The Epstein news is about to heat up again. Tomorrow is the deadline for the release of the Epstein Files. I’m expecting the MAGA DOJ to release as little of the material as possible. I don’t know why they bother: there’s reams of stuff out there already from the Epstein estate.
The New York Times has published an epic piece about how Jeffrey Epstein became filthy rich. It was all a con. He may be the third most successful con artist in American history, but he’s still not as interesting as Trump or Madoff. He remains a vague figure notable only for his perversion and the company he kept.
Because of its roots in right-wing conspiracist circles, I used to hate the Epstein story. That changed when it became clear that Team Trump’s clumsy coverup was hurting them with their base. I now think of the Epstein mishigas as a club to beat the Kaiser of Chaos with, figuratively, not literally. I feel compelled to write about it as a means to an end: the destruction of Team MAGA with Alan Dershowitz’s comeuppance as lagniappe.
Epstein, of course, didn’t graduate from Harvard or any other university. He didn’t even audit a class there. Harvard didn’t care as long as the money rolled in.
The details of Epstein’s lies are not all that interesting. That brings us to the quote of the day. It’s a swell summary of Epstein’s financial chicanery:
In his first two decades of business, we found that Epstein was less a financial genius than a prodigious manipulator and liar. Abundant conspiracy theories hold that Epstein worked for spy services or ran a lucrative blackmail operation, but we found a more prosaic explanation for how he built a fortune. A relentless scammer, he abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money. He started small, testing his tactics and seeing what he could get away with. His early successes laid the foundation for more ambitious ploys down the road. Again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.”
Jeffrey Epstein was just another sleazy hustler out for himself. Once he climbed the greasy pole of success, he turned to what really interested him: abusing young woman, sexually and emotionally. In a word: despicable.
You’re probably wondering why I used a picture of Epstein with the artist formerly known as Prince Andrew as the featured image. I recently watched A Very English Scandal. It’s the second dramatization of the legendary 2019 interview of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor by the BBC’s Emily Maitlis. The interview itself pits a shark against chum in the personage of the now defrocked prince. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, what a maroon.
Interviewer Emily Maitlis is played by Ruth Wilson about whom I wrote last Saturday. Michael Sheen, best known to me for playing Tony Blair, plays the degenerate royal. Epstein is played by John Hopkins as a sinister and shadowy spider who corrupts everything and everyone he encounters. In a word: Creepy.
Here’s the trailer:
Grading Time: I give this 3 episode series 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. Emily Maitlis was involved in the production, so Ruth Wilson is able to take a deeper dive into the character than Gillian Anderson in Scoop.
What’s Scoop? It’s the *other* film about the interview with Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as Andrew. Anderson and Wilson are equally good as the journalist, as much I hate to say this Michael Sheen is better as the degenerate royal than Rufus who is a longtime favorite of mine. Sorry, dude.
It’s trailer time:
Grading Time: I watched Scoop about a year ago, so the grade might be too low. I give it 3 stars and an Adrastos grade of B. Scoop is streaming on Netflix and A Very Royal Scandal can be found on Amazon Prime.
That concludes this hybrid post. Just thinking about Jeffrey Epstein bugs me, so writing about the two dramas was a form of delousing.
I’m suspending my dislike of AI for one day by giving Mr. Newberger that last word.
