This is Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality—my attempt to make myself, and all of you out there in SubStackLand, smarter by writing where I have Value Above Replacement and shutting up where I do not…
Edward Luce: THe Epstein Rot Goes Deep <https://www.ft.com/content/3f8277cd-2b47-49ff-b264-fd7ce89c924f>: ‘The idea that anyone did not know about Epstein’s conviction as a sex abuser is absurd…. Invited in 2010 to an Epstein dinner with Woody Allen and then Prince Andrew in New York, the magazine editor, Tina Brown, replied: “What the fuck is this . . .? The paedophile’s ball?” Brown’s reaction should have been everyone’s. So should that of Melinda Gates… who stepped into Epstein’s home once and immediately regretted it. Alas… more common, to anyone with the stomach to sample this trove, is that of Sarah Ferguson, “I have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness …”, she wrote to Epstein. Epstein’s most stupendous feat was to become a powerful New York insider after being registered as a sex offender. In 2012, four years after his conviction, Elon Musk asked Epstein for an invitation to the “wildest party on your island”. In 2013, Richard Branson requested Epstein to “bring your harem” the next time they met. A striking quality of these exchanges is that Epstein lets his correspondents state plainly what he keeps elliptical—the tone of one who deals in favours…
That is what you need to hold on to. Do not let yourself be pulled away from that reality. Not by anyone. Not for a second.
And I also find:
Izabella Kaminska: <https://x.com/izakaminska/status/2018648268465475762/>: ‘Looks like Peter Mandelson set himself up with a $1m annual retainer from Deutsche Bank to be their man giving them access to "governments, families and corporations" on an international basis. But, also, he then reported the relationship to Epstein, who replied "good first step". Mandelson, seemingly wanted more positive validation and replied "That all you can say?!!" "Good petey, well done petey"…
Jamelle Bouie: <https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3mdxzst2ad22g>: ‘holy shit: Jerad Walker: “In an interview with NPR, Melinda French Gates confirmed that she ended her marriage with Bill Gates because of allegations contained in the Epstein files…
And:
Jeet Heer: <https://x.com/HeerJeet/status/2018455887514681349>: ‘This 2016 exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel is so essential, really gets to the heart of Epstein’s project. Epstein: brexit, just the beginning. Thiel: Of what? Epstein: return to tribalism, counter to globalization. Amazing new alliances. You and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, and as i said in your office. finding things on their way to collapse , was much easier than finding the next bargain. What Epstein wrote to Thiel in 2016 lines up with what he wrote to his business partner Ehud Barak in 2014: “with civil unrest exploding in ukraine syria, somolia [sic], libya, and the desperation of those in power, isn’t this perfect for you.” In other words, social collapse is a business opportunity. Epstein was a fixer, someone who made money connecting different parts of the elite together. In this case, he was very interested in hooking up Thiel and Barak in project of selling new surveillance tech to autocrat regimes. For this business project, breakdown of global order was good…
Elizabeth Lopatto: How the men in the Epstein files defeated #MeToo <https://www.theverge.com/tech/874721/epstein-thiel-musk-trump-metoo>: ‘The emails show the “anti-woke” crusaders are afraid of accountability: e might be dead, but it sure seems like Jeffrey Epstein won. Sure, Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors. Sure, he died in jail. (I am not going to wade into the debate about how.) But he subscribed to a racist, misogynist ideology that meant rich white men like him could do whatever they liked. And it seems he took measures to spread it. The latest tranche of Epstein documents made it obvious. Consider all the “contrarians” and “anti-woke” warriors who show up…
Bringing up the caboose is:
Asher Boiskin & Jerry Gao: Yale Professor Wrote to Epstein About Women, Including Undergraduate <https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-professor-wrote-to-epstein-about-women-including-undergraduate>: ‘ <>: ‘Computer science professor David Gelernter exchanged emails with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2009 and 2015. In one message, Gelernter referred to a Yale student as a “v small goodlooking blonde.”… Gelernter also scheduledvisits with Epstein in New York City and discussed the scent of women in Paris…. In an October 2011 email to Epstein in which Gelernter appeared to discuss his software startup, he wrote: “I have a perfect editoress in mind: Yale sr, worked at Vogue last summer, runs her own campus mag, art major, completely connected, v small goodlooking blonde.” It was not clear what role Gelernter was envisioning for the student.
Yes, it was clear what role Gelernter was envisioning: in this context “small” would mean “looks younger than her age”; “v small” means “looks much younger than her age”.
Continuing:
Leo Nyberg: Gelernter tells dean he stands by praising student’s looks to Epstein <https://yaledailynews.com/articles/gelernter-tells-dean-he-stands-by-praising-student-s-looks-to-epstein>: ‘Asked whether he regretted any part of his association with Epstein… Gelernter wrote in a separate email to the News on Wednesday morning…. In the Wednesday afternoon email to Jeffrey Brock ’92… Gelernter [wrote]…. “I was recommending her for a job I thought she’d like. When you do that--when you actually care about a rec letter--you keep the potential boss’s habits in mind,” Gelernter wrote in the email to his colleagues, seemingly referring to Epstein. “This one was obsessed with girls (like every other unmarried billionaire in Manhattan; in fact, like every other heterosex male), and if I hadn’t said what I did in that letter ten-odd years ago, he would certainly have called me & asked for a lot more aesthetic detail. (This is how men behave.)… I’m very glad I wrote the note.”… Gelernter previously told CT Insider he did not know Epstein was a sex offender…
“v small goodlooking blonde.” Gelernter would not have written that had he not known that Epstein had a serious kink for underage girls. Capisce?
I am, genuinely, genuinely, genuinely, flummoxed.
In my experience, heterosex mails writing and reading professional letters of recommendation do not act like David Gelernter says we do. The closest thing I have ever, ever, ever seen come across my screen to what Gelernter insists he would have been “called… & asked for a lot more aesthetic detail” if he had not been forward in providing it is Yale Professor Jed Rubinfeld’s warning[?] a student that now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh “hires women with a certain look”—and Rubinfeld has a colorable claim that he was describing the world we live in as it is rather than endorsing this as a way he likes the world to be.
Yes: I know that there are men who can no more keep from constantly chasing inappropriately much younger tail than I can consistently maintain myself at a weight less than 240 pounds. But we regard them as having a problem.
And, in most cases, in my experience at least, they regard themselves as having a problem too. They recognize that they bounce between being sinister and pathetic, that neither is a good look, and that they ought to take steps to at the very least not lean into this propensity of theirs
After all, as Performative Bafflement correctly notes, the background probabilities are such that “75%… of male cheaters are sad opportunists who nuke their marriages over a single body added to their count…” <https://performativebafflement.substack.com/p/cheating-much-more-than-you-wanted>. To have a good and happy life what we all need more than anything else is what J.R.R. Tolkien called our “partner in shipwreck”. Obnoxiously chasing inappropriately younger tail is perhaps the single best way to keep from finding such a partner, or to lose the one you have.
Alan Lee: partners in shipwreck, & their super-dog too…
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