ya its not too hard to understand. the most powerful people in our world are pedophiles. pretty crazy.

Catholic church deserves a mention.
And I tend to agree that the elites are into a bunch of demented stuff. But the question should be why is that the case?

Maybe it’s a psy-op.

Why it's being brought to the forefront now I think is. But it doesn't also mean that there isn't truth there.

The prevalent theory is that the powerful do not happen to de demented or become demented due to the corrupting influence of power... but rather the demented are chosen and/or promoted, precisely because (at least it's one of the primary reasons) they are demented and thereby can be controlled by threat of blackmail into doing their masters' bidding and be good little puppets.

When you want to see someone's true character, give them power

Or, he already bought his copies back

Well, if you had to pick one person that is known that will take the fall or whatever - who would it be. I am kind of going with that Prince.

The motivation behind seeking fame/power may be strongly correlated with a sexual predatory nature. That's long been a suspicion of mine.

Among people born into eliteness it seems far less prevalent. i.e for all the prince andys there are a fair number of the male royal thingies who have shown no inclination.

Are you a big fan of the notorious paedophile neo-Nazi Kevin Strom? Because that's who said that. It's often (wilfully) misattributed to Voltaire, but it's actually a Kevin Strom-ism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Alfred_Strom

Prince Andrew is a spoilt brat whereas the first line royals have basically no free will their whole lives and work like mules. Both Charles and Anne do over 500 functions a year and can never put a foot wrong while Andy gets his pores sucked by high class hookers.

It's a trite bromide, but power does tend to corrupt.

The late Vanity Fair writer/author Dominick Dunne specialized in thinly veiled accounts of the wealthy and how they come to believe that "the rules" don't apply to them so they can (and often do) get away with anything. One of his books, (i.e. "An Inconvenient Woman"), was the story - only with the names changed - of the late Alfred Bloomingdale and his affair with Vicky Morgan; a waitress he met by pure chance. (Bloomingdale is best known for coming up with the idea of credit cards [back in the 1960's] and creating the Diners Club credit card. He thought up the idea because his many Manhattan friends did not like carrying large amounts of cash on their persons when going out at night for dinner in upscale Manhattan restaurants. Using a plastic card to "charge" their meals was a welcome respite from carrying around cash. Bloomingdale's insight created a multi-billion dollar industry.) Bloomingdale's wife, Betsy, was very good friends with Nancy Reagan.

Before his death, Vicky Morgan had managed to extract a "promise" from Bloomingdale that he would make sure she was "taken care of" [financially] for the rest of her life. After Bloomingdale's passing, Betsy - who knew of her husband's affair with Morgan - immediately cut off the monthly cash infusions that were going to Vicky. A bitter battle ensued between Mrs. Bloomingdale and Vicky Morgan. To say that Betsy Bloomingdale "hated" Vicky Morgan was an understatement. After her husband's passing, Mrs. Bloomingdale was determined that Ms. Morgan would not get a cent - irrespective of what her [late] husband might have promised.

A television movie was made based on Dunne's book. Jason Robards played the character Jules Mendelson who was a composite of Alfred Bloomingdale. Rebecca de Mornay played the Vicky Morgan character with Jill Eikenberry playing the part of Mendelson's wife. In the movie, after Jules death, the "inconvenient woman" is shot to death by a mysterious [unknown] assassin. This is not quite the way it played out in real life. Vicky Morgan was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Marvin Pancoast, a gay man she was sharing an apartment with. Pancoast was convicted of the murder and died in prison from complications of AIDS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Morgan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAttgclEMLE

The adage that the rich and privileged don't play by the same rules as the rest of us is a persistent theme in Dominick Dunne's books. The belief that "the rules don't apply to me" was certainly the case with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

I'd never heard of him until I looked up the quote this past weekend. I'm a fan of the quote, but certainly not of the person.

As an individualist, I don't pretend to derive power or affirmation from any collective, whether it be a race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nation, etc. That's the realm of group politics, the ramifications of which we have been seeing for a long time, and more and more every day. Certain groups are protected and certain groups are the officially authorized recipients of hate speech, that's just the climate we currently live in, and perhaps it's always been this way, with only the specific groups changing over time.

btw why are you on first-name-terms with Ghislaine Maxwell?

The Real Reason Prince Andrew Is Sweating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-9hO4wF_xw

Interesting that super lawyer David Boies is representing several of Epstein's accusers/victims, in particular Virginia Roberts Guiffre. Around the 24:30 mark of the video, lawyer Boies makes it clear that Prince Andrew is the prime target of [pending] civil litigation. With the British royal family reportedly worth billions, Boies is focused like a laser on the "deep pockets" of the royals. Mr. Boies obviously sees a huge payday for himself when he gets a one-third cut of any settlement(s).

Audrey Strauss, the [acting] SDNY U.S. Attorney, verbally indicates (in the video) that Andrew, despite repeated protestations to the contrary, has not "cooperated" with the FBI despite repeated attempts to interview him. (The Prince, obviously on advice from his lawyers, has chosen to stonewall the investigation.) For her part, Ghislaine has great incentive to spill the beans on her "friend" the Prince. (Ghislaine must be thinking something along the lines of: "Hell no! No way do I take the fall for these morons and spend the rest of my life in prison!")

When questioned by reporters during the announcement of Ghislaine's arrest and indictment, prosecutor Strauss stated the Government is willing to consider a plea bargain deal with Ms. Maxwell. It's obvious that the Government wants to go after "bigger fish" and will use Ghislaine's testimony as a springboard toward that end. Assuming Ghislaine "spills the beans" on Andrew (and others), the big question will be whether or not the Government can charge Andrew for crimes allegedly committed in the United States and whether or not Andrew will fight extradition if he is charged?

The real question - the BIG QUESTION - is how far the Government's investigation goes? Will Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Kevin Spacey, et al. wind up getting indicted and going on trial? If the FBI has tapes of these men literally "caught in the act" with their pants down, that will be strong corroborating evidence supplementing Ms. Maxwell's testimony. I doubt if the Government will go after "bigger fish" based solely on Ghislaine Maxwell's testimony alone.

Another tantalizing possibility … Donald Trump is well known for being a very transactional type of fellow - meaning he always asks: "What's in this for me?" when he's approached about a potential deal. If the Government's case is really strong and Andrew, Clinton, Dershowitz et al. fear they have an excellent chance of being indicted and having to go through the humiliation of a trial; they may try to make a deal with Trump. Such a "deal" would be Trump issuing full and complete pardons on all of them as he's walking out the White House door in exchange for who knows how much $$$. (Trump would not be the first politician who has sold pardons for cash.) On the other hand, Trump supposedly had a major "falling out" with Epstein years ago, so maybe he could care less what happens to Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz.

This is starting to get really interesting …

I'll repeat my quip that prince andy wont be sweating but some of the above is of dubious value.

Of course andy isn't cooperating. Nor will he unless he is forced to - anyone who expected him to is nuts. No way he is willingly subjecting himself to any part of the usa justice system except maybe if it's under some very contrived circumstances which totally protects him.

Can they force him? Have to be a very big smoking gun - maxwell saying stuff is very unlikely to pierce the protective wealth/political net around the royal family. Could get very interesting if andy is stupid enough (which he may be) to go to the wrong country and the usa have the will to arrest him (hard to imagine)

Be nice to be wrong. A rare exception to my view that no-one from the Uk should ever be subject to the evil of the usa 'justice' system

All men enjoy having sex as much as possible. Some deny it to themselves, but they are just liars and cheats even to themselves. Most men don't have enough cash to indulge all their desires, and not everyone has the same desires, but as you go up the power/money/impunity chart it gets easier to try everything without any consequences, and a lot of those who have the opportunities take advantage of them (there are Francos and Bill Gates too, but it's just that they get off on being prigs). When someone lives in a world with no negative feedback except internal feedback, things can get out of hand. Probably half (maybe too low?) of business execs regularly see hookers, but Prince Andrew is operating at a whole different level. He doesn't have to work, the money is endless, and he can avail himself all sorts of power toadying infrastructure to protect himself from consequences. He's gotten away with it for a long time (nobody used to complain), and that confirms his idea that it's his divine right. He's almost king after all.

That simply isn't true. Not all men.

See what happens to yourself when you have 20 million to play with.

Apparently we now know what would happen if you had the money.

All the best.

This is a poker forum.
If you wouldn't get into trouble with limitless cash you're probably in the wrong place.

This seems pretty reasonable. I think he's one of the people behind this whole thing and having him be the fall guy would basically amount to a funny joke for them.

With powerful they're is a bell curve. Prince Andrew is an exception since he was born into it. But usually you are talented/smart so you gain some money. As you keep going up more and more people recognize. Then eventually you reach point where you are surrounded by yes men. This is point where people lose all control and you start ****ing 17 year olds. There is nobody to tell you otherwise.

Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast have an interesting talk with a reporter from The Daily Beast who has been following developments in this case. (The discussion starts at the 28:00 mark of the podcast.)

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR...egQIARAF&hl=en

Looks like there are more - a lot more - of the rich and powerful caught up in this than we have (so far) been told. The plot thickens …

I don't even need a lot of cash.