Mark Jones

The Epstein Email Cache: 2,300 Messages, Many of Which Mention Trump An analysis of documents released this week by Congress shows President Trump was mentioned in more than half of the messages.

Incredible piece of data journalism here from @wsj.com.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

NYT: “Epstein emails a distraction from the Republican shutdown victory”

WSJ: “We estimate the Epstein files to be 67% Trump by weight”

This last part in particular is so poorly understood. Part of winning an election is “appealing to your lot”, part is “not upsetting or terrifying the other lot”.

White House Border Czar Tom Homan, "I don't think the UK is a friend of this country, a friend of the President"

Just to add, dear America, we're still friends. You're just going through a bit of a bad spell. Hope you recover at the next election, and we can be even better friends again

Important explainer.

'stealth tax' is a take that could catch on as it's something that people could understand and dislike, and it rhymes with 'wealth tax'. 'Why do a stealth tax when you could have done a wealth tax?'

This is a better answer than I gave on The Source to @kaitlancollins.bsky.social last night.

Everyday Americans get nickel and dimed while the rich dodge taxes.

They struggle to get by while the wealth of the 1% skyrockets.

They see their voices drowned out while the well-connected avoid accountability.

There are two sets of rules in America: One for the rich. Another for everyone else.

What exactly is the Chancellor going to do?

Jenrick saying ‘sinking pints’ has the same energy as a supply teacher trying to connect with Year 10

Megyn Kelly in 2017: " If Roy Moore wants to go to the US Senate and he has a history of assaulting 14- and 16-year-old girls, it's a problem."

Zeteo Scoured 26,000 Epstein Docs. Here’s What We Found You can search and review the emails here. Read what Epstein said about Trump, and his emails with Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, Ehud Barak, and Larry Summers.

Zeteo Scoured 26,000 Epstein Docs. Here’s What We Found

You can search and review the emails here. Read what Epstein said about Trump, and his emails with Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, Ehud Barak, and Larry Summers. From @premthakker.bsky.social and @micahflee.com:

zeteo.com/p/epstein-26...

The @zeteo.com searchable dataset of Epstein documents is the best I've seen— by far. You can filter by date range, person, organization, and location. Amazing public service. Check out @micahflee.com and @premthakker.bsky.social 's article (below) and explore the data via the link in the article

Clyburn calls out Bessent for trying to take credit on a project in his district initiated by Biden.

Delete "bonds" and the headline still works.

Jeffrey Epstein’s vast web of powerful friends The recently released messages, which range from the inane to efforts to pull the levers of power, feature members of both political parties.

Documents released by the House Oversight Committee show that Jeffrey Epstein maintained close ties to world leaders, business titans, and politicians for years after his guilty plea on prostitution charges involving a minor.

Here are the most notable:

The Prime Minister must pick up the phone now to Donald Trump. We have 24 hours to stop Trump’s billion-dollar raid on British licence fee payers.

We’ve written to the PM, calling on him to demand that Trump drop his ludicrous $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC.

No one leaving New York City because of Mamdani, say two top real estate CEOs New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's democratic socialist views spark fears companies and capital will flee, but top real estate CEOs say it's not true.

No one leaving New York City because of Mamdani, say two top real estate CEOs

This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016. Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey. These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%. These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process. Comparing these with contemporary forecasts – providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning microliterature of social science predictions – shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.

Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)

The only way to raise serious revenue is to raise a tax which everybody pays. Raising a tax which someone else pays rarely raises the revenue needed and creates endless pressure from special interest groups. Compare and contrast Mr Osborne's 2 1/2% VAT increase with his pasty tax. #omnishambles

Two stories you may not have seen this week that would be a big deal in a normal country:

1) The ‘dossier’ detailing the BBC’s editing of the Trump speech literally edited Trump’s speech.

2) The NBER calculated that Brexit’s longer term damage to GDP was greater than originally forecast.

Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...

Google has moved from moral cowardice (removing ICE tracking apps) to direct complicity in the violent, unconstitutional abuse of vulnerable people.

As a civil liberties lawyer who worked at Google for ten years, this one hits me in the gut.

A response to Matt Goodwin on small boat refugees (with record of crime in Germany) committing crime (rape) in the UK.

Imagine a 100+ seat majority in the hands of even Wilson and Callaghan, never mind Attlee, Blair or Brown.

Every one of those Labour Prime Ministers did something or would have done something far more transformative than Starmer's strategic timidity.

"The decision to keep McSweeney in place doubles down on Starmer’s loyalty to a figure who has presided over a catastrophic 12 months of ineptitude and failed strategy." 👇

🔉What dangers does X pose to our democracy? And should the government stop using it?

Good to hear yesterday from @sundersays.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the immense risk of X as it ignores legal obligations and its owner tries to influence UK politics.

@commonswec.parliament.uk

Budget U-turn hammers UK competitiveness Risky to raise revenue via tweaks and novel taxes, especially through rushed changes

The United Kingdom really does have an unnecessarily complex tax system and adding c£20bn of fun little revenue raisers will not help. Today's newsletter:

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage | George Monbiot The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Climate breakdown is driven by a storm of lies. This lying is systemic, funded and coordinated, and operates across almost all media, old and new.
This week's column argues that we cannot fight the climate crisis without also fighting the epistemic crisis.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Defend the BBC before it’s gone – an open letter

The BBC isn’t perfect – but it’s ours. If we don’t defend it now, we may lose a cornerstone of British democracy | Dr Russell Jackson

@docrussjackson.bsky.social
yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/def...