“Prosecute him too, he gets no free pass and hasn’t given Xiden any kind of lifeline, he’s merely implicated himself” – The current top comment on the Gateway Pundit article “Former Vice President Mike Pence Finds Classified Documents in His Indiana Home – Discovered Last Week.”

The commenter evidently still subscribes to the moronic “Trump was President so he was allowed to take whatever he wanted” canard, a line of bullshit predicated on the false assertion that Trump declassified the documents he stole from the White House prior to leaving office – or that he didn’t need to formally do so because he could “declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it,” and therefore Trump innocent while both Biden (and now Pence) are criminally liable as former vice presidents. It was a pretty fucking dumb take even before a still-valid 2009 Obama executive order extending declassification powers to the Vice President resurfaced last week.

Apparently chastized after the court fined him and his attorneys nearly one million dollars for filing frivolous lawsuits that a judge said no serious member of the Bar would have accepted, Donald Trump has withdrawn his second lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James attempting to force the termination of her investigation into Trump’s many alleged crimes.

Clip from an interview just last week in which Mike Pence described how careful he was with handling classified documents. “I’d rise early. I’d go to the safe where my military aide would place those classified materials. I’d pull them out, review them. I’d receive a presentation to them and then, frankly, more often than not Larry, I would simply return them back to the file that I’d received them in. They went in commonly into what was called a burn bag that my military aide would gather and then destroy those classified materials—same goes in materials that I would receive at the White House,” Pence told cokehead Fox Business host Larry Kudlow of his handling of documents.

CNN reports about a dozen classified documents were found at the Indiana residence of former Vice President Mike Pence. Pence had previously repeatedly denied holding any classified or government documents since he left office. Pence lawyers – obviously trying to make sure there was no legal liability for Pence – found the documents last week and immediately notified NARA.

Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy has fired a number of regional governors and other government officials as a kickback scandal related to agencies paying inflated prices for food procured for military members fighting the Russian invaders, the New York Times reports.

Elected as a political outsider who would clean up corruption inherent in Ukraine’s government, Zelenskyy also fired Viacheslav Shapovalov, a deputy defense minister, as Shapovalov’s request as he took responsibility for the ongoing corruption.  In a separate move, Zelenskyy also dismissed Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the top deputy in the presidential office and one of Zelenskyy’s chief spokespeople, for using donated resources like an SUV for personal use.  None of the alleged corruption and skimming involve the aid provided by Western governments to Ukraine’s defense effort to defend itself against Russian invaders.

Apparently feeling that owning a governor, two US Senators, and countless other public officials isn’t enough, West Virginia’s coal industry wants the state government to do more to promote the sooty black fossil fuel’s extraction, proposing an office to promote coal’s future and recruit a new generation of wage slaves to do the lethal work mining it, Mountain State Spotlight reports.

“We think we [the coal industry] will continue to be a major part of the state’s industrial job base and economy for many decades to come, but frankly we need a little help from our government,” West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton told members of the state Senate’s Energy, Industry and Mining Committee last week as he pushed them to pass a bill his organization wrote.

The bill’s main goal is to repurpose the state’s Office of Coalfield Community Development – an agency tasked with figuring out what the fuck to do with all the ravaged land and mothballed infrastructure left behind by the industry’s ongoing and irreversible decline and to transition West Virginia’s economy to one centered on almost literally anything else – into more of a coal-centric one-stop shop for keeping the black stuff cranking. West Virginia state Senate Republicans were receptive to the bill, with one calling it “not bad” before voting yes to move it to the floor.

The eggheads at the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced on Tuesday they’ve ticked the Doomsday Clock 10 seconds closer to midnight, now at 90 seconds. “The war in Ukraine may enter a second horrifying year, with both sides convinced they can win. Ukraine’s sovereignty and broader European security arrangements that have largely held since the end of World War II are at stake. Also, Russia’s war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks,” wrote the Bulletin scientists in their annual report.

The Biden Administration is considering sending a significant number of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and could announce the move as early as this week, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move would come as part of an understanding with Berlin, who have been reluctant to allow other nations such as Poland to supply Kyiv with German-made Leopard II tanks. US military officials have been wary of sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine, not out of principle but the practicality of it, as the rolling death machines require heavy investment in training and logistical support.

Continued: “With many people on the line on what was a PERFECT call protesting the Rigged Georgia Election, which I have a clear right to do, and in fact an obligation to do since I made the call as President, how come not one person said, while on the call, that I acted inappropriately, or made a statement of protest at what I said, & then slammed down the phone. Not one, even with so many opposing people, lawyers, and others on the line. NO ADMONISHMENT at all. We nicely agreed to speak again… That was the call to Georgia. It was PERFECT, nothing done or said wrong. We agreed to continue our conversation at a later date. The other call, that was probably taped by them illegally, was so good that when the Washington Post heard it, they did a retraction and apology because they were fed false information, perhaps by the Secretary of State’s office, and they were angry about it! The Election in Georgia was RIGGED AND STOLLEN. We have all the evidence needed. That is the CRIME!” wrote the fat former President ahead of the hotly-anticipated release (or non-release) of a report on the grand jury investigation into his failed coup attempt.

Right wing propaganda fans in Congress are sounding the alarm that far right bullshit channel Newsmax could follow OAN in being dropped from the DirecTV satellite service, sending a letter to executives at owners AT&T and TPG Capital warning that if “Newsmax is removed from DIRECTV, in less than a year House Republicans will have lost two of the three cable news channels that reach conservative voters on a platform that primarily serves conservative-leaning areas of the country.”

Yeah. They really fucking wrote that it would be their loss. House Republicans. Not their voters, let alone the people at Newsmax whose jobs depend on revenue from advertising and the carrier fees, but House Republicans. That part sticks out as somehow even more deranged than the thinly-veiled accusation that DirecTV is “colluding” with Democrats to “limit, restrict, and circumvent First Amendment rights,” as if the First Amendment is applicable to private enterprise.

Then there’s that, according to the Daily Beast, the potential end of Newsmax on DirecTV is a simple business matter. Newsmax wants to raise carrying fees and DirecTV doesn’t feel like paying up for the low-production value “news” network. The House Republicans claim “liberal” media outlets like Vice News “receive higher fees than NEWSMAX is requesting despite having a fraction of the audience,” in attempt to address that “unfairness.” We’ll just end it here instead of pointing out how the GOP is supposed to love the free market and all that shit that was already old years ago.

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office is investigating how the hell an inmate at Oahu Community Correction Center managed to order more than 100 pounds of illegal fireworks that were delivered to the jail last month or, as is suspected, which asshole corrections officer used the inmate’s name when ordering 100 pounds of illegal fireworks, Hawaii News Now reports.

pic.twitter.com/QfH909oAFo

— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 24, 2023

A Kansas man was killed Saturday when his hunting buddy’s dog stepped on a gun tossed carelessly in the back seat of the friend’s pickup truck, firing a round at the passenger seat, KARE reports. It’s not totally clear who the rifle belonged to, but the KARE article appears to indicate it was the victim who left the safety off, writing “The sheriff’s office said the man was sitting in the front passenger seat of his pickup and he had hunting gear and a rifle in the backseat.”

“A canine belonging to the owner of the pickup stepped on the rifle causing the weapon to discharge. The fired round struck the passenger who died of his injuries on scene,” said the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office’s in a statement on dog-kind’s revenge for Old Yeller.

The Cook Political Report’s first 2024 Senate ratings are up, and it’s a tough year for Dems’ 51 to 49 majority, with toss-ups in Arizona, Ohio, and West Virginia currently rated as tossups. Arizona would be off the list if not for shitbrain “independent” Kyrsten Sinema given actual Dem Senator Mark Kelly’s 2022 win there, but Ohio and West Virginia are going to be rough for similar reasons. Ohio Dem Senator Sherrod Brown is running for reelection and incumbents are always advantaged, but it’s a presidential year in a red state. Same with Joe Manchin is West Virginia, and that flaky bastard isn’t a sure bet to run. He could face a tough challenge from Republican Governor Jim Justice if he does. It might be better for Democrats if Manchin dips out and goes independent like Sinema did.

Cook also rates Dem-held seats in Montana, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as lean Democratic, with Montana being somewhat of a surprise given its long red state status.

“On behalf of President Trump, we will not be present nor participating in Tuesday’s hearing regarding the possible release of the special purpose grand jury’s report. To date, we have never been a part of this process. The grand jury compelled the testimony of dozens of other, often high-ranking, officials during the investigation, but never found it important to speak with the President.”

“He was never subpoenaed nor asked to come in voluntarily by this grand jury or anyone in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Therefore, we can assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump,” said fat former President Trump’s lawyers in a statement Monday, ahead of the highly anticipated release (or non-release) of a report on the Fulton County grand jury investigation.

The Florida Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 15-week abortion ban, passed by the Republican-dominated legislature last year, Politico reports.  Opponents to the law say it violates the “Right to Privacy” outlined in the state’s constitution.

DeSantis’s body control law does not have any exceptions available in the cases of rape and incest.  Section 23 of the Florida Constitution, adopted in 1980, explicitly declares, “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein.”  [Curiously, Florida Document does not explain what an unnatural person would be.]

The Antifa libtard who was killed by police after shooting and wounding an officer at the “Cop City” training center had purchased the gun legally, Axios reports, showing that even leftist anarchists can be patriotic Second Amendment freedom-lovers who defend themselves from tyranny.

At a meeting of Western military officials, twelve nations agreed to ship 100 German-made Leopard II modern battle tanks to Ukrainian defense forces, but still await official approval from the German government to set up the transfer, ABC News reports.

Although the German Foreign Minister stated Sunday that Germany would not block Poland shipping tanks to Ukraine, Berlin has not officially authorized the transfer of the tanks to Kyiv.  The Germans are concerned on three fronts:  the escalation of arms being shipped to Ukraine; the potential for the tanks and technology to fall into Russian hands; and the imagery of German tanks fighting Russians on Ukrainian soil, again.

Joining Poland and Finland in promising tanks for Kyiv, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark were among the nations saying they would ship some Leopard IIs to Ukraine.  As the manufacturer of the tanks and developer of the technology, Germany has to approve the export of the technology by its customers to a third country.

“So in retrospect, it’s very clear who antifa was, and is” white nationalist spox and Hungarian tourism counselor Tucker Carlson says on his Fox show.  “Antifa is the armed instrument of the permanent Democratic establishment in Washington.  Their job is to mobilize when politically necessary.  Now this is a new thing in the United States, but political militia are a common feature in Third World politics.”

We see you, Tucker.  We know you’re crushed that your buddies in the Proud Boys are going to jail for seditious conspiracy.  And your pals in the Oath Keepers.  You must be very sad to see the actual right wing militia–the ones the leader of the GOP told to “Stand back and stand by”–crumbling, so you’ve got to promote a self-created talking point about a non-existent relationship to create more fear and anger among those white nationalists.