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I'm not disagreeing with those points, I just have an additional theory based on my experience.
Last year (maybe it was the year before) I got a text for some VA polling. I answered it. It was run by Youngkin or something. Anyway I answered the poll and after that I got barraged with other text poll requests. So that tells me two things:
1. These polling providers are selling data to each other on people who will respond 2. That means you get repeat responders likely and therefore maybe not a truly representative sample.
I'm not disagreeing with those points, I just have an additional theory based on my experience.
Last year (maybe it was the year before) I got a text for some VA polling. I answered it. It was run by Youngkin or something. Anyway I answered the poll and after that I got barraged with other text poll requests. So that tells me two things:
1. These polling providers are selling data to each other on people who will respond 2. That means you get repeat responders likely and therefore maybe not a truly representative sample.
What do you make of these polls? A 22% spread on whose policies “personally helped/hurt.” Fourth one down. More concerning to me is that the billionaire class is back to supporting POOTWH and are opening up their wallets and checkbooks. Some maxing out the PAC contributions at $875K and donating to his legal defense $1M+. Both the polls and the billionaires, obscene. Totally obscene.
And hence why I don’t put too much if any stock in a dem winning a state house seat in a special election in a deep red state as some kind of harbinger of federal congressional and POTUS elections.
I'm not disagreeing with those points, I just have an additional theory based on my experience.
Last year (maybe it was the year before) I got a text for some VA polling. I answered it. It was run by Youngkin or something. Anyway I answered the poll and after that I got barraged with other text poll requests. So that tells me two things:
1. These polling providers are selling data to each other on people who will respond 2. That means you get repeat responders likely and therefore maybe not a truly representative sample.
What do you make of these polls? A 22% spread on whose policies “personally helped/hurt.” Fourth one down. More concerning to me is that the billionaire class is back to supporting POOTWH and are opening up their wallets and checkbooks. Some maxing out the PAC contributions at $875K and donating to his legal defense $1M+. Both the polls and the billionaires, obscene. Totally obscene.
And hence why I don’t put too much if any stock in a dem winning a state house seat in a special election in a deep red state as some kind of harbinger of federal congressional and POTUS elections.
Crazy how these polls reflect the effectiveness of narrative control over actual reality.
I'm not disagreeing with those points, I just have an additional theory based on my experience.
Last year (maybe it was the year before) I got a text for some VA polling. I answered it. It was run by Youngkin or something. Anyway I answered the poll and after that I got barraged with other text poll requests. So that tells me two things:
1. These polling providers are selling data to each other on people who will respond 2. That means you get repeat responders likely and therefore maybe not a truly representative sample.
What do you make of these polls? A 22% spread on whose policies “personally helped/hurt.” Fourth one down. More concerning to me is that the billionaire class is back to supporting POOTWH and are opening up their wallets and checkbooks. Some maxing out the PAC contributions at $875K and donating to his legal defense $1M+. Both the polls and the billionaires, obscene. Totally obscene.
And hence why I don’t put too much if any stock in a dem winning a state house seat in a special election in a deep red state as some kind of harbinger of federal congressional and POTUS elections.
Crazy how these polls reflect the effectiveness of narrative control over actual reality.
‘Murica’s collective amnesia about the time from 1/20/17 to 1/20/21 is astonishing but not surprising.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Man convicted of attacking ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer sentenced to 30 years
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
1 hour ago
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The man convicted of attempting to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her husband with a hammer was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley handed down the sentence for David DePape, 44, whom jurors found guilty last November of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year prison term.
DePape was given 20 years for one count and 30 years for another count. The sentences will run concurrently. He was also given credit for the 18 months that he's been in custody.
DePape stood silently as Judge Corley handed the sentence and looked down at times. His public defense attorneys had asked the judge to sentence him to 14 years, pointing out that he was going through a difficult time in his life and had no prior criminal history.
Corley said she took into account when giving DePape’s sentence the fact that he broke into the home of a public official, an unprecedented act in the history of the country.
“He actually went to the home, that is completely, completely unprecedented,” she said.
Before sentencing, Christine Pelosi read victim statements on behalf of her father and mother, explaining how the violent attack changed their lives.
“The Pelosi family couldn’t be prouder of their Pop and his tremendous courage in saving his own life on the night of the attack and in testifying in this case,” Aaron Bennett, a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “Speaker Pelosi and her family are immensely grateful to all who have sent love and prayers over the last eighteen months, as Mr. Pelosi continues his recovery.”
DePape admitted during trial testimony that he broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home Oct. 28, 2022, intending to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she lied to him. He also admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer after police showed up, saying his plan to end what he viewed as government corruption was unraveling.
Defense attorneys argued DePape was motivated by his political beliefs, not because he wanted to interfere with Nancy Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress, making the charges against him invalid.
At trial DePape, a Canadian who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, testified that he believed news outlets repeatedly lied about former President Donald Trump. In rants posted on a blog and online forum that were taken down after his arrest, DePape echoed the baseless, right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory that claims a cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles runs the U.S. government.
DePape also told jurors he had planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and record his interrogation of the Democratic speaker, who was not at the home at the time of the attack, to upload it online.
Prosecutors said he had rope and zip ties with him, and detectives found body cameras, a computer and a tablet.
Paul Pelosi also testified at the trial, recalling how he was awakened by a large man bursting into the bedroom and asking, “Where’s Nancy?” He said that when he responded that his wife was in Washington, DePape said he would tie him up while they waited for her.
“It was a tremendous sense of shock to recognize that somebody had broken into the house, and looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi told jurors.
DePape is also charged in state court with assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary and other felonies. Jury selection in that trial is expected to start Wednesday.
Paul Pelosi suffered two head wounds in the attack, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Trial of Sen. Bob Menendez takes a weeklong break after jurors get stuck in elevator
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — The trial of Sen. Bob Menendez grinded to a weeklong break on Tuesday after federal court jurors who were treated to a brick-by-brick build of the prosecution's bribery case got stuck in an elevator a day after they were forced from their usual assembly room because of flooding.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said jurors were trapped in an elevator for several minutes during what was supposed to be a 10-minute late-afternoon break that lasted almost a half hour.
The elevator breakdown came as jurors were shuttled between floors to an assembly room because carpeting in their usual assembly room just outside the courtroom was found to be soaked on Monday after somebody left sink faucets on over the weekend. As jurors left for the day, Stein humorously warned them: “Don't all get into one elevator.”
The mishap came on a day when prosecutors slowly tried to build their case against the Democrat with evidence they hoped would score points with jurors against Menendez and his two co-defendants — two New Jersey businessmen who the government claims paid him bribes consisting of gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.
Lawyers for Menendez, 70, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and the businessmen say their clients are not guilty and that the government is trying to turn common interactions between a politician and his constituents into crimes.
Among the witnesses Tuesday was a man who worked for the State Department during the years when prosecutors say Menendez used his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to do favors for Egypt so he could keep the flow of bribes on track.
Joshua Paul, who now works as a consultant for a nonprofit, testified that the committee and its chairperson have extraordinary powers over the State Department because it controls its leadership, dictates how it operates and confirms ambassadors worldwide.
After his arrest last fall, Menendez was forced to step down from the post, though he has resisted calls for him to leave the Senate.
Prosecutors say Menendez did things benefitting Egyptian officials so that he could receive bribes in exchange for clearing the way for one codefendant to secure a lucrative monopoly to certify that meat exported to Egypt from U.S. slaughterhouses met Islamic dietary requirements.
Besides bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, Menendez is also charged with acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,163
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia registers as independent, citing 'partisan extremism'
By LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING and LEAH WILLINGHAM
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday he has switched his registration to independent, raising questions about his political plans since the move could help his chances should he seek elected office again in a state that has turned heavily Republican.
He had already announced in November that he wouldn’t seek re-election to the Senate, giving Republicans a clear path to picking up his West Virginia seat in their bid to retake the majority next year.
Manchin has served in the Senate since 2010 and is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said in a statement that over the past 15 years he has seen both major political parties leave their constituents behind for "partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy.”
“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
Manchin will continue to caucus with Democrats and keep his chairmanship, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to share his plans. The move helps Democrats preserve their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Still, facing potential retirement from politics, Manchin appears to be keeping his options open.
He has long wanted to switch his party affiliation to become an independent, according to a second person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss it. But a looming deadline in West Virginia forced the issue.
Candidates must file their political affiliation 60 days prior to a Aug. 1 deadline to run in this year's election.
Now registered as an independent, Manchin still has time to mount another Senate race or a potential run for governor, a position he held from 2005 to 2010.
He had gone back and forth for months before announcing he wasn’t running for reelection to the Senate. Many questioned whether he could win against the immensely popular Gov. Jim Justice, the Republican Senate nominee who Manchin helped recruit to run for governor as a Democrat in 2016. Justice switched to Republican at a rally with then-President Donald Trump not long into his first term.
Should the Senate candidates stumble, Manchin could be poised to try to keep his seat. But a run for governor could be more favorable.
Manchin has defeated the Republican nominee for governor, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, once before, in 2018. That Senate campaign was Manchin's toughest in his three-plus decades in West Virginia politics. He defeated Morrisey by just over 3 percentage points.
Steve Williams, who is the Democratic nominee for governor and the mayor of Huntington, said last week he doesn’t believe Manchin intends to enter the gubernatorial race, adding that they've been friends for decades.
West Virginia Democratic Party officials said Friday Manchin did not give them a heads up he was switching to independent. In a statement Friday, state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said he was disappointed.
“While the senator has been one of the most independent senators in the country, and has sometimes opposed the Democratic agenda, we’ll always be grateful for his votes to impeach President Trump, to create the January 6th Commission, and his warning that, if re-elected, Trump ‘will destroy democracy in America,’” he said.
Manchin first entered the Senate after winning a special election following the death of Robert C. Byrd in 2010. The state's political tilt has changed dramatically since then.
Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans during Manchin’s first two Senate campaigns, but those numbers have flipped. Now, about 40% of registered voters are Republicans, compared with 31% for Democrats and about 24% with no party affiliation.
Both chambers of the Legislature have Republican supermajorities, and Trump overwhelmingly won the state in 2016 and 2020.
Manchin had also flirted with the possibility of running for president as a third-party candidate, but decided against that in February, saying he didn’t want to be a “spoiler.”
Manchin, the last in a line of powerful Senate Democrats from West Virginia who promoted coal interests at the national level, has increasingly lamented the two-party system in the past year. During a tour of a Charleston stamping plant in October, he said he identified more with independents than either party.
“Don’t worry about the ‘D’ or the ‘R’, worry about the person — who is that person?” he said. “There can be a good D and a bad D and a good R and a bad R, but the identity — I like more the independent identity.”
—-
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Willingham reported from Charleston, W.V.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia registers as independent, citing 'partisan extremism'
By LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING and LEAH WILLINGHAM
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday he has switched his registration to independent, raising questions about his political plans since the move could help his chances should he seek elected office again in a state that has turned heavily Republican.
He had already announced in November that he wouldn’t seek re-election to the Senate, giving Republicans a clear path to picking up his West Virginia seat in their bid to retake the majority next year.
Manchin has served in the Senate since 2010 and is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said in a statement that over the past 15 years he has seen both major political parties leave their constituents behind for "partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy.”
“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
Manchin will continue to caucus with Democrats and keep his chairmanship, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to share his plans. The move helps Democrats preserve their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Still, facing potential retirement from politics, Manchin appears to be keeping his options open.
He has long wanted to switch his party affiliation to become an independent, according to a second person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss it. But a looming deadline in West Virginia forced the issue.
Candidates must file their political affiliation 60 days prior to a Aug. 1 deadline to run in this year's election.
Now registered as an independent, Manchin still has time to mount another Senate race or a potential run for governor, a position he held from 2005 to 2010.
He had gone back and forth for months before announcing he wasn’t running for reelection to the Senate. Many questioned whether he could win against the immensely popular Gov. Jim Justice, the Republican Senate nominee who Manchin helped recruit to run for governor as a Democrat in 2016. Justice switched to Republican at a rally with then-President Donald Trump not long into his first term.
Should the Senate candidates stumble, Manchin could be poised to try to keep his seat. But a run for governor could be more favorable.
Manchin has defeated the Republican nominee for governor, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, once before, in 2018. That Senate campaign was Manchin's toughest in his three-plus decades in West Virginia politics. He defeated Morrisey by just over 3 percentage points.
Steve Williams, who is the Democratic nominee for governor and the mayor of Huntington, said last week he doesn’t believe Manchin intends to enter the gubernatorial race, adding that they've been friends for decades.
West Virginia Democratic Party officials said Friday Manchin did not give them a heads up he was switching to independent. In a statement Friday, state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said he was disappointed.
“While the senator has been one of the most independent senators in the country, and has sometimes opposed the Democratic agenda, we’ll always be grateful for his votes to impeach President Trump, to create the January 6th Commission, and his warning that, if re-elected, Trump ‘will destroy democracy in America,’” he said.
Manchin first entered the Senate after winning a special election following the death of Robert C. Byrd in 2010. The state's political tilt has changed dramatically since then.
Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans during Manchin’s first two Senate campaigns, but those numbers have flipped. Now, about 40% of registered voters are Republicans, compared with 31% for Democrats and about 24% with no party affiliation.
Both chambers of the Legislature have Republican supermajorities, and Trump overwhelmingly won the state in 2016 and 2020.
Manchin had also flirted with the possibility of running for president as a third-party candidate, but decided against that in February, saying he didn’t want to be a “spoiler.”
Manchin, the last in a line of powerful Senate Democrats from West Virginia who promoted coal interests at the national level, has increasingly lamented the two-party system in the past year. During a tour of a Charleston stamping plant in October, he said he identified more with independents than either party.
“Don’t worry about the ‘D’ or the ‘R’, worry about the person — who is that person?” he said. “There can be a good D and a bad D and a good R and a bad R, but the identity — I like more the independent identity.”
—-
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Willingham reported from Charleston, W.V.
with as much as he has fucked the democrats all these years he should have just registered as a republican.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
Trial of Sen. Bob Menendez takes a weeklong break after jurors get stuck in elevator
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — The trial of Sen. Bob Menendez grinded to a weeklong break on Tuesday after federal court jurors who were treated to a brick-by-brick build of the prosecution's bribery case got stuck in an elevator a day after they were forced from their usual assembly room because of flooding.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said jurors were trapped in an elevator for several minutes during what was supposed to be a 10-minute late-afternoon break that lasted almost a half hour.
The elevator breakdown came as jurors were shuttled between floors to an assembly room because carpeting in their usual assembly room just outside the courtroom was found to be soaked on Monday after somebody left sink faucets on over the weekend. As jurors left for the day, Stein humorously warned them: “Don't all get into one elevator.”
The mishap came on a day when prosecutors slowly tried to build their case against the Democrat with evidence they hoped would score points with jurors against Menendez and his two co-defendants — two New Jersey businessmen who the government claims paid him bribes consisting of gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.
Lawyers for Menendez, 70, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and the businessmen say their clients are not guilty and that the government is trying to turn common interactions between a politician and his constituents into crimes.
Among the witnesses Tuesday was a man who worked for the State Department during the years when prosecutors say Menendez used his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to do favors for Egypt so he could keep the flow of bribes on track.
Joshua Paul, who now works as a consultant for a nonprofit, testified that the committee and its chairperson have extraordinary powers over the State Department because it controls its leadership, dictates how it operates and confirms ambassadors worldwide.
After his arrest last fall, Menendez was forced to step down from the post, though he has resisted calls for him to leave the Senate.
Prosecutors say Menendez did things benefitting Egyptian officials so that he could receive bribes in exchange for clearing the way for one codefendant to secure a lucrative monopoly to certify that meat exported to Egypt from U.S. slaughterhouses met Islamic dietary requirements.
Besides bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, Menendez is also charged with acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.
Fox isn't even covering this issue because it counters the narrative that only Republicans are being arrested. And by Republicans, we mean just Trump.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 36,163
At Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial, prosecutors highlight his wife's desperate finances
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
29 May 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial showed jurors hundreds of texts, emails and phone calls over two days that show his girlfriend-turned-wife's desperate financial situation before New Jersey businessmen she had long known came to the rescue.
Prosecutors elicited the evidence through the testimony of an FBI agent for a second day Wednesday as they sought to show that Menendez, 70, conspired with three businessmen and his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, in a bribery scheme that enriched the couple with gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury car.
The Menendezes and two of the businessmen have pleaded not guilty, while the third pleaded guilty and is scheduled to testify. Nadine Menendez's trial was postponed until July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Through the long presentation of communications that was expected to continue into Thursday, prosecutors have sought to trace the relationship between Menendez and the woman he began dating in early 2018, known then as Nadine Arslanian.
Prosecutors say the trajectory of the relationship coincided with a bribery scheme that led the senator to help one businessman and codefendant, Wael Hana, win an exclusive contract with Egypt to certify all meat exported there from the United States as meeting religious requirements, while aiding two other businessmen financially and by helping them obtain favorable results with criminal cases in New Jersey.
Jurors saw some text messages Wednesday in which Menendez and Arslanian exchanged loving sentiments, with a kissing or heart emoji. In one message Arslanian told the senator: “You can never lose me because I will never let go.”
Other communications showed that during the summer of 2019, Arslanian was in danger of losing her home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, after missing nearly $20,000 in mortgage payments.
Hana provided the money to save the home, where Menendez moved after marrying Arslanian in 2020. Prosecutors say the money was part of bribes the couple received as the senator helped Hana's company secure its monopoly on the certifying of meat exports to Egypt.
Defense lawyers say Menendez did nothing outside the bounds of what politicians typically do for constituents. The 13 gold bars found in a 2022 FBI raid on the home belonged to Nadine Menendez, they say, and the reason there was $480,000 in cash stuffed in jackets, boxes and a safe was because the senator was traumatized by the loss of his family's fortune before he was born.
Menendez has also said through his lawyers that his wife kept him in the dark about her financial troubles and he did nothing illegal.
Among other charges, Menendez is accused of acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. After his fall arrest, he was forced to quit his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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At bribery trial, ex-US official casts Sen. Bob Menendez as a villain in Egyptian meat controversy
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — A former top U.S. agricultural official cast Sen. Bob Menendez as a villain at his bribery trial Friday, saying he tried to stop him from disrupting an unusual sudden monopoly that developed five years ago over the certification of meat exported to Egypt.
A Manhattan federal court jury heard the official, Ted McKinney, recount a brief phone call he received from the Democrat in 2019 soon after New Jersey businessman Wael Hana was granted the sole right to certify that meat exported to Egypt from the United States conformed to Islamic dietary requirements.
Hana, who is on trial with Menendez and one other businessman, is among three New Jersey businessmen who prosecutors say gave Menendez and his wife bribes including gold bars and tens of thousands of dollars in cash from 2018 to 2022 in return for actions from Menendez that would enhance their business interests.
Menendez, 70, and his codefendants, along with his wife — who is scheduled for a July trial — have pleaded not guilty to charges lodged against them beginning last fall.
The monopoly that Hana's company received forced out several other companies that had been certifying beef and liver exported to Egypt and occurred over a span of several days in May 2019, a rapid transition that seemed “very, very unusual,” McKinney said.
“We immediately swung into action,” the former official said, describing a series of escalating actions that the U.S. took to try to get Egyptian officials to reconsider the action that awarded a monopoly to a single company that had never carried out the certifications before. The overtures, he said, were met with silence.
Amid the urgent effort, McKinney called Egypt's choice a “rather draconian decision” that would drive up prices in one correspondence with Egyptian authorities.
He said Menendez called him in late May 2019 and told him to “quit interfering with my constituent.”
In so many words, he added, Menendez was telling him to “stand down.”
McKinney said he started to explain to the senator why the United States preferred multiple companies rather than one certifying meat sent to Egypt, but Menendez cut him off.
“Let's not bother with that. That's not important. Let's not go there,” McKinney recalled Menendez telling him as he tried to explain that a monopoly would cause high prices and endanger the 60 percent share of the market for beef and liver that the U.S. held in Egypt.
He described the senator's tone on the call as “serious to maybe even very serious.”
McKinney said he knew Menendez held a powerful post at the time as the top Democrat on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, but he told diplomats in Egypt and within his department to continue gathering facts on why Egypt abruptly changed its policies.
He said he told them to “keep doing what they were doing and if there was any heat to take, I would take it."
“We thought something nefarious was going on,” he said.
McKinney said he was preparing to contact the senator a second time to discuss his concerns when he learned that the FBI was investigating how the certification of meat to Egypt ended up in a single company's hands.
He said he alerted others in his department and diplomats overseas to stand down.
“It's in the hands of the FBI now,” McKinney said he told them.
What was likely to be a lengthy cross-examination of McKinney began late Friday with a lawyer for Menendez eliciting that it was Egypt's right to choose what company or companies handled the certification of meat exported from the United States to Egypt. The lawyer highlighted that Egypt concluded the companies that had been handling certifications had not been doing it properly.
As Menendez left the courthouse Friday, he told reporters to pay close attention to the cross-examination.
“You know, you wait for the cross and you'll find the truth,” he said before stepping into a car and riding away.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
(Guess I've never been polled).
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Last year (maybe it was the year before) I got a text for some VA polling. I answered it. It was run by Youngkin or something. Anyway I answered the poll and after that I got barraged with other text poll requests. So that tells me two things:
1. These polling providers are selling data to each other on people who will respond
2. That means you get repeat responders likely and therefore maybe not a truly representative sample.
https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/times-siena-poll-coverage
And hence why I don’t put too much if any stock in a dem winning a state house seat in a special election in a deep red state as some kind of harbinger of federal congressional and POTUS elections.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The man convicted of attempting to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her husband with a hammer was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley handed down the sentence for David DePape, 44, whom jurors found guilty last November of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year prison term.
DePape was given 20 years for one count and 30 years for another count. The sentences will run concurrently. He was also given credit for the 18 months that he's been in custody.
DePape stood silently as Judge Corley handed the sentence and looked down at times. His public defense attorneys had asked the judge to sentence him to 14 years, pointing out that he was going through a difficult time in his life and had no prior criminal history.
Corley said she took into account when giving DePape’s sentence the fact that he broke into the home of a public official, an unprecedented act in the history of the country.
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“He actually went to the home, that is completely, completely unprecedented,” she said.
Before sentencing, Christine Pelosi read victim statements on behalf of her father and mother, explaining how the violent attack changed their lives.
“The Pelosi family couldn’t be prouder of their Pop and his tremendous courage in saving his own life on the night of the attack and in testifying in this case,” Aaron Bennett, a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “Speaker Pelosi and her family are immensely grateful to all who have sent love and prayers over the last eighteen months, as Mr. Pelosi continues his recovery.”
DePape admitted during trial testimony that he broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home Oct. 28, 2022, intending to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she lied to him. He also admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer after police showed up, saying his plan to end what he viewed as government corruption was unraveling.
The attack on Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time, was captured on police body camera video just days before the midterm elections and sent shockwaves through the political world.
Defense attorneys argued DePape was motivated by his political beliefs, not because he wanted to interfere with Nancy Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress, making the charges against him invalid.
One of his attorneys, Angela Chuang, said during closing arguments that DePape was caught up in conspiracy theories.
At trial DePape, a Canadian who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, testified that he believed news outlets repeatedly lied about former President Donald Trump. In rants posted on a blog and online forum that were taken down after his arrest, DePape echoed the baseless, right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory that claims a cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles runs the U.S. government.
DePape also told jurors he had planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and record his interrogation of the Democratic speaker, who was not at the home at the time of the attack, to upload it online.
Prosecutors said he had rope and zip ties with him, and detectives found body cameras, a computer and a tablet.
Paul Pelosi also testified at the trial, recalling how he was awakened by a large man bursting into the bedroom and asking, “Where’s Nancy?” He said that when he responded that his wife was in Washington, DePape said he would tie him up while they waited for her.
“It was a tremendous sense of shock to recognize that somebody had broken into the house, and looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi told jurors.
DePape is also charged in state court with assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary and other felonies. Jury selection in that trial is expected to start Wednesday.
Paul Pelosi suffered two head wounds in the attack, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.
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NEW YORK (AP) — The trial of Sen. Bob Menendez grinded to a weeklong break on Tuesday after federal court jurors who were treated to a brick-by-brick build of the prosecution's bribery case got stuck in an elevator a day after they were forced from their usual assembly room because of flooding.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said jurors were trapped in an elevator for several minutes during what was supposed to be a 10-minute late-afternoon break that lasted almost a half hour.
The elevator breakdown came as jurors were shuttled between floors to an assembly room because carpeting in their usual assembly room just outside the courtroom was found to be soaked on Monday after somebody left sink faucets on over the weekend. As jurors left for the day, Stein humorously warned them: “Don't all get into one elevator.”
The mishap came on a day when prosecutors slowly tried to build their case against the Democrat with evidence they hoped would score points with jurors against Menendez and his two co-defendants — two New Jersey businessmen who the government claims paid him bribes consisting of gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.
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Lawyers for Menendez, 70, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and the businessmen say their clients are not guilty and that the government is trying to turn common interactions between a politician and his constituents into crimes.
Among the witnesses Tuesday was a man who worked for the State Department during the years when prosecutors say Menendez used his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to do favors for Egypt so he could keep the flow of bribes on track.
Joshua Paul, who now works as a consultant for a nonprofit, testified that the committee and its chairperson have extraordinary powers over the State Department because it controls its leadership, dictates how it operates and confirms ambassadors worldwide.
After his arrest last fall, Menendez was forced to step down from the post, though he has resisted calls for him to leave the Senate.
Prosecutors say Menendez did things benefitting Egyptian officials so that he could receive bribes in exchange for clearing the way for one codefendant to secure a lucrative monopoly to certify that meat exported to Egypt from U.S. slaughterhouses met Islamic dietary requirements.
Besides bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, Menendez is also charged with acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday he has switched his registration to independent, raising questions about his political plans since the move could help his chances should he seek elected office again in a state that has turned heavily Republican.
Manchin, 76, has often been at odds with the Democratic Party and an obstacle to many of President Joe Biden’s legislative priorities. But he played a central role in helping Biden get a landmark climate change and health care bill over the finish line in 2022.
He had already announced in November that he wouldn’t seek re-election to the Senate, giving Republicans a clear path to picking up his West Virginia seat in their bid to retake the majority next year.
Manchin has served in the Senate since 2010 and is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said in a statement that over the past 15 years he has seen both major political parties leave their constituents behind for "partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy.”
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“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
Manchin will continue to caucus with Democrats and keep his chairmanship, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to share his plans. The move helps Democrats preserve their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Still, facing potential retirement from politics, Manchin appears to be keeping his options open.
He has long wanted to switch his party affiliation to become an independent, according to a second person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss it. But a looming deadline in West Virginia forced the issue.
Candidates must file their political affiliation 60 days prior to a Aug. 1 deadline to run in this year's election.
Now registered as an independent, Manchin still has time to mount another Senate race or a potential run for governor, a position he held from 2005 to 2010.
He had gone back and forth for months before announcing he wasn’t running for reelection to the Senate. Many questioned whether he could win against the immensely popular Gov. Jim Justice, the Republican Senate nominee who Manchin helped recruit to run for governor as a Democrat in 2016. Justice switched to Republican at a rally with then-President Donald Trump not long into his first term.
Should the Senate candidates stumble, Manchin could be poised to try to keep his seat. But a run for governor could be more favorable.
Manchin has defeated the Republican nominee for governor, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, once before, in 2018. That Senate campaign was Manchin's toughest in his three-plus decades in West Virginia politics. He defeated Morrisey by just over 3 percentage points.
Steve Williams, who is the Democratic nominee for governor and the mayor of Huntington, said last week he doesn’t believe Manchin intends to enter the gubernatorial race, adding that they've been friends for decades.
West Virginia Democratic Party officials said Friday Manchin did not give them a heads up he was switching to independent. In a statement Friday, state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said he was disappointed.
“While the senator has been one of the most independent senators in the country, and has sometimes opposed the Democratic agenda, we’ll always be grateful for his votes to impeach President Trump, to create the January 6th Commission, and his warning that, if re-elected, Trump ‘will destroy democracy in America,’” he said.
Manchin first entered the Senate after winning a special election following the death of Robert C. Byrd in 2010. The state's political tilt has changed dramatically since then.
Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans during Manchin’s first two Senate campaigns, but those numbers have flipped. Now, about 40% of registered voters are Republicans, compared with 31% for Democrats and about 24% with no party affiliation.
Both chambers of the Legislature have Republican supermajorities, and Trump overwhelmingly won the state in 2016 and 2020.
Manchin had also flirted with the possibility of running for president as a third-party candidate, but decided against that in February, saying he didn’t want to be a “spoiler.”
Manchin, the last in a line of powerful Senate Democrats from West Virginia who promoted coal interests at the national level, has increasingly lamented the two-party system in the past year. During a tour of a Charleston stamping plant in October, he said he identified more with independents than either party.
“Don’t worry about the ‘D’ or the ‘R’, worry about the person — who is that person?” he said. “There can be a good D and a bad D and a good R and a bad R, but the identity — I like more the independent identity.”
—-
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Willingham reported from Charleston, W.V.
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial showed jurors hundreds of texts, emails and phone calls over two days that show his girlfriend-turned-wife's desperate financial situation before New Jersey businessmen she had long known came to the rescue.
Prosecutors elicited the evidence through the testimony of an FBI agent for a second day Wednesday as they sought to show that Menendez, 70, conspired with three businessmen and his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, in a bribery scheme that enriched the couple with gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury car.
The Menendezes and two of the businessmen have pleaded not guilty, while the third pleaded guilty and is scheduled to testify. Nadine Menendez's trial was postponed until July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Through the long presentation of communications that was expected to continue into Thursday, prosecutors have sought to trace the relationship between Menendez and the woman he began dating in early 2018, known then as Nadine Arslanian.
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Prosecutors say the trajectory of the relationship coincided with a bribery scheme that led the senator to help one businessman and codefendant, Wael Hana, win an exclusive contract with Egypt to certify all meat exported there from the United States as meeting religious requirements, while aiding two other businessmen financially and by helping them obtain favorable results with criminal cases in New Jersey.
Jurors saw some text messages Wednesday in which Menendez and Arslanian exchanged loving sentiments, with a kissing or heart emoji. In one message Arslanian told the senator: “You can never lose me because I will never let go.”
Other communications showed that during the summer of 2019, Arslanian was in danger of losing her home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, after missing nearly $20,000 in mortgage payments.
Hana provided the money to save the home, where Menendez moved after marrying Arslanian in 2020. Prosecutors say the money was part of bribes the couple received as the senator helped Hana's company secure its monopoly on the certifying of meat exports to Egypt.
Defense lawyers say Menendez did nothing outside the bounds of what politicians typically do for constituents. The 13 gold bars found in a 2022 FBI raid on the home belonged to Nadine Menendez, they say, and the reason there was $480,000 in cash stuffed in jackets, boxes and a safe was because the senator was traumatized by the loss of his family's fortune before he was born.
Menendez has also said through his lawyers that his wife kept him in the dark about her financial troubles and he did nothing illegal.
Among other charges, Menendez is accused of acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. After his fall arrest, he was forced to quit his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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NEW YORK (AP) — A former top U.S. agricultural official cast Sen. Bob Menendez as a villain at his bribery trial Friday, saying he tried to stop him from disrupting an unusual sudden monopoly that developed five years ago over the certification of meat exported to Egypt.
A Manhattan federal court jury heard the official, Ted McKinney, recount a brief phone call he received from the Democrat in 2019 soon after New Jersey businessman Wael Hana was granted the sole right to certify that meat exported to Egypt from the United States conformed to Islamic dietary requirements.
Hana, who is on trial with Menendez and one other businessman, is among three New Jersey businessmen who prosecutors say gave Menendez and his wife bribes including gold bars and tens of thousands of dollars in cash from 2018 to 2022 in return for actions from Menendez that would enhance their business interests.
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Menendez, 70, and his codefendants, along with his wife — who is scheduled for a July trial — have pleaded not guilty to charges lodged against them beginning last fall.
The monopoly that Hana's company received forced out several other companies that had been certifying beef and liver exported to Egypt and occurred over a span of several days in May 2019, a rapid transition that seemed “very, very unusual,” McKinney said.
“We immediately swung into action,” the former official said, describing a series of escalating actions that the U.S. took to try to get Egyptian officials to reconsider the action that awarded a monopoly to a single company that had never carried out the certifications before. The overtures, he said, were met with silence.
Amid the urgent effort, McKinney called Egypt's choice a “rather draconian decision” that would drive up prices in one correspondence with Egyptian authorities.
He said Menendez called him in late May 2019 and told him to “quit interfering with my constituent.”
In so many words, he added, Menendez was telling him to “stand down.”
McKinney said he started to explain to the senator why the United States preferred multiple companies rather than one certifying meat sent to Egypt, but Menendez cut him off.
“Let's not bother with that. That's not important. Let's not go there,” McKinney recalled Menendez telling him as he tried to explain that a monopoly would cause high prices and endanger the 60 percent share of the market for beef and liver that the U.S. held in Egypt.
He described the senator's tone on the call as “serious to maybe even very serious.”
McKinney said he knew Menendez held a powerful post at the time as the top Democrat on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, but he told diplomats in Egypt and within his department to continue gathering facts on why Egypt abruptly changed its policies.
He said he told them to “keep doing what they were doing and if there was any heat to take, I would take it."
“We thought something nefarious was going on,” he said.
McKinney said he was preparing to contact the senator a second time to discuss his concerns when he learned that the FBI was investigating how the certification of meat to Egypt ended up in a single company's hands.
He said he alerted others in his department and diplomats overseas to stand down.
“It's in the hands of the FBI now,” McKinney said he told them.
What was likely to be a lengthy cross-examination of McKinney began late Friday with a lawyer for Menendez eliciting that it was Egypt's right to choose what company or companies handled the certification of meat exported from the United States to Egypt. The lawyer highlighted that Egypt concluded the companies that had been handling certifications had not been doing it properly.
As Menendez left the courthouse Friday, he told reporters to pay close attention to the cross-examination.
“You know, you wait for the cross and you'll find the truth,” he said before stepping into a car and riding away.
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