remember that Virginia Giuffre, one of the most well-known of Epstein’s victims, first met Ghislaine Maxwell when she was 17 and working at Mar-a-Lago:

In mid-2000, Giuffre met Ghislaine Maxwell when working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club while reading a book about massage therapy. Maxwell, a British socialite and daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell, approached Giuffre, noted the book that she was reading, inquired about her interest in massage, and offered her a potential job working for Epstein as a traveling masseuse with the assurance that no experience was necessary.

“is Trump mentioned in the Epstein files?” is not a meaningful question, because the answer is obviously yes. the real question is “how frequently, and in what contexts, is Trump mentioned in the Epstein files?”

I am basing that on both what I see on the news and what is happening to people all around me.

what news sources are you consuming?

because if you’re getting the message from the news that economic collapse is imminent and all currencies are going to be worthless and we will need to fall back to a barter-based economy…that is a function of choices you’ve made in your news diet, much more than it has anything to do with anything actually happening in the real world.

and what specifically is happening to people around you that you’re referring to? do you have a pen-pal in Weimar-era Germany who you’re communicating with through a time portal? or are you talking with other people who have the same news diet as you do and forming a self-reinforcing worldview?

The family — a mom, Jackie Merlos, and her four children, 9-year-old triplets and a 7-year-old son — were detained June 28 at the U.S.-Canadian border at Peace Arch Park. Merlos was meeting her sister, a Canadian citizen, in that well-known neutral area where Americans can see their family and friends.

children under 10, held in captivity for 2 weeks. all US citizens (not that it should matter, no one should be treated this way, but it’s a reminder that no one is immune)

Washington Congressman Rick Larsen said his team is working with Dexter and the local Department of Homeland Security to uncover more facts on the family’s detention, stating, “I respect federal law enforcement, and they must respect the constitutional rights of the people they detain.”

Rick Larsen is one of the most senior Democrats in the Congressional Spineless Caucus. instead of any sort of outrage, he’s throwing out this weasel-worded “I respect federal law enforcement…” shit.

at the risk of being “guy who pretty much only plays Factorio recommends you play Factorio…”

you can easily put 50+ hours into a single savefile, especially with the Space Age expansion

here’s an article from the AP: What to know after judge keeps Kilmar Abrego Garcia in jail over deportation fears

If things went as planned, Abrego Garcia would be staying with his brother in Maryland while court proceedings continue. But he’s still locked up over fears that U.S. immigration officials will try to deport him again.

A federal judge in Tennessee agreed Monday to keep Abrego Garcia behind bars at the request of his own attorneys. They had raised concerns over what they say were “contradictory statements” by the Trump administration over plans to remove Abrego Garcia from the country.

“at the request of his own attorneys” is the key thing here. he is eligible to be released pending the trial, but he is requesting to stay in jail because of fears that the gestapo will kidnap him again if he’s released.

useful or at least neutral rather than being a negative on the society?

I would recommend reading about the Protestant work ethic

there is an assumption that is deeply embedded in our society, including in your question, that someone’s worth as a human is linked to the job they perform, how much money they make at that job, etc.

it is so deeply ingrained that it’s one of those “fish don’t realize they’re wet” things - you probably never had a class in school where the teacher explicitly said “today we’re going to learn about why rich people are better than poor people, and employed people are better than unemployed people”.

if you’re looking for a concrete idea for what can be done, read about universal basic income.

but breaking out of that “not having a job means you’re a drain on society” mindset needs to come first. if you skip that step, UBI will seem to you like a “handout” given to people who don’t “deserve” it (I would also recommend reading about the concept of “deserving poor” vs “undeserving poor”)

there’s also a weird cognitive dissonance when it comes to talking about “free” public transit compared to other kinds of transportation.

the vast, vast majority of roads are “free” in the sense that they’re completely paid for with tax revenue, rather than collecting a toll from each road user. roads with tolls are an extremely small percentage of the overall amount of road-miles that exist.

so the “default” mindset of a road is that it’s “free” at the time of use, and charging per-use is seen as a rare exception.

but for public transit, we somehow have the opposite mindset - the “default” is that it must collect a per-usage fee. and a transit system that does not is seen as the exception, bordering on an aberration.

Apple announcing a new product would be news.

speculation that Apple might announce a new product…is not news.