Hope everyone had a good weekend. It rained and rained and rained here all weekend. It was very annoying. On Sunday, my neighbors came over for a little game night, which was fun.
On to even more fun…
Oh boy did I misread that headline
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez hires Hunter Biden lawyer for bribery case
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/24/menendez-hires-hunter-biden-lawyer-for-bribery-case.html
An easy and meaningful fast for those who observe.
Sprots!
Taylor Swift cheers on Travis Kelce at Kansas City Chiefs game
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/entertainment/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-chiefs-game/index.html
Oh yay! Hope this works out for the writers
Hollywood writers and studios reach tentative deal to end strike after nearly 150 days
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/25/wga-amptp-hollywood-writers-deal.html
Whoa
Methuselah arrived in the US in 1938. She’s now the oldest fish in captivity
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/24/lungfish-australia-methuselah-san-francisco
Have a great day!
It’s more accurate to say Hunter Biden hired Menendez’s lawyer, since Abbe Lowell represented Menendez the first time he went on trial. Lowell is an absolute shark — he’s vastly better than the dolts Trump usually hires.
One of the nutty aspects of Hunter Biden coverage is that Lowell has been ripping apart the weak seams in the case, and he has the potential to make it look even worse, but the press has been burying it and choosing to simply highlight GOP charges while barely mentioning the merits.
There’s a great story in how the weakness worsens the GOP’s position and highlights their dysfunction. Clown cars crashing creates killer copy. But instead the press has decided to just go along for the ride.
It’s really disappointing how hard the Dems have gone to the mattresses for Menendez. Hard blue state with a blue gov and time and again they’ve let him slide on absurd corruption. Really undercuts a lot of their arguments about El Trumpillo and defending democracy!
Is that true?
https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/tracking-every-democrat-who-has-called-for-bob-menendezs-resignation/
One of the curious things is that the first US senator to call for him to resign was a Democrat, Fetterman, and not some GOP camera hog like Cruz or Hawley. They’re staying oddly muted.
It’s true as long as party leadership backs him, so wake me up when Schumer or Biden sound off and not random NJ state senators. (Good for Fetterman, of course, but he wears a hoodie so I don’t think officially counts or whatever the status upholders think these days.)
Moreover, this isn’t even the first corruption scandal Menendez has faced! He’s notorious at this point. The fact that the party has supported him to date is, itself, a strike against it, and as long as it continues, it’s only going to get worse, no matter if he’s convicted or not. Especially if he’s not, actually — the standards for cases like this have become so ridiculous that unless you actually attempt to bribe the judge in open court you almost can’t get busted on this shit anymore. (Even then, there might not be enough witnesses!)
The GOP will whatabout you to death on every issue, but in this case, they wouldn’t be wrong to bring him up whenever Trump gets mentioned. If you think democracy is worth it, then you gotta show it even if it hurts you in the short-term, and right now, they are NOT showing it at all.
Biden won’t speak out for the same reason he has been hands off regarding Trump and his son. He has an obligation as chief executive to stay out of DOJ prosecutions.
It’s unfortunate because it gives the press a chance to flip the script on responsible behavior, as shown by ABC White House reporter John Parkinson yelling at Biden about whether he would pardon Hunter Biden at the cemetery where his children and first wife are buried, despite Biden already going on the record that he would not.
I think it would be morally correct for Schumer to call for Menendez to resign, and not just what Schumer has already done to take away his chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. I have to say, though, that Schumer probably feels burned about forcing Al Franken out and it making zero impact on how the press continues to both sides GOP ethics problems. They’ve been running for months with the impeachment story despite literally zero evidence of a crime and the fact that it’s DOA in the Senate, a status which has long been used to avoid covering Democratic initiatives.
Menendez is a crook and an awful senator and he should quit. But I don’t see Schumer’s position making any difference politically.
As MLK Jr. said: “The time is always right to do what is right.”
The idea that the press’s double standard should make them hold on tighter to a scumbag is a nonstarter. Just because they gave the other side a free pass for President Crimes doesn’t mean they should feel obligated to also commit crimes.
Be the party that doesn’t give a shit if you get credit for doing what’s right, because voters do notice, but when you give them a lot of hand-wringing about it or expect to be cheered on for doing the bare minimum — and boy do Democrats love to live there — they tend to forget about you doing the right thing and remember only that you had to be shoved into it.
Well, the gov and my congressman both said they want him to resign. Hell, Andy said he’s gonna run against him for the Senate seat.
On a Monday note, I blew 2! tires on the way to work today.
Holy crap. Did somebody dump nails in the road?
NJ’s infamous potholes.
Agree. The Dems need to take a strong position against this. Republicans can’t take the seat, so there’s no political calculation there. Frankly, Menendez probably started his scams because he felt bulletproof. Not condemning Menendez makes every Dem complicit and we’re going to start hearing “They’re no better than we are.”
You’re never going to reach the people who buy that Hunter Biden is both a drug-addled fuck-up but also an international criminal mastermind secretly running the Ukraine war effort for personal gain. But not booting someone as obviously odious as Menendez plays completely into what the GOP wants the average voter to think, i.e. both parties are the same, doesn’t matter, everyone’s in it for themselves, nobody’s gonna govern anyway so who cares. Cynicism keeps people at home and that’s an L if you’re actually trying to govern!
Omg you guys. The accents. Killing me. 😂
Also I despise whoever is trying to push Austin Butler into super stardom. I’ve been following him since he was a kid. He is a B-List actor at best.
I don’t I’ve ever seen him in anything. The whisper talk he’s doing in the trailer is annoying though. On the other hand I love Jodie Comer so I’ll probably see it at some point.
He was nominated for an Oscar for Elvis.
On the bright side, at least Meshugenah Torah Gefilte-fish didn’t tweet a Space Laser.
Hollywood writers and studios have reached a tentative deal, pending a union vote:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-09-24/writers-strike-over-wga-studios-reach-deal-actors
Actors are still on strike, though.