— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 1, 2024
WashingtonTimes | President Biden stoked more outrage over his decision to honor Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, which was also Easter, by issuing a head-scratching denial Monday as the White House blamed the political backlash on “misinformation.”
As he left the 144th annual White House
Easter Egg Roll, Mr. Biden was quizzed by reporters about House Speaker
Mike Johnson’s denunciation of the transgender proclamation as
“outrageous and abhorrent.”
“Speaker Johnson called it ‘outrageous’ that Easter Sunday was Transgender Day of Visibility. What do you say to Speaker Johnson?” asked a reporter, according to the White House pool report.
Mr. Biden replied: “He’s thoroughly uninformed.”
When pressed for details, the president responded: “I didn’t do that.”
He offered no further explanation, but critics pointed to his proclamation on the White House
website honoring Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been held on
March 31 since it was created by a transgender activist in 2009.
Also falling this year on March 31 was Easter, the holiest day on the Christian calendar. The date varies from year to year.
“I, Joseph R. Biden … do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility,” said the White House proclamation issued Friday and signed by Mr. Biden.
“I
call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices
of transgender people throughout our nation and to work toward
eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity,” Mr.
Biden said in the proclamation.
Mr. Johnson posted the proclamation on X with the comment: “This you, @JoeBiden?”
Conservative media critic Stephen L. Miller asked on X: “Did anyone in the press pool then show him his own statement?”
Rep.
Wesley Hunt, Texas Republican, asked on X: “Is the Biden Administration
backtracking after the political backlash they’ve received in the last
24 hours?”Hours later, White House
press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused critics of promoting
“misinformation.” She said it was “unsurprising that politicians are
seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful and
dishonest rhetoric.”
“It
is dishonest what we have heard the past 24 hours. It is untrue what we
heard over the weekend,” she said at the press briefing.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Monday that “President Biden is right.”
“He did nothing in conflict with the ‘tenets’ of Easter,
which he celebrated yesterday,” Mr. Bates told The Washington Times.
“Nor did he choose the date of March 31 for Transgender Day of
Visibility, which has been set since 2009.”
Mr.
Biden has issued proclamations marking Transgender Day of Visibility
since taking office in 2021, but his decision to do so this year with Easter falling on March 31 struck conservative Christians as tone-deaf at best and a slap in the face to Christianity at worst.
Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, or March 21.
“This
is a direct assault on Christianity. It’s evident the left is
determined to undermine our religion and traditions,” Rep. Diana
Harshbarger, Tennessee Republican, said Saturday on X. “This isn’t just
blatant disregard, it’s intentional.”
The Trump campaign called the transgender proclamation “appalling and insulting.”
“We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and the White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe [Easter Sunday] is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Mr.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden issued a statement Sunday sending “our
warmest wishes to Christians around the world celebrating Easter Sunday.”
“Easter
reminds us of hope and the promise of Christ’s resurrection,” they
said. “As we gather with loved ones, we remember Jesus’ sacrifice.”
Other
Democratic officials, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, issued
proclamations this year declaring March 31 as Transgender Day of
Visibility, or TDOV.
After
Democrats on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a TDOV
declaration, CatholicVote President Brian Burch accused them of choosing
“to mock Christianity on its holiest day of the year.”
He said the 15-year-old transgender event should have been moved to avoid conflicting with Easter.
“They
may claim that this holiday is always on March 31, but it is a fake and
arbitrary observance which was invented in 2009 compared with the
2,000-year history of Easter,”
Mr. Burch told The Washington Times. “This would never be tolerated
with any other religious tradition, and that’s the point. Christianity
is their target.”
jonathanturley | House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer has sent a seven-page
letter (below) to invite President Joe Biden to testify in the
Republican impeachment inquiry. The letter is the latest, and best,
reduction of the glaring contradictions in the President’s past
statements on his family’s well-documented influence peddling operation.
President Biden is not expected to testify. However, the media should
be interested in his answering the questions presented by the Committee.
It is now clear that the President lied during his campaign and during
his presidency on his lack of knowledge of his son’s business activities
as well as his denial of any money gained from China. Yet, the White
House responded, again, with mockery — a sense of impunity that only
exists due to an enabling media.
Chairman Comer reduces the past testimony and evidence acquired by
the Committee in the corruption scandal. In the last hearing, Democratic
members simply refused to acknowledge that evidence. There was a
bizarre disconnect as members mocked the witnesses for not supplying
evidence of the President’s knowledge or involvement. They then did so
and the members declared that there was no evidence.
Various members also misrepresented my earlier testimony during the
hearing on the basis for the impeachment inquiry. Members like Rep.
Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) stated that I joined other witnesses in stating
there was nothing that could remotely be impeachable in these
allegations. That is demonstrably untrue. My testimony stated the opposite.
I refused to pre-judge the evidence, but stated that there was ample
basis for the inquiry and laid out various impeachable offenses that
could be brought if ultimately supported by evidence. I also discussed those potential offenses in columns.
The purpose of the hearing was not to declare an impeachment on the
first day of the inquiry. Unlike the two prior impeachments by many of
these same Democratic members, this impeachment inquiry sought to create
a record of evidence and testimony to support any action that the House
might take.
Now, the Committee has laid out the considerable evidence showing that the President had lied, knowingly and repeatedly.
kunstler | “Biden’s most important
achievements may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump, resumed a
more traditional style of presidential leadership and is gearing up to
keep the office out of his predecessor’s hands this fall,” the report
states.
Gearing up? I’m sure. If gearing up means calling a lid
on your life an hour after breakfast. And what do you suppose they mean
by “a more traditional form of leadership.” Arranging serial overseas
military humiliations? Selling favors to all comers from foreign lands?
Inviting transsexuals to cavort on the White House lawn? Abolishing
control of US borders? Running a $2-trillion annual deficit? Mandating
unsafe and ineffective so-called “vaccine” shots on millions? Cancelling
the First Amendment? Stealing elections? Conspiring to jail his
political adversaries?
We’re also informed in recent days by
the Department of Justice that “Joe Biden” is not mentally competent to
answer for anything in a court of law, should someone inquire into the
signal irregularities emerging from the fugitive annals of his long
career. Of course, “Joe Biden” running for reelection is one of the
greatest gags ever put over on the American public. But more astounding
yet is that half the country persists in pretending to believe it. They
are egged on in every possible way by persons in high places of
government fearful of going to prison if the Democratic Party loses its
grip on the levers of power.
Since “Joe Biden” is not actually
calling the shots, one naturally wonders who is responsible for all the
dubious achievements of the past three years. I guess we’ll find out
when Mr. Trump wins that election in November, an outcome increasingly
guaranteed unless “Joe Biden” (or, let’s face it, our Intel Community)
takes the final decisive step of bumping off the Golden Golem of
Greatness. What have they got left? AI-contrived photos of Mr. Trump
having sex with a manatee in the intercoastal waterway off Mar-a-Lago?
In New York City, the Woke lunatics
did a victory dance after Judge Arthur Engoron, beaming his Joker smile,
laid a $350-million fine on Mr. Trump for conducting a set of normal
real estate transactions with a bank that profited from doing business
with him. Many are still trying to figure out how that amounts to a
crime of any sort. Don’t suppose that the check is in the mail, though.
There is an appeals process that leads, you may be sure, to a dismissal
of that inane judgment and the puerile hypotheticals that the case
derived from. And, by and by, you also might expect a countersuit for
malicious prosecution when all that smoke clears. New York Attorney
General Letitia James, lacking impulse control, is for the moment
enjoying the fulfillment of her campaign promise to “get Trump.” Waiting
to see how much she enjoys losing her law license in the days to come.
Every reaction provokes an equal and
opposite reaction, Newton’s Third Law states. It manifested shortly
after Judge Engoron’s end zone dance when a call went out over the
Internet for America’s truckers to refuse loads inbound to New York
City. We’ll have to stand by to see how that develops. No more bok choy,
Texas beef, or Meyer Lemons for you, “progressive” denizens of the Five
Boroughs! Embrace the suck! The genius part is that, unlike the 2022
Canadian truckers’ action in Ottawa, the American truckers will not be
cluttering up New York’s streets with their rigs, license plates on
view, leaving them vulnerable to such pranks as the shutdown of their
bank accounts. All they’ll do is sit innocently at home back in Kentucky
and Missouri, enjoying a break from the rigors of the highway. Is that a
crime? Arguably no more than doing a normal real estate deal in good
faith with a willing lender was a crime.
The truckers have promised to include
Washington DC next in their delivery boycott. The K-Street lobbying gang
won’t be buying any influence for a while over platters of grilled
branzino and Mariscos Molcajete. Maybe there will be a few Cliff Bars
left in the Farragut Square 7-Eleven and they can do business in their
cars. As for “Joe Biden,” his minders have probably laid in enough
Ensure for a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory to get
by for a few weeks — until the magic moment when, alas, he must needs
be thrown under the bus of expediency to keep their game going.
dailysignal |President Joe Biden gave
a tumultuous news conference hours after special counsel Robert Hur
released a report Thursday recommending against charging him for
retaining classified documents from his years as vice president and
senator, in part because the jury would find Biden sympathetic as an
“elderly man with a poor memory” and because his “diminished faculties”
make it less likely he intentionally violated the law.
During the news conference, Biden claimed that Hur’s comments about
his mental state were “extraneous commentary,” and he attempted to allay
concerns. Yet the president blamed his staff for the mishandling of
classified documents, insisted that his memory was fine but mixed up the
countries of Egypt and Mexico and appeared to forget where his son Beau
got a set of rosary beads the bereaved father says he highly values.
House Speaker Mike Johnson responded on X, saying the conference proved Biden is not fit to be president.
“The president’s press conference this evening further confirmed on
live television what the special counsel report outlined. He is not fit
to be president,” Johnson wrote.
In January 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped Hur, the
U.S. attorney in Maryland appointed by then-President Donald Trump, to
investigate Biden’s improper retention of classified documents after he
left the Senate in 2009 and the vice presidency in 2017.
The records Biden kept included classified documents regarding
military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, along with national security
records that implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods,”
Hur’s report finds.
The special counsel’s report finds a “shortage of evidence” proving
that Biden intentionally violated the law and concludes “there are other
innocent explanations for the documents that we cannot refute.” Yet the
report also finds that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed
classified materials.”
An attorney for Biden claimed the classified documents
were “unexpectedly discovered” Nov. 2, 2022, at the Penn Biden Center
for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., and that he
immediately notified the National Archives and Records Administration.
Biden lawyers later discovered a “small number” of additional classified
documents in a storage space in the garage of Biden’s private home in
Wilmington, Delaware.
These admissions from Biden’s attorneys came after the FBI opened an investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling
of classified documents in March 2022. Eight months later, Garland
appointed former DOJ official Jack Smith to investigate Trump’s
retention of classified documents. A grand jury ultimately indicted Trump for his alleged offenses in June 2023.
Hur’s report notes Biden’s willing cooperation with his
investigation, saying that cooperation “will likely convince some jurors
that he made an innocent mistake, rather than acting willfully—that is,
with intent to break the law—as the statute requires.”
Hur’s report also takes Biden’s mental state into account on numerous
occasions, finding that his “poor memory” and “diminished faculties”
make his defenses plausible and would likely endear him to a jury.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present
himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a
sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the report
notes. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him,
he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable
doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict
him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious
felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
dailycaller | Among the documents recovered was a transcript of a Dec. 11, 2015
phone call between then-Vice President Biden and then-Ukrainian Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, according to Hur’s report.
Federal
investigators found a handwritten note with a tipsheet for the phone
call Joe Biden placed in a red “VP Personal” fold in addition to the
transcript.
“Get [a] copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records
please,” the note to Biden’s assistant says. Biden’s signature is at the
end of the note.
Biden’s attorneys and the DOJ discovered the
documents at his Delaware residence and at his former office at D.C.’s
Penn Biden Center between Nov. 2022 and Jan. 2023
At
the time of the phone call with Yatsenyuk, Biden’s son Hunter was
making more than $80,000 per month as a board member of Ukrainian energy
firm Burisma Holdings, bank records
show. He joined the company in spring 2014 despite lacking experience
in either Ukraine or the energy sector. He departed the firm in 2019,
when his father was a private citizen and possessed the classified
documents.
Ahead of his appointment with Burisma, Hunter Biden
sent then-business partner Devon Archer, who served alongside Biden on
Burisma’s board, detailed information about Ukraine’s political situation and energy sector.
In Dec. 2015, Joe Biden took a trip to Ukraine and spoke to the
country’s parliament, urging them to step up anti-corruption measures,
according to an archived transcript of his speech.
Carlson interviewed Archer in the days following his testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Archer told lawmakers the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma from scrutiny and recalled a spring 2015 dinner attended by then-VP Biden and Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi.
antiwar | More than 400 US officials from 40 government agencies have sent a letter to President Biden criticizing his unconditional support for Israel’s war in Gaza in the latest example of dissent from within the US government.
“We call on President Biden to urgently demand a ceasefire; and to
call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate
release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians;
the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services;
and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the
letter reads.
According to The New York Times, the majority of the
signatories to the letter are political appointees who work throughout
the government, including in the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the
National Security Council. Some signatories helped get Biden elected
and said they were worried his support for the onslaught on Gaza was
opposed by many Democratic voters.
The letter says that the “overwhelming majority of Americans support a ceasefire,” citing a poll from Data For Progress
that found 66% of voters believe the US should push for a ceasefire,
including 80% of Democrats. “Furthermore, Americans do not want the US
military to be drawn into another costly and senseless war in the Middle
East,” the letter says.
President Biden and his top aides have called for “pauses” in the
fighting but refuse to use the term “ceasefire,” demonstrating that they
are committed to continuing support for the Israeli war, which has
killed at least 11,000 Palestinians, including over 4,500 children.
Since October 7, the US has shipped weapons to Israel on a near-daily
basis and is providing special operations support, including surveillance drone flights over Gaza.
Besides the new letter, Biden’s full-throated support for the brutal
war has drawn three dissent memos from State Department employees and an
open letter signed by more than 1,000 employees of the US Agency for
International Development (USAID).
ZeroHedge | As the MSM turns on President Joe Biden heading into the 2024 election, the Washington Post had an interesting piece on Thursday exploring a little-known connection between the Bidens and the du Pont family,
which revolves around a 2001 case in which then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
was voted in as a prominent new member of a prestigious Golf Club in
Wilmington, Delaware, founded by a du Pont heiress.
That year, Biden, known for his "Middle-Class Joe" image and modest
financial status, joined the exclusive Fieldstone Golf Club, a symbol of
prestige and power. This move painted a contrasting picture: a
politician aligned with working-class values, yet rubbing shoulders with
the state's most affluent family, renowned for their chemical company
empire.
At the time, Biden walked a delicate line.
On one hand, he campaigned as an Amtrak-riding “Middle-Class Joe”
striving to make ends meet, and accurately described himself as “one of
the poorest members of Congress” — reporting $221,000 in combined income
with his wife that yearand $360 in charitable contributions. -WaPo
Biden's
connection to the du Ponts extended beyond social interactions. His
staffing choices, political allies, and personal real estate investments
all reflected a deep integration with this influential family. His
acquisition of a mansion built by a du Pont member further underscores
this relationship.
Yet, Biden's entry into the Fieldstone Golf Club raised eyebrows and led to a brief FBI investigation in 2007.
The inquiry centered on how Biden obtained his club membership,
especially as it involved an "unused" ticket from a company owned by the
club's founder, potentially bypassing a substantial partnership fee.
The FBI's probe, which included photographing Biden's personal locker
at the club, eventually closed without any allegations of wrongdoing.
It's unknown whether Biden was ever informed about the FBI
investigation.
In response to an inquiry, the White House told the Post:
"These bizarre suggestions from more than 20 years ago are confusing
given the fact that the Post is reporting that President Biden was fully
responsible for membership dues at the golf club and all out-of-pocket
costs associated with it. Frankly, the Post’s own reporting suggests
this supposed matter was closed 15 years ago with no finding of
wrongdoing. If you want to dig deep on who’s funding a president’s golf
habits, we might have some suggestions."
Yet, this story
reveals the delicate balance Biden navigated between his public identity
as a relatable politician and his private interactions with Delaware's
elite. While maintaining his image as a defender of
middle-class interests, Biden also sought inclusion in the state's upper
echelons, epitomized by his association with the du Ponts and his
membership at Fieldstone.
For someone
raised in Delaware with Biden’s blue-collar background, “it would be
quite an accomplishment” to rise into the same social circles as the du
Ponts, said Joseph Hurley, a Wilmington attorney who grew up with Biden
and represented Moseley.
“It’s like, ‘I’ve really arrived,’ because the du Ponts were the family, the king’s-family type thing,” he said. -WaPo
Biden
often cited the long role of the du Pont family in Delaware in his
family story - writing in his memoir that his father moved the family
from Scranton, PA to a suburb of Wilmington, which was made more economically stable thanks to so many well-paid DuPont employees.
"DuPont meant security for today and better times for the future," Biden wrote.
Years later, Biden recalled that his mother urged him to value his heritage with as much pride as the state’s best-known family.
“Like I’m a du Pont or something,” Biden recalled. “You’re a Biden.
Nobody is better than you, and everybody’s equal to you,” his mother
told him.
Still, he envied the position and power of those who founded the DuPont company.
Elected to the Senate in 1972,he
served in Congress alongside Rep. Pierre “Pete” du Pont IV, who later
became Delaware’s governor and ran for president. Biden’s close adviser
and Senate chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, had worked for DuPont as a
plastics engineer.
BBC |US
President Joe Biden has said a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital appears
to have been caused by Palestinian militants, backing Israel's account
of the incident as he visits the country.
Mr Biden, who landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, said he was "deeply saddened and outraged" by the explosion.
Israel's military said it was caused by a failed Palestinian rocket launch.
But Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital.
Health officials in Gaza have said almost 500 people were killed in the explosion, but no death toll has been confirmed.
Meanwhile,
Mr Biden has announced that an agreement has been reached with Israel
to allow humanitarian aid to move from Egypt into Gaza. However, Israel
said it would not allow any aid to pass through its own territory until
hostages being held by Hamas are released.
'Deeply saddened and outraged'
Mr Biden's high-stakes visit has been overshadowed by the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday evening, which has further inflamed tensions and sparked protests across the region.
He
landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday where he was greeted warmly by Israel's
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before the pair hosted a joint news
conference.
"I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday," Mr Biden said.
"Based
on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team,
not you," he told Mr Netanyahu. "But there's a lot of people out there
not sure so we have to overcome a lot of things."
Mr
Biden was later asked by reporters what led him to conclude that Israel
was not responsible, and said: "The data I was shown by my defence
department."
In
the news conference, he reiterated his support for Israel and condemned
the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched an unprecedented
attack on Israel from Gaza on 7 October that left 1,400 people dead.
At least 3,000 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Palestinian health official.
Mr
Biden had planned to travel from Israel to Jordan to meet King
Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, but that leg of the trip was cancelled
after the hospital blast on Tuesday.
Jordan
cancelled the meeting and condemned what it called "a great calamity
and a heinous war crime". The White House, meanwhile, said the decision
had been "made in a mutual way" and Mr Biden would call Mr Abbas and Mr
Sisi on his return flight to the US.
nueburger |Silver piece is titled: "It's probably too late not to nominate Biden".
A bit of an awkward title, but you get the idea. In it he answers the
question: Do Democrats have a better chance of winning in 2024 with a
different nominee?
• With medium
confidence, I think the risks of a serious primary challenge to Biden at
this point in time would outweigh the benefits for Democrats.
• With low confidence, I think the risks of Biden volunteering not to run for a second would also outweigh the benefits for Democrats, but this is closer.
•
With low confidence, and taking full advantage of hindsight bias, I
think Democrats probably would have been better off if Biden had
announced 6-12 months ago that he wouldn’t seek a second term.
•
I think Biden’s situation is somewhat unprecedented and that these are
hard questions for Democrats. Almost no matter what happens, people in
2025 will treat the answers as having been more obvious than they
actually were. [emphasis Silver's]
In other
words, Silver thinks the Democrats — meaning Biden at this point, since
other Dem leaders seem totally deferential — have lost their window to
change horses. Here's why he thinks that matters:
[L]et’s imagine that one of the candidate’s on Chris Hayes’s list
—Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, JB Pritzker, Raphael Warnock and Gavin Newsom —
announces tomorrow that they’re challenging Biden. ... What would
happen?
Well, for one thing there would be an absolute media shitstorm. It would displace everything else from the news cycle — yes, even the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce news. Every critique of Biden would be highlighted and validated.
Still, the challenge probably wouldn’t
work. The opposing candidate would be very much at a standing start —
none of the candidates I mentioned have run for national office before,
and a presidential campaign typically takes six months to a year to get
up to speed. The value of optionality would be considerably diminished
if voters and party elites
didn’t have enough time to fully evaluate all their options. So the
most likely outcome would be Biden being nominated anyway, but with
battle scars that were probably harmful to him in the general election.
[emphasis mine]
That's scenario 1. Here’s scenario 2:
Let’s
say Biden calls a surprise press conference tomorrow — and he announces
that he’s had second thoughts and won’t run for a second term.
This
at least eliminates the possibility of primary-challenge-damaged-Biden
being the party nominee anyway. However, it creates other issues for
Democrats. The main one is what the hell happens to Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris consistency polls worse than Biden does against Trump.
But Biden would be under pressure to give her a full-fledged
endorsement. Even if Biden believed deep down that she wasn’t the best
nominee, a non-endorsement or half-assed endorsement would make for
another huge media shitstorm, without the party having little time to
navigate out of it.
What if that process did start now? What would be required to maximize the chance of success?
You’d
need Biden to stand down, you’d need party leaders to send a clear
message that they wanted an open nomination process and not just Harris
by default, and you’d need to make sure that Whitmer and/or other
candidates the establishment liked were actually interested in running
and the choice didn’t feel force-fed to voters. Ideally you’d also want
to do all of this without someone leaking to Politico or the Washington
Post and upending the process.
Silver dryly concludes "that’s probably too much to ask for." Too much indeed.
amgreatness | The strategies of saving the Biden presidency from an impeachment and
a Senate trial despite overwhelming evidence of his corruption are
starting to emerge.
The Family is confronted with damning evidence from the laptop, from
the testimonies of Hunter’s business associates Bobulinksi and Archer,
from Ukrainian oligarchs and Viktor Shokin, from IRS whistleblowers,
from FBI writs, from a likely pseudonymous Biden trove of 4,000 emails
to his son and associates, and from the absolute paranoia of a White
House that must constantly change its narrative of denials to adjust to a
growing portrait of utter corruption, bribery, and perhaps even the
treason of warping U.S. policy to fit Biden family interests.
One of their strategies is to deny, then hedge, then ignore, then grow
silent—and repeat the wash/rinse/spin cycle of stonewalling as many
times as necessary to evade the mounting truth.
Insidiously Joe Biden has retreated from his once loud protestations
that he supposedly had no idea of what Hunter and his associates were
doing. Such a patently dishonest denial set the model that the President
would have no compunction about lying to the American people until the
evidence of his wrongdoing becomes overwhelming.
But this first line of defense did not crumble for years—only to be
replaced by a second line of denial: Biden may have known of Hunter’s
shenanigans, but he had no business interests with him. That was another
blatant untruth.
Biden’s tripartite lines of defense always got shorter and shallower
as evidence mounted. But so far Biden has managed to consume 31 months
of his presidency through these strategic retreats. His fourth and final
line of defense will likely be that he was involved, that he had rather
than feigned contact, but that he did nothing other than what scores of
other high-ranking politicians do who rub shoulders with would-be
miscreants, sycophants, and crooks—and so did not knowingly take “loans” and “gifts” that had strings attached.
To breach this fourth defense line, House Republicans will have to
break through the labyrinth of Biden paywalls and find how much money
was rerouted into Biden coffers. And then they must additionally compare
what came into the Biden hands with a) what the family reported on
their respective income tax returns, and b) whether their various
properties and lifestyles were remotely possible without such massive
hidden income. And getting bank records from the Bidens will be near
impossible.
Superior opened in 1988 under conditions created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board,
which made generous arrangements for the takeover of several failed
thrifts. The bank was a 50-50 partnership between the Pritzkers (the
elder Jay, Penny and Thomas) and real estate investor Alvin Dworman,
who ran Superior from his New York office after Jay Pritzker's death in
1997. The Pritzkers and Dworman bought the failed Lyons Federal for the
relatively modest price of $42.5 million, with each using a shell
corporation to control half of Coast-to-Coast Financial Corporation
(CCFC), a holding company created to own Superior.
In July 2001, Superior was seized by federal banking regulators
after the Pritzkers reneged on a recapitalization program. The Pritzker
family entered into a $460 million, 15 year, interest-free settlement in
December 2001 to protect the family's business reputation and avoid
civil forfeiture and litigation. At the time, Superior Bank was the
largest bank failure in more than a decade. As of March 2012, former
Superior Bank depositors are still owed over $10 million.
Superior Bank suffered as a result
of its former high-risk business strategy, which was focused on the
generation of significant volumes of subprime mortgage and automobile
loans for securitization and sale in the secondary market. OTS found
that the bank also suffered from poor lending practices, improper record
keeping and accounting, and ineffective board and management
supervision.[1]
George Kaufman, a finance professor at Loyola University Chicago
called Superior's failure "a tale of gross mismanagement," adding that
"[Superior] was engaged in relatively unethical practices,
fancy-footwork accounting, playing it very close to the edge."[3]
Kaufman says many share in the blame for the mess-the bank's
managers, directors, and auditors, as well as banking regulators-but he
also wonders how the Pritzkers, as co-owners, could have allowed it to
happen. "One of the great mysteries to me is what the Pritzkers were up
to, why they took these chances," he said. "It makes no sense given
their wealth and visibility."[3]
Settlement by the Pritzkers
In
December 2001, the Pritzkers agreed to pay a record $460 million to the
federal government to avoid being punished for the failure of Superior
Bank FSB.[4]
It was a 15-year, interest-free settlement that granted the Pritzkers a
share of the government's settlement with the bank's former
accountants. In June 2012, news reports revealed that the Pritzker
family received a discount in 2011 on the 2001 settlement.
According to The Washington Times,
"But after paying $316 million of the interest-free debt, the family
quietly struck a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in
June 2011 to discount the balance in return for paying off the debt
early. Ms. Sweet and Mr. Courtney are among 1,400 depositors still owed
$10.3 million at the end of March, records show. The FDIC Insurance Fund
is still out $296 million after paying off Superior’s insured
depositors. It is highly unlikely the remaining depositors or the FDIC
will receive much more money since nearly all of the settlement funds
have been paid out, according to records and interviews."[5]
“'The depositors got nicked coming, going and after the fact,'”
said Clinton Krislov, a lawyer who represents depositors whose accounts
exceeded the $100,000 covered by FDIC insurance. “'The depositors have
gotten all they will from the Pritzkers.'”
RICO lawsuit
In 2002 uninsured depositors filed federal class-action charges under the RICO Act against one-time board chairwoman Penny Pritzker, her cousin Thomas Pritzker, Dworman, other bank principals and Ernst & Young. Plaintiffs’ attorney Clint Krislov
claimed that those who controlled Superior induced depositors to put
money in the bank, “corruptly” funneling money out of the bank to
“fraudulently” profit the owners.
[6] The lawsuit, Courtney v. Hallerin was initially filed under a district court which dismissed the claims;[7] the appeal was argued before the 7th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals on September 25, 2006. In her May 7, 2007 opinion, Judge Wood affirmed the lower court's decision.
WaPo |Joe Bidenlaunched his candidacy
for president in 2019 with the words “we are in the battle for the soul
of this nation.” He was right. And though it wasn’t obvious at first to
many Democrats, he was the best person to wage that fight. He was a
genial but also shrewd campaigner for the restoration of what
legislators call “regular order.”
Since then, Biden has had a remarkable string of wins. He defeated President Donald Trump
in the 2020 election; he led a Democratic rebuff of Trump’s acolytes in
the 2022 midterms; his Justice Department has systematically prosecuted
the Jan. 6,
2021, insurrection that Trump championed and, now, through special
counsel Jack Smith, the department is bringing Trump himself to justice.
What I admire most about President Biden is that in a polarized nation, he has governed from the center out, as he promised in his victory speech.
With an unexpectedly steady hand, he passed some of the most important
domestic legislation in recent decades. In foreign policy, he managed
the delicate balance of helping Ukraine fight Russia without getting
America itself into a war. In sum, he has been a successful and
effective president.
But
I don’t think Biden and Vice President Harris should run for
reelection. It’s painful to say that, given my admiration for much of
what they have accomplished. But if he and Harris campaign together in
2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was
stopping Trump.
Biden wrote his political testament
in his inaugural address: “When our days are through, our children and
our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best, they did
their duty, they healed a broken land.” Mr. President, maybe this is
that moment when duty has been served.
Biden would carry two big liabilities into a 2024 campaign. He would be 82 when he began a second term. According to
a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, 77 percent of the public,
including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective
for four more years. Biden’s age isn’t just a Fox News trope; it’s been
the subject of dinner-table conversations across America this summer.
Because
of their concerns about Biden’s age, voters would sensibly focus on his
presumptive running mate, Harris. She is less popular than Biden, with a
39.5 percent approval rating, according to
polling website FiveThirtyEight. Harris has many laudable qualities,
but the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the
country or even within her own party.
Biden
could encourage a more open vice-presidential selection process that
could produce a stronger running mate. There are many good alternatives,
starting with now-Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, whom I wish Biden
had chosen in the first place, or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. But
breaking up the ticket would be a free-for-all that could alienate Black
women, a key constituency. Biden might end up more vulnerable.
Politicians
who know Biden well say that if he were convinced that Trump were truly
vanquished, he would feel he had accomplished his political mission. He
will run again if he believes in his gut that Trump will be the GOP
nominee and that he has the best chance to defeat Trump and save the
country from the nightmare of a revenge presidency.
Biden
has never been good at saying no. He should have resisted the choice of
Harris, who was a colleague of his beloved son Beau when they were both
state attorneys general. He should have blocked then-House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has done considerable damage to
the island’s security. He should have stopped his son Hunter from
joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company and representing companies
in China — and he certainly should have resisted Hunter’s attempts to
impress clients by getting Dad on the phone.
Biden
has another chance to say no — to himself, this time — by withdrawing
from the 2024 race. It might not be in character for Biden, but it would
be a wise choice for the country.
Biden
has in many ways remade himself as president. He is no longer the
garrulous glad-hander I met when I first covered Congress more than four
decades ago. He’s still an old-time pol, to be sure, but he is now more
focused and strategic; he executes policies systematically, at home and
abroad. As Franklin Foer writes in “The Last Politician,” a new account of Biden’s presidency, “he will be remembered as the old hack who could.”
Time
is running out. In a month or so, this decision will be cast in stone.
It will be too late for other Democrats, including Harris, to test
themselves in primaries and see whether they have the stuff of
presidential leadership. Right now, there’s no clear alternative to
Biden — no screamingly obvious replacement waiting in the wings. That
might be the decider for Biden, that there’s seemingly nobody else. But
maybe he will trust in democracy to discover new leadership, “in the
arena.”
I
hope Biden has this conversation with himself about whether to run, and
that he levels with the country about it. It would focus the 2024
campaign. Who is the best person to stop Trump? That was the question
when Biden decided to run in 2019, and it’s still the essential test of a
Democratic nominee today.
A Foundation of Joy
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Two years and I've lost count of how many times my eye has been operated
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eel ...
April Three
-
4/3
43
When 1 = A and 26 = Z
March = 43
What day?
4 to the power of 3 is 64
64th day is March 5
My birthday
March also has 5 letters.
4 x 3 = 12
...
Return of the Magi
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Lately, the Holy Spirit is in the air. Emotional energy is swirling out of
the earth.I can feel it bubbling up, effervescing and evaporating around
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New Travels
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Haven’t published on the Blog in quite a while. I at least part have been
immersed in the area of writing books. My focus is on Science Fiction an
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Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese
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sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...