The Conversation -- August 6, 2025

Déjà vu, But Like Worse, Man. Brian Beutler of Off Message: Today is "a bit like February 2020 all over again, except we’re in the early days of a recession rather than a pandemic, and instead of reluctantly acknowledging its existence, Trump intends to deny reality altogether. Because this time he has more control over what the government says and does.... It’s clear the lesson Trump took from his first-term failures wasn’t that he had to be more competent, empirically minded, and transparent; it’s that he hadn’t established enough control over information to shield himself from the political consequences of unflattering news. This time around he seems intent on ... engaging in more coverups, purging the government of more honest brokers, and flooding the zone with more shit. But that means he’ll make more mistakes, too." (Also linked yesterday.) 

Everybody's Picking on Donald. Rob Copeland of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Tuesday that he was a victim of discrimination by two of the nation’s largest banks, and suggested that his personal experience was fueling his animus with Wall Street. Mr. Trump, in an interview on CNBC, said that both JPMorgan Chase — the nation’s largest bank — and Bank of America refused to accept more than $1 billion in deposits from the Trump Organization after his first term. He said that he made personal appeals to the chief executives of both banks but was rejected. 'The banks discriminated against me very badly,' Mr. Trump said.... The Trump Organization earlier sued Capital One for closing its accounts in the wake of the Jan 6. attack on the Capitol. The president’s commentary on Tuesday carries significant weight on Wall Street because his administration has been preparing a crackdown, in the form of an executive order and other proposed regulatory changes, on so-called debanking practices. Many right-leaning organizations have claimed that the financial system has locked them out because of their political positions. Bank executives and lobbying groups have broadly pushed back against that assertion, although they have said that beginning with the Obama administration — and during Mr. Trump’s first term — they were required by regulators to apply close scrutiny to certain categories of deposits, including payday lenders and gun-related businesses.” CNBC's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Megan Messerly of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will not be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Trump, in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, said Bessent told him Monday evening that he does not want the job as central bank head and intends to remain Treasury secretary.... Trump did, however, reiterate that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and former Fed board member Kevin Warsh remain on his short list to run the central bank.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Trump Is Innocent. He Only Knows What He Reads in the Papers. And Other Whoppers. Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "During her nine hours speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month, Ghislaine Maxwell said nothing during the interview that would be harmful to ... Donald Trump, telling Blanche that Trump had never done anything in her presence that would have caused concern, according to sources familiar with what Maxwell said. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is considering publicly releasing the transcripts from the interview, multiple sources ... told ABC News.... The public release of the transcripts could come as soon as this week.... There is also an audio recording of the interview, the sources said, but it's not clear whether the administration plans to release the audio.... Trump, asked Tuesday whether he approved the prison transfer for Maxwell [from a low security prison to an even lower-security prison 'farm'], said, 'I didn't know about it at all, no. I read about it just like you did. It's not a very uncommon thing[.]' Trump also just said that anything Blanche discussed with Maxwell during his meetings with her would be 'totally above board.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Au contraire. According to multiple news report, it is a "very uncommon thing" which would require a rare waiver of BOP policy for sex offenders. In the meantime, I have every faith in Trump's lawyer that he will release full and complete and true transcripts of the totally candid and honest interview by an accused perjurer looking for a deal. And of course "totally above board." These people have a lower opinion of the intelligence of the public than H.L. Mencken did.

House of Horrors -- and the World's Elite. David Enrich, et al., of the New York Times survey Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse: “The townhouse, a stone’s throw from Central Park, was sold to Mr. Epstein in 1998 by Leslie H. Wexner, the billionaire owner of L Brands. Mr. Epstein renovated and redecorated the mansion in an eccentric style. Dozens of framed prosthetic eyeballs lined the entryway. A sculpture of a woman wearing a bridal gown and clutching a rope was suspended in a central atrium. In the ground-floor dining room, Mr. Epstein entertained a rotating cast of celebrities, academics, politicians and businessmen.... Photos show that guests sat in leopard-print chairs around a large rectangular table.... In the massage room were paintings of naked women, a large silver ball and chain, and shelves stocked with lubricant, according to photos reviewed by The Times. Mr. Epstein regularly directed teenage girls — some recruited from middle schools in Queens — to massage him while he was naked. Sometimes he masturbated in front of them, according to court records and interviews with victims. Sometimes he raped or assaulted them.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "One of ... Donald Trump's repeated defenses of his longtime friendship with deceased financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is that he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago country club when it became clear he was 'stealing' young girls in Trump's employ.... [But] According to the footnotes of The Grifter's Club, a 2020 book about the goings on at Trump's flagship South Florida resort, '"The authors viewed a membership list showing that Epstein’s account had been closed.' The book reports that the 'membership log shows his account at the club was closed in October 2007."' Not only does that mean Epstein was a member of the club seven years after Trump said he 'stole' Mar-a-Lago worker — and Epstein victim — Virginia Giuffre. It also means he was a member of the club a year after he was indicted on charges related to his sex trafficking operation." (Also linked yesterday.) 

Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: “A protégé of Elon Musk and former DOGE staffer was injured in an attempted carjacking early Sunday morning in D.C., a police report said, in an attack that captured the attention of ... Donald Trump and reinspired his threats to take over the nation’s capital. 'If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,' Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.... Trump called for children as young as 14 to be prosecuted as adults.... Trump’s Truth Social post was accompanied by an image of a young person smeared in blood, sitting shirtless on the ground.... Billionaire Elon Musk ... wrote on X that a DOGE 'team member' was attacked, and Musk called to federalize D.C. A police report identified the victim as Edward Coristine, who is also known by the nickname 'Big Balls.'... D.C. police have arrested a 15-year-old boy and girl from Maryland and charged them with unarmed carjacking, the department said in a news release.” An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Note to Billionaire Control Freaks: I'm sorry Big Balls got shrunk to Baby Balls in this frightening middle-of-the-night incident, but one pair of shrunken balls is not a reason to deny home rule to 700,000 people.

⭐Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has canceled nearly $500 million of grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday. It is the latest blow to research on this technology. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services revoked a nearly $600 million contract to the drugmaker Moderna to develop a vaccine against bird flu. The new cancellations dismayed scientists, many of whom regard mRNA shots as the best option for protecting Americans in a pandemic.” ~~~

     ~~~ Amanda Seitz of the AP: “'I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,' said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations. He noted mRNA technology offers potential advantages of rapid production, crucial in the event of a new pandemic that requires a new vaccine.... 'It’s certainly saved millions of lives,' [Dr. Paul] Offit [of Children's Hospital in Philadelphia] said of the existing mRNA vaccines.

     ~~~ Thanks, Senator/Doctor Bill Cassidy & all your Republican Senator friends for approving this murderous ass as HHS Secretary. And a special thanks to the top murderous ass Donald Trump. 

Kadia Goba of the Washington Post: “The Republican-led House issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, potentially setting up a contentious standoff between Congress and the Trump administration over an issue that has sparked major headaches for ... Donald Trump. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Kentucky) formally issued the subpoena on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after one of the panel’s subcommittees — with some GOP support — voted to compel the Justice Department to release the files. Under House rules, Comer was obligated to issue the subpoenas and no full House vote was required. Along with a demand for the Epstein documents, the chairman also issued subpoenas for several high-profile figures, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and former FBI director and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. In all, Comer issued 11 subpoenas for documents and testimony spanning over two decades and including a slew of former attorneys general under Democratic and Republican administrations.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Herb Scribner & Avery Lotz of Axios: Donald "Trump's former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta was not one of the former government officials subpoenaed Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee over the Jeffrey Epstein probe. The sweetheart plea deal, which Acosta negotiated without consulting Epstein's victims, also shielded his alleged co-conspirators from future prosecution related to his sex crimes.... A Florida judge ruled in February 2019 that prosecutors broke the law in reaching the deal because they did not notify Epstein's victims. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ordered an investigation into the plea agreement conduct days before Epstein died by suicide. The attorneys were later cleared of any wrongdoing. Acosta has long defended his handling of the Epstein deal. Still, he resigned from his labor secretary position in 2019 after the backlash became a distraction for the Trump administration. In 2020, the Justice Department concluded in a report that Acosta demonstrated 'poor judgment' when he signed off on the deal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The committee's choice of whom to subpoena is a little odd. They didn't call Acosta, who brokered the get-out-of-jail-quick deal for Epstein, but they did subpoena Hillary Clinton, whose one known connection to Epstein, according to Lawrence O'Donnell, was that Maxwell's nephew had worked on Hillary's presidential campaign. 

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Representative Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska, was not even 30 seconds into his prepared introduction at a town hall in Lincoln on Monday evening when the booing and the jeering began. Then it didn’t let up for over an hour. 'There’s been a lot of misinformation out there about the bill,' Mr. Flood told a crowd of more than 700 people gathered in a downtown recital hall, referring to President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy legislation that significantly cuts Medicaid, food benefits and other programs. 'You are a liar!' multiple people shouted back. 'Liar! Liar!'... Faced with selling a major piece of legislation that polls show is broadly unpopular and confronted with ruptures in Mr. Trump’s base over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, [GOP Congressmen] risk being met with angry questions for which they have no easy answers.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

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California. Laurel Rosenhall, et al., of the New York Times : “Democrats in California moved this week to counter redistricting efforts by Texas Republicans with discussions of a new political map of their own drawn to help Democrats win as many as five of the state’s Republican U.S. House seats next year. That would functionally offset the five Democratic House seats that Republicans have targeted in Texas. The plan seemed far-fetched a few weeks ago but has been gaining momentum as a redistricting war that began in Texas threatens to spread across the country. California’s Democratic members of Congress and the state Legislature have been briefed in recent days. State lawmakers are planning to vote on the proposal the week of Aug. 18, and Gov. Gavin Newsom said he hopes to put a new map before voters in a special election on Nov. 4.” The link appears to be a gift link.

Florida. “I Have Always Conducted Myself with Integrity.” Aaron Pellish, et al., of Politico: “A woman who said she had been in a relationship with Rep. Cory Mills has accused the Republican member of Congress from Florida of threatening to release nude videos of her after she broke off their relationship, according to a police report. Lindsey Langston, a Florida Republican state committee member and 2024 winner of the Miss United States beauty pageant, told authorities on July 14 that Mills also threatened to harm any of her future romantic partners, according to a report she made to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department.... Langston said that Mills told her he was separated from his wife at the time they started their relationship. The representative is still married.” Mills says he's a totally upstanding guy who “has always conducted himself with integrity.”

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times : “Senator John Cornyn of Texas asked the F.B.I. on Tuesday to help locate and arrest dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to block the State Legislature from voting on a Republican plan that could help the party keep control of Congress after the 2026 elections.... The senator cited an accusation by Gov. Greg Abbott that the absent Democrats and people who support them may be violating bribery laws over the funding of the walkout.... The potential use of federal agents to round up the Texas lawmakers, who have sought refuge in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, would be a significant step, and could set up a clash between the governors of those Democratic states and the Trump administration. Hours later, the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that if the absent Democrats did not return by Friday he would seek a court order declaring their seats vacant.” (Also linked yesterday.) A related Politico story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The excuse for the feds arresting Texas legislators seems far-fetched to me. Not showing up for work in the Texas legislature is not a federal offense. Bribery is a federal offense, but Cornyn offers nothing more than second-hand gossip as "evidence." The FBI, at least in the past, would never have arrested & detained a person on the basis of an unfounded rumor from opponents that the person might have committed a non-violent crime. I realize Trump's FBI will do what Trump wants, but multiple false arrests is a far bridge. ~~~

     ~~~ Kira Lerner, et al., of the Guardian: “Asked by a reporter whether the FBI should assist with tracking down state Democratic lawmakers, [Donald Trump] said the agency 'may have to'. 'The governor of Texas is demanding they come back,' Trump said. 'You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about.' Earlier on Tuesday, Trump argued that Republicans were entitled to the five additional seats they could stand to gain if the new map were approved. 'We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats,' Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. 'We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.... In Illinois, what’s happened is terrible what they’re doing,' the president added.”*

     ~~~ Marie: No, not the highest vote in the history of Texas. George W. Bush beat John Kerry by a higher number of votes in 2004, and by a higher margin of votes. 

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Israel/Palestine. Shira Rubin, et al., of the Washington Post: “Israel’s plans to launch a full-scale occupation of the Gaza Strip, details of which officials are set to discuss this week..., is bringing fear and uncertainty to Palestinians in Gaza, who are exhausted after nearly two years of Israeli bombardment and gunfire and are now in the grips of a growing starvation crisis. The families of Israeli hostages still in captivity are afraid that expanded military operations in Gaza will put their loved ones at risk. The plan to occupy all of Gaza, which was reported by The Washington Post and other outlets Monday, means that military operations will also take place 'in areas where hostages are being held,' said a person familiar with the prime minister’s decisions....” (Also linked yesterday.)