The Cobb County Republican Party are reportedly holding an event on January 6th commemorating the one year anniversary of the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol to subvert the Constitution… ‘cept they don’t see it that way.  During their event–which will feature the broadcast of a planned press conference for Donald Trump from Mar-a-Lago because he still doesn’t know when to shut up–the GOPers will hold a “candlelight vigil for J6 patriots held in DC Prison.”

Deceased former Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, who died December 28th at the age of 82, will lie in state at the US Capitol Rotunda on January 12th, when members of Congress will have the opportunity to pay their respects, CNN reports.

Because of the spread of the coronavirus omicron variant, the event will not be open to the public, with invitation-only guests allowed to attend.  There will be a formal arrival and departure ceremonies for the casket.

PayPal on Friday terminated its agreement with Jim Hoft and Gateway Pundit, cutting off the conservative yellow journalist’s pathway to collect donations from his dupes via its PayPal and Venmo apps.

Hoft connects the termination from PayPal to the company’s association with the Anti-Defamation League, an independent non-profit who has been helping PayPal identify extremist organizations using the platform to fund radical agendas.

“Without warning, The Gateway Pundit and Jim Hoft were banned from Paypal [sic] on the last day of 2021,” Hoft claimed before adding, “We have never violated any of Paypal’s bylaws — BUT we are conservative and Pro-Trump.”  Gateway Pundit has many posts undermining coronavirus public health recommendations, and it also harbored users who supported the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress.  Hoft was using his PayPal account to get donations to fight the lawsuit brought against Gateway Pundit by two Georgia elections workers.

Fresh from being banned by Twitter for disseminating false information regarding the coronavirus vaccine, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Ga) has distributed a fundraising email begging donors for a $500 contribution.  (The email is available after the fold.)

“The Silicon Valley Cartel finally pulled the trigger . . . Twitter permanently banned my account,” Greene whines, without mentioning the social media platform banned her account for repeatedly disseminating false information regarding the coronavirus.  Nonetheless, Greene claims Twitter banned her account for “speaking the truth.”

“The next step is Never Trump RINOs Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney colluding with communist Democrats like Adam Schiff on the January 6th Witch Hunt committee to throw me in jail,” Greene continues, apparently ignorant of the fact that the committee has no legal authority to throw anyone in prison.

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1477815172794257408

President Joe Biden told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United States will support the nation in the challenges facing it from a build-up of Russian troops along its border, Politico reports.  Unlike his predecessor, Biden did not couch the declaration in terms of a quid pro quo in exchange for a political favor from the Ukrainian president.

“President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,“ according to a statement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “The leaders expressed support for diplomatic efforts. … He reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.“

The first international talk of the year with @POTUS proves the special nature of our relations,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

Tesla Inc. reported that it sold more than 936,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 87% from 2020 sales and more than doubling pre-pandemic 2019 sales, according to the Associated Press.

The carmaker also reported selling more than 300,000 new vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021, a quarterly record for the company that formed eighteen years ago.  The volume of Tesla production was thousands of units over analysts expectations.

The stunning increase in production came at a time when manufacturers in various other industries are experiencing shortages in computer chips, slowing production and deliver of products to retailers.

Can’t help but feel sorry for the kids getting cowed into playing this by their asshole MAGA parents. “Yes Dad, now I see why the army special forces had to go seize the servers from that office in Germany. Can we play something else now? Maybe something that doesn’t have lots of spelling mistakes on the cards? Come on, every game night’s been ruined since you bought this shit.”

Residents of Texarkana, Texas saw 2022 come in with fish falling from the sky, reports KSAT.com. The phenomenon has been attributed to powerful “water spouts,” essentially small tornadoes that picked up thousands of minnows and fingerlings from area lakes, and then carried them up into the air where they then fell back to the ground.

“Dear Prudence National Zero, My partner and I are anticipating an issue we don’t know how to deal with. We have a nephew ‘Don’ (who is around 27), who attended the Jan. 6 rally last year. I don’t know whether he went inside the capitol building or not, but he did make ominous statements on a video call the day before, about having important work to do on Jan. 6. The issue is how to handle future family get-togethers, particularly around Christmas. I no longer feel comfortable being near Don, and while I don’t want to pressure my partner, I also worry for her safety if she attends these events without me (with Don present). We touched on this issue with my in-laws (partner’s parents) on Christmas, and they just glossed over it as Don being misled by another family member. We don’t know what to do, please advise. We can’t hide behind COVID forever” writes “Undecided in the U.S.” to Slate.com’s popular “Dear Prudence” column.

Dear Undecided, Yeah we’re just going to go ahead and take this over because Prudence (who’s actual name isn’t Prudence, it’s Jenée and she isn’t even the first Prudence) was too diplomatic and passive. It’s not enough to simply cut ‘Don’ out of your lives – you need to make him want to cut you out of his life. You should absolutely have invited him over for Christmas, and made sure the ornaments were little Mike Pences with nooses hanging from the tree. Baked little cookies that look like the QAnon Shaman. Put footage of the riot on loop on the TV on mute while you play Nat King Cole… without saying a word about it. Make it uncomfortable for him – and Granny, Grampy and everyone else into all this MAGA bullshit. Stop being so undecided, bro… or sis if you’re a woman.

Key West Florida’s Southernmost Point buoy monument was damaged when two idiots threw a Christmas tree next to it and then set the tree on fire. The burning tree did extensive damage to the paint, and it appears the monument will need to be power-washed and repainted. The story, reported by Florida Keys News includes photos of the two jackwads performing this completely pointless and stupid act of vandalism. The fire was set between 3 and 3:30am on New Years Day. Alcohol may have been involved.

Twitter permanently suspended a sitting US President.

They’ve now permanently suspended a sitting member of US Congress.

Of course, both from the same party.

They forget that in 2022 we are taking back the House and we WILL be holding them accountable!

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 2, 2022

This sure begs the question of what they’re actually going to do. Because Dems sure as hell aren’t going to be on board with punishing the company that, as much shit as they’ve allowed they’re still light years more responsible than Facebook. And yes, okay, a GOP House majority could subpoena Twitter executives and harass them, but that’ll be after four years of the shoe being on the other foot, where the official line in MAGA world is that compliance with Congressional oversight was strictly optional for Trump and his minions. So best of luck with that.

Hong Kong-based independent news site Citizen News announced on Sunday it will cease publishing on Tuesday and shut down its site shortly thereafter, the latest in a string of casualties of declining press freedom in the ChiCom ruled city, the Associated Press reports. Nearing the halfway point of the 50 year “Special Administrative Region” status of the former British colony, Hong Kong has seen a marked intrusion by Communist Chinese authoritarianism in recent years with the sweeping arrests of hundreds of journalists and pro-democracy activists, the banning of democratic candidates from elections, and the shuttering of a free press.

Citizen News will not be moving to GETTR because that isn’t an option when you’re actually fucking living in a place with rapidly eroding freedom of expression. There is no “But Ilhan, Kamala, and Maxine” or “We need Section 230” in this situation. There’s just shut up or die.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday, House January 6th Committee Chair Congressman Bennie Thompson said the committee staff “don’t have any real knowledge” of House members giving tours to rioters, but they “have a lot of information about communication with individuals who came,” and are looking at subpoenas for those House members. When asked if it was a planned assault or a protest that simply got out of hand, Thompson said it was “a little bit of both”.

MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene has been permanently banned from Twitter. In a statement to New York Times reporter Davey Alba, a Twitter spokesperson said: “We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.” Greene official account @RepMTG remains active, however as Alba reports “Twitter has banned accounts before (notably Trump) for ban evasion. So if violating tweets appear there, it’ll likely be suspended too.”

Per Alternet, what did Greene in is when she linked a Fox News interview with one-eyed Congressman Dan Crenshaw who had said “So what the federal government should be doing, again, using their FEMA resources to bolster a lot of these testing sites, open up new testing sites. This is what we saw happen during the Trump administration.” Green wrote “No FEMA should not set up testing sites to check for Omicron sneezes, coughs, and runny noses. And we don’t need FEMA in hospitals, they should hire back all the unvaccinated [healthcare workers] they fired.”

Following her ban Sunday morning, Greene quickly took to shitty right wing Twitter knockoff GETTR to shriek in rage, writing “When Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out rioters on Twitter, and Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics, Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth. That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.” Goodbye @mtgreenee, we saw far, far too much of ye.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds a quarter overall of respondents – and 52% of Republicans surveyed – believe the Capitol rioters were “protecting democracy” when they rampaged into the building to try to hang Mike Pence. 71% of Republicans believe Trump won the 2020 election.

A CBS News/YouGov poll also published Sunday finds that 56% of Republican respondents said the Capitol rioters were “defending freedom” and 47% also described it as “patriotism” (multiple, non-exclusive selections). When asked “Most of those who forced their way into the Capitol on January 6th were…?” 9% answered “Typical of Trump Supporters”, 50% “Trump supporters, but not typical”, and 41% said they were “Left-leaning groups”, and we have to believe at least a few of these assholes answered the rioters “defending freedom” AND from “left-leaning groups”.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is mobilizing to push for renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, a measure that has been blocked for years due to Republican concerns that men who are arrested for beating their wives and children won’t be able to purchase semi-automatic rifles. The action follows on the House passage of the bill in March of 2021.

The effort to renew VAWA is expected to see strong pushback from far right conservatives in the GOP, who typically act as a “pro domestic violence” lobbying group.

“Congresswoman Mary Miller is doing a fantastic job representing the people of Illinois! Strong on Election Security, the Second Amendment, and our Military and Vets, Mary is a champion of our America First agenda. She fights hard against Joe Biden’s open borders, runaway inflation, and the radical indoctrination of our children. Mary has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” says the Orange God Emperor. Miller is the MAGA asshole rookie Congresswoman who drives around in a pickup truck with MAGA terrorist militia 3%er stickers on it and said “Hitler was right” about education, so she’s a natural choice for the Donald in the primary against regular vanilla Republican Congressman Rodney Davis she’s facing due to Illinois’s redistricting plan.

“You probly want somethin’ written, like lord and lahn, statin’ all menh are to be treated equal.  Oh!  We have the Constitution.  So you probly won’t put people in charge who’s gotta fight for the Constitution.  Jus’ sayin’.”

Calgary police removed members of the Russian and Czech junior hockey teams from a flight bound for Frankfurt, Germany after passengers complained that the players were disruptive and refused to put out lit cigarettes, the Associated Press reports.

Police were call to the Calgary airport for a report of disruptive passengers.  People on the Frankfurt flight refused to put on masks or extinguish cigarettes, mandatory actions on Air Canada flights.  The teams were leaving Canada following the cancelation of the remainder of the World Juniors Championships that were being played in Red Deer and Edmonton.

The Czech team says that they were complying with orders of the flight crew regarding masking, and their team manager said they were only kicked off the flight because their grey sweatshirts were similar to the ones worn by disruptive Russian players.   “And practically only for that reason, they threw us into the same bag as the Russians and told us that the entire Czech and Russian expedition could no longer board the plane,” Czech team manager Otakar Cerny told Czech media.  “Air Canada representatives apologized to us and at their expense arranged a hotel and a flight to Frankfurt at the same time a day later. They also assured us that we would not fly the same flight as the Russian hockey players.”