The House speaker doesn’t want Republicans to be around when the deadline comes.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is conveniently sending Congress home the day before the Justice Department is supposed to release the Epstein files in full. The announcement came Wednesday night.

This looks like yet another instance of Johnson doing every little thing he can either to delay the release of the files or to make it so that his fellow GOPers don’t have to be in town to answer to their complicity in this monthslong campaign to avoid their release—as he did by egregiously delaying the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for weeks.

“Like I said: view all political developments for the rest of the week in light of the fact that the Epstein Files are supposed to be released on Friday,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday evening on X. “House Republicans just suddenly canceled Congressional session Friday and are sending everyone home Thursday evening.”

  • the_q@lemmy.zip
    545·
    1 day ago

    I think it’s hilarious that we have a system of government built on the false idea that we the people have any real power. We keep paying our taxes though. We keep buying the 7 versions of Taylor Swift’s albums. We keep “treating ourselves” because we “deserve” a treat for making it through another day. There’s a theme to these examples and it is at the core of every issue we face.

    We actually have the power; all of it. We lack the will.

    • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
      24·
      1 day ago

      We lack the will.

      Kinda, although I fully agree with everything else you said. Collective action is really difficult even when the government isn’t running COINTELPRO-like operations on anyone who tries to organize anything like a mass protest. For an example of the challenge of collective action, think about how hard it is to get your group of close friends to agree on which restaurant to go to and when. And that’s when everyone wants to hang out together, with nobody intentionally mucking up the works.

      If we can overcome the “internal” hurdles to collective action, we can take back the country.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
      1·
      17 hours ago

      A lot of the shit people complain about that they use as an excuse to not get involved could be solved if they got involved.

    • I_Jedi@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      If you don’t pay tribute, the Boss will send some muscle to make you hand over the protection money.

    • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
      14·
      19 hours ago

      I personally don’t get why people pay for music. You can just listen to Taylor Swift’s albums on YouTube

      • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
        3·
        18 hours ago

        You know some people don’t mind supporting creators of things they enjoy. People also don’t mind spending a small sum of money to enjoy things without getting an ad every 30 seconds.

        • Grass@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          17 hours ago

          I can do that for free too. I can also pay for music that isn’t shitty after listening to it to support actually good musicians, coincidentally none of them being billionaires.

          • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
            3·
            14 hours ago

            Someone’s financial status has no bearing on whether they make good music or not. Are you really gonna tell someone else what they can and can’t do in their free time? What are you a Trump supporter?

              • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
                1·
                12 hours ago

                You Trump supporters like telling people what they can and can’t do with their own bodies. It doesn’t surprise me you want to control people’s free time too.

                • Grass@sh.itjust.works
                  1·
                  11 hours ago

                  dude I still don’t know where you are getting that from. I never said anything remotely about controlling anything or anyone. and I’m no trump supporter. I’d kill him and all his dipshit cronies with a rusty spoon if I could get away with it.

                  Since we are making assumptions, are you a rabid swiftie that got mad that I implied her music was shit? I stand by that. She has like one non irritating song and its decent at best. If only that whole thing about swifties getting mad at trump and voting him out went anywhere I’d have stopped talking shit a long time ago but apparently even her fans suck.