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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   15911 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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If Vance wants to actively investigate the Epstein case, doesn't he have the political power to do just that?

Apparently Vance said: "[Epstein] clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence".

Does the Vice President of the United States really not have the power to discover and communicate concrete specifics about something like this?

Does the Vice President of the United States really not have the power to discover and communicate concrete specifics about something like this?

I hate to be gauche, but he probably enjoys having a non-dead wife.

Does the Vice President of the United States really not have the power

For a long time it was political suicide to go against the Israel lobby. I don’t think that’s the case anymore, but maybe Vance still feels that it is.

The day after the attack, Johnson confided to a Newsweek reporter that he believed Israel deliberately attacked the Liberty to prevent her from spying. Israeli officials learned the details of Johnson’s interview within 24 hours and successfully pressured the magazine to water down its planned story. “The Newsweek editorial has made changes in the last proofreading of the news item compared with the original version that I was shown last night,” Patir cabled Jerusalem. “It toned down the version by adding a question mark to the heading, leaving out the words deliberate attack, and leaving out the commentary paragraph that said that the leak is intended to free American policy makers from the pressure of the pro-Israeli public opinion.” Diplomats also needed to tone down President Johnson. To pressure the President, Israeli officials tapped Justice Fortas and Washington lawyer David Ginsburg to make Johnson “aware of the dangers facing him personally if the public learns that he was party to the distribution of the story that is on the verge of being blood libel.”

The stance he describes in the rest of the interview is basically that something fishy may have been going on but at this point literally decades later (and Vance seems to assume after the first series of legal events everything dried up) no further evidence is around.

We do know various intelligence agencies have done a good job at throwing out documents and "forgetting" about things which complicate matters.

Vance also argues that even for things he wants to look into he doesn't necessarily have time to go knock on doors and be like "hey 20 years ago did you know this Epstein guy?" He also uses this excuse on the UFO thing.

I suspect if pressed a bit more Vance would argue that there wasn't an organized conspiracy, just that Epstein knew people in intelligence and leveraged those relationships. This would be certainly be consistent with the way he knew a lot of people, and if you believe the court stuff is above board it would explain things drying up after being acquittances but discovering the malfeasance. If you think the court stuff isn't above board it would explain him using relationships to get out of trouble but then being burned afterwards. Both of those require a lot less conspiracy stuff (in contrast with an organized operation).

Who knows what Vance actually believes, it's entirely possible this is just him politicking for various reasons.

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