While we were all focused on the Epstein files, the ICE prisoners in El Salvador were moved to Venezuela and released. I don’t believe one event is connected to the other. But I’m just now trying to sort out why the men in CECOT were moved. It was part of a deal in which Venezuela released some American prisoners, apparently. So all the prisoners Trump had shipped to CECOT are now free in Venezuela. The American Immigrant Council has a good rundown on the whole episode.
You may dimly remember that, way back when, some courts placed contempt charges on the Trump Administration for shipping the men out of the country after the courts had said they couldn’t. The D.C. Court of Appeals “temporarily” halted the contempt charges. And then the D.C. Court of Appeals sat on the matter and didn’t act until yesterday, when it made some noises about all parties submitting briefs about outstanding issues, apparently so the court can close the case and file everything away in the Dead Zone. David Kurtz has more details.
Whether any of the men will be allowed to return to the U.S., assuming they still want to, is another matter. But Trump won’t be POTUS forever.
Until then — word is that Mike Johnson will be sending the House on vacation tomorrow, which is early, in order to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files. He must think the vote would pass. The House will be on vacation until September 2.
Trump is on a new tear about how he needs to “go after” people for “treason,” starting with President Obama. According to Trump, President Obama was behind a plot to steal the 2016 election for Hillary Clinton. I don’t know that President Obama would really have gone out of his way for Hillary, but whatever. See Trump Goes Full Fascist: ‘Whether It’s Right or Wrong, It’s Time to Go After People’ at Rolling Stone. Also, AG Pam Bondi also approved a new probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails. I am generally loathe to label every bizarre thing Trump does as a distraction, but I believe these would qualify as attempts at distraction. He’s desperate to get the focus off the Epstein files.
On the plus side, Alina Habba is no longer a U.S attorney. A panel of judges declined to allow her to continue in the temporary position, which ran out today. She’s been replaced by her top deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, about whom I know absolutely nothing. Habba had been nominated to hold the position full time, but the Senate hasn’t gotten around to considering her nomination as U.S. attorney in New Jersey. And New Jersey’s senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, are not about to support her. I don’t even have to look that one up. Do read what Steve Benen wrote about her.
I wonder if Speaker Moses^ ever suffers a long, dark tea-time of the soul about how he's gonna answer to the Bearded Sky Bully for all the false witness bearing he's been doing…
Nah. That would require Speaker Moses to either have a conscience, or to actually believe the theology he uses as a cudgel against minorities he hates.
^ h/t Charles Pierce
Seriously. I already promised myself that if I ever meet Speaker Johnson I'm going to ask when the commandment against bearing false witness was nullified, and when the memos went out.
The amazing thing about Johnson is that he is so acutely blind he cannot see this glaring defect in himself. He really believes he is doing the Lord's work, IMO. As do all the other hypocrites in his caucus.
I think this is a group blindness, a way an entire culture has justified, what everyone else can see as blatant hypocrisy.
"He really believes he is doing the Lord's work"
I don't think so, he's as phony as most so called "christian leaders" he uses religion for power over the rubes and as a shield against all of the bad things he does in the background. He memorizes bible verses to use when backed into a corner but doesn't believe in the bible any more than I do. He's as phony as a three dollar bill!
I've known many people like him who were True Believers, but their understanding of what Christ was teaching was limited to mere tribalism. They're too immature to be anything bigger than that.
There are levels of spiritual maturity, and Johnson and his kind are at the baby level, IMO. As I explained to one of them, it's like high school rivalry. Nothing bigger than that.
I think HE believes he’s doing the Lord’s work. I agree with moonbat that the guy has an infantile understanding of his own religion. That’s very common.
Bondo just fired Habba's replacement . These people are out of control. Also saw that one of Stumps DOJ stooges is going to vist Epstien's pedo accomplice Maxwell in prison. The fix is in, she provides a client list that doesn't include diaper Don and she'll get her appeal and or a pardon.
Habba is the worst attorney in Trump's stable of hacks. For Trump to go to bat for her when the Senate has yawned and NJ gave her the boot leads me to think, since Habba's legal skill set is nil, she has other talents Trump appreciates.
I'd bet that Maxwell has a top-tier lawyer. She won't go to a meeting alone. I'd hear Blanche is reportedly gonna be the one to talk to Maxwell, and IMO, what he will hear is that Maxwell is the poor victim of an unfortunate miscarriage of justice. Besides that, she has memory problems that she will recover from unless she gets a pardon. Maxwell's mouthpiece may also hint that Trump will want to move on the pardon before the Democrats can ask questions, because her memory might come back fast.
Sarcasm aside, Maxwell will NOT take Blanche's word that she will get a pardon, but wait. If Maxwell has not got an antidote to suicide in the form of statements and proof that will link Trump to pedophilia, no insurance company will issue a life insurance policy on her.
Some fascinating stuff from Thom Hartmann, especially how it all began, with Rupert Murdoch's father, Sir Keith Murdoch, in Death Rattle of a Cult: Trump, Epstein, and the Long Knives of the Right…
The root of the problem.
Trump knows what he did with Epstein. If the rumor is true, DOJ put a thousand agents on a crash assignment to check every piece of evidence from the investigation(s) of Epstein and Maxwell for every time his name is mentioned. If true, it says that Trump wants to know what can be proven. That he's worried kinda sorta indicates he did a lot. In my world, if I didn't do anything, I don't worry about accusations.
Johnson believes in a different kind of "Christianity" than the life of service and virtue Jesus exhibited. A LONG time ago (We're talking Emperor Constantine, 325 AD) turned the cult of believers in Jesus into a politically dominant force. It was then and is NOW a vehicle for secular power beyond question by the plebes. Jefferson knew and opposed the American versions of Johnson in his time and penned the words carved in stone in the Jefferson Monument, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." TJ was talking about the clergy seeking political power in the sentence immediately prior. The sick people like Johnson have plagued humanity for millennia. Sadly, I had to learn that history decades after I graduated from school – such truths are not taught. In Florida, I expect a teacher who exposed students to the full Jefferson quote in context would be drawn and quartered.
Catholic priests, until very recently, were shielded by the church and state for crimes of pedophilia. I'm not saying it doesn't still happen in some places, but it's no longer policy in the church to move a pervert priest around and hide the victims. The civic counterpoint is the "Me, too" movement that's brought powerful predators down, when they would previously have been as well protected as a priest. IMO, more than any other modes fo the 50s that Trump wants to bring back, protection for the ultra-rich tops the list.
The mess Trump is in with the ghost of Epstein threatens not just Trump and his power today, it could topple everything Trump is trying to build with and for the ultra-rich.
Trump knows what he did with Epstein. If the rumor is true, DOJ put a thousand agents on a crash assignment to check every piece of evidence from the investigation(s) of Epstein and Maxwell for every time his name is mentioned. If true, it says that Trump wants to know what can be proven. That he's worried kinda sorta indicates he did a lot. In my world, if I didn't do anything, I don't worry about accusations.
Johnson believes in a different kind of "Christianity" than the life of service and virtue Jesus exhibited. A LONG time ago (We're talking Emperor Constantine, 325 AD) turned the cult of believers in Jesus into a politically dominant force. It was then and is NOW a vehicle for secular power beyond question by the plebes. Jefferson knew and opposed the American versions of Johnson in his time and penned the words carved in stone in the Jefferson Monument, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." TJ was talking about the clergy seeking political power in the sentence immediately prior. The sick people like Johnson have plagued humanity for millennia. Sadly, I had to learn that history decades after I graduated from school – such truths are not taught. In Florida, I expect a teacher who exposed students to the full Jefferson quote in context would be drawn and quartered.
Catholic priests, until very recently, were shielded by the church and state for crimes of pedophilia. I'm not saying it doesn't still happen in some places, but it's no longer policy in the church to move a pervert priest around and hide the victims. The civic counterpoint is the "Me, too" movement that's brought powerful predators down, when they would previously have been as well protected as a priest. IMO, more than any other modes fo the 50s that Trump wants to bring back, protection for the ultra-rich tops the list.
The mess Trump is in with the ghost of Epstein threatens not just Trump and his power today, it could topple everything Trump is trying to build with and for the ultra-rich.
Sorry about the double-post. Maha, you can delete the one you don't like. 🙂
For some reason the admin system won’t let me delete this one. Oh, well.
Ozzy Osborne passed away yesterday, I always thought he was a mediocre solo artist, didn't like his stuff, a bit too clownish for me. But the first two albums that Sabbath put out in 1970 are classics. Like most of my early listening my brother had both of these albums and would listen to them non stop! I have both albums today and they still sound great to me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xg2dy9UDn4
Details on the Epstein Coverup at the FBI
Well, remember, in 2016, Mitch McConnel warned Obama that to say "Russia is trying to interfere in this election," he would say it was a partisan attack against the Republican candidate. That was after Obama promised not to say Russia was trying to help Trump – he just wanted people to be aware, and report any suspicious activity by Russians.
I really wish he had decided to issue the warning, now, because that would have made the Russian interference investigation *far* more critical, and, might have prevented "obstruction of justice," i.e., "getting the witnesses out of the country."
Of course, we must also remember that we learned that Junior and Kushner (And Eric?) met with Russians, in hopes of colluding, and every Republican assured us that this was perfectly reasonable, no need to call the FBI, and certainly no reason to forbid them security clearances. So I guess January 6th going down the memory hole wasn't really surprising (shrug).