[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

About the release of the Epstein files:

[United States Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche on Epstein files: “Today is the 30 days. I expect we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs … just so everybody appreciates — President Trump has said for years that he wants full transparency … now, the most important thing that the AG has talked about, that Director Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims. We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.”

ALL:

Screenshot

More Epstein photos were released last night by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

When you get found out.

Blanche tells us that not everything will be released today:

Now, the most important thing that the Attorney General [Pam Bondi] has talked about, that [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims. So what we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story — to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.

So 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 weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.

There is a lot of eyes looking at these. We want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim. A judge in New York has required the U.S. Attorney in New York to also look at the materials to make sure that the victims’ information is protected

Second news item

Does Congress know this?

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is leaving the possibility of a war with Venezuela on the table.

“I don’t rule it out, no,” he told NBC News in a phone interview.

. . .

But when he was pressed, he confirmed it was a possibility and said there will be additional seizures of oil tankers. Asked for a timeline, Trump replied: “It depends. If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors.”

Third news item

Oops:

Democratic officials and strategists blasted the Democratic National Committee on Thursday for withholding its autopsy of the party’s loss in the 2024 presidential election, despite repeatedly pledging to release it.

Why it matters: Several Democrats — including many advising possible 2028 presidential candidates — said burying the report unfairly helps former Vice President Harris if she runs again, and shields top party consultants by hiding potentially damaging information about their efforts.

Fourth news item

Found guilty:

A Wisconsin judge accused of concealing an undocumented man to prevent his arrest by immigration authorities was found guilty of felony obstruction, according to ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN, which was in the courtroom for the trial.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in a two-count federal indictment that alleges she obstructed official Department of Homeland Security removal proceedings and knowingly concealed the man from immigration authorities at a courthouse in April.

Dugan was found guilty of obstructing federal agents and not guilty of concealing an undocumented immigrant from arrest during an April courthouse incident.

Fifth news item

Meanwhile, in Ukraine:

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says Russian troops carried out 6,540 chemical attacks in 2025, with the highest number recorded in April at 894 incidents. Since the start of the war, nearly 12,000 cases of chemical weapon use have been documented.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces deployed K-51 and RG-VO gas grenades containing CS and CN irritants—substances typically used by police for riot control. Their use in combat violates international law, including the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
“The use of CS and CN as weapons on the battlefield is aimed at temporarily incapacitating military personnel, violates international law, and poses a direct threat to the life and health of personnel,” the General Staff said. The chemicals cause severe irritation, suffocation, coughing, disorientation, and temporary loss of combat capability.

And Putin again openly admits that the peace talks are but nonsense:

Putin also claimed Russia had made compromises during peace talks with U.S.

President Donald Trump in Alaska in August, stressing that the next steps lie with Ukraine and Western governments. While praising Trump’s “serious” efforts to end the war, Putin reiterated Russia’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said Washington had floated the idea of a “free economic zone” in parts of Donbas as a possible compromise, but Kremlin officials insist the entire region must fall under Russian control.

P.S. Putin also made [empty] threats:

Putin says that if NATO countries start a blockade of the Kaliningrad region, Russia will start a full-scale war in Europe.

“If threats to the Kaliningrad region are created, Russia will destroy them. Everyone must understand and be fully aware that such actions will lead to an unprecedented escalation of the conflict, taking it to an entirely different level, up to a full-scale armed conflict,” Putin said.

Sixth news item

She was 14:

Tina Davis, who worked with Ford Models in the mid-1990s, said in an interview that her Ford booker instructed her to get dressed up and attend a Mar-a-Lago party in late 1994. Just 14 and new to Miami, she was told to “dress sexy,” according to her mother, Sandra Coleman, who had accompanied her to Florida. Eight or nine other models came along on the bus. “All the girls were really young,” Ms. Coleman recalled in an interview. “Some of them could have been in training bras.”

When they arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Ms. Coleman said, her daughter was promptly handed a glass of champagne. She took it away, but waiters kept offering more. Each time one of the middle-aged men at the party approached her daughter, Ms. Coleman would walk over and introduce herself as Ms. Davis’s mother.

During a trip to the bathroom, they ran into Mr. Trump’s new wife, whom they had met earlier. Ms. Maples clasped her hands, Ms. Coleman recalled, and looked her in the eye. “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband,” she told Ms. Coleman. “Protect her.”

Ms. Maples denied having said that specifically about her daughter’s father.

Seventh news item

But of course:

President Donald Trump’s promise Wednesday to pay troops a “warrior dividend” bonus is actually a military housing stipend already approved by Congress, and not a generous new White House program.

The rebrand, confirmed by a senior administration official and two congressional officials, follows a pattern for the president, who has previously claimed credit for routine military pay increases that weren’t his doing.

P.s. The $1,776 per person bonuses, unveiled by Trump in his nationwide address Wednesday night, will be covered with funding approved in the Big Beautiful Bill that passed in July, according to the congressional officials and later confirmed by the Pentagon.

Eighth news item

The president cares not a whit about rules and procedures:

Construction workers on Friday added Donald Trump’s name to the sign on the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The board of the cultural institution voted to change the name of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Trump-Kennedy Center, despite any formal change requiring congressional action. . .

The move came after Trump had repeatedly suggested that the Kennedy Center become the Trump-Kennedy Center for months, both in public remarks and on social media.

The board of trustees consists of mostly Trump loyalists after he fired multiple members shortly after returning to office and named himself chairman.

This x 100:

Yes, it’s illegal. Like changing it to Department of War, like ten thousand other things. Part of the Trump strategy is to break the law and convey “the rule of law is weak and feminine and laughable and should be overridden by Our Guy.” Trump is fundamentally anti-law.

And people in authority who openly defy the rule of law and encourage contempt of it, who openly use it to help their friends and hinder their enemies, are not morally entitled to its protection, in any way.

There is no defending our pathetic president.

Have a great weekend.

—Dana