The millions of pages of documents the Department of Justice has released – more than a month late – are not about who was on the private jet, or who was invited to dinner or when they sent emails or what was in the emails and texts.
That's what I worry about too Linda, I think someone died, under age and abandoned, rough play got to rough, being peed on is nothing compared to that, maybe it happened in Russia which would explain Putin's leverage, in fact my guess is that if it did happen, it happened in Russia where everything is taped. No wonder he shits all over himself, even the most die hard maggots have their limits.
Why was Trump then threatening other girls and telling they would disappear and be buried in his golf course like 12 year old Latina with whom he had sick cosplay of her being an illegal immigrant as he brutalized her sexually. He also threatened girls that if they told they would be buried in his golf course like other girls.
Putin can have other things on him, or the tapes of these murders. Greg Olear has suggested there are snuff tapes. My guess is that if it happened it also happened in the USA. That would be a big fear.
As I just pointed out, I don't like it at all. The victims were girls and young women. They were being abused by adult men (with the occasional female accomplice like Ghislaine Maxwell). That matters. And yes, at the same time adult men (priests) were exploiting boys and young men. That matters too, but it's not the same.
I thought of that -- and agree that your point is more accurate and for that reason it is important. But I still think it's more effective to say "raping of children" than the alternatives such as "raping girls and young women" or "girl-rape." Children has more punch to me -- and I think everyone knows that means child females. And do we know that no boys were victims? I bet there were a few ...
Labels are very important. They persuade, call attention to issues, and inform people's opinions. I too have done a lot of work in my life on women's issues.
Sascha Riley is a man who says he was trafficked to this gang from around age 9 to 13. His story is a bit different because it was his adoptive father doing the trafficking. But nothing has been corroborated, and there are elements of his story that don’t line up.
Susanna - I’ve worked in and continue some work in victims assistance and this word choice/phrasing has had lots of discussion. I do NOT know your background - just for starters - and you may not like the word choices but those working in victims assistance are feeling more than just a bit ‘fried”, fed up, … other words can be used about how to get public attention on all of this - not just NOW but for decades in the past. I’m also talking w some folks who were involved in the Boston report on assaults in the Catholic Church.
Serious question: If you don’t “like” “child rape” as a phrase or label - do you have other words that may get the attention of the general public?
Otherwise, what you are posting comes across as parsing language - TODAY - in the reporting of this.
There are many words and phrases that can apply here: “child rape” is one of those, or two actually.
Murders. Murders. Murders. Murders. These were discussed. Why is this not being discussed and investigated. So sweep the worst things under the rug, or ignore it!
Thank you - for this piece of writing and so many other things you've written.
This is a story about monsters who have lived among us, continue to live among us and need to be exposed for what they are: monsters.
For anyone who works in victim's assistance programs or interested in supporting the victims - please find, share, support those resources. They need us.
The powerful have had too many supports and protections in place for way too long.
Mere raping of children may be the least of it. Virginia Guiffre said that she feared for her life when some sex play got a little too rough, but she survived albeit severely damaged before her suicide. Heather Cox Richardson's posting today contains this sentence that deserves more media attention: "Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters yesterday that the Department of Justice was not releasing any item from the Epstein files that showed 'death, physical abuse, or injury.'" Is this why the DOJ is hoarding millions of documents Congress ordered it to release but it isn't?
Yes Gray I saw that in HCR’s substack too! Why aren’t these being released- death , physical abuse or injury. Will DOJ just sit on those files and ignore?????
These bastards need to have their balls twisted off. The exposure of all these members of the Trump cabinet to civil litigation alone is going to leave me smiling for years to come.
There were murders too and the statute of limitations does not run out on murder, which should be investigated. Please write your elected reps in Congress and ask them to have the murders investigated.
What dumbfounds me is the sheer volume. Millions of pages and the dude was still walking around almost to the (questionable) end. Think of man-hours spent in compiling this volume.
Bob - if you’ve read any of Sarah Kendzior’s work - she’s touched on this in the past, as have others. The volume of information (mostly ignored, it seems) is staggering.
Because MAGA is predominately evangelical "Christians" and they are overrun with pedophiles. Just look at the Southern Baptist church. They're as bad, if not worse than the catholic church. And with MAGA, every accusation is a confession. It's not drag queens fucking kids, it's MAGA fucking kids. I just can't wrap my head around the attraction these losers have for kids. And apparently when you become a billionaire you also become a pedophile. Just another reason why we should tax them into bankruptcy.
evangelicals ' problems stem from their fear and hatred of human sexuality. Sex is for procreation, and anything else is sin. They cannot handle sexuality as a part of being human and seeing it as positive and life-affirming.
Added to their toxic misogyny and it's incredibly evil.
If girls and women aren't sexually "pure", in MAGA world they have no value, and are tainted.
MAGA and evangelical churches treat girls as property to be maintained in a pure state by their mothers and fathers, to be conveyed intact to their husbands.
A couple of things: (1) About the use of the word "children": Some of the victims may have been boys or young men (as in the ongoing Catholic Church scandals), but so far it seems that the overwhelming majority of them were girls and young women, and the overwhelming majority of perpetrators (Ghislaine Maxwell to the contrary) were adult men. That matters.
(2) Epstein got caught, but for a single second do you doubt that other privileged men had similar operations going on? Not as exclusive, not as extensive, but still similar, perhaps making use of other networks. I sure as hell don't. I'm thinking of, e.g., Harvey Weinstein and all those powerful men who exploited young women as the price of advancing their careers.
We were uncovering and exposing this kind of crap more than 50 years ago. Why is it still happening? Why are so many people still shocked by it?
I don't like when people say it is about raping girls and young women. What is the definition of young women? I think that is making these adult men sound less monstrous. As if raping a an 8 year old isn't as bad as raping a 3 year old.
Cathy - how to say? I do NOT need to be "right"... but I've spent so much time talking to victims whose language is heavily policed, questioned, challenged... that the idea that we can't call the raping of children (children: those who are not considered adults, able to give consent, etc) is the primary focus of ANYONE's comments is just... jaw-dropping.
We having called it "what it is" (assault, rape, exploitation, trafficking... for starters) for far too long. And the policing of the language, deciding which words are allowed to be used does allow, give agency for abuse to continue. (oh, it really wasn't rape, it was digital penetration... looking at a lawsuit in NYC)
Maddening.
It's raping children.
There also many other words than can and do apply -but I'll stop here.
I appreciate your response.
Having taken too many victim statements, follow ups... this parsing of language feeds the beast.
Because "child rape" lumps all the victims together and ignores the differences among them. And especially because "child rape" obscures the fact that these are crimes against females -- girls and young women. (Yes, I realize "young women" is a shifty term. It's often applied to high-school students, but it can also refer to female people in their 20s. So it may be best to avoid it.)
It's not unlike the term "domestic violence," which has been in vogue for several decades now. It obscures the fact that in most cases this is violence against women. IIRC the male sexual-abuse victims of Catholic priests are generally referred to as boys and young men, though they're often in the age range of many of Epstein's female victims: young teenagers.
That said, to decide that one’s issue is with a term (what do we call this) rather than condemning the action is an interesting place to spend time and energy, particularly in the current timeline.
There is assault, abuse, child rape, rape, trafficking, domestic violence - all are useful. NONE are the only words or terms to use.
We need to start be believing victims - we can parse the language used to describe the vile behaviors later. The house is burning down, let’s not spend energy discussing whether a hose, a fire hose, a bucket brigade etc are the ‘best’ tools - get the fire put out, arrest the arsonists, etc.
I appreciate your taking time to respond, Susanna - you don’t like the term - there are MANY other terms. The terms aren’t the issue here, truly.
That was someone else's comment. I'm not jaded. I'm pissed off... and the void knows my name as I've been screaming into it for decades about this group of creeps.
If you follow the line from my comment you'll note that my comment wasn't directed to you but instead to Susanna Sturgis' question "Why are so many people still shocked by it?" I'm pissed off too especially given that I was assaulted by a priest when I was 15.
My question was mostly rhetorical. We (collectively) are shocked because we keep forgetting and having to be shocked anew by new revelations. Shock is very difficult for the human body and mind to sustain over time. Too often what was once shocking becomes business as usual. We don't go up in the air at each new revelation. Mentally we file it under "well, sh*t happens." There's also what might be called "performative shock," where public figures express outrage at the public revelation of things they've known about for years, but that's not what I'm talking about here.
Follow the Trump Epstein scandal files with this relationship map (Updated: Feb 1, 2026) which includes details on the Musk-Epstein discussions that the DOJ has released so far.
With Bruce Springsteen and now James Taylor producing songs in support of Minneapolis, and thus to the larger issue of the Trump Administration's actions, this is a notable groundswell. Heck, back during the Kent State/Nixon years, there was only one musical response "Ohio."
I remember when Pete Seeger, who had been banned from performing on TV, appeared on the Smothers Brothers’ TV show and sang, “ Knee deep in the big muddy, and the big fool says to push on.” I think this was in the spring of 1968. This wasn’t about raping children; it was about the war in Vietnam, which was the big controversy of the era. I know many of you here remember that moment and participated in the anti-war movement.
I don't know. Back in 1968 when the Stones released "Street Fighting Man" it was very popular. They had a talent for being on the edge of what was happening. 1968--Prague Spring, Danny the Red and the near collapse of France, and the Democratic Convention (Senator Abraham Ribicoff from Connecticut, saying to Mayor Daley on the convention floor, "there's a police riot going on outside.") Wasn't Columbia in 1968, too? The next spring, during the People's Park riots in Berkeley, students put their record players in their open windows and played it over and over. One of the editors of the Daily Cal told me the police broke into his apartment building on Telegraph Avenue, ran up the stairs, found his apartment, broke in and threw the record player out the window. I think I remember hearing the Airplane's Up Against the Wall, but the record I have came out in 1970, and this was 1969...
The answer is this: Agolf Shitler hired those girls specifically for the purpose of pimping them out to Epstein. Shitler is both a procurer and a pedophile himself. He never had a falling out with Epstein over anything except maybe the dough he was raking in from his pimping. Shitler is in as deep as Epstein himself and is every much a pedophile as those other high mucky mucks who got their rocks off raping children. No one has been able to convince me otherwise. No one ever will.
That there is murder involved here as well doesn't surprise me one bit. There is nothing so heinous that Shitler would stick at doing.
Thank you for giving these files the correct name: child rape files. Peter Gomes once wrote about truth telling. Words matter. Avoid using language that does not describe the truth.
Problem is more than one of these victims was not yet menstruating and no, even when you were growing up, that was not acceptable. Some of these victims had not yet hit puberty. Even back then, men who "preferred" this form of abuse, if became known, were ostracized and shunned.
I grew up in a time when many men did not think at all, and did what they wanted as Heather Cox Richardson talks about today. We are still in that time.
I now have flashbacks from a long-ago attack by the nephew of a prominent KY political "celebrity." I was a cub reporter at the time, naive and fresh out of college. He tried to do what he felt was his prerogative, but he was too drunk, and a well-placed kick in the groin was effective. I so wish we had progressed beyond that low level of male privileged assumption that we are cooperative sexual vessels.
Karen, from this, you, I and so many women have had flashbacks to all sorts of things that have been done against us sexually. I remembered that my friend's dad molested me when I was 5. When my parents found out, my dad made him move away, taking his 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son with him. I remember other incidents. Perhaps I will write them down somewhere. Heather discusses this attitude of some men historically.
I am grateful I was not murdered like it seems some girls were in this whole sordid story of evil, evil men, who thought they were just entitled to do whatever they wanted and get away with it because they could. Let us not let them.
I read Richardson's post earlier today. Coupled with Truscott's thoughts here, I am triggered. I'm glad you survived the abuse but horrified by your experience. No, I will do whatever I can to subvert this evil that has existed for way too long.
Karen, I am glad you survived your abuse as well. I am triggered, but organizing with people in Democrats Abroad and Indivisible Abroad to take action and do our bit to help the world to more democratic.
I’m sorry to hear this happened to you. I am also delighted you were able to make this fool regret it. However, the mere memory can vibe traumatizing. Misogyny is so pervasive still.
Cal - I'm just a couple of years younger than you. I had three daughters who I raised alone after my first wife passed away. They were then 14, 11 and 9. Men I grew up with didn't think of girls of those ages as appropriate for sex. The mere thought of anyone being a pedophile in those days sickens me.
Agree but there were men who were obviously pedophile.
Im old enough to remember Traveling tent evangelists and hearing stories of such activity. Some Adults told me they locked themselves in when the evangelists arrived.
Yes, I have to say that my father was in your group. Maybe growing up in a socially conservative family in Pennsylvania had something to do with it, but in our family, divorce was the worst thing that could happen (breaking a commitment.) This went back to my great grandfather on my father's side, who came home from the Civil War and became an alcoholic. My great grandmother, who had nine children, finally insisted on a divorce, which was very uncommon in the 1880s. She kept the youngest three, the oldest three could be on their own, but my grandmother and two others went into a Civil War Veterans Orphans Home for three years, which I have heard was very grim. When my great-great grandfather suffered financial reverses and moved to Kansas to homestead, he took the three children in the orphans home with him. So my grandmother ended up living in a sod hut on the prairie, came back to Pennsylvania to get some sort of higher education, nursing school, and eventually married my paternal grandfather, who had had to go to work at 13 to help support his family. These were not people like the Drumpf family or the kinds of people many politicians these days seem to be. They were rock solid. They never looked for excuses.
I like the practice of repeatedly calling it "raping of children."
It is the child-rape and MURDER files! Everyone who knew about the murders should be locked up right now.
That's what I worry about too Linda, I think someone died, under age and abandoned, rough play got to rough, being peed on is nothing compared to that, maybe it happened in Russia which would explain Putin's leverage, in fact my guess is that if it did happen, it happened in Russia where everything is taped. No wonder he shits all over himself, even the most die hard maggots have their limits.
Why was Trump then threatening other girls and telling they would disappear and be buried in his golf course like 12 year old Latina with whom he had sick cosplay of her being an illegal immigrant as he brutalized her sexually. He also threatened girls that if they told they would be buried in his golf course like other girls.
Putin can have other things on him, or the tapes of these murders. Greg Olear has suggested there are snuff tapes. My guess is that if it happened it also happened in the USA. That would be a big fear.
It should be investigated.
“Rapists and murderers.” Every accusation is a confession.
Yes, maybe the golf course where Ivana Trump is buried should be checked out for other bodies. Nothing these depraved men did surprises me. smh
As I just pointed out, I don't like it at all. The victims were girls and young women. They were being abused by adult men (with the occasional female accomplice like Ghislaine Maxwell). That matters. And yes, at the same time adult men (priests) were exploiting boys and young men. That matters too, but it's not the same.
I thought of that -- and agree that your point is more accurate and for that reason it is important. But I still think it's more effective to say "raping of children" than the alternatives such as "raping girls and young women" or "girl-rape." Children has more punch to me -- and I think everyone knows that means child females. And do we know that no boys were victims? I bet there were a few ...
How about Murder has more punch. There is evidence that girls were murdered and that is should be investigated right away.
Amy - my take (and others who work in victim’s assistance) - we’re going to argue about words and phrasings at this point? Seriously?
Let’s fight about how we label this?
Labels are very important. They persuade, call attention to issues, and inform people's opinions. I too have done a lot of work in my life on women's issues.
Sascha Riley is a man who says he was trafficked to this gang from around age 9 to 13. His story is a bit different because it was his adoptive father doing the trafficking. But nothing has been corroborated, and there are elements of his story that don’t line up.
Susanna - I’ve worked in and continue some work in victims assistance and this word choice/phrasing has had lots of discussion. I do NOT know your background - just for starters - and you may not like the word choices but those working in victims assistance are feeling more than just a bit ‘fried”, fed up, … other words can be used about how to get public attention on all of this - not just NOW but for decades in the past. I’m also talking w some folks who were involved in the Boston report on assaults in the Catholic Church.
Serious question: If you don’t “like” “child rape” as a phrase or label - do you have other words that may get the attention of the general public?
Otherwise, what you are posting comes across as parsing language - TODAY - in the reporting of this.
There are many words and phrases that can apply here: “child rape” is one of those, or two actually.
How about murders? They discuss murders. Not just girls, babies too.
Priests raping children matters just as much. Just saying. The icing on that cake? They were protected by the Catholic Church.
It's what it is. And there's worse in those files. You can bank on it.
Murders. Murders. Murders. Murders. These were discussed. Why is this not being discussed and investigated. So sweep the worst things under the rug, or ignore it!
Indeed! I read it myself- murders! Why aren’t these being investigated by DOJ?????
By DOJ???? Are you kidding me??? WHAT DOJ???
Yeah, we don't have one anymore.
Thank you - for this piece of writing and so many other things you've written.
This is a story about monsters who have lived among us, continue to live among us and need to be exposed for what they are: monsters.
For anyone who works in victim's assistance programs or interested in supporting the victims - please find, share, support those resources. They need us.
The powerful have had too many supports and protections in place for way too long.
I guess Trump has "cleaned out the swamp" as he promised when he first ran. They are out of the swamp and working for him in his regime.
Agolf Shitler IS the swamp.
Exactly!
"Agolf Shitler." Thanky You, Mary.
Mere raping of children may be the least of it. Virginia Guiffre said that she feared for her life when some sex play got a little too rough, but she survived albeit severely damaged before her suicide. Heather Cox Richardson's posting today contains this sentence that deserves more media attention: "Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters yesterday that the Department of Justice was not releasing any item from the Epstein files that showed 'death, physical abuse, or injury.'" Is this why the DOJ is hoarding millions of documents Congress ordered it to release but it isn't?
and rape isn't physical abuse or injury?
Of course it is, especially when it leads to murder and the coverup of ditto:
https://bsky.app/profile/joncooper-us.bsky.social/post/3mdpzp46glk2n?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Gray: see your “mere raping of children”
MERE????
Is sarcasm dead?
I don't know - it was YOUR comment -
"mere raping of children" says more than you may think it does -
(hint: that's NEVER sarcasm from a victim's perspective - in case you missed that point)
Am guessing you likely don't know victims...
"mere" raping
I saw the statement with"mere" as a view from the perpetrators (rapists) sicko perspective.
Todd Blanche is a stone criminal asshole.
A requirement to work for this administration!
Yes Gray I saw that in HCR’s substack too! Why aren’t these being released- death , physical abuse or injury. Will DOJ just sit on those files and ignore?????
Who will force the release of the documents?
ATTENTION TO PHRASING: “mere raping of children”
Did you meant to write that?
Name it…raping children😡
Thank you Lucian.
It is rape and murder. They should all be behind bars.
These bastards need to have their balls twisted off. The exposure of all these members of the Trump cabinet to civil litigation alone is going to leave me smiling for years to come.
They should all be tried for murder and accessory to murder, and concealing murder.
They were all Epstein's co-conspirators, but the statute of limitations has run on some of their most perverse crimes - not for rape in many states.
There were murders too and the statute of limitations does not run out on murder, which should be investigated. Please write your elected reps in Congress and ask them to have the murders investigated.
You are really sure about the murders and that could certainly be true but how can you be certain?
What dumbfounds me is the sheer volume. Millions of pages and the dude was still walking around almost to the (questionable) end. Think of man-hours spent in compiling this volume.
What shocks me is that no one is talking about the MURDER in the files.
Bob - if you’ve read any of Sarah Kendzior’s work - she’s touched on this in the past, as have others. The volume of information (mostly ignored, it seems) is staggering.
Sarah was WAY ahead on this!
MAGA and his other adherents appear to have no problem looking the other way.
Because MAGA is predominately evangelical "Christians" and they are overrun with pedophiles. Just look at the Southern Baptist church. They're as bad, if not worse than the catholic church. And with MAGA, every accusation is a confession. It's not drag queens fucking kids, it's MAGA fucking kids. I just can't wrap my head around the attraction these losers have for kids. And apparently when you become a billionaire you also become a pedophile. Just another reason why we should tax them into bankruptcy.
evangelicals ' problems stem from their fear and hatred of human sexuality. Sex is for procreation, and anything else is sin. They cannot handle sexuality as a part of being human and seeing it as positive and life-affirming.
Added to their toxic misogyny and it's incredibly evil.
They need to have it smeared across their faces over and over and over
If girls and women aren't sexually "pure", in MAGA world they have no value, and are tainted.
MAGA and evangelical churches treat girls as property to be maintained in a pure state by their mothers and fathers, to be conveyed intact to their husbands.
I believe that was the way it was done (or supposed to be) not all that long ago...
Yes - and all of that white dress imagery: brides, First Communion and other religious ceremonies - girls in white: virginal, pure, etc
They are all like that.
A couple of things: (1) About the use of the word "children": Some of the victims may have been boys or young men (as in the ongoing Catholic Church scandals), but so far it seems that the overwhelming majority of them were girls and young women, and the overwhelming majority of perpetrators (Ghislaine Maxwell to the contrary) were adult men. That matters.
(2) Epstein got caught, but for a single second do you doubt that other privileged men had similar operations going on? Not as exclusive, not as extensive, but still similar, perhaps making use of other networks. I sure as hell don't. I'm thinking of, e.g., Harvey Weinstein and all those powerful men who exploited young women as the price of advancing their careers.
We were uncovering and exposing this kind of crap more than 50 years ago. Why is it still happening? Why are so many people still shocked by it?
I think Epstein's network is far more extensive than is currently known. As if it's not horrible enough.
Why is no one discussing the murder discussions in the files? MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE! They should all be interrogated and locked up.
I don't like when people say it is about raping girls and young women. What is the definition of young women? I think that is making these adult men sound less monstrous. As if raping a an 8 year old isn't as bad as raping a 3 year old.
Why are we parsing and policing language TODAY? Right now?
Why, seriously, in the face of the atrocities, abominable behaviors anyone needs to quibble with this being called “child rape”???
(oh… no… we can’t call it “that”…
… also see: this can’t really be “fascism”… )
😵💫
You are right and I totally agree with Lucian consistently calling it "raping children"
Cathy - how to say? I do NOT need to be "right"... but I've spent so much time talking to victims whose language is heavily policed, questioned, challenged... that the idea that we can't call the raping of children (children: those who are not considered adults, able to give consent, etc) is the primary focus of ANYONE's comments is just... jaw-dropping.
We having called it "what it is" (assault, rape, exploitation, trafficking... for starters) for far too long. And the policing of the language, deciding which words are allowed to be used does allow, give agency for abuse to continue. (oh, it really wasn't rape, it was digital penetration... looking at a lawsuit in NYC)
Maddening.
It's raping children.
There also many other words than can and do apply -but I'll stop here.
I appreciate your response.
Having taken too many victim statements, follow ups... this parsing of language feeds the beast.
Thank you for your comments reminding us all about the victims.
🙏
There are more victims out there than some may realize - so many not attached to high profile individuals.
This is long slog
We start by believing (the victims)
Because "child rape" lumps all the victims together and ignores the differences among them. And especially because "child rape" obscures the fact that these are crimes against females -- girls and young women. (Yes, I realize "young women" is a shifty term. It's often applied to high-school students, but it can also refer to female people in their 20s. So it may be best to avoid it.)
It's not unlike the term "domestic violence," which has been in vogue for several decades now. It obscures the fact that in most cases this is violence against women. IIRC the male sexual-abuse victims of Catholic priests are generally referred to as boys and young men, though they're often in the age range of many of Epstein's female victims: young teenagers.
Assault also works. As does the term abuse.
That said, to decide that one’s issue is with a term (what do we call this) rather than condemning the action is an interesting place to spend time and energy, particularly in the current timeline.
There is assault, abuse, child rape, rape, trafficking, domestic violence - all are useful. NONE are the only words or terms to use.
We need to start be believing victims - we can parse the language used to describe the vile behaviors later. The house is burning down, let’s not spend energy discussing whether a hose, a fire hose, a bucket brigade etc are the ‘best’ tools - get the fire put out, arrest the arsonists, etc.
I appreciate your taking time to respond, Susanna - you don’t like the term - there are MANY other terms. The terms aren’t the issue here, truly.
“Why is it still happening?”
Because there's no accountability to date. When billionaires are being sent to prison it might be a message to others to stop.
Craig - this is for the "no shit" files.
It's still happening because there's been no accountability and it wasn't MY question in this thread>
Would love to see this (accountability - hey -what a concept) happen, to have seen this happening, etc
Hey: where's Alex Acosta? ... anyone heard comments from him?
We've been watching the orange creep since the '80's... would that we have an actual functional court system?
Bless that Miami reporter who wrote about Epstein's ridiculous slap on the wrist years ago. BH
They're shocked because it's still happening. Are you suggesting we should all be jaded by it by now?
That's not my suggestion at all, Craig.
That was someone else's comment. I'm not jaded. I'm pissed off... and the void knows my name as I've been screaming into it for decades about this group of creeps.
Please read other posts in this thread.
If you follow the line from my comment you'll note that my comment wasn't directed to you but instead to Susanna Sturgis' question "Why are so many people still shocked by it?" I'm pissed off too especially given that I was assaulted by a priest when I was 15.
My question was mostly rhetorical. We (collectively) are shocked because we keep forgetting and having to be shocked anew by new revelations. Shock is very difficult for the human body and mind to sustain over time. Too often what was once shocking becomes business as usual. We don't go up in the air at each new revelation. Mentally we file it under "well, sh*t happens." There's also what might be called "performative shock," where public figures express outrage at the public revelation of things they've known about for years, but that's not what I'm talking about here.
Craig - thanks
Let's see if there's an answer?
Follow the Trump Epstein scandal files with this relationship map (Updated: Feb 1, 2026) which includes details on the Musk-Epstein discussions that the DOJ has released so far.
https://thedemlabs.org/2026/01/31/trump-epstein-relationship-map/
Did you know that billionaires are excused from child rape?
Check out the Trump Edition TEN COMMANDMENTS includes pardon for pedophiles!
https://thedemlabs.org/2026/02/01/trump-epstein-scandal-ten-commandments-hypocrisy/
And child murder.
😡😖😢😩🤬🥶🥱🤢🤮
Every crappy move Trump has made since he entered politics has been for one thing...EPSTEIN DIVERSION!!!
With Bruce Springsteen and now James Taylor producing songs in support of Minneapolis, and thus to the larger issue of the Trump Administration's actions, this is a notable groundswell. Heck, back during the Kent State/Nixon years, there was only one musical response "Ohio."
The song "Ohio" is about to become very relevant again. Read the latest post from Timothy Snyder.
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/ethnic-cleansing-in-ohio?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1wbr1r
That's right! Earlier today I read an online article to that effect.
That's a great piece that everyone should read.
I remember when Pete Seeger, who had been banned from performing on TV, appeared on the Smothers Brothers’ TV show and sang, “ Knee deep in the big muddy, and the big fool says to push on.” I think this was in the spring of 1968. This wasn’t about raping children; it was about the war in Vietnam, which was the big controversy of the era. I know many of you here remember that moment and participated in the anti-war movement.
I don't know. Back in 1968 when the Stones released "Street Fighting Man" it was very popular. They had a talent for being on the edge of what was happening. 1968--Prague Spring, Danny the Red and the near collapse of France, and the Democratic Convention (Senator Abraham Ribicoff from Connecticut, saying to Mayor Daley on the convention floor, "there's a police riot going on outside.") Wasn't Columbia in 1968, too? The next spring, during the People's Park riots in Berkeley, students put their record players in their open windows and played it over and over. One of the editors of the Daily Cal told me the police broke into his apartment building on Telegraph Avenue, ran up the stairs, found his apartment, broke in and threw the record player out the window. I think I remember hearing the Airplane's Up Against the Wall, but the record I have came out in 1970, and this was 1969...
I have questions about
these teenage girls
working at Mar a lago
in the spa and going
over to Epstein's, with
Trump's knowledge.
The answer is this: Agolf Shitler hired those girls specifically for the purpose of pimping them out to Epstein. Shitler is both a procurer and a pedophile himself. He never had a falling out with Epstein over anything except maybe the dough he was raking in from his pimping. Shitler is in as deep as Epstein himself and is every much a pedophile as those other high mucky mucks who got their rocks off raping children. No one has been able to convince me otherwise. No one ever will.
That there is murder involved here as well doesn't surprise me one bit. There is nothing so heinous that Shitler would stick at doing.
Thank you for giving these files the correct name: child rape files. Peter Gomes once wrote about truth telling. Words matter. Avoid using language that does not describe the truth.
I grew up at a time when many thought sex was ok upon any menstruating female. Regardless of age.
Problem is more than one of these victims was not yet menstruating and no, even when you were growing up, that was not acceptable. Some of these victims had not yet hit puberty. Even back then, men who "preferred" this form of abuse, if became known, were ostracized and shunned.
Agree
I grew up in a time when many men did not think at all, and did what they wanted as Heather Cox Richardson talks about today. We are still in that time.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-31-2026?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
I now have flashbacks from a long-ago attack by the nephew of a prominent KY political "celebrity." I was a cub reporter at the time, naive and fresh out of college. He tried to do what he felt was his prerogative, but he was too drunk, and a well-placed kick in the groin was effective. I so wish we had progressed beyond that low level of male privileged assumption that we are cooperative sexual vessels.
Karen, from this, you, I and so many women have had flashbacks to all sorts of things that have been done against us sexually. I remembered that my friend's dad molested me when I was 5. When my parents found out, my dad made him move away, taking his 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son with him. I remember other incidents. Perhaps I will write them down somewhere. Heather discusses this attitude of some men historically.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-31-2026?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
I am grateful I was not murdered like it seems some girls were in this whole sordid story of evil, evil men, who thought they were just entitled to do whatever they wanted and get away with it because they could. Let us not let them.
I read Richardson's post earlier today. Coupled with Truscott's thoughts here, I am triggered. I'm glad you survived the abuse but horrified by your experience. No, I will do whatever I can to subvert this evil that has existed for way too long.
Karen, I am glad you survived your abuse as well. I am triggered, but organizing with people in Democrats Abroad and Indivisible Abroad to take action and do our bit to help the world to more democratic.
I’m sorry to hear this happened to you. I am also delighted you were able to make this fool regret it. However, the mere memory can vibe traumatizing. Misogyny is so pervasive still.
Cal - I'm just a couple of years younger than you. I had three daughters who I raised alone after my first wife passed away. They were then 14, 11 and 9. Men I grew up with didn't think of girls of those ages as appropriate for sex. The mere thought of anyone being a pedophile in those days sickens me.
Victims never used to talk about it so we could live in our fantasy land of men I knew weren't pedophiles.
Based on my experience, I believe there are many more pedophiles around than people realize. BH
Agree but there were men who were obviously pedophile.
Im old enough to remember Traveling tent evangelists and hearing stories of such activity. Some Adults told me they locked themselves in when the evangelists arrived.
Yes, I have to say that my father was in your group. Maybe growing up in a socially conservative family in Pennsylvania had something to do with it, but in our family, divorce was the worst thing that could happen (breaking a commitment.) This went back to my great grandfather on my father's side, who came home from the Civil War and became an alcoholic. My great grandmother, who had nine children, finally insisted on a divorce, which was very uncommon in the 1880s. She kept the youngest three, the oldest three could be on their own, but my grandmother and two others went into a Civil War Veterans Orphans Home for three years, which I have heard was very grim. When my great-great grandfather suffered financial reverses and moved to Kansas to homestead, he took the three children in the orphans home with him. So my grandmother ended up living in a sod hut on the prairie, came back to Pennsylvania to get some sort of higher education, nursing school, and eventually married my paternal grandfather, who had had to go to work at 13 to help support his family. These were not people like the Drumpf family or the kinds of people many politicians these days seem to be. They were rock solid. They never looked for excuses.
Interesting history