The entire book of tributes to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been released (putting paid to claims by Trump and his defenders that the story was a hoax and the book never existed) and it is really creepy. You can see the full book with tributes here

First of all, what kind of adult gets such a birthday present? Ghislaine Maxwell went to a great deal of trouble to put it together and it was obviously an effort to please a vain, immature man. A lot of prominent people took the trouble to send in contributions and some are now rightly embarrassed at this display of their obsequiousness. One of them was the UK’s ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson who has now been fired for it.

It is not clear how Epstein initially got his wealth but what is clear is that once he acquired some, he had a formula for how to draw people into his web and make even more money.

Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein’s role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence.

Exposure of that channel ended the career of Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US, provoking a crisis in Britain’s Labour government, after emails showed that Lord Mandelson had steered a $1bn banking deal Epstein’s way and expressed sympathy for Epstein’s 2008 conviction for child sexual procurement.

Emails obtained by Bloomberg and others went further, showing that figures in Epstein’s network of billionaires, politicians, celebrities, royalty and intellectuals were assembled into schemes of influence.

“Jeffrey was a starfucker,” an acquaintance told the Guardian last week. “Anyone he thought had influence he would try to add to his collection. Mandelson is slippery, and impressed by money, so Jeffrey liked that.”
…

But the questions about the source of Epstein’s wealth have never been fully resolved. He was worth nearly $600m at his death, thanks mostly to two wealthy billionaire clients – the Victoria’s Secret founder, Les Wexner, and, later, the Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black – as well as the Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth “Libet” Johnson, sister of former US ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson.

Between his collection of lavish homes in New York, Palm Beach and Paris, two private Caribbean islands, two jets and helicopter, Epstein held nearly $380m in cash and investments, according to his estate.

That wealth arrived suddenly. According to associates, until the end of the 90s, Epstein was living in a two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side close to the river. It was only when Maxwell arrived from London that his lifestyle was dramatically elevated.

Epstein moved to a townhouse on 68th Street and later to a 28,000-sq-ft mansion on 71st Street, later transferred to him by Wexner in 2011.

Public figures who have some political power but do not earn a lot of money but move in the circles of those who have are very susceptible to being coopted with gifts and a wealthy lifestyle, to feel that they also can live the high life. As the extract says he got power over “political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence..”

Much attention has been paid to Trump’s contribution to the book, consisting of a creepy drawing of the outline of a naked woman with his signature at a location meant to suggest her pubic hair. But the one I found most disturbing is the cartoon of Epstein handing out lollipops and balloons to very young girls, children really, in 1983 and then twenty years later having four young women in skimpy bikinis or topless massaging him as he reclines in a chair, with one with her back to us with her head poised over his groin area.

This is obviously an acknowledgment of Epstein grooming young girls for sex and the caption “what a great country!” is obviously celebrating his pedophilia. How could anyone contributing to this book now credibly claim that they did not know he was a pedophile back in 2003? He was obviously quite open about it and reveled in it so people in his circle had to know.