Sunday, January 04, 2026
Saturday, January 03, 2026
Chump's never getting the Nobel Peace Prize
Today, Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) issued the following statement in reaction to U.S. military operations in Venezuela:
“Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and forcing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation.
“For months, as the Trump administration massed American servicemembers and firepower in the Caribbean, and used military force to destroy vessels and kill those on board, I and others in the Senate forced bipartisan votes to stop the illegal misuse of our armed forces. We warned that the true motive was not drugs, but regime change in an oil-rich nation. Despite all of the administration’s false denials, those motivations are now clear.
“Acting without Congressional approval or the buy-in of the public, Trump risks plunging a hemisphere into chaos and has broken his promise to end wars instead of starting them. And in conjunction with his continued saber-rattling around the world and dropping approval ratings at home, the American people should be concerned that this is not the last time he will break that promise.
“The president has vowed that this is not the end of our engagement in Venezuela, saying that ‘we’ll be involved in it very much.’ Congress must bring up a new War Powers Resolution and reassert its power to authorize force or to refuse to do so. We must speak for the American people who profoundly reject being dragged into new wars.”
###
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement following President Trump's military action in Venezuela:
"President Trump’s unilateral military action to attack another country and seize Maduro — no matter how terrible a dictator he is — is unconstitutional and threatens to drag the U.S. into further conflicts in the region. What does it mean that the U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela, and what will Trump do next around the world? The American people voted for lower costs, not for Trump’s dangerous military adventurism overseas that won’t make the American people safer.”
###
It may just be the third day of the new year, but Donald Chump is already amping up his campaign for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize as only the global village idiot can: By starting a new war. He not only toppled the government of Venezuela, he stormed the country and kidnapped the country's president Nicolas Maduro.
It's Saturday, January 3rd. The weekend after New Year's and you might have though it would be an easy coast through day. But there's no such thing when Chump's in the White House. John Mulaney warned us all about that six years ago when Chump was destroying the country in his first term.
Before we go further, that's how things are done now? Because if that's how things are done, I'm sure there are leaders across the world who must think Chump should be the next target for overthrow and kidnapping. Do unto others as you as you would have them do unto you.
Not that Donald Chump would know it but that's the Golden Rule and it's in the Bible and the central teaching of Jesus Christ. Non-believer Chump doesn't know anything about the Golden Rule. Or karma. But he has imposed a sentence upon himself and the universe will extract justice. That's how it goes. And he put the curse on his own wife when he had US forces also kidnap Cilia Flores -- the First Lady of Venezuela.
Right now? Right now the American people need to realize that Chump has lied to them for months now. He's claimed he was attacking Venezuelan boats due to drug trafficking. That was never true.
Julian E. BarnesTyler Pager and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) note:
Mr. Trump has justified what was named Operation Absolute Resolve as a strike against drug trafficking. But Venezuela is hardly as big a player in the international drug trade as other countries. Officials had previously told congressional leaders that their objective in Venezuela was not regime change. And Mr. Trump has long said he opposes U.S. foreign occupations.
Yet on Saturday, the president proclaimed that American officials were in charge of Venezuela, and that the United States would rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure.
In contrast to messy U.S. interventions of the past — by the military in Panama or the C.I.A. in Cuba — the operation to grab Mr. Maduro was virtually flawless, according to multiple officials familiar with the details, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the plans.
It was never about drugs. He lied. Those of us who called him out knew he was lying. Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:
Just hours after President Donald Trump bombed Venezuela and abducted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, he began talking about the Latin American country’s oil industry.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, with 303 billion barrels worth of crude, or about a fifth of global reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And that fact has clearly been at the top of Trump’s mind.
Appearing in a Fox News interview Saturday morning, Trump was asked what he sees for the “future of Venezuela’s oil industry.”
“Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it, that’s all. I mean, what can I say? We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”
No War For Oil. Remember that slogan. Chump was rather creative with his 'opposition' to the Iraq War. His so-called opposition is now revealed as just one of the many frauds Chump has pulled on people over his too-many decades. He never stood a chance at a Nobel Peace Prize but this action ensures that. He's a liar. He's a War monger. And Venezuela is said to have one of the largest oil reserves in the world.
And the whole world sees what just went down. Steven Erlanger (NEW YORK TIMES) notes the reaction to "American gunboat diplomacy:
The reactions were particularly angry from Latin America and from leaders who are more on the left and who have struggled with President Trump and his trade, tariff and other policies in the region. Allies of Mr. Maduro, including Cuba and Russia, predictably condemned the American intervention, despite Russia’s own invasion of sovereign Ukraine nearly four years ago. And some, like a senior Mexican official, said that Mr. Trump was simply after Venezuela’s large oil deposits.
Shortly after President Trump announced that the United States would “run the country," European leaders appeared to largely support the end to Mr. Maduro’s rule and were more cautious to criticize Mr. Trump’s intervention.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany wrote on social media that “Maduro has led his country into ruin” and that the U.S. intervention was “complex” and required “careful consideration,” without going into further detail. “The objective” now, he added, “is an orderly transition to an elected government.”
President Emmanuel Macron of France wrote on X that the Venezuelan people could “only rejoice” at the end of Mr. Maduro’s dictatorship, and did not address the U.S. approach. Before Mr. Trump’s announcement, however, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, wrote on social media that the military operation “violates the principle of non-resort to force that underpins international law.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was particularly scathing. He condemned the U.S. action and said it recalled “the worst moments of interference in the politics” of the region.
“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” Mr. Lula wrote on social media. “These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”
The victims are the people of Venezuela. Chump has destabilized their country and he plans to steal the oil. He has no right to the oil and these are thug tactics and they are in violation of international law. Maduro? Appears to have been a minor Donald Chump, a despot not beloved among he Venequelan people. US House Rep Jasmine Crockett rightly notes in the video below we can all out Chump's actions without glorifying Maduro.
Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) quotes Chump stating, "As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long time. We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure … and start making money." Callum Jones (GUARDIAN) adds, "US oil giants have so far remained silent on Donald Trump’s claim that they are primed to spend 'billions and billions of dollars' rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro. Chevron, the only US oil company still operating in Venezuela, committed only to following 'relevant laws and regulations' after the US president suggested American energy multinationals would be central to his plans for the country." The Socialist political party Workers World maintains, "U.S. aggression against the sovereign country of Venezuela is nothing more or less than an act of piracy with not one iota of justification. It is a war crime against the people of Venezuela, against all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean and in the end is also a crime against the workers and oppressed peoples of the United States." (WSWS, another Socialist outlet in the US, announced that they would be on vacation until Monday -- which means late Sunday night for most US time zones. They don't appear to be coming back early to address this violation of international law. Maybe Bari Weis is now also editoir-in-chief of WSWS?) The US Green Party's statement includes, "We strongly oppose this illegal act of war which violates both the US Constitution and international law. Congress needs to immediately commence impeachment proceedings against Trump. The Party also harshly reacted to the assertion by Trump that the United States will now be running Venezuela for the near term and if he faces any local opposition, he will send in a second wave of American military forces to subdue the population. The Party urges the Senate to vote on the resolution scheduled for next week to halt military intervention. The bipartisan resolution only needs a majority to pass." Josh Marshall (TALKING POINTS MEMO) offers, "Trump thinks it’s cool and has a personal beef with Maduro. That combination of factors created a lot of forward momentum within the U.S. government with nothing pushing back in the opposite direction. That gets you to today. My point is that it’s a mistake to think there’s a “real” reason mixed in with other subterfuges and rationales, or that it’s important to find out which one the “real” reason is. It’s not that linear or logical." Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, states, "Far from putting America first, Donald Trump’s illegal attack on Venezuela is a reckless stunt to distract from private scandals and his failure to lower costs for working people. The Trump Administration claims it targeted Maduro because of drug trafficking. But if Trump were serious about helping end the overdose crisis, he wouldn’t be kicking people off of Medicaid or defunding drug treatment and prevention programs. And he certainly wouldn’t be pardoning major narco traffickers like Juan Orlando Hernández. [. . .] Wasting billions on bloated military budgets does nothing for communities ravaged by addiction, or the millions of Americans struggling to cover the rising costs of health care. More military spending in South America will mean even fewer resources at home for the things working families need, like affordable health care, good public schools, and quality child care. Breaking U.S. and international law in the name of regime change, even against a dictator like Maduro, makes us all less safe. Trump does not have the power to go to war without congressional authorization, or to hand control of another country over to a cadre of oil companies. This illegal occupation could destabilize the region, set a dangerous precedent in the U.S., and embolden other countries to start their own wars of choice." Sharon Zang (TRUTHOUT) notes, "On Saturday morning, in his first speech after the invasion, Trump said, 'We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.' He offered few details and no timeline regarding the American occupation of the country, but later said he was 'not afraid of boots on the ground.' When asked by reporters about the potential cost of occupying Venezuela for an undefined period of time, Trump said, 'It won’t cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial'." Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani (TNR) notes, "After the U.S. bombed Venezuela in the middle of the night and abducted its president, Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump warned that more attacks could be on the way in the region. Trump hinted at a future conflict with Mexico in particular in an interview with Fox News Saturday morning." The Center for Constitutional Rights released the following statement, "The Trump administration has chosen catastrophe. Buoyed and inspired by the U.S.’s long legacy of military intervention and disregard for international law and people’s right to self-determination, today’s blatantly unlawful aggression in Venezuela reads like a caricature of imperialism. The choice to re-militarize the Caribbean and force regime change in Venezuela condemns not only the U.S. government, but an international community that has failed to stop powerful states from imposing their will through force. Read our statement from November and follow the lead of people’s movements who are taking to the streets around the world today to demand an end to bombings, to all wars, and to a political order that accommodates and encourages such violence, vengeance, and grotesque displays of unchecked abusive state power." Amnesty International's statement included, "Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the risks of further escalation of human rights violations in the country, stemming either from additional US operations or from the Venezuelan government’s responses to the US attacks. The organization urges the US government to abide by international humanitarian and human rights law, prioritize the protection of civilians, and uphold the human rights of all persons deprived of liberty, including due process and humane treatment." Troy Matthews (MTN) notes the government of Venezuela has issued a statement:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely grave military aggression perpetrated by the current Government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and population in the civilian and military localities of the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira. This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, especially its articles 1 and 2, which establish respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of States, and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at grave risk.
DNC Chair Ken Martin issued the following this morning:
Another day, another unconstitutional war from Trump, who thinks the Constitution is a suggestion.
Congress has war powers — but Republican cowards are hiding under their desks while Trump orders an unauthorized attack against Venezuela.
Trump promised peace, but has delivered chaos.
November can’t come soon enough.
Ken
Ken Martin
Chair
Democratic National Committee
Katie Herchenroeder (MOTHER JONES) reports:
Democratic members of the Committee on Armed Services, which helps oversee the nation’s military, denounced President Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that United States military forces struck Venezuela and captured the nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Trump did not seek congressional authority for the attack and said at a press conference that the US is “going to run the country.” Trump’s decision to move ahead without congressional approval may be a violation of the US constitution and amount to a criminal act, according to legal experts.
Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona and a veteran who served as a combat pilot and flew dozens of missions in the Gulf War with Iraq, said in a statement that Trump “doesn’t understand the risks and costs involved with these poorly thought-out decisions that don’t make Americans any safer today than they were yesterday.” Maduro, he added, “is a brutal, illegitimate dictator who deserves to face justice.”
“I want the people of Venezuela to be free to choose their own future,” Kelly continued, “but if we learned anything from the Iraq war, it’s that dropping bombs or toppling a leader doesn’t guarantee democracy, stability, or make Americans safer.”
[. . .]
Other Democratic senators on the Armed Services Committee decried the Trump administration’s latest escalation in their ongoing military operation against Venezuela.
“This is ludicrous,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement. He added that no plan has been presented for what the costs the US will have to bear to “run” Venezuela, as Trump has described. Reed, a decorated veteran and former West Point faculty member, continued, “History offers no shortage of warnings about the costs – human, strategic, and moral—of assuming we can govern another nation by force.”
“President Trump’s unilateral military action to attack another country and seize Maduro—no matter how terrible a dictator he is—is unconstitutional and threatens to drag the U.S. into further conflicts in the region,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote on X.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, wrote on X that Trump’s “actions continue putting American troops, personnel and citizens at risk both in the region and around the globe.” “None of that,” the Illinois representative added, “serves our nation’s interests.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a series of posts on X, “Maduro is a cruel criminal dictator, but President Trump has never sought approval from Congress for war as the Constitution requires—& our military deserves.”
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Senator Murray: “It is outrageous for a President who is tanking our economy here at home to suggest that the American taxpayer spend a fortune to ‘run’ another country while doing nothing to make life better in America. I opposed the war in Iraq from the outset—and the parallels here are glaring. I will similarly oppose any war in Venezuela. I refuse to put the lives of servicemembers at further risk, and I refuse to saddle our children with yet another costly war for no good reason.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Trump unilaterally launching a regime change war in Venezuela, where he ordered strikes on multiple military targets in the country and seized Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela along with his wife Cilia Flores.
“The American people didn’t ask to start a war with Venezuela. They didn’t ask for an indefinite and costly occupation of another country and they didn’t ask for ‘boots on the ground,’ their sons and daughters put in harm’s way. All they asked for were lower prices at the grocery store. Only Congress can authorize war and I absolutely will not support a large-scale military conflict in Venezuela or a dangerous and expensive occupation. What the President has done is unconstitutional, reckless, and will have far-reaching effects well beyond last night’s strikes.
“The President has provided no legitimate justification for
these unauthorized strikes nor any kind of long-term strategy for how he
will deal with the fallout of this slapdash regime change—and he must
now explain his unhinged statements that we will ‘run’ Venezuela. The
American people can see for themselves how dishonest and cynical this
entire venture is—we’re supposed to believe drug trafficking warrants
the use of military force to topple a foreign government in one instance
and then merits a full pardon for the former President of Honduras who
was lawfully convicted of the same crime? And we should all be eyes wide
open about the potential for self-enrichment and corruption by the
Trump administration when it comes to profiting off Venezuela’s oil.
This is not about law and order, because if it were, Trump wouldn’t have
withheld these plans from Congress, and it is not about actually
helping Americans suffering from drug addiction.
“Maduro is a
corrupt and oppressive dictator—that much has always been clear. But
what stops China or Russia from making similar claims about foreign
leaders they don’t like and then using military force to overthrow them?
This kind of careless use of military force threatens serious global
instability—and none of that is good for Americans here at home.
“There needs to be serious oversight and accountability here. Trump administration officials must come before Congress and publicly explain their rationale and—importantly—just what exactly they think happens next here. Republican leaders should not just shrug their shoulders and let the President bomb whoever he wants on hardly more than a whim—they must join Democrats in pressing for serious accountability and insisting that the use of military force be authorized by Congress.
“If this escalates into a prolonged conflict of any sort, you can bet it won’t be Trump’s family putting their lives on the line—the American people do not want to be dragged into another costly foreign war with no real justification. It is outrageous for a President who is tanking our economy here at home to suggest that the American taxpayer spend a fortune to ‘run’ another country while doing nothing to make life better in America. I opposed the war in Iraq from the outset—and the parallels here are glaring. I will similarly oppose any war in Venezuela. I refuse to put the lives of servicemembers at further risk, and I refuse to saddle our children with yet another costly war for no good reason.”
###
And with this from Senator Cory Booker's office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement:
Today, many leaders will rightly condemn President Donald Trump’s unlawful and unjust actions in Venezuela, and I join them.
But just as glaring, and far more damning, is Congress’ ongoing abdication of its constitutional duty. For almost a year now, the legislative branch has failed to check a president who repeatedly violates his oath, disregards the law, and endangers American interests at home and abroad.
Time and again, Congress, now led by Republicans, has chosen spineless complicity over its sworn responsibilities. From the reckless leaking of classified information that put American troops at risk, to the illegal use of military force destroying vessels and killing people in the Caribbean and the Pacific without congressional authorization, there has been a stunning absence of accountability.
No hearings.
No serious investigations.
No enforcement of checks and balances.
No accountability.
Again and again, the president has exceeded his authority, defied congressional intent, trampled the separation of powers, and broken the law - while Congress looked away in cowardice and submission.
Republicans in Congress own this corrosive collapse of our constitutional order. With only a handful of honorable exceptions, they have bent themselves to the will of Donald Trump, afraid to state in public the feelings they often communicate privately. That submission, this abandonment of independent judgment and constitutional courage, now stands as one of the greatest dangers to our nation and to the global order America claims to defend.
Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator who has committed grave abuses. The United States military remains the most capable fighting force on Earth, and our praiseworthy service members carry out their orders with professionalism and excellence.
But none of that suspends the Constitution.
The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. On this count, Congress has failed.
We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy. This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act.
They must stop behaving as partisan puppets and start acting as patriotic constitutional stewards.
What happened today is wrong. Congressional Republicans would say so immediately if a Democratic president had done the same. Their silence is surrender. And in that surrender lie the seeds of our democratic unraveling.
There are still three years left in this administration. From the pardoning of individuals who violently attacked police officers while attempting to overturn our election to this latest extrajudicial assault on another nation’s sovereignty, the damage will continue unless it is confronted.
Enough is enough.
Congress has failed. But it is not too late to redeem the harm done by a year of submission and silence. Congress must act now. It must reassert its constitutional authority, restore the rule of law, and stop this president before further injury is done to our democracy and our republic.
The following sites updated:
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Crawfish Etouffee in the Kitchen2 hours ago
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TV4 hours ago
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Brief Point6 hours ago
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Cover up?15 hours ago
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Idiot of the Week16 hours ago
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That Crooked Court16 hours ago
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5 from Lulu16 hours ago
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Talking With Eoin Higgins18 hours ago
Friday, January 02, 2026
The Snapshot
Friday, January 2, 2026. As the new year begins, Chump continues his efforts to destroy American healthcare, though he'd like it to be The Epstein Scandal is not over and more details are emerging, Megyn Kelly drops her pretense to 'care' about sexual assault and to have been a 'victim' of it, and much more.
Starting with this press release issued by Senator Alex Padilla's office yesterday:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay on a federal judge’s order barring the Trump Administration from deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles, ending the federalization of California’s National Guard and returning authority over them to the state:
“Today’s order affirms what we’ve said from the beginning: the Trump Administration’s choice to federalize and deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles was unlawful. This deployment is reckless, harmful, and an abuse of executive power that has put service members in an impossible position.
“The fight is not over but I look forward to the remaining service members returning to their families, their jobs, and their primary critical missions as soon as possible.”
###
Moving over to the late Jeffrey Epstein who was Donald Chump's roll dog and best buddy for years and years as Epstein sex trafficked girls and women. Meredith Kile (PEOPLE MAGAZINE) notes:
A new report from the Wall Street Journal alleges that Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago spa had teenage workers make house calls to Jeffrey Epstein's mansion.
The report, which cites unnamed former Mar-a-Lago and Epstein employees, claims that Trump's spa would send masseuses, manicurists and other spa workers to Epstein's nearby residence.
"Epstein wasn’t a dues-paying member of the club, but Trump told staff to treat him like one, the employees said," according to the report.
It also alleges that workers "warned each other about Epstein, who was known among staff for being sexually suggestive and exposing himself during the appointments."
Though Trump has continued to downplay his longtime friendship with Epstein since taking office for his second term, there was a disturbing mention of the president in the last drop of evidence.
One of the documents, dated Oct. 27, 2020, appeared to be an FBI intake report that featured the account of a former limo driver, who claimed to have met Trump in 1995, when he said he drove the real estate mogul to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
The document read, "[Driver] reported some of the things President Trump had spoken about during the ride while on his cell phone were very concerning. [Driver] reported he was 'a few seconds from pulling the limousine over on the median and within a few seconds of pulling him out of the car and hurting him, due to some of the things he was saying.' "
While telling the story to an unnamed woman years later, the driver alleged that the woman went "stone cold."
"[Woman] stated, 'He raped me,'" the FBI intake report read. "[Driver] said, 'What?' as [Woman] replied 'Donald J. Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein.' "
Chump supposedly banned Epstein from the resort but did he continue to send employees to do house visits? Was Chump was under the impression he wasn't aiding a crime if it didn't take place on his property? Because that's not how aiding and abetting works -- by sending his employees into a known environment for sexual assault, Donald Chump himself would be guilty as a partner to any crime. TMZ notes:
Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein may be even worse than previously thought ... according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ says DT's Mar-a-Lago spa in Florida would send teenage workers to Epstein's mansion, despite it being an open secret among the staff that the billionaire would sometimes expose himself during appointments.
Shaun King (THE NORTH STAR) observes:
But the moral question isn’t simply, “Did Trump eventually kick him out?” The question is: why was the pipeline allowed to exist at all, and why was there no real accountability when staff reported misconduct?
Because here’s another key detail the Journal reported: the 18-year-old disclosed the incident to Mar-a-Lago’s HR team, but the incident was not reported to Palm Beach police, according to former employees and police. Police didn’t begin investigating Epstein until two years later, after a parent reported Epstein molested a 14-year-old girl.
Sit with that: an 18-year-old reports pressure for sex after being sent to Epstein’s home, and there’s no police report. That is not a minor administrative choice. That’s a decision that protects the institution and leaves other young women exposed.
This is what people miss when they reduce Epstein to a cartoon villain. A villain is one man. A system is what protects him.
One of the members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee that's been releasing photos and documents from the Jeffrey Epstein estate has a New Year's resolution for the Epstein Files ... he wants to totally expose and put away the pedophile's enablers.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat from Virginia who sits on the committee, tells TMZ ... "My New Year's Resolution for the Epstein Files is to get the files released, name names, and let the courts and the court of public opinion judge those who perpetrated, covered up, and enabled these crimes so that they never happen again."
And Subramanyam says Ghislaine Maxwell is one of their targets ... despite her currently serving a 20-year sentence in prison after being convicted of sex trafficking minors and other federal charges. He says Maxwell "should absolutely be held accountable for all the crimes she committed, including newly discovered crimes."
For those who've forgotten the ongoing release of documents taking place currently took an act of Congress. Prior to that, Chump referred to the crimes that took place as a "hoax" and refused to release documents. Also a point to remember, the law passed by Congress mandated that all documents be released by December 19th. That did not happen. Attorney General Pam da Bimbo Bondi refused to comply with the law and the bulk of the documents remain hidden from the public.
On the topic of the documents, let's note this video.
Lastly, CBS NEWS reports there are problems regarding the official story on Jeffrey Epstein's death and the actual camera recording devices.
Meanwhile, THE DAILY BEST has an interview that's getting media attention.
Pranita Chaubey (INQUISITR) reports:
Donald Trump’s name continues to pop up every time there is a mention of the Epstein Files, and now, longtime Trump biographer Michael Wolff has revealed that Donald Trump befriended Jeffrey Epstein for all the wrong reasons.
Longtime Donald Trump biographer Wolff revealed during Inside Trump’s Head Podcast that the two men allegedly shared a girlfriend. “This is [around] 1993, 1994, and Marla Maples (Trump’s former wife) is now coming into this picture, but it is also the moment in which Epstein and Trump are sharing a girlfriend,” said Wolff.
Wolff claimed that the two even had the same girlfriend once. The biographer revealed, “This is a Norwegian model and whatever the arrangement is, back and forth, I mean—again, they are playing with someone, and this is their shared, not only girlfriend, but kind of a shared joke.”
As a part of the bombshell Epstein files dump, an email link had a mention of a Norwegian cosmetics heiress, accompanied by a text from Epstein that read: “My 20-year-old girlfriend in ’93, that after two years I gave to Donald.”
It's a sad life but no one's mourning Chump. Not even with all his health problems is anyone feeling sympathetic toward the vulgarian. Hannah Demissie (ABC NEWS) reports:
For weeks, President Donald Trump has said that he received an MRI at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in October, but when asked about the procedure by the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday, Trump and his doctor said that he actually got a CT scan instead.
"It wasn’t an MRI," Trump told the Journal. “It was less than that. It was a scan.”
Last month, Trump maintained that he got an MRI, telling reporters on Air Force One that he would "absolutely" release the results.
The White House has not specifically said why Trump received the scan. In November, Trump claimed the MRI was part of his yearly physical.
Trump’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella told the Journal that the president had received a CT scan -- not an MRI. Barbabella said Trump’s doctors initially told him they would perform either an MRI or a CT scan.
THE DAILY BEAST's David Gardner adds, "Donald Trump has confirmed that he wore compression socks to treat his cankles amid growing scrutiny over his health as America's oldest president."
Let's use his dementia and declining health to address his treatment of Marjorie Taylor Greene one more time. Alex Nguyen (MOTHER JONES) notes:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that her defense of survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and threat to disclose the identities of some of the men who abused them broke her relationship with President Donald Trump, who said his “friends will get hurt” if she went through with it.
Greene’s claim came in remarks from two long interviews published Monday in the New York Times Magazine. After a closed-door meeting with Epstein victims in September and a subsequent news conference where she made the threat to share the names of some of the men, Greene said Trump rebuked her.
“The Epstein files represent everything wrong with Washington,” the congresswoman told Robert Draper of New York Times Magazine, highlighting how Epstein went unpunished for decades and was allowed to continue to sexually assault girls and young women.
Greene announced in November that she would resign on January 5, 2026, a year before her term ends. “Standing up for American women who were raped at 14 years old, trafficked, and used by rich, powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” she stated in the video.
TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE. It's not just a John Ford play from the 1600s by John Ford, it's also Megyn Kelly's brand. Which is why you did not find me defending her when she came forward to talk about her 'victimizing' by Roger Aisles. It was known, even if outlets didn't report it, that Megyn was a party girl, a party girl who used her body to work her way to the top. She wasn't a victim. And she only came forward when others had outed Roger Aisles -- her mentor whom she was so close to in the public eye and now needed to break away from him lest people catch on that her rise at FOX "NEWS" resulted from a I'll-scratch-your-pudenda-if-you-scratch-my-testicles. If you grasp that, then you'll understand her latest nonsense which Loren Piretra reports on in the video below.
In other news of Tramp Media, Bari Weiss is in the news. Tom Boggiono (RAW STORY) reports:
A video from CBS News posted to X on New Year's Day, designed to introduce the journalistic path recently promoted CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil will be taking, was greeted with no small measure of skepticism on social media.
Since the controversial Bari Weiss was picked to run the CBS News division despite a lack of experience in television news, every move has been scrutinized and Dokoupil’s pledge reaffirmed concerns about the dismantling of journalistic standards.
Coming not long after Weiss spiked a “60 Minutes” investigation into the horrific experiences of migrants detained by ICE and transferred to El Salvador's CECOT prison facility, Dokopuil’s comment that “the press has missed the story” too often set off a wave of derision and accusations of dumbing down the news.
Ava and I noted Bari in yesterday's "Media: The best and the worst of TV showed up in December" about her censoring a 60 MINUTES news segment:
She has repeatedly insisted that her problem was news value and that the program didn't live up to it.
How did a town hall with the widow of a racist live up to it?
We may be doing another piece on racism in the near future, in terms of people trying to justify racism on the basis of a Black performer and pretending that he and a TV performer were on the same playing field when in fact the program has been notoriously racist over the years, that the power structure was racist and that the Black performer was a guest on one episode. They try to pretend this was an equal playing field when it was no such thing.
We bring that up because when Chump's right wing buddies took over CBS, this was White people and they installed White Bari Weiss. And she and the power structure chose to present the wife of a racist -- who echoes his racists opinions -- and treat her as some sort of expert who should be allowed to pontificate for one hour of prime time TV.
Mary Whitfill Roeloffs (FORBES) noted, "An hour-long interview with the widow of political commentator Charlie Kirk on CBS criticized for its editorial approach drove away big advertisers without drawing a hoped-for big audience in what could be a defining moment for Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor in chief of CBS News." Brian Steinberg (VARIETY) noted, "Viewership was off 11% compared to the average viewership in the hour year to date, according to data from Nielsen, and the “demo” audience was down 41% compared to its year-to-date average." Justin Baragona (INDEPENDENT) makes the poor performance look even worse by bringing basic facts, "Making the low viewership for the Erika Kirk town hall even more striking is that CBS pulled in a large audience for the annual Army-Navy game that afternoon, drawing 7.3 million viewers per Nielsen’s early measurement. The post-game show, which served as a lead-in for the Kirk-Weiss chat, attracted a viewership of 3.5 million and 901,000 in the advertising demo, according to Nielsen." Even with a huge lead-in, the 'news' special flopped. THE NEW YORK POST explained it wasn't even a hit on YOUTUBE.
Maybe Bari Weiss needs to answer for that?
And maybe the new owners of CBS and PARAMOUNT need to answer to shareholders about why they paid Bari $150 million for her website -- that's about $149 million more than it was worth.
Mainly we should all be aware that Bari Weis killing that news segment on 60 MINUTES was censorship.
She had all these excuse about how it wasn't news and it wasn't ready.
But she's the one who put on an Erika Kirk special. Three months and three days after racist Charlie Kirk was shot dead, she put on an Erika Kirk special.
How did that qualify as news?
Are we supposed to pretend that Erika had anything to share? She's still working through the stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in ON DEATH AND DYING. She's not come out of the grief, she has no lessons to share, she's garnered no perspective. If anything, she's avoided dealing with her grief and loss.
This month alone, Sean Hannity interviewed her on December 8th, she took part in THE NEW YORK TIMES DealBook Summit, she showed on Megyn Kelly's show, she showed up on Glenn Beck's show, and on December 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st she was part of AMERICAFEST. That's not a full listing of her events and appearances
She's not taken time to grieve and she's overexposed.
How was she ever going to have anything worth sharing -- let alone anything news worthy worth sharing?
She wasn't. Nor will JD Vance when Bari sits down with him for another 'news special' next month. She'll baby him as well. Spend a whole hour babying him. Failing to grasp that her job as an interviewer is to push back, is to question. Bari Weis has neither the skills nor the training to be an editor-in-chief as she's made that clear. And she didn't need to wait until 2026 to share that with America.
Lastly, the new year has begun and with it? Chump's latest attempt to destroy the American people. Reed Abelson (NEW YORK TIMES) reports this morning:
Renee Rubin Ross is facing the stark reality of having to pay much more for her health insurance this year, now that Congress has ended 2025 without extending the enhanced federal tax credits that brought down the cost of her coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“I don’t even know how to get my mind around it. It’s the opposite of affordable,” said Ms. Ross, who relies on Obamacare to cover her family of four in California. Staying on the same plan for 2026 will cost about $4,000 a month, $2,700 more than the roughly $1,300 per month she had been paying.
Since the subsidies were first expanded in 2021, allowing more people to qualify and lowering their payments, millions of Americans have benefited. A record 24 million people enrolled in Obamacare for 2025, with a vast majority receiving some tax credits. Many were self-employed or worked for small businesses that did not offer health insurance.
But without the enhanced subsidies, many people are seeing the cost of coverage more than double, increasing by hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month, because the tax credits are now in line with what they were before.
2025 end of the year pieces include Rebecca's "hottest men of 2025," Ann's "2025 in films" and Stan's "2025 in films," Mike's "Idiot of the Year," Martha & Shirley's "2025 in books (Martha & Shirley)," Kat's "Kat's Korner: 2025 in music," Ruth's "Ruth's Media Report 2025," Ava and my "Media: The best and the worst of TV showed up in December" and my "2025: The Year Of The Jig Is Up."
The following sites updated:
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Happy New Year23 hours ago
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Idiot of the Year1 day ago
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2025 in films1 day ago
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2025 in films1 day ago
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Tuna Helper Tetrazzini2 days ago
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Chump is TV rating poison2 days ago
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