Reducing everything Trump does to "It's to cover the Epstein files"

[drray23]

Is , I think, a mistake. We are way beyond manufacturing crises for distraction. Everything Trump does is to increase his power, or his wealth.

As a side effect it does distract from the Epstein files but that is not the main factor. He got that covered anyway by Bondi.

I fear people constantly repeating, its a distraction to everything Trump does are missing the big picture, namely marching towards a full fascist state and solidifying his dictatorship.

[yorkster]

1. X1000 thank you

It all may serve as a distraction from Epstein, but each action taken is part of a the fascist agenda spelled out in Project 2025.

[Moostache]

25. And when many of us were SCREAMING from the top of our lungs about PROJECT 2025? What happened?

We were called 'alarmists' and 'Trump deranged' and ignored or marginalized.

I disagree with the general premise. The original sin is still Epstein and covering up the files REGARDLESS of contents. Everything else that gets attention simply reinforces their plan that flooding the zone with so much bullshit is a good way to prevent that which Trump does not want the most.

Case in point - Greenland. That was used to distract, to annoy and damage American alliances and to take pressure off Trump for what? The illegal stonewalling of the Epstein Files and other crimes - including the murder of US citizens and the suspension of law and Constitutional protections for the public.

Where the fuck is the Greenland discussion today? Page 23? Others receiving votes? Local Beauty pageant winners? Its GONE again - until they recycle that horse shit again in 6 months before the elections are cancelled.

Anything that annoys Trump and puts added pressure on his heart is a civic duty.

[stopdiggin]

31. you double down, on the patently absurd

"The original sin is still Epstein and covering up the files REGARDLESS .. "

Flooding the zone is a real phenomenon. "Epstein distraction" - as explanation for virtually all ... Has deteriorated to the point of trite and facile - and, eventually, just sad.

Ask EU and NATO leaders if they think Greenland, Venezuela and the UN are all smoke and mirrors - because, EPSTEIN !

[yorkster]

37. Many things can be true at the same time.

My parents of the WW11 generation always feared that the Republicans would try to erase the New Deal completely, leave the UN, etc. I think the scope of Project 2025 would have stunned them, as it did anyone who paid attention.

As horrific and complex as the Epstein mess is - trafficking and money laundering
possibly espionage in addition to the sexual abuse and rape of over 1000 young girls and the protection of the perpetrators of these crimes - the breadth and depth of
what the Trump regime has thus far enacted, not to mention their future designs, will destroy the US.

The rebuild and any restoration of trust will
take ages, if elections are allowed to be free and fair.
Project 2025 was decades in the making and we are on the brink.

[demmiblue]

2. K&R

[lindysalsagal]

3. I believe the SCOTUS and much of congress are also complicit because even if they never touched an underage

girl, they flew on the monster's plane and accepted $$$ and prizes from the human-trafficking industry, and will all be liable for ruin. Even if they don't get sent to jail, they'll lose their posts, and the lawyers fees and family humiliation will ruin many of them. So they keep covering up for him.

But the bozo went too far attacking US citizens and legal residents, and we're fighting back. None of us benefitted from the trafficking and we have nothing to cover up.

[harumph]

6. Ding Ding Ding!

Exactly so.

[EdmondDantes_]

21. That's a broad brush

Is Bill Clinton liable for ruin for flying on Epstein's plane for work with the Clinton Foundation? I would say no for anything done before at least Epstein's first conviction. I'd apply the same to anyone else for that.

[lindysalsagal]

39. Yes. I think all the men who profited in any w ay from their associations will have the guilt of their actions

or inactions. He should have blown the whistle on these traffickers rather than taken rides on their airplanes.

[Ocelot II]

4. I think I'm gonna scream if I see one more post claiming some event is a distraction from the Epstein files.

The invasion and occupation of Minneapolis by ICE goons and the consequent murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti were not distractions from the Epstein files. Trump's insane threat to invade Greenland was not a distraction from the Epstein files. The US' withdrawal from WHO was not a distraction from the Epstein files. The arrest of a journalist for committing journalism was not a distraction from the Epstein files. FBI's seizing of Fulton County's voting records was not a distraction from the Epstein files. Blowing up Venezuelan fishermen was not a distraction from the Epstein files. Invading Venezuela to capture Maduro was not a distraction from the Epstein files. Extorting Venezuela's oil was not a distraction from the Epstein files. Threatening to annex Canada was not a distraction from the Epstein files. These and the many other despotic, unhinged acts of Trump and his regime stand on their own. The matter of the Epstein files also stands on its own. A lot of shit is happening and none of it is a distraction from any of the rest of it.

[leftstreet]

8. +1

[bdamomma]

10. And his a$$

is still there, sorry, (just have to say this) if we were like some other country with a despot the citizenry would run his a$$ and regime out!!!

[stopdiggin]

32. a combination of sad fixation - added to a generous helping of plain old lazy and sloppy intellect

It's become trite - silly - disappointing, and somewhat sad.

[malaise]

5. Correct

Read the big project

[mopinko]

7. yeah. i think he thinks he has it good and buried.

in his twisted ‘mind’, i dont think he’s worried. he’s gotten away w anything and everything all his life. he’s confident he will get away w raping children. and y wouldnt he b?

[leftstreet]

9. DURec

[Prairie Gates]

11. 100% Agree

I just ignore those threads now.

It's mindboggling that people believe that.

[GusBob]

12. You know it. Actually I think it could be backwards

Not a popular opinion at all, but I think that the Epstein files are a distraction from the real agenda, Project 2025

And yeah, I just trash the threads, they are tiresome and actually a distraction

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. You missed one motivator

Wealth and Power? Check. (I would include self preservation in that)

But you left out revenge, which is clearly a motivator for him, increasing as his cognitive abilities decline.

[llmart]

15. Exactly.

He even told us that - revenge and "retribution".

[llmart]

14. We're not just marching towards fascism...

We're about 2/3 of the way there. By November's election you'll the full effects of it.

[Lars39]

16. Everything's at least a two-fer with this administration.

[Solly Mack]

17. K&R

[Grumpy Old Guy]

18. Yes!

[PatSeg]

19. I agree

Though some of this might be a distraction from the Epstein files, a lot of it is fulfilling his objectives

[PuraVidaDreamin]

20. Both can be true!

Epstein AND Power.

[orangecrush]

22. Agree

[PatrickforB]

23. Yep. We are well on the way to becoming a fascist oligarchy. n/t

[JCMach1]

24. Equivalent (roughly) of Hitler's unaliving GF's

Horrible, awful, but the fascists keep on fascisting 24/7.

[Tommy Carcetti]

26. I agree. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes shitty behavior is just shitty behavior.

Not meant to distract, just meant to gain further control over our failing democracy.

Of course, any criminal coverups are just gravy.

But it's a bit tedious to think that *everything* is to distract from Epstein.

[Six117]

27. 💯 Agreed

It and its proxies are attacking us. What matters is -what are we doing or going to do to actively protect ourselves?

[KPN]

28. I agree. The Epstein distraction is just a side benefit like the frosting on the cake.

[haele]

40. Epstein is a symptom of the real problem ..

Infantilized Greed.
People who gain wealth and taste power, who believe that wealth and power gives them the right to do whatever they want.
They can indulge the infant terrible in the back of their minds; viewing resources and other people disposable. They have built a bubble of reality around themselves; their "real world" has become smaller and revolves around them.
Which always ends in disaster and ruin.

[KPN]

41. Yeah, and they actually believe they deserve their wealth and power as in they earned it because of their personal

greatness.

We all here at DU somewhat jokingly fantasize about bringing out the guillotines, but the reality is there are so many wealthy who fit this description. "Guillotines" may indeed be an apt metaphor for what it will take to reverse the oligarchic trend usurping our democracy and a more equitable society in recent decades.

[betsuni]

29. Agree. But I don't think he's the one with the big picture.

He says something and its opposite in the same sentence, goes from gushes to grudges, changes direction like a lab rat in a maze hitting a dead end, mindlessly keeps going until the pleasure revenge treat is found but the next day, is it the same maze or a different one, is it the same day or a different one, same rat or different? Where is the Dictator Diet Coke button?

From the '70s the radical ideological Right has patiently built this big picture world.

[Gaytano70]

30. I honestly believe that the Epstein files are the distraction.

Shitler is in them. Everyone knows he is in them.
If that's what the libs are talking about, it distracts from when they invade a sovereign nation and kidnap the president of that nation and steal oil and pocket the funds to his bank account in the middle east; when they assassinate Americans in a US city; when they continue to terrorize every aspect of life.
And they are loving it. Keep being distracted while they start WWIII next

[Ferrets are Cool]

33. For me, in it's simpliest form, every thing he does is about accumulating power.

[Jimvanhise]

34. TRUMP WILL RUN

If someone were to claim they have Epstein's secret videos from his missing computers and is starting to distribute them to journalists, Trump will vanish like he's no long on the face of Earth.

[Jvp]

35. bankruptcy

Trump is in the process of creating and finishing one more bankruptcy, this is what he does well!!

[returnee]

36. Russell Vought and the Heritage Foundation...

…have a multifaceted plan of shit, with which they are “flooding the zone.” All these shitty prongs are just individual cogs in their wheel of a plan for fascism. They are all important. The flooding is intended to keep us off base and off balance.

[snot]

38. I agree. Over-simplification only makes it harder to reach the results we want.

The causes of the problems we face are extremely complex. We've got to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.

That said, the release of the Epstein files (along with others, such as those relating to the JFK assassination) remains imperative.

[gulliver]

42. We're wasting a lot of energy

The "fascist state" danger is very, very low. Superficial knowledge of history and culture, combined with paranoia and legitimate free-floating fear of modernity, combine to create an image of fascism.

The Epstein files stuff is a bit scary in that it shows just how easily we are distracted and stampeded. I don't see how we get universal health care, a floor on poverty, a fix for Social Security, etc., while we keep tuning in and suckering for this low grade pablum.