A quick look at Epstein's birthday book shows that pretty much EVERYONE in his orbit knew about his sexual relationships with young girls and thought it was amusing. I am simultaneously appalled and amazed that these people felt comfortable enough with their complete lack of morality to draw cutesy pictures for a book celebrating this monster's birthday.
What strikes me most is the way you illuminate the deep hypocrisy at play: the same movement that claims moral authority is willing to deny, minimize, or twist itself into knots when the truth points back to its own figurehead. For those of us who work with families and children, this is also about the collective ability to acknowledge harm and to protect the most vulnerable without exception. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
MAGA shrieks hysterically about the possibility of men in girls’ locker rooms and then licks the boots of the man who actually bought a teenage beauty pageant so he could ogle the naked contestants in their dressing room.
Weird new twist in the Epstein birthday book. The UK fired their US ambassador for his links to Epstein, including having a card in the birthday book where he called Epstein his best pal. Somehow, the UK government is more sensitive to the embarrassment of connections to Epstein than our government is. There were a bunch of emails and correspondence showing the ambassador stayed friends with Epstein even after the Miami sweetheart deal, which, to be fair, isn’t something anyone has shown about Trump. But the fact that the British ambassador acknowledged that he sent that card is one more piece of evidence that the book is very much real.
If that were true, Democrats would have done something about it during Biden’s term. I’m glad they are interested now, but it highlights how they always have to be dragged into these things. Garland, Biden and congressional Democrats had every opportunity to deep dive into the Epstein case and chose not to do it. The Republican coverup was enabled by Democrat incompetence. FWIW, I am a longtime Democrat. But I am not giving them any free passes on how we got here.
In Trumpistan women are an ornament and young girls must have wanted it because otherwise they would have outmaneuvered the most powerful, smartest, driven, wealthy, connected grown-ass adults and just left (walk, run, bike, rollerblades). Not to worry kiddo, just a video archive used to quiet, manipulate, threaten Princes, Kings and Presidents, but do go on and tell that nice officer before he drives you home. Wait, you don't have a home? F$CK these Political "leaders" for a committing even more horrific levels of verbal abuse and defamation against these survivors and fighters for young girls all over the world.
Probably not just in Trumpistan. A lot of non wealthy folks may not indulge in such behavior but will not condemn it. That's because the young women seem to have entered puberty so they aren't obviously small children. And there's the old idea that if a woman or girl doesn't run screaming away then she consented.
Good points. Seeking love and what that looks like is quite muddled for so many young adults. Busy parents, ever-changing technology, lack of restrictions, increased levels of depression and some kids don't stand a chance. It's embarrassing the number of scams I've fallen for. I didn't have the Internet until Grad school. I'd like to think I'm not a complete idiot, but . . .
One of my favorite religion-and-politics bloggers from years ago often talked about the evangelical drive to treat abortion right advocates as "satanic baby killers." The point wasn't whether they were right or wrong, but this push to imagine your opponent as this absolute evil, an enemy in every sense, usually corrupted them in the end. If your opponent is that purely evil, it justifies you doing quite a lot you wouldn't normally do; actually, it compels you to. What's the old Barry Goldwater line? "Timidity in defense of liberty is no virtue"? Something like that.
The reality is you only end up turning yourself into a monster. I've been a bit impressed with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace for standing with the victims recently. It's easier to get it right from the start that Trumpism needs to be resisted and his poor character should be overlooked; much harder to pull out of that mindset late in the game, even if they go back to MAGA-style politics on other issues.
Thank you for your wise words on this subject, Mona. As usual, you write wisely.
It is revealing to hear Karoline Leavitt try to explain the Birthday Book hoax,
Not saying the birthday card doesn’t exist, not saying there isn’t a book of them;
Just saying the Democrats are making up this hoax to hurt DJT.
So someone else put it in the book in 2003 (a plausible excuse if its existence wasn’t denied first)?
Someone, the Democrats put it in between 2003 and now (not so plausible),
But it doesn’t matter, you only need to know it is a hoax. Nothing more to see here.
I remember a friend telling me that some people were so easy to influence that they could catch their spouse in bed with someone else and if the spouse jumped up and said they didn’t do it they would be believed. I never bought into that.
In order to believe Trump's birther conspiracy, you had to suspend reality to believe a Obama's 17 year old mother and family time traveled to the 21st Century to learn of his political ambitions. Then, they traveled back in time to create a new birth certificate or there was no time travel and his teenage mom altered his birth certificate just in case her newborn son ran for President. Of course, you had to believe his mom was not a USA citizen to believe the entire lie or the US Constitution says only children born to US fathers are citizens. The whole conspiracy was absurd to normal people.
Trump's political resurrection and the resurgence of the MAGA movement is based upon a lie. The big lie that the 2020 presidential elections was stolen. All of people who wanted a position in the Trump administration and all the republicans in Congress had to swear allegiance to this lie. Nothing good can come from a deception of this magnitude. All the lies that followed, both big and small, are descendants of this original sin. It's not a coincidence that the only way to lose a job in the Trump administration is the unforgivable offense of telling the truth.
And nothing good can come from white supremacy, which is why most of the former Confederacy remains a violent, poverty-stricken mess dependent on an extraction economy and defense spending that enriches oligarchs and impoverishes everyone else—the model the Republican Party seeks to crush the entire nation with by destroying research, higher education, infrastructure, and health care.
Given how far they have travelled with him, banging teenage girls, or at the least cheering on a guy who did, is easy for his supporters. They have a thousand built in excuses for the guy. Its naive of us to think this matters at all to any of them.
Ms. Charen, thank you for writing this article. I hope somebody can get through to Trump supporters. One of the problems we face today is that no matter how badly Trump behaves, the right wing media sphere blocks every piece of negative news so Trump's supporters don't even hear it or learn about it. The Fox Propaganda Network, OAN and other right wing outlets act like force fields rejecting anything that reflects badly on their leader and their movement.
Nothing will dampen the cult. The cult takes precedence over everything, including the rape of children. Not only could Trump shoot someone on fifth avenue and get away with it, it could be a toddler. And most maga politicians’ first response would be “that kid had it coming to him. Didn’t you see the look on his face?”
I have to repeat a paragraph from C.S. Lewis’s “The Problem of Pain” where he tries to justify the existence of hell by describing a very bad man, and see if you can identify such a person in our current environment:
“Picture to yourself a man who has risen to wealth or power by a continued course of treachery and cruelty, by exploiting for purely selfish ends the noble notions of his victims, laughing the while at their simplicity; who, having thus attained success, uses it for the gratification of lust and hatred and finally parts with the last rag of honour among thieves by betraying his own accomplices and jeering at their last moments of bewildered disillusionment. Suppose, further, that he does all this, not (as we like to imagine) tormented by remorse or even misgiving, but eating like a schoolboy and sleeping like a healthy infant - a jolly, ruddy-cheeked man, without a care in the world, unshakably confident to the very end that he alone has found the answer to the riddle of life, that God and Man are fools whom he has got the better of, that his way of life is utterly successful, satisfactory, unassailable.”
While written in 1940 this seems to apply very closely to a person much in the news these days who a few years ago when asked if he prays said “I don’t need to pray if I’m not making mistakes.”
To Mona and all of the well-intentioned readers and commenters . . .
Another day has passed and we now see more evidence that our Glorious Leader was (still is?) a serial rapist of underage girls.
1) It's disgusting, it's grotesque, it's reprehensible, it's stomach-turning in its depravity. The fact that he openly fantasized about having sex with his own daughter should have been a giant red flashing light.
2) Any person that would regularly rape ANY underage person (girls or boys) is sick, twisted, and perverted, and should not be in charge of the local dog pound let alone a Country.
3) Our Glorious Leader will NEVER be held responsible for his actions. Any semblance of the system that had previously been in place has been thoroughly dismantled.
a) The Republicans in Washington were in a race to self-castrate themselves and long ago happily handed over their balls. They will continue to stall, ignore, deny, accuse, or simply play-dumb, and nothing will be done. And at the earliest sign that someone, somewhere is trying to do something substantiative, they will implement every possible roadblock to stop it from moving forward.
b) The Supreme Court will do nothing. I would not be the least bit surprised to one day learn that some of the illustrious Justices had/have similar arrangements in place. Do you think all of those yacht trips and private jet flights were nothing more than some good ol' boys getting together to smoke some stogies and sip on whiskey? Look for a Shadow Docket ruling that all existing age-of-consent laws are unconstitutional.
c) The Press has been neutered. End of story.
d) Around 40% of the country has no problem with a serial child rapist running the country. It's the 'Murican Way, especially if it's a way to own the libs.
4) The Epstein Birthday Book was produced around 2003, right? What other 'pillars of society" contributed material to this book?
5) Don't for a minute delude yourself into thinking that Epstein was the only high-level pimp out there. Every politician of every party, every multi-millionaire or billionaire (Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Page, Dell, Bloomberg, the Kochs, the Waltons, Griffin, Adelson, Thiel, the Uihleins, etc), and anyone with a high level of power can secure similar services at the drop of a hat. I'm not suggesting that any of these people do partake in these activities, but could easily do so. And for certain male, anti-LGBT, Republican Senators, arranging for underage boys or male hustlers is easy-peasy also.
6) Jed Bartlet was a great President and the West Wing was a great show, but please remove yourself from falsely believing that someone will ride to the rescue, hold people accountable, return glory and prestige to the country, or that a mass wave of consciousness will sweep over everyone in Washington. Ain't happening. Direct your well-justified rage and disgust to something more productive. I don't have a magic solution, but the America of the past 249 years is dead and buried. It's not coming back. Perhaps the best solution is what Marjorie Taylor Green (yes, her) previously suggested - a national divorce. Within two generations (probably sooner) the South will be on-par with South American dictatorships - no freedoms, no economy, no employment, no health care, no Social Security, etc.
7) The Holiday season will soon be here. For many of you this involves social gatherings and unavoidable interactions with MAGAt family members and/or colleagues. Take every opportunity to get in the face of these people and point-blank remind them that they strongly support and endorse a SERIAL RAPIST OF UNDERAGE GIRLS. Say it early, say it often, and stand your ground.
A quick look at Epstein's birthday book shows that pretty much EVERYONE in his orbit knew about his sexual relationships with young girls and thought it was amusing. I am simultaneously appalled and amazed that these people felt comfortable enough with their complete lack of morality to draw cutesy pictures for a book celebrating this monster's birthday.
What strikes me most is the way you illuminate the deep hypocrisy at play: the same movement that claims moral authority is willing to deny, minimize, or twist itself into knots when the truth points back to its own figurehead. For those of us who work with families and children, this is also about the collective ability to acknowledge harm and to protect the most vulnerable without exception. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
MAGA shrieks hysterically about the possibility of men in girls’ locker rooms and then licks the boots of the man who actually bought a teenage beauty pageant so he could ogle the naked contestants in their dressing room.
Weird new twist in the Epstein birthday book. The UK fired their US ambassador for his links to Epstein, including having a card in the birthday book where he called Epstein his best pal. Somehow, the UK government is more sensitive to the embarrassment of connections to Epstein than our government is. There were a bunch of emails and correspondence showing the ambassador stayed friends with Epstein even after the Miami sweetheart deal, which, to be fair, isn’t something anyone has shown about Trump. But the fact that the British ambassador acknowledged that he sent that card is one more piece of evidence that the book is very much real.
“the UK government is more sensitive to the embarrassment of connections to Epstein than our government is”
The UK government is more sensitive to the embarrassment of connections to Epstein than the Trump lickspittles who comprise our Republican Party are.
FIFY.
If that were true, Democrats would have done something about it during Biden’s term. I’m glad they are interested now, but it highlights how they always have to be dragged into these things. Garland, Biden and congressional Democrats had every opportunity to deep dive into the Epstein case and chose not to do it. The Republican coverup was enabled by Democrat incompetence. FWIW, I am a longtime Democrat. But I am not giving them any free passes on how we got here.
In Trumpistan women are an ornament and young girls must have wanted it because otherwise they would have outmaneuvered the most powerful, smartest, driven, wealthy, connected grown-ass adults and just left (walk, run, bike, rollerblades). Not to worry kiddo, just a video archive used to quiet, manipulate, threaten Princes, Kings and Presidents, but do go on and tell that nice officer before he drives you home. Wait, you don't have a home? F$CK these Political "leaders" for a committing even more horrific levels of verbal abuse and defamation against these survivors and fighters for young girls all over the world.
Probably not just in Trumpistan. A lot of non wealthy folks may not indulge in such behavior but will not condemn it. That's because the young women seem to have entered puberty so they aren't obviously small children. And there's the old idea that if a woman or girl doesn't run screaming away then she consented.
As good a reason as any for forcing a 10-year old to bear the child of her rapist.
Good points. Seeking love and what that looks like is quite muddled for so many young adults. Busy parents, ever-changing technology, lack of restrictions, increased levels of depression and some kids don't stand a chance. It's embarrassing the number of scams I've fallen for. I didn't have the Internet until Grad school. I'd like to think I'm not a complete idiot, but . . .
Please don't insult Middle Schoolers when you compare them to Trump's antics. Most Middle Schoolers are far more mature in their actions.
One of my favorite religion-and-politics bloggers from years ago often talked about the evangelical drive to treat abortion right advocates as "satanic baby killers." The point wasn't whether they were right or wrong, but this push to imagine your opponent as this absolute evil, an enemy in every sense, usually corrupted them in the end. If your opponent is that purely evil, it justifies you doing quite a lot you wouldn't normally do; actually, it compels you to. What's the old Barry Goldwater line? "Timidity in defense of liberty is no virtue"? Something like that.
The reality is you only end up turning yourself into a monster. I've been a bit impressed with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace for standing with the victims recently. It's easier to get it right from the start that Trumpism needs to be resisted and his poor character should be overlooked; much harder to pull out of that mindset late in the game, even if they go back to MAGA-style politics on other issues.
Thank you for your wise words on this subject, Mona. As usual, you write wisely.
Just for the sake of precision:
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
That makes so much more sense. It's been a long few days and my brain isn't where I'd like it to be. Thanks for the correction. :)
It is revealing to hear Karoline Leavitt try to explain the Birthday Book hoax,
Not saying the birthday card doesn’t exist, not saying there isn’t a book of them;
Just saying the Democrats are making up this hoax to hurt DJT.
So someone else put it in the book in 2003 (a plausible excuse if its existence wasn’t denied first)?
Someone, the Democrats put it in between 2003 and now (not so plausible),
But it doesn’t matter, you only need to know it is a hoax. Nothing more to see here.
I remember a friend telling me that some people were so easy to influence that they could catch their spouse in bed with someone else and if the spouse jumped up and said they didn’t do it they would be believed. I never bought into that.
I do now.
Hunter Biden!
In order to believe Trump's birther conspiracy, you had to suspend reality to believe a Obama's 17 year old mother and family time traveled to the 21st Century to learn of his political ambitions. Then, they traveled back in time to create a new birth certificate or there was no time travel and his teenage mom altered his birth certificate just in case her newborn son ran for President. Of course, you had to believe his mom was not a USA citizen to believe the entire lie or the US Constitution says only children born to US fathers are citizens. The whole conspiracy was absurd to normal people.
Also, they placed a birth announcement in the Honolulu newspaper in 1961 for good measure.
Good piece Mona, but they have exposed themselves a million times over the last 9 years. Any reasoning with these people is like yelling at the sky.
Trump's political resurrection and the resurgence of the MAGA movement is based upon a lie. The big lie that the 2020 presidential elections was stolen. All of people who wanted a position in the Trump administration and all the republicans in Congress had to swear allegiance to this lie. Nothing good can come from a deception of this magnitude. All the lies that followed, both big and small, are descendants of this original sin. It's not a coincidence that the only way to lose a job in the Trump administration is the unforgivable offense of telling the truth.
And nothing good can come from white supremacy, which is why most of the former Confederacy remains a violent, poverty-stricken mess dependent on an extraction economy and defense spending that enriches oligarchs and impoverishes everyone else—the model the Republican Party seeks to crush the entire nation with by destroying research, higher education, infrastructure, and health care.
Given how far they have travelled with him, banging teenage girls, or at the least cheering on a guy who did, is easy for his supporters. They have a thousand built in excuses for the guy. Its naive of us to think this matters at all to any of them.
I get the sense they actually think raping "slutty " teenagers is OK , and also lots of fun
Yup.
Ms. Charen, thank you for writing this article. I hope somebody can get through to Trump supporters. One of the problems we face today is that no matter how badly Trump behaves, the right wing media sphere blocks every piece of negative news so Trump's supporters don't even hear it or learn about it. The Fox Propaganda Network, OAN and other right wing outlets act like force fields rejecting anything that reflects badly on their leader and their movement.
Nothing will dampen the cult. The cult takes precedence over everything, including the rape of children. Not only could Trump shoot someone on fifth avenue and get away with it, it could be a toddler. And most maga politicians’ first response would be “that kid had it coming to him. Didn’t you see the look on his face?”
And Trump would point out that he just looked like a criminal, and there'd be no redeeming him.
And that the kid was 'woke'
Any enterprising people out there?
Make t-shirts and bumper stickers that say:
MAGA
Making America Great Again
by RAPING UNDERAGE GIRLS
(I'm totally okay with this, that's why I love Donald Trump and am proudly wearing this t-shirt)
Let these MotherFrockers OWN this despicable reprehensible walking shit-stain they elected. AND DON'T LET THEM FORGET IT.
This is the message that should be front and center and repeated at every opportunity.
I have to repeat a paragraph from C.S. Lewis’s “The Problem of Pain” where he tries to justify the existence of hell by describing a very bad man, and see if you can identify such a person in our current environment:
“Picture to yourself a man who has risen to wealth or power by a continued course of treachery and cruelty, by exploiting for purely selfish ends the noble notions of his victims, laughing the while at their simplicity; who, having thus attained success, uses it for the gratification of lust and hatred and finally parts with the last rag of honour among thieves by betraying his own accomplices and jeering at their last moments of bewildered disillusionment. Suppose, further, that he does all this, not (as we like to imagine) tormented by remorse or even misgiving, but eating like a schoolboy and sleeping like a healthy infant - a jolly, ruddy-cheeked man, without a care in the world, unshakably confident to the very end that he alone has found the answer to the riddle of life, that God and Man are fools whom he has got the better of, that his way of life is utterly successful, satisfactory, unassailable.”
While written in 1940 this seems to apply very closely to a person much in the news these days who a few years ago when asked if he prays said “I don’t need to pray if I’m not making mistakes.”
More evidence the flux capacitor was invented in 1940 rather than 1955.
To Mona and all of the well-intentioned readers and commenters . . .
Another day has passed and we now see more evidence that our Glorious Leader was (still is?) a serial rapist of underage girls.
1) It's disgusting, it's grotesque, it's reprehensible, it's stomach-turning in its depravity. The fact that he openly fantasized about having sex with his own daughter should have been a giant red flashing light.
2) Any person that would regularly rape ANY underage person (girls or boys) is sick, twisted, and perverted, and should not be in charge of the local dog pound let alone a Country.
3) Our Glorious Leader will NEVER be held responsible for his actions. Any semblance of the system that had previously been in place has been thoroughly dismantled.
a) The Republicans in Washington were in a race to self-castrate themselves and long ago happily handed over their balls. They will continue to stall, ignore, deny, accuse, or simply play-dumb, and nothing will be done. And at the earliest sign that someone, somewhere is trying to do something substantiative, they will implement every possible roadblock to stop it from moving forward.
b) The Supreme Court will do nothing. I would not be the least bit surprised to one day learn that some of the illustrious Justices had/have similar arrangements in place. Do you think all of those yacht trips and private jet flights were nothing more than some good ol' boys getting together to smoke some stogies and sip on whiskey? Look for a Shadow Docket ruling that all existing age-of-consent laws are unconstitutional.
c) The Press has been neutered. End of story.
d) Around 40% of the country has no problem with a serial child rapist running the country. It's the 'Murican Way, especially if it's a way to own the libs.
4) The Epstein Birthday Book was produced around 2003, right? What other 'pillars of society" contributed material to this book?
5) Don't for a minute delude yourself into thinking that Epstein was the only high-level pimp out there. Every politician of every party, every multi-millionaire or billionaire (Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Page, Dell, Bloomberg, the Kochs, the Waltons, Griffin, Adelson, Thiel, the Uihleins, etc), and anyone with a high level of power can secure similar services at the drop of a hat. I'm not suggesting that any of these people do partake in these activities, but could easily do so. And for certain male, anti-LGBT, Republican Senators, arranging for underage boys or male hustlers is easy-peasy also.
6) Jed Bartlet was a great President and the West Wing was a great show, but please remove yourself from falsely believing that someone will ride to the rescue, hold people accountable, return glory and prestige to the country, or that a mass wave of consciousness will sweep over everyone in Washington. Ain't happening. Direct your well-justified rage and disgust to something more productive. I don't have a magic solution, but the America of the past 249 years is dead and buried. It's not coming back. Perhaps the best solution is what Marjorie Taylor Green (yes, her) previously suggested - a national divorce. Within two generations (probably sooner) the South will be on-par with South American dictatorships - no freedoms, no economy, no employment, no health care, no Social Security, etc.
7) The Holiday season will soon be here. For many of you this involves social gatherings and unavoidable interactions with MAGAt family members and/or colleagues. Take every opportunity to get in the face of these people and point-blank remind them that they strongly support and endorse a SERIAL RAPIST OF UNDERAGE GIRLS. Say it early, say it often, and stand your ground.