"At this juncture, it’s impossible, indeed irresponsible, not to note that both Bondi and Blanche served as personal lawyers for Trump prior to taking on their government roles."
IMHO, the above quotation needs a bit of editing:
At this juncture, it is impossible, indeed irresponsible, not to note that neither Bondi nor Blanche ever relinquished their roles as personal lawyers for Trump before assuming their secondary roles, allegedly for the government.
Yet somehow, it doesn't trouble the moral judgment of all the people who kept fulminating against what they called a "corrupt" and "politicized" DOJ under Biden.
I don't think I could agree that the people who kept fulminating against the DOJ under Biden had, let alone knew what it meant to have, "moral judgment".
In baseball, an umpire who is considered a 'homer' Is an umpire who consistently makes calls in favor of the home team. This is an anachronistic term. I was an umpire and my father was a football and basketball referee. We caught a lot of flack and name calling.
Thanks for the edification. When I was playing Little League, all of the umps were locals, and most of the parents back then did not know enough about the game to decide if an ump was call favoring a home team, since they all were from the same area, anyway. To me, a homer was always one hit "out of the ballpark".
Maybe it's a regional idiom? Calling a referee or an umpire a 'homer' is a pejorative term. At the time, I don't think I would have understood it if they were yelling, "Biased!!"
You are good with language. You must realize how nuanced it is.
“Homer”, was definitely a thing in the Northeast. Sometimes it was absolutely flagrant leaning of the officials (umpires, referees, judges) at a sporting event. Sometimes it expounded to local rule making and enforcement of regulations.
For what it's worth, "homer" isn't only used in reference to an umpire or official. It's now often used to describe fans when they are assessing their teams. Such a fan overestimates the ability of the players or team; or they overlook weaknesses. In other words, they're highly biased in their appraisal.
"Acquired" is an apt term. I don't have that particular acquisition gene. I watched a minute of South Park once and it's *way* too much for me. Heck, I liked The Munsters growing up, and later Dallas was my guilty pleasure. Each to their own, and mine is never going to be South Park. But dang I'm enjoying watching the Trump-world freakout it's created. Epstein and South Park...who knew?
I think that’s why Paramount executives might have been blindsided as well. Those guys lean libertarian and have done more anti-woke and both sides stuff than anti-MAGA stuff over the years. This is the first time I can recall them really going all-in on a political fight.
I did watch this episode and my cousin regales me with scenes from SP. I always found the humor too crude and nihilistic, though the Oscar nominated song Blame Canada from their movie is hilarious.
Hmm. Maybe we should be thinking more "creatively", too. Something like, Felon's World created its own "Epenstein" monster only theirs had no redeeming qualities..... Or even, Mr. Felon created his own "Epenstein" monster, but his, like he himself, had no redeeming qualities and now he cannot find the "off" button.
I can't stand it. The dialogue is too grating on my nerves. But I appreciate that the comics, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert included, are speaking out fearlessly.
I think its especially relevant to the younger gen x older millennials who were teens when the show started, but its some of the most biting non-partisan satire out there
I wrote a comment in repsponse to a NYT articleyesterday, which I will repeat briefly here. The coverup isn't only about Trump's knowledge of the horrendous sex trafficking and exploitation of young girls. Trump has to fear the allegations from Epstein (the real reason for the falling out in 2004) that the bid Trump made for the real estate that Epstein wanted was funded by a Russian oligarch in a money-laundering scheme because Trump did not, according to Epstein, have the money himself. In 2017, Rachel Maddow had a show in which she discussed the possible money laundering in Trump's Florida real estate deals.
A person replied to my comment yesterday in the NYT saying that Michael Wolff reported that "Epstein threatened to report Trump for Russian money laundering, so Trump reported Epstein for activities with under age girls in his (Epstein's) Palm beach home, about which Trump was apparently very familiar. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Yes. Joyce Vance talks about this and Sen Ron Wyden, the top Dem on the Senate FInance Committee, is on the case, trying to get as much as he can from the IRS about Epstein and where he got all his money.
There's so much stink on all of this. One of the girls Maxwell procured for Epstein was 14 years old. Maxwell met her at Mar-A-Lago. What was she doing there? She wasn't old enough to work there. Who brought her? Why? From where? What's an unaccompanied 14-year-old girl doing at a party in West Palm Beach with people like Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump?
As Charlie Kirk and his disgusting ilk start rehabilitating Maxwell, maybe this kind of stuff should be brought up more.
Maybe too, along the lines of "what was she doing there?" someone might observe that Mar-A-Lago isn't exactly a kid-friendly place. It's a private club, a golf club. Members pay a fortune to belong and it's not like it's got a water slide, bumper cars and a tilt-a-whirl. Old Florida codgers and their overly made-up wives go there to play golf and eat banquet food on the patio. Unless she was there with grandma and grandpa, it seems a logical question: What was she doing there?
I agree with bringing up this kind of stuff. Watergate was about a break-in. This is all about uglier things. I did not pay much attention to the Epstein case precisely because it is ugly. I had not heard that Maxwell instructed the girls how to give sexual massages to men. Let the Republicans try to cast her as an important and truthful witness. Then let some of the testimony of the victims be told again.
There are things that reporters assume we all know, when we don't all know.
I appreciate Bill reminding us of Julie Brown's reporting on Epstein. He called attention to that last Sunday.
I didn't pay any attention to this stuff either ... until people started looking really nervous and guilty about it.
I figured, yeah, Trump knew this guy, but Trump's a scumbag. Birds of a feather. This guy Epstein lives in Palm Beach, got a big house, got a lotta money, parties a lot. That's Trump's kinda guy. I wasn't shocked when it turned out he was a pedophile. Then he commits suicide and his accomplice goes to prison for 20 years. I figured that was the end of it.
Those who continued to be interested in the story were all QAnon, Alex Jones, shiny-side-out tinfoil hat dingbats, just a bunch of kooks. Not my kind of people.
But THEN Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and Dan Bongino say there's nothing to see. Nothing? Nothing? You gotta be kidding me. And then Trump says there's nothing to see and everybody's just got to shut up about it? And then Bongino starts yelling and screaming at Bondi and has to take a Mental Health Day? And then Trump's ex-personal lawyer goes and has a sit-down with Maxwell to make sure she knows what's good for her and to get their stories straight?
What's totally crazy is that Trump is a convicted felon
He should never been allowed to be President. Did his voters think he was going to magically become law-abiding? If we ever have an honest government again, I'm voting for anyone who calls for a law against felons running for office, any office.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother was shown in some news video yesterday saying that tRumpy didn’t break with Epstein; rather it was Epstein who broke it off with tRumpy on the grounds that Donold was “a crook”!
There are rumors that trump's bid on that property was backed by Russian money. Maybe that's the crookedness Epstein was referring to. It's well known that trump used his Florida and NYC properties to launder Russian Mob (aka Putin's Pals) money.
Fascinating! I have found the comments section in NYT is often a rich trove of under-the-radar information. There are many readers with deeper expertise than the reporters, on a given topic - not to disparage the reporters. Veracity is another matter, but my own sense is many a truth comes out anonymously.
TBH I read the NYT mostly for the comments, for that very reason. Readers often include very informative links to other info on the topic. Of course due diligence is needed, but that’s true of mainstream reporting as well. If NYT stopped including reader comments I’d probably drop my subscription
Same! I am guilty of frequently skipping an article and jumping right to the comments. Sometimes it’s to save time - I can get the gist more quickly. And often the comments tweak my curiosity about the full article so I go back to read it. But mostly it’s because that’s where the “meat” is. And you’re right; I try to verify things I learn there, especially if it’s health related.
There must--simply must--be a 'John Dean' insider who will turn against the tide of blocking, lies, distractions, disinformation, misinformation, obfuscation and similar behavior by the orange narcissist-felon and his fellow cult travelers in the obscene regime.
Never forget, for those of us who are parents of daughters, the depraved evil perpetrated by Epstein, Maxwell and all their fellow enablers (a hidden body of flunkies who did much of the 'work' but have gone unnamed and unprosecuted).
This cannot stand. All must be revealed. Accounting, accounting, accounting, over the screams of the guilty, finally revealed. We're talking about activity far beyond the 'massages' reported.
I agree but just how important are women anymore? Who is listening to us now? The backlash against the Me Too movement is massively disproportionate to what the movement accomplished - which was bringing men to justice. Especially powerful men.
The progress we have made over the last 100 years in civil rights is in reverse.
Jeri, you're right on, and I mourn the effects we are witnessing. The same over-reach may be seen in the 'trans' area where a fraction of one percent (e.g. in the military, but throughout society) are being disproportionately punished, the science be damned (science? wha?). As in "climate change is a hoax." Science? Global consensus. Wha?
I share your distress, Joanne. The science is central: the trans phenomenon goes back millennia, based on chromosomal and physiological diversity. Gender is not, whether we like it or not, binary.
(Note: I have no connection, just scientific curiosity as part of my work)
It certainly was not my expertise either, and I am long retired. The loss and misuse of women, LBGTQ, blacks is horrifying and stupid beyond comprehension. t terrifies me.
That's true. If it turned out that these men were threatening teen age boys and turning them into drug mules, they would have been arrested a long time ago.
Having been a proud government employee myself, I am certain there are plenty of civil servants who believe in their oath to the Constitution and will find a way to leak info.
I heard an interview with a former member of 2 Live Crew, who had been at a party at Mar-A-Lago (I think that was the venue, but Trump was involved) and he left once he saw what was going down. The podcast host kept pressing him to describe more succinctly what he had seen, and he just wouldn’t go there. It felt like he was sincerely rattled, both in present and in the past, over the experience.
Ms. Sigrid McCawley is an attorney in DC who represents many Epstein victims. Her office could easily refer anyone with firsthand information on the goings on of that fetid circle to the right office for help. It’s just that easy to start the dominos falling.
Seems like a plausible scenario; let the toppling begin. What struck me, in listening to that podcast interview with a witness to the debauchery, is that he seemed genuinely traumatized by his experience.
Yes indeed. And his subtle display of trauma actually lent veracity to his story. He most definitely wasn’t seeking the limelight - quite the opposite. It seemed like he was parsing his own moral obligation in real time, with a great deal of angst.
A woman who worked for me part time was a Polish immigrant, and she was married and had a daughter who she tried to get into modeling. She talked about her 16 yr old daughter going to parties to meet important people. And participating in beauty contests. She told me her daughter had a new boyfriend who was 25 and took her on a trip to Montreal and her happy she was because going to meet people. Her daughter had just turned 17.
I heard that too. It was Luther Campbell. As I recall, he said the invitation came from Trump but the venue was not M-a-L. The specifics he mentioned were: 1. There was no music. 2. People were going into different rooms. 3. Some of the female attendees he noticed looked underage. 3. He considered the possibility that his presence there could be used for blackmail. But it sounded like he also drew a moral line somewhere.
He sounded credible - simply recalling what he experienced and not building a larger narrative out of it.
Thank you; your memory of the interview is much more detailed than mine, (which often frustrates me). I had forgotten that he was worried about getting blackmailed if he stayed. Which adds a new layer to his reticence at describing the scene - maybe he WAS vaguely threatened with blackmail.
Another way to allow Maureen Comey to speak out: a presidential pardon of Maxwell. This whole mess seems to have more and more ways every day in which it might destroy #47.
I sure am hoping that a 'presidential pardon of Maxwell' would be a scandal of its own. In fact, to me that would just make Trump look even MORE guilty.
I think he has to do it. She's the only one who, in theory, could make this go away, by saying exactly what he needs her to say. And she won't do that without a reward.
And of course no one will believe her! And 70%+ of the electorate will indeed see the pardon as proof of guilt.
And maybe that's how the pardon is prevented. 1) Make it clear that Comey can't talk while an appeal is pending and then 2) a pardon ends the appeal process and 3) Comey has plenty to say.
Yeah but look what happened to Cheney. She lost her seat to a MAGA and is completely ostracized from her Party. Probably death threats as well. Adam Kinzinger's family completely turned against him. What kind of family could love Trump more than their own son?
Yeah, I’m not sure. However, at this point no criminal charges are being filed against Trump vis a vis Maxwell. So I suppose what the NDA would cover would be her notes and files pertaining to Maxwell only.
I do think firing Maureen Comey was a strategic mistake. She knows so much about this case and now she no longer works for DOJ and isn't bound by their rules. If she ever starts talking, I hope her dad uses his network to make sure she is well protected!
You don't have to be a parent of daughters to appreciate and feel the horror of this. I want justice for those girls. I'm a woman myself and have a mother, sisters, nieces, woman friends, a father and brother and nephews who are all hurt by this. It just takes being a caring human being to grasp what Maxwell, Epstein, etc did.
Amen to your wise comment. Caring humans all get it. Part of the problem, at least for me, is trying to understand the depths of the depravity. It is truly horrific, and caring people don't like to 'go there.' I went to the London exhibit of the horrors of Auschwitz and it was equally terrible to contemplate. I'll never forget the shoes.
Gee, isn't it just coincidental that it is JD (Jettison Donald) Vance who titilates everyone that there is more to come. Remember JVLs disclosure that it was JD who made an unscheduled stop in AF2 in Montana so that he could chat with Rupert and his son, you know, the Murdochs of WSJ (and Fox) fame, just about the time the Birthday Card story occurred. Does anyone really think that JD is not trying to play both sides of the street, or that his charade is more see-through than his boss's favorite women's attire?
"What shall I do today? Buy another home? I already have several. Another company. Ugh. What do I need that for? Get married? Get divorced? Hardly worth the effort really. Attend a gala. No, they're all so dreadful. I know! something really fun! I'll call it The Downfall of Donald Trump. Darling, get Sean Hannity on the phone. I have some ideas for tonight's show..."
None of these people have friends, loyalty is a one-way street that leads to their own selves.
JD just biding his sweet time waiting the fatal hamburder, or the congestive heart failure to work its magic.
A little off topic - why is it that when vance is trying to sound like the smartest man in the room he still sounds like the big, dumb kid from Middletown?
Lots of people try to use big words to hide their emptiness. Others, because their field has its own jargon so that the "in-crowd" can say things that other people will not understand, and then they not bother, or refuse, to explain them. This is not infrequently because they do not know the meaning, either, but know that they sound impressive when those words are declaimed with what they believe is an authoritative voice.
Except the Presidency for two terms. If he manages the downfall of the Felon before the next election, he takes over by law. If he "blows the whistle, it will be a very short, tempestuous term.
The fireworks with the GOP senate could be spectacular. John Thune and company will not fold for JD like they do with Trump. Lots of big egos in the Senate.
Which is why JD is trying to play both sides of the street. If he is not successful in getting the Felon out from behind the Resolute Desk before the end of his term, he still has AF2, a place to put his head at the Naval Observatory, and the gavel in the Senate to play with and a shot at being the next POTUS nominee (assuming that the Felon leaves on time, which is a big assumption).
The weird thing for me is that you know Trump knows JD made that "secret" visit and had to have asked JD what that was all about. Either JD lied or the meeting wasn't bad for Trump
Tim Scott didn’t need a hard hat. His brain (not to mention genitalia) were already removed by Trump, so there wouldn’t have been any damage if he had gotten hit.
My skin crawls every time I see him being so obsequious to Trump. This kind of behavior is what got Trump to where he is in the first place. It's just sickening.
“Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows. This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.” -
What is truly impressive about Trump and his sycophant MAGAts is how effortlessly and unerringly they project out their own motives and fears. "...desperate for attention" is spot on.
They say a lot of stupid stuff, but saying a TV show that just signed a deal for $1.5 billion over five years is "failing" or "irrelevant" is just so deeply stupid it's hard to believe they went with it.
“Trump handed Powell a piece of paper. Powell looked it over. “You are including the Martin renovation,” he said. “You just added in a third building.”…”It’s a building that’s being built,” Trump said….”No,” Powell replied, “It was built five years ago.””
Seriously, who’s calling the shots in the MAGAverse! It appears that someone in his orbit (Stephen Miller, Vought), whispers sweet nothings in his ear, and it triggers a negative response!
First, he has no idea that Hegseth stopped Patriot shipments to Ukraine, and now he thinks a building built five years ago is running hundreds of millions over budget? Too funny!…:)
That was a great moment. Trump takes out his crumpled piece of paper to show Powell who shut the whole thing down in 2 seconds. The faces that Powell was making were... the best.
I hope I understand your use of "funny" as in "forking fuzzy-headed", or something similar. Of course, had Joe done that, Faux News and Co. would have been all over it as another sign that he was not mentally competent for the Presidency. Does anyone else get the impression that America's Donald Has a Disorder? (Look at the capitalization if you are uncertain to what I am referring, and, yes, there is an Adult version of it.)
Robert, I expected your intent, given your posts to date. But I am afraid that a large number of people in the US have no doubt he is "sane", of course, as they define it. But not being sane, is not a requirement for my "diagnosis" question.
Agreed! And the mere fact that half the country thinks he’s sane, speaks volumes to our current state of affairs; which should in itself, scare the bejesus out of anyone left who is, indeed, sane!
I liked your reply, although I am not convinced that half the country thinks he's sane, certainly not at the moment, possibly never. Not even half of the voting population ever voted for him, just a plurality, meaning on the order of 1/4 of the population. And, assuming that polls have any validity, they are certainly not now showing half of the country in his corner.
I thought Susie Wiles would be smarter than to set Trump up with a figure that so clearly included the 5 year old building. So clearly that Powell noted it within 2 seconds of looking at the paper.
Heather Cox Richardson posted an alarming short YouTube piece about a week ago, revealing that the people minding our government are not the people who officially have that task. Like Elbridge Colby is really in charge of Defense. Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon are shadow presidents.
Yeah I saw that too. I don't believe Vance is a shadow president but perhaps as JVL speculates he's planning a coup based on either the 25th Amendment or the Epstein files with the help of the likes of Thiel and Murdoch. Where would that leave Miller and Bannon, the dynamic duo from the first term?
I’m trying to remember if HCR even mentioned Vance having a bigger-than-official role, but what you write makes me think she probably did. Vance must be exhausted from all the balls he has in the air, trying to game out every possible outcome where he lands on top.
Sorry I didn't mean to imply that he was mentioned. I was just thinking of other potential shadow presidents at work. I should be more careful in the way I state things.
No harm done here! It’s short-form commentary and easy to get wires crossed in a back-and-forth. My son told me a writing “tool” he learned from a college prof: “Don’t just write to be understood; write so it’s impossible to be misunderstood”. For some reason that paradigm stuck with me as genius. I wish I had used it earlier in life when it mattered! I always enjoy your comments.
Bannon will follow the money and change his "heartfelt" beliefs to join Team Thiel. Miller on the other hand is a true believer in his Nazi evil. They'll find a way to disappear him.
Day by day,the damage to the Trump administration from the Epstein files grows greater. And in their eagerness to shield Donald J Trump and his billionaire friends from exposure to the scandal, they have entirely ignored what should be the centerpiece of this monstrosity…..the victims. It is not just that these perverse old fellas were engaging in an illegal and by many standards immoral activity..but ACTUAL LIVES AND FUTURES WERE DESTROYED IN THE PROCESS. This administration actually sent a deputy attorney general to chitchat with a convicted sex-trafficker, abuser, and perjurer, in hopes of retrieving some information to “exonerate” Trump and his cronies…and one suspects, to offer some incentive to the criminal to offer something up. That the victims will suffer victimization all over again if the participation of these perverts is minimized apparently has not occurred to Trump & Minions. I can guarantee them that it won’t be lost on the American voting public. And sadly for Republicans, Trump does not care if he deals a mortal blow to their political futures via his frantic dance to escape this mess.
The attempts to rehab Maxwell must not succeed. She was a groomer and a participant. There's Netflix doc about her. I hope a few clips of her one-time friends speaking about her in the doc can get out into the wild. She's a sophisticated and smooth operator, don't be fooled. She's not a victim, she's a perp.
What I worry is that Maxwell can be spun as a sophisticated, beautiful woman from a wealthy old-money family who was just caught up in the glitz and glamor of West Palm Beach social life, a victim of the charm and cunning of Jeffrey Epstein.
Everything that's come out about the trial indicates she's an inveterate liar and, as you say, a smooth operator who was in on all of this. She "participated" -- whatever that means -- in the abuse. She didn't just introduce young women to Epstein and then walk away.
It wouldn't surprise me if she had a "Dead man's switch", in her case a dead woman's switch, that would release incriminating evidence on her untimely death.
I don't believe they'll offer her freedom. They'll get what they want from her, make a vague promise, maybe give her a concept of a plan. But she's as guilty as Epstein.
The mental image I have is of a thousand bodies of young women being completely trampled with each footstep as the deputy attorney general heads to the prison. Although not depicted in the scene, is the knowledge that neither he nor Trump have one drop of remorse or hesitation about this effort to protect Trump.
One of our top leaders of the DOJ...supposedly blind justice....is on a mission to protect the POTUS from his crimes.
Ghislain Maxwell’s word was already worth nothing; now it’s worth less than nothing. MAGA surely knows that. How will they spin whatever happened in that ‘interview’?
The victims are one of the ignored threads in the story. It won't end until they full justice. Independent media reporters will keep the story going until their piece of it is completed.
I don't expect for DJT's Epstein saga to have the same ending as Nixon's, pending the finding of specific information that warrants it, simply because society has changed so much in that last half century. So many of our cultural norms and expectations have been sacrificed to the idea of saying and doing whatever one feels like, making it about the self more than anyone and anything else. We've largely allowed a permission structure to evolve in which shame has disappeared and selfishness rules -- no one has the right to tell you what to do and how to behave anymore when there are no specific rules to enforce it and not enough people willing to get involved to do so.
Witness social media behavior. (Enough said.) Yesterday Tony Evers announced that he would not run for a third term as our Governor of Wisconsin. By all accounts he is a very good and decent person, and his was a heartfelt message of love for the state and its people, and of wanting to put his family first as he moves into retirement after decades of good, faithful, selfless public service. While there were many who thanked him and wished him well, the number of people who uncoothly and disrespectfully used the occasion to express disgust and hatred for him and his political positions was remarkably high. (So much for "Wisconsin nice," at least when people let politics overrule their good judgment.) I'm old school in the idea that on occasions such as retirements and funerals, important life moments meant for summing up and appreciating what was good about someone, you offer compliments on the person and his/her legacy and you remain respectfully silent about disagreements and personal issues, leaving it for another time and place to air those as the person involved gets the kind of sendoff that we would want for ourselves if the roles were reversed.
But therein lies the rub. It seems the Golden Rule has died since Nixon's time, and anyone and anything is fair game, anytime, as long as it makes you feel good to express yourself. I thought "if it feels good, do it" was a 1960s and 1970s thing. It is alive and well in the 2020s, just much more toxic and much less respectful than anything that our parents taught us while growing up. It is one more reason why I increasingly limit my interaction with human beings. Too many adults are acting like too many children, to the point that it's much more enjoyable to spend time with my cats. (If you have dogs, same principle.) Enjoy the fact that those supposed lower life forms are the ones that will never let you down.
There is a vast immaturity at work in our society. In the guise of telling it like it is, honesty, whatever you call it, people say negative things routinely without regard to what used to be rules of civil conversation.
Vance is correct; there will be a dribble, and this is good, because our attention spans are short, and a dump of everything all at once may be out of the news cycle within weeks. Let's keep it coming. And it will, because Bondi was stupid enough to enroll hundreds of employees into her coverup by having them comb the Epstein files for mentions of Trump. Surely, not all of these employees were die-hard Trump loyalists, and now they've seen some things, and next they will say some things on background. When engaged in criminal conspiracy, the idea is not to recruit as many coconspirators as you can find. Try to keep it in the family next time.
The comparison between the Watergate scandal and the Epstein Files is superficially apt, but the differences are telling. In Watergate, the Nixon administration corrupted, perverted, and obstructed the public functions of the government to promote Nixon’s political ends. The public and Congress were shocked and angered by the perversion. The Trump administration corrupts, perverts, and obstructs governmental functions on a regular basis. Much of the public, the majority of Congress, and two thirds of the supreme court shrugs. The perversion that stimulates the public and the press is the potential evidence of the president’s possible violation of powerless people for personal gratification. Sadly, evidence of his eagerness to abuse less powerful people has been obvious for years.
No. He tried to corrupt, pervert, and obstruct, but there were patriots who wouldn't go along and resigned rather than be forced to do his bidding, until Robert Bork, who fired the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox—which is why Bork was unfit to ever hold a SC seat).
The GOP learned from Watergate; remember Roger Stone has a large tattoo of Nixon on his back and has long been a Trump whisperer (not to mention the mastermind of the Brooks Bros riot in 2000). It was the beginning of party over country.
Correct the Republican Party learned the wrong lessons from Watergate, and plenty of resentment that Nixon was brought down by the scandal. This is the milieu that Roberts and company were brought up in and why they are giving Trump the powers to do as he pleases.
Just a flat “no”? Watergate involved burglary, hush money, slush funds, kidnapping, and press intimidation that consumed the country for two years. Sounds kinda corrupt. It’s true that Eliot Richardson and William Ruckleshaus resigned rather than participate in the further perversion of government functions, but their actions do not redeem the deep corruption that had already occurred.
Spot on. I'm in a feud with a FB friend who just has no issue with believing/promoting that Obama committed treason and everything else is simply the Deep State trying to cut Trump down to size.
The preferred storyline for me is that I stood up and fought for what is right regardless if it changed any minds. That's their issue if they didn't listen. The thought of running away bothers me more than the emotional hand-wringing that comes with hanging in there.
What's been nice are the many others who cheer me on and/or have started being more vocal themselves based upon my words and actions.
So your friend expects Obama to be perp walked soon?
This is the thing for me on this. Trump has threatened Adam Kinsinger ... and done nothing. He's threatened Obama ... and done nothing. He's talked endlessly about the stolen 2020 election ... and done nothing. He's threatened to jail Anthony Fauci ... and done nothing. Same with Hillary Clinton. Nothing.
When are the MAGA people going to recognize this? If The Deep State is out there running everything, where are the arrests?
Magats are stupid. They'll believe any promise the tangerine tyrant makes, even those he doesn't follow through on. To them he's playing 4D Chess, even though they have no clue what Chess is.
My concern is twofold: 1) That Trump, if cornered, will resort to this. It would be the ultimate political "squirrel" move. 2) If Trump decided to do this...there's an uncomfortably large segment of our country that would be ok with it.
Thanks all for the reporting, commentary and analysis. If Trump escapes this he'll not only make Houdini look like a novice but destroy what's left of our Democracy for good. America, you are running out of time.
Bondi and Blanche do not work for the citizens of this country. They work for Trump. If that means covering a pedophile ring of famous and important people, then so be it. There are not enough people in the administration with the guts to say that out loud but they are aware it is happening. We have to start acknowledging that a large minority of the population are stupid/evil as shit. Many of them will continue to buy the lies. If MAGA is capable of coming around to a place where they can forgive Ghislane Maxwell and bring her onside........then we are in a whole new level of Dante's hell.
There are people who are adamant that Trump's agenda is highly moral and that their own moral values necessitate protecting and defending him from any and all "attacks" so he can continue to implement that agenda.
"Policy, not personality" is a mantra they use to justify indulging and excusing every creepy, corrupt and criminal act of his.
Have they really thought about the downsides to bringing Ghislaine Maxwell on board? This sounds like expedience rather than a thought out strategy. There is plenty of risk playing the Maxwell game and it could become very messy.
Wall Street Journal now has a story that Bill Clinton, like Trump, ALSO sent an effusive 50th birthday greeting to Epstein—praising his “childlike curiosity”! You can’t make this stuff up.
To show that they are fair and balance and not just picking on Republicans, they do an addendum on Bill Clinton. Alan Dershowitz also has a contribution in that birthday book, and while I do think of him as an unprincipled hack, I don’t picture him as a pedophile absent victim testimony. And I’m not a big proponent of guilt by association.
"At this juncture, it’s impossible, indeed irresponsible, not to note that both Bondi and Blanche served as personal lawyers for Trump prior to taking on their government roles."
IMHO, the above quotation needs a bit of editing:
At this juncture, it is impossible, indeed irresponsible, not to note that neither Bondi nor Blanche ever relinquished their roles as personal lawyers for Trump before assuming their secondary roles, allegedly for the government.
Yet somehow, it doesn't trouble the moral judgment of all the people who kept fulminating against what they called a "corrupt" and "politicized" DOJ under Biden.
I don't think I could agree that the people who kept fulminating against the DOJ under Biden had, let alone knew what it meant to have, "moral judgment".
Which tells you something about those people and their moral judgements.
In sports jargon: The umps are 'homers.'
"Homies" I could understand. "Homers"?
In baseball, an umpire who is considered a 'homer' Is an umpire who consistently makes calls in favor of the home team. This is an anachronistic term. I was an umpire and my father was a football and basketball referee. We caught a lot of flack and name calling.
Any ump is braver than me, so good on you. I'd either be yelling back or crying. The game would never get played!
Don't tell this to anyone but if they yelled at me for too long or too loud, my calls definitely got a little biased.
You bet.
Thanks for the edification. When I was playing Little League, all of the umps were locals, and most of the parents back then did not know enough about the game to decide if an ump was call favoring a home team, since they all were from the same area, anyway. To me, a homer was always one hit "out of the ballpark".
Maybe it's a regional idiom? Calling a referee or an umpire a 'homer' is a pejorative term. At the time, I don't think I would have understood it if they were yelling, "Biased!!"
You are good with language. You must realize how nuanced it is.
My friends and I used the same term.
“Homer”, was definitely a thing in the Northeast. Sometimes it was absolutely flagrant leaning of the officials (umpires, referees, judges) at a sporting event. Sometimes it expounded to local rule making and enforcement of regulations.
I saw it used in high school baseball.
For what it's worth, "homer" isn't only used in reference to an umpire or official. It's now often used to describe fans when they are assessing their teams. Such a fan overestimates the ability of the players or team; or they overlook weaknesses. In other words, they're highly biased in their appraisal.
And, yes, "homer" also still refers to a homerun.
I was an itinerant umpire.
Like Homer Simpson ; )
Doh!
Well said David.
Thanks, Tim. 🥂
"Your Morning Shots correspondents aren’t big South Park heads. (Maybe a generational thing?)"
Really, guys? Generational? South Park has been on for what, 27 years? How old are you guys, anyway?
Andrew is 76 years old, but the adrenochrome keeps him looking young.
A+ comment
It's not about age. South Park is an acquired taste.
"Acquired" is an apt term. I don't have that particular acquisition gene. I watched a minute of South Park once and it's *way* too much for me. Heck, I liked The Munsters growing up, and later Dallas was my guilty pleasure. Each to their own, and mine is never going to be South Park. But dang I'm enjoying watching the Trump-world freakout it's created. Epstein and South Park...who knew?
The irony of course is that they skewer all politicians. It’s hardly leftist propaganda.
I think that’s why Paramount executives might have been blindsided as well. Those guys lean libertarian and have done more anti-woke and both sides stuff than anti-MAGA stuff over the years. This is the first time I can recall them really going all-in on a political fight.
I did watch this episode and my cousin regales me with scenes from SP. I always found the humor too crude and nihilistic, though the Oscar nominated song Blame Canada from their movie is hilarious.
Hmm. Maybe we should be thinking more "creatively", too. Something like, Felon's World created its own "Epenstein" monster only theirs had no redeeming qualities..... Or even, Mr. Felon created his own "Epenstein" monster, but his, like he himself, had no redeeming qualities and now he cannot find the "off" button.
I can't stand it. The dialogue is too grating on my nerves. But I appreciate that the comics, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert included, are speaking out fearlessly.
I'm 64 and watched it from the beginning. I don't have cable now so I only see clips on YouTube now and then.
I think its especially relevant to the younger gen x older millennials who were teens when the show started, but its some of the most biting non-partisan satire out there
Having grown up in Colorado about the same time as Stone and Parker, I'm very proud. Trump is the object of ridicule they've been waiting for.
My 29 year old son is a fan. He came home from college and showed me some episodes. I thought the satire was good.
I wrote a comment in repsponse to a NYT articleyesterday, which I will repeat briefly here. The coverup isn't only about Trump's knowledge of the horrendous sex trafficking and exploitation of young girls. Trump has to fear the allegations from Epstein (the real reason for the falling out in 2004) that the bid Trump made for the real estate that Epstein wanted was funded by a Russian oligarch in a money-laundering scheme because Trump did not, according to Epstein, have the money himself. In 2017, Rachel Maddow had a show in which she discussed the possible money laundering in Trump's Florida real estate deals.
A person replied to my comment yesterday in the NYT saying that Michael Wolff reported that "Epstein threatened to report Trump for Russian money laundering, so Trump reported Epstein for activities with under age girls in his (Epstein's) Palm beach home, about which Trump was apparently very familiar. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Yes. Joyce Vance talks about this and Sen Ron Wyden, the top Dem on the Senate FInance Committee, is on the case, trying to get as much as he can from the IRS about Epstein and where he got all his money.
There's so much stink on all of this. One of the girls Maxwell procured for Epstein was 14 years old. Maxwell met her at Mar-A-Lago. What was she doing there? She wasn't old enough to work there. Who brought her? Why? From where? What's an unaccompanied 14-year-old girl doing at a party in West Palm Beach with people like Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump?
As Charlie Kirk and his disgusting ilk start rehabilitating Maxwell, maybe this kind of stuff should be brought up more.
Maybe too, along the lines of "what was she doing there?" someone might observe that Mar-A-Lago isn't exactly a kid-friendly place. It's a private club, a golf club. Members pay a fortune to belong and it's not like it's got a water slide, bumper cars and a tilt-a-whirl. Old Florida codgers and their overly made-up wives go there to play golf and eat banquet food on the patio. Unless she was there with grandma and grandpa, it seems a logical question: What was she doing there?
I agree with bringing up this kind of stuff. Watergate was about a break-in. This is all about uglier things. I did not pay much attention to the Epstein case precisely because it is ugly. I had not heard that Maxwell instructed the girls how to give sexual massages to men. Let the Republicans try to cast her as an important and truthful witness. Then let some of the testimony of the victims be told again.
There are things that reporters assume we all know, when we don't all know.
I appreciate Bill reminding us of Julie Brown's reporting on Epstein. He called attention to that last Sunday.
I didn't pay any attention to this stuff either ... until people started looking really nervous and guilty about it.
I figured, yeah, Trump knew this guy, but Trump's a scumbag. Birds of a feather. This guy Epstein lives in Palm Beach, got a big house, got a lotta money, parties a lot. That's Trump's kinda guy. I wasn't shocked when it turned out he was a pedophile. Then he commits suicide and his accomplice goes to prison for 20 years. I figured that was the end of it.
Those who continued to be interested in the story were all QAnon, Alex Jones, shiny-side-out tinfoil hat dingbats, just a bunch of kooks. Not my kind of people.
But THEN Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and Dan Bongino say there's nothing to see. Nothing? Nothing? You gotta be kidding me. And then Trump says there's nothing to see and everybody's just got to shut up about it? And then Bongino starts yelling and screaming at Bondi and has to take a Mental Health Day? And then Trump's ex-personal lawyer goes and has a sit-down with Maxwell to make sure she knows what's good for her and to get their stories straight?
Now I'm interested...
What's totally crazy is that Trump is a convicted felon
He should never been allowed to be President. Did his voters think he was going to magically become law-abiding? If we ever have an honest government again, I'm voting for anyone who calls for a law against felons running for office, any office.
Ha! Good one. And not something I'd ever heard before. There are so many ways this is crazy.
I don't think Trump will ever release the files, but I think the media will now focus more on his craziness.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother was shown in some news video yesterday saying that tRumpy didn’t break with Epstein; rather it was Epstein who broke it off with tRumpy on the grounds that Donold was “a crook”!
I thought Epstein bested Trump in a real estate deal in Florida and rubbed it in Trump’s face; maybe it was a case of “you can’t fire me, I quit”.
There are rumors that trump's bid on that property was backed by Russian money. Maybe that's the crookedness Epstein was referring to. It's well known that trump used his Florida and NYC properties to launder Russian Mob (aka Putin's Pals) money.
Russia keeps coming up in Trump’s background.
Fascinating! I have found the comments section in NYT is often a rich trove of under-the-radar information. There are many readers with deeper expertise than the reporters, on a given topic - not to disparage the reporters. Veracity is another matter, but my own sense is many a truth comes out anonymously.
TBH I read the NYT mostly for the comments, for that very reason. Readers often include very informative links to other info on the topic. Of course due diligence is needed, but that’s true of mainstream reporting as well. If NYT stopped including reader comments I’d probably drop my subscription
Same! I am guilty of frequently skipping an article and jumping right to the comments. Sometimes it’s to save time - I can get the gist more quickly. And often the comments tweak my curiosity about the full article so I go back to read it. But mostly it’s because that’s where the “meat” is. And you’re right; I try to verify things I learn there, especially if it’s health related.
Follow the money. Always
Wow interesting take on things. Now I really want to see the files.
They're all scum.
There must--simply must--be a 'John Dean' insider who will turn against the tide of blocking, lies, distractions, disinformation, misinformation, obfuscation and similar behavior by the orange narcissist-felon and his fellow cult travelers in the obscene regime.
Never forget, for those of us who are parents of daughters, the depraved evil perpetrated by Epstein, Maxwell and all their fellow enablers (a hidden body of flunkies who did much of the 'work' but have gone unnamed and unprosecuted).
This cannot stand. All must be revealed. Accounting, accounting, accounting, over the screams of the guilty, finally revealed. We're talking about activity far beyond the 'massages' reported.
I agree but just how important are women anymore? Who is listening to us now? The backlash against the Me Too movement is massively disproportionate to what the movement accomplished - which was bringing men to justice. Especially powerful men.
The progress we have made over the last 100 years in civil rights is in reverse.
Jeri, you're right on, and I mourn the effects we are witnessing. The same over-reach may be seen in the 'trans' area where a fraction of one percent (e.g. in the military, but throughout society) are being disproportionately punished, the science be damned (science? wha?). As in "climate change is a hoax." Science? Global consensus. Wha?
Sigh
I share your distress, Joanne. The science is central: the trans phenomenon goes back millennia, based on chromosomal and physiological diversity. Gender is not, whether we like it or not, binary.
(Note: I have no connection, just scientific curiosity as part of my work)
It certainly was not my expertise either, and I am long retired. The loss and misuse of women, LBGTQ, blacks is horrifying and stupid beyond comprehension. t terrifies me.
That's true. If it turned out that these men were threatening teen age boys and turning them into drug mules, they would have been arrested a long time ago.
Scores of people have scoured the files. There will be leaks.
Having been a proud government employee myself, I am certain there are plenty of civil servants who believe in their oath to the Constitution and will find a way to leak info.
We can hope.
I heard an interview with a former member of 2 Live Crew, who had been at a party at Mar-A-Lago (I think that was the venue, but Trump was involved) and he left once he saw what was going down. The podcast host kept pressing him to describe more succinctly what he had seen, and he just wouldn’t go there. It felt like he was sincerely rattled, both in present and in the past, over the experience.
Ms. Sigrid McCawley is an attorney in DC who represents many Epstein victims. Her office could easily refer anyone with firsthand information on the goings on of that fetid circle to the right office for help. It’s just that easy to start the dominos falling.
Seems like a plausible scenario; let the toppling begin. What struck me, in listening to that podcast interview with a witness to the debauchery, is that he seemed genuinely traumatized by his experience.
No offense, but wouldn’t you be? Many of those very young girls were Eastern European who had their passports confiscated by Maxwell.
Yes indeed. And his subtle display of trauma actually lent veracity to his story. He most definitely wasn’t seeking the limelight - quite the opposite. It seemed like he was parsing his own moral obligation in real time, with a great deal of angst.
A woman who worked for me part time was a Polish immigrant, and she was married and had a daughter who she tried to get into modeling. She talked about her 16 yr old daughter going to parties to meet important people. And participating in beauty contests. She told me her daughter had a new boyfriend who was 25 and took her on a trip to Montreal and her happy she was because going to meet people. Her daughter had just turned 17.
I heard that too. It was Luther Campbell. As I recall, he said the invitation came from Trump but the venue was not M-a-L. The specifics he mentioned were: 1. There was no music. 2. People were going into different rooms. 3. Some of the female attendees he noticed looked underage. 3. He considered the possibility that his presence there could be used for blackmail. But it sounded like he also drew a moral line somewhere.
He sounded credible - simply recalling what he experienced and not building a larger narrative out of it.
Love the acronym MaL. In Spanish it means "evil/bad". Couldn't be more appropriate for that place.
Thank you; your memory of the interview is much more detailed than mine, (which often frustrates me). I had forgotten that he was worried about getting blackmailed if he stayed. Which adds a new layer to his reticence at describing the scene - maybe he WAS vaguely threatened with blackmail.
We need a Deep Throat II, an entirely appropriate name for an informer in this particular scandal.
Maurene Comey knows, if she has the courage and opportunity (doing a 'Liz Cheney' on behalf of the victims).
Ms. Comey must wait until Maxwell’s case is finished with her appeals. An appeals court could conceivably order a new trial.
Another way to allow Maureen Comey to speak out: a presidential pardon of Maxwell. This whole mess seems to have more and more ways every day in which it might destroy #47.
I sure am hoping that a 'presidential pardon of Maxwell' would be a scandal of its own. In fact, to me that would just make Trump look even MORE guilty.
I think he has to do it. She's the only one who, in theory, could make this go away, by saying exactly what he needs her to say. And she won't do that without a reward.
And of course no one will believe her! And 70%+ of the electorate will indeed see the pardon as proof of guilt.
And maybe that's how the pardon is prevented. 1) Make it clear that Comey can't talk while an appeal is pending and then 2) a pardon ends the appeal process and 3) Comey has plenty to say.
I’d love to see what his base would do if he pardoned Maxwell!
They'd cheer, of course.
Yeah but look what happened to Cheney. She lost her seat to a MAGA and is completely ostracized from her Party. Probably death threats as well. Adam Kinzinger's family completely turned against him. What kind of family could love Trump more than their own son?
I think one of the Bulwark people pointed out that because of her NDA she cannot legally divulge the information we’re all interested in seeing.
I didn’t know an NDA covered major criminal activity. Like Human Trafficking.
NDAs do not cover criminal activity. But in such cases the individual who speaks up faces dreadful risks and consequences.
Yeah, I’m not sure. However, at this point no criminal charges are being filed against Trump vis a vis Maxwell. So I suppose what the NDA would cover would be her notes and files pertaining to Maxwell only.
That would, surely, be highly revelatory. 'They' cannot corral all the ugly facts. Their perceived vulnerability shows their profound alarm.
I do think firing Maureen Comey was a strategic mistake. She knows so much about this case and now she no longer works for DOJ and isn't bound by their rules. If she ever starts talking, I hope her dad uses his network to make sure she is well protected!
Include the gross Elite Model circle of victims and perpetrators. International modeling actually was just cover for trafficking.
Somewhere (maybe here) someone mentioned young girls’ beauty pageants. They’re big in red states and kind of creepy.
Very creepy!
You don't have to be a parent of daughters to appreciate and feel the horror of this. I want justice for those girls. I'm a woman myself and have a mother, sisters, nieces, woman friends, a father and brother and nephews who are all hurt by this. It just takes being a caring human being to grasp what Maxwell, Epstein, etc did.
Julie,
Amen to your wise comment. Caring humans all get it. Part of the problem, at least for me, is trying to understand the depths of the depravity. It is truly horrific, and caring people don't like to 'go there.' I went to the London exhibit of the horrors of Auschwitz and it was equally terrible to contemplate. I'll never forget the shoes.
Gee, isn't it just coincidental that it is JD (Jettison Donald) Vance who titilates everyone that there is more to come. Remember JVLs disclosure that it was JD who made an unscheduled stop in AF2 in Montana so that he could chat with Rupert and his son, you know, the Murdochs of WSJ (and Fox) fame, just about the time the Birthday Card story occurred. Does anyone really think that JD is not trying to play both sides of the street, or that his charade is more see-through than his boss's favorite women's attire?
Sounds like a Shakespearean recipe for a spectacular downfall. One can only hope . . .
I just keep hoping Rupert is bored.
"What shall I do today? Buy another home? I already have several. Another company. Ugh. What do I need that for? Get married? Get divorced? Hardly worth the effort really. Attend a gala. No, they're all so dreadful. I know! something really fun! I'll call it The Downfall of Donald Trump. Darling, get Sean Hannity on the phone. I have some ideas for tonight's show..."
None of these people have friends, loyalty is a one-way street that leads to their own selves.
JD just biding his sweet time waiting the fatal hamburder, or the congestive heart failure to work its magic.
A little off topic - why is it that when vance is trying to sound like the smartest man in the room he still sounds like the big, dumb kid from Middletown?
I don't know, perhaps because he is???🙄
Failure to launch? Arrested development? He's a wind tunnel of big words.
Lots of people try to use big words to hide their emptiness. Others, because their field has its own jargon so that the "in-crowd" can say things that other people will not understand, and then they not bother, or refuse, to explain them. This is not infrequently because they do not know the meaning, either, but know that they sound impressive when those words are declaimed with what they believe is an authoritative voice.
Why not? He's a Yale Law grad.
You can take JD out of the trailer park, but….
JD and I both graduated from Middletown, Ohio, High School except 50 years apart.
JD has the most to gain by becoming this story’s John Dean.
John Dean served jail time over Watergate.
Yes. Forgot that. Vance would never come forward and admit his own guilt.
Except the Presidency for two terms. If he manages the downfall of the Felon before the next election, he takes over by law. If he "blows the whistle, it will be a very short, tempestuous term.
The fireworks with the GOP senate could be spectacular. John Thune and company will not fold for JD like they do with Trump. Lots of big egos in the Senate.
Which is why JD is trying to play both sides of the street. If he is not successful in getting the Felon out from behind the Resolute Desk before the end of his term, he still has AF2, a place to put his head at the Naval Observatory, and the gavel in the Senate to play with and a shot at being the next POTUS nominee (assuming that the Felon leaves on time, which is a big assumption).
JD's smurky smile and DJT's haggard look says it all.
He’s hoping to inherit MAGA.
Keep hoping, JD. Bovi will get MAGA.
The weird thing for me is that you know Trump knows JD made that "secret" visit and had to have asked JD what that was all about. Either JD lied or the meeting wasn't bad for Trump
Or JD lied to make the meeting seem to be not bad for the Felon and he bought it.
Tim Scott didn’t need a hard hat. His brain (not to mention genitalia) were already removed by Trump, so there wouldn’t have been any damage if he had gotten hit.
My skin crawls every time I see him being so obsequious to Trump. This kind of behavior is what got Trump to where he is in the first place. It's just sickening.
Hah!
“Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows. This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.” -
What is truly impressive about Trump and his sycophant MAGAts is how effortlessly and unerringly they project out their own motives and fears. "...desperate for attention" is spot on.
“Every accusation is a confession” is a bizarrely true meme in the case of MAGA.
And the mark of a narcissist.
Boy, the monolithic “Left” is sure scary.
They say a lot of stupid stuff, but saying a TV show that just signed a deal for $1.5 billion over five years is "failing" or "irrelevant" is just so deeply stupid it's hard to believe they went with it.
“Trump handed Powell a piece of paper. Powell looked it over. “You are including the Martin renovation,” he said. “You just added in a third building.”…”It’s a building that’s being built,” Trump said….”No,” Powell replied, “It was built five years ago.””
Seriously, who’s calling the shots in the MAGAverse! It appears that someone in his orbit (Stephen Miller, Vought), whispers sweet nothings in his ear, and it triggers a negative response!
First, he has no idea that Hegseth stopped Patriot shipments to Ukraine, and now he thinks a building built five years ago is running hundreds of millions over budget? Too funny!…:)
That was a great moment. Trump takes out his crumpled piece of paper to show Powell who shut the whole thing down in 2 seconds. The faces that Powell was making were... the best.
I hope I understand your use of "funny" as in "forking fuzzy-headed", or something similar. Of course, had Joe done that, Faux News and Co. would have been all over it as another sign that he was not mentally competent for the Presidency. Does anyone else get the impression that America's Donald Has a Disorder? (Look at the capitalization if you are uncertain to what I am referring, and, yes, there is an Adult version of it.)
“Does anyone else get the impression that America's Donald Has a Disorder?”
I believe a better question would be, is anyone actually convinced this guy is sane?”
And I was joking in the sense that “if you can’t laugh, you cry!”…:)
Robert, I expected your intent, given your posts to date. But I am afraid that a large number of people in the US have no doubt he is "sane", of course, as they define it. But not being sane, is not a requirement for my "diagnosis" question.
Agreed! And the mere fact that half the country thinks he’s sane, speaks volumes to our current state of affairs; which should in itself, scare the bejesus out of anyone left who is, indeed, sane!
I liked your reply, although I am not convinced that half the country thinks he's sane, certainly not at the moment, possibly never. Not even half of the voting population ever voted for him, just a plurality, meaning on the order of 1/4 of the population. And, assuming that polls have any validity, they are certainly not now showing half of the country in his corner.
He’s truly become the puppet with several issue “expert” puppet masters all being coordinated by Susie Wiles.
Agreed, run by Wiles and enforced by Miller and Vought!
I thought Susie Wiles would be smarter than to set Trump up with a figure that so clearly included the 5 year old building. So clearly that Powell noted it within 2 seconds of looking at the paper.
Maybe it was on purpose.
The daughter of the great New York Giant football player and announcer, Pat Summerall.
Heather Cox Richardson posted an alarming short YouTube piece about a week ago, revealing that the people minding our government are not the people who officially have that task. Like Elbridge Colby is really in charge of Defense. Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon are shadow presidents.
Yeah I saw that too. I don't believe Vance is a shadow president but perhaps as JVL speculates he's planning a coup based on either the 25th Amendment or the Epstein files with the help of the likes of Thiel and Murdoch. Where would that leave Miller and Bannon, the dynamic duo from the first term?
I’m trying to remember if HCR even mentioned Vance having a bigger-than-official role, but what you write makes me think she probably did. Vance must be exhausted from all the balls he has in the air, trying to game out every possible outcome where he lands on top.
Sorry I didn't mean to imply that he was mentioned. I was just thinking of other potential shadow presidents at work. I should be more careful in the way I state things.
No harm done here! It’s short-form commentary and easy to get wires crossed in a back-and-forth. My son told me a writing “tool” he learned from a college prof: “Don’t just write to be understood; write so it’s impossible to be misunderstood”. For some reason that paradigm stuck with me as genius. I wish I had used it earlier in life when it mattered! I always enjoy your comments.
Bannon will follow the money and change his "heartfelt" beliefs to join Team Thiel. Miller on the other hand is a true believer in his Nazi evil. They'll find a way to disappear him.
Well they have a lot of alligator swamp in Florida that can help them
Don't forget Alligator Alcatraz.
No doubt, and excellent points!…:)
Day by day,the damage to the Trump administration from the Epstein files grows greater. And in their eagerness to shield Donald J Trump and his billionaire friends from exposure to the scandal, they have entirely ignored what should be the centerpiece of this monstrosity…..the victims. It is not just that these perverse old fellas were engaging in an illegal and by many standards immoral activity..but ACTUAL LIVES AND FUTURES WERE DESTROYED IN THE PROCESS. This administration actually sent a deputy attorney general to chitchat with a convicted sex-trafficker, abuser, and perjurer, in hopes of retrieving some information to “exonerate” Trump and his cronies…and one suspects, to offer some incentive to the criminal to offer something up. That the victims will suffer victimization all over again if the participation of these perverts is minimized apparently has not occurred to Trump & Minions. I can guarantee them that it won’t be lost on the American voting public. And sadly for Republicans, Trump does not care if he deals a mortal blow to their political futures via his frantic dance to escape this mess.
The attempts to rehab Maxwell must not succeed. She was a groomer and a participant. There's Netflix doc about her. I hope a few clips of her one-time friends speaking about her in the doc can get out into the wild. She's a sophisticated and smooth operator, don't be fooled. She's not a victim, she's a perp.
Absolutely right.
What I worry is that Maxwell can be spun as a sophisticated, beautiful woman from a wealthy old-money family who was just caught up in the glitz and glamor of West Palm Beach social life, a victim of the charm and cunning of Jeffrey Epstein.
Everything that's come out about the trial indicates she's an inveterate liar and, as you say, a smooth operator who was in on all of this. She "participated" -- whatever that means -- in the abuse. She didn't just introduce young women to Epstein and then walk away.
It wouldn't surprise me if she had a "Dead man's switch", in her case a dead woman's switch, that would release incriminating evidence on her untimely death.
Now that would be a powerful bluff.
I don't believe they'll offer her freedom. They'll get what they want from her, make a vague promise, maybe give her a concept of a plan. But she's as guilty as Epstein.
The mental image I have is of a thousand bodies of young women being completely trampled with each footstep as the deputy attorney general heads to the prison. Although not depicted in the scene, is the knowledge that neither he nor Trump have one drop of remorse or hesitation about this effort to protect Trump.
One of our top leaders of the DOJ...supposedly blind justice....is on a mission to protect the POTUS from his crimes.
Ghislain Maxwell’s word was already worth nothing; now it’s worth less than nothing. MAGA surely knows that. How will they spin whatever happened in that ‘interview’?
They'll say she was a victim of Epstein and deserves a pardon.
Thank you. Thr girls recruited and trafficked were victimized over and over and suffered emotional and physical harm.
Ghislaine Maxwell knowingly participated in this.
The victims are one of the ignored threads in the story. It won't end until they full justice. Independent media reporters will keep the story going until their piece of it is completed.
I don't expect for DJT's Epstein saga to have the same ending as Nixon's, pending the finding of specific information that warrants it, simply because society has changed so much in that last half century. So many of our cultural norms and expectations have been sacrificed to the idea of saying and doing whatever one feels like, making it about the self more than anyone and anything else. We've largely allowed a permission structure to evolve in which shame has disappeared and selfishness rules -- no one has the right to tell you what to do and how to behave anymore when there are no specific rules to enforce it and not enough people willing to get involved to do so.
Witness social media behavior. (Enough said.) Yesterday Tony Evers announced that he would not run for a third term as our Governor of Wisconsin. By all accounts he is a very good and decent person, and his was a heartfelt message of love for the state and its people, and of wanting to put his family first as he moves into retirement after decades of good, faithful, selfless public service. While there were many who thanked him and wished him well, the number of people who uncoothly and disrespectfully used the occasion to express disgust and hatred for him and his political positions was remarkably high. (So much for "Wisconsin nice," at least when people let politics overrule their good judgment.) I'm old school in the idea that on occasions such as retirements and funerals, important life moments meant for summing up and appreciating what was good about someone, you offer compliments on the person and his/her legacy and you remain respectfully silent about disagreements and personal issues, leaving it for another time and place to air those as the person involved gets the kind of sendoff that we would want for ourselves if the roles were reversed.
But therein lies the rub. It seems the Golden Rule has died since Nixon's time, and anyone and anything is fair game, anytime, as long as it makes you feel good to express yourself. I thought "if it feels good, do it" was a 1960s and 1970s thing. It is alive and well in the 2020s, just much more toxic and much less respectful than anything that our parents taught us while growing up. It is one more reason why I increasingly limit my interaction with human beings. Too many adults are acting like too many children, to the point that it's much more enjoyable to spend time with my cats. (If you have dogs, same principle.) Enjoy the fact that those supposed lower life forms are the ones that will never let you down.
The unwritten rule was "if it feels good, do it" as long as it doesn't harm someone else. Today harm to others is pretty much the point.
There is a vast immaturity at work in our society. In the guise of telling it like it is, honesty, whatever you call it, people say negative things routinely without regard to what used to be rules of civil conversation.
Legends never truly exit, and enigmas never age.
Vance is correct; there will be a dribble, and this is good, because our attention spans are short, and a dump of everything all at once may be out of the news cycle within weeks. Let's keep it coming. And it will, because Bondi was stupid enough to enroll hundreds of employees into her coverup by having them comb the Epstein files for mentions of Trump. Surely, not all of these employees were die-hard Trump loyalists, and now they've seen some things, and next they will say some things on background. When engaged in criminal conspiracy, the idea is not to recruit as many coconspirators as you can find. Try to keep it in the family next time.
Yeah. Exactly right. Don't take notes during the meeting of the criminal conspiracy!
God! These people are so stupid.
Shades of good ole Don McGann, who thought he was expected to be a real lawyer.
Great opening line in your post!
The comparison between the Watergate scandal and the Epstein Files is superficially apt, but the differences are telling. In Watergate, the Nixon administration corrupted, perverted, and obstructed the public functions of the government to promote Nixon’s political ends. The public and Congress were shocked and angered by the perversion. The Trump administration corrupts, perverts, and obstructs governmental functions on a regular basis. Much of the public, the majority of Congress, and two thirds of the supreme court shrugs. The perversion that stimulates the public and the press is the potential evidence of the president’s possible violation of powerless people for personal gratification. Sadly, evidence of his eagerness to abuse less powerful people has been obvious for years.
No. He tried to corrupt, pervert, and obstruct, but there were patriots who wouldn't go along and resigned rather than be forced to do his bidding, until Robert Bork, who fired the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox—which is why Bork was unfit to ever hold a SC seat).
The GOP learned from Watergate; remember Roger Stone has a large tattoo of Nixon on his back and has long been a Trump whisperer (not to mention the mastermind of the Brooks Bros riot in 2000). It was the beginning of party over country.
Correct the Republican Party learned the wrong lessons from Watergate, and plenty of resentment that Nixon was brought down by the scandal. This is the milieu that Roberts and company were brought up in and why they are giving Trump the powers to do as he pleases.
Just a flat “no”? Watergate involved burglary, hush money, slush funds, kidnapping, and press intimidation that consumed the country for two years. Sounds kinda corrupt. It’s true that Eliot Richardson and William Ruckleshaus resigned rather than participate in the further perversion of government functions, but their actions do not redeem the deep corruption that had already occurred.
It's been a 50-year crusade by the GOP to get the public to believe "both sides do it".
Spot on. I'm in a feud with a FB friend who just has no issue with believing/promoting that Obama committed treason and everything else is simply the Deep State trying to cut Trump down to size.
My advice? Leave Facebook and have a happier life.
The preferred storyline for me is that I stood up and fought for what is right regardless if it changed any minds. That's their issue if they didn't listen. The thought of running away bothers me more than the emotional hand-wringing that comes with hanging in there.
What's been nice are the many others who cheer me on and/or have started being more vocal themselves based upon my words and actions.
So your friend expects Obama to be perp walked soon?
This is the thing for me on this. Trump has threatened Adam Kinsinger ... and done nothing. He's threatened Obama ... and done nothing. He's talked endlessly about the stolen 2020 election ... and done nothing. He's threatened to jail Anthony Fauci ... and done nothing. Same with Hillary Clinton. Nothing.
When are the MAGA people going to recognize this? If The Deep State is out there running everything, where are the arrests?
Magats are stupid. They'll believe any promise the tangerine tyrant makes, even those he doesn't follow through on. To them he's playing 4D Chess, even though they have no clue what Chess is.
It's game with horse pieces isn't it? :-)
It's called Trump Talk. Trumpy, as a would-be dictator, loves causing fear.
My concern is twofold: 1) That Trump, if cornered, will resort to this. It would be the ultimate political "squirrel" move. 2) If Trump decided to do this...there's an uncomfortably large segment of our country that would be ok with it.
Sounds like you are in a feud with a profoundly stupid friend.
Thanks all for the reporting, commentary and analysis. If Trump escapes this he'll not only make Houdini look like a novice but destroy what's left of our Democracy for good. America, you are running out of time.
If so, the last battle of the civil war has not been fought yet.
Bondi and Blanche do not work for the citizens of this country. They work for Trump. If that means covering a pedophile ring of famous and important people, then so be it. There are not enough people in the administration with the guts to say that out loud but they are aware it is happening. We have to start acknowledging that a large minority of the population are stupid/evil as shit. Many of them will continue to buy the lies. If MAGA is capable of coming around to a place where they can forgive Ghislane Maxwell and bring her onside........then we are in a whole new level of Dante's hell.
There are people who are adamant that Trump's agenda is highly moral and that their own moral values necessitate protecting and defending him from any and all "attacks" so he can continue to implement that agenda.
"Policy, not personality" is a mantra they use to justify indulging and excusing every creepy, corrupt and criminal act of his.
Have they really thought about the downsides to bringing Ghislaine Maxwell on board? This sounds like expedience rather than a thought out strategy. There is plenty of risk playing the Maxwell game and it could become very messy.
Wall Street Journal now has a story that Bill Clinton, like Trump, ALSO sent an effusive 50th birthday greeting to Epstein—praising his “childlike curiosity”! You can’t make this stuff up.
Take off the ‘like’ from Clinton’s line and you’re left with what it really was.
I don't think he was curious about anything. He knew.
To show that they are fair and balance and not just picking on Republicans, they do an addendum on Bill Clinton. Alan Dershowitz also has a contribution in that birthday book, and while I do think of him as an unprincipled hack, I don’t picture him as a pedophile absent victim testimony. And I’m not a big proponent of guilt by association.
Yes. Dershowitz was innocent here—and got smeared in the media.
"The fact that the Epstein-Maxwell crimes were so horrible will surely make the coverup more difficult to sustain."
Plus there's the video that makes obvious that Trump and Epstein's friendship is based on shared lecherousness.