Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 11/18

[SVPete]

Dems’ First Scalp in Epstein Files: Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and Obama Advisor

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/11/18/dems-first-scalp-in-epstein-files-clintons-treasury-secretary-n3809003

The Epstein Light Grenade has taken its first scalp since Democrats went full-tilt offensive on the topic. Only, as it turns out, that scalp doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It doesn’t belong to a Republican, in fact.

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However, you’d be hard pressed to know it belongs to a Democrat – if you read Politico. At least in the first version of their report on Larry Summers’ announcement of retirement from “public life,” the word Democrat never appeared, not even a single time:

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in a statement Monday said he would be stepping back from public life and expressed deep regret for past messages with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the wake of new revelations about the extent of their relationship.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” he told POLITICO. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein. While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”

Emails revealed that Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and a top adviser to President Barack Obama, repeatedly sought advice from Epstein on romantically pursuing a woman he referred to as his mentee. Epstein in one message referred to himself as the prominent economist’s “wing man.” Summers in another exchange suggested women in aggregate have a lower IQ than men.

I think it was "known" on a general level that Summers had kept in communication with Epstein, but asking for romantic advice from Epstein? Summers should have ed!

[SVPete]

Outside of the Spotlight, North Carolina Mountain Towns Are Rising From the Mud

https://pjmedia.com/jennifer-rust/2025/11/18/outside-of-the-spotlight-north-carolina-mountain-towns-are-rising-from-the-mud-n4946121

This past weekend, 70 fellow church members and I left families, quotidian cares, and schedules behind as we focused on friendship in the shady hills of Western North Carolina, at our biannual women’s retreat.

Just six months ago, we wouldn’t have been able to meet at our cherished retreat site. The YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, N.C., near Asheville, only reopened in June at 40% capacity. Hurricane Helene washed away nearly every road while floodwaters tore through buildings and left behind silt and muck through most of the structures built in the early 1900s.

At the retreat, I roomed with someone who was in Black Mountain during Helene. “Living in Black Mountain — it was like being on the front doorstep of Heaven,” Genie Sullivan, a former Black Mountain resident, said of the close bonds the community shared. During Helene and the aftermath, everyone pulled together. “It didn’t matter if you were black or white; everyone pitched in.”

people came all the way from California to help. Once those Genie called the “big hitters” — the engineers and military came in, “the people who could leave did, because this town wasn’t big enough to support all those people.”
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As I left the retreat, I passed through Swannanoa, a small, unincorporated area five miles from Black Mountain. This community along the banks of the Swannanoa River had been almost completely washed away. Exactly one hundred years after the first houses of the Beacon Mill Village went up, the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene submerged homes up to their roofs. Only 11of the 77 houses in the lower village were livable. The rest were standing, but after tons of sludge were removed, the houses had to be stripped to the studs and framing, left to dry out. 

Last month, the 10th family was ready to move back in. Renovations are still going on. One homeowner tagged the home wrap on his house’s unclad exterior with “Through the mud we rise.” Many houses being rebuilt have signs out front, proclaiming the different sponsors caring for the family, or a volunteer group like the Mennonites helping to rebuild.

Meanwhile, in the Dem-misruled Land of LA, fire victims are struggling to get more than a choked trickle of permits to rebuild their homes.

[SVPete]

Beloved steakhouse chain is making a comeback

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/beloved-steakhouse-chain-making-comeback

Steakhouse chain Sizzler is making a comeback with a new refreshed look even as the quick-service restaurant sector continues to face a challenging environment that has prompted countless closures.

Creative agency Tavern, tasked with helping the brand reinvent itself, said the steakhouse had been a pop culture icon in the 1980s and 1990s on the West Coast, but "over the years the brand faced an identity crisis and lost its way." Today, the agency said, "most Californians don’t even know where the nearest Sizzler is (if they even know the brand is still in business)."

The company is trying to change that, announcing its plans to refresh the brand last year. The company said in a 2024 press release that it's tapping "into the sentimental value associated with the brand" and plans to "compete with fast-food giants like McDonald's and offer a more appealing alternative for parents seeking a dining experience that evokes comfort and familiarity."

I was not sure if there were any Sizzler locations in our area any found there were two. My parents enjoyed the Sizzler in our hometown, going there many Sundays after church.

[SVPete]

This Black College Is A ‘Criminal Enterprise,’ Ex-Top Official Says In Lawsuit

https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-black-college-is-a-criminal-enterprise-ex-top-official-says-in-lawsuit

A historically black university whose president is under scrutiny for plagiarism allegations reported on by The Daily Wire is a “criminal enterprise to divert federal and state funds,” according to a federal lawsuit filed by the school’s former Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

It is one of four similar lawsuits filed in the last few months against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, its president Heidi Anderson, its provost Rondall Allen, and its diversity, equity, and inclusion czar Jason Casares, that all follow a similar pattern: A faculty member allegedly discovers wrongdoing at the university, and then is retaliated against by the university’s DEI office.

Claims from the suits paint a picture of a university with almost no academic standards, that admits 90% of applicants and looks the other way at cheating and truancy to avoid worsening its 17% on-time graduation rate and keep the federal student loan money flowing.

The lawsuit filed July 28 by Sandeep Gopalan, a Rhodes scholar who until recently was the school’s vice president for research and vice provost for academic affairs, said that after he claims to have exposed a scheme by Anderson and other top administrators to steal thousands of iPads, the university axed Gopalan’s program and Ph.D. students in retaliation.

The students were funded by a $4.6 million grant from the federal Department of Education that Gopalan had secured and the university had no ability to terminate, but it dismissed the scholars anyway, falsely suggesting that the Trump administration had cut off funding to the historically black college, he said.
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As part of his duties monitoring compliance for the university’s accreditor, “Gopalan learned that Rondall Allen and Heidi Anderson were embezzling iPads intended for poor minorities and diverting those resources to their cronies. The thousands of iPads were purchased from a federal grant awarded by the US Department of Commerce,” the suit said.

“After being convinced that the scam was organized criminal activity based on direct observation of the devices’ stealthy storage, destruction of evidence, fraudulent documentation, attempts to trick the auditors, the apparent enablement of concealment by University System of Maryland apparatchiks, Dr. Gopalan sent whistleblower letters to federal agencies, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, and the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland in June 2024,” it said.

It takes a special kind of A-hole to exploit and defraud needy persons.