Trashpool's Dumpster Fire

Epstein and Ehud Barak (former PM of Israel) were partners and worked closely with Mossad as well. That's not even a secret. Every news organization has reported on that fact for the last few years.

I do think this is one where we need to be a bit more careful about how this is being discussed. Gazillionaires laundering atrocity is not new nor a conspiracy but the way it gets discussed sometimes is.

98% of these conversations are based in reality, but sometimes there is a twist at the end that dramatically changes the implication.

It's also very similar to how people are realizing just how much is tied to Israel. How many partnerships there are. How many people are shaking hands. How many orgs are in symbiotic relationships over Israel. Then they conclude "oh Israel is controlling the US." Everything was true until the conclusion, which is how some "Epstein Class" conversations are happening.

Epstein Class aka "a simultaneously hyper-exclusive and far-reaching cesspool of corruption and atrocity that is managed by the connection of the wealthiest people on the planet backing one another"

vs

Epstein Class aka "...and the architects of this are Jews."

Personally, I do not like referring to it as the epstein class at all for this reason. I think there is too much misuse, especially as more far right goons follow Tucker Carlson in the schisms into more overt right-wing "anti-Israel" movements (and subsequently get adopted by big tent liberals and "leftists" going "wow even x got it right")

I think everything that falls under "epstein class" could be referred to with other terms that connect it back towards anti-capitalism, opposition to white supremacy, and genuine anti-zionism that keep it from steering towards "paid for by soros" levels of critique.

At worst its antisemitic conspiracy, at best I think it does what "alt-right" does and creates a vague notion of already well-defined action and ideology that allows for people to make horrid shit more palatable.

are we drawing the connection between worker safety and consumer safety & public health yet?

More on the health point:

"US Department of Labor proposes more than $1M fine following worker fatality at New Jersey vegetable processing facility"

"Oh, and of course, because trans men and trans women are ontological opposites, that means the inverse is true for trans men, who were secretly always privileged because male privilege is granted by people's secretly male immutable souls."

Did the Inca have exquisite building techniques, efficient messengers, and quality waterworks? Yes. They were also an expansionist empire built on violent conquest and the splitting up and relocating of conquered peoples.

Did the Aztecs have a gorgeous capital city built at the heart of a lake, with floating farms and towering temples honoring their fascinating pantheon? Yes. Guess what tho. They were also a violent expansionist empire who practiced ritual sacrifice of prisoners of war.

The Iroquois confederacy had one of the most unique representative political systems I’ve ever heard of, with women taking a forefront in most local government matters too. But their internal peace allowed them to redirect violence to their neighbors, as so often happens with tribal confederations, and they eventually violently conquered the Ohio valley and destroyed or displaced dozens of other indigenous groups.

Even my beloved Cahokia has the graves of sacrifice victims amidst its ruins.

We don't need moral victories

We need actual ones

It's so crazy that this is so normalized these days and when you ask those losers why they'd cite child marriage, misogyny and the likes but when you look into their culture, they are also fucking children and beat their wives on the regular. It's not even hidden

When asked whether they had experienced any physical attacks in the year prior to completing the 2022 survey, between 5.0% (among AFAB nonbinary adults) and 5.9% (among transgender women) of respondents reported experiencing at least one attack. As shown in Figure 4, experiences did not differ significantly by gender identity.

We found no significant differences in the prevalence of physical attacks between non-Hispanic Black (4.7%) transgender adults and non-Hispanic white (4.7%) transgender adults. Hispanic or Latine (6.4%) transgender adults were significantly more likely than white, non-Hispanic adults to have experienced one or more physical attacks over the year, and transgender adults who identify as multiracial or another race (8.6%) reported the highest prevalence of physical attacks over the year. As shown in Figure 7, patterns in violence by race and ethnicity across different gender identity groups mirror the aggregate results shown in Figure 6. Across all genders, except transgender men, multiracial adults or those identifying as another race reported a higher prevalence of violence than white, non-Hispanic adults, who consistently have the lowest likelihood of having been physically attacked in the prior year.

Transgender respondents who resided in suburban communities (4.3%) were the least likely to have experienced physical attacks over one year, compared with 6.7% of transgender adults in urban communities and 5.6% of transgender adults in rural communities. Patterns of geographic context varied across gender identities are shown in Figure 11. Among transgender men, prevalences of experiencing physical attacks were similar for those living in urban (6.8%) and rural (6.5%) areas, compared to those in suburban areas (3.6%). In contrast, transgender women residing in urban centers reported significantly higher prevalence of having experienced physical attacks (8.2%) compared to those living in suburban (4.7%) or rural (4.8%) areas. Nonbinary people—both AFAB and AMAB—were more similar in their experiences of past year physical attacks across different community types.

As shown in Figure 14, respondents across all gender identities who believed they were perceived as transgender almost all or most of the time were significantly more likely to have experienced a physical attack in the prior year than those who believed others rarely or never perceived them as transgender. Between 7.5% and 9.1% of transgender adults who believed they were perceived as transgender most or all of the time experienced an attack, compared to 3.8% to 4.9% among those rarely or never perceived as transgender.

Race and ethnicity are related to experiences of physical attacks. There were no differences between Black and white non-Hispanic people, but Hispanic or Latine respondents had 35% higher odds, and transgender adults who identified as another race or multiracial had 86% higher odds, of experiencing a physical attack compared to non-Hispanic white respondents. Lower educational attainment and lower income significantly increased the odds of experiencing a physical attack. Respondents without a high school diploma or GED or with no income had substantially higher odds of experiencing a physical attack relative to their more educated and higher-income counterparts. Respondents residing in suburban areas had the lowest odds of experiencing violence. In comparison, those living in urban areas had 56% higher odds, and those in rural areas had 27% higher odds of experiencing a physical attack. In terms of gender identity, transgender women faced the highest risk, while transgender men and AFAB nonbinary respondents had 22% and 25% lower odds, respectively, of experiencing a physical attack than transgender women. The odds were slightly lower among AMAB nonbinary individuals than among transgender women; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Visibility played a pronounced role: respondents who believed they were always or most of the time perceived as transgender had 72% higher odds of experiencing a physical attack than those who were never perceived as transgender. Those who believed they were sometimes perceived as transgender had 29% higher odds than those never perceived as transgender.

from "Physical Attacks Against Transgender Adults in the United States: Findings from the 2022 US Trans Survey" by UCLA's Williams Institute

Updated this post with a more complete representation of the results. Essentially, this study using the 2022 USTS data (n=83,368) found that when isolating gender as a factor, trans women had the highest risk, and also that other factors (in particular: socioeconomic status, education, race, type of community (urban/suburban/rural), trans visibility) had a stronger influence over odds of being physically attacked than gender alone. Being highly visible as transgender increased the odds of being attacked notably more than being a trans man or nonbinary assigned female, to the extent of nonbinary people assigned female who are highly visible as trans, being equally as likely to be physically attacked as trans women who are highly visible as trans, controlling for other factors. And nonbinary people assigned male who are highly visible had higher odds of being attacked than any other gender group.

Following the invasion of Iraq, the US occupation of the country became a reality after the collapse of Saddam’s government. Faced with a fait accompli, the UN Security Council had to accept the new status quo.

According to International Humanitarian Law, occupation forces – in this case, the US and UK – become responsible for the well-being of the populations they occupy. So, UNSC Resolution 1483 was issued on 22 May 2003 to establish the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) as Iraq’s administrator and create the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) to manage Iraqi oil revenues.

Note that Resolution 1483 did not mention the US Federal Reserve as the depositary of Iraqi funds, nor did it assign a location for the DFI headquarters or account. In fact, the resolution specifically states directed that the DFI should “be held by the Central Bank of Iraq.” It was the CPA, led by Paul Bremer, that decided unilaterally to house the account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

This decision allowed the US government to maintain tight control over Iraq’s oil revenues. From that point until today, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance has had to submit requests for funds to the US Treasury, which then approves or denies these requests based on its own criteria.

This monthly transfer of US dollars – which are literally flown into Baghdad in pallets of hard cash – determines Iraq and its 40-million-population’s ability to pay for basic needs like salaries, food, and medicine.

Whenever Washington feels that Iraq is not compliant with US regional goals, these fund transfers can be delayed or reduced. In January 2020, for instance, after the Iraqi Parliament voted to expel US troops following the assassination of Iranian Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Deputy Commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Trump administration threatened to freeze Iraq’s access to its oil revenues.

Today, Iraq’s financial situation remains dire. Despite having oil revenues piling up in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York – estimated today at around $120 billion – Iraq is burdened with a growing debt that matches this amount.

source