The Brooklyn Rail

 Illusions are more common than changes in fortune.
—Kafka, The Castle

When Donald Trump traveled to England this month to avoid questions about the Epstein Files, he was met with images from the Epstein conspiracy projected onto Windsor Castle and unfurled on the great lawn. Trump was given the royal treatment by the King and the Queen Consort, but a week later, another royal was implicated in the Epstein scandal, when an email from 2011 sent by the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson (ex-wife of Prince Andrew), came to light, in which the duchess apologized profusely to Jeffrey Epstein and thanked him for being “a steadfast, generous, and supreme friend to me and my family.” This email was sent on the advice of the duchess’s lawyers after Epstein threatened to sue her for something she said about his sexual abuse in an interview with the Evening Standard. Fergie’s conciliatory email was of course sent long after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution with a minor and the duchess knew all about Epstein’s sexual abuse of children. A bevy of British charitable organizations rushed to remove the duchess from their patronage rolls in feigned righteous indignation: “We’ll keep the money you’ve given to us in the past, of course, but from now on, really, Duchess!”

This came less than a month after Prince Andrew himself was newly criticized for staying in touch with his procurer Jeffrey Epstein five years longer than the prince had previously claimed. This came out when an email exchange between Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak appeared, indicating that the prince was still in touch with Epstein in 2015, five years after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida.

Meanwhile, back home, the cover-up of the Epstein case by the White House and the Department of Justice continues apace. And Republicans who control the House Oversight Committee have refused to release material related to their Epstein investigations. When Alex Acosta testified before the committee, he flatly denied that he gave Epstein a sweetheart deal and claimed he didn’t know that this deal allowed Epstein to continue raping and trafficking young girls even as he was supposedly being incarcerated. The Republicans, of course, allowed Acosta to testify behind closed doors, and declined to comment on his testimony afterward.

Republicans on the Oversight Committee also voted not to subpoena the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, the Bank of New York Mellon, the Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank in order to question them about the $1.5 billion in transactions they handled that were related to Epstein’s crimes. Epstein also used two Russian banks for his trafficking operations in Belarus, Russia, and Turkmenistan.

Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat who just won the special election for a House seat in Arizona, has committed to being the 218^th representative to sign on to the discharge petition that would force the Trump administration to release its investigative files on the Epstein case, which should happen soon, if the White House doesn’t find some other way to block it.

Every day brings more revelations about the Trump/Epstein relationship. In her interview with Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell dropped the bombshell that “some are in your cabinet,” meaning that people in Trump’s current cabinet were involved in Epstein’s ring. But the cover-up continues, and MAGA supporters now seem willing to forget the whole thing, as long as Trump stays in power.

They also seem willing to overlook the fact that Trump promised them that he would bring grocery prices down on his first day in office. Trump has been in office for eight months now, and prices have only gone up, and the effects of Trump’s world-wide trade war and tariffs are just beginning to be felt. Fifty-three percent of American adults today disapprove of Trump’s overall performance in office, with 48% strongly opposed. Only 32% of American adults voted for Trump, meaning 68% did not vote for him. All of this is based on the fact that only 64% of eligible voters bothered to vote in the 2024 election.

The first No Kings Day, on June 2025, brought out 5 to 6 million people across 2169 communities. To get to 3.5% of the total population, we need to double that, to 11 or 12 million people demonstrating on the streets of America on No Kings Day II, on October 18.

On September 19, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke to the Center for American Progress and called for the restoration of American democracy through legislation, litigation, and mobilization. I think he got the order wrong. It must be through mobilization, litigation, and legislation, in that order.

Jimmy Kimmel came back on the air less than a week after being yanked because when Disney/ABC caved to pressure from Trump’s head of the FCC and suspended the show, a lot of people mobilized to push back and stand up for the first amendment. Kimmel’s first show back drew 6.2 million viewers (even though 23% of his viewers were blocked by Sinclair and Nexstar), which is nearly four times his normal draw on linear TV, and 26 million saw him on social media and YouTube.

When Trump’s forces meet resistance, they retreat. Many in the MAGA movement mistook Trump’s malignant narcissism for manly confidence and resolve, but it turns out to be the cowardice of a bully, who always backs down in the face of committed opposition.

The Kimmel caper follows a long series of moves by the Trump administration to take over mass media. We’re now near the end of the Hungarian/Turkish/Russian playbook on taking over the media to stifle dissent. The next step is to attack Democratic fundraising to head off a free and fair midterm election next year.

Trump and his minions are committing multiple crimes every day, and doing it a rate that is designed to overwhelm the parts of the justice system that he hasn’t yet corrupted by putting obedient lackeys in positions of power, including, unfortunately, the US Supreme Court. The question now is, are there enough independent parts of the justice system left to stop him?

Today, September 26, marked a signal turning point in the dismantling of the rule of law, when a federal grand jury indicted the past Director of the FBI James Comey purely on the say-so of Trump, using the Department of Justice as his personal attack squad in the vindictive prosecution of one of his political opponents.

The prosecution of Trump’s border czar Tom Holman for accepting a $50,000 cash bribe in a brown bag from undercover FBI agents in a sting operation, in exchange for lucrative government contracts, may have to wait a bit, but hopefully the videotape of the bag transfer and other evidence will not be destroyed by Kash Patel and Dan Bongino before that time.

The coming battle over the passage of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill in Congress is all about the cost of your healthcare. The Democrats still believe that, in the wealthiest country in the world, when a person gets sick, they shouldn’t go bankrupt. Republicans, backing Trump, believe that the sick and the poor and the working class and even the middle class are all on their own now, because that money needs to go to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%. Affordable Care Act premiums are going to rise by 75% for 20 million Americans when the Trump bill goes into effect, and millions will lose coverage entirely. Unless a few Republicans grow a spine in the next few days, the outcome will be devastating.

I have lost all patience with Democrats quietly musing about the 2028 elections. They might as well be talking about holding off till the next millennium. It is obvious to anyone paying attention that the country won’t last till 2028. Even the midterms may be too far away. Something has to happen to curb Trump’s power soon, and to wake people from their somnolent state, or all will be lost. And the only thing that can happen that swiftly and effectively is mass mobilization, scaling the castle walls.