MAGA lawyer John Eastman wrote an email to Rudy Giuliani asking for a presidential pardon in the days after the Capitol riot, evidence presented by the House January 6th Committee revealed Thursday. “I’ve decided I should be on the pardon list if that’s still in the works,” Eastman wrote.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday his state will not accept any COVID-19 vaccine doses for children under 5 from the federal government and do nothing to distribute or administer them, in contrast to literally all 49 other states, Politico reports. “I would say we are affirmatively against the Covid vaccine for young kids. These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything,” said DeSantis, confirming that his state’s failure to order the doses on time was no mistake.

On Thursday the House January 6th Select Committee convenes for the third of six planned hearings following Wednesday’s postponement to give staff more time to compile video evidence. The third hearing will center on fat former President Trump and his goons pressuring Vice Former Guy Mike Pence to toss out the legitimate Biden electors during the congressional certification of the votes. Pence’s chief counsel Greg Jacob and Conservative former federal Judge J Michael Luttig will testify. Expect a lot of video testimony and new evidence from Trump minions about MAGA lawyer John Eastman and his buddy Kenny Chesebro about their coup attempt.

Trump 2020 Campaign lawyer Kenny Chesebro tells Talking Points Memo the January 6th insurrection was “primarily a human disaster,” and that “it was the worst possible thing that could have happened in terms of lawyers that had serious concerns about the election in several states, that were never really addressed on the merits,” in a long profile piece that no doubt was finished hastily by TPM for timely publication Thursday after it was revealed Wednesday Chesebro and MAGA lawyer John Eastman had hinted at violence in the runup to the insurrection.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, it seems like election integrity is another area where politicians will get involved in the messaging. It’s unfortunate that this is such a focus of attention. Hopefully there will be compromises over the next few years and people won’t have to worry about election integrity,” said Chesebro over a series of interviews. Others quoted by TPM said they were surprised that Chesebro, a former protege of liberal TV lawyer guy Harvard Professor Lawrence Tribe, had gotten himself mixed up in the MAGA bullshit, with Tribe himself saying the last time they spoke was in 2019, when Chesebro pitched Tribe on investing in Bitcoin.

House January 6th Committee chair Bennie Thompson said told press ahead of Thursday’s public hearing that it’s time for MAGA Karen Ginni Thomas to testify to the panel after it was revealed Wednesday she may have been feeding info on internal Supreme Court discussions about the 2020 election to fascist lawyer John Eastman, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.

Warren, Michigan biker gang member and weapons hoarder Michael Liburdi was disarmed last weekend after the bomb he was building in his garage successfully detonated just a little earlier than intended, hospitalizing him with 3rd degree burns over 55 percent of his body, WJBK reports.

Or maybe the lede should be “Warren, Michigan man Michael Liburdi’s hobby building explosives is really expensive, because as WJBK reports it cost him an arm and – an arm! – last weekend.” Does that work better? Should we do it again? Anyway the asshole, for whom we could not find any political affiliation for, was on a federal law enforcement terrorism watch list prior to the explosion (in which there’s some discrepancy in reporting on whether Liburdi lost one or both of his arms). Authorities also recovered numerous guns and over 4,000 rounds of ammo, things that are extremely difficult to use without arms. So is a motorcycle. And pants. And lots of other stuff.

Juneau, Alaska school district officials say the 12 kids at Sít’ Eeti Shaanáx – Glacier Valley Elementary School who kind of accidentally drank floor sealant instead of milk after some dumbass put the pouch of the milky-looking Hillyard Seal 341 in the cafeteria’s dispenser are doing fine since the chemical is not especially hazardous, the Juneau Empire reports. The mix up occurred when pallets of both white liquids were delivered side by side and whatever asshole working there who evidently doesn’t appreciate the bedrock principle of reading being fundamental to education didn’t fucking read the labels on the pouches. It’s not clear if the milk was used to seal the floor.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis tells NBC News that former Trump White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx will testify publicly to the panel next week. Subcommittee staff said in a statement they’ll “hear Dr. Birx’s firsthand knowledge about what went wrong during the previous administration in order to determine what corrective steps are necessary to better prepare our nation for any future public health crisis,” on Thursday, June 23rd.

We’re looking forward to Trump suing the subcommittee claiming ex-executive privilege to block Birx from testifying he ordered her to look into demon sperm and alien DNA as potential comorbidity risks and if bleach injections and UV light would be effective treatment for patients.

“A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge. America was at war on that fateful day, but not against a foreign power. She was at war against herself. We Americans were at war with each other – over our democracy. January 6 was but the next, foreseeable battle in a war that had been raging in America for years, though that day was the most consequential battle of that war even to date.”

“In fact, January 6 was a separate war unto itself, a war for America’s democracy, a war irresponsibly instigated and prosecuted by the former president, his political party allies, and his supporters. Both wars are raging to this day. A peaceful end to these wars is desperately needed. The war for our democracy could lead to the peaceful end to the war for America’s cultural heart and soul. But if a peaceful end to the war for America’s democracy is not achievable, there is little chance for a peaceful end to that war. The settlement of this war over our democracy is necessary to the settlement of any war that will ever come to America, whether from her shores or to her shores. Though disinclined for the moment, as a political matter of fact only the party that instigated this war over our democracy can bring an end to that war.”

“Like our war from a distant time, these twin wars are ‘testing whether th[is] nation or any nation… so conceived in Liberty… can long endure.’ We must hope that January 6 was the final battle of at least the deadly war for America’s democracy,” writes former federal Judge J Michael Luttig, whom Ted Cruz has said is “like a father” to him and also mentored MAGA fascist lawyer John Eastman. Luttig will testify to the House January 6th Select Committee on Thursday, a hearing centered on Trump and Eastman’s effort to pressure Pence into overturning the election on January 6th.

Republican Michigan governor primary candidate Ryan Kelley, fresh off his arrest on federal charges stemming from him entering the Capitol during the January 6th MAGA insurrection, leads the remaining field of GOP candidates who were not kicked off the GOP primary ballot for submitting false signatures on the ballot access petition, garnering 17% support from Michigan Republican respondents to a Detroit Free Press-EPIC MRA survey directed by a man named Bernie Porn.

“I can’t see how it didn’t have an impact. At 23% non-recognition, [Kelley] is in much better recognition shape than anybody else. His favorability numbers are much, much higher at 39 (%),” said Porn, unironically talking about “name recognition” and whom evidently holds far too deep a sense of filial piety to accept that just changing the vowel to “Parn” or “Pirn” would in no way be disrespectful to his ancestors whose original surname was likely bastardized by the registrars of an indifferent 19th century barony or early 20th century American immigration authorities anyway.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday will headline the first meeting of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, a more sincere and better resourced public health initiative to combat trolling, jimmy rustling, racism, anti-semitism, homo-trans-lesbophobia, and MAGA-ism than former Third Lady Melania Trump’s lame #BeBest campaign that she couldn’t even get her troll husband on board with, CNN reports. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, DHS Secretary Alex Mayorkas, and Attorney General Merrick Garland will sit on the task force, co-chaired by the National Security Council and the Gender Policy Council.

“The tragic events in Buffalo and Uvalde have underscored a fact known all too well by many Americans: the internet can fuel hate, misogyny, and abuse with spillover effects that threaten our communities and safety offline,” says a fact sheet about the task force launch. #BeEffective.

Moron Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has yet another son he fathered out of wedlock despite pretending to be anti-absentee father, the Daily Beast reports. Walker confirmed it to the Beast just days after they reported he had fathered a 10 year old boy – the newly revealed on is now 13, “I have four children. Three sons and a daughter. They’re not ‘undisclosed’ – they’re my kids. I support them all and love them all. I’ve never denied my children, I confirmed this when I was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, I just chose not to use them as props to win a political campaign. What parent would want their child involved in garbage, gutter politics like this?” Walker said in a statement to the Beast.

Donald Trump lawyer John Eastman claimed that he had insight into a “heated fight” among the justices over whether the Supreme Court should hear arguments about Trump’s false election claims, leading to more speculation that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was working actively to sway the Court’s actions, the New York Times reports.

Eastman made the claim in an email to Trump campaign officials and a Wisconsin lawyer working on behalf of the campaign.  Eastman wrote that the outcome of a Supreme Court case would not depend on the legitimacy of the case under the law, but instead on the willingness of the justices to set aside the law and declare Trump the winner.

“So the odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices’ spines, and I understand that there is a heated fight underway,” Eastman wrote on December 24, 2020, adding that Kenneth Cheesebro, the Wisconsin lawyer should continue to pursue a case involving a Republican-appointed set of electors to further cloud the issue:  “For those willing to do their duty, we should help them by giving them a Wisconsin cert petition to add into the mix.”

The Chinese government posted–and then suddenly deleted–a report in its official science magazine that the world’s largest radio telescope may have picked up a signal from an alien world, Bloomberg reports.

The Sky Eye telescope, with a diameter of 500 meters, reportedly picked up a narrow-band low-frequency electromagnetic signal which was unique compared to others the scientific team has examined.  The Sky Eye also picked up unusual signals twice in 2020 as it was scanning systems known to have exoplanets.

The utilization of the Sky Eye telescope to search for extraterrestrial signals is a joint project of extraterrestrial civilization search team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley.

“Absolutely yes, the Democrat [sic] Party today is the Party of mob violence,” the younger Grampa Munster and Senator who didn’t know they had coke orgies Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) tells Trump advisor Sean Hannity.  “They’re the Party–Schumer knew what he was saying, said ‘You have unleashed the whirlwind,’ unleashing the radicals.  Look, look, look, look at this lawless, very likely left-wing law clerk who leaked the decision.  The reason this decision was leaked was to allow threats and bullying to come at the justices.  Look at, a week ago we saw one of the justices [have a man with a gun arrested near his home].”

Ted’s memory is short.  This is like those times Republicans went on air to proclaim George Bush kept us safe from terrorism.  Or those who proclaim Donald Trump as the greatest jobs president.  So we thought we’d remind Cruz of what violence actually looks like.

The wife of Supreme Court conservative justice Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas had previously undisclosed email correspondence with John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who was at the front of an effort to get Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certified slates of electors submitted by the states, the Washington Post reports.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress has the emails in its possession and is debating whether to feature them in a future televised hearing.  The documents are thought to be part of a tranche of information a federal judge ordered Eastman to turn over to the committee two weeks ago.

The information adds to the pile of controversies circling around Clarence Thomas, who had failed to report 20 years of income obtained by his wife while she was contracted to conservative advocacy groups that had cases pending before the Supreme Court.  Clarence Thomas also refused to recuse himself from a case last year that determined former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had to turn over communications regarding the election; some of those communications were with Ginni Thomas, giving Clarence Thomas a clear conflict of interest.  In that case, Clarence Thomas was the only Supreme Court justice to vote to keep the communications from the committee.

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Otero County Commission to certify the results of the June 7th primary elections or face contempt charges and fines, the Washington Post reports. The three commissioners – one of whom is the famous “Cowboys for Trump” asshole Couy Griffin, convicted of a misdemeanor last month for his involvement in the Capitol riot – had on Monday refused to certify the results, citing vague “concerns” over the results as the county uses Dominion Voting Systems equipment, which Trump fanboys blame for their Orange God Emperor’s loss in 2020. The commissioners did not appear to have any dog in the fight on either the Dem or Republican primary side, they simply did not want to certify the results.

“We have questions that are unanswered, and now we’re being threatened by the secretary of state that we have to certify or else. It’s real unfair,” Griffin said Wednesday. “I tell people my oath is to the people I represent. I did not take an oath to the state of New Mexico or their election laws. It’s my duty to my office to make sure people can sleep at night. This is a nonpartisan issue – whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, we should all make sure our elections are secure.” The deadline for certifying the election is Friday, the same day Griffin is due in a Washington, DC federal court for sentencing. His bid is expected to be lenient, if he gets any time at all given the lucky draw of a Trump=appointed judge who has gone easy on similarly situated Capitol defendants.

Shame on Republicans for parading this poor creature around in a goddamned suit like this a circus or something. Even if he thinks he’s having fun it’s just not right. He should be out in the wild, living his life as nature intended, not shaved to look like a human male to run for Congress with the promise of a truckload of bananas if he wins. This is abject cruelty to animals.

The stretch of New Hampshire Ave NW on which the Saudi Arabian Embassy sits in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington DC has been renamed “Jamal Khashoggi Way”, trolling the Kingdom’s mission to the US with the name of the Washington Post journalist savagely murdered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s goons, the AP reports. The move will likely be deemed stupid and pointless by the Saudi apologist Trump fanboys who also simultaneously believe paging “Let’s Go Brandon” in an airport is the funniest fucking thing ever.

The families of Alabama veterans Alexander J. Drueke, 39 a former soldier, and Andy Tai Huynh, 27, a former Marine, fear both men have been captured by Russian forces in action while fighting with a foreign volunteer regiment of the Ukrainian army, the Washington Post reports. Neither man has been heard from since June 8th, when both told their families they would be out of contact for the next several days during a mission near the contested eastern city Kharkiv.

Drueke’s mother was contacted Monday by another American volunteer in Ukraine who said Russian comms intercepts suggested two Americans had been nabbed. Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, two British volunteers for the Ukrainian army were sentenced to death last week by the fake Russian-backed government of the Donetsk breakaway region. They have one month to appeal their sentence, which is probably meaningless in practice and more likely to buy time to leverage them against UK sanctions on Russia. Since the invasion began in February, one American volunteer, 22-year-old Marine veteran Willy Cancel, has been confirmed killed in action in Ukraine.