At least 22 dead in New York, New Jersey after Ida remnants flood, pummel Northeast | Just The News https://t.co/nlZhu8j5Fe

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) September 2, 2021

David Frum, The Atlantic: “Pre-Texas, opposition to abortion offered Republican politicians a lucrative, no-risk political option. They could use pro-life rhetoric to win support from socially conservative voters who disliked Republican economic policy, and pay little price for it with less socially conservative voters who counted on the courts to protect abortion rights for them. Pre-Texas, Republican politicians worried a lot about losing a primary to a more pro-life opponent, but little about a backlash if they won the primary by promising to criminalize millions of American women. That one-way option has just come to an end. Most American voters have quietly understood for a long time that most politicians who claim to be ‘pro-life’ are hypocrites. These politicians do not really mean what they say, or anyway, they do not really intend to do what they say. You might imagine that this assumption of hypocrisy would hurt. Sometimes it has. More often, though, it has protected politicians from accountability for the policies they advocate.”

“Today, accountability has suddenly arrived. Texas Republicans have just elevated abortion rights to perhaps the state’s supreme ballot issue in 2022. Perhaps they have calculated correctly. But it’s also possible that Texas Republicans have miscalculated. Instead of narrowly failing again and again, feeding the rage of their supporters against shadowy and far-away cultural enemies, abortion restricters have finally, actually, and radically got their way. If the Texas Republicans prosper politically, then abortion-rights advocates must accept that the country truly is much more conservative on abortion than they appreciated and adjust their goals accordingly. But if not, and I’m guessing that the answer is not, anti-abortion-rights politicians are about to feel the shock of their political lives.”

General Motors announced that it will shut down production at its North American assembly plants starting Monday due to the shortage of necessary computer chips caused by the coronavirus pandemic, USA Today reports.

A global shortage of processing chips has impacted production of everything from computers to vehicles.  GM said that it will idle all plants but five.  One other plant, the Orion Assembly Plant that builds the Chevy Volt in Michigan, had been temporarily closed previously due to a vehicle recall.  Some other plants will continue to assemble vehicles and hold them until chips become available, when the vehicles will be completed and ship to dealers.

“COVID is driving supply constraints in countries that produce semiconductor chips,” said GM spokesman Dan Flores. “But I can’t say if it’s because employees have a high rate of infection or if it’s the government putting restrictions on plants due to the pandemic.”

Washington Post: “Russia’s Internet censor threatened Thursday to fine Google and Apple if they don’t remove an app built by opposition leaders that encourages voters to cast ballots against the party of President Vladimir Putin, saying the companies are interfering in the nation’s electoral processes. The move follows weeks of private demands by the censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, to both companies, ahead of legislative elections that begin Sept. 17. Neither company has removed the app, the latest skirmish in an increasingly intense battle over the availability of potent technological tools – most of them American-made – for political organizing in Russia.”

“Russian advocates of Internet freedom denounced the move. ‘The authorities’ demand to remove the app from AppStore and Google Play Store is more evidence of the current scorched earth policy to kill any opposition thought, word, movement or competition. It is clear that it is illegitimate, unauthorized, anti-constitutional,’ said Artyom Koslyuk of the group Roskomsvoboda. ‘The authorities believe that the Smart Voting site is a threat to security.'”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling overnight is an unprecedented assault on constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade. Complete strangers will now be empowered to inject themselves in the most private of health decisions. The law does not even allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Rather than use its supreme authority to ensure justice could be fairly sought, the highest Court of our land will allow millions in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities.  The dissents by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan all demonstrate the error of the Court’s action here powerfully.  I am launching a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision — looking specifically to HHS and DOJ to see what steps the federal government can take to insulate those in Texas from this law and ensure access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe.”  —President Joe Biden via Twitter

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Iowa QAnon fan and Capitol rioter Doug Jensen jailed after pretrial services officers caught Jensen violating the “no internet” terms of his release by watching a propaganda video by MyPillow dipshit Mike Lindell on their very first unannounced visit to his home, NBC4 Washington’s workaholic chronicler of the insurrection Scott MacFarlane reported.

Jensen, caught on video assaulting a cop in the Capitol rotunda on January 6th – his defense claims he was “sucker pushed” by an aggressive Capitol police officer – had previously told the court he no longer believed the “pack of lies” he’d been fed prior to the riot. The judge bought it at the time and on Thursday said “I ordered the various conditions of release in this case, because of the role the internet conspiracies appear to have played in Mr. Jensen’s alleged conduct… violent conduct.” The judge then ordered federal marshals to take Jensen into custody pending trial.

“A crew of Jefferson Parish workers was repairing a Metairie water main broken by Hurricane Ida when a woman pulled up in her car Wednesday, called them ‘fuckng n****rs’ and demanded that they be arrested. The workers then flagged down sheriff’s deputies and reported her harassment, at which point the woman twice struck one officer with her car before another deputy shot her to death, said Sheriff Joe Lopinto and an eyewitness who recorded a series of videos of the beginning of the woman’s meltdown. Lopinto gave few details of the confrontation during a brief meeting with news reporters, but he suggested the woman might have been in mental distress. ‘There didn’t seem to be a whole lot right with her,’ he said” – New Orleans Advocate.

Arizona Republic: “The Arizona Senate is continuing its fight to keep secret nearly 3,000 emails and text messages sent by lawmakers and others that relate to the Maricopa County election audit, their lawyer told a judge Wednesday. The Senate turned over thousands of pages of communications on Tuesday after ordered to do so by two judges. But the Senate also provided a log of approximately 2,900 messages that were withheld or redacted because the Senate does not believe turning them over is required under the state Public Records Law. Among those are most, if not all, of the communications between lawmakers who ordered the unprecedented election audit and Cyber Ninjas, the Florida company hired to conduct the audit.”

“That means the Senate will fight to prevent the disclosure of anything Senate President Karen Fann or other Republicans who ordered the audit have written to Cyber Ninjas or the various subcontractors on the audit. Langhofer has previously argued, unsuccessfully, that Cyber Ninjas and the other contractors are not public officials and therefore not subject to the Public Records Law, which makes nearly all communications among elected officials public documents in Arizona. But two Superior Court judges and an Appeals Court panel have said the contractors records are subject to the Public Records Law, and the Arizona Supreme Court is listening to the Senate’s appeal of those decisions. Now, Langhofer is arguing that the records should remain private because of ‘legislative privilege,’ which would mean they are protected from such disclosure. ‘After all, the entire premise of this case is the vendor is functioning as the Legislature,’ Langhofer said. ‘If we are going to treat the vendor as a Legislature, then its communications with the Legislature are part of the legislative privilege.'”

“I’ve just learned of this testing request and as the owner of this business am going to refuse this booking and deny service. We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing and DISCOURAGING the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations. The only other local testing option is the free kiosk by city hall. They mail their tests to Texas and have inconsistent result times, do not take appointments so its walk in only midday weekdays in their back alley.”

“My team and myself have worked overtime, to exhaustion, unpaid and underpaid this past year, spending our own capital to ensure that our community remains protected. It would be unfair to them and to the sacrifices we have all made this year to serve you” – Email from owner of an unidentified medical practice in Aspen, CO, to MAGA propagandist Candace Owens.

“One of the loudest voices urging Donald Trump’s supporters to push for overturning the presidential election results was Steve Bannon. ‘We’re on the point of attack,’ Bannon, a former Trump adviser and far-right nationalist, pledged on his popular podcast on Jan. 5. ‘All hell will break loose tomorrow.’ The next morning, as thousands massed on the National Mall for a rally that turned into an attack on the Capitol, Bannon fired up his listeners: ‘It’s them against us. Who can impose their will on the other side?'”

“When the insurrection failed, Bannon continued his campaign for his former boss by other means. On his ‘War Room’ podcast, which has tens of millions of downloads, Bannon said President Trump lost because the Republican Party sold him out. ‘This is your call to action,’ Bannon said in February, a few weeks after Trump had pardoned him of federal fraud charges. The solution, Bannon announced, was to seize control of the GOP from the bottom up. Listeners should flood into the lowest rung of the party structure: the precincts. ‘It’s going to be a fight, but this is a fight that must be won, we don’t have an option,’ Bannon said on his show in May. ‘We’re going to take this back village by village… precinct by precinct'” – ProPublica.

AP: “The Virginia Supreme Court of Virginia ruled Thursday that the state can take down an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has towered over a traffic island in Richmond for more than a century and has become a symbol of racial injustice. The high court’s ruling came in two lawsuits filed by residents who attempted to block the statue’s removal. Northam announced his decision to remove it in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked protests over police brutality and racism in cities across the country. The nationally recognized statue became the epicenter of a protest movement in Virginia after Floyd’s death and its base is now covered with graffiti. Separate lawsuits were filed by a group of residents who own property near the statue and a descendant of signatories to a 1890 deed that transferred the statue, pedestal and land they sit on to the state.”

“Taliban fighters are feeling angry and betrayed Wednesday after discovering that Afghan National Army helicopters abandoned at Kabul’s airport have been rendered inoperable by departing U.S. troops, according to a report. An Al Jazeera reporter who toured a hanger on the military side of the airport said in a video that the terrorist group ‘expected the Americans to leave helicopters like this in one piece for their use.’ ‘When I said to them, ‘why do you think that the Americans would have left everything operational for you’? They said because we believe it is a national asset and we are the government now and this could have come to great use for us,’ she continued. A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday that ‘we disabled/demilitarized that equipment at Hamid Karzai International Airport prior to our departure'” – Fox News.

AL.com: “The reported request by the special House committee looking into the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol for all of Rep. Mo Brooks’ phone and computer records over a 10-months period is ‘illegal and horrible,’ and would only possibly reveal ‘amusing’ emojis and GIFs sent by the congressman’s children, Brooks told AL.com Wednesday. Earlier this week, the House select committee investigating the insurrection sent requests to 35 media companies, asking them to preserve phone and computer records for a number of individuals, including Brooks, from April 2020 through Jan. 31, 2021. Others targeted include former President Donald Trump, members of Trump’s family, and several of Brook’s GOP colleagues in Congress. In a text exchange with AL.com, Brooks referred to the select committee as the ‘Witch Hunt Committee’ and said the records requests violate the 4th Amendment covering probable cause and search and seizure rights.”

“‘U.S. Supreme Court decisions quite clearly hold Witch Hunt Committee can’t do what they APPEAR [emphasis original] to be doing,’ Brooks said. ‘Time will tell what, in fact, they do. Clear violation of 4th Amendment established law if committee does what it appears to be doing.’ Brooks said the committee’s requests to tech companies urging them to hide from him and other targets which information, if any, they give to the committee is ‘illegal and horrible.’ The congressman said he is not sure if subpoenas have been sent out yet, but said if his records are given to the committee, it would only potentially reveal ‘entertaining’ information, adding that his beliefs about the 2020 election are already widely known. ‘My kids’ emojis & GIFs, in particular, might be amusing to some. But those things are private, on private phones & computers, on private servers, etc., and should, in a non-KGB/Gestapo country, remain private…,’ he said.”

The US Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 late Wednesday to allow the Texas anti-choice law to go into effect, allowing for non-interested parties to sue abortion providers and assistance for $10,000 each if they believe a woman is getting an abortion after six weeks of the pregnancy.

The conservative bloc of the Court–Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett–denied the emergency request for injunctive relief filed by a Texas woman’s health clinic.  The three liberal justices–Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan–were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts in the dissent; their dissents can be read here.

Please stay off the streets tonight and let our first responders and emergency services get their work done.

If you’re thinking of going outside, don’t. Stay off the subways. Stay off the roads. Don’t drive into these heavy waters. 

Stay inside.

— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) September 2, 2021

CBS News:  “For the first time, a flash flood emergency was issued in New York City as remnants of Hurricane Ida raced up the East Coast late Wednesday. The band of severe weather also caused the FAA to issue a “ground stop” at all three New York City-area airports.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared late Wednesday that the city is now under a state of emergency. The mayor said that approximately 5,300 customers are without power.”

.@NWSNewYorkNY Tornado Warning for Manhattan, The Bronx until 9:30 PM. Take shelter NOW. Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter. Move to a lower floor & stay away from windows. https://t.co/t918yhlx8z. Multilingual & ASL Link: https://t.co/blJLuS6ozW.

— NYCEM – Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) September 2, 2021

AP: “Fourteen Republican state lawmakers have filed a new lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law, calling it unconstitutional and asking for it to be thrown out. The legal challenge was filed just before midnight Tuesday in the state Commonwealth Court. It is the latest attempt by Republicans to invalidate the 2019 law that Republican lawmakers almost unanimously supported. The central claim of the lawsuit is that the law – which allowed no-excuse voting by mail – is unconstitutional under a constitutional provision that requires lawmakers to provide a way for people to vote if they are unable to vote in person for specific reasons.”

“The lawsuit says the law allows people to vote by mail even if they do not qualify for one of the exemptions, which include being out of town on business, illness, physical disability, election day duties or a religious observance. The Constitution does not explicitly say that the Legislature cannot extend absentee voting to others. Just over 2.5 million people voted under the law in 2020′s presidential election, most of them Democrats, out of 6.9 million total cast. In a statement, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said the lawsuit is ‘not only the height of hypocrisy, but it also has real consequences and damages public trust in our elections.'”

The only winners in the impending campaign Fox News host and sentient pile of bat guano Tucker Carlson launched tonight to oust Republican South Carolina Senator and fainting couch aficionado Lindsey Graham for being too war-monger-y will be the American people.  This is a continuation of white nationalist and Trumpian displeasure with Graham, who has done nothing to unattach his lips from Don’s backside.  Stock up on the popcorn.

A @USMC Marine hands out ice cream to Afghan evacuees at @MCB_Quantico. pic.twitter.com/p31jSag476

— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) September 2, 2021

“Donald Trump Jr. lost in court today. A judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Trump Jr. defamed a political candidate by falsely calling him a ‘felon.’ Trump Jr. said he made a reasonable mistake. The judge wrote: ‘Trump Jr. completely misses the point with this argument’.” —Jan Wolfe of Reuters