CBS News political correspondent Robert Costa writes in a Washington Post op-ed that ultra-rich GOP donors are planning a secret meeting where they’ll come up with a strategy to convince affable suburbs-friendly “Diet MAGA” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to run for president in 2024.

They’re calling it the “Red Vest Retreat” and holy shit that is so sad and depressing. The LL Bean fleece vest being Youngkin’s signature and his desperate stans in the “establishment” GOP endlessly pursuing this fantasy are bad enough on their own, but goddamn it they actually have to theme it around his goddamned vests? Fuck. This is actually more embarrassing by proxy than Kevin McCarthy’s skiing motivational speech from a few weeks ago and that was such brutal cringe.

Like the Youngkin fanboys at Axios reported this week, everything hinges on the Virginia GOP’s performance in this November’s legislative elections, that if they go well then Youngkin’s more likely to throw in. They better pray they get their asses kicked so their dude doesn’t politically immolate himself trying to take down Trump like Ron DeSantis is in the process of doing right now. Already the Fat Orange Hitler’s stormtroopers are warning the vest guy to don’t even fucking think about it.

Pregnant patients who get the coronavirus vaccine pass along some of the immune system protections to the fetus, giving the newborn child some antibodies against the disease, CBS News reports.  In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC found the pass-along vaccination 54% effective in preventing hospitalizations, with effectiveness dropping to about 35% in infants 3- to 5-months old.

Scientists have long understood the ability of a pregnant patient to pass along vaccine protections to fetuses and thus, to newborns.  Doctors recommend pregnant patients get vaccinated for things like whooping cough and RSV to boost the offspring’s systems.

Hospitalization rates have increased in all age groups since mid July. Hospitalization rates remain highest in older adults and in young infants, less than six months of age,” the CDC’s Dr. Fiona Havers said, noting that “most children under 5, hospitalized with COVID-19 illness, have no underlying medical conditions.”

The New York State Supreme Court on Thursday tossed disgraced former President Trump’s bid to delay the the upcoming bench trial in New York Attorney General Leticia James’s $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against Donald’s corrupt business empire, yet another defeat for the fat bastard.

“A petition having been filed with this Court on September 14, 2023, seeking a writ of mandamus (1) directing that respondent The Honorable Arthur F Engoron render a determination as to the scope of the claims to be tried in the underlying action entitled People v Trump et al, and (2) finding that said respondent’s decision to proceed with the trial in said action, without taking certain steps that are alleged to be necessary to comply with the decision and order of this Court entered on June 27, 2023, is in excess of Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, And petitioners having moved for a stay of the trial in the underlying action, pending the hearing and determination of the aforesaid proceeding, Now, upon reading and filing the papers with respect to the motion, and due deliberation having been had thereon, It is ordered that the motion for a stay of trial is denied; the interim relief granted by a Justice of this Court entered on September 14, 2023, is hereby vacated,” the judges wrote.

In very much related news, The Messenger reports that Trump’s tax consultant in 2020 told Palm Beach County officials that Donald “agreed” with the county’s $26.6 million valuation for Mar-a-Lago, an obvious contradiction with the meltdown he’s had over its worth the last few days.

Creepy future mass shooter Georgia state Senator Colton Moore, famous for trying and failing to get Governor Brian Kemp to impeach Fulton County District Attorney after she indicted Moore’s Lord and Savior Donald Trump and 18 of his allies last month, tells Breitbart he was expelled from the party caucus on Thursday, claiming it was because of his tantrum over the indictment.

We have no idea if this is the real reason why. He did make some not very subtle threats of violence after the fat fuck was charged and apparently seriously pissed off Governor Brian Kemp. We’ll buy it if we see some independent MSM reporting, but in absence of that we’re a little guarded. Just a hunch that may not be the cause he’s getting out ahead of it by claiming it’s retribution for being a “Trump patriot,” while in reality and that there may soon be reporting that Moore sexually harassed an intern or something worse. Probably worse. Our spider-sense isn’t always right. It just often is.

President Joe Biden will deliver an address in Arizona warning of the forces arrayed against American democracy, all centered upon the fat orange predator that seeks to destroy it all.

A House GOP staffer tells The Messenger’s Congressional reporter Steve Neukam that their party’s performance in the impeachment hearing isn’t going over well with the rest of the caucus, at all, saying “Comer and staff botched this bad,” adding the that their team’s case has been “confusing” while Democrats are “on message,” asking aloud “How can you not be better prepared for this?”

Worse yet is that the full House GOP don’t even have the bandwidth for it with the shutdown looming, with another aide telling Neukam “spending spending spending” is overshadowing the hearing. So maybe that’s actually a good thing for Republicans, in a way. If they had already passed a spending bill then more people would be paying attention to this fucking disgraceful failure.

Claiming they “must research and address issues of extreme constitutional import that require careful analysis and briefing” before their fat slob client goes on trial for criminally conspiring to overturn the results of a free and fair election, disgraced former President Trump’s lawyers on Thursday asked DC Circuit Judge Tanya Chutkan for a 60-day extension to the October 9th deadline for them to submit further pretrial motions to claim immunity and accuse Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team of misconduct. The MAGA lawyers indicated in their filing that Smith opposes any extension, probably correctly assuming that the assholes would just use the opening to try to buy more time to get the trial delayed as long as possible while Trump runs for reelection.

“Defense counsel advises that it requires the Requested Extension to finalize several of its expected motions, including, for example, motions to dismiss relating to executive immunity [lol], failure to state a claim, and improper conduct by the Special Counsel during the grand jury process and in charging decisions [emphasis theirs], motions for 17(c) subpoenas, potential motions to compel discovery, etc. Each of these motions will be extensive. Although counsel has been working diligently to meet the existing motion deadline, it is now clear that President Trump will require the Requested Extension to fully address the complex questions raised by the unique legal issues in this case. Additionally, President Trump believes that his pretrial motions will be more efficiently and appropriately considered sequentially and on a rolling basis – as all motions have thus far been considered – rather than in a single burst before an arbitrary motion deadline,” they wrote.

The “prosecutorial misconduct” one is new – to this case at least. The Mar-a-Lago documents case is the one where we have that really weak and lame attempt by Team Trump to turn an exchange between Walt Nauta’s lawyer Stan Woodward and DOJ prosecutor Jay Bratt over a judgeship Woodward was seeking into a thing. Would be hilarious if it was the same thing, like they would literally use that actual incident in the Florida case to try to claim it matters in DC.

Your reckless spending poured gasoline on the inflation fire, turbocharging the rising costs that are hurting the American people.

When I'm the nominee, I'll make you climb out of your basement, accept responsibility, and defend your failed record, @JoeBiden.

And when I'm… https://t.co/O1L33xArAa

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) September 28, 2023

The end of DeSantis’s meltdown was cut off but he continued with: “And when I’m President, I will put an end to this bloated spending that is shutting down the American Dream.”

Fox News stopped airing the House Oversight Committee’s hearing opening the “impeachment inquiry” into President Joe Biden approximately 49 minutes into it, opting instead to run an interview with Florida Gov Ron DeSantis to talk about who cares, the Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona reports.

New York Attorney General Leticia James on Thursday released a list of fact witnesses to be called to the stand in the upcoming bench trial trial on her $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against disgraced former President Trump’s corrupt business empire, revealing she seeks “the Big Guy” himself, his three idiot kids, Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric, former lawyer-turned-antagonist Michael Cohen, a number of other current Trump Organization employees, and executives at Trump’s former accounting firm Mazars USA and a number of other firms involved in Trump’s dealings.

Already under federal indictment for lying about his drug abuse on a gun permit application, President Hunter Biden now faces the political consequences of his dealings with questionable foreign entities as the House Oversight Committee opens its inquiry to determine whether he committed impeachable offenses. This historic first step in the process is not being taken lightly by Chairman James Comer, who will point-by-point outline grave allegations of corruption that will the basis for potential articles of impeachment. Thursday will likely ultimately spell the end of the Hunter Biden Administration as his conviction and removal after a Senate trial are a near certainty.

A newly-published set of results from last week’s NBC News registered voter survey finds 56 percent of respondents saying the House GOP shouldn’t launch this stupid impeachment inquiry while 39 percent say they should. Among independents, the number is “six in 10” opposed (but we don’t have the percentage since NBC didn’t post a PDF of the toplines) to 29 percent in favor.

An even more interesting finding was on the question of whether their Congressworm voting yes or no it would affect a respondent’s support for that House member. Overall 31 percent said supporting the evidence-free inquiry would make them less likely to vote for their member to 18 percent more likely, with the remainder saying no difference. There was a gap between self-identified Dems and Republicans on support, with 62 percent of Dems saying less likely to only 35 percent of GOP voter respondents saying more likely, possibly indicating a galvanizing effect for Democrats. Among independents there was also a 25 to 14 percent delta between less likely and more likely to vote for a pro-impeachment Congressnazi, though the vast majority (60 percent) were indifferent.

An October 2019 NBC News survey found 50 percent of respondents were in favor of impeaching and removing fat then-President Trump from office for trying to torpedo Joe Biden’s ultimately successful 2020 campaign with the same stupid bullshit allegations we’ll see in 20 minutes.

A completely sincere advertisement during Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate starring, real former border law enforcement officials from the totally real advocacy group the “Border Security Alliance,” warned that the Biden Administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes would fuel an illicit cross-border trade that would further enrich and empower violent Mexican drug cartels.

Well one of the guys is a former CBP officer. The other is retired military intel. But the “Border Security Alliance” is definitely a real advocacy group. They have a website. The logo’s pretty cool too. Much better graphic design job for an American bald eagle than ours. And yeah it’s totally imaginable that a ban on menthols would fuel an illegal cross border trade because people might be too lazy to roll their own filtered cigarettes and use a menthol spray on them. Or just chew gum while smoking regulars. And the cartels could be thinking like “Hey maybe let’s just make less money and take up more volume in our trucks to smuggle cartons of menthols instead of heroin and coke.”

We could sort of imagine that happening. Still, we’re not totally sure who might be funding this “Border Security Alliance.” It doesn’t say it on their website. And what’s weird too is that their Twitter feed seems to mention smoking and vaping a lot more than you would think a organization focused on preventing cross-border drug and human trafficking would be. But they seem really concerned that the FDA banning menthols would be more trouble than it’s worth. What do you guys think?

At least one each of the people holding up the signs saying “Auto Workers for Trump” and “Union Members for Trump” signs at the fat bastard’s Wednesday night cult rally in a non-union machine shop admitted to the Detroit News that they were not in fact an auto worker or a union member, respectively. Neither of the two Trump fans would give their names after acknowledging this.

Not terribly surprising since the host, parts manufacturer Drake Enterprises, is not a union shop and was just the first (apparently only) such business in the Detroit area that was willing to provide a venue for the Orange Autocrat. On Tuesday the company’s president, Nate Stemple told Fox and Friends that “some of our colleagues that we do business with reached out to us” to tell him Trump was looking to hold a rally, confirming our “Four Seasons” theory of how this came together. “We were more than willing to do so,” Stemple continued. When asked how the shift to electric vehicles would affect Drake’s bottom line, Stemple said “Oh, it would put us out of business. If electric vehicles took over today across the board, we’d be completely out of business.”

“Governor” of Arizona Kari Lake told the Wall Street Journal she is indeed for real launching a campaign for the Senate seat currently occupied by useless “independent” Kyrsten Sinema.

Days after the Writers Guild members authorized their new contract, their performers’ counterpart SAG-AFTRA will restart negotiations on Monday with the group representing the major studios, with signs that advancement in negotiations could come quickly, NBC News reports.

A joint statement from SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said that “several executives” from major studios would attend the meeting, signaling that the studios will look to settle the strike with terms similar to the Guild’s deal.  While the particulars of the contracts are different, many of the issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence, the digital integration of work or images in future pieces, and improved compensation for streaming works are central parts of both agreements.

Perhaps coincidentally, the major network late-night talk show hosts–Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon and Meyers–announced their shows would be back on the air Monday night, October 2nd, thanks to the Guild approving the proposed contract.

In a bulky 50-page document that is long on allegations but short on actual facts, the Republican House leaders heading the committees assigned to the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden outlined their thread-thin justification for the inquiry.

According to CBS News, the chairmen of the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees–Comer, Jordan, Smith–asserted, “The purpose of this inquiry — and at this stage, it is just that, an inquiry — is to determine whether sufficient grounds exist for the Committees to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden for consideration by the full House.”

The inquiry focused on if the President “abused his federal office to enrich his family and conceal his and/or his family’s misconduct” and it will look at his time as Vice President and President.  The memo does not outline any specific action Biden took over those years that would constitute a high crime and misdemeanor meriting impeachment.  The news of the memo was leaked to the media minutes after the end of the circus of the Republican presidential debate.

Instead of doing two separate articles for both of these stupid spectacles let’s just put them together for a “split screen.” Starting first at 8:15 EDT is fat former President Trump’s “Detroit union worker” rally being hosted at a non-union machine shop roughly 20 miles north of Detroit.

Multitasking apparently isn’t a skill Republicans have.  As they set off on their quest to find something–anything–to justify its existence, the Republican impeachment inquiry will hold its first official hearing Thursday as the caucus hurdles the nation over a fiscal cliff.

The Washington Post reports the Oversight Committee, led by Kentucky Republican Congressman James Comer, will perform the hearing, but it won’t have any witnesses with any first-hand knowledge about the claims made by Republicans that President Joe Biden, while Vice President under Obama, ordered the firing of the Ukrainian federal prosecutor to protect his son’s interests with a Ukrainian energy company.  Instead, they will rely on testimony by various pundits who will claim that if anything like taking money to direct US policy was uncovered, it would be very, very bad; they will not testify that that has happened.

So as the House chamber sits empty and the nation slides toward the precipice of financial default, a group of Republicans will hold an improv session where people like Jonathan Turley will beat their breasts about the risk to the Republic the fictitious scenario the GOP created would be.  Y’know, if it were real.