73 thoughts on “Did He Really Kill Himself?”

  2. President Trump complained about the bad publicity he got after his immigration forces murdered two people in Minneapolis, the United States military has a weapon nicknamed “The Discombobulator,” and there are a surprising number of references to a bran muffin recipe in the Epstein files.

  3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/02/06/

    Epstein built ties to Russians and sought to meet Putin, files show
    Justice Department files show that Jeffrey Epstein sought help from a Russian official after claiming a woman from Moscow was blackmailing “powerful businessmen” in New York.

    By Mary Ilyushina and Catherine Belton
    Senior Russian officials and business figures, including a former graduate of Russia’s Federal Security Services Academy, cultivated relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, according to a trove of documents newly released by the Justice Department, expanding the scope of international contacts by the late financier and convicted sex offender.
    The documents reveal that several high-profile Russians met and corresponded directly with Epstein, and that Epstein made repeated efforts over multiple years to arrange a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. They also include evidence that Epstein enlisted a former leader of a pro-Kremlin youth movement who was once awarded a medal by Putin to help improve his public image.
    In response to the disclosures, Poland opened an inquiry into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence services, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
    The Kremlin dismissed the move, with a spokesperson saying that the allegations of ties between Epstein and Russian intelligence “deserve nothing but jokes” and did not merit serious comment.
    Vladimir Putin
    Putin’s name appears more than 1,000 times in the released Epstein files, but the majority of those references come from news clippings and media digests Epstein received rather than his personal correspondence.
    Epstein’s private emails, however, show repeated attempts in the 2010′s to arrange a meeting with the Russian president, often through former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland. There is no evidence in the Justice Department files that such a meeting ever took place.
    In a 2013 email to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Epstein said he had been invited to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) — an annual conference designed to attract foreign investment in Russia that Putin always attends — but Epstein claimed he declined. Referring to Putin, Epstein wrote: “If he wants to meet he will need to set aside real time and privacy.”
    Correspondence with Jagland that year shows Epstein urging him to raise the prospect of a meeting during an upcoming visit to Moscow. “I know you are going to meet Putin on the 20th. He is desperate to engage western investment in his country … I have his solution,” Epstein wrote. Follow-up emails suggest no progress, with Epstein later complaining he received no response.
    In January 2014, Jagland told Epstein he would be meeting Putin in the southern Russian city of Sochi and asked, “Why don’t you come?” The files do not indicate whether Epstein pursued the invitation. But in July of that year, he was still seeking introductions. One contact wrote that he had been unable to persuade a third party to change plans “to go meet Putin with you.”
    Epstein replied: “Bad idea now after plane crash” — an apparent reference to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down days earlier in eastern Ukraine.
    In July 2015, Epstein again asked Jagland for help arranging a meeting “to talk economy.” Similar requests appear sporadically in 2016 and 2017 and, as late as June 2018, Epstein was still writing: “Would love to meet with Putin.”
    Sergey Belyakov
    The Justice Department files show that from May 2014 into 2018, a high-ranking graduate of Russia’s Federal Security Services Academy, Sergey Belyakov, cultivated a close relationship with Epstein.
    At the time, Belyakov was serving as Russia’s deputy economic development minister, and he appeared delighted with his new friendship, telling Epstein in a May 4, 2014 message: “Our meeting was really interesting for me! I do not know many people like you, who can open new horizons and prospects.” Soon after, Epstein invited Belyakov for dinner at his home in New York City, and Belyakov thanked Epstein for a gift.
    From then on, the two men appeared to maintain a close friendship with Belyakov inviting Epstein several times to attend SPIEF, from 2015, which Belyakov ran during that year. At the same time, Epstein introduced Belyakov to other senior figures in his circle, according to the correspondence, including, in April 2015, Barak, the former Israeli prime minister. In July 2015, he arranged for Belyakov to meet the American tech billionaire Peter Thiel in California.
    Later that same month, Epstein turned to Belyakov for assistance with a serious problem, the documents show: “I need a favor,” Epstein wrote in a July 24 2015 message to Belyakov. “There is a russian girl from Moscow. She is attempting to blackmail a group of powerful businessmen in New York. It is bad for business for everyone involved … Suggestions?”
    In a later note, Epstein explained that the woman was claiming “powerful men take advantage of women like her etc.” Belyakov’s reply suggests a growing dependency. The FSB academy graduate immediately offered assistance, saying he would meet with someone who knows the woman in question and he alleged that she was involved in the “sex and escort” business.
    By 2016, the two men were discussing business, and Belyakov told Epstein in January that he had a new position at the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Russian sovereign wealth fund, headed by powerful Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
    “In this position I’m looking for opportunities to attract money to russia and to support investors in there activities in russia and to help them make money in russia,” Belyakov wrote in the message, while also asking if Epstein was interested in investing in a new payment system, the mycelium bitcoin processor.
    When Trump was first elected president in November 2016, Belyakov sent a message to Epstein titled “Congrats with your President.” Epstein replied with one word: “fun.”

  5. “My friends will get hurt.”

    remember this clip from MTG story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/magazine/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-maga-split.html

    After the hearing, Greene held a news conference at which she threatened to identify some of the men who had abused the women. (Greene says that she didn’t know those names herself but that she could have gotten them from the victims.) Trump called Greene to voice his displeasure. Greene was in her Capitol Hill office, and according to a staff member, everyone in the suite of rooms could hear him yelling at her as she listened to him on speakerphone. Greene says she expressed her perplexity over his intransigence. According to Greene, Trump replied, “My friends will get hurt.”

    yep, BFF putie among others and some of those folk have histories of making the historians disappear.

  7. BTW on the renaming dulles and penn station efforts, he’ll not stop there with just name changes. head replacements next:

    Attribution: Trump Memorial by Milt Priggee, Oak Harbor, WA

  8. A backgrounder for today’s starter topic in the chatroom:

    The Epstein Suicide Debate: What’s New?

    The massive release of 3 million documents that began a week ago and continued with updates through this week, has yielded several specific new entries that directly fuel the debate over Jeffrey Epstein’s death.

    The most significant “new” findings center on conflicting internal government logs and the timeline of his final days.

    1. The “Orange Shape” Log Entry (10:39 PM)

    While the “orange shape” has been a topic of online speculation for years, the newly released Department of Justice video logs from the night of August 9, 2019, show a startling disagreement between federal agencies.

    The FBI Log: A specific entry from an FBI memorandum describes the surveillance footage at approximately 10:39 PM (hours before Epstein was found). It states: “A flash of orange looks to be going up the L Tier stairs — could possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier.”

    The OIG Contradiction: In contrast, the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) logs the same visual as an unidentified officer carrying “inmate linen or bedding” up the stairs.

    The “L Tier” Conflict: The “L Tier” was the isolated, locked section where Epstein was housed. Official records had previously suggested no one entered that tier during the overnight shift, so the FBI’s “possible inmate” note provides a direct challenge to the “solitary suicide” narrative.

    2. Evidence of Cooperation (July 29, 2019)

    The new files include an FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” which reveals that Epstein’s lawyers met with Manhattan federal prosecutors on July 29, 2019—just 12 days before his death.

    The Content: The lawyers discussed the “possibility of a resolution of the case” and the “possibility of the defendant’s cooperation.”

    The Context:     Skeptics of the suicide ruling often point to his potential to “name names” as a motive for foul play. These files confirm that formal talks about Epstein “flipping” were actively happening in the final two weeks of his life.

    3. The Trust Update (August 8, 2019)

    The documents include the specific ledger and trust documents signed by Epstein on August 8, 2019—exactly two days before he was found dead.

    Significance:     Epstein updated his trust to distribute his millions to 44 people, including private employees. While some see this as a man “putting his affairs in order” before a planned suicide, others argue the timing and the lack of a suicide note (despite him having ample paper and pen to sign legal documents) remain suspicious.

    4. DOJ Internal Criticisms

    The tranche includes internal DOJ emails from as recently as late 2025 and early 2026 discussing the “sloppy redactions” and technical errors in the original investigation. These emails show that even within the Department, there was ongoing frustration regarding the aspect ratio shifts and the “missing minute” in the surveillance footage that coincided with a cursor appearing on the screen.

  9. If you believe Eppie killed himself, you have to also believe Dodo would kill himself. Not a personality type that “gives up.”

  11. Columbo would say, “Murder”.
    Too many “loose ends” There’s no way all those loose ends can add up to suicide. Just no way.

    In addition:
    Pro Quo Bono?

    Maybe someone could ask Bill Barr about his visit to NYC?

    I wonder if The Ep ever said anything like, say……”I’m not going down alone, you guys!”
    Something like that would be enough .
    Quite enough.

    And exactly how many guards fell asleep?

  12. Ivy, the only way I can come even close to believing he hung himself voluntarily is perhaps he was dabbling into some kind of perversion such as erotic asphyxiation but wasn’t intending to kill himself doing it.
    reportedly, he did have a hangup (so to speak) about multiple sexual activity on a daily basis being necessary to unlock his creative potential.

  13. The “suicide” note (taking the short way home, or something like that) be it fake or real complicates the David Carradine exit scenario.

  16. I’m doing family breakfast out this morning. Will miss chat, but Trump Dump last night included image of the Obama as apes. Add this to the order to remove informational signs in parks about indigenous and the ICE raids. The raging racism towards all non white groups is just leaking all over the place.

  20. The Epstein “suicide” narrative just hit a wall. New files reveal a “mysterious orange shape” near his cell and a release deal he was set to sign 48 hours before his death. Plus: The 38,000 Trump mentions.

    On The Menu:
    00:00 Intro
    02:15 The Orange Shape: FBI Logs vs. DOJ Report
    05:30 Negotiating Release: The Deal Epstein Almost Signed
    10:45 Ivana Trump and the Golf Course Tax Theory
    15:20 Mark Epstein Speaks Out on “Suicide” Narrative
    22:10 The 38,000 Trump Mentions: News Clips or Something More?
    28:45 Minnesota Update: Jake Lang and the Ice Sculpture Arrest
    35:10 Immigration Data: ICE Detention Facts vs. Fiction
    42:30 Ian McKellen Performs Shakespeare’s Thomas More

  26. He didn’t kill himself nor, perhaps, the other half dozen or so that are gone.

    Suicide or suicided?

    Even mTg stated she was not suicidal when she went on a podcast pushing the Epstein files.

    He didn’t kill himself.
    Also, his bestie wasn’t shot.

    The opening ceremonies are about to begin. This will be your chance to “BOO” JD & Marco in solidarity with the rest of the world.

  27. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/trump-offered-to-unfreeze-nyc-tunnel-funding-if-airport-train-station-renamed-for-him-source-says

    Trump offered to unfreeze NYC tunnel funding if airport, train station renamed for him, source says

    Trump offered in January to drop his hold on funding for a key US$16 billion (S$20.4 billion) New York Hudson River tunnel project in exchange for Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer supporting the renaming of Washington Dulles Airport and New York Penn Station after Mr Trump, a source told Reuters on Feb 5.

    *Pedo Station & Dullard’s Airport

    That’s what they’ll be called colloquially, but this vanity crap as deflection from his horrific deeds in the Epstein files and to those in position as, barf, POTUS, has to end.

    No appeasement….and extortion is illegal.

    FDT & his mob

  28. Eeeesh, of course JD & Usha are sitting in the stands for now, front and center, but why will JD be leading the US athletes? Propaganda.

  29. The “World’s Most Dangerous Witness” was ready to flip.

    New FBI documents confirm Epstein’s lawyers were negotiating “cooperation” and a “resolution” just days before his death. The official story is crumbling in real-time.

  31. Princess Anne is actually an Olympian, but she’s just on the sidelines, not marching with athletes. JD is doing some goofy PR move to try to get Americans to like JD.

  35. JD goes to the doctor and the doctor says you’re in terrible shape, JD says Doc, i’d like a second opinion, doctor says Alright you’re ugly too

    #callback

  37. When JD was born, he was so ugly the doctor slapped his mama.

    I thought you were going for some kind of Ho Chi Minneapolis pun….

  38. That was actually reported about JD matching with the team, so I guess someone realized it would make him look like even more of a douche. Glad it didn’t happen.

  39. Oh, brother. Since LA hosts the ‘28 games, will Adolf or JD be at the closing ceremony, along with Newsom & the LA Mayor?

  44. Hell no, he didn’t kill himself. The lame-ass explanations about the edited jailhouse video initially released are enough to cast VERY serious doubt on the supposedly unedited version (that ironically has that orange shadow that just doesn’t fit with the narrative). Some of the dumbest shit I’ve heard in a while. And who kills themself when they’re negotiating a release from jail?

  45. Per Search Assist-

    Ghislaine Maxwell is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on February 9, 2026. This deposition will be conducted virtually as she is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in sex trafficking.

    Legal Context
    Maxwell’s legal team has indicated that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the testimony. They have previously stated that she would refuse to answer questions unless granted legal immunity, which the committee has declined to provide.

    Implications of Testimony
    The committee’s chairman, James Comer, has expressed a desire to hear from Maxwell, but her lawyers argue that proceeding without immunity would not yield any useful information. They believe it would only result in a situation where she repeatedly pleads the Fifth, which they describe as a “political theater” rather than a genuine inquiry.
    Maxwell’s testimony is part of a broader investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein case, which has faced significant scrutiny.

  46. Did Mossad do it? Did Mossad pay his cellmate to do it? Did Mossad let it happen?

    https://www.india.com/news/world/epstein-files-donald-trump-compromised-by-israel-jared-kushner-wielded-real-influence-explosive-shocking-revelations-in-fbi-report-us-department-of-justice-alan-dershowitz-russia-mossad-8289828/

    The names of Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Epstein’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz appear repeatedly in the released documents. These documents include an FBI report that, citing a “reliable confidential human source,” claims that Donald Trump was “compromised” by Israel. The report also states that Jared Kushner wielded real influence over Trump’s business empire and his presidency.

    The documents also name Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz. According to the report, a confidential human source (CHS) claimed that Dershowitz was allegedly compromised by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and used his connections to influence wealthy and politically powerful individuals.

  47. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/06/epstein-helped-end-feud-between-warring-rothschild-cousins/

    Jeffrey Epstein helped to end a family feud between warring Rothschild cousins, emails suggest.

    The convicted sex offender was in close contact with Ariane de Rothschild, a scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty, from 2013 until 2019, the year he died in a federal jail cell in Manhattan while he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

    Emails released by the US justice department show Baroness de Rothschild, a banker, sought the paedophile’s advice and complained to him about other members of the family, including a cousin she said was being “whipped”.

    Baroness de Rothschild, 60, is the chief executive of Swiss private banking and asset management group Edmond de Rothschild and has a personal fortune estimated at €5.3bn (£4.62bn).

    In another exchange, dated March 2016, Epstein wrote: “I’m pretty sure I’ve worked out an elegant solution that meets all your needs.

    “Publicity. liquidity, lifestyle . and protection. legal and financial…come to europe sometime in the next few weeks. . ITs [a] very beautiful solution.”

    He also suggested that “protection” for her and her four daughters was the “priority”, saying: “as i have always said the first second and third prioirty [sic] is protection!! protection for you, the girls[,] the bank, the family.”

    The family’s years-long dispute over the use of the Rothschild name was effectively settled in 2018, when the Swiss and French branches agreed on how the name could be used in branding.

    Elsewhere in her correspondence with Epstein, she receives advice from the financier on a “succession plan” and told him she was “tempted to come” to his island – the 70-acre Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands – and asked him whether she should host Woody Allen “at home”.

    She has since been locked in a separate legal battle with her mother-in-law, Nadine, over the future location of the family’s “mini-Louvre” art collection, which is one of Europe’s most valuable and secretive.

  48. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch the replay of today’s live chat on Epstein “Suicide” Doubts here.

    The Bright Side: February 6, 2026

    1. Conservation: A family in the Ecuadorian Amazon has transformed barren pastureland into a “living laboratory” seed bank to save endangered rainforest plants. WSLS 10
    2. Health: New research from the World Health Organization highlights that one-third of global cancer cases are now considered “avoidable” through proactive vaccines and lifestyle shifts. Positive News
    3. Innovation: The EPA has announced a major coordinating group to accelerate the cleanup of PFAS “forever chemicals” using cutting-edge research and new community detection tools. EPA.gov
    4. Community: Delaware high school students are being invited to participate in a new video scholarship contest aimed at raising organ and tissue donor awareness across the state. Delaware.gov
    5. Weird: A Florida man allegedly stole $3,500 worth of meat from multiple grocery stores, only to throw it all away after finding his girlfriend cooking dinner with another man. KFBK News Radio

    A roundup by our AI partner Silas (Gemini) about optimism, progress, and things right in the world.

  49. I read a Salon story about Trump and the Kennedy Center the other night. It included what I thought was a great quote: They can’t create, so they destroy.

  50. https://the307.substack.com/p/epstein-files-give-more-evidence

    Jeffery Epstein’s Israel connections have been well documented by Drop Site News, through leaked emails of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was a close associate of Jeffery Epstein, and often used him as a backchannel to States, for example, to Russia during the Syrian war.

    The newly released files from the Department of Justice adds further evidence of Jeffery Epstein’s Israel connections, and even raises the possibility that he was an agent of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, trained under Ehud Barak.

    This possibility is best underscored in an FBI document released in the Epstein files, which quoted a CHS (Confidential Human Source), who claimed that Epstein was an agent of the Mossad.

    The CHS was apparently connected to Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, with the document noting, “CHS learned that Dershowitz influenced many students from wealthy families. For example. Josh Kushner (Josh) and Jared Kushner (Jared) were both his students. Dershowitz told CHS that if he were young again, he would be holding a stun gun as an Israeli Intelligence (Mossad) agent. CHS believed Dershowitz was co-opted by Mossad and subscribed to their mission. CHS still continues to communicate occasionally for Dershowitz”.

    It was through this connection to Alan Dershowitz that the CHS claimed to have learned that Jeffrey Epstein was A Mossad agent.

    The FBI document wrote, “Jeffrey Epstein (Epstein) was represented by Dershowitz. CHS remembered Dershowitz tell Alex Ocasta (U.S. Attorney of Southern District of Florida at the time) that Epstein belonged to both U.S. and allied intelligence services. CHS shared phone calls between Dershowitz and Epstein during which he/she took notes. After these calls, Mossad would then call Dershowitz to debrief. Epstein was close to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak (Barak) and trained as a spy under him.”

    In another strange email exchange between Jeffery Epstein and Ehud Barak in 2018 , Epstein asked Barak to “make clear that i dont work for mossad” next to a smily face “:)”.

    In an email contained in the files, Mark V. Iverson, who apparently had some contact with Ghislaine Maxwell, was told she was an Israeli spy.

    In the email, sent to a redacted person, Mark V. Iverson wrote, “While going to meet political candidate, Bill Richardson, in Albuquerque at a hotel in the fall of 1982, I met Ghislaine. …
    1982 is roughly a decade before mast people thought she was in the United States. Within a week, I was warned that she was a spy and to stay away from her.”

    Mark V. Iverson, alleged that Maxwell, her father, media mogul Robert Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein were all Mossad agents.

    Journalist Seymour Hersh, in his 1991 book “The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy”, revealed that Robert Maxwell, when he was the publisher of the Sunday Mirror, informed the Mossad about the identity of Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked information to the paper about Israel’s secret nuclear program, which led to the Mossad entrapping Vanunu in a honeypot sting operation.

  51. Being the “staffer” who willingly takes blame for his fuck-ups is a lower-job level than any of the other ass-kissing jobs in the whites house.

  52. If it was a staffer, then we know not to trust anything on “truth anti-social” as being the Word of Dodo.

  56. He’d not posting the flurry of stuff that comes in the dead of night by himself. He tells his assistant to do it (her name escapes me), or Stephen Mitler does it, or they just throw stuff out there that will distract from the Epstein files. Other countries are investigating and that terrifies him.

  58. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/howard-lutnick-jeffrey-epstein-in-business-together/

    U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said he had “limited interactions” with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents show they were in business together as recently as 2014.

    Lutnick, the former chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald who at one point lived next door to Epstein, told the New York Post in October that he and his wife Allison had cut ties with Epstein in 2005, deciding after taking a tour of Epstein’s New York townhouse, “I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.”

    However, it appears Epstein and Lutnick continued to maintain contact and emails show they arranged calls and planned to have drinks in 2011.

    The following year, the couple and their four children planned a visit to Epstein’s island, Little St. James, emails show. Lutnick was invited for lunch on Dec. 24, 2012, and later, Epstein’s assistant wrote on behalf of Epstein, “it was nice seeing you.”

    Their Adfin deal was signed four days later.

    Eleven days after that, on Jan. 8, 2013, Epstein had his assistant forward Lutnick a document related to casino legislation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had an estate and a variety of business dealings. A spokesperson for Lutnick says he ignored the document sent to him.

    Correspondence relating to Adfin continued until at least 2014 when one of the shareholders, David Mitchell, wrote to Epstein regarding additional fundraising involving Cantor Ventures, a venture capital subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick had been president and CEO of Cantor since 1991 and was elevated to chairman in 1996.

    Also in 1996, Epstein sold a property located at 11 East 71st St. in New York to an entity called Comet Trust, which two years later sold the property to Lutnick. It became his primary residence, next door to Epstein’s New York City mansion.

    By the time Epstein and Lutnick agreed to buy stakes in Adfin, it had been more than four years since Epstein agreed to enter a guilty plea to Florida state charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

  60. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/other/olympics-israel-team-us-vice-president-vance-booed-at-milan-games-opening-ceremony/ar-AA1VQkcM

    Olympics-Israel team, US Vice President Vance booed at Milan Games opening ceremony

    Israel’s Olympic team walked into the stadium during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday to a smattering of boos…

    Cheers for the large U.S. team quickly turned to boos when Vance was shown on the stadium’s big screen.

    *I missed them booing JD. The booing of Israel was loud. The applause for Ukraine, Canada, and Denmark was loud. As for Israel’s reception, it was waaay more than a smattering.

  61. If only, Jamie. The royals are worried about the continuation of their monarchy. He will never say anything close to that, and it took public outcry to get him to kick “randy Andy,” as he used to be called, out of his house. Charles isn’t even embarrassed, probably, just ticked off.

  63. The US team didn’t get booed except, I guess, when they showed JD on the big screen. I didn’t find that audible on the live viewing this afternoon (mind you, I only hear out of one ear now), so maybe in the stadium it was noticeable.

    For the Isreali team, however, it was a loud, low booooooooo.

    NBC has the rights tied down, so I can’t even find a clip anywhere. When I go to one, it’s just still pics and text noting what happened.

  65. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/james-comer-oversight-committee-bill-clinton-subpoena-contempt-could-apply-to-donald-trump

    “I think it’s a shame, to be honest,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office after a question about Clinton appearing before the committee. “I hate to see it in many ways. I hate to see it, but, you know, then I look at me, they went after me—like, you know, they wanted me to go to jail for the rest of my life. Then it turned out I was innocent.”

    It was a rare and revealing moment for the president in that he seemed to show an understanding of the bigger picture.

    To make clear what I think he realized: House Republicans have just created a precedent that allows Congress to compel former presidents to testify under threat of contempt, which can result in charges that may lead to jail time. And Trump could be the next person to be targeted in this way if circumstances change on Capitol Hill.

  66. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-big-is-maga-really-more-in-common-economist-pew-poll-trump-approval

    MAGA is a bit of a moving target, but a recent Economist/YouGov poll found that only 27 percent of all voters described themselves as “MAGA supporters” and a perhaps surprisingly low 54 percent of Trump voters so identified. In other words, a minority of the voting public and only a little over half of the GOP is Trump’s loyal base.

    A new survey from More in Common, an international pro-democracy organization (I sit on its global board), offers a more granular look at Trump 2024 voters and provides further evidence that MAGA is definitely not half the country. Between April 2025 and January 2026, they canvassed more than 18,000 Americans, including nearly 11,000 who voted for Trump. In looking over their findings, the group categorized the Trump voters into four clusters: MAGA Hardliners, Anti-woke Conservatives, Mainline Republicans, and the Reluctant Right. Their conclusion? Trump voters were a coalition, not a cult.

    *The article goes on to define these groups.

  67. Bid, I guess you’re right, but I’m guessing they had several options to broadcast, depending on the crowd’s reaction.

  69. Well, Adolf is trying to extort renaming rights to Penn Station (Pedo Station) & Dulles (Dullard’s Airport) to unfreeze money that Congress appropriated for that tunnel, and that has been under renovation since 2023. Absolutely zero reason to stop it. There will be financial costs if the corridor isn’t renovated, snd folks will probably die. (Didn’t Chris Christie play bridge & tunnel games when he was NJ Governor?)

    One thing I forgot, since the crowd really did boo the Israeli team, is that whistling is like booing in some places, and there were definitely whistles for USA. Wonder how it was covered in Europe?

    Two of the men’s skiers (I think they are skiers) said they were conflicted about representing the US right now. Oh, Adolf’s gonna call them out. Will he reject reentry after the games?

    Oh, the SAVE ACT must be stopped. Call all Republican Senators first, then Dems. The vote is next week, so leave messages this weekend, if you are so inclined.

    If you need an original birth certificate and a real ID with a matching last name to vote…well, it’s more likely to be a problem for women…and JD Bowman/Hamel/Vance.

  72. Blue, the announcers call out the boo’s but with so much overall crowd noise in the video, it’s hard to single out the boo’s from the cheers. I don’t much care for athletes being boo’d unless they personally have made objectionable statements. They are not individually responsible for their government.

  73. Some U.S. Olympians are speaking up about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and other issues as the Winter Games get underway, Axios’ Julianna Bragg reports:

    ⛷️ Jessie Diggins, a gold medalist cross-country skier from Minnesota, on Instagram: “I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others.”
    🏒 Hockey player Kelly Pannek, also from Minnesota, paused a post-game conference the day after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, calling Trump’s immigration operation “unnecessary and just horrifying.” (Watch)
    ⛸️ Amber Glenn, Team USA’s first openly LGBTQ+ women’s singles figure skater, told reporters this week: “It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights.”

    Got it from Axios AM

Comments are closed.

Join the Trail Mix

Get an alert when Craig goes live, and the link when our Open Thread heats up.