“One of the paradoxical lessons of the 2020 elections was that even in the face of foreign interference, postal slowdowns, deliberate misinformation, and the possibility of an election meltdown of epic proportions, millions of Americans chose not simply to vote but to believe that voting was a rational act. Even as they doubted that the election could be administered fairly, record numbers of people voted as though it would. The big lie is the mirror image of that same problem. Voters are being trained to doubt voting until it appears an irrational act. Millions of Americans are being told, day in and day out, by cynical liars who have no proof and no substantiation, that voting is pointless and that – as we now hear repeated on a loop – the will of 74 (they say 75) million people was somehow thwarted by allowing Biden to become president. Those voters didn’t just lose, we are hearing, somehow, their own valid votes were also canceled… Elections, they are saying, no longer matter.”

“The big lie, then, is not just nomenclature of those hellbent on restricting who can vote in the midterms and 2024. And it’s not just the language of the nihilism and denialism of those who want Joe Biden to fail and must feed the idea of his illegitimacy in order to do that. The big lie isn’t just aimed at election reform or undermining Democrats. It’s also aimed at elections themselves. It suggests not just that people of color and poor people and young people in Detroit and Philadelphia cannot cast valid ballots, but also that elections themselves are ‘rigged’ and ‘fixed’ and that the courts and the media and state elections officials are all in on the tyranny. The endpoint, therefore, won’t simply lie in making it more difficult to vote, and more challenging to govern. The endgame lies in convincing voters that democracy itself is pointless. The big lie isn’t just an attempt to advantage Trump in 2024 or Republicans in the midterms. It’s an attempt to seed and nurture the forces of tyranny and autocracy, in precisely the fashion most big lies are intended” – Slate.

Fox News: “Former President Donald Trump is set to deliver the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Sunday afternoon as he and his allies aim to guide the direction of the Republican Party after his presidency. Trump has made a handful of public statements since he left office, including calling into Fox News to discuss the death of radio legend Rush Limbaugh and the car crash of his friend Tiger Woods. But the address, scheduled for 3:40 p.m., will be his first extended in-person public speaking engagement. Trump is expected to attack Biden on immigration, Keystone XL and Big Tech, a source close to the former president said.”

“He’s also expected to walk ‘right up to the line of announcing another campaign,’ without actually committing. The former president will commit to staying in the Republican Party rather than tarting a new party in an address expected to last up to 90 minutes or more, which will also layout a ‘pathway’ to taking back Congress in 2022. ‘We are not starting new parties, and we will not be dividing our power and our strength. Instead, we will be united and strong like never before,’ Trump will say, in an excerpt of the speech obtained by Fox News.”

CBS News has the story of Diana Trujillo, a woman from Cali, Colombia, who moved to the United States as a teenager – unable to speak English, with only $300 to her name, worked in low-level housekeeping jobs – and is now living off taxpayer funds and has been since 2007.

Trujillo receives an unknown disbursement every two weeks from a government agency called NASA – in return for her work as a flight engineer and director for the Mars Perseverance mission, a job that any entitled, naturally-born citizen white male MAGA troll on The Hill or 4chan with experience playing Playstation games could definitely do. Even though the probe landed safely and the mission has so far been a success, there has to be some way for the involuntarily celibate white nationalists to feel like they still have their own warped sense of dignity intact after being informed of Trujillo’s position. This self-reassertion will be vocalized but simplistic, most likely a “So?!?” because the impulse to retaliate against the psychic injury of a woman who is more successful than them overrides whatever shred of circumspection they may still possess.

Add the fact that Trujillo is an objectively attractive woman who would not dirty her hands choking a typical Red Piller to death, much less go on a 2 for $20 Applebee’s date with them, there’s no doubt her unattainability increases the rage and helplessness they feel by a factor of 10. So incels, if there are any of you reading this, I hope the purposely misleading headline and first paragraph reeled you in, only for the rest of this article about Diana Trujillo ruin your day. If you can take a moment to indicate as such in the comments, it would truly brighten ours.

Politico: “Ronald Reagan, the president who reinvigorated the Republican Party, promoted the GOP as the ‘party of new ideas’ on his way to a landslide reelection in 1984. In the post-Donald Trump era, judging by the fare inside the Orlando ballroom where the Conservative Political Action Conference unfolded, the GOP has evolved into the party of precisely two ideas: re-litigating Trump’s defeat and seething over the de-platforming of the former president and his supporters. At the first major gathering of Republicans since Trump left office, conservatives spent the weekend clinging to the false claim that Trump’s presidency was stolen from him and raging over the perceived ‘cancel culture’ of Big Tech and the left.”

“Nearly four months after the election and one month into Joe Biden’s presidency, the politics of grievance has become the near-singular organizing principle of the post-Trump GOP. And whether at CPAC or in statehouses across the country, policy prescriptions for restoring so-called voter integrity have emerged as the primary focus of the party’s energy. ‘There are two things the conservative grassroots care about more than anything else,’ Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and founder of the youth movement Turning Point USA, said at CPAC. ‘No. 1, restoring election integrity in our country for fair and free elections. And No. 2, it is challenging Big Tech, it is giving us the ability to speak freely on social media.’ Much of the intellectual and legislative thrust of the Republican Party nationally remains grounded in the election and its aftermath – a preoccupation sparked by the former president’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him through voting fraud and other means.”

“Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty is a red line, Saudi columnists said on Sunday, ramping up rhetoric in defense of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a U.S. intelligence report implicated him in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Prince Mohammed, de facto ruler of the U.S.-allied Gulf powerhouse, has denied any involvement in the 2018 murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The U.S. administration on Friday imposed sanctions on some of those involved, but spared the prince. Washington released an intelligence report saying the crown prince had approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi.”

“‘America does not have the right to bully a strategic regional ally and it is not in its interest to let domestic differences harm its regional interests and those of its partners,’ Khaled al-Malik wrote in local Al Jazirah newspaper. President Joe Biden’s decision to publish the report withheld by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who enjoyed strong ties with Prince Mohammed, brings with it a refocusing of Washington’s stance on dealing with the kingdom, on its human rights record, and on its lucrative arms purchases” – Reuters.

Bloomberg: “The Trump Organization’s website has long listed the Trump World Golf Club in the expat hub of Dubai as ‘coming soon.’ But four years after it was supposed to open for business, the 18-hole course designed by Tiger Woods faces yet another delay in the city already dealing with a glut of development, this time until at least 2022, according to a senior employee involved in the operation. When it opens, the project will test whether Trump’s corporate brand holds the same allure in a region where the former U.S. president has enjoyed broad support. And it comes as the company is figuring out its path forward with Trump out of office.”

“Grafted onto the desert and ringed by a luxury housing development, the golf course doesn’t yet display any of the typical, gold-emblazoned Trump signage. Instead, the name that’s ubiquitous is Damac Properties Dubai Co., the local developer and Trump partner that’s building the surrounding community, Akoya Oxygen. While some homes in the development are occupied, vacant lots and empty homes can be seen sprinkled through neighborhoods with names like Mimosa, Amazonia and Zinnia. The golf course is mostly done, according to Bryon Bell, president of Tiger Woods’s TGR Design. But construction of the clubhouse is on pause for now, according to the person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The cause of the delay is unclear, even among top-level people working on the project, though some have been told it’s Covid-related, the person said.”

“Before the not-so-subtle trips to the first voting states or the string of announcements from 2024 presidential hopefuls, a drawn-out clash is dividing the four early states down the middle. In Nevada, Demo Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson introduced a bill last week to position the state at the front of the line. The maneuver could erode the decade-long détente between the privileged four, which wield outsize influence over the nominating contests, with Nevada and South Carolina angling for the top two positions occupied for nearly half a century by Iowa and New Hampshire.”

“‘I think that South Carolina and Nevada should be the first two,’ said former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democratic power broker who is the driving force behind the concerted push in Nevada. He would be ‘satisfied,’ he said, if either Nevada or South Carolina claimed the top spot, even if that means his home state landed in second – a signal that along with House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who shares Reid’s interest in moving up South Carolina’s primary, the two states could work in tandem to displace Iowa and New Hampshire. ‘Those states are not representative of what’s going on in 90% of the rest of the country,’ Reid continued. ‘Just because you’ve done something in the past, doesn’t mean you should do it in the future'” – ABC News.

Great to see you at #CPAC2021 https://t.co/LNozlJqvI4

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 27, 2021

Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska’s most politically involved Republicans, many of whom have been itching to give U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse a piece of their mind, sent him a message on Saturday. But the Nebraska Republican Party stopped short of formally censuring Sasse. Instead, core activists on the GOP’s State Central Committee passed a resolution attacking Sasse’s work as a senator.”

“Even as voters just re-elected Sasse with nearly 63% support, the resolution expresses ‘deep disappointment and sadness’ about Sasse’s six years in service and presses him to represent ‘the people of Nebraska to Washington,’ not the other way around. It criticizes his legislative record as thin, his record of returning constituent calls and emails as lacking and his choice to leave the Senate Agricultural Committee as misplaced. It criticizes him for failing to follow through on his pledge when running in 2014 to repeal and replace Obamacare. It reads like an attempt to wound Sasse to keep him from running again.”

“The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization Saturday to Johnson & Johnson to distribute its single-dose coronavirus vaccine. According to data reviewed by the agency, the jab from the pharmaceutical and consumer goods giant proved to be 66 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 infections in clinical trials against the virus, though less effective against the South African variant. It was also 85 percent effective at circumventing severe infection and offered ‘complete protection’ from hospitalization death from COVID-19. While the pharmaceutical company is expected to start out small – with 20 million doses shipped by the end of March, and 100 million by the end of June – the vaccine is seen as easier to use and store than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which required two doses and had to be frozen” – Daily Beast.

Stage design conspiracies are outrageous and slanderous. We have a long standing commitment to the Jewish community. Cancel culture extremists must address antisemitism within their own ranks. CPAC proudly stands with our Jewish allies, including those speaking from this stage.

— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) February 27, 2021

New York Times: “Led by loyalists who embrace former President Donald J. Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election, Republicans in state legislatures nationwide are mounting extraordinary efforts to change the rules of voting and representation – and enhance their own political clout. At the top of those efforts is a slew of bills raising new barriers to casting votes, particularly the mail ballots that Democrats flocked to in the 2020 election. But other measures go well beyond that, including tweaking Electoral College and judicial election rules for the benefit of Republicans; clamping down on citizen-led ballot initiatives; and outlawing private donations that provide resources for administering elections, which were crucial to the smooth November vote.”

“And although the decennial redrawing of political maps has been pushed to the fall because of delays in delivering 2020 census totals, there are already signs of an aggressive drive to further gerrymander political districts, particularly in states under complete Republican control. The national Republican Party joined the movement this past week by setting up a Committee on Election Integrity to scrutinize state election laws, echoing similar moves by Republicans in a number of state legislatures. Republicans have long thought – sometimes quietly, occasionally out loud – that large turnouts, particularly in urban areas, favor Democrats, and that Republicans benefit when fewer people vote. But politicians and scholars alike say that this moment feels like a dangerous plunge into uncharted waters.”

A man in southern India who had attacked a knife to a chicken’s leg to make the bird a more dangerous cockfighter died when he bled out after the rooster stabbed him in the groin, the BBC reports.

After attaching a three-inch knife to the bird’s leg, the man tried to put the chicken in container to take it to an illegal cockfight.  The chicken tried to escape and in the scuffle, knifed the man in the groin.  The man died en route to the hospital.

The chicken, with a 1-0 career record with one KO (“knifed out”), is being held by the local court as evidence.

Justice Department officials announced they will no longer pursue the forfeiture of three properties owned by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort because the pardon from Donald Trump negated the penalties, Politico reports.

The Trump pardon made moot any penalties that were not assessed at the time the pardon was issued on December 23rd.  This includes an $11 million, 10-bedroom, 6-bath house in Bridgehampton, New York, as well as an apartment in Trump Tower, an apartment in Chinatown and a townhouse in Brooklyn.

It is unclear how much of the $40+ million dollar forfeiture will be impacted by the pardon or must be returned, particularly the cash involved in the schemes Manafort committed.  Any asset that was already turned over to the government typically would not be returned; the properties, however, were still in various phases of transfer at the time the pardon was issued.

Politico: “Former acting national intelligence director Ric Grenell is slated to have dinner with former President Donald Trump Saturday evening to discuss his potential run for California governor, among other issues, according to three people familiar with the plans. The sit-down, which is set to take place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, comes as Grenell moves closer to launching a campaign in the possible upcoming recall election of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Grenell strongly hinted during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday morning that he was leaning toward a bid, saying that he has ‘never seen a better case for a recall’ than the effort to recall Newsom. ‘And of course, if a public official is still failing to deliver on their promises, and if you can’t limit their term or recall them in time, there’s always one other option: You can run against them yourself,’ Grenell said at the tail end of his speech.”

Democrats are working to take the nuclear authorities away from Joe Biden.

Kamala Harris is taking meetings with foreign leaders.

You have to wonder…

Has the transition to Kamala Harris already begun??

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 27, 2021

“Richard Holzer, a self-described white supremacist, on Friday was sentenced to 19.5 years in federal prison for conspiring to blow up Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colorado in 2019. Holzer in October pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and explosives charges. ‘Today’s sentence is another step forward in our on-going fight against extremism,’ U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Jason Dunn said in a statement. ‘We must remain ever vigilant in this battle and I am confident the Department will continue to lead this fight,’ he continued” – Axios.

The Atlantic: “Every day, more than 1 million American deltoids are being loaded with a vaccine. The ensuing immune response has proved to be extremely effective – essentially perfect—at preventing severe cases of COVID-19. And now, with yet another highly effective vaccine on the verge of approval, that pace should further accelerate in the weeks to come. This is creating a legion of people who no longer need to fear getting sick, and are desperate to return to ‘normal’ life. Yet the messaging on whether they might still carry and spread the disease – and thus whether it’s really safe for them to resume their unmasked, un-distanced lives – has been oblique.”

“At this point in the pandemic, with deliverance in sight for so many people, the vagueness can justifiably be maddening. For a year now, the public-health message has been to wait. First we waited until it was safe to go outside. Then we waited for vaccines to be developed, tested, and approved. Now people are being asked to wait their turn to get vaccinated; then to wait a few more weeks until they’ve received their second dose; and then two weeks more to make sure that their immune responses have fully kicked in. And finally, when all that waiting is done, we’re supposed to wait for ‘some time’ more? The experts urging patience are, of course, correct. There are myriad details of physiology and molecular immunology that remain to be understood, and we do not know how quickly transmission rates will drop as large numbers of people get vaccinated. At an individual level, though, the proper advice on what constitutes safe behavior does not depend on any scientific study whose results are pending. It depends on what’s happening in the world around us.”