“….although there was not a leaf on that farm that did not make her want to scream, it rolled itself out before her in shameless beauty. It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too.” -Beloved, Toni Morrison #EpsteinFiles

Morrison writes about suffering and survival, always, but with the insistence that suffering does not ennoble and survival is not a clean thing. One might come through but not necessarily intact. -NYT article on Toni Morrison

She wanted to enshrine not only how her characters suffered but how they survived, with what rituals, what attentiveness to one another, to beauty, to language. “Beloved” was born out of such considerations. -NYT article on Toni Morrison

The US Department of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Emirati national Hind Al-Owais after documents surfaced allegedly linking her to the trafficking of underage girls through an entity connected to Dubai ports. She was reportedly arrested at her residence in the United States.

A quick primer on NSPM-7 : Anyone espousing a sweeping range of political beliefs that conflict with the #MAGA agenda should be considered a potential terrorist. It instructs the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the Treasury Department, and the IRS to pursue criminal probes.

• #LesWexner denied any knowledge of Maria Farmer or her alleged assault by #JeffreyEpstein at his Ohio estate, but Annie Farmer noted that Maria possessed a driver’s license listing Wexner’s address, raising questions about his claim. -Aaron Parnas

The King said that the royal family supported a full investigation: “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.” Oh, the irony. The country with a king still subscribes to the belief that no man is above the law. -Joyce Vance #Epstein #Andrew

Police in St. Paul are investigating an immigration arrest last month that left a man with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. Immigration agents have claimed his injuries were caused by him “running into a wall,” but it’s a false narrative agents beat him during the arrest.

#SocialSecurity workers are issuing a warning: higher-ups at the SSA are ordering them to hand over sensitive information to #ICE. This completely undermines the trust Americans place in Social Security, a bedrock institution for our families.

#DHS intends to purchase a $70M luxury jet for #KristiNoem’s travel. The jet features a bedroom with a queen bed, showers, a kitchen, four large flat screen TVs, and a bar. Officials are trying to justify it as necessary for deportation operations and cabinet travel. -Meidas

#Trump announced he will be transferring $10 billion dollars from the U.S. government to this “Board of Peace,” which many warn is a giant slush fund that is under Trump’s control. Moves like this are supposed to require congressional approval. #Congress, do your job. -Meidas

#LesWexner’s #Epstein deposition is over. Not a single Republican showed up. Not one. Testimony was taken about the financial lifeblood of his operation & #Republicans boycotted it at the direction of #Trump & #MikeJohnson. They do not want the money trail exposed. -Meidas+

If someone had told me ten years ago that in 2026, there could be evidence of the president raping and threatening to kill children, and he would *still* be allowed to stay in office, I would have politely asked them to put down the meth pipe.

Oh, my goodness, this is a huge breakthrough in cancer research. This is another example of why it is crucially important to fund basic scientific research. Scientists Discover How To “Switch Off” Cancer Genes for Good share.google/WFhMJP5m3AK4...

If a Prince can be held accountable, so can a President.

BREAKING: The White House Press Secretary just announced the Trump regime is "working very hard to root out" Americans exercising their 1st Amendment right to free speech.

As one lawmaker said: “New Mexico is acting where the federal government is failing to do so.” A resolution has been fast-tracked to create a truth commission to investigate allegations of sexual assault, trafficking, and criminal activity at #Epstein’s Zorro Ranch. -Mary Trump

THIS IS HOW FASCISM LOSES IN AMERICA open.substack.com/pub/closerto...

Every authoritarian project survives by making the unacceptable feel routine. Once cruelty becomes policy, people stop reacting to it like an emergency & start reacting to it like weather. Camps become “facilities.” Abuse becomes “incidents.” -Closer To The Edge

Fascism advances because people are comfortable, distracted, anesthetized, and trained to mistake civility for virtue. -Closer to The Edge

BREAKING: Not a single Republican showed up for Les Wexner’s deposition today — the billionaire longtime Epstein associate whose name appears repeatedly in the files. Zero. Oversight. From the GOP.

Direct Allegation : Congressman Ted Lieu has officially broken the silence, claiming that the unredacted #Epstein files contain graphic evidence of #DonaldTrump engaging in the sexual assault of minors.

I spent my childhood inside of American concentration camps. I know one when I see one. And that is what ICE is building.

I told you they’d come after Veterans’ benefits. www.stripes.com/veterans/202...

Tomorrow, the Oversight Committee will have the opportunity to question Les Wexner about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Survivors told us from day one: follow the money. That is exactly what we intend to do.

Get Your Freak On,Pam Bondage !

Mar-a-Lago—a party for prostitutes.

"When I see #JDVance's eyeliner face, | literally feel ill. My body feels like when you have been spooked, and you feel like, 'Oh, something could go wrong here, or something's dangerous.' He's a human being, allegedly, but he exudes demon energy." -Adam Miller

Rep. Kelly Morrison forced her way into Minnesota’s Whipple facility after being blocked at the gate. What she saw was horrific: “Everyone in there is wearing leg shackles. There is minimal food.”

#ICE Body cameras are good. Identification is good. Getting warrants is obviously good. But none of that solves the core problem, which is that there are no real consequences when constitutional rights are violated. -Adam Mockler

Democrats said they wouldn’t fund #DHS unless there were changes to how #ICE operates. Basic changes. Show identification. Wear body cameras. Take off the masks. Stop racial profiling. Get judicial warrants before entering private property. And somehow that was too extreme. -Adam Mockler

Members of the ProPublica Guild say management has been dragging their feet on several core components of the deal: just cause employment protections, cost-of-living increases, and guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence.

This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 308. Everything you need to know about what happened this weekend in politics. open.substack.com/pub/meidasto...

Sadly, ICE learned what not to do in Minnesota… they have not left… but are spreading out in disguise tricking and nabbing people before we can respond. We need a new plan….

When the U.S. House passed the SAVE Act last year, historians told us it was Congress’ worst attack on voting rights ever. Well, this week the House approved an even worse one. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

This is what ICE does every day. Hunt little kids who are here legally. They get sent to a place called the “baby jail” in Texas. Very little of it ends up on video like this. But it’s routine. And disgusting.

#Epstein donated across party lines. Sexual assault does not discriminate by political affiliation. The common denominator was power, money, and access. The problem may not have been a single monster in the center of the web. It may have been the web itself. -Mary Geddry

Julie K. Brown, who has been hammering at the #Epstein story for years, says what surprises her most is the scale. Recruiters in multiple countries. Lawyers arranging visas for teenage girls under the guise of modeling contracts. -Mary Geddry

They have also added incentives. Equipment grants, vehicle reimbursements, and salary coverage. “Monetary performance awards” based on how many undocumented immigrants officers identify. One former official called it what it looks like: a bounty system. -Mary Geddry #ICE

“Everybody f—— gets it if they touch you,” one operation commander was caught saying on body cam. Whose city is it? “It’s our f—— city.” That’s the language of an occupying force, not law enforcement. -Mary Geddry #ICE

#StephenMiller told officers, “You are unleashed.” Another federal judge described #DHS’s culture as one that “celebrates violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones.” -Mary Geddry #ICE

Measles is a bellwether. Because it’s the most contagious vaccine-preventable disease, when vaccination rates drop, it’s the first to start spreading. Now we’ve got mumps rolling up. Expect more. This is just the beginning of RFK Jr.’s successful infectious disease reintroduction plan.