"Is it any surprise this young group of MAGA fanatics would focus on something so solicitous as a conspiracy about Epstein? Seriously, who cares at this point? There are a hundred other issues that have more consequence than if Epstein had a client list. This group has never been framed as being smart and insightful. Anyone dancing along with Trump's love of YMCA drops a 100 IQ points in my book." - WaPo comment
"What a bunch of children. They're still confused why their daddy won't share all his secrets. It's simple, kids. Donald Trump is a rapist and a pedophile and more importantly, a conman, who is still conning you. Really? The baby MAGAs just can't figure out why Trump broke his promise to share the Epstein files? How many more pictures do you have to see with him and Jeffy sharing smiles and laughs? How many more party videos? Whatever. You voted for Trump twice, so I guess your tinfoil hats are extra strength. Godspeed. Good luck getting student loans and grants and good luck not having any of your non-white friends kidnapped and deported." WaPo Comment
The Washington Post’s David von Drehle is a fan of knocking down conspiracies, which is good, but not when one conflates conspiracy ideations with the real McCoy. A case in point is his recent column (July 10):
Where he initially makes a decent effort to splatter the Jeffrey Epstein files conspiracy ideations, which I peg that way because it is all about the MAGA cult's fever dreams vs. the Dems. That is, earlier being informed by Trump AG Pam Bondi that she "had the Epstein files on her desk" - then learning last week there was nothing to see. So the MAGAs are on the warpath (kinda) - denied finding out the names of the Dem 'baby eaters' and child sex predators - i.e. as concocted in the Pizzagate blarney, e.g.
Crackpot "Pizzagate" Tale Promoted By Michael G. Flynn Almost Led To D.C. Tragedy
Von Drehle then moved too rapidly off target, citing other rightist codswallop, i.e.
“ No factual fabric is too threadbare to support a robust
conspiracy theory. People
believed a D.C. pizza parlor had a basement filled with kidnapped
children — though it didn’t have a basement, period. People believed the
government was
staging fake school massacres as a pretext to confiscate guns — though
guns are freely sold at the nearest Walmart. People believed a pillow salesman possessed data
showing that the 2020 election was stolen.”
But then he veered off into realms he knows less about, i.e.
such as the Pentagon’s recent shenanigans at disinformation to mislead citizens
into believing in fake UFOs, writing:
“As for Area 51 and the government’s supposed cache of space
alien technology, the Wall Street Journal recently
reported that this conspiracy theory is largely of the military’s own
making. An internal Air Force investigation found that authorities spread
rumors and concocted tales of alien activity — sometimes to cover up top-secret
experiments, sometimes just to freak out new recruits.
Journal reporters Joel Schectman and Aruna Viswanatha learned
what was left out of the investigation’s published report concerning “the
foundational myths about UFOs”: The Pentagon itself sometimes deliberately
fanned the flames, in what amounted to the U.S. government targeting its own
citizens with disinformation.
“At the same time,” the pair continued, “the very nature of Pentagon operations — an opaque bureaucracy that kept secret programs embedded within secret programs, cloaked in cover stories — created fertile ground for the myths to spread.”
But I already skewered the gullibility of the WSJ authors in a
previous post, e.g.
Not content with that, von Drehle then takes on the JFK assassination
which conspiracy has nada in common with his earlier examples, writing:
The document vindicated work by the tireless Kennedy murder
investigator Jefferson Morley, whom I count as a friend though we
disagree fundamentally on this mother of all conspiracy theories. Purely by
coincidence, the nugget came to light as I was rereading Don DeLillo’s powerful
1988 novel “Libra,” which oozes paranoia through a fictional portrait of
Oswald.
Joannides would have fit nicely into DeLillo’s book, which
blends real and imagined characters into an atmosphere as stifling as the
summer of 1963 in Miami, New Orleans and Dallas, where the story is largely
set. The novelist’s art — and DeLillo is an artist of the first order — is the
creation of non-realities that seem entirely real. In this case, the art
doubles on itself, because “Libra” is fiction about a fiction.”
But as I’ve already written in a number of posts, Joannides
was as real as a heart attack, and played a major role in quashing efforts to
expose the conspiracy in the HSCA investigation. As I noted in my March 19 post:
"Joannides served as chief of the CIA's anti-Castro
psychological warfare operation in Miami in 1963. The operation was
run out of the largest CIA station outside of Langley, called JM/WAVE.
More than 300 CIA agents directed over 3,000 Cuban agents and subagents, out of
a front corporation called 'Zenith Technical Enterprises, Inc. The
operation was designed to spread disinformation using a group: Directorio
Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE) under David Atlee Phillips.
Joannides played a major role in helping to block the HSCA access to critical JFK files at the time of that investigation (1978-79). Later, in 1992, when the Assassinations Review Board wished to release a critical Joannides' file and asked a CIA go-between, he replied: "I know there's a reason why that Joannides file shouldn't be released, I just can't think of it!" It never did see the light of day and hasn't up to now."
In all likelihood that critical Joannides' file saw the incinerator decades ago, just like other critical 'smoking gun' evidence that so many expected when Trump agreed to release the remaining JFK assassination files. But in the end these delivered nothing new or veering away from the fact that Lee Oswald was a patsy like he always maintained. E.g.
JFK Files Released - And Lee Oswald's Innocence Remains Despite Warrenite Disinformationists
Part of the decades-long CIA "sheep dipping" process was aimed at Lee Oswald beginning when he defected to Russia in October, 1959. ('Sheep dipping' is CIA parlance referring to the manipulation of a 'sponsor'(decoy) to be used in one or more operations. The goal of the manipulation is generally to associate with the sponsor some negative image, in Lee's case as a future lone assassin.)
Part of the process entailed portraying Oswald as some pro-Castro extremist. We know that this part of the pre-cover-up was likely orchestrated by George Joannides in conjunction with the Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE – the Revolutionary Cuban Students group) to manufacture incidents such as the altercation with Carlos Bringuier on Canal Street that would later put Oswald in a suspicious light.
Indeed, dedicated researchers (not von Drehle's "tin foil hats") have at least uncovered and gotten (FOIA) released a key document exposing the use of the DRE in CIA mischief (see Paragraph (2) in scan below):
Later to assist in implementing another CIA operation (Northwoods) to provide a pretext for U.S. military intervention in Cuba, as telegraphed in this once top secret memo:
By doing this, Joannides also set the stage for the later Castro –conspiracy theory: that it was really Fidel who had Kennedy killed because of attempts made on the Cuban leader’s life via Operation ZR-Rifle. Not said, of course, is that Kennedy had already (from late 1962) initiated a rapprochement with Castro through his aide-de-camp Rene Vallejo, i.e
What Maddow Left Out In Her Segment On The Kennedy- Castro Rapprochement
This has been well documented by National Archives contributor Peter Kornbluh. (The Baltimore Sun, 'Kennedy and Castro: What Might Have Been', Aug. 22, 1999, p. 1C.)
The problem for von Drehle, like too many mainstream journalists, is they have neither the patience or smarts to dig deep enough into actual conspiracies. For example, lacking even the ability to see the difference between Lee Oswald and the impostor using his name in Mexico City, e.g.
"The QAnon conspiracy theories - as nutty as they sound - are not even that new. Some of the theories resemble the plot of Oliver Stone's movie 'JFK' thirty years ago."
As for David von Drehle, I had already exposed his sophomoric approach to the Kennedy assassination in a November, 2013 post:
Brane Space: 13 Pages On The 'Conspiracy Industry' - And TIME Gets Hardly Anything Right
Noting the deficiencies in his TIME article ('We Have Lived With It For Half A Century';). As I wrote:
"had von Drehle really done his homework for the piece, especially using texts such as Donald Gibson's 'Battling Wall Street - The Kennedy Presidency', he'd have seen how the CIA, Oil, Banking, and the Military-Industrial Complex have been in bed together for decades. Hence, it's nonsense to separate the Military-Industrial Complex, the CIA and right wing OIL millionaires, when they had shared interests in seeing Kennedy killed and were linked at the hip by the backgrounds of people like Allen Dulles, H.L. Hunt. John Foster Dulles. But people like von Drehle are too lazy or intellectually incompetent to pursue the research where it leads."
Alas, lazy journalists like von Drehle are likely to be with us for some time. Hell, even the WaPo Editorial board has been "asleep at the switch" regarding the bogus Warren Commission and its deliberate obfuscations and bunkum - including omitting more than 200 material witnesses. Babbling this editorial dreck (as if Oswald's guilt was a fait accompli) soon after von Drehle's twaddle:
"When Oswald killed Kennedy, three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing at least most of the time. Since 2007, that number has never been higher than 30 percent. "
Why should it have been, when the mainstream media itself has been joyfully complicit in pumping the WC bunkum? Such as the now disproven bilge that the kill shot came from the rear - in the Texas School Book Depository. It could not have, because Gerald Ford (one of the WC commissioners) had to change the direction from the original WC artist sketch, e.g.
to limit the shots to three. (He had to move the blue-grey arrow up 5 1/2 inches - else the shot would have been from street level). This change even noted in a NY Times piece:
Not to be omitted is how the WC blocked the Parkland drs. (especially Dr. Malcolm Perry) from identifying the definite exit wound in the back of the head which points directly to a frontal shot, driving brain and bones backward, e.g.
Readers can see more on this at the link below:
Indeed as I noted in a 2010 blog post,
The WaPo - likely because of its Cord Meyer CIA connections - has been a prime mover of propaganda about the assassination. I cited, for example, the case of a deformed Dec. 23, 1991 Newsweek cover (Newsweek then owned by the Post) which fairly screamed:
'The Twisted Truth of 'JFK': Why Oliver Stone's Film Can't Be Trusted'
The basis? The lead article by a Kenneth Auchincloss which impudently insisted Oliver Stone was trying to "distort and re-create history". How so? For example, claiming JFK wanted to "pull out of Vietnam". However, just six years later, with the benefit of Freedom of Information Act released files, The Baltimore Sun featured this story: Declassified Documents Hint at Plan to Bring Troops Home in 1965, Dec. 23, 1997, p. 3A.
A subsequent book by Lt. L. Fletcher Prouty, JFK and Vietnam, disclosed this was not merely a "hint" but an actual, hands-on plan to remove all personnel by the issuance of National Action Security Memorandum 263. Hence, it was clear that Stone was spot -on correct in his prescient selection of at least one motive for the assassins.
Watergate Post co-hero Carl Bernstein, also blew the cover of CIA control on print media such as the Post. From the controversial piece in Rolling Stone:
This was backed up by Prof. Katherine S. Olmstead in her book: 'Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI', 1996, Univ. of North Carolina Press.
Writing on p. 21:
"According to the (1978) Church committee's final report, approximately fifty U.S. Journalists had covert relationships with the CIA, about half of which involved money. "
These examples, among others, make it even more imperative that citizens educate themselves to the actual facts and do their own research. Thereby enabling themselves to discriminate between actual verified conspiracies and outlandish conspiracy ideations.
Meanwhile, youthful Gen Z MAGAs (at a Tampa 'Turning Point' weekend event) clamored for Epstein files release while still vowing fealty to their master, Dotard. Let us hope that their fever dream of Dotard being their avatar hero - champion is soon tossed into history's dustbin.
See Also:
MAGA leaders sound alarm about discontented Trump base: ‘A huge risk’ - The Washington Post
Excerpt:
Attendees of Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit
erupted in boos over the Trump administration’s handling of files related to
Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased child predator. Top MAGA leaders criticized the
White House from stage and on their wide-reaching social media accounts
throughout the weekend, attacking not only Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi,
for declining to release more on the investigation and potential Epstein
associates, but raising questions about why the president seemed to be out of
step with his base.
The concerns raised at the conference followed days of conservative foment that continued to build over the weekend, fueling anxiety among Trump allies that conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein, widely promoted by Trump and administration officials before they took office, will continue to haunt them...
The Gen Z audience inside the Tampa Convention Center this
weekend, wearing a mix of T-shirts and shorts, sport
coats and ties, represented a demographic that swung notably toward
Trump in November and helped return him to office.
- And:
To assume that the escalating right-wing meltdown over the Justice Department’s dismissal of the “Epstein files” affair will be a fatal blow to the MAGA cult is very tempting. But it’s probably best to resist that temptation, at least for the moment. Over the years, there have been so many instances that felt as if they had to be the beginning of the end, and they all ended up being false alarms. In each case, the country moved on and Donald Trump only grew stronger. Still, this one has a characteristic that we haven’t seen before: The calls are coming from inside the house.
On July 6, the Justice Department released an unsigned memorandum concluding there was no evidence that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a “client list” from which he blackmailed powerful figures in politics, finance and entertainment, or that he was murdered in prison, as so many on the right have come to believe. If Attorney General Pam Bondi, and perhaps Trump himself — who was pictured many times over the years in the company of Epstein and his paramour, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking — thought this would draw a line under the whole affair, they were wrong. For a movement that was founded on conspiracy theories in which the powerful, especially those in government, protect themselves, the Justice Department’s memo has turned out to be a major problem.
On Saturday, Donald Trump tried to wave the MAGA base off the growing clamor to release the full case file of infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a close friend of Trump’s who evaded trial in 2019 by killing himself in jail. The president’s intervention seemed to reveal that he’s deeply worried there’s embarrassing or incriminating evidence about him in the Justice Department’s files. The furor, he insisted, is being driven by “selfish people” who are trying to hurt him. He said the files must be fabricated “by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.” Trump’s tirade made it impossible to escape the conclusion that he’s trying to dissuade his voters from believing any damning evidence that may come out.
What was also telling in this defensive screed is how perplexed Trump is over his base’s fixation on this case. He begs them to move on to other conspiracy theories, offering a full menu of alternatives, like JFK’s assassination, Hunter Biden’s laptop and, his personal favorite, the “Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020.” “Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” he pleaded with his supporters, as if saying that no one cares about Epstein will somehow make it true.
For more than a week, the political movement he created has
been convulsing with righteous fury over things he and his attorney
general have been saying and doing — or rather, not doing — as it
relates to the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Trump keeps commanding his supporters to move on from
their fixations over the disgraced financier and registered sex offender. But
many of his supporters simply cannot swallow the anticlimactic conclusion that
the Department of Justice put forth a week ago when it basically said there
was nothing
to see here, folks.
By the week’s end, a rabble of conspiracists who’ve been
hand-fed for years by Mr. Trump broke into open revolt against him. The fallout
is testing the power the president holds over his most loyal followers, the
ones who have trusted him all along and who believed they would learn a whole
lot more about the Epstein saga if they returned Mr. Trump to office.
In his social media post on Saturday, he tried to cast the
blame for any unresolved Epstein mysteries on Mr. Obama, Hillary Clinton and
Joseph R. Biden Jr.
But the base wasn’t buying it.
- by Robert Becker | July 14, 2025 - 5:11am | permalink» article continues...
The core paradox behind MAGA adoration — low expectations of life-style advances vs. knowingly endorsing a vengeful, scorched-earth, government-bashing crusade by the Destroyer-in-chief.
“I am your retribution,” blustered a sinister Trump, the self-anointed divine agent forever deflecting his historic void of meaningful campaign reform pledges. From that first elevator stunt onward, promises of retribution against overstated victimization defines Trumpism. How distinct from grounded promises, “I am your economic or job or healthcare champion”? Why worry about real pressures when smashing phony foes? Forget reforms like job training for tech jobs, or school funding for under-achieving children; forget food or drug or transportation benefits. Remember that deceitful, long-forgotten 2015 war against bottom-line corporate outsourcing? Countless broken promises pale next to holy wars of vengeance to punish enemies...
Notwithstanding reality, the vast majority of Trumpers know his immoral character, riveted with lawlessness and cruelty. That’s why MAGA cheers on violations of traditional thresholds – that a president at least not be an overt crook, tax cheat, draft dodger or sex abuser. Alleged Christians had to put aside all that Jesus taught to elect an irreligious sinner bent on symbolic and real revenge, producing a less Christian, less compassionate, less charitable America.
by Amanda Marcotte | July 10, 2025 - 5:49am | permalink
For outsiders watching the intra-MAGA warfare over the mythical “Epstein files,” the entire situation may seem baffling. Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed client list is a fiction, dreamed up by conspiracy theorists who want to believe the infamous pedophile was also a world-class blackmail artist, even though the journalists who exposed the case have repeatedly denied that allegation. It’s weird that MAGA is so fixated on this. If such a list existed — and let me reiterate, it does not — there is one person whose name would almost certainly be near the top: Donald J. Trump.
Unlike many of the people accused of being on the list, Trump has repeatedly emphasized that he does not believe sexual violence is wrong, at least if rich white men do it. He bragged about assaulting women in the famous “Access Hollywood” tape. He used the word “fortunately” to describe “the last million years” when men, in his view, were universally allowed to assault women sexually. He was found liable for sexual assault by a civil jury, and reacted by blaming the victim, E. Jean Carroll, saying, “What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing hanky-panky in a dressing room?”
- And:
- by Ailia Zehra | July 11, 2025 - 6:04am | permalink» article continues...
Alan Dershowitz, a former Constitutional advisor to President Donald Trump, alleged in a bombshell disclosure that key documents tied to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are being withheld — not to protect victims, but to shield powerful figures.
“I know for a fact [Epstein] documents are being suppressed and they're being suppressed to protect individuals. I know the names of the individuals, I know why they're being suppressed," he said on the Sean Spicer Show in a newly resurfaced interview that originally aired in March of this year.
Dershowitz continued: "I know who's suppressing them, but I'm bound by confidentiality from a judge and cases, and I can't disclose what I know."
"But, hand to God, I know the names of people whose files are being suppressed in order to protect them, and that's wrong," he added.
- And:
Dallas Journalists Need To Grow Up And Face The Reality of Conspiracy In Kennedy Assassination
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