Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his active duty Israeli military intelligence attaché spent weeks and even months with Epstein over a period of years.
remember in the past before more democratic assertions getting air space getting attention any way and a guaranty if hitched to the greatest attention getter of the century was a no brainer.
This thrice-divorced jackass (Bannon) is a Harvard MBA who somehow blames the government and liberals for the Great Recession that impoverished his father, by panicking and selling his investments when they were down. Never mind that Republicans were in charge as the Recession came on; never mind that Republicans made it much harder for Obama to deal with. Never mind that maybe Bannon could have pulled his own head out of whatever rabbit hole he was down, and being a Harvard MBA, helped his own father out. I hadn't known of the full extent of Bannon's and Epstein's bromance, but I am hardly surprised. Bannon is attracted to crazy shitshows and conspiracy milieus as a moth is attracted to light.
Yeah, I read some of Bannon’s bio facts. Basically, he was married for 2-3 yrs out of ten, in three different decades. He might be discontent with his 3-strikes-you’re-out status with all women, ( given that also he’s 70+, obese and always looks like his hair is dirty), but the smouldering misogyny is real.
This is basic cultist logic. If a person you don’t like is found to have known and interacted with the bogeyman of your current socio-political moment they are not just guilty, but probably even guiltier than anyone who has ever been guilty of anything ever before. If, on the other hand, an architect of the socio-political movement ( and Christ, MAGA feels almost more like a religious movement as well. There are reasons I went agnostic) then clearly any and all “evidence” was fabricated by the Hated Other as part of the huge conspiracy to destroy all that you love and value and should be dismissed entirely. I don’t care for Larry Summers, but at least he’s took some responsibility like a functioning adult. Bannon’s gonna coast on slavish devotion and the paranoia that breeds and come out of this stronger than before. I despair for the future of this nation.
Great column!! Hypocrisy is the Mother’s milk of MAGA, and the “Base” will ignore anything their “team” does as they wander the wilderness in their rage-induced fog, ever seeking a mythical America that never was, except in the fantasies of the bitter and lost.
Mona, please consider removing the term “prostitution,” when used in the context of minors. Prostitution implies consenting to sexual acts for pay. Minors can’t consent, so they can’t be prostitutes.
The practice of prostitution is illegal in nearly all US jurisdictions, so the term also implies criminal wrongdoing on the part of the participants. When one of the participants is being exploited, it would be factually incorrect and unethical to give the impression that they carry some guilt.
All adult sexual contact with minors is child abuse / exploitation and should be named as such. The girls Epstein abused deserve justice. They also deserve to have their story treated with care and spoken about with respect for the victims.
I'm sort of confused by this. There isn't a normal, healthy, adjusted person who would have anything but revulsion at Bannon. People in the street know he's super close to the pedophile ring, and many other disgusting things besides, like funding the January 6th riot and covering up ties to Putin.
The only people touching Bannon are the elites, who are still busy using him. That's your old propaganda friends and new enemies. The man on the street has no interest or goodwill toward Bannon, but the Washington Post is another story, isn't it?
The elites have made it clear that our morals, caring about babies dying and children being raped, are reprehensible to them. Why wouldn't they stick with Bannon?
If MAGA hasn’t already turned on Steve Bannon for stealing their money in a fake wall-building charity, what’s his collaboration with Epstein going to mean to them?
its more about how the rich are really not like the rest of us professor Richardson tells us how buried in our history is the adage that some among us are better and smarter and richer and so deserve to rule us how do you stand on this premise
HCR's writing keeps me from curling up in the fetal position. I so appreciate her giving us the history reminding us of how vile humans have existed forever. She helps me stay hopeful we'll get through this.
Thank-you for this article. I have been wondering the same thing myself. I'm pretty sure that if the House summoned Bannon again to testify on his relationship with Epstein that he would just ignore them again and Trump might still give him enough cover to get away with it. The correct thing to do is for everyone outside of MAGA to tar everyone inside of MAGA with Bannon's shit. Anyone who speaks with him from here on out must demand his accountability on Epstein or be accused of complicity with child predation by the Epstein class. And within our community: all professional ties with Larry Summers must be ended. His reputation as an economist or academic is garbage because of his poor character. His opinions must be treated as suspect unless and until he can prove with actions that he is not an arrogant prick who thinks he is better than others, and that it's fine for men to abuse women and rich to abuse poor. Catherine Rampell needs to disown him and his work. In light of these revelations, his whole work product is utterly corrupted and must be treated as such. We can hardly expect it of others if we don't do it ourselves. We can hardly expect our discourse of society and economics to move past the predatory perspective unless we vigorously reject the premise as patently unacceptable.
This is classic Democrat scumbag vs. right-wing scumbag. When a scandal like this strikes one of theirs, the Democratic elite will gasp through their handkerchiefs and force the guilty party to bow and scrape and hide their face for a few years, but stay in contact with them and eventually help them launder their image and make a comeback in some low-profile way. Summers was playing the same game with Epstein that he himself is now playing. When it's the right, they'll just ignore it or even embrace it, trusting the gullibility of the right-wing base and the power of their media ecosystem to spin it for them. This is why some voters have the twisted perception that right-wingers are better because they're at least open and honest about what scumbags they are.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ellieleonard/p/larry-summers-emails-to-jeffrey-epstein?r=3hh94p&utm_medium=ios
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his active duty Israeli military intelligence attaché spent weeks and even months with Epstein over a period of years.
Where’s the uproar?
Where’s the mention on The Bulwark?
i wonder if he is escaping accountability
think his coterie might be shrinking.
remember in the past before more democratic assertions getting air space getting attention any way and a guaranty if hitched to the greatest attention getter of the century was a no brainer.
This thrice-divorced jackass (Bannon) is a Harvard MBA who somehow blames the government and liberals for the Great Recession that impoverished his father, by panicking and selling his investments when they were down. Never mind that Republicans were in charge as the Recession came on; never mind that Republicans made it much harder for Obama to deal with. Never mind that maybe Bannon could have pulled his own head out of whatever rabbit hole he was down, and being a Harvard MBA, helped his own father out. I hadn't known of the full extent of Bannon's and Epstein's bromance, but I am hardly surprised. Bannon is attracted to crazy shitshows and conspiracy milieus as a moth is attracted to light.
Yeah, I read some of Bannon’s bio facts. Basically, he was married for 2-3 yrs out of ten, in three different decades. He might be discontent with his 3-strikes-you’re-out status with all women, ( given that also he’s 70+, obese and always looks like his hair is dirty), but the smouldering misogyny is real.
thanks for these insights
This is basic cultist logic. If a person you don’t like is found to have known and interacted with the bogeyman of your current socio-political moment they are not just guilty, but probably even guiltier than anyone who has ever been guilty of anything ever before. If, on the other hand, an architect of the socio-political movement ( and Christ, MAGA feels almost more like a religious movement as well. There are reasons I went agnostic) then clearly any and all “evidence” was fabricated by the Hated Other as part of the huge conspiracy to destroy all that you love and value and should be dismissed entirely. I don’t care for Larry Summers, but at least he’s took some responsibility like a functioning adult. Bannon’s gonna coast on slavish devotion and the paranoia that breeds and come out of this stronger than before. I despair for the future of this nation.
Bannon and Trump are feral hogs in human form. Nasty destructive and without any merit !
well put
Mona,
Great column!! Hypocrisy is the Mother’s milk of MAGA, and the “Base” will ignore anything their “team” does as they wander the wilderness in their rage-induced fog, ever seeking a mythical America that never was, except in the fantasies of the bitter and lost.
Tom Cannon
Asheville, NC
Mona, please consider removing the term “prostitution,” when used in the context of minors. Prostitution implies consenting to sexual acts for pay. Minors can’t consent, so they can’t be prostitutes.
The practice of prostitution is illegal in nearly all US jurisdictions, so the term also implies criminal wrongdoing on the part of the participants. When one of the participants is being exploited, it would be factually incorrect and unethical to give the impression that they carry some guilt.
All adult sexual contact with minors is child abuse / exploitation and should be named as such. The girls Epstein abused deserve justice. They also deserve to have their story treated with care and spoken about with respect for the victims.
I'm sort of confused by this. There isn't a normal, healthy, adjusted person who would have anything but revulsion at Bannon. People in the street know he's super close to the pedophile ring, and many other disgusting things besides, like funding the January 6th riot and covering up ties to Putin.
The only people touching Bannon are the elites, who are still busy using him. That's your old propaganda friends and new enemies. The man on the street has no interest or goodwill toward Bannon, but the Washington Post is another story, isn't it?
The elites have made it clear that our morals, caring about babies dying and children being raped, are reprehensible to them. Why wouldn't they stick with Bannon?
hopefully your message is resonating with americans that still have souls and brains that still function thanks Kate
If MAGA hasn’t already turned on Steve Bannon for stealing their money in a fake wall-building charity, what’s his collaboration with Epstein going to mean to them?
Such excellent reporting on just one thread pulled from a massive blanket covering the the pedophiles in this ring.
its more about how the rich are really not like the rest of us professor Richardson tells us how buried in our history is the adage that some among us are better and smarter and richer and so deserve to rule us how do you stand on this premise
HCR's writing keeps me from curling up in the fetal position. I so appreciate her giving us the history reminding us of how vile humans have existed forever. She helps me stay hopeful we'll get through this.
Thank-you for this article. I have been wondering the same thing myself. I'm pretty sure that if the House summoned Bannon again to testify on his relationship with Epstein that he would just ignore them again and Trump might still give him enough cover to get away with it. The correct thing to do is for everyone outside of MAGA to tar everyone inside of MAGA with Bannon's shit. Anyone who speaks with him from here on out must demand his accountability on Epstein or be accused of complicity with child predation by the Epstein class. And within our community: all professional ties with Larry Summers must be ended. His reputation as an economist or academic is garbage because of his poor character. His opinions must be treated as suspect unless and until he can prove with actions that he is not an arrogant prick who thinks he is better than others, and that it's fine for men to abuse women and rich to abuse poor. Catherine Rampell needs to disown him and his work. In light of these revelations, his whole work product is utterly corrupted and must be treated as such. We can hardly expect it of others if we don't do it ourselves. We can hardly expect our discourse of society and economics to move past the predatory perspective unless we vigorously reject the premise as patently unacceptable.
well said Alyssa
It’s like they out-compete each other who can spell the worst
Bannon got away with defrauding cultists as well. He’s the real Teflon one.
This is classic Democrat scumbag vs. right-wing scumbag. When a scandal like this strikes one of theirs, the Democratic elite will gasp through their handkerchiefs and force the guilty party to bow and scrape and hide their face for a few years, but stay in contact with them and eventually help them launder their image and make a comeback in some low-profile way. Summers was playing the same game with Epstein that he himself is now playing. When it's the right, they'll just ignore it or even embrace it, trusting the gullibility of the right-wing base and the power of their media ecosystem to spin it for them. This is why some voters have the twisted perception that right-wingers are better because they're at least open and honest about what scumbags they are.
sometimes wide spread generalizations need more examination
both parties have been seduced by big money and misinformation
when we neglect our responsibilities as citizens this is what fills the vacuum.
Shine the light and the rats will run