“Twenty-one times, Arkansas Pine Bluff batters stepped to the plate to face Hope Trautwein. Twenty-one times, they trudged back to the dugout, victims of a truly perfect ‘perfect game’ in which the North Texas hurler struck out each one. Trautwein topped her two previous no-hitters with a bit of historic flair, pitching what is believed to be the first perfect seven-inning game in NCAA Division I history with every out being a strikeout. According to NCAA records, two other pitchers have had 21-strikeout, seven-inning games, but neither was a perfect game. Alabama’s Alexis Osorio fanned 21 Fordham hitters in 2018, and California’s Michele Granger did the same against Creighton in 1991” reports the Washington Post.

“In the moment, Trautwein wasn’t really aware of what she was accomplishing, partly because she had been there before. A right-hander from Pflugerville, Tex., she struck out 21 hitters for the Denton, Tex., school Feb. 13 in her first start of the season but gave up five hits in a 6-2 victory over Southeastern Louisiana. ‘I actually didn’t really realize what was happening, what kind of game this would become,’ Trautwein told The Washington Post. ‘At the end of the game, I was just like, ‘Phew, okay, another win, on to another game’ because we had a doubleheader. ‘Tate [Hawkins, a communications assistant in the athletic department] came over and said, ‘Do you realize what you just did?’ I was like, ‘Uh, a no-hitter?’ And he said, ‘No, a perfect game and every out was a strikeout.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ He was like, ‘You realize no one’s ever done that ever.’”

The Independent: “The St Vincent volcano of La Soufriere erupted in an explosion of ash and hot gas just days after the island’s prime minister said only people vaccinated against Covid could evacuate via cruise ship. Experts said Monday’s eruption, the largest since the volcanic activity began last week, was ‘destroying everything in its path’ and posed a serious threat to residents yet to evacuate. About 16,000 people were evacuated before eruptions began but an unknown number remained behind or refused to leave, according to the Associated Press. St Vincent prime minister Ralph Gonsalves said on Saturday that empty cruise ships in the area were being rerouted to help the evacuation, but that people would need to be fully vaccinated to be accepted. ‘The chief medical officer would be identifying the persons already vaccinated so that we can get them on the ship,’ Mr Gonsalves said. He said the ships aren’t fully staffed to keep evacuees on the ships, but that they can transport them to neighbouring islands if they are already vaccinated.”

“The Knoxville Police Department said there are multiple gunshot victims after a shooting at Austin-East Magnet High School on Monday afternoon” – WBIR.

This is not a comprehensive list – the difficulty in compiling it is compounded by the fact that I no longer spend several hours a day clashing with these scumbags and am not on top of absences:

LogicIsHard: Abruptly stopped posting on the afternoon of November 7th, 2020, the day the election was called for Biden by the major networks.

Bill Smith2: Profile is hidden, but no reliable reports of activity on The Hill since election. Shame too. He really, really, really guaranteed Trump was going to win.

booboo: Account completely wiped, and exactly the kind of of miserable little shit who was so emotionally invested in the glory of the MAGA Reich he couldn’t bear to continue after its defeat.

Stearns Peanus: Inactive since Capitol riot. Kind of a D-lister anyway.

Heston Churchill Jr.: Account completely wiped. May have started another one, with a different pic of an Asian teenage boy with a trendy haircut, the sick freak.

Gus Seals: No recent activity on The Hill, hiding in a safe space at Breitbart. Never responded to me taunting him on old pre-election comments either, the prick.

HungXiuquan: Extremist, woman-hating incel wiped his account, which is weird because he could’ve still used it for the Anime porn websites he no doubt frequents.

Triggered?Good: Another MAGA jihadi who couldn’t face victor’s justice. Account wiped.

Paul Kersey: Miserable prick who stopped Disqus-ing abruptly in December 2020.

Anyone else have any good additions to this list?

“The feds were closing in. And Rep. Matt Gaetz’s friend, Joel Greenberg, was in a panic. The Florida county tax collector was five days away from a federal indictment for sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old – the same one Gaetz is now being investigated over – so Greenberg reached out to mutual friends on Aug. 14 last year and tried to enlist them in his defense, according to a WhatsApp chat shared with federal investigators and obtained by Politico. He fumed that the prosecutor should be fired. He suspected that a political consultant ‘was the rat here.’ He fretted that investigators had combed through his Venmo cash app history, fearing it led them to the former teen at the center of the case.”

“Greenberg also said he was paying the legal fees for the woman, who is now 20 years old. The WhatsApp messages shed light on key aspects of the scandal consuming the Florida Republican congressman and close ally of President Donald Trump – and on the state of mind of the man Gaetz once called his ‘wingman’ as he sought to manage the fallout. Greenberg went so far as to push Gaetz to use his influence with Trump for a pardon, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, including one who heard Greenberg say it repeatedly. Asked about the request from Greenberg, Gaetz previously declined to confirm or deny that it occurred. But the congressman said he did not ask Trump to pardon Greenberg. Gaetz couldn’t be reached this weekend to discuss the WhatsApp messages that are the subject of this story” – Politico.

According to a new report from the Washington Post, right wing extremist groups and people with far-right ideologies account for four times the number of domestic attacks in the United States since 2015 than left-wing affiliated groups.

The report, compiled from data from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, shows that 2020 marked the highest level of homegrown terrorist activities in the United States since 1994.  Since 2015, there have been 267 conducted or planned by right-wing extremists groups, resulting in 91 fatalities.  Over that same time, only 66 cases of planned or completed left-wing terrorists plots, which resulted in 19 fatalities, have been identified.

More than 25% of the far-right attacks have been conducted by individuals or groups that identify with white supremacist ideology and were violence against members of the Blacks, Jews, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, Asians communities.  They include attacks against mosques, synagogues and Black churches. 

Liz Sawyer, Star-Tribune: “Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon tells media his officer intended to draw her taser during arrest, but instead drew her service weapon and fired a single fatal shot. ‘It appears to me this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright'”

“RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel referred to Trump as the ‘leader of our party,’ per attendees, as she introduced him on Saturday night. Said he was key to taking back the House and Senate. He came on stage to the YMCA and said he was going to discard his ‘boring’ speech and ‘wing it'” reports the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey on Trump’s Saturday night Mar-a-Lago speech.

Axios: “The judge presiding over Derek Chauvin’s murder trial denied a motion by the defense to sequester and re-question the jury in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright near Minneapolis Sunday night. The defense argued that the police shooting of a Black man just miles away from where George Floyd died could influence the jury and result in prejudicial bias. The prosecution countered that Wright’s case was sufficiently different and that ‘world events happen, things continue to happen in the state despite the fact that we’re all here in trial.'”

“The prosecution also argued that it would be exceedingly difficult for the jurors to avoid all exposure to media, and noted that jurors had already been questioned about their ability to remain impartial during jury selection. ‘This is a totally different case,’ Judge Peter Cahill said after denying the defense’s motion. He acknowledged that some jurors may have heard about the civil unrest in Minneapolis Sunday night, but that no significant change in the jury’s security had taken place. Cahill said that he chose not to sequester the jury at the trial’s start with the caveat that sequestering could happen if someone reached out to a juror and tried to influence them – but he noted Monday that this has not happened. Cahill also said that the jury may be sequestered next Monday when the case anticipates closing arguments.”

“‘Emancipation,’ a slave drama directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith, will no longer be filmed in the state of Georgia due to a new voting law that was signed there by Gov. Brian Kemp in late March. ‘At this moment in time, the Nation is coming to terms with its history and is attempting to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true racial justice,’ said Smith and Fuqua in a joint statement Monday. ‘We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access,’ they said. ‘The new Georgia voting laws are reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting. Regrettably, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state.’ This is the first film to pull its production out of the state because of the legislation.”

“Since 2008, enticing tax incentives have turned the state a production hub for film and television, particularly for Netflix, HBO Max, Disney’s slate of Marvel movies and TV shows, and The CW. Georgia has also developed infrastructure for big-budget productions and is home to a tremendously skilled workforce of crew members, craftsmen and technicians. Hollywood has been debating how to handle this most recent Georgia situation. Some have called for a production boycott, while others have worried that pulling out of the state would do more harm than good. For the most part, studios who have commented on the new law have condemned it, but not committed to halting production” – NBC.

O'Reilly's has fallen. The left doesn't want you to see this footage because it destroys their narrative – but Minneapolis is a warzone.https://t.co/jH7JKEndeb

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) April 12, 2021

CNBC: “Domino’s Pizza newest delivery driver isn’t a person – it’s a self-driving car. The restaurant company said Monday that an autonomous car made by Nuro will start delivering pizzas in Houston this week as part of a pilot program. Customers will have to place a prepaid order on Domino’s website for delivery from the chain’s Woodland Heights location. If their order falls within certain days and times, they can choose to have Nuro’s R2 robot drop off their pizza. Once the robot arrives, customers will enter a unique PIN on its touch screen to prompt the doors to open so they can retrieve their pizza. A Domino’s spokeswoman said that the company doesn’t have an end date for the pilot program yet. The R2 robot is the first completely autonomous on-road delivery vehicle without any occupants to receive regulatory approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation.”

“A sailboat became stuck in transmission lines offshore of the Florida Keys Monday morning, causing a power outage throughout the lower half of the island chain. The vessel affected the electricity lines shortly before 9:30 a.m. about a half mile north of the Seven Mile Bridge, said Julio Torrado, spokesman for Keys Energy Services, the utility that provides electricity to residents from Big Pine Key to Key West. Torrado said about 30,000 customers lost power.”

“The utility said on its Facebook page that the boat would have to be removed from the transmission lines before power could be restored. Around 10:30 a.m., the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert stating the city of Marathon Fire Rescue department was in the process of removing the people from the sailboat. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured. Also not immediately known was the extent of the impact, if any, to homes and businesses in the Upper Keys, which is serviced by the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative” – Miami Herald.

“This weekend, NRSC Chairman Rick Scott presented President Donald J. Trump with the NRSC’s inaugural Champion for Freedom Award. This award is presented to conservative leaders who have worked tirelessly to create good jobs, protect the values that make our country great, and stop the Democrats’ socialist agenda. As president, Donald Trump delivered for the American people by appointing three pro- Constitution judges to the Supreme Court, cutting taxes for middle-class families and job creators, and securing the border” – NRSC release via PunchBowl’s Jake Sherman.

Invites the question: is he really in charge?

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) April 12, 2021

“She hasn’t lived in the state in more than a decade, has never held political office and hasn’t said whether she’ll run, but Lara Trump’s possible campaign for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat has for months loomed over the GOP field of would-be candidates. Former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law – a North Carolina native – is seen both inside and outside the state as the candidate to beat, if she enters the contest. ‘A Trump-endorsed candidate for an open Senate seat in a state Trump won is a big advantage. A Trump-endorsed candidate for an open Senate seat in a state Trump won who’s also named Trump has a humongous advantage,’ said Kellyanne Conway, who was counselor to Trump for much of his four years in office. Yet, with Lara Trump still on the sidelines and landing a new gig on Fox News, Republican candidates are preparing to move on without her” the Charlotte Observer reports.

“Three-term U.S. Rep. Ted Budd is now ‘leaning towards’ running for the Senate seat – an indication that Trump may not enter the race for several months or at all. Budd’s campaign consultant and a top Republican donor indicated they’d like to see just one of the two in the race to replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr. Trump, by virtue of her high name ID and the enduring popularity of Donald Trump among Republican primary voters, could enter the race later than other potential candidates and still garner enough donor and voter support to be competitive. The filing deadline is not until December. A spokeswoman for Lara Trump did not respond to a request for comment on the Senate race. The possibility that Trump could run has kept close friends and allies of the Trump family from endorsing or working for her potential rivals such as Budd – so far. When Budd won his U.S. House seat in 2016, Club For Growth spent about $500,000 to boost him out of a 17-way Republican primary. The conservative group is again poised to back him but doesn’t want to choose between Budd and Trump. ‘It would be best if they weren’t both running,’ Club for Growth President David McIntosh said. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker announced his candidacy in December. Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is expected to enter the race, as well. Another Republican, Jen Banwart of Raleigh, who has pledged not to accept campaign donations, is also running.”

AP: “La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate. Experts called it a ‘huge explosion’ that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks. ‘It’s destroying everything in its path,’ Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center, told The Associated Press. ‘Anybody who would have not heeded the evacuation, they need to get out immediately.'”

“There were no immediate reports of injuries or death, but government officials were scrambling to respond to the latest eruption, which was even bigger than the first eruption that occurred Friday morning. Roughly 16,000 people who live in communities close to the volcano had been evacuated under government orders on Thursday, but an unknown number have remained behind and refused to move. Richard Robertson, with the seismic research center, told local station NBC Radio that the volcano’s old and new dome have been destroyed and that a new crater has been created. He said that the pyroclastic flows would have razed everything in their way. ‘Anything that was there, man, animal, anything…they are gone,’ he said. ‘And it’s a terrible thing to say it.’ Joseph said the latest explosion is equivalent to the one that occurred in 1902 and killed some 1,600. The volcano last erupted in 1979. Ash from the ongoing explosions has fallen on Barbados and other nearby islands.”