for my broader thinking. Given the SCOTUS ruling on tariffs, you now have even more power

There is no case to be made for saying ‘there’s nothing we can do’ It really is very simple, and I would urge you to encourage everyone you know to become part of a sustained act of strategic economic disengagement, because I guarantee just by this most simple of actions, you can unlock the gate on the road back to real American values. A sustained 3-4% drop in consumer spending will occur if Americans have the collective and sustained patriotic determination to say ‘enough is enough’.

On the day when the Supreme Court ruled against Trump on tariffs, throwing a hand grenade into his economic agenda, I have thought long and hard about this piece, so let me try to explain why. For the best part of ten days, I have studied the Epstein operation and traced back its roots beyond the feeding frenzy that is the Epstein files. Let me begin by recognising the outstanding work done by citizen and independent journalists and commentators when it comes to pulling back the curtain on the sexual abuse of the victims.

There is no question that, were it not for the tens of thousands of hours invested by tens of thousands of people intent on delivering justice for the victims, they would be in the position that they have been in for decades, trying to get the world to listen to their accounts of sexual abuse at the hands of these monsters. While there remain severe doubts in my mind about whether justice will ever be served, that does not diminish the hard work of so many in highlighting their plight.

I said in my last piece that I felt like I was drowning in a sea of information so abundant that making sense of it, even for someone like me with a sense of order when it comes to research, has found it challenging, to say the least. In an ideal world, none of this would be political or form part of a culture war. Unfortunately, we are now living in a world where EVERYTHING is politicised, and in recent years, nothing has been politicised more than child sexual abuse.

From 2000 Mules to Pizzagate, the far right used manufactured stories to enrage and disgust people who lack the ability to adopt critical thinking in respect of stories they are being deliberately spoonfed for political gain. The Epstein files were just another MAGA narrative to paint a picture of ‘Democratic elites’ having sex with children. We’ve seen the same playbook rolled out time and time again, but IT WORKS. It certainly worked for Trump in 2024 when he campaigned on the release of the files as an election promise.

It was a classic shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later; it’s a hallmark of MAGA politics. Say what you need to say to get elected or gain an advantage, then worry about how to manage it later. It has defined Republican politics for decades, creating fear and pushing the lie that only they can fix the problem they themselves create. Trump underestimated what it would take to control the narrative around the Epstein files. The experiment escaped the lab, leaving him hanging by his fingertips as he tried to maintain control of the narrative.

No president in US history has done what Trump has done by setting up a crime syndicate to operate from the Oval Office. What he has achieved is nothing short of remarkable when it comes to putting together a cabinet that can best be described as a criminal gang loyal only to him. There was no better example of this than Pam Bondi's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. It has long been the strategy of regime officials, including cabinet members, to adopt a completely adversarial approach to giving evidence, thereby avoiding answering legitimate questions. We have seen it occur time and time again by cabinet members.

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump is a man for whom Congress and the Senate are an impediment to his rule, just as is the judicial system. We can now add the Supreme Court to his enemy list. He believes, as accidentally revealed by Stephen Miller, that he has plenary authority to do whatever he likes, when he likes, because there will be no consequences as a result of the absolute immunity handed him by the SCOTUS, which is now calling traitors. As per his address to the nation, this will now no doubt lead him into yet more irrational, illegal behaviour. As I have said many times, Trump is like a small child running around with a loaded gun, whom nobody dares challenge. This time, though, I fear he has shot himself in the foot.

So I find myself asking, how does society benefit from understanding the origins of the Epstein class? After almost two weeks of research examining the rise of the wealthy elite, it’s clear that the sexual abuse was simply a symptom of a cancer that has long been eating society from the inside out in a quest for unlimited wealth for a chosen few. The Trump regime is the embodiment of the Epstein class, and unless they are stopped, there will be no tomorrow for those who don’t breathe their rarified air.

The origins of the Epstein class are frankly irrelevant; they are now running the government, and tragically, the only opposition party seems powerless to stop them. However serious these historical sexual abuse allegations are, they represent just a drop in the ocean of the sexual abuse epidemic in America TODAY. While we focus on those sexually abused by a small number of rich men, over a span of two decades, from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys will face sexual abuse before they reach adulthood, and this has little to do with rich white men.

Sexual abuse is rampant in our society. Despite what Republicans would have you believe, the perpetrators are not all illegal immigrants intent on violating white women and girls; These crimes are committed primarily by males (95%). Of those convicted, 96% are US citizens. The statistics on child sexual abuse are beyond staggering, as outlined by the charity Lauren’s Kids:

• There are more than 42 million survivors of sexual abuse in America. (National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse)

• 1 in 3 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Centre)

• 1 in 5 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Centre)

• 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the Internet before the age of 18. (National Children’s Alliance: Nationwide Child Abuse Statistics)

• 30% of sexual abuse is never reported. (Child Sex Abuse Prevention and Protection Centre)

• Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children aged 17 and under. (Children’s Advocacy Centre)

• 90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way. (U.S. Department of Justice)

• Approximately 20% of the victims of sexual abuse are under age eight. (Broward County)

• 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education. (Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute)

The charity rightly points out:

Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education, but 95% of abuse is preventable through education and awareness.

You have to ask yourself one simple question. Where is the political outrage on this? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It appears to me that Democrats have had a road-to-Damascus moment on the suffering of Epstein’s victims, because it’s easier than doing the hard work of presenting a vision to the American people for what they intend to do to improve the lives of everyday people across the nation.

If you disagree, please point me to the plan because Democrats won’t even publish the autopsy they did to understand what caused them to lose the 2024 election. I find it deeply distasteful that, in the absence of a coherent proposition to the American people, it’s easier to weaponise the suffering of women who were sexually abused by pedophiles as children to win midterm support. I know it’s hard to hear it in these stark terms, but truth, as I always say, can be uncomfortable.

The Epstein abuse has never been political; it’s always been about the rich having a concierge service to anything they need, from tax evasion to money laundering to the provision of children for sex. It’s just like everything else in this broken world; it’s become a political weapon.

Pre-election MAGA, were outraged at the same child sexual abuse within the Epstein files, because they thought it would damage the electoral prospects of the Democratic Party. So let’s stop with all the crocodile tears and admit that even the sexual abuse of children has been politically weaponised. These women have simply become political pawns in a vile and disgusting battle for power and wealth.

There should be incandescent outrage that there are 42 million survivors of sexual abuse in America, and that one-third of girls will be sexually assaulted before they are 18. But there is NOTHING, because it provides no political advantage to even mention it. Why? Because the monsters that perpetrate these crimes have no political badge, they walk among us every day in every walk of life. These statistics are what should be weaponised to protect women, but sadly, it seems women don’t matter in America. Indeed, the current administration has gone so far as to declare war on women and their human rights.

There is nothing I want more than for the Epstein victims to receive justice for the heinous crimes committed against them. Crimes they have been pursuing justice for over a decade, but you don’t get true justice in the febrile court of public opinion, because there is no path to jail or true justice. This is why few people trust politicians of either persuasion, and why 90 million Americans decided not to vote in 2024.

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photos: Bloomberg, Astrid Stawiarz, Rick Friedman via Getty Images

For what it’s worth, after hours of in-depth research and following the money, I have concluded that nobody will ever get to the bottom of this, because in doing my metaphorical 10,000-piece jigsaw of a black brick wall, someone has hidden a handful of pieces that will never be found. Now I’m sure the malign actors responsible for the tyranny we are being forced to endure would love nothing better than have people like me go in search of something that can’t be found.

That’s not for me, I’m afraid. Time is too short, and no way am I taking my eye off the reality of where we are, and what we need to do to put an end to this war on the bottom 90% who the Epstein class have systematically robbed over the last half a century. I will simply say this: while it’s impossible to prove because of the deliberately missing pieces of this puzzle, the fingerprints of the Epstein class are all over the 2008 financial crash and the 2016 election interference campaign to deliver the presidency for Trump. I dare say there is also a good case for believing they manipulated the 2024 election, too. The reason these are perfect crimes is that if you join up the dots, they sound like conspiracy theories, because that’s the social landscape the far right has created to hide their crimes.

It’s the same people whose fingerprints are all over the AI bubble and the extortion of US trading partners. We are not only in an information civil war but also in an information world war, which Trump believes he can win. I believe Trump and, more importantly, those pulling his strings display a level of geopolitical arrogance that leads them to believe they have already won the battle for global economic domination. It is that arrogance that will be their downfall, and I hope the Supreme Court's ruling against Trump’s tariffs marks the beginning of the end for a plan that was doomed to failure from the outset.

Many are pondering the implications of conflict with Iran and trying to understand Trump’s geopolitical ambitions for the region. I fear we need to better understand what Benjamin Netanyahu is whispering in Trump’s ear. If you think Trump has ambitions, they are nothing compared to the ambition the Israeli far right has with respect to ‘Eretz Yisrael Hashlema’, the greater Israel project and the massive expansion of the state of Israel. Netanyahu has never had a sympathetic ear on the issue of Israeli expansion until Trump came along. Part of these almost imperial ambitions includes the defanging of Iran, which has long been a thorn in the side of Israel.

I’m afraid we are living at a time when nothing would surprise me anymore. I’m grateful to the UK government, however, for denying the US access to UK bases to support a campaign against Iran, but that won’t stand in the way of Trump. I fear there are dangerous times ahead.

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