Now I’m not saying that the many chaos stories Trump is causing aren’t worth media coverage. They are. But to the exclusion of everything else?
Nor am I saying that Trump is causing all this chaos for the sole purpose of distracting the media from the things he doesn’t want the public to be talking about. But regardless of Trump’s intent, distraction is the result.
So to make sure we keep up on the important stuff Trump and the Republicans don’t want us talking about, here’s my little update.
Epstein Files —
I wish I had some good news to report about the release of the Epstein Files, but I don’t. So hoping you won’t shoot the messenger, Let me start with this report from Reuters:
NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has asked a New York federal judge to deny a request by two lawmakers seeking an appointment of a special master to monitor the public release of records tied to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Justice Department since December has been
releasing caches of documents tied to its investigations of Epstein. But U.S. Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie
have criticized the department's slow pace.
In a six-page letter filed on Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche argued that Khanna and Thomas Massie are not parties to the U.S. v. Ghislaine Maxwell case involving Epstein and should not be allowed to file a friend of the court request in the matter.
In other words DoJ’s argument is that Massie and Khanna do not have standing, therefore the court should not comply with their request to appoint a Special Master to review the un-redacted files. Funny how the article says the Justice Department is releasing documents and that Massie and Khanna are just upset about the slow pace. This completely glosses over the fact that DoJ has missed two legally binding deadlines in the law and that materials released to date have been redacted in a way that most likely violates the law.
Then we have this report from The New York Post about how DoJ claims it is diligently working to release the files.
The Department of Justice has tasked over 500 people to pour over millions of files tied to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, claiming the agency has made “substantial progress,” according to a letter sent to a pair of federal judges Thursday night.
“Due to the scope of this effort, platform operations require around-the-clock attention and technical assistance to resolve inevitable glitches due to the sheer volume of materials,” said the letter, signed by Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton.
The poor babies, having to have hundreds of agents burn the midnight oil to comb through thousands of documents. Don’t you feel their pain?
What a bunch of poppycock!
Here’s what I think is really going on. Since Bondi doesn’t trust the 500 career agents to redact the files in the way she sees fit (ie., she doesn’t want them redacted according to the law), she and a handful of Trump loyalists are probably personally going through the files to double check that all the names and photos of the perpetrators are blacked out. Which of course will take weeks if not months. The fact of the matter is they should have seen this coming last Spring and had most of the work done well before the legal deadline. But they instead bet on the law not passing and did nothing. Frankly, this DoJ stall and redact tactic was Trump’s Plan B all along.
DoJ needs to change its name to the DoPP — Department of Pedophile Protectors
ACA Subsidies -
First, to recap, the House passed a clean 3 year extension of the ACA Subsidies over a week ago as a result of a successful Discharge Petition filed by Speaker-In-Waiting Jeffries. Now that it’s in the hands of the Senate, so what are they doing? Once again, more bad news from Politico:
Senators left town Thursday sounding pessimistic about any breakthroughs in negotiations to extend expired Obamacare subsidies.
Although a small bipartisan group of lawmakers has been working furiously the past two weeks to reach a compromise to lower health costs, several Republicans expressed skepticism Thursday that the group could ultimately overcome some of the thorniest issues involved in extending the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expired Dec. 31.
Republicans involved in the talks disagree on what policy issue has left them in limbo, and some of them have started blaming Democrats for failing to come to the table on a compromise — an ominous sign for a deal that must have buy-in from both sides of the aisle.
YO, Senate Democrats! Why are letting Republicans run this thing into the ground? We are coming up on a government funding deadline on January 31. Why are you not insisting that the House passed bill be added to the government funding bill (or at least a decent compromise) in return for your votes to end the filibuster. You have the power.
Look, I get that leaving the subsidies un-extended until Fall is the political smart move since the blame falls 100% on the Republicans. But I don’t think we should be playing political games with people’s lives. That’s what Republicans do. Our Party should be above that.
Well, for better or worse (I guess mostly worse) that’s today’s update on the issues Trump and the Republicans don’t want the public talking about, but we Democrats should be talking about.
