The GOP-controlled Wyoming Senate defeated a bill, backed by Brylcreem enthusiast and boy trying desperately to gain his father’s love Donald Trump Jr., to require a runoff in primary elections where a candidate does not garner more than 50% of the popular vote, an effort by Junior to unseat Wyoming’s sole Congressional House representative, Republican Liz Cheney, CNN reports.

Junior’s hissy fit stems from Cheney voting to impeach Donald Trump Sr. in his second impeachment, an unforgivable act to Trumplicans who value loyalty to Trump over the US Constitution.  Since Cheney’s vote, numerous Wyoming Republicans have announced they would run against her, effectively splitting the vote among multiple opponents.  Junior’s move hoped to coalesce opposition against Cheney around one candidate.

Trump sycophants like Junior and Florida Man and animated self-caricature Matt Gaetz have vowed to unseat Cheney, the House’s third-highest ranking Republican, even holding rallies in Wyoming to drum up support against her. 

“Two brothers have been arrested in Oregon on federal charges of participating in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The FBI says 24-year-old Matthew Klein was arrested Tuesday in Sherwood and 21-year-old Jonathan Peter Klein was arrested the same day near Heppner. The agency says both face charges in federal court in the District of Columbia for their role in the Capitol breach, including conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, destruction of government property, entering a restricted building, and disorderly conduct” – Central Oregon Daily.

TORNADO EMERGENCY! Radar confirmed tornado, with a history of producing damage, is moving down the SR-119 corridor, toward Meadow Brook, Inverness. Lee Branch businesses need to expedite their tornado plans NOW! #alwx pic.twitter.com/0lqKYP5OwS

— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) March 25, 2021

The Israeli political parties that make up the coalition allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to remain prime minister of Israel has fallen short of winning a majority of seats in the Knesset, likely throwing the country into additional political chaos, the Washington Post reports.

The coalition, led by Netanyahu’s Likud Party, won just 52 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.  A group of anti-Netanyahu parties also failed to win an absolute majority, taking just 57 seats.  A scramble to secure the 61-seat majority is underway as leaders attempt to secure the allegiance of smaller parties or independent members.

“This round of elections was among the most challenging that the state of Israel has known. Beyond the fact that this is the fourth election in the past two and a half years, we experienced an enormous challenge in light of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Orly Adas, head of the Central Elections Committee.

Peter Doocy had a binder full of questions he dramatically flipped through, claiming it was all the questions he would have asked if he were called on during the Biden press conference, but no one on Fox News asked Doocy the Younger if he was mentally failing or in cognitive decline because he had to rely on notes to ask *one question.*  Apparently, Fox News–who ran another chyron saying, “Biden sticks to written notes during news conf”–found it astounding that Biden would use notes to answer questions with accuracy and with data, unlike his predecessor who didn’t need notes because he just made shit up.

Slate: “Krispy Kreme announced this week that it was compounding the joy of getting a COVID vaccine: Show your vaccine card and you can get a free plain glazed doughnut every day through the rest of 2021. But there’s an asterisk to Krispy Kreme’s rollout. Here’s what its website says under a question on behalf of those who choose not to get vaccinated: ‘WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO BE VACCINATED, CAN I STILL GET THIS OFFER? We understand that choosing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is a highly personal decision. We advise all employees and guests to consult with their healthcare provider regarding whether to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination and which vaccine to receive after reviewing the available information. If you have made the personal decision to not receive the COVID vaccine, please visit us on Mondays, 3/29/21 – 5/24/21, to receive a free Original Glazed® doughnut and a medium brewed coffee to get your week off to a good start.’”

“To be fair, the Monday promotion is open to anyone – those turning down the vaccine and those desperately waiting to be eligible for their first shot of Moderna. The noteworthy thing here is that Krispy Kreme directly addressed this group of customers. As a public relations move, it is a bit of a head-scratcher. Doesn’t this messaging undercut the point of this promotion? Not to mention that, unlike getting a mole checked or going to the dentist, getting vaccinated isn’t just a ‘highly personal decision’ – it’s a public health measure that will protect the more vulnerable and help put an end to a pandemic. It seems that Krispy Kreme, while developing a feel-good corporate promotion, ran into a cold, hard truth about America: You can’t even give away a free doughnut without stepping into a culture war. The discourse over these free doughnuts has already involved a public debate about the health risks of weight gain. It’s not clear if the company already had warning signs of a pushback, or if it wanted to preemptively head off such a firestorm. However it went down, it’s clear the company continues to worry about appeasing the anti-vaxxer portion of its customer base.”

President Joe Biden has come to the podium.

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post: “The filibuster is not in the Constitution. Before the civil rights era, it was rarely used. It has been repeatedly modified, most dramatically by the creation of the reconciliation process. Huge spending bills chock full of policy shifts (e.g., a huge tax credit that halves child poverty) require only 51 votes; Supreme Court confirmations take only 50 votes. The notion that the filibuster is somehow an inviolate part of protecting minority rights is crumbling. And that seems to have driven some Republicans around the bend. The Post’s Sarah Binder writes: Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell (Ky.), argued Tuesday that the Senate filibuster ‘has no racial history at all. None. There’s no dispute among historians about that.’ That’s false. Historians know the filibuster is closely intertwined with the nation’s racial past and present. To be sure, senators have filibustered issues other than civil rights over the Senate’s history. But it is impossible to write that history without recognizing the centrality of race. Why is it so critical for Republicans to resort to such bald-faced lies? Probably the same reason Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) makes the ludicrous and entirely false claim that H.R. 1 would allow undocumented immigrants to vote. As the New York Times reports: ‘[Cruz] falsely claimed that the bill would register millions of undocumented immigrants to vote and accused Democrats of wanting the most violent criminals to cast ballots, too. In fact, it is illegal for noncitizens to vote, and the bill would do nothing to change that or a requirement that people registering to vote swear they are citizens.'”

“The current panic attack among Republicans stems from the prospect that much of the avalanche of anti-voting rollbacks in more than 40 states could be wiped out. That was precisely the reason Southern Dixiecrats engaged in filibusters during the 1950s and 1960s: In the name of ‘states’ rights,’ they wanted to deny non-Whites access to the ballot. It is not simply that the filibuster is related to race, but that Republicans now intend to use it for essentially the same nefarious purpose. In fact, the filibuster has been used time and again to perpetuate white supremacy. The Brennan Center for Justice explains that, in 1891, ‘a series of filibusters by Democrats threatened to derail legislation authorizing federal troops to supervise federal elections – an early use of the tool to block civil rights protections for Black Americans.'”

New York state officials reached an agreement Thursday to legalize the use of recreational marijuana in the state, opening the way for the $4.2 billion underground industry to provide millions in tax revenue and rectify an unequal criminal justice system that targeted Black and minority communities, the New York Times reports.

While the final language of the bill has yet to be worked out, the deal would legalize use and possession of marijuana by adults 21 years old and over, as well as allow the delivery of pot.  The bill would also allow permitting for “consumption sites,” clubs where marijuana can be consumed, but where no alcohol is served.

Individuals would be allowed to cultivate up to six plants at their residence, either indoors or outdoors, for personal use without having to apply for a commercial license. 

According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Black farmers in the US were largely shut out of federal aid packages set up by the Trump administration to help during the coronavirus pandemic, receiving less than 0.1% of aid, the Washington Post reports.

Black farmers received just $20.8 million of the $26 billion in federal funds set aside for the agriculture industry in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, created by the Trump administration in April 2020.

The 45,000 Black-operated farms make up 1.3% of the farming operations in the United States, but they work a disproportionate 14% of the farmland in the United States.

“We saw 99% of the money going to White farmers and 1% going to socially disadvantaged farmers and if you break that down to how much went to Black farmers, it’s 0.1%,” Vilsack said. “Look at it another way: The top 10% of farmers in the country received 60% of the value of the COVID payments. And the bottom 10 percent received 0.26%.”

Weekly first time unemployment claims fell to their lowest levels in more than a year, coming in below analysts expectations, with 684,000 Americans filing first time claims, CNBC reports.

Analysts expected 735,000 after last week’s disappointing report of 781,000 claims.  Last week was the first time claims fell below 700,000 since the second full week in March 2020.  It’s also the first time the number fell below the pre-pandemic record of 695,000, set in October 1982.

Continuing claims also fell by 264,000 to 3.87 million.

Daily Beast: “Fox News host Tucker Carlson kicked off his broadcast Wednesday night by calling Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) a modern-day Robert Byrd, suggesting the Illinois senator’s call for more diversity in the Biden administration was akin to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Earlier this week, and following the mass shooting in Atlanta that left six Asian women dead, Duckworth and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) – both women of Asian American Pacific Islander descent – threatened to vote against any of President Joe Biden’s nominees who aren’t minorities. Duckworth, specifically, said she was angry that the White House had brushed off her concerns that Biden’s Cabinet lacked any Asian American representation.”

“While both Hirono and Duckworth have since backed off their ultimatum after the White House pledged to add a senior AAPI staffer, Carlson claimed that the two Democratic senators had ‘opposed the entire foundation of American civil rights law and then proceeded to attack the core principle—the main principle of our country.’ After grumbling that the back-and-forth between the senators and White House didn’t get enough media attention, the Fox News star – who Fox lawyers have successfully argued shouldn’t be taken seriously – then took pointed and personal shots at both lawmakers’ intelligence. ‘Here you have two actual U.S. senators announcing in public they will deny jobs to people who have the wrong skin color. That’s not news? Oh, yes, it is news,’ he snarked. ‘Though Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth may not realize it’s news.’ The conservative host added: ‘In their defense, Hirono and Duckworth are well-known as the dimmest politicians in Washington. Neither one can carry a dinner conversation.'”

A 22-year-old man armed with five guns, including two long guns, and decked out in tactical gear, walked into an Atlanta Publix grocery store apparently to simply cause a panic, according to CNN.

A customer advised the store manager of the situation as the gunman went into a restroom, and they both called police.  When police arrived, they took the man, named Rico Marley, into custody.  He is being charged with reckless conduct and will be held at the Fulton County Jail until his court appearance.

Georgia is an open-carry state, but Publix asks that its patrons do not carry weapons into their stores. 

The symbol of the United States of America, the bald eagle, is seeing a resurgence in the nation, with the species population up in the lower 48 states by 400% in the last 12 years, the Associated Press reports.

There are currently 71,400 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the 48 states, with another 316,700 individual eagles.  In 1963, there were just 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states.

“The strong return of this treasured bird reminds us of our nation’s shared resilience and the importance of being responsible stewards of our lands and waters that bind us together,″ said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca released new data on the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine, showing a slight dip in efficiency in fighting the virus overall, but increased effectiveness in elderly patients, Politico reports.

The release comes just days after US federal government scientists questioned the conclusions of a tranche of data released earlier, and weeks after the companies vaccines were briefly pulled from use in Europe after reports that it caused an unusual type of potentially-fatal blood clot in some patients.

The British manufacturer lowered the overall effectiveness of its two-shot regimine from 79% to 76%, but raised the effectiveness rate from 80% to 85% among those 65 or over.

https://youtu.be/_pxVAZSrlHk

Pillow maker and former meth addict who still hasn’t gotten it all out of his system Mike Lindell explained how his new social media platform will guarantee “influencers” get millions of followers immediately upon joining his yet-to-be developed site.

The United States hit 30 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, sustaining a relatively low number of new daily infection not seen in more than five months, as the number of people getting vaccinations increases.

According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker‘s 9:07 p.m. ET update, the United States had 30,007,307 cases of the 124.6 million cases worldwide.

The seven day running average of vaccinations stood at 2.5 million after more than 3 million doses were given on each Saturday and Sunday over the last two weekends.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Hawaiian county law that allows government to limit the number and type of carry permits for firearms within the limits of the Second Amendment, a decision that will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In a 7-4 decision on a case heard by the entire panel of judges, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling comes during a two week period when two tragic mass shootings by people who legally purchased and carried weapons within days of committing multiple murders.

“The government may regulate, and even prohibit, in public places — including government buildings, churches, schools, and markets — the open carrying of small arms capable of being concealed, whether they are carried concealed or openly,” Judge Jay Bybee, appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote for the majority.