The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[N.E. Brigand]

I always imagined "Fat Leonard" as looking like Sidney Greenstreet. Not so much:



I suppose this item could have gone in several threads. Fat Leonard is a nickname of Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian CEO of the Glenn Marine Group, who bribed and blackmailed a bunch of U.S. naval officers in the Philippines to secure Navy business and to obtain classified information. This was going on for many years, and previous reporting suggests that one reason that was possible is that military personnel who normally investigate financial crimes had been reassigned to support the "War on Terror." Eventually, more than 40 people were charged, including not only Francis and his associates at GMG but also a number of naval officers and even a member of the NCIS. Some admirals were disciplined. Francis pleaded guilty in 2018, and his final sentencing was scheduled for today. In the meantime, but was furloughed from prison for medical reasons and was allowed to live under house arrest in San Diego. Two weeks ago, he cut off his ankle bracelet and drove into Mexico. From there, he flew to Venezuela, where as noted in the image above, he was arrested yesterday by Interpol. According to the reporter at that link, who has interviewed Francis in the past, Francis was probably going to Russia because that nation would pay him handsomely for the compromising information he has collected on American military personnel.

[N.E. Brigand]

Yesterday in the Miami Herald: Operatives linked to DeSantis promised to fly migrants to Delaware — but left them stranded.

On Monday, some reporters noticed that a flight that appeared to be scheduled the next morning to fly from San Antonio to Wilmington and suspected that Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, was about to launch a follow-up stunt to the human smuggling to Martha's Vinyard that he'd ordered last week. The new flight was cancelled a the last minute, and DeSantis said that scheduling the flight in the first place was just a way to "punk" the media. But if that was so, why were a bunch of migrants put up in a hotel and told they'd be flown to Delaware?

[N.E. Brigand]

Did you know that this happened yesterday?

The Senate has voted to ratify a global climate treaty that will phase down the use and production of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, the climate-warming chemicals widely used in air conditioning and refrigeration.

The Senate voted 69-27 on Wednesday to move forward the 2016 Kigali Amendment, an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol climate treaty that dramatically curbs the use of HFCs, which are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at heating up the Earth. Forty-eight Democrats and 21 Republicans voted in favor; four members of the Senate did not vote.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said that regulatory action on such chemicals could help avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of global warming by the end of the century. Emissions from HFCs rose between 2018 and 2019, according to the EPA, as demand for air conditioning and refrigeration rose amid record high temperatures in the U.S.

I didn't. And it was pretty bipartisan!

[N.E. Brigand]

The former president's oldest son feels that Joe Biden should more forcefully condemn partisan violence:



I'm pretty sure he's referring to this incident in North Dakota.

[N.E. Brigand]

As the full devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian in Florida becomes clear, it's probably worth noting that Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, voted in 2013, when he was a new member of the House of Representatives, against funding to help New York and New Jersey recover from Superstorm Sandy.

I don't expect President Biden or Congressional Democrats to respond in kind now that the shoe is on the other foot.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Biden administration scales back student debt relief for millions amid legal concerns." (Politico)

Because several Republican-controlled states have sued the federal government in order to protect private lenders, the Biden administration has announced that the relatively small number of people who got their student loans from such sources (about 3% of all student borrowers) won't be eligible for the recently announced debt relief program.

[N.E. Brigand]

Some climate activists seem woefully misguided:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Don't know if this is true, but I have no reason to believe that it isn't.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

The Washington Post reports that the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden has amassed sufficient information to charge the president's son with tax crimes and the illegal purchase of a handgun. (This U.S. Attorney was appointed by Donald Trump, but Joe Biden left him in place to avoid any appearance of impropriety.)

That said, the report appears to be based on FBI sources -- leaking to a journalist with something of a history of reporting leaks from the FBI (it was he who revealed in October 2016 that the FBI was investigating the Clinton Foundation; more recently he broke the news that Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is unlikely to be charged for sex trafficking) -- who are trying to pressure the prosecutor into filing charges.

And to be clear: if people are normally charged for the acts that Hunter Biden is alleged to have committed, then by all means let him be charged.

But what's most amusing to me are the people complaining that the "mainstream media" won't cover this story. Apparently the Post isn't mainstream?

(Also, CBS, CNBC, the BBC, and other outlets have since picked up the story.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Last year Congress passed the biggest infrastructure bill in decades. It had enough bipartisan support to pass, but many Congressional Republicans voted against it. CNN has a new story about those Republicans, who have been quietly lobbying the Biden administration, and specifically the Dept. of Transportation, to have funds from those bills spent in their districts or states. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, quite rightly, says that these clowns' votes won't be held against their constituents when funding decisions are made:

"We’re not going to be trying to be jerks about it. We’re also not going to be shy about folks knowing who was with us and who was against us. We’re obviously not going to penalize anybody for the shortsightedness of their politicians."

[RoseMorninStar]

I really like Pete Buttigieg. I hope he has a long career as a public servant. He's smart and sharp.

[N.E. Brigand]

In the past 20 years, there have been only five months in which the U.S. unemployment rate was as low as 3.5% (and it's never been lower):

Sep. 2019
Jan. 2020
Feb. 2020
Jul. 2022
Sep. 2022

The September numbers released today also show the U.S. added 263,000 jobs last month.

[N.E. Brigand]

(Sorry, double-post.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That said, the report appears to be based on FBI sources -- leaking to a journalist with something of a history of reporting leaks from the FBI (it was he who revealed in October 2016 that the FBI was investigating the Clinton Foundation; more recently he broke the news that Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is unlikely to be charged for sex trafficking) -- who are trying to pressure the prosecutor into filing charges.

One more Devlin story of note (without even getting into his role in helping to get former FBI Assistant Director McCabe wrongfully terminated:

[N.E. Brigand]

Interesting statistic: "The majority of Americans have reported that they believe crime has increased nearly every year between 1990 and 2020, according to Gallup opinion polling. In reality, violent crime fell during all but seven of those years, and property crime fell during all but two."

[N.E. Brigand]

In the past 20 years, there have been only five months in which the U.S. unemployment rate was as low as 3.5% (and it's never been lower):

Sep. 2019
Jan. 2020
Feb. 2020
Jul. 2022
Sep. 2022

The September numbers released today also show the U.S. added 263,000 jobs last month.

Notice that three of those five lowest unemployment months happened during the Trump administration, a point which I do not dispute.

By contrast, I've noticed a number of conservatives today saying that the unemployment metric cited here shouldn't be used because it's affected by people choosing to leave the workforce entirely. I remember those commentators saying the exact same thing around this in fall 2016 (when unemployment was at 4.7%, which was lower than it had been in nine years), and yet I don't remember those folks complaining in 2020 that the rosy numbers couldn't be trusted. Apparently the numbers are reliable when they help Republicans and unreliable when they reflect well on Democrats.

Anyway, the White House pointed out that using this metric, the Hispanic unemployment rate is at 3.8%, the lowest rate ever.

[N.E. Brigand]

Fox News appears to believe this 2018 audio of Joe Biden leaving a voicemail for his son Hunter reflects badly on him. I think it shows a decent father.

(I hesitate only to post that because I think Fox's deeper motivation is to soften people up to accept other material obtained from the same source, which might be doctored.)

[N.E. Brigand]

President Biden announced a diplomatic achievement today:

"After months of mediation by the United States, the Governments of Israel and Lebanon have agreed to formally end their maritime boundary dispute and establish a permanent maritime boundary between them."

[Sunsilver]

I mentioned OPEC cutting production by 10% in the Ukraine thread. This article goes into more detail, and comes right out and says Saudi Arabia may be trying to punish the States for siding with Ukraine. The original article I read definitely made it seem Russia had something to do with their decision.

And Biden is NOT happy: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/11282145 ... OpVeUWX_cw

President Biden wants to take a closer look at the longstanding U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia after after OPEC+ decided to cut oil production last week, a decision the White House said was not warranted and mainly serves to help Russia.

"I am in the process, when the House and Senate comes back, there's going to be some consequences for what they've done with Russia," he told CNN Tuesday night, but declined to elaborate on what those consequences might be.

Earlier in the day, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Saudi Arabia played a key role in that production cut. He said Biden wants to discuss the future of U.S.-Saudi Arabia relations with Congress, and whether those ties still serve the national interest.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would reduce production by 2 million barrels per day, a move seen by some as a method of punishing the United States and its continued support of Ukraine.

Kirby said the cartel's production cut was not warranted by market conditions and called it "a short-sighted decision that benefitted Russia, at a time when nobody — in any capacity — should be trying to benefit Vladimir Putin."