Wednesday woolgathering, administration-style
Well, let’s start with a controversial pardon.
Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state treasurer, was found guilty in October of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was out of custody ahead of her sentencing, which had been scheduled for next month.
Fraud? Barefaced theft is more accurate.
Federal prosecutors said at trial that Fiore, 54, had raised more than $70,000 for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer who was fatally shot in 2014 in the line of duty, but had instead spent some of it on cosmetic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding.
Fiore, who does not have a law degree, was appointed as a judge in deep-red Nye County in 2022 shortly after she lost her campaign for state treasurer.
President Donald Trump has pardoned a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery. AP
Someone’s gonna have to tell me she walks on water somehow, because to me, after being found guilty of stealing from a dead cop’s memorial fund, she should be looking at hard time.
And while we are on the topic of pardons, Paul Walczak was pardoned after the Florida health care executive was found guilty of tax fraud.
President Donald Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, a Palm Beach Gardens health care executive convicted of tax evasion for siphoning more than $10.9 million in payroll taxes from the paychecks of doctors and nurses. Prosecutors said he used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and luxury goods, including a $2 million yacht.
During his April 11 sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra said that letting Walczak walk free “reinforces the perception that the rich get away with it and the poor go to prison.”
The judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison and gave Walczak 90 days to turn himself in. Only 12 of those days elapsed before Trump signed the private pardon.MSN
Walczak’s mother is a heavy Republican contributor. Guess she got what she paid for.
Next up we have the candidate for Surgeon General, Dr Jannette Nesheiwat.
Dr Jannette Nesheiwat has been described by the president as “a double board-certified medical doctor,” and a “proud graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.”
I know you can see it coming… she isn’t.
However, according to CBS News, Nesheiwat only completed her residency through the university’s family medicine program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and did not obtain her medical degree there.
She earned her degree at a somewhat less prestigious school.
She actually earned her degree from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, in St. Maarten, in the Caribbean, records reviewed by the outlet have shown. AUC also confirmed to CBS that Nesheiwat was enrolled there for six years, from 2000 to 2006. Typically the program includes four years of study, but Nesheiwat was there for six.
I’m sure there is a good reason for that. Probably helped her get her gigs as a Fox News presenter, which seems to be the primary qualification for an administration position. At least, unlike Kennedy, she actually HAS some medical training
Nesheiwat’s LinkedIn profile lists “Doctor of Medicine” from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine among her education. It does not mention the Caribbean school.
In a 2018 social media post, Nesheiwat stated that she had completed her “medical training and residency” at Arkansas as well as serving as Chief Resident.
She also mentioned training at “the American University,” though does not specify which school she is referring to, as well as having completing” the majority of my studies” in London, England, at St. Thomas & Guy’s Hospital.
The American University of the Caribbean has a partnership with St. Thomas & Guy Hospital. The Independent
Sounds like she is shading her resume, like “Vietnam Era” vet who transmogrifies into a “Vietnam Vet.”
And we’re all done with Petey’s phone use, putting classified info on Signal, etc. Right? Wrong.
As the New York Times reports, the same phone Hegseth used when he accidentally shared those covert military maneuvers is also his personal one. And embarrassingly, its number could easily be found online on a variety of public apps as recently as March, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Airbnb, and — we kid you not — a sports betting website.
“There’s zero percent chance that someone hasn’t tried to install Pegasus or some other spyware on his phone,” Mike Casey, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told the NYT. “He is one of the top five, probably, most targeted people in the world for espionage.”
As the NYT notes, even low-level government employees are forbidden from using personal devices for work-related tasks — and here’s the guy in charge of the entire nation’s defense efforts, leaving it all out in the open. Futurism
C’mon, Pete – you’re a grownup now. Turn off the personal phone and use the one DoD says you should use, hmm? And scrub your public profiles.
Meanwhile, this quote:
President Donald Trump said he thinks beleaguered defense secretary Pete Hegseth is “gonna get it together” after reports of chaos at the Pentagon under his leadership. The Independent
I would think someone selected for such an important position should already HAVE it together, not need training wheels.
Category: Government Incompetence
Fiore is a straight up nutter. She thinks she is going back to the bench because of the pardon. The pardon doesn’t vacate the conviction though and the fact that she doesn’t understand that is telling. Pardoning her was a terrible idea.
Walczack’s mother isn’t just a donor she is the one that had custody of Biden’s daughter’s diary that ended up going to Veritas and was later seized by the Secret Service as stolen property. Talk is the IRS prosecution was lawfare payback for all that. I don’t know anything about his case to say whether it is likely or not.
So far as Doctor Nesheiwat (what do you call the person who graduated last in their class at medical school?) there were better choices out there. Miller-Meeks would have been a much better choice for example.
I will add that having someone wearing a dress that is in charge of public health in some way, that doesn’t have a penis is an improvement.
Walczak paid the taxes back, with penalties. Let’s also point out he was in the 40% of tax cheats that gets the hammer, not the the 60% that get leniency. took 2 minutes find.
Better call a waaaaaaambulance.
Well, I guess we are going to have to start voting Democrat, because Dems would never ever evah do anything like this, you know.
So to be clear, your are OK with his nonsense so long as Dems get (or got) away with it?
I may be going out on a limb here, but I am pretty sure Slow Joe is saying we should hold all politicians (no matter the party) accountable for their nefarious actions.
Joe, some people just don’t recognize your brand of sarcasm.
And here I was thinking he was going to vote Democrat because they have the moral and ethical high ground, make sane cabinet appointments, don’t make any mistakes with tech or classified data, only pardon deserving people and are the ideal model of judicial jurisprudence.
Now that is some world class sarcasm!
What a bunch of losers. Thieves are one thing, but to misrepresent your MD creds is another. But it seems to be par for the course these days. Unqualified folks in positions they should not serve.
Well,Transparent Pete shoots himself in the foot again (but not physically like Senator Tim Sheehy). Tried to tell you folks, I knew a bunch of the old WWP, etc. dudes back in the day and this is what you get.
I know the Trump apologists and ball lickers will pile on me, but folks, this is bad.
Bad as it is, it is still an improvement over the last guy. I’ll take marginal improvements over whatever the fuq was going on the last four years.
Yep, his anti Trump trope is wearing thin. Where were the daily dem screwups for the last 4 plus years? It is like they are letting Commisar write the stories now. There is a lot more in the world going on beside Trump Trump Trump. Get some new material, nobody likes a has been comedian.
And in other new, today is the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon per an article on ace of spades hq.
I voted for him.
So if you go AWOL, does that mean I can to?
My standards are just a different that yours it seems.
You should ask SECDEF Austin that question. He knows the answer.
Funny. Austin was such a fartknocker.
Another loser for ya. He tried to make himself out as looking out for those of us not in the big club, but apparently his masters have other ideas.
https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1917237237021818997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1917237237021818997%7Ctwgr%5E229bed14d68f8c493ca41eddb888635d4917f8b7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdirectorblue.blogspot.com%2F2025%2F04%2Ftop-20-posts-tonight-republican.html
More like being consistent.
Hegseth better get his shit together. It’s getting hot in Asia.
https://www.reuters.com/world/pakistan-defence-minister-says-military-incursion-by-india-is-imminent-2025-04-28/
A far better choice for Sec Def would have been Jack Bergman. True, he is old as trampled dirt but he has it together and understands how everything is supposed to run at DOD. Relations with Trump are good and he has no baggage.
Michele Fiore? I thought that was Stifler’s mom for a minute.
David is a good writer and I have no problem with him shedding sunlight on Republican malfiesence. However, I would respect him more if he balanced it with Democrat malfiesence – of which there is more than plenty. Politics is, and has always been, corruption, malfieseance, lies, cheating, control of the weak minded, grift, et cetera, et cetera. There are always two sides to a story, and I have no idea if there is more to the allegations David brings up in this article. Doubt I will bother to research the allegations as they have no impact on my life or political viewpoint and are just the usual political crap. It is good to air the malfiesence but please cover all sides of the political cesspit.
Yes, Grimmy, let’s look at 0Biden’s list of parolee’s and commutations. As I recall, he commuted the sentences of every federal prisoner sentenced to death except that Boston bomber. Wonder if he did Sgt. Ackbar and the psychologist.
I think I typed pardonees and the Iphone decided to change it for me just be hit “post comment.”
I did the appropriate search. Gropey and his crew of girl bosses did not commute the sentences of any servicemen on death row from court martials. So, Akbar and Hassan are still eligible for the needle along with two other federal death row inmates sentenced to death by court martials. Let’s hope Trump takes care of them like he did 13 other federal death inmates in his first term.
Well at this point, since they aren’t actually running anything, they don’t have the same opportunity to get called out I did tag Bernie and Occasional Cortex what, a few days ago? And if you missed all articles puking on Biden and company’s missteps while he was in office… better get that memory check you keep forgetting.
I assume you also want all the other writers here to balance their articles equally across the political divide, too, right?
I certainly agree that there’s plenty of shenanigans to go around independent of party, but the blog on the whole skews to the right. Any ‘rebalancing’ on the whole would need to make sure more criticism is leveled at the current conservative administration, not less.
(No, I’m not arguing for that, just referencing FNG question #19.)
Doesn’t skew right, it is right. The problem is the media paints everything to the right of Bill Clinton as a Nazi and there is plenty of shading on the right.