People like me, who loved, admired, etc. your piece on the "Epstein class" and posted it with admiring commentary.

Yup.

In fact, since my high-ish expectations were so much not met, I resolved to have no expectations of Adams--which worked out fine!

Very disappointed.

So I've lived in NYC--city or suburbs--all my life. We've always believed the mayor was more important than the governor, even though the mayor must depend on the governor and state legislature to support his initiatives.

Yes, and . . .

Well, remember that the NYT also has Jamelle Bouie. It bends over backwards not to be "woke', but there's still good in it.

His opinion appears (unclearly) to be, "It’s a small-p problem, because antisemitism always is, but not a big-P Problem for the conservative movement I endorse because [reasons]."

And the "victims" were just pieces on the gameboard, apparently.

Well, while these are valid questions, NYC qua city is predominant in a way that NY qua state is not. NYC mayors have often been internationally prominent figures, sometimes more so than the contemporaneous NY governors.

Call it conspiracy or not, l'Affaire Epstein need not serve as a distraction from all the other valid points Brooks made, but it must not be treated as just another shiny object that take people's attention away from "real problems".

It's real as fuck.