Congress is back

 Isn't it great?

"Nobody"

 

What I want to know is, did Mike Johnson repeat that on TV?

President Donald Trump told Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation this week that “no one gives a [bleep] about housing,” according to four sources who heard the speaker recount the conversation.

Johnson conveyed the president’s remark during a closed meeting of the GOP leadership and committee chairs on Tuesday. The speaker self-censored Trump’s expletive, sources in the room said.

  Well, that was important.

And what was the GOP leadership's response? Punchbowl doesn't say.

Christian nationalists, eager for the end of the world, are running this show

“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be “afraid” as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now. He urged us to tell our troops that this was “all part of God’s divine plan” and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. He said that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” — MRFF active duty NCO client, writing on behalf of themself and 15 other unit members [including at least 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew].

MRFF has received over 200 calls from more than 50 military installations across all the services since Saturday reporting similar disturbing pronouncements from their Christian zealot commanders.

[...]

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations.

[...]

MRFF clients report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new “biblically-sanctioned” war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian “End Times” as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

[...]

[T]he Iran war has been sanctioned by the fundamentalist Christian nationalist version of our Lord and Savior and the New Testament in specific order to bring about the end of the world and usher in the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ.

[...]

Any military members seeking to take advantage of their subordinates by advancing their blood-soaked, Christian nationalist wet dreams upon the flames of this latest non-Congressionally sanctioned attack against Iran, should be swiftly, aggressively and visibly prosecuted for numerous violations of the military criminal code known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

  Military Religious Freedom

But they won't be.

The new American ethos: punch 'em while they're down. 

"Death and destruction from the sky" sounds very Armageddon-like.  I don't think that's a coincidence.

Picture worth a thousand words

 

Mike Johnson is still a dick

 

Epstein gobsmackers

 I've been preoccupied with personal matters, so I'm a little late on this.  The House Oversight Committee is probably putting this out so it doesn't come out in a leak.

I don't know what goes on in the dealings, but Trump has been hauling Republican House members in to "The Situation Room" (no phones/no recordings) to pressure them into shutting their traps and voting no on releasing Epstein files.  Why now?

Because Mike Johnson has seated Adelita Grijalva, at long last.  Why now?

Because the Dems caved on the shutdown and got the GOP off the hook.

Buried in a batch of thousands of documents released Wednesday by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform, one email chain between Epstein and someone called “Faith Kates,” likely referring to the founder of NEXT Model Management, suggested that the convicted sex offender was still hanging out with Trump long after the president claims he cut ties.

[...]

In other emails sent just days after the presidential election, Epstein claimed he was headed for New York as “Trump gives many new things to do,” and later said he was visiting Trump Tower.

The president has long claimed that his friendship with Epstein ended before his Palm Beach neighbor was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006. But clearly, the two remained linked long afterward.

  The New Republic

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a private email that he “gave” his then 20-year-old girlfriend to President Donald Trump in 1993.

“My 20 year old girlfriend in 93, , that after two years i gave to donald,” Epstein wrote in an email to New York Times finance journalist Landon Thomas, Jr. in 2015. Attached was a link to photos of Norwegian businesswoman and cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, who would have been 20 years old in 1993—insinuating that Epstein (who would have been 40 in 1993) dated her, and then passed her on to Trump.

[...]

Epstein wrote earlier in the same email chain. “would you like to see photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.”

[...]

House Democrats and Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a slew of these messages on Thursday, with more likely to come. Notable messages show Epstein writing that Trump “knew about the girls” and that one of Epstein’s victims “spent hours at my house with [Trump].”

[...]

In a 2011 email, Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote.

[...]

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” Epstein wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

  The New Republic

Pot meets Kettle, eh?

Meanwhile, congressional support for the files’ release has continued to grow. At least three more Republicans publicly voiced their support for a bill to make the case files public Wednesday, apparently distressed and disturbed by the president’s affiliation with Epstein.

[...]

Now that the House discharge petition has enough signatures to force a vote on the Epstein files, even more Republicans are coming out of the woodwork to support the files’ release.

Just four Republicans initially penned their signatures on the discharge petition. But despite the apparent internal opposition to supporting the petition, several Republicans announced Wednesday that they will vote “yes” on the resulting bill when it comes to the floor.

  The New Republic

Trump is working on them.

After House Oversight Democrats released a series of private emails from Jeffrey Epstein mentioning Donald Trump, Republicans released their own files, with even more incriminating info.

What are they playing at? Are they seeing the handwriting on the wall and trying to get out ahead of it? Are they reacting to the Blue tsunami in the early November elections? Do they have something up their sleeve?

House Oversight Republicans released 20,000 pages of emails and documents from Epstein’s estate. One of them includes correspondence between Epstein and former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler in 2018. Ruemmler had sent the disgraced pedophile a link to a New York Times op-ed regarding former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to violating finance laws with hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

“You see, i know how dirty donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea,” Epstein wrote. “what it means to have your fixer flip.”

We apparently need a new amendment to the Constitution

 

Openly corrupt

 

That election is December 2.  Tennessee Dems (and Independents), get out there and get the vote out.

Know Nothing Johnson strikes again

 As the saying goes: ignorance is bliss.

Hakeem earning back a point

 

Finally, somebody's doing something

How does that work, Mike?

 She would love to serve them, but you won't seat her.  

God, this little guttersnipe is such a prick.   

People are buying this shit??!!

Johnson has his head so far up Trump's ass the next time Trump opens his mouth, you'll see the top of it.

Read between the lines

 Add to that the fact that Pam Bondi wouldn't answer when asked if the FBI had recovered photos of Trump with half naked young women on his lap, and I think you have a good idea what's in those files.  

I fully expect once they have used all their tricks to prevent the files being released, they will destroy a good deal of them.  Ooops.  Accidents do happen.

Another delay for Congressional action

 Unless Johnson seats Adelita Grijalva this week...

And what are the Republicans doing for work in their districts?  I haven't been seeing any reporting about town halls or anything.

Still no swearing in for Adelita

 And no vote on Epstein files.

And, really, doing nothing.  Very Republican.

MTG has found a way back into the limelight - she's going woke

 

She's talking about the discharge petition to vote on releasing the Epstein files.  They'll have the needed 218 as soon as the newly elected Arizona representative, Democrat Adelita Grijalva is sworn in, something Mike Johnson is so far refusing to do.  He closed down the House to keep from doing it and now is telling them they can work in their districts rather than back in DC this week.  We'll see how he avoids it next week.

She complains that her adult children are facing doubled premiums.  Did she not vote for the Big Beautiful Bunk? I guess when it hits home, suddenly it matters.

But wait.

Laura Loomer is rocking the boat, too.

Trump may wish he'd kept these two ladies (and I use that term lightly) happy.

UPDATE 10/10/2025:

Newsom's team is still going strong

 

Trump as FBI informant: Going viral

 

Before we get too far down that rabbit hole, I suspect he's talking about Epstein, not Trump, as an FBI informant. I've heard that before. Johnson is talking so fast, he may have just been unclear about whom he's referencing in that phrase.

They know they don't have to be logical

 

Funny then that the government has cut - and the Republicans never support - funding for mental health care.