Doctors who perform abortions up to the 15th week of pregnancy cannot be prosecuted under an 1864 state law that mandates prison time for people who assists a woman seeking the procedure because subsequent passed laws made that law moot, an Arizona appeals court ruled Friday, Politico reports.

Although it did not explicitly overturn the 1864 law that dictated at least a two-year prison term, the court ruled that various state laws passed since 1864 allow doctors to perform abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy and reviewing that one law in isolation negates the legislation subsequently passed.

“The statutes, read together, make clear that physicians are permitted to perform abortions as regulated” by other abortion laws, the appeals court wrote, noting that the state’s Republican attorney general interpretation’s of the pre-statehood law “would not merely invite arbitrary enforcement, it would practically demand it” because prosecutors could decide themselves which law would apply instead of referring to the latest laws passed by the legislature which overrule previous legislation.

A 32-year-old Norwegian man, the first player in history to simultaneously hold the world champion title in three competitive versions of chess–Classical, Rapid and Blitz–now holds the sports Triple Crown for the third time in his career, CNN reports.

Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlson, who first became a world champion in Classical at the age of 23, took the World Blitz and World Rapid titles during a tournament held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in December.  The tournament win completes a career decade for the grandmaster during which he dominated competition, ending as the top chess player in the world.

Classic chess allows players longer periods of time to determine moves, whereas Rapid chess must have each match completed in no longer than 60 minutes.  In Blitz games, each player has up to 10 minutes cumulative to complete a 60-move match.

The first pontiff in modern times to abdicate the position, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died after a battle with cancer Saturday at a monastery in the Vatican.  He was 95.

Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Germany, Benedict entered the seminary at age 18 and rose through the ranks of the clergy, becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and taking a key position in the Vatican in 1981 before being named Pope in 2005.

As his health declined, Benedict stepped down from his role as Pope at the end of February 2013, the first Pope to leave office since Gregory XII in 1415.  Details of his funeral have not been announced.

• His tax returns prove it.  Donald Trump achieved his wealth the old fashioned way:  he inherited it.
• Numbers don’t lie.  The people who reported them on the tax forms, however….
• Kevin McCarthy touted the largest Republican Jewish caucus in decades in Congress with the election of Jew-ish New Yorker George Santos.  The total number of Republican Jews in Congress, including Santos as a “-elect”:  Three:  Santos, David Kustoff of Tennessee and Lee Zeldin of New York, whose term expires January 3rd.  (There are 13 Jewish Democratic members of the House and ten Jewish Democratic Senators including sometimes Democrat Bernie.)  
• Without irony, Greg Abbott forced migrants out on a cold Christmas Eve night, and he had no second thoughts as he heard the Gospel reading at the holiday service about a family forced out into the cold night because no one would give them a place to stay.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CII”

Where is the outrage about Joe Biden going on a nice tropical vacation while the country suffers through a “polar vortex bomb cyclone?” Remember what they did to Ted Cruz? A president can actually do something about this stuff that a senator can’t and yet total silence? WTF?

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 31, 2022

Forget the fact that Biden is on a planned vacation and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) fled in the middle of a storm after power went out at his home–leaving his poor dog Snowflake in the powerless house–as millions of people across the state struggled and hundreds died so he could go to a luxury resort in Cancun.  Oh, and then he lied repeatedly about it.

Junior says a president can “actually do something about” the weather.  Is he trying to tell us his father directed a hurricane to devastate Puerto Rico?

Democrat North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein on Friday said there isn’t enough evidence to charge disgraced former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with voter fraud after the asshole cast a ballot from a residence he clearly wasn’t living at in the 2020 election, the AP reports.

“Our conclusion was … they had arguments that would help them if a case was brought such that we didn’t believe we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they had engaged in intentional voter fraud,” Stein told the Associated Press in an interview to break the bad news to Americans.

Easy come.  Easy go.  But it’s still gotta sting when it goes 200 billion times.  Elon Musk has made a dubious mark on history:  he’s become the first person in history to reduce his net worth by $200 billion, Bloomberg reports.

The second person ever to amass a fortune exceeding $200 billion–the groundbreaker was Jeff Bezos, who currently holds the record for largest divorce settlement–Musk becomes the first to lose that amount of money, equivalent to the entire pre-war annual gross domestic product of Ukraine.

Despite receiving a governor’s pardon after their guilty pleas for brandishing an assault-style rifle and a petite handgun at peaceful civil rights demonstrators marching through their neighborhood in 2020, Mark and Patricia McCloskey will not have their weapons or fines returned to them, the Associated Press reports.

The McCloskeys became flash-in-the-pan conservative media darlings after they faced down a bunch of peaceful protestors who marched through their precious gated community:  they appeared at the 2020 Republican National Convention which nominated Donald Trump for re-election and Mark McCloskey made a disastrous run for Senate; he finished with 3% of the vote in the 2022 GOP primary.

Missouri Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty ruled that the pardon did not have any influence over the terms of the plea agreement the McCloskeys signed, noting that they voluntarily entered into the agreement in February 2022 which included as terms that the McCloskeys pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, pay a $3,000 fine, surrender their Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber pistol, and serve one year’s probation.  Mark McCloskey, a personal injury lawyer, also had his law license revoked, although the final decision on a pending appeal will happen after McCloskey finishes his probation.  While the pardon erases the state misdemeanor charges from their records, the other penalties will remain because the McCloskeys voluntarily entered into them or they were levied by non-governmental organization and therefore beyond the influence of the governor’s office.

Cops in Monroe County, Pennsylvania arrested Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, on an extradition warrant for first degree murder in Idaho, which sources told the AP was in connection with the gruesome stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students last month.

Kohberger is a PhD student in criminology at Washington State University, just over the state border from where the murders occurred, probably raising the question of whether this is the bad plot of some James Patterson novel or mid-budget thriller vehicle starring Angelina Jolie as the detective.

Threatening that the release of his tax returns by the House Ways and Means Committee is “going to lead to horrible things for so many people,” brattish former president Donald Trump lashed out in his typically immature manner while continuing to spread lies about his wealth.

Claiming that Forbes pegged his wealth at $4.3 billion–Forbes actually calculates Trump’s net worth about 25% less at $3.2 billion after Trump deceptively edited the Forbes piece he cites:  “That theory is wrong. In fact, Trump’s assets are worth an estimated $4.3 billion, making his net worth $3.2 billion after accounting for $1.1 billion of debt.”–Trump makes no bones about threatening his political opponents he believes wronged him.

“The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!  The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation,” Trump claims, using his typically poor punctuation using quotation marks and capitalizations randomly.

Desperate for votes to become Speaker of the House, legendarily uncourageous House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has given in to the Freedom Caucasians demands to lower the threshold on a “motion to vacate,” CNN reports. It’s not clear yet what the number will be lowered to as McCarthy is negotiating on that with the Freedom Caucasians and other MAGA psychopaths now.

Currently it stands at a majority of the conference, and some of his supporters are willing to drop it to 50 members, which is still probably too high of a bar to have any real meaning to it. “No, less than 5!! 2 or less (my opinion),” MAGA Congressman Ralph Norman told a reporter in a text message.

“He’s gotta get down to 1,” Matt Gaetz said separately, giving himself and any other Republican the ability to call a vote to potentially end McCarthy’s reign unilaterally at any one time.

The House January 6th Committee on Friday released testimony transcripts from drunken shitbrain Rudy Giuliani, evil hell witch Ginni Thomas, QAnon freak Patrick Byrne, scumbag Secret Service agent Tony Ornato, former US Attorney BJ Pak, Arizona MAGA asshole Mark Finchem, and more.

Today, the Committee released the final piece of supporting evidence in our investigation into the IRS's mandatory audit program under the prior administration.

Find Attachment E here ⬇️ https://t.co/i8iuviZaYe

— Ways and Means Democrats (@WaysMeansCmte) December 30, 2022

Aaaaaaaaaaand it’s a 1.1 GB download.

Apparently, New York’s 3rd Congressional District, snuggled on the North Shore of Long Island, if a vast and treacherous place to travel by land, something that forced fraudster and Republican Congressman-elect George Santos to spend $40,000 on airfare during the 2022 campaign, the New York Times reports.

Not since Congresswoman and alleged former prostitute Lauren Boebert received more than $22,000 for mileage during the 2020 campaign–enough to cover outstanding expenses for her now-shuttered e-coli distribution center and reimbursement that would equate to more than 35,000 miles driven even though she only held one campaign event over the specific time period–has a candidate submitted such an outrageous filing.  And for Santos, that only the start of the problems.

Santos campaign expenditures show he paid a company called Cleaner 123 more than $11,000 for rent for a Long Island apartment the campaign claimed was for staffers to crash at while they looked for housing after relocating to the district, the same reason for dozens of hotel room nights paid for by the campaign; neighbors, however, report Santos and his husband are the only two people who have stayed at the residence.

One-time Republican Idaho gubernatorial candidate and guy who doesn’t think America’s laws apply to him Ammon Bundy is threatening to let his shotgun do the talkin’ if he’s found liable in a defamation suit filed by an Idaho hospital against him and he’s found liable, The Daily Beast reports.

After rallying fringe far-right anti-government isolationists to defend his family from federal authorities so they wouldn’t have to pay grazing fees on government land, and then having a following killed because he believed federal wildlife refuge in Oregon was illegally seized land by the Executive Branch, why Ammon Bundy is not serving a lengthy prison term is unknown, but in this case Bundy is upset at a local judiciary because he feels he may be wrongly convicted of slandering a local Idaho hospital after a medical professional there reported a member of the Bundy cult known as People’s Rights Network for child endangerment after an infant was found to be dangerously underfed.

St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center in Meridian, Idaho is suing Bundy and People’s Rights Network after they repeatedly claimed the hospital “kidnapped” an infant child of one of the People’s Rights Network members because a doctor at the hospital reported concerns to Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare about the baby’s low weight and its parents were not responding to calls from the hospital and missed an appointment.

President Joe Biden fell just short of an ambitious goal of appointing 100 federal judges in the first two years of his administration, seating 97 judges in federal district and appeals courts, beating his predecessor’s mark of 85 judges, the New York Times reports.

Despite having a 50-50 Senate and equal Party representation on the Senate Judiciary Committee that interviews judicial nominees, more than three-quarters of the 126 nominees passed through committee.  And they did it with the predicted Republican assholes obstructing:  In total, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley voted for only one of the nominees and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, two. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse really risked their GOP support by voting for five nominees.

Biden has nearly as many Appeals Court judges–28 versus 30–as Donald Trump and surpassed the number of District Court judges of his predecessor, 68 to 53.  Trump, of course, inherited an open Supreme Court seat and appointed one other Justice, while Biden has appointed one, the first Black female on the Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson.

BIG NEWS: I am introducing a bill to require candidates to disclose under oath their employment, educational, & military history so we can punish candidates who lie to voters about their qualifications.

It will be called the Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker (SANTOS) ACT. pic.twitter.com/IpBhzAsDbt

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 30, 2022

A Chinese military fighter jet performing an “unsafe maneuver” came dangerously close to a US Air Force reconnaissance plane flying in international waters in the South China Sea last week, CNN reports, raising alarm about increasing Chinese aggression in the region.

The RC-135 Rivet Joint with 30 crew aboard took evasive action to avoid a midair collision with the Chinese Navy J-11 on December 21st.  The J-11 flew close off the nose of the RC-135, according to the US military Indo-Pacific Command, forcing the RC-135 off its course.

Chinese aircraft have been taking aggressive action in the region, specifically relating to flights directed at Taiwanese airspace, hoping to provoke a reaction.  Actions such as this jet’s has caused collisions with American aircraft before:  in a 2001 incident, a Chinese jet collided with an American plane, killing the Chinese pilot and starting an international incident after the American spy plane landed intact on a Chinese island, giving Chinese access to US surveillance technology.

A Tampa police officer who was caught on a security camera dragging a detainee to the door of the jailhouse has been fired after a review by the police department of footage of the incident, which it called “unacceptable,” NBC News reports.

In November, Gregory Damon dragged the female detainee to the jailhouse door after the woman refused to get out of the patrol car and screamed, “I want you to drag me.”  Damon grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the jail door.  The woman had been arrested for trespassing at a women’s health clinic in the middle of the night after refusing to leave the property; she had an earlier, similar incident at the clinic.

Damon was not represented by his union, the Tampa Police Benevolent Association, in the matter, although the organization said it was aware of the matter.  Tampa Police Department cited multiple violations of its rules and regulations by Damon, items not challenged by the union at this time.

Is karma truly a bitch if it strikes back against a raging asshole?  I think not, but misogynist MAGAt MMA fighter and guy who thinks it’s cool to rage at a teenage environmental activist only to be epically slapped down by her may think otherwise.  Two days after Andrew Tate got burnt by Nobel Peace Prize nominee and climate change activist Greta Thunberg publically questioned his masculinity after boasting about the number of high-priced gas guzzler exotic cars he owns, Tate’s in a different world of trouble.

According to The Daily Beast, Tate was arrested by Romanian police on human trafficking and rape allegations Thursday along with his brother and two Romanian nationals.  A dual British-American citizens, Tate and his brother are accused of luring women via social media to a Romania villa, where the women were raped and forced into sex work as live video models.  The best part:  Tate did himself in.  Romanian police were able to locate him because he posted a photo of himself holding a pizza box from a Romanian pizzeria.

It appears Tate’s carbon footprint will be eliminated one way or another, ’cause you can’t drive when you’re locked up.