Jon Stewart Explains Why His Name Is in the Epstein Files: ‘This Is Actually True’

Jon Stewart Courtesy of Comedy Central

Trump’s name, of course, was also in the files with “thousands of mentions"

 

By Emily Zemler

Rolling Stone

February 3, 2026 

Jon Stewart delved into the newly released batch of Jeffrey Epstein files on the latest episode of The Daily Show, noting that it feels like this has already happened.

“Yup, it’s Groundhog Day,” Stewart said. “We call it Groundhog Day because this is the day when Donald Trump sees Epstein’s shadow, and we get six more weeks of not knowing who any of the co-conspirators are in this multinational sex trafficking case. And, also, because Punxsutawney Phil is all over the files.”

He added, “The point I’m trying to make is the Epstein files thing? We’ve been through this before.” Stewart then playing several news clips that wondered whether the documents would “break MAGA.”

“The chances of this breaking MAGA are actually worse than Trump just lowering the age of consent to be done with the whole fucking thing,” Stewart added. “Which is not to say there isn’t awful shit in this new Epstein dump.”

The late-night host recounted some of the names in the new files, including Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Brett Ratner, Prince Andrew, and Richard Branson. Trump’s name, of course, was also in the files with “thousands of mentions.” Stewart admitted that he himself is in the files.

“This is actually true,” he said before explaining why. “I take you to the scene. It is midnight. Aug. 29, 2015. Jeffrey Epstein lies wide awake, his mind turning with ideas. He jots a quick note to a producer named Barry Josephson, saying, ‘I suggested to Woody [Allen]’ — y’all know which Woody, right? It’s the Epstein files, it ain’t Harrelson, or the cowboy from Toy Story. You know which one — quote: ‘I suggested to Woody that he do an exclusive new stand-up routine for either Apple TV or Amazon.’”

He continued, “Oh, Jeffrey Epstein always had his finger on the pulse of what America was clamoring for in 2015. But Barry Josephson, thinking like the out-of-the-box television professional that he was, pitched this idea. This is true, quote: ‘Make a true biographical experience with his stand-up being the capper. Somebody like Jon Stewart could host/narrate the biographical part.’”

Stewart added, “Excuse me? I am offended. Somebody like Jon Stewart, or Jon Stewart? My point is, do I have the offer, or is this an audition?”

Despite the breadth of new information, Stewart reminded there are still many more files yet to be released. “Look, man, we always knew that the people at DOJ releasing these documents weren’t on a fact-finding mission; they were running interference,” he noted. “And the guy they’re running interference for seems very satisfied with these results.”

Stewart concluded his monologue by comparing the lack of legal accountability for those named in the Epstein files and Trump’s current ICE takeover. Despite all of the information about notable public figures in the files, there is nothing that could lead to a prosecution.

“Nothing has happened to any of them,” Stewart said. “Oh, except Prince Andrew … I’m just not sure anybody is going to be held accountable for any of this.”

 He continued, “After watching the politically well-connected skirt any form of legal accountability for horrible fucking crimes, it seems pretty clear to me that there is a sanctuary city in this country,” Stewart said. “But guess what, this kid don’t live in it. 

The real sanctuary city is where money and power protect you from the consequences of sex trafficking, or influence peddling, or taking half a billion dollars and giving away America’s AI infrastructure. Not the small Midwestern city where trying to help a lady get up after she gets maced gets you shot in the back of the fucking head.”

Trump Child Abuse Allegations Disappear From Epstein Files

 

Document includes claim that a girl bit the president while performing oral sex on him decades ago, which the DoJ fiercely denies  

 

 

Benedict Smith / Telegraph UK

01 february 26  

ALSO SEE: Donald Trump Allegations in New Epstein Files Release: Read in Full

Sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump disappeared from the Epstein files within hours of them being published.

Over three million pages of Epstein files were published by the department of justice (DoJ) on Friday.

One document contains a series of uncorroborated tips about Mr Trump collated by the FBI in August last year, including claims that a 13- or 14-year-old girl was forced to perform oral sex on the president decades ago.

It is unclear how much weight the bureau attached to the tips, which are unverified and have been fiercely denied by the White House.

In a statement published in tandem with the Epstein files on Friday, the DoJ warned: “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.

“To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised against President Trump already.”

The White House released the same statement.

Document down ’due to overload’

The file was later restored and the DoJ told The Telegraph: “This document was down due to overload and is back online.”

The lurid claims about Mr Trump received a substantial amount of attention on social media before they disappeared from the DoJ website.

Todd Blanche, the deputy US attorney general, admitted that the team tasked with reviewing the documents would inevitably have made mistakes and would “immediately correct any redaction errors”.

According to the document, the FBI received an uncorroborated tip that a 13- or 14-year-old girl was forced to perform oral sex on Mr Trump more than three decades previously in New Jersey.

The claim was made by an “unidentified female friend” of the alleged victim.

According to the complaint, the girl claimed she bit Mr Trump while performing the sex act, and was “allegedly hit in the face after she laughed” about it.

The FBI recorded that its Washington office was directed to conduct an interview with the witness, but does not clarify whether this took place.

There is no indication the bureau, which receives a huge volume of uncorroborated tips from the public, attached any weight to the claim.

Other allegations include graphic details of so called “orgy parties” that the president is accused by an unknown person of taking part in.

It is unclear when the allegation was made or why, months after Mr Trump returned to office, the FBI decided to compile a list of claims made against the president in connection with Epstein.

The tips were included in emails sent from the FBI’s New York field office to its child exploitation and human trafficking taskforce.

Many of the accusations resulted in officials trying, and failing, to make contact with the accusers. One individual who was spoken to was “deemed not credible”.

The White House warned the Epstein files “may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos” because the administration had turned over “everything that was sent to the FBI by the public”.

In a tranche of the files released on Dec 19, an image of Epstein’s desk displaying a photo of Mr Trump surrounded by women was published, deleted by the justice department, and then reuploaded following an outcry.

Mr Blanche denied at the time that Mr Trump had intervened to censor the picture of himself, and pledged that every photo of the president in the Epstein files would be released.

The deputy attorney general, who previously acted as the president’s lawyer, sought to shield Mr Trump from any suggestion of wrongdoing when he announced the release of the files on Friday.

Epstein had never suggested Mr Trump did “anything criminal or had any inappropriate contact with any of his victims”, he told Fox News in an interview.

In a press conference, he also pushed back on claims the justice department had broken the law by delaying the release of the files to protect the president, claiming the documents reviewed by the team were the size of “two Eiffel Towers”.

Democrats have claimed the administration is still suppressing the full Epstein files, noting Mr Blanche said the justice department had reviewed six million documents but released half that number.

Other high-profile figures also feature in the latest release, including Bill Gates, whom Epstein claimed caught a sexually transmitted disease after sleeping with Russian women, Elon Musk, who allegedly planned to visit Epstein’s island, and Lord Mandelson, whose husband was allegedly paid £10,000 by Epstein.

They all deny wrongdoing.

Innocent journalists arrested as Trump team sets fire to First Amendment

  

Don Lemon is one of the journalists arrested by federal agents for covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota.

Trump mocks victimized reporters in official White House X account post

by Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Friday, January 30, 2026 at 9:00:17a MST

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Independent journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, was arrested by federal agents Thursday night for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota, making him a target in President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to shut down free speech.

Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas at protesters after the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles, where he was covering the upcoming Grammy Awards.

In a statement, Lowell said that Lemon’s arrest was an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and a “transparent attempt” by the Trump administration to distract from the crises that the country is facing.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” he added.

Lemon clearly identifies himself as a reporter in a video of the Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, noting, “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.”

Similarly, Minnesota-based independent journalist Georgia Fort, who also covered the protest, has reportedly been arrested.

“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media. We are supposed to have our constitutional right—freedom to film, to be a member of the press,” Fort said in a live stream Friday morning.

“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest,” she added.

A federal magistrate judge already shut down a previous attempt by the Department of Justice to press charges against Lemon.

“The government lumps all eight protestors together and says things that are true of some but not all of them. Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so,” Judge Patrick Schultz wrote in a letter.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina.

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas slammed the arrest.

“Are you F-ing KIDDING ME?! [Lemon] has been arrested by the DOJ?! Exercising your first amendment constitutionally “protected” right gets you locked up, exercising your 2nd gets you killed, and actual murder… well in uniform, gets you nothing! This IS NOT NORMAL nor OK!” she wrote on Bluesky.

And Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California called Lemon’s arrest “a blatant assault on our First Amendment rights.” 

Time and again, the Trump Administration pursues its own political enemies over real justice,” he wrote on Bluesky.

Meanwhile, the official White House X account shared a photo of Lemon to announce his arrest. 

“When life gives you lemons …” the post reads, along with an emoji of chains.

The arrests of Lemon and Fort are part of a serial pattern of Trump attacking free speech, which is protected by the Constitution.

The administration has gone after small businesses for dissenting, attempted to purge late-night talk show hosts for mocking Trump, raided the home of a reporter for reporting on the administration, and shook down media companies for producing coverage skeptical of the administration.

Much of the mainstream media recently parroted the administration’s spin that Trump was changing his authoritarian “tone” in Minnesota, but these arrests prove that—as expected—that was never the case.

 

Or better yet, we all need to stand up and say, "NO!"  Yes, even you.  This is getting more ominous by the minute.

New TikTok Owners Censoring anything anti-Trump

PARTNERS IN PEDOPHILIA: A statue depicting President Donald Trump, left, and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands stands at sundown on the National Mall with the U.S. Capitol in the background on Oct. 2, 2025.

 

Trump is turning us into a second-rate Russia complete with state-run media 

by Alix Breeden

Daily Kos Staff 

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 4:00:05p MST 

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

It didn’t take long for things to get weird after TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, handed the app’s U.S. reins over to a slate of American investors approved by President Donald Trump. 

In the days after the hand-off was made last Thursday, many users reported their posts were stuck at zero views if they included specific words like “ICE,” “Israel,” “Trump,” or “Jeffrey Epstein.”

At first, TikTok officials tried to quell conspiracies by announcing that the platform’s data center was experiencing an unfortunate “weather-related power outage.”

PARTNERS IN PEDOPHILIA: Sarah Baus, left, of Charleston, S.C., and Tiffany Cianci, who says she is a "long-form educational content creator," livestream to TikTok outside the Supreme Court, on Jan. 10, 2025.

But users claimed that their direct messages were also being blocked if they included mention of convicted sex abuser Epstein—a once-dear friend of Trump’s. TikTok also denied any moves to block messages. 

TikTok’s new controlling board is consistently pro-Trump. Billionaire Larry Ellison’s cloud computing company, Oracle, is a player. Investment firm MGX, founded by a member of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family, is also on the board. 

MGX has been involved in a handful of cryptocurrency deals that were lucrative for the Trump family, including one that funneled $2 billion through the Trump-owned trading platform World Liberty Financial. Other Trump allies, like Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell and Jeff Yass—a multibillionaire MAGA donor who also chipped in on Trump's vanity ballroom—also have a presence on the board.

Whether it’s a matter of the new owners covering for their powerful pal or just a really big fumble after taking over, the timing is uncanny. 

It wasn’t lost on Democrats that the social media blackout occurred in the crucial hours following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by Border Patrol agents. 

During that time, influencers, civilians, and lawmakers could not share videos and information on the senseless death and its aftermath. 

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is running for Congress in California, posted to X over the weekend that TikTok had become “state-controlled media” after the U.S. takeover.

“This morning I posted a TikTok about my legislation allowing people to sue ICE agents. It's sitting at zero views, and I'm not the only person this is happening to,” he wrote.

Multiple left-leaning accounts with large followings reported similar issues of zero or significantly impacted views. 

The timing of TikTok’s alleged technical difficulties—and who is being impacted—has caught the attention of other lawmakers, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom said Monday night via X. “I am launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content.”

According to CNN, Newsom’s press office said it received “independently confirmed instances” in which content that was “critical of” President Trump was “suppressed.”

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut also said he was launching an investigation.

“It’s interesting to me that on the same weekend TikTok was taken over by a bunch of Trump-aligned billionaires, we saw some pretty massive censoring of anti-Trump content,” Murphy told NOTUS. “I don’t know that those two things are connected, but I think it’s really important for us to be vigilant.”

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Related | CBS News disgraces itself as parent company bends to Trump

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With the Department of Justice’s continued delay on releasing the Epstein files and Trump’s continued attacks on media outlets critical of him, it’s possible the shoe fits. 

Media falls for Trump's supposed ‘tone’ switch on Minneapolis occupation

 

Demonstrators holds signs during a protest outside the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Jan. 26 in Minneapolis, after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer over the weekend. 

 

Video evidence shows Noem and Trump claims about Alex Pretti's violent intentions are blatant lies. 

 

by Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 2:00:04p MST

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Mainstream media outlets are uncritically reporting on a purported shift in “tone” by the Trump administration following the disastrous deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Minnesota.

But this reporting ignores the reality of President Donald Trump and his underlings creating a hostile atmosphere in the state and Trump’s longtime embrace of law enforcement abuse and brutality.

The mainstream press on Monday seemed to speak in unison about the alleged tone shift:

• Washington Post: “Trump softens tone on Minneapolis violence amid calls for accountability”
• NBC: “Trump strikes a positive tone on Tim Walz after phone call with the Minnesota governor”
• Semafor: “Trump softens tone on Minneapolis shooting”
• CNBC: “White House eases tone on Pretti killing”

These headlines come as the administration is in apparent retreat in Minnesota, following grassroots resistance to ICE and other agencies being deployed there for a chaotic immigration crackdown. ICE and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two civilians while also causing chaos on the streets while harassing children, observers, and others.

---

Related | Why Trump is finally waving a white flag in Minnesota

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But the administration’s pullback doesn’t change the main thrust of Trump’s policies and actions: pursuing a mass deportation campaign targeting people because of their race and ethnicity. The mainstream coverage is ignoring or minimizing this reality, even though it is the driving force behind everything that has occurred.

The administration was so invested in pursuing this mission that in the immediate aftermath of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti being killed by federal law enforcement agents, figures like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller falsely labeled him a “domestic terrorist.” They claimed Pretti posed a threat to federal agents and that he was out to “massacre” them when video evidence showed this was a clear lie.

Trump himself issued a series of ransom demands to Minnesota officials as the shootings occurred, and in the immediate aftermath of the shooting death of Minneapolis mother Renee God, Trump justified the execution and mocked residents for their anger.

This was done to advance Trump’s cruel and racist agenda, and while the administration is trying to back away from the resulting fallout, the fundamentals have not changed. Characterizing the administration’s spin as a legitimate softening of tone ignores the current situation and Trump’s track record.

For instance, in a 2017 speech to police officers Trump encouraged them not to protect suspects from hitting their heads on the roof of police vehicles as they were arrested. 

“You can take the hand off,” Trump said. Trump has always held on to this view and Minnesota was just the latest chapter in his hateful book.

Despite more than a decade of covering Trump as a political figure, mainstream media outlets continue to fall for his spin—hook, line, and sinker. This naivete doesn’t help their audiences to understand the world around them, and it contributes to right-wing disinformation efforts.disinformation efforts.

An Urgent Message to Every American

 At one end of the spectrum, ICE goons at work. 

"Don’t light a candle and think it substitutes for showing up."

 

By Matt Moberg 

Chaplain of the Minnesota Timberwolves:

 

(Matt Moberg is a husband and father of three young boys. He also serves as a pastor at The Table, a church in south Minneapolis, and as co-chaplain for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is also a musician and a self-taught artist.)  

 

“If you’re a church posting

prayers for peace and unity today

while my city bleeds in the street,

miss me with that softness you only wear when it costs you nothing.

 

Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness.

Don’t call silence “peacemaking.”

Don’t light a candle and think it substitutes for showing up.

 

Tonight an ICE agent took a photo of me next to my car, 

looked me in the eye and told me, “We’ll be seeing you soon.”

 

Not metaphor.

Not hyperbole.

A threat dressed up in a badge and a paycheck.

 

Peace isn’t what you ask for

when the boot is already on someone’s neck.

Peace is what the powerful ask for

when they don’t want to be interrupted.

 

Unity isn’t neutral.

Unity that refuses to name violence

is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons.

 

Stop using scripture like chloroform.

Stop calling your fear “wisdom.”

Stop pretending Jesus was crucified

because he preached good vibes and personal growth.

 

You don’t get to quote scripture like a lullaby

while injustice stays wide awake. 

You don’t get to ask God to “heal the land”

if you won’t even look at the wound.

 

There is a kind of peace that only exists

because it refuses to tell the truth. 

That peace is a lie.

And lies don’t grow anything worth saving.

 

The scriptures you love weren’t written to keep things calm. 

They were written to set things right.

And sometimes the most faithful thing you can do

is stop praying around the pain and start standing inside it.

 

If that makes you uncomfortable - good.”

 

[Original from the author found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTPD3TpDCht/?igsh=MW9qdzZzM2cwMHFwZg==]

 

 At the other end of the spectrum, Matt Moberg at work.

The Subtext of Trump’s Batshit Speech in Davos

 

Little man-child with a little brain and little hands makes a little fist.  How about that lopsided double chin?  The man-child is way too old to be president.

The president’s walkback of his demands for "Iceland" (aka Greenland) were bracketed by more belligerence and bombast. 

 

Alex Shephard / The New Republic / 22 January 26

 

It feels odd to describe a speech as “good news” when it involves the president of the United States rambling incessantly and threatening America’s European allies. But, taken one way, Donald Trump’s stark raving mad speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday was good news.

A day earlier, the stock markets had tumbled, for two related reasons. One was that Trump continued to escalate his threats to seize Greenland by military force, a move that would almost certainly mean the end of the NATO alliance. The second was that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—whose country has long been one of America’s closest allies, if not its closest—gave a rousing speech at Davos about the need for a new global order without the U.S. as its leader.

“I will talk today about the breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint,” he said. “Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” He later added, “The middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

This was a potential inflection point. The United States was at risk of losing its hegemonic position in the West, for what may be the dumbest imaginable reason: Trump wants Greenland because it looks very big on a map, and perhaps because the U.S. once temporarily protected it.

Trump’s speech was demented. There were several moments when he talked up American military supremacy in a way that was clearly meant to intimidate those who stood between him and the frozen Danish territory in the North Atlantic. 

But the speech also was the beginning of a walkback that would continue throughout the day. Trump may have saber-rattled, reminding Europe of America’s big battleships and superior armed forces, but he also pledged not to use the American military to attack Greenland.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” he said. “OK, now everyone’s saying, ‘Oh good.’ That’s probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”

He was right: That was the biggest statement, at least as far as the major news organizations were concerned, as they blasted out breaking-news alerts declaring that Trump promised not to take Greenland by military force—though generally failed to acknowledge the very long history of Trump breaking his supposed promises.

Anyway, later in the day, Trump took an even bigger step back, releasing a statement that more or less said he was forgetting about acquiring the island for the time being and dropping his threat to slap 10 percent tariffs on Europe in retaliation for opposing his demands for Greenland.

“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” he posted on Truth Social. “This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st. Additional discussions are being held concerning The Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland.”

The stock markets stabilized. Those headlines about Trump promising not to invade Greenland, which understandably irked people given the missing context, seemed to have gotten it right. Yes, the speech was crazy. But it was a crazy speech that marked the start of our crazy president walking back one of his many crazy missteps—for now.

As far as wind-downs go, few have been more Trumpian. He mocked NATO repeatedly and told the visiting dignitaries that they would be “speaking German” if it wasn’t for the United States. (For all the video evidence of Trump’s cognitive decline, the best evidence comes in moments like these—he just isn’t as clever as he was five, or especially 10, years ago.) He still huffed and puffed, talking up the U.S. military in a way that was obviously meant to be intimidating: I’m ruling out invading Greenland now, but if I didn’t, you’d be in real trouble.

“We want a piece of ice for world protection and they won’t give it,” Trump whined later in his speech on Wednesday. “We’ve never asked for anything else … so they have a choice: You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no—and we will remember.”

For Trump, losing always requires these bombastic efforts, which are seemingly deployed only to protect his own frail psychology. But make no mistake, Trump backed down because he had to. 

Though investors have been unfazed by Trump’s belligerence for months, they recognized that an invasion of Greenland—a rather serious and, after the Venezuela invasion, believable threat—would destroy the current international order, causing economic devastation. Trump’s speech was largely aimed at these investors, who are the people who really shackled him. Which is why he was so hostile toward everyone else.

To put it in Axios-ese: Trump touched the hot stove and got burned. But that analogy only goes so far. Children learn from their burns; Trump never does. His face-saving Truth Social statement was by no means definitive. Whether this “future deal” comes to pass is anyone’s guess. But if it does, it will certainly not involve the U.S. owning Greenland, which means this issue will likely flare up again. (For the record, it already did once before, when Trump began his second term by declaring that acquiring Greenland was one of his primary goals.)

This is obviously not a tenable way to conduct American foreign policy, but it’s how America conducts foreign policy under Trump. There’s no changing it. Our allies, meanwhile, are living in the world Carney outlined a day earlier. “The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it,” he said. “Nostalgia is not a strategy.” Their emerging strategy seems to be to band together and concoct ways to mollify the temperamental nincompoop who’s running America.

"Damn the bone spurs.  Full torpedoes ahead."  He ducked military service, but he doesn't hesitate to send those who didn't into harms way to feed his own ego.