Ja, Verwaltung als Selbstzweck, ein lang bekanntes und ein sehr erhebliches Probleme in Deutschland: Von Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung bis zu diesen Dingen machen einem die Beamten das Leben schwer - ohne Mehrwert, ohne Sinn und vor allem ohne auch nur das geringste Verständnis dafür, dass die Arbeit der Menschen eben nicht in Papierkram, sondern in ihrer Arbeit besteht.

Nun ja, wenn man den ganzen Tag nichts anderes tut, als auf Paragraphen herum zu reiten, verliert man eben das Gespür dafür, was Wertschöpfung eigentlich ist. Das wird sich wohl früher oder später von selbst erledigen, nehme ich an, da die überbordende Bürokratie so extrem ist, dass sie der Wirtschaft enorm schadet und zwar in einem Maße, dass es irgendwann nichts mehr zu verwalten geben wird - aber hey, das Beamten-Heer bekommen ja trotzdem seine gemütliche Pension; fragt sich nur, wer die dann noch bezahlen soll.

3.5mm audio jack - unfortunately, most smartphones no longer have this.

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That’s true, but now with the same argument that the US has legitimized, on an unprecedented scale. Not that this is any kind of justification, but once again it is the US that is making it possible - by preventing UN sanctions against this criminal state.

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The glaring inconsistency lies in the fact that terrorists are not states against which one can wage war. This means that there are no regular armies fighting each other, but only one (usually vastly superior) army that arbitrarily decides which targets to attack and who to kill, which is not warfare, but the killing of arbitrary targets with arbitrary justification. This fundamentally flawed thinking was normalized during the occupation of Afghanistan under this pretext. It means nothing more than the right of the stronger party to do whatever it wants because it is supposedly fighting evil, which does not wear uniforms but hides among the civilian population, who are thus always under general suspicion of also being terrorists.

You say it’s okay when the US does it, but when anyone else does it, it’s an atrocity? You also say that the extreme disproportion between the victims of such an asymmetrical conflict would be acceptable. You do realize that Russia is justifying its invasion of Ukraine in the same way, right? And you really don’t see how absurd that is?

The only thing that could possibly top that is claiming that a country has weapons of mass destruction in order to destroy it, even though that country has no weapons of mass destruction at all - remember that US invasion? What I’m getting at is this: finding reasons for war that obscure the true intentions and coming up with justifications for extremely brutal actions is a specialty of the US. Another current example: the cold blooded murder of Venezuelan citizens in violation of international law – this time not on the grounds that they were allegedly terrorists, but on the grounds that they were allegedly drug dealers.

Oh, hey, yes, you’re right, there’s that too: the US also invented the concept of the “war on terror”, which has now been adopted by Israel, for example, to justify the genocide of the Palestinians. It’s really handy when you can just “excuse” the cold-blooded murder of thousands upon thousands of civilians with the argument that they are all supposedly terrorists. All you have to do is say, hey, they’re harboring terrorists, so let’s kill them all, including the women and children - the more we kill, the better, because once they grow up, they’ll all be terrorists.

Yes, exactly, it will only get worse because there is no mass resistance.

Since paedophilia is such a terrible crime that is universally despised by all social classes and political orientations, I think the Epstein scandal is the last chance to trigger mass protests against the obvious depravity of the political system and the open and fatal corruption in government offices. Given the severity of these crimes, this would be an opportunity to overcome the division between left and right in the interests of the population and to rise up against the real enemy, namely the moneyed aristocracy. However, since this will not even happen in the case of this completely perverse scandal, I can’t imagine how it could ever happen.

So it will turn out exactly as you describe: it will get even worse. Presumably, the elite will next transform the country from the usual plutocracy into an actual dictatorship like Russia, which makes resistance even more unlikely due to the tyranny, because then there will be repression on a scale that will make today’s status quo seem mild.

In my opinion, the current regime is already working on this - for example, with ICE, which already has a budget that compares to the military spendings of a medium-sized country and is already quite obviously acting as a secret police force outside the already dysfunctional legal system.

For people like you, who have long recognized the obvious, I am very sorry, but I fear that sooner or later it will come to this due to the apathy of the American people. If they don’t act now, I think they won’t be able to do so at all soon.

What hope? That would only lead to the orange pedophile being replaced by someone who is smarter and less obviously depraved, but just as unscrupulous. The only option is a general strike by the population that lasts until reforms are implemented that fundamentally reshape the system - and unfortunately, that is out of the question, as the current president impressively demonstrates: No crime could be terrible enough to motivate the American people to resistance, even though they are not even being oppressed by force.

Yes, I also consider this sad truth to be the most likely scenario. I mean, if the Epstein case, which clearly shows that the system is rotten to the core, is not enough to bring citizens out onto the streets and paralyze the country until serious reforms are implemented and those responsible are held accountable, then nothing will ever change and no one will be prosecuted for these terrible crimes. In short, if citizens want justice, they must rise up en masse, and they will never do so despite the monstrous actions of their leaders, even though, unlike in true dictatorships, they are not in immediate danger of life and limb (yet).

As a result, the situation will only get worse, because the unscrupulous monsters at the top realize that they are untouchable and that the American people will let them get away with absolutely anything. As I said before, if the Eppstein case is not enough, I don’t even want to imagine what it would take to mobilize US citizens against their overlords.

Are US citizens actually aware that this affair already allows only one conclusion, namely that the US is a banana republic where the law counts for absolutely nothing, a nation controlled by organized crime of the worst kind?

As others have already asked, but with different expectations: Have I missed something? I think I am fairly up to date on the published Epstein documents. None of this seems surprising to me - on the contrary, it’s what I expected (even badly redacted files). So is the idea now that there are documents that incriminate the US-President, files that may even be used as evidence that the US president is a child molester and that he is being protected by government institutions, or have I missed some new developments?

I’m just asking because I’m not sure whether US citizens are only now recognizing their president for what he is, or whether it’s actually a matter of holding him accountable for at least some of his particularly terrible deeds. I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but I can hardly imagine that happening in this system.

But please don’t get me wrong, I also believe that if, despite the regime’s ongoing attempts at censorship, absolutely nothing happens in this matter, the criminal justice system in the US can no longer be taken seriously by anyone. This is probably one of the biggest scandals in US history, involving immeasurable suffering on the part of hundreds of victims. If there are no consequences, if US citizens let this slide even though it is completely obvious that state institutions are actively covering up serious crimes, then they deserve no better.

So, my initial question again against this backdrop: Have I missed something? Is there any hope that somethin could actually change in the US?

That is absolutely correct, but unfortunately very unlikely, because many of our politicians are either incredibly incompetent or simply corrupt. This is for example evident in the fact that they even want to introduce Palantir, as was recently the case in Germany, where the state of Baden-Württemberg decided to use the US mass surveillance software “Gotham” in a completely unlawful manner and against the will of the population (its use is also already planned at the federal level).

So unfortunately, I have little hope here, but I will still try to do my part.

Our politicians should really stop pretending that the US is an ally. They haven’t been for a long time, but the current regime is so corrupt and utterly unscrupulous that it’s impossible to reach any kind of agreement with them. The Epstein story alone proves this, not to mention the cold-blooded murders of Venezuelan citizens in violation of international law, the blackmail with tariffs, all the Nazi-Shit and so on and so forth - this nation is a banana republic led by organized crime and our politicians should treat it as such.

It’s a cult

That’s how it is in the US. However, I’m from Europe, where some legal systems still function reasonably well - legal disputes aren’t exactly cheap here either, but they don’t completely ruin you (can happen tho).

But yes, it’s true, you don’t stand a chance against the giant corporations here either.

Hmm, seems like one can only conclude that they don’t want to know. Today, I watched a House hearing from September in which Kash Patel was questioned. Even then, it was so obvious that it was a cover-up: he awkwardly dodged the most basic questions, couldn’t explain why victims were never interviewed even though they had asked to be, and so on and so forth - a real clown show - and each of the conservative representatives first thanked Patel for his great work and then asked random questions about Antifa or some other nonsense. You would think that no one could accept this – especially not from a party that campaigned on this issue. So I think that either they don’t care or they are ok with it.

Are the MAGA supporters in the US actually aware of all this? Or does this news not even reach them?

I mean, it seems impossible to spin this obvious cover-up in a way that leaves the regime with any credibility whatsoever. I can’t imagine how that could be done.