The Isle of Breadshitting?
2020 ELECTIONS
‘Middle-Class Joe’ rakes in millions
The former VP on the brink of a likely presidential campaign has done quite well financially since leaving office in 2017.
By HOLLY OTTERBEIN and MARC CAPUTO 03/18/2019 05:01 AM EDT
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“Middle-Class Joe” Biden has a $2.7 million vacation home. He charges more than $100,000 per speaking gig and has inked a book deal likely worth seven figures.
Since leaving office in 2017, the 76-year-old former vice president has watched his bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular, Amtrak-riding guy. He’s repeatedly referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” on the campaign trail and in speaking engagements as he publicly mulls whether to run for president.
While his finances might be unexceptional by the standards of well-heeled Washington politicians, Biden is unique among the top Democratic presidential hopefuls because of his avowed distance from the upper class. It’s central to his political identity. But if Biden runs, his newfound wealth could give his Democratic and GOP opponents an opening to attack him as disingenuous, or at least less than advertised.
For Biden and his supporters, “middle class” isn’t so much a financial status as it is a state of mind, a sensibility that’s ingrained in his political DNA. In a party where voters have grown increasingly wary of income inequality, Biden’s use of the nickname functions as an us-vs-them foil that tells both middle- and working-class people he’s one of them, the little guys sneered at by the elites.
“I know I’m called Middle-Class Joe. It’s not meant to be a compliment. It means I’m not sophisticated. But I know what made this country what it is: ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” Biden said in Kentucky last year, a refrain he’s used repeatedly for years, including when he floated a potential presidential run in 2017.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/18/joe-biden-2020-money-wealth-1221934
Why did Kamala Harris let Herbalife off the hook?
But as the attorney general of the nation’s largest state — and
therefore one of the most powerful law enforcement officials in the nation — Harris declined to investigate Herbalife, the nutritional supplement company that has been accused of fraudulent marketing practices. Documents exclusively obtained by Yahoo News show that in 2015, prosecutors in the San Diego office of the California attorney general sent Harris a lengthy memorandum that argued for an investigation into Herbalife and requested resources in order to undertake such an investigation. Similar investigations into Herbalife were already taking place elsewhere.
About three weeks after the San Diego letter was sent, Harris received the first of three donations to her campaign for the U.S. Senate from Heather Podesta, the powerful Washington lobbyist whose ex-husband Tony’s firm, then called the Podesta Group, had worked for Herbalife since 2013. Heather Podesta’s own lobbying firm, Heather Podesta and Partners, would soon be hired by Herbalife, too.
https://news.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-herbalife-accused-of-exploiting-latinos-090000896.html
Podesta, you say?
Lobbying Case Against Democrat With Ties to Manafort Reaches Key Stage
By Kenneth P. Vogel and Katie Benner
March 18, 2019
WASHINGTON — A long-running federal investigation into a former White House counsel in the Obama administration is reaching a critical stage, presenting the Justice Department with a decision about whether to charge a prominent Democrat as part of a more aggressive crackdown on illegal foreign lobbying.
The case involving the lawyer, Gregory B. Craig, was transferred in January from federal prosecutors in New York to those in Washington. The previously undisclosed move was driven by Justice Department officials in Washington, and reflects an eagerness within the department to prosecute violations of lobbying laws after the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, focused on foreign influence in his investigations.
A decision about whether to prosecute Mr. Craig, who was White House counsel for President Barack Obama during his first year in office, is expected in the coming weeks, people familiar with the case said. The investigation centers on whether Mr. Craig should have disclosed work he did in 2012 — while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom — on behalf of the Russia-aligned government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine.
The work was steered to Mr. Craig by Paul Manafort, who was then a political consultant collecting millions of dollars from clients in former Soviet states. Mr. Manafort, who went on to become President Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, was sentenced this month to seven and a half years in prison on charges brought by Mr. Mueller’s team related to obstruction of justice and violations of banking, tax and lobbying laws stemming from his work in Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/politics/foreign-lobbying-gregory-craig-manafort.html
Robert Mueller pursues new Trump-Russia collusion leads despite talk of probe winding down
By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Sunday, March 17, 2019
Special counsel Robert Mueller has been pursuing several Russia collusion leads even as a number of media outlets say his final report is due soon, according to court filings and sources.
Former acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker said in January that he had been read-in on the nearly two-year probe and concluded it was “close to being completed.”
But there are signs that Russia issues remain:
• Court filings in the prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort show that Mr. Mueller is still investigating a fall 2016 meeting at a Manhattan cigar bar where the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Russia was discussed.
• Mr. Mueller still has questions about the Ukraine amendment to the 2016 Republican Party platform.
• The indictment of Trump political adviser Roger Stone for allegedly lying to Congress sets up the possibility of a plea bargain. Mr. Stone has denied wrongdoing and has said he will never betray President Trump. But he has added that he is willing to cooperate.
On Manafort, a closed hearing for which a sanitized transcript was released showed Mueller senior prosecutor Andrew Weissmann is still probing the August 2016 meeting between Manafort, his ex-business partner Rick Gates and Ukraine-born Constantine Kilimnik. Mr. Kilimnik, a former low-ranking translator for Russian military intelligence, was a Manafort translator and office manager in Ukraine for a decade.
Gates has turned state’s evidence. The transcript indicates he has made a new allegation against Manafort dealing with sanctions relief that could in some way be tied to a conspiracy.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/17/mueller-probe-pursues-russia-collusion-leads-but-i/
Trump declassified the entire FISA memo a long time ago.
He's holding it for maximum effect.
Timing is in POTUS' hands.
He's the Alexander the Great of our times.
Push through the finish line fren.
What a sad, strange little man.
You mean the week Barr confirmed an emergency on the border, and is sending in the military? Think they might need to demonstrate a "clear and present danger" to exercise POTUS' emergency powers?
Drove by the Herbalife building just this week in the South Bay of So Cal; wondered how the hell it is still standing. It's been a ponzi scheme from its origins.
Now we know. Slush fund.
Stress is getting to her. She's crumbling. We need her to expose the [D] Party Con.
aka Voice of the Archangel?
When they say "peace" and "safety", sudden destruction will befall them.
Incoming!
Whoever runs against Trump needs enough money to last the rest of their unemployed life. $6M seems right.
Welcome to the "Guilt By Association" wrap-up smear.
Baker didn't want it a couple breads ago, so I posted it in the notable CEO resignation bread.
Big time hit for that dude.
I see the Q and then the sent me under it.
Up his ass, on his neck, handcuffed, tuned up, and tossed in a cell.
People never give up power; it has to be wrested from them by greater power.
Yeah, they're trying to tie POTUS to the mob in Atlantic City, where POTUS built a casino. And of course pouring concrete in Manhattan, etc.
I think it's sent me.
Norks got a shitton of coal too bro.
I think it's Patriots