When You Put a Clown in Charge, You Get a Circus
PLUS: A review of "For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)" by Japanese Breakfast
Hi everyone. As always, thank you for reading. Just so you know, I’m going to take a few weeks off. Summers get busy. I might write something if compelled by a major news story, but if not, we’ll meet again sometime in August.
Here’s my question for you: What would happen if Don Trump released the Epstein files?
You might say, “Well, it depends on what’s in the files.” But does it?
Let’s say there isn’t much in the files beyond what’s already in the public record. Case closed, right? Not at all, actually. The MAGAverse would be outraged, as they believe the files contain evidence the global elite were involved in an underage sex trafficking ring. Absent any new revelations, the MAGAverse would conclude the files were doctored, probably by the Biden administration. They’d go from demanding the release of the files to demanding either the full release of the unedited files or the heads of the Biden-era DOJ/FBI officials they believe destroyed them and then urge Trump to reopen the case.
Let’s say the files contain more information than what’s already in the public record—maybe additional names, along with the results of in-depth investigations into various people’s relationships with Epstein. Such information may cast those individuals in a negative light, perhaps revealing they suspected Epstein was up to no good yet failed to bring their concerns to law enforcement or continued to associate with him regardless, maybe even in ways that raise some serious red flags. Yet the files may also reveal law enforcement concluded those individuals did nothing illegal or that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them with a crime, which may explain why the files haven’t been released: Law enforcement has no business making public the details of an investigation into somebody’s private life if they don’t believe they can prove that person’s actions—no matter how sleazy or shady—rise to the level of a crime. This sort of file drop would not satisfy the MAGAverse either. They believe those documents will prove the guilt of the people listed in the files, not let them off the hook. Once again, the MAGAverse will assume the Deep State deleted the incriminating evidence and demand that Trump reopen the investigation.
Let’s say Trump hasn’t released the files because they incriminate him or somehow make him look bad. Or maybe they make his associates look bad. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scenario. Trump doesn’t care about the truth. Can’t he just remove any reference to himself or his friends from the files? Maybe he’s too entwined with Epstein to do that; for example, the woman who accused Epstein of sex trafficking her to Prince Andrew met Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell while working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago. Or maybe Trump fears a former federal official has a copy of the Epstein files on a thumb drive and is ready to send them to major news agencies in the event Trump releases his own modified version of the files. But if this is the case, Trump could just say the Deep State included him in the files (and either overemphasized his connection to Epstein or just made a bunch of it up) to make him look bad and take the heat off the liberals—the real bad guys—named in the report. Trump’s already doing this, claiming the files were written by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. You and I might call BS on all that, but the MAGAverse would swallow it hook, line, and sinker and then turn their fire on whoever else was named in the file along with whoever they blame for adding Trump’s name to the documents.
Let’s say the files reveal Jeffrey Epstein operated a secretive, highly exclusive underaged sex trafficking network patronized by the world’s ruling class. For the record: Epstein was a monster. His crimes are horrifying. He was a convicted pedophile who was charged in 2019 with sex trafficking dozens of minors. He cultivated an elite network of friends that included political figures, millionaire businessmen, and celebrities, and was credibly accused of sex trafficking minors for some of those friends. As far as conspiracy theories go, the dots in this case are all at least on the same page. Nevertheless, what the evidence does not indicate and what six years of reporting by credible news sources has not found is that Epstein was running some sort of shadowy, SPECTRE-level, QAnon-adjacent pedo-club for the powerful, rich, and famous. That’s what the MAGAverse believes, however, so they’d be ecstatic if the files confirmed that. The thing, though, is that if the files exposed the existence of a global sex trafficking ring serving the liberal elite, Trump would have made those files public months ago. Instead, they’re just collecting dust in Pam Bondi’s office.
That leads me to believe the Epstein files are probably a nothingburger. Their release would likely add little to what we already know about Epstein while casting a handful of famous men—Don Trump chief among them—in a rather unflattering light. This would infuriate the MAGAverse, who would assume the Deep State buried the truth before Trump could expose their evil ways.
So, to answer my question, “What would happen if Trump released the Epstein files?”, well, no matter what we could reasonably expect to find in those files—not much at all, some new tidbits of information that make a few people look bad, embarrassing details about Trump—the MAGAverse will be angry and unsatisfied. It won’t resolve a thing. They’ll demand Trump do more to get to the bottom of the Epstein case. Trump could give them unfettered access to the DOJ and FBI so they could turn the agencies upside down themselves in search of “the truth” and they’d still walk away from their wild goose chase discontented. Expect no less from a group of people who think the principle of transparency amounts to confirming whatever it is they believe.
So nothing is going to come from this Epstein derangement besides more derangement, yet here we are as a nation having just spent the past two weeks consuming and feeding this frenzy. It’s not as though there aren’t more important things going on in this country that demand our attention. Masked agents are snatching people off the streets and deporting them to foreign countries without due process. The president is threatening to strip his political opponents of their citizenship. The federal government has opened a concentration camp in the middle of the Everglades as part of the administration’s plan to dehumanize immigrants. The Supreme Court keeps rolling over for Trump whenever he’s challenged in court. Meanwhile, we’re enacting a trade policy so draconian it threatens to implode the economy by driving up prices while simultaneously driving people out of work. Congress just passed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which will leave hundreds of thousands if not millions of kids without health care coverage and food assistance. And if we’re concerned about human trafficking—the outrage at the heart of the Epstein affair—then we should be very concerned that the State Department just decimated the office dedicated to combating human trafficking.
Bu we’re not talking about any of that. Instead, our political discourse has been taken hostage by a cult mired in a tar pit of tabloid news, conspiratorial podcasters, and social media clickbait, and there’s no escape from it. We’re told these brain-addled, low-information voters hold the balance of power in the country and that we need to pay them mind. I think the nation would be better off if we just told them to pound sand. But the Republican Party has concluded they would be unable to muster a majority without them, so they’ve decided to dance with these devils. Democrats, meanwhile, are advised to stop mocking them and instead find ways to connect with them. Therefore, last week, rather than put up a fight when Republicans sought to codify $9 billion in cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, Democrats instead used the opportunity to force votes in Congress on releasing the Epstein files.
Now you may argue that’s good political strategy—drive a wedge between Trump and the MAGAverse and watch Republican lawmakers squirm as they’re forced to pick a side—but I think it just feeds a beast that’s devouring our democracy. And look, I know a rousing floor speech in defense of PBS isn’t going to rally voters to the Democratic cause. Me complaining about how it seems no one in this country gives a damn about policy or governance anymore is like screaming into a hurricane. At some point, though, people need to start caring more about the State than the Deep State. I’m afraid that’s only going to happen after a very painful wake-up call, and even then, the mood will probably only last for a few months max. We’re just not a serious country, and we’re not doing much to reclaim that standard.
The best you can say about American democracy right now is that it is by the people but not for the people. We voted for the clown. Now we’re stuck with the circus.
Signals and Noise
From Substack:
From The Atlantic:
“The Message is ‘We Can Take Your Children’” by Stephanie McCrummen
“Don’t Degrade Church With Politics” by Elizabeth Bruenig
From the New York Times:
“If You Like 35 Percent Inflation, Go Ahead, Fire the Fed Chair” by Rebecca Patterson
“From Science to Diversity, Trump Hits the Reverse Button on Decades of Change” and “For Trump, Domestic Adversaries Are Not Just Wrong, They Are ‘Evil’” by Peter Baker
“Trump’s Plans to Put Emil Bove on the Supreme Court” by Jeffrey Toobin
“Why We Mistake the Wholesomeness of Gen Z for Conservatism” by Jessica Grose
“‘Superman’ Is MAGA Kryptonite” by David French
From the Washington Post:
“DOJ Hits States With Broad Requests for Voter Rolls, Election Data” by Patrick Marley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
“The White House’s Plan to Downsize the Federal Government, In Charts” by Jeremy B. Merrill, Kati Perry, and Jacob Bogage
“Under Trump, the Government Mobilizes in Response to Fringe Theories” by Naftali Bendavid
“How the Trump Shooting Supercharged Beliefs In a Divine Right of MAGA” by Isaac Arnsdorf
“How Texas Could Help Ensure a GOP House Majority in 2026” by David Daley
“How Trump Dominates and Corrupts the Private Sector” by George F. Will
“Alligator Alcatraz is Psychological Terrorism” by Kathleen Parker
From Vox:
“The Lie at the Heart of Trump’s Entire Economic Agenda” by Eric Levitz
“The Trump Administration’s Fundamental Misunderstanding About Deportations” by Nicole Narea
“Why Trump Betrayed His Base on Jeffery Epstein” by Zack Beauchamp
From Semafor:
“Chaos Theory” by David Weigel
From CNN:
“How Business Lobbyists Scored Wins in Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’” by Cohen, et. al.
Top Five Records Music Review: For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) by Japanese Breakfast
About a month ago, YouTube decided to play me a track from the new Celine Song rom-com Materialists called “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)” by the indie band Japanese Breakfast. It’s a gem, a jaunty yet laid-back country-pop song that Wilco probably wishes it had dreamt up. Like the film it’s from, the song plays around with the idea of possession, worth, and what lovers have to offer one another (“My baby, he don’t have nothing to give/ But he gives it to me”) but it’s the small details—a vocal inflection, an electric guitar line—that keep the listener wrapped around its finger. There’s a luxuriant, cozy economy to the song, one that allows lead singer Michelle Zauner to slip effortlessly between moods—dreamy, woozy, sultry, knowing, playful—the way a movie star might by just tilting her head or arching an eyebrow. It’s a masterclass in control, but ever so light on its feet.
A few days later, after an album I was listening to on Spotify ended, the algorithm played a catchy song I’d never heard before. I looked to see who had recorded it and—lo and behold—it was a track from the latest Japanese Breakfast album. Apparently, the digital spirits that had possessed my computer really wanted me to check this band out, so I obliged.
Japanese Breakfast—the name vocalist and guitarist Michelle Zauner uses for her musical project—has been making music for nearly a decade now. I’d heard of them, but I must confess I hadn’t listened to any of their albums up until a few weeks ago (my bad). If you’re as unfamiliar with the group as I was, you may still recognize some of Zauner’s work: She’s the author of the 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart, a book about how she came to terms with her Korean-American heritage following her mother’s death from cancer. Walk into any Barnes & Noble and you’ll find copies of it stacked on a table near the entrance alongside other perennial best-sellers.
A few months after the publication of Crying in H Mart, Japanese Breakfast released their third album Jubilee, a well-received indie pop record. Zauner spent much of 2024 in Seoul learning Korean and working on a follow-up. The result is the lush, bittersweet For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), which came out last March.
Zauner trades in the synthpop that defined Jubilee for a more baroque style on For Melancholy Brunettes. The opening track “Here is Someone” tinkles like a music box; even as waves of sound wash over the listener, they’ll still feel every note splash against their skin. The forlorn “Winter in LA” alludes to the chamber pop of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. The album includes several country-tinged songs, from the delicate “Men in Bars” (a duet with actor Jeff Bridges, who mumbles his lines to excellent effect) to “Orlando in Love”, which recalls the orchestral country pop of Glen Campbell.
The titular Orlando refers to both Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography and the epic poem Orlando Innamorato by Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo. For Melancholy Brunettes is packed with literary references like that, fitting for a musician who is also a well-known author. The album’s title is borrowed from a line in a John Cheever short story. The record’s final song, “Magic Mountain”, draws inspiration from the Thomas Mann novel of the same name (“Playing king, slowing time/ Bundled for our rest cure with your x-ray in my locket”). The ancient Greek myth “Leda and the Swans” proves timeless in “Leda”, a song about how careless men haunt the lives of women.
Men are responsible for much of the album’s melancholy and sadness. They are disloyal and faithless, hapless in the face of temptation, nearly oblivious to the pain they inflict on women in the pursuit of their own pleasure. “Mega Circuit”, which surveys a world full of pathetic young men barreling around on their ATVs, suggests this is an inheritance passed down by rotten older men “cutting holier truths”. It’s also ultimately fatal: In “Orlando in Love”, the “ideal woman” who rises from the sea like “Venus in a shell” leaves Orlando “breathless and then drowned,” while in “Honey Water”, the song’s male character surrenders to temptation and drinks nectar until his “heart expires.”
“I dream about leaving/ But no coward soul is mine,” Zauner sings on “Honey Water” as the song’s shoegaze arrangement threatens to overwhelm her featherlight vocals. She feels obliged to find a way to make this relationship work, but there’s also a fear here and in other songs that this is as good as it gets, that she’ll have to settle for an emotionally stunted man who has no idea what it takes to be a supportive, affectionate partner. Even more concerning, Zauner worries these emotionally deficient relationships are changing her for the worse, robbing her of her happiness, her sense of commitment, and her faith in love. By the end of the album, she’s turning inward and blaming herself for what went wrong. “They say only love can change a man,” she sings during “Honey Water”, “But all that changes is me.”
That’s a world away from the contentment Zauner finds in the relationship at the heart of “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)”. On that track, Zauner’s lover is generous and desirous of her company, while the men on For Melancholy Brunettes are base and distant. The experience of time is different as well. On “My Baby”, Zauner’s easygoing vocals roll gently over the song’s steady drum beat, which keeps time without pushing too hard. It’s suggestive of a lazy moment, but one Zauner and her lover are present for. On For Melancholy Brunettes, however, the interplay between Zauner’s vocals and the instrumentation is more disorienting (see “Here is Someone” for a good example) with Zauner’s vocals often prolonging the moment. That makes it seem as if Zauner is flailing or marooned in time, trapped in a slow motion disaster that is taking hours, days, or even years of her life to unfold. You don’t have to be stuck in a lousy relationship to feel that way in our day and age.
“Are you not afraid of every waking minute/ That your life could pass you by?” Zauner sings on “Picture Window” (see Exit Music) to a partner who is always “looking out at somewhere else.” In the song, Zauner is haunted by “ghosts,” the memories of loved ones who have passed away. For her, time is precious. It ought to be spent loving others or in the company of loved ones. Yet here she is, waiting on pathetic little men who just can’t grow up. What a waste.