3 Nov 2025
Another Mondays at McCormicks.
The bill to demand that the Epstein Files be released was assisted by Trump at the last minute, but it was very clearly a major defeat for Trump.
The scandal has been a thorn in Trump’s side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures.
Trump fell victim to his own actions, first encouraging everyone to believe he’d do something about Epstein’s past actions concerning underage girls and then changing his mind and then tried to shoo everyone away.
David Gibson, Organizing Director for Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW, Miriam Oppenhiemer Co-Coordiantor of PJSN and Coordinator of Mondays @ McCormick’s
and Uda Braithwaite, an ally of the group who is engaged in many local initiatives and who joined the effort to encourage Senator McCormick to have a “Town Hall,” an effort that sadly didn’t succeed.
As far back as July, Trump was deperately manuevering to try and distract from the Epstein Files and his own likely role in them.
Speaker Johnson wants to blame Senate Majority Leader Thune for not revising the petition any, but really, it’s Johnson’s fault for not revising the petition himself. Of course, that would have required Johnson to throw in the towel on trying to prevent the petition from passing and to have reverted to regular order on the bill. He could have done this prior to swearing in Representative Grijalva.
Right after he signed the bill, a group of Congresspeople, military and intelligence service veterans, concerned about the US military obeying illegal orders in both the occupations of US cities and in attacks on boats near Venezuela, urged the military to not obey illegal orders. There is of course, nothing the slightest bit controversial about this call, but Trump and his followers ignore the “illegal” and tried to make it sound as though they were urging disobedience on all orders, legal and otherwise!
Trump concluded that the military veterans “broke the law,” though he didn’t explain which law was broken. (The president has a habit of defining “illegal” as “stuff I don’t like.”)
What exactly is Antifa? The group has been used by Trump as a boogeyman, bu does it actually pose a broad threat to the US?
…what Pigott described as a vast, violent conspiracy spanning Europe and the United States. (For emphasis: there’s nothing to suggest that this is based in reality; in Europe and the U.S., “Antifa” is a broad description for a scattered, disorganized set of groups and a protest style.)
Interestingly, an anti-Antifa activist traces Antifa back to Weimar Germany. Which would make the heroes in his mind, Hitler and the Nazis? The point of the piece is that “Antifa” is a villain that aids the Trump Administration in chilling the left. People might not wish to be identified as being part of that group. The fact that it’s hazy and ill-defined is the point.
Hoo boy! Invading Venezuela sounds like a VERY bad idea!
One of the lessons of the Vietnam War for me was that in the book “On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War“ it said that popular enthusiasm for a war was critical to its success. When the public is indifferent about it, the chances for victory greatly diminish. For the US to be committing clear war crimes in bombing small boats off of Venezuela prior to any hostilities, pretty much guarantees a failed war. And yes also, initiating a war would go directly against Trump’s campaign promises. Like his failed promise to lower the cost of living, this will come back and bite him in the butt with his followers.
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