“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released an unclassified report assessing that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) approved the operation to ‘capture or kill’ Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The grisly October 2018 murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked worldwide outrage and calls for the U.S. to fundamentally reevaluate its relationship with the Gulf kingdom. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines pledged in her Senate confirmation hearing to comply with a law passed by Congress in 2019 that required ODNI to release the names of the Saudi officials believed to be responsible or complicit in Khashoggi’s killing within 30 days” – Axios.

The Sun: “Investigators are probing whether the kidnapping of Lady Gaga’s bulldogs was politically motivated because she sang at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. FBI officials specialized in kidnapping and ransom cases are working with Los Angeles Police Department detectives, The Sun learned on Thursday. ‘Lady Gaga is high profile of course but she sang at President Biden’s inauguration which takes this case to another level,’ one source said. ‘The FBI wants to know exactly what motivated this incident.’ An FBI spokesperson told The Sun: ‘While the Bureau provides resources if/where requested to our local partners, I would refer you to LAPD for comment as they are leading this investigation.’ The Sun has reached out to LAPD for comment.”

“A massive fire visible across Los Angeles burned material in a commercial yard and destroyed parked buses early Friday. CBS Los Angeles reports the inferno erupted in Compton before dawn and consumed stacks of pallets in a very large industrial yard. Flames then spread to buses parked in a lot next door. Aerial footage from CBS Los Angeles showed at least 10 buses, including school buses and luxury charter buses, ablaze. Dozens of L.A. County County firefighters were on scene. Deputies were warning nearby residents to get out of the area. Large explosions could be heard as several transformers and power lines sparked and popped. In one case, dangerous sparks could be seen emanating from a small structure with firefighters just feet away. Plumes of black smoke could be seen from as far away as the Hollywood Hills” – CBS News.

CBS 46: “The Boards of Governors for both the WNBA and the NBA unanimously approved the sale of the Atlanta Dream to a three-member investment group. The investment group is comprised of Larry Gottesdiener, Chairman of the Northland real estate firm; Renee Montgomery, former Atlanta Dream player; and Suzanne Abair, Northland’s President and Chief Operating Officer.”

“‘With the unanimous WNBA and NBA votes, today marks a new beginning for the Atlanta Dream organization and we are very pleased to welcome Larry Gottesdiener and Suzanne Abair to the WNBA,’ said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. ‘I admire their passion for women’s basketball, but more importantly, have been impressed with their values. I am also thrilled that former WNBA star Renee Montgomery will be joining the ownership group as an investor and executive for the team. Renee is a trailblazer who has made a major impact both in the game and beyond.”

This came shortly after Right Side Broadcasting, a far-right propaganda outlet airing this coverage of the CPAC meeting, cut away from a panel discussion on how the November 2020 election was stolen (known as the Big Lie) to advise viewers to “do your own research,” apparently wary of being hit with lawsuits by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic (video below the fold).

Daily Beast: “Even by the standards of the alleged kooks and conmen commonly found on the CPAC roster, one of this year’s speakers has an extraordinary background which includes fronting an organization which claimed – in all seriousness – to be able to channel Donald Trump’s guardian deity through a magical medium. The former political leader of a Japanese cult called Happy Science, Jay ‘Hiroaki’ Aeba, is on the bill for Friday. Like Trump, Aeba has been accused of fraud back home but he doesn’t think that should be held against him. We asked Aeba for clarification but didn’t get a reply. He is now head of the Japanese Conservative Union although he said last year he was still a believer in Happy Science.”

“Aeba’s guru, Ryuho Okawa, claims to be a Venusian god named El Cantare who created life on earth – and is also a reincarnation of the Buddha, just in case you were wondering. Okawa is not only a snazzy dresser and a self-proclaimed deity, but he says he has the power to channel the spirits of any person, living or dead. He claims to have had a great awakening in 1981 and subsequently founded the Happy Science religion (Kofuku no Kagaku) in 1986. In American terms, he’s like Billy Graham crossed with Shirley MacLaine. He’s channeled the spirits of Jesus, Kim Jong II, and in 2016, he even managed to obtain an exclusive interview with the guardian spirit of Donald Trump. In that amazing encounter, Trump’s spirit correctly stated, via Okawa, that he would be the next president. You’ve never quite seen anything like the spirit of Donald Trump possessing a Japanese visionary and discussing New York cheesecake as a political metaphor. It’s too bad that the God (Okawa) himself can’t make it to CPAC but at least his former disciple, Aeba is speaking.”

“Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that Texans faced with huge electricity bills ‘gambled’ in hope of a cheap deal and ended up losing. Patrick commented in a Fox News interview Wednesday on the large charges some faced in the wake of the devastating winter storms in his state. He suggested those in trouble would likely get help but said that in the future customers should ‘read the fine print’ of such deals. ‘I saw the story about the high bills,’ Patrick said. ‘Let me explain that. We have in Texas – you can choose your energy plan, and most people have a fixed rate. If they had a fixed rate per kilowatt hour, their rates aren’t going up.’ He added: ‘But the people who are getting those big bills are people who gambled on a very, very low rate. But I’ve told those folks: Do not panic. We are going to figure that out.’ His comments came after reports detailed huge price hikes that hit some Texans. One Army veteran said he was billed $16,000 during the storm” – Business Insider.

AP: “A faction of local, county and state Republican officials is pushing lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories that echo those that helped inspire the violent U.S. Capitol siege, online messaging that is spreading quickly through GOP ranks fueled by algorithms that boost extreme content. The Associated Press reviewed public and private social media accounts of nearly 1,000 federal, state, and local elected and appointed Republican officials nationwide, many of whom have voiced support for the Jan. 6 insurrection or demanded that the 2020 presidential election be overturned, sometimes in deleted posts or now-removed online forums.”

“‘Sham-peachment,’ they say, and warn that “corporate America helped rig the election.’ They call former president Donald Trump a ‘savior’ who was robbed of a second term – despite no evidence – and President Joe Biden, a ‘thief.’ ‘Patriots want answers,’ they declare. The bitter, combative rhetoric is helping the officials grow their constituencies on social media and gain outsized influence in their communities, city councils, county boards and state assemblies. And it exposes the GOP’s internal struggle over whether the party can include traditional conservative politicians, conspiracy theorists and militias as it builds its base for 2022.”

“In a swift reversal from 90 days ago, Democrats are now the ones with overpowering social media muscle and the ability to drive news. Former President Donald Trump’s digital exile and the reversal of national power has turned the tables on which party can keep a stranglehold on online conversation. Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the banishment of Trump and the loss of his massive following have left the GOP barren against Democrats’ clout. The combined Twitter following for the 10 elected Democrats with the biggest audiences is 102 million compared to 23 million for the top 10 Republicans. Even taking President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris out of the equation, Democrats’ following is nearly triple Republicans'” – Axios.

Daily Beast: “A pickup truck parked at the United States Capitol and bearing a Three Percenter militia sticker on the day of the Jan. 6 riot belongs to the husband of freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who approvingly quoted Adolf Hitler a day earlier. Researchers on Twitter first noticed the Ford pickup truck with the far-right militia’s decal parked on the Capitol grounds in footage posted to social media and taken by CBS News. The presence of a vehicle with a militia decal so close to the Capitol, inaccessible to normal vehicle traffic, raised questions about how it got there – and whether it belonged to any of the hundreds of suspects involved in the deadly riot.

“But in an email to The Daily Beast, Chris Miller, Rep. Miller’s husband and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, conceded the truck belonged to him even as he pleaded ignorance about the militia group. ‘Army friend gave me decal. Thought it was a cool decal. Took it off because of negative pub,’ Miller wrote in an email late Thursday. He says he ‘never was member’ of the militia and ‘didn’t know anything about 3% till fake news started this fake story and read about them.’ A request for comment to the office of U.S. Rep. Miller was not returned prior to publication. The link between the truck and Rep. Miller was first reported on Twitter on Thursday by the @capitolhunters account, which is organizing research about rioters seen in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot from a large community of volunteers reviewing thousands of hours of footage.”

A US district court judge in Texas has ruled that a federal eviction moratorium put in place due to tenants economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is unconstitutional, a judgement that could prompt the immediate evictions of hundreds of thousands of people from rented homes, CNN reports.

An appointee of Donald Trump, Judge John Barker Eastern District of Texas stopped short of issuing an immediate injunction that would void the moratorium, saying that he expected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency under which the moratorium falls, to immediately withdraw the moratorium.

“The federal government cannot say that it has ever before invoked its power over interstate commerce to impose a residential eviction moratorium. It did not do so during the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic. Nor did it invoke such a power during the exigencies of the Great Depression. The federal government has not claimed such a power at any point during our Nation’s history until last year,” Barker wrote.

Tell me again how it’s not a cult.  There’s literally a Bible story about this.

https://youtu.be/55JICmOqnLs

The Gateway Pundit took issue with the number of concurrent viewers at a random time during the White House’s Youtube feed of Biden’s Thursday press conference – omitting the fact that it was also carried by other major networks, both on YouTube and cable television – not to mention other social networks that have live video feed embeds, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Not shown here is the second and final paragraph of this “article”, which says “And there were 3,800 downvotes and only 209 up votes on the video! And they want you to believe this guy got 81 million votes! These people really are demons. The truth means nothing to these people.”

The Gateway Pundit is fucking garbage. I’m not just saying that because I don’t agree with them politically. I think Palmer Report and Raw Story suck, even if their hearts are (sort of) in the right place. I just have a hard time picturing either posting something this dumb and petty about Trump, and those two can get pretty goddamned dumb and petty in what they choose to cover. National Zero however is proud to be dumb and petty, however. Complete nonsense coverage is an integral part of our brand. If it’s stupid bullshit and we’re fully aware that it’s stupid bullshit that can draw some laughs, then it’s good enough for us – and for our readers too.

Chief of Staff for twice-impeached former president Donald Trump told Fox News propagandist that the people at the head of the next administration “all of them have Trump as their last name.”

https://youtu.be/_nqQgFDvlro

“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is privately saying he can pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus package but wants to avoid any last-minute changes jeopardizing its trajectory, three sources familiar with the talks tell Axios. While the president hoped to enlist Republican support for the measure, Schumer has worked to ensure he has a solid 50 votes to muscle it through if necessary. A parliamentary ruling Thursday improved his chances. Schumer met with a group of moderate Democratic senators Thursday morning. They pushed for some changes in the bill — including moving pots of money around, more funding for broadband and rural hospitals and extending unemployment benefits beyond August” – Axios.

Reuters: “Hasbro Inc said on Thursday it was renaming its popular Mr. Potato Head brand to drop the ‘Mr.’, giving the ‘Potato Head’ line a less gender-focused identity. The toy, first launched over seventy years ago, can be decorated with various plastic parts that can be attached to a plastic spud. Hasbro this fall will launch a ‘Create Your Potato Head Family’ kit, which it called ‘a celebration of the many faces of families’.”

“One picture on the box shows a figure with a moustache and a nose that is pink, a color often associated with females. Toy companies have been changing classic brands to reflect public calls respecting and endorsing diversity in U.S. culture. Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head will still be sold. ‘This is a really smart move for Hasbro,’ said Allen Adamson, co-founder of branding firm Metaforce. ‘I think this change shows Hasbro is not just taking care of old brands and trying to do the same old, same old every year, but they really understand that brands need to be reinvented, reimagined, and kept fresh.'”

“President Biden orders airstrike against Iran-backed militia in Syria following rocket attacks against US forces in Iraq” – Detroit News.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has once again reversed course on a political position, vowing to support Donald Trump if he’s named the 2024 Republican nominee for president, despite McConnell saying Trump should be prosecuted for his actions in office, including inciting the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.