Thursday, May 14, 2026

Taraji P Henson and Michael Che (yea!) and Valerie Bertinelli (boo!)


Taraji P. Henson doesn't enjoy participating in awards season.
The Empire actress, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009 for her work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, shared her unfiltered thoughts on Oscar campaigning in a new interview with Vulture.

"I've only been nominated once, but I remember feeling like I was on a political campaign," Henson remembered. "In a bad way, because you saw the movie. What am I convincing you to do? Why am I doing this? I already did press for the movie. We released it. And then you don't win."
The Hidden Figures actress noted that receiving a nomination without a win isn't particularly gratifying. "It's not fun," she opined. "'I've been nominated.' F--- you. Who gets in the race and wants to lose? Make it make sense. That's toying with my emotions."

She continued, "Am I being sensitive? I'm an artist. F--- you. Yeah, I'm sensitive."

Henson lost her category to Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

After Vulture asked the Baby Boy star if she thinks campaigning matters when it comes to shaping the outcome of the Oscars, Henson responded, "I don't even know. I don't understand it anymore. I thought I did, but I don't."


In new posts to Instagram, Che, who is known for his own boundary-pushing jokes on Saturday Night Live, said that there are different understandings about what it means to be brutal during a roast, depending on who’s writing the jokes.
“White guys and Black people joke different,” he wrote in the screenshot comments he posted.

“Black guy roast like, ‘look at this n---- shoes!’ White roasts are like, ‘Slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets.’ White guys don’t give a f--- about they shoes.”

The comments followed Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart on Sunday, where comedians jabbed Hart on everything from his height to his late father’s cocaine addiction. Shane Gillis made jokes about Hart that referenced slavery and lynching. MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a punchline out of the public murder of Minnesota man George Floyd. Che did not name names in his remarks.

Some of the jokes were tasteless -- as is expected at a roast -- but some did cross the line.  I agree with Che on this. 



Valerie Bertinelli is reflecting on the “pain” she’s experienced in relationships.
“I can go back to my very first marriage  and I understand the painful parts of it, but none of the pain was ever what I experienced in the last two goes at love that I had,” the celebrity chef said during an appearance on the podcast Navigating Narcissism with Dr. Ramani.

“I feel a lot of shame for allowing myself to be treated the way I was treated,” Bertinelli added. “A lot of shame.”

You know what?  Shut up. Trina called Bertinelli out when she started her attacks on her last husband.  After building a show around him on THE FOOD NETWORK, she starts attacking him.  After being step-mother to his kids, she starts attacking him.  She just needs to shut up.  She presented herself to the world as Eddie Van Halen's widow despite the fact that the man was remarried and left behind a widow when he died.  

She's so vain and so focused on herself that it's just too much.  Just shut up, already.  That's why TFN cancelled her show.  People were shocked after she spent day after day presenting herself as happily married and singing the man's praises to suddenly just dump him and start saying all this mean stuff about him. 


People are on to her and the comments make that clear:


Glenda Benchwick
12 hours ago
i remember, not too long ago, hearing her say she was going to leave the public eye. i wish she would, why can't she keep her private life private?

Ole Shep
13 hours ago
..bless her heart, all she wants is a little attention. One thing though, is that she must have a good PR agent to keep her in the public eye when there is really no point.

john Peabody
15 hours ago
Maybe you should shut your trap and date quietly



D P A
1 hour ago
now that eddie is gone she thinks he was great, nevermind how she talked about him when he was with us

Jeff Chapman
1 hour ago
Trashing your ex-s in public is never a good look.


John Butler
42 minutes ago
Always playing the victim. Try admitting that you were the problem. You are the only common factor.

martin watkins
9 hours ago
Well blaming her past relationships is a good excuse for her weight gain.. she has to blame it on something.

Glenn Costello
14 hours ago
Always the victim.


hazard
12 hours ago
She keeps trying so hard to be relevant.  Face it Valerie, no one cares.


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


Thursday, May 14, 2026.  Chumps continues his war on the economy and he continues to fail at everything, most recently the US Army suddenly has a budget crisis and Homeland Security has wasted billions, Senator Elizabeth Warren gets some answers about billions wasted on immigration, and much more. 



Just three months ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) touted the “tangible, immediate benefits” of the GOP’s policies.

“We made promises, we’re keeping our promises by every conceivable metric,” he said, pointing to lower inflation, interest rates, and gas prices. “Americans are better off today under Republican governance than they were under the Democrats. And these trends are only going to continue.”
While the economy’s performance already didn’t justify Johnson’s exuberant rhetoric at the time, and Americans had long soured on Donald  Trump’s job performance, especially with regard to his inability to lower their cost of living, things then were merely bad for Republicans.

Now they are much, much worse.

On Tuesday, the Department of Labor announced that the consumer price index had soared to 3.8 percent in April, the highest level in nearly three years, and that inflation outpaced real wage gains for the first time since early 2023.

In addition, the price of gasoline has skyrocketed 50 percent since Johnson proclaimed that “the tangible, immediate benefits of our policies are indisputable.”

What is indisputable is that the war in Iran and Trump’s tariffs are to blame for higher prices, even though Republicans would love to pass the buck to his predecessor Joe Biden.

Klaus is 100% correct.  And the American people know it with most able to publicly admit it.  Sarah Davis (THE HILL) notes, "A majority of Americans blame President Trump for heightened consumer costs, according to new polling.  A new CNN survey released on Tuesday found that 77 percent of U.S. adults believe the president’s policies have increased the cost of living in their communities. Eight percent said his administration has decreased costs, while 16 percent believe these policies have had 'no effect'."  Rebecca Schneid (TIME) reports:

The war in Iran, a devastating drought, and President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime have combined to send the prices of basic goods and staples soaring for Americans, according to new figures from the Labor Department. 

Inflation surged to a three-year high of 3.8% by the end of April, according to the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, rising faster than wages, which grew by 3.6%. 
The primary cause of the rise has been the ripple effect from skyrocketing fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran, which has sent the world into global energy rationing and caused increases throughout the U.S. domestic supply chain. 

Responding to a question about rising inflation on Tuesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that the “only thing” that matters when discussing Iran is its potential for a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody,” he said. 

 
 “Not even a little bit‚” Trump said when asked how much “Americans’ financial situations” are motivating him to reach a deal to end the war in Iran. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”


That's Donald's  clear screw-you to American consumers. 


MS NOW’s Morning Joe crew seized on remarks made by President Donald Trump on Tuesday that he “doesn’t think about” working Americans’ war-pinched financial woes when he pushes for a deal with Iran, as the hosts roundly trashed the president for being “obsessed” with “nonsense” vanity projects with ballooning costs.

[. . .]

“‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.’ President Trump, with that admission to a reporter yesterday,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said.

Host Joe Scarborough interrupted, stunned: “I mean, really? Come on. Like Democrats are now going, wait, is he –”

“Is he saying that openly?” Brzezinski finished.

Co-host Willie Geist weighed in, describing the moment as a “clip and save for Democrats throughout this campaign season.”

Geist continued: “He’s been showing that he doesn’t care about Americans financial situations since the beginning of this war, as gas prices and food prices have risen. Now he’s just saying it out loud – ‘I actually don’t care.’”

“I was thinking back to like, all those times where you had to interpret or spin a president being out of touch, George H.W. Bush misreading the grocery scanner or whatever. And now you have a president just saying, I don’t care about your financial situation,” he added.

Scarborough then jibed that the “financial situation” for Americans was “getting so bad” that Trump had “lost” Fox Business host Larry Kudlow.

“It’s just this is how Americans live, and an overwhelming polls like, man, this isn’t Democrats saying it, it’s not independent. It’s everybody saying it, man.” Scarborough said.

“Like 70% of Americans, 75% of Americans say everything costs too much. We’re in a terrible situation,” he continued, adding: “And the president picks that day to go out there while he’s worried about golden arches and he’s worried about golden ballrooms. And we find out about this Trump gold phone scam, well, you know, and he’s worried about crypto, and he’s worried about their family making billions and billions of dollars and says, ‘Yeah, well, you know, we’re doing great, but we don’t really care about how you and your family are doing.’”



All around the economy, everything is being impacted.  Elijah Nicholson-Messmer (BARRON'S) notes:

Consumers have reckoned with higher gasoline prices for months, but the impacts of the Iran war have quietly begun rippling through other sectors of the economy.

In March, prices for polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic globally, rose to their highest point in nearly four years. That’s a problem for companies that need the material for their products, as they try to navigate what experts say is a “historic” plastic market.
“This is different than anything we’ve seen for the world, for the North American market,” said Joel Morales, vice president of polyolefins Americas at Chemical Market Analytics.

Plastic prices previously spiked after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine drove oil past $100 a barrel. As a rule of thumb, every $10 rise in oil adds about five cents per pound to polyethylene, according to Morales. Put another way, a 10% increase in oil prices typically lifts polyethylene prices by roughly 3.5%, according to a Barron’s analysis of the past five years of price data.



The largest parcel carrier in the United States just hit senders with a surcharge — and it's not USPS. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which delivered 6.7 billion packages last year (1), has announced a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge starting on April 17.

The stated cause for the surcharge is rising fuel prices from the Iran war, and while this surcharge will directly impact sellers, consumers could feel it, too, as price increases almost always flow downstream.
Amazon isn't the only delivery service making changes. The USPS is rolling out an 8% price increase for specific products on April 26 that will remain in place until January 17, 2027 (2). UPS has been operating with a variable surcharge structure (in the double digits) since April 13 (3) and FedEx added a 26.5% fuel surcharge on April 6 which is subject to weekly adjustment (4).



The war in Iran is causing supply issues globally, with constrained gas and oil supplies due to the closure of the strait of Hormuz being the ones that hits home for most people. But we're also starting to see impacts on the supply of different materials which, on top of a memory shortage, aren't looking too good for the global technology supply chain.

I've spoken to a few different technology supply chain experts to figure out exactly which materials are affected and why. And perhaps more importantly, I asked them what they think the prospects are for the semiconductor and component manufacturing market, as well as for end-consumers such as PC gamers like you and I.

Unfortunately, the answer isn't the prettiest, as I discovered that the effects are broad and wouldn't be resolved even if the strait re-opened right away, as plenty of damage is already done. But it's not all hopeless, as I learned what companies are already doing to deal with the supply issues caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Helium is probably the most crucial material for PC tech that we've seen affected by the conflict. It can get incredibly cold (up to -269 °C) without turning into a liquid, which makes it very useful for keeping things cool during different parts of manufacturing processes. Perhaps most importantly, it keeps chips cool while they're having their circuitry etched onto them during fabrication.

Exiger SVP of Product Level Intelligence Derek Lemke tells me: "Helium is not optional in semiconductor manufacturing. It is used in wafer cooling, etching, and EUV lithography processes, and there is no substitute. That makes it essential for GPU and CPU production and increasingly for DRAM."
Qatar produces about a third of the world's supply of helium, and in addition supplies being blocked by the closure of the strait of Hormuz, Iranian attacks on Qatar energy sites have effectively completely shut down helium production from the country.

"Clearly the helium example coming out of Qatar is disastrous," Jonathan Colehower, Managing Director, Global Operations & Supply Chain Practice at UST, tells me bluntly. "And unfortunately there's not a substitute."



US consumer beef prices surged to new all-time highs, adding urgency to the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle inflation.

Average ground beef prices in April broke the $7 per pound threshold for the first time, while steak surged past $13 a pound, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday.
The White House has been trying to tamp down prices of the protein ahead of the midterm elections, though the complexities of the cattle supply chain are poised to keep prices elevated for longer.


After weeks of warnings that the Iran war would drive up U.S. food prices, the numbers are finally in: According to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the category it calls “food at home,” otherwise known as your grocery store bill, rose 0.7% in April. That increase marked the biggest one-month jump in grocery prices in nearly four years.
Overall, grocery store prices have risen 2.9% over the past year — an across-the-board jump that continues to pressure everyday Americans.

But that pressure increased significantly in recent weeks. In March, food at home prices actually fell by 0.2%, making April’s stark reversal all the more significant.

Driving that increase were substantial price hikes for things like fresh veggies. On an annualized basis, fresh vegetable prices are more than 44% higher today than they were three months ago.







Paul Wiseman (AP) observes, "Prices are rising at a time when Americans are already frustrated by the high cost of living. Affordability is likely to be a key issue when voters go to the polls Nov. 3 to determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republican Party maintains control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives."  And this awareness comes after Chump and Republicans in Congress gutted the safety net last year and have gutted funding for public spaces as well.  Economist Paul Krugman writes:

Other problems with the US way of life — like our lack of walkable cities, access to public transportation, and feasibility of living without a car — are harder to summarize with simple numbers. But they are real failings.

I don’t mean to suggest that everything is worse in the U.S. We do, in fact, have substantially higher GDP per capita than European nations, and this is reflected in our material standard of living. For example, we live in bigger houses, which is nothing to sneer at, and drive bigger cars. And as people who have lived on both sides of the Atlantic can attest, “getting stuff done” — everything from finding a place to live to finding a plumber on a weekend — is often much easier in America.

But there are many ways in which America’s quality of life is much worse than one would expect given the nation’s wealth. And we should always remember that economic growth is supposed to be the foundation of a better life. A nation that has high GDP per capita but whose citizens live worse than their counterparts in other countries is not a success story.
And many Americans would, I believe, be angry if they realized how much worse our lives are in many ways than those of our counterparts abroad.

Why are American lives so often nastier, more brutish, and shorter than those of citizens of other advanced nations? That’s a complicated story, but much of it comes down to the fact that US politics has for decades been dominated by a party that is fiercely opposed to any concept of shared responsibility, of caring for our fellow citizens, and that foments a deep level of distrust that makes it ever harder to operate as a society.

As a result, we don’t guarantee healthcare. We underfund public services. We promote private consumption — including driving — while neglecting the provision of public goods. We don’t assure basic health and safety, including for children, which in the long run will make us poorer. It’s not an accident that America began to fall behind other rich countries in many ways around 1980, that is, around the time the election of Ronald Reagan marked a sharp rightward turn in U.S. politics and policy.


A war on immigrants is where Chump loves to throw money.  Waste money.  Bennito L. Kelty (RAW STORY) notes:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave a $12.2 million no-bid contract to a company that appears to have fabricated staff and was originally founded to hold its founder's sailboat, according to a new report.

ICE contracted with Edge Ops LLC for a program called Project SAFE HAVEN, an AI surveillance tool that tracks immigrants' daily routines, habits, and real-time locations and categorizes them as potential threats. But reporting by The Lever found a series of fabrications on the company's website.
On the company's website, the headshot for the lead computer scientist turned out to be a stock photo, according to The Lever.

"The original image is still on offer for royalty-free use on the Dreamstime website," The Lever reported.


What idiot fell for that?  Who okayed that contract?  Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:


The highly controversial tent detention facility for immigrants in Florida, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," will shut down, according to The New York Times, though the Department of Homeland Security has publicly denied seeking immediate closure of the site.

This comes after the state-run facility, which has been plagued with problems ranging from insect infestations to flooding risk, was found to be in severe financial difficulties, with DHS finding it too expensive to keep funding.
"Vendors were told that detainees would be moved from the facility by the start of June and that the center would be broken down over the following weeks, the three people said. The three people and the federal official all requested anonymity to discuss the closure, which has not yet been made public," said the report. "It is unclear where the detainees would go; the federal government runs many other detention centers, including in Florida. The Everglades center, which is run by the state, held about 1,400 detainees as of last month, according to ICE data."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has boasted that the facility, which reportedly costs $1 million a day to operate, takes the relief off the Trump administration and houses the "worst of the worst." However, reporting has shown that detainees have included DACA recipients, people with no criminal record, and individuals sent there after minor traffic stops. A Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times analysis found that over 250 detainees were being held solely on immigration violations with no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S.


It's a mess that has destroyed lives and ripped families apart.  And it's wasted a ton of US tax dollars.  Tom Latchem (DAILY BEAST) reports:

The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog has launched a probe into a $38 billion warehouse-to-megajail scheme pushed by ousted Secretary Kristi Noem and her alleged lover Corey Lewandowski.

Noem, 54, was unceremoniously turfed out of her Cabinet job in late March after a string of catastrophic appearances on Capitol Hill and the unmasking of a $220 million taxpayer-funded vanity ad campaign featuring her on horseback that President Donald Trump, 79, publicly disavowed.
The DHS inspector general is now set to announce an “audit of ICE’s acquisition of detention space” on Wednesday—a sweeping review of every property purchase made under the so-called ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative, The Wall Street Journal reports. The program, a plan to snap up vacant industrial buildings across the country and retrofit them into vast immigration prisons holding up to 8,000 people at a time, was one of Noem and Lewandowski’s “signature” policies, the outlet said. The New York Post has subsequently confirmed the OIG action.

Of the $38 billion funded by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, DHS has so far blown more than $1 billion on nine of the 11 warehouses it scooped up in just a couple of months over the winter, the Journal reported. ICE paid between 11 and 13 percent above the market rate for comparable properties, according to real-estate analytics firm CoStar, the newspaper said—and on several deals, it paid eye-watering sums far above that.
In Salt Lake City alone, DHS forked over $145 million for a warehouse appraised at just $97 million, The Atlantic reported last month, while a Roxbury, New Jersey site valued at $62 million was scooped up for $129 million. A property in Social Circle, Georgia, appraised last year at $26 million was bought for the same $129 million figure—a markup of nearly 400 percent.





Senator Cory Booker:  I want to talk to you about this incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we've never seen and the way you're using money.  Let's -- let's drill down on the warehouses, the DHS has been buying over the last several months, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.  Are you familiar with the acquisition of a warehouse DHS recently bought in Roxbury Township, New Jersey?  

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes.

Senator Cory Booker:  You are familiar with that.  

Secretary Kristi Noem: I'm familiar.

Senator Cory Booker: How much you spent of it?

Secretary Kristi Noem: No, sir.  I do not.  

Senator Cory Booker: $129.3 million.  Do you know how much it was assessed for in New Jersey?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, we're purchasing centers across the country to build efficiency into our detention system.  Efficiency so that we can --

Senator Cory Booker:  As a person who's run tight budgets before and had taxpayer dollars.  You paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that at $62 million to work for a president that says he's a great dealmaker.  I can't believe he thinks that you're a great dealmaker.  But what's worse than that is that the Roxbury Township Council comprised entirely of Republicans voted unanimously early this year to oppose that facility.  My office tried to facilitate a meeting between DHS and local officials so that ICE could hear their concerns.  Yet DHS did not even respond.  That is unacceptable.  That you all would enter a town, you wouldn't even follow environmental reviews or have conversations with local officials about the resources from emergency resources to fire resources and more that you're going to pull down.  You didn't even have a conversation.  So, you know, do you comply with court orders?


And then there's the money wasted on court costs and legal filings and lying to judges.  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Judges across the country are overwhelmingly rejecting President Donald Trump’s hopes to indefinitely detain immigrants as part of his mass deportation plans.

Analysis from Politico found that there have been more than 10,000 examples of federal judges ruling against ICE’s controversial mandatory detention policy, compared with just 1,200 cases in which they sided with the Trump administration.
Judges are also routinely voicing their frustrations with the Trump administration for continuing to detain people suspected of living in the country illegally without the possibility of release on bond or an opportunity to plead their case, even after being repeatedly rebuffed in court.

The aggressive tactics of ICE agents during immigration raids have also come under strong condemnation from judges ruling against the mass-detention policy.
“Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government—masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind—are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process,” West Virginia Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote in a February ruling.


Dementia Donald has failed at the economy, has failed on human rights, has failed on oversight, has failed on any issue you want to consider.  He's failing on the war on Iran.  Sam Kiley (INDEPENDENT) reports:


Iran’s missile arsenal is mostly intact and still capable of attacking America’s allies beyond the Gulf states, two months into a joint US-Israeli bombing campaign.

The White House has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s military capacity has been “decimated” and wiped out, but Nato sources have told The Independent this is not true.
“Whatever anyone is saying in public, we estimate that the Iranians have at least 60 per cent of their missile capability. How else can you explain, for example, how they can continue to attack Gulf nations with missiles and drones?” said a senior Nato source in Europe.

This is the latest blow to American claims to have somehow won a war that has achieved none of its stated aims and shown the limits of US power at a time when Donald Trump is heading to China, hoping to be perceived as first among equals.

“Everybody knows that Trump and Hegseth are talking nonsense when they make claims to have destroyed Iran militarily,” the source continued.


Lying neither changes nor fixes anything.  And how in the world did he end up with a budget crisis in the US Army?  Steve Beynon (ABC NEWS) reports:


The Army is grappling with a sudden budget crunch and scrambling to slash training costs across broad swaths of the force, according to internal documents reviewed by ABC News and multiple U.S. officials.

The move is to make up for a shortfall of some $4 billion to $6 billion, according to one of the officials, as the service has drastically expanded its operational footprint at home and abroad.

The cuts, which range from elite schools to unit-level training, have triggered a wave of abrupt cancellations and unusually aggressive spending scrutiny months before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
The service's multibillion-dollar shortfall is the product of a widening set of operational demands and rising costs across the force.

Major drivers, a U.S. official noted, have been costs associated with the Iran war and an expanding mission securing the southern U.S. border.

Additionally, expansive National Guard missions, including the ongoing deployment in Washington, D.C., which alone is projected to cost roughly $1.1 billion this year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.


Turning to Chump's dead buddy Jeffrey Epstein.  The two became roll dogs in the 80s.  In 2002, Chump noted, "I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."  Yes, he did like them underage.  And Chump knew about it.  Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were sexual traffickers. In July of last year, Chump insisted he had kicked Epstein out of Mar a Largo in October of 2007.  

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was 'interviewed' by the House Oversight Committee.  Committee chair and stooge James Comer did not put Lutnick under oath and also did not tape the session.  QUEERTY notes:


Lutnick was open on a 2025 New York Post podcast episode about the fact that Epstein taped massage sessions given to powerful men by girls he trafficked to use as blackmail. But when pressed on the subject during last week’s hearing, Lutnick told House Democrats that he “take[s] it back.”

When asked why he took the blackmail claims back, Lutnick said, “I talked to administration officials.”

Democrats pressed Lutnick on who exactly he spoke to in the Tr*mp administration, at which point Lutnick completely reversed course. “I just learned about this in public,” he said. “I didn’t talk to the administration officials.”

So which is it, exactly?

Epstein Files Transparency Act co-author Ro Khanna was not buying Lutnick’s story. “I think he’s covering up for the administration,” he said during the deposition. “Secretary Lutnick said on the podcast that there was blackmail going on. Then he says to my inquiry, ‘well, no, no, no, I was just speculating.’”

Lutnick may not know it, but he’s opened a fresh can of worms for the Tr*mp administration by waffling on his Epstein claims. Despite claiming that he cut contact with his neighbor in 2005, we know that in addition to visiting Epstein Island in 2012, he entered into a business partnership with Epstein in 2013, and that the relationship continued well into 2018.

In the 2025 New York Post podcast interview, Lutnick mentions knowing about Epstein’s penchant for “special” massages from the minute he meets him, and claims that “his MO [for trapping powerful people] was… ‘get a massage, get a massage.’ And what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video… This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever. He blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.”

We know that the primary source of Epstein’s wealth stems from his management of other billionaires’ money, such as Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner. But considering Epstein’s ability to move in privileged political and financial circles in the ’90s and 2000s, blackmail seems quite plausible. It also lends an interesting flavor to the infamous email where Epstein describes Tr*mp as “the dog that hasn’t barked.”

What appears to have happened during Lutnick’s testimony is that Khanna caught the Secretary of Commerce in a lie that leads directly back to Tr*mp, who has his own Epstein problems to worry about. “In many ways,” says former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a recent podcast, “Lutnick is the perfect symbol of Trump’s Epstein problem: One day he’s playing to the base, talking about how disgusting Epstein is, and the next day he’s dodging questions about his own ties to Epstein and hoping it all just goes away.”


Tuesday, Democrats on the Oversight Committee went to Florida and held a hearing with Epstein survivors as the witnesses.  One of the witnesses was Roza (first name only).  Amy Walker (BBC NEWS) reports:


Roza, who was recruited from Uzbekistan as a teenager by Epstein's associate and modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, spoke publicly for the first time alongside a number of victims in a field hearing that was organised by House Democrats.
Roza, whose first name was only given in the hearing, said she was 18 when she met the late Brunel in 2008 and "promised a modelling career beyond my dreams".

"Coming from a financially unstable background I was a perfect target for coercion," she added, during the tearful testimony.

By May 2009, she was in New York City on a visa, and in July she met Epstein at his house in West Palm Beach while he was under house arrest, Roza said.

Epstein then offered her a role at his Florida Science Foundation - where he had worked during an initial arrangement that allowed him to leave custody for up to 16 hours a day, six days a week, following his 2008 conviction.

"One day his masseuse called me into his room where I was molested for the first time by Jeffrey," Roza told the hearing. "For the following three years I was subject to ongoing rape."



“Jeffrey was under house arrest for the molestation of underage girls at the exact time he was abusing me,” she said, in tears.

Florida law enforcement investigated Epstein in 2005 after an underage girl who had been hired to give him a massage at his home told her family he had sexually abused her.

Investigators eventually compiled a 53-page indictment using evidence from 34 victims, only for the predator to be granted a non-prosecution agreement by federal attorneys as part of a “sweetheart” plea deal that enabled him to sidestep federal sex trafficking charges.

Instead, Epstein pleaded guilty to the lesser state offense of soliciting a minor under 18 for prostitution, registered as a sex offender, and paid compensation to the victims.
[. . .]
She also attacked the Department of Justice for leaving her name, and those of other survivors, unredacted in the Epstein files released in December and January, saying her’s appeared more than 500 times while those of the pedophile’s alleged accomplices were blacked out, which she claimed had been a “choice,” not a “mistake.”


During the hearing, lawmakers asked survivors what justice looks like. Roza, an Epstein victim trafficked from Uzbekistan under a fraudulent visa who endured three years of abuse, gave a sobering response. “I appreciate you asking that question, but I don’t know. It’s your job. You guys have to figure out how to make justice, not me,” she said.

She’s right. It’s Congress’ job to deliver justice, not ask survivors to define it.

Epstein survivor Courtney Wild, who has spent over a decade fighting the federal government over a non-prosecution agreement, made a similar point. “We did not fight so that this could turn into something political, or so that our rights would be violated once again,” she said.
Wild ended her testimony by telling committee members: “Make the Crime Victims Rights Act matter.”





"All of this raising very serious questions about why a convicted child sex offender was not only serving time at a minimum security facility but also allegedly receiving this kind of treatment."  That's Erin Burnett in the video below. 

 


Ghislaine Maxwell.  Chump's friend.  Convicted over her sex trafficking work with Epstein.  Chump's friend spoke to Todd Blance last July.  By August she had been moved to Club Fed in Bryan, Texas.  And the benefits and extras she's receiving in prison make the whole thing a sick joke. 

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

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, released new answers from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense (DoD), revealing the Pentagon’s financial support for the Trump administration’s cruel immigration agenda is far higher than initially reported by DoD.

Senator Warren and Representative Garamendi’s (D-Calif.) December 2025 investigation found that DoD had committed at least $2 billion to support immigration enforcement, including nearly $55 million to detain non-citizens at Guantanamo Bay.

"While the prices of groceries, rent, and health care skyrocket, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda,” said Senator Warren. “Congress must refuse to give this administration another penny for these political stunts."

“When President Trump diverts military resources to immigration enforcement, our armed forces suffer. Critical training is delayed, flight hours are lost, and funds are pulled from military family housing and readiness priorities,” said Representative John Garamendi. “These diversions weaken the training, modernization, and maintenance our forces need to stay prepared and mission-ready.”

In new answers to Questions for the Record, Secretary Hegseth revealed DoD’s projected support for Guantanamo Bay operations is now roughly $73 million — nearly $20 million more than initially reported by DoD — for a facility with a maximum capacity of just 50 detainees. Despite the limited capacity at the facility, Secretary Hegseth reported that DoD has deployed 522 department personnel to Guantanamo Bay.

New reporting from CBS reveals the Trump administration has detained a total of 832 people at Guantanamo Bay, and that government employees outnumber detainees 100 to 1, raising concerns about the Department’s massive spending on the Guantanamo Bay detention.

Meanwhile, DoD has revealed that some financial support for immigration enforcement is coming at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific. Reporting from ABC today revealed the Army is making major training cuts to offset a budget deficit of $4-6 billion, partially due to the military’s support for immigration enforcement.

In the coming weeks, Congress will consider providing the Trump administration a further $72 billion to fund the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for four years.

Senator Warren has led the fight to hold the Trump administration accountable for mishandling military funds to pursue its cruel immigration agenda and political stunts:

  • In April 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), along with Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Representative Troy Carter (D-La.), urged the Inspectors General of the Departments of Homeland Security and State to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to deport people to countries they have no ties to. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
  • In March 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) led 52 members of Congress in a new investigation into potential corruption in government contracts stemming from the White House’s fast-tracked expansion of inhumane warehouse-based immigration detention facilities using a Navy contracting vehicle.
  • In January 2026, following a new report by the Congressional Budget Office revealing Trump’s domestic deployments of the National Guard and Marines have cost at least $589 million — more than double what Senator Warren’s bicameral investigation previously found — she called for the Trump administration to “answer for wasting more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.”
  • In December 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Trump’s nominee to be Army General Counsel, on the deployment of the National Guard and reports that senior Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers have been sidelined after raising legal concerns about military operations.
  • In December 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) co-led the release of a new report, along with 11 other members of Congress, revealing the Trump administration diverted more than $2 billions of military funds and resources from the Pentagon to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement, and its impact on readiness and morale. The report also revealed that the diversion of funds was happening at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific.
  • In September 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) led more than 60 members of Congress in opening a new investigation into the Trump administration’s practice of detaining and sending immigrants to countries where they have no citizenship or connections of any kind. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
  • In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the military’s deployment of active-duty forces to the southern border and Guantanamo, and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) new involvement in immigration detention and deportation.

###


The following sites -- plus Ann's "Katie Phang has an important video," Stan's "Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields" and Elaine's "Publicity junkie Ka$h Patel" -- updated:


with C.I.'s "

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields


I pulled a muscle the other day picking up a potato chip off the kitchen floor. As I recuperated on the couch, I clicked on the most recent “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” trailer. I watched him fight off a knife attack, plunge into the ocean and hang off an airplane midflight while thinking, “This man is 12 years older than me.”
The last installment in the nearly 30-year-old blockbuster megafranchise catapults the 62-year-old Tom Cruise onto movie screens around the country on Friday. And I can’t help but obsess over Cruise’s late-career pivot to glamorous stuntman. It isn’t just the perfect hair and ageless skin that draws me in; it’s the enthusiasm, the energy. Maybe the secret to eternal youth is playing make-believe? Or being a multimillionaire? Or both?

Or maybe it’s just being boundlessly, unabashedly passionate. I’m not suggesting the crooked path to happiness is becoming a human crash-test dummy, but perhaps the world would be a better place if men cared about a job, a hobby or a project the way Cruise cares about, to quote the great philosopher-actor Vin Diesel, “da movies.”

Say what you will about Cruise, but he never phones it in. The same cannot be said for an increasing number of people raised in online echo chambers.

Instead, I see a veritable generation of men whose ambitions have been stunted by social media-fueled anger and fear, who spend hours listening to other men complaining into podcast microphones. There’s a destructive, self-pitying impulse in bro culture that I sympathize with — to a point. But eventually, one must accept responsibility for one’s life and stop blaming others.

There’s a recent meme asking for the cure for male loneliness. I think the cure might be accepting missions impossible — or possible — with your best friends.

When it comes to movies, I’m omnivorous. The “Mission: Impossible” series explores timeless human themes like man vs. death trap. Every movie is a race to defuse something bad. But to be a fan of “Mission: Impossible,” one must be a fan of its star.

There is a distinct lack of heroes, made up or not, in the zeitgeist. Hollywood used to mint all-American heroes who sold solid virtues like courage and honesty and decency. Today, we have superheroes and anti-heroes, and Cruise, whose Ethan Hunt character is manly and also kind of corny.

Cruise is not a real-life hero, I know that. But I cheer for him anyway. I’m always happy when Ethan Hunt accepts his next impossible mission and pulls it off, with a little help.


Read the essay in full.  Thought it was a good take on Tom Cruise and one worth sharing.  

Another thing caught my attention.  Remember when SCTV did their parody of Brooke shields?





Well Brooke's weighed in.  Desiree Anello (PEOPLE) reports:

More than four decades after the Second City Television star mimicked the Blue Lagoon actress for an episode of the Canadian sketch comedy show, Shields, 60, revealed how she really felt about the impersonation. 

“She wasn't being mean,” she said of O'Hara in a recent interview with AARP's Movies for Grownups. “It was a good imitation. And honestly, that's what I presented as back then. I was flitty. I didn't have much gravitas.”

During the 1984 sketch, titled “The Brooke Shields Show,” O'Hara wore a curly brown wig as her version of Shields bit her toenails and clipped clothespins to her nostrils during what was supposed to be a series of talk show interviews.

After portraying Shields with a more distracted and ditzy personality, O'Hara even went on to perform a satirical musical number as part of her impression.

Throughout her seven-year stint on SCTV, O'Hara also did wiggy yet spot-on impersonations of Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball and more.


Good for Brooke Shields.  I have more respect for her for the above.  When Gilda Radner dies, Barbara Walters went around telling people that Gilda's parody of her was mean and hurtful.  But when Gilda was alive -- and could have responded -- Barbara acted like it was fine with her.  

So good for Brooke for having a sense of humor and human decency.  

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


Wednesday, May 13, 2026.  Chump gets a chilly reception in China, while Americans are concerned about the rising costs Chump explains that the costs to the American consumers are not part of his focus, turns out that he's also been lying about Iran's military capabilities, he's killed the tourism and hospitality industries in the US, House Oversight Committee Dems hold a hearing in Florida to hear from Epstein survivors, Senator Patty Murray has to explain to Ka$h Patel what his job duties are and suggest that he might want to step down as FBI director and return to podcasting, and much more. 




At MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Ben reports on Donald Chump underwhelming China with his visit.

And in the US?  Americans have other things on their mind, things to be concerned about.  Nia Prater (INTELLIGENCER) reports:

Americans have made it clear for months in survey data that they are struggling with the cost of groceries, housing, and pretty much everything else. President Donald Trump’s war with Iran continues to make those problems worse in very visible ways.
According to new figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday, the Consumer Price Index rose by 3.8 percent in April, compared to a year prior, with prices rising by 0.6 percent from just March alone. Per CNBC, this marks the highest rate since May 2023, when Joe Biden was contending with the inflation that irreversibly damaged his presidency. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the Labor Department also reported that the core CPI rose 0.4 percent from last month and 2.8 percent over the course of the year.
The new federal data also noted a rise in typical expenses for the American consumer. In April, energy prices increased by 3.8 percent from the previous month. The cost of groceries is up 0.7 percent from March and by 2.9 percent since last year, likely bolstered by the price of beef, which rose by 2.7 percent over the month. Airline fares also saw a jump in costs, rising by 2.8 percent in April. The rising price of gas is likely bleeding into the higher prices shoppers are seeing at the grocery store because of impacts on the supply chain, as The Wall Street Journal noted in a recent report.
Gasoline prices started to spike after the United States launched joint strikes with Israel against Iran on February 28, marking the start of a monthslong conflict that has interrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which transports a fifth of the global oil supply. As of Tuesday, AAA reports that the national average for a gallon of regular gas is $4.50. 

,
Americans are frustrated and concerned.  Ariana Baio (INDEPENDENT) reports:

With rising gas prices, mortgage rates and consumer prices, most Americans say they blame President Donald Trump for the increased cost of living and worsening economic conditions, according to a new poll.

Between the end of April and early May, roughly 77 percent of respondents to a CNN/SSRS survey said Trump’s policies have driven the cost of living up, with most people blaming his decision to go to war with Iran and the implementation of tariffs as the driving factors.
[. . .]
Roughly 10 percent of CNN/SSRS survey respondents said that the cost of housing and the housing market were the biggest issues facing their families.


The biggest issues facing their families?  

So surely this economic crisis is occupying Chump's time and his mind constantly.  He must stay up late at night trying to figure out how to fix it -- especially since he's the one who caused all of this mess. Right?  

President Donald Trump used the ongoing discourse over his decision to re-paint the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool to hurl criticism against his opponents this week. 

In a post shared to his Truth Social platform early Tuesday, Trump shared an AI-produced image showing former President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bathing up to their necks in a version of the pool that was filled with human waste. 

Barack, Joe and Nancy?  That's what Chump is focusing on?  Has the dementia taken over completely? 

Do the American people and their concerns not matter at all? 



The president made a stark admission on Tuesday, saying that he does not consider the finances of the American people when negotiating with Iran.

The president paused to speak to reporters before embarking on his historic trip to China. There, Trump will meet with President Xi Jinping, to discuss trade relations and the ongoing war with Iran. On Tuesday afternoon, a reporter questioned whether Trump is fully considering the economic strain that the war has put on everyday Americans.
"When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal?" a reporter asked.

"Not even a little bit," Trump said firmly. "The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation, I don't think about anybody."


Wait.  Did he really say that?  Sara Boboltz (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

Over the roar of Marine One, President Donald Trump made a shocking statement to a reporter who had asked specifically "to what extent ... Americans' financial situations are motivating" him to make a deal with Iran. 

"Not even a little bit," the president said Tuesday. "The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran [is] they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situations — I don't think about anybody.["] 


So the American people don't enter his dementia addled brain?  We are not his concern.  Our economic plight -- created and fostered by him -- is not his concern.  





Consumer prices in the United States rose at the fastest rate since May 2023 last month, as sharp increases in energy costs caused by war in the Middle East made life more expensive for American consumers.

The Consumer Price Index rose 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday, up from a 2.4 percent annual increase before the conflict started in February and a 3.3 percent increase in March.

The increase was driven largely by energy prices, up 3.8 percent just since the previous month and nearly 18 percent from a year earlier. But the “core” index, stripping out volatile food and energy prices, also rose 2.8 percent over the year in April, up from 2.6 percent in March.

“I’m looking for anything where I can say ‘here’s some relief,’ and that’s not very easy to do in this report,” said Michael Reid, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets. “Generally inflation is moving in the wrong direction.”


Other polling is equally as bad for Chump.  For example, Cindi Andrews (USA TODAY) reports, "Two-thirds of Americans say President Donald Trump hasn't made a clear case for going to war with Iran, and almost as many are feeling the financial pinch from rising gas prices caused by the conflict, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released May 11."

Nine or so weeks after he launched his war of choice, 2/3rds of Americans say he hasn't made -- he still hasn't made -- a clear case for going to war with Iran.  



Acting Department of Defense Comptroller Jay Hurst on Tuesday said the cost of the Iran war is now closer to a total of $29 billion.

“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to 29,” Hurst said as he testified in front of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. 
Almost two weeks ago, Hurst testified during a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the cost of the Iran war was $25 billion in total. The new, updated cost is due to “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs to keep people in theater,” Hurst said.

The increased price tag comes as the Trump administration for weeks has been insisting that the Iran war is suspended due to a ceasefire that has been reached between the two countries. 


The increased price tag isn't the only alarming development.  Chump's been 'soothing' reality about the state of Iran's military.  Adam EntousMaggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (NEW YORK TIMES) report; 


The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.

Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway.

People with knowledge of the assessments said they show — to varying degrees, depending on the level of damage incurred at the different sites — that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases they can launch missiles directly from launchpads that are part of the facilities. Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments.




Last year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino hailed the upcoming World Cup as the equivalent of “104 Super Bowls,” quantifying just how big the sport known as football worldwide is—or, at least in comparison to America’s football version. With the average Super Bowl getting 125.6 million views annually, Infantino expects the World Cup to attract the equivalent viewership of three Super Bowls a day for all 39 days of the competition. FIFA predicts games would touch six billion viewers globally, and expects the influx of travelers and tourism will help contribute to a projected $30.5 billion economic windfall for the three host countries of the U.S, Mexico and Canada.
The U.S. hospitality industry, however, is skeptical of the event’s money-making promises.

Of more than 200 hotels surveyed across the 11 U.S. host cities, nearly 80% said hotel bookings are tracking below initial forecasts, a new report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) found. Though FIFA data shows more than five million tickets have already been booked for the event, “indicators suggest the anticipated economic lift may fall short of expectations,” the report said. 
[. . .]
The hotels surveyed—in the cities of Kansas City, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, and Atlanta—blamed low international demand, with some saying booking pace was trending below even typical summer expectations. 

Oh, that's right.  As we noted throughout 2025, Chump was killing tourism in the US with his ICE raids and his insults and his threats and his sour face.  Jake Goldstein-Street (WASHINGTON STATE STANDARD) adds: 

Last year, FIFA President Gianni Infantino likened this year’s World Cup to “104 Super Bowls.”

With the soccer tournament a month away, that’s feeling like a stretch. 

In Seattle, which will host six matches, bullish expectations for the local tourism economy have dampened. Many other cities are in the same boat. 

The World Cup will take place between June and July, with 104 games scheduled in 16 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Millions of tickets sold for the U.S. matches haven’t translated to hotel bookings, as domestic travelers outpace those from other countries, according to an analysis from the American Hotel and Lodging Association. 

In Seattle, nearly 80% of respondents to the association’s survey reported bookings below expectations, and behind a typical summer. Many industry professionals across the country called the World Cup a “non-event” for their businesses.


Donald Chump has destroyed the tourism and hospitality industries in the US.  Andrew Stanton (NEWSWEEK) reports:


Cities across the United States have seen up to a 65 percent decrease in Canadian tourism as the relationship between the two countries frayed amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs and talk of making Canada the 51st state, according to a new report from the University of Toronto, whose lead author told Newsweek that the decline spans more than just tourists and snowbirds.
Washington and Ottawa have long been political allies on the global stage, but that relationship has been tested by Trump’s escalated rhetoric toward Canada. His tariffs and annexation threats caused many Canadians to avoid travel to the United States, carrying economic consequences for cities and businesses dependent on tourism from Canadians. The new data reveals which cities have been hit hardest amid the Canadian tourism plunge.

U.S. cities have seen declines in Canadian tourism of up to 65 percent, according to the data. 



The economic effects of President Donald Trump's disruptive approach to foreign policy are coming into sharper focus with a year's worth of data.

As expected, a range of numbers like border crossings and hotel bookings show how Trump's trade war has killed off a large segment of Canadian tourism.

But new analysis from the University of Toronto's School of Cities now shows that other areas of the economy have taken a major hit as well.

Using cell phone data, researchers Karen Chapple, Yihoi Jung, and Jeff Allen documented an average year-over-year decline in Canadian visits to US cities of approximately 42%. That's a much larger hit than the 25% drop previously estimated based on border crossing data.

"The top 20 cities were a number of big metros that aren't exactly known as, you know, big tourist areas," Chapple told Business Insider.



Yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee continued their attempts to deliver justice for those harmed by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.  The Republicans weren't interested in delivering justice.  James Comer and others on the Committee appear to be more interested in covering for Chump than in helping those in need.  House Democrats held a hearing.  After the hearing, they released the following:

Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Committee Democrats, and local Democratic Members held a hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida, as part of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The hearing included testimony from survivors of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and important voices in the investigation. The footage of the hearing can be found here.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors showed extraordinary courage in Palm Beach by coming forward to share their stories. This investigation is entering a new phase, and we’re publishing a report detailing how Epstein built his global trafficking network. We are focused on justice and ending this White House cover-up,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.

In connection with the hearing, Oversight Democrats published an interim staff report titled “The Price of Non-Prosecution: The Evolution of Epstein’s Trafficking Network, from Palm Beach to Paris and Beyond,” using new evidence obtained via subpoena to show how Epstein built a global network to traffic women following the “sweetheart” plea deal he received from former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alex Acosta, in 2008. The report can be viewed here.

At the hearing, Members of Congress heard from the following witnesses:

Sky and Amanda Roberts: brother and sister-in-law, respectively, of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex trafficking network.

Maria Farmer: the first survivor to report Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse to authorities in 1996. Maria accused Epstein of the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after he stole photos she took of her two younger sisters, who were 12 and 16 years old at the time, and also sexually assaulted her.

Dani Hannah Bensky: an advocate, dance teaching artist, choreographer, and Epstein survivor. She was abused by Epstein in 2004 and 2005, beginning when she was 17 years old and a dancer in New York City. Danielle has spoken out about the Trump Administration’s cover-up and the impact of the mishandled DOJ release. She sued Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke, and his accountant, Richard Kahn, for their roles in enabling her abuse.

Roza: recruited by modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel in her home country of Uzbekistan and brought to the U.S. with promises of support for her modeling career. Roza was introduced to Epstein in Palm Beach while he was on work release in 2009, and he abused her over several years. Epstein and Brunel used Roza’s visa status and her need to support her family to keep her from escaping.

Courtney Wild: a mom, advocate, and survivor. She was abused by Epstein in Palm Beach starting when she was 14 years old and was lured to his home on the pretense of providing a massage to an older man. Courtney sued the federal government for violating the Crime Victims Rights Act by signing the NPA without consulting victims. She will speak about the lasting damage of the NPA and failures of the DOJ to bring justice for Epstein survivors.

Jena-Lisa Jones: a mom, a wife, and a Founding Survivor of the Survivors, Inc. She was abused by Epstein in Florida when she was 14 years old. Jena-Lisa has spoken about how she had supported President Trump because of his promise to release the Epstein files, but was disappointed by his reversal on the files’ release.

Spencer Kuvin: represented the first Florida survivor to come forward, and later represented multiple Epstein survivors. Spencer will address failures of the original Florida prosecution and can discuss the re-traumatization that survivors have experienced as a result of DOJ’s failure to properly safeguard their identifying information.

Lauren Hersh: activist and former prosecutor combatting trafficking, exploitation, and violence against women and girls. Lauren will speak about the work being done by survivors to bring Epstein and co-conspirators to justice. World Without Exploitation (WorldWE) is a nonpartisan organization but can speak to the impact of DOJ's release on survivors.

Palm Beach, Florida is where Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes first came to light, and where prosecutors offered Epstein a sweetheart deal that allowed him to continue his crimes. Palm Beach is also home to Mar-a-lago, President Donald Trump’s primary residence and private club. During the many years of friendship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, multiple women were recruited for Epstein from Mar-a-lago, including Virginia Guiffre. The Wall Street Journal reports that spa employees from Mar-a-Lago, usually young women, were sent to Epstein’s nearby residence for massages, manicures, and other spa services. Epstein referenced Mar-a-lago in a 2019 email to Michael Wolff, released by Oversight Democrats, when he said, “of course Trump knew about the girls.”

 
###











Democrats tore into government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal on Tuesday – revealing new details of the scale of his international sex trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon to the late sex offender’s sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gave tearful testimony at a congressional field hearing in Florida of their experiences as teenagers in s orbit. Some spoke of being retraumatized after they were “outed” by the justice department’s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.

Democratic members of the US House oversight committee said they held Tuesday’s event in Palm Beach, where the president lives, and where Epstein had a residence, because it was “the scene of the crime”.

“We’re here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, told a press conference after the hearing.

“We know that the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted.”

Garcia began the hearing by unveiling a new report called “The Price of Non-Prosecution” that he said revealed how Epstein was able to build a substantial and lucrative international sex trafficking ring following his infamous “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors in 2008.
After dodging serious charges and serving only 13 months in prison for a solicitation of prostitution conviction, he said, Epstein and his associates gamed the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.

“[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta’s sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse,” Garcia said.


Dani Hannah Bensky said Epstein abused her in 2004 and 2005, eight years after Maria Farmer first reported him to the FBI. When she was first subpoenaed in 2008 at age 20, no one told her she was entitled to a victims’ rights advocate or a lawyer, she told the panel on Tuesday.

“For many parts of my interview, it felt like an interrogation,” she said.

“Our entrenched systemic failures have allowed powerful people like Jeffrey to thrive,” she added. “If we continue down this path, the question isn’t whether abuse will happen again, but who will be the next Jeffrey Epstein?”

Roza, who was recruited by modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel in her home country of Uzbekistan, was introduced to Epstein in Florida.

She said she was raped by the sex offender over three years beginning in 2009 — a period in which he would he was on work release after a controversial plea agreement that avoided a lengthy prison sentence.

Roza alleges Epstein threatened her visa status and financial security to keep her from escaping.

“The fact he could commit those acts made justice feel impossible to me,” she told the panel.

After the Justice Department released millions of documents connected to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwel, the government published Roza’s name more than 500 times — exposing her name and the names of other survivors while redacting the names of powerful figures with ties to the sex offender.

Asked what justice looks like for her and other survivors, Roza said the onus is on members of Congress and federal law enforcement — not survivors whose lives have been uprooted by what they see as a system that continues to fail them while protecting powerful people.


After the hearing, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi Tweeted:


Ghislaine Maxwell must never receive a pardon or clemency.

Today, at a hearing with Epstein survivors, I made clear that Maxwell has shown no remorse and taken no accountability for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse network.
12:50 PM · May 12, 2026










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

Murray: “We need somebody at this agency who’s focused on solving criminal cases, not passing out branded bourbon, or jetting around the globe. Your job is to be reachable. … If you want to pass out liquor, or pop bottles in a locker room, stick to podcasting.”

ICYMI: Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full questioning***

Washington, D.C. — Today—at a Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget requests for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the United States Marshals Service (USMS); and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned FBI Director Kash Patel on steps he’s taken that have undermined the Bureau’s mission and on his fitness for the role.

Appearing at the hearing as witnesses were: Kash Patel, Director of the FBI; Robert Cekada, Director of the ATF; Gadyaces S. Serralta, Director of the U.S. Marshals Service; and Terrance C. Cole, Administrator of the DEA.

[PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS UNDERMINE FBI’S WORK]

Senator Murray began by drawing attention to the FBI successfully going after fraud and how Trump’s recent pardons undermine that important work.

MURRAY: Director Patel, I want to start by recognizing important work by the FBI to crack down on fraud. In one case, the FBI helped bring to justice multiple former business owners who orchestrated a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme on the American people.

And those business owners filed nearly a million false claims for services that they never provided to any patients. Literally stealing from American taxpayers and preying on vulnerable people who are suffering from Alzheimer’s, and dementia, and substance abuse. But thanks to the FBI, those crooks were held accountable.

So, I just wanted to ask you today if you would pass along my gratitude to those FBI agents for their tireless work bringing those criminals to justice?

PATEL: I will, ma’am. The fraud work is often overlooked, and I greatly appreciate that.

MURRAY: And very important, but I do have to say unfortunately, President Trump—the guy who says he’s going after fraud—granted this man, Lawrence Duran, clemency last June. He was set free and let off the hook for the $87 million he owed in restitution. And Trump granted clemency to Duran’s business partner last February–cutting well short her 35-year prison term.

He literally undid the important justice work the FBI served and let fraudsters off the hook, and I find that deeply disturbing.

[TAKING FBI AGENTS OFF THE BEAT]

Senator Murray continued by pressing Director Patel on how his efforts to reassign FBI agents en masse to support Trump’s mass deportation agenda have pulled resources away from critical missions and jeopardized public safety.

MURRAY: I want to take a moment to reiterate the important role of DOJ law enforcement in keeping all of us safe. Those agents and deputy marshals are absolutely critical to making sure public safety and solving crime, but I worry that instead of pursuing these child abusers, or terrorists, or drug traffickers, or other criminals, you have our agents spending time carrying out Stephen Miller’s mass deportation agenda and harassing families and children. 

I want to ask you, Director Patel, how many FBI agents have been reassigned to work on immigration enforcement?

PATEL: No one at the FBI has been reassigned to work solely on immigration, ma’am.

MURRAY: Well, I would differ with you because according to the Cato Institute, more than two thousand FBI agents were reassigned to work on immigration enforcement in 2025.

And by the way, it’s not just the FBI. More than 2,000 agents from the DEA, more than 600 from the Marshals Service, and more than 1,000 ATF agents are spending their time on immigration enforcement.

That has, really, pulled critical, highly trained assets off of work to keep our communities safe from drugs, guns, and other threats, and I find that deeply disturbing.

[INVESTIGATING JOURNALISTS]

Senator Murray then addressed grave concerns about Patel’s fitness for the role that have been underscored in recent reports and pressed him on reporting suggesting he is using FBI resources to investigate reporters who’ve covered him.

MURRAY: Now, Director Patel, I want to ask you about a number of extremely troubling stories recently about your leadership and temperament, and what’s happened to the FBI with you at the top.

And in response to all the concerns about your leadership, instead of righting the ship, you’ve taken to polygraphing your employees to scare them and attempt to rat out leakers. There are reports that you are using FBI resources to investigate journalists for reporting what’s going on. That is absolutely not what this committee intended when we funded the Bureau.

So, can you commit to this committee today that no agent-hours have been pulled from other work, like counterterrorism or violent crime investigations, to work on matters related to negative press about you or your personal lawsuit?

PATEL: Senator, I greatly appreciate the question, and I can tell you unequivocally this FBI is targeting and investigating no journalists. This FBI is targeting no journalists. The Obama and Biden administrations targeted dozens of journalists, sent out 1200 interviews—

MURRAY: I didn’t ask you about the Biden administration, I asked if you could commit to this committee that no agent hours have been pulled from other work.

PATEL: We have not done so.

MURRAY: Okay well there are reports that you’re using FBI resources to investigate journalists. You are saying to this committee today that is not true.

PATEL: That’s correct, ma’am.

[PATEL’S FITNESS TO LEAD FBI]

MURRAY: Let me just say, Director Patel. We need a serious budget for the FBI, but we also need serious leadership. And I will say this; there is one clear priority in Trump’s overall budget—and it isn’t law and order. It is war.

Because while Trump is proposing cuts to programs that really do keep people safe, he wants to increase war spending by half a trillion dollars. And I don’t need to tell anyone here: we are not going to bomb our way to safer communities.

So, I intend to help rip that budget up and help write bills that keep families safe.

But beyond that budget, we need serious leadership at the FBI that the American people can trust. And I am deeply concerned about the reports that your leadership has not been serious. We need somebody at this agency who’s focused on solving criminal cases not passing out branded bourbon, or jetting around the globe. Your job is to be reachable.

And I know Senator Van Hollen asked you about this, but I have got to say, if you want to pass out liquor, or pop bottles in a locker room, stick to podcasting. Leave law and order to people who really do care more about justice and appearances, that is really critical. It’s what I am really deeply concerned about and so are many people.

PATEL: Can I respond? This is what real leadership looks like at the FBI. Every one of you was given it. This is what’s happened under my tenure at the FBI and the Trump administration. Twenty-point drop in the homicide rate. 45,000 violent offenders arrested last year, twice as many as 2024. 2,450 criminal gangs disrupted, that’s a 322% increase from 2024. 6,900 child victims have been located since I’ve been in the seat, that’s a 144% increase. 2,900 child predators and human traffickers arrested, that’s a 70% increase and we’ve arrested eight of the top ten want of most wanted fugitives in the world in fourteen months, that’s twice as many in the four years combined. That is what the men and women of the FBI are doing—well-resourced. Everyone should take a look at this, if people want to continue the baseless, fraudulent, false personal attacks at me—that’s great. Keep the target on me as I’ve always said, but the mission has never been better.

MURRAY: I appreciate the work of our FBI agents, but leadership—serious leadership is a concern. And we are seeing the pictures of passing out branded bourbon and what happened at the Olympics, jetting around the globe and all the rest of it—and that, I will say again, Mr. Chairman, is of deep concern to me.

###





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