“Congratulations to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts for the privilege they will have in looking at massive windmills that have been approved by the Biden Administration and are being built, in China of course, as part of an extraordinarily large wind farm. Wind is an incredibly expensive form of energy that kills birds, affects the sea, ruins the landscape, and creates disasters for navigation. Liberals love it, but they can’t explain why. In any event, Martha’s Vineyard, an absolutely wonderful place, will never be the same. Good Luck!” says Former Guy on his blog – which isn’t doing so hot.

NBC News reported Tuesday that, per data compiled by an analytics firm, “Trump’s new blog has attracted a little over 212,000 engagements, defined as backlinks and social interactions – including likes, shares and comments – received across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit. Before the ban, a single Trump tweet was typically liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times.”

UPDATE:  Annnnnndddddd…. it just got scrubbed, again.

A NASA rocket launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, could create a light show along the East Coast tonight just before sunset, with a launch window running from 8:04 p.m. to 8:44 p.m. ET, according to Space.com.

The four-state Black Brant XII rocket is on a mission called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X.

The rocket will release barium vapor, former two green-violet clouds as it flies overhead, approximately 10 minutes after launch.  The clouds will last for about 30 seconds and be visible up and down the East Coast and as far west as the Mississippi River.

Daily Beast: “Multiple women paid by Rep. Matt Gaetz’s wingman and close associate Joel Greenberg claim they felt pressured to do drugs and have sex with him. Twelve women agreed to talk with The Daily Beast about their experiences with Greenberg and his friends under the condition of anonymity. All of them said it was their understanding that Greenberg – who until his indictment last June served as the elected tax collector for Seminole County, Florida – was paying them at least in part for sex, going as far back as 2013. Ten women told The Daily Beast they felt pressure at one time or another to drink or take drugs as an entree to sex.”

“And all 12 said Greenberg encouraged them to invite friends, either for himself or men he knew. None of the women The Daily Beast talked to used the phrase ‘sexual assault’ in their interviews, and the encounters seemed to cover a spectrum of experiences. Some women described platonic encounters where they still got paid. Others relayed that they had consensual sex for money. But some characterized their experiences as a trauma, and four women said Greenberg pressured them them to have sex – with one recounting that she had sex with Greenberg and another woman after being plied with ‘an endless supply of drugs.'”

The House Judiciary Committee filed a court motion Tuesday afternoon confirming that former White House Counsel for Donald Trump will testify before the committee, an action that had been challenged by the Executive Branch for more than two years.

McGahn, now a partner in the Jones Day law firm, had been ordered to not comply with a House subpoena by the Trump Administration.  Although he had left the White House, McGahn had been called by the Judiciary Committee to testify about Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Mueller investigation and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Trump White House, citing Executive Privilege, continued to block McGahn’s testimony, and oral arguments were set to be heard by the DC District Court on May 19th.  The motion removes that case from the court docket, saying that an agreement was reached between the White House Counsel’s office, now part of the Biden White House, and the House Judiciary Committee.  The motion notes, “Former President Trump, who is not a party to this case, is not a party to the agreement in principle regarding an accommodation.”

Two transgender women in Cameroon were found guilty of “attempted homosexuality” after being arrested in a restaurant for dressing in women’s clothing, Reuters reports.  They face a sentence of up to five years in prison each.

A local social media celebrity known as Shakiro, who also is identified as Loic Njeukam, and Patricia, also identified as Roland Mouthe, were arrested on February 8th and also charged with public indecency and failing to carry identification.  Cameroon is one of 39 countries in Africa where homosexuality is illegal.

“This is a political decision,” said one of the lawyers, Alice Nkom. “It’s Yaounde (the central government) that said these people must not bring homosexuality to Cameroon.”  Nkom said she would appeal the decision to a higher court.

https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1392225400982548485

Daily Beast: “Students for Trump co-founder and pugnacious MAGA Twitter star Ryan Fournier allegedly helped his friend create a fake law firm to bilk innocent clients, only to turn against his one-time partner to help federal law enforcement, according to records and statements made Tuesday by a lawyer involved in the case. The new revelations about Fournier’s alleged involvement in the fake law firm came after a Tuesday sentencing hearing where a federal judge sentenced Fournier’s Students for Trump co-founder, 25-year-old John Lambert, to 13 months in jail for operating a fake law practice. Court records have long suggested that Fournier was the unnamed ‘Co-Conspirator 1’ named in Lambert’s 2019 indictment.”

“On Tuesday, Lambert’s defense attorney said that Fournier was the co-conspirator in an interview with the New York Daily News. Lambert’s attorney confirmed Fournier’s involvement in an email to The Daily Beast. Fournier didn’t respond to requests for comment. Fournier will not face prosecution himself, according to a document filed by federal prosecutors. In a federal court filing, the man now identified as Fournier is described as ‘providing information to the government since in or about April 2018 in the hope of not being charged for his role in the wire-fraud conspiracy.'”

Barry Glazer, a Baltimore lawyer (in)famous for his late-night commercial appeals to potential clients saying, “Don’t urinate on my leg and tell me it’s raining,” spent more than $80,000 in an online auction to purchase a bicycle owned by the late Princess Diana, and the people of England are deeply chagrined about it, the Baltimore Sun writes.

Glazer says the bike is a symbol of “white supremacy” and will display the bike in his downtown office, a building once used to house escaped slaves.  Glazer said he bought the bike as a publicity stunt, and that he felt a connection to Diana’s bike because she would ride it around the Pimlico neighborhood of London when she worked as a teaching assistant; Glazer grew up in the Pimlico neighborhood of Baltimore.

Britain’s Daily Mail doesn’t think too highly of Glazer’s acquisition, calling him a “Royal hater” and suggesting that Glazer’s $80K could have gone to better causes.

“Police said a Dunkin’ store employee fatally punched a 77-year-old customer in Florida after the employee said the man repeatedly used a racial slur against him. The victim, a man who police did not name, was punched May 4 and died Friday. That led to a manslaughter charge against 27-year-old Corey Pujols, who worked at the store. Pujols told police that the man was ‘extremely rude’ the day of the punch and had called him a racial slur. Pujols, who is Black, said he confronted the man about the slur, at which point the 77-year-old repeated it. The slur was not described further by police. A Tampa Police Department report says after he was punched, the victim fell backward and hit his head on the concrete floor. The Tampa Bay Times reports an autopsy shows the man suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions” – AP.

Washington Post: “Kentucky Derby champion Medina Spirit was cleared to race in Saturday’s 146th Preakness Stakes after embattled trainer Bob Baffert agreed Tuesday to enhanced blood-testing and monitoring of the horse – conditions required by Preakness organizers in the wake of the Medina Spirit’s positive test for a banned substance in the aftermath of his Derby win.”

“At Tuesday’s post-position draw at Pimlico Race Course, Medina Spirit drew the No. 3 position and was installed as the morning-line, 9-5 favorite. Baffert revealed Sunday that Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid, touching off three days of chaos for the sport. After initially denying giving the horse the substance, Baffert acknowledged Tuesday morning Medina Spirit was being treated with an anti-fungal ointment containing the banned substance.”

Two then-acting heads of Cabinet departments during the Trump administration will attempt to defend the actions they took to protect the Capitol and members of Congress during the January 6th insurrectionist attack in a Congressional hearing scheduled for Wednesday, according to advanced copies of statements obtained by Politico.

Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen have been widely criticised for failing to provide sufficient security and support to the Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan Police who were besieged by a mob of Trump supporters.  Media reports and testimony from other officials outline a delay of many hours in reinforcements arriving at the Capitol, and lawmakers question preparedness of security based on intelligence collected by federal law enforcement.

In the statements obtained by Politico, Miller says he stands by “EVERY decision I made that day and the ones I made in the days following January 6. Our Nation’s Armed Forces are to be deployed for domestic law enforcement only when all civilian assets are expended and ONLY as the absolute last resort.”

“A federal judge has dismissed the NRA’s bankruptcy case, finding that the NRA was just using the bankruptcy as a vehicle to avoid the New York AG’s attempt to dissolve it for alleged corruption. The federal judge said the NRA did not file the bankruptcy case in good faith, and ‘agrees with the NYAG that the NRA is using this bankruptcy case to address a regulatory enforcement problem, not a financial one'” reports NPR’s Tim Mak.

Israel Palestinian explosion, Middle East conflict news today, media reported. Concern controversy Gaza Israel Hamas Hezbollah. Peace process Netanyahu Israel settlements. Explosion reported Dome of the Rock Settlement West Bank something. Jerusalem conflict controversy, fucking Destiny 2 won’t load on Xbox server error but write article about Israel explosions while waiting even though don’t care something. Israel Palestine whatever don’t care rockets this shit has been happening for decades even though Kushner was supposed to fix it. Dishwasher needs to be emptied, go Israel dishwasher Palestine drying rack. Hamas Crunch Berries good, might eat even though not hungry. Kushner did not fix Israel whatever problem. Palestine. Gaza. Crunch Berries.

The Independent: “Republicans in the Senate Rules Committee rejected an amendment to the For The People Act that would ban states from restricting volunteers from handing out food or water to people standing in line to vote. The amendment was proposed by Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia – where Republicans have recently passed a law that criminalises giving out food and water to voters at the polls – as part of his Voter Access to Water Act. Republicans have claimed that allowing people to hand out food and water would encourage electioneering, which is already illegal.”

“Mr Ossoff said the Senate has been ‘somewhat plagued by a presumption of partisan bad faith’ and discouraged senators to drop the ‘reflexive tendency to perceive the worst’ from Democratic proposals supporting voting rights. ‘It is already against the law… to campaign or engage in political advocacy or electioneering, wear campaign merchandise, have conversations with voters about who they’re going to vote for,’ he said.”

“A man accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was indicted Tuesday on murder charges, and a prosecutor filed notice that she’ll also seek hate crime charges and the death penalty. A Fulton County grand jury indicted Robert Aaron Long, 22, in the March 16 slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. The indictment only covers those four killings that happened at two spas in Atlanta, and not the attack in Cherokee County in which Xiaojie ‘Emily’ Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed.”

“Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice that she intends to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Long, who is white. The hate crime charges are based on actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender, according to online records. Georgia’s new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it’s a hate crime, which carries an additional penalty. The indictment charges Long with four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of domestic terrorism, according to online records” – AP.

Forbes: “You might not be able to pronounce Iceland’s newest erupting volcano at Fagradalsfjall, but you could potentially own a chunk of it. According to Icelandic media reports, the area of the eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula west of the capital Reykjavik is on private land owned by a landowners association of about 20 individuals. The association chairman Sigurður Guðjón Gíslason told Visir the group has received inquiries from realtors and other interested parties with a few offers already on the table. ‘This must be the hottest land in the country right now,’ he quipped, adding that the group is ready to sell for the right price.”

“Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called Democrats’ sweeping voting system overhaul ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ and put the blame for the racist, suppression laws of the past on Democrats. Speaking at a Senate markup hearing on Tuesday for the For the People Act, dubbed H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate, Cruz acknowledged Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer describing Jim Crow laws. ‘He’s right. Jim Crow laws were bigoted, racist, and disenfranchise millions of people,’ Cruz said. ‘It is worth remembering that those Jim Crow laws were drafted by Democrats, they were implemented by Democrats, and they kept Democrats in power.’ ‘Today’s talking point repeated in the media is, ‘That was the Democrats of yesterday, not today,’’ Cruz continued, referencing an often-noted ideological and geographic shift of the party.

“‘Well, today, the Democrats are doing it again. ‘This legislation, to use a phrase that has been popularized in the media recently, is Jim Crow 2.0,’ Cruz said. The ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ description is a cheeky appropriation of a term that many Democrats recently used to criticize Republican-led state-level ‘election integrity’ legislation in Georgia and elsewhere. The Democrats’ voting bill, Cruz asserted, is intended to register ‘millions’ of illegal immigrants to vote – a claim that has been refuted by fact-checkers. Cruz also said the bill would allow felons who are out of prison to register to vote, would complicate state voter ID laws, and legalize ‘ballot harvesting,’ the practice of having a person other than the voter collect and return ballots. ‘This legislation would disenfranchise millions of Americans. Many of us are referring to this legislation as the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act’. This legislation is designed to ensure that Democrats never lose another election. This bill doesn’t protect voting rights. It steals voting rights from the American people'” – Washington Examiner.

The Guardian: “Two Trump family members got ‘inappropriately – and perhaps dangerously – close’ to agents protecting them while Donald Trump was president, according to a new book on the US Secret Service. Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, by the Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig, is published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. Leonnig won a Pulitzer prize in 2015, for her reporting on security failures at the Secret Service.”

“In her new book, she writes that Secret Service agents reported that Vanessa Trump, the wife of the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, ‘started dating one of the agents who had been assigned to her family’. Vanessa Trump filed for an uncontested divorce in March 2018. Leonnig reports that the agent concerned did not face disciplinary action as neither he nor the agency were official guardians of Vanessa Trump at that point. Leonnig also writes that Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter with his second wife, Marla Maples, broke up with a boyfriend and ‘began spending an unusual amount of time alone with a Secret Service agent on her detail’. Secret Service leaders, the book says, ‘became concerned at how close Tiffany appeared to be getting to the tall, dark and handsome agent’. Agents are prohibited from forming personal relationships with those they protect, out of concern that such feelings could cloud their judgment. Both Tiffany Trump and the agent said nothing untoward was happening, Leonnig writes, and pointed out the nature of the agent’s job meant spending time alone with his charge. The agent was subsequently reassigned.”

https://youtu.be/vlsfUy5b8-Q

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz stomped out of committee hearing on gun violence because committee chairman Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal would not turn the meeting into a discussion about President Biden nominees.  Blumenthal invited Cruz to discuss it after the hearing, but Cruz opted to have a temper tantrum and hyperdramatically march out of the meeting instead.  (Video from The Recount.)

Caitlyn Jenner comes in 4th at 6% in a Berkeley/IGS poll of the Republican field for Governor of California, behind some guy named Faulconer at 22%. The question is pretty much academic anyway, because Newsom’s approval is at 52% in the same poll. Read more here.