• The goal of the Texas abortion law is ostensibly to eliminate abortion.  The tactic anti-choice activists in Texas are using is not to make abortions illegal; it’s to drive the abortion clinics out of business by forcing patients to out-of-state providers so the clinics in Texas close due to lack of business.  No customers = No providers.  No providers = no abortions.  The law doesn’t have to be upheld by SCOTUS; it just needs to be in effect long enough to drain the clinics’ resources.
• Every time Joel Greenberg delays his sentencing because he’s cooperating with investigators, Matt Gaetz’s sphincter tightens a little more.  
• One of the many things I like about renewable energy is that there will be no such thing as a pipeline leak, and if there is, it would be just a breezy bouquet of sunshine and rainbows.  
• Biden’s job numbers are averaging 602,000 per month.  Two months worth is the net number of jobs created by George W. Bush.  Five times that is the number of jobs lost during the Trump administration.  
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume XXXIX”

BREAKING… per MSNBC reporting on The Rachel Maddow Show.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the vigilante Texas anti-choice law, allowing people to sue anyone they feel helped a woman obtain an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy.  An injunction stopping the implementation of the law had been issued by a Fifth Circuit judge on Wednesday.  Texas appealed that order.

According to Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeedNews, the court is giving time to Texas to develop a formal appeal, and the court wants the law to go into effect.

According to Maddow, the first opportunity for opponents of the law to appeal this decision is Tuesday, meaning starting immediately and until at least Tuesday, no woman who has been pregnant more than six weeks can get an abortion in Texas.

There’s a great deal of hand-wringing in the media about stories of police officers threatening to quit their jobs if they are required to get the Covid19 vaccine. Most police officers in the United States either entered the Police Academy straight out of high-school, or have an Associate’s Degree from a community college. Working as a police officers allows them to make salaries of well over $50,000 per year, with full medical and dental and a generous retirement package. People with the kinds of credentials that most police officers have aren’t going to be able to make anywhere near that much in the private sector. The fact that there are officers willing to leave the force over the Covid19 vaccine suggests that the overwhelming majority of those officers threatening to leave are right-wing extremists who have immersed themselves in right-wing propaganda via social media, and are likely to be sympathetic to white nationalist ideologies, and prone to belief in wild conspiracy theories like Q-Anon. Individuals who are beholden to Nationalist ideologies and far-flung Internet conspiracy theories are not temperamentally suited to uphold and enforce the law.

The Department of Justice announced that it will not pursue civil rights charges against Rusten Sheskey, the white Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer who shot the unarmed Black man Jacob Blake in the back, setting off days of protests, the Associated Press reports.

The August 2020 shooting of Blake happened at the end of the summer during which the American public had been protesting racial injustice in policing.  It caused protests in the streets of the city, during which Illinois teen Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two.

The Justice Department opened an investigation immediately after Blake’s shooting.  Police were attempting to subdue Blake after receiving a call that a woman’s boyfriend was not supposed to be at her home.  When police attempted to detain him, he went to his SUV, where his children were.  Sheskey reportedly shot Blake because he feared Blake would would use the children as hostages.

“I have sent a letter to the U .S. National Archives and Records Administration in defense of the Office of the Presidency, the Constitution, vital principles of separation of powers, and on behalf of our great Nation. The Radical Left Democrats tried the RUSSIA Witch Hunt, they tried the fake impeachments, and now they are trying once again to use Congress to persecute their political opponents. Their requests are not based in law or reality – it’s just a game to these politicians. They don’t care about our Country or the American people.”

“The Democrats are drunk on power, but this dangerous assault on our Constitution and important legal precedent will not work. This Committee’s fake investigation is not about January 6th any more than the Russia Hoax was about Russia. Instead, this is about using the power of the government to silence “Trump” and our Make America Great Again movement, the greatest such achievement of all time. We won two elections, did far better in the second than the first, and now perhaps have to do it a third time! It is also about trying to deflect blame from Biden’s surrender in Afghanistan and the failures to address COVID, the border, crime, and the economy that is leaving Americans dead or broke. It’s another grand distraction, because Biden and the Democrats don’t want you to see how badly America is losing due to their incompetence.”

“My administration, and the great patriots who worked on behalf of the American people, will not be intimidated. We will not allow Biden or the Radical Democrats to get off without accepting blame for their incompetence and failures. I will always fight for America First, and the Constitution. Together, we will Make America Great Again, Again!” screeches the Orange Caligula.

“Dan Scavino was served with his subpoena Friday, according to two sources familiar with the situation tell Meredith McGraw and Betsy Woodruff Swan” reports Politico’s Nicholas Wu.

“As a part of this process, the President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that had been provided to us by the National Archives,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki explains. “As we have said previously, this is an on-going process and this is just the first set of documents, and we will evaluate questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis, but the President has also been clear that it to be of the utmost importance for both Congress and the American people to have a complete understanding of the events of that day to prevent them from happening again.”

The Huffington Post reports that this move has been formalized in a letter to the archives.

More than 130 countries representing more than 90% of the globe’s economic output have agreed on a revised framework to push corporations to pay taxes without encouraging them to relocate to take advantage of certain countries’ lower tax rates, the Associated Press reports.

Announced Friday, the deal by the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development includes a 15% minimum tax rate on multinational corporations which would generate up to $150 billion in tax revenues between the member countries.  The system allows countries to tax profits generated within their borders at specific amounts, thereby blocking global corporations from off-shoring the profit to avoid paying taxes where the companies are generating income.

“Today’s agreement represents a once-in-a-generation accomplishment for economic diplomacy,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. She said it would end a “race to the bottom” in which countries outbid each other with lower tax rates.  “Rather than competing on our ability to offer low corporate rates,” she said, “America will now compete on the skills of our workers and our capacity to innovate, which is a race we can win.”

Joint statement from Capitol riot select committee Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY): “While Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President. The Select Committee fully expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for both documents and deposition testimony. Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt or Congress referral. We thank those many patriotic Americans who are coming forward voluntarily to participate in our inquiry. The Committee is making rapid progress and will not be deterred by those who seek to obstruct our efforts.”

“As the [Capitol riot] committee bears down on the truth, Republicans will be even more obliged to treat Jan. 6 as a nonevent being hyped by Trump’s enemies. It will grow even harder to acknowledge that it was a grave national event with profound long-term implications, one requiring a serious national reckoning and response. The push for ECA reform should derive its energy in part from that latter notion. But if this cause gets associated with Enemies of Trump – with the idea that Jan. 6 portends an enduring threat to democratic stability, and that we should act on this – it may grow harder for even non-Trumpy Republicans to associate themselves with it. Things are moving: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) is talking to other House Democrats about introducing an ECA reform bill soon. In a letter circulating among Democrats, Lofgren notes that Jan. 6 reveals ‘serious flaws’ in the ECA, and frames reform as central to ensuring future ‘orderly and peaceful transfers of power.’ This legislation would seek to fix some deep ECA ambiguities that Trump tried to exploit.”

“The very belief that overturning the election in Congress was possible gave life to the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and led Trump to incite the mob to intimidate his vice president and lawmakers to carry that out. Republicans of such good intentions should be eager to support reforming the ECA. That’s not only because it will make stolen-election schemes less likely to succeed. It’s also because, by rendering such schemes more implausible, it will make it less likely that Republicans themselves face pressure to execute them in the future” – Greg Sargent, Washington Post.

Associated Press:  “U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said Friday she has tested positive for COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated.  In a statement, the eastern Washington Republican said her symptoms were mild.

“’I am quarantining at home and following CDC and local health guidelines,’ the statement said. ‘I encourage everyone in Eastern Washington to talk to your doctor about getting the vaccine if you haven’t already.’

“McMorris Rodgers, 52, said her offices in Spokane, Walla Walla, Colville and Washington, D.C., remain open.  McMorris Rodger was first elected to Congress in 2004. She was formerly a member of House leadership.  She represents the eastern third of Washington state, including the cities of Spokane, Pullman and Walla Walla.”

Speaking of the jobs report released Friday, which showed 194,000 jobs created in September, a Fox News host claimed, “And these numbers could get worse as some economists are telling us vaccine mandates could cause another economic crisis.  The president pushing back on that yesterday because he’s celebrating his vaccine mandates just hours before those dismal jobs reports came out.”

No one but Fox News is calling a net gain of 363,000 jobs (when including revisions for the previous two month) “dismal,” and reputable economists are not claiming mandates will lead to “another economic crisis.”  In fact, most predict it will be a shot in the arm (pun intended) for the US economy as people feel safer going out in public.

The Trump International hotel in DC lost $70 million between 2017 and 2020, CNN reports.

McConnell won’t be leader in 2023.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) October 8, 2021

In a mixed report, the United States economy added 194,000 jobs in September, a number far lower than expectations, while the unemployment rate fell 0.4% to 4.8%, a greater decrease than expected, CNBC reports.

The jobs report was bolstered by revisions to the July and August reports, which was increases of 131,000 and 38,000 jobs, respectively.  Wages went up 0.6% as employers increased pay to attract workers.  The percentage of the workforce holding part-time jobs for economic reasons fell to a pandemic low of 8.5%.

The net job creation was hurt by government organizations reducing their workforces by 120,000, while private employers say a 317,000 job increase.

“Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company that conducted the bogus election ‘audit’ in Arizona over the last six months, says he won’t be conducting any more recounts – unless God tells him to. That’s hardly a surprise given the fact Logan and his company, which has no previous experience conducting such an operation, have been ridiculed and mocked for indulging conspiracy theories and the shambolic way the recount was conducted. Most of that criticism has come from the mainstream media and Democrats, but Logan says that his reasons for not wanting to do any more audits is not ‘because of the left, it’s because of the right.’ Logan was due to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, but his chair remained empty. Instead, he dialed into the right-wing Conservative Daily Podcast, to discuss the results of the ‘audit’ with host Max McGuire and Joe Oltmann. Logan said he had been inundated with messages accusing him of ‘not doing enough, that I did not put enough on the line.’ Those attacks from the right increased significantly when the Cyber Ninjas report was finally published last month.”

“While many on the right had been fooled by the likes of Oltmann into thinking that the recount would somehow miraculously overturn the election result in Arizona, the report actually confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory, leaving a huge number of Big Lie believers angry with Logan and his company. In comments under the video, Trump supporters continued to blast Logan. ‘This is why nothing will happen, because of spineless scaredy cats like him,’ one commenter wrote. ‘Doug Logan is a sell out,’ another wrote. ‘He was a coward,’ one commenter wrote. ‘He has children that could end up under communism and he better be willing to die'” – Vice News.

Yes, this asshole is a Republican. His name is Jeff McNeely and he’s a North Carolina state House representative. He announced he and his pals were going to force their way into the Durham County, North Carolina Elections Board and personally inspect the voting machines, with or without the cooperation of county officials, and whether or not they have any idea what the fuck they’re looking at – which they don’t – in a state won by Trump in 2020. Read more at WRAL.

“The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has requested the now-disbanded organiser of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Massacre vigil to remove the Pillar of Shame, an artwork which pays tribute to victims of Beijing’s bloody crackdown, from its campus. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and its liquidators Richard Tsoi and Elizabeth Tang said they received a letter from the university issued on Thursday, asking the defunct group to remove the statue by next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. According to the letter, if the Alliance fails to remove the sculpture before the deadline, ‘the Sculpture will be deemed abandoned and the University will not consider any future request from you in respect of the Sculpture, and the University will deal with the Sculpture at such time and in such manner as it thinks fit without further notice.’ The eight-metre tall harrowing monument to those killed by the military during the bloody crackdown has stood on the campus for 24 years. The Tiananmen massacre occurred on June 4, 1989 ending months of student-led demonstrations in China” – Hong Kong Free Press.

Daily Beast: “Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has been on a relentless media tour since his pardon last year, sitting for interviews with even the most obscure right-wing media outlets to promote the MAGA agenda. But on Tuesday, Flynn appeared on a little-known YouTube channel called Truth Unveiled TV for a very different reason: rebutting the idea that he led a church congregation in a Satanic ritual borrowed from a nuclear doomsday cult. In a video entitled ‘Some Have Said That General Flynn Prayed to Satan in a Recent Prayer,’ host Paul Oebel gave Flynn a chance to rebut the growing right-wing controversy alleging he’s signed on with Lucifer. ‘I even saw a show the other day saying ‘Michael’s flipped on the side of the devil,’’ Oebel said. ‘Can you please explain what happened there?’ ‘All of these people that talk about turning to whatever…’ Flynn said. ‘People need to stop overthinking what everybody is saying.’ The bizarre YouTube interview marked Flynn’s latest attempt in a weeks-long campaign to convince his one-time fans in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement that he isn’t a Satanist.”

“Flynn’s trouble started on Sept. 17, when he led a congregation at Nebraska pastor Hank Kunneman’s Lord of Hosts Church in prayer. Flynn’s prayer included invocations to ‘sevenfold rays’ and ‘legions,’ two phrases that struck some of Flynn’s followers as strange. ‘We are your instrument of those sevenfold rays and all your archangels, all of them,’ Flynn said. As video of the prayer circulated in online conspiracy theorist groups, the references to ‘legions’ and ‘rays’ soon sparked speculation among Flynn’s right-wing supporters that their hero had been lured to the dark side. Always on the lookout for the Satanic influence they imagine lurks at the heart of the world, they claimed that Flynn had secretly been worshiping the devil.”

“On Friday, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov were awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize ‘for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.’ Ressa is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler, a news website in the Philippines which the Nobel committee said ‘has focused critical attention on the Duterte regime’s controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign.’ Muratov is editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, which the committee described as ‘the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power'” – Twitter News.