TRUMP IS FREAKING OUT

Lookiing back, Week Two of the ninth month was crazier than week one, but likely not to be as crazy as Week Three will be. Remember, there are 355 days till we can end this insanity.

Trump also promised to use the DOJ to investigate the relationship that some Democrats had with Epstein: Trump has ignored questions from reporters about the Epstein files since the latest documents were released on Wednesday despite being in settings where he usually engages with the media. He ranted Friday morning on Truth Social that “Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Summers about Epstein, they know all about him, don’t waste your time with Trump.” The three, like Trump, are known associates of Epstein. None have been accused of any criminal wrongdoing. In a separate post, the president then said he was directing the Justice Department and FBI to investigate their relationships. “Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him. This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his “Island.” Stay tuned!!!” Notice that Trump talks about Epstein’s island, where there has yet to be any evidence that he was a regular, and not Epstein’s home, where there is evidence that Trump was a regular visitor. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo wrote: “Investigate whoever he wants. Trump’s drowning on every front.”

Obergruppenfuhrer Greg Bovino “got his” this week. A federal judge Wednesday ordered the release of more than 300 people detained by the federal government as part of the federal immigration enforcement operations being conducted in the Chicago area. Attorneys say the government violated a federal consent decree by making arrests without warrants. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Department of Justice to release 13 detainees - who were rounded up by ICE in “Operation Midway Blitz” - on bond by Friday and wants detailed reports about more than 600 others also being held. Attorneys say as many as 300 of those immigrants are being wrongly held and could be released within days if they have no criminal histories. DOJ attorney William Weiland called the ruling “quite significant” and asked the judge to stay any order of release immediately so that he could speak with his superiors, however, the release was ordered to begin immediately, with the judge also ruling that hundreds more detainees may soon be freed as part of an agreement with the federal government. Some releases have reportedly already occurred, though a full confirmation of the release of all 13 is pending as some may have been moved to different facilities across the country. The judge also ordered that other detainees be released by November 21st and that DHS review all remaining arrests that fall under the same category.

Continuing in Chicago: 21 people were arrested as faith leaders protested Friday outside the ICE facility in Broadview, IL. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that 21 people had been detained, but did not provide identities and charges. Michael Woolf - who was shot in the head by ICE at this facility several weeks ago during protests - who is minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, was among those arrested.

A month ago, Ellen Mei, a 29-year-old employee of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, received an official notice that she would be fired less than 24 hours after appearing on MSNBC, where she said people on food stamps were being used as “political pawns.” Mei is also a union official, as president of NTEU Chapter 255 in Boston. “We’re feeling angry that we’re being treated as political pawns so that billionaires can have more money while the people that we serve are being strained even further,” she told MSNBC host Chris Jansing. The planned firing was revealed yesterday. “I didn’t leak secrets or share anything confidential,” Mei said. “I told the truth about what’s happening to hungry families and the people who serve them. I took an oath to serve the public - not to stay quiet while our government turns its back on the American people.” A USDA spokesperson referred to a rule saying furloughed workers are not allowed to publicly speak on behalf of the department during a government shutdown.

Trump has been pressuring and demanding that Indiana redraw its districts for months. The president sent Vice President JD Vance to the state to try to close the deal, but the Republican-controlled state Senate has resisted. On Friday, Indiana State Senate President Rod Bray announced that Republicans do not have the votes to redistrict.Bray said in a statement: “Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps. Today, I’m announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December.” Indiana’s decision comes on the heels of Kansas Republicans announcing that they lack the votes to gerrymander their state. Given the size of the victory that House Democrats are likely heading toward, there are not enough seats available for Trump to gerrymander a Republican House majority.

Robert F. Kennedy’s “digital lover” says he maintained a secret drug habit despite his claims to have been “sober” for decades. Olivia Nuzzi made the revelation in her new tell-all memoir which alleges that Kennedy admitted as recently as last year to taking psychedelics like DMT, which is short for dimethyltryptamine, which produces a high that is often described as simulating a near-death experience. She wrote that Kennedy confided in her that he smokes DMT. She told him that she “liked uppers” and takes Adderall.The DEA says that DMT “has no approved medical use in the United States.” DMT is “structurally similar” to magic mushrooms and is known to produce “short-acting and intense visual hallucinations.” Dimethyltryptamine is the psychoactive ingredient in the drug ayahuasca. Naturally occurring, it has been used ritually and medicinally by South American tribes for centuries.

Trump announced Friday that he was revoking his endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who as recently as March was sporting a “Trump Was Right About Everything” hat. In the months since, however, Green has been critical of the administration’s approach to healthcare, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, foreign policy, and the affordability crisis, among other issues. “I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of ‘Congresswoman’ Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia,” Trump wrote on Lies Anti-Social Friday night on his way (once again) down to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend (those weekend trips cost us taxpayers about $1 million a pop for the 21 days he has spent at his cheap-ass golf motel). After listing several of his supposed accomplishments, Trump lamented: “all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” He went on: “It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement—which she wasn’t about to get!). She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.” There was more: “I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support. She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors.” Greene fired back minutes later to say that Trump “lied” about her, writing that Trump was “coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files. It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level…. I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him. But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.” She went on: “But really most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream.”

This past week, Maladministration II announced it was impossible to get employmemt figures for October, due to the shutdown, as well as other data about the economy. Trump then cited the food delivery app DoorDash as an authority on how much consumer prices have actually dropped. Yesterday, the city of Chicago announced a settlement in a four-year lawsuit charging DoorDash with taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to list restaurants without their permission and mark up food prices. DoorDash will pay $18 million in cash and credits to restaurants, delivery drivers, and consumers. Always the best people, always the best sources, always. Trump has steadfastly and falsely maintained that foreign countries pay for tariffs, not U.S. consumers, but also yesterday, he signed an executive order ending tariffs on 200 items “from the grocery,” including beef, coffee, bananas, cocoa, and other commodities from certain countries to lower prices after voters have made clear they are concerned about the economy. Representative Richard Neal, the highest- ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said Maladministration II was “putting out a fire that they started and claiming it as progress.”

Maladministration II is rewarding Trump’s ideological allies by even larger amounts than previously reported. Friday, Bloomberg reported Argentina’s leader Javier Milei appears to have received more financial support from the U.S. government than the $20 billion more widely reported. The U.S. withdrew $870 million from its account at the International Monetary Fund shortly before a similar sum appeared in Argentina’s IMF fund just in time for that country to pay an $840 million debt. It is, one redditor noted, “turning into a scandal.”

The Treasurer of Chicago, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, announced that the city will no longer invest in US Treasury securities. Conyears-Ervin said this is a major change from the more than $200 million the city has invested in Treasury bonds over the last three years. Conyears-Ervin stated: “Chicagoans do not want us to bankroll the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump, where he has waged a war on our city.”

The Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump appears to live on after the head of a nonpartisan state agency appointed himself the new prosecutor in the case. Peter J. Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, will take over the case from embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Skandalakis announced Friday. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee had tasked Skandalakis with finding a replacement for Willis by Friday or he would allow the case to be dismissed. Skandalakis said he contacted “several” other prosecutors who declined to take up the case. “The decision to assume responsibility for this matter was reached only after careful and deliberate consideration,” Skandalakis wrote. “While it would have been simple to allow Judge McAfee’s deadline to lapse or to inform the Court that no conflict prosecutor could be secured—thereby allowing the case to be dismissed for want of prosecution—I did not believe that to be the right course of action.” Skandalakis said he recently received 101 banker boxes of documents related to the Trump investigation and an 8-terabyte hard drive containing the complete investigative file. “Since receiving these materials, I have diligently worked to familiarize myself with the record and the status of the proceedings,” he said. “Additionally, I have attempted to review the evidence gathered and the hours of interviews and proffers of witnesses and former codefendants. Unfortunately, I have not had sufficient time to complete my review. With Judge McAfee’s deadline now upon us and my review still ongoing, I have determined that the best course of action is to appoint myself to the case. This will allow me to complete a comprehensive review and make an informed decision regarding how best to proceed.” This is good news, along with the Nevada Supreme Court voting unanimously to revive the case against the Nevada fake electors. And Trump’s pardons won’t work here either, since this is a state prosecution.

An email in the Jeffrey Epstein files that references U.S. President Donald Trump “blowing Bubba” has attracted scrutiny on social media. One of the emails released Wednesday, from Epstein’s brother, Mark, references photos of Trump “blowing Bubba.” “Bubba” is a nickname of former president Bill Clinton, but Mark Epstein told Newsweek the individual was not Clinton. He did not provide any additional details about the identity of “Bubba” or the meaning of the emails. In an email sent in March 2018, Mark Epstein told Jeffrey Epstein to ask Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, if Russian President Vladimir Putin has “the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.” “You and your boy Donnie can make a remake of the movie Get Hard,” Mark Epstein wrote. To which Jeffrey Epstein replied, “and I thought- I had tsuris,” (Yiddish for troubles.)

Bill Clinton has responded after Donald Trump said he would ask the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate the former Democratic President’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. In a brief statement posted on X, Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Ureña said: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.” Trump posted on Truth Social that he would request that Bondi, the DoJ, and the FBI look into Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton, as well as with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Bondi posted on X: “The Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.” None of the individuals singled out by Trump have been accused in complaints from Epstein’s victims, and the investigation comes despite the longstanding DoJ tradition of operating independently from the White House. Responding to Trump’s call for him to be investigated, Reid Hoffman posted on X: “Trump should release all of the Epstein files: every person and every document in the files. I want this complete release because it will show that the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander. I was never a client of Epstein’s and never had any engagement with him other than fundraising for MIT.” He added: “The call for an investigation is an obvious ploy to avoid releasing the files. Simply release all the files, and expose the people who had both deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein.”

It turns out that Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only avowed socialist who won election as mayor. In Seattle, Katie Wilson won election - running against an incumbent - as mayor on a platform to deal with affordability in the city. Wilson highlighted her own struggles to afford life in Seattle. She supported a capital gains tax to raise revenue, stronger protections for renters and improving public transit. Wilson also pledged to do more to address homelessness, including fast-tracking shelter space, and was critical of incumbent Mayor Harrell’s support for clearing encampments from public spaces around Seattle. She called for cutting police funding in the past, but in this campaign called for changing tactics and adding more non-police response programs to supplement law enforcement. Political consultant Crystal Fincher said that message resonated in a city where housing has become out-of-reach for many of its citizens. “There’s a disconnect between what younger people are going through in day to day life today,” she said. “I think there’s a split in the Democratic Party about that, that we’re feeling our way through.” Our side of the party wins another one.

Among the Trumpscum currently splitting hairs over the definition of the word “pedophile” is Alan Dershowitz, once known as a very intelligent lawyer before getting his head and his ass mixed up from involvement first in the OJ Simpson case, then the Weinstein case. He’s arguing that Epstein wasn’t all that bad. In an interview with with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation Friday, Dershowitz thought it prudent to clarify the nature of Epstein’s crimes: “The predecessor on your show described Epstein as a convicted pedophile,” Dershowitz complained to Cuomo. “Epstein pleaded guilty to one count of having sex for money with a 17-year-and-10-month-old person. That’s not a pedophile.” T he case Dershowitz referred to is his 2008 plea deal, under which he served 13 months (of an 18-month sentence) in a work-release program.However, that investigation began after accusations were made about his interactions with a 14-year-old girl, and federal officials identified 36 similarly aged girls whom Epstein allegedly abused. Epstein pleaded guilty to the two relatively minor crimes of prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in order to avoid federal charges. A 2020 Justice Department report into the case found “poor judgment” was made in giving Epstein a sweetheart deal at the time. In 2017, Sarah Ransome - one of the Epstein victims - said in a deposition that she was coerced into a threesome with Dershowitz in which she claimed she was forced to perform oral sex on Dershowitz and an unidentified woman, whose name is redacted; she was subjected to gruesome questions about his private parts.

I leave you with this. On Thursday, Marco Rubio suggested diplomats consider obesity alongside various chronic medical conditions as reasons to reject foreigners seeking U.S. visas. Adult obesity increases the risk of conditions including high blood pressure, breathing problems, gallstones and gall bladder disease, according to the cable, which states that “all of these can require expensive, long-term care.”

There won’t be a post tomorrow because I am participating in a filmed interview about one of the pilots in “MiG Alley” for a documentary. I will be leaving early and returning late. See you on Monday, which is guaranteed to be the beginning of a crazier week than last week.

Mt. Hood (Photo: KarenRN)

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