Gabe Sherman, Vanity Fair: “Although DeSantis looks like a front-runner now, a lot can go wrong between now and the New Hampshire primary. For one thing, DeSantis’s supposed success at managing COVID is being torched by the delta variant raging out of control in Florida. DeSantis also needs to win reelection in 2022 (a recent poll showed him losing to Republican turned Democrat Charlie Crist). But assuming DeSantis prevails, former staffers told me that his abrasive personality could become a liability under the pressures of a national campaign. DeSantis is known to only trust his wife, Casey, a former newscaster, and his staff has seen heavy turnover. ‘He has zero relationships. He just doesn’t speak to you,’ one former staffer told me. In May, Politico reported that former DeSantis staffers set up a ‘support group’ to commiserate over their experiences working for him. DeSantis didn’t respond to requests for comment.”

“DeSantis’s biggest challenge, though, will be navigating his fraught relationship with Trump. ‘Trump fucking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity,’ a second Trump confidant told me. (‘Ron is a good guy,’ Trump said.) According to a source, advisers for Pompeo have been promoting DeSantis in hopes of stoking Trump’s jealousy. ‘Pompeo’s people are building up DeSantis as the leader of the Republican Party to piss Trump off,’ the source said. Part of Trump’s irritation with DeSantis is that Trump feels that DeSantis doesn’t give Trump enough credit for his rise. ‘Trump tells people, ‘I made Ron.’ Trump says that about a lot of people. But in this case, it’s actually true,’ a prominent Republican said. (‘He gives me good credit,’ Trump told me.)”

On left, Texas House Bill 241, introduced by TX Rep Steve Toth on July 19th. On the right, Florida House Rep Anthony Sabatini’s “first draft” of an as-yet-unsubmitted bill to “audit” the 2020 election in his state, posted Friday. Note the “a population of 415,000 or more” appearing in both, as if such a specific number could reasonably apply to the fiction of election fraud in both states.

Walt Disney World has canceled a statue of obscure animated character Br’er Rabbit, WDW News Today reports, citing fan photos of the empty pedestal in the main rotunda near Cinderella’s Castle in the Orlando, Florida semi-sovereign territory controlled by a ruthless megacorportaion.

The removal of the statue of Br’er Rabbit – an obscure anthropomorphized rabbit intended as a depiction of a Reconstruction-era liberated Black former slave in the controversial 1946 film “Song of The South” – was not publicized in any way by Disney, leaving the commenters on the WDW News Today article – all of whom appear to be adults who visit the theme park frequently enough to notice the statue’s absence – to speculate that it was for nefarious reasons. Nefarious in the way that genericizing Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett’s spaceship from “Slave I” to simply “Boba Fett’s spaceship” and allowing employees to wear “non-traditional” haircuts as well as piercings and tattoos in the name of inclusivity is nefarious. You know, people who live in the MAGA-gic Kingdom.

Hurricane Ida obliterated the offices of conservative undercover operative James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas group. Even "Retracto," the stuffed alpaca O'Keefe uses as his mascot, was destroyed. pic.twitter.com/nC5M1BD3id

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 3, 2021

While a slew of other tenants fell behind in rent at Trump Towers in New York City with some closing their doors, Donald Trump’s PAC became a steadfast source of income even though most employees don’t rely on office space.

Trump’s Make America Great Again pays Trump more than $37,000 per month in rent for office space on the 15th floor of Trump Tower.  It is also paying $3,000 per month to rent a kiosk on the entry floor of the building, even though the building is closed to the public, the Washington Post reports.

This comes after the building was abandoned by many high-dollar tenants.  Bespoke suit designer Marcraft, who rented the entire 18th floor of the building, fell onto hard times and closed last year after falling $664,000 behind on rent.  It currently lists its assets as $40.75 in a checking account and “1,200 damaged coats.”

A business school led by reality television celebrity Kardashian family matriarch Kris Jenner fell nearly $200,000 behind in rent as it waded through a multitude of lawsuits.  And the company that once made Ivanka Trump’s shoe line has failed to pay $1.5 million in rent, according to court documents.

The top wine distribution company in the United Kingdom is warning Brits about a potential wine shortage for the Christmas holidays due to the company’s inability to hire truck, um, lorry drivers, the BBC reports.

Accolade, the top winemaker in the UK, has warned that the shortage of truck drivers for itself and its suppliers jeopardize the company’s ability to fulfill orders in the future, but noted they’re trying to fill slots now for the upcoming holiday season.

“These shortages, if they continue, could definitely impact Christmas. We are trying to get ahead of it, but it does depend on the situation for the entire transport and trucking industry in the UK,” Robert Foye, Accolade CEO, said. 

The domestic terrorist known as the QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley, pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstructing n official proceeding before Congress Friday, and federal prosecutors will seek a prison sentence of 41 to 51 months, the New York Times reports.

Due to his body paint, lack of clothing and buffalo horns, Chansley is perhaps the most recognizable of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol January 6th.  He carried a spear into the Capitol as hundreds of people breached police lines and stormed the building in hopes of stopping Congress from doing their Constitutionally mandated duty of certifying the Electoral College votes for the 2020 presidential election.

The 34-year-old Arizonan struck a plea deal with prosecutors, avoiding trial on after being charged with civil disorder, obstruction, disorderly conduct in a restricted building and demonstrating in a Capitol building.  He will be sentenced November 17th.

Americans are rightly outraged at the hastily passed Texas abortion law–and equally so at the Supreme Court for not immediately striking it down–not just because it severely restricts a woman’s ability to get a legal abortion, but because it also deputises the entire worldwide population to profit with impunity by making accusations against others.

The Texas GOP, once again, didn’t think through the impact this law might have on other Constitutional rights, which puts them into a very precarious situation politically and legally.  The Texas law, SB 8, creates a Stalin-esque for-profit vigilante system:  people at any corner of the globe can accuse a Texas citizen of assisting a woman to get an abortion in hopes of getting a $10,000 (or greater) payment from that person.  SB 8 prevents the accused from seeking damages from the accuser if the accused is cleared in a civil court, and if the accused is found liable, s/he must pay the legal fees of the accuser.

Making an accusation, therefore, is a no-lose situation for billions of people.  The entire nation of Haiti could make individual claims that Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott illegally funded transportation to abortion clinics for women because he signed an transportation bill in, say, 2018 that provided state dollars to the Houston metropolitan transportation system, which funded a bus line that traveled by a women’s health clinic.  If a single woman took a bus to that clinic to terminate a pregnancy, Abbott is legally liable under this law, and would be forced to first defend himself against the charge and then pay each individual claim against him out-of-pocket.  That means the 11 million people of Haiti could enjoy a $110 billion windfall thanks to Abbott. 

A suspected terrorist who New Zealand law enforcement had under 24-hour surveillance was shot and killed by police in a Wellington suburb after he attacked six people with a knife Friday, the Associated Press reports.

The Sri Lankan national was known to have been influenced by videos and material from the Islamic State, according to national security agencies, who had been aware of his allegiances for months.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said advisors had told her about the man, but police had no legal justification to detain him.

Three of the people were hospitalized in critical condition; another was in serious condition.  Two more were listed in moderate condition.  New Zealand enacted strict weapons ownership laws, banning the ownership of assault-style rifles, after the Christchurch mosque massacre in 2019 that killed 51 people.

Harry Enten, CNN: “It’s now less than two weeks until California’s recall election, and the latest polling suggests good news for Gov. Gavin Newsom. Polls show that an increasing percentage of voters say they’re going to vote ‘no’ on the recall. And while the polling average still suggests the possibility of the Democratic governor getting recalled, the chance that Newsom remains in office has increased significantly over the last few weeks. The biggest poll published this week came from the Public Policy Institute of California. A clear majority of likely voters, 58%, said they were voting ‘no’ on the recall. Just 39% indicated that they would vote to recall Newsom. It’s worth noting that the institute’s poll does show Republicans making up 4 points more of likely voters than registered voters in the poll. A turnout advantage for Republicans matches with what we’ve seen historically in California for off-year elections with a Democratic president. The degree of any Republican turnout advantage does differ from election to election.”

“But given the more than 20-point Democratic registration advantage in the state over the GOP, Republicans likely need a larger turnout advantage than the poll is showing in order to recall Newsom. It also should be noted that the institute’s prior polls have tended to suggest a wider advantage for ‘no’ on the recall than other polls. Early vote data from Edison Research may point to a slightly larger turnout gap in the GOP’s advantage relative to registration. About 5 million votes have already been cast (about 40% of the level in the last major off-year election, in 2018), and registered Democrats make up 53% of those ballots compared with 25% for Republicans. This is a 28-point gap between the parties. At this point in the 2020 cycle, the gap was closer to 35 points.”

Bill Clinton spotted in Hamptons boarding yacht with Epstein-connected billionaire sugar baron brothers https://t.co/Q6Jxv82eSV

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 3, 2021

Even as questions persist about the coronavirus data Republican Governor Rick DeSantis is presenting, Florida is experiencing the deadliest wave of coronavirus in the entire pandemic although vaccines and treatments are available, the Associated Press reports.

The seven-day running average of coronavirus deaths in Florida topped 240 Thursday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Still, DeSantis is pushing a careless policy of pandemic denialism.

Twelve of the largest school districts in the state, representing half of Florida’s 2.8 million K-12 students, issued mask mandates for students and staff, ignoring the executive order from DeSantis barring the implementation of mask mandates in schools.  A state judge has ruled DeSantis has no legal authority to issue such a ban, and DeSantis has appealed that decision.

“There [Biden] is lecturing us about Roe v. Wade, the sacred 5-4 ruling that invented the right to abortion out of nothing,” Fox News host and worst advertisement for La Jolla Day School Tucker Carlson declared.

Roe, in fact, was a 7-2 decision in 1973 and had significant conservative support–when conservatives supported privacy laws and small government.  And the ruling was based in the Fourteenth Amendment, not “invented … out of nothing.”

So I thought I’d call Fox News to let them know they got it wrong.

“Jim Jordan told me tonight in Iowa that Trump will announce he’s running ‘any day now.’ A big GOP operative in the state later announced to the crowd that Trump will travel here imminently” reports The Undercurrent’s Lauren Windsor.

“The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has asked for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone records to be preserved as it expands its inquiry, a committee source confirmed Thursday. McCarthy’s name was included in a broad request the select panel sent Monday to social media platforms and telecommunications companies, asking them to preserve records that could be relevant to the probe of the attack. Although the request does not mean the committee will necessarily take the subsequent step of seeking McCarthy’s records, the panel’s move means the minority leader now faces a threat of having his personal data subpoenaed.”

“The panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), had hinted in advance of Monday’s request that fellow lawmakers could see their communications records sought as part of the investigation. The potential request of their phone records outraged Republicans – McCarthy, in a Tuesday statement, had threatened retribution against companies that complied with the panel’s request and said that compliance would break the law, though he did not cite a specific statute” – Politico.

“Endorsement of Herschel Walker Herschel Walker is a friend, a Patriot, and an outstanding American who is going to be a GREAT United States Senator. He embodies ‘America First’ and the winning spirit of Georgia. Herschel is tough on Crime and Borders, and he will always stand in support of Law Enforcement, Military, and our Vets. He will fight hard for our Second Amendment and Voter Integrity. Herschel Walker will never let you down. He was a great football player and will be an even better U.S. Senator – if that is even possible. He has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” – Statement from the Invincible Orange God-Titan, endorsing Herschel Walker again, now that Walker officially entered the race. The first endorsement was in April.

In their continuing quest to sow doubt in the state’s elections, Texas Senate Republicans suspended rules of order to pass a bill that would allow any county or state political party official to trigger a county-wide recount of any or all elections held in a county, the Texas Tribune reports.

While Arizona officials are still waiting for the results of a s0-called “audit” of Maricopa County ballots that started in April and was supposed to take just three weeks, Texas Republicans say the legislation will not result in a cycle of three-ring circuses.

“This bill, SB 97, is about election irregularities, giving a chance for the people involved to ask questions,” Republican state senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston said before the Senate’s vote. “This is not about anything else except what gets measured gets fixed because if we know why they’ve had that discrepancy, we can fix the problem in the future.”

Remington Arms Company, the manufacturer of the weapon used to kill 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012, has subpoenaed the school records of five students and four teachers whose survivors are suing the armorer, the Connecticut Post reports.

In court Thursday, lawyers for the nine families asked a judge to seal the records, which would detail attendance, grades and disciplinary records for the students and professional evaluations and attendance for the educators.

“We have no explanation for why Remington subpoenaed the Newtown Public School District to obtain the kindergarten and first-grade academic, attendance and disciplinary records of these five school children,” said the families’ lead attorney, Josh Koskoff, after filing a motion to change the protection order in state Superior Court in Waterbury. “The records cannot possibly excuse Remington’s egregious marketing conduct, or be of any assistance in estimating the catastrophic damages in this case. The only relevant part of their attendance records is that they were at their desks on December 14, 2012.”

“The ‘QAnon Shaman’ who notoriously stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 carrying a spear and a bullhorn and wearing a horned headpiece made of coyote skin – has cut a plea deal with the feds” reports The Daily Beast.

“A new pro-gun law in Texas that went into effect Wednesday allows most Texans who legally own a firearm to carry it openly in public without obtaining a permit or training, a measure that experts say will make it more challenging for law enforcement to protect the public from gun violence. The controversial “constitutional carry” legislation is the latest in a series of pro-gun bills that state lawmakers passed this year as gun violence incidents rise in Texas and across the country.”

“The number of shootings in Texas, not including suicides, increased 14% this year with roughly 3,200 shootings compared to the same period in 2020, which recorded roughly 2,800 shootings, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). Gun violence incidents this year represent a 50% increase over the same period in 2019, which saw 2,100 shootings, the data shows. ‘In Texas, repealing the permit altogether is a radical change,’ said Andrew Karwoski, a policy expert at Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country. ‘Just allowing almost anyone to carry a handgun in public, no questions asked, no background check or safety training, is really dangerous'” – CNN.