Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

CNN took a look at their relationship:

Jeffrey Epstein’s life as a free man was about to end, but first he needed to cancel breakfast plans with a friend: Steve Bannon, the right-wing influencer and former adviser to President Donald Trump.

In the days leading up to Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, the two men exchanged a steady stream of text messages, veering from breezy banter and dark humor to more serious strategizing around Bannon’s efforts to foment a global populist movement.

Writing from Paris, Epstein pressed Bannon to rally US support behind a Slovakian leader seeking a top NATO post. Bannon, meanwhile, wanted Epstein’s help connecting a close ally in Israel with the country’s former prime minister. They also traded barbs about the indictment of a British anti-Muslim activist and made plans to meet the morning of July 7 once Epstein returned from Europe.

The conversation came to a halt on July 6. After messaging with Bannon that day about their upcoming rendezvous, Epstein suddenly wrote, “All canceled.” He sent the message at 7:37 p.m. ET, according to US Department of Justice records. By then, federal authorities had intercepted Epstein at a New Jersey airport and arrested the New York financier on charges he sex trafficked minors.

Bannon and Epstein were plotting Bannon’s creepy global “populist” movement which is incredibly rich considering his relationship to all the world’s oligarchs.

For years, Bannon has served as a leading voice for the American alt-right, and he has sought to spread to other countries the movement that helped propel Trump to the presidency. Until now, his maneuverings abroad, well documented by US and foreign media, have drawn little speculation that Epstein played any role.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein — whose body was found in his jail cell while he was awaiting trial in August 2019, with his death ruled a suicide — have long animated Bannon’s followers, generally directed at the same elites he regularly targets and not Bannon himself. Last summer, Bannon joined other MAGA loyalists in criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of documents related to Epstein’s crimes. He has been far less vocal, however, about his own relationship with Epstein.

Bannon did not return phone calls and text messages from CNN.

Epstein offered Bannon the same things he extended to many powerful confidantes: strategic advice, connections to the highest levels of government and business, and access to his vast wealth. He appeared increasingly invested in Bannon’s success even as he recognized his own history — Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two state prostitution charges, one involving a child — could complicate their cause. “Lets make sure you are keeping your own path on front burner. Strategy etc.,” he wrote Bannon in August 2018, before adding: “at the same time. Take no heat re me. Not worth it for the moment.”

Bannon, for his part, appeared eager to capitalize on the relationship despite Epstein’s criminal past. He regularly shared headlines from his efforts abroad and tapped into Epstein’s extensive network. At one point, he asked Epstein: “Do u know anyone in Europe that wants to control the European Parliament and with it the EU.”

In private exchanges, the two sometimes plotted next steps and workshopped Bannon’s messaging. The night before Bannon was set to appear at a September 2018 forum hosted by The Economist, Epstein suggested framing for how Bannon should discuss Trump’s contentious trade wars. “Brilliant brilliant brilliant,” Bannon responded, “help me develop that argument.”

The way everyone genuflected to that guy is truly amazing.

Bannon is someone who had a close relationship with Epstein right up until the moment he was arrested in 2019. Why hasn’t he gotten more scrutiny?

Trump is pardoning every criminal who pays for access to him (reportedly for millions of dollars) so why not Ghislaine Maxwell? It’s not like he cares if anyone sees this sort of thing as a textbook quid-pro-cuo. After all, he’ll accept ridiculous gifts from foreign players in exchange for favors without batting an eye:

Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to prison for 20 years for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to abuse minors, sent a clear message to Donald Trump on Monday that if the president were to grant her clemency, she would clear his name of any wrongdoing as it pertains to Epstein.

The extraordinary overture, stated by Maxwell’s lawyer Monday morning during her virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee, ensures the Epstein saga will continue to remain a political hotspot.

“Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump,” attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement during the deposition, which he later posted on X. “Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters. For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.” Markus also said that: “Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”

Trump has not ruled out the possibility of offering Maxwell a pardon or commutation.

I would assume that he’d openly tout her “exoneration” as being the end of the story without even acknowledging that she did it solely because he agreed to commute her sentence. And his cult will accept that without question.

It’s a little late for that

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was reportedly angry with now-former CEO Will Lewis partying it up in San Francisco during Super Bowl Week, right as he was laying off hundreds of employees at the paper.

The Financial Times on Saturday night reported that was the “last straw” for Lewis, according to one newsroom source.“Bezos lost patience after the Super Bowl thing,” the source told FT.

That report came out right after Lewis stepped down as the chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post on Saturday evening.“Senior management at The Post were livid when they discovered that Lewis was attending festivities around the Super Bowl in San Francisco around the time of the news of the jobs cuts,” the source told FT. “It came off as ‘callous.’”

Yeah, whatever. Maybe Bezos could pull some money out of his couch cushions to pay for this, if he wants to stop looking callous:

After The Washington Post was hit with layoffs cutting a third of its staff, its international reporters are faced with finding away home, some currently in war zones.

Following Wednesday’s restructuring at the Jeff Bezos-owned company, Tokyo/Seoul bureau chief Michelle Ye Hee Lee launched a GoFundMe campaign in attempt to help the “dozens of international employees who were essential to our coverage of global events” in getting home safely.

“These workers are not eligible for protection under the Washington Post Guild and are, in many instances, being laid off with less favorable terms while also facing immense logistical challenges and, in certain cases, serious security risks,” the crowdfunding page reads. “Please help us support this deeply courageous team of people.”

[…]

Lizzie Johnson, a correspondent covering Ukraine, was one such person impacted by this week’s layoffs. “I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I’m devastated,” she wrote on X from Kyiv.

Former employees of the second most wealthy man on the planet have to rely on a GoFundMe to get them home after being abandoned in far far flung foreign locales. Talk about callous.

I don’t think this is going to have the effect they are hoping for:

American Sovereignty, a conservative nonprofit focused on border security and community safety, will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign over the weekend to press for support for ICE. The ad spots aim to remind the public that ICE agents are family men and women who are part of the fabric of their communities on and off the job — and among those who put themselves in the most danger to protect the homeland.

They’re national ads with more running in DC Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina.

The “Patriots” ad will highlight how ICE agents and staff are often neighbors down the block, family or friends, and people who should be able to do their jobs without being sabotaged by organized violent demonstrations and agitators. “They’re friends and neighbors. Sons, fathers. They’re Little League coaches and veterans. They’re people who love this country,” the narrator says as relevant imagery crosses the screen.

Maybe if they stopped acting like masked barbarians and behaved like professional law enforcement they wouldn’t have this image problem.

“These are Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. They are removing violent criminals from our streets and neighborhoods. It’s dangerous and difficult work, but ICE has one mission: to make America a safer place to live,” the ad continues. “And that’s what they’re doing. This is law enforcement. This is ICE.”

On the other hand:

While “Patriots” strikes an uplifting tone, “Criminals” begins from the opposite perspective.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement has removed thousands of criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.,” the narrator says in “Criminals.” As he speaks, mugshots of several captured illegal immigrant criminals flash across the screen — denoted in large letters with their most serious convictions.”Kidnapping, child pornography, rape, child molestation…” the shots read as snippets from news articles describing violent crimes appear over their faces.

“They entered the United States illegally and committed violent crimes against our mothers, children, and friends. Every day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes them off our streets — every removal makes us safer and America stronger. This is what ICE does. This is Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

Right:

Do they only see what they want to see?

Here’s a morning headline from the AP: FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show

A line from The Sixth Sense comes to mind: They only see what they want to see.

And that was?

The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.

But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.

An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.

A lot of stories lacking enough evidence to support charges, records indicate. Including allegations by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In lawsuits and interviews, Giuffre “accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew.” But two other Epstein victims Giuffre named did not corroborate the “lent out” story, according to a 2019 internal prosecution memo.

No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.

Had they existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”

Investigators who scoured Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.

Other women filed sexual misconduct lawsuits against an Epstein massage recipient. One was dismissed or withdrawn. (Was a quiet cash settlement involved?) Another is pending.

As we know from voter fraud allegations, lots of smoke does not necessarily mean a fire. But to my knowledge, no one has lost a royal title over voter fraud allegations or killed themselves over them. Several have in the Epstein case.

It is clearer than ever that Epstein class predators have powerful friends and enjoy a legal system built to insulate them from justice. Including Trump’s DOJ. Whom can you trust?

Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin with the assist

“God bless America,” shouted superstar Bad Bunny in English to end his Puerto Rico-themed Super Bowl halftime show. Then he recited, south to north, the names of countries spread across North and South America.

Donald Trump believes they are his to dominate. But Bad Bunny told the stadium and over 120 million viewers globally, in song, dance and imagery, oh, hell no. Then he spiked a football reading, “Together, We Are America.” Behind and above him, a massive jumbotron displayed, in bold black and white, Bad Bunny’s message to the world.

Hollywood Reporter:

Lady Gaga made a surprise cameo, singing a Latin-inspired rendition of her and Bruno Mars’ song, “Die With a Smile.” She and Bad Bunny then went on to dance together at what appeared to be the wedding’s reception.

Ricky Martin later made a surprise appearance in the latter part of the show, before Bad Bunny ended his performance with his hit song “DtMF.”

The screens inside Levi’s Stadium also featured the message, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” — something Bad Bunny has expressed before.

I admit it. I teared up.

Bad Bunny ends his Super Bowl halftime show in front of a sign reading "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE" pic.twitter.com/ljzXdx3pcv

— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 9, 2026

Asawin Suebsaeng at Zeteo observes:

If anyone wants to argue Bad Bunny avoided partisan politics during the Super Bowl, he sort of did – on paper, with the thinnest veneer of plausible deniability. His message couldn’t have been clearer, and it joyfully spat in the face of what Donald Trump, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, and the rest of the gang running the federal government stand for. But if the NFL wants to pretend its halftime show didn’t have an inherently anti-Trump message to it, the Trump administration is already showing it’s not willing to give them a pass.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” the literal US president whined on his social-media app Sunday night. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the USA, and all over the World.”

Yet Daily Beast reports that Bad Bunny’s performance played across several screens at Trump’s West Palm Beach Super Bowl party. Trump avoided attending the game in person, knowing he’d be loudly booed, live, in front of the entire planet. (And, yes, Donald Trump, charter member of the Epstein class, wants you to believe he cares about young children.)

Bad Bunny addressed the language question during a pre-game interview with a clever quip: “English is not my first language. But it’s okay, it’s not America’s first language either.” Forbes reports that it instantly went viral.

Former Trump Surgeon General Jerome Adams posted a little Super Bowl history lesson for anyone on X needing one, including his former boss.

Today’s American History Lesson: Puerto Rico has been part of the U.S. since 1898, and Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917 🇵🇷 🇺🇸

We’ve cheered many non-Americans at the #SuperBowl. Bad Bunny isn’t one of them.
🏈 🎤 pic.twitter.com/I8uKV97WKb

— Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) February 8, 2026

Italians in Milan out in the streets protesting reports of ICE Nazis coming there for the Winter Olympics

📹by @Devin_Heroux pic.twitter.com/uo6JULnL5N

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) January 31, 2026

ICE at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics is no longer just "agents on security"

It’s become a global symbol: "a militia that kills" (Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala’s quote), "not welcome" (Lombardy Governor), with protests involving stones, flares, and water cannons right outside the… pic.twitter.com/IAfoSk3QhU

— Niakris (@13_niakris) February 8, 2026

It’s become a global symbol: “a militia that kills” (Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala’s quote), “not welcome” (Lombardy Governor), with protests involving stones, flares, and water cannons right outside the Olympic Village.

In Italy, ICE is seen as the export of the worst of American policy – racism, excessive force, warrantless deportations. The protests started back in January, ramped up before the opening, and now form the backdrop to the entire Games: anti-Americanism + climate + housing + gentrification.

Good.

Imagine that

I just love this. All these right wingers have been fed a bunch of propaganda and they are stunned when they find out that liberals aren’t actually living in Mad Max Thunderdome:

To right-wing influencers and conservative media outlets, San Francisco is a wasteland where the once-glimmering downtown mall is dead, the sidewalks are filled with homeless encampments and drug users are shooting up in the streets. To San Franciscans and civic leaders, however, that caricature has never been accurate. And certainly not after a recent A.I. boom downtown and the redoubling of efforts to improve the quality of life.

San Francisco still has its share of down-and-out areas. And the city has not fully recovered its pre-Covid workweek energy. But local champions have insisted that much of the place remains vibrant, and that a sun-splashed walk along the Embarcadero and a Mission-style burrito can make anyone feel better about the city.

The arrival of the Super Bowl this week in the Bay Area has given San Francisco its biggest opportunity since the pandemic to change hearts and minds. And, in a polarized nation in which many Americans seem incapable of moving off deep-seated beliefs, some visitors said they had been wrong about San Francisco after actually seeing it in person.

“What we thought we were walking into here was, uh, a dump,” Pat McAfee, the ESPN host who caters to a young, male audience, said during the first national broadcast of The Pat McAfee Show from San Francisco. “It’s not at all. It was a beautiful walk this morning.”

On social media, posts about the city’s parks and sandwich shops from journalists covering the Super Bowl have often outpaced commentary about the game itself. A stretch of February sun and 70-degree weather has helped the cause, especially as the rest of the country was recovering from snowstorms.

Among the first-time visitors this week to San Francisco was Brayden Landis, 21, a sports management student at York College in Pennsylvania, who was in the Bay Area as part of a class trip. The city had been an immediate shock to the senses, Mr. Landis said. On his first day in town, he passed out from heat exhaustion. He was struck by the city’s contrasts.

Toward the ocean, the lush expanse of Golden Gate Park greets visitors with scents of eucalyptus and morning dew. Elsewhere in the city, there are alleys where pedestrians have to avoid needles and feces. “To me, the city was known for homelessness, fog and hippies,” he said. “But the stereotypes melted away. You see the city for what it really is, good and bad, pretty quickly. I think it’s my favorite city I’ve ever been to.”

Could it possibly be that the right wing media is lying?

This is what Hess actually said:

Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess:

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. there’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s… pic.twitter.com/4GIprnjsqr

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 7, 2026

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. there’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”

Interesting that Trump knew he wasn’t talking about the “immigrant invasion” or the protesters against ICE, which is how you could interpret that comment if you wanted to. He knows that most people oppose him and hate his policies. It’s obvious.

By the way, here are some other quotes from Donald Trump himself, the most America hating president the country has ever had the misfortune to put into office:

“The sinister forces trying to kill America have done everything they can to stop me, to silence you, and to turn this nation into a socialist dumping ground for criminals, junkies, Marxists, thugs, radicals, and dangerous refugees that no other country wants.”

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country… Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION!”

“The idea of American Greatness, of our country as the leader of the free and unfree world, has vanished … I couldn’t stand to see what was happening to our great country. This mess calls for leadership in the worst way.”

“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.”

“Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in third-world condition.”

“The world is laughing at us!”

That’s just a very small set of examples of the grotesque insults Trump commonly applies to the country he leads. It’s intrinsic to his central message Make America Great Again which clearly says that it isn’t great now.

No one hates America more than Donald Trump.

Update— Oh shut up:

Sen. Tim Scott said that the post of the Obamas as apes is the e most racist thing the White House has done raising the question of what were the other most racist things they’ve done? The Bulwark helpfully compiled a top ten list:

10. Vice President JD Vance saying it’s “totally reasonable and acceptable” for Americans to not want to live next to people who speak a different language or come from “a totally different culture.”

If you’ve ever looked at the deed to homes built before the civil rights revolution you will see that it used to be common for there to be  discriminatory restrictive covenants that created all-white neighborhoods for the delicate Americans who “reasonably” didn’t want to live around people of color. That’s what he was endorsing.

9. Greg Bovino, then-commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, saying his agents choose the people to arrest based partly on “how they look.”

8. Rallying around a DOGE staffer fired for racist posts.

There’s been a pattern in this administration: White man makes racist comments → loses his job → Trump finds out and rehires him. In this case, it was Marko Elez, a then-25-year-old DOGE employee who said in social media posts “you could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” that he would like to “normalize Indian hate,” that he “was racist before it was cool,” and that he “just want[s] a eugenic immigration policy.” Elezesigned after the bigotry came to light in February 2025. But Trump, Vance, and DOGEmeister Elon Musk jumped to Elez’s defense and hired him back.

7. Vance dismissing outrage at a Young Republicans group chat in which participants called black people monkeys and “watermelon people.”

Vance called the outcry “BS” and “pearl clutching.”

6. Trump cutting admissions for refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but making an exception for white Afrikaners from South Africa.

Speaks for itself.

5. Trump nominating Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel.

Follow these steps and see if you can spot the racism:

1. Trump chose Ingrassia, who had been working as a White House staffer, to head a key watchdog agency despite lacking relevant experience.
2. Politico published texts from Ingrassia saying Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak.”
3. Senators spoke out against Ingrassia and said his nomination wouldn’t pass.
4. Trump pulled the nomination—but rather than toss Ingrassia aside, Trump made him the deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration, a job that does not require Senate confirmation. (As of this writing, he has been bumped up to the role of acting general counsel.)

4. Trump sharing a video of Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero while an AI-generated Chuck Schumer talks about illegal immigrants voting.

3. Trump disparaging Ilhan Omar and Somali Americans.

2. Trump blaming Reagan National Airport plane crash on DEI hiring standards.

It’s worth noting that when asked how he could conclude, even before an investigation took place, that DEI hiring practices caused the crash, Trump said: “Because I have common sense.” (Talk about baseless claims.)

1. Trump sharing a video depicting the Obamas as apes.

The post was eventually taken down, but Trump did not apologize, and insists he has no reason to do so: “No,” he told reporters on Air Force One, “I didn’t make a mistake.”

He doesn’t believe he made a mistake. It’s called common sense.

It’s interesting that some of the most racist statements in this term have come from JD Vance rather than Trump. He thinks because he’s married to a woman of Indian background that he can say anything and no one will be able to point out his racism. It’s the old, “some of my best friends are…” dodge but it only makes you feel sorry for the people of color to whom they’re related.

Vance is going to have a rude awakening about this. There is a strong strain of anti-Indian sentiment on the MAGA right as Vivek Ramaswamy is finding out in Ohio. And it will catch up to Vance as well. All the crude bigoted sentiments in the world won’t make up for Usha.

I’m a little bit surprised that none of Stephen Miller’s bleats made the list. But I suppose that since everything he says is racist it would have been impossible to decide.