Susan e-mailed noting that we hadn't had a vegetarian recipe in a bit. She likes Food & Wine's Black-Eye Pea Salad:
Ingredients
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1 cup dried black-eyed peas
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2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
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1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
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Salt
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1 red bell pepper
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2 large celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch dice
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2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
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4 teaspoons cider vinegar
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4 large scallions, green parts only, thinly sliced
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Freshly ground black pepper
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Tabasco Sauce, for seasoning
Directions
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In a saucepan, cover the black-eyed peas with water and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until tender, 45 minutes. Drain.
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Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat the oil. Add the onion, season with salt and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
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Roast the bell pepper directly over a gas flame or under the broiler, turning, until charred. Let cool. Peel and seed the bell pepper; cut into 1/4-inch dice.
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In a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the diced celery for 30 seconds. Drain, rinse under cold water and drain again.
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Add the mayonnaise and vinegar to the onion. Fold in the black-eyed peas, bell pepper, celery and scallions; season with salt, pepper and Tabasco. Chill before serving.
“We normally look for demonstrated competence in a nominee,” said Gregory F. Treverton, a former top intelligence official during the Obama administration who now teaches at USC. “This is a case of demonstrated incompetence. … She was obviously selected solely because she’s loyal to Trump.”
“I think she's a serious threat to our national security," John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor during his first term, said in a television interview. "Her judgment is nonexistent."
Among Republicans in the Senate, Gabbard’s nomination elicited a few glowing endorsements — but an impressive list of noncommittal statements.
Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said he “will have a lot of questions.” “It’s really important that we have leadership there that’s able to support” the intelligence agencies, he added.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, formerly the GOP's second-ranking Senate leader, gave a speech praising most of Trump’s national security nominees by name — but left Gabbard conspicuously off the list. A Cornyn aide declined to say whether the omission was deliberate.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:
Monday, December 2, 2024. Let's talk about that pardon.
- Outgoing US President Joe Biden has issued a presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing over charges related to gun possession and tax fraud
- Biden had previously said he wouldn't pardon his son but changed his mind as he felt Hunter had been "selectively, and unfairly persecuted"
- Joe Biden is the first US president to issue a pardon for his son - but not the first to pardon a relative
- Democrats and Republicans have been reacting to the decision with US President-elect Donald Trump describing it as "an abuse and miscarriage of justice"
- Biden’s pardon for his son shows that presidents now act differently, writes the BBC's North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher
It's not an abuse and it's not a miscarriage of justice. A president can pardon anyone they wish to. That's the law.
A miscarriage of justice?
The presidential pardon comes with no qualifiers. It's the power of the sitting president so everyone needs to STFU. Truly, I am so sick of the state of our media.
Was it a good look? I think you can debate that. For now. I think Joe wins the argument in the long run.
Joe Biden took a path 52 years ago this month. That's when the car accident took place that cost the lives of Joe's first wife and his first daughter. Surviving that car accident were their two boys Beau and Hunter. Five years later, he'd marry Jill and they would have a daughter Ashley. Joe had turned thirty right before the car accident. At the age of thirty, he lost a wife and a daughter. His bond and his need to protect Hunter and Beau -- and Ashely, when she was born -- was more than understandable.
Beau was the above the board Biden. He'd join the military and ge exposed to burn pits in Iraq -- dying as a result. Hunter was the younger son, only two years old when the car accident took place. Joe spent his life protecting all three children and often it was Hunter more than anyone else.
In the end, Hunter was convicted of tax evasion and lying on a gun permit.
If Kamala Harris had been elected president, as should have happened, I don't think Joe would have pardoned Hunter and I don't think Hunter would have taken it. Remarks were made when Joe recently met with Satan Trump at the White House and they concerned and worried Joe.
They worried him enough to make him believe that Hunter might be a political target for the next four years.
Joe pardoning Hunter is completely understandable but more so when you factor that in.
The media is trying to make this a scandal. I don't remember that, however, at the end of 2020 when Satan pardoned the father-in-law of his daughter Charles Kushner who also had tax evasion issues. In fact, he was convicted of tax evasion. And illegal campaign contributions. And witness tampering.
Witness tampering? That's such a polite charge when you were setting a family member up with a prostitute so that you could blackmail them. Let's go to WIKIPEDIA:
On June 30, 2004, Kushner was fined $508,900 by the Federal Election Commission for contributing to Democratic political campaigns in the names of his partnerships when he lacked authorization to do so.[21] In 2005, following an investigation by the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, US Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with him, under which Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.[22][23][24] The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner's retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators against Kushner. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record a sexual encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.[23][22][25][26] Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison.[22] He served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama[27][28] before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.[27][28][29] He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.[30]
As a convicted felon, Charles Kushner was also disbarred and prohibited from practicing law in New Jersey,[31] New York,[32] and Pennsylvania.[33]
Republican Chris Christie, who chaired Trump’s first transition team, said Kushner committed "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" he prosecuted.[5]
In her book Too Much and Never Enough, President Trump's niece Mary L. Trump wrote that Charles Kushner had given a speech in which he claimed that Ivanka Trump had only made herself worthy of inclusion in his family by committing to convert to Judaism, which Mary Trump found "a bit rich" given Kushner's past as a convicted felon.[34]
When Joe was the vice president for eight years, I weighed in on Hunter only once. I also noted Jill only once. That's because I've known Joe for decades (something noted here since this site started). I like Jill, she's a nice person. Before Joe took over the role of vice president, I noted here that I would not be commenting on Second Lady Jill Biden because I didn't want to get caught up in the nonsense. I couldn't imagine her doing something that would be a scandal but that didn't mean the press wouldn't try to turn something innocent into a scandal. By not commenting on her in a positive way, I didn't have to comment if the press went wild attacking her.
And I more or less kept that for eight years.
The exception was a veterans issue that she worked on and we had to note it because it wasn't getting enough press attention for the veterans.
Other than that, I didn't comment. When Joe began his run for president in 2019, we called out Hunter. When others were dismissing the behavior in question, we called it out.
Hunter had many unethical issues.
And we called Joe out here when he tried to minimize it. Once Hunter was the target of an FBI investigation, we regularly called out Joe for his comments. We even had to call out Jill twice. While the Justice Dept did not answer to the First Lady, in that position, Jill had to watch her words. We noted that.
So Hunter's actions are not a new topic for this site.
Did he get off light before the pardon? I personally think he did.
But we had Merrick Garland -- the idiot Attorney General who couldn't seem to get a tough conviction on anyone -- including Satan Trump.
Hunter got a pardon from his father.
That's not a surprise. It's completely understandable. Joe's an elderly man now. He's 82 years old and the last four years especially took a lot out of him. He's not going to be able to counsel or protect Hunter much longer and an insane and criminal rival is coming into the White House. One who may or may not have been joking in their recent meeting. But it was enough to concern Joe.
That's all that matters to me because I don't pretend that Satan is anything but a psychopath. I wish there was a way Joe could do a blanket pardon for all the people Satan sees as "enemies within."
But he can't.
He can protect his own son and that's what history's going to see this as. And history is not going to be kind to Satan Trump -- even the media sucking up to him right now and jerk off politicians sucking up to him -- hey, Bernie, looking at you, you worthless piece of garbage -- won't last forever.
The only time I noted Hunter here when Joe was vice president, I wrote what I'd already said to Joe about it: It's not our falls that define us, it's how we dust ourselves off and get back up.
Hunter, your father has yet again, out of love for you, sacrificed himself. Appreciate that and use the gift he's given you.
Here's The White House announcement of the pardon:
Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took
office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s
decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being
selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like
use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw
purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges
solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying
their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back
subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given
non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated
differently.
The charges in his cases came about only after
several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack
me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal,
agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room –
with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for
bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it
would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.
No
reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach
any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my
son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who
has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting
attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve
tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here.
Enough is enough.
For my entire career I have followed a simple
principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be
fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I
have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this
process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this
decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope
Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to
this decision.
###
Executive Grant of Clemency
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States of America
To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:
Be
It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the
United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause
1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto
ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN
A Full and Unconditional Pardon
For
those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may
have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014
through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses
charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions)
by Special Counsel David C. Weiss in Docket No. 1:23-cr-00061-MN in the
United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Docket No.
2:23-CR-00599-MCS-1 in the United States District Court for the Central
District of California.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice.
Done
at the City of Washington this 1st day of December in the year of our
Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-four and of the Independence of the United
States the Two Hundred and Forty-ninth.
###
At RAW STORY, David McAfee writes:
Trump over the weekend announced his appointment of Kash Patel as the director of FBI, leading critics to lash out and causing a pre-emptive strike against Senate Republicans by a top MAGA lawyer who said he would make their political lives hell if they opposed Patel.
Sophia Cai, senior national politics reporter for Axios, said, "Trump's decision to name hardline loyalist Kash Patel to FBI director amounts to a massive middle finger to the intelligence community."
Wrong. From Ava and my "Media: Journalistic Malpractice:"
Let's stop there because when we read a portion of this back to smart and educated people we know, they told us we were wrong about something: recess appointments.
We weren't wrong. It's your crap ass left media -- especially on YOUTUBE -- that has promoted a lie because yet again these uneducated lazy talking heads didn't do the actual work.
Matt could not been a recess appointment
in November or December or even, pay attention, for the bulk of next
month. Why is that?
Satan is not the president. That's not
talking recounts or anything else spewing across the internet. That's
merely fact. Learn your Constitution, it is your friend. Much more so
that the bulk of the idiots on YOUTUBE.
Until he's sworn in, Satan is not president.
He can jawbone all he wants -- like a YOUTUBER -- but he's not president.
Joe Biden is president. Until Trump is sworn in, he can't do anything and that would include recess appoint Gaetz or anyone else to a post requiring Senate confirmation.
Do you get it? Because RAW STORY doesn't. Again, they wrote:
Trump over the weekend announced his appointment of Kash Patel as the director of FBI, leading critics to lash out and causing a pre-emptive strike against Senate Republicans by a top MAGA lawyer who said he would make their political lives hell if they opposed Patel.
He can't appoint anyone to head the FBI, he's not president. He won't be sworn in until January 20th. He's declared he wants Kash Patel to be the head of the FBI? Okay. But, no, he has not appointed him. He is not yet the president.
Get your s**t together.
The following sites updated:
