It was another week of drinking from the news fire hose. Stories I was unable to get to include more political targets from the Attorney General, news that Epstein had numerous dinners with a Florida prosecutor who helped him score a sweetheart deal the first time he was arrested, a clash between intelligence agencies on the Charlie Kirk investigation, and more.
Mass Layoffs
In economic news, UPS cut a whopping 48,000 jobs. Amazon has cut 14,000 jobs and is not finished. The company says it is planning to cut up to 30,000. Intel has announced it will cut 24,000 jobs this year. Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, is cutting 16,000 jobs. Ford and Accenture have laid off 11,000 workers each.
Pesecute thy enemies
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced an investigation into another high-profile Democrat: Nancy Pelosi. Congresswoman Pelosi suggested that those who break the law should be held accountable, even if they are federal agents. "If you are telling people to arrest our ICE officers, our federal agents, you cannot do that, you are impeding an investigation, and we will charge them," Bondi told Fox News. "You’ve got Pelosi out there saying to obstruct their investigation. You can’t do it, and we’re going to investigate her now."
Epstein had meetings/dinners with the Florida prosecutor who spearheaded sweetheart deal
Among the most interesting details in more than 8,500 pages of records recently released by the Jeffrey Epstein estate was that the financier had multiple appointments, phone calls, and dinners with Matthew Menchel, the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office chief criminal prosecutor who spearheaded the pedophile and sex trafficker’s sweetheart deal in 2007. Menchel, who left the DOJ in 2007, had multiple meetings and dinners with Epstein in 2011, 2013, and 2017. Members of the House Oversight Committee also referenced a photograph of Menchel on a ski trip with Epstein sometime in the 2000s. Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who broke the Epstein story, reports.
Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard clash over Kirk investigation
The Director of National Intelligence and the FBI Director are at odds over the investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The New York Times reports that Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent, a close adviser to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, had examined FBI files to investigate whether alleged assassin Tyler Robinson had support from a foreign power or another entity.
Patel accused Kent of overstepping his authority and interfering with the ongoing investigation and potential prosecution of Robinson. Patel reportedly shut down the probe, claiming the FBI had jurisdiction over the criminal investigation. The incident culminated in a tense White House meeting that included Patel, Kent, Gabbard, Vice President JD Vance, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiless, with little progress reportedly made. A non-paywall summary is available at The Daily Mail.
Man locked up for posting Trump/Kirk meme released after spending more than a month in jail
Charges have finally been dropped against Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old Tennessee man who has spent more than a month in jail after posting a meme featuring Donald Trump in a group setup as a memorial for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Bushart posted a meme quoting President Donald Trump when he responded to a 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa, saying, "We have to get over it," captioning it, "This seems relevant today."
Wasting Away, Part 2
In part two of its excellent series on Florida's environmental degradation, Wasting Away, the Tampa Bay Times does a deep dive into how special interests in Florida have lobbied their way to impunity over the decades and how the state has suffered as a result.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.
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David Daniels
I would add to this list of mostly underreported news stories the October 17 report in the Washington Post that confirms that ICE and our government has reversed years of federal policy and is now using the most advanced tools of privacy invasion on US citizens. These tools include mobile (phone app) facial recognition software and Pegasus-type phone surveillance. Pegasus is an intrusion that can be installed on a person's phone without any acceptance by the phone owner. A phone owner has no idea that pegasus is installed. Pegasus can then control the microphone to listen to conversations. Pegasus can see everything on the phone. Pegasus has been used by authoritarian regimes on journalists. The Washington Post journalist that was dismembered by the Saudi government had pegasus installed on his phone and his girlfriend's phone. Look up Pegasus and you will see horror stories of invasions of privacy. Also, recent video of ICE show that the agents are pointing their phones at individuals faces to capture face recognition. Tied together with Elon Musk's DOGE teams that were given access to every American's private data and it is not hard to imagine that ICE and Homeland Security have identification data on all of us. Each of us that might protest could be labelled Antifa and have our "files" flagged. Mostly, I am afraid for people that Trump might declare as an enemy and allow Pegasus to be installed on their phone. These include politicians and especially journalists. I urge MAGA to take a few minutes and google the poem titled "First they came," written by German pastor Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Friday, October 31 Report this