TACO MIGA: Two acronyms that sum up the current state of the Trump 2.0 administration. TACO means Trump Always Chickens Out and MIGA stands for Make Israel Great Again.
The MAGA civil war I posted about earlier this month has now spread from pundits like Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro to U.S. Congressional campaigns, and once again Israel is the rock splitting the coalition.
Trump Always Chickens Out (Again)
And once again, Trump has chickened out and called for Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote FOR the release of the Epstein files.
As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat “Shutdown.” The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on “Epstein,” are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!
Politico has some analysis of Trump’s big fold:
Trump’s reversal after a months-long pressure campaign came as dozens of Republicans — perhaps as many as 100 — were already poised to break with him in a vote Tuesday. As Meredith Lee Hill and Mia report, even close allies of GOP leadership were weighing whether to defect from the president.
I had to add the above after I wrote most of the post, so let’s look at how we got here and why Trump folding is such an epic self-own.
Trump’s War on Massie
POTUS Trump has openly broken with two of MAGA’s most nationally-known Congressional reps: Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
The split with Massie has been out in the open for a while and it’s no secret that Trump’s #1 zionist donor is behind the campaign against Massie.
Massie voted against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and has been the ringleader pushing for a congressional vote to release the Epstein files.
In retaliation, Trump has been backing an anti-Massie Super PAC funded by (among others) “three billionaire supporters of Trump and Israel”: Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer, and John Paulson. The trio’s PAC is expected to drop $20 million against Massie in support of Massie’s challenger, Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
Massie has been vocal in calling out the money and ideology behind his opponent:
Israeli citizen Miriam Adelson bought the Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion; now she’s buying politicians. She’s spending millions in Kentucky to buy Ed Gallrein, my primary opponent, a Congressional seat in Kentucky. Why? Because I won’t vote to send your tax dollars overseas. pic.twitter.com/jfAgjgnB2K
— Thomas Massie for Congress (@MassieforKY) November 9, 2025
This Bloomberg opinion column from Mary Ellen Klas shows how the Trump-Massie feud is going for Trump, the TACO MIGA:
President Donald Trump’s months-long effort to find a primary challenger to Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, a fellow Republican and MAGA devotee, is the latest proof that Republicans in Washington were never truly intent on achieving the agenda they sold to voters last year.
If they were, they would be endorsing Massie as exactly the kind of anti-establishment conservative they’d want to see more of in Congress.
…when Trump started to pivot away from his own promises on inflation, foreign affairs and Epstein, Massie tried to use his leverage — House Republicans can only afford to lose two votes on every vote in the House — to pull him back.
Trump’s latest attack on Massie is a low blow that is drawing considerable backlash on X.com. Glenn Greenwald sums it up well:
Also, Trump's mocking Massie for re-marrying "quick" after his wife of many decades passed away is disgusting: particularly so for someone who is on his third marriage and started those affairs (and many others) while still married to the prior wife, at home with his young kids. pic.twitter.com/JJWXxfGfB1
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 15, 2025
In October, Tucker Carlson discussed why he thinks Massie is so threatening to the D.C. establishment:
Sincerity is by far the most dangerous quality in Washington. Someone who really means it is an actual threat. Thomas Massie isn’t a threat because he won’t accept AIPAC money. Thomas Massey’s a threat because he won’t accept AIPAC money on principle.
Not because he hates Jews or hates Israel. He doesn’t. But because he doesn’t think American politicians should be bought by foreign countries. That’s against his principles.
And because he really means it. He can’t be bought. So of course he must be destroyed.
Carlson connects Massie to the other MAGA rebel, Marjorie Taylor Greene:
And now Marjorie Taylor Green who of all 435 members of the House of Representatives embodies most purely those principles and she has cleaved to those principles. She has stuck to them through the years and for that is now being written out of the movement by MAGA stalwarts like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and Mark Levin. None of whom agree with a single word Trump says and all of whom hate him.
Naturally, Trump is now breaking with MTG.
Trump vs. MTG
The other MAGA apostate fighting TACO MIGA Trump is Georgia Congressional Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG).
Bloomberg’s Klas summed up the reasons for MTG’s split from Trump:
(MTG) wants Congress to end the government shutdown by agreeing to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. She has demanded the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, blasted the White House’s funding of wars in Ukraine and Israel and, most recently, torched the administration’s economic bailout of Argentina.
On Friday Trump had had enough and posted the following on Truth social:
“I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia. Over the past few weeks, despite my creating Record Achievements for our Country including, a Total and Complete Victory on the Shutdown, Closed Borders, Low Taxes, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everyone, ending DEI, stopping Biden’s Record Setting Inflation, Biggest Regulation Cuts in History, stopping EIGHT WARS, rebuilding our Military, being RESPECTED by every Country in the World (as opposed to being the laughingstock that we were just 12 months ago!), having Trillions of Dollars (Record Setting!) INVESTED in the U.S.A., and having created the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World from being a DEAD Country just 12 months ago (and so much more!), all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!
It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!). She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day. I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support. She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors. Thank you for your attention to this matter. “
Greene responded on X.com, saying (among other things):
he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files.
It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.
But really most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream.
…
I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him.But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.
I worship God, Jesus is my savior, and I serve my district GA14 and the American people.
Greene has also tweeted that she fears for her safety because of Trump’s rhetoric.
I believe MTG is correct that her support of Massie’s discharge petition to release the Epstein files (along with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and late-comer Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)) is what caused the final, open break with Trump.
And how is the contest being scored? Well according to X.com users, advantage MTG:
> Trump un-endorses MTG
>> 32,200 likes> MTG Responds
>> 179,000 likes pic.twitter.com/wnmlhXfnIM— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) November 15, 2025
And while we’re talking about Jeffrey Epstein, there are a couple angles to that story I haven’t seen too many outlets putting together.
What the Dems & the NYT Leave Out of Their Epstein Narrative
I agree with MAGA analyst Robert Barnes who identified Trump’s open refusal to release the Epstein files as the moment his Trump 2.0 honeymoon ended.
It was too flagrant a reversal on an issue that has assumed deep significance in the American political dialectic because it brings together elite impunity, elite depravity, and Israeli influence over the American Deep State into one simple and deeply repulsive story.
Also the Trump administration’s flagrant bait-and-switch on this issue is impossible to forget.
NewsNation plays a compilation of JD Vance, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino all calling for the release of the Epstein Files.
What changed guys? pic.twitter.com/vizbSCqGsq
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) November 14, 2025
The Democratic party and The New York Times have both attempted to control the Epstein narrative, aiming to use it as a bludgeon against Trump.
And there’s plenty there as this survey of NYT headlines shows:
- Epstein Alleged in Emails That Trump Knew of His Conduct
- After Trump Split, Epstein Said He Could ‘Take Him Down’
But one thing the Times has doggedly refused to report on is the mounting evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was deeply involved with Isreal.
Drop Site News has done excellent work on the topic, which is now beyond dispute:
- Israeli Spy Stayed for Weeks at a Time With Jeffrey Epstein in Manhattan
- Jeffrey Epstein Helped Israel Sell a Surveillance State to Côte d’Ivoire
- Jeffrey Epstein and the Mossad: How The Sex-Trafficker Helped Israel Build a Backchannel to Russia Amid Syrian Civil War
Even worse for the Times is the revelation that one of their former reporters “appeared to enjoy a close relationship” with Epstein.
This Miami Herald piece describes the alliance between Epstein, Trump biographer Michael Wolff, and Times reporter Landon Thomas, Jr.
The messages between the serial sex abuser and the two reporters provide insight into how Epstein was able to maintain relationships with some of the most powerful people in the world, even after he had been convicted of sex crimes.
In the messages, Epstein is a consummate gossip and matchmaker, trading tidbits on politics and finance with the reporters, and opening up his now infamous Rolodex to connect the two reporters with sources.
In exchange, they provided him advice and gave him warnings about reporting that could mention him, particularly in regard to his relationship with Trump.
…
Thomas wrote to Epstein in June 2016 that he kept getting calls from John Connolly, who co-wrote with James Patterson the 2016 book “Filthy Rich” about Epstein. “I told him you were a hell of a guy:),” Thomas wrote. But the messages didn’t stop with just notifications of upcoming coverage.
…
In 2019, Thomas was fired from the Times after revealing that he had solicited a $30,000 donation from Epstein for a preschool in Harlem.
At least they fired the guy.
The Unfortunately Named Virgin Islands
One other angle on the Epstein files that the Democrats and the NYT have been reluctant to push involves a Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a non-voting member of Congress.
The Washington Post is happy to cover Plaskett’s close ties to Epstein:
The newly released documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate show that the convicted sex offender texted with a Democratic member of Congress, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, during a congressional hearing with Michael Cohen, and that those text messages may have influenced the congresswoman’s questions of Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer.
Julie K. Brown has been covering Epstein’s relationship with Plaskett and other Virgin Islands officials for a long time.
This piece, which documents how the Islands’ government looked the other way when Epstein trafficked women and girls through the Islands but is now profiting massively from lawsuits against the Epstein estates and other entities who did business with him is especially appalling.
No One Is Protecting Larry Summers Anymore
One loathsome establishment figure the NY Times is not protecting is infamous former Obama advisor Larry Summers, despite the emails being released by Congressional Republicans:
Jeffrey Epstein and Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, corresponded regularly, with Mr. Epstein at times offering advice about Mr. Summers’s relationship with a woman, emails released on Wednesday show.
The correspondence, which took place in 2017, 2018 and 2019, suggests a far cozier and more intimate relationship between the two men than was previously known. The emails, some sent multiple times a day, were released by House Republicans along with more than 20,000 pages of documents.
Matt Stoller has some thoughts about the significance of Summers’ being outed as a close Epstein ally and why it didn’t happen under Joe Biden:
Trump’s relationship with Epstein is a significant political problem and is getting most of the headlines. But this scandal is also having an important effect inside the pro-monopoly faction of the Democratic Party.
The single most important neoliberal thinker of the last forty years – economist Larry Summers – had an extensive and deep political and personal relationship with Epstein. He was reportedly on Jeff Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” when young girls were present, and he often discussed his personal and political problems with Epstein.
…it isn’t merely a tabloid story. It is also an important illustration of how our economic order functions. The Courier created a searchable database of the so-far released files, and if you go through some of it, it becomes clear that this elite network was as likely to be organizing African politics, the U.S. Treasury Secretary slot, or ideas around monopolies in the information economy as discussing sexual adventures. The Epstein files serve as a sort of sex offender registry list for the powerful, but more than that, a dramatic illustration of the two-tiered system of justice we despise.
…it’s Summers who really brings it home just how powerful these guys are, and how they orchestrated their cover-up in plain site.
…
For a few months, I’ve been wondering why Joe Biden didn’t release more information about Epstein. Yes there are legal constraints, but the real answer, which seems pretty obvious, is that he wanted to protect Bill Clinton and Larry Summers.
The Democrats’ vulnerability on the Epstein front is driving Trump’s latest tactic on the issue, asking the Department of Justice to investigates Summers, Clinton, mega-donor Reid Hoffman and several banks. Per the BBC:
In addition to Clinton, Trump said he asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate banks JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who is also a prominent Democratic donor.
“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!” he wrote on social media.
“They all know about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
The bipartisan Congressional effort to bury the Epstein scandal along with its chief perpetrator has failed, but Bondi “re-opening” the case might actually just be another attempt to slow or stop the revelations because information related to an ongoing investigation is usually withheld from the public.
That’s what Rep. Massie is saying anyhow, via Politico:
“If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released,” Massie told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week” on Sunday. “So, this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them to, as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”
But wait, that’s not all. Bondi and Trump have another bit of f**kery up their sleeves:
Thank you, Mr. President. SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country, and I’ve asked him to take the lead. As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American… pic.twitter.com/5zlybVu44U
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) November 14, 2025
And who is Jay Clayton? Per Whitney Webb:
The Clayton appointment is so unreal.
Geoffrey Berman was pressured to step down by the first Trump admin roughly a year after prosecuting Epstein in 2019 (as I recall it was around the time when Berman was targeting Steve Bannon). Bill Barr tried to have Clayton replace him in 2020, but was unsuccessful.
Clayton spent the time waiting to be ushered into that position by Trump earlier this year at Epstein associate Leon Black’s Apollo Global in a board position they seemingly made JUST FOR HIM.
In other words, Clayton is the guy the 1st Trump administration and Bill Barr specifically wanted in to replace the people who had Epstein (and later Maxwell) arrested and when they couldn’t do it, a super rich Epstein associate gave him tons of money and now he has been installed in that position to “investigate” Epstein.
How stupid do they think people are?
The House is expected to vote on Massie’s legislation on Tuesday.
But here’s the kicker, per Politico, the “matter” likely won’t get past the Senate:
Trump’s edict is just about the House, two White House officials tell Meredith. It amounts to a face-saving move ahead of a vote he was going to lose, and at this point it’s still likely the matter dies in the Senate.
One senior Republican marveled at Trump’s “erratic” and unsettling attempt last week to kill the effort, including pulling Rep. Lauren Boebert into the White House Situation Room. That preceded a dramatic break over the weekend when he withdrew his endorsement of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Massive own goal by Trump.
Time will tell how the battles to weaponize the Epstein files turns out, but the fight between the TACO MIGA GOP establishment that now runs the Trump 2.0 administration and Thomas Massie and MTG will be one to watch closely.
Marjorie Taylor Green, MTG not Marjorie Green Taylor MGT. Just a scribble.
She asked an important question: Did Epstein work for Israel? Stand with that question.
I’ll show myself out now.
D’oh! Thanks. That is a habitual brain fart on my part.
Is that even in doubt anymore? My understanding is the only thing newsworthy (ha! … not even going to edit that word choice) are the cracks in the omertà.
Not with me, but who am I? A wabbit?
She asks the question, and so it grows, which it should, contra the omertà as you wryly point out.
I forgot where I saw it (thought it was RT, but can’t find a reference now), but there was a blurb a few days back accusing Drop Site news of being (paraphrased) an “anti-Israel site funded by George Soros”. They must be doing good work in order to draw that sort of two-fer. It sure sounds like there is some desperation and fear in some quarters about now — and that has me worried.
A quick look at the search results from “anti-Israel site funded by George Soros” turns up a lot of reporting from pro Israel media.
Trumps other epic melt down was in an interview with friendly Laura Ingraham, where he opined that we didn’t have enough skilled workers and so we needed more H1bs. Ingraham pushed back and Trump insisted.
My X feed was rightly incensed. America First Indeed.
The interviewers need to start interviewing American workers working in specific fields or who have worked in them before. Part of the approach to getting to the answers.
Not all the time interviewing foreign lobby influenced politicians.
Layoff layoffs layoffs. Then ask for H1Bs. No one really buys it when Ford says they need 5000 mechanics. They just dont want to pay for them.
Trumps real base was always the Mar-a-Lago base.
There can be multiple ‘bases’. He grew up with a silver spoon, so of course his ‘home’ is the multi-millionaire class. But his power grew out of his showmanship, the audience he built up from WWW (the wrestling kind, not the http:// kind), The Apprentice, the beauty pageants, the casinos; the persona of the rich guy. The ’16 election was a comedy of errors all around, but he identified his audience and leaned into it. And here we are.
Now, ensconced in his bubble, he’s playing to his home crowd, and leaving his populist base scrambling for food stamps.
I’m looking at the base as being who is ultimately served.
Everything else is just for pressuring opposition and showtime around elections.
Well, sure. But that same base goes for everyone, on both sides. So what? It just becomes a truism. Water is wet.
For the time being, the power still goes to who can generate the most votes and reaction from the masses. To give the devil his due, he caused a big course correction in DC, for good or bad, partly because he enlisted a cadre of coattail-riders (ie Theil / Vance / etc), but mostly because he had his audience, and the rest of DC was/is afraid of that audience at the polls.
“For the time being, the power still goes to who can generate the most votes and reaction from the masses.”
It goes to whoever can raise the money and play the game to be on the selection of candidates.
Reactions can be manufactured.
I have to admit to having misgivings about change-of-government by sex scandal. Yet the gears of U.S. democracy and constitutionalism are so rusted that sex scandals seem to be one of the few remaining ways to get people to resign. On the one hand, I won’t cry real tears if Stacey Plaskett is collateral damage in this splatter movie. On the other hand, we were recently reminded how vile Kirsten Gillibrand is, leaving us yearning for the days of yore and Al Franken and whatever stupid thing he may have done. Yet if Nancy Pelosi’s miraculous millions of dollars weren’t enough to dislodge her, I guest USanians have to settle for sex scandals.
So there’s that.
In the department of own goals, though, aren’t Dems / liberals about to shit the nest? Plaskett isn’t the only Dem implicated. There’s still that famous photo of Bill Clinton in the blue dress in the Epstein pied-à-terre. Hillary is reputed to have gone to the Epstein ranch in New Mexico — was it just for the dried chilies? [Own goal: See Kirsten Gillibrand.]
And the ties of Epstein and Maxwell (without a doubt, Robert’s daughter) to Israeli intelligence and general skullduggery become more apparent by the minute. Or is that the reason for Trump to bail out? Leverage over his donors like the kitschy supremacist Miriam Adelson? Or am I wrong in thinking that Trump is capable of eleventy-dimensional chess?
I don’t think the Congressional Dems have any loyalty to the Clintons. They will let Slick Willy twist in the wind to get at Trump.
Him and the people who surround him are capable. Look at Boris Johnson. The incompetent bumbling buffoon schtick is done for a reason to feign incompetence to reduce accountability for ones actions.
Can’t believe these files haven’t been altered and truncated ages ago when you consider all the changes in their custody and past events around the main offenders. Will be interesting to see if Mr Trump uses it to get rid of Lutnick, he was the one who lived next door to Epstein.
There’s a Bloomberg piece about this very issue: The FBI Redacted Trump’s Name in the Epstein Files. It came out after I posted.
“Or is that the reason for Trump to bail out? Leverage over his donors like the kitschy supremacist Miriam Adelson? Or am I wrong in thinking that Trump is capable of eleventy-dimensional chess?”
This was my thought on the pivot to releasing the files. Trump is trying to shake down Adelson for something and vice versa. Bibi probably involved somewhere. The files are a trading chip, with (judging by the preponderance of academics, lawyers and finance types as Friends of Jeffrey so far) a lot more names from the AIPAC side than Trump’s world. Hell, maybe he’s squeezing the Kushners or squeezing someone for them….
You can only release the files once, though, so why do so now? What is so important? Is the War Party pushing for more Ukraine and more Iran and Trump has realised even Venezuela is too big to swallow?
Or has Trump realised the Deep State against him is Mossad…?
He has not bailed out on releasing the epstein files , his pre-plans –already launched by 1) ordering an immediate investigation into dems —- thus,2) the release is blocked by FBI DOJ using the “ongoing investigation” and further punted by the the wording anything that 3) can be ‘legally’ released….up for endless messing around, or, 4) considering who decides what is a ‘state secret’ or what threatens ‘national security interests’ or …. in light of the fact Trump could order the release of all this stuff with a simple order…thus negating all this other ho-ha….
But, if he just signed to release all this stuff, he would not be able to pin the blame tail on Bondi/ Patel/ and being able to pin the delay on everybody but himself, he gets to let it play out according dribs and drabs according to his timing and control– claiming all the while that he is following the law and protecting the constitution and national security.
The question should be – Why, Mr Trump, are you unwilling to just release the files in whole-cloth as is your perogative. Well I think I know the answer to that but, ‘come-on’ you…..
> But here’s the kicker, per Politico, the “matter” likely won’t get past the Senate:
> Trump’s edict is just about the House, two White House officials tell Meredith. It amounts to a face-saving move ahead of a vote he was going to lose, and at this point it’s still likely the matter dies in the Senate.
It’s not hard to imagine questions from the Press about DJT’s preferences for the outcome of this measure in the Senate. Will he pledge to sign the measure into law if it reaches his desk?
People may be becoming more alert to lawyerly misdirection by elected officials.
“…an issue that has assumed deep significance in the American political dialectic because it brings together elite impunity, elite depravity, and Israeli influence over the American Deep State into one simple and deeply repulsive story.” (from OP)
This. Thx, NWT, for boiling it all down so perfectly.
I generally don’t waste much time on scandal-porn, but the threads of the Epstein Affair tie it to much bigger – and still largely invisible – scandals.
Of course, Congress probably won’t defy it’s Donors and really dig into the deeper implications of Epstein’s ‘influence operations’. The partisan finger-pointing masks the bi-partisan coverup. I suppose there’s some hope that Trump has appointed managers incompetent enough to screw up the coverup…
From another direction, the Israel/Mossad links might lead to unravelling this. There are lotsa people – across the political spectrum! – who are fed up with blind, infinite US support for Israel. At the same time, ‘American’ Zionists have become so high on their own hubris that they don’t realize that they have over-played their hand. *Both* parties are facing internal rebellions against traditional pro-Israeli policies!
This is likely to be more dangerous for the Democratic Party, where the in-fighting is loudly and publicly; also, the Dems are far more dependent on campaign donations from Jewish Americans, so it could bankrupt them (again). But AIPAC cannot survive public recognition of its actions…
On the other end of the spectrum, the kerfuffle over the Carlson/Fuentes interview also marks the end of AIPAC’s invisibility. It’s a shame that it took a despicable overt White ‘Christian’ Nationalist (Fuentes) to finally get that started, but hey, let’s you and him fight…
That mess seems to have triggered a quieter fight going inside – and among – the network of Think Tanks which forms the real infrastructure of the GOP. The money behind those Think Tanks comes largely from (US) Western extractive industries – Oil/Gas/Coal, Mining, Big Ag – and some of them are probably smart enough to see that support for Israel is making it harder for the US Gov’t to focus on the more important task of maximizing their profits.
IMO, Trump is a wild card in all this. The ‘Epstein Files’ prove that he really is a scumbag, but so what? More importantly, Adelson, etc, have spent a *lot* of money on bribing and extorting him; that’s worked OK for them so far, but Trump isn’t an ‘honest politician’: he can’t be relied upon to *stay* bought…
Thanks for the kind words re: my prose. I was kinda cringing when I used “American political dialectic” in a sentence, thanks for overlooking that clunker.
Hah, yeah, I guess my Hegel Filter blocked that out somewhere between my retinas and my lizard brain!
” Trump isn’t an ‘honest politician’: he can’t be relied upon to *stay* bought…”
Being a scion of a big time real estate “fixer,” Trump can be understood to be well acquainted with the concept of being “Rentable.” For Trump, everything is transactional. There is a time limit to every “contract”.
Insofar as Trump is a basic example of America’s New Financial Elite, personal corruption is a given. Gone are the days of Noblesse Oblige.
It is a sad commentary on our times when the old fashioned Robber Barons of a century ago come off looking like paragons of virtue when compared to today’s Elites.
Stay safe.
Trump has opened up a can of worms here and though he thinks that he can control what comes out of these files, I am not so sure. You never know what might appear from elsewhere (Epstein’s Mossad ID card?). Not much will happen for the rest of the year on this front so it will really start up in the new year. But here is the thing. Both parties will be thinking of the midterms and both parties will seek to capitalize on these files. Well, what’s left of them that is. You would have to get the full files from the intel services and they are hardly going to turn anything over due to their Mossad connections. Point is the whole Epstein saga will be running free during an electoral year and that is something that Trump may not really want in the end.
In an odd way, this has become Streisand effect on steroids. With Streisand’s house, people just got curious. With regards Epstein, people are speculating about all sorts of stuff and in absence of credible information, there’s nothing to stop them and, after all these, what information that will be dragged out won’t be all that credible, certainly not enough to stop all the runaway speculation. This has already gotten irretrievably out of control for the Trump gang.
Nick Fuentes – every show last week – or more generally- every show since July 13, 2024 Butler Miracle – gets right to the point. He warned about Suzy Wiles and Chris LaCivita running agenda behind the scenes. His America First is not Trump MAGA sloganeering. Full Disclosure: I’m old enough to behis grandfather and though he pokes fun at the boomers, it may be lost on him that he starts out every night, “We have a really big show …”
Re: MTG et alii.
To be sure, some of the formerly trumpist Republicans now seemingly breaking with Trump over the Epstein issue are probably of the bought-and-paid-for-true-believers kind. But I suspect more than a few of them are political prostitutes – Vance comes to mind – who swing whichever way they think will help their personal fame and fortune the most. To be sure, if you keep hewing to a particular set of political (or academic) talking points for long enough, you start convincing yourself that you actually, genuinely believe thusly. But maybe we haven’t quite gotten there with all the MAGA congresscritters yet.
Parenthetically, this is why Navalny had stood out so much among the typical pro-western Russian liberals – because he wasn’t one by conviction, he’d changed his entire ideology at least three times looking for the best path towards either wealth or fortune, before discovering tha Americans paid the most and the quickest. To be sure, he ended badly, but there are yet a few others in that group (e.g. Latynina) who are similarly “flexible”, at least when money is on the line.
So let us suppose for a moment that MTG, or Massie, or at least some of the Republicans pushing for the Epstein vote are not yet set in their ways, and instead are constantly looking to align themselves with whatever they think will get them to the next stage of their career. Might it not be possible that the whole Epstein vote issue is a bit of a…almost a red herring? In other words, mayhap some of them have sensed that Trump isn’t having a good second term, either on foreign or especially on domestic policy, and want to separate themselves from him before, say, a real economic crisis hits, but without really going against the standing Republican party platform (and sponsors). What better way in which so to do than to pick a moral high ground issue – one which will likely lead to not very much at all in terms of tangible consequences – and yet one where Trump has insisted on so visibly breaking his pre-election “promises”. [And stupidly. It’s not like the US government does not know how to dump big volumes of documents while concealing – redacting, or not even releasing – the most important ones from public view.]
Eh. It’s a thought.
Agree, I think Massie is just a stubborn local pol, but MTG has presidential aspirations and is separating herself from Trump because she can read a poll.
I’m not so sure if there is a meaningful difference: I don’t expect real “true believers” to be in politics and, in cases they are, things to go badly because they can’t compromise or negotiate even when necessary. What I hope is the case is that political order operates in such way that even opportunists–ie “politicians”–might occasionally do “the right thing.”
FWIW, I think MTG, Massie, and Carlson are doing “the right thing” for opportunistic reasons: there are huge numbers of erstwhile Trumpists (and, let’s face it, former Bernie and Obama voters…and maybe even old Perotists) who are disappointed at what Trump has done but are, not unjustly given their worldview, also disgusted with the no-king-but-PMC-types. The voters whom they can rely on to build a power base and leverage their way to more fame and influence. So keeping the “real MAGA” flame alive is good politics for them. Will it work? Who knows but I’m almost always in favor of politicians doing the “disrupting” by doing what their voters want.
I am slightly disturbed to find myself agreeing with MTG more and more – not on most things, obviously, but sometimes. She does seem to be in the process of transitioning to reality based politics from whatever fantasyland she occupied previously.
She appears to have genuinely believed Trump’s promises that he would improve the lives of regular Americans, and, now that that’s not happening, is prepared to break with him over it. So she is a conviction politician after all, and not just an opportunistic power seeker and hanger-on. Who knew?
In the world that I would have, there would be a reign of material equality. Intrigue is fundamental with the malformations heretofore. If MTG has a moral position I can stand for, I will. If it’s philosophical pinning is askew to mine, I will try to understand and maybe bring her (and her many) closer to my own (I’m a pipsqueak, so I might only talk to one of her true supporters). I need another drink.
aye. it has been bothering me a lot that i find myself agreeing with MTG so much in the last almost year,lol.
QAnon Barbie becomes Cincinnatus, or something,lol
Massie, i am more comfortable with…he feels to me somewhat in the mold of Ron Paul, who remains the only still living pol in my lifetime whom i actually trust.
(and some of that rubs off on Rand)
as ive mentioned, i cooked breakfast and lunch in the tiny cafe in the democratic building in austin for 6 months…and knew Anne Richards and Bob Bullock…they certainly had their faults…but man! i cant imagine folks like that being near power, today.
we have diminished, bigly.
I had very different experiences with Richards and Bullock to say the least!
they were the friendliest and seemingly most authentic people in the place,lol.
both would come on in my kitchen and shoot the shit standing before the flattop.
Anne had a pottymouth.
Bob told bad jokes, very slowly…and gave me the copy of the texas constitution(minus the million amendments*) thats in my Library.
i liked them…but that doesnt mean i’d let them hold my wallet.
the rest gave me the creeps…and at the time, rickfuckinperry was almost at the end of his turn to the Sith, and he gave off the worst vibes of all.
(* well, some amendments…but not after, maybe Ma and Pa Ferguson…a quirky feature of the texas const, btw)
They were certainly both capable of being charming.
Bullock was mostly defanged by the time I knew him, but his former staffers had PTSD. Capable and well-intentioned public servant, though. His big sin was endorsing GW Bush for Governor over the Democratic candidate, and allegedly did it because the Bush family promised to fund a Texas History museum named after him, plus a cash payment to his (soon-to-be) widow. The museum got built and named for Bullock. I can’t attest to the cash payout.
Richards was the ultimate office terrorizer and always brought in the worst, sleaziest clients.
Alan Dershowitz crawls out from beneath his rock, Sky News interview on utube. An insiders take!
lol
Jeffrey Epstein files: Larry Summers steps back from public commitments over email fallout, Harvard Crimson says (CNBC)
Summers is a truly contemptible person.
Ashamed that you finally got caught out in the open, maybe. Perhaps a kind of ritualistic ending might be appropriate for Summers, be he lacks the moral and martial courage.
Epstein was clearly in the business of collecting compromat to be used against anyone and everyone in positions of power. Find the ways the compromat was used, and to what ends, and this gives us the main beneficiaries.
And wasn’t there a piece linked to here on NC about 1-2 years ago which detailed Epstein’s extremely unlikely rise from high school teacher to Goldman-Sachs superstar with no apparent genius or particular skill to show for it, the financials just didn’t compute, many transactions were conducted with invisible hand outside/external help, he fixed people up with people he had no way of knowing especially in those early stages, and he was able to magically accomplish in a short timeframe in banking/investment what would ordinarily take a lifetime in the industry? The same piece made the connection that Epstein was on the BoD of an Israeli company that was heavy on the ex-8200 staffers, and that the Wexner foundation was a key instrumental vehicle for Israeli investment in Israeli security companies? And Epstein was an acquaintance to the head of 8200? Etc., etc.?
I wish search didn’t suck, it was a good piece with context that would have been useful here.
Experts disagree with you. Former senior CIA officer John Kirakou contends Epstein was probably an “access asset” of the Mossad, and that an intelligence agency would pay whatever it took to fund the lifestyle of someone who could get close to powerful people, particularly political leaders. Epstein’s spending was markedly higher that could be explained by his reported net worth of ~$600 million. I think he could also have been arms dealing. That is enormously lucrative.
By contrast, anyone who collects kompromat is at risk on powerful people is at risk of being killed. Many of these powerful people were spook connected. Epstein was not known for having a lot of personal protection.
what baffles me is how much of this sordid dreck has been right out in the open…at least as plausible innuendo…for so long.
that makes me think there’s a dead man switch, somewhere, thats even worse.
and, as ive related many times, this crap extends from the tippy top of global power, all the way down to the extremely local version…i have witnessed it, up close.
(being The Help has its advantages)
Yes there was that article with those details posted. Very thorough. Lots of connecting tissue and connections— JE taught at an exclusive private school is one.
Links or Water Cooler(fondly recalled) I can’t remember.
Surprised our host didn’t pull it out of storage.
How come the massive fire that destroyed his VI home never gets brought up??