Monica H

Writer/Reader|#NeverTrumper| Foodie|No DMs| Also @TeaandBooks “Gaston: It's not right for a woman to read–soon she starts getting ideas. . . and thinking.”

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) says it is “deeply alarmed” about the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) new rule created to carry out President Donald Trump’s plans for restricting mail-in voting. https://t.co/ZHYGFbkSCC

[60 Minutes @60Minutes]

Sally Field memorized the First Amendment as a child. The Oscar winner says she now understands "it like never before," stressing that "this fragile thing called democracy needs to be protected."

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Megyn Kelly, who endorsed and campaigned for Trump in the 2024 election:

“I didn’t expect the corruption to be quite as widespread as it has been. The self-dealing, the lining of his and his family’s pockets. It’s shocking… You look across the board at the Trump family, I’ve never seen a family get so rich off the presidency.”

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

I first met Clark Reynolds when he was just three years old at our Black History Month reception at the White House.

Over the last ten years, it's been wonderful getting updates about his life through his letters. Check out how he’s doing now:

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Marjorie Taylor Greene:

Donald Trump texted me that if my son gets killed, I deserve it because I was a traitor to him. I’d probably get put in jail if I released the texts. That’s our president. That’s the man who says MAGA is everything he wants it to be.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: HELL YES! Congressman Ted Lieu announces that a future Democratic administration will PROSECUTE the Trump family members and officials who are raking in money illegally.

The MAGA gravy train is headed straight off a cliff...

"The American people are suffering from a cost-of-living emergency. Inflation is up. Grocery prices are up. Gas prices are up," said Lieu. "The Consumer Sentiment Index hit the lowest ever in its 74-year history. But you know who's doing really well? Trump and his family."

"According to a report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Trump and his family have made over $9 billion in his presidency," the congressman continued. "The corruption in this administration is out of control."

Trump and his children have treated his second presidency as an opportunity to steal everything that isn't literally nailed down. They're lining their pockets through crypto pump and dump schemes and pocketing jaw-dropping sweetheart deals. Just this week, Eric Trump was seen publicly boasting about a robotics company he works for receiving a $24 million Pentagon contract. Money is flowing out of our pockets as taxpayers and straight into the bloated bank accounts of Trump's crime family.

"And we saw again last week that there were suspiciously timed market trades right before Donald Trump made statements relating to the Iran war!" Lieu continued "And this is not the first time it has happened. Media reports have now analyzed this and said that these trades look awfully suspicious. And the only people who would know what Donald Trump is about to say before he says it are people close to Trump."

"So I call on the SEC to do an investigation into all these suspiciously timed market trades. And if they do not, I guarantee you a future administration will prosecute these criminals," Lieu concluded.

The reports of apparent insider trading inside the White House have exploded in recent months. Every time that Trump makes some dramatic geopolitical announcement on Truth Social, there appear to be sizable, suspicious bets placed in the immediate lead-up, accurately predicting his announcement. Only Trump insiders would have that information.

The BBC investigated trade volume data on numerous financial markets, comparing them to some of Trump's "most significant market-moving statements." They discovered a "consistent pattern of spikes just hours, or sometimes minutes, before a social media post or media interview was made public." In other words, Trump is manipulating the markets and exploiting the vast powers of the Oval Office to enrich himself and his cronies. He has turned the White House into a Trump casino — and he's stacking the deck every hand.

Mass prosecutions are the only way out of this institutional crisis. As of right now, with Donald Trump as president, we are no longer a nation of laws. Our government is being run like a mafia racketeering operation and working class Americans are the ones being squeezed. It's not enough to simply vote these criminals out of office. We have to lock them up. Anything less than convictions and imprisonments will give a green light to future Republican administrations to run this exact same playbook.

Please ❤️ and share if you support prosecuting every last one of these crooks!

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Donald Trump thought he could score cheap political points by calling Bill LeRoy an “insult to Jesus” because the veteran catcher and captain of the Savannah Bananas is “beyond woke” and believes that God does not discriminate on the basis of gender.
Standing in front of a roaring, sold-out Banana Ball crowd, LeRoy didn’t just clap back — he delivered a powerful, no-nonsense response that shook the stadium.
“The president of the United States just said that I insulted Jesus,” LeRoy began, gripping the mic with calm intensity. “You want to know what’s a real insult to Jesus? Turning your back on people who need help while giving more to those who already have everything.”
“You know what insults Jesus?” he continued, gesturing toward the crowd. “Separating families, shutting doors on those in need, and forgetting what ‘love thy neighbor’ actually means. That’s not the message I stand for — and it’s not the message this team stands for.”
“You know what insults Jesus? Preaching values while ignoring compassion. Talking about faith while practicing division. That’s not faith — that’s politics dressed up as religion.”
“I’m not a perfect Christian,” he said, a small smile crossing his face. “There’s only been one perfect man, and I’m not him. I’m just a catcher who believes in treating people right.”
“Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves… So why do we keep choosing hate, division, and fear instead?”

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Fox News just admitted that under Donald Trump's leadership, a pound of beef is now more expensive than the minimum wage. This is insane.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Trump is completely trapped. The BBC confirms Iran is successfully destroying US spy planes and air defenses. They are absolutely refusing to bow. Now Trump either has to launch a suicidal ground invasion or walk away utterly humiliated.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Trump White House staffer gets EXPOSED as the man secretly operating a shockingly racist MAGA account with nearly 300,000 followers.

The line between “official government messaging” and “anonymous MAGA influencer” just evaporated.

According to WIRED, a massive pro-Trump X account called “Johnny MAGA” — with nearly 300,000 followers — appears to be operated by Garrett Wade, a White House rapid response manager working inside the Trump administration.

Let that sink in.

The same person allegedly helping run official White House messaging may have been secretly running a viral “grassroots” MAGA account amplifying that exact messaging — without disclosing any government role.

Johnny MAGA regularly boosted Trump’s Truth Social posts, attacked Democrats, pushed administration narratives, and even praised a racist AI-generated video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, calling it “a masterpiece.”

After an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the administration flooded social media with clips of burning flags to shift focus away from the killing. Johnny MAGA echoed that spin, posting White House rapid-response footage and casting doubt on whether the victim was “an innocent civilian.”

To followers, it looked organic. Just another outraged Trump supporter.

But public records reviewed by WIRED link the account to Wade — including a phone number and other identifying details. A source close to the White House reportedly confirmed the connection. Neither Wade nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

Disinformation experts are alarmed.

“People have a right to know who is trying to manipulate public opinion,” said Samuel Woolley, a professor who studies digital propaganda. “This lack of transparency… amounts to a breach of public trust.”

This isn’t just influencer politics. It’s potential astroturfing from inside the executive branch — where a taxpayer-funded official may have been secretly shaping “independent” online outrage to support administration priorities.

There are disclosure rules for commercial influencers. But for political messaging? Almost nothing.

So if a White House staffer can moonlight as a viral MAGA firebrand while boosting his own employer’s talking points, who exactly is the public arguing with online — a citizen or the government itself?

That’s not just politics. That’s propaganda with a badge.

Please like and share to spread the news!

[Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree]

This is impeachable

[Seth Abramson @SethAbramson]

This is a crime. If you read the Board of Peace charter, you understand it has nothing to do with the American government; it's a private entity Trump created for his own enrichment. This is an impeachable offense, and if this country were not broken he would be gone by tomorrow.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

BREAKING: In an extraordinary and illegal move, Trump says he’s transferring $10 billion from the U.S. government to his “Board of Peace,” which he chairs and can use the funds as he wishes.

Where is Congress???

[Afshine Emrani MD FACC @afshineemrani]

I have spent twenty years as a cardiologist. I have held dying patients’ hands at 3 a.m. I have delivered news that shattered families. Through all of it, I have clung to one simple belief: doctors exist to protect people, especially the vulnerable.

Then I read the Jeffrey Epstein files. And I felt something I rarely feel in my profession: SHAME.

The documents reveal that Dr. Peter Attia—a physician, longevity expert, bestselling author, and host of one of the most popular health podcasts in America—maintained a close friendship with Epstein for years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution. The emails between them are jarring. Crude jokes. Plans to meet. A relationship so important to Attia that, according to the files, he once prioritized a New York meeting with Epstein over returning to his infant son’s bedside in the ICU.

His wife had begged him to come home. He chose Epstein.

Let me be clear about what we already knew in 2008. Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to crimes involving a child. He was a registered sex offender. This was not a rumor. It was not gossip. It was a matter of public record.

And yet, from 2014 to 2019, Attia maintained this friendship. He joked in emails about having “JE withdrawal.” He expressed concern about Epstein’s “legal troubles”—not about the victims, the girls, the children whose lives Epstein destroyed.

In his public statement this February, Attia framed his choices as naivety. He claims he saw Epstein’s crimes as “prostitution-related” until a 2018 Miami Herald exposé revealed the full horror. He calls his emails “juvenile.” He says he has grown.

Maybe he has. People can change.

But here is what troubles me as a physician: Where was the instinct to protect?

Every doctor in America is trained as a mandatory reporter. The American Medical Association’s code of ethics is explicit: if we have “reasonable cause to suspect” child abuse, we must report it. We do not need proof. We need suspicion. The law exists because doctors have access to information and influence that ordinary citizens do not. We are positioned to notice what others miss. We are trusted to act.

Now, mandatory reporting typically applies to clinical settings—a child who shows up in your office with suspicious bruises, a patient who discloses abuse. Attia was not Epstein’s physician. He was his friend.

But ethics do not stop at the clinic door.

When a physician knows someone is a convicted child sex offender and chooses to maintain that friendship—to joke around, to share meals, to prioritize that relationship over his own family—what message does that send? What does it say about our profession’s values?

Some have called for Attia’s medical license to be revoked. I understand the impulse. But I think the problem is bigger than one doctor.

Jeffrey Epstein did not just befriend physicians. He bought access to science itself.

Between 1998 and 2008, Epstein donated over $9 million to Harvard University. He funded a program in evolutionary dynamics. He gained an office on campus. He became a “visiting fellow” in the psychology department—despite having no academic credentials whatsoever.

After his 2008 conviction, Harvard officially stopped accepting his money. But the relationships continued. Former university president Lawrence Summers kept meeting with him, reportedly soliciting advice and indirect donations. Faculty members attended Epstein’s now-infamous dinner parties, gatherings that were notably all-male, where conversations veered into pseudoscientific musings about eugenics and “improving” the human race.

Epstein understood something that the rest of us are only beginning to reckon with: money opens doors that should stay closed.

He used his wealth to position himself as a “patron of science.” He cultivated relationships with Stephen Hawking, with geneticists, with AI researchers. He hosted conferences. He funded research. And in return, he got something priceless: legitimacy.

When a predator can sit at dinner with Nobel laureates, when he can stroll across Harvard Yard with an office key in his pocket, when leading physicians call him a friend—he becomes harder to see as a monster. The credentials of the people around him become his camouflage.

This is how institutions fail.

It is not dramatic. It is not a single corrupt decision. It is a thousand small compromises. It is a grant application that needs funding. It is a dinner invitation that seems harmless. It is the thought: He already served his time. Who am I to judge?

It is, as geneticist George Church put it, “nerd tunnel vision”—the tendency to focus so intensely on research that ethical questions blur into background noise.

But there is another name for this: complicity.

When MIT’s Media Lab was revealed to have accepted hidden donations from Epstein, the director resigned. The institution launched investigations. There was accountability, however belated.

In medicine, we have been slower to reckon.

Attia is not an outlier. He is a symptom. He represents a growing class of “influencer doctors” whose brands depend on access, on elite networks, on proximity to wealth and power. His practice reportedly charges clients $150,000 a year. His podcast reaches millions. His bestselling book promises to help readers live longer.

None of this is inherently wrong. But when the model rewards networking over service, when career advancement depends on who you know rather than who you heal, the profession drifts from its purpose.

And when the people you know include convicted child sex offenders, the drift becomes a fall.

Public trust in medicine is fragile. We have spent years watching it erode—through pandemic misinformation, through pharmaceutical scandals, through a healthcare system that often seems to value profit over patients.

We cannot afford to give people more reasons to doubt us.

The Epstein files are a gift, in a way. They are a mirror. They force us to ask uncomfortable questions: What are we willing to overlook for funding? For access? For prestige? Where do we draw the line between professional ambition and moral compromise?

And they demand that we answer.

Here is what I believe we must do.

First, we need stronger ethical guidelines. The AMA should clarify physicians’ responsibilities when they encounter evidence of abuse outside clinical settings. Mandatory reporting should not be a technicality we hide behind.

Second, institutions must vet their donors. Harvard, MIT, and countless other universities accepted Epstein’s money with minimal scrutiny. After the scandals broke, they scrambled to distance themselves. This is backwards. Transparency should come first, not last. Anonymous donations to research institutions should be banned. Donor backgrounds should be reviewed before checks are cashed.

Third, we need to diversify how science is funded. When researchers depend on wealthy individuals for grants, they become vulnerable to manipulation. Public funding, foundation support, and transparent giving structures can reduce this dependency.

Fourth, and most importantly, physicians must hold ourselves accountable. We cannot wait for institutions to act. Each of us must decide what we stand for.

I am not calling for perfection. We are all flawed. We all make mistakes. But there is a difference between a mistake and a pattern. There is a difference between ignorance and willful blindness.

When a man is convicted of crimes against children, you do not joke around with him. You do not make him a priority. You do not choose him over your own family.

You walk away.

I became a cardiologist because I wanted to heal. I wanted to be there for people in their most frightening moments. I wanted to live by the oath I took: first, do no harm.

That oath means nothing if we harm by association. If we give cover to predators. If we let ambition eclipse integrity.

Peter Attia may have changed. I hope he has. But the profession’s reckoning cannot depend on one man’s growth.

It depends on all of us.

It depends on choosing patients over prestige, service over access, and conscience over convenience.

It depends on remembering why we became doctors in the first place.

[Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan]

This is sworn testimony, folks

[Joe @electionsjoe]

Jesus Christ. This violates international law

[Ford News @FordJohnathan5]

🚨 #BREAKINGNEWS Department of Corrections for State of Minnesota released a statement calling Bovino's claims about the target in the operation which led to the killing of Alex Pretti made up. Jose Huerta-Chuma only had traffic tickets and was never under their supervision. Chief Gregory Bovino lied. 🚨

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

BREAKING: A witness who was just 5 feet from Alex Pretti filed an affidavit depicting what she saw.

She says he didn’t touch any of the officers and didn’t appear to be resisting. He was merely helping a woman who had been pepper-sprayed.

She’s is terrified that ICE is looking for her, saying they are lying and she doesn’t know what they will do to her if they find her.

[Soledad O'Brien @soledadobrien]

THE DEVIL IS BUSY documents what happens when healthcare becomes geography.

[CONSEQUENCE @consequence]

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner's closest friends have released a joint statement to The Associated Press, paying tribute to the couple.

It is signed by Billy and Janice Crystal, Albert and Kimberly Brooks, Martin Short, Alan and Robin Zweibel, Larry David and Ashley Underwood, Marc Shaiman and Lou Mirabal, Barry and Diana Levinson, and AmbassadorJames Costos and Michael Smith.

"Going to the movies in a dark theater filled with strangers having a common experience, laughing, crying, screaming in fear, or watching an intense drama unfold is still an unforgettable thrill. Tell us a story audiences demand of us. Absorbing all he had learned from his father Carl and his mentor Norman Lear, Rob Reiner not only was a great comic actor, he became a master story teller. There is no other director who has his range. From comedy to drama to 'mockumentary' to documentary he was always at the top of his game. He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films.

"His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant. For the actors, he loved them. For the writers he made them better. His greatest gift was freedom. If you had an idea, he listened, he brought you into the process. They always felt they were working as a team. To be in his hands as a film maker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy.

Rob was also a passionate, brave citizen, who not only cared for this country he loved, he did everything he could to make it better and with his loving wife Michele, he had the perfect partner. Strong and determined, Michele and Rob Reiner devoted a great deal of their lives for the betterment of our fellow citizens... They were a special force together-dynamic, unselfish and inspiring. We were their friends, and we will miss them forever.

"There is a line from one of Rob’s favorite films, 'It's a Wonderful Life,' 'Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?' You have no idea."

📸: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images