In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Coronavirus, saying that the Biden Administration’s mandate that all businesses with more than 100 employees must impose a vaccination or testing requirement on all workers was unconstitutional, the AP reports. Separately, the Supreme Court upheld the imposition of a vaccine mandate on most healthcare workers, so it was not a total win for the right wing death cult and the MAGAvirus. Libs still mostly owned.

Michigan MAGA terrorist Kery Lynn McAttee, 58, was arrested after showed up outside of US Capitol Police headquarters in Washington, DC, and told cops she “wanted to talk” about the January 6th insurrection, a conversation during which an officer noticed she appeared to have a gun inside of her pickup truck, NBC News reports. McAttee, whose truck was in a no parking zone, confirmed she had firearms in the vehicle, which is a big no-no in Washington DC. “At this time, there is no evidence the 58 year old suspect was coming here to do anything, except speak with our officers. We cannot provide the details of that conversation because they are now part of an open investigation” said a Capitol police department press release.

MAGA militia Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and ten other members of his group have been arrested on federal charges of seditious conspiracy over their planning and involvement in the January 6th, 20201 Capitol insurrection, the Washington Post reports.

On November 12th, 2020, Rhodes appeared on Infowars and told Alex Jones: “We’ll also be on the outside of DC, armed, prepared to go in, if the president calls us up,” which is probably what those fancy big city lawyers might call “extremely damning evidence of guilt” in such a conspiracy as alleged by the government. Also, holy fucking shit, seditious conspiracy? That doesn’t sound like a “process crime”. It sounds more like a face an actual firing squad kind of crime.

Matt Gaetz’s former bro Joel Greenberg’s cooperation with federal prosecutors investigating the rapey far right congressman, extended multiple times over the last year following his plea deal, appears to be be complete as he is set to be sentenced on March 29th, one day shy of a year since the federal investigation into Gaetz for sex trafficking was first reported publicly. The sentencing date being set comes off the heels of news that Gaetz’s ex girlfriend testified to a federal grand jury in Florida on Wednesday, signaling that the probe may be building toward Gaetz’s indictment.

In a rare move, Queen Elizabeth has stripped her son Prince Andrew of all his military titles and royal patronages as the fallout of Andrew’s alleged dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for underage girls for sex have received renewed attention, Variety reports.  A lawsuit by one of his accusers, Virginia Giuffre, was permitted to continue in American courts, likely the last straw for the Queen.

In a statement from Buckingham Palace, the Queen announced the move:  “With The Queen’s approval and agreement, The Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen. The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”

The punishment means Andrew will not longer be referred to as His Royal Highness, or HRH, in formal titles.

See you next Tuesday… when that Tuesday is also Arizona Senate primary day in 2024. Not much else to say about this than ask what the hell is she still doing calling herself a Democrat.

When a reporter pointedly ask him if the American people have a right to know about his conversations with Donald Trump on January 6th–including one where Trump reportedly told him the domestic terrorists attacking Congress were more upset about Trump losing the election than McCarthy was (a detail he didn’t mention in television interviews that day), McCarthy very clumsily tried to deflect.

“Y’know, that’s a great question,” McCarthy started.  “You know the great thing about that?  I didn’t wait a year later.  On January spic, sixth, I spoke to the American public, not by one network but by many networks.  My conversation was very short.  Advising the president what was happening here.  There is nothing I can provide the January 6th committee for legislation of them moving forward [sic].  There is nothing in that realm.  It is pure politics of what they’re playing [sic].”

The campaign of Las Vegas city councilwoman and Republican Nevada Gubernatorial candidate Michelle Fiore, currently under federal investigation for a campaign finance scam, spent $6,270 to broadcast 62 television spots on Fox News in the West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce media market during the last week of November 2021, the AP reports, which could not make it any more goddamned obvious they were hoping it would be seen by an audience of one.

At least this misdirected ad buy has some tangible objective for Fiore – securing Trump’s endorsement over GOP rivals. The time when Trump’s own 2020 campaign bought ads in the DC-area market to air on Fox News in the district, Maryland, and Virginia – none of whose electoral votes he had any chance of winning – was a complete waste of money and his campaign staff did it just to cheer him up when he was depressed and worried he might lose reelection. Which he did.

The Republican National Committee is preparing to require all GOP presidential candidates to pledge to boycott any debate organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the New York Times reports. Trump’s absolute meltdown at the first 2020 debate and weak performance in the second one means the debate commission is biased against Republicans, since they won’t also consider Sean Hannity or Alex Jones to moderate the debates. The bipartisan commission, established in 1987, also allowed that fucking fly in the room to land on Mike Pence’s head when he debated Kamala Harris. The proposed change will be voted on at the RNC meeting next month.

“You ask, what are we going to do to stop the pandemic,” Republican Wisconsin state legislator Treig Pronschinske, clad in his best “Dress like a bad ‘Miami Vice’ character” costume, says.  “And, y’know, if you, if you can’t see the virus, you can’t see anything, how you gonna do it?  How can you stop it?  How?  You physically cannot see the virus.  You don’t know if it’s in this room or outside or if it even exists right now in here.  You have no clue.  How you gonna stop that?”

Smallpox and polio would like a word with Pronschinske.  And God Almighty, another unseen thing, is curious about Pronschinske’s belief in Him.

Gotta have photo ID and a vaccine card to get into your grocery store, but it’s racism to show an ID to vote is just how dumb Democrats have gotten.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 13, 2022

Then again maybe Erick Erickson does do his own shopping, because in a deleted tweet from November 15th he complained “I’m glad @brianstelter could find milk. Our grocery store has never run out. But we haven’t had regular Saltines in a month. The ones at bottom right are salt-free and whole wheat, which never sell. Even the generic @publix brand is sold out,” which was an obviously bullshit “#EmptyShelvesJoe” type of sob story. But either way he’s still a fucking liar, because Publix is a Florida supermakret chain and in no universe would Ron DeSantis allow them to check for vaccine cards at the door – and even if he did, the family in charge of Publix are hardcore right wing donors. Never mind that not even in New York City is vax proof required to enter a grocery store. It’s only mandated for indoor dining and drinking establishments.

Puffy red Conservative media dipshit Glenn Beck has Coronavirus again, this time he’s taking miracle cure ivermectin to stave off the symptoms, the Daily Beast reports. “It’s [COVID-19] starting to go into my lungs today and a little disturbing. I’m on all the medications and treatments and everything else,” Beck told similarly unhinged right winger Mark Levin Wednesday, adding that his weight getting out of control isn’t helping matters. “I am a fatty-fat-fatso, so that is probably not the best thing, and I got some other issues,” said Beck. The fat bastard is also (allegedly) unvaccinated.

An Omaha woman was hospitalized with “multiple superficial claw marks,” after police responded to a report of violence at an apartment near 37th and Dodge Streets on Monday, the Omaha World-Herald reports. The unidentified 52-year-old woman told cops her two cats had been fighting when she scolded a male one and told him she would “put it in its room,” per the police report. The cat then screamed what would likely translate to “FUCK YOU!” and attacked the woman. The woman was then able to put the cat in the room before police arrived and took her to be treated at the Nebraska Medical Center. The unidentified male cat was institutionalized at a Nebraska Humane Society psychiatric facility. “No word on whether the cat will face feline-y charges,” concluded the Omaha World-Herald article. National Zero will never, ever hire that writer.

David McCormick, a capitalist said to be planning a campaign of the David Perdue/Kelly Loeffler stripe – meaning just say and do whatever MAGA bullshit he thinks will help get angry white nationalist hicks to vote for him – officially declared for the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary on Wednesday, prompting New Jersey man Mehmet Oz’s “welcome” message. John Fetterman would crush either of their skulls as if they were large, overripe cantaloupes in his giant hands.

Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin sent fake elector certificates to the National Archives in December 2020, a CNN analysis article published Wednesday shows. Meanwhile on Wednesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported that text messages from former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows suggested he was involved in the efforts – increasingly indicating that this scheme was not a spontaneous, symbolic protest by Trump fanboys in the states but they had them submitted to the National Archives in a fully coordinated effort to make sure the elector certificates were queued up and ready for Pence to overturn the election on January 6th. That a creepy GOP Arizona State Senator and Trump 2020 EC elector would not answer questions on Wednesday about who had asked him to sign the certificate doesn’t help the case for it being just a fun little pretend ceremony.

Lawyers representing various national Republican campaign organizations stepping in to defend Florida’s newest voter suppression laws against a suit brought by Democrats went ahead and used a case of one of their own fans being arrested in March 2020 for submitting 119 fake voter registration forms – 30 of them changing other voters’ parties from Dem or Independent to Republican – as a reason to uphold the suppression laws in court last week, Politico reports.

“Fraud is fraud, no matter who commits it or what party they prefer,” said National Republican Senate Campaign Committee spokesworm Chris Hartline. “Our goal is maximum participation and zero fraud. That’s why we’re fighting the Democrats in court to defend common-sense election integrity measures put in place by Republican legislatures across the country,” Hartline added, as if to say “Look what you libs made us do! We have to use our own people to help justify this in court!”

“The ultimate irony here is the whole ‘Stop the Steal’ movement is actually the group violating election law and trying to take away the system for counting votes,” said Democratic State Senator Gary Farmer, adding the filing “is not even relevant or material,” given that the law itself doesn’t actually make any changes to the way voter registration forms are handled.

Russia, already taking a beating from COVID-19 cases over the last few months, recorded a sharp increase in viral infections Thursday, with 21,155 new cases – 18% more than Wednesday and 33% more than on Monday – and 740 new deaths from the virus, the Associated Press reports.

“Laur– Laura, good evening,” Republican Kansas Senator Roger Marshall tells Trump advisor Laura Ingraham.  “Ye– Dr. Fauci does [sic] protest too much, right?  Why is he so defensive about this?  He’s lied to the American public again.  He’s lied to Congress again.  We cannot access his records.  My office cannot still, still cannot get them.  You can’t get them.  Nobody can get them yet.”

I got them.  It only took a Google search.  Here they are.

Trump advisor and Fox hostess Laura Ingraham must be very worried that she’ll be subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress.  Unable to stop it legally, Ingraham takes to her schoolyard tactics of name-calling to discredit Cheney, the vice-chair of the committee.

A section of pipeline cited in two federal inspection reports due to its extensive corrosion finally burst at the end of December, spilling more than 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel in the waterways outside New Orleans, NBC News reports.

The operators of the 42-year-old Meraux Pipeline, Collins Pipeline Co., failed to make needed repairs to the corrosion, which federal inspectors first noted in an October 2020 report.  A follow-up report noted the corrosion but said it was not extensive enough to violate federal guidelines.

Most of the spill was contained within two “burrows” and company officials report most of the diesel was recovered.   However, the spill of the fuel resulted in thousands of fish, birds and other animals dying in an area of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a closed canal.  A spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said nearly 130 animals — 72 alligators, 23 birds, 20 snakes and 12 turtles — were captured for rehabilitation.