Epstein, Part II

 At least for the moment, the Epstein furor has not died down. At least in part, this is because Trump himself is screaming for everyone to stop talking about Epstein. MAGA remains furious, because they are so marinated in conspiratorial thinking that Epstein became a tentpole of their belief system. Trump's voluble defense of Attorney General Pam Bondi has only enraged people more. First of all, Bondi is transparently doing Trump's bidding. Secondly, goons like Dan Bongino have created entire personalities around Epstein/QAnon and they can't let it go that easily.

Again, my feeling is that there is not an "Epstein List" because there is zero chance that it would have remained secret all this time. Trump is all over those flight manifests, but if there really was a "list" I would wager that it would have been leaked during the recent presidential campaign. 

Here's the thing I don't get, though. Trump and Bondi are serial liars. I'm kind of shocked that they simply haven't fabricated a list. I'm hardly going to credit their deep faith in evidentiary integrity. So, maybe there is some smoking gun out there, and if they release a fake "list" then the sword of Damocles falls. 

Maybe. 

As Richardson notes, "Epstein" has managed to overshadow the impact of cuts to FEMA right in the middle if the response to the Kerr County floods and the declining popularity of Trump's immigration gestapo. The inevitable chaos of a Trump Administration unmoored to "adult" Republicans has produced a cascading series of scandals, problems and even tragedies. Most Americans are woefully uninformed about the daily goings on in their world, but the constant drumbeat of problems is merging with the salacious nature of "Epstein".

The hope for American democracy really has been that either the Right shatters along the fault lines of its' internal contradictions or that Trump screws up so bad, that his cultists simply drop out of the political process. "Epstein" has the potential to do both: creating a schism within the MAGA ranks while also prompting others to simply walk away in disgust (as Bongino seems to be doing).

Anyway, do you like butter on your popcorn? Or maybe flavored salt?

UPDATE: Cheryl Rofer accurately describes it as not fantasy breaking against reality, but fantasy against fantasy. Maybe that was the key all along? You can't dissuade members of a cult through reason and evidence, but through the disintegration of their fantasy.