“Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is preparing to introduce a resolution on Thursday disapproving of the U.S. sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post. The resolution aims to halt the planned sale to Israel by the Biden administration of JDAMs, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions, and Small Diameter Bombs, as the worst hostilities in years continue between Israel and Hamas. The resolution needs only a simple majority to pass the Senate; but if it were to be vetoed by President Joe Biden, it would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to take effect. ‘At a moment when U.S.-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate,’ Sanders said in a statement” – Washington Post.

The Oregonian: “Five eastern Oregon counties voted Tuesday in favor of considering becoming part of Idaho. Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur and Sherman counties join Union and Jefferson, which voted last year to require county officials to study or promote joining Idaho. The grassroots group Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho wants to flip Oregon’s mostly rural eastern and southern counties – plus a few northern counties in California – into Idaho, believing they’d be better off in Idaho’s more conservative political environment. It’s hoping that political pressure from county initiative votes will lead to negotiations between Oregon and Idaho to move the border between the two states, putting up to 22 of Oregon’s 36 counties in Idaho.”

“Stick with Kirstie Alley! She is a great actress, loved by so many people, and a true original. She is also strong and smart. Many millions of people greatly appreciate her support of our Country. Thank you Kirstie, you are truly appreciated!” – Former guy’s blog post.

While the defacto leader of the Republican Party is being investigated on criminal and civil charges in New York…  While a Florida Congressman is the subject of inquiry about child sex trafficking and drug use…  While the Republican Party shows that it doesn’t want to find out what caused the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol… And while Tucker Carlson is interviewing a “rat wrangler,” the conservative Washington Free Beacon has found the true game-breaking story that will bring down Democrats:

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Multiple sources confirm AOC owns a Tesla, parked it illegally in front of the Whole Foods connected to her luxury apartment buildinghttps://t.co/39RmcnZMHG pic.twitter.com/iAgI0oKCW6

— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) May 19, 2021

That’s right:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez parked illegally in front of a Whole Foods.  I expect the Rasmussen daily tracking poll to have Biden’s job approval rating drop to 44% tomorrow because of this.

Perhaps buoyed by the ongoing farce of a recount in Maricopa County, Arizona, Donald Trump supporters are trying to push governments on local, county and state levels to undertake recounts of the November 2020 presidential election to support their conspiracy theories that Trump actually beat President Joe Biden.

Have we mentioned that Joe Biden has been in office for nearly five months, and there’s no way to oust him from office through a ballot recount?  Or that he got seven million more votes nationally?  Or that the election was already certified by Congress?

According to the Washington Post, people are taking to the streets in protests and to microphones in town hall meetings to offer their services to run recounts.  Few, if any, have any experience in auditing or recounting an election. 

After a “mass collision event” last year where thousands of disoriented birds crashed into city buildings and died, nearly twenty high-rise buildings in Philadelphia are dimming their lights at night to reduce such incidents in a “Bird Safe Philly” campaign, CNN reports.

While people might think that brighter lights help birds miss buildings, the opposite is true.  Birds and other animals navigate using the sun, moon and bright stars as navigation points.  Bright lights in multiple buildings at night, in overcast skies or in foggy conditions can disorient birds and cause single birds or flocks to fly directly into buildings, killing them.

“Suddenly they have all these lights coming at them from different directions. It’s overwhelming,” Robert Peck, a senior fellow at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, said. “They get turned around and they will fly into buildings and walls.”

In October 2020, thousands of birds flew into buildings, littering sidewalks below with their carcasses.  “The ground was sprinkled with dead and dying birds,” Peck said.

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters, participating in car caravan to show support for people in Gaza being subjected to military attacks by the Israeli military, got out of their cars and attacked Jewish diners at a Los Angeles restaurant, the Associated Press reports.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the attack will be investigated as a hate crime.  “Jewish Angelenos, like all residents, should always feel safe in our city,” he tweeted. “L.A. is a city of belonging, not of hate.”

Video of the event shows one of the cars in the parade stopping at a restaurant where diners were seated at sidewalk tables.  “Who’s Jewish?” one of the men exiting the car asks.

https://youtu.be/cu6C6LLHex4

Tucker’s guest bookers are making the big bucks, I’m sure.  Trump’s CFO becomes the target of a criminal probe.  In a bipartisan vote, the House sets up an independent commission to investigate a domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.  And there’s ongoing violence in Gaza.

But Tucker wanted a rat wrangler. … ’cause… he couldn’t get the stars of “Friends” on to talk about what they’re characters would be doing 20 years later???

And shockingly, the rat wrangler isn’t Kevin McCarthy.

AP: “Broken furniture. Flashlights with leaking batteries. Disfigured Barbie dolls. Across the country, thrift stores have been flooded by household items, the offerings of people who have been homebound for months and are eager to clear out some of their possessions. Problem is, too many such items could most accurately be described as trash. Many of the donations are defective or worn-out items – gifts from well-intentioned people who want to reduce waste but who donate items that simply shouldn’t be donated.”

“The thrift stores, wary of discouraging donations, say that, as always, they welcome most contributions, especially after a recession that inflicted harm most heavily on the lowest-income Americans, many of whom now depend on them. And they note that most of the items that arrive at their stores remain perfectly acceptable. But in the midst of spring cleaning season, the stores want to slow a barrage of unwanted contributions that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘I’m careful not to shake my finger at donors because without them, we wouldn’t have a business model,’ said Megan Fink, a marketing executive at Palmetto Goodwill, which operates 31 stores in South Carolina. ‘But we are trying to educate.’ For the thrift stores, such donations aren’t just a hassle to dispose of. They also magnify their garbage-disposal costs. The stores need time and staffing hours to process them. ‘It actually ends up costing Goodwill rather than helping them,’ said David Courard-Hauri, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at Drake University. The spikes in trash expenses can divert money away from other services the agencies could spend in their communities, like workforce development programs.”

https://youtu.be/1v3hXmVJJcw

“Just think, in just over a year ago, our economy was booming, our standing in the world was strong.  We had just rebuilt our nation’s military and our communities and families were thriving,” New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said on the House floor, before claiming that President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have “dismantled that foundation.”

FACT CHECK:  The US lost 9 million jobs and 500,000 lives to a coronavirus pandemic the previous administration failed to respond to.  The US economy lost 5% in the first quarter of 2020.  And Donald Trump was the laughing stock of world leaders.

Biden, in just over 100 days, saw 1.9 million jobs created, 160 million people have been vaccinated, and the economy grew by more than 4% in Q1 2021.

When the William Barr-run Department of Justice subpoenaed Twitter for information on who was running an account trolling California Republican Devin Nunes, investigators claimed they weren’t looking for the legendary troll of Nunes, but instead said they wanted information on someone who made a threat against then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

According to the New York Times, investigators said they were not acting on a complaint from Nunes, who has been in a legal fight with at least two parody Twitter accounts.  The DoJ filings explained in filings to a grand jury and a letter to Twitter that they sought information on who ran the @NunesAlt (Devin Nunes’ Alt-Mom) account because of threats against McConnell.

In direct messages with the NY Times, however, the person responding on the account claims there was nothing threatening or violent in their content.  Upon receiving an order from the Department of Justice, Twitter balked and refused to comply, saying their in-house monitoring team found nothing threatening about the posts from the account.

“The New York attorney general’s office has opened a criminal tax investigation into top Trump Organization officer Allen Weisselberg, increasing the legal pressure on the long-time aide to former President Donald Trump, people familiar with the investigation say,” reports CNN.

Weisselberg is being investigated for improprieties in the handling of his personal taxes.  He has served as Chief Financial officer of the Trump Organization, and therefore would be a person of interest in the investigation of the Trump Organization. Both investigations are being coordinated with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office,

The House of Representatives voted in a clear majority to establish an independent commission to investigate the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol on January 6th.

Thirty-four Republicans voted with all Democrats to set the 244-158 vote.

Jonathan Chait, NY Magazine: “A criminal prosecution of a former president, especially one who is still functioning as his party’s leader, would be an unsettling and potentially traumatic development. I wrote last year about the dilemma it would present: The upside of imposing accountability for his decades of operating outside the law without consequence would be offset by the dangerous perception that he was just facing political retaliation. As president, Trump constantly threatened to lock up his political enemies, reflecting his belief that the legal system was merely a tool that he could use to punish them. (One reason he believes this is that he is, himself, a crook, who, like many criminals, assumes that everybody else is either a fellow criminal or a sucker.)”

“The worst thing prosecutors could do would be to spring charges on Trump before a public completely unprepared for the news. The more surprised the public is to learn of charges against Trump (should they be filed), the easier it will be for Trump to depict them as political. Trump’s criminal defense will be the legal equivalent of his familiar political message: corroding confidence in public institutions and spreading his belief that corruption is the norm. The biggest risk of charging Trump with crimes is that the news will come as a shock to Americans. They need to understand that he isn’t facing criminal accountability because he lost, but because it should have happened years ago.”

USCP does NOT take positions on legislation. pic.twitter.com/LSu38jbIqd

— The U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) May 19, 2021

Federal law enforcement officials arrested two people from northwest Pennsylvania who were part of the apparently overzealous tourists domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol on January 6th, one of whom yelled that “We want to hang that [expletive],” as she battled police officers.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, FBI agents arrested Pauline Bauer and William Albert Blauser Jr. of Elk County, Pennsylvania. It’s unknown if the two have any relationship besides being at the coup at the same time. The FBI’s arrest affidavit states that Blauser is seen on video backing into a line of three police officers to break the line with a group of attackers. Bauer is on video yelling at officers, “Bring that [expletive] out here now. Bring her out. Bring her out here. We’re coming in if you don’t bring her out. They’re criminals. They need to hang. Bring her out. Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that [expletive]. What are you trying to protect a [expletive] Nazi. Is that what you’re protecting?”

https://youtu.be/OYCmEul3Y7g

Fox News, continuing its crusade to try to find something to pin on President Joe Biden, was trying to blame the attacks in Gaza and Israel on Biden’s intention to re-open nuclear talks with Iran, holding Israel blameless for its actions.  Somehow, Geraldo Rivera noted US culpability in arming Israel.

“We members of the United States Capitol Police write this letter to express our profound disappointment with the recent comments from both chambers’ minority leaders expressing no need for a January 6th commission. The brave men and women of the USCP were subjected to hours and hours of physical trauma which has led to months of mental anguish. If you look around the Capitol building, you still have doors that are broken, windows still smashed and in some cases missing. Officers are forced to go to work with the daily reminder of what happened that dreadful day. On Jan 6th where some officers served their last day in a US Capitol Police uniform, and not by choice, we would hope that the Members whom we took an oath to protect, would at the very minimum, support an investigation to get to the bottom of EVERYONE responsible and hold them 100 percent accountable no matter the title or position they hold or held. It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6th.”

Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of USCP. is a privileged assumption for members to have the point of view that ‘It wasn’t that bad’. That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members. Lastly, with each passing week, a new revelation about Jan 6th reveals itself. A new indictment comes to light, another newsreel of USCP officers being assaulted is released, or some breaking news regarding ‘somebody’s’ involvement. With these constant reminders, it is unconscionable to even think anyone could suggest we need to move forward and get over it. Unfortunately this letter comes to you anonymously because as US Capitol Police Officers, we are expected to remain neutral and do our jobs with honor and integrity. It’s unfortunate that our ‘bosses’ (Congress) are not held to the same standard that we, the USCP, are” – Letter from unnamed Capitol cops (using official letterhead) to Congress.

HBO is set to begin production, written and produced by the same David Simon-led team that created “The Wire,” on a new series based on the notorious Gun Trace Task Force, a corrupt Baltimore City unit that undertook a years-long crime spree in the city.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the series will star Baltimore native and “The Good Wife” actor Josh Charles; “The Wire” and “Bosch” actor Jamie Hector; and “The Walking Dead” alum Jon Bernthal.  David Simon and his long-time collaborator George Pelecanos will serve as writers and executive producers.  Nina K. Noble, Kary Antholis and Ed Burns are also executive producers.

The Gun Trace Task Force was a special unit of the Baltimore Police formed in 2007 to get unlicensed guns and guns used in crimes off the street, but the group soon became a renegade crime syndicate that operated on the streets of Baltimore with near impunity thanks to the badges they carried.