To be named in the Epstein files is now a mark of shame, carrying with it a presumption that one is tainted by association with him and may have engaged in some truly odious practices.
Like the character in the cartoon, I would have thought that there was no way that my name would appear in the Epstein files but I was surprised to find that it actually does. How I discovered this was that there are many scientists and other well known academics mentioned in the news reports about the Epstein files so I went to the department of justice website that has a searchable database of the files released so far to check on names at random. It quickly got boring searching for well-known names, so on a whim I entered my own name and was stunned when it returned that my name was in this file.
I was agog, of course, since I have never met Epstein and, like the guy in the above cartoon, do not move in anywhere close to the wealthy circles in which he operated. So how could I be connected? But the entire mention of me was below:
Contact
Source Device NYCO24363.dmg/Macintosh HD
Path /Users/Story/Library/Application Support/Skype/lawkrauss/main.db
SourceType Skype
First Mano
Last Singham
ID 66
This was just one of over 100 items like this spread over 23 pages in this single file, ordered alphabetically by first name. The first names in this file alone run from Lisa to Margerie, so one can imagine that there must be around 500 pages like this covering the full alphabet. Some of the people have had their contact information like email addresses redacted, which makes sense. But for some others, their names have also been redacted and it is not clear why this was done selectively. I can understand if they were the names of victims but wonder if some were redacted merely because they are well-known and friends of Trump.
It looks like my name appears among the Skype contacts of physicist Lawrence Krauss, a close friend and defender of Epstein and beneficiary of his wealth, who has also been accused of many allegations of sexual improprieties and for which he sought advice from Epstein as to how to deal with them.
I know Krauss because he was the chair of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University during part of the time when I was there, so it is not surprising that my name would appear as one of his contacts, though I do not recall ever having a Skype call with him, unlikely since we worked in the same building and did not interact much except to discuss routine departmental stuff. My interactions with him were in person or by email. Two other names in this same file were secretaries I know in my department whose first names start with the letter ‘L’.
So while my mention in the files was innocuous, a drive-by mention like that of so many people, there is something about being two degrees of separation from Epstein that still makes me feel unclean.
Mano, since I read your blog, does that make me three degrees of separation from Epstein? : )
#1
We all probably are two or three degrees of separation from some serious criminal. We are just mercifully unaware of it.
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BTW my posts have been erratic today, I apologize for exceeding the three-comment limit on threads.
larpar @#1,
I know your question was asked facetiously but it is still interesting to ask how it might be measured in this case. This whole ‘degrees of separation’ thing is sometimes too vague. It started with the ‘six degrees of separation’ that was measurable, and even when applied to Kevin Bacon was still defined quantifiably.
In this case, perhaps the allowable links should be people whom one has met personally.
#2
The connectivity in networks is a whole science of its own. Epstein was a parasite who sought out the most connected “nodes”, people with the most fame and influence. In retrospect it is not surprising that so many are just two degrees of separation away.
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This also says a lot about the way American society works. You do not need to be a member of the fictional ‘deep state’ to be above the law. Just establish enough connection with oligarchy-level nodes.