Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey tells AL.com some asshole parents in his state are complaining about Black History Month lessons in schools, thinking that they qualify as Critical Race Theory. “There are people out there who don’t understand what CRT is. And so in their misunderstanding of it, they make a report but it’s not actually CRT. I had two calls in the last week that they’re having a Black History Month program and they consider having a Black history program CRT,” Mackey said. “Having a Black history program is not CRT.”

Republican former West Virginia state Delegate Derrick Evans, whose career in politics lasted all of 39 days before he resigned from the state legislature after being arrested for entering the Capitol and live-streaming it during the January 6th, 2021 MAGA insurrection, will plead guilty to charges, per court documents. “The parties have reached an agreement regarding pre-trial resolution of this case and need additional time to complete and submit the necessary paperwork. Counsel for the defendant respectfully requests a date on the Court’s calendar for a change-of-plea hearing within the month of February as counsel for the defendant is in the process of retiring, but would like to handle any change-of-plea hearing,” says the motion filed by Evans’s attorneys Thursday.

For the second consecutive day, British Typhoon fighters from southcentral England escorted a pair of Russian Tu-95 Bear F bombers out of Britain’s area of interest, a designation for the area of airspace that surrounds Britain’s sovereign air, Reuters reports.

“Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters based at RAF Lossiemouth supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton were scrambled today against aircraft approaching the UK area of interest,” a Royal Air Force spokesperson said.

Russia has been making incursions into American and British controlled airspaces for the last three months, with American planes from Alaska scrambling to head off the Russian aircraft.

The Russian government planned to release a fake video it already produced depicting a staged attack that they claimed would show Ukrainian soldiers attacking either Russian forces in Russian territory or setting on Russian-speaking Ukrainian civilians, the New York Times reports.

The Biden Administration is releasing their knowledge of the plan to head off the claim before the Russians carry out their plot, which they would use to justify sending some of the 100,000 troops they have along the border into Ukraine.  US officials said the video, which some have seen, is elaborate and realistic, even depicting dead bodies in the streets and destroyed buildings.

Russia recently started a social media disinformation campaign falsely claiming that the Ukrainian military is attacking and killing large groups of Russian-speaking and pro-Russian leaning Ukrainians.

Several senior citizens living in a South Florida building told WPLG that their political party registrations were changed without their consent by people going to door to door offering to “re-register voters”, something they only realized was a party change after the fact when they got their voter cards in the mail. Last month more than a few media outlets reported that the number of registered Republicans had eclipsed registered Democratic voters in Florida, but sure, going door to door and taking advantage of old people had nothing to do with it.

A potentially extremely dangerous QAnon-aligned cult leader and self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, Romana Didulo, has arrived in the nation’s capital, Ottawa for what she says will be her afternoon address to the anti-vax trucker blockade still terrorizing the city.

Didulo, a single, childless, middle-aged, destitute Filipino immigrant living in a boarding house in Western Canada, has made her warnings of violent retribution for those ignoring her proclamations of legal authority over Canada a big hit with QAnon fans in both the US and Canada, amassing over 76,000 followers on the Telegram platform, with countless reports of adherents sending cease and desist letters to hospitals, schools, businesses, and government agencies. Her arrival at an already combustible situation is most likely to be a flop, however there is a non-zero chance that there could be violence on Thursday if enough of her followers are present.

After cooling his heels for a few months in exile from “Trump World” over the twin Trashelle and Kristi Noem scandals, complete scumbag Corey Lewandowski has been tasked with destroying New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for his disloyalty, the New Hampshire Journal reports. “The president is very unhappy with the chief executive officer of the state of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu,” Lewandowski told MAGA radio host Howie Carr on Wednesday, adding “And Sununu, in the president’s estimation, is someone who’s never been loyal to him. And the president said it would be really great if somebody would run against Chris Sununu.”

Lewandowski said he’s got two jobs in the Granite State: “One is making sure we’ve got a great candidate in U.S. Senate race who can beat Maggie Hassan [they did, until Trump and Moscow Mitch both separately scared Sununu out of running], another failed, hack, Washington, DC politician who never delivered [Also remember at one point this asshole was supposed to run for Senate in New Hampshire himself]. And the second is potentially finding someone to run against Chris Sununu, to make sure they understand that the ‘America First’ agenda is more than just a saying. It’s actually about putting people first and listening to what constituents have to say”

Republican Bleckley County, Gerogia Sheriff Kris Coody is wanted on a sexual battery charge over an incident Cobb County police say happened during a Sheriff’s convention at the Renaissance Atlanta hotel on January 18th, CBS46 reports. The victim, described by CBS 46 as a “prominent judge” spoke with the station and said “it was important to let the legal process continue as the case remains under investigation”. Coody remains at large and considered armed and dangerous.

“Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi – the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. I will deliver remarks to the American people later this morning. May God protect our troops” – Statement from President Joe Biden.

Axios’s Alayna Treene reports a Biden Administration official said al-Qurayshi blew himself and his family up as US forces surrounded his compound. “While we are still assessing the results of this operation, this appears to be the same cowardly terrorist tactic we saw in the 2019 operation that eliminated [former ISIS leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi.”

Trump and his minions circulated a memo proposing to use “raw and unprocessed signals data” from the NSA to try to prove the election was stolen, the Washington Post reports.

The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas will close for the indefinite future due to an increasing number of threats and harassment from rightwing conspiracy theorists who believe the 100 acre preserve is being used to assist undocumented migrants, NPR reports.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Center cited increasing harassment of staff members who have been targeted because the Center challenged Trump Administration policies regarding a wall along the US-Mexico border.

“The safety of our staff and visitors is our primary concern,” states Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president and founder of the North American Butterfly Association. “We look forward to reopening, soon, when the authorities and professionals who are helping us navigate this situation give us the green light.”

Melinda French Gates will not donate the bulk of her estate to the Bill & Melinda Foundation, the charity she founded with her then-husband, and instead she’ll donate her riches to other philanthropies and charities, Reuters reports.

The 57-year-old computer scientist and former spouse of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, French Gates reportedly made the change to her estate plan last year, months after her divorce was finalized and she came into control of $6 billion.

A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation would not comment on the announcement, instead pointing a reporter to a portion of a letter French Gates wrote at the establishment of the charity:  “I recognize the absurdity of so much wealth being concentrated in the hands of one person, and I believe the only responsible thing to do with a fortune this size is give it away – as thoughtfully and impactfully as possible,” she wrote.

NASA announced that the International Space Station will be de-orbited in 2030, when it will be sent on a controlled fall until it splashes into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, The Guardian reports.

Known as Point Nemo, the area of the Pacific is one of the loneliest places on the planet, seeing rare human activity, so it’s become the desired spot to dump decommissioned satellites and other debris.

Continuously occupied since November 2000, the ISS is about the size of a football field.  Launched in 1998, the original plan had the station operational for just 15 years.

This is just a cool thing we should acknowledge because it’s a rare thing.  So rare, in fact, that we’ll do it again in 20 days, we’ll also be able to acknowledge the all-twos event.  Then it won’t happen for another 11 years.

Fancying himself the king maker, Donald Trump has reportedly offered Vernon Jones his endorsement if he drops out of the race for governor in Georgia to run for a Congressional seat in the state, WJCL ABC-22 in Savannah reports.  Trump is trying to get Jones out of the way for his anointed gubernatorial choice, fast-talker and one-time Congressman David Perdue.

Trump wants Perdue to knock incumbent governor Republican Brian Kemp out of office for failing to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.  Known for his quick words and no facts, Perdue served as an attorney for the Trump campaign in their efforts to void ballots.

“Look at what difference leadership makes,” former Trump Chief of Staff (and incredibly opaque) Mark Meadows drawls.  “When you look at Donald Trump in the White House, ah, we were celebrating–even in the midst of Covid–we were celebrating unbelievable job growth, we didn’t have to deal with inflation….”

Fact check:  Donald Trump lost a net 2.9 million jobs in his four years in office.  In 2020, his net job creation was NEGATIVE 9.7 million jobs.  While he did have some record months–May through August had over one million new jobs each–it’s tempered by losing an astronomical 21 million jobs in April 2020.  So Meadows was celebrating millions of Americans out of work.  In its first 11 months in office, the Biden Administration have seen a 6.2 million job increase.

Wow, that sounds like some good shit. Like raging awesome party powder going around Buenos Aires. Disco stuff for sure if it killed 17 people and sickened 58 like the AP reports. So if anyone knows a guy who knows a guy in Argentina, could your guy like hook it up? You think?

“Joe Rogan is actually a force for safety in this world,” Trust fund brat and Fox host Tucker Carlson claims.  “Watch this clip in which he warns the public about the dangers about approaching gorillas in the wild.  It turns out sneaking up on a gorilla, as Joe Rogan pointed out, could lead to actual serious harm.”

… because an immense number of Joe Rogan’s podcast listeners are in central Africa.

A November 18th memo to a lawyer with the Trump campaign in Wisconsin appears to be the earliest mention of the scheme to create an alternate slate of electors and disrupt the certification of Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States, the New York Times reports.

While the Wisconsin memo did not pursue the plot to nullify the Congressional certification of the election, it was an attempt to overturn the results of the state’s election by Republican Party operatives.

On the day Donald Trump announced his intention to seek recounts in two Wisconsin counties, Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer, wrote a message to James R. Troupis, a lawyer for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, outlining a plan to appoint a Trump-supporting group of electors to counter the official electors named by the state legislature. 

Mississippi became the 37th state to legalize cannabis use by medical patients when Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill that went into effect immediately to make up for a delay caused by a court ruling, the Associated Press reports.

In November 2020, Mississippi voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that legalized medical cannabis, but the state supreme court threw out the results, saying the initiative process in the state is antiquated.

The legislature then took up a bill to legalize cannabis use by debilitating conditions such as cancer, AIDS and sickle cell disease, up to five ounces per month.  On the day it passed by the state legislature, Reeves signed it.  There are currently no dispensaries in the state licensed to sell in the state; the first ones could open in two months.