Reuters: “Thousands of demonstrators joined rallies across Britain on Saturday against a proposed law that would give police extra powers to curb protests, with some scuffles breaking out following a march in London. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill aims to toughen measures officers can take to disperse demonstrations, such as imposing time and noise limits, which campaigners and activists fear would be used to curb dissent. ‘Kill the bill’ marches were held in dozens of towns and cities, supported by big campaign groups such as climate change campaigners Extinction Rebellion and the Black Lives Matter movement. Nearly all passed off peacefully but there were minor clashes in central London between protesters and police following a rally attended by several thousand people.”

“‘The policing operation in central London has now moved to the enforcement stage and arrests are being made,’ said London’s Metropolitan Police on Twitter. The force deployed a large number of officers in the capital to bring the protest to an end. The new bill follows actions by Extinction Rebellion which paralysed parts of London in early 2019 and fuelled calls from some politicians for the police to be given tougher powers to prevent excessive disruption. Since the proposed law was brought before parliament last month, there have been sporadic demonstrations across the country, with Saturday’s rallies being part of what organisers said was a national weekend of action. ‘(I’m here) to defend the rights of free speech, and the rights of organisations in our society,’ said Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the opposition Labour Party, who was among those who took part in the London protest. ‘These demonstrations, 50 of them today, will make a difference,’ he told Reuters opposite the Houses of Parliament.”

Who knows why he did it or what the hell he thought he was going to accomplish. All I can remark upon here is in what the context was in which Noah Green attacked the US Capitol and fatally wounded a police officer before being killed himself on Friday. And it isn’t much.

A young Black man, obviously mentally disturbed, with only the most tenuous but probably non-existent political motivations aside from some Facebook posts supporting Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. He’s got a car and a knife, not an AR-15. Weapons of opportunity, not weapons of war. As such it does not comport with the left-right divide as it is now.

New York Times: “Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500. It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution – federal records show it was his first ever – quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge – until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help. What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud. ‘It felt,’ Russell said, ‘like it was a scam.'”

“But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election. Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out. As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a ‘money bomb,’ that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language. The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists – retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.”

“Vaccine passports being developed to verify COVID-19 immunization status and allow inoculated people to more freely travel, shop and dine have become the latest flash point in America’s perpetual political wars, with Republicans portraying them as a heavy-handed intrusion into personal freedom and private health choices. They currently exist in only one state – a limited government partnership in New York with a private company – but that hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers in a handful of states from rushing out legislative proposals to ban their use.”

“The argument over whether passports are a sensible response to the pandemic or governmental overreach echoes the bitter disputes over the past year about masks, shutdown orders and even the vaccines themselves. Vaccine passports are typically an app with a code that verifies whether someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They are in use in Israel and under development in parts of Europe, seen as a way to safely help rebuild the pandemic- devastated travel industry. They are intended to allow businesses to more safely open up as the vaccine drive gains momentum, and they mirror measures already in place for schools and overseas travel that require proof of immunization against various diseases. But lawmakers around the country are already taking a stand against the idea. GOP senators in Pennsylvania are drawing up legislation that would prohibit vaccine passports, also known as health certificates or travel passes, from being used to bar people from routine activities. ‘We have constitutional rights and health privacy laws for a reason,’ said Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican. ‘They should not cease to exist in a time of crisis. These passports may start with COVID-19, but where will they end?'” – AP.

The about page of 81m.org says “Such a popular president should have some truly epic YouTube numbers. Let’s keep track. I’m sure we won’t see anything weird happening, such as dislikes being thrown out in the wee hours of the morning” and what’s interesting is that a development hobbyist with the skill necessary to configure such a website and an active listener also lacks the imagination to conceive of how and why a platform owned and operated by the most powerful tech company in the world removes these downvotes.

That they wouldn’t, for example, be able to loop through the accounts of users who clicked dislike and use their own criteria to determine whether or not the user actually watched the video, or even physically clicked “dislike” with a human hand, rather than coded a bot to run something like, say,$(document).ready(function(){$("#channelURL").href.split("/")[-1] === "White-House-Official" ? $(".dislike").click() : ""})from 4,000 different accounts simultaneously.

That tech companies aren’t going to use their talent and resources to make an effort – albeit a scattershot one – to beat back the proliferation of the said actors and propagandists exploiting weaknesses to assert undue influence over political discourse and cause chaos by – for example – making it appear as if a lot more Americans hate Joe Biden than actually do.

That taking too much Adderall causes manic, all-consuming tunnel vision rendering one incapable of conceiving of any other motivation of other actors than the one first ascribed when this obsessive quest to “expose” the alleged perfidy of YouTube, Google, Biden, Democrats, etc began.

None of that crossed the unnamed 81m.org developer’s mind, because Trump fanboys see every attempt by “the establishment” to combat bad faith as bad faith in and of itself. This site here is actually about as pure-cut of an example as you can find of that phenomena. Hats off to you, the fucking weirdo who built this site, whoever you are.

Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine: “Before Donald Trump came along, Republican states frequently passed laws to restrict ballot access. Reporters didn’t always pay these laws much attention, and corporations never even considered anything like the retaliatory step announced by Major League Baseball, which has moved the All-Star Game from vote-suppression ground zero in Georgia. But Trump’s crass, frequently euphemism-free style stripped away a lot of illusions. The corporate backlash against Georgia is a template for a broader response to the party’s ongoing effort to curtail the franchise. Conservatives are furious that the latest raft of voting restrictions is being described as ‘vote suppression.’ After all, they point out, voting remains legal. ‘You know what voter suppression is?’ sneered Ben Shapiro. ‘Voter suppression is when you don’t get to vote.'”

“The notion that election laws should weed out the feebleminded is something close to Republican dogma. The party’s elected officials don’t usually say it aloud, but sometimes they slip up and admit it. ‘Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote – but everybody shouldn’t be voting,’ the Republican who is pushing through Arizona’s vote-suppression bill recently blurted out. The Republican Party’s enthusiasm for vote suppression predates Trump, and it has become a core tenet of the party’s post-Trump-presidency identity. Vote suppression is an issue that brings together the Trump-adoring base and the elites who tolerated him as a necessary evil – if they don’t agree that Joe Biden stole the last election, they do agree on passing laws that will make it harder for Democrats to win the next one. The fight over vote suppression also brings to the fore the party Establishment’s belief that whatever bad odor they acquired during the Trump years should immediately be dispelled. It was intolerable enough that large sectors of respectable corporate opinion shunned them over their support for a racist, authoritarian president. Now they expect to be treated as respectable again, not as a party still teeming with racist, authoritarian elements. The problem is, this is exactly what they are.”

“A Kaysville man who formerly worked as a Salt Lake City police officer has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly taking part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Michael Lee Hardin, 50, was taken into custody without incident by members of the FBI’s joint terrorism task force, with assistance from the Utah’s State Bureau of Investigation, for ‘crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.,’ according to a news release from the FBI’s Utah office. A spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed that Hardin was an officer there until his retirement in 2017. He served with the city police for about two decades and was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 2012 for solving a 25-year-old murder case. The FBI caught Hardin by following up on tips from two people who know him, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice” reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

“The first tipster, a friend of Hardin who used him as a financial adviser, said Hardin called Jan. 4 to say he was heading to Washington to fight for the United States. ‘[The first tipster] further claimed that Hardin had sent … text messages on January 6, 2021, stating, ‘We stormed the Capitol, I am in here now!;’ ‘I know you don’t like [Donald] Trump, but He is the rightful President!;’ and ‘We will return until we win!’,’ the statement reads. The second tipster – someone who knew Hardin for more than 20 years, according to the FBI – said Hardin was in the Capitol and gave authorities a photo of Hardin standing next to a bust of Abraham Lincoln, ‘in what appears to be the Capitol Crypt,’ according to the statement. The tipster said the photo came from a relative of Hardin.”

Daily Beast: “In the days following revelations about the federal investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz’s alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, advisers to Donald Trump have consistently offered him a simple message: Please, please keep your mouth shut. According to two people familiar with the matter, the twice-impeached former president has closely been monitoring the scandal engulfing one of his favorite allies on Capitol Hill. The ex-president has, in his typical fashion, casually quizzed several confidants about what they think of the situation and if there’s anything that he should do about it. But multiple people have flatly advised Trump to stay out of it – refrain from publicly defending Gaetz, they are telling him, at least for the time being.”

“The two sources said that, in all of the conversations they’re aware of, Trump has appeared to ultimately agree with the recommendations to keep quiet. One of the sources added that the former president has lamented that the whole thing seems ‘really bad’ for Gaetz, while also mentioning that the allegations could be a ‘smear’ against the Trump uber-loyalist. Gaetz has claimed he’s the victim of a convoluted extortion plot, involving Florida lawyers, $25 million, and a bizarre scheme to free former CIA agent Bob Levinson (who the U.S. government assumes is dead). And yet, despite Gaetz’s claims having some credence, the underlying story that Gaetz is under a Justice Department investigation for a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old also seems credible. In fact, to date, only two House Republicans have really jumped to Gaetz’s defense: Judiciary ranking Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH), who has himself faced allegations that he ignored serial sexual assault, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who seldom misses an opportunity to dismiss media reports and side with Trump-loving Republicans. Gaetz did not respond to a message asking if he’d heard from former President Trump in recent days. And a Trump spokesperson was also silent Friday. But as of Friday evening, Trump and his office had not issued any official statement on the matter.”

• A Congressman caught up in a finance, sex and drug scandal.  Another attack on the US Capitol killing another Capitol Police officer.  MLB moves the All-Star Game due to voter suppression laws passed by Georgia.  Court cases against the former president ordered to proceed.  Who said it was going to be dull after Biden’s inauguration?
• Who had “Matt Gaetz accused of child sex trafficking and drug distribution” on their GOP bingo card?  Oh… everybody?
• After we put a lid on the April Fool’s stories yesterday, I had the sad realization that Thursday was the *one day* I could’ve posted a story about Meghan McCain and The View without backlash.  Opportunity lost.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume XIII”

Seriously, fuck your feelings. It feels great to say that to you, the Citizens of MAGA Nation, you white-privilege-card-carrying, Mr. Potato Head-loving, Jew-space-lasers-totally-exist-but-Trump-Russia-collusion-was-a-hoax scumbags. How dare the rest of us – meaning Democrats, Liberals, Independents, Republicans who didn’t drink your orange Kool-Aid, etc – apply pressure to Major League Baseball to relocate an otherwise meaningless exhibition game that was a novel event 50 years ago but nowadays appeals mostly to nerds who know shit like Craig Biggio’s statistical claim to fame and the meaning of the term “hot stove”.

We didn’t start this. You did. All your buddies in Georgia needed to do was to take their losses like men and work on expanding the Republicans’ appeal to finding new voters or winning over old ones who stayed home in November and/or January. They could’ve told Trump to shut up and concede already but instead you let him go apeshit over it and make all these claims about fraud which then cost your party the Senate majority. Trump did this to you, not Stacey Abrams or Keisha Lance Bottoms or fucking Brad Raffensperger. Trump did this to you and you did it to yourselves. He’s under criminal investigation in the state for his post-election meltdown. Every single pretext for this voter suppression is complete horseshit and everyone knows it. Especially you.

Virginia became the twelfth state to ban the so-called “gay/trans panic” defense used in court by defendants who claim they were prompted to commit a violent act against members of the LGBTQ community, NBC News reports.

The use of the defense was first publicized during the 1998 trial in the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man killed by two men who claimed they were angered and scared when Shepard flirted with them while they drove him home from a bar.

The legislation was written by Danica Roem, a trans state legislator, who was prompted to introduce the bill by a letter from an LGBTQ teenage boy.

“It is with profound sadness that I share the news of the passing of Officer William ‘Billy’ Evans this afternoon from injuries he sustained following an attack at the North Barricade by a lone assailant. Officer Evans had been a member of the United States Capitol Police for 18 years.  He began his USCP service on March 7, 2003, and was a member of the Capitol Division’s First Responder’s Unit. Please keep Officer Evans and his family in your thoughts and prayers.”   –Acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman

When @SpeakerBoehner was recording his audiobook I was told by sources that during these wine-soaked sessions he would deviate from the book’s text and insert random violent attacks on @tedcruz. Well, here’s some tape (listen to the end): pic.twitter.com/NFCQ2QFdTT

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) April 2, 2021

The United States and Iran will begin indirect discussions through intermediaries on renegotiating the nuclear deal that limited the amount of nuclear material Iran could refine, a deal Donald Trump violated in his second year in office even though his administration noted Iran was in compliance.

According to the Associated Press, the preliminary agreement to open talks is a major foreign policy victory during President Joe Biden’s first one hundred days in office after Iran had initially rebuffed advances from the Biden Administration.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the resumption of negotiations, scheduled for Tuesday in Vienna, “a healthy step forward,” but added, “These remain early days, and we don’t anticipate an immediate breakthrough as there will be difficult discussions ahead.”

The head of the Minneapolis Police Department’s homicide unit testified that former officer Derek Chauvin continuing to kneel on the neck of George Floyd was “totally unnecessary” because Floyd was already under control, CNN reports.

Lt. Richard Zimmerman, who has led the unit for twelve years, said that he was never trained to kneel on the neck of a person because “that could kill them.”  He said keeping someone cuffed and in a prone position “restricts their breathing.”

“Once the person is cuffed, the threat level goes down all the way,” the lieutenant said.  “How can that person hurt you?”

Daily Mail: “Rep Matt Gaetz is expected to be indicted within the next few weeks as former Florida official and friend Joel Greenberg is believed to have turned on the congressman in the sex trafficking investigation against him, a source close to the probe tells DailyMail.com. Greenberg, who was elected Seminole County Tax Collector in 2016, is currently in jail awaiting trial after being slapped with a string of charges last year including sex trafficking a minor between the age of 14 and 17. Earlier this week Gaetz was revealed to be under investigation for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old – who on Thursday was reported to be the same girl Greenberg is accused of sex trafficking, according to The New York Times. The Florida Republican, 38, has furiously denied the allegations, instead insisting they are part of an alleged $25 million extortion plot led by former Justice Department official David McGee.”

“But sources familiar with the matter say Gaetz’s claims are just an attempt to divert attention from his connection to the Greenberg case as the investigation closes in on him. ‘The congressman impugned and damaged the reputation of someone who had nothing to do with this,’ the source told DailyMail.com. ‘Rest assured that Greenberg has been singing to the feds about his friend Matt Gaetz. That’s why Matt is so freaked out.’ Gaetz’s arrest is said to be imminent after the alleged victim, who has not been named, testified before a Florida grand jury this week saying she had sex with the conservative Republican before she turned 18, DailyMail.com has learned.”

“‘Today, Major League Baseball caved to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies,’ said Governor Kemp. ‘Georgians – and all Americans – should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and the truth do not matter. ‘This attack on our state is the direct result of repeated lies from Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams about a bill that expands access to the ballot box and ensures the integrity of our elections. I will not back down. Georgians will not be bullied. We will continue to stand up for secure, accessible, fair elections.”

“Earlier today, I spoke with the leadership of the Atlanta Braves who informed me they do not support the MLB’s decision.’ ‘Stacey Abrams’ leftist lies have stolen the All-Star Game from Georgia,’ said Speaker David Ralston. ‘This decision is not only economically harmful, it also robs Georgians of a special celebration of our national pastime free of politics. But Georgia will not be bullied by socialists and their sympathizers. We will continue to stand for accessible, secure elections that are free and fair. And we will continue to speak truth despite extortion and intimidation'” – Statement from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and State House Speaker David Ralston on MLB decision to relocate 2021 All-Star game out of Georgia, via ABC News.

"Corporate communism" is an oxymoron.

Kind of like "Christian adulteress".

— National Zero (@NationalZeroUSA) April 2, 2021

“Multiple senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation say Noah Green, 25 year old male, from Indiana is the person who attacked the Capitol today” reports NBC’s Tom Winter.