QOTD -- "The Billionaires' War"

 

"... You might think that presidential pardons for scammers, money launderers and outright crooks are unrelated to the ill-advised war on Iran. But corruption is a key feature of a billionaire-installed regime, and corruption and incompetence go hand in hand.

...[T]he vast wealth of tech billionaires has made many of them unconcerned with the little people’s lives — and deeply unpatriotic. If Americans are being brutalized and murdered by rogue ICE agents…well, that’s not their problem. If the Justice Department and the FBI are totally subverted and operate as Trump’s enforcers, they know that vindictive, unlawful tactics will never touch their lives. If Republican budget cuts decimate rural hospitals and deprive hundreds of thousands of health insurance…well, they have their own private doctors and clinics. If Trump starts an ill-conceived war that doubles the price of oil…well, they can certainly afford the higher gasoline bills for their limousines and yachts. And it won’t be their kids hunkered down in a bunker in the Middle East.

"So if you want to understand how this country has degenerated to such a state, how we can be spending nearly $2 billion a day attacking Iran without a clear endgame in sight, while children go without healthcare, nursing homes are understaffed because their workers have been deported, home electricity bills skyrocket due to data centers, consider who benefits and who isn’t hurt.

"This is a billionaire’s war, waged at everyone else’s expense." -- Nobel economist Paul Krugman, in his eponymous Substack, concluding an excellent explainer on Operation Epic Epstein Fury he titles "The Billionaires' War."  The Musks, Ellisons, Zuckerbergs, Bezos', and all the other "deeply unpatriotic" billionaires supporting the Malignant Fascist's regime for their own corrupt self-interest have much to account for, as they surely must, but only if we get the kind of Democrats we've called "junkyard dogs" in power to pursue justice.

The Menendez Indictment

 

The unsealed 39- page indictment of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, his wife and three others reads like a novelette of bald- faced greed and corruption.  Some excerpts:

In or about June 2022, federal agents executed search warrants on the New Jersey home and the safe deposit box of ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants. In conducting these court-authorized searches, agents found certain of the fruits of MENENDEZ’s and NADINE MENENDEZ’s corrupt bribery agreement with WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” JOSE URIBE, and FRED DAIBES, the defendants, including cash, gold, the luxury vehicle, and home furnishings. Over $480,000 in cash—much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe—was discovered in the home, along with over $70,000 in NADINE MENENDEZ’s safe deposit box...

 ____________________

In or about early 2018, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, informed WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, that she was dating ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant. In the following months and years, HANA and NADINE MENENDEZ worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to MENENDEZ for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement in which HANA, with assistance from FRED DAIBES and JOSE URIBE, the defendants, provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, in exchange for MENENDEZ’s acts and breaches of duty to benefit the Government of Egypt, HANA, and others, including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing...

____________________

In or about 2018, shortly after ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants, began dating, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, and NADINE MENENDEZ arranged a series of meetings and dinners with MENENDEZ—paid for by HANA or his associates—at which Egyptian officials raised, among other things, requests related to foreign military sales and foreign military financing. In exchange for MENENDEZ’s and NADINE MENENDEZ’s promise that MENENDEZ would, among other things, use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt, HANA promised, among other things, to put NADINE MENENDEZ on the payroll of his company in a low-or-no-show job...

____________________

d. On or about April 4, 2019, NADINE MENENDEZ left MENENDEZ a voicemail saying that she was going “to meet Jose for five minutes” and then met URIBE in the parking lot of a restaurant where URIBE provided NADINE MENENDEZ with approximately $15,000 in cash. 

e. The next day, NADINE MENENDEZ purchased the Mercedes-Benz Convertible, making a $15,000 down payment with a combination of cash, a credit card, and 23 several checks, and taking out an automotive loan to finance the remainder of the approximately $60,000 purchase price. A number of the statements NADINE MENENDEZ made on the application in order to secure the loan financing were false, including statements about her employment and income. After the purchase was complete, NADINE MENENDEZ messaged MENENDEZ, “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes. ���.” Later that day, after URIBE asked her, “are you happy?,” NADINE MENENDEZ responded, “I will never forget this.”...

We bet you won't forget it.

The indictment goes into great detail on the sordid transactions and quid pro quos that the Menendez's arranged.  If this litany of corruption and selling out your constituents and your country for some cash, gold and a luxury car doesn't make you sick, we don't know what would.

In response, Sen. Menendez has said, "I am not going anywhere," and attempted to play the "they're out to get me 'cause I'm Latino" card, to which the response should be, "Dimite, culo corrupto!"

Meanwhile, resign or not, he's getting a quality Democratic primary opponent in Rep. Andy Kim.  Remember him?

That's Rep. Kim cleaning up in the Capitol Rotunda after the MAGAt insurrection.  

Does New Jersey want a public servant or public scoundrel?

(Photo:  the high times are coming to an end for Menendez Criminal Enterprise, Inc. / NJ Advance Media)

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full story/ op-ed.

On the eve of Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump's performance review in Helsinki, Jonathan Chait has a comprehensive dive into the Trump- Russia "relationship," its many associated players (Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Carter Page, Michael Cohen, Felix Sater, legions of Russians, etc.), and the evidence of collusion and corrupt intent in plain view.

Since the election, Trump and his advisers have continued to act like people who have a great deal to hide. In January 2017, Cohen solicited consulting payments from a firm controlled by a Russian oligarch and, when Flynn became national-security adviser, delivered to him a “peace plan” that would have consolidated the gains from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In December 2016, Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador discussed setting up a back-channel communications line through the Russian embassy. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and brother of Trump’s Education secretary, traveled to the Seychelles and met with a Putin ally in what European and Middle Eastern officials believe was another attempt to establish a back channel. Prince also appears to have lied to Congress about the meeting. 

Of course, at that point, if Trump had legal diplomatic business to discuss with Russia, the president-elect could have held a normal meeting. It is possible to construct an innocent explanation for all the lying and skulduggery, but it is not the most obvious explanation. More likely, collusion between the Russians and the Trump administration has continued beyond the campaign.

Chait "what ifs" around the evidence of Rump being a longtime Russian asset since 1987 (well, of course he is), but it's a good read nonetheless.  If all the facts and evidence are allowed to come out, this will be far and away the biggest scandal ever in American history, bar none.

While we're on the subject of the Trump- Russia scandal,  ex- Rump fixer Michael Cohen's new legal spokesperson (and Clinton family intimate) Lanny Davis put the tweet out after seeing Rudy "Ghouliani" Giuliani blathering on the Sunday talk shows:

Did @rudygiuliani really say on Sunday shows that @michaelcohen212 should cooperate with prosecutors and tell the truth? Seriously? Is that Trump and Giuliani definition of “truth”? Trump/Giuliani next to the word “truth” = oxymoron. Stay tuned.  #thetruthmatters

— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) July 9, 2018

We like the "stay tuned" part, but let's not wait too long for the singing to begin, mkay?

The Republican War on Women (and babies) goes international (our emphasis):

A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly. 

Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes. 

Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations. [snip]

The confrontation was the latest example of the Trump administration siding with corporate interests on numerous public health and environmental issues. 

Luckily, the Rump regime's bullying efforts (threatening countries with trade sanctions and withholding military aid) were thwarted by a knight in shining armor:

In the end, the Americans’ efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them.

So that's where we are now. Bullying smaller countries in the interests of corporate America only to slink away when your puppet master steps in to act as the hero.  The damage to this country's standing and reputation is real and it's going to be long- lasting.  Sic transit gloria, America.

Lastly, please go over to Infidel 753's link round- up, where he provides "Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week."  It's a wonderful assortment of humorous, quirky, timely, newsworthy ... oh, just go over and explore for yourself!

In Iraq, Whistleblowing Blows

There have been numerous instances of whistleblowers being punished for exposing corruption and waste among greedy contractors in Iraq, according to the AP (via MSNBC). Firings, demotions, detention in prison camps, are just a few of the outrages. Clearly, the intent among the officials trying to shut down the whistleblowers is to avoid culpability for their misadministration or outright criminality. These whistleblowers are good Americans who are seeing thugs steal the American public blind, and they tried to do something about it. At a mininum, the Pentagon and Justice Department should go after the crooks with a vengence, and make it clear that whistleblowers will not only be protected, but rewarded for their service.

Another Rethug Bids Farewell

Congressman (and soon-to-be jail bird) Rick Renzi (Rethug-AZ) announced that he won't seek reelection next year. Renzi is facing a Federal inquiry into his family's insurance business. In 2005, he also failed to disclose a $200,000 payment from his business partner in a real estate deal. He's also been linked to the Abramhoff scandal and other Rethug passtimes.

That brings to 5 the number of Rethuglican House members announcing retirement, some pending indictment. Heh heh.

Doolittle's Doo Doo

Uh oh. Another Rethug Congressman in trouble over contractor corruption and links to Abramhoff and Cunningham? That would be Congressman John "Doo" Doolittle of California, who yesterday quit the House Appropriations Committee after FBI agents raided his home looking for evidence that his wife and he benefitted from the largess of defense contractors. The WaPo has the details.

I'm Shocked, Shocked!

Headline in today's WaPo: "Firings Had Genesis In White House", referring of course to the now infamous firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys for what appear to be political motivations. Noooo, really? The White House? Just because the attorneys in question were pursuing major corruption investigations of Rethuglicans, or not moving quickly enough on investigations of Democrats before the 2006 elections? Not this White House!