Tag: Scandals

The Epstein Bullsh*t

The news and the internet has lost its mind over this Epstein file thingy….

To be honest I have not cared one iota about this crap along the Epstein Line….I have had my attention elsewhere and this did not interest make at all….but that was about a week or more ago….now it is getting out of hand.

The MAGA infighting over the Jeffrey Epstein files continues to escalate, and now Democrats are piling on. Axios reports that Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna introduced a resolution requiring the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein, forcing House Republicans to shoot it down Monday night. Khanna, however, promised to reintroduce the measure “again and again and again.” As NBC News explains, Khanna’s move comes as President Trump is facing a near revolt among MAGA allies who are livid with his administration, particularly Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi has reneged on a pledge to release the Epstein files, instead saying the Justice Department has concluded that he had no “client list” of the rich and powerful and that the sex offender took his own life in prison. While Tucker Carlson, Laura Loomer, Steve Bannon, and others have been going after the Trump administration’s about-face, Democrats are now joining the attacks. “Trump administration officials are either lying about the file and keeping it covered up to protect themselves, or they lied about its existence in a shameless political ploy to get elected,” says Democratic National Committee adviser Tim Hogan. “Either way, it is disgusting, and they have to be held accountable.”

  • In MAGA: Confused about the infighting among Trump allies? Will Sommer of the Bulwark writes that five distinct factions have emerged, and he breaks them down in an analysis. One is the “get over it” crowd, with figures such as Charlie Kirk getting in line behind Trump and urging people to drop the matter. Opposite them are the “Epstein dead-enders” such as Carlson. For them, “Epstein has come to stand for everyone and everything that screws the little guy: mass immigration to depress wages, housing unaffordability, and much more. If the elites can keep abusing girls with impunity, what else can they get away with?”
  • Exit strategies: An Axios analysis suggests three ways that Trump can get out of this mess, starting with the appointment of a special counsel to review the entire Epstein case.
  • Analysis: Shawn McCreesh provides an overview of all this in the New York Times. “It is entirely too soon to know what the revolt will mean or if and when it might sputter out, but the nature of it was stunning to behold,” he writes. “It was like a Mobius strip of paranoia and distrust: a political movement that galvanized and exploded around a conspiracy theory—lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace were central to Mr. Trump’s political rise—cannibalizing itself over the mother of all modern conspiracy theories.” The latter refers to the idea that Epstein had dirt on powerful people and was murdered to make sure he stayed silent.

Everybody is looking for a way to use the saga to some advantage….Dems hoping to cash in on the possibility of something hidden in the files….MAGA looking to discredit anyone who wants to believe that Donny has somehow done something nefarious….

And me I do not give a sh*t!

There is more important stuff than this drama that this country needs to focus on….and yet the simple minds pick this POS.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is This The Scandal Of 2024?

There are many incidents in 2024 that we could say was the scandal of the year……but I think this situation hits the nail on the head….at least in my mind.

Looking back on 2024, Peggy Noonan has no doubt of the scandal of the year: “the decline of Joe Biden’s mental acuity” and what she says was a coverup by White House staff. The Wall Street Journal columnist claims President Biden “has been in apparent cognitive decline for some years, perhaps since before taking office, and wasn’t fully up to the job.” She suggests the right move would’ve been to inform the public. Instead, the Biden White House “felt justified in misleading the public about the president’s true state,” protecting him from scrutiny—until it couldn’t. With the June presidential debate, “the country finally saw what those in the White House saw every day,” Noonan writes, adding the alleged coverup will forever color the Biden administration’s reputation.

She contrasts the White House’s alleged actions with those of the wife and aides of Woodrow Wilson who “misled the public as to his condition” after the president was left incapacitated in 1919. In her 1939 memoir, Edith Bolling Wilson wrote that she suggested her husband should resign before a doctor told her that would be bad for the country and that she should essentially serve in his place until he recovered. She claimed to have acted as an intermediary and “I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs.” However, in his 2013 biography of her husband, historian A. Scott Berg wrote that Bolling Wilson had “executed the physical and most of the mental duties of the office” and “enshrouded the Presidency in as much secrecy as possible.”

“The Wilsons’ historical reputation was never the same. Nor will the Bidens’ be,” writes Noonan, who suggests that to mislead the public about the president’s true state is “Democratic Party gospel.” Apart from the alleged coverups related to Democrats Biden and Wilson, Noonan refers to speculation that Ronald Reagan was experiencing cognitive decline shortly before he left office. “Political parties, like people, must beware the stories they tell themselves, the stories they weave and come to believe that just are not true,” Noonan concludes. “The not-true ones can get you in terrible trouble, especially the ones you use to justify your actions and that make poor personal motives seem noble.”

Read the full piece here.

Like I said this ‘scandal’ I agree with….I was never a big Biden supporter so this should come as no surprise to anyone.

If you think there is something else that is the ‘big’ scandal of 2024….please elaborate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

OMG! Another Sports Scandal!

This post is for my readers that need a good chuckle on this Saturday.

There have been many scandals in the sports world….sex scandals, gun scandals, fights, dog fighting scandals, gambling on and on….there seems something endemic in sports that seems to breed abuses…….few sports are immune….sports like baseball, basketball, football (both American and international) etc.

Let me go on record here…..because an activity has a winner and loser does not make it a sport….like poker, pickleball, teqball and whatever that thing is with a frisbee and of course….corn hole (us old farts have a different definition of the term)…..This is where I pick up this post…the world of pro corn hole…..

Like pickleball, cornhole has exploded in popularity in recent years—but fans are worried that corruption is creeping in as the sport moves further from its roots at tailgate parties and backyard barbecues. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as “perhaps the greatest controversy in the sport’s history,” allegations of cheating rocked the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships earlier this year. The sport involves throwing fabric bean bags at a board with a hole in one end, and both sides in a high-stakes doubles match accused their opponents of using illegal bags. After a one-hour delay, officials at the August event, which aired on ESPN, determined that both sides were using noncompliant bags, but they decided it probably wasn’t intentional and the contest could go on.

The fabric bags used to be filled with corn, which gave the sport its name, but the preferred filling is now resin pellets, per SB Nation. Flatter, thinner bags can give players an edge, and manufacturers say that instead of just breaking them in through playing, they have heard of players boiling the bags, putting them in the washer and dryer, and even running them over. Some players treat the bags with vinegar or fabric softener to reduce stiffness and friction. At the ACL championships, some of the bags officials inspected were found to be below the regulation size and weight of 6 by 6 inches and 16 ounces.

In the “BagGate” game, a $15,000 prize was at stake. With the sport now attracting sponsorship deals, top cornhole players can make around $250,000 year. ACL spokesman Trey Ryder says the league is cracking down on noncompliant bags and is “exploring infrastructure for automated bag testing.” “I think it’s funny that anyone believed it would be all friendships and rose petals forever in cornhole,” a commenter on the Addicted to Cornhole Facebook page said, per the Journal. “Now the dirty underbelly is being exposed.”

This news is corny (no pun intended)….but damn hilarious.

Have a great Saturday and tune in tomorrow for more titillating news to entertain and inform.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Teapot Dome Scandal

The weekend begins and the news is damn boring…..so it is time for one of those darn history posts….

In case your history is a bit hazy….The Teapot Dome Scandal was during the Harding admin in the early 1900s…..

The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government. The scandal involved ornery oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, illegal liquor sales, a murder-suicide, a womanizing president and a bagful of bribery cash delivered on the sly. In the end, the scandal would empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. It also marked the first time a U.S. cabinet official served jail time for a felony committed while in office.

https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/teapot-dome-scandal

With the intro out of the way…..

Some historians are saying the 4 years of the Trump admin was worse and more scandalous the the Teapot Dome Scandal….

Scan over the past few years and the stench of corruption wafting from Trump’s orbit is staggering. Campaign chairmen who secretly worked for foreign officials while skimming millions on the side. Presidential lawyers defrauding banks and taxpayers alike, or ushering in whichever foreign patron they could find. All of this while Trump tossed open the doors of his business to any and all comers, regardless of sources of their funds, regardless of whether Americans ever learned any details of their payments. (In a depressing bit of historic resonance, Trump’s first interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, resigned in disgrace under a cloud of his own corruption allegations—a move that few will remember, given the cascade of ethics violations and conflicts of interest deluging the administration throughout Trump’s four years.)

…

Against the past few years, Teapot Dome appears almost quaint—a relic of a bygone, back-slapping era, a time when Americans paid off Americans, all for other Americans’ benefits, all in a neat, tidy circle of domestic graft. It’s not just the magnitude of the Trump-era corruption that challenges our notion of what an American president dedicated to financial misconduct can accomplish. It’s that now, the players are transnational in scope—crossing borders, crossing boundaries, taking full advantage of the financial secrecy tools wherever they may be, and the fecund opportunities that a president like Trump can provide.

Trump-Era Corruption Eclipses Even Teapot Dome

With a do nothing Congress will we ever see justice for the American people for the crimes committed by Trump and his cronies?

Any Thoughts?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

OMG! The Most Corrupt Admin In History

That is the narrative that the media is passing around these days….Trump is the head of a basically criminal enterprise…..makes for good copy and a good propaganda piece…..but let’s look at another presidential term and what transpired….that would be the term of G. W. Bush.

It interests me that all these pundits are comparing Trump to the tenure of other presidents in history…..but they seldom talk about the “scandals” of these presidents…..so how do they are match up?

Let’s look at those in recent history……

One of the most scandal heavy presidencies is that of Good Old “Dub”…..let’s look at the Executive Branch scandals……and what became known as “Lawyergate”……

  • “Lawyergate” or the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy refers to President Bush firing, without explanation, eleven Republican federal prosecutors whom he himself had appointed. It is alleged that they were fired for prosecuting Republicans and not prosecuting Democrats.[456][457] When Congressional hearings were called, a number of senior Justice Department officials cited executive privilege and refused to testify under oath and instead resigned, including:
  1. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
  2. Karl Rove, Advisor to President Bush
  3. Harriet Miers, Legal Counsel to President Bush, was found in Contempt of Congress
  4. Michael A. Battle, Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys in the Justice Department
  5. Bradley Schlozman, Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys who replaced Battle
  6. Michael Elston, Chief of Staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
  7. Paul McNulty, Deputy Attorney General to William Mercer
  8. William W. Mercer, Associate Attorney General to Alberto Gonzales
  9. Kyle Sampson, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
  10. Monica Goodling, Liaison between President Bush and the Justice Department
  11. Joshua Bolten, Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush was found in Contempt of Congress
  12. Sara M. Taylor, Aide to Presidential Advisor Karl Rove

There is so much more…..all three branches none are immune…..Read about all the scandals and corruption stories from the Bush White House…..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_scandals_in_the_United_States#Legislative_branch_2

Like I stated earlier….we are always talking about the scandals and corruption in the Trump White House….but reality shows us that ALL…repeat….ALL presidencies have had their scandals and corruption……

I read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Scapegoat For All Seasons

Let’s talk about Russia….and NO this is not about their alleged tampering into the US elections….recently a ex-spy in the UK and his daughter are poisoned and Haley ran to the UN to let it be known…..

Nikki Haley came out strong against Russia and in support of the United Kingdom on Wednesday following the nerve agent attack that left a former Russian spy and his adult daughter in critical condition in England, CNN reports. “The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack,” the US ambassador to the UN told the Security Council, adding the White House “stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain.” “Time and time again, member states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance,” Haley said. “Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable.”

It was by far the most forceful statement out of the Trump administration. Rex Tillerson had said Russia was “clearly” responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia but was shortly fired by Trump, NBC News reports. When asked about Tillerson’s firing Tuesday, Trump said “as soon as we get the facts straight” the US would “condemn Russia or whoever it may be.” According to Business Insider, former US diplomats have expressed confusion about why the White House hasn’t done more to back its ally Great Britain, which has expelled 23 Russian diplomats. Nicholas Burns calls it “judgment day” for Trump. “Will he support Britain unequivocally on the nerve agent attack?” the former US ambassador to NATO says. “Back NATO sanctions? Finally criticize Putin? Act like a leader of the West?”

Okay let me say right here that this is getting a bit hectic….we are blaming Russia for everything that goes wrong in the world…..Wait…I am not saying they are innocent of the accusations only that they have become a convenient whipping post for the world.

“What reason would Russia have to do this?” said Sergey Markosyan, 36, as he popped into a Magnit supermarket in Moscow for beer, salty snacks and a carton of eggs. “He was in Britain, right? So shouldn’t they look in Britain?”

On Wednesday, Theresa May told British MPs there was “no alternative conclusion other than the Russian state was responsible for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/15/russia-spy-poisoning-salisbury-moscow

A year ago Russia was in the news as a source for problems in Germany…..

The accusation seems to be that Russia is capitalizing on domestic opposition to Merkel’s open-door immigration policies by directing funds to the contrarian Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) party, whose support has surged as disenchantment with Merkel has grown (as seen in its success in recent state elections).

https://www.thenation.com/article/russia-europes-scapegoat-for-all-seasons/

Then after all this scapegoating there came a “new” accusation…..

A US security alert on Thursday contained a jarring warning: Russia has infiltrated the US energy grid and could wreak havoc if it chose to do so. “They have the ability to shut the power off,” an exec with the digital security firm Symantec tells the New York Times. “All that’s missing is some political motivation.” The alert from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI says hackers working on behalf of the Russian government got into the systems of nuclear, water, and electrical plants, as well as “critical manufacturing sectors,” and essentially poked around to figure out how things operated.

I know most Americans have the attention span of a goldfish but just a few years ago our “electric grid” was open for a terrorist attack….and years before that it was the Soviets that were about to attack our electric grid….

Since Americans have NO recoverable memory of the past it makes it easier for the same bullshit to be given to the public with a fresh coat of crap  and a bit of repackaging.

I am not saying there is NO threat to worry about just that it is a convenient scapegoat…..

If these “threats” were truly that serious then why has NOTHING been done to see that they cannot happen?

Back in the Cold War Russia was the enemy the scapegoat for all problems internationally……is it possible that we have returned to those days?

Closing Thought–06Mar18

Sensationalism at its best!

Another chapter in the sexual prowess of the president…..well maybe not so much as a arrested hooker that says she has info and will trade….she will tell her story for a little freedom…..she may be a good source for Mueller because she was the bed mate of a couple of the Russian oligarchs that are in question……

A Belarusian social media star is hoping to trade information she says links President Donald Trump to the Kremlin for her release from a Thai prison on sex charges.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who has become internationally famous in recent months for her racy selfies, was jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a permit, reported the Associated Press.

The self-described “mistress” of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska was arrested with nine other Russians and Belarusians after officials received complaints about the $700 weeklong class and raided the meeting.

Vashukevich, who calls herself Nastya Rybka on her Instagram account (@nastya_rybka.ru), told the AP that she fears for her life and wants to trade information in the Trump-Russia probe for her own safety.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/i-know-a-lot-sx-model-jailed-in-thailand-claims-to-have-video-evidence-of-trump-kremlin-links/

There is a rat under every rock.  But beyond that fact that this young lady wants to trade information for freedom there is something that caught my eye in this story……this woman was arrested for offering sex lessons without a permit…..think about that for a minute.

I think this is just too convenient…..who is she really shopping her story to?   Take a pass……this is not something we need to get sucked (no pun intended) into.

Let’s call it a day….enjoy your evening……smile and laugh as often as you can……chuq

Throw Jeff Under The Bus!

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III…that mild mannered ex-Senator from the great state of Alabama that became the head honcho of the DoJ….he became the Attorney General of the United States of America……

Sessions, the first and only Congressional supporter of Trump in the beginning…he was rewarded for his support and loyalty once “The Man” was elected to the high office…….

Once AG and because of his ties to the Russian thingy he did what any good “politico” should have done…..he recused himself from the investigation so there could be no conflict of interests……

Trump has done more harm to his “agenda” through Twitter than anything the media has attempted…..as with everything Trumpian…it is always about him….on more than one occasion he has Tweeted about his people around him and each time has pretty much thrown them under the “political bus”…..

No one is immune to his “dressing down”…..the SPOX is not….his son-in-law is not…..and now Sessions is the butt of his, Trump’s, ego……but this time it was an interview with NY Times and not on Twitter…….

President Trump says he would never have hired Jeff Sessions as his attorney general if he had known Sessions was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. In a New York Times interview, Trump makes it clear that he feels he has been shabbily treated by Sessions, who was the first senator to support his candidacy. “Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” Trump said, referring to himself in the third person. “If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you,'” Trump said. “It’s extremely unfair—and that’s a mild word—to the president.”

Sources tell CNN that Sessions has no intention of resigning after Trump’s remarks. In the wide-ranging NYT interview, Trump said he has no regrets about firing FBI chief James Comey. “I did a great thing for the American people,” he said. He said that weeks before his inauguration, Comey told him about a dossier full of allegations against him, in a move that Trump now believes was an attempt to show he had leverage. Trump also accused special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, of having “many” conflicts of interest. Asked about his recently disclosed second conversation with Vladimir Putin, Trump said they had discussed adoption, noting that it was the same subject that came up in Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer last year.

Will Sessions turn the other cheek?

Or will he hand in his resignation?

Will he remain a boot licker or will he bow out with some of his dignity intact?

Spying By The Book

I do love a good spy thriller…..and we have a whopper going on in DC proper….

You know I really think that the mash up with Don, Jr and his spies would not be such a big deal if he would have come clean in the beginning….now every time he opens his mouth few will believe anything he is saying….even FOX News is starting to doubt his honesty…..

There is more from an ex-KGB spy…….

The story of the Trump presidency is quickly turning into a bad spy novel with bumbling, idiotic protagonists.

Donald Trump Jr. stumbled into a major scandal this past week when he tweeted out emails showing that he actively tried to collude with a surrogate of the Russian government to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton.

It was soon revealed that the meeting was a bigger affair than it originally seemed, with eight people in attendance. Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rob Goldstone, Moscow-connected attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, a translator, and one as yet unrevealed participant all attended.

Source: An Ex-KGB Spy Just Revealed A Chilling New Detail About Trump Jr.’s Secret Russian Meeting

How does this situation stack up against known KGB techniques?

Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American Lobbyist – among others – begs the question, was this a Russian intelligence operation? If so, is this typical Russian tradecraft, or something out of the ordinary? And what should we expect in the coming years? The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder asked former CIA Chief of Station Daniel Hoffman, who did a tour in the Soviet Union and is a Russia expert, his thoughts on this.

Source: Straight Out of the Russian Intelligence Playbook | The Cipher Brief

How will this bad novel turn out?

The Consequences of Stupidity

Geez!  Every week is some new form of stupidity coming out of the White House….the latest is that of Don Jr and his email mash up….

The dribs and drabs about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer just ramped up significantly. The president’s son tweeted out his full email exchange with an ally in Russia who set up last year’s meeting, reports the Hill. Part one is here, and the final page is here. Trump tweeted them after the New York Times informed him it was about to publish his back-and-forth with British-born publicist Rob Goldstone. In his initial email, Goldstone said he wanted to arrange the meeting to pass along documents that “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.” He added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. quickly responded, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” (In a statement Tuesday, Trump Jr. insisted again that nothing came of the meeting in terms of Clinton information.)

Eventually, the pair arranged for Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya to meet with Trump Jr. in New York. She has said she had no damaging information about Clinton, nor ties to the Kremlin, though Goldstone refers to her as a “Russian government attorney” in an email. Goldstone told Trump Jr. that he was writing on behalf of his client, Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, whose billionaire father has ties to both Putin and the Trump business empire. “Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,” he wrote. “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary.” Because Russia has no crown prosecutor, the Times thinks Goldstone was referring to the prosecutor general of Russia, a close Putin ally.

Even The American Conservative thinks the Don Jr is not the brightest bulb in the pack…….the piece starts with a historical perspective of sorts…..

In May 1895, Ohio’s Republican Governor William McKinley, a presidential aspirant for the forthcoming presidential campaign year, dispatched his trusted lieutenant, Mark Hanna, to New York to solicit support from the big Northeastern GOP bosses. These men—New York’s Thomas Platt, Pennsylvania’s Matthew Quay, and a number of lesser lights—controlled enough patronage power to hold major sway over party decisions. McKinley figured that, if he could get their support, he might lock up the Republican nomination before the campaign even began.

During a post-dinner cigar session at his elegant Cleveland mansion, Hanna reported back to McKinley on the results of his mission. Another participant recalled that the excited Hanna seemed “as keen as a razor blade.’’

Source: The Consequences of Donald Trump Jr.’s Stupidity | The American Conservative

I have said all along that the Trump camp needs to pick a story and stick with it….so far they have not done that and it shows……let the lawyers do the talking…everybody else needs to shut the Hell up……they are NOT doing themselves any good what so ever…..

Somewhere deep in the bowels of DC the VP is practicing his acceptance speech…….

I will say one thing for the Trump admin….they are creating jobs but sadly most are for lawyers only.