Epstein-Trump Files Update: A 13-Year-Old Victim's Trauma

 

One of the alleged victims of the Epstein sex trafficking ring who claims the Malignant Fascist sexually abused her is living in fear, according to this report in Jezebel (warning: explicit descriptions):

In March, we reported that the Justice Department withheld—and released—a series of FBI interviews in which an alleged victim of Epstein's, referred to in the Epstein Files as Jane Doe 4, accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 in 1983. On Tuesday, one of her relatives told the Guardian that she's been living in fear amid rising scrutiny over her claims.

"Trauma is brutal. Chronic trauma destroys," the source, who remained unnamed, said. According to her, the alleged victim is "staying off the grid," and that "she's coping as best as she can." 

While details of the woman's abuse were not originally part of the more than three million pages of Epstein files the Justice Department released in January, newer documents released in March included three of the FBI's interviews with her involving the allegations, which she made in 2019. In one of them, labeled "Interview #2" and dated August 2019, she seemed to tell the FBI that Trump allegedly put her head "down to his penis" and she "bit the shit out of it." She said that afterwards, Trump struck her and said "Words to the effect of 'Get this little bitch the hell out of here.'"

The document added further detail to another file that was previously published by the DOJ in its big January dump, in which a woman told a FBI tip line that she was introduced to Trump by Epstein when she was 13, after which he "forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit." It added that "in response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out."

Through all this, the White House has maintained that her claims as "total baselessness." But they've also said that Trump's "done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him," so… we'll let you take of that what you must.

All this comes about a week after a federal judge on Thursday ordered Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to release unredacted versions of the Epstein files, including interview notes relating to the woman's accusations. The judge's move followed a lawsuit filed by Katie Phang, a lawyer and journalist, who sued Blanche in April for the DOJ's failure to upload the files in full—having missed its original deadline to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, uploading heavily redacted files afterwards, and then dumping its three million pages. The latter was riddled with mistakes, and exposed the details and nude images of several Epstein survivors...

The adjudicated sexual assaulter/ rapist that the American people, in their wisdom, elected twice * is being shielded by a corrupt acting Attorney General and other high officials in the "Justice" Department. That will continue regardless of court orders, because protecting the decaying cult leader is more important than seeing justice done for the victims.  Our other takeaway is, we wish she'd bitten him harder.

_______________

*Though not by popular vote in 2016.

(Gif:  Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell (in white blouse;  nothing to see here!)

Trump Resisting Paying E. Jean Carroll

 

The adjudicated sexual assaulter (or rapist as presiding Judge Kaplan noted) and demented clown Malignant Fascist lost his final desperate attempt before the Supreme Court to wiggle out of paying journalist E. Jean Carroll a $5 million plus interest penalty from his conviction in 2023.  The deadbeat loser is still trying to duck paying what he owes, as The New Republic reports:

"Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, wrote in a court filing Tuesday that Trump’s legal representative had called her the day prior asking for another delay to the $5 million sum Trump owes the writer. Later Monday, Kaplan said she informed Trump’s team that 'Carroll does not consent,' and asked whether Trump would comply with the immediate disbursement of funds.

Carroll has a long and unfortunate history with the president. Trump was found liable by a jury in May 2023 for having sexually assaulted Carroll in the mid-1990s, for which she was awarded $5 million in damages.

He subsequently lost his defamation case against her the following January, when a judge ruled that Trump had continued to defame the advice columnist by denying the assault on the basis that she wasn’t his 'type,' and by accusing her of making up the allegations against him for the benefit of her book. A jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in that case.

But Carroll hasn’t yet seen a dime from either case. In May, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue staving off his payments until the Supreme Court decided whether or not to pick up the case. The court made their decision Monday, rejecting Trump’s challenge and allowing the verdict to stand." (our emphasis)

Laughably, the delusional MF is now asking the Supreme Court to revisit its rejection of his meritless case, ironically keeping the story in the news that much longer. 

The MF has a long history of manipulating courts to avoid payments of debt as a corrupt real estate developer who filed bogus claims against contractors to get them to settle for far less than what he owed them for their work.  That won't work this time, and he's also got that $83.3 million defamation judgement hanging over his head pending appeal, which he's also very likely to lose.

(photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty, Mark Wilson/Getty, Tyler Le/BI)

 

Trump's $20 Billion Firing

 

Tariffs, DOGE cuts, the Iran War, tax cuts for the rich, cuts to affordable health care. We've already seen the costs of the blunders in economic and human terms.  That's not even including the cost of the Malignant Fascist's graft.

But specific consequences of the incompetence of the Malignant Fascist and his clown car of fascist flunkies aren't always known in a timely manner, if they become known at all.  They're often superseded by the daily outrage, or by distractions thrown into the media environment, or simply covered up.  But sometimes when such a consequence becomes public, the sheer, senseless self- sabotaging shocks.  This is one of those instances:

Last year, President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of ousting Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after alleging economic data was being "rigged" without evidence. Now, research suggests Trump's move packed a punch against the U.S. economy.

A new analysis published ... in the Center for Economic and Policy Research from four economists indicates that the U.S. economy took a $20 billion hit in lost economic activity due to Trump's firing of McEntarfer last August. The analysis attributed the figure to a "sharp increase" in policy uncertainty that depressed economic activity since businesses operating in a cloudy landscape tend to pause investment decisions. 

"The estimate is necessarily imprecise, but the broader implication is clear: trustworthy federal statistics are valuable economic infrastructure," the quartet of economists wrote in the blog post, adding that the finding was "particularly relevant for democracies" managing top-tier statistical agencies to measure economic development.

The analysis was authored by Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist; Erica Groshen, an ex-BLS commissioner; Duncan Hobbs, a senior research associate at the  American Enterprise Institute; and Michael Strain, another AEI economist.

They applied a statistical model previously used to measure the economic impact of uncertainty during the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic. They calculated the impact to total $20 billion in lost output.

The group argued that preserving independent economic data is critical for the US economic growth since reliable statistics allow consumers and businesses to make their financial decisions with having to fly blind.

"Protecting the credibility, independence, and technical capacity of federal statistical agencies is therefore not merely an administrative concern," they wrote. "It is a consequential economic one."...  (our emphasis)

Twenty billion dollars.  

Now that the illegitimate Republican Supreme Court has ruled that the MF can fire executive branch officials at will for no cause (Trump v Slaughter), who knows what other ill-advised, intemperate firings by the Malignant Fascist will cause significant damage of one sort or another.  He's incompetent, but he's quite proficient at doing damage to our country, isn't he.

(Photo:  Erika McEntarfer, the $20 billion firee / BLS)

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Rick McKee, caglecartoons.com)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune;  context here)

(Christopher Weyant, caglecartoons.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Sean Delonas, caglecartoons.com)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)

(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)

(Steve Sack, stevesack.substack.com; context here)

(Joe Dator, joedator.com)

House Leaves Early for Holiday After Failure

 

Squeaker of the House Li'l Mike "New Moses" Johnson has had to send his Congress critters home for a long Fourth of July holiday because he and his leadership failed to pass the National Defense Authorization Act when Johnson, after being pressured by the unstable narcissist Malignant Fascist, attached the MF's vote-rigging SAVE (Trump's ass) America bill to the Defense authorization act.  From the Associated Press:

"The House leadership on Tuesday abruptly canceled votes and sent lawmakers home early for the holiday recess, Speaker Mike Johnson ’s majority once again ground to a standstill by a Republican revolt over their own party’s agenda.

In this case, it’s a standoff blocking the annual defense bill — with pay raises for the troops and other matters at a time of war — as the renegade Republicans push to include President Donald Trump’s own priority, the SAVE America Act, a strict voter ID bill. Last week, the Senate similarly shuttered after Trump’s demands. [snip]

Johnson spent four hours last week at the White House and said he spent another two hours with the president this week on a path forward.

'I told him, 'Mr. President, I don’t have any tattoos, but if I did, it’d say SAVE America on my shoulder,’ OK?”' Johnson said over the weekend on Fox News.

'We passed it three times in the House already. We’re going to pass it again.'

But by Tuesday, a House vote to advance the legislation collapsed. Republicans led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida argued that Johnson’s plan to attach the voting bill to the defense bill was essentially a doomed strategy that would be rejected in the Senate."  (our emphasis)

Li'l Mike's pathetic ass kissing of the MF is yet another example of the MAGAt Congress deferring its role to the megalomaniac in the Oval Office, meekly doing whatever he wants with no independence, guardrails or oversight as envisioned by Article 1 of the Constitution.  With the MF's approval numbers dropping, and the mid-term elections coming up, the bad times for House MAGAts will only get worse.

(photo: Kyle Cooper / AP)

 

Skeets Of The Day

 

The birthright citizenship decision (Trump v Barbara) --

 

5-4 for what it explicitly says in the constitution is incredible. They were this close to undoing the civil war entirely. bsky.app/profile/mjsd...

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— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 10:40 AM

 

It’s important to keep today’s birthright citizenship decision in context. First, SCOTUS left the status of a fundamental, explicitly articulated constitutional right uncertain for over a year all to affirm what was clear from the issuance of Trump’s EO. Birthright citizenship cannot be abridged.

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 11:19 AM

 

Second apparently this was a close case for this Court. As it stands the decision is 6-3. In 1898 the Court’s decision protecting birthright citizenship, Won Kim Ark v. U.S., was 6-2. That means this SCOTUS is either on par w/or to the right of the 1898 Court - the same SCOTUS that decided Plessy!

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 11:23 AM

 

And a lest we forget Justice Kavanaugh writes separately because while he agrees with the judgment in this case that Trump cannot change birthright citizenship by EO, he believes that Congress can by statute create exceptions to birthright citizenship that would mirror the provisions of Trump’s EO.

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 12:10 PM

 

Most.  Corrupt.  Regime.  Ever --

 

The number of financial side deals the Trump family is running is so shocking it can sometimes be hard to track. According to @reuters.com, their crypto ventures alone have delivered $2.3 billion to Trump & co. while creating a similar-sized loss for investors.

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— Steve Rattner (@steverattner.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 11:54 AM

 

MAGAt Rep. Nehls' KKK bedsheet on Lady Liberty and affordability --

Nehls: You have to love our country. This is what we gotta do. We gotta put a big bed sheet over the Statue of Liberty. She gotta go to sleep for a while. I'm not saying she's dead. Instead of having a torch, maybe it needs a stop sign.

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) June 30, 2026 at 6:23 PM

 

Nehls on how House GOP will make case for affordability back home: Nehls: What are you talking about? I'm gonna get me lobster tails. Some nice rib eyes. Reporter: Do you think the 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck can afford that? Nehls: Maybe not. Maybe they don't work as hard as me.

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) June 30, 2026 at 6:03 PM

 

More from Trump's fair flop --

 

the energy of USA 250 is less that of a birthday party and more that of a funeral

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— state song thread guy (@statesongxprt.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 12:38 AM

 

JD's "religious beliefs" --

 

Jesus wept.

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— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 11:53 PM

 

Happy belated 100th (!) birthday to the great Mel Brooks --

Thank you so much for all of your happy birthday wishes. Honestly, I don’t really feel 100. I feel pretty good. I feel like I’m only 98!

— Mel Brooks (@officialmelbrooks.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 9:21 PM

 

Happy Canada Day to better neighbors than we deserve --

 

#CanadaDay Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦 🍁 🇨🇦

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— Mairead D (@maireadd100.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 7:19 AM

 

We need an adult version of this --

 

I need one one for my dog!! 😬🐶❤️ Good morning everyone

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— Martha Acuna (@marthaacuna.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 8:06 AM

 

 

Mid-Week Song

 

Indie folk artist Phoebe Bridgers' third solo album "Lost Weekend" is due out in mid-August.  The four-time Grammy winner -- also a member of the supergroup boygenius -- released a single from that album a few days ago, "Lost Boys," which is our mid-week song choice.  Enjoy.

Quotes Of The Day -- On Birthright Citizenship And Gutting Campaign Finance Reforms

 

"... The very idea of questioning birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment had been deader than Marley, either Jacob or Bob, for more than 130 years, which isn’t surprising given that the amendment establishes it in unambiguous language. Even the 180 proof racist nativism of 19th century federal judges didn’t deny this reality.

"But nothing — absolutely nothing — is ever good enough or off the table for our own racist nativism, which has managed to achieve escape velocity from all social and legal reality, as it marinates in a poisonous atmosphere of resentment and hatred.

"That these people can’t even see that the Supreme Court is the very best friend right wing reaction has ever had in this country — and not merely at present but for about 93% of that ignominious institution’s existence — is a testament to how the reactionary right in this country can’t be bargained with, can’t be reasoned with, doesn’t feel remorse or pity or fear, and absolutely will not stop, ever, until anything like cultural pluralism, religious and intellectual liberty, and even any semblance of liberal democracy in America, are dead."  -- law professor Paul Campos, LGM, in "Terminating America With Extreme Prejudice" yesterday. 

____________________

"... The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be swept aside so easily at the behest of a fascist sitting atop the executive branch. The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be overruled by a simple majority in Congress. The Constitution is not a functional document if it can be gutted based on a handful of members of the nation’s highest court so eagerly deciding to abdicate their duties.

"As constitutional law professor Evan Bernick put it yesterday, 'Nothing bad in the United States is ever over, including constitutional things. These were the same arguments rejected over a century ago, and they’ll be back again and we’ll have to kill them again.'”  -- attorney Lisa Needham, today in "Public Notice" Substack, on "A Vote Away From Undoing The Civil War."

 ____________________

“Today’s campaign finance ruling is part of the Roberts Court’s 16-year drive to destroy anti-corruption laws. From Citizens United forward, these justices have ushered in an era of massive money in politics. If you don’t like the way the political system is working, blame the Supreme Court.

“Here, the Court again overrode the law passed by Congress, going against the wishes of the vast majority of the American public who want reasonable campaign finance limits. The questions at the heart of this case were for Congress to answer, not nine unelected justices.

“The Court’s campaign finance vendetta has given wealthy donors outsized influence, resulting in a fusion of private wealth and political power unseen since the Gilded Age. Public trust in our institutions is plummeting. Congress must act to curb corruption arising from the flood of money in elections and restore Americans’ faith in government. Ambitious reform is long overdue.” -- Michael Waldman, president and CEO at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, on the Republican SCOTUS' dismantling campaign finance anti-corruption laws to benefit their rotted-out party in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission.

 

We have a lot to do to undo the damage these rats-in-robes have done to our country and its Constitution.  We must undo it with the same zeal and commitment that they've employed over the past two decades, and make sure that our reconstructed system won't allow for their anti- democratic, un- Constitutional, un- American radicalism to hold sway over the American majority again.

Trump Made $1.4 Billion In Crypto Last Year; How Did You Do?

 

Most.  Corrupt.  President.  Ever:

President Donald Trump earned more than $635 million from a licensing agreement with a cryptocurrency group specializing in "meme" coins bearing his name last year, an amount that pushed his total crypto holdings past $1 billion, according to a lengthy financial disclosure form he released Tuesday.

The figures from 2025 — the first year of Trump's second term — were disclosed to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in a 927-page document. By comparison, President Barack Obama's final disclosure form was eight pages, while President Joe Biden's was 11. Vice President JD Vance's form for last year is 17 pages.

Trump's meme-coin earnings came on top of more than $236 million worth from additional crypto token sales, and an additional sale of equity worth more than $65 million associated with Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial. There's also more than $290 million classified as income from cryptocurrency wallets associated with World Liberty.

The $635 million was earned from a group called "Celebration Coins." No digital footprint could be found for the group, and a representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.  [snip]

Unlike past presidents, Trump did not divest his assets or place them in a blind trust before taking office. The Trump Organization has said the assets are managed by third-party financial institutions, with trades executed through automated technology.

"What strikes me as remarkable is how many pies Trump has his fingers in," said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. "There is no precedent to compare it with. No president in the 20th or 21st century has had something that's vaguely comparable."

Trump has faced bipartisan criticism for alleged conflicts of interest, assertions the White House has vigorously denied.

Trump's total crypto earnings totaled some $1.4 billion during his first year back in office, when he began making liberalized cryptocurrency regulations a cornerstone of his presidency.

Wait, there's more.  And it relates to everyone's favorite thug organization:

The disclosure also lists Trump's investment accounts as buying and selling shares of the GEO Group, a private prison company and one of the largest contractors with ICE.

Starting just 10 days after his inauguration, the disclosure shows Trump's investment accounts made purchases of the prison company. As the number of immigrant detainees swelled from 35,000 to almost 70,000, the purchases increased with the total ranging from $143,000 to $445,000. The last purchase was listed in late November. The stock that was sold ranges from $67,000 to $180,000.  (our emphasis)

Note to MAGAts and low-information voters:  he's not draining the swamp, he is the swamp;  he's not helping you, he's helping himself.  Those gins made by the Trump Crime Family were at the expense of losses by investors.  Imagine the cataclysmic outrage had Obama and Biden enriched themselves at this scale while in office, pursuing their financial interests and not the public's interests.

(Image: Chelsea Stahl / NBC News; Getty Images; Reuters)

 

QOTD -- No Bullshit False Equivalences!

 

'...[T]he idea that the U.S. now has a far left that is equally dangerous and radical as the far right is entirely wrong, no matter how many powerful people and institutions hint or claim otherwise. America’s extreme right wing is by far the country’s big problem, and it’s hard to address that problem when powerful elites insist that the trouble is with 'both sides.'

"Why is this analogy so far-fetched? First of all and most importantly, the political left in America believes in and practices democracy. Until leftists collectively try to use judicial and then violent means to overturn an election that they clearly lost, as MAGA Republicans did in 2020, I don’t want to hear any bullshit false equivalences between leftists and MAGA conservatives. Conducting free and fair elections and respecting their results is fundamental to democracy. MAGA’s leader, Donald Trump, refused to accept the 2020 results, as did dozens of Republican members of Congress and state officials. To this day, Republicans tiptoe around the issue to the point where they can’t even give a straightforward answer to the question, 'Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election?'  [snip]

"The centrists annoyed by the left aren’t stupid. They are conflating the socialist left with the MAGA right as a rhetorical tool. The media, traditional Democrats, and swing voters will reject Mamdani and his ilk if they are convinced that socialists will be as destructive to the U.S. as Trumpists. But this misleading centrist rhetoric has real consequences. What the U.S. desperately needs is socialists, traditional liberals, independents, and pro-democracy conservatives to disagree with one another during Democratic primaries but then join together to defeat the MAGA right in general elections. That unity can’t happen if anytime centrist Democrats lose a primary they act as if a socialist candidate winning is as dangerous as a MAGA candidate winning. It’s not. I plead to those on the center left to stop calling people extreme unless they are trying to end democracy in America."  (our emphasis) -- Perry Bacon, The New Republic, exploding the rhetorical nonsense that too many "centrist" Democrats, as well as the usual media et al. suspects, peddle after a leftist wins an election.  There's existential danger to our country and its democracy, and it's not coming from the left.

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Rick McKee, caglecartoons.com)

(Randall Enos, caglecartoons.com;  context here)

(Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, SC)

(Nick Anderson, Raw Story)

(Jeff Danziger, The Rutland Herald, VT)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)

(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)

(Steve Brodner, stevebrodner.substack.com;  context here)

(Ann Telnaes, anntelnaes.substack.com)

(Matt Davies, Newsday)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency;  context here)

(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)

(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)

(Peter Steiner, @plsteiner)

Skeets Of The Day

 

Operation Epic Failure: the imaginary meeting, Hormuz nuz --

Iran war live: Tehran denies Trump’s claims of meeting in Doha https://aje.news/e20hsv

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— Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) June 29, 2026 at 8:30 PM

 

It’s put-up-or-shut-up time for Iran and the Revolutionary Guard. They’re treating Hormuz as the spoil of a successful defensive war. But ships transited without registering with Iran by hugging Oman. And the US fired in defense of it. The IRGC couldn’t let that slide. So the conflict continues.

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— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 9:00 AM

The endless lawlessness and corruption of the Malignant Fascist and his regime -- 

BREAKING: A federal judge just ordered the Trump admin to permanently abandon its efforts to suspend funding for a $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River — describing those attempts as "flagrantly" illegal.

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— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 9:30 PM

 

White House officials secretly awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500m for the construction of the East Wing ballroom in an unusual arrangement that sidestepped typical contracting procedures designed to control costs, according to a copy of the agreement www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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— John Hudson (@johnphudson.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 8:18 AM

 

There’s a story like this approximately every other day now. www.cnbc.com/2026/06/29/t...

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 8:30 AM

James Talarico in a close race with degenerate MAGAt Ken Paxton. Get Talarico needed funding --

 

Whoa. New NYT poll has dead heat in Texas Senate race. Talarico +27 among independents. This will push Dem groups to spend big there, now that it's clearly in play.

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 6:40 AM

Speaking of opinion, the Israeli people have some -- 

“some 92 percent of Israelis believe that Iran won the war,” recent polls conducted in Israel show…Another poll, by Israel’s Channel 12, shows that just 13 percent of Israelis now trust the once-popular Trump to safeguard Israeli interests.” open.substack.com/pub/spytalk/...

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— John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 9:32 PM

The genocidal campaign of sociopathic fascist Elon Musk is claiming lives --

One study found Musk’s closing of the U.S. Agency for International Development could cause the deaths of millions of children.

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— Forbes (@forbes.com) June 29, 2026 at 12:40 PM

The Not-So-Great American State Flop Fair. Find an empty field to get the vibe --

Wanted to get the vibe of going to Trump’s state fair but didn’t want to drive all the way to DC, so I just went and stood in an empty field.

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— Hoarse Whisperer (@therealhoarse.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 3:53 PM

Do it, Britain, do it -- 

Suddenly, Britain is indicating that it might put the kibosh on Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. www.reuters.com/business/med...

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 9:13 AM

Sen. Susan "I'm Concerned" Collins can't hide her election year hypocrisy -- 

VOLUNTEER: Senator Collins, I just really wanted to thank you for standing with Trump when it really counts. SUSAN COLLINS: Thank you. CROWD MEMBER: Stay strong

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 4:55 PM

The Malignant Fascist's 1930s Nazi Germany aesthetic keeps surfacing -- 

Really showing the aesthetic vision of White House chief decorator Lenny Riefenstahl

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— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 11:03 PM

 

First, the White House doesn't date back to July 4, 1776, idiot. It opened on November 1, 1800. Second, the tackiest man in the United States and its president should *not* be the same person. Third, nice inspiration, fascist.

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— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) June 29, 2026 at 9:24 PM

 

 

Trump's No-Bid $500 Million Ballroom Secret Deal

 

Always lying, always cheating.  The arrangement that the Malignant Fascist made to secretly use taxpayer money in a sweetheart no-bid deal to construct his golden ballroom/ bunker is out in the open now:

Donald Trump used a secret backroom arrangement to ensure the deal to build his tacky East Wing ballroom went to his preferred contractor.

Officials steered the $500 million agreement with Clark Construction through the Executive Residence, an arm of the Executive Office of the President that ordinarily buys furniture and art, covers entertainment, and handles repairs at the mansion, according to The Washington Post ($$).

That office sits outside federal rules that require agencies to seek competing offers and to lay out spending publicly. Structuring the deal this way allowed Trump to dodge scrutiny of the arrangement and avoid exposing it to competition.

Avoiding competition allowed the administration to sidestep a process that has historically worked to keep prices down for a job of this scale, the Post reported. “I would certainly expect them to compete a project of this size and complexity,” Anthony Costa, a former General Services Administration official who handled federal real estate work across four administrations, told the Post.

Trump, 80, got personally involved in the haggling, records show. On March 4—days after launching his war with Iran—he talked down what a Clark subsidiary would charge for concrete, trimming $2.3 million from an opening figure above $47 million.

The price tag has more than tripled since the ballroom was unveiled in July, with taxpayers expected to foot roughly half of it. The company internally valued the work at $200 million in July 2025, a figure that has since ballooned to $600 million.  

Trump insisted donors would cover the bill. He told The New York Times in January that Clark had offered to do the work for free. “They said: ‘Sir, we’ll do it for nothing. This is the greatest honor’,” he said. *

The Virginia firm, the largest builder in the D.C. region, stands to profit handsomely. A March estimate put its haul at $65 million across overhead, profit, and on-site staffing.

Clark also flagged plans to pass demolition, excavation, and other tasks to 11 or more subcontractors without competition, two of them in-house subsidiaries...

Will we find out in the future what profit the Malignant Fascist also made in the deal? Also, to repeat, a taxpayer-funded golden ballroom/ bunker for me, no affordable housing for thee!

Any Democratic candidate for Federal office that doesn't pledge to demolish this monument to graft and greed (and everything else the MF touched) as a top priority gets a hard pass from us.

BONUS:  More corruption here and here.

______________

* Any quote that the Malignant Fascist begins with "Sir" is guaranteed fictitious.

(Image:  maybe no =yawn= housing bill, but this excites him / The White House)

Court Rejects Trump's Birthright Citizenship Case

A major blow to the bigoted and unhinged Malignant Fascist from the Supreme Court. Associated Press reports:

 "The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

The Republican president’s restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.

During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality in a momentous case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented attendance in the courtroom.

The case framed another test of Trump’s assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices."

Other sources report it was a 6 - 3 decision with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion, while Justices Gorsuch, Alito and Thomas dissented. 

Attacking birthright citizenship was a major initiative of the lawless MF, who signed an unlawful Executive Order trying to limit citizenship his first days in office.

BONUS:  At the same time, the Republican SCOTUS dealt blows to campaign finance rules and transgender rights.

The Malignant Fascist's Sad State Fair

 

One picture's worth a hundred attendees:

If you watch the MF's propaganda outlet Fox "News", you may not realize how bad the "Great American State Fair" is. The past few days have not changed that fact that it has major issues. Sparse crowds, many wearing Trump cult regalia, mill around uninspired state exhibits, a number of which aren't even staffed. Coupled with outrageous food prices and power outages, it's a real dud. And wait until this week progresses, when brutal temperatures (100 +) and the humidity Washington summers are known for kick in. A sweaty, lame mess, just like the deranged MF himself.

(photo: Tierney L. Cross via Getty Images)