DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Cuckoo Democrats And What They Have Become

And there you have it. That's what GOP'ers call parental choice that they fight so hard to maintain when they disagree with other parents choices.

What I see the difference in is how hard you'll fight against the rights of other parents to make choices for their children while you fight for the right to make choices for your own children.

According to all these medical experts you would be wrong. But we're supposed to take your non expert opinion over all of these professionals?


Just what our society needs. More self appointed medical experts.



Since it's a choice and not a mandate, who cares? Nobody is going to come to your church and demand your child gets sexual reassignment surgery.

18 out of 50 states. You still don't get the math do you? Whacko Republitards stepping on the choices of other parents while demanding choices for their children. The only difference? They want to force the choices for their children on everyone else.

I guess you didn't read this thread because thats what the lefty extremists in this thread are doing.

The castration of rapist in prisons is considered cruel and unusual punishment but let's let our innocent children be castrated. Makes no sense what so ever.

I’d say there is a LOT that goes over your head with your reasoning skills.

For anyone who may have missed it, this is what it looks like when a random person thinks they know more than over 20 professional medical organizations do including mental health organizations.

He compares something being forced on someone as punishment to people making a choice and somehow thinks he's making a point.

This is the next box to check, now that abortion was addressed with the Dobbs decision.

I don't want the government making decisions that a person/family should make.

Next on the agenda will be birth control. Thomas alluded to Griswold decision in his concurrence.

You should be a 3rd party candidates campaign manager.

I'm in a somewhat unique position and it's one many such people as myself will be in come election time depending on the state they live in. At the present time it seems there's little doubt that trump and Biden will be the major party nominees. Living in Tennessee, unless something drastic changes, trump will win this state. In 2020 trump received 60.7% of the vote and Biden received 37.4% of the vote. There's no way Biden can win in Tennessee. So while if I thought a vote for Biden would do any good or make any difference in my state I would most likely vote for Biden.

However it won't. As such, there may only be one way that my vote can make a difference and make a statement about my disgust for the choices the major parties have afforded us. That would be if the No Labels Party runs a candidate. If they do, at this point in time that's the direction I'm leaning towards when casting my vote.

Judge blocks Biden asylum policy because he's too tough on asylum seekers?

Judge blocks limits on asylum at U.S.-Mexico border but gives Biden administration time to appeal

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give President Joe Biden’s administration time to appeal.

The order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California takes away a key enforcement tool set in place by the Biden administration as coronavirus-based restrictions on asylum expired in May. The new rule imposes severe limitations on migrants seeking asylum but includes room for exceptions and does not apply to children traveling alone.

“The Rule — which has been in effect for two months — cannot remain in place,” Tigar wrote in an order that will not take effect for two weeks.

The Justice Department said it would seek to prevent the judge’s ruling from taking effect and that it’s confident the rule is lawful.

Immigrant rights groups that sued over the the rule applauded the judge’s decision.

“The promise of America is to serve as a beacon of freedom and hope, and the administration can and should do better to fulfill this promise, rather than perpetuate cruel and ineffective policies that betray it,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Katrina Eiland, who argued the case, said in a statement.

The ACLU and other groups had argued the rule violates a U.S. law that protects the right to asylum regardless of how a person enters the country. The groups said it forces migrants to seek protection in countries that don’t have the same robust asylum system and human rights protections as the United States. They also argued that the CBP One app the government wants migrants to use doesn’t have enough appointments and isn’t available in enough languages.

The administration had argued that protection systems in other countries that migrants travel through have improved. But Tigar said it’s not feasible for some migrants to seek protection in a transit country and noted the violence that many face in Mexico in particular.

“While they wait for an adjudication, applicants for asylum must remain in Mexico, where migrants are generally at heightened risk of violence by both state and non-state actors,” the judge wrote.

He also wrote that the rule is illegal because it presumes that people are ineligible for asylum if they enter the country between legal border crossings. But, Tigar wrote, Congress expressly said that should not affect whether someone is eligible for asylum.

The judge also rejected the administration’s arguments that it had provided other avenues for people to come to the U.S. and that should be taken into account. The administration has pointed to a program that allows as many as 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they have a sponsor and fly into the U.S. The judge noted that such pathways are not available to all migrants.

The Biden administration also argued that it was allowing potentially hundreds of thousands of people into the U.S. through the CBP One app. Migrants use the app to schedule an appointment to present themselves at the border to seek entry to the U.S. and request asylum.

Tigar noted that the 1,450 appointments currently available daily outstrips demand, leaving asylum seekers waiting in Mexico where they’re at “serious risk of violence.”

The Biden administration said the asylum rule was a key part of its strategy to strike a balance between strict border enforcement and ensuring several avenues for migrants to pursue valid asylum claims. According to Customs and Border Protection, total encounters along the southern border — meaning migrants who either came to one of the ports of entry or tried to cross between them — were down 30 percent in June compared with the previous month. The agency said it was the lowest monthly total since February 2021.

Critics have argued that the rule is essentially a newer version of efforts by President Donald Trump to limit asylum at the southern border. The Supreme Court eventually allowed the Trump administration to limit asylum for people who don’t apply for protection in a country they travel through before coming to the U.S. to go into effect. But another Trump effort to bar people from applying for asylum except at an official border entry point was caught up in litigation and never took effect.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...uDyS8G5XZ_nOQlfdtAX-KyulF1ZJdCg_jO089JtM


CBP Releases June 2023 Monthly Update

Release Date
Tue, 07/18/2023

Statistics Show Lowest Southwest Border Encounters Since February 2021

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-june-2023-monthly-update

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-plea-deal-appears-fall-apart-first-court-appearance

Hunter's not getting a plea deal or immunity.

There is nothing that states he will not get a plea deal. It's simply on hold as of now..........

Hunter Biden plea deal on hold after judge said she wouldn't 'rubber stamp' it: Recap

A federal judge refused Wednesday to accept a plea agreement with Hunter Biden after an unexpected disagreement about the terms between prosecutors and defense lawyers temporarily upended the resolution to the five-year federal investigation.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika urged both sides to come to an agreement and called for a lengthy mid-day recess. But she wanted more time to review the proposal before accepting it.

"You all are telling me 'just rubber stamp the agreement, Your Honor,’” Noreika told the lawyers.

Biden pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor charges he failed to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018, when he received more than $1.5 million each year. Biden told the court a third party paid the back taxes along with interest and fees pursuant to a personal loan he has not began to repay.

The plea deal had also covered a gun charge and would have allowed him to enter a pretrial diversion program that could eventually wipe the charge off the record.

But prosecutors and defense lawyers disagreed about the terms of the plea agreement, with Biden insisting any guilty plea encompass immunity from any other criminal charges.

Noreika asked the parties to submit legal briefs on the legitimacy of the deals offered to Hunter Biden within 30 days.

U.S. Attorney Leo Wise said that would require ordering transcripts of Wednesday's hearing and said 14 days would be sufficient.

However, Noreika set no specific date for the next hearing before court adjourned.

The hearing was held in the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building, named after the former U.S. senator a young Joe Biden defeated in 1972.
GOP gets involved in case

Noreika's postponement of the plea agreement came after Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, urged Noreika to reject the plea deal based on the allegations from two IRS investigators of political favoritism in the case.

Julianne Murray, chair of the Delaware Republican Party, was in the courtroom Wednesday. She filed a separate brief on behalf the Heritage Foundation, which claims that it offers "information that has not, and likely will not, be presented to the Court by either the government or the defendant."

"I have not had time to review those submissions," the judge said, noting it consisted of 900 pages.

The plea agreement aimed to resolve a five-year investigation into Hunter Biden. The case remains a flashpoint for Republican investigations into Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden.

Republicans have questioned the sources of Hunter Biden’s income and accused him of peddling influence with his father for foreign companies. The White House has dismissed the allegations as baseless innuendo.

Here is what we know:

White House responds

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions shortly after the decision.

"Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter for him," she said Wednesday afternoon. "As we have said, the president, the first lady, they love their son, and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life."

She said the case was handled independently and by a prosecutor appointed by former President Donald Trump, referring other questions to the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden's legal team.

'An absolute disgrace'

As Hunter Biden's plea deal fell apart − at least temporarily − Republicans on Capitol Hill ran a victory lap.

“He thought he was pleading to get rid of everything and they said, ‘No, it’s only the tax evasions, not the Foreign Agent Registration Act, money laundering, and the other stuff,’” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee investigating the Biden family.“The only thing is I'm glad that people see that what I've said for weeks is true, that there is an ongoing investigation of the entire family,” Comer added.

There hasn't been any evidence yet to substantiate GOP claims linking President Biden to his son's legal challenges.

Other Republicans continued their criticism of the plea deal that dissolved in court Wednesday afternoon, when it was put on hold by a federal judge.

“The plea deal is an absolute disgrace,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.“It is a sweetheart deal designed by the Biden Justice Department to give Hunter Biden a slap on the wrist and its principal objective is protecting Joe Biden and insulating him from his own involvement and corruption selling access to foreign nationals,” Cruz added.

“I don’t think that it was a good deal for the American public. I think it was clear he was getting favored treatment because he’s the president’s son and they’re trying to close down and shut down the investigations into the Biden (family),” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told USA TODAY Wednesday.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., pointed to last week’s high-profile hearings in the House with two whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service who alleged the Department of Justice interfered with the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Lawler said Congress is yet to be done investigating Hunter Biden’s case.

“You have numerous whistleblowers right now coming forward and saying (interference) occurred. These are not Republican whistleblowers by the way, these are Democrats. These are registered Democrats coming forward and saying this is a problem,” Lawler told reporters Wednesday.
How to watch Hunter Biden press conference

Hunter Biden will hold a press conference Wednesday after his court appearance in Delaware, marking his first public reaction to federal tax charges and an anticipated plea deal.

The president's son is expected to avoid jail time, but is facing mounting pressure from President Joe Biden's political enemies in the House GOP, which tried to intervene in the case and asked the judge to reject the plea deal.

What is Hunter Biden accused of?

Biden is set to plead guilty to receiving $1.5 million in taxable income each year in 2017 and 2018 and failing to pay more than $100,000 in taxes each of those years, according to a prosecution letter that announced the charges.

Each charge carries a maximum 12 months in prison, but prosecutors are expected to recommend probation, according to The Associated Press.

The judge, Noreika, will determine the sentence.
Gun charge still pending

The gun charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, alleges Biden made a false statement on a federal form when he bought a gun in 2018.

The Gun Control Act prohibits drug users from possessing firearms. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled the ban applies to "a conviction for use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year."

Biden filled out a federal form when he bought a handgun in October 2018 in which he replied “no” to a question of whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance," according to the Washington Post.

Hunter Biden drug addiction

By his own account in his memoir “Beautiful Things,” Biden battled drug addiction and for periods during 2018 smoked crack “every 15 minutes.”

"I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” said Clark, Biden’s lawyer. “He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward."

What is a plea deal?

A plea deal is a negotiation between a defendant and a prosecutor in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to one or several offenses in exchange for a lenient punishment from the prosecutor, according to the Cornell Legal Information Institute.

The prosecutor can agree to reduce the number or severity of a charge, thus allowing them to “to focus their time and resources on other cases,” according to the institute. But ultimately it is the judge’s decision on how to punish a defendant.

Scholars estimate that about 90% to 95% of federal and state court cases are resolved through plea deals, according to the Department of Justice.

Who is Maryellen, Noreika, the judge overseeing the Hunter Biden case?

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax and gun cases, was appointed by former President Donald Trump and confirmed with bipartisan support in the Senate.

The Senate confirmed her appointment in August 2018 by voice vote, suggesting her nomination wasn’t controversial. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., has cited her appointment as an example of bipartisanship and how the system should work.

Noreika has a bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University, her master’s is from Columbia University and her law degree is from the University of Pittsburgh. She was a lawyer in private practice in Wilmington for 25 years before Trump appointed her to the bench.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/26/hunter-biden-tax-charges/70455706007/

You may wish to wait until the race is over before you try to take a victory lap. Even though that's never been your MO.

Hunters business partner will testify next week that Joe was in the bribery meetings.

I would have written that headline slightly different. I would have said “statistics show that after 2.5 years of biden border policy and 7 million crossing the border, the number of illegal crossing have final abate somewhat. Border patrol agents are breathing a sigh of relief at a reduction in the chaos they have endured for the past 2.5 years.”

A little wordy perhaps but expresses the situation more completely.

Well, you broke the rules Keith. You cannot have truthful headlines, they went bye-bye during the Carter administration. Besides, crossings are only triple under Biden. But as long as they're down over the last three months, well, nothing to see here.

Won't matter unless there's DNA evidence and a verified pic of Joe with a stack of cash in his hands.

Or you could write the headline.... "Republicans fear tactics over increased border traffic after new Biden border policy were wrong"

That would certainly be accurate as well.

Who told you that? Jim Jordan?

James Comer would be more likely.

He is testifying monday.

j/c:

So you're depending and putting faith in a witness who is a convicted felon? Sounds like he passes the threshold of what Republicans consider a credible witness. That sounds about right......

Court reinstates fraud conviction for Hunter Biden business partner

Devon Archer was convicted of defrauding the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of bond-sale proceeds.

A federal appeals court reinstated the fraud conviction of Hunter Biden’s former business partner on Wednesday, reversing a lower court judge who had granted his request for a retrial.

Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme, which defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of the proceeds of bond sales. But the scheme was committed under the auspices of a broader business venture in which Hunter Biden was involved, and the perpetrators invoked his name to bolster their legitimacy, according to testimony and a consultant’s slide presentation presented at trial. A lawyer for Hunter Biden has said his name was invoked without his knowledge and that he cut ties with the perpetrators when he learned of their misconduct.

Devon Archer, whose conviction was reinstated by Wednesday’s ruling, had partnered with Hunter Biden in Rosemont Seneca, a Washington-based investment firm. Starting in 2014, the pair served together on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company accused of corruption, at the same time that his father oversaw U.S. policy towards Ukraine. Hunter Biden has called his decision to take the board seat “a mistake,” while Joe Biden has defended the decision, saying, “my son did nothing wrong.”

A lawyer for Archer, Matthew Schwartz, decried the ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. “As the experienced federal judge who presided over Mr. Archer’s month-long trial determined, he ‘lacked the requisite intent and is thus innocent of the crimes charged,’” Schwartz said. “Today’s ruling, which second-guesses that judge’s decision without having sat through the evidence and listened to the witnesses, is beyond disappointing.”

Archer was convicted in June 2018 of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, but five months later, trial Judge Ronnie Abrams of the Southern District of New York overturned the conviction.

In its ruling, the Second Circuit wrote that the District Court “abused its discretion” in overturning the jury’s verdict.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/08/hunter-biden-business-partner-fraud-428154

hopefully Hunter goes to jail before Trump. Then the far right fascist MAGA movement won’t be able to cry.

Some good news...
4
Eddie Spence and Kailey Leinz
Fri, July 28, 2023 at 11:39 AM EDT·1 min read
In this article:


(Bloomberg) -- The Inflation Reduction Act is spurring manufacturers to return to the US in droves, the chief executive officer of US Steel Corp. said.



“This is the most amazing thing we’ve seen in the United States for a very long time,” David Burritt said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It’s a Manufacturing Renaissance Act.”

US industrialists have been cheering the praises of the IRA, which offers generous subsidies to domestic manufacturers of green technology such as electric vehicles batteries. It’s faced stern criticism from European countries, which are racing to match the scale of the funding.

The IRA may drive stronger steel demand in the US, particularly from the metals-intensive renewable energy sector. Steelmakers also will benefit from tax credits for their decarbonization goals.

“I couldn’t be more bullish on the steel industry,” Burritt said. “It’s fantastic to see that our country finally recognizes how important a strong manufacturing base is.”


Earlier Friday, the company posted second-quarter profit and sales that topped estimates.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-steel-ceo-hails-ira-153910070.html

You can say that again.
Swing …and a miss….another nothing burger from the Goper’s. If they spent as much energy into governing as they do on Hunter and Hillary we wouldn’t be forced to watch a new trump dumpster fire everyday.

But they do get their crowd in a frenzy convincing them they actually have something until it's actually shown that they don't. All that BS about releasing the FD-1023 form that was "supposed to" blow the lid off the whole thing. In the end they had to admit that there was no actual evidence that such a tape actually existed.

The squad is really ticking me off with their nonsense against Israel.

Ilhan Omar drives me insane.

Also, there’s this:

A Senator’s New Wife and Her Old Friends Draw Prosecutors’ Attention
Tracey Tully
Tue, August 1, 2023 at 8:27 AM EDT·10 min read

Nadine Menendez and her husband, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, attended a state dinner at the White House. (NYT)
In early 2019, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his new girlfriend, Nadine Arslanian, were riding high.

He had avoided a federal bribery conviction after his trial ended with a hung jury, and the couple had begun traveling the world.

Menendez proposed to Arslanian that October in India with a grand gesture, singing “Never Enough” from “The Greatest Showman” outside the Taj Mahal. They married a year later in a small ceremony in the Queens borough of New York City and were showered with gifts from a dozen influential friends, including the head of one of New Jersey’s largest health care systems and a lawyer who would later become the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.


The senator moved into his wife’s modest split-level house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and they have since attended two state dinners at the White House, dining with the president of France and the prime minister of India.

But their whirlwind romance has taken a sudden dark turn.

Menendez, the 69-year-old Democratic chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, is under investigation by the Justice Department for the second time in less than a decade. And this time, his wife is also in prosecutors’ crosshairs.

The new inquiry, led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, appears to be focused at least in part on the possibility that either the senator or his wife received undisclosed gifts from a company run by a friend of Nadine Menendez, and that those gifts might have been given in exchange for political favors, according to two people with knowledge of the matter and subpoenas issued in the case.



Unlike her husband, who took a seat on a New Jersey school board as a 20-year-old and rose to prominence in Hudson County’s famously sharp-elbowed political scrum, Nadine Menendez, 56, has lived a mainly private life.

She holds a master’s degree in French language and civilization from New York University, but did not work outside the home while raising her two children in Bergen County, New Jersey, according to court records and longtime friends. She is described by friends, acquaintances and two former lawyers in much the same way: social, smart and highly fashion-conscious.

She struggled financially after a 2005 divorce and even faced foreclosure. But by 2020, the year she and Bob Menendez were married, she had formed an international consulting company, and her assets included bars of gold bullion then valued at as much as $250,000.

Nadine Menendez, who is represented by a Washington-based lawyer, now finds herself at the center of an investigation that carries the risk of steep criminal penalties and could alter the political playing field in New Jersey and in Washington as her husband prepares to run for a fourth term next year.


The senator’s campaign finance reports underscore the gravity of the new federal inquiry. He has spent roughly $290,000 since January in connection with the investigation, federal election records show, and last month he created a new defense fund to avoid further draining his political accounts.

The senator has said that he expected the inquiry would be “successfully closed.” His office did not respond to requests for additional comment.

A Halal Monopoly

The full scope of the federal inquiry, including Nadine Menendez’s role, remains unknown. But the investigation appears to focus at least in part on the couple’s connection to a 40-year-old New Jersey businessperson, Wael Hana, who has known Nadine Menendez since before she started dating the senator.



She and Hana were part of a group of friends who frequently socialized at restaurants in northern New Jersey; some of them shared an affinity for Cuban cigars. Several members of the network have received subpoenas, according to a friend who was interviewed by prosecutors and lawyers representing other people in the case.

Hana began operating a startup company, IS EG Halal, in New Jersey in 2019, and it soon became the sole entity authorized to certify that any halal food product imported into Egypt from anywhere in the world had been prepared according to Islamic law.

It was an unlikely development, given that Hana, a U.S. citizen born in Egypt, has said in court papers that he had no prior experience in the halal industry.

Before 2019, four companies in the United States had divvied up the work of ensuring that meat exported to Egypt was free from ingredients prohibited by Islamic law and met strict processing standards, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.



The decision to give authorization solely to one company did not require U.S. approval. But it was an abrupt pivot by the government of Egypt, and news stories at the time chronicled how the steep new fees for certification were expected to lead to higher meat prices in a country that is home to 90 million Muslims.

In November 2019, the FBI searched Hana’s home and offices. Investigators seized computers, cellphones, Hana’s passport and “every single piece of paper” in the company’s headquarters, Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said in a court filing. Hana was not charged, and Lustberg, in the filing, said that his client was told he was not a target of the investigation.

Federal prosecutors and the FBI are now investigating whether the senator or his wife received a luxury car or an apartment in Washington from Hana’s company. It is, however, unclear which, if any, of Menendez’s official acts as a senator is under scrutiny by prosecutors.

Hana’s spokesperson, Ellen Davis, has said that he got the halal business without assistance from any U.S. public official. “Allegations about cars, apartments, cash and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with IS EG Halal to Sen. Menendez or his wife at all — let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment — are totally without basis,” she said in May. She declined additional comment.



The investigation has reached in other directions as well.

Prosecutors have asked for any correspondence from Nadine Menendez, Bob Menendez or a prominent New Jersey developer, Fred Daibes, about a bill that has stalled in Trenton, according to a person familiar with a subpoena issued in May to state Sen. Nick Sacco who was not authorized to speak about it publicly.

The legislation would limit the height of buildings near the Palisades along the Hudson River and could have scuttled a skyscraper complex at 115 River Road in Edgewater, New Jersey, which Daibes has been planning to build for years.

Daibes, whose company owns the building where IS EG Halal has its headquarters in Edgewater, pleaded guilty to an unrelated federal bank-fraud charge last year; his sentencing, which is expected to result only in probation, was recently rescheduled for the fourth time.


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Lustberg, who also represents Daibes in the bank-fraud case, said the new Oct. 26 sentencing date should not be interpreted to mean that his client was cooperating with prosecutors. “Fred Daibes is not cooperating with the authorities against Sen. Menendez or anybody else,” Lustberg said.

A Shared Cause, and Pancakes

Bob and Nadine Menendez first met years ago at one of his well-known haunts — an IHOP in Union City, New Jersey, where he was once mayor. They began dating in late 2018.

They quickly found common cause: a desire for the U.S. government to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, a brutal campaign by the former Ottoman Empire that killed 1.5 million people, including several of Nadine Menendez’s relatives.



In 2019, after a decadelong effort, Bob Menendez succeeded in getting the Senate to approve a resolution acknowledging the deaths as genocide, a step that paved the way for President Joe Biden’s formal recognition of the massacre two years later.

“When he passed it, I had tears of joy,” Nadine Menendez said in a 2020 interview with “The Armenian Report,” an English-language podcast.

“People ask me, ‘What’s the next thing? What are you pushing him to do, backing him up to do? What would you like to see?’ ” she added. “For me, the one and only thing I wanted was the recognition of the Armenian genocide.”

Nadine Menendez did not respond to requests for comment. But on the podcast she explained that she was born in Lebanon to Armenian parents, who fled during the Lebanese civil war. They emigrated to the United States when she was a child, eventually settling in New York.


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Court records and interviews with her former lawyers, acquaintances and longtime friends show that the years after her divorce were a time of legal tumult and financial uncertainty.

She relied mainly on alimony and child support, and at one point picked up part-time work as a host at a New Jersey restaurant, said Douglas Anton, a lawyer who represented her in several past legal matters, including a dispute over her ex-husband’s monthly payments and a lawsuit against an insurance company.

Anton, who dated Nadine Menendez before her relationship with Bob Menendez began, recounted being struck by her sharp intelligence and feeling frustrated that she had not pursued a career.

“Just a smart woman,” Anton said. “Her talents were being wasted.”

In 2014, after having trouble paying the $1,897 monthly mortgage on the home she now shares with the senator, she enrolled in a federal program that lowered her payments, court records show. By June 2019 she had failed to make even the lower payments for six months, and Freddie Mac had begun foreclosure proceedings.

Just as the foreclosure began, she founded a consulting business with the help of one of her soon-to-be-husband’s close friends. It was the start of a dramatic improvement in her finances.

State records show that Nadine Menendez’s business, Strategic International Business Consultants, was incorporated on the night the mortgage company began foreclosure proceedings. The simple, one-page form creating the limited liability company was faxed to New Jersey’s Department of Treasury by a law firm run by Donald Scarinci, who testified during the senator’s bribery trial in Newark, New Jersey.

The company is run solely by Nadine Menendez from her home, according to state records, and does not have an online footprint or phone number. It appears on her husband’s required financial disclosure reports because they are married, but little else about the nature of the firm is known.

Scarinci declined to comment.

The foreclosure was dismissed two months later after part of the debt was repaid and the mortgage was reinstated, according to a representative at the law firm that handled the foreclosure proceeding.

Then, a year and a half after their marriage, Bob Menendez amended a 2020 financial disclosure form to include a new asset belonging to his wife: bars of gold bullion worth as much as $250,000.

It is unclear how she came into possession of the gold, and in late June, he filed yet another amended report, noting that his wife had sold between $200,000 and $400,000 of the bullion.

David Schertler, Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, declined to comment.

A Wide Net

Proving that elected leaders accepted gifts or favors in exchange for an official act has only gotten harder in the five years since Bob Menendez’s 2017 federal bribery trial, after a series of Supreme Court rulings narrowed the definition of what kind of conduct can serve as the basis for a corruption prosecution. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have seemingly cast a wide net, issuing subpoenas in phases as the investigation broadened.

A spokesperson for the Southern District declined to comment.

Despite the investigation, Bob Menendez has steadily raised funds to run for reelection, and he has remained a vocal presence in Washington and in New Jersey.

“I know Bob to be a real decent, honest guy, who I consider to be a good friend,” said Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey.

He said he did not know Nadine Menendez as well but had spent time with the couple socially.

“Very nice, very pleasant,” he said before offering an example of a typical exchange.

“‘Hey, Nadine. Hey, Mark.’ A little cordial kiss. ‘How’s the weather?’ But not halal meat, or whatever this freaking thing is about.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company


—————————————————

Menéndez embodies the epitome of corruption on the right. I think he’s also taken the approach of “Don’t outrun the bear. Outrun the person next to you.” With all the shenanigans on the Right going on right now, he seems to evade the public’s wrath for the most part.

Hopefully if the investigation leads to evidence that indeed deserves to be prosecuted they will pay for their misdeeds.

I’m not a fan of the Islamic take on Israel either, but BBN is so corrupt that he has turned Israel into a banana republic.

I think where a lot of people lose focus is thinking that not supporting a nations government officials is the same thing as not supporting the people of that nation. That's two totally different things. The political regime controlling Israel as of now is doing everything within their power to undermine democracy which sounds quite familiar to me. I certainly don't support that regime. On the other hand I very strongly support the people of Israel.

That's a good way to put it, and agree with both you and OCD. Netanyahu is rather self-serving, and demonstrates a lot of those similar undertones that we've become all too familiar with.

The far left gone wild.........

School board votes to change mascot at California high school

(KRON) — The Mount Diablo Unified School District voted Wednesday night to replace Concord High School’s current mascot, “The Minutemen”, with a bear.

The Minutemen is a revolutionary war soldier armed with a rifle. The debate over a mascot began when the district updated their policy to avoid mascots depicting humans.

Some people say changing the mascot would only result in a loss of an unnecessary amount of money and suggested to the school board that they should remove the firearm instead, or add an African American minutemen.

Holy moly...now just wait for the bear rights advocates to show up and cancel the bear statue idea.

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"Cuckoo Democrats And What They Have Become"

What cuckoo Dems haven't become is: INDICTED.......4 times.

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