One day after the American Society of Civil Engineers released a report which graded the status of US infrastructure as a C-minus, President Joe Biden held a meeting at the White House with Congressional members from both parties to review the Administration’s transportation infrastructure plans, the Washington Post reports.

Biden hosted Secretary of Transportation Pete Butegieg and members of the House Transportation Committee to discuss the details of the plan, let by the Democratic Chairman of the House Transportation Committee Peter DeFazio.  DeFazio has cast future transportation plans as a way to advance environmental policy.

Republicans, however, feel trying to combine environmental policy with other policy is a no-no for some reason.  “A transportation bill needs to be a transportation bill that primarily focuses on fundamental transportation needs, such as roads and bridges,” Sam Graves, the ranking Republican on the Transportation committee said in a statement. “Republicans won’t support another Green New Deal disguising itself as a transportation bill.”

“Karl Rove has been losing for years, except for himself. He’s a RINO of the highest order, who came to the Oval Office lobbying for 5G for him and a group. After a lengthy discussion with Rove and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, I said no, they’re not qualified. Our Nation can do much better! On Election Evening, Nov. 3rd, at 10:30pm, Rove called to congratulate me on ‘a great win.’ I said thank you Karl, only to watch the rigged election take its final form. Karl Rove’s voice on Fox is always negative for those who know how to win. He certainly hasn’t helped Fox in the ratings department, has he? Never had much of a feeling for Karl, in that I disagreed with so many of the things he says.” He’s a pompous fool with bad advice and always has an agenda”

“He ran the campaign for two Senators in Georgia, and did a rotten job with bad ads and concepts. Should have been an easy win, but he and his friend Mitch blew it with their $600 vs. $2,000 proposal. Karl would be much more at home at the disastrous Lincoln Project. I heard they have numerous openings! If the Republican Party is going to be successful, they’re going to have to stop dealing with the likes of Karl Rove and just let him float away, or retire, like Liddle’ Bob Corker, Jeff ‘Flakey’ Flake, and others like Toomey of Pennsylvania, who will soon follow. Let’s see what happens to Liz Cheney of Wyoming.”

“Fix the election fraud first and foremost, ASAP. Otherwise, election is obsolete and trash.”

– The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Teases Potential Presidential Run if Trump Does Not Go for Three-Peat“, posted Thursday.

CNN: “Federal investigators are examining records of communications between members of Congress and the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol, as the investigation moves closer to exploring whether lawmakers wittingly or unwittingly helped the insurrectionists, according to a US official briefed on the matter. The data gathered so far includes indications of contact with lawmakers in the days around January 6, as well as communications between alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress, the official said.”

“The existence of such communications doesn’t necessarily indicate wrongdoing by lawmakers and investigators aren’t yet targeting members of Congress in the investigation, the official noted. Should investigators find probable cause that lawmakers or their staffs possibly aided the insurrectionists, they could seek warrants to obtain the content of the communications. There’s no indication they’ve taken such a step at this point. Justice officials are mindful of the political and constitutional implications of parts of the investigation, particularly any that touch on members of Congress, according to law enforcement officials. So far, investigators haven’t found evidence that members of Congress knowingly aided or were involved in the insurrection, the US official said. The FBI has seized devices belonging to alleged rioters and has found communications that show connections that investigators plan to examine further. In some cases, there is data showing past contact with lawmakers, and in others there’s communications between alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress. Some alleged rioters have also claimed to have provided security for lawmakers”

A swirling mass of plasma rained a torrent of electrons onto the Earth over the North Pole in what scientists say is the first time they’ve seen such a “space hurricane,” NBC News reports.

The event, which occurred in August 2014 but was only confirmed after viewing satellite data, was confirmed by analysis in China, the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom.  The “space weather” event was 620 miles wide, about 125 miles up in space.

“You could see flows of plasma going around, which were like the winds of the space hurricane,” Larry Lyons, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA, said. “These flows were strongest at the edge and decreased as you moved toward the eye in the center, before picking up again on the other side, just like the flow of air in a regular hurricane.”

By a 51-50 margin with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote, the Senate voted to bring the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to the floor for debate, a major hurdle in getting the bill approved and signed by the March 14th goal, CNBC reports.

With all Democrats and Independents voting for the bill and all Republicans opposing it, the 628-page bill must now be read by Senate clerks into the record after Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson demanded the procedure in an effort to delay passage.

The bill, which has nearly 80% approval among the public according to polls, provides a $1,400 stimulus payments to Americans making less than $80,000 individually or $150,000 per couple.  It extends unemployment supplemental payments and an eviction moratorium, which are scheduled to expire March 14th. 

pic.twitter.com/DkCdzvSHZB

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) March 4, 2021

Maryland’s Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns and/or operates 193 television stations around the US covering 40% of the American population, announced that it will lay off about 600 people, or 5% of its workforce, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The Planet Earth appears to be experiencing some hormonal changes or some shit on this week, according to several national geological monitoring agencies. Here’s a brief rundown:

IN NEW ZEALAND, the third magnitude-7.0-plus earthquake in less than 12 hours struck the North Island at approximately 8:40 am local time (2:40 pm EST). This third quake was 8.0 on the Richter scale and the government has issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas.

IN GUATEMALA, the Pacaya volcano erupted on Wednesday “expelling lava for several hours and prompting the country’s meteorological institute to warn that incandescent volcanic blocks could rain down on nearby towns” per Reuters.

IN THE PHILIPPINES, government agency PHIVOLCS increased the alert level for Mount Pinatubo, a monstrous volcano whose last major eruption in 1991 created an ash cloud that circled the planet.

IN ICELAND, as reported earlier, a swarm of earthquakes in and around the capital of Reykjavik on Thursday indicates an eruption from Mount Keilir, 35 miles to the south, is likely imminent.

IN INDONESIA, Mount Sinabung produced a massive explosion Tuesday, hurling an ash cloud over 5 kilometers into the sky, per AFP.

IN ITALY, Mount Etna erupted yet again Thursday, has been for weeks, can’t stop, won’t stop.

IN GREECE, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit the country Wednesday.

In all seriousness, there is no connection between any of these events that we have evidence for. Anyone who claims otherwise is full of shit. If it’s not a coincidence, it could be some astronomical phenomenon that we don’t understand yet, perhaps something related to magnetic fields. It’s not the end times, because 2020 is over and most of us survived it.

Kari Lake, who had been a news anchor at KSAZ Fox 10 in Phoenix for the last 22 years, announced via Instagram that she had quit her job with the network, citing the direction journalism was going and a lack of balance in the stories she was told to read on-air.

“Sadly, journalism has changed a lot since I stepped into a newsroom,” Lake says in the post, “and I’ll be honest:  I don’t like the direction it’s going.”

“In the past few years,” Lake continues, “I haven’t felt proud to be a member of the media.  I’m sure there are other journalists out there who feel the same way.  I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful or only told part of the story, and I began to feel that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession.”

Fox 10 Phoenix is a wholly owned local affiliate of Fox Corporation, the company controlled by Rupert Murdoch that runs the national Fox News cable propaganda network.

On a related note, the Washington Post’s Philip Bump analyzed closed captioning data from this week’s Fox News coverage and found that only one out of over 150 segments about Dr. Seuss on the network actually displayed images of the drawings from the books that were pulled from stores by the author’s estate, to which Bump concludes: “If you’re discussing whether something is toxic and you won’t even show it to your audience… that strongly suggests that it’s toxic.”

The Russian government is publicly excoriating the British government for failing to provide the location of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, two Russian nationals the Putin regime tried to assassinate in Salisbury, England in 2018.

Russian agents allegedly used the toxin Novichok to poison the father and daughter, Russian dissidents who are harshly critical of Putin and his cronies.  Three other people, including a police officer, were also poisoned after incidental contact with the nerve agent, which was developed by the Soviets and which is not known to exist outside of Russia.  One British citizen died.

“The Embassy has not yet received any clear official information on the whereabouts and health condition of Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” reads a statement by the Russian embassy in the UK.  “Just like the public, we have only seen ‘information leaks’ in the media asserting that these people ‘are alive and in a safe place’. It is of common knowledge that failure to provide information on the two Russian nationals is a clear violation of the UK’s obligations implied in relevant international and bilateral agreements. We also consider it a disregard for universally recognized norms of diplomatic relations. Our request to provide comprehensive information on the case as well as consular access to Sergei and Yulia Skripal remains in effect.”

“The Senate is voting now to open the debate on their version of the Covid-19 relief bill. ‘It is time to move forward with this legislation,’ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. ‘It is time to tell the American people that help is on the way.’ What we know: It requires only 51 votes. Vice President Kamala Harris may be needed to break a tie. After they clear this procedural vote, then Sen. Ron Johnson is expected to force a full reading of the bill” – CNN.

https://youtu.be/9UzC-EZzVK4

Tennessee Republican Senator took to Fox Business to defend Neanderthals after President Joe Biden castigated Republican governors who announced a reopening of their states in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as “Neanderthal” thinking.

“Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they’re protectors of their family, they’re resilient, they’re resourceful, they tend to their own,” Blackburn said, noting that she started a “Neanderthal caucus” in the Tennessee legislature after someone called the GOP the term.

Stuart Varney, ever the sycophantic Fox broadcaster, declined to remind Blackburn that Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago, as the species evolved to greater intellectual capability.

Alabama Republican Governor Kay Ivey announced that she will extend the requirement to wear facemasks in public as a measure to slow the spread of the coronavirus even though she’s facing pressure from within the state to repeal the public health measure, the Associated Press reports.

“We need to get past Easter and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a step some other states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and lift other restrictions. Folks, we are not there yet, but goodness knows we’re getting closer,” Ivey said at a news conference.

Ivey consulted with state and private medical and public health professionals prior to making the announcement, saying that mask wearing continues to be “one of our greatest tools” in fighting the spread of the virus.

Asked “does the prior administration deserve more credit for laying the groundwork” for the response to the coronavirus, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded with a definitive ‘no’:  “I don’t think anyone deserves credit when half a million people in the country have died of this pandemic.”

https://youtu.be/uluvHhqAcUY

Former President Trump issued another rant about some Wall Street Journal editorial on Thursday, which is surprising because by all accounts Donald never reads much of anything:

“The Wall Street Journal editorial page continues, knowingly, to fight for globalist policies such as bad trade deals, open borders, and endless wars that favor other countries and sell out our great American workers, and they fight for RINOS that have so badly hurt the Republican Party. That’s where they are and that’s where they will always be. Fortunately, nobody cares much about The Wall Street Journal editorial anymore. They have lost great credibility.”

“To set the record straight, there were two reasons the Senate races were lost in Georgia. First, Republicans did not turn out to vote because they were so angry and disappointed with Georgia Republican leadership and Governor Kemp for failing to stand up to Stacey Abrams and the disastrous Consent Decree that virtually eliminated signature verification requirements across the state (and much worse), and was not approved by the State Legislature as required by the Constitution – having a major impact on the result, a rigged election.”

“Second, Senator Mitch McConnell’s refusal to go above $600 per person on the stimulus check payments when the two Democrat opponents were touting $2,000 per person in ad after ad. This latter point was used against our Senators and the $2,000 will be approved anyway by the Democrats who bought the Georgia election – and McConnell let them do Even more stupidly, the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent millions of dollars on ineffective TV ads starring Mitch McConnell, the most unpopular politician in the country, who only won in Kentucky because President Trump endorsed him. He would have lost badly without this endorsement.”

Claiming that Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland failed to answer questions regarding immigration, the death penalty and guns in written responses submitted by Senators, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton announced that he will put a hold on the nomination, Politico reports.

“Ensuring the Senate has time to debate these issues and get answers is the same thing that Senate Democrats did for Bill Barr,” Cotton tweeted. “We’re not going to have one standard for Trump’s nominees and another for Biden’s.”  None of Donald Trump’s nominees in 2017 were held up for such a reason.

Garland’s nomination was voted out of committee by all Democrats on the Judiciary committee along with Republican ranking member Chuck Grassley, allowing for a vote on the Senate floor to approve him.  Garland’s nomination was largely praised by members of both Parties, with GOP leaders like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he would vote for approval.

After more than 1,000 people died from cases of coronavirus traced back to transmission in their workplaces, the Trump Administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration failed to follow up on the cases to ensure the companies were following virus mitigation guidelines, the Wall Street Journal reports.

From February 2020 through January 2021, workplace complaints jumped 76% from the previous 12 months.  Of the 93,000 complaints received during that time, 56,000 of them related to the coronavirus.  OSHA only investigated 12% of cases (11,000) over that time, versus 32% of cases (18,000) from the previous year.

The cases that were not investigated included more than 1,000 cases where a worker died from coronavirus likely picked up in the workplace.  The Journal also found 180 worker deaths from COVID-19 that occurred four weeks or more after complaints to OSHA agencies that the agencies didn’t investigate beyond corresponding with employers.

Donald J Trump was not sworn in as the 19th president of the United States on Thursday, March 4th, 2021, much to the disappointment of the QAnon cult who were hoping for Trump to return to power on the date, which had been inauguration day in the US until 1933 – and was supposed to be inauguration day again this year because of some shit you couldn’t understand even if you tried.