It has emerged that the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has executed nearly every member of the country’s Central Committee.  A spokesman and interpreter, Hu Flung Poo,  stated the supreme leader became incensed after he viewed a video of President Trump’s cabinet meeting this week.  “Basically it amounted to an out of control jealous raging,” Hu said.  “He had never seen so much ingratiating groveling and was stunned  at the degree of extravagant servitude Trump’s cabinet members embalmed him with.   He was particularly impressed, but paradoxically  enraged, over the excelleration of praise heaped upon the president with each successive speaker. It seems the more he thought about the lavish devotion of Trump’s toadies,  his chagrin spiraled into feelings of envious resentment and anger at his party confidants he has surrounding him, considering the group a disastrous failure in comparison.”  Hu went on to say that  Kim Jong Un is absolutley intolerant of any perception that he is not the most magnificent leader of all time, and advisors not fullfilling this demand are historically doomed to a savage demise.

“It seems to me the consideration of insufficient praise as an unforgivable offense is something both of these leaders have in common.” Hu said. “Of course unlike North Korea’s government,  America’s form of democracy will always prevent petty obsessions of  retribution from getting out of hand.  Right?”

After insisting  that the GOP controlled Texas legislature institute a mid-census election redistricting of their state and demanding congress prohibit all future mail in voting, President Trump issued an executive order that prohibits anyone that is not a registered Republican from voting in all future elections.  When asked about the constitutionality of such a drastic requirement, press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the president felt that since he has the power to do anything he wants, this measure would simplify the entire voting process by tasking only true patriotic citizens with the precious right to vote.  “You can understand how silly it is to jump through all these redistricting and specific voting method hoops when the president can just help the great citizens of this country out by providing a simplified voting system,” she said.   Leavitt went on to say that as a bonus the president went even further in the simplification process by generously offering his gold card as an even more convenient way to vote.  Perchasing the $100.00 card and presenting it to poll workers will allow any registered Republican to forgo the tedious identification and signature details at voting sites.

I mentioned in a blog a few days ago how important it was to incorporate traditional media into our information sources.  Check that.  Included in the sale of CBS’s parent company Paramount to Skydance Media is a stipulation that CBS install a “bias monitor” which is basically someone who will make sure the news company’s reporting meets standards demanded by President Trump.  WTF?  Trump already has Fox News under his thumb.  Now CBS.  ABC has revealed it’s spineless organization would also rather lay down and get  steamrolled by one of Trump’s  frivolous  lawsuits.  That company might be just another Trump threat away from capitulating to demagogury.  What to do?  Good alternatives are PBS and NPR.  Oh shit.  I forgot.  They are in Trump’s crosshairs too.  He’s been able to claw back their funding that congress had previously approved. Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Controlling the media is a primary tool for authoritarian ascent.  Think Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey.  The Trump media megaphone is suddenly a serious threat to democracy.  He knows he needs all the help he can get now that he is at the center of the slippery Epstein vortex.

Whatever your prefered media source, if Trump is front and center be prepared to hear him  utter the word “hoax”  after every third breath. So far not much seems to be working for Trump in the way of Epstein deflection.  But “hoax” is tried and has always been true.  It’s uncanny but there is something entrancing to the MAGA base about that word.  Repeating “hoax” over and over again mysteriously transports them into the Trumpian nether reality where everything he says becomes believable.

But he’s been saying that, you say, and he’s still not breaking through?  Yes, he has been promoting his hoaxing pitch, but he can’t seem to stick to one story.  Maybe this is a case where deflection is counterproductive.  Maybe the usual bag of tricks doesn’t play so well when a sensitve topic like pedophila is involved.  Too much diversion and the power of the word “hoax” gets diluted.

As we know, the story starts with the seedy Epstein documentation that upon getting elected Trump said he was going to expose.  But when the spotlight suddenly started shining a little too brightly on him, he started up with his usual hoax routine.  Nothing there he said. But because of AG Bondi’s revelation that there indeed was a shitload of Epstein material, the public didn’t buy into the hoax business.  Trump didn’t give up on it though.  He simply embelished  the story a bit and stuck with the ever reliable hoax messaging by declaring that the stuff  out there, wherever it is, is still a hoax but only because it is  perpetrated by Obama and Hillary and Comey and any and all of his usual tormentors. But he suddenly  careened  off the hoax track with rants about Obama and Russian election interferience and the Biden laptop and imagined election shenanigans by Kamala Harris, Opra, Beyonce’ and Al Sharpton.  It’s surprsing he didn’t continue on and accuse the entire membership of the Black race.  He did make that one course correction when the Wall Street Journal said it possesed an Epstein birthday letter that had a risqué contribution from Trump, calling it a hoax.  But then, reponding to public pressure, he veered the hoaxing wagon off path by ordering DOJ to release “pertinent” grand jury testimony concerning the Epstein case.   Since then he’s been off the hoax  beam and just randomly haranguing about anything that comes to mind- badgering NFL and Major League Baseball management to change their team names back to something a little more racially slurring and acceptable to him, posting AI generated mug shot images of his political enemies, slinging allegations of mortgage fraud at his arch enemy Adam Schiff, and lying about positive polling numbers, and that’s just a small sample of his ragings.

A major opportinity has opened up for Trump to get his hoaxing train back on track and squelch this embarrasing Epstein business.  Start labeling the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict as a hoax.  How hard would it be for Trump to sell that narrative to his fawning tribe.  Sure she’s a convicted pedophile, but no one can spin it like Trump.  After all, he’s the guy that somehow managed to convince millions of people to disregard what they saw with their own eyes on January 6th 2021 and believe in the almighty word of Trump.  The Democrats and mainstream media would have you believe it was a rampaging insurrection incited by none other than President Trump. Gasp. Hoax! Hoax!

If I may Mr president.  That’s the playbook.  Stick to it.  I know it looks bad.  Word is you are mentioned over 100 times in the Epstein files.  And I must say, good thinking with that preemptive  move, you know, sending in about a thousand federal prosecutors and FBI agents to scour the data for any mention of the word “Trump.”  Decisive action like that shows the nation you are the president and you mean business.  You know you have the power to do anything you want.  Remember- the Supreme Court said so.  So get back on that horse and lasso this thing, cowboy!  Hoax!  That’s the ticket.  Ghislaine Maxwell’s convictions- all a HOAX.  When she conveniently reveals that she can’t ever recall  seeing you with Jeffrey Epstein, go ahead and pardon her. You don’t want all that work Todd Blanch did to prep her go to waste.   Remember, you pardoned and commuted over 1,500  Jan 6th convicts and there was hardly a peep.  All the photos and video of you cavorting with Epstein- AI.  All a hoax.  Of course you might want to see to it your professional loyalists take care of loose ends like making sure anything that looks “hoaxy” disappears.

You are the omnipotent president for god’s sake, with unparalleled media power behind you.  If you don’t control all of it quite yet, what everyone realizes now is the simple threat of litigation will remarkably force media outliers to get in line.  So stay the course.  HOAX, HOAX.  You can now spread the word like soft butter over warm toast.

During a Truth Social rant a few days ago, President Trump threatened to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington D.C. unless the local NFL team now known as the Commanders, changes their name back to the Redskins.  The team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a degrading racial slur with links to US genocide of indiginous populations.

“I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original Washington Redskins and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, Washington Commanders, I won’t make a deal for them to build a stadium in Washington,” he stated on his social media platform.

In an obvious reference to his war on DEI, Trump also said “Times are different now than they were three or four years ago.  We are a country of passion and common sense.  OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!”

Later, when asked to clarify why he would resurrect such a contentious issue, Trump seemed firm in his response. “That name change was a disgrace, a bunch of woke nonsense.  We all remember those pesky redskins.  One of them came up to me just the other day, big man, strong man, war paint streaming down his cheeks.  He said “sir, sir, why did white man change name of football team?  Me, redskin.  Call me redskin, my heart will soar like a hawk.  You, heap big chief, you make white man change name back!’  I gotta tell you ol’ Red, I call him Red, he was really mad.  You don’t want to piss off those redskins I’ll tell you. They’ll SKIN YOU ALIVE! They have those special scalping knifes.  Of course in the old days they were called ‘dirty redskins’ because they fought kind of dirty- the scalping, flaming arrows, nasty war clubs with nails in them.  And living in those Teepee’s they didn’t really shower or anything.   But we took care of that, cleaned them up, sent the kids to nice schools and got rid of all the buffalo so they finally started eating right.  When we get back our great football team, the’ Washington Redskins,’ I think the players should wear different colors of that stuff they smear on their faces, some nice red and blue, like, flag colors, maybe some white, to look more like real redskins.  Ol’ Red would really like that. I don’t like that black color. There’s too much black going around. I think the fans would like to see their Redskins look more like real Redskins.  If that doesn’t happen, then, well, management might be getting a visit from the tax auditor.”

Sticking with a theme of merging the good old days with the new age, Trump also reminded his supporters that there was a time when pedophilia was commonly accepted, and it was time everyone moved on from the practice’s social distain.  “I can’t believe people are still talking about sexual abuse of children.  We should be talking about all the great things I have done to make America great again.  I have gotten more things done in 6 months than any previous president got done in  four years.  That’s what people should be talking about.”  He went on to mention that the age of concent has kept creeping upward over the years, and states needed to get back to the good old days and take a hard look at lowering it or getting rid of it altogether. The importance of compliance in this regard seems paramount to Trump since he threatened to withhold federal funding of any kind to states that do not submit to his desire.  

The first part of this particular blog is basically a reprint of my Omaha World Herald article published in the public pulse section on 7/17/25 and is italicized.  I mention that because this is a tediously long blog and skipping that part will save you some time.  The remainder is related stuff to a subject I can not seem to let go of- which is my quest to try and understand how so many people in this country have become disinterested in objective truth.  I do consider Trump to be the catalyst of the spiraling decline of factual observance, but still feel there is so much more to unravel.  It is a tortuous journey for me.

You could argue President Trump’s power is his cunning ability to manipulate.  I’m not sure where that comes from.  He has that “deal maker” image that was perhaps honed and embellished as a TV personality. Regarless he does have that uncanny knack to persuade large groups of people to believe whatever he says. They let him get by with all sorts of flip flopping- the Tic Tok Ban, legalizing marijuana, crypto, abortion, opinion of Putin, to name a few.  But currently he is attempting to push the credulity envelope further with the ever tricky flip flop FLIP maneuver.  Example one: his on, off, on again tariff policy. Example two: his circling stance on deporting essential immigrant labor.  Initially, he was in the Steven Miller camp of ban all the brown, then it was let’s let those doing all the back breaking work stay awhile, but within 24 hours he changed his mind again and decided Miller had the right idea.  Example three: his Epstein file position.  In his second term, he has stated, somewhat reluctanly at times, that he would approve the release of all of the Epstein information.  Then, at the 11th hour last week, he had a change of heart and declared the files AG Bondi had on her desk really didn’t exist.  Then in an effort to deal with vitriolic backlash from his conspiracy starved base, he issued a disjointed social media post in which he admits that the Epstein documents do exist, but were created by his usual antagonists- Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton and ex-Cia chief Brennan.  A conspiracy engineered by the ultimate conspiracy promoter. Will his clever slight of hand once again go unnoticed by his minions? 

A  more consequential question is how did we even get to this point with this Epstein mess?  Sadly, what it all points to is what founders like John Adams and Ben Franklin knew to be one of the  most important condition for the survival of of democracy- an informed public.  For years, pictures and video snippets of Trump cavorting with Epstein circulated freely on almost all of mainstream/network media.  It’s been everywhere.  Everywhere that is except right wing media.  Ok I can’t say I know that for sure, because the only expoure I have to right wing media is Fox News, and I only watch that while channel surfing during commercial breaks or out of curiosity to see what Fox is currently reporting.  But that conclusion only makes sense.  If all that Trump/Epstein revelry is readily presented on right wing media, surely the loyal MAGA crowd would understand the last thing Trump would want is to be exposed to embarassiment, or worse, criminal entanglement.  The logical conclusion is that information has generally been absent from or glossed over by right wing media.

Of course his supporters have to be confused.  Up until now Trump has said he would see to it that all the Epstein details would be released.  That’s because he had to.  When all the Epstein conspiracy and  predation stories initially took flight years ago, they  almost always involved some kind of “deep state,” or a  cabal of  pedophilic elitist Democrats who  nurish themself with the blood of children.  Sensing  politcal opportunity Trump went right along promoting them.  So Trump has no one but himself to blame for his awkward predicament.  He knows there is a good chance his name could be prominent in some of the sordid Epstein minutiae.

So now Trump is drawing hard on his powers of persuation, hoping he can make this story disappear.  That power is amazingly potent.   Persuading Fox News to stop their reporting on the issue will be high on Trump’s agenda, but that will deplete little energy from his power pack.  Other actions will prove to be more energy consuming.  After all, this is the guy who promised he was different.  He was going to drain the swamp and strip away the cover of the “deep state.”  He projected himself as the country’s savior, and decked himself out in a digitilized Superman costume to prove it.  All the things the conspiracy theorists were concerned about, he would expose.  He professed to be a straight shooter who would humble the powerful elitists and make them suffer.

All that has worked, up till now. The Epstein business has turned all that on its head.  Now from all appearances Trump is the one with something to hide, the one not telling the truth, part of the “deep state.”  In the scheme of things, it is hard to figure in a way.  I mean, after all Trump’s verifyable, factual offenses, the lying and grifting,  instigating an insurrectin and all the other horrible assaults on democracy and his dismissive moral conduct, and head scratching policies that contravene the best interests of his political base,  the Epstein saga is the thing that is jamming him in the ass?

But people want answers.  Not just entrenched members of MAGA, but almost everyone.  The word Epstein is synonimous with sex trafficking and pedophilia and I feel sorry for anyone with the last name Epstein right now.  Even prominent Trump deciples House Speaker Mike Johnson and VP Vance want answers.  What’s the deal there?  I know they probably only watch Fox News, but they can’t be totally clueless about Trump’s connection with Epstein.  I have a feeling Trump will be using his compelling powers of persuasion to convince both to remove the Eptein entree from their political plates.

It took awhile, but here is my point.  If our country had a generally informed citizenry, Trump would not be in this mess.  If MAGA fanatics had exited their information silos occasionally they might  have seen enough of the Epstein-Trump connection to conclude that if they truly still believed in the double standard diety of Trump, the last thing they should do is insist on any kind of investigation concerning it.  After all, they have consistently ignored Trump’s rancid amoral behavior in the past.

And even more to the point, If we had a generally well informed citizenry, our country wouldn’t be in this mess.  That’s because outside of a minority of anarchists, a well informed republic  would never have elected a narcissistic authoritarian who’s main concern is enriching himself  rather than the affairs of governing.  The bombardment of conspiracy saturated  right wing media is what got us here and entwined us all in this convoluted Epstein scandal.   Like never before, our 21st century existence offers  hundreds of choices when it comes to selecting our sources of information.  But paradoxically many people have limited their options to a narrow set of preferences.  I think most of us are guilty of resorting to the comfort of our own information silos.   We are now experiencing the danger in that.  We’ve become less tolerant of different opinions and unaware of critical facts.

It is more important than ever to carefully choose our information sources.  Support, not vilify, the free press.  Without it we loose the most important hedge against political corruption.  Professional journalists working for traditional media companies will present the truth, and if they make a mistake they will own up to it. Support your local newspaper and make your local TV news stations a primary source of infomation.   Programs offering different viewpoints are usually good choices.  Be careful not to get sucked into social media propaganda.  Take the time to fact check suspicious stories.  Rueters Fact Check, Associated Press Fact Check, and Snopes are reliable fact checking sites.

Going full circle, the Epstein business appears to be a significant threat to MAGA solidarity .  But Trump is a master at extracting himself from  a treacherous morass, and honestly, he is possibly the luckiest SOB to ever walk the planet.  His fanatical base will not desert him. That is explained best by one of Carl Sagan’s most famous quotes-  “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we have been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.  We are no longer interested in finding out the truth.  The bamboozle has captured us.  It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.  Once you give a charltan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

But the Epstein saga is a very serious matter that does need closure. Trump has the power to make that happen.  The fact that he is squirming like a fresh worm on a fish hook over this is not a good sign that he will effectually cooperate.  You would think if there was nothing nefarious about his relationship with Epstein, Trump would want any documentation related to it released to clear his name    Unfortunately we are probably in for a classic Trump siege of delay and diversion.

As you’ve probably heard Attorney General Pam Bondi has miraculously made the “Epstein Files” disappear.  Maga world is pissed.  They are obsessed with everything Epstein.  Adamant conspiracy theorists among them are convinced such a list would be riddled with the names of prominent  Democrats, thus linking them to Epstein’s pedophilic enterprise.    Bondi already disappointed them with the release of the first phase of the declassified Epstien files in February, which revealed nothing new.  To ward off criticism she boldly stated later she had thousands of pages of new material on her desk waiting for her review.   FBI Director Patel and FBI Deputy Director Bongino, who before their government appointments were promoting their own Epstein conspiracy theories, are now in sync with Bondi,  saying there is nothing to see here.  Now it’s not just Maga members who want answers.  And the die hard Maga crowd wants Bondi fired!  What’s going on?  Hmmm.  There is this. Grabbing is Kind of His Thing  Leftist conspiracy theory or not, this is the kind of thing that typically shrinks a politicians nuts.  And Bondi was chosen to be Trump’s AG to specifically  protect the family jewels and castrate Trump’s enemies.

How is Trump handling the Epstein situation?  Well he did get a little “teste” when asked about it during a July 8th cabinet meeting.  Someone Poked a Sore Spot  And the next day Trump’s justice department initiated an investigation of formet FBI Director Comey and former CIA chief Brennan.  The Top Branch of Trump’s Enemies Tree  How many times have we seen Trump pull diversion out of his play book when things get a little toasty.  From appearances any investigation in this regard will be an exercise in futility. It’s old news already covered by the  the exhaustive  Durham report.

On the topic of Trump retribution, how about the 50% tariff on Brazil.  Birds of a Feather This is just another example of what really motivates Trump- his lust for power.   This has nothing to do with economics.  It’s all about power, the power to do just about whatever he wants as president.  He has no business meddling in another sovereign nation’s judicial procedures.

And to the point, Trump’s understanding of tariffs is just that- leveraging  his power, to bully, a blunt instrument to be used indiscriminantly without regard to repercussions.  Nevermind the damage to our country and other nations of the world.  It’s becoming clear he has little proper perception of the nuances of applying tariffs. All the mind-spinning whipsawing with tariffs is reminiscent of his incoherent rally ramblings he called “the weave.”  It’s a method of masking his incompetence, but it doesn’t matter  because he is ever confident in his power to intimidate.  But that doesn’t seem to be working with his tariffs .  So far, of the 90 tariff deals Trump was supposed to have signed off on in 90 days, the score is zero.  In hand are just two cursory agreements without official details.

Trump is hardly concerned with affairs of the nation.  He doesn’t seem to even want to be in charge of some aspects of governing.  Recently when there was a Ukranian weapons pause, he was initially surprised about the incident, and admitted he had no idea who stopped the shipments.  (Spoiler allert- it was Hegseth’s Department of Defense). Trump’s chief interests are personal, and confined principally to three things- staying out of jail, retribution, and personal enrichment.  I think you can safely say, from Trump’s perspective anyway, so far this second term has been a resounding success.

We have had presidents with scandal tarnished administrations in the past, but few, if any, have used the office to gain improper wealth, certainly not to the degree of President Trump.  His conduct is a smash and grab operation that is destroying our institutions and norms with the dual intentions of consolidating executive power and extracting personal enrichment.  Much of the graft has the appearance of extortion, a payment of fealty scheme.  Those that can do anything about it are either cowardly complicit, craven participants in the grift, or seemingly paralytically dumbstruck  by Trump’s sheer shamelessness.  Our democratic way of life is getting pummeled.  It’s not only our constitutional institutions. It’s our health, well being and culture, a national culture that is defined by, and relies on our greatest asset- our diversity.  E plurbus unum (out of many, one). Things like  restricting international students and research funding, discarding mRNA vaccine technology, purging library and medical text, will make our society less healthy and dumber and our country weaker. Trump is introducing us to a kleptocratic, Orwellian future. Orwell’s novel “1984” is in it’s 75th anniversary printing.  It’s worth a re-read.  You might want to grab a copy before Trump’s “Ministry of Truth” bans it