EDS And Its Consequences
TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a real thing. Readers know I have no use for the man, but to some people he is the embodiment of all that is wrong with the universe, and the cause of anything they do not like; and, they cannot stop writing about him.
I have noticed recently the emergence of something similar – Epstein Derangement Syndrome. This is a different kind of thing, those infected with it cannot stop writing and talking about what that man did, and what gossipy tidbits are to be found in the massive cache of files on him recently released by the Trump administration.
What put me on notice about this syndrome is that Andrew Gelman, the statistician whose blog I follow pretty closely, seems to be infected with it. At one point he posted three articles on his blog in a single week about what was in the Epstein files, mostly related to university types whose names had appeared in them. Gelman seems to really really really dislike Larry Summers, the Harvard economist, presidential advisor and former Harvard prez. Summers is in those files a lot, and Gelman takes particular glee in pointing this out.
Gelman’s manifestation of EDS had subsided for a while, but then he posted another article this last week, titled ‘More scientists in the Epstein files, including a roboticist and an ESP researcher
In his post he lists 9 scientists who apparently appear in the Epstein files, and says he got their names from a blog post on the site FancyComma LLC, an interesting name for a website.
I went and had a look at this original post, done by one Sheeva Azma, M.S. You can read it too, here.
In it Ms Azma does indeed provide quite a long list of scientists who she says are mentioned in the Epstein files. The post is titled Here’s every scientist I found in the Epstein Files
She says she spent two weeks going through these to compile this list, posted it on March 2, and writes that she will no longer update it. That was apparently not enough time to go through all the files, so her list, already long, could be longer.
I found her list, and the notes she provides about these people, quite fascinating. Before I tell you why, I should add what the FancyComma website says about Ms Azma herself:
Sheeva applies research, policy, science, marketing, and communications expertise to craft strategic messages.
Ah. A strategic message crafter. I love those folks.
In what follows below, I will underline the names of (some of) the scientists who appear on her list, then put in italics below that what Ms Azma writes about their presence in the files.
Paul Greengard
– shared Nobel Prize with Kandel in 2000
– 22 mentions in files
– donated his Nobel Prize money to support women in science, but Epstein friend Leon Black funded OCD and depression research in his lab; Ghislaine Maxwell attended a dinner with Greengard
Kandel, by the way, refers to Eric Kandel, who won that shared Nobel in neuroscience in 2000. Kandel appears on the list also.
Eric Kandel
– 86 mentions in files
– Epstein wants to get dinner with him and colleagues in the files; Kandel sat next to Epstein at a formal Columbia dinner
OMG, this man sat next to Epstein at a formal dinner where one’s seat is surely determined by a name card placed by the dinner organizer. The perfidy! And Greengard. He attended a dinner that Ghislaine Maxwell also attended. Wait, is that sentence above supposed to indicate that Ghislaine was Greengard’s date? Coulda been, right?
Azuma writes this at the beginning of her post:
Before we get to the list of scientists, I would like to clarify that not all of the scientists mentioned here were talking to Epstein. Some are just named and do not have any record of correspondence with him.
Really? Um, which ones, Sheeva?
….crickets.
More from the list
Rita Colwell
– microbiologist who was the first woman to head the NSF
– Epstein vaguely drops the phrase “no strings attached” in a text message in which he refers to her
Ok, class, who can spell ‘innuendo’ and give us a definition?
Kay Tye
– neuroscientist
– 5 mentions in files
– interviewed in the first season of Neuro.tv, which was made possible by an Epstein donation
Is that two degrees of separation from Epstein or three? Not enough to avoid being on Azuma’s list, obviously.
Epstein was a very bad man, as is DJT. Bill Maher got castigated by a writer for the NYT for committing the unpardonable sin of having dinner with Trump. Some of the people on Ms Azma’s list, gleefully publicized by Andrew Gelman on his blog, may have conspired to do terrible things with Epstein. But what we see above are people who were interviewed on a TV show Epstein funded, or at a dinner he or one of his abetters was at; a dinner that likely had 100 guests.
Character assassination by association.
And, reading this reminded me of an episode from my past which could have ended the same way for me, although I didn’t see it that way at the time.
I met a young faculty member from UWO’s Soc dept back some 15 years ago, at a lunch organized by our Dept AO. The idea was to get people from different depts together who might enjoy some fun. (I do like fun.)
This fellow, let’s call him P, and I hit it off, despite our age difference, and would have beers together at the Grad Pub and such from time to time. At some point he mentioned that he was a member of the London Club, and that I should consider joining. Another, older, friend of mine was also an LC member, so eventually those two sponsored me and I did indeed become a member. This put P and I together socially even more often.
We attended tastings at the Club, went to a black-tie fundraiser for the local hospital foundation together, and I attended a party at his place, also attended by a number of other UWO folk.
Slowly, over some time, I came to the feeling that P was not someone I wanted to hang around with. Every occasion out was to him a chance to hit on women, he really seemed to drink a lot, and then the final straw came at a dinner at the Club. His date was a very young lady, very wide-eyed and very out of place in that crowd. A student? I don’t know. Student or not, P was just not picking on someone his own size, and I found it cringey.
So, we saw less of one another. I still heard tales of his escapades at the Club, until at some point I realized that I had not seen him there or anywhere on campus for a long time. That was odd, as we worked in the same building. I checked the Soc website only to find he was no longer listed among their faculty.
Thinking he might have taken a position elsewhere, I asked a colleague from my dept what had happened to P, as I knew said colleague’s spouse was a Soc faculty member.
What I type now cannot be corroborated. I was told that P had been de-tenured. That is, he was a tenured faculty member who was fired. That is a very unusual and rare event, and if you or I were to inquire with UWO about this, they would certainly refuse to say anything. The whole proceeding leading to this firing would have been conducted behind closed doors. The (uncorroborated) reasons for P’s firing apparently were; drinking in the office, showing up to classes/meetings with alcohol on his breath, and boinking students.
Now, to be clear, there was not then (I don’t know about now) any rule against faculty-student relationships. The only rule was a very sensible one – a faculty member cannot be in a position to evaluate anyone with whom they have a personal relationship. So, my son could not have been in one of my courses when he attended UWO – something in which he had no interest in any case.
Thus, to get P fired, I have to surmise that he was boinking students from his class, or possibly grad students whose work he was supervising. The wide-eyed young lady I met as his date – who knows?
Here is the thing that occurs to me. The U did their usual excellent job of keeping all of this very very quiet. But suppose they had not? Suppose there had been a hearing at which P fought his dismissal, and called witnesses to attest to his good character, and that the U called witnesses in response. Even worse, suppose P had filed a lawsuit against UWO claiming wrongful dismissal, and witnesses had been subpoenaed by both sides.
My name could have easily come up in such proceedings, I might easily have been suppoenaed and questioned. I had been seen drinking with P at the Grad Pub often, as well as at the London Club, attended a party at his home, been his ‘wingman’ at a formal, black tie fundraising event. I doubt any photos were taken at any of those events to be posted on social media, as it happened before that became common practice. Still, we were seen together often for a good two years or so.
After hearing about P’s fate, I looked back and told myself ‘you should have figured that guy out sooner, Al’. I should have, but I did not. And, if it had all happened in 2024, say, and the U had indeed not done such a good job of keeping it quiet….who knows what folks at UWO would be writing about me, now?
Maybe someone would have put together a ‘P Files List’ by now, with my name on it.