'RULING PARASITES' -- Epstein Scandal Exposes Depravity Of Bipartisan American Ruling Class
"They are one class of predators and grifters. It is not only girls and women they exploit, but all of us.”
“The Epstein story is a window into the moral bankruptcy, hedonism and greed of the ruling class. This crosses political lines. It is the common denominator between Democratic politicians, such as Bill Clinton, philanthropists, such as Bill Gates, the billionaire class, and Trump. They are one class of predators and grifters. It is not only girls and women they exploit, but all of us.”
— Chris Hedges, Trump, Epstein & The Deep State
By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (7/14/25)
I’m intentionally keeping my comments today brief and encourage readers to explore the links below to journalists Chris Hedges and Nick Bryant, who powerfully expose the Jeffery Epstein scandal as part of a broader, much deeper and even more evil hellscape of depravity of the American ruling elite. A grubby cabal Hedges appropriately tags ‘ruling parasites’.
Hedges notes a past financial settlement by Donald Trump with a woman who accused him of repeated sexual abuse over a period of several months when she was thirteen and on one occasion included another girl, age 12. The woman has since disappeared.
While Democratic Party associated podcasters like MeidasTouch portray the Epstein case within an exclusively Republican frame, one must not forget that during his four-year reign, the hair-sniffing, baby nibbling Joe Biden did nothing to reveal the truth of the Epstein case or even talk about releasing documents. And then there is long-time Epstein pal and Lolita Express frequent flier Bill Clinton.
GOP representative Tim Burchett (R-TN), who is featured in one of the articles below, said he thought the Epstein files were “destroyed” by the Biden administration. He also said if Trump were in the files the Democrats would have released them, an argument that doesn’t carry much weight when DC pedophilia is a thoroughly bipartisan scandal and any release would have quickly put both parties at risk.
As Hedges and Bryant stress, the trafficking and sexual abuse of children is a completely bipartisan scandal, including Wall Street sludge and hollow Hollywood celebrities.
I also encourage readers to check out journalist Whitney Webb’s two-volume book, One Nation Under Blackmail, which not only exposes Epstein but provides the historical context, showing that pedophilia is a long, deeply embedded Washington DC tradition and standard tactic used in CIA and Israeli Mossad intelligence blackmail operations.
As the articles below show, incompetence, lack of concern for the welfare of Americans, financial and corporate corruption and tone-deaf egotistic self-interest are just gnats buzzing at the top of the shit pile ruling this country and economy.
CHRIS HEDGES: Trump, Epstein And The Deep State
The Trump administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files and videos is done not only to protect Trump, but the ruling class. They all belong to the same club.
Art by Mr. Fish / The Independent Ink Substack
The lawsuit states that Trump did not take part in Epstein’s orgies but liked to watch, often while the thirteen-year-old “Kate Johnson” gave him a hand job.
It appears Trump was able to quash the lawsuit by buying her silence. She has since disappeared.
— As reported in “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story.” by Julie Brown, the Miami Herald investigative reporter who broke the Epstein story.
By Chris Hedges
The Chris Hedges Report (7/12/25)
The refusal by the Trump administration to release the files and videos amassed during investigations into the activities of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, should put to rest the absurd idea, embraced by Trump supporters and gullible liberals, that Trump will dismantle the Deep State. Trump is part of, and has long been part of, the repugnant cabal of politicians – Democrat and Republican – billionaires and celebrities who look at us, and often underage girls and boys, as commodities to exploit for profit or pleasure.
The list of those who were in Epstein’s orbit is a who’s who of the rich and famous. They include not only Trump, but Bill Clinton, who allegedly took a trip to Thailand with Epstein, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University Larry Summers, cognitive psychologist and author Stephen Pinker, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire and Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner, the former Barclays banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, the magician David Copperfield, actor Kevin Spacey, former CIA director Bill Burns, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell and disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who reveled in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia.
They also include law firms and high-priced attorneys, federal and state prosecutors, private investigators, personal assistants, publicists, servants and drivers. They include the numerous procurers and pimps, including Epstein’s girlfriend and daughter of Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell. They include the media and politicians who ruthlessly discredited and silenced the victims, and strong armed anyone, including a handful of intrepid reporters, seeking to expose Epstein’s crimes and circle of accomplices.
Blackmail gold
There is a lot that remains hidden. But there are some things we know. Epstein installed hidden cameras in his opulent residences and on his private Caribbean island, Little St. James, to capture his high-powered friends engaging in sexual romps and abuse of teenage and underage girls and boys. The recordings were blackmail gold. Were they part of an intelligence operation on behalf of the Israeli Mossad? Or were they used to ensure that Epstein had a steady source of investors who funneled him millions of dollars to avoid being outed? Or were they used for both? He shuttled underage girls between New York and Palm Beach on his private jet the Lolita Express, which was allegedly outfitted with a bed for group sex. His coterie of famous friends, including Clinton and Trump, are recorded as traveling on the jet numerous times on released flight logs, although many other flight logs have disappeared.
Epstein’s videos are in the vaults of the FBI, along with detailed evidence that would rip back the veil on the sexual proclivities and callousness of the powerful. I doubt there is a client list, as Attorney General Pam Bondi claims. There is also no single Epstein file. The investigative material amassed on Epstein fills many, many boxes, which would bury Bondi’s desk and probably, if collected in one room, dominate most of the space in her office.
Did Epstein commit suicide, as the official autopsy report claims, by hanging himself in his jail cell on August 10, 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City? Or was he murdered? Since the cameras recording activity in his cell the night were not functional, we do not know. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist hired by Epstein's brother, who served as the chief medical examiner for New York City and who was present at the autopsy, said he believes Epstein's autopsy suggests homicide.
Class of ruling parasites
The Epstein case is important because it implodes the fiction of deep divisions between Democrats, who had no more interest in releasing the Epstein files than Trump, and the Republicans. They belong to the same club. It exposes how the courts and law enforcement agencies collude to shield powerful figures who engage in crimes. It lays bare the depravity of our exhibitionist ruling class, accountable to no one, free to violate, plunder, loot and prey on the weak and the vulnerable. It is the tawdry record of our oligarchic masters, those who lack the capacity for shame or guilt, whether dressed up as Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
This class of ruling parasites was parodied in the first-century satirical novel “Satyricon” by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, written during the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. As in Satyricon, Epstein’s circle was dominated by pseudointellectuals, pretentious buffoons, grifters, con artists, petty criminals, the insatiable rich and the sexually depraved. Epstein and his inner circle routinely engaged in sexual perversions of Petronian proportions, as The Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie Brown, whose dogged reporting was largely responsible for reopening the federal investigation in Epstein and Maxwell, documents in her book “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story.”
As Brown writes, in 2016 an anonymous woman, using the pseudonym “Kate Johnson,” filed a civil complaint in a federal court in California alleging she was raped by Trump and Epstein when she was thirteen, over a four-month period, from June to September 1994.
“I loudly pleaded with Trump to stop,” she said in the lawsuit about being raped. “Trump responded to my pleas by violently striking me in the face with his open hand and screaming that he could do whatever he wanted.”
Brown continues:
Johnson said that Epstein invited her to a series of ‘underage sex parties’ at his New York mansion where she met Trump. Enticed by promises of money and modeling opportunities, Johnson said she was forced to have sex with Trump several times, including once with another girl, twelve years old, whom she labeled ‘Marie Doe.’
Trump demanded oral sex, the lawsuit said, and afterward he “pushed both minors away while angrily berating them for the ‘poor’ quality of the sexual performance,” according to the lawsuit, filed April 26 in U.S. District Court in Central California.
Afterward, when Epstein learned that Trump had taken Johnson’s virginity, Epstein allegedly ‘attempted to strike her about the head with his closed fists,’ angry he had not been the one to take her virginity. Johnson claimed that both men threatened to harm her, and her family if she ever revealed what had happened.
The lawsuit states that Trump did not take part in Epstein’s orgies but liked to watch, often while the thirteen-year-old “Kate Johnson” gave him a hand job.
It appears Trump was able to quash the lawsuit by buying her silence. She has since disappeared. …
EPSTEIN ‘JUST-US’? — Journalist Nick Bryant On Federal Government Betrayal Of Epstein Victims & The Nation
“Our media is filled with ethical eunuchs. Our government is filled with ethical eunuchs.”
CN Live
Consortium News (7/12/25)
1-hour, 17-minute video
Nick Bryant’s ‘The Franklin Scandal’ — A Story Of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal
A chilling exposé of corporate corruption and government cover-ups, this account of a nationwide child-trafficking and pedophilia ring in the United States tells a sordid tale of corruption in high places. The scandal originally surfaced during an investigation into Omaha, Nebraska's failed Franklin Federal Credit Union that went beyond the Midwest, ultimately to Washington, DC. Implicating businessmen, senators, major media corporations, the CIA, and even the venerable Boys Town organization, this extensively researched report includes firsthand interviews with key witnesses and explores a controversy that has received scant media attention.
Fight Child Trafficking, Join Nick Bryant’s EpsteinJustice.com
“The old honey pot” — GOP Congressman Stands By Accusation Some Fellow Members Have Been Compromised
By Jonathon Nicholson
HuffPost (1/13/25)
One of the more colorful conservative members of the U.S. House told HuffPost he stands by recent remarks in which he said some of his fellow members were likely victims of blackmail.
But Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who made the comments on a Dec. 21 podcast with a right-wing commentator, declined to elaborate on who he was talking about or give any other details.
“You as a member of the media understand confidentiality, and I appreciate that, and I am going to keep that confidential unless those people tell me otherwise,” Burchett told HuffPost on Thursday.
Asked if he was standing by his comments, Burchett said, “Sure. I’m not going to back up.”
And when asked if he believed there were House members who had decided how to vote based on compromising material about them held by foreign powers, Burchett said, “Absolutely. And other powers. It doesn’t have to be foreign powers.”
On “The Benny Show” podcast, hosted by Benny Johnson, Burchett said, without pointing to specific evidence or names, that powerful people protect their own interests by blackmail.
“The old honey pot. The Russians do that. And I’m sure members of Congress have been caught up. Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff like what we’ve been seeing out of Congress?” he asked.
He said members may be on a trip or at a bar, meet someone and buy them a drink.
“Next thing you know, you’re in a hotel room with them, naked. Next thing you know, you’re about to make a key vote, and what happens? Some well-dressed person comes up and whispers into your ear, ‘Hey, man, there’s tapes out on you. Were you in a motel room on whatever with whoever?’ And then you’re, like, ‘Uh-oh.’ And they say, ‘You really ought not be voting for this thing.’”
“They know what to get at. If it’s women, drugs, booze — it’ll find you in D.C. And other elected offices,” he told Johnson.
Burchett’s remarks were the most lurid accusations since former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) alleged, also without evidence, that he had witnessed anti-drug addiction leaders doing cocaine and had been invited by colleagues to orgies in Washington. Cawthorn’s claims were widely derided, and he lost his primary election in 2022. …
Jeffrey Epstein Had OVER 1,000 Victims
Industrial scale abuse enterprise far larger than previously believed is revealed in new document.
By Ken Klippenstein
Ken Kleppenstein Substack (7/9/25)
Twenty years after Jeffrey Epstein was exposed for his child sex abuse enterprise, the Justice Department this week made a startling revelation. Rather than the “dozens” of victims previously alleged by the government and media, Justice now says that there were “over one thousand” victims.
Everyone is talking about Epstein again, from MAGA types furious that the Trump administration is not producing a supposed client list, to the mainstream media, which is giddily mocking just about anyone critical of the Justice Department here as conspiracy theorists.
One person who doesn’t want to talk about it is Donald Trump, who told New York Magazine in 2002 that his buddy Epstein was a “fun” guy who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Seldom one to shy away from blurting out whatever, when asked this week about the Epstein memo, Trump uncharacteristically changed the subject. He admonished the reporter, telling him that the question was a “desecration” to the lives lost in the Texas flood.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things — and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time? I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”
Bipartisan buddies
Trump, of course, hung out with Epstein and feasted on his legendary get togethers in New York and West Palm Beach, so he probably isn’t keen on there being too much transparency here. But before this becomes a conspiracy theory itself, I note that former President Bill Clinton was also a frequent flier, especially on the Lolita Express which took prominent guests to Epstein’s private island. Those guests included financiers, billionaires, lawyers, and even a British prince.
The names of the hundreds (and now indeed possibly thousands) of johns involved — Jeffrey Epstein’s clients — have never been revealed by the government. Pam Bondi’s Justice Department evidently doesn’t have the stomach or the inclination to delve much deeper into the matter.
The new figure of over one thousand victims appears in a Trump administration’s review of FBI holdings concerning Epstein, a summary of which was released in the form of a two-page memo earlier this week.
“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” the undated and unsigned memo says.
Justice says it reviewed “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” including “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material.”
There is no client list, Justice says in its memo; this despite Bondi herself implying in February that such a list was on her desk. (She now says she was referring to files more generally.)
There are so many explanations and unanswered questions raised by the release, which also says that there is “no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” That means that the theories alleging Epstein was operating some kind of operation to collect incriminating information for a foreign government (most notably the Israelis) has also been dismissed by the U.S. government.
Oh, and the memo says that because of this “exhaustive” search, there’s no need for Justice or the FBI to disclose anything further. This is a reversal of Trump’s promise to his voters that he would “take a look at” the Epstein case as president.
When the Justice Department indicted Epstein in 2019, it repeatedly referred to “dozens of minor girls” that he had abused. Federal prosecutors reportedly identified 36 underage victims in Florida, in line with the “dozens” described in the original federal indictment.
“Consistent with prior disclosures,” the Justice Department memo said this week, “this review confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims.”
There was no such prior disclosure that Epstein’s victims were so numerous.
When I read the “over one thousand” phrase, I was genuinely shocked by the number, and then even more so when no one in the major media reported it. So I reached out to the FBI to ask about the discrepancy.
“The FBI declines to comment,” an unnamed Bureau official responded in email. (The Justice Department has not even responded to my request for clarification.)
There are some bizarre theories about Epstein out there, my personal favorite being the notion that Epstein never actually died in prison and that the man who did was a body double.
But you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see there’s more here than we were told before. You just have to read the Justice Department’s review carefully — which the media evidently did not.
It’s as if no one in power wants to deal with the substance of this scandal: that an industrial scale child abuse operation was taking place right under the noses of the countless household names with whom Epstein socialized. Now those same household names are ever so happy to cast the battle as a war between conspiracy nuts and the sober-minded adults, completely gliding over the obvious indictment here of the very high society of which they are a part.
What the Epstein case shows is that powerful men preying on the very young is condoned by high society, whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, an American or an Afghan warlord. And that’s why prominent people, from the government to the news media, seem to want this to go away.
As for Trump’s law enforcers and self-styled truth tellers who claim to be ending an era of politicization of the FBI and intelligence? It is entirely possible that in all the material they possess, there is no information about the johns. That’s because decades ago, they weren’t told to go after the men, or they decided not to. Either way, that’s the true cover-up, that no one was predisposed to investigate the perpetrators beyond Epstein and his staff, not in the Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden or Trump administrations.
How Jeffrey Epstein’s Phone Book End Up On A Farm In Vermont (7/23/21) — Business Insider has obtained and forensically tested a never-before-seen address book that appears to have belonged to Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s. The book contains 349 names and offers a new window into the late sex offender's social circle. Business Insider reporters spent months calling prominent names that were never associated with the billionaire before. 10-minute video
Epstein Files: What Virginia Giuffre’s Diary Tells Us
“I think it is a cover up. I would go so far as to kind of agree with some of the other journalists that have been covering this that it very much is not just a distraction, but a kind of a hiding of what the FBI did as part of its investigation. I mean, you know, some of it's incredibly sensitive and they would have to redact out possibly victim's names, possibly some other identifying information, but there is definitely not a full level of transparency here when it comes to what the FBI did as part of his investigation.”
— Josie Ensaw, US correspondent for The Times
The Story
Times Radio (7/12/25)
This week, the FBI investigation that Trump promised would reveal all about Jeffrey Epstein concluded there was no evidence to implicate anyone else in his abuse. But diaries from Epstein’s most prominent victim, Virginia Giuffre, released exclusively to The Times, tell a different story.
27-minute audio
“Earlier this year, Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent Epstein victims, died of suicide. She was the third Epstein accuser who is reported to have died of suicide or a drug overdose. Epstein destroyed countless lives. And he didn’t do it alone: he was enabled by “respectable” people who actively facilitated his crimes. And, more broadly, he was enabled by people who looked the other way, who helped whitewash his reputation, who hobnobbed with him in high society. Those people are still out there, living their best lives. And it is looking increasingly likely they will never be held accountable.”
— Arwa Mahdawi, Ghislaine Maxwell Was Not Jeffrey Epstein’s Sole Enabler. So Why Is She The Only One In Prison? (7/8/25)
Actor Mandy Patinkin Has A Question for Fellow Jews Around The World
“I ask Jews all over the world to consider what this man, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing government is doing to the Jewish people all over the world. They are endangering not only the state of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but they are endangering the Jewish population all over the world. He is the most dangerous thing, not just since October 7th. It is a deeply troubled situation. What is happening for the Jewish people? To allow this to happen to children and civilians of all ages in Gaza for whatever reason is unconscionable and unthinkable. And I ask you Jews everywhere all over the world to spend some time alone and think, is this acceptable and sustainable? How could it be done to you and your ancestors? And you turn around and you do it to someone else?”
Judging Freedom (7/13/25)
3-minute video
“When a rich man robs a poor man, it is called business. When a poor man fights back, it’s called violence.”
-- Mark Twain
''That means that the theories alleging Epstein was operating some kind of operation to collect incriminating information for a foreign government (most notably the Israelis) has also been dismissed by the U.S. government.''
Thus we may now turn to Bismark's maxim, never believe anything until it's been officially denied', and rest assured that it’s true indeed.
In a case as controversial and sensitive as this as it involves pedophelia and blackmail at the highest levels of US government - the main character who is more then likely compromised and therefor a likely to be blackmailed should never be allowed to make decisions whether the evidence is admissabe or not - It only confirms a coverup at the highest levels.
Not releasing the Epstein files means that the blackmail will continue.
Where are these wives and girlfriends (of these men) who don't speak out? So much for all this rubbish 'feminism' in the USA!