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Sky Dancing @[email protected] · 2025-08-06 · 16:50 UTC

Wednesday Reads

Good Afternoon!!

Trump shouts to reporters from White House roof.

Yesterday, Trump wandered around on the White House roof, and shouted inanities at reporters on the ground, including a joke about nuclear weapons. He is such an embarrassment.

ABC News: Trump takes unusual stroll on White House roof.

President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance on the White House roof above the briefing room in an apparent effort to inspect future construction.
The press, which had been pushed significantly down the driveway, attempted to figure out what was going on.
“Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”
“Just taking a little walk,” he shouted back.
“What are you building?”
“It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side,” he said.
Pressed again by reporters, Trump said “Something beautiful,” while pantomiming with his hands.

Great. So he’s planning to wreck both the East and West wings?

The president was accompanied by a small group of aides and Secret Service. The group included architect Jim McCrery, who has been commissioned to add Trump’s ballroom to the White House. The two men appeared engaged in intense conversation as they surveyed the grounds with lots of animated pointing….
“What are you trying to build?” one reporter shouted.
“Missiles,” Trump responded, presumably joking. “Nuclear missiles,” he repeated while making the gesture of a rocket launching.

Q: Sir, what are you trying to build?TRUMP: Missiles. Nuclear missiles
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-05T16:00:05.466Z

Monica Charen at The Bulwark (Charen worked as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter): Trump’s White House Renovation Is Awful—and Fitting.

Americans who haven’t visited the White House for a guided tour probably can’t picture the East Wing. There’s no TV show about it. It has no famous office to rival the Oval. There are relatively few photos of it in its current form.
As someone who worked there for six months (I moved to the West Wing after the 1984 election), allow me to sing its praises: The East Wing was built in 1902 as a visitors’ entrance and then expanded in 1942 to house the First Lady’s offices. Its style echoes the West Wing in design and footprint, which gives the White House complex a rough symmetry. Like the West Wing, it’s smaller than Hollywood imagines. It conveys stability and authority without ostentation. Unlike the West Wing, it’s flooded with sunlight and, at least when Nancy Reagan held court, adorned with fresh flowers. The two-story structure melds seamlessly into the surrounding gardens. You can hardly see it from the street.

Rendering of planned White House ballroom

Now President Trump has announced that he will “modernize” (which must mean demolish) the East Wing and replace it with a huge, gaudy ballroom. At 90,000 square feet, the ballroom will dwarf the West Wing and even the residence. Naturally it will be adorned in white and gold (to get a flavor, have a look at the way Trump has decorated the Oval Office). This permanent disfigurement will solve a problem that doesn’t exist. When the president entertains more people than can comfortably fit in the East Room (about 200), tents are erected on the lawn complete with floors and walls. But Trump is dissatisfied with the historic building that was good enough for Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan. Ladies’ high heels sink into the grass, he says, explaining why he has also paved over the Rose Garden.
But rather than rail against this desecration of a key national symbol, perhaps it’s better to welcome it. The presidency will never be the same post-Trump, so why not the White House? Why not make concrete and visible the destruction of centuries-old norms and values? This president has just elevated to a Court of Appeals a lawyer who presided over a purge of FBI agents who investigated Trump for January 6th and instructed his underlings at the Justice Department to “F— the courts.” He has opened a criminal investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith on the specious charge of violating the Hatch Act. His attorney general has opened a disciplinary investigation of Judge James Boasberg because Boasberg privately expressed concerns that the Trump administration might, to borrow a phrase, “F— the courts.”

Read the rest at the Bulwark.

Later yesterday, Trump further made an ass of himself at an event about to the Olympics. The Los Angeles Times: Trump names himself chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during Games.

In past Olympic Games held on American soil, sitting presidents have served in passive, ceremonial roles. President Trump may have other plans.
An executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday names him chair of a White House task force on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, viewed by the president as “a premier opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism,” according to a White House statement. Trump, the administration said, “is taking every opportunity to showcase American greatness on the world stage.”
At the White House, speaking in front of banners adding the presidential seal to the logo for LA28, Trump said he would send the military back to Los Angeles if he so chose in order to protect the Games. In June, Trump sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city amid widespread immigration enforcement actions, despite widespread condemnation from Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?” he said. “I will use the National Guard or the military. This is going to be so safe. If we have to.”
Trump’s executive order establishes a task force led by him and Vice President JD Vance to steer federal coordination for the Games. The task force will work with federal, state and local partners on security and transportation, according to the White House.
Those roles have been fairly standard for the federal government in past U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But Trump’s news conference could present questions about whether a president with a penchant for showmanship might assume an unusually active role in planning the Olympics, set to take place in the twilight of his final term.
There is ample precedent for military and National Guard forces providing security support during U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But coming on the heels of the recent military deployment to Los Angeles, Trump’s comments may prove contentious.

Anyone who thinks Trump is planning to leave the White House at the end of his term is living in a fantasy world. He’s turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago North, and he doesn’t plan to leave. Next, he’ll build a golf course on White House grounds. Rachel Maddow said it out loud on Monday night.

The Wrap: Rachel Maddow Warns the US Isn’t Headed for Dictatorship: ‘We Are There.’

Rachel Maddow did not sugarcoat it for viewers: The MSNBC anchor warned viewers that the United States is not headed towards an authoritarian state under President Donald Trump: “We are there. It is here.”
“Life in the United States is profoundly changing and is profoundly different than it was even six months ago,” the anchor said Monday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Because we do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge, we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
Maddow went on to paint the picture of what she called a caricature of an authoritarian state. She mentioned secret police, prison camps and individuals fired for speaking a truth that does not please their authoritarian leader.
“We’re beyond waiting and seeing now. It is clear what’s going on,” she said. “We have crossed a line. We are in a place we did not want to be, but we are there.”
She pointed to immigration raids happening nationwide, comparing ICE agents with masked secret police, even referring to immigrants as “the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified.” Another element she raised was that Trump has turned military force inward on the American people.
In addition to acts of violence against Americans, Maddow noted that under this authoritarian rule protests must be criminalized and media must be intimidated into saying and doing what the leader wants. She added that top universities and law firms are also subject to funding cuts if they do not bow to the president.
And if you release facts to the contrary of the president, be careful.
“Because he said it, then it must be true, and if you say otherwise then you will be fired,” Maddow said.

Also during the Olympics event, Grandpa Trump repeated, for he umpteenth time, his insane ideas about California’s supposed mismanagement of water and forest fires.

oh my goodness — get a load of Trump's incoherent rant about water management in California (this is an event about the Olympics!)
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-05T21:00:44.957Z

In Epstein scandal news, Trump and Vance will meet with other top officials, including the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General and the head of the FBI to discuss how to control the fallout from the highly unusual meeting of Assistant AG Todd Blanche with Ghislaine Maxwell and her subsequent transfer to a minimum security prison. Remember the days when the Department of Justice remained scrupulously independent of the president?

CNN: Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance.

Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president’s residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche.

Officials who will meet to discuss Epstein strategy

With the exception of Vance, the White House considers those officials the leaders of the administration’s ongoing strategy regarding the Epstein files, two of the sources said.
The meeting comes as Trump’s administration is considering releasing the contents of Blanche’s interview last month with Maxwell. Two officials told CNN that the materials could be made public as early as this week.
There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, possibly with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, according to three people familiar with the discussions, though those conversations are preliminary. Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of last fall’s election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal release more information about Epstein a “line in the sand.”
Meanwhile, CNN previously reported that the Justice Department has been digitizing, transcribing and redacting the interview materials as they weigh if and when to publicly release the information from the Maxwell interview. There is over 10 hours of audio, a senior Trump administration official said. Portions of the transcript that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would also have to be redacted, one of the officials said.
One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down.

Really? I don’t think so.

Meanwhile, in his supposed investigation of the Epstein files, GOP Rep. James Comer has issued subpoenas to a bizarre list of people. Politico: Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials.

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation — a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.
Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote in July.
The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration’s handling of the case.
The committee’s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena — and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.
Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman’s example — though not backed by any legal precedent — to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.

Yesterday The New York Times published photos from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse. The article also included the full text of a letter from Woody Allen on Epstein’s 63 birthday. (gift link): A Look Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Lair.

As a gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 63rd birthday, friends sent letters in tribute to the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender. Several shared a common theme: recounting the dinner gatherings that Mr. Epstein regularly hosted at his palatial townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel, and his wife noted the great diversity of guests. “There is no limit to your curiosity,” they wrote in their message, which was compiled with others in January 2016. “You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone.”

A sculpture of a bride clinging to a rope dangled in a central atrium of Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.

The media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman suggested ingredients for a meal that would reflect the culture of the mansion: a simple salad and whatever else “would enhance Jeffrey’s sexual performance.”

And the director Woody Allen described how the dinners reminded him of Dracula’s castle, “where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.” [….]
But Mr. Epstein’s prized property was no gloomy Transylvanian fortress. He had spent years turning the seven-story, 21,000-square-foot townhouse into a place where he could flaunt — and deepen — his connections to the rich and powerful, even as hints of his dark side lurked within, according to previously undisclosed photos and documents showing how he lived in his later years.
Since Mr. Epstein’s death in federal custody in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, many mysteries about his life have remained unsolved. How did he amass a nine-figure fortune? And why did so many powerful men continue to fraternize with him long after he became a registered sex offender?
The White House had pledged to release details about the federal investigations into Mr. Epstein and his associates. But this summer the Trump administration backpedaled. The ensuing right-wing outrage has threatened to splinter the Make America Great Again movement — for whom Mr. Epstein is a central figure in conspiracy theories — and has put Mr. Trump on the defensive like few other issues….
At least one other MAGA luminary also visited the townhouse: Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump and an online media personality, who has said that he videotaped hours of interviews in the mansion with Mr. Epstein in 2019. Framed photos of Mr. Bannon — including a mirror selfie snapped by Mr. Epstein — were kept in at least two rooms in the mansion.

Use the gift link to read the rest if you’re interested.

The Guardian: Epstein scandal broadens as trove of letters from famous figures published.

The long-running scandal surrounding the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein broadened on Tuesday after the New York Times published a trove ofpreviously unseen letters to Epstein from numerous powerful figures as well as unseen photographs from inside his Manhattan mansion.
The letters, written to Epstein by a number of high-profile individuals, were reportedly compiled as a birthday gift for Epstein’s 63rd birthday in 2016. Their publication comes amid intense speculation around Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 and had long cultivated a celebrity social circle of the rich and powerful.
In one letter, former prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak and his wife wrote “there is no limit to your curiosity.”
“You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone,” they wrote, describing Epstein as “A COLLECTOR OF PEOPLE”.
They continued: “May you enjoy long and healthy life and may all of us, your friends, enjoy your table for many more years to come.”
In a letter from film-maker Woody Allen, Allen reminisced about Epstein’s dinner parties at his Upper East Side townhouse and described the gatherings as “always interesting”. He noted that the parties included “politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists” and “even royalty”.
Allen also described the dinners as “well served”: “I say well served – often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women” who he said reminded him of “Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.”
Other letter writers reportedly included billionaire media mogulMortimer Zuckerman;Noam Chomsky and his wife; Joichi Ito, the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab; physicist Lawrence M Krauss; and Harvard biologist and mathematician Martin Nowak.

A few more insane stories:

BBC News: RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines for diseases like Covid.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.
That will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”.
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies.
The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official.
He told the BBC that the change was the US “turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic”.
In a statement, Kennedy said his team had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted”. “[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said.
He said the department was shifting the funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”.
Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.
Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.

NPR: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose.

The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions, according to current and former NASA staffers. If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere.
The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.
It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that “the data are of exceptionally high quality” and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.
Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.
NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions.
Crisp says NASA employees making those termination plans have reached out to him for his technical expertise. “What I have heard is direct communications from people who were making those plans, who weren’t allowed to tell me that that’s what they were told to do. But they were allowed to ask me questions,” Crisp says. “They were asking me very sharp questions. The only thing that would have motivated those questions was [that] somebody told them to come up with a termination plan.”

Joseph Cirincione, vice-chair of the Center for International Policy Board of Directors at MSNBC: We don’t need nuclear reactors on the moon.

If Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wanted to do his part to help provide a distraction from the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, his announcement of a plan to put nuclear reactors on the moon was a partial success. In the 24 hours after his announcement on Monday, he was briefly trending on social media, just behind Ghislaine Maxwell.
If he intended this to be a serious proposal for human occupation of the moon, he failed. For the near future, nuclear reactors on the moon are impractical, expensive and dangerous.
Duffy may not understand this. He has no experience in space or nuclear technology. He is a former Fox News host who became interim director in June when President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of Elon Musk’s choice, billionaire Jared Isaacman, after Trump’s breakup with Musk.
Space exploration has used nuclear materials for power for many decades. This is overwhelmingly in the form of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These use plutonium-238, which gives off heat used to generate electric power for small probes, including some of the rovers on Mars. This typically involves 20 or 30 pounds of material. In fact, several of the Apollo missions left some behind on the moon were powered by such radioactive means.
But a nuclear reactor is another matter altogether. This would involve potentially hundreds of pounds of low-enriched uranium in yet-undeveloped small reactors delivered by space launchers that don’t exist.

Read more at the link. Also see this article from BBC News: Nasa to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 – US media.

That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?

#2028Olympics #DonaldTrump #GhislaineMaxwell #greenhouseGasesData #JeffreyEpsteinNYTownhouse #JeffreyEpsteinScandal #mNRAVaccines #NASASatellites #NuclearReactorOnMoon #RepJamesComer #RFKJr #SeanDuffy #USDictatorship #WhiteHouseBallroomPlans

#2028olympics #donaldtrump #ghislainemaxwell #greenhousegasesdata #jeffreyepsteinnytownhouse #jeffreyepsteinscandal

Sky Dancing @[email protected] · 2025-08-06 · 16:50 UTC

Wednesday Reads

Good Afternoon!!

Trump shouts to reporters from White House roof.

Yesterday, Trump wandered around on the White House roof, and shouted inanities at reporters on the ground, including a joke about nuclear weapons. He is such an embarrassment.

ABC News: Trump takes unusual stroll on White House roof.

President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance on the White House roof above the briefing room in an apparent effort to inspect future construction.
The press, which had been pushed significantly down the driveway, attempted to figure out what was going on.
“Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”
“Just taking a little walk,” he shouted back.
“What are you building?”
“It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side,” he said.
Pressed again by reporters, Trump said “Something beautiful,” while pantomiming with his hands.

Great. So he’s planning to wreck both the East and West wings?

The president was accompanied by a small group of aides and Secret Service. The group included architect Jim McCrery, who has been commissioned to add Trump’s ballroom to the White House. The two men appeared engaged in intense conversation as they surveyed the grounds with lots of animated pointing….
“What are you trying to build?” one reporter shouted.
“Missiles,” Trump responded, presumably joking. “Nuclear missiles,” he repeated while making the gesture of a rocket launching.

Q: Sir, what are you trying to build?TRUMP: Missiles. Nuclear missiles
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-05T16:00:05.466Z

Monica Charen at The Bulwark (Charen worked as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter): Trump’s White House Renovation Is Awful—and Fitting.

Americans who haven’t visited the White House for a guided tour probably can’t picture the East Wing. There’s no TV show about it. It has no famous office to rival the Oval. There are relatively few photos of it in its current form.
As someone who worked there for six months (I moved to the West Wing after the 1984 election), allow me to sing its praises: The East Wing was built in 1902 as a visitors’ entrance and then expanded in 1942 to house the First Lady’s offices. Its style echoes the West Wing in design and footprint, which gives the White House complex a rough symmetry. Like the West Wing, it’s smaller than Hollywood imagines. It conveys stability and authority without ostentation. Unlike the West Wing, it’s flooded with sunlight and, at least when Nancy Reagan held court, adorned with fresh flowers. The two-story structure melds seamlessly into the surrounding gardens. You can hardly see it from the street.

Rendering of planned White House ballroom

Now President Trump has announced that he will “modernize” (which must mean demolish) the East Wing and replace it with a huge, gaudy ballroom. At 90,000 square feet, the ballroom will dwarf the West Wing and even the residence. Naturally it will be adorned in white and gold (to get a flavor, have a look at the way Trump has decorated the Oval Office). This permanent disfigurement will solve a problem that doesn’t exist. When the president entertains more people than can comfortably fit in the East Room (about 200), tents are erected on the lawn complete with floors and walls. But Trump is dissatisfied with the historic building that was good enough for Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan. Ladies’ high heels sink into the grass, he says, explaining why he has also paved over the Rose Garden.
But rather than rail against this desecration of a key national symbol, perhaps it’s better to welcome it. The presidency will never be the same post-Trump, so why not the White House? Why not make concrete and visible the destruction of centuries-old norms and values? This president has just elevated to a Court of Appeals a lawyer who presided over a purge of FBI agents who investigated Trump for January 6th and instructed his underlings at the Justice Department to “F— the courts.” He has opened a criminal investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith on the specious charge of violating the Hatch Act. His attorney general has opened a disciplinary investigation of Judge James Boasberg because Boasberg privately expressed concerns that the Trump administration might, to borrow a phrase, “F— the courts.”

Read the rest at the Bulwark.

Later yesterday, Trump further made an ass of himself at an event about to the Olympics. The Los Angeles Times: Trump names himself chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during Games.

In past Olympic Games held on American soil, sitting presidents have served in passive, ceremonial roles. President Trump may have other plans.
An executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday names him chair of a White House task force on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, viewed by the president as “a premier opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism,” according to a White House statement. Trump, the administration said, “is taking every opportunity to showcase American greatness on the world stage.”
At the White House, speaking in front of banners adding the presidential seal to the logo for LA28, Trump said he would send the military back to Los Angeles if he so chose in order to protect the Games. In June, Trump sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city amid widespread immigration enforcement actions, despite widespread condemnation from Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?” he said. “I will use the National Guard or the military. This is going to be so safe. If we have to.”
Trump’s executive order establishes a task force led by him and Vice President JD Vance to steer federal coordination for the Games. The task force will work with federal, state and local partners on security and transportation, according to the White House.
Those roles have been fairly standard for the federal government in past U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But Trump’s news conference could present questions about whether a president with a penchant for showmanship might assume an unusually active role in planning the Olympics, set to take place in the twilight of his final term.
There is ample precedent for military and National Guard forces providing security support during U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But coming on the heels of the recent military deployment to Los Angeles, Trump’s comments may prove contentious.

Anyone who thinks Trump is planning to leave the White House at the end of his term is living in a fantasy world. He’s turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago North, and he doesn’t plan to leave. Next, he’ll build a golf course on White House grounds. Rachel Maddow said it out loud on Monday night.

The Wrap: Rachel Maddow Warns the US Isn’t Headed for Dictatorship: ‘We Are There.’

Rachel Maddow did not sugarcoat it for viewers: The MSNBC anchor warned viewers that the United States is not headed towards an authoritarian state under President Donald Trump: “We are there. It is here.”
“Life in the United States is profoundly changing and is profoundly different than it was even six months ago,” the anchor said Monday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Because we do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge, we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
Maddow went on to paint the picture of what she called a caricature of an authoritarian state. She mentioned secret police, prison camps and individuals fired for speaking a truth that does not please their authoritarian leader.
“We’re beyond waiting and seeing now. It is clear what’s going on,” she said. “We have crossed a line. We are in a place we did not want to be, but we are there.”
She pointed to immigration raids happening nationwide, comparing ICE agents with masked secret police, even referring to immigrants as “the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified.” Another element she raised was that Trump has turned military force inward on the American people.
In addition to acts of violence against Americans, Maddow noted that under this authoritarian rule protests must be criminalized and media must be intimidated into saying and doing what the leader wants. She added that top universities and law firms are also subject to funding cuts if they do not bow to the president.
And if you release facts to the contrary of the president, be careful.
“Because he said it, then it must be true, and if you say otherwise then you will be fired,” Maddow said.

Also during the Olympics event, Grandpa Trump repeated, for he umpteenth time, his insane ideas about California’s supposed mismanagement of water and forest fires.

oh my goodness — get a load of Trump's incoherent rant about water management in California (this is an event about the Olympics!)
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-05T21:00:44.957Z

In Epstein scandal news, Trump and Vance will meet with other top officials, including the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General and the head of the FBI to discuss how to control the fallout from the highly unusual meeting of Assistant AG Todd Blanche with Ghislaine Maxwell and her subsequent transfer to a minimum security prison. Remember the days when the Department of Justice remained scrupulously independent of the president?

CNN: Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance.

Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president’s residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche.

Officials who will meet to discuss Epstein strategy

With the exception of Vance, the White House considers those officials the leaders of the administration’s ongoing strategy regarding the Epstein files, two of the sources said.
The meeting comes as Trump’s administration is considering releasing the contents of Blanche’s interview last month with Maxwell. Two officials told CNN that the materials could be made public as early as this week.
There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, possibly with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, according to three people familiar with the discussions, though those conversations are preliminary. Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of last fall’s election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal release more information about Epstein a “line in the sand.”
Meanwhile, CNN previously reported that the Justice Department has been digitizing, transcribing and redacting the interview materials as they weigh if and when to publicly release the information from the Maxwell interview. There is over 10 hours of audio, a senior Trump administration official said. Portions of the transcript that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would also have to be redacted, one of the officials said.
One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down.

Really? I don’t think so.

Meanwhile, in his supposed investigation of the Epstein files, GOP Rep. James Comer has issued subpoenas to a bizarre list of people. Politico: Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials.

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation — a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.
Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote in July.
The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration’s handling of the case.
The committee’s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena — and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.
Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman’s example — though not backed by any legal precedent — to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.

Yesterday The New York Times published photos from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse. The article also included the full text of a letter from Woody Allen on Epstein’s 63 birthday. (gift link): A Look Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Lair.

As a gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 63rd birthday, friends sent letters in tribute to the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender. Several shared a common theme: recounting the dinner gatherings that Mr. Epstein regularly hosted at his palatial townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel, and his wife noted the great diversity of guests. “There is no limit to your curiosity,” they wrote in their message, which was compiled with others in January 2016. “You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone.”

A sculpture of a bride clinging to a rope dangled in a central atrium of Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.

The media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman suggested ingredients for a meal that would reflect the culture of the mansion: a simple salad and whatever else “would enhance Jeffrey’s sexual performance.”

And the director Woody Allen described how the dinners reminded him of Dracula’s castle, “where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.” [….]
But Mr. Epstein’s prized property was no gloomy Transylvanian fortress. He had spent years turning the seven-story, 21,000-square-foot townhouse into a place where he could flaunt — and deepen — his connections to the rich and powerful, even as hints of his dark side lurked within, according to previously undisclosed photos and documents showing how he lived in his later years.
Since Mr. Epstein’s death in federal custody in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, many mysteries about his life have remained unsolved. How did he amass a nine-figure fortune? And why did so many powerful men continue to fraternize with him long after he became a registered sex offender?
The White House had pledged to release details about the federal investigations into Mr. Epstein and his associates. But this summer the Trump administration backpedaled. The ensuing right-wing outrage has threatened to splinter the Make America Great Again movement — for whom Mr. Epstein is a central figure in conspiracy theories — and has put Mr. Trump on the defensive like few other issues….
At least one other MAGA luminary also visited the townhouse: Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump and an online media personality, who has said that he videotaped hours of interviews in the mansion with Mr. Epstein in 2019. Framed photos of Mr. Bannon — including a mirror selfie snapped by Mr. Epstein — were kept in at least two rooms in the mansion.

Use the gift link to read the rest if you’re interested.

The Guardian: Epstein scandal broadens as trove of letters from famous figures published.

The long-running scandal surrounding the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein broadened on Tuesday after the New York Times published a trove ofpreviously unseen letters to Epstein from numerous powerful figures as well as unseen photographs from inside his Manhattan mansion.
The letters, written to Epstein by a number of high-profile individuals, were reportedly compiled as a birthday gift for Epstein’s 63rd birthday in 2016. Their publication comes amid intense speculation around Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 and had long cultivated a celebrity social circle of the rich and powerful.
In one letter, former prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak and his wife wrote “there is no limit to your curiosity.”
“You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone,” they wrote, describing Epstein as “A COLLECTOR OF PEOPLE”.
They continued: “May you enjoy long and healthy life and may all of us, your friends, enjoy your table for many more years to come.”
In a letter from film-maker Woody Allen, Allen reminisced about Epstein’s dinner parties at his Upper East Side townhouse and described the gatherings as “always interesting”. He noted that the parties included “politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists” and “even royalty”.
Allen also described the dinners as “well served”: “I say well served – often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women” who he said reminded him of “Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.”
Other letter writers reportedly included billionaire media mogulMortimer Zuckerman;Noam Chomsky and his wife; Joichi Ito, the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab; physicist Lawrence M Krauss; and Harvard biologist and mathematician Martin Nowak.

A few more insane stories:

BBC News: RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines for diseases like Covid.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.
That will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”.
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies.
The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official.
He told the BBC that the change was the US “turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic”.
In a statement, Kennedy said his team had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted”. “[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said.
He said the department was shifting the funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”.
Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.
Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.

NPR: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose.

The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions, according to current and former NASA staffers. If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere.
The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.
It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that “the data are of exceptionally high quality” and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.
Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.
NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions.
Crisp says NASA employees making those termination plans have reached out to him for his technical expertise. “What I have heard is direct communications from people who were making those plans, who weren’t allowed to tell me that that’s what they were told to do. But they were allowed to ask me questions,” Crisp says. “They were asking me very sharp questions. The only thing that would have motivated those questions was [that] somebody told them to come up with a termination plan.”

Joseph Cirincione, vice-chair of the Center for International Policy Board of Directors at MSNBC: We don’t need nuclear reactors on the moon.

If Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wanted to do his part to help provide a distraction from the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, his announcement of a plan to put nuclear reactors on the moon was a partial success. In the 24 hours after his announcement on Monday, he was briefly trending on social media, just behind Ghislaine Maxwell.
If he intended this to be a serious proposal for human occupation of the moon, he failed. For the near future, nuclear reactors on the moon are impractical, expensive and dangerous.
Duffy may not understand this. He has no experience in space or nuclear technology. He is a former Fox News host who became interim director in June when President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of Elon Musk’s choice, billionaire Jared Isaacman, after Trump’s breakup with Musk.
Space exploration has used nuclear materials for power for many decades. This is overwhelmingly in the form of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These use plutonium-238, which gives off heat used to generate electric power for small probes, including some of the rovers on Mars. This typically involves 20 or 30 pounds of material. In fact, several of the Apollo missions left some behind on the moon were powered by such radioactive means.
But a nuclear reactor is another matter altogether. This would involve potentially hundreds of pounds of low-enriched uranium in yet-undeveloped small reactors delivered by space launchers that don’t exist.

Read more at the link. Also see this article from BBC News: Nasa to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 – US media.

That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?

#2028Olympics #DonaldTrump #GhislaineMaxwell #greenhouseGasesData #JeffreyEpsteinNYTownhouse #JeffreyEpsteinScandal #mNRAVaccines #NASASatellites #NuclearReactorOnMoon #RepJamesComer #RFKJr #SeanDuffy #USDictatorship #WhiteHouseBallroomPlans

#whitehouseballroomplans #usdictatorship #seanduffy #rfkjr #repjamescomer #nuclearreactoronmoon

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2024-08-23 · 20:16 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:16 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:16 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:16 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:16 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:01 UTC

Who voted for fucking bigot James Comer (R-KY)? I want names!

#RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOPRacism #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gopracism #gop #goptraitors

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2024-08-23 · 20:01 UTC

Who voted for fucking bigot James Comer (R-KY)? I want names!

#RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOPRacism #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gopracism #gop #goptraitors

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:01 UTC

Who voted for fucking bigot James Comer (R-KY)? I want names!

#RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOPRacism #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gopracism #gop #goptraitors

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:01 UTC

Who voted for fucking bigot James Comer (R-KY)? I want names!

#RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOPRacism #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopracism #gopsedition #jamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2024-08-23 · 20:01 UTC

Who voted for fucking bigot James Comer (R-KY)? I want names!

#RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOPRacism #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gopracism #gop #goptraitors

Sky Dancing @[email protected] · 2024-01-10 · 18:09 UTC

Good Day!!

Peder Mørk Mønsted, Sunny winter landscape with a road, 1907

I was just about to get going on my post when I glanced at the TV screen (sound muted) and noticed a wild scene in the House Oversight Committee hearing. The Republicans scheduled the meeting today to hold Hunter Biden in contempt for ignoring their subpoena to appear for a secret deposition.

You’ll recall that Rep. James Comer originally said that Hunter could testify either in a public hearing or behind closed doors with committee staff. Hunter offered to testify publicly under oath but Comer freaked out and said it would have to be in a closed deposition. Obviously, they have no evidence of wrongdoing and Comer wanted to be able to lie about what happened in a closed hearing.

Anyway, Hunter showed up at the hearing today with two of his attorneys and sat in the audience. The media was all a-flutter.

Republicans were outraged. Nancy Mace yelled at Hunter and accused him of not having the “balls” to respond to the subpoena. After a long, idiotic rant by Mace, it was Margery Taylor Greene’s turn. Unfortunately for her, Hunter and his attorneys left the meeting as she began to speak, and all of the press followed them out the door, leaving Greene with no one to record whatever stupid things she planned to say.

Here’s the report from NBC News: Hunter Biden makes surprise appearance at House committee hearing to hold him in contempt.

The son of the president arrived on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning to attend in person congressional committee meetings called to hold him in contempt of Congress — setting up an unprecedented standoff on live television between Hunter Biden and House Republicans who have long sought his testimony as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father.
Hunter Biden was accompanied by his attorneys Abbe Lowell and Kevin Morris. He did not initially respond to questions.
House Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees are holding separate committee votes on Wednesday recommending that Hunter Biden be charged with contempt of Congress.
Hunter Biden is at odds with Republicans over their demand that he testify behind closed doors. The president’s son, who is facing two separate criminal indictments, has agreed to testify publicly, an offer Republicans have refused, continuing to insist that the testimony be given behind closed doors.
During the Oversight Committee’s markup Wednesday morning, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called for Hunter Biden’s arrest on the spot for defying the congressional subpoena.
“Hunter Biden you are too afraid for a deposition, and I still think you are today,” she said.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” she added.
Outside the chamber, Lowell said committee Republicans were motived by “improper partisan motives.” He said he and his client had offered to work with Republicans on the committees on a half dozen occasions since February of last year to see “how relevant information to any legitimate inquiry could be provided,” but their first five offers were ignored. He called the subsequent GOP subpoena for a closed-door deposition “a tactic that the Republicans have repeatedly misused in their political crusade to selectively leak and mischaracterize what witnesses have said.”
Asked by NBC News shortly after leaving the Oversight hearing whether he would testify today if asked, Hunter Biden replied “yes.” He and his team left the building afterwards.

This is interesting. It appears that Chairman Comer has a hypocrisy issue as he accuses Joe and Hunter Biden of “corruption.” Roger Sollenberger at The Daily Beast: Oversight Chairman James Comer’s ‘Legitimate’ Shell Company Was Shut Down—Twice.

As Rep. James Comer (R-KY) plows ahead with his sensationalized impeachment inquiry premised on Hunter Biden’s business dealings, the Oversight Chairman has alleged that Biden’s opaque financial operations merit investigation, and that people who own corporations have a “responsibility” to maintain proper “books and records.”
But a review of dozens of tax, real estate, and business filings in Kentucky and Tennessee indicate that Comer’s own personal “books and records” are opaque at best—and improper at worst.

Jef Bourgeau (American, b.1950), The Gloaming, 2024

Those records include the dealings of Comer’s shell company, Farm Team Properties LLC, which the state of Kentucky has dissolved twice for failure to file annual reports—first in 2020, then again in 2022.
Kentucky law states that an administratively dissolved business “continues its existence but shall not carry on any business except that necessary to wind up and liquidate its business and affairs.” An official with the Kentucky Department of Revenue told The Daily Beast that a company in administrative dissolution may not legally conduct business in the state—such as executing deals and leases, securing loans, or collecting rent as an LLC.
But in response to questions about the shell company last month, Comer told Fox Business that Farm Team Properties not only holds properties, it also “manages” them, “leases hunting on my 1,600 acres of farmland,” and generates “lots of revenue, legitimate revenue.” (The previous month, he denied having an LLC during a committee hearing.)
While Comer and his wife rectified the first dissolution within a few weeks, they allowed the October 2022 dissolution to languish for more than a year, only reinstating the entity last month, after The Daily Beast first reported on the company and flagged the dissolution on social media. It’s not clear from Comer’s filings whether Farm Team Properties ceased business activity for those 14 months.
The “books and records” questions also run to Comer’s real estate holdings, which directly contradict his recent public statements about his LLC. For one, Comer reports rental income from all of his farmland holdings, but it’s not clear whether that income derives from Farm Team’s alleged hunting leases. If so, experts told The Daily Beast, his records should reflect that, and they do not.
The opacity of Comer’s disclosures—along with his contradictory defenses of the shell company—mean the public still doesn’t have a clear picture of his finances. And Comer’s broadsides targeting Hunter Biden’s cloudy corporate entities would seem to invite parallel scrutiny into the similar haze that has settled over his own business dealings….
On personal financial disclosures starting from 2017—the year Comer’s wife created Farm Team Properties—and continuing through his most recent statement covering 2022, Comer has listed the income from the company as “none.” But after recent reports from The Daily Beast and the Associated Press raised questions about the shell company, Comer has called into question whether he’s really making no money from the entity.
House ethics rules state that members who “own an interest in a partnership or limited liability company established for the purpose of holding real estate,” must describe “each individual property held by the company.” Members also “must disclose each asset held by the company in which your interest (or that of your spouse or dependent child) had a period-end value of more than $1,000” or had recorded “more than $200 in income during the reporting period.”
Brendan Fischer, an ethics expert and deputy director of watchdog Documented, told The Daily Beast that it seems as if Comer should disclose more information.
“For a company created to hold investment properties—which sounds like Farm Team Properties, LLC—a Congressperson not only must disclose the company, they must also provide details about the properties it owns, and the amount of any income (such as rental income) from those properties,” Fischer said, noting that the rules apply “regardless of whether the entity is taxed as a partnership or corporation.”
Comer’s disclosures list his FTP ownership as a business interest, not as investment or real estate, despite the fact that it owns properties and is engaged in “real estate speculation.” This was true in 2017, when Farm Team Properties was created to hold property and obscure Comer’s co-ownership with a campaign donor, the Associated Press reported last month.

Sollenberger notes that Comer is a millionaire, because his father handed over two valuable properties for $10 apiece. Read much more about Comer’s shady dealings at The Daily Beast link.

The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Jim Jordan (who refused to honor a subpoena from the House January 6 Committee) is also meeting today in order to decide whether to hold Hunter Biden in contempt.

Winter Trees, by Egon Schiele

CNN on the Judiciary Committee hearing:

In a different committee room, Jordan gaveled in the Judiciary panel’s meeting.
“Rather than come before us and answering questions about these and other concurring instances of the Biden family trading cash for influence, Hunter Biden held a press conference a few hundred yards from here, a press conference where he said I’m happy to answer questions in public but when he finished his statement he abruptly left, taking no questions from the press,” Jordan said.
“We have no choice but to hold Mr. Biden in contempt,” he added.
The pair of markups on Wednesday kick off a lengthy process and underscore that the Republican effort to obtain testimony from the president’s son will remain difficult. If the contempt resolution passes out of committee, it is referred to the full House for a contempt vote.
If an eventual House floor vote succeeds, the Department of Justice, which is already pursuing two criminal cases against the president’s son, would have to determine whether to prosecute the president’s son for evading a congressional subpoena.

Yesterday, Trump showed up in person for the hearing on his appeal of Judge Tanya Chutkan’s denial of his claim of “absolute presidential immunity” from criminal prosecution. The hearing didn’t go well for him. Joyce Vance wrote about it at Civil Discourse: Trump’s Bad Day in Court. The first of many to come.

Following Tuesday morning’s oral argument in the District of Columbia, Donald Trump made some predictable comments to the press from a Washington, D.C., hotel. As he finished, a reporter shouted out a request that he use the moment to tell his followers, “No violence.” The former president walked out of the room without responding.
The Judges came prepared for oral argument on Trump’s immunity motion. Let’s start with the key figures in the argument:
Judges: Bush appointee Karen LeCraft Henderson. Biden appointees Florence Y. Pan and J. Michelle Childs.
Lawyer for Trump: Former Missouri Solicitor General John Sauer.
Lawyer for the Special Counsel: James I. Pearce, a career federal prosecutor who has worked in both DOJ’s public integrity section, which Jack Smith previously led, and in the Criminal Division’s appellate section.
The top line from the argument: a broad consensus among observers that the panel didn’t buy Trump’s immunity argument. None of the Judges seemed to believe Trump should be immune from prosecution. But each Judge came at it from a different vantage point. While they may end up agreeing on a single rationale for their decision, it’s also possible we could have an opinion with concurrences by one or more of the Judges, using different reasoning.
Mr. Sauer argued first because Trump is the petitioner—he lost in the trial court and is asking the Court of Appeals to reverse Judge Chutkan’s decision. Mr. Pearce, who argued second, began by telling the court that no other president in history claimed his immunity from prosecution extended beyond his time in office. A president’s role is unique, Pearce said, “but not above the law.”
The most telling points in the oral argument centered on hypotheticals offered by Judge Pan. Judges frequently use hypotheticals to help them understand what a ruling would mean both for the case at hand and in future cases. Judge Pan posed three to Sauer, asking whether, under his view of immunity, a president could:
order Seal Team 6 to execute a political rival, and get away with it
accept a payment for issuing a pardon, and get away with it
sell nuclear secrets to a foreign power, and get away with it

Landscape with Snow, Vincent Van Gogh

Sauer argued that presidents can only be prosecuted if they are first impeached and convicted by the Senate. He, of course, has to argue this because otherwise, his client Donald Trump is in trouble.
It’s an unappetizing position. Sauer ran into still more trouble as the hypothetical was played out with both lawyers in turn, exploring the ways a president could avoid being impeached and convicted. They ranged from a president who resigns to avoid conviction, succeeds in concealing criminal conduct until he leaves office so he is never impeached, or even one who orders the deaths of his opponents in the Senate to prevent conviction. Under Trump’s theory of immunity, no prosecution would be available in these cases.
You don’t have to be a high-end appellate lawyer to understand that this argument is a stone-cold loser. At least in a democracy.

Read the rest of Vance’s analysis at the link above.

HuffPost recaps an interview from last night’s Lawrence O’Donnell show on MSNBC: Ex-Prosecutor Surprised By ‘Jarring’ Aspect To Trump Court Appearance.

Former U.S. Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Tuesday said Donald Trump’s demeanor as he appeared before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — while his attorneys argued his “absolute immunity” for acts he committed during his presidency ― was “kind of jarring.”
The former president and Republican 2024 front-runner behaved “entirely like a defendant, not like a politician,” Kirschner told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

It was in stark contrast to Trump’s usual bluster.

“I think I know what retail politics means,” said Kirschner. “He didn’t look anybody in the eye, he didn’t take an interest in anyone around, he kept his head down. He sort of lumbered forward to counsel table and plopped down.”
Trump “seemed like a defeated defendant who was kind of resigned to his fate,” he added.
Kirschner later described the argument being put forward by Trump’s legal team as “harebrained.”

From Raw Story: ‘Dead man walking’: Legal expert explains the moment Trump lost immunity appeal.

Former President Donald Trump’s attorney John Sauer failed catastrophically in selling an absolute immunity argument the appellate judges considering whether special counsel Jack Smith’s election conspiracy prosecution can move forward, argued former federal prosecutor Harry Litman on MSNBC Tuesday.
In particular, he said, it was over as soon as Sauer seemed to concede their position would imply Trump can assassinate his opponents with no recourse.

Edvard Munch, Winter Landscape

“He basically threatened some sort of unrest or bedlam if things didn’t go his way,” said anchor Chris Hayes. “He didn’t take any questions … and the headline comes from a hypothetical that appears in Jack Smith’s own briefs, which is to say the argument that Trump and his lawyers are making proves too much, obviously goes too far. It cannot be the case. Under the Constitution and under the rule of law, in a democracy and such as ours, it would allow it to be possible to order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival and not face accountability but for some impeachment and conviction.”
“Cannot be, that is the headline, all three judges will reject that proposition,” agreed Litman. “Basically after Judge Pan asked that hypo about Seal Team Six, Sauer … was a dead man walking. He will lose. He should lose. Legally, historically, logically, et cetera. So in that sense there is the satisfaction that this vampire will have a stake in its heart.”
“But below the headline, Chris, there’s more drama, I would say, because this is one of the cases in which the three judges were kind of probing different theories, and one at one stage Judge Henderson said maybe we need to remand, to Judge Chutkan, this. They were probing different ideas, none of which was in lockstep with what Chutkan said. There are two reasons it matters. Depending on how they decide, even if they were unanimous, and you could see it concurring with Judge Henderson, if they were unanimous it could affect the prospects for a remand, and remand might entail a subsequent round of appeals under the remanded standard by Trump and a little bit more delay. And also could affect whether the Supreme Court takes review. So that lower level, there was some drama.”

George Conway wrote a long piece about yesterday’s hearing at The Atlantic: Trump’s Lawyer Walked Into a Trap. It’s pretty entertaining, if you can get through the paywall. They usually allow one free article, before they cut you off.

The second E. Jean Carroll case is also coming up soon. From Jose Pagliery at The Daily Beast: Judge Signals Trump Is Doomed in New E. Jean Carroll Trial.

With Donald Trump’s second rape defamation trial only one week away, a federal judge has rewarded the billionaire’s unceasing legal insolence and delusional defense strategy with a brutal order laying out just how punishing the court battle is going to be.
Until recently, the former president’s lawyers had been preparing for the upcoming defamation trial as if the first one never happened—seeing it as a chance to rewrite history and try to clear Trump’s name after a jury last year concluded he sexually assaulted the journalist E. Jean Carroll decades ago.
But on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan made it clear that Trump is not getting another go at whether he raped Carroll.
“In other words, the material facts concerning the alleged sexual assault already have been determined, and this trial will not be a ‘do over’ of the previous trial,” Kaplan wrote in an order.
In the 27-page order, the federal judge reiterated that the jury will merely be deciding how badly to reprimand Trump for dragging Carroll’s name through the mud while he was at the White House in 2019—when he denied a coercive sexual encounter that did, according to a jury last year, occur.
This new jury will see the most damning evidence of Trump’s misogyny, from the Access Hollywood tape in which he gloats about how he can “grab them by the pussy” to the videotaped deposition where he remarks that stars get away with sexual assault “unfortunately—or fortunately.”
The previous iteration of this case dealt with the defamatory denials Trump made after leaving office, a trial that cost him $5 million in damages (which he apparently paid).
The second defamation trial, which begins next week, deals with the denials Trump made as U.S. president, with all the additional attention and gravitas his former position of power bestowed upon him at the time he made those comments.
Kaplan’s order on Tuesday clarified that Trump will have the obligation—but not the right—to remain silent about nearly everything the billionaire intended to say in court.
“Mr. Trump and his counsel are precluded, in the presence of the jury, from claiming that Mr. Trump did not sexually abuse (“rape”) Ms. Carroll, that Mdid not make his… 2019 statements concerning Ms. Carroll with actual malice… or that Ms. Carroll fabricated her account,” he wrote.

In other (not new) news, Republican politicians are showing themselves to be sadistic psychopaths when it comes to women’s abilities to make choices about their bodies and health care. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern at Slate: Republican Officials Openly Insult Women Nearly Killed by Abortion Bans.

For many years before S.B. 8 passed in Texas and was then swept into existence by the Supreme Court, and before Dobbs ushered in a more formal regime of forced childbirth six months later, the groups leading the charge against reproductive rights liked to claim that they loved pregnant women and only wanted them to be safe and cozy, stuffed chock-full of good advice and carted around through extra-wide hallways for safe, sterile procedures in operating rooms with only the best HVAC systems. Then Dobbs came down and within minutes it became manifestly clear that these advocates actually viewed pregnant people as the problem standing in the way of imaginary, healthy babies—and that states willing to privilege fetal life would go to any and all lengths to ensure that actual patients’ care, comfort, informed consent, and very survival would be subordinate.
We are only beginning to understand the extent to which pregnant women are dying and will continue to die due to denials of basic maternal health care, candid medical advice, and adequate treatment. The issue of emergency abortions, though, has already rocketed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed on Friday to decide whether federal law compels hospitals to terminate dangerous pregnancies regardless of state bans. No matter how SCOTUS rules, the fallout is already all around us. The stories of Kate Cox in Texas, devastated would-be mothers in Tennessee, and a horrifying prosecution of a mother who miscarried in Ohio all surface the brutal reality of the post-Dobbs zeitgeist: Any woman who seeks to terminate a pregnancy is wicked, any woman who miscarries is evil, and any woman who—for reasons of failing health, circumstance, or simple bad luck—does not prove to be an adequate incubator deserves whatever she gets. Every unborn fetus is the priority over the pregnant person carrying it and must be carried to term at all costs. So goes the moral calculus of the death-panel judges who now determine how to weigh the competing interests between real, existing human life and a state’s dogmatic fixation with a fetus that, by definition, must be seraphically innocent.

Frosted Evening, by Paul Evans

One need only look at red states’ scramble to defend their draconian abortion bans to witness this perverse moral hierarchy in action. In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise, the victims of these laws are no longer hypothetical: They are flesh-and-blood women, directly and viscerally injured by the denial of basic health care, and some of them have even had the gall to fight for their rights. Republican attorneys general have responded with furious indignation, openly demeaning these women as liars, wimps, partisans, and baby killers.
A recent filing by the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan T. Skrmetti, a Republican, captures the dynamic all too well. Skrmetti has been fighting a lawsuit filed by a group of Tennessee women denied emergency abortions under the ultranarrow medical exception to that state’s ban. The women plaintiffs suffered an appalling range of trauma, including sepsis and hemorrhaging, because they could not terminate their pregnancies. The attorney general’s response to their complaint is a scathing, shockingly personal broadside against the victims of the ban. He accused them of attempting to draw “lines about which unborn lives are worth protecting” by imposing a medical exception “of their own liking.” He mocked them for asserting that ostensibly minor conditions like “sickle cell disease” might justify an abortion. And he insisted that the lead plaintiff, Nicole Blackmon, lacks standing, because she underwent sterilization after the state forced her to carry a nonviable pregnancy and deliver a stillborn baby. The attorney general viciously suggested that, if Blackmon really wanted to fight Tennessee’s ban, she could have tried for another doomed pregnancy.
Perhaps Skrmetti deserves half credit for candor, because he did not even pretend to treat these plaintiffs like compelling moral human beings. Instead, he wrote that Tennessee may allow different standards of care for pregnant and nonpregnant women. A pregnant woman, the attorney general averred, may be refused a treatment if it “has the potential to harm unborn lives—an issue not implicated” when treating nonpregnant women. “No equal-protection rule,” he concluded, “bars lawmakers from acting on that difference to protect unborn babies.” In other words, once a woman is pregnant, she becomes a vessel for “unborn babies,” giving the state authority to cut off her access to urgently necessary health care. Since nonpregnant women don’t immediately suffer the consequences of abortion bans, those bans don’t discriminate on the basis of sex.

There’s much more at the link.

One more story before I wrap this up. I’m sure you’ve heard that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was was treated for prostate cancer in December and was hospitalized with complications from surgery on Jan. 1. The problem is that President Biden and other top officials had no clue this was happening. From BBC News: President Joe Biden was only told that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was being treated for cancer on Tuesday, the White House has said.

Mr Austin, 70, was admitted to hospital on 1 January and then to the intensive care unit for complications following surgery in December.
He has faced criticism for not telling senior officials about it for days.
He has since apologised for not “ensuring the public was appropriately informed”.

The lag in notifying the White House raised potential national security concerns and issues of transparency within the Biden administration.

The defence secretary sits just below the president in the chain of command for the US military, and is one of the most important members of the president’s Cabinet.

The Pentagon confirmed Mr Austin remained hospitalised on Tuesday.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that President Biden was only informed that day about the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

“Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning,” he said.

While he emphasised the president’s initial reaction was concern for the secretary’s health, Mr Kirby acknowledged the communications were “not optimal.”

“This is not the way it is supposed to go,” Mr Kirby said.

Mr Biden and Sec Austin have not spoken since their last interaction over the weekend, according to Mr Kirby.
Mr Austin’s deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was not informed of his hospital stay despite being asked to assume some of his responsibilities.

This seems pretty odd. It’s not clear what is going to happen to Austin yet.That’s it for me today. What stories have you been following?

https://skydancingblog.com/2024/01/10/wednesday-reads-46/

#abortion #DefenseSecretaryLloydAustin #EJeanCarroll #GlennKirschner #HouseJudiciaryCommittee #HouseOversightCommittee #HunterBiden #JohnSauer #JudgeFlorenceYPan #JudgeLewisKaplan #MargeryTaylorGreene #NancyMace #postDobbsCrueltyToPregnantWomen #RepJimJordan #RepJamesComer #SpecialCounselJamesIPearce #TrumpSPresidentialImmunityAppeal

#housejudiciarycommittee #houseoversightcommittee #hunterbiden #margerytaylorgreene #nancymace #repjimjordan

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-11-09 · 21:46 UTC

#RepJamesComer
Well of course. 🤦‍♂️😆

"Can't make this up": Dems troll James Comer with "subpoenas" after $200K loan to brother revealed | Salon.com

"Democrats on Thursday mocked House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., after The Daily Beast revealed that he loaned his brother $200,000."
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/09/cant-make-this-up-dems-james-comer-with-subpoenas-after-200k-loan-to-brother-revealed/

#repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-11-09 · 21:46 UTC

#RepJamesComer
Well of course. 🤦‍♂️😆

"Can't make this up": Dems troll James Comer with "subpoenas" after $200K loan to brother revealed | Salon.com

"Democrats on Thursday mocked House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., after The Daily Beast revealed that he loaned his brother $200,000."
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/09/cant-make-this-up-dems-james-comer-with-subpoenas-after-200k-loan-to-brother-revealed/

#repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-11-09 · 21:46 UTC

#RepJamesComer
Well of course. 🤦‍♂️😆

"Can't make this up": Dems troll James Comer with "subpoenas" after $200K loan to brother revealed | Salon.com

"Democrats on Thursday mocked House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., after The Daily Beast revealed that he loaned his brother $200,000."
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/09/cant-make-this-up-dems-james-comer-with-subpoenas-after-200k-loan-to-brother-revealed/

#repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-11-09 · 21:46 UTC

#RepJamesComer
Well of course. 🤦‍♂️😆

"Can't make this up": Dems troll James Comer with "subpoenas" after $200K loan to brother revealed | Salon.com

"Democrats on Thursday mocked House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., after The Daily Beast revealed that he loaned his brother $200,000."
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/09/cant-make-this-up-dems-james-comer-with-subpoenas-after-200k-loan-to-brother-revealed/

#repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-08-01 · 21:57 UTC

#HouseOversight #RepJamesComer
The Independent:
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations

"Republicans still haven’t produced evidence of any illegal behaviour by President Joe Biden."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comer-biden-bribery-fox-news-b2385723.html

#houseoversight #repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-08-01 · 21:57 UTC

#HouseOversight #RepJamesComer
The Independent:
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations

"Republicans still haven’t produced evidence of any illegal behaviour by President Joe Biden."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comer-biden-bribery-fox-news-b2385723.html

#houseoversight #repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-08-01 · 21:57 UTC

#HouseOversight #RepJamesComer
The Independent:
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations

"Republicans still haven’t produced evidence of any illegal behaviour by President Joe Biden."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comer-biden-bribery-fox-news-b2385723.html

#houseoversight #repjamescomer

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-08-01 · 21:57 UTC

#HouseOversight #RepJamesComer
The Independent:
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations

"Republicans still haven’t produced evidence of any illegal behaviour by President Joe Biden."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comer-biden-bribery-fox-news-b2385723.html

#repjamescomer #houseoversight

Dennis A @[email protected] · 2023-08-01 · 21:57 UTC

#HouseOversight #RepJamesComer
The Independent:
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations

"Republicans still haven’t produced evidence of any illegal behaviour by President Joe Biden."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/james-comer-biden-bribery-fox-news-b2385723.html

#houseoversight #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2023-05-22 · 18:42 UTC

Like every other Republican, James Comer (R-KY) is a traitor to America.

GOP Rep. James Comer Implies Biden Family Probe Is Really About Helping Trump In 2024 #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky 22-MAY-2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-comer-biden-probe-trump-2024_n_646b9106e4b0005c605afc8b

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-22 · 18:42 UTC

Like every other Republican, James Comer (R-KY) is a traitor to America.

GOP Rep. James Comer Implies Biden Family Probe Is Really About Helping Trump In 2024 #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky 22-MAY-2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-comer-biden-probe-trump-2024_n_646b9106e4b0005c605afc8b

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-22 · 18:42 UTC

Like every other Republican, James Comer (R-KY) is a traitor to America.

GOP Rep. James Comer Implies Biden Family Probe Is Really About Helping Trump In 2024 #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky 22-MAY-2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-comer-biden-probe-trump-2024_n_646b9106e4b0005c605afc8b

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-22 · 18:42 UTC

Like every other Republican, James Comer (R-KY) is a traitor to America.

GOP Rep. James Comer Implies Biden Family Probe Is Really About Helping Trump In 2024 #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky 22-MAY-2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-comer-biden-probe-trump-2024_n_646b9106e4b0005c605afc8b

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-22 · 18:42 UTC

Like every other Republican, James Comer (R-KY) is a traitor to America.

GOP Rep. James Comer Implies Biden Family Probe Is Really About Helping Trump In 2024 #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky 22-MAY-2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-comer-biden-probe-trump-2024_n_646b9106e4b0005c605afc8b

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2023-05-10 · 04:04 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-10 · 04:04 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-10 · 04:04 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-10 · 04:04 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-05-10 · 04:04 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2023-04-06 · 18:10 UTC

Why is it that the most rabid Republicans are those who try to overthrow democracy?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-06 · 18:10 UTC

Why is it that the most rabid Republicans are those who try to overthrow democracy?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-06 · 18:10 UTC

Why is it that the most rabid Republicans are those who try to overthrow democracy?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-06 · 18:10 UTC

Why is it that the most rabid Republicans are those who try to overthrow democracy?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-06 · 18:10 UTC

Why is it that the most rabid Republicans are those who try to overthrow democracy?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2023-04-05 · 20:26 UTC

He’s not just a nut and a racist—he’s also a criminal! #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

Conservative calls for GOP Oversight chairman to be 'sidelined' after he admits to breaking the law 05-APR-2023 https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-calls-for-gop-oversight-chairman-to-be-sidelined-after-he-admits-to-breaking-the-law/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-05 · 20:26 UTC

He’s not just a nut and a racist—he’s also a criminal! #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

Conservative calls for GOP Oversight chairman to be 'sidelined' after he admits to breaking the law 05-APR-2023 https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-calls-for-gop-oversight-chairman-to-be-sidelined-after-he-admits-to-breaking-the-law/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-05 · 20:26 UTC

He’s not just a nut and a racist—he’s also a criminal! #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

Conservative calls for GOP Oversight chairman to be 'sidelined' after he admits to breaking the law 05-APR-2023 https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-calls-for-gop-oversight-chairman-to-be-sidelined-after-he-admits-to-breaking-the-law/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-05 · 20:26 UTC

He’s not just a nut and a racist—he’s also a criminal! #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

Conservative calls for GOP Oversight chairman to be 'sidelined' after he admits to breaking the law 05-APR-2023 https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-calls-for-gop-oversight-chairman-to-be-sidelined-after-he-admits-to-breaking-the-law/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-04-05 · 20:26 UTC

He’s not just a nut and a racist—he’s also a criminal! #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky

Conservative calls for GOP Oversight chairman to be 'sidelined' after he admits to breaking the law 05-APR-2023 https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-calls-for-gop-oversight-chairman-to-be-sidelined-after-he-admits-to-breaking-the-law/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

jackhutton 🇺🇸 @[email protected] · 2023-03-27 · 17:00 UTC

Drag queens didn't kill little children in Nashville. Books, CRT, Tik Tok,--wokeness didn't kill small children in Nashville today.
Guns. Those children, those families, that school were terrorized by Guns.
#RepJamesComer #Jim_Jordan #SpeakerMcCarthy & you do nothing about it.

#speakermccarthy #jim_jordan #repjamescomer

jackhutton 🇺🇸 @jackhutton · 2023-03-27 · 17:00 UTC

Drag queens didn't kill little children in Nashville. Books, CRT, Tik Tok,--wokeness didn't kill small children in Nashville today.
Guns. Those children, those families, that school were terrorized by Guns.
#RepJamesComer #Jim_Jordan #SpeakerMcCarthy & you do nothing about it.

#repjamescomer #jim_jordan #speakermccarthy

jackhutton 🇺🇸 @[email protected] · 2023-03-27 · 17:00 UTC

Drag queens didn't kill little children in Nashville. Books, CRT, Tik Tok,--wokeness didn't kill small children in Nashville today.
Guns. Those children, those families, that school were terrorized by Guns.
#RepJamesComer #Jim_Jordan #SpeakerMcCarthy & you do nothing about it.

#speakermccarthy #jim_jordan #repjamescomer

jackhutton 🇺🇸 @[email protected] · 2023-03-27 · 17:00 UTC

Drag queens didn't kill little children in Nashville. Books, CRT, Tik Tok,--wokeness didn't kill small children in Nashville today.
Guns. Those children, those families, that school were terrorized by Guns.
#RepJamesComer #Jim_Jordan #SpeakerMcCarthy & you do nothing about it.

#repjamescomer #jim_jordan #speakermccarthy

jackhutton 🇺🇸 @[email protected] · 2023-03-27 · 17:00 UTC

Drag queens didn't kill little children in Nashville. Books, CRT, Tik Tok,--wokeness didn't kill small children in Nashville today.
Guns. Those children, those families, that school were terrorized by Guns.
#RepJamesComer #Jim_Jordan #SpeakerMcCarthy & you do nothing about it.

#speakermccarthy #jim_jordan #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @DemocracyMattersALot · 2023-03-01 · 21:02 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#repjamescomer #jamescomer #gopsedition #gop #goptraitors #kentucky

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-03-01 · 21:02 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer

Democracy Matters :verified: @[email protected] · 2023-03-01 · 21:02 UTC

Who voted for this rabid, racist, treasonous weasel?!?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY) | DEMOCRACY REPORT CARD #RepJamesComer #JamesComer #GOPSedition #GOP #GOPTraitors #Kentucky https://accountability.gop/profile/rep-james-comer/

#kentucky #goptraitors #gop #gopsedition #jamescomer #repjamescomer