Week of Epstein Tumble
Annual Attitude of Gratitude, Trump Issues Death Threats, MAGA Brawls, Legal Trump Screw‑ups, ICE Not Nice

He lists a few of the dodges Trump and his administration may perform to hold back files or minimize child rape revelations and why they are not likely to work, as long as…

Key need:
Those in Congress who finally did the right thing need to be ready to play hardball and swat down any excuses or obstruction or efforts to only partially comply with their instructions.

Key priority:
Above all, they and the public need to keep firmly in mind that this is not about partisan politics, it’s about the victims — the thousand-plus children subjected to disgusting, traumatizing abuse by rich, perverted men who believed themselves untouchable.

Tamra Brown explains Megyn Kelly’s explanation of a knowledgeable friend’s explanation of why sex with a 15-year-old is bad, horrible really, but not all that bad and horrible compared to an even younger child.

In Canadian satire, The Beaverton reports that Canada is again tempting Trump’s ire with another ad that shows Reagan saying pedophilia is bad.

Key administration objection:
We Americans cannot let foreign governments try to influence our positions, be it on international trade or whether or not it’s bad for wealthy perverts to smuggle children around the country for sex.

Dave would like a word:

Tommy Christopher brings transcript and video as CNN’s Kaitlin Collins deconstructs Trump’s social media rant about executing Democratic military veterans who, referring to Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, tell service people that they have a right and a duty to disobey illegal orders.

Kaitlan Collins:

Democratic military veterans:

Later Jake Tapper joins in. Tommy brings CNN colleague going off on Trump talk on sentencing critics of illegality to death:

Quoting Jake Tapper:
A video apparently has President Trump ticked off in which Democratic lawmakers remind troops that they need not abide by illegal orders.
 
The president called that sedition. It isn’t.
Said that they’re traitors. They aren’t.
And also said that they should be executed. They shouldn’t.

She marches us through the strange timeline as Trump goes from blissfully unaware to dimly noticing a report during his late night viewing of the Fox channel, then reacting that lawmakers should be arrested and tried for treason, finally calling for their public execution.

Richardson quotes Yale Professor of History and American Studies Joanne Freeman with what may be one of the better responses:

The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

News Corpse reports on two of the same character roles, but with new guest star. Donald Trump demands, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr reposts the demand, that late night host Seth Meyers be fired.

As you may recall from the last episode, Brendan Carr is pledged to neutrality in such matters. So after the outcry that came after he threatened to start cancelling broadcasting licenses of anyone carrying Kimmel’s show after Trump’s tirade, Carr sheepishly denied making any threat at all. He was, he said, just making an innocent comment of concern. (Hey guys, I’m only trying to keep you from making a mistake and getting yourselves in trouble.)

News Corpse begins with this, reposted by …can anyone guess?
Right! Brendan Carr! (Man, you folks are on it today!!)

News Corpse takes a closer look:
Let’s start with the fact that Meyers’ show is not “a Ratings DISASTER.” NBC reported its season-to-date average for Meyers at about 1.031 million viewers. Which is pretty good for a post-midnight program. And NBC recently renewed his contract, which drew a threat from Trump. What’s more, at no point was Meyers “in an uncontrollable rage.” Rather, he was calmly delivering his material as usual.

[Personal Note]
Earlier this week, I wrote about an elderly lady from worship service who accidentally provided what could be insight into Donald Trump’s strange dancing duel with humor.

In Disaffected and it Feels So Good, Grung_e_Gene begins with this:

And this:
“I could smell the onions and mustard,” Border Patrol Agent Gregory Lairmore cried…

Gene sees the weird prosecution as part of a more dangerous pattern.

After the January 26 attempted insurrection, several Senators were among those investigated for illegally plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Investigators got warrants to look at phone records to gather evidence.

Legislation to end the shutdown contained a very quiet how‑dare‑you‑investigate‑me provision allowing the Trump government to settle for up to a half million dollar payout from taxpayers to each of those Senators who wanted to sue.

The House, also quietly, stripped out the windfall reward for trying to overthrow democracy.
The vote was unanimous.

Or getting something like this:
Long story short, I tried to contact my State Rep for several weeks after he voted to ban abortion with no exemptions for rape or incest or life of the mother. I called and emailed and texted and sent DMs and tagged him in posts and even wrote a Letter to the Editor in our local paper to no avail.
 
After several weeks, I had an idea — I asked my husband to call our Representative. My husband received a call from our Representative in 20 minutes.
 
The call I had been waiting weeks to get.
 
My Rep did end up calling me after my husband insisted, and this is the part that always elicits gasps and groans when I retell the story: my Rep told me 1) He didn’t have to talk to me, and 2) He was calling me out of a favor to my husband.

Key surrender terms:
‘But wait,’ you may be thinking. ‘The Hyde Amendment already bans federal funding for abortion (even though banning public funding is discriminatory).’
 
You’re right, it does. But Republicans are now trying to extend Hyde restrictions to private insurance beneficiaries. In other words, they now want to ban private funds from being used for abortions, too—not just public funds.

MAGA politicians might want to refrain for a while from attacking a woman’s right to decide.

Murder is always horrible, but this was especially grisly. Jamal Khashoggi was about to be married, and needed some documents from his native country. He was lured into a Saudi Consulate in Turkey, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. His body was then chopped up into little pieces.

Nice.

M. Bouffant at Web of Evil links to a dozen-and-a-half aspects of the recent visit by the Prince, including questions about the order to kill, and Donald Trump minimizing the murder.

Seems it was kinda sorta okay because a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman.

Besides, Things happen. But he (meaning the prince) knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.

And what is REALLY outrageous?
You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking him a question like that!

And maybe, says the President, news organizations showing such insubordination should have licenses cancelled.

And yeah. Insubordination was the word he used.

She became briefly famous as the victim of an attack by four large, vicious Obama operatives who attacked her, carved a ‘B’ on her face, and told her, “you are going to be a Barack supporter.”

The Fox Network and others played the Obama folks are thugs angle pretty hard.

That is, until it turned out the story was a fake. She had made it all up, a friend having carved that ‘B’ on her face.

Jason Linkins remember and applies the lesson to a current event:

It sounded familiar to me. This is why.

Author and educator Amanda Nelson reminds us that special elections aren’t over. Come on, Tennessee!

Urgent advice for officeholders (Headline):
I Strongly Urge Every Republican To Bind Their Fates Even Tighter To The Fate of Donald Trump

tengrain goes into more detail on the US economy hanging by a thread.

I …um… have a thought:

One most issue on which most American agree is ICE: They don’t like what ICE is doing to immigrants.

She begins with this:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to claim it only arrests “the worst of the worst” despite evidence to the contrary. Friday ICE provided, under court order, a list of 614 Chicago area arrestees that contained only 16 who ICE claims present a “high public safety risk.”

She includes Orwell’s warning:

Key cover story:
Infamous Border Control Cmdr. Gregory Bovino now says that the crime is “taking jobs from Americans.”

My favorite is Jesse Watters of Fox fame explaining that tearing down much of the White House for a gold-plated ballroom was necessary because Trump is so gosh darned friendly, he needed a much, much larger dining place for the large number of guests he holds close to his heart.

The origin:
The Thanksgiving holiday tradition dates back to 1621, when the Pilgrims, who left Europe to escape the metric system, held a feast to express their gratitude for the fact that, after a very difficult year in the New World, only about half of them were dead.

The tradition:
Today we honor the memory of the Pilgrims by holding football games on Thanksgiving, as well as every weekend and most Monday and Thursday nights from August through February. But our most cherished Thanksgiving tradition is getting together with our loved ones, including the ones we don’t like, and consuming a large meal with many side dishes, including for some reason string bean casserole, a.k.a. “the fruitcake of side dishes.”

Also included in Dave’s analysis are creative versions of Turkey preparation and programming alternatives to televised football.

She has put together a primer of fact-checking on grocery inflation, gas prices, tariffs, national debt, and a bunch of stuff Fox ignored.

More detailed information is presented by Juliet in an hour long entertaining podcast.

Weirdly fascinating.