From Fox News:
BREAKING NEWS: US Attorney General @PamBondi says we can expect brand new Jeffrey Epstein details TOMORROW. Expect flight logs and names… pic.twitter.com/dMn4nkKefV
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) February 27, 2025
Jaybird
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
Due to problems related to a WordPress update, the site's layout had to be moderately altered. Some of the changes are temporary.
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI agree with your assessment, and that experience contributes to my politics today.
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForFailing one test but passing the one where I just like sputtering "how dare you"s in response to off… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForNah, I'm comparing what's happening to Academia in general to 9/11. Academia is the United States, i…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForBack in the early Aughts, we definitely didn't live in a world where people could deal with these ki… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForI think you're failing the sh*t test with this line of reasoning, same as they have been. We either…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForIt is not “illegal”. However as a condition to entering this country we make immigrants sign legal d… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For(Oh look, more evidence just today.) on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For...did you just compare firing this guy to 9/11? Like, that's the only logical way to read what you… on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForLet me also add that I think killing civilians is wrong regardless of who those civilians are, just…
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came ForChris: How would we classify Israel’s killing of citizens in Gaza? I would call it a war. It's expec…
The Greatest Strike in History
March 30, 2025
March 28, 2025
They’re Acting Queer in Cleveland
March 27, 2025
A Loaf of Bread, a Container of Milk, and a Stick of Butter
March 26, 2025
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For
on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For
on A Working Man Reviewed on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on Martin Niemöller, and Who First They Came For on A Working Man Reviewed
My initial takeaway: jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.Report
Redacted or not?Report
From the sounds of it, the contents will be coming out piecemeal. So we’ll get a couple of names here, a couple of names there.
“So there will be names that *AREN’T* released?”
“Sounds like it.”
“So this could be used as a weapon against certain people but other names will remain hidden?”
“Sounds like it.”Report
Florida’s Anna Palina Luna wrote the FBI for a formal response on the Epstein, JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr files.
They sent back a letter saying:
Okay.
What’s the first thing we notice there? That’s right: Diddly Squat.
That’s what they told her. Diddly.
Reading as charitably as possible, I’d say that they said that there are ongoing criminal investigations and potential prosecutions.
That said, it only really makes sense that there would be those things for Epstein and it doesn’t make sense that there would be ongoing criminal investigations and potential prosecutions for JFK, RFK, or MLK Jr.
So I’m mostly just saying that we’re going to have jam to-morrow, just like we had jam yesterday.Report
Just the thing to distract from Trump and Co’s Orbanification of the United States and the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare.Report
Not yet it’s not.Report
“In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold
A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/trump-putin-russia.html?rsrc=ss&unlocked_article_code=1.0E4.pb0U.r_TPLHt10mMI&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“The news media is being pressured. Lawmakers have been tamed. Career officials deemed disloyal are being fired. Prosecutors named by a president who promised “retribution” are targeting perceived adversaries and dropping cases against allies or others who do his bidding. Billionaire tycoons who once considered themselves masters of the universe are prostrating themselves before him.
Judges who temporarily block administration decisions that they believe may be illegal are being threatened with impeachment. The uniformed military, which resisted being used as a political instrument in Mr. Trump’s first term, has now been purged of its highest-ranking officers and lawyers. And a president who calls himself “the king,” ostensibly in jest, is teasing that he may try to stay in power beyond the limits of the Constitution.
Some versions of this are not new, of course. Other presidents have taken actions that looked heavy-handed or put pressure on opponents. No president in my experience at the White House, which goes back to 1996, particularly liked news coverage of him, and certainly there have been times when journalists were penalized for their reporting.”Report
Tsahi Idan’s body was returned to Israel today, Saul. Would you see an attempt to discuss that in response to your talking about Trump as an inappropriate attempt to change the subject?Report
Trump cares about decency so much that he pressured Romania to release Andrew Tate
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/europe/andrew-tate-romania-us-intl-hnk/index.html
But as long as you get your conspiracy s$$ts and giggles, all is okay, is that right?Report
Why am I suddenly reminded of Caesar being offered a crown?Report
There is now footage of journalists holding up binders that, they assert, contain “Phase 1” of the Epstein File rollout.Report
In the time that there have been photos taken of the influencers holding up binders, we could have downloaded these files ourselves and started doing word searches.Report
Report
Isn’t she too busy getting out subpoenas to members of the Warren Commission?Report
Apparently she still has time to tweet that she’s ticked.
Pam Bondi, who has not yet searched out members of the Warren Commission, has enough time on her hands to write a letter to Kash Patel.
Report
Once again, the conspiracy theorists are disappointed.Report
Only half of them. The other half are vindicated.Report
Report
Kash has tweeted…
Report
Jaybird amuses himself to Orbanian autocracy.Report
“This whole thing just goes to prove that we need an intelligence arm of the government that isn’t accountable to anybody. If they’re accountable, that’s fascism!”Report
You are being fooled and being duped but you keep on following every tweet like it is palace intrigue and backstabbing and it fires all your neurons up.
This is nothing more than a grifty PR stunt to elicit responses like you are giving here by breathlessly posting every tweet. In your terms, this is all kayfabe. They aren’t going to release anything new or shocking unless the shocker is AOC and Kamala Harris were on the Epstein flight logs with some deepfake CGI AI.
Meanwhile, Trusk continues to dismantle the Federal Government so the broligarchs can buy everything for pennies on the dollar and Orbanize American government.
But please amuse yourself to death with the “palace intrigue” like it is Wrestlemania.Report
A handful of them are somewhat pot-committed. Like, for example, Pam Bondi.
You see the letter she sent Kash above, right? I am very interested in hearing why she didn’t get any new files. I’m interested in hearing Kash say what he didn’t get them.
I understand why you’re not, mind. But understanding why you’re not isn’t particularly persuasive for why I shouldn’t be.Report
So you now believe that Patel is a deep state operative?
Too funny.Report
Oh, so you’re saying
Anyway, I remain interested in hearing Kash’s explanation as to why Bondi didn’t get the files.
The guys who got given the original Phase 1 binders were all “influencers” and their responses are not “wow! We got good stuff!” but “we got jerked around and we’re pissed about it”.
And they were made by their audience, not the other way around.Report
Has it occurred to you that – like the Kennedy Files – there’s nothing left to release? Names I. The flight logs have been public for what, a decade?
The most likely explanation is Patel and his people have nothing left to send to the AG.Report
I certainly have considered that possibility.
But you ask: Has it occurred to you that – like the Kennedy Files – there’s nothing left to release?
Did you know that there are *MULTIPLE* documents that have *NOT* been released?
Here’s the AP:
Let me repeat that last part:
“researchers estimate that 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part.”
So it seems to me quite likely that the Epstein files are like the Kennedy files when it comes to whether there is nothing left to release.
Also: “Patel and his people”
You’re assuming a union that I do not necessarily assume.Report
It’s kind of amazing there’s that much paper for an event that happened in broad daylight, perpetrated by a guy who was gunned down in the hallway of the Dallas PD HQ. Sounds like a lot of Oliver Stone conspiracy theory busywork.Report
It is kind of amazing. What’s also kind of amazing is that it’s still classified.
That’s weird, right? You agree that that is odd?
You know what the official government definition of “Secret” is?
This is from the Pentagon:
What in the world could possibly be in there that could reasonably be expected to have caused serious damage to the national security back in the 1960s?
Why in the world is it kept secret in 2025?
Surely you agree that there should be *NOTHING* in those files that could conceivably cause serious damage to national security in 2025, right?
Only a crazy conspiracy theorist would think that the Kennedy Assassination has facts associated with it that would harm national security in 2025.Report
I agree with David TC below. Should it see the light of day? Of course. Will old conspiracy theories go away? Of course not. Will new conspiracy theories arise? Have you seen the American electorate lately?Report
For what it’s worth, I think that releasing the files (including the ones that were lost for 60+ years) would do a great deal to assuage my own curiousity.
“But there are other people who are even crazier than you who won’t be satisfied!”
“That’s true. That said, I would like to see what was considered harmful to national security back in the 60s. I mean, we all know that the only things in those files are failed leads and silly interviews… right?”Report
There is going to be stuff they haven’t handed over, and it’s all going to be things that the FBI doesn’t consider evidence. Like the fact some agent spent a few hours looking into a conspiracy theory said online and concluded that there was nothing there, but some time was, indeed, spent on it and that time and lack of any outcome was documented.
People do not understand how many completely random ‘leads’ there are in investigations like this, and how most of them do not pan out and are not worth mentioning to anyone. “This conspiracy is trivially disproved by the actual evidence we have so far.’
So what is going to happen is all that nonsense is going handed over, and Bondi is going to release it, and a bunch of completely random stuff is going to come out, where the FBI looked into something and determined it wasn’t real, that some people in the right-wing echo chamber think they can use to implication…I don’t even know at this point. Bill Clinton? Oh no!
They’re looking into this for some sort of smear campaign, they’re going to instantly leap on ‘The FBI looked into X for being connected with Epistein! He’s guilty!’ without bothering to mention that the FBI found no evidence at all. Which is how it always works, they generate the accusations, then they use the existence of the accusation to as proof there must be something there, and then they use the fact there was nothing there as a conspiracy.
But here’s the kicker, there’s a reason that wasn’t handed over: There’s going to be a _lot_ of looking into Trump. Or, worse, leads that _were deliberately not looked into_ and people can now look into.
And I’m tired of Democrats and the left generally operating in the realm of truth. So I say, we start lying, the exact same way, back. Because the FBI _was_ given information that Trump was linked to all this (Katie Johnson filed a lawsuit that was dismissed.), and unlike Bill Clinton, he is still relevant in politics. Is he actually guilty of using Epstein’s girls? I have no idea, although he’s done and said enough stuff that is so very close to it that I would be honestly startled if not.
But I don’t care. We way way are outside the realm of ‘actually guilty’ with this administration, which not only launches baseless investigations against people but has pardoned people _literally found guilty in court_ and threatened judges for presiding over the trial that convicted them, and I’m tired of that only mattering for things Republicans say about Democrats. So the thing to do is to instantly leap on Trump’s name being in those files, and keep hammering it. I think the framing should be ‘Anyone found in those files at all should resign immediately from politics.’.
And they have, hilariously, backed themselves into a corner where they cannot withhold any of this.Report
A lot of looking into Trump?
I guess I can understand why there’d be so much pushback among the left and, indeed, incuriosity on the part of journalists in general.Report
Pushback on the left to releasing ‘the Epstein files’? What? What pushback on the left do you imagine there is?
The right-wing echo chamber you live in is exceptionally hilarious when it confidently telly you things ‘the left’ is doing, Jaybird.
Most people on the left do not think there actually are ‘files’ that will result in anything and that this is nonsense.
There is a minority belief that that there are blackmail files collected by the FBI or something like that that are being used to blackmail politicians. (I am merely reporting this theory, I don’t believe it.) They _also_ want these files released, as much as the right, although they are pretty sure that whatever the Trump administration releases will not be that.
There is a very thin sliver of _that_ conspiracy who thinks the blackmail of Democrats will be released and not blackmail of Republicans, which…honestly, the left sorta is in favor of, because at least those Democrats will no longer be blackmailed and at least some amount of rapists can be removed from office.
But, again, that’s a pretty small conspiracy, and they aren’t pushing back on the release anyway.
Where is this pushback? A few Democrats worried about forged files? Or harassment of witnesses?Report
What pushback on the left do you imagine there is?
Basically arguing against there being anything worth investigating at all and accusations that there is something worth investigating as being evidence of a grand conspiracy.
Remember Alexander Acosta? He was Trump’s nominee for the Secretary of Labor. He was the guy who cut a sweetheart deal back in 2008.
Wikipedia talks about it:
Remember what he said his reason was for this deal back in 2019 when Epstein got arrested again?
A pretty small conspiracy.
I’m just glad that there wasn’t a real journalistic investigation into that whole thing!Report
Saying ‘This will amount to nothing’ is not pushback to the files being released, and I am baffled as to how you think that is the same thing. Pushback would be saying ‘These files should not be released’. As far as I can tell, no one has said that.
Likewise, I can’t figure out what you mean by ‘accusations that there is something worth investigating as being evidence of a grand conspiracy’. Everyone agrees there was, indeed, something worth investigating, and it sure would have been nice if that had been investigated. By the TRUMP JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
Or investigated and prosecuted by Acosta, who has cleverly invented a claim about ‘intelligence’ that could have been investigated _by the president_. ‘Hey, a guy in my cabinet says that Epstein worked for one of our intelligence services, it’s too bad that I have literally no way to confirm that. Anyway, for my next order of business, I’m talking to the Director of National Intelligence.’.
Indeed, why _hasn’t_ Trump stated that? He’s put his person in at the CIA, and surely Acosta can explain who, exactly, told him that. Weirdly Trump has remained completely silent on all that. He could have done all that his first term, and Acosta could have maybe even not had to resign!
The fact that the _right wing_ has decided to focus on these files, and think they will reveal anything damaging about Democrats, so insane. This is an investigation that a _political actors on the right_ crippled and was never really done.
But, no, the left is not ‘pushing back’ on releasing the files, the left is just ‘We’re pretty sure this investigation was so curtailed that there’s not going to be anything useful in these files.’ No one says not to do it.
In fact, we can agree that Ilhan Omar is…reasonable left-ish, right? You probably think she is farther left than I do, but I think we can agree that, of all the House Democrats, she’s in the top 25% farthest left, right?
Do I need to link to her tweet about how it’s weird the AG won’t release the files? (I actually kinda think she’s trolling and doesn’t really think anything will come from it, but it’s the ‘never interrupt your enemy while they’re making a mistake, and maybe even encourage their supporters to yell support for mistake’ trolling.)Report
Yeah, you know what? We should have a post dedicated to finding out what happened.
Maybe with a comment section where we talk about how we hope we learn what happened.
What say you?Report
““I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.” You’re assuming he worked for OUR intelligence groups. Not necessarily. Could be any number of countries–allies, or not. The Epstein situation strikes me as something all intelligence groups might engage in. It’s quite possible “a deal” was struck with some other non US intelligence group for one of any number of reasons.Report
I’m not even assuming that Acosta was telling the truth.
Maybe he was lying! You’d think that that’d be something that we’d want to know!
Hey, have you ever seen this Cindy McCain clip from C-Span?Report
No, but it doesn’t surprise me.Report
Gee, if only we could put someone in a position of power who could ask Acosta who told him to drop the investigation. Maybe the next president.
The fact you are conspiracizing about Epstein is hilarious. We _already believe_ these ‘conspiracies’. They are very obvious.
Epstein, extremely clearly, was not prosecuted for years for blackmail reasons, or if not explicit blackmail because prosecuting him would harm other powerful people.The failure of the FBI to follow up on things almost certainly was due to political pressure, as was the sweetheart deal cut by Acosta. We believe all this! I’ll even go so far as to say he probably didn’t commit suicide, although I will admit that is a little conspiratorial and I have no real evidence.
What we do not believe is that the FBI has any real evidence, or that they are going to release it if they do.
Neither do we believe that _Trump_, of all people, is going to be doing anything to find out more. Mostly because we’re pretty sure he’s implicated more strongly than whoever the right hallucinates is going to implicated on the other side. (Is it still Bill Clinton? Is he still the target? The president from *checks notes* twenty-four years ago?)
We are simply enjoying watching the right eat itself alive because they believed _Trump_ was going to do this, and have to try to come up with nonsense justifications as to why Trump isn’t doing extremely obvious things, which he should have already done years ago, like try to track down Acosta’s claim.Report
What we do not believe is that the FBI has any real evidence, or that they are going to release it if they do.
Then Pam Bondi and Kash Patel are in a real pickle! They’ve demanded transparency and they’ve demanded to see the “real” evidence and they’ve done so publicly!
It seems like a good way to embarrass the new guys is to keep bringing this up and make them either pony up (which they can’t do) or say why they can’t pony up (which would effectively create similar problems).
We are simply enjoying watching the right eat itself alive because they believed _Trump_ was going to do this, and have to try to come up with nonsense justifications as to why Trump isn’t doing extremely obvious things, which he should have already done years ago, like try to track down Acosta’s claim.
Would you say that calling for the release of this stuff from the people who said that they’d release it would do harm to Trump, then?
Wow. Seems like a somewhat straightforward and easy way to harm Trump.
Seems like a great bipartisan opportunity!Report
Yes, the Democrats should be out there hammering hard on Trump to release it, with plenty of insinuations as to why he is not, and even going outright conspiratorial about this. Just straight up use the right’s conspiracy theories against them, because the conspiracy theories about Epstein _are_ sorta right, even if right has been duped it’s the left behind them, instead of just Extremely Powerful People who pay off everyone willy-nilly.
But Dems are not doing that.
Welcome to the real world, where the Dems do literally nothing to help anything that could vaguely be considered ‘outside norms’, but they sure will pretend and even fundraise off their complete lack of action. Glad you’re now up-to-date.
And this is assuming that none of the Dems are going to get hurt by any hypothetical information. (Even if there is no real information cause the FBI didn’t investigate, it’s not like people could know that for a certainty.) I think there are probably _less_ sex predators in the Democrats than in the Republicans, just by sheer statistical history, but there are likely not zero. And Democrats _actually have to remove them from office_, whereas nothing is going to happen to Trump despite what is revealed, so I suspect there’s some interesting calculus among the Democratic sociopaths with power.
The actual left, meanwhile, sorta already is stirring all this up as best they can, but really do not have power to get the media eye, and the normal media doesn’t really get in front of the conspiracy far-right anyway.
In fact, Ilhan Omar _is doing literally this_ on Twitter, stirring things up, on purpose.Report
Well, I am pleased to do my part here to harm Trump.
I think that the FBI should release the files.
What the heck, Kash?
What the heck, Bondi?
I’m going to need a list of five things you did last week.Report
No I’m not. I’m just assuming whoever told Acosta that information was working for the US government, because that’s logically the only people who Acosta should be listening to.
The question is ‘Did someone in the US government tell Acosta to back off with the claim he ‘belong to intelligence?’.
Trump could easily determined the answer to that years ago. Just ask Acosta who said that. Then go ask them if they told Acosta that.
Once we find out the answer to that question, if he was indeed told that, we can then ask questions like ‘Is that true, did Epstein belong to intelligence? If so, which intelligence agency?’
Now, Acosta didn’t technically say it was someone from the US government who told him that, so I guess it is hypothetically possible that Acosta was approached by, for example, French intelligence. Who told Epstein ‘belongs to intelligence, specifically, us’, so he decided to not continue prosecution. But that means Acosta semi-openly admitted to be an agent of a foreign government, which seems really dumb for him to do.
No, for sanity’s sake I will assume it was someone in the US government who told him that information, and not a foreign power…or a random person on the street, for that matter.Report
No, he is completely addicted to it and doesn’t realize how it makes him a mark for a lot of kayfabe.
JB has admitted his love of conspiracy theories. I think addiction to conspiracy theories is more accurate.Report
Pam Bondi tweeted a few hours ago. It was about the Boston incident where an alleged off-duty police officer allegedly shot a guy allegedly trying to allegedly stab a couple of alleged people in an alleged Chik-fil-A. After the incident, the mayor went on camera and, among other things, gave her condolences to the alleged knife-involved individual’s family.
This was one of those things that resulted in a lot of polarization.
Some folks thought that it was 100% appropriate to offer condolences to the relatives of the guy who was allegedly shot by the alleged off-duty cop. Others thought that the speech should have been more of a “allegedly fool around, genuinely find out” speech.
Pam Bondi’s tweet indicated sympathies for the latter position. “This DOJ will NEVER apologize for taking down dangerous criminals and getting them off our streets. Thank you to the brave law enforcement officer in Boston who stepped up to protect those in need.”
The responses did not tend toward the “Yeah! Go Boston Cops!” position.
Instead, they overwhelmingly asked the question “WHERE ARE MY FREAKIN’ FILES, PAM?!?!?”
I don’t know how long it will last, but I believe that Pam Bondi will find her twitter unusable for feedback give and take kinda reasons until, at least, she comes out and says what the heck happened, what she and Kash talked about, and where in the heck the files are.Report
So it looks like she went on Hannity and explained that *NOW* she has a new and improved bunch of files that she and the FBI are now digging through and she’s waiting on Kash Patel’s report on why these files were withheld last time.
Jam tomorrow. Jam Yesterday.
Report