Dear Everybody:
I knew it! I just knew Trump wouldn’t be able to resist saying something about the Cornell gang rape story! And it was a doozy:
–Yesterday I told you about the Cornell 7, the male members of a fraternity who gang-raped a 20-year-old woman for hours, and today Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the case and how it was handled.
–Hochul said: “This young woman was failed by people and institutions who were obligated to protect her. This case demands a special prosecutor who will provide a thorough review of all the facts.”
–Today a reporter asked Trump about Letitia James’ being appointed special prosecutor on the Cornell rape case and Trump replied: “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.”
–Andrew ‘Trace’ Hackett: “Ahh yes. Trump sympathizing with the rapists. I wonder why he feels such compassion for them?”
–Chris: “It’s impressive how Trump is always pro rape. He’s flip-flopped on almost everything but that.”
–Middlerage; “Rapists should get a fair shake!”–DJT.
–Ryan: “We’re not gonna punish young men for traumatizing and completely altering the course of young women’s lives, are we?”
–lifeinthedesert: “His concern for the rapists getting a fair shake is on brand, as long as the rapists are white.”
–capuchadou: “Why didn’t any reporter say, “That’s not how you felt about the Central Park 5?” (Note: If you don’t get the reference, the Central Park 5 were five young black men way back when who were accused of brutally raping a young white woman in Central Park. Trump loudly proclaimed their guilt and even took out full-paid ads demanding they be pronounced guilty, even after they found the actual criminal and the young men were found innocent.)
–Sundae Gurl: “Trump has an uncanny gift for finding the worst possible sentence and saying it out loud.”
–Trump is bound to say something even worse in the coming days because he always takes the side of the rapists over the victims (Epstein, anyone?) So, okay, reporters, you know what to do. Ask him about this case over and over again. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
–(Note: With his remarks on an ongoing investigation, Trump is seriously, perhaps hopelessly contaminating the case and making it impossible to get justice for the victim.)
In the Cornell gang-rape story news:
–The New York Times just did a major story on the Cornell gang-rape which happened at the Chi Phi fraternity house, recounting the history of what happened after the gang rape.
–The victim’s friends and roommate immediately realized that what had happened was a gang rape, but the victim at first thought of herself as the guilty party–people were posting that she was a slut, etc.–and she spent the first week after the assault grappling with shame, humiliation, and concerns about her reputation.
–A week after the party, the victim saw a post on an online forum of college life that shocked her into an awareness of what had happened to her. The post read, “Are Chi Phi brothers Crips or Bloods because I hear they have been doing hell Gang Banging?” Another user had written, “They do drugs and gang-raped a sophomore. Report them,” and she told investigators she realized “that I wasn’t a whore and that I was assaulted.”
–The story only came out because of posts and texts the fraternity brothers and other people who were at the party started sending, and the story was soon common knowledge around campus. As the victim texted, “Everyone knows.”
–The victim reported what had happened to the police and they consulted with the local DA, Matthew Van Houten, but he declined to bring criminal charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to do so.
–She also consulted a campus doctor (because she had contracted a UTI and was afraid she might have gotten an STD from the rapes. She told the doctor she had contracted the UTI “in a traumatic way,” but the doctor simply suggested she see a therapist. She didn’t report the rapes. (These people all need to be fired, and probably prosecuted. Doctors are REQUIRED to report crimes.)
–The victim kept the dress she was wearing that night as evidence. She also took photos of bruises on her buttocks where one of the men hit her. (Did you catch that? One of the men hit her. But it was consensual.) On November 7, she went to an emergency room in Ithaca and requested a rape kit.
–The victim then filed a complaint that prompted at least a dozen hearings by the school’s Title IX committee, which is supposed to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws. What was not known publicly till now were the detailed filings collected during the private Title IX proceedings–hundreds of emails, text messages, photographs and interviews with the victim, her friends, and those she accused.
–The Title IX investigation determined that the conduct was not criminal, nor did it rise to the level of expulsion, suspension, or probation.
–The university assigned essays for the accused male students, having them write papers on how they could do better in the future.
–On September 16th of this year, she filed a law suit against seven men, accusing them of sexual assault. Lawyers for at least three of the accused men have broadly denied criminal wrongdoing; others have not yet made public statements.
–One of the students was fired from his job at the Wells Fargo office in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the wake of the new allegations.
–The New York Times didn’t name most of the men accused of the gang rape in its story, but I will: Matthew Ingalls. Jonathan Newell. Winston Lee. Gillio Lopez. Diego Sarabia. Scott Norris. Scott Kretschmer.”
–There may have been others who “participated,” as per the Snapchat messages (many of which automatically erased–that’s why people use Snapchat.)
–Joy Taylor: “There were 57 men in this group chat who knew that this girl was upstairs and that she was being assaulted, and they did absolutely nothing. All men are not predators, but most men are not protectors. ‘Cause if they were, this wouldn’t have happened.”
In the Trump ads news:
–The Trump administration used federal funds from the DHS to finance the set of controversial ads promoting Trump.
–Trump’s people keep insisting the ads are not campaign ads (even though the black-and-white ad is identical to a Trump 2024 campaign ad. Trump told reporters, “These are ads for the country. I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country,” but he has also referred to them several times as “campaign ads.”
–According to Zeteo, multiple Trump officials have said the ads are “obviously illegal. The Trump allies and administration officials who spoke to Zeteo all believed the ads were so “obviously illegal” in the words of one senior Trump official, that they wanted nothing to do with them… “involvement all but guarantees a congressional subpoena.”
–Dem Rep Jamie Raskin called for a formal investigation into “a shameless theft of public funds” and violation of multiple federal laws. “Trump is obviously desperate for the American people to love him. But stealing taxpayer dollars to pay for Mr. Trump’s narcissistic ego trip is plainly illegal.”
In data center news:
–According to investor Steve Rattner, US data centers are booming, but all other private construction is shrinking, and Silicon Valley is shedding tech jobs.
–AI companies will need to find at least $4.2 trillion dollars in new revenue by 2031 to pay for their data center buildout, but higher interest rates may throw cold water on soaring AI stocks.
–If not for the data center boom, the US economy would be in a deep recession.
–Trump and his lackeys just keep on promoting data centers, in spite of the fact that the resistance to them is growing by the hour.
–Trump: “What I’ve done is I’ve created, for instance, those massive plants have no–we have no electricity in our grid. These massive plants now are allowed to make their own electricity.”
–blitzen13: ‘Does he think the data centers are making their own electricity?”
–The Republicans are still not only going all in on both AI and data centers, but they seem determined to gaslight everybody into believing that they’re great and, even more implausibly, that they really like them.
–Rich McCormick on data centers: “They’re not gonna use your water. They’re gonna keep your electric rate low. They’re gonna pay for your teachers, schools, roads, most likely your property taxes. You’re gonna have more jobs. It’s gonna be an amazing thing to have in your neighborhood.”
–Chris Studer: “And these are all lies. The amount of water needed to operate Spartanburg’s data center is more than double the original estimate.”
–Trump’s Bureau of Land Management is reviewing at least 12 data center and infrastructure proposals covering more than 17,600 acres of public land across Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. This has not been publicly announced. One local official said they had no idea these deals were on the table. The EPA eliminated federal regulations forcing states to publish and collect public comments on air pollution permits for data centers and gutted public comment periods.
In economic news:
–The jobs report came out, and it was a pathetic 29,000 (they were expecting 84,000.)
–CNN on the jobs report: “It came in cold–surprisingly cold. Job growth weaker than expected, unemployment unexpectedly went up, and paychecks aren’t keeping up with prices. This was disappointing all round.”
–They sent economic adviser Kevin Hassett out to spin it. When the host asked him, “Are you disappointed at the jobs report?” Hassett repliec, “No, not even a little bit.”
–Hassett also said, “Real relief in gas prices is coming out immediately.”
–GOP Representative Dan Meuser blamed Ukraine and Biden for high diesel prices.
–Republicans are now not only blaming Biden for high gas prices, but Obama.
–Missing the Point: “And don’t get me started on what FDR did to cause today’s high gas prices.”
–Trump Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent said hamburger is down to $2.00 a pound. (Not true.)
–Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins: “As the price has continued to creep up for a pound of ground beef and demand would tell you the demand would go down and then the prices follow. What’s happening is the opposite. Prices have continued to rise and people have continued to buy. That’s the long-term good news.”
–Patric Reynolds: “The good news is that people still need to eat to live.”
–charliestoupee: “You’d think poor people would just eat cardboard. But they’re actually still buying meat. That’s a win!”
–Fox: “Can you say American farmers are better off today than they were before the tariffs?” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer: “I can.”
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–Question Everything reports: “I live in a red district…used to be flooded with Trump flags, Trump signs, Trump trucks, Trump hats…couples dressed up in Trump garb…now, nothing…not even a hat…haven’t seen a flag in six months.”
–gmacpa: “Similar. I live in Florida and haven’t seen a red hat in ages (not even on a golf course, Trump’s mecca). And pickup trucks adorned with Trump swag have almost totally disappeared…maybe a straggler here or there.”
–A Pennsylvania voter: “He wants to give himself medals, a ballroom…people are suffering, and yeah, let’s plunk down $6 billion dollars to change the ballroom. I don’t get any of that stuff.”
–An ex-MAGA supporter confessed: “Getting away from MAGA and Trump did not happen overnight. It was slowly, slowly, slowly, and then all of a sudden I was like, “Oh, my God, this guy is a freaking psychopath.”
In Not Everyone’s a Jerk news:
–A 12-year-old girl named Sloan who lives in Arizona just held a diaper drive which donated 30,000 diapers to the food bank. (In case you don’t know how many that is, it filled a U-Haul truck to the brim.) She said, “If we have the ability to give someone something that they might not have or need, it’s really important to do that.”
–The really amazing part? This is her fifth year doing it. She started when she was seven.
–chloris creator: “The kids are all right.”
In historical news:
–James Colley warns us, “Watch HAMILTON with a critical eye. There are some major historical inaccuracies. Many of these large musical numbers never happened.”
In other news:
–Trump just sent another aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, its accompanying convoy, 9000 troops, and a bunch more missiles to the Middle East, obviously ramping up for more attacks.
–The number of women who died after having an ectopic pregnancy spiked after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The number of deaths from 2014 to 2020 was 100. The number of deaths after the decision, from 2020 to 2025, was 200.
–Trump’s new 24/7 TV channel on YouTube is a complete bust. It lost over 90% of it’s miniscule viewership of 8500 on the day it premiered, and is now down to 100 a day (if that.)
In good news:
–The Supreme Court denied a Roman Catholic mother’s request to send her five-year-old to school without being vaccinated.
–Governor Newsom ordered the state of California to accelerate regulations for AI developers.
–The Ottawa City Council in Canada changed the name of Trump Avenue in retaliation for his changing the name of Lake Ontario. They have not yet decided what to name it now, but I’m sure the suggestions are hilarious.
In funniest news:
–The TV show SOUTH PARK announced it was renaming itself to honor Trump. “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of SOUTH PARK to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount, a Skydance capitulation.”
–When asked about it, Trump (who clearly didn’t get it) bragged that they would never have gotten their Emmy without him.
And finally, perfect for heading into the weekend, today is Groucho Marx’s birthday. Born in 1890, he first got famous for his slouch, his mustache, his cigar, his lightning-quick wit, and making poor Margaret Dumond’s life a torment in the Marx Brothers movies, then went on to host YOU BET YOUR LIFE, possibly the funniest show ever on TV (and definitely the funniest game show. He once asked a contestant why he had so many offspring, and the man said, “I guess I like children,” and Groucho quipped, “I like my cigar, too, but I take it out once in awhile,” a line that only he could have gotten away with.)
–Famous Groucho quotes include “One time I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How it got into my pajamas, I don’t know,” and “I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.” But my favorite will always be: “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
–If Trump et al is getting to you, I suggest watching DUCK SOUP or A NIGHT AT THE OPERA or my favorite, MONKEY BUSINESS, which has one of the funniest scenes ever in it, featuring Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Maurice Chevalier and his signature straw hat. “Every little breeze…”
Best comment of the day, from Groucho Marx, who could have been talking about Trump: “He may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
