So there’s this debate raging among the fan community over if the speeder bikes the Mod Gang are really appropriate for Tatooine. Everything else on the planet is very grungy and weather beaten, yet here are these cyborg kids riding around Mos Espa on these pristine Vespa-looking hover vehicles that look very incongruous and out of place while they serve their new daimyo, Boba Fett. It’s just one in a long string of questionable decisions made by the production crew.

If you didn’t get any of that then don’t worry. The point is you can still tell fans of a fictional universe are extremely upset both with each other and the showrunners even if you don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the relevant material (in this case that bullshit “controversy” about characters in the show Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett did really happen, by the way).

We just released our first TV ad!

As a Congressman, I worked with President Trump to build the wall.

As your Attorney General, I’ll restore the rule of law, and I’ll be the Woke Mob’s worst nightmare! pic.twitter.com/Ynw9nCf4t7

— Louie Gohmert (@LouieGohmertTX1) February 2, 2022

“After consultation with the Counsel to the President and the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, and as instructed by President Biden, I have determined to disclose to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (‘Select Committee’) the Vice Presidential records from our December 8, 2021, Notification that you identified as privileged in your letter of January 18, 2022. Pursuant to President Biden’s subsequent instruction and my authority under 36 C.F.R. 1270.44(g), I will deliver these pages to the Select Committee 30 days after this notification (which is March 3, 2022), unless prohibited by court order. Production to the Select Committee of the records from the December 8, 2021, notification as to which privilege was not formally asserted in your January 18, 2022, letter is ongoing and will continue until complete” says National Archivist David Ferriero in a letter to the former guy.

Too bad Ferriero didn’t also add “PS: Oh yeah, you can’t sue us again to claim privilege over this stuff because you already lost at the Supreme Court, lol. Thoughts and prayers, you fat bastard.”

The House January 6th Select Committee has subpoenaed the phone records of Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband Michael, KNPX’s Braham Reznik reports. Ward and her husband have already sued T-Mobile to block the release and the judge assigned to the case is Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

The Wards both signed the fake Trump 2020 electors certificate in December 2020 and Kelli was instrumental behind the now-infamous CyberNinjas “audit” clusterfuck of Maricopa County.

The FBI have zeroed in on six “tech-savvy” juvenile suspects of interest in the HBCU bomb hoax threats, describing the threats as racial in nature, NBC News reports.

Spotted by Patriot Takes on Twitter.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that it will take over responsibility for establishing the election map in the state through redistricting after the state legislature failed to create an equitable map in the Commonwealth, removing redistricting from the Republican legislature.

“Pennsylvania Supreme Court GRANTS our petition to take over congressional redistricting process,” Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias announced on Twitter.  “A big win for voters of Pennsylvania and fair districting.”  Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has seven elected members on it, with its current composition being five Democrats and two Republicans.  Pennsylvania’s legislature is a gerrymandered Republican majority in both chambers.

Spartan’s take:  “This means Republicans have lost yet another power grab and a fair map will be drawn. They probably won’t melt the fuck down and try to impeach four of the state Supreme Court’s justices like they did after the court struck down and redrew their map back in 2018, if only because they won’t want to fail and look impotent again. But you never know, they still might do it anyway.”

The Canadian Conservative Party have voted to oust leader Erin O’Toole for failing to develiver victory in the September 2021 elections, the CBC reports. O’Toole, who hilariously is actually a man despite being named Erin, was felled by a 73 to 45 vote of Tory MPs. One of his potential replacements, Alberta MP Tom Kmiec, opposes banning gay conversion therapy because he thinks it would criminalize parents having “normal conversations” about “sexual behavior”, so it’s obvious they right wingers are working with a deep bench up there in Canuckistan.

Caveman cosplayer Aaron Mostofsky, the 35-year-old son of a prominent Brooklyn Supreme Court judge who was recognizable during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress because his outfit has pleaded guilty to a number of charges relating to his participation in the attack, Rolling Stone reports.

Mostofsky pleaded guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.  He faces a sentence of up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine on the felony charge with another year and $100,000 in fines for the misdemeanors.

The Justice Department release about the plea notes that Mostofsky wore a police bullet proof vest he found at the scene as he roamed the Capitol. Mostofsky was recorded following Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he lured the crowd away from the Senate chambers.

Trump really did consider issuing a total blanket pardon for all participants in the Capitol riot during his final days in office, Politico reports. One source says Trump called an advisor on three separate occasions in the two weeks following the riot to ask “Do you think I should pardon them? Do you think it’s a good idea? Do you think I have the power to do it? Is it everybody that had a Trump sign or everybody who walked into the Capitol [who could be pardoned?],” and adding “Some people think I should pardon them,” per the source. Trump also reportedly believed that anyone who was pardoned would be prevented from testifying about the riot.

It is better to be over prepared than underprepared for winter weather.

Things to have on hand as the winter weather approaches:

✅ Extra warm clothes & blankets
✅ Portable lights and extra batteries
✅ First-aid kit
✅ Extra nonperishable food and water for family and pets

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) February 2, 2022

“Jeff Zucker, a world-class sleazebag who has headed ratings and real-news-challenged CNN for far too long, has been terminated for numerous reasons, but predominantly because CNN has lost its way with viewers and everybody else. Now is a chance to put Fake News in the backseat because there may not be anything more important than straightening out the horrendous Lamestream Media in our Country, and in the case of CNN, throughout the World. Jeff Zucker is gone – congratulations to all!” says Trump in a statement leaving us grasping for astrophysical concepts with which to compare it, so vast and yawning is its void of consideration for literally anything in Trump’s personal life and political career that could be compared negatively.

Without the Trump connection this would’ve been a skip by National Zero, but a report from pro wrestling site WrestleTalk says WWE CEO Vince McMahon, a staunch Trump supporter and husband to former Trump cabinet Small Business Administration Chief Linda McMahon, has fired their son, Shane McMahon, a long time on-camera wrestler and IRL executive for the pro wrestling promotion for being an asshole backstage at the “Royal Rumble” pay-per-view event on Sunday.

This is a major first in a world populated by miscreant offspring like Don Jr and Eric Trump, Andrew Giuliani, Michael Flynn Jr, Peter Doocy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rand Paul, and other failsons, none of whom were ever told to get the hell out of the family business by their dads. If you ignore the fact that it happened in a violent traveling circus that Trump fans think is real with a fairly tenuous connection to politics then it is kind of significant. Sort of.

Neighbors and officials in North Carolina are concerned that an uncontrolled fire at a Winston-Salem fertilizer plant could lead to a massive explosion that would destroy buildings in the area, the Associated Press reports.

“The possibility of an explosion has not gone down,” Winston-Salem Fire Division Chief Bobby Wade announced at an early-morning press briefing.  “We still have some active burning on the scene. Conditions overnight have not improved.”

Winston Weaver Company fertilizer plant started Monday night and has not yet been brought under control.  Around 90 firefighters were called to the scene to fight the fire, but were removed from the site after a building collapsed and the risk of explosion increased.

Jeff Zucker has resigned as the head of CNN and the chair of Warner Media because of an undisclosed workplace relationship that was exposed during the investigation into former CNN host Chris Cuomo, the New York Times reports.

“As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” Zucker wrote in a memo to colleagues announcing his departure. “I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”

Federal Magistrate Judge Kim Price Johnson has denied MAGA terrorist Stewart Rhodes’s bid to remain close to home while awaiting trial on charges of seditious conspiracy against the United States, Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman reports. Rhodes had argued he needed to stay close to home where his lawyers are based, Johnson said tough shit, ordering the Oath Keepers founder shipped to DC.

Key Trump Impeachment 1.0 witness former Army Colonel Alexander Vindman filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Don Jr, Rudy, and Trump’s social media minions Dan Scavino and Julia Hahn, seeking “long-overdue accountability for unlawful actions knowingly undertaken by close associates and allies of former President Donald J. Trump to help him obstruct a constitutional proceeding by intimidating and retaliating against a key witness,” per the complaint.

President Biden signed an order on Wednesday to deploy 3,000 American soldiers to Germany, Poland, and Romania as Russian troops continue to build up on Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus, the Wall Street Journal reports. Of the 3,000 are 2,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina who will head to Germany and Poland, and a 1,000 strong infantry Stryker squadron based in Germany who will deploy to Romania. Stay tuned for Tucker Carlson’s impotent rage.

Senator Josh Hawley urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to drop US support for Ukraine joining NATO in a letter obtained by Axios on Wednesday. It’s an academic argument as Ukraine is nowhere near qualifying for membership in the bloc, yet Hawley seems suspiciously insistent on the possibility being foreclosed, just like Putin does. Hawley’s letter does not go into the same level of Putin ball-washing that Tucker Carlson does regularly these days, instead selling a “But China” angle, as if keeping the door open to Ukraine compromises the US in the Pacific. Some lowlights:

“I write to request clarity about the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine’s prospective membership in NATO. Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty provides for the Alliance’s expansion. It stipulates that such expansion can occur only by unanimous agreement and that only a ‘European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area’ may receive invitation to the Alliance. The United States has supported multiple rounds of NATO enlargement since the end of the Cold War… The United States has an interest in maintaining Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. And we should urgently deliver to Ukraine assistance it needs to defend itself against Russia’s military buildup and other threats. Our interest is not so strong, however, as to justify committing the United States to go to war with Russia over Ukraine’s fate. interest is not so strong, however, as to justify committing the United States to go to war with Russia over Ukraine’s fate.”

CBS News Capitol correspondent Scott MacFarlane reports an unnamed Capitol riot defendant has hired a pollster to conduct a public opinion survey of DC residents in support of a motion to request a change of venue. MacFarlane did not elaborate further, but safe to say this is pretty fucking hilarious that this person spent at minimum a few thousand dollars – and probably much more if they used a halfway decent pollster – to commission a public opinion poll to use to convince a judge that the potential jury pool in DC is tainted and the trial must be held in another jurisdiction.

Another chart shows the survey’s respondents (with no indication of sample size) answers to “Do you believe that any individual who was inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 should be convicted of insurrection?” to which 73% said yes, 15% no, and 13% said not sure.

Now, we’re not experts on jury selection or public opinion surveys but we’re going to just use basic math here: If this number is accurate then that means there’s a better than one-in-ten shot any individual juror candidate would be “not sure” and thus impartial enough for a fair trial. We seriously doubt that’s lower than the threshold for a change of venue in a federal criminal trial, whatever it might be or if there even is one versus some subjective determination made by a judge.

So there’s a good chance this person’s own polling ends up being good evidence for the judge to deny the request rather than grant it. Points for style though. This defendant certainly put more thought into this than the asshole who argued “The D.C. venue is polluted by the city’s political culture of ‘canceling’ those associated with allegations of ‘white supremacy’. A guilty verdict by a D.C. jury could be readily based on pretrial media affiliation of Ms. Cudd with ‘white supremacy.'”