Politics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

I'll tell what infuriates me most about all of this... Sure, the Republicans infuriate me. They always infuriate me. I'm used to it.

But the Democratic strategists, the pundits, the talking heads... All of this talk about how this will put Republicans in the hot seat in the mid-terms as voters fume over their lost/exorbitant health care... This isn't a game. We're talking about people's lives. Health care coverage is a matter of life or death for so many. And while ordinary people across the United States--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, disengaged--will have to make difficult choices about whether to seek care or not when it should be a given, we have these talking heads, playing their games, talking strategy, all while every last one of them can rest comfortably in the knowledge they have health insurance to fall back on if something in their body goes awry...

THAT infuriates me. It's not just the Republicans who are heartless and missing a moral compass...

[ti-amie]

An interesting perspective

Robert J Peterson‬
‪@rjp1130.bsky.social‬
· 2h
What the Dems got out of this is exposing what the GOP is all about. The ACA would have expired and the government would still be closed. The GOP doesn’t care about US citizens. The MAGA inner circle is not affected. They’ve been flaunting ballrooms, gold toilets, etc. without a thought.

[Owendonovan]

None facing re-election any time soon either.

[ti-amie]

None facing re-election any time soon either.

And Schumer still trying to act as if that is totally by accident. Two are retiring and the others don't face the voters again until 2028.

[ti-amie]

Ben Penn
‪@benjaminpenn.bsky.social‬
Buried inside the deal to reopen government is a provision that would give Senators private right of action to sue for millions in damages over their phone records being analyzed by Jack Smith's team.
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-we ... h-searches

I'm told Sen. Ted Cruz led this effort. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats weren't consulted on the addition of this language, per a source familiar. Committee's top Dem, Dick Durbin, was among the 8 Ds who voted to advance the spending measure last night.

And now it appears it was John Thune, not Cruz, who is receiving more of the credit (or blame)

[dryrunguy]

Up yours, JD.

::

Catholic Bishops Issue Rare Statement Objecting to U.S. Immigration Tactics
“We feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,” they said in the statement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/b ... =url-share

[ashkor87]

Maybe JD should convert...to Usha's religion...much more convenient one...doesn't tell you what to do! Being a good Catholic seem impossible for him.

[ti-amie]

Epstein Files Live Updates: Trump Named in Emails Released by Democrats and Republicans

Messages in which Jeffrey Epstein discussed President Trump were among 20,000 documents posted online. Mr. Trump blamed Democrats as the White House rushed to block further revelations.


Updated
Nov. 12, 2025, 7:00 p.m. ET57 minutes ago

Glenn Thrush Annie Karni and Devlin Barrett
Here’s the latest.

The mocking and accusatory voice of Jeffrey Epstein emerged from a trove of more than 20,000 emails made public by lawmakers on Wednesday, including his claim that President Trump once “spent hours at my house” with a young woman who later accused Mr. Epstein of sexually abusing and trafficking her when she was a teenager.

In a series of emails with friends and associates — surfacing first in a few messages selected by House Democrats and then in full by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee — Mr. Epstein described Mr. Trump as a “dirty” businessman who was “borderline insane,” untrustworthy and worse in “real life and upclose” than the image he sought to portray to the public.

Mr. Trump, White House officials and administration allies dismissed the disclosures as the utterances of a discredited sexual predator who had fallen out with Mr. Trump long before his crimes became publicly known. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, called the emails a “clear distraction.” The president labeled them a “hoax.”

Wednesday’s document dump was the latest act in the rapidly unfolding political drama engulfing Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican majority. They shuttered the House for the past two months, in part, to forestall a bipartisan effort to force a floor vote on a bill to force the Justice Department and F.B.I. to release a separate set of documents, this one involving their investigation into Mr. Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

House Republicans are seeking to protect Mr. Trump while trying to assuage those in the party who view the Epstein case as an issue that transcends loyalty to the president.

Democrats claimed that the sheer volume of the release was intended to distract attention from their revelations about Mr. Trump’s actions during the time he and Mr. Epstein were close.

Mr. Trump urged Republicans to reject any effort to revive a discussion of his relationship with Mr. Epstein, blaming Democrats for the release of the documents in a post on social media and writing that they were “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”

Here’s what else to know:

Trump connections: The thousands of documents include numerous references to Mr. Trump, including some in which Mr. Epstein discusses their relationship. Others are innocuous. In one exchange, Mr. Epstein is apparently pitched on a transaction related to his Boeing 727 by someone who says they previously worked for Mr. Trump.

Pressure campaign ramps up: Top administration officials summoned Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado for a meeting in the White House Situation Room, escalating their pressure campaign against Republican lawmakers who have demanded a full release of files related to Mr. Epstein. Mr. Trump also reached out to Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of three Republican women in the House who signed a petition that calls for a vote demanding that the Justice Department within 30 days release all of its investigative files on Mr. Epstein, but she refused his pleas on the petition.

A de facto adviser: A recurring presence in the messages is the author Michael Wolff, who acted as an adviser to Mr. Epstein. “I believe Trump offers an ideal opportunity,” Mr. Wolff wrote to Mr. Epstein in March 2016, according to the emails, suggesting that “becoming an anti-Trump voice gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don’t have now.”

Congress returns: The Republican-controlled House prepared for a vote later on Wednesday that would end the government shutdown. But the swearing in of its newest member, Adelita Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, could soon force a vote on a discharge petition demanding that the Trump administration release its investigative files on Mr. Epstein.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/12 ... iles-trump


Alan Feuer
Nov. 12, 2025, 7:25 p.m. ET38 minutes ago

Alan Feuer
One email released today shows Jeffrey Epstein suggesting to a top European official, Thorbjorn Jagland, that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, could get “insight” into President Trump by talking to him. The email was written to Jagland in June 2018, one month before Trump met Putin in Helsinki, Finland.''

Email

From: Jeffrey Epstein

Date: 6/24/2018 1:59:24 PM

To: Thorbjon Jagland

churkin was great. he understood trump after our conversations, it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.

On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 3:28 PM, Thorbjon Jagland wrote:

I'll meet Lavrovs assistant on Monday and will suggest Thank you fo a lovely evening. I'll com to un high level week

On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 3:18 PM, Jeffrey Epstein wrote:

I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get insight on talking to me. vitaly churkin used to but he died.

[ti-amie]

‪Marc Elias‬
‪@marcelias.bsky.social‬
· 55m
On Dec. 8, 2015, Jeffrey Epstein offers a NY Times reporter photos of Donald Trump and "girls in bikinis in my kitchen." Epstein tells the reporter that he "gave" Trump his "20 year old girlfriend...after two years."

When people looked into these type of rumors the Times smugly criticized them.

[ti-amie]

Rep. Adelita Grijalva sworn in, setting up vote on release of Epstein files

The ceremony ended a seven-week standoff with House Speaker Mike Johnson that left Grijalva unable to fully represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in Washington.
Updated
November 12, 2025 at 4:42 p.m. EST today at 4:42 p.m. EST


House Speaker Mike Johnson takes part in a ceremonial swearing-in event with Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

By Anna Liss-Roy

House Speaker Mike Johnson swore Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) into office on Wednesday, 50 days after she won the seat her late father had held, ending a seven-week standoff over Grijalva’s ability to fully represent her roughly 813,000 constituents during a historic government shutdown.

Grijalva entered the chamber for her first official day of work to a standing ovation from her Democratic colleagues, who swarmed the congresswoman-elect for more than 10 minutes to greet her and exchange hugs. They leaped to their feet again as she stepped to the front of the chamber and placed her hand on the Bible. She recited the oath to a room filled mostly with her Democratic colleagues. Republican seats were largely empty — the first votes weren’t until 5 p.m. “A-DE-LIT-A!” her colleagues chanted as she walked up to the podium to speak.

In her first remarks as a member of Congress, Grijalva lambasted Johnson, who stood feet behind her, for his delay in swearing her in. “This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons,” she said. Grijalva’s three children stood in the gallery above, watching their mother step into the shoes of their grandfather.

Then, to cheers, Grijalva walked over to sign a petition that would clear a path for a vote to demanding the Justice Department release its files on the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with the leaders of the effort, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (D-California) behind her.

“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said.

Grijalva, 55, won her election on Sept. 23, eight days before the government closed on Oct. 1. But Johnson has kept the chamber out of session since Sept. 19 in an effort to pressure Senate Democrats to pass a GOP funding extension. There is no rule against swearing in a member during a pro forma session; earlier this year, Johnson delivered oaths for two Republican members when the House was not in session.

He declined to do that for Grijalva, whose addition to the House gave lawmakers the numbers they needed to advance the petition. Democrats had attempted to use her plans to support the measure to shame Johnson into administering her oath. He denied his delay was related to Epstein.

Over the last two months, Grijalva launched a full-scale campaign to pressure Johnson to swear her in. While she remained in political limbo, the constituents of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — including several tribal nations that depend on federal resources — were left without representation in the House as the government shutdown dragged on.

Grijalva vowed to make her battle a public one. She visited Capitol Hill, released a steady stream of social media content and appeared on TV, arguing Johnson’s delays amounted to obstruction. She and other Democrats who charged Johnson with delaying the oath also took their accusations a step further, alleging he was unwilling to reconvene lawmakers because he did not want material related to Epstein made public.

Grijalva’s colleagues rallied behind her: a group of House Democrats marched to Johnson’s office, chanting for her to be sworn in. Two Democratic senators held a news conference outside the speaker’s office. Even a couple of Republicans expressed skepticism about Johnson’s delays. “She should be sworn in,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia), who was also one of the few Republicans to sign onto the Epstein discharge petition, said during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”

But only when Johnson called members back to D.C. to take up the vote to fund the government Wednesday did he schedule her swearing-in.

House Democrats released several emails from Epstein earlier Wednesday, including one that claimed President Donald Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of his sex trafficking victims. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein case and has dismissed questions probing his past relationship to the financier, who died in his jail cell in 2019.

Grijalva’s father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, held the seat for 12 terms. He was a leader on immigration policy and expanding protection for public lands and a fervent supporter of Indigenous communities.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -sworn-in/