Monday, December 8, 2025

Weekend Box Office


Via THE NUMBERS.COM, here's the weekend box office:

1 N Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Universal $64,007,430   3,412   $18,760 $64,007,430 1
2 (1) Zootopia 2 Walt Disney $43,433,854 -57% 4,000 n/c $10,858 $220,907,891 2
3 (2) Wicked: For Good Universal $17,355,160 -72% 3,985 -130 $4,355 $297,556,820 3
4 N Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution GKIDS $10,067,691   1,833   $5,492 $10,067,691 1
5 (3) Now You See Me: Now You Don’t Lionsgate $3,487,532 -49% 2,629 -463 $1,327 $55,311,915 4
6 N Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair Lionsgate $3,429,889   1,198   $2,863 $3,429,889 1
7 (6) Eternity A24 $2,726,043 -14% 2,386 +1,038 $1,143 $9,582,661 2
8 (9) Hamnet Focus Features $2,312,185 +148% 744 +625 $3,108 $4,190,035 2
- (4) Predator: Badlands 20th Century… $1,849,556 -62% 2,080 -670 $889 $88,251,046 5
- N Merrily We Roll Along Sony Picture… $1,308,947   1,084   $1,208 $1,308,947


WICKED: FOR GOOD is at number three and it's three million short of $300 million in North America.  It will hit that -- probably before next weekend.  How much higher will it go?  I think it will end up with at least $330 million domestically.  It's currently the fifth largest domestic money maker of the year.   It'll be interesting to see how much higher it can go.  I would have thought ZOOTOPIA would have done better in its second weekend.  

On movies . . . No, I haven't watched WAKE UP DEAD MAN.  I do have NETFLIX.  I do like Rian Johnson as a director.  But?

Cast repellent.  They chose to many actors who just make me sick.  Josh Brolin?  He's a strike for me.  If he's the only one I object to, I can see the movie.  But I also don't care for Mila Kunis and I don't care for assisting her in her fantasy that she can act.  Jeremy Renner?  Closet case got Ted Casablance fired from E!  Stay in that closet, Jeremy, because the minute you step out, a lot of us who loved Ted's writing are going to call you out and then some. Thomas Hayden Church?  The yokel from WINGS?  Pass.  Hard pass.

I like Kerry Washington, Daniel Craig and Glenn Close.  So I will watch it eventually but there are too many that I can't stand so when I think about streaming it, it's always a hard no currently.


Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Monday, December 8, 2025.  Chump is enraged when one of the crooks he pardons doesn't scrape and bow, his ICE is all about quotas and not at all about crimes, Pete Hegseth's transition to War Criminal continues before our eyes, and much more. 


Convicted Felon Donald Chump has abused the pardon power.  He's pardoned thugs for January 6th and felt no qualms after wards when they've remerged to then threaten the lives of judges or Democratic politicians, when they've threatened police and/or FBI, nothing has bothered him about those pardons.

Because he only pardons his own.  He's finally mad about a pardon he's made.   Anushka Patil (NEW YORK TIMES)  reports:

President Trump on Sunday upbraided Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, for not switching parties in his re-election bid after Mr. Trump pardoned him and his wife on bribery charges last week, saying Mr. Cuellar’s decision displayed a “lack of LOYALTY.”

Mr. Cuellar was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges that he and his wife had accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for promises that he would use his position in ways that would benefit Azerbaijan and the bank.

As one of the few Democrats in Congress who openly criticized former President Biden for not imposing tougher immigration policies, Mr. Cuellar received public support and a pardon from Mr. Trump, who wrote on social media this week that the former president had gone “after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

But by Sunday, Mr. Trump appeared to have soured on Mr. Cuellar for running for re-election in Texas as a Democrat. In a lengthy social media post, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of looking to “destroy” Mr. Cuellar and blasted him for not switching parties after receiving the pardon. “Next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!” he added.



Donald thinks he was a nice guy?  When?  For the record, Cuellar's a crook.  But people pardoned by Chump this year have gone on to reveal that they're pedophiles, they've gone to kill people, you name it.  And nothing resulted in rebuke towards them from Donald after the pardon until it was someone refusing to switch over to the GOP.  His pardon system is corrupt and makes us all question the pardoning power of the president.  Not just for the choices but also because it appears many pardoned have won their pardon from Chump via bribery.  And, yes, giving a pardon as a result of bribery would be a crime and even the Supreme Court would find it difficult to stick their heads far enough up their asses to pretend otherwise.




Again, the only time he's been upset over a pardon is when the person didn't agree to become part of the Republican party. 

Let's move over to immigration.  Last Monday, we noted:

If you celebrated the holiday, hope it was good for you.  Friends and family and love.  For those who are emotionally and mentally healthy.  Those who have issues may have celebrated differently.  The dementia prone rage-a-holic in the White House celebrated by harming others.  For example?  Amanda Holpuch and Annie Correal (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

A 19-year-old college student was about to board a flight to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras two days later, her father and lawyer said on Sunday.

The student, Any Lucía López Belloza, was brought by her parents from Honduras to the United States when she was 7. Her father, Francis López, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that neither Ms. López nor her parents knew there was an order for her deportation.

“When they arrested Any, that’s when they told her,” said Mr. López, a tailor.

He said his employer had arranged and paid for his daughter’s travel to Austin, Texas, to surprise him at work. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, he's now targeting the young woman's family.   Annie Correal (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:

On Sunday, immigration agents appeared at the family home of a recently deported college student in Austin, Texas, according to the family and their lawyer.

The agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, and one agent in a green vest marked E.R.O. — Enforcement and Removal Operations — rushed toward the student’s father, Francis López, as he washed his car, Mr. López said. He ran into his backyard and closed a latched gate. The agent forced open the gate and proceeded to enter the backyard.

Mr. López entered his house and locked the back door, he said. After about two hours, the agents left, without ever trying to communicate with the family or knocking on the door.

Any Lucía López Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., was traveling home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained by immigration authorities at Logan International Airport in Boston on Nov. 20. She was deported two days later to Honduras, the Central American country from which she and her parents fled more than a decade ago.
Ms. López’s case has drawn attention to the expanding scope of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally.

Immigration authorities cited a 2015 order of deportation in justifying the removal of Ms. López. Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said he found no record of such an order and that she had been deported in violation of a court order that a federal judge signed on Nov. 21 that said Ms. López could not be removed from the United States while her case was pending.

It was not clear why agents from E.R.O., which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appeared at Ms. López’s parents’ home on Sunday, but Ms. López and her father have spoken broadly to the media about the case. 



It seems very clear to me.  It's not about crimes.  It's about quotas.  So they deport Any and then they go after her family.  It's not about crimes, it's never been about crimes.  It's about quotas.  That's why ICE haunts courthouses and goes after those legally working to become citizens.  They know where these people are and they get to meet their quotas.  Sometimes I picture the US in 2035 and picture people like Kristi Noem slitting their own throats, unable to live anymore.  Due to the guilt?  Oh, hell no.  People like that are deranged and blame their actions on others.  No, people like Noem will take their own lives when they realize the whole country hates them and they no longer have an office that provides with security and lets them live on a military base or travel via government planes.  No, when they're back in the mix and have to face the public and people say things to them like, "You're a trollop who publicly cheated on your husband while betraying democracy as Secretary of Homeland Security" or when just walking into a Kroger store results in every customer turning around and booing them, that's when losers like Noem take their own life. 

Let's note this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

***(WARNING: Graphic Content) Photos of Wilmer’s injuries, photos of Wilmer and his children, and partial video of his detainment are available to the press HERE***

Washington, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement condemning the violent and unwarranted assault of her constituent, Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, and calling for his immediate release from the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC).

“On November 14, 2025, my constituent Wilmer was mauled by an ICE attack dog even though he has consistently explained that he was not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. His wife and two of his young children, ages two and three, all U.S. citizens, were forced to watch helplessly as he was violently attacked and dragged away. For hours afterward, he was denied even basic medical care following this unprovoked assault. The photos documenting his injuries are horrific. This should shock the conscience of every one of us. I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sic attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences.

“While Donald Trump’s entire mass deportation agenda has been nothing short of depraved, this is especially sickening. By now, everyone should realize, Trump is not going after violent criminals or the worst of the worst—he is terrorizing everyone, including U.S. citizens and their loved ones.

“I am calling for Wilmer’s immediate release from NWIPC—he has no criminal convictions, he poses no threat to the community, and he urgently needs appropriate medical care since ICE is denying him the treatment he requires. I am grateful for Wilmer’s willingness to let me share his story—there’s no telling how many similar stories are not being told for fear of retaliation. Every one of us must demand justice and accountability and every one of us must speak out against these kinds of human rights abuses.”

According to his attorney, Wilmer was violently detained by ICE and mauled by an attack dog despite not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. An ICE agent lured Wilmer out of his home under false pretenses, posing as a construction worker who claimed to have hit Wilmer’s car and needed him to step outside to verify. Another agent, accompanied by a dog, was hiding nearby and released the dog on Wilmer shortly after he stepped outside. Following the attack, Wilmer was left shaking and dizzy, and at one point his vision went black, yet he was denied medical care for hours. He was eventually taken to a hospital, where he received stitches for his injuries. He was prescribed antibiotics and additional medication, but the antibiotics were not provided immediately, and the other medication was never provided. Throughout his detention, Wilmer has repeatedly reported that obtaining adequate medical care has been extremely difficult. Wilmer, who is currently undocumented, was brought to the United States at the age of 15. Wilmer is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of three U.S. born children, ages two, three, and seven, and this brutality has devastated the entire family.

###




Senator Patty Murray did the right thing.  A number of US senators are.  Bernie Sanders doesn't and it's not just because ICE provides a lot of jobs in Vermont.  Bernie's xenophobia has been the thing that Bernie Bros have ignored even though you can find IN THESE TIMES calling him out for that back when he was in the US House of Representatives.  "They're taking our jobs!"  That was Bernie for many years and he never disowned that attitude, he just stopped making public statements.  That's because other Socialists were getting very offended by his remarks and his scapegoating.  The 84 year old man needs to go and those who keep praising him only demonstrate their stupidity and their lack of history.  Whether it was his early support for apartheid or anything else, Bernie's never been the Saint his bros paint him as.  And right now he's failing immigrants in Vermont.  You lying bros may be able to cover for him and run interference in the right-now but when he's out of office or dead, you'll be too busy lying for some other politicians to beat back the truth on Bernie.  History will show just how lousy he was and how he was not held accountable.  


As part of the destruction of America that the lack of accountability results in, we have Pete Hegseth who is in the midst of his transition from TV personality to War Criminal.  Hegseth appears to be on hormone therapy which would explain how he suffers from road rage even when not behind the wheel of a car. Well captured in this SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit.

 

  
Saturday, before the skit aired,  he spoke to the press about . . . nothing at all. Robert McCoy (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to great lengths Saturday to avoid saying whether the military will release the full, unedited video of its controversial September 2 double-tap strikes on a boat it claims was carrying drugs in the Caribbean.

Thus far, only footage of the first strike has been released to the public. The full unreleased video, however, reportedly goes on to show two survivors clinging to the wreckage, before they were killed by a second strike that legal experts have described as a war crime or murder. 

Democratic lawmakers who viewed the full video of the strikes, which killed 11 people, this week said it was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service” and that it “confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities.”

When asked Wednesday if his administration would release footage of the second strike, President Donald Trump’s answer was simple: “Whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.”

His defense secretary was much more evasive.


Can he evade answers for ever?    CBS NEWS notes, "Two people who survived an early September U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean were waving overhead before they were killed in a now-controversial second strike, according to two sources familiar with a video that was shown to lawmakers this week."  Hegseth got an answer to that?

No.

  Andre Damon (WSWS) notes:

On Saturday, NBC reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “ordered the US military on September 2 to kill all 11 people” on a motorboat traveling between Venezuela and Trinidad, contradicting the administration’s denials that no such order was given.

The report substantiates the claim made by the Washington Post in a report on November 28 that Hegseth gave a “spoken directive” and that “The order was to kill everybody.”

NBC’s report contradicts the statement also issued by Hegseth Saturday that allegations that he gave an order to “kill everybody” were “patently ridiculous.”

Following an initial attack on a civilian speedboat in the Caribbean on September 2, the US military, at the direction of Admiral Frank Bradley, launched a second strike, targeting two survivors who had climbed on top of the capsized boat and were reportedly waving at US military aircraft in a request for rescue. The US military launched two more strikes, sinking what was left of the boat in a likely effort to conceal their crimes.

The Pentagon’s law of war manual declares that soldiers have a duty to refuse to carry out “clearly illegal” orders, such as killing shipwrecked sailors. “Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual declares.


The story isn't going away.  People are focused on this.  He continues to lose support in Congress.  Sarah Fortinsky (THE HILL) reports:


Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot and combat veteran, said the military operation that killed 11 alleged drug traffickers, including two initial survivors, in the Caribbean in early September was “essentially murder.”

In a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Duckworth pushed back on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comparison of the operation in the Caribbean to the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, where both Duckworth and Hegseth deployed.

“Well, there was actually a vote by Congress to put us at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no such a vote, there was no such debate here in this situation,” Duckworth said.

She praised military personnel as “the utmost professionals” but said, “The problem is, they have not been authorized to be at war.”

Duckworth said she sees critical differences in the way the operations are being carried out. For one thing, she said, the individuals targeted by the U.S. military in the alleged drug boat “were not even aimed at the United States.”

Here's the video.



And it's not just Democrats like Tammy Duckworth.  SKY NEWS notes:

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney claims some members of the Republican Party are beginning to “push back” against US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s boat strikes. “It’s interesting to me as an observer because it’s one of the places that the Republican Party, on the hill, the Senate and the House, have started to push back a little bit against the Trump administration,” Mr Mulvaney told Sky News Australia. “Now you’ve got some very high-profile Republican senators and high-profile Republican House members starting to call Hegseth’s decision-making, especially regarding these Venezuelan drug boats, into question.”

Congress is talking about it.  The story gets more and more traction.  Snigdha Gairola (BENZINGA) reports:

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is demanding full transparency from the Pentagon after a recent military strike reportedly killed shipwrecked survivors at sea, calling the action both unlawful and morally unacceptable.

On Sunday, Schiff posted on X, criticized the killing as "a textbook violation of the laws of war" and called on the Pentagon to release the full video. 

"If Hegseth is so proud of the killing of these survivors, the Pentagon should release the full video, just like they have with other boat strikes," he said.



And Kaja Hubbard (CBS NEWS) notes:

Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has "zero credibility" on the September strikes on an alleged drug boat, citing "shifting explanations" from the Pentagon for the second strike, which has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks.

Himes was among a small number of lawmakers who last week received briefings from military officials behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, which centered on the Trump administration's campaign against alleged drug trafficking boats off the coast of South America, including the Sept. 2 follow-on strike that has become a flashpoint in Congress. The lawmakers were shown video of the second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, after the Washington Post reported a week earlier that a second attack killed two survivors of the initial strike.

Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after the briefing that "what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service."

Appearing on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, Himes urged that it's "really important that this video be made public," noting that the interpretation of the video from lawmakers who were briefed "broke down precisely on party lines." 

"And so this is an instance in which I think the American public needs to judge for itself," Himes said. "I know how the public is going to react because I felt my own reaction." 



 

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) took his criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a step further Friday, claiming the Pentagon chief’s recent decisions have “ruined his credibility.”

“I’ve been on the record already,” he told Politico’s Dasha Burns, who also hosts “Ceasefire” on C-SPAN. “After Signalgate, I think I’ve seen enough. What I really wanted to see was someone take responsibility -- own to a mistake.”

Joseph Gedeon (GUARDIAN) reports:

Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate appropriations committee, called for Hegseth’s firing following a bipartisan briefing on the incident on Thursday. “Between overseeing this campaign in the Caribbean, risking US servicemembers’ lives by sharing war plans on Signal, and so much else, it could not be more obvious that Secretary Hegseth is unfit for the role, and it is past time for him to go,” Murray said.

No accountability, not even  coherent lies.  Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC NEWS) notes the constantly changing storyline the White House attempts to pimp.  The frustration continues to mount.  Articles of Impeachment were introduced on Thursday:

[. . .] Congressman Shri Thanedar wrote Articles of Impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for Murder and Conspiracy to Murder, and for Reckless and Unlawful Mishandling of Classified Information.

“Pete Hegseth is uniquely unqualified to serve as Secretary of Defense,” said Congressman Thanedar. “Every day he serves in this role, he puts American servicemembers and their families in danger. He gave direct, unlawful orders to kill every single person on a civilian boat from Venezuela, violating the Defense Department’s Law of War Manual.”

“Additionally, his mishandling of classified information, leaking war plans in a Signal chat which included sensitive operations details, including target systems and attack times, has put American lives at risk. He can no longer serve as our Secretary of Defense, which is why I am introducing these articles of impeachment.”

And that's only one of Hegseth's two scandals currently. Joseph Gedeon (GUARDIAN) reports:

Pete Hegseth is facing the most serious crisis of his tenure as defense secretary, engulfed by allegations of war crimes in the Caribbean and a blistering inspector general report accusing him of mishandling classified military intelligence. Yet despite the long list of trouble and as lawmakers from both parties call for his resignation, Hegseth shows no signs of stepping down and still holds Donald Trump’s support.

The twin crises have engulfed the former Fox News personality in separate but overlapping allegations that lawmakers, policy experts and former officials say reveal a pattern of dangerous recklessness at the helm of the Pentagon. Democratic legislators have reignited calls for his ouster after revelations that survivors clinging to wreckage from a September boat strike were deliberately killed in a “double-tap” attack, while a defense department investigation released on Thursday concluded he violated Pentagon policies by sharing sensitive details via the Signal messaging app hours before airstrikes in Yemen.

[. . .]

Compounding Hegseth’s bad week, the defense department inspector general report released on Thursday concluded that he violated Pentagon policies by using Signal to share precise details about upcoming airstrikes in Yemen, including the quantity and strike times of manned US aircraft over hostile territory, approximately two to four hours before the missions were executed on 15 March.

The report determined that Hegseth’s actions “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots”. The information, which was marked as secret and not to be shared with foreign nationals, was transmitted via Hegseth’s unclassified personal device in group chats with other Trump administration officials. The investigation also found he failed to retain all associated messages, violating federal record-keeping requirements.


The following states updated:







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Friday, December 5, 2025

HAMNET

HAMNET may be the best film of the year.  My girlfriend and I saw it tonight.  Didn't know much about it going in other than it was an attempt to flesh out the life of William Shakespeare with some inventive fiction.  We were about five minutes in when I realized this was the same director who made ETERNALS  which I loved.   That was a great action film that should have led the way for MARVEL to bring in directors with unique visions who could provide new meanings to the genre.  

Chloe Zhao is the director she's already won an Academy Award for Best Director NOMADLAND.  The second woman to win that award -- Kathryn Bigelow being the first.  And in a few months, she might become the first woman to win two Best Director Oscars. 

Paul Mescal plays William  Shakespeare and he should get the Oscar for Best Actor-- the Oscar he was already owed for ALL OF US STRANGERS.
 
This is a film with a finely woven story that pulls you in and really solidifies Zhao's reputation as one of the decades strongest directors. 

Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Friday, December 5, 2025. The focus on Epstein and Maxwell -- Chump's best friends -- returns and most people are worrying about the masks, everyone's worrying about the economy which Chump has destroyed,  Pete Hegseth is attempting to survive not one, but two scandals that both go to the fact that he's not fit to serve as Secretary of Defense, and much more. 

Let's start with Chump's buddies -- the late Jeffrey Epstein and the semi-incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell.  Both pedophiles, both sex traffickers. Sociopaths like Convicted Felon Donald Chump aren't able to form real and true bonds.  So they drift in-and-out of relationships that last along as one side can milk the other.  Maxwell got Chump to move her from a prison for sex offenders like herself into Camp Fed in Texas where she's allowed to order others around -- even the staff. When you're friends with a bottom feeder like Chump and you actually have dirt on him, he'll dance surprisingly well considering his massive, overweight body frame.  Alison Durkee (FORBES) reports:

Releasing grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell’s case would cause “severe” harm as she tries to get a new trial, the socialite’s lawyer argued in a court filing Wednesday, as the Trump administration has asked for materials in Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s cases to be unsealed in order to comply with the new federal law forcing the Epstein files’ release.
Maxwell’s attorneys filed a letter Wednesday responding to the Trump administration’s request to unseal the grand jury materials, which include evidence shown to the grand jury as they decided whether to indict Maxwell, and a transcript of the proceedings.

The Trump administration asked a federal judge to release the grand jury materials and modify a protective order that has kept materials in the case under wraps, citing the newly passed law, which requires the federal government to make almost all of its Epstein-related materials public this month.

Even the Supreme Court refused to grant certiorari.  It's over and if it's not, too damn bad.  In fact, we all remember, right, that Ghislaine refused to take the witness stand in her own trial.  She didn't want to be under oath before a body that might punish her.  We now know she lied repeatedly when she spoke to Todd Blanche, deputy AG, for two days last summer.  And while we know it, Todd has refused to hold her accountable for lying -- even though he claimed he would.

She's a liar and she exploited children. 

Her nonsense was address on MS NOW yesterday.



She and Epstein are back in the news because of a release this week from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Iker Seisdedos (EL PAIS) explains:

First, there were 10 photographs and four videos, made public for the first time. Hours later, there were another 200 files. The two batches consisted of interior and exterior shots of a property in Little St. James, one of two private islands in the Caribbean owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They were released Wednesday by House Democrats on the Oversight Committee as Washington anxiously awaits the Justice Department’s legally mandated release of the Epstein files.
There, in a sinister corner of the Virgin Islands that locals dubbed “Pedophile Island,” he committed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of the crimes for which he was going to be tried when he died in 2019 in a maximum-security cell in what the coroner determined to be a suicide, alleged to be the leader of a child sex trafficking ring.
The first of the released batches includes images of the mansion’s garden and a “No Trespassing” sign, snapshots of two different bedrooms, a bathroom, another bathroom inside what appears to be a storage room, and a living room decorated in questionable taste, as well as two close-ups: one of a telephone with the speed dial keys crossed out, and another of a chalkboard with enigmatic words scrawled on it (“power,” “deception,” “plants”). Perhaps the most unsettling photo is of what appears to be a dental office with several masks of men’s faces hanging on the walls. According to The New York Times, it might have been used by Epstein’s last girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, who “was a dentist who shared an office on St. Thomas with Mr. Epstein’s shell company.”


A lot of people are commenting on the masks.  Peta Rasdien (THE NIGHTLY) notes:

One of the most bizarre rooms pictured in the was the “dentist room”, a room that contained a dental chair and creepy masks of men’s faces lining the walls.

Now, a former FBI agent has put forward a sickening theory about how the masks might have been put to use by the paedophile billionaire and visitors to his lair dubbed “Paedo Island”.

The New York Times has reported that Epstein’s final girlfriend was a dentist tied to one of his shell firms.

Jennifer Coffindaffer, who was the FBI’s Supervisory Senior Resident Agent for the Virgin Islands between 2011 and 2012, told The Daily Mail they may have been used to conceal offenders’ identities as they carried out sex crimes against victims.

The dentist’s chair itself was not overly surprising given many wealthy people had items like this, including hairdressing chairs for their private use but the the masks were “very interesting to me”, Ms Coffindaffer said.

“It is not unusual for those involved in these kinds of sex crimes, especially those involving minors, to wear masks,” she said.

While they could be innocent and there was no evidence they had been used in crimes, Ms Coffindaffer theorised about the far more horrifying use.

“In the context of what went on at that island, I would be looking for a meaning behind them, as well as any similarities to those who may have been involved in criminal behaviour on that island,” she added.

 

 

While Maxwell wants it all shut down, Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeiste (AP) report:


One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell 's most vocal accusers urged judges on Wednesday to grant the Justice Department's request to unseal records from their federal sex trafficking cases, saying “only transparency is likely to lead to justice.”

Annie Farmer weighed in through her lawyer, Sigrid S. McCawley, after the judges asked for input from victims before ruling on whether the records should be made public under a new law requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his longtime confidante, who sexually abused young women and girls for decades.
Farmer and other victims fought for the passage of the law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Signed last month by President Donald Trump, it compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release by Dec. 19 the vast troves of material they’ve amassed during investigations into Epstein.

Chump thought he'd finally escaped his Epstein connections.  Nope.  He only wishes that were the case.  But it's not going away.  It has refused to go away.  Clare Walsh (THE I PAPER) notes:

The pressure is back on Donald Trump, after a batch of photos of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private island home were released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The images released on Wednesday offered a rare and unnerving look behind the scenes at Epstein‘s private Caribbean island, including bedrooms, bathrooms, outdoor areas, and a room featuring a dentist’s chair and bizarre masks around the walls.
One photo shows a blackboard with the words “power”, “deception”, “time”, “intellectual” and “music” being visible, with some words redacted.

By releasing the 10 photos and four videos, Democrats clearly hoped to bring public attention back to the Epstein scandal, and intensify pressure for the release of the so-called Epstein files, which Trump reluctantly agreed to release last month.

In other news, former basketball player Tom McMillen walked out of an interview this week when question about his buddy Epstein.  Daniel Trainor (US) reports:


Former NBA player and member of the United States House of Representatives Tom McMillen reacted with alleged shock when confronted with his name appearing in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

McMillen, 73, was a guest on the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast on Tuesday, December 2, when he was confronted with his name appearing in the files, which were released by Congress in November. 

He stormed off the show.  Instead of explain it, he stormed off the show.  A few people do have a valid explanation when asked.  McMillen had no explanation -- valid or otherwise.  

Trainor notes:

In a separate email, McMillen criticized Torre for the nature of the podcast interview. 

"I agreed to do the interview and was disappointed that the primary focus of the interview and the follow up questions was a combination of Epstein and 30 year old incidents that were insubstantial but could be made to look bad." McMillen wrote. "In addition, the interview went well past the 20 minutes I had been asked to do - running at least twice that long."

He added, "I ended the interview in a manner that could be made to look abrupt, and when I did so I also made it very clear to Mr. Torre that I felt misled about the substance of the interview…The interview seemed to be looking for gotcha angles and not substance."


So McMillen partied with him and had nothing to get off his chest in the years since.  Were that true, it shouldn't be difficult to assemble a believable response. 

McMillen behaved like someone who had something to hide.  Conclusions that follow his actions this week are the result of his own actions.



Let's move over to the US economy that Chump has destroyed. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

  

A new report from payroll processor ADP found that private employees lost nearly 32,000 jobs in November, far off analyst projections that they would add 10,000 jobs. The data is a sharp decline from October, where businesses overall added 47,000 jobs according to the ADP’s revised estimate.
[. . .]
Domestic manufacturing, as measured by the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing index, fell for the ninth month in a row, showing that the tariffs are hurting an area that Trump boasts they will improve. And private companies, including wholesale retailer Costco, are suing the government to get a refund of the tariffs they’ve paid.

 

Announced job cuts from U.S. employers moved further ahead of 1 million for the year in November as corporate restructuring, artificial intelligence and tariffs have helped pare job rolls, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.

The firm said layoff plans totaled 71,321 in November, a step down from the massive cuts announced in October but still enough to bring the 2025 total up to 1.17 million. That total is 54% higher than the same 11-month period a year ago and the highest level since 2020, when the Covid pandemic rocked the global economy.
In November, Verizon's announcement that it would slash more than 13,000 jobs helped drive the total. Tech companies, driven by innovations in artificial intelligence, listed 12,377 reductions, pushing the sector's 2025 total up 17% from a year ago. AI itself has been cited for 54,694 layoffs this year.

Tariffs were cited as the driver of more than 2,000 cuts in November and nearly 8,000 year to date. The most-cited reason for the month was restructuring, followed by closings and market or economic conditions.

"Layoff plans fell last month, certainly a positive sign. That said, job cuts in November have risen

above 70,000 only twice since 2008: in 2022 and in 2008," said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.



The American people have had it with Chump not only because his actions have destroyed job numbers but also because he and his administration keep trying to lie about reality.  Rachel Khan (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:



Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett is fighting for his life trying to put a positive spin on the latest economic data—and even Fox News isn’t having it.

Fox host Martha McCallum asked Hassett on Thursday about the brutal new layoff numbers from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Year-to-date job cuts show an increase of 54 percent,” McCallum asked Hassett. “That seems like a troubling number. What’s your take on it?”
 Hassett waffled, claiming that jobs were in flux. “Don’t forget that there’s hires and there’s fires, there’s separations and new jobs, and so net job creation for the year is very positive. But the flow of jobs in and out is a little bit higher, there’s a little bit more turnover. A lot of times that happens because people feel that they’re able to get another job if they leave this job,” Hassett said.
Hassett seems not to realize that the report does not measure the normal ebb and flow of people choosing to leave a job, but job cuts—layoffs. Layoffs this year have surpassed 1 million for the first time since Covid-19.

McCallum hit Hassett with another unpleasant truth: that despite Hassett and the Trump administration’s attempt to spin the affordability crisis, voters still know who’s to blame. Looking at a Fox News poll, McCallum noted that 76 percent of respondents see the economy as “only fair” or “poor.”


He keeps lying and spinning and only makes the administration look even more deceitful.  You can't lie to people about their  money.  They know how much they're spending and they know how much they're suffering.  Will Neal (DAILY BEAST) reports:

The MAGA base is turning on Donald Trump over the cost of living crisis, which nearly half of Americans say is the worst they’ve ever seen, a stunning opinion poll reveals.

A staggering 46 percent of all Americans say soaring unaffordability across the United States is firmly the responsibility of the Republican president, the Politico survey found.

And even 37 percent of people who voted for Trump in 2024 say they have no memory of things ever being worse than they are right now.


That's the latest POLITiCO poll.  And you can't spin it.  No matter how hard you try.

It's a lesson Pete Hegseth should take to heart.  The Secretary of Defense (for now, at least) was the subject of an inspector general's investigation over the non-secure chat Hegseth held on Signal where he shared classified details about a bombing the US was about to carry out.  

Despite the damning report, Pete attempted to lie about it. Anne Flaherty (ABC NEWS) walks us through:

Eight months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth typed up detailed military plans to attack Houthi rebel sites in Yemen then shared them with his wife and several work colleagues on separate Signal chats, his chief spokesperson said Wednesday that he's totally exonerated.

According to sources familiar with an internal Pentagon investigation, the Defense Department's inspector general office concluded this week that the information had initially been classified. It also concluded that Hegseth's decision to relay the details of a pending strike in a commercial messaging app risked putting troops in danger -- an allegation he denies.
A major concern, according to investigators, is that if the details of the upcoming attack leaked or were hacked from the commercial app, which is not designed to transmit classified information, the Houthis would have known when to expect U.S. pilots overhead and fired back.
 
Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "The way he chose to communicate this information put service members at risk."
But sources say also included in the report was an acknowledgement that even though sharing such sensitive information was potentially risky, the defense secretary is granted certain declassification powers under the law. Sources said the IG ultimately determined that while Hegseth violated his own agency's protocols, he didn't break the law.


.


.



Political analysts and observers bashed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday after he claimed an Inspector General report on his conduct during Signalgate exonerated him.

Hegseth's tenure as Defense Secretary has been embroiled in scandal since it began. One of the most egregious scandals occurred in April when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, was mistakenly added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging platform Signal, where multiple Trump officials discussed a bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The instance became known as Signalgate.
The Inspector General's report found Hegseth likely put American troops in harm's way, and said that the Secretary violated department policies.

Yet Hegseth thinks he can lie and get away with it.  Just like the White House which keeps changing their story on Hegseth's other big problem this week -- striking a boat and two people surviving the strike and hanging onto the boat so a second strike was called out. 

 

 


 




In early September, the day after the first strike of the Trump Administration’s bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared on Fox News to give a detailed account of the deadly incident.

“I watched it live,” he said during the interview. “We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented.”
But months later, after a Washington Post investigation revealed that Hegseth and others had possibly committed a war crime by allegedly ordering that no survivors be left on the vessel, he offered a different version of that story.


“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said. “As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs, so I moved on to my next meeting.”
Hegseth insisted he had learned a “couple of hours later” that Admiral Frank M. Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, had ordered a second strike, adding: “which he had the complete authority to do.”


Although many experts have questioned the legality of the entire bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, the September 2 strike has come under scrutiny because it targeted injured and shipwrecked people—a clear breach of the laws of war and of U.S. law.
The updated version of events offered by Hegseth takes the Defense Secretary out of the room at a key moment in an operation that some experts say constitutes a war crime, and that has sparked bipartisan investigations in both houses of Congress.


The Trump administration is coming under increased scrutiny over senior officials’ shifting explanations for the actions surrounding two September strikes by U.S. forces on a boat that was allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea.

The Washington Post reported Friday that after an initial strike, the boat appeared to have been disabled, and some crew members were killed. But when two survivors were identified, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spoken directive before the first strike to kill everybody. The Pentagon has said 11 crew members were killed.


And it's the whole administration with their changing stories:

The Post reported Friday that a live drone feed of the Sept. 2 operation showed two survivors from an original crew of 11 clinging to the wreckage of their boat after the initial missile attack.

To comply with the spoken order from Hegseth, which The Post reported was given on a secure conference call before the first missile strike, Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, the Special Operations commander overseeing the mission, ordered the second strike which killed the two survivors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. Those people, along with five others in the original Post report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Bradley told people on the secure conference call that the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo, according to two people.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to address questions about Hegseth’s order and other details of the operation, including Special Operations involvement. “This entire narrative is completely false,” he said in a statement. “Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success.”

After The Post’s report was published, Hegseth wrote on X that “these highly effective strikes are designed to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’” adding: “Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” He claimed that the military operations in the Caribbean are “lawful” and denounced “the fake news.”

People can only endure so many lies.  Bob Cronin (NEWSER) states,  "Republican lawmakers are expressing exasperation with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his management of the Pentagon—with some suggesting he may not be able to keep the job even if their investigations clear him in the fatal attack on apparent survivors of a US strike in the Caribbean. "  Neither Congress nor the American people are in the mood for this repeated lying from Hegseth and others in the administration.  Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes:

During an appearance on MS NOW on Thursday morning, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, admitted to the hosts of “Morning Joe” that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is ignoring demands to turn over critical information about his conduct in office.
Speaking with “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, the Ohio Republican refused to say if Donald Trump’s appointee to head up the Pentagon was fit to hold his office, offering up, “I think there are a number of things that have raised concern that Congress is struggling with. And I think the secretary is going to have to answer those questions and address them. And I think that the president is going to be struggling with that over the next month.”

Those low on patience currently include Senator Rand Paul.  Alexander Bolton (THE HILL) covers Paul's statements:

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should testify before Congress “under oath” about the orders to strike suspected Venezuelan drug boats.

Paul, who has criticized the Trump administration’s policy of using lethal force to take out suspected drug smuggling boats, added that the Pentagon should make the full video of a Sept. 2 follow-up strike on survivors in the Caribbean Sea available to the public.
“I think he should testify under oath about the orders that were given, and I think that the video of the distressed, shipwrecked or incapacitated people on those boats being bombed, that video should be shown to every American,” Paul said Thursday after Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Frank Bradley, who oversaw the Sept. 2 strike on initial survivors, briefed the chair and ranking members of Senate and House committees.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called on Hegseth on Tuesday to release the tapes of the Caribbean boat strikes and testify publicly about the incident.

“If he refuses to release the tapes, if he stonewalls, if he keeps hiding the facts, then the question becomes unavoidable: What is Pete Hegseth hiding? What does Pete Hegseth not want the American people to see? Is it that his story doesn’t add up?” Schumer said on the floor earlier this week.


What's Pete hiding?  Multiple things.  Mainly one man.  Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked a top U.S. Navy admiral to step down after the military chief expressed concern about the “murky” legality of the lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, according to a report.

The shock departure of Admiral Alvin Holsey one year into his tenure as head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the Caribbean, was announced by Hegseth on Oct.16.
It followed “months of discord” between the pair that intensified in the summer when the Trump administration began bombing the alleged drug boats, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing two Pentagon officials and former officials.

“You’re either on the team or you’re not,” Hegseth reportedly told 60-year-old Holsey during a meeting this year. “When you get an order, you move out fast and don’t ask questions.”





Scott Anderson, fellow in governance studies at Brookings Institution, said the attack on survivors is a "textbook" definition of an illegal order.

The Department of Defense's Law of War Manual offers examples of orders and actions that are considered violations of the international laws of armed conflict. This includes targeting civilians or combatants who are "hors de combat," meaning they are injured or disabled and do not pose a threat.

"Even if this were a war with an enemy army and these were uniformed soldiers, U.S. soldiers should not be targeting them," Anderson told UPI. "It is really concerning that this is something that could be implemented."

 
 

 




Questions were asked after Hegseth announced on social media in October that the four-star officer would be retiring at the end of the year after 37 years in the Navy. Holsey, 60, only started the job, which usually has a three-year term, in November last year—meaning he was leaving two years early.
At the time, rumors flew that his departure was due to clashes with Hegseth over the Caribbean mission.


Let's note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


Your brazen attempt to dismantle the Department by transferring to other federal agencies complex and foundational responsibilities that Congress specifically charged to the Department [w]ill undermine public education.”

“We urge you to immediately reverse course and to focus your time and attention on actions that actually help states, school districts and educational institutions improve educational outcomes and support for students.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); and their colleagues in a letter slamming Secretary Linda McMahon following the recent announcement that the Department of Education has signed interagency agreements (IAAs) to illegally outsource core functions that students and their families rely on. The senators are demanding Secretary McMahon reverse these latest steps to dismantle the Department of Education.

“Let’s be very clear: You are choosing to create even more bureaucracy that states, school districts, and educational institutions across America will have to expend time and resources navigating at the expense of students and families,” wrote the senators.

In the letter, the Senators make clear that, as McMahon has previously acknowledged, dismantling the Department would require an act of Congress, which has not been proposed—or even seriously pursued—by the administration. Appropriations law prohibits the transfer of funds to another federal agency unless expressly authorized in appropriations law.

The senators detail how the myriad departmental responsibilities McMahon is now seeking to spin off to other agencies that lack the expertise, capacity, and legal mandate to successfully administer key programs will risk support, funding, and oversight that our laws provide to students and families across America. They note, in particular, that there have been negative consequences for states, schools, colleges, and students as these IAAs roll out. The first IAA inked earlier this year between the Department and DOL on career and technical education and adult education has been plagued with serious challenges.

“We once again demand that you reverse these detrimental plans and refocus your efforts on supporting state and local efforts by properly implementing federal laws intended to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all students, especially those who count on the Department doing its job most,” concluded the senators.

In addition to Senators Warren, Murray, Baldwin, Sanders, and Schumer, the letter was signed by Senators Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angus King (I-Me.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.).

Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education

###


Finally, THE BLACK COMMENTATOR notes:


The Black Commentator

 Issue #1066

 is now Online

December 4, 2025

Read issue 1066

Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com

Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739

 


The Black Commentator | P.O. Box 2635, A weekly publication dedicated to economic justice, social justice and peace.,
Tarpon Springs, FL 34688-2635


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