The other thing to keep in mind about the international fall-out from the Epstein files.

[Baitball Blogger]

Whisper numbers, trade secrets and other breaches of professional ethics ...who knew social networks could be so corrupt?

C'mon, really. We all knew it. From local communities on up to the International world, people breach their own professional creeds because exchanging confidential information can make their lives easier. This is the truth about the imbalance in our society: There are just too many people in professional circles who will leverage their own professional ethics if it can help them get over the bumps that we all face in life. Imagine how easy life would be if we all had the opportunity to pick up a phone and call in a favor. Everything, from getting favorable bank loans to assurances that your children will get jobs or college entrances. It's at your disposal, if you have something to barter with and lack the ethical fortitude to resist.

It is something that we all know exists, but it gets overlooked because the facts are hard to pin down since the exchanges are made in secret and with discretion. Even something as extreme as a honeypot sex trap operation went unnoticed for decades. Which does still have me a bit angered as much as confused because our society is very loud about being against human trafficking, yet our criminal justice department just let this one operate. It took massive public condemnation to get the wheels rolling, and we're still not through this.

But, this historical debacle exposes a truth about our society, and provides a clue to why there are so many imbalances. We can clearly see now, how one end of the social strata is allowed to operate without public scrutiny or consequences, while the other half is under constant surveillance. Everything, from tax audits to being targets of the law and criminal justice system, the middle to lower classes are under constant scrutiny, while the elite have access to get-arounds that make their lives easier. And with this void of information, it has been far too easy to blame the imbalances in our society to those who are least able to defend themselves. Right now, the focus of public policy is on the undocumented immigrants and minorities. But, it doesn't look like it will end there.

So, I suggest that we give the reveals from the Epstein emails a proper degree of indignation, since this might be one of the few times we get to see how the elite behaved secretly in a way that affected all of us. Because, as hard as it might be to do, remind yourself that exploiting children and women was never their end game. It was a means to a very malevolent end. It was a way to curry up blackmail in order to get control over the financial world as well as to influence government policies and decisions.

[jmbar2]

1. Contrast the grotesque impunity of the rich

with restrictions they impose on the poor.
- work requirements for people getting food stamps
- restrictions on what foods they can buy
- ID requirements to vote that will be unaffordable

All the claptrap about rooting out fraud and waste by Elon and his droogs.

This is class war

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I think we'll go further in bringing attention to this problem

by itemizing all the discrepancies, just like you did.

It will be harder to dismiss and force people to see it through the Benjamin Franklin method.

[jmbar2]

4. Ben Franklin method?

[Baitball Blogger]

5. From the man, himself:

In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how.

When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.

To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.

And tho’ the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quantities, yet when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less likely to take a rash Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind of Equation, in what may be called Moral or Prudential Algebra.

From: How to Make Difficult Decisions: Benjamin Franklin’s Pioneering Pros and Cons Framework

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/11/14/benjamin-franklin-joseph-priestley-pros-cons/

[jmbar2]

6. Got it - thanks!

[Mme. Defarge]

3. Exactement!