What’s striking about this account is how thoroughly it confirms that Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t merely a deviant aberration operating on the margins, but a grotesquely successful embodiment of a certain American male ideal. If we want to understand his power, we have to stop treating him solely as a monster and start seeing him as what many men quietly admire: hyper-confident, transgressive, socially omnivorous, plugged into money, intelligence, geopolitics, and sex with apparent impunity.
Epstein’s appeal to rich and powerful men was not mysterious. He projected mastery—over networks, secrets, women, and states. He moved easily among arms dealers, intelligence cut-outs, Gulf royalty, financiers, and political operatives, always implying that he knew more than he said and that rules were for other people. That posture maps closely onto a widely admired heterosexual alpha-male fantasy: effectiveness without accountability, appetite without restraint, and access without consequence.
Seen this way, the sexual crimes are not an accidental add-on to his power but part of the same ethos. Many men would recoil from Epstein’s scale of abuse, but far fewer object in principle to “a little” transgression, especially when it appears to be rewarded with status and protection. The admiration isn’t for the rapes themselves; it’s for the aura of untouchability that seemed to license everything else.
Burleigh’s reporting underscores this point by showing that Epstein’s real currency was usefulness. He wasn’t welcomed into elite circles because people were fooled about who he was; he was welcomed because who he was fit comfortably within existing norms of male power—norms that prize boldness, secrecy, leverage, and a willingness to operate in moral gray zones. If Epstein shocks us, it’s less because he was alien than because he reveals, in exaggerated form, what is already tolerated, envied, and sometimes aspired to.
Until that ideal is confronted, Epstein will keep being misread as a singular pathology rather than as a cautionary exemplar of where a certain model of masculinity, when fully indulged, actually leads.
Since T-Rump and Jeff were sourcing underage girls for their harems from foreign sources, slhould the international criminal courts be involved? Has there been foreign investigation of these crimes?
Great work on documenting/outlining Epstein's covert support for Israeli war-making and for verifying, IMHO, JE's cheerful pursuance of arms smuggling/laundering.
JE learned a lot at Bear Sterns. That includes every form of deception. That 'university' nurtured his creative talents in deception. Sun Tzu wrote "All war is deception." Epstein was an apt student, treating money-making and the rise to power as war.
We need to talk more about Adnan Khashoggi. He was called “the Great Gatsby of the Middle East.” He was known for throwing lavish parties for celebrities, politicians and business moguls alike. One location was his superyacht, the Nabila, named for his favorite daughter. This was literally used as a Bond villain lair in the movie, “Never Say Never Again.” The yacht served as the headquarters of a criminal mastermind, based, of course, on Khashoggi. The Nabila reportedly was filled with dozens of prostitutes, drugs and booze free flowing. It even had its own hospital and morgue.
For Epstein, a junior hustler more adept at keeping crooked books for shady millionaires, this must have seemed the life he aspired to. Khashoggi made the cover of magazines, has TV shows covering him and inspired by him. All while flouting celebrities and cultural notables all wallpapering over a life of not so secret crime.
When Iran-Contra went down, the CIA found an easy scapegoat in Khashoggi and the House of Saud grew sick of him being an embarrassment so his fortune cratered. His yacht was confiscated on a tax lien by the Sultan of Brunei, who sold it to none other than Donald Trump who rechristened it the “Trump Princess” after his favorite daughter, Ivanka. (Like I said, the business role model.)
Another figure connected to Iran-Contra was Robert Maxwell a British publishing tycoon who was born in what was at the time Czechoslovakia (now part of Ukraine) and fought valiantly for the Czech underground during WWII, drawing attention to both MI6 and the KGB. He fought for Israeli independence in 1947.
As a publisher, he gained access to world leaders doing what sometimes were fluff pieces on Eastern Bloc and other dictators. As such, he could be a courier from the UK government to world leaders. (And also, behind MI6’s back, to Israel and the Soviet Union as well.)
Maxwell’s use in Iran-Contra was that the Soviet Union was allied to both Iran and the Contras, so someone was going to have to grease the wheels at the Kremlin to keep them from exposing the deal. Eager to follow the advice of Sun Tzu: "Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake,” the Kremlin secretly agreed. So the US was not only betraying its vow never to support terrorists, it was handing their arch rivals, the Soviet Union KOMPROMAT on the United States.
The deal, greased with Pentagon money as well as Mossad, and the Saudis, eager to supplant the Islamic Republic, left cash that all sides tried to stash in every available hiding place on Earth, especially after the story was blown. How much Maxwell managed to hide, we’ll never know. Like Khashoggi, Maxwell started rupturing his fortune, especially when he financed bad loans against a major pension fund that squandered billions.
Maxwell died under mysterious circumstances when he was on his yacht, sold to him by a cousin of Khashoggi’s named for HIS favorite daughter, the “Lady Ghislaine” when he fell off and drowned off the coast of the Canary Islands in 1991.
If you’re into bad 80s remakes, remember when there were cartoon reboots of “babies” like Muppet Babies, Tiny Toons and A Pup Called Scooby-Doo? Get ready for Iran-Contra Babies or Iran-Contra: The Next Generation- the one day when this Lady met this Felon.
The dispossessed “Poor Little Rich Girl,” Ghislaine Maxwell meeting up, some say rescued, by Jeffrey Epstein.
What’s striking about this account is how thoroughly it confirms that Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t merely a deviant aberration operating on the margins, but a grotesquely successful embodiment of a certain American male ideal. If we want to understand his power, we have to stop treating him solely as a monster and start seeing him as what many men quietly admire: hyper-confident, transgressive, socially omnivorous, plugged into money, intelligence, geopolitics, and sex with apparent impunity.
Epstein’s appeal to rich and powerful men was not mysterious. He projected mastery—over networks, secrets, women, and states. He moved easily among arms dealers, intelligence cut-outs, Gulf royalty, financiers, and political operatives, always implying that he knew more than he said and that rules were for other people. That posture maps closely onto a widely admired heterosexual alpha-male fantasy: effectiveness without accountability, appetite without restraint, and access without consequence.
Seen this way, the sexual crimes are not an accidental add-on to his power but part of the same ethos. Many men would recoil from Epstein’s scale of abuse, but far fewer object in principle to “a little” transgression, especially when it appears to be rewarded with status and protection. The admiration isn’t for the rapes themselves; it’s for the aura of untouchability that seemed to license everything else.
Burleigh’s reporting underscores this point by showing that Epstein’s real currency was usefulness. He wasn’t welcomed into elite circles because people were fooled about who he was; he was welcomed because who he was fit comfortably within existing norms of male power—norms that prize boldness, secrecy, leverage, and a willingness to operate in moral gray zones. If Epstein shocks us, it’s less because he was alien than because he reveals, in exaggerated form, what is already tolerated, envied, and sometimes aspired to.
Until that ideal is confronted, Epstein will keep being misread as a singular pathology rather than as a cautionary exemplar of where a certain model of masculinity, when fully indulged, actually leads.
The oh-so-widespread James Bond ideal of laugh-it-off insouciance - which is to me ugly, vicious, and misognistic.
Indespensable. Thank you.
thank you!
Since T-Rump and Jeff were sourcing underage girls for their harems from foreign sources, slhould the international criminal courts be involved? Has there been foreign investigation of these crimes?
Great work on documenting/outlining Epstein's covert support for Israeli war-making and for verifying, IMHO, JE's cheerful pursuance of arms smuggling/laundering.
JE learned a lot at Bear Sterns. That includes every form of deception. That 'university' nurtured his creative talents in deception. Sun Tzu wrote "All war is deception." Epstein was an apt student, treating money-making and the rise to power as war.
Thank you for your continued great work!
A smooth operator
exactly. i bet he sang that song to himself.
We need to talk more about Adnan Khashoggi. He was called “the Great Gatsby of the Middle East.” He was known for throwing lavish parties for celebrities, politicians and business moguls alike. One location was his superyacht, the Nabila, named for his favorite daughter. This was literally used as a Bond villain lair in the movie, “Never Say Never Again.” The yacht served as the headquarters of a criminal mastermind, based, of course, on Khashoggi. The Nabila reportedly was filled with dozens of prostitutes, drugs and booze free flowing. It even had its own hospital and morgue.
For Epstein, a junior hustler more adept at keeping crooked books for shady millionaires, this must have seemed the life he aspired to. Khashoggi made the cover of magazines, has TV shows covering him and inspired by him. All while flouting celebrities and cultural notables all wallpapering over a life of not so secret crime.
https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/incredible-story-worlds-richest-arms-dealer-adnan-khashoggi/
When Iran-Contra went down, the CIA found an easy scapegoat in Khashoggi and the House of Saud grew sick of him being an embarrassment so his fortune cratered. His yacht was confiscated on a tax lien by the Sultan of Brunei, who sold it to none other than Donald Trump who rechristened it the “Trump Princess” after his favorite daughter, Ivanka. (Like I said, the business role model.)
Another figure connected to Iran-Contra was Robert Maxwell a British publishing tycoon who was born in what was at the time Czechoslovakia (now part of Ukraine) and fought valiantly for the Czech underground during WWII, drawing attention to both MI6 and the KGB. He fought for Israeli independence in 1947.
As a publisher, he gained access to world leaders doing what sometimes were fluff pieces on Eastern Bloc and other dictators. As such, he could be a courier from the UK government to world leaders. (And also, behind MI6’s back, to Israel and the Soviet Union as well.)
Maxwell’s use in Iran-Contra was that the Soviet Union was allied to both Iran and the Contras, so someone was going to have to grease the wheels at the Kremlin to keep them from exposing the deal. Eager to follow the advice of Sun Tzu: "Never interrupt your opponent while he is in the middle of making a mistake,” the Kremlin secretly agreed. So the US was not only betraying its vow never to support terrorists, it was handing their arch rivals, the Soviet Union KOMPROMAT on the United States.
The deal, greased with Pentagon money as well as Mossad, and the Saudis, eager to supplant the Islamic Republic, left cash that all sides tried to stash in every available hiding place on Earth, especially after the story was blown. How much Maxwell managed to hide, we’ll never know. Like Khashoggi, Maxwell started rupturing his fortune, especially when he financed bad loans against a major pension fund that squandered billions.
Maxwell died under mysterious circumstances when he was on his yacht, sold to him by a cousin of Khashoggi’s named for HIS favorite daughter, the “Lady Ghislaine” when he fell off and drowned off the coast of the Canary Islands in 1991.
Excellent recitation of the facts, thank you! Also I believe Trump modeled his triplex interior design on Khashoggis pad?
Every word true, from what I've read elsewhere.
If you’re into bad 80s remakes, remember when there were cartoon reboots of “babies” like Muppet Babies, Tiny Toons and A Pup Called Scooby-Doo? Get ready for Iran-Contra Babies or Iran-Contra: The Next Generation- the one day when this Lady met this Felon.
The dispossessed “Poor Little Rich Girl,” Ghislaine Maxwell meeting up, some say rescued, by Jeffrey Epstein.