It’s in every major daily newspaper, you can’t avoid it on TV news programs and it’s spread all over the internet. The Jeffrey Epstein ongoing saga is literally a story you cannot avoid unless you live under a rock or on some remote uncharted island.
Yet, Florida’s sex trafficking story goes much deeper than the Epstein/Trump angle and along with that goes the age-old story of political hypocrisy.
Take, for instance, a study by the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA released last July indicates that more than half-a-million people were exploited in labor trafficking and another 200,000 in sex trafficking in the Sunshine State in 2024.
Just today, when I opened and began reading my daily news dispatches, a STORY jumped out at me, proclaiming that the Florida attorney general “threatens child predators with ‘death penalty’ after announcing rescue of 122 children.”
That sound pretty impressive on the face of it. But when one takes a closer look at sex trafficking in the state of Florida, one realizes that all those news stories about nabbing traffickers in sting operations is little more than window dressing to give appearances of progress against what has become a national cancer.
With sex trafficking estimated to be enslaving 200,000 just in Florida, 122 rescues, while a positive note, certainly doesn’t appear to be a significant breakthrough in fighting sex trafficking.
Especially when another news story almost three years ago to the day reveals a trend of official neglect bordering on malfeasance. On Nov. 20, 2022, The South Florida Sun Sentinel revealed that the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (affectionately known as Rhonda Santis) declined to issue fines after 14,000 violations of a sex trafficking law by Florida hotels and lodging establishments.
Could that possibly because the state’s tourism industry must be protected at all costs? Nah, couldn’t be, but an INVESTIGATION by the newspaper found that 6,669 hotels and lodging establishments had received 14,279 citations since a 2019 sex trafficking law mandated that they make modest changes to protect victims.
But not a single fine for the violations? Wow.
Then, there’s the case of ANDREW TATE and his brother Tristen. The two had been held in Romania on charges of trafficking women in three countries but strings were pulled and the charges were dismissed (know of anyone powerful enough to get charges in Romania dismissed?). The pair next showed up in Fort Lauderdale. “The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back,” Andrew Tate posted in X in February.
Their attorney was a man named Paul Ingrassia. That was before he joined Trump’s White House, however, as its Department of Homeland Security liaison.
From his DHS desk, Ingrassia scolded authorities in Fort Lauderdale for the seizure of the Tates’ devices and asked that their property be returned to them. He was careful to note that the “request” was coming from the White House. Never mind that Ingrassia’s intervention on behalf of the accused sex traffickers could be construed as interference with a federal investigation.
Finally, we have this STORY. Note the three individuals in the photo are all from Florida: Attorney General Pam Podi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pedo-POTUS Trump.
And yet…and yet, there are legions of Americans who have convinced themselves that Agent Orange can do no wrong – people like U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, the only member of the House to vote no on releasing the Epstein files, and Gov./LSU Athletic Director Squeaky Toy Landry who will unquestionably take up any cause that his Dear Leader tells him to.
We can now assume that Higgins and Landry support misogyny, up to and including rape and sex trafficking, bribery, getting in bed with despotic dictators like “Bone Saw” MBS, kidnapping of innocent persons and zip-tying children.
Louisiana Voice 
Higgins, of all people, at least offered a principled reason for voting “No.” Before the right sold out to an utterly bankrupt Trump no “principled conservative” would have even considered making public a complete investigative file for the reasons Higgins cited. But we live in Trump’s America now and Trump has no principles, morals, or ethics. Neither do the MAGA fascists. Besides, Marjorie Taylor Green released her chat messages with Trump last week where she stated plainly MAGA believed all along the Epstein files would damage Democrats, namely Bill Clinton, and that’s why she was standing with those who wanted the files released. MAGA has believed from the get-go that Democrats are pedophiles and only Democrats – or those who associate with them – would suffer by releasing the Epstein files. Trump should have known all along any damaging information about him would be viewed by MAGA as a Democratic plant, an attempt to frame him, no evidence or even a logical narrative required. And that’s exactly what most MAGA fascists believe. But there are some who have finally figured out Trump has played them and are starting to speak out. It’s adding to the discord already created by the embrace of White Nationalism from the Heritage Foundation and the rebranding of Nick Fuentes as a legitimate MAGA voice. Whether Epstein will be enough to eventually topple Trump, though, remains to be seen but in my opinion highly unlikely. MAGA can’t turn on Trump. They have nothing else. They already sold out everything that matters.