On to Epstein! This section of the Q & A is for Michael T, Mark S, Rebecca, Patricia, Frances, John K, Bill C, Barbara, Robert, Leslie, Donna, and anyone whose name I’ve missed. I’ve shortened and simplified your overlapping questions. My answers are briefer than my thoughts, so feel free to discuss more in the comments section.
Will the Epstein files bring accountability?
SK: Yes, some — but not necessarily in the US. We’ve seen predators face arrest in other countries. In the US, we’ve seen them resign from jobs. This gives me little hope since MeToo produced more backlash than justice, and many who lost power later regained it. I do think the release has forced politicians and pundits to finally address the massive criminal conspiracy that was in the public domain for two decades. What’s revealing is that they view redacted emails by predators as more credible than consistent statements by victims. There is something very wrong with the way Americans trust criminal elites to be more reliable sources than the people they hurt.
What can we do to help bring justice?
SK: Save documents, curate them, and comment on them thoughtfully and with respect for the victims. The Trump admin has already deleted some documents, is withholding many more, and relies on media to normalize sadism and bury crime in spectacle. Reject that. The breakdown of search engines means we need responsible curation more than ever. This applies not only to Epstein but to ICE or any act of mass abuse. One of the greatest threats we face is the deletion of history. Everyday folks can help preserve it if they organize information together. Nick Bryant and others have been pooling resources on Epstein’s network. I have little faith in our representatives, seeing as they knew about Epstein all along and did nothing, but there is still stigma in being a pedophile protector. Pressure officials for truth and accountability and call them a pedophile protector if they resist.
Will the rest of the files be released?
SK: As I’ve said before, I think they were waiting to release an Epstein trove once: 1) they felt they had consolidated power 2) AI was so ubiquitous that the veracity of the evidence would be questioned. That moment is now. We have seen a lot of emails, though one period of interest — the time around 9/11 — is largely absent. We have not seen much video. I believe the most damaging information is on video. We know Epstein had rooms wired with cameras to film pedophiles assaulting victims. I will not watch that if it comes out. But it may come out, and should that happen, the assaulter will claim it’s fake. This wouldn’t have been a convincing excuse a decade ago, but it will be now due to AI. I’ve wondered if Grok posting child pornography on demand shortly before the Epstein files were released was a trial run for this tactic.
How much was Bill Barr involved?
SK: Probably a lot: he’s been called “The Cover-Up General” since the early 1990s, when he buried Iran-Contra and other crimes as Bush’s AG. Epstein and Maxwell are closely linked to Iran-Contra through a number of vectors, but mainly Maxwell’s family: her father, operative of Israeli espionage Robert Maxwell, and her siblings and their government surveillance tech deals. Barr is the guy you call to bury things.
Barr was likely pulled out of private practice to bury the Epstein evidence for Trump, since emails show increasing worry from Epstein’s cohort when MeToo erupted. Barr became Attorney General in late 2018, right after the Kavanaugh confirmation, when MeToo was at its height. In addition, Bill Barr’s father, Donald Barr, hired Epstein to teach at a private school in the 1970s, which helped facilitate his ties to high finance. Donald Barr also wrote sci-fi fantasies about intergalactic pedophiles. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. (What kind of deranged “coincidence” has all that?!) I cover Barr and Epstein in depth in Hiding in Plain Sight and They Knew.
Epstein worked for the Rothschilds. What’s up with that?
SK: Treat the Rothschild family like you would anyone that is like the Rothschild family: any billionaire, multinational banking family involved in corruption and war for centuries. Their history needs to be meticulously investigated, and that should not be controversial. It does not mean every Rothschild is guilty by default, and illicit activity in the family is not rooted in Judaism. It’s rooted in entrenched power that breeds impunity, much like the British Royals. There are people afraid to examine the Rothschilds for fear of being labeled antisemites, and there are also antisemites hurling baseless accusations. Both approaches are bad and dangerous.
The role of Rothschild family members with ties to Epstein and Maxwell should be examined. Work that the Maxwell and Rothschild families did for foreign states should be scrutinized for overlap. Common ties, like Alan Dershowitz or various banks, should be investigated. It is irresponsible to drop the topic out of fear. But do not lump in all Jewish folks with Epstein and the Rothschilds — and never do it in my newsletter in the centennial year of Mel Brooks! That’s no different than lumping in all Muslims with Al Qaeda or Catholics with predator priests. Or all Americans with Trump! Keep digging, but don’t smack bystanders with your shovel on the way down.
What’s up with Zorro Ranch? And his UK bank statements? And other stuff?
SK: I’m a big picture person: I can only see the forest for the treason. Details are best examined by people living near where the crimes took place, who know the land and institutions. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez lives in New Mexico and has been tracking ranch activity and recommending local journalists. As for the UK, Carole Cadwalladr knows the Epstein case and might know the answer.
That’s the gist of the Epstein questions! He lurks throughout the rest of the Q & A as he does in real life. But on to other topics:
Sylvia: I have heard you speak about the dangers and terrible influences of AI. Yet I find myself reading the simple comparisons of products that pop up when I look for info on something like how to keep squirrels from eating tulip bulbs. Whatever AI search that comes up has a lot of useful suggestions I can follow up on and products I’ve never heard of, and I can then ask for a comparison list. Can you say anything about AI uses for helping us sort through huge masses of information?
SK: I don’t trust AI for answers on anything. Here is an example of why:
SK: Malachai and Isaac are not my children — they are the main characters of the 1984 horror movie Children of the Corn! Children of the Corn is hilarious; I watch it every Halloween and have talked about it online. As a result, AI says I live in a cornfield with my demon spawn. I’ve decided AI is the real “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”: no one knows why it’s there, but [ . . . ]
everyone keeps doing dumb things to appease it, and the special effects suck. Keep an eye on those squirrels and tulips…
B-saint-c, Sandra, and Dan all asked questions about the Pentagon and AI and the role of technofascists in state surveillance. I’m writing a general response:
SK: The advanced nature of digital surveillance means we cannot compare the current autocracy in the US to any in history. It’s a global crisis playing out here more because of Silicon Valley’s control over US politicians and institutions. The battle between Anthropic and the Pentagon is evil vs evil. Anthropic is the lesser evil this time, because they at least see the dangers of their own technology. The Pentagon sees the dangers, too, but embraces them. They don’t care if our nuclear arsenal is run by the same tech that thinks I gave birth to the Children of the Corn.
I am appalled by Big Tech and the “pre-crime” NSPM-7 initiative. It is easy to wage psychological warfare when you can quickly create a profile of a person you don’t know by scraping their online content. Tech profiles often get facts wrong, but that itself is dangerous, and has led to deportations and arrests on fraudulent grounds.
Criminal elites are pushing AI hard because they desperately need us to trust it. They want us to think a wise robot decreed that a migrant was dangerous or a protester was violent. They want us to stop thinking and researching things ourselves, which is why they replaced search results with AI summaries. Eventually they want us to submit to a social credit system where we are forced to obey their political dictates in order to do basic things like ride public transportation, apply for a job, access healthcare, etc.
How do we fight back? My advice is to see tech as a tool and not a friend. If it’s necessary — like, say, you write a newsletter for a living and have to engage on social media sites that you can’t stand — use it. Otherwise, live like it’s 1999. Disregard metrics. Get rid of devices that track you. Don’t chat with bots. If you feel the need to monitor yourself, do it on paper. Last week I found a notebook of times of day and yellow and brown dots. I realized it was from when I was a new mom in 2007 tracking when I changed my baby’s diaper. Thank God I couldn’t put that shit — literal! — on an app. It would have trained me to put private health information online that could be weaponized later. Use the good parts of the internet — the ability to communicate with people across long distances, for example — and shun the mechanical eyes.
Karen S: Your piece about your trips to Twin Peaks uncovered your visceral reaction about the tightrope of voyeurism vs awareness. That voyeurism or strange joy is also projected in the newly discovered descriptions of abuse found in the Epstein files. Child sexual abuse on the scale of Epstein or the Catholic Church is possible because of the infrastructure of denial. My thought is that on the surface our rights are being stripped away and on a deeper level we are being stripped away. What are some examples of collective ways you’ve observed denial culture effectively challenged? Throughout history or in our current predicament?
SK: That is a great question. I bolded one of your sentences because it’s important. The Epstein files are meant to encourage voyeurism and dehumanization when they are dumped en masse with no meaningful accountability for the perpetrators. The DOJ seeks to turn personal pain into mass content and the media complies. They want to satisfy us with spectacle so that we drop our demand for recourse. It falls upon us to be vigilant and guard our souls — to keep them from being stripped away.
The architecture of social media is designed to favor grift over contemplation. People don’t deny the depth of depravity of Epstein and his cohort anymore. But they are getting acclimatized to it, and they will eventually be acclimatized to the lack of justice. The next step is normalization. It may be hard to imagine the sadistic Epstein acts being regarded as normal — there are universal taboos in those emails — but the world just witnessed a live-streamed genocide by Israel. Denial of Israeli war crimes is now gone, but no one is punished for them. Challenging political culture often rests on individuals and small groups of people being persistent and not giving in, even when those around them surrender to depravity. Folks still have a moral choice. If you stick to your morals, sometimes people are encouraged and stick to theirs, too.
Velma: Now that the files are more abundantly available, do you think that puts you less at risk for aggressively speaking out, or is that me and wishful thinking? Or does that put you in the crosshairs more than ever. (I do understand that maybe retribution could still be at play). I feel like there’s so many people either jumping ship or turning on them so fast it’s making their heads spin and maybe those are the more pertinent targets. Thank you for all you do and willing to do!
SK: Sometimes I plot how I’d best kill me if I were my enemy and I have some great ideas. I’m not sharing them though! For years, there were attempts to censor Hiding in Plain Sight and They Knew, and I was getting death threats at the same time. But I doubted people would act on the threats because it would create a Streisand effect and draw people to my books. Now Epstein is everywhere, so I’m unsure what threat my books pose. I did focus on an Epstein associate without knowing he was one (Vitaly Churkin). I couldn’t figure out why so many people wanted to kill me over the Churkin sections of Hiding in Plain Sight — now I know!
I can’t base my life around threats or I’d be wasting it. I’m not scared of dying but I am scared of not living. I agree there are much bigger targets than me. I try to stay underestimated. I weave a fine line and then I walk it. Now it’s time to stop talking!
Brennan: I usually ask about the downfall of western civilization. This time, since I want to just snuggle with my toddler and watch cartoons, I’ll ask something more on my mind: what was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon to watch growing up?
SK: I’m not sure which was my favorite — though I did like that show where Mr. T solved mysteries with a team of gymnasts; I had to doublecheck that I did not hallucinate this — but every weekend I watched hours of USA Cartoon Express. I’d wake at 6:00 am and watch until it went off the air, which is like seven straight hours of cartoons. One year, an education scholar came to my elementary school to study the “gifted” kids and our TV habits, under the assumption that good students watch less TV. I personally destroyed that woman’s thesis thanks to USA Cartoon Express!
K. Smith: Is this a great time to be a billionaire or what? However, I sense a blowback coming. Do you think we the people will be able to reduce their political power and wealth? If so how?
SK: The redistribution of wealth since covid is obscene. There is no historic parallel. It’s particularly alarming since so much money went to the tech sector and we are a tech-dependent society. This is why I encourage autonomy from Big Tech (especially smartphones) and funding independent creators and small businesses instead. There is space between being a billionaire and living paycheck to paycheck, and to get to that more comfortable place — and restore some of our power — we should support local businesses and labor unions and shun tech dependency. Our money is chump change to billionaires: they are trying to reshape our values and our sense of possibility.
Nick: Looking at the next three years, what should Americans stop assuming will “hold,” but likely won’t?
SK: The postal service. I’m not saying it will not exist, but it’s been threatened since Trump’s first term. Between Biden’s refusal to remove Trump’s coup partner Louis DeJoy, GOP calls for privatization, and the SCOTUS ruling that mail is no longer guaranteed, USPS is in danger. I worry that the attack on USPS is linked to talk of partitioning the US: you don’t need a national postal service when you don’t have a country. Written mail is also immune from digital surveillance and therefore is seen as a threat to technofascism. I’ve long been alarmed by the attack on USPS. It’s a bipartisan gutting of a popular institution we thought would always be around.
Cody M: Do you read fiction? If so, what are you currently reading? I really like some of the pre and post-pandemic books. I just finished Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel. It was good but really loved her post-pandemic novel Sea of Tranquility.
SK: Of course I read fiction! But I’ve been slacking. I was reading Don DeLillo (and White Noise counts as pandemic fiction foreshadowing) and Mao II was next. Instead, I read Hello Darlin’, the autobiography of Larry Hagman. JR wins again!
Nancy: Why can I not shake the feeling that the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother is awfully convenient for an administration bent on cowing the press? But a pro hitman would never have been caught on camera, right? It’s just lucky for Trump?
SK: That story is strange. We no longer have a news monoculture, and I’m not trying to follow the story, but I hear details anyway. In the 1990s, there were a number of celebrity violence stories — OJ in particular — where coverage shifted political culture and elevated corrupt lawyers to prominence. I have no idea if anyone linked to Trump created this situation, but his cohort would certainly exploit it. It’s worth watching whose profile gets raised. It’s also simply a sad, unnerving story. We live in a time of sweeping nightmares — like Epstein — so it’s possible this story attracts mass attention because a tragedy about one family is easier to process.
Jeffrey: If you were to arrange a Substack live video convo with someone soon, who would you most like to do it with? (For example I’d be really interested if you did one with Peter Pomerantsev, author of e.g. ‘How to Win an Information War’.)
SK: I’ve vaguely committed to a couple — stay tuned! And yes, Pomerantsev is helpful. I read him in grad school to understand Russia and now he sheds light on the US.
Steve B: Have you developed a way to tell if a politician is *not* part of the corrupt system that has failed to hold Trump and all those associated with him accountable?
SK: AIPAC is somewhat of a reliable indicator. They target not only people who critique Israel, but people who critique sedition. They funded Trump’s seditionists! But they’re not a failproof indicator: Marjorie Taylor-Greene didn’t take AIPAC money (which is commendable) but still backed the attempted coup. Financial transparency is important. Follow the money and the plutocrat networks.
Extraordinary People: If we were going to take a road trip from Oregon to St. Louis, how many days should we spend there exploring the city and other reasonably drivable sites around Missouri with St. Louis as a base? What time of year is best to visit? What are a couple of “must see/must do” attractions? Love your travel logs and you’re inspiring us to make more memories before things get even worse. Thanks!
SK: St. Louis has fantastic free museums. I recommend the art museum and the zoo year-round. The botanical garden is awesome and cheap. City Museum is worth the price. Some of my favorite places are outdoors. See a Missouri show cave; the classic is Meramec Caverns. Do a river float trip; if you’re short on time, do the canoe trip near the Arch with Big Muddy Adventures. The old cemeteries of St. Louis are incredible: visit Bellefontaine. Eat desert for every meal at Fountain on Locust, Crown Candy Kitchen, and Ted Drewes. The best seasons to visit are spring and fall. Summers are miserably hot and winters are rough. State parks are awesome (and free); Elephant Rocks and Ha Ha Tonka are worth the drive. Now tell me what to see in Oregon!
Marina: What do you think about Whitney Webb? Is she reliable? She asks a lot of right questions but her cooperation with RFK JR and blatant antivax stand is a bit off.
SK: I’ve read some of her articles and thought most were solid and well-sourced. Her work on transnational organized crime overlaps with mine, and she’s done good research on technofascism. We share common interests and enemies. That she and I do not know each other, and have never interacted, shows how much of this conspiracy was in the public domain. We came to the same conclusions independently because they’re true. I’ve seen her with Glenn Beck and RFK Jr and agree that’s not great. My guess is she wanted her message out and used them to deliver it.
Terri: Ifound you on TV news shows years ago (Rachel Maddow to be specific) and have followed you ever since. Then I stopped seeing you on shows. Did you decide that you didn’t want to play anymore or was it something more like the corporations were afraid of why you were saying and stopped asking?
SK: I was never on Maddow’s show. The shows I was invited to repeatedly were Joy Reid, Jason Johnson, Zerlina Maxwell, and Tiffany Cross. You may notice a theme. When MSNBC fired their Black anchors, I was gone too. I was never on TV as often as people think; maybe three times a month. Viral clips left folks with the false impression I was a regular. I don’t want to be a corporate pundit; I live in Missouri. I turn down TV during float trip season because weekend morning shows interfere with my canoe time. The real stream always beats the cable stream! But yes, I did piss off TV execs when I called the Trump admin a “transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government” on air, so wariness on their part was a factor too.
Josie: Would you ever consider developing and hosting another podcast?
SK: Unlikely. I like being a guest on podcasts, but writing is where my heart is.
Mkpokit: Today, here in N. PA., I was trimming brush around the garage when I heard and saw a pileated woodpecker fly by signaling spring is on its way. What is your favorite springtime activity? Ours is planting the veggie garden.
SK: Kayaking, wildflowers, and the morel mushroom hunt!
Brent: Why the hell is Jared Kushner “negotiating” with Iran? I feel like I know the answer based on everything you’ve written previously, but please discuss. His involvement with everything from Russia to Gaza to Iran leaves me with a sick feeling.
SK: Kushner is the most dangerous person in the Trump fold. I’ve said since 2017 that he is my litmus test of whether the US is an entrenched mafia state, and we keep failing. He is not an official member of the US government, but we are not really ruled by the US government: we are ruled by a shadow government, and he is a reigning member. He rose to prominence through nepo baby status and long ties to a network involved in transnational organized crime and Israel. There are people in this network who consider Russia, Gaza, and Iran to be one war. They seek to repartition the world because they consider themselves its masters. They view other human beings as disposable. This is why they collaborate with technofascists pushing AI replacements.
Carmen: Is it naive to question why politicians are talking about all that will be done when the Dems take back the House, instead of discussing the plan/strategy for safeguarding the elections? Especially in light of the fact that Trump has remarked that elections may never be necessary again. We know Reps plan and execute. What am I missing? Darrell: Why aren’t the Dem leadership (wink wink) running around with their hair on fire protesting this raping of our constitution and rule of law? They don’t seem to be taking this rising fascist state seriously.
SK: The Democrats are a failed party. I do not think either party should exist at this point. I would be happy if two new parties arose to counter both the Dems and the GOP. The GOP is a party of abusers, the Dems are enablers, and this dynamic has been in place for the entire 21st century. The Democratic leadership is behaving no differently than they did before, which is the problem. It is the level of threat that has changed: failed democracy became fledgling fascism became an autocratic mafia state, and all the while, Dems collaborated with internal enemies and continue to protect them. Their refusal to focus on election integrity — a problem which dates back decades! — and instead fundraise off our fear is a key example of their failure.
Mary VH: Do you share your frustration and feelings with your US Congressperson and Senators? I do but they all support Trump and even though I sometimes get replies I wonder if I’m wasting my time. Same goes for my state legislators but I do keep at it with them. My state SC is mostly going after women and LGBTQ rights.
SK: No, but they already know what I think.
Chad C: Republicans have proven they cannot be allowed to have power for the foreseeable future. Should a democrat win the presidency in 2028 what things can he/she do to make drastic changes? Make D.C. a state (there’s two democratic senators right there), expand the Supreme Court?
SK: Making DC a state and expanding SCOTUS were mainstream Democratic propositions in 2019 that Biden then labeled radical. They should be returned to the mainstream platform. Abolishing ICE and destroying the concentration camps should be a foremost objective. But the Democratic leadership must be ousted first. There are some Democrats who understand the fascist threat and have good ideas, but they have been punished severely by their own party — ousted, in some cases. Most Dems serve the public nothing but empty promises and taunts about GOP threats that they won’t actually fight. We need a candidate that can beat the old Dem vanguard and the GOP.
Curt: I have an 18-year-old son, and wow, the manoshpere is relentless on social media. I fear he gets more of that influencer slop than any realistic, sane viewpoints. The algorithms don’t help. Any suggested folks for him to follow that counteract this mogging culture, which leans right wing?
SK: That’s scary. My son is 15. I warn him about algorithms. But he’s a teen; I can only hope he listens. My advice is to try to keep kids offline as much as possible: not in a punitive way, but by making sure they have fun analog hobbies. If he’s influenced by “manosphere” propaganda, show him something that lets him see a woman’s perspective — nothing hectoring, nothing that says there’s something inherently wrong with being a guy (there’s not!), but something that shows how real women are hurt by this subculture. Boys are hurt by it too, for that matter, but often it’s easier to convey the danger through women because the “manosphere” trains them to believe any man who shows vulnerability is weak.
Mike in Weho: What IS the worst that can happen? What scenario(s) can you speculate? Is there anything we can do to prepare in advance? I recall you mentioning, (as recently as your last newsletter), something to the effect of horrible scenarios you were still too hesitant to write about. Can you tell us now?
SK: It won’t help to tell you terrifying things I suspect are happening unless I have enough evidence. We are dealing with very sadistic people. My predictions are accurate because I do extensive research before I share them. If I’m confident about something, I will tell you, as I always have. For now, there’s enough bad news already!
Kristen L: If you could pick up and move to any country in the world with your family, whether for a year or for a lifetime, where would you go? I ask because lots of us think about leaving, and most decide everywhere is going to have the same problems as here, so we stay put. But it’s nice to wonder about sometimes, as an idea.
SK: Ideally, we’d be vagabonds and see as many countries as possible. It can’t happen because I have elderly relatives and people who depend on me. I wish it could. There’s no country where I’d feel safe, but we’d live on the run until we saw the whole world.
You’re currently a free subscriber to Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.