February 18, 2026

"With the Epstein files, searching for almost any word can lead to some interesting or weird or confusing or awful or misleading insight."

"It could also lead to some random person’s lunch order. Any single file, deciphered and placed in the right context, could be some important something no one else has yet brought to light. It could also just be spam from Epstein’s junk folder, or cryptic inside-joke gibberish that will soon become fodder for a conspiracy theory no one will ever be able to debunk. Even an AI-powered dissertation on what’s in all this bulk data might be volume length. It took years to get ahold of just more than half of the millions of known Epstein files. It may take just as long, or longer, to fully understand what they mean."

From "Making Sense of the Epstein Files, One Disturbing Search at a Time" (NY Magazine).

67 comments:

Levi Starks said...

To me, the most important take from the Epstein files is that due to technology no one’s past or present is safe from future scrutiny. There’s no statute of limitations on what may in the present be considered acceptable speech or behavior, and yet at sometime in the future reprehensible.

RideSpaceMountain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RideSpaceMountain said...

The deliberately misspelled words are hilarious, as if certain consonants were magically adjacent on a QWERTY keyboard.

Enigma said...

The scrambled document dump, iconsistent retractions, and p*ss-poor website interface serves the major goal: slow down interpretation until the guilty either die or manufacture a way to get out from this mess.

Epstein (per the Maxwell family/Mossad link) was a key government/big money "solver" for decades. Until he became the problem to solve.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This headline made me think of Hannah Arendt’s concept of the "banality of evil," except I do not share her benign concept of banal (that they were just "thoughtless" bureaucrats obeying Nazi orders). The people schmoozing with Epstein were by and large thinkers, academics and administrators, pols and scientists. These are not unthinking people at all. Many of them were acutely aware of his crimes and chose to associate anyway, like Reid Hoffman and Bill Gates and Lawrence Summers and Kathy Ruemler and the current owner of The Atlantic, Laurene Jobs.

They were aware and sought out the company of evil. Just like Couric and Stephanopoulos they were eager to be at The Dinner Party at Epstein's. A lot of energy was expended attempting to link Trump to Epstein, but Epstein was the kind of sleazy gladhander that Trump avoids. I'm more interested in the multitudes who sought him out over and over after learning and knowing he was a pedophile pimp.

Enigma said...

College students fall into the "A", "B", "C", and lower classes. You can predict an entire school career after observing one in a couple classes. The A students routinely do well and need no assistance.

The B students want to be A students but lack the talent, while the C students rely on social connects to get ahead in life. Epstein's business model exploited naive (awkward; geeky) A students to assist the B and C students.

Tom T. said...

In other words, they've given up on trying to use the files against Trump, but they'll keep digging further in hopes of finding something politically useful.

Dogma and Pony Show said...

Of course it's true that the mere mention of someone's name in these files rarely signifies anything of importance, but the bigger issue IMO is the goalpost-shifting. We've gone from the supposition that the files would identify specific "clients" of Epstein's who paid him money to have sex with children on his island -- and yet who corruptly managed to avoid prosecution for such crimes -- to deeming it essentially the equivalent of a crime for people merely to have been friends with Epstein. Sorry, but those two things are radically different!

Shorter me: The files haven't lived up to the hype that preceded them.

hombre said...

“It … could be some important something no one else has yet brought to light.” Is this an example of the abject stupidity of the leftmedia or an example of their commitment to nonsense to avoid reality where Trump reigns?

Bob Boyd said...

"Nothing to see here"

Bob Boyd said...

So far there's zero evidence George Floyd ever went to Epstein Island.

bagoh20 said...

According to Bongino, It's got tons of stuff like porn videos from the internet, and an enormous amount of stuff that has little to nothing to do with any crimes, and a lot of people are being dragged through the dirt just because their name was stuck in there as part of some investigation or process that in no way involves guilt of anything. I'm all for bringing out anything done that was illegal, but this has become a bipartisan mass hysteria that I fully expect to be a disaster like most mass hysteria, especially the bipartisan kind.

rehajm said...

Any single file, deciphered and placed in the right context, could be some important something no one else has yet brought to light

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease let me find that Trump pony in this pile of shit, even if I have to mold it with my feet, hands and mouth…

Spiros said...

The only confirmed case is Prince Andrew and nobody is going to arrest him.

narciso said...

Yes i dont know how anyone who read the wansee conference could conclude anything banal

You asked it for it, you got it toyota

bagoh20 said...

I've never seen so much certitude about something people know so little about. I read people everyday that are convinced of an endless array of horrible criminal guilt of people and events without seeing any actual proof of it. They just heard it from someone else and the guilt is automatic, and the coverup certain. They assume it's there, and if someone doesn't show it to them, it must be a cover up. It 1690s Salem. If it sinks, it's a witch. If it floats it's witchcraft.
I expect there is real crime evident in there, but people seem to have lost all perspective and self-control.

Smilin' Jack said...

C’mon guys. We know we’re all in there somewhere. They’ll find us; it’s just a matter of time. We should just turn ourselves in now and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. The sooner we start serving our sentences, the sooner we’ll get out.

Kakistocracy said...

Americans are bewildered as release of the Epstein Files leads to resignations and criminal investigations in democracies around the world. The good news is they are all offered positions in the Trump administration

There's a great book about how American culture is far more into worship and coddling of the rich than other countries are. Written in 1988 by the former editor of Harper's magazine, Lewis Lapham.

Money and Class in America
https://www.amazon.com/Money-Class-America-Lewis-Lapham-ebook/dp/B0979CNR2D/

Enigma said...

@Dogma and Pony Show: Shorter me: The files haven't lived up to the hype that preceded them.

It's been the opposite for the international audience. So far the files caused major disruptions in the UK, Norway, and the Middle East. Most of the major US figures were known several years ago, so the domestic response has been muted. No, they did not "get Trump" at all.

I was cheering from my rooftop that "lefty radical" Noam Chomsky was revealed as collaborator with Epstein and the state. This is how the deep state manipulated naive radicals into serving as establishment pawns. Chomsky has long been a useless smoke-and-mirrors guy. This was loooooong overdue.

narciso said...

How the phrase when the us catches a cold the world catches a flu ehud barak leader of the color revolution against bibi has been keeping a low profile

Tomcc said...

This entire scenario is absurd. It seems the more information that's released, the less sense can be made of it. Names come up that are only tangentially related and there's very little context to any of it.

narciso said...

Chomsky is just caramel popcorn so is summers who just cant catch a break

narciso said...

Trying to romance a chinese princess

john mosby said...

Enigma: sometimes the B and C or even D students are better tacticians. They figure out what actually needs to be done to pass. That is an important real-life skill. Most things in life are not 100 fungible points. Rather, there are show-stoppers, which often are simple but absolutely necessary tasks, and cake icing.

Yes, some A students are geniuses or true lovers of knowledge. But a lot of them are just perfectionists. Takes them a while to figure out the perfect is the enemy of the good. The just-getting-by students figured that out as teenagers. CC, JSM

narciso said...

For many of these people its a tupolev maneuver

narciso said...

They were so intent in hunting their orange prey they harpooned themselves

Bob Boyd said...

@ bagoh20

It's the post-truth era, apparently. It doesn't matter what the facts are, just that you feel strongly about it.

Here's another example. Check out this 1 hour documentary on the mass graves deception in Canada. It's almost unbelievable how far this thing has gone with no evidence. The people who have been promoting and profiting from the claims of "genocide" are actively blocking attempts to definitively prove their claims are valid. Legislation has been proposed that could result in imprisonment for up to 2 years for anyone publicly saying or writing that these claims are questionable. They're calling it genocide denialism.
People worked up by these claims are vandalizing and burning churches in BC and across Canada to avenge non-existent dead children. It's wild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE6OEpz0xyQ

Quaestor said...

"Americans are bewildered as release of the Epstein Files leads to resignations and criminal investigations in democracies around the world."

Bewildered? Not many. Through the Biden years, Kak and his ilk slavered over the prospect of using Epstein's digital detritus to hang conservative from lampposts. But, now that the leftist elite face the dangle, why the Epstein files are an inscrutable jumble that everyone should just ignore.

narciso said...

And the bell hasnt rung for william burns who was promoted to director despite his ties

narciso said...

Now theres no surprise with mandelson hes the freddie mercury of glad handing

narciso said...

Epstein deripasha any third reference works

RCOCEAN II said...

So instead of the NYT's and the MSM going through the Epstein files, finding information and presenting it to the public, we get articles about "Gosh darn it, its so hard to find stuff" and "Boy if you just search for one word or name, you'll get confused".

Well thanks NYT/MSM. What about actually reporting whats in the files?

Enigma said...

@john mosby: But a lot of them are just perfectionists. Takes them a while to figure out the perfect is the enemy of the good.

That's literally what I was saying. Epstein helped B and C students to exploit A students...

RCOCEAN II said...

The whole epstein scandal was uncovered because the MSM/Democrats thought they could get Trump by going after Acosta. Now, they've demanded release of the files because, once again, they thought they could get Trump.

So, why isn't the MSM/NYT's blaring headlines everyday about the Epstein files? Simple, they cant find anything bad related to Trump, and they don't give a damn about Epstein otherwise.

narciso said...

They havent found the pony

narciso said...

Its new yawk magazine which is

Aggie said...

"....we get articles about "Gosh darn it, its so hard to find stuff" and "Boy if you just search for one word or name, you'll get confused"....". Isn't that what the pros call a 'modified limited hangout?

Kakistophoclese thinks we're all bewildered. Not a student of history, just the projectionist in this theater of the absurd. It's been kind of fun watching the dominoes and dominatrices fall.

narciso said...

Covering with a parachute until the patient dies

narciso said...

(Sean bean voice) you dont just do a blind search

Money Manger said...

As Oscar Wilde once said,

"There is only one thing in life worse than being in the Epstein files, and that is not being in the Epstein files..."

Jimmy said...

It is all such BS. The whole affair has been going on for 10 years, and no one has been indicted or arrested.
Just a political football to use against your opponents , while trying to cover your own ass.
This so called justice system, under Biden or Trump, has no interest in doing anything, other than make a 'soap opera' out of the files.
Here is a news flash- NO ONE will go to jail, no one will be indicted. Epstein will be papered over with journalistic BS until it goes away.
And the men and women who took part in it all, will just continue as usual.

Christopher B said...

circular running torpedos, just like in 2016.

stlcdr said...

And yet....nothing. Nothing we have today contradicts or confirms anything from 2 years ago. This is just a waste of time.

narciso said...

Except a lot of well connected people who should have known better (then again look at reid hoffman or gates)

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

"It took years to get ahold of just more than half of the millions of known Epstein files. It may take just as long, or longer, to fully understand what they mean.."

Translation : If you expected to find Trump with a dead girl or a live boy, don't hold your breath.

William50 said...

So far the only one who seems to have suffered from being named in the Epstein papers is ex prince Andrew.

Big Mike said...

narciso said...

They havent found the pony


That’s because in any decently managed ranch the horses are inside the stable and the manure pile has been shoveled outside the stable.

Big Mike said...

William50 said...

So far the only one who seems to have suffered from being named in the Epstein papers is ex prince Andrew.


And that’s only because he’s a far better man than Charles could ever hope to be.

john mosby said...

Lem: "If you expected to find Trump with a dead girl or a live boy, don't hold your breath."

If Trump could bring himself to go gay, the people would take him by force to make him King! CC, JSM

D.D. Driver said...

a lot of people are being dragged through the dirt just because their name was stuck in there

Ohhh. Those poor things. All they did was hang out with a notorious pedophile and look the other way and now look at their reputations! My heart fucking breaks.

narciso said...

They took the check or the gulfstream

john mosby said...

plata o plane-a! CC, JSM

bagoh20 said...

"Ohhh. Those poor things. All they did was hang out with a notorious pedophile and look the other way and now look at their reputations! My heart fucking breaks."

This is what I mean. People don't know what they don't know. They think they do, but they don't, and they don't care who gets hurt.

There are names and photos of people who had nothing to do with Epstein, never met him, didn't go there, didn't do anything. Millions of records over decades done by hundreds of investigators, and court docs and dead ends looked into, taxi drivers, maids, plumbers, electricians valet drivers, etc., etc . Completely innocent people who you have already convicted of terrible crimes with zero evidence, and you want to do that destructive libel over the internet, with no controls.

narciso said...

Yeah i dont mean the little people i mean the big players

Mason G said...

"All they did was hang out with a notorious pedophile..."

Is it true that everybody named in the files actually hung out with Epstein at some time or another?

Heartless Aztec said...

Can't say I've been following anything Epstein. Not going to start now. I did just finish a biography of Brian Epstein. Pretty good read. Does that count?

RCOCEAN II said...

"Ohhh. Those poor things. All they did was hang out with a notorious pedophile and look the other way and now look at their reputations! My heart fucking breaks."

Yes, they were the *real* victims.

RCOCEAN II said...

Again, notice the complete refusal of the Establishment and all their lackeys to talk about who Epstein really was, what he did, and how some powerful people helped him. Even after they knew he was a convicted Pedo.

Hilariously, Alex - mr. UFO - Jones is now peddling the ridiculous story that Epstein was KGB. I'm beginning to think Alex isn't the level-headed, fact-based, analyst he pretends to be.

D.D. Driver said...

They think they do, but they don't, and they don't care who gets hurt.

None of them were hurt the way the 14 year old girls were damaged by their fuckface friends.

Zero sympathy.

It's the way I feel about Joe Paterno. When life required an ounce of courage, he looked the other way. Fuck him and fuck all of Epstein's "friends." Boo hoo hoo. 😓

D.D. Driver said...

Is it true that everybody named in the files actually hung out with Epstein at some time or another?

No of course not, but no one is catching heat for being "mentioned" in the files. That is a strawman. They are catching hell for begging for party invitations. They deserve everything they get.

Dude1394 said...

The, somehow now interesting Epstein files after Biden has left office, are perfect for the democrat socialists. They can now lie about the contents for years, while also griping that the files were not released earlier. But not 4 years ago earlier.

Yancey Ward said...

Maybe we should do a search of D.D. Driver in the Epstein files.

narciso said...

Theres the guy from welcome back carter

William said...

Several thousand girls in the Rotherham area were drugged, beaten, raped, and then gang raped. These crimes did not take place on a royal estate or in a luxury mansion on a tropical island. Afterwards they were not offered any payments for a NDA. Rather the opposite. They couldn't get anyone to listen to their stories......There's something about all this that doesn't sit right.

Christopher B said...

DD Driver, your claim innocent people aren't being hurt by mentions in the files is bullshit. The two main idiots behind it managed to get an innocent man fired

From Technofog discussing the release

"About those false accusations: Massie and Khanna embarrassed themselves by falsely alleging the DOJ was hiding the identities of “wealthy, powerful men.” These men were alleged to be part of a DOJ cover-up and, thus, were implicated in Epstein’s crimes. It turns out that four of these men had nothing to do with Epstein. They weren’t “rich” or “powerful.” They certainly weren’t part of a DOJ cover-up. One was a mechanic and one was an IT manager. The mechanic was reportedly fired after he was outed by Khanna and Massie and others, only to be rehired after the truth came out. Their alleged connection to Epstein? They were part of an FBI photo lineup..."

Jim at said...

No of course not, but no one is catching heat for being "mentioned" in the files.

Really? Because I seem to recall a certain President has been 'catching heat' countless times simply for being mentioned in the files.

Unless of course you believe the all the bullshit being thrown against the wall trying to nail the one guy who actually called the cops on him.

Mason G said...

"Really? Because I seem to recall a certain President has been 'catching heat' countless times simply for being mentioned in the files."

Worse than that. He's been catching heat because of what some people *imagine* is mentioned in the files.

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