This whole Epstein thing feels like a distraction. Yes, the people involved are reprehensible and deserve consequences. But why is this such a big focus for some people on the left and the right (apart from an opportunity to attack their political opponents)? Consider that even if Epstein had 1000 victims, there are still far larger-scale problems the country is facing that we aren’t spending the same time on.

It’s not enough to say “we can do more than one thing” - our attention is limited. And instead of those bigger issues dominating our conversation and political will, we’re focused on the Epstein issue. I also seriously doubt something will come of it. I expect that when anything is eventually released, it may have been selectively redacted or withheld, and any convictions will take years if they happen at all.

Meanwhile, vile politicians like MTG are latching onto this fervor and using it to push their own relevance and position on the American political stage. In her case, it’s a desperate play to disown her past of “Jewish space lasers”, QAnon, pizzagate, and all of that. But the naive public is eating this up. And they’re using what is a minor issue to hitch themselves onto otherwise harmful people.

Epstein put a lot of rich and powerful people with influence in government and industry into compromising positions. Those thousand victims weren't a hobby. He was creating blackmail material and using it for his own gain, and to sell to others. The amount of money flowing through the scheme is so large that it has to be from government entities, like intelligence agencies. Sergey Lavrov's name has come up in the documents. It's very plausible that a lot of the money Epstein got originated in Russia. That's a national security problem.

I don't know what you tell you if the systematic abuse of hundreds (some reporting does suggest more than 1000) children doesn't rile you up. The fact that it is nearly exclusively rich and powerful people who participated only amplifies the effect. Most of us are absolutely fed up with the two-tier justice system, where the rich, powerful, and connected get to do whatever they want, while regular folk continually have their rights eroded. The powerful are often able to divert our attention from the injustice of the rich/powerful by dividing the people with propaganda, pitting one side against the other. Turns out the Epstein situation is one of the rare cases where nearly everyone agrees. You should expect it to receive increasingly large amounts of attention until we actually receive the real info and heads roll.

Why is it such a big deal that many of our leaders (including Numero Uno) are likely rapists and pedophiles?

I don’t even know how to answer that question.

I'm not as alarmed that one of the most influential economists in America is a potential sex trafficker. I'm alarmed about to what degree the most influential people in America are being blackmailed.

The story goes way beyond the abuse itself, they were videotaping everything to black mail other rich people and even world leaders... it's one of the biggest scandals in American history and it's about more than Epstein alone.