The Epstein Files Transparency Act (For Dummies)

Today, after months of stalling by leadership, the US House voted 427-1 to release ALL unclassified files related to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — a man so morally loathsome that he made Edward Kramer seem like an altar boy and so deft at concealment that he made some of the more recent SFWA leadership look positively transparent.

The one person who voted “No” was Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana, who says he is worried that the unredacted release of all unclassified files will hurt innocent people who’s names appear in them, which is absolutely the same sort of apologist bullshit some people who’d worked with Edward Kramer made back in the day, when JOBS IN HELL — my first foray into this genre as a professional, long before THE RISING, NO REST FOR THE WICKED, or 4X4 were ever published — first started looking into the allegations surrounding him. Those “innocent” people were all too happy to look the other way when it came to Edward Kramer having sex with children if it meant they could place a story in one of his anthologies or get a choice appearance at DragonCon or some other Atlanta-based speculative fiction event. I will never forget expressing my disgust and confusion one night in the old Horrornet chatroom, over why so many people in this industry looked the other way when it came to the allegations surrounding Kramer. And it was either Dick Laymon, John Pelan, or Ray Garton (all of whom were in chat that night) who, when I asked why, answered “Because he’s got the power”. And I know it’s fashionable these days to perhaps disregard the work of Laymon, Garton, or Pelan (which is itself a travesty but probably the subject for a different Blog entry), but the one thing I will go to my grave shouting is that those three men NEVER looked the other way in regards to Kramer. They just didn’t have the power to do anything about it themselves.

Edward Kramer (courtesy of Gwinnett Daily Post)

The people mentioned in the so-called Epstein Files are a similar ilk to Kramer’s cronies, except that instead of being writers, editors, publishers, and convention organizers, they are instead Republicans and Democrats, Conservatives and Progressives, CEOs and politicians. And none of those labels or self-identifiers matter, because what they really are, collectively, is men and women with wealth and power. They are Kramer’s cabal on steroids, and they still — even now in the 11th hour — wield that money and influence. We know, objectively, that Presidents Clinton and Trump are in those files. We know, objectively that so are a host of other political leaders, corporate honchos, and some of the highest names in academia, finance, etc. Do you really expect to see any of them go to jail? Do you truly believe Prince Andrew will suddenly be hauled off to prison, or that Clinton or Trump will face a real reckoning for their involvement, whatever it might have been?

Because kids, if you do, you must be new to disclosure in America. Because that’s not how any of this works. We will never learn the full truth behind Epstein any more than we will ever learn the full truth behind the Tuskegee study, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the UFO/UAP files, the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, King, or Malcom X, the complete Saudi connection to 9/11, or anything else that the collective American consciousness has questions about. I mean, for fuck’s sake, given the absolute wet fart, joke of a release this current administration pulled in regards to releasing the files on JFK and Martin Luther King, only an absolute brain dead moron or possibly a Kardashian would entrust any true disclosure in regards to Epstein.

As Ken Klippenstein wrote yesterday, national security will prevent full transparency.

Image courtesy of Ken Klippenstein’s Substack

What will happen is this:

The Senate will vote to confirm this, and Trump will make a big deal about signing it, and then Pam Bondi’s Justice Department will release the files, which she already did once before, before then turning around and saying there were no new files to release, except that there are now apparently, and those files will be full of redacted names and redacted information, and there will be many more files that will never be released, and this will all be done in the name of National Security, so that the people with real money and real power can continue to get away with it, just like they always have, and the world will keep on turning, just like it always has., and another entire generation of Americans will lose faith in this country and its leaders and its empty promises, just as they always have.

I am confused as to why so many of you still don’t understand why my dream is to go to Mars and get the hell away from everyone.