The Daily Beast:  “While the federal sex crimes investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has not fueled the kinds of explosive headlines it generated when the news first broke in late March, the case shows no signs of a slowdown.  In fact, legal experts told The Daily Beast, the perceived lull is nothing outside the norm and can be chalked up to a number of factors—including a wide range of charges that investigators could be exploring. Although Gaetz and his allies like to interpret the lack of charges as an indication of innocence, the delays could just as easily suggest that the charges that could be coming down the pike are extremely grave and complex.

“And if you were looking for an indication of just how seriously Gaetz himself is taking the prospect of charges, look no further than the high-powered team of attorneys the beleaguered Florida man has brought on for his defense.  That team features a trio of powerful litigators from New York City, well outside the bounds of the Middle District of Florida, where the Justice Department investigation is being handled.

“Gaetz is personally represented by Marc Mukasey, who has defended the Trump Organization in several high-profile disputes, as well as Isabelle Kirshner, a partner at Clayman & Rosenberg LLP. Kirshner is a top Manhattan criminal defense attorney who also represented former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after multiple women accused him of physical assault.  Separately, the Gaetz campaign—Friends of Matt Gaetz—also looked north when in June it retained New York-based trial lawyer Marc Fernich. Fernich’s client list includes child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Mexican drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, and convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere, who led the NXIVM cult. While Fernich is familiar with sex crimes cases, he does not have experience with campaign finance law.  The assembled team seems to reflect the self-styled Florida man’s politics, personality, and public relations strategy.”

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post: “There are powerful reasons for Georgia to prosecute someone for trying to fraudulently flip an election. The state has passed a statute allowing the Republican legislature, through the state board of elections, to displace voting officials in Fulton County (the most populous county, with the largest African American electorate) in the administration of elections. This is widely believed to be a prelude to future efforts to reverse election results. Unless politicians understand such actions are illegal and will be prosecuted, the temptation to do so will be overwhelming in 2022 and 2024.”

“Certainly, if Georgia does not pursue criminal actions against Trump, the Justice Department must consider whether federal crimes were committed. Moreover, even if Georgia were to proceed to prosecute the specific Georgia-related actions, the feds must consider the entire pattern of Trump’s actions – over many weeks and in multiple states – to overturn the election. In instructing the Justice Department to undo the election, in pressuring state officials and, finally, in instigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Trump may have committed the ultimate federal crime: sedition. The events of Jan. 6 were one part of the overall scheme; the Georgia arm-twisting was another. The necessity to deter future presidential candidates from running phony ‘audits’ – as was tried in Arizona and is now underway in Texas (a state Trump won!) – is plain. Republicans are engaged in a vigorous effort to acclimatize their base to the idea that election results are neither final nor inviolate, but merely a prelude to further efforts to overturn election results – by force, if need be. The concern for future coups rises with each new revelation (e.g., the Eastman memo) and the ongoing pursuit of scam ‘audits.'”

“As Democrats push ahead with President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion rebuilding plan, they’re promising historic investments across the arc of an education – from early childhood to college and beyond – in what advocates describe as the most comprehensive package of its kind in decades. The education provisions in Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ proposal would serve as a bedrock for schooling opportunities for countless Americans and test the nation’s willingness to expand federal programs in far-reaching ways. Equity is a focus, as it seeks to remove barriers to education that for decades have resulted in wage and learning disparities based on race and income. And by expanding early education and child care programs, it aims to bring back workers, especially women, who left jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic to look after children whose schools were closed.”

“All told, Americans would be entitled to two years of free preschool plus two years of free community college. Millions of families would be eligible for expanded child care subsidies. And there would be more federal financial aid for low-income college students. ‘We haven’t done anything like that in my memory,’ said Jessica Thompson, associate vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success, an education nonprofit. ‘It’s the dream.’ Congress is working to meet Monday’s self-imposed deadlines, and Biden’s broader proposal could come before the House later in the week. But Democrats must first overcome divisions within their own ranks over the scope of the plan” – AP.

And as usual, the republican party does absolutely nothing but tweets about it – because you’re lazy ass, sorry, no-good-for-nothing, sellout, useless pieces of shit.

Anyone else sick and damn tired of these worthless Republicans?

Because I’ve had it with the losers. https://t.co/snG0x5rLpt

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) September 27, 2021

Matt Yglesias: “Conservatives are clearly very bothered (seemingly genuinely so) by the low esteem in which they are generally held by cultural elites. They complain about it constantly. At the same time, conservatives are not as policy obsessed as liberals are. Very few conservatives pronounced Donald Trump a ‘failed president’ despite his very meager legislative achievements. In other words, the big edge that education polarization gives Republicans in the Senate does not satisfy what they truly crave in life, which is something like respect or a desire to have their putative status as the great defenders of women’s sports taken seriously as a good-faith concern.”

“If you want to see your values reflected in Marvel movies and beer ads, then you need to try to find topics on which to align yourself with those younger metropolitan audiences. Demagoguery about refugee resettlement, for example, does bring some electoral benefits. But is the juice really worth the squeeze if it codes you as the party of inhumane sociopaths in the eyes of the youngest and most cosmopolitan generation? There used to be an elite consensus around such things. Republicans decided to break with it, and on one level it has worked, but on another level, I feel like it really hasn’t delivered what they actually want. For some people, of course, the current system works great. Culture wars and skewed maps help Republicans win elections, after which they cut taxes for rich people and multinational corporations while doing nothing to satisfy their base’s resentments – resentments that fuel the fire for the next campaign. But there is only so much cynicism to go around, and I think the steady growth in education polarization is mostly serving to frustrate both sides of the never-ending war.”

“The first car jumping attempt in five years by North Dakota’s version of Evil Knievel ended in disaster when the car driven my the man known as the Flying Farmer corkscrewed off the ramp and rolled. Authorities said John Smith, 57, was alert after the crash Saturday at a rural gravel pit and that he even tried to pull himself out of the car while talking to rescuers. He was eventually cut out and taken by a medical helicopter to a hospital, according to firefighters. The extent of his injuries wasn’t known. The crowd of about 300 spectators went silent when Smith crashed. Family members, including his daughters and wife of 34 years, Melinda, reacted emotionally, running to the mangled car, The Bismarck Tribune reported. Smith’s previous jump was in 2016, when he rose over towering flames to clear a burning trailer” – ABC News.

Gizmodo: “Ben Garrison, a right-wing cartoonist known for his opposition to vaccines and his extremely flattering drawings of former President Donald Trump, told Gizmodo late Sunday that he contracted covid-19 and has been sick for about two weeks. But allegedly getting covid hasn’t changed Garrison’s mind about modern medical science. Garrison, who lives in Montana, believes that he got covid-19 while dining out at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Montana has seen a disturbing rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, with about 900 new cases each day.”

“‘Yes, it’s definitely Covid and we’ve had all the symptoms. My wife and [I] went out with a couple to a restaurant and the next day all four of us were sick. One of us went to see a doctor and was told she had Covid, and that was the clincher,’ Garrison told Gizmodo via email. (Garrison has been banned from Twitter for supporting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.) ‘We’re taking Ivermectin and various vitamins including a lot of Zinc,’ Garrison continued, explaining what he’s doing to treat the disease. The cartoonist also notes he’s taking beet root juice. None of this has been proven to treat or prevent covid-19, with monoclonal antibodies and vaccines being the only real ways to fight this pandemic, which is still raging in many parts of the world”.

Workers at the office of the county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado were dragged to an April after-hours event in a hotel conference room in Grand Junction by their MAGA psychopath boss, Tina Peters, hosted by fellow Mike Lindell acolyte, Douglas Frank, reports the Washington Post.

National Zero readers may remember “Dr Frank” as the American flag bow tie-wearing dipshit who bored the crowd at the June Trump rally in Ohio with an opening act full of incomprehensible Excel spreadsheets. Mesa County clerk’s office employees were subjected to 90 minutes of the high school teacher/discredited conspiracy theorist’s stupid bullshit, per the Post, with one election official quoted as saying it was “a huge slap in the face… We put so much time and effort into making sure that everything’s done accurately” only to be stuck watching Frank drone on about a “sixth-order polynomial”-based algorithm having tilted the election toward Biden.

Peters herself hasn’t shown up to work since August, when it was revealed that she or someone close to her had leaked Dominion ballot tabulation device source code to the MAGA internet. She’s currently being sued by the Colorado Secretary of State, under federal criminal investigation, and being hidden in an undisclosed location by Mike Lindell, supposedly from a Dominion hit squad.

“Up to 90% of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world’s fifth-largest economy. A dire post-Brexit shortage of lorry drivers emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic has sown chaos through British supply chains in everything from food to fuel, raising the spectre of disruptions and price rises in the run up to Christmas. Just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government spent millions of pounds to avert a food shortage due to a spike in prices for natural gas, the biggest cost in fertilizer production, ministers asked people to refrain from panic buying. But queues of dozens of cars snaked back from petrol stations across the country on Sunday, swallowing up supplies and forcing many gas stations to simply close.”

“Pumps across British cities were either closed or had signs saying fuel was unavailable on Monday, Reuters reporters said. The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents independent fuel retailers which now account for 65% of all UK forecourts, said members had reported that 50% to 90% of pumps were dry in some areas. ‘We are unfortunately seeing panic buying of fuel in many areas of the country,’ Gordon Balmer, executive director of the PRA, who worked for BP (BP.L) for 30 years, told Reuters. ‘We need some calm,’ Balmer said. ‘Please don’t panic buy: if people drain the network then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy'” – Reuters.

NBC News:  “Debate on a bipartisan infrastructure bill will begin in the House on Monday and go to the floor for a vote three days later, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.  In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the vote will come the same day the country’s surface transportation act — which authorizes spending on highways, bridges and other infrastructure projects — expires.

“The Senate passed the $550 billion infrastructure bill last month with 69 votes, including all 50 Democratic-voting members.  But progressive Democratic House members have threatened to tank the legislation unless moderates agree to pass President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better package, which he has pitched as a ‘long-term investment’ to create jobs and lower costs for child care, higher education and prescription drugs.”

In a non-binding referendum, voters in Berlin, Germany passed a provision that would support the local government taking over a quarter million corporate-owned apartments in the city in an effort to curb rising rents that are making the city too expensive to live in, the Associated Press reports.

With nearly all the ballots counted, 56.4% of Berliners supported the take-over proposal, with only 39% opposed.  The bill calls for the expropriation–or seizure–of the property by the local government; it did not specify if there would be any compensation.

The Social Democrats appear to have won the campaign for the city mayor’s office, allowing them to keep control, with the Green Party finishing second.

“In 2013, you came out against same sex marriage while your father went the other way, and it was looked upon as courageous when you did that,” 60 Minutes interviewer Leslie Stahl says to Republican Wyoming Senator Liz Cheney.  “How do you defend what you did?”

“I was wrong.  I was wrong,” Cheney says bluntly.  “Ah, I love my sister very much.  I, ah, um, love her family very much.  And, uh, I was wrong.”

Really not clear what Stop the Steal asshole Mark Finchem is getting so mad at this Gateway Pundit guy for. He clearly didn’t laugh, and if he smiled it was in agreement with what Finchem was saying. Whatever the case is you know this is fucked up when a Gateway Pundit propagandist is the reasonable, normal guy in such a situation. Spotted by Twitter champ Ron Filipkowski.

Voters in Switzerland approved overwhelming a referendum that legalizes marriage and adoption for LGBTQ couples, becoming one of the last nations in western Europe to recognize those civil rights, the New York Times reports.

The referendum was demanded by anti-equality advocates who were upset that the Swiss Parliament passed legislation provided for gay couples to marry and adopt children.  They lost the referendum.

Also this weekend, the European micronation of San Marino, a majority-Catholic nation, voted to legalize abortion, with 77% of people voting to revoke a 150-year-old law that outlawed the medical procedure, the Associated Press reports.

“Germany’s Social Democrats narrowly won Sunday’s national election, projected results showed, and claimed a ‘clear mandate’ to lead a government for the first time since 2005 and to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under Angela Merkel. The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 26.0% of the vote, ahead of 24.5% for Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc, projections for broadcaster ZDF showed, but both groups believed they could lead the next government.”

“With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward “grand coalition” of the past four years, the most likely outcome is a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel’s conservatives. Agreeing a new coalition could take months, and will likely involve the smaller Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP). ‘We are ahead in all the surveys now,’ the Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz, said in a round table discussion with other candidates after the vote” – Reuters.

Blockbuster Trump 2024 announcementhttps://t.co/vicUWMBI7q

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) September 26, 2021

Guess who the “top Republican” is! This is a big game changer, based on the tweet. Can you guess? Total fucking magnitude 10.5 earthquake for 2024! You think it’s a HUGE shocker, right?

It’s none other than everyone’s favorite human urinal cake, Lindsey Graham. I know right? The Hill reported this like 20 hours ago too. Real freaking “blockbuster” you got there, Georgie. The last time you shared news this big you were shitfaced drunk in Rome and blabbed it to some Australian dudes who promptly reported it to the FBI. You should do this full time.

“Two of the nine House centrists who demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bring the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor by Monday are now publicly promising to vote for the separate $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, Axios has learned.

“By explicitly announcing their support for a big package targeting climate change and expanding the social safety net, Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Filemon Vela (D-Texas) are trying to convince progressives to vote for the infrastructure bill this week.”

A 27-year-old British triathlete became the first known athlete with autism to finish a grueling 70.3 mile Ironman competition Saturday, CBS News reports.  Sam Holness completed the 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run combination event in 5 hours and 44 minutes.

Holness and the other competitors fought rain, lightning and even a sandstorm Ironman 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah.  “I feel very proud,” he said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, along with his father and coach, Tony. “I’m happy and I can’t wait to get back to training.”

“If you can just inspire people and raise the awareness of autism, help employers to start recruiting more people on the spectrum and do it through sport, and that’s narrowing it down to what our mission is and what we want to do,” Tony said.

Kicker Justin Tucker dings a 66-yard kick off the crossbar and through, setting a new NFL record.  And yes, Tucker is an opera singer.

There’s a clip going around of Sidney Powell telling some right wing media asshole named Stewie Peters (the video quality on the clip isn’t great, so we embedded the full episode above) about her plan to have Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito block the certification of the electoral college votes in Congress on January 6th if not for Nancy Pelosi reconvening after the Capitol riot had ended. For those of us unwilling to sit through even 23 minutes of such nonsense, luckily the Kraken already spelled it all out in an article on her website. Here’s a clip of the relevant sections: