Dear Reader,

The latest dump of Epstein Files contains too many horrors and unanswered questions to properly cover in a single book let alone a newsletter, but I want to highlight one single email that I found shocking as both a shameless admission AND sobering indictment of Americans for allowing the Epstein class to exploit us all:

For context, in 2013, over two million Brazilians took to the streets of São Paulo and cities across Brazil to protest inequality and corruption. The sender of the above email is Jes Staley, the former head of JP Morgan who went on to become CEO of Barclays, one of the biggest banks in the world. He also allegedly raped one of Epstein’s adult victim/staff members and was later forced to leave Barclays over his Epstein ties.

^Staley was saying in no unclear terms that America’s marginalized underclass (“The group that should be in the streets”) have been successfully distracted and sold the American Dream through entertainment and advertising. It is a remarkably brazen and shameless statement, and I doubt the historical parallels were lost on him.

In ancient Rome, the emperor and elites staved off popular revolt through “Bread and Circuses.” Now, in the 21st century, our own late-stage empire has successfully misdirected our attention and resentment away from oligarchs and the failures of capitalism thanks to a barely-livable minimum wage and the addictive distractions of entertainment and social media, propagandizing and propping up an elusive and half-dead concept called The American Dream.

It’s a rare admission that the underclass should get organized and rise up—that the Epstein class deserves the metaphorical pitch forks.

But it is also a scathing indictment of the rest of us. How did Americans allow our politics to go to rot? Allowed our government to become so dysfunctional, our economy so exploitive, that it greased the runway for President Trump, a fraudster in Epstein’s inner circle who has only exacerbated these problems—who is so complicit and likely implicated by the Epstein files that his government is now engaged in the biggest coverup in history and aims to rig the midterm elections?

One reason is that we were distracted. America’s greatest export is entertainment, and we got high on our own supply, addicted to the escapism and fandom of sports, celebrity, fashion, video games, TV, all of it. This made it easier to accept exploitation and inequality as “just the way things are.” But while we were sleepwalking, binging TV and mainlining the hopium that each of us could be the exception, the guardrails of our systems and institutions, the checks and balances meant to reign in the worst excesses of capitalism, have been intentionally eroded or removed entirely.

America is unaffordable. So much so, that it makes people crazy, and worse versions of themselves. It invites delusion, bigotry, fear, and incentivizes bad and selfish behavior, creating a zero-sum flywheel of exploitation and self-sabotage. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Ten years ago, the 10 wealthiest people in the world were collectively worth about $559 billion. Now that figure has ballooned to around $2.6 trillion, “underscoring how asset appreciation—particularly in technology—has supercharged extreme wealth,” according to Yahoo Finance. In Trump’s second term, Elon Musk’s wealth has reached a disgusting $767 Billion, with Bezos and Zuck both worth around $250 Billion.

This insane, totally unjustifiable level of wealth inequality is undoubtedly ruining our country. The billionaires and their enablers have captured our government in order to enrich themselves while also rejecting any semblance of moral responsibility to use their wealth to improve society. They have succeeded, in part, thanks to our distraction (including with culture war bs) and a failure to educate and organize.

Don’t ever let Fox News, politicians, or rich a-holes convince you that free healthcare, child care, parental leave, higher minimum wage, etc. is “too expensive” or “unrealistic.” If billionaires were taxed properly, corporations were not treated like people, and special interests prevented from buying our politicians, Americans could easily enjoy these privileges that most Europeans already enjoy.

(I’m not saying everything here is Portugal is perfect, by the way, far from it, but there is generally a more laid-back mindset that I can only assume comes from not fearing that a trip to the hospital would bankrupt you, etc…)

I have not been immune from distraction myself. In my twenties, I fell back on trading, marketing, and advertising jobs to support my creative obsessions with screenwriting and music. Sure, I would shake my fist and whinge about politics in the occasional social media post (as I am now), but that was largely the extent of my activism. Like most Americans, I’ve mostly kept my head down and carried on like the good little beaten-down millennial prosumer that I am.

Until last year, that is. After 10 years in NYC, I opted out of the increasingly unaffordable (and fascist) drift of the US and moved to Portugal to write the dystopian sci fi novel I’m currently working on, which is overtly political and draws on myriad underlying themes shaping our world today including techno-fascism, inequality, disillusionment, self-sabotage, addiction, as well as the realization that, in the words of Merriadoc Brandybuck of The Shire, that we’re all “part of this world,” and ought to fight back against evil and oppression.

I’m not in the streets putting my life on the line like brave Minnesotans and other legal observers around the country. I didn’t build Jemail. But I believe I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing and that it will resonate and inspire others like myself who have been more “on the sidelines” than perhaps we’d like to admit.

Last thing - I’ve never much been into sports. No offense if you are, but I’ve always considered them a relatively frivolous thing to get obsessed with or build an identity or sense of community around. At first, Staley’s email made me feel a tad bit vindicated about my apathy towards them (nevermind that I simply distract myself with movies, tv, books, and music instead).

But then I remembered Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance last year—if you missed it, or haven’t rewatched it since, I suggested you do that right now.

The man took the biggest stage in the world—the very same “Circus” Staley points to as a tool that distract “the group that should be in the streets”— and delivered the most powerful and politically subversive performance we are EVER going to see during a Superbowl Halftime show. It almost feels like a direct response to Staley’s claim, but Kendrick didn’t need an old rich rapist to confirm what he already knew. He even ended his set by repeatedly telling the audience to “turn the TV off,” to STOP being distracted! Stop sitting at home! Don’t just ignore the problems Staleys and Trumps would like us not to think too hard about! Lamar is undoubtedly a genius, truly the greatest rapper ever, and a true 21st Century poet.

This NYT article highlights some of the historical, cultural, and socio-political references Lamar drops in there if you’re curious. I had forgotten the Serena Williams cameo, and didn’t realize she was doing a crip walk not just to celebrate Compton but also to “reclaim the joy that was weaponized against her after she celebrated her 2012 London Olympics Gold Medal with a three-second crip walk, unleashing an onslaught of racist commentary and a Fox News headline “Serena Flubs Crowning Moment.””

And Samuel L Jackson was too perfect as “Uncle Sam,” voicing the mainstream/conservatives who would rather see Kendrick “play the game” and “tighten up” rather than announce at the start that “the revolution will be televised.” I mean, come on, too good.

Without Kendrick (and Uncle Samuel L Jackson), last year’s Super Bowl would’ve just been another moment of distraction. This year, the selection of Bad Bunny became a political lightning rod too, and Mr Bunny deserves praise for celebrating Puerto Rico and multiculturalism at a time when ICE agents are disappearing both illegal AND even legal residents into modern day concentration camps. Does the NFL actually want to be more than just a distraction, or are the ultra-popular artists they hire simply choosing to use their platform for good, as is the responsibility of all artists in times like these? I don’t know.

What I do know is that the Epstein files are already bringing down politicians and royalty here in Europe, and we all need to STAY FOCUSED and keep pushing our elected officials to hold these monsters accountable, release ALL the files, and protect our free and fair elections from Trump’s desperate, illegal interference.

Change is possible, but it will take more effort and attention from all of us.

-Brendan

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Thanks for reading!

-Brendan