Saying “more speech” is how people can decide what views should be accepted and which should be shunned, stereotypical Fox News female commentator and home for a single functioning brain cell Tomi “Don’t Call Me ‘Tammy'” Lahren said the only way to combat cancel culture is to cancel the cancelers who are canceling the canceled in order to cancel canceling.

She’s apparently unaware that these conversations have been going on for generations and that society doesn’t have to revisit each and every thing to decide what’s already been deemed offensive or unacceptable.

https://youtu.be/I8_d2OT3D2Q

“At least 15 people were killed and about 12 others were taken to hospitals after a crash in Southern California on Tuesday, authorities said.  The crash occurred in Imperial, California, just north of the Mexican border.

“Judy Cruz, managing director of the emergency department at El Centro Regional Medical Center, said during a press conference that a vehicle with 27 passengers hit a semitruck full of gravel.  At least 14 people were pronounced dead on the scene and one other person died at the hospital. The conditions of those injured have not been released.”  –NBC News

https://youtu.be/lFk3U5L8VY8
Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee used his time during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on domestic terrorism threats and the January 6th insurrectionist attack on the Capitol to complain to FBI Director Christopher Wray about Lee’s claimed use of FISA warrants to monitor domestic threats.  Apparently harkening back to the Carter Page non-issue, Lee seemed very nervous that the FBI was monitoring communications of those who planned attacks within the US, as if he himself was being monitored.  Lee pressed Wray on potential violations of individual’s civil rights by the FBI, particularly when a US citizen just happens to be hanging around people planning violent attacks with the nation…. y’know, innocently.

Washington Post: “In a revealing moment at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida – a Republican who is a leading inheritor of the mantle of Trumpism – unintentionally displayed one of that inchoate ideology’s most serious weaknesses. ‘We can sit around and have academic debates about conservative policy,’ DeSantis said. ‘But the question is, when the klieg lights get hot, when the left comes after you: Will you stay strong, or will you fold?’ This suggestion – that feverish anti-leftist delirium is becoming the central organizing principle for much of the GOP as it remains captive to former president Donald Trump – provides Democrats with a big opening. The coming debate over a major infrastructure package will show how. If President Biden and the Democratic Congress can pass such a package, it could deal a big blow to Trumpism, aided by its continuing descent into hallucinatory anti-leftism.”

“The Times reports that some Dems are already thinking about how to move a far-reaching infrastructure repair agenda, if they can get the economic relief bill through the Senate and into law. This coming debate may be uniquely positioned to expose Trumpism’s bankruptcy as it sinks into QAnon-ification, cultishness, and mythologizing about the Lost Cause of the stolen election.”

A white Grosse Pointe Park man will not face charges for hanging a Ku Klux Klan flag in a window facing the house of a Black woman in an effort to harass and intimidate the neighbor, the Detroit News reports.

The unnamed man put the flag up in a window directly within view of the dining room window of JeDonna Dinges after Dinges installed a security camera to monitor the area between the two houses.  Dinges said she did so because she feared for the safety of her family after she found a filled gas can in her garage.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced Tuesday said displaying the flag does not meet the threshold required for charges under Michigan’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute, which requires “physical contact, damage, destruction, defacement of property, or threats to do so.”

“Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany will officially join Fox News, the network announced Tuesday. The news, which was announced by Fox News host Harris Faulkner, comes after weeks during which the network had equivocated about McEnany’s role at the network. It was not immediately clear what her role will be at the company. ‘It is my distinct pleasure to welcome Kayleigh McEnany to the Fox family,’ Faulkner said. ‘We will be seeing much more of her.’ A spokesperson for Fox News declined to comment beyond Faulkner’s statements” – NBC News.

William Norwood III texted friends prior to participating in the the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol saying he was dressing in all black “like ANTIFA” so that he would be able to “get away with anything,” newly released court documents reported by the Washington Post state.

Arrested February 25th in his hometown of Greer, South Carolina, Norwood messaged friends on January 5th detailing his sneaky plan.  “I’m dressing in all black,” Norwood texted a group chat on Jan. 5, according to images included in a federal criminal complaint filed last week. “I’ll look just like ANTIFA. I’ll get away with anything.”

After attacking the Capitol, Norwood posted a new message to the group text, including a photo of him wearing a police vest he allegedly took off a police officer during the attack.  “It worked.  I got away with things that others were shot or arrested for.”

The Biden Administration on Tuesday announced it is slapping sanctions on seven Russian officials for the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who almost died after becoming ill on a flight in August 2020, CNN reports.

Russian courts recently sentenced Navalny to 30 months in a labor camp for an alleged parole violation, after Navalny returned to Russia following treatment in Germany for poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok, a Soviet-era toxin not available outside of Russia.

The United States joined the European Union in sanctioning Russian officials, increasing the impact of the punishment.  The administration also announced that the Commerce Department will add fourteen Russian operations to its sanctions list for engaging in the production, distribution and use of chemical agents used in the Navalny attack.

Washington Post: “President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. will help make Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine – an unusual pact between fierce competitors that could sharply boost the supply of the newly authorized vaccine, according to senior administration officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been announced, said they began scouring the country for additional manufacturing capacity after they realized in the first days of the administration that Johnson & Johnson had fallen behind in vaccine production. They soon sought to broker a deal with Merck, one of the largest vaccine makers, which failed to develop its own coronavirus vaccine.”

“Decades of experience have taught that the sitting president’s party loses ground in midterm elections. Only twice in the past century – 1926 and 2002 – has the rule failed to hold. Democrats will enter the midterms with only a minuscule edge in the House, so even a small loss of seats would give Republicans control. The question is whether Trump will help, hinder, or possibly even prevent that from happening. The extent of the losses by members of the president’s party in midterm elections tends to track his approval rating as well as the state of the economy. Right now, both indicators are tentatively positive for President Joe Biden. He’s more popular now than Trump ever was. The economy is struggling, but it’s expected to rebound as the pandemic retreats, and the massive stimulus package currently under consideration in Congress should help too.”

“At CPAC, The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel reported, ‘Displays of anti-Biden sentiment were fairly rare, as the new president had not attained the boogeyman status of former president Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, who galvanized the right.’ A vendor hawking shirts that featured a Hitler-mustached image of the new president lamented, ‘I can’t give the Biden stuff away.’ Trump himself unloaded on Biden, as Trump’s aides had hoped he would, but the nature of his attacks only underlined the difficulties Republicans have faced in building opposition to the current president. Trump spent conspicuously little time complaining about the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill – a proposal Republicans have struggled to effectively oppose, and one that remains very popular with voters. Instead, Trump repeated (over aides’ advice) his false claims that the presidential election was stolen from him, claims previously aired as part of a long-running and failed effort to overturn the results. In Trump’s alternative reality, he is still the rightful chief executive. But if the midterms are always a referendum on the president, and Trump insists that’s still him, then which party will face a midterm backlash in 2022?” – The Atlantic.

AP: “Six Dr. Seuss books – including ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street’ and ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ – will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday. ‘These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,’ Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday. ‘Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,’ it said. The other books affected are ‘McElligot’s Pool,’ ‘On Beyond Zebra!,’ ‘Scrambled Eggs Super!,’ and ‘The Cat’s Quizzer.’ The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made last year after months of discussion, the company told AP.”

“Many Americans assume the rest of the country doesn’t share their political and policy priorities – but they’re often wrong, according to new polling by Populace, first seen by Axios. Why it matters: The polling reveals that despite growing political polarization, Americans share similar long-term goals and priorities for the country. Driving the news: Addressing climate change and preserving clean air and water landed in respondents’ top 5 personal priorities for the future of the U.S. – but they believe those issues rank closer to the bottom for ‘most others.'”

“Biden voters ranked climate issues higher than Trump voters, but successfully addressing climate change still landed in Trump voters’ top 15 priorities. Meanwhile, most people said they care very little about the U.S. being the most powerful country in the world, even though they suspect it to be a middle-of-the-road priority for others. Priorities differed very little along gender, ethnicity, income and educational lines. Nine issues showed up in the top 15 priorities for both parties’ voters. Biden and Trump voters both expressed a sense of urgency to address five: access to high quality health care; safety in communities and neighborhoods; criminal justice reforms; help for the middle class; and modernized infrastructure. Commitment to individual rights (such as free speech, peaceful assembly, to keep and bear arms and freedom of religion) landed in the top three priorities for both Biden and Trump supporters. It was the top priority for the group overall, too. National unity for the sake of unity was consistently one of the lowest priorities” – Axios.

Reuters: “Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano sent a cloud of hot ash as high as 5 km (3.1 miles) on Tuesday, in its first big eruption since August last year, the country’s volcanology centre said. Mount Sinabung’s activity has increased since last year and the alert for the volcano in North Sumatra province has been placed at the second-highest level. No casualties were reported, but an official had earlier urged people to stay at least 3 km from the crater, Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre said. Videos on social media showed little panic among residents over the eruption, which sent a column of white ash into the blue sky. Wirda Br Sitepu, a 20-year-old resident, told Reuters that the situation had calmed and said ‘the mountain is not erupting, and the ash has decreased.'”

“YouTube and other major social media platforms have ramped up their policing of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, putting pro-Trump outlets like RSBN in an awkward position. After helping to create Trump’s base and fueling baseless allegations that Trump won in 2020, RSBN is now stuck between YouTube enforcement and a hoax-addled conservative audience it relies on for donations.”

“The resulting attempts to keep RSBN free from pro-Trump conspiracy theories often result in comical ad hoc attempts at muting speakers or rapid changes in tone from RSBN talent. Faced with the prospect of losing its YouTube audience with a ban, RSBN has to constantly avoid crossing an invisible line – promoting election fraud promoters at one moment, then cutting their mics as soon as they say something that could get the channel banned. RSBN and Google, which owns YouTube, didn’t respond to requests for comment” – Daily Beast.

New York Times: “There was vanishingly little discussion [at CPAC] of why Republicans lost the presidency, the House and the Senate over the last four years, nor much debate about what agenda they should pursue to rebuild the party. The absence of soul-searching owes in part to the Republicans’ surprise gains in the House and the denialism of many activists that they lost the White House at all, a false claim perpetuated with trollish gusto by former President Donald J. Trump himself on Sunday, to the delight of the crowd. The former president was, however, hardly the only high-profile Republican to demonstrate that confronting Democrats and the news media, while harnessing the grievance of the party rank and file toward both, is the best recipe for acclaim within today’s GOP. ‘We can sit around and have academic debates about conservative policy, we can do that,’ Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said to an ovation in his CPAC remarks. ‘The question is, when the klieg lights get hot, when the left comes after you: Will you stay strong or will you fold?'”

“This is the party Mr. Trump has remade – and it’s why so many traditional Republicans are appalled, or at least alarmed, that Trumpism is replacing conservatism. ‘The future of the Republican Party depends on debating and advancing big ideas rooted in our belief in limited government constitutionalism,’ said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, arguing that the party needed to orient itself around ‘the case for freeing the American people from the mandates, shutdowns, regulations and taxes pushed by a powerful government.’ Mr. Roy appeared on one of the few CPAC panels focused on government spending, once a central issue on the right, and used his time to plead with the audience. ‘There’s nothing more important right now than this,’ he said. ‘We are allowing DC to take over our lives but we’re paying the bill.’ If those in the audience felt the same sense of urgency, they didn’t show it.”

Axios: “Donald Trump had to be talked out of making an early endorsement in Ohio’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, a sign of his eagerness to reengage politically, people familiar with the conversations tell Axios. The former president discussed endorsing former state GOP chair Jane Timken last week during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, but top advisers – including Donald Trump Jr. – urged him to wait. ‘It’s way too early to make endorsement decisions in many of the races, particularly when primaries are more than a year away,’ Trump adviser Jason Miller told Axios. Endorsements will come only after candidate establish their campaigns and are vetted by the Trump operation, including filling out a questionnaire that will ‘help ensure all endorsees are conservative America First Republicans,’ Miller said.”

“Trump’s endorsement, which is highly coveted by Republicans across the country, could be the deciding factor for the Ohio GOP, a state party that’s veered away from traditional John Kasich conservatism toward a full-on embrace of Trumpism. During their meeting, Trump asked McDaniel what she thought about Timken, who recently resigned as state party chair. He also wondered whether McDaniel thought Timken is ‘loyal’ to him, two sources said.”

Taking to the friendly confines of Fox News, former White House spokesperson and Barbie in search of her binder Kayleigh McEnany claimed that that everyone in the White House expected a peaceful event on January 6th, when Donald Trump took the stage to incite a crowd to overturn the certified election results.  Apparently ignoring national security briefings and the calls for violence from many domestic terrorists, including her boss, McEnany said people at the White House were shocked at the violence.  “As those events transpired, ah, it was disbelief, shock, somber, sad, horrified by the violence,” McEnany listed. “And it was a very hard, difficult day in the White House, there was no doubt.  [There’s an obvious cut in the tape here, done by Fox News.]  It was a…. I should say, widespread feeling, synonymous [sic] feeling, a feeling that everyone felt,” Binder Barbie said, exhibiting the impromptu mastery of vocabulary that got her the White House gig.

https://youtu.be/odh52Z-0sdU