Turning Points
By 
The wheels seem to be coming off the release of the Epstein files. Files are appearing online and then disappearing, but individuals and organizations are downloading them as they appear. Redactions were done incompetently, and the material can be read. Ineffectual pleas to ignore the bad stuff are being issued. With the ability to read through the redactions, there will be more to come.
It’s easy and satisfying to observe that the administration’s ambitions toward autocracy are, once again, being thwarted by their incompetence. It’s useful, though, to look at where things might have gone differently and the whole mess avoided.
1. Donald Trump could have not made friends with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, or dropped him when he went into pedophilia.
2. The Republican Party, and Trump, could have called out the QAnon mania as ridiculous and potentially harmful. If they didn’t do it early, they could have done it when that guy attacked the pizza parlor.
3. During Epstein’s first prosecution for child sexual abuse, Trump and others could have unambiguously rejected him and made files available. And what’s with Alex Acosta, who was in Trump’s first cabinet, anyway?
4. Ghislaine Maxwell’s prosecution was another opportunity, as was Epstein’s second prosecution. But by then the guilt was piling up, as were the documents.
The first two turning points were critical. They are also a warning to Democrats who would have the party act more like the opposition.