77 thoughts on “Swamped”


  2. What did the DOJ do with 50 missing pages from the Epstein Files that reportedly contain allegations involving President Trump?


    The only people who liked President Trump’s State of the Union speech were the thirstiest MAGA buttkissers, it’s unclear why the DOJ didn’t search Jeffrey Epstein’s storage units despite having a warrant, and Stephen takes a look at a big fight brewing between the Pentagon and an artificial intelligence company.


  3. Trump stormed the Capitol last night to let us know everything is going great and we have no problems at all, he broke the record for the longest State of the Union ever, MAGAland is busy giving him rave reviews, Texas Congressman Troy Nehls worked hard to get Trump’s attention, several Democrats boycotted the speech in protest, the White House went all out to attract eyeballs before the speech by releasing a promo featuring the Cabinet, we boil down Trump’s entire speech into a 60 Second State of the Union, the Trump-Epstein Files did not get mentioned at all by the hippopotamus in the room, there was a bombshell report from NPR that said the Justice Department illegally withheld 53 pages of notes and memos from FBI interviews with a woman accusing Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a young teenager, Kash Patel is having a banner week, Spirit Airlines announced that they are no longer going bankrupt, the driverless car company Waymo is adding four new cities, and This Week in Florida.

  4. craig, last thread you said:
    I do know the Orlando lawyer who handled “Katie Johnson” lawsuit, Cheney Mason. covered a few of his trials.
    Let’s find him! Probably well into his ’80s by now. See if he’ll join us at the diner.

    here’s some of what wiki has to say about him:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheney_Mason

    Cheney Mason
    Born December 12, 1943 (age 82)
    Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
    Alma mater University of Florida (BA, 1968; JD, 1970)
    Occupation Lawyer
    Employer(s) J. Cheney Mason, P.A.
    Known for Co-counsel in the Casey Anthony trial
    Website jcheneymason.com
    […]
    Rape lawsuit against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
    On October 10, 2016, it was announced attorney Mason would represent a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” in a case claiming that 2016 US Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump and financier Jeffrey Epstein raped her in 1994, when she was 13 years old. Judge Ronnie Abrams scheduled the first hearing for December 16, 2016.[12][13][14] Epstein, Trump, and Jane Doe were also to discuss the possibility of settlement and possible trial length.[14][15] Abrams asked for both sides to provide information to assist the court in advancing the case to settlement or trial.[16] After citing repeated death threats, Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on November 4, 2016.[17]

  5. and this from the sentinel:

    Cheney Mason, famed Casey Anthony lawyer, retires after 51-year career

    including this famous photo:

    After Anthony was acquitted, the defense team was escorted by deputies to a celebration at a restaurant, where a mob pounded on the windows. Mason was photographed flipping a middle finger to the stringer who he said had previously harassed them.
    Mason said afterward, wherever he would go, someone would pull up the photo to show him.
    “That picture is notorious,” Mason said. “… I’ve had to retell that story many, many times.”
    Outside of the courtroom, Mason was also influential in giving women and people of color a voice in the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said Lisa Wayne, the organization’s executive director.
    “At the time, it was dominated by white males,” Wayne said. “… I was a young Black public defender and felt pretty alone in that organization at the time. We have changed tremendously [and] much of that has to do with the work of his recruitment of members to the organization.”
    Mason said now that he is retired, he plans to take his two daughters and their husbands to Paris. The attorney also said he is in the middle of writing four books, including one about Blackburn.
    Looking back at his career, Mason said he has no regrets.
    “I can say, with no qualifications, I always tried to do the right thing,” he said.

  6. also mentioned on instagram 4 months ago:

    Tara Palmeri on Instagram: “For the first time in nearly a decade, Cheney Mason, a lawyer for the Jane Doe “Katie Johnson” who accused President Trump of sexual assault in Epstein’s House is breaking his silence in an exclusive interview. For the full story click the LINK in my BIO.”
    Instagram
    tarapalmeri
    49.7K views

  8. BTW there was this 2016 story that I wonder if it’s the same rape victim whose FBI interviews are now missing:

    Yes, Donald Trump Was Accused of Raping a 13 Year Old, But This Lawsuit Has Little Chance of Succeeding

    A woman accused Donald Trump of raping her when she was 13 years old in a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York this week. The lawsuit alleges that the assaults happened at parties hosted by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein (for more on his past see our previous story). The woman, who doesn’t want to be named, claims that Trump initiated sexual contact four times and “forcibly” raped her back in 1994. The woman claims ‘mental duress’ over the years has prevented her from coming forward with the allegations until recently. In April, she filed a similar lawsuit in federal court which was subsequently dismissed. Alan Garten, an attorney for Donald Trump, told LawNewz.com the allegations are “unequivocally false” and “politically motivated.” Like the lawsuit filed in California, I believe, this one has very little chance of succeeding. [continues]

    also these that have been reported but debunked
    https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/12/threads-posts/no-proof-donald-trump-made-settlements-to-10-to-13/

  9. Thanks much Pat, I am going to see if I can track him down. What I always liked about him in my reporting days, even if he couldn’t say much, he’d say something.

    An irrelevant story I recall: in one of his locally high profile cases I covered he brought in a well known friend of his defendant client to sit in the courtroom and distract the jury during prosecutor:s closing statement —Muhammad Ali.

    Jury didn’t hear a word the prosecutor said, barely even looked at him. Cheney’s client was acquitted.

  10. from Snopes back in 2024
    https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/09/03/trump-epstein-katie-johnson/

    What We Know About Origins of Trump Child Rape Allegations
    A viral photo is new, but the claim is old. It’s connected to a former producer for “The Jerry Springer Show.”
    Key Points
    Court documents accusing former U.S. President Donald Trump and the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of raping a 13-year-old girl identified as Katie Johnson are often shared by Trump’s detractors on social media.
    Though the Johnson cases were dismissed or withdrawn, those claims laid the groundwork for, and lent perceived credibility to, other entirely unsourced rumors that the former president had settled myriad other lawsuits with underage assault victims, pointing to evidence of his alleged “pedophilic disorder.”
    The Johnson claims, however, originated due to the aggressive efforts of a publicist using the false name Al Taylor. In 2016, investigative reporters tied the Taylor persona to a former “Jerry Springer Show” producer, Norm Lubow. For this story, Lubow confirmed to Snopes he had acted as Taylor and played a role in filing and promoting the Johnson claims.
    Lubow’s involvement does not disprove that Johnson is a real person, but it does show that those claims were aggressively promoted and aided by someone who has a professional history of using individuals to create fictional salacious drama, and that is a fact both he, and lawyers working for the plaintiff, attempted to downplay or hide.

    In September 2024, old claims that former U.S. President Donald Trump committed acts of sexual violence against minors in the 1990s reemerged on social media platforms including X and Reddit, sharing this time alongside a new meme to illustrating the allegation:
    This allegation, since its origin in late 2016, has always been supported by by images of court documents describing graphic rapes allegedly perpetrated by Trump and convicted sex offender/financier Jeffrey Epstein. Snopes has covered these documents several times, including when they went viral in July 2024.
    These court documents are part of a lawsuit that alleges in 1994 an associate of Epstein recruited a 13-year-old girl, originally identified as Katie Johnson, to become his sex slave. Epstein raped the girl, the documents claim, and also forced her to have sex with Trump on multiple occasions in both New York and Florida. The filings also include testimony from an anonymous witness corroborating the allegations.
    These images accurately show real court documents, but not ones connected to the ongoing release of Epstein grand jury files. Instead, these allegations were made in late April 2016, and Snopes first covered the court filings in June 2016.
    The written complaint included graphic accounts of the alleged rapes, including the claim that Trump refused to wear a condom and instead threw money at the girl and told her to use it for an abortion.
    The case was filed in U.S. District Courts in California and New York. Though these lawsuits were dismissed or withdrawn, the claims attributed to Johnson laid the groundwork for, and lent perceived credibility to, other entirely unsourced rumors that the former president had settled myriad other lawsuits with underage assault victims, pointing to evidence of an alleged “pedophilic disorder.”
    Memes referencing that latter series of claims, which originated in a subscription-only blog post from a conspiracy theorist with a history of false claims, reemerged following this recent dump of “Epstein docs.” As Snopes discussed in August 2020, there was — and remains — no basis to the claims stemming from those rumors.
    In the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, these two categories of child rape and abuse claims have often been merged into a single assertion about Trump settling lawsuits related to the purported sexual assault of multiple minors:
    Despite their centrality to the “Trump is a pedophile” narrative and to allegations mainstream media has been “ignoring” them, investigations by reporters at Jezebel and The Guardian found numerous red flags in the 2016 court filings and story. Among those red flags was evidence that tied the case to an aggressive media campaign initiated by an individual calling himself Al Taylor.
    Taylor’s story, as told to Jezebel, was “that he’d heard Katie’s story for the first time [in 2014], after meeting her at a party” and that “as a former psychology major in college and reality TV producer … people were always telling him things unsolicited, even now that he’s retired from television.” To Jezebel, he claimed (without evidence) to have worked as a producer for “Inside Edition.”In the months before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, however, The Guardian connected the Taylor persona to a former producer for “The Jerry Springer Show” named Norm Lubow. In 2016, Lubow strongly denied to Jezebel and The Guardian that he was Taylor.
    However, when Snopes spoke to Lubow in July 2024, he confirmed that he was, in fact, Taylor and said he did aid the accuser in her first lawsuit and in promoting the claims within it to journalists. Thomas Meagher, an attorney who represented someone identifying herself as Johnson in 2016, declined to comment for this story. In this story, Snopes shows how Lubow’s involvement remains a key red flag undermining the Johnson claims. [continues]

  11. Trump Underage Sex Accuser: If Not Credible, Why The Coverup?

    The story officially has legs now. Can’t get more mainstream than the New York Times. Not releasing these files was really stupid, unless the story is true. Because it moves the focus away from the credibility of old accusations to the real-time story of a cover up.

    NYT: The vast trove of documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against President Trump, according to a review by The New York Times.

    The materials are F.B.I. memos summarizing interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Mr. Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor.

    — New York Times (Trail Mix Free Link)

  12. Funny way to run a railroad. WaPo

    More than 8 in 10 parents say they keep their children up to date on recommended childhood vaccines, according to a Washington Post-KFF poll conducted last summer. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Kennedy’s handling of U.S. vaccine policy; views are sharply divided along partisan lines with independent voters largely disapproving, according to a recent poll from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization.
    …
    The White House has tapped Kennedy as a key surrogate for this year’s fierce battle for Republicans to maintain control of the House and Senate, leaning into his unusually high profile for a Cabinet secretary and his MAHA following.
    “The Trump administration will be aggressively showcasing our MAHA wins on the road to remind the American people of how we continue to break Washington, D.C.’s broken status quo to deliver meaningful change,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement, adding that the MAHA agenda has “mass appeal” that cuts across ideological lines.
    …

    Good. About those numbers ….

  13. craig, good luck in convincing him to share some background on the story. even if he doesn’t want to or can’t talk about “Katie” I bet he could fill the diner with hours and hours worth of fascinating repartee anyway.

  16. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Our daily Digital Diner podcast airs at 11-Noon ET on YouTube. JOIN the chatroom here — or WATCH yesterday’s replay here.

    What America is Actually Clicking: February 26, 2026

    1. Politics: [Ongoing] A deep look at how the administration is rapidly reshaping the U.S. government, shedding federal workers, and altering foreign alliances. – AP News
    2. Politics: [Ongoing] Local leaders across the country recount mounting tensions with the federal government over immigration enforcement and nationalized policies. – AP News
    3. Politics: [Ongoing] Congressional leaders depart a White House meeting with the President showing little willingness to compromise, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown. – AP News
    4. Politics: Takeaways from the 2026 State of the Union address, including clashes over the economy, pointing fingers at Democrats, and a surprise medal ceremony. – PBS News
    5. Politics: A breakdown and fact-check of the claims made during the State of the Union regarding violent crime rates and the 2020 election. – PBS News
    6. Nation: [Ongoing] State lawmakers prepare to tackle artificial intelligence regulations, social media age restrictions, and the housing crisis in their legislative sessions. – PBS News
    7. Nation: [Ongoing] The Pentagon officially cuts all military training and fellowship ties with Harvard University over the administration’s demands for internal reforms. – CBS News
    8. Technology: [Ongoing] Google retains its spot as the world’s most popular internet service, though generative AI platforms are experiencing massive global traffic growth. – CBS News
    9. Business: [Ongoing] A new analysis reveals how artificial intelligence has already begun reshaping the job market, driving a decrease in postings for “highly automatable” roles. – TIME
    10. Offbeat: [Ongoing] Sharp-eared “Labubu” figures are taking over as the latest trendy bag charms, spotted on celebrities and driving massive secondary market demand. – CBS News

    — Silas

    What are you reading today?

  17. J D Vance earning his “Cruelty is the message” badge.

    Vance says Minnesota’s Medicaid funds halted as part of Trump’s ‘war on fraud’

    Vance says Minnesota’s Medicaid funds halted as part of Trump’s ‘war on fraud’
    Vice-president makes announcement with Mehmet Oz, who says other states will be next after Minnesota

    Lauren Gambino
    Wed 25 Feb 2026 19.09 EST
    Share
    Prefer the Guardian on Google
    JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” more than a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid reimbursements to the state of Minnesota, escalating Donald Trump’s newly announced “war on fraud”.

    Vance said the action was to ensure Minnesota was “a good steward of the American people’s tax money”, part of its crackdown on the state following a fraud scandal linked to residents of the Somali community in Minneapolis, which prompted the administration to send thousands of federal immigration agents into Minneapolis and that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens and widespread protests.

    “What we’re doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer,” the vice-president said at a press conference in Washington, where he was joined by Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.

    Oz said it was the first time the government had taken such an action against a state. “It’s unponderable that you would take advantage of these precious programs,” he said, adding that while Minnesota was first, other states would be next.

    Oz also announced that the administration was imposing a six-month national moratorium on federal funding for people who need durable medical equipment, including prostheses and orthotics. New enrollments for federal funds for such devices would be halted due to concerns about benefit fraud, he said.

    Medicaid, the nation’s healthcare safety net for low-income Americans, serves more than 70 million people, including children, pregnant women, older adults and people with disabilities. Minnesota’s Medicaid and MinnesotaCare programs provide healthcare coverage for nearly 1.3 million people in the state, or roughly one in four Minnesotans.

    “This has nothing to do with fraud,” Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, responded on X. “The agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His DOJ is gutting the US Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week Trump pardons another fraudster.”

    More at link

  20. C-SPAN Comms Director Howard “Extreme” Mortman joins The Digital Diner again today for Throwback Thursday. His latest podcast just dropped — https://www.c-span.org/podcasts/subpage/?series=ExtremeMortman

    The death of Jesse Jackson – and the birth of a Sister Souljah moment
    June 13th, 1992. Jesse Jackson is hosting a conference of the National Rainbow Coalition. Reverend Jackson introduces the main speaker: “Finally, Governor Clinton is with us because he is from Hope, Arkansas. Anyone from Hope, Arkansas certainly wants to keep hope alive. I bring to you the next Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America governor Bill Clinton from Arkansas, Hope Arkansas.”

    A few minutes later: A presidential campaign earthquake.
    • What happened next?
    • How did it impact the 1992 presidential campaign?
    • And who is Sister Souljah — and what does she have to do with Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton?

    Find out in the latest episode of C-SPAN’s podcast “Extreme Mortman” – as we mark both the 2026 death of Jesse Jackson and the 1992 birth of a phrase which quickly entered the political campaign lexicon – and has been there ever since.

  21. There is a reason to impeach AND remove almost every cabinet member.
    Now, they are trying to install a MAHA influencer who called herself a “physician” under oath. I guess, sort of, and functional medicine definitely has a role in care, but even Oz definitively said to vaccinate against measles; she could not do that.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Means

    After graduating from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2014, she proceeded with an ENT surgical residency at Oregon Health and Science University, but dropped from the program near to the 5-year program’s completion, choosing instead to practice functional medicine (a form of alternative medicine). She went on to found the app-based health-tracking biotech company.

    ***

    https://apnews.com/article/casey-means-surgeon-general-confirmation-hearing-9e25bb95d033e331d40f5b93b3520aaa

    Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate health committee, asked Means whether she would advise Americans to vaccinate against flu and measles amid outbreaks across the U.S. She didn’t make that commitment, instead emphasizing the importance of informed consent between patients and doctors.

    Cassidy, a doctor himself, then asked Means if she accepts evidence that shows vaccines don’t cause autism.

    “I do accept that evidence,” she said, referring to the research. “I also think that science is never settled.”

    Means said she looked forward to seeing the results of a federal effort to study environmental contributors to autism. The National Institutes of Health is funding such research, and it’s not clear when those findings will be made public.

    Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray asked Means to address her past comments that birth control pills were being prescribed “like candy” and showed a “disrespect of things that create life.”

    During the hearing, Means said her goal is to “get more whole, healthy foods on American plates.” It’s a worldview she developed during her unconventional path in the medical field.

    *Processed food is cheaper and more available due to shelf-stability; food costs of all types are up, despite what the orange monster claims; we have money for a new paramilitary (ICE) but not for universal healthcare; SFB is deregulating things that pollute and cause cancer but you want to talk about eating organic lettuce that folks couldn’t afford if they could even find it.

  22. The link Anon put up at the very bottom of the old thread is fun to play with. Put in a name, check the timeline, and you get searchable Epstein files.

  25. Dodo lives to enrich himself. He truly believes greed is good. Now that he has struck gold in the White House, he’ll never let it go.

  26. Those of you with YouTube accounts can post comments, questions, links before we even go live with Digital Diner. Would be nice to start shows with what’s on your mind.

    Here’s how it works:
    To kick off comments for today’s Diner click here.

    To add comments to future shows go to The Main Stage in menu bar above and click the YouTube button.

    If you’re on your phone, the Live Chat is right there. Drop your links, arguments, questions and topics in the chat right now so we have them cued up when we hit the air. (On desktop, Live Chat is on the right sidebar).

  27. The music group I hang with on Blue Sky are doing controversial singers/bands today. I couldn’t help thinking we could really use Pete Seeger right now. He would tear Trump a new one.

    Do I see Lieutenant Calley?
    Do I see Captain Medina?
    Do I see General Koster and all his crew?
    Do I see President Nixon?
    Do I see both houses of Congress?
    Do I see the voters, me and you?
    Last train to Nuremberg!
    Last train to Nuremberg!
    Last train to Nuremberg!
    All on board!

  29. Another ICE death
    Nearly blind refugee found dead in New York days after immigration agents dropped him at a coffee shop alone, officials say

    The death of a nearly blind refugee in Buffalo, New York, days after Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a coffee shop alone, has prompted an investigation into the circumstances of his final days and drawn sharp criticism from the mayor, who called the incident “deeply disturbing.”

    Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, who spoke little English, had been missing since February 19, when the agents left him at the shop shortly after he was released from the Erie County jail, officials said. His body was found five days later, around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, about four miles from the coffee shop, the Buffalo Police Department said.

    “Homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances and timeframe of events leading up to his death, following his release from custody,” the police department said in a statement.

    The Erie County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and determined Shah Alam’s cause of death was health‑related. Exposure and homicide have been ruled out, Buffalo city spokesperson Nick Beiling said.

    More at link

  31. https://www.newsweek.com/dhs-ice-report-shooting-ruben-ray-martinez-11560217

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents, obtained by the government watchdog group American Oversight through a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by Newsweek, include a Use of Force and ICE Significant Incident Report describing the March 15, 2025, shooting by agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of DHS.

    The report identifies the deceased as a U.S. citizen from San Antonio.

    A second individual in the vehicle, also a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody by South Padre Island police pending charges.

    Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, has disputed the government’s account of the shooting. She told Newsweek that her son had no criminal history and said the family was never informed that federal immigration agents were involved.

    Following Newsweek’s reporting, DHS confirmed that Martinez was the third known U.S. citizen killed by a federal immigration agent during President Donald Trump’s second‑term immigration crackdown.

    ICE records confirm that at least one agent involved had body‑worn camera capability, though the documents do not state whether footage captured the shooting or whether it has been reviewed.

    The driver then accelerated forward, striking an HSI supervisory special agent, who ended up on the hood of the vehicle, according to the report.

    A supervising agent fired multiple rounds from his government‑issued handgun through the open driver‑side window.

    *It reads like a rehearsal for the assassination of Renee Good. Only if there is video will we know exactly what happened because the US GOVERNMENT LIES!

  32. For Katie
    Looks like the Drop Kick Murphys are throwing a block party in Minneapolis in support of anti Ice efforts.
    OK this could get radical. };-0

    A popular Celtic punk band that comes to the Twin Cities almost every March ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, Dropkick Murphys also will celebrate Minnesota’s ICE resistance movement this time around.

    The hot-headed, Irish-blooded Boston rock vets have helped put together a free anti-ICE block party across the street from the Alex Pretti memorial site in Minneapolis on March 6, the same day they’re slated to play a sold-out show at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul. They plan to play a 4 p.m. acoustic set in the Black Forest Inn restaurant’s parking lot, where an all-local music lineup has also been assembled around their appearance from 1-8 p.m.

  33. I boycott Truth Psycho so I am shielded against most of his insane spewings, but sometimes if they’re insane and shocking enough, the news breaks through. I have to wonder if it’s deliberate for that purpose. He is truly a psychotic man. This has to be negatively affecting his daily followers. Verbal abuse is abuse. Witnessing abuse is as damaging as receiving it. He is daily abusing the psyche of the nation. It should be impeachable.

    The SOTU speech itself was verbal abuse.

  35. The only reason he’s so childishly attached to the tarrifs is purely and simply as something with which to thrash his perceived enemies. To him it’s just something to use as a weapon. (He does love weapons, as long as he doesn’t have to carry one in combat.) What the tarrifs in fact do and cause is absolutely irrelevant.
    He’s like a nasty little teenager, which, of course, he has been since he actually WAS one. The Supreme Court essentially took away his cudgel and now he’s throwing ketchup, kicking, and screaming—a spoiled brat. No less, no more.

    Well…..he does seem to like taking other people’s money.

  36. A fun video recorded in Ukraine with shots of Ukrainian defenders and war landscape.
    btw, if you have trouble understanding the words in the song that is because it is done in the original Ukrainian language.

  40. So Dumbass is being pushed to declare an emergency and take over the midterms? WTF is that – aside from a blatant violation of the Constitution?

    Read the WaPo piece on the scheme. Sounds like conspiracy to commit voter fraud to me

  41. Jamie – yesterday I asked a friend who he was looking at for 2028. He has been deep into politics for decades and usually had some thoughts this early. His response was shocking to me. None of them. He does not think any of the Dems are leaders or going to be a 2028 winner. No explanations, just no Dem is showing promise of being a 2028 pick yet.

  44. The DOJ’s dog apparently ate the Epstein files, blue states might withhold federal taxes, and we’re breaking down the TikTok-ification of the Texas Senate race. Grab a coffee.

    C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman drops into the Digital Diner today to revisit Bill Clinton’s premeditated 1992 “Sister Souljah moment.”

    We’re parsing the chaos in today’s Digital Diner:

  46. https://www.thedailybeast.com/another-trump-goon-tom-homan-mansplains-religion-to-pope-leo-xiv/

    Border Czar Tom Homan tried to school Pope Leo XIV on Catholic teachings about immigration in an interview with the Letters from Leo Substack on Wednesday, offering, “I’d be happy to sit down to explain to him.”

    Homan, 64, prefaced his unsolicited theological lesson to the Vicar of Christ, 70, by touting his credentials as a “life-long Catholic.”

    He went on to excoriate Leo for criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, asserting the Chicago-born pontiff had failed to grasp Catholic doctrine.

    “Catholic faith is always in support of law enforcement, always has been,” Homan said.
    “He should be, too,” the border czar declared.

    Homan, who allegedly accepted a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking future government contracts in 2024, then told the Holy Father to mind his own business.

    He added, “Look, what he doesn’t understand is the flip side to illegal immigration,” before listing bleak numbers on assaults against migrant women, sex trafficking, and fentanyl deaths.

    The New York-born Trump official also claimed that “if we jumped the wall at the Vatican, the penalties for doing that are much harder” than the treatment undocumented immigrants receive in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has deployed waves of federal agents to round up and deport as many migrants as possible in a brutal immigration crackdown.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a devout Southern Baptist, broke down scripture for the pope after he was asked to respond to the pope, who had called for “deep reflection” about the treatment of migrants in the U.S.

    Leo had told reporters in November, “Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”

    Johnson responded by insisting that the Bible says “assimilation is expected and anticipated and proper,” and later went on X to write more than 1,300 words further defending his argument.

    *It sounds like ~Catholics~ in Orange Adolf’s regime are ‘not my Pope’ folks when it comes to Leo.

    Someone needs to remind Moscow Mike that Jesus didn’t assimilate; he spoke truth to power; the Roman state behaved like the US now toward noncompliers.

  49. I can not find the full, live video of this Drop Kick Murphy’s song, but they had so much Epstein stuff on the screen behind them. Bravo!

  50. https://www.newsweek.com/ice-columbia-student-arrest-missing-person-claim-11588711

    ICE agents detained a Columbia University student early Thursday after entering a campus residence hall by claiming they were searching for a missing person, according to the university.

    Columbia officials said the federal agents arrived around 6:30 a.m. and made misrepresentations to gain access to the non‑public building, prompting the school to object to how the arrest was carried out.
    The university said law enforcement officers are required to present a judicial warrant or subpoena to enter restricted campus spaces, noting that an administrative warrant is not sufficient.

    *New headline: Adolf tRUMP’s Nazi Gestapo kidnaps college student from dorm after lying to access the building.

  52. Bobblehead Boebert strikes, again!

    https://www.newsweek.com/hillary-clinton-deposition-photo-epstein-paused-lauren-boebert-11588885

    The House Oversight Committee paused its closed‑door deposition of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday after a photograph from the proceeding was shared publicly.

    Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert provided the image to conservative influencer Benny Johnson, who posted it online, according to Johnson. Committee rules prohibit outside press or photography during depositions.
    The deposition is being recorded on video, but Chairman James Comer has said any footage will be released only after Clinton’s attorneys have an opportunity to review it.

  55. https://apnews.com/article/texas-ice-shooting-martinez-orta-death-eef234709ecea98a9fabaafefb656c07

    The passenger in the car when Texas driver Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot last year by a federal immigration agent gave a lengthy statement to lawyers for the slain man’s family disputing the government’s version of events.

    That witness died Saturday in a fiery car crash in San Antonio, according to a lawyer for Martinez’s family.

    The Associated Press and other media outlets reported last week on details of Martinez’s death, which would mark at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since President Donald Trump’s coast-to-coast immigration crackdown. DHS made no public disclosure for 11 months that one of its agents pulled the trigger.

    A local police officer approached their car, saw an open alcohol container in the back, but told the two young men to turn around and leave, he said. As they tried to turn in the traffic, another officer walked up to their car and slapped the hood and “seemed to be trying to get in front of the car,” said Orta.

    Martinez “did not hit anyone,” Orta said.

    Then several more officers surrounded their vehicle, yelling at them to stop and drawing their guns, Orta recounted. “This was crazy to me because we were only crawling,” he said, adding that Martinez never hit the gas and the officers weren’t in any danger.

    An officer standing by Martinez’s open driver’s side window then pulled his weapon and fired without warning, so close the bullet casings ejected from his weapon landed inside the vehicle, he said.

    Orta recounted hearing his friend say “I’m sorry” as he slumped backward unconscious after being stuck in the chest. He said agents then pulled Martinez from the car and handcuffed him, waiting at least 10 minutes before providing any medical aid.

    According to the draft affidavit prepared following interviews in September, Orta reportedly said that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle, that their car was “just crawling as we were trying to turn around” and that a federal agent fired into the driver’s side window from about two feet away without “giving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply.”

    *The rehearsal for assassinating Renee Good.

    San Antonio Police said a 25-year-old man was killed Saturday when he drove into a curved highway exit at a high rate of speed before losing control and slamming into a utility pole. Passengers were able to escape as the vehicle caught fire, but they were unable to pull out the driver.

    *And now the only witness is dead.

  56. As Chicago honors Jesse Jackson today, we revisit the “Sister Souljah” moment—Bill Clinton’s political hit in front of Jackson.

    C-SPAN’s Howard “Extreme” Mortman explains it was a “made-for-cable storm” designed to win over swing voters.

    Watch this moment in today’s Digital Diner.

  57. Ok….Time for a rare treat. Time for Jimmy Smith, Grand Master of the Hammond B-3, Guru of Leslie Tone Cabinet Activation, to cast his bread upon the waters.

  59. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/supreme-court-says-usps-legally-191627548.html

    Supreme Court says USPS legally immune for intentionally misdelivered mail

    The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. Postal Service can’t be held liable for intentional failure to deliver mail.

    Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said that a law protecting the Postal Service from lawsuits over lost or mishandled mail prohibits lawsuits over mail that was intentionally misdelivered.

    Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued in a dissenting opinion that the decision provided the USPS much greater protection from lawsuits than Congress originally intended.

    Parcel industry observers on social media expressed concern the ruling shields the Postal Service from accountability even when workers deliberately withhold, return or interfere with deliveries.

    The case began when Lebane Konan, a Black landlord in Euless, Texas, sued the Postal Service under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging that mail carriers intentionally refused to deliver mail to her properties, causing tenants to move out and costing her up to $50,000 in rental income, plus emotional distress and extra time and money to use FedEx.

    The Postal Service argued that it held mail because Konan had not met identification requirements for all addresses.

    Konan leased two rental residences and retrieved business and tenant mail from a central mailbox. In May 2020, U.S. Postal Service employee Jason Rojas changed the lock on the mailbox at one of Konan’s properties without her approval, halted mail delivery and demanded ownership verification.

    Even after the USPS’s inspector general confirmed Konan’s ownership, Rojas and a coworker allegedly continued marking mail addressed to Konan and her tenants as undeliverable.

    Konan claims the refusal of service was racially motivated.

    *What else could she possibly think, because it’s the only explanation after a USPS inspector general confirmed it.

    *It doesn’t matter how early you mail in your ballot.

  60. Hammer To Fall!

    “Oh, every night and every day
    A little piece of you is falling away

    But lift your face the western way
    Build your muscles as your body decays

    Toe your line and play their game
    Let the anaesthetic cover it all
    ‘Til one day they call your name
    You know it’s time for the hammer to fall
    Rich or poor or famous
    For your truth it’s all the same

    Lock your door, the rain is pouring
    Through your window pane
    Baby, now your struggle’s all in vain
    For we who grew up tall and proud
    In the shadow of the mushroom cloud Convinced our voices can’t be heard
    We just wanna scream it louder and louder and louder“

  61. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/new-york-brief/federal-dhs-agents-detain-columbia-student-on-school-property

    New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that President Donald Trump told him that a Columbia University student detained Thursday morning by federal immigration agents will be released imminently.

    “In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning,” Mamdani posted on X, referring to his meeting in the White House on Thursday. He spoke to Trump after the meeting by phone.

    *Did Adolf have the ICE Gestapo kidnap her to get Mamdani’s attention? To show him who’s boss?

  63. “Fuck off.” That’s Jasmine Crockett’s message to Musk in her most-clicked campaign video (21 million TikTok views).

    In today’s Digital Diner, we break down the viral ground game as she and Talarico fight for the March 3 Texas U.S. Senate primary ➡️ Watch The Moment Here

  64. The DOJ “lost” the Epstein-TRUMP files and Colbert is joking about dogs eating their homework..

    While the media chases the Clinton deposition circus, the real data gap is orange.

    Tomorrow’s starter topic…

  65. https://newrepublic.com/post/207111/maga-activists-trump-national-emergency-executive-order-elections-china

    MAGA Activists Pitch Trump on Chilling “National Emergency” Plot

    Pro-Trump activists say they’re in close contact about an executive order that would expand the president’s powers to intervene in elections.

    Florida attorney and former Trump boarding school classmate Peter Ticktin told The Washington Post he has had “certain coordination” with the White House regarding the 17-page executive order draft that his group wants Trump to sign.

    Ticktin’s draft hinges on the debunked claim that China successfully interfered in the 2020 election on behalf of former President Joe Biden.

    *Getting too close to info about tRUMP sexually assaulting a 13-year old girl, and obstruction of justice by destroying documents?

    Where are the white hat hackers who can put an end to this nation emergency which is the tRUMP regime?

  66. Here is free link to the Washington Post coverage of that frightening but expected election takeover plan..

    Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency
    Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting..
    — WAPO free link

  69. From the Joe Rogan circuit to the San Antonio Rodeo, James Talarico is playing the “reach out” game, while the Diner debates if Jasmine Crockett is too base focused.

    A Diner moment:

  71. Roger Ailes-of not-so-blessed-memory said as much in fewer words.

    “One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions… This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the product of a society that has worked hard to help the rich and powerful elude punishment for criminal behavior.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/elite-accountability-powerful-impunity/686134/

  72. Yo Sturge, LP and I were listening to Al Di Meola on our little postop trip over to Baltimore today and he had in his band someone, I don’t know who, but who is playing a B3 with a Leslie cabinet cranked up to WFO. From Stevie Winwood to Gregg Allman to Felix Cavalieri, to Billy Preston to whoever the fuck was playing on Di Meola‘s tunes and of course, the master, Jimmy Smith, I don’t like Hammond B3‘s. I love Hammond B3‘s. Pair them with the Leslie cabinet and Jesus Christ, it’s the keyboard nirvana for rock, soul, R&B or whatever the fuck genre it’s used in.

  73. Yep, I’ve put in time on several here and there along the way.

    There’ no 3 like a
    B-3.

    Lenny Dee was another great practitioner, and of course Booker T.

  74. The answer to why powerful people in some other parts of the world face consequences, while in America they rarely do, is that elite impunity is now an American national project. We might need to reframe “American exceptionalism.” Instead of a New Deal, we have a Great Society for white-collar crime, a New Frontier of executive lawbreaking, a No Rich Crook Left Behind. Most of us probably don’t even realize it. Nevertheless, this has been the priority for the wealthy and powerful, who have managed to convince a critical mass of Americans that they will be able to enjoy the same privileges. They won’t.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/elite-accountability-powerful-impunity/686134/

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