As the year ends, we celebrate both the birth of a child and the end of a year. What a child, what a year. As we say in my church, any night a child is born is a holy night.

Unfortunately, this lovely sentiment is too easily passed over by too many people. The night is done, great! Let’s move on to other things. Unfortunately, those things have not augured well for children.

What We Are Learning

Thus, we find ourselves mesmerized by the glaring spotlight on pedophiles in the United States. We are learning many awful things for the first time:

• How many men find selfish gratification in the rape, abuse, and sodomy of children. This never ceases to astonish me. How does it happen? Why do they want sex with children? How can they be unmoved by the cries, the pain, the cringing away from them? The only answer to that is simple sadism. These men like the pain they are causing in the moment. When the moment is over, they discard the child they have traumatized like a used tissue. Until the next time.
• Exactly how far the rich and powerful will go to both protect themselves and to continue raping children. Does anyone believe murder is a step too far? Even now?
• The sheer number of people who will abet, serve, and protect these men for money, for contact with power, for advancement, and for access to a similar lifestyle.
• How many Americans will tolerate, dismiss, and reject proof that the cult leader they love is and has been guilty of this heinous crime against the country’s most vulnerable.

The Great Irony of Pedophilia

Has it sickened you yet? If not, you stand among the disbelievers, refusing to accept what’s going on. Yet, there is a great irony. The hunt for pedophiles began among Trump’s MAGA loyalists, who were convinced they knew about a conspiracy among Democratic party elites. As we investigate and dig deeper, we learn that a great many MAGA “heroes” are not only guilty of pedophilia but also involved in the greater crime of trafficking children.

Comet Pizza, Washington DC

Remember how worked up the MAGA-verse got about such crimes taking place in the basement of a Washington DC pizza parlor? I hope they have learned that the real criminals don’t frequent pizza parlors, much less basements.

These slimy creatures exist in a protective milieu of wealth and privilege: multiple homes, private jets, limos, private security teams, exclusive parties, personal lawyers, and the ability to call a pimp / financial advisor to order underage sex slaves.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Courtesy of Reuters

The rich and perverted don’t consider what they’re doing to be wrong, much less a crime. Only the letter of the law moves them to hide what they are doing.

• Can you consider flying men to a private island on private jets hiding?

Trump freely admits that Epstein “poached” underage girls who were working in the spa at Mar-a-Lago. But why were children working in the spa of a private club?

Cindy McCain, widow of Sen. John McCain, has said, “It hides in plain sight. We all knew about him. We all knew what he was doing. But we had no one, no legal aspect, that would go after him. They were afraid of him. For whatever reason, they were afraid of him.”

Bribing and Threatening

• Can you call decades of bribing and threatening the press so they won’t either discover or write about your crimes hiding?

Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, Mark, claimed that Jeffrey was murdered because he was “about to name names.” You may believe that or not, but very few Americans really think the most infamous sex criminal in America committed suicide in his prison cell. The first thing I and many others thought when we heard the news was that Epstein had been killed to prevent him from ratting out his fellow pedophiles.

• How much influence does it take to keep the police or the FBI from your doorstep?

Maria Farmer, sister of one of Epstein’s victims, reported him to the FBI in 1996 for stealing nude images of her sibling. The New York Times reports that the FBI has never openly recognized that she made such a report. The newspaper went on to state how an internal investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of Epstein’s case did not mention this report. Nothing to see here. Move on, please.

But Who Are the Pedophiles?

Hiding in plain sight.
Protected by power.
Threatening the media that might expose them
Bribing law enforcement to deflect prosecution

The only things missing from this lurid tale are the names of the perpetrators.

Epstein’s black book

Thanks to the files, we now know about a few of them. I keep hearing that names will be read, names will be written, names will be revealed. But so far, we know who just a few of these perverts actually are.

Epstein’s two black books contain over 1,700 names of associates, including celebrities, politicians, and business leaders. These names do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing, but we should know who are the guilty and who aren’t. Then we can hold the guilty to account.

What I Care About

Do I care about political parties? I do not. Do I worry about political implications? I do not. What I want is for every single one of the guilty men to be exposed, indicted, and tried. I also want Ghislaine Maxwell to get sent back into the dark prison Trump rescued her from.

Is that so much to ask?