return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment.

Joel 2:12-13

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 17, 2021

From President Joe Biden’s town hall meeting in Milwaukee Tuesday night.

To start with levity, Anderson Cooper asked Biden what’s it like to live in the White House.  Biden joked, “Well, I get up in the morning and look at Jill and say, ‘Where the hell am I?'”

https://youtu.be/eQOuaOqr_ME

Other highlights:

Seth Abramson: “Donald Trump is almost the Platonic case of a prospective federal defendant who, if disposed of in the same way any of the rest of us would be, could destroy not just the professional futures but also the personal lives of anyone who takes him on. Why should an ambitious prosecutor hoping to leverage that career track into some future political office take the risk of becoming a pariah to about half of the voters they may ultimately need to rely upon? Why risk losing a high-profile case someone above you in the hierarchy believes should have been won, and therefore losing your job rather than being vaulted even higher into the ranks of high-visibility public servants? And why do any of this when the very scions of public service you most wish to impress – the folks who work in D.C. and, in that group, particularly those in the White House – have already publicly decided not to pursue any action against Donald Trump, even a slam-dunk campaign finance case in which he remains an unindicted co-conspirator?”

“Second, the simple fact is that our criminal justice systems have no authority at all to bar someone from future office. Their only option, instead, is to incarcerate people for such a long period of time that they will die before they can run for office again. Is this what McConnell and Rubio would have us think they believe may happen here? That Trump – a seventy-something with no prior record; enough money to delay any case almost indefinitely through frivolous legal action (and a track record of always doing so successfully); at least 74 million supporters who wanted him to be the most powerful man in America not 120 days ago, many of whom (more than half) think he’s currently America’s rightful president; and access to legions of domestic terrorists likely to threaten and perhaps harm any prosecutor or juror who takes any adverse action against him—is going to be not just indicted and prosecuted and caged but for so long his political career will be effectively over? At a moment his popularity within the Republican Party remains well over 70%?”

. @WhiteHouse just informed me that the regulatory issues with the South Texas Nuclear Plant have been resolved by FERC. That’s 1200 megawatts that can come back online. I’m not sure how fast but it’ll be a big help.

— Clay Lewis Jenkins (@JudgeClayJ) February 17, 2021

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the private corporation responsibility for overseeing the function of the state’s power distribution grid, is coming under fire for its failure, causing more than four million Texans to be without electricity during a winter storm that’s plummeted temperatures into the single digits.

As the Associated Press reports, Texas’s politicians have been spinning as the state enters its second day of millions without power.  Republican Governor Greg Abbott, after earlier on Tuesday highlighting ERCOT’s efforts to restore electricity to households, pivoted to calling for a special investigation into ERCOT’s operations and response.

Other state politicians are feeling the heat, even as their constituents have none.  Former governor and Former US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has been ridiculed for suggesting a non-existent form of energy production should be deployed throughout the state.  Perry also said the problem stems from windmills freezing in the uncharacteristic cold–a theory echoed by recent high school graduate Republican Colorado Congressman Lauren Boebert–but the problem stems not from power generation but power delivery. 

Big news: The Biden-Harris Administration is now sending 13.5 million vaccine doses to states each week — a 57% increase since President Biden took office. And starting this week, we’re doubling our direct shipments to local pharmacies to two million doses.

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 17, 2021

“Let me hurt some feelings while I have a minute!! No one owes you are your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it’s your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout! If you don’t have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family.”

“If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the weak will perish. Folks God has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts. Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water; yes! But I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves! We have lost sight of those in need and those that take advantage of the system and meshed them in to one group!! Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family! Bottom line-DONT A PART OF PROBLEM, BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!!” – Colorado City, Texas Mayor Tim Boyd’s Facebook post from Tuesday which was deleted, but not before it was screencapped by Texan Twitter user Alyssa Chavez (Please send Alyssa your thanks and best wishes if you’re on Twitter).

Later on Tuesday the exclamation-point-loving former mayor posted a second message on Facebook, announcing his resignation and telling people to stop pestering him and his wife. “I apologize for the wording and some of the phrases that were used! I had already turned in my resignation and had not signed up to run for mayor again on the deadline that was February 12th!” Boyd wrote hours later. “I ask that you each understand I never meant to speak for the city of Colorado City or Mitchell county!” Boyd claimed, even though he was actually the mayor of Colorado City.  “I was speaking as a citizen as I am NOT THE MAYOR anymore. I apologize for the wording and ask that you please not harass myself or my family anymore!”

I got no defense. 🤷🏻‍♂️

A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.

Stay safe! https://t.co/kBPGrGHmvI

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2021

Hedge fund manager Alden Capital announced a deal to purchase Tribune Publishing for $630 million, giving the new owner control of the company that publishes some of the most iconic newspapers in the country, the Chicago Tribune announced.

Alden will take control of the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and the Hartford Courant, as well as newspapers in Virginia and Florida.  It will also print suburban newspapers in Illinois and Florida.

As a spinoff of the deal, the Baltimore Sun and its subsidiary Annapolis Capital Gazette, as well as suburban papers in Maryland, will be purchased by a non-profit Sunlight for All Institute who will publish the two dailies as well as several weeklies and some local magazines.

“A personal familiar with the crafting of the statement confirmed that it could have been far worse. An earlier draft mocked McConnell for having multiple chins, the person said” – Sam Stein, Politico.

The New York Times surveys the wreckage in Michigan in the aftermath of Biden flipping the state and two of its GOP Congressmen voting to impeach Trump, with this part standing out in particular:

“The Michigan Republican Party is ‘more Trumpy today than it was before the election,’ said Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party. The former president’s electoral coalition failed, he said, but its adherents are so vehement in their beliefs that the party cannot acknowledge or learn from its mistakes. ‘That’s why Trumpism will continue long after Trump. People who weren’t around four years ago,’ he said, ‘people we had never heard of, they now control the levers of the party.’ He added: ‘When you make a deal with the devil, the story usually ends with the devil collecting your soul. You don’t get it back and have a happy ending.'”

Representatives of Dominion Voting Systems will file a defamation lawsuit against MyPillow founder, martial law advocate and Trump supporter Mike Lindell as early as tomorrow, continuing a series of high-dollar suits against people who supported Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, the Daily Beast reports.

Lindell has been a vocal and visible advocate for a conspiracy theory that alleged Dominion voting machines were programmed to flip votes from Trump to President Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate.

Lindell not only made claims during multiple television appearances on Fox News, NewsMax and OANN, he also produced a 90-minute “investigative” program for which he bought airtime on OANN that made substantial allegation against Dominion.  None of the claims against Dominion have been proven, and recounts of ballots processed by Dominion machines have shown the returns to be accurate. 

Trump’s statement on McConnell via Margaret Chadbourn of Spectrum News: “The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm. McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse. The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle – they’ve never had it so good – and they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell’s Beltway First agenda or Biden’s America Last.”

Last week the DOJ charged a man named Leo Brent Bozell, IV of breaching the Capitol during the January 6th Capitol riot. Bozell IV is the son of L Brent Bozell III, the founder of the Parents’ Television Council and batshit right wing site CNSNews.com. Read the complaint here.

The younger Bozell was filmed in the Senate chamber and later exiting the Capitol building.  He has been charged with obstructing an official proceeding, entering a restricted building, and disorderly conduct. Wearing a sweatshirt from the Hershey Christian Academy, a school in Pennsylvania is daughters attend and where he once served as girls basketball coach, the younger Bozell also posted clips of his activities in the Capitol to his social media accounts.

What’s interesting here is how much the traditional “family values” conservative world surrendered to the nihilism and malevolence of Trumpism. And it goes back to WWF (now WWE) pro wrestling. Bozell’s Parents’ Television Council group (PTC) waged a campaign against the WWF accusing the wrestling company (correctly) of promoting violence and indecency to children.

WWF CEO Vince McMahon responded by having one of his mid-card performers Stevie Richards – a punkish headbanger type wrestler – rebrand himself as “Steven Richards, head of ‘Right to Censor’ (RTC)” who would run out wearing an oxford shirt and tie and ruin other wrestler’s matches or scenes staged with women in bikinis and what not. A decade and a half later Vince McMahon was one of Trump’s biggest supporters and his wife was a cabinet secretary for four years – until shortly after Bozell’s adult son was committed a felony for participating in a mob assault on the Capitol incited by Trump. How’s that for Christian conservatism?

“Donald Trump’s long-time personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is no longer working for the former president, according to Jason Miller. In a statement Miller writes, ‘Mayor Giuliani is not currently representing President Trump in any legal matters'” reports CNN’s Kara Scannell.

Mount Etna on the island of Sicily erupted in spectacular fashion on Tuesday, creating a river of lava running down the mountain.  The orange-red column at the base of the smoke plume is a fountain of lava shooting hundreds of feet into the air.

https://youtu.be/7lcjkR90p_U

“While plenty of defendants later arrested and charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol joined many of their fellow Trump supporters in blaming antifa for the attack, plenty of others were also a bit upset that their work alongside a mob of Trump supporters was being attributed to some fictitious gang of anti-fascists. HuffPost found at least [four] Capitol insurrectionists charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol who, the feds say, complained on social media about Antifa getting credit for their work” reports Huffington Post.

“‘Listen up: I hear so many reports of ‘Antifa’ was storming the capital [sic] building. Know that every single person who believes that narrative have been DUPED AGAIN!’ wrote Ryan Nichols, who was charged alongside his fellow insurrectionist Alex Harkrider. ‘Sure, there may have been some ‘Antifa’ in DC, but there wasn’t enough to ‘Storm the Capital’ [sic] themselves.’ ‘Okay all you conspiracy theorists ? don’t worry I loves yous all just setting the record straight,’ wrote Karl Dresch. ‘antifa did not take the capitol.that was Patriots, I can’t guarantee there weren’t some shit birds in the crowd but what multi-million crowd can you guarantee?.don’t give them the thunder, we the people took back our house, the news is all bullshit.and now those traitors Know who’s really in charge.’ ‘It was not Antifa at the Capitol,’ wrote Brandon Straka, a ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer with ties to Trump who was charged last month. ‘It was freedom loving Patriots who were DESPERATE to fight for the final hope of our Republic because literally nobody cares about them. Everyone else can denounce them. I will not.'”

CNN reports some pretty droll and mundane details about President Joe Biden’s first few weeks in office, things like how he showed Kamala Harris the spot in the VP’s office where he wrote a letter to Jill on his first Valentine’s Day working in the White House in 2009, that he still carries his old beat up leather briefcase from God knows when, that starts and ends his days early instead of staying up all night reading like Obama did or watching Fox News like Trump.

There’s no leaks coming from the White House about Biden calling Haiti a shithole, or Hunter Biden being denied a security clearance from the FBI so he can work in the West Wing as a special advisor. Joe Biden isn’t firing FBI Director Chris Wray for investigating possible 2020 campaign collusion with China. They did not, to our knowledge, have a private dinner where the power imbalance was demonstrated by the number of scoops of ice cream each man was served.

That we would feel compelled to write in what did not happen in that CNN article speaks to how we’re still adjusting to the hard stop in the reality show bullshit of the last four years. The outrages and malevolence and insanity are still out there, but they’re smaller, more fragmented, and – for now at least – removed from power nationally. A boring White House is good for everyone, even if it’s not great for the news business. May God never save us from this kind of boredom.

“Beyond defending Trump himself, state and local Republicans are perhaps the party’s biggest advocates of the kind of white-identity politics that is sometimes referred to as Trumpism. For example, GOP officials at the state level are now trying to bar schools from using materials from the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which focuses on the central role of slavery in American history. Such bans would effectively use government power to censor part of the public discourse and silence a project hated by many conservatives because of its critical look at Trump-style white-identity politics. Also, GOP officials in states, not those in D.C., were the ones who pioneered laws designed to make it harder for liberal-leaning constituencies like Black Americans and college students to vote. Now, GOP officials in states are aggressively trying to limit vote-by-mail programs, after a 2020 election in which Democrats won in part because of strong turnout and Democrats voted by mail at much higher rates than Republicans.”

“In 2019, state party leaders canceled Republican caucuses and primaries, virtually eliminating any possibility for a GOP challenger to wage a serious campaign against Trump. In Trump’s bid to overturn the election results, GOP state legislators, local and state party officials and GOP state attorneys general were often enthusiastically supporting his moves, while Republicans such as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell generally didn’t condemn the effort but didn’t openly embrace it either. ‘The state level is where we see the most important democratic backsliding, and it’s happening at the behest of Republican state officials,’ said Jake Grumbach, a political scientist at the University of Washington who studies state politics. According to an analysis by Grumbach, the greatest predictor of whether a state has taken antidemocratic steps, such as really aggressive gerrymandering or efforts to make it harder for people to vote, is if Republicans control its state legislature and governor’s office. U.S. states are increasingly not ‘laboratories of democracy,’ Grumbach said, but ‘laboratories of democratic backsliding'” – FiveThirtyEight.