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Twenty years after Jeffrey Epstein was exposed for his child sex abuse enterprise, the Justice Department this week made a startling revelation. Rather than the “dozens” of victims previously alleged by the government and media, Justice now says that there were “over one thousand” victims.

Everyone is talking about Epstein again, from MAGA types furious that the Trump administration is not producing a supposed client list, to the mainstream media, which is giddily mocking just about anyone critical of the Justice Department here as conspiracy theorists.

One person who doesn’t want to talk about it is Donald Trump, who told New York Magazine in 2002 that his buddy Epstein was a “fun” guy who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Seldom one to shy away from blurting out whatever, when asked this week about the Epstein memo, Trump uncharacteristically changed the subject. He admonished the reporter, telling him that the question was a “desecration” to the lives lost in the Texas flood.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things — and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time? I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”  

Trump, of course, hung out with Epstein and feasted on his legendary get togethers in New York and West Palm Beach, so he probably isn’t keen on there being too much transparency here. But before this becomes a conspiracy theory itself, I note that former President Bill Clinton was also a frequent flier, especially on the Lolita Express which took prominent guests to Epstein’s private island. Those guests included financiers, billionaires, lawyers, and even a British prince.

The names of the hundreds (and now indeed possibly thousands) of johns involved — Jeffrey Epstein’s clients — have never been revealed by the government. Pam Bondi’s Justice Department evidently doesn’t have the stomach or the inclination to delve much deeper into the matter.

The new figure of over one thousand victims appears in a Trump administration’s review of FBI holdings concerning Epstein, a summary of which was released in the form of a two-page memo earlier this week.

“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” the undated and unsigned memo says.

Justice says it reviewed “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” including “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material.” 

There is no client list, Justice says in its memo; this despite Bondi herself implying in February that such a list was on her desk. (She now says she was referring to files more generally.)

There are so many explanations and unanswered questions raised by the release, which also says that there is “no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” That means that the theories alleging Epstein was operating some kind of operation to collect incriminating information for a foreign government (most notably the Israelis) has also been dismissed by the U.S. government.

Oh, and the memo says that because of this “exhaustive” search, there’s no need for Justice or the FBI to disclose anything further. This is a reversal of Trump’s promise to his voters that he would “take a look at” the Epstein case as president.

When the Justice Department indicted Epstein in 2019, it repeatedly referred to “dozens of minor girls” that he had abused. Federal prosecutors reportedly identified 36 underage victims in Florida, in line with the “dozens” described in the original federal indictment.

“Consistent with prior disclosures,” the Justice Department memo said this week, “this review confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims.” 

There was no such prior disclosure that Epstein’s victims were so numerous.

When I read the “over one thousand” phrase, I was genuinely shocked by the number, and then even more so when no one in the major media reported it. So I reached out to the FBI to ask about the discrepancy.

“The FBI declines to comment,” an unnamed Bureau official responded in email. (The Justice Department has not even responded to my request for clarification.)

There are some bizarre theories about Epstein out there, my personal favorite being the notion that Epstein never actually died in prison and that the man who did was a body double.

But you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see there’s more here than we were told before. You just have to read the Justice Department’s review carefully — which the media evidently did not.

It’s as if no one in power wants to deal with the substance of this scandal: that an industrial scale child abuse operation was taking place right under the noses of the countless household names with whom Epstein socialized. Now those same household names are ever so happy to cast the battle as a war between conspiracy nuts and the sober-minded adults, completely gliding over the obvious indictment here of the very high society of which they are a part.

What the Epstein case shows is that powerful men preying on the very young is condoned by high society, whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, an American or an Afghan warlord. And that’s why prominent people, from the government to the news media, seem to want this to go away.

As for Trump’s law enforcers and self-styled truth tellers who claim to be ending an era of politicization of the FBI and intelligence? It is entirely possible that in all the material they possess, there is no information about the johns. That’s because decades ago, they weren’t told to go after the men, or they decided not to. Either way, that’s the true cover-up, that no one was predisposed to investigate the perpetrators beyond Epstein and his staff, not in the Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden or Trump administrations.

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— Edited by William M. Arkin

The reality was far worse than he’d imagined. Now that he’s back in Santa Barbara, he can’t wait to leave again.

The post Santa Barbara Dentist James Rolfe, 85, Returns from Palestine appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

The stories of California’s indigenous populations have included very few happy endings in the last few hundred years. I learned about one such inspirational story in an L.A. Times article by Ian James.

The Yurok Tribe in northwest California recently regained some 73 square miles of habitat in a deal that took 23 years to complete. It may be the largest “LandBack” deal in California history.

The Yurok reservation was established in 1855 on a small fraction of the Yurok tribe’s ancestral lands around the Klamath River and the Pacific Coast.

Not long after, white settlers and speculators encroached by buying, bribing, and fraudulently acquiring additional lands to harvest timber, according to the Times article.

Bribery and fraud also were among the ways local Chumash lands came to be held by European immigrants.

In 1840, for example, the Chumash band living at Cieneguitas (roughly Modoc Road and Encore Avenue) was the largest remaining Chumash group.

About that time, two Chumash women were able to confirm the village’s traditional land rights through a judge. A document recording their statement was signed by the county district attorney and filed in the recorder’s office.

Legal documents did not prove sufficient.

A century later, a young UCSB historian named Gregory L. Schaaf uncovered the sordid story of Hope Ranch. Schaaf interviewed secondary sources and perused thousands of documents in Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, and at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

G. Pascal Zachary reported Schaaf’s research in a 1981 Santa Barbara News-Press article.

Schaaf found that in 1854 Thomas Hope, an Irish immigrant, was granted an unpaid position as “special” Indian agent to protect the rights of the indigenous living in the Cieneguitas area.

Hope acted in various capacities, including discouraging the practice of hiring Indians for a week of work while paying them only in “Indian rum.”

That same year, at the request of his supervisor, Hope sent a map and certificate of ownership to the federal Indian Affairs Office confirming the Chumash right to Cieneguitas. As late as 1856 more than 800 Chumash families lived in the village.
 
So far, so good. Yet, white settlers were already encroaching. One man had claimed the northern part of Cieneguitas and stolen about 900 head of cattle. A scant three years after the 1856 population count, a U.S. cavalry officer estimated only 40 Chumash remained.

Despite his position as protector, by the 1870s Hope acquired nearly all the Chumash land in the Hope Ranch area. Evidence shows he purchased some land at extremely low prices.

He paid a couple $30 for their property, for example, leasing it back to them for $20 per year. Soon, more than 100 indigenous were servants for 34 Hope Ranch families, including Hope’s.

The Yurok LandBack was accomplished by a Portland-based nonprofit called the Western Rivers Conservancy.

They cobbled together funds from foundations, corporations and philanthropists. Combined with tax credits, public grants, carbon credit sales, and state funding and efforts from California’s Wildlife Conservation Board and State Coastal Conservancy, the pool came to over $56 million.

Nelson Mathews, president of the Western Rivers Conservancy, noted, “This is the result of commitment, persistence and tenacity.”

Tribal lawyer Amy Bowers Cordalis observed that the return of the lands allows the tribe “to start rebuilding and to start taking care of our land and our resources.” She said they are committed to living in a balance with the natural world.

It would be more than courageous to picture Hope Ranch reverting to its Chumash owners any time soon.

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, however, has taken its own baby step. NOAA’s website for the new sanctuary created in December 2024 states:

“With intention and respect, a key priority for this sanctuary is to provide meaningful opportunities for interested Tribes and Indigenous community members, including individuals with knowledge of Indigenous culture, history, and environment, to participate in collaborative co-stewardship of this special place.”

Marine Sanctuary Leadership is just one of several LandBack visions of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council (NCTC), described in Anthropic’s AI, Claude. These include Diablo Canyon Land Return, land restoration projects in sustainable farming and ecosystem protection, and funding support from groups like the Coastal Conservancy.

LandBacks and sustainable earth management: there could be more happy endings in the future.

The post Karen Telleen-Lawton: LandBack Deals appeared first on Noozhawk.

In the fall, of 2024, I spent a day with the Kyvonos Detachment in the Donbas. This is a volunteer military unit made up entirely of Ukrainian troops who went over to the other side and are now fighting for Russia. Many Westerners would be surprised to learn of the existence of such a military […]

The post As Conflict in Ukraine Reaches End, Big Question Must Be Answered: What Will Happen to Ukrainian Soldiers Who Chose to Switch Sides? first appeared on CovertAction Magazine.

Some time after the events of VVVVVV, Viridian and the crew explore the depths of an unknown planet. But watch out… it might not be what you expect. – [Author’s Description]

It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these posts, but recently I played through a cool level, and thought it might be of interest to some of you still reading this blog? So here we go!

The Depths is a total conversion mod for VVVVVV that makes it all about fishing on an alien planet. It clearly started out as a joke game, and was designed to be posted on the VVVVVV discord on April 1st – which makes it all the more impressive that it’s so much better than it has to be, funny and beautiful and just bursting with charm. Highly recommended.

"This is the way," laughed the great god Pan
(Laughed while he sat by the river),
"The only way, since gods began
To make sweet music, they could succeed."
Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed,
He blew in power by the river.
— from “A Musical Instrument,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Anyone who spent time watching American television in off-peak hours for stretches of the 1980s and ‘90s likely has a handful of commercials burned forever in their memory. Few made impressions as deep as those for music collections that offered a few tantalizing seconds of songs as a rolling tracklist for the full collection rolled in the background. Most were for familiar names. But one commercial more or less introduced a name to viewers in the United States: Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute.

Zamfir, viewers were told, had “sold more than 20 million records around the world” and now they, too, could enjoy his work via the two-disc collection Zamfir Plays the World’s Most Beautiful Melodies. The spots alternated between dreamy stock footage and images of Zamfir in performance with his pan flute, “that magical instrument with the unforgettable sound.” “Relax,” the ad commands, “as Zamfir sweeps you away to a world of haunting, tranquil beauty.” Said world, we were to conclude, could best be accessed by way of pan flute-driven, easy listening music in which compositions by Mozart, Chopin played side-by-side with “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” and “The Rose.”

The collection sold well — the ads ran forever and spawned a sequel — but they’re not fully representative of Zamfir’s larger contribution to the world of music and, especially for our purposes, film.

Consider this: If you’re watching a movie and Zamfir pops up on the soundtrack, you’re probably watching a pretty great movie, most likely a masterpiece of one kind or another, even if the films to which Zamfir made contributions have little in common. Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Karate Kid, Once Upon a Time in America, and Kill Bill, Vol. 1 would not be the movies we know without Zamfir and his pan flute. And it’s through a series of quirks of history that we even know about Zamfir at all.

Gheorghe Zamfir was born near Bucharest, Romania in 1941. His father enrolled him in a music school at the age of 14 where Zamfir planned to study the accordion. Unfortunately, the accordion class was canceled before Zamfir could begin his studies. Fortunately, he caught the attention of the Romani-Romanian Fănică Luca, Romania’s foremost nai, or pan flute, virtuoso.

It’s impossible to tell the rest of Zamfir’s story without a digression about the pan flute. One of the world’s oldest instruments, it shows up in the art and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome (hence the association with Pan). But the pan flute’s origins go back further still, so far it’s hard to talk about a single origin. Variations on the pan flute, or panpipe, can be found across the globe (Zamfir was sometimes mistakenly referred to as Andean because of that region’s panpipe music) and seem to have developed independently of one another. The instrument’s simplicity helps explain this. In its most basic form, a pan flute is a series of pipes that play a single note bound together. Many cultures developed varieties of pan flutes and European pan flutes can be traced to Greece. These include the Romanian variation, the nai. The nai has had a centuries-old place in Romanian music, but waned in popularity in the 19th century.

It was the self-taught Luca who helped turn that around in the 20th century, first by taking pan flute music to the rest of Europe, the 1939 New York World’s Fair, China, Russia, and elsewhere. Luca also trained a new generation of pan flutists of which Gheorghe Zamfir became the most famous. Zamfir would become an even more high-profile ambassador via a series of concerts in Paris in 1970 that brought him to the attention of a much wider audience. Paris was also home to Vladimir Cosma, a prolific Romanian composer who’d been based in Paris since 1963. Sensing a chance to infuse his latest assignment, the Yves Robert-directed/Francis Veber co-scripted spy comedy Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe), with an unusual sound, Cosma recruited Zamfir for the project, beginning the pan flutist’s work in film.

I wanted to know more about Zamfir’s film work, so I reached out to his office. Zamfir, now 84, agreed to answer a series of questions via email. You’ll find that conversation below, accompanied by a history of Zamfir’s soundtrack contributions.

A big European hit in the 1970s (albeit one whose charms have not weathered the years well), later remade as the Tom Hanks-starring 1985 film The Man with One Red Shoe, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe further raised Zamfir’s profile. He’d again collaborate with Cosma on the 1974 sequel, The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. Cosma’s score makes good use of Zamfir as a quirky element in a bouncy score perfectly suited to a low-stakes comedy about a hapless violinist who’s unwittingly swept up in a tale of international intrigue. But it was Zamfir’s next high-profile assignment that would more fully explore the otherworldly qualities of the pan flute.

How did you first come to work with composer Vladimir Cosma? Did you come to his attention via the Paris concerts of 1970?

My collaboration with composer Vladimir Cosma began in 1972, when Cosma invited me to perform as the soloist for the film Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire. Before this, I had gained recognition in Romania and internationally, notably through my association with Swiss ethnomusicologist Marcel Cellier, who introduced me to Western audiences.

The 1970 Paris concerts were significant in my early exposure to Western audiences, but they were not the direct catalyst for my collaboration with Cosma. Instead, it was Cosma's specific interest in incorporating the pan flute into his film scores that led to our partnership.

The pan flute was not a standard element of a film score in the 1970s. How did your collaboration with Cosma work on The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe come about?

Indeed, the pan flute was not a standard element of a film score in the 1970s. The instrument set a significant milestone in both mine and Cosma's careers, introducing the Romanian pan flute (nai) to a broader Western audience.

Cosma sought to create a distinctive sound for the film, avoiding the typical spy-movie style. He chose to feature the pan flute, played by me, alongside an Eastern European cymbalum, to evoke a sense of Romanian musical heritage. Director Yves Robert and producer Alain Poiré supported Cosma's vision.

My contributions included playing traditional Romanian themes, such as the sârba and doina, which became integral to the film's score. The unique blend of instruments and melodies ultimately contributed to the film's charm and success.

My performance, my interpretation style in particular, showcased the expressive potential of the pan flute in cinematic music, leading to further opportunities in film scoring and concert performances worldwide.

Zamfir isn’t solely responsible for the soundtrack of Picnic at Hanging Rock, but his two contributions to Peter Weir’s 1975 film help set the film’s haunting, unclassifiable tone. Both “Doina: Sus Pe Culmea Dealului” and “Doina Lui Petru Unc” adapt traditional Romanian folk melodies as duets for the pan flute and organ. What does this have to do with the story of a group of turn-of-the-century Australian schoolgirls disappearing during a school outing? On the face of it, nothing. But Weir’s film brilliantly recontextualizes music that had been largely confined to Romania just a few years later to serve a story in which time and space seem to bend in disorienting, disturbing ways. Though maybe “recontextualize” isn’t exactly the right word. Zamfir’s tracks have their origins in a particular tradition but here they sound like they might be melodies as old as Pangea, The sound of Zamfir helps sweep the girls away. Whether they enter a world of haunting, tranquil beauty, remains unanswered.

Did your work with Cosma lead to your contributions to Picnic at Hanging Rock?

Director Peter Weir chose existing recordings of my performances, particularly my renditions of traditional Romanian pieces and classical adaptations, especially “Doina: Sus Pe Culmea Dealului” and “Doina Lui Petru Unc” – traditional Romanian sorrow songs, played on the pan flute, which became the film’s signature musical motif. The pan flute, with its breathy and ancient tone, evokes a sense of timelessness and natural mysticism that aligns perfectly with Weir’s themes of nature, repression, and the unknown. Picnic at Hanging Rock became a classic of Australian cinema, and my music was often credited as a key part of my pan flute's hypnotic effect.

The music's success in the film led to its release on various albums, including A Theme from Picnic at Hanging Rock (1976), which featured the same compositions and instrumentation. This piece was originally released on recordings made in collaboration with Swiss ethnomusicologist Marcel Cellier, and has nothing in common with Cosma.

If I understand correctly, Picnic at Hanging Rock uses your versions of traditional Romanian folk songs paired with just an organ. It's haunting and one of my favorite uses of music in any movie. How did that arrangement come about?

The organ's sustained chords provided a grounding counterpoint to the pan flute's melodic lines, enhancing the film's dreamlike quality. This pairing of instruments, though not originally composed for the film, became iconic in its association with Picnic at Hanging Rock. These recordings have since become cherished examples of how traditional music can transcend cultural boundaries to evoke universal emotions .

Did you know what context your music would be used for?

Absolutely. Though there was no direct collaboration between Weir and me during production, this approach helped establish a new kind of sound in film scoring—sparse, non-orchestral, and globally reaching.

I hoped that the acceptance of using my music would help define the film’s signature emotional atmosphere, and my pan flute music would be exposed to a new and [broader] public.

A collaboration with German composer and bandleader James Last, best known for his work in the easy listening sphere, “The Lonely Shepherd” became a considerable hit in much of the world before being repurposed as theme music for several TV series. The song undoubtedly didn’t sound out of place on the softer ends of the radio dial in ‘70s Europe. It also sounds like it might have been written specifically for the scene in 2003’s Kill Bill, Vol. 1 scene in which The Bride (Uma Thurman) commissions then later receives a sword from master wordsmith (Hattori Hanzō), where it underscores the sense of shared hurt and the inevitability of their interaction. These two were always going to have this moment. “The Lonely Shepherd” gives it an understated grandeur.

You had an international hit with "The Lonely Shepherd." Did its second life in film and television surprise you? Did you like the way it was used in Kill Bill?

“The Lonely Shepherd” represents the aesthetic that I became known for: evocative, haunting, and spiritual music that transcends genres and cultures. It was not a surprise for me that Quentin Tarantino used “The Lonely Shepherd” in a powerful, atmospheric sequence near the end of Kill Bill, Vo1. 1. The song is a blend of Eastern European folk, classical, and cinematic ambient music, melancholic, mystical, reflective — with a sense of solitude and timelessness. Because of that, it became a cross-cultural anthem of introspection and power. It’s a perfect example of how music, especially pan flute music’s transcendent sound, can elevate a cinematic moment into something unforgettable.

By the early 1980s, Zamfir enjoyed tremendous success as a concert and recording artist almost everywhere except the U.S., despite having a strong following just to the north in Canada, where he purchased a home. That didn’t apparently diminish his appeal to the American film industry. Zamfir worked on the score of Robert Duvall’s now impossible-to-find Angelo, My Love and his playing can be heard throughout Bill Conti’s score for The Karate Kid (and its sequels), usually in scenes concerning Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).

1984 was a big year for your movie work. How did you come to work with Bill Conti on The Karate Kid score?

In The Karate Kid, I recorded new material specifically for the film with Conti. Conti's orchestral writing and my minimalist, expressive style created a deeply resonant and emotional score. The pan flute has ancient and cross-cultural connotations — it feels both Eastern and Western, ancient yet timeless.

Our collaboration stands as a beautiful example of how film scoring can merge classical orchestration with world music traditions to enhance storytelling.

Did Conti talk about why he wanted to use a pan flute?

Conti's decision to incorporate the pan flute was driven by his appreciation for the instrument's unique timbre, aiming to evoke an 'ethereal quality' that aligns with the film's themes of wisdom and mentorship.

Zamfir’s film work included a remarkable contribution to Ennio Morricone’s score to Sergio Leone’s swan song, Once Upon a Time in America, also released in 1984. Morricone experimented with new sounds and textures throughout his career. It seems a fortunate coincidence that his work on Leone’s mournful gangster epic coincided with the peak of Zamfir’s work on movie scores. Leone had composed the music years earlier in the 1970s as Leone struggled to get the film made. The elegiac “Cockeye’s Theme” would undoubtedly work with another instrument at the fore, yet Zamfir’s almost seems to have been summoned by the sense of loss at the heart of the film. Zamfir’s film contributions would become less frequent in the years that followed, even as his name became more familiar to American viewers.

Once Upon a Time in America was also released that year. What was your collaboration with Ennio Morricone like?

In 1983 ,I was invited by Ennio Morricone and director Sergio Leone to contribute to the film's score. Reflecting on this experience in my autobiography, Binecuvântare și blestem [Blessing and Curses —ed.], I described it as "unique," noting that the pan flute's inclusion had a significant impact on the film's emotional depth. My distinctive pan flute performance added a haunting and evocative quality to the film's music, particularly in the tracks “Cockeye's Song,” one of the most famous pieces in the score, and “Childhood Memories.”

I believe Morricone wrote the score for the film years earlier. Did he always have you and the pan flute in mind or did you come in later?

The pan flute wasn't Morricone’s choice. The script writer wanted to have someone play that instrument... Morricone called me because he knew that I was a good performer on the instrument. One of the most famous pieces in the score, my version of “Amapola” that was featured on my 1985 album Atlantis, also gained audience through its inclusion in the 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America, directed by Sergio Leone, where it was arranged by Ennio Morricone.

You’ve contributed less often to films after the 1980s. Was that a conscious choice? Did your recording and performing career limit your time?

After 1980, I toured extensively around the world and was heavily involved in recording new albums. I dedicated myself to developing the instrument andintroducing it to new musical styles, because its potential was not being fully exploited.

Beyond my performance, I have contributed to music education through my instructional book Traité Du Naï Roumain: méthode de flûte de pan, fostering a new generation of pan flute musicians which are spread all over the world.

Are there any movie scores with pan flutes you like other than those to which you contributed?

I have not come into contact with the music of another composer who uses the pan flute in movies apart from Elia Cmiral [whose work includes scores for Ronin and Wrong Turn, among many other films. —ed.], a Hollywood composer, with whom I have had a very beautiful collaboration since 2018. With Elia, I recorded the soundtrack for the short film “Lacrimosa,” very awarded, and he composed, especially for me, a masterpiece for the pan flute, named Two Suites for Pan flute and Orchestra (Six Stories from an Enchanted Garden and Sinfonia Concertante for Pan Flute and Orchestra), available now on digital platforms and as a physical CD.

What would your advice be to filmmakers who wanted to use the pan flute in their movies?

I recommend that filmmakers use the divine sound of the Pan Flute to highlight the depth of landscapes, evoke positive emotions, and convey deep feelings. Feelings like love, passion, admiration, contemplation, and introspection can be easily evoked with a Pan Flute sound background. There is not a drop of negativity in the Pan Flute sound.