Comeuppance, cloaked agendas, and systemic deceptions

By Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

It’s peculiar ain’t it? Poetic better captures the rendering of inevitable justice. The celebrity-turned politician launched his appeal to a disgruntled base, his popularity rising exponentially, by persistently calling for a sitting president to release his birth certificate. There’s a reckoning at the doorstep. The Epstein intrigue won’t go away. Conservative Republicans, Democrats, the MAGA base, the American people want to know the extent to which the president is implicated in the secret client list.

The president has repeatedly tried to keep himself at arm’s length from this steamy controversy. He barely knew the man, he stated. But evidence continually surfaces that suggests otherwise. They’ve tried to put it to rest, tried to let it settle in the dust of trivial stories. But like the ‘Groundhog Day’ nightmare, it keeps resurfacing.

He kept the birther movement alive, kept it in the news, kept it in front of the nation and the president. To deny it its place as a distraction, President Obama shared his birth certificate. It quieted the cries for transparency.

The Epstein controversy is the perfect political storm. Transparency would quiet the winds of suspicion, accusations, and betrayal. It worked for Obama—but this President would refuse any appearance of likeness or affinity with the birther-president. No matter how effective the political move.

The American people, however, have become conditioned to theatrical disguises, camouflages of truth, and veils of deception. Speaker Johnson, the MAGA base, and conservative Republicans alike echo the call for transparency. Attorney General Bundi has stated that transparency is needed and forthcoming.

The President has even requested the release of the Epstein grand jury transcripts. The verbal optics are encouraging to the American people, pacifying to the MAGA base, and a curtain of illusions to the electorate—the 70 percent who have not yielded their minds to manipulative narratives. These masters of deception are well versed in the dynamics of the law. Calling for the release of the grand jury transcripts signals a commitment to transparency and suggests a willingness to let the truth be laid bare before the nation. But due to legal protections— safeguarding the identities of grand jury witnesses and preserving the integrity of prosecutorial evidence— the release will offer little in the way of meaningful revelation. It will not satisfy the mounting cries for truth. The mirror of fog is a temporary cover, one that allows for continued maneuvering and strategic deflections.

The nation, the political system, and the democratic form of governance is in a transitional face-off. A power grab is the driving force behind this change. Project 2025—the blueprint for a new conservative government— was methodically cultivated over decades. Conservative thinkers and the Heritage Foundation stealthily implemented the plan. The legislative branch and the judicial system have increasingly aligned with the ideological direction of the executive branch.

Their agenda was uncloaked with the release of the Project 2025 document in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. A segment of the American people, deluded by disinformation messaging, were ecstatic. The other 70 percent were likewise disarmed—not by enthusiasm, but by disbelief. The plan for a transformed government seemed so incredibly errant, so starkly un-American, that it could not possibly be real. This is America, the beacon of democracy, the shining city on a hill meant to represent compassion, justice, and equality of life.

But that’s how cloaked agendas and systemic deception operate: they move in mists of misdirection.