“A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld Dylann Roof’s conviction and death sentence for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation, saying the legal record cannot even capture the ‘full horror’ of what he did. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond rejected arguments that the young white man should have been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. In 2017, Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime. Authorities have said Roof opened fire during the closing prayer of a Bible study at the church, raining down dozens of bullets on those assembled. He was 21 at the time.”

“The 4th Circuit found that the trial judge did not commit an error when he found Roof was competent to stand trial and issued a scathing rebuke of Roof’s crimes. ‘Dylann Roof murdered African Americans at their church, during their Bible-study and worship. They had welcomed him. He slaughtered them. He did so with the express intent of terrorizing not just his immediate victims at the historically important Mother Emanuel Church, but as many similar people as would hear of the mass murder,’ the panel wrote in is ruling. ‘No cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did. His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose,’ the judges wrote” – AP.

The Atlantic: “Losing a war undermines the public’s trust in any leader. But the setback causing the most damage to Joe Biden’s political standing likely isn’t the U.S. military defeat in Afghanistan – it’s the frustrating home-front struggle against the resurgent coronavirus pandemic. Support for Biden’s performance as president has tumbled in the most recent batch of polling. For the first time since he took office, a higher percentage of people disapprove of the job he’s doing than approve, according to the RealClearPolitics average. (Biden remains just a hair above water in the FiveThirtyEight trend line.) Yesterday, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll found his approval rating at 41 percent – a dismal showing more commonly associated with Biden’s unpopular predecessor, Donald Trump, who never won the support of a majority of voters.”

“Voters elected Biden in no small part to get control of the pandemic, and to provide steady leadership that could steer the country to a return to normalcy. But the rise of Delta despite a mass-vaccination campaign has shown the limits of his ability to control the virus. Much of the resurgence isn’t Biden’s fault; millions of Americans, egged on by the skepticism and disinformation of conservative elites, have refused the inoculations, and COVID-19 is spreading fastest in places where vaccination rates are lowest. But Delta is everywhere now, and cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to rise nationwide. Even in highly vaccinated places, the virus’s spread is wreaking havoc with schools and travel, stunting return-to-office plans, and prompting an intense debate over the question of vaccine mandates.”

United States District Court Judge Linda V. Parker laid into the team of Trump sycophant lawyers that tried to overturn election results in Michigan.

“This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated.”

The fashionable, trendy little corner of New York City known as Times Square got a hot new addition Wednesday as a new ferris wheel opened for locals’ enjoyment. Known for its authentic vibe and artisanal boutiques, the Times Square area has gentrified rapidly in recent decades from its lowly beginnings as a place to smoke crack, watch a smut film in a 25 cent spank booth, or smoke crack while watching a smut film in a 25 cent spank booth, to the hip playground of colorful ex-convicts in Elmo and Cookie Monster costumes it is today.

The ferris wheel, priced at $20 a ride for adults and $15 for children aged 5 to 10 (under 5 strictly prohibited), or $35 for a bespoke “skip the line” experience, is sure to be a hit with the area’s chic crowd of fanny-pack and foam Statue of Liberty crown-wearing trendsters. But FOMO sufferers beware! This ferris wheels on out of the Big Apple – and most likely to a traveling carnival company in North Jersey’s storage lot – on September 12th. Make sure you fit in a few spins between seeing and being seen eating mozzarella sticks at the ultra cool Hard Rock Cafe or picking up some sweet treats and must-have merchandise at the luxe M&M’s Store.

Low Energy Greg responded to the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer Coronavirus vaccine by doubling down on banning any kind of vaccine mandate in the State of Texas with a new executive order:

“Attorneys for the GOP Senate team that will review the CybernNinjas 2020 election audit say they have not yet received any draft, partial or otherwise” reports AZCentral’s Mary Jo Pitzl.

.@LindseyGrahamSC is a RINO

— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) August 25, 2021

For those unfamiliar, Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini is deep in the rogue’s gallery of hardcore parasitic Trump sycophant state lawmakers advancing their careers with lavish displays of worship for him. Most recently Sabatini was trying to get a Florida highway renamed for the Orange Allah.

“South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal on misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Beadle County State’s Attorney Michael Moore, who is one of two prosecutors on the case, told The AP that ‘there won’t be a trial and there will be a plea entered,’ but he declined to discuss further details of the arrangement. The plea will be entered Thursday, when Ravnsborg’s trial was scheduled to begin, he said.”

“Moore said a judge’s order that bars state officials from discussing details of the investigation prevented him from disclosing more. The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ravnsborg, the state’s top law enforcement officer, was charged with three misdemeanors that each carry sentences of up to 30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine. The charges don’t affect the Republican’s qualification to hold the office of attorney general in South Dakota, but lawmakers from his own party have called for him to step down” – AP.

On Wednesday, Newsmax host Steve Cortes dialed up the MAGA xenophobic panic with an abhorrent rant, citing a single murder of a 13 year old girl in Austria perpetrated by Afghan refugees in June, adding “According to the Hoover Institution at Stanford, according to their research, once the giant wave of Afghan migration to Austria began in 2015, total sexual assaults there grew by a staggering 53% over the next four years”, to which, naturally, Cortes omits the absolute numbers.

“Now, given these realities in Europe, is the mass migration of Afghan men to America really a good idea? Good for your wife, your daughter? The left will call us racist for opposing any amount of migration at all since they believe in open borders. But we have to brave enough put up with their ridiculous aspersions. And brave enough to discuss cultural differences that matter. Will these Afghans share our values, will they try to assimilate into the American way of life? It’s not likely.”

If Cortes looks familiar, that’s because he was a Trump 2020 Campaign spokesman who crashed and burned that one time on MSNBC in October when he tried to defend that stupid ad that showed Biden wearing an Apple Airpod during the debate, as “Biden’s wearing a wire” was MAGA World’s excuse for how the now-president was able to speak cogently despite his age.

Tallahasse.com: “An emergency room physician who charged $50 for opt-out letters to Leon County parents who don’t want their kids to wear masks in school has been removed from Capital Regional Medical Center following a social media outcry for his ouster.”

“As a stricter mask mandate requiring a medical excuse took hold Sunday in Florida’s capital county, Dr. Brian Warden posted a notice on a statewide anti-mask site inviting Leon County parents to contact him if they need a medical exemption letter. In another post, Warden said he’d provide a medical opt out letter on signed stationery for $50. Screenshots of the posts ricocheted around social media. The recent medical school graduate had moved from Philadelphia to Tallahassee with his family to work for a physicians group that contracted with CRMC.”

Empty Wheel’s Marci Wheeler reports former Rittenhouse defense lawyer and current counsel for 17 different Capitol rioters John Pierce is currently intubated with a severe case of Coronvirus.

“At a status hearing for Shane Jenkins, a January 6 defendant accused of assault, this morning, his currently retained attorney, Public Defender Maria Jacob, started by saying that she believes that she’s being replaced. John Pierce’s colleague, Ryan Marshall (who is not barred in DC but nevertheless handled Pierce’s appearance in Nate DeGrave’s case yesterday), piped up to say, yes, that was happening but unfortunately the notice of appearance he thought had been filed last night had not appeared on the docket yet. When Judge Amit Mehta asked where Pierce was, Marshall said, ‘Mr. Pierce is in the hospital, we believe, with COVID-19, on a ventilator, non-responsive.’ Judge Mehta wished the Pierce family well and scheduled a hearing next Thursday rather than accepting the appearance of a lawyer on a ventilator to represent his 18th client in this matter,” Wheeler writes, adding “Update: A week ago, Pierce said he would never get vaccinated.”

“A Wisconsin lawmaker who has been hospitalized with COVID-19 for at least a week is now breathing through a ventilator. Republican Sen. Andre Jacque of De Pere was intubated Monday, according to two people with knowledge of his condition. The treatment typically requires patients to be sedated to allow them to breathe using a ventilator. It is typically considered a last-resort treatment but many patients recover, including a 73-year-old high-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal last week. Jacque, 40, has been hospitalized with COVID-19-induced pneumonia for at least a week after contracting COVID-19 earlier this month. Since then, two of his colleagues have asked the public for prayers. In recent months, Jacque has been one of most outspoken lawmakers against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and has authored legislation that would bar government officials or business owners from requiring Wisconsinites be vaccinated against COVID-19 or show proof of vaccination to access services” – Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Politico: “The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Wednesday sent a flurry of requests to federal agencies for records related to the attack, including communications from the Trump White House. It’s the panel’s first step to seek documents on how the U.S. government handled the chaos. Set up by House Democrats with two anti-Trump GOP members, the select committee is escalating its investigation even as the House breaks for a month-long recess.”

“The committee announced that it plans to seek records from the executive branch related to the attack and its run-up – including ‘communications within and among the White House and Executive Branch agencies’ on and before Jan. 6. The requests also sought records on attempts to place politically loyal personnel in positions across the government after the election, the planning, organization, and response to Jan. 6 and earlier, and attempts to overturn the rule of law and overturn the 2020 election. The panel sent requests to the National Archives and Records Administration, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The select committee is expected to focus on documents from the U.S. Park Police, a component of the Department of the Interior; and the National Counterterrorism Center, a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That Center was established after the Sept. 11 attacks as a hub for analysis about terror threats.”

To persuade employees to get the coronavirus vaccine, Delta Airlines will charge unvaccinated employees an additional $200 per month in health insurance premiums starting November 1st, CNBC reports.

A self-funded benefit provider, Delta Airlines noted that the cost of covering unvaccinated employees have higher health care costs, with in-patient hospital stays for coronavirus treatment averaging $50,000.  “This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company,” CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement distributed to employees Wednesday.  “In recent weeks since the rise of the B.1.617.2 variant, all Delta employees who have been hospitalized with COVID were not fully vaccinated.”

The airline is also implementing a corporate policy that will force unvaccinated employees to take paid time off or sick days if they are sidelined with coronavirus after September 30.  Currently, Delta provides paid medical leave for employees isolating after contact. 

“A neo-Nazi teenager said he ‘wanted to execute’ an Asian boy because he had sex with a white girl, a court has heard. Matthew Cronjager, 18, is accused of preparing acts of terrorism by attempting to make a 3D-printed gun and drawing up plans for a storage bunker that could be used for attacks. The Old Bailey was shown online messages where he told an undercover police officer he wanted to murder a former friend, who was Asian, and told him he was having sex with a white girl. ‘I’ve found someone I want to execute,’ Mr Cronjager allegedly wrote. ‘He’s a sand [n-word] that fucked a white girl. In fact I think three of them'” the Independent reports.

“The court heard that the defendant discussed using a conventional shotgun, or manufacturing 3D-printed firearms for himself and ‘the rest of the lads’. ‘I want it to be a message,’ he allegedly wrote. ‘Do you know what’s weird, I was friends with him for ages and I can just kill him like that. I have no hang-ups about doing it. He crossed the line.’ A prosecutor said that Mr Cronjager called people of different races having sex a ‘violation of nature’, and had also said: ‘We’re not supposed to mix race.’ Alistair Richardson previously told the Old Bailey that Mr Cronjager held ‘fascist beliefs’ and hated Jews, Muslims, non-white people and the LGBT+ community. ‘He wanted to bring about his own revolution, based on his own racist ideology,’ he told jurors. ‘To that end, he sought to produce a firearm using a 3D printer, he made plans for storage of firearms in preparation for his violent acts, and he provided instructions and funds to others in order to secure the manufacture of a firearm.'”

“A day after promising more transparency, the Hochul administration has acknowledged 12,000 additional COVID deaths in the state. That brings the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state up to 55,395, a jump from 43,400 reported by the Cuomo administration” WCBS reports.

This isn’t exactly an earthshaking change to the total, as the NY Times’s tracker, among others, did include those deaths that had not been officially acknowledged by Cuomo’s administration.

Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning to bitch about how unfair everything is to him, House Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy told host Joe Kernen that Biden’s agenda would be passed through Congress “over my dead body”, to which Kernen asked “How will you stop it?”. McCarthy, whose lack of tenacity, courage, and integrity make his predecessor Paul Ryan look like Thaddeus Stevens, responded with complaining about the alleged selfishness and perfidy of the small bloc of centrist House Dems who had wavered a bit and voted anyway, failing to answer the simple question. Later in the segment, the chewed-up gummy worm of an excuse for a man bitched about how effective the “The Squad” are at achieving their policy goals.

Matt Gaetz’s book “Firebrand: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the MAGA Revolution”, which hit shelves in September 2020 and described as a “scathingly funny account of his time in the Washington swamp, Florida firebrand Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump’s key supporters in Congress, gleefully skewers the enemies of the MAGA revolution and lays out his own vision for the future of the populist movement” on its jacket, sold an abysmal 2,200 to roughly 6,000 copies in its first 3 months, per an estimate by the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger.

Gaetz initially failed to report this income in his annual income disclosure statement, but following an inquiry to his office by the Daily Beast, the sex trafficker filed an amendment which reported $25,000 in income from the book’s sales. This figure, coupled with the publishing agreement that netted Gaetz 60% royalties on sales, less a 30% cut of that royalty income to his agent (whom Sollenberger reports also DJed Gaetz’s recent wedding), allowed Sollenberger to arrive at approximately $59,500 in retail sales between the pre-order launch in August and December 31st, 2020. Ranging between $27 on the high end for a hardcover copy and $10 for a fire sale price of “Firebrand” this works out to at most about 6,000 copies and as low as 2,200 copies. Sollenberger also estimates the book’s publisher got less than $15,000 for their efforts. Inspiring!

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to be very good at her job. This is her fourth term as speaker, and she can point to landmark legislation in each one. If these two bills pass, on top of the pandemic-relief legislation from earlier this year, this will probably be her most successful Congress yet. And that’s with basically no margin of error: Democrats right now can only afford to lose three votes in the House, and none at all in the Senate, as long as all the Republicans vote the other way.”

“Standard reports of Democratic disarray turned out to be off the mark. Only 10 moderate liberals made any trouble at this stage of the process. One reason why is that there just aren’t that many policy differences within the House Democratic caucus. Another reason is that pundits keep expecting the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party to ruin things for everyone else, and it keeps not happening. That’s mainly because the most liberal Democrats, who are in fact ideological outliers, appear to be generally pragmatic, not radical, in their approach to politics. That is, they’re willing to bargain for the best deal rather than insisting on getting their way no matter what the consequences (see a good Greg Sargent item for more details). By contrast, House Freedom Caucus Republicans and many others in both chambers are radicals without necessarily being policy outliers, at least within their party” – Bloomberg.