Dear Everybody:
The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another batch of photos Friday afternoon, but in spite of that, the big story (and the one everyone is covering) seems to be the crumbling of Trump’s power the past couple of weeks:
--A lot of pundits are saying that we may finally have reached a tipping point regarding Trump, based on the fact that Republicans are starting to defy him and that he has lost several major battles in the last few weeks.
--He was forced to call for the release of the Epstein files (which, believe me, he did NOT want to do) when it became clear that the House was going to vote for their release in spite of his doing everything he could to stop that discharge petition, including calling Lauren Boebert to the White House and bullying her in the Situation Room, where, amazingly, she didn’t buckle under and change her vote.
--He’s suddenly encountering opposition in the House from Republicans who previously did whatever he said. Republicans voted to overturn the Trump executive order removing union rights for federal workers, and they are pushing other discharge petitions that he is totally against, such as one that will prevent all House and Senate members and their families from investing in the stock market.
--He lost his revenge cases against James Comey and Letitia James.
--He lost the fight to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which he and the DHS had made a must-win case for him regarding immigration, with a judge not only releasing him but ordering the DOJ not to try and rearrest him.
--He lost his fight to appoint his own US Attorneys with Alina Habba and other improperly appointed US Attorneys being pushed out or stepping down, and Lindsey Halligan being told by a judge to resign, with all of the above cases clearly showing the limits of his power.
--Republican voters turned against him in a number of special elections and voted in Democrats, including in his own bastion of Miami.
--Fox News is doing extremely negative stories about the economy, and others on the right are criticizing him over his immigration policies and the Epstein files.
--The press at large is finally--FINALLY-- asking questions about his health and his falling asleep and his bandaged hands and his dementia and is doing front page stories about them.
--He did everything he could to force Indiana to pass its gerrymandered state map, and they defied him and voted against it.
--Trump claimed: "I wasn’t working on it very hard. I wasn’t very much involved," and Speaker Mike Johnson agreed: "He did not put on a major pressure campaign."
--That’s totally not true. Trump did nine long and furious posts about the redistricting, sent JD Vance out to push for the bill, and ended up threatening every Republican who voted against redistricting with being primaried, and threatened the state with losing all its federal funds: "Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame," all of which have worked before but didn’t work this time.
--Shannon Watts: "As a former Hoosier, I can promise you state senators voted against Trump because 1) they were getting calls from constituents telling them not to cave. 2) They’re still pissed about how Trump treated Pence. This is also more proof that Trump is a lame duck. Lawmakers, companies, and universities will start to back away and then revolt."
--David Rothkopf: "In some respects, the biggest development in US politics in the past couple of months is, nobody’s afraid of Trump."
--Mike Madrid: "Tipping point. Marjorie Taylor Greene. House vote on Epstein files. GOP voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Georgia. Republican voters in Tennessee. Cuban voters in Miami. GOP lawmakers in Indiana. See it now?"
--Some people think the tipping point was when Marjorie Taylor Greene stood up to him. He had previously crushed anybody who crossed him, so that they found themselves a pariah and out of a job--or they came crawling back to Trump. Marjorie didn’t do either. She quit, but it didn’t feel like she was forced out--and she then went on TV and trashed Trump in a way not even Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger had done, and it made people realize they could do the same thing.
--Ron Filipkowski: "Maybe, just maybe, some Republican elected officials around the country are getting tired of being threatened by a nearly 80-year-old corrupt mob boss with a 36% approval rating who is increasingly unhinged, and might actually start to grow spines. One can only hope."
Meanwhile, Trump keeps doing stuff to endear himself to everyone who might not already hate his guts:
--He scrapped a plan to mint quarters on abolition and suffrage--they were supposed to honor Frederick Douglass, Ruby Bridges (the 6-year-old who was the first to integrate schools in Louisiana), and the suffragette movement-- and replaced them with the Pilgrims. (Note: He also is putting his own image on the $1 dollar coin for the Bicentennial, even though no one living is supposed to be allowed on US coins.)
--He pulled the last research ship out of the Antarctic, which means there will be no more vital research being conducted there, like on climate change. (Which is why he did it.)
--He changed the official font of the State Department from Calibri back to Times New Roman. The font had been changed a few years ago to Calibri because it was easier for vision-impaired and dyslexic people to read, and we can’t have that.
--He’s ordered all merchandise that’s "DEI" be taken off the shelves of every National Park and National Monument, including all books about Native Americans and African-Americans.
--The House STILL hasn’t put up the plaque honoring the cops who were injured and/or died during the January 6 insurrection, even though they are in violation of the law for refusing to do so.
In regard to the new batch of Epstein photos:
--There are 70 photos in this batch.
--There’s a photo of Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, sitting at a table talking on the phone. Barak has been accused of being closely connected with Epstein, involved financially with Epstein, and who one of the victims accused of brutally raping her and injuring her.
--Another photo is of Sultan Ahmed Sulayem.
--One of the photos shows Epstein holding up the book, FILTHY RICH, in front of his face. FILTHY RICH is the expose that James Patterson wrote about Epstein and his trafficking of underage girls. (Ha ha! The whole thing is a joke!)
--Other photos show a beachfront resort (the one on Epstein’s island?), a "massage therapy" machine, Epstein in the bathtub taking a bubble bath and smirking, and Epstein with a swollen upper lip.
--The photos were released without any explanation of what they are or who took them.
--Republicans are saying that none of the photos show illegal activity and that they could be doctored or AI or "could have been taken anywhere, at a party or something." This completely ignores the fact that these photos were all found on Epstein’s computer.
--White House statement: "The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents, and calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends."
--James Comer announced he’s investigating Clinton (of course he is) and that he will file contempt charges if Clinton and Hillary do not respond to the committee’s subpoenas.
--Steve Bannon, who is in a whole bunch of the Epstein photos and email exchanges, has changed his tune and is now saying, "Did I mention Trump’s not perfect? He’s an imperfect instrument, but he’s an instrument infused by divine providence." (Sounds like a shaken baby confession to me. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a term used to describe what often happens in shaken baby cases where a baby dies as a result of being shaken too hard. The person who did it will absolutely deny it and then admit, "Well, maybe I did shake the baby just a little bit, but not hard." They confess to a little part of the crime, which tells you they did in fact commit the crime.)
--Shadow of Ezra: "Newly released photos of Jeffrey Epstein show him meeting with Steve Bannon, with what appears to be a trafficking victim’s photo sitting on Epstein’s desk. Jeffrey Epstein did take photographs of victims, and these were viewed by many as ‘trophies’ or a form of leverage. Bannon had been advising Epstein on how to rehabilitate his public image."
--Elon Musk responded to this post with: "Only a matter of time before Bannon goes back to prison."
--Skookum: "The Trump condoms with his face on the packaging caught my eye. I find it unlikely that anyone who casually passed through Epstein’s orbit would have condoms at his party house with their picture on them. This speaks to me of a long-time, deeply-involved, active and comfortable relationship with Epstein, the island, the ‘parties,’ the sex."
--Erin Burnett on CNN had to pause before reading the part about the condoms. "And then there was a photo that Epstein kept as well: a bowl of novelty condoms with a caricature of Trump’s face on the wrapper, and the words, quote--can’t believe I have to read this--’I’m huge." (At this point a staffer off camera laughed.) Burnett: "The condoms are in a bowl with a sign that says Trump condom $4.50. And even as you laugh, to think about the fact that this was Jeffrey Epstein’s possession, it’s disgusting."
--easiergoer: "I guarantee you if there were CLINTON branded condoms, it would have been a front page story YEARS ago."
--millegrazie: "A simple question...would you want this to be a photo of your father or your husband?"
--The deadline for the DOJ to release everything is December 19, which is NEXT FRIDAY.
In Starting a War with Venezuela news:
--Trump has now added piracy to his crimes in the Caribbean (but not the good, Jack Sparrow kind.). The US seized a Venezuelan tanker in international waters near Venezuela. They said they plan to keep the tanker and the oil, but release the crew at an American port in Texas once the vessel docks.
--The White House says it was done at Trump’s direction to ratchet up the pressure on the Venezuelan regime. They said the tanker is used to transpoint sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. Their justification for the seizure was that it is part of a foreign terrorist organization. "We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world."
--Sources say the US is preparing to seize more tankers off the Venezuelan coast.
--NBC News: "The ship’s dramatic seizure is fueling speculation that Trump could greenlight a full-scale war against Venezuela if Maduro refuses to relinquish power on his own. Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch military strikes against Venezuela, saying it could be necessary to take out drug targets inside the country."
--The Venezuelan government called it an act of piracy. Shipments totaling nearly 6 million barrels of crude were suspended after the seizure. Venezuela’s foreign minister said, "The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been laid bare. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people."
--Dem Senator Mark Warner: "So they can seize a giant oil tanker without murdering anyone but not a tiny drug boat?"
--Senator Warner says the Gang of 8 wasn’t shown the video of the second strike.
In Saying Stuff Without Thinking How It Sounds news:
--At his rally last week, Trump shouted, "Do we love miners! I love miners!"
--jgt1900: "That’s why he won’t release the Epstein files! He doesn’t want us to know how much he ‘loves’ minors."
In resistance news:
--Colorado Department of Corrections is resisting federal pressure to transfer Tina Peters to federal custody, so Trump pardoned her on Thursday, but since she’s behind bars on state charges, not federal, the pardon isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
--Roger Waters of Pink Floyd projected "Trump is a pig" behind the stage at his Kansas City concert.
--A group of grandmothers in Butler City, OH, is trying to get commissioners to cancel the sheriff’s agreement with ICE, which allows the jail to detain people.
In other news:
--Kyle Rittenhouse, the kid who shot two protesters at a George Floyd protest and badly wounded a third and thus became the darling of the right, has gotten married. The wedding was gun-themed, with the bride toting a special pink-decorated AR-style rifle and Kyle carrying a pistol.
--Nancy Mace introduced legislation to rename the Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC after Charlie Kirk, calling it the "Charlie Kirk Freedom of Speech Plaza." (They already painted over the Black Lives Matter sign in the pavement.)
---Tesla sales have dropped to a nearly 3-year low, despite the company launching cheaper models of some of its cars.
In good news:
--Kyle Rittenhouse is being sued for $20 million dollars by the families of both the men Rittenhouse killed as well as the one he injured.
--California lawmakers passed a bill protecting residents’ rights to provide food, water, and basic aid to homeless people without facing criminal penalties.
--In spite of intense lobbying by Trump, Roger Clemens did not make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Even better, he got fewer than five votes, which means he can’t be on the next ballot (in 2028) and isn’t eligible to be considered again until 2031.
Today is Dick Van Dyke’s 100th birthday. Happy birthday!
In Christmas news:
--One of the best Christmas songs ever written is, of course, "White Christmas." It was written by Irving Berlin, who considered it the best song he ever wrote, and cemented his place in American music. When Jerome Kern, one of the greatest composers of American music, was asked, "What is Irving Berlin’s place in American music?" he answered, "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. Irving Berlin IS American music." The song was released in 1941, just a couple of weeks after Pearl Harbor, and it’s inextricably linked to World War II. The first scene of the movie, WHITE CHRISTMAS, where Bing Crosby sings it to a bunch of disheartened and homesick troops perfectly captures the nostalgia and longing the song engenders. The movie, by the way, with Bing and Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, is terrific. It’s funny and full of Irving Berlin songs, and the ending never fails to make me cry.
Best comment of the day, from WHITE CHRISTMAS, after the General has just given the jeep driver orders to take the general who’s replacing him to headquarters via "the shortcut:" Joe, the General’s assistant, looking after the departed jeep: "That’s not the way back to Headquarters!" The General: "Joe, you know that and I know that, but the General doesn’t know it. At least he won’t for about an hour and a half." Joe: "That sergeant will be a private in the morning. The General: (wearily) "Yes, isn’t he lucky?"
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis