New bombshell from my investigators on Epstein's sex trafficking operation: the Trump administration has an Epstein file detailing 4,725 wire transfers and almost $1.1 billion flowing through just one of his banks. Hundreds of millions more through others.
— Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) July 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
When it was announced yesterday that Trump is suffering from chronic venous insufficiency, I can’t have been the only cynic to remember that Nixon received a get-out-of-jail-free pardon from his hapless stand-in Gerry Ford after being diagnosed with phlebitis. You wouldn’t risk putting a sick old man in jail, would you?
Thing is, Trump is not at all sensitive about being called a rapist — he doesn’t want to pay for his crimes against women, but neither he nor his loyal followers consider his behavior anything but the evidence of his masculinity. On the other hand, he’s very paranoid about any investigation of his finances. So there’s an Occam’s Razor argument that his resistance to ‘releasing the Epstein files’ is less about sex than it is about his long-term running buddy’s entanglement with developer Trump’s ever-precarious financial shenanigans… and Sen. Wyden just might be the man to hunt down those ties.
Per the NYTimes, “In Epstein Case, Follow the Money, Democratic Senator Says” [gift link]:
… Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has been digging into Mr. Epstein’s financial network for the past three years. Some members of his staff have viewed confidential files that shed light on the immense sums of money that, they say, Mr. Epstein moved through the banking system to fuel his vast sex-trafficking network.
In particular, filings by four big banks flagged more than $1.5 billion in transactions — including thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Mr. Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women, the senator’s office found. The filings came after Mr. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Large money transfers to individuals, foreign countries or obscure companies are the kind of things banks are supposed to be examining as potentially suspicious. Some of the Epstein money transfers disclosed in a report from JPMorgan Chase involved accounts at two Russian banks before those institutions were subject to U.S. sanctions. A few transactions red-flagged were for as much as $100 million.
Mr. Wyden said his investigation into Mr. Epstein’s finances had taken on new urgency now that the Trump administration was balking at releasing any of the information seized by the F.B.I. from Mr. Epstein’s homes or information collected from the nation’s banks. Like many Republicans on the far right, Mr. Wyden and a growing number of Democrats believe there are more details about Mr. Epstein that the federal government needs to reveal.
“We felt from the beginning this was a follow-the-money case,” Mr. Wyden said in an interview. “This horrific sex-trafficking operation cost Epstein a lot of money, and he had to get that money from somewhere.”…
Even before the Justice Department announced last week that it was closing the door on the Epstein investigation, Mr. Wyden had been pressing Attorney General Pam Bondi to turn over bank reports along with other information about wealthy individuals and financial institutions in Mr. Epstein’s network…
The banks that filed reports reviewed by Mr. Wyden’s team — JPMorgan, Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon — all declined to comment except for Deutsche Bank, which said it “regrets our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The confidential bank reports filed with a Treasury Department agency could be crucial, because they provide the most comprehensive look at the enormous financing machine behind Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation in Manhattan, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To date, only bits and pieces of the financial transactions involving Mr. Epstein’s network have come out through civil litigation and news reports.
“In this era of misinformation, these reports are the coin of the realm,” Mr. Wyden said of the confidential bank reports…
The single largest suspicious activity report reviewed by the congressional team was filed in late 2019 by JPMorgan for $1.1 billion. The report covered 4,700 transactions dating to 2003, including payments to women from Belarus, Russia and Turkmenistan. Many of Mr. Epstein’s victims included young women from Eastern European countries.
The next largest was by Deutsche Bank for about $400 million, followed by Bank of New York Mellon for $378 million and then Bank of America, which filed reports on Mr. Black’s payments to Mr. Epstein.
In 2023, JPMorgan paid $290 million to Mr. Epstein’s victims and Deutsche paid $75 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the banks ignored red flags about potential sex trafficking…
The Trump administration claims it doesn't have enough evidence to investigate. If you ask me, that’s 4,725 lines of investigation right there. And that should only be the start of it.
— Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) July 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
===
Epstein had to pay for all his sex trafficking somehow. Further evidence shows he used Russian banks to process hundreds of millions in payments. Again, this is info in the possession of the Trump administration, but they’re refusing to investigate.
— Senator Ron Wyden (@wyden.senate.gov) July 17, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Four Directions Native Vote Raffle Tickets on Sale Until Saturday at 7 pm
bbleh
“Follow the money …”
Princess
Reposting from below:
I guess my question is: how much of Epstein’s real business was simple blackmail and compromat of powerful people? I get the impression the girls were the tool rather than the object. And if so, isn’t it interesting that Trump’s two best friends, Epstein and Putin, were in the same line of work.
Also too, I lowkey love that BJ has become an all Trump Epstein all the time blog. It’s our kind of story, and a nice thing to unite around after all the hurt and drama of the election.
Suzanne
@Princess:
Pets, food, gardening, birdwatching, and schadenfreude.
My favorite things.
trollhattan
Think I know where this will end up, but at least they’re doing something.
rikyrah
Bill Madden (@maddenifico) posted at 9:52 AM on Thu, Jul 17, 2025:
The reason Trump is desperate to get the morally bankrupt Emil Bove a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is because it’ll pave the way for Trump to nominate Bove for the US Supreme Court, where he’ll protect the pedophile at all costs. t.co/4KZP0lXYTl
(https://x.com/maddenifico/status/1945859053168566345?t=Cqt5lslqJl-IwuBGTIUOPQ&s=03)
Van Buren
If there’s all these smoking guns lying around then WTF was the DOJ doing when Biden was President?
Something’s not right.
rikyrah
Aallyah Wright
@aallyahpatrice
The USDA says it has “sufficiently” addressed its history of discrimination. As a result, it is dropping the label “socially disadvantaged,” which includes Black farmers, and will no longer consider race or sex in its decision making on programs.
NEW:
x.com/aallyahpatrice/status/1945872885140115928
SuzieC
Much of Epstein’s financing came from Les Wexner.
Snarki, child of Loki
ICE isn’t going to follow any “state law” on masking.
Make shooting dead masked, ID-concealed, un-uniformed ICE impersonators legal.
Then apply it to ICE that behave that way also, too.
XeckyGilchrist
I wonder why the admin is pushing crypto so hard
Enhanced Voting Techniques
They did that because they had to explain this.
Princess
@Suzanne: exactly.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
From what I read Epstien has had an oddly charmed life since Bill Barr’s father hired him as teacher just out of collage.
danielx
@Van Buren:
Yeah, Merrick Garland wasn’t right.
danielx
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The general appearance or the short fingers?
Baud
Eolirin
I do worry that, given the short attention span of the country that this won’t help us in the midterms which are a lifetime away, and will only lead to acceleration on the part of the Trump administration toward full fascism, to the point that elections won’t even matter anymore.
It would be much better to have a story like this blowing up when it was more likely to have an effect, or at least when there was some mechanism to constrain retribution for it.
Viral outrage tends to be very short lived. I don’t see Trump resigning or being impeached or having the 25th amendment used against him. There’s no where for that outrage to go, and it’ll burn itself out.
JoyceH
When I heard the notoriously secretive WH issue a statement on Trump’s health, it didn’t remind me of Nixon – it reminded me of the Kremlin, that used to announce that “the Secretary General has a cold” a week before they announced that the leader was dead.
Gangis Khan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Teacher at a girls’ school, iirc
Miss Bianca
@Van Buren: Somehow I knew this would come back to being Biden’s fault.
Doc Sardonic
@Suzanne: Thanks for the ear worm //
Mai Naem mobile
@ XeckyGilchristthat’s the big background follow the money story. They passed the stablecoin bill while the media is obsessed with Epstein. Not at all downplaying Epstein isn’ bbut the crypto bill is going to end up being another huge smash and grab via a bailout down the road.
Nettoyeur
@Van Buren: My guess is that gentleman Garland didn’t want to seem to be political. Norms and all. Forgot the Watergate lesson.
prostratedragon
@Gangis Khan: Boys too; Dalton. Seems to have been bright, but left college and got the Dalton job without a degree. It went as one might expect:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@danielx: the water melons he calls his ankles. It’s been noted he struggles when he walks the last year.
Baud
We’re going to need a bigger tariff.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Princess: I too prefer it when we save our fire for the MAGA who deserve it.
Bupalos
@Princess: I think it should be all-Epstein-all-the-time now. It’s the dam finally breaking on Trump, breaking over the same pressure that built MAGA in the first place, and represents the end of a political era. I’m not sure how acute versus chronic the shift will be, and I’m actually a little worried that it’s happening faster than Dems are prepared for. But I think most folks are sleeping on the tectonic significance here.
stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, the sheeted dead squeak and gibber in the streets…
prostratedragon
@Nettoyeur: The DOJ investigation began with money. Many might recall the small matter of an insurrection just before Garland was nominated. That was the framing for their efforts. I think they knew they were in a race, and decided to pursue evidence in the areas they could tussle out of those who had it, to try to get something done in four years. ‘Cuz this thing here would be the work of a lifetime.
Trivia Man
Has anyone asked Gabriela Sabatini if she was the mystery underage woman at trump’s casino? I think this is a new story, but it seems notable because it demonstrates a close tie between trump/ epstein/ underage/ law breaking back to the 80’s.
An attractive #3 ranked tennis star under 21 in the late 80’s is a very small number of candidates.
Mai Naem mobile
I know the ’08 case was federal but not only was Dubbya Bush POTUS but Jeb was Fl governor till end of ’07. I don’t know much about Florida gubernatorial powers but DeSantis sure seems to have used gubernatorial powers getting rid of local prosecutors.
Bupalos
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I do NOT want to see the collage that Jeffrey Epstein stepped out of.
trollhattan
@Eolirin:
Imagine attending the opera and each member of the very large chorus is singing the score from a different opera. That’s what Trump 2.0 is like and presuming there are midterms, impossible to predict 1.5 years out which crimes will be in the public’s head. I’ll call it Die Felonmaus.
Baud
debit
@Eolirin: I think there’s going to be plenty of outrage to around. Rural hospitals are already closing, nursing homes will follow. Prices are on the rise, especially groceries. People do have short term memories, but when it’s a daily grind of taking care of meemaw, including the now 3 hour round trip for her doctor appointments and struggling to buy food…. Well, it’s not exciting and won’t make headlines but his base is going to remember at the very least that he promised to lower the cost of groceries.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Did they handpick these guys? Sheesh!
BlueGuitarist
Thanks AL!
You reminded me of
“what were the causes for this pardon?
Well now, they had ‘flea bite us’
Rats bite us—no pardon in the ghetto”
Gil Scott-Heron, “We Beg Your Pardon”
“We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give.
They call it ‘due process’ and some people are overdue.”
…..
”America was ‘shocked’
America leads the world in shocks
Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock”
Deputinize America
@debit:
When Meemaw and her pissy, shitty diaper are taking up space in the living room next to the big screen while moaning about her bedsores, they’re going to miss Medicaid.
Omnes Omnibus
@Van Buren: Are you concerned about the case against Epstein? Because he was convicted and dead before Biden was elected. If you are wondering about any case against Trump, they were pursuing a number of those.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Or as we call Colton, Area Man.
Back to the slammer with you, you sick fuck. (Not you, Baud, just to be clear.)
tobie
Does anyone know how this is playing in MAGA / QAnon world? Were Trump diehards placated by Trump’s request to the DOJ to release the grand jury testimony for Epstein? Yeah, everyone knows this is a small fraction of the evidence the FBI has on file, but QAnoners and MAGAts are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
There’s also this gem circulating now in the media:
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: Epstien’s case shouldn’t have died with him or stopped at Maxwell though. Doing what he did required the involvement of a lot of people. I would like a proper accounting, all of the conspiracy nonsense aside.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
LOL!
tobie
@Eolirin: I didn’t follow the Epstein case closely but I believe the plea deal Alex Acosta negotiated with Epstein granted Epstein and several co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution.
They Call Me Noni
@Eolirin: This. I’ve long said that if J6 didn’t unhinge the movement I don’t know what would. Fast forward to 2024 and it’s like it never happened.
zhena gogolia
@Eolirin: Anything that hurts him or weakens him is good. I don’t care when. And his bad health news is important. They wouldn’t be admitting anything if they didn’t absolutely have to.
sab
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Wow. Those ankles.
Eolirin
@zhena gogolia: I’m more scared of Vance, so I think I just see it differently.
I’m concerned with our coalition beating theirs and everything else is noise to me. If there’s a break with congressional Republicans and they start distancing themselves and stop voting on things like the recission package they just passed, or pushing through people like Bove into lifetime court appointments I’ll celebrate. That’ll be a real and tangible change. And maybe this doesn’t get us there but it helps the next thing to. I’m not saying it’s useless or unimportant, just that until that switch gets flipped and he stops being able to do what he wants, I don’t have the emotional capacity to care, even by way of schadenfreude.
If it’s just public opinion souring, and Trump is visibly upset, and there’s infighting, but everything continues on as usual just the Republicans are ducking questions more, I don’t even care except in how it affects elections and those are still pretty far off.
RandomMonster
Finally we get to throw “cankles” back at them.
H.E.Wolf
@Trivia Man:
I’m of the opinion that it would be both inappropriate, and abusive, to pursue a woman and interrogate her about sexual abuse she has not mentioned, but may have experienced.
tobie
I missed this news the other day. Maybe someone mentioned it hear. A Trump-appointed judge in Texas (Sean D. Jordan) has vacated the Biden admin rule not to have medical debt appear in credit reports:
The ruling applies nationwide. How is this not a nationwide injunction?
prostratedragon
Latdly we’ve recalled how the Soviets, at tight moments, would abandon all attempts at reporting daily news, and instead play recordings of Swan Lake. Well, in the rough patch of DC these days, they seem inadvertently determined to give us the wrong swan.
Emptywheel has the full text of Durbin’s letter to Bondi, and it’s surprisingly venomous. Ew’s own observation:
I might make some anticipatory popcorn tonight.
Geminid
@Trivia Man: Sabatini was underage in the sense that New Jersey regulations prohiblited her from from being allowed on a casino floor. Trump dating her was not a crime in itself and only demonstrates that he liked younger women, and that he cheated on his wife.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia:
Whether or not it’s important…. it’s making me happy!
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon: Sorry, not the whole letter. But enough.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
When Epstein died, he was imprisoned awaiting trial. Unless you’re talking about the slap-on-the-wrist 2008 Florida conviction.
danielx
@tobie:
Because it’s against a Biden administration policy, naturally.
rikyrah
That’s how I see it. Very hard to ignore when you have to move Grandma and Grandpa into your house.
Gretchen
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: He wasn’t just out of college – Epstein never finished college, yet Bill Barr’s dad hired him to teach at a very elite private school whose tuition this year is $67,000. If you were paying that kind of cash for your kid to get a great education would you be happy to have math taught by a college dropout? Donald Barr wrote a science fiction book about oligarchs involved in child sex slavery. Maybe Epstein had already started his side-business?
gene108
@Bupalos:
Yup. Blow up Trump’s massive support network.
Trump is where he is because of a fuck ton of enabling from Republicans.
McConnell refusing to sign off on the Obama administration warning about Russian election interference, in 2016 to every Republican falling in line behind Trump, ever since he became the nominee, to Republican media outlets promoting Trump’s lie about the 2020 election being rigged, we’re being invaded by millions of immigrants every day at the southern border, and to the SCOTUS immunity ruling that blew up the being able to have a trial for the insurrection case well before the election.
There’s a huge propaganda network that willingly promoted Trump’s lies, and convinced millions to suspect reality.
If the Epstein List unravels that support network, I hope it leaves some people open to the idea of “what else did Trump lie to us about?”. My hope is they get discouraged from politics, and stop voting.
prostratedragon
From Josh at TPM: “Politics Reporting in the Gangland Era” (gift link):
The Pale Scot
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
What? The veins look like that of an old dude who’s work with his hands his whole life, Right guys?
Oh…..
I’ll come in again
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Roll out a million Why did Biden take away meemaw’s healthcare? memes.
prostratedragon
@Gretchen: Some wit has noticed that what’s ailing 🤡 is a form of Epstein-Barr syndrome.
H.E.Wolf
@Geminid:
Completely off topic: I’ve just finished reading Ride the River, and enjoyed Echo Sackett’s voice very much. Thanks again for the book recommendation.
My favorite supporting character was a tie between Finian Chantry and Mordecai Sackett, neither of whom I’d want to meet if I were a malefactor.
gene108
@Eolirin:
Republicans would’ve done the rescission package, if any Republican was president. It’s where they are at philosophically as a party.
They also want all the purely partisan hacks they can ram onto the federal bench as possible. Bove seems to be their ideal nominee, because he’ll do what’s good for the party over any precedent.
Bupalos
This is perfect!
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: Fair enough. My point remains the same; he was bereft of life before Biden was elected.
ArchTeryx
@gene108: The real question about Bove is, will he do what’s good for Trump over the Republican Party? With the Epstein files, suddenly the answer to that isn’t so clear cut any more. And that means Republicans in Congress have a choice. So far, they’ve chosen Trump. But if Trump’s supporters split? What then?
Deputinize America
@tobie:
“Whattaya mean, that some random billing from an ancillary provider – that I never heard of – from my emergency appendectomy 3 years ago reported an unpaid $187 charge 4 months ago, and that means that I have to get a 9% mortgage instead of the 4% I was promised?”
– random Florida MAGA homebuyer in 2025 Q4
sab
@Gretchen: Yikes.
Captain C
@trollhattan: FTFNYT: ‘Trump is the one who rolled back medicare and sent grandma home when the nursing homes closed. Why, then, is everyone blaming Biden, including us?’
Baud
Early indications are an unfortunate accident
Bill Arnold
@Van Buren:
Yeah! Mr. Trump and his proxies have been vigorously making that very argument.
gene108
@ArchTeryx:
Trump would have to get to Bush, Jr. 2008 levels of disapproval for them to split with Trump.
So far Trump hasn’t lost his hard floor of 40% to 45% support among voters.
Plus, there isn’t anything Trump’s doing that’s out of line with where the Republican party is right now.
Bupalos
@gene108: There isn’t going to be a celebration point here. I mean, it’s going to be fun to see Trump get it in the neck, but it isn’t going to mean we win. What Trump’s implosion is going to do is open up new possibilities. Democrats need to see what those possibilities are and take advantage of them.
Here is what I think is almost sure to happen: A lot of the energy that Trump had harnessed is going to ebb back into the system, and other politicians are going come along and take advantage of that energy. Which may of course be worse, but may also be better. Reestablishment of the status quo ante, where this energy just lays dormant again, is highly improbable.
Princess
@Trivia Man: it must have been Sabatini because she’s on the record as having “dated” Trump: msn.com/en-us/sports/tennis/us-open-champion-who-dated-donald-trump-looks-unrecognizable-after-retir…
Josie
@Bupalos:
Do you see anyone on the horizon, either party, that you suspect could pick up on that energy?
Chief Oshkosh
It is very interesting to me that in her Atlantic interview, Julie K. Brown’s biggest obsession (I think that that’s what she called it) is finding out who in the Shrub DOJ basically pulled the plug on the Epstein case.
I, too, wonder who that was, what they’re up to now, and who told them to do that?
robtrim
JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $75 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle claims that the bank enabled the sex trafficking acts committed by financier Jeffrey Epstein. This was in 2023. It was hush money paid so that Jamie Dimon would not have to testify in person in the Virgin Islands.
Baud
sab
@sab: Also too: Dalton costs more per year than my second tier elite college, without the boarding costs.
And weak standards on hiring. I know this was years ago, but I used to argue with my mom, that public school teachers (having been vetted) were on the whole as good as the private school faculty that she revered (she went to public schools.) I bounced between public and private as Mom and I duked out that issue.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: I liked how Mordecai asks Echo: “You sparkin’ him?”
Trivia Man
@Geminid: I am not alleging any abuse or illegal acts related to her, or even her voluntary / involuntary participation in anything. To me the relevance is what new information she might share on the Epstein operation. Company names, locations, leads on more witnesses, leads on other participants.
Shalimar
@Trivia Man: It’s a bigger list than you think since women’s tennis in particular at that time was dominated by teenagers.
Steffi Graf turned 21 in 1990. Gabriela Sabatini 1991. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 1992. Jana Novotna 1989. Conchita Martinez 1993. Katerina Maleeva 1990. Manuela Maleeva 1988. Mary Joe Fernandez 1992.
And that is just from looking at top 10 lists for the ’80s and ’90s decades. I am sure going through everyone month by month who was #3 at any point would produce more.
Trivia Man
@Gretchen: and yet bill barr never recused himself from the case. Maybe he forgot his dad’s ties.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Miss Bianca: Yes. Whenever the conversation changes from bashing fellow Dems to bashing the MAGAts, nyms I don’t recognize emerge and change the conversation back to blaming Biden or who ever isn’t in the GOP. It happens every time.
Kathleen
@JoyceH: Random “deep thoughts”:
What I saw in my brain were the words “Unlike Joe Biden, Donald Trump knew when it was time to step down for the good of the country.” (NYT/WaPOOP/Any random online/legacy media platform.)
I thought it was interesting that this reveal was followed closely by the WSJ article, which gave me spidey sense that “they” might be moving Trump out because he’s become a major obstacle to “The Plan” which should be executed with more discretion/finesse and less drama from the Great Unwashed.
The real tell to me is that the E Tu Brute blow was delivered by right wing paper owned by his ally Murdoch and not the fake news liberal WaPoop or NYT, though I always thought aside from RW editorials the WSJ did outstanding job of reporting news. I remember them criticizing Bush for his economic plan at a time his popularity was sky high and everyone was afraid to criticize him.
Geminid
@Trivia Man: I’d be very surprised if Sabatini told a reporter anything but, “No comment.” I wouldn’t if I were in her shoes.
Trivia Man
@Princess: thanks. I saw the casino story without a name and deduced it must be her. I didn’t know she was already on the record.
WTFGhost
Since it’s an open thread, I’ll mention I just seared two steaks in ghee (as God and Gordon Ramsey demand), and now they’re in sous vide, cooking. Why ghee? It won’t burn at 450, the way peanut oil will. Also, basting with ghee helps you even out the sear.
Did I mention that I managed to get my disabled body to make ghee? Oh! I managed to make ghee. Warning: 250 degrees is hot enough to make all the milk solids turn *black*, and not cause the ghee to gently bubble to a stopping point. Also, less than 250 is apparently too cool to go through a coffee filter, so, I have two jars of ghee, both with black bits in the bottom of the jar. I just won’t use that last bit.
And my wife might be home in two weeks.
Also, Trump will suffer while Epstein is in the news. I’m happy about that. I think I’d be okay if he strokes out upon news coming in that Epstein and he loved them some young girls, and there’s actually a list of names. I wonder how long his followers will take to notice one side of his face is droopy and he can’t speak intelligibly… after the stroke, I mean!
Trivia Man
@Shalimar: Princess pointed me to an MSM story last year that notes she “dated” Don publicly in 1989 briefly.
sab
@Geminid: I used to work for an accounting firm in Las Vegas NV. Mormons who detested gambling but wanted to keep it as clean as possible.
New Jersey’s utter lack of enforced of legal standards in any respect regarding gambling always surprises me until I remember it is New Jersey. Don’t their senators end their careers disgraced or indicted?
Having three under aged girls in the casino with the casino owner in Nevada would have put his gaming license in danger, not just fines. Appearance of propriety is important. If you can’t be bothered with that then there is no underlying respect for rules and laws.
ETA That was why I was so sorry to see gambling legalized in Ohio. We just don’t have the will to keep it clean.
Kathleen
@Baud: Yet another arrow in the GOP strategic “Freedom From Childhood” quiver.
rikyrah
Donald Trump Changing 401(k) Plans: What to Know
Published Jul 18, 2025 at 6:50 AM EDT
Updated Jul 18, 2025 at 12:40 PM EDT
President Donald Trump and his administration are finalizing a plan to permit 401(k) retirement savings plans to invest in private assets, according to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing individuals with knowledge of the matter.
This would be accomplished through an executive order that instructs the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission to guide employers on incorporating investments in things such as stocks and bonds currently not traded on public exchanges.
…401(k)s are employer-sponsored personal pension accounts, into which employees make pretax contributions that are then matched by employers. These contributions can then be invested in publicly traded securities, and they primarily go toward stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
Private assets, by comparison, comprise those that are not publicly traded on stock exchanges, including private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds.
These have till now been closed off to retirement savings accounts, given the regulatory and fiduciary hurdles investing in them would come with—such as the limited liquidity and higher fees associated with private-market investment products.
…”Private equity kind of always gets what it wants in Congress, but I think it’s a bad idea,” Jeffrey Hooke, a part-time professor of finance at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told Business Insider. “It’s illiquid, the fees are very high. Private equity funds, for the most part, don’t beat the stock market.”
…………………….
According to a separate report in the Financial Times, Trump is also planning to open up 401(k)s to investments beyond stocks and bonds, including gold and cryptocurrency.
newsweek.com/donald-trump-changing-401-k-what-know-2100628
SCAM SCAM SCAM
Trivia Man
@sab: Mormons in Vegas are an egregious example of why that church has no credibility. Dont know if it is different now, but in the 80’s there was a huge double standard. If you worked at a casino – dealer, coat check, cashier… you could not get a temple recommend. HUGELY big deal for active mormons. Yet several casino executives were prominent and powerful in the LDS church. The particular example i vaguely recall – VP of Sakes (everyone!!! Come gamble more!!!) had some high level church office. A shuttle driver for a casino was denied the recommend because he worked for a casino.
rikyrah
@Kathleen:
Before Murdoch bought it, the WSJ was THE BEST PAPER IN AMERICA FOR BUSINESS NEWS.
Not editorial content.
But, straight up business news.
Those five columns on A1 – told you everything about American business that you needed to know.
Eolirin
@gene108: If they’re concerned enough they feel the need to visibly distance themselves from Trump a handful of them can tank things like these. And they’ll start doing so even if they would otherwise be on board.
sab
@rikyrah: Retirement plans in crypto? That should end well.
My old boss (wise old CPA) used to say that high wage men did well on their retirement planning until they retired and had the time to participate. Fortunately they often died and left their widows to be sensible and save their savings.
sab
@rikyrah: I haven’t read the WSJ since Murdoch bought it. Rumors are that its news is still okay, but I am very skeptical. I used believe the NYT and we know how bad they have been.
Doc Sardonic
@WTFGhost: My method for ghee is to use the oven set to 250° F. Put two sticks of butter in a Dutch Oven and bake in the oven Uncovered for 2.5 to no more than 3 hours, then line a fine mesh strainer with cheese cloth to strain out the bits and bobs and voila ghee with no burned bits.
trollhattan
Glad he cleared that up. Meet the new boss, nazier than the old boss….
Eolirin
@Kathleen: The tariff chaos is a threat to the money men too.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Do you still read it regularly? I have not because I don’t have access to a free copy unless I go to the library. Has the reporting suffered from Murdoch’s seward – er stewardship?
trollhattan
@Eolirin:
If Trump manages to get rid of Powell, shit will really blow up.
Baud
I guess Trump filed his lawsuit against WSJ. We should have a pool on when he drops it.
Kathleen
@Eolirin: Yes it is and I was shocked when he pulled this tariff crap in his first tierm and media barely mentioned it even though I understand small farmers were losing their farms and committing suicide but nothing in the news.
So at least news is “reporting” the effects on prices so “baby steps”?
Central Planning
@Omnes Omnibus:
He is an ex-MAGAt!
(ok, maybe not)
jonas
@Bupalos: Eh, I stopped betting on “This is the scandal that will definitely end Trump!” a long time ago. Would love to see it, of course, but not putting the champagne on ice just yet.
Baud
H.E.Wolf
I liked everything about Mordecai!
And as someone who has always wanted a sword cane, I got a kick out of Finian.
H.E.Wolf
@H.E.Wolf:
And yes, you’re right – that’s a great line.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: How do we know these “impersonators” weren’t actually working for ICE until it became convenient to disavow them?
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Wouldn’t the people caught attempt to raise that as a defense?
tobie
@rikyrah: Please, no. I don’t know what I’ll do if my 401K is squandered in private equity and crypto. I’ll have to work till I drop dead. This was not what I saved my whole life for.
Also…would the save the children folks denounce crypto which launders money for drug and human traffickers. I hate the hypocrisy of Republicans so damn much.
Eolirin
@tobie: Hopefully the 401k you have lets you manage whether it’s put into vehicles like that or not. Usually you have some degree of control over some aspects of its investment. But it varies a lot in how it can be set up I think.
cain
That’s my senator right there. Both him and Jeff Merkeley are amazing and I’m glad that we have someone in our party that is using his seniority to do something.
Betty
I would just like to point out that as an American living overseas, I have to explain to my credit union how I intend to use the $5,000 I want to wire to my local account so I can get my roof fixed. Meanwhile the crooks are sending millions that sometimes might get looked at years later or maybe not. These money laundering rules are a joke.
cain
@trollhattan:
Oh yeah, but if it does – he’ll blame Powell. It’s so easy to know what his game plan is.
I can put all his shit into chatgpt and figure out the game plan.
Based on this prompt in chatgpt:
“If Trump manages to dislodge Powell as fed chair and the economy goes into a tailspin – given the information you’ve been trained on regarding the Trump administration, what based on statistics and probability is the most likely scenario you would envision on what the Trump response will be?”
Here is the highest probability response:
**1. Blame-Shifting and Externalization of Responsibility
Probability: Extremely High
Trump has a well-documented pattern of avoiding personal accountability and redirecting blame when faced with negative outcomes. If the economy faltered:
bwahaha – also hello from Porto Portugal!
WTFGhost
@Doc Sardonic: I’m ghleeful that my temperature guess of 250 degrees (F) was a good one. Cheese cloth – dagnabbit, I have boatloads of cheesecloth, and I just plain forgot! I might give your method a try.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, no. ‘E’s resting. Or pining for the fjords.
sab
People who are newly rich:
Do not buy a big cemetary plot, unless you want your family fighting for the next four generations.
I expect these rich folks do want that and expect to enjoy watching from the next life.
We opted out and bought our own cemetary plot elsewhere. Then I get named executor and here we are, fighting with cousins we actually quite like, over decisions the cemetary operators made.
My Mom and my Dad are two spaces apart with Dad’s sister and husband in between. Sister died twenty years ago, Mom died twelve years ago. They put Uncle into Dad’s spot and left spot beside Aunt empty until Dad died.
Going to the cemetary you would never even know Mom and Dad knew each other. On the one hand, who cares they are all dead. On the other hand What The Fuck! I am firmly in the What The Fuck side.
Cemetary says it will take a rarely granted court order to get either Mom or Uncle moved. I think I will go for it and ask for cousins or cemetary to pay legal costs.
All hell will break out when siblings come in to town on Dad’s birthday.
I am so tired of these issues.
Lapassionara
@Baud: he filed it in US District Court in South Florida. So, Judge Eileen Cannon. Should be interesting.
cain
@sab: This is why we just burn the body and spread the ashes in a river. We’re just burying bodies and taking up land. In 3 generations, body is going to care about them.
divF
@Doc Sardonic: Great tip!
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been using a similar trick for making dark roux for gumbo, etc. Combine Flour and high-smoke point vegetable oil in equal parts in volume in a cast-iron dutch oven. Place in a 350 degree oven for 2-3 hours, giving it a stir every 20-30 minutes.When it get the color of dark chocolate, you’re done. The traditional approach requires stirring constantly on top of a stove for 2-3 hours.
cain
@cain: Even better, I also suggested that he would double down on immigration policies and deport people even faster. ChatGPT agreed with me. I made a remark this is exactly what happened in ancient rome.
The response was, “yeah, very high probability this will happen”.
WTFGhost
@Betty: Especially after Trump weakened them. This year was going to be the year shell corporation owners had to make themselves known. Trump decided he didn’t want to.
@Kathleen: Trump gave the farmers welfare money to keep them happy. Not every farmer got it – that’s why you could have seen a lot more wild blueberries in the supermarket, in/around Covid-times.
@JoyceH: If he’s retaining a lot of fluid, his heart is straining against the extra weight, so he could be in or near congestive heart failure. That would explain some of his gobbledy-speak, too, because when you have cardiac insufficiency, you get tired, like, anemic tired (because, duh, not enough blood flow is as bad as not enough oxygen in the blood), and slurred speech and stupidity are possible.
So, he could be declining rapidly. But I never pin my hopes on the death of evil people. Too many have lived too long.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@cain: And Joe voter says “Powell who”?
Trump is President. Pottery barn rules apply.
The Pale Scot
If you search WSJ, password and library you will find free access. Works of rother publications also.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@cain: Watch out for confirmation bias in your conversations with Gen AI. Don’t take its judgements at face value. Seriously.
Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)
@JoyceH:When I heard the notoriously secretive WH issue a statement on Trump’s health, it didn’t remind me of Nixon – it reminded me of the Kremlin, that used to announce that “the Secretary General has a cold” a week before they announced that the leader was dead.
And sometimes, a week after he was dead.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Go Wyden! Proud of my senior Senator.
Ramona
@Snarki, child of Loki: I first interpreted this as make it legal to shoot corpses of masked ICE agents…
sab
I just wrote a long outraged comment and wordpress just ate it!,
sab
@cain: My cousin is planning cremationn and scattering on their farm.
Ramona
@Eolirin: Me too! Got this link from somebody in the other thread (might even have been from you ;-)
gregolear.substack.com/p/bloody-mob-sht-an-interview-with
Ramona
@Suzanne: I hope it hurts like hell!
RevRick
@Eolirin: Au contraire! CNN released a poll showing that 72% of Democrats and Democratic leaning voters are enthusiastic about voting in next year’s midterms, whereas only 50% of GOP and GOP leaners are. Those kind of numbers portended a shellacking for Democrats in 2010 and 2014.
Ramona
@Chief Oshkosh: I was so happy to see that Julie K. Brown shares my opinion of what is the most important question.
Nettoyeur
@lowtechcyclist: He died in 2019, BEFORE Biden was elected. Trump was POTUS, and AG Barr visited him shortly before his death. Hmm.
Geminid
@sab: In this case, my understanding is the casino manager was told that if it happened again the gaming authority would take formal action. I don’t know if the casino licence would have been at issue
I suspect New Jersey gaming authorities kept a closer than usual eye on Trump’s casinos. I believe other casinos owners were corporations whose long-term interests lay in running “legit” operations.
Trump was different, and industry and its regulators likely knew that. I think by then Trump was known to be a shady operator, what the British might call a “wide man”
People in the Atlantic City gaming world, including regulators, would have heard a lot about Trump before he ever initiated his casino projects. Their world is/was adjacent to the world of New York City-based organized crime, and it intersected with it to some degree. So did Trump’s, and I wonder what his reputation was in that world. I doubt it was stellar.
And the Atlantic City gaming world intersects with the New York real estate developer world. That was another avenue for information to get around; the kind of information you would not see in newspapers but gets passed around informally, peer to peer and ally to ally.
All this is to say I would not surprised if New Jersey gaming authorities kept an extra sharp eye on Donald Trump and his operations from beginning to end.
apocalipstick
@Eolirin:
The 25th Amendment will never be invoked, but if it is, it is ridiculously easy to circumvent.
apocalipstick
@Gangis Khan:
I believe the Dalton School is co-ed.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: I also liked how Echo Sackett made sure the younger Chantry didn’t notice how she was saving his green ass. Echo understood how emotionally delicate young men are. I was like, “Awww.”
artem1s
indelicate question – can they / will they just swap the headstones instead?
RevRick
@They Call Me Noni: What’s different about the whole Epstein brouhaha is that Trump had convinced his followers that this would prove how perverse and debauched Democrats are. Trump thought he could whip them up into rage against liberal elites and string them along with promises like infrastructure week. MAGA , after all, sees themselves as good and pure, victims of a sinister elite cabal, and the whole Epstein thing plays into that mindset.
What happened was that MAGA demanded that he deliver the goods and became enraged when Bondi said, “ Nothing to see here; move along.”
MAGA saw the J-6 insurrection as a righteous battle against the deep state. Real Americans* voted for Trump. Libruls in cahoots with minorities are illegitimate claimants to power. And the Epstein saga fit that narrative… until it hasn’t (at least for Trump himself).
Ruckus
@Van Buren:
Something’s not right.
That statement can cover a hell of a lot of ground. And in this case seemingly is.
@trollhattan:
We have money men and pimps seemingly running our government, and it doesn’t seem to be going all that well.
Many of us in this country are dependents of immigrants, even if it is 2, 3 or more generations ago. I am. I’m, in one case second generation for sure and the other three 2 or 3 generations at most back. Now I’m an old so that it’s been more than a few decades back, but the vast majority in this country have immigrants in their genetics. My ex is like me, born here to immigrants and first generation American. The only way you aren’t either an immigrant or a descendent of one is if you are a purebred American Indian. And we do not know how far that goes back. Our genetics all started somewhere, for many older folks we don’t always know it we are 1 or 5 generations back
Now on to how we see people depending on the shade of their skin. The tone of one’s skin comes from a chemical and those with basically zero or very close to that chemical are called albinos and are rather rare. Everyone else has the same chemical, your genetics determine how much. The percentage changes with each of us. So other than racism/slaves, and yes we did slavery here, but that supposedly ended in 1865 so rather likely before anyone alive today, because not too many live to 160 years old.
Eolirin
@RevRick: A poll right now has zero predictive power for an event over a year away, so that doesn’t mean a damn thing. I hope those numbers are what we see going into November. But now is now, and then will be then.
H.E.Wolf
@Geminid:
The author also included a moment after she had killed a man, in which it seemed clear to me that she recognized the magnitude of that action.
Altogether a thoughtfully-written character.
Gloria DryGarden
@trollhattan: an apt description
Disheartening to realize that once again some big outrage of a news kerfluffle distracted us from congress etc passing a bill, .. about crypto?
not only are their two or three outrageous infuriating crappy pieces news coming from orange insufficiency man, but every damn time some big shit is breaking and tearing us up, there’s another nasty thing he’s slipping past us, so we don’t notice. Every fucking time, seems.
oh, look, a purple up in the sky, over there. Look over there. Wow, keep looking. There’s nothing else to notice just now, no siree.
Damnit!
anitamargarita
@Princess: and “the girls” are also real people who were harmed.