Trump will sue to keep White House records from the Capitol riot committee, the Guardian reports.

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back,but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

Rev 12:7-8

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 29, 2021

“Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister who has called for Japan’s missile defenses to be beefed up, was elected ruling party leader on Wednesday, assuring him of becoming the nation’s next prime minister. Mr. Kishida, 64 years old, is an establishment choice who, like his predecessors, supports a strong U.S.-Japan alliance and is concerned about China’s military expansion. He also favors aggressive government spending worth hundreds of billions of dollars to lift Japan’s economy out of the doldrums caused by measures to limit the spread of Covid-19.”

“In an initial round of voting among four candidates to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Kishida was neck-and-neck with former foreign and defense minister Taro Kono, who enjoyed higher support among the LDP’s rank and file. The two proceeded to a runoff vote in which the LDP’s members of Parliament controlled the outcome, and the lawmakers preferred Mr. Kishida. Parliament is set to convene Monday to select a new prime minister, and Mr. Kishida is assured of victory because of his party’s control of the legislature. He will succeed Yoshihide Suga, who announced his resignation in early September after a surge in Covid-19 cases” WSJ reports.

Japanese politics nerds will totally get the joke in the headline. I know it. I feel very secure in the knowledge that they will find humor in the wordplay there. This is big. Like Kaiju-big.

Axios: “A growing number of elected Republicans are openly promoting ‘white replacement theory,’ a decades-old conspiracy theory that’s animated terrorist attacks, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. This mainstreams what once was the sole provenance of white supremacists. ‘White replacement theory’ posit the existence of a plot to change America’s racial composition by methodically enacting policies that reduce white Americans’ political power. The conspiracies encompass strains of anti-Semitism as well as racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.”

“Fox News host Tucker Carlson has for years alluded to elements of replacement theory. Former President Trump emboldened some believers, as well, including by retweeting accounts that identified themselves as believers in ‘white genocide.’ Carlson’s recent defiance, in the face of the Anti-Defamation League’s calls for him to resign, have put these conspiracies back into the spotlight, along with the pronouncements of some high-profile elected officials. Rep. Matt Gaetz last week tweeted an explicit endorsement of WRT. Gaetz later tweeted that he doesn’t think of replacement ‘solely on race/ethnicity terms,’ blaming ‘the Left’ for taking him out of context.”

“On the surface, the Democrats appear to have a number of strategic advantages. They’ve won the popular vote in every election but one since 1992. (A string of dominance not seen since the aftermath of the Civil War.) They command a clear national majority. Their electoral base is strongest in the states which have the most dynamic economies. They are strongest in the urban and suburban centers – which is where we see America’s population growth. Their support is dispersed widely among different racial and ethnic groups. They hold an overwhelming advantage with young voters. Compared with Democrats, the Republican party is closer to a rump. A minoritarian party composed of the old and the lesser-educated and concentrated in parts of the country whose populations are shrinking.”

“While the GOP coalition is smaller, it’s much more internally cohesive than the Democrats’. It is the party of rural, white Christians. While Democrats have specific legislative goals their coalition wants to achieve through governing, the Republican coalition has no governing agenda (aside from appointing judges). The geographic dispersion of voters means that Republicans do not need to create a majority in order to hold power, while Democrats require not just a majority, but a sizable majority. And the obvious lesson for Republicans, then, is that chaos is their friend. Disruption is more likely to help Republicans. Their coalition is more resistant to adverse outcomes. They need fewer votes to hold power. Democrats require a large coalition in order to attain power. Their coalition is broad and therefore diverse, which makes it both harder to manage and more easily splintered. They need to both (a) achieve tangible legislative goals and (b) keep the ship of state moving steadily and without turbulence. In short: They need to govern effectively and with a minimum of drama. That’s hard to do in the best of times. It may be impossible when the former president, the other political party, and 40 percent of the country are strategically committed to stoking chaos” – The Bulwark.

“Pressure mounting but with signs of progress, President Joe Biden will hunker down at the White House to try to strike a deal and win over two holdout Democratic senators whose support is needed for his potentially historic $3.5 trillion government overhaul” The AP reports.

“With Republicans solidly opposed and no Democratic votes to spare, Biden canceled a Wednesday trip to Chicago that was to focus on COVID-19 vaccinations so he could dig in for another day of intense negotiations with lawmakers ahead of crucial votes. The stakes are as high as ever as Biden and his party try to accomplish a giant legislative lift, promising a vast rewrite of the nation’s balance sheet with an oh-so-slim majority in Congress. His idea is to essentially raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and use that money to expand government health care, education and other programs – an impact that would be felt across countless American lives.”

“As if that wasn’t enough, Biden’s focus is gaining traction at the same time Congress courts a crisis. Republicans refuse to approve routine legislation to keep the government funded past Thursday’s fiscal yearend and raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a dangerous default. More votes are expected Wednesday and are likely to at least temporarily head off a catastrophe.”

AP: “South Dakota’s attorney general said Tuesday he is reviewing concerns from state lawmakers over a meeting Gov. Kristi Noem held last year that included both her daughter and a state employee who was overseeing her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser. ‘I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators,’ Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement. ‘I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions.’ Ravnsborg didn’t immediately respond to a question about what steps he might take. The attorney general is tasked under state law with issuing legal opinions to lawmakers.”

“The Associated Press reported Monday that Noem held the meeting shortly after the state agency had moved to deny her daughter the license last year. Noem’s daughter eventually received her license four months later. Afterward, the state employee who directed the agency was allegedly pressured to retire by Noem’s cabinet secretary. The state employee, Sherry Bren, eventually received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job. Ethics experts said the episode raised concerns that the governor had abused the power of her office. The governor’s office declined to answer detailed questions from the AP, and Noem’s spokesman dismissed the AP’s report as a political attack on the governor.”

“… but they’re actually changing [Indecipherable. Sounds like “de-shosh-shi-Italy”] the whole country.  I mean, women’s rights…”

Here is a list of demographics that have a higher vaccination rate than Republicans:  Income less than $40k.  Black adults.  Suburban residents.  People with serious health conditions.  But according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation released Tuesday, white, rural, Republican evangelical christians are the most-likely cross-section to still be unvaccinated.

The study found the early racial divide in vaccinations has largely disappeared in the last four months:  71% of white adults are vaccinated, as are 70% of Black adults and 73% of Hispanic adults.

People were motivated to get the vaccine because they had concerns about the delta variant and about overcrowded hospitals.  More than 1 in 3 (36%) said they got vaccinated because they knew someone who got sick or died of COVID.  Eight percent of respondents said they got vaccinated because their employer required it.

BEWARE: As Halloween gets closer, @BensalemPolice are warning parents to LOOK at your child’s candy before they eat it. They confiscated these snacks that look a lot like the real thing. All are laced with THC @6abc pic.twitter.com/u6GFBXt08g

— Jaclyn Lee (@JaclynLeeTV) September 28, 2021

Jokes aside, some “reefer-head” with a house full of THC-infused Sweetarts would have to be pretty blasted to put V/H/S 2 on pause and accidentally hand trick-or-treaters in Power Rangers costumes the expensive shit instead of the regular Halloween candy. Not saying that’s impossible, but it’s probably the only way a third grader is going to get some edibles in his pillow case.

United Airlines announced that it may have to terminate just 593 of 63,000 employees for failing to comply with the company’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, which had a deadline was Monday, the Washington Post reports.

The airline said it has start to process the termination papers for those employees, but if they provide proof of vaccination or an application for a religious or medical exemption before the termination is completed, they could potentially retain their jobs.  Just 3% of United’s workforce applied for coronavirus vaccine exemptions rather than get the vaccine.

“This is a historic achievement for our airline and our employees as well as for the customers and communities we serve,” Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Bret Hart wrote in a memo to employees. “Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all United’s U.S.-based employees was simple — to keep our people safe — and the truth is this: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.”

It won’t have the witticisms of Lenny Briscoe, but the original Law & Order will return to NBC’s airwaves for its 21st season more than 11 years after it last aired original episodes, the Associated Press reports.

Law & Order tied Gunsmoke as the longest running scripted series in television history when it went off the air in 2010.  The franchise continues as one of its spinoffs, Law & Order: SVU, now holds the record for scripted series with 23 seasons.

The series will continue with its classic format of following a police investigation in the first half-hour and then a half-hour of the criminal court case.  No casting decisions have been announced.  “There are few things in life that are dreams come true,” series creator Dick Wolf said. “This is mine.”

An Illinois man in his 80s died Monday of rabies after being bitten by a bat last month, the first human rabies case in the state in 75 years, according to US News & World Report.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the cause of death.

The unnamed man woke up in the bedroom in his house in mid-August to find a bat on his neck.  Animal control officers capture the bat, and it tested positive for rabies.  They also found a colony of bats living in the house.  At the time, the man declined prophylactic treatment for rabies.  Later, he started developing symptoms of rabies.

Rabies attacks humans by short circuiting the nervous system, with patients having a severe headache and experiencing difficulty controlling their arms.  In the United States, only 25 cases of humans having rabies were reported from 2009 to 2018.  The country typically only sees one-to-three cases annually.

While the ad screams “EMBARRASSMENT TO NEW YORKER’S [sic] AND AMERICA” I feel nothing but pride and love for my city and country upon viewing this masterpiece. The most feverish dreams of Washington Irving could never be so wholly embodied in one as masterfully as this one golden-haired daughter of Gotham. Read more of the exploits of this fine Knickerbocker at Snopes.

Former Democratic strategist turned Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov tore into her fellow panelists on The Five when they started to blame President Joe Biden for a 2020 increase in murders in the United States when Donald Trump was in office.  And they did it without any self-awareness behind a chyron that read, “Passing the Blame:  Liberals point to pandemic for surge in violence.”

Those were the Trump years,” Tarlov explained. “So all of this blaming on President Biden that’s happening now – actually under President Biden’s watch the murder rate has even gone down. … Another important component of the FBI data: that the short term increases was in all regions, not just in those liberal cities, all regions. That means in places where conservatives are. That means that this can’t all be because of bail reform, defund the police, yada yada yada. And also the murder rate and the crime rate overall is lower than it was in the 1990’s, so conservatives are running around screaming, ‘we’ve never seen anything like this,’ you have seen something like this.”

A 41-year-old Texas man arrested Monday in connection with the murder and dismemberment of three people, whose remains were found in a burning dumpster also confessed to killing two others as part of a biblical sacrifice, NBC News reports.

Jason Alan Thornburg killed three people in Fort Worth last Wednesday and put the dismembered corpses of a man and two women in a dumpster before lighting it afire.  Police searched surveillance footage and found a Jeep frequently near the scene where the dumpster was located.  They then searched available registration records and found Thornburg owned a similar vehicle.  Thornburg had been a suspect in a Fort Worth murder from earlier this year, but investigators didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.

Police then tracked Thornburg to a motel in a neighboring town.  Surveillance footage there showed him repeatedly picking up garbage bags, presumably holding body parts, from the motel to take to the dumpster. 

“So the likely path (still under discussion!) is Senate sends House a clean CR tomorrow, which House approves and sends onto Biden, averting government shutdown. House sends clean debt limit back to Senate as a message. This saves time on cloture vote. This is all under discussion still, so very fluid. This would end shutdown threat but doesn’t resolve debt-limit issue. CR would extend to Dec. 3. Just like original House bill” reports Congress expert John Bresnahan.

NBC News: “A Missouri hospital will be equipping its staff with panic buttons to protect them from violent patients following a startling rise in assaults, administrators said. Cox Medical Center Branson, located about 44 miles from Springfield, said it was implementing the added protection after violent assaults by patients tripled in the last year. According to hospital data, total assaults rose from 40 to 123 and total injuries climbed from 17 to 78. Assaults leading to injury increased from 42.5 percent to 63 percent, according to officials. ‘When Public Safety response is critical and it’s not possible to get to a phone, person panic buttons fill a critical void,’ said Alan Butler, who oversees public safety efforts at CoxHealth’s six hospitals and more than 80 clinics. ‘Personal Panic Buttons (PPBs) are one more tool in the battle to keep our staff safe and further demonstrate this organization’s commitment to maintaining a safe work and care environment.”

“The hospital first began using panic buttons last year in certain areas at Cox South due to incidents of workplace violence. The hospital will now expand the program to hundreds of employees at Cox Medical Center Branson. Nurse Ashley Blevins told NBC affiliate KYTV of Springfield that in the last year staff has been spit on, verbally harassed, and, in some cases, attacked. ‘Working in the emergency department, a lot of times our patients are becoming increasingly violent lately,’ she said. ‘So it’s nice that we have the chance to press our button and security knows exactly where we are. And if we end up having to chase a patient down, they know where our last location is.'”

Claiming that “no one in [Congress] believes in God anymore,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Georgia) told Anna Perez, guest host of The Water Cooler on the Real America’s Voice network, that she will not “be quiet anymore” while the rest of the nation wonders when she was ever quiet.

“In that chamber where it says ‘In God We Trust,’ and that’s what I look on the wall, like, this place does not trust God,” Marge declares.  “They don’t even believe in God.  When we are passing bills like that [the abortion access protection law], no one in here believes in God and we’re fighting against this.  I refuse to be quiet anymore.  It’s not ‘go along and get along.’  ‘Marjorie, just be quiet.  The Democrats are doing it so bad, we’ll take back the House.’ No!  I don’t, I’m sick of that Republican Party.”

Greene ticked off a number of conservative panic points–abortion up until the moment of birth, forcing gender changes on children, and men in women’s bathrooms, black genocide through abortion–to claim that she was fighting for what Real America believes.

“As the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol ramps up its investigation into the events of that day, most Americans continue to say it is important to find and prosecute those who broke into and rioted at the Capitol. However, since March, there has been a decline in the share of the public saying it is important that those who broke into the Capitol be prosecuted (from 87% to 78%), with the change coming almost entirely among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Since March, there has been a 22 percentage point drop in the share of Republicans who think it is very or somewhat important that federal law enforcement agencies find and prosecute those who broke into and rioted at the Capitol (from 79% to 57%).”

“Moreover, only about quarter of Republicans (27%) view the prosecution of the rioters as very important; six months ago, half said this was very important. Among Democrats and Dem leaners, there have been only modest changes in opinions about finding and prosecuting the rioters. Today, 95% say it is important, including 80% who see this as very important” – Pew Research.