This story about an insane Christian diet cult, cant even type that with a straight face, will hold your attention.  The terrible things they did to people, children particularly - a child was beaten to death following their instructions for discipline- is not even the creepiest part.

That is the "normal people" former members who have turned on the "church" but tell incredible stories about what they did and saw before it dawned on them they were doing really crazy shi+.

The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin is directed by two-time Emmy winner Marina Zenovich. The filmmaker is no stranger to chronicling lives; she has directed documentaries about prominent figures such as Roman Polanski, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, and Lance Armstrong.

HBO Max will release the first three parts of the docuseries on September 30. The final two episodes are set to come in early 2022. Check out the trailer and poster below:

Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Law

October 6, 2021 at 9:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

"A federal judge late Wednesday blocked enforcement of a Texas ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a legal blow against a novel law that has severely limited the procedure statewide," the Wall Street Journal reports.

"U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law, saying the state had pursued `an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right.'"

"His order came in a case brought by the Justice Department, which sued Texas last month after abortion-rights advocates were unable to obtain a court order against the Texas restrictions."

He tweeted that he and Angela West, who tested positive Friday, had received monoclonal antibody injections, which are used to treat patients in the early stages of a COVID-19 infection.

Posts to his Twitter account earlier in the day said Allen West had "a low grade fever and light body aches" and that he was "taking Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin" -- two treatments shown to be ineffective against COVID-19.

The rate of myocarditis was calculated by dividing the number of Covid vaccines delivered in Ottawa by the number of incidences of the heart condition. The researchers initially said that the number of vaccines delivered was 32,379, when it was actually 854,930.

 The miscalculation of the amount of vaccines delivered resulted in a risk overestimated by 25X.

"Our reported incidence appeared vastly inflated by an incorrectly small denominator, i.e, number of doses administered over the time period of the study", in a statement by the researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. The study had not yet been peer-reviewed and has been retracted.

60,000 IATSE Workers Will Begin Nationwide Strike Monday If an Agreement Is Not Reached

Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe are in a tight race for governor.  While Youngkin was not present at the rally in his honor, he did receive warm fuzzies in a telephone call from the former guy.

Chicago police are threatening to quit. I say let them go. They don't seem to do much to stop crime there anyways.

group wants to ban discussion of a famous Norman Rockwell anti-segregation illustration

This comes after other reports that Moms for Liberty is demanding a variety of other content be removed from schools. Among the content they object to are books about Galileo for being unfair to the church, and a picture book of seahorses for supposedly being overly sexualized.

;)

I would guess that was always close to the actual target.

Democrats Now Eyeing $2 Trillion Bill

October 1, 2021 at 6:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 44 Comments

Wall Street Journal: "Lawmakers and aides said Mr. Manchin's desire for a $1.5 trillion price tag on the social policy and climate bill didn't reflect the current negotiations. Some aides said they expected a new agreement could come in around $2 trillion."

Justice Alito's hour-long rant was of an aggrieved victim and his tone was combative, taking on critics of the"shadow docket".  Not really a shadow docket, just an Emergency Docket.  And, the media has created the impression that a "dangerous cabal" is deciding important cases.

Alito rejected the "false and inflammatory" claim that the Court nullified Roe v Wade in that screwy Texas "Fugitive Uterus" decision. Ignoring that the effect of the ruling has been to deny abortions to most women in Texas.

As for that "emergency docket", aka Shadow Docket, Alito stated the emergency docket ruling at 11:58 pm to allow the Texas law to remain in effect was necessary because the law was to go into effect at 12 midnight. However, this was a full day after the deadline allowing the law to take effect. Apparently, mixed in a little mendacity to boot.

Mail delivery for many Americans will slow starting on Friday, part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's blueprint for overhauling the U.S. Postal Service.

Almost 4 of 10 pieces of first-class mail will see slower delivery, according to Paul Steidler, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and an expert on the postal service. That "means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s," he said, calling DeJoy's plan "disastrous."

Damage was minimal. Patrons at a bar across the street saw the fire and quickly put it out. Security cameras were installed after a graffiti incident last year. Faircloth is charged with 2nd degree felony arson 3rd degree felony possession of a prohibited weapon.

GOP Senator Complains of Socialist Plot

October 4, 2021 at 1:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 174 Comments

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Fox Business that the infrastructure bills are part of a Democratic plot to take over America with socialism in one vote.

Said Blackburn: "They want government control of your kids."

She added that the legislation will also close churches.

The Murderbot Diaries is a science fiction series by American author Martha Wells published by Tor.com. The series is about an artificial construct designed as a Security Unit, which manages to override its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch soap operas. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow artificial intelligences), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient

Senate report details Trump's efforts to use DOJ to overturn election results

18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy
U.S. Code
Notes
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If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both

The Great Chicago Fire began in an area southeast of downtown, and the high winds and the predominance of wooden structures in the city quickly turned a localized fire at the O'Leary family's barn in the 6th Ward into a major conflagration that quickly crossed the Chicago River and spread northward. By the time the flames subsided two days later, the tragedy killed about 300 people, consumed about 3.5 square miles of the city center, destroyed some 17,500 buildings and left over 100,000 Chicago residents homeless.

Obviously, the Great Chicago Fire is the much better known of the two events. But the Peshtigo Forest Fire north of Green Bay was actually far larger and deadlier, killing somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 people, completely incinerating twelve entire communities and ultimately burning an area the size of Rhode Island, including nearly half of the Door Peninsula.

The death toll for the Peshtigo disaster remains entirely uncertain because all local records were lost to the firestorm. Of the 1,749 residents of the village of Peshtigo per the 1870 U.S. census, rescuers could account for only 30% of them after the tragedy. At least 350 unidentified bodies were buried there afterward in a mass grave, because there was nobody left alive to identify them.

But such was the remoteness of the Peshtigo region and relatively primitive state of mass communications in 1871 America that in the immediate wake of the twin disasters, both Wisconsin Gov. Lucius Fairchild and Milwaukee Mayor Harrison Ludington hastened to provide material aid south of the state line to Chicago, initially unaware of the simultaneous catastrophe that had likewise enveloped the northeastern corner of their own state. The entire scope of the Peshtigo tragedy would not become fully known for weeks afterward, in part because the rural communities did not have a media source comparable to the Chicago Tribune to dramatize the event.

There has been some longstanding speculation, first broached in 1883, that the Chicago and Peshtigo disasters were cause by a cosmic event, specifically the breakup of Biela's Comet in 1852 and the subsequent collision of one of its remnant pieces with earth nineteen years later in 1871.

This hypothesis was actually the subject of an overwrought 1997 documentary "Fire From the Sky" (which aired initially on TBS and can be seen on YouTube), and 2004 research paper by Robert Wood, "Did Biela's Comet Cause the Chicago and Midwest Fires?", which was published in 2004 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. But most experts discount the possibility of a cosmic catalyst and lean instead toward a combination of meteorological conditions and human factors that triggered the twin tragedies.

Whether or not Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern in her Chicago barn has never been established. But lots of anecdotal evidence suggests that the Great Chicago Fire did indeed ignite at the O'Leary barn, and the high winds that night did the rest. Further, farmers in northern Wisconsin had also been burning forest to clear land for crops, and the same high winds off Lake Michigan likely triggered that maelstrom in Peshtigo.

The House select committee will "swiftly consider" making a criminal referral for Steve Bannon if he continues to defy their subpoena.

Bannon's lawyer told House investigators that former President Donald Trump had instructed him not to comply on the basis of executive privilege, but committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said they would not wait for a court to settle the dispute, reported Politico.

"We will not allow any witnesses to deny a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider a criminal contempt of Congress referral," the pair said in a statement.

The lawmakers said former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Defense Department chief of staff Kash Patel have been engaging with the committee, while longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino still has not been served with his subpoena.

Geologists at the University of Hawaii have since determined that the temblor was due to a shift in the tectonic plate on the ocean floor, and is not an indicator of an imminent eruption of Mauna Loa. It was felt as far away as Honolulu, 230 miles from the epicenter.

"Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon's choice to buck a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol could tee up a big decision for a Justice Department determined to strike an independent tone," The Hill reports.

"The House committee has said it may refer Bannon for criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice if he doesn't appear for a deposition slated for Thursday."

"Such a move would place Attorney General Merrick Garland in the center of a debate over whether to go after a former right-hand man of Donald Trump after vowing to restore the reputation of a department that was deeply politicized under the prior administration."

Seriously.  Worried about politicization?

I mean it's The Hill.  So......
But this is the way everything is better no reported.

Check out USA Today

"Democrats shouldn't expect the racially diverse coalition who helped defeat former President Donald Trump and win the Senate to automatically show up in the next nationwide election," USA Today reports.

"Black, Hispanic and Asian voters may have loathed Republicans, according to a major review of the 2020 election cycle, but they still need to be convinced to show up to the polls, and Democrats lacked a core argument about the economy or returning the country to normal in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic."

Again, seriously.

Pelosi Floats Alternative to Lifting Debt Ceiling

October 12, 2021 at 12:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 53 Comments

Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that the Treasury Department should be able to lift the debt ceiling on its own and that Congress would then have the power to overrule it, Punchbowl News reports.

Said Pelosi: "That seems to have some appeal to both sides of the aisle because of the consequences to people for not lifting it."

That's Newsweek

That said, I kind of dont give a shi+ what you call it.  Call it the Space Telescope.  Call it Bozo the Telescope.

i hate that the most widely known fact about this incredible piece of technology is the name kerfuffel.
Thank you NASA.  Maybe at least get the mirrors to line up this time.

NASA's James Webb telescope will explore the universe.

Trump Threatens to Have Republican Voters Stay Home

October 13, 2021 at 5:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 302 Comments

Donald Trump put out a statement saying that if "we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020" -- which he falsely claims to have "thoroughly and conclusively documented" -- then "Republicans will not be voting in `22 or `24."

He added: "It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do."

Catholic U.S. troops should be allowed to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine based solely on conscientious objection and regardless of whether abortion-related tissue was used in its creation or testing

It would seem that explicitly stated consequences would give pause and serve as encouragement to testify.  Of course, respondents can exercise their Fifth Amendment rights, but the goal of the deviants seems not just to provide no information, but also to degrade the congressional investigation and oversight authority.

Too much attention, as well on Brannon, who will obstruct and cause chaos at every turn.  If forced to appear he will plead the fifth anyway.  Focus on others, of which there are many.

This order follows a temporary decision last week by the same three-judge panel to reinstate the ban, less than 48 hours after it was suspended by the lower court.  

-- Plans to expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing aids are being pared back. Biden said he likes the idea, but with Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona objecting, the proposal is "a reach." Instead, Democrats, he said are looking at offering seniors an $800 voucher to access dental care as well as another program for hearing aids that Sinema may support. However, the vision care component, Biden said, has been harder to resolve and there is no consensus yet.