Blue 812 News Issue 46 - November 16

Nov 16, 2025

After a grinding 43 days without federal operations, the U.S. government finally reopened on Nov. 12 when the House passed a funding bill by a 222 to 209 vote. The shutdown left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay, stalled food-aid programs, disrupted travel, and turned basic public services into bargaining chips during a partisan standoff. The new deal funds government functions through Jan. 30, 2026 and includes back pay for workers. However, major fights over healthcare subsidies are still waiting in the wings.

A bloc of eight Democratic senators broke ranks to end the shutdown. Of the eight senators, two are retiring; none face re-election next year; and half come from two states, New Hampshire and Nevada: Angus King (ME), Tim Kaine (VA), Dick Durbin (IL), John Fetterman (PA), Maggie Hassan (NH), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Jacky Rosen (NV).

Tucked into a spending bill that is part of the deal to end the government shutdown is a provision that would allow GOP senators to personally sue the federal government for as much as $500,000 over Special Counsel Jack Smith’s lawful search of their phone records, according to the NYT. Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed phone records from multiple senators to find out who Trump called after the January 6 riots — not to spy on them — but GOP senators are furious about the seizure, and now, if their lawsuits are successful, they may soon each receive half-million dollar paydays. Pretty good to be the guys who make the law sometimes, huh? The Republican senators in question are Lindsey Graham (SC), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Bill Hagerty (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Dan Sullivan (AK), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Ron Johnson (WI), and Cynthia Lummis (WI).

The bipartisan outrage, especially in the House, over the provision wasn’t enough to sink the package, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he will circle back next week and try to repeal that portion of the bill.

As Politico first reported, the language of the provision was provided by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), but according to the Washington Post, it was “part of an agreement” between Thune and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).

But his emails! In damning emails released by House Democrats, Jeffrey Epstein alleged that Trump knew he was a sexual predator. “No shit,” the internet responded in unison. In Epstein’s exact words, Trump “knew about the girls.” And in the exact words of Rep Robert Garcia (D-CA), “These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president.”

Early Wednesday, House Democrats released three choice emails from the tranche. House Republicans accused them of cherry-picking the emails, and, in an apparent attempt to muddy the waters, released the entire tranche of 20,000+ documents showing Trump, in no uncertain terms, knew that Jeffrey Epstein was a pedo. Also, Epstein described Trump as “borderline insane,” which seems both fair and generous. After that, everyone was scrambling. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied Trump’s wrongdoing, saying, “The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.” Karoline, I totally agree! We shouldn’t just have a few emails; we should have everything. Why don’t you release all the documents related to Jeffrey Epstein?

My (and Karoline’s) dream might be coming true. Well, maybe. Despite the White House reportedly attempting to persuade Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace to change their votes at the last minute on a discharge petition aimed at forcing the release of the Epstein files, the effort failed. So then, Adelia Grijalva (D-AZ) was finally sworn in as a Congresswoman, after an unprecedented seven-week delay, and she became the final vote on the petition. But this only means there will now be a floor vote on releasing the files. If it passes the House, the Senate, and Trump would still have to sign on. Not likely, but at least we’re getting everyone on the record, deliberately hiding the files.

The emails released this week were not part of the “Epstein files” as we understand them. They were released to the House Oversight Committee by the Epstein estate. The timing of their release is interesting, and surely isn’t coincidental, but it was not directly related to Grijalva’s swearing in or the final signature being obtained on the discharge petition.

The “Epstein files” that victims, advocates, and all of us are demanding to see are an enormous cache of evidence in the possession of the FBI and DOJ. It likely contains the same emails the Epstein estate just released, but there is much, much more, including photographs and videos, depositions, legal testimony, and victim statements. Those files are the ones in which the truly damning evidence lies, and it it those the Trump administration is feverishly trying to suppress. The only reasonable conclusion is that they must be even worse for Trump than what we’ve seen so far.

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The Trump DOJ’s bogus prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James just got a lot more difficult to pull off, with what appears to be a major administration coverup of the origins of the case against her.

In a new report, the WSJ has fleshed out a Reuters account from last week about the ousting of the acting inspector general at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It gets a little complicated, so buckle in.

The FHFA director, Bill Pulte, is the instigator of the bogus mortgage fraud investigations of James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA). The Trump administration has seized on Pulte’s bogus claims to, variously, indict James, attempt to fire Cook, and launch a criminal investigation of Schiff.

Watchdogs at Fannie Mae had been looking into whether Pulte had “improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials,” including James. That investigation was serious enough, apparently, to bring it to Joe Allen, the acting inspector general for FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (FYI, Bill Pulte is not just just the director of FHFA, he’s also chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.)

That’s where things get interesting: “The acting inspector general then passed the report to the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Virginia, some of the people said.” The Eastern District of Virginia is where recently-installed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is prosecuting Letitia James. IG Allen then received notice of his termination from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, according to four sources. The information he turned over was constitutionally required, two of them said, while a third described it as being potentially relevant in discovery.

The description by Reuters is vague, but it suggests that Allen was attempting to give exculpatory evidence to the prosecution team, which, generally speaking, the government is legally required to share with the defendant — in this case, James, before he was fired. In a motion of dismissal of the case for vindictive prosecution, James referenced the Reuters’ report and indicated that she had not received from prosecutors whatever it was that Allen had turned over: “The defense is left guessing at what other prosecutorial vindictiveness discovery exists in the government’s hands.”

Allen wasn’t the only one getting fired. Senior Fannie Mae officials were ousted after sounding the alarm that a confidant of Bill Pulte (him again?) provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor.

Apparently not busy enough yet, on Thursday, Bill Pulte made a criminal referral of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on bogus mortgage fraud allegations. Swalwell figured prominently in both of Trump’s impeachments, making him a prime target for the president’s campaign of retribution.

While we’re on the subject of mortgages: 50-year mortgages. How would you like to plunk down $776,400 for a house that’s worth $300,000… and then spend the rest of your natural life working off the difference? Donald Trump thinks it’s a great idea.

The plan does have a single upside: Somewhat lower monthly payments. But the total cost ends up much, much higher, due to the longer timeframe, as the figures above suggest (from Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Calculator). Experts say 50-year-long mortgages (two decades longer than most mortgages are permitted to be under a law passed after the 2008 financial crisis) would likely make it harder for Americans to use home-ownership to build wealth.

Right-wing media personality Laura Ingraham told Trump in an interview MAGA sees the initiative as “a giveaway to the banks and simply prolonging the time it would take for Americans to own a home outright. Is that really a good idea?” Trump didn’t wanna hear it. “It’s not even a big deal,” he shrugged. “I mean, you know, you go from 40 to 50 years.” Ingraham corrected him: “Thirty to 50.”

Where did Trump get this ridiculous idea? On Saturday, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte (hey that guy again!) reportedly strolled into Trump’s Palm Beach Gold Club carrying a 3-by-5 poster board titled “Great American Presidents.” The image depicted former President Franklin D. Roosevelt with “30-year mortgages” over his head, and Trump with “50-year mortgages” over his. Only minutes later, Trump posted the image on Truth Social.

Now Pulte is under fire for convincing Trump to support a hilariously terrible combination of bad policy and bad politics. “He just sold POTUS a bill of goods that wasn’t necessarily accurate,” one source told Politico. “He said ‘FDR did it, you can do it, it’s gonna be a big thing.’ But he didn’t tell him about all the unintended consequences.”

and then there’s…

In an amazing show of how much our government hates it when we annoy them, Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray announced Nov. 14 that the Indiana Senate will not convene in December for redistricting, stopping President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional map in its tracks.

Of course, Trump is bag mad about this. In a social media post, Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Indiana Senate Republicans, particularly Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray and Terre Haute Sen. Greg Goode. Trump framed the opposition as a failure of party loyalty, criticizing Bray and Goode as “two politically correct type ‘gentlemen’” and suggesting they were obstructing efforts to gain additional Republican seats.

Outside of Indiana, other GOP efforts are also struggling. In Kansas, Republican state House Speaker Dan Hawkins said earlier this month that his chamber does not have the two-thirds vote required to call a special session. Efforts in Nebraska and New Hampshire have also stalled, thanks to reluctant Republicans unafraid of White House threats.

In a 4-3 vote after over two hours of discussion, the Vigo County Council approved the oversight board and appropriated $100,000 from casino tax money to support an Oversight Board that will review the Vigo County School Corporation facilities plan along with potential funding options. The necessary vote came from councilmember Vicki Weger, who flipped her anticipated “no” vote to a “yes” vote, prompting cheers from the packed council chambers.

Vigo County Commissioner Mark Clinkenbeard said it has not yet been determined who will be on the board or when the people on it will begin making decisions, and they are hoping to schedule an initial meeting next week with all governing bodies of Vigo County to discuss board positions. Oversight board members themselves would not be paid.

In other council news, during Monday’s meeting of the Vigo County Council budget committee, council members Vicki Weger and Steve Ellis approved a proposal to increase most elected officials’ salaries, including a nearly 100% increase for the Vigo County Council, though Ellis later stated the proposal will be amended to remove the increase. The whole discussion is bonkers, with Ellis first attempting to cut the pay of the County Commissioners and Auditor (who were in attendance), then offering to donate his own raise to the commissioners. Vigo County HR Director Jordynne Gackle reported that according to a statewide study, the recommended pay grade for the county council had a base salary of $66,662, prompting Ellis to recommend that the council be paid at 60% of the recommended pay grade, nearly doubling the council salary from $21,189 in 2024 (according to Gateway) to $39,997.

After two years, two Terre Haute hospitals have received state approval to merge, despite anti-trust concerns. Union Hospital and Terre Haute Regional Hospital will combine under ownership of Union Health System in a merger approved by the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH).

Gov. Mike Braun’s office claimed the approval as a victory in a press release and a boon to community health, but government agencies and individual Hoosiers are worried this deal could do the opposite. Union Hospital and Terre Haute Regional Hospital first applied for approval in 2023 but withdrew their proposal after the Federal Trade Commission said it would violate antitrust laws.

Because the FTC considered the plan illegal, the hospitals applied for a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) from the IDOH, which would allow them to go ahead if they agreed to commitments on pricing, employment and other categories.

Prior to adding those conditions, the FTC urged Indiana against approving the merger in no uncertain terms. AG Todd Rokita also opposed the plan, saying in April that the merger would lead to a monopoly, “reducing access to care for the citizens of Terre Haute.” Public comment on the merger was also largely negative, with only a few individuals writing in support of the merger in 110 pages of comments gathered by IDOH. The rest expressed worries about declining customer service, treatment costs and employee benefits.

As of November 13th, Starbucks Workers United is officially on strike. STARBUCKS IS NOW BEHIND A PICKET LINE, Y’ALL! Please do not buy Starbucks anywhere until the company, which is wildly profitable, (and whose CEO made 96 millions dollars last year), negotiates an agreement with this union. Be sure to sign the #nocontractnocoffee pledge here.

The temperature is dropping and it’s time to curl up on the couch with a good book. Here are some I’ve enjoyed and/or added to my TBR list:

At this fragile moment in history, Emily Amick, lawyer and former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, alongside New York Times bestselling author and Betches Media cofounder Sami Sage, want to reframe civic engagement as a form of self-care: an assertion of one’s values and self-respect. This book is not just about voting, but about claiming your singular place in your country and community.

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.

As a scholar of philosophy and propaganda and the child of refugees of WWII Europe, Jason Stanley has long understood that democratic societies, including the United States, can be vulnerable to fascism. In How Fascism Works, he identifies ten pillars of fascist politics—an appeal to the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, favoring “the heartland,” and a dismantling of public goods and unions—that amount to an urgent diagnosis of the tactics right-wing politicians use to break down democracies and a critical lens on the current moment.

Democracy or Else is a resource for everyone—from political junkies following every turn of the news cycle to young people getting ready to vote for the first time. And it’s filled with practical advice from some of the smartest experts and least annoying politicians around. The stakes and average global temperatures have never been higher—but there have also never been so many opportunities to join the fight. It’s an age of contradictions!

From Nick Capodice & Hannah McCarthy, the hosts of New Hampshire Public Radio’s Civics 101, and New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, A User’s Guide to Democracy is a lively crash course in everything you should know about how the US government works.

Nasty Women calendar | Indivisible Wabash Valley calendar |HoosiersRise calendar

Monday, November 17th at 6pm: Screening & Discussion of “At the River I Stand” at the Vigo County Public Library in affiliation with the Greater Terre Haute NAACP Branch #3068. This documentary recounts the two months leading to Martin Luther King Jr.’s death in 1968, coinciding with the 65-day strike of 1300 Memphis sanitation workers.

Monday, November 17th at 6pm: Vigo County School Board meeting at 501 W. Olive Street, West Terre Haute. See the agenda here, and watch here on YouTube if you can’t make it in person.

Tuesday, November 18th at 9am: The People’s House Statehouse workshop by MADVoters, tickets required. More info here.

Saturday, November 29th at 10am: Indivisible Wabash Valley Community Meeting 10am-12pm at the Vigo County Public Library

Trump’s time in the White House runs out in:

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