Scratched Tooth

Game is being played.

As soon as Congress votes to release the Epstein files,

DOJ will claim some ongoing investigation that prohibits the release of anything with TACO’s name on it.

Monday briefing: How Trump and his allies flipped and flipped again on the Epstein files In today’s newsletter: Having once demanded full disclosure, senior Maga figures have attempted to block efforts to publish the records

So the consensus among left-of-center pundits seems to be that, once Congress has sought the release of Epstein files, Bondi will insist that, as the subject of an on-going investigation, so sorry, they can't be made public. That way, he gets credit for openness but nothing comes out.

Sound right?

And to them, complete extermination probably is the plan.

Trump is fundamentally irrelevant to these crazies. They just take every opportunity to threaten to bring down the government so they can feel (and be seen to be) important.

Netanyahu faces far-right backlash after US-backed statement on Palestinian state Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state after protests by far-right coalition allies over a U.S.-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence.

Let the games begin!

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Because infallibility? (I know that doesn't apply here.)

But the thirty-fifth amendment to the constitution is a favorite!

But no forever wars!

Fantasy!

Opinion | JD Vance Is Idling at the Edges of American Politics

"[W]e flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."

Yes, this is the real JD Vantz. His church condemns him, and so should we all.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

Opinion | The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education

FWIW, I and my teacher spouse and DIL endorse this wholeheartedly.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...

Opinion | Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is.

I assume that JD Vance, RF Kennedy, Dan Sullivan, Steve Scalise, John Roberts, Sam Alito, and other Catholic members of the Trump administration will take this to heart and immediately reform their ways.

Not.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...

Trump likely to face long military commitment and chaos if he ousts Maduro in Venezuela, experts say | CNN Politics President Donald Trump has said he believes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s days are numbered, and that land strikes inside Venezuela are possible.

Boy, did I misread this headline!

www.cnn.com/2025/11/15/p...

But his focus is on the role Black Africans played in the slave trade, and the willful blindness many scholars have displayed to that complicity.

There is evidence that the Jewish leaders of ghetto communities picked and chose who would be "relocated to the East", but no wholesale involvement.

Opinion | One Horror of Slavery That Until Recently Could Not Be Told

McWhorter's empathy with "how it felt to be packed into the largest vessel you had probably ever seen and hauled off to a fate you couldn’t know anything about, because no one ever returned to tell the story" reminds me (to a degree) of the Holocaust.

cont'd

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/o...

Opinion | A Little, Precious Seedling of Hope

Unlike even Douthat, Bruni and Stephens miss the point of l'Affaire Epstein--assuming that Trump in fact never participated in the sex follies (possible but unproven), what is he struggling so mightily to keep secret?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/o...

Opinion | The Questions the Epstein Emails Haven’t Answered

C'mon, Ross, the "identification" of "[VICTIM]" as Giuffre is not necessarily Gospel, nor is anything coming out of the White House.

But the key question, as Ross concedes, is why is Trump so anxious to keep something--what?--buried?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

Opinion | America’s Formula for Greatness Is Under Threat

Kristof sees education, free trade and immigration as three pillars that truly made America great. Rather than strengthening them in the quest to "MAGA", Trump's policies are undermining each of them.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

Bonus: Deputy AG Todd Blanche Got Pantsed by the Epstein Email Dump Podcast Episode · Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · 11/16/2025 · Bonus · Slate Plus Early Access · 28m

Pretty much every week there’s a bonus episode I wish I could share w a gift 🎁 link. Fortunately this one is public. Check it out & sign up for Slate Plus. Support, enjoy, & learn from the most informed commentary & best Scotus reporting!
@mjsdc.bsky.social
@dahlialithwick.bsky.social
@slate.com

Opinion | Our Deadly Fentanyl Delusion

The present fentanyl crisis is no more a case of foreign origin than any of America's previous drug crises. It's a product of Trump's "real America".

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

Opinion | In the Epstein Saga, Trump Is His Own Worst Enemy

@davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and @jamellebouie.net to the contrary notwithstanding, several friends have said to me, "Trump will not be his own worst enemy so long as I am alive".

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/o...

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50 copies of our essay collection Trace Elements to give away on Goodreads, sign up for it and maybe you will be lucky enough to win! @adapalmer.bsky.social on manga, me on romance, both of us on protagonists, the history of SF publishing, the author-reader contract www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

What Trump seems not to get is that most Dems would be fine with Clinton, Summers, Hoffman, or any other public figure going to jail if he was truly implicated in Epstein's trafficking efforts.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

What Trump seems not to get is that most Dems would be fine with Clinton, Summers, Hoffman, or any other public figure going to jail if he was truly implicated in Epstein's trafficking efforts.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

I agree when I have my head on, but I do sometimes want to say, "You should get exactly what you voted for, no extenuation, and rot in your juices!"

I agree with much of that, but we have seen so much "antisemitism is now worse on the Left than on the Right" that it's good to see pushback, even watered down pushback.

And, as Obama used to say ("You didn't build that ALONE"), from expenditures of public funds for education, transportation, dispute resolution, etc.

Opinion | Cancer Patients Like Me Are Casualties of MAHA’s Hypocrisy

Testimony from one who should be believed.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

Opinion | Chuck Schumer Is a Convenient Punching Bag, but He’s Not the Real Problem

Barro is right, both about how punching Schumer is pointless and groundless, and about how good it nonetheless feels.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

Opinion | Steve Bannon Thinks Zohran Mamdani Is a Genius. It’s Not a Feint.

Edsall is riding the same bandwagon.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...