Monday, January 11, 2021

News Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun

Almost all the of 120 arrested or identified at Capitol riot were longtime Trump supporters. A few others switched from Obama to Trump. The Associated Press reviewed the social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records of 120 individuals suspected of being involved with the riots at the Capitol building and concluded that most backed the president. The terrorist insurrectionist mob that showed up at the president's behest and stormed the U.S. Capitol was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals. Records show that some were heavily armed and included convicted criminals, such as a Florida man recently released from prison for attempted murder.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-coronavirus-pandemic-elections-1806ea8dc15a2c04f2a68acd6b55cace

Video of Arnold Schwarzenegger comparing Capitol mob to Nazis viewed 31.1+ million times
https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1348249481284874240
https://www.newsweek.com/video-arnold-schwarzenegger-comparing-capitol-mob-nazis-viewed-over-24-million-times-1560355

Japanese fishermen illegally and sadistically murder whale they illegally trapped for 19 days in Japan's 'The Cove' by drowning the endangered rare majestic creature for 20 minutes. Japan is relentlessly murdering whales in violation of international agreements
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fishermen-kill-whale-trapped-19-050748446.html

UK Government to illegally let farmers use illegal bee-killing pesticide banned internationally
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bees-kill-pesticide-insect-sugar-neonic-b1784693.html

A coach narrating how Draymond blew up all the Raptors initial options for the last possession of the game tonight
https://streamable.com/le0zgm

Siakam drives and spins into the jumper and the ball copies him and spins out
https://streamable.com/42fpes

Steph Curry dropped 11 points on 2-16 shooting and going 1-10 from 3. Whille adding on 9 rebounds and 6 assists, but turning the ball over 4 times. The Warriors narrowly avoid blowing a 15 point 4th quarter lead to the 2-6 raptors. He made that clutch 3 after Lowry's when the Raptors were starting to build on their lead late in the 4th though. Wouldn't have been a close game had his shots been falling but it happens. Great defense from the Raptors and an extremely off shooting performance from Curry. He directed the offensive court-strategy all game long, drew defenders, passed out of it wonderfully, generated openings for other players to shoot all game long, and had eight rebounds. He and Bazemore tied for the highest plus/minus for the game because he was the person setting up baskets for players. He hit a clutch 3, contributed in ways other than scoring, and his GravityTM helped get his teammates open looks. Definitely a very subpar game for his standards, but a win is a win and he was a +7 in his minutes

Over 9 games, Paul George is currently shooting with splits of 51/50/95 for 25 Points Per Game

Wiseman goes coast to coast for the slam
https://streamable.com/gw7p8q

Oubre 'distracts' Lowry on a free throw attempt in the fourth quarter
https://streamable.com/fsxfs4

Andrew Wiggins postgame: "I'm having fun. This is great Warriors basketball. Great culture over here, great vibe."
https://twitter.com/DrewShiller/status/1348482574461579264

Lee calmly knocks down both free-throws with 4.3 left and gives the Warriors the win. He went from being slandered as Nepotism Lee by Warriors fans to one of Kerr's most trusted non-starting lineup players. Second game winning shot he's made this season.
https://streamable.com/6bnfmt

Talen Horton-Tucker strips Harden, finishes the game with 4 steals
https://streamable.com/1so5x5

Wiggins and Oubre left wide open in the paint
https://streamable.com/qqgxho

THT with a Kawhi-esque steal and a finish through contact
https://streamable.com/52ghk9

Atlanta Hawks' Bogdan Bogdanovic diagnosed with fractured right knee
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30687918/atlanta-hawks-bogdan-bogdanovic-diagnosed-fractured-right-knee  

Steelers have a bad snap and Browns defense recovers the ball for the touchdown
https://streamable.com/pvd0ci

Nickelodeon sideline reporter says Mick Tribusky wins the NVP award
https://streamable.com/d7fcg8

SeanPayton keeps his promise: slimed
https://twitter.com/Saints/status/1348444821548130305

The Browns have set an NFL record in the post season for most points scored in the first quarter. 28 points

#Browns' QB Baker Mayfield on the offensive line situation tonight: "Michael (Dunn) got hurt and a guy named Blake who I literally introduced myself to before the game stepped up in the fourth quarter."
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1348491884155572224

Well, we just got an F bomb on Nickelodeon.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1348407660090191881

The ratings on the Nickelodeon broadcast will end up 70% curious sportswriters/adult fans, 25% stoners, 5% actual children.
https://twitter.com/miketanier/status/1348390015798276099

Rapist Ben crying on the bench with Pouncy after the end of regulation because for all intents and purposes he knew he was retiring and did not want to go out with that kind of game. Although he had 501 yrds and 4 touchdowns and mega-flung that ball 68 riveting times for 47 equally riveting completions, he knew everybody would remember all the interceptions and bad throws and his physical inability to run the ball downfield himself for downs. He knew everybody would remember  how he ended his career with a blowout loss. There were moments when he was like lightening, you could see his high iq football brilliance, and at the end of the game he was determined to get that last touchdown and 2pt conversion to close the gap a bit more and he did it (48-37 looks better than 48-29) superfast, but he was physically done and everybody knew it. By the start of the 4th quarter his heart was broke, it was all over his face, he knew his offensive players could not overcome the Browns defensive superiority and he knew he could not run the ball himself. We just might see Roethlisberger, Brees, and Rivers, and Alex Smith, all retire this year.

Ben picked off by MJ Stewart
https://streamable.com/3gfjxf

Sione Takitaki picks off Ben Roethlisberger
https://streamable.com/5p71qb

Baker Mayfield is the oldest of the four quarterbacks remaining in the AFC.

The Browns clearly took JuJu's comments as motivation. Baker Mayfield as he runs back to the locker room: "The Browns is the Browns!"
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1348498549684772864 

Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Stop Attacking Me For Refusing To Condemn People Who Wanted To Murder VP Pence And Pelosi! Shut up Melania. This isn't about you. Be best. She listed the Capitol Police officers who were murdered after the pro-Trump terrorists.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/first-lady-melania-trump-path-forward/

US Army officer resigns as Army investigates her involvement in Washington rally that led to U.S. Capitol riot (
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emily-rainey-fort-bragg-captain-resigngs-washington-rally-army-investigating/

Not surprisingly, Terrorist Republicans block House resolution calling on Pence to remove Trump over Capitol Riot. The House will resume tomorrow at 9:00am to debate and vote on the impeachment.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-11/republicans-block-house-resolution-to-call-on-pence-to-remove-trump-over-capitol-riot

Today, during the morning session, the House of Representatives is expected to introduce a Resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. This is a result of actions that incited and influenced the insurrection at the US Capitol on 01/06/2021, and will declare Trump incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately transfer powers of acting President to Mike Pence. This Resolution would require unanimous consent to pass. It is expected that there will be at least one Republican member that will object. If that is the case, the House will seek to debate and vote on the resolution on Tuesday, 01/12/2021. In a letter addressed to the House Democratic Caucus, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi outlined a rapid time-line, providing VP Pence up to 24 hours to respond or take action before the House would proceed to the Impeachment process. A draft of the Articles of Impeachment has already been released, charging Trump with Incitement of Insurrection.
https://www.speaker.gov/sites/speaker.house.gov/files/1.10.21_25thAmendmentResolution%5BFOR%20INTRO%5D.pdf
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000176-eed0-de58-af77-fefc4d130000
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2021/01/Articles-of-Impeachment-Incitement-of-Insurrection.pdf

Supreme Court denies expedited hearings for election challenges by Trump
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-trump-election-challenges-expedited-hearings-denied
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/supreme-court-ensures-that-virtually-every-pro-trump-election-conspiracy-lawsuit-will-not-be-considered-until-after-biden-is-president-if-at-all/

The Dallas Mavericks-New Orleans Pelicans game tonight has been postponed
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1348686696372727808

Russell Westbrook will miss a week with left quad injury
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1348683792890867717

Millions left without paid sick leave after Congress let pandemic benefit expire
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/10/politics/paid-sick-leave-covid-benefit-expiration/index.html
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/11/hillary-clinton-impeach-trump-capitol-white-supremacy/

Trump should be impeached. But that alone won't remove white supremacy from America.

Jan. 11, 2021 at 10:32 a.m. EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a former U.S. senator, secretary of state and Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

Wednesday's attack on the Capitol was the tragically predictable result of white-supremacist grievances fueled by President Trump. But his departure from office, whether immediately or on Jan. 20, will not solve the deeper problems exposed by this episode. What happened is cause for grief and outrage. It should not be cause for shock. What were too often passed off as the rantings of an unfortunate but temporary figure in public life are, in reality, part of something much bigger. That is the challenge that confronts us all.

Over these last days, I've thought about my experiences as a senator from New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and the 9/11 Commission Report that followed. The report's authors explored the failures that opened the door for a devastating terrorist attack. "The most important failure," they wrote, "was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat."

Almost 20 years later, we are living through another failure of imagination — the failure to account for the damage that can be done to our nation by a president who incites violence, congressional leaders who fan the flames, and social media platforms that sear conspiracy theories into the minds of Trump's supporters. Unless we confront the threats we face, we risk ensuring that last week's events are only a prelude to an even greater tragedy.

Trump ran for president on a vision of America where whiteness is valued at the expense of everything else. In the White House, he gave white supremacists, members of the extreme right and conspiracy theorists their most powerful platforms yet, even claiming that there were "very fine people" among the torch-wielding militia members who converged on Charlottesville in 2017.

By the time he lost in 2020, he had whipped a dangerous element of our country into a frenzy. His supporters began planning their insurrection, making plans to march on the Capitol and "stop the steal." Members of Congress, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), encouraged them, in Brooks's words, to "start taking down names and kicking ass." Trump left no doubt about his wishes, in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and with his incendiary words before his mob descended.

So how do we move forward as a country? What does it say about us that so many were complicit, while those who sounded the alarm were dismissed as hysterical?

The generous explanation is that it's hard to comprehend the danger of what seem like ridiculous conspiracy theories until you experienced that danger firsthand. This is a lesson I've learned myself. I've had my share of unpleasant experiences with people who believed I was evil incarnate — everything from being burned in effigy for fighting for health-care reform, to claiming that I was running a pedophilia ring out of a pizza parlor, to receiving a mail bomb from a rabid Trump cult member.

Fanatical ideas can lead to real, even deadly harm. That's something the people of Michigan realized last year when armed militia members plotted to kidnap their governor. It's something Nashvillians saw when a conspiracy theorist blew up an entire city block. Now, it's something all of America has experienced.

But it is not enough to scrutinize — and prosecute — the domestic terrorists who attacked our Capitol. We all need to do some soul-searching of our own.

In Isabel Wilkerson's new book "Caste," she cites a question from historian Taylor Branch: "If people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?" Wednesday reminded us of an ugly truth: There are some Americans, more than many want to admit, who would choose whiteness.

It's sobering that many people were unsurprised by what occurred last week, particularly people of color, for whom a violent mob waving Confederate flags and hanging nooses is a familiar sight in American history. Consider what we saw last June, when Black Lives Matter protesters peacefully demonstrating in Lafayette Square were met with federal officers and tear gas. If the first step toward healing and unity is honesty, that starts with recognizing that this is indeed part of who we are.

Removing Trump from office is essential, and I believe he should be impeached. Members of Congress who joined him in subverting our democracy should resign, and those who conspired with the domestic terrorists should be expelled immediately. But that alone won't remove white supremacy and extremism from America. There are changes elected leaders should pursue immediately, including advocating new criminal laws at the state and federal levels that hold white supremacists accountable and tracking the activities of extremists such as those who breached the Capitol. Twitter and other companies made the right decision to stop Trump from using their platforms, but they will have to do more to stop the spread of violent speech and conspiracy theories.

The Biden administration will need to address this crisis in all its complexity and breadth, including holding technology platforms accountable, prosecuting all who broke our laws, and making public more intelligence and analysis about domestic terrorism.

Despite the horror of what we saw happen, in the weeks and months ahead the news cycle will move on. We owe it to ourselves not to do the same. We have the strength, the ability and — yes — the imagination to confront what happened and ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. That's what real patriotism looks like.
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I'm not listening to any calls for 'unity' from the people who fueled this. You have to admire them for their speed. Not 48 hours after elements of their political base ransacked the Capitol in what now appears to have been at least in part a very well-organized lynch mob, they've gotten their followers ginned up about the fact that large private American corporations at long last have come to the realization that being vehicles for armed sedition against the United States is bad for business. They've explained that they are the real victims of their own looting and pillaging. And, since both terrified congressional staffers and the guys who erected a damn gallows on the National Mall have been equally traumatized by the events of last week, it's time for us to move on, in unity, lest the tender fee-fees of the MAGA Ostrogoths once again drive them to insurrection. And this is not coming from the criminals themselves, or from their lawyers, who could be expected to promote such unmitigated horseshit. It's coming from the elected leadership of the Republican Party in Congress, people who work in the very building that was so profaned on January 6. The electric Twitter machine came alive with Republican calls for "unity" in the face of the terrorism their own actions inspired, and many of those calls were approximately as heartfelt as a ransom call. The gall. The sheer, unmitigated, steel-belted, gold-plated gall it takes for these people to make this argument, not a week after five people died in the worst battle in the U.S. Capitol since the Royal Marines blew town, can only be attributed to politicians who are confident that the forces of unreason and violence have their backs. And Republicans have been playing footsie with those forces for decades. In the West, you had congresscritters who spoke to armed militia groups, and far too many allegedly respectable conservatives lined up behind gun-totin' deadbeat Cliven Bundy and his deadbeat offspring. In the South, Republican politicians genuflected before the Council of Conservative Citizens, the modern manifestation of the White Citizens Councils, which were themselves the respectable front organizations for the domestic terrorism of the Klan. Consider the sheepshanks into which Republican politicians have tied themselves defending the Confederate battle flag, the one that was paraded around the Capitol last week, and opposing the efforts to remove memorials to that previous exercise in violent sedition. This was all to keep the angry base sufficiently mollified to be used to political advantage. They grabbed the wolf by the ears and now they can't let go. All Trump did was to remove the controls and release the whirlwind. If these people are afraid for their political lives, good. They should be. So, no, I'm not listening to calls for "unity" from these people, and I'm hoping that Democratic politicians do not give in to this subtle coercion. ("Nice Congress you have here. Be a shame if anything happened to it. Again.") I am looking for investigations, arrests, trials, and buses on their way to various federal facilities. Were I in Congress, there are a number of people I would vote to expel. And I want televised hearings with no executive sessions. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror of these most remarkable events.

Michigan bans open carry of guns inside state Capitol following mob violence in US Capitol, attempt to storm statehouse.
https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi/status/1348695865364525073

A North Idaho internet provider sent this email out to costumers, absolutely INSANE
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErdBdKQWMAQsW0_?format=jpg&name=large
https://twitter.com/CopingMAGA/status/1348676046728605700  

For those wondering if it's worth impeaching Trump, it means he:
1) loses his 200k+ pension for the rest of his life
2) loses his 1+ million dollars/year travel allowance
3) loses lifetime full secret service detail
4) loses his ability to run for office (which means loss of hundreds of millions of campaign dollars. remember he illegally and unconstitutionally pocketed a billion dollars in campaign money)
5) Loses access to National Security information

Dr. Dre remains in the ICU out of an abundance of caution.
https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-dr-dre-still-in-icu-a-week-after-brain-aneurysm-20210111-mq7zvf7tfballhjgrj3gmjb24a-story.html

This weekend everybody watched Nickelodeon and the Browns and Bills both won NFL Playoff games. It's truly like we're all back in the early 90's.

Teams who lost to the New York Jets in the 2020 NFL season are now 2-0 in the Playoffs. The Rams were victorious over the Seahawks, and the Browns delivered an absolute shellacking to the Pittsburgh Steelers, suggesting that the Jets are, in fact, an elite team.

Ben is now 3-7 as a starting QB in his last 10 playoff games with losses to Blake Bortles, Tim Tebow and now Baker Mayfield.
https://twitter.com/MikeGiardi/status/1348659392418377731

Roethlisberger on Pouncey: "He is one of the best competitors and teammates I've ever had. It's been so much fun to share a football field with him. I hate that it ended the way it did. I just wanted to apologize to him that I wanted to win it for him."
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30690561/mike-tomlin-pittsburgh-steelers-late-season-collapse-were-group-died-vine

Roethlisberger may have looked like he was saying goodbye after the game, but he did not even allude to that in his post-game press conference. Said it's still fresh and he still loves to play the game.

Myles Garrett also says JuJu's comments earlier in the week was used as motivation: "We definitely didn't appreciate it and I think we made that known with our perfomance by getting this big win in their house."
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1348507006936752128

Roethlisberger's face just looked like "do I really have another year in me just to end like this?"

Meanwhile JuJu is on the same bench thinking about what his next TikTok video will be

I really wanted Baker to start dancing on their logo.

The Bills and Browns, Lake Erie Brothers, both ended 25+year playoff victory droughts on the same weekend.

Three QBs from the 2018 draft class earned their first playoff wins this weekend

The Trump administration has sanctioned more than a half-dozen associates of a Ukrainian lawmaker blamed by U.S. officials for interfering in the 2020 presidential election by releasing edited audio recordings of President-elect Joe Biden.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-ukraine-elections-d9e2c761c7b0de7e22e679c91d14c592

The US Capitol Police has had to respond to a couple of incidents of officers threatening to harm themselves in the wake of the pro-Trump terrorist attack on Capitol Hill. This includes a female officer who turned in her own weapon for fear of what might happen. There's tremendous moral injury, a sense of failure weighing them down. They went home to family and were asked how did this happen. And it's very easy for those officers to interpret that as 'how could you let this happen?'
https://twitter.com/mkaplantv/status/1348642565650862084

At least 10,000 National Guard troops will be in Washington, DC, by Saturday for inauguration support, Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Hokanson says.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1348704042143375361

The last time the Browns won a playoff game, Baker Mayfield hadn't even been born. Bill Bellicheck was their coach and the Browns beat the Patriots.

Truly remarkable that, unless I missed it, there has yet to be any public briefing from any federal official, on what we know about the insurrection at the Capitol and what investigative steps are being taken

Man charged with shooting Portland federal courthouse attended Salem 'Stop the Steal' protest
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/01/11/man-who-shot-federal-courthouse-in-portland-attended-stop-the-steal-protest-in-salem/

NBA considering a 7 to 14 day pause amidst the growing rate of positive cases within the league. The NBA brass & GMs will meet virtually today or tomorrow to reconsider safety protocols. The league wants to avoid a pause but it is on the table.
https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/status/1348697336130650112

A Capitol Police Officer On Duty During The Pro-Trump Terrorist Attack Has Died By Suicide. Officer Howard Liebengood was 51 years old. "His death is a tragedy that has deprived all of us a dedicated public servant," Pollack said. "His family has suffered a devastating loss and asks that they be given space to grieve in private."
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiakoerner/capitol-police-suicide

U.S. House Schedule
Tuesday, January 12th – 25th Amendment resolution debate & vote
Wednesday, January 13th – Impeachment resolution debate & vote
Watch all U.S. House proceedings LIVE on C-SPAN https://c-span.org/congress/
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1348715745337892867

In 2017, Republican RepMoBrooks was among a group of Republican members assaulted by gunfire by the Republican-turned-Leftist Sanders voter at the congressional baseball charity game. "To me, the real heroes of the baseball field assassination attempt are U.S. Capitol Police officers," he said then. Last week, he helped incite the attack in which Capitol police were killed & injured.
https://brooks.house.gov/media-center/news-releases/mo-brooks-honored-united-states-capitol-police-medal-merit

This you @tedcruz ?šŸ‘€
https://twitter.com/i/status/1348416234698792962
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1348416234698792962

FBI bulletin warns of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington ahead of Biden inauguration
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-bulletin-warns-of-plans-for-armed-protests-at-all-50-state-capitals-and-in-washington-ahead-of-biden-inauguration/2021/01/11/ca1bb0b0-5445-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html

As we think about all the "how dare people ask payment processors/web hosting services/app stores to stop working with the people who plotted an armed insurrection," just a reminder that this was a month ago:
https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1337111830976753672
https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1337112178869071873

The current argument being made by Republican is that it's "cancel culture" for companies not wanting to associate with people potentially engaged in criminal acts, and that any consequences they face should be handled by the legal system. And whatever your take on this is, it's beyond hypocritical for lawmakers who used their power as members of congress to convince companies not to offer their services to pornhub to then go, "wait, no, not fair!"

BIDEN ON BOARD WITH IMPEACHMENT. Biden says he is discussing with members of Congress if they can "bifurcate" impeachment/getting his agenda through. Biden: "Can you go half day on dealing with the impeachment, and half a day getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate, as well as moving on the package? So that's my hope and expectation."
https://www.facebook.com/ABCNewsLive/videos/president-elect-joe-biden-receives-his-second-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine/209684097539763/

Did Biden forget the hours Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike, all of them) worked during last years hearings? Typically in hearings from noon to midnight, and dealing with constituent business & legislation and judicial appointments etc, in the mornings.  

Apparently someone carved "Trump" onto the back of a manatee. Federal officials seek information on "manatee harassment".
https://chronicleonline.com/news/local/federal-officials-seek-information-on-manatee-harassment/article_c84a3b66-5423-11eb-93b6-1bf69750167f.html

The PGA just terminated its agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at President Trump's New Jersey golf club

The State Department has illegally and unconstitutionally redesignated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/11/trump-administration-re-add-cuba-list-state-sponso/

Biden on board with impeachment
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533677-biden-hopes-senate-can-split-time-on-impeachment-his-agenda

A lot has happened in the last week, including the president losing his Twitter feed, impeachment coming to the fore and the PGA withdrawing from Trump National. He's "gutted" by the PGA move, a person close to the White House says.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1348724630626951169

He's angry about impeachment, people who have spoken to him say. But the reaction to the PGA decision was different order of magnitude.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1348731325440733184

This is the outcome of placing a true Narcissist into the most powerful position on the planet.

Cumulus Media, which employs some of the most popular right-leaning talk-radio hosts in the U.S., including Mark Levin and Dan Bongino, has told its on-air personalities to stop suggesting that the election was stolen — or else face termination.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/cumulus-radio-conservative-election-fraud/2021/01/11/e12ec46e-537c-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

We've only seen the tip of the iceberg of Trump's legal liabilities as a private citizen. No wonder he so desperately wants to remain president-for-life: DC Attorney General alleges that Trump Org didn't pay a $49K hotel bill from the 2017 inauguration, and then -- after the bill went to collection -- Trump's nonprofit Inaugural Committee paid it instead.
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-nonprofit-inaugural-committee-improperly-paid-a-49000-bill-incurred-by-his-company-dc-attorney-general-alleges/2021/01/11/18fdf6da-5427-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

Joe Biden has vowed to do away with Federal executions, but before he comes to power 3 more people will die at the hands of the Federal Govt. I say to Assistant U.S. Attorneys who do the grunt work in pursuing these executions: Stand down! Our country has had enough violence. /1
https://twitter.com/helenprejean/status/1348105565076123651 

When the federal government dispersed its first round of coronavirus19 vaccines to federal agencies last month, the State Department received and distributed them to about 1,100 employees in Washington, D.C. But its own development arm, the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) received exactly zero, officials told me, despite its crucial role in combating the coronavirus19 pandemic. This is only the latest — and hopefully the last — example of appalling mistreatment the Trump administration has perpetrated on this organization and its workers. Even though other federal agencies involved in national security began receiving and distributing vaccine shots in Washington four weeks ago, USAID was completely left out of the plan. There's a dispute within the agency over who is to blame. Some current and former officials point the finger at USAID's leader, John Barsa, who was elevated to the agency's top role last April over career professionals, despite his scant development experience. A loyal Trump political appointee, Barsa leaves behind a tenure marked by scandal and dysfunction. The White House's Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) filled Barsa's staff with hacks and MAGA extremists. An Islamophobe was appointed as USAID's top religious freedom adviser. An anti-transgender activist was appointed deputy chief of staff. An anti-LBGTQ activist was appointed deputy White House liaison and then fired.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/11/usaid-employees-not-vaccinated-state-department/ 

Doug Pederson is out as #Eagles coach
https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1348706843208646656

It's a lot easier to fire a struggling coach than it is to trade away an expensive struggling quarterback.

Doug Pederson becomes the first coach in Eagles history to be fired while his statue sits outside the stadium.

Baker Mayfield yells "GOT EM" after getting the Steelers to jump offsides
https://streamable.com/s3415i

Aaron Donald suffered torn rib cartilage, expected to play next week.
https://www.nfl.com/news/rams-dt-aaron-donald-suffered-torn-rib-cartilage-expected-to-play-vs-packers

The Miami Heat have added these players to the OUT/Health and Safety Protocols list: Butler, Dragic, Nunn, Bam, Harkless, UD and Okpala. This is in addition to Avery Bradley, on the list Sunday.
https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status/1348749835743199233

VACCINATE THE NBA ALREADY

58 yrs old, complications from dementia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Strain

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments on Jan. 12 at 2 p.m. EST in CPJ's lawsuit seeking information about documents regarding whether US intelligence agencies knew of threats to Jamal Khashoggi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz77voqBfoQ&ab_channel=UnitedStatesCourtofAppealsfortheDCCircuit

Normal healthy behavior from a mentally sound person: Former Trump advisor Roger Stone, fresh from pardon, promises sustained effort in Utah to harass Sen. Mitt Romney "anytime and everywhere he attempts to appear in public."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/capitol-riot-republicans-trump-conspiracy-theories/2021/01/11/f50e2ce6-5376-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

Full statement from Utah Dept. of Public Safety: "I can tell you that there will be increased staffing and continued monitoring of open source media to discover/meet any potential threats posed by bad actors that may take the opportunity to thwart otherwise peaceful protests."
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1348758619446239238

Maybe let the victims bury their dead before demanding forgiveness with a threat: "After the abhorrent violence we saw last week, our country desperately needs to heal and unify. I have concerns that impeachment proceedings will only divide us further," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel says, when asked how the party feels about Trump being impeached.
https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1348756007732834314

Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards asks Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to return campaign contributions after they voted against certification of Joe Biden's victory.
https://washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/10/marriott-campaign-donations-congress/

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You fueled an insurrection
Now I can't support you

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is stepping down. Hey who needs a head of homeland security less than week after a domestic terror attack on the capitol.
https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/1348753017726791683

The focus on the insurrection shifted public attention away from the threat from two pipe bombs discovered at the RNC and DNC — which experts say remains a primary concern for law enforcement ahead of next week's inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Investigators are increasingly worried about the potential for attacks on soft targets in the nation's capital. The threat is substantial in Washington, where many government buildings, including the U.S. Capitol, are usually open to the public and thousands of tourists wander through massive museums and some of the most iconic monuments in the country at all hours of the day and night and can even get close to the White House.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-inaugurations-capitol-siege-8828a6a920198d0ea1ee0c73a49d8847
wink-and-nudge style loud and clear.

Media Matters has a good round-up of the various strategies being employed by right wing media to spin Wednesday's events as something less serious than an attempted coup spurred on by Trump himself.
https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/desperate-not-take-responsibility-what-theyve-set-motion-pro-trump-media

Divers recover human remains, debris after doomed flight carrying 62 crashed. They are still scouring the floor of the Java Sea to retrieve the black boxes.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/divers-recover-human-remains-debris-doomed-flight-carrying/story?id=75177599

Several gorillas at San Diego Zoo have tested positive for #COVID19–first cases in such primates in captivity. 8 gorillas at the park believed to have the virus—several coughing. Infection came from park's wildlife care team who was asymptomatic.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/several-gorillas-at-san-diego-zoo-test-positive-for-coronavirus/

⚠️HELP FIND WHO MUTILATED A MANATEE: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating who carved the word "Trump" on a Florida manatee. USFWS is looking for any information: cal Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation hotline at 888-404-3922. https://chronicleonline.com/news/local/federal-officials-seek-information-on-manatee-harassment/article_cd9c8526-541c-11eb-99ee-eb623293ea03.html
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1348691563619233795

Twitter loses $5 billion in market value after Trump is permanently barred from the platform. And they fucking deserve it too for allowing this piece of shit to spread lies and hateful depict for 12+ years and not doing anything about it
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/twitter-stock-price-president-donald-trump-permanently-banned-tweeting-2021-1-1029946778

Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium will become a Covid-19 vaccination site by the end of the week
https://www.twitter.com/dashiell/status/1348764124419821569

Scott Brooks says Westbrook got hit in the left quad back in training camp and he's been playing through it. "He's tough as nails…He never made an excuse, not even to me," Brooks says. Westbrook is out for at least the next week and didn't play Saturday.
https://twitter.com/fredkatz/status/1348756743598317570

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody served on the board of a conservative group linked to the U.S. Capitol riots, a fact that was promoted on her official state website until the uprising. The reference was quietly removed in recent days.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/11/floridas-ashley-moody-worked-with-group-linked-to-capitol-insurrection/

St. Charles County Threw Out More Ballots In November Than Any Other Missouri County. Most of the uncounted ballots were illegally and unconstitutionally disqualified for missing a notary's signature. One out of every 25 of them cast in St. Charles County was tossed out. Mail-in ballots accounted for about a fifth of all uncounted ballots in the county.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/government-politics-issues/2021-01-11/st-charles-county-threw-out-more-ballots-in-november-than-any-other-missouri-county

The country has gone from a relatively consequence-free presidency for Trump (minus the election results and state investigations) to lockdowns at statehouses, major security, no-fly lists and corporate donor blackouts in the span of days.

The FAA warned of jail time or fines as airports and airlines prepare for more unruly Washington-bound passengers ahead of the inauguration
https://washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/airports-faa-inauguration/2021/01/11/6df5fa86-5443-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

So, the people who mocked Joe Biden for campaigning on unity and healing now oppose impeachment because it's so important that Biden be given the opportunity heal and unify? Got it.

To recap, Parler:
- Sued Amazon, but filed a day late
- Never served Amazon with the suit
- Left its API exposed to be fully scraped
- Collected users' Social Security Numbers, geolocation, phone manufacturer and carrier etc
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/business/parler-amazon.html

News photographers on the scene captured images of the officer caught in the crowd, which began chanting "police stand down!" The mob pulled the officer away, and rioters continued to try to force their way past the police defending the doorway. They climbed on top of each other to attack the officers with stolen Capitol Police shields, sticks and poles. During a brief lull, some rioters appeared to give up and retreat down the stairway. But a new group lunged toward the police and started a new attack. At the front of the mob, they exchanged blows with the police and struck officers with hockey sticks, crutches and flags. Some rioters shouted "Push! Push!" One of the attackers, a man wearing a white and blue hat and a green jacket, reached into the doorway, grabbed an officer and dragged him out, aided by a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt. As they pulled the officer down the stairs, face down, another rioter beat him with an American flag as the mob chanted "USA! USA! USA!" Seconds later, two other men — one wearing a red hat and tactical vest bearing a "sheriff" patch — began yanking the legs of another officer who had fallen to the ground. With the aid of a third man in a gray jacket, they pulled the officer down the steps as well. One rioter appeared to punch him while he was on the ground. One of the two dragged officers can be seen in another video standing up before being mobbed and punched. Some rioters called on others not to hurt him as the mob led him away. It was not clear what happened to the three officers after they disappeared into the mob, and the Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. But at least two of the individuals who can be seen dragging the officers in the videos match images included on a Metropolitan Police list of "persons of interest" who are suspected of assaulting police officers and could face federal charges.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/capitol-mob-violence-police.html

Vice President Pence complimented President Trump on the effort and patriotism shown by President Trump's attempt to have Pence assassinated and wished him better luck in his next attempt.  President Trump called Vice President Pence a "loser pussy."
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1348778402032078849

Without a doubt the best thing Trump could do for America right now would be to RESIGN!  Instanter. His resignation could actually save lives. #TrumpResign
https://twitter.com/Talkmaster/status/1348777088959049730

The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together, for it implied — as had been said at Nuremberg over and over again by the defendants and their counsels — that this new type of criminal, who is in actual fact hostis generis humani, commits his crimes under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong. -- Hannah Arendt

Patriots' HC Bill Belichick will not be traveling to Washington nor accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he announced today.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1348790788046680067

Former Assembly candidate Julie Solis arrested for trespassing at Congressman McCarthy's Office
https://www.turnto23.com/news/crime/former-assembly-candidate-julie-solis-arrested-for-trespassing-at-congressman-mccarthys-bakersfield-office

Republican shitstain liar terrorist Sen. Susan Collins thought the white pro-Trump terrorists whom she was watching live on her cell phone storm the Capitol were Iranians
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/gop-sen-susan-collins-thought-capitol-siege-iranians-at-first-2021-1

In the last few days, Trump's company has lost:
-Its e-commerce vendor.
-Its real-estate broker
-Its PGA Championship
-Its shot at a British Open.
-One of its bankers (they're giving Trump back his $5.3M).
-Now, it might even lose its carousel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-york-trump-cancel/2021/01/11/3527257e-545a-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

I hope everyone is prepared to laugh at this effort to present Mike Pence as some sort of hero for not supporting the coup. Not ending American democracy doesn't earn you a pass for supporting literally everything up to that point. 

Am I the only one who watched the head of the FBI testify before Congress that domestic terrorism from white nationalist groups is the single greatest threat facing America - months ago?

Am I the only one watched armed Americans storm the Michigan state Capitol months ago?

Am I the only one aware of a foiled plot by armed Americans to kidnap and kill the sitting governor of MI and the backup plan to take the state Capitol building, take hostages, and start a civil war - months ago?

Am I the only one that saw the news story of the American suicide bomber who took out an entire city block in Nashville, TN on Christmas Day? 

The #Cowboys have an agreement for Dan Quinn to be their new DC
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1348768908577288192 

Hiding from the rioters in a secret location away from the Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) appealed to Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) phoned Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter. And Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Trump confidante and former White House senior adviser, called an aide who she knew was standing at the president's side. But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas. "He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV," said one close Trump adviser. "If it's TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it's live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold." | McCarthy did eventually reach Trump, but later told allies that he found the president distracted. So McCarthy repeatedly appeared on television to describe the mayhem, an adviser said, in an effort to explain just how dire the situation was and to secure the president's attention.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-mob-failure/2021/01/11/36a46e2e-542e-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html 

Free-agent Liam Hendriks in agreement with White Sox, pending physical
https://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1348835913946771456

Carmelo "analytics lover" Anthony with a complete game tonight: 20 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 2 stls, 2 blk, 4/9 3PT in 35 mins off the bench

Lamelo Ball checks out with 8 Pts | 14 Reb | 7 Ast | 3 Stl in a win against the New York Knicks

Gordon Hayward adds another performance to his revenge tour season: 34 points on 11-17, 2-2 from three along with 3 boards and 3 assists

Thieves steal the Utah Jazz's rented car outside their hotel in Milwaukee, including $20k cash and two laptops
https://www.wisn.com/article/thieves-steal-dollar20k-in-cash-from-utah-jazz-before-bucks-game/35182136

Siakam gets the assist to an Anunoby 3 for his first career triple double
https://streamable.com/ybjdt4

Dame hustles hard to keep the possession alive and Convington with a perfect "pass" to Kanter under the rim for the and-1
https://streamable.com/caxqaz

Four Indiana Pacers players scored 20+ points in tonight's loss to the Kings

CJ with the spin and step-back against FVV to give the Blazers the lead
https://streamable.com/xncubb

Siakam spins and can't get the game-winner to go for the second night in a row
https://streamable.com/tlav2i

Melo with the huge stop and Dame with the cold blooded three
https://streamable.com/jnttri

The Raptors are 2-8. They have blown double-digit leads in 6 of their 8 losses this season, including tonight.

Bradley Beal tonight: 34 points on 12/22 from the field, 8/9 from the line to go along with 8 rebounds and 9 assists with only 1 TO in the blowout WIN against the Suns

Adolf Hitler Cult Caught Running Submachine Guns for International Drug Traffickers — A year-long investigation into a black-market trade in automatic weapons led investigators to a Spanish warehouse set up as a shrine to the Nazi leader
https://www.thedailybeast.com/adolf-hitler-cult-caught-running-submachine-guns-for-international-drug-traffickers

Jewish cemetery near Auschwitz vandalized with Nazi symbols
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/jewish-cemetery-near-auschwitz-vandalized-nazi-symbols-n1253689

FM radio signal found coming from Jupiter moon
https://wgntv.com/news/space-discovery-fm-radio-signal-found-coming-from-jupiter-moon/amp/

Twitter, in Widening Crackdown, Removes Over 70,000 QAnon Accounts
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/technology/twitter-removes-70000-qanon-accounts.html

Pramila Jayapal Tests Positive for COVID-19 Following Lockdown at Capitol With Republican Lawmakers Who Cruelly and Selfishly Refused to Wear Masks
https://jayapal.house.gov/2021/01/11/covid-test/

NBA to investigate Kyrie Irving party video because he's pretending he's too enraged to play because of social justice issues (police officer rightfully not charged with shooting criminal abuser Jacob Blake, pro-Trump terrorists storming Rotunda to murder US lawmakers to keep Trump president) yet he's been captured on video clubbing and partying and doing so maskless
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30698732/sources-kyrie-irving-not-expected-rejoin-brooklyn-nets-week-nba-expected-review-maskless-videos

Imagine how unhappy KD has to be to leave GS to leave to play with a backstabbing lazy liar. KD said and did some weird things but he's always been super professional as a player

Bills are signing former Giants' RB Devonta Freeman to their practice squad. Bills need another back to make up for loss of RB Zack Moss.

Mississippi hoists new state flag without Confederate emblem for first time
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/533794-mississippi-hoists-new-state-flag-without-confederate-emblem-for-first

Sanders to wield gavel as gatekeeper for key Biden proposals. President-elect Joe Biden's former primary rival is now set to become chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, where he will wield influence over some of the biggest legislative priorities under the Democratic majority.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/budget/533750-sanders-to-wield-gavel-as-gatekeeper-for-key-biden-proposals

Ted Cruz Staffer Resigns Amid Fallout From Pro-Trump Capitol Riot
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-communications-director-resigns_n_5ffd9b47c5b6567198891846

Son of Brooklyn Judge Arrested Over Role in Riot at Capitol
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/nyregion/aaron-mostofsky-arrest-capitol.html

An Organizer Of The Trump Boat Parad Was Arrested In The DC Terrorist Insurrection. Kristina Malimon was arrested on charges of unlawful entry and violating curfew.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/trump-boat-parade-organizer-kristina-malimon-arrested

Voice of America White House reporter Patsy Widakuswara was illegally and unconstitutionally and seditiously and treasonously and terroristically reassigned Monday evening just hours after pressing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on whether he regretted saying there would be a second Trump administration after President-elect Joe Biden's victory was apparent.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/12/955976976/voice-of-america-white-house-reporter-reassigned-after-questioning-pompeo

Trump Says His Speech To The Pro-Trump Rioters Right Before Their Terrorist Attack Were "Totally Appropriate"
https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/12/956018842/trump-says-his-comments-ahead-of-capitol-riot-were-totally-appropriate

Sheldon Adelson, billionaire casino owner and Republican mega-donor who funded the destruction of America finally dropped dead, his money will probably continue funding Republicans
https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2021-01-12/sheldon-adelson-dead

William Leary, a business owner in Utica, told the Associated Press that he was held for more than 24 hours and had his cell phone seized in Wednesday's bust.     “They treated us like animals,“ said Leary, who denied ever stepping foot inside the Capitol building.    “They took all our phones. I didn't get to make a phone call to tell anybody where I was.“ LOLLLL
https://nypost.com/2021/01/12/upstate-ny-man-arrested-at-capitol-said-detainees-were-treated-like-animals/

Yesterday State announced Pompeo was traveling to Brussels on Jan 13-14. Today State announces that all State travel has been canceled, including Pompeo's trip to Europe, as department prepares transition efforts
https://twitter.com/RobbieGramer/status/1349051305994510338

Gym Jordan: "I've never said this election was stolen": Democrats are trying to steal the election, after the election.
Chief Justice Roberts is letting them do it.
https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1318343550560538629

Republicans illegally and unconstitutionally delay increase in fuel economy penalties at auto industry request
https://www.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUSKBN29H2FR

For nearly a year, undocumented essential workers have risked their health to put food on our tables and supplies in our stores. The next Covid19 relief bill must include a pathway to citizenship for farmworkers, domestic workers, and others who kept our communities going.
https://twitter.com/AlexPadilla4CA/status/1349030293508919297

Trump vowed in 2016 to reverse the US goods trade deficit with China. Instead, his term will end with it at a record.
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/how-china-won-trump-s-good-and-easy-to-win-trade-war

Klete Keller, a champion swimmer who won two Olympic gold medals as a relay teammate of Michael Phelps, was identified by former teammates and coaches as a member of the crowd that surged into the U.S. Capitol
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/12/sports/olympics/klete-keller-capitol-trump.html

NBA star Patty Mills helps establish Indigenous Community Basketball League
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30694881/nba-star-patty-mills-helps-establish-indigenous-community-basketball-league

__________________________

Tribal elders are living libraries, walking dictionaries, breathing repositories of Native language and culture. The virus is destroying them. Tribes and activists are trying to stop it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/tribal-elders-native-americans-coronavirus.html

Tribal Elders Are Dying From the Pandemic, Causing a Cultural Crisis for American Indians.

The virus has killed American Indians at especially high rates, robbing tribes of precious bonds and repositories of language and tradition.

By Jack Healy

Photographs by Victor J. Blue

    Jan. 12, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

STANDING ROCK RESERVATION, N.D. — The virus took Grandma Delores first, silencing an 86-year-old voice that rang with Lakota songs and stories. Then it came for Uncle Ralph, a stoic Vietnam veteran. And just after Christmas, two more elders of the Taken Alive family were buried on the frozen North Dakota prairie: Jesse and Cheryl, husband and wife, who died a month apart.

“It takes your breath away,“ said Ira Taken Alive, the couple's oldest son. “The amount of knowledge they held, and connection to our past.“

One by one, those connections are being severed as the coronavirus tears through ranks of Native American elders, inflicting an incalculable toll on bonds of language and tradition that flow from older generations to the young.

“It's like we're having a cultural book-burning,“ said Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in eastern Oklahoma, whose grandparents contracted the virus but survived. “We're losing a historical record, encyclopedias. One day soon, there won't be anybody to pass this knowledge down.“

The loss of tribal elders has swelled into a cultural crisis as the pandemic has killed American Indians and Alaska Natives at nearly twice the rate of white people, deepening what critics call the deadly toll of a tattered health system and generations of harm and broken promises by the U.S. government.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6949a3-H.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/politics/coronavirus-indian-health-service.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

The deaths of Muscogee elders strained the tribe's burial program. They were grandparents and mikos, traditional leaders who knew how to prepare for annual green-corn ceremonies and how to stoke sacred fires their ancestors had carried to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. One tiny Methodist church on the reservation recently lost three cherished great-aunts who would sneak candy and smiles to restless children during Sunday services.

“We'll never be able to get that back,“ Mr. Salsman said.

Tribal nations and volunteer groups are now trying to protect their elders as a mission of cultural survival.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-takes-more-native-americans-lives-killing-our-elderly-erases-ncna1189761

Navajo women started a campaign to deliver meals and sanitizer to high-desert trailers and remote homes without running water, where elders have been left stranded by quarantines and lockdowns of community centers. Some now post colored cardboard in their windows: green for “OK,“ red for “Help.“

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2020/08/13/covid-indian-country-navajo-women-elders/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/06/navajo-nation-reservation-elderly-people-covid-19

In western Montana, volunteers led by a grocery-store worker put together turkey dinners and hygiene packets to deliver to Blackfeet Nation elders. In Arizona, the White Mountain Apache sent out thermometers and pulse oximeters and taught young people to monitor their grandparents' vital signs.

Across the country, tribes are now putting elders and fluent Indigenous language speakers at the head of the line for vaccinations. But the effort faces huge obstacles. Elders who live in remote locations often have no means to get to the clinics and hospitals where vaccinations are administered. And there is deep mistrust of the government in a generation that was subjected without consent to medical testing, shipped off to boarding schools and punished for speaking their own language in a decades-long campaign of forced assimilation.

About a year into the pandemic, activists say there is still is no reliable death toll of Native elders. They say their deaths are overlooked or miscounted, especially off reservations and in urban areas, where some 70 percent of Indigenous people live.

Adding to the problem, tribal health officials say their sickest members can essentially vanish once they are transferred out of small reservation health systems to larger hospitals with intensive-care units.

“We don't know what happens to them until we see a funeral announcement,“ said Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute.

The virus claimed fluent Choctaw speakers and dressmakers from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. It took a Tulalip family matriarch in Washington State, then her sister and brother-in-law. It killed a former chairman of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in California who spent decades fighting to preserve Native arts and culture. It has killed members of the American Indian Movement, a group founded in 1968 that became the country's most radical and prominent civil rights organization for American Indian rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/world/a-devastated-native-american-community-shows-the-viruss-deadly-toll-on-tribal-nations.html
https://www.yochadehe.org/news/yocha-dehe-wintun-nation-mourns-passing-tribal-elder
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/obituaries/dennis-banks-dead.html

On the Navajo Nation, where 565 of the reservation's 869 deaths are among people 60 and older, the pandemic has devastated the ranks of hataałii, traditional medicine men and women.

When the virus exploded across the Navajo Nation, traditional healers who use prayer, songs and herbs as treatments tried to protect themselves with masks and gloves. They wrapped ceremonial objects in plastic. They set hand sanitizer outside traditional hogan dwellings.

But people came, seeking help with their grief or prayers for ailing relatives. And the healers got sick.

Now, remote meetings of the DinĆ© Hataałii Association, a group of Navajo medicine men and women, include updates on who has died, members said. The roster of loss now includes Avery Denny's 75-year-old grandfather and 78-year-old aunt, who both died of the virus.

“When they pass on, all that knowledge is gone forever, never to be retained,“ said Mr. Denny, a member of the association and professor at DinĆ© College. “It's just lost.“

Cemeteries are filling up on the rolling plains of the Standing Rock Sioux in western North Dakota, where families like the Taken Alives have buried multiple grandparents, matriarchs and patriarchs. Standing Rock has recorded 24 deaths during the pandemic.

In 2016, the tribe's fight to block an oil pipeline propelled Standing Rock to international fame, drawing thousands of activists to protest camps that sprawled along the Missouri River. This winter, Standing Rock's families are waging a lonelier battle as the virus rages through crowded multigenerational homes where elders raise children and pass along their language — a crucial role that has made them incredibly vulnerable.

Diane Gates, 75, one of Standing Rock's first elders to die of the virus, lived with multiple family members, relatives said. Her 75-year-old sister-in-law, Reva, who recently had open-heart surgery, also lives with several grandchildren in an isolated corner of the reservation. They see few visitors and have a lock on their gate, and they try to protect themselves with herbs and steam treatments. But there is always the risk of what a granddaughter could bring home from work.

Tribal health workers say they are also tired and overwhelmed, the strains of fighting Covid compounded by isolation, distance and a lack of resources.

The Standing Rock Sioux had to create their own contact-tracing team after tribal officials said governments in North Dakota and South Dakota failed to track the virus. Over the summer, bureaucratic conflicts scuttled an effort to set up a testing site on the southern end of the reservation, forcing people without cars to hitchhike or walk for miles to get swabbed. Those who do recover from the virus often find themselves stranded at hospitals hundreds of miles from the reservation, and have to call a tiny team of drivers to shuttle them home.

In October, as an outbreak of coronavirus swarmed across North Dakota, Rita Hunte, 66, woke one morning gasping for breath in her riverside community of Cannon Ball. She called her daughter and said: My girl, I don't know what to do.

She spent two days in the 12-bed Indian Health Service hospital on the reservation, begging to be transferred out, her daughter, Marlo, said. She was taken to a hospital in Fargo where she lingered for weeks, mostly unconscious and on a breathing machine, as her daughter washed her hair and tried to move her arms and legs to reduce the swelling. She died on Nov. 29.

Ms. Hunte was one of just 290 people who still spoke fluent Dakota, and in her work with a tribal cancer program, she would often pray with patients before they traveled to Bismarck or the Mayo Clinic for treatment.

Since her death, her widower, Marlon, has been trying to stay busy with church services where he plays acoustic guitar and lays hands on people as they testify to the goodness of the L/rd. But his daughter said that Mr. Hunte's role as a respected elder has paradoxically isolated him even further. Some neighbors now keep their distance because they are uneasy about asking whether he is doing OK, Marlo Hunte said.

“I feel a little lost there every now and then,“ Mr. Hunte said.

Many of the elders now perishing are dying after months of monastic precautions. When the pandemic first erupted, Jesse Taken Alive helped record public-service messages in Lakota urging fellow elders to protect themselves. He set up a computer in the tepee beside his home where he taught remote language classes.

But as the pandemic grew worse, requests from his community piled up: Help with funeral prayers. Help with a ceremony. He had been a tribal chairman, and he and his wife, Cheryl, had spent their lives trying to help people on Standing Rock, whether it was fighting for tribal land and sovereignty or addressing a rash of suicides.

“We tried our best to keep everyone away,“ their daughter Nola Taken Alive said. “But my Dad had a hard time saying no when people needed him.“

The couple ended up on separate floors of the same hospital in Fargo. When Cheryl died in November, the fight began to fade in Jesse, said his son, Ira, who is also vice-chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Jesse Taken Alive died on Dec. 14. The family has been reflecting on the loss — Delores, the walking dictionary of Lakota linguistics. Ralph's quiet dignity. Jesse and Cheryl's deep faith and love for each other and their people.

https://www.keslingfuneralhome.net/obituary/cheryl-taken-alive

“We'll still be here,“ Nola Taken Alive said. “But it's going to be a struggle. How do I fill their shoes?“

Jack Healy is a Colorado-based national correspondent who focuses on rural places and life outside America's “City Limits“ signs. He has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a graduate of the University of Missouri's journalism school. @jackhealynyt • Facebook
__________________________ 

The desire for harsh punishment of Capitol rioters is understandable, and I share it. But "No Fly" lists are generally bad, ineffective, illiberal, opposed by ACLU, and have falsely entrapped innocent people - like Rep. John Lewis.

Apparently that time he had to be whisked away from a mob chanting about lynching him doesn't count as a seam?
https://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP/status/1349076634981306377

THANK YOU DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR GRETCHEN WHITMER: Former Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they're being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in 2014-15, The Associated Press has learned.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/michigan-plans-to-charge-ex-gov-snyder-in-flint-water-probe/2021/01/12/92706318-550d-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html

On road, players and staff can't leave hotel -- except for team activities or emergencies, sources tell ESPN. No more list of approved restaurants.
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1349077701940940803

At home, players and team staff must remain at residence except to attend team-related activities at facility orarena, exercise outside, perform essential activities or the occurrence of extraordinary circumstances.
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1349077338647093248

Oh, hey, look, this woman once wrote some crazy stuff <checks notes> 26+ years ago as a college student. Since then, she's been to law school, worked as a civil rights attorney in the Bush II Justice Department, the NAACP, and led the NY Civil Rights bureau.
https://twitter.com/AugustTakala/status/1348806347689701377

Federal judge halts executions of last 2 Trump-era death row inmates, who were diagnosed with COVID-19.
https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1349083286593798145

YEP: Lawmakers Warn Trump's "Totally Appropriate" Comment Proves Trump Willing to Foment Violence Again. "These remarks make it clear that he has no problem endangering others or inciting insurrection."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/12/lawmakers-warn-totally-appropriate-comment-proves-trump-willing-foment-violence

Fiona Hill: Yes, It Was a Coup. Here's Why. The storming of the Capitol building on January 6 was the culmination of a series of actions and events taken or instigated by Trump so he could retain the presidency that together amount to an attempt at a self-coup.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/11/capitol-riot-self-coup-trump-fiona-hill-457549
___________________________

As each day passes, we get closer to the possibility of Kyrie announcing his retirement from the NBA. Noting this, I thought it would be nice to look back at some notable moments throughout Kyrie's potential 27 game era with the Nets.

September 24, 2019: Kyrie gets elbowed in the face during practice.

October 10, 2019: Kyrie suits up for his first Net game in a preseason exhibition against the Lakers and reaggravates his facial injury within a minute.

October 23, 2019: Kyrie drops 50 in his official debut against the Timberwolves but misses the game-winner.

October 29, 2019: A report comes out indicating Kyrie refused to participate in a two-day minicamp with his teammates, put on a wearable to track his biometric data, or remove his hat in a photoshoot.

November 14, 2019: Kyrie plays his last game of 2019 due to a shoulder injury, averaging 28 and 7 assists en route to a 4-7 record.

January 12, 2020: Kyrie returns and has one of his most efficient games against the Hawks, shooting 10/11 for 21 points in just under 20 minutes.

January 15, 2020: Kyrie has one of his least efficient games against the 76ers, shooting 6/21 for 14 points in just under 37 minutes. Kyrie then states after the game that the team needs two more pieces in addition to himself, KD, DAJ, Temple, Dinwiddie and LeVert.

February 1, 2020: Kyrie plays his last game of the season after Bradley Beal inadvertently injured his knee. He averaged 27 and 6 assists over 20 games en route to an 8-12 record when he played.

March 3, 2020: Kyrie undergoes shoulder surgery, effectively ending his season.

October 1, 2020: Kyrie features as a guest on Kevin Durant's podcast. When speaking about Steve Nash, he states that he doesn't see the Nets as having a head coach, claiming he and KD could be the head coach.

December 28, 2020: Kyrie put up 29 and 6 assists through three games en route to a 2-1 record before sitting on the second night of a back-to-back after KD was announced out for Achilles management. The Nets lost in overtime to a Grizzlies team without ROTY Ja Morant for over half the game.

January 7, 2021: Kyrie put up 25 and 6 assists through four games en route to a 2-2 record before announcing he would be away from the team due to personal reasons that have yet to officially be revealed.

January 11, 2021: Kyrie was discovered to have been at a party for his sister at a New Jersey club with many people and no masks during a pandemic.

January 12, 2021: Kyrie is set to miss his fourth consecutive game due to "personal leave", is on track to extend that to six and has not publicly indicated how long he will be away from the team or why he is away from the team. If he retires, the Nets will have gone 12-15 in games Kyrie played in.
___________________________

Trump today: I think that big tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country. And I believe it's going to be a catastrophic mistake for them. They're dividing and divisive, and they're showing something that I've been predicting for a long time. I've been predicting it for a long time, and people didn't act on it.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-air-force-one-departure-joint-base-andrews-md-011221/

Trump today: We have support probably like nobody has ever seen before. Always have to avoid violence.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-air-force-one-departure-joint-base-andrews-md-011221/

Trump today: So if you read my speech — and many people have done it, and I've seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television — it's been analyzed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-air-force-one-departure-joint-base-andrews-md-011221/

Trump made no mention of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick

Reminder: Trump has mostly spoken of "history" and "heritage" in the context of preserving Confederate monuments,  mandating "patriotic" curricula - endorsing a view of the past with no room for non-white narratives, emboldening the white entitlement we saw in last week's pro-Trump terrorist attack

We are all shocked by what happened in the Capitol, but the White House refusing to send reinforcements to protect our Congress "because Trump hasn't given us the greenlight! we're following his orders to do nothing!" is the most shocking and sickening part of all. Banality of Evil.

Former Sen. Barbara Boxer will de-register as a foreign agent for Hikvision — a Chinese surveillance firm accused of abetting the country's mass internment of Uighurs — after Biden's inaugural committee said it's refunding her donation
https://www.axios.com/scoop-boxer-to-drop-representation-of-chinese-surveillance-firm-07c814f9-97d9-419b-bd95-710ead26fd39.html

FBI/DOJ press conference makes it pretty clear that the Capitol dragnet is going to be massive - stretching across entire country, lasting months, with charges against hundreds or even thousands, sedition included. The 160 cases open now will expand 'geometrically' -- U.S. atty Michael Sherwin. Justice Department and FBI News Conference on Investigation Into Capitol Attack
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507926-1/justice-department-fbi-officials-hold-news-conference-capitol-attack

75-year-old Democratic Rep Bonnie Watson, a cancer survivor, pens an op-ed about contracting Covid19 following the riots in the Capitol last week where several of her Republicans colleagues refused to wear masks. | Refusing to wear a mask is not, in fact, an act of self-expression. It's an act of public endangerment. The chaos you create in exercising your so-called freedom can cause permanent, deadly damage. I only hope that won't be the case for me and my colleagues, Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), who have also tested positive for the coronavirus. When I say that many Republicans are responsible for what happened to me, to others and to the country last week, I mean their essential failure to accept facts led us here. Much like they should be able to accept the results of an election, elected leaders should be able to accept facts like the efficacy of masks. It's clearly time for a congressional campuswide mask requirement, enforced by the House and Senate sergeants at arms.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/12/bonnie-watson-coleman-covid-republicans-masks/

OH YES: Gary Gensler is expected to be Biden's choice for SEC commissioner, though a person familiar with the transition's thinking says no decision has been made yet.

Trump, speaking in front of the border wall in Texas, just referred to an "entirely preventable" tragedy. He was talking about Democrats reversing his terroristic immigration policy, not the pro-Trump Capitol Terrorist Insurrection

Metal detectors have been set up outside the US House chamber, according to a senior Democratic aide; anyone going on the floor, including House members, must go through the metal detectors. ||| Members have been able to carry guns  on the floor until now. The implicit message of this is unmistakable: members of Congress cannot be trusted not to join in an insurrection. Also masks are mandatory on the House floor or person will be removed.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1349100508418633729

"Anyone who watched those horrible hours unfold should have been galvanized to rebuke these insurrectionists in the strongest terms. Instead, some members...chose to put political theater ahead of the defense of the Constitution and the republic." Jason Schmid, Armed Services aide, is a longtime top policy staffer on the Republican side of the committee. He did two tours of duty in Iraq as an Army intelligence analyst. He was wounded there while embedded with an Iraqi infantry battalion.
https://politico.com/news/2021/01/12/gop-aide-resigns-after-capitol-riots-457867

You might've received a text message from a loved one saying not to update your iPhone because it'll disable your Emergency Broadcasting System. This is not remotely true. It's a QAnon conspiracy theory, and it's everywhere since the Parler shutdown.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/qanon-falsehoods-move-text-message-chains-n1253962

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has reassigned Trump appointees David Legates and Ryan Maue, senior officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who were appointed by Trump, for their role in producing and publishing controversial papers questioning the seriousness of climate change without White House approval.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/01/11/controversial-climate-skeptics-release-papers/ 

The most remarkable thing about stories like this is that it's easy to guess the subject's party affiliation before you see it, because this is increasingly common in the Republicans and nonexistent among Dems, and yet we just kind of shrug our shoulders at that and move on: Leticia Remauro, a Republican running for Staten Island borough president, said "heil Hitler" at an anti-lockdown protest because she was "tongue-tied." She says she meant to say "mein FĆ¼hrer."
https://nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-staten-island-lockdown-protest-20210112-5c43igacqrbydf5zvjnu2t2ehm-story.html

House Democrats will start implementing fines for lawmakers who don't wear masks on the House floor. $500 fine for first offense.  $2,500 if a member does it again. Fines will be deducted from member pay (no use of campaign funds or MRA for fines), per senior Dem aide.

Biden called McConnell yesterday and asked if Senate could dual track impeachment trial and cabinet confirmations.  

Trump-Appointed Federal Judge Rejects Claim That Pennsylvania Supreme Court "Changed the Rules" for Counting Ballots
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/trump-appointed-federal-judge-rejects-claim-that-pennsylvania-supreme-court-changed-the-rules-for-counting-ballots/

Federal court rules in favour of Democrat who won Pa. Senate race but was illegally and unconstitutionally blocked from being sworn-in
https://whyy.org/articles/federal-court-rules-in-favor-of-democrat-who-won-pa-senate-race-but-was-barred-by-gop/

Damian Lillard: "I feel like I'm living my life in a box, I'll go to practice, I go back home. I don't go anywhere else. I can't go to dinner, go to a movie or hang out with my family cause my family members they have lives. I live on my phone cause I can't interact with people in person basically"
https://streamable.com/prk3rz

Trump did not move to act. And the message from those around him — that he needed to call off the angry mob he had egged on just hours earlier, or lives could be lost — was one to which he was not initially receptive. He deliberately withheld aid to combat the insurrection.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-mob-failure/2021/01/11/36a46e2e-542e-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

Census Bureau's watchdog CommerceOIG says whistleblowers reported that the bureau's director, a Trump appointee, wants a data report about noncitizens, including unauthorized immigrants, produced by Jan. 15, calling it "a number one priority." CommerceOIG says Census Bureau's career officials are concerned "incomplete data could be misinterpreted, misused, or otherwise tarnish" bureau's reputation." Whistleblowers told OIG they haven't had "sufficient time" to run quality checks and aren't sure about data accuracy. CommerceOIG says Jan. 15 deadline allegedly set by Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham "may no longer be in effect." OIG says Dillingham "inquired into a financial reward for speed on this directive." CommerceOIG wants written responses from Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham by "close of business" on Jan. 14 and says it may interview Dillingham under oath. This report that CommerceOIG says Dillingham has requested is related to the executive order Trump issued after courts blocked his admin from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The order directs the compiling of government records. With no citizenship question on the 2020 census forms, the Trump administration has been banking on creating data about noncitizens, including unauthorized immigrants, by matching these government records.
https://oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-21-019-M.pdf

GOOD: Republicans have long feared the prospect of Mr. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, taking the helm of the powerful committee given his embrace of bigger government and more federal spending with borrowed money. With Democrats reclaiming the Senate, that fear is about to become a reality. Mr. Sanders, the most progressive member of the chamber, will have a central role in shaping and steering the Democrats' tax and spending plans through a Congress that they control with the slimmest of margins. Mr. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and twice ran unsuccessfully for the party's presidential nomination, said he would move quickly in his new role to push through a robust and deficit-financed economic stimulus package soon after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office. "I believe that the crisis is of enormous severity and we've got to move as rapidly as we can," Mr. Sanders said in an interview. Despite Democrats' narrow control of the Senate, Mr. Sanders is expected to exert heavy influence over taxes, health care, climate change and several other domestic issues. That is because his role as budget chairman will give him control over an incredibly powerful congressional tool that allows certain types of legislation to win Senate approval with just a simple majority. That tool — a budget mechanism called reconciliation — allows Congress to move some legislation without gaining 60 votes. It has become the vehicle for several major legislative efforts this century, including tax cuts under President Trump and President George W. Bush, and the final version of President Barack Obama's signature health care bill. | Mr. Sanders said in the interview that he wanted an initial, emergency stimulus package to be "big." He thinks it must include an additional $1,400 in direct payments for adults and children, on top of the $600 that Congress just passed, along with money for states and cities to fund coronavirus19 vaccine distribution, testing and contact tracing. He also wants to create an emergency universal health care program, so that anyone can get medical treatment during the pandemic, whether they currently have insurance or not. Mr. Sanders said he had been speaking with Mr. Biden about the scale and timing of stimulus legislation. He said that he did not intend to try to force his long-held priorities, such as "Medicare for all," into a relief bill. However, he does intend to test the legal bounds of how reconciliation can be used so that Democrats can pass policies that go beyond traditional budget items and address "structural problems in American society." | Under Senate procedure, the details of any tax increases would come from the Finance Committee and be spearheaded by a liberal Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has also vowed to move aggressively on stimulus and raising taxes for corporations and the rich. "You have to start with the proposition that everybody has to pay their fair share." Mr. Wyden said in an interview.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/politics/bernie-sanders-budget-committee.html

The pro-Trump Capitol terrorists weren't 'low class'. The business owners, real-estate brokers, executive ceos, military service members, law enforcement members, current members of local and state legislatures, etc, who rioted acted not out of economic desperation but because they literally worship Trump and Trump's policies and want Trump in power forever. Although any crowd that size is bound to include people who are struggling financially, no one should be shocked to see the middle classes and upper classes so well represented among the mob. The notion that political violence simply emerges out of economic desperation, rather than ideology, is comforting. But it's false. Throughout American history, political violence has often been guided, initiated, and perpetrated by respectable people from educated middle- and upper-class backgrounds. The belief that only impoverished people engage in political violence—particularly right-wing political violence—is a misconception often cultivated by the very elites who benefit from that violence. The members of the mob that attacked the Capitol and beat a police officer to death last week were not desperate. They were there because they believed they had been unjustly stripped of their inviolable right to rule forever. They believed that not only because of the third-generation real-estate tycoon who incited them, but also because of the wealthy Ivy Leaguers who encouraged them to think that the election had been stolen. Respectable people can and are very dangerous.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/thoroughly-respectable-rioters/617644/
https://www.syracuse.com/state/2021/01/utica-business-owner-arrested-in-capitol-riot-they-treated-us-like-animals.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09/business/capitol-hill-ceo-arrested-trump/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-police-investigation/off-duty-police-firefighters-under-investigation-in-connection-with-u-s-capitol-riot-idUSKBN29F0KH
https://www.syracuse.com/state/2021/01/utica-business-owner-arrested-in-capitol-riot-they-treated-us-like-animals.html
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-air-force-combat-veteran-breached-the-senate
https://nypost.com/2021/01/08/texas-woman-flew-on-private-jet-to-washington-d-c-to-storm-the-capitol/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adam-johnson-arrested-capital-riots-pelosi-lectern/

Trump has $340M in 3 loans at Deutsche Bank coming due in 2023 and 2024. With the German bank looking to cut ties with him, he can't refinance and he will be forced to repay them in full or find another institution to lend him the money.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/12/trumps-business-prospects-just-got-dimmer-as-wall-street-backs-away-from-tarnished-brand.html

Materials (Evidence) in support of impeaching Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors
https://judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/house_judiciary_committee_report_-_materials_in_support_of_h._res._24.pdf

NYC has mass vaccine sites, 24/7 appointments, and multiple categories of essential workers AND seniors being vaccinated. I daresay Bill De Blasio might deserve credit for how the city has stepped up its vaccine rollout.

Ali Alexander, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who emerged as a leader of Stop the Steal, claimed that he, along with Terrorist leader alleges that three Republican lawmakers helped facilitate last week's terrorist attack: Mr. Brooks, Mr. Gosar and Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, had set the Jan. 6 event in motion. https://nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/republicans-capitol-riot.html

Insect populations suffering death by 1,000 cuts. Frightening global decline is tearing apart tapestry of life, with climate crisis a critical concern
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/11/insect-populations-suffering-death-1000-cuts-scientists

YEP: The Texans organization is known for wasting players careers. Since Jack Easterby has walk into the building nothing good has happened
https://twitter.com/johnson80/status/1349084500840640518

Head coaches remaining in the AFC playoff field:
- Andy Reid
- Longtime Andy Reid assistant John Harbaugh
- Longtime Andy Reid assistant Sean McDermott
- Kevin Stefanski, who had his start as an Eagles training camp intern under Andy Reid

Seahawks fired OC Brian Schottenheimer. His offense set a number of Seahawks' records. But after meeting last night, it was evident there were philosophical differences between Schottenheimer and HC Pete Carroll. They decided a parting was in the best interests of both sides.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1349146332783665154

"Lamar Jackson said he has "zero experience" playing in the snow and he hopes he doesn't have to Saturday night"
https://twitter.com/jeffzrebiec/status/1349134066554171394

Wisconsin Senate Republicans block resolution condemning U.S. Capitol assault and affirming Biden victory
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/12/wisconsin-senate-gop-blocks-resolution-condemning-u-s-capitol-riot/6646635002/

NPR walking into the party like "do I have the right address?" The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. Dan Bongino
2. Ben Shapiro
3. Breitbart
4. Dan Bongino
5. Ben Shapiro
6. NPR
7. Fox News
8. CNN
9. Fox News
10. Fox News
Good to see right-wing rhetoric being censored and suppressed
https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/1349045846948548611

FBI: No evidence antifa involved in Capitol riot
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/533432-fbi-no-evidence-antifa-involved-in-capitol-riot

Georgia man arrested following Capitol insurrection has died by suicide. Killing yourself to escape consequences you received by following the directions of a failed business man and reality TV show host. Literally a cult.
https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-man-arrested-following-capitol-insurrection-has-died-by-suicide/TYSJF7II6JG63G7K6JGON522JQ/

Joel Embiid tonight: 45/16/4 and 5 assists, on 16/23 shooting, 13/13 from the line

Draymond stops a 3 on 1 fastbreak by himself
https://streamable.com/7th7ik

Full video of James Harden interview. He sounds so defeated. It's just sad. I don't think Harden's assessment is far off. Whether he should be saying that out loud is another discussion, but watching the Rockets it's hard to come to the conclusion that Harden is the only major issue. I'm not even sure he's the biggest impediment to competing at the contender level. Their talent has gradually decreased for 3 years (which you can partially blame Harden for) and I don't really understand what Silas is trying to run with that personnel. The Rockets have a solid team with playoff strength, their play is inexcusable. The quarantine is over, injuries are over, these players should understand how to play against all the opposing players/teams.
https://streamable.com/unuzwq

Durant nails the step back 3 dagger on the Nuggets
https://streamable.com/bbapq8

Curry receives this crazy pass in pregame warmups and he can't believe it
https://streamable.com/iyh848

Andrew Wiggin's effort on defense has been amazing this season and results are showing, he needs to stay with Golden State

Curry misses both free-throws
https://streamable.com/tjr9y0

Myles Turner tonight: 22pts | 11reb | 2stl | 4blk and the W over Golden State

Draymond plays DPOY level defence then hits all rim on his dunk
https://streamable.com/6h6otp

Tyler Herro with the clutch 4pt play
https://streamable.com/koh852

Montrez blows another open dunk for the Lakers. This is the third missed dunk on this hoop.https://streamable.com/k8hceb

Jokic blows by Jarret Allen off the post
https://streamable.com/cc0jf9

Mikie Sherrill says unidentified Republican lawmakers led a reconnaissance mission the day before the Capitol attack
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/mikie-sherrill-capitol-hill-attack-458655
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/12/mikie-sherrill-pro-trump-rioters-got-tour-congress-members/6648386002/ 

Google suspends Trump's YouTube account, disables comments
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/12/google-suspends-trumps-youtube-account-disables-comments.html

Former Officer Who Kneeled On George Floyd's Neck To Stand Trial Alone | A Minnesota judge has ruled that the former Minneapolis police officer seen in cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd's neck for several minutes last summer, will stand trial alone in March. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill ruled that the trial for Derek Chauvin, who is facing charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter for his role in Floyd's death, will begin on March 8.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/12/956079049/court-says-former-officer-who-kneeled-on-george-floyds-neck-to-stand-trial-alone

America can't 'move forward' until Trump and Republican lawmakers who enabled him and continue to defend him and his agenda face consequences

DC protester arrested with 11 Molotov cocktails, several guns had list of "good guys" and "bad guys" | On a piece of paper seized by investigators, apparently written by Coffman, he lists federal judge David Hamilton as a "bad guy" and also includes the name of Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., with a note written next to it saying "one of two Muslims in the House of Reps." | A separate handwritten note was found in the back of a magazine in Coffman's truck that contained "purported contact information" for talk show host Mark Levin, Fox News' Sean Hannity and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, prosecutors said.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/dc-protester-arrested-11-molotov-cocktails-guns-list/story?id=75211356 

YES EXCELLENT (wanted her for Secretary of State or VP or UN Ambassador): U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as his choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), citing her deep experience addressing crises around the world
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-usaid-idUSKBN29I1EC 

GOOD: The incoming administration will focus on decreasing wait times to obtain citizenship, granting automatic green cards to protected undocumented immigrants and adding immigration judges to decrease backlogs on court hearings, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said on Tuesday. Speaking with Univision's Ilia CalderĆ³n, Harris teased a sweeping immigration reform bill that her and President-elect Joe Biden's administration plans to introduce. Harris said their bill would grant green cards immediately to immigrants protected by the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policies. She added that the administration would also try to decrease the amount of time required to acquire U.S. citizenship to eight years from 13 years by making the naturalization process more efficient. | "Reversing Trump's anti-immigrant policies is a beginning, but it cannot be the end of Biden's immigration plan," said Pastor Chelsea Spyres and the Rev. Edwin Estevez, who lead the Grace United Methodist Church and the Riverfront Church in Wilmington.
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/01/12/kamala-harris-immigration-green-cards-daca-citizenship-458455

Supreme Court clears way for Lisa Montgomery's illegally and unconstitutional execution instead of restoring her sentence to life in prison
https://www.kshb.com/news/crime/supreme-court-clears-way-for-lisa-montgomerys-execution

House Morning Session - Debate and Votes on Article of Impeachment of Donald J. Trump - 01/13/2021 | Live - 9:00 AM ET
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507879-1/house-session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnyfYgu5iqg
https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates 

The attack on the Capitol was coordinated and planned. Here are the insurrectionists talking about the plan, including detailed schematics of the Capitol building.
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1349312406804025345 

Republicans repeatedly say that there will be a peaceful transfer of power as if one week ago pro-Trump terrorists who are their own base did not attack the Capitol in an effort to stop Joe Biden from being acknowledged as the next president. 5 people are now dead. Seems that ship has sailed.

Donald Trump is a living, breathing impeachable offense. He is what he is.

Alyssa Pressley said her office's panic buttons were torn the day before the Capitol riots. The buttons had been used before, and Groh said she had not switched offices since then.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/13/nation/it-was-like-looking-evil-capitol-attack-through-eyes-massachusetts-delegation/

James Harden did not attend Rockets practice today. The Rockets are sifting through a potential deal soon
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1349433203866689538

Nets officially list Kyrie Irving (personal reasons) as out for tonight's game against New York.
https://twitter.com/MarcJSpears/status/1349404552034877442

Kyrie Irving last month: "I am committed to show up to work every day, ready to have fun, compete, perform, and win championships alongside my teammates and colleagues in the Nets organization."
https://deadspin.com/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-kyrie-enigmatic-star-i-1846050099

They'll scapegoat DC Chuck Pagano & pretend to make some changes. Ryan Pace will make more aggressive off-season moves & put this team further in the hole for the future. Matt Nagy will continue to call plays with no accountability. Buckle up #Bears fans. Enjoy mediocrity.
https://twitter.com/AaronLemingNFL/status/1349152037708181505

Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano is retiring
https://twitter.com/kfishbain/status/1349151488279515139

Bears chairmain George McCaskey says the decisions announced today to retain Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy might not be the "easiest or most popular" but they believe they're the "best for the Bears."
https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1349387705227079680

Banned from Twitter, Trump is forced to communicate with the public by press release, like some kind of caveman.

Capitol Police added tables to block Republicans from walking around new metal detector. Pelosi's office asked cops to make it physically impossible to evade machine en route to House floor
https://twitter.com/stevennelson10/status/1349446112718024705

Authorities: Man in 'Camp Auschwitz' shirt at riot arrested
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-norfolk-virginia-riots-d3bc1e44164192d524143ccd1714b027

Scalise quoting Lincoln's second inaugural to push for not impeaching the president. What happened before that speech? And...after?

Reminder that by Inauguration Day there will be more US troops in DC than there are in Iraq or Afghanistan ... and they're there to protect the US Government from its own citizens.

The James Harden Houston Rockets era is over. Brooklyn is acquiring James Harden in a three-way deal with Cleveland. Rockets receive: Victor Oladipo, Dante Exum, Rodions Kurucs, 3 Brooklyn first-rounders (22, 24, 26), 1 MIL first (22, unprotected), 4 BKN 1st round swaps (21, 23, 25, 27). Pacers receive: Caris LeVert, 2nd-rounder. Cavs: Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince. The Indiana Pacers are moving Victor Oladipo to the Rockets for package around Caris LeVert.   

DeMarcus Cousins: "The disrespect started way before any interview. Just his approach to the training camp, showing up the way he did, the antics off the court. The disrespect started way before. This isn't something that all of a sudden happened last night."
https://streamable.com/pjhdzt

DeMarcus Cousins: "Other 14 the guys in the locker room have done nothing to him. For us to be on the receiving end of disrespectful comments and antics...it's unfair to the rest of the guys in the locker room.
https://twitter.com/rockets_insider/status/1349443350320066566  

Andrew Bogut says Steve Kerr saved Draymond from playing overseas: "Green was almost out of the league," Bogut said. "A lot of people don't realize, [coach] Mark Jackson tried to play him at the three more than the four and it wasn't his natural position." "He struggled his rookie year to find what his role was in the NBA and within the team," Bogut said. "Once he got that opportunity from Steve, it kind of all changed. He's the first to tell you, he was almost on a plane to Europe with the way he was being played earlier in his career."
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/steve-kerr-saved-draymond-green-playing-overseas-andrew-bogut-says

As Draymond's plane takes off: "Mama, there goes that man."

Andrew Wiggins is currently 5th in the league in total blocks with 20.

-Impeached twice
-Lost popular vote twice
-Lost House of Reps
-Lost Senate
-Lost White House
-Lost AZ senate race for his party
-Lost GA senate race for his party
-Tanked the economy
-Killed 381k+ Americans through his Covid19 response
-Failed coup attempt leaving 5 people dead

The House has voted 232 to 197 to impeach President Trump for inciting insurrection.
10 Republicans joined 222 Democrats:
Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
Peter Meijer (R-MI)
Fred Upton (R-MI)
Liz Cheney (R-WY)
John Katko (R-NY)
Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)
Tom Rice (R-SC)
Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
David Valadao (R-CA)

The permanent HQ of the U.S. Space Command will be illegally and unconstitutionally re-located to Alabama, directly attacking and underminding the US military and US national security, to reward Republican Alabama for supporting Trump and hurt a Colorado that swung hard Democrat.
https://aldailynews.com/breaking-u-s-space-command-to-locate-at-huntsvilles-redstone-arsenal/

One week after he fomented a mob that stormed the Capitol, interrupted the certification of the Electoral College vote, and left five people dead, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to be impeached twice in a single term. It is now the job of the Senate to try him. Incoming majority leader Chuck Schumer is exploring ways to force the Senate to meet in emergency session. The current majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, says that won't happen. That is a mistake. The trial ought to begin as soon as the upper chamber of Congress receives the article of impeachment. There is no reason to delay. And there is no time to waste. Obstacles to a speedy trial are either procedural or unpersuasive. Is the Senate truly unable to perform its constitutional function before Joe Biden's inauguration? The senators are around. It's not like they have anything better to do. Plenty of them live within driving distance to the Capitol. Others are planning confirmation hearings next week for Biden's nominees. Would the Senate take this nonchalant attitude toward another Pearl Harbor or 9/11? Such a parallel is not drawn lightly. The January 6 attack on Capitol Hill also lives in infamy. Donald Trump's behaviour since the election guarantees that he will be remembered as a villain of American history. This menace to American democracy is no less urgent because it comes from within. On the contrary: Internal threats to the rule of law deserve rapid and unequivocal suppression. Trying and convicting Trump before his term is up stigmatizes his conduct. It sets a precedent. Up to this point, Trump has set the example. Now let Congress turn him into an example of what happens to presidents who endanger the Constitution and its officers. Donald Trump cannot police himself. His first Senate acquittal did not prevent him from spreading lies and conspiracy theories about the election. Nothing he did before, during, or after the battle of Capitol Hill lessens his culpability in that egregious event. He pressured Georgia's secretary of state, its chief elections investigator, and a U.S. attorney to find the votes necessary for him to win. He castigated Mike Pence for failing to perform an unconstitutional act, placing his own vice president's life in danger. He watched idly as the rioters sacked the people's House, defaced the legislative branch with urine and feces, interrupted the operation of government, and caused death and destruction. He refused to take responsibility. And he implicitly threatened more chaos if Congress impeached him. The devotion that Trump's most fanatical supporters feel toward him will not go away on its own. It has to be severed. And Congress is in a position to act. Would conviction make him a martyr? Perhaps to a select few. But it would also weaken him and his cause. The Scopes trial delegitimized William Jennings Bryan. Joseph McCarthy didn't recover from censure. If convicted, Congress could forbid Trump from holding office and strip him of taxpayer-provided benefits such as a pension, office space, and travel budget. He won't be able to contest the constitutionality of that conviction, and its consequences, if it happens before his term ends. There is no excuse for delaying a trial until he is out of office.

Former Olympic swimmer Klete Keller charged in Capitol riot
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-olympic-swimmer-klete-keller-seen-among-mob-capitol-according-n1254084

Tom Rice, R-SC, a surprise "yes" vote: "Yet, the President has not addressed the nation to ask for calm. He has not visited the injured and grieving. He has not offered condolences. Yesterday in a press briefing at the border, he said his comments were 'perfectly appropriate.'"
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1349489923418685440

Almost all the House Republicans voted to shield Trump from punishment nearly two years before their next election, one week before he leaves office, and one week after he incited a deadly insurrection that threatened their lives

Kevin McCarthy, in suing last summer over the proxy voting rules, called it "a brazen violation of the Constitution." His Republican House colleagues disagree: 14 Republicans voted by proxy today on the impeachment vote (all voted nay):
1.Baird
2.Bergman
3.Bilirakis
4.Buchanan
5.Crenshaw
6.DesJarlais
7.Dunn
8.Fleischmann
9.Lamborn
10.LaTurner
11.Murphy
12.Steel
13.Walorski
14.Young

My fellow Americans. I want to speak to you tonight about the troubling events of the past week. As I have said, the incursion of the U.S. Capitol struck at the very heart of our Republic. It angered and appalled millions of Americans across the political spectrum. I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America Great Again has always been about defending the rule of law, supporting the men and women of law enforcement, and upholding our Nation's most sacred traditions and values. Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans. If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement. You're attacking it, and you are attacking our country. We can not tolerate it. Tragically, over the course of the past year, made so difficult because of COVID-19, we have seen political violence spiral out of control. We have seen too many riots, too many mobs, too many acts of intimidation and destruction. It must stop. Whether you are on the right, or on the left, a Democrat or a Republican, there is never a justification for violence. No excuses, no exceptions. America is a nation of laws. Those who engaged in the attacks last week will be brought to justice. Now I am asking everyone who has ever believed in our agenda to be thinking of ways to ease tensions, calm tempers, and help to promote peace in our country. There has been reporting that additional demonstrations are being planned in the coming days, both here in Washington and across the country. I have been briefed by the U.S. Secret Service on the potential threats. Every American deserves to have their voice heard in a respectful and peaceful way. That is your 1st Amendment right. But I cannot emphasize that there must be no violence, no law-breaking, and no vandalism of any kind. Everyone must follow our laws and obey the instructions of law enforcement. I have directed federal agencies to use all necessary resources to maintain order. In Washington D.C., we are bringing in thousands of National Guard members to secure the city and ensure that a transition can occur safely and without incident. Like all of you, I was shocked and deeply saddened by the calamity at the Capitol last week. I want to thank the hundreds of millions of incredible American citizens who have responded to this moment with calm, moderation, and grace. We will get through this challenge, just like we always do. I also want to say a few words about the unprecedented assault on free speech we have seen in recent days. These are tense and difficult times. The efforts to censor, cancel, and blacklist our fellow citizens are wrong, and they are dangerous. What is needed now is for us to listen to one another, not to silence one another. All of us can choose by our actions to rise above the rancor and find common ground and shared purpose. We must focus on advancing the interests of the whole nation, delivering the miracle vaccines, defeating the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, protecting our national security, and upholding the rule of law. Today I am calling on all Americans to overcome the passions of the moment, and join together as one American people. Let us choose to move forward united, for the good of our families, our communities and our country. Thank you, G/d bless you, and G/d bless America.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1349492130578919425

2:54 "I cannot emphasize that there must be no violence, no law breaking..."
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1349492130578919425 

The $200 prescription drug gift cards for Medicare patients haven't been sent out — and Administrator Verma told me she doesn't anticipate they will be.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-prescription-drug-price-gift-certificates-medicare-seema-verma-2021-1

.@RepBillJohnson's office has not responded to my questions about his relationship with ATG Worldwide, a group that led a "caravan" to the Capitol attack. Here's another picture of him posing with them during a 2018 weapons training. https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-real-concern-republican-colleagues-aided-capitol-attack-000412354.html

Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins has resigned. Hawkins' name was conspicuously absent last month when Texas AG Paxton asked Supreme Court to overturn election results in four other states.
https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2021/01/13/texas-solicitor-general-kyle-hawkins-resigning-attorney-general-ken-paxton/

Ex-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty in the Flint water disaster, which made the majority Black city a national symbol of government dereliction.
https://apnews.com/article/health-michigan-flint-rick-snyder-54755694e7655cc122567010e6ce26a6

Very telling video of rioters outside the Capitol shouting at police: "We were invited here. We were invited by the president of the United States"
https://twitter.com/i/status/1349436733889404928
https://twitter.com/drewharwell/status/1349436733889404928

QAnon extremist followed "request of the President that all 'patriots' come to D.C."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/qanon-capitol-siege-trump/

"This is the closest he'll ever get to telling us to revolt"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/09/trump-twitter-protests/

"The movement has a spiritual leader, which is Trump"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/trump-online-siege/

These people understood exactly what Trump meant and so did all the Republicans who are defending him. This whole pretending that Trump did not incite is pure evil terrorism/treason/sedition. He told them to march and they marched.  They freely admitted that is what they thought be wanted to do.  Everything else is noise.   He has developed this pattern of having people read between the lines. Michael Cohen laid it out extremely clearly, that Trump talks in "code" when giving and implying orders. Kinda like a mob boss..
https://www.miamiherald.com/article226865474.html

The Senate trial is gonna be lit, all the tweets and videos.

Pelosi Statement Announcing Rule Change Mandating Fines for Refusing to Follow New Chamber Security Screening Protocols | "On behalf of the House, I express my deepest gratitude to the U.S. Capitol Police for the valor that they showed during the deadly insurrection on the Capitol, as they protected the lives of the staff and the Congress. "Sadly, just days later, many House Republicans have disrespected our heroes by verbally abusing them and refusing to adhere to basic precautions keeping members of our Congressional community, including the Capitol Police, safe.  The House will soon move forward with a rule change imposing fines on those who refuse to abide by these protections.  The fine for the first offense will be $5,000 and $10,000 for the second offense.  The fines will be deducted directly from Members' salaries by the Chief Administrative Officer.  "It is tragic that this step is necessary, but the Chamber of the People's House must and will be safe."
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/11321-2

The entire Pistons team makes a business decision and let Giannis get a free dunk
https://streamable.com/6knwkq

Republicans Are Tough On Terrorism Until The Terrorists Are Republicans
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/benghazi-capitol-attack-rebublicans-cruz-jordan.html

Trump Thought He Could Convince Pence To Overthrow The Election By Calling Him A P//ssy
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/mike-pence-donald-trump-attack 

Two men accused of driving with an AR-15 and a Samurai sword in a Q-bedazzled SUV to a Philly vote-count center are facing new legal woes after they were accused of participating in the Capitol riot while out on bail:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-fanatics-antonio-lamotta-and-joshua-macias-busted-in-philly-scheme-joined-capitol-riot-prosecutors-say 

The Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico have reached multimillion-dollar settlements with mining companies to resolve claims stemming from a 2015 spill that resulted in rivers being fouled with a plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/navajo-nation-new-mexico-reach-multi-million-dollar-settlements-over-n1254169

Damian Lillard drops a cool 40 points and 13 assists tonight in the win against the Kings

The shorthanded Brooklyn Nets (7-6) defeat the New York Knicks (5-7) 116-109, led by 26 points from Kevin Durant

Nickeil Alexander-Walker tonight: 37 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist on 15-23 shooting and 5-8 from deep in 33 minutes

Paul George has made more 3s (47) than 2s (43) at a better percentage (48% to 52%) this season

Paul George gets the beautiful bounce on the and-1
https://streamable.com/lmbo5q

Alexander-Walker continues to go toe-to-toe with Kawhi and PG as he floats it in for 32
https://streamable.com/8cbgwd

Damian Lillard after answering reporter's question: "I also saw your Tweets, when you were saying there was a backcourt better than me and CJ, too."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=80&v=JCcQdcxRi4I

Kevin Durant one month ago: "I don't think about James Harden at all"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=328Sau3g_pU

The Brooklyn Nets have a talented big three now but the rest of roster is lackluster for a contending team, specifically their defense. They have no solid defensive five currently and there is no elite defender at all on the roster. There are still potential health question marks with Kyrie and KD, with Kyrie being fairly injury prone and KD is coming off an achilles injury which could really give him problems in the playoffs with higher minutes played.

The Nets will probably be the most hated team in the NBA with Durant (mostly referred to as 'snake'), Harden (referred to as 'Literally Hitler'), and Kyrie (no nickname needed). I'm not sure you could piece together a better 'Axis of Evil' in terms of perception by NBA fans right now, unless Paul George was somehow sent to the Nets too. KD is hated on repeatedly for his Golden State decision and burner accounts, Harden is referred to as 'Hitler' and receives tons of hate both for his play style (drawing calls, flopping, iso, etc.) and his exit from the Rockets, and Kyrie is hated for his antics and eccentric weirdness.

'Isolated And Angry' Trump Refuses To Pay Rudy Giuliani For Legal Work
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-wont-pay-rudy-giuliani-election-legal-work_n_5fffa763c5b6c77d85ecbe46

Kenosha County prosecutors filed a motion Wednesday seeking to modify Kyle Rittenhouse's bail conditions after the Kenosha shooter flashed white power signs and was spotted out with Proud Boys. But Kenosha County prosecutors on Wednesday said Rittenhouse — charged with killing two people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha last August — wasn't just there with mom, but with members of the far-right Proud Boys, an extremist group that has engaged in street violence against anti-racist activists, Milwaukee television station TMJ4 reported. Footage taken from security cameras at Pudgy's Bar also appears to show Rittenhouse flashing the "okay" hand sign favored by white supremacists.
https://www.businessinsider.com/prosecutors-seek-to-change-kyle-rittenhouse-bail-conditions-2021-1
https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/kyle-rittenhouse-allegedly-flashed-white-power-sign-serenaded-with-proud-boys-song-at-mt-pleasant-bar

San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson donated max amount to pro-QAnon Rep. Lauren Boebert
https://www.sfgate.com/giants/amp/San-Francisco-Giants-owner-Charles-B-Johnson-15867235.php

A Proud Boys Member On Parler Threatened To Kill Senator-Elect Raphael Warnock
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/proud-boy-threaten-raphael-warnock-parler

Texas Senate illegally and unconstitutionally changes rules so Republicans can bring bills to floor without Democratic support
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/13/texas-senate-republicans/

Colorado's state legislature is facing a lawsuit over a modest effort to boost minority-owned small businesses during the coronavirus19 pandemic, and plans to largely undo its work this week. Lawmakers approved $4 million for minority-owned small businesses as part of last month's state stimulus package that exceeded $300 million. Lawmakers did so with recognition of both the racial wealth gap and the disproportionate economic impact of the pandemic on non-white people. But soon after the program passed, a white man who owns a Colorado Springs barbershop sued Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Minority Business Office in federal court, alleging it is unconstitutional to exclude white business owners from the program. It's one of the first things that Colorado's legislature will address during its 2021 session, which started today. Evidently not willing to wait on a ruling, lawmakers will move redirect the minority business hardship stimulus to rich white businesses.
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/01/13/minority-business/
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/local-politics/polis-sued-over-covid-relief-for-minority-owned-businesses/73-7a915155-315e-40f9-b1a5-1bef3ad00fe0

What some call "cancel culture," others simply call "consequences."

Seahawks security manager charged with child pornography
https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/seahawks-security-managers-charged-with-child-pornography/281-33d221f7-a0a8-4830-bee6-82899a3176eb

A third Washington Wizards player has tested positive for the coronavirus, sources tell ESPN. The NBA postponed Wednesday and Friday games involving the team this week.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1349745044832575492

Trump's America is just as bad as we all predicted: Delta Won't Allow DC-Bound Passengers To Check Guns Ahead Of Biden's Inauguration
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/14/biden-inauguration-delta-ceo-says-travelers-wont-be-allowed-to-check-firearms-into-dc.html

Most Republicans Believe Capitol Riot Antifa Conspiracies
https://www.newsweek.com/most-republicans-still-believe-capitol-riot-antifa-conspiracies-poll-1561542

Delta puts customers who threatened Romney, Graham on no-fly list
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/534199-delta-bans-customers-who-harassed-romney-graham-ceo

The entire National Mall will be closed for Inauguration Day, only accessible by media and security personnel, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues. The extraordinary closure is the latest in a series of security measures to harden the city against the type of violence that rocked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Local and federal officials had already established a downtown security zone and called up more than 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the presidential swearing in on Jan. 20. The move is significant because the Mall has been the traditional site where much of the general public has gathered to view the inauguration at the Capitol in person and on large jumbotrons.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/national-mall-closed-inaugruation-day/2021/01/14/1ca4e540-561c-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

Archaeologists find world's oldest animal cave painting
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55657257

Republican Senator Tom Cotton: "I have weighed all the evidence and I have determined that Trump is not a Democrat, so I will not vote to convict."
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cotton-announces-he-wont-convict-trump-in-senate-impeachment-trial

Dr. Harold Bornstein, Trump's personal physician, dead at 73. Bornstein had served as Trump's physician for more than three decades, a position that thrust him into the national spotlight during and after the 2016 campaign, including when he claimed to CNN in 2018 that Trump dictated the doctor's glowing 2015 letter about the then-candidate's health. Bornstein was let go as Trump's physician after he aggravated the President when he admitted to The New York Times in 2017 that he'd prescribed Propecia to help with hair loss.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/harold-bornstein-donald-trump/index.html

Retired Firefighter Arrested For Hurling Fire Extinguisher At Cops During Capitol Riots. They’ve arrested the man who threw the fire extinguisher at the police on Capitol siege day. Who is he? Retired firefighter Robert Sanford of Chester, PA—he faces three federal felony charges including assaulting a police officer.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-firefighter-robert-sanford-arrested-for-allegedly-hurling-fire-extinguisher-at-cops-during-capitol-riots

In America, we believe in the peaceful transition of power. It doesn't matter who you supported in the election — once the election is over, we put country before party. Never has it been more important than right now to observe these traditions for the whole world to see. 1/
https://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1349748288363249665

I was honored to represent Arizona at the inauguration of Trump in 2017, and I am honored to represent our state at the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies next week. President-elect Biden is assuming office at a critical time in our nation's history, and I wish him well. 2/
https://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1349748400678346752

I will not agree with him on everything and I certainly will not hesitate to share my views on the public policy issues that matter to Arizonans, but I believe President-elect Biden is a good man and wants to serve his country. 3/
https://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1349748513844858882

I look forward to working with his administration and advocating for the people of Arizona. 4/4
https://twitter.com/dougducey/status/1349748601761660930

How about taking the Covid-19 pandemic seriously and making a statewide mask mandate for AZ? This is the first time Ducey has publicly acknowledged that Biden is the president elect.

New York attorney general sues NYPD, saying rough treatment of spring protesters part a longstanding pattern of abuse. In Wake of Black Lives Matter Protests, New York Attorney General Wants Federal Monitor to Oversee NYPD for Civil Rights Abuses. NewYorkStateAG is holding a press conference soon. "What we found was an egregious abuse of police power, rampant excessive use of force and leadership unable and unwilling to stop it." "This lawsuit seeks broad injunctive relief, including systemic reforms to the NYPD and a monitor to oversee the NYPD's compliance with the law." "Since the end of May 2020, my office has received more than 1,300 complaints and pieces of evidence about the NYPD misconduct. We have also received 300 submissions of written evidence." "There was ample ability and opportunity for the city and NYPD leadership to make important changes to the way that officers interact with peaceful protesters, but time and time again, they did not." "They did not train. They did not supervise. They did not stop officers who engaged in misconduct. And they did not discipline them, either. Instead, they failed the people of the city of New York." "I want to be clear. I do not think that every officer, every police officer is problematic. I have family members and close friends who have served and continue to serve in the NYPD. I respect them deeply."
https://lawandcrime.com/civil-rights/in-wake-of-black-lives-matter-protests-new-york-attorney-general-wants-federal-monitor-to-oversee-nypd-for-civil-rights-abuses/

The incitement was months in the making
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/13/trumps-actions-which-led-violence-capitol-began-months-ago

Many of those who stormed the Capitol were in DC because of Trump
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/13/house-republican-wanted-proof-incitement-here-are-four-rioters-who-came-dc-because-trump/ 

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner spent $100K of taxpayer money renting a bathroom so Secret Service agents didn't have to use theirs. Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's house, the Secret Service detail assigned to Trump's daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job.
https://washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/14/secret-service-bathroom-ivanka-trump-jared-kushner/
https://www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-100k-bathroom-rental-for-secret-service-2021-1

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to name Jaime Harrison as his pick to lead the Democratic National Committee. Harrison is the pick for DNC chair because of his trust with state parties as a former South Carolina chair and because he has a massive fundraising network now, and because his mentor Clyburn said this a week after the election: "all of Biden's friends know what I feel about it"
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/us/politics/jaime-harrison-dnc-chairman.html

Former Mike Pence Director of Communications Charged with Felony Perjury in Flint Water Crisis
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/former-mike-pence-director-of-communications-charged-with-felony-perjury-in-flint-water-crisis/

One of the most troubling things about the Capitol riot is that it seems to have drawn in people from all walks of life who have become completely unmoored from reality. These are not just members of armed militia groups. These are also your neighbours: ARRESTED: Christine Priola, a school therapist who stormed the Capitol & got to @VP's chair. She quit her job the day after the riot saying: I will be switching paths to expose the global evil of human trafficking & pedophilia, including in our govt & children's services agencies
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1349781522614804480

This backs up what a couple of CT specialists have about the Parler shutdown: Closing down platforms comes with a intelligence trade off, because it drives extremist communications underground and makes them harder for law enforcement to track.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/13/technology/telegram-signal-apps-big-tech.html

Biden expected to push for heavy investment in Ukraine aid
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/01/14/biden-expected-to-push-for-heavy-investment-in-ukraine-aid/

FBI Director Wray to Pence: FBI has already identified 200 suspects from Capitol riots on January 6th and arrested more than 100 people.
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1349843432416698371

Budget reconciliation will be Democrats' tool to get a wide range of measures through since that cannot be filibustered in the Senate. But that process takes months to play out. If they want a covid19 deal quickly, they need at least 10 Senate Republicans to join them.

The first argument was Antifa was doing the violence.  Now those arrested in the Capitol attack are trying to argue Antifa were dressed up as the cops: Man accused of beating DC Police officer at US Capitol on Jan 6 told investigators he didn't know victim was a cop.. thought he was *Antifa*  -   the officer was wearing a "Metropolitan Police Dept" uniform
https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1349842184347017222

Far-right groups are encouraging violence on Inauguration Day and beyond.
https://washingtonpost.com/national-security/far-right-violent-plans-inauguration/2021/01/14/15668f16-567d-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

Detail on Biden's $1.9 covid19 rescue plan. Most aid to be extended through Sept 2021
- $400 billion towards covid19 response (national vaccine program)
- $130 billion to Reopen Schools
- $1 trillion in direct relief ($2,000 stimulus checks, $400 unemployment insurance)
- $440 billion in support for small businesses and communities
- $9b for Tech Mod Fund with emphasis on shared services
- $690m for CISA to defend agencies and provide shared services
- $300m for GSA's tech squads
- $200m for OMB to hire 100s of tech/cyber experts
- Boosts the Child Tax Credit to $3,600
- Extends the 15% increase in food stamp benefits through September 2021
- Extends the federal eviction moratorium to September 30
- Extends the pause on student-loan payments
- $15 minimum wage
https://washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/14/biden-coronavirus-stimulus-plan/

A former Fox News guest and a pro-Trump blogger are apologizing to Seth Rich's brother and parents for a series of lies. https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1349812831651323905

It's official. Biden's DNC leadership announcement:
Jaime Harrison, Chair
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Protection
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Vice Chair
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Vice Chair
Rep. Filemon Vela Jr., Vice Chair

Leaked documents show White House blocked a critical government website to recruit election workers during the COVID19 pandemic and while Trump railed against voter fraud
https://www.businessinsider.com/election-poll-worker-2020-trump-white-house-blocked-recruitment-website-2021-1

Biden backs impeachment: Today, the members of the House of Representatives exercised the power granted to them under our Constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable. It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience. The process continues to the Senate.
https://buildbackbetter.gov/press-releases/statement-by-president-elect-joe-biden-on-the-house-of-representatives-impeachment-of-president-trump/

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner spent $100K of taxpayer money renting a bathroom so Secret Service agents didn't have to use theirs. Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's house, the Secret Service detail assigned to Trump's daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job.
https://washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/14/secret-service-bathroom-ivanka-trump-jared-kushner/
https://www.businessinsider.com/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-100k-bathroom-rental-for-secret-service-2021-1

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to name Jaime Harrison as his pick to lead the Democratic National Committee. Harrison is the pick for DNC chair because of his trust with state parties as a former South Carolina chair and because he has a massive fundraising network now, and because his mentor Clyburn said this a week after the election: "all of Biden's friends know what I feel about it"
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/us/politics/jaime-harrison-dnc-chairman.html

Former Mike Pence Director of Communications Charged with Felony Perjury in Flint Water Crisis
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/former-mike-pence-director-of-communications-charged-with-felony-perjury-in-flint-water-crisis/

One of the most troubling things about the Capitol riot is that it seems to have drawn in people from all walks of life who have become completely unmoored from reality. These are not just members of armed militia groups. These are also your neighbours: ARRESTED: Christine Priola, a school therapist who stormed the Capitol & got to @VP's chair. She quit her job the day after the riot saying: I will be switching paths to expose the global evil of human trafficking & pedophilia, including in our govt & children's services agencies
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1349781522614804480

This backs up what a couple of CT specialists have about the Parler shutdown: Closing down platforms comes with a intelligence trade off, because it drives extremist communications underground and makes them harder for law enforcement to track.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/13/technology/telegram-signal-apps-big-tech.html

Biden expected to push for heavy investment in Ukraine aid
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/01/14/biden-expected-to-push-for-heavy-investment-in-ukraine-aid/

FBI Director Wray to Pence: FBI has already identified 200 suspects from Capitol riots on January 6th and arrested more than 100 people.
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1349843432416698371

Budget reconciliation will be Democrats' tool to get a wide range of measures through since that cannot be filibustered in the Senate. But that process takes months to play out. If they want a covid19 deal quickly, they need at least 10 Senate Republicans to join them.

The first argument was Antifa was doing the violence.  Now those arrested in the Capitol attack are trying to argue Antifa were dressed up as the cops: Man accused of beating DC Police officer at US Capitol on Jan 6 told investigators he didn't know victim was a cop.. thought he was *Antifa*  -   the officer was wearing a "Metropolitan Police Dept" uniform
https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1349842184347017222

Far-right groups are encouraging violence on Inauguration Day and beyond.
https://washingtonpost.com/national-security/far-right-violent-plans-inauguration/2021/01/14/15668f16-567d-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

Detail on Biden's $1.9 covid19 rescue plan. Most aid to be extended through Sept 2021
- $400 billion towards covid19 response (national vaccine program)
- $130 billion to Reopen Schools
- $1 trillion in direct relief ($2,000 stimulus checks, $400 unemployment insurance)
- $440 billion in support for small businesses and communities
- $9b for Tech Mod Fund with emphasis on shared services
- $690m for CISA to defend agencies and provide shared services
- $300m for GSA's tech squads
- $200m for OMB to hire 100s of tech/cyber experts
- Boosts the Child Tax Credit to $3,600
- Extends the 15% increase in food stamp benefits through September 2021
- Extends the federal eviction moratorium to September 30
- Extends the pause on student-loan payments
- $15 minimum wage
https://washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/14/biden-coronavirus-stimulus-plan/

A former Fox News guest and a pro-Trump blogger are apologizing to Seth Rich's brother and parents for a series of lies. https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1349812831651323905

It's official. Biden's DNC leadership announcement:
Jaime Harrison, Chair
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Protection
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Vice Chair
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Vice Chair
Rep. Filemon Vela Jr., Vice Chair

Leaked documents show White House blocked a critical government website to recruit election workers during the COVID19 pandemic and while Trump railed against voter fraud
https://www.businessinsider.com/election-poll-worker-2020-trump-white-house-blocked-recruitment-website-2021-1

Biden backs impeachment: Today, the members of the House of Representatives exercised the power granted to them under our Constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable. It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience. The process continues to the Senate.
https://buildbackbetter.gov/press-releases/statement-by-president-elect-joe-biden-on-the-house-of-representatives-impeachment-of-president-trump/

Ray Horn: On April 28, 2020, Horn's publicist stated that he "tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 and is currently responding well to treatment".[5][26] However, his condition deteriorated, and he died at the age of 75 on May 8, 2020, at Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada.[27][28][29] The duo's spokesman, Dave Kirvin, announced Horn's death and said it was due to complications from the disease.[30] Fischbacher stated that "the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend".[27][31]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_&_Roy

Siegfried Fischbacher: In January 2021, Fischbacher announced he had terminal pancreatic cancer.[32] He died in Las Vegas on January 13, 2021, at the age of 81.[33]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_&_Roy

14 Gang Leaders Directed MS-13 "Wave of Death"
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/14/nyregion/ms-13-salvador-leaders-ranfla-nacional.html

"There is real pain overwhelming the real economy," President-elect JoeBiden says in an evening address to the nation ahead of proposing his legislative plan to combat the pandemic. "Deep suffering is in plain sight. We have to act and we have to act now.
https://twitter.com/MariannaNBCNews/status/1349874699141079043
https://c-span.org/video/?507983-1/president-elect-biden-discusses-covid-19-relief-proposal

Biden: "The decisions we make in the next few weeks and months are going to determine whether we thrive in a way that benefits all Americans or that we stay stuck in place where those at the top do great [while] economic growth for everyone else is just a spectator sport."
https://c-span.org/video/?507983-1/president-elect-biden-discusses-covid-19-relief-proposal

Arrest warrant issued for far-right personality Tim Gionet after live-streaming from riots
https://www.newsweek.com/arrest-warrant-issued-far-right-personality-tim-gionet-after-live-streaming-riots-1561794

KD went from the Splash Brothers to the Dribble Brothers

The deal is done: Urban Meyer is the next #Jaguars coach, source said.
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1349863624307826692

Russell Wilson is clear he did not support nor get consulted on the #Seahawks firing Brian Schottenheimer as his play caller. "No. You ask me am I in favor of it? No."
https://twitter.com/gbellseattle/status/1349849211999686656

Russell Wilson said he and Pete Carroll have to be on the same page in regard to who the next OC is. Wilson said he hopes to partner with Carroll in choosing the next OC. Wilson wants to be explosive and use tempo.
https://twitter.com/Joe_Fann/status/1349827568837410816

US Solar Companies Rely On Materials From Xinjiang, Where Forced Labor Is Rampant
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/forced-labor-xinjiang-solar

Chansley's attorney says his client was only following the president's invitation to march to the Capitol. "My client had heard the oft-repeated words of Trump," Al Watkins said in a press release."The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something."
https://twitter.com/AnaCabrera/status/1349877585426194437

A DC police officer swarmed by the Trump mob recalls them yelling "Kill him with his own gun!". Brutal story on DC police defending Congress:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/14/dc-police-capitol-riot/

Among those arrested in the Capitol Hill insurrection so far:
- an Olympic gold medal winner
- a CEO
- a sitting State Representative
- a retired Lt. Col in the military 
- off-duty police officers
- the son of Judge

Reminder: Only one day after the Texas Legislature convened with calls for cooperation in a perilous time, Texas Senate Republicans — led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — modified rules to block Democrats from challenging terrorist Republican legislation.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/01/13/texas-senate-modifies-rule-preserve-gop-power-limit-democrats/6654277002/

Cuba, Though Angered by Terror Designation, Is Looking Past Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/world/americas/cuba-terrorism-trump-biden.html

National Guardsman Is 1st Current Service Member to Be Arrested After Capitol Riot
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/14/national-guardsman-1st-current-service-member-be-arrested-after-capitol-riot.html 

Some great shade by WKRG here: Tuberville also questioned the timing of the inauguration on January 20. "We probably could have had a swearing-in and inauguration later after we got this virus behind us a little bit.  Again, we're talking about Washington, D.C.," Tuberville said. However, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution requires that the inauguration and swearing-in of a new President take place on January 20th.  It wasn't clear if Tuberville was aware of that during the interview.
https://wkrg.com/video/sen-tommy-tuberville-says-presidents-impeachment-makes-no-sense/

ARRESTED: Peter Francis Stager #CaveMan, 41, from Arkansas is charged with beating a Metropolitan Police officer unconscious. https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1349866264836014080

Twelve games into the season Jokic ranks fourth in steals averaging 1.8 steals per game

Shake Milton tonight against the Heat : 31/2/7 and 3/4 from 3

Curry hits the crazy deep 3 with no foul call
https://streamable.com/lwo69v

SIGH.....Blazers' Jusuf Nurkic has suffered a broken right wrist.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1349940843537461248

Jokic puts Wiseman in a blender and finishes with the nice reverse
https://streamable.com/wb8yto

Wiseman puts Bol Bol on a poster
https://streamable.com/e2jb15

Before the start of the 4th quarter of tonight's Rockets/Spurs game, Pop teaches Grant Hill how to do a coach's interview
https://streamable.com/no20ly

Wiggins blocks Jokic who wanted the foul call
https://streamable.com/u8ef04

Draymond passes up a chance to finish a wide layup and instead dishes it to Wiseman who then misses the contested layup
https://streamable.com/1okdaz

Wiggins misses a wide open layup off a sick pass by Draymond
https://streamable.com/q6jazf

Tobias Harris after 10 games: 19 points per game, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. Shooting 51% from the field, 45.1% from three on 5 attempts a game. 84% from the free throw line.

Wiseman throws it down off the Curry pick and roll
https://streamable.com/8db4gz

LaMelo shoots the 3 from way downtown
https://streamable.com/79nhxw

Christian Wood tonight vs. the Spurs: 27/15 and 3 blocks plus 5/7 from deep

The Indiana Pacers (8-4) defeat the Portland Trailblazers (7-5) 111-87 behind a 23/15/5 line from Domantas Sabonis.

Melo sends Brogdon running with the pass fake then drills the three
https://streamable.com/p0uclh

DeRozan misses a game-tying attempt and the Rockets win their first game without Harden
https://streamable.com/s1z5hh

Pacers coach Nate Bjorkgren has to tell TJ McConnell to stop trying at end of game after saying goodbye to Blazers coaches.
https://streamable.com/4r49za

LaMelo's shot attempt gets destroyed by Chris Boucher
https://streamable.com/d11g7s

Miles Bridges brings it way back and slams on Chris Boucher
https://streamable.com/of0rxs

Draymond Green tonight dropped 1 point on 0/0/25 shooting and added 4 rebounds, dished 7 assists, with 5 fouls and 5 turnovers.

1pt games, originated by Rodman

The Denver Nuggets (6-6) splash my Golden State Warriors (6-6) 114-104 behind Jokic's 23/14/10

Spurs win the tip and DeRozen with a nifty finish
https://streamable.com/0d718q

Evidence proves Larry Rendall Brock Jr., retired Texas Air Force officer, planned to take hostages in DC terrorist attack
https://www.al.com/news/2021/01/larry-rendall-brock-jr-retired-texas-air-force-officer-planned-to-take-hostages-in-dc-riot-feds-say.html

Capitol rioters communicated using military hand signals
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-rioters-communicated-using-military-hand-signals-a-law-enforcement-official-says/

Man Who Shot Video Of Ashli Babbitt's Death Gets Arrested After Telling Officers To Abandon Their Posts. John Earle Sullivan, 26, of Utah. "There are so many people," he said in video cited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Let's go. This shit is ours! Fuck yeah. We accomplished this shit. We did this together. Fuck yeah! We are all a part of this history." He also is alleged to have said, "Let's burn this shit down."
https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/man-who-shot-video-of-ashli-babbitts-death-gets-arrested-after-telling-officers-to-abandon-their-posts/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/utah-man-charged-federal-court-following-events-united-states-capitol

Sacramento Republican leader forced to resign after involvement in US Capitol siege. Jorge Riley, Corresponding Secretary of the California Republican Assembly and President of the Sacramento Republican Assembly, resigned from both positions Thursday afternoon. Photos and posts on his personal Facebook page document his participation in the siege.
https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-republican-leader-forced-resign-involvement-us-capitol-siege/35221426#

Massive Illinois Police Reform Bill Ends Cash Bail, Limits Deadly Force, Mandates Body Cameras, and Makes It Easier To Dump Crooked Cops
https://reason.com/2021/01/14/massive-illinois-police-reform-bill-ends-cash-bail-limits-deadly-force-mandates-body-cameras-and-makes-it-easier-to-dump-crooked-cops/

Republican Terrorists Lauren Boebert was refused entry at the House Chamber in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after she refused to allow Capitol police to search her bag. Police recently installed metal detectors outside the doors following violent and deadly protests at the Capitol building on Jan. 6. She also verbally attacked the Capitol Police on the day of the terrorist attack when they seized her gun and searched her bag.
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/01/13/colorado-congresswoman-lauren-boebert-refused-entry-to-house-chamber-at-newly-installed-metal-detectors/

Trump plans to leave Washington before the inauguration because he doesn't want to fly out as an ex-president or ask Biden to borrow Air Force One
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wants-leave-dc-as-president-not-ask-biden-plane-2021-1

Dozens of people on the FBI's terrorists watchlist were in DC during the siege on the Capitol showing yet another security failure
https://www.businessinsider.com/dozens-of-people-already-fbis-terrorist-list-attended-dc-rally-2021-1  

"Kill him with his own gun." An officer describes what the rioters said in the moment he lay on the US Capitol floor after having been Tasered several times in the neck.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics/police-officers-capitol-riot-hodges-fanone/index.html
https://twitter.com/i/status/1350072395818741764
https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/1350072395818741764

Yes, the Senate has the power to try a former president. The Supreme Court will not stop the Senate impeachment.

Crenshaw literally put out a campaign video on Dec 13 portraying himself as supersoldier in combat gear fighting leftists trying to take over the US government and encouraging everyone to join the fight. Trump MUST BE IMPEACHED and all the Republicans who support him charged with treason and sedition and domestic terrorism.
https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1349459211491618816 

The Washington Wizards are now up to five players who have tested positive for coronavirus
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350079730490482689

Draymond Green is averaging 4/5/6 on 28/20/64 (40.5% TS) so far this season.

Dray crashing in high-altitude Denver: He did have covid19, he may have respiratory issues affecting him.

Draymond's positive impact isn't entirely captured on the box score, but even the eye test will tell you how poorly he played this game (slow on doubles, bad doubles, slow close outs, way too many forced passes, he missed a layup, passed up a wide open one, and bricked FTs, failed to set the tone for the offense/defense) and how he needs to be much better than he has been in recent times due to how stretched thin this Dubs team is. Draymond is normally the epitome of doing the things that don't show up in the box score.

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has been fined $50,000 by the NBA for violating health and safety protocols when he attended a private indoor party last weekend.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350110697657667588

Kyrie Irving will forfeit $1.6M in salary. The amount is 1/81.6 for every game missed= $408,449 per game (4 total)
https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1350111615971184642

Irving will forfeit salary for any games missed due to five-day quarantine period. He is eligible to return to Nets team activities on Saturday if he continues to test negative for coronavirus.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350110916126388227

Kerr on Wiseman guarding Jokic tonight: "Don't bite on the pumpfakes. He's going to try to goad you into jumping. Use your advantage, which is your length and athleticism...More than likely, he'll learn some hard lessons tonight. But that's what this year is about."
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1349893536401952768

Nurse loses job after admitting of entering US Capitol building during riot
https://www.14news.com/2021/01/15/ascension-st-vincent-nurse-loses-job-involvement-us-capitol-riots/

Colorado officials pen letter requesting probe into Boebert's actions
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/534390-colorado-officials-pen-letter-requesting-probe-into-boeberts-actions

The US government will spend $500,000 deep-cleaning the White House before Biden's inauguration. The building has been at the centre of three Covid-19 outbreaks. A deep clean between administrations is expected — but contracting extra companies to help at this scale is unprecedented in modern times, presidential historian Kate Brower Andersen told ABC. The White House has 132 rooms spread over six stories. This includes 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and 28 fireplaces.
https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-inauguration-day-white-house-deep-clean-covid-trump-2021-1
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/trump-bidens-white-house-move/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ahead-inauguration-government-contracts-reveal-white-house-deep/story?id=75253472

Their employers should refuse to keep them employeed: Shitstain Mentally Ill Pro-Trump Terrorist Nurses In Kansas Dismiss Covid19 As A Hoax And Decline To Administer Covid19 Vaccine And Consider Vaccine Poison Created By Democrats To Murder Republicans. They Say Covid19 Is The Flu And Can't Be Stopped And Should Be Treated "Normally". Her argument is ludicrous and shows her ignorance. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials were some of the largest vaccine trials in history, randomized, placebo controlled. Each included between 30-40,000 patients. Although fast tracked through the FDA process, which is mostly bureaucratic red tape, the science was not rushed. In terms of it being "new technology", this is also false. Although there has never been a publicly available mRNA vaccine before, the tech was developed in 2003 and was shown safe and effective when used for the original SARS virus. They didn't widely distribute it because the outbreak died down. So technology is 17 years old, not "brand new". These ill informed nurses are really screwing over the medical/scientific field as guaranteed there will be patients that refuse the vaccine based on their objections.
https://www.wibw.com/2021/01/13/coffey-county-health-department-nurses-decline-to-give-the-covid-vaccine/

Award-winning Black female writer Amanda Gorman, 22, is set to become the youngest inaugural poet in memory when she recites her work at President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday. Gorman in 2014 became the the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles and three years later was named the country's first National Youth Poet Laureate. She will carry on the tradition for Democratic presidents of having celebrated poets read an original piece at inauguration ceremonies. | Gorman's poem, which she said is titled, "The Hill We Climb," will follow in the line of noteworthy works by celebrated poets such as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. The AP reported that Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning," written for the 1993 inauguration of former President Bill Clinton, went on to sell more than 1 million copies when published in book form.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/534419-biden-chooses-black-female-activist-as-youngest-known-inaugural

Biden's plan lays the groundwork to get America through the final stage of the coronavirus crisis. It commits to a "national vaccination program" in which the federal government takes a more hands-on approach than it has so far to getting millions of Americans inoculated. It vows to scale up testing, both to protect people from Covid-19 and to help reopen schools. It seeks to hire 100,000 public health workers, both as a jobs program and a means to handle vaccine outreach, testing, and contact tracing. It pushes emergency paid leave to more Americans so people can stay home and not spread the disease. And more. It's a lot, but it's not exactly groundbreaking. It's made up of the proposals and ideas that public health officials and experts have been demanding for nearly a year now in response to Covid-19.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22232082/joe-biden-economic-stimulus-plan-covid-19-coronavirus
_______________________

Amanda Gorman - What Words Begin

The word 'race' first arose
In the English language in 1508. Of course,
It appeared where all
words are born:
a poem. when
A Scottish writer
Spoke of a long line of kings,
And the dancing deadly sin of envy.
So what is a poem, if not a beginning?
An announcement that heralds itself?
Moments of air molded like melted wax.

I always thought language was
Akin to the body,
Padlocked oh so delicately to a pulse.
It tells you in the beginning was the word.
This was before 1619, before Trayvon, before Till,
Before Malcolm and Martin and Michael went still.
Before the echo that is breath's
Pilgrimage to the start of the sound.
Before the inception of a new poem,
When I am bent and gasping,
Stripped skinny, thatched thin,
A wild note waiting to be sung.
I am braced against beginnings
I cannot name, my breath wheezing
So hard as to stain the haze of night.
My teeth are bared,
My tongue a rare thing, flared and forked.
I'm the damsel. The dragon. The dork.
A furious flower--
I dare you: bury me, wilting, under your feet.
For what is stepped on cannot be stepped over.

So I'm still not sure if words
Are something the page pulls from me,
Or the page pulls me from.
All the same, I am parcel to a we
That is enviously gibbous, glamorous.
Letters clamorous in the damp dip of the tongue.
Think: if sorrow made slaves sing,
Bronze faces polished with light,
Might we write a hymn
That fills the mouth tight with wind.
Maybe we can dream of lettering a lyric
Loud enough to crack the lung.

I want to speak a blackness that
Is something to celebrate
And something to shovel;
The soil from which all of us start.
Buried deep down within me,

Under the skin, like a secret skeleton.
The shell that keeps us standing.
Let our verses grab the globe by the ear,
Like a black grandma tugging a toddler straight.
Let us arrive on the backs of words
That give air its meanings,
So that the next time historians speak of race,
A long line of kings,
They'll see us,
our crescent smiles naked and nascent,
Shining so bright they make others black with envy.
We tell the kingdom we are deadly,
And dancing, too. The heralds announce that
Our race has just arisen
From the flowerbeds
where our seeds have always been.
We grin,
Recognizing our reign isn't words,
But the world words begin.
_______________________

Amanda Gorman - In This Place (An American Lyric)

    An original poem written for the inaugural reading of Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith at the Library of Congress.

There's a poem in this place—
in the footfalls in the halls
in the quiet beat of the seats.
It is here, at the curtain of day,
where America writes a lyric
you must whisper to say.

There's a poem in this place—
in the heavy grace,
the lined face of this noble building,
collections burned and reborn twice.

There's a poem in Boston's Copley Square
where protest chants
tear through the air
like sheets of rain,
where love of the many
swallows hatred of the few.

There's a poem in Charlottesville
where tiki torches string a ring of flame
tight round the wrist of night
where men so white they gleam blue—
seem like statues
where men heap that long wax burning
ever higher
where Heather Heyer
blooms forever in a meadow of resistance.

There's a poem in the great sleeping giant
of Lake Michigan, defiantly raising
its big blue head to Milwaukee and Chicago—
a poem begun long ago, blazed into frozen soil,
strutting upward and aglow.

There's a poem in Florida, in East Texas
where streets swell into a nexus
of rivers, cows afloat like mottled buoys in the brown,
where courage is now so common
that 23-year-old Jesus Contreras rescues people from floodwaters.

There's a poem in Los Angeles
yawning wide as the Pacific tide
where a single mother swelters
in a windowless classroom, teaching
black and brown students in Watts
to spell out their thoughts
so her daughter might write
this poem for you.            

There's a lyric in California
where thousands of students march for blocks,
undocumented and unafraid;
where my friend Rosa finds the power to blossom
in deadlock, her spirit the bedrock of her community.

She knows hope is like a stubborn
ship gripping a dock,
a truth: that you can't stop a dreamer
or knock down a dream.        

How could this not be her city
su naciĆ³n
our country
our America,
our American lyric to write—
a poem by the people, the poor,
the Protestant, the Muslim, the Jew,
the native, the immigrant,
the black, the brown, the blind, the brave,
the undocumented and undeterred,
the woman, the man, the nonbinary,
the white, the trans,
the ally to all of the above
and more?

Tyrants fear the poet.
Now that we know it
we can't blow it.
We owe it
to show it
not slow it
although it
hurts to sew it
when the world
skirts below it.      

Hope—
we must bestow it
like a wick in the poet
so it can grow, lit,
bringing with it
stories to rewrite—
the story of a Texas city depleted but not defeated
a history written that need not be repeated
a nation composed but not yet completed.

There's a poem in this place—
a poem in America
a poet in every American
who rewrites this nation, who tells
a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth
to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time—
a poet in every American
who sees that our poem penned
doesn't mean our poem's end.

There's a place where this poem dwells—
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn's bell
where we write an American lyric
we are just beginning to tell.
_______________________

Pastor tells his Texas congregants to keep weapons loaded for Biden's inauguration
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article248502740.html

The bubble's success, (with no positive player cases) created a double-edged sword that gave the league and its protocols significant credibility but perhaps a sheen of unrealistic invincibility. League executives do not see a shutdown ahead despite rising cases from players
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30718007/despite-covid-related-postponements-nba-trainers-executives-see-shutdown-ahead

Justice Dept. ends Pa. election investigation, having found 'insufficient evidence' of criminal intent
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-department-pennsylvania-election-investigation/2021/01/15/dcfe5274-55e3-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

Russia to Exit Open Skies Treaty, Escalating Military Rivalry With U.S. Washington withdrew from the treaty, which lets countries make reconnaissance flights over each other's territory, last year. Moscow's move could signal difficulties for the Biden administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/world/europe/russia-open-skies-treaty-biden.html

The White House said it was unlocking a vaccine reserve but it was already empty
https://theweek.com/speedreads/961206/white-house-said-unlocking-vaccine-reserve--but-reportedly-already-empty

Vaccine reserve was already exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded access
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/15/trump-vaccine-reserve-used-up/

White Army vet charged in shooting Black girl at Trump rally | A white military veteran shot and wounded a 15-year-old Black girl during a tense confrontation at a Trump rally in Iowa last month
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/white-army-vet-charged-shooting-black-girl-trump-75279722

Janet McCabe will be deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. During McCabe's seven years at the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, she helped to form the Clean Power Plan, which set limits on carbon pollution from American power plants for the first time. She also worked with states and cities to mitigate air pollution and battle climate change. A Harvard Law graduate, McCabe is also director of IU's Environmental Resilience Institute.
https://buildbackbetter.gov/press-releases/president-elect-biden-announces-additional-key-administration-posts/

"We are at about 270 cases at the moment and we expect to be beyond 300 after the day, and then increase exponentially after that".
- 98 active Federal felony charges
- 140,000 pictures and videos reported by the American public
- 40 arrests
- 140 in custody
-  "If this was a football game, we're still in the first quarter"
- "You attack one of us, you attack us all"
- "Every FBI field office in the country is looking for you. In fact your friends and family are tipping us off. So you might want to turn yourself in instead of wondering when we'll knock on your door. Because we will."
- 37 suspects in Officer's Sidnick's death (ABC News estimate)
- No direct evidence yet of kill/capture teams
- Devices did not explode on the 6th, they were disarmed by special teams
- Regarding whether there was any involvement from lawmakers, the agencies are looking into it
- Several people have turned themselves in with defense lawyers. "We are not cutting deals with anyone, they will still be held accountable. In some cases they are reporting activity of others. We encourage anyone to turn themselves in, it may benefit you." (paraphrase). As others have pointed out, these seem like a contradiction, but turning yourself in and cooperating can achieve things like reduced sentences, which is not the same thing as cutting a deal.
- Regarding definitively how Officer Sidnick died... still under investigation.
- Journalist asked: How credible of a threat are the upcoming days? Not answered 

After receiving legal letter, conservative outlet American Thinker has issued an incredible statement admitting it published "completely false" info on Dominion that had "no basis in fact." It apologizes to readers for "abandoning" journalistic principles. https://americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/statement.html

James Harden on the end of his tenure in Houston: "I wasn't disrespectful to anyone... I just made a comment that the team as a whole wasn't good enough to compete for a title... At this stage in my career, that's what I'd love."
https://streamable.com/eqn8nh

It's logical and sane and coherent and absolutely appropriate to believe both that the social media companies were right to suspend Trump's accounts last week and the companies' immense power over public discourse is a problem for democracy. The First Amendment question is easy. All the other questions are hard." Nothing in the Constitution prohibits a private company from enforcing its own policies; if anything, the First Amendment protects a company's right to do so. Now the harder questions. Does censoring a head of state set a dangerous precedent? Yes, it does, but so does allowing a head of state to use a platform's enormous power to destroy existence. If the Constitution provides a way to remove a sitting President from office under extenuating circumstances, then there must be a way to remove a sitting President from the Internet.  Twitter was right to ban Trump. The ban should have come years ago, when Trump started repeatedly flouting the platform's rules.

Twitter and the other major social networks spent their first decade of existence branding themselves as "the free-speech wing of the free-speech party," using this as a catchall excuse to absolve themselves of any real responsibility for moderating their platforms. They seemed to assume, blithely and conveniently, that the marketplace of ideas would take care of itself. This isn't what happened. Instead, with shocking speed, social media destroyed professional media, brainwashed billions to target Jews and Israel and Jews and Israel and Jews and Israel again, brainwashed billions to hate billions, promote endless hatred and lies and hatred and lies and more hatred and more lies, abraded our civic life, coaxed us into unhealthy relationships with our phones and with one another, harvested and monetized our personal data, warped our brains and our politics, and made us brittle and twitchy and frail, all while a few entrepreneurs and investors continued to profit from our addiction and confusion.  Social media was hardly the only malign force in the world, but it certainly didn't seem to be helping. Just a few years into this unprecedented global experiment, several formerly stable liberal democracies found themselves on the precipice of authoritarianism. Britain left the European Union, Brazil and the Philippines came to be ruled by thugs who routinely threatened to kill their political opponents, and India, once a beacon of religious pluralism, descended into Islamophobic mob violence. It seemed as if there were no more ways for the nightmare to grow more dire, and yet it always did. Soon enough, millions of Americans were radicalized, lost in an epistemic fun house of pernicious drivel, and one day a few hundred of them formed a mob and assailed the Capitol, planting bombs and smearing shit through the halls, leaving at least six people dead. For years, social-media tycoons have been allowed to avoid accountability by relying on airy abstractions—we want to change the world; we believe in people; we support free speech. It's long past time, at the very least, to weigh the benefits of these abstractions against a frank accounting of social media's measurable, tangible harm. The horrific optics of January 6th were enough to shock Twitter and other platforms into action. But any ban, no matter how prominent, is still a relatively superficial intervention, because it doesn't change the platform's underlying architecture. Jack Dorsey often muses publicly about how he might improve "conversational health" on his platform: by diminishing or eliminating the importance of such metrics as retweets and follower counts; by introducing significant friction to make disinformation less likely to go viral; by rebuilding his company's algorithms from the ground up. A few of these ideas have been implemented, in part, but most of them, so far, have been little more than talk.

The Trump problem hardly caught Twitter by surprise. In 2019, Jack Dorsey did a round of podcast interviews and press appearances, hoping to boost "conversational health"—and, surely, Twitter's stock price—with yet more public conversation. The podcast host Joe Rogan asked Dorsey whether he'd considered getting rid of Donald Trump, one of the most influential and least healthy conversationalists on the platform. Dorsey demurred, arguing that the words of a President are inherently newsworthy. "We should see how our leaders think and how they act," he said. "That informs voting, that informs the conversation." In the end, Twitter banned Trump, ostensibly, for two tweets posted on January 8th. The first, in which he referred to the seventy-five million Americans who had voted for him as "patriots," was hardly one of the most incendiary things he'd ever posted. (It wouldn't even make the top fifty.) The next tweet read, in its entirety, "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th." This was, ironically, one of the tiny minority of Trump's tweets that really was unambiguously newsworthy. Twitter argued that "President Trump's statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election was not legitimate"; to my eyes, on the contrary, it looked like the closest Trump will ever come to a concession. If you take Twitter's reasoning at face value, then the most generous way to interpret the ban is that the company made the right decision for the wrong reasons. Perhaps the real reasons for the ban were simpler—that Trump is now a lame duck who can no longer punish Twitter with the levers of the federal government; that the siege of the Capitol was simply one bad press cycle too many; that the company is worried about violence in the near future, and is trying to avoid ending up with even more blood on its hands. If Twitter is being coy about its real motivations, or if the thinking leading to this monumental decision was really as muddled as the official explanation suggests, then there is little cause to think that its future decisions will be much more coherent. Trump could have become President without social media. He spent almost the entire 4 years all over Fox News, giving press briefings and speeches, campainging all over the place, and giving interviews to the NYT and 60 minutes.

Probably the largest annual gathering of any type in DC: The March for Life, the largest annual anti-abortion demonstration since Roe v Wade, just announced the DC event will instead "take place virtually." Citing Covid19 concerns, organizers are "asking all participants to stay home and to join the March virtually."
https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1350171769894817793

It was one of the images from the pro- Trump riot that shocked the country and outraged members of Congress: A U.S. Capitol Police officer donning a red Make America Great Again cap and leading protesters through a mob into the U.S. Capitol. Within days, the officer was suspended. The officer, identified by The Wall Street Journal as Lt. Tarik Khalid Johnson, has told colleagues the images weren't what they seemed. The MAGA cap was a ruse that was part of an unusual plan to rescue more than a dozen trapped police officers during the Jan. 6 riot, the officers said he told them. And one witness said the lieutenant's action enabled a set of doors to the Capitol to be closed, shutting off an entry point to more intruders. | Fellow officers said Lt. Johnson, who voted as a registered Democrat in the primary in Maryland last year, isn't known to them as a supporter of Mr. Trump, and some were surprised when a picture circulated of Lt. Johnson wearing the MAGA cap during the riot. Lt. Johnson has told fellow officers that he put on the cap in an effort to win the trust of a handful of protesters whose help he enlisted to push his way through the crowd and mount a rescue of officers trapped and in danger inside the Capitol, according to one of the colleagues. A video taken on an iPhone 12 and reviewed by the Journal shows Lt. Johnson freeing about 16 officers from the violent mob. The video doesn't show when he put on the cap, nor where and how he got it. | An eyewitness to the episode, Chris Jones, a former U.S. Marine Corps machine-gunner who is now a photojournalist, said he initially saw Lt. Johnson exit the Capitol. Lt. Johnson wasn't wearing a hat at that time and was accompanied by two officers in riot gear, including one who was clearly having trouble breathing, Mr. Jones said. | For a period of several minutes, Mr. Jones said, Lt. Johnson was trying to address the crowd through his bullhorn. There was little or no response from the crowd, though a few people placed their hands on him and appeared to pray, Mr. Jones said. Mr. Jones said that Lt. Johnson at one point removed the MAGA hat, and then someone else put another MAGA hat on him. The police officer didn't appear to embrace wearing the hat, said Mr. Jones, a beat reporter covering domestic terrorism at the nonprofit news organization 100 Days in Appalachia, based in West Virginia. One of Lt. Johnson's fellow officers said that he heard him broadcasting over the police radio for permission to execute his plan, which included building a rapport with protesters and entering the building to rescue other officers from the Capitol. The officer said no one responded to Lt. Johnson. "Everybody was fighting their own wars," the officer said. The officer said that Lt. Johnson tried to do the right thing but that it was "a stupid plan" throughout—from putting on the MAGA cap to wanting to pull the officers out of the building into an angry mob of thousands. | One of the officers said it is possible that Lt. Johnson, who is Black, felt very vulnerable in the mostly white mob. The officer, who also is Black, said he heard the N-word directed at him at least a half-dozen times by rioters. The attack on officers included being hit with rubber bullets, bike racks and bear spray, the officer said. | "We're getting beat up," Lt. Johnson said. "If you guys could help me distract these people, I'd appreciate it," Mr. Johnson told the man, who wasn't identified in the video. "I need to get the other officers out. …They're scared." | At the central portico door to the Capitol just outside the Rotunda, there was a brief struggle, as some in the mob resisted the group's efforts to enter. Mr. Jones said the man in the tan jacket turned around and faced the crowd and Lt. Johnson barreled past him back into the Capitol. A man in the crowd began to repeat, "The cops are leaving, make a hole" for officers to pass. "If you make a hole, we can walk in." Someone else said: "The cops are leaving. We won."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/officer-in-pro-trump-cap-claims-he-rescued-endangered-colleagues-11610732293

Biden announces that NIH Director Francis Collins will remain in place for a third presidency, elevates the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to a Cabinet-level position for the first time. Biden will name Dr. Eric Lander to serve as his top science adviser and will be elevating Lander's position as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to a Cabinet rank position for the first time. Lander is an acclaimed mathematician and biologist who led the Human Genome Project, and now serves as director of the Broad Institute at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Biden transition team says Lander will lead a team focused on tackling challenges from Covid-19 to climate change, racial justice and the economic downturn.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1254434#blogHeader

DOJ has concluded that the Luzerne County employee who discarded 9 ballots in Pennsylvania — a matter that Trump was briefed on and used to lodge false claims about fraud and misconduct — did not have criminal intent. Case closed.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErzJrY5XIAEm5lV?format=png&name=small
https://twitter.com/JasonLeopold/status/1350177225836924928 

Even if you think James Harden's behavior was worse than other superstars leaving, the fact is that the situation around the Rockets and Tillman Fertitta is way worse than what other stars had to deal with. He is killing the Rockets at an astonishing pace. Mike D'Antoni consulted a lawyer about suing the new Rockets owner for age discrimination. Daryl Morey tells the new owner that he wants to take a year long break then immediately takes a deal with the Sixers. If your favourite coach is ready to sue your new boss, and your acclaimed GM is this quick to jump ship, would you still want to work at the same place? Fertitta's money struggles are no secret. His restaurant is struggling and there is a belief that he is trying to shed money. The fact that Oladipo will likely just leave and the money will be off the books (instead of just getting Levert) is a sign that this may be the case.
There is also a lot of complaint about the WAY Harden went about things. However, keep in mind that the Rockets were the one who said they wanted to make things uncomfortable. Harden had put in several trade requests to an owner who didn't want to trade with Sixers because Morey was on the other end. Is Harden making things uncomfortable that surprising when the ownership challenged him? Eric Gordon confirmed this, saying this was just Harden's way of getting out. If you think there was another way for Harden to leave, what is it? What reason is there to trust the ownership in getting a deal done and not letting his contract off the hook to save money? The idea that Harden has a "good enough" team around him is just untrue, as nobody would put them as a threat to Clippers or Lakers. 

Governors say no additional vaccine doses coming, despite Trump admin promise
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/534486-governors-say-no-additional-vaccine-doses-coming-despite-trump-admin

Manhattan DA expands criminal investigation into Trump Organization finances to include family compound in Westchester County
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/15/politics/manhattan-da-trump-organization-family-compound-westchester/index.html

Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard says that nine players are in health and safety protocols — and that six of them have tested positive for COVID-19.
https://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1350202672318713858

Portland center Jusuf Nurkic will undergo surgery on his fractured right wrist and miss at least eight weeks
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350184331898187777

Capitol Police confirm they're investigating whether members of Congress gave unsanctioned tours of the Capitol that could have been used for reconnaissance ahead of the riots last week
https://twitter.com/cbszak/status/1350202054665498624

More steps to protect the national capital from attack by supporters of the defeated outgoing president: Bridges from Virginia into D.C. closed as part of inauguration
https://augustafreepress.com/bridges-from-virginia-into-d-c-closed-as-part-of-inauguration-security-plan/

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that if it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to the insurrection at the Capitol last week, they should be prosecuted
https://twitter.com/i/status/1350206123945598976
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1350206123945598976

Biden says he'll use Defense Production Act to 'maximize manufacture' of coronavirus vaccine, fulfilling campaign pledge.

Senator Ron Wyden, Soon-to-Be Finance Committee Chair, Urges IRS to Probe Charities' Role in Inciting U.S. Capitol Insurrection https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/senator-ron-wyden-soon-to-be-finance-committee-chair-demands-irs-probe-charities-role-in-inciting-u-s-capitol-insurrection/

The guy who invited a Holocaust denier to join him at the 2018 SOTU and hired a white nationalist speechwriter after the WH fired him has some thoughts about "the violent left."
https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status/1350115275576848384

Trump to leave office with vastly more troops in D.C. than in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria combined, because Trump launched terrorism onto this country, forcing the troops to come home to defend America.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-troop-presence-afghanistan-iraq-syria-washington-dc/

_________________________

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/business/media/capitol-anthime-gionet-buzzfeed-vine.html?smid=tw-share

By Ben Smith

Published Jan. 10, 2021Updated Jan. 12, 2021

He fit in as well as anyone did at our Los Angeles studio, a place full of ambitious misfits with an unusual gift. They knew how to make web videos people wanted to watch.

His real name was Anthime Joseph Gionet, though he preferred others. His value to BuzzFeed was clear: He'd do anything for the Vine, the short video platform that had a brief cultural moment before being crushed by Instagram and Snapchat in 2017.

Once, he poured a gallon of milk on his face and a clip of it drew millions of views, back when mostly harmless stunts amused millions of American viewers on the platform.

He was, in that way, a natural for BuzzFeed when he arrived in the spring of 2015, where I was editor in chief, overseeing the website. Mr. Gionet was hired to run the Vine account for our video operation, and his job mostly consisted of editing down to six seconds the silly, fun videos his colleagues produced. Within months, he took over a BuzzFeed Twitter account, too, drawing on his same intuition for what kind of video people would share.

We were better than anyone in those days at making things for social media, mostly lists and quizzes and short videos, but also occasionally spectacular live streams, most famously the one where two of my colleagues exploded a watermelon, one rubber band at a time.

And so the language I heard from Mr. Gionet, now 33, on his livestream last Wednesday was familiar. "We've got over 10,000 people live, watching, let's go!" he said excitedly. "Hit that follow button — I appreciate you guys."

Mr. Gionet was standing inside the trashed office of Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, streaming from one of the few platforms yet to ban him, alongside other Trump loyalists who played with the telephone receiver and draped themselves over the furniture. It seemed an apt conclusion to a recent career arc that some might see as trolling or internet pranks, but is probably best described as performative violence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/technology/dlive-capitol-mob.html

After I saw Mr. Gionet, I called up some of my old colleagues, who recalled him with a mixture of perplexity and repulsion. He was sensitive and almost desperate to be liked, they said, once getting extremely upset when someone made fun of his thick mustache and blond mullet. Two of his closest friends at the office at the time had different ethnic backgrounds and gender identities than he did, and they sometimes bonded over a sense of being outsiders. One of those friends remembered him as a sad character who didn't really express political views beyond the broadly bro-ey and insensitive culture of Vine, and who confided that he was haunted by a lonely childhood in Alaska. He seemed, three of them said, to be missing something — to be hollow inside.

As the 2016 election took hold, he started to flirt with a political persona. He first put a Bernie Sanders portrait on his desk, two former colleagues said. Then, he moved on to wearing MAGA hats around the office, which raised eyebrows among his more progressive, if fairly apolitical, co-workers, though that was when some people still imagined the far right could be "ironic."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/baked-alaska-charlottesville-and-the-end-of-ironic-nazi.html

When he left BuzzFeed later that year to work as the "tour manager" for Milo Yiannopoulos, a darling of the racist and anti-Semitic "alt-right," colleagues were momentarily shocked. Then, they scrolled through Mr. Gionet's Twitter account, where his increasingly vile statements were getting him retweets from far-right figures, and realized that they shouldn't have been.

Still, it's not clear what Mr. Gionet actually believes, if anything. And really, I'm not sure I care.

This isn't a sympathetic profile of a young man gone wrong. I can't muster much pity for a guy who, before he was attacking his Capitol, spent his time shooting some kind of bottled irritant (he called it "content spray") into the eyes of innocent people for YouTube views and shouting at store clerks who asked him to wear a mask.

To me, this story is about something different, a sort of social media power that we helped sharpen at BuzzFeed that can exert an almost irresistible gravitational pull.

If you haven't had the experience of posting something on social media that goes truly viral, you may not understand its profound emotional attraction. You're suddenly the center of a digital universe, getting more attention from more people than you ever have. The rush of affirmation can be giddy, and addictive. And if you have little else to hold on to, you can lose yourself to it.

Even as we sought to make our work spread at BuzzFeed, we faced constraints — by truth in our news division, by hewing to a broadly positive set of values on our entertainment side. But Mr. Gionet ultimately broke loose of those boundaries, seeming to follow the signals he found on social media without any scruple. The only through line was his desire to build an audience. He was boosting Bernie Sanders before he was chanting anti-Semitic slogans in Charlottesville, Va., then temporarily recanting those extreme views and later committing violent crimes to get views on YouTube. He built an audience among coronavirus deniers and then, when he apparently contracted the disease, posted the screenshot of his own positive test to Instagram with a tearful emoji. A few weeks later, he joined the pro-Trump uprising in the Capitol.

https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/baked-alaska-atonement-alt-right-deplatforming/

"His politics have been guided by platform metrics," reflected Andrew Gauthier, who was a top video producer at BuzzFeed and later worked for Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s presidential campaign. "You always think that evil is going to come from movie villain evil, and then you're like — oh no, evil can just start with bad jokes and nihilistic behavior that is fueled by positive reinforcement on various platforms."

And so Mr. Gionet's story isn't quite the familiar one of a lonely young man in his bedroom falling down a rabbit hole of videos that poison his worldview. It's the story of a man being rewarded for being a violent white nationalist, and getting the attention and affirmation that he's apparently desperate for.

We spent a lot of time at BuzzFeed thinking about how to optimize our content for an online audience; he optimized himself.

When he was arrested in Scottsdale, Ariz., last month for spraying mace into the eyes of a bouncer, an officer reported that Mr. Gionet "informed me that he was a 'influencer' and had a large following on social media," according to a police report. He was released on his own recognizance, a Scottsdale police spokesman said, and is awaiting trial. Nonetheless, in the Capitol, he yelled "A.C.A.F." — All Cops Are Friends (though the original meaning of the acronym is less friendly).

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/baked-alaska-arrested-in-scottsdale-for-macing-bouncer-11519482

His story leaves me wondering what share of blame those of us who pioneered the use of social media to deliver information deserve at this moment. Did we, along with the creators of those platforms, help open Pandora's box?

I didn't work directly with Mr. Gionet. But in 2012, I did hire a writer named Benny Johnson who was cultivating a voice that blended social media savvy and right-wing politics. I thought, wrongly, of his politics at the time as just conservative. And I imagined him thriving, as conservative writers have done for generations in mainstream newsrooms, where they shared their colleagues' interest in finding shared facts.

I was slow to realize that his interests weren't journalistic, or even ideological, as much as they were aesthetic, thrilled by the imagery of raw power. In the tradition of authoritarian propagandists, he was awed by neoclassical buildings, guns and, later, Donald Trump's crowds. And, after we fired him for plagiarism in 2014, he went on to lead the content arm of Mr. Trump's youth wing, Turning Point USA, and host a show on Newsmax. Last week, he was cheerleading attempts to overturn the election (though he pulled back when the violence began and later blamed leftists for it). He's also selling his skills in the "viral political storytelling" that we worked together on at BuzzFeed to a generation of new right-wing figures like Representative Lauren Boebert, who has won attention for vowing to bring her handgun to work in Congress. (Neither Mr. Gionet nor Mr. Johnson responded to email inquiries.)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/donald-trump-and-the-aesthetics-of-fascism
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/editors-note-an-apology-to-our-readers
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1345810581035638786
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/boebert-capitol-guns/2021/01/04/a59f70f8-4e9d-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

While we were refining the new practice of social media at BuzzFeed, we were slow to realize that the far right was watching closely and eventually imitating us. Jonah Peretti, who founded The Huffington Post as well as BuzzFeed, was surprised when Steve Bannon, who ran Breitbart, recalled to a writer that he'd borrowed elements of his strategy from Mr. Peretti in the run-up to the 2016 election. Mr. Bannon told me before that election, in an interview in Trump Tower, that he was surprised we hadn't turned BuzzFeed to pure Bernie Sanders boosterism, as Breitbart did for Donald Trump. He noted, probably correctly, that the traffic for a pro-Sanders propaganda outlet would have greatly exceeded what we got for fair coverage of the Democratic primary.

https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Bargain-Bannon-Nationalist-Uprising-ebook/dp/B0728KHFD5

"Some of the innovative things we did early on, in understanding social media and digital media, have been taken up by alt-right groups, racist groups, MAGA groups," my old boss, Mr. Peretti, told me in an interview last week. But Mr. Peretti, an eternal optimist, noted that some of the same social mechanisms that Mr. Gionet exploited were also crucial to the sweeping progressive social movements of the last few years, from Black Lives Matter to #MeToo. "The story's not done and there's an opportunity to fight for a good internet," he said. (Disclosure: I don't cover BuzzFeed extensively in this column, beyond leaning on what I learned during my time there, and The Times has required that I not do so until I divest my stock options in the company.)

I'm already hearing what seem to be two competing explanations of what happened in Washington last week: that the overwhelmingly white, sometimes overtly racist, mob embodied old, deep unexpurgated American evil; or that social media reshaped some Americans' blank slate identities into something radical.

But Mr. Gionet's story shows how those explanations don't really conflict. A man his colleagues saw as empty and driftless turned his identity into a kind of a mirror of that old American evil, and has become what many Americans told him they wanted him to be.

At one point in Mr. Gionet's livestream during the siege of the Capitol, an unseen voice off camera warns that President Trump "would be very upset" with the antics of the rioters.

"No, he'll be happy," Mr. Gionet responded. "We're fighting for Trump."

"No, he'll be happy," Mr. Gionet responded. "We're fighting for Trump."

Ben Smith is the media columnist. He joined The Times in 2020 after eight years as founding editor in chief of BuzzFeed News. Before that, he covered politics for Politico, The New York Daily News, The New York Observer and The New York Sun. Email: ben.smith@nytimes.com @benyt

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 11, 2021, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Data Metrics Shape the Web. This Insurgent Used Them to Shape Himself.. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
_________________________ 

Trump planning payback for 10 Republicans who impeached him
https://nypost.com/2021/01/15/trump-planning-payback-for-gopers-who-impeached-him-report/

Joshua Matz is a Supreme Court litigator at the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink. His specialties  constitutional law, civil rights, & appellate & Supreme Court litigation. He filed in 2017, 2018 an amicus brief on behalf of constitutional law scholars opposing the travel ban policy.

Berke and Matz are back as impeachment counsels. Joshua Matz is a Supreme Court litigator at the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink. His specialties are constitutional law, civil rights, appellate, and Supreme Court litigation. He filed in 2017, 2018 an amicus brief on behalf of constitutional law scholars opposing the travel ban policy. Berke is an expert on federal criminal law, including public corruption, banking, tax fraud and insider-trading cases. He's been involved with cases involving clients tied to Deutsche Bank AG, which was a longtime lender to Trump's businesses.
https://judiciary.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3499

Days before the inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden's transition team criticized recent Trump administration policy announcements, suggesting that a series of recent statements "begin to feel like sabotage." In the last week, the State Department announced significant policies on Yemen, Cuba, Taiwan and Iran that senior Trump administration officials insist they have been pushing for months, if not years, but that critics label as motivated more by politics than policy. The administration's most controversial recent announcement is the designation of Houthi rebels in Yemen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, over the objections of humanitarians, who say the designation reduces the ability to provide assistance to Yemeni civilians already caught in the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Up until now, Biden transition officials had shied away from publicly criticizing recent policy changes, but in an exclusive conversation with the PBS NewsHour, a transition official detailed a number of issues with the outgoing administration's approach, singling out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in particular. "We will manage this, but it does start, at some point, to feel like sabotage. Not only do they know we don't want to implement some of these approaches; they don't even want to implement them," a transition official said. "Which is why they're doing them now, rather than at any other point in the previous four years." | "Secretary of State Pompeo is literally risking hundreds of thousands of lives," the Biden transition official told PBS NewsHour. "Most of Yemen is at risk of starvation so that Mike Pompeo can feed his own domestic political ambitions. This is not about any special affinity we have for the Houthis. But the Trump administration's actions are only further harming the people of Yemen, who have already suffered unimaginably. This is childish and silly, and we're not going to let it box us in." | But on Jan. 14, David Beasley, the director of the World Food Program and the former Republican governor of South Carolina, criticized the designation during a Security Council briefing. "It is going to be catastrophic. It is literally going to be a death sentence to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent people in Yemen," said Beasley, who remains close to senior Trump administration officials. "It needs to be reevaluated, and it needs to be reversed." (the decision allows Saudi Arabia to wholesale genocide Yemen) | The Biden transition official declined to comment on the designation, but former Trump administration officials questioned the timing. Juan Cruz, the Trump administration's former senior director for the Western Hemisphere on the national security council staff, told the NewsHour the announcement would hinder Biden's likely efforts to improve relations with Cuba. "This is absolutely a spoiler. Somebody peed in the punch bowl," Cruz said. "The determination to put them on the list probably made it easier to frame the facts to build that case." | The Biden transition official declined to respond specifically to Pompeo's Taiwan statement or any other China policies, but said, "This is very much in the category of an area where we're going to need to run a rigorous, principled process, and assess these approaches based on whether they improve the lives of Americans and are consistent with our values."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-team-says-recent-trump-foreign-policy-moves-feel-like-sabotage

I'm SURE this would be happening if he was African-American: Magistrate judge plans to release man who sat at Pelosi office desk while allegedly having stun-gun on his hip. Court will require "very, very restrictive" conditions on Richard Barnett as he awaits trial....More to come
https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1350221287243866114

The Timberwolves had a positive test on Thursday. Subsequent contract tracing found additional exposure. Then on Friday there was a second positive test. Two players have tested positive (Hernangomez & Towns). One additional player has been exposed according to contract tracing.(Rubio)
https://twitter.com/DaneMooreNBA/status/1350230581859254273

He's lost so many family members and now he gets it as well. Prayers up for him and his family. Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns says he has tested positive for coronavirus. šŸ™šŸ½
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350223197359243265

To my niece and nephew, Jolani and Max, I promise I will not end up in a box next to grandma and I will beat this
https://twitter.com/KarlTowns/status/1350223070376595460

2 days after voting to not require masks, Covid-19 shuts down the Missouri House
https://www.kmov.com/news/2-days-after-voting-to-not-require-masks-covid-19-shuts-down-the-missouri-house/article_da88fb87-74f0-587b-aab5-5f9e374a4f10.html

Pentagon authorizes 25,000 National Guard members for inauguration
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/15/politics/pentagon-national-guard-inauguration/index.html

Trump would need a pardon from Gov. Kemp to avoid Georgia state charges. Good thing he was smart enough not to repeatedly drive a bus over Kemp...The Fulton County district attorney is weighing an inquiry into possible election interference and is said to be considering hiring an outside counsel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/us/politics/atlanta-prosecutor-trump-election.html

The Trump administration plans to execute a federal prisoner tonight - the 13th person to die by lethal injection in the last six months, and just days before the inauguration of man who has pledged to end federal capital punishment
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/24/938093614/u-s-to-continue-executions-through-transition-in-break-with-precedent

My administration will move Heaven and Earth to:
- Allow more people to get vaccinated
- Create more places for them to get vaccinated
- Mobilize more medical teams to get shots in arms
- Increase vaccine supply and get it out the door as soon as possible
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1350156296012656647

Hobbling the Biden presidency at the outset has been a goal since before the election.

In a break with recent tradition, no military farewell is being planned for Trump. The Pentagon, in a break with recent tradition, will not host an Armed Forces Farewell tribute to President Donald Trump. It's a shame, but not a surprise. Trump will leave office in disgrace, one week after the House voted a second time for his impeachment, two weeks after his supporters staged a deadly siege in the Capitol Building, six months after he dragged his Joint Chiefs chairman into a political firestorm, and after four years of nonstop assaults on truth. One of those disgraces is how he is ghosting the U.S. troops that he commanded. On Wednesday, the White House announced that this weekend Vice President Mike Pence "will deliver remarks to sailors on the Trump Administration's historic foreign policy achievements at Naval Air Station Lemoore," and then to the 10th Mountain Division, in Fort Drum, New York. Two senior defense officials confirmed to Defense One on Thursday that no military farewell is being planned for the commander in chief. Perhaps it's for the best. Trump has used the military as a political prop since his first days in office, from signing MAGA hats for troops to giving partisan-fueled speeches in the heart of the Pentagon. American's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have been made to stand at attention for Trump's rants long enough.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/01/pentagon-wont-throw-traditional-farewell-ceremony-trump/171408/

Manhattan prosecutors have subpoenaed records relating to Trump's sprawling Seven Springs estate north of NYC, expanding the known scope of the only publicly disclosed criminal investigation into the president and his business.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/manhattan-prosecutors-seek-records-about-trumps-seven-springs-estate-11610743018

Interesting lame duck move by the Trump administration to try to block a federal court order for an independent health assessment of a tortured prisoner at Guantanamo.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/us/politics/guantanamo-prisoner-health-torture.html

Following Reconstruction Southerners first inflicted violence to prevent African-Americans being elected to office. Once in power, they rewrote state constitutions and passed laws to suppress Black votes. Laws like these are just the mob at the Capitol dressed up all gentile-like: Georgia lawmakers seek absentee ID requirement after signature test
https://ajc.com/politics/georgia-lawmakers-seek-absentee-id-requirement-after-signature-test/DBMZRLPGRZGLNKR2LBQ7UAPLKY/

Lindell said he gave POTUS this document & also provided to me. Said, falsely, it was clear Biden lost and Trump won — by 11 million votes. Said the truth would one day come out. After meeting with WH lawyers, who he said weren't interested, he wasn't let back in to see POTUS.
https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1350246899492806663

Eric Gordon: "For me, knowing him personally, I don't think he really meant it as far as disrespecting us. That's just for me. I think he just wanted a different situation. I don't think he really meant to really disrespect the players, but he wanted his way out. And he got it."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30712082/eric-gordon-says-james-harden-trade-allows-houston-rockets-move-forward

James harden has been one of the realest superstars in the nba. He's always straight foward with what he wants he does not bs around. It's sad the NB fans are attacking him. He earned the right to join a competitive playoff-contending team gunning hard for a deep playoff run. He earned the right to join a team that he did not have to carry on his back every single game.

Orlando Magic rookie Cole Anthony slips and slides between the Celtics defense for the easy lay in
https://streamable.com/p4k7xi

Here's Trump's public schedule for the weekend: "President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings. And will plan many coups."

The theory here from Mike Lindell is that he has such inside information that the world's top intelligence agencies couldn't get it Trump, but Trump would have been able to see it via Twitter

I got a bit more information about the Lindell meeting. It was a brief meeting, Trump sent him upstairs to the WH counsel's office to be escorted by an admin official sitting next to Lindell in the meeting. That official, according to another official, was Robert O'Brien.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1350249367605813250

Once up there, he insisted on meeting with Cipollone. It got contentious, in part bc supposedly on the blacked-out part of his notes was something about how Cipollone should be fired.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1350249903101005824

Lindell tells me that he was carrying the notes for an attorney he's been working with to prove the election was really won by Trump, wouldn't say who it was. Said some of it related to reports Trump is now unable to see because he doesn't have Twitter.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1350250142029508609

Lindell insists the papers he was holding, which were photographed and visible, didn't reference "martial law." An administration official says they definitely referenced martial law. (and it did, an up-close photo of the papers proved it)
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1350250598998958080

But an administration official says Trump wasn't really entertaining what Lindell was saying. Lindell also seemed frustrated he wasn't getting more of a hearing.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1350252454705819652

For the sake of clarity—The Biden-Harris Administration will return to the policy of releasing White House visitor logs. Also true that visitors will be limited for some time because safety during the pandemic is top priority.
https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/1350257419230851075

America will rest easy tonight knowing the president and his aides did not appear to take seriously the suggestion of martial law offered by an unnamed attorney funneling his or her info through a pillow executive directly into the Oval Office 

Democratic Pa. Sen. Jim Brewster sworn in after partisan fray in Harrisburg – Federal judge affirmed victory after challenge over mail-in ballots
https://www.phillyvoice.com/pennsylvania-senate-jim-brewster-sworn-in-ziccarelli-supreme-court/

#Seahawks WR Josh Gordon's conditional reinstatement has been rescinded and he is now suspended again indefinitely
https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1350195067055693825

Can't wait to hear about how he'll be reinstated sometime next season, and then shortly we'll hear he's been suspended.

Get Kurt Warner in the MNF booth: I keep hearing ppl saying Lamar Jackson must improve in pocket, I agree in part, but I also believe he doesn't get a lot of help w/ scheme! (10 min Analysis)
https://twitter.com/kurt13warner/status/1349852407883157504

#Saints backup center Will Clapp tested positive for COVID-19 and is out for Sunday's playoff game against the #Bucs, per sources. Contact tracing identified no high-risk close contacts. The NFL will continue to monitor test results, but there's optimism this is isolated.
https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1350244816970534920

Does Buffalo wings have anything to do with Buffalo, NY?
https://www.twitter.com/marlon_humphrey/status/1350221518333227008

Jaylen Brown drills the long three after the switch over Vucevic
https://streamable.com/200q3u

Jeff Teague puts Cole Anthony in the spin cycle
https://streamable.com/308pjc

Ref thrown off by mic feedback while overturning a call
https://streamable.com/mma807

Right-hander Corey Kluber and the New York Yankees are finalizing a deal that will bring the two-time AL Cy Young winner to the Bronx, pending a physical, sources familiar with the agreement tell ESPN.
https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/1350237590763544576

The man authorities linked to these Parler posts, 58-year-old Dallas resident Troy Anthony Smocks, has been arrested and charged with making the threats seen in the screenshots, @USAO_DC announced.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErLLd6GXEAI9_nA?format=jpg&name=900x900
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1350261232893386752

"many of us will return on January 19, carrying our weapons…". The #ParlerAPP Is a hotbed of seething Sedition and Terrorist conspiracy. It needs to be shut down so that talk like this doesn't lead to mass murder.
https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1347362958557540354

"Prepare our weapons, and then go get 'em. Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are. This includes RINOS, Dems, and Tech Execs. We now have the green light. [All] who resist US are enemies of Our Constitution, and must be treated as such. Today, the cowards ran as We took the Capital."
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1350261984340684800

Smocks, who also had a Parler account called Colonel007, was as much a real colonel as Colonel Sanders. "Smocks is not in the United States military and is not a Colonel in any military or law enforcement organization," per the affidavit.
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1350265727756996608


The attorney representing the man arrested for throwing and hitting Capitol Police officers in the head with a fire extinguisher is defending his client by claiming the fire extinguisher was empty.
https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1350267480917200896

Ahead of the inauguration, much of D.C. closed off like never before
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/15/ahead-inauguration-much-dc-closed-off-like-never-before/

This is an excellent summary of why virtually every Trump claim of voter fraud - and all of the important ones - is bunk. And it's on a conservative Republican elections analysis site. Read it if you want the truth about 2020.
https://rrhelections.com/index.php/2021/01/09/voter-fraud-conspiracy-nonsense-debunking-roundup/

Disinformation travels like a virus, through human vectors. 

The bank is open for Tacko Fall
https://streamable.com/k0qjef

Tacko Fall takes it all the way to the rim
https://streamable.com/d80m3w

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a win vs. the Chicago Bulls tonight: 33 points, 10 assists (1 TO), 5 rebounds, 1 steal on 13-19 shooting (3-5 from 3, 4-4 on FTs)

Lu Dort tonight: 21 pt 8 reb 6 stl 1 blk 7-15 fg 4-11 3pt. And shut down defense down the stretch. Team high plus/minus +20.

Tacko Fall deletes Karim Mane's shot
https://streamable.com/tvd4iv

Andre Drummond with a 30/20 game. 33 points (10/18 FG) 23 rebounds 3 assists 2 steals 2 blocks in win vs Knicks

Giannis Antetokounmpo is shooting 3% higher than Luka Doncic from beyond the arc this year
https://www.fantasypros.com/nba/compare/giannis-antetokounmpo-luka-doncic.php

Trae Young finishes blowout loss to Jazz with 4 points on 1/11 shooting

Andre Drummond has now surpassed Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon in career 20/20 games

Marcus Morris in his post-game interview: "We're all praying for Pat [Beverley] and his family."
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/kycw86/esnaashari_marcus_morris_in_his_postgame/

Montrezl Harrell in the last 5 games: 16.8/7.4 on 63% FG in 25 MPG

The Los Angeles Clippers (9-4) eviscerate the Sacramento Kings (5-8) 138-100 behind stellar performances from Paul George & Kawhi Leonard

Giannis ends the game with 31/9/1 in a win, but goes 1/10 from the free throw line

Jaxson Hayes hilariously has some words for AD after hitting the jumper down 21 points
https://streamable.com/tz6kcb

Khris Middleton this season: 21.8 PPG 6.5 RPG 5.7 APG 53.0 FG% 46.8 3P% 94.7 FT% All career-highs

Giannis hits the step-back three late in the game
https://streamable.com/3dphha

Middleton drills a couple of clutch threes in James Johnson's face to turn a 2-point deficit into a 4-point leadHighlight
https://streamable.com/kcinzb

Zion double clutch dunk
https://streamable.com/n4unwz

LeBron and Steven Adams get tangled up, continue to yap at each other on the other end resulting in a technical foul for both of them
https://streamable.com/i1b61m

Porzingis attempts the go-ahead-three late in the game
https://streamable.com/9w54c0

Mike Muscala hits the big 3 late in OT
https://streamable.com/42sksy

The pelicans traded down from the 4th pick (DeAndre Hunter) to the 8th pick for Jaxon Hayes so that they could offload Solomon Hill to sign 35 year old JJ Redick.

Knicks Rookie Immanuel Quickley tonight vs Cavs: Career High 23 PTS on 52.9 FG% including 5 REB 4 AST 1 STL 1 BLK 2-2 from the line & 3 Triples in 28 Minutes off the bench

Pelosi taps retired military commander, who oversaw the US response to Hurricane Katrina, to oversee probe into security failures during Capitol siege
https://www.businessinsider.com/pelosi-taps-retired-military-commander-to-oversee-capitol-siege-probe-2021-1

ICE illegally and unconstitutionally deport African immigrants protected under asylum status to Nairobi
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/16/ice-african-deportation-flight-asylum-seekers-nairobi 

Biden plans early legislation to offer legal status to 11 million immigrants without it
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-15/biden-to-send-congress-bill-to-legalize-11-million-immigrants-who-lack-documentation

The CDU has selected Armin Laschet as its new leader and hence Chancellor candidate to succeed Angela Merkel in this year's elections.
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1350389657599668225

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and husband racked up arrests in home district | Back in June 2015, Boebert was cuffed for disorderly conduct at a Country Music festival near Grand Junction | Boebert subsequently missed two court appearances and was arrested again in December 2015 | A year later, in September 2016, Boebert was charged with careless driving and operating an unsafe vehicle after rolling her truck into a ditch, police said. When she failed to show up for court a month later, a warrant was issued for her arrest. She was booked on Feb. 13, 2017. She ultimately pled guilty to the unsafe vehicle charge and paid $123.50 in fines and court costs. | In September 2010, Boebert was arrested after a neighbor, Michele Soet, accused Boebert's two pit bulls of attacking Soet's dog. Soet's dog narrowly escaped injury after jumping into a van. The future legislator pled guilty to a single count of "dog at large," paying a $75 fine. | Boebert's future husband Jayson also had brushes with law enforcement. In January 2004 he was arrested after exposing his penis to two women at a bowling alley. Lauren Boebert (then aged 17 and known as Lauren Opal Roberts) was also there. Jayson Boebert pled guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure, earning himself four days in jail and two years probation. In February 2004, he was booked on a domestic violence charge, against Lauren Boebert. He "did unlawfully strike, shove or kick … and subjected her to physical contact," a spokesman for the Garfield Associate County Court clerk told The Post. They had been dating at the time. | Lauren Boebert took her revenge in May 2004 during an altercation with Jayson at his home in which she scratched his face and chest and trashed his residence, according to a police report. She was slapped with third-degree assault, criminal mischief and underage drinking charges. A rep for the Garfield County Combined Court said they could not reveal any information about the case's final disposition.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/16/gop-rep-lauren-boebert-and-husband-have-racked-up-arrests/

"Madame Speaker, I have constituents outside this building right now ..." Rep Boebert just before thousands of pro-Trump terrorists stormed into the Capitol
https://twitter.com/i/status/1350458779217907713
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1350458779217907713

Tom Brady is 2-5 head-to-head vs Drew Brees in the NFL. Brees' teams have out-scored Brady's 219-137. Average score 31.3-19.6
https://twitter.com/DeeepThreat/status/1350256438162190339
 
Ravens' RB Mark Ingram will be a healthy scratch tonight, per source. Ingram is fully healthy and is said to understand that this is a business decision for Baltimore due to salary-cap considerations. He's supportive of his team and ready to contribute when his number is called.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1350472285900181505

Off-duty police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning in their own.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/police-trump-capitol-mob/2021/01/16/160ace1e-567d-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

Don't let Cruz attend the inauguration. His attempt at sedition and his incitement to violent insurrectionists should result in his expulsion from the Senate. He certainly shouldn't be allowed at a celebration of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1350201813534957571 

On 1st day, Biden will rescind travel ban on several Muslim countries, rejoin Paris climate accord, extend pandemic limits on evictions and student loan payments, and order agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families at border.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/16/us/politics/biden-administration-executive-action-legislation.html

The communications director for Republican Lauren Boebert has quit after less than two weeks on the job.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1350543374021922817

GOOD: An Old Foe of Banks Could Be Wall Street's New Top Cop. Gary Gensler is expected to be Joe Biden's pick to take over the Securities and Exchange Commission. 'He will do things that are controversial.'
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-old-foe-of-banks-could-be-wall-streets-new-top-cop-11610773211

The Democrats won the House majority in 1954 and held it for 40 years, until 1994. I think this is a good illustration of why it took so the House long to flip R. In 1988, a majority of districts in the South (60 of 116) voted for Bush for president but Dems for Congress.
https://twitter.com/JMilesColeman/status/1350538458700406786

Egypt announced Saturday the discovery of a new trove of treasures at the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, including an ancient funerary temple
https://www.rfi.fr/en/middle-east/20210116-egypt-makes-major-discoveries-at-saqqara-archaeological-site

A video analysing Patrick Beverleys defense on the much taller Brandon Ingram in the clippers pelicans game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTks3c75MOM

Friend reminds us that the night before the 2009 inauguration, Obama and McCain joined together for a bipartisan unity dinner. Obama praised McCain as "an American hero." McCain vowed to "do the best I can to help you in the hard work ahead."
https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1350576070744018944

We're nearly a year into this pandemic, more than 3,300 people are dying EVERY DAY from COVID-19, and yet we still have Republicans treating it like a joke — not only refusing to wear a mask but mocking those of us who do.
https://theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/pramila-jayapal-covid-19-capitol-attack/617691/

New Pacers guard Caris LeVert will be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed a small mass on his left kidney.
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1350576581270515714

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Moshinsky

The San Antonio Spurs (7-6) defeat the Houston Rockets (4-7) by a score of 103-91 behind 24 points from DeMar DeRozan

Christian Wood 24 points, 18 boards, 3 blocks; Mason Jones 24 points on 6-8 3P in Rockets loss to Spurs

Rockets rookie Mason Jones drops 24/6/4 on 6-8 from deep in the first start of his career

Republicans will have a super-major-majority on the Supreme Court for decades, are one seat away from Senate control, are likely to win the House in 2022, and still control the majority of state legislatures 

Nikola Vucevic in loss vs Nets: 34 pts, 10 reb, 7 ast, 5 steals, 5 3pointers

Kevin Durant with season high 42 points (16/26 FG) 4 rebs 5 assts 2 steals 2 blocks in the win over the Magic

James Harden in first game as a Net: 32 points 12 rebounds 14 assists 4 steals 1 block in win over the Magic. That’s the most assists from a Net playing in their first game with the team

These Ravens D line vs Bills O line have been hellacious trench battles. 

The defense cuts were made by Trump/Republicans. Troops received regular pay raises under Obama. Under Obama, Iran's pathway to a nuclear weapon was halted and they stopped shooting at us in Iraq. Now they're 2 months from a nuclear bomb and shooting at us again and remain the world's number #1 funder of Islamic terrorism against Israel. And ISIS controls Syria and Iraq, and al-qaeda and the Taliban control Afghanistan, and Hizbullah control Lebanon, because Trump/Republicans cut and run from the Middle East.
https://twitter.com/Mike_Pence/status/1350598842069131264 


Melo with the immaculate footworkHighlight
https://streamable.com/of2rwu

Simmons airballs the three
https://streamable.com/64oyas

Lillard draws the clutch charge on Trae YoungHighlight
https://streamable.com/aw00jb

With his team down 2, and over 20 seconds left on both the shot and game clock, Trae shoots a three and misses
https://streamable.com/nxffkx

SIGH....Harden during post game conference: "When you play with really really good players, it's pretty easy"
https://twitter.com/sportscenter/status/1350627677292605440

Portland Trail Blazers (8-5) defeat Atlanta Hawks (5-7) by 112 - 106 with 36/7/7 from Damain Lillard

The Detroit Pistons (3-9) defeat the Miami Heat (4-7) , 120-100

Jerami Grant after finishing with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals: "I'm still learning, still growing, and just trying to figure out what this team needs me to do"

James Harden said that he is "excited" for Kyrie Irving's eventual return. "Once we're on the court together," Harden said of the Nets trio, "it's going to be scary hours."

SIGH....Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum will undergo an MRI on his left foot in which the team is currently calling a sprain
https://twitter.com/chrisbhaynes/status/1350661936438943744

Yikes, the 76ers should be winning every single game, and should not be losing to below average teams: The Memphis Grizzlies (6-6) defeat the Philadelphia 76ers (9-5), 106 - 104

Derrick Jones Jr. finishes the half court alley-oop from Dame
https://streamable.com/on9yz6

Enes Kanter tonight with Nurkic out: 12 points (5-9 FG, 2-2 FT), 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 5 blocks, 0 TOs

Ben Simmons with the ten foot fadeaway to bring it to 4
https://streamable.com/ieakbm

KD ran a pick & roll with Harden, defenders flummoxed, auto bucket.
https://streamable.com/2kj5eu

YEP: Terry Stotts on Enes Kanter's defense: "I don't know why he has a bad reputation. When he was here two years ago, he was a solid defender for us. I think some of the criticism about Enes was unwarranted."

Two female judges shot dead in Kabul as wave of killings continues because Republicans cut and run from Afghanistan
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/17/two-female-judges-shot-dead-in-kabul-as-wave-of-killings-continues

Moderna Using COVID-19 Vaccine Technology To Make Flu, HIV Shots
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/01/12/moderna-vaccines-covid-19-seaonal-flu-hiv-mrna-technology-combination-shots/

Microplastics widespread in Arctic including North Pole, according to most comprehensive study on environmental pollution ever undertaken. Researchers analyzed seawater from dozens of locations across European and North American Arctic and found microplastics in virtually every sample.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/microplastics-laundry-arctic-pollution-b1787557.html

Manchin says Senate should consider using 14th Amendment to remove Hawley and Cruz over their objections to Electoral College votes
https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-says-senate-should-consider-removing-hawley-and-cruz-2021-1

"The Trump Administration rushed to publish a seriously-flawed FEIS just five days before President Trump leaves office," San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler said on Friday. "This callous, immoral and illegal action is being done to enrich wealthy foreign mining interests while knowing that mining will destroy Oak Flat that for many generations has been the heart of Apache religious and cultural practices. We were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit to prevent the transfer of Oak Flat after release of the FEIS." The FEIS released Friday concedes there mining the Oak Flat area will create the potential of disruption of the sacred land. "There is the potential for some portion of existing yet currently unidentified prehistoric and historic artifacts and resources to be disturbed or destroyed, especially within the Oak Flat subsidence area and the footprint of the tailings storage area. These losses potentially could include human burials within these areas," the FEIS said." "Friday's release by the U.S. Forest Service of its FEIS began the clock for a 45-day period for the public present comments."
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/u-s-forest-environment-statement-released-on-friday-allows-for-mining-at-oak-flat

The Celtics say Kemba Walker is available for today's game against the Knicks
https://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1350832690426216449

SIGH.....Ravens vs Bills: Johnson 100 yard pick 6
https://streamable.com/nn1qv1

Josh Allen now has 17 wins in Buffalo which is the most for a QB since 2000, breaking a tie with Tom Brady

Taron Johnson, who had the 101-yard pick-6, is the same guy who looked the wrong way at the combine a couple years ago and got hit on the head. He made the play of the game to send Buffalo to the AFC Championship Game.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur is now 28-7 with two NFC North titles and two trips to the NFC Championship Game. Not a bad hire.

Diggs on Allen: "As a player, you just want to play for him, you know? He works hard, he busts his a-, a-word, he busts his a-word, and I just love this guy."
https://streamable.com/927kx0

That's Lamar Jackson's 1st career red-zone interception. He had 49 TD and 0 Int in the red zone in his career including playoffs entering the day.
https://twitter.com/RichCimini/status/1350645257428467712

The youngest QB still left in the NFC playoffs is Aaron Rodgers, at age 37. Meanwhile, the oldest QB in the AFC is Baker Mayfield, who is 25.

Lamar gets called for grounding at the 2-yard line, gets hurt. That's the backup centre because the starting centre was benched for... wait for it... too many high snaps. Their snaps have been terrible all season long. That backup centre cost Baltimore the game with multiple bad snaps.
https://streamable.com/4btynw

Bills' play calls so far: Pass Pass Pass Punt Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Field Goal Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass (scramble) Missed FG Pass Pass Pass Pass (sack) Punt
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1350628082256928768

The #Saints are not likely to have QB Taysom Hill (knee) or RB Latavius Murray (quadricep) vs the #Bucs. Both practiced only on Friday and were listed as questionable.
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1350761030675271681 

Phil Spector, the famed 'Wall of Sound' producer and architect of some of pop music's most enduring songs whose legacy was marred by a murder conviction, has died at the age of 80
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector

Alexei Navalny's return to Russia today should be headline news across America and the globe.  He is a profile in courage and leader in one of the great struggles in the world today—democracy and freedom vs. authoritarianism. Navalny returned to Moscow today, 5 months after his poisoning, and he was immediately detained.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/world/europe/navalny-russia-return.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-critic-alexei-navalny-returns-russia-after-novichok-poisoning-despite-n1254536

Trump is leaving White House early enough Wednesday morning that he's still president when he lands in Florida and motorcades to Mar-a-Lago.

The NSA illegally and unconstitutionally installed pro-Trump Terrorist Michael Ellis as the agency's top lawyer. An 11th-hour move like this and a directive from the illegally and unconstitutionally appointed acting secretary of defense is overwhelmingly strong evidence of treason and sedition and terrorism.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/the-nsa-is-moving-forward-to-install-michael-ellis-a-former-gop-operative-as-its-top-lawyer-the-agency-said-sunday/2021/01/17/b8430e8c-58e2-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html
https://cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/nsa-counsel-michael-ellis-christopher-miller/index.html

Bills Mafia donating to Lamar Jackson's favorite charities after getting injured
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/classy-bills-fans-rallied-in-a-heartwarming-gesture-to-support-lamar-jacksons-favorite-charity/ar-BB1cPX3b

Daniel Theis fails to get the out of bounds call on Julius Randle
https://streamable.com/vnjwoj

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to receive COVID-19 vaccine as part of NBA efforts to promote vaccination. Abdul-Jabbar, 73, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia 11 years ago. He revealed in a recent article for WebMD that he has also had prostate cancer and heart bypass surgery.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2021/01/17/kareem-abdul-jabbar-covid-19-vaccine-nba-promotion/4195940001/

Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley in a blowout win over the Celtics: 17 points on 7/12 shooting (1/3 from 3 point range, 1/1 from the FT line), 8 assists, a steal and a block

Turkeys pardoned by Trump living in poor conditions
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-peta-turkey-pardon-trump-tortured-peta-20210117-ru3logmmz5bh7gvfm6di5e6utu-story.html 

If you watch the specials on the DVD there is some discussion that Travis took Betsy to the dirty movie because he wanted to sully and cheapen her. In other words, in his heart he did not believe that he deserved such a beautiful woman so, in a way, he wanted to dirty her.

"Online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent after several social media sites suspended Trump and key allies last week"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/16/misinformation-trump-twitter/

Dante Barksdale, respected Safe Streets coordinator, killed Sunday in Baltimore | Dante Barksdale, the well-known face of Baltimore's violence prevention program Safe Streets helped lead the crime fighting initiative for more than a decade, was shot to death on Sunday, city officials confirmed. Barksdale was shot in the head, said Stefanie Mavronis, a spokeswoman for Baltimore Mayor Brandon
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-man-shot-head-20210117-vfz43kphhjgnnjfdddef4lvmbq-story.html

So the helmet to helmet hit causes the fumble and that's ok? Patrick Mahomes comes up dizzy after hit
https://streamable.com/6dg73w

CLE vs KC - Cleveland's drive ends with a touchback
https://streamable.com/e83f94

Patrick Mahomes has been downgraded to out. Ran the ball on third-and-1, hit by Browns LB Mack Wilson

#Buccaneers TE @RobGronkowski , who came out of retirement this season, will not retire again at the end of the year. He confirms he will return for another season with @TomBrady and the Bucs.
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1350867044544221185
 
Luka Doncic goes behind the back twice to Willie Cauley-Stein
https://streamable.com/54vues

Luka drills his sixth three of the first half, giving him 30 points going into halftime
https://streamable.com/t366mi

The Chicago Bulls (5-8) defeat the Dallas Mavericks (6-6) 117-101, led by 29 points from Lauri Markkanen

Luka Dončić is now the first player with a 30-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double since Luka Dončić, who was the first to do it since Luka Dončić, who was preceded by Luka Dončić.

Contact tracing with Sixers left them short eight players.
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1350934208970166282

Lauren Boebert sued for blocking former Colorado state legislator on Twitter
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/01/17/lauren-boebert-twitter-lawsuit-first-amendment/

#HenneThingIsPossible
https://twitter.com/PatrickMahomes/status/1350942606201655297

Chad Henne throws it to Tyreek Hill for the first down
https://streamable.com/15wxgh

Browns never quit. Incredible fight amongst an incredible amount of adversity. What a year. #Browns
https://twitter.com/H_Grove/status/1350943032955297794

#Browns Kevin Stefanski on the touchback play: "Rashard Higgins is a warrior. He's battled all season long...I'm never going to doubt that kid's effort...unfortunate play... I'm proud to coach him because he gives it every thing he's got."
https://www.twitter.com/camijustice/status/1350947434780831747

HC Kevin Stefanski on not going for it on 4th and 9 on their final offensive drive: "That was just too long there, that distance. If it was tighter, without a doubt."
https://twitter.com/923TheFan/status/1350946638219636737

Myles Garrett said he suffered the oblique injury in the second quarter and that it "definitely got worse," as the game wore on. But, "it's the playoffs," he said #Browns
https://twitter.com/Jake_Trotter/status/1350951128037515264

#Browns defense allowed opponents to convert 27 of 32 fourth downs this season, 5-5 in playoffs
https://www.twitter.com/RuiterWrongFAN/status/1350944411925032963

GOOD: U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/biden-keystone-xl-1.5877038

Biden will nominate FTC commissioner and SenWarren ally Rohit Chopra to lead the CFPB. Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last year, Biden can fire current CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger on Day One. CFPB is currently defunded and suspended. Democrats intend to restore funding and resume.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/biden-rohit-chopra-consumer-bureau-460086

We all know about Mahomes vs. Baker in college. But did you know Brady and Brees played each other in college?
https://twitter.com/unnecroughness/status/1350426476143906816

Tom Brady throws it to Mike Evans for the game's first touchdown
https://streamable.com/rgnyk9

Good coaches "borrow" from others. Sean Payton did that right there. The Winston TD play was the exact same play design Matt Nagy called last week versus Saints. Cordarelle Patterson to Trubisky to Wims. Smith caught it; Wims did not.
https://twitter.com/PSchrags/status/1350969621495623681

The Bears and Saints running the same trick play side by side
https://streamable.com/otiwqs

Arrested Sunday was a self-professed white supremacist who researched mass shootings, expressed a desire to be a "lone wolf killer" and voiced support for man who drove into a crowd of counter protesters at a 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Members of Oath Keepers, Three Percenters join Proud Boys on federal charge sheets
https://www.wsj.com/articles/far-right-affiliations-seen-among-those-recently-charged-in-capitol-riot-11610930392

Rudy Gobert with the block, steal, and dunk within 15 seconds
https://streamable.com/o2tcsy

The Keystone pipeline is and always has been a disaster. I'm delighted that Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone permit on his first day in office. With all of the major crises facing America, we must never lose sight of the most existential threat facing our planet: climate change.
https://cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/biden-keystone-xl-1.5877038

I still can't believe that a bunch of lily-white neo-Nazi psychopaths tried to overthrow the U.S. government at the direction of the President of the United States.

Jon Schaffer, guitarist for metal band Iced Earth, in federal custody after Capitol insurrection, faces 6 charges. Bavender said Schaffer faces six charges, including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building, Bavender told IndyStar. He was allegedly with a group of rioters who used bear spray against Capitol police, Bavender said.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2021/01/17/jon-schaffer-fbi-custody-after-capitol-riot/4200215001/

Trump expected to issue a final batch of about 100 pardons and commutations on Tuesday
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/17/politics/trump-pardons-expected/index.html 

Zion sends Richaun Holmes flying
https://streamable.com/x5rv8z

Drew Brees two interceptions back to back, not a way to end his nfl career, Brady and his receiver drove the stake home with that 1st down on 3-and-8 with 4:01 minutes to go

We are really going to see Tom Brady go to his 14th Conference championship and he's only halfway through his career.......

Tom Brady to Drew Brees: "The future is now, old man." 

Zion with the POSTER
https://streamable.com/m96vqi

Paul George splits the double and throws down the monster hammer
https://streamable.com/zwy42a

Zion Williamson with super efficient 31 points (13/15 FG) (5-5 FT) 6 rebounds 2 assists in win over Kings

Nuggets leave Gobert wide open for the slam to seal the game
https://streamable.com/jr4zuw

De'Aaron Fox with career high 43 points (17/27 FG) 4 rebounds 13 assists 4 steals in loss vs Pelicans

Despite the loss vs Jazz, Jokic dropped 35/14/9 on 14/23 efficiency. Lone Warriors once again.

Zion soars through the air for the reverse and-1
https://streamable.com/yr24c0

Sabonis somehow flips it in to end the half
https://streamable.com/n8c0eo

Marcus Morris Sr. on scoring 20 points and going 7-11: "Shit, I was wide open. If I can't make a wide open shot, I'm in the wrong business. That's literally what it was. I was wide open."

De'Aaron Fox is the first Kings player with 40 points & 10 assists in a game since Tiny Archibald on March 13, 1973 with the Kansas City Royals. Sadly for losing Sacramento, it has allowed 120 points in 8 straight games, tied for the 2nd-longest streak over the last 35 seasons

Luke Kennard tonight: 20/4/2 on 7-12 from the field and 5-8 from three

The FBI is investigating evidence that a woman who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 stole a laptop or hard drive from Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and intended to sell it to Russians. The bizarre claim, which the FBI emphasized remains under investigation, was included in an affidavit describing the criminal case against Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who was seen in footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection in area of the Capitol near Pelosi's office.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/pelosi-laptop-office-capitol-460147
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.226160/gov.uscourts.dcd.226160.1.1.pdf

New Mexico County Commissioner Arrested in DC for Involvement in Capitol Riot. Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was arrested on charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/new-mexico-county-commissioner-arrested-in-dc-for-involvement-in-capitol-riot/2544645/ 

Tom Brady tries to get a high-five from the referee after a TD.
https://streamable.com/z6r7qx

Brees looks back as he exits the field
https://streamable.com/q18ito

If this is it for Drew Brees: Super Bowl XLIV champion and MVP, NFL's All-time passing leader: 80,492 yards, Second most passing TD ever: 572, 13X Pro Bowler, 5X All Pro, Led NFL in passing yards 7X , The 3 highest single season completion % ever. Respect to a legend
https://www.twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1350999698107211781 

Former Trump campaign staffers helped organize the rally that led to the deadly Capitol riot, records show, despite the campaign's repeated claims it wasn't involved
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-trump-campaign-staffers-helped-organize-rally-capitol-riot-2021-1

FBI vetting National Guard troops in Washington DC amid fears of insider attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/military-inauguration-extremist-threat/2021/01/17/ed8885ba-593a-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/fbi-vetting-guard-troops-in-dc-amid-fears-of-insider-attack/507-178506b3-4749-4253-ae10-903c5d001812

The narrative now forming in some Republican circles presents Trump as a secondary figure who presided over an array of important accomplishments thanks to the wisdom and guidance of the Republicans in his orbit. Trump's race-baiting, corruption, and cruel immigration policies, not to mention his attempts to overturn an election, are treated as minor subplots, rather than defining features. As Donald Trump lurches through the disastrous final days of his presidency, Republicans are just beginning to survey the wreckage of his reign. Their party has been gutted, their leader is reviled, and after four years of excusing every presidential affront to "conservative values," their credibility is shot. How will the Republican recover from the complicity and corruption of the Trump era? To many Republicans, the answer is simple: Pretend it never happened. We're about to see a whole political party do a large-scale version of "New phone, who dis?" The plan might seem implausible, but I've heard it floated repeatedly in recent days by Republican strategists who are counting down the minutes of the Trump presidency. The hardcore MAGA crowd will stay loyal, of course, and those few who have consistently opposed Trump will escape with their reputations intact. But for the majority of Republican officials, apparatchiks, and commentators who sacrificed their dignity at the altar of Trump, a collective case of amnesia seems destined to set in the moment he leaves office. People who spent years coddling the president will recast themselves as voices of conscience, or whitewash their relationship with Trump altogether. Policy makers who abandoned their dedication to "fiscal responsibility" and "limited government" will rediscover a passion for these timeless conservative principles. Some may dress up their revisionism in the rhetoric of "healing" and "moving forward," but the strategy will be clear - to escape accountability by taking advantage of America's notoriously short political memory. But while some Republicans might be eager to walk away from Trump, all Republican will continue to support and praise destructive terrorist policies they supported. Forty-seven months of blind loyalty followed by one month of conscience doesn't earn you much more than the Mick Mulvaney profile-in-courage award.

Early in the pandemic, many health experts  -  in the U.S. and around the world  -  decided that the public could not be trusted to hear the truth about masks. Instead, the experts spread a misleading message, discouraging the use of masks. Their motivation was mostly good. It sprung from a concern that people would rush to buy high-grade medical masks, leaving too few for doctors and nurses. The experts were also unsure how much ordinary masks would help. But the message was still a mistake. It confused people. (If masks weren't effective, why did doctors and nurses need them?) It delayed the widespread use of masks (even though there was good reason to believe they could help). And it damaged the credibility of public health experts. | Now a version of the mask story is repeating itself  -  this time involving the vaccines. Once again, the experts don't seem to trust the public to hear the full truth. Right now, public discussion of the vaccines is full of warnings about their limitations: They're not 100 percent effective. Even vaccinated people may be able to spread the virus. And people shouldn't change their behavior once they get their shots. These warnings have a basis in truth, just as it's true that masks are imperfect. But the sum total of the warnings is misleading. Why are many experts conveying a more negative message? Again, their motivations are mostly good. As academic researchers, they are instinctively cautious, prone to emphasizing any uncertainty. Many may also be nervous that vaccinated people will stop wearing masks and social distancing, which in turn could cause unvaccinated people to stop as well. If that happens, deaths would soar even higher. We should immediately be more aggressive about mask-wearing and social distancing because of the new virus variants. We should vaccinate people as rapidly as possible  -  which will require approving other Covid19 vaccines when the data justifies it. People who have received both of their vaccine shots, and have waited until they take effect, will be able to do things that unvaccinated people cannot  -  like having meals together and hugging their grandchildren. But until the pandemic is defeated, all Americans should wear masks in public, help unvaccinated people stay safe and contribute to a shared national project of saving every possible life.

-- The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines  -  the only two approved in the U.S.  -  are among the best vaccines ever created, with effectiveness rates of about 95 percent after two doses. That's on par with the vaccines for chickenpox and measles. And a vaccine doesn't even need to be so effective to reduce cases sharply and crush a pandemic.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/rotavirus/hcp/about-vaccine.html#:~:text=Vaccine%20Effectiveness%20and%20Duration%20of%20Protection,-RotaTeq%C2%AE%20(RV5&text=Two%20clinical%20trials%20found%20Rotarix,hospitalizations%20through%20two%20rotavirus%20seasons.

-- If anything, the 95 percent number understates the effectiveness, because it counts anyone who came down with a mild case of Covid-19 as a failure. But turning Covid19 into a typical flu  -  as the vaccines evidently did for most of the remaining 5 percent  -  is actually a success. Of the 32,000 people who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine in a research trial, do you want to guess how many contracted a severe Covid19 case? One.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/absolutely-remarkable-no-one-who-got-modernas-vaccine-trial-developed-severe-covid-19
https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions
https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions

-- Although no rigorous study has yet analyzed whether vaccinated people can spread the virus, it would be surprising if they did. "If there is an example of a vaccine in widespread clinical use that has this selective effect  -  prevents disease but not infection  -  I can't think of one!" Dr. Paul Sax of Harvard has written in The New England Journal of Medicine. (And, no, exclamation points are not common in medical journals.) On Twitter, Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, argued: "Please be assured that YOU ARE SAFE after vaccine from what matters  -  disease and spreading."
https://www.nejm.org/covid-vaccine/faq
https://twitter.com/MonicaGandhi9/status/1347988651179798530

-- The risks for vaccinated people are still not zero, because almost nothing in the real world is zero risk. A tiny percentage of people may have allergic reactions. But the evidence so far suggests that the vaccines are akin to a cure.

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