October 7, 2022

The War Zone:  President Biden speaking yesterday about Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine War said “the prospect of Armageddon” is the highest it’s been since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

  With his forces in retreat, Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons. 

  “We are trying to figure out: What is Putin’s off ramp?” Biden said at a New York fundraiser adding: “Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself where he does not only lose face but significant power?”

Trumped Up: A top Justice Department official told Donald Trump’s lawyers recently that the department believes the former president still has not returned all the documents he took when he left the White House, The NY Times reports.

  It’s a little hazy as to whether the DOJ has new evidence that Trump has held on to documents even after the court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago estate that recovered thousands of documents, at least 300 of them highly classified. Part of the suspicion that there are more documents in Trump’s possession stems from the FBI finding empty folders marked as classified.

Peace: The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to rights advocates in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus that have stood against totalitarian misinformation and aggression. The laureates are: Ales Bialiatski, a jailed Belarusian activist; Memorial, a Russian organization; and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine.

Denial Ain’t a River: Just over half — 53 percent — of Republican candidates running for the House, Senate, and state offices this fall deny or “question” whether joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, The Washington Post Reports.

  The Post also projects that most of the election deniers are likely to win.

  Of the 299 deniers on ballots across the country, 174 are running for safe Republican seats and another 51 have a good shot at winning. In Georgia for instance, nine Republicans, including the rabid Marjorie Taylor Greene, are favored to win seats in the House.

  Winning their elections would put those candidates in positions of power over state election procedures or, in the case of those elected to the House, whether to certify the next presidential election.

Family Ties: The FBI believes it has enough evidence to indict President Joe Biden’s son Hunter on charges of tax evasion and making a false statement on a gun purchase application, several news outlets report.

  The investigative file is in the hands of Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, who must decide whether to seek an indictment.

  The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018 and was an issue Donald Trump harped on during his re-election campaign. Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed that there will be no political interreference in the case. President Biden has said repeatedly that he has  not talked to Hunter about his legal problems or his personal business.

  Hunter Biden’s lawyer did not confirm or deny anything, saying only that it is a felony for a federal information to leak such information to the press.

  The investigation focused primarily on whether Hunter Biden paid taxes on his business ventures, including some in Ukraine. He’s also accused of lying on a gun application when he said he was not addicted to drugs. He has since admitted he was.

Cheech & Chong & Joe: President Biden yesterday pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration will evaluate whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as heroin and LSD.

  “Sending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives — for conduct that is legal in many states,” Biden said on Twitter. The pardon might help motivate the stoner vote next month.

  Federal officials say no one is currently serving time in federal prison for simple possession, and the pardon does not cover people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana.

Proud and Guilty: Jeremy Bertino of Belmont, NC, a close associate of the founder of the Proud Boys militia, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in the January 6th insurrection and agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of other Proud Boys.

  Bertino admitted that the Proud Boys’ purpose in travelling to Washington was to stop certification of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won.

  Several members of the Oath Keepers, a similar militia, are on trial for the same charge, seditious conspiracy. One of them can be heard in a recorded telephone conversation planning for January 6thand saying: “Pepper spray is legal. Tasers are legal. And stun guns are legal. And it doesn’t hurt to have a lead pipe with a flag on it.”

The Spin Rack: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, one of only seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the January 6th insurrection, announced he’s leaving the senate to become president of the University of Florida. — A federal judge blocked large parts of  New York’s new gun law,  saying that the law barring guns from “sensitive” places such as museums, theaters, stadiums, and other public places tramples on constitutional gun rights. Judge Glenn Suddaby allowed a three day delay of his order to give the state time for an emergency appeal. — A man wielding a large kitchen knife in broad daylight yesterday stabbed to death two people and wounded four others on a Las Vegas street. Some of the victims were showgirls taking pictures with tourists. — Georgia’s Republican senate candidate, Herschel Walker, is being dogged by questions after The Daily Beast reported that the anti-abortion candidate once paid for a girlfriend to have an abortion. At his first public event since the story dropped, Walker said to the clutch of reporters, “I know why you’re here. You’re here because the Democrats are desperate to hold onto this seat.”

-30-