I guess eating their hats would be too on-the-nose…
I enjoy the irony (or something) of a Canadian citing a UK newspaper about an American political movement controlled by a Russian.
Unrelated to the above …
Heretofore I’ve generally held the opinion that MAGAts individually and collectively don’t know what to think until their propaganda lords tell them what to think. Then they’re sure what they think.
So is this whole MAGA / Epstein / trump flap being driven by one of the propaganda sources, or is it truly homegrown individualism that’s gathering momentum organically?
At least they’re taking them off the heads first.
The propagandamongers were not given a heads-up on the “nothing to see here” announcement, so were unable to lay down a consensus line. Those more invested on the whole conspiracy were more ready to call it out right away.
At the lower levels many MAGAs were expecting that Trump would be God’s instrument to publish evidence that would obliterate all liberals forever. This was leaving them on the hilltop after telling them there’s going to be no Rapture and never was going to.
My understanding of the MAGA movement is that it’s just people that love daytime TV, soap operas, reality TV, trash TV, etc.
It’s like a person who can’t control their eating, it’s just so delicious, they can’t stop themselves. They’re addicted to food. MAGAs are addicted to scandal, drama, sensationalism, tabloidism, etc.
99.9% of the time, Trump is a driving engine to give them their fix. Today’s the day that he’s trying to be part of the 0.1%.
If MAGA were about Trump then, as you say, he might be safe. But if it’s about Drama, then the dude is toast. Whatever all juicy deliciousness there is in those documents, it needs to be got out for the zombie hordes.
You live by the sword, you die by the sword.
Would that the vampire could so easily be staked.
If there is any practical (not necessarily legal) way to selectively release the Epstein files in a way that pillories the Ds and spares the Rs, or at least the trump loyalist Rs, and of course trump himself, that’d be ideal. Problem is, all that censoring takes time. And they don’t want to release in dribs and drabs, that’d just fuel popular hunger for more, more, MORE! So he’s got to keep the lid on the popular anger until he can take the lid off the Big Reveal and smirk from ear to ear.
So IMO what trump needs now is a flashy reveal of something quick and easy to get this off the front page of the MAGA Gazette. Attention span is not these folks, nor social media in general’s, strong suit.
A huge new tariff, a major increment in ICE nastiness to minorities, some kind of EO that’s performative abuse of LGBTQ+.
That’s what I expect to see today or over the weekend.
Per Trump, he promised to release everything on day 1 of his term and, by statements that he made publicly, he actually did that. (Obviously, he didn’t, he just told the public that he did but it’s what he told the public that matters if he’s not just any other hypocritical politician.)
So, by this point, they’ve had since Jan 22nd of this year - roughly 6 months - to redact the documents appropriately.
If they haven’t been doing that, despite Trump’s insistence that they release everything then, well, that’s just on Pam Bondi ain’t it?
As much as I want to see the Orange Menace get his, I find this WSJ letter from Trump to Epstein to be suspicious. The way the letter is written doesn’t sound like Trump at all. The wording and style are way too sophisticated for him.
He’s more lucid in older interviews. He’s also more lucid when he isn’t trying to thread needles between different lies, scams, self-promotions, and etc. all at the same time.
There’s an interview with Giuliani that I saw once. I looked it up because it was quoted as evidence of Giuliani working for Trump, completely drunk off his rocker. But, I had - by happenstance - found the unedited, full interview and Giuliani was talking completely smooth, calm, reasonable, and normal. Suddenly, the interviewer asks him something like, “If you’ve got information that’s NOT sourced from Russia, then why aren’t you accepting Lindsey Graham’s invitation to bring it over to Congress?” (I forget if that was the actual topic.) Suddenly, Giuliani starts blabbering like an idiot, sweating, and swaying around like a drunkard. It’s this latter section that seems to have started the “drunk” idea, because most videos had been trimmed down to only show that segment.
I suspect that, in person, having a normal and meaningless conversation with Trump, he probably comes across as a fairly average, friendly, mentally capable fellow. Like Giuliani, once he needs to talk like he’s verbally running through a minefield, suddenly it turns to nonsense, platitudes, and crass jokes.
- It was long enough ago that his language use hadn’t regressed to the point it’s been at the last while.
- It’s entirely likely he had someone write it for him.
I could buy this.
It’s not about lucidity. This dialogue in the letter just does not sound like Trump. He’s not a clever person. This little dialogue shows signs of cleverness, and he’s never been clever.
Oh, I agree. It doesn’t sound like Trump’s voice at all. Doesn’t mean it’s not real, though.
Yeah i imagine this how these things work (assuming “these things” were ever a thing outside of paedophiles who want documentary evidence from their powerful co-conspirators of their relationship) you get someone else to write the birthday message (either your lackey or the lackey making the request, i.e. Maxwell) and you just sign it. Whether that includes the “sexy” 
decoration i don’t know
Just like the televised “roasts” that were (still are?) a thing. Do you really think celebrities like Trump write their own put downs for those? Of course not, they get them written for them.
Presumably if neither the text or the signature was Trump’s WSJ’s lawyer’s (who undoubtedly went through this with fine tooth comb) would have worked that out and put the kibosh on it?
The problem is that for a thin slice of the most fanatic part of the MAGA community (the QAnon part), ostentatious opposition to pedophilia is part of their identity. This isn’t necessarily insurmountable since these folks aren’t huge in number (though very vocal). But it’s a challenge.
Most of the MAGAsphere influencers (not all) aren’t pointing out the obvious ways that Trump’s actions incriminate himself. Their goal is to stroke their audience, not inform them after all. The NYT provided a helpful Venn diagram:
Weirdly enough, some of the crankiest commentators were most willing to call out Trump specifically. This group includes Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, and Michael Flynn. I guess they are most wedded to the right wing weirdosphere. Dinesh D’Souza stands out for for his craven compliance.
ETA: For those who can’t get enough of this, have a gifted article:
This is much more 4-dimensional chess than I thought. Actually, it’s even worse than that.
If I count correctly it’s 35-dimensional chess; one for each talking head. I’m just glad the NYT cite isn’t a vid with each of their mouths moving and all of them saying braying something or other.
The DoJ has 1,000 FBI agents combing through the Epstein files to flag any mentions of Donald, per Dick Durbin.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he has received information that Attorney General Pam Bondi “pressured” approximately 1,000 FBI personnel to comb through tens of thousands of pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and flag any mention of President Trump.
Seems like a bad use of government resources. And I can’t imagine 1,000 federal law enforcement agents would be cool with such an assignment. (Probably how Durbin got the information it was happening)
Does Trump think he’s going to make things better by pulling a thousand fresh faces into the cover-up he’s flaccidly attempting? I’d assume this is so that the results can be kicked up to Bondi where she will remove most of those references (except any that are purely harmless, such as them living in the same neighborhood) to Trump. But then there will be 1000 more witnesses out there who can say “I saw the files and there was nasty stuff about him in there that didn’t end up in the final report.” I guess the idea is just to sow enough confusion that whoever barks the loudest (Trump) ends up prevailing over what the narrative is. But I think it’s a dumb plan. Just admit it Trump. You went to Epstein’s island and you had sex with girls there. Your followers will figure out a way to make it right among themselves.
No matter what the “files/lists” come up with, it wont hurt trump. It will be “fake’ or a 'frame job”.
Also, and this is important- a denial of reality.
Not necessarily agents- " approximately 1,000 FBI personnel ".
The FBI has some 38000 employees, but only 13000+ Agents.
MAGA: One of the people in this picture is Tim Russ who worked with Jeri Ryan on Star Trek: Voyager. Ryan’s husband was involved in a sex scandal which ended his political career. And do you know who replaced him? None other than Barack Obama! BOOM! Democrat cover-up right there!