Saturday Report 8/9/25 — The Epstein Files: Will Joe Rogan speak Truth to Power or Become Trump’s Fixer-in-Chief?

The Best of the Rest of the News

— So, let me get this straight: Because of Trump’s tariffs, Americans will pay 18.3% more for food and products while manufacturing is not returning (we’ve lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump became president again), and the top 100 big business CEOs and stockholders are raking in an extra $1.2 trillion in personal income because of the new Trump tax cuts while Trump destroys unions for government workers. Does this sound fair? Seriously, that’s the situation today. Do you recall anybody in the GOP campaigning on this platform? The fact that they’re doing it while they’re trying to gerrymander every Red state possible tells us what they think of democracy, voters, and public opinion. The GOP’s only enduring loyalty is to the billionaire class that supports them.

— James Carville tells Democrats to ‘save democracy’ by adding states and packing the Supreme Court. This qualifies for the “Too Little, Too Late” award of the decade; where was Carville with these brilliant ideas when he and Bill Clinton ran the country for 8 years? Or when he was advising Democrats during the Obama administration? Of course, DC and Puerto Rico (and the US possession islands in the Pacific) should become states; all have larger populations than multiple Red states and all are already US citizens. And term-limiting the Supreme Court, imposing a binding and enforceable code of ethics on the justices, and increasing the size of the court to reflect, at the least, the number of circuit courts there are today (13) is just common sense. And let me throw in reversing Citizens United and passing binding legislation making voting a right rather than a privilege. But none of it’s going to happen as long as Republicans hold power, so instead of moaning about what should be done, let’s get about what we can do right now: join Indivisible, make sure everybody you know is registered to vote, raise hell on social media and in your own circles, and call your members of Congress (202-224-3121) once a week. And warn your friends that 99% of those text messages and emails you get asking for money for Democrats are actually scams where consultants and outright thieves siphon off more than 98% of the revenue. (If you want to contribute to a politician, find their campaign website and do it directly that way: never, never, ever click on a link in a text message.)

— Texas Republicans are resorting to threats and intimidation in their effort to rig the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election with their extreme gerrymander. White people are only 39% of Texans, and slightly fewer than half of them are Democrats so white Republicans make up a mere 27% of the state. Nonetheless, the gerrymander being pushed by Abbott and Paxton will ensure more than three-quarters of Texas’ legislators are white Republicans and five more white Republicans will go to the US House of Representatives. Republican Senator John Cornyn, facing re-election this year, has asked the FBI to intervene and bring Democrats who’ve left the state back home, although it appears there’s no legal basis for his request; it’s just simple harassment and an effort at intimidation — you know, the Republican way. Democrats in multiple states are considering fighting fire with fire and gerrymandering their states is a good start; I’d also recommend they begin sending postcards into Republican-heavy districts that will cause voters to be removed from the rolls if they don’t return them. This process, called “caging” after an old mail-order business term, was legalized by 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court in the Husted case and is one of the main ways the GOP purged or denied the vote to over 4 million mostly Democratic (and mostly Black) voters in the 2024 election. Greg Palast reports that had they not done that caging, today Harris would be president and Democrats would control the House and Senate; Democrats need to do the same thing in the states they control. Hopefully the screams of outrage it’ll evoke from Republicans will lead to a change in the law, undoing the Husted decision and re-criminalizing caging.

— The Epstein Files: Will Joe Rogan speak truth to power or become Trump’s fixer in chief? At the very least, given how leaks from the White House suggest they’re trying to enlist him to further their coverup plans, Joe Rogan is facing a business decision: What’s better for his business/podcast? Should he roll over and help Trump try to weasel out of what’s increasingly apparently his deep involvement in Epstein’s world (and crimes), or will alienating MAGA but retaining his aura of independence? From a purely business point-of-view you could argue either side; let’s hope Rogan decides to go with the more ethical choice.

— Trump calls for new US census that excludes undocumented immigrants. The Constitution is unambiguous: all “free” people are to be counted every ten years. For communities with meaningful numbers of undocumented residents having them counted is pretty important as decisions on everything from roads to housing to government aid/resources/schools are all based on those numbers. If Trump gets his way, such communities will be badly harmed, which, of course, is his goal. If Republicans aren’t moralizing, finger-waging, or punishing somebody it’s just not a good day for them.

— Get ready for more expensive gas, more pollution, worse severe weather, and bigger profits and paychecks for the fossil fuel billionaires who own the GOP. The Union of Concerned Scientists calls it the Trump administration’s “Freedom to Pollute” agenda: the EPA is planning to ignore decades of science connecting carbon pollution and climate change. The largest source of this climate-wilding pollution is transportation: cars and trucks account for 28% of all CO2 and similar emissions, which is why Norway, for example, has outlawed the sale of fossil-fueled vehicles starting next year. Here in the US, though, Trump and the GOP are taking big bucks from fossil fuel billionaires and, in exchange, ignoring a half-century of science to jack up that industry’s profits. This is not only insane, condemning America to more severe storms, wildfires, and floods, but wildly immoral. But, hey, when did Republicans ever actually care about anybody except their billionaire owners?

— Crazy Alert! All bow to the #2 king? JD Vance ordered Ohio officials to raise the water level of the Little Ohio River so he and his family could enjoy “ideal kayaking conditions” as he celebrated his 41st birthday there. Locals were pissed; it tied up traffic and the cost will be borne by the local taxpayers. But, hey, it’s good to be the king, right? Or the vice-king, in this case. After all, no billionaires were inconvenienced; it was just “the little people.”

— Video of the Day: The Trump administration is bragging that they’ve put a guy who, on January 6th encouraged rioters to “kill” police officers, into a well-paid senior position. Jared Wise had yelled, “You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo,” at Capitol police, following up with: “Yeah! Fuck them! … Yeah! Kill ’em! Yeah!” and ”Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” Charges for the assault had been brought against Wise, but were dropped when Trump issued his blanket pardon. Wise is now a “senior adviser in the office of the deputy attorney general” and a DOJ spokesperson told NPR, “Jared Wise is a valued member of the Justice Department and we appreciate his contributions to our team.” So much for the “law and order” GOP.