I think Lindell is back on the pipe....or having a breakdown

Mike Lindell seems confused about the date, suggests the government tried to kill him

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has appeared to struggle with reality during media appearances over the past few days, claiming on at least one occasion that the government was seeking to kill him.

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On Monday night, Lindell spoke to his supporters from an undisclosed location on his Frank Speech website, appearing somewhat disoriented. This was the occasion when he had to enlist the help of an assistant, seemingly confused about what the accurate date and month were.

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https://www.salon.com/2021/09/17/mike-lindell-seems-confused-about-the-date-suggests-the-government-tried-to-him/

Here's how many California voters left question two of the Gavin Newsom recall ballot blank

In his campaign to survive the Sept. 14 recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom implored Democratic voters to leave the second question of the recall ballot blank. The question asked: If Gavin Newsom is recalled, which candidate should replace him?

This strategy was deployed in order to paint the recall as a choice between Newsom and replacement frontrunner Larry Elder, a firebrand conservative radio host whose decision to enter the race late has since been blamed for Newsom's landslide victory.

Elder dominated the ballot's second question, receiving 46.9% of the question vote as of 9:10 a.m. Wednesday morning. The next closest candidates were Kevin Paffrath and Kevin Faulconer at 9.8% and 8.6%, respectively.


However, that big lead for Elder is a bit misleading. As of Wednesday morning totals, there were 9,137,428 total votes cast on question one (Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled?), and just 5,057,445 cast on question two.


https://www.sfgate.com/gavin-newsom-recall/article/leave-question-two-blank-recall-Newsom-Elder-vote-16461275.php

A Lawyer Hired A Man To Kill Him So His Son Could Get An Insurance Payout, Police Say

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A prominent South Carolina lawyer who found the bodies of his wife and son three months ago, tried to arrange his own death earlier this month so his son would get a $10 million life insurance payment, but the planned fatal shot only grazed his head, state police said Tuesday.

The shooter, Curtis Edward Smith, was charged with assisted suicide, insurance fraud and several other counts in the Sept. 4 shooting of Alex Murdaugh on a lonely highway in Hampton County, the State Law Enforcement Division said in a statement.

Murdaugh was not charged Tuesday night, but agents said more charges were expected.

Murdaugh gave Smith the gun to kill him and he followed Murdaugh to Old Salkehatchie Road firing one shot at the lawyer as he stood in the road, an agent said in a sworn statement.

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https://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037295769/alex-murdaugh-lawyer-hired-insurance-payout-police-south-carolina

ABC News 60% of Californians voting in recall view Republican Party unfavorably, preliminary exit po

60% of Californians voting in recall view Republican Party unfavorably, preliminary exit polling shows

As Californians head to the polls to decide on whether they want to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, and if so, who to replace him with, preliminary data is showing positives for the incumbent.

Just 3 in 10 California voters say Newsom's pandemic control measures are too strict, countering a key argument in the recall drive against him. And 6 in 10 in preliminary exit poll results rate the Republican Party unfavorably -- a challenge for those seeking to unseat the incumbent Democrat.

Still, other preliminary results in the recall election exit poll are less incumbent-friendly: Six in 10 voters call the cost of living in their area "unmanageable," and the electorate divides evenly in rating the state's economy positively or negatively, 49-48%.

Helpfully for Newsom -- if it holds in later data -- 54% of voters in preliminary results say he's in touch with their concerns. More, 69%, support the state's student mask mandate. And 63% side with Newsom in seeing vaccination as more of a public health responsibility than a personal choice.

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https://www.yahoo.com/gma/60-californians-voting-recall-view-233318253.html

California Gov. Gavin Newsom poised for victory in upcoming recall election as polls swing sharply i

Gavin Newsom is the second California governor to ever face a recall election and is likely to be the first to survive one.

All eyes are on the Golden State ahead of Tuesday’s recall election, a fast-approaching deadline for registered voters in California to vote by mail or in person.

The Democratic governor has spent months vigorously campaigning against the recall effort, which he has characterized as a radical GOP power grab that has left his career and California’s future hanging in the balance.

With his more than $70 million war chest, Newsom has blanketed airwaves and digital spaces with anti-recall ads featuring prominent Democrats such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and former President Barrack Obama. The governor has also made numerous campaign stops across the state to directly reach Democratic voters, and is even set to campaign alongside President Joe Biden in Long Beach late Monday.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/california-recall-gov-gavin-newsom-on-the-road-to-victory.html

Texas judge issues injunction against anti-abortion group on enforcing new law

(CNN)A Texas state judge issued an injunction against anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, blocking it from trying to enforce the new six-week abortion ban against Planned Parenthood in Texas.

The injunction, issued by Judge Karin Crump of the Travis County court, applies to anyone affiliated with the group and stops them from filing a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for any potential violation of SB8, the law that effectively bans most abortions in Texas. The law gives private citizens the power to enforce it.

This order applies only to Texas Right to Life and is part of a larger -- and piecemeal -- approach by abortion rights advocates to try to blunt the effect of the law. Other short-term temporary restraining orders are in place against other anti-abortion advocates, and more permanent injunctions are being sought in those cases.

But the impact of the Texas law, which the Supreme Court allowed to stand earlier this month, has already been felt as abortion clinics in the state have largely stopped performing abortions for women more than six weeks pregnant for fear of litigation from private parties.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/texas-sb8-planned-parenthood-right-to-life/index.html

Blinken lays blame on Trump as he defends messy withdrawal from Afghanistan

“We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan,” the secretary of State said in congressional testimony.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday vigorously defended the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and his agency’s handling of the chaotic and deadly evacuation mission from the war-torn country, arguing that the president “inherited” a disaster-in-the-making from Donald Trump.

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blinken said the U.S. is committed to evacuating the 100 or so Americans who still want to leave the country. But he declined to say whether the U.S. would be able to evacuate the thousands of Afghan allies who applied for visas and who are at risk of retribution from the Taliban.

“We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan,” said Blinken, who is no stranger to congressional oversight, having previously served on then-Sen. Joe Biden’s staff when the Delawarean chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Blinken said the Biden administration was handcuffed by Trump’s agreement with the Taliban, which in part reduced the U.S. troop presence to 2,500 by the time Biden took office. With the Taliban continuing its “relentless” military campaign regardless of that agreement, Blinken said, Biden “immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating it.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/13/blinken-lays-blame-on-trump-as-he-defends-messy-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-511677

Steve Bannon Media-Coached Jeffrey Epstein Prior to Arrest: Report

In 2019, according to a new book, media executive and erstwhile Trump confidant Steve Bannon took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and coach him through an imaginary 60 Minutes interview Epstein believed he would soon be doing. Bannon’s advice: Look into the camera occasionally, don’t be racist, deny you’re a pedophile. “You’re engaging, you’re not threatening,” Bannon reportedly told the sex offender at the end of the coaching session, “you’re natural, you’re friendly, you don’t look at all creepy, you’re a sympathetic figure.”

That’s the incendiary, previously unreported anecdote included at the end of a new book by writer Michael Wolff, author of the bestseller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Though Bannon was an indispensable source for Wolff in Fire and Fury, Wolff wouldn’t tell The New York Times’ Ben Smith where he got these new Epstein transcripts. Bannon, in a statement, confirmed to the Times that he recorded more than 15 hours of interviews with Epstein, though he denied that he had ever “media-trained anyone.” Instead, Bannon claimed, the interviews with Epstein were not for 60 Minutes but an unreleased documentary Bannon was making on the billionaire’s “perversions and depravity.”

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-was-media-trainer-to-jeffrey-epstein-prior-to-arrest-according-to-michael-wolff-report-says

Baby and kitty

'Lifelong consequences': What happens to people who can't get abortions

One study found that people who were denied an abortion had almost four times greater odds of being below the federal poverty level.

On the morning Texas’ restrictive new abortion law took effect, an ultrasound examination of Marva Sadler’s first patient showed fetal cardiac activity, rendering the woman ineligible for a legal abortion.

Sadler, senior director of clinical services for Whole Woman’s Health, said the woman was a single mother of two and had just started a new job. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her children and couldn’t take off work to travel to another state to get an abortion.

“It was the first real blow of 'I really can’t fix this.' How do you answer that? And that conversation quickly took over to us figuring out how to get her prenatal care,” Sadler said.

In the 48 hours leading up to Sept. 1, Whole Woman’s Health in Fort Worth, Texas, provided 66 abortions a day on average. But during the first three days of the law being in effect, the clinic provided 11 abortions a day on average.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/lifelong-consequences-what-happens-people-who-can-t-get-abortions-n1278838