August 31, 2018

Beyond the deep state witch hunt, Hunter defense could focus on campaign rule 'gray areas'

In the week since federal prosecutors dropped a sweeping indictment on Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret accusing them of using $250,000 in campaign money for personal expenses, Hunter and his lawyer publicly launched two lines of defense — attacking prosecutors and blaming Margaret Hunter.

The accusation that the indictment was a politically motivated product of a deep state conspiracy inside the Justice Department, and Hunter’s contention about his wife in an interview that “whatever she did, that’ll be looked at, too, I’m sure, but I didn’t do it” have received the most attention.

But a larger legal defense was outlined in letters to Justice Department officials sent in the weeks before the indictment by Duncan Hunter’s lawyer, Gregory Vega.

In the July 30 and Aug. 6 letters, Vega argued federal prosecutors had misinterpreted the law, were turning civil law violations into crimes and had rushed to indict his client.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-hunter-defense-20180829-story.html

August 29, 2018

You should reread the forum's Statement of Purpose, perfesser

Especially the part that states "Post excerpts from articles, blogs, and other recently-published material related to politics, issues, and current events."

If you're so confused as to who the author of an OP excerpt titled "Duncan Hunter: Evidence will trump political agendas", you might want to check out local remedial reading classes.

IMHO suggesting posters not using the excerpt tag are anti-progressive and inconsiderate because a reader might have to expend 6 seconds to clarify the obvious reaches new heights in anal-retentive pettiness.

Perhaps you should petition the admins to enforce your excerpt tag rule while also recommending an update to Strunk's Elements of Style to address this concern.

Or you could just comment on the contents of the posting instead of focusing on the meta.

August 29, 2018

Duncan Hunter: Evidence will trump political agendas

I believe in our American system of justice, but it becomes poisoned when those within the Department of Justice have a political agenda.

One of our nation’s guiding principles is that those tasked with enforcing the law would do so in an unbiased manner, allowing evidence to lead any investigation. This is not the case today. The fact is that there is a culture operating within our Justice Department that places a higher value on politics than the rule of law.

We are seeing this with President Donald Trump; we are seeing this with my case. After two years of investigating, the Justice Department waited to file an indictment against me until right before my election. During this time, I have made myself available to cooperate with this investigation in any manner, but I have not been given even one opportunity to answer any questions, address any issue, or counter any allegations against me.

The department’s actions reveal their true intent. Consider this: Overwhelming evidence indicated that Hillary Clinton took direct action to circumvent investigations into her campaign, she was interviewed and no action was taken.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/27/duncan-hunter-evidence-trump-political-agendas-editorials-debates/1115820002/

This asshole is a real piece of work. The comments to this USA Today Opposing View aren't too kind.

August 28, 2018

New Ted Cruz Campaign Ad Features His Kids Begging For Beto O'Rourke To Be Their New Dad

HOUSTON—With scenes in which the two little girls can be seen pleading with outstretched arms, a new Ted Cruz campaign ad released Tuesday features the incumbent U.S. senator’s children begging for challenger Beto O’Rourke to be their new dad.

“Mr. O’Rourke, could you be our new daddy—please, please, please, with a cherry on top?” Cruz’s 10-year-old daughter Caroline said in the 30-second spot, promising that she and her sister will get straight As and be on their best behavior if the current U.S. representative from El Paso would take over all fathering duties immediately and let them come live with his family.

“You’d be a nice, normal daddy, not weird and creepy like the one we have now. We could even introduce you to our friends without being embarrassed. We love you, Beto!”

The campaign advertisement concludes with a tearful Heidi Cruz begging on bended knee for O’Rourke to be her new husband.

https://politics.theonion.com/new-ted-cruz-campaign-ad-features-his-kids-begging-for-1828658339

August 27, 2018

Duncan Hunter's Political Promise Foiled by Hard Partying and a Corruption Scandal

In Alpine, Calif., a suburban Southern California enclave, Duncan Hunter was a good neighbor. He’d help people do yard work, or move heavy furniture. He drove the same dented-up truck for years. At parties, he’d have a beer, two tops, and he might go off and sneak a cigarette so his wife wouldn’t see. He rarely talked about his job as a congressman.

In Washington, Mr. Hunter was a fixture on the bar scene, and spent lavishly — over $400 for 30 tequila shots at a bachelor party, and countless fancy dinners. He visited one of his favorite bars sometimes multiple times a day, piling up thousands of dollars in tabs. On occasion, he would get into loud arguments with patrons, once over the choice of music on the jukebox (he hated Celine Dion).

Those divergent lives — between the watering holes and halls of power in Washington and the suburban tracts and chain stores of Southern California — intersected for years, prosecutors say, as Mr. Hunter and his wife funded their personal lives with campaign donations, the dimensions of which were revealed in an indictment last week.

Mr. Hunter, 41, once boasted a glittering political résumé that touched all the right notes in his conservative district: war hero, father to three young children, scion of a political dynasty in Southern California, where his father held power for almost 30 years. His brash personality, tough talk on national security and hard-line immigration views — he was “Trump before Trump,” staffers like to say — ensured a loyal following among his constituents.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/us/duncan-hunter-corruption-scandal.html

August 25, 2018

GOP Leaders Demand Congressman Duncan Hunter's Resignation After Discovering He's Poor

WASHINGTON—In the wake of federal charges brought against the California lawmaker for multiple egregious campaign finance violations, GOP leadership released a statement Friday calling for Congressman Duncan Hunter’s resignation following the revelation that he is, in fact, poor.

“Congressman Hunter’s actions simply do not line up with the Republican party’s core principles with regards to the possession of personal wealth. The simple fact that the representative does not have enough money to pay for third or even second homes, private schooling for his children, or basic cosmetic health care, constitutes a betrayal of everything the party stands for,” the statement read in part.

“This gross lack of personal finances does not represent the Grand Old Party writ large. That Duncan Hunter held actual middle-class status for years, instead of merely pretending to share middle-class values, is absolutely reprehensible behavior unbefitting a Republican congressman.”

Beltway insiders expect Hunter to resign his office and relinquish his House seat to an astoundingly wealthy party member as soon as possible.

https://politics.theonion.com/gop-leaders-demand-congressman-duncan-hunter-s-resignat-1828583936

August 24, 2018

Brace yourself, this is how much America's 1% has saved

Some of these people are not like the others.

The median American household currently holds just $11,700 in savings, according to a new analysis of Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data by personal-finance site Magnify Money. Median balances (the midpoint value) are lower than the average savings rates. The top 1% of households in the U.S. by income have a median savings of $1.1 million across a variety of saving accounts. The bottom 20% by income have no savings accounts and the second lowest 20% income earners have just $26,450 saved.

The average savings in retirement, money market deposit, checking and savings and certificate of deposit accounts are skewed by higher earners with more money. The top 1% of households have an average of $2.5 million in accounts, while the bottom 20% of households have an average of $8,870 saved. To put that in context: The average household has $277,670 in retirement accounts and $4,830 in savings accounts, while the median household only has $72,840 in retirement accounts and $32,130 in savings accounts.

Stagnant wages, student debt, soaring house prices and rising credit-card debt have not helped people save. “Lots of families are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to save even a little,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit policy group based in Washington, D.C. “Limited savings isn’t only an issue for low-income families. Quite a few middle- and high-income families have no savings cushion to fall back on. One in 5 middle-income families and 1 in 10 high-income families have no retirement savings.”

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/brace-yourself-this-is-how-much-americas-1-has-saved-2018-08-24

August 24, 2018

Trump Boys Frantically Burning Stacks Of Printed-Out Emails To Eliminate Paper Trail

WASHINGTON—After learning that their father’s associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen were guilty of crimes and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was continuing to expand, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were reportedly frantically burning stacks of their printed-out emails Wednesday to eliminate their paper trail.

“Okay, Eric, I think we melted down all the stuff we wrote from last year so now Mr. Mueller can’t never find it—time to start wrecking all the emails from this year,” said Trump Jr., who, along with his brother, had stayed up all night printing out every single email ever sent or received by either of the boys and setting the stacks of paper ablaze in a plastic garbage can to eliminate any evidence that could be used against them in an investigation.

“We gotta type up copies of our texts so we can print them out and burn those, too—you can’t be too careful with the witch hunt. And once we finish burning all the evidence, we have to take pictures of our faces on Instagram and then print out those, too, and burn them so we can delete our identities. Then we have to leave and never come back, okay? We have to go to one of the small dots on a map where they can’t find us.”

At press time, the Trump boys were attempting to erase any trace of their deliberate destruction of evidence by using masking tape to secure rocks to the top of the printer and pushing the device into the depths of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool where it would “never, ever be found.”

https://politics.theonion.com/trump-boys-frantically-burning-stacks-of-printed-out-em-1828532224

August 22, 2018

Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty After Giuliani Offers to Be His Lawyer

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Michael D. Cohen decided on Tuesday to plead guilty to a host of financial crimes shortly after Rudolph Giuliani offered to be his lawyer on a pro-bono basis, Giuliani confirmed.

In an interview with Jake Tapper, on CNN, the former New York City mayor said that he had offered to give Cohen “the kind of defense that only I am capable of giving.”

“The minute I said that, the blood drained from his face and he was out of there like a shot,” Giuliani said. “It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen.”

Giuliani gave CNN viewers a snapshot of what his defense of Cohen would have been like. “I would have said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client is guilty,’ ” he said. “ ‘Guilty as sin! But “guilty” rhymes with “not guilty,” and that’s what I’m asking you to find him today.’ I’m telling you, Jake, it would have been a killer.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-after-giuliani-offers-to-be-his-lawyer

August 15, 2018

"Bill Nelson is stealing from Medicare"

That's the theme of the latest political ad for Rick Scott, who oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in history as CEO of Columbia/HCA.

Shameless.