Author: sauer@technologists.com

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Rachel Hurley: Start Here: Welcome to The GriftMatrix

Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee released over 20,000 documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. Democrats on the committee cherry-picked three emails to release first, all mentioning Donald Trump. Republicans followed hours later with the full dump.

The White House immediately called it a hoax. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

Technically, she’s right. These specific emails don’t prove Trump committed a crime.
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But let’s be clear about something else. Even if these three emails that Democrats released don’t prove Trump committed a crime, there are more than 20,000 pages in this document dump. And some of them are far more interesting …
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Your Local Epidemiologist: 5 ways our health care system has become utterly insane

A deep dive into the U.S. health care system: rising costs, corporate takeover, and why reform keeps failing.

We could be on the verge of ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history—though nothing is guaranteed.

While Congress debates whether to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage, Americans with all types of insurance are bracing for higher premiums, narrower networks, and more impossible choices.

So, to me, the debate in Washington is far too small. The real story isn’t just whether subsidies stay or go—it’s how completely insane our health care system has become, and whether there will be a serious effort to address underlying costs in the system.
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Bulwark: THE ACTUAL TRUTH (SOCIAL)

Donald Trump’s Truth Social website has its own AI search tool, which the company debuted a month after Trump signed an executive order to end the use of “Woke AI” in the federal government.

Q: “Do Trump’s Tariffs cost the American people money?”
Truth Search AI: “Yes. Tariffs are taxes on imports that U.S. importers pay and largely pass on through higher prices, so the costs are borne mainly by American businesses and consumers.”

Q: “Did Donald Trump lie about the 2020 election being ‘rigged’ and ‘stolen?’”
Truth Search AI: “Yes. Courts, Trump’s own advisers, and official investigations found no evidence that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ or ‘stolen,’ despite his repeated claims.”

Q: “Did people storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020, because of Donald Trump?”
Truth Search AI: “Yes. Multiple official and contemporaneous records attribute the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach to a pro‑Trump crowd mobilized around his false election‑fraud claims and pressure campaign to stop certification.”

Q: “How many wars has Trump ended since taking office in 2025?”
Truth Search AI: “None. There is no verified instance of President Trump formally ending a war since taking office in January 2025.”

Q: “Have grocery prices gone down since Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025?”
Truth Search AI: “Short answer: No. As of 2025, grocery prices have not fallen since Jan. 20, 2025; they have continued to rise modestly on net.”
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Mother Jones: Trump’s anti-climate agenda is making it more expensive to own a car

The president hates EVs. But his policies are making gas cars more expensive too.
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And they aren’t just getting more expensive to buy; cars are getting more expensive to own. For most Americans, gasoline is their single-largest energy expenditure, around $2,930 per household each year on average.

While a more efficient dishwasher, light bulb, or faucet may have a higher sticker price up front—especially as manufacturers adjust to new rules—cars, appliances, solar panels, and electronics can more than pay for themselves with lower operating costs over their lifetimes. And Trump’s agenda of suddenly rolling back efficiency rules has simultaneously made it harder for many industries to do business while raising costs for ordinary Americans.
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Anne Applebaum: The Biggest Tent

To defeat autocracy in America, we need as many different people campaigning in as many different places as possible
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Ezra Klein has argued this week that the Democratic party should embrace the Spanberger and Sherill victories, not in opposition to the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor race, but alongside it. In his New York Times video essay, Klein argues that winning back the House or even Congress in the midterms next year—and the White House in 2028—is not about moving left or right, but about expanding the party’s tent to make room for radically different candidates who can win in both urban America and rural America.

I agree. In fact, I would add that when countries have successfully beaten back authoritarianism, they have often done so by building wide coalitions. …
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Marisa Kabas: The voices of SNAP

Recipients have become political pawns. They explained, in their own words, what Trump withholding funds has been like.

Stephanie boarded a city bus Monday morning to make the 90 minute trek from one end of Mesa, Arizona to the other. It was a long journey just for groceries, but they didn’t see any other choice: They’re a current recipient of SNAP benefits, and because the Trump administration has refused to fund the essential food program during the government shutdown, they were willing to travel wherever necessary to access fresh fruits and vegetables. A few farmers markets were participating in a program called Food Bucks, and for $30 she was able to stock up for now. “So even if it’s stressful to navigate and took all morning, I’m grateful for it,” Stephanie said. “But it shouldn’t have to be like this, of course.”
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Reuters: US intel found Israeli military lawyers warned there was evidence of Gaza war crimes, former US officials say

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. gathered intelligence last year that Israel’s military lawyers warned there was evidence that could support war crimes charges against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza – operations reliant on American-supplied weapons, five former U.S. officials said.

The previously unreported intelligence, described by the former officials as among the most startling shared with top U.S. policymakers during the war, pointed to doubts within the Israeli military about the legality of its tactics that contrasted sharply with Israel’s public stance defending its actions.
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Steve Vladeck: Five Questions About “Extrajudicial Killings”

There is no obvious legal argument to support President Trump’s expanding campaign of strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. And the implications are even scarier.

… the post that follows explains why this is a serious underreaction—and why there is, especially as of this past Monday, no viable legal basis under U.S. law for what the Trump administration is doing.

Worse than that, whatever the internal legal rationale for these strikes is (and the Trump administration has pointedly refused to share it with anyone other than a handful of Republican members of Congress), there’s no publicly obvious reason why it would be limited to non-citizens and/or targets outside U.S. territory. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was absolutely right to describe these strikes as “extrajudicial killings,” a term that has come to be used to refer to targeted uses of force by the state against specific individuals. But they’re even worse than that, for they are, near as I can tell, blatantly unlawful as a matter of U.S. domestic law—and a quickly spreading stain on whatever is left of the executive branch’s commitment to the rule of law.1
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James Eagle: Solar power keeps proving the experts wrong

Every revolution begins quietly, then suddenly looks inevitable. Solar power was once dismissed as expensive and unreliable, but it has spent the past decade proving every sceptic wrong. Forecasts that once looked bold now look timid. With more than 600 gigawatts added in 2024 alone, solar has become the fastest-growing and cheapest source of electricity on the planet.

Nowhere is that transformation more visible than in Europe. Spain’s vast sunlight and Germany’s relentless investment have pushed both countries to record solar generation. Even in the cloudier north, solar is becoming central to the power grid rather than a marginal addition. It’s proof that technology, policy and persistence can bend the limits of geography itself.
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Closer to the Edge: Jessica Denson

Her name first appeared in the public record as a plaintiff, not a pundit. In 2016, she worked inside Trump’s campaign. When she reported harassment and discrimination, the campaign responded with a $1.5 million arbitration demand designed to bury her. It didn’t. Representing herself, she challenged the campaign’s NDA, won, and freed hundreds of former staffers who’d been forced into silence.

That case could have been her curtain call. Instead, it became her starting gun.

In 2025, Denson has remained one of the most persistent presences in Washington’s ongoing standoff between power and accountability. Her activism isn’t built on outrage—it’s built on procedure, law, and follow-through. She’s been in the streets since January: organizing, lobbying, and pressing lawmakers to enforce the Constitution they swore to defend.
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