• Happy Second Anniversary to the Biden Administration.  And thank you for returning some degree of normalcy to one branch of the federal government as Republicans look to destroy a different one.  
• The same people who tout Donald Trump as a spectacular businessman for leveraging debt are refusing to raise the debt ceiling on the federal budget because they think the government should balance its budget like a household checkbook, demonstrating their knowledge of business and economics is extremely suspect.
• It’s difficult to identify a culprit when you’re prevented from interviewing the most likely suspects under oath (or even the possibility of prosecution for lying to investigators).  Supreme Court justices are the most privileged class in the US, holding themselves above the law.
• Republicans:  elected county sheriffs can unilaterally decide what laws to enforce.  Also Republicans:  elected county prosecutors cannot decide to not prosecute under any circumstances (even though they know specifics of the cases and the law) because law and order.  
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CV”

It’s the convergence of QAnon crazy.  Scores of conspiracy nuts will converge on Trump’s Doral property–scoring a major gig and the easiest commensurate commission for whatever soulless group salesperson the call from the meeting organizer who was going to a Trump property regardless of price–headlined by Mike Lindell, Mike Flynn, and a variety of other acts you’d only know if you were so far down the QAnon rabbit hole you have worms coming out your eyes.

The Marshal for the US Supreme Court, Gail Curley, released a four-sentence statement Friday to address concerns that the report her office released did not state investigators interviewed the nine Supreme Court Justices or their spouses in the course of the eight-month probe.  Unfortunately, her statement leaves a lot to be desired:  while she says all justices cooperated fully, she does not say they interviewed the Justices’ spouses–including the infamously loose-lipped Ginny Thomas, who is also implicated in the planning of the January 6th coup attempt.  Nor, she says, did the Justices themselves sign sworn affidavits because, she says, no one implicated the Justices and no leads led to the Justices, she says.

It should be pointed out at this moment that the Marshal of the Supreme Court is not an investigatory position; its stated duties include overseeing the operation of the Court building and making sure witnesses and attorneys appearing before the Court are on time.  Unlike the Secret Service or the Capitol Police, both of which have protective and investigatory units, the duties of the Marshal end at the Courthouse doors and do not include criminal investigations.  It is not, as some conservatives have characterized it, part of the US Marshal Service.

In a trial focusing on potential manipulation of the stock market, billionaire anarchist Elon Musk declared that he doesn’t believe everything that he tweets as a factual statement, a habit he claims that should mean investors shouldn’t pay attention to what he says.

According to Reuters, Musk took the stand in the securities class action suit that accuses Musk of lying to impact the stock price of Tesla, the electric car company Musk also controls.  Investors and Tesla stock owners have sued claiming that Musk’s 2018 tweet that he was going to take the company private was a crass attempt to increase the value of Musk’s personal holdings at the expense of the free market.  Musk countered by claiming investors take his statements too seriously:  “Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly.”

After Musk’s August 7, 2018 post in which he said, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” the stock fluctuated in the day’s trading, with trading volume doubling on the stock and the price jumping to $387 per share; prior to the tweet, the stock was trading in the low $300-range.

Justice Department lawyers have informed spandex-wearing grapple freak Jim Jordan that the DOJ is under no legal obligation to cooperate with spittle tirades as he launches his new “Weaponization” select subcommittee probes of ongoing federal criminal investigations, Politico reports.

“Consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work,” wrote DOJ legislative affairs chief Carlos Uriarte in the five-page letter. “Longstanding Department policy prevents us from confirming or denying the existence of pending investigations in response to congressional requests or providing non-public information about our investigations.” It’s not clear if Jordan has looked into Uriarte yet to see if his sister-in-law donated $20 to Hillary Clinton in 2008 or whatever yet.

Republican politicians and party operatives during the Trump years had a convenient excuse to questions about why they seemed to spend so much time and more importantly money hanging out at the now-former Trump International Hotel in the historic Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Ave in DC: That it was conveniently located (which we guess makes it a “meta-convenient” excuse).

So now that it’s a Waldorf-Astoria branded property, and that we already gave away this gist in the headline anyway, you will not be surprised to learn that a new report from the watchdogs at Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has found that Republican spending of donor funds absolutely cratered since Donald sold off his figurative – and arguably literal – whorehouse.

CREW compared the five month period leading up to the midterms at the new Waldorf-Astoria in 2022 with the same period at the Trump International in 2018 and found that the Republican campaign expenditures reported to the FEC dropped by a staggering 99.97 percent, or $867,000 down to less than $2,000. Now obviously there would have been at least some hit to the spending if Trump had held on to the hotel. One can allow that Republicans are naturally going to spend less at a joint right across the street from a Republican White House than one across the street from a Democratic White House – no matter who owns the place – but not almost literally 100% less. It’s too bad that CREW didn’t try to nail down another window between when Trump left office and when it was first reported he was looking to sell in September 2021, but we understand if that would’ve been too hard to frame given the still ongoing COVID spikes that year. That’s inconvenient to us.

In an email obtained by NBC News, a North Dakota Republican National Committee delegate on Friday called out fellow delegate Tamara Scott, the Chair of the “RNC Faith Advisory Board” and a close ally of Chairwoman Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel, over a private conversation they had in which Scott had questioned if Not-Romney’s rival in next week’s chair election, MAGA lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, was right for the job “because of Harmeet’s Sikh beliefs – she is not a Christian.”

“On Wednesday, December 28th I called Tamara Scott, Chair of the RNC Faith Advisory Board, because I had felt bad for having missed the weekly prayer calls in recent weeks and wanted to discuss them with her. When the subject of the RNC Chair race came up, Tamara told me she was backing Ronna McDaniel and I told her I was backing Harmeet Dhillon. What should have been a pleasant conversation among colleagues discussing the merits of each candidate then took a very ugly turn when Tamara told me that she and others at the RNC were ‘worried the gains made by the Faith Advisory Board would be in jeopardy should Harmeet Dhillon win the RNC Chair race.'”

A Florida federal judge on Friday ruled that Napoleonic autocrat Governor Ron DeSantis violated the state constitution last August when he suspended Tampa-area Hillsborough County State’s Attorney Andrew Warren for being “woke” and refusing to enforce state laws criminalizing abortion, but lacks jurisdiction to reinstate Warren under the 11th Amendment proscription on federal courts “awarding declaratory or injunctive relief against a state official based only on a violation of state law.”

“The Governor violated the First Amendment by considering Mr. Warren’s speech on matters of public concern – the four FJP policies save one sentence – as motivating factors in the decision to suspend him. The Governor violated the First Amendment by considering Mr. Warren’s association with the Democratic Party and alleged association with Mr. Soros as motivating factors in the decision. But the Governor would have made the same decision anyway, even without considering these things. The First Amendment violations were not essential to the outcome and so do not entitle Mr. Warren to relief in this action. The suspension also violated the Florida Constitution, and that violation did affect the outcome. But the Eleventh Amendment prohibits a federal court from awarding declaratory or injunctive relief of the kind at issue against a state official based only on a violation of state law,” wrote Northern District of Florida Circuit Judge Robert Hinkle in the ruling.

In a video message that hasn’t been posted yet but previewed to Politico, disgraced former President Trump ordered House Republicans to leave Social Security and Medicare entitlements out of their hostage negotiations over the looming federal debt ceiling breach, calculating correctly that such moves will be politically suicidal for the party and he himself ahead of 2024.

“Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere that we can find it and there is plenty there’s plenty of it. But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it,” says the Orange God Emperor in the video message directed at the Freedom Caucasians eager to set the global economy on fire. Why Trump thinks they’re going to listen to him now is anyone’s guess. They went out of their way to willfully disobey his orders to stand down during the Speaker shitshow and only let Kevin McCarthy win the gavel after he acquiesced to their insane demands, showing how little control he still holds over the House GOP.

One day after US District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks slapped him and his lawyers with more than $930,000 in fines for bringing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others, Donald Trump has withdrawn a civil lawsuit Trump filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James to harass her for bringing a $250 million lawsuit against him and his company. The suit had originally been filed in a Florida state court but James successfully argued to get it transferred to the federal circuit where it landed in front of – you guessed it – US District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks. It’s unknown if Trump did this unilaterally or if his lawyers pleaded with him to help save their bank accounts, but it’s hard to see the timing being coincidental.

Free speech crusader Elon Musk banned the official government Twitter account for Congressman George Santos due to an unspecified rules violation on Friday. It’s not clear what the final transgression was for the lying piece of shit MAGA Republican but it must’ve been good. Santos’s personal/campaign account remains active, which is a switch from the pre-Musk Twitter bans of fat former President Trump and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in which their official government accounts remained active (though the @POTUS account was locked until Trump left office). Musk restored both of the white nationalists’ accounts after taking over.

UPDATE 1/20/2023 10:19 AM EST: Holy shit, the account is suspended again after being inexplicably restored as of 9:45 AM EST Friday. We were able to confirm that it was a “government official account” when it was active again, but who the hell knows what’s going on here.

Kremlin-connected American businessman Andrew Intrater, cousin of sanctioned Putin crony Viktor Vekselberg and subject of various investigations surrounding the 2016 election, tells the New York Times he’s been in touch with the SEC about the $625,000 he dumped into a Ponzi scheme account managed by now-Congressman George “Kitara” Santos in May 2021, six months after Santos had lost his first House election to a Democrat on Long Island’s North Shore.

Again, Intrater is a guy who’s been suspected of funneling blood Russian money into Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee, and the New York Times appears to be simply taking his word for it, even printing a quote from him saying “I don’t want Republicans having a bum representing Republicans, and I don’t want to have a guy that committed crimes walking free.” What the fuck?

At least two US-allied Syrian opposition fighters were wounded in a suspected Iranian kamikaze drone strike on an American military base in eastern Syria on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

No Americans were injured in the strike. “Attacks of this kind are unacceptable – they place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardize the fight against ISIS,” said a US military spokesman.

As has been expected for months, Arizona Dem Congressman Ruben Gallego will on Monday officially launch his challenge to edgelord incumbent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Newsweek reports.

Campaigning to keep her job, RNC chairwoman Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel told party delegates this week that she’s the one up to the tough task of talking disgraced former President Trump out of forming a third party if he loses the 2024 presidential nomination, the Washington Post reports.

Seven people who were protesting the construction of an 82-acre police training facility in Georgia have been charged with domestic terrorism after a shootout with law enforcement officials trying to clear the land left one dead, CNN reports.

Protestors hope to protect the forest that would be destroyed to make room for what they’ve dubbed “Cop City,” the $90 million facility.  Activists with a group called “Stop Cop City” say officers aimed guns into wooded areas where protesters had spread out.  Police say they were fired upon from the woods.  Police were sweeping the woods where the facility would be built in an effort to rid it of protestors’ campsites, spread out across the location.  Police report removing more than two dozen campsites.

An Australian cane toad’s reign as the largest toad discovered was quite short.  Days after being discovered in the rainforest of north Australian and being dismissed as a fake, researchers captured the 2.7 kilogram/6 pound toad.  “I’ve never seen anything so big,” park ranger Kylee Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation News.  “[It was] almost like a football with legs. We dubbed it ‘Toadzilla.'”

According to the BBC, Toadzilla was taken to a lab where it was officially weighed and examined.  But with the cane toad being an invasive species in Australia–coming to the isolated continent from Central America on container ships–the lab euthanized the amphibian.

Florida federal Judge Donald Middlebrooks on Thursday slapped Trump and his incompetent lawyers Alina Habba and Peter Ticktin with fucking $937,989.98 in sanctions for their conduct in the failed batshit lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, James Comey, John Podesta, Andrew McCabe, and literally dozens of other defendants over the 2016 election and subsequent Russia investigation.

“This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim. Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm,” Middlebrooks wrote in the order ripping into the two assholes and hitting them with the massive sanctions, now totaling just under a million dollars after he already stuck them with $50,000 in November.

A staffer in Conservative Alberta, Canada Premier Danielle Smith’s office sent a series of emails to the Alberta Crown Prosecutor’s office last fall pushing back against their case against the right wing clustertruckers who blockaded border crossings protesting the Canadian government’s COVID vaccine mandates last year, the CBC reports on some pretty textbook MAGA fuckery up north.

“This is so improper on so many levels – it’s pure interference with Crown independence,” said one source in the prosecutor’s office and lol this is the kind of bullshit we Americans dealt with every day for four years while Trump was in office, not to mention we’re still stuck with no end in sight to the residual effects of his regime’s normalization of political interference in criminal investigations.

For her part Smith has scarcely denied she wants the clustertruckers to walk, questioning if the cases are still in the public interest and if the prosecutors can convict them. “I’ve put it to the prosecutors, and I’ve asked them to do a review of the cases with those two things in mind. And I’m hopeful that we’ll see a true turning of the page. And so do you continue on in prosecuting one when the public has moved on? That’s the big question that the Crown has got to to come to terms with,” said Smith in an interview with MAGA site RebelNews.com’s Canadian branch last month.

“So if you wanna understand, if you really wanna understand how the American government actually works at the highest levels and if you wanna why they don’t teach history anymore, one thing you should know is that the most popular president in American history was [melodramatic pause] Richard Nixon.  Richard Nixon.  Yet somehow without a single vote being cast by a single American voter, Richard Nixon was kicked out of office and replace by the only unelected president in American history.”

Well, Tucker lies again.  Richard Nixon was never “the most popular president.”  He peaked in popularity at 67% job approval in his first term, numbers surpassed by his three predecessors and even Jimmy freakin’ Carter.  And while Nixon did overwhelming win reelection against a historically unpopular George McGovern, LBJ and FDR won greater percentages of the popular vote.  And finally, Richard Nixon was “kicked out of office;” he resigned in disgrace after trying to illegally influence the 1972 election through corrupt methods; his Republican Party Congressional leaders told him there was enough support for impeachment, and he resigned rather than have the evidence aired publicly.