Just saying...

Posted on Normals.me · View the original post

Hey, Satan... 👉👈
I know like...people hate you for no real reason. But you seem pretty chill.
I'd let you hit. You seem pretty fun yourself. Hit me up :3

Washington (United States) (AFP) – US lawmakers called Tuesday for further criminal investigations into associates of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a scathing report blaming prosecutors, financial institutions and powerful connections for allowing his abuse to continue for years.

The Epstein saga has dogged President Donald Trump, who was friends with the financier for years but has denied any knowledge of his crimes. Accusations that Trump covered up much of the investigation triggered the first major rift with the president's support base after he returned to the White House.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee urged the Justice Department to interview or reinterview key witnesses and pursue allegations against two prominent men who associated with the disgraced financier.

Former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine and French celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai both deny allegations of sexual assault -- referred to federal prosecutors by the committee in June -- from Epstein's longtime assistant Sarah Kellen.

The report also called for further questioning of another longtime Epstein assistant, Lesley Groff, over her possible knowledge of his crimes.

Groff maintained she had never suspected Epstein of sexually abusing women and girls -- testimony the Republican investigators described as not credible.

The recommendations emerged from a 15-month congressional investigation involving testimony from prominent figures in Epstein's financial and social circle and an extensive examination of government and banking records.

"Epstein operated with impunity, shielded and enabled by powerful connections and a justice system that repeatedly failed his victims," committee chairman James Comer said.

The report concluded that Epstein's crimes after 2005 could have been prevented had federal investigators and prosecutors pursued the original allegations against him more aggressively.

Instead, prosecutors in Florida reached a controversial agreement in 2007 allowing him to escape federal charges in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser state offenses.

Epstein received an 18-month jail sentence but served only 13 months, enjoying extensive work-release privileges during which he continued abusing women, according to the report.

The investigation also accused financial institutions of overlooking suspicious transactions and warning signs of human trafficking, singling out American Express.

Lawmakers urged the Treasury Department to examine whether banks were properly reporting suspicious activity linked to trafficking and money laundering.

The report also criticized the Justice Department for exposing survivors' private information during releases of Epstein files.

The Republican investigators said they had uncovered no evidence implicating Trump in Epstein's crimes and accused Democrats of politicizing the inquiry.

But the committee's top Democrat, Robert Garcia, dismissed the findings as the product of an incomplete investigation that included no public hearings, accusing the Justice Department of illegally withholding "over 2.5 million pages of documents."

Democrats, who seized control of Congress in last week's midterm elections, have vowed to continue investigating Epstein's network when they assume their new powers in January.

Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

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Someone secure the hot pants!!!

The family farm where President Jimmy Carter tended peanuts, corn and sugarcane as a boy and later returned throughout his life will be preserved and opened to the public.

Preservation group The Conservation Fund said Monday that it has acquired the farm as part of a 2,458-acre (995-hectare) purchase. The farm is just outside Plains, Georgia, the 39th president’s hometown. Carter spent his youth exploring the woods around the farm and returned many times as an adult to walk with his wife Rosalynn and hunt, the fund said.

Near the end of his life, Carter, who died in 2024 at 100, returned to the farm for one final fishing trip to its pond. Rosalynn Carter died in 2023.

“For our family, this land was always about more than a farm. It was home — a place my grandparents treasured. We’re grateful to The Conservation Fund and to everyone working to make sure it’s protected for generations to come,” Jason Carter, a grandson of the Carters, said in a statement.

The farm should be open to the public for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation as soon as next year, The Conservation Fund said. The fund said it plans to transfer the land to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources the following year. The purchase price was $8.5 million, The Washington Post reported.

For a second I thought I had logged into an NSFW lemmy instance :P

Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has called for GOP lawmakers in the state legislature to pass new limits on his Democratic successor, Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin, who won in the state’s “blue wave” last week. Patrick issued the call to alter the powers of his own office during an appearance on a conservative radio show on Monday. The office of lieutenant governor has far more…

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/74723818

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) announced on Tuesday that he will not be supporting Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-New York) run for Senate majority leader in the new Congress and suggested that someone else will be running to replace him. “I personally have known Chuck Schumer for 30 years, and I like Chuck — nobody works harder than Chuck Schumer,” said Sanders in a press conference. “But…

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is set to vote Tuesday on whether to advance an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has accused lawmakers of undermining American troops in war zones by targeting him over mere “policy disagreements.”

The procedural vote will either block the impeachment resolution or set up a final vote Wednesday. With Democratic leadership backing the effort brought by GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, the outcome will likely hinge on whether Republican lawmakers break ranks after their sweeping losses in the midterm elections.

Hegseth dug in for a congressional fight in his first news conference in months on Tuesday, portraying Massie as a rogue lawmaker and arguing that he had committed none of the high crimes required in the Constitution for his removal. He framed the effort as an indictment against the nation’s service members and their successes while undermining American forces “in real time.”

“This is not patriotism,” Hegseth said. “This is sabotage.”

Massie’s resolution includes eight counts of impeachment. It largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth’s role in carrying out military actions in Yemen and Venezuela.

Massie, a Kentucky Republican leaving Congress in January after losing his primary to a Trump-backed opponent, says Hegseth has “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders.”

Progressives are demanding that Rep. Haley Stevens be expelled from the Democratic Party over the Michigan Democrat's last-minute decision to rescind her endorsement of Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed.

Just two days before the 2026 midterm elections, Stevens announced that she was supporting Republican Mike Rogers in the US Senate race in Michigan, despite pledging to back El-Sayed after he defeated her in the state's Democratic primary months earlier.

Stevens' surprise endorsement of Rogers led to a mass staff exodus, including her longtime chief of staff. Politico reported that Stevens had been spotted in the Republicans' cloakroom in the US House of Representatives on Monday, and her office door was locked throughout the day.

Levi Teitel, communications director of Progress Michigan, said Stevens' actions merited her being forced out of the Democratic Party.

"As a constituent of Haley Stevens, I am appalled that she’s left residents of the 11th Congressional District high and dry," said Teitel. "Her capriciousness is what’s led to this: flipping to Rogers just two days before polls opened on Election Day without thinking through how she would be able to represent her constituents in her last few weeks in office."

Stevens is still representing her district until January 3, 2027, when Rep.-elect Jeremy Moss (D-Mich.) is slated to take over.

Regardless, Teitel said Stevens' actions are "nothing short of a dereliction of duty," adding that House Democrats "have a responsibility to hold Rep. Stevens accountable and expel her from the caucus."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is also leaving Congress next year after a 40-year career, cautioned her party against expelling Stevens while speaking with reporters on Tuesday.

"We have about... two more weeks of being in the Congress," said Pelosi, "so I don’t think we should start making judgments about anybody in the caucus at this point."

Nancy Pelosi on Kicking Haley Stevens Out of the Caucus:We have a few more weeks of being in Congress, so I don’t think we should start making judgments about anybody in the caucus at this point.I was disappointed. I conveyed that to her. I want to be helpful to her in terms of how she deals with this, but I’m not supporting kicking her out.Let’s focus on the very positive
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 10, 2026

The California Democrat added that she was "disappointed" in Stevens for endorsing Rogers, but emphasized that she's "not supporting kicking her out of the caucus."

Critics of Pelosi, however, found her position unconvincing and a testament to the failure of Establishment wing of the party that has long been hostile to progressives and accommodating to figures like Stevens.

“Pelosi refusing to kick Haley Stevens out of the caucus because ‘there’s only a few weeks left’ is everything people hate about DC,” said journalist Saad Abedine, in response to the former speaker’s remarks. “Zero accountability, total protection for insiders, and a smile telling us to ‘focus on the positive.’ Utterly absurd.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

note - I sometimes get an adblocker type paywall, but Reader mode works.

The Sudanese Communist Party has condemned the arrest of Ahmed Babiker, known as Jughraf, a party member in the South Blue Nile region, and demanded his immediate release or that he be brought before a competent court.

In a press statement, the party said Babiker was arrested by the security unit in Ed Damazin on Thursday, November 5, at the Agadi exit checkpoint. He was traveling by motorcycle with a colleague, Haq-Allah, who was not detained and was subsequently released.

According to the statement, the two were heading to a camp for internally displaced persons to undertake a construction project. The work involved building traditional shelters, known as karanks, using bricks and straw.

The party said Babiker had since been denied access to visitors. It condemned the circumstances surrounding his arrest and raised concerns about its legal basis.

“The arrest lacks any legal basis other than the emergency laws that have remained in effect since the early years of the war,” the statement said.

The party’s South Blue Nile branch reiterated its condemnation of the arrest, demanding that the authorities account for his detention and respect his legal rights.

Arrest amid extended state of emergency

The arrest comes amid an extended state of emergency in Blue Nile. In September 2026, the region’s governor, Ahmed al-Omda Badi, renewed emergency measures for three months, granting the army, police and intelligence authorities’ powers to take measures deemed necessary to maintain security.

Read more: Sudanese Communist Party leader arrested by military intelligence

It is not the first time the party has been targeted in the city. Since the civil war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023, the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) has faced numerous attacks.  In August 2023, months after the war began, military intelligence raided the Communist Party’s office in Ed Damazin during an event marking its 77th anniversary and detained more than 20 people.

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