Friday, October 30, 2026

Vegetable Chowder in the Kitchen


Louise e-mailed to note Food.com's Vegetable Chowder recipe: 

ingredients
3 cups diced peeled potatoes (1-inch dice)
2 1⁄2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup grated carrot
2 cups diced celery
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
3 cups water
3⁄4 cup butter
4 cups milk
1 cup cooked diced ham (1-inch cubes)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3⁄4 cup flour

Directions
In a soup kettle add all vegetables and the 3 cups water and chicken bouillon.
Simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
In a large saucepan melt butter.
Stir in flour and cook for 2-3 minutes until nice and bubbly.
Whisk in milk; bring to a boil.
Add this to the vegetable-water mixture in soup kettle.
Bring all to a simmer and add ham and shredded cheese.
Bring to a simmer again and cook until cheese is melted and all is heated through.
Serve and ENJOY!

So that's a nice recipe.  I remember in the early 90s, The Food Network offered a vegetable chowder recipe that I loved and made for about eight years.  I haven't made it since the 90s.  I'll have to look and see if I still have the recipe. 


President Donald Trump’s attempt to rescue Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) from a medical-debt scandal has left some of his own advisers grimacing, according to a new report.
A longtime Trump adviser and another Republican close to the president told Zeteo’s “First Draft” newsletter that they were unhappy with Trump’s defense, saying his “viral, antisemitic-slur-prone” remark only spread the debt controversy further, both in Kansas and nationally.
The 80-year-old president defended Marshall earlier this month against a bombshell New York Times exposé by complaining at a rally that the senator’s opponents “made it like: Oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” a reference to the moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” that has long been considered an antisemitic stereotype.
Trump also falsely claimed that Marshall had been required “by law” to “go after those people.”
The Times reported last month that patients sued by Marshall, an OB-GYN, “were routinely charged 18 percent interest” and that “some had bank accounts garnished.” The headline read: “A Doctor Sued 700 Patients for Debts; 81 Were Arrested. Now He’s a Senator.”
The story has dogged Marshall in his unexpectedly tight race against Democrat Adam Hamilton, a pastor. When Vice President JD Vance rallied for Marshall in Olathe last month, a protester managed to shout “He sued his patients!” before being removed.
Marshall’s troubles haven’t stopped there. He faces allegations that he actually lives in Florida, and on Wednesday, independent journalist Judd Legum reported that Marshall bought stock in an obscure pharmaceutical company just before it won FDA approval to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Roger Marshall is a piece of work. 

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Thursday:

Thursday, October 29, 2026.  Chump's DESPERATION TOUR continues with smaller and smaller crowds, Todd Blanche's questionable actions demand the appointment of a special counsel, Alex Pretti's parents want justice, and much more. 





Chump continues his DESPERATION TOUR trying to shake off his dismal polling numbers and also convince Americans that the economy he's destroyed is doing just great.  But he flounders to stay on message and he has this habit of making rude revelations.  For example, Lim Hui Jie (CNBC) reports:

U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that the Iran war will end "whenever I want it to," but insists that Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Speaking at a rally in Lubbock, Texas, Trump said "Somebody asked me before, 'When will the war in Iran end?' I said, 'Whenever I want it to end.'"

Whenever I want it to end.  

It started February 28th.  That was 243 days ago.  He started it at night while Americans slept and those who were awake might have caught his videotaped announcement of the war.  No, that's not how the US government typically announces wars.  They also typically have to do a roll out on the wars.  But Chump avoided those things because he was convinced this was what was needed.  He started this war of choice and it has destroyed the American economy.  Prices increased on everything.  

And he said it would be a few weeks.  It hit the eight month mark yesterday.  

"Whenever I want it to end."

The American people didn't want it to start and they've been calling for it to end since it started.  

Lim Hui Jie adds:

Currently, Trump's approval ratings stand at 32%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Monday.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said on Oct. 12 that the war was costing American families an average of $2,000 so far, where $1,100 comes from higher energy costs, $540 from heightened interest rate costs and $360 due to increased military spending.

And this as the financial cost of the war continues to mount.  Phillip Nieto (DAILY MAIL) reports:

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon has now spent more than $47 billion waging the war in Iran, handing Donald Trump a damaging new spending figure just days before the midterms.
The number, drawn from Pentagon data obtained by Reuters, is more than 25 percent higher than the $37.5 billion estimate Hegseth gave lawmakers over the summer. 
The Defense Department has not made the estimate public. It comes as Republicans face the real possibility of losing their majorities in both the House and the Senate in the November 3 election.

In other bad news for Chump as he jets around the country campaigning for himself, Brandon Lingle (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS) reports:

Pentagon watchdogs have received at least five reports of fraud, safety issues, bad parts or ethics concerns involving President Donald Trump's Qatari dream jet and Boeing's Air Force One replacement program at Port San Antonio.
Since late 2024, the Defense Department's inspector general's office has logged four complaints and one disclosure from Boeing Co. involving problems with the presidential aircraft programs, according to 90 pages of newly released records.
The heavily redacted documents provided to the San Antonio Express-News reveal previously undisclosed allegations and at least one criminal investigation potentially involving the presidential jets. 
Pentagon and service IG offices investigate fraud, waste and abuse, but typically do not discuss ongoing cases or unsubstantiated claims. The complaints came from anonymous sources, including a Boeing employee in Everett, Wash., and a Pentagon contract analyst in San Antonio. The records do not show whether any of the allegations were substantiated. 






  











Meanwhile, Monday Joanna Coles observed of THE DESPERATION TOUR,  "If you also pan the crowd when Donald Trump is speaking now, he started making these strange noises, you see the crowd behind him looking really embarrassed for him."  Jason Miciak (RAW STORY) shares his observations of the ones 


You can see it in the eyes of the people aligned behind President Donald Trump as he makes his campaign speeches nowadays, not so much dead eyes as dread eyes, the type that question why they are at another Trump speech, what is so appealing about this guy, and whether they feel much of anything nowadays.
Donald Trump is not dead, and yet he is dead, at least politically, and all one needs is the look in the eyes of the crowd behind him. He is also deeply disturbed.
Now, of course, we have known since 2015 that something about Trump was deeply disturbing; that's not new news, as they say. But the dread in the crowds is new, or at least newer, more extreme, approaching, just approaching, some self-loathing.
Remember back when? In 2016, it was delirium as opposed to dread. Trump was larger than life. They and he lived to "own the libs," remember? When was the last time you heard, "Owned, Libtard!" Even some of us who spend our own dread-like lives swimming in political soup haven't run into that in a long time.
He has had it. He's done. Ask the crowd. Or at least he is making noises that most associate with dying. During his last three speeches, he's made some noise, a weird "guhggu" — certainly not a word, kind of like if a guy could hiccup and burp at the same time. The noise itself comes out sounding as if IT is confused as to its purpose, unleashed into our atmospheric ocean with no purpose, no meaning, a lot like his current presidency.



MOTHER JONES notes Garrison Hayes and David Corn on STRESS TEST talking about THE DESPERATION TOUR:

Trump, meanwhile, has been obsessively commenting on physical anatomy—specifically “asses”—in one of the stranger closing arguments in modern American political history. “This has to be, like, the definition of being off message,” co-host Garrison Hayes observes. “Like, definitionally off message.”  
Trump’s fixation on rear-ends extended to rapper Nicki Minaj, who appeared at a rally, where Trump asked her to stand and extolled her derriere, fueling the silly rumor she might be named press secretary after the brief tenure of Katie “Half a Scaramucci” Zacharia.“It reminds me of what happened in 2016 when Trump was campaigning and he would say, ‘Hey, where’s my Black friend?’” David recalls. For Garrison, the gambit is all-too familiar: “Here we are in the closing moments of this midterm election, and the way that the Trump administration has decided to utilize a Black person in order to, I imagine, appeal to Black voters is offensive. It’s almost a caricature of the kind of racism that has become emblematic of this administration.”



Chump's DESPERATION TOUR has seen him in Georgia twice already to campaign for his buddy Mike Collins.  Collins and Collins' campaign fit into Chump's world -- now more than ever.  THE SWAMP notes: 

As Trump-endorsed Mike Collins makes his last-ditch effort to unseat Democratic senator Jon Ossoff in Georgia, his campaign’s associates are also hard at work. Hard at work fighting abhorrent criminal allegations against them, that is.
Collins’ campaign leader—or “convoy captain”—in Cobb County, Andre Lamar Stafford, was arrested after he allegedly drove up to a bus stop just before 8.30 am on Friday, Oct. 15, in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna. He stopped his car where an underage schoolgirl was standing, told her she was pretty, and then promptly exposed himself, his arrest warrant alleged. He was tracked by a Flock camera and picked out of a lineup by his alleged victim, whose age has not been disclosed. Stafford was accused of public indecency and child molestation and initially denied bond. Stafford, 26, claims he is innocent. However, the Cobb County arrest warrant stated that Collins’ “convoy captain” represented a “danger to a person or community.” He was later released. Oh, and did we mention that Stafford is running for a seat in the Georgia state house? So far, he’s not letting a little arrest warrant interrupt his campaign and plans to remain in his race, where he wants to oust Democrat Gabriel Sanchez.
The Collins campaign issued a statement that bravely came out against child molestation: “Mr. Stafford has volunteered on many campaigns across the state this year, including ours,” Collins said. “The charges are sickening, and if they’re true then he belongs on a list and behind bars.”
The Swamp has exposed a series of questionable characters serving as “convoy captains,” the name Collins is giving to appointed campaign leaders in counties across Georgia. The list includes B.B. Langham, a campaign leader in Richmond County, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to felony cruelty to children, along with charges of family violence and sexual battery—stemming from an incident involving his own (minor) stepdaughter. Joey Jackson, convoy captain for Jenkins County, was charged with cruelty to children. Gordon Austin, Carroll County’s captain, lost his dentist’s license after pleading guilty to fraud. And, of course, who could forget the “convoy captains” with ties to the Ku Klux Klan? That distinction belongs to Joshua Mote (Hall County) and Michael Boggus (Banks County).


Where there is sexual abuse, one finds Chump.  Let's move over to his roll dog, the late Jeffrey Epstein.  Bonded at the hip to Chump from the 80s through the 00s, the sex trafficker and pedophile is remembered for his crimes.  Something Chump will be remembered for as well.  And those crimes may include joining Epstein in the rape and assault Earlier this week, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee issued a report which noted women coming forward to speak of incidents with Chump and Epstien.  The fact that these accusations were not released by the Justice Dept when they released 'everything' as the Congressional Act required has led them to note a cover up appears to have taken place and that a special counsel needs to be appointed to explore the events and see what happened.  One of the women, identified only as Jane, was a witness in court against Epstein's sex trafficking partner Ghislaine Maxwell.  When Todd Blanche went to speak to Maxwell in July of 2025, the transcript shows that when Maxwell would mention Jane, Blanche would make clear that they weren't to speak of her.  

Weren't to speak of her.  

Let's go to the report:


As revealed by this Staff Report, documents in the Epstein files show that then-Deputy
Attorney General Todd Blanche likely knew about certain survivors’ claims against the President
when he traveled to Tallahassee, Florida, to interview Epstein co-conspirator Maxwell in federal
prison. The transcript of that meeting shows that on at least three separate occasions, Blanche
directed Maxwell not to discuss one individual, Jane, whose report to FBI implicated Donald
Trump in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, but whose claims were not yet known to the public. In 
other words, Attorney General Blanche may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice while
acting on a mission to protect Trump.


And this is what the Congressional report notes of Jane:

JANE DOE 1 (A.K.A. JANE) – 14 YEARS OLD
DOJ documents released pursuant to EFTA include an allegation that in 1994 at Mar-aLago, 
Jeffrey Epstein “introduced [a victim] to Trump saying ‘This is a good one, huh’ and Trump
responded ‘Yes.’”67 The victim was 14 years old at this time. As made apparent when viewed in
the version made available to Members of Congress, but not to the public, Jane Doe 1 was viewed
as a credible witness by DOJ investigators and prosecutors, and she was one of four women to
testify against Ghislaine Maxwell during her criminal trial under the pseudonym “Jane.”68 Jane’s
testimony was devastating for Maxwell’s defense. She described, in detail, abuse and sex acts that
occurred at Epstein’s properties in Florida, New Mexico, and New York, sometimes involving
Maxwell and groups of people.6
This slide deck of “Prominent Names” in the Epstein investigation, was created by DOJ
and FBI personnel in the weeks leading up to Todd Blanche’s interview of Maxwell and seemingly
initiated in “Response to 07/10/2025 Director’s call.” The slide deck includes a reference to
Jane’s account of Trump and Epstein’s conversation. Yet, strikingly, when then-Deputy Attorney
General Blanche interviewed Maxwell, ostensibly to “pursue justice wherever the facts may lead”
in the Jeffrey Epstein case, he did not ask any questions at all about Jane’s allegations. In fact,
when on several different occasions, Maxwell proactively referenced Jane, he quickly redirected
Maxwell away from any further discussion of “Jane” or her claims. 
In one instance, Maxwell volunteered to Attorney General Blanche: “I believe you’re
talking about Jane,” to which he responded “yeah” -- indicating he was aware of her allegations.
However, as soon as Maxwell began to “address that,” meaning Jane’s claims, Attorney General
Blanche cut her off and instructed her not to share specifics. At various points during the interview,  Attorney General Blanche interrupted Maxwell and instructed her not to discuss Jane's claims, for instance, saying "yeah, yeah, I don't want to get into … he said, she said." Maxwell responded "Absolutely, not. I'm not -- I don't want to go there either" and even more explicitly, "I'm not going to do that." At another point, Maxwell again raises Jane on her own and Attorney General Blanche abruptly cuts in saying, pointedly, "Let's not talk about individuals." The whole point of the conversation was not to uncover information but to create a conspiracy of silence and strategically deter Ghislaine Maxwell from sharing information that was not public at the time regarding the relationship between Trump and Epstein.
Attorney General Blanche’s actions, while perhaps not surprising given his former role as
Donald Trump’s defense attorney, potentially constituted witness tampering and obstruction of an
official proceeding—serious felonies. At the time of this interview, the House Oversight
Committee had scheduled an interview with Maxwell for August 11 -- less than two weeks later.
Blanche’s apparent instructions not to discuss a specific Epstein victim, and how that victim could
implicate Donald Trump, could easily run afoul of 18 U.S.C. § 1512, which forbids hindering or
delaying the communication of information relating to the potential commission of a federal
offense to a law enforcement officer, as well as corruptly influencing the testimony of any person
in an official proceeding -- such as a congressional interview and investigation.
Similarly, 18 U.S.C. 1505 forbids corruptly influencing, obstructing, or impeding any pending proceeding before Congress -- a crime which would almost certainly encompass indicating to a witness that they should not provide Congress with specific information that could implicate the President of the United States.



Blanche was supposedly interviewing Maxwell to find out what she knew.  In reality, he was most likely preparing her for what she would testify to (Maxwell was supposed to appear before a Congressional committee shortly after her exchange with Blanche but that did not end up happening).   Erin Mansfield (USA TODAY) notes: 


Democrats on the Judiciary Committee argue in their report that the Department of Justice and the FBI have protected Trump and stonewalled attempts to investigate Epstein's associates.
"There is more than enough evidence that many individuals other than Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell may have committed a crime," the report says. "This includes Donald Trump."
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein who women have told USA TODAY participated in their abuse, is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for sex trafficking, among other convictions. She met with now-Attorney General Todd Blanche shortly before the federal government moved her to a minimum security prison.
The report says the DOJ "has actively obstructed the Epstein investigation into any co-conspirators, attempted to prevent the release of the Epstein files, and then released an incomplete and heavily redacted set to the public—all while withholding key information about Trump in the process."
It also cites DOJ policy that prohibits prosecuting a sitting president, and federal law requiring the Department of Justice to appoint an independent special counsel if performing the investigation itself "would present a conflict of interest for the department or other extraordinary circumstances."

Mrinav Dehingia (WGTC) adds, "The report doubts that the administration will take even the 'minimal step' of appointing an independent special counsel. Raskin called on Congress to obtain the 'complete files required by law' and urged an independent special counsel to investigate Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators and the department’s handling of the case."

Covering the Congressional report, Daniel Gura (RADAR) emphasizes this:

Donald Trump has been accused of sexually and physically assaulting a 13-year-old girl, RadarOnline.com can report, and then allegedly threatening to make her "disappear" if she tried to tell her story.
The allegations are part of an explosive new report from the House Judiciary Committee that claims Trump sexually assaulted at least five women years before becoming president, and all in the company of Jeffrey Epstein.
In an official complaint to authorities, a woman who was only identified as "Katie Johnson" claimed she was "enticed by promises of money and a modeling career to attend a series of underage s-x parties" at Epstein's home when she was just 13.
Trump was allegedly a guest at the parties, and Johnson details at least four separate times in which she was allegedly assaulted by the real estate mogul.


THE BULWARK addressed the new Congressional report yesterday.






A former Swiss beauty pageant contestant has accused President Donald Trump of raping her at New York City’s Plaza Hotel in 1993, providing House Judiciary Committee Democrats with a more serious account of an alleged encounter she previously described publicly as sexual assault.
Beatrice Keul, a former Miss Switzerland contestant, told Democratic committee staff that Trump raped her in a hotel suite in November 1993 after allegedly offering to help her obtain a U.S. visa and admission to New York University. Her allegations were detailed in a report released Monday, October 26, examining Trump’s past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to the report, Keul was 24 when pageant organizer Jill Harth recruited her for the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant. During a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel, then owned by Trump, Keul alleged that he approached her with promises of educational and immigration assistance. She also recalled Epstein introducing himself as Trump’s best friend and offering to arrange a visit to Mar-a-Lago.
Keul said she was subsequently invited to meet privately with Trump in an upstairs suite, believing the conversation concerned her professional opportunities. Instead, she alleged, Trump grabbed her from behind and raped her, leaving her bruised and bleeding. She characterized the alleged attack as “brutal” and claimed Trump pressured her to remain silent while reiterating his earlier promises, telling her, “The show must go on.”


This week, the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released an incisive accounting of how Trump’s Department of Justice has managed to avoid – nothing to see here – investigating ANY of the men in the Epstein files accused of sexual assault and rape, including Trump himself. It is the most damning official document yet published, not only linking Trump to Epstein’s crimes against women and girls but accusing Trump himself of rape.

[. . .] Tal Alexander and his year-younger twin brothers Oren and Alon [were convicted] for sex trafficking. They are the only people in America, other than Ghislaine Maxwell, mentioned in the Epstein files to be investigated and sentenced to prison despite the known cohorts and fellow travelers in the files. Meanwhile, as we’ve noted before, European countries including France, England and Norway have opened investigations into high profile men, all the way up to and including the de-princed Andrew.

The brothers were convicted of federal sex trafficking. They deny guilt, but a jury convicted them of a laundry list of heinous sex offenses, mostly involving group roofie rapes and the videotaping of inert victims. Their “sex trafficking” doesn’t appear to have involved the kind of commercial sex Epstein orchestrated, just inducements to party in fancy hotels and resorts – venues that, for the women, turned out to be the horror equivalent of Bluebeard’s cave.

Since late 2024, the three Alexander brothers have been sitting in a federal prison in New York that now also houses Luigi Mangione and Nicolás Maduro. They will soon be moved to institutions where they will serve out 30 year sentences. Prosecutors had asked for life.

For more than a decade, the Alexanders occupied a privileged position in the Trump-Epstein demimonde and luxury real estate world. They were well known to Trump and Epstein, Leon Black, the Witkoffs, Ivanka and Jared (whose Indian Creek mansion purchase two of the brothers handled in an off-market $24 million deal in April 2021) and other Trump pals.

The Southern District of New York arrested the brothers in December 2024, after Trump’s second election and not long before his inauguration. Their trial commenced in January 2026, the same week the DOJ dropped a huge tranche of Epstein files into public view under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Alexanders appear in both images and email exchanges.

But on the night of the document dump, the BBC ran images of a government spreadsheet from the files in which allegations against the Alexanders were placed just below a box naming Trump and Clinton. That box included a 14-year-old victim’s allegation that Trump punched her in the head during sex. That accuser turns out to have been a woman who, as we reported earlier this year, the FBI had earmarked as “Protect Source” and whose FBI interviews have been held back from release for unknown reasons.
The Alexander-Epstein Venn diagram is worth studying.
For at least a decade, they were millennial members of the same skeezy underworld inhabited by Trump, Leon Black, Epstein, and other horny, powerful, desiccated men. They palled around with Alex Witkoff, the son of Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate dealer (for whom Oren handled at least two deals in Miami) who currently serves as Trump’s Special Envoy for Peace Missions.
Oren and Tal, in red MAGA hats, were at the Trump 2016 victory party in New York, along with their boss and one of Trump’s closest pals, Howard Lorber – a scene captured on Israeli TV. After Trump lost in 2020, Oren and some of his family were guests at the White House Hanukkah party. “Spare your political views. The president just served us kosher food in his house and wished us a Happy Hanukkah,” he wrote on Instagram.
They were welcome at Trump Tower and the White House, but the brothers insist they never went to Epstein’s properties – even though one woman has claimed they raped her upstairs at his mansion.

At MEDIAITE, Ann Marie Cox notes how much of the media has been silent on the Congressional report:

These are graphic and salacious charges, the kind of descriptions whose appearance in news coverage prompts memories–and then calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) spike. But that surge of calls won’t happen today, because the New York Times and Washington Post, and all the major cable networks, have covered CheesecakeGate more thoroughly than this report put together by the Democrats of the House Judiciary Committee. (A search of the media monitoring service Snapstream showed the three major cable news networks combined mentioned the rape allegation against Trump just twice, whereas the word “cheesecake” has received 368 mentions in the same span.)

Blanche is a dishonest person whose actions warrant review by a special counsel.





Attorney General Todd Blanche has long maintained that the so-called Epstein files, even those kept from the public, contain no secret information related to national security.
When the document releases began last winter, Blanche noted that the Epstein Files Transparency Act authorized withholding information in the interest of national security or foreign policy, but said, "no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis."
"There's not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're withholding, we're actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information]," said Blanche, who was deputy attorney general at the time.
But the contents of at least three documents in the massive tranche of files indicate classified information was included in files collected by the DOJ. 
One of the documents shows Blanche's Office of the Deputy Attorney General itself received classified material related to Epstein in March 2025. By law, material can only be classified for national security purposes. 
What exactly was classified and why remains a mystery. 


Turning to Chump's war on immigrants,  Julia Harte (REUTERS) notes: 

The parents of Alex Pretti, a US citizen shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota in January, criticized President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday for withholding evidence from local prosecutors who are investigating the incident.
"Our experience with the Department of Justice has left us wondering how Alex will ever get justice," Pretti's father Michael said at a press conference in Minneapolis, the first time the family has spoken publicly since his death. "Do your job and stop shielding Alex's killers," he demanded.



During a press conference on Tuesday, Michael and Susan Pretti made their first public remarks since their son’s death in January, calling for the Department of Justice to hold those involved in their son’s death accountable. The federal government has not provided them with meaningful information about the case, they said.
“At every turn, they have ignored us, misled us and shielded Alex’s killers,” said Michael Pretti. “We are a family who love this country. We trust in the institutions of this country. We believe in the rule of law – and that people should be held accountable through that law.”
Pretti, who worked at a veterans hospital, died on 24 January after being fatally shot by federal immigration agents. The Trump administration quickly painted Pretti as a domestic terrorist who was armed, and baselessly accused him of wanting to harm agents during Donald Trump’s immigration operations in Minnesota. They defended the agents and said Pretti had violently resisted.
Video footage of the incident contradicted the government account, and showed Pretti had a cellphone in his hand and did not brandish a weapon or attack agents before they shot him in the back as he lay in the street.



Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Top appropriators call on Education Secretary to scrap plans to refurnish her office

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, sent a letter to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling on her to scrap plans to spend over $43,000 in taxpayer dollars on new furniture for her office.

“It has come to our attention that as you cut off funding for students, push out staff, and do all you can to illegally dismantle the very Department you lead, you plan to spend $43,278.64 on new furniture for your own office,” write Murray and Baldwin. “You vowed to put yourself out of a job;  now you expect American taxpayers to pick up the tab to refurnish your own office.”

“Secretary McMahon, you have asked students, families, and teachers across the country to endure extraordinarily painful cuts in the name of ‘fiscal responsibility,’ and you have pushed out nearly half of the staff at the Department… This year, you have asked Congress to slash funding for important K-12 programs and to cut funding for higher education programs by nearly $5 billion,” they continue. “But it is clear that you do not think that you should have to abide by the same rules you want to apply to others.”

Senators Murry and Baldwin conclude by calling on Secretary McMahon to scrap the planned purchases, which the Department claimed were necessary in part because the Secretary’s existing furniture “cannot be … aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space.” They write: “The American people are sick of the corruption, sick of the waste, and sick of the hypocrisy coming out of all corners of this administration.”

The full letter is available HERE and below:

Secretary McMahon:

It has come to our attention that as you cut off funding for students, push out staff, and do all you can to illegally dismantle the very Department you lead, you plan to spend $43,278.64 on new furniture for your own office. While schools nationwide lose out on funding Congress provided for everything from literacy programs to student mental health because of actions taken by your Department, you are wasting tax dollars on frivolous furniture purchases. You vowed to put yourself out of a job; now you expect American taxpayers to pick up the tab to refurnish your own office.

Secretary McMahon, you have asked students, families, and teachers across the country to endure extraordinarily painful cuts in the name of “fiscal responsibility,” and you have pushed out nearly half of the staff at the Department in a chaotic, illegal campaign to fire employees tasked with protecting students with disabilities in the classroom and going after predatory student lenders. This year, you have asked Congress to slash funding for important K-12 programs and to cut funding for higher education programs by nearly $5 billion—including by destroying programs like TRIO and Federal Work Study.

But it is clear that you do not think that you should have to abide by the same rules you want to apply to others. As you illegally spin off the Department’s core functions to other agencies and are forcing hundreds of your employees to move to agencies across government, apparently your old furniture cannot be moved to your new office.

We want the Department of Education to have a safe and professional office space to work from—but that must mean a safe and professional office space for every employee, not merely the Secretary. While you use Americans’ tax dollars to refurnish your own new office, you have forced your own employees to go work in offices that “are unsafe and in disrepair, with water leaking from ceilings, mold in kitchens, extreme temperatures from a failing HVAC system, insect traps filled with dead bugs and live insects in lactation rooms and work areas.” Your Department claims that the existing furniture in your office “cannot be … aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space.” It is unjustifiable to buy new furniture while students lose access to education services you are illegally dismantling and suffer from painful funding cuts that were not authorized by Congress.

The American people are sick of the corruption, sick of the waste, and sick of the hypocrisy coming out of all corners of this administration. They deserve a full accounting of how and why their tax dollars are being used to buy new office furniture for a secretary whose stated mission is to put themselves out of a job. We urge you to reconsider this wasteful purchase, restore Congressionally mandated funding families are counting on, and refocus your Department’s time on helping students get ahead.

Sincerely,

###



The following sites updated:


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Thursday, October 29, 2026

One-Pot Easy Taco Soup in the Kitchen


Ingredients
1 lb ground meat (turkey, beef, venison)
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
2 cups frozen corn or 15 ounce can, drained
28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
15 ounce can of beans, undrained (black, pinto, navy or kidney beans)
2 cups water or broth (beef or chicken stock or bone broth)
3 Tablespoons  (or 1 packet)
3 Tablespoons  (or 1 packet)
salt and pepper, if needed
Toppings
shredded cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, cilantro, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
Instructions
 
In a large soup pot over medium heat, brown the meat until cooked through.
1 lb ground meat
Add in the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine and simmer for 30 minutes.
1 onion, diced,1 bell pepper, diced,1 small zucchini, diced,2 cups frozen corn ,28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained,15 ounce can of beans, undrained,2 cups water or broth,3 Tablespoons homemade taco seasoning,3 Tablespoons homemade ranch seasoning
When the soup is done cooking, taste test. Add more seasonings such as salt, black pepper, chili powder, or cayenne, if needed. We've been known to stir in a generous drip of Frank's Hot Sauce to kick it up a notch.
salt and pepper, if needed
When serving, top with plain Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, or lime wedges!
shredded cheese, tortilla chips, avocado, cilantro, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

So that's another taco soup recipe.  There are many and I've never found one that wasn't delicious.

News?  Kathryn Wilkens (Mediaite) reports very disturbing news:

A Trump administration official who oversaw the firing of thousands of employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development announced his departure Tuesday, just hours after a bombshell report alleged that the agency’s security office had no record of his employment as he carried out the sweeping cuts.

Jeremy Lewin, a former affiliate of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), close adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and director of policy planning at the State Department, announced Tuesday afternoon that he was leaving President Donald Trump’s administration for the private sector.

His announcement came hours after a WIRED investigation published Tuesday morning that raised serious questions about whether Lewin, then 28, had the legal authority to oversee the dismantling of USAID.

According to internal emails that the outlet obtained, Lewin had not completed mandatory employment paperwork even as he ordered mass firings and eliminated foreign aid programs in March 2025.

As WIRED explained, Rubio granted Lewin significant authority over USAID on March 18, 2025, but the agency’s human resources department was still trying to complete his onboarding more than a week later.

By March 26, Lewin had reportedly neither accepted a temporary employment offer nor submitted a required federal background screening form. Two days later, he signed a notice eliminating USAID’s remaining staff.

And the paperwork issues even extended to USAID’s security office, which could not issue Lewin an identification badge because its employee database contained no record of him.


“I have a vivid memory of him telling me that he believed non-white people were inherently of ‘lower value’ than white people,” a former acquaintance who called Lewin “blatantly racist” told Rolling Stone in April 2025, days after the firings.

Five other former acquaintances told the magazine that Lewin expressed views they considered racist. Lewin and the administration did not respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.

Lewin’s planned move to the White House National Security Council stalled this July after conservative activist Laura Loomer attacked him on X as a “Trump hater,” Politico reported. He became the State Department’s director of policy planning in August, according to his official biography.

It is scary even now to grasp how out of control DOGE was and the damage that it did.  It also made clear to a lot of people that Ben of Ben and Jerry's and John Stauber were not lefties.  They both came out early with support for DOGE and made clear that they were not left, they were not about democracy and they were not to be listened to. 


This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Wednesday:

Wednesday, October 28, 2026.  Chump's DESPERATION TOUR continues and he continues to underwhelm, scandal and shame gloms onto Pete Priss Pot Hegseth, the ties between Epstein and Chump appear to make the media nervous, and much more. 





Chump's DESPERATION TOUR continues as the final days for voting in the midterms gets closer.  Six days.  November 3rd is the final day to vote.  Trevor Hunnicutt (REUTERS) reports:

US President Donald Trump campaigned on Monday in deeply Republican Mississippi, predicting victory for a Republican Senate candidate based on what he deemed to be a booming US economy, while also repeating his claim that oil prices would soon plummet.
Trump, a Republican, has been on a campaign blitz through normally safe Republican states ahead of the November 3 vote, with party strategists telling Reuters they are on edge about races from Alaska to South Carolina, in part because of voter discontent over how Trump's tariffs and the Iran war have fueled inflation.

Riding lower than low int he polls and he's going around speaking to sparse crowds and praying that they'll believe his lie about the "booming US economy."  It's not booming.  He's destroyed it.  The war on immigration has impacted every business but especially the construction industry.  The tariffs are a tax on the American people.  The war on Iran has led to huge inflation.  But he stands up before the last fools who'll still believe him and insults them by speaking of the "booming US economy."  


THE DESPERATION TOUR gets sadder and sadder as Chump's dementia worsens. 







Small numbers and Chump's embarrassing remarks with no one to tell him how sad he comes off. 



President Donald Trump is hopping from rally to rally in the election’s closing stretch, and he has a simple explanation for what he says he is seeing: wherever he shows up, Republicans start winning. “Every single place I go, people that are down are now winning,” he told reporters Oct. 23 before heading to a rally in Fort Myers, Florida.
The confidence sits awkwardly beside the data. Three new surveys last week put Trump’s approval at a record low, and the broader polling picture has grown darker for Republicans, who are now fighting to protect congressional majorities that once looked reasonably secure. That collision — a president selling himself as an asset while his numbers sink — has made the final stretch a running argument inside the GOP about whether he helps more than he hurts.


He has created a "tough environment" for GOP candidates as Dan Merica (WASHINGTON POST) notes:

Republicans in Mississippi, especially those running for Senate, aren’t supposed to face serious challenges. The Democrats’ last Senate win in Mississippi was in 1982 — before your newsletter writer was born.
But the poor national environment for Republicans, fueled by President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and the GOP-controlled Congress going along with Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran (both of which have led to higher prices), have pushed incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith into an unexpectedly tough race against Democrat Scott Colom, forcing the Republican to do something odd: Campaign.
It hasn’t gone great.
Hyde-Smith has raised a little over $6 million in her reelection bid, not insignificant, but far less than other Republican incumbents in tough races. Trump traveled to Mississippi on Monday night to stump for Hyde-Smith, and her brief speech made it clear she was relying on a president who won the state less than two years ago by 23 percentage points for help.
“Is this not the best president in our lifetime?” she exclaimed, before exiting stage left.
Hyde-Smith hasn’t exactly been using the media to her advantage, from calling security on a reporter in the Capitol to saying again in a recent interview that consumers can turn to proteins other than beef amid high prices, doubling down on a comment her opponent happily turned into a viral attack ad.
“Thank goodness when mothers want to feed their families when you go out shopping, there are proteins, you want to feed meat, there are some cheaper prices,” she said.
Hyde-Smith certainly may still win. She is the favorite. It is Mississippi, after all.
But her campaign reflects a broader trend in this year’s midterms: Republicans who haven’t had to campaign in years are being forced to do so by the national environment — and, in some cases, surprisingly strong Democratic opponents. And conditions like this can lead to a few surprises.


You have to wonder how many GOP incumbents are kicking themselves now for not drawing a line between themselves and Chump over the last two years.  Instead, they all largely competed with one another to see who could hump his leg and now that he's fallen so low in the polls, they're having to campaign like they did when they were first running for the Senate.  Chump has not helped them one bit.  Their allegiance to him has not helped them. Daniel Wolfram (DAGENS) notes: 

With just about a week to go before the midterm elections, one would think that all the Republican candidates who are in tight battles against their Democratic counterparts would seek Trump’s help and endorsement.
But after inflation, tariffs, culture wars, and the war against Iran, Republicans are breaking ranks with Trump and his administration.
Some candidates are even refusing to campaign with him.
There is a great example of that down in Texas, where the incumbent governor, Greg Abbott, is facing stiff competition from his Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa.
When Trump was in Texas earlier this month, Abbott was asked why he did not choose to campaign with the president. Abbott excused himself by citing already planned events that day. 
[. . .]
“These candidates know how to read a poll,” said a GOP strategist to Politico when asked why many Republicans are now jumping ship, adding: “They know he is kryptonite.”


A new poll shows almost half of likely midterm voters are casting their ballots next week with President Donald Trump at the top of their minds — and a majority are fired up about the looming election.
A Marist/NPR/PBS poll of 1,289 registered voters found 44% of those asked “say their vote for Congress is mainly a vote against President Trump,” while 21% are going to the ballot box with a favorable view of the commander in chief and 35% said Trump is “not influencing their vote very much.”
The poll, released Tuesday morning, had a 3.7% margin of error.


The economy continues to plague Americans.  Juliana Kaplan (BUSINESS INSIDER) notes, "Republicans are feeling the high-cost crunch.  The latest consumer sentiment reading out of the University of Michigan finds that, across the board, Americans are still feeling bad. While self-identified Republicans still feel better than their Democratic and Independent counterparts, they're increasingly feeling the pinch of rising prices."  Yes, it is getting harder and harder even for GOP voters to continue lying to themselves about the economy.  Alexander Marrow and Anuja Bharat Mistry (REUTERS) add, "The world's top consumer goods and food companies, from Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble to Nestle and Reckitt, have warned of further price hikes next year to cover rising costs even as shoppers remain reluctant to splurge on groceries. Higher energy, raw material and freight costs as a result of the US war on Iran mean that the companies making everything from laundry detergent to soda and snacks face a balancing act to protect profit margins."  So, yes, prices have gone up and appear to be still on the way up. And Americans are already feeling the pinch -- both in terms of costs and in terms of quantity.   J.R. Duren (INDEPENDENT) explains, "Empty stomachs are becoming more common as grocery prices soar, a new study has found.  Half of Americans reported skipping meals now because of rising food prices, according to a survey, conducted in August, by financial firm Self Financial."


A group that Chump's struggling to connect with?  Farmers. Mallory Wilson (THE HILL) reports: 

Farmers are a key voting group for Republicans, but their votes could be on the line, with the Iran war and President Trump’s tariff and trade wars driving up production costs along with diesel and fertilizer prices.
The Trump administration has been rolling out financial assistance packages and projects for farmers in hopes of shoring up the electorate in next week’s midterm elections. Yet they may be right to be anxious about the voting bloc’s turnout.
“Yes, I think they’re nervous. Yes, I think they should be, and yes, I think that farmers are pretty ticked off,” said Amy Frederiksen, a former Minnesota Republican Senate majority leader.

Farmers are hurting.  So are ranchers.  Which brings up Chump's hair brained notion to help Americans at the grocery store: Import beef.  What happened there?  Sasha Rogelberg (FORTUNE) explains:

At the nexus of an ongoing affordability crisis and midterm election push, the Trump administration’s effort to reduce beef prices appears to be falling short.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation in August to temporarily increase the quantity of beef in the U.S. by importing 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings into the country at a reduced tariff rate. The imports were scheduled over 90 days, from September through November.
“This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social announcing the policy. 
But as of Oct. 19, the U.S. has imported just 59,423 metric tons of beef, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, or just 20% of the target. And ground beef averaged $6.79 per pound as of September, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, down from $6.92 in August, but still above $6.32 a year ago. 
This 7% year-over-year increase in beef, due to persistently high demand as well as dwindling herd sizes, has far outpaced the 2.5%-2.9% hike in overall U.S. grocery prices, which has become representative of America’s affordability woes. Trump has identified beef prices as a key issue to address during the second half of his term, as he targets policy toward the typically loyal Republican base of farmers.
[. . .]
Part of why Americans aren’t seeing a noticeable difference in beef costs is because the type of beef being sent from overseas doesn’t typically hit retail shelves, Peel noted. Lean beef trimmings are often combined with fatty trimmings produced from cattle in American feed lots. This combination of beef is usually used by fast food restaurants, not grocery stores where many American consumers are looking for relief.



Turning to the Secretary of Defense Priss Pot Hegseth,  Ron Dicker (HUFFINGTON POST) notes talk of a novel way for Priss Pot to respond to a potential impeachment: 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “angling” for Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to appoint him to her Senate seat so he can avoid potential impeachment, Puck reported on Sunday.
Blackburn is likely to win her race for Tennessee governor, opening up the post for the rest of her term ending in January 2031.
Hegseth and his family set up residence in Tennessee in 2022. Rep. Tim Burchett is also interested in the Senate seat, according to Puck.
The House is expected to vote on an impeachment resolution filed by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) against Hegseth after the elections ― and it is expected to be close. Democrats have been “aligning to call for the defense secretary’s ouster or resignation,” Semafor reported earlier this month.
The progressive advocacy group MoveOn told HuffPost there might more momentum toward impeaching the secretary than President Donald Trump.
“There’s a lot of ways to hold folks accountable. I think impeachment is one of them, and I think just from the perspective of our members at MoveOn, our members don’t want to take any of those options off the table,” spokesperson Joel Payne told HuffPost.


Specifically, Journalist Leigh Ann Caldwell [PUCK] wrote Hegseth is prodding Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to appoint him to her seat, if she wins the Tennessee gubernatorial race and vacates it. And that appears likely, with Blackburn enjoying a huge lead in the polls.

“Hegseth lived in Tennessee for three years before he took over the Pentagon, but his short tenure there might not count as real Tennessee roots,” Caldwell wrote.
 

Ellen Mitchell (THE HILL) notes US House Rep Thomas Massie is not backing down on his call to impeach Hegseth:

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), on Monday indicated he would reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should he remain at the Pentagon after Congress returns to Washington, D.C., following the November midterm elections.

Massie, who kicked off the impeachment process against Hegseth in September over the war in Iran, wrote on social media that a reporter asked him about his plans for that effort.

“Will you reintroduce articles of impeachment against SecDef Hegseth when Congress returns to DC?” Massie wrote the unnamed reporter as asking.

“If he’s still SecDef,” Massie wrote as his reply, using an abbreviation for secretary of Defense.

Congress plans to vote on Hegseth’s impeachment -- their only mechanism to remove the Pentagon chief -- upon their return to Capitol Hill next month. 
Ryan J. Karlin (THE HILL) notes: 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Democrats will run Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “out of town” if they take the majority in the November midterms. 

Jeffries told MS NOW that Democrats will take action to knock Hegseth off his perch atop the Pentagon if President Trump doesn’t push him out himself. Democrats have zeroed in on Hegseth as criticism of high gas prices amid the Iran war have become a key talking point on the campaign trail.

“Pete Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not,” Jeffries told MS NOW. 


Priss Pot can't stay out of the news.  He's forever preening in ways that you don't remember, for example, Leon Panetta, Lloyd Austin or Chuck Hagel doing. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes: 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s obsession with what he considers manly traits puts him in a distinct minority, according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by YouGov for The Bulwark and the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” found that Americans give the former Fox News weekend host poor marks as a model for men. Of the nine men in the poll, only President Donald Trump fared worse.
The Bulwark noted that Hegseth “obviously sees himself as a paragon of masculinity,” pointing to his push to rebrand the Pentagon as the Department of War, his order requiring service members to be screened for low testosterone, his frequent workout videos with troops, his mockery of overweight people as “fatties” and his well-documented skepticism of women in leadership.
“With the amount of effort the secretary puts into demonstrating his manhood, you’d think he’d be seen as a kind of model for young men who are struggling academically, socially, professionally, and emotionally in today’s world,” the Bulwark's Brendan Hartnett wrote. “But a new national survey … shows it’s exactly the opposite.”
Only 28% of American adults said Hegseth is a strong role model for American men, while 39% said he is not. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, just 18% saw him that way, compared with 34% who didn’t.
Hartnett wrote that the findings expose the limits of Hegseth’s “alpha male preening.”

When not preening, he surrounds himself with fellow crazies. 




A little-known Pentagon aide who has helped shape some of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s most inflammatory speeches has a years-long trail of racist, homophobic and conspiratorial posts online, according to a CNN investigation.
Ryan Higgins, Hegseth’s senior adviser for religious issues, has become central to the Pentagon chief’s turn toward Christian nationalist rhetoric, multiple sources told CNN. Those sources credited him with some of Hegseth’s most incendiary lines, including a February speech to the National Religious Broadcasters in which Hegseth attacked the “Godless left.” Three sources said Higgins has also played a primary role in the effort to launch the Pentagon’s new Office of Religious Affairs.
CNN combed through hundreds of Higgins’ social media posts, livestreams and archived blog entries spanning roughly a decade.
In February, he defended a Truth Social video Trump shared depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, calling it “funny,” if perhaps in poor taste for the office, and noting Trump had made Biden a monkey too. In January, responding to tabloid coverage of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in Europe, he wrote of violent illegal immigrants and even many asylum seekers: “They act like barbarians, killing and raping our white women.”
He has written that “Islam teaches death to all who do not comply.” Thousands of active-duty U.S. troops practice that faith. He has called same-sex marriage “abominable.” He also speculated about how many abortions Kamala Harris might have had, citing what he called her “long record of sleeping around.”
His posts have continued since he joined the Pentagon. He has railed against “the satanic cult of LGBTQ,” mocked a same-sex couple’s adoption as “two dudes buying babies” and compared abortion to the Holocaust.




On Monday, with just days to go before crucial elections that could lose Donald Trump’s party control of Congress, Democrats dropped a bombshell.

It was a 53-page report describing in exhaustive detail Trump’s links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Titled: “The case against Donald Trump in the Epstein files”, the dossier was released by Democrats with just over a week until the US midterm elections.

But the document also represents something else that should cause grave worry to the President: a warning shot that the Epstein story is about to get a lot worse for him.

If Democrats retake the US House of Representatives as is expected, they have made clear that they intend to keep pressing Trump on his links to Epstein.

They want to know about what the report calls the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) “desperate attempt to cover it up” by failing to release files about the two men.

Control of the House will give Democrats the majority on powerful committees like the Oversight Committee, giving them subpoena power.

And the report comes with a call for action.  Erin Mansfield (USA TODAY) notes: 

Democrats are calling for an independent investigation into the ties between President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who were known friends in the 1990s in South Florida before having a falling out.

The lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee made the recommendation in a 53-page report that ties together previously public documents of Trump and Epstein's relationship and includes a new allegation that Trump raped a beauty pageant contestant in 1993.

Led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, the Democrats said the Department of Justice should appoint a special counsel because the DOJ and the FBI have been covering for the president and are too conflicted to investigate Trump or Epstein associates.


This being a big and important topic, you might assume the media jumped onto it.  You would be wrong. Jacob Weindling (JEZEBEL) observes:

House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a new report yesterday, detailing disturbing new allegations against Donald Trump and his alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. As Nathalie Baptiste detailed for Splinter upon its release, “The explosive report contains interviews with five women who said Trump assaulted them while Epstein was present, including Beatrice Keul, a beauty pageant winner who previously said she refused his sexual advances in 1993, and who now says she was raped. As is always important to point out at times like these, shame and fear often keep survivors from immediately reporting their assaults.”

This kind of informative and straightforward description of a thing that happened is not something you will find in mainstream media summaries of it, if you can find any summary at all. I searched for “Epstein” on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters, and The New York Times’s websites, and found two outlets covering it.


Only two.  We covered it yesterday.  We're covering it again today.  Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) notes of Beatrice Keul:

Keul told Judiciary Committee staff who interviewed her for the new report that she was 24 when she flew in from Zurich to attend the American Dream Pageant in Manhattan and met Trump at a lunch associated with the contest.
Over the course of a 15-minute conversation, the then-real estate tycoon promised to arrange a visa for her and to help her get into New York University, Keul told the committee.
When Trump stepped away, she said she was then approached by Epstein, who said: “I’m Jeffrey, Don’s best friend.”
She claims Epstein invited her to a party at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, and assured her: “You know I can take care of you. We organize many parties with Don… Flights, accommodations, you don’t have to worry about anything.”
The report states that Keul was then approached by a Trump representative later that day and invited up to the future president’s suite, explaining that she saw the chance of a further meeting with the influential businessman as “a lucky break for the purpose of furthering her career and education.”
“Upon entering, Trump reportedly grabbed Keul from behind and forcibly raped her; in the process, tearing her dress and causing bleeding and bruising on multiple parts of her body,” the report recounts of her allegations.
Keul described the alleged rape as “brutal,” according to House Democrats, who said she remembered Trump sitting on the bed afterwards, repeating his promise to help with her visa and enrollment in higher education and reminding her: “The show must go on.”


Julie K. Brown and Claire Healy (MIAMI HERALD) note,   "Issued just nine days before the midterm elections, the report details inconsistent – and in some cases, inaccurate – public statements the president has made about his relationship with Epstein, including a claim that he never flew on Epstein’s plane, when flight logs show he did. The two men were friends from the late 1980s until the early 2000s."   Casey Loving (THE WRAP) quotes US House Rep Jamie Raskin, the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Committee, "You've got to read the report. The detail is extraordinary. But we’re not even trying to make the case here. We're not prosecutors, but we're saying the Department of Justice has completely abdicated their responsibility, and why? We cannot understand any reason other than they're trying to protect Donald Trump, so we're demanding an independent special counsel to take this over from the Department of Justice with the hopes that the truth will come out and justice will be done for hundreds and hundreds of victims."  And Bennito L. Kelty (RAW STORY) reports:


A key moment has a former Trump White House insider thinking a damning new report on Jeffrey Epstein probably holds up.

Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary in Trump's first administration, said on Tuesday's episode of "The Bulwark Daily" that first lady Melania Trump's "weird random press conference" earlier this year is the "most convincing piece of evidence" that the House Judiciary Committee Democrats' report is "probably accurate." 

Host Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist, opened the show by reading from the report's executive summary, which states that "Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of young women during the mid to late 1990s."

According to Miller, the report includes a new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old woman and then promised her a visa and admission to NYU while demanding she stay quiet. It also claims Trump lied about kicking Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, out of his Mar-a-Lago club and "strongly suggests that Epstein introduced Trump to his wife Melania." Trump has long denied any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.

"This seems like confirmation that Trump met his wife Melania through a pedophile sex trafficker and that we have a new allegation of rape against this president," Matthews said.

Matthews said the report immediately took her back to the press conference Melania Trump held at a moment when, as she put it, "we actually weren't really even talking about the Epstein files as much anymore."

"She probably caught wind of what was in these Epstein files and her mentions in there," Matthews said. "And so she wanted to get out ahead and didn't really think through the fact that it actually makes it look more guilty and that it does make it look in fact true."



Julie K Brown has been covering the Epstein crime story for decades now and she notes, "What’s different now is that there seem to be patterns and similarities in their stories even though many of the women didn’t know each other. The Committee’s Democrats say 11 of them were young women who were raped and assaulted by Trump 'alongside, and in coordination with, with' Epstein; two of them were teenagers --  Katie Johnson and Jane Doe whose horrific allegations were dismissed by the FBI."   Towhid Rafid (ATTACK OF THE FANBOY) covers the Dems House Judiciary report here.  Bridget Luckey covers the story for LAW COMMENTARY here.   Angelique Brenes covers the story for PEOPLE here.  Aayush Sharma covers it for PARADE here.  Justin Harp covers it for US here.  And Allison Beck covers it for MIAMI NEW TIMES here.

Video coverage since yesterday's snapshot includes:









Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


“With the new policy in place, it is a virtual certainty that watered-down inspections will miss key deficiencies that put residents at risk.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) along with Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz, raising serious concerns regarding the agency’s newly implemented Risk-Based Survey (RBS) program. The administration’s policy puts an estimated 114,300 nursing home residents in nearly 1,700 facilities at risk by limiting the number and scope of required federal and state inspections. CMS recently released the full list of the nursing homes that will be subjected to shorter, less rigorous reviews and inspections. 

Nursing home residents depend on comprehensive, thorough, and unannounced surveys to detect, correct, and prevent abuse, neglect, and substandard care. By allowing these minimal inspections, the new CMS approach weakens oversight and puts nursing home residents at greater risk of mistreatment, injury and abuse,” wrote the senators. 

Warren’s letter highlighted a new analysis by Consumer Voice, which showed that the criteria CMS uses to identify lower-risk facilities eligible for reduced scrutiny do not reliably reflect high-quality care. For example, Consumer Voice found that dozens of homes on the reduced survey list have had a resident abuse tag or icon on the CMS Care Compare website since September 2025 and that about half of the newly RBS-eligible nursing homes would not have been eligible a year ago — indicating that, at best, they have a very limited record of providing high-quality services.

“CMS has adopted the RBS against a broader backdrop of rolled-back nursing home standards, including the elimination of new minimum staffing standards and delays to nursing home financial transparency requirements. These actions already place nursing home residents at risk — and the new policy of limited surveys will only make matters worse,” continued the senators. 

Senator Warren requested that CMS release information on whether the RBS adequately protects nursing home residents and follows federal statutory requirements by November 9, 2026.

###


The following sites updated:


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