#Jeffrey epstein and trump were friends

[captainpirateface]

BUDDIES!

And NEW FRIENDS!!!

And I say to these fuckers...

[truth4ourfreedom]

THINGS NOT IN THE NEWS ANYMORE. VERSION 6.0

Things not in the news anymore….

(Version 6)

-Maui wildfires. -East Palestine, Ohio -Joe Biden classified documents as a Senator. -Fauci working with China to create a bioweapon. -Pete Buttigieg’s best friend in prison for child porn. -Cocaine in the White House. (TWICE NOW) -The BLM and Antifa riots during 2020 causing BILLIONS of dollars of damage. -The data collected from the Chinese spy balloons. -Ukraine intelligence documents released that showed they were suffering massive losses and the American taxpayer was being lied to. -Nancy Pelosi’s “documentary” film crew on J6. -Veterans being kicked out of shelters to make room for illegals. -Pizzagate “debunker” jailed for possession of child pornography. -Gay porn film in Senate hearing room. -Veterans Affairs prioritizing healthcare of illegals over Veterans. -THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS. -Afghanistan drawdown and 13 service members killed in an attack on Kabul International Airport, that they hid the severity of it. -Obama droning an American citizen in the Middle East. -George Bush’s false WMDs. -3 service members killed in Jordan. -Hunter Biden making over $1M for “paintings”. -J6 political prisoners that are still in jail. -85,000 missing children at the southern border. -Epstein’s clients. -Obama coordinating with John Brennan and 4 other countries (5 eyes) to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. -Mail-in ballots were the cause of the stolen 2020 election. -Jeffrey Epstein mentioning that Bill Clinton liked his girls “really young”. -The (NOW TWO) airline whistleblowers that mysteriously died. -Benghazi (I won’t mention anything more about this because I care about my life.) -Nancy Pelosi’s daughter stating that January 6th wasn’t an insurrection. -The January 6th committee destroying encrypted evidence before the GOP took over the House. -Nancy Pelosi admitting that J6 was “her responsibility”. -House Speaker Mike Johnson claiming there wouldn’t be foreign aid without border security in the bill, which was a lie. -The recent riots from illegal criminal aliens at the southern border and the border in general. -Hunter Biden not complying with a Congressional subpoena and deemed untouchable. Democrat privilege. -Vaccine side effects. -“Lab leak” out of China -The Secret Service having to basically guide Joe Biden everywhere he goes. -Who leaked (Sotomayor) the SCOTUS Alito decision. -Federal instigators inside the Capitol including pipe bomb evidence against them. -Obama’s chef “passing away”. -HRC’s chef “passing away”. -The Sheriff that happened to be in Las Vegas (during the mass shooting) AND the wildfires in Hawaii. -P Diddy sex-trafficking allegations. Where’s Diddy? -Gonzalo Lira (an American journalist) that was killed in Ukraine -Congress approving warrantless spying violating American’s 4th amendment rights while they are exempt. -Americans that were left in foreign countries (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan). -The billions of dollars of weaponry left in Afghanistan and the Taliban receiving $40M a week in “humanitarian assistance”. -Biolabs found in California. -Joe Biden’s impeachment. -The scum in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES waving the Ukrainian flag. -The over 300k ballot images that could not be found in Fulton County, Georgia; the same county Donald Trump on trial for “election interference”. -Democrats defunding the police causing massive rises in crime. -Kamala Harris’s record as DA in California. -The Transifesto from the school shooting. -Many U.S. Representatives and Congress receiving FTX funds. -They’re already working hard to bury Donald Trump’s àssassination attempt but we won’t let them bury that story. July 13th is never going away.

The distractions are out of control.

Share to show that legacy media is dead and that WE are the media now.

Please like,share and reblog to keep people aware!

[reality-detective]

Things that are not in the news anymore… 👇

-Maui wildfires.

-East Palestine, Ohio

-Joe Biden classified documents as a Senator.

-Fauci working with China to create a bioweapon.

-Pete Buttigieg’s best friend in prison for child porn.

-Cocaine in the White House. (TWICE NOW)

-The BLM and Antifa riots during 2020 causing BILLIONS of dollars of damage. And yes I brought this up on Juneteenth.

-The data collected from the Chinese spy balloons.

-Ukraine intelligence documents released that showed they were suffering massive losses and the American taxpayer was being lied to.

-Nancy Pelosi’s “documentary” film crew on J6.

-Veterans being kicked out of shelters to make room for illegals.

-Pizzagate “debunker” jailed for possession of child pornography.

-Gay porn film in Senate hearing room.

-Veterans Affairs prioritizing healthcare of illegals over Veterans.

-THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS.

-Afghanistan drawdown and 13 service members killed in an attack on Kabul International Airport, that they hid the severity of it.

-Obama droning an American citizen in the Middle East.

-George Bush’s false WMDs.

-3 service members killed in Jordan.

-Hunter Biden making over $1M for “paintings”.

-J6 political prisoners that are still in jail.

-85,000 missing children at the southern border.

-Epstein’s clients.

-Obama coordinating with John Brennan and 4 other countries (5 eyes) to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign.

-Mail-in ballots were the cause of the stolen 2020 election.

-Jeffrey Epstein mentioning that Bill Clinton liked his girls “really young”.

-The (NOW TWO) airline whistleblowers that mysteriously died.

-Benghazi (I won’t mention anything more about this because I care about my life.)

-Nancy Pelosi’s daughter stating that January 6th wasn’t an insurrection.

-The January 6th committee destroying encrypted evidence before the GOP took over the House.

-Nancy Pelosi admitting that J6 was “her responsibility”.

-House Speaker Mike Johnson claiming there wouldn’t be foreign aid without border security in the bill, which was a lie.

-The recent riots from illegal criminal aliens at the southern border and the border in general.

-Hunter Biden not complying with a Congressional subpoena and deemed untouchable. Democrat privilege.

-Vaccine side effects.

-“Lab leak” out of China.

-The Secret Service having to basically guide Joe Biden everywhere he goes.

-Who leaked (Sotomayor) the SCOTUS Alito decision.

-Federal instigators inside the Capitol including pipe bomb evidence against them.

-Obama’s chef “passing away”.

-HRC’s chef “passing away”.

-The Sheriff that happened to be in Las Vegas (during the mass shooting) AND the wildfires in Hawaii.

-P Diddy sex-trafficking allegations. Where’s Diddy?

-Gonzalo Lira (an American journalist) that was killed in Ukraine

-Congress approving warrantless spying violating American’s 4th amendment rights while they are exempt.

-Americans that were left in foreign countries (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan).

-The billions of dollars of weaponry left in Afghanistan and the Taliban receiving $40M a week in “humanitarian assistance”.

-Biolabs found in California.

-Joe Biden’s impeachment.

-The scum in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES waving the Ukrainian flag.

-The over 300k ballot images that could not be found in Fulton County, Georgia; the same county Donald Trump on trial for “election interference”.

-Democrats defunding the police causing massive rises in crime.

-Kamala Harris’s record as DA in California.

-The Transifesto from the school shooting.

-Many U.S. Representatives and Congress receiving FTX funds.

-They’re already working hard to bury Donald Trump’s àssassination attempt but we won’t let them bury that story. July 13th is never going away.

The distractions are out of control.

Share to show that legacy media is dead and that WE are the media now. 🤔

[beardedmrbean]

Biden supporters are raising Trump's associations with Jeffrey Epstein — again.

Recently-released docs in the Epstein investigation make no mention of Trump.

Democrats have tried deflecting concerns about Biden's age by bringing up Trump's past.

Some Joe Biden supporters are employing a tried-and-true strategy to fend off rampant debate over the President's age and mental acuity: deflection.

On social media — and even in the halls of Congress — certain Biden supporters are using Donald Trump's associations with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as an argument to disqualify him.

Discourse about Trump and Epstein was reignited after documents from Epstein's first Florida investigation in 2006 were released last week.

But the 158-page document — a grand jury transcript showing prosecutors heard testimony that Epstein raped girls as young as 14, then still cut him a sweetheart plea deal — makes no mention of Trump himself.

Still, some seized the news cycle as a way to counteract doubts about Biden's own fitness to run for office in 2024.

Why no one's writing about Trump and Epstein

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rep. Ted Lieu of California urged more media coverage of the "Epstein files," adding that a "highly disturbing" hashtag about Trump and Epstein was trending on X.

Trump had previously been photographed with Epstein, Lieu said, had flown with him on planes with young girls on board, and the two were listed on call logs together.

"It shows that Donald Trump is unfit for office," the congressman said, adding Trump was also convicted of sexual abuse in civil court.

Ben Meiselas, the cofounder of liberal news network Meidas Touch, also posted on X about "the release of new Epstein files with Trump's name on it." Other Biden boosters have suggested a coordinated media cover-up to boost Trump's chances or doom Biden's.

But Trump isn't named in the latest records, a fact reiterated on X by Julie Brown, the Miami Herald investigative journalist who helped break the Epstein story.

Media outlets haven't reported on Trump's connection to the new Epstein files because there isn't one.

What we know about Trump's relationship with Epstein

Trump has appeared in previous unsealed and uncovered documents connected to the Epstein case.

Trump was also connected to 14 different numbers in Epstein's little black book of contacts that surfaced before the financier's arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019. Among the contacts were Trump's wife, Melania; ex-wife, Ivana; and daughter, Ivanka.

The contact book also included the names of high-profile celebrities like Courtney Love, Alec Baldwin, and Naomi Campbell, as well as politicians and dignitaries like John Kerry, Michael Bloomberg, Henry Kissinger, and Prince Andrew.

Unsealed flight logs in 2019 revealed Trump took a flight on Epstein's private jet in 2017; billionaire couple Glenn and Eva Dubin joined him on the flight from Palm Beach to Newark.

And in January, a Business Insider analysis of then-unsealed court records determined Trump appeared in the documents multiple times under the moniker "Doe 174."

However, the mentions in those documents weren't all damning for the former President, BI's Jacob Shamsian reported at the time.

In one instance, a woman denied in a deposition that she'd massaged Trump. In another, a woman claimed — then recanted — that her friend had had sex with him. And Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of the key accusers of sexual abuse by Epstein and his associates, said in one document that she didn't think Trump was involved.

Trump had previously faced allegations by an anonymous woman that claimed he had violently raped her at an orgy when she was 13 years old. The woman — who went by the pseudonym "Katie Johnson" — even filed a lawsuit against Trump, twice.

The first was a civil rights suit in April 2016 that was thrown out on a technicality. Vox noted that the original suit listed the woman's apparent address as an abandoned home.

She filed a second lawsuit that removed some of the lurid details. Still, the case was connected to strange characters, including a Jerry Springer producer who tried to sell a video of the purported accuser to news outlets for $1 million and an anti-Trump activist who promoted the lawsuit — and had a history of spreading untrue gossip.

The woman abruptly dropped the lawsuit in November 2016, just days before the election that Donald Trump would win. Her lawyer didn't share a reason for why the lawsuit was dropped at the time.

Trump had publicly praised Epstein before his sexual abuse allegations came to light. He called Epstein a "terrific guy" in 2002, adding, "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

But the Washington Post reported the two men had a falling out in 2004 after they both wanted to buy a prime Palm Beach property.

After Epstein's arrest, Trump told reporters, "I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you." Trump has also said he barred Epstein from Mar-A-Lago.

Four Pinocchios from WaPo for congressman Lieu's claims about Trump in the epstein files, that's gotta hurt both wapo and lieu

Guy must think everyone else is a idiot and will take him at his word instead of actually looking,

[thedialoguedilemma]

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order today to declassify files related to the JFK and MLK assassination but did not include the Epstein files in that Executive Order.

President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends and business partners and have communicated extensively in the past.

Jeffrey Epstein was a well known human trafficker and child predator with extensive partnerships and relationships with multiple high level figures around the world including Trump.

Trump has promised in the past to release the files and still has not until this day. Epstein died in prison under Trump’s last term in 2019.

[mitchfynde]

Conspiracy theorists who believe in pizzagate or any other vague conspiracy about the Democrats being a shadowy pedophile ring, I have a special post for you! I hope you enjoy.

Epstein said about Trump:

"I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years."

Trump said about Epstein:

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy.”

"He’s a lot of fun to be with."

"It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

Donald Trump's children were photographed meeting Epstein.

While she was in custody for allegedly recruiting young girls for Epstein, Trump had this to say about Ghislaine Maxwell:

"I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.”

Which, you may say to yourself that it sounds like he had no idea what was going on. Well, after it was clear that he was aware what was going on, he said it again.

“Yeah, I wish her well. I’d wish you well. I’d wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove somebody was guilty.”

And to cap it all off, Jeffrey Epstein died in custody in 2019... while Donald Trump was in office.

What conclusions you should draw from this is up to you. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm not personally alleging that Donald Trump did anything illegal with Jeffrey Epstein. But I want you to do me a favor. Imagine every mention of Donald Trump were swapped to Bill Clinton or even Joe Biden. What conclusions would you draw? Why aren't you drawing those conclusions now about Trump?

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Trumpland

Listen to Jeffrey Epstein Spill Intel on Donald Trump’s White House

OH LORDY

A new recording captures Epstein dishing on Trump.

Harry Lambert 

Special Correspondent

Updated Nov. 1 2024 3:54AM EDT / Published Oct. 31 2024 6:00PM EDT 

Michael Wolff, the explosive chronicler of Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, has released what he says is a recording of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, discussing Trump’s then-White House team in detail.

Wolff released the tape on his podcast, Fire and Fury. He says it was made in a restaurant in 2017, most probably in the SoHo branch of Ladurée, a patisserie in Manhattan. Epstein can be heard speaking over the din of diners.

“His people fight each other,” Epstein tells Wolff on the recording, “and then he [Trump] poisons the well outside.”

“He will tell ten people ‘Bannon’s a scumbag’ and ��Priebus is not doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth’—what do you think? Jamie Dimon [CEO of JPMorgan Chase] says that you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I spoke to [financier] Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson.”

He continues: “So Kelly[anne]—even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband—Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon, you know I really want to keep you but Kellyanne hates you.”

Epstein Showed Pics of Trump with Topless Young Women: WolffOCTOBER SURPRISE?

Hugh Dougherty

Epstein is referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, whose then-husband, George Conway, was briefly considered for positions in Trump’s Department of Justice.

Wolff—whose journalistic accuracy has previously been challenged by critics—said he had around “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his long standing, deep relationship with Donald Trump.” Wolff has not provided anything more than this snippet of Epstein speaking in 2017.

Epstein had wanted Wolff to write his biography. (He also wanted the New York Times reporter James B. Stewart, the author of DisneyWar, to do so.)

Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 election campaign, responded to Wolff’s claims, and the recording, in a statement to the Daily Beast:

Epstein has not previously been identified by Wolff as a source of his for Fire and Fury, the 2018 book on the Trump presidency, which is estimated to have made him more than $13m.

Wolff followed the book with two more—Siege: Trump under Fire (2019) and Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency (2021)—which proved less successful. The Daily Mail recently signed him up to cover Trump as a columnist, and he launched his podcast in June.

Trump and Epstein were filmed laughing together in a clip captured at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 by NBC. They were also photographed smiling beside each other at Trump’s Palm Beach estate in 1997 and 2000.

“Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment,” Wolff says of the duo on his podcast. “And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”

A Trump campaign source claimed to the Beast that is it “widely known” that Trump severed ties with Epstein after allegations of sex trafficking were levied against his once-close friend.

Harry Lambert

Special Correspondent

[politicalfeed]

Michael Wolff’s New Claims on Trump-Epstein Relationship: Key Takeaways

Author and journalist Michael Wolff has stirred controversy again with new claims about the relationship between former President Donald Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. On his podcast, Fire and Fury, Wolff detailed what he describes as a “competitive playboy lifestyle” between Trump and Epstein, and shared stories ranging from real estate deals to alleged photos. These revelations come just days before the election, adding to the mounting scrutiny around Trump’s past associations. Here are five key moments from Wolff’s podcast, which Newsweek has summarized, though these claims have not been independently verified.

1. Trump and Epstein’s “Brothers in Arms” Bond

Wolff describes Trump and Epstein as sharing a lifestyle focused on wealth, status, and women in the 1980s. According to Epstein, the two enjoyed a friendship where their larger-than-life personalities could thrive. Epstein allegedly felt that Trump’s bold behavior made his own actions seem more reasonable. “He said that Trump has no scruples,” Wolff said, suggesting that Epstein saw Trump as a kindred spirit in his own flamboyant pursuits.

2. The “Bet” on Princess Diana

One of the more startling claims is that Trump and Epstein were engaged in a competition over who could win over Princess Diana. Wolff mentioned that in the 1980s, models were “sexual currency,” and Trump and Epstein allegedly placed bets on high-profile women. Although Wolff did not claim they succeeded with Diana, he argued that this “high-stakes” competition was typical of their era and their egos.

3. Money Laundering Allegations in Real Estate Deal

Wolff detailed a 2004 falling-out between Trump and Epstein involving a real estate deal in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein had reportedly sought Trump’s advice about a property, only for Trump to bid on it himself. According to Wolff, Epstein suspected Trump was acting on behalf of a Russian oligarch, as he couldn’t afford the property on his own. Wolff’s allegations of “money laundering” link Trump’s dealings with a Russian buyer and remain one of the most contentious points in the podcast.

4. Claims of Embarrassing Photos in Epstein’s Safe

Wolff claims that Epstein once showed him photographs of Trump with young women in Epstein’s Palm Beach home, including a photo with a “telltale stain” on Trump’s pants. Wolff said Epstein stored these photos in a safe that may have been confiscated by the FBI during their 2019 raid. This claim adds to existing questions about what Epstein might have kept hidden and how these materials were handled.

5. “Shared Girlfriend” and Alleged Envy

According to Wolff, Trump and Epstein were not only friends but also had shared interests in the same women. Wolff even claims they shared a girlfriend — a former model whom he did not name. Wolff said this “twisted game” between the two men involved a level of masculine bravado and rivalry. He pointed to a culture of “excess and license” among wealthy men, suggesting that their lifestyle reflected a time when such attitudes were celebrated.

Trump’s Response and Wolff’s Controversial Record

While Wolff’s prior works have been criticized for inaccuracies, he maintains that these new claims stem from nearly 100 hours of interviews he conducted with Epstein. Trump’s team has not responded to these new allegations as of yet. Epstein’s mysterious 2019 death only fuels the intrigue around his connections with powerful figures like Trump, leaving the public to question what else might remain undisclosed.

With the election looming, these claims add yet another layer to the complex narratives surrounding Trump, Epstein, and their alleged connections to a high-profile social scene marked by wealth, status, and controversy.

[personal-blog243]

In more “normal” times, this would probably be a big “October surprise” that would cost him the election at least.

However, we have already known for some time that they were friends, but it’s still unclear how involved in any ILLEGAL activity with Epstein he might have been directly involved in. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[makiruz]

Speaking of Trump, the convicted felon thing is a bad argument because we're prison abolitionist here, we don't believe being in jail is a measure of one's character since many innocent people rot in jail over marihuana charges and many guilty people never even see a courtroom, like George W Bush who started the war on Irak, of Bill and Hillary Clinton who were good friends with Jeffrey Epstein and buried Monica Lewinsky

Trump wasn't convicted because he was singularly worse than his predecessors, but because there was political persecution

And because I've noticed people on this website has brain worms, this isn't a defense of Trump, politics isn't a football game denouncing one doesn't mean defending the other. Jesus fuck, this is why you're stuck on a two party system where both parties are fascist

[lenbryant]

LATimes Column: Trump’s proposal to make overtime pay tax-exempt obscures how awful he was for all workers

By Michael Hiltzik, Business Columnist  

Donald Trump speaks at the White House during his presidency with his anti-labor secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, right, at his side. Who thinks his worker policies would be any better in a second term than they were in his first?

(Associated Press)

Donald Trump, in his determined effort to claim the mantle of friend of the working man and woman, unveiled a proposal the other day to make overtime pay tax-exempt. 

“People who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens of our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” he told a rally in Tucson. 

Let’s be blunt about something here: Anyone who buys Trump’s pose about this is the mark in a con game. Trump’s claim that no one in Washington has been looking out for overtime workers was never as true as it was during the Trump administration, which slashed overtime protections for more than 8.2 million workers. 

Trump’s Department of Labor was a black hole for worker rights. The agency abandoned an Obama administration policy that would have favored more than 4.2 million workers. The Biden administration restored the Obama rule and went further. 

And that was just on overtime. As president, observed economic commentator Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in 2019, Trump pursued “the most hostile anti-labor agenda of any modern president.”

Trump’s Dept. of Labor was a black hole for worker rights.

Before exploring Trump’s manipulation of overtime regulations, let’s examine his overall record on workers’ rights.

In 2019, Trump appointed as his Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The new labor secretary had made his career as a corporate lawyer fighting pro-worker policies. In 2012, the Wall Street Journal had labeled him one of the financial industry’s “go-to guys for challenging financial regulations.”

Scalia had helped Walmart overturn a Maryland law mandating minimum contributions by big employers for workers’ healthcare, defended SeaWorld against workplace safety charges after a park trainer was killed by an orca (he lost that case), and had written extensively against a federal regulationexpanding ergonomic safety requirements. 

He had written that the latter rule, proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “would require businesses to slow the pace of production, hire more workers, increase rest periods and redesign workstations or even entire operations.” 

No legitimate candidate for secretary of Labor would have regarded that policy as a bad thing, but Scalia condemned it in print as “the most costly and intrusive regulation in [OSHA’s] history.”

Scalia’s predecessor as secretary, Alexander Acosta, had gone to Congress to oppose measures to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 to $15 in steps. It shouldn’t need mentioning that this was an extraordinary position for a secretary of Labor to take. 

(Acosta, it may be remembered, lost his job after revelations about his role in soft-pedaling sex-trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein produced a political uproar.)

Trump remade the National Labor Relations Board along the same lines. In a key move, his NLRB scrapped the effort under Obama to expand the definition of “joint employer,” which would have made big franchisers such as McDonald’s jointly liable with their franchisees for violations of employees’ wage and hour rights. 

The Trump NLRB’s proposed definition would narrow the joint-employer standard “to the point at which many workers would find it nearly impossible to bring all firms with the power to influence their wages and working conditions to the bargaining table,” according to the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute.

Put it all together, and Trump had turned the Department of Labor into the “Dept. of Employer Rights,” I wrote.

Now to the overtime rules. As my colleague James Rainey reported Sunday, Trump’s proposal to make overtime pay tax-exempt was part of a passel of purported tax cuts for the working class, including tax exemptions for tips and Social Security benefits, all of which economists saw as “gimmicks” and “shams.”

In 2016, Obama had raised the ceiling making salaried workers eligible for time-and-a-half overtime — that is, working hours exceeding 40 hours per week — to $47,476 in annual wages, up from $23,660. The ceiling would be adjusted regularly to overall wage growth. Hourly workers typically get overtime after 40 hours, but salaried workers receive overtime pay if their wages are below the ceiling. 

The Obama administration’s idea was to narrow the practice of low-wage employers to designate workers as “managers” to exempt them from the OT rule while paying them an hourly wage. (That’s why fast-food restaurants are always suspiciously loaded with “general managers, assistant managers, night managers, managers for opening and closing and delivery,” as former New York prosecutor Terri Gerstein observed in 2019.) 

It was estimated that the new rule would give 4.2 million workers new overtime protection.

The Obama rule was blocked by a federal judge in Texas. When Trump came into office, his Labor Department refused to defend the rule in court. Instead, the agency proposed a new rule reducing the wage ceiling to only $35,568. That was nearly $20,000 below the level that would have been reached by the Obama rule, as it was adjusted for wage inflation. The Trump rule was not indexed.

Some 8.2 million workers who would have gained OT protection under Obama were left behind by the Trump rule, Heidi Shierholz of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute calculated. They would be deprived of a combined $1.4 billion in pay annually.

The 8.2 million workers left behind, Shierholz estimated, included “4.2 million women, 3.0 million people of color, 4.7 million workers without a college degree, and 2.7 million parents of children under the age of 18.”

The Biden administration restored the Obama rule, and then some. The new rule set the ceiling at $844 per week, or $43,888 for a full-time hourly worker, as of July 1. 

On Jan. 1, the salary ceiling will rise to $1,128 per week, or $58,656 annually. After that, it will be indexed every three years. The new rule will benefit an estimated 4.3 million workers, more than half of whom are women and about one-fifth workers of color. 

Among the largest groups of affected workers, EPI estimates, are those in healthcare and social services.

Whether Trump has sat down to map out a pro-worker policy is doubtful in the extreme — it’s not a concern he has ever displayed in the past. He appears to have blurted out the overtime policy as part of what the Irish writer Fintan O’Toole aptly describes as “the surreal bricolage of his rally speeches.”

But a clue can be found in “Project 2025,” a road map for a second Trump term drafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. (Trump claims to have nothing to do with this 900-page tome, but no one really believes him.)

Project 2025 would shrink overtime coverage materially. It advocates cutting the compensation subject to time-and-a-half to salary only, excluding pay for such benefits as healthcare, retirement, education, child care or paid meals. Under existing law, the only compensation that can be excluded from the calculation is pay for expenses a worker pays on the employer’s behalf, discretionary bonuses, gifts on special occasions, and vacation and sick pay.

The Project also advocates indexing the ceiling once ever five years rather than three years, which would slow its rate of growth, and index the ceiling to consumer inflation, which tends to grow slower than wage inflation, the current index. 

The Project also advocates allowing employers to calculate overtime hours over two or four weeks rather than weekly, which would allow them to require workers to put in more than 40 hours some weeks and make it up in others. That sounds like an open invitation to employer manipulation of work schedules.

Trump’s record on worker rights is clear as day. Do you really think he’ll be looking out for the men and women in the rank and file?

[originalleftist]

So, you might have heard that Bill Clinton decided it would be a good idea to go off at a rally saying that Israel has no choice but to kill Palestinians.

He also apparently claimed Jews were in the region before Palestinians, when in fact both groups trace back to the Canaanites.

He said this in MICHIGAN, a vital swing state known for its large number of Muslim and Arab voters, five days before the election.

Now, speaking as a Democrat, I've long thought that Bill Clinton is a piece of shit, but he was never an idiot. He was a skilled campaigner.

Maybe he's just starting to suffer dementia, but otherwise, he HAS to know that saying that, there, then was directly undermining Harris's campaign, in a way that (given it would be all but impossible for Democrats to win without MI, and it could very well come down to a few thousand votes), might very easily cost her the election.

Nope, not buying it. Sorry if I sound like a conspiracy nut, but this was sabotage.

Maybe Trump has blackmail on him from when they were both pals of Jeffrey Epstein's. Maybe Bill just subconsciously can't stand the idea of a woman of colour being President, and his white male self just couldn't help himself (I remember he said some stupid shit that undercut Hillary in 2016 too). I don't know.

Hopefully it won't change the result. Hopefully it isn't really as close as the polls say it is. But this was a really bad thing he did. It was doubtless hurtful to many Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Americans, it was inaccurate or at best oversimplified, and it was bad politics.

And (even though she will be blamed for it, and it'll be used as "proof" of her "supporting genocide"), I can pretty much guarantee that it wasn't approved by Kamala Harris, simply because she's not an idiot and actually wants to win the election.

I get why most Democrats don't want to disavow Bill Clinton, somewhat. He's a former President, a big name in the party, he has a lot of friends, and we don't want infighting close to a vital election.

But as a Democrat, the sooner we can leave Bill Clinton in the past the happier I'll be. That man is a fucking millstone around our necks, and an endless source of fodder for the "Both Sides" crowd.

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

After weeks of speculation and anticipation, many of the names of former associates, employees, friends and victims of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released. ... Many of those whose names appear in the documents released Wednesday aren't accused of wrongdoing or have been mentioned previously in legal proceedings or news accounts. The documents released Wednesday are not an Epstein "client list." ... Nearly 90 names were included in the documents, with four redacted: 1. Ghislaine Maxwell 2. Virginia Lee Roberts Giuffre 3. Kathy Alexander 4. Miles Alexander 5. James Michael Austrich 6. Philip Barden 7. REDACTED 8. Cate Blanchett 9. David Boies 10. Laura Boothe 11. Evelyn Boulet 12. Rebecca Boylan 13. Joshua Bunner 14. Naomi Campbell 15. Carolyn Casey 16. Paul Cassell 17. Sharon Churcher 18. Bill Clinton 19. David Copperfield 20. Alexandra Cousteau 21. Cameron Diaz 22. Leonardo DiCaprio 23. Alan Dershowitz 24. Dr. Mona Devanesan 25. REDACTED 26. Bradley Edwards 27. Amanda Ellison 28. Cimberly Espinosa 29. Jeffrey Epstein 30. Annie Farmer 31. Marie Farmer 32. Alexandra Fekkai 33. Crystal Figueroa 34. Anthony Figueroa 35. Louis Freeh 36. Eric Gany 37. Meg Garvin 38. Sheridan Gibson-Butte 39. Robert Giuffre 40. Al Gore 41. Ross Gow 42. Fred Graff 43. Philip Guderyon 44. REDACTED 45. Shannon Harrison 46. Stephen Hawking 47. Victoria Hazel 48. Brittany Henderson 49. Brett Jaffe 50. Michael Jackson 51. Carol Roberts Kess 52. Dr. Karen Kutikoff 53. Peter Listerman 54. George Lucas 55. Tony Lyons 56. Bob Meister 57. Jamie A. Melanson 58. Lynn Miller 59. Marvin Minsky 60. REDACTED 61. David Mullen 62. Joe Pagano 63. Mary Paluga 64. J. Stanley Pottinger 65. Joseph Recarey 66. Michael Reiter 67. Jason Richards 68. Bill Richardson 69. Sky Roberts 70. Scott Rothstein 71. Forest Sawyer 72. Doug Schoetlle 73. Kevin Spacey 74. Cecilia Stein 75. Mark Tafoya 76. Brent Tindall 77. Kevin Thompson 78. Donald Trump 79. Ed Tuttle 80. Emma Vaghan 81. Kimberly Vaughan-Edwards 82. Cresenda Valdes 83. Anthony Valladares 84. Maritza Vazquez 85. Vicky Ward 86. Jarred Weisfeld 87. Courtney Wild 88. Bruce Willis 89. Daniel Wilson 90. Andrew Albert Christian Edwards, Duke of York

[perezhilton]

Donald Trump was very good friends with Jeffrey Epstein and flew on his private plane 7 times! And…

[reasoningdaily]

Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was photographed in the past partying with Donald Trump, stopped "hanging out" with Trump when he realized he "was a crook," his brother told Business Insider.

According to Mark Epstein, Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends for years. But Jeffrey Epstein said in an unaired interview with former White House adviser Steve Bannon seen by his brother that he cut ties with Trump because of his concerns, Business Insider reported Saturday.

Bannon sent Jeffrey Epstein a Dropbox link to a clip of the interview, which Epstein forwarded to his brother in 2019, according to Mark. The link is no longer active, Epstein's brother told Business Insider.

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and died of an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial. He was suspected of raping scores of young women, many of them minors, and providing them to other men. His long-time companion Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein locate and sexually abuse underage girls for more than a decade.

Trump wished Maxwell well after her arrest. But Trump also banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago Club shortly before 2008 after Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of a resort member, according to the book "The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago and the Selling of the Presidency." Esptein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida sex trafficking charges.

In a photo widely circulated in the media Donald Trump is seen with his future wife Melania Knauss and Jeffrey Epstein at a party venue. The men reportedly often met up at social gatherings beginning in the late 1980s into the 2000s. Epstein for a time was a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, which was close to Epstein's Palm Beach home. The men were captured on video together at one party, joking together in footage obtained by NBC News.

One of Epstein's victims testified at Maxwell's trial that she once met Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was with Epstein. She was 14 at the time.

Neither Trump nor Bannon could immediately be reached for comment.

[breakingnewsusa12]

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order today to declassify files related to the JFK and MLK assassination but did not include the Epstein files in that Executive Order.

President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends and business partners and have communicated extensively in the past.

Jeffrey Epstein was a well known human trafficker and child predator with extensive partnerships and relationships with multiple high level figures around the world including Trump.

Trump has promised in the past to release the files and still has not until this day. Epstein died in prison under Trump’s last term in 2019.