Resignation letter from Oregon Republican Party Chairman and State Senator Dallas Heard: “Members of the Republican Party of Oregon, I regret to inform you that as of March 11th, 2022, I will no longer be able to serve you as your chairman. My physical and spiritual health can no longer survive exposure to the toxicity that can be found in this community. There are dozens of you men and women that I truly love and admire. I greatly appreciate who you are, and I am extremely grieved that I will no longer serve and help you save Oregon from the ever-advancing Democrats. I must warn you good people in our party that we truly have an equal if not greater evil than the Democrats, walking among us. Communist psychological warfare tactics are being used daily within the party. These tactics are being used to destroy anyone of true character who would oppose the man who introduced them into our community for the last 20 years. The endless slander, gossip, conspiracies, sabotage, lies, hatred, pointless criticism, blocking of ideas, and mutiny brought against my administration has done what I once never thought possible.”

“They have broken my spirit. I can face the Democrats with courage and conviction, but I can’t fight my own people too… It is clear, no amount of political success, hard work, honesty, and self-sacrifice will ever be enough to garner the lasting support of a strong and consistent majority of people who currently represent this party across the state. I can say I have given my best to save the state I love, but when a true servant leader recognizes that his people would rather attack and question him rather than follow, it is time to say goodbye. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you amazing men and women that gave your all to help me save this party and move Oregon forward. I bitterly regret that my body and soul were not able to withstand the endless assault. I hope you will guard your hearts against the wickedness in our party and keep fighting the good fight for our children and those who truly love this state. Those who have worked to destroy me are so determined to dominate/control the party, that they are seemingly willing to sink the ship if that is what is required for them to take back control” and so on and so forth.

Heard is not resigning from his elected seat in the state senate, just his party post.

Said MAGA bro Madison Cawthorn speaking to voters in a video that looks captured at least somewhat surreptitiously: “Send Stinger missiles over them so they can defend themselves better. But remember that Zelensky is a thug, Remember the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and it is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies and really, there’s the new world.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared to be trying to reassure people wondering when the fuck he’s going to start cracking some MAGA skulls – the kingpin included – for real in an interview with NPR published Thursday. “We are not avoiding cases that are political or cases that are controversial or sensitive. What we are avoiding is making decisions on a political basis, on a partisan basis,” said the AG in response to a direct question about Trump’s potential criminal liability in the coup plot, adding “We begin with the cases that are right in front of us with the overt actions and then we build from there. And that is a process that we will continue to build until we hold everyone accountable who committed criminal acts with respect to January 6.”

A Trump fundraising email sent to National Zero on Wednesday at 3:29 PM EST (promptly flagged as spam by Gmail) said “Do you remember Trump Force One? Before becoming the greatest President of all time, I traveled the Country in my plane, known as Trump Force One. I have a very important update on my plane, but I need to trust that you won’t share it with anyone: my team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One. The construction of this plane has been under wraps – not even the fake news media knows about it – and I can’t wait to unveil it for everyone to see”

This was 58 minutes after we had reported that last Saturday the plane on which Trump was traveling in from New Orleans back home in Florida suffered an engine loss and was forced to make an emergency landing. Trump then had to borrow a Republican donor’s plane to head back home.

Insufferable shitheel John Eastman, already having a bad week as his lawsuit against the House January 6th Select Committee implodes, has now himself potentially been implicated along with other Trump minions in a criminal conspiracy to violate federal laws on Congressional procedure as his emails from that night to Vice Former Guy Mike Pence’s general counsel Mark Jacob show Eastman very clearly knew the procedural delays they sought to effect were a “minor violation” of the Electoral Count Act, the Guardian reports. “The Senate and House have both violated the Electoral Count Act this evening – they debated the Arizona objections for more than two hours. Violation of 3 USC 17,” Eastman wrote – a significant admission because such a knowing violation could constitute participation in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct Congress.

Worse yet, as Eastman wrote these emails from the MAGA Reich’s “War Room” at the nearby Willard Hotel with other minions such as Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani present, the paper trail this fucking asshole Eastman so desperately tried and failed to keep away from the committee now stands to drag those two into a criminal investigation as well. More criminal investigations, really since Bannon is facing trial for contempt of Congress and Rudy’s been in deep shit for years.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian FM Sergei Lavrov discussed a possible meeting between their respective bosses during talks in Turkey on Thursday, but otherwise made no progress toward a general ceasefire, Axios reports. Lavrov told Kuleba he was “not in a position to commit” to establishing an evacuation corridor for civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol where a maternity hospital came under fire from Russian forces on Thursday. “Russia is not in a position at this point to establish a ceasefire. They seek a surrender from Ukraine. This is not what they’re going to get. Ukraine is strong, Ukraine is fighting,” Kuleba said of the talks, which do not seem to be going well overall. As if to underscore the insanity and hubris of the Russian side, at one point Lavrov falsely claimed Russia “didn’t attack Ukraine in the first place.”

An official with Russia’s commercial aviation ministry says Chinese suppliers are complying with international sanctions and have stopped the flow of parts necessary to maintain commercial airliners, Reuters reports. Interfax quoted Rosaviatsia official Valery Kudinov as saying Russia would look to source parts from countries such as Turkey and India after attempts to obtain them from China failed. Russia’s commercial aviation sector faces complete collapse as most planes flown by its domestic airlines are actually leased from owners in Ireland, over which the Russian Parliament is drafting a law mandating that lease payments be made with (now completely worthless) rubles and barring airlines from returning aircraft to international leaseholders.

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has been stopped dead in his tracks in his attempt to unload his assets in the UK, including the current reigning champion Chelsea Football Club, the Daily Beast reports. “He will not get a penny from the sale of the club,” said a British government source about Chelsea, which can’t even sell tickets for games at this point until the seizure is effected in total.

The world’s second largest mining corporation announced Monday it is doing more than ceasing its operations in Russia; it’s also ceasing all business with Russian companies around the world, Reuters reports.

The Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto becomes the latest corporation to cease operations in Russia, following McDonalds, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Nestle, Netflix and many others.  “Rio Tinto is in the process of terminating all commercial relationships it has with any Russian business,” a Rio spokesman told Reuters.

While Rio Tinto doesn’t have any direct operations or employees in Russia or Ukraine, it does provide a number of sales and processing services within the industry.  Russia is a Top-10 producer of many minerals including gold, platinum, phosphate and cobalt.

The House of Representative passed a funding bill that will keep the federal government operating through September, as well as provides $13.6 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggested that additional aid would be allocated for Ukraine in coming weeks.  The Ukrainian aid will include both humanitarian and military assistance.

The rest of the $1.5 trillion bill includes a 6.7% increase in military spending, the largest increase in four years.

Asked by the host of a UFC podcast–because he is obviously he’s as qualified for that as much as he qualified for anything–how he thinks the Russian invasion of Ukraine will turn out, Mr. Accordion Hands goes on a rant about windmills:

“Well, and I said this a long time ago if this happens, ah, we are, ah, playing right into their hands, the green energy, the windmills, they don’t work, they’re too expensive, they kill all the birds, they ruin your landscapes, and yet the environmentalists love ’em, the windmills, and I’ve been preaching this for years.  The windmills, and I had ’em way down, but the windmills are the most expensive piece of energy you can have, ah, and they don’t work.  By the way, they last a period of ten year, and by the time they start rusting and rotting all over the place, nobody ever takes ’em down.  They just go on to the next piece of prairie or land and destroy that.  It’s incredible that they want–but other forms of green energy.”

According to the Montana Environmental Information Center, unsubsidized wind projects costing between $32 and $62 per megawatt-hour while coal cost between $57 and $148 per megawatt-hour.  Nuclear costs $33.50 per Mw/H; gas-fired power plants cost $48 per Mw/H.  And no, there aren’t “ghost farms” of unused wind mills dotting the Midwest.

The Republican National Committee has sued the House January 6th Select Committee to try to block a subpoena to a Salesforce subsidiary seeking the RNC’s email marketing database holding information on donors, Axios reports. “The RNC and its millions of supporters face an unprecedented threat that will undoubtedly chill their First Amendment rights and expose the RNC’s supporters to reprisals and harassment… an all-access pass to confidential RNC political strategies and the personal information of millions of its supporters,” whines the RNC in the complaint, filed last month but obtained by Axios this week. The committee also wants the login data as to ascertain who composed the emails the RNC sent out to determine if the writers knowingly lied to recipients and thus might be criminally liable for having engaged in wire fraud.

Although Vladimir Putin claims Russians are scrupulously avoiding hitting civilian targets like schools and hospitals, Russian artillery, rockets and aircraft seem to hit an awful lot of them in Ukrainian.  Wednesday, they did it again, hitting a maternity hospital in Mariupol, in the southern portion of the nation, the Associated Press reports.

The attack wounded at least seventeen people, including patients who were readying to give birth.  “Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins. “It is a war crime without any justification.”

International leaders joined the chorus calling for Putin to halt attacks on civilians.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that after the war ends, Putin will be held accountable for his crimes.

A youth group donning the “Z” in support of Russian military invading Ukraine hold a rally at a shopping mall in the Russian city of Kazan, apparently unaware the images of youth raising arms in salute are vaguely Nazi-ish.

MAGA lawyer John Eastman got punched in the dick in court Wednesday as a California federal judge ruled in favor of the House January 6th Select Committee, Politico reports. U.S. District Court Judge David Carter will now review the content of the 111 emails from Eastman’s Chapman university faculty inbox subpoenaed by the committee which Eastman claims are subject to a privileged attorney-client privilege that Eastman cannot actually affirmatively establish existed.

This is preposterous. It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent.

— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) March 9, 2022

Thread continued: “The United States is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere. It’s Russia that has a long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons, including in attempted assassinations and poisoning of Putin’s political enemies like Alexey Navalny. It’s Russia that continues to support the Assad regime in Syria, which has repeatedly used chemical weapons. It’s Russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law. Also, Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the U.S. of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine. This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine. Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern.”

South Korean right wing presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has stopped the steal and defeated dirty Democrat candidate Crooked Lee Jae-myung, the AFP reports. Yoon, a South Korea-first Christian patriot who loves God and South Korea, got a call from the loser Crooked Lee conceding defeat early Thursday. “This is a victory of the great South Korean people,” Yoon told a crowd of patriots while South Korean libs screamed at the sky before going into their little cry closets.

The overview text of Arizona House Bill 2237, which mandates that an “elector may not vote in an election unless the elector has been registered to vote as a resident and the registration has been received by the county recorder or recorder’s designee before midnight 29 days before the election” fails to mention that there is actually no current way for an elector (legislative term for voter) to vote unless they have been registered to do so at least 29 days before an election.

Sometimes a bit of extrapolation is necessary to appreciate how fucking stupid and pointless this kind of stuff is, so look at it this way: Republicans in the Arizona might as well be spending taxpayers’ time writing, amending, and voting on a law prohibiting Arizona drivers from drawing their own homemade driver’s license on an index card with a crayon because only state-issued license cards count as valid Arizona driver’s license documents. Really the most that HB 2337 could do is require a future Arizona legislature to add a few lines explicitly repealing it as a provision in a bill to implement same-day registration. And yet it’s up for consideration in the state Senate.

Naturally a big proponent of HB 2337 is state Senator Kelly Townsend, a Trump-endorsed “Stop the Steal” asshole who is probably trying to look busy after the infamous CyberNinjas clusterfuck and its failure to find any evidence whatsoever of fraud in the 2020 election recedes into memory. “If somebody were to vote who wasn’t registered and took a provisional ballot, are they able to circumvent the voter registration process?” asked the dipshit who is either lying or stupid enough to believe a provisional ballot by an unregistered voter would end up anywhere but the trash.

White nationalist bro and Republican North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn has been charged for a second time with driving on a suspended license, presumably of a car, the Asheville Citizen Times reports.

Cawthorn faces 20 days in jail if found guilty of the misdemeanor charge.  He also has outstanding court dates for two traffic citations in which he was ticketed for driving more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.

This is not the first time Cawthorn has been charged with driving under a suspended license.  In 2017, prior to entering Congress, he was charged with driving under a revoked license, but those charges were later dismissed.