Bloomberg: “The largest power generation and transmission cooperative in Texas filed for bankruptcy in the wake of power outages that caused an energy crisis during the winter freeze last month. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative filed for Chapter 11 in the Texas after racking up an estimated $2.1 billion in charges over seven days of the freeze. Last year, it cost cooperative members $774 million for power for all of 2020. The magnitude of the charges ‘could not have been reasonably anticipated or modeled’ and far exceeds Brazos highest liquidity levels in recent years, Executive Vice President Clifton Karnei said in a bankruptcy court declaration. The cooperative on Feb. 25 told state grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that it wouldn’t pay the $2.1 billion sum, and Karnei resigned from Ercot’s board of directors, court papers show.”

“Brazos had ‘no choice’ but to file for bankruptcy, Karnei said. Chapter 11 protection lets Brazos keep operating while it works out a plan to repay creditors. The cooperative listed assets and liabilities of as much as $10 billion each. ‘Brazos Electric suddenly finds itself caught in a liquidity trap that it cannot solve with its current balance sheet,’ Karnei wrote in the declaration. Aside from its power bills, the cooperative has more than $2 billion of debt outstanding, spread across $1.56 billion of secured notes and about $480 million under a credit line administered by Bank of America Corp., court papers show. Brazos had A+ credit grade from Fitch Ratings and an A from S&P Global Ratings prior to the bankruptcy.”

“I don’t know, and I’m asking the question. I’m making no assumptions. There are just so many unanswered questions, which seems to be kind of the basic situation in so many things I’m trying to get to the bottom of. But here we are almost two months later, and there are just basic pieces of information that are missing here” said Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) when asked by the New York Times who he thinks made up the horde of terrorists who attacked the Capitol on January 6th.

Later in the interview, when asked “There’s been a lot of talk among some of your Republican colleagues in Congress about antifa or Black Lives Matter being involved in instigating what happened. Do you share that belief?” Rojo sheepishly admits “It doesn’t really seem like that was the issue. It appears, again, this is all early, I haven’t drawn any conclusions, but it appears if there was any preplanning by groups, it was white supremacist groups, like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, that type of thing. That’s what it appears.”

Acqtualllllly John, I have my CPR card, was a certified lifeguard in HS so I think I have significantly more medical credentials than you and Mr. Gates. https://t.co/qJvKMKcUpe

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 1, 2021

AP: “A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved. The court said the facts were ‘particularly serious’ given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest. In addition, as a former lawyer, he was ‘perfectly informed’ about committing an illegal action, the court said. Sarkozy’s two co-defendants were also found guilty and given the same sentence as Sarkozy. Sarkozy will face another trial later this month along with 13 other people on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.”

“A trio of ex-Sanders aides – Shana Gallagher, Joseline Garcia and Caleb Wilson – is launching a group aimed at exciting young people about H.R. 1, the Democrats’ big voting rights and campaign finance reform bill. The plot twist? Un-PAC, a 501(c)(4) and 527 organization, isn’t solely focused on progressives – it’s looking to rally millennials and Gen Zers of all political persuasions, including those on the right. It is even planning to hire conservative student organizers. (They’ll have their work cut out for them: Trump called the legislation a ‘monster’ at CPAC on Sunday.) Un-PAC says it has already banked $200,000 for the cause” – Politico.

The Guardian: “The Hyatt Hotels Corporation called symbols of hate ‘abhorrent’ on Sunday after the design of a stage at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at one of its hotels drew comparisons to a Norse rune used by Nazis during the second world war High-profile Republicans including former president Donald Trump were attending the four-day event in Orlando, Florida, as conflict raged between Trump allies and establishment politicians trying to distance the party from him. A photo of the CPAC stage went viral on social media on Saturday, with thousands of Twitter users sharing posts comparing its distinctive design to an othala rune, also known as an odal rune, one of many ancient European symbols that Nazis adopted to ‘reconstruct a mythic ‘Aryan’ past’, according to the Anti-Defamation League.”

“In its statement on Sunday, Hyatt said: ‘We take the concern raised about the prospect of symbols of hate being included in the stage design at CPAC 2021 very seriously as all such symbols are abhorrent and unequivocally counter to our values as a company.’ The rune was seen at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that saw violent fights with counter-protesters and one civil rights activist killed when a neo-fascist drove his car into the crowd.”

While there are likely scores of lawsuits currently ongoing involving himself and/or his company as well as scores more pending, there are twelve that should be most concerning to Donald Trump after his re-emergence at CPAC, according to JustSecurity.

Attorney General of DC v. Trump (DC criminal case, pending):  The DC Attorney General Karl Racine is considering charging Trump with inciting violence in relation to the January 6th domestic terrorist on the Capitol.  This is a case with a high bar for prosecutors to gain to make charges stick, partly because of the nature of the crime but also because the DC court has limited ability to carry on such a case that occured on Federal properties.  The investigations are ongoing, with the officers arresting people caught in and around the Capitol who were committing assault and violence.  Decisions on prosecuting the inciters is on hold.

Carroll v. Trump (Federal civil case):  E. Jean Carroll, a journalist who wrote for Elle and Playboy, claimed Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store.  Trump has not just denied the charges, he allegedly defamed Carroll, who has the dress she was wearing when it happened along with (what she claims) is a, um, “sample” of Trump’s DNA.  Carroll is suing Trump for defamation, and Trump has a court order to turn over a sample of is DNA.  The next hearing on this case:  April 16, 2021.

Strong speech by President Trump about the winning policies of his administration and what the party needs to unite behind moving forward. The liberal media wants a GOP civil war. Not gonna happen.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) March 1, 2021

Current GOP wunderkind Madison Cawthorn’s origin story propelled him to the forefront of Republican politics:  his education at the US Naval Academy canceled because of a 2014 car accident where he was left for dead by the driver, a God-inspired motivation for Para-Olympic glory, and a successful venture as a real estate investors.

But the stories he’s told–including one in the chapel of the Christian college he would eventually drop out of–turn out to be as fictitious as his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 November election, according to the Washington Post.

From the chancel of the church at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia in 2017, Cawthorn told the harrowing story of being left in a burning car after its driver, a friend named Bradley Ledford fell asleep at the wheel on the way back to North Carolina from a spring break trip to Florida.  After crashing into a concrete barrier, Cawthorn said, Ledford fled the scene, leaving Cawthorn to die in the flaming wreckage.

But in his first statements about the accident since Cawthorn entered politics, Ledford decries the story as a slanderous lie.

Daily Beast: “In recent weeks, the former president, tucked away at his Palm Beach club of Mar-a-Lago, has repeatedly complained about several prominent Republicans who had crossed him (even mildly) over the Jan. 6 riot, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Nikki Haley, Trump’s one-time ambassador to the United Nations. Trump has told multiple confidants that if Haley runs for the presidency in 2024, he wants to ensure she is crushed and humiliated in the GOP primary, according to three people familiar with the matter.”

“This despite Haley’s attempts earlier this month to execute some damage control and to reconnect with Trump. Even others who have more aggressively sought to crawl back to Trump following the riot haven’t been spared the ex-president’s suspicions or trash talk. A month ago, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) visited Trump in Florida, on a mission to preserve party unity, as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections. Prior to that he’d already jumped on the phone with Donald Trump Jr., solidifying his deference to the Trump brand and family, ahead of the former president’s second Senate impeachment trial. Still, in recent days Trump has privately told some of those close to him that he’s not sure if he can trust McCarthy in the long run, two of the sources said. One of the things that Trump has griped about during his post-presidency is McCarthy’s public acknowledgement that Biden indeed won the election, following weeks of McCarthy cheering on or excusing Trump’s months-long endeavor to cling to power.”

It’s the second worst assault on the eardrums doing the CPAC conference.  Perhaps the fact that the “banner yet waved” is the important part of the story missed this young woman. As did the notes and key and melody.

https://youtu.be/4aGR075ezwU

Des Moines Register: “Fong’s Pizza is already known for its unique pizzas – but we’d say their new Loopy Fruits breakfast pizza is a game changer. The new pizza, made with Froot Loops and cheese, is one of the new breakfast pizzas Fong’s is rolling out at their Fong’s location at 3018 Forest Ave., Des Moines. (As we all know, Iowans have a thing about breakfast pizza.) Alongside cereal pizza, there are steak and eggs, bacon popper and vegetarian breakfast pizzas on the menu.”

“‘Making pizzas that are outside the box has always been a staple of Fong’s,’ owner Gwen Page said. ‘Now we’re trying things out for breakfast pizzas.’ The Forest Ave. pizza joint is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Breakfast items – which include the new pizzas as well as breakfast burritos, juices and more – are served 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Making interesting pizzas has always been a part of Fong’s ethos, Page said – and breakfast pizzas are just one way the business is trying out something new.”

https://youtu.be/XwimtTaM2n4

A gap in Utah’s scheduling system for vaccination appointments prompted officials to cancel thousands of people’s appointments because they were not part of the approved designated groups that were permitted to take timeslots, the Associated Press reports.

The state system neglected to filter out people who were not elderly or who did not have the prerequisite pre-existing conditions required for people in the state’s current phase of distribution, allowing more than 7,000 ineligible people to fill the available slots.

Because of the need for deep freeze storage of the currently available vaccines, patients just schedule appointments to make sure sufficient doses are thawed and readied for injection.  This causes a bottleneck in scheduling, as more people attempt to schedule appointments than there are available doses.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has requested the state’s Attorney General and Chief Judge of the state court of appeals appoint an independent lawyer to investigate claims made by two female aides, CNN reports.

The aides have come forward in the past week alleging Cuomo made sexual advances toward them.

“The Governor’s Office wants a review of the sexual harassment claims made against the Governor to be done in a manner beyond reproach. We had selected former Federal Judge Barbara Jones, with a stellar record for qualifications and integrity, but we want to avoid even the perception of a lack of independence or inference of politics,” Beth Garvey, special counsel and senior advisor to Cuomo, said in a statement Sunday morning.

AP: “Looking beyond the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another top legislative priority – a long-sought boost to the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure that could run into Republican resistance to a hefty price tag. Biden and his team have begun discussions on the possible outlines of an infrastructure package with members of Congress, particularly mindful that Texas’ recent struggles with power outages and water shortages after a brutal winter storm present an opportunity for agreement on sustained spending on infrastructure.”

“Republicans say if the White House approach on the COVID relief bill – which passed the House Saturday on a near party-line vote and now heads to the Senate – is a sign of things to come for Biden’s plan on infrastructure and other initiatives, it could be a difficult road ahead in Congress. A White House proposal could come out in March. ‘Now is the time to be aggressive,’ said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who knows potholes. At a conference with state and local highway officials Thursday, he referred to the often-promised, never-achieved mega-initiative on roads, bridges and the like from the Trump administration. ‘I know you are among those who are working and waiting most patiently, or maybe impatiently, for the moment when Infrastructure Week will no longer be a kind of Groundhog’s Day promise – but actually be something that delivers generational investments,’ he said.”

“The Biden administration’s decision to bomb Syria is not surprising, nor is the complete reversal of media tone compared to when Trump did it. It’s all a reflection of the bigotry eating away at the country from the inside. From my time as a volunteer at a raptor rescue, I know doves and pigeons sometimes manage to fight back against hawks. When it happens the dove usually makes little cuts in the hawk’s underbelly, only visible if the bird is turned over. But eventually, the hawk spirals to the ground, dead. If you have ever done any falconry, then you know the power in the bird’s grip. In fact, special gloves are required to withstand the claws of hawks or falcons, as they could cut you to the bone just by squeezing. I imagine both allies and foes wish they had these special gloves while doing diplomacy with America. I believe America, like that hawk, has little cuts of greed and corruption slicing away at any semblance of Democracy. And it is in a spiral”

– The actual opening text of a column written by Tara Reade, who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she worked in his Senate office – a manufactured scandal which never caught on because of serious problems with Reade’s history and relationship with the truth, never mind the numerous holes in her story itself – which was published on Russia Today, an English language site owned by Russian state media.

There is nothing more Americana than ⁦@CocaCola⁩ 🇺🇸

I’ve always loved you #cocacola…being from my hometown of Atlanta

But since you’ve become woke and are discriminating against people

I’m breaking up with you 😢 pic.twitter.com/vRIht3r9GK

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) February 28, 2021