Oh Jack, how I want Thomas Massie to “go out in a blaze of glory” by reading into the record names, all those names of the men, and some women, who are named in those files. I want November to deliver a Blue Senate and Blue Congress, and Patel charged with lying under oath to Congress, a felony and then have that slippery, corrupt little weasel, IMPEACHED! A very large list of things I want and am doing what I can, supporting those we can and working hard to see this want delivered in November!! Thank you for all you do…and one year later you’re looking pretty darn good in what you thought would happen…not 100%, but damn good…and because of Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna #ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles and memes supporting that are EVERYWHERE!! We won’t forget!
I won't pretend the image doesn't have its appeal. I will not.
Let me offer one small reframe, though...because I think it matters: the "blaze of glory" is the catharsis...but the accountability is the discipline.
A name entered into the record...through a process that makes it STICK... does more LASTING damage to the people who've hidden...than any single dramatic moment ever could.
I want the version they can't later wave away...as bullshit theater, and...as you know...they LOVE that.
On the officials who may have misled Congress under oath... I'll stay careful and put it as a principle rather than a verdict: lying to Congress should absolutely carry consequences...and "SHOULD" only becomes "DOES"...when the pressure is relentless...and the evidence is ON the record.
That's the unglamorous machinery...that actually delivers the outcomes you're after.
Yes...the slower speed of that way...pisses me off as well. Believe me, I feel your pain...and desire for urency. I do!
What I MOST want to salute...is the last part of your note: you're not just wanting... you're WORKING...supporting people...showing up...doing what you CAN.
That's the ENTIRE game.
November is where all of this stops being SENTIMENT... and becomes POWER...and it belongs to the people who did the QUIET work all year.
You're right that a bipartisan push...Massie...Khanna...and the weight behind them... is what pried this into DAYLIGHT. Proof it isn't wishful thinking; it's what sustained ATTENTION does.
As for the predictions...thank you, though I'll keep my usual "honest, not perfect."
Getting the rough shape right...only counts if we keep UPDATING... as it unfolds. We won't forget. We damn sure won't!
This is great. I mean, not all the facts are pleasant, but as a really, really long time consumer of information and current events, it’s the in depth reporting and analysis we find here that really makes you think. And as that consumer of said, I have never seen a piece like this, you are fearlessly keeping the record straight. No vanity, no ego, just the stories.
Randy...this means a great deal...especially from someone who's been consuming this stuff as long as you have.
You've got a long baseline to judge against...so "I've never seen a piece like this" lands HARD.
You're right...that not all the facts are pleasant; I remind myself often...that the job isn't to comfort... it's to keep the record STRAIGHT...and let people think for themselves.
That you feel the absence of ego in it...is maybe the best thing you could have said.
I love that he presents things in a way that drives us to think more about each situation. We give it deeper thought and not just read the words on the page.
Frankly, I don't know why Massie doesn't just stand on a street corner and read the names out loud. Johnson's never going to give him the floor. I just don't get it.
And here's the thing, every day there is a new disgusting thing revealed, so things that are a month or 6 months or a year old are forgotten because there are so many disgusting things going on. Hard to keep it all in perspective, but still we need to be #holdingfast. With our fingers gripping as tightly as possible.
Roberta...there's a real reason it has to be the floor...and it's the thing that makes the entire standoff make sense: the Speech or Debate Clause.
Anything a member says in a formal proceeding is legally UNTOUCHABLE; no defamation suit...no liability.
Read those same names on a street corner...and Massie personally eats every lawsuit that follows. So...Johnson denying him the floor...isn't a scheduling quirk; it's denying him the ONE place his words are PROTECTED. That's why the floor is the WHOLE damn war.
You've named the other weapon EXACTLY.
The flood is the strategy...bury each outrage under the next one...until nothing sticks ...and everyone's too exhausted to hold ANY single thing in focus. The counter is MEMORY: refusing to let the month-old horror disappear...just because a fresh one arrived.
That's a lot of what I'm trying to do here. Fingers gripped tight.
Our expectations exceeded the results. The distraction machine of this administration works over time to churn out new outrage to keep us off balance. One could hope that Massie burns it all down by reading off names, yet time after time those that could rise to the occasion fall into line. It becomes incumbent on us to keep the pressure up by calling our house representatives and Senators. It must be pretty damn bad if they work this hard to cover it up. #Holdfast
As a matter of fact...my wife DOES have a new recommendation: The Recruit. There is enough overlap with Homeland that I think it will possibly be something of interest to you.
I really like what you've done, Jack. I deeply appreciate your willingness to revisit what you got right, what was close, etc. It takes a ton of integrity and courage to do that. Thank you.
In regards to the Epstein files….. I’m really hoping Katie Phang’s lawsuit manages to pry the documents loose, at least the ones in her filing…
I used to think that releasing literally everything, let the chips fall where they will, hang ‘em all was the best approach. I have not really changed my mind and…. I also now find myself wondering if the world could manage the implosion I suspect might be in the offing if the files contain half of what I suspect. Things are very tenuous these days with crises looming if we don’t get the Middle East situation resolved. Don’t get me wrong…. ALL the players need to be held accountable - Every. Single. One. My question is: are we ready for the truth and can we handle what happens after it comes out?? I didn’t have these reservations last fall….. the world feels like it’s in a very different place now.
Let me push gently on your question, because I think the framing is where the risk lives. "Are we ready for the truth?" is...historically, the question asked most often by the people who'd rather we never got it.
Withholding hard facts...to protect stability...tends to protect whoever those facts IMPLICATE...and it rarely even buys the stability it promises...because concealment ...and rumor....corrode trust FASTER than disclosure ever could.
What unravels a society...isn't knowing; it's the growing certainty...it's being LIED TO.
So I'd flip it: readiness isn't the price of admission for the truth. We become steady enough to hold it...by refusing to be managed OUT of it.
Where I part slightly from "let the chips fall, hang 'em all" isn't on accountability... EVERY single one, as you say...but on method.
The lawful route you're hoping for, prying the files loose through the courts...with survivors protected...is slower than a bonfire...BUT... it's the version that can't later be dismissed as a mob.
That's what makes it stick. I know...it takes a few deep breaths to embrace that. I know, believe me.
And...the "world's too tenuous right now" worry...I feel it too, but that moment never actually ends; there's always a crisis to point to. The discipline...is becoming people who can hold a HARD TRUTH...without coming APART.
Great review of expectations and the things that changed. I think the continuous fire hose they keep going is part of the problem. The names need to be revealed. Europe is doing a better job of punishing their citizens for being involved with Epstein and we keep covering it up or delaying it because of drumpf. We need to keep pressure on and keep them uncomfortable. Thanks for the review.
You've named the mechanism exactly; the fire hose isn't a byproduct...it's the STRATEGY.
The volume is meant to SCATTER our attention...so nothing lands LONG ENOUGH to matter. Which is why the discipline...is choosing what we REFUSE to look away FROM ...and this...is one of those things.
The contrast with how some of this has been handled abroad...is worth sitting with... mostly because it punctures the resignation: if accountability is possible SOMEWHERE...then the delay...HERE is a CHOICE...not a law of nature...and anything that's a CHOICE... can be reversed by enough sustained PRESSURE.
Keeping the powerful...UNCOMFORTABLE...is EXACTLY right; as long as we keep it relentless...and SPECIFIC... rather than letting it flare...and fade.
Thank you, Jack. I appreciate your integrity in taking a hard look at your previous analysis, updating with present knowledge, and then sharing it publicly.
Updating your read when the facts change...shouldn't take guts; it should just be the work. But...I know it's gotten rarer...and it's far easier to do...knowing some readers would rather I be honest...than tidy.
That's the whole reason this thing works...and I thank YOU...for being an important part of it!
Jack, this was a very honest and open article and I appreciate your willingness to critique yourself. You did well.. Not perfect but no one could achieve perfection under these circumstances.
I’ve seen the magicians name elsewhere.. here on SubStack.. named by someone who now faces very credible death threats.. not specific to the magician… and now her minor daughter has been pulled into the situation. Her family is going through hell and this person sees everything she writes or records and knows where she lives. The FBI is now involved. I’m concerned for her and her family.
If it’s the magician I think it is… I’m not the least bit surprised. There are two but this one is more prominent. Prince Andrew is pretty obvious.
I would give anything to have Massie stand up and read the names on the record. I’m sure the survivors would too. Can Johnson actually deny him the floor indefinitely? I didn’t know that was possible but there’s probably plenty of procedural things that I don’t know.
If Massie isn’t able or willing to do it, then the survivors could… but I completely understand why they’re hesitant. It could open them and their families up to so much and they’ve been through so much. My mind jumps back to your piece on duty to help bring the perpetrators to justice. I’ll leave that there.
I hope somehow justice will prevail but I wouldn’t put money on it. Yes, I guess I’m one of those people who has lost a great deal of confidence in our justice system. How is it possible not to, given all that’s happened over the past decade and even further back?
Thank you...Susan...and thank you for the grace in "not perfect."
That's the standard I can actually meet: honest...not flawless.
What you describe about that writer and her family...is chilling...and I don't say that lightly. Someone monitoring what she posts...knowing where she lives...and now a child caught up in it...that should stop all of us cold.
I'm relieved the FBI is involved...because that's exactly where this belongs. There are STILL good people there. No...not as many, but...there are some.
The most useful thing any of us can do...from the outside...is resist amplifying the threats or the guessing games around names...that spotlight is often PRECISELY what the people making threats are after.
On that: you'll notice with JHN... I stay careful with names until they're on the record. Not because the questions aren't fair...but because the ENTIRE thing depends on getting the truth established...where it can't later be waved AWAY. Speculation is cheap; the record...is what lasts.
As for the floor...leadership does have enormous control over what gets a vote...and the usual way around that is slow...and painful (a discharge petition needs a full majority to sign on).
So...yes...it CAN be stalled, if rarely forever. Whoever ends up speaking...you're right that the cost falls hardest on the people who've already paid the most. (And as you know, I have some strong feelings about that.)
That tension...the duty to bring it into the light....versus the price of doing so...is EXACTLY the knot I was trying to sit with in that earlier piece. I don't think there's a clean answer....only the steady REFUSAL to let it stay buried.
Your lost confidence is earned, Susan...and I won't try to argue you out of it. I'd only offer that confidence and effort aren't the same thing; we can keep the pressure on without needing to believe the system will do right on its OWN. That's what holding fast actually means.
Thank you, Jack. I appreciate the explanation on the things I had questions and concerns about. I need to look up how many more rulings are due from this session of the Supreme Court and what they are. I think it would help me to be prepared.
For the suppression of known evidence to continue to stay this hidden, the names must shake the world to its core. I would not be surprised if the revelations brought crisis around the globe.
Robert...the instinct is understandable; secrecy this determined...DOES suggest there's something worth hiding...and the effort to keep it buried is ITSELF...a kind of evidence.
Where I'd plant my flag is here: our job is to KEEP demanding that it see daylight...and THEN...follow it wherever it actually leads...without writing the ending in advance.
If the names are as significant as the concealment implies...and, like you...I'm confident they are...the disciplined pressure for disclosure...is what forces them out.
I’ve read that so many places but that is being stated by the people who know all the stories, I think. Maybe a warning of sorts? There are still many more of us than them and many people are ready to deal with what comes next.
File the date of this newsletter. Not because it grades itself — though the grades are earned — but because of what the scorecard reveals when read as a single document rather than a list of predictions.
Note which items on the “correct” ledger share a common structure. Massie. Feudalism. 302 interviews. Patel. Each of these was dismissed, when first raised, as hyperbole. Each has since been confirmed not by investigators or prosecutors but by the visible behavior of the institutions themselves. The tell was never the evidence. The tell was always the resistance to producing it.
This is the historical pattern worth filing. Authoritarian consolidation does not announce itself. It reveals itself through what it refuses to release, what it declines to prosecute, what it buries inside procedural language and classification stamps. The Epstein files are not an exception to this pattern. They are its clearest current expression.
Note which name sits at the intersection of every thread Hopkins identified: a prosecutor who became a defense attorney who became a nominee for the office that controls the files. Jes Staley understood his exposure before most observers understood the question. The 302 interviews are not missing by accident. Documents that disappear inside bureaucracies do not wander. They are walked.
The “wrong” column deserves its own reading. What Hopkins got wrong was not analysis. It was timing. History does not move on the journalist’s deadline. It moves on the institution’s comfort level — until external pressure, legal exposure, or internal fracture forces the hand. We are watching all three develop simultaneously. That is not nothing. That is, in fact, the moment.
What comes next is the question historians will study. Not whether the evidence exists — it does. Not whether the pattern is clear — it is. But whether the mechanism for accountability survives long enough to use it. Note which branch of government just handed the executive the power to remove anyone who might answer that question honestly.
I can't believe that so many in our government have so little ethics or morality and that they do not care about the victims. I wonder if they would take action if it was their wife, daughter, niece, or grandchild? I suspect not. The illusion of power is more important to them. They just don't realize that they can be discarded on a whim as well.
Your observations on the impact of the Epstein file release is right on the money. I suspect, and this is only my opinion, that the impact will directly impact Trump financially and like will result in his impeachment and eventual removal from office. Trump's donors have likely threatened to withhold future donations if the files are released.
I hate that this fight to expose criminals still continues but this isn't just the GOP.
Democrat administrations of Obama and Biden could have "leaked" a few of these details and got the ball rolling much earlier. Maybe Trump never would have been elected if he'd been exposed before 2016.
Oh Jack, how I want Thomas Massie to “go out in a blaze of glory” by reading into the record names, all those names of the men, and some women, who are named in those files. I want November to deliver a Blue Senate and Blue Congress, and Patel charged with lying under oath to Congress, a felony and then have that slippery, corrupt little weasel, IMPEACHED! A very large list of things I want and am doing what I can, supporting those we can and working hard to see this want delivered in November!! Thank you for all you do…and one year later you’re looking pretty darn good in what you thought would happen…not 100%, but damn good…and because of Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna #ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles and memes supporting that are EVERYWHERE!! We won’t forget!
Christie..I love the fire!
I won't pretend the image doesn't have its appeal. I will not.
Let me offer one small reframe, though...because I think it matters: the "blaze of glory" is the catharsis...but the accountability is the discipline.
A name entered into the record...through a process that makes it STICK... does more LASTING damage to the people who've hidden...than any single dramatic moment ever could.
I want the version they can't later wave away...as bullshit theater, and...as you know...they LOVE that.
On the officials who may have misled Congress under oath... I'll stay careful and put it as a principle rather than a verdict: lying to Congress should absolutely carry consequences...and "SHOULD" only becomes "DOES"...when the pressure is relentless...and the evidence is ON the record.
That's the unglamorous machinery...that actually delivers the outcomes you're after.
Yes...the slower speed of that way...pisses me off as well. Believe me, I feel your pain...and desire for urency. I do!
What I MOST want to salute...is the last part of your note: you're not just wanting... you're WORKING...supporting people...showing up...doing what you CAN.
That's the ENTIRE game.
November is where all of this stops being SENTIMENT... and becomes POWER...and it belongs to the people who did the QUIET work all year.
You're right that a bipartisan push...Massie...Khanna...and the weight behind them... is what pried this into DAYLIGHT. Proof it isn't wishful thinking; it's what sustained ATTENTION does.
As for the predictions...thank you, though I'll keep my usual "honest, not perfect."
Getting the rough shape right...only counts if we keep UPDATING... as it unfolds. We won't forget. We damn sure won't!
That's what holding fast is for.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Right there with you all the way Jack!!!
This is great. I mean, not all the facts are pleasant, but as a really, really long time consumer of information and current events, it’s the in depth reporting and analysis we find here that really makes you think. And as that consumer of said, I have never seen a piece like this, you are fearlessly keeping the record straight. No vanity, no ego, just the stories.
Randy...this means a great deal...especially from someone who's been consuming this stuff as long as you have.
You've got a long baseline to judge against...so "I've never seen a piece like this" lands HARD.
You're right...that not all the facts are pleasant; I remind myself often...that the job isn't to comfort... it's to keep the record STRAIGHT...and let people think for themselves.
That you feel the absence of ego in it...is maybe the best thing you could have said.
Thank you, Randy!
-Jack
I love that he presents things in a way that drives us to think more about each situation. We give it deeper thought and not just read the words on the page.
Frankly, I don't know why Massie doesn't just stand on a street corner and read the names out loud. Johnson's never going to give him the floor. I just don't get it.
And here's the thing, every day there is a new disgusting thing revealed, so things that are a month or 6 months or a year old are forgotten because there are so many disgusting things going on. Hard to keep it all in perspective, but still we need to be #holdingfast. With our fingers gripping as tightly as possible.
Roberta...there's a real reason it has to be the floor...and it's the thing that makes the entire standoff make sense: the Speech or Debate Clause.
Anything a member says in a formal proceeding is legally UNTOUCHABLE; no defamation suit...no liability.
Read those same names on a street corner...and Massie personally eats every lawsuit that follows. So...Johnson denying him the floor...isn't a scheduling quirk; it's denying him the ONE place his words are PROTECTED. That's why the floor is the WHOLE damn war.
You've named the other weapon EXACTLY.
The flood is the strategy...bury each outrage under the next one...until nothing sticks ...and everyone's too exhausted to hold ANY single thing in focus. The counter is MEMORY: refusing to let the month-old horror disappear...just because a fresh one arrived.
That's a lot of what I'm trying to do here. Fingers gripped tight.
-Jack
Of course, I wasn't thinking about the Speech and Debate clause. Thanks for reminding me.
Thanks for the educational critique.
John...you're welcome.
-Jack
Our expectations exceeded the results. The distraction machine of this administration works over time to churn out new outrage to keep us off balance. One could hope that Massie burns it all down by reading off names, yet time after time those that could rise to the occasion fall into line. It becomes incumbent on us to keep the pressure up by calling our house representatives and Senators. It must be pretty damn bad if they work this hard to cover it up. #Holdfast
Kristine...you put your finger on EXACTLY how it's built to work: the churn ONLY succeeds...if it keeps us OFF balance.
So...the quiet refusal to be knocked around...STAYING clear-eyed...staying IN it...is ITSELF...the pushback.
You named the tell yourself: when they work this hard to BURY something...the effort ...is the evidence.
The instinct to pick up the phone is the right one. Unglamorous...repeatable pressure moves them FAR more than any SINGLE hearing ever will.
Grateful to have you reading and holding the line with me, Kristine!
#Holdfast
-Jack
You did pretty darn well, I must say.
Hey, would you ask your wife what’s good that I can watch next on Netflix. I fear I’ve been ruined by Homeland.
Rae...ha! Homeland is stellar, yes?!
As a matter of fact...my wife DOES have a new recommendation: The Recruit. There is enough overlap with Homeland that I think it will possibly be something of interest to you.
-Jack
Oh, yay!!! Thank her for me, please! I’m going to look it up right now. Looking forward to it.
Will do!
I loved that show, but somehow lost the end in my brain. I loved how they took out the entire regime all at once. Keep wishing for that to happen 👹
Right, Rachel?!
-Jack
I really like what you've done, Jack. I deeply appreciate your willingness to revisit what you got right, what was close, etc. It takes a ton of integrity and courage to do that. Thank you.
In regards to the Epstein files….. I’m really hoping Katie Phang’s lawsuit manages to pry the documents loose, at least the ones in her filing…
I used to think that releasing literally everything, let the chips fall where they will, hang ‘em all was the best approach. I have not really changed my mind and…. I also now find myself wondering if the world could manage the implosion I suspect might be in the offing if the files contain half of what I suspect. Things are very tenuous these days with crises looming if we don’t get the Middle East situation resolved. Don’t get me wrong…. ALL the players need to be held accountable - Every. Single. One. My question is: are we ready for the truth and can we handle what happens after it comes out?? I didn’t have these reservations last fall….. the world feels like it’s in a very different place now.
Thoughts?? Again, thank you.
Deb...Thank you...that means a lot.
Let me push gently on your question, because I think the framing is where the risk lives. "Are we ready for the truth?" is...historically, the question asked most often by the people who'd rather we never got it.
Withholding hard facts...to protect stability...tends to protect whoever those facts IMPLICATE...and it rarely even buys the stability it promises...because concealment ...and rumor....corrode trust FASTER than disclosure ever could.
What unravels a society...isn't knowing; it's the growing certainty...it's being LIED TO.
So I'd flip it: readiness isn't the price of admission for the truth. We become steady enough to hold it...by refusing to be managed OUT of it.
Where I part slightly from "let the chips fall, hang 'em all" isn't on accountability... EVERY single one, as you say...but on method.
The lawful route you're hoping for, prying the files loose through the courts...with survivors protected...is slower than a bonfire...BUT... it's the version that can't later be dismissed as a mob.
That's what makes it stick. I know...it takes a few deep breaths to embrace that. I know, believe me.
And...the "world's too tenuous right now" worry...I feel it too, but that moment never actually ends; there's always a crisis to point to. The discipline...is becoming people who can hold a HARD TRUTH...without coming APART.
Thank you for thinking this through with me, Deb!
-Jack
Great review of expectations and the things that changed. I think the continuous fire hose they keep going is part of the problem. The names need to be revealed. Europe is doing a better job of punishing their citizens for being involved with Epstein and we keep covering it up or delaying it because of drumpf. We need to keep pressure on and keep them uncomfortable. Thanks for the review.
#HOLDFAST
Teri
Thank you, Teri.
You've named the mechanism exactly; the fire hose isn't a byproduct...it's the STRATEGY.
The volume is meant to SCATTER our attention...so nothing lands LONG ENOUGH to matter. Which is why the discipline...is choosing what we REFUSE to look away FROM ...and this...is one of those things.
The contrast with how some of this has been handled abroad...is worth sitting with... mostly because it punctures the resignation: if accountability is possible SOMEWHERE...then the delay...HERE is a CHOICE...not a law of nature...and anything that's a CHOICE... can be reversed by enough sustained PRESSURE.
Keeping the powerful...UNCOMFORTABLE...is EXACTLY right; as long as we keep it relentless...and SPECIFIC... rather than letting it flare...and fade.
Grateful to have you in this!
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
Thank you, Jack. I appreciate your integrity in taking a hard look at your previous analysis, updating with present knowledge, and then sharing it publicly.
That takes some guts.
Ellen...thank you...that means a lot.
Updating your read when the facts change...shouldn't take guts; it should just be the work. But...I know it's gotten rarer...and it's far easier to do...knowing some readers would rather I be honest...than tidy.
That's the whole reason this thing works...and I thank YOU...for being an important part of it!
-Jack
Jack, this was a very honest and open article and I appreciate your willingness to critique yourself. You did well.. Not perfect but no one could achieve perfection under these circumstances.
I’ve seen the magicians name elsewhere.. here on SubStack.. named by someone who now faces very credible death threats.. not specific to the magician… and now her minor daughter has been pulled into the situation. Her family is going through hell and this person sees everything she writes or records and knows where she lives. The FBI is now involved. I’m concerned for her and her family.
If it’s the magician I think it is… I’m not the least bit surprised. There are two but this one is more prominent. Prince Andrew is pretty obvious.
I would give anything to have Massie stand up and read the names on the record. I’m sure the survivors would too. Can Johnson actually deny him the floor indefinitely? I didn’t know that was possible but there’s probably plenty of procedural things that I don’t know.
If Massie isn’t able or willing to do it, then the survivors could… but I completely understand why they’re hesitant. It could open them and their families up to so much and they’ve been through so much. My mind jumps back to your piece on duty to help bring the perpetrators to justice. I’ll leave that there.
I hope somehow justice will prevail but I wouldn’t put money on it. Yes, I guess I’m one of those people who has lost a great deal of confidence in our justice system. How is it possible not to, given all that’s happened over the past decade and even further back?
Thank you, Jack!
#Holdfast
~Susan
Thank you...Susan...and thank you for the grace in "not perfect."
That's the standard I can actually meet: honest...not flawless.
What you describe about that writer and her family...is chilling...and I don't say that lightly. Someone monitoring what she posts...knowing where she lives...and now a child caught up in it...that should stop all of us cold.
I'm relieved the FBI is involved...because that's exactly where this belongs. There are STILL good people there. No...not as many, but...there are some.
The most useful thing any of us can do...from the outside...is resist amplifying the threats or the guessing games around names...that spotlight is often PRECISELY what the people making threats are after.
On that: you'll notice with JHN... I stay careful with names until they're on the record. Not because the questions aren't fair...but because the ENTIRE thing depends on getting the truth established...where it can't later be waved AWAY. Speculation is cheap; the record...is what lasts.
As for the floor...leadership does have enormous control over what gets a vote...and the usual way around that is slow...and painful (a discharge petition needs a full majority to sign on).
So...yes...it CAN be stalled, if rarely forever. Whoever ends up speaking...you're right that the cost falls hardest on the people who've already paid the most. (And as you know, I have some strong feelings about that.)
That tension...the duty to bring it into the light....versus the price of doing so...is EXACTLY the knot I was trying to sit with in that earlier piece. I don't think there's a clean answer....only the steady REFUSAL to let it stay buried.
Your lost confidence is earned, Susan...and I won't try to argue you out of it. I'd only offer that confidence and effort aren't the same thing; we can keep the pressure on without needing to believe the system will do right on its OWN. That's what holding fast actually means.
Thank you for being here. Truly.
#Holdfast
-Jack
Thank you, Jack. I appreciate the explanation on the things I had questions and concerns about. I need to look up how many more rulings are due from this session of the Supreme Court and what they are. I think it would help me to be prepared.
#Holdfast
~Susan
I am a more black and white thinker. To me the cost of justice is paid by participating in sexual assault.
Forgot about the very real danger to survivors.
Well, Jack, as you know: “The wheels of Justice grind exceedingly slow.”
Michel...indeed they do.
-Jack
For the suppression of known evidence to continue to stay this hidden, the names must shake the world to its core. I would not be surprised if the revelations brought crisis around the globe.
#HoldFast
Robert...the instinct is understandable; secrecy this determined...DOES suggest there's something worth hiding...and the effort to keep it buried is ITSELF...a kind of evidence.
Where I'd plant my flag is here: our job is to KEEP demanding that it see daylight...and THEN...follow it wherever it actually leads...without writing the ending in advance.
If the names are as significant as the concealment implies...and, like you...I'm confident they are...the disciplined pressure for disclosure...is what forces them out.
That's the work!
#HoldFast
-Jack
Agreed! We must continue to push for the release of the rest of the files for as long as it takes.
#HoldFast
I’ve read that so many places but that is being stated by the people who know all the stories, I think. Maybe a warning of sorts? There are still many more of us than them and many people are ready to deal with what comes next.
Jack is correct.
File the date of this newsletter. Not because it grades itself — though the grades are earned — but because of what the scorecard reveals when read as a single document rather than a list of predictions.
Note which items on the “correct” ledger share a common structure. Massie. Feudalism. 302 interviews. Patel. Each of these was dismissed, when first raised, as hyperbole. Each has since been confirmed not by investigators or prosecutors but by the visible behavior of the institutions themselves. The tell was never the evidence. The tell was always the resistance to producing it.
This is the historical pattern worth filing. Authoritarian consolidation does not announce itself. It reveals itself through what it refuses to release, what it declines to prosecute, what it buries inside procedural language and classification stamps. The Epstein files are not an exception to this pattern. They are its clearest current expression.
Note which name sits at the intersection of every thread Hopkins identified: a prosecutor who became a defense attorney who became a nominee for the office that controls the files. Jes Staley understood his exposure before most observers understood the question. The 302 interviews are not missing by accident. Documents that disappear inside bureaucracies do not wander. They are walked.
The “wrong” column deserves its own reading. What Hopkins got wrong was not analysis. It was timing. History does not move on the journalist’s deadline. It moves on the institution’s comfort level — until external pressure, legal exposure, or internal fracture forces the hand. We are watching all three develop simultaneously. That is not nothing. That is, in fact, the moment.
What comes next is the question historians will study. Not whether the evidence exists — it does. Not whether the pattern is clear — it is. But whether the mechanism for accountability survives long enough to use it. Note which branch of government just handed the executive the power to remove anyone who might answer that question honestly.
File that date too. They are the same story.
#HOLDFAST
What excellent comments!
I can't believe that so many in our government have so little ethics or morality and that they do not care about the victims. I wonder if they would take action if it was their wife, daughter, niece, or grandchild? I suspect not. The illusion of power is more important to them. They just don't realize that they can be discarded on a whim as well.
Your observations on the impact of the Epstein file release is right on the money. I suspect, and this is only my opinion, that the impact will directly impact Trump financially and like will result in his impeachment and eventual removal from office. Trump's donors have likely threatened to withhold future donations if the files are released.
I hate that this fight to expose criminals still continues but this isn't just the GOP.
Democrat administrations of Obama and Biden could have "leaked" a few of these details and got the ball rolling much earlier. Maybe Trump never would have been elected if he'd been exposed before 2016.