THE EPSTEIN SHITSHOW CONTINUES

A lame duck

Here we are at the end of Shitshow Week #2. The United States has a long history of presidential scandals. No president can match Trump in sheer number of scandals, but Trump also has what seems like it is the worst presidential scandal in US history.Most presidents get themselves in trouble by trying to cover up an activity. And that is the case now. Once again, 50 years later, the question being asked is “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” Watergate was essentially a political and corruption scandal. The Epstein cover-up is a political and corruption scandal that involves sex crimes by rich and powerful people. This is perhaps the worst presidential cover-up scandal ever. No other president has ever been credibly linked to the operation of a pedophile sex scandal.

Wednesday night, Lawrence O’Donnell said that “tomorrow” - Thursday - would be the biggest news day because Trump would try to do something that would eclipse the Epstein emails in order to avoid continued scrutiny. And this morning there was news that he was “days away” from ordering an atack on Venezuela. CBS reported that Trump received updated military options for potential operations in Venezuela on Wednesday, including possible land strikes. Senior defense leaders, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, briefed the president on scenarios for the coming days. This comes a day after the U.S. supercarrier Gerald R. Ford and its battlegroup entered the region. Last night, Pistol Pete Kegstand Pete Hegseth posted on social media: “President Trump ordered action—and the Department of War is delivering. Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR. This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood—and we will protect it.” Simon Rosenberg commented: “If Trump wags the dog in Venezuela it is going to do enormous damage to his already degraded brand here in the US. Zero support for this in the public. Will be seen for what it is—a transparent attempt to rescue his flailing Presidency.”

Ghislaine Maxwell’s statement that she had never seen Donald Trump at Jeffrey Epstein’s house has come under fresh scrutiny following the release of documents from Epstein’s estate by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The emails released show Maxwell was involved in discussion with Epstein about Trump’s involvement. The messages appear to cast doubt on Maxwell’s own account in an interview with the DOJ conducted in July by Todd Blanche. If it is proven she had more knowledge than she claimed, and that her statement the two men were “social friends” only is incorrect, this could result in her sweetheart deal for better treatment in return for her exculpatory statements about Trump “behaving like a gentleman” will be at risk. The new email does not make clear whether Maxwell “witnessed” Trump at Epstein’s house but certainly suggests she may have known Trump had been there with Giuffre for hours and critics have said she did not disclose that to the DOJ.

More and more Republican lawmakers are defecting to throw their weight behind the release of the Epstein files. Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio, Eli Crane of Arizona, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania have all signaled an intent to vote in favor of a measure to release federal investigation documents related to the notorious sex offender, according to CNN and Politico. That vote will come as soon as next week, according to Speaker Mike Johnson, after 218 lawmakers signed on to a discharge petition forcing the House to confront the Epstein files. Bacon cautioned that the Epstein files crusade will still have to overcome the Senate and ultimately Trump’s assured veto.

“I get it, people want to see this discharge petition,” he told MSNBC. “I think it’s a little bit of a false hope that it’s going to provide these great results. It’s still got to work its way through the Senate and the president, but we’re already getting a lot of results.” The fact Trump is now so obviously the lame duck means that he doesn’t have the power to compel obedience from the spineless Republican scum. Senior House Republicans have been anonymously quoted saying they expect 100+ House Republicans to vote in favor of opening the files when the vote comes next week. That may have an effect on the eight Republican senators it would take to overcome the filibuster Thune will undoubtedly throw at it. In the end, self-preservation is the rul in Washington; the Senate weathervanes may yet surprise.

Remember, the regular Trump Shitshow is also continuing: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox News that the government would release its employment report for October, but without the jobless rate. The White House’s economic adviser revealed Thursday that there will be no official unemployment rate for October due to the government shutdown but that the Trump administration might “concoct” some numbers. “The household survey wasn’t conducted in October, so we’re gonna get half the unemployment report. We’ll maybe be able to concoct something, but we’ll never actually know for sure what the unemployment rate was in October.” Welcome to life in the Soviet Union.

Matt Gaetz’s Day has finally come for him. Gut-wrenching details about allegations of paying a 17-year-old for sex that derailed Matt Gaetz’s political career have finally been brought to light.

The leading House Republican scumbag was accused of taking advantage of a “vulnerable” 17-year-old who lived in and out of a homeless shelter, newly unsealed court documents show. Gaetz has denied having sex with a 17-year-old girl when he was in his 30s, but the allegation was enough to end his nomination to be Donald Trump’s attorney general. Many of the details of the allegations had, however, been secret until now. They are being revealed because lawsuit by the McClatchy newspaper chain to have the files unsealed was upheld by a federal judge in Florida. That allowed her attorney, Laura B. Wolf, to disclose sickening details of the allegations of Gaetz having sex with the then, 17-year-old in 2017. She told The New York Times her client was still in high school when she met Gaetz, working in McDonald’s and saving up to buy braces. To raise funds, Wolf said she signed up for a “sugar dating” website, which connects rich older men with young women. She lied about her age, claiming she was 18. It was on that site that Wolf’s client met Joel Greenberg, an associate of Gaetz who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for sex crimes. Greenberg paid the teen for sex before allegedly introducing her to Gaetz. (The paper added that she ultimately “was able to save up enough money to get braces.”) A bipartisan House Ethics Committee probe determined there is substantial evidence that Gaetz paid the teen for sex, something he denies doing. Gaetz has since taken a job as a pundit for the far-right network One America News.

A new poll from Navigator found that 16% of voters regretted their vote for Trump, and another 16% said that they were disappointed in Trump’s presidency. Among those who voted for Trump in the 2024 election, a third say they either regret voting for him (16%) or are disappointed (16%) in how he is handling being president. They point to both the government shutdown and the economy as reasons for their disappointment and regret.The regret and disappointment have spread to MAGA. Seven percent of MAGA Republicans said that they regretted voting for Trump. Eight percent of MAGAs said that they were disappointed in Trump’s presidency. Among non-MAGA Republicans, 26% regretted voting for Trump, and 28% were disappointed in him. Just 46% said they had no regrets or disappointments about voting for Trump.

Remember the “Apocalypse Now” ICE/CBP raid on the Chicago apartment house? The one where brave thugs rapelled out of helicopters onto the roof? The one where they broke down every door in the building and rousted through every apartment? Where they had kids in night shirts and naked adults ziptied out in front? Yeah, that one. Maladministration II released a slickly produced video of the operation. Officials said they had captured two “confirmed” members of Tren de Aragua, including one on a terrorist watch list. Stephen Miller, the White House architect of the nationwide immigration crackdown, declared the building was “filled with TdA terrorists,” that the raid had “saved God knows how many lives” and that it was “one of the most successful law enforcement operations that we’ve seen in this country.” A ProPublica investigation has found little evidence to support the government’s claims. ProPublica has discovered the names of 21 of the detained Venezuelan men and women and interviewed 12 of them and dozens of their relatives, friends and neighbors. They reviewed U.S. public records databases and court websites, examined court documents and social media accounts, obtained audio and video recordings made that night, and attended immigration court hearings. Federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone who was arrested. Nor have they revealed any evidence showing that two immigrants arrested in the building belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, or even provided their names. That’s how the bullshit works when you have a demented old fool who has spouted nothing but bullshit all his life in charge.

A unanimous Nevada Supreme Court has reinstated criminal charges against six people who were allegedly involved in President Trump’s 2020 fake electors scheme. The case had previously been dismissed on grounds that it had been filed in the wrong county. The six defendants, which include state GOP chairman Michael McDonald, vice chair Jim Hindle and the Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, were all quietly given preemptive pardons by President Trump a week ago. None of them have been charged federally, so the pardons won’t work here.

After Maureen Comey, the respected federal prosecutor who was fired for being the daughter of Trump nemesis James Comey, sued for wrongful termination, the Justice Department struggled to find lawyers to defend the case. Maureen Comey’s home office - the Southern District of New York - recused itself, and several other DOJ components declined to defend the lawsuit. After the NYT first reported the internal dynamics yesterday, the DOJ notified the judge in the case that “the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York agreed to accept reassignment of this matter.” That would be John Sarcone III, one of the toadier Trump interim U.S. attorneys, who was already rejected by the judges of the district but who serves on indefinitely with a new title. (This is the guy who reportedly “resides” in an empty building scheduled for demolition.)

The Trump DOJ is seeking to intervene in an existing lawsuit challenging California’s new congressional districts map and block its use in the midterms. In a bitter historical irony, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is claiming the California map is an “unlawful racial gerrymandering” because it favors Latino voters. While it doesn’t explicitly say it’s fighting discrimination against white voters, the Trump DOJ argues that the new map “was adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color in violation of Section 2 of the VRA.” Using Section 2 to stymie minority representation turns the Voting Rights Act on its head. Bondi says California is trying to “entrench one-party rule and silence millions.” “California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process. Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.” Remind me what just happened in Texas? This is the one thing Trump’s DOJ has absolute clarity on: if a state takes action that could cost Republicans even a handful of House seats, it must be stopped by any means necessary. Forget the Constitution. Forget voter intent. Forget precedent. The only legal theory this crew respects is “Because Donald wants it.” The first line in the lawsuit reads, “Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50.” X user Vance Ulrich noted, “I’ve been following CA politics a long time, but I never realized the CA Legislature was a ‘General Assembly.’ This is not North Carolina. Not sending their best!” Newsom’s Press Office account reposted Ulrich’s find, adding, “When Trump’s hand-picked hacks at DOJ can’t tell California from North Carolina, you know the lawsuit is about as credible as Trump’s ‘I don’t know Epstein’ line.”

Failed Trump defense attorney (got him convicted 34 times for sex abuse) cosplaying as Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche, who engineered a sham interview of Ghislaine Maxwel, in which the “interview” was designed to elicit answers exonerating Trump from wrongdoing in the Epstein sex trafficking ring, now “regrets” that he didn’t have all the emails she and Epstein wrote, because the emails were “hidden” by the Epstein estate at the time he conducted his interview with Maxwell. In reply to George Conway pointing out what he had done, Blanche posted in reply: “When I interviewed Maxwell, law enforcement didn’t have the materials Epstein’s estate hid for years and only just provided to Congress.” The emails were not hidden. They were available to anyone with the ability to sign a subpoena and the intelligence to assume that the Epstein estate would have Epstein’s personal emails. He’s going to be pressured to redo his interview with Maxwell with the emails in hand to determine if she lied previously. Doing so is a felony with a five-year prison term for willfully making a materially false statement in any investigation by the executive branch. Blanche will be at trial in 2029 for his part in “conspiracy to obstruct justice.”

Today is an important anniversary - the 60th anniversary of the first battle of the Vietnam war that saw US troops fighting North Vietnamese PAVN regulars. At 10:48 on November 14, 1965, the first elements of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry (1/7) arrived by Huey at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, launching the Battle of Ia Drang. The battle, which was reported by a young AP reporter who managed to get himself a ride in the first wave, later became the book “We Were Soldiers” - written by my good friend the late Joe Galloway, that young reporter (who I have missed for the past four years since he reported to The Big Muster); the book was later adapted into the film of the same name. The battle pitted well- equipped and supported US Airmobile forces against an enemy seeking to engage at close quarters so as to negate the advantage of the US artillery and aerial support, the latter including Skyraiders as well as the first use of the B-52. The five-day battle included numerous acts of heroism, including three Medal of Honor recipients. One of them was Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, who later wrote, “We had problems on the awards. Too many men had died bravely and heroically, while the men who had witnessed their deeds had also been killed. Acts of valor that, on other fields, on other days, would have been rewarded with the Medal of Honor or Distinguished Service Cross or a Silver Star were recognized only with a telegram saying,”The Secretary of the Army regrets...” The same was true of our sister battalion, the 2nd of the 7th.” Whatever one wishes to say about the cause for which those soldiers fought, those were brave, honorable men.

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