A growing number of frustrated Democrats have urged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., even though he is not up for re-election until 2028.
Rumblings in Washington to replace Schumer have grown since eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans in voting to end the longest government shutdown
in the nation’s history. Critics blame him for allowing centrist
Democrats to give up the political game of chicken, which they appeared to be winning.
In
the fallout, Democratic donors and strategists are calling for the
popular progressive Ocasio-Cortez to seek his Senate seat.
“We’ve got to get rid of him,” one Democratic donor told The Hill. “She’s the future. He’s the past.”
Democratic
strategist Anthony Coley, a Senate campaign veteran, said he was “a
huge fan” of the young representative, and said Schumer “lost control of
his caucus.”
“She
is fascinating and she knows how to communicate to people and she’s
dynamic and she has energy and she’s a fighter and more than anything,
the Democratic base wants someone to fight for them,” Coley said.
The calls for change come at a bad time for Schumer. Shutdown aside, his approval rating
stands at 39% among New Yorkers, the lowest in twenty years, according
to a Siena College poll. Over 46% of those polled disapprove of
Schumer’s handling of the Senate Democrats.
if she stands a chance of winning, she absolutely should go for it. chuck schumer just needs to go period. he stabbed the party in the back by not holding the line on the shutdown. now millions of americans will probably be without healthcare.
chuck's just useless at this point.
and i really don't have time for any 1 who wants to run interference for him. or lawrence o'donnell defedning him and insisting that as minority leader he couldn't do anything to stop the break away 8.
he can't?
then why does he need to continue as minority leader?
o'donnell whined about poor chuck and how people werepicking on chuck and people don't understand how limited the powers of minority speaker are.
if they're that limited, it shouldn't matter who holds the post then, so get him out of here. bring in some 1 who'll work.
about 'target just gets worse, luke wilson, jason canela,' mandy e-mailed to say she can't take ricky martin being in a coma for multiple episodes on 'palm royale.' i agree. i was afraid that we were also going to get kristin wigg locked up in the nut house for more than 1 episode.
'palm royale' streams on apple+ and carol burnett's character came out of her coma at the end of last season and now she's out for blood. you understand why, even with her in a coma for all but 1 episode last season, everyone was afraid of her.
Friday, November 14, 2025. Chump's special treatment for Ghislaine
Maxwell continues as does his lies to the American people and his was on
immigrants, the rule of law and the right to worship.
This week, Jamie Raskin, Democrat of
Maryland, revealed that a whistle-blower gave the House Committee on the
Judiciary information about the special treatment that Ghislaine
Maxwell is receiving at the minimum-security federal prison she was
recently transferred to.
In a letter
to Donald Trump, Raskin wrote that Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year
sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation,
has had custom meals delivered to her cell. The warden, he said,
personally arranged for Maxwell to meet privately with family members
and other visitors and even provided snacks and refreshments. According
to Raskin, her guests were allowed to bring computers, potentially
allowing her unauthorized communication with the outside world.
Maxwell
was allegedly taken to the prison’s exercise room after hours so she
could work out alone, and “allowed to enjoy recreation time in
staff-only areas,” wrote Raskin. An inmate who trains service dogs was
reportedly instructed to give her special access to a puppy. Raskin
claimed that a top official at the prison said that he is “sick of
having to be Maxwell’s bitch.”
The use of high-level staff for menial tasks, along with special mail privileges
According
to Raskin, the whistleblower said Maxwell used high-ranking prison
staff for certain tasks, employing FPC Bryan warden Tanisha Hall as her
“personal secretary and administrative assistant.”
Ms.
Maxwell’s correspondents would email documents directly to the Warden,
who would provide them to Ms. Maxwell, who would then review and edit
them and provide them back to the Warden to scan and provide to the
original sender. For other inmates, simple mail can take weeks to arrive
and is frequently lost
Special rules for her visitors
In
his letter, Raskin said the prison’s preferential treatment of Maxwell
extended to her visitors as well. In one instance, the warden personally
arranged a private meeting for Maxwell and a group of visitors, some of
whom were relatives. Allegedly, the warden “provided a special cordoned
off area for visitors to arrive, as well as an assortment of snacks and
refreshments for her guests.”
Unmonitored internet access
According
to Raskin’s letter, Maxwell’s visitors were also allowed to bring
computers into the facility with Raskin noting the “security risk and
potential” for her to use the internet unmonitored.
Less restricted movement
Last month, TheWall Street Journal
reported on one specific incident in August where inmates were placed
on lockdown, limiting their time for visits and recreation, while
Maxwell met with visitors in the prison chapel. According to the outlet,
Maxwell was allowed to shower after 8 p.m., when other inmates were
mandated to be in their bunks.
Donald Chump's doing all
that for Maxwell. Imagine what he'd be doing for Jeffrey Epstein if he
were still alive -- midnight blow jobs? As Zeeshan Aleem (MS NOW) points out Chump now has an Epstein problem and a Ghislaine Maxwell problem
In July, the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence
for helping Epstein prey sexually on children and young women, for a
deposition. Just days later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche
swooped in to interview Maxwell in prison over the course of two days.
Maxwell said in her interview with Blanche that she never saw Trump behave inappropriately. Shortly after the interview, her lot in life improved significantly, as MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian explains:
After
the interview, she was transferred from a low-security prison in
Florida to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. The
Federal Bureau of Prisons has not explained the transfer, which MSNBC
and other outlets reported deviated from a policy that generally forbids
sex offenders from serving in prison camps. Days after her arrival, she
said in emails to friends and relatives that she was much happier at
the less-restrictive facility.
The
timing of Blanche’s interview combined with Maxwell’s exceptional
transfer reeks of a potential quid pro quo. (A senior administration
official told NBC News
in August, “Any false assertion this individual was given preferential
treatment is absurd.”) New details of special treatment in her new
prison camp only strengthen suspicions of an arrangement.
Chump
is desperate to distract from these realities as Ben notes in the
MEIDASTOUCH NEWS video below that went up about an hour ago.
It's
not good for Chump. And it's only going to get worse. Earlier today
on MORNING JOE (MS NOW), it was noted that the Epstein-Maxwell scandal
comes at "the worst possible time" for Chump.
Jonathan Lemire is among the people offering observations in the clip above. At THE ATLANTIC, his latest piece is "Epstein Returns at the Worst Time for Trump."
This story is not going away We said that when they thought they could
bury it over the July 4th holiday and we're still saying it. We were
right back than and we are right now. It is not going away. Every day,
it chips away at him a little more.
Coming
up? US House Rep Ro Khanna has already noted this week that he's
planning another press briefing with some of the Epstein and Maxwell
survivors. Khanna and US House Rep Thomas Massie have been working on
the release of the government documents on Epstein for some time now. Sarah Fortinsky ITHE HILL) notes:
Rep.
Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is leading the effort to force a vote on the
full release of the files tied to the late convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, said he is hopeful the number of Republicans backing
the measure “could snowball.”
“I’ve already had
a couple Republicans tell my office privately that they’re going to
vote for it,” Massie told CNN’s Manu Raju outside the Capitol on
Wednesday.
“And I think that could snowball,” he added.
Speaker
Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday he will call a vote on the measure
next week, speeding up the process after a discharge petition garnered
the final signature needed to force action on the matter from newly
sworn-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
It's not going away. It will follow Chump to the grave.
Emily Prescott (KANSAS CITY STAR) reports, "Federal
immigration officers reportedly shot and wounded U.S. citizen Carlos
Jimenez during an enforcement stop near a school bus route, sparking
Democratic outrage. Civil rights groups condemned the shooting as an
example of excessive force. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
confirmed that an internal investigation is underway to determine
whether agents followed protocol."
The
victim was a 25-year-old named Carlos Jimenez, who is a father of
three. He was shot after getting out of his car to tell ICE agents, who
had pulled over a vehicle, that children would soon be gathering in that
spot for the school bus, his lawyer, Cynthia Santiago, told the newspaper.
The agents’ cars had blocked a southern lane on the road and jutted
into a second lane, according to the LA Times. “He was telling them,
‘Excuse me. Can you guys please, you know, please wrap this up.’ And
immediately, the masked agent pulls out a gun and exchanges some words,”
Santiago told the newspaper.
That? That's un-American. And it's un-American in a very bad way.
We
have laws and regulations for a reason. But a convicted felon like
Donald Chump doesn't care about those -- as he goes around pardoning one
crook after another, he makes that clear.
And as he lets ICE and the 'border' patrol (Illinois shared no border with
another country) terrorize American citizens and immigrants, he makes
clear just how un-American he is.
We
have freedom of worship in the United States. Donald Chump is trying
to destroy that but we do have the right to worship in this country as
we please (and that choice also includes the right not worship). That's
what makes Charles Thrush's report for BOOK CLUB CHICAGO so dispiriting:
Federal
authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be “no more
prayer” in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that
mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.
A
federal representative delivered the news to a huddle of faith leaders
and activists standing outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
facility Friday, speaking after faith leaders were denied entry to the
building for the third time Friday.
Broadview
Police Chief Thomas Mills, whose department helped facilitate the phone
call, said that he was “trying to figure out” in discussions with Mayor
Katrina Thompson and an attorney if a federal agency could legally ban
religious gatherings on land owned by the village. Religious groups
previously have been allowed to practice outside the facility, he said.
[. . .]
Protesters
expressed concern that the direction from federal officials could be in
violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees both freedom of
religion and assembly. The move also comes days after the AP reported that Pope Leo XIV urged authorities to allow pastoral workers to be able to access detained migrants.
Are
we a nation of laws or not? Every day Chump remains president, that
question has to be asked because he disregards every law and regulation
as though they never existed. And what of his MAGA children of the
corn? They're screaming for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to be posted in
schools but they won't defend the right to pray in Chicago? Seems
hypocritical but if there were no hypocrites in the US, Chump would
never get a single vote in any election.
Invoking a “particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops”, the US Bishops’ Conference has issued a “Special Message” addressing their “concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States.
It is the first Special Message released by the bishops since "a
similar communication in 2013, published in response to the federal
government’s contraceptive mandate. Such Messages can only be issued at
the Conference’s plenary assemblies, and then only with the approval of
two-thirds of those bishops present and voting at the Assembly. The
current Message passed with almost 97% in favour, and only five bishops
voting against the measure.
The Special Message assures immigrants that they are not alone, with
the Bishops saying they "stand with you in your suffering.” The very
beginning of the letter highlights the Bishops’ concerns about
immigrants living in “a climate of fear and anxiety”, the current state
of the debate over immigration, including the “vilification” of
immigrants, conditions in detention centres, lack of access to pastoral
care, and other attacks on the dignity of immigrants.
Precisely because of their love for their country, and recalling
their prayers for “its peace and prosperity,” the Bishops say they feel
“compelled” to raise their voices “in defence of God-given human
dignity.”
“Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental
dignity of all persons, including immigrants,” the Bishops write. At the
same time, they maintain that “human dignity and national security are
not in conflict,” and that “both are possible if people of good will
work together.”
The Bishops contend that “safe and legal pathways” for immigration
can serve as an “antidote” to the risks of trafficking and exploitation
immigrants face, while acknowledging the need for nations to “regulate
their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for
the sake of the common good.”
This is the
United States. Chump is forever insisting that some other county is
doing Christians wrong (and some are, some countries are) but Chump's
doing Christians wrong right here in this country. It's outrageous.
A
federal judge on Wednesday outlined plans to release hundreds of people
who have been arrested by immigration agents in Chicago, saying that
federal authorities had violated a years-old settlement that prohibited
certain warrantless immigration arrests.
The
arrests made national news as part of the Trump administration’s
“Operation Midway Blitz,” which has flooded Chicago with immigration
agents who have antagonized local residents and made hundreds of arrests
across the city.
U.S.
District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said that federal authorities violated a
2022 settlement prohibiting arrests made without probable cause to
indicate that someone is both in the United States illegally and a
flight risk. The settlement is known as the Castañon Nava consent
decree, after a 2018 lawsuit featuring a plaintiff of that name.
The
order could apply to over 600 people — the vast majority of whom have
no criminal record, plaintiffs have said — who have been arrested by
immigration authorities as part of the operation. However, there are
potentially thousands of people who have been arrested and could
ultimately be affected by the judge’s decision. Cummings gave the
government until Nov. 19 to provide plaintiffs with a list of people
arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border
Protection in Chicago since June 11. Both sides of the suit have until
Nov. 21 to file a status report.
Chump's gestapo force has been told they can get away with anything so they behave accordingly. Alana Loftus (THE MIRROR) notes:
A
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent directed his gun at a
woman who he accused of following him, prompting the police to get
involved, according to shocking video footage.
A
Fullerton police officer who was accused of aiding in an ICE raid said
that he was forced to intervene after the ICE agent pointed a gun at a
woman. The incident occurred in Orange County on Sunday, and the police
department said that the officer involved had noticed two vehicles
stopped in an intersection in Santa Ana.
The
officer saw the man exit one of the vehicles and point a firearm at the
other driver, the agency said in a statement. He did not immediately
know the identity of the armed man who was dressed in plain clothes. The
man soon provided credentials to show that he was an ICE agent.
In
a video that quickly circulated on social media, the officer appeared
to assist the agent, sparking widespread panic and outrage.
“What
are you doing?” the woman being held at gunpoint asked in the video.
“Are you for real right now? And now these cops are helping them … I’m
just driving.”
The ICE agent insisted that the
woman had been following and filming him. The Fullerton police officer
told the agent that he could not assist him if no crime had been
committed. The woman left soon after, followed by the officer, according
to the statement from the police department.
As usual, the DHS's paid liar shows up:
Tricia
McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, also released a statement,
saying, “To defend himself, following the aggression of the driver and
her refusal to follow law enforcement commands, our officer followed his
training and drew his weapon. The driver fled the scene before local
police arrived and is still at large. No shots were fired."
The
video, which has garnered a lot of attention on social media, appears
to contradict McLaughlin's statement, as the driver can be heard in the
video when the police officer was at the scene.
Lies
are all that props Chump up now. Each day, it's as though we are
living in North Korea as Chump delivers another proclamation about how
good the economy is and how groceries and gas have gone down and
inflation. Allison Morrow (CNN) delivers the bad news:
With
renewed verve for the word “affordability” after the GOP got absolutely
trounced in last week’s off-year elections, the Trump administration is
scrambling to show it’s doing something, anything, to bring prices
down.
One solution on offer: reversing its own policy of taxing coffee imports.
“You’re
going to see some substantial announcements over the next couple of
days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States — coffee
being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that,” Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday. “So that that will
bring the prices down very quickly.”
This is interesting for a couple of reasons:
Bessent
here is implicitly acknowledging that tariffs do increase prices on
American consumers — a fact the Trump administration has long denied.
Bessent didn’t offer details about what the tariff reductions would look
like or which countries would be included, but he said — seeming to
acknowledge the financial strain that helped secure a Democratic sweep
last week — that “the American people are going to start feeling
better.” (The White House, when asked for more details on the plan,
referred CNN to an executive order from September laying out potential
tariff adjustments based on national security and economic goals.)
Even
if Trump and Bessent made a giant carve-out for coffee, it is highly
unlikely that prices will go down significantly. And that’s because
Americans, as a people, love coffee too much.
To state the obvious: Coffee has become annoyingly expensive. Retail prices are up about 20% year-over-year.
There
are two primary causes for that price inflation: Extremely volatile
weather has eaten into the harvest of an already labor-intensive,
hard-to-grow crop. That’s been happening for a few years. And Trump’s
tariffs on Brazil (50%), Colombia (10%) and Vietnam (20%)— the three
biggest coffee exporters — are piling added costs on top of that. And
since coffee only grows in a few places on Earth, it’s not like we can
just mow down a few cornfields out in the heartland and start up our own
domestic supply.
It's
a shame that the Chump administration's default position is to lie to
the American people. Over and over. They could be treating adults like
adults but that would require owning up to the damage that Chump's
tariffs really did and are really doing.
Morrow concludes her analysis with this:
More
than nine months into his second term, Trump is losing the
affordability argument -- the issue that, by his own telling, won him
re-election. A CNN poll
last week found that 61% of Americans say his policies “worsened
economic conditions in this country.” That number topped out at 58%
under Biden in CNN polling, and it was generally in the low-to-mid-50s
during Biden’s term.
If Trump lowers coffee
tariffs thinking he’s going to get Americans relief, he picked the wrong
product. We the people may not like paying more for coffee, but we do
it anyway. And ultimately, the extra dollars and cents we’re spending on
coffee pale in comparison to the big-ticket issues — namely housing,
energy and health care -- that helped secure Democrats’ wins last week.
The
American people are fed up. As a group, we'll pull together and work
together on a number of things. But, no, we're not going to play the
recipients of North Korea style government propaganda. And you saw that
last week in the various elections across the country. Veronique de Rugy breaks it down:
The
Nov. 4 election results are a reality check for the Trump
administration. Democrats didn't just run up the score in deep-blue
enclaves. With power prices soaring, they flipped two Georgia
utility-regulator seats in rare statewide victories. In New York City,
more than half of voters told exit pollsters that their top worry is the
cost of living. Seven in 10 Americans say their grocery bills have gone
up this past year. Six in 10 say their utility costs have increased.
The
Nov. 4 election results are a reality check for the Trump
administration. Democrats didn't just run up the score in deep-blue
enclaves. With power prices soaring, they flipped two Georgia
utility-regulator seats in rare statewide victories. In New York City,
more than half of voters told exit pollsters that their top worry is the
cost of living. Seven in 10 Americans say their grocery bills have gone
up this past year. Six in 10 say their utility costs have increased.
So,
yes, the affordability issues that dominated the 2024 election remain
central. But President Donald Trump insists there's no problem.
"Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25 percent lower than 2024
Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart," he declared on
Truth Social. "My cost(s) are lower than the Democrats on everything,
especially oil and gas! So the Democrats' 'affordability' issue is
DEAD!"
Trump's referring to Walmart's
"inflation-free Thanksgiving meal," said to feed 10 people for $40, plus
fees. This year's standard basket is less expensive than last year's
eight-person bundle, but it no longer contains pecan pie, whipped
topping, muffin mix, poultry seasoning, chicken broth, sweet potatoes,
onions and celery, all of which have been quietly dropped.
The
2025 food basket is a perfect metaphor for the broader economy. The
president insists that "every price is down," but that's incorrect.
While chicken breasts cost a bit less than a year ago, eggs, bacon,
orange juice and beef are all more expensive. Trump's policies didn't
trigger these price hikes, but they sure do perpetuate them.
Trump
is also wrong to claim that "we're at a perfect number" on inflation,
which no longer dominates headlines. But it's still affecting people.
Since early 2021, average hourly earnings are up about 21.8%. Consumer
prices have risen faster, with grocery prices up nearly 30% since 2020.
He
can't stop lying. It's weeks now with the Walmart lie. MEIDASTOUCH
NEWS' JD Wolf rightly called it out and corrected the record immediately
after Donald lied about the first time. Many other outlets have called
out the lie. But he continues to repeat it over and over.
Nearly 900,000 homeowners are underwater on their mortgage as home prices fall, signaling a worrying turn in the housing market.
That
figure represents 1.6% of all mortgage holders in the U.S. While the
share may seem like a small part of the overall market, it’s also the
highest rate in three years, according to a new report by
Intercontinental Exchange
As
existing-home sales remain on track to hit a 30-year low, home prices
are losing steam due to years of tepid demand from home buyers. A
homeowner is underwater on their mortgage when they owe more on their
mortgage than their home is worth.
Amid
a nationwide housing crisis, President Donald Trump has suggested a
50-year mortgage as a way to make homeownership more affordable.
Federal
Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, who oversees Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, said they were “working on it,” and that it would be “a
complete game-changer.”
However, financial experts are warning that it could leave Americans in significant financial trouble in the long term.
Longer-term
mortgages can dramatically lower the monthly payment for homeowners,
allowing more Americans to afford the cost of buying their own home.
A
50-year mortgage could shift monthly payments to $1,823 based on the
median sale price of a home from September, $415,200, compared to a
30-year fixed loan, according to CNBC. Based on today’s current interest
rates of roughly 6.3 percent, that would amount to a $233 monthly
savings.
However, experts are warning that this
would prevent homeowners from building equity as quickly. The interest
paid over time would also be 40 percent higher.
The
one problem that seems to have his attention is the one with a
'solution' or 'plan' that will only make things worse. He's destroyed
our economy so badly that we should be able to sue him for the damage
he's done. Mary Anthony (MARKET REALIST) offers this reality:
Tariffs
are about to dampen the Christmas spirit for the average American
consumer as holiday decor prices soar for the first time in decades.
Artificial Christmas trees are expected to cost more since businesses
are cutting down on imports. Consumers will now have to pay between 10%
and 20% more than they did a year ago due to tariffs. A tree that cost
about $299 in 2024 might cost up to $359 this year.
Advisers
to President Donald Trump are working hard to rein in his tendency to
downplay Americans’ financial struggles. They are urging him to stop
denying that a cost-of-living crisis exists.
They
want him to shift his message to one that recognizes the pain people
feel at the checkout line. “You can’t convince people that their
experience, what they’re feeling at home, isn’t reality,” one official
told CNN via DailyBeast. This warning reflects the panic inside the West
Wing after a tough election night for GOP candidates.
The
push comes as the White House considers changing its strategy. Aides
are suggesting a nationwide shift to focus on the economy and highlight
policies the president claims will lower prices. Trump’s team wants him
to stress solutions for affordability, even though inflation remains
high and voters continue to struggle. Recent reports indicate plans for
new tax break proposals and a broader affordability effort to change the
narrative ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Trump,
meanwhile, insists everything is fine; in a Fox News interview with
Laura Ingraham, he dismissed worries about prices as a Democratic “con
job” and ignored surveys showing voter anxiety. “I don’t know that they
are saying that. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy
we’ve ever had,” he stated.
Inside the White
House, advisers worry that this kind of talk is politically dangerous.
After Republicans and Trump-aligned candidates faced significant losses
this month, aides have warned that downplaying grocery and rent issues
could turn a difficult situation into a disaster. Public polling
supports these concerns.
Chump
suffered a devastating blow last week. He lies to everyone. Not just
the American people, to everyone, and that includes to members of his
own party in Congress. He has told them they will suffer consequences if
they go against him, he has threatened and bullied. And they've
believed him even though polling indicated otherwise. Now they look
back on last week and realize it was obvious the GOP was going to
suffer. Now they have to face reality because the results were cold
water thrown in their face. Euan O'Byrne Mulligan (THE I PAPER) explores Chump as a lame duck:
Donald
Trump could become a “lame duck” president within a year unless he
turns the political tide before next year’s mid-terms, experts have told
The i Paper.
Following a difficult few weeks,
during which the continuing issue of Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein
resurfaced, the government shutdown cut off low-income citizens from
welfare, inflation continued to eat into Americans’ earnings, and the
Democrats stormed to victory in key elections by promising to address
the cost of living, the US President has suffered from tanking polls
numbers.
Even
though he has reached a deal to end the record-breaking shutdown,
criticism from high-profile figures in his Republican Party and Maga
base has highlighted fractures that are only likely to widen during the
second half of his presidential term.
On
Wednesday, Trump was once again linked to Epstein, as Democrats on the
House Oversight Committee released a further 20,000 pages of documents
from the estate of the convicted sex offender.
Democrats
made public three emails referencing the President, including one
Epstein wrote in 2011 where he told his confidante Ghislaine Maxwell
that Trump had “spent hours” at his house with Virginia Giuffre, a
prominent accuser who died by suicide this year.
In
another email, from 2019, Epstein told a journalist that Trump “knew
about the girls” – though what he knew — and whether it pertained to the
sex offender’s crimes — remains unclear.
Let's wind down with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:
that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "MAGA Christians" and it went up earlier tonight.
target. they just don't learn. or they won't learn. i honestly think they knowingly brought this all on. a protest led by black activists has resulted in dwindling shoppers at target. as i've noted before, i support the boycott and have stopped shopping at target.
they destroyed inclusion and diversity. they're an awful store. maga doesn't shop there. maga's too poor to shop there. they'd go in there to topple a display of pride items, for example, but they don't shop there. target's overpriced for what it is. it's where those who had just enough money to stay out of k-mart would shop instead. and their merchandise is just as cheaply made as k--mart's was. they just tack on higher costs.
Target, the retail store giant, which had enjoyed a favored status among
Black shoppers because of its practice of helping advance the careers
of Black entrepreneurs, has been largely avoided by Black shoppers this
year after announcing that it was ending its vaunted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Now that its shares have plummeted more than 30% year to date, what is the beleaguered brand doing? Ordering its employees to smile.
You laugh, but the musicians kept playing while the Titanic sank, right?
USA TODAY,
after speaking to Target brass Monday, reported that the store’s new
10-4 policy “requires employees who are within 10 feet of customers to
smile, make eye contact, wave, and use friendly, approachable, and
welcoming body language” and employees within 4 feet of customers “must
personally greet the guests, smile, and initiate a warm, helpful
interaction.”
“We
know when our guests are greeted, feel welcomed and get the help they
need that translates to guest love and loyalty,” Adrienne Costanzo,
Target’s executive vice president and chief stores officer told the
newspaper in a statement.
How
embarrassing for a company named “Target” to miss the mark so badly.
The Minneapolis-based retailer isn’t suffering lower sales because its
employees have a reputation for being rude or unhelpful to customers.
Sales are suffering, at least in large part, because the company
disrespected a significant portion of its customer base. “Until you do
right by me,” Celie tells Mister at the end of the movie “The Color
Purple,” “everything you even think about gonna fail.”
target deserves to go out of business.
okay, the new at&t commercial.
who thought luke wilson was the guy for this?
he sounds like walter brenan trying to sound like will rogers.
lastly, 'palm royale' is back on amazon prime for season 2. there better be a lot of scenes with jason canela shirtless. a lot. that hairy chest is the best chest on t.v. right now. (and ricky martin's roberto better get out of coma quick!)
Thursday, November 13, 2025. Donald Chump knew. Let that register.
And Donald Chump celebrated the 2017 holidays with . . . Jeffrey
Epstein. So many thing emerging.
Adelita Grijalva, let's start with her. Yesterday, she was finally sworn in.
After 50 days of waiting, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into Congress
Wednesday, bringing an end to a contentious chapter in the US House of
Representatives that included a lawsuit and rising tensions inside the Capitol over her seating.
[. . .]
“It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th
Congressional District elected me to represent them,” Grijalva said on
Wednesday. “This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able
to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of
Congress for a political reason.”
Immediately after being sworn in, Grijalva become the
decisive 218th member in support of an effort to force the House to vote
on the release of all of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, an issue that
has roiled the House and sparked division among Republicans. Hours
before her signature advanced the effort forward, top Trump
administration officials met with at least one Republican who had also signed onto the petition.
That
was late in the day yesterday. A lot happened yesterday so let's go
chronological for a bit and we'll mix in some videos with it. .
But
Johnson's recalcitrance about actually governing has been linked a
secondary motivation – protecting President Donald Trump from the
Epstein files, a seedy, secret dossier about his old bon vivant buddy, the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019.
Johnson
has stalled for seven weeks swearing in Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona
Democrat who won a Sept. 23 special election to represent her state's
7th Congressional District.
Grijalva
told me on Nov. 11 that she still hasn't heard from Johnson, who is
convening a House session at noon on Nov. 12. But her team told me
staffers for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, informed
them that she is expected to be sworn in when the session starts.
That's bad news for Trump, and Johnson can no longer help him dodge it.
Grijalva
has pledged to provide the final signature needed on a discharge
petition that would force the House to vote on bipartisan pending
legislation that calls on the U.S. Department of Justice to release its
files on Epstein and his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine
Maxwell.
Speaker
of the House Mike Johnson (R., La.) is set to swear in Arizona Democrat
Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva at 2 pm in Washington on Wednesday.
Grijalva is succeeding her father, Raul Grijalva, who died in March. She
has waited 50 days to be sworn in since her election in September.
Grijalva
is expected to provide the decisive signature on a discharge petition
to force a floor vote demanding that the Justice Department release its
files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson has said he
delayed Grijalva’s swearing-in because the House was out of session
during the government shutdown, which is expected to end as soon as
Wednesday.
There is no
masking this. Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson spent fifty days
refusing to seat Grijalva because he doesn't want a House vote on the
Epstein files. This was not about helping the American people. This
was about Johnson trying to protect Donald Chump.
Prior to Grijalva being sworn in, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued the following press release:
Washington,
D.C. -- Today, Oversight Democrats and Ranking Member Robert Garcia
released never-before-seen emails from the latest production from
Jeffrey Epstein’s Estate, striking a blow against the White House’s
Epstein cover-up. In private correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,
Jeffrey Epstein wrote in 2011 that Donald Trump, “spent hours at my
house” with a victim of sex trafficking, referring to Trump as “dog that
hasn’t barked.” In a separate email with author Michael Wolff in 2019,
Epstein stated explicitly that Donald Trump, “knew about the girls as he
asked ghislaine to stop.” In another email with Wolff in 2015, Epstein
and Wolff discuss if they can “craft an answer” for Trump’s upcoming CNN
interview, with Wolff characterizing Epstein’s leverage over Donald
Trump, saying, “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house,
then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.” The Epstein
Estate released a total of 23,000 documents that the Oversight Committee
is currently reviewing.
“The more Donald Trump
tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest
emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the
White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein
and the President,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia. “The Department
of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public
immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers
and will not stop until we get justice for the victims.”
The three emails from the production can be found below and here.
Email #1
Email #1 is direct correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The correspondence reads:
To: Ghislaine Maxwell
From: Jeffrey Epstein
“I
want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump..
[Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been
mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there
To: Jeffrey Epstein
From: Ghislaine Maxwell
“I have been thinking about that…”
Email #2
Email #2 is direct correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Wolff.
The correspondence reads:
To: Michael Wolf
From: Jeffrey Epstein
“[Victim]
mara lago. [identifier]. Trump said he asked me to resign, never a
member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to
stop”
Email #3
Email #3 is direct correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Wolff.
The correspondence reads:
To: Jeffrey Epstein
From: Michael Wolff
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards.
To: Michael Wolff
From: Jeffrey Epstein
“if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
To: Jeffrey Epstein
From: Michael Wolff
“I
think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the
plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political
currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a
positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you
could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when
asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is
a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump
regime.”
House
Republicans on Wednesday released a titanic trove of 23,000 pages of
documents from the estate of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein
after months of delays — shortly after emails surfaced suggesting that
President Trump knew more about Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking than he
has previously acknowledged.
The documents were
obtained by the chairman of the House Oversight Committee,
Representative James Comer, through a subpoena in August. They were
published online about two hours after House Democrats released an email from Mr. Epstein in which he wrote that Mr. Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of Mr. Epstein’s victims.
House Republicans are walking a thin and perilous political line in the Epstein case.
They
are seeking to protect Mr. Trump, Mr. Epstein’s close friend until the
two men had a falling out. But they have their own political flank to
cover by appeasing a restive party base that has demanded complete
disclosure of Mr. Epstein’s interactions with other powerful men — an
issue that has at times transcended loyalty to the president.
The
release of documents appears to be intended to provide Republicans with
a defense against charges that they have not released all of the
government’s files on Mr. Epstein, his longtime associate Ghislaine
Maxwell, and the federal government’s handling of both of their cases.
As
explosive emails emerged Wednesday from late convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, CNN reports that top officials in President Donald
Trump's administration were setting a meeting to discuss a petition in
the House of Representatives that would force a vote on releasing
Justice Department case files as soon as the government reopens.
That
meeting was to include Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney
General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Rep. Lauren Boebert
(R-CO), who has wanted the DOJ to release the files and has signed onto
the House's effort to force the vote compelling their release.
While
CNN can't confirm whether or not the meeting has taken place, they note
that "intention of a meeting underscores the Trump administration’s
concerns around the Epstein saga, which roared back Wednesday morning
when the House Oversight Committee released more documents it had
obtained from Epstein’s estate."
They are in damage control mode attempting to peel off votes. Why? Because they're scared about all that could come out.
What else could come out?
For the fifth time this week, we're noting this very important MEIDASTOUCH NEWS video
report.
This
is much, much worse than most people thought. That's why the
administration is going nuts trying to get people to remove their
signatures from the measure to force a vote. ABC NEWS' Katherine Faulders reports:
Top
administration officials met with Rep. Lauren Boebert Wednesday morning
about the effort to force a House vote on the release of Justice
Department's Epstein files, multiple sources told ABC News.
The
meeting, with top White House and Justice Department officials, was
part of an effort to get Boebert to remove her name from the petition to
release the files, the sources said.
It came just
hours before House Speaker Mike Johnson was to swear in
Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, who has said she intends to add
the final signature to that petition to force a vote on the release of
the files.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy
AG Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel were among those present for
the meeting, which occurred at the White House, the sources said.
To
all those who scoffed at the notion that (a) there was something to
hide and (b) that Mike Johnson refused to allow the House to remain in
session because he didn't want a vote on Epstein, you might need to turn
in your deck of tarot cards because they are clearly no longer working.
Donald
Trump has weighed in on Wednesday’s release of emails in which Jeffrey
Epstein claimed that Trump “knew about the girls” and spent “hours” at
his house with one of Epstein’s victims.
Trump
wrote on Truth Social, “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey
Epstein Hoax again because they'll do anything at all to deflect on how
badly they've done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a
very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”
He also called on Republicans to avoid talking about Epstein
The
backlash intensified after a series of high-profile ICE operations in
sanctuary cities, which Democratic leaders condemned as fearmongering
ahead of midterm elections. Administration officials described the
historical analogies as baseless and divisive.
Trump
said, “Look, they call me a Nazi all the time. I’m not a Nazi, I’m the
opposite. I’m somebody that’s saving our country. But they call me
Nazi.”
As Marcia noted last night in "Kim Davis and other Nazis," people who are not Nazis don't have to spend time denying that they're not Nazis.
Instead
of releasing the files, Chump and his administration are trying to
derail the Congressional effort to release the files. What's Fatty
Chump hiding?
President Donald Trump's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued into his first term in the White House, so much so that Epstein spent Thanksgiving with Trump while the president was in office, according to newly released emails written by the late financier.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a new batch of
emails Wednesday obtained from Epstein's estate, followed by the
Republican-led panel's release of 20,000 additional documents, and one
of those exchanges shows that he claims to have spent Thanksgiving 2017 –
Trump's first as president – at his private Mar-a-Lago resort.
Epstein
exchanged emails on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 23, 2017, with Manhattan
modeling management guru Faith Kates, who asked where he was spending
the holiday.
If you've forgotten the lie, it has
been stated that Chump broke off contact with Epstein in the '00s --
some saying 2004 and some saying 2006. 2017? That's a decade later
and two years before Epstein died. The friendship clearly continued.
How many US presidents do you think have dinners with convicted sex
offenders?
Well, now we have it. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another batch of documents
related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Among them were several
emails about Donald Trump. One was from Epstein to his accomplice
Ghislaine Maxwell back in 2011. He wrote: “i want you to realize that
that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [victim] spent hours at my house
with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 %
there[.]” (Excuse the spelling and grammar errors, that’s all Jeffrey.)
By now, we’re all familiar with what “spent hours” meant in the
context of rich, powerful men and Epstein’s victims—particularly given
the reference to ‘barking,’ which has to mean going to prosecutors or
the media.
Cooper also pulls from TAP's previous Epstein coverage to note these ten stnd out pieces:
2002: Trump tells New York magazine:
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy … He’s a lot of fun to
be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do,
and many of them are on the younger side.”
2003: As part of an incredibly revolting book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday, Trump sends a birthday note
with a hand-drawn note of a pubescent, nude female form, and a poem
reading in part: “Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … A
pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another
wonderful secret.”
2008: Epstein is finally investigated for sexual abuse of minors. Then-U.S. attorney Alex Acosta grants Epstein one of the most bizarre sweetheart deals
in American legal history, in which Epstein not only secretly pled to a
much lesser charge of soliciting an underage prostitute, but also got
all his unnamed accomplices immunized forever.
2011: Epstein sends the above email.
2016: Epstein claims in another email that he is hanging out in Trump Tower a week after the election.
2017: Trump nominates Acosta, who has no relevant experience, to run the Department of Labor, which he does until 2019.
2019: Epstein is finally indicted for sexual abuse. A few months
later, he apparently commits suicide under the most suspicious
circumstances imaginable.
2022: Maxwell is convicted of conspiring with Epstein to abuse children, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
2025: Trump, back in office, fires the prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Epstein. His lawyers have a meeting with Maxwell. She subsequently says that Trump definitely didn’t do anything wrong, and then she is transferred to apparently the cushiest prison cell in the Western Hemisphere, according to a recent whistleblower report, which includes a service puppy.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Rollbacks include a rule that would have ensured workers with disabilities are paid competitive wages
Trump admin’s FY26 budget proposes a complete elimination of team that ensures compliance with disability protections
Washington, D.C. — In a new letter, U.S. Senators
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), along with
Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Chair of the Bipartisan
Disability Caucus, and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) led 56 members of
Congress in pressing Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer about the
Department of Labor’s (DOL) dismantling of key disability employment
protections. Secretary DeRemer’s rollbacks include regulations that
prohibit discrimination by federal contractors, a proposed rule that
would have ensured competitive wages for disabled workers, and funding
to teams that enforce labor protections.
“(Y)our actions as Secretary of Labor represent the most significant
retreat from opportunities for workers with disabilities and federal
disability rights enforcement in decades,” wrote the members.
In July, Secretary DeRemer proposed a rule that would eliminate directives from Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
including hiring goals for federal contractors and data collection
requirements to monitor compliance with disability employment
objectives.
“This provision serves as a cornerstone of federal efforts to promote
disability employment in the private sector…Without concerted action, a
growing number of disabled people would be shut out of the workforce
and increasingly reliant on social safety net programs,” said the members.
Eliminating data collection and measurable targets means there would
be no accountability mechanisms to ensure private companies are
complying with the law. This policy reversal would also run counter to
the Trump administration’s goal of reducing government dependency and promoting workforce participation, and would likely reduce employment opportunities for disabled workers, increasing their reliance on government benefits.
Secretary DeRemer has also laid off nearly 90 percent of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, leaving only 50 employees to process thousands of federal contractor audits that affect millions of workers. President Trump’s FY26 budget proposes getting rid of the office entirely.
President Trump’s FY26 budget also proposes cutting the Office of Disability Employment’s budget by more than 20 percent.
“By cutting this office’s funding, your administration is decreasing
the federal government’s leadership role in promoting competitive
integrated employment at a time when such coordination is most needed,” wrote the lawmakers.
Secretary DeRemer is also undermining workers with disabilities’ fight for competitive wages. The Biden administration had proposed
phasing out 14(c) certificates, which are waivers allowing employers to
pay a wage lower than the federal minimum wage to workers with
disabilities. In July, Secretary DeRemer abandoned this proposal, and
the DOL continues to issue the certificates.
“This exploitative practice undermines the dignity and economic
security of people with disabilities while creating perverse incentives
for employers to segregate disabled workers in sheltered workshops,
where most employees are people with disabilities,” said the lawmakers.
In July, the DOL also proposed eliminating equal opportunity
regulations in registered apprenticeships, which combine paid job
training with technical instruction, providing clear pathways to
employment. Data shows that workers who completed apprenticeships saw a 49 percent increase in their earnings.
“The disability community deserves leadership that expands employment
opportunities…you have instead continued a systematic dismantling of
decades of bipartisan progress that has measurably improved employment
opportunities and quality of life for millions of Americans with
disabilities,” concluded the lawmakers.
The coalition asked Secretary De-Remer to provide clarity by December
11, 2025 on her decisions to eliminate the above protections and how
the department plans to fulfill its legal obligations to workers with
disabilities without those regulations.
Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) joined in signing the letter.
Representatives Alma Adams (D-N.C.), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Joyce
Beatty (D-Ohio), Donald Beyer (D-Va.), Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), Nikki
Budzinski (D-Ill.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Angie
Craig (D-Minn.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Mark
DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.),
Cleo Fields (D-La.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.),
Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Steny Hoyer
(D-Md.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Julie
Johnson (D-Texas), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Ro
Khanna (D-Calif.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio),
Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), John Mannion (D-N.Y.),
Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), LaMonica McIver
(D-N.J.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), Seth Moulton
(D-Mass.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.),
Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Ayanna Pressley
(D-Mass.), Emily Randall (D-Wash.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Jamie Raskin
(D-Md.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Eric Sorensen
(D-Ill.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Bennie
Thompson (D-Miss.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and
Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) joined in signing the letter.
