Marie: CNN reported at about 3:59 pm ET that the DOJ has just posted Jeffrey Epstein files on its Website. Here's the main page of the DOJ site. I don't see a link to the files. ~~~
~~~ Update: Okay, I got a link to the Epstein files from the New York Times liveblog. There's a wait queue. Update 2: Ah, the URL of the actual page is https://www.justice.gov/epstein . The first look by MS NOW guest-experts is that what's been released is already-released documents. They must be right because on the page itself, the categories of docs linked are "Court Records"; "DOJ Disclosures"; FOIA docs; & "House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Disclosures." These, of course, are likely to be documents that have been made public previously. Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown said on MS NOW says there are a lot of redactions.
~~~ The NYT liveblog linked above is somewhat helpful. At this point (4:20 pm ET), the reporters are having as much trouble as I did accessing anything. Besides the pages & pages that are wholly redacted, everyone agrees that the search engine doesn't work: entering "Epstein" brings up nothing.
~~~ Mark Berman, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department plans to release a huge trove of documents Friday connected to the deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, complying with federal legislation that ordered officials to make public a collection of records long sought by his victims but entangled in political controversy.... The documents, which Justice Department officials said would amount to several hundred thousand pages, were expected to include extensive material that is normally shielded from public view.... Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche ... described today’s planned release of documents as the first of several in the weeks to come. Asked Friday morning in an interview with Fox News about the volume of documents to be released, Blanche said: 'Today, several hundred thousand. And then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.'” ~~~
~~~ Update. New Lede: “The Justice Department began releasing a huge trove of documents Friday connected to the deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, partially complying with federal legislation that ordered officials to make public a collection of records long sought by his victims but entangled in political controversy.”
~~~ Marie: Legal experts on MS NOW are pointing out that the law requires DOJ to release all the documents today, not some now and others in successive batches.
Marie: I just heard on the news that Trump already has workers plastering his name on the Kennedy Center. Update: Oh, great. You can watch the desecration live on YouTube. Time for some clever protests.
Pleasant surprises on the New York Times opinion pages today. First, David Brooks, not exactly caught in
~~~ Mitt Romney, in a New York Times op-ed: “... given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the [Social Security] cliff, both [higher taxes and lower spending] are necessary. DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly. [Mitt goes through the usual GOP spending cut proposals.]... And on the tax front, it’s time for rich people like me to pay more.... I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind.... The largest source of additional tax revenues is also probably the most compelling for fairness and social stability. Some call it closing tax code loopholes, but ... 'Caverns' or 'caves' would be more fitting [than 'loopholes'].... For example, the cavern of the capital gains tax treatment at death for those with enormous estates.... Sealing the real estate caverns would also raise more revenue.... Any mix of solutions to our nation’s economic problems is going to involve the wealthiest Americans contributing more.” Emphasis added.
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⭐Kelsey Ables, et al., of the Washington Post: “The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has voted to rename the storied presidential memorial and arts institution the 'Trump-Kennedy Center,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X on Thursday afternoon.... The law establishing the building states that it should be designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.... Donald Trump joined the board meeting virtually, which was held in Palm Beach, Florida, where he thanked members for their vote.... Trump in February purged members of the board not appointed by him and became its new chair. The board also includes nonvoting ex officio members, such as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., some of whom were at Thursday’s meeting. 'I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move,' Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, said in an X post.... Members of the Kennedy family have condemned the vote to change the name.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Darlene Superville of the AP: “Donald A. Ritchie, who served as Senate historian from 2009-2015, said that because Congress had first named the center it would be up to Congress to 'amend the law.' Ritchie said that while Trump and others can 'informally' refer to the center by a different name, they couldn’t do it in a way 'that would (legally) stick.' But the board ... immediately chang[ed] the branding on its website to reflect the new name.... Trump had already been referring to the center as the 'Trump Kennedy Center.' Asked Dec. 7 as he walked the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors program whether he would rename the venue after himself, Trump said such a decision would be up to the board.” ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios has more reactions from Kennedy family members. And Andrew Solender of Axios has some reactions from Democratic members of the House. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is horrifying. There are a few appropriate comments near the end of yesterday's thread.
Dareh Gregorian, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to fast-track the reclassification of cannabis, which would pave the way for the Food and Drug Administration to study its medicinal uses." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
Abdi Dahir & Reham Mourshed of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed a law late Thursday repealing a final batch of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, raising hopes for the country’s recovery a year after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad ended the family’s half-century of autocratic rule. The repeal of the measure, known as the Caesar Act, follows the earlier removal of other U.S. sanctions. It bolsters the new government’s efforts to attract foreign investment, rebuild a nation in ruins and revive an economy long crippled by corruption and cronyism.”
Azeen Ghorayshi, et al., of the New York Times: “The federal government on Thursday acted to put an end to gender-related care for minors across the nation, threatening to pull federal funding from any hospital that offered such treatment. The move reflects the laserlike focus on the issue by ... [Donald] Trump, who in his first days in office called gender treatments for minors 'a stain on our Nation’s history.' The administration’s action is not just a regulatory shift but the latest signal that the federal government does not recognize even the existence of people whose gender identity does not align with their sex at birth. If finalized, the proposed new rules, announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a news conference Thursday morning, would effectively shut down hospitals that failed to comply. Medicare and Medicaid account for nearly 45 percent of spending on hospital care....” (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Goes Nuclear. Sydney Carruth of MS NOW: “... Donald Trump’s social media and cryptocurrency company is adding clean energy to its balance sheet in a $6 billion merger with fusion power company TAE Technologies. The deal comes as tech companies are turning to the experimental energy to satisfy the growing demands of artificial intelligence data centers. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, and Google-backed TAE Technologies announced the all-stock merger on Thursday The partnership is aimed at leveraging Trump Media’s 'access to significant capital' and TAE’s 'leading fusion technology' to create one of the world’s first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies, according to the news release. It’s an ambitious venture with the potential to be lucrative for Trump Media, which has seen its stock value plummet by close to 70% this year despite entering new markets, including cryptocurrency and streaming. The company struggled to retain market value after Trump’s inauguration in January.”
John Ismay & Ali Watkins of the New York Times: “A 'warrior dividend' bonus check that ... [Donald] Trump announced on Wednesday would go to more than 1.4 million active-duty service members by the end of the year is being funded by money Congress allocated earlier this year for military housing stipends, officials said on Thursday. The $1,776 payments, which will cost about $2.6 billion, will arrive before Christmas, Mr. Trump said. 'The checks are already on the way,' Mr. Trump said in his address from the White House. 'We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs.' The president also said his signature domestic policy law 'helped us along.' In fact, the bonus checks are being financed through the law, which added $2.9 billion to the Pentagon’s coffers for military housing allowances, administration officials said.” ~~~
~~~ OR, as David Rothkopf put it more succinctly, Trump "simply renamed a payment already going to members of the military as a housing supplement in order to get credit for it." ~~~
~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "The president of the United States just barged into America’s living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.... He was clearly working from a prepared text, but it sounded like one he’d written — or dictated angrily — himself, because it was full of bizarre howlers that even Trump’s second-rate speech-writing shop would probably have avoided.... He read the speech quickly, his voice rising in frustration as he hurled one lie after another into the camera.... Americans saw a president drenched in panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he’s doing a great job." Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman: "To paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, Trump’s speech was nasty, brutish, but, mercifully, short. Apparently it was short because the networks told him that they would only give him 15 minutes (although they didn’t cut away when he went over). It was a blizzard of lies. I can’t find a single factual assertion Trump made that was true.... While making the false claim that overall prices are coming down, the specific prices Trump highlighted (with fake numbers) were turkeys, eggs and gasoline — all prices over which policy has very little influence.... Healthcare, by contrast, is an area where policy has a huge effect on affordability. It’s also an area in which Trump talked utter nonsense.... But leaving the short-run politics aside, the speech revealed something important: Namely, Trump has no idea how to govern. Faced with adversity, he’s unable to propose policies to improve the situation. All he can do is continue to gaslight the public and claim that everything is great, while smearing his opponents."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “... Some of [Donald Trump's] recent attacks have sickened even some of his own political allies.... This is a presidency that celebrates nastiness and spite, not empathy or grace, a reflection, perhaps, of a coarser era in American life.” Baker reprises some of Trump latest and most stomach-churning hits, with commentary.
⭐Beth Reinhard & Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post: “At least 20 people who have received clemency from Trump so far this year — cutting their sentence short, restoring their civil rights after imprisonment or allowing them to avoid prison altogether — were also forgiven of financial penalties totaling tens of millions of dollars. Some of these offenders owed money to real-life victims of fraud.... In other cases where Trump granted clemency, the federal government was the main victim.... 'I don’t think that people ... are paying attention to the financial interests of crime victims,' said Elizabeth Oyer, who served as U.S. pardon attorney for three years until she was fired two months into Trump’s second term. 'It’s having a detrimental effect on victims and taxpayers, and it’s a windfall to the people who committed crimes.'...
“Trump has wielded his executive power to reward dozens of allies while condemning their prosecutions as politically motivated. He has routinely ignored Justice Department guidelines that state pardons should only be given to offenders who are five years past their conviction or imprisonment. The guidelines also say that accepting responsibility for their crimes and paying restitution to their victims should be 'important considerations.'” The link is a gift link.
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said late Thursday that it would appeal a ruling that sided with Harvard University in its fight with the government over free speech and billions of dollars in research funding. The government began blocking grant payments to Harvard on research projects in the spring, but restarted them soon after the Sept. 3 decision by Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the Federal District Court in Boston. On Thursday, the Justice Department, carrying out a pledge from the White House, said in a terse filing that it would pursue an appeal of that ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.”
In Our Names. Santul Nerkar of the New York Times: “The cell was poorly heated, designed to hold only a single person, briefly, and measuring about 6 feet by 6 feet. But Erron Anthony Clarke spent more than two days there, sleeping near an open toilet with eight others, as the temperature outside dropped to 21 degrees. The lights were kept on at all hours. The detention, inside a federal courthouse in Central Islip, N.Y., was the subject of a blistering 24-page opinion on Thursday by Judge Gary R. Brown regarding the treatment of Mr. Clarke, a Jamaican citizen who had applied for permanent residency and was held in the freezing, filthy conditions.... Judge Brown ... was appointed by ... [Donald] Trump in 2019.... The judge also wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had presented false information about Mr. Clarke’s arrest and had ignored court orders by failing to present him for a hearing and provide photographs of the cell.”
Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Hannah C. Dugan, a Wisconsin state judge, was found guilty on Thursday of obstructing federal agents, a high-profile victory for the Justice Department in a prosecution of a judge who it said was illegally aiding an undocumented immigrant. Judge Dugan faces up to five years in prison and, as a person who has been convicted of a felony, she is likely ineligible to continue to hold office as a judge in Wisconsin, according to the State Constitution. She was acquitted of a less serious charge of concealing a person from arrest.... Judge Dugan’s lawyers vowed to appeal.” NPR's story is here.
On Again, Off Again. Tara Copp & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday deleted language from its new workplace harassment policy that had downgraded the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to 'potentially divisive,' an abrupt turnaround after the more lenient interpretation of those items was allowed to take effect this week despite objections from Congress. In a message to all Coast Guard personnel, Adm. Kevin Lunday, the service’s top officer, said those revisions had been 'completely removed' from the policy manual. The document ... now shows a large black bar obscuring the relevant chapter in its table of contents and a message directing readers to a separate manual outlining the Coast Guard’s civil rights policies....
“The sudden turn of events paved the way for a late-night Senate vote to confirm Lunday as the Coast Guard’s full-time commandant, a significant promotion for the admiral. Two Democratic senators, Tammy Duckworth (Illinois) and Jacky Rosen (Nevada) had put holds on his nomination, citing their disapproval of the new policy’s wording. Both relented after Lunday issued the retraction. Thursday’s cascading developments capped weeks of tumult within the Coast Guard, following reports by The Post revealing plans to include the incendiary language within its workplace harassment manual, its vow to reverse course in the face of widespread criticism, and the wording’s surprising retention as the new manual took effect this week.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently swastikas & nooses don't look so benign when they're about to cost you your promotion. BTW, Kristi Noem is living rent-free in the Coast Guard commandant's house at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. Does this mean Lunday will kick her out? I keep seeing unsubstantiated stories about how ICE Barbie's days in D.C. are numbered. Maybe she should just get out while the gettin's good.
Surely Stephen Miller lies awake nights thinking up new punishments and hardships for the accident of birth outside the U.S.A. ~~~
Peter Eavis of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s effort to reduce the number of accidents involving large trucks has taken aim at deficient truck driving schools and tightened a rule requiring that drivers are proficient in English. But a major part of its trucking crackdown — a new emergency rule that prohibits certain classes of immigrants from obtaining truck driver’s licenses — has drawn fierce criticism and legal challenges.... The immigrants targeted by the new regulation are those in the United States as asylum seekers, refugees and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Previous policies allowed such immigrants to obtain a so-called non-domiciled commercial driver’s license if they were authorized to work in the United States. The administration, citing recent fatal accidents, says these classes of immigrants can be dangerous drivers. Just like Americans, the immigrants have to go to truck driving schools and pass tests to obtain a license. And critics of the rule say the administration has not produced data showing that immigrant drivers are less safe.”
Today is the deadline, by law, for the DOJ to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. We'll see what happens. Yesterday there was this: ~~~
~~~ Scott Wong, et al., of NBC News: "On Thursday, Democrats on [the House Oversight C]ommittee released 68 photos from the estate, including photos of [Jeffrey] Epstein, the convicted sex offender, with high-profile people. The release and another one last week by Oversight Democrats include dozens of photos of Epstein posing with President Donald Trump, his top ally Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, movie director Woody Allen and others. All have denied any wrongdoing, and none have been charged related to Epstein's crimes. The latest batch of photos was released just one day before the deadline, Friday, when the Justice Department will be required, under a new law, to release all of the government’s Epstein files with very limited exceptions."
~~~ The photos, via the Oversight Committee, are here. But wait! There's more! ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Guardian: “The New York Times columnist David Brooks appeared in multiple photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Thursday by the House committee on oversight and government reform. The photos ... lack crucial context..., but ... appear to show Brooks attending a lunch or dinner event.... In a statement, the New York Times said the event took place in 2011, three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18. The Times said that Brooks, who did not respond to a separate request for comment, had no further contact with Epstein.... 'As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event,' a Times spokeswoman said. 'Mr Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.'...
“Last month Brooks published a column in the Times saying that he was not interested in the long-unfolding Epstein scandal. 'Why is Epstein the top issue in American life right now?' Brooks wrote. 'Well, in an age in which more and more people get their news from short videos, if you’re in politics, the media or online it pays to focus on topics that are salacious, are easy to understand and allow you to offer self-confident opinions with no actual knowledge.'... The photos released on Thursday raise questions about why Brooks did not disclose his attendance at an Epstein-attended event when writing about his lack of interest in the case.”
Chickens Go Home to Roost. Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “Top Republican lawmakers have signaled they are ending their inquiries into a controversial U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the waters off Venezuela. Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi), Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he had seen 'no evidence of war crimes' in the Sept. 2 operation that killed two survivors of an initial U.S. attack on their boat. He expressed confidence that the Trump administration’s military campaign around Latin America, responsible to date for the deaths of nearly 100 people, has been conducted 'based on sound legal advice.' His comments come a day after Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama), who leads the House Armed Services Committee, said he will shutter a parallel inquiry. Rogers told reporters that he, too, was 'satisfied' that members of his panel had been able to directly question the military officials who oversaw the Sept. 2 strike..., and that he had concluded the operation followed a 'lawful process.'
“In a statement Thursday, Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s senior Democrat, said he was 'entirely dissatisfied' with the administration’s engagement and called for a formal investigation into the Sept. 2 strike, listing out documents the Pentagon still hadn’t provided. Rep. Adam Smith (Washington), top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said through a spokesperson he wasn’t done looking into the incident “and the committees shouldn’t be done either.” MB: Wouldn't you like to know what Trump did to convince the top Republicans that Murder in the Name of Trump was A-Okay?
David Chen of the New York Times: “Democratic lawmakers from more than half a dozen states vowed on Thursday to push back next year on ... [Donald] Trump’s mass deportations, using coordinated legislation to complement the litigation already being used by Democratic attorneys general to challenge immigration policies.... 'It’s never been more important in our lifetimes that like-minded state legislators, like those here, work together to share ideas and strategies,' said State Senator Mike Weissman of Colorado, who represents Aurora, which Mr. Trump has targeted as a hotbed of Venezuelan gang activity. 'States are not just laboratories of democracy, as Justice Louis Brandeis famously said. They are also laboratories where remedies are being developed to protect our country from the disease of authoritarianism that is spreading out from Washington, D.C.' The legislative push augments what a bloc of up to 20 attorneys general have done over the last year through lawsuits on challenging administration policies such as stratospheric H1B visa fees, the withholding of antiterrorism funds and the firing of federal workers.”
Death of an Autopsy. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: “Ken Martin, the chairman of the D.N.C., said on Thursday that he had decided not to publish a report that he ordered months ago into what went wrong for the Democratic Party last year. Party officials have conducted more than 300 interviews with Democrats in all 50 states to create a document that Mr. Martin had once pitched as crucial to charting a path forward. Mr. Martin will instead keep the findings under seal. He believes that looking back so publicly and painfully at the past would prove counterproductive for the party as it tries next year to take back power in Congress....” Politico's report is here.
Hannah Knowles & Natalie Allison of the Washington Post: “Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, said Thursday the group her husband founded would work to elect JD Vance president in 2028 as infighting over the future of the GOP took center stage. Kicking off Turning Point USA’s first national conference since Kirk was fatally shot in September, Erika Kirk said to big cheers that the organization she now leads is 'going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.' Vance, the vice president, has not yet said that he will run in 2028.... The opening night of Turning Point’s four-day conference ... in Phoenix also laid bare how different factions of the 'Make America Great Again' movement led by Trump are fighting over its direction. Some of the biggest stars in the conservative movement publicly berated each other, with podcaster Ben Shapiro denouncing other featured speakers as 'frauds and grifters.'” ~~~
~~~ An NBC News story is here. A related Politico story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I just noticed Erika Kirk looks a good deal like JayDee, right down to the eye makeup: ~~~
Billionaires Are Bad for You. Congressional Races. Nitasha Tiku, et al., of the Washington Post: “... super PACs backed by Trump-supporting tech moguls and the social network giant Meta [will] try to use the 2026 midterms to reengineer Congress and state legislatures in favor of their ambitions for artificial intelligence.... The Silicon Valley push hopes to dramatically extend the gains the tech industry has reaped from the second term of ... Donald Trump. He has struck down AI restrictions introduced by his predecessor Joe Biden and last week signed an executive order threatening to sue states that pass laws on AI. State lawmakers introduced more than 1,000 laws regulating AI in 2025, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.... The [pro-AI super PACs, Leading the Future, which already has a war chest of more than $100 million,] plans to support and oppose candidates in congressional and state elections next year.”
California. No Billionaires Need Apply. Heather Knight of the New York Times: “Known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, [Palo Alto, California,] used to house just your average well-to-do people. Doctors, lawyers, executives and Stanford University professors lived in comfortable bungalows on tree-lined streets, and one house per family was considered enough. Then the tech boom created tremendous wealth, and the billionaires moved in. Some bought several homes on adjacent plots and left a few empty, or turned them into office spaces for their employees. Some hired security guards to shoo people away from public sidewalks. Construction work seemed endless. Greer Stone, a Palo Alto councilman, has had enough. He plans to introduce legislation on Thursday that would restrict the way the town’s wealthiest homeowners can operate. To Mr. Stone, a high school teacher, it is as much about protecting residents from neighborhood chaos as it is about addressing the wealth disparity that has forced middle-class residents out of his city.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Minnesota. Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “An investigation into fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs has broadened significantly, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. The prosecutors told reporters that they were investigating suspicious billing practices in 14 Medicaid-funded programs. Until now, the investigation had focused on only three safety net programs run by state agencies. 'What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes,' Joseph H. Thompson, the federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation said at a news conference. 'It is staggering industrial-scale fraud.' A preliminary assessment suggests that more than half of the $18 billion in taxpayer funds spent on the 14 programs and intended to help low-income, vulnerable people since 2018 was most likely stolen, the federal prosecutors said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't get why states don't routinely audit for social services fraud, like this one and the gigantic Medicare/Medicaid felonious scam now-Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) oversaw.
North Carolina. Allen Breed & Gary Robertson of the AP: “A business jet carrying seven people, including retired NASCAR race driver Greg Biffle and his family, crashed Thursday at an airport in North Carolina, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. The Cessna C550 erupted into a large fire when it hit the ground while trying to land at Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Charlotte. Flight records show the plane was registered to a company run by Biffle.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
Rhode Island/Massachusetts/New Hampshire. From a New York Times liveblog (also linked yesterday): “The body of a man suspected in the killing of two students at Brown University and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was found in a storage unit in [Salem,] New Hampshire on Thursday night, law enforcement officials said.... Col. Oscar Perez, the police chief in Providence, R.I., where Brown’s campus is, said the suspect had died by suicide. Colonel Perez identified the person as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente. He said the man was a 48-year-old former Brown student whose last known address was in Miami, and that the motive was not clear for the attack at Brown or the shooting Monday night of the M.I.T. professor in Brookline, Mass.”
“Federal prosecutors said Thursday that the suspect in the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was his former classmate ... in Portugal ... [at] the Instituto Superior Técnico....”
“Three days after the deadly shooting at Brown University, officers received an anonymous tip that stuck out from a flood of information. It directed the authorities to a post on Reddit. 'I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,' the Reddit user posted, according to an affidavit filed by the police in Providence. R.I.... A day after the Reddit post was made, the writer approached law enforcement officials and told them about his encounter with a suspicious man in Brown University’s Barus and Holley building.... The tipster, whom the police referred to only as John, said that he had encountered the suspect inside a bathroom [in] ... the building..., around two hours before the first shots were reported.... John told the police that he followed the man after he left the building to a Nissan vehicle with a Florida plate.... A Brown University faculty member had also described a suspicious vehicle in the same neighborhood, a gray sedan with Florida plates.... Investigators [found] that the car was rented from Alamo Rent a Car in downtown Boston. And from the rental agreement, they got a name: Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.” ~~~
~~~ Here's the stand-alone story on the Reddit clue, by Ashley Ahn & Qasim Nauman of the NYT.
~~~ From an earlier AP story, which has been updated at least twice:
~~~ Kimberlee Kruesi, et al., of the AP: “The FBI previously said it knew of no links between the cases [at Brown and MIT].” MB: This must mean somebody muzzled Quick Draw McPatel. Otherwise, he would have been out with tweets reporting not just the shooter's name but also the latitude & longitude of the Salem storage unit. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Marie: So does this mean Portugal will be added to the countries whose citizens will be banned from the U.S.? Maybe. Sure, it's Europe, but it's not Northern Europe where the real White people live. ~~~
~~~ Update. My remark there was supposed to be facetious. But it turns out the Bigot-in-Chief was way ahead of me. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: Donald "Trump ordered the suspension of a green card lottery program that enabled the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting and killing of an MIT professor to live in the U.S, a top official announced late Thursday.... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's announcement marks the latest Trump administration effort to limit legal immigration.... Officials at a Thursday night briefing ... said the Portuguese national had studied at Brown in the 2000s and went on to gain a green card via the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery program (DV1) in 2017. Noem said on X that Trump had told her to 'immediately' direct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the 'disastrous' program 'to ensure no more Americans are harmed' by it."
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Australia. Yan Zhuang & Damien Cave of the New York Times: “The Australian government will launch a gun buyback program to take hundreds of thousands of firearms off the streets, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, following a shooting rampage at a Jewish holiday festival that killed 15 people. Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Albanese also declared that Sunday will be a national day of reflection when Australians will pause for a minute of silence to honor the victims of the attack at a popular beach in Sydney.”
Europe. If this guy is right, the U.S. of Trump just might be in trouble: ~~~
~~~ Johnny Ryan in a Guardian op-ed: “The US is Europe’s adversary. The stark, profound betrayal contained in the Trump administration’s national security strategy should stop any further denial and dithering in Europe’s capitals.... But contained within this calamity is the gift of clarity.... The good news is that Europe holds strong cards.... AI investment now rivals consumer spending as the primary creator of American economic growth. It accounted for virtually all (92%) GDP growth in the first half of this year. Without it, US GDP grew only 0.1%. Despite Donald Trump’s posturing, he is on shaky economic ground.... Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has two cards to play that might pop the AI bubble. First, Dutch company ASML commands a global monopoly on the microchip-etching machines that use light to carve patterns on silicon.... Withholding these silicon-etching machines would be ... painful for Trump.... econd, and much easier for Europe, is the enforcement of the EU’s long-neglected data rules against big US tech companies.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Ukraine/Russia, et al. Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: “European leaders agreed early on Friday morning to keep Ukraine funded for two years with a loan of 90 billion euros, or about $105 billion, though they failed to agree on their first-choice option of using Russian state assets frozen on the continent as backing for the loan. That ambitious frozen-asset plan was killed at the 11th hour as European heads of state and government met in Brussels — a show of division that risked making the European Union appear indecisive at a key moment. Instead, European leaders announced that they will funnel money to Ukraine with a loan backed by the E.U. budget. Because the plan does not leverage the large stash of Russian savings immobilized in Europe, it is likely to cost more and could prove more difficult to quickly scale up than the original idea.” ~~~
~~~ Seb Starcevic of Politico: “Top officials in Moscow gloated after the EU’s leaders failed to reach a deal to use Russia’s frozen assets to fund a massive loan to Ukraine.... Kirill Dmitriev, one of the Kremlin’s top envoys, called the decision a 'Major BLOW to EU warmongers led by failed Ursula [von der Leyen].'... Grigory Karasin, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, wrote on Telegram 'for now, international law, not Ursula von der Leyen, is prevailing.'”
17 comments:
Still a pig
We are told by that sniggering twit, Tokyo Rose Garden KKKaroline, that the name change of the Kennedy Center, after her fat boss slapped his name on the wall, is all about saving a failing business, competence of fundraising, and above all, a return to "grandeur".
I'm not going to be so naive as to suggest that art is not a business, it has been for centuries, at least in a certain way. But if you want to talk failure, since a vulgar clown and his artless lackeys grabbed control of the center in a hostile takeover, ticket sales have plummeted. Truly great artists have rejected the place.
And competence? In what universe does the idea of competence exist side by side with the name Trump? The guy is a legendary failure. Yes, he's been elected president, but that was an accident of time, ideology and just the right mixture of lies, hatred, disinformation, and shattering of norms. He brags about what a great builder he is as the debris of the East Wing makes that side of the White House look like something out of Gaza. He hasn't built anything in decades. He just slaps his name on other people's buildings, just as he's doing now.
And grandeur? Grandeur is a mountain peak at dawn, a river powered by spring snow melt, it's a Mozart opera, a Schubert song, it's Monet's water lilies, it's the angular power of an Alvin Ailey leap caught in midair. It's a Dickinson poem, it's a child's first spoken word, it's the first twelve seconds of Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues". Grandeur is not spray painted gold gew-gaws pasted on a wall. It's not a lackluster, colorless concrete patio constructed over a horrifically extirpated beautiful and historic garden of roses. It's not pussy grabbing or bronze plaques full of fifth grade insults or self-aggrandizing rants, and it's not grandeur because some sniveling blonde harpy says it is.
Fatty can have his "art" thing. He can slap his name on, but it won't make him smart, or hip, cultured, competent, or grand. It shows him for what he's always. been. A grifting, grasping, appropriating, churlish boor.
Take the Kennedy name off and do whatever you want. Lipstick on a pig doesn't make it a different species. It's still a pig.
"Trump: Hunger Games Will Be Held On National Mall"
"In the fall, there will be a four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes, one young man and one young woman from each state and territory called the Patriot Games."
Keeping score
Like him or not, Gavin Newsom is not letting the grass grow under his feet, as the old expression goes. He's busy trolling a fat troll, with purpose and gusto. A new website keeps track of the crooks and felons pardoned by the First Crook and Felon, and it's a hoot.
Check it out.
It's a rogues gallery of the most noxious, slimy scumbag Friends of Donald, felonious fucksticks all, just like him, all of whom should still be breaking rocks, making license plates, and talking to the outside world through bars.
Here's a sample:
"President Trump unleashed his loyal, violent and sexual predator cronies onto the streets of America, endangering all of us while he jets off across the globe.
The President’s first act in office was to grant clemency to about 1,500 people – every person charged or convicted for their role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The pardons and commutations for these 'patriots' do not clear their previous extensive criminal records, including those charged with rape and domestic violence.
After their pardons, several Jan 6ers went on to be convicted of possessing child pornography, sexually assaulting a child, driving under the influence and reckless homicide, burglary, grand theft, home invasion, and resisting arrest, among other crimes."
Complete with mugshots and relevant information about their high crimes and low lives.
"The Associated Press has tracked a sabotage campaign that Western officials have linked to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia wants to drain Europe's investigative resources with its sabotage campaign, officials say
The Associated Press has tracked a sabotage campaign that Western officials have linked to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine."
Welcome to the World of Tomorrow
Joanna Stern writes for the Wall Street Journal:
"In mid-November, I agreed to an experiment. Anthropic had tested a vending machine powered by its Claude AI model in its own offices and asked whether we’d like to be the first outsiders to try a newer, supposedly smarter version.
Claudius, the customized version of the model, would run the machine: ordering inventory, setting prices and responding to customers—aka my fellow newsroom journalists—via workplace chat app Slack. “Sure!” I said. It sounded fun. If nothing else, snacks!
Then came the chaos. Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes.” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear. Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared."
Let's just rename everything in the country and get it over with.
Golden Gate Bridge: Golden Trump Bridge
Alcatraz: Trumptraz
Sleeping Bear Dunes Park: Dozing Donald Park
Bay of Pigs: Is that Mar a Lago?
Mount McKinley: Mount McTrump
I quit.
Didn't the Coast Guard already give us all an assurance that they were not going to encourage nooses and swastikas? They in fact told us all that they were going to tighten regulations on them. Then we all found out that they lied like a typical Trump entity. Now we are supposed to trust that they won't again go back on their word? Apparently nooses and swastikas were important enough to them to lie to us once about it. Why not again?
Misinformation
"This November, the New York Times published an article with a frame that strongly implied COVID-19 vaccines kill children. The next day the piece was rewritten with an entirely different, more responsible frame, but readers were given no indication of the change. My MAD colleagues and I are shocked by what appears to be a novel example of a complete premise rewrite by the Times with no acknowledgment whatsoever."
Tatas for Toys
"Strippers are now the No. 1 donor of toys to children's hospital in Portland. This year, they broke their own record
Over the past 14 years, Portland, Oregon area strippers have donated $183,000 worth of toys to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital during their annual holiday fundraiser: Tatas for Toys.
This makes them the top donor to the hospital.
And the 15th annual event, held Tuesday night at the Alberta Rose Theatre, broke previous records — making it rain with $60,000 in donations."
Billionaire's Dinner
"The Edge has Billionaires’ Dinners, where billionaires, who must be Big Thinkers, ask each other Big Questions.
The Edge is in the news today because David Brooks is in some of the photos the House Democrats released today of Jeffrey Epstein, which seem to be from one of the Billionaires’ Dinners. Last month, Brooks wrote a column saying that we’re making too much of Jeffrey Epstein.
The dinner was after Epstein had been released from prison for child sexual abuse. That evidently was not enough to disqualify him from The Edge’s coterie"
I'm sorry, but I think Romney is full of shit. He had years as a US Senator to do anything on the inequity of of tax system and did less than nothing. He was part of the system making it worse and widening the caverns that he and his fellow takers used to amass their obscene wealth. He knows that nothing will be done with the corrupted and incompetent Congress we have. He is also going on 79 years old. So he has gotten to use and abuse his wealth all his life and now at the end when he doesn't need it that much he says he would theoretically be willing to part with a small percentage of it. This feels more like a PR play and a look how generous I am stunt. All while giving nothing. How about using some of that obscene wealth to lobby Congress to change the laws? How many former colleagues has he called to encourage them to do the right thing? He has the resources and connections to push for higher taxes. Unless he puts actions behind his words then that is all they are, empty words.
Good for Mitt. Kinda.
But let's not forget how he made his money before we clap too loudly. He was a vulture capitalist, buying companies with borrowed money, doing a DOGE act on them, selling their assets, and shedding workers, union and otherwise, left and right, while profiting immensely in the process.
Mitt's math is right but he's very late to the reality, not to mention the fairness, table. I'd note his own table is already well-stocked.
Russian Asset, episode 246
So here's Fatty whining about Europe not doing enough to help Ukraine. European heads of state get together and figure out a good plan, using the frozen Russian funds to pay for Ukraine's defense. All of a sudden, here comes Comrade Donaldavich Trumpskyev saying "Nyet!" to this plan. He wants Europe to figure it out but when they do, it's a plan he doesn't like, so he back channels the shit out of a bunch of European nations to get them to nix this plan.
Why?
Putin wouldn't like it. Also...Fat Hitler has plans for that money.
"The remaining funds, estimated at more than $200 billion, were to be put in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle for joint projects."
There's always a grift somehow. Trump always finds a way to get his cut, even with millions of lives on the line. Fuck them. He comes first. So then Belgium, under pressure from Fatty, kills the plan to use Russian money to help Ukraine. It's incredible. It never ends. He is the best Russian agent Putin could ever hope for. He doesn't have to do anything, just a promise of some "joint projects" which would further enrich the Trump Crime Family, and voila! No deal. And of course, this is all done for PEACE and FREEEEEDOM!
This fucking guy is the biggest roadblock to both the world has seen in many a year. Add to that all the people he has unnecessarily killed by allowing the South African Chainsaw Monster to destroy USAID, plus the hundreds of thousands he killed during the Covid pandemic, and now god knows how many more thousands he'll kill with the RFKJ "health" policies, and you've got a guy who is personally responsible for more deaths around the world than anyone since, well....Hitler.
Marie,
I checked out that youtube site with the live feed of the ongoing desecration of the Kennedy Center. Fatty's lackeys voted on this literally hours ago and already there are workers sticking his name on the building? It's almost like he KNEW this would happen! How did he do that?
So I also checked some of the comments, most of which say things like "What has this clown ever done to deserve this?" but one comment sez "God bless Trump and blah, blah, blah, and how Melanie is just like Jackie Kennedy cuz she went through the same thing with the assassination." What? First, Fatty is still alive. He was barely scratched. And I'm guessing, for a split second, when Melanie heard that fat bastard was shot, she was thinking "YES! Money, money, money!" I'm gonna say this wasn't Jackie Kennedy's first thought when she got to Parkland Memorial in Dallas. The absolute gall of these people!
Strict Scrutiny for ya...
If you have an interest in the latest assault on the United States by the traitors on the Supine Court, I would direct you to the Strict Scrutiny podcast (you can listen or watch it on YouTube).
Three eminent constitutional scholars and law professors, Leah Litman (University of Michigan Law), Melissa Murray (NYU Law), and Kate Shaw (Penn Carey Law/Cardozo Law), offer spirited, in depth, and necessarily irreverent breakdowns of the skullduggery going on with the black robed crooks and connivers.
In this episode they review the casuistry and laughable bullshittery that abounded during the arguments in Slaughter held a few days ago. This is another opportunity for Balls and Strikes Man and the other treasonous schemers to hand total control of all independent government agencies to a demented fat man.
They get into the weeds a bit, and there's a lot of inside baseball discussions but none of it is overly arcane or obfuscated. In fact, it's funny (in a black comedy fashion) and bracingly informative. Lots of stuff you never hear in the MSM, but stuff that gets decoded and translated by three ladies who know whereof they speak. For instance, they point out how chummy the traitor justices get with Fatty's solicitor general, as they all trade insider references to Federalist Society secret handshake shit and yuck it up on stories about some wolf from Norse mythology, which is a pretty in the weeds bit about some argument the Dark Lord Nino made years ago that has apparently gained traction amongst the far right legal connivers.
They relate amazing stuff like how at one point, the traitor justices ask Sauer, Fatty's lawyer, whether he thinks they're doing the right thing by handing him a huge win here. What's he gonna say, "No?" A lot of wink-wink, nudge, nudge, head nodding back and forth.
They also address ideas for good strategies when going in against a right-wing wish list case, as to what might be the best way to convince the traitors that precedence, justice, and legal ethics matter. Spoiler alert: They don't. Not to these guys. The arguments are often performative since they've already made up their minds most of the time.
If you'd like to dip into this world for a bit, give it a shot. In any event, you'll get to meet some pretty sharp legal eagles doing their thing, dancing on the heads of the fascists.
Ya know, I really don’t wanna hear any bilge about how some of Fat Hitler’s allies and supporters are supposedly “sickened” by his inhuman attacks on Rob Reiner and his wife, blaming them for their own murder while the bodies were still warm, so to speak.
They’re just now figuring out that their Dear Leader is a moral sinkhole? Years ago he was repeatedly attacking a Gold Star mother. He called a Republican presidential candidate a loser for spending years in a Viet Cong prison, this from a spineless coward who faked bone spurs to get out of military service.
He goes to Arlington Cemetery and calls dead veterans suckers.
The Reiner attack is no surprise. These are people who have lived side by side with Rembrandt for years and say they suddenly realize he can draw. Wow!
Fuck all of those assholes. On one hand I guess I should be glad they finally have the guts to say something, but this is after they supported this vile, disgusting animal for years.
It’s not a lot different from the Rom-bot suddenly realizing that maybe Uber wealthy assholes like him ought to pay their fair share after decades of rapacious accumulation of wealth while gobbling up companies and putting people out of business, then benefiting from a tax code that had secretaries making minimum wage pay a higher tax rate than he had.
Fuck ‘em all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/19/childhood-vaccine-schedule-denmark-revisions/?utm_
Guess speed limits should be up to the local crosswalk guard.
Why not? Makes MAGA sense.
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