"The fact that people need a dead man's files to believe..."

[CousinIT]

[Easterncedar]

1. Dammit. Too true

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Kick.

[dlk]

3. We have a very long way to go on the road to women's equality

Too often, men have unlimited creditability, no matter how many times they lie. Where women, no matter how many times they tell the truth, are not believed or dismissed.

[MontanaMama]

4. Women aren't considered actual humans.

I said it.

[KS Toronado]

5. They are in my book

Our Government would be better and run smoother if it was run by all women. We should promote that
fact headed to the next election......WOMEN WOULD NEVER PROTECT PEDOPHILES, there I said it.

[tblue37]

15. Pam Bondi does, though.

[mgardener]

27. Elise Stefanik

Has not said a word.
She voted against releasing the files
Very few Republican women have demanded full disclosure.

MANY women protect pedophiles.

[CousinIT]

7. That's true. The Republican Taliban

consider them state-owned breeding livestock and male service units. They die of sepsis? Meh. Just go buy another cow. If you think about this, it really explains a lot of what they do.

This is how Republicans view women:

[Bluetus]

6. This is not about the women or the sex

Last edited Sun Dec 21, 2025, 04:57 PM - Edit history (1)

OK, that is PART of the story. But the real story is 100X bigger. Trump is perfectly happy for people to talk about it being a sex scandal because he's had 100 of those already and nobody cares.

The real story is the fact that Epstein was systematically collecting kompromat on very important people, and Trump was recruiting those very important people ("I know all the best people" ) . And they were converting that into cash and power. THAT is the story. Sex was simply the bait that was used.

I am, of course, sympathetic to the girls who made the decisions that put themselves in a very bad situation. I am sorry their families and the justice system didn't do more to keep them out of trouble. But that really is not the main story here. The main story is how Epstein got nearly a billion dollars. That wasn't payment for sex. You can buy all the sex you want to a lot less money than that. The real story is who all the people were that Trump was extorting and what Trump got in return.

[erronis]

8. I will agree that power and kompromat are motivating, but it was also about humiliation and torture.

Oddly, I just watched (for the first time!) "The Godfather" and "Part II". So many equivalences of male dominance and intentional infliction of pain.

[Skittles]

9. interesting

maybe it wasn't the girls Trump recruited, it was his rich asshole friends

[NotHardly]

13. THIS... the girls were just currency

[Bluetus]

18. Oh, Trump played a role in recruiting the girls, but his main job

was recruiting "all the pest people". Sure, he bought beauty pageants to recruit the girls. And Mar-a-lago was used to groom some of them. But Trump's big part of this operation was to get powerful people to the island. Epstein took it from there. Maxwell was the main person in charge of grooming, but she was also very likely deeply involved in selling that kompromat. Her father, after all, had very deep connections with the major spy agencies all over the world. Some of them would pay big backs to have leverage on people like Clinton, Gates, British royalty, and Trump himself, of course.

I know it is distasteful to describe the horrors that happened to these girls as just moving pawns around on a chessboard, but that's how it was.

[Skittles]

19. just curious

have any of those pageant girls testified that Trump recruited them for Epstein?

[Bluetus]

22. None of them have testified about ANYTHING

What is the point?

DId the FBI develop any of that information? I say it is very likely the FBI did exactly that. Why can't we see the full files.

Are you going to blame me for the Trump DoJ (and Biden's DoJ for that matter) keeping these files secret?

The names we know something about include Bill Gates, Les Wexner, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, all very powerful people in their own right. It is likely that the FBI filles have information about dozens of people at that strata. THAT is what Trump is trying to keep secret. He is not trying to keep the sex part secret. You didn't hear him complaining about the picture of Trump condoms, did you?

[Skittles]

25. jeez, no need to go off

over and OUT

[Cirsium]

10. Seriously?

You are "sympathetic to the girls who made the decisions that put themselves in a very bad situation?" You are blaming the victims.

Rape is not about sex.

Trafficking of vulnerable underage people is the "real story."

[MLWR]

12. THANK YOU.

I couldn't believe what I was reading. Those girls didn't make any "decisions." Girls under the age of consent aren't in a position to be making "decisions." THAT is what statutory RAPE is all about.

[Bluetus]

21. Most of them were not underage.

Trump is not going to be held accountable for exploiting women -- or young girls. He never has been held accountable and never will. And he does not fear that part of the story being exposed. He is proud of it. Yes, that's deplorable, but don't shoot the messenger.

The part of the story he fears being exposed is much bigger than the sex and the girls.

[NotHardly]

14. "girls who made the decisions", you must be kidding

I think you freaking lost/dropped the thread.

[Bluetus]

20. Seriously?

No. I think I was clear about that. But this story isn't mainly about the sex operation. It is horrible what happened to the girls, but they were truly viewed as disposable, just collateral damage. That is not my view. That is how Trump, Epstein, Maxwell and any others in this racket saw them. Don't let your emotions keep you from seeing the bigger picture.

I said nothing in support of the sex exploitation, and I said nothing to blame the victims. However, they were groomed, not kidnapped, and that is a significant distinction, I think. Indeed, the grooming was a more intentional, longer-term activity than if they had been kidnapped and kept in a basement. Trump unquestionably had to be aware of this grooming operation. He supplied some of the girls and some of the grooming happened at his house.

Nonetheless, that is only a small part of the story, the sex part (even the grooming part) will never have any consequences for Trump. He is fighting the release of information because of the other 95% of the story, which is all about extortion on a global level at the highest levels of government and business.

[Cirsium]

24. Not about sex

Last edited Mon Dec 22, 2025, 01:19 AM - Edit history (1)

This is not about sex. It is about power and abuse. More like slavery. People do not need to be "kidnapped and kept in a basement" to be trafficked. It is not OK to traffic people no matter their age.

Saying that the victims "made the decisions that put themselves in a very bad situation" is blaming the victims.

[Bluetus]

26. I did not mean it that way.

And I agree that sex exploitation is rarely mostly about the sex. Yes, it is about power and control.

In this case, it is about power, control, money, and issues of global consequence that are way beyond sex.

It is horrible what Trump and Epatein did to these women and girls. But it is extremely important to expose WHY they did it. The story is much, much bigger than sex.

I believe the committee realizes this. Because the cover-up has been so complete, they feel that their best chance of getting the full story is to approach it as a sex crime, because the media will pay attention to that. It is much bigger.

[meadowlander]

11. I think this is true and on point.

The one reason I think it is still worth chasing the files is that I think a lot of the women were paid off or forced to sign NDAs. I think there's probably a number of them that are happy for the information to be forced out via the files but who aren't comfortable just coming out and talking in public about it because of the risk to them and their families.

[UTUSN]

16. K&R

[Martin68]

17. It's all about who has the power.

[OldBaldy1701E]

23. And, we are done here.

There is nothing more to say.

[tavernier]

28. I know.

But perhaps one of them exaggerated?