Friday Flashpoint: Zorro, the Will, and the Baron
February 6 AD 2026
The Ranch
The United States has been transfixed by the question of who visited Jeffery Epstein’s island and when they did so. However, less attention has been paid to the Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, an over 7,000-acre property owned by the sex-trafficker enslaver, assaulter and blackmailer who died in 2019. Epstein appears to have owned the ranch for two decades, and the goings on there appear to have involved plans for forced eugenics experiments, assault and forced impregnation. There are possible links to Epstein’s racism and purported belief in Jewish supremacy and a desire to “seed the world.” New Mexico state Representative Andrea Romero, a Democrat representing Santa Fe, is proposing that a state commission directly investigate the Zorro Ranch. Numerous allegations have been made by survivors that abuse took place at the ranch as early as the 1990s. State Representative Marianna Anaya of Albuquerque, also a Democrat, has joined Romero in statements that the Zorro Ranch has not been properly investigated and New Mexico must take the lead and do it. If they get their wish, then answers and justice in America will depend on the thoroughness and courage of the New Mexican investigators.
The Will
Jeffery Epstein’s estate reveals that 43 individuals are named to inherit part of the criminal fortune. The will, which is available through the United States Department of Justice is raising eyebrows as the names of beneficiaries are investigated. The url to the pdf file of the will is below in the receipts.
The UK Government on the Brink
Across the pond the government led by Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, who was the former Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, is facing scrutiny and parliamentary rebellion. It was revealed that the British security services warned the prime minister that Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, remained in close contact and association with Jeffery Epstein after the Epstein’s conviction for child prostitution in 2008. Starmer was told this before he appointed Lord Mandelson as UK Ambassador to the United States.
Lord Mandelson is now accused of betraying British government secrets, by leaking to Epstein the plans for how the government of then UK Prime Minister James Gordon Brown, intended to deal with the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis. Allegedly this included British asset sales and tax plans, all of which would have given Epstein intel for how to profit off the UK. It is theorized by some that this sort of insider financial espionage, along with blackmail, is how Epstein made his money.
Association with Epstein and his crimes has already brought down Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal status by his older brother, His Majesty King Charles III. Mandelson has now resigned from the House of Peers (the Lords) and Starmer has promised to bring forth legislation to strip Mandelson of his title as a baron after consulting with the king. The king also banished Mandelson from the Privy Council.
In an intense and expert dissection during Prime Minister’s Questions, the Leader of the Opposition, Conservative MP, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke “Kemi” Badenoch forced Starmer to admit that he knew about the continued relationship between Epstein and Mandelson. Badenoch pressed Starmer on what appears by some to be an attempt to control what documents he must release regarding the Mandelson appointment scandal and whether the PM will fire his chief of staff, Morgan James McSweeney, who advocated for the Mandelson appointment and has been called a protege of Mandelson. The next week may determine the survival of the Starmer government. But, if the king acted against his own brother, it would be strange if Labour shrank from firing their leader.
Will they take this scandal with them into the next UK elections when they are already down in the polls? Either way, the Epstein scandal’s 2026 eruption is only just beginning.
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