Flying Spaghetti Monster = Trump’s Effort to Evade Epstein Files Scandal
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
For more than a week I have been watching Google Trends as Trump flings more and more spaghetti at the wall to find something that sticks.
Something with enough adhesion and coverage to hide his failure to produce the Epstein files, a kind of flying spaghetti monster more real than the snarky faux deity — sticky strands like the flip-floppery on tariffs, the unwarranted and unlawful occupation of Washington DC by National Guard, the embarrassing meeting with Putin on US soil.
US media has been helping Trump by allowing itself to be sucked into the noodly vortex with outrage du jour.
Yes, there’s a lot of outrage, and US media has failed to cover it in a way that conveys the depth of outrage. But they also allowed themselves to be led wholly off course by a convicted felon who is a serial liar and a serial business failure.
The one thing Trump has been consistently successful at in his lifetime: leading the media away from his failures.
Australia’s 60 Minutes did what CBS’ 60 Minutes in the US wouldn’t do. It stayed on course and covered the Epstein files scandal with this video aired August 17.
Google Trends, August 11, 2025 – search terms Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, tariffs, Russia
Google Trends, August 19, 2025 – search terms Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, tariffs, Russia
We cannot accept a Manchurian candidate run by Putin. We cannot accept the occupation of our cities at the Manchurian candidate’s orders.
But we absolutely cannot allow this Manchurian candidate to continue to throw tons of pasta to obscure his role in a human trafficking conspiracy.
Yes, his role, because he’s actively hiding the files by way of his proxies at DOJ, while allowing Ghislaine Maxwell privileges she should not have in the form of better detention conditions not permitted to sex offenders.
The conspiracy continues even after Jeffrey Epstein’s death; the victims are no closer to getting explanations about the human trafficking network in which Epstein and Maxwell operated, and the public including Trump’s base have been denied the files Trump promised as part of his campaign.
Press your members of Congress to get the files released. Press media outlets to stop being part of the conspiracy by inaction and to stay on the Epstein files. Don’t get buried under the flying spaghetti. Don’t let up.
Kudos to Australia’s 60 Minutes on Nine Network. They ran this piece two years ago about Ghislaine Maxwell:
https://youtu.be/wo_MYozUmWc
My understanding is the House Oversight Committee plans to release Epstein files after certain redactions are made to ensure victim ID and child sexual abuse material are removed. That release may rekindle media/public interest in the matter. Contacting your politicians is always helpful as well.
It would be nice if you shared a link to any factual reporting which underpins your understanding.
And until the files are released, pressure must remain on Congress. They can change their minds at any time, find some excuse not to follow through, allow themselves to use the same spaghetti to hide their inaction.
Until the files are released to the public, Congress’ GOP caucus remains an enabler of the Epstein files human trafficking conspiracy.
From our friends at CBS News….
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epstein-house-oversight-justice-department-subpoena/
Reply to PedroVermont
August 20, 2025 at 6:32 pm
our friends /s
ADDER:
Some.
WaPo https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/18/epstein-maxwell-documents-house-committee-subpoena-justice-bondi/
More weasel words.
This is why continued pressure is essential. You’ve already demonstrated just how easy it is to feed the public a bunch of flying spaghetti and call it responsive.
The real question is what redactions ? 1000 FBI agents might be wrong. I’m sure they were not put under the gun to search for Trumps name for the benefit of the victims.
No wonder that the Trumpistas are now talking about a third term. Anything, but anything, to avoid release of the full details. Gerrymander, National Guard on Main Street, whatever it takes…
(It occurs to me, though, that Trump now has an Achilles heel. Anyone can accuse him of pedophilia and for once he daren’t resort to lawfare. Besides the renewed Streisand Effect, just think of his existing conviction and the juicy prospects for discovery…)
I don’t think his mind will last through 2028.
I don’t think it’s only “now”.
He and they have been talking since the November election.
Is anyone even watching or reading MSM these days? Democracy needs a single spokesperson who can grab headlines that will be shared.
Sounds a bit monocultural to me.
So is US mainstream media.
You saying Leavitt isn’t doing an effective job, lol?
A single voice for democracy is a contradiction of terms.
And let’s add to the list of Trump’s stunt diversions and red meat offerings to his faithful, the banning of coverage for trans government employees, with mandates for conversion therapy coverage. Not as immediately dramatic as some of the others, but devastating in its impact, and in the creeping precedent it helps establish around the legal existence of trans people.
http s:// www .erininthemorning.com/p/trump-admin-bans-coverage-for-trans
It’s possibly worth noting that Lawrence O’Donnell has been hammering on the Epstein matter pretty much every night for the last couple of weeks. Maybe not many people watch that show, but he has been persistent in refusing to let it go.
Lawrence O’Donnell has been on vacation this week, but yes, and he maintains emphasis on Ghislaine Maxwell.
At 1.176 million daily viewers, not a lot of people are hearing his message.
https://www.scribd.com/document/903680809/Week-8-11-25-Cable-Ranker#from_embed
Are you counting those who catch his opening monologue online the next day? I watch Lawrence’s show every night *because* he stays relentlessly on point. I live with someone who has to get up too early for such indulgences, but that person has surprised me by referring to O’Donnell’s monologues, which he caught the way he catches most things: online.
Also: Peacock. And I believe it’s available as a podcast.
Are the corporate owners of the news media afraid of retribution from Trump? Or are reporters afraid they will lose access to Trump or his staff ?
The efforts by Trump and his staff to put the Epstein-Maxwell sex abuse and trafficking scandal have been intense even if clumsy. There is a lot of smoke. Can we dare to hope that investigative reporters are on the trail?
The rolling purge at WaPo certainly discouraged editors and journalists. But the journalism industry doesn’t seem up to the moment because it hasn’t developed an effective response — a cooperative site for journalists displaced by fascism, for example.
I think the site of “journalists displaced by fascism” is The Bulwark. Yes, it’s imperfect. It’s got some people who’s past association with “conservativism” bothers me. They got us here. Yet, they’re actually trying and doing the work.
People can wake up.
Only the Never Trump brigade has been displaced. Joe Walsh now belongs to the same party as AOC. That would’ve been an insane suggestion before Trump. You can add in the Lincoln Project too.
The MSM is what’s failing us. They’re still addicted to clicks over truth and being first rather than being correct.
The issue with the Epstein scandal is that we’re dependent on the cult of MAGA finding some ethics and applying them to Trump. It’s a Sisyphean task while he holds the levers of the DOJ and FBI, throws the spaghetti against the wall, and KaroLyin’ Leavitt runs the doublespeak from the podium.
You’re right, we should be pushing this HARD.
The key I think is we MUST win the mid-terms and get our hands on running the House investigative committees. Of course, that failed last time and the entire Gov now functions as Trump’s praetorian guard.
It’s possible that our best hope is for the tariffs to cause enough economic pain that a significant % of independents vote against MAGA. I’m not seeing enough people disgusted by the outright authoritarian rule.
They’re busy re-gerrymandering Texas, so they’re scared. That’s good.
PS. Thanks for posting Malcolm Nance. I love him and read his X/itter feed daily.
[Moderator’s note: see your comment at 9:45 am ET. /~Rayne]
“journalists displaced by fascism” is not The Bulwark. They are opinion columnists at best even if some of them have journalism degrees and/or experience. They do NOT do fact-based reporting.
Never-Trump Republican apostates are NOT Democrats. They didn’t win their own party and certainly can’t tell Democrats how to win their party because they never won Democrats, either. Nor would those apostates vote Democratic Party if they had a credible chance at voting for a Never-Trump Republican.
We need to build our own media machine on the left, period.
CBS is now owned by David Ellison, Larry Ellison’s (#2 richest man in the world) son. He is not a friend of democracy or Stephen Colbert, if you remember.
For the people in the back, otra vez – Peter Jennings, a man paid to read the news, left an estate of $50 million dollars. Investigative journalism, real investigative journalism, while being done in small doses, simply cannot compete.
Even if the MSM hammered on Epstein as 60 Minutes Australia did (I saw the second video last week, but not the first one), it won’t matter until Trump’s base starts asking for the files again. For that brief moment in July when the base was demanding the files, Trump got nervous.
The solution is to get the MAGA influencers interested in the files again and squawking about the files, then the MAGAts will follow. I found it very interesting that during that brief moment in July, MAGA was upset about the files not being released as Trump promised when he campaigned last year, MAGA actually turned on Trump as I saw in the Fox News comment section.
As long as the MSM are the only ones asking questions about the files, the narrative will be that liberals are out to harm Trump and MAGA will circle the wagons around him. MAGA is very protective of their leader as cultists are.
I believe the credible accounts of the survivors. Magats don’t. Why? Because they don’t want an Epstein file that implicates Trump. They want “proof” of the pedophile deep state cabal. They want something that gives them license to go after the Democrats they’ve been program to hate. If somehow Trump were implicated in the release, they’d dismiss it as a hit job by the deep state – fake news. Those that have spent the last ten years making him part of their identity, flying trump’s colors or getting Trump tattoos are unwilling to admit that they were wrong. It’s far too late for that. Magats will never Turn on trump.
“…If somehow Trump were implicated in the release, they’d dismiss it as a hit job by the deep state – fake news…”
Nick Fuentes’ ballistic response to Trump telling MAGA to move on from Epstein shows otherwise.
https://youtu.be/I5yKvQcN328
Same with the comments at the end of this Fox News article.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-slams-reporter-asking-about-creep-jeffrey-epstein-during-cabinet-meeting
Nick Fuentes has been slamming the right over Epstein. He has been naming names in regards to Epstein being a Mossad agent along with Ghislaine and Ghislaine’s father. He has been calling out the right’s subservience to AIPAC.
You know we are in an upside down world when in the same month I have agreed with MTG and Fuentes. Turns my stomach to say that.
@ Molly Pitcher
August 21, 2025 at 6:25 pm
Remember: A broken analog clock is correct twice a day.
OT but since you bring up flying.
Air Canada flight attendants struck the airline from Saturday till Tuesday, including defying a Canadian government back to work order.
I looked up today why they were striking and it’s weird in the 21st century that flight attendants aren’t or haven’t been paid for time on the ground, ie pre- and post-flight, including time a flight is delayed.
And in the article discussion about US airlines, “Delta Air Lines, whose flight attendants aren’t unionized, in 2022 started paying for a limited amount of ground time at half the hourly rate. Last year, American Airlines flight attendants also secured pay for boarding time through a union contract.”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/08/19/unpaid-work-for-flight-attendants-could-be-on-the-way-out-as-union-declares-win/
WTF!
Air Canada strike is now over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ds_ToXkMw
AC, being a government-subsidized enterprise, has always been behind the curve. Maybe they’re catching up now.
Yes, as I indicated the strike ended on Tuesday and here’s an article from AP that’s hot off the press on US workers.
“Frustrations among flight attendants at both regional and legacy airlines have been building for years over paychecks that many of them say don’t match the weight of what their jobs demand. Compounding the discontent over hourly wages is a long-standing airline practice of not paying attendants for the work they perform on the ground, like getting passengers on and off planes.”
https://apnews.com/article/flight-attendants-strike-ground-pay-boarding-188021c4cd85fe57edbadcb812502884
Air Canada (AC), like CN Railway used to be 100% government owned.
I don’t remember the circumstances for it becoming private.
Government of Canada took a 6% stake in the company in exchange for covid funds.
Can you provide more info on your “has always been behind the curve” comment.
As an aside, I believe the largest number of buses in US transit are made by New Flyer Enterprises. That company used to be owned by the government of the province of Manitoba until the province’s governing party at some point a few decades ago decided that an enterprise like that should not be run by a government and sold it to private buyers.
Sorry, I missed your mention that the strike was over.
My “behind the curve” comment is purely subjective, having flown frequently between Los Angeles and Vancouver/Vancouver Island to visit a friend who lives there since 1985.
AC became fully privatized in 1989, and then the Canadian government invested a 6% stake to defray covid costs, as you noted, in 2021. So, shuttling between being fully government-owned until 1989, going private afterwards and now being government-assisted since 2021, acquiring Canadian Airlines in 2000 which turned into a financial debacle, and having various issues with pensions, unions and bankruptcies since then, that’s the basis of my statement. They have a practical monopoly on domestic airline routes, as their nearest competitor, Westjet, is a much smaller company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Air_Canada_flight_attendants_strike
Just to be clear, all US airlines and probably all the world’s airlines have had issues with pensions, unions and bankruptcies.
And they all have monopolies in some fashion, whether it’s routes, hubs and gates or threats to jet builders if they sell to competitors, especially low-fare carriers.
Flight attendends begin being paid when the door closes for push-back and take-off. Up to that point, settling passengers and getting the plane situatied for take-off is all on their time. It’s industry practice generally.
As for being paid for delays, if the plane is on the tarmac with the door closed, the attendents are being paid.
Alaska Airlines definiately follows these practices.
Nevertheless, it’s wage theft and a bullshit practice. If flight attendants didn’t show up and manage the pre-boarding process, presumably, they would be fired or their pay docked.
It’s work, they should be paid for it, and, of course, it should count toward the maximum hours they can work in a day/shift. Given how often airlines delay departure, that would wreak havoc with their staffing and budgets. That’s a routine business risk, whose costs they should bear, not their employees.
Not to mitigate what you write, but it’s not businesses that bear those costs.
It’s the consumer.
Same as the tariffs.
A tad reductionist. Businesses incur the cost and try to pass them on. As with Trump’s tariffs, they’re not always successful, and not for the whole time they have to pay those costs.
More needs to be highlighted on DOJ withholding federal funds earmarked for crime victims if states don’t cooperate with federal immigration requirements, headline by AP – “20 states and DC sue DOJ to stop immigration requirements on victim funds”.
I looked at the headline and maybe my comprehension sucks, but had no idea what the headline meant.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-crime-victims-compensation-lawsuit-20-states-8cf1553b93bcdbb7931d6cba28011386
In the 1990s, Arizona refused to recognize MLK Bday as a holdiay, so the Clinton Admin said they would withhold federal highway funds as punishment. Arizona complied. This move by the Trump Admin is the latest iteration of bending a state to federal will.
Arizona was, and is, a racist state. That particular governor was especially bad.
Agreed.
In this example, bending Arizona to federal will was for the good of the whole. Now-a-days, federal will is to reverse all previous advancements. SEE: Smithsonian Museums and 1619 Project
The U.S. has two histories simultanously: (1) Freedoms for white male property owners and (2) slavery.
Is it not ‘the Maxwell Files’? Never gonna be? Who says? When did it become the ‘Epstein’ files? Who made -or makes, that decision?
May this post go viral.
A toast.
There is no way under the sun that the man who owns Mar-a-Lago Club did not know perfectly well at the time what was going on.
Thank you, Rayne.
Espeically a guy who approved and signed every invoice at Trump Organization.
And signed every check and/or handed cash out to off-the-books employees, whether they were immigrants working illegally in the US or minors ineligible to work. Current Florida regs on child labor appear to be fairly loose, but not sure how they were then, so that may not be an issue in the golf club.
Of course, trump knew. It was for his benefit too.
It’s an old tradition for young ladies to “audition” for trump. It’s just an older class of republican dames now that dress up for dinner at Mar-a-Lago to preen & scream for his attention over the velvet cord in the dining room.
and what were those “beauty pageants” except trolling for girl-flesh?
the man is a truly disgusting pervert.
July 2015, Reuters reported that Trump Model Management and Trump Management Group LLC combined had requested US visas for almost 250 international fashion models.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-exclusive-idUSKCN0Q62RQ20150801
======
The sexual deviant seems to have a penchant for eastern European models.
Trump knew. And he knew enough to distance himself from it, linguistically at least: “…and some of them, it is said, are on the younger side.”
Reads like you think that Trmp is an acolyte of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or you are. May we all be touched by Its noodly appendage.
And they’re going to be watching everyone with a visa, for “deportable offenses”.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/trump-administration-reviewing-all-55m-people-20828056.php
Yeah, Trump says he plans to review 55 million visa applications for potential “illegalities.” WTF. For this administration, everything is an enemies list. Sure, Stevie Miller wants to make his deportation numbers. But this is programmatic hatred.
Imagine all the real work of govt not being done by these clowns.
As per their promise, TRAUMA!
There are a lot of people who would visit the US, but not with the rules this maladministration uses.
Yet being president with 34-felony business fraud convictions is perfectly fine.
A win, ding, ding, ding, ding!
“ Federal judge orders closure of Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration jail”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/21/trump-alligator-alcatraz-judge-ruling
How many divisions does that judge command?
Todd Blanche released the redacted interview transcripts. The words ‘redacted’ and ‘transcirpts’ make the release useless for any worthwhile information. Apparently the interview had been separated into four or so separate sections.
Just another distraction.
A day filled with distractions, Bolton…, release of Maxwell interview…, and tonight’s 1am headline “Maxwell missing from her cell, believed to be in EPCOT.
Correction – CECOT.
With apologies to The Rolling Stones:
I see a big wall and I want it painted black/
No migrants anymore, I want them to turn back
I see the girls walk by, the ones that Epstein chose/
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
Anyone who thinks that the current release, however slow and piecemeal, of Epstein files by the DOJ to the House Oversight Committee, or any supposed future release by the administration will reveal anything truly incriminating and fatally harmful to Trump is a bit addled in the brain. We now move to what will be the bigger Epstein scandal – the coverup. Of course, Trump’s happy warriors will have sanitized, destroyed and/or buried any of the really good stuff. We can, however, have faith that because of their overall incompetence in everything they apply themselves to, the coverup will be undone and there will eventually be a big reveal.
[Thanks for updating your username to meet the 8-letter minimum. Please be sure to use the same username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. /~Rayne]
To believe that the current drip, drab release of the Epstein files to the House Oversight Committee or any future releases by the administration will disclose seriously incriminating, damaging material about Trump one has to be a bit brain addled. The next and predictable stage we are already in and which is the bigger Epstein scandal is the Epstein coverup. Of course, Trump’s happy warriors have by now sanitized, deleted, and/or buried anything incriminating. However, one can have faith in the knowledge that they have carried this out with the same general incompetence and negligence applied to everything done by the Trump administration. Accordingly, there will eventually be the big reveal.