 I titled this article the way I did because it seems like his name comes out of the mouths of elected Democrats whenever they find themselves in front of a microphone or camera, and more than a few Republicans, too. Sure, the story has all of the ingredients of a good scandal or soap opera – sex, Trump, sex, Epstein’s alleged “suicide” while in custody in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, sex, (former) Prince Andrew, sex, billionaires, sex…well, you get the idea – so it’s sure to garner attention whenever his name is spoken or written.
It looks like the DOJ will finally release all of the Epstein files now that Congress almost unanimously passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act and President Trump has recently signed this bill; so they should be released within 30 days. My crystal ball tells me that we will see and hear a boatload of Democrats try to spin many of these emails to paint President Trump in a bad light. I remain hopeful we can finally get this whole thing behind us and focus on what really matters to America. While I have mostly avoided any of the stories about Epstein, I could almost understand the Democrats’ focus on this issue when AG Pam Bondi said in February there was an Epstein client list and it is “sitting on my desk right now to review” and the Justice Department later “clarified” that a client list did not exist and they found no evidence one existed; causing Bondi to explain she meant the files related to the Epstein case were on her desk, not a specific client list. Even for a conservative like me, it sounded a like a cover-up. I’d be pretty skeptical, just like the Dems, and it’s understandable they think there is something “bad” about Trump in those emails or there really is a client list with his name on it. You probably could not avoid seeing in the news when the Dems released Epstein emails that contained references to Trump (but nothing negative since Trump has admitted knowing him and banning him from Mar-a-Lago). While the Dems could not taint Trump with these emails, there is plenty of disgusting conduct about others mentioned in many emails. There were lots and lots of emails written after 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl and spent thirteen months in prison. These emails from “friends” came after this conviction, and Epstein’s conduct leading to his conviction did not seem to bother them. When news stories came out about Epstein’s deviant sexual proclivities, there were emails from these friends back and forth complaining how unfair it all was and trying to figure out how they could deflect attention away from Epstein’s sexual desire for underage girls and focus it on Epstein’s philanthropy. The girls (really the “victims”) in these stories were rarely even mentioned. Of course, all of these friends, despite their earlier and continued support of Epstein, now say they “regret their association” with him. Who are some of these people? Boris Nikolic a venture capitalist and Bill Gates’s former chief scientific adviser, wrote an email to Epstein about how unfair a Vanity Fair article was that described Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislane Maxwell, as “the alleged procurer of young women for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.” Of course, we know now that Maxwell was exactly that – a pimp for Epstein in procuring underage girls – and why she was convicted, handed a 20-year sentence, and is now sitting in prison. Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, said that the young girls (the younger the better) whom Epstein surrounded himself with, knew they had to give massages to Epstein and his friends that ended with sexual climax. Giuffre was the one who helped break open this whole case over which Epstein allegedly committed suicide. Giuffre, sadly, committed suicide earlier this year. In a memoir published after her death, she alleged that she was expected to service Epstein, as well as his friends, including Prince Andrew. Giuffre sued Ghislane Maxwell for defamation after Maxwell said Giuffre was a liar, and, in a panic, Maxwell sent an email to Epstein saying she is being told to put out a statement that will “distance” her from Epstein and added, “They need me to say I was not aware of massage w/andrew in my house.” Which confirmed what Giuffre had been saying all along, that former Prince Andrew was getting massages from Epstein’s victims in Maxwell’s home. We all know what has happened to Andrew – he settled a case with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount of money, was stripped of his “prince” title, and had to move out of his home, the Royal Lodge. Epstein donated $9 million to Harvard, most of it during former Treasure Secretary Larry Summer’s five-year tenure as Harvard’s president and his emails with Epstein show a close, almost intimate, relationship with Epstein. In some emails, Summers, who is married, poured his heart out to Epstein about a relationship with a woman (not his wife). Epstein recently announced he is stepping back from his public commitments, taking leave from his Harvard teaching position, and resigning from the Board of OpenAI, a $500 billion company. Summers issued a statement in early November that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment.” Of course, everyone is now saying the same thing – I think to insulate them from bad publicity or litigation. I’m sure you have heard about Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, who alleged Republicans were getting money from Jeffrey Epstein, including a claim that she had evidence EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and other Republicans took money from Epstein. She had to backtrack on this claim when Zeldin posted on X that, yes, he had received donations to his campaign from Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, not the financier Epstein at the center of all of the controversy. Of course, Crockett had to backtrack and said, “Listen, I never said it was that Epstein.” Liar, liar, pants on fire – that’s exactly what she meant but, when caught lying, she makes that ridiculous statement. As an aside, Representative James Comer (R-Ky) and the House Oversight Committee Chairman who is leading the investigation into Epstein said, on November 18th, that a 2013 e-mail from a political consulting firm for Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ campaign “solicited money from Epstein,” inviting pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to a dinner featuring then-President Obama. This email also said, “Hakeem is committed to electing a Democratic majority in 2014 and is encouraging his friends (emphasis added) to participate in the DCCC/DSCCC fundraising dinner with President Obama this coming Monday night….Shoot us an email or give us a call if you would like to get involved with the dinner, or would like to get an opportunity to get to know Hakeem better.” Wow, Hakeem Jeffries wanted his “friend” Jeffrey Epstein to come to dinner and get to know him better. Those words never came out of his mouth the times he was criticizing Trump for knowing Epstein. Typical Democrat lying by omission. There are many more terrible stories to be told in the emails already released and I’m sure there will be too many stories and press conferences to count when they are all released. As for me, I’m going to try and avoid any future stores about Epstein. I don’t need to waste any more of my time reading about this sexual deviant. In the end, the emails thus far available to the public paint a picture of Epstein’s “friends” circling the wagons to protect a vile sexual predator and did nothing to stop him by reporting him to the authorities. They preferred the friendship of someone rich, well-connected, and living a glamorous life, rather than look at the crimes he was committing or protecting the underage girls being exploited by Epstein and his friends. Now, of course, they want us to believe how sorry they were for their association with Epstein – but, if Epstein had not been caught, you would have heard nothing from them. They should all be ashamed. Frankly, I wish they could be criminally charged as co-conspirators for allowing and enabling this pedophile to harm these his underage victims for so many years. Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV  I was watching with some interest California’s Proposition 50 related to redrawing Congressional District Maps and was disappointed (but not surprised) that it passed 64% to 36%. This is the very definition of gerrymandering, i.e., manipulating electoral boundaries to favor one party (in this case, the Democrats). For those a little unsure about why this matters, Congressional Districts are usually redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census numbers are published and drives how many representatives from each state will have a seat in Congress. Remember that Republicans control Congress now (though it sometimes does not look like it) and redrawing districts can help tip the scale in favor of either the Republicans or Democrats.
This latest urge by Democrats to redraw districts was really set off by President Trump, who urged Texas to redraw its districts, resulting in an additional 5 Republican seats. Yes, this was Republican gerrymandering. Unfortunately, a Texas judge ruled that Texas cannot use this new map for the midterm elections and must use the old map; Governor Abbot has said he will appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court. Following Texas redrawing its districts, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio also followed suit, favoring Republicans. The Democrats, understandably, weren’t happy (if they are ever really happy), and California’s Prop 50 was the result. Prop 50 should garner the Democrats an extra 5 seats, essentially nullifying Texas’s efforts. We must keep an eye on other states who might try to get redistricting done to favor Democrats before the midterm elections and certainly before the 2028 presidential race. When redrawing Congressional district maps had a lot of momentum in the early 2000’s, then California Governor Schwarzenegger led the charge on a ballot measure that established, in 2010, a non-partisan commission (the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission). Read that carefully, it was a nonpartisan commission. Proposition 50, spearheaded by the current California Governor, Gavin Gruesome Newsom, suspended this independent commission from today through 2031 (basically until after the 2030 Census). Under Prop 50, the districts will be redrawn by the California legislature starting in 2026 through 2030 – that’s right, the upcoming midterm elections in 2026 and the presidential elections in 2028 – and, of course, with the Democrats having a super majority in the California legislature, we know how that redistricting map will be drawn and who it will favor…Democrats for those who haven’t been paying attention. A wealthy ally of Schwarzenegger who bankrolled the campaign for the nonpartisan commission 15 years ago, spent $33 million to oppose Prop 50 but was outspent by almost a $100 million – mostly funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and public sector unions. The whole idea that the nonpartisan commission will resume in 2031 is, to me, a ridiculous notion. By 2030, these gerrymandered districts will be set in stone with a new gaggle of California Democratic House incumbents who benefited from these districts redrawn by the California legislature will resist with every breath in their body a return to a nonpartisan commission. I’m certain the Democrats will keep a super majority in California’s legislature and redrawing districts after the 2030 Census will give them another opportunity to get even more Democratic seats in the House of Representatives. With the slim margins the Republicans currently have in the Senate and House and the poor showing by Republican candidates across the country last November 4th, these redistricting efforts may tip the scale towards Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections, with Republicans losing control of the House. One political pundit predicts that only 17 out of 435 congressional races are a coin flip, with the remaining seats split evenly – 209 contests favor Republicans and 209 favoring Democrats. We need to keep a careful eye on redistricting efforts around the country, how that might affect the bottom line for the Republican Party in Congress, and whether we should oppose it. With more Republicans registered to vote in Nevada than Democrats for the first time since 2007, what is most important now is to get out and vote! In Nevada, conservative voters are notoriously lazy at midterms and not much better during presidential races. For the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, make your vote count. Get your conservative friends and neighbors to the polls, and vote, vote, vote! We want to keep Joe Lombardo as our Governor and get him as much Republican support in the Nevada legislature as possible. We also need to keep the majority in Congress so that the Democrats cannot hamstring President Trump in making and keeping America great. In the famous words of Larry the Cable Guy, “Life isn’t like a box of chocolates. It’s more like a jar of jalapenos…what you do today might burn your butt tomorrow.” Let’s not get our Republican butts burned. We know what we need to do, so let’s “Git’r done!” Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV  I wrote an article in Edition 21 of the Grassroot Conservative eMagazine (published on September 22nd) about how so many people are relying on “Dr. Google” to diagnose their medical conditions and whether or not to see their doctor. After all, you don’t have to get up from the couch to see Dr. Google and you don’t need to wait for an appointment sometime in the unknown future. And I am just as guilty as everyone else – I’ve seen Dr. Google too many times to count. While I do not like to share my medical problems, I thought it important to share my recent experience in the hope it might prevent a catastrophic medical issue for you in the future or might even save a life. I like to think I am relatively healthy. I control my weight, eat healthily most of the time, and work out regularly. I think this has given me a false sense that nothing is going to happen to me medically that might happen to someone who is not fit. My typical plan concerning medical issues was to ignore it and see if it goes away on its own. If it doesn’t go away after six months, the next step in my plan was to wait another six months just to be sure. I’ve changed my medical plan now. Earlier last week, I was having some spots of tingling and numbness on my left arm and small spots on the left side of my face. I’m pretty up to date on the symptoms of a stroke and heart attack and didn’t think I fit the full profile. I consulted Dr. Google who informed me that there were many things that could cause these symptoms, many of which were just not serious. I wasn’t suffering from most of the big signs of a stroke, e.g., arm or hand weakness, sudden confusion, facial drooping, vision changes, speech difficulty, trouble walking, or balance problems. I figured Dr. Google gave me no reason to consult a doctor and my healthy self would just power past it. I was wrong. Last Friday, after about three days of no changes in my condition, I called to get an appointment with my VA doctor. The VA appointment person recommended that I be transferred to a VA nurse to discuss my issues. Fortunately, I agreed and was transferred to the nurse. After I described what was going on, he recommended I go to an Emergency Room because I should be seen within four hours and Urgent Care may not meet that timeframe and likely would not have all of things I might need. I went to my local ER at Desert View Hospital at around 3 p.m. A CT scan was done (which confirmed, despite what my bride has told me at times, I do have a brain – but a leaky one). The ER doctor said I had a brain bleed on the right and left side – so Dr. Google got it wrong. Because I did not have any trauma to my head, he described it as a spontaneous brain bleed. He said that I needed to be transferred to an Emergency Room in Las Vegas (the only downside I have encountered in my six years living in Pahrump). The ER nurse informed me that I would typically go by helicopter but the LifeFlight helicopter was not flying due to the weather and I would be transported by ambulance with a critical care team onboard. I arrived at the Centennial Hills Hospital ER in Las Vegas around 9:40 p.m. Fortunately, my bride had gone home to pick up my Adapto Servo-Ventilation (“ASV”) machine that I would need to wear to address my sleep apnea if I stayed overnight and she met up with me at the Vegas ER. I’m happy she did because I do not believe the hospital had an ASV machine as the CPAP machine was more common. I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit around 11 p.m. I would like to say I slept overnight in the ICU but they woke me up every hour, drew blood, checked vitals, and did a series of tests to see if I had any new symptoms associated with a stroke or worsening of my current symptoms, so there really wasn’t any sleep involved, maybe twenty minutes here and there until around 5 a.m., when I was taken for another CT scan. My beautiful bride slept (uncomfortably) in a recliner in my room and got even less sleep than me. I saw a neurologist around 6:30 a.m. and we discussed my condition. She said a neurosurgeon would see me and he would determine if I needed surgical intervention. She ordered an EEG (which was done) and I needed to follow-up with her in two weeks. The neurosurgeon ultimately told me that the brain bleeds looked “older” so surgery was not necessary at this time. I had had an MRI ordered by a VA neurologist on August 3rd for a different issue (which was normal) so these bleeds occurred sometime between August 3rd and before I had these recent CT scans. The neurosurgeon said I could probably go home if the ICU doctor agreed; but I would need to follow-up with him in four weeks to see if there were any changes and that I needed to take it very easy for those four weeks. If there were no changes, we would figure out what to do next to address my symptoms. The ICU doctor ultimately discharged me. So, despite Dr. Google’s “thorough” examination and sage advice, I do have a serious condition which needed to be addressed rather quickly and which I hope will not become anything serious. With the increase and evolution of Artificial Intelligence models, Google looks more and more like it is providing a comprehensive answer to any medical inquiry but can be wrong on many, many counts. I will end this article with the same ending as my previous article on Dr. Google as I’ve now learned this from personal experience: “…please keep in mind that Dr. Google, while free and convenient, is no better than calling me up on the phone and asking for my considered medical opinion. It’s dangerous and could be life altering. And, of course, if you did call me up, my medical advice would be to ignore it and see if it goes away on its own…no matter how long it takes. All kidding aside, my real advice is, “Go and see a real doctor!”” Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV  I have written before about the sad state of our American Universities but maybe I should have started the story earlier in our educational timeline…grammar school, middle school, and high school.
In reading a report concerning this year’s incoming college students and their math skills (or lack thereof), I was shocked at what I was reading. Perhaps I should not have been surprised since I’ve experienced too many times some of these young people trying to give me change for an item costing $4.76 and I give them a $5 bill and a penny and they are baffled. Some want to give me back the penny and others have the “porch light is on but no one is home” look on their faces. When I tell them to just give me a quarter back, they think it’s some kind of magic trick when they use a calculator or punch in $5.01 on the register and the result shows 25 cents. But seeing these facts in black and white made me wonder if America can or will remain at the top of the proverbial food chain. We all remember word math problems, where you had to read the problem and produce the correct answer. Here’s a sad example of what I’m talking about: Billy has 9 dimes and 9 pennies. How many coins did he have in total? Seems pretty easy to me. I could do this type of basic math by the second or third grade. However, 20% of incoming college students (or 1 in 5 for the severely math challenged) could not correctly count the number of coins. How can this be? In another example, students were asked to solve for x in the following equation: (10 – 2)(4-6x) = 0 Sure, a little harder, but I learned to solve these types of equations in basic algebra in the eighth grade. But 80% of incoming college students (4 out of 5) could not solve this problem. 80%!! This month, the University of California San Diego, one of America’s highest-ranked public universities with a student population of about 45,000, reported the number of first-year students whose math skills fall below middle-school level “increased nearly thirtyfold” from 2020 to 2025 – which was 1 out of every 8 new students. UC San Diego offers a remedial math course that focuses on math concepts that are supposed to be learned between the 1st and 8th grades. A sad commentary on the math skills of these first-year college students. Enrollment skyrocketed for this remedial math class as incoming students are “increasingly unprepared for the quantitative and analytical rigor expected at UC San Diego.” This remedial math course was created in 2016 and meant to help about 1% of incoming students but, this year, 8.5% of incoming students signed up. Add to that an additional 3.3% of incoming students being placed in a remedial math class to cover basic algebra and geometry that should have been mastered in middle and high school. UC San Diego eliminated the SAT and ACT minimum score requirement in 2020, relying mostly on high school grades – which, today, are meaningless. Of those enrolled in UC San Diego’s remedial math class, 1 in 4 had a 4.0 grade point average (straight A’s for you older readers). The writers of this report were refreshingly blunt in saying that, “Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students.” The authors of the report deserve a lot of credit for saying out loud what most of the broader education establishment turns a blind eye to – that is, we are setting up these students to fail. Some UC San Diego officials blamed grade inflation and the expansion of admissions from “under-resourced schools.” I see bigger problems. Last year, Harvard University also began offering remedial writing and math courses to review “foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning.” Sad. I would bet dollars to donuts that many other universities are doing the same. While the majority of universities are now test-free or test-optional (read that as having no SAT or ACT minimum score requirement for admission), many have reinstated standardized testing requirements for applicants. These include Harvard (restarted in 2024), MIT, Purdue, University of Florida, and Ohio State University – which is no surprise given how poorly educated and unprepared for college many students have become. A former New York City school teacher and researcher at the American Enterprise Institute said that high schools are graduating students at a higher rate than in the past but student math proficiency does not match the increase. He stated, “We are graduating kids who simply are less proficient at math and reading than they were a generation ago.” An organization called the National Assessment of Educational Progress released their latest “Nation’s Report Card,” which showed record lows in math and reading proficiency for high school seniors, with just 22% proficient in math and 35% proficient in reading – let’s look at these numbers the other way around – 78% of 12th graders are not proficient in math and 65% are not proficient in reading. Holy square root, Batman! While many have blamed this downward trend in education on COVID, I think it goes much deeper than just blaming COVID. I reported in an earlier article about a 19-year-old student who graduated with honors in 2024 from the Hartford Public School System and even earned a scholarship to the University of Connecticut (where she is now a first-year student). She is suing the school district because she cannot read. I say again, graduated with honors, earned a scholarship, and she cannot read! She used speech-to-text apps to help her read essays and, according to her, despite pleas for help, the school system never addressed her reading inadequacies. I would have known if my son could not read long before he got to high school. I wonder where her parents were during her grammar, middle, and high school days. She said that in many of her classes, she was told to sit on the side and just draw pictures; yet she was never held back, graduated with honors, and earned a scholarship. And she is not alone. In 24 Illinois public schools, not one student can read at grade level. Nationwide, it has been reported that 54% of American adults read at or below a 6th grade level. With the increased access to Artificial Intelligence, it seems to me that AI will further mask a student’s inadequacies in math and writing. This is not a COVID issue. Something drastic needs to be done with American school systems that allow this to fester and continue. Until then, unless your child is the next Tiger Woods or Roger Federer and can earn millions of dollars playing golf or tennis, home schooling looks like a better and better option to give your child the best chance at succeeding in life. Jerry Hashimura Pahrump, NV |
Authors"The Grassroot Conservative" publication is a collection of Southern Nevada authors with strong independent voices writing on the issues that matter. Matt Sadler is the editor-in-chief of this new eMagazine and blog, Each author brings life experience, talent, and insight to each thoughtful article. Archives
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