The recent, historic NASA moon mission was piloted by four astronauts. And one plush.

Known to the Artemis II crew as “Rise,” the soft, smiling, globe-shaped mascot served primarily as an indicator that the team aboard the Orion spacecraft – which consisted of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – was experiencing zero gravity.

But he quickly became a fixture beyond his purpose. In video transmissions to Earth, his rotund happiness was often present, spinning in the foreground with the help of one of his crewmates.

Rise wasn’t a necessary addition – at least, not in the scientific sense. Something less whimsical surely could have served the same function. But that toy’s inclusion in the mission, and in the crew’s communications, represents in its way what is so compelling about science and exploration in general, and the Artemis II crew specifically: It’s all about openness.

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Openness to dreaming of going to space. Openness to putting in years of study and work to make it so. Openness to learning new things, and being wrong about things, along the way. Openness to wondering, and questioning, and yes, maybe even to being silly sometimes.

The crew’s openness drew us in because it’s something we so desperately need here on Earth.

It’s no secret that we are living through a period of not only regression and violence, but extreme upheaval as well. When looking out at the world, and how the bad actors in charge are shifting and twisting and bombing reality into something that is at once depressingly old and alarmingly uncertain… it can feel as though there’s nothing to hold onto for balance.

This recent space expedition captured the world’s attention not just because it was an unprecedented and otherworldly sight – but also, because it was real, and fun, and hopeful, and full of wonder and heart.

But you don’t get to join the crew that flies to the moon with a plush packed beside you by accident, or by being unaffected, or inert. You don’t get to experience the vastness of space firsthand, or the sight of Earth as a distant crescent, without thinking and feeling and acting beyond yourself.

You don’t become the first woman and the first Black man to visit the moon – as Koch and Glover were, respectively – by being passive. You have to give enough of a damn to rise above the obstacles put in place by a sexist, racist society that’s growing more so by the day. And, you have to work for people who embody that cherished openness to others, who will light the path to the rocket that launches you into the stars.

In order for the seemingly unreachable to come into your grasp, you have to open your heart enough to care – and then, you have to try.

If you want to do something as miraculous-sounding as exploring the cosmos – or, to shift back to earthly concerns, building bridges between people divided by chasms – you can. Humans have now performed both miracles, right before our very eyes.

But you have to have a mind that is curious enough to ask questions, outwardly and inwardly… a mind so dedicated to knowing more that it will sit atop an explosion, for the sake of being tossed through the atmosphere, just to see what lies beyond. And, you need to have a heart big enough and open wide enough to care – enough to transmit love and joy as well as data from space to Ground Control, enough to place the names of lost loves upon the moon, enough to adore all of the children looking up from Earth below… and even the plush orbs among us.

And then, you have to actually reach up, and out.

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The post 4 Astronauts Reminded Us What’s Possible When We Laugh, and Care, and Try appeared first on The Story Exchange.

This week, the world learned that Aubrey Plaza is pregnant with her first child.

The 41-year-old actress confirmed that she and partner Chris Abbott, also a performer, will be having a baby together this fall. It’s good news for Plaza, who had been rocked by the loss of her estranged husband, Jeff Baena, to suicide in January 2025.

While appearing on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast late last summer, Plaza spoke about her grief over Baena’s death. She likened the experience to “a giant ocean of awfulness.” She added that “sometimes, I just want to dive into it, and just, like, be in it. Then sometimes, I just look at it. And sometimes, I try to get away from it.”

Either way, Plaza concluded, “it’s always there.”

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But now, it appears she has found some level of happiness after weathering that pain and confusion. Grief persists, of course – but we still exist, and eventually, we do start living again. 

Not that the general public is concerned with such things, of course.

The announcement of her pregnancy was met by a wave of social media users branding Plaza as heartless for being with Abbott, and being pregnant with Abbott, after the loss of her former partner. (Whom, it should be noted, she had been separated from for months before his death.) As if a stranger’s comfort with her life should even matter.

But in rather callous terms, people felt comfortable all the same expressing that they felt Plaza had been a bad partner to Baena in hindsight, that Hollywood had rendered her unfeeling… that she is a terrible human being for finding a new love and building a family with him. Comment after comment after comment derided her for the act of moving forward. Even the New York Post centered Baena’s death in their coverage of her pregnancy.

First things first: Shall we look at the numbers around how men handle illnesses in, and the deaths of, their female partners?

Because research tells us that men are six times more likely than women to abandon partners who fall gravely ill, and are 42% more likely to have remarried within two years following the death of a partner than women are. Those tempted to scrutinize Plaza’s timeline should keep in mind that men are study-proven to move on from such struggles and losses at far faster rates.

The bigger truth, though, is that it isn’t our business how a person navigates that “giant ocean of awfulness” one finds themselves in when grief comes, regardless of their gender. There’s no socially agreed-upon timeline of propriety when it comes to how long a person must mourn, or how long someone must be alone after a death before they are “allowed” to start imagining, even building a new life.

But as is often the case in our society, stemming back to Victorian times, when a widow was expected to wear black for years after her husband’s death, there is disproportionate pressure heaped upon women to publicly show their grief.  That expectation – particularly when it appears in the wasteland of social media comments – often comes from people who have been lucky enough not to suffer such profound losses themselves.

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On Poehler’s podcast, Plaza summed up her experience with grief, up to that point, as an exercise in simply putting one foot in front of the other. “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m okay. But it’s, like, a daily struggle – obviously.”

If a person, especially one whose work has brought joy to others, has found some modicum of peace and hope for herself after living in survival mode, that’s something to celebrate – not deride.

Or, if one simply can’t handle that, there’s always the option of minding one’s business.

The post Aubrey Plaza Pregnancy Renews Old Question: How Long Are Women Expected to Grieve? appeared first on The Story Exchange.

This week, our eyes have been collectively drawn to the skies by an ongoing NASA mission.

The Artemis II crew – composed of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – is presently guiding NASA’s Orion spacecraft on an historic mission to orbit our moon. The group has already successfully circled Earth’s natural satellite, and is now making its way back home.

It’s been an affecting ride into the void thus far – in particular, the moment when the Artemis II crew proposed naming a bright spot on the moon after Wiseman’s deceased wife, Carroll, who died in 2020 of cancer. Here on Earth, people have been gripped by the notion of someone loving someone else so much that they carried their love further than any human has ever gone – and then bestowed her name upon a bright spot they found in the sky.

But it’s also been dotted with flashes of joy, and delight. From the reaches of space have come a spoof of the opening credits of sitcom “Full House,” as well as the sight of a jar of Nutella spread hurtling its way through the cabin during an otherwise routine moment.

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And, one “morning,” the crew was awakened by the triumphant playing of “Pink Pony Club,” the 2020 queer pop anthem by queer pop artist Chappell Roan that’s become a beloved hit song. Its selection wasn’t some grand statement – just a fun song, effective for coaxing astronauts from their slumber.

But then, you add the context of Dr. Sally Ride – and a sweet wake-up “call” becomes something sweeter, still.

Ride, famously the first woman to ever go to space, was and is a hero for generations of girls and women. But even as she went where no woman had ever gone before – in her career, and in her trip to space – she was held back on Earth from being open about her partnership with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a woman she loved and lived with for nearly 30 years. All because Ride lived in a time when “being an icon” and “being a lesbian” didn’t go together.

While re-establishing contact with us terrestrials, Koch noted that “when we leave Earth, we do not leave it – we choose it. We will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other” In response to this sentiment, Ground Control offered: “Integrity from Earth, our single system, fragile and interconnected, we copy.”

It’s the same sense of connection-from-afar Ride herself experienced while on her own trip to the stars. In an interview following her ground-breaking flight, she noted that “all the imaginary lines of humanity … the tribal fears we hold onto … all the arbitrary restrictions we place on ourselves and each other – they mean nothing.”

Ride was held back from living her truth by those arbitrary restrictions while she was alive – she could never hope to publicly name a piece of outer space after O’Shaughnessy, as she might have wanted. But in 2026, a lesbian artist’s work can be played aboard NASA spacecrafts and be greeted with smiles, and without complication.

It’s a little something to hold on to, anyway. A bright spot in the sky, if you will.

Read more about Ride’s journey – on Earth, and above:
Dr. Sally Ride, the Queer Woman Icon Who Was Never Allowed to Be One

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The post A Twinkle of Hope Found Amid the Artemis II Crew’s Playlist appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Following days of speculation, it’s official: Pam Bondi is out.

The now-former U.S. Attorney General was removed from her post this week. And though President Donald Trump referred to Bondi as “a loyal friend who faithfully served” amid news of her departure, sources close to the Trump administration told NBC News that he’d grown “more and more frustrated” with her job performance.

Her handling of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s case – and the files from the investigation into him, which cite Trump thousands of times – is said to be central to the decision to let Bondi go. Sources add that Trump had also grown angry with her failure to convert probes of his political enemies – such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James – into convictions.

This, despite years of fealty from Bondi. She first entered Trump’s orbit as a lawyer who represented him in his 2021 impeachment proceedings for inciting a failed coup. This year, she’d utilized her elevated platform to, among other things, publicly share the names and photos of anti-Trump protesters on social media.

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She’s the second official to be given the boot by Trump in recent history. Less than one month ago, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired from her role, following her much-maligned handling of two killings of civilians by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. This, despite her towing the Trump line that victims Renee Good and Alex Pretti posed threats to U.S. safety even as video evidence circulated to the contrary – and despite her overall dogged implementation of Trump’s aggressively anti-immigrant agenda.

Trump is additionally said to be weighing the prospect of firing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whom he has more publicly critiqued. During a recent briefing in the Oval Office, he laid blame for his administration’s negative perception at her feet – telling her to her face, and in front of the press: “You’re doing a terrible job.” This, despite her repeated willingness to greet questions from journalists with blatant, unprofessional disrespect in service of defending Trump.

Incompetence and impropriety are hardly unfamiliar traits among people serving Trump – or Trump himself. Yet when it becomes politically advantageous to put forth a sacrificial firing, it’s increasingly been women on the chopping block.

This phenomenon isn’t unique to the Trump administration. In fact, it’s so common to put women (and other marginalized individuals) in high-profile positions and situations during times of crisis – with an understood presumption of blamable failure – that it has its own name: The “glass cliff.” Studies have also shown that women are generally more likely to be fired for fumbles and failures that men tend to be forgiven for.

Women like Bondi, and Noem, and Leavitt made themselves into agents of a provably anti-woman state. If they weren’t outright defending Team Trump’s questionable moves or blatant wrongdoings, they were obfuscating about them. They were often misleading and disrespectful when confronted by journalists. Worst of all, they harmed others – immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community and victims of sexual abuse have suffered as a result of their words and actions. All in service of insulating Trump and furthering his agenda.

Two of them have now been fired, and the third has been publicly humiliated.

As it turns out, ingratiating oneself into a group that dismisses, disrespects and erases women will do nothing to prevent women from being embarrassed at best, and abandoned at worst, if deemed necessary.

Women who worm their way into such boys’ clubs may think, on some level, that they are securing their place on the lifeboats with their actions – not realizing that they are, instead, more likely to be the first ones tossed overboard to preserve the men’s safety and access to seats. Chum in the water, to keep the metaphorical sharks at bay.

Other women – ones who might find themselves tempted to prioritize self-preservation above sisterhood – should take note of what these men do, and who they’re loyal to, when the chips are down.

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The post Pam Bondi Reminds Us: Women Can’t Save Themselves By Selling Their Souls appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Last night’s State of the Union address, the first of President Donald Trump’s second term, contained a number of lengthy tangents.

The longest of these deviations involved welcoming the men’s hockey players of Team USA, who recently took the gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The crowd offered the players several lengthy, raucous rounds of applause, as well as numerous chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

After showering the team in adulation, Trump singled out goalie Connor Hellebuyck, joking with him for several moments – as time away from his speech continued ticking by – before announcing that he would be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “I want to thank you all,” Trump said to the players. “What a special job you did. What special champions you are.”

And Team USA loved it.

They smiled, and waved, and laughed when they were supposed to, and posed for photographs with their Olympic medals, and with one another. When chants of “U-S-A!” rang out, they joined in, fists pumped high and fast with each repeat. 

Well, the camaraderie makes sense – they and Trump do have a rapport now, after all. In a leaked video taken in the locker room following the team’s win in overtime against the Canadians, the president could be heard inviting the group to the White House. He then added that “we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” while jokingly implying that he’d be impeached if he failed to do so. The team had a good laugh in response. 

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Since the leak, other men have taken to social media to defend the interaction. “There’s nothing better than celebrating with the fellas. Inviting the ladies just changes the dynamic,” Barstool Sports correspondent Jordan Demcher posted on X about the notion of excluding the women Olympians from celebrations. “Every player on the U.S. roster respects the hell out of the women’s team…but you don’t get to just let it rip when the ladies are around.”

It’s noteworthy, what men write off as a joke, including our exclusion. In service of our exclusion.

I wonder if these men ever pause to think about such matters from our perspective. I wonder if any of the men’s hockey players, of the 20 who went to the State of the Union, were hesitant to attend. I wonder if they considered declining, as five of their teammates did – as well as the entirety of the women’s team, all of them citing travel-related reasons.

I wonder if those young men considered refusing the accolades outright.

Some may think it’s unfair for me to ask them to deny what is, on its face, a significant opportunity – but truthfully, I would expect any person to interrogate who is giving out the distinctions on offer to them. Are they someone you respect, and admire? Is it a body that is known for its integrity and honor? And if it’s not, are those prizes really something you want? 

Does an invite to the State of the Union, or the Presidential Medal of Freedom, mean anything when it comes from a man who hurts women, and all of the most vulnerable among us, through policy and rhetoric alike? And not just once but over, and over, and over, and over again? Is it worth compromising on all of that, just for the chance to wave to another crowd, and get another medal?

No. What we have here are grown men, at the height of professional triumph – behaving like absolute losers.

This willingness among men, to go along with the harm their fellow men perpetrate, all in pursuit of social reward… it isn’t just evident in anecdotes such as these. It’s also research-backed social science. Indeed, numerous studies have shown men to be complicit in the harming of women at best, and actively part of the problem at worst. And they are this way more often than not.

One cannot simply roll their eyes at this phenomenon, either – or the lameness behind it – because it’s central to why women struggle to navigate this world with any form of ease. How can we be anything but cautious and stressed when we see men being so willing, time and time again, to stand back as we’re mocked, disrespected, harmed and silenced? Men who will laugh along when we’re made fun of – or worse, join in hurting us?

There were, thankfully, several people in attendance who were willing to take a stand against Trump. Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were especially loud – and at one point, impossible to ignore – while branding the president as a “murderer” and more.

For their trouble, Trump dismissed them and their ilk as “crazy.” I wonder if the men’s hockey players of Team USA laughed at that line, too.

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The post The U.S. Men’s Hockey Team Reminds Us How Complicit – and Lame – Men Can Be appeared first on The Story Exchange.

President Donald Trump really doesn’t want to talk about the Epstein files. 

Well, he’s made repeated efforts to avoid discussing the millions of documents that have been released from the court case of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, anyway. Files which mention Trump’s name directly over 38,000 times, as well as the names of his current and former advisors.

Largely, he’s resorted to downplaying the severity of what was done to Epstein’s victims, as have his supporters. But when pressed about it by members of the press – women journalists, in particular – he’s taken to name-calling and outright disrespect.

This week brought a new example of this, when CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins asked Trump about the files while in the Oval Office. He began his response by once again dismissing it as a non-story, before calling her “the worst reporter,” and claiming that her network’s ratings are falling because of her mere presence.

He then continued: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face. You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth.”

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Vice President JD Vance backed his play during a subsequent interview with Megyn Kelly. “There was a moment in the Oval Office … [where], but Trump was talking to Kaitlan Collins. Trump says, ‘Why don’t you ever smile?’ And it’s actually, like, so perceptive. Have some fun.”

It’s not the first time Trump and his team have employed this tactic of degrading and dehumanizing those who ask about his relationship with Epstein, and his presence in the case files. Last November, Trump himself made headlines for calling one journalist “piggy,” and another “a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” after they questioned him on the subject.

The tool he used in his attempt to silence Collins, though, is far older than that. Indeed, telling women to smile has been a sexist refrain for decades. 

Its intent is to make us feel simultaneously scrutinized and poorly received – in service of contorting us to fit into quiet, pleasing packages that delight men (and of course, never challenge them). Men who say this to women don’t want to know about our displeasure, our frustration, our fatigue. They don’t want to know about our humanity, and the fact that our being human comes with negative experiences, just like theirs. 

They want us to smile because they want us docile.

This isn’t just my female hysteria flaring up. Research on the subject points to smiling as a social cue among mammals, human or otherwise, that is designed to mitigate threats – and communicate submission to that which is threatening.

Trump employing this silencing method becomes even more galling when you consider what these files – the ones he’s so reluctant to discuss – have told us about what Epstein’s victims endured. – There are details of massages and much more, all coerced from unconsenting, underaged victims for the sexual pleasure of older, powerful men who appeared to glean as much satisfaction from victimizing these girls as they did from the physical acts they forced them into.

A person with a sense of empathy for how traumatizing those moments would be to live through – and then to live with, if they’re able to – would want the victims to know justice, or at least some measure of closure. Especially as they’re forced to relive their abuse on an international stage, amid a sharing of files that also failed to adequately protect their photos and identities. 

Trump, instead, tells the women journalists who press the subject to smile. His sycophants then tell these reporters to “have some fun.”

Only, women journalists aren’t going to smile about what was done to Epstein’s victims – even if the president tells us to. And we’re not going to shut up about it, either.

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The post It’s 2026, And The President is Telling Women to Smile – to Shut Them Up appeared first on The Story Exchange.

The theme of the 2026 Grammy Awards: “ICE Out.”

It was the message emblazoned on the pins many celebrities affixed to their finery during the awards show, held February 1. The sentiment comes following an uptick in aggression from agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government entities, who have harmed protesters, jailed journalists and taken several civilian lives over the past few weeks.

But some of those honored at the Grammys chose to take that anti-ICE message beyond their accessories – the most notable of them being singer-songwriter Kehlani, who won awards for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song. 

During one of their acceptance speeches, they noted that “everybody is so powerful in this room,” addressing their fellow luminaries directly. “Together, we’re stronger in numbers to speak against all of the injustice going on in the world right now. Instead of letting it be just a couple few here and there, I hope everybody is inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what’s going on.”

They concluded, “I’m gonna leave this and say: F*ck ICE.”

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Several other artists used their celebratory moments similarly. Olivia Dean told the audience that she is the proud granddaughter of an immigrant, adding that “I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.” Billie Eilish said that “no one is illegal on stolen land” in her own speech. She also echoed Kehlani’s “f*ck ICE” sentiment, as did SZA. Bad Bunny, who took home an historic win to end the night, said that immigrants and Latinos “are not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens – we are humans, and we are Americans.”

I’m not saying that we can – or should – look to the most financially and socially powerful among us for social-justice answers. Not reliably, anyway. But there is something real in what each of these artists did on that stage.

There is something real in breaking away from the tendency among folks working within older, more established industries, like entertainment, to soften their messaging – lest they be branded a trouble-maker. (Or, the tendency to simply kowtow to the powers that be, especially as their fellow famous musicians are, say, performing at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, like Snoop Dogg and others did, or crowing the Trump message, as Nicki Minaj has been.)

There is something real in using one’s “moment” and platform to humanize those who are being harmed the most. There is something real in refusing to “just shut up and perform,” as so many artists are told to do when they speak out against the powerful with some genuine force. 

There is something real in such deeds that we can, perhaps, take forward with us.

I’ve been thinking a great deal – as many of us have been, I’m sure – about what greater part I, an individual, could possibly play in keeping our nation from backsliding further. A significant part of the answer to that question involves talking openly about how we each get involved with making our world better, and actively sharing this information with one another. 

But we can also learn something small but true from the 2026 Grammys about the sort of boldness and compassion we must put behind our chosen words and deeds.

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The post What Kehlani and Others Taught Us About Pushing Back at the 2026 Grammys appeared first on The Story Exchange.

It has been a tough few days for America. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, there seems to be a sense that a tectonic shift has fractured the most fundamental underpinnings of the country – with repercussions we have yet to fully understand.

Images of the callous, taunting murder of Renee Nicole Good, the bewildered face of a 5-year-old, Liam Ramos, by himself in the freezing cold as he tried to process what was happening, the angry shooting of ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, ICE agents piled on top of him, have blanketed the news and social media, leaving many heartbroken and angry.

Is this America, people ask? And the answer is: “Yes.”

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As ICE defenders give predictable, hasty, unsubstantiated justifications for their actions, those of us who watch in horror must understand that this government-sanctioned assault is intentional and purposeful. We cannot sugarcoat it – it is a blatant attempt to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights and, probably, the next election. The violent unravelling of citizens’ lives and rights in cities across the country, not just Minneapolis, signals the end of a world order, an American-led order that, however deeply imperfect, has been the global stabilizing status quo for nearly a century.

As millions of us shiver through the worst winter storm in years, as we huddle inside glued to our phones (perhaps watching with empathy and awe, the brave citizens of Minneapolis as they face this long assault on their city) we can worry, with much justification, about just how long it may be until the sun returns, the ICE melts, and people – of all backgrounds – can walk their neighborhoods without worrying that their lives may be ended in just a quick minute, by masked, armed goons sent by the federal government to create terror in the lives of ordinary, law-abiding Americans. 

For now, we have no answers. But the shift is happening; the plates are moving. The ground is being shaken by more protesters refusing to accept ICE’s invasion. There will be more friction, more violence.

How many more will die and how this crisis will reshape us, as individuals and as a country, remains to be seen. 

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Following the U.S. attack of Venezuela and the capture of its autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, the altruism of President Donald Trump’s actions is being widely questioned.

For starters, the attack was carried out sans congressional approval. And for another, Venezuela is home to one of the world’s largest oil reserves – Trump even said the quiet part loud in this regard during the press conference held following the attack.

“Very large United States oil companies” would take part in fixing Venezuela’s “badly broken oil infrastructure,” he told reporters, so as to procure “a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.” And while some of that fortune would be given to the Venezuelan people, an undisclosed secondary portion would be given to the U.S., Trump added – as “reimbursement.”

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But perhaps there is another reason in the mix as well, one more personal than all that. Perhaps Trump also feels it’s better to be viewed as a money-hungry warmonger – than to be held accountable as a rapist.

Because amid all of this, the Trump administration has continually failed to release the vast majority of the files pertaining to the court case of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced former financier and sex trafficker who died in prison years ago. Despite the deadlines for disclosure mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, enacted last November – deadlines that have now come and gone – only about 1% of them have been released, and those that have been shared have been heavily redacted. 

But now, our news cycle is utterly (conveniently) dominated by news of the U.S. attack on Venezuelan soil.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform asserted just such a tie between the military operation and the ever-looming Epstein files. “We are sure it’s just a coincidence, but today [January 3] is the statutory date for the DOJ to explain its redactions in the Epstein file productions,” the body, run by Rep. Robert Garcia of California, posted on X. “We have not forgotten, and we won’t let up – regardless of the President’s new unconstitutional actions.”

It would certainly be in Trump’s best interest for a military invasion with iffy motives to become the biggest news story going – some of what has been shared regarding him and Epstein is rather damning. One document posted by the House of Representatives, for example, divulges alarming details about Trump’s sexual proclivities, relayed by Epstein himself to author Michael Wolff on tape – knowledge Epstein said he gleaned through a close friendship with Trump.

Unfortunately for the president, those who live under his administration are now well versed in keeping our eyes in numerous places. The downside of attempting to confuse and overwhelm a populace in service of getting away with illegal (and often morally bankrupt) activity is that many of us now know better than to be fully pulled away by anything – even the invasion of another country.

Trump needs to face facts: The spectre of Epstein isn’t going away. And neither are those of us who wish to see him fully brought to justice for his repeated victimization of women.

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The post Invading a Sovereign Nation Won’t Make People Forget About Epstein appeared first on The Story Exchange.

The number of people reaching their limits with President Donald Trump continues to grow.

Following the recent, sudden death of Rob Reiner – an American film director and performer who was admired for works like rom-com classic “When Harry Met Sally,” coming-of-age drama “Stand By Me” and political dramedy / seeming fantasy “The American President” – Trump took it upon himself to comment on the matter.

“Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” he posted. 

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(One might wonder where the calls for decency offered following conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death had suddenly disappeared to – if you didn’t know the man, that is.)

The post drew much commentary – including those who usually steer clear of such matters, such as journalist Maria Shriver. The former first lady of California and member of the Kennedy family is normally reserved in her commentary on U.S. goings on – but even she took to social media to issue a reply, speaking out on the first night of Hanukkah to note the duality of holding mass celebration, and mass grief.

“The entire world is hurting,” she said in the wake of the combined tragedies of the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia, the school shooting at Brown University, and the murder of Reiner and his wife, Michele, at the hands of their own son. “And yet we have a president who does not use this opportunity to bring anybody together. Instead [he] uses it to speak about himself – instead uses it in such a petty, divisive way.”

Shriver continued: “The president of the United States is supposed to have character, is supposed to know how to bring people together, is supposed to be a dignified human being who raises us up. And instead, we have somebody talking like he does. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

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Other prominent, established women offered similarly considered, similarly cutting thoughts on Trump’s latest tirade. On X, author Joyce Carole Oates opined that it is both strange and “contrary to expectations, that our most literate presidents lived in the 18th century; [and] our most recently elected 21st century president is barely literate, with the vocabulary of a three-year-old & the atrophied prefrontal cortex of a nasty person who has outlived his time.”

It’s the sort of public pushback that the Reiners themselves would certainly have prized. While living, the power couple often worked and spoke out in defense of others often harmed by the policies of the Trump administration. They were particularly vocal in their support of equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

“It’s so heartening to think young people don’t think twice about gay marriage,” Rob Reiner wrote in a 2015 essay for Variety, of his hope and vision for a more equitable future. “And I think it’s going to be the same with the transgender community. It’s going to get closer and closer to the ideal that we are all one.”

But the Reiners’ lives, as impactful and prolific as they were, were cut short before they could see that come to pass. As were the lives of those caught in the firestorms at Bondi Beach and Brown University. And in response to all of this… Trump opted to crack wise about Rob Reiner as political opposition.

As Shriver noted: “We deserve so much better.”

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The post Maria Shriver: ‘We Deserve So Much Better’ Than Trump’s Antics appeared first on The Story Exchange.