Food banks & hunger lead Page One in Cincinnati:

“.. After the release of thousands of Epstein files on Friday, The New York Times contacted Ms. Farmer .. She broke down in tears. “I’ve waited 30 years,” she said. “I can’t believe it. They can’t call me a liar anymore.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

NEW: RFK Jr.’s HHS made moves this week to restrict youth access to gender-affirming care. HHS said the policy changes were based on a peer-reviewed report. We looked at the peer reviews. They’re devastating. One called the report “a dangerous incursion of politics into science and medicine.”

“.. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein ..” @apnews.com apnews.com/article/rele...

BREAKING: At least 16 files from the Epstein release disappeared from DOJ's webpage, including a photo of Trump, with no explanation.

Looks like they're right. Data Set 1 / Photo 468, the image from yesterday's Epstein files release that included photos of Trump in a drawer, was removed.

Question: When the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division tweets out a false statement about an individual that results in them being barraged with death threats based on their religion and ethnicity, which governmental agency would look into whether that student’s Civil Rights had been infringed?

This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release. AG Bondi, is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.

Farmers have long relied on third-party contractors to source and manage farmworkers. But all that outsourcing makes it hard for growers to know how workers are being treated — and makes it easy to ignore when they’re treated badly. By @maxblau.bsky.social

Appalling and alarming:

One of girls Epstein abused claims that Epstein introduced her to Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 14: “Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, referring to Doe, "This is a good one, right?" Trump smiled and nodded in agreement. They both chuckled.” www.justice.gov/multimedia/C...

This excellent work from the WP should have gotten more attention. Stephen Miller has become a kind of Grand Vizier, directing not only domestic policy but also our military, at least in this hemisphere (gift link): wapo.st/4avmYKt

Interesting to consider that if you were to go and deface the Kennedy center by removing Trump’s name, you’d be arrested and charged with a crime, but your act would be no more unlawful than what they’re doing right now.

HUGE NEWS from the new Epstein files: Records show that Maria Farmer, who worked for Epstein, filed a "child pornography" report to the FBI in 1996. The FBI has never before acknowledged that complaint. The case went nowhere, and mass abuse followed. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

The Associated Press has tracked 145 cases of sabotage and disruption that Western officials blame on Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They say Moscow wants to drain Europe’s investigative resources.

JFK’s niece: h/t @jamiegangel.bsky.social

I did not realize that former trump attorney and now one of his hatchetwomen at DOJ Harmeet Dhillon spread this, and that Elise Stefanik joined in. @chrislhayes.bsky.social adds that Stefanik announced she was suspending her guv run & not returning to Congress and correctly notes that…. Good!!

WATCH-- Former AG Eric Holder says Congress should consider impeachment for the DOJ officials responsible for holding back the Epstein files: “That's a nuclear option that Congress has.”

“This is a student who did nothing wrong on a campus that is already in mourning,” says @chrislhayes.bsky.social on the "enraging" story of right-wing figures falsely claiming with zero evidence the Brown University gunman was a Palestinian student.

The document in question

Tapper: This is one of the documents the DOJ released. It’s 100 pages. It’s all black. That’s the transparency we’re getting.

For the record, the law states that "No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary." www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

I think a fair question to ask by now is why the administration wants people to keep talking about Jeffrey Epstein and his files.

The Epstein Files, everybody!

Kudos to Mitt Romney, whom we exposed for his "47 Percent" comments, for coming to the conclusion that "we have reached a point where any mix of solutions to our nation’s economic problems is going to involve the wealthiest Americans contributing more." gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...

Andrew: There are no good women who will date me. Also Andrew: Mama says women are too dumb to vote.

City Journal framed this discussion as dispelling myths about Gen Z Republicans

As Trump's physical and political decline worsens, the cultish flattery from top aides has proportionally grown. As @moiradonegan.bsky.social says on the pod, Trumpworld is now puffing him up publicly to compensate for his deterioration. Moira is so good here: newrepublic.com/article/2046...

The Trump Doctrine is, essentially: “Who’s gonna stop you?”

Just once, I'd like to see Dick Durbin *try* to explain the actual mechanisms by which repealing 230 will protect children from being exploited and abused. There will be hand waving about how it will "open them up to litigation" but that's not an answer.

It'd be bad enough just on how Watterson famously doesn't want this kind of thing, leave him alone man. But also there's no way anybody could make a Calvin and Hobbes movie that wouldn't be absolutely terrible anyway.

More collective punishment from Kristi Noem: x.com/sec_noem/sta...

TikTok will now be owned by the Ellisons, Jared Kushner's firm, and Abu Dhabi's state investment fund.

Sincerely one of the funniest things the WSJ has ever written or done. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Devin Nunes, who has a degree in agriculture, is the scion of a dairy-farm operation and ran a deeply unprofitable social-media firm, will now be co-CEO of a nuclear-fusion company. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

(this was three years after Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor)

absolutely wild move by @oversightdemocrats.house.gov to allow comments on the dropbox folder with the epstein photos

It gets even more pathetic— x.com/RepBeatty/st...

Good lord, this November column from him aged terribly.

One small way to try to re-establish social trust would be to transparently disclose *in this very column* that you hung out with Jeffrey Epstein. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...

They booked a bunch of 14 year old models to come to a Mar A Lago party, told them to dress sexy and tried to ply them with alcohol.

These are the people who are willing to go on the record. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...

I’m also really disappointed that a lot of large publications (including the ESPN write up) don’t mention the antisemitism. That’s not on Mina at all, but it makes it tougher to recognize the problem.

This is less than a month old.

LMAO

look, laugh now. but i firmly believe that by investing a mere $3 trillion into AI and draining 2 of the 5 Great Lakes, we may one day create a machine that successfully dispenses snacks and drinks in exchange for cash

(Children are not getting these surgeries) (Also, not sure where Oz has been looking, but he's way off on the costs, too)

If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Marty Makary utterly rejects science—either for attention or because he’s ideologically inclined to do so (or perhaps both). Like so many inside the administration, he seems far more concerned with building his audience than doing any actual good.