allen

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359172/-Shocker-Trump-regime-won-t-follow-law-on-Epstein-files-release?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Well, we got our Friday Epstein Files news dump. Sort of. 

The Department of Justice did indeed post some files. The website is messy, incomplete, and impossible to search. As in literally impossible—the search feature is utterly broken. 

But the operative word here, really, is “some.” As in “not all.” Which we knew was coming, because Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche took time out from declaring war on judges who rule against the Trump administration to explain that the administration has no intention of obeying the law and releasing all the Epstein files by Friday’s deadline. 

Todd, did it ever occur to you that judges might not consistently rule against you and your former private criminal defendant client, who now happens to be the current president of the United States, if you just followed the laws to begin with?

Blanche went on Fox News to announce the Department of Justice’s plan to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Complying would mean releasing all of the files about Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump’s longtime pal, by Friday But Blanche dares ask: what if we just don’t?

“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today. I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple of weeks,” Blanche said. “I expect several hundred thousand more.”

The law set a deadline for releasing all the files. Friday. Not the deadline to start to release and then roll it out over several weeks. Not the deadline to “expect” to release. Friday. All of them. Friday. Instead, we got some half-assed DOJ website with an impossible-to-navigate structure and no information as to how much has already been released and how much the DOJ still has left to try to read through and figure out a way to limit any damage to Trump. 

But per Blanche, the delay is because they are just so gosh-darned worried about protecting Epstein’s victims. “There’s a lot of eyes looking at these, and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials that we’re producing, that we’re protecting every single victim.”

This excuse might land better if Blanche’s boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, hadn’t bragged back in February about how she very sternly requested all the Epstein documents for her review. Or talked about how she was ready to review the Epstein client list sitting on her desk right away, only to later backtrack and say there was no such thing. Or if the DOJ hadn’t announced back on July 7 that it had finished its “exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein.”

If any of these things were actually true, these documents would have been reviewed multiple times, making a last-minute scramble to determine where victims’ names appeared and get them redacted unnecessary. 

And it’s not like the administration didn’t know this was coming. Sure, they worked night and day to stop the release, and sure, House Speaker Mike Johnson basically shut down the House of Representatives to lend a hand, but given that the public pressure on this has been unrelenting for months, the DOJ could have been reviewing and redacting all along. 

Unfortunately, when the administration thumbs its nose at yet another law, what on earth would be the recourse? Congress was barely able to get it together to pass a law requiring the release. The United States Supreme Court seems very willing to agree that if Trump doesn’t want to follow laws, he doesn’t have to. 

Related | Epstein kept photos of Trump, young women, and sex toys

However, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are smartly playing the long game here, releasing material in bits and pieces with no fixed schedule. Keep that threat hanging over the heads of Trump and the DOJ, House Democrats. 

Blanche and Bondi aren’t in their roles to execute the laws, they are there to protect Trump. And if that means breaking the law, they don’t care. 

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359172/-Shocker-Trump-regime-won-t-follow-law-on-Epstein-files-release?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359190/-The-Recap-Trump-defiles-the-Kennedy-Center-and-announces-his-very-own-Hunger-Games?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.

Kennedy Center already defiled with Trump's name

When you’re determined to upstage a dead president in record time.

Wife of murdered bigot endorses Vance for 2028

That crucial Erika Kirk endorsement is sure to make all the difference.

Trump will host his version of the Hunger Games

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Cartoon: Killing Tiny Tim

You want science-based medical care? Bah humbug!

Fox's spin reaches tornado levels over Trump's economy

It’s a perfect storm of denial.

Trump's favorite 'refugees' could get welcomed with racist freebies

Gotta indoctrinate them ASAP!

Why is Trump Media going nuclear?

It’s the latest in a long line of dodgy financial deals.

Click here to see more cartoons.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359190/-The-Recap-Trump-defiles-the-Kennedy-Center-and-announces-his-very-own-Hunger-Games?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359182/-Sean-Duffy-s-daughter-won-t-stand-for-TSA-treating-her-like-a-commoner?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's daughter threw a fit on Thursday over having to go through airport security like everyone else, whining that she almost missed her flight because she refused to go through the full-body scanner and had to wait for a pat-down instead.

In a screed on X, Evita Duffy-Alfonso wrote:

I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s “safe.” After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job. Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR). Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country. Is this freedom? Travel, brought to you by George Orwell—and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure? The “golden age of transportation” cannot begin until the TSA is gone.

Duffy-Alfonso went on to say that her dad would likely abolish the agency if he had the power to, but that the TSA is controlled by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and thus he can’t.

“TSA is under DHS, which is run by Kristi Noem. If he did have TSA, he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it,” Duffy-Alfonso said in response to an X user who asked why her dad doesn’t do anything about TSA issues. 

In yet another post, she wrote, “TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional,”  requesting that Trump and Noem “pls abolish” it.

Where to begin?

First off, if waiting 15 minutes for a pat-down would make you almost miss your flight, maybe you should be a little more responsible and get to the airport earlier, like all of us mere mortals whose fathers aren't Cabinet officials have to do. Of course, the party of personal responsibility never takes responsibility for their own actions.

Second, the machine she refused to be scanned by is safe for pregnant people.

The full-body scanners are not X-rays. They use millimeter-wave technology, which "uses non-ionizing radiation in the form of low-level radio waves to scan a person's body,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Millimeter-wave technology does not use x-rays and does not add to a person's ionizing radiation dose," the CDC says, adding that the machines emit “thousands of times less energy than a cell phone."

The TSA agents she crapped on were right, and her MAHA-esque fears were unfounded.

Ultimately, the TSA agents were merely doing their jobs. To publicly shit-talk about them is low, but it’s par for the course for Republicans and the entitled Trump administration crowd, who regularly abuse their positions.

For example, Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel fly around on taxpayer-funded private jets for their own personal pleasure. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina went on a weeks-long crusade against the TSA and law enforcement officers at a Charleston, South Carolina, airport because a security escort was reportedly late.

After her social media screed blew up, Duffy-Alfonso sought to do damage control, writing in an X response to her initial post, "I am 100% behind all that [Trump] & [DHS] has done to keep out terrorists and illegals, especially at the border. In fact, President Trump & [Noem] aren’t getting enough credit for achieving zero illegal border crossings and stopping deranged terrorists from coming into the U.S."

Maybe her daddy called her up to tell her to do cleanup after her impulsive tirade.

Duffy-Alfonso also sought to walk back her call to abolish TSA altogether, saying instead that "there needs to be more common sense around how we treat Americans exercising their right to travel. And I hope TSA works on improving their treatment of expectant mothers who don’t want to go through body scanners to protect their unborn children. We can do both."

To be sure, the security theater that TSA carries out has ballooned into a mess. But being an adult about your criticisms rather than a whiny, entitled jerk would've been the proper way to go about enacting change.

At the end of the day, it seems like Duffy-Alfonso is taking a different approach than her dad, who said air travel would benefit from people being classier dressers at the airport. Of course, what people wear is not why air travel has gone downhill. Having to be stuck with entitled whiners who cause scenes like his own daughter is why traveling sucks.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359182/-Sean-Duffy-s-daughter-won-t-stand-for-TSA-treating-her-like-a-commoner?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359189/-Trump-s-FBI-Protesting-ICE-abuses-is-terrorism?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

A memo from the FBI circulated to multiple law enforcement agencies described peaceful protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement as related to terrorism, a report published by The Guardian on Friday revealed.

The FBI is led by pro-Trump sycophant Kash Patel and overseen by Attorney General Pam Bondi, an unabashed promoter of Trump who has echoed his extremist rhetoric about detractors.

The memo, published on Nov. 14, claimed there was increased “threat activity targeting government personnel or facilities related to immigration enforcement efforts.” The document also alleged that “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity” are ongoing threats to the country, and falsely described anti-ICE protests in cities like Los Angeles and Portland as examples of “political violence,” according to The Guardian.

The memo reportedly cites activities like “conducting online research” about the movement of ICE agents and using encrypted messaging as an “indicator” that someone is planning an attack on an ICE facility.

Officials reportedly complain in the document that “domestic terrorist subjects” have been involved in “reactive violent attacks which took advantage of First Amendment-protected activities nationwide.”

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told The Guardian, “It is not illegal to do online research about the publicly available movements of government officers or to communicate through encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp.”

“It invites law enforcement suspicion and investigation based on purely first amendment-protected beliefs and activities,” Hina Shamsi of the ACLU told the outlet.

In October, the Trump administration pressured app stores to remove ICEBlock, a free crowdsource-based app that allowed individuals to report ICE presence in their neighborhoods.

The FBI memo’s key argument that ICE agents are under increased threat of violence is also not true. ICE has said attacks are up “1,000%” and more but a Los Angeles Times study of ICE-involved court cases showed no such increase in violence.

The Trump administration has tried to paint everyone who stands in opposition to its policies as a terrorist, including Democratic leaders and progressive activists. However, the tactic predates Trump and was used by former President George W. Bush, who smeared opponents of his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as pro-terrorist.

Meanwhile, ICE regularly commits abuses across the nation as it works to enact Trump’s mass deportation agenda. ICE has harassed families—including children—and often fails to distinguish between documented or undocumented immigrants (both of whom have constitutional rights). Among those that ICE has harassed and detained are military veterans.

The FBI memo represents another instance of the Trump administration using the power of government to attack speech it doesn’t like.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359189/-Trump-s-FBI-Protesting-ICE-abuses-is-terrorism?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359176/-Marco-Rubio-swears-he-s-very-cool-and-totally-popular?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an end-of-year press conference on Friday, where he was asked about former Senate colleagues who have voiced criticism of his performance as a key figure in the Trump administration. 

Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland have publicly expressed regret over voting to confirm Rubio, citing his abandonment of any principles or sound policy positions in a craven pursuit of power.

“We live in a very different time, unfortunately,” Rubio said, before launching into a rambling statement implying that privately, these senators still really like him. “I mean, there's also not a lot of benefit to a Democratic senator saying what a great guy Marco Rubio is in this current political environment, or anyone in the Trump administration for that matter.”

Rubio wants you to overlook a tanking economy, fascistic immigration raids terrorizing American cities, and unpopular tax breaks for the wealthy that come at the expense of Americans’ health care—and believe that people still like him for his personality. 

I mean, we live in a very different time, unfortunately. I engaged with senators, for example, from both parties. We saw a bunch of them the other day, all the time and obviously–but politics today is very different than it was 10 or 20 years ago. It just is. I'm not in that anymore. I'm no longer in a political office, but I know political offices. I served 14 years in the Senate, and politics is real, right? 

I mean, there's also not a lot of benefit to a Democratic senator saying what a great guy Marco Rubio is in this current political environment, or anyone in the Trump administration for that matter. So all I will tell you is I get up every day. We go to work, we get work done. We do cooperate and work with–they don't always agree with everything we're doing, but I have a lot of people in the Senate, particularly chairmen of key committees that we interact with. There's things people can say and do in the public that, because of politics in private, that they can't say or do in public. But I don't know what else to comment on that.

Related | Watch a Democratic senator tear 'pathetic' Marco Rubio a new one

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359176/-Marco-Rubio-swears-he-s-very-cool-and-totally-popular?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359156/-Fox-s-spin-reaches-tornado-levels-over-Trump-s-economy?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Fox Business host Stuart Varney and his colleagues are trying their darndest to turn President Donald Trump’s turd of an economy into a Christmas ornament. And they brought in Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to try and sell some of that delusional MAGA optimism

Chavez-DeRemer defended Trump’s economy by pointing to the recently released jobs report, which showed unemployment numbers reaching a four-year high. She explained that in her mind palace, a higher unemployment rate is a positive, suggesting it showed “more people are getting off the sideline and finally wanting to be part of the American economy and this workforce.”

But even Varney found that spin difficult to endorse, calling it “an interesting diplomatic move.”

Fox contributor Lauren Simonetti continued with more bad news, noting that the housing market has slowed considerably and consumer sentiment has dropped due to uncertainty and rising costs. But that didn’t stop Varney from spinning it himself.

“The weakness is attractive,” he said, regarding how the numbers might compel the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. “Bad news is actually good news for the market—maybe. Maybe.”

Stuart: Also, the latest read on consumer sentiment, what's that number? 

Simonetti: It—surprise drop to 52.9. This is a December number. It's the final number, so it's pretty recent. Consumers are just worried about the price of things and long-run inflation expectations as well. 

Stuart: But with rather these dull numbers, the market seems to like it, perhaps implying that we'll get more Fed rate cuts. 

Simonetti: Actually, the market went up a little bit, all the pieces of information being slightly weaker than expected.

Varney: The weakness is attractive. Bad news is actually good news for the market—maybe. Maybe.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359156/-Fox-s-spin-reaches-tornado-levels-over-Trump-s-economy?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359052/-Trump-s-favorite-refugees-could-get-welcomed-with-racist-freebies?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

The United States has slammed its doors shut to refugees, save for Afrikaners, the white South Africans descended from Dutch colonizers who imposed apartheid on the Black majority for decades. No real mystery why President Donald Trump supports letting these folks—and only these folks—come ashore.

But how can the administration best make these racists feel welcome? Well, by showing that they are super racist as well, natch! And what better way than including a Trump biography for children ages 8-12 in every welcome packet? That’s what the administration is proposing, according to Reuters.

Even better? How about an Andrew Jackson biography too? Trump loves Jackson, who was a bone-deep racist, enslaved hundreds of Black people, and oversaw the mass displacement and murder of Native Americans.

Oh, and also the “1776 Report,” the first Trump administration’s slapdash racist rejoinder to the 1619 Project. Include that one too.

Not to let racists have all the fun, the proposal also suggests including a Family Research Council report on religious freedom, highlighting the organization’s eternal quest to make sure homophobic business owners get to discriminate against same-sex couples. Such a noble pursuit that it almost brings a tear to your eye, right?

Refugees have received U.S. history materials in the past, but according to veteran refugee workers who spoke with Reuters, those materials haven’t promoted specific presidents or views. But Fred Cooper, a Trump pick serving as a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, apparently wants to change all that with these hot picks.

Just step back for a moment and think about how racist you have to be in order to think that the two most notable American presidents for new immigrants are Trump and Jackson. 

Since this is the Trump administration, where everything is as tacky as it is awful, the biography that Cooper wants to include looks low-rent as hell. Sporting the ChatGPT-ass title of “Donald Trump Biography for Kids: An Inspirational Story of One of America’s Most Famous Presidents” and an author listed only as “EverNest Press,” it feels a lot like an attempt to juice some sales for a pal who wrote a terrible book. 

Do you think FBI Director Kash Patel will be mad that his three Trump-promoting children’s books might not become the ones getting handed off to Afrikaners? So unfair!

Meanwhile, the United States continues to try to get these most racist of racists to come to America. By and large, Afrikaners don’t want to move to America to be racist here. They want to stay in South Africa and be racist there in whites-only enclaves. 

The Trump administration is so devoted to getting more racists to live in the U.S. that it’s protesting after South Africa announced plans to deport seven Kenyan nationals whom it claimed had illegally entered the country and begun processing refugee applications for the United States government.

“Interfering in our refugee operations is unacceptable,” a State Department official told Reuters. 

Nevertheless, the South African government is pissed, saying in a statement, “The presence of foreign officials apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol.”

Yes, it appears the U.S. may be interfering in the immigration authority of another country so we can fast-track the one group of immigrants Trump likes, only to then possibly shower them with tacky right-wing propaganda once they’re stateside. 

What better way to help foreign racists assimilate than by providing them with some homegrown racism? It’s just good manners, really.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2359052/-Trump-s-favorite-refugees-could-get-welcomed-with-racist-freebies?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2358893/-Cartoon-Christmas-gifts?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/19/2358893/-Cartoon-Christmas-gifts?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=