Today’s Left:

Canceled Senator Feinstein for not being woke enough.

Canceled Gina Carano for being too conservative.

And now? They’ve canceled Chris Harrison from The Bachelor for wanting to hear both sides of the story.

Who’s next?

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 14, 2021

Ron Brownstein, CNN: “Congressional Republicans have crystallized an ominous question by rejecting consequences for Donald Trump over the January 6 riot in his impeachment trial and welcoming conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia into their caucus: Has the extremist wing of the GOP coalition grown too big for the party to confront?”

“Sanctioning Trump or Greene offered the party an opportunity to draw a bright line against extremist groups and violence as a means of advancing political goals. But the vast majority of congressional Republicans conspicuously rejected the opportunity to construct such a barrier through their decisions to oppose impeachment or conviction for Trump over his role in the US Capitol attack and to support Greene during the recent Democratic effort to strip her of her committee assignments. Those choices unfolded against a backdrop of recent polls that found a stunningly high percentage of rank-and-file Republican voters endorsed anti- small-d democratic sentiments, including the belief that ‘the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.'”

This storm is very dangerous. Please be careful and be safe. https://t.co/2n4nZYooyi

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 14, 2021

Toronto Star: “The two Saudi emissaries who visited Omar Abdulaziz wanted him home. It was the spring of 2018 and Abdulaziz, a high-profile Saudi dissident and activist living in exile in Montreal, was developing a huge following on social media. While studying at McGill University, he had started a satirical news show on YouTube that took aim at Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. It was getting millions of views. The two emissaries – one a lawyer, the other a TV host – suggested he could have his own show and become the ‘voice of the youth’ back in Saudi Arabia, he recalls. But the conversation had clear overtones. One of the men told Abdulaziz, who secretly recorded their conversations, there were two options: Either return home or he ‘goes to jail.'”

“Why not at least go to the embassy to get your passport renewed, they implored. He never went. Looking back, he says he’s haunted by the thought of what might have happened next. It was only a few months later that Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. ‘I don’t know what was the plan – killing me, kidnapping me, taking me away from Canada? I don’t know,’ he told the Star.”

“Forsyth County Sheriff’s investigators are asking for the public’s help in locating a theft suspect who reportedly stole a unique item. The alleged theft happened on Sunday around 7:30 a.m. According to detectives, a suspect drove to the back of a business located at the 4900 block of Atlanta Highway and took $25,000 worth of lumber equipment. During the theft, the suspect allegedly took a firewood processor. The Canadian firewood processor is the only processor in the state of Georgia, according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office” – CBS46.

https://twitter.com/AlaaMubarak_/status/1360914288488120321

“The FBI Boston Division is continuously working to raise awareness about online romance scams, also called confidence fraud. In this type of fraud, scammers take advantage of people looking for companionship or romantic partners on dating websites, apps, chat rooms, and social networking sites with the sole goal of obtaining access to their financial or personal identifying information. Romance scams are prevalent, especially during this time of year. Increased isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in more people looking for love online.”

“The criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do. They spend hours honing their skills, relying on well-rehearsed scripts that have been used repeatedly and successfully, and sometimes keep journals on their victims to better understand how to manipulate and exploit them. In some cases, victims may be recruited, unknowingly, to transfer money illegally on behalf of others. ‘The consequences of these scams are often financially and emotionally devastating to victims who rarely get their money back and may not have the ability to recover from the financial loss,’ said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division. ‘While we recognize that it may be embarrassing for victims to report this type of fraud, it’s important to do so, so that the FBI and our law enforcement partners can do everything in our power to ensure these online imposters are held accountable'” – FBI press release.

“The Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party Michael Whatley released the following statement following Senator Burr’s contradictory impeachment vote. ‘North Carolina Republicans sent Senator Burr to the United States Senate to uphold the Constitution and his vote today to convict in a trial that he declared unconstitutional is shocking and disappointing'” – The entirety of the North Carolina Republican Party’s press release on Senator Richard Burr’s vote to convict Trump, which we’re guessing would’ve been longer if that Whatley dipshit wasn’t so flustered.

Lindsey Graham told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday “My friend Richard Burr just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs” because she’s obviously extremely qualified in his book.

Graham also thinks Kamala Harris should be impeached because something something rioters who got bailed out in 2020 while she was a Senator and Vice Presidential candidate. I’d imagine it’s one of those things that should be taken as an article of faith in MAGA Land that the rest of us know nothing about, kind of like that Hillary-Uranium science fiction story from back in 2017.

On Saturday CNN reported that Former President Trump is worried about criminal charges over the Capitol riot, describing sources as saying “Trump has mainly been quiet since leaving the White House last month, and his silence has been in part related to those concerns.”

Some legal commentators have said this is unlikely, mainly because the First Amendment creates an extremely high bar for charges of criminal incitement, so it is interesting that the most invincible man alive thinks he could be in trouble. Makes one wonder maybe there’s something he knows that we don’t about his involvement in the attacks and he’s terrified of investigators poking around.

“Archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old brewery that could produce thousands of litres of beer in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry said. The site in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate likely dates back to the reign of King Narmer around 3,100 BC, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Dr. Matthew Adams, one of the leaders of the Egyptian-American mission that made the discovery, said they believe the beer was used in royal burial rituals for Egypt’s earliest kings” Reuters reports.

“The brewery, which had a production capacity of 22,400 litres, was split into eight sections each containing 40 clay pots used to warm mixtures of grain and water. Officials are keen to show off newly discovered artefacts as they try to revive visitor numbers after Egypt’s tourism industry received a painful blow during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Daily Beast: “As federal authorities crack down on the far right after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the movement’s leaders have found new sources of suspicion: each other. In the Trumpist ‘America First’ movement and the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys, alliances are fracturing as extremists brand each other as potential informants. Now racist live-streamers are accusing their former comrades of attempting to turn over followers to law enforcement, while Proud Boys chapters are splintering from the national organization over similar fears.”

“Until the FBI started closing in, white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Patrick Casey were the two most prominent figures in the racist ‘America First’ movement. The pair built up shared audiences on live-streaming platforms, and cheered as their fans, nicknamed ‘groypers’ after an obese version of the cartoon Pepe the Frog, heckled more moderate Trump allies at conservative events. But the federal heat is on after Fuentes received roughly $250,000 in a much-scrutinized bitcoin transfer, then appeared outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. The FBI is reportedly investigating the bitcoin transfer, though Fuentes has not faced charges over the money or the riot.”

A 78-year-old woman died within minutes of receiving a coronavirus vaccine at a mass inoculation site on Friday in California, collapsing in an observation area, NBC News reports.

The woman, who had a history of heart disease, informed workers at the Kaiser-run site that she was not feeling well.  As a health care worker was checking on her, she lost consciousness.  Medical personnel attended to her and started CPR, but she could not be revived and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

While a cause of death has not yet been determined, medical professionals say that her death and the vaccine injection appear to be coincidental.  The woman did not show any signs of an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis after the shot.  

Trump attorney Michael van der Veen continued his histrionics shown on the Senate floor during an interview with CBS News reporter Lana Zak, misquoting the reporter, lying about a statement he made during the trial, and finally throwing his mic on the ground in a hissy fit.

https://youtu.be/0ewCoz65Hdw

At one point, van der Veen went off on a tangent challenging the integrity of journalists and blaming news outlets for the division in the nation.  “When I watch the news, I watch one station, and it’s raining.  I watch another station at the same time, and it’s sunny.”  (van der Veek never explained why he just didn’t look out a window.)

Zak listed three pieces of evidence van der Veen claimed House managers faked during the trial:  a Twitter certification mark, changing a date from 2021 to 2020 and edited video clips.

New York Times: “The president who emerged from last year’s impeachment trial feeling emboldened and used his office to take revenge against those he blamed for the charges against him emerges from this one defeated after one term and secluded behind closed doors in Florida with no government power and an uncertain political and legal future. He forced most Republican senators to stick with him in the trial, but few of them defended his actions, citing constitutional reasons for their votes. No one condemned him in more forceful terms on Saturday than one of those who voted to acquit him, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader who for four years held his tongue and worked in tandem with Mr. Trump but has since washed his hands of him. Mr. McConnell accused Mr. Trump of a ‘disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty’ in trying to overturn an election and setting a mob loose on Congress to block the formalization of his defeat and he methodically demolished the former president’s defense point by point.”

“‘There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,’ Mr. McConnell said. ‘No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.'”

White House deputy press secretary T. J. Ducklo resigned Saturday after it was revealed that he threatened to ruin her career for researching a story about his relationship with a Politico reporter, WUSA CBS-9 in Washington reports.

Ducklo reportedly used sexist slurs when talking with Politico reporter Tara Palmeri about his relationship with political reporter and commentator Alexi McCammond.

In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said administration officials had a discussion with Ducklo after which he offered his resignation, which the White House accepted.

A pickup truck driver traveling on an ramp overpass on an interstate interchanged plunged 70 feet off an overpass on snowy and icy roads, but the driver luckily survived the accident, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (The accident occurs on the left side of the frame.)

https://youtu.be/OqYFwATWI9w

“Shocking stat: 57 senators who voted to convict Trump represent 76.7 MILLION more Americans than 43 senators who voted to acquit.  Senators voting to impeach represent 61.6% of Americans (202 million) Senators voting to acquit represent 38.2% of Americans (125 million).” —Ari Berman of MSNBC