Memes of the Times

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

MINNESOTAN RESISTANCE TO THE TRUMP REGIME’S FASCIST OCCUPATION
• Why Minnesota?
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26


THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• “If a Praying Minister Isn’t Safe, None of Us Are”
• Historian John Lestrange on the Meaning and Manifestations of Fascism, Past and Present
• James Greenberg on Trump’s “Larger Design” – the Construction of a Military Dictatorship
• “A Power Grab the Likes of Which This Country Has Never Seen”


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism


ISRAEL AND GAZA
• Two Years of “Indescribable Horror”
• The Only Difference
• No Justice, No Peace
• Progressive Perspectives on Hillary Clinton’s Comments on Pro-Palestine “Propaganda” and TikTok
• Qasim Rashid: Quote of the Day
• “It Is Up to Us”


THE DEPRAVITY OF THE EPSTEIN CLASS
• Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”
• Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”
• Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein


BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• What Will Be Enough?
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly


ZACK POLANSKI
• The Rational National’s Take on U.K. Green Party’s “Brilliant” New Ad
• Zack Polanski’s Christmas Message
• Zack Polanski’s Message of Hope
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”


CHRIS HEDGES
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire


MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
• How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• “We Need an Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”
• Yes, Just Imagine


BAD BUNNY AND THE SUPER BOWL
• Michael Jochum on Bad Bunny and the “Great American Meltdown”
• John Pavlovitz: Quote of the Day


MICHAEL MEADE
• Wisdom at the Edge
• Michael Meade on “Slowing Downwards”
• Soul: The Connecting Force in Life
• Where Soul Would Have Us Go


SIGNS OF HOPE
• The Path Ahead
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day
• Matthew Cooke: “MAGA Just Lost Everything . . . Now It’s Only a Matter of Time – and Each of Us Doing Our Part”
• Chris Hedges: “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Joyce Rupp: Seeking and Trusting the “Why” of Your Life
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• A Socialist Agenda for 2026


See also:
• Memes of the Times – November 23, 2025
• Memes of the Times – September 21, 2025
• Memes of the Times – July 27, 2024
• Memes of the Times – May 21, 2020
• Signs of the Times – April 25, 2017
• At the Minnesota Capitol, Signs of the Times (May 16, 2011)

The Smile

By Steve Taylor

At the moment of brutal disappointment
when you realize that your hopes were illusions
and you’re ashamed of your gallibility
and angry with the world for stringing you along
for letting this foolish game go on so long
and your future seems bleak and stark
without those filters of delusion
and you survey the wreckage of your life
wondering if you were ever who you thought you were –

Maybe you can sense a part of you
that’s not a part of this
that’s standing outside this psychic storm
untouched by this chaos
peering through the rubble and the clouds of dust
looking on and smiling –
knowing that this damage is only superficial,
just to your facade, not to your foundation.
and that when the debris is cleared away
there will be more space inside
for your essence to shine through.

– Steve Taylor
From The Calm Center: Reflections and
Meditations for Spiritual Awakening
New World Library, 2015
p. 39

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Love Will Not Lose
• Until the Light Returns
• What the Wind Says
• Secret Language of the Heart
• Kahlil Gibran on Self-Knowledge
• When Sorrow Comes
• The Empty Beach
• Walking Away
• The Real Question
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• Aligning With the Living Light
• A Sacred Pause
• Mystical Participation
• Shining On

Image: Carl Anderson. (Photo: Michael Ochs / Getty Images)

Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”

If you’re trying to get a handle on the full meaning and ramifications of the Epstein files, Terry Moran’s February 4 interview with journalist and political commentator Anand Giridharadas is a great place to start.

Here’s how the interview is introduced on Moran’s podcast, Real Patriotism:

In a wide-ranging conversation, Anand Giridharadas joins Terry Moran to examine power, morality, and the elite networks that shape American life – from politics and corporate culture to inequality, immigration, and democracy itself. Prompted by the release of the Epstein documents, the discussion moves beyond scandal to ask deeper questions: how elite impunity works, why consequences are so rarely attach to power, how corporate values shift with political winds, and why so many Americans have lost trust in institutions meant to serve them.

The [40-minute] conversation also explores the rise of Donald Trump, the collapse of elite credibility, and the enduring tension between exclusion and belonging in American history – including what still draws people from around the world to become American. This is not a story of conspiracy. It is a factual story about systems, incentives, and power – and about what, even now, continues to set America apart.

Related Off-site Links:
It’s So Much Bigger Than Epstein – Anand Giridharadas (The Ink, February 2, 2026).
Rep. Thomas Massie Threatens to Go “Nuclear” and Reveal Epstein Client Names If Attorney General Pam Bondi Won’t Unredact Them – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, February 9, 2026).
The Hidden Truth of the Epstein E-mails: An Interview with Anand Giridharadas – The Chris Hedges Report (January 5, 2026).
The Epstein Files Show How Powerful Men Protect Each Other: An Interview with Helen Rumbelow – Times News (February 4, 2026).
“Billionaire Boys Club”: What the Latest Epstein Files Reveal About Elite Impunity – Democracy Now! (February 2, 2026).
Epstein Files Reveal Scandal’s Global Reach. What’s Next for Europe’s Elite? – Amanpour and Company (February 5, 2026).
How Epstein Helped Ruin Gaming and Engineered the Modern Online Reactionary Movement – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, February 4, 2026).
Why Is the Media Not Touching Jeffrey Epstein’s Clear Connection to Israel? – Prem Thakker (Zeteo, February 5, 2026).
Epstein’s Israel Links and Everything Else Ignored by Mainstream Media – Al Jazeera (February 7, 2026).
Trump, Epstein and the Decline of American Democracy: An Interview with Chris Hedges – Marc Lamont Hill (Upfront, February 7, 2026).
Stop Calling Epstein’s Youngest Victims Underage – They Were Children – Sophie Heawood (The Independent, February 3, 2026).
From Epstein to Gaza: The Depravity of the Western Elite Is Now Fully Exposed – Soumaya Ghannoushi (Middle East Eye, February 3, 2026).
“Heartbreaking”: Journalist Vicky Ward on New Epstein Files and Survivors’ Fight for Accountability – Democracy Now! (December 24, 2025).
How the “Epstein Class” Fails to the Top: An Interview with Anand Giridharadas – The Chris Hedges Report (December 23, 2025).
Anand Giridharadas on the Elite Network Around Epstein – Democracy Now! (November 25, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”
• Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein
• Memes of the Times – November 2025

A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community

Earlier this evening I attended the Luminary Loppet, an annual celebration of light, love and community on and around the frozen Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

This year’s event honors Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens shot to death by the Trump regime’s masked and militarized fascist goons, currently occupying Minnesota as part of an intimidation and terror campaign targeting immigrants and citizens alike. Also honored this year are all those who in one way or another are creating community and standing up for their neighbors.

Don Samuels’ poem, displayed at the Luminary Loppet, says it all . . .

We come together as a city.
We burn with passion, care and love.
In this dark chapter, we’ve become
a beacon for our nation and the world.

They come to see our peaceful protests,
our service to struggling neighbors
and our bold defiance of the cold.

Our martyrs, Renee Good and Alex Pretti,
now shine more brightly than in life.
Their love brightens the light.

We are the luminary city,
shining brightly for the world to see
in this dark night of hate and cruelty.

Bring your fire.
Let’s light the world.

Writes artist Cole Redhorse Taylor . . .

The Loon is considered by Dakota people to be a revered bird because of it being a diver and going back and forth between our surface realm and the water realm of the Unktehi.

I’ve seen our state bird has been used as a symbol of resistance and resilience in these trying and unprecedented times. I never would have thought our state would enter global consciousness and discussion again and yet here we are.

But I am absolutely proud of the way our state has shown up for community and each other. And I’ll always represent being born and raised here in Mni Sota Makoce. My people’s blood is in the very soil we call home. My ancestors died for it.

I can’t do much, but all I can do is doodle on my silly little iPad to keep myself busy.

These are tough times but we’re standing strong.

Related Off-site Link:
Wisdom from Southern Lights: Jemar Tisby's Sermon on Righteousness and Justice – Diana Butler Bass (The Cottage, January 29, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Ice Luminaries” on the Northside
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Why Minnesota?

Images: Michael J. Bayly, Brian Mogren, Scott Dibble, and Cole Redhorse Taylor.

Quote of the Day

The anger [displayed at the Winter Olympic Games] in Milan wasn’t just about [Vice President] JD Vance’s personality. It was about policy. It turns out there was significant local controversy regarding the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Italy. The administration sent ICE agents to assist with security and the Italians did not take kindly to having our deportation force walking their streets. It sparked protests leading up to the Games.

It turns out that exporting your police state has consequences. The reaction reflects the broader strains in our relationship with Europe under this administration. They are tired of the trade tariffs and the foreign policy bullying. When Vance showed up as the face of that administration the crowd let him know exactly how they felt. They weren’t booing America. They were booing the specific brand of arrogance that Vance represents.

The funniest part of this whole saga is Donald Trump’s reaction. When reporters asked him about it he seemed genuinely confused. He said “That’s surprising because people like him.” Then he added “He doesn’t get booed in this country.” It is a window into the delusion they live in. Trump actually believes that Vance is popular because they only ever go to staged rallies where the crowd is vetted and the applause is guaranteed.

The truth is that JD Vance gets booed in this country all the time. He is historically unpopular. But in the U.S. they can filter the noise. They can ban the dissenters and curate the feed. In Italy they couldn’t control the microphone. They stepped out of their safe space and found out what the rest of the world actually thinks of them.

So don’t let them gaslight you. The video is real. The IOC confirmed it. The President is making excuses for it. JD Vance went to a party that was supposed to be about unity and he was the only guy nobody wanted to see.

– Brent Molnar
Excerpted from “The World Doesn’t Lie:
Why the IOC Just Confirmed Vance’s Humiliation”
via social media
February 7, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
JD Vance Booed at Winter Olympics Amid Anti-ICE Protests – Katie Herchenroeder (Mother Jones, January 7, 2026).
The World Heard JD Vance Being Booed at the Olympics. Except for Viewers in the U.S. – Bryan Armen Graham (The Guardian, January 7, 2026).
IOC Responds to Booing of JD Vance and Israeli Athletes at Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony – Flo Clifford (The Independent, January 7, 2026).

A Gift for the Soul

The following hour-long piece of ambient music was created by YouTuber HIGHWIND for those times when one “needs a break from this world.”

Notes HIGHWIND: “My number one goal is to help you feel a little lighter, to ease the weight of your day. I hope life is treating you kindly and that you remember to treat yourself the same way.”

Also, it is heartening to know that “no A.I. was used” to make this piece of music, described as “a gift for the soul” by one YouTube listener. Indeed!





See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• And Sweetest – in the Gale – Is Heard
• A Renewed Mind
• Stepping Out of Time and Resting Your Mind
• Resilience and Hope
• Like a Lotus Flower
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Clarity and Hope
• A Day of Renewal
• A Sacred Pause
• In This In-Between Time
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Winter Sunset
• Photo of the Day – March 7, 2024
• Photo of the Day – February 26, 2022
• Photo of the Day – December 3, 2021
• Photo of the Day – January 14, 2021
• “Everything Is Saturated With the Sacred”
• Cosmic Connection

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”

There is one revelation of the overarching Epstein scandal that mostly goes unsaid. It surely cannot exit the lips of the corporate media titans who sold their souls to their yachts and their three uninhabited houses long ago. It also can’t be spoken by the independent media talking heads who have even the slightest, hair-thin allegiance to the Republicans or the Democrats or capitalism or perhaps even the patriarchy. And the grotesque revelation I speak of is barely whispered by even the independent media bravely holding the space outside the corrupt two-party system.

That revelation is this: The Epstein scandal is not just about Jeffrey Epstein.

It’s not just about the rich and powerful people deeply involved with him – Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Ehud Barak, [the former] Prince Andrew, Howard Lutnick, JP Morgan Chase, Jes Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, etc. etc. etc.

It’s not just about the national intelligence groups that were clearly involved – the CIA, the Mossad, etc.

It’s not just about the “justice” system that allowed Epstein to get away with this for decades.

The piece of this scandal that remains nearly unsaid is what it reveals about capitalism.

The Epstein story isn’t new, unique, or unusual. In fact, sex trafficking, blackmail, extortion, and grotesque criminality by the ruling elite is commonplace. Not only is it commonplace, but 99% of the time, it remains completely and utterly unpunished and unpublished. Many people believe this reveals that great power corrupts – becoming a billionaire or a high-level politician or a top businessman warps the mind and melts the moral core.

But in fact, that analysis has the causality backwards. It’s not that power corrupted these disgusting men (and a few women). It’s that capitalism is a socio-economic system in which the sociopaths rise to the top – reliably and undeniably. There are other systems in which this would not be the case. But in capitalism, those individuals who have no concern for the victims of their actions are the ones who take control, holding the highest spots and raking in the most cash.

Their victims (human and non) are myriad – poor people, young women, elderly people, misinformed people, people in developing countries, wildlife, the air, the future, trees, rivers, dugongs, fucking spotted owls. . . . The list doesn’t end.

I’m not saying every sociopath is a billionaire or big-time CEO. But I am saying that nearly every billionaire or big-time CEO is a sociopath. And once a sociopath has that level of power, no crime seems unacceptable. Why would it? Laws do not apply to them.

Laws – in our capitalist society – are mostly designed for people who don’t have the money or power to get away with breaking them.

The Epstein scandal has revealed the revolting depravity of the upper echelons of the ruling elite. But it’s not a matter of corruption. It’s a matter of a system that rewards people with no concern for humanity, no concern for others.

Those people are handed the golden keys and told “do your worst.”

We must evolve to a system that puts humanity first, not money or power. Until that happens, the castle on the hill will always be filled with Jeffrey Epsteins.

– Lee Camp
“The One Epstein Revelation That Can’t Be Spoken”
Lee Camp – Truth and Freedom
February 5, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Epstein Files Show How Powerful Men Protect Each Other: An Interview with Helen Rumbelow – Times News (February 4, 2026).
What the Epstein Documents Reveal About Power in America: An Interview with Anand Giridharadas – Real Patriotism with Terry Moran (February 4, 2026).
It’s So Much Bigger Than Epstein – Anand Giridharadas (The Ink, February 2, 2026).
“Billionaire Boys Club”: What the Latest Epstein Files Reveal About Elite Impunity – Democracy Now! (February 2, 2026).
How Epstein Helped Ruin Gaming and Engineered the Modern Online Reactionary Movement – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, February 4, 2026).
Why Is the Media Not Touching Jeffrey Epstein’s Clear Connection to Israel? – Prem Thakker (Zeteo, February 5, 2026).
Stop Calling Epstein’s Youngest Victims Underage – They Were Children – Sophie Heawood (The Independent, February 3, 2026).
From Epstein to Gaza: The Depravity of the Western Elite Is Now Fully Exposed – Soumaya Ghannoushi (Middle East Eye, February 3, 2026).

UPDATES: Epstein’s Israel Links and Everything Else Ignored by Mainstream Media – Al Jazeera (February 7, 2026).
Trump, Epstein and the Decline of American Democracy: An Interview with Chris Hedges – Marc Lamont Hill (Upfront, February 7, 2026).