First thing this morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X a statement from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying that under Bondi’s direction, he had talked to the lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of grooming victims for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Dear Heather: I so admire your ability to remain emotionally neutral as you write these insightful missives to America. You truly are a national treasure.
A Florida Judge gave RUPERT, WSJ & the other Trump Defendants until September 2025 to file & written Response. That's substantial, huge, procedural time for RUPERT to Lock & Load.
BREAKING: Wednesday Afternoon:
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The Wall Street Journal reported 4 hours ago that back in May 2025 AG PAMELA BONDI
told Trump that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein Investigative Files.
Within the last hour, REUTERS confirmed Pam Bondi told Trump his was name appears in the Epstein investigative files. With more than 2 months notice, developments raise the Trump legal issue of spoliation of evidence.
Per the AP House overnight Subcommittee did vote to subpoena DOJ's Epstein files.
Per, Alicia Menendez, Anchor of MSNBC's 'The Weekend' personal work product, there are at least five(5) Congressional developments to blow open the Epstein-Maxwell felonies:
* House EFTA, Epstein Files Transparency Act
* Senator Wyden's Follow the Money probe
* House Oversight Committee's plans to subpoena G. Maxwell
* House Judiciary Dems holding a hearing to compel DOJ Officials to testify
Although there already is substantial Trump, Maxwell & Epstein facts publicly available now such as the newly published Trump Epstein photos highlighted by HCR in the LFAA & the dramatic recreation of testimony a from a vulnerable 14 year old Epstein & Maxwell targeted at a Summer Camp & whose testimony was stunningly recreated by Lawrence O'Donnell earlier tonight.
It wouldn't be surprising if Trump's love affair with Putin is related to the Epstein files and the fact that Trump and Epstein trafficked Russian girls as well as other Eastern European women like Melania. And Putin is well aware and likely complicit.
So the war that Trump promised to end on Day 1 was just another Trump hoax and millions of people are suffering as a result.
In Trump’s mind, I don’t believe it was a hoax; Trump really believed that he and Putin were becoming best buds. Trump most likely thought he could sway Putin anytime he wished to do so. And all the while, Putin was having his way with Trump as if daddy Putin was the father of Trump, the manchild. No… this is more like the delusional acts of one we know to be… we’ll… delusional.
Putin is smart; all he has to do is wait and watch stupid crazy Trump destroy America. So, also with China; every dumb thing, actually anything, Trump does: Makes China Great Again.
I don't think so. Trump never ever cared about anything but himself. He clearly doesn't care about Ukraine either.
In the meantime, the neofascists who took over the GOP and write Trump's executive orders clearly AGREE with Trump's palace ideologue, Alexander Dugin, on many things, including that fascism is a better political regime than democracy, and that there will only be world peace once a few big dictatorships control the world, which is why they WANT Putin to take over democratic Ukraine in the first place.
So I don't think Trump has a lot to say about this. As usual, it's the people behind the scenes who control him and merely need him as his clown in chief, distracting us all while they get him to do what they want (and he HAS to obey if he wants to stay out of prison... ).
American intelligence had long considered trump a Russian asset. Knowing the weakness of men who feel there are no constraints on them, if I were Putin it would just be sensible to keep a stable in hand to be deployed as needed. The tossable ones that lower level oligarchs could peddle, and the top ones aimed at....a fool who might be possibly to get elected.
Women are just property after all.
And then there's the purveyor to the rich and blackmailble, who unfortunately perished in prison despite, or because of, his lofty friendships.
You mean that vacant, golddigger who once wore a coat that said: we don't care, and whose name Kennedy Center might be assigning ti one of its theaters? She probably can't even name a single opera or composer. I have zero respect for her.....
Stephanie. I hope if they name the opera house of the Kennedy Center after that gold digger that every company will refuse to perform there. This is just another attempt to turn good things, valued things, into shit.
This gesture, if they name the opera theater after her, along with Trump's takeover of the center is a smack in the face of the cultured elite. This will all be undone when we return to normal....first let's return to normal.
Donald thought he was getting another model-bimbo like his previous wives, but Mel had a bit more smarts, maybe not enough to justify a "genius visa," but more than pretty faces, Ivana and Marla. She satisfied her desire for motherhood and negotiated a sweet financial deal before cutting loose that stinking bag of farts and profanity coated in mismatched makeup.
At this point, she's a legal nuisance to Donald whose only use is to decorate his arm on special occasions, at an annoying high cost.
Actually Ivana was so much smarter than Trump he couldn’t handle it. She was running things during his only successful years. I read stories about this in 2016.
Ivana was an assertive woman who took an active role in the Trump businesses, but I think it might be a stretch to say she was "running things." They were divorced in 2000.
According to Mary L. Trump, Donald's finances remained in the red until 2003 when he got millions as an advance toward his participation in the TV series, The Apprentice. Most Trump observers regard the years he was involved in the TV series as his "successful years." That would suggest that Ivana wasn't part of it.
I'm sure Ivana's personal strength was a factor, but considering who Donald is, it's more likely that he was losing interest in her because she wasn't aging gracefully. He was seeing Marla Maples as early as 1989.
Which is why he may be protecting Melania. He needs her.
There are all kinds of smarts. Melania is part of their act now. She will wait him out. I agree he wants to be on her good side and will not cross her. No evidence, just a feeling that she's got stuff on him. If not they have a meeting of craven minds. (see my below). Also she's got the son, Barron, in training.. coming along nicely.
Nah, Potter. Are you forgetting that Donald is a malignant narcissist with autocratic tendencies who has advanced into the early-to-middle stages of dementia?
You may think Donald needs Melania's good will and cooperation, and I might even agree with you. But Donald isn't thinking that strategically. He literally thinks he's the smartest man in any room; that he can talk or bully his way out of any uncomfortable situation. And why wouldn't he? The universe has bent to his will, so far.
As for Melania, all she ever wanted was to live in the lap of luxury. That's why she held her nose and performed for Donald, then held her nose again and married him. She got her son. She got her contract. She's done.
She has been obvious in displaying her loathing for politics and power, so I doubt she has any political ambitions for Barron. However, he's half Donald, so he might be eyeing that kind of power. I suspect Melania might try to discourage him, but not stop him.
The day Trump protects Melania is a cold day, indeed. He would throw her under the bus in a minute. He disposed of his first two wives, why not this one too.
No- she's a partner. She can ruin him I have read with what she knows.. especially now.. true or not, sounds plausible. She has their son. She has had it made in the shade financially including getting her parents here and having them taken care of. She puts up with him.. I suspect lives separately (obviously). She has prestige (of sorts). She may even have a fella. Nice!
That the mind of a narcissist cemented into their delusions is incessantly repeated, listened to, rehashed, rewritten, or most ludicrously that which is BELIEVED….is mind boggling.
That we have apparently little to no way of ridding the whole lot ..further thinking any one of them is going to make America better…spells boldly…we are in serious trouble..not just politically ..but as a species.
The fact that Mike Johnson sent everyone home actually prolongs this probe. Now we'll all wait until September 2nd to see what the Oversight Committee etc. will do. This is not going away.
Well, so far it’s been an America unmucked. lol. And you have to pay them either way Lauren just like you did when the Democrats are in power I took the same amount of vacation or more.
You may not know this but in the Mid-Atlantic region where Washington DC is we are experiencing extreme weather thunderstorms mixed with 100 degrees temperatures high humidity. It’s actually been a bit unusual for us to see this extremes. I would want to leave too.
Yes........but. I spoke with my wonderful mailman yesterday. He was telling me how they have changed his route, making it longer and more complex. I told him how my sister in Chicago has given up: they sometimes get no mail for nearly two weeks, so now they weekly drive to the PO to get their mail. My other sister said she went a full week without mail, and when her mail arrived about 9 pm, she saw her mailman who told her he was working his third route of the day.
Yesterday, my mailman was sweating profusely. I have told him anytime he needs water, a bathroom break, or just to get out of the heat for awhile, he is always welcome. He expressed concerns about the upcoming heat dome over Chicago, saying "I'm not sure I can do this." He appears to be in his mid 50s.
If HE can carry mail, those (insert your favorite bad words here) legislators can sit in their (insert another favorite bad word) office and DO SOME ACTUAL LEGISLATING!!
And, those (fill in your favorite &^$@*) republican "legislators" have air conditioning and access to pools, year round vacations (where they can seek whatever weather they choose!) because they sure as hell aren't doing an ounce of actual work.
Welcome to the climate crisis and the new normal. Don’t expect any help from the denier in chief in the White House. And if your property is damaged or destroyed, don’t expect FEMA to step in and help with clean up, food and clean water or rebuilding assistance. Just ask Kerrville, Texas. There are still people missing and unaccounted for. Let alone how many homes and businesses were damaged and destroyed.
Is Washington, DC miserably hot and humid? Yup. So is my home town here in Minnesota. So is the entire south. Leaving DC is just about avoiding accountability for the Epstein mess among many others, not about finding relief from the heat
I know we have an exemplified example of double standard and hypocrisy. The people in Carolinas from the hurricane that happened during Bidens administration are still waiting for help and how long is the time you’re here in a ha?
Yes but Republicans are big strong alpha males who can handle anything. They don’t cry, except those supporters who always walk up to Trump with tears in their eyes, they face problems head on by belittling their opponents and they all pee standing up, even the women.
Besides the GOP Reps were already having a problem with angry constituents when they had meetings in their home districts. I expect soon to see more of the same on the news.
Joanne, you're just like all the other people on the thread. They think they have a crystal ball well they don't and you don't know what's gonna happen in the future. It just so happens that this is exactly the Medicaid treatment that Clinton did nothing different just to force people who were able body to go back to work. Everybody else will qualify. We'll get the same benefits are getting now don't listen to garbage that's exactly what's happening.
There is some truth to what you say. Yes, you remain so stupid that I convinced you to buy my book. If you read it it it should have done you good. Btw, after 6 more stores being added now I will have about 10 more stories added from the edition you have. May I encourage you to buy it after I amtold the editions have been added? Yes?
What disaster are you speaking of? Lol. The people in Carolina are still waiting for Biden to get off his ass and address their issues and it’s how long has it been now?
Perhaps you prefer to talk about the 15,000 homes and structures from the California fires. Where government failed Miserably and didn’t even have water in the reservoir to put out the fires because of their neglect and ignorance while one was in Africa, doing nothing the other was blaming Trump for not filling his own reservoir laugh my ass while the fires destroyed one of the beauty of most beautiful cities in California and Altadena as well
Trump wasn’t president when that happened.
And when it comes to getting things done where AOC in Mayorkas and the borders CZAR. LMAO said the only way to fix the border was legislation and Trump fixed it in 75 days. It’s only a matter of Will and Biden had none of that and the people in Carolina are still waiting for help so don’t tell me about disasters. The flood in Texas was responded to appropriately and given an appropriate warning and that’s been proven now but of course you don’t wanna hear that and the river Rose 26 feet and 45 minutes in the middle of the night there were three warnings that went out and the office that was in charge of that particular area was overstaffed at the time. Oooooops
The disaster Of the border. We are anywhere from 11 to 15,000,000 illegals are now getting federal monies where California has spent almost $30 billion over the last three years on illegals. That’s where your fema dollars are going.
Well, nobody ever accused Reverend Mike of being intelligent; he's just saved, sanctified and devoted to his dumbass deity, Donald. (Love me some alliteration.)
Ooh, ooh! Can I help? I have experience in commercial architectural design and I have some exciting ideas about now to torture an evangelical closet case.
Proof that you guys live in the past in history books. They’ll be thousands of photos of some of the most famous people on the planet many of them people you were once admired. So keep hoping that they open and live relive the past… just prepare yourself for what they might show it’s not gonna be all roses, so be ready it may be more hurtful than you can even comprehend
So let me say it again as I did the other day why wasn't it submitted or exposed when Biden had the files in January 2024. These are incidents probably that happened 15 maybe even 20 years ago and you wanna ruin all the families all the lives. All the people you've admired in the past but now you will hate if any of those names appear and you wanna bring that back now? I don't really care either way, but I don't think you're ready for what might appear and I don't think it's gonna change a damn thing other than families being destroyed
The fact that Johnson had to send the House members home is telling. 1. The Speaker of the House is totally under the control of the Prez. Of course, we knew that. So.much for Congressional independence. 2. The fact that they had to be sent home could be interpreted as a confession of guilt by Trump. You can fill in the blanks as to what the crimes might be.
They’re hoping it will blow 0ver and Democrats will give up. They’ve come to yet another standstill and won’t be passing anything because they’re afraid their own caucus will vote to release everything. Moses always runs for cover when he’s losing. They shouldn’t get paid.
Good luck with that Bill just another person who thinks they can see in the future you will know exactly what happened when the future arrives, which is never, but you might know what happens after the epstein files are either revealed or not but not until then
2 days before his suicide, Epstein set up a Trust naming DARREN INDYKE, his lawyer & RICHARD KHAN his is former accountant as Trustees.
An attorney for over 200 Epstein victims. BRADLEY EDWARDS was interviewed on Lawrence O'Donnell tonight. The victims & the Executors of Epstein Estate can confirm the 50th "Birthday Book" exists & can be produced from the relevant law firms in possession of the gift book, Trautmann & the Patterson law firms.
Nothing like the "Best Evidence" to resolve facts particularly when the facts are only disputed by Donald J. Trump.
We all know the felon liar is a child rapist - this is why he's totally losing his shit right now. We also know the system is totally rigged in favor of rich white men and their disgusting sexual obsessions which lean heavily toward raping children. This has been going on since the beginning of time and now we all see it right in front of us. The question is what will we do about it?
Except for having to vote on releasing the Epstein files, I’m not sure why little MAGAMike thought sending the House home til September was a good idea. Does he think voters won’t be confronting House members? I think there should be a protest in front of my Congress critter’s office til he is voted out of office. Do House members plan to hide somewhere for the next 42 days? WTAF?
My congresscritter is Rick Allen, a white Republican. I live in the suburbs of Augusta GA. When Allen goes “home”, it’s to his mansion on Sea Island. Rich White Boy won’t come here, because Augusta is majority minority, right down to the city government, and reliably Democratic.
Do you actually believe that whatever is in those files is a going to hurt only people that you hate? I keep telling people but you don’t wanna listen Joe Biden had these files in January 2024, and didn’t release them when he could’ve hurt Trump the most. Put that in your head
I don’t care. If Democrats are guilty, they should be tried and put in prison just like everybody else I don’t care how wealthy you are how white you are how much power you have if you’re raping children, you should be in prison or even better taken out back and shot in the head
Terry, there will be too much unknown and probably beyond some statues of limitation’s to do anything. The statue, a limitation‘s are so different, and so varied and so obtuse that would be hard to convict anybody at this point in time because I don’t think they’ll be enough information If there’s a lot of video, and there might well be, that might be a different story but even then there’s gonna be people that say it’s consensual there may even be contracts by these women that agree, for example, and then they’re gonna have to be able to prove that this woman was under age at that time and only way they will do that is by video or photographs clearly showing that the victims face which will have to be blot it out
That’s one of the problems and there will be trials and they will be unknown gray areas just because somebody was on a plane doesn’t mean they inflicted any damage on an underage girl or boy? I can almost be assured that if everything comes out, you will be more angry that Justice doesn’t get served than it does.
Keep in mind, not that it matters that many of these people have tremendous wherewithal, and will fight tooth and nail to protect their images, their wealth and their reputations. These things will be drawn out for a long period of time.
Ps I didn’t hear people screaming when Biden didn’t release them because they had a suspicion that because he didn’t release them,
There are Democrat names they don’t want released.!!!
Has Biden has these files in January 2024 you have to ask yourself why they weren’t released.
People are frothing at the mouth because they think they can hurt Trump.
I’m fine with releasing them, but you will unleash the hell hounds of hell with the ex butts and maybes and I’m telling you they’ll be more unhappiness when they release them, should they get released, then there is now.
Have you read any of the posts by independent journalists telling us how extremely difficult it is to get such files released and why? I'm not holding my breath as I wait for that event.
Pat, it’s wonderful to welcome such open minded thinking here put the head above the heart and realize the issues at hand. Thank you for your levelheaded, Post
Especially with Bondi doing everything to protect Trump. And Ghislaine Maxwell has been holding out hope of a pardon or reduced sentence ever since Trump came into office. Now, she has every reason to say whatever he wants her to say.
WSB. I love your post. I can’t tell you how much I love your post.
Let me repeat for the hundredth time. Joe Biden, and the Biden administration had these files on their desk January 2024 when he could’ve actually destroyed Trump if he wanted to and if there was something in those files that would do that. But he didn’t so think about what that should tell you!! Think very hard
Again - why is TRUMP trying so hard to hide them? By your same flawed logic - if its full of Clinton and Obama why is Trump hiding them? Take your own advice and THINK VERY HARD.
Here’s a little hint for you by the way, every president is a narcissist. And you can go down the list of other elected officials, such as governors and congressman. Very few are pure altruists. If they were, they would all vote for term limits and that’s your proof.
The longer they delay, the bigger they lose, Dan. This is the start of a brand new Congress... I hope it stays in the news and they throw mega tons of unbelievable shit at the wall all the way to next Nov.
Thank you for saying that. I have long thought that, based on things he's said. I am concerned that if the files are released he would be redacted out of them as the main "victim".
The likely success of Representative THOMAS MASSIE's (R-KY)discharge Petition that would bring the production of the Epstein files to a vote no matter what Reverend Coconspirator thinks or does reportedly had over 20 R supporters actually shut down the House for the Summer.
Made me think of Frazey Ford's September Fields, 🎶 You better get up for your Moma, You better grab the best of your Life ... Do you Ache in Your Body & Mind? 🎶
We stock up on popcorn and let MAGA rip him apart, Terry. They're more up in arms over the cover up than we are. They're surprised - we're not. We know PP is a pervert and criminal - they thought he was a god king. They believe the files will show that Hillary's a cannibal and Bill's a playah. Sorry MAGA, prolly not.
Lauren, if Bill Clinton is one, so be it. For being intelligent, he has been also been incredibly stupid. HRC would have made a good president and we wouldn't have to contend with the horrible Supremes. Tried to tell people in 2016; got the middle finger.
Terry, I agree. Bill has always had a hard time keeping it in his pants, but he has never shown any sexual interest in underage girls. My guess is that he flew to Epstein's island, thinking there would be beautiful women waiting. When he saw that Jeff was raping children, he asked to be flown home. Bill was a dawg, but not a rapist.
I would be scrutinizing the flight manifests for repeat visitors, not the one-timers.
But beyond that, Donald has no bone to pick with Bill, who is, after all, a member of the "Old White Men's Club."
Donald does, however, have bones to pick with Obama and Hillary; he's a Black man and she's a powerful woman, members of two groups Donald loathes.
For many years a story was the Bill Clinton made many trips there, which is no proof, of anything. Fact, as I mentioned in former post, there was a rumor that Bill and Hillary went together, one time. Just a rumor, but that’s what the rumor was. Agana proves nothing
What cover-up are you speaking about? Are you speaking about Biden’s cover-up where he had the files a year and a half ago and didn’t release them? I don’t think that’s the case lol
In The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) and in Lost Illusions and other of his early-19th century novels (Balzac), wealthy married men routinely bought and "kept" girls of ages 15 or 16 for long-term "protection" and usage. The girls could later be rented, traded or sold, but tended to be short-lived.
In this government of wealth and appetites I think this may not end with for the public. This only ends if trump dies or has a massive stroke. Compiling evidence from former child victims may not be enough compared to what Maxwell might be persuaded to say in order to receive a pardon. Celebrity culture will always plunge us into a moral void. Perverted ethics, lies and manipulation dominate today's politics. Trump is a master of this cult of distraction.
The idea of having a maximum income and maximum wealth limits, makes more sense day by day as this disgusting saga of the rich motherfuckers unfolds. Tax them right into the middle class.
Hey Terri, do you know who you’re talking about? when you talk about billionaires? Do you know how many there are in this country and you know how they became billionaires? Why don’t you look it up first before you start your rant? I want to realize that the top one percent of income earners in this country pay 40% of the tax in this country.
There is no stopping him. Mistakes he has made have their own relentless momentum and there are no means to check their course. That's real power to be a tyrant. He fills his maga followers with gratitude and the rest of us with fear.
There is so much hopelessness here. It’s really sad to see. America is screaming along in success and there’s so much NEEDLESS anger hate and depression here. You might want to Change the channel you’ll be better off…
Agree! She is professional, asks pertinent questions and doesn’t interject her emotions into the interviews. I feel much more calm and get a greater understanding.
It hurt my heart and soul to hear Lawrence read aloud that poor girl’s under-oath testimony about what Epstein and Maxwell did to her. Appalling is too mild a word!
Bryan, I've posted this elsewhere: WHAT THE HECK IS TRUMP SO AFRAID OF?
I always figured he's a sex abuser, and I even considered he probably abused older teens. I've also seen how many 14-15 year old girls mature early, and with makeup, etc, look much older; I am sure if he had sex with one of them, the MAGA would blame the girl. That's just the way it goes. Women know this.
So, NOW, I am becoming more and more curious. I'm not sure I WANT to know what is in there, but prior to this, I figured it was just another thing that rich, powerful (and generally, white) men get away with.
On a side note: is anyone else as incredulous that we have this sort of CRAP being TWEETED by the President of the United States?!?!?! When I think of the stories I've read about Biden, Obama, even Bush reading the binders of intel every night, when I think of the HOURS they put into the job, I wonder if any of the MAGA consider WHO IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? Even those with a factory job who leave the work behind when they clock out can't be up all night long tweeting stuff. Do they consider that their military kids/grandkids actual lives depend upon foreign relations being made by.....who?!? Certainly not Trump!
I'm recalling how happy I was when Biden took office, if nothing else (and I had plenty of reasons to be happy!) that there wasn't constant CHAOS. Good lord I'm getting tired. I think I need to back off from the news cycle and politics for a few days.
When I was supervising retail graphics production, I often hired models for photoshoots. For brands aimed at young women, such as "Charlie" by Revlon, I would choose models based only on their agency's "head shots" because they had "the look." On the day of the photoshoot, I would discover that I'd booked a model who arrived with her mom, entered the green room looking like a teenaged schoolgirl and after hair and makeup, emerged looking like a beautiful young woman. Even though I was in the business, the transformations never ceased to amaze me.
And yes, I am relentlessly embarrassed by the sewerage that issues from the social media account of the so-called U.S. head of state. It is beyond mind-boggling that I live in a world where this kind of discourse is now treated as normal.
Now traveling the road of dementia with my mother in her 90s, I recognize the up-all-night business as a symptom of dementia. So is the tendency to nod off in the middle of a conversation or meeting.
Yes I was glad Biden won but I was terribly distraught that he wouldn’t be able to keep the path open and he didn’t. That is my biggest beef. Oh ya and also thumbing his nose at Putin with no nato guarantee with Ukraine then denying Ukraine sufficient arms to penetrate Russia. Biden sowed the seeds of Ukraine's defeat.
I was living on the campus of that camp at the time Epstein had a cabin there. As was my daughter. Know that campus security has since been fully upgraded.
Brian, when you post it’s always good to have a point it makes it more interesting for the listener/reader. You still haven’t answered the question why is it that the Buy administration who had these files in January 2024 didn’t use them because he could’ve destroyed Trump if that was the case a simple answer would be appreciated but you won’t because you can’t
And she should have a team of graduate students assisting with research. Years from now, we will see perhaps several of her grad students publish best selling books or have heavily viewed podcasts.
What other US history professor would be a better advisor for your PHD?
This morning on NPR an attorney who served during the Obama Administration explained how irregular it would be to release Grand Jury testimony in any situation that would impair future prosecution of others involved in a crime. In other words, the men who are in the files and are guilty of committing sexual crimes against minors.
Relying on any testimony from Gislane Maxwell, who has already been convicted of perjury is totally futile.
Trump is mired in a pile of slime that he has spent his entire life building. May he drown in his own disgusting shit.
I won't take that bet given the relativity. But Trump will not pardon Maxwell. Besides the uproar that would cause, it won't help because she will then be required to testify before Congress and will have no grounds for refusing to do so. It is more probable that her conviction will be reversed on appeal. There is good grounds for that. The government IS bound by its original plea deal.eith Epstein. It is atrocious to think that a US Attorney does not speak and act for the United States of America when he agrees to a plea deal. And it covered her. There is no ambiguity there. All the criminal defense lawyers in America will say this.
Bondi is smart enough to know this and well informed. She has used Toid Blanche to speak for her. Whether this is entirely at Trump's command, a matter of her own initiative, or something in between is questionable. But the implication is clear. The DOJ is now ready to offer a deal. Not pardon. That is not their department. A plea deal.
It will require her to say what she did. In court. Allocute. And as you mention, the implication is that DOJ will now want to hear more from her as a witness and expect her to talk. But this is a very bold and risky move by the prosecution and it represents a big turn around in its posture towards her and the whole Epstein investigation. For a change they now want to know more The results of this are highly unpredictable except for those most involved...say, for instance Maxwell. But you are right to point out that under the circumstances, the DOJs desire to seek the truth will remain suspect, and that there will remain incentives for Maxwell to perjure herself which she has already done. The larger question is what the DOJ is up to in this case ? What does it want from her ? Is it interested in pursuing an honest investigation ? Or is it seeking her help in completing a white wash of the case so it can close its files and send them to the Archives ?
I don't think they know themselves what they are doing. It is an extraordinarily risky Gambit. Who knows what Bondi is thinking. Blanche of course has a big conflict of interest.
Do you (or anyone) know why, of all the people involved in this sordid mess, only Epstein and Maxwell were prosecuted? What about all the men raping girls? Not only Trump, but Prince Andrew and surely others?
Now that Epstein is dead, it angers me so much that in this cabal of men raping children, only the woman is in prison.
Not me Ally. I live in a house with 4 women, my wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and daughter. And we have a female cat and dog. They would kick me out if I was that obtuse.
For the same reason Florida papers don't publish shark sightings. It's bad for business. The case revealed a seamy sordid and embarrassing underside to Palm Beach society, Florida's supposedly best and most influential people. High Society. And both state and federal law enforcement officers were anxious to put the matter to rest. Only the PBPD did their job. The DOJ ran away from the case. Neither did the States Attorney follow where the evidence led
Until the New York office decided to go after Epstein. Ask yourself why.
I don’t think “rich” equals the height of Palm Beach or NY society. In fact, I think a lot of Trump’s insecurity stems from the fact that the upper echelons of society did not accept him and his family despite their wealth. I’m not part of that world, but even I can see that he is the definition of tacky and nouveau riche, completely lacks any redeeming notion of noblesse oblige, and is unlikely to be accepted into the realm of East Coast old money society, ever, and nor are his children or grandchildren. Buying Marjorie Merriweather Post’s house did not also buy her position in society.
Then you would be correct in your thinking. Indeed it seems quite the contrary. That is what this affair reveals. A certain sense of relativity or amorality and immunity from judgment or criticism is displayed by those of great wealth and power. A "we make the rules" attitude. And that is exactly the problem the "authorities" were struggling with, or perhaps we should say, failed to struggle with. Because it makes for bad press.
Pardon no doubt, or more conveniently and permanently, a “suicide.” I wish I was only speculating wildly and irrationally……….Knowing Trump, and SO many of the depraved people around him, would it really surprise you if that happened?
And if she doesn't lie, and implicates Trump, no one will ever hear about it and she will die by 'suicide' in prison while the guards are on a coffee break.
There is no doubt that Donny was offered underage Epstein girls to rape. And when this is finally proven, that shit bag Trump wears tittered to his leg will burst and Donny will fall off the wall like ole fat Humpty Dumpty.
And let us never forget FBI Director Comey interference with the 2016 election when he announced within days of the election that an investigation was active against Hillary Clinton. In the grand old tradition of cross-dresser J Edgar Hoover. Not that I care that J Edgar led a secret life.
Trump should be inducted as a member of the Hoover enclave in America.
His actions to undermine former government officials and to remove immigrants (legal and illegal) out of the country remind us of J.Edgar Hoover. Recall J. Edgar Hoover fought to keep prominent Jews out of the US like Albert Einstein while welcoming Nazis into the US.
And he is well on his way to tanking what was 6 months ago the best economy in the world, with his chaotic and inexplicable tariffs, as well as his horrendous Big Ugly Bill which adds an additional $4.3 trillion to the national debt. Just like Herbert Hoover tanked the economy forcing the US into the Great Depression.
And finally, Trump sucks just like a Hoover vacuum cleaner.
We should be careful not to get too far ahead of the facts. Remember the Steele dossier? The pee tape that was going to take Trump down, except in the end it didn't exist?
There's lots of daylight between a public, made-for-media friendship between two stars of the tabloid press and actual criminal activity. As much as things look bad for Trump, we have to entertain the possibility that the embarrassment of a public relationship with a known pedophile and the lewd birthday card may have been enough to trigger this reaction from Trump's fragile ego.
And, if we go over the top accusing Trump of things that turn out to be untrue, he gets his MAGA folks back, and good luck getting anything else to stick to the guy, basically forever.
We don't need to "take Trump down." We just need the Republicans to lose their majority in the House and Senate. If Trump can't get any nominations approved, then he is definitely lame duck.
Really where is that proof? I didn’t hear you complaining with Clinton nor 40 other highly ranked Washington DC officials. I could list for you here in a link if you’d like. Nor anyone that tried to cover it up so much they actually lied under Ruth, but that didn’t bother you much did it
It will be hard to convince the Q aligned that after being told of secret child killing cabals for years that there’s no “there” there. Who knows what the backlash will be from those duped.
Possibly true, Mobiguy. But remember what the WSJ alleged about an Epstein birthday greeting penned by djt: it included a line about having things in common and also strangely used the word "enigma" in what appeared to be a coded fashion. The word "enigma" anagrams to "gamine", which Merriam-Webster defines as "a small playfully mischievous girl".
Hey Moby, you know it’s nice to have somebody at least that has some rational thought behind their posts and it’s not full of hate.
When I keep saying, be careful what you wish for. The list of world leaders could be incredible and with destroy many many famous people who you may have admired to your whole lifetime. Not that that should be a reason not to release the files, but people need to be prepared mentally for what may come. And perhaps nothing and then you’ve wasted all this hate and energy for what ?
Bill, (hesitate here to don my tin foil hat) I am convinced this recent admission of CVI in Trump is setting him up for when it really hits the fan, he will be exempt from jail because he's a sick, demented old man. Too frail to imprison. Or at "best" house imprisonment at Mar a Lago. He skates again. :-(
Maureen, I agree! But also, HCR, your wry comment "Things seem a little unstable at the White House" had me hoot with laughter (thank goodness I had not just taken a sip of coffee!). It was a deadpan worthy of Andy Borowitz! My suggestion: we just keep on going and with luck someone with a spine at DoJ will leak, leak, leak. My hope is for a certain felon to have an embolism . . .
I also loved how, after listing all of Marco Rubio’s current responsibilities, HCR casually, at the end of the newsletter, noted that he was chairman of the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee that found that Russia was unsuccessful in manipulating votes in the 2020 election. Little Marco certainly wears many hats, but by all appearances has now lost his soul.
Between that, and listing all of Rubio's assignment (none of which he's remotely qualified for) in such a deadpan fashion, I think the Professor has illustrated the beauty of understatement.
Yeah, well guess what too bad Kobe didn’t tell everything when he made that speech about no prosecutor would go further now they found evidence that he didn’t even address
They’ve never been more stable in the last 25 years since Clinton actually.
America is on a journey to the mountain TOP right now and nothing that the left is going to do with crap like this is gonna stop it. The markets are screaming. The tariff money is flowing in the trade deals are defying all the pendants affirmations of failure, etc..
I also want to applaud Heather for the patience and fortitude it takes to read all this awful stuff, digest it and give us the most pertinent details---all while, as you say, not going crazy. Can't imagine what we'd do without Heather. Another national treasure is Ann Telnaes (Open Windows)---check out her cartoon for the day---amazing!
If I was Ghislaine Maxwell I wouldn’t be anywhere alone, and I sure the hell wouldn’t leave my cell with anyone from the DOJ no matter what they were promising.
I read it somewhat differently --- an open invitation to lie, to prevaricate, to say ANYTHING, do anything, provide any squirrel, make up any shit at all in order to please the one person with the power to commute her sentence. What else could it be?
We stand for the Constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers, against arbitrary detention and the removal of healthcare for millions. We look to the Statue of Liberty and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for inspiration. They traffic in lies and conspiracy while making deals with pedophiles.
I agree, but I also agree with the message above. She is in some danger. But she also has no problem lying to get out of jail, so she will. Lawrence O'Donnell went into that this evening.
If Maxwell accepts a pardon, she could be compelled to testify at some point. What excuse would she use if she refused to testify? Executive privilege?!
If she cuts some sort of deal to get out of jail, I wonder how the "we made a deal to release the person who groomed children for Epstein and the pedophile cabal to abuse" will play with MAGA.
I think no matter if she makes a deal she won't live to enjoy it. She will be disappeared either way. She knows the truth. Magats know this, they were promised the release of the tapes after all.
I suspect she's well aware she's safer in jail. It's not like she can run back to Britain and be welcomed with open arms or protected from the Russians, who have a solid track record of criminal activity within the Kingdom.
MAGA will just hear her lie that Trump was never around when Epstein was raping girls and knew nothing about it, and won't worry about letting her out of jail as the price of the 'clarification'.
I agree with the big picture but if you haven’t noticed Washington no longer follows the rules or the laws. I fear even when he leaves, Office, we will never be the same.
We won't have a functioning democracy as long as there are MAGAs in positions of any importance. Even if Trump dies, and I hope that happens soon, the rest of then will continue to work to accomplish the goals of the 2025 plan, which is to maintain a dictatorship with a right wing oligarchy base.
And no functioning democracy until we restaff all the government entities that DOGE has destroyed or seriously damaged (finding, as much as possible, the excellent people who performed their tasks (great or routine) with distinction and care, and lure them away to their old jobs. And write or rewrite as necessary job descriptions and work rules so that no idiot savant can ever again take a chainsaw to the whole government without a genuine understanding of what things are important and why, and what people are performing critical tasks. And write new laws and rules to prevent one person or party, especially one with a slim majority, from hog-tying the whole government, and installing an oligarchy of money or privilege.
We also need to pass laws that prevent gerrymandering and voter suppression at the Federal, State and Local levels of government and/or split the US into several countries.
Definitely prevent gerrymandering and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Splitting the country appealed to me at one time until I sat down and really thought about it. Geographically almost impossible, leaving an awful lot of people behind. Just for starters.
I agree with your first proposals, but dividing the nation into separate countries is the worst idea since running Trump as a presidential candidate.
It's not in any way practicable. The overwhelming majority of Americans would be forced to live in conditions they hate and can't escape for financial, family and other reasons. Meanwhile, the majority of MAGAts won't admit it, but enjoy the benefits of living in "blue states." They would remain in place and continue voting to f*ck things up.
Even European nations have recently seen the benefits of uniting. England opted out and it doesn't seem to be working out for them.
I do wonder how many people making decisions are being blackmailed, how many victims are receiving death threats. Power, greed and money can get very ugly.
I would try that if I were her. What does she have to lose at this point?
She was clearly complicit as I'm sure the Epstein files point out in myriad witness statements. But she's clearly right to be concerned for her safety.
I have no sympathy for her, but if she were a man would she have been treated differently (like the DonOLD)?
Completely agree she will get a pardon out of this. Dems should force a third, independent lawyer into any meeting with Maxwell’s attorney and the DOJ. Also, aren’t there others in the DOJ (who were likely DOGEd), that SAW the files who could start dripping the content out there. We need some hackers right now to infiltrate the server where all these files are stored.
These folks are not rational. This includes the Dems. I keep trying to give the Dems the benefit of the doubt and they simply don't pass muster. In lock step with Repugs, they're concocting an alternate reality and expecting everyone to buy the lie that red is actually green and to believe otherwise is a conspiracy by the left liberal socialist deep state just because they say so.
They’ll ask her to testify that Obama, Clinton and Biden were behind the Epstein case all along, in exchange for a get-out-of-jail-free card. MAGA will cheer and roar and scream for their execution and that’s that.
It's just absurd to me that President Obama is targeted. Far as I can see, his only "crime" is being Black. (Okay, he did ridicule Trump at the press dinner, but if you compare what he said with what T has done to the White House, Obama was clairvoyant.)
The statement from President Obama's spokesperson is fantastic. "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.” BAM! 😏
But THAT is EXACTLY the problem. Obama is much more of a man, much more of a leader, much more intelligent and much more charismatic than the Orange Turd will ever be. And THAT is why he needs to be gone: because of the pure, vile jealousy of a malignant sociopathic narcissist.
President Obama and Michele and their lovely and accomplished daughters, have uplifted our nation.
Obama made a joke/comment that negatively affected Trump's tender ego AND revealed Trump's prejudice towards a great fellow American.
When I was a litte girl in Sunday School, we sang this song: "Red and yellow , black and white...all are precious in His (God's) sight...") I took these words to heart and have tried to live respecting my fellow brothers and sisters with whom I share this earthly home no matter our differences.....the work continues by the way.
Maybe they're trying the 'carrot' approach first at this time: "you say the required things and kill this Epstein story off … and you get a hefty reduction in sentence". The alternative isn't as rosy i'm sure, and i'm equally sure that after Mr Epstein's surprising 'suicide' she is only too aware of the implicit risks herself.
And I wouldn’t take a pardon if one was offered, either. Once she leaves prison, she won’t be safe. She will be dead within a year once she tells all she knows.
I think she's quite safe as long as she continues her "I know nothing"routine like sgt Schulz. That was her earlier testimony and if she changes she becomes a questionable witness at best.
It's the victims naming names that's the real danger, and all these now grown children really might need to be protected.
She has written everything and placed multiple copies among her friends and lawyers. Once she dies in the cell, they will come out open. She knows how to protect herself.
It sure seemed at the time that Russia was pretty successful in 2016. They got their candidate into the White House, didn’t they? And he’s done probably irreparable harm to the country. Looked at from a military point of view, Putin’s propaganda machine against the US has been way more successful than Russia’s war against Ukraine. There’s more than one way to change a vote, and unless we develop a way to combat propaganda, none of the rest of our problems are ever going to be addressed.
Yes, Russia certainly helped Trump win in 2016. Heather was being accurate, saying that Russia was not able to manipulate/change any votes that were cast. Russia's disinformation and propaganda affected how those votes were cast.
On social media platforms, in particular FB in 2016, there was a plethora of disinformation coming from Russian operatives, a considerable amount coming from a specific building in St Petersburg, Russia; if I recall correctly.
There were also meetings around that time, later revealed, I recall, made with Trump faction’s, including Don Jr & Jared Kushner in attendance, with what could be safely called Russian operatives, in NYC. Later labeled by some at the meetings, to have something to do with discussions about “adoption” policies, again, (if I recall correctly) between both countries. Sounded lame to me at the time, as Trump wasn’t even president at the time. And a frightening thought at best, that particular family in discussions about policies for “adopting” children from Russia or former satellite countries ( Romania in particular.) Especially given Trump’s ties to Epstein, prior to Epstein’s charge’s & subsequent death ( by suicide reportedly) in prison under Trump’s presidency.
There had also been stories leaking out from American families at the time, of some seriously failed adoptions, of children that had appeared at best, to have had their emotional & physical needs severely neglected in some of these so called “orphanages.” Some to the point of developing serious pathologies that would impede them from fitting well into society. (I’m digressing a bit, but it just seemed odd, the Trump family who were more involved with furthering their personal, financial goals. And as evidenced by a judge, (around that time) who’d slapped their hands in court, at misusing charitable funds for personal reasons, from a charity they’d created. Again, pulling this from memory, but I’m pretty certain sources are still available that would substantiate that claim.
Hello Bonnie... Good Recollection... Putin, and his Oligarchs financially supported the Trump Organization since American Banks had been burned too many times by DJT beginning around 2000.... Indeed, 'Truth Social', which has never turned a Profit, was bailed out last year, by Russian $$$ out of the Bahamas last year... Your are right, the Russian Orphanages are 'Lord-Of-The-Flies' Institutions that produce Damaged Children...
Nance and several more, including former KGB agents, come to the same conclusion: Trump is either an agent or a willing idiot for Putin. They probably had his mental profile and effectuated psy ops.
Trump apparently married a Czech agent in 1977. His trip to the Soviet Union in 1987 was do do an illegal deal. Trump first visited Moscow in 1987 to explore potential real estate deals, even meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
He saw the Soviet Union as an "untapped market" and praised Gorbachev's "opening up the country" through reforms like perestroika.
No significant deals materialized from these early endeavors.
Reports suggest that Soviet intelligence may have taken an interest in Trump around this time, and his 1987 Moscow visit might have involved assistance from the KGB, though the extent and nature of this remain uncertain based on publicly available information.
Post-Soviet business and political ties
Over the years, Trump has had various business dealings with individuals and entities connected to Russia, including a sale of a Palm Beach mansion to a Russian billionaire in 2008 for a significant profit.
Some of his business ventures, like the Trump SoHo project, reportedly involved partners with ties to the former Soviet Union and raised questions about the origins of some funding, according to Foreign Policy.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump adopted a friendly stance towards Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia actively interfered in the 2016 election to favor Trump's campaign, which Trump has often dismissed as a "Russia Hoax".
Trump himself publicly called on Russia to find emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign, an act that was followed by Russian attempts to spearphish email accounts used by Clinton's office, according to CNN.
Trump's presidency and relations with Russia
During his presidency, Trump continued to express a desire for better relations with Russia but also faced criticism for actions that seemed to align with Russian interests or undermine alliances, according to CNN.
His administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a Cold War-era pact with Russia aimed at limiting nuclear arms, citing Russian violations.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, Trump's stance on Russia and Putin has evolved, with recent statements shifting towards a more critical perspective and even issuing ultimatums for peace negotiations.
According to many sources Trump was identified as a candidate to be manipulated early on. Ivana's father reported to the Czech KGB. Google: Ivana Trump's father, Miloš Zelníček, was a "conspiratorial" informer for Czechoslovakia's communist intelligence service, the Státní bezpečnost (StB), which was often referred to as the Czech KGB. He provided information to the StB about his daughter and her then-husband, Donald Trump, specifically regarding Ivana's visits from the U.S. and Donald Trump's burgeoning career in New York. His relationship with the StB continued until the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. While the StB spied on Donald and Ivana Trump, they would have funneled any significant intelligence gathered to the KGB, according to NPR.
The FBI “recommended a preliminary inquiry... on Ivana Trump” based on information received from a confidential source in 1989, according to 190 pages of classified documents. George I was president at the time. "Czechoslovakia ramped up spying on Trump in late 1980s, seeking US intel." Exclusive: aided by Ivana Trump’s father, intelligence service with KGB ties targeted high-level government information, files show. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/29/trump-czechoslovakia-communism-spying
Daniel, this is an excellent summation. I can't cite the publication(s) I've read, but do remember reading that Fred Trump employed Bratva-related firms in the conduct of his real estate businesses and Donald continued these relationships when he took over. It appears that the Trump family's connection to Russia predates Donald's birth.
I suspect that no significant deals have been made for real estate development in Russia because: 1. Donald doesn't have the mental horsepower to actually make deals, and 2. Russians recognize that.
Thanks Daniel... Malcolm Nance is one of my Favorite Authors... There are many Books about DJT the 'Destroyer'... Objectively DJT is a WMD... That makes DJT very useful to the Russians who never really ended the Cold War, and would like to end the U.S. led Western Order....
And then we had the 2024 election. Russia still meddling and then the kicker, muskrat making certain that his boy was elected by using his wealth and technology to manipthe vote.
Russia and Trump did not need to tamper with votes cast. They knew that they could rely on a mass of voters who had been carefully groomed by Limbaugh and Murdoch with misinformation and outright lies marinated in both overt and covert racism. Their bet was that these misinformed and resentful people would give them the power to do what they are now busy doing. And they have been proven right.
Quality education and critical thinking are some of the best ways to combat propaganda. That's why this regime is hell bent on destroying our already strained and defunded Department of Education, NPR & PBS, etc. Like all tyrannies, they are threatened by an educated populace that questions authority, demands truth from government, equality before the law. The dumbing down continues as the MAGA cult is proof and exemplifies the willful ignorance and disregard for proper education in America. Project 2025 has propaganda baked into its core with an absolutely delusional maniacal ignoramus despot as its leader.
horhai, in addition to your excellent recommendations, any and all threads of connection between religion and The State must be severed, including the freshly granted permission for preachers to endorse political candidates from the pulpit. Churches are a major source of propaganda, and should be taxed, just like any other profit-making enterprise. No religious precepts posted and no enforced religious meditations should be allowed in public classrooms.
To be truly free and fair, the U.S. must be an absolutely secular nation. Citizens and guests are free to practice religion in the privacy of their homes or in their respective places of worship, but those places may not be permitted to interfere with affairs of The State.
I think that we as human beings, and I don't exclude myself, are easier to manipulate than we, as individuals, or as an aggregate society are ready to admit. I don't see any easy solution to that, because we all have a responsibility for our individual actions, and we do (some many more than others) have choices. And yet, how we are raised, what we are told, likely to some extent, our DNA affects what we think, what we care about, and what we do. There may be no entirely satisfactory way to untangle this, but I think it deserves a great more attention. Lies enable racism, sexism, and homophobia. Lies promote aggressive wars. Lies killed thousand at the height of the COVID pandemic. Lies are destroying our republic. And while "to err is human" lies are a choice. Is it ever wise to trust a liar?
And yet freedom to express unpopular views is fundamental to a free society. What can we do to prevent dangerous behavior driven at least in part by malicious propaganda yet conserve robust freedom of speech? While there was a hell of a lot wrong going on in our nation pre-Reagan, I think we may have stuck a better balance with respect to mass media regulation, and in the court of public opinion, about both media monopolization and and the propriety of provable "official" lies. The record is uneven but, as was the case with Nixon's misdeed, seemingly wider trust for demonstrable truth.
Yes I think we have no choice but to have better regulation of media. People can say what they want in person, but it’s quite dangerous to let malicious propaganda flow unabated. I know that’s still not an answer because then who will decide what is propaganda? Certainly right now we can’t trust the government to decide- since they were put in place with the aid of malicious propaganda!
Heather has an excellent conversation with Jim Acosta a few days ago (available on Substack). They discuss the media and how it has and is changing.
The corporate media is first and foremost concerned about $$$$$s because they are, well, corporations. Do you think the Murdoch organization would be successful if they started telling the truth and not spewing hate and racism 24/7. And The NY Times has at least 5 Trump stories online every day. CNN, WAPO, LA Times, Newsmax, USA TODAY--they are all the same.
But then there are the Substack writers that have hundreds of thousands of followers, but for the most part, isn't why they are doing this.
Our education system as well as our centers of worship , in my opinion, have declined in substance. Many of our leaders are "self-serving" living for the moment....taking all they can for themselves.
Are we as citizens of this planet home going to continue with our human destruction of the very things that keep us alive and provide a future for sustaining a safe and healthy and honest intellectual life. We are imploding each day we choose to neglect doing something GOOD for our planet and our family throughout this world.
I do want to thank the many great ones who put their lives on the line every day to print the truth and who are working to slow down this spiral of decline....those who are looking to the future.
Our reality is shaped by what we notice, and in some respects, we are what we notice. What we notice involves exercise of our powers of observation, of tracking logical continuity, and what we care about, and as far as I can tell, that also enables honor and wisdom. Liberty and justice for all, among other things that underlay our quality of life as a species, are an environment as well as a right, and a right is something we respect as the due of others as well as for ourselves; including generations to come. If we think about it, we can identify some of the gifts we inherited from the forward-thinking people. We would be jerks to drop that ball entirely.
Again, I think we as a society would benefit from a more public sorting our values. What in the broad sense, and the extended sense, most matters? What can we put aside as childish things? What can we not afford to lose?
No Angela Russia didn’t get him into the White House that falls to James Comey if he kept his damn mouth shut and didn’t make such a big deal out of her emails she would’ve won. I can’t tell you all the pins I’ve stuck in voodoo dolls against James Comey.
Yes Ma'am! After a shocking conversation with a white retired male (no longer friend) at my church,,,, I realised I was under the very mistaken belief that Democrats were not racist and Mysogenist. Ha! They proved by failing Kamala, and refusing to vote, that Dems are as horrible as the Repugnicans.
I take issue with your generalization about "men." Some, maybe most, but not all men. I am a man who admires strong, intelligent women. I regard them as colleagues, not threats. I count many such women among my friends, as well as other men who respect them.
Truth be told, a multitude of women are also threatened by accomplished and/or disobedient women, and proved it by staying home or voting for Trump.
I apologize for my generalization. I will adjust my position and say most men. I have encountered men who align with your position. I have been called too much, too smart, too aggressive and intimidating for most of my life. It took me many years to accept my strong qualities and understand that I am not intimidating, others have been intimidated by me. I also agree with you about some women who are terrified. Thanks for picking up on that.
Some men are delighted by highly capable women. The patriarchy thing is one of several immature and malignant self-indulgent ego games. I believe we have an ego ("I") for a reason, but it becomes problematic, even evil, divorced from perspective and compassion.
Well, it's still a free country for the majority of us white folks,,, you can believe what you want. There are still way to many women MAGAs, for sure . Where are their brains!?!?!? Do they think for themselves AT ALL??
Sorry still view the general behaviour of men as a problem for me.
And yet Hillary DID win the popular vote!! She had so many enemies working against her and she won the vote anyway! So we can count the electoral college for trump’s win as well as Russia, Trump’s lies, e-mails, Benghazi, Q-Anon and all the BS she was up against. She won the vote of the people!!
Hillary is a strong and focused human being. She has taken many actions to improve the lives of women in many places throughout the world. Her chosen goals to do good have empowered her and keep her going...may she continue.
I have never noticed her asking for rewards or honors by which any human with her drive and accomplishments could reasonably expect.....and she does not stop.
So what? Anyone who has been involved in any presidential election KNOWS that winning the "vote of the people" is meaningless if you can't win enough states because that is the way it is set up. There are plenty of people who would point to the fact that she didn't win enough states to win the election even though she did win big in New York and California and that was the bulk of her majority popular vote "victory" (because its not really a victory as the popular vote doesn't count in Presidential elections and that is nothing new, it has been that way for several centuries). I don't think it is a terrific system, but it is the system we have and people who run for President know that and if they can't win the electoral vote, then they lose. End of story.
Complaining about the rules is a weak way to attack the winner of an election. If you don't like the rules, get them changed.
I’m quite aware of the rules of the electoral college and no, I don’t like them. My point was that even against all the interference and lies and rules she had more votes than Trump. I was just making a point not a complaint.
I complain about any structural distortion of the aggregated will of the the people. One person, one vote should be regarded as sacred, and that means every vote an equal share, no more, no less. The "Electoral College" is an aberration. I recall that I was dismayed about it when it was first brought to my attention, in 7th or 8th grade. The presidency/ vice presidency is the one office for which we are rightly equal constituents. If we cared enough about it, we could change it.
The only intelligent thing I can recall Reagan saying was "Trust but verify". A civil society is sustained by trust, but it's foolish to trust without foundation. We can't verify everything, but we can keep sampling, especially when something that particularly matters is at stake. Doubt (a healthy skepticism, not cynicism) is instructive. Critical thinking fully applied is also open-mindedness; question everything, and draw from you best developed knowledge and verification tools some degree of confidence. In professional science no case is ever entirely closed. Weigh "what matters" by both personal and societal standards. That's what appeals to me.
The poor fool who brought (and discharged) a gun to the Comet Ping Pong Pizza place thought he was being a hero, but he was only a pathetic deluded threat. Due diligence would help. We can teach that.
James Comey was also the lead prosecutor in the Martha Stewart case in 2003. She wound up serving five months in prison as well as five months of house arrest because of him, when he was head of the Southern District of New York. She probably has stuck pins in effigies of Comey too.
You know, I would be much more sympathetic if you used better examples. Martha Stewart was clearly guilty of pretty serious financial misdeeds and got the light sentence she did because she was Martha Stewart, a wealthy white woman who had status in the community. If a relatively unknown black woman had done those crimes, they would have rotted in prison for many years. Just because Stewart is a woman doesn't make her innocent and I am disgusted by anyone who tries to pass her off as a victim. There are PLENTY of people (men and women) who are thrown into prison for many years because they are poor and can't afford to defend themselves adequately, while Stewart had plenty of money to hire the best lawyers and "throw herself on the mercy of the court". In case you haven't noticed, it certainly didn't hurt her career all that much. The rich folks stick together in this country.
Janis, it is tempting to blame one group or individual for Trump's rise to power, but in fact, it was a "perfect storm" of multiple factors that came together and propelled him into the White House. Subtract one, and he might not have made it. But which one? It's not possible to know.
And yet Hillary DID win the popular vote!! She had so many enemies working against her and we can thank the electoral college for putting Trump in office, too. But even with all the BS of Russia’s interference, Trump’s lies, emails, Benghazi, Q-Anon and misogyny she still won the people’s election!
Lynn, the popular vote doesn’t matter. They gotta win the electoral college. I hate it but that’s what we’ve been left with and actually if it was only up to the popular vote the republicans would never win ever.
Heather well chronologizes today's sordid -- our sordid rulers.
But I'll go back. To the three H’s: housing, health, and the whoring of Republicans to grow their wealth gap for the rich.
I mentioned these three H’s some time ago (their common H sound). Now, in the midst of what David Cay Johnston calls our child serial rapist saga, I mention them again. That is for all Dems in all 2026 races for Congress to call continuously for 1) a single-payer national health care system; 2) the building of millions of homes for our working classes; and 3) for Dems to keep calling out Republicans for so criminally sucking up to the rich.
We are in the meantime still stuck in newest turns of the White House criminal trying to cover up his child serial rape history with pal Jeffrey. But this whole saga befits the larger criminality we’ve now for exactly ten years, from his descent on that escalator to proclaim most all brown skinned Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers to today’s sponsorship of his I.C.E. terrorism against all of brown skin.
When Dems take up a unified positive, they can restore leadership with some humanity, by the three H’s, but also by citing them in humane context, via real people they know, or characters from novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, essay collections, and food and travel sojourns across landscapes and communities.
We’re in a sordid time, with sordid criminal in the White House. It's a saga we can grow out of.
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2006, Trump very clearly ruled out having sex with 12-year-old girls. I don't understand why that hasn't settled this matter definitively.
I've seen the reporting, Rex, on the 13-year old girl who testified on Trump in 1994 raping her.
Apparently her father had recently died (leukemia) and only when he suddenly passed did the family learn the guy's boss had taken him off health care. So not only was the family bereft of being able to pay medical bills, but was also bankrupt and soon homeless.
The father had been involved with music -- and the now-fatherless and homeless girl went to Interlochen music camp one summer with her two brothers -- all of them apparently very talented.
Did you watch MSNBC this evening? They went into that in detail. But I don't think she said TRUMP did anything- she just heard he was a friend of Epstein & Maxwell. Those 2 did rape her, repeatedly.
Correct you are. I just went to the Lawrence O'Donnell for today, July 22 in the U.S., and saw that I erred. That girl was raped by Epstein and Maxwell -- she was 14 -- and not by Trump. Though his name was the first that came up when Epstein and Maxwell were discussing celebrity friends.
Prior to seeing yours, I'd intended to make my correction by adding an edit to mine to Rex.
But in another place -- forget where -- I did see testimony from a girl who at age 13 did experience sex with Donald. And another girl, only name she could remember was Marie -- who also participated, age 12.
"Jane Doe" also used the pseudonym "Katie Johnson".
Both Epstein and Trump had legions of lawyers. Yesterday, "Roy Black, one of the nation’s premier defense lawyers, die[d] in Coral Gables at 80 By Jay Weaver"
Black was one of Epstein's lawyers when Acosta gave Epstein the deal of the century and Trump got a get out of jail free card. His client is dead, so there is no attorney client privielege. His Epstein files may be interesting.
The Palm Beach Post identified dozens of potential witnesses. It's possible that some have reached deals that are not recorded anywhere. It takes good investigators to follow up. Trump has a history of paying off witnesses. When "Jane Doe" was filed, she was represented by Thomas Meagher of New Jersey. What does he say? Does he have a file? Did he send Trump/Epstein a demand letter prior to filing suit?
Meanwhile the DOJ files may/may not hold a treasure trove. If I were the judge in NY, faced with the motion to open the grand jury, I'd ask for an "in camera" secret review of the file to see that justice is not abused.
"Earlier this week, a “Jane Doe” testified at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial that she met Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell in between classes at Interlochen Arts Camp in the early 90’s while she was having ice cream with friends (the pair stopped to talk with her). She alleges that upon returning home to Florida from Camp, her mother and she visited Epstein and Maxwell, after which began a period of grooming and later sexual abuse. No abuse is alleged to have taken place on the Interlochen campus. Our policies, then and now, do not permit unsupervised contact between students and donors."
I was not aware of the accusation of raping a girl of 13. My comment had to do with a Howard Stern interview of Trump when Trump was 60 years old (interview cited by Lawrence O’Donnell on his July 21, 2025 show on MSNBC at about the 16-minute mark). Trump was bragging about having no problem “banging” (as Stern phrased it) 24-year-olds. When asked about age limits on the low end, he said he had none but then modified that to exclude 12-year-olds, with a clear implication that sex with 13-year-olds would be no problem for him.
Many wiser than I have pondered this question. I suppose it might argued that no one took his candidacy seriously and even when he secured the Republican nomination there were still those within the party unconvinced that he had the credentials to win against perhaps the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history.
Even more bewildering is the decision of millions of Americans to vote for him a second time in full knowledge of his chequered past and their reluctance to abandon him even as he consigns the country to another four years of chaos.
“Powerful men take advantage of vulnerable women, and powerful men think that they are doing nothing wrong.”
THOUGHT CRIME
“Jeffrey Epstein wasn't an outlier, he was a prototype, a predator who operated in plain sight, protected by the powerful, normalized by the elite.”
THOUGHT CRIME
"Trump 2.0" is an 2025 American political and psychological horror neo-noir documentary about con-men and confidence scams set in a morally decaying Washington DC and starring Donald Trump as the deteriorating personification of sexual perversion and White backlash.
The felon used the word, "obfuscate"? Could not have been the Donald because he couldn't have such a word in his vocabulary. Wouldn't even know what it means. The House started their nice, long summer vacation this evening. Who said they earned it? What a bunch of cowards.
Distract, deflect, project, obfuscate, lie, and repeat…. His supporters cannot be so blind to not see this.
Involvement in scandal is part of Trump’s history. Integrity, bipartisanship, and honesty are not part of his history.
With Speaker Johnson’s support, Trump is trying to get away from transparency. How do some of these so-called religious/moral types square their loyalty with their basic beliefs?
I see a circus freak show straight out of American literature. It will be okay to do it if we freely give up our orgasm to God as a heart felt sacrifice. Eh Gantry?
Phil, I think Johnson's beliefs are more along the lines of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" than anything to do with caritas. A lot of those religious nuts are pure sadists. (See the Inquisition...)
Johnson talked about he and his 17 year old son having some kind of computer/phone monitors that will notify the other if one hits on porn. Johnson said his son is clean. He didn't say HE was! Also, I wonder if that kid is smart enough to watch porn on friends' computers. All that, but teenaged girls being raped is not important for a review of available files
Alexandra, we might notice that the commandment (Exodus 20:17) against coveting what belongs to others calls the people to honor persons and property that are in the care of others.
Are you trying to say "coveting" is the same as rape or child abuse? I've had people try to make that argument before and it doesn't wash. Rape and pedophilia are atrocities, not property crimes. Rape, child abuse, torture and slavery are not prohibited in the Bible because men of the time didn't want those crimes restricted, and obviously the same still goes for some men today.
Alexandra, I agree that the culture of the Bible is patriarchal. Disallowing coveting, however, is a command against the privilege of the patriarchs and anyone else who wants to deprive others of their sovereignty. To covet is to take action not merely to wish. It is not okay to take into one’s own power a person or a person’s properties. That is a protection of ownership of self and belongings not only for that other person but for oneself. This was how Martin Luther understood the command against coveting.
Ugh! The perpetual religious habits of isolating short passages of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka "verses") and expanding word definitions to justify some beliefs while narrowing other definitions to absolve followers of hypocrisy is beyond tedious.
Quoting from texts ascribed to a culture that regarded women as chattel is neither helpful nor relevant.
Dale, Fair enough. Know, however, that I am not interested in excusing rapists. The point I was making comes from understanding “covet” (not re-defining it to absolve anyone) as desire that is acted upon. Martin Luther described the admonition against coveting to be a way that protects everyone from those who would do harm. Other people and their property belongs to them not to you and me. The command against coveting is a command against what Epstein did.
What with Trump's heaviweights "conferring" with Ghislaine Maxwell as they are, I'm on red alert for some high level Witness Tampering. The entire setup is fishy as hell.
I'm sure her minimum price is to get sprung from jail and have her passport back, but to get that I wonder how distorted of a story she would have to agree to provide. Whatever she says tho, at this point I also wonder if the public will buy that line of jive.
I can just see Trump saying that Maxwell was “wrongly prosecuted by Obama/Biden” and the “whole thing was a hoax … just like the Russian investigation in 2016.” You notice what’s on Trump’s mind today: discrediting the 2016 Russian involvement, just like he wants to discredit the whole Epstein involvement. Maxwell will be pardoned because there was “no crime,” and close the books on the whole Epstein case because Trump just proved “there’s nothing there.”
Using the methodology of reprobate lawyer Roy Cohn, accusing others of the actions you took leads to the inescapable conclusion: Trump is the pedophile everyone is searching for.
Occam's Pedophilia --- in the absence of contradictory data, and despite chronic moral insufficiency when one ridiculous squirrel after another fails to deflect attention from the Epstein files, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.
In this bizarre press conference, Trump said that Obama was treasonous and "every other word you could think of", even inventing one of his own - 'sedatious'. He's completely unhinged and one can understand Mike Johnson's decision to shut down the House today as this story continues to spiral out of control. It's his version of climbing into a hole and hoping that it will all somehow just fade away so long as he remains there. This after casually remarking in an interview that he thought the administration should disclose all the Epstein files.
Trump, however, crazilly continues to put the Epstein story right out front by authorising the DoJ interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, conducted by his own attorney, Todd Blanche. Do you suppose that he's seriously considering a commutation or pardon for her in return for new testimony exculpating him for his long, poisonous association with a paedophile?
It prompted an official rebuke from Obama's spokesperson, who said words to the effect that 'ordinarily we wouldn't dignify such unhinged lunacy with a response, but we're making an exception in this ridiculous case.'
I agree with Ricardo. Trump is vicious in his pursuit of revenge. He must be resisted. I note that in the response from his office, Obama points out that the fact of Russian interference in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump was confirmed by a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence committee, then chaired by a certain Senator Marco Rubio. How absolutely mortifying for that wretched man to have his ignominious submission to Trump laid so bare.
Every time the scumbag president or any his minions open their mouths, it should be an exception that deserves a response . Embarrassing to say the least.
I can just see Trump saying that Maxwell was “wrongly prosecuted by Obama/Biden” and the “whole thing was a hoax … just like the Russian investigation in 2016.” You notice what’s on Trump’s mind today: discrediting the 2016 Russian involvement, just like he wants to discredit the whole Epstein involvement. Maxwell will be pardoned because there was “no crime,” and close the books on the whole Epstein case because Trump just proved “there’s nothing there.”
I think he’ll pardon her, she’s an old friend after all, and she has a good case for a reversal anyhow, although that’s not without it’s own consequences, ie admitting that she was complicit and not innocent. As soon as she is released, she’s gone, back to Europe, she has zero reason to stay here where she can be subpoenaed endlessly. That would take her out of the news cycle, and we know only too well how attentive the news cycle can be. It’s not easy, but put yourself in her shoes, what would you do if his lawyer was dangling a pardon between you and another 15 years in prison. 🤷♂️
If only they could keep him sedated. He seems entirely fuelled on bile from the early hours of the morning when many of his most insane posts appear on Truth Social. His press conferences have become an angry ritual of rebarbative denunciations and baseless accusations.
"People from gangs, jails and mental institutions."
Remember, every accusation --- a confession. EVERY accusation, a self-indictment. Every single accusation --- a litany describing himself, his own evil, his insanity, his people, his criminality, his cruelty.
After Trump's decision to disclose the FBI's files showing the agency's scurrilous attempts to discredit her father, the late Martin Luther King jnr (which only proved that Trump could authorise the release of all the Epstein files held by the DoJ today if he wanted), Bernice King posted this on Twitter/X:
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. About everything ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic.
I am writing to our AK congress rep. Begich. I am telling him I expect for him to join that discharge petition to release those files. This can't die down over the next 6 weeks.
If there was a 'Sad' emoji, I would have used that! Mine is the silent spineless type. Does as he's told, not what his constituents ask for. Rarely answers emails. Doesn't do town halls. But this is DEEP Red Ohio, so...
Sending the House home almost guarantees that Congress will not pass appropriations by the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, the Dems smell blood in the water and have increased their willingness to fight the GOP - perhaps even by shutting the government down.
Normally a government shutdown hurts the party that is obstructionist but I suspect the Dems would be applauded for shutting Trump's government down.
Dear Heather: I so admire your ability to remain emotionally neutral as you write these insightful missives to America. You truly are a national treasure.
Late Today:
***********
A Florida Judge gave RUPERT, WSJ & the other Trump Defendants until September 2025 to file & written Response. That's substantial, huge, procedural time for RUPERT to Lock & Load.
BREAKING: Wednesday Afternoon:
**********************************
The Wall Street Journal reported 4 hours ago that back in May 2025 AG PAMELA BONDI
told Trump that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein Investigative Files.
Bondi advised Trump not to release the files.
WSJ Authors: Sadie Gurman, Annie Linskey, Josh Dawes & Alex Leary.
Within the last hour, REUTERS confirmed Pam Bondi told Trump his was name appears in the Epstein investigative files. With more than 2 months notice, developments raise the Trump legal issue of spoliation of evidence.
Per the AP House overnight Subcommittee did vote to subpoena DOJ's Epstein files.
************************************************************************************
Per, Alicia Menendez, Anchor of MSNBC's 'The Weekend' personal work product, there are at least five(5) Congressional developments to blow open the Epstein-Maxwell felonies:
* House EFTA, Epstein Files Transparency Act
* Senator Wyden's Follow the Money probe
* House Oversight Committee's plans to subpoena G. Maxwell
* House Judiciary Dems holding a hearing to compel DOJ Officials to testify
Although there already is substantial Trump, Maxwell & Epstein facts publicly available now such as the newly published Trump Epstein photos highlighted by HCR in the LFAA & the dramatic recreation of testimony a from a vulnerable 14 year old Epstein & Maxwell targeted at a Summer Camp & whose testimony was stunningly recreated by Lawrence O'Donnell earlier tonight.
It wouldn't be surprising if Trump's love affair with Putin is related to the Epstein files and the fact that Trump and Epstein trafficked Russian girls as well as other Eastern European women like Melania. And Putin is well aware and likely complicit.
So the war that Trump promised to end on Day 1 was just another Trump hoax and millions of people are suffering as a result.
In Trump’s mind, I don’t believe it was a hoax; Trump really believed that he and Putin were becoming best buds. Trump most likely thought he could sway Putin anytime he wished to do so. And all the while, Putin was having his way with Trump as if daddy Putin was the father of Trump, the manchild. No… this is more like the delusional acts of one we know to be… we’ll… delusional.
I hear music in the background. What could it be?
Oh, it's Putin playing Trump like a fiddle.
I don't think Putin has to do anything.
Putin is smart; all he has to do is wait and watch stupid crazy Trump destroy America. So, also with China; every dumb thing, actually anything, Trump does: Makes China Great Again.
Ummmm…. Yup!
I don't think so. Trump never ever cared about anything but himself. He clearly doesn't care about Ukraine either.
In the meantime, the neofascists who took over the GOP and write Trump's executive orders clearly AGREE with Trump's palace ideologue, Alexander Dugin, on many things, including that fascism is a better political regime than democracy, and that there will only be world peace once a few big dictatorships control the world, which is why they WANT Putin to take over democratic Ukraine in the first place.
So I don't think Trump has a lot to say about this. As usual, it's the people behind the scenes who control him and merely need him as his clown in chief, distracting us all while they get him to do what they want (and he HAS to obey if he wants to stay out of prison... ).
... more like a closeted S&M lover than a "daddy."
I have to wonder if Putin reminds Trump of his actual father.
American intelligence had long considered trump a Russian asset. Knowing the weakness of men who feel there are no constraints on them, if I were Putin it would just be sensible to keep a stable in hand to be deployed as needed. The tossable ones that lower level oligarchs could peddle, and the top ones aimed at....a fool who might be possibly to get elected.
Women are just property after all.
And then there's the purveyor to the rich and blackmailble, who unfortunately perished in prison despite, or because of, his lofty friendships.
You really can't make this stuff up.
Trump may be trying to protect not only himself, but Melania.
You mean that vacant, golddigger who once wore a coat that said: we don't care, and whose name Kennedy Center might be assigning ti one of its theaters? She probably can't even name a single opera or composer. I have zero respect for her.....
Stephanie. I hope if they name the opera house of the Kennedy Center after that gold digger that every company will refuse to perform there. This is just another attempt to turn good things, valued things, into shit.
Kennedy Center forever tainted. 😢
I agree. When the gay men's choir was denied the opportunity to perform at Kennedy, the Strathmore Music Center here in Bethesda scheduled them.
This gesture, if they name the opera theater after her, along with Trump's takeover of the center is a smack in the face of the cultured elite. This will all be undone when we return to normal....first let's return to normal.
In the meantime, there is plenty of great theater here - music, opera, symphony, chamber, jazz, etc. I hope "normal" returns in my lifetime....
LOL! As if ...
Donald thought he was getting another model-bimbo like his previous wives, but Mel had a bit more smarts, maybe not enough to justify a "genius visa," but more than pretty faces, Ivana and Marla. She satisfied her desire for motherhood and negotiated a sweet financial deal before cutting loose that stinking bag of farts and profanity coated in mismatched makeup.
At this point, she's a legal nuisance to Donald whose only use is to decorate his arm on special occasions, at an annoying high cost.
Actually Ivana was so much smarter than Trump he couldn’t handle it. She was running things during his only successful years. I read stories about this in 2016.
Well, just about anyone is smarter than Donald.
Ivana was an assertive woman who took an active role in the Trump businesses, but I think it might be a stretch to say she was "running things." They were divorced in 2000.
According to Mary L. Trump, Donald's finances remained in the red until 2003 when he got millions as an advance toward his participation in the TV series, The Apprentice. Most Trump observers regard the years he was involved in the TV series as his "successful years." That would suggest that Ivana wasn't part of it.
I'm sure Ivana's personal strength was a factor, but considering who Donald is, it's more likely that he was losing interest in her because she wasn't aging gracefully. He was seeing Marla Maples as early as 1989.
Which is why he may be protecting Melania. He needs her.
There are all kinds of smarts. Melania is part of their act now. She will wait him out. I agree he wants to be on her good side and will not cross her. No evidence, just a feeling that she's got stuff on him. If not they have a meeting of craven minds. (see my below). Also she's got the son, Barron, in training.. coming along nicely.
Nah, Potter. Are you forgetting that Donald is a malignant narcissist with autocratic tendencies who has advanced into the early-to-middle stages of dementia?
You may think Donald needs Melania's good will and cooperation, and I might even agree with you. But Donald isn't thinking that strategically. He literally thinks he's the smartest man in any room; that he can talk or bully his way out of any uncomfortable situation. And why wouldn't he? The universe has bent to his will, so far.
As for Melania, all she ever wanted was to live in the lap of luxury. That's why she held her nose and performed for Donald, then held her nose again and married him. She got her son. She got her contract. She's done.
She has been obvious in displaying her loathing for politics and power, so I doubt she has any political ambitions for Barron. However, he's half Donald, so he might be eyeing that kind of power. I suspect Melania might try to discourage him, but not stop him.
The day Trump protects Melania is a cold day, indeed. He would throw her under the bus in a minute. He disposed of his first two wives, why not this one too.
No- she's a partner. She can ruin him I have read with what she knows.. especially now.. true or not, sounds plausible. She has their son. She has had it made in the shade financially including getting her parents here and having them taken care of. She puts up with him.. I suspect lives separately (obviously). She has prestige (of sorts). She may even have a fella. Nice!
The nice fella? Probably one of their Secret Service agents don't you think? A brand new meaning to "service" and "secret."
If you said Ivanka, I might believe you. Melania? NOPE
Protect Melania? Hahahahahahahahahaha.
yes, they are tied together, partners.
That's hysterical. Thanks
And here we were thinking it was pee tapes.
Yes, the golden shower on his golden dome.
That the mind of a narcissist cemented into their delusions is incessantly repeated, listened to, rehashed, rewritten, or most ludicrously that which is BELIEVED….is mind boggling.
That we have apparently little to no way of ridding the whole lot ..further thinking any one of them is going to make America better…spells boldly…we are in serious trouble..not just politically ..but as a species.
Let's resurrect pursuing the Russian "pee-pee" videos.
The fact that Mike Johnson sent everyone home actually prolongs this probe. Now we'll all wait until September 2nd to see what the Oversight Committee etc. will do. This is not going away.
This is actually better for us because most people start paying more attention to this stuff in the fall.
What stinks is our tax dollars paying for these crooks extended 42 day vacation!
I'd rather pay them to stay home than pay them to muck everything up.
And let them return to the homecoming their constituents have waiting for them.
Exactly. The Congresspeople were probably begging Johnson to stay in D.C. so they would not have to face their constituents at the local State Fair.
Well, so far it’s been an America unmucked. lol. And you have to pay them either way Lauren just like you did when the Democrats are in power I took the same amount of vacation or more.
You may not know this but in the Mid-Atlantic region where Washington DC is we are experiencing extreme weather thunderstorms mixed with 100 degrees temperatures high humidity. It’s actually been a bit unusual for us to see this extremes. I would want to leave too.
Yes........but. I spoke with my wonderful mailman yesterday. He was telling me how they have changed his route, making it longer and more complex. I told him how my sister in Chicago has given up: they sometimes get no mail for nearly two weeks, so now they weekly drive to the PO to get their mail. My other sister said she went a full week without mail, and when her mail arrived about 9 pm, she saw her mailman who told her he was working his third route of the day.
Yesterday, my mailman was sweating profusely. I have told him anytime he needs water, a bathroom break, or just to get out of the heat for awhile, he is always welcome. He expressed concerns about the upcoming heat dome over Chicago, saying "I'm not sure I can do this." He appears to be in his mid 50s.
If HE can carry mail, those (insert your favorite bad words here) legislators can sit in their (insert another favorite bad word) office and DO SOME ACTUAL LEGISLATING!!
And, those (fill in your favorite &^$@*) republican "legislators" have air conditioning and access to pools, year round vacations (where they can seek whatever weather they choose!) because they sure as hell aren't doing an ounce of actual work.
Welcome to the climate crisis and the new normal. Don’t expect any help from the denier in chief in the White House. And if your property is damaged or destroyed, don’t expect FEMA to step in and help with clean up, food and clean water or rebuilding assistance. Just ask Kerrville, Texas. There are still people missing and unaccounted for. Let alone how many homes and businesses were damaged and destroyed.
Is Washington, DC miserably hot and humid? Yup. So is my home town here in Minnesota. So is the entire south. Leaving DC is just about avoiding accountability for the Epstein mess among many others, not about finding relief from the heat
I know we have an exemplified example of double standard and hypocrisy. The people in Carolinas from the hurricane that happened during Bidens administration are still waiting for help and how long is the time you’re here in a ha?
Yes but Republicans are big strong alpha males who can handle anything. They don’t cry, except those supporters who always walk up to Trump with tears in their eyes, they face problems head on by belittling their opponents and they all pee standing up, even the women.
Besides the GOP Reps were already having a problem with angry constituents when they had meetings in their home districts. I expect soon to see more of the same on the news.
YES THE COST OF ALL THIS ! I HOPE SOMEONE DIGS INTO HOW MUCH THIS IS COSTING US
AND AFTER THE MIDTERMS, SO MANY PEOPLE WITHOUT MEDICAID
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME AND M-O-N-E-Y!!!!
Joanne, you're just like all the other people on the thread. They think they have a crystal ball well they don't and you don't know what's gonna happen in the future. It just so happens that this is exactly the Medicaid treatment that Clinton did nothing different just to force people who were able body to go back to work. Everybody else will qualify. We'll get the same benefits are getting now don't listen to garbage that's exactly what's happening.
Stop projecting read the bill and understand who if anyone will be without Medicaid.
There is some truth to what you say. Yes, you remain so stupid that I convinced you to buy my book. If you read it it it should have done you good. Btw, after 6 more stores being added now I will have about 10 more stories added from the edition you have. May I encourage you to buy it after I amtold the editions have been added? Yes?
The corruption is so remarkably transparent now - not even trying to hide it.
You are correct they are remarkably exposing the liberal transparency from Biden ministration detail by detail every single day, and it gets worse.
You must be blind. Trump changed FEMA and destroyed our Federal system of working with Disasters. Not Biden.
What disaster are you speaking of? Lol. The people in Carolina are still waiting for Biden to get off his ass and address their issues and it’s how long has it been now?
https://www.charlottestories.com/nhc-releases-final-helene-report-widespread-death-and-6-billion-in-damage-across-north-carolina/
Perhaps you prefer to talk about the 15,000 homes and structures from the California fires. Where government failed Miserably and didn’t even have water in the reservoir to put out the fires because of their neglect and ignorance while one was in Africa, doing nothing the other was blaming Trump for not filling his own reservoir laugh my ass while the fires destroyed one of the beauty of most beautiful cities in California and Altadena as well
Trump wasn’t president when that happened.
And when it comes to getting things done where AOC in Mayorkas and the borders CZAR. LMAO said the only way to fix the border was legislation and Trump fixed it in 75 days. It’s only a matter of Will and Biden had none of that and the people in Carolina are still waiting for help so don’t tell me about disasters. The flood in Texas was responded to appropriately and given an appropriate warning and that’s been proven now but of course you don’t wanna hear that and the river Rose 26 feet and 45 minutes in the middle of the night there were three warnings that went out and the office that was in charge of that particular area was overstaffed at the time. Oooooops
The disaster Of the border. We are anywhere from 11 to 15,000,000 illegals are now getting federal monies where California has spent almost $30 billion over the last three years on illegals. That’s where your fema dollars are going.
Well, nobody ever accused Reverend Mike of being intelligent; he's just saved, sanctified and devoted to his dumbass deity, Donald. (Love me some alliteration.)
Dale, one of my friends and I would like to design a special place in hell for little johnson. Yes, great alliteration. I always enjoy that.
Ooh, ooh! Can I help? I have experience in commercial architectural design and I have some exciting ideas about now to torture an evangelical closet case.
Oh, absolutely, we welcome all ideas.
😂👍🏻
As Penny said, “Not Going Away”
And more and more photos are being unearthed.
Proof that you guys live in the past in history books. They’ll be thousands of photos of some of the most famous people on the planet many of them people you were once admired. So keep hoping that they open and live relive the past… just prepare yourself for what they might show it’s not gonna be all roses, so be ready it may be more hurtful than you can even comprehend
Any and all those participating in Epstein’s underage parties needs to be exposed, regardless of their political party.
So let me say it again as I did the other day why wasn't it submitted or exposed when Biden had the files in January 2024. These are incidents probably that happened 15 maybe even 20 years ago and you wanna ruin all the families all the lives. All the people you've admired in the past but now you will hate if any of those names appear and you wanna bring that back now? I don't really care either way, but I don't think you're ready for what might appear and I don't think it's gonna change a damn thing other than families being destroyed
Johnson is not brilliant.
The fact that Johnson had to send the House members home is telling. 1. The Speaker of the House is totally under the control of the Prez. Of course, we knew that. So.much for Congressional independence. 2. The fact that they had to be sent home could be interpreted as a confession of guilt by Trump. You can fill in the blanks as to what the crimes might be.
They’re hoping it will blow 0ver and Democrats will give up. They’ve come to yet another standstill and won’t be passing anything because they’re afraid their own caucus will vote to release everything. Moses always runs for cover when he’s losing. They shouldn’t get paid.
They are just hoping we will forget!
Sharon please don’t be ignorant that list contains everybody. If there is a list.
And as I keep saying, too many people here it’s gonna hurt people that you’ve admired most of your life and their families all over the world
The MAGAs will now rip trump apart.
Good luck with that Bill just another person who thinks they can see in the future you will know exactly what happened when the future arrives, which is never, but you might know what happens after the epstein files are either revealed or not but not until then
2 days before his suicide, Epstein set up a Trust naming DARREN INDYKE, his lawyer & RICHARD KHAN his is former accountant as Trustees.
An attorney for over 200 Epstein victims. BRADLEY EDWARDS was interviewed on Lawrence O'Donnell tonight. The victims & the Executors of Epstein Estate can confirm the 50th "Birthday Book" exists & can be produced from the relevant law firms in possession of the gift book, Trautmann & the Patterson law firms.
Nothing like the "Best Evidence" to resolve facts particularly when the facts are only disputed by Donald J. Trump.
Penny, hopefully with this break (multiple vacations that taxpayers pay) it doesn’t lose momentum.
We all know the felon liar is a child rapist - this is why he's totally losing his shit right now. We also know the system is totally rigged in favor of rich white men and their disgusting sexual obsessions which lean heavily toward raping children. This has been going on since the beginning of time and now we all see it right in front of us. The question is what will we do about it?
Except for having to vote on releasing the Epstein files, I’m not sure why little MAGAMike thought sending the House home til September was a good idea. Does he think voters won’t be confronting House members? I think there should be a protest in front of my Congress critter’s office til he is voted out of office. Do House members plan to hide somewhere for the next 42 days? WTAF?
Great idea! Hold signs saying, "Deep state employee", "______ protects pedophiles", "Is _______ also on the list?"
I'm happy with "Trump is a pedophile" or "Trump is a rapist."
I really hope if they don't hold town hall meetings, organizers hold them with empty seats.
My congresscritter is Rick Allen, a white Republican. I live in the suburbs of Augusta GA. When Allen goes “home”, it’s to his mansion on Sea Island. Rich White Boy won’t come here, because Augusta is majority minority, right down to the city government, and reliably Democratic.
And apparently there are a bunch of racists here as well… Who would’ve thunk it?
What did you base that conclusion on?
JennSH, I hope the constituents of these R Reps make their lives miserable for the rest of the summer.
Do you actually believe that whatever is in those files is a going to hurt only people that you hate? I keep telling people but you don’t wanna listen Joe Biden had these files in January 2024, and didn’t release them when he could’ve hurt Trump the most. Put that in your head
I don’t care. If Democrats are guilty, they should be tried and put in prison just like everybody else I don’t care how wealthy you are how white you are how much power you have if you’re raping children, you should be in prison or even better taken out back and shot in the head
Terry, there will be too much unknown and probably beyond some statues of limitation’s to do anything. The statue, a limitation‘s are so different, and so varied and so obtuse that would be hard to convict anybody at this point in time because I don’t think they’ll be enough information If there’s a lot of video, and there might well be, that might be a different story but even then there’s gonna be people that say it’s consensual there may even be contracts by these women that agree, for example, and then they’re gonna have to be able to prove that this woman was under age at that time and only way they will do that is by video or photographs clearly showing that the victims face which will have to be blot it out
That’s one of the problems and there will be trials and they will be unknown gray areas just because somebody was on a plane doesn’t mean they inflicted any damage on an underage girl or boy? I can almost be assured that if everything comes out, you will be more angry that Justice doesn’t get served than it does.
Keep in mind, not that it matters that many of these people have tremendous wherewithal, and will fight tooth and nail to protect their images, their wealth and their reputations. These things will be drawn out for a long period of time.
Ps I didn’t hear people screaming when Biden didn’t release them because they had a suspicion that because he didn’t release them,
There are Democrat names they don’t want released.!!!
Has Biden has these files in January 2024 you have to ask yourself why they weren’t released.
People are frothing at the mouth because they think they can hurt Trump.
I’m fine with releasing them, but you will unleash the hell hounds of hell with the ex butts and maybes and I’m telling you they’ll be more unhappiness when they release them, should they get released, then there is now.
Have you read any of the posts by independent journalists telling us how extremely difficult it is to get such files released and why? I'm not holding my breath as I wait for that event.
Pat, it’s wonderful to welcome such open minded thinking here put the head above the heart and realize the issues at hand. Thank you for your levelheaded, Post
The narcissist is being backed into a corner and his reactions are textbook.
Especially with Bondi doing everything to protect Trump. And Ghislaine Maxwell has been holding out hope of a pardon or reduced sentence ever since Trump came into office. Now, she has every reason to say whatever he wants her to say.
WSB. I love your post. I can’t tell you how much I love your post.
Let me repeat for the hundredth time. Joe Biden, and the Biden administration had these files on their desk January 2024 when he could’ve actually destroyed Trump if he wanted to and if there was something in those files that would do that. But he didn’t so think about what that should tell you!! Think very hard
Again - why is TRUMP trying so hard to hide them? By your same flawed logic - if its full of Clinton and Obama why is Trump hiding them? Take your own advice and THINK VERY HARD.
Here’s a little hint for you by the way, every president is a narcissist. And you can go down the list of other elected officials, such as governors and congressman. Very few are pure altruists. If they were, they would all vote for term limits and that’s your proof.
Yes, this president is a pedophile. I am not holding my breath that the Epstein files will ever be released.
The longer they delay, the bigger they lose, Dan. This is the start of a brand new Congress... I hope it stays in the news and they throw mega tons of unbelievable shit at the wall all the way to next Nov.
Lauren, we know that will in the hope that something sticks.
Me, either. I had my hopes up with Mueller.
Thank you for saying that. I have long thought that, based on things he's said. I am concerned that if the files are released he would be redacted out of them as the main "victim".
The likely success of Representative THOMAS MASSIE's (R-KY)discharge Petition that would bring the production of the Epstein files to a vote no matter what Reverend Coconspirator thinks or does reportedly had over 20 R supporters actually shut down the House for the Summer.
Made me think of Frazey Ford's September Fields, 🎶 You better get up for your Moma, You better grab the best of your Life ... Do you Ache in Your Body & Mind? 🎶
Ok, Bryan, here we go trading songs again. In my reply to Dan above, I thought of the Who "Won't Get Fooled Again".
Stay cool and keep fighting the good fight.
Yep, reactivated my Cal State Bar License which you probably already know. So 🎶 I'm back to let you know, I can really put 'em down 🎶
The same thing that is always done with powerful white men. Absolutely nothing.
We stock up on popcorn and let MAGA rip him apart, Terry. They're more up in arms over the cover up than we are. They're surprised - we're not. We know PP is a pervert and criminal - they thought he was a god king. They believe the files will show that Hillary's a cannibal and Bill's a playah. Sorry MAGA, prolly not.
Lauren, if Bill Clinton is one, so be it. For being intelligent, he has been also been incredibly stupid. HRC would have made a good president and we wouldn't have to contend with the horrible Supremes. Tried to tell people in 2016; got the middle finger.
I doubt Bill plays a big part in the files. Otherwise the felon rapist would’ve released them by now…
Terry, I agree. Bill has always had a hard time keeping it in his pants, but he has never shown any sexual interest in underage girls. My guess is that he flew to Epstein's island, thinking there would be beautiful women waiting. When he saw that Jeff was raping children, he asked to be flown home. Bill was a dawg, but not a rapist.
I would be scrutinizing the flight manifests for repeat visitors, not the one-timers.
But beyond that, Donald has no bone to pick with Bill, who is, after all, a member of the "Old White Men's Club."
Donald does, however, have bones to pick with Obama and Hillary; he's a Black man and she's a powerful woman, members of two groups Donald loathes.
For many years a story was the Bill Clinton made many trips there, which is no proof, of anything. Fact, as I mentioned in former post, there was a rumor that Bill and Hillary went together, one time. Just a rumor, but that’s what the rumor was. Agana proves nothing
What cover-up are you speaking about? Are you speaking about Biden’s cover-up where he had the files a year and a half ago and didn’t release them? I don’t think that’s the case lol
Time to dig up the orange felon's indictment in CA for raping a 13 year old? The one dropped after death threats were made?
In The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) and in Lost Illusions and other of his early-19th century novels (Balzac), wealthy married men routinely bought and "kept" girls of ages 15 or 16 for long-term "protection" and usage. The girls could later be rented, traded or sold, but tended to be short-lived.
Yuk. Horrific! But like I said, this has been the norm throughout history. Women are just here to be used and abused by men, rich and poor.
In this government of wealth and appetites I think this may not end with for the public. This only ends if trump dies or has a massive stroke. Compiling evidence from former child victims may not be enough compared to what Maxwell might be persuaded to say in order to receive a pardon. Celebrity culture will always plunge us into a moral void. Perverted ethics, lies and manipulation dominate today's politics. Trump is a master of this cult of distraction.
The idea of having a maximum income and maximum wealth limits, makes more sense day by day as this disgusting saga of the rich motherfuckers unfolds. Tax them right into the middle class.
Hey Terri, do you know who you’re talking about? when you talk about billionaires? Do you know how many there are in this country and you know how they became billionaires? Why don’t you look it up first before you start your rant? I want to realize that the top one percent of income earners in this country pay 40% of the tax in this country.
Actually, Stephanie, what would be really good if Trump is allowed to finish his term and continues to make America great.
And keep in mind, Stephanie Maxwell could’ve been persuaded to say anything when Joe Biden had the files in January in 2024. Oooooops
There is no stopping him. Mistakes he has made have their own relentless momentum and there are no means to check their course. That's real power to be a tyrant. He fills his maga followers with gratitude and the rest of us with fear.
Fear? Like what?
Terry, Amen
Try this there, Terry he's also your president. For 3 1/2 more years.
There is so much hopelessness here. It’s really sad to see. America is screaming along in success and there’s so much NEEDLESS anger hate and depression here. You might want to Change the channel you’ll be better off…
Alicia is The Weeknight now and I wish she were solo.
she has found her voice in the past year. I am so impressed with how she talks, frames things. She has learned well.
Agree! She is professional, asks pertinent questions and doesn’t interject her emotions into the interviews. I feel much more calm and get a greater understanding.
🎯
Concur. Solid Alicia should be a solo Anchor.
She's been doing that for years subbing for Nicole Wallace, Katy Our, etc.
Eleanor, Good idea! I’m remembering when she first began reporting on MSNBC. She has really come into her own as a reporter.
Why?
It hurt my heart and soul to hear Lawrence read aloud that poor girl’s under-oath testimony about what Epstein and Maxwell did to her. Appalling is too mild a word!
I wonder if this "visit" to Maxwell by the Dept of Injustice is to bully and intimidate her into keeping her mouth shut.
Absolutely! It's a promise of a pardon if Maxwell never says the "Tr***" word aloud. Ever. And with her set of morals, she'll agree in a heartbeat.
Thought the same thing. Sigh.
Bryan, I've posted this elsewhere: WHAT THE HECK IS TRUMP SO AFRAID OF?
I always figured he's a sex abuser, and I even considered he probably abused older teens. I've also seen how many 14-15 year old girls mature early, and with makeup, etc, look much older; I am sure if he had sex with one of them, the MAGA would blame the girl. That's just the way it goes. Women know this.
So, NOW, I am becoming more and more curious. I'm not sure I WANT to know what is in there, but prior to this, I figured it was just another thing that rich, powerful (and generally, white) men get away with.
On a side note: is anyone else as incredulous that we have this sort of CRAP being TWEETED by the President of the United States?!?!?! When I think of the stories I've read about Biden, Obama, even Bush reading the binders of intel every night, when I think of the HOURS they put into the job, I wonder if any of the MAGA consider WHO IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? Even those with a factory job who leave the work behind when they clock out can't be up all night long tweeting stuff. Do they consider that their military kids/grandkids actual lives depend upon foreign relations being made by.....who?!? Certainly not Trump!
I'm recalling how happy I was when Biden took office, if nothing else (and I had plenty of reasons to be happy!) that there wasn't constant CHAOS. Good lord I'm getting tired. I think I need to back off from the news cycle and politics for a few days.
Much to agree with in your comment, Miselle.
When I was supervising retail graphics production, I often hired models for photoshoots. For brands aimed at young women, such as "Charlie" by Revlon, I would choose models based only on their agency's "head shots" because they had "the look." On the day of the photoshoot, I would discover that I'd booked a model who arrived with her mom, entered the green room looking like a teenaged schoolgirl and after hair and makeup, emerged looking like a beautiful young woman. Even though I was in the business, the transformations never ceased to amaze me.
And yes, I am relentlessly embarrassed by the sewerage that issues from the social media account of the so-called U.S. head of state. It is beyond mind-boggling that I live in a world where this kind of discourse is now treated as normal.
Now traveling the road of dementia with my mother in her 90s, I recognize the up-all-night business as a symptom of dementia. So is the tendency to nod off in the middle of a conversation or meeting.
Yes I was glad Biden won but I was terribly distraught that he wouldn’t be able to keep the path open and he didn’t. That is my biggest beef. Oh ya and also thumbing his nose at Putin with no nato guarantee with Ukraine then denying Ukraine sufficient arms to penetrate Russia. Biden sowed the seeds of Ukraine's defeat.
Follow the money, always.
Epstein went from math teacher to owning islands. I'd like to know that business plan.
I was living on the campus of that camp at the time Epstein had a cabin there. As was my daughter. Know that campus security has since been fully upgraded.
Interlochen responds to testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial https://share.google/fAnrC6610y3JpyOZv
Brian, when you post it’s always good to have a point it makes it more interesting for the listener/reader. You still haven’t answered the question why is it that the Buy administration who had these files in January 2024 didn’t use them because he could’ve destroyed Trump if that was the case a simple answer would be appreciated but you won’t because you can’t
Brian, the second you use Lawrence O’Donnell as a source. imo Your credibility is like toilet paper…. And the only use for that is. …..
I almost made Trump toilet paper during the first run. I’m sorry I didn’t.
Brian has lice head to Destin to you before we careful what you wish for.
Heather has a team who contributes to these daily publications so I don’t believe she is the only researcher involved.
G Maxwell: She will be offered a pardon in exchange for false testimony. That is more certain then pee dripping down Trump’s leg.
And she should have a team of graduate students assisting with research. Years from now, we will see perhaps several of her grad students publish best selling books or have heavily viewed podcasts.
What other US history professor would be a better advisor for your PHD?
This morning on NPR an attorney who served during the Obama Administration explained how irregular it would be to release Grand Jury testimony in any situation that would impair future prosecution of others involved in a crime. In other words, the men who are in the files and are guilty of committing sexual crimes against minors.
Relying on any testimony from Gislane Maxwell, who has already been convicted of perjury is totally futile.
Trump is mired in a pile of slime that he has spent his entire life building. May he drown in his own disgusting shit.
It’s all a show act. His MAGAs are breaking up I say let them.
I won't take that bet given the relativity. But Trump will not pardon Maxwell. Besides the uproar that would cause, it won't help because she will then be required to testify before Congress and will have no grounds for refusing to do so. It is more probable that her conviction will be reversed on appeal. There is good grounds for that. The government IS bound by its original plea deal.eith Epstein. It is atrocious to think that a US Attorney does not speak and act for the United States of America when he agrees to a plea deal. And it covered her. There is no ambiguity there. All the criminal defense lawyers in America will say this.
Bondi is smart enough to know this and well informed. She has used Toid Blanche to speak for her. Whether this is entirely at Trump's command, a matter of her own initiative, or something in between is questionable. But the implication is clear. The DOJ is now ready to offer a deal. Not pardon. That is not their department. A plea deal.
It will require her to say what she did. In court. Allocute. And as you mention, the implication is that DOJ will now want to hear more from her as a witness and expect her to talk. But this is a very bold and risky move by the prosecution and it represents a big turn around in its posture towards her and the whole Epstein investigation. For a change they now want to know more The results of this are highly unpredictable except for those most involved...say, for instance Maxwell. But you are right to point out that under the circumstances, the DOJs desire to seek the truth will remain suspect, and that there will remain incentives for Maxwell to perjure herself which she has already done. The larger question is what the DOJ is up to in this case ? What does it want from her ? Is it interested in pursuing an honest investigation ? Or is it seeking her help in completing a white wash of the case so it can close its files and send them to the Archives ?
I don't think they know themselves what they are doing. It is an extraordinarily risky Gambit. Who knows what Bondi is thinking. Blanche of course has a big conflict of interest.
Do you (or anyone) know why, of all the people involved in this sordid mess, only Epstein and Maxwell were prosecuted? What about all the men raping girls? Not only Trump, but Prince Andrew and surely others?
Now that Epstein is dead, it angers me so much that in this cabal of men raping children, only the woman is in prison.
That fact seems to escape a lot of men.
Grrrrr
Not me Ally. I live in a house with 4 women, my wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and daughter. And we have a female cat and dog. They would kick me out if I was that obtuse.
😉
For the same reason Florida papers don't publish shark sightings. It's bad for business. The case revealed a seamy sordid and embarrassing underside to Palm Beach society, Florida's supposedly best and most influential people. High Society. And both state and federal law enforcement officers were anxious to put the matter to rest. Only the PBPD did their job. The DOJ ran away from the case. Neither did the States Attorney follow where the evidence led
Until the New York office decided to go after Epstein. Ask yourself why.
I don’t think “rich” equals the height of Palm Beach or NY society. In fact, I think a lot of Trump’s insecurity stems from the fact that the upper echelons of society did not accept him and his family despite their wealth. I’m not part of that world, but even I can see that he is the definition of tacky and nouveau riche, completely lacks any redeeming notion of noblesse oblige, and is unlikely to be accepted into the realm of East Coast old money society, ever, and nor are his children or grandchildren. Buying Marjorie Merriweather Post’s house did not also buy her position in society.
Then you would be correct in your thinking. Indeed it seems quite the contrary. That is what this affair reveals. A certain sense of relativity or amorality and immunity from judgment or criticism is displayed by those of great wealth and power. A "we make the rules" attitude. And that is exactly the problem the "authorities" were struggling with, or perhaps we should say, failed to struggle with. Because it makes for bad press.
Further the affiant sayeth naught.
I think he will offer her a pardon in exchange for false testimony. Period.
Of course you would of course she could’ve done that during Biden’s time in office oooooops
Wow, Rick.
What’s the matter you’ll like Truth. What does wow mean ?
Is that not correct? I’ll ask you again. It could’ve been done during Biden’s time in office. They HAD the epstein files in January 2024.
I agree. Trump pardoning Maxwell would likely send MAGA into overdrive against him.
Pardon no doubt, or more conveniently and permanently, a “suicide.” I wish I was only speculating wildly and irrationally……….Knowing Trump, and SO many of the depraved people around him, would it really surprise you if that happened?
Don’t you think she has an “open in case of untimely death” document lodged with her attorney, and that certain people know that she does?
And if she doesn't lie, and implicates Trump, no one will ever hear about it and she will die by 'suicide' in prison while the guards are on a coffee break.
Or a commutation with something left hanging over her head so they can control her.
I think we catch her (pointed) vibe.
There is no doubt that Donny was offered underage Epstein girls to rape. And when this is finally proven, that shit bag Trump wears tittered to his leg will burst and Donny will fall off the wall like ole fat Humpty Dumpty.
And let us never forget FBI Director Comey interference with the 2016 election when he announced within days of the election that an investigation was active against Hillary Clinton. In the grand old tradition of cross-dresser J Edgar Hoover. Not that I care that J Edgar led a secret life.
Trump should be inducted as a member of the Hoover enclave in America.
His actions to undermine former government officials and to remove immigrants (legal and illegal) out of the country remind us of J.Edgar Hoover. Recall J. Edgar Hoover fought to keep prominent Jews out of the US like Albert Einstein while welcoming Nazis into the US.
And he is well on his way to tanking what was 6 months ago the best economy in the world, with his chaotic and inexplicable tariffs, as well as his horrendous Big Ugly Bill which adds an additional $4.3 trillion to the national debt. Just like Herbert Hoover tanked the economy forcing the US into the Great Depression.
And finally, Trump sucks just like a Hoover vacuum cleaner.
I’ll give you a “like” just on: “And finally, Trump sucks just like a Hoover vacuum cleaner.” 😂
GJ had my "like," Riad, at "while welcoming Nazis into the US."
Very difficult to argue with that assessment.
“Hoover vacuum cleaner”🤣
We should be careful not to get too far ahead of the facts. Remember the Steele dossier? The pee tape that was going to take Trump down, except in the end it didn't exist?
There's lots of daylight between a public, made-for-media friendship between two stars of the tabloid press and actual criminal activity. As much as things look bad for Trump, we have to entertain the possibility that the embarrassment of a public relationship with a known pedophile and the lewd birthday card may have been enough to trigger this reaction from Trump's fragile ego.
And, if we go over the top accusing Trump of things that turn out to be untrue, he gets his MAGA folks back, and good luck getting anything else to stick to the guy, basically forever.
We don't need to "take Trump down." We just need the Republicans to lose their majority in the House and Senate. If Trump can't get any nominations approved, then he is definitely lame duck.
GJ: and then he gets impeached. Again. But this time he is removed from office. (Hey, a guy can dream.)
I his approval rating drops to the low 30's and the Democrats win the mid-terms, it could happen.
“Take Down” as in We’ve got to keep our eyeballs on the ELECTION PRIZE 🏆.
The distractions won’t stop.
You're right, there's no proof yet that Trump had sexual intercourse with underage girls trafficked by Epstein.
Yet, there is proof that Trump is a sexual predator.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it's a duck.
Really where is that proof? I didn’t hear you complaining with Clinton nor 40 other highly ranked Washington DC officials. I could list for you here in a link if you’d like. Nor anyone that tried to cover it up so much they actually lied under Ruth, but that didn’t bother you much did it
It will be hard to convince the Q aligned that after being told of secret child killing cabals for years that there’s no “there” there. Who knows what the backlash will be from those duped.
Possibly true, Mobiguy. But remember what the WSJ alleged about an Epstein birthday greeting penned by djt: it included a line about having things in common and also strangely used the word "enigma" in what appeared to be a coded fashion. The word "enigma" anagrams to "gamine", which Merriam-Webster defines as "a small playfully mischievous girl".
Hey Moby, you know it’s nice to have somebody at least that has some rational thought behind their posts and it’s not full of hate.
When I keep saying, be careful what you wish for. The list of world leaders could be incredible and with destroy many many famous people who you may have admired to your whole lifetime. Not that that should be a reason not to release the files, but people need to be prepared mentally for what may come. And perhaps nothing and then you’ve wasted all this hate and energy for what ?
MEME: Trump is trying everything! 🧨🧨🧨
https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/they-just-arent-buying-it
Bill, (hesitate here to don my tin foil hat) I am convinced this recent admission of CVI in Trump is setting him up for when it really hits the fan, he will be exempt from jail because he's a sick, demented old man. Too frail to imprison. Or at "best" house imprisonment at Mar a Lago. He skates again. :-(
Bill, you just don’t learn you keep projecting into the future hopelessly
By the way, did you listen to Komi’s statement about no rational investigator would prosecute well he didn’t tell the whole story. Ooooops
Maureen, I agree! But also, HCR, your wry comment "Things seem a little unstable at the White House" had me hoot with laughter (thank goodness I had not just taken a sip of coffee!). It was a deadpan worthy of Andy Borowitz! My suggestion: we just keep on going and with luck someone with a spine at DoJ will leak, leak, leak. My hope is for a certain felon to have an embolism . . .
I also loved how, after listing all of Marco Rubio’s current responsibilities, HCR casually, at the end of the newsletter, noted that he was chairman of the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee that found that Russia was unsuccessful in manipulating votes in the 2020 election. Little Marco certainly wears many hats, but by all appearances has now lost his soul.
I think that evening paddle on the water recharged Heather's funny bone.
Yes. "Things seem a little unstable at the White House." LOL!
Between that, and listing all of Rubio's assignment (none of which he's remotely qualified for) in such a deadpan fashion, I think the Professor has illustrated the beauty of understatement.
I think of that as being very English, as in, "The English art of understatement." But she's super good at it too!
Yeah, well guess what too bad Kobe didn’t tell everything when he made that speech about no prosecutor would go further now they found evidence that he didn’t even address
They’ve never been more stable in the last 25 years since Clinton actually.
America is on a journey to the mountain TOP right now and nothing that the left is going to do with crap like this is gonna stop it. The markets are screaming. The tariff money is flowing in the trade deals are defying all the pendants affirmations of failure, etc..
Indeed...insightful and neutral...but her phrasing still captures the nuance while connecting the dots. Such a skilled writer!!
Well said Maureen
Maureen. It is so true, Heather is Light 💡 for us all.
I second that. This is a tawdry circus and I’m sick of it. Mike Johnson is cringe worthy. Discouraging all of it.
I also want to applaud Heather for the patience and fortitude it takes to read all this awful stuff, digest it and give us the most pertinent details---all while, as you say, not going crazy. Can't imagine what we'd do without Heather. Another national treasure is Ann Telnaes (Open Windows)---check out her cartoon for the day---amazing!
Ditto!
For those who do believe: If Jesus were to return today or tomorrow, ask yourself…What would Jesus say?
If I was Ghislaine Maxwell I wouldn’t be anywhere alone, and I sure the hell wouldn’t leave my cell with anyone from the DOJ no matter what they were promising.
I read it somewhat differently --- an open invitation to lie, to prevaricate, to say ANYTHING, do anything, provide any squirrel, make up any shit at all in order to please the one person with the power to commute her sentence. What else could it be?
We stand for the Constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers, against arbitrary detention and the removal of healthcare for millions. We look to the Statue of Liberty and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for inspiration. They traffic in lies and conspiracy while making deals with pedophiles.
I agree, but I also agree with the message above. She is in some danger. But she also has no problem lying to get out of jail, so she will. Lawrence O'Donnell went into that this evening.
Maxwell would lie for her “get out of jail “ free card (and a pardon). Sigh 😮💨
She does appear well practiced at deception.
You could tell by her blood-stained hands
(just like the Rolling Stones lyrics suggest)
One of the many great Rolling Stones songs. (You can't always get what you want). Don't start me up horhai.
If Maxwell accepts a pardon, she could be compelled to testify at some point. What excuse would she use if she refused to testify? Executive privilege?!
I assume she could flit off to a non-extradition country quite easily.
If she cuts some sort of deal to get out of jail, I wonder how the "we made a deal to release the person who groomed children for Epstein and the pedophile cabal to abuse" will play with MAGA.
I think no matter if she makes a deal she won't live to enjoy it. She will be disappeared either way. She knows the truth. Magats know this, they were promised the release of the tapes after all.
I suspect she's well aware she's safer in jail. It's not like she can run back to Britain and be welcomed with open arms or protected from the Russians, who have a solid track record of criminal activity within the Kingdom.
Rick Wilson had a little imaginative fiction yesterday about what that might look like...
MAGA will just hear her lie that Trump was never around when Epstein was raping girls and knew nothing about it, and won't worry about letting her out of jail as the price of the 'clarification'.
I agree with the big picture but if you haven’t noticed Washington no longer follows the rules or the laws. I fear even when he leaves, Office, we will never be the same.
We won't have a functioning democracy as long as there are MAGAs in positions of any importance. Even if Trump dies, and I hope that happens soon, the rest of then will continue to work to accomplish the goals of the 2025 plan, which is to maintain a dictatorship with a right wing oligarchy base.
And no functioning democracy until we restaff all the government entities that DOGE has destroyed or seriously damaged (finding, as much as possible, the excellent people who performed their tasks (great or routine) with distinction and care, and lure them away to their old jobs. And write or rewrite as necessary job descriptions and work rules so that no idiot savant can ever again take a chainsaw to the whole government without a genuine understanding of what things are important and why, and what people are performing critical tasks. And write new laws and rules to prevent one person or party, especially one with a slim majority, from hog-tying the whole government, and installing an oligarchy of money or privilege.
Truly, they are shallow acquaintances.
We also need to pass laws that prevent gerrymandering and voter suppression at the Federal, State and Local levels of government and/or split the US into several countries.
Also, big money needs to come out of politics. Maybe something to shorten the campaign season?
Definitely prevent gerrymandering and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Splitting the country appealed to me at one time until I sat down and really thought about it. Geographically almost impossible, leaving an awful lot of people behind. Just for starters.
I agree with your first proposals, but dividing the nation into separate countries is the worst idea since running Trump as a presidential candidate.
It's not in any way practicable. The overwhelming majority of Americans would be forced to live in conditions they hate and can't escape for financial, family and other reasons. Meanwhile, the majority of MAGAts won't admit it, but enjoy the benefits of living in "blue states." They would remain in place and continue voting to f*ck things up.
Even European nations have recently seen the benefits of uniting. England opted out and it doesn't seem to be working out for them.
Yes, Eddie, and with a coterie of all our evangelical, white supremacist flying monkeys.
I'm expecting whiplash.
Fingers crossed
I do wonder how many people making decisions are being blackmailed, how many victims are receiving death threats. Power, greed and money can get very ugly.
She's actually petitioned the SC, saying she's not guilty.
I would try that if I were her. What does she have to lose at this point?
She was clearly complicit as I'm sure the Epstein files point out in myriad witness statements. But she's clearly right to be concerned for her safety.
I have no sympathy for her, but if she were a man would she have been treated differently (like the DonOLD)?
Completely agree she will get a pardon out of this. Dems should force a third, independent lawyer into any meeting with Maxwell’s attorney and the DOJ. Also, aren’t there others in the DOJ (who were likely DOGEd), that SAW the files who could start dripping the content out there. We need some hackers right now to infiltrate the server where all these files are stored.
These folks are not rational. This includes the Dems. I keep trying to give the Dems the benefit of the doubt and they simply don't pass muster. In lock step with Repugs, they're concocting an alternate reality and expecting everyone to buy the lie that red is actually green and to believe otherwise is a conspiracy by the left liberal socialist deep state just because they say so.
They’ll ask her to testify that Obama, Clinton and Biden were behind the Epstein case all along, in exchange for a get-out-of-jail-free card. MAGA will cheer and roar and scream for their execution and that’s that.
It's just absurd to me that President Obama is targeted. Far as I can see, his only "crime" is being Black. (Okay, he did ridicule Trump at the press dinner, but if you compare what he said with what T has done to the White House, Obama was clairvoyant.)
The statement from President Obama's spokesperson is fantastic. "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.” BAM! 😏
But THAT is EXACTLY the problem. Obama is much more of a man, much more of a leader, much more intelligent and much more charismatic than the Orange Turd will ever be. And THAT is why he needs to be gone: because of the pure, vile jealousy of a malignant sociopathic narcissist.
progwoman,
President Obama and Michele and their lovely and accomplished daughters, have uplifted our nation.
Obama made a joke/comment that negatively affected Trump's tender ego AND revealed Trump's prejudice towards a great fellow American.
When I was a litte girl in Sunday School, we sang this song: "Red and yellow , black and white...all are precious in His (God's) sight...") I took these words to heart and have tried to live respecting my fellow brothers and sisters with whom I share this earthly home no matter our differences.....the work continues by the way.
You forgot about the tan suit Obama wore!
Word has now come out that Obama doesn’t approve of ketchup. That is a clear scandal in the making and obviously a person attack on Trump. (!)
It isn't easy being green.
Don't forget the tan suit!
He looked so fine in that suit. F I N E fine!
And that, right there, is the only problem.
Indeed he did!
Well, he wore a tan suit, too.
Maybe they're trying the 'carrot' approach first at this time: "you say the required things and kill this Epstein story off … and you get a hefty reduction in sentence". The alternative isn't as rosy i'm sure, and i'm equally sure that after Mr Epstein's surprising 'suicide' she is only too aware of the implicit risks herself.
Either she will lie to protect the child rapist or they will kill her...
She knows what she knows. As long as she can tell what she knows, she’s a threat. What can they do? Make her sign a no disclosure agreement?? 😂
that criminal cabal lives in a world where they can promise one thing and 5 minutes later do exactly the opposite.
Kind of have to wonder if she hasn’t already written most of it down somewhere, life insurance.
And I wouldn’t take a pardon if one was offered, either. Once she leaves prison, she won’t be safe. She will be dead within a year once she tells all she knows.
I think she's quite safe as long as she continues her "I know nothing"routine like sgt Schulz. That was her earlier testimony and if she changes she becomes a questionable witness at best.
It's the victims naming names that's the real danger, and all these now grown children really might need to be protected.
some of the victims have already withdrawn prosecutions against Trump - even before the 2016 election - because of threats to them.
I agree with that. Even Pence knew better than to get in a car with a Trump Secret Service agent on 01/06
I share your concern. She could easily be disposed of, as she is in the hands of the Bureau of Prisons, which is under the control of Bondi, as AG.
I agree: and don't stand in front of any open windows! We all know what happens then.
She has written everything and placed multiple copies among her friends and lawyers. Once she dies in the cell, they will come out open. She knows how to protect herself.
Whatever happens, she will "commit suicide" just like Epstein did (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)! Because, alive she is a threat to the convicted felon.
That is what I have been thinking
"Things seem a little unstable at the White House."
Brilliant Heather, the understatement of the century.
We're six months into Trump's term and he has done absolutely nothing to make America great. In fact, quite the opposite (said Mr. Obvious).
Frank, trump become totally nuts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
J L, thanks greatly to the SCOTUS and to the cowards in Congress.
Agreed!! I laughed out loud 😂🤣 masterful turn of phrase Professor!!!👏👍
It sure seemed at the time that Russia was pretty successful in 2016. They got their candidate into the White House, didn’t they? And he’s done probably irreparable harm to the country. Looked at from a military point of view, Putin’s propaganda machine against the US has been way more successful than Russia’s war against Ukraine. There’s more than one way to change a vote, and unless we develop a way to combat propaganda, none of the rest of our problems are ever going to be addressed.
Yes, Russia certainly helped Trump win in 2016. Heather was being accurate, saying that Russia was not able to manipulate/change any votes that were cast. Russia's disinformation and propaganda affected how those votes were cast.
On social media platforms, in particular FB in 2016, there was a plethora of disinformation coming from Russian operatives, a considerable amount coming from a specific building in St Petersburg, Russia; if I recall correctly.
There were also meetings around that time, later revealed, I recall, made with Trump faction’s, including Don Jr & Jared Kushner in attendance, with what could be safely called Russian operatives, in NYC. Later labeled by some at the meetings, to have something to do with discussions about “adoption” policies, again, (if I recall correctly) between both countries. Sounded lame to me at the time, as Trump wasn’t even president at the time. And a frightening thought at best, that particular family in discussions about policies for “adopting” children from Russia or former satellite countries ( Romania in particular.) Especially given Trump’s ties to Epstein, prior to Epstein’s charge’s & subsequent death ( by suicide reportedly) in prison under Trump’s presidency.
There had also been stories leaking out from American families at the time, of some seriously failed adoptions, of children that had appeared at best, to have had their emotional & physical needs severely neglected in some of these so called “orphanages.” Some to the point of developing serious pathologies that would impede them from fitting well into society. (I’m digressing a bit, but it just seemed odd, the Trump family who were more involved with furthering their personal, financial goals. And as evidenced by a judge, (around that time) who’d slapped their hands in court, at misusing charitable funds for personal reasons, from a charity they’d created. Again, pulling this from memory, but I’m pretty certain sources are still available that would substantiate that claim.
Hello Bonnie... Good Recollection... Putin, and his Oligarchs financially supported the Trump Organization since American Banks had been burned too many times by DJT beginning around 2000.... Indeed, 'Truth Social', which has never turned a Profit, was bailed out last year, by Russian $$$ out of the Bahamas last year... Your are right, the Russian Orphanages are 'Lord-Of-The-Flies' Institutions that produce Damaged Children...
From Malcolm Nance, Black Spy, author of several NYT best sellers. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Malcolm-Vance/author/B001KMFU2U?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=c22ef9b5-474b-47e2-8111-89291e629086
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MalcolmNanceMedia
Nance and several more, including former KGB agents, come to the same conclusion: Trump is either an agent or a willing idiot for Putin. They probably had his mental profile and effectuated psy ops.
Trump apparently married a Czech agent in 1977. His trip to the Soviet Union in 1987 was do do an illegal deal. Trump first visited Moscow in 1987 to explore potential real estate deals, even meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
He saw the Soviet Union as an "untapped market" and praised Gorbachev's "opening up the country" through reforms like perestroika.
No significant deals materialized from these early endeavors.
Reports suggest that Soviet intelligence may have taken an interest in Trump around this time, and his 1987 Moscow visit might have involved assistance from the KGB, though the extent and nature of this remain uncertain based on publicly available information.
Post-Soviet business and political ties
Over the years, Trump has had various business dealings with individuals and entities connected to Russia, including a sale of a Palm Beach mansion to a Russian billionaire in 2008 for a significant profit.
Some of his business ventures, like the Trump SoHo project, reportedly involved partners with ties to the former Soviet Union and raised questions about the origins of some funding, according to Foreign Policy.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump adopted a friendly stance towards Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia actively interfered in the 2016 election to favor Trump's campaign, which Trump has often dismissed as a "Russia Hoax".
Trump himself publicly called on Russia to find emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign, an act that was followed by Russian attempts to spearphish email accounts used by Clinton's office, according to CNN.
Trump's presidency and relations with Russia
During his presidency, Trump continued to express a desire for better relations with Russia but also faced criticism for actions that seemed to align with Russian interests or undermine alliances, according to CNN.
His administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a Cold War-era pact with Russia aimed at limiting nuclear arms, citing Russian violations.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, Trump's stance on Russia and Putin has evolved, with recent statements shifting towards a more critical perspective and even issuing ultimatums for peace negotiations.
Despite his protestations, Mueller found that Russia acted to get him elected in 2016. He said "OK Russia if you're listening..." to undermine HRC. In 2024, the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections
According to many sources Trump was identified as a candidate to be manipulated early on. Ivana's father reported to the Czech KGB. Google: Ivana Trump's father, Miloš Zelníček, was a "conspiratorial" informer for Czechoslovakia's communist intelligence service, the Státní bezpečnost (StB), which was often referred to as the Czech KGB. He provided information to the StB about his daughter and her then-husband, Donald Trump, specifically regarding Ivana's visits from the U.S. and Donald Trump's burgeoning career in New York. His relationship with the StB continued until the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. While the StB spied on Donald and Ivana Trump, they would have funneled any significant intelligence gathered to the KGB, according to NPR.
The FBI “recommended a preliminary inquiry... on Ivana Trump” based on information received from a confidential source in 1989, according to 190 pages of classified documents. George I was president at the time. "Czechoslovakia ramped up spying on Trump in late 1980s, seeking US intel." Exclusive: aided by Ivana Trump’s father, intelligence service with KGB ties targeted high-level government information, files show. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/29/trump-czechoslovakia-communism-spying
Daniel, this is an excellent summation. I can't cite the publication(s) I've read, but do remember reading that Fred Trump employed Bratva-related firms in the conduct of his real estate businesses and Donald continued these relationships when he took over. It appears that the Trump family's connection to Russia predates Donald's birth.
I suspect that no significant deals have been made for real estate development in Russia because: 1. Donald doesn't have the mental horsepower to actually make deals, and 2. Russians recognize that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Unger
He’s here on Substack too
https://substack.com/@craigunger
Thanks Daniel... Malcolm Nance is one of my Favorite Authors... There are many Books about DJT the 'Destroyer'... Objectively DJT is a WMD... That makes DJT very useful to the Russians who never really ended the Cold War, and would like to end the U.S. led Western Order....
And then we had the 2024 election. Russia still meddling and then the kicker, muskrat making certain that his boy was elected by using his wealth and technology to manipthe vote.
Russia and Trump did not need to tamper with votes cast. They knew that they could rely on a mass of voters who had been carefully groomed by Limbaugh and Murdoch with misinformation and outright lies marinated in both overt and covert racism. Their bet was that these misinformed and resentful people would give them the power to do what they are now busy doing. And they have been proven right.
I forgot to include the Sinclair broadcasting corporation. The most insidious and probably most dangerous of all the media out there.
Quality education and critical thinking are some of the best ways to combat propaganda. That's why this regime is hell bent on destroying our already strained and defunded Department of Education, NPR & PBS, etc. Like all tyrannies, they are threatened by an educated populace that questions authority, demands truth from government, equality before the law. The dumbing down continues as the MAGA cult is proof and exemplifies the willful ignorance and disregard for proper education in America. Project 2025 has propaganda baked into its core with an absolutely delusional maniacal ignoramus despot as its leader.
horhai, in addition to your excellent recommendations, any and all threads of connection between religion and The State must be severed, including the freshly granted permission for preachers to endorse political candidates from the pulpit. Churches are a major source of propaganda, and should be taxed, just like any other profit-making enterprise. No religious precepts posted and no enforced religious meditations should be allowed in public classrooms.
To be truly free and fair, the U.S. must be an absolutely secular nation. Citizens and guests are free to practice religion in the privacy of their homes or in their respective places of worship, but those places may not be permitted to interfere with affairs of The State.
Exactly so, horhai.
I think that we as human beings, and I don't exclude myself, are easier to manipulate than we, as individuals, or as an aggregate society are ready to admit. I don't see any easy solution to that, because we all have a responsibility for our individual actions, and we do (some many more than others) have choices. And yet, how we are raised, what we are told, likely to some extent, our DNA affects what we think, what we care about, and what we do. There may be no entirely satisfactory way to untangle this, but I think it deserves a great more attention. Lies enable racism, sexism, and homophobia. Lies promote aggressive wars. Lies killed thousand at the height of the COVID pandemic. Lies are destroying our republic. And while "to err is human" lies are a choice. Is it ever wise to trust a liar?
And yet freedom to express unpopular views is fundamental to a free society. What can we do to prevent dangerous behavior driven at least in part by malicious propaganda yet conserve robust freedom of speech? While there was a hell of a lot wrong going on in our nation pre-Reagan, I think we may have stuck a better balance with respect to mass media regulation, and in the court of public opinion, about both media monopolization and and the propriety of provable "official" lies. The record is uneven but, as was the case with Nixon's misdeed, seemingly wider trust for demonstrable truth.
Yes I think we have no choice but to have better regulation of media. People can say what they want in person, but it’s quite dangerous to let malicious propaganda flow unabated. I know that’s still not an answer because then who will decide what is propaganda? Certainly right now we can’t trust the government to decide- since they were put in place with the aid of malicious propaganda!
Heather has an excellent conversation with Jim Acosta a few days ago (available on Substack). They discuss the media and how it has and is changing.
The corporate media is first and foremost concerned about $$$$$s because they are, well, corporations. Do you think the Murdoch organization would be successful if they started telling the truth and not spewing hate and racism 24/7. And The NY Times has at least 5 Trump stories online every day. CNN, WAPO, LA Times, Newsmax, USA TODAY--they are all the same.
But then there are the Substack writers that have hundreds of thousands of followers, but for the most part, isn't why they are doing this.
J L Graham,
Brilliant, as usual...
Our education system as well as our centers of worship , in my opinion, have declined in substance. Many of our leaders are "self-serving" living for the moment....taking all they can for themselves.
Are we as citizens of this planet home going to continue with our human destruction of the very things that keep us alive and provide a future for sustaining a safe and healthy and honest intellectual life. We are imploding each day we choose to neglect doing something GOOD for our planet and our family throughout this world.
I do want to thank the many great ones who put their lives on the line every day to print the truth and who are working to slow down this spiral of decline....those who are looking to the future.
"I want to say, like Neruda,
that I am waiting for
"a great and common tenderness,"
that I still believe
we are capable of attention,
that anyone who notices the world
must want to save it. "
https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2014/03/rebecca-baggett-testimony.html
Our reality is shaped by what we notice, and in some respects, we are what we notice. What we notice involves exercise of our powers of observation, of tracking logical continuity, and what we care about, and as far as I can tell, that also enables honor and wisdom. Liberty and justice for all, among other things that underlay our quality of life as a species, are an environment as well as a right, and a right is something we respect as the due of others as well as for ourselves; including generations to come. If we think about it, we can identify some of the gifts we inherited from the forward-thinking people. We would be jerks to drop that ball entirely.
Again, I think we as a society would benefit from a more public sorting our values. What in the broad sense, and the extended sense, most matters? What can we put aside as childish things? What can we not afford to lose?
No Angela Russia didn’t get him into the White House that falls to James Comey if he kept his damn mouth shut and didn’t make such a big deal out of her emails she would’ve won. I can’t tell you all the pins I’ve stuck in voodoo dolls against James Comey.
I think American misogyny also played a big role. Better a damn fool white man than a competent woman.
Yes Ma'am! After a shocking conversation with a white retired male (no longer friend) at my church,,,, I realised I was under the very mistaken belief that Democrats were not racist and Mysogenist. Ha! They proved by failing Kamala, and refusing to vote, that Dems are as horrible as the Repugnicans.
Racist, misogynist or both.
It’s definitely why we can’t have peace in the world.
Men are absolutely threatened by strong, intelligent women. Terrified!
I take issue with your generalization about "men." Some, maybe most, but not all men. I am a man who admires strong, intelligent women. I regard them as colleagues, not threats. I count many such women among my friends, as well as other men who respect them.
Truth be told, a multitude of women are also threatened by accomplished and/or disobedient women, and proved it by staying home or voting for Trump.
I apologize for my generalization. I will adjust my position and say most men. I have encountered men who align with your position. I have been called too much, too smart, too aggressive and intimidating for most of my life. It took me many years to accept my strong qualities and understand that I am not intimidating, others have been intimidated by me. I also agree with you about some women who are terrified. Thanks for picking up on that.
Some men are delighted by highly capable women. The patriarchy thing is one of several immature and malignant self-indulgent ego games. I believe we have an ego ("I") for a reason, but it becomes problematic, even evil, divorced from perspective and compassion.
Well, it's still a free country for the majority of us white folks,,, you can believe what you want. There are still way to many women MAGAs, for sure . Where are their brains!?!?!? Do they think for themselves AT ALL??
Sorry still view the general behaviour of men as a problem for me.
Misogyny is alive and well in America.
And yet Hillary DID win the popular vote!! She had so many enemies working against her and she won the vote anyway! So we can count the electoral college for trump’s win as well as Russia, Trump’s lies, e-mails, Benghazi, Q-Anon and all the BS she was up against. She won the vote of the people!!
Lynn Again,
Hillary is a strong and focused human being. She has taken many actions to improve the lives of women in many places throughout the world. Her chosen goals to do good have empowered her and keep her going...may she continue.
I have never noticed her asking for rewards or honors by which any human with her drive and accomplishments could reasonably expect.....and she does not stop.
So what? Anyone who has been involved in any presidential election KNOWS that winning the "vote of the people" is meaningless if you can't win enough states because that is the way it is set up. There are plenty of people who would point to the fact that she didn't win enough states to win the election even though she did win big in New York and California and that was the bulk of her majority popular vote "victory" (because its not really a victory as the popular vote doesn't count in Presidential elections and that is nothing new, it has been that way for several centuries). I don't think it is a terrific system, but it is the system we have and people who run for President know that and if they can't win the electoral vote, then they lose. End of story.
Complaining about the rules is a weak way to attack the winner of an election. If you don't like the rules, get them changed.
I’m quite aware of the rules of the electoral college and no, I don’t like them. My point was that even against all the interference and lies and rules she had more votes than Trump. I was just making a point not a complaint.
I complain about any structural distortion of the aggregated will of the the people. One person, one vote should be regarded as sacred, and that means every vote an equal share, no more, no less. The "Electoral College" is an aberration. I recall that I was dismayed about it when it was first brought to my attention, in 7th or 8th grade. The presidency/ vice presidency is the one office for which we are rightly equal constituents. If we cared enough about it, we could change it.
Pizzagate. Too many were willing to believe anything to justify not voting for her.
The only intelligent thing I can recall Reagan saying was "Trust but verify". A civil society is sustained by trust, but it's foolish to trust without foundation. We can't verify everything, but we can keep sampling, especially when something that particularly matters is at stake. Doubt (a healthy skepticism, not cynicism) is instructive. Critical thinking fully applied is also open-mindedness; question everything, and draw from you best developed knowledge and verification tools some degree of confidence. In professional science no case is ever entirely closed. Weigh "what matters" by both personal and societal standards. That's what appeals to me.
The poor fool who brought (and discharged) a gun to the Comet Ping Pong Pizza place thought he was being a hero, but he was only a pathetic deluded threat. Due diligence would help. We can teach that.
James Comey was also the lead prosecutor in the Martha Stewart case in 2003. She wound up serving five months in prison as well as five months of house arrest because of him, when he was head of the Southern District of New York. She probably has stuck pins in effigies of Comey too.
You know, I would be much more sympathetic if you used better examples. Martha Stewart was clearly guilty of pretty serious financial misdeeds and got the light sentence she did because she was Martha Stewart, a wealthy white woman who had status in the community. If a relatively unknown black woman had done those crimes, they would have rotted in prison for many years. Just because Stewart is a woman doesn't make her innocent and I am disgusted by anyone who tries to pass her off as a victim. There are PLENTY of people (men and women) who are thrown into prison for many years because they are poor and can't afford to defend themselves adequately, while Stewart had plenty of money to hire the best lawyers and "throw herself on the mercy of the court". In case you haven't noticed, it certainly didn't hurt her career all that much. The rich folks stick together in this country.
Jon Rosen,
"The rich folks stick together in this country".
It also seems criminals stick together ie the one who sits as President of the United States of America....tried and convicted.
Comey was just one straw out of many that broke the camel’s back and swung the election to Trump.
And Comey was trashed first. Should be a lesson for those on his payroll now.
Janis, it is tempting to blame one group or individual for Trump's rise to power, but in fact, it was a "perfect storm" of multiple factors that came together and propelled him into the White House. Subtract one, and he might not have made it. But which one? It's not possible to know.
And yet Hillary DID win the popular vote!! She had so many enemies working against her and we can thank the electoral college for putting Trump in office, too. But even with all the BS of Russia’s interference, Trump’s lies, emails, Benghazi, Q-Anon and misogyny she still won the people’s election!
Lynn, the popular vote doesn’t matter. They gotta win the electoral college. I hate it but that’s what we’ve been left with and actually if it was only up to the popular vote the republicans would never win ever.
Angela, you are an angel. 😃
Heather well chronologizes today's sordid -- our sordid rulers.
But I'll go back. To the three H’s: housing, health, and the whoring of Republicans to grow their wealth gap for the rich.
I mentioned these three H’s some time ago (their common H sound). Now, in the midst of what David Cay Johnston calls our child serial rapist saga, I mention them again. That is for all Dems in all 2026 races for Congress to call continuously for 1) a single-payer national health care system; 2) the building of millions of homes for our working classes; and 3) for Dems to keep calling out Republicans for so criminally sucking up to the rich.
We are in the meantime still stuck in newest turns of the White House criminal trying to cover up his child serial rape history with pal Jeffrey. But this whole saga befits the larger criminality we’ve now for exactly ten years, from his descent on that escalator to proclaim most all brown skinned Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers to today’s sponsorship of his I.C.E. terrorism against all of brown skin.
When Dems take up a unified positive, they can restore leadership with some humanity, by the three H’s, but also by citing them in humane context, via real people they know, or characters from novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, essay collections, and food and travel sojourns across landscapes and communities.
We’re in a sordid time, with sordid criminal in the White House. It's a saga we can grow out of.
I agree, though they are digging a hole that could take a long time to fill, and climate physics never hands out extensions.
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2006, Trump very clearly ruled out having sex with 12-year-old girls. I don't understand why that hasn't settled this matter definitively.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/trumps-crude-dating-joke-on-howard-stern_n_687e7ae2e4b0502d85e5c987
Ah, now I get it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBiHVnYjZ68
But Trump didn’t rule out sex with 13-year-olds. Which I guess is on your video links, but I never open URLs in comments.
I've seen the reporting, Rex, on the 13-year old girl who testified on Trump in 1994 raping her.
Apparently her father had recently died (leukemia) and only when he suddenly passed did the family learn the guy's boss had taken him off health care. So not only was the family bereft of being able to pay medical bills, but was also bankrupt and soon homeless.
The father had been involved with music -- and the now-fatherless and homeless girl went to Interlochen music camp one summer with her two brothers -- all of them apparently very talented.
Did you watch MSNBC this evening? They went into that in detail. But I don't think she said TRUMP did anything- she just heard he was a friend of Epstein & Maxwell. Those 2 did rape her, repeatedly.
Thank you, Penny.
Correct you are. I just went to the Lawrence O'Donnell for today, July 22 in the U.S., and saw that I erred. That girl was raped by Epstein and Maxwell -- she was 14 -- and not by Trump. Though his name was the first that came up when Epstein and Maxwell were discussing celebrity friends.
Prior to seeing yours, I'd intended to make my correction by adding an edit to mine to Rex.
But in another place -- forget where -- I did see testimony from a girl who at age 13 did experience sex with Donald. And another girl, only name she could remember was Marie -- who also participated, age 12.
Jane Doe v Trump, when a victim accused both Trump and Epstein. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3130729-DOE-V-TRUMP/.
"Jane Doe" also used the pseudonym "Katie Johnson".
Both Epstein and Trump had legions of lawyers. Yesterday, "Roy Black, one of the nation’s premier defense lawyers, die[d] in Coral Gables at 80 By Jay Weaver"
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article311144560.html#storylink=cpy
Black was one of Epstein's lawyers when Acosta gave Epstein the deal of the century and Trump got a get out of jail free card. His client is dead, so there is no attorney client privielege. His Epstein files may be interesting.
The Palm Beach Post identified dozens of potential witnesses. It's possible that some have reached deals that are not recorded anywhere. It takes good investigators to follow up. Trump has a history of paying off witnesses. When "Jane Doe" was filed, she was represented by Thomas Meagher of New Jersey. What does he say? Does he have a file? Did he send Trump/Epstein a demand letter prior to filing suit?
Meanwhile the DOJ files may/may not hold a treasure trove. If I were the judge in NY, faced with the motion to open the grand jury, I'd ask for an "in camera" secret review of the file to see that justice is not abused.
That is a horrible claim against both Epstein and Trump. What was the result of that case?
"Earlier this week, a “Jane Doe” testified at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial that she met Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell in between classes at Interlochen Arts Camp in the early 90’s while she was having ice cream with friends (the pair stopped to talk with her). She alleges that upon returning home to Florida from Camp, her mother and she visited Epstein and Maxwell, after which began a period of grooming and later sexual abuse. No abuse is alleged to have taken place on the Interlochen campus. Our policies, then and now, do not permit unsupervised contact between students and donors."
Interlochen responds to testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial https://share.google/fAnrC6610y3JpyOZv
We were living on campus at the time. Interlochen Center for the Arts was and still is a magical, and (except for Trump's best pals) safe place.
I was not aware of the accusation of raping a girl of 13. My comment had to do with a Howard Stern interview of Trump when Trump was 60 years old (interview cited by Lawrence O’Donnell on his July 21, 2025 show on MSNBC at about the 16-minute mark). Trump was bragging about having no problem “banging” (as Stern phrased it) 24-year-olds. When asked about age limits on the low end, he said he had none but then modified that to exclude 12-year-olds, with a clear implication that sex with 13-year-olds would be no problem for him.
Why wasn't this shouted out 24/7 in 2015-2016?
Many wiser than I have pondered this question. I suppose it might argued that no one took his candidacy seriously and even when he secured the Republican nomination there were still those within the party unconvinced that he had the credentials to win against perhaps the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history.
Even more bewildering is the decision of millions of Americans to vote for him a second time in full knowledge of his chequered past and their reluctance to abandon him even as he consigns the country to another four years of chaos.
THOUGHT CRIME
“Powerful men take advantage of vulnerable women, and powerful men think that they are doing nothing wrong.”
THOUGHT CRIME
“Jeffrey Epstein wasn't an outlier, he was a prototype, a predator who operated in plain sight, protected by the powerful, normalized by the elite.”
THOUGHT CRIME
"Trump 2.0" is an 2025 American political and psychological horror neo-noir documentary about con-men and confidence scams set in a morally decaying Washington DC and starring Donald Trump as the deteriorating personification of sexual perversion and White backlash.
Very good!
"a predator who operated in plain sight, protected by the powerful, normalized by the elite.”
So normalized and protected that Trump et al believed they could run on the lie that the Epstein business only served democrats.
Absolutely! Nicely done.
The felon used the word, "obfuscate"? Could not have been the Donald because he couldn't have such a word in his vocabulary. Wouldn't even know what it means. The House started their nice, long summer vacation this evening. Who said they earned it? What a bunch of cowards.
Do you think Joanna we will forget these freeloaders as we assume the mantle of doge on their forthcoming re-election bids?
Joanna, I would love to hear him try to pronounce it!
Distract, deflect, project, obfuscate, lie, and repeat…. His supporters cannot be so blind to not see this.
Involvement in scandal is part of Trump’s history. Integrity, bipartisanship, and honesty are not part of his history.
With Speaker Johnson’s support, Trump is trying to get away from transparency. How do some of these so-called religious/moral types square their loyalty with their basic beliefs?
Phil, they have no basic beliefs. You have seen Johnson speak in public. Do you see a "man" who has beliefs and morals?
I see a boy who hides behind the trappings of religion and convention. I see a weak puppet trying to remember his lines.
I see a circus freak show straight out of American literature. It will be okay to do it if we freely give up our orgasm to God as a heart felt sacrifice. Eh Gantry?
Sad, sad situation Mike. I was wondering what evangelicals would do about this latter scandal?. Thanks for showing us the answer.
Phil, I think Johnson's beliefs are more along the lines of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" than anything to do with caritas. A lot of those religious nuts are pure sadists. (See the Inquisition...)
Johnson talked about he and his 17 year old son having some kind of computer/phone monitors that will notify the other if one hits on porn. Johnson said his son is clean. He didn't say HE was! Also, I wonder if that kid is smart enough to watch porn on friends' computers. All that, but teenaged girls being raped is not important for a review of available files
Ah, but that's all fine, biblically. There's no commandment against rape. Or against pedophilia.
Alexandra, we might notice that the commandment (Exodus 20:17) against coveting what belongs to others calls the people to honor persons and property that are in the care of others.
Are you trying to say "coveting" is the same as rape or child abuse? I've had people try to make that argument before and it doesn't wash. Rape and pedophilia are atrocities, not property crimes. Rape, child abuse, torture and slavery are not prohibited in the Bible because men of the time didn't want those crimes restricted, and obviously the same still goes for some men today.
Alexandra, I agree that the culture of the Bible is patriarchal. Disallowing coveting, however, is a command against the privilege of the patriarchs and anyone else who wants to deprive others of their sovereignty. To covet is to take action not merely to wish. It is not okay to take into one’s own power a person or a person’s properties. That is a protection of ownership of self and belongings not only for that other person but for oneself. This was how Martin Luther understood the command against coveting.
Ugh! The perpetual religious habits of isolating short passages of the Hebrew Scriptures (aka "verses") and expanding word definitions to justify some beliefs while narrowing other definitions to absolve followers of hypocrisy is beyond tedious.
Quoting from texts ascribed to a culture that regarded women as chattel is neither helpful nor relevant.
Covet ≠ rape.
Dale, Fair enough. Know, however, that I am not interested in excusing rapists. The point I was making comes from understanding “covet” (not re-defining it to absolve anyone) as desire that is acted upon. Martin Luther described the admonition against coveting to be a way that protects everyone from those who would do harm. Other people and their property belongs to them not to you and me. The command against coveting is a command against what Epstein did.
If God wants to zap sinners, why don't we just let him do so? Why do people have to deliver the blow? I find it very "suspicious".
Actually, Ann Telnaes nails it with her latest cartoon.
I hear a lot of forgiveness bullshit. Sadly it is not put forth equally.
Doublethink?
What with Trump's heaviweights "conferring" with Ghislaine Maxwell as they are, I'm on red alert for some high level Witness Tampering. The entire setup is fishy as hell.
I'm sure her minimum price is to get sprung from jail and have her passport back, but to get that I wonder how distorted of a story she would have to agree to provide. Whatever she says tho, at this point I also wonder if the public will buy that line of jive.
I can just see Trump saying that Maxwell was “wrongly prosecuted by Obama/Biden” and the “whole thing was a hoax … just like the Russian investigation in 2016.” You notice what’s on Trump’s mind today: discrediting the 2016 Russian involvement, just like he wants to discredit the whole Epstein involvement. Maxwell will be pardoned because there was “no crime,” and close the books on the whole Epstein case because Trump just proved “there’s nothing there.”
More likely Maxwell will be told to remain silent, or she will end up just like Epstein.
She will be told to lie or end up like Epstein
I’d say her life is very much at risk.
Using the methodology of reprobate lawyer Roy Cohn, accusing others of the actions you took leads to the inescapable conclusion: Trump is the pedophile everyone is searching for.
Occam's Pedophilia --- in the absence of contradictory data, and despite chronic moral insufficiency when one ridiculous squirrel after another fails to deflect attention from the Epstein files, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.
I think he IS. QAnon was right in that there was a chlld sex trafficking ring. They were wrong- Trump wasn't the savior, Trump was probably complicit.
In this bizarre press conference, Trump said that Obama was treasonous and "every other word you could think of", even inventing one of his own - 'sedatious'. He's completely unhinged and one can understand Mike Johnson's decision to shut down the House today as this story continues to spiral out of control. It's his version of climbing into a hole and hoping that it will all somehow just fade away so long as he remains there. This after casually remarking in an interview that he thought the administration should disclose all the Epstein files.
Trump, however, crazilly continues to put the Epstein story right out front by authorising the DoJ interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, conducted by his own attorney, Todd Blanche. Do you suppose that he's seriously considering a commutation or pardon for her in return for new testimony exculpating him for his long, poisonous association with a paedophile?
You're seeing what terminal-stage syphillis looks like.
I thought it was Chronic Penis Insufficiency, a rare ailment first identified by Stormy Daniels?
he has THAT and cognitive decline of some kind. Syphilis, genetic dementia like his Dad, who knows. But he really is NOT all there in the head.
It would be no mean feat for medical science to detect cognitive decline in possibly the most stupid man ever to have held the office of president.
Otherwise known as Button-Mushroom Syndrome.
🤣
Agreed TC. Not just the dementia, aphasia, joint and muscle decay, but also the texture of his skin are all signs of tertiary syphillis.
Residue of a gift from Putin.
It prompted an official rebuke from Obama's spokesperson, who said words to the effect that 'ordinarily we wouldn't dignify such unhinged lunacy with a response, but we're making an exception in this ridiculous case.'
I agree with Ricardo. Trump is vicious in his pursuit of revenge. He must be resisted. I note that in the response from his office, Obama points out that the fact of Russian interference in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump was confirmed by a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence committee, then chaired by a certain Senator Marco Rubio. How absolutely mortifying for that wretched man to have his ignominious submission to Trump laid so bare.
Every time the scumbag president or any his minions open their mouths, it should be an exception that deserves a response . Embarrassing to say the least.
I can just see Trump saying that Maxwell was “wrongly prosecuted by Obama/Biden” and the “whole thing was a hoax … just like the Russian investigation in 2016.” You notice what’s on Trump’s mind today: discrediting the 2016 Russian involvement, just like he wants to discredit the whole Epstein involvement. Maxwell will be pardoned because there was “no crime,” and close the books on the whole Epstein case because Trump just proved “there’s nothing there.”
I wonder if that finally would be one volte face too many for his horde of credulous followers?
I think he’ll pardon her, she’s an old friend after all, and she has a good case for a reversal anyhow, although that’s not without it’s own consequences, ie admitting that she was complicit and not innocent. As soon as she is released, she’s gone, back to Europe, she has zero reason to stay here where she can be subpoenaed endlessly. That would take her out of the news cycle, and we know only too well how attentive the news cycle can be. It’s not easy, but put yourself in her shoes, what would you do if his lawyer was dangling a pardon between you and another 15 years in prison. 🤷♂️
You've got to wonder, haven't you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkrnWRIavAU
I understand that now photos have turned up of Epstein at Trump's 1993 wedding of his second wife Marla Maples.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/22/politics/video/new-photos-show-jeffrey-epstein-attended-trumps-wedding-vrtc
“Sedatious” - from the most sedated individual in the WH - who can’t stay awake for more than five minutes in any setting. Fitting.
If only they could keep him sedated. He seems entirely fuelled on bile from the early hours of the morning when many of his most insane posts appear on Truth Social. His press conferences have become an angry ritual of rebarbative denunciations and baseless accusations.
"People from gangs, jails and mental institutions."
Remember, every accusation --- a confession. EVERY accusation, a self-indictment. Every single accusation --- a litany describing himself, his own evil, his insanity, his people, his criminality, his cruelty.
And now, very likely, his pedophilia.
Sounds like a description of the J6 mob.
May the public get the Epstein data. May the data be respected - and actionable.
After Trump's decision to disclose the FBI's files showing the agency's scurrilous attempts to discredit her father, the late Martin Luther King jnr (which only proved that Trump could authorise the release of all the Epstein files held by the DoJ today if he wanted), Bernice King posted this on Twitter/X:
https://x.com/BerniceKing/status/1947431656228303032
Thank you. As always 💜
And my normal -
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. About everything ❤️🩹🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
I am writing to our AK congress rep. Begich. I am telling him I expect for him to join that discharge petition to release those files. This can't die down over the next 6 weeks.
Do so DAILY for the next 6 weeks! I'll be doing just that to my so-called Rep, Dave Joyce of OH. Hope your rep has more of a spine than mine.
He doesn’t. It’s Nick Begich- sycophant and worshipper of anything MAGA wants.
If there was a 'Sad' emoji, I would have used that! Mine is the silent spineless type. Does as he's told, not what his constituents ask for. Rarely answers emails. Doesn't do town halls. But this is DEEP Red Ohio, so...
Sending the House home almost guarantees that Congress will not pass appropriations by the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, the Dems smell blood in the water and have increased their willingness to fight the GOP - perhaps even by shutting the government down.
Normally a government shutdown hurts the party that is obstructionist but I suspect the Dems would be applauded for shutting Trump's government down.
And on those Epstein files...
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/exclusive-the-universe-of-those-with
Yet another solid contribution by HCR in her signature style: Current events viewed in their historical context.
Love it! Love Heather!