The heir to a frozen food fortune says we shouldn’t listen to Melinda Gates, an honored world health advocate, about the coronavirus vaccine safety because she’s just “the wife of a billionaire” who has no background in science (except for funding and running multiple science foundations and working on public health issues).

I guess knowing how to tie a bow tie is FAR more authoritative.   (By the way, Tucker Carlson’s not really a journalist, either, given that this was his top story, not the fourth presidential impeachment trial in US history. Even Fox News lawyers say Tucker shouldn’t be taken seriously.)

https://youtu.be/DMV5hKYUhLs

The government of Ukraine has released the transcript of a phone call Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had with officials in Kyiv as he pushed Ukrainian leaders to help his client in his reelection campaign, Time Magazine reports in an exclusive.

“Let these investigations go forward,” Giuliani urged the Ukrainians in the 40-minute phone call from July 22, 2019. “Get someone to investigate this.”  The phone call with Giuliani was part of the January 2020 impeachment trial of Trump, who himself pressured the Ukrainian president to help his campaign by opening an investigation into now-President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

“My only motive – it isn’t to get anybody in trouble who doesn’t deserve to be in trouble,” Giuliani lied. “For our country’s sake and your country’s sake, we [need to] get all these facts straight. We fix them and we put it behind us.”

“Senator Susan Collins on Castor: ‘I was perplexed by the first attorney, who did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take.'” –Patricia Zengerie of Reuters

Politico: “Few Trump-era mysteries are as intriguing as what the 45th president said to Vladimir Putin in at least a dozen rambling, off-the-cuff calls and meetings over four years. Understanding what was said between the two could help illuminate whether Trump ever revealed sensitive information or struck any deals with the Kremlin leader that could take the new administration by surprise. Now that President Joe Biden is in the White House, he can see for himself.”

“‘They don’t need our approval to see those [records],’ a former Trump White House official said, referring to the new Biden national security team. ‘Biden owns all the call materials. There is only one president at a time.’ The Biden White House did not comment on whether it had seen the content of the calls. But so far, at least, the National Security Council has not registered any complaints with their ability to access relevant call records from the previous administration. ‘It is a national security priority to find out what Trump said to Putin’ over his four years in office, said one former national security official who is close to the new president. ‘Some things, like what happened in some face-to-face meetings where no American translator or note-taker was present, may never be fully known. But I would be very surprised if the new national security team were not trying to access’ the call records.”

PepsiCo announced the new name for the brand that is currently known as it’s Aunt Jemima line.  The products will now come from Pearl Milling Company, NBC News reports.

The name comes from an original location for the company.  “Though new to store shelves, Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima,” the company said in a relief.

The 130-year-old Aunt Jemima brand is being retired due to the racial stereotypes projected by the name and the character portrayed on the product packaging.  PepsiCo announced the change in June, and the new branding will be on shelves by summer.

Lead attorney for Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team Bruce Castor said, “I thought we had a good day” upon being asked how the first day of the Senate trial went, even though legal critics and Senators largely panned their presentation.

According to CNN, Castor said he doesn’t expect any changes to the presentation the Trump team planned for the trial.  “No, I set up the outline a week ago and it will not change,” Castor said without noting that they were just hired for the case a week ago after Trump original legal team quit suddenly.

Senators in general were less than impressed with the presentation set forth by the two lawyers representing Trump.  One, Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, found their arguments so weak he voted with Democrats and five other Republicans to continue the trial.

“Former President Trump was unhappy with Bruce Castor’s opening argument on the Senate floor this afternoon, according to two people familiar with his reaction.

“Trump was almost screaming as Castor made meandering arguments that struggled to get at the heart of his defense team’s argument, which is supposed to be over the constitutionality of holding a trial for a president no longer in office.

“Given the legal team was assembled a little over a week ago, it went as expected, one of the sources told CNN. Trump’s allies were flabbergasted when Trump’s attorneys switched speaking slots at the last minute.” –CNN

A 67-year-old Buffalo, Minnesota man opened fire on a health clinic in the town apparently because he was unhappy about medical care he had received.  He shooting spree left five wounded, the Associated Press reports.

Gregory Paul Ulrich opened fire at the an Allina clinic in Buffalo, a town of around 15,000 people.  All five of the people wounded were patients at the clinic.  Police believe Ulrich also used explosives in the attack and called the FBI in to disarm potential IEDs at the scene.

“None of the information that we have from our past contact with him would indicate that he was unhappy with, or would direct his anger at, anyone other than people within the facilities where he had been treated or where they had attempted to give treatment,” police Chief Pat Budke said.

“The president’s lawyer just rambled on and on… I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was not one of the finest I’ve seen” – Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).

Detroit Metro Times: “Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey suggested the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a ‘hoax’ perpetuated by opponents of former President Donald Trump. The state Senate’s top Republican made the bizarre and unfounded claim in a video-recorded meeting at a diner last week with leaders of the Hillsdale County Republican Party, who were discussing censuring him for not taking a bold enough stand against Democrats. ‘That wasn’t Trump’s people. That’s been a hoax from day one. That was all prearranged,’ Shirkey, a Clarklake Republican, said of the riot. ‘It was arranged by somebody who was funding it. … It was all staged.'”

“There’s no evidence that anyone but Trump supporters were behind the riot. More than 200 people have been charged with storming the Capitol, and several of them have been accused of orchestrating the insurrection. The alleged masterminds are Trump supporters, the FBI and Justice Department have said, and Trump himself told the rally at a crowd he was holding earlier that day to march on the Capitol. According to leaked cell phone location data, about 40 percent of the phones tracked near the rally stage on the National Mall during Trump’s rally speeches were also found in and around the Capitol during the siege. Shirkey insinuated that even Sen. Mitch McConnell ‘was part of’ a staged insurrection. ‘I think they wanted to have a mess,’ Shirkey said. ‘They would have had to recruit this other group of people.’ Shirkey also suggested a darker conspiracy but offered no evidence. ‘I think there are people above elected officials,’ Shirkey said. ‘There are puppeteers.'”

Half-term Alaska governor and woman desperately trying to hold on to relevance Sarah Palin went on the TeeVee chat show “Good Morning, Britain” to peddle the claim that the November 2020 election was fraught with “shenanigans” that Donald Trump rightfully questioned.

Ms. Palin claimed that she regularly saw “shenanigans” during elections in Alaska when she was governor.  Palin, however, was only governor for one mid-term election, as she resigned halfway through her term after losing her bid for Vice President in 2008.

https://youtu.be/uoB2JcvQxiw

“Biden will eventually invite Trump to the White House for a presidential portrait unveiling. Trump refused to extend this traditional courtesy to Barack Obama, but Biden will restart it. ‘I have not been given any indication that we would break with tradition in that regard,’ Psaki said” – Politico.

Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com who was one of the last of Donald Trump’s allies to support his attempts to overturn the November 2020 election, describes the excessive drinking by Trump lawyer and Nosferatu cosplayer Rudy Giuliani.

“First, in the 90 minutes between 11:30 PM and 1 AM, Mayor Giuliani imbibed three triple scotches on ice,” Byrne describes in his blog relating the actions of Trump’s inner circle.  “Those relating this story could not vouch for what he had drunk before 11:30.”

“As a professional courtesy to opposing counsel, Dominion does not oppose the motion for extension of time filed by counsel for Sidney Powell and Sidney Powell P.C. But the record should reflect that: (1) Powell refused to respond to requests from Plaintiffs’ counsel about executing waivers of service of process (which would have extended the time to respond to the complaint); and (2) Powell evaded service a process for weeks, forcing Dominion to incur unnecessary expenses for extraordinary measures to effect service, including hiring private investigators and pursuing Powell across state lines” – Dominion counsel’s answer to the Kraken’s request for more time to prepare defense via Reuters reporter Brad Heath.

In a first, a spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates successfully entered orbit around Mars Tuesday, marking the first interplanetary mission for an Arab country, the Associated Press reports.

The spacecraft, named Amal which is Arabic for Hope, is the first of three missions from Earth to arrive at Mars this week, with spacecraft from the United States and China scheduled to arrive later this week.  The missions were planned to take advantage of the close conjunction of the two planets, allowing them to cut down on travel time and fuel usage.

The UAE becomes the fifth Earth-bound nation to send a probe to the Red Planet.  The success of a Mars spacecraft is an iffy prospect:  about 60% of the probes sent to the planet have failed, either overshooting their target or plummeting to the planet surface uncontrolled. 

“White House just told governors Pfizer is going to be able to deliver 50 million more doses this quarter than originally promised, per people on call. The feds are also working to ensure/speed distribution of second doses, per sources, essentially transferring these doses to first-dose allocations if they’re not administered within about 40 days. The Pfizer increase will count the sixth dose originally not factored in, so that’s responsible for some of the windfall” reports the Washington Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker.

Jonathan Chait: “On the evening of January 6, after a Trumpist mob had stormed the Capitol, Senator Lindsey Graham stood on the Senate floor and finally detached himself from the president he had so obediently served: ‘Count me out, enough is enough.’ But the thing about Lindsey Graham running away is that he always comes back. After his brief and apparently unpleasant experience with independence, Graham has returned to his familiar, comfortable place at Trump’s feet. ‘I think he’s going to be a viable leader of the Republican Party,’ he gushes. ‘He’s very popular. And he’s going to get acquitted.'”

“Graham might be the most overtly comic illustration of his party’s turnabout on impeachment, but he is also perfectly representative of its dominant faction. The post-Trump GOP is split three ways. The party’s tiny, small-d democratic wing on its left has fully broken with the authoritarian former president (Representative Adam Kinzinger continues to urge conviction). The party’s far-right wing, with members like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, is sinking deeper into the Trump personality cult. In the middle are the soft authoritarians, whose initial and genuine revulsion at the violent insurrection has given way to weary cynicism. As they have worked through their feelings, first rebelling against Trump and then suppressing their own rebellion, they have redirected their anger away from Trump and toward the Democrats. Trump’s actions may have been wrong, even impeachable, but it is also wrong for Democrats to try to impeach him. Their curious reasoning is that, since Republicans won’t vote to convict Trump, impeachment won’t punish him. The soft authoritarian Republicans consider their unwillingness to break with Trump and offend his voters a fixed and nonnegotiable fact of political life. Forcing them to confront Trump’s crimes therefore serves no purpose other than embarrassing them.”

“Everyone makes mistakes.  Everyone deserves a mulligan once in awhile,” Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee said on “Fox & Friends” of Donald Trump’s encouragement of the January 6th domestic terrorist attack at the Capitol to undermine the Constitution of the United States, because it’s just like hooking a tee shot into the pond.

https://youtu.be/itMLIVjFIwo

“Then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed more than 100 times that Democrats had ‘rigged’ or ‘stolen’ the 2020 election ahead of January’s deadly insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, a HuffPost analysis found. In reviewing all of Trump’s tweets and speeches between Election Day on Nov. 3 and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, HuffPost mapped out the rhetoric his followers absorbed as their defiance against President Joe Biden’s win mounted” Huffington Post reports.

“Over the course of those two months, Trump – the most powerful politician in the country and, arguably, the entire world – lied that the election was rigged at least 68 times and that it was stolen or in the process of being stolen at least 35 times. He made claims of voter fraud and ballot-counting irregularities more than 250 times, specifically making baseless claims that voting machines tossed or changed votes at least 45 times. The Justice Department and election officials nationwide rejected such claims, stating there was no evidence of fraud or irregularities that would have overturned the election results. Nonetheless, Trump falsely declared victory at least 40 times, often claiming he won in a ‘landslide.’ He peddled these nuggets of disinformation during press conferences and rallies watched by millions of people, or on Twitter to over 88 million followers. HuffPost’s review included Trump’s many retweets, which can often be interpreted as endorsements.”

CNBC: “The prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate plan to introduce new evidence against him, senior aides said Tuesday. And aides said it is possible that Republican senators will decide to vote to convict Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol complex, and bar him from holding the presidency ever again, once they hear that evidence.”

“‘Once they see that this President did in fact incite a violent insurrection in order to hold onto power, I think it very well may be the case that reluctant senators change their mind and vote to convict,’ aides told reporters, hours before the trial was set to kick off. But those aides would not give any details of that new evidence against Trump. ‘Stay tuned,’ they said.”