In the before times, meaning those days of innocence before a probably groyper murdered Charlie Kirk and made us all learn what a “groyper” is, the Epstein birthday book was a huge part of the news. I don’t think that we should forget about Epstein, so that’s the subject of this post.

I know that we are shifting from one horrible thing to another, but forgetting about Epstein would be a very convenient thing for Donald Trump, who is a man who should never have any convenient things because he is a monster. But beyond the fact that our current president has deep ties to a sex trafficker, there is also the fact that a lot of powerful, wealthy people seemed to know about Epstein’s activities. In fact, about the only thing they could say about him in that birthday book was how much of a perv he was.

That of course includes Trump, who punctuated his admiration for their “wonderful secret” by including what appears to be the outline of an adolescent girl. I won’t share any of the other letters of admiration for Epstein’s sexual appetites from very wealthy people; you can look them up yourself if you feel the need. I will also add that it’s not just the birthday book, JPMorgan (the bank, not the jazz singer and Gong Show judge) really supported our Jeffrey, even when some at the bank expressed reservations. You can really dig deep into the entire “where did he get his money” question at that link as well.

There are some parallels to what I observed as a resident of the State College, PA area during the Jerry Sandusky scandal. As horrible as that story was, not everyone was as anti-child rape as you might hope, especially among those who were in Sandusky’s socioeconomic and power strata. Sandusky was a great defensive coordinator at Penn State and also ran a popular charity. Of course, that charity turned out to be a child-grooming scheme.

Because of Sandusky’s status, he was given an incredible level of benefit of the doubt by some. There was the “gotta support the team” element, but there was also the “no one who could be at one of my dinner parties can ever do anything bad” aspect to the support of not just Sandusky but the enablers in the university’s upper administration that enabled it.

I am an employee of Penn State and a fan of the teams, but shrugging off child rape is not really my thing. I will also add that Ohio State University, as you may have heard, had its own sexual assault scandal that involved a certain Loud-Mouthed Congresscretin by the name of Jim Jordan, who was a wrestling coach while a team doctor was preying on his wrestlers. 

Not making the news as much as Sandusky did, but still. As Trump himself infamously said, when you are a star, they let you do it. In the world of the super wealthy, at one time, Jeffrey Epstein was a star, known for throwing lavish parties that the well-heeled fought hard to get on the guest list for. Apparently, a lot of those people who were dying to get a seat on his plane to his party island either loved what he was up to or didn’t care. That’s something that can’t be ignored, either.

The last word goes to The Black Keys.