I don't think the Donald is blackmailed. I think he's blackmailing, and making the files public would end his ability to blackmail. He apprenticed to Roy Cohn for decades, and Cohn confessed to being a pimp of little boys to politicians to blackmail them. Trump didn't learn how to deal in real estate from Cohn. He learned to blackmail politicians, because that was what Cohn did for a living.
During the first Trump Presidency, the Weiner laptop, the NXIVM files, and Epstein's files were seized by law enforcement, which put them in the possession of the Executive - Donald J. Trump. This isn't theoretical information, or my imagination. All these are documented facts (except what the Donald learned from Cohn, which is not wild speculation, but the only reasonable conclusion).
Blackmail isn't some theory. It's been a political and criminal tool for as long as society has existed. Anyone that wants to understand the facts of our political situation has to reckon with these truths.
I don't agree that regarding crimes against humanity we are in a 'new world', where good and evil no longer matter. Sadistic brutality has been a feature of political power and conquest for as long as terrestrial life has existed. It took millennia for us to create forms of governance where power wasn't transferred by war and slaughter, but by populations discussing and choosing. Sadly, the world is being dragged back to savagery, not progressing beyond it to actual freedom where we don't need to be ruled. We have a tough road ahead, but I take heart from Carlos Santana's response to me when I pointed out that life is an act of war, that every blade of grass is fighting for it's life with every other blade of grass for light, water, nutrients, and space to live. He told me that only people can make peace, and that's why we're here.
Terrible suffering and heroic trials are upon us, and we aren't here by accident. We are the heroes our posterity will make statues of, read about in their history books, and venerate for our victory over the evil we face, and will vanquish. We are the saviours we have been waiting for, because we are whom is here to make that leap beyond war and suffering, and we aren't here by mistake. This is why we're here.
Thanks!
RE: news roundup