Trump, on Wednesday: "Really, I think it's enough."

Today, several of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein (and Ghislaine Maxwell) spoke, movingly, in front of the U.S. Capitol.  They addressed the traumas inflicted upon them, years ago, and urged the House of Representatives to support the release of the Department of Justice's files concerning the Epstein case.

Yet, as The New York Times noted:

Even as Mr. Epstein’s accusers spoke at the Capitol, some of them growing emotional as they recounted their experiences, Mr. Trump at the White House dismissed the effort to get more files released as a “Democrat hoax that never ends.” 

President Trump has used the word "hoax" regularly, when talking about the Epstein case.  

He said on Wednesday that "thousands of pages" from the files have been released.

Some 33,000 documents were released by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday--a fraction of the files held by the U.S. Justice Department. 

Reuters reported today: "The files released on Tuesday largely included court documents and other previously released information."

A story in today's Washington Post said the following:

Trump has spent weeks expressing exasperation about the bipartisan uproar over the Epstein case, suggesting some members of his party are being used by Democrats for political advantage.

“They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

“I know that no matter what you do, it’s going to keep going,” Trump later added. “Really, I think it’s enough."

In early July, of course, the Trump Justice Department announced that there was, in fact, no Epstein "client list," that Epstein had committed suicide (contradicting theories he had been murdered), and that "no further disclosure [about the Epstein case] would be appropriate or warranted."

There was immediate anger from many of Trump's prominent right-wing supporters. 

Trump sought to deflect blame from himself, and his administration.  He blamed Democrats.   He called supporters who demanded more information about the Epstein case "stupid" and "foolish."

In a July 16th post on his Truth Social platform, he called such supporters "weaklings," who had "bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker." He said: "I don't want their support anymore!"

In a lengthy July 12th Truth Social post, Trump ranted about the Epstein issue, and referred to his "PERFECT administration."

What’s going on with my “boys” and, in some cases, “gals?” They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and “selfish people” are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 “Intelligence” Agents, “THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,” and more? They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called “friends” are playing right into their hands.

He also wrote (referring--twice--to the "Rigged and Stolen" 2020 election): 

The Left is imploding! Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT! The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 — That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.

Over the past many weeks, Trump has been asked often, by reporters, about the Epstein case; he has also, as noted above, written about the issue on social media. His comments have, routinely, been defensive, dismissive, and bitter. During this time, to my knowledge, he has never expressed any kind of sympathy toward the victims of Epstein and Maxwell.

A brief poem

The poem is by Yamabe No Akahito, and appears in the book One Hundred Poems from the Japanese, translated by the American poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982).  The book was originally published in 1955 by New Directions.

In the book's notes, Mr. Rexroth writes that Akahito "lived during the reign of the Emperor Shōmu," which extended from the years 734 to 748.  Akahito, he writes, is believed to have died in the year 736.

There is a reference in the poem to "Asuka," which, Mr. Rexroth explains, "was a former Imperial Palace site."

To view the poem more easily, please click on the image below.

 

(Images from the paperback edition of One Hundred Poems from the Japanese, 27th edition, © New Directions Publishing Corporation. Paperback edition first published in 1964.)

From Barton Gellman, writing in The New York Times

His essay is titled:  "Trump’s Stunning Power Grab on Elections."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/opinion/trump-voting-mail-in-ballots.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g08.PjDi.Y7gDJtd3anhG&smid=url-share

Henny Youngman...and Donald Trump

 A joke, decades ago, from comedian Henny Youngman, went like this:

"I have a very fine doctor.  If you can't afford the operation, he touches up the X-Rays."

I've always loved this joke.

Now, though, one turns to Donald Trump.

What does President Trump do, when he is faced with facts he doesn't like, facts that he believes make him look bad?

He tries to touch up the X-Rays. 

On Friday, he fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after the Bureau released less-than-optimal jobs numbers for July--and also released downwardly revised jobs figures for May and June.

Trump wrote, on social media, "In my opinion, today's Jobs numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."

(In the 1970s, journalist Tom Wolfe wrote of the "Me Decade."  We now have the "ME presidency.")

New York Times chief economics correspondent Ben Casselman wrote this, on Sunday, of the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner:

It was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States. And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well.

Here, too, is an important, sobering column by Thomas R. Friedman, of The New York Times. It was published this week, in the wake of the BLS firing, and is titled "The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/opinion/columnists/friedman-trump-labor-firing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cU8.TBHB.a2lklAZyVZc8&smid=url-share

The terror and tragedy, yesterday, in Manhattan

Profiles from The New York Times, of those murdered Monday evening in the office building at 345 Park Avenue.

1.  New York City police officer Didarul Islam, 36 years old.  He was working, in his off-hours, to provide security for the building.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/officer-islam-nyc-shooting-family-friends.html?smid=url-share

2.  Wesley LePatner, 43 years old, a senior executive at the Blackstone company.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/blackstone-executive-wesley-lepatner-killed-nyc-shooting.html?smid=url-share

 3.  Aland Etienne, a security officer at the building, 46 years old.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/nyc-shooting-victim-security-guard-aland-etienne.html?smid=url-share.

All three were killed in the building's lobby.

4. Julia Hyman, 27, an associate at the Rudin Management real estate company, the company which managed the building.  She was shot and killed on the building's 33rd floor.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/nyregion/julia-hyman-cornell-nyc-shooting-victim.html?smid=url-share

Another man was also shot, but survived.  The Washington Post has reported the following: 

Craig Clementi, an NFL employee who works in the league’s finance department [at the building], was injured...a person with knowledge of the situation said. His father-in-law, Robert Hunter, told the New York Daily News that Clementi “was on his way home when he got shot.”

He “came through the surgery and there was some spinal damage,” but he is “doing well,” Hunter said. Clementi is expected by doctors to recover from his injuries, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A USA Today report also said this: "The belief is that the bullet may have ricocheted before striking Clementi."

The gunman, it has been reported, killed himself on the building's 33rd floor, after killing Julia Hyman.

July 10, 1950

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the first television broadcast of the musical program Your Hit Parade, on NBC.

The show had aired on radio since 1935, featuring, over the years, many singers (including Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Buddy Clark, Dinah Shore, Bea Wain, and Andy Russell), and various orchestra leaders (such as Al Goodman, Carl Hoff, Axel Stordahl, and Mark Warnow).

During the summer of 1950--as the weekly Hit Parade radio show continued--there were four experimental television broadcasts of the program.  The shows were telecast from New York's International Theatre, at Columbus Circle.

The show's primary singing stars, for the summer shows, were Eileen Wilson and Snooky Lanson.  

The summer broadcasts also featured singer Dorothy Collins--as well as the Hit Paraders (the show's choral group), and the Hit Parade dancers.  Andre Baruch was the program's announcer, and Raymond Scott its orchestra leader.  

Publicity photo of Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins, the primary singing stars of TV's Your Hit Parade from 1950 to 1952.

Ms. Wilson had starred on the Hit Parade radio program since 1948; for part of her time on the show her co-star was Frank Sinatra.  Prior to joining the program, she had been a singer with big bands--including, notably, the Les Brown orchestra.

Mr. Lanson had joined the Hit Parade radio show only weeks before the initial TV broadcast. 

During the 1940s, he had been a vocalist with the Ray Noble orchestra. In 1950, before being hired for the Hit Parade, he had had a hit song, "The Old Master Painter," recorded with the Beasley Smith orchestra. He was also heard regularly on various Nashville-based radio programs, both local and national.  One of the programs, on which he had starred for a number of years, was the music show Sunday Down South. It originated from Nashville station WSM, and was aired by NBC.

Cover of script, first Hit Parade TV broadcast, July 10, 1950

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorothy Collins had also recently joined the radio program, to sing the show's Lucky Strike jingles, which were written by orchestra leader Raymond Scott.  Mr. Scott had become the radio show's bandleader in 1949, after the death of his brother, Mark Warnow, who had led the orchestra for years.  Previously, Ms. Collins had for several years been a vocalist with Mr. Scott's orchestra--on the radio, on records, and in public appearances.   

In October of 1950--in that the summer experimental shows were a success--the Hit Parade TV program began airing weekly; the radio show continued as well.  Both shows aired on Saturday nights from New York's Center Theatre, at Rockefeller Center.

For the summer TV broadcasts, Ms. Collins had had dual roles: she sang the show's commercial jingles, and also appeared in song productions on the program.

Her dual roles continued, with the start of the weekly telecasts. Yet while the TV program, as noted above, originally featured two main singing stars--Ms. Wilson and Mr. Lanson--Ms. Collins would soon become a co-equal star.  Before long, she would become one of television's most popular performers.

In the image, above, of the cover page for the script of the TV show's debut summer broadcast, one can see the logo "BBDO Television."  BBD&O was the advertising agency which oversaw the production of the Hit Parade radio and TV broadcasts--as well as overseeing many other television and radio programs of the period.

(Please note: some edits were made to this post on July 13th.)