To a certain extent, this is bullshit. If we are talking presidents or high-ranking politicians, they must have know from the late 1990s at least what this guy was accused of. And I think there is zero excuse for anyone to still associate with him following the Palm Beach investigation and subsequent F.B.I. investigation in 2005-2006. A lot of very powerful individual still associated with him long after that, even after his first guilty plea in 2008. Ghislaine was even at Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010. At a bare minimum, a lot of these folks acted incredibly irresponsibly in their continued association with the guy and his entourage. At the very least it is fair to ask them if they were apparently unbothered by the crimes he was accused of and/or found guilty of.
Not everyone is comfortable socializing with a child sex trafficker. I am reminded of an interview I once read with a Flemish investigative reporter - Luk Alloo - who once had a series where he tried to find out how hard it was to procure illegal items. Like say, an AK-47, a handgrenade, a large quantity of drugs. In an interview he gave about that series, one reporter asked him why he never investigated human trafficking that way. And he admitted that it was due to his personal boundaries. As he stated, he could stand the idea of being in the same room as a guy who sells black market weapons, or drugs. But not with a guy who is selling a child or a vulnerable young woman. A lot of very powerful people were apparently very comfortable with the idea of being in the same room as someone like that.
While this may be true, there is probably a lot of willful ignorance with a number of people. It is not like Epstein's abuse or trafficking was really a secret. Just like Weinstein was fairly well known within Hollywood before the story broke, it seems that Epstein's behavior was fairly well known in high finance and among the powerful.
If we are talking presidents and former presidents, the secret service would vet anyone who gets in close contact with their charges, including extensive background checks. So there is next to zero chance they did not flag the various investigations already launched against Epstein when Bill Clinton repeatedly met him following his presidency. The best possible, kindest interpretation is that the Clintons were recklessly irresponsible in terms of who they chose to socialize with.
I remember this being discussed in Trump 1, as to how he kept ending up with low end crooks in his orbit - the obama bros explained that vetting was largely done by political operatives in the White House - which is why you never saw Obama with such goons So I think you are correct - Clinton was seen with him for the same reason many other powerful people and celebs were. No one cared, which turned out to he reckless, but I suspect that was the climate of the time.
This highlights the problem with the way the “Epstein files” and photographs are being released. The first investigation into Epstein was opened by the Palm Beach police in 2005. The Clinton Epstein fights were between 2002 and 2004 Maxwell attended Chelsea’s wedding as a plus 1 to someone invited. And that was in 2010 quite a bit before she was implicated Is there smoke around Bill? Sure. Was he a creep? Certainly. Is it possible he knew…sure it is. Is it likely he had no clue? Entirely possible. Would he have had a legitimate reason to be with Epstein the philanthropist? Absolutely You two are a hell of a lot more knowledgeable than most and I bet neither of you knew that. Oh…and Bondi was not AG when Epstein got his deal.
It was widely reported that Bill hung out with awful people to get them to donate to his charitable fund. A common refrain was that he would do great things with terrible people’s money. I also think Epstein gleefully lent Bill his plane. It did more for his image than it did for Bill saving some $$ and living it up. I have a VERY hard time believing that he wasn’t told of Epstein’s predatory and creepy behavior.
A high school classmate of my wife worked at Microsoft in the early years and she says Gates was a total horndog.
One guiding principle of life in our times is that every single "techbro" was a maladjusted little twerp in high school. Then when they get older and find money and prestige, they overcompensate as if they were one of the Cool Kids. They bulk up or buy gender affirming care, like hairplugs or muscles. They buy sports teams. They buy fancy cars and planes and helicopters and macho penis-wagging luxury. They become alpha men who do alpha things. But they are not, and they won't ever actually be, one of the Cool Kids. They're really just maladjusted little twerps. C.F. Zuckerberg, Mark or Musk, Elon.
You just described a sizable portion of the tech industry, especially back in the early days when it was almost all young males with too much money and not enough brain cells.
There's an opportunity for a very perceptive Gen-Z film director to make a scathing critique of Gen X dudes via a remake of "Revenge of the Nerds."
There was a movie (TV series?) that came out this year in which a bunch of tech bros meet at a house of one of them, I think to plan some AI thing. IIRC, it becomes either a murder mystery or a bloodbath. In either case, nobody is a good person.
Possibly "Glass Onion" - a murder mystery with Daniel Craig (former 007) as Benoit Blanc? That was the second Benoit Blanc mystery - the third Benoit Blanc mystery just came out on Netflix last week, it was very good. Anyways, yes, the second one had tech bros who were all awful.
I remember when I first moved to the Bay Area, the place was nerd heaven. I never ran into the top guys, the megarich dudes, but the place was crawling with the men who worked for them. These second-tier nerds still made decent money, more than most of us, and they also used it to overcompensate for having been high school/college losers. These creatures descended into all the cool clubs, and made them uncool.
The NY Times keeps delivering … Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich “For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society. …. {Ace} Greenberg invited Epstein to the investment firm’s offices at 55 Water Street at the southern tip of Manhattan. Epstein showed up in a turtleneck. Greenberg was impressed — even though the young man didn’t have the foggiest idea of how Wall Street worked. Greenberg had helped build Bear Stearns into one of the industry’s scrappiest firms by eschewing the traditional investment-banking practice of hiring Ivy Leaguers with M.B.A.s. He preferred what he called P.S.D.s: those who were poor, smart and had “a deep desire to become rich.” Epstein fit the bill. He grew up in a working-class family in Coney Island. Friends described him as a math whiz and a piano virtuoso. And, as Greenberg and his colleagues would soon learn, he yearned for wealth. That trait had been apparent as early as ninth grade: A classmate told us that Epstein predicted to her that one day he would be very rich.” Sorry, I’m a sucker for this stuff.
Nope, not any of those movies. Something with less fan fair...let me see if I can find it. Mountianhead is what I was thinking of. Okay, it was a global chaos movie, not a murder mystery. Anyway, one review I heard said all the characters were assholes. And scrolling down I see @derek750 got it.
I heard about it when it came out, but I don't want to spend my limited leisure time hearing about how tech bros are ruining things. If I want to see that, I'll watch the news.
It was good enough that I enjoyed watching it, but not enough that I remembered it well enough to make the connection when it was being discussed above. You're fine skipping it; if you ever find yourself watching it, it won't be a waste of your time.