Today is a good day to die (Star Trek) in the last dike of prevarication (Edmund Burke in impeachment trial of Warren Hastings of the British East India Company for causing a famine in East Bengal.) Or to fall on your sword due to a failed insurrection (Shakespeare, both in Julius Caesar and in Antony and Cleopatra). No, there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes). Certainly not in politics. (Aristotle)
We have been at this for more than four centuries in the British Colonies and the United States. And now the paskudnyak Deplorables are a solid minority, and we have a solid chance to vote enough of them out of Congress to get on with things. You know the drill. Don’t let up, and if at all possible volunteer at the polls and drop boxes to video any shenanigans and upload the evidence to the authorities and to the InterToobz.
Beau of the Fifth Column: Let's talk about polls and who will win the midterms
No mystery. It’s whoever shows up in the biggest numbers.
We also have actual Good News and Surprises for you.
How about 17 million early votes, and accelerating as more states open early voting?
So let’s have some
Spaaaaaace
Pigs in Space with Luke Skywalker
Oops, that wasn’t it. Sorry about that. Wait, here we go.
See also The Environment below.
Wackadoodledoodliness
Paul Pelosi, the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was “violently” attacked after an intruder broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday in what a law enforcement source said appeared to be a targeted attack.
The attacker, now in custody, was there to kill Nancy Pelosi at the urging of the Wrong-Wing rage machine.
Elections
Eleven more days of vicious Wrong-Wing propaganda and election terrorism. You know the drill.
What I said above: Volunteer to counter the election terrorists and crooked election officials, if at all possible. Make sure you know how to record videos of malfeasance, and upload them to the authorities and the InterWeb machine.
Justice
Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump
More than you can shake a stick at.
The top DOJ prosecutor taking on Trump
The classified documents case against former President Trump is the biggest test yet for a prosecutor who has built his career going after convicted spies, Blackwater guards, Chinese companies and some of Trump’s close associates.
Why it matters: Jay Bratt, who leads the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, keeps a low profile. But he’s at the center of an unprecedented investigation into a former — and potentially future — president.
"You're talking about sitting on top of a volcano,” said David Laufman, a partner at Wiggin and Dana who used to be chief of DOJ's counterintelligence division—and Bratt’s boss.
Trump loses latest court bid to block Congress from getting his income tax returns
A top federal appeals court denied former President Donald Trump a rehearing of his challenge to an order that several years of his tax returns and those of related businesses be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee.
And from there to other Committees and the DoJ and IRS.
The Daily Beast: How Releasing Trump’s Tax Returns Could Save Our Democracy
BRINGING BALANCE TO THE FORCE
A court’s refusal to block the release of Trump’s taxes is the first step to restoring order to our three co-equal branches of government.
Trump lawyers and DOJ met in sealed court hearing related to Mar-a-Lago investigation Thursday
Former President Donald Trump’s legal defense team and federal prosecutors appeared at a sealed hearing on Thursday that was related at least in part to the Justice Department’s ongoing demands to make sure all documents marked classified have been returned to the federal government, CNN has learned.
This was the first appearance in a DC federal courthouse by the Trump legal team that is primarily handling the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation.
Former Trump aide Mark Meadows ordered to testify in Georgia election-meddling probe
- A South Carolina judge ordered former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to comply with a Georgia grand jury subpoena compelling him to testify in a probe into potential criminal meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
- The order came a day after a lawyer for Meadows said the subpoena should be blocked.
- That grand jury is investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to get Georgia election officials to effectively reverse the victory in that state by President Joe Biden.
In this next story, I like the authors’ attitude and their fact-gathering prowess.
Above the Law: Trump Lawyers Take A Break From Brawling To Explain That Privilege Is Kind Of A Magical Choose Your Own Adventure Book
This will not end well.
- former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise had been “sidelined” from Donald Trump’s legal team.
- Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb had steered [HFG] into treacherous shoals with their equivocation, first to the National Archives, then in response to a grand jury subpoena, and then finally a personal plea by the head of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence Division about what documents Trump had taken with him from the White House.
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Late Friday night, the Washington Post published a ticktock of how the non-adults in the room managed to shove Kise aside, both on the documents case and the January 6 inquiry, where Corcoran appeared with attorneys Tim Parlatore and John Rowley last week to fight a reported grand jury subpoena for testimony of former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, who refused to claim executive privilege absent an official assertion by Trump himself.
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Trump’s other, less experienced lawyers, particularly his close advisor Boris Epshteyn, want to stick to the pugilistic approach which got them into this mess in the first place. Note that Epshteyn, who recently had his phone seized by the FBI, is facing multiple investigations over electoral interference in both DC and Atlanta.
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In the lead up to the January 6 Capitol Riot, he was a frequent emailer with the rest of the Trumpland lawyers where they discussed the fake electors plot and admitted between themselves that it was probably illegal. There is reason that Herschmann told Corcoran and Rowley, “I certainly am not relying on any legal analysis from either of you or Boris who — to be clear — I think is an idiot.” And that reason is that Boris Epshteyn is, well, an idiot.
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If Bobb is talking, she’ll have plenty to say of interest to the DOJ. Not only is she up to her eyeballs in the document investigation, but she was there next to Rudy Giuliani and the rest of the Big Lie goons plotting to overturn the election. And she seems at best — at least from Donald Trump’s perspective — ambivalent about any privilege she may have to assert.
You are excused if you can’t follow all of that.
Ukraine
Old Ukrainian folk song: Ой, на Івана, та й на Купала (SLAVIC SONG)
Republicans oppose Democrats’ plan to fund Ukraine with seized Russian assets
A provision Democrats want in the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act would allow the Justice Department to transfer millions of dollars in yachts and other assets from Russian oligarchs
Iran
US sanctions Iran-based group that put bounty on Salman Rushdie
Treasury Department accuses the 15 Khordad Foundation of inciting violence by offering a bounty of more than $3m.
Traditional Persian music
The Environment
25 Years Ahead Of Initial Target, GM Secures All Energy Needed to Achieve Renewable Energy Goal
GM has announced that it has been able to secure 100% of the energy needed to power all its U.S. facilities by 2025 which is five years ahead of the 2030 target announced in early 2021, and is also 25 years ahead of the initial target of 2050, set back in 2016.
In 2019, GM formed what is now known as the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA), which is the largest group of corporate renewable energy buyers in the US. The association helps bring companies together to unlock market access, helping organizations of all sizes find cost-effective pathways to buying renewable energy.
Not carbon offsets. Actual renewable energy to run the plants, because that is cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels. Now they have to convert the rest of their production to EVs.
In 2021, GM announced its Science Based Targets for emissions reduction and plans to become carbon neutral in its global products and operations by 2040. The company also plans to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new US light-duty vehicles by 2035. GM has committed to invest $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025, with plans to reach more than 1 million units of annual EV capacity in each North America and China by the end of 2025.
Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) English subtitles
Conductor: Leonard Bernstein