Former Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.
(Photo by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“We who are prudent would like to know what mistakes were made that thrust us into this nightmare we are living.”
The Democratic National Committee is still refusing to release its internal “autopsy” report about Democrats’ defeat in the 2024 election, but at least one progressive advocacy group isn’t letting party leaders off the hook.
RootsAction has organized a letter writing campaign encouraging supporters to email the DNC demanding release of its analysis of how Democrats in 2024 lost the presidential election to twice-impeached convicted felon Donald Trump.
The group has put together an editable template letter for supporters to use, and it makes reference to a February report from Axios claiming that the DNC found that the Biden administration’s support for Israel during its years-long assault on Gaza cost Vice President Kamala Harris votes among young people and progressive voters.
“The truth is not just embarrassing but also inconvenient to those who want to persist in making the same mistake, in arming Israel, in shifting more and more of our resources into wars that devastate millions of lives,” the letter states. “But the truth is better than continuing to lose. It would be hard not to blame future defeats on your refusal to allow examination of past defeats.”
Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction, noted that the DNC “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at least doing interviews in 50 states,” to conduct its autopsy, but has nonetheless decided it won’t “tell the millions of people who donated money to the Democratic Party candidates in the last few years” what it learned from that internal review.
RootsAction senior strategist India Walton said it was political malpractice for the DNC to continue suppressing the report.
“We who are prudent would like to know what mistakes were made that thrust us into this nightmare we are living,” she said. “Now is not a time for saving face. Releasing the autopsy will help us understand what voters really want heading into midterms and the next presidential election. That’s the least we deserve.”
RootsAction last year released its own autopsy of the 2024 election, which found that the Biden administration’s support for Israel hurt it among voters, while also blaming the party’s strategy of courting corporate donors instead of organizing working-class voters who shifted to Trump.
“This was a preventable disaster,” said journalist Christopher Cook, who authored the report, “but Harris and the Democratic Party leadership prioritized the agendas of corporate donors and gambled on a centrist path, while largely abandoning working-class, young, and progressive voters.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Michael Tilson Thomas rehearses Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the San Francisco Symphony. Liz Hafalia/S.F. Chronicle
Michael Tilson Thomas was an American conductor, composer and pianist. He was artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy in Miami Beach, Florida, which he founded in 1987. Wikipedia
Michael Tilson Thomas, Beloved Composer and Conductor of SF Symphony, Dies at 81
Michael Tilson Thomas, who served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years and became a preeminent figure in the global classical music scene, has died at age 81.
Thomas died Wednesday of complications from brain cancer, five years after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form, glioblastoma multiforme. The death also comes less than two months after the unexpected death of his husband, Joshua Robison, who died from complications due to a fall in their Pacific Heights home.
MTT, as he was known, conducted his final concert at Davies Symphony Hall almost exactly one year ago, celebrating his 80th birthday and presenting works by Benjamin Britten, his mentor Leonard Bernstein, and several of his own works. In February 2025 he had announced that his cancer had returned, and that he would be winding down his public appearances, culminating with concerts with Miami’s New World Symphony, which he co-founded, and the final concert at Davies.
During his long tenure at the SF Symphony, Thomas’s name and San Francisco became “synonymous in the world of classical music,” as the Chronicle notes today.
“MTT didn’t just lead the Symphony,” says Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin in a statement to the paper. “He became part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco itself, expanding what it meant to be an orchestra in a city like ours. His impact reached far beyond the concert hall, touching the life of the city in ways both visible and deeply personal. We were, quite simply, so lucky to have him.”
Thomas was born in Los Angeles on December 21, 1944 to an entertainment industry family. His father worked in movies and television in Hollywood, and had been a producer at New York’s Mercury Theater Company — founded by Orson Welles and most infamous for “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast. Thomas’s mother, Roberta Thomas, was the head of research for Columbia Pictures, and his grandparents Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky had been big in the Yiddish theater world.
Thomas met Robison when they were in a junior orchestra together, at ages 11 and 12, and spent 70 years at each others’ side.
Thomas was considered a piano prodigy from a young age, attending the USC Thornton School of Music, and becoming an Assistant Conductor of the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in his 20s, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, at age 24.
Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who was a mentor and friend of Thomas, told the New York Times Magazine in 1971, “I don’t fling the word genius around lightly, but I fling it around about Michael. He reminds me of me at that age, except that he knows more than I did. Not only music, but things like the functions of the brain, cerebrology, physics, biochemistry.”
After founding the New World Symphony in 1987, to serve as an orchestral academy for gifted young musicians and prepare them for leadership roles in symphonies around the world, Thomas took on the role of principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 1995.
Thomas maintained ties to San Francisco throughout his life, having first conducted Mahler’s 9th at the SF Symphony when he was 29 years old, in 1974. But once he landed in the role of music director in 1995, he became completely attached to and of the city for the remainder of his life.
He was known as a champion of Mahler as well as American composers like Charles Ives and Henry Cowell, and contemporary composers like Steve Reich, John Cage, Steve Mackey, and Mason Bates.
Speaking to the Associated Press in 2004, Thomas said of classical music, “It’s meant to have various intriguing and alluring, questioning things that you hear on first hearing. But by its very nature it’s holding a lot of other secrets or a lot of other perspectives much closer to its chest, which only with repeated hearing you start realizing are there.”
A planned celebration of Thomas’s 25 years at the SF Symphony had to be moved online due to the pandemic in 2020, after which he formally stepped down as music director.
As he told the Chronicle that year, “I’m happiest when I feel the music gets to a place where no one is really quite sure who is making the music. It just seems to be happening wonderfully, miraculously, rather than as a result of someone who’s saying, ‘Follow me.’”
Below, a CBS Sunday Morning segment in which Lesley Stahl spoke to Thomas last year, on the occasion of his 80th birthday and his “final bow.”
As he said when he made his farewell statement of sorts last year, “A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich. Life is precious.”
Top image: Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is honored during the 11th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony at The California Museum on December 5, 2017 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
More Perfect Union Oct 28, 2025 Trump used to say that Big Tech is a horrible thing for our country. Now, he’s cozy with Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Silicon Valley. What changed? We analyzed all the donors to Trump’s inauguration and uncovered a massive corruption and influence-buying scheme. —– More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.
From Trump’s threats to “annihilate Iranian civilization” to sudden calls for negotiations, the geopolitical landscape is shifting rapidly. But behind closed doors and in hawkish op-eds, a darker strategy is emerging: explicit calls to assassinate Iranian officials who dare to negotiate. In this episode, we go behind the headlines with Dr. Marandi to break down what really happened in Pakistan, why JD Vance was rejected, and how the UAE is secretly fueling the war against Iran despite publicly claiming neutrality.
C. Israel Used Bayer-Monsanto Manufactured White Phosphorus Against Lebanon– April 22, 2026
1. Thursday, 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Tell Target to Stand Up To ICE!
Metreon Target: 789 Mission Street. Meet on the sidewalk by the Mission Street entrance. SF
Join us to say: Until Target acts to protect its workers and guests from ICE, we will not shop at Target! We will hold signs, hand out flyers, and explain why we must all boycott Target until they Stand Up To ICE!
2. Thursday, 4:00pm, Panel Discussion with Mahmoud Khalil and his attorney, Mark Van Der Hout.
Knuth Hall Creative Arts 132 SFSU SF
RSVP REQUIRED- LINK IN BIO
On March 8th 2025, Mahmoud Khalil was kidnapped and illegally arrested by ICE for his role as a Palestinian student activist for 3 months. We invite everyone to join us in welcoming Mahmoud Khalil this Thursday and to hear about his important story
VFP members Ann Wright, Josh Shurley and Gerry Condon were among the first international visitors to Venezuela following the January 3 US bombing and kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and “First Combatant” Cilia Flores.
Ann Wright has subsequently traveled to Cuba with desperately needed humanitarian aid. Ann is currently in the Mediterranean where she will be reporting live from the Gaza Sumud Flotilla.
VFP Executive Director Michael McPhearson will join the webinar to report on the veterans protest this week against the US war on Iran. He was one of 62 veterans who were arrested for peacefully protesting in the Capitol rotunda.
Host: Veterans for Peace & Task force on the Americas
7. Saturday, 12Noon – 2:00pm, Communities Not Cages: National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention
corner of Van Ness and O’Farrell St, SF
Join us outside as part of a nationwide day of action to oppose the Trump administration’s expansion of ICE warehouse detention and its attack on the due process rights of immigrants and all Americans.
The Department of Homeland Security is moving to lock thousands of people in massive detention warehouses — disappearing them from their families, their lawyers, and their communities. We’re taking to the streets to make clear that we stand for dignity, justice, and the rule of law.
We’ll gather to: • Show visible, public opposition to ICE detention expansion and the criminalization of immigration • Stand in solidarity with detained immigrants and the communities fighting to protect them • Demand that our elected officials defend due process for everyone
This event will take place during our regular Saturday Trump Regime Takedown protest
hosted by Indivisible SF and 50501 SF (organizers of the San Francisco No Kings March) as part of the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action organized by the Disappeared In America campaign and partners including Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, Public Citizen, The Workers Circle, MoveOn and many others.
8. Saturday, 6:00pm – 8:00pm, Attack on BirthrightCitizenship:Trump,SupremeCourt &Poetry Carved Into Angel Islands Walls
Revolution Books 2444 Durant Ave. Berkeley
Presentations & Discussion: Carrie Rosenbaum, Professor at the USF School of Law Jeffrey Leong, poet and author of Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island and Barry Thornton, writer for Revolution newspaper and staff of Revolution Books
On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order abolishing “birthright citizenship” for people born in the U.S. whose parents were not “legal residents” at the time of their birth. This directly violates the 14th Amendment of U.S. Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to all people born in the United States.
On April 1st, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order and will rule probably this summer on whether to submit to the Trump regime’s demand to eliminate birthright citizenship.
The panel will address: Who was Wong Kim Ark and what can be learned from this case? Where do things stand now with the case before the Supreme Court? Why is this under attack now? What does this say about the rule of law and the increasing fascist attacks on people’s rights? What is behind the current attack on birthright citizenship? How is this attack connected to the history of the US in how it has treated immigrants, especially those who are not from European countries?
USF Law professor, Carrie Rosenbaum will speak about the landmark Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark that established birthright citizenship in 1898 and the significance of the case before the Supreme Court. She is also an immigration lawyer whose research/scholarship is in the area of immigration, race and rights.
Jeffrey Thomas Leong, author and poet, veteran of the Third World Liberation Front and Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley will read from his book, Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island, new translations he made of many of the poems carved into the men’s barracks walls. The racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 kept out all Chinese except merchants and students. Some Chinese immigrants claimed birthright citizenship as the sons and daughters of citizens. All Chinese were detained at Angel Island until they passed the interrogation by immigration officials. These poems capture the detainee’s deep anger, sorrow, and loneliness and are a powerful testament to human resiliency and perseverance everywhere.
Barry Thornton will speak about how the assault on birthright citizenship, and on immigrants in general, is the cutting edge of the overall fascist clampdown on society, how this is deeply rooted in American history and capitalist development, and why we need a fundamentally different system.
9. Sunday, 12Noon – 1:30pm, A socialist feminist speaks out for renewable energy
Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party 747 Polk St.@ Ellis SF
7 blocks from Civic Center BART, on/near Muni #5, 19, 27, 31, 38 and 49
The weather patterns are drastically changing due to the drive for profit and resulting wars. Join the discussion on how to mitigate the damage and reverse the dependence on fossil fuels.
Speaker: Sam Rubin, Freedom Socialist writer and environmental justice activist
10. Sunday, 12:30pm – 2:00pm Environmental Health & Justice Community Seminar
The Swedenborgian Church 2107 Lyon Street San Francisco
Toxic and Radioactive Waste at the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site: The threat to Our Health and Environment
Join us for a FREE informative seminar and hear from Greenaction, champions of advocacy and organization for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities across the state which suffer unjustly from unhealthy conditions and polluted environments. Come ask questions and find out what you can do to advance health and environmental justice! This program is hosted by the San Francisco Swedenborgian Church.
Join us for an educational discussion and art-making event to learn about the Justice Brandon Lee campaign and affirm our solidarity with indigenous environmental defenders in the Cordilleras and their struggle against corporate plunder and militarization in the Philippines.
As the US continues to leverage the Philippines as a strategic tool in its rivalry with China, it is indigenous environmental defenders like those in the Cordilleras who are at the forefront of resistance against militarization in the Philippines.
To commemorate Cordillera Day, we’ll create art calling for the cancellation of the upcoming Balikatan exercises and all US-led war games in the Philippines and support for the genuine sovereignty and self-determination of the Filipino people.
Washington — Officials from 23 Democratic states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block President Trump’s latest executive order that aims to restrict mail voting, arguing the directive unconstitutionally attempts to interfere with states’ administration of elections.
The lawsuit, led by California, was filed with the U.S. district court in Massachusetts. It asserts that neither the Constitution nor any federal law gives the president the power to mandate widespread changes to states’ electoral systems or voting procedures.
The measure, they said, “transgress Plaintiff States’ constitutional power to prescribe the time, place, and manner of federal elections” and seeks to “amend and dictate election law by fiat based on the President’s whims.”
The executive order at the center of the challenge was signed by Mr. Trump on Tuesday, months before the November midterm elections, and lays out new requirements related to mail voting. The directive calls for the Department of Homeland Security to compile “State Citizenship Lists” of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in federal elections and requires the U.S. Postal Service to send mail or absentee ballots only to voters on each state’s list.
Mr. Trump’s measure also lays out specific requirements for mail ballot envelopes, including requiring them to bear a unique barcode for tracking. States and localities that don’t comply with the executive order are at risk of losing federal funding.
The directive has already been challenged by a coalition of major Democratic groups, which accused Mr. Trump of attempting to rewrite election rules for partisan gain.
In the lawsuit, the states warned that the president’s order “violates bedrock principles of federalism and separation of powers.”
“Each Plaintiff State has duly enacted laws governing voter rolls and mail voting that are, where applicable, consistent with statutory requirements set forth by Congress,” they wrote. “The EO disregards States’ inherent sovereignty and attempts to arrogate to the President the States’ and Congress’s constitutional power to regulate federal elections.”
Mr. Trump has long railed against mail voting, claiming that the method is “cheating” and compromises election integrity. But instances of mail-voting fraud are rare, and there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The president himself has taken advantage of voting by mail, casting a mail ballot in a special election last month for a Florida state House seat. First lady Melania Trump and his son Barron Trump also voted by mail, according to records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections.
The Constitution’s Elections Clause gives states the power to set the “times, places and manner” of federal elections, and Congress also has the authority to pass election regulations. While Mr. Trump often accuses Democratic states of allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in federal elections, it is a federal crime to do so. Instances of noncitizen voting are rare.
The president’s executive order comes as he has pressured the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote in federal elections and implement photo ID requirements for voting. The House approved the measure in February, but it’s unlikely to clear the GOP-led Senate, where most legislation requires 60 votes to advance.
Mr. Trump signed another election-related executive order last year, which sought to overhaul U.S. elections and require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, but key provisions have been blocked in court.
A three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit just made permanent an injunction that blocks the enforcement of California’s law banning masks on federal agents — basically because a state can’t tell a federal agency what to do.
In a 3-0 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that California’s law, SB 627, which was co-authored by state Senator Scott Wiener, likely violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, and runs afoul of Supreme Court precedent that prevents states from prosecuting federal agents acting in the course of their duties.
The law, dubbed the No Vigilantes Act, which took effect in January, bans the wearing of masks by law enforcement officers, in the interest of public safety.
The judges said that the state law “purports to override the federal government’s power to determine whether, how, and when to publicly identify its officers.” And they add, “in so doing, it aims to regulate the manner and conditions under which federal agents can enforce federal law.”
Despite a challenge by the Trump administration, the law had been allowed to take effect by a federal judge in Los Angeles. But CalMatters notes that it had always faced a likely hurdle in the higher courts.
Writing for the panel, Ninth Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennett writes, “We conclude that … the No Vigilantes Act attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions. The Supremacy Clause forbids the State from enforcing such legislation.”
The ruling adds, “If a state law directly regulates the conduct of the United States, it is void irrespective of whether the regulated activities are essential to federal functions or operations, and irrespective of the degree to which the state law interferes with federal functions or operations.”
Bennett, a Trump appointee, was joined in the opinion by Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, an Obama appointee, and Judge Daniel P. Collins, a Trump appointee.
Pending an appeal to an 11-judge en banc panel, the law will remain blocked.
In a statement to the Chronicle, a spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, said, “These laws shouldn’t even be necessary. We shouldn’t have unidentified, masked men terrorizing our communities.”
Wiener has yet to offer a comment on the ruling. He celebrated the earlier win in federal court in February, saying, “ICE and Border Patrol are covering their faces to maximize their terror campaign and to insulate themselves from accountability. We won’t let them get away with it.”
Top image: A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent patrols the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on January 28, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini) Apr 22, 2026 Okay fine! Lemme weigh in on the CA governor’s race and take everyone’s unmitigated wrath. Specifically my thoughts on Beccera versus Steyer. We obviously can’t let a Republican anywhere near the governor’s seat, but to ensure that California doesn’t back slide we need big ideas. Also open and excited to interview candidates. *** Support the show becoming a patron / bitchuationroom and get exclusive perks. You can also be a member on YouTube, Twitch, or a paid subscriber on substack: franifio.substack.com.
Xavier Becerra, whose polling numbers had languished for months, has jumped into the top tier of Democratic candidates since Swalwell’s campaign imploded amid accusations of sexual assault. Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the 10 days since Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race for California governor, two of his Democratic rivals’ fortunes have turned in opposite directions. Betty Yee, a former state controller, ended her campaign on Monday, while Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general, has drawn a surge of support in multiple polls.
Four polls in the past week have shown Becerra as receiving at least 10% support, at least twice what he previously had, putting him in contention in a large field of candidates.
But the competition is stiff, and the race remains fluid. Becerra, who served as health and human services secretary under President Joe Biden, has roughly the same level of support as two other Democrats: Tom Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, and Katie Porter, a former member of Congress.
Many voters remain undecided two weeks before Californians begin receiving ballots by mail for the June 2 election. The state’s nonpartisan primary rules have added extra intrigue to the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who must leave office in January because of term limits. In this deeply Democratic state, no Democrat has dominated, and two Republicans — Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County — have been among the front-runners.
In California primaries, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the two who get the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party. With a gubernatorial field that once included eight prominent Democrats, polls suggested that two best-known Republicans might take the top two spots because the minority party had far fewer candidates to split its votes.
Such a scenario would block Democrats from the general election and hand the governor’s office of the nation’s largest blue state to a Republican.
To prevent that possibility, Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, has been encouraging Democrats to drop out if their campaigns did not seem viable. Hicks on Monday urged flagging candidates to follow Yee’s example.
“I continue to believe there are too many Democrats in the field,” Hicks said as he released the results of a poll that the California Democratic Party commissioned in an effort to thin the field.
The poll was one of four that have demonstrated momentum for Becerra since Swalwell dropped out. Becerra hired a new social media strategist last week, Tonya Lamont, Newsom’s former digital communications director, and his online presence has since boomed.
A campaign event for Becerra in Los Angeles on Saturday drew a large crowd. Mariana Salas, 45, had previously supported Swalwell but said she was looking for a new candidate and had seen social media influencers talk about Becerra in recent days.
Salas said she had identified with Becerra as a fellow Mexican American and was impressed by his experience as state attorney general.
Business interests poured $2 million more into a campaign fighting a labor union ballot measure that would raise San Francisco’s Overpaid Executive Tax
“When he mentioned the suing of Donald Trump, I was like, ‘Oh my God, maybe this is the next guy,'” she said.
Other Democrats are also positioning themselves as the candidate who can best lead California’s fight against the Trump administration. Steyer has run on a liberal platform and received an endorsement Monday from Our Revolution, which was founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
It was a notable endorsement of a billionaire by a group established to fight what it calls “the billionaire class.”
Porter, a former Democratic member of Congress from Orange County, was endorsed Monday by Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She already had support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass..
Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, California, has received millions of dollars in support from Silicon Valley executives this month.
Supporters believe that Mahan, a moderate Democrat, has an opportunity to win over former backers of Swalwell and other voters who are undecided, though he has faced criticism that he is too aligned with California billionaires, and he has not made big gains in polls over the past week.
Yee, 68, announced her withdrawal from the race in an emotional call with reporters on Monday. She had pitched herself as a budget expert who would be the scandal-free choice following Swalwell’s demise. She called herself “Boring Betty” in social media posts that highlighted her deep experience in California state government, including two terms as the state’s chief fiscal officer.
But Yee has lagged at the bottom of most polls since she entered the race in 2024 and has struggled to raise money. Her message had not broken through in a state with several expensive media markets.
“We’re living in a reality TV era,” she said in the call with reporters. “I got no gimmicks. I have no scandals.”
Arnold Böcklin, Isle of the Dead. Names carried into silence before they ever reached the stand. Public domain.
Foreign governments are opening independent Epstein investigations beyond American jurisdiction. Decades of documented corruption and systematic suppression of evidence shifted scrutiny into forums Trump cannot fire, withhold, or delay. What domestic institutions stalled now moves beyond the reach of patronage and political containment.
The man examined in this piece holds nuclear authority and the pardon power. Donald Trump can remove prosecutors inside the United States, yet those powers end at the water’s edge, where foreign courts and independent investigators answer to neither loyalty nor fear.
This work generates under $120 a week from roughly 40 hours spent researching, sourcing, and writing. That return cannot sustain independent reporting much longer. The annual plan offers the best value at 25¢ a day. Reader backing keeps Glass Empires independent and expanding. Will you help keep this work going?
Every name on Trump’s witness list found a reason to stop talking before the questions started.
This is a record. Draw your own conclusions.
On October 10, 1989, a helicopter carrying three of Donald Trump’s most capable executives lifted off from Manhattan and never arrived.
Stephen Hyde, 43, ran all three Atlantic City casino properties. Mark Grossinger Etess, 38, was building the Taj Mahal from the ground up. Jonathan Benanav, 33, served as executive vice president of Trump Plaza. Pilots Robert Kent and Lawrence Diener died alongside all three when the main rotor detached over the Garden State Parkway and the aircraft fell straight down into the tree line.
Trump publicly claimed a scheduled seat on that flight, missed only because the afternoon ran long. Multiple insiders disputed that claim on the record. In a 1991 book, former Trump Plaza president John O’Donnell documented what came next: Trump blamed the crash victims for financial failures the dead could never contest.
The Taj Mahal opened six months later. Bankruptcy followed within the year.
All five arrived at that crash site without subpoenas, without pending testimony, without any scheduled appearance before any authority. The significance lies elsewhere. All three executives held direct knowledge of every financial decision Trump would spend the next decade blaming on dead men. The last chance to contradict that story left New Jersey on October 10, 1989. Every authority with the power to ask Trump to explain the distance between the eulogy and the blame chose silence instead.
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019. His contact book held presidents, princes, and financiers. Flight logs placed Donald Trump aboard the private jet eight times between 1993 and 1997, while both men circulated through the same donor class for years. Trump later described him as a terrific guy who liked beautiful women, many on the younger side.
Thirty five days later, guards found him dead inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Suicide watch had preceded the death. Officers missed checks for hours, cameras failed, and a forensic pathologist retained by the family said the injuries aligned more closely with strangulation than hanging. Authorities ruled suicide.
At a July 31, 2019 hearing, Judge Richard Berman set June 8, 2020 as the earliest trial date. Ten days later, the defendant was dead. The trial vanished. The black book stayed closed. Every name tied to those pages walked free.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi on March 17, 2026. Sworn deposition: April 14, 2026.
Trump fired Bondi on April 2. Twelve days before the chair.
April 9: Melania Trump appeared at the White House to deny any relationship with Epstein or Maxwell. Questions were refused. Every powerful person named across those 3.5 million pages remains, as of today, uncharged.
The name is fully redacted in every document.
FBI intake report EFTA00020518, dated October 27, 2020, reads as follows: in 1995, a limo driver picked up Trump in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for an airport run. During the ride, Trump worked a cell phone, repeating the name “Jeffrey” and making references to abusing a girl, and the statements grew alarming enough that the driver told the FBI: within seconds, pulling onto the median and removing Trump from the vehicle by force was a live option.
The driver met a woman who told him Trump and Epstein had raped her. A girl with a strange name made the introduction. A hotel or building. That is all the woman would give.
The driver pushed for a police report. Christmas Day 1999, the phone rang. The report had been filed. The driver told her she had done what the evidence demanded. Christmas morning. Across the country, people were opening presents. Inside that call: a woman who had just told police the future president had raped her, and a line going quiet because there was nothing left that words could carry.
Contact ended January 10, 2000.
Word came back from Kiefer, Oklahoma. Head blown off. Local police said definitively: not a suicide. The county coroner ruled it one regardless. Dead within two weeks of trusting the system with her name.
In March 2026, the Justice Department released 16 pages previously withheld without legal basis, summarizing four FBI interviews with a separate accuser who said Trump sexually assaulted the accuser as a minor. Investigators found the witness credible enough to conduct three additional sessions. The White House dismissed the allegations as untrue and sensationalist.
At the February 11, 2026 House Judiciary hearing, Ted Lieu placed the limo driver’s account directly before Bondi. Even then, the Department of Justice had never contacted the driver.
Investigators found Ivana Trump at the bottom of a staircase in a Manhattan townhouse on July 14, 2022. Blunt impact to the torso. Age 73.
The obituaries buried the lead.
Ivana was a material witness in Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud investigation into the Trump Organization. Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. had been court-ordered to begin depositions the week of July 18, 2022, four days after Ivana’s death. Decades of firsthand knowledge about how Trump ran the business died with her before reaching the record.
Attorneys for the family requested a delay within 24 hours. James’ office agreed. The case moved forward without a single word from the one person who had watched Trump build the empire under investigation, producing a $364 million judgment against Trump in February 2024.
Ivana left the record blank.
Maxwell recruited Virginia Giuffre at age 16 from a job at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, as Giuffre told FBI investigators in 2021. Two decades of civil suits followed. Giuffre forced Prince Andrew into a financial settlement in 2022. Litigation against Alan Dershowitz remained active when she died.
On April 25, 2024, the family announced a suicide. She was 41.
Days earlier, Giuffre posted that if anything happened, the cause would not be accidental. Cases remained open when she was buried. The final post read like a line going dead after every warning landed.
The lawsuits died with the plaintiff. Named parties faced zero consequence.
What you have just read is a timeline with dates attached.
Five executives dead before anyone could ask them anything. One financier dead 35 days after arrest, ten days after Judge Berman set a trial date of June 8, 2020. One woman dead within two weeks of filing a police report, before any court date could be set. One former wife dead on July 14, 2022, four days before the court-ordered deposition week of July 18. One survivor dead on April 25, 2024, active litigation pending, after writing that death would be deliberate. The line went quiet. It always goes quiet.
The mob has a word for this kind of housekeeping.
The attorney general sworn to answer for the pattern lost the job twelve days before the chair. Files naming the living remain contested and partially withheld. The limo driver has been on FBI record since October 2020 and received zero contact from the Justice Department. Giuffre named names before death.
The people tied to those files hold office and decide what the public may know. They control what surfaces and what vanishes. Distributing documented knowledge inside a political apparatus this hostile to accountability carries consequences.
Every name on those pages is still out there. So are you. The phone is still ringing. Nobody is picking up.
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
Big news: Our Pride Breakfast speaker lineup is coming together. We’re honored to welcome Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, former California Attorney General, and the Democratic nominee for Governor of California, as a keynote speaker at the 29th Annual Alice Pride Breakfast. Throughout his career,... Continue reading →
This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
Seven Days in D.C. (June 28 – July 4) Seven Days in D.C. About Schedule Support Donate Volunteer Merch Auction Washington, D.C. June 28 – July 4, 2026 View the ScheduleTicketsDonateVolunteer A Week of Democracy in Action From June 28 through July 4, organizers from across the country will gather... Continue reading →
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