The Day After: At least 45 people are dead after the depleted Hurricane Ida dumped rivers of rain on Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area Wednesday night.  

  The East Coast is draining and digging out. As much as eight inches of rain fell in some areas —13 in one New Jersey town — swelling rivers into the first floor of buildings as tornadoes flattened houses, and water flood highways and neighborhoods. Cars floated away with people in them. The Schuylkill River that passes right through Philadelphia was 12 feet over flood stage, blocking highway traffic through the center of the city. 

  In New York, 11 of the dead were in flooded basement apartments. In Woodside, Queens, two parents and their infant were found dead in an apartment not approved for occupation. Many basement apartments in New York are illegal.

  In Mullica Hill, New Jersey, one family was taking shelter in their basement when their entire house collapsed as a tornado passed over. They survived

after Wednesday night’s assault by a combination of rain and tornados. In New Jersey, fish were left flopping on top of a storm drain.

  President Biden said, “The past few days of Hurricane Ida and the wildfires in the west and the unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey is yet another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here.” 

The Texas Mess: President Biden issued a blistering statement yesterday about the Texas abortion law ruling, saying, “The Supreme Court’s ruling overnight is an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for almost fifty years.”

  Noting that the law allows uninvolved parties to sue anyone who gets or administers an abortion, Biden said, “It not only empowers complete strangers to inject themselves into the most private of decisions made by a woman—it actually incentivizes them to do so with the prospect of $10,000 if they win their case. For the majority to do this without a hearing, without the benefit of an opinion from a court below, and without due consideration of the issues, insults the rule of law and the rights of all Americans to seek redress from our courts.”

  Anti-abortion activists have already begun monitoring Texas clinics to make sure they follow the law.

  As part of its concern for human life, Texas also just enacted a new gun carrying law under which just about anyone who wants to can carry a gun in public without a license or training. You only have to be 21 with no record of crime or domestic violence.

  One man posted on the internet asking, “When did the Taliban take over Texas?”

The Running Man: CNN  has been digging into the personal life of former NFL star and Georgia US Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has a record of being accused of stalking and threatening women, including his former wife and a girlfriend.

  The 59-year-old Walker is a Republican and big friend of Donald Trump. 

  A lot of this is old news, but still relevant. Walker’s former wife Cindy 

Grossman told CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in 2008 that her husband had held a razor to her throat, and at one point, “he held [a] gun to my temple and said he was going to blow my brains out.”

  Another woman told police in 2002 that Walker had threatened and stalked her. Still another said he had threatened to kill her. There are more.

  Walker has admitted to having mental health problems. He has said he has multiple personality disorder and has been treated for it. He said one of the symptoms of the disorder is blackouts and he doesn’t remember some things he did.

  That makes him the perfect Senate candidate for Georgia.

The Spin Rack: After only a year in office and leading a very unpopular government, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he will not seek re-election as head of the governing party. The 72-year-old Suga became prime minister after Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, resigned a year ago because of poor health. — A Sri Lankan national said to have been inspired by ISIS, was shot and killed by police after stabbing six people in a New Zealand supermarket. The cops had been following the man because he had been identified as a security risk and shot him within 60 seconds of starting his attack. — The NY Times notes that storing the electronic currency Bitcoin uses up more electricity than some countries. — A study of activity on Facebook during the 2020 election found that misinformation got six times more activity than real news.

Ice Scream, You Scream: People who love the ice cream and shakes at McDonald’s burger outlets know that the machines that spew out the heart stopping stuff often break down.

  Evidently it is so common that now the Federal Trade Commission is investigating.

  The McDonald’s machines require a nightly cleaning to avoid breakdowns and sometimes break down anyway. Then an outside technician has to be called in.

  The inquiry appears to be the result of the “right to repair” movement. The Biden administration is looking into the way some companies make machinery that is intentionally difficult for end users to repair, requiring a permanent relationship with the manufacturer. In July, the Federal Trade Commission said it will increase law enforcement against manufacturers that impose repair restrictions on businesses, government agencies, and workers.

 In effect, it’s a shakedown.

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