Right Wing Watch: “It has been a rough few weeks for the Proud Boys. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the far-right, neo-fascist hate group has seen several of its chapters declare autonomy, its organization labeled a terrorist entity in Canada, and a handful of its key members arrested for their role in the Capitol siege. Even Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was arrested shortly before the insurrection, has been ordered to attend a court hearing after allegedly violating ‘conditions of release.’ Despite the onslaught of problems facing the infamous neo-fascist group, the Proud Boys released a defiant statement last week rebuking claims of division within its ranks.”

“‘You will never be able to ‘splinter’ the bonds that have been created by men that have shared their joy, their sweat, their blood and their tears,’ Tarrio wrote on his Telegram channel. ‘Journalists can write about it…our enemies can wish for it…but I won’t make it a reality. We have been through many storms throughout our history and have ALWAYS come back stronger than before. We are not fucking leaving. Proud Boys are here forever. I suggest you start figuring that out. We’re your plumbers…your mailmen…your police officers…your neighbors…your carpenters…we serve your food…we trim your trees…we are even your elected officials. We are western chauvinist and we will never fucking apologize for shit. We’re here to stay.’ Tarrio’s comments come in the wake of several Proud Boys chapters declaring autonomy from the group’s leadership after reports that Tarrio was a ‘prolific’ informant for the FBI and local law enforcement following his arrest in 2012 for rebranding and reselling stolen medical devices. Among those who separated from the nationalist group currently under Tarrio’s leadership are the Tulsa Proud Boys in Oklahoma, the four chapters of the Indiana Proud Boys, and the St. Louis Proud Boys in Missouri.”

Specifically, ERCOT requests that DOE issue an order immediately authorizing all electric generating units to operate up to their maximum generation output levels from today through Friday.

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) February 16, 2021

On Tuesday, Yahoo reporter Michael Isikoff tweeted a preview of his podcast: “While at the White House, Steve Bannon concluded Trump was suffering from ‘early stage dementia’ and later started a covert campaign for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him” according to 60 Minutes producer Ira Rosen, who also showed Isikoff contemporaneous text messages from Bannon.

Law Forward, a Wisconsin legal advocacy group wrote a letter letter to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm asking him to look into the Trump electors who showed up to try to submit fake electoral votes for Trump in December: “At noon on Monday, December 14, 2020, Wisconsin’s Governor welcomed a group of people to the State Capitol. Governor Evers and the nine other presidential electors pledged to then-President-Elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr., convened under the authority, and the obligation, conferred by Wis. Stat. § 7.75(1) and 3 U.S.C. § 7 after Biden won Wisconsin’s statewide November 2020 election… While the Governor and his counterparts were convening, a separate group of individuals gathered elsewhere in the Wisconsin State Capitol. They executed a competing set of documents purporting to cast Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes for a candidate who lost Wisconsin’s statewide popular election and therefore had no legal entitlement to those electoral votes. They did so without advance notice, public access, or media attention. After their meeting, these individuals transmitted the fraudulent documents they had created to the President of the United States Senate, the Wisconsin Secretary of State, the Archivist of the United States, and the Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.”

“These ‘fraudulent electors’ acted without any legal mandate whatsoever and with the intention that the false documents they produced be received as valid documentation for the purpose of inducing the United States Congress to credit the wrong candidates with having earned Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes. The fraudulent electors met in a concerted effort to ensure that they would be mistaken, as a result of their deliberate forgery and fraud, for Wisconsin’s legitimate presidential electors chosen by the mechanism prescribed under the United States Constitution and Wisconsin law… On behalf of several Wisconsin voters and the SEIU Wisconsin Council, we write to draw your attention to the actions of these fraudulent electors. We request that your office immediately investigate the individuals responsible, with an eye toward assessing whether criminal charges are appropriate. At least two of the individuals identified reside in Milwaukee County, and their actions attempted to disenfranchise the voters of Milwaukee County, the State of Wisconsin, and the entire nation, by undermining the lawful outcome of the November election.”

Texas Signal: “Throughout this unfolding crisis, [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott has been oddly absent. He spent most of his day yesterday tweeting out the limited information on offer from [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] and seems perpetually unwilling to shoulder blame for his policy and leadership failures. Unfortunately for Governor Abbott, the buck may well stop at his desk. As the Governor of Texas, he is principally responsible for emergency management and response, and the response through the first two days of this unprecedented winter weather event has certainly been lacking. How is it possible that Abbott and other state leaders made such little oversight effort over ERCOT that they were unaware that wind turbines and the power plants we rely on hadn’t been properly winterized? Did their ideological devotion to deregulation leave Texas Republicans asleep at the wheel? That very much seems to be the case thus far.”

“But there are other more pressing questions Abbott needs to be held to account for. With this storm forecasted well in advance, why wasn’t he more proactive in communicating protocols for mitigating the disaster to the County Judges and Mayors fighting desperately to get people heat?
In a state with a political process so dominated by energy producers, how could so few of these titans of industry known that their plants couldn’t pass muster in a deep freeze? When did Abbott know that the cost of energy production was multiplying exponentially, and did he attempt to put any safeguards in place to protect consumers as the cost of generating a megawatt of electricity shot from $15 to $9,000? Did Abbott have any conversations with energy producers who stood to profit from such a surge in pricing last week or this weekend? Did Abbott at any time make an effort to pressure ERCOT into more conservative energy management strategies that could have kept more Texans online? The ultimate irony here is that, while energy costs soared, many of those power plant owners are now losing millions of dollars as their plants remain offline.”

The New York woman who called police about a Black man asked her to put her dog on a leash, claiming that he was threatening her–resulting in a the term “Karen” shooting into popular culture as a pejorative term for overly-alarmed white women who unduly escalate otherwise common situations–has had the charges filed against her by prosecutors dropped, CNN reports.

Amy Cooper completed a therapy and education classes on racial equity, prompting prosecutors to drop the charges, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi told the court.  Cooper was facing a single charge of falsely reporting an incident in the third degree.

Cooper gained infamy for a May episode in Central Park when she  called police after Christian Cooper, a Black man unrelated to Amy Cooper, asked Amy Cooper to put her dog on a leash, as required in the wooded area of the park they were in.  Amy Cooper alleged in the 9-1-1 call that Christian Cooper was threatening her, although Christian Cooper–who was recording the interaction on his phone–neither approached Amy Cooper or said anything threatening. 

As much of the country is dealing with a massive winter storm, Brunswick County, North Carolina was hit by a suspected tornado overnight as temperatures spiked up twenty degrees overnight as a front rolled through the area.

NBC News reports three people were killed, ten injured and at least 50 homes were damaged as the tornado hit just before midnight 45 miles southwest of Wilmington.

Thousands were left without power in the county, where temperatures were expected to hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday after dropping into the 30s Monday.

“Rick Barron managed two of the most significant and scrutinized elections in Fulton County’s history without major incident, weathering conspiracy theories spread by former president Donald Trump, lawsuits, death threats, and a pandemic. But on Tuesday, the county’s board of registration and elections voted 3-2 in favor of firing Barron, going against the wishes of the Fulton election director’s staff, who in recent days signed onto a letter in support of their boss” WABE.org reports.

“In their letter, the staff described overcoming a pandemic, death threats, hostile poll watchers, a coronavirus outbreak in the county’s warehouse, and the death of a beloved employee to conduct a ‘fair and unbiased election.’ ‘The person who is responsible for our success, the County’s success amid all of this, is current Director Richard Barron who has shown his ability to guide, motivate, steer and maintain the course of integrity, honesty, and fairness,’ the staff wrote in their letter to the board. Still, voting to fire Barron were Democratic appointee Vernetta Keith Nuridden and Republican appointees Mark Wingate and Dr. Kathleen Ruth. In contrast, Aaron Johnson and board chair Mary Carole Cooney, an appointee of Fulton County commission chair Robb Pitts, voted in support of Barron.”

USA Today: “With the former Trump Plaza about to be demolished, this might seem like a good time to assess the legacy of the casino-hotel’s one-time operator. Only someone’s already done that, enthusiastically praising Donald Trump’s role in the gaming industry. ‘The Trump Organization enjoyed tremendous success in Atlantic City,’ this account gushes, ‘and Donald Trump has been commended for the timing of his exit from this business.’ At least that’s the view from The Trump Organization’s online history. But others see it differently, recalling 15 years of Boardwalk bombast, braggadocio, and business reversals. ‘This is the fitting end of Trump’s era,’ Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. said of the planned Wednesday implosion of Trump Plaza’s long-vacant hotel tower, which has even inspired nearby Caesar’s to promote a ‘stay and view’ Schadenfreude special offering guests a ‘front seat to Atlantic City history.'”

Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson has filed a civil lawsuit in Washington, DC against Donald Trump for his role in stoking a mob of domestic terrorists to attack the Capitol on January 6th, the Associated Press reports.

Using a Reconstruction-era law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Thompson also named Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, all of whom pushed the use of violence on January 6th as an attempt to install Trump into a second term as president after Trump lost the November election to President Joe Biden.

“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence,” the suit says. “It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”

Politico: “Distraught and exhausted parents are emerging as a new class of voters that could torment President Joe Biden – and the White House is moving quickly to head off the pain. Nearing a year into the pandemic, Biden’s advisers and allies recognize that they need to respond to the spiraling angst felt by families or risk driving them into the arms of waiting Republicans. It is a crucial test for Biden and Democrats as they try to consolidate their gains from the 2020 election. The pandemic has disrupted lives and exacerbated inequities and a raft of public and private surveys show clear political potholes and opportunities because of it. The coronavirus is spawning sweeping policy prescriptions from Democrats and Republicans alike, from billions in school reopening funds to the creation of a federal child allowance. And it’s prompting pollsters to loosely coin emerging voter demos like ‘women in chaos’ and ‘families in crisis.'”

“Within the GOP, there is a belief that the pandemic and resulting turmoil make Biden and Democratic incumbents especially vulnerable among those demographics. Republicans see room to capitalize on the grim public health and economic situation the White House inherited from Donald Trump by trying to put Democrats on the defensive for being too removed from the pain or too slow-moving to address it. GOP lawmakers, while offering no commitment to meaningfully engage on policy proposals, have responded to continued school closures by striking hard at Biden and Democrats, with more Republicans each week accusing the administration of scaling back their ambitious goals on everything from testing to school reopenings. ‘The science says that the schools should open, but instead of listening to the science, the Biden administration is caving in to Democrat special interest groups,’ RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told POLITICO. ‘As a result, the education of our children is suffering and hundreds of thousands of working moms are being forced out of the workforce.'”

ABC 7 in San Francisco has the story of Paul and Tenisha Tate Austin, Black homeowners in Marin County, California, who sank $400,000 into renovations on a house that had been worth about $900,000, only to have an appraiser value it at a little under $1 million. After they asked a White friend to pose as Tanisha and put photos of herself and family in the house, a second appraiser (also sent by the Austins’ mortgage lender) pegged the value at $1.482 million. Read more here.

Morning Consult: “Former President Donald Trump has emerged from his second impeachment trial relatively unscathed with Republican voters in yet another sign of his continued strength with the party’s base. According to a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted at the conclusion of the Senate’s weeklong trial, a majority of Republican voters (54 percent) said they would support Trump in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary election – matching the share who said the same in late November, before his standing dipped in a survey conducted shortly after the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.”

You know how you unfreeze frozen windmills?

By sending up a helicopter that shoots out chemicals onto the blades.

You need fuel for the helicopter.

Keep that in mind when thinking how “green” windmills are.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 16, 2021

“The Republican Party has a new bogeyman: cancel culture. One of former President Donald Trump’s lawyers described his second impeachment trial as ‘constitutional cancel culture.’ Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a leading voice among the most conservative members of the House, told a Fox News audience that fighting cancel culture is ‘the number one issue for the country to address today.’ The theme of this year’s CPAC? ‘America Uncanceled'” Huffington Post reports.

“A newly released HuffPost/YouGov poll, however, found only about half of Americans are even aware of the free speech-defeating monster lurking under the bed, though two-thirds of those who are aware are concerned about the threat. The poll, conducted in late January, found that 52% of Americans had heard of the term ‘cancel culture,’ a number that’s virtually unchanged since last fall. Only 22% of those who’ve heard the term – roughly a tenth of the public – say they’ve ever used it themselves. Among those who are familiar with the term, 67% say it is a ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ serious problem.”

Reuters: “U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Tuesday to press his case for a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in the political battleground state that helped secure his victory in last year’s presidential election. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week that Biden would do a CNN town hall with voters while visiting the state, hard hit by the pandemic and its economic fallout. ‘That’s an opportunity to hear directly from people about how the dual crises are impacting them,’ she told reporters. Biden has traveled to his home state of Delaware and to the Camp David presidential retreat since taking office on Jan. 20, but the trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, is his first on official business since becoming commander-in-chief.”

“The state, which has 10 Electoral College votes, sided with the Democratic president over Donald Trump, then the Republican incumbent, by a narrow margin in the November election. With the U.S. Senate having acquitted Trump in his second impeachment trial on Saturday, the White House is eager to press ahead with Biden’s agenda on the economy, fighting COVID-19, curbing climate change and addressing racial inequality. Biden wants Congress to pass his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in the coming weeks in order to get $1,400 stimulus checks out to Americans and bolster unemployment payments.”

The North Carolina Republican Party has voted to censure Senator Richard Burr for his vote to convict Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, stating that independent minds aren’t welcome in the GOP, CNN reports.

In a statement following the unanimous vote, the state GOP said that Burr should have voted “with the strong majority of Republicans in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate” who believe that the impeachment was unconstitutional even though the Senate voted that they had jurisdiction and Senators swore to hear the evidence impartially.

“Now that the Senate has voted to acquit … Trump, we hope that Democrats will set aside their divisive partisan agenda and focus on the American priorities of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, safely reopening schools and restarting the economy,” the committee said, trying to dismiss Trump’s activity to stoke violence, for which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible.”

The blue check brigade is trying to get my acct shutdown bcuz I don’t believe the election results.

If I don’t believe what they want me 2 believe, they are going 2 try & silence me.

So much 4 freedom of speech.

At some point, u have to ask what is behind the curtain?

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) February 16, 2021