Bombastic Barbie Lauren Boebert (Q-Rifle) claims God spoke to her directly to tell her to run for Congress, which God likely wouldn’t do because it would be like a curse to the rest of the population.

“When God said that to me, I said, ‘Man, y’know, maybe I’m not using the gifts and callings that God has give me appropriate [sic] all the time’,” she relates using poor grammar.  “But to hear God say He created me that way for His purpose.  I had to answer the call.”

“I’m not concerned about my education and the fact that I have a GED,” Boebert added.  “Actually I didn’t even have it then.  I got it later.  …  It didn’t matter that I didn’t have the money or the political influence.  [FACT CHECK:  Her husband earned around a million dollars as a oil company consultant in the two years before she ran for office.]  It didn’t matter that I wasn’t qualified in the world’s eyes because God qualifies those who [sic] He calls.”

Perhaps Boebert thought it was God telling her to abet the efforts of the domestic terrorist on January 6th.

“Senate Democrats are close to an agreement on updated voting rights legislation that can get the support of all 50 Democrats, three Democratic aides familiar with negotiations tell NBC. The forthcoming agreement comes after the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act were introduced in Congress in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Since their introductions, both pieces of legislation have been voted on along party lines” NBC News reports.

Separately, Rolling Stone reports “With a make-or-break vote looming in the Senate on a sweeping voting-rights and anti-corruption bill, President Joe Biden and his advisers have said in recent weeks that Biden will pressure wavering Democrats to support reforming the filibuster if necessary to pass the voting bill… According to three people briefed on the White House’s position and its recent communications with outside groups, Biden assured Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he was ready to push for filibuster reform. Biden’s pressure would aim to help Schumer convince moderate Democrats to support a carveout to the filibuster, a must for the party if it’s going to pass new voting protections without Republican votes.

A 9/11 memorial outside of a business in Greenville, South Carolina was defaced at some point on Saturday night when unknown vandal(s) spray painted “TALIBAN” on the Twin Towers shaped granite monument, WSPA reports. The business, Upstate Granite Solutions, had unveiled the monument on its property on Saturday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the attacks. The company’s CEO Paul Nichols said his employees were able to remove the graffiti fairly easily Sunday morning and he filed a report with the county sheriff’s office.

We would be pretty shocked if it turned out there was a pro-Taliban cell of Islamic extremists in the Greenville, South Carolina area. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing they would do, or if they did, that they’d simply write “TALIBAN” twice and call it a night. Wouldn’t it be in Arabic? Wouldn’t they say something more along the lines of “DEATH TO THE INFIDELS” or similar? Call us crazy, but this sure looks much more like the work of someone who wants to stir shit up against local Muslims (if there are any in the Greenville area) than anything else.

And SOLD to "Curtis" from Chula Vista, California. We had some pretty intense "give and take" but I wouldn't BUDGE on the price —but I DID FIND another "Stylus" and I'm throwing in a keyboard so he gets the whole Kit and Kaboodle. And I get my "C-Note" (gangsta talk for $100) https://t.co/UYQoGQyWas

— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) September 12, 2021

In my September 5th essay I described a novel approach to seek the striking down of Texas’s SB-8 anti-abortion bill. That law relied on a “vigilante enforcement mechanism” that allowed private individuals to file suit against those they suspected of having had an abortion. The conclusion of the essay was that the law must be struck down because of a provision in the bill that denied defendant’s the right to seek redress for malicious lawsuits through the Texas Code of Civil Procedure. That language, along with section g which states: “This section may not be construed to impose liability on any speech or conduct protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states through the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, or by Section 8,” which, given it’s context in this piece of legislation, appears to be an attempt to facilitate the harassment of women in the Democratic party by allowing privately financed right-wing extremists to file numerous suits against numerous women, regardless of whether or not they’ve had an abortion, and then claim that the filing of those suits was an act of protected political speech.

Click here to read the rest of this essay at the Otter Globe and Intelligencer.

Spotted in Queens, New York on Saturday.

“A judge siding with Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday in the ongoing battle over mask mandates will have no impact on whether children in Sarasota County Schools have to wear a mask to school, according to Sarasota County School Board attorney Dan DeLeo. The First District Court of Appeal on Friday granted a stay to a prior ruling that prevented the governor from enforcing a ban on mask mandates. The stay means that the state could punish School Boards that attempt to make masks mandatory,” reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

“Five gallivanting zebras that escaped from a private farm have been turning heads as they wander through a Maryland town. Three of the exotic animals were first reported to authorities Aug. 31 after they were spotted in a wooded area of Upper Marlboro, about 20 miles from the nation’s capital, said Rodney Taylor, chief of Prince George’s County Animal Services Division”

“‘Zebras running loose in Prince George’s County is something we’ve never seen, that’s for sure,’ he said. Taylor said Friday the animals appear to be traversing through the woods between two farms. The zebras escaped from a 300-acre farm owned by Jerry Holly, Taylor said. Holly, who could not be immediately reached for comment Friday, is legally licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep 39 zebras. The animals were brought to the farm shortly before they escaped, Taylor said. The USDA did not respond to requests for comment. The farm’s caretaker has set up a feeding station in the woods with cameras mounted on trees where the zebras have been congregating, Taylor said. The caretaker plans to slowly corral them so they don’t get spooked. He hopes to soon safely return them to the farm, Taylor said” – NBC News.

CNN: “Most Republicans want former President Donald Trump to remain their party’s leader, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. But differing views about Trump’s role in the party – and his strength as a future presidential nominee – highlight divides within the GOP. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say, 63% to 37%, that Trump should be the leader of the Republican Party. But they are about evenly split over whether having the defeated former President back on the ticket in 2024 would be an advantage: 51% say that Republicans have a better chance of retaking the presidency if Trump is the nominee, with 49% saying the party would be better off with a different nominee. That’s a very different landscape from 2019, when more than three-quarters of Republicans said their party had a better shot in 2020 with Trump as their nominee than they would with a different candidate.”

“State entomologists have discovered a third Asian Giant hornet nest, just a day after discovering a second nest. On Saturday, State officials said the third nest of 2021 is in the same area as the other nests, near Blaine by the Canadian border. The State Department of Agriculture says they are now working on plans to eradicate the nest and will provide more updates next week” – KOMO.

“The ‘We the People Reunion,’ a conservative rally, began in Muhlenberg County on Friday. The event is hosting speakers such as the CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, former national security advisor Michael Flynn and Pastor Greg Locke, who has in the past admitted to being at the Capitol during the January 6 Capitol riot” Southern Indiana NBC affiliate WFIE reported on Saturday.

“The rally began at the Muhlenberg County Agriculture and Convention Center. Promoters said they expected crowds of around 10,000 people. Fewer than 300 were at the event when 14 News arrived. 14 News was allowed in the parking lot to shoot some video, but was later asked to leave the fairgrounds. Any attempt to speak with local leaders and event organizers have been denied.”

USA Today: “The family of a man who died of heart issues in Mississippi is asking people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after 43 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him because of full cardiac ICUs. Ray Martin DeMonia died last week in Meridian, Mississippi. He was three days shy of his 74th birthday and a well-known native in Cullman, Alabama, his family said.”

“DeMonia suffered from a cardiac event, and emergency staff at Cullman Regional Medical Center had to bring him to the nearest available bed, which was nearly 200 miles away at a Mississippi hospital. In his obituary, DeMonia’s family urged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. ‘In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID related emergencies… He would not want any other family to go through what his did.'”

Late Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the FBI released the first set of previously-classified documents related to the investigation into the attack, the Associated Press reports.

The documents describe the communications the hijackers and planners had with the Saudi government, but it is not a smoking gun that the government of Saudi Arabia materially supported the attack.  The Saudi government and royal family has denied any connection to the 9/11 attackers.

According to the AP, “The heavily redacted record released Saturday describes a 2015 interview with a person who was applying for U.S. citizenship and years earlier had repeated contacts with Saudi nationals who investigators said provided “significant logistical support” to several of the hijackers.”  The 16-page document is the first to be declassified of the 9/11 information President Joe Biden has ordered to be released to the public.

At the 0:07, Jeanine Pirro laments that she’s tired “of creation of division.”  Just twelve seconds later, she’s lamenting the fact that she has to persecute people she doesn’t agree with.  Such is the lifespan of an idea on Fox News.

The company Salesforce, which sells customer relations management software, has told its employees it will help them relocate from Texas after the state passed a restrictive abortion law, the Associated Press reports.

The San Francisco-based company sent a message through its company-wide Slack channel that it would provide assistance to employees “if you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state.”

On Friday night, CEO Marc Benioff retweeted a post about a story from CNBC talking about the Slack message, adding, “Ohana if you want to move we’ll help you exit TX. Your choice.” Ohana is a Hawaiian term for family.

“After January 6, the United States Capitol Police promised to provide an update on its internal investigations related to the attack. This week, the USCP provided the Department of Justice the administrative cases as part of the ongoing discovery production in the prosecution of the January 6 rioters. Officer names, witness names, and complainant names were redacted,” the United States Capitol Police website reports.

“A Friday night fire at the Trump National Golf Course Hudson Valley in Stormville went to the equivalent of a three-alarm blaze before the fire was finally extinguished. The first fire department was dispatched to 178 Stormville Road in Hopewell Junction around 9:20 p.m.,” reports MidHudsonnews.

Apparently the former guy couldn’t take time away from his busy schedule of golfing and putting together press notifications for his followers to bother showing up at the 9/11 ceremony in Shanksville PA. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were there. Jimmy Carter was not there but we can’t hold that against him as he’s 96 years old and has reportedly been experiencing health issues.

Trump? He didn’t bother to show up. He didn’t even make a public statement, other than to put out an inane press release praising his fellow martial law enthusiast Rudy Giuliani.