50 Comments
User's avatar
Marshall Auerback's avatar

Tina you might be unique in being the only person mentioned in the Epstein papers with an enhanced reputation (a considerable feat when one takes into account your excellent reputation before this stuff got circulated). Well done for consistently acting with honour and grace.

Julia's avatar

Great writing- as always and a welcome point of view!

Thank you for showing a spine now and not too long ago- when everyone else bows and quakes.

Cat Bennett's avatar

Tina, your fearless acid-tongued truth-telling is so welcome I'd pay double for my subscription. Not to mention your enlivening vocab~Andrew as "a mendacious, priapic moron." I'm getting the feeling that words will slay. Cheering you on!

Ophelia's avatar

As ever, informative. And oh the words. Gibbering Peggy Siegel, stonking rich Howard Lutnick. To think I thought you had made a typo with stonking. Looked it up. It’s a word. You Brits do have the best slang ever!

Billsburg's avatar

I had to look up that and "priapic". Always good to learn new definitions - and the Brits do have the best slang.

James Rock's avatar

I am currently reading the 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, a work of fiction about the potential rise of facism and rule by a USA dictator. It’s truly a pity they banned it in some Trumpian USA states because the public might be informed of whats now happening. It reads like a playbook, read it to discover whats coming next!

Melissa Sullivan's avatar

I’m reading it,too. ChatGPThas some interesting points on the obvious comparisons.

mike's avatar

Banned in Trumpian USA states? When I read the book, which is pretty good, I wasn't aware even one Trumpian USA state repudiated it.

mike's avatar

The link indicates it may have been banned by some local libraries, but not an official ban by the State of Texas.

mike's avatar
Feb 4Edited

As mentioned "It Can't Happen Here" is a pretty good read but I've never recommended it to anyone because of Lewis's homophobic point of view in it.

Melissa Sullivan's avatar

He seems to hate everyone. It’s a tough read on that score. I agree.

Courtney's avatar

Gotta hand it to you, Tina. Fearless then, and fearless now. In this tsunami of vile, mendacious, predatory elites, your refusal to be cowed is admirable but more important, essential. History will judge these sick people with untethered contempt.

(And what is so great about Absolute Power, anyway?)

Maureen Dorsey's avatar

To say that 'mega wealth so often erodes a moral compass' defies the reality that too many of these contacts WERE CRIMINALS engaging in CRIMINAL behavior, sexually exploiting women and girls. Some can claim that 'consensual' sex with an adult woman is not criminal, but if there is a pimp like epstein involved then the woman is not autonomous in the contract or contact. So, there is more that wealth erodes and it is the law and legal system.

Trumpelstilskin's avatar

Dame T strikes again!

"Trump’s Brown Shirts are still swarming the streets of Minneapolis."

Once again you nailed it.

Statistics don't lie but elected officials can, and will if they can get away with it.

More than one source shows the first 4 years of Barack Obama 1.6 million deportations, v. 923,000 in 4 years of Trump. Obama went on to deport another another 1.5 million in his 2nd term, for a 3.1 million total

3.1 million deportations without any of the drama, show business, to hell with the 4th Amendment ethos on display right now.

Dame T's last sentence of her latest missive reveals the LA, Chi Town, Charlotte, Minneapolis shuffle has nothing to do with immigration. It's all about trashing the 4th amendment, and seeing just how far the public can be corralled, pushed, and shot. Don't believe this hellion? See what Garry Kasparov has to say. Listen to the words of Holocaust survivors. They wrote the story that history is playing in front of our eyes.

Anne Taylor's avatar

Always so on-point and elegantly expressed. Trump is such a master of distraction that you never know which is the distraction or not!

Linda's avatar

Tina, reading this, I went to my bookshelf for The Palace Papers. When I first read it in 2022 -- the year your book came out -- I knew nothing about Epstein, and the chapter on him was unsettling. But now, knowing what I do, I find it truly shocking that your reporting on him in The Daily Beast went so unremarked! How can that be?!! One can only assume that wealth and power protects its own....

roberto k.'s avatar

When AI takes over all reporting brilliantly written missives like this will be sorely missed.

Damion Matthews's avatar

I guess we can see the inspiration for Harriet Sansom Harris’ amoral PR lady Bebe Glazer on FRASIER. But at least one good thing can be said of Ms. Siegal: she didn’t send him romantic love notes like Peter Attia, Andrew Farkas and multiple other men. Maybe if they were that nice to the women in their lives they wouldn’t need Epstein to supply them with dates.

Mavis Amundson's avatar

I applaud you for being an excellent editor and reporter -- and for having the sense to see Jeffrey Epstein for what he was despite the rich and powerful people who surrounded him.

Catherine Maddux's avatar

You write,"Trump no longer fears the Epstein files."

I've wondered about this and agree with you. I've been waiting for him to proclaim anything about him now released to the public is "AI..." (the cool tech way to say "fake").

That said, Trump has voiced concerns about the files "hurting my friends."

Does he really have ANY friends? And if so, does he really CARE about them?

I think we know the answer.

Bridget Wilson's avatar

Are we surprised at the whitewash? It’s certainly what I expected. Thanks for your excellent account anyway, Tina, but I’m disappointed in the DOJ’s approach that smacks of being yet another spineless trump lackey.

Holly Peterson's avatar

A lot of people in the world betray others and, thank God, other people do not.