BBC

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, refused to answer questions from the US House Oversight Committee on Monday.

Maxwell appeared virtually for a closed-door deposition from the Texas prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.

Republican House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said that “as expected”, Maxwell pleaded the Fifth Amendment, invoking her right to remain silent.

Politico

In a copy of Maxwell’s lawyer’s opening statement obtained by POLITICO, David Oscar Markus reiterated that grant of clemency would facilitate her testimony — a power only President Donald Trump can bestow. He has not ruled out issuing a pardon.

“Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” according to Markus’ prepared remarks. (Her truth is that Trump and Clinton are both innocent)

Democrats accused Maxwell of using the deposition as part of a campaign for clemency from Trump, while House Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters he did not believe Maxwell should be granted clemency.

“Unfortunately, she had an opportunity today to answer questions that every American has — questions that would be very important in this investigation — and she chose to invoke her Fifth Amendment right,” the Kentucky Republican said.

At this point in time, given this woman’s entire history, background and criminality- her testimony is meaningless- She should be removed from her camp prison and go back to actual prison

I don’t think her “testimony” is required.

And lastly Howard Lutnick, unsurprisingly, is way more tied into the Jeffrey Epstein episode than had been claimed- However, he was Mr Epstein’s neighbour for a long time, and they both share an interest in Israel

Howard Lutnick faces bipartisan calls to resign over latest Epstein revelations

Recently disclosed records suggest a closer relationship than the Commerce secretary previously indicated.

Jordain Carney02/09/2026, 11:15am ET

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing bipartisan calls to resign after he appeared in a recent batch of files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) accused Lutnick in a statement Monday of having “lied” about the extent of his connection to Epstein. Lutnick has sought to downplay their relationship, saying in a podcast appearance last year he vowed in 2005 to never again be in the same room as Epstein.

But files recently released by the Justice Department suggest he continued his interactions with Epstein, including planning a visit several years later to Epstein’s Caribbean island.

“Lutnick’s lies about his business dealings with a convicted child sex offender, raise serious concerns about his judgement and ethics,” Schiff said. “Lutnick has no business being our Commerce Secretary, and he should resign immediately.”

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson previously said that Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who is leading an investigation into Epstein and has already subpoenaed multiple associates, did not rule out issuing one for Lutnick. But he said the panel’s outstanding subpoenas take priority for now.

“It’s now clear that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been lying about his relationship with Epstein,” the Californian posted on X. “Lutnick must resign or be fired. And he must answer our questions.”

The Independent

Donald Trump claims to have hashed out the “framework” of a future deal on Greenland following weeks of threats to annex the Danish territory.

The US president emerged from talks with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte on Wednesday confident that a deal was in sight and that all parties were happy with it.

In sight? In immediate sight? A distant sight?

Denmark said it was open to dialogue so long as its borders are respected – but have notably not endorsed any aspects of the agreement briefed to the media or discussed publicly by Mr Rutte.

The shape of the arrangement was “a little bit complex”, Mr Trump said, and would have to be explained “down the line”. However, he waived his previous threat of tariffs against European allies in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions.

Mr Rutte said that Denmark would retain its sovereignty and stressed that Nato allies would have to step up on Arctic security “within months” under the framework deal currently being discussed.

Officials close to the negotiations briefed media outlets that a deal could see greater US freedom to build on the island, modelled on Britain’s overseas arrangements. But concrete details of what could form part of the deal remain scarce and there is no guarantee that Mr Trump’s demands will be accepted by Europe.

What is the deal missing?

The framework remains informal and lacks specifics. If the main challenges are, as Nato says, combatting Russian and Chinese investment and interference, the US already has the right to build bases and Denmark has countered Chinese investment in the past.

The development of the island’s mining sector is also wrapped up in red tape and opposition from indigenous people, and it is unclear how Greenland would be compensated if the US tries to extract rare minerals. The extraction of oil and gas is banned for environmental reasons

Sky News

Donald Trump’s team will act like he has achieved something with an apparent “framework of a deal” on Greenland. But be in no doubt, that’s nonsense – and the US president has inflicted serious damage to the trans-Atlantic alliance.

Donald Trump may claim there is, but that’s only because he needed a way to back down from his threats when he realised that he wasn’t going to be able to own Greenland.

“Is this just Trump’s off-ramp? No actual framework of a deal yet?” I asked one diplomat at the heart of it all.

The response: “Exactly.”

Through the “Trump whisperer”, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, the Danish and Greenlander positions have essentially been reiterated to the American president.

During a face-to-face meeting in Davos, pre-existing commitments in the 1951 US-Denmark treaty were reemphasised and European nations re-committed to increase their own defence of Greenland.

When they did precisely this last week, by literally sending senior military officials to Greenland, Trump interpreted it as a provocation against him and issued the tariff threat.

“I’m so bored of this now…” one European ambassador told me over the weekend, such is the level of weariness over the American president’s antics.

A trio of U-turns

The day in Davos was dizzying even by Trump’s standards.

He first U-turned on the implicit threat of military action, then he U-turned on the tariff threat, and then he U-turned on the insistence that he take sovereignty of Greenland. All in the space of a day.

The penny had dropped in his head, it seems. He realised his Greenland ownership plans were more than just unpopular at home (among his own side too). They were seen as self-defeating, undeliverable and frankly mad.

U-turns and TACO’s

Importantly, though, Trump has pulled back on his proposed European 10% levies set to come into effect on 1 February and noted that the US will not take Greenland by force; both clarifications were meaningful and helped calm markets

After finding the above information- a Glenn Diesen interview came my way

From the big tech censored site- original url below

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2014/12/cia-torture-report-why-not-mention-cia.html

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

CIA Torture Report- Why not mention CIA doctors & Human Experimentation?

Not one mainstream media outlet is mentioning this important fact. Skirting the issue. Talking around it. But, let’s be honest here. The ‘torture’ gave the medical establishment a perfect opportunity to experiment on human beings- It’s heinous to think about. But let’s not kid ourselves. It happened! And if you foolishly think it didn’t…. because you are that naive?

I am going to relink a post from 2009 just for you!  The news contained in this post from 09 made clear that  medical professionals monitored these persons, while they were being tortured, for the purpose of determining effectiveness and outcome. In order to gain information for future, no doubt, ever more nefarious human experimentation. And those facts are not being mentioned. I am quite certain the usual PR firms gave the Obama administration pointers on how to spin this disgusting report.

CIA doctors face human experimentation claims (not accessible due to censorship)

The more things change the more they stay the same……………..

Medical ethics group says physicians monitored ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ and studied their effectiveness (link still viable)

Doctors and psychologists the CIA employed to monitor its “enhanced interrogation” of terror suspects came close to, and may even have committed, unlawful human experimentation, a medical ethics watchdog has alleged.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a not-for-profit group that has investigated the role of medical personnel in alleged (demonstrated, proven) incidents of torture at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and other US detention sites, accuses doctors of being far more involved than hitherto understood.

PHR says health professionals participated at every stage in the development, implementation and legal justification of what it calls the CIA’s secret “torture programme”.

The American Medical Association, the largest body of physicians in the US, said it was in open dialogue with the Obama administration and other government agencies over the role of doctors. “The participation of physicians in torture and interrogation is a violation of core ethical values,” it said.

The most incendiary accusation of PHR’s latest report, Aiding Torture, is that doctors actively monitored the CIA’s interrogation techniques with a view to determining their effectiveness, using detainees as human subjects without their consent. The report concludes that such data gathering was “a practice that approaches unlawful experimentation”.

Human experimentation without consent has been prohibited in any setting since 1947, when the Nuremberg Code, which resulted from the prosecution of Nazi doctors, set down 10 sacrosanct principles. The code states that voluntary consent of subjects is essential and that all unnecessary physical and mental suffering should be avoided.

The West claims Muslims are barbarous????
Listen to Democracy Now here for more info.

Flashback: It was these same kind of inhumane perverted “doctors” that conducted all the MKUltra experiments, without the consent of the humans they were abusing.
From LSD to radiation and more, the MKUltra docs did it all. Just like these doctors.  Oh yeah both times in the employ of the CIA

“And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years.”

Trump and his followers played the Epstein files for all they were worth.

Vance’s comments only succeeded in reviving calls for full disclosure on Epstein after a clip of the interview was circulated on social media.

“Fine. Release all the files,” wrote Defending Democracy’s director Bill Kristol. “With victims and survivors’ names and PII redacted. But no redactions of clients, enablers, and see-no-evil associates.”

“The thing about people on that list that bothers me is not their political leanings or their bank account,” said newspaper columnist Brigitte Pellerin.

“Donald Trump’s name is in the Epstein files and JD Vance has been plotting with the AG and FBI Director to cover it up,” alleged Pod Save America host Jon Favreau. “Release the names! Democrats, Republicans, billionaires, or not. What are you afraid of, JD Vance?”

Trump is known to have become increasingly frustrated at the story’s continued dominance of the news agenda over the past five weeks and has even lashed out at members of his conservative coalition for obsessing over Epstein.

“Look, the whole thing is a hoax,” he declared impatiently in the Oval Office last week.

Easiest way to put this sordid affair to rest is to release the info, with victims names redacted and let the internet sleuths pore over them. And they will, oh yes, they will

Undoubtedly this is a problem for both parties. The Trump administration opened the Pandora’s Box on this one-

DOJ report Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

Suddenly were supposed to believe that Ms Maxwell is just now being able to tell her side regarding this sordid activity ? And talking with her is the “key” to the Trump/Epstein dilemma?

Right-Wing Influencers Say Ghislaine Maxwell Is Key to Unlocking Epstein Case

Some conservative influencers have celebrated the move to approach the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, but it comes with risks.

After previously criticizing Mr. Trump for refusing to release the Epstein files, some conservative influencers have celebrated the move by the Trump administration to approach Ms. Maxwell as an effort to appear more transparent. It does not come without risk, however. While the administration tries to tamp down the backlash and send the message that it is continuing to dig, it is still unclear whether the focus on Ms. Maxwell will ultimately satisfy those who see a cover-up.

One of Mr. Epstein’s former lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, called her the “Rosetta Stone” on Fox News last Sunday, saying he believed she would testify as long as she was given immunity.

And we should take Mr Dershowitz- “I had a massage with my underwear on”, at face value??

“She just might be a victim,” he (Deshowitz) said on Wednesday.

Oh, really?

Frankly, Ms Maxwell’s testimony is unnecessary given the massive amount of documentation available to the Trump DoJ. They have everything that need to clear the air? Answer the questions? But neither Trump’s DoJ nor the FBI are interested in the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The Lever via https://archive.ph/elWEF

In 2017, (Biden administration) two media outlets filed Freedom of Information Act record requests seeking documents related to the FBI’s 2006 investigation into Epstein’s activities. The Bureau declined to release the files, claiming that Epstein’s right to privacy outweighed the public interest of seeing the documents, despite the fact that he had already pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor, and a defendant’s right to privacy is usually reserved for individuals who were only charged with but never convicted of a crime.
Then, after Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse death, federal officials retroactively changed their argument, a dubious legal precedent, according to legal experts. In 2020, ( Trump Administration) the Justice Department, the FBI’s parent agency that is defending the case, fell back on a new legal defense, claiming that the documents would interfere with law enforcement’s ensuing prosecution of Maxwell.

A Veil Of Secrecy

The alleged Epstein cover-up is a wide-ranging political scandal that’s embroiled some of the world’s most famous and well-connected people, including former President Bill Clinton and even Trump himself. The files have been a rallying cry for Trump’s political base, and numerous Trump allies called for the public release of the Epstein files on the campaign trail this past election. Trump himself indicated in interviews that he would consider it and appointed officials who built their media brands in large part on the Epstein story, such as FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. 

As mentioned previously- the Trump administration and it’s influence peddlers built their brand on the Epsteing case. They built their MAGA base on coming clean- This has not happened.

The court filings that Novack shared with The Lever come as Trump himself faces widespread backlash over his longtimerelationship with Epstein and as new reporting highlights Trump’s connections to other powerful men accused of having inappropriate sexual relationships with young women and girls. 

The 2006 FBI investigation is a critical event in the ongoing Epstein saga. Victims of sexual abuse and child trafficking had come to the FBI with testimony about Epstein, but the probe was shuttered two years later in 2008, and federal charges were never brought. 

“Victims were not informed of, or consulted about, a potential state resolution or the [nonprosecution agreement]” Epstein signed to avoid federal charges, a 2020 Justice Department document states.

Just how much information is accessible to FBI and DoJ without having to present this sideshow with Ms Maxwell?

The FBI has released 1,051 partially redacted documents and cited FOIA exemptions more than 10,000 times in denying the full release of documents that federal law enforcement officials possess about Epstein.

Available court documents show that the FBI is in possession of phone, travel, shipping, and financial records involving Epstein’s illicit activities. These records include “the names, addresses, phone numbers, and other identifying information of numerous witnesses,” federal prosecutors wrote in a 2024 court filing. These records and others have been called the “Epstein client list” by online commentators and other media figures.

Bondi’s department may even have inadvertently disclosed for the first time that never-before-seen records were denied to Novack eight years ago without explanation. In February, Bondi “declassified” a limited slice of 3 million documents in the government’s possession related to Epstein, which included evidence from government investigations into Epstein, as part of a “first phase” of declassification, which has not been followed by further document releases.

Avail yourself of all the information linked including documents that were given to The Lever- And read that article entirely. I’ve only included a small part of it. The Maxwell sideshow is being used to distract.

Multiple times as a matter of fact

WSJ

The meeting took place in May of this year.

Justice department told Trump in May that his name is in the Epstein files – WSJ

“When justice department officials reviewed what attorney general Pam Bondi called a ‘truckload’ of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing senior administration officials.

Reuters

The disclosure about Trump’s appearance in the Justice Department’s records on the case threatened to deepen a political crisis that has engulfed his administration for weeks. Some Trump supporters for years have fanned conspiracy theories about Epstein’s clients and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison

Trump’s name appearing in the files should not come as a surprise. Friends for years. Both running “modelling” agencies. It’s been reported Melania knew Epstein prior to meeting Trump. So his name being in the files should have been expected.

What happens now?

As I’d stated in the flashback reposted here earlier today::

There is talk that Pam Bondi is going to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell. We’ll she spill the beans, entirely? Or will Ghislaine give the Trump administration the out they need? In exchange for her “get out of jail” free card?

We’ll start with the lobbying aka threats:

Trump spent several days lobbying to block the publishing the story

Trump spent several days lobbying Murdoch, Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker and News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson to stop the paper from publishing the story.

After the Journal published its story on Thursday evening, Trump claimed it was “false, malicious, and defamatory”.

He lashed out at Murdoch in a series of social media posts, threatening to “sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper”.

Spokespeople for Murdoch, News Corp and Dow Jones did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment.

The legal action comes as the Trump administration has sought to contain fallout from a memo by the Department of Justice and FBI that earlier this month said there was no Epstein “client list” and no “credible evidence” that he had “blackmailed prominent individuals”.

This marked a reversal from Trump’s campaign pledge to release files on Epstein’s death by suicide in 2019. US attorney-general Pam Bondi said in February that a “client list” was “sitting” on her desk for review.

It’s being reported that Trump has filed a lawsuit, though a copy of the complaint was not immediately available

Donald Trump sues Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, WSJ reporters for libel, court records show

July 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday against Dow Jones, News Corp (NWSA.O)
July 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday against Dow Jones, News Corp (NWSA.O) Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters, raising claims under federal libel law, court records show.

A copy of the complaint was not immediately available. The case was filed in Miami federal court.

And now to the WSJ article via archive.ph

It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.

Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review.

The president’s past relationship with Epstein is at a sensitive moment. The Justice Department documents, the so-called Epstein files, and who or what is in them are at the center of a storm consuming the Trump administration. On Wednesday, after angry comments about how the files are a hoax created by Democrats, President Trump lashed out at his own supporters for refusing to let the matter go.

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 and he was arrested that year. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy. 

Justice Department officials didn’t respond to requests for comment or address questions about whether the Trump page and other pages of the birthday album were part of the agency’s recent documents review. The FBI declined to comment.

The existence of the album and the contents of the birthday letters haven’t previously been reported. 

The album had poems, photos and greetings from businesspeople, academics, Epstein’s former girlfriends and childhood pals, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with them. 

Among those who submitted letters were billionaire Leslie Wexner and attorney Alan Dershowitz. The album also contained a letter from a now-deceased Harvard economist, one of Epstein’s report cards from Mark Twain junior high school in Brooklyn and a note from a former assistant that included an acrostic with Epstein’s name: “Jeffrey, oh Jeffrey!/ Everyone loves you!/ Fun in the sun!/ Fun just for fun!/ Remember…don’t forget me soon!/ Epstein…you rock!/ You are the best!”

You can read the rest at the archive.ph link

Before signing off I’d like to add. Epstein was a mover and a shaker. He was, in my opinion, a money launderer of some significance. He was tied to Iran/Contra and other arms deals. Don’t know who among you caught the Daryl Cooper/Tucker Carlson interview? If you haven’t, it’s worth the time to listen. The Trump association is there. As much as Trump makes claims to the otherwise, it’s there.

In my opinion, this is whyTrump could never drain the swamp because he is part of that foul swamp.

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2017/01/trumps-presidency-dangerous-deception.html

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Trump’s Presidency: A Dangerous Deception

This had to be up before Trump’s inauguration. So, finally here it is!

Personally speaking here. I’ve never been a believer in “the Donald” as the leader of any sort of grassroots/populist movement. Nor do I buy the common presentation of the media being opposed to him. I’m also not a fan of the whole ‘deep state’ is against Mr Trump. I see the psychology of influence at play. Link

The response to scarcity is, like the other weapons of influence, often a shortcut which usually pays dividends. And we are prompted to react because a missed opportunity is a loss of freedom.

Donald Trumps Slogan”Make American Great, Again”

American’s would loathe the missed opportunity of making America great, again 

The theory of psychological reactance developed by Jack Brehm states that “whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them (as well as the goods and services associated with them) significantly more than previously” (245). We react against anything that threatens to limit our freedoms. A plexiglas barrier placed between 2-year old boys and a toy prompted them to make special efforts to obtain that toy rather than another one without a barrier.

The media created the plexiglass barrier and the masses reacted

The “Romeo and Juliet effect” predicts that teenagers in love will be much more likely to pursue this romantic attachment when they encounter parental interference. The stronger the influence, the greater the desire to continue the romance (249). For teenagers, being told not to smoke may have the effect of initiating a reactance response. Similarly, banning a product such as phosphate cleaners or marijuana may initiate a greater desire for that product, and because of the ban, consumers will rate the benefits of the banned product more highly than if it had not been banned. Similarly with information: “Almost invariably, our response to the banning of information is a greater desire to receive that information and a more favorable attitude to it than before the ban” (251). If a political speech or message is banned, we are more likely to agree with the argument; thus, some people gain sympathy to their arguments when their announced speeches are censored. Studies show that when a judge instructs the jury to disregard evidence, the jury will actually value that information more than if they had not been instructed to disregard it.

Pursue that which is desired due to the perception of parental aka STATE interference.

 Above is a nutshell synopsis- perhaps too shallow, but, that’s how I see the whole Trump situation- one big manipulation of another sort.

That brief description out of the way let’s listen (the interview isn’t viable) to & read a very interesting interview/article from William Engdahl- Published November 2016– I missed it until last week

The project called the Trump Presidency has just two months before its formal beginning. Yet already the hopes and fantasies of much of the world are making him into something and someone Donald Trump most definitely is not. Donald Trump is yet another project of the same boring old patriarchs who try again and again to create a one world order that they control absolutely, a New World Order that one close Trump backer once referred to as universal fascism. Ignore the sometimes fine rhetoric in some of his speeches. Talk is cheap. If we consider rather the agenda that’s taking form even in these very early days of cabinet naming, we can see that Donald Trump is the same agenda of war and global empire as Obama, as Bush before him, as Bill Clinton and Clinton’s “tutor”, George H.W. Bush before him. There is no good side to what the world is about to experience with President Trump

‘Ladies and gentlemen, It’s Showtime!’ Today we give you Donald Trump. He will tell you just what many of you want to hear. Trump the showman will tell you he will make America great again; Trump will say he will ship at least 3 million illegals back across the Rio Grande; Trump will introduce a bill to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization; Trump will bring jobs back to America from China and other low wage countries; Trump will sit down with Putin and work out some kind of a deal to calm things down; Trump will scrap the Iran nuclear deal of Obama…
Often during this election campaign, which was more a Hollywood “D” grade movie than any honest debate of policies and ideas candidate Trump made statements that resonated with the “silent majority” of not only so-called blue collar workers, but also the disenfranchised middle class whose earnings have been declining in real terms since the 1970’s. Trump, like an earlier actor-President named Ronald Reagan, has a talent to make himself sound sincere.

Is Trump a Grassroots Revolution?

We should not imagine for one second that the Patriarchy– those loveless old men like David Rockefeller or George Herbert Walker Bush or unnamed others– were so overwhelmed by the political genius of candidate Trump emerging from every scandal more powerful than before, that they were surprised, out-foxed, and just groaned and let it happen.

The Trump Presidency has been planned in minute detail by them and their think tanks. Quite simply, had they continued the policies that Hillary Clinton represented–war and confrontation against Russia, against China, with Color Revolution destabilizations of any and all political leaders who opposed them whether Ghaddafi or Mubarak or even Putin–they saw they were losing power over huge parts of the world, essential geopolitical power.

When a President of the relatively tiny American former colony fears not to openly attack by name an American President as “son of a whore,” and declare in China his Philippines’ “separation” from the United States, when one country after the other comes closer in economic and political cooperation to Russia, to China and to their growing Eurasian economic cohesion around the One Bridge One Road Eurasian infrastructure great project, it was clearly time to install a Plan B President.
That Plan B is casino mogul Donald Trump, a political tabula rasa, a power-possessed person with a blackmail potential that will keep him on program for them, an alpha male who is quite gifted at being able to make people fear.

If we were to use conventional psychological definitions I would say the word sociopath fits: “Antisocial personality disorder characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the culture.” Narcissism would be another apt term: “Extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own talents and a craving for admiration…” Read his own autobiography and his descriptions of his earlier antics with mob lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn, at the cocaine-snorting Studio 54 and look more closely at his actual life history, not only what he dismisses as “locker room talk” eleven years ago with Billy Bush. He is definitely no JFK or Charles de Gaulle, not even close.

I state clearly my conviction, and please recall this as Trump Presidency policies unfold after January 20, 2017 to see if I am correct or not: Donald Trump was put into office to prepare America for war, a war the banks of Wall Street and the US military industrial complex are not presently in a position economically or industrially or otherwise, geopolitically, to win. His job will be to reposition the United States for them to reverse the trend to disintegration of American global hegemony, to, as the Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz Project for the New American Century put it in their September, 2000 report, “rebuild America’s defenses.”

To do that preparation, a deception strategy that will fatally weaken the developing deep bonds between Russia and China will be priority. It’s already begun. We have a friendly phone call from The Donald to Vladimir the Fearsome in Moscow. Russian media is euphoric about a new era in US-Russia relations after Obama. Then suddenly we hear the war-mongering NATO head, Stoltenberg, suddenly purr soothing words to Russia. Float the idea that California Congressman and Putin acquaintance, Dana Rohrabacher, is leaked as a possible Secretary of State. It’s classic Kissinger Balance of Power geopolitics–seem to ally with the weaker of two mortal enemies, Russia, to isolate the stronger, China. Presumably Vladimir Putin is not so naïve or stupid as to fall for it, but that is the plot of Trump’s handlers. Such a strategy of preventing the growing Russia-China cooperation was urged by Zbigniew Brzezinski in a statement this past summer.

Because he’s been selected (and not by us dear voters) to play a definite role–to shift tactics of global domination according to the basics of the 1992 Bush-Wolfowitz Doctrine–preempting any nation or group of nations in Eurasia from challenging American Sole Superpower hegemony–the selection of his Cabinet and key policy advisers, is vital. Here we can already see the outlines of the cast of characters who have been chosen to fill out the theater play called Trump Presidency, and the emerging new plot for reconfiguring the Sole Superpower strategy.

The dramatis personae

As of this writing, several key positions have been named. It includes three-star General Mike Flynn to be the President’s National Security Advisor; it includes Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas to be Director of Central Intelligence; it includes Jeff Sessions to be US Attorney General and it includes Stephen K. Bannon in a newly-created post as White House “Chief Strategist” and Senior Counsellor to the President.

2025- Mike Pompeo (former head of the CIA) was in Ukraine this past week end- (Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Odesa, 30 April 2025. Black Sea Security Forum) he’s still very active concerning Ukraine and Israel. – Pompeo urges Trump not to legitimize Russia’s land grabs in Ukraine

Mike Pompeo:

Pompeo on Guantanamo Bay:

“GTMO has been a goldmine of intelligence about radical Islamic terrorism. I have traveled to GTMO and have seen the honorable and professional behavior of the American men and women in uniform, who serve at the detention facility,”

Pompeo on the Iran deal (and Russia):

“Each of these nations poses real threats to America and the West – what is needed is not ambiguity, but clarity, forcefulness and commitments that do not exceed America’s willingness to fulfill them.

Pompeo on NSA spying:

“I believe that program has proven to be a very valuable asset for the intelligence community and for law enforcement,”

On whether Americans are in more danger now:

“It’s a quite accurate perception. It’s different today than it was”

In this article I’ll look closely at Mike Flynn, the former 3-star general who will be the all-important Trump National Security Advisor, sitting in the White House. Link & Link Normally perceptive bloggers and analysts have greeted the Flynn appointment with cheers of joy. They cite his opposition to US covert support for ISIS and Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra; he is on record that the 2003 Iraq invasion was a “strategic mistake.” Moreover, Flynn is opposed to stirring up war with Russia and instead calls for waging war against ISIS and other radical terrorist organizations. In fact Obama fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency when Flynn opposed the Obama decision to prioritize the anti-Russia war over the anti-Jihad war, and called for cooperation with Syrian President Assad to that end.

Flynn’s position on war against ISIS and presumably also against the Muslim Brotherhood so beloved by Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, is not one of a man of peace. Rather it is one of a cold, calculating military professional, a military professional who favors working with the Likud of Netanyahu to advance the global agenda of war.

Flynn’s statements on Assad and ISIS and Iraq must be interpreted not in a vacuum but in light of a military intelligence specialist who sees that the decades-long CIA and Pentagon policy of training Muslim Brotherhood and other fanatic Muslim-origin terrorists to wage surrogate wars of empire have backfired badly. Not only the CIA’s July 15 failed coup using networks of Turkey’s Fethullah Gülen, but rather every CIA-backed Jihad war from Secretary of State Clinton’s war against Mubarak, against Gaddafi, against most of the Islamic world to try to impose US-backed Muslim Brotherhood terror regimes loyal to Washington, has failed. The gross effect has been to drive much of the world away from Washington and their constant proxy wars.

An intelligent military strategist would say it’s time for another plan. This is what Flynn is about. He will advance a shift in Washington policy away from using Muslim Brotherhood and allied terror organizations towards more intimate restoration of full cooperation with Israel’s right-wing Netanyahu Likud government.

Walid Phares, Donald Trump’s adviser on terrorism, and Middle Eastern Affairs, told Egyptian media in comments reported by Ben Shapiro’s conservative US blog, The Daily Wire, that Donald Trump will back efforts to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, something the Obama Administration vehemently refused and prevented Congress from doing.

The move away from Muslim Brotherhood was made clear when the US backed the Egyptian coup against Morsi – Recall that? Two posts to refresh your memory Link & Link
Also connected to the push against Turkey and Erdogan

Anyone familiar with my latest book, The Lost Hegemon: Whom the gods would destroy, will know I am in no way a friend of the Muslim Brotherhood who have been in a dark alliance with the CIA since the 1950s. Yet reality is not simplistic as in, “my enemy’s enemy is my friend…” Walid Phares, Donald Trump’s key adviser on terrorism and the Middle East, is also a Senior Fellow of a small very pro-Netanyahu think tank called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies?

The Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was created in the wake of September 11, 2001 by a former Republican National Committee communications director, Clifford May, in order to, as it declares on its website, “promote pluralism, defend democratic values, and fight the ideologies that drive terrorism.”

The notable point about the FDD, whose Senior Fellow, Walid Phares is guiding President-elect Trump on the Middle East and terrorism, is the money trail behind it. It was founded and financed by a group of US billionaires closely tied to Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli geopolitical agenda. The donors include the notorious Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas and Macau gambling casino mogul who according to the Israeli press gave the Trump campaign $25 million in the closing critical days. Other FDD financial backers include Jewish American with a long history of funding pro-Israel organizations: Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot; whiskey heirs Samuel and Edgar Bronfman; Wall Street billionaire speculators Michael Steinhardt and Paul Singer, and Leonard Abramson, founder of US Healthcare.

No surprise then that the main Washington think tank called on to testify against the Obama agenda of coming to a nuclear deal with Iran and lifting sanctions was the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who testified 17 times against the Iran plan. FDD’s executive director, Mark Dubowitz, even helped design the sanctions regime on Iran and its oil sales that was put in place in 2010.

In addition, most other positions of the FDD echo those of the Netanyahu regime in Tel Aviv. Toby Dershowitz, who spent 14 years as AIPAC’s communications head, is the FDD vice president for government relations and strategy. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was described by John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago professor, as “an agent of the Israeli government with a stranglehold on the United States Congress with its power and influence.” Trump was a featured speaker at the March 2016 AIPAC annual meeting.

Mike Flynn and Mike Ledeen

“Now we return to the anti-Muslim Brotherhood National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn”

 -Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn is a controversial right-wing pundit who was selected to be National Security Adviser in the Donald Trump administration shortly after the property mogul’s presidential election victory in November 2016

 -During his time at the DIA, Flynn reportedly “ruffled feathers in the organization by trying to reshape it for the wars of the 21st century.

– After leaving the DIA in August 2014, Flynn became involved in various business enterprises–including a drone business that could benefit from Trump border security plans–

– Flynn sought to use the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi as a ploy against Iran. Soon after the Benghazi incident, he “took to pushing analysts to find Iran’s hidden hand in the disaster, according to current and former officials familiar with the episode

“Flynn, along with CIA director-designate Mike Pompeo, agrees that the Obama Iran nuclear deal should be scrapped and calls Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, a position dear to Netanyahu’s heart.

Flynn also wrote a book together with Michael Ledeen. One doesn’t co-author a book with just anyone. I know. It has to be one whose thoughts are in full harmony with yours. Michael Ledeen is today a Freedom Scholar at, now isn’t this interesting: the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Worth noting, financial investor, Jim Rickards, also is on the Board of Advisors of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and former CIA Director James Woolsey, rumored being considered for a top post with the Trump project, is one of four members of the FDD Leadership Council.

This year, 2016, Ledeen co-authored a book with NSC Director-designate Mike Flynn titled, Field of Fight: How to Win the War Against Radical Islam and its Allies. The ties between Ledeen and Trump NSC director are clearly not casual.

Years ago Ledeen–who was implicated in the illegal Iran-Contra arm for cocaine dealings of G.H.W. Bush and his CIA Old Boys network during the Reagan years — wrote a doctoral dissertation which I once saw, today almost impossible to find. It was titled “Universal Fascism,” and dealt with the applicability of Italian fascism of Mussolini to a global model, a fascist one world order if you will.
Michael Ledeen, who prefers to be in the background, is perhaps best characterized as a Godfather of the neoconservatives. He has shaped the policies of the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and others of the US war faction.

In 2003 just as the Bush-Cheney-Wolfowitz war on Iraq was underway, Ledeen gave a speech titled, “Time to Focus on Iran — The Mother of Modern Terrorism,” for the pro-Netanyahu Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) in which he declared, “the time for diplomacy is at an end; it is time for a free Iran, free Syria and free Lebanon.” To “free” Iran, Syria and Lebanon back in 2003, almost a decade before the US war against Assad, Ledeen declared that Iraq, Iran and Syria should get their “freedom” through a US-led “total War.”

According to reports of those near the cabinet selection process of president-elect Donald Trump, two people have decisive influence on who is being selected—Trump’s 35-year-old politically inexperienced son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Mike Flynn. Trump has even asked those two to sit in with him on those highly classified Presidential briefings.

Winston Churchill once said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” It is already clear that the project of the Trump Presidency, to prepare America for a new war, is already being well attended by a bodyguard of lies”

 A historical peek at Trumps’ pal: Roy Cohn- Don’t Mess With Him!
 December 1978- And Roy Cohn was one ‘piece of work’!

  “The mere sending of a letter from Roy Cohn has saved us a lot of money,” says builder Donald Trump. “When people know that Roy is involved, they’d rather not get involved in the lawsuits and everything else that’s involved.”

Betsy DeVos, (Amway) is Trump’s nominee for education secretary: Her brother is Eric Prince/Blackwater/XE

Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and she has all but vowed to embark on a crusade to push a privatization and religious agenda in education that mirrors her brother’s in military and CIA affairs. Prince has long been a contributor to the campaign of fellow Christian warrior Mike Pence, and he contributed $100,000 to the pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Number 1. Prince’s mother, Elsa, pitched in another $50,000. That organization, run by Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire hedge funder Robert Mercer, was one of the strongest bankrollers of Trump’s campaign.

Blackwater has longstanding ties to CIA

 The private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater has held classified contracts with the Central Intelligence Agency for nearly a decade…..

Trump is no outsider. The ‘deep state’ is not opposed to him. 
Eric Prince has had a long relationship with the CIA and he is involved with the Trump camp

2025- Eric Prince/ Blackwater Xi are presently in Haiti- allegedly re establishing security after the most recent US destabilization- Canada helped in that one

In 2010 I was introduced to the Epstein case via another blogger.

original url from my censored site

https://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2010/07/billionaire-hedge-fund-pedophile-mogul.html?zx=b1fa9e19245b207d

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The billionaire hedge fund pedophile mogul got away with a slap on the wrist

Thanks to aferrismoon for catching this one! And this scum bag has all the “right” connections!
Remember this name Jeffrey Epstein. It is the name of a man, that will go down in infamy as pedophile scum bag, who gets away with it because he has money and all the right political friends.

I’ll excerpt and encourage you to read the entire report. (no longer accessible)

Slap on the wrist!-

On Wednesday, hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein completes his one-year house arrest in Palm Beach.
During Epstein’s term of “house arrest,” he made several trips each month to his New York home and his private Caribbean island. In the earlier stage of his sentence for soliciting prostitution with a minor—13 months in the Palm Beach Stockade—he was allowed out to his office each day

Doesn’t that all sound like some hard time, for a disgusting crime?

Meanwhile, Epstein has settled more than a dozen lawsuits brought by the underage girls who were recruited to perform “massages” at his Palm Beach mansion. Seven victims reached (not available any longer) a last-minute deal last week, days before a scheduled trial; each received well over $1 million—an amount that will hardly dent Epstein’s $2 billion net worth.
With that, the known victims of Epstein’s sexual compulsion have been officially silenced, and the case against him is closed.

I may have these original reports saved in my oversized blog file, but, I think you'll get the gist 15 years later.

The case may be officially closed and this bunch of victims may have been silenced, but….
But, this pedophile is not going to stop. Why would he? Look what he has gotten away with?
Look at what money and influence gets you...
Let's take a look at the influential persons that Mr. Epstein surrounds himself with.

“Former President Bill Clinton; Prince Andrew; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were just a few of the prominent passengers on his private jets—allow him to receive only a slap on the wrist for crimes that carry a mandatory 20-year sentence?

The scum all stick together

Was he able, with his limitless assets and heavy-hitting lawyers—Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Roy Black, Kenneth Starr, Guy Lewis, and Martin Weinberger among them—to escape equal justice?

Repeat, the scum all stick together

Michael Reiter, the former Palm Beach police chief, certainly thinks so. He gave The Daily Beast exclusive access to the transcript of his nine-hour deposition for the victims’ civil suits, in which he explained how the case against Epstein was minimized by the State Attorney’s Office, then bargained down by the U.S. Department of Justice, all in an atmosphere of hardball legal tactics and social pressures so intense that Reiter became estranged from several colleagues. At the time, Reiter, who retired in 2009 and now runs his own security firm, objected both to Epstein’s plea agreement and to the flexible terms of his incarceration in the county jail rather than state prison. Asked during the deposition whether he thought Epstein received special treatment, he answered “yes.”

Epstein quickly got wind of the investigation, and progress on the case got messy very quickly. He hired a squad of lawyers and private investigators and dispatched influential friends to pressure the police into backing off.
The detectives asked their federal colleagues whether the fact that some victims appeared to have traveled out of state on Epstein’s planes—plus the use of interstate phone service to arrange assignations—might be violations of the federal 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years.

I am wondering, did he have some information on his influential friends that would get them onside? Since he was trafficking the children, moving then around on his private planes, would his friends have been his clientele? Quite possible, read on intrepid reader, read on.

Many of his high-powered acquaintances availed themselves of Epstein’s private jets, for which the pilot logs, obtained by discovery in the civil suits, sometimes showed that bold-face names were on the same flights as underage girls. A high-profile trial threatened to splash mud over all sorts of big players, just as both Gov. Richardson and Bill Clinton’s wife were running for president.

Guilt by association?

Let’s read just one lurid tale that emerged of this scum hedge fund billionaire crimes

The details that eventually emerged were often shocking and occasionally bizarre. For Epstein’s birthday one year, according to allegations in a civil suit, he was presented with three 12-year-old girls from France, who were molested then flown back to Europe the next day. These same civil complaints allege that young girls from South America, Europe, and the former Soviet republics, few of whom spoke English, were recruited for Esptein’s sexual pleasure.

Alan Dershowitz demonstrates his natural proclivity to scum defence?

Attorney Dershowitz says Epstein’s agreement to pay attorney fees for the victims and agree to civil damage claims—without admitting guilt—amounted to “extortion under threat of criminal prosecution.”

Dershowitz began sending the detective Facebook and MySpace posts to demonstrate that some of these girls were no angels. Reiter’s deposition also states that he heard from local private investigators that Dershowitz had launched background checks on both the police chief and Det. Recarey. Dershowitz denies all of that. According to Reiter, both he and Recarey also became aware that they were under surveillance for several months, without knowing who ordered it. And the Florida victims began to complain that they and family members were being followed and intimidated by private investigators who were then linked to local attorneys in Epstein’s employ.

Keep in mind this Jeffrey Epstein is a well known “philanthropist”

Epstein has been a serious and respected player in the highest reaches of politics and philanthropy. He has made substantial contributions to political candidates, served on the Council on Foreign Relations, and donated $30 million to Harvard University.

Thinking of yesterday’s post….and this shocker from today-
I am left wondering why, how these people are respected by anyone? How is it that other people’s children are used and abused as their play things.
And, the masses are supposed to respect these people?
I scratch my head every single day at how out of whack the world is, and why the people let this continue? One more question? Where was the main stream media on this story?
They sure as hell didn’t shout this one from the roof tops!

I am adding some additional links-
Another well-connected ‘paedophile’ walks free
related: Maxwell’s daughter Ghislaine gets subpoena

From the Business Insider:
New Details On Billionaire Hedge Funder Jeffrey Epstein’s Child Sex Habits As He Is Freed From House Arrest

The above link is still viable, so, I”m going to include the information within now before it goes away

Hedge fund mogul, former Bear Stearns trader, and most recently, convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein goes free today after serving just 5 years under house arrest for sexually abusing underage girls.

The new details that emerged in the Daily Beast‘s story about the billionaire’s victims (there are roughly 40, but detectives think there could be more) are shocking.

It’s been a mystery how Jeff Epstein managed to get just 18 months in jail and 12 months of house arrest for what could have been 33 counts of statutory rape.

CBS12 teases us with this morsel, after having received a copy of the til-now secret plea deal

An attorney for some of the teenage girls who were Epstein’s victims calls this plea deal “atrocious” and he says “It’s an embarrassment to the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

He says they had evidence that could have put him away for 33 life sentences and he got a sweetheart deal.
This has been sealed for months– and Epstein’s lawyers fought to keep it from being made public.

WPEC Palm Beach- Jeffrey Epstein, a free man

I’ve got multiple additional reports at my old site on this very well connected degenerate. Jeffrey Epstein’s philanthropy was very interesting too. Weird and transhumanistic. He was a known associate of Bill Gates. Then there are the Les Wexner connection. Ties to Bear Sterns. Which is interesting in and of itself. Bill Barr and Donald Trump.

Here we are 15 years later, witnessing the cover up continuing on.

So, David McGowan? Not sure who here at this time remembers Mr McGowan? Or read any of his books? I’ve read them all. Own them all. Have two copies of the Weird Scenes book. One autographed by Dave. The other is the one I lend out. When Dave was writing the LC series, many in my blogging circle were eagerly awaiting each & every chapters release. The numerous anomalous/cleansing fires in Laurel Canyon were definitely a strange main feature of this saga.

Here’s a recent one from LATimes

• Neighbors said a man found dead in a Laurel Canyon home that burned on Wednesday was William Rothschild, a member of the prominent banking family.
• The fire was put out by 45 firefighters in a little more than 30 minutes, with some returning a day later to extinguish a small section of the home that was still smoldering.

A man found dead after his Laurel Canyon house was badly damaged in a fire Wednesday afternoon was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family, neighbors said.

The body discovered at the Lookout Mountain Avenue property was that of William Rothschild, three people told The Times on Thursday. A magazine seen at the property was addressed to “WM DE ROTHSCHILD.”

Lookout Mountain? Where the CIA had a highly secretive, little known, movie studio

The studio’s story had not been fully told because it was run largely in secret, as a unit of the U.S. Air Force. Its films and photos were rarely credited and many are lost or were destroyed. No systematic effort was made to preserve its 22-year history, from 1947-69.

Lookout Mountain, however, played a central role in the U.S. government’s efforts to control – often unsuccessfully – the science and story around nuclear weapons in their early years, say co-authors Kevin Hamilton and Ned O’Gorman.

The Rothschilds, a sprawling Jewish family originally from Frankfurt, Germany, long dominated European banking, with its English and French branches playing major roles in finance and politics, most notably during the 18th and 19th centuries. At one point, the Rothschilds were widely considered to have amassed the largest private fortune on Earth.

Voter registration records show that William A. De Rothschild, listed as 87, has resided at the burned house. Another database shows a 77-year-old man with a similar name owning the property. The deceased man will be formally identified and his cause of death determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

A portion of the home, located near Wonderland Avenue (Bringing to memory the Wonderland murders that David McGowan wrote about) Elementary School and built in 1937, was smoldering Thursday morning, prompting a neighbor to call the authorities. Within minutes, firefighters arrived on the scene and extinguished what one of them said was a decorative piece of wood.

Rothschild, neighbors said, maintained a vintage car collection, storing some at his house and others up the street at another property that was ornamented with busts of great thinkers including Raphael and Michelangelo — and several security cameras. Two people said his holdings included a red Porsche that had once been owned by Michael Jordan.

You can read a fair amount of the material from the Laurel Canyon book at the site maintained by David McGowan’s daughter- Center for an Informed America

Wonder if Mr Rothschild lived in the Canyon in it’s heyday? He would have been a young man at that time (late 60’s early 70’s) if he did.

Just a trip down memory lane.