Moving Right Along

It seems obvious that Biden's fiery rhetoric last night was intended to draw that bright line between normal Americans and the dog ass MAGA clowns. And of course it was, cuz - duh.

But it's being floated now that maybe he was also trying to get us ready for something.

DOJ's Mar-a-Lago investigation appears to be moving toward criminal charges for Trump, former top counterintelligence official says

• A former senior counterintelligence chief at the DOJ commented on the Mar-a-Lago raid to Politico.
• "It seems to me it's moving in the direction of warranting criminal charges," David Lauftmann said.
• The DOJ believes Trump wrongly took highly classified info after he left office.
• The Justice Department appears to be moving toward criminally charging Trump in its Mar-a-Lago investigation, a former counterintelligence chief at the department told Politico.

"It seems to me it's moving in the direction of warranting criminal charges," David Laufman, former chief of the counterespionage section at the Justice Department's national security division, told the publication.

"I think [Trump] has significant criminal exposure. Whether they ultimately decide to exercise prosecutorial discretion in favor of prosecuting him is another question."

His analysis is significant given the division he used to head is playing a key role in the DOJ's investigation in whether Trump mishandled highly classified information after leaving office.

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

New information has been made public about the strength of the case the DOJ believes it has against Trump in recent days.

In legal filings responding to Trump's request to have a special master appointed to examine the documents retrieved by the FBI, the DOJ alleged that Trump aides sought to obstruct its investigation and conceal documents, and that documents were kept in a haphazard way alongside Trump's personal belongings.

In a photo submitted as part of a filing Tuesday, highly classified documents were pictured alongside a box containing an old TIME magazine cover featuring Trump.

Trump has offered a shifting array of defenses in response to the search, claiming that he had broadly declassified the documents before leaving the office.

His lawyers have argued that many were protected under executive-privilege rules designed to ensure the privacy of presidential communications.

But legal experts have argued that the executive-privilege argument is highly unlikely to succeed in this case, and that Trump's declassification claims are unconvincing and may not protect him from criminal charges even if true.

The decision to pursue any sort of prosecution will ultimately rest with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will have to weigh a number of factors in the decision whether to take the historically unprecedented step of filing charges against a former president.

Today's Beau

Justin King - Beau Of the Fifth Column

We haven't seen an update on these programs in over 50 years because Republicans have been actively working against them.

Allowing government to work in any way runs counter to what Republicans want.

Today's Tweet

Biden declared war on fascism and Republicans took it as a personal attack.

— Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer_) September 2, 2022

Today's Bidening

A farmer hears the guy on the radio saying there's a bad flood coming his way. He says to himself, "I'm a god-fearing man - I go to church - I have faith that god will save me."

The water rises and the farmer retreats to his porch.

A sheriff's deputy stops by as the road is beginning to flood and offers to take him to safety. The farmer replies, "I'm a god-fearing man - I go to church - I have faith that god will save me." And the deputy drives away.

The water rises and the farmer retreats to a room upstairs.

A man comes by in a boat and offers to take him to safety. The farmer replies, "I'm a god-fearing man - I go to church - I have faith that god will save me." The man in the boat motors away.

The water rises and the farmer is up on his roof, barely hanging on. A helicopter appears with a rope ladder. The farmer waves them off, yelling, "I'm a god-fearing man - I go to church - I have faith that god will save me." The helicopter flies away.

The water surges, destroying the farmer's house and washing him down river to a watery grave.

The farmer arrives at the pearly gates to find god waiting for him. The farmer says, "I was a god-fearing man - I went to church - I had faith - why didn't you save me?"

God replies, "I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter - what the fuck you are doing here?"

Joe POTUS brought the fire last night, and today, Republicans are still insisting he's being mean to them. They're trying to spin it, saying he's the one being divisive - that he wants us to hate "half the country" and blah blah blah.

First - not "half the country". Gotta admire a buncha numb-nuts who look at maybe 10 or 15 percent of the country, then turn around and try to sell the notion that it's actually "half".

(I'm not sure "admire" is the right word, but that's what I've got for now)

Second - if you're not among the fascist assholes Biden's talking about, then don't go gettin' any knots in your Underoos.

Third (and kinda the big one) - Biden keeps offering the "mainstream old guard GOP" a way out of the totally fucked up mess they've gotten themselves into (see car, boat, helicopter above).

But it's like they've become frozen in place, which is the basic problem with the kind of monumental ego some of these clods have always had, or develop over a career spent figuring out what ass to kiss and how deep into the shit they need to dive without blowing it all up or revealing to the world what craven, opportunistic, cynically manipulative transactional assholes they really are.

So here's the speech:

Today's Peter Pan

Another one of Little Vladie's pals apparently sprinkled himself with fairy dust and thought good thoughts and then "fell" from a window at a hospital in Moscow.

Top Russian oil official falls to death from hospital window - sources

Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil (LKOH.MM), died on Thursday after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, two sources familiar with the situation said, becoming the latest in a series of businessmen to meet with sudden unexplained deaths.

The sources confirmed reports by several Russian media that the 67-year-old had plunged to his death, but the circumstances surrounding his fall were unclear.

Russian state news agency TASS reported the death as a suicide, citing a law enforcement source. It quoted the source as saying Maganov had been admitted to hospital after suffering a heart attack, and was also taking anti-depressants.

Reuters was unable to confirm those details. Three sources told Reuters that, based on their close acquaintance with Maganov, they did not believe he would have killed himself.

Another source close to the company said there was a belief inside Lukoil management that he had committed suicide, but the source had not seen evidence or documents to support that.

Moscow police referred Reuters questions about the death to the state Investigative Committee, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Lukoil is a private company that competes with Russian state energy giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM). It said in a statement that Maganov had "passed away following a serious illness".

"Lukoil's many thousands of employees mourn deeply for this grievous loss and express their sincere condolences to Ravil Maganov's family," it said.

At least six other Russian businessmen, most with ties to the energy industry, have died suddenly in unclear circumstances in the past few months. read more

The deaths were all in Russia apart from that of Sergei Protosenya, a former top manager of Russia's largest liquefied natural gas producer Novatek (NVTK.MM), who was found with the bodies of his wife and daughter at a villa in Spain. Catalan regional police, investigating the case, have said they believe he killed them and then took his own life.

Maganov had worked in Lukoil since 1993, shortly after the company's inception, and had overseen its refining, production and exploration, becoming chairman in 2020. His brother Nail is the head of mid-sized Russian oil producer Tatneft (TATN.MM).

Unusually among Russian companies, Lukoil took a public stand over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine. In a March 3 statement, the company's board of directors expressed its concern over the "tragic events" in Ukraine and called for the "soonest possible end to armed conflict" via negotiations.

Since 2014, Lukoil has been subject to sectoral sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control after Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Lukoil is trying to expand its business in Africa and has refineries in Europe, including in Italy. It has for years faced speculation about being an acquisition target for Rosneft, which had bought numerous oil-producing assets across Russia. Both Lukoil and Rosneft have denied those rumours.

More To Come

I think I'll believe it when I see it, but for now, a qualified "Yeehaw and away we go" seems in order.

House panel announces agreement to get Trump financial records -statement

A U.S. House of Representatives committee said Thursday it had reached an agreement with Donald Trump and accounting firm Mazars USA on handing over some of the former president's financial records.

"After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former President Trump fought for years to hide from Congress," said Representative Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

The agreement ends litigation by Trump, the panel's statement said.

Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment. Mazars said it could not discuss anything related to its clients without consent but would fulfill its professional and legal obligations.

In July, a U.S. appeals court largely upheld a congressional subpoena seeking financial records from Trump's accounting firm, but said some of the lawmakers' requests went too far. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled that the Democratic-controlled House committee can obtain records from a period surrounding Trump's 2016 campaign and his time in office.

The committee in April 2019 issued a subpoena seeking eight years of accounting and other financial records as part of its investigation into what Maloney called Trump’s "unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and foreign financial ties."

She said the agreement includes the handing over of "critical documents" that will help the panel in its investigation.

The committee's subpoena came in response to the testimony of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. Cohen said Trump had inflated and deflated certain assets on financial statements between 2011 and 2013 in part to reduce his real estate taxes.

The panel said it wanted to find out whether illegal actions had taken place. Cohen was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges including violating campaign finance law, bank fraud, tax evasion and lying to Congress.

The July court ruling allowed the panel to obtain some records connected to the Trump hotel lease, as well as records tied to allegations that Trump violated financial disclosure laws and may have breached the U.S. Constitution's "emoluments" clause, which prevents federal officeholders from accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional approval.

The Thread

It bears repeating.

Throughout the course of having to deal with the shit sandwich that is the very existence of Donald J Trump on the national political stage -

through ...

• The Mueller Investigation
• Impeachment 1
• Impeachment 2
• Jan6

... and those are just the highlights - but through this whole fucked up mess, this one truth has remained:

THE PEOPLE TELLING US TRUMP IS GUILTY HAVE ALL TESTIFIED UNDER OATH, WHILE THE PEOPLE WHO INSIST ON HIS INNOCENCE EITHER REFUSE TO TESTIFY AT ALL, OR PLEAD THE FIFTH IN RESPONSE TO EVERY QUESTION.

Overheard

"Conservatives" are trying

to convince us that it's OK

for a president to commit espionage

as long as the stolen documents

are kept in neatly stacked piles.

Bonus

Oh, BTW - 

Must Read Alaska:

Track Palin popped for DUI in Wasilla

The adult son of Sarah Palin was arrested by Wasilla police on Saturday afternoon for operating a vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance. He was released and faces a out date “pending.”

Palin, 33, has had a number of run-ins with the law, ranging from domestic violence to resisting arrest and weapons misconduct, and he has spent time in prison.

In 2016, just as Palin was endorsing Donald Trump for the presidency, Track was arrested and charged with assault, interfering with the report of a domestic violence crime, and possessing a weapon while under the influence. The incident took place at the Wasilla home of Sarah and Todd Palin, after calls were made to 911 to report a domestic violence situation. Track’s girlfriend reported he had punched her in the eye and kicked her knee, and she thought Track was going to shoot himself.

Track was also a problem guest at a party in Anchorage in 2014, when members of the family got into a brawl at a party on the hillside. No charges were filed in that incident.

Track Palin’s ex says family pressured her to not report

Gotta make sure we Both-Sides it, dontcha know.

Track isn’t alone in the politics of getting arrested for DUI this summer. The executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party also was stopped and ultimately arrested for attempting to interfere with the law enforcement’s detection equipment.

The Democrats also had trouble with its former executive director, Jay Parmley, with reported incidences of sexual harassment before he came to Alaska.

A Minor Harbinger

... hoping it's more major.

For the first time in almost 50 years, Alaska is sending a Democrat to the House of Representatives.

She still faces an uphill battle in the fall, when she has to run again to stay in the House, but there's something happening that feels pretty encouraging right now.

(pay wall)

Democrat Mary Peltola wins special election in Alaska, defeating Palin

Peltola scored a rare Democratic win in the state while also becoming the first Alaska Native elected to Congress

Democrat Mary Peltola has won a special election for the U.S. House in Alaska, defeating Republican Sarah Palin and becoming the first Alaska Native to win a seat in Congress as well as the first woman to clinch the state’s at-large district.

Peltola’s win flips a seat that had long been in Republican hands. She will serve the remainder of a term left open by the sudden death of Rep. Don Young (R) in March. Young represented Alaska in Congress for 49 years.

Who is Mary Peltola?

Peltola, who’s Yup’ik, is a tribal fisheries manager and former state representative who led in initial counts after the Aug. 16 election. But her win wasn’t assured until Wednesday, when Alaska election officials made decisive second-choice counts using the state’s new ranked-choice voting system. Republican Nick Begich III, who finished third, was eliminated, and his supporters’ second-choice votes were redistributed to the remaining candidates.

“It is overwhelming. And it’s a very good feeling. I’m very grateful Alaskans have put their trust in me,” Peltola said in an interview with The Washington Post shortly after her victory at the office of her campaign consultants, where she had to break away in the middle of the conversation to take a call from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “I will be immediately going to work.”

Alaska’s special-election results come after other summer special elections for the House in which Democrats outperformed President Biden’s showing in their districts. Those outcomes, all following the Supreme Court decision to end a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, have been hailed by Democrats as encouraging signs for the November midterms that show voters are angered by the court’s decision and eager to vote for candidates supporting abortion rights.

Graphic: How second-choice votes pushed a Democrat to victory in Alaska

The Alaska race adds another data point to the clues both parties are examining as they gear up for the stretch run to the Nov. 8 elections. But since it was decided under a unique new voting system, the Alaska race could be harder to read as an indicator of the national environment than the other contests.

For the moment, it helps Democrats expand their current narrow House majority and gives the party a better chance of winning the seat in the fall, according to at least one nonpartisan elections analyst.

Peltola had nearly 40 percent of first-choice votes after preliminary counts, which put her about 16,000 votes ahead of Palin. Half of the Alaskans who made Begich their first choice ranked Palin second, and 21 percent did not make a second choice. The remaining 29 percent — a surprisingly large fraction, even to some of Peltola’s supporters — ranked Peltola second, flipping from a Republican to a Democrat. The second-choice support for Peltola was enough for her to hold off Palin, leaving the Democrat about 5,200 votes ahead.

Peltola said in the interview that she thinks her win shows that Alaskans “want someone who has a proven track record of working well with people and setting aside partisanship.” She added, “I think it also reveals that Alaskans are very tired of the bickering and the personal attacks.”

Palin’s defeat comes in her first campaign since she stepped down as Alaska’s governor in 2009; former president Donald Trump endorsed her and held a rally on her behalf in Anchorage.

Peltola’s campaign focused on local issues, such as what to do about declining salmon returns. She is expected to be sworn in to office in mid-September.

The Democrat ran as a relatively moderate candidate with bipartisan bona fides; she conditionally supports hot-button natural resource projects like oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Ambler road, which would cross Gates of the Arctic National Park to access promising mining claims in the foothills of Alaska’s Brooks Range. But she also touted her abortion rights stance.

Asked in the interview about the significance of her soon becoming the first Alaska Native in Congress, Peltola said, “There’s maybe a little bit of personal significance, but really, I am a congressperson for every Alaskan, regardless of their background.” She added, “I am Alaska Native, but I am much more than just my ethnicity.”

Until she ran for Congress, Peltola was the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which co-manages federal salmon fisheries in a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Peltola’s Yukon-Kuskokwim region — named for two major salmon rivers that flow through the area — has seen unprecedented collapses of key subsistence salmon runs in recent years. Peltola pledged to tackle the issue if elected.

Peltola, who turned 49 on Wednesday, is the daughter of a Yup’ik mother and a father from Nebraska, who started in Alaska as a teacher in the village of Fort Yukon. There, he worked with Young, who also was a teacher before he ran for Congress. Peltola’s family was close with Young’s, and her father flew Young on campaign stops when he was first seeking statewide office; her mother also campaigned for Young while she was pregnant with Peltola, speaking in the Yup’ik language.

Peltola was in the Alaska state House for 10 years, ending in 2008, and served while Palin was governor. She was first elected to the state House at age 25, two years after losing her first attempt, which began at age 22.

Forty-eight candidates ran in a special primary election in June. That race narrowed the field to four — independent Al Gross later dropped out — before the Aug. 16 general election.

Meanwhile, a regularly scheduled election is playing out to decide who will hold the same U.S. House seat for the next two years, once the rest of Young’s term concludes. The primary for that race also was held Aug. 16, and Peltola, Palin and Begich are projected to advance, according to the Associated Press. There will also be a fourth spot on the ranked-choice ballot in November.

“Mary Peltola’s victory is a clear message from AK voters that they will not compromise their values or their rights at the ballot box. Mary is a pro-choice, pro-fish, common sense leader who knows what it takes to protect and create AK jobs. On to November!” tweeted former Democratic senator Mark Begich of Alaska. Nick Begich III is the nephew of the former senator.

Following Peltola’s win, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the Alaska seat’s rating from “Likely Republican” to “Toss-up.”

National Democratic groups did not participate in the special election race even as Peltola was outraised by Palin, according to federal campaign finance reports. But party officials say they’re closely watching the general election race.

Palin and Peltola were at a candidate forum earlier Wednesday. Peltola mentioned the joint appearance in the interview with The Post and said that she had not yet heard from Palin, but “we are going to be reaching out to her.”

Asked what both campaigning for the seat and representing Alaskans in Congress would look like in the months ahead, Peltola said, “I don’t.” She added, “I will supposedly have the benefit of incumbency.” She added, “We’ll see how that works.”

Palin, Begich and other conservatives have sharply criticized Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system, and the nonpartisan primary system that accompanies it. Palin, in an election night statement, called it “convoluted,” “cockamamie” and untrustworthy.

“The biggest lesson as we move into the 2022 General Election, is that ranked choice voting showed that a vote for Sarah Palin is in reality a vote for Mary Peltola. Palin simply doesn’t have enough support from Alaskans to win an election,” Nick Begich III said in a statement Wednesday.

The system’s supporters — some of whom are aligned with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski — argue that it will result in the election of more-moderate candidates and reduce the risk of third-party politicians “spoiling” an election, because their supporters will be able also to rank mainstream candidates.

In the congressional race, Alaska Republicans ran a campaign urging voters to “rank the red” and fill out ballots for both Palin and Begich, rather than just one of them.

John Coghill, a Republican former state senator who ran in the special primary, attributed Peltola’s win to negative campaigning between the two GOP candidates in the race — which, according to Coghill and multiple strategists, may have made Begich supporters less likely to rank Palin second.

“They started taking shots at each other, and the supporters of one would not dare vote for the other Republican, because of so many cross words,” Coghill said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s a new system, and people campaigned like it was the old system.”

Coghill served with Peltola in the Alaska Legislature and said that he was still somewhat pleased to see her elected even though he only ranked the two Republicans on his own ballot. “I think she represents a very good chunk of Alaskans, and she has a broad view,” he said. “She and I argued a lot. And I found her to be a formidable debater, but willing to work where you could.”