Are we there yet?

renee, ya done good

the guardian:

New Hampshire win makes Molly Kelly 15th woman nominated by major US party

Kelly to face governor Sununu as Chris Pappas beats 11 contenders, including son of Bernie Sanders, to become Democratic nominee for congress

BiD, like this…

buzzfeed:
A Series Of Suspicious Money
Transfers Followed The Trump Tower Meeting
 
Investigators are focused on two bursts of banking activity — one shortly after the June 2016 meeting, the other immediately after the presidential election.
The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has become one of the most famous gatherings in American political history: a flashpoint for allegations of collusion, the subject of shifting explanations by the president and his son, countless hair-on-fire tweets, and boundless speculation by the press.
But secret documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal a previously undisclosed aspect of the meeting: a complex web of financial transactions among some of the planners and participants who moved money from Russia and Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, Bangkok, and a small office park in New Jersey.
The documents show Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at the center of this vast network and how he used accounts overseas to filter money to himself, his son, and at least two people who attended the Trump Tower meeting. The records also offer new insight into the murky financial world inhabited by many of Trump’s associates, who use shell companies and secret bank accounts to quickly and quietly move money across the globe.

Now, four federal law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News, investigators are focused on two bursts of transactions that bank examiners deemed suspicious: one a short time after the meeting and another immediately after the November 2016 presidential election.
The first set came just 11 days after the June 9 meeting, when an offshore company controlled by Agalarov wired more than $19.5 million to his account at a bank in New York.
The second flurry began shortly after Trump was elected. The Agalarov family started sending what would amount to $1.2 million from their bank in Russia to an account in New Jersey controlled by the billionaire’s son, pop singer Emin Agalarov, and two of his friends. The account had been virtually dormant since the summer of 2015, according to records reviewed by BuzzFeed News, and bankers found it strange that activity in Emin Agalarov’s checking account surged after Trump’s victory.
After the election, that New Jersey account sent money to a company controlled by Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, a longtime business associate of the Agalarovs and their representative at the Trump Tower meeting. Kaveladze’s company, meanwhile, had long funded a music business set up by the person who first proposed the meeting to the Trump camp, Emin Agalarov’s brash British publicist, Rob Goldstone.

[….]
The transactions came to light after law enforcement officials instructed financial institutions in mid-2017 to go back through their records to look for suspicious behavior by people connected to the broader Trump-Russia investigation. The bankers filed “suspicious activity reports” to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which in turn shared them with the FBI, the IRS, congressional committees investigating Russian interference, and members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Suspicious activity reports are not evidence of wrongdoing, but they can provide clues to investigators looking into possible money laundering, tax evasion, or other misconduct. In the case of the Agalarovs and their associates, bankers raised red flags about the transactions but were unable to definitively say how the funds were used.
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wapo:  Trump issues new order authorizing additional sanctions for interfering in upcoming U.S. elections
President Trump issued a new order Wednesday authorizing additional sanctions against countries or individuals for interfering in upcoming U.S. elections, but lawmakers of both parties immediately said the effort does not go far enough.
 
The order would allow Trump to sanction foreigners who interfere in the midterm elections to be held in less than two months. It covers overt efforts to meddle in election infrastructure, such as vote counts, as well as “propaganda” and other attempts to influence voting from abroad, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats told reporters.
 
The harshest sanctions outlined in the order would be up to the president’s discretion.
 
“This is intended to be a very broad effort to prevent foreign manipulation of the political process,” national security adviser John Bolton said during a briefing Wednesday.
As The Washington Post first reported in August, the order appears to be an effort to stave off bipartisan legislation that would mandate tough federal action.
 
Bolton said criticism that Trump had been too deferential to Russia or blinkered in his view of Russian election interference played “zero” role in the new action.
 
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to combat foreign interference, Bolton said, and the United States has already sanctioned Russian individuals and entities.
 
“I think his actions speak for themselves,” Bolton said.
[…]

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Sen Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) immediately issued a joint statement calling the White House effort insufficient and calling on Congress to pass tougher legislation now.

“Today’s announcement by the Administration recognizes the threat, but does not go far enough to address it,” they wrote. “The United States can and must do more,” such as the mandatory sanctions attached to legislation they proposed, the senators wrote. “We must make sure Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or any other foreign actor, understands that we will respond decisively and impose punishing consequences against those who interfere in our democracy.”

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keeping to the thread theme – not the best rendering or up to Seeger, Guthrie and Gilbert version, but the artwork is nifty

bbronc, widespread flooding the biggest danger now?

wonder if the patten testimony to senate intel comm (among other things like the 8 guilty verdicts) is why the latest plea deal is being sought.

cbs news:
The Senate voted tonight to authorize the Senate Intelligence committee to release a transcript of the committee’s interview with W. Samuel Patten. Patten, an associate of Manafort‘s, had pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a foreign agent.
The prosecution in the special counsel’s case against Manafort in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia requested a copy of the interview with Patten conducted by the Committee.  Patten was charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agents for Ukranians.
Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities said has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik worked closely with Manafort, who was found guilty last month of eight financial counts. Kilimnik also is a co-defendant in a pending case against Manafort in Washington that accuses them both of witness tampering.
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abc news:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been in ongoing negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office over a potential plea agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations tell ABC News.
The discussions, which have picked up steam in the last several weeks, come ahead of Manafort’s second trial, which is slated to begin later this month in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Sources tell ABC News that Mueller’s office is seeking cooperation from Manafort for information related to President Donald Trump and the 2016 campaign. Manafort, however, is resisting and his team is pushing prosecutors for a plea agreement that does not include cooperation, at least as related to the president, sources said.
[….continues…]

wonder if the twit’s congressional supporters ever consider the fact that only 24% of eligible voters voted for trump.

not much of a mandate.   and if they are weighing the consequences of continual chaos, my bet is that after kavenaugh is  confirmed, they will begin to turn on trump and convince him to resign.  they will be able to face their conservative donors with the fulfillment of another anti-choice judge on the bench, regulatory gutting and big tax cuts…so who needs him anymore to make their case?