December 23, 2025 • 14 mins
In this episode I focus on a major decision involving offshore wind projects already under construction along the East Coast and why the sudden halt has set off alarm bells well beyond the energy world.
These were not future proposals but active projects with money workers and infrastructure already in place.
I look at what this move means for jobs regional power demand and electricity costs and why states that were counting on these projects now face serious uncertainty.
The explanation offered by the Trump administration raises questions that deserve closer attention.
I also turn to the Justice Department’s release of Epstein related files and why the response has been anything but settled. After months of anticipation the release has intensified scrutiny instead of quieting it.
The issue is not just what was made public but how it was handled. Shifting redactions missing context and confusion around released materials have angered lawmakers survivors and legal observers across party lines.
I talk about why these reactions matter and what they suggest about unresolved accountability and trust in institutions that claim transparency while controlling what the public is allowed to see.
When decisions like these are made and explained this way, the effects do not end with a press cycle. They carry forward into jobs, energy costs, legal accountability, and whether the public believes the system is working for them or protecting itself.
This is A World Gone Mad. I’m Jeff Alan Wolf.
If you’d like to contribute with a small donation to my podcast before the holidays it would be appreciated.
As I’ve said multiple times, this is purely optional.
But every little donation truly helps.
here is the link:
https://ko-fi.com/aworldgonemad
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
This is a world on match.
This is a world on Mad Mad Mad.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.
This is A World Gone Mad.
Welcome to the Monday Fallout,Season 2, Episode 189, for those
of you keeping track.
Now I'm going to be doingsomething different from now
through December 31st.
Because of the holidays, 90% ofyou are not listening to any of
(00:30):
my podcast episodes in the lastmonth.
So these remaining episodes aregoing to be shorter episodes for
the rest of the year.
And the TikTok live broadcaststhat I was doing have stopped.
I'll also have a majorannouncement at the end of the
year about my podcast.
(00:52):
Also, to all the Wolfpacklisteners, I still have my
holiday fundraiser for mypodcast to help offset some of
the costs associated with doingthis podcast for two years.
My initial goal is to raise$1,500 before the holidays by
(01:12):
the end of the year.
To those of you that havecontributed, thank you.
Those few dollars are a start.
Any small amount from mylisteners truly helps.
Okay, let's get in all to allthe craziness right from Donald
and his supporters.
Here we go.
(01:33):
Over the weekend, Donald Trumpfroze every major offshore wind
farm already under constructionoff the East Coast.
Not ideas, not studies, actualprojects with steel in the
water, workers on the clock, andbillions already spent.
And the reason we're given istwo magic words Trump knows
(01:57):
people are trained not toquestion.
National security.
Say it slowly, say it vaguely,and then move on.
We were told there areclassified reports.
We're told radar might beconfused.
We're told spinning blades andreflected light could somehow
(02:20):
endanger the United States.
No specifics, no publicevidence, just trust us.
Which is always reassuring whenyou're killing thousands of jobs
and ripping the brakes off ofthe energy plans of half the
country.
Now here's the problem.
(02:40):
These projects were alreadyreviewed, already approved,
signed off on by the Departmentof Defense before construction
ever started.
For years.
The military didn't wake upMonday morning shocked to
discover wind turbines exist.
This wasn't a revelation.
This wasn't a reversal.
(03:04):
This was a complete change inthe beginning.
And reversals like this don'thappen because of new facts.
They happen because of oldgrudges.
Take Virginia, one of thelargest offshore wind projects
in the nation, is already morethan halfway built.
It was designed to feed powerinto a state drowning in energy
(03:27):
demand thanks to massive datacenters and rising electricity
costs.
This wasn't some green vanityproject.
It was math.
Supply meets demand, or at leastit was supposed to.
New England was counting onoffshore wind for an even
simpler reason.
(03:48):
Geography.
It sits at the end of thenatural gas pipeline system.
It imports fuel by ship likeit's 1924.
Electricity is expensive,infrastructure is limited.
Offshore wind was a workaroundfor a region boxed in by
reality.
And the response from theadministration is basically
(04:10):
well, have you tried getting gasfrom Pennsylvania?
As if pipelines appear when youclap hard enough.
As if shipping fuel across theocean is cheap or stable or
somehow less risky than turbinessitting quietly offshore.
What really gives us away iswho's angry about the decision.
(04:33):
Not just environmental groups,oil and gas groups, too.
Companies that drill for aliving have invested real money
in offshore wind, real contacts,real American workers.
And they're furious because thismove tures jobs, freezes capital
for no reason that they canpoint to.
(05:11):
The government knew all of thisgoing in and approved it anyway.
So let's stop pretending this isabout safety.
Donald delusional Trump hashated offshore wind for years.
He mocks it.
He rants about it.
He doesn't like how it looks.
And now that personal obsessionis being dressed up as new
(05:33):
policy.
You don't pull the rug out fromunder billions of dollars of
construction.
You don't threaten thousands ofjobs.
You don't jack up electricityprices across entire regions
because something annoys you.
That's not strategy.
That's impulse control dressedup as authority.
(05:55):
This country needs more energy,cheaper energy, reliable energy.
It doesn't need leaders likeTrump making decisions based on
vibes and grudges and whatevercable segment pissed him off
last.
When the lights flicker, whenthe bills jump, when people ask
how we ended up here, this isthe answer.
(06:21):
Alright, I want to talk aboutthe Justice Department's release
of the Epstein files.
Yay, they released the Epsteinfiles.
Sarcasm, obviously, Wolfbecklisteners, and what questions
their supposed release remain.
The Justice Department finallydumped thousands of
Epstein-related documents andphotos on Friday.
(06:41):
And after all the hype, all thebreathless buildup, all the
promises of transparency, whatwe got was a familiar feeling.
A lot of paper, a lot of blackink, and almost zero
accountability.
Yes, there were new images, yes,there were documents the public
(07:02):
had not physically seen before.
But here's the uncomfortabletruth.
None of this actually changedwhat we already knew.
Epstein was protected, powerfulpeople orbited him, and the
system had early warnings thatit chose to ignore.
Now, one of the most importantconfirmations buried in this
(07:23):
release has nothing to do withcelebrities or photos.
It's about Maria Farmer.
She went to law enforcementnearly 30 years ago.
30! And the FBI had a documentedcomplaint in the mid-1990s
describing stolen images ofunderage girls, threats, and
(07:44):
alleged child pornography.
That document sat there whileEpstein kept operating.
That is in hindsight.
That's negligence in real time.
And that's what makes thisEpstein fire release so
enraging.
Because when survivors say thesystem failed them, this release
(08:04):
doesn't refute that.
It confirms it.
In writing, with timestamps.
Now let's talk about the parteveryone clicks on.
The photos.
The Justice Department releasedimages showing Epstein alongside
with high-profile figures,including former President Bill
(08:26):
Clinton, who appears in onewidely circulated photo of him
sitting in a hot tub next to aperson whose face is redacted.
The DOJ says that redactedindividual is a victim of
Epstein's abuse.
Clinton has never been chargedor accused by law enforcement of
(08:46):
wrongdoing related to Epstein.
And the department says itsreview found no evidence to
justify investigations intouncharged third parties.
Now the problem isn't the photoexisting.
It's that it was released withalmost no context about when it
(09:06):
was taken, where it was taken,or who else was present in the
photo, leaving the public tofill in the blanks while the
government shrugs.
But if the goal was clarity,this release did the opposite.
Files appeared and thendisappeared.
An image involving Trump wasbriefly pulled, then reposted.
(09:28):
A massive grand jury report wasfirst released, completely
blacked out, then partiallyrestored.
Duplicate images show differentredaction choices.
That's not confidence inspiring.
That's sloppy.
At some point when documentsvanish, reappear, change in real
time, you stop calling itsloppiness and you start calling
(09:51):
it what it looks like.
A cover-up.
Even the Justice Departmentadmitted the process was
vulnerable to human and machineerror.
That's not something you want tohear when you're dealing with
victims of sexual abuse anddecades of institutional
failure.
Lawmakers from both parties arefurious, not performative
(10:14):
furious, actually furious.
Some of them went further andopenly raised impeachment as a
consequence if the JusticeDepartment continues to withhold
the Epstein files.
The law they passed required allunclassified Epstein-related
materials to be released.
Not some, not eventually all.
(10:39):
And what we got instead was apartial dump and a promise to
come back later.
To be clear about what theimpeachment talk means,
lawmakers were not threateningimpeachment of Donald Trump.
They were not naming Pam Bondieither.
The threat was aimed at JusticeDepartment leadership for
failing to comply with theEpstein Files Transparency Act.
(11:01):
Specifically, the failure torelease all unclassified
materials as the law requires.
Impeachment was raised as apressure tactic against DOJ
officials responsible forwithholding records, not against
the president himself.
Survivors are furious too.
They say redactions are extreme,inconsistent, and unexplained.
(11:26):
Some identities were protected,others weren't.
People searching for their ownhistories were forced to dig
through chaos created by thevery agency claiming to protect
them.
So here's where we actuallyland.
This wasn't disclosure of theEpstein files, it was
choreography.
The files were not fullyreleased, despite what MAGA
(11:49):
people will say online.
The law required allunclassified Epstein-related
material to be made public.
And that did not happen.
What we got was a managedpartial dump, shifting
redactions, disappearingdocuments, and a promise again
to come back later.
(12:10):
That's not transparency, that'scontrol.
The question now isn't what wasin the files, it's what's still
being protected or who.
And who decided that protectionmattered more than the law?
Because someone always does.
At some point when documentsvanish, reappear, and change in
(12:33):
real time, you stop calling itsloppiness.
And I said before, you startcalling it what it looks like.
Once again, a cover-up.
That's another episode of AWorld Gone Mad.
And before, I did say that theywere going to be shorter
episodes until the end of theyear, because a good majority of
(12:54):
you are staying away from socialmedia.
Also, just a friendly reminderto all of the Wolfpack
listeners (13:00):
I'm still looking for more support in the way of a
small donation.
Don't let that word donationscare you.
A few dollars here, a fewdollars there helps me
tremendously.
I'm hoping that some of you outthere will understand and will
also please contribute.
For two years, I've never askedanyone to pay for my podcast.
(13:25):
And I'm not doing that now.
Just asking for a littlefriendly help to allow me to get
through the rest of the year.
Thank you in advance.
This is a World Gone Man.
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.
I will be back Wednesday, yes,Christmas Eve.
I will have another episode foryou.
(13:46):
Until then, Wolfback listeners,remain skeptical, keep focused,
but most of all, stay hopeful.
unknown (13:54):
There is chaos in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (13:58):
Can't you see?
And we need to stand up andpreserve our democracy.
This is a world time.
This is a world on the day.
This is a world on match.
This is a world on Mad Mad Mad.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.
This is A World Gone Mad.
Welcome to the Monday Fallout,Season 2, Episode 189, for those
of you keeping track.
Now I'm going to be doingsomething different from now
through December 31st.
Because of the holidays, 90% ofyou are not listening to any of
(00:30):
my podcast episodes in the lastmonth.
So these remaining episodes aregoing to be shorter episodes for
the rest of the year.
And the TikTok live broadcaststhat I was doing have stopped.
I'll also have a majorannouncement at the end of the
year about my podcast.
(00:52):
Also, to all the Wolfpacklisteners, I still have my
holiday fundraiser for mypodcast to help offset some of
the costs associated with doingthis podcast for two years.
My initial goal is to raise$1,500 before the holidays by
(01:12):
the end of the year.
To those of you that havecontributed, thank you.
Those few dollars are a start.
Any small amount from mylisteners truly helps.
Okay, let's get in all to allthe craziness right from Donald
and his supporters.
Here we go.
(01:33):
Over the weekend, Donald Trumpfroze every major offshore wind
farm already under constructionoff the East Coast.
Not ideas, not studies, actualprojects with steel in the
water, workers on the clock, andbillions already spent.
And the reason we're given istwo magic words Trump knows
(01:57):
people are trained not toquestion.
National security.
Say it slowly, say it vaguely,and then move on.
We were told there areclassified reports.
We're told radar might beconfused.
We're told spinning blades andreflected light could somehow
(02:20):
endanger the United States.
No specifics, no publicevidence, just trust us.
Which is always reassuring whenyou're killing thousands of jobs
and ripping the brakes off ofthe energy plans of half the
country.
Now here's the problem.
(02:40):
These projects were alreadyreviewed, already approved,
signed off on by the Departmentof Defense before construction
ever started.
For years.
The military didn't wake upMonday morning shocked to
discover wind turbines exist.
This wasn't a revelation.
This wasn't a reversal.
(03:04):
This was a complete change inthe beginning.
And reversals like this don'thappen because of new facts.
They happen because of oldgrudges.
Take Virginia, one of thelargest offshore wind projects
in the nation, is already morethan halfway built.
It was designed to feed powerinto a state drowning in energy
(03:27):
demand thanks to massive datacenters and rising electricity
costs.
This wasn't some green vanityproject.
It was math.
Supply meets demand, or at leastit was supposed to.
New England was counting onoffshore wind for an even
simpler reason.
(03:48):
Geography.
It sits at the end of thenatural gas pipeline system.
It imports fuel by ship likeit's 1924.
Electricity is expensive,infrastructure is limited.
Offshore wind was a workaroundfor a region boxed in by
reality.
And the response from theadministration is basically
(04:10):
well, have you tried getting gasfrom Pennsylvania?
As if pipelines appear when youclap hard enough.
As if shipping fuel across theocean is cheap or stable or
somehow less risky than turbinessitting quietly offshore.
What really gives us away iswho's angry about the decision.
(04:33):
Not just environmental groups,oil and gas groups, too.
Companies that drill for aliving have invested real money
in offshore wind, real contacts,real American workers.
And they're furious because thismove tures jobs, freezes capital
for no reason that they canpoint to.
(05:11):
The government knew all of thisgoing in and approved it anyway.
So let's stop pretending this isabout safety.
Donald delusional Trump hashated offshore wind for years.
He mocks it.
He rants about it.
He doesn't like how it looks.
And now that personal obsessionis being dressed up as new
(05:33):
policy.
You don't pull the rug out fromunder billions of dollars of
construction.
You don't threaten thousands ofjobs.
You don't jack up electricityprices across entire regions
because something annoys you.
That's not strategy.
That's impulse control dressedup as authority.
(05:55):
This country needs more energy,cheaper energy, reliable energy.
It doesn't need leaders likeTrump making decisions based on
vibes and grudges and whatevercable segment pissed him off
last.
When the lights flicker, whenthe bills jump, when people ask
how we ended up here, this isthe answer.
(06:21):
Alright, I want to talk aboutthe Justice Department's release
of the Epstein files.
Yay, they released the Epsteinfiles.
Sarcasm, obviously, Wolfbecklisteners, and what questions
their supposed release remain.
The Justice Department finallydumped thousands of
Epstein-related documents andphotos on Friday.
(06:41):
And after all the hype, all thebreathless buildup, all the
promises of transparency, whatwe got was a familiar feeling.
A lot of paper, a lot of blackink, and almost zero
accountability.
Yes, there were new images, yes,there were documents the public
(07:02):
had not physically seen before.
But here's the uncomfortabletruth.
None of this actually changedwhat we already knew.
Epstein was protected, powerfulpeople orbited him, and the
system had early warnings thatit chose to ignore.
Now, one of the most importantconfirmations buried in this
(07:23):
release has nothing to do withcelebrities or photos.
It's about Maria Farmer.
She went to law enforcementnearly 30 years ago.
30! And the FBI had a documentedcomplaint in the mid-1990s
describing stolen images ofunderage girls, threats, and
(07:44):
alleged child pornography.
That document sat there whileEpstein kept operating.
That is in hindsight.
That's negligence in real time.
And that's what makes thisEpstein fire release so
enraging.
Because when survivors say thesystem failed them, this release
(08:04):
doesn't refute that.
It confirms it.
In writing, with timestamps.
Now let's talk about the parteveryone clicks on.
The photos.
The Justice Department releasedimages showing Epstein alongside
with high-profile figures,including former President Bill
(08:26):
Clinton, who appears in onewidely circulated photo of him
sitting in a hot tub next to aperson whose face is redacted.
The DOJ says that redactedindividual is a victim of
Epstein's abuse.
Clinton has never been chargedor accused by law enforcement of
(08:46):
wrongdoing related to Epstein.
And the department says itsreview found no evidence to
justify investigations intouncharged third parties.
Now the problem isn't the photoexisting.
It's that it was released withalmost no context about when it
(09:06):
was taken, where it was taken,or who else was present in the
photo, leaving the public tofill in the blanks while the
government shrugs.
But if the goal was clarity,this release did the opposite.
Files appeared and thendisappeared.
An image involving Trump wasbriefly pulled, then reposted.
(09:28):
A massive grand jury report wasfirst released, completely
blacked out, then partiallyrestored.
Duplicate images show differentredaction choices.
That's not confidence inspiring.
That's sloppy.
At some point when documentsvanish, reappear, change in real
time, you stop calling itsloppiness and you start calling
(09:51):
it what it looks like.
A cover-up.
Even the Justice Departmentadmitted the process was
vulnerable to human and machineerror.
That's not something you want tohear when you're dealing with
victims of sexual abuse anddecades of institutional
failure.
Lawmakers from both parties arefurious, not performative
(10:14):
furious, actually furious.
Some of them went further andopenly raised impeachment as a
consequence if the JusticeDepartment continues to withhold
the Epstein files.
The law they passed required allunclassified Epstein-related
materials to be released.
Not some, not eventually all.
(10:39):
And what we got instead was apartial dump and a promise to
come back later.
To be clear about what theimpeachment talk means,
lawmakers were not threateningimpeachment of Donald Trump.
They were not naming Pam Bondieither.
The threat was aimed at JusticeDepartment leadership for
failing to comply with theEpstein Files Transparency Act.
(11:01):
Specifically, the failure torelease all unclassified
materials as the law requires.
Impeachment was raised as apressure tactic against DOJ
officials responsible forwithholding records, not against
the president himself.
Survivors are furious too.
They say redactions are extreme,inconsistent, and unexplained.
(11:26):
Some identities were protected,others weren't.
People searching for their ownhistories were forced to dig
through chaos created by thevery agency claiming to protect
them.
So here's where we actuallyland.
This wasn't disclosure of theEpstein files, it was
choreography.
The files were not fullyreleased, despite what MAGA
(11:49):
people will say online.
The law required allunclassified Epstein-related
material to be made public.
And that did not happen.
What we got was a managedpartial dump, shifting
redactions, disappearingdocuments, and a promise again
to come back later.
(12:10):
That's not transparency, that'scontrol.
The question now isn't what wasin the files, it's what's still
being protected or who.
And who decided that protectionmattered more than the law?
Because someone always does.
At some point when documentsvanish, reappear, and change in
(12:33):
real time, you stop calling itsloppiness.
And I said before, you startcalling it what it looks like.
Once again, a cover-up.
That's another episode of AWorld Gone Mad.
And before, I did say that theywere going to be shorter
episodes until the end of theyear, because a good majority of
(12:54):
you are staying away from socialmedia.
Also, just a friendly reminderto all of the Wolfpack
listeners (13:00):
I'm still looking for more support in the way of a
small donation.
Don't let that word donationscare you.
A few dollars here, a fewdollars there helps me
tremendously.
I'm hoping that some of you outthere will understand and will
also please contribute.
For two years, I've never askedanyone to pay for my podcast.
(13:25):
And I'm not doing that now.
Just asking for a littlefriendly help to allow me to get
through the rest of the year.
Thank you in advance.
This is a World Gone Man.
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.
I will be back Wednesday, yes,Christmas Eve.
I will have another episode foryou.
(13:46):
Until then, Wolfback listeners,remain skeptical, keep focused,
but most of all, stay hopeful.
unknown (13:54):
There is chaos in the world.
SPEAKER_00 (13:58):
Can't you see?
And we need to stand up andpreserve our democracy.
This is a world time.
This is a world on the day.
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