In 2017, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy advising firm, with Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda.[46][47] WestExec's clients have included Google's Jigsaw, Israeli artificial-intelligence company Windward, surveillance drone manufacturer Shield AI, which signed a $7.2million contract with the Air Force,[48] and "Fortune 100 types".[49] According to Foreign Policy, the firm's clientele includes "the defense industry, private equity firms, and hedge funds".[50] Blinken received almost $1.2million in compensation from WestExec.[51]
Blinken, as well as other Biden transition team members Michele Flournoy, former Pentagon advisor, and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, are partners of private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners,[54][55] a strategic partner of WestExec.[56] Pine Island's chairman is John Thain, the final chairman of Merrill Lynch before its sale to Bank of America.[57] Blinken went on leave from Pine Island in August 2020 to join the Biden campaign as a senior foreign policy advisor.[55] He said he would divest himself of his equity stake in Pine Island if confirmed for a position in the Biden administration.[56]
During the final stretch of Biden's presidential campaign, Pine Island raised $218million for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a public offering to invest in "defense, government service and aerospace industries" and COVID-19
relief, which the firm's prospectus (initially filed with the U.S. SEC
in September and finalized on November 13, 2020) predicted would be
profitable as the government looked to private contractors to address
the pandemic.[55] Thain said he chose the other partners because of their "access, network and expertise".[48]
In a December 2020 New York Times
article raising questions about potential conflicts of interest between
WestExec principals, Pine Island advisors, including Blinken, and
service in the Biden administration, critics called for full disclosure
of all WestExec/Pine Island financial relationships, divestiture of
ownership stakes in companies bidding on government contracts or
enjoying existing contracts, and assurances that Blinken and others
recuse themselves from decisions that might advantage their previous
clients.[48]
In an interview with The Intercept,
Flournoy explained WestExec seeks to employ "people recently coming out
of government" with "current knowledge, expertise, contacts, networks."[5]
The firm and its partners avoid becoming registered lobbyists or
foreign agents so that they can (re)enter government service without
delays.[6] It does not disclose its clients, whose names are restricted from disclosure by non-disclosure agreements.[7] The firm is named after West Executive Avenue, a street near the West Wing.[7]
Clients and activities
Although WestExec does not disclose its list of clients, some have been reported. Its clients include Google's Jigsaw; Windward, an Israeli artificial intelligence firm; Shield AI, a drone surveillance company;[4] and "Fortune 100 types".[8]
After leaving the White House in January 2017, she helped launch and lead Axios, and served as its Executive Vice President.[7]
She has worked as a consultant for the Education Partnership for
Children of Conflict and served as Deputy Chair for the governance track
of the Clinton Global Initiative. She is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]
If all of this stinks to you of revolving door grifters, Covid is not impeding your sense of smell. If you recall Biden telling big money fundrasiing folks, "Nothing will fundamentally change," should you doubt it, after reading the above simple Wiki story?
If you regard Biden as an old fragile shell corporation, with the Wiki quotes naming key corporate shareholders, well, you must be a cynic. How could you think such a thing?
Just good folk, governing for the Biden constituency, right? Who be that constituency; now there's a question with which to wrestle. Recall George Carlin's "Big Club" riff. And you ain't in it.
Before coming to Berlin, Bennett had a three-hour meeting with
Putin. Bennett's office said he departed early Saturday morning for
Moscow, accompanied by Russian-speaking Cabinet minister Zeev Elkin, who
was born in Ukraine. Both men are observant Jews and would not normally
travel on the Sabbath.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies they were "discussing the situation in Ukraine."
The founding editor of The Times of Israel,
David Horovitz, said the trip had "extraordinarily high stakes." He
added that "trying to maintain not neutral but warm relations" with both
Russia and Ukraine "may harm Israel's standing in the free world."
"Isreal's standing in the free world?" Wtf is that? The guy who said that should be shunned as irremediably duplicitous. It is a term out of 1984, The novel, not the year. Why Bennett? What dynamics are at play?
As Second Gentleman,
Mr. Emhoff is working to share the priorities of the Biden-Harris
Administration with people across the country and around the world.
During his first year as Second Gentleman, Mr. Emhoff traveled to
dozens of states and two countries. He has met with health care
professionals, front-line workers, parents, teachers, caregivers,
community leaders, legal aid providers, and small-business owners in
urban and rural areas, communities of color, and Tribal communities to
hear their stories and to share how the Administration is working to
help their families.
Mr. Emhoff has made it a top priority to encourage people to protect themselves and their communities by getting vaccinated against COVID-19. He visited vaccine clinics in churches, community health centers, schools, stadiums, and even barbershops to raise awareness around the importance of getting vaccinated.
As the first Second Gentleman, married to the first female vice
president, Mr. Emhoff knows the power and importance of having women in
leadership positions. While traveling the country, he has seen what it
has meant to young girls and boys to look up to Vice President Kamala
Harris. He is proud of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitments to
advancing gender equity and will continue to speak about the importance
of being a supportive spouse.
As a lawyer for over 30 years, Mr. Emhoff cares deeply about justice
and equality in our legal system. He is a strong advocate for the
Administration’s commitment expanding federal legal resources to those
who need it most. Mr. Emhoff has convened legal aid listening sessions,
visited pro bono clinics, and met with legal aid providers
and their clients across the country to learn more about the inequities
in the legal system and to hear how the pandemic has impacted access to
justice.
As the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice
president, Mr. Emhoff has been honored to share his Jewish heritage and
culture—from celebrating Passover in the White House to hanging a Mezuzah on the front door of the Vice President’s Residence. He regularly engages with individuals from the Jewish community as well as other faith-based groups to discuss the Administration’s priorities to strengthen religious tolerance and protect religious freedom.
In January 2020, Mr. Emhoff began teaching law courses at the Georgetown University Law Center and is enjoying the opportunity to mentor the next generation of lawyers.
“I’M THE FIRST
MAN TO TAKE THIS ROLE, BUT I DEFINITELY DON’T WANT TO BE THE LAST. SO, I
AM GOING TO DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO SET A GOOD EXAMPLE AND INSPIRE THE
NEXT GENERATION OF SUPPORTIVE SPOUSES.”
DOUGLAS EMHOFF, JANUARY 18, 2021
EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Mr. Emhoff was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Matawan, New
Jersey, by his parents, Mike and Barbara, with his siblings, Jamie and
Andy. His family moved to the Los Angeles area during his teen years.
Mr. Emhoff earned a B.A. from California State University, Northridge
and a J.D. from University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Vice President Harris and Mr. Emhoff were set up on a blind date in
2013 and married a year later in a ceremony officiated by her sister,
Maya. He is the very proud father of Cole and Ella (named after John
Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald) whom he shares with his ex-wife and
co-parent, Kerstin Emhoff.
“WE SHARE A
BOND, ROOTED IN FAMILY AND SERVICE—AND THE IMMENSE RESPONSIBILITY THAT
WE ARE TAKING ON TOGETHER. AND ON THIS JOURNEY ALONGSIDE JOE, AND JILL,
AND KAMALA, I’VE HAD A CHANCE TO SEE AMERICA LIKE NEVER BEFORE. AND THE
FOLKS I’VE MET, AND THE STORIES I’VE HEARD, WILL BE WITH ME FOREVER.”
DOUGLAS EMHOFF, NOVEMBER 2, 2020
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff
What do you think the pay grade is of whoever writes that stuff? They could economize simply by linking to the guy's Wikipedia page.
In March 2021, while Second Gentleman, Emhoff began teaching a course entitled "Entertainment Law Disputes" at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Emhoff said he respected educators as he had "learned [that] teaching
is really hard", saying he has "so much respect for the teachers out
there doing this each and every day".
He's been a Hollywood intellectual property and contracts lawyer as best as can be inferred from the two cited sources; whether a litigator or not is a question requiring further web research. The titile of the Georgetown course he teaches suggests he has mediated and litigated and negotiated dispute resolution. From his bio he comes across as smarter than his spouse.
What odds would you give his ever making First Gentleman?
Link. If the governments treated people better there'd likely still be outliers, people needing mental help. But fewer. It must be more cost effective to have high paid shrinks than well treated people. Some bean counter probably has an Excel spreadsheet to show cost/benefit, under assumptions.
Bless those counting beans. They are on the first floor of hospitals and other health treatment outlets, and you cannot get to the upper treatment floors without having properly counted beans (a/k/a coverage). Bless how things are done.
Hutchinson: Many in Republican Party ‘Looking for an Off-Ramp’ from Trump’s Control - by Pam Key - 12 Jun 202
Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox
News Sunday” [...] “I hope that the future of the Republican Party is
different than former President Trump’s leadership. I hope we move in a
different direction. I believe that what happened on January 6 is a lot
at his feet. It was wrong for our country, and for him to continue to
push that theory, I agree, is the wrong direction for the Republican
Party.”
He added, “I think there is many Republicans that are looking for an
off-ramp, new opportunities to define leadership in the future. And
obviously, what President Trump did, there’s a lot of things that he did
that were very good that the base and I agree with, but he got off
track on Jan. 6, and that was a costly error for our democracy. I agree
with a lot of the comments that he has responsibility there, and we need
to make sure that’s clear. I think Republicans need to do a lot of
soul-searching as to what is the right thing here. What is the right
thing to say for our party and our democracy and our future and not
simply appeal to the instincts of some of our base.”
So is the news what an Arkansas governor said? Or that he said it on FOX with Sarah Huckabee Sanders thinking of a hat in the ring? And that Breitbart shines its light on FOX having shined its light on a distancing concern about how the televised Jan 6 hearings play out. Ron DeSantis agrees with his friends.
Liz Cheney gets heat for being a part of that which hordes are pushing at a distance, while still critical of Cheney, or leaving saying anything directly about the hearings as if that would be kissing the hot third rail on t he subway. Let Asa talk, let FOX and Breitbart notice and post. Be very, very, very careful, personally. Wait. Watch.
NY Times, asking a bit late, (June 11, 2022), "Should Biden Run in 2024? Democratic Whispers of ‘No’ Start to Rise. --- In interviews, dozens of frustrated Democratic officials, members of Congress and voters expressed doubts about the president’s ability to rescue his reeling party and take the fight to Republicans."
Before getting into the NYT analysis, it makes sense for Biden to at least through the next year to say he intends to run, thus not making him a lame duck sooner than needed, but if not going to be the 2024 choice, he should stand aside giving ample time for others, and with Clyburn they should not poison the well when others are considered for 2024 Dem candidacy.
And
then there are the questions about Mr. Biden’s inability to persuade
centrist Democratic senators to back his agenda. With the prospect
looming of a Republican majority in at least one chamber of Congress
next year, Democrats who have been in a similar position of holding
fleeting control of government are nervous that past mistakes will be
repeated.
Elizabeth Guzmán, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats in her caucus regret not passing a sweeping abortion rights law last year before they lost control of the state House and governor’s mansion to Republicans.
“We wanted to codify Roe vs. Wade, and look what happened,” she said.
Judy Vidal, 58, a retail worker from Cape Coral, Fla., echoed that sentiment.
“I
just wish that since we have the majority now they would have behaved
the way Republicans did and push things through,” she said.
The
anxiety about Mr. Biden extends to the core of his political base.
Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, an African
American political organizing group, said her chief concern was that
Black voters, having watched Mr. Biden and Democrats fail to deliver on
core promises, don’t come back to vote in November.
“Does
this frustration and the malaise and the worry and the fear, does that
translate into an ongoing enthusiasm gap, and does that cause people to
feel like their participation doesn’t make significant change?” she
said. “That’s the real question.”
Even
some of the earliest supporters of Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign are now
questioning whether he can lead the party through another daunting
election cycle against Mr. Trump.
Of interest, what is said, of course, but that women are quoted as regretful, and are speaking on the record. Why that got buried to the end of the NYT item, ask them, but it matters. Mid-item. somewhat extensively:
There is little recent public polling asking if Democrats want Mr. Biden to seek a second term, but in January just 48 percent of Democrats wanted him to run again, according to The A.P.’s polling.
[...] Jasmine Crockett, a Texas state representative who last month won a primary runoff for a heavily Democratic House seat based in Dallas [...] lamented a stark enthusiasm gap between Republicans, who
in Texas have passed legislation to restrict voting rights and abortion
rights while expanding gun rights, and Democrats, who have not used
their narrow control of the federal government to advance a progressive
agenda.
“Democrats are like, ‘What the
hell is going on?’” Ms. Crockett said. “Our country is completely
falling apart. And so I think we’re lacking in the excitement.”
Many
Democratic leaders and voters want Mr. Biden to fight harder against
Republicans, while others want him to seek more compromise. Many of them
are eyeing 2024 hoping for some sort of idealized nominee — somebody
who isn’t Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris.
Hurting Mr. Biden the most, said Faiz Shakir, who was campaign manager for Mr. Sanders in 2020, is a perception of weakness.
Mr. Shakir circulated a memo
in April stating that Mr. Sanders “has not ruled out” running in 2024
if Mr. Biden does not. In an interview, Mr. Shakir said he believed that
Mr. Biden could beat Mr. Trump a second time — but that if Republicans
nominate a newer face, like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Mr. Biden may not be the best choice.
“If it’s DeSantis or somebody, I think that would be a different kind of a challenge,” Mr. Shakir said.
Howard Dean, the 73-year-old former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman who ran for president in 2004, has long called for a younger generation
of leaders in their 30s and 40s to rise in the party. He said he had
voted for Pete Buttigieg, 40, in the 2020 primary after trying to talk
Senator Chris Murphy, 48, of Connecticut into running.
“The generation after me is just a complete trash heap,” Mr. Dean said.
Earlier in the item, this:
Few
Democrats interviewed expect that high-profile leaders with White House
ambitions would defer to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has had a series of political hiccups of her own in office.
These Democrats mentioned a host of other figures who lost to Mr. Biden in the 2020 primary: Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman who is now running for Texas governor, among others.
Mr. Biden’s supporters insist he has the country on the right track, despite the obstacles.
“Only
one person steered a transition past Trump’s lies and court challenges
and insurrection to take office on Jan. 20: Joe Biden,” said Anita Dunn,
a senior adviser to the president, citing strong jobs numbers and
efforts to combat the pandemic.
[italics added] Bernie, Liz, and the stalking horses in 2020 for the lead-up to the Clyburn-Biden putsch prior to the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday voting in the South.
Upon the hypothetical presumption that Biden/Harris would step aside or be swept aside - and with party hurt feelings havinge not healed to where, practically, a progressive would be chosen; Crabgrass has its suggestion of a balanced ticket that would headline a moderate, with a progressive on the ticket second spot:
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, with Cori Bush as VP.
Inslee is not nationally known yet, but is a good campaigner from a state which has been economically vigorous without major mishap, and Bush has to be loved by the entire nation for having broomed away one of the most egregious (second generation egregious) Missouri black politicians, Lacy Clay.
In place of the New England/California conservative axis of the ticket as is now in place, this would be a Pacific Northwest and southern-midwest ticket, again, with a moderate and progressive, which would be supplemental to the present conservative and aged House leadership. Able that way to make one happy big tent party, or if not happy, satisfied. The Bernie wing and the at-war Clinton wing could step back and let that new ticket have a shot.
Yes, it is a reach, but in that quoted/italicized paragraph, aside from Bernie and Liz, what a colossal yawn. A flake like Beto and a consummate bureaucrat like Mayor Pete; conservative Amy who never prosecuted a bad cop over decades as county attorney - get real. Yes, Pete, Beto and Amy can each fog a mirror, but if the aim is a ticket generating enthusiasm without retreads from the lead-up stalking horses who set the table against Bernie for the Clyburn-Biden putsch, Inslee and Bush fit the spot. New faces. No baggage. Tweaking peoples' imagination.
Find new blood, or run Liz with Inslee or Tester as second spot ticket balance.
Inslee is 71, not the young candidate Howard Dean has in mind, yet Wikipedia has favorable aspects mentioned:
Inslee was a candidate for the Democratic nomination
for president of the United States in the 2020 election, launching his
campaign on March 1, 2019. He suspended his campaign on August 21,
citing extremely low poll numbers. The next day, Inslee announced his
intention to seek a third term as governor in the 2020 election,
which he won with 57% of the vote, becoming the first incumbent
governor of Washington elected to a third term in more than 40 years.
Upon the resignation of New York governor Andrew Cuomo on August 23, 2021, Inslee became the longest-serving current governor in the United States.
Would Inslee have coat tails? Did Biden? He'd be stronger that way than Status Quo Joe. And he is largely a DC outsider. He has been in the House but was not strongly attached in the public mind to Pelosi leadership, nor to the progressive counterbalance to Pelosi, (with Jayapal being the Washington State House member in that position).
If a different but equally skilled and decent moderate younger than Inslee were favored, there is Steve Bullock, a recent two term governor of Montana after having served as the State's AG. As with Inslee, a major national recognition is absent, but he was a quality governor, a moderate Dem, and successful in a conservative state.
Bullock and Inslee are two of the best in the West.
Regional for now, but each capable of campaigning strongly, nationwide. The Dem inner party apparatus, with its biases and kiss-up-to-the-donor-class mentality, would be the biggest stumbling bloc for either. Both are Presidential, on character and capability measures. Either could win with coat tailing power, once known.
UPDATE: Either Bullock or Inslee would render Hunter Biden's laptop irrelevant, while each would score high on vision and trustworthiness dimensions. Bush would lend trust to the urban Black vote increment needed to expand on the Clyburn base among Black voters. Younger urban voters in need of an incentive to turn out would be energized with Bush on the ticket. Bush exudes credibility with the young, that being in large part how she was able to unseat Clay.
_____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
As expected, Breitbart picked up the NYT item, publishing:
NYT: ‘Deep Concern’ About Joe Biden’s 2024 ‘Political Viability’
The Democrat-allied New York Times
published a damning article Saturday that called into question President
Biden’s 2024 “political viability” because the nation “is completely
falling apart.”
After the Timesspent most of 2020 defending and aiding Biden’s 2020 chances of defeating Donald Trump, the paper has now issued a stark warning about Biden’s “age and his capability to take the fight to former President Donald J. Trump a second time.”
Predicated on old age, lack of excitement, and “regret and anxiety,”
the paper outlined Democrats’ fears of Biden again running for president
— but this time with a failing track record. The Times pointed
to numerous failures by the president, such as 40-year-high inflation,
record-high gas prices, high crime, and multiple losses in the culture
wars, such as abortion and the stalled radical far-left proposals within
the Build Back Better package.
“Interviews with nearly 50 Democratic
officials, from county leaders to members of Congress, as well as with
disappointed voters who backed Mr. Biden in 2020, reveal a party alarmed
about Republicans’ rising strength and extraordinarily pessimistic
about an immediate path forward,” the Times acknowledged. “As
the challenges facing the nation mount and fatigued base voters show low
enthusiasm, Democrats in union meetings, the back rooms of Capitol Hill
and party gatherings from coast to coast are quietly worrying about Mr.
Biden’s leadership, his age and his capability.”
Democrat National Committee member Steve Simeonidis told the Times the nation is not on the right track and as a result, Biden should not seek the 2024 nomination.
“To say our country was on the right
track would flagrantly depart from reality,” Simeonidis said. “[Biden]
should announce his intent not to seek re-election in ’24 right after
the midterms.”
A Democrat congressional candidate told the Times
Democrats are dazed about the direction of the country. She also noted
the lack of Democrat enthusiasm heading into the 2022 midterms, when
Republicans are expected to win the House.
“Democrats are like, ‘What the hell is
going on?’” Jasmine Crockett said. “Our country is completely falling
apart. And so I think we’re lacking in the excitement.”
Still, there is no consensus among Democrats about who might replace Biden as leader of the Democrat Party. The Times floated many names, yet each person named lost to Biden in the 2020 Democrat primary.
Biden has promised to run in 2024, perhaps because if he did not, it
would reduce his political capital. But Biden’s political capital is
currently in bad shape.
[...]
Not as slanted from the NYT as Breitbart usually paraphrases. They basically write the same story NYT wrote.
Thinking to the earlier ticket thoughts, for if Biden does not rune in 2024:
The Bullock-Bush ticket as considered would have Bullock as likely the more Presidential ticket top; whereas Inslee might have an edge on electability. Clearly that is pure speculation, as is the speculation any of the three would be allowed by the inner party Dems and their advisor/consultants and veto-power donors.
Clyburn would likely have creeps he favors over Inslee and Bullock, neither of whom is beholden to Clyburn for anything. Lots of if-this, if-that, with the major one being what will Joe do. The Status Quo would be served by Joe giving things another shot. There are better people. As there were in 2020, but if Trump gets the GOP 2024 nod, better Biden than super-schlock. Ditto, DeSantis, and the others.
God! It could be Ted Cruz. Reach the barf bag quickly, I can't hold the thought of Cruz down. Urp and splat And CRUZ. I'd take Ivanka over Cruz.
Kelly Conroy over Cruz or over DeSantis. Hawley as a dark horse, if others knot up?
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Sunday on CNN’s
“State of the Union” that she would not commit to endorsing President
Joe Biden for 2024 until the time came.
Ocasio-Cortez said, “Our party is changing, our party is dynamic, and
millennials are deeply underrepresented in Congress compared to baby
boomers and gen-xers back when they were our age, frankly. At the end of
the day, we need to have a generational shift in the United States
Congress in order to have a policy shift in the United States Congress.”
Anchor Dana Bash said, “Before I go, I just want to ask about
President Biden. He is saying he’s going to run again in 2024. Will you
support him?”
Ocasio-Cortez said, “You know, if the president chooses to run again
in 2024, I mean, first of all, I’m focused on winning this majority
right now and preserving a majority this year in 2022. We’ll cross that
bridge when we get to it. But I think if the president has a vision and
that’s something we’re all certainly willing to entertain and examine
when the time comes.”
Anchor Dana Bash said, “That’s not a yes.”
[...] Ocasio-Cortez said, “But right now, we need to focus on winning a majority instead of a presidential election.”
Properly demurring since Biden is not a progressive. But she'd endorse.
_________FURTHER UPDATE___________
More Breitbart demonstrating why Joe might want to pass the 2024 torch.
The post opens:
Hunter Biden reportedly had a stripper, the
mother of his child whom he has refused to acknowledge, on payroll with
his law firm, Owasco PC.
Owasco was Hunter’s law firm that accepted about
$6 million in consulting fees from a Chinese energy oligarch, Ye
Jianming, who chaired the now-defunct energy company CEFC, linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Biden’s company, Owasco, paid Lunden Roberts $37.50 per hour in November of 2018, according to the Washington Examiner. In
the same month Hunter’s law firm also paid $521.37 worth of health
expenses, including dental and vision insurance coverage, for Roberts.
Roberts sued Hunter in 2019 for child support.
“And is Lunden still [on] payroll???” Biden texted his assistant in
November of 2018. “Take Lunden off payroll I thought you said she
decidedly [didn’t] want to work and didn’t need health insurance anyway.
Remember that conversation?”
The Examiner reported the conversation about the payments between Hunter and his assistant, Katie Dodge:
“I remember a conversation where I was disappointed that
you wanted to pay her the same rate as me,” Dodge said. “But I am over
that. Maybe she told you that but I wasn’t involved.” Dodge also earned
$1,500 from Owasco during the Nov. 16, 2018, pay period for 20 hours of
work, according to the recovered payroll file.
“Regardless Katie [that] was if she was working a 40 hour week full
time for me,” Biden responded. “I haven’t talked to Lunden in 7
months???????”
“Well take whatever I pay Lunden and get my s*** straightened out
Katie,” Biden added. “We need to completely abandon this old process and
come [up] with a new one. New accounts new record keeping new
everything.”
That Hunter made payments to Lunden in November is of note. Earlier,
in March of 2018, Hunter received a $1 million transfer to Owasco from
CEFC.
According to a report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, Hunter accepted many more millions from CEFC.
[...]
All that is gone, irrelevant, neutered, disarmed - if Joe steps away.
Otherwise, death by a thousand cuts, if the Republicans get either house. Indeed, if after the 2022 midterms, the GOP having either house would mean Hunter, front and center, repeatedly.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
A possible Bullock-Bush ticket would earn labor trust and support (i.e., from his Senate campaign "Meet-Steve" page):
As
Attorney General, Bullock fought to protect Montanans’ access to public
lands and end the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Bullock
has a track record of bringing people together to get things done and
do what’s right for Montana families. Prior to serving in public office,
Bullock was a union-side labor law lawyer and led a successful state
initiative to raise the minimum wage.
As Governor, he brought
Republicans and Democrats together to save the state’s rural hospitals
and expand affordable health care to 90,000 Montanans.
Moreover, he looks relaxed, genuine, and Presidential - again from that campaign site:
Bush presents a departure from the Clyburn-Harris axis of black politician paradigms, where even her shirt says so
Cori
Bush was missing her bullhorn. Sometime in August, someone broke into
her SUV, ransacked the car and stole it — and nothing else.
That’s
the kind of not-so-subtle message of intimidation that the activist
turned congresswoman-elect has gotten used to over six years of being a
leading Black Lives Matter organizer in and around Ferguson, Mo., [...] Bush wasliving six minutes from Ferguson in 2014, working as a registered nurse and pastor, when 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. wasshot and killed by a White police officer. She
joined the explosive, tear-gas-filled protests on the second night.
“I’m like, ‘I’m a nurse, so I could be a medic. I’m clergy so I can pray
with people,’ ” she said. And she kept showing up, becoming a standout
grass-roots organizer among her fellow protesters, as the protests
continued for more than 400 days after that.And six years after that.
“We
never stopped protesting because it’s always somebody else getting
murdered,” she said. [...] Bush, 44, got sick of asking public officials to make sweeping changes, particularly regarding criminal justice. So she ranfor
Congress, winning on her third try. On Jan. 3, she will be sworn in at
the Capitol — not just as the first Black woman to represent Missouri in
her state’s 200-year history, but also as the first day-in-and-day-out
BLM protester to earn a seat in those hallowed halls. Last week, she was
appointed to the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which she had been
lobbying for ever since winning her primary.
What
she brings, in this era of generational clashes in the Democratic
Party, is a wealth of lived experiences that many of her colleagues
lack.
Clyburn seems to regard BLM as counterproductive to black acceptance by a more general audience. Bush pleases her
conscience, not some norm of black image projection for white comfort and acceptability. As such, Bullock-Bush would embody a true ticket balance that Biden-Harris only hints possible.
Ron
Desantis and whoever he puts on his ticket would be lost in a small
GOTV spectrum {the 1% and clueless white and Christian nationalists)
while Bullock-Bush would make "Stronger Together" real and not the mere
2016 slogan the narrow-spectrum Clinton-Kaine ticket embodied.
Bullock-Bush would constrain Republican paranoia politics to being a
curbside curiosity while taking the nation by storm to a new light, (if
allowed by their own inner party power centers to do so).
Bloomberg
would cluck, but he's not a real Democrat anyway. Bloomberg is just a
bag of anti-Trump one-time cash; whereas it is the Clintons and Pelosis
that could throttle away the oppertunity.
Last, what was said
about a Bullock-Bush possibility applies as well to an Inslee-Bush
vision. Inslee and Bullock are not at all apart as reliable
true-centrist Democrat governors. Each with a track record of
corruption-free success and voter appeal. While "interchangeable parts"
is demeaning as a term, the parallelism shown by Inslee and Bullock is
undeniable. And promising. They deserve attention.
__________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Biden-Harris was such an insult. The hubris of saying, "This or Trump." And handing that out after 2016, where they were saying, "This or Trump." Bastards do that. And - it was done. Harris has no chance to take the White House. She's mediocre. Off-putting. On the ticket by a cramdown. Cori Bush is real.
