Squatty Potty😱 ✡️🌻😱 

Epstein, Epstein, DOJ:  Just about every news outlet except Fox has confirmed NPR’s report that summaries and notes from three interviews with a South Carolina woman who says that she was sexually abused by both Epstein and Trump when she was thirteen exist but have not been released by the DOJ, a violation of the recently passed Epstein Files Transparency Act.  The DOJ’s first reaction to the omission was to deny that they’ve held anything back, now they appear to be hedging, saying that they are looking for the files in question but can’t find them. Pam Bondi and the DOJ have a problem which is just one of the reasons that Democratic Congressman Summer Lee says that she will be introducing articles of impeachment against Bondi.  While Trump continues to trumpet his “full exoneration” several more men, none of whom have been accused of being “involved” with any of Epstein’s young girls but all of whom maintained relationships with Epstein after his Florida conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, have stepped down from their positions.  That group includes former Treasury Secretary/Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, Nobel Prize winner Richard Axel who had been the co-Director of Columbia University’s Brain Institute, and former Democratic Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey (not to be confused with former Massachusetts Senator John Kerry) who has stepped down from his chairmanship at clean energy company Monolith. In addition, Bill Gates, another one who had a relationship with Epstein, but who has not been cited for involvement with any of Epstein’s young victims, has apologized to staff at the Gates Foundation for his two consensual affairs with Russian women, a bridge player and nuclear physicist. His apology came about as the result of an unsent email that appeared in the Epstein files; that email included an allegation that Gate’s had relations with two “Russian girls” and had gotten a sexually transmitted infection. Former Secretary of State/Senator Hillary Clinton who had no contact with Epstein but acknowledges social contact with Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed today in a closed-door House Oversight meeting. Former President Bill Clinton who did have contact with Epstein will be deposed tomorrow. Both Clintons requested open hearings, but Committee Chair James Comer refused their requests likely because he knows they’ll make him look stupid which isn’t hard to do and because closed sessions make it easier to selectively leak whatever he wants to leak. Moreover, it’s fairly clear that there is no legitimate reason to depose Hillary except for the fact that she is Hillary and Republicans love torturing her.  In other DOJ/FBI news, ten FBI Agents who worked on the investigation into Trump’s Mar a Lago documents theft have been fired.  Judge Aileen Cannon who is still trying out for a promotion to a higher court, maybe SCOTUS, has put the kibosh on ever releasing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report about Mar a Lago and the top-secret documents held in the Mar a Lago toilet, her decision will likely be appealed. On the subject of toilets, Robert Edwards the creator of the Squatty Potty, the product that made him a millionaire after appearing on Shark Tank, has been indicted for purchasing child abuse material. WTF, why so many pedophiles?  Lastly, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has given up on trying to indict the group of six Senators and Representatives who spoke truth to power, not because she wants to but because she can’t convince any jurors to vote for an indictment.

MAHA Not:  Yesterday, Casey Means, Trump’s nominee to serve as Surgeon General appeared in front of the Senate Health Committee for her confirmation hearing.  Means who graduated from Stanford Medical School dropped out of her residency because she didn’t want to deal with sick people and became a health influencer.  She does not have an active medical license. During the hearing, she refused to endorse vaccines, even for measles, instead answering all vaccine questions with a pat reply saying that individuals should consult with their doctors about getting shots. She also questioned the safety of the birth control pill, saying “hormonal pills” are “disrespectful of life” and have “horrifying side effects” again going with her pat “talk to your doctor” answer. People should talk to their doctors, but Surgeon Generals are supposed to message preventive health so having a Surgeon General cast shade on proven vaccines and birth control methods is, to put it mildly, not a good thing.  It is however very MAHA, which is why RFK promoted a health influencer and health “entrepreneur” rather than an experienced public health doctor to Trump who took the bait. The question now is whether the Chairman of the Health Committee, Senator/Doctor Bill Cassidy, who is largely responsible for RFK making it through his confirmation process will vote for her.  He knows he shouldn’t and he knows he shouldn’t have approved RFK but he’s in the midst of a primary battle against a candidate Trump endorsed likely as retribution for Cassidy voting him guilty during his second impeachment trial so he’s compromised.  Desperate politicians do stupid things.  So do VP Vance and Medicare/Medicaid Administrator Dr Oz.  Yesterday they announced plans to “temporarily” withhold $259 million in Medicaid funds from the State of Minnesota because Minnesotans haven’t been targeted enough this year.  The purported reason for withholding the funds that help the poor including the neediest pregnant women, is to punish Minnesota, Governor Walz, and all of the states’ Somalis over the welfare fraud that was prosecuted by Biden’s DOJ and has already landed a bunch of people in jail. Remember when Trump said that he was sending Vance out to prosecute fraudsters, we knew he didn’t mean prosecuting the types of people that Trump routinely pardons.

Fog:  Something odd happened yesterday on the Cuban front. A Florida registered speedboat with ten Cuban residents of the US, assault rifles, handguns, improvised explosive devices (Molotov cocktails), bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms was interdicted by Cuban authorities while on its way to Cuba.  Cuba says that the boat and its passengers planned to engage in terrorist activities upon arrival in Cuba. Several of the passengers were shot and killed, the rest were taken into custody by Cuban border guards.  Yesterday, Secretary of State Rubio said that the US was looking into the situation.  Gulf of Tonkin or Bay of Pigs, pick your poison.  Are we trying to come up with an excuse to invade Cuba while a substantial amount of our military assets is sailing around the Middle East poised to attack Iran? Heck of a way to win a Nobel Peace Prize or maybe that aspiration is no longer a thing.

Have a good weekend.             

  

 
Time in a Bottle 😱 ✡️🌻😱 ⛸️

SOTU:  One hour and forty-seven minutes of Trump repeating his greatest hits, time that anyone who watched will never get back.  By hits think mostly lies because Trump’s self-congratulatory, campaign style diatribe was chock full of them.  The economy isn’t roaring; tariffs will not be replacing income taxes; affordability isn’t a new word coined by Democrats; inflation wasn’t at an all-time high during Biden’s administration and had come down to current levels before Trump took office; Trump didn’t win the 2020 election; Trump’s health plan is nothing more than a one page concept; he hasn’t resolved eight wars; JD Vance isn’t going to eliminate grift because if he does he’ll have to start with Trump, his family members and his cronies;  he hasn’t secured $17 trillion in investments from overseas, even the White House website says otherwise; and what are our ships, troops, and refueling planes doing in the sea around Iran if we eliminated their nuclear capability last year.  As to that last assertion Trump’s “negotiator” Steve Witkoff says that Iran will be able to make nuclear bombs by next week, likely the rationale that will be used if, or more likely when, Trump starts the next Middle East war. The list of lies goes on and on, but despite Trump’s dropping poll numbers, he’s sticking with the "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth” strategy because it’s worked for him in the past and as his fascination with tariffs proves he’s long past the point of changing.

The Polls: Trump’s numbers really are bad.  CNN has his approval rating down from 47 percent to 36 percent.  The Washington Post/ABC/Ipsos poll and another from NPR/PBS/Marist have his approval rating down 6 points since taking office and both polls show only 39 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the presidency, that’s down from the 45 percent who approved of it when he took office.  Notably his support from independent voters has dropped a “whopping” 17 percent. Naturally, he’s dropped far less among Republicans, which says a lot about Republicans and partially explains why a room full of them applauded him last night, the other explanation is that most of them live in fear that one nasty Truth Social Post will doom their reelection prospects.  Lastly, we shouldn’t be all that surprised that so many members of the US Men’s Hockey Team took Trump up on his invitation to the Oval Office and then attended last night’s speech.  They are his demographic: white and male. They may be great at hockey and lots of fun to watch and for those like FBI Director Kash Patel, lucky enough to have access to a US taxpayer funded plane, hang with, but we need to stop expecting athletes or any other celebrities to be better than anyone else.  

Epstein, Epstein, Missing Files:  Epstein is the leaky drip that’s keeps leaking no matter how many time the plumber is called in.  This time the plumbers aren’t Nixon’s fixers and CREEPERs but Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche’s Department of Justice.  Their efforts to eliminate references to Trump from the Epstein files appear to have been haphazard.  They redacted and held back lots of incriminating items but missed a few including several interviews with a woman who alleges that she was sexually abused and physically beaten by Trump when she was thirteen years old.  House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia reports that he can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who he said did accuse Trump of  “heinous crimes." There are also additional files that detail more of Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes, files that her lawyers are trying to keep away from prying eyes likely over her concern that the more known about her the harder it will be for Trump to provide her with the clemency that she expects to get before his term ends. Another heavily redacted file indicates that Epstein was the subject of a previously undisclosed Drug Enforcement Agency investigation, a five-year-plus probe targeting him and 14 other individuals for suspicious money transfers possibly linked to illegal narcotics.  The DEA document also reveals the existence of other previously unknown investigations including ICE investigations in West Palm Beach, Las Vegas, and Paris, with the Paris investigation named Operation Angel Watch.  Is it a stretch to think that Angel Watch had something to do with the trafficking of women and/or girls? Trump owned a modeling agency during the period when these activities took place 🤷‍♀️.   Police in Paris, like those in the UK have now opened new investigations into all things Epstein.  On Monday, former UK Ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson was arrested.  Like former Prince Andrew, his arrest wasn’t for any sex-related crimes but for allegedly sharing market sensitive government information with Epstein while a government minister. The White House’s response to all of this is that Trump has done more for the Epstein victims than anyone else and anyway Trump has been totally exonerated or so he says. 

Peeps:  FBI Director Kash Patel has been getting lots of criticism for partying with the US Men’s Hockey team on the government dime because his trip to Milan, which he insists was for official purposes, cost the taxpayers a lot of money, he had very few “official” meetings, and back in his podcast days he criticized FBI Director Wray’s more mundane plane use. Compounding the criticism, yesterday it was reported that when an FBI team needed an FBI plane to get to Providence during the Brown shooting event, there was no available plane because it was with Patel who was using it for personal reasons.  So far, a few Republicans including Nancy Mace, Anna Paulina Luna, Lauren Boebert, and Thomas Massie are calling for Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales to step down and/or drop out of his reelection race.  Gonzales who is married and the father of six, had an affair with his also married 35-year-old regional director Regina Santos-Aviles who killed herself by self-immolation after Gonzales ended their affair.  Gonzales denies he had a relationship with Santos-Aviles but there are implicating text message including some that show how he pushed her into the relationship that prove otherwise. There also are two other female staff members who say that he harassed them as well. Since he can’t afford to lose another Republican member right now Speaker Johnson, who already has a bigly problem with the female members of his caucus, is trying to ignore the situation. The French government is really pissed at US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, father of Jared.  The dispute is due to Kushner’s failure to show up for a meeting over some Trump administration remarks that offended France.  It’s a big no-no for an Ambassador to ignore such a request but he’s Jared’s dad, and Trump pardoned him for the crimes that landed him in jail, so those rules don’t apply to him. Tucker Carlson keeps doubling down on his anti-Semitism but that doesn’t seem to concern Trump who had him over for a visit earlier this week. Longevity guru Peter Attia who had icky, chummy emails with Epstein will not be joining CBS despite news director Bari Weiss really wanting him to. And, while the battle for Warner Brothers rages on between Netflix and CBS owner Paramount, Trump is now calling for former Ambassador Susan Rice to be ousted from Netflix’s board because she’s nasty or said something nasty about him and Senator Lindsey Graham had Paramount’s CEO David Ellison as his SOTU guess because crony capitalism is so in vogue.  

Fog:  Last night Trump said that he doesn’t want war with Iran but he’s acting like he does. Wag the Dog time? Trump insists that his generals have told him that he can succeed at whatever he elects to do but reports are that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine has advised him that a military campaign against Iran could carry significant risks, in particular the possibility of becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict.   

 

 

Six to Three and Two to One 😱 ✡️🌻😱 ⛸️❄️☃️

Tariffs, Tariffs, the Economy:  On Friday, the Commerce Department estimated that the economy grew at an annualized rate of only 1.4% during the fourth quarter and that prices are now growing at an annual rate of 3%. Combined with last year’s anemic job growth, and the growing US deficit, those two indicators provide further evidence that despite Trump’s claims to the contrary the country’s economic picture is far from rosy.  Naturally, Trump blamed the economic news on Biden, Democrats, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell.  In fact, he started playing the blame game even before the numbers were officially released. Then the proverbial 💩 hit the fan.  The Supreme Court finally weighed in on Trump’s tariffs, essentially ruling 6 to 3 that Trump’s tariffs are taxes and that they exceed the powers given to presidents by Congress under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Act that Trump used to justify imposing most of them.  IEEPA provides the authority for presidents to regulate commerce during national emergencies created by foreign threats but does not allow presidents to impose tariffs just because they have a pathological fixation on them, believe they are a cure all for everything, and are pissed at leaders who failed to kiss his ring.  The SCOTUS majority included the usual three liberal judges plus Chief Justice John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch.  The naysayers included Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh. Roberts wrote the majority opinion but it was Gorsuch who put it best in his concurring opinion by saying that the decision to impose taxes and tariffs are to be made through the legislative process and while that process can be “hard” and “time consuming,” the “deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design.”  Though the make-up of the majority was a bit unexpected, the decision wasn’t, though Justice Kavanaugh’s dissent was.  Not only did he disagree with the majority opinion, but his opinion was more or less a cribbed regurgitation of Trump’s lawyers’ argument, a key feature of which was that because it would be difficult to refund the tariff payments, illegal or not, they shouldn’t be revoked.  Kavanaugh also provided Trump with a list of other laws he could use to act out his tariff fantasy. 

Ketchup on the Wall:  Given the state of the economy, for a brief nanosecond some economic and business pundits and a few wishful, swing state Republican politicians thought that Trump would use SCOTUS’s rebuke of his tariffs to his advantage by giving up on his tariff fantasy and letting the economy soar.  Of course, given Trump’s tariff obsession, that was delusional. Barely missing a beat, the irate orange one reacted to the decision by taking to his podium to issue a nasty screed that included a full-on trashing of SCOTUS as well as a threat to the Coney Barrett and Gorsuch’s families.  He also said that he is allowed to destroy the country because he’s allowed to do anything he wants.  He then said that he would reimpose tariffs under one of the other laws that Kavanaugh had dutifully pointed out allow presidents to impose temporary ones.  He started by imposing a 10% tariff and then upping it to 15% over the weekend leaving the tariff situation a bit murky.  A number of corporations and states, including Illinois, have already started suing to get their tariff payments refunded and several foreign entities, including the EU, have started freezing the trade deals they agreed to under duress. It’s not clear what will happen to the rest of us who on average have already paid more than $1000 for Trump’s tariffs as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pretty much said yesterday that we should just suck it up. It’s also not clear whether Justices Roberts, Coney Barret and maybe even Gorsuch are starting to realize that ruling that Trump is a king with almost total immunity was not such a good idea.

Weirder💩:  Trump who had a large banner of his face added Kim Jung un style to the outside of the Department of Justice last week, retracted his endorsement of Colorado Republican Jeff Hurd who has a primary opponent.  Hurd’s unimaginable crime, voting with Democrats to pass a resolution repealing Trump's tariffs on Canada. Trump is sending a message to other Republicans that they cross him at their own risk, a strategy that will lose its potency once primary season ends. In a truly weird move even for Trump, he took to Truth Social to announce that he’s sending two US hospital ships to Greenland.  It’s thought that his announcement was motivated by reports that Denmark quite graciously airlifted a sick American off of a US submarine that had been submerged in the neighboring seas.  Putting aside that a normal leader would have thanked Denmark for helping out, the citizens of Greenland, like all the citizens of Denmark enjoy universal health care coverage so they do not need our ships.  Moreover, our two hospital ships are currently in dry dock undergoing work and as such are not available to sail anywhere right now.  Saying “no thanks” Denmark’s Prime Minister turned down the ship offer and probably said a few other unreportable things.  Anyone know how to say FU in Danish?

MAHA Not:  Unlike Denmark, we do not have universal health care coverage and as a result of the Big Ugly Bill, $1 billion is being sucked away from our health care system which makes the Washinton Post’s report that officials are struggling to figure out how to increase military spending by $500 billion that much more outrageous. As to our health care guru, Rolling Stone reports that the CDC funded study that was designed to deprive some African babies in Guinea Bissau from receiving Hepatitis B vaccine shots at birth was rushed through the CDC approval process despite its Tuskegee syphilis study like unethical violations because RFK wanted to cite the study to justify the decision he had already made to eliminate Hep B vaccines for infants in the US.  RFK is now also claiming that his trembling voice, which is caused by spasmodic dysphonia, in his case due to a genetic condition that also affects a few other members of his family, is really the result of all the flu shots he got in his youth. Perhaps that’s just another reason that he tried to put the kibosh on Moderna’s mRNA flu shot.  The damage he’s doing by standing in the way of new vaccines and spreading further doubt about existing life-saving ones is immeasurable. Lastly, it turns out promoting cancer causing chemical glyphosate isn’t the only non-MAHA thing that Trump did last week.  Under his direction, the FDA is retreating from its plans to ban artificial food dyes.  The MAHA moms who thought that RFK was their savior but should have known better are not happy with the way things are going. Makes you wonder what they think about snorting coke off toilet seats.

Fog:  There are ominous signs, as in loud war drums, on the Iran front. Parts of Mexico are up in flames, a response by the drug cartels to the assassination of a leading drug lord by Mexican forces with some help from Washington. More keeps coming out of the Epstein files, all of it awful.  The State of the Union address takes place on Tuesday night.  It will likely be off the charts nuts because the guy delivering it is.

Congrats to all the Men and Women US hockey players!        

 

You're Fired? 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 ⛸️

 Cabinetry:  During Trump’s first term, Rachel Maddow regularly displayed a graphic detailing all the high-level departures from his administration.  Overtime, as the Trump One cabinet went through unprecedented levels of churn that graphic took over all the walls in her studio.  We even got a new measure – the Scaramucci. Even though the Trump Two cabinet is now filled largely with D-listers, many of whom, especially puppy 🐶 killer Kristi Noem, couldn’t even qualify to serve as a local dog catcher, and that’s probably unfair to dog catchers, high level turnover has been almost non-existent. Theories are that Trump doesn’t want to admit how awful his cabinet is, likes being surrounded by incompetent sycophants, and most certainly doesn’t want to feed Maddow’s wall of shame.  While all that might be true, it’s also possible that no one’s been fired because he can’t figure out who to axe first.  Ice Barbie Noem’s Department of Homeland Security’s propensity for shooting and killing people, while consistent with Stephen Miller’s and therefore Trump’s twisted preferences, is thought to be responsible for polls indicating that approval of Trump’s handling of the border, once among his high spots, keeps dropping.  It certainly doesn’t help that the married Noem’s $200 million government leased jet has a luxury “mile high” bedroom suite that she is reported to share with the also married Corey Lewandowski who isn’t her chief of staff but acts the part. The bedroom is super cringy and the jet is hardly in line with the Musk ran government efficiency program that dominated the first few months of this Trump administration but she’s still around.  Commerce Secretary Howard Lutwick who took his wife, children, and nannies to visit with Jeffrey Epstein on his island obviously lied to Congress about his personal and business relationship with the pedophile.  He keeps sticking his foot in his mouth during press appearances and no one, least of all him really knows what the Commerce Secretary is supposed to do, yet he’s still in the cabinet. Last week RFK Jr riffed about snorting coke off of toilet bowl seats while his FDA cancelled and then uncancelled what could turn out to be a really effective flu vaccine all while posting weird exercise routines and ignoring all the measles cases that are out and about and he’s still around maybe because falling in line on the promotion of cancer-causing glyphosate is providing him a lifeline. RFK’s staying power is particularly remarkable given how many in Trump’s orbit keep bringing up the cocaine that was found lying around during “Sleepy” Joe’s term. Sleepy being a term that only applies to Biden and not to Trump who nodded off again during yesterday Board of Peace 💩 show.  Attorney General Bondi screwed up bigly when she bragged that she had a list of Epstein’s pedophile pals on her desk and was about to release it, an unfulfilled promise that helped feed the still growing Epstein monster. She keeps bleeding DOJ attorneys, the ones she has left can’t even indict ham sandwiches, and many in Trump’s MAGA base have grown to despise her, yet she still has a job.  Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer is being investigated by her department’s Inspector General over allegations that she’s been having  an improper relationship with a security staffer, misusing travel funds and drinking on the job (Pentagon Pete wants a word) and as if that’s not enough, her husband is now banned from visiting her DOL office building something to do with him accosting at least two of her female staffers.  One of those “incidents” was picked up by security cameras. Though one time FBI deputy director Dan Bongino has self-deported himself back to Trump friendly podcasting, his former boss and good buddy, FBI Director Kash Patel, is still running the FBI, well running it when not posing for photo-ops and commandeering planes for his country western singing girlfriend and her BFFs, and spending $75,000 to fly to the Milan Olympics because he likes hockey. The list goes on and on and none of this touches on Trump and his cabinet’s awful policies, like EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s efforts to pollute rather than improve the environment or Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s pushing for more polluting coal because as horrible as all that is, it’s what Trump promised to do, though he may have left out the part about soliciting and accepting payments from industry titans in exchanges. Anyway, for what it worth, prediction market such as Polymarket and Kalshi predict the order of the first forced departures will be Noem, Bondi, and then Lutwick. Thoughts?

Board of ✌️:  With Trump’s favorite disco tunes serving as his soundtrack, Trump held the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace yesterday. It was embarrassing but in character. The Board was supposedly created to lead the rebuilding of Gaza but anyone believing that might be interested in purchasing a bridge in Brooklyn. Trump who has appointed himself as the Board’s chairman for life is positioning the Board to be his UN replacement.  He announced that the US will be contributing $10 billion to his board. That money hasn’t been approved or allocated by Congress but then again, Trump doesn’t appear to believe that he needs Congressional approval for anything, an assumption that might not be far off the mark. Also, the US owes $4 billion to the UN so maybe that’s the pool Trump plans to hit up first?  Nothing to worry about though because son in law Kushner who together with Trump’s golf buddy and real estate friend Steve Witkoff heads up Trump’s “peace” negotiating team said no one will be making money off the board, a sure tell that at least one family will be. On the subject of not peace, Trump keeps sending more and more military resources to the Middle East and yesterday said that he’ll decide whether to attack Iran in ten days. That part about needing Congressional approval, forget about it.

More:  There’s a chance that the Supreme Court will release its tariff ruling today. Lastly, there was some great news on the Olympics front. The Women’s ice hockey team won gold as did Alysa Liu who ⛸️skates with joy and happiness and a whole lot of technical proficiency. It’s been 24 years since Sarah Hughes, who also skated with lots of joy, did that. 😊

                     

Purple Rain 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 

Hail Britannia: Whoa. The man formerly known as Prince but now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a very British way of saying Epstein 💩.  Meantime, the Orange guy who appeared around one million times in the Epstein files still hasn’t faced any consequences and appears to be prepping to attack Iran while also cooking up ways to disrupt the midterm elections. Overnight freelance journalist Roger Sollenberger who broke the story about footballer/Senate candidate Herschel Walker paying for an abortion posted on his Substack additional details about the allegations provided by the woman who asserts that as a tween she was trafficked by Epstein who then introduced her to Trump who she says raped her. She says that she was interviewed by the FBI four times though curiously only one of those interviews appears, albeit heavily redacted, in the released Epstein files.  In other Epstein news, as expected during his deposition former Victoria’s Secret head Les Wexner denied knowing anything about Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls and young women, while also claiming that he’d been duped and conned by him.  He added that he’d cut off communication with Epstein in 2007 although there are a few emails that contradict that assertion.  The Wexner deposition was held at his Ohio estate.  No Republican members of Congress attended though a few members of their staff did.  It’s probably not a stretch to surmise that the Republicans were all “advised” that attendance would make a certain someone very unhappy, subjecting them to Truth Social attacks or worse.  With no Republicans in attendance the five Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducted the closed-door questioning.  The five were Representatives Robert Garcia (ranking member), Jasmine Crockett, Dave Min, Yassamin Ansari, and Stephen Lynch.    

MAHA 🤷‍♀️:  Yesterday morning the FDA announced that despite its previous refusal it will review Moderna’s mRNA application. Politico reports that the reversal was the result of pressure from the White House, likely a response to polling that indicates that most Americans, even those who don’t bother to get their flu shots support vaccines as well as an acknowledgement that hurting a US manufacturer might not be pro-business. Moderna has agreed to tweak its application, but the change seems mostly a way to allow the FDA to save face about their earlier refusal. In other MAHA news, yesterday Trump issued an executive order intended to spur the domestic production of glyphosate, the weedkiller that is the active ingredient in Roundup. Glyphosate is widely believed to cause cancer including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  In 2018, RFK helped win a landmark $289 million jury verdict against Monsanto, the maker of Roundup by arguing that the company knew that. However, now that it’s in his interest to support Trump’s actions, which are likely the result of lobbying (contributions?) by the Chemical industry, RFK says he’s cool with glyphosate because, really what’s a little lymphoma among friends. Chalk that up as one of the things that happens when an unprincipled toilet seat sniffing coke guy who attributes his academic success to heroin becomes the Health Secretary.  One more piece of health news,  NIH head Jay Bhattacharya is now also the head of the CDC.  Bhattacharya was one of those who thought that the best way to handle COVID was to just let it spread so maybe just maybe putting him in charge of disease control is not the best idea. 🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♀️

More 💩:  In December, noting that he was a terrific Congressman, Trump endorsed the reelection bid of Texas Republican Tony Gonzales. Apparently, the affair that the married Gonzales had with a member of his staff who committed suicide by self-immolation in September 2025 was not a disqualifier.  Only the best.              .        

 

  

 

Victorias' Secrets 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 

Midterm Madness: Primary day in Texas is March 3, but early voting has already begun. Republican Senator John Cornyn, who is up for reelection, is being primaried from the right by two MAGA types: state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Congressman Wesley Hunt. Republican Senate leadership would prefer to see Cornyn win the primary, but Trump who has not weighed in yet, is likely leaning towards Paxton whose record mirrors his. Paxton is involved in a public, messy divorce and was impeached by the Texas House for bribery, abuse of power, and corruption but was able to remain as Attorney General because he was acquitted by the state’s Senate. Current polls show Paxton polling in the high 30s, about eight points ahead of Cornyn with Hunt who is polling in the high teens serving as the spoiler who could force a runoff since Texas law requires that the winning candidate receive more than 50% of the vote. On the Democratic side the race is between Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett who has made a name for herself by being one of Trump’s loudest most fiery critics and the more moderate State Representative James Talarico who has been running on how his Christian beliefs are consistent with Democratic and democratic principles.  The most recent poll shows Crockett, who was previously running neck and neck with Talarico, now leading him 47% to 39% with 12% undecided and 2% going to a third candidate. Odds are that once the undecided votes are cast, the Democratic race won’t go to a runoff, but anything is possible.  You don’t have to be registered in a party to vote in a Texas primary, but you can only vote in one of them.

CBS WTF: Though he’s lagging in the polls Talarico did get a bit of a lift this week after the powers that be at CBS told nighttime host Stephen Colbert that Talarico was persona non grata. CBS is looking more and more like Fox lite, its Paramount owners are working very hard to get Trump to weigh in on their behalf in their battle to buy Warner Brothers. CBS management “blamed” their decision to ban Talarico on their legal department’s advice that an appearance by Talarico would violate an old equal time rule that for years has not applied to nighttime and news shows. Trump’s FCC Chair, the very MAGA Brendan Carr who appears to be modeling his policies on those of Hungary’s Viktor Orban who has clamped down on the press in his country, has said that he wants to reimpose the antiquated rule. CBS’s acquiescence in advance is alarming, especially given the upcoming elections. Colbert, who is on his way out, is far past caring what CBS management has to say.  He posted his Talarico interview on YouTube where it was seen by a wide audience and discussed the fracas on last night’s show. To her credit Crockett who has appeared on Colbert’s show a few times said that she had no problem with Talarico’s appearance even if it gives him a boost with voters.  In other CBS news, long time 60 Minutes contributor Anderson Cooper is not renewing his contract.  His decision is being attributed to the way that new news head Bari Weiss has been MAGA-fying editorial decisions.

Still Closed:  Though it’s mostly hard to tell, the Department of Homeland Security is still “closed” since the administration and Democrats still haven’t worked out a deal on its funding.  Democrats want restrictions on how Noem’s militia behaves including a ban on agents masking their faces, mandatory body cameras, a requirement for judicial warrants for immigration arrests and an end to “roving patrols,” among other priorities. The White House and Republicans are pushing back on the mask ban and warrant requirements. Stories about how Noem’s INS and Border goons have been behaving continue to leak out, it turns out that the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are only the tip, albeit a very deadly tip, of the Homeland iceberg.  That pattern goes far to explaining why the FBI will not be sharing any information with Minnesota law enforcement about the Good and Pretti murders.  Who could have guessed that inadequate training, the hiring of former January Sixers, hate messaging and the demonizing of “others’ would result in the brutal treatment of immigrants and US citizens and deaths?  Unfortunately, by virtue of the Big Ugly Bill , Homeland already has far too much money at their disposal, $38 billion of which is being spent on detention facilities like the ones already holding far too many children and some pregnant woman, among others.  Monday night Rachel Maddow included a segment on how quite a few municipalities and states, red and blue, are pushing back against the INS’s purchase of land and warehouses for the “storing” of tens of thousands of immigrants. Some of that pushback is over concerns about how those facilities will overtax the already stretched water, sewer, and electrical infrastructure of the communities involved but some of it is because having a concentration camp-like facility as a neighbor, even in a red state, isn’t what a lot of Trump voters imagined when they voted for him. As to voters and messaging, yesterday Kristi Noem’s communications director Trisha McLaughln who called Good and Pretti radicals and worse announced her departure. We shouldn’t get too excited about that because there are probably lots of Trisha types waiting around for an opportunity to takeover her spot, however her departure could be an indication that Noem’s power really is sputtering. Also, there has been a shuffling of chairs, demotions, and some departures in RFK’s orbit. There are some suggestions that Trump wants more messaging about RFK’s efforts to get red dye out of foods rather than his promotion of toilet seat cocaine, measles, and the flu.  As to the flu, Trump also said that Moderna should act with more humility the next time they seek vaccine approval. By humility does he mean a CAVA bag with cash delivered to Mar a Lago?

More 💩:  Kushner, Witkoff and Trump’s other “negotiators” have reportedly been making “progress” in discussion with Iran and Russia, 🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♀️. More and more people not named Trump or in his administration have stepped aside over their association with Jeffrey Epstein.  Not that it matters much to Trump, but the list of Epstein associates in his orbit keeps growing.  Among other bonding moments, Steve Bannon advised Epstein on how to deal with his “bad press” and current Ambassador to Turkey and long-time Trump buddy Thomas Barrack was another Epstein friend. Today, some members of Congress are in Ohio meeting with Victoria’s Secret Les Wexner. The 88- year-old Wexner will likely plead the fifth and/or have no memory of anything memorable.  

 

 

Presidents Day 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🧤⛸️ 

 🧤,⛸️and DNA:  The quad god ⛸️is human, Susan Guthrie is still missing, and the Orange One keeps broadcasting his plans to steal the midterms and any that follow. Hopefully, Ilia Malinin will find his footing because while mortal, he is an awesome skater and, while the Susan Guthrie situation remains sad, maybe (well maybe) those gloves 🧤 will reveal some useful DNA. We can’t do anything about the skaters or the gloves, but we can and should pushback hard against Trump and his very devious election plans which include pressuring Republicans in the Senate to dispense with the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act already passed by their House colleagues and, if that doesn’t work, his plans to issue an executive order mandating voter ID and other voter suppressions. On the face of it, ID requirements, like naming election security legislation The SAVE Act doesn’t sound ominous but don’t be fooled, the whole point of the legislation is to controls who gets to vote. Most notably, the Act limits what type of ID can be used, requiring passports or birth certificates, rather than student IDS, driver’s licenses, or cards like the ones New Yorker’s are sent before each election.  Only 48% of Americans have a passport, the fee for getting one for the first time is $165, and assuming you have a copy of your birth certificate, it would only count as an acceptable ID if it’s in your birth name, an impediment for married women who’ve changed theirs. While supporters of the SAVE Act argue that IDs are necessary to keep non-citizens from voting, the reality is that non-citizens don’t vote and no one can cite legitimate statistics that they do.  Study after study by conservative think tanks like the Cato Institute have found few non-citizen voters because “People largely aren’t willing to risk their status in the United States for the ability to cast one more vote out of hundreds of thousands or millions in a state and hundreds of millions in the country.”  The SAVE Act would however impose a hefty poll tax on those who can least afford it, making voting expensive and inaccessible to those segments of the population who traditionally tilt independent or blue. It’s no coincidence that Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who relies on a coalition of voters that includes her state’s indigenous population is against the Save Act while Maine’s Susan Collins whose voters are composed of more traditional whiter and older Republican voters came out in support of it this weekend.  As to Trump, he says that he will impose the SAVE Act requirements, and other voting impediments like banning or severely limiting vote by mail and the counting of postmarked votes that arrive after election day, by edict.  That’s probably not Constitutional but then again, the current Supreme Court doesn’t seem to mind that lots of what he does isn’t. Trump is pushing hard for these election changes because of how poorly he and Republicans are doing in the polls across a wide range of issues and voter groups. Polls indicating how fed up the majority of Americans are over how the INS and Border Patrol behaved in Minnesota, rather than the “successfully completion of the mission,” are why most immigration agents have been pulled from the state.  Likewise, polls are probably the reason that Republicans for the first time won’t field a candidate for Senator in the upcoming New Mexico Senate race. As to ICE Barbie Kristi Noem, the DHS Secretary who according to the WSJ fired her pilot for failing to transfer her blanket from her expensive love nest government jet to another one, her statement that “when it comes to election day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country” should be taken very seriously because though she’s saying the quiet part out loud to impress Trump and keep her job that doesn’t make it any less frightening especially since the INS and Border Control militias are under her control. Democrats have a lot on their plate, they’re being wildly out paced by Republicans on the fundraising front, and as usual they’re having a hard time acting in lock step when it comes to messaging because that’s who they are but if they can get it together and pushback against Trump’s threats to the election the midterms should be theirs to lose, well hopefully. On that note, Virginia has gotten the go ahead to vote on a redistricting plan that could result in giving Democrats another leg up in the House race because it increasingly looks like the gerrymandering war that was started by Republicans in Texas is backfiring on them.   

Epstein, Epstein 😱:  During last week’s House hearing AG Pam Bondi who never met with any of the Epstein victims couldn’t even find it within herself to acknowledge their presence at the hearing.  That says about all you need to know about how she’s been handling the release of the Epstein files. Every time we learn something horrible about someone in Trump’s orbit, we learn more about someone who isn’t or whose appearance in the files is incidental and has nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes. The bottom line remains that lots of people did really horrifying things or turned their eyes away from people who they knew were doing those things for business reasons or just to remain part of Epstein’s elite crowd, a crowd that included Steve Bannon. One item that continues to rear its head relates to an accusation from an underage girl about being raped by Trump.  It’s not proven but then again it doesn’t seem to have been investigated but one thing is clear, Bondi and her team redacted as many references to Trump as they could. Another group of files reveal mundane by comparison things such as how Epstein who lured lots of his prey by promising modeling gigs also promised acceptances into institutions of higher education, making generous contributions to get at least one of his girlfriends, Belarusian Karyna Shuliak, into Columbia University’s School of Dentistry.  Shuliak, who had overstayed her visa later secured citizenship by entering into a short-term sham marriage with another one of Epstein’s girlfriends, a woman named Jennifer, after receiving advice from Epstein’s lawyers that the marriage would solve her immigration woes.  The woman may be the same Jennifer that Epstein set up with Elon Musk’s brother Kimball.  The Columbia University officials involved with accepting Epstein’s girls has been removed and Kimball has now resigned from the Burning Man Project Board over these disclosures. Does make you wonder how another famous woman got her Einstein visa?    

 

Casey Jones Toilet Edition🎈😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿🎈

Attack🎈🎈:  The good news is that El Paso’s airport and airspace reopened after “only” four hours rather than the ten days that had been announced early Wednesday morning. The absurd news is that reason for the closure was that without alerting the FAA, members of the Border Patrol used an untested high-tech military laser in the active civilian airspace around El Paso to down a few party balloons that they mistakenly took for Mexican drug cartel drones.  The FAA thought an attack from Mexico was in process and reacted by closing the airport. The newfangled laser which had been gifted to ICE Barbie Noem’s Border Patrol forces by Secretary of War and Beer Pete Hegseth was used by Noem’s yutzes who thought they had detected an incoming attack from Mexico. Adding to the incompetent insanity, for a while the White House stuck with the deceptive drug cartel story with Attorney General Pam Bondi citing the extraordinary success of the mission during her opening remarks to the House Homeland Security committee in what turned out to be an insanely contentious hearing in which she answered few questions, but did attack anyone who asked her anything of substance, especially anything about the Epstein files.  She called Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, an anti-Semite and repeatedly shifted blame for her efforts to redact Trump’s one million (!) mentions in the Epstein file to Merrick Garland, Biden, and Obama.  During her testimony Bondi repeatedly checked the notes in her ridiculously thick binder. Through the lens of a particularly sharp photographer, it was revealed that the binder included data about which of the “unredacted” Epstein files members of the committee had accessed when they had been allowed to visit the super secure SCIF where the files are being held.  And really, who is surprised that Trump’s goons are spying on the RINOS and Democrats looking through the files?  Even Speaker Johnson who forgives Trump for everything thought that wasn’t a good idea. As to Epstein, the files reveal that Center for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Oz was another one cozying up to Epstein. In 2016, well after Epstein had served time in a Florida jail, Oz and his wife Lisa invited the convicted pedophile to their Valentine’s Day Party. In case you are counting, Oz is the ninth member of Trump’s immediate circle whose name appears in the files.  In addition to Trump the others are wife Melania, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Navy Secretary John Phelan, US Rep for Global Partnerships and Model Agency executive who brought Melania to the US Paoli Zampoli, RFK Jr, Federal Reserve Chairman nominee Kevin Warsh and Elon Musk. As to anti-Semitism, it’s a real problem but no one should for one moment believe that Trump sees it as anything more than a cudgel to use against his enemies especially given the number of people in his administration who keep getting caught spewing white supremacist and Jewish hate.  One of those people is Jeremy Carl who served in the Department of Interior in Trump’s first administration and who Trump has nominated to serve as the State Department’s Assistant Secretary of International Organizations.  Yesterday, Utah Senator John Curtis, the Republican who replaced Mitt Romney,  announced that after reviewing Carl’s record which included “insensitive remarks about Jewish people,” he would vote against his nomination.  Senator Curtis’ vote is expected to scuttle Carl’s nomination. How is it that Trump who keeps calling his enemies out as anti-Semitic has so many anti-Semitic associates?  Trump gets away with his hate and, so far, is mostly getting away with his Epstein association but the same can’t be said of Kathy Ruemmler, the Goldman Sachs lawyer who advised Epstein and was also the recipient of some Hermes and Fendi gifts from him announced she will depart Goldman in June.  

Making America Sick Again: Trump formally announced that since climate change isn’t a thing, regulating carbon emissions is no longer necessary.  Apparently, those genes he inherited from his brilliant MIT professor uncle provide him with more knowledge about the environment than any of the real experts and his EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin who lucky for New York never made it to the Governor’s Mansion is with him on that conclusion.  No comment from RFK who once cared about the environment because he and his advisors are too busy ensuring that we eat lots of meat and keep catching viruses.  Yesterday, we learned more about the FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine.  The decision was made by Vinay Prasad, the FDA administrator responsible for overseeing vaccines, who overruled the recommendation of the FDA’s scientists. Moderna which had received approval for its trial methodology from the FDA said that it will continue seeking approval from other countries which means that Europeans will get what is likely to be a more effectively targeted flu vaccine, one that can be designed to protect against the expected strains of the flu closer to the start of the flu season, while we won’t. It’s not just flu protection that we’ll be losing out on, this morning Moderna’s CEO announced that it will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases because “you cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the US markets.”  As a result, vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes and shingles have been shelved. Epstein-Barr isn’t just the cause of mono, the “kissing disease,” it is now considered a “primary, essential, and sometimes initiating factor for developing multiple sclerosis.”  We knew that RFK’s confirmation would have dire effects, now we know it’s not just childhood diseases, the effect of his reign will be widespread and long lasting but he’s not worried, yesterday during an interview with podcaster Theo Von, he said “I’m not scared of a germ, you know. I used to snort cocaine off of toilets.”  UGH and WTF.

Other 💩:  The decision of the Grand Jury to vote against indicting the six Senators and members of Congress who spoke out about not following illegal orders was unanimous meaning that not a single one of them fell for Jeanine Pirro’s bull 💩. Unfortunately, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin expects that Pirro, or another Trump US Attorney, will try again with a different grand jury. Since Pirro couldn’t get any experienced US Attorneys to present her case, she instead deployed a recent hire, a dance photographer who still runs an active studio because under Bondi the DOJ has gone from garage lawyers to insurance lawyers to dance photographers.  In other DOJ news, Bondi immediately fired the US attorney that the district judges in Northern New York appointed to replace one of her illegal interim attorneys leaving that spot vacant out of spite.  And at least for now Arizona’s Mark Kelly will not be demoted or see his retirement pay cut since DC District Judge Leon ruled that doing so would violate his First Amendment rights while setting a chilling precedent for all retired members of the military.   We are about to have another partial government shutdown.  This one will impact only the bloated and overfunded Department of Homeland Security, part of an effort mostly by Democrats to rein in the overreach of Ice Barbie’s militias. However, like last time, airports may be affected so check your flights.  On the tariff front, all Democrats except Maine’s retiring Jared Golden and six Republicans, including Nebraska’s Don Bacon, California’s Kevin Kiley, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, Colorado’s Jeff Hurd, Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, and Washington’s Dan Newhouse.  The Republican naysayers include some who are about to retire or come from swingy seats in states most impacted by the tariffs.  Trump is screwing around with the invitation list for this weekend’s annual Governors meeting.  At first it appeared that he was excluding all the Democratic Governors but now he says he’s “only” excluding Colorado’s Jared Polis and Maryland’s Wes Moore.  He didn’t invite Polis because he’s trying to pressure him to release convicted election breacher Tina Peters from Jail, he’s also cut crucial funding from Colorado as part of his pressure campaign.  He didn’t invite Moore, the nation’s only Black governor because he’s “foul mouthed,” also he’s Black.  Because Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt criticized Trump’s move, the orange one is now lashing out at him too, calling him just another RINO.  It’s not clear if any Democratic Governors will attend, it is clear that Trump is growing increasingly deranged and has three more years to go further down the rabbit hole. We still don’t know all the details, but it turns out that the Trump official that was being discussed by foreign players on the call that Tulsi Gabbard has been hiding was son in law Jared Kushner. Lastly, one piece of good news, most of the ICE and Homeland Security militias are leaving Minnesota.  Lots of damage has been done but at least Minneapolis residents will be able to start living their lives again except for Renee Good and Alex Pretti.   

 

 Butterflies Are Not Free 🦋 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🦋  

Morning Update:  Something very weird is happening this morning: the FAA has closed all air space over El Paso, Texas, cancelling all flights for ten days for “security reasons.” As of my writing, there is no explanation for this unprecedented except during 9.11 action. In other news, the person who was detained last night in the Guthrie case has been released and though the FBI says that they have identified other persons of interest, at this point no other information has been released.

WTF:  Now onto the destruction of democracy.  Yesterday, Jeanne Pirro, the former Fox host who is now the US Attorney for Washington DC tried to get a Washington grand jury to indict Representatives Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, the six whose Fall video reminded active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders. The good news is that the grand jury refused to indict, the horrifying news is that Pirro, clearly following Trump’s orders, even tried. In response to the indictment attempt, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s called for “the CEOs and university presidents and other responsible leaders who have been biding their time and waiting for” Trump “to cross the magic red line before speaking up, maybe when he starts arresting Senators is a good time to get off the f---- sidelines.” Murphy is so right, yet the likelihood of concerted pushback from any of those complicit people remains remote. Worth noting, the failed indictment attempt is on top of War Guy Pete Hegseth’s ongoing efforts to censure Senator Kelly, a retired Air Force Captain, by reducing his rank and his retirement pay.  Kelly is currently suing Hegseth, the Department of Defense, and other officials, for violating his free speech and right to due process.  A Judge is due to rule on that shortly.

A Bridge Too Far:  On Monday, Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, a 1.5-mile new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.  He posted on Truth Social that he “will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.” Michigan owns a part of the new bridge but the $4.6 billion funding for it was provided by Canada.  Yesterday, it was reported that Trump’s threat to prevent the opening of the new bridge wasn’t simply more of his anti-Canada saber rattling, it was also grift.  It followed a meeting between Commerce Secretary Lutnick and billionaire Matthew Moroun, a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family operates the competing Ambassador Bridge that also connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.  The Moroun family has long opposed and litigated against the construction of the new bridge.  Having failed to prevent its construction, they’ve now found a last-minute way to stand in its way. Could a contribution to one of Trump’s slush funds be involved?  In other irrational infrastructure news, Trump who loves coal plans to issue an executive order today directing the Department of Defense to buy electricity from coal-fired power plants.  The order comes as his administration plans to repeal the endangerment finding, the landmark climate ruling that determined greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. What could possibly go wrong except for more asthma, pulmonary diseases, and cancer with faster climate change thrown in as a kicker. Such a great gift for the next generation, the group that is also likely to suffer from more once preventable childhood diseases, like measles which leaves some with long term respiratory complications. On the subject of preventable diseases and respiratory distress, yesterday the FDA told Moderna that it will not review the company’s request to license a new, potentially more effective mRNA flu shot, even though the FDA had previously given the green light to the project.  Notably, RFK who prefers heroin and raw milk to vaccines, has a particular animosity for mRNA technology, so what if the technology is the wave of the future. 

Bad Math:  Despite his assertions that everyone loves him and that his poll numbers, like the economy, are better than ever, they’re not, even advisor Peter Navarro knows that which is why he previewed that this week’s job numbers are going to be really awful. Over the weekend, Louisiana Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez defeated her Republican opponent by double digits in a special election for a state House seat in a district President Trump won by 13 points in 2024.  Special elections are quirky and don’t attract as many voters as general elections so it would be easy to dismiss Martinez’ victory as just one of those local things.  The problem for Republicans is that the Louisiana result is not an outlier, Democrats have been overperforming all over the country which goes far to explaining why Trump is pushing for Congress to pass the SAVE Act, a catchy name for legislation intended to make it more difficult and more expensive for people, especially those who are likely to vote for Democrats, to vote.  It also partially explains why Trump had Tulsi Gabbard snatch those 2020 Fulton County ballots, partially because Trump is still fixated on everything related to his 2020 lost to “Sleepy Joe.”  Yesterday we learned that the “evidence” used to justify the Fulton County raid was provided by Kurt Olsen, an election denier whose claims about the 2020 election were previously disproved and that despite Gabbard’s involvement there was no credible international component to the allegations.  As to math, its not just the polling that’s a problem for Trump, the House, where the Republican majority might shrink by one more again this week if rumors that another Republican Congressman is considering exiting shortly ala Marjorie Taylor Greene are true.  Even at current levels, Speaker Johnson is having trouble managing his team.  Yesterday, three Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Kevin Kiley of California and Don Bacon of Nebraska, joined all Democrats to defeat a key procedural measure that would have prevented future votes on Trump’s tariffs, the ones cost each of us $1000 last year, an amount that is expected to grow to $1300 to $1500 this year. We are still awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs.  To the extent that they haven’t already decided how they’ll rule, Trump may have further damaged his argument that his tariffs are all about national defense by telling Fox’s Larry Kudlow that he imposed tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the way their leader spoke to him.

More Epstein💩:  Ghislaine Maxwell testified remotely, pleading the Fifth while promising to exonerate Trump if he provides her with clemency. Secretary Lutwick admitted to having had way more contact with Epstein, despite his earlier denials.  He acknowledged that he did visit Epstein’s Caribbean Island with his wife, children and nannies but wants us to know that he didn’t leave any of them on the island when he sailed away. Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said that until yesterday she thought that the Epstein stuff was a nothing burger, but after learning that one of Epstein’s victims was a nine-year-old she finally gets why people are so upset. Trump’s circle is pleased that the files reveal that he told a Palm Beach sheriff that he was glad that he was going after Epstein because everyone always knew he was up to bad things. The problem is that Trump’s call has CYA written all over it since it took place after Epstein had already been nabbed and there are thousands upon thousands of pages in the files where references to Trump appear to be redacted.  There’s so much more, not the least of which is the identification of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the Emirati businessman who was the recipient of an “I loved the torture video” email from Epstein. The sultan, who attended Trump’s first inauguration, also emailed about two of the women that Epstein had delivered to him.  As to those women, it appears that after his barely there Florida sentence ended, Epstein mostly shifted from abusing and trafficking young girls to trafficking those of legal age. In that capacity he “introduced” Elon Musk’s brother Kimball to at least one of his girlfriends. In addition, via Congressman Ro Khanna we learned that in addition to the Sultan, five other men named in the unredacted files are Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner, Nicola Caputo, Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, and Leonic Leonov.  Just the tip of a slimy iceberg because there is so much more there as well as a lot that we don’t know, yet.  And, because why not, Trump endorsed Congressman Cory Mills, a married guy who has credibly been accused of threatening and abusing his girlfriends, for reelection yesterday.

🦋 🦋 🦋 😭:  ProPublica published letters written by children incarcerated in Trump and Stephen Miller’s concentration camps.  They are sadder than sad and also evoke the poems included in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly which were written by doomed children at Treblinka, one of the infamous Nazi Concentration camps.  The US is building more of those camps, presumably to be occupied by more children and their parents few of whom are guilty of any crimes beyond crossing the border. The immigration officials who testified before Congress yesterday refused to acknowledge any of the bad things they’ve done, like murdering Renee Good and Alix Pretti or spraying pepper spray directly into already subdued peoples’ faces.  What have we become?       

 

 

 Together We Are America 🧊 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🧊 🐰 🏈

🐰 🏈 🐰 🏈 Last night’s half time show was joyous, colorful, fun, and creative. The wedding was real and Lady Gaga was there, singing in English for those who needed to hear some English. Not classic rock but muy bien even for those of us whose Español isn’t. Bad Bunny took the high road, his message was about love and unity, so no one should be surprised that the orange wannabee king found his performance to be “an affront to the Greatness of America” in contrast to the racist hate message he re-Truthed in the middle of the night on Friday. Either Trump wrote his Bad Bunny slam before the show or was watching it rather than the Turning Point USA Kid Rock alternative he wanted everyone to view instead.  While a few million did watch Kid Rock, far more didn’t. With 133.5 million viewers, the Bad Bunny half time show set a new record for the most watched performance in the Super Bowl’s history. Maybe that was the Streisand effect, maybe it was because Bad Bunny is an extremely popular performer who has a worldwide appeal, or maybe it was a little of both. As to Trump’s racist Friday message, which depicted Michelle and Barack Obama as apes, it was defended by press secretary Lying Leavitt as okay because it was just a Lion King parody and who doesn’t like the Lion King and why does it matter that the real Lion King doesn’t include any apes?  Trump, who was surprised that any of his people, especially, “his” Blacks, were offended by it, never apologized but did eventually claim that one of his aides sent it which begs the question, which aide was with him in his bedroom in the middle of the night when he was busy Truthing 😩?  

Epstein, Epstein, 😩:  More details keep emerging from the Epstein files, or at least those that have been released because despite the DOJ’s insistence that all of them are out, they aren’t.  It’s clear that Epstein was a twisted sexual predator, Ghislaine Maxwell’s participation makes her just as evil and the damage that was done to all of the victims is unimaginable. It’s sickening that the names of lots of those who participated in Epstein’s worst crimes have been redacted while the names of some of the victims have not. It’s very disturbing that so many who, even though they didn’t participate in Epstein’s awful crimes, were willing to turn a blind eye to what he was doing.  However, that said there are degrees of blame and responsibility, and it’s increasingly obvious that the worst offenders remain protected, either as a result of their orange power or because of some airtight NDAS while lesser names and people on the fringes are suffering consequences. Over the weekend more information about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s ties to Epstein were revealed. Lutnick, who once volunteered that he distanced himself from Epstein early on was in business with Epstein and there’s even a memo in the files that suggests that Epstein helped him source his nanny. So far Lutnick still has his job. While they’re still trying to get a commitment for their testimony to be aired in real time, the Clintons are planning to testify.  The NY Times reports that the Clinton Global Initiative was advised by Ghislaine Maxwell and received funds from Epstein all before he was indicted, and we’ve known for some time that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane, not to his island but to places assisted by his initiative, there doesn’t appear to be anything about Hillary in the files, but still they as opposed to Trump have been called to testify. Protective political power appears to be a US phenomenon for those in the orange one’s circle.  It doesn’t help political figures in the UK where both British Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson and a key aide to Prime Minister Keir Starmer who had a role in Mandelson’s hiring have been forced out. It’s not working in Norway either where the Crown Princess’ suitability to be Queen is being questioned and where Mona Juul, the country’s Ambassador to Jordan and Iraq, was shown the door this weekend. There’s so much still to be uncovered but a few peculiar items that came to light this weekend are truly weird: the files contain a draft press release announcing the death of Epstein, what’s odd is that the release was dated the day before Epstein committed suicide; and late last week there was a report that a video showing a previously unshared “orange blur,” possibly another person, near Epstein’s cell right before his “suicide.” The conspiracy theories write themselves.

Other 💩: The Tulsi Gabbard story isn’t going away. The whistleblower report that she covered up instead of sharing with the intelligence committees was about an intercepted call between two foreign nationals discussing someone in Trump’s inner circle regarding Iran right before last June’s airstrikes. Gabbard shared it with Susie Wiles and then it was squelched, at least until now.  On the health care front, Trump revealed his new TrumpRX program to much fanfare last week.  It turns out that half the drugs on the TrumpRX site have a cheaper generic version on the market and most people will get better pricing for most of the drugs included in the program through insurance.  As to the growing measles problem, Dr. Oz who says that he’s supportive of measles vaccines also wants us to believe that RFK is too.  He’s not. Lastly,  the DOJ is having a hard time holding on to US Attorneys because so many don’t want to pursue Trump’s illegal objectives.  They’re seeking new hires but only want those willing to do Trump’s bidding to apply.       

 

 
Democracy Dies in Darkness 🧊 😱 ✡️🌻😱 👿 🧊  

Menacing the Midterms:  It’s cold, the Super Bowl is this Sunday, and figure skating has begun at the Milan Olympics, so November’s midterms are probably not in the forefront of your mind.  They should be because they appear to be front and center in what’s left of Trump’s.  Yesterday, while addressing a group dominated by orange idol worshipers at the National Prayer breakfast, the kleptocrat in chief once again went off on a tirade about how he’d won each and every election he’d ever run in, that all those elections, even the ones he actually won, had been riddled with fraud and chock full of alien voters, and that he’d won the popular vote in 2016.  To state the obvious, he lost in 2020 and though he did win the popular vote in 2024, he did not win it in 2016 and aliens don’t vote. Trump’s solution for the election fraud problem involves the nationalization of elections, a process that would allow him to limit, even eliminate early voting except by overweight orange Floridians with cankles, while doing the same to voting by mail, or at the very least the counting of qualified mail-in ballots that arrive after election day especially in California.  Steve Bannon who should be in jail but isn’t, is loudly calling for Trump to send INS troops, those nice guys who’ve been beating up citizens and immigrants mostly in Democratic cities across the country, to “protect” polling places. By the way though around 700 of them have been removed from Minnesota, 2000 remain so don’t be fooled by CAVA bag guy Homan.  As proven over and over again by lots of audits, non-citizens rarely vote, Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger’s audit found only nine alien casted votes in his state in 2020 while a Michigan audit found only twenty in 2024, so there’s no reason to station immigration stormtroopers outside of ballot places unless of course the purpose of doing so is to influence election outcomes through voter intimidation and the rounding up of brown people and the white people who come to their defense. Trump is laying the groundwork for his election nationalization and militarization by relitigating the 2020 Georgia election.  That’s why DNI Tulsi Gabbard spent last week lurking around Fulton County. The Trump team is having trouble getting their story straight about who deployed Tulsi, depending on the hour her probe was either self-initiated, ordered by Trump or AG Pam Bondi, or maybe even by Putin, but the bottom line is that the FBI now has all of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots and related paraphernalia though Fulton officials are suing to get them all back. Although those ballots have been counted multiple times, no one should doubt that someone in Trump’s orbit, maybe the same crew who moved his boxes with the purloined top-secret documents around Mar a Lago would be willing to stuff the requisite 11,000 ballots in among the legitimate ones. Oddly enough, Tulsi has also obtained and “tested” Puerto Rico’s ballot counting machines to see if they had been manipulated by dead or arrested Venezuelan dictators. Despite being US Citizens, Puerto Ricans who reside in Puerto Rico can’t vote in presidential elections but maybe Tulsi, like Trump doesn’t know that and has forgotten the large monetary settlements that some voting machine companies have won to date? The bottom line, Trump’s polls are bad, he fears a Democratic takeover of the House, not to mention the more remote but possible loss of the Senate, so if the nationalization and militarizing of the midterms can keep him in control, he will go that route, or at least he’ll try very hard and with no staff acting as guardrails, who in his orbit will stop him? He keeps telling us his plans, yesterday he even referred to “15 states” that should be taken over, we need to listen and push back hard.  It’s not just “radical” Democrats who are concerned, the WSJ, is taking him seriously too. Today their editors wrote  “Trump’s call to nationalize elections is a mistake for the GOP, since Democrats will be only too eager to try again, on their terms, the nanosecond they regain power. Instead, Democrats should thank their lucky stars for America’s decentralized system. They say Mr. Trump is a budding authoritarian, yet the Constitution gives him little power over the 2026 midterms that could be a Republican wipeout.” Sure, the WSJ writes in Republican-ese and always manages to throw in a barb about what Democrats could do in the future, but their message is clear, leave the elections alone!  As to Tulsi, the story about the whistleblower report that implicates her in something peculiar is still percolating. More to come, well maybe.

More 💩:  Apparently having his name on the soon to be “temporarily” closed Kennedy Center isn’t enough for Trump.  CNN, Politico, Axios and now just about every other media outlet reports that Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he’ll free up the funding he froze for the crucial and already begun rail tunnel between NY and NJ in exchange for Schumer’s support for changing the name of NY’s Pennsylvania Station to Trump Station and the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Trump airport. The only thing that’s surprising about this extortion attempt is that it didn’t happen sooner.  It’s likely that someone in Schumer’s orbit leaked this story because it had to be leaked.  The Senator’s response was that “There was nothing to trade,” Trump “stopped the funding and he can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers.” On the economic front, Trump with the increasingly elitist sniveling help of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, continues to assert that the economy is doing great but that if it isn’t it’s because of Biden.  Yesterday, citing data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Bloomberg, the media outlet, not former Mayor Mike, reported that US companies announced the largest number of job cuts for any January since the Great Recession of 2009.  They noted an 118% increase from a year earlier.  Year over year hiring intentions slid 13%, marking the weakest total for any January since Challenger started counting.  So, if you or someone you know has been having a hard time finding a job, it’s likely not you, it’s the Trump economy. Naturally, Trump keeps insisting that his tariffs, the amount of which he keeps inflating, are about to come to the rescue.  He cites new manufacturing plants to “prove” his point.  They like his Paris friend Jim are mostly exaggerated and, in many cases, not real. Lastly, Erika Kirk’s Turning Point USA is hosting an alternative Super Bowl half time show featuring Kid Rock for those whose little, tiny egos and other things as well as their bigly biases make it difficult for them to watch Bad Bunny. How sad for her and them.     

Health 💩:  Measles appears to be everywhere including in at least one of the oversized, understaffed, and crowded INS concentration camps. None of that is surprising because once the highly contagious disease starts to spread it’s very hard to stop especially when those at the top of the health pyramid spread the word that vaccinations aren’t safe.  On the subject of pyramids, RFK has jumped on the keto bandwagon, saying that because a recent study suggests that some schizophrenic people might benefit from a keto diet, that all the disease’s sufferers should consider dispensing with their meds altogether, going keto instead. Why is it that RFK wants all vaccines tested and studied repeatedly but he’s good to go with “preliminary evidence” about keto diets and schizophrenia?  What could possibly go wrong if all the people afflicted with schizophrenia stop taking their meds at once?  

Fog:  The on again, off again US-Iran “peace” talks have been moved from Turkey to Oman at Iran’s insistence.  Iran initially said that they would only discuss nukes but nothing else, which sounds awfully familiar and was cited as the biggest failing of the JCPOA nuclear agreement of 2015, but this morning’s NY Times says that they’ve agreed to also talk proxy wars and missiles which IF true would be a good thing.  Last week Trump bragged about getting Putin to agree to stop bombing Ukraine for a few days due to the horrendously cold weather.  Putin said sure, then kept bombing. Ukraine and Putin are talking in the UAE; they’ve agreed to exchange 157 prisoners from both sides but nothing else so far.

The Nancy Guthrie situation is so scary. One of the things I’ve learned from watching too much Dateline is that six days is too long.  Oy. 🙏 🙏

RIP The Washington Post