Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Van Jackson on how the late pedophile gained power and influence.
A bronze-painted statue titled “Best Friends Forever”, depicting Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands on October 2, 2025, in Washington, DC.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cell in 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats have released thousands of e-mails from Epstein and his cronies. But while the political class and mainstream media are understandably focused on the sex scandal, another dimension of the scandal goes uncovered except by independent media outlets such as Drop Site: Epstein’s deep ties to the national security state. I talked to international relations scholar Van Jackson about this crucial part of the story.
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The Crackdown in Bahrain w/ Aamer | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The US/Israel war against Iran is not only a conflict between states but also within states. This is most visible in Gulf states such as Bahrain, which are technically US allies but where wide swaths of the population are against the war. The new website North South Notes published an enlightening article on this topic by Kareema Abbas and Aamer (two writers who are working under pseudonyms). I spoke with Aamer about the crackdown on dissent in Bahrain as well as the wider regional politics that have been enflamed by the war.
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