Amidst the fever-pitched online clamor for disclosure of materials related to Jeffrey Epstein (which I agree with in spirit — release everything you’ve got!) it’s truly bizarre that so little attention has been paid to the fact that Steve Bannon is currently concealing what might be the greatest Epstein-related treasure trove of them all.
I listened your debate about this, and it was a fucking disgrace. You allegations that Guiffre was a fabulist are based on the fact that she tried to sue Dershowitz, he countersued, and she recanted.
So, a rape victim tries to defend herself against her rapist, who is ALSO one of the wealthiest, most dangerous, most powerful men in the world who PROMISES to destroy her and has the political juice to do so (Dershowitz is pretty much a mobster) - and she recants. Quel Surprise.
Also, please note, lots of people have already ended up dead or suicided in this case. Giuffre included.
Then, of course, you need to ignore a preponderance of evidence, going all the way back to his prosecution for child “prostitution,” with testimony from girls as young as 14 and his florist bills for sending high school kids flowers. Tons of people have testified to being used by him or to seeing him with bevy’s of teen age girls. Not just Virginia…. But hordes of others, all saying the same things
Next, as to child rape victims being 'fabulists' - here's a thing: trauma fucks your brain. Not in terms of mental illness (though there is that too), but in terms of how your memory works. Remembering dates, exact timelines, and the order of events is nearly impossible; your memory becomes more episodic rather than linear, meaning the ability to recall events in a coherent, chronological sequence is impaired. This happens through both psychological and neurological mechanisms.
The hippocampus is responsible for organizing time and context. During traumatic events, the hippocampus becomes overwhelmed, resulting in memories that become fragmented or disconnected from their original context, including time and place (you might remember what happened, but not when or in what order).
The amygdala is responsible for the emotional tagging of memories. During a traumatic event, sensory input (sight, sound, smell) is overwhelming, blotting out less survival-oriented data, such as time and context.
The prefrontal cortex, which regulates and makes sense of memory, is tamped down during traumatic events (where your body is just trying to survive), meaning victims often have a difficult time processing and making rational and cohesive 'meaning.'
In fact, the more 'coherent' and 'rational' a victim is, the less trauma they actually experienced. (In fact, women being TOO rational and coherent during testimony has been an equal cause of her being disbelieved.)
These don't even cover the psychological impacts of trauma, including dissociation, fragmentation, and suppression of memory. The lived effects of trauma include: time distortion, emotional displacement, difficulty forming a life narrative, and the rewriting of events to make sense of disconnected or contradictory memory fragments (mistaken for confabulation or inaccuracy).
I am not saying necessarily 'believe all women' or that women never lie, but it infuriates me that one of the victims of a well-known and documented child molester is disbelieved as a 'fabulist' because her behavior doesn't match that of an untraumitized person.
Worse, these rapes were happening on an industrial level, seemingly involving hundreds of the most powerful people in the world - and no one but no one seems to give a damn about what this means about the people we are allowing to lead us.
"trauma fucks your brain ... in terms of how your memory works. Remembering dates, exact timelines, and the order of events is nearly impossible; your memory becomes more episodic rather than linear, meaning the ability to recall events in a coherent, chronological sequence is impaired."
When the Kavanaugh hearings were held, it seems like I heard experts saying the opposite: that when a traumatic sex assault happens to someone, their brain "locks the memory in" and that therefore the victim's testimony must be believed because it isn't fabricated, erroneous, impaired or questionable in any way. These victims must always be believed.
IDK. The brain science behind traumatic memory seems to morph and change depending on the politics of the victim and the accused. I have never been able to resolve this.
Here's an example of the "locked in" message I recall hearing from experts in the media. In this case we hear from Christine Blasey Ford herself:
When Sen. Feinstein asked, “How are you so sure that it was he?”, Ford said she could be sure of Kavanaugh’s identity in “the same way I’m sure I’m talking to you right now,” before launching into an explanation of brain chemistry. The neurotransmitter epinephrine, Ford explained, “codes memories into the hippocampus, and so the trauma-related experience is locked there, whereas other details kind of drift,” she said.
But, yeah, she doesn't comment on the context, the timing, the order of events. So, I don't think it contradicts your point about those aspects of traumatic event memory. It seems Ford's main point is that there are certain aspects of a traumatic experience that are written very strongly, "locked", into memory.
“Well-documented child molester”—as if these were pre-pubescent kids. This is manipulation like when the media portrayed Trayvon Martin as a child. You say you’re not saying “believe all women”, but your evidence is solely based on believing the alleged Epstein victims. You allege Giuffre recanted because Dershowitz is so powerful—yet it didn’t stop her from accusing him and others for years and getting a giant payout! The bottom line is that Tracey is correct—there isn’t much evidence for a trafficking cabal. We are now at the point that the absence of evidence is the evidence. “We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence!”
No evidence huh… so what tf was he convicted for back in 2007? Better yet, what does it say about those that hobnobbed with a known pedophile who has the temerity to jaunt around on a private plane named “The Lolita Express” you moron. No evidence… the money used to settle with the victims is all you need to track. Over $807 millions worth. So spare me. This isn’t the “Russia Russia hoax”. This isn’t “Hunter’s laptop”. All of this is rooted in reality. There’s still ongoing litigation regarding all of this as we speak. But you really believe it when they tell you, “there’s files, but wait there’s no files, we’re going to release info, but all of it was made up info, oh but we’ll release the credible info, ok second thought there’s no info”. All made up, just a hoax. How do you feel about being someone that mocks child sex trafficking and pedophilia as a means of blackmail for a foreign nation state 🤔🤔🤔? Praying that you don’t have daughters.
I sincerely apologize for calling you a moron. But this is child sex trafficking we’re talking about here… I voted for this dude, but this is a bridge too far. I don’t even think our President is involved, but it’s the protecting the low life’s that are involved that gives people no hope that their government isn’t anything more than the fucking swamp that he claimed to wanna drain. He’s either going to at least be true to his word, or he’s just another part of the fucking problem. Bottom line though, don’t insult our fucking intelligence by saying some weak shit like, “nothing to see here, all made up”. Grow some fucking balls and stand up to your handlers Prez.
Spencer, we don’t let 12, 13, and 14 year olds vote, drive, sign contracts because they are CHILDREN. If you think fucking kids is OK once they are simply no longer pre pubescent, you are a sick asshole.
Back before degeneracy set in, the age of consent was even lower than 14. But this is not relevant to the discussion and I’m not defending Epstein’s behavior. The issue is whether or not there was an elite pedo cabal. But I’m nonce for being able to focus. Lol. #believeallwomen.
Agreed… was waiting for someone to say this. Was an absolute fucking joke. Very disappointing Tracey, but then again you’re about as boring as a sack full of rocks before you sold out. “Well he wasn’t a convicted felon when the picture was taken”, blah blah blah. What a fucking joke. Can’t believe Greenwald lets you subhost his show. Disgraceful.
Soooo…. Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t involved in child sex trafficking huh? You really believe that? All made up right? DEMOCRAT HOAX… gtfoh. Jeffrey Epstein is not a conspiracy theory. So Ghislane should be released ASAP then considering it’s all a ruse…
How do you know he was involved in trafficking? Because some lying, unstable, woman said he was? Or because the other alleged victims said he was? Or because he had sex with underage girls? #metoo #believeallwomen
There were no industrial style rapes. There were only a small number of rapes in this case. Epstein was a child molester. They have sex with little kids.
No teenage girl is traumatized by having sex with a man. It’s ridiculous. Even child molestation only causes trauma at the time in 10% of cases Those girls signed up to be prostitutes on their own. Most of the prostitutes in Florida were adult women in their mid 20’s. Giuffre killed herself.
😂 Dershowitz didn’t rape Giuffre. She was legal and the time and the sex was consensual. There was hardly any child rape in this case. No teenage girl who has sex with an adult experiences sny of that crap. That’s only for child molestation of little kids.
Memory is problematic and isn't, as most of us think of it, a kind of filmic record. The prefrontal cortex is not 'tamped down' during traumatic events anyway. Saying that implies you have no idea what you are talking about by the way.
The features you describe, actually, apply to all memory, not traumatic ones. Such testimony, is, sadly notoriously unreliable and why sex offences are hard to prosecute too. Without, that is, corroborating forensic evidence. Witnesses are very vulnerable in other crimes to prompting and leading questions into mis identifying perpetrators too. Leading to many, many miscarriages of justice.
Traumatic memories are not particularily suppressed: for most of them people are haunted by them for life.
You are recounting theories used to justify the 'recovered memory' industry and a whole bunch of ridiculous though prevalent therapeutic interventions.
In my view, though nothing in human behavior comes with a clear 'stamp', several of the Epstein accusers are confabulating and 're constructing' their memories. In some cases out of whole cloth.
"In fact, the more 'coherent' and 'rational' a victim is, the less trauma they actually experienced" Total and utter nonsense you are talking, where did you get that from? Some idiotic self professed 'therapist'?
It's not based on computer modeling. It's based on hundreds of thousands of hours interviewing people with PTSD - not just of the child abuse variety, but of the accident variety, the battle variety, the veteran variety, the crime victim variety.
Don't talk about shit you know nothing about, Pamho.
No really, you are talking nonsense. Current research in fact goes radically against what you say. In fact 'recovered memory' experts are now routinely called in high profile cases. One was in the Maxwell trial. Mostly now to counter evidence or assumptions based on ideas like yours. Sadly some of the jury it seems were inculcated into the kind of ideas you propound and have been pompously spouting off about it in public since.
Out of interest I found, during working on this topic, that I have several 'false memories' myself, we all do probably. Nothing sinister by the way. But something I found out about quite late in life.
Memory is pliable it has to be said, and the problem in the Epstein context is exactly the opposite of what you are trying to argue. There are all kinds of factors that make 'false', confabulated and even false memories quite possible and, in my view, likely. I know that doesn't cohere with the grand conspiracy fantasy you want to believe in. Planting false memories is very easy, I have done it. Benign ones. Some 'therapists' are so far up themselves that they should be ignored.
Which is why your own memory and grasp of material you have read is to faulty? Kind of ironic isn't it? I appreciate you have read a lot and think you know what you are talking about. Your really don't.
A guess: Bannon is holding his Epstein interviews as a trump (!) card, a bargaining chip. He wants something in exchange for them, or for sitting on them, and/or he wants to use them to make something happen.
Good job as usual MT. Keep it up, not too many non-ideological reporters out there trying to get to the bottom of things. This sad distinction makes your work even more vital right now.
Another theory: Bannon doesn't give a f*** about looking evil. But these interviews prove Bannon is completely ineffective as a PR fixer. Look what happened to one of Bannon's high paying clients!
Therefore the public would watch these interviews and conclude one thing: Bannon is incompetent.
Everyone in America knows Epstein was evil. Bannon's interviews with Epstein try to show Epstein in a good light. Bannon literally tries to redeem Epstein. Therefore the public would watch these interviews and conclude one thing: Bannon is also evil.
Thanks Michael. There is the issue of what(i.e. how much underage is underage is pedophilia) constitutes official illegality and what constitutes official illegality to being cross-listed as a pedophile(and of couse how do political candidates utilize this - even if 'false'-to get election? The problem with politicians, esp one that endear themselves as "lawmakers", is that they generalize everything. They don't quite the pixel in the picture that each person is unique. So that's one issue: Were the kids 17, 16, or just less than 13?
There is this 15+hrs of documentary issue that you brought up. Apparently Steve Bannon is a filmmaker. SB discusses this filmmaker Errol Morris in a 2018 documentary entitled American Dharma - of which one can obtain a digital purchase from Amazon for 9.99(The rental is ~2-3 dollars). A search on the Amazon website indicates Steve Bannon himself has made a film each in 2022 and 2023.
One should note that Amazon is a supporter of genocide in Gaza. Does that mean you should make the purchase at B&N? To state a related issue: If Amazon and Microsoft are supportes of the genocide in Gaza, does that mean that Google and Apple are not?
Ok back to topic. So Steve Bannon could argue he is working on his version of 2001: A Space Odyssey and hasn't had time to do a well-thought edit of his 15+hrs of footage of the interview with Jeffrey Epstein - esp. now that Bannon has no more reason to fear Epstein(due to his - what is understood as - assisted suicide).
And of course the overriding issue that has been brought up by Glenn Greenwald and a few others. How did he obtain his 800 million bucks? Did he follow Anthony Robbins TV informationals? Did he take the time to fully absorb all those 'self-help' CDs?
Or is it something more? Or is all this something more?
Pedophilia isn’t a behavior. It’s just a way of thinking and behaviorally it’s associated with little kids under 13. Pedophiles have no interest in teenagers.
Yeah, my late father who was psychiatrist I think conveyed this to me, but it's amazing how politicians convey pedophilia is if it's anyone under the legal age minimum. My personal belief is that, depending on the reproductive needs of a given society/nation, 16-18 is fair as a minimum, meaning that it would be socially unfair for an adult to take social and sexual advantage of someone who is still in high school. This is not taboo, nor do I mean that violators should be demonized or even prosecuted but that it should be addressed as a social unfairness on the part of the older person. Now there is whole bunch variations such as one being 15 and the other being 21, so I guess if the issue is borderline than it's ok - in other words, that should be common sense as well. None of this should be fodder for politicians.
If the person is a pedophile in the vein of behaviorally attracted to someone under 13, then it's a psychiatric problem(my father had conveyed this to me as well) and obviously appropriate measures need to be taken. But people are individuals, and this needs to be treated at as a societal concern and individualistic problem - not a political one.
Being attracted isn’t the issue. 51% of men are attracted to little girls. 21% of men are extremely attracted to little girls. But only 3% of men are pedophiles. Pedophiles are men who are maximally attracted to children under 13 and have lesser or often little to no attraction to people 13+.
That’s all they like is little kids. That’s a pedophile. The word is grossly abused and used incorrectly 99% of the time for adults having sex with teens, which is frankly normal human male behavior. I mean we did it for 200,000 years with no issues. The age of consent is 16 or 17 in most US states and in most of the world.
You will NEVER stop those 16 and 17 year old girls from going after men. In this country there are whole armies of girls that age rampaging across the land seducing or trying to seduce men. It’s never going to stop. No one in Europe cares about 16 and 17 year old girls having sex with men.
However for 14 and 15 year old girls, while often legal, there are restrictions in place to protect the girls from predatory adults.
As I said most men are turned on by little girls, just not that much at 32% of maximum. It’s perfectly legal to be a pedophile everywhere on Earth. I think they should get with a therapist to keep from offending but most of them won’t.
I know in Germany 18-20 year old men can have sex with 14-15 year old girls no problem. After that restrictions come in but even if it’s legal, Germans say people don’t like adults past a certain age (mid 20’s for 15 year old girl) being with girjs that age.
You will run into a lot of societal disapproval. As you noted that may be the best way to deal with it. When I was young, 18-21 year old men went for 14-17 year old girls in epidemic numbers. After that it really petered out and you hardly saw it.
I'll save you the concern, here's how the interview went....
SB: Is Trump your close friend?
JE: No that bastard banned me from MarsALargo when he found out I was boinking teenage girls, then he even offered testimony against me during my first arrest. We took some pictures together at social fundraiser, that's about it.
SB: So who is your closest or best friend?
JE: Either Wexner, who gave me all the money or Bill Clinton who gave me credibility in political circles. Hey, did you know Clinton & I spent a month together touring Africa, no Killary either, just Bill & I.
I like Obama a lot too, but he spends most of his time ordering hot dogs & mentoring young boys on how to behave in the locker room showers. I like to call Obama "Sandusky" because of all the rthymic slapping I hear when I walk by the steam room.
SB: Damn,that's disgusting, hey is Michelle Obama really a man?
JE: All I can say is I did a cup check on her one night by pretending to lose my balance and fall into her and I copped a feel and boy it was totally nuts.
Do you really believe that a 15 - 17 y/o girl is not “underage” in every way when in the presence of a predator like Epstein or his clients?
Sure, these children were not 1 or 5 or 12 years old.
Does being an older child somehow make them complicit?
In 2000, I had a pedophile arrested for statutory rape of my then 17 y/o daughter. He had groomed her for 2 years prior. The local prosecutor refused to prosecute because my daughter would have been 18 (an adult) by the time the case was tried, and likely not to testify against the scum. He went on to impregnate her and devastate her young life before dying on the streets, 15 years later.
Unless you experience the pain these predators inflict upon families like mine you will remain a pompous ass without any cred.
She was almost 18 and 17 is legal in the vast majority of US states and on the planet. Men who have sex with 17 year old girls are not pedophiles. They’re called normal. Men react more to 17 year old girls than to any other age group of females.
Great job Michael. Just one criticism: I think you let folks like Saagar get under your skin a bit too much. Looking angry/flustered might undermine your credibility. (Not that you shouldn’t be annoyed.)
I listened your debate about this, and it was a fucking disgrace. You allegations that Guiffre was a fabulist are based on the fact that she tried to sue Dershowitz, he countersued, and she recanted.
So, a rape victim tries to defend herself against her rapist, who is ALSO one of the wealthiest, most dangerous, most powerful men in the world who PROMISES to destroy her and has the political juice to do so (Dershowitz is pretty much a mobster) - and she recants. Quel Surprise.
Also, please note, lots of people have already ended up dead or suicided in this case. Giuffre included.
Then, of course, you need to ignore a preponderance of evidence, going all the way back to his prosecution for child “prostitution,” with testimony from girls as young as 14 and his florist bills for sending high school kids flowers. Tons of people have testified to being used by him or to seeing him with bevy’s of teen age girls. Not just Virginia…. But hordes of others, all saying the same things
Next, as to child rape victims being 'fabulists' - here's a thing: trauma fucks your brain. Not in terms of mental illness (though there is that too), but in terms of how your memory works. Remembering dates, exact timelines, and the order of events is nearly impossible; your memory becomes more episodic rather than linear, meaning the ability to recall events in a coherent, chronological sequence is impaired. This happens through both psychological and neurological mechanisms.
The hippocampus is responsible for organizing time and context. During traumatic events, the hippocampus becomes overwhelmed, resulting in memories that become fragmented or disconnected from their original context, including time and place (you might remember what happened, but not when or in what order).
The amygdala is responsible for the emotional tagging of memories. During a traumatic event, sensory input (sight, sound, smell) is overwhelming, blotting out less survival-oriented data, such as time and context.
The prefrontal cortex, which regulates and makes sense of memory, is tamped down during traumatic events (where your body is just trying to survive), meaning victims often have a difficult time processing and making rational and cohesive 'meaning.'
In fact, the more 'coherent' and 'rational' a victim is, the less trauma they actually experienced. (In fact, women being TOO rational and coherent during testimony has been an equal cause of her being disbelieved.)
These don't even cover the psychological impacts of trauma, including dissociation, fragmentation, and suppression of memory. The lived effects of trauma include: time distortion, emotional displacement, difficulty forming a life narrative, and the rewriting of events to make sense of disconnected or contradictory memory fragments (mistaken for confabulation or inaccuracy).
I am not saying necessarily 'believe all women' or that women never lie, but it infuriates me that one of the victims of a well-known and documented child molester is disbelieved as a 'fabulist' because her behavior doesn't match that of an untraumitized person.
Worse, these rapes were happening on an industrial level, seemingly involving hundreds of the most powerful people in the world - and no one but no one seems to give a damn about what this means about the people we are allowing to lead us.
"trauma fucks your brain ... in terms of how your memory works. Remembering dates, exact timelines, and the order of events is nearly impossible; your memory becomes more episodic rather than linear, meaning the ability to recall events in a coherent, chronological sequence is impaired."
When the Kavanaugh hearings were held, it seems like I heard experts saying the opposite: that when a traumatic sex assault happens to someone, their brain "locks the memory in" and that therefore the victim's testimony must be believed because it isn't fabricated, erroneous, impaired or questionable in any way. These victims must always be believed.
IDK. The brain science behind traumatic memory seems to morph and change depending on the politics of the victim and the accused. I have never been able to resolve this.
no, you heard exactly the opposite.
The events remain clear; the smell, taste, color.
What is unclear is dates, passage of time etc.
Here's an example of the "locked in" message I recall hearing from experts in the media. In this case we hear from Christine Blasey Ford herself:
When Sen. Feinstein asked, “How are you so sure that it was he?”, Ford said she could be sure of Kavanaugh’s identity in “the same way I’m sure I’m talking to you right now,” before launching into an explanation of brain chemistry. The neurotransmitter epinephrine, Ford explained, “codes memories into the hippocampus, and so the trauma-related experience is locked there, whereas other details kind of drift,” she said.
But, yeah, she doesn't comment on the context, the timing, the order of events. So, I don't think it contradicts your point about those aspects of traumatic event memory. It seems Ford's main point is that there are certain aspects of a traumatic experience that are written very strongly, "locked", into memory.
https://time.com/5408567/christine-blasey-ford-science-of-memory/
“Well-documented child molester”—as if these were pre-pubescent kids. This is manipulation like when the media portrayed Trayvon Martin as a child. You say you’re not saying “believe all women”, but your evidence is solely based on believing the alleged Epstein victims. You allege Giuffre recanted because Dershowitz is so powerful—yet it didn’t stop her from accusing him and others for years and getting a giant payout! The bottom line is that Tracey is correct—there isn’t much evidence for a trafficking cabal. We are now at the point that the absence of evidence is the evidence. “We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence!”
No evidence huh… so what tf was he convicted for back in 2007? Better yet, what does it say about those that hobnobbed with a known pedophile who has the temerity to jaunt around on a private plane named “The Lolita Express” you moron. No evidence… the money used to settle with the victims is all you need to track. Over $807 millions worth. So spare me. This isn’t the “Russia Russia hoax”. This isn’t “Hunter’s laptop”. All of this is rooted in reality. There’s still ongoing litigation regarding all of this as we speak. But you really believe it when they tell you, “there’s files, but wait there’s no files, we’re going to release info, but all of it was made up info, oh but we’ll release the credible info, ok second thought there’s no info”. All made up, just a hoax. How do you feel about being someone that mocks child sex trafficking and pedophilia as a means of blackmail for a foreign nation state 🤔🤔🤔? Praying that you don’t have daughters.
That’s Mr. Moron to you. Do you remember the Duke LaCrosse team that almost went to jail? #believeallwomen
I sincerely apologize for calling you a moron. But this is child sex trafficking we’re talking about here… I voted for this dude, but this is a bridge too far. I don’t even think our President is involved, but it’s the protecting the low life’s that are involved that gives people no hope that their government isn’t anything more than the fucking swamp that he claimed to wanna drain. He’s either going to at least be true to his word, or he’s just another part of the fucking problem. Bottom line though, don’t insult our fucking intelligence by saying some weak shit like, “nothing to see here, all made up”. Grow some fucking balls and stand up to your handlers Prez.
Last time I checked that hag wasn’t 17 and under…
You’re really comparing that to THIS??
I do have a daughter who suffered this, as did our family.
Spencer
Spencer, we don’t let 12, 13, and 14 year olds vote, drive, sign contracts because they are CHILDREN. If you think fucking kids is OK once they are simply no longer pre pubescent, you are a sick asshole.
Back before degeneracy set in, the age of consent was even lower than 14. But this is not relevant to the discussion and I’m not defending Epstein’s behavior. The issue is whether or not there was an elite pedo cabal. But I’m nonce for being able to focus. Lol. #believeallwomen.
Dershowitz is a douche bag. unacceptable to societal norms.
Agreed… was waiting for someone to say this. Was an absolute fucking joke. Very disappointing Tracey, but then again you’re about as boring as a sack full of rocks before you sold out. “Well he wasn’t a convicted felon when the picture was taken”, blah blah blah. What a fucking joke. Can’t believe Greenwald lets you subhost his show. Disgraceful.
Your main complaint seems to be that he won’t validate your conspiracy theory.
Soooo…. Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t involved in child sex trafficking huh? You really believe that? All made up right? DEMOCRAT HOAX… gtfoh. Jeffrey Epstein is not a conspiracy theory. So Ghislane should be released ASAP then considering it’s all a ruse…
How do you know he was involved in trafficking? Because some lying, unstable, woman said he was? Or because the other alleged victims said he was? Or because he had sex with underage girls? #metoo #believeallwomen
I disagree.
Michael is one of my favorite guest hosts, and I always love his interviews.
There were no industrial style rapes. There were only a small number of rapes in this case. Epstein was a child molester. They have sex with little kids.
No teenage girl is traumatized by having sex with a man. It’s ridiculous. Even child molestation only causes trauma at the time in 10% of cases Those girls signed up to be prostitutes on their own. Most of the prostitutes in Florida were adult women in their mid 20’s. Giuffre killed herself.
😂 Dershowitz didn’t rape Giuffre. She was legal and the time and the sex was consensual. There was hardly any child rape in this case. No teenage girl who has sex with an adult experiences sny of that crap. That’s only for child molestation of little kids.
Memory is problematic and isn't, as most of us think of it, a kind of filmic record. The prefrontal cortex is not 'tamped down' during traumatic events anyway. Saying that implies you have no idea what you are talking about by the way.
The features you describe, actually, apply to all memory, not traumatic ones. Such testimony, is, sadly notoriously unreliable and why sex offences are hard to prosecute too. Without, that is, corroborating forensic evidence. Witnesses are very vulnerable in other crimes to prompting and leading questions into mis identifying perpetrators too. Leading to many, many miscarriages of justice.
Traumatic memories are not particularily suppressed: for most of them people are haunted by them for life.
You are recounting theories used to justify the 'recovered memory' industry and a whole bunch of ridiculous though prevalent therapeutic interventions.
In my view, though nothing in human behavior comes with a clear 'stamp', several of the Epstein accusers are confabulating and 're constructing' their memories. In some cases out of whole cloth.
"In fact, the more 'coherent' and 'rational' a victim is, the less trauma they actually experienced" Total and utter nonsense you are talking, where did you get that from? Some idiotic self professed 'therapist'?
The science behind memory is not settled, it is mostly specuation based on computer modeling, not provable data. See https://pam-ho-vedanta.medium.com/the-illusion-of-control-how-human-memory-requires-superconscious-management-e04d811d2162
It's not based on computer modeling. It's based on hundreds of thousands of hours interviewing people with PTSD - not just of the child abuse variety, but of the accident variety, the battle variety, the veteran variety, the crime victim variety.
Don't talk about shit you know nothing about, Pamho.
No really, you are talking nonsense. Current research in fact goes radically against what you say. In fact 'recovered memory' experts are now routinely called in high profile cases. One was in the Maxwell trial. Mostly now to counter evidence or assumptions based on ideas like yours. Sadly some of the jury it seems were inculcated into the kind of ideas you propound and have been pompously spouting off about it in public since.
Out of interest I found, during working on this topic, that I have several 'false memories' myself, we all do probably. Nothing sinister by the way. But something I found out about quite late in life.
Memory is pliable it has to be said, and the problem in the Epstein context is exactly the opposite of what you are trying to argue. There are all kinds of factors that make 'false', confabulated and even false memories quite possible and, in my view, likely. I know that doesn't cohere with the grand conspiracy fantasy you want to believe in. Planting false memories is very easy, I have done it. Benign ones. Some 'therapists' are so far up themselves that they should be ignored.
Which is why your own memory and grasp of material you have read is to faulty? Kind of ironic isn't it? I appreciate you have read a lot and think you know what you are talking about. Your really don't.
A guess: Bannon is holding his Epstein interviews as a trump (!) card, a bargaining chip. He wants something in exchange for them, or for sitting on them, and/or he wants to use them to make something happen.
Thank You Michael
Good job as usual MT. Keep it up, not too many non-ideological reporters out there trying to get to the bottom of things. This sad distinction makes your work even more vital right now.
I have been wondering about this exact thing for a few weeks now - Why doesn’t Bannon release the interviews?
i think that question kind of answers itself
Yes, I agree, however i still think it should be shouted at Bannon every time he speaks or appears anywhere and in his online posts.
Another theory: Bannon doesn't give a f*** about looking evil. But these interviews prove Bannon is completely ineffective as a PR fixer. Look what happened to one of Bannon's high paying clients!
Therefore the public would watch these interviews and conclude one thing: Bannon is incompetent.
The simplest explanation may be the best one.
Everyone in America knows Epstein was evil. Bannon's interviews with Epstein try to show Epstein in a good light. Bannon literally tries to redeem Epstein. Therefore the public would watch these interviews and conclude one thing: Bannon is also evil.
That's why Bannon won't release them.
… and if another piece of particularly damning evidence emerged, he’d look evil crazy and incompetent
Thanks Michael. There is the issue of what(i.e. how much underage is underage is pedophilia) constitutes official illegality and what constitutes official illegality to being cross-listed as a pedophile(and of couse how do political candidates utilize this - even if 'false'-to get election? The problem with politicians, esp one that endear themselves as "lawmakers", is that they generalize everything. They don't quite the pixel in the picture that each person is unique. So that's one issue: Were the kids 17, 16, or just less than 13?
There is this 15+hrs of documentary issue that you brought up. Apparently Steve Bannon is a filmmaker. SB discusses this filmmaker Errol Morris in a 2018 documentary entitled American Dharma - of which one can obtain a digital purchase from Amazon for 9.99(The rental is ~2-3 dollars). A search on the Amazon website indicates Steve Bannon himself has made a film each in 2022 and 2023.
One should note that Amazon is a supporter of genocide in Gaza. Does that mean you should make the purchase at B&N? To state a related issue: If Amazon and Microsoft are supportes of the genocide in Gaza, does that mean that Google and Apple are not?
Ok back to topic. So Steve Bannon could argue he is working on his version of 2001: A Space Odyssey and hasn't had time to do a well-thought edit of his 15+hrs of footage of the interview with Jeffrey Epstein - esp. now that Bannon has no more reason to fear Epstein(due to his - what is understood as - assisted suicide).
And of course the overriding issue that has been brought up by Glenn Greenwald and a few others. How did he obtain his 800 million bucks? Did he follow Anthony Robbins TV informationals? Did he take the time to fully absorb all those 'self-help' CDs?
Or is it something more? Or is all this something more?
Pedophilia isn’t a behavior. It’s just a way of thinking and behaviorally it’s associated with little kids under 13. Pedophiles have no interest in teenagers.
Yeah, my late father who was psychiatrist I think conveyed this to me, but it's amazing how politicians convey pedophilia is if it's anyone under the legal age minimum. My personal belief is that, depending on the reproductive needs of a given society/nation, 16-18 is fair as a minimum, meaning that it would be socially unfair for an adult to take social and sexual advantage of someone who is still in high school. This is not taboo, nor do I mean that violators should be demonized or even prosecuted but that it should be addressed as a social unfairness on the part of the older person. Now there is whole bunch variations such as one being 15 and the other being 21, so I guess if the issue is borderline than it's ok - in other words, that should be common sense as well. None of this should be fodder for politicians.
If the person is a pedophile in the vein of behaviorally attracted to someone under 13, then it's a psychiatric problem(my father had conveyed this to me as well) and obviously appropriate measures need to be taken. But people are individuals, and this needs to be treated at as a societal concern and individualistic problem - not a political one.
Being attracted isn’t the issue. 51% of men are attracted to little girls. 21% of men are extremely attracted to little girls. But only 3% of men are pedophiles. Pedophiles are men who are maximally attracted to children under 13 and have lesser or often little to no attraction to people 13+.
That’s all they like is little kids. That’s a pedophile. The word is grossly abused and used incorrectly 99% of the time for adults having sex with teens, which is frankly normal human male behavior. I mean we did it for 200,000 years with no issues. The age of consent is 16 or 17 in most US states and in most of the world.
You will NEVER stop those 16 and 17 year old girls from going after men. In this country there are whole armies of girls that age rampaging across the land seducing or trying to seduce men. It’s never going to stop. No one in Europe cares about 16 and 17 year old girls having sex with men.
However for 14 and 15 year old girls, while often legal, there are restrictions in place to protect the girls from predatory adults.
As I said most men are turned on by little girls, just not that much at 32% of maximum. It’s perfectly legal to be a pedophile everywhere on Earth. I think they should get with a therapist to keep from offending but most of them won’t.
I know in Germany 18-20 year old men can have sex with 14-15 year old girls no problem. After that restrictions come in but even if it’s legal, Germans say people don’t like adults past a certain age (mid 20’s for 15 year old girl) being with girjs that age.
You will run into a lot of societal disapproval. As you noted that may be the best way to deal with it. When I was young, 18-21 year old men went for 14-17 year old girls in epidemic numbers. After that it really petered out and you hardly saw it.
I'll save you the concern, here's how the interview went....
SB: Is Trump your close friend?
JE: No that bastard banned me from MarsALargo when he found out I was boinking teenage girls, then he even offered testimony against me during my first arrest. We took some pictures together at social fundraiser, that's about it.
SB: So who is your closest or best friend?
JE: Either Wexner, who gave me all the money or Bill Clinton who gave me credibility in political circles. Hey, did you know Clinton & I spent a month together touring Africa, no Killary either, just Bill & I.
I like Obama a lot too, but he spends most of his time ordering hot dogs & mentoring young boys on how to behave in the locker room showers. I like to call Obama "Sandusky" because of all the rthymic slapping I hear when I walk by the steam room.
SB: Damn,that's disgusting, hey is Michelle Obama really a man?
JE: All I can say is I did a cup check on her one night by pretending to lose my balance and fall into her and I copped a feel and boy it was totally nuts.
Bannon tried to play Epstein to get him to spill. Epstein figured it out. That’s the big “ secret” that isn’t a secret.
My guess he's waiting for a bidding ware and, when it hits his price point, we may get the goods.
Remeber, It's all about the Benjamins...
Bannon is fibbing . . .
To Michael Tracey:
Are you a father of daughters?
Do you really believe that a 15 - 17 y/o girl is not “underage” in every way when in the presence of a predator like Epstein or his clients?
Sure, these children were not 1 or 5 or 12 years old.
Does being an older child somehow make them complicit?
In 2000, I had a pedophile arrested for statutory rape of my then 17 y/o daughter. He had groomed her for 2 years prior. The local prosecutor refused to prosecute because my daughter would have been 18 (an adult) by the time the case was tried, and likely not to testify against the scum. He went on to impregnate her and devastate her young life before dying on the streets, 15 years later.
Unless you experience the pain these predators inflict upon families like mine you will remain a pompous ass without any cred.
Eat shit and die, M.T.
No pedophile likes 17 year old girls. They think they’re too old. 16 and 17 year old girls can have legal sex with men in 46 states.
Are you alleging Rob Lowe and Jerry Seinfeld are pedophiles? I'm guessing you want the age of consent to be 35?
She was almost 18 and 17 is legal in the vast majority of US states and on the planet. Men who have sex with 17 year old girls are not pedophiles. They’re called normal. Men react more to 17 year old girls than to any other age group of females.
Wow, Michael!
Excellent info!
I never knew any of this. Keep digging!
I appreciate your tenacity, and your lack of fear regarding those who "violently disagree" with you.
Great job Michael. Just one criticism: I think you let folks like Saagar get under your skin a bit too much. Looking angry/flustered might undermine your credibility. (Not that you shouldn’t be annoyed.)
I can answer none of your questions, but you sure do raise some good ones that I had not thought of before.