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Thread: Asshole Politician of the Day

  1. #426
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    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4...sswomen-racist

    You know Trump is being called out for being an Asshole when even Fox News is criticizing him.

    Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano torched President Trump an in op-ed published Wednesday, labeling his tweets attacking four minority congresswomen as “xenophobic, racist and hateful.”

    Napolitano, at times an outspoken critic of Trump who has drawn the president's ire for previous negative coverage, went off on Trump for his hateful tweets widely believed to be directed at “the squad,” comprised of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).

    “Politics is not beanbag, but if the great painful lesson of American history has taught us anything, it is that there is no place in our public discourse for racial hatred,” Napolitano wrote. “The Democrats know this. The president apparently doesn’t.”

    He noted that not only are Trump’s tweets racist and discriminatory, they are also not good for him politically. Napolitano pointed out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has “wisely distanced herself and the vast majority of House Democrats from the Squad, and she has not taken their bait.”

    “The president, on the other hand, has taken their bait and attacked them personally. The Squad has views of American domestic and foreign policy seriously at odds with even the liberal base of the Democratic Party — hence Pelosi’s occasional public but gentle chastisements,” Napolitano wrote.

    Trump was widely condemned by Democrats this week following the tweets in which he told the four minority female lawmakers to “go back” to the countries they came from. All four are U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside of America.

    Omar came to America at the age of 12 with her family as a refugee after fleeing Somalia.

    “We have a president who sounds more like a Mafia don than a statesman and a Congress that wants to pick and choose whose offensive words to condemn,” Napolitano wrote of Trump’s tweets and the Republicans who have generally speaking not denounced his tweets as racist.

    Napolitano also made clear that House Democrats should not censure Trump over his tweets.

    “Now, the House Democrats want to add fuel to this fire by using the power of office to censure the president because of his tweets about the Squad,” he wrote. “They have no business doing so. The president’s words — backed up by his incessant repetitions — are condemnable, but they are only words.”

    In his op-ed, Napolitano also labeled Trump’s tweets in which he alleged Google should be investigated for treason as “ignorant.”

    Trump previously lambasted Napolitano on Twitter, calling one of his legal arguments “very dumb.”

  2. #427
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    Shit, I'd bet a large number of politicians (including President Orange-Skin), have the same kind of language in private correspondances.
    I bet all of them do it. We all do it. We all talk shit, you don't have to be a politician.

    Funny how puerto rico tries to blame the U.S. for it's problems..... puerto rico is fucked up because of puerto ricans.

  3. #428
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    I bet all of them do it. We all do it. We all talk shit, you don't have to be a politician.

    Funny how puerto rico tries to blame the U.S. for it's problems..... puerto rico is fucked up because of puerto ricans.
    It's also part of the US. They've tried multiple for statehood.

  4. #429
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    It's also part of the US. They've tried multiple for statehood.
    As corrupt as it is there, we don't need to make puerto rico a U.S. state. They need to fix there own problems!

  5. #430
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    It's also part of the US. They've tried multiple for statehood.
    Why don't you and Kambling ever go to the members side of this site?

  6. #431
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    As corrupt as it is there, we don't need to make puerto rico a U.S. state. They need to fix there own problems!
    They haven't tried to become one for a while, but they are allowed to vote in presidential primaries I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    Why don't you and Kambling ever go to the members side of this site?
    Everyone who registers and posts is on the members side. As far as not posting in the premie threads, take a wild guess why I don't post.

  7. #432
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    They haven't tried to become one for a while, but they are allowed to vote in presidential primaries I think.



    Everyone who registers and posts is on the members side. As far as not posting in the premie threads, take a wild guess why I don't post.
    I think you're right about them being able to vote in primaries but not the general election.

    I am not good at guessing, so I will just assume you don't wanna be there.

  8. #433
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    I think you're right about them being able to vote in primaries but not the general election.

    I am not good at guessing, so I will just assume you don't wanna be there.
    Incorrect. It's because I am not a premie member anymore.

  9. #434
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    Quote Originally Posted by KambingSociety View Post
    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4...sswomen-racist

    You know Trump is being called out for being an Asshole when even Fox News is criticizing him.



    What does this quote from the article mean???


    Politics is not beanbag

  10. #435
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    Nvm, he's talked about beanbag weapons vs lethal force in the past so I assume he's trying to make a (really stupid) analogy about behaviour in politics

  11. #436
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  12. #437
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    As of yesterday the western world now has to deal with the Terrible Three - Trump, Scott Morrison in Aus & Boris Johnson in the UK. Basically we're all fucked.



    That said, I'm going to focus on smaller scale political destruction right now, namely one door & one career.

    Victorian Labor MP Will Fowles allegedly destroys door in ?rage? at Canberra hotel


    Former journalist Kellie Sloane has revealed why a Labor MP ?flew into a rage? at a Canberra hotel this morning, smashing down a door.


    Former journalist Kellie Sloane has spoken about the explosive incident involving a Victorian Labor MP at a Canberra hotel this morning, revealing why Will Fowles ?flew into a rage?.

    Mr Fowles, who represents Burwood in Victoria?s state parliament, destroyed a door at Abode Apartments in the suburb of Kingston in an attempt to access his luggage, claiming the hotel was unlawfully holding his bags.

    Ms Sloane was also staying at the hotel - she and some other guests were stranded outside in subzero temperatures during the incident. She spoke to a security guard about Mr Fowles? ?extraordinary? behaviour.

    ?The issue was that he?d come down to check out of the hotel and there was no one at reception,? she told the Sky News program The Kenny Report this afternoon.

    Reception was not due to open until 8am, and Mr Fowles had a flight booked for 9am. His luggage was locked behind a door.

    ?He got quite distressed about that. The security guard said he flew into a rage. You can see the evidence - he kicked down the door to the luggage area,? Ms Sloane said.

    ?He caused a lot of destruction there.?


    Kellie Sloane
    @kelliesloane
    So here?s the latest. A politician (I don?t know who) has gone into a rage after discovering he couldn?t access his luggage. Police say he?s now calmed down but is facing charges.


    8:33 AM - Jul 25, 2019

    Mr Fowles, still in an agitated state, then headed back upstairs to his room, though Ms Sloane and the security guard did not know exactly where he?d gone at the time.

    ?We were concerned about the other people in the building,? she said.

    ?We thought it was someone who?d just gone nuts, and we didn?t know where he?d gone. As it turns out, he was in his room.

    ?He was claiming that the hotel had unlawfully held his bags. At that point he was still upset, and it took him about 20 minutes to calm down. And then the hotel manager showed up.?


    Abode Apartments in Kingston, Canberra. Picture: AAP/Mick TsikasSource:AAP


    Ms Sloane said she couldn?t speculate about why Mr Fowles? behaviour was so volatile, as until today she knew nothing about him.

    She did not recognise the state politician as he left the building a short time after the incident ?looking embarrassed?.

    As he passed members of the media, he said: ?How the f*** did they get here so fast??

    Police stopped Ms Sloane from taking pictures of Mr Fowles, but media photographers captured him getting into a police car. He was then taken in for questioning.

    She said the first officers on the scene had earlier described him as ?a piece of work?.



    Will Fowles leaving Abode Apartments in Kingston. Picture: Sean Davey/The AustralianSource:Supplied


    Will Fowles getting into a police car. Picture: Sean Davey/The AustralianSource:News Corp Australia

    ?It?s extraordinary behaviour for anybody, but for a member of parliament, he has a lot of questions to answer about how he manages situations,? Ms Sloane said.

    ?There?s this huge gaping hole in the door.?

    Mr Fowles has since flown to Melbourne, and is expected to make a comprehensive statement this afternoon. There are suggestions he should resign.

    ?This morning I made a very bad mistake. I apologise unreservedly,? he briefly told reporters at Melbourne Airport.

    ?This has been a very distressing morning and I will make a full statement later today.?

    Reporters continued to ask him questions as he walked out of the terminal to his waiting car.


    Mr Fowles said nothing further. Picture: Mark StewartSource:News Corp Australia


    "I made A mistake"


    Nah, dude, the number of pieces of door on the floor says you made about 100.

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    https://abc7.com/politics/chicago-ma...t-mic/5419012/


    CHICAGO -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is responding to fallout over a comment she made that was picked up by a hot mic, calling a police union official a "clown."

    "I am sorry that I said it out loud," Lightfoot said.

    The mayor made the remark as the first-vice president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police walked up to speak at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

    Patrick Murray was disputing the recent firing of four officers over the Laquan McDonald investigation.

    The Fraternal Order of Police released a statement, saying "Mayor Lightfoot's contemptuous remark is a misguided and dangerous thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer and FOP representative... particularly at a time when the city is facing such chronic violent crime."

  14. #439
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    Quote Originally Posted by KambingSociety View Post
    I'm not clear on who the arsehole's supposed to be in this incident

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    https://patch.com/north-carolina/cha...-congresswomen

    CHEROKEE COUNTY, NC — A North Carolina gun shop has stirred controversy and come under fire by critics after it erected a billboard with photos of four freshmen Congresswomen. The sign for Cherokee Guns in Murphy, North Carolina, shows the photos of Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Above their faces, "The 4 Horsemen are Idiots," it said.

    The sign quickly drew the ire of gun control advocates, with one group calling the message "anti-government violent rhetoric."

    "Threats against members of Congress, particularly minority members are [increasing] and it is driven by the president's racial rhetoric," the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said in a Facebook post. "This is dangerous!!!"

    The sign comes close on the heels of sharp attacks made by President Trump targeting the four progressive Congresswomen, who he calls "The Squad." In late July, he said the women — who are all U.S. citizens — should "go back" to their countries and that they were "a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart," Politico reported.


    The president's rhetoric, widely criticized as racist because all four are women of color, continued at a recent Trump rally in Greenville, North Carolina. During the event, the crowd chanted "Send her back," in reference to Omar. "Once you start telling American citizens to go back to your own countries, this tells you that this president's policies are not about immigration, it's about ethnicity and racism," Ocasio-Cortez said following the event.

    A photo of the billboard posted July 28 on the gun shop's Facebook page had generated more than 1,000 comments by Thursday, both supporting and condemning its message.

    "Love it. This made my day," said one sign supporter. "You should print them off," said another. "I'll take at least 100 copies for the range."

    "I'm sure you consider this funny and somehow patriotic," one person wrote. "But these four women were duly elected by their constituents. They are members of the United States Congress. This billboard is hateful and dangerous."

    "I see nothing good coming out of this," said another. "Somebody's going to get hurt or killed."

    Despite sharp rebukes, the shop is doubling down on the message, saying on its Facebook page it would have bumper stickers with the billboard image available next week. "Alright my fellow Infidels for Trump...due to OVERWHELMING demand...you may come by the shop (next week) and get your very own FOUR HORSEMEN COMETH STICKER...simple...eat a piece of bacon...tell us you're voting for Trump in 2020...then get your limited edition bumper sticker!!" it said.

  16. #441
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    Quote Originally Posted by KambingSociety View Post
    Pretty sure the gun shop owner isn't a politician, so what was your reasoning for putting it here?

  17. #442
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    Pretty sure the gun shop owner isn't a politician, so what was your reasoning for putting it here?
    It started out from a rant from Trump.

  18. #443
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    https://apnews.com/434ead07f1d64a24aa467291602b7717

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Freshman Democratic Rep. Andy Kim came face to face with impeachment fervor at a town hall in New Jersey. “Do your job!” shouted one voter.

    Several states away, a woman held up a copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and told freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin at a Michigan town hall she hoped she would “be the person that puts us over the top to start an impeachment inquiry.”

    And in semi-rural Virginia, newcomer Rep. Abigail Spanberger encountered voters with questions, if not resolve, about impeaching President Donald Trump.

    “I don’t have blood dripping from my fangs for or against impeachment,” said David Sussan, 70, a retired U.S. Postal inspector from Chesterfield, who favors starting an inquiry. “I just want the truth to come out.”


    It’s these freshman lawmakers, and others like them, who will likely decide when, if ever, House Democrats start formal efforts to impeach the president.

    Neither Kim, nor Slotkin, nor Spanberger supports impeachment. But with half the House Democrats now in favor of beginning an inquiry, the pressure will only mount on the holdouts to reach a tipping point. And with lawmakers returning home to voters during the August recess, what happens next may prove pivotal.

    The pro-impeachment group Need to Impeach is running television ads and, along with activists from other groups, fanning out to congressional districts to push lawmakers, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to move more swiftly toward impeachment proceedings.

    The organization’s lead strategist Kevin Mack says his counsel to lawmakers, especially those new freshmen who took over formerly Republican-held seats, is to ignore the campaign consultants and party strategists, and “do what you think is right” about Trump.

    “You can’t really make the argument he’s the most corrupt president in American history and not hold him accountable,” he said. “Either you think what he’s doing is OK or you hold him accountable.”

    For lawmakers, though, the calculus is not so simple. Voters in many of these districts helped elect Trump in 2016, but flipped to give Democrats control of the House in last year’s election. Many of the first-term Democrats already face challengers for 2020 and are trying to balance the divergent views in their districts. While some voters want impeachment, others have different priorities.

    New Jersey lawmaker Kim, a former national security official, told some 80 voters at a town hall in Riverside to remain even-keeled and to trust in the investigative process that House Democrats are pursuing.


    “I don’t think getting caught up in the knife fighting and name calling is going help us get out of this pit,” Kim said.

    That caused some from the crowd to retort that pursuing impeachment wasn’t “knife fighting” but part of the Constitution.

    “Just do the investigation into impeachment,” said Marianne Clemente, of Barnegat. “Just so that we’re doing something” to show Trump he’ll be held accountable, she said. “If we let him get away with this, we can kiss our democracy goodbye.”

    Among the loudest applause from the audience came when one constituent stood up and said Trump was “destroying our country.”

    Another voter said the congressman’s focus on other issues, like health care, was like “cutting the grass while the house is on fire.”

    In Spanberger’s Virginia district over the past week, she, too, fielded several questions about her stand on the impeachment inquiry as she crisscrossed the region for town hall events.

    When she was asked about it in Culpeper, Spanberger told voters that she helped block an impeachment bill based on Trump’s racism because she did not believe that qualifies as “high crimes and misdemeanors” set out by the Constitution.

    “My opinion and stance has long been that I believe in facts and evidence,” she said. “As long as the investigations are continuing, and we see my colleagues are continuing to gather information, I am watching very closely.”

    Democrat Ron Artis, a retiree, seemed satisfied with the new congresswoman’s approach.

    “If she was to come out without having enough people behind her, that stuff is suicidal,” he said.

    And when Michigan lawmaker Slotkin faced the questioner armed with Mueller’s report, she told those gathered at the store in Mason about two recent moves by House Democrats that she sees as important — the special counsel’s testimony and House subpoenas of the Trump administration.

    “I’m open to where this goes,” Slotkin said. “But I think that it is important that we do it in a way that communicates clearly what we are intending. And we do it in a way that doesn’t forget about the other part of our job, which is to legislate.”

    One of those attending the event, Army veteran Joshua Johnson, 41, of Webberville, expressed some skepticism about impeachment and said Congress should keep investigating.

    “I don’t know that impeaching the president is going to be a good thing,” he said. He worries the 2020 election is right around the corner, and any impeachment proceeding won’t get done “in time to make a difference.”

    He added, “I think it might hurt more than it helps. ... It probably splits people worse.”

    Pelosi has made it clear she has no plans to press toward impeachment without a groundswell of support on and off Capitol Hill.

    The speaker, who was herself a newer congresswoman during Bill Clinton’s impeachment and rejected calls to impeach George W. Bush during her first speakership, is not eager for Democrats to take on such a politically, emotionally fraught issue alone.

    So far, Pelosi’s effort to cater to the frontline freshmen appears to be holding House Democrats in line. Even though she gave lawmakers a greenlight after Mueller’s testimony to speak their minds on impeachment, and dozens of lawmakers announced their support for starting an inquiry, it’s still nowhere near the 218 votes Pelosi would need to pass legislation in the House.

    The holdouts will likely determine what Pelosi does next.

    ___

    Catalini reported from Riverside, N.J.; Lavoie from Chesterfield, Va.; Eggert from Mason, Mich. Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman in Culpeper, Va., and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

  19. #444
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    Omfg. Biden is so fucking twisted. This should end him, but the world is currently fucked so it probably won't


    https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/artic...to-my-dead-son


    Joe Biden: It Would Be an Insult to My Dead Son for Everyone to Have Healthcare


    The former vice president released an ad invoking family tragedy and attacking rivals who have plans to ensure everyone has access to healthcare.

    By Tim Marchman

    Aug 27 2019, 8:55pm




    In a new campaign ad, former vice president Joe Biden suggests that for all Americans to have healthcare would be an insult to his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Watch for yourself:

    (Vid at link)

    Biden starts by relating the story of how his son died despite having access to quality healthcare via quality insurance. "Healthcare is personal to me," Biden says in the ad, over a sappy soundtrack and imagery of him looking vaguely prayerful, standing in front of a flag, and being patted on the back by Barack Obama. "Obamacare is personal to me. And when I see the president try to tear it down and others propose to replace it and start over, that's personal to me, too. We've got to build on what we did, because every American deserves affordable healthcare."


    Campaign ads are a great exercise in offering lines to read between, and reading between them here yields three items of interest. One is the "others propose" language, an obvious swipe at Democratic rivals who support Medicare for All. The second is the word "affordable," a nod to the idea that healthcare should be treated as a consumer product-though one better-regulated than Donald Trump would like it to be, to be sure-rather than a human right.

    The third is the phrase "start over."

    Biden, whose plan would not cover everyone, has repeatedly suggested that Medicare for All would represent "starting over," which he has said would be a "sin." The more generous read here is that he's saying he doesn't think it would be worth doing a lot of political work to get a better system in place, that his son benefitted from various provisions in the Affordable Care Act (making this personal to him), and that mainly he wants to communicate the idea that on principle, everyone having access to affordable healthcare would be good. The less-generous read-and given that he's said Medicare for All would involve a "hiatus" of some sort up to three years, it's not all that ungenerous-is that he wants people to think that implementing Medicare for All would involve blowing up the healthcare system as it stands and leaving people with no health insurance for some period. (In fact it would cover every person in the U.S., with no lapse in coverage.)


    In all, the ad is saying that healthcare is personal to Joe Biden because his son died; that as a father, he believes the best and most legitimate way to honor his dead son's legacy would be to implement further incremental regulatory reform, along the lines of what Barack Obama did; and that people who disagree and think that radical reform is necessary-among them, presumably, the 80 percent or so of Democrats who say it's important to nominate a presidential candidate who supports Medicare for All-are dishonoring his son's legacy. A hell of a pitch!
    Last edited by blighted star; 08-27-2019 at 08:18 PM.

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    https://abc7.com/la-councilman-jose-...probe/6261864/

    LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar was arrested and taken into federal custody on Tuesday, making him the fifth person to be charged in an ongoing federal investigation into bribery and corruption at City Hall.

    Huizar, 51, has served on the council since 2005 and is now facing a racketeering charge that alleges he used his position to leverage bribes and "other financial benefits," according to the U.S. District Attorney. He is suspected of conspiring to accept roughly $1.5 million in bribes from developers in exchange for his support in certain real estate projects in the city.

    He made an appearance in federal court on Tuesday by video conference and was ordered by a judge to be released on $100,000 bond.

    The single count of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, could land the Democratic politician up to 20 years in federal prison.

    FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says agents arrested Councilman Jose Huizar without incident early Tuesday at his Boyle Heights home. The mayor and other city leaders have been calling for Huizar to resign since his former special assistant agreed to plead guilty in a $1 million bribery scheme involving real estate developers.

    "While today's announcement on the arrest of Councilmember Huizar is not unexpected, the horrendous and disgusting allegations leveled against him and others have painted a dark cloud over our City government for a long time now," said a statement issued by Council President Nury Martinez shortly after this arrest. The council later voted unanimously to suspend him from office in light of the charges.

    Officials said the investigation uncovered a massive criminal enterprise that included bribes, fraud extortion and money laundering. The complaint alleged that while he chaired the City Council's powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee, Huizar decided which projects lived and which died, allegedly accepting money from developers. One of the projects was a 77-story building.

    "The amount of alleged bribes is also staggering. In one scheme alone, one developer provided $500,000 in cash in brown paper bags," said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna during a press conference Tuesday.

    In 2018, Huizar was stripped of council assignments after federal agents served a search warrant at Huizar's home in Boyle Heights. During the search of his home, agents discovered and seized nearly $130,000 in cash that was stashed in his closet. Last month, former Huizar aide George Esparza, 33, agreed to plead to a count of racketeering conspiracy, which could carry a maximum 20-year prison term, according to prosecutors.

    Esparza, who left his city job in 2018, acknowledged in his plea agreement that from 2013 to 2018, he and a person identified in documents as "Councilmember A" were involved in a scheme to sell influence to several developers, including the billionaire head of a Chinese company who wanted to build a 77-story downtown skyscraper.

    Esparza was the fourth person to agree to plead guilty in the LA corruption probe. The others include a real estate developer, political fundraiser and a former councilman, Mitchell Englander.

    Englander is accused of obstructing an investigation into tens of thousands of dollars in cash, female escort services and other perks.

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    Congressman Larry Householder of Ohio is facing corruption allegations.





    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-ho...-bribery-case/

    The powerful Republican speaker of the Ohio House and four associates were arrested Tuesday in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio's two nuclear power plants. Hours after FBI agents raided Speaker Larry Householder's farm, U.S. Attorney David DeVillers described the ploy as "likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio."


    Householder was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants' financial rescue, which added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo. After Householder's arrest, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine called on him to resign.

    Also arrested were Householder adviser Jeffrey Longstreth, longtime Statehouse lobbyist Neil Clark, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges and Juan Cespedes, co-founder of The Oxley Group, a Columbus-based consulting firm.

    Generation Now, a group that successfully fought an effort to put a repeal of the bailout law on Ohio's ballot, was charged as a corporation in the case.

    A criminal complaint filed by the FBI says Generation Now received $60 million from an unidentified company over the past three years. In exchange, Householder and the other defendants worked to pass the nuclear plant bailout and block attempts to overturn it.

    Householder and the others used the money to preserve and expand his political power in Ohio, the complaint said.
    FirstEnergy Corp., whose former subsidiaries owned the plants, donated heavily to Householder's campaigns and his backers in the Ohio House. The utility's political action committee contributed $25,000 to Householder's campaign in 2018, according to an analysis by Common Cause Ohio, a government watchdog.

    Householder flew to President Donald Trump's inauguration on the company's plane in 2016.

    FirstEnergy Solutions, the subsidiary which has since changed its name to Energy Harbor and now operates the nuclear plants as an independent company, spent millions on lobbying and campaign contributions while trying to persuade federal and state officials to give the nuclear plants a lifeline.

    FBI agents were at Householder's farm in Glenford on Tuesday morning in rural Perry County. FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said only that they were carrying out "law enforcement activity." The Perry County Sheriff's Office confirmed that it was assisting.

    Attempts by the AP to reach Householder, Borges and Clark were unsuccessful. A message seeking comment was also left with the House communications office.

    The defendants appeared in court and were not required to enter a plea. The judge ordered Householder released on his own recognizance and directed him not to obtain a passport, to restrict his travel to the southern half of Ohio and not to contact any other defendants. The judge also ordered him to remove any guns from his home.

    Similar restrictions were imposed on Longstreth. The next hearing was tentatively set for Aug. 6.

    Borges has increasingly been on the outs with the Ohio Republican Party establishment since it was taken over by devotees of President Donald Trump. He was recently censured by the party's central committee, including for helping launch a PAC in June to turn out GOP voters for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The PAC is backed by a group of prominent Republican operatives that include a former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.

    Clark is one of Ohio's best connected lobbyists, representing a high-powered stable of clients from the pharmaceutical, gambling and alcoholic beverage industries, among others.

    Cespedes is a former investment officer with the Ohio Treasurer's Office who was appointed by then-Gov. John Kasich as commissioner for the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, where he oversees a team effort to stop discrimination in the state. His term ends July 29.

    Householder is a veteran state lawmaker who's in his second stint as speaker. He held the same position from 2001 to 2004. He left state politics more than a decade ago because of term limits and returned in 2016 and took up a contentious fight to win back the chamber's top job.


    Householder famously released a campaign ad that showed him shooting a television that was airing what he called a commercial produced by "anti-Trump gun grabbers." In the ad, he boasted that he had the "highest NRA rating in Ohio's history."

    At the time he left office, he and several top advisers were under federal investigation for alleged money laundering and irregular campaign practices. The government closed the case without filing charges.

    Householder is the second Ohio House speaker to come under investigation in just over two years.

    Former Republican Speaker Cliff Rosenberger was investigated in 2018 amid an FBI inquiry into his travel, lavish lifestyle and a condo he rented from a wealthy GOP donor. Rosenberger, who has maintained he broke no laws, has not been charged, but the investigation remains open.

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    https://www.nbclosangeles.com/invest...-case/2384598/

    Jose Huizar accused of Political Corruption at LA City Hall

    Huizar was identified by his position in city government, though not by name, in a series of criminal charges and documents filed by federal prosecutors in recent months that alleged Huizar was at the center of the alleged scheme.

    Last month, a former aide to Huizar agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges, and said in court papers that he would admit to taking part in bribery, extortion, and mail and wire fraud.

    The criminal filings involving aide George Esparza, who served as a "special assistant" to Huizar until 2017, also alleged that an individual identified as, "Councilmember A," accepted $215,000 in bribes and benefits in the form of casino gambling chips, trips on private jets, hotel rooms, spa services, meals, alcohol, and, "prostitution/escort services."

    Councilmember A is separately described in the complaint as Esparza's boss, meaning Huizar, though the councilman's name was not printed in the filing.

    "While today?s announcement on the arrest of Councilmember Huizar is not unexpected, the horrendous and disgusting allegations leveled against him and others have painted a dark cloud over our City government for a long time now," said Council President Nury Martinez. "Effective today, I will begin the process of removing him from office so that the good people of Council District 14 and the City of Los Angeles will be fairly and honorably represented. That is our duty and we must do it."

    The case centers on bribes allegedly paid by developers and consultants to ensure certain construction projects were approved by the council and its powerful Planning and Land Use Management, or PLUM, committee.

    FBI agents served search warrants at Huizar's home and offices in November 2018. Also in May, Council President Martinez sent a letter to Huizar directing him to stop attending council meetings amid the widening investigation.

    "Councilmember Huizar has violated the trust of the people who elected him," Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "I have zero tolerance for this criminal behavior and corruption. He should be immediately removed from the City Council and replaced by his democratically-elected successor to ensure that the 14th Council District has the representation it deserves."

    Esparza was the fourth person who's agreed to plead guilty in the corruption case.

    Earlier this year former LA City Councilman and reserve LAPD officer Mitch Englander agreed to plead guilty to various federal charges alleging he lied to the FBI during the probe of alleged City Hall corruption.

    Court documents filed by federal prosecutors said Englander, 49, was accused of obstructing an FBI investigation into whether he accepted cash, trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs, and female escort services from a businessman who was attempting to get approval for a number of real estate projects.

    The indictment alleges that Englander accepted items from a person identified as Businessperson A during June 2017 trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs. Those gifts included an envelope with $10,000 in cash, services from a female escort, hotel rooms, $1,000 in casino chips, $34,000 in bottle service at a club and a $2,481 dinner, according to the indictment.

    After the trips, Councilman Englander arranged for Businessperson A to meet with a developer who was a friend of Englander's, according to the indictment. And, in August 2017, after learning of the FBI probe, Englander sent an encrypted message to Businessperson A that indicated he wanted to reimburse him for part of the Las Vegas trip, according to the indictment.

    Englander told Businessperson A at least three times to provide false and misleading information and keep other details from federal prosecutors. In February 2018, the two allegedly met in Englander's car. He turned up the volume on the car's stereo and began driving around the block, repeatedly asking that Businessperson A lie to investigators, according to the indictment.

    "Mitch is proud of the work he has done to serve his community as both a volunteer reserve police officer and a public official," Englander's lawyer Janet Levine said in a statement. "Despite this setback, with the support of his family and friends, he looks forward to continuing his lifelong contributions to the community that has given him so much."

    Englander surprised colleagues and constituents when he resigned from his $210,000-a-year elected seat on the Council in December 2018 and went to work for a private consulting firm. By that time numerous City officials were aware the FBI had opened an investigation into the actions of at least two council members and other City Hall employees.

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    https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story...zy/5571009002/

    Editor’s Note: This is part three of a four-part series examining the FBI’s criminal complaint against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others described as the Householder Enterprise. All five men and the group Generation Now were indicted July 30 on federal racketeering charges.

    “Speaker is on a rampage.”

    Larry Householder’s chief political strategist Jeff Longstreth texted that warning to FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist Juan Cespedes in early June 2019, according to an FBI affidavit.

    While Householder’s Enterprise had crossed another hurdle — getting House Bill 6 passed by the House in May 2019 — Householder was not happy with negative media coverage that followed because the Enterprise still had to get the measure approved by the Ohio Senate.

    On June 3, 2019, Longstreth pulled together the “whole HB 6 team” for a three-hour strategy meeting.

    Meeting minutes obtained by the FBI showed the group sharpening its media strategy based on what did and didn’t work during the run-up to the House vote on HB 6.

    Ads that didn’t mention lawmakers by name didn’t exert the same pressure as those that did, the minutes said, noting that the language in HB 6 also kept changing, muddling their messaging.

    What did work?

    Phone calls to lawmakers “on the fence,” and targeted ads.

    To get HB 6 approved in the Senate, the group decided on a senator-by-senator “hyper local” plan, the affidavit said, with Generation Now spending $2 million on a media campaign asking voters to sway senators.

    The Ohio Senate’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee began deliberations on HB 6 in June and held 10 hearings that month.

    Householder remained involved in the process, the affidavit said, including how the Enterprise was handling advertising to ramp up pressure for state senators to pass HB 6.

    “When does the Gen Now TV message change? I think it is burnt in — well burnt in,” Householder texted to Longstreth on June 4, 2019.

    He was likely referring to a television ad paid for by Generation Now showing an actor playing an Ohio nuclear power plant worker describing what job losses would be like if the plants closed.

    Polling showed the ad was working, Longstreth replied to Householder.

    “Of course. I’m just sick of seeing that poor sum bitch drive that pickup truck down the road and cry about losing his job,” Householder said.

    That ad and others asking voters to urge senators to pass HB 6 were prolific.

    Messages the FBI recovered from Longstreth show that the Enterprise was spending $68,000 per week in one senator’s district alone.

    In June, more good news arrived for FirstEnergy Corp.

    HB 6 was amended in the Senate to “decouple” energy rates, the affidavit said.

    The affidavit explains: “Decoupling is the dissociation of annual revenue from volume of energy sales. The decoupling mechanism was based upon the baseline revenue the company received in 2018. Therefore, if a given year’s annual revenue is less than it was in 2018, the company may charge retail customers a rider, or surcharge, to compensate for the lost revenue.”

    FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Charles Jones would later tell investors the decoupling “fixes our base revenues and essentially it takes about one-third of our company and I think makes it somewhat recession-proof.”

    Why did the Senate add the decoupling measure to HB 6?

    It “likely came as a result of the successful influence campaign waged by the Enterprise,” the affidavit said.

    By early July, Ohio newspaper reporters were asking questions about who was behind the HB 6 advertising blanketing parts of Ohio.

    The affidavit singles out a Cincinnati Enquirer (and Dayton Daily News) story reporting that millions of dollars in “dark money” from Generation Now was flooding television and radio with the ads.


    Other newspapers also tied the ads to Generation Now, and some made the link through public records to Longstreth, who had incorporated the nonprofit.

    But that’s where the public records trail went dead.

    Unlike the FBI, the press doesn’t have subpoena power and couldn’t review bank records, donor lists for a 501(c)(4) or private communications.

    Without that information, there was no way for reporters to show what the FBI now claims: “Company A,” FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries, was funneling millions of dollars into Generation Now and affiliated entities so that Householder and his Enterprise could spend it to make sure HB 6 became law.

    Still, at the time, Householder appeared to try to deflect attention away from himself and any connection to the ads, the affidavit said.

    HB 6 is “a priority bill for me because I’ve always cared about the energy in the state of Ohio,” Householder told the media.

    “I’ll tell you who’s paying for these ads: It’s working men and women from Ohio, who want to save their jobs and it’s Ohio corporations, headquartered in Ohio, that want to stay here. That’s who’s paying for it,” Householder said.

    But some House members knew otherwise, the affidavit said.

    In a text message, Householder told Longstreth that “several members — including members of House leadership” had come to him privately discussing their concerns about upcoming House campaigns based on HB 6 messaging in Generation Now ads.

    “In addition to showing Householder’s knowledge that Generation Now was taking a hit in the media, the message also shows that some public officials knew that Householder was behind the Generation Now campaign to pressure members to support HB 6,” the affidavit said.


    Meanwhile, more money flowed from FirstEnergy to Generation Now — so much that members of the Enterprise referred to FirstEnergy as their “bank,” the affidavit said.

    FBI agents have a recording of Columbus lobbyist Neil Clark during the summer of 2019 explaining that the energy company supplied “unlimited money.”

    FirstEnergy “got $1.3 billion in subsidies, free payments ... so what do they care about putting $20 million a year for this thing, they don’t give a s***,” Clark said, according to the affidavit.

    On July 23, 2019, the Ohio Senate passed HB 6, 19-12, sending it back to the Ohio House, which concurred the same day, 51-38. Gov. Mike DeWine also signed the legislation into law the same day.

    It was a quick end to a bitter, months-long fight.
    Unlike other bills, this legislation didn’t break along party lines. Supporters and opponents included a mix of legislators from both parties.

    To outsiders, it looked like public officials and a cadre of industry lobbyists pushed for the bill along with a variety of trade unions hoping to save the 1,400 jobs at the plants. Environmentalists, some business groups, and oil and gas interests fought the legislation.

    But investigators, who saw what was happening behind the scenes, say the Enterprise — using millions of dollars flowing in from FirstEnergy — made HB 6 law.

    “I did this campaign,” Clark explained that month in a taped conversation obtained by the FBI. “All we cared about was getting the subsidy.”

    In other words, the affidavit said, FirstEnergy “paid the Enterprise millions of dollars in exchange for the Enterprise’s efforts to pass HB 6 because it received ‘$1.3 billion in subsidies’ in return — the essence of the corrupt exchange.”

    Yet the fight over HB 6 wasn’t over.

    And the biggest hurdle — the fight to keep HB 6 off the ballot — was about to ensue.


    Hired not to work
    The Enterprise had known for weeks that groups opposed to HB 6 were planning a referendum campaign, aiming to gather enough signatures to put a repeal on the ballot, the affidavit said.

    The aim was to let Ohioans decide whether HB 6 and the $1.3 billion nuclear energy bailout were a good deal for them and for the state.

    But getting a referendum on the ballot in Ohio isn’t easy even without organized opposition working against you.

    Under Ohio law, a group must first collect 1,000 Ohioans’ signatures and submit proposed ballot language to the Ohio attorney general for approval. If the secretary of state certifies 1,000 signatures and the attorney general approves the language, proponents must then collect signatures from registered voters totaling 6% of the voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election.

    In the case of HB 6, that would amount to about 265,000 signatures, which also would have to be certified by the Ohio secretary of state, the affidavit said.

    Want to stay informed about what's happening in our community? Download our Newark Advocate app.

    In June, before HB 6 had been signed into law, Householder’s top political aide, Jeff Longstreth, and FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist Juan Cespedes were talking about how the Enterprise could quash referendum efforts, according to their conversations captured by the FBI.

    One way to undermine the effort was to hire the national companies that referendum groups use to gather signatures. If the Enterprise hired them first, the affidavit said, the people trying to overturn HB 6 couldn’t, because the company would have a conflict, the affidavit said.

    “We can hire the good ones. We can’t hire them all,” Cespedes wrote to Longstreth during one of the conversations captured by the FBI.



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    https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/...oner-race.html

    More on the Larry Householder scandal

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Political friends of Larry Householder’s have ponied up to help seed his son’s efforts to follow in his dad’s footsteps by seeking elected office.

    Campaign finance reports, obtained via a public-records request, show that Derek Householder in January raised $42,100 for his Perry County commission race, most of which has come from donors with ties to Larry Householder’s political team. Nearly two-thirds came from organized labor groups from around the state, via local chapters in Akron, Cleveland, Marietta, Westerville and Zanesville.


    Unless the groups are keenly interested in local developments in Perry County, the donations suggest that groups that have given money to Derek Householder did so with an eye toward gaining favor with his father. At the time of the contributions, Larry Householder, who represents Perry County, was one of the state’s most powerful politicians, although his influence in Columbus has all but evaporated after he was arrested last month as part of a federal racketeering investigation and ousted last week as Ohio House Speaker.

    Derek Householder, who did not return a message seeking comment, ran unopposed earlier this year in a primary to replace a retiring Perry County commissioner, according to the Logan Daily News. He is an employee of Buckingham Coal Company, according to a state ethics filing.
    Six local chapters of the Laborers, a building-trades union, donated a total of $17,000 to Householder’s county commission race. Organized labor groups in Ohio traditionally have been tied to Democrats but increasingly have contributed to Republicans in recent years. Various Laborers chapters have given Larry Householder more than $289,000 in campaign contributions since 2017.

    Derek Householder’s largest single donation, $10,000, came from Political Education Patterns, the political arm of the Operating Engineers Local 18 in Cleveland, which represents road-construction workers.

    Political Education Patterns was among the donors to Larry Householder’s political operation in 2018 to elect allies to more than a dozen open legislative seats, which helped Householder briefly return to power before he was arrested last month on a federal racketeering charge. PEP is among the biggest donors in Ohio politics, donating more than $1 million to Republican and Democratic state-level candidates since 2018, including $26,000 to Larry Householder.

    Three donors gave Derek Householder $5,000 each. They are Wayne Boich, CEO of Boich Companies, a company with major holdings in coal, who is a major supporter of Householder’s; Rex Elsass, a Columbus political consultant with close ties to Householder and the Political Action Committee for Shelly Materials Inc., a major paving-materials company based in Perry County.

    The $5,000 Shelly gave to Derek Householder was the PAC’s third-biggest contribution since 2018, tied with a $5,000 contribution the firm gave to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther’s campaign, according to state campaign-finance records. The Shelly PAC gave Larry Householder $2,500 in 2018.


    Both Political Education Patterns and Elsass made an identical contribution earlier this year to another child of a powerful Ohio politician running for local office, campaign finance records show. PEP gave $10,000 in April to Alice DeWine, the daughter of Gov. Mike DeWine who was running at the time for Greene County prosecutor, while Elsass gave her $5,000 in February. Alice DeWine lost the Republican primary in April, despite prodigious fundraising boosted by Mike DeWine’s political supporters, and a deep-pocketed, anonymously funded pro-DeWine political group that blanketed the county with ads.

    Derek Householder will face Frank Fondale, a Democrat and local township trustee, in the November general election.

    Fondale on his campaign Facebook page has said he is not raising money for his campaign, and has criticized his opponent for taking money from out-of-town donors.

    “When you take large donations like this … at some point in time you’re going to be called upon for a favor in return,” he said in an interview.

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