A Texas family and a psychologist has filed lawsuits through the ACLU challenging a directive by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton classifying medical care for transgender children as child abuse and subjecting their parents and doctors to potential arrest, fines and imprisonment, the New Republic reports.

The enforcement directive, which directs law enforcement officials on how to apply the law, calls for anyone who enables a child to get hormone blockers or other treatments that support the child’s transition be charged criminally.  This includes parents, doctors, nurses and medical facilities, which could be closed under state law.

The lawsuit, in which the family remains anonymous, claims, “The [Texas State Department of Family and Protective Services, Child Protective Services] investigator disclosed that the sole allegation against Jane Doe and John Doe is that they have a transgender daughter and that their daughter may have been provided with medically necessary gender-affirming health care and is ‘currently transitioning from male to female.’”

The largest trucker convoy, the so-called People’s Convoy, which left California last week, will not arrive in Washington, DC in time for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and will instead arrive in the nation’s capital Saturday, five days behind schedule, the Independent reports.

The last surviving convoy of three high-touted protests, the People’s Convoy have raised $1.5 million for its late effort, which reportedly has about 100 vehicles, including two dozen tractor trailers.  One halted after it arrived in Las Vegas with only five vehicles from its launch in California.  Another petered out while trying to travel a northern route to Washington.

The People’s Convoy caused a shutdown of an interstate highway in Oklahoma Monday after two trucks and two other vehicles were involved in a traffic accident in Green County.

Meanwhile as of 11:50 AM Tuesday not a single right winger had made it to the “Stage of Freedom” set up on the National Mall for the “patriot” trucker event that was scheduled to start at 12:00 pm EST – a shindig whose permit had already been reduced from the original 3,000 down to just 500.

More than 200 million Americans watched some portion of this year’s Super Bowl, with official ratings for the February 13th football game showing an average of 112 million viewers on all platforms, the Associated Press reports.

The audience was about a 12% jump from the previous year, when 101 million people viewed.  The increase in viewership comes after calls from conservatives to boycott the National Football League of a variety of grievances.

“We’re grateful for the work put into this custom survey by Nielsen, the results of which we feel provide the most accurate picture to date of the total viewership for this unique event,” Paul Ballew, Chief Data and Analytics Officer of the NFL, said.

Former Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, a Trump fanboy who might still be wearing braces despite being in his 50s and was sighted at some of the hottest events on the election conspiracy theory calendar last year released an interim report on his fake investigation Tuesday, the “findings” of which will surprise approximately zero observers familiar with the assclown’s conduct – including openly admitting to a reporter he has no idea how elections actually work – since his Orange God Emperor lost the state in 2020. Some lowlights from his magnum opus:

“[Zuckerberg election assistance initiative] funded the $8.8 million Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan (WSVP), which the cities of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha used to purchase illegal drop boxes and the provision of those funds constitutes election bribery… Contrary to what Dominion has publicly stated, that at least some machines had access to the internet on election night… It is evident that widespread use of absentee and absentee-inperson voting renders public participation and oversight of counting impossible… It is clear that the Wisconsin Legislature could lawfully take steps to decertify electors in any Presidential election, for example in light of violations of state election law that did or likely could have affected the outcome of the election…” and Jesus Christ this guy fucking sucks. Read more from this joke report here.

“Are they gonna do a carpet bomb, Berlin-style, 1948?” Fox & Friends host–and author of a number of books purportedly based on “history”–Brian Kilmeade wonders.

Of course, World War II ended in 1945.

Pennsylvania Capitol rioter Matthew Perna, who in December pleaded guilty to a charge of obstruction of Congress, died on February 25th of what his obituary described as a “broken heart” after “the justice system killed his spirit and his zest for life” in what comes across as a pretty obvious euphemism for suicide. Perna had faced up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing on Thursday for entering the Capitol’s Senate lobby area during the insurrection and remaining there for about 20 minutes before leaving. What’s unclear is why Perna did not attempt to plead down the felony to local misdemeanors given that dozens of similarly dispositioned January 6th defendants who were not charged with any crimes such as assault, vandalism, larceny, or possession of weapons during the sacking – and if he really actually faced 20 years in the tombs as many of those other defendants got terms lasting weeks or months – if they got any time at all.

“[Perna] attended the rally on January 6, 2021 to peacefully stand up for his beliefs. After learning that the FBI was looking for him, he immediately turned himself in. He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door (he did not break in as was reported) where he was ushered in by police. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures. For this act he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives, and people who had never met him. Many people were quietly supportive, and Matt was truly grateful for them. The constant delays in hearings, and postponements dragged out for over a year. Because of this, Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died, and many people are responsible for the pain he endured,” the obituary says, long on martyrdom but short on explaining why he didn’t hire a counsel competent enough to work out a deal before he pleaded guilty.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. Please call them if you find yourself needing to talk to someone.

The once-hotly anticipated American clustertruck meant to fuck up the nation’s capital during President Biden’s first State of the Union address appears to have flamed out, as the permit for the National Mall protest of basically every and any grievance held by MAGAmerica on Tuesday has been revised down from 3,000 angry right wingers to a paltry 500, the Daily Beast reports.

“Permittee has amended his application to reduce the expected maximum crowd size to less than 500 attendees,” says a Monday night edit to the permit from organizer Kyle Sefcik. “Brother, all I can say is that we both know that it was seen by a lot of people in the United States, and I’m not talking numbers, but let’s just say I know that people will be there. Let’s just say, I know there will be people there,” Sefcik told the Beast, seeing the once high hopes for the chaos that once reigned in Canada’s capital city emulated in its southern neighbor likely crumbling to dust.

Hey, Chachi, did you know Dennis Miller had a talk show on RT, the television network owned by the Kremlin?  Unfortunately if you didn’t know about the show, you’re unlikely to see it soon because he says he’s cancelling it.

“Dennis Miller — One”–that’s really the name of his show–will not be aired on the RT America network, NBC News reports, and he has “no plans to go back.”

Okay, folks, it’s three days old, and I don’t think we covered it in the midst of those darned Russkies invading Ukraine, but Republican Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe announced that he will resign at the end of this Congressional session, January 3, 2023, NewsOn6 Tulsa reports.

Inhofe had announced that he would resign at the end of his Senate term, which would have been 2026.  Now, a primary will be held for his open seat at the same time the other Oklahoma Senate seat is up for election as well.

“If there is any single American who deserves scorn and, yes, blame for the invasion of Ukraine, it would be Joe Biden,” Hungary’s Deputy Director of Tourism and Propaganda Tucker Carlson declares, while on a long and winding course to explain how Russia invaded Ukraine so Democrats could arrest their political opponents and cancel Tucker Carlson….  Y’know, it sounded saner in my head.

President Biden will reject any claims of ex-executive privilege immunity from subpoenas from the House January 6th Committee from Trump minions Peter Navarro and Michael Flynn, Axios reports. Given that such claims appear so far at least to have forestalled any contempt prosecution for former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows it would seem that Navarro may be able to stretch it out. However the same cannot be said of Steve Bannon, who was not a White House employee as of January 6th, 2021, similar to Michael Flynn who was fired nearly four years earlier.

Researchers in Canada believe they have found the first case of a deer infecting a human with coronavirus, with a person becoming infected after being exposed to the virus by a deer harvested in a hunt, the Guardian reports.

Using nasal swab tests and monitoring the animals thyroids, researchers were able to test nearly 300 white-tail deer.  They found active coronavirus in 17 of them, although the strain found was radically different than the one causing the pandemic, making it unlikely to sweep through the human population.

McCarthy has been protecting his little KKK Caucus for years with these toothless statements and meetings.

It’s how he covers for them.

He’s now helped them for so long they’ve escalated their open antisemitism & collaboration w/ white nationalist groups. He’s just as culpable. https://t.co/on4twfags5

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 28, 2022

Like clockwork, Donald Trump has filed an appeal of a state judge’s ruling that he be compelled to testify under oath in New York Attorney General Leticia James’s investigation into financial irregularities relating to Trump Organization properties and finances, the Associated Press reports.

A judge ruled last week that Trump and his children Junior and Ivanka must answer questions about manipulation of real estate values and the assessments of other Trump properties, raising them to help with bank loans but lowering them when paying taxes and other assessments.

Stay with us for the latest developments as Russia’s murderous assault on its smaller neighbor, the free and democratic Republic of Ukraine enters its second week. Ukrainian soldiers and civilians continue to mount a valiant defense of Kyiv, frustrating Russian and Belarusian forces.

Last week, the Biden Administration requested the assistance of State National Guards to deploy to Washington D.C. I have rejected this request — there will be no @FLGuard sent to D.C. for Biden’s State of the Union.

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 28, 2022

The Webb Space Telescope successfully completed phases two and three of its mirror alignment procedure, producing the hexagonal test patterns seen above, photography site PetaPixel reports.

The alignment of the mirrors guarantees the focal points of the mirrors and cameras are correct.  When Hubble did a similar test when it was first launched, the resulting image showed significant distortions, the first sign of a problem with the telescope’s mirror.  There were no such signs with Webb.

“I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didnt act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!” says the Orange Fat Bastard in a statement.

Another statement: “If my energy policy had remained in place, where we were energy independent, and would have soon been bigger in production than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, the world would have had no problems whatsoever. This war should never have started in the first place. If the Election wasn’t Rigged, America would right now continue to have record-low gas prices, as it was under my Administration, and we would be supplying the world with oil and gas. Also, Russia would not have attacked Ukraine. Instead, we have a horribly tragic and unnecessary war, record-high energy prices, Inflation, no Border, crime, and chaos.”

Let history note that Trump planned to pull the United States out of NATO if he had been reelected, he withheld military aid to Ukraine to force Zelensky into announcing a fake investigation of Biden, and then withheld aid again after he had been impeached for doing it the first time. Also let history note the “blankets” were sent because Obama didn’t trust the previous Ukrainian administration.

“Did nobody in the White House stop to say, ‘You know what?  If we’re trying to show a brutal dictator that we’re serious about standing up to him, it might not be the best idea to have our military chiefs cowering in pathetic little masks,'” crows Fox host and substitute lead singer for Alabama’s only Midnight Oil cover band, Beds Are Birmingham Steve Hilton.  “That picture captures more than anything else the collapse of American power, prestige and credibility under Biden.”

“Honestly, I want China to take back Taiwan, I want Russia to take back Ukraine if for no other reason than it’s time for America to be humiliated.  It’s time for America to be humbled,” white nationalist and guy who forgot to take his 1970s porn star costume off Nick Fuentes says.  “I don’t mean America, our nation, I mean this regime.  This regime must be humbled.  This regime must be humiliated.”