Where We Are This Week 01/20/23
Armenia, Epstein island, and the mystery of George Santos.
First of all. Thank you to all who shared last week’s post, I really do appreciate it. If it’s not too much to ask, let’s keep it going! If you like what I’m doing, I’m asking you to share with your friends or family. Or whatever stranger you know that you happen to have their email address.
It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly it happened. Maybe it was the printing press, or maybe it was twenty-four-hour news. Or maybe it was always this way, and the neanderthals went from one cave painting to the next without a second thought.
“That woolly mammoth one is old news, Grug! Did you see the one of the bird-person?!”
If I had to take a stab at it the culprit, however, I think I would take aim at social media. There’s this constant deluge of events, controversies, and news that what happened last week seems like ages ago, and once whatever story has cycled its way through your timeline it evaporates into the all-resolving ether.
It’s nicer that way, really, because when that nagging feeling starts to tickle the back of your brain, you can rest assuredly because if it’s not in your timeline, it must have been taken care of!
When I wrote my piece on the unrest in Cuba in August of 2021, I was over a month late. I watched every outlet and pundit immediately become an expert on Cuba, offered their opinions, and quietly moved on. By the time I had decided what it was I wanted to say, the fight for Cuban freedom was on no one’s mind but mine and the Cubans’. Now, Cubans are fleeing the island in record numbers but do we revisit their plight and America’s total recusal from the situation? No! We’re not done scrolling!
Similarly, a former member of the now-disbanded Afghan National Assembly, Mursal Nabizada, was killed in her home in Kabul by unknown gunmen only a few days ago. I suspect we won’t be talking about that for long either, seeing as we never really discussed the ten people - seven of them, children - the Biden administration mistakenly killed in a drone strike immediately after their botched withdrawal.
If we are to overcome, as a people, the oppressive forces of our world, and appeal to our better angels, then we must make our minds fortresses for what we keep up there, in the words of George Steiner, the bastards can’t take.
‘Together, we’re better’ is what I’m tempted to say but when I say it aloud I realize it’s just a transposed version of a Jack Johnson lyric.
Omissions: they didn’t omit themselves
The dreaded errors and omissions column. Fortunately for me, this segment is regarding the latter, not the former. Sometimes, the week gets busy and the stories I’m following become too numerous. Or maybe the story just got buried. Both of these reasons apply to this story in particular, but I’m not confident which one was predominant.
Just before the new year, the U.S. Virgin Islands sued JP Morgan Chase for its role in aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking on the island of Little Saint James. The United States territory accused the bank of knowingly and willfully ignoring Epstein’s activities in order to secure his business - and that of his wealthy contingent.
The lawsuit alleged that "human trafficking was the principal business" of Epstein's accounts at the bank but JP Morgan Chase "turned a blind eye" to his criminal activity for more than a decade "because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank."
The U.S.V.I. claimed the institution, a bedrock of the country’s financial sector, eagerly facilitated - and obfuscated - the trafficking conducted by Epstein.
"JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise," the lawsuit read.
Quite the accusation isn’t it? And is this the first time you’re reading about it? If not, great! But personally, I’ve seen nary a mention of the story since it broke a few weeks ago; it’s almost as if our government and the institutional media apparatus have no interest in revealing the details of Epstein’s dealings.
Quietly, in 2020, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $150 million to New York authorities for not reporting the financier’s suspicious activity. One would presume that the institutions that purportedly “speak truth to power” would be keen on investigating the matter, but so far, they haven’t scratched the surface. It’s not in their purview. If you recall, ABC News’ Amy Robach was caught complaining on a hot mic that she had the Epstein story for three years, but ABC refused to air it as they were afraid they’d lose access to the royal family due to the story’s implications.
This is the man that entertained the likes of Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates mind you. Some of which - the last two - had no reservations over associating with Epstein after his conviction as a sex offender over a decade ago.
Disclaimer: I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I believe we went to the moon. But I also believe that our government - and the other powers that be - have the propensity to do to truth what Uri Geller does to spoons. The Epstein story doesn’t add up, and three years after his alleged suicide, we’re no closer to ascertaining a coherent image of who he was and how rose to such a position of influence.
For a comprehensive list of questions that need answering - plus one eerie encounter - I recommend listening to Eric Weinstein’s podcast episode on his run-in with the man whom he calls a ‘construct’.
Even the most incipient of comprehension of our government’s past dealings ought to implant inklings of distrust and skepticism in its citizenry. But the more you pry into the closed doors of our history the less cogent you feel - and then you start to ask yourself, “Does it really matter if I know the truth?”
Possible tagline for The Common Denominator in the future: Going crazy so you don’t have to.
Art Vandelay Santos
And you want to be my congressman?
I paid peripheral attention to this story as it developed over the last few weeks, but it really has gotten too outlandish to ignore. At first I dismissed a lot of the claims about Congressman George Santos’ fictional past because I couldn’t be certain of their veracity. But, as I mentioned to wife on our afternoon walk, the more preposterous the story has become, I realized that it just had to be true.
As the days tick by, one lie after the other has been uncovered to the extent it seems that Santos has fibbed about virtually everything about himself. At this point, I’m convinced that, given more time, the thick sweater of deceit will be unraveled, and with the last thread gone, he’ll vanish into thin air - the fiction of George Santos will cease to exist.
The New York representative’s fabrications have varied wildly; from claiming his mother died in the 9/11 attacks, and insisting his family was persecuted in Nazi Germany, to literally falsifying his entire education and work history. Now, despite repeatedly denying any dalliance in it, videos have emerged of Santos performing in drag.
Hilariously, while Republicans view themselves steeped inside a culture war, they managed to elect a drag queen - the very object of their ire - to Congress. It’s not about whether having done drag should render a candidate unworthy of election, it’s about the levels of irony being unrivaled in their dizzying heights.
To exacerbate the issue, the sliver of a majority the Republicans hold in the House courtesy of the ‘red wave’ is so slim that they can’t risk losing him. The 3rd District of New York is by no means a lock for the GOP if the seat went up for grabs. Having said all of this, if Republican lawmakers are forced to deal with Santos for the time being, surely he’ll be kept from anything resembling influence on the Republican party, and any meaningful positions, right? Wrong. Santos nabbed two committee assignments from House Speaker and party leader Kevin McCarthy earlier this week.
On one hand, Santos’ political career looks like it’s bound to be short-lived as he still has to face the House Ethics Committee, and multiple investigations regarding his campaign financing. On the other hand, Ted Kennedy drove his car into a river and left a young woman for dead, and managed to spend almost 47 years in political office. So, I guess, crazier things have happened.
Armenia
This is a story I’m only just beginning to understand, and maybe you can bare with me while I learn publicly. In what appears to be tangentially related to the Russo-Ukraine War, tensions have increased between to former Soviet states, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The conflict between the neighboring states of the Lesser Caucasus - the mountain range that contains Mount Aarat where, supposedly Noah’s ark was dispatched after the flood - concerns the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region is formally under the control of the Azerbaijani government, but is comprised of over 90% ethnic Armenians, and was considered to be an autonomous zone for the last three decades despite both nations engaging in intermittent violent exchanges throughout that period.
Throughout Azerbaijan’s history anti-Armenian sentiment has permeated its society. Routine pogroms and expulsions targeting Armenians occurred during the 20th century; often in conjunction with the Armenian genocide - an atrocity that lead to as many as 1.5 million deaths of ethnic Armenians - committed by the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.
I recently mentioned how football, soccer, serves as an excellent substitute for a geopolitical education - if you’re willing to do a little research. In 2020, the conflict reached its climax when Azerbaijan - with the help of NATO member Turkey - attacked inciting large scale war between the two nations, before Russia stepped in to broker a ceasefire agreement. In 2019, in what I recognize now foreboded the escalation, Armenian footballer Henrikh Mkhitaryan was unable to travel to Baku to compete in the Europa League Championship match due to legitimate concerns over his safety. Thus, began my inchoate understanding of the relationship between these two cultures.
Since the ceasefire agreement of 2020, the Lachin corridor has served as the only entry or exit to the region; it has served as a literal lifeline to the 120,000 Armenians living in the disputed territory. Now, for the past five weeks, the narrow pathway connecting the two regions has been blockaded by Azeri ‘citizens’ claiming to be ‘environmental activists’. Vital resources such as food, medicine, and fuel have not been able to be shipped into the territory due to the blockade.
The citizens of Artsakh are now resorting to burning whatever they can find so that they can heat their homes during the winter months, and only a few truckloads of food make into the zone per day. Hospitals have postponed all surgeries indefinitely.
While American media and politicians are transfixed by the war in Ukraine, they’re largely ignoring the very real, impending humanitarian crisis nearby. It seems lawmakers are now open to the idea of actively aiding Ukraine in wresting Crimea from Russia. World War III be damned! - while an entire population of people are being throttled during a supposed ‘ceasefire’.
The dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be construed as a parallel to the Israel-Palestine conflict, or a proxy battle between the East vs. West, or another instance in rising tensions between the Christian and Muslim world. What is especially baffling is the sheer lack of coverage it’s getting, and I don’t understand why - especially as Russian officials have stated their willingness to send troops to the region in support of Azerbaijan. Wherever you stand on any of these dialectics, the starvation or potential mass exile of a people should be leading the line weekly.
It’s a story I’m trying to wrap my head around, and I hope you’ll be patient with me as I attempt to polish the edges of my limited knowledge of an incredibly complex situation, and we’ll continue to learn together.
Again, if you made it this far, please consider sharing my publication.
To a better next week. Cheers,
~FDA