All three major indices of the stock market hit record highs Monday morning, but neither President Joe Biden nor the White House posted a boastful text marking the milestone.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ topped their all-time highs Monday without any fanfare from the White House, which apparently understands the markets are only one measure of economic strength in the United States.

Texas Republican Congressman Ron Wright died Sunday after battling coronavirus and cancer, the Dallas Morning News reports.  He was 67 years old. Representing the Texas 6th Congressional District, Wright had just started his second term in office.

Wright tested positive for the coronavirus after the January 6th insurrectionist attack at the Capitol. While members of Congress were being protected in safe rooms, many Republicans refused to wear masks in the confined quarters. Wright will be remembered forever as one of the 128 Congressional Republicans who voted against Democracy on that day, even after the violent insurrection which left five dead. His words “Over the past few weeks, it has become clear that certain states have not complied with their own election laws, and a concerning amount of voter fraud has been brought to our attention” should be scrawled on his epitaph.

“John Matze, fired last month as CEO of social media app Parler, tells Axios on HBO that he feels ‘betrayed’ by investor Rebekah Mercer, the heiress daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer. Never before has a social media startup risen so high and fallen so far in such a short period of time. Matze says he first met Rebekah Mercer while doing IT consulting for her father’s firm, and remained in touch. ‘She seemed very nice … and I don’t judge anybody by the press that I see.’ Mercer helped fund Parler in 2018, and she became its controlling shareholder. Matze says she and her people began getting more operationally involved as the site gained traction around the 2020 presidential election” – Axios.

“Anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is box office smash in Japan. One politician was hoping some of its popularity would rub off, it seems, and borrowed the logo for a campaign poster. Demon Slayer, of course, is a massively successful anime and manga. Fukuoka politician Makoto Oniki (鬼木誠) copied the logo, substituting his name for Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃). As the kanji character for 鬼 appears in both the anime’s title and Oniki’s last name, this was a visual pun of sorts.”

“However, as ANN News reports, the politician was heavily criticized online for the unauthorized use of the logo and apologized. Oniki is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and a member of the National Diet. ‘I have earnestly come to grips with any unpleasantness I have caused the creator [of Demon Slayer], the publisher, and fans,’ stated Oniki. ‘I am truly sorry.’ The campaign posters featuring the logo have been removed” – Kotaku.

Chris Hayes: “The republican party is radicalizing against democracy. This is the central political fact of our moment. Instead of organizing its coalition around shared policy goals, the GOP has chosen to emphasize hatred and fear of its political opponents, who – they warn – will destroy their supporters and the country. Those Manichaean stakes are used to justify every effort to retain power, and make keeping power the GOP’s highest purpose. We are living with a deadly example of just how far those efforts can go, and things are likely to get worse.”

“At the same time, the Republican Party is moderating on policy. On a host of issues, the left is winning. It’s not a rout – and ideological battles continue – but public opinion is trending left. Yesterday’s progressive heresy has become today’s unremarkable consensus. On top of that, Democrats have established a narrow but surprisingly durable electoral majority, holding control of the House, winning back the Senate, and taking the presidency by 7 million votes. And so the Biden era of American politics is shaping up as a contest between the growing ideological hegemony of liberalism, and the intensifying opposition of a political minority that has proved willing to engage in violence in order to hold on to power. This fight isn’t ultimately about policy, where the gaps are narrowing. It’s about whether the United States will live up to the promise of democracy – and on that crucial question, we’ve rarely been so divided.”

“An overwhelming majority of Americans, 70%, say they believe Biden respects democratic institutions at least a fair amount. But there is a stark political split with about 96% of Democrats saying Biden respects such institutions, compared with about 42% of Republicans. Those are still much higher marks than Trump earned: 62% say the former president has little or no respect for democratic traditions or institutions. That view is held by 93% of Democrats and, notably, 27% of Republicans” – AP.

Thank you to the 37,000 grassroots donors who stepped up.

Now, it's my turn.

Let's get to work https://t.co/6ZiSPrhnpS pic.twitter.com/rvjKE6z0Y3

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) February 8, 2021

AP: “When he was Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen was hellbent on silencing Stormy Daniels, even arranging a hush-money payment to the porn actress that landed him in federal prison. Now, as one of many of the former president’s insiders-turned-critics, Cohen is literally broadcasting Daniels’ story – including intimate new details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Seeking to bury the hatchet, Cohen interviews Daniels in the latest episode of his podcast, ‘Mea Culpa,’ in which the two commiserate over life-altering experiences with Trump and his recent departure from office. ‘My battle is just now starting,’ Daniels tells Cohen in their first ever conversation, referring to litigation she said had been in a holding pattern before Trump left office. ‘People are really upset, and they’re just going to get more pissed off at me.’ Cohen, in keeping with the title of his program, apologizes for ‘the needless pain’ he put Daniels through when he arranged a $130,000 payment during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged dalliance with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.”

“The hourlong interview also includes graphic descriptions of Daniels’ 2006 sexual encounter with Trump – details she said supports the veracity of her claims. She calls the encounter ‘the worst 90 seconds of my life, for sure, because it just made me hate myself.’ While she did not feel ‘physically threatened,’ she said she had not expected to have sex with Trump and, at one point, thought about how to escape the room, thinking ‘I could definitely outrun him.’ She repressed details of the rendezvous for years, she said, adding the dynamics only came into focus after she saw the movie ‘Bombshell’ about the sexual harassment women underwent in meetings with former Fox News executive Roger Ailes. ‘I didn’t say anything for years because I didn’t remember,’ she said.”

“Democrats are plowing forward with plans to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package. And if Republicans don’t join them, they won’t forget it. Already, there’s talk about midterm attack ads portraying Republicans as willing to slash taxes for the wealthy but too stingy to cut checks for people struggling during the deadly pandemic. And Biden’s aides and allies are vowing not to make the same mistakes as previous administrations going into the midterms elections. They are pulling together plans to ensure Americans know about every dollar delivered and job kept because of the bill they’re crafting. And there is confidence that the Covid-19 relief package will ultimately emerge not as a liability for Democrats, but as an election year battering ram.”

“‘This is one of those rare instances – maybe not exceedingly rare, but it doesn’t happen often – where the best policy perfectly aligns with the politics,’ said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a Biden ally. ‘If I’m a candidate in 2022 running for the House or Senate, I think I’d want to be able to say we’ve had a robust Covid-19 relief bill, we raised the minimum wage, we made progress on health care, we’ve started to make progress on combating climate change and a whole range of issues candidates would want to run on.’ Over the first weeks of the new administration, White House officials stressed that they are singularly focused on moving the “rescue” legislation and unprecedented response to the pandemic through Congress. Biden and advisers insist they would prefer Republican cooperation on the $1.9 trillion legislation, which calls for direct checks, money for school reopenings and funds for a robust vaccine effort. But their eyes have also started to drift toward what comes after the package becomes law: a major political undertaking to cement the bill’s popularity among voters” – Politico.

New York Times: “A 26-year-old Michigan man died on Saturday after he was hit with shrapnel from ‘a small cannon type device’ that exploded when it was fired in celebration at a baby shower, the Michigan State Police said. The man, Evan Thomas Silva, a guest at the party, was about 10 to 15 feet from the device when it blew up in the backyard of a home. Metal shrapnel hit Mr. Silva, three parked cars and the garage where the shower was being held, the police said.”

“Mr. Silva was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich., where he died from his injuries, the police said. No charges have been filed and the authorities are still piecing together how the celebratory event turned deadly, according to Lt. Liz Rich, a police spokeswoman. The night Mr. Silva died, he was among the guests in Gaines Township, Mich., near Flint, attending a baby shower – not a gender reveal party – Lieutenant Rich said. The party was taking place at the home of a family friend of the couple being honored, she said. Only four or five people were in the backyard of the home around 7:30 p.m., when the cannon exploded. The state police, Michigan State Police Bomb Squad and the Gaines Township Fire Department were among the authorities that responded to the scene, the police said. Investigators are focusing their attention on whether the device was used properly or malfunctioned, Lieutenant Rich said.”

“US officials: Biden administration moves to rejoin UN Human Rights Council in another reversal of Trump foreign policies” reports AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller.

… because there were *so many* Black people in the crowd.

Antifa and BLM attack DC like they helped organize the January 6 attack on Congress. However, so far their role is being concealed.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) February 7, 2021

On a last-minute touchdown run by American Staff Terrier and Dutch Shepherd mix Big Boss Paulie, Team Ruff shocked the pseud0-sports world by vaulting Team Ruff over Team Fluff to take the 17th Puppy Bowl in a shootout, CNN reports.

Down by three with time running, Big Boss Paulie scampered into the endzone as time an out to give Team Ruff a 73-69 victory.  For his efforts, Big Boss Paulie received the “Chewy Lombarky Trophy,” for the Most Valuable Barker.  Seventy puppies from 22 shelters participated in the “game,” which also featured a halftime show by cats.

Dr. Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, made an appearance during the event with First Dogs Major and Champ.  Major is thought to be the first shelter dog to occupy the White House.

The Independent: “Gab chief executive Andrew Torba says Donald Trump does not use the social media platform, after false reports in the media claimed that he does. In a post on Gab, Mr Torba blames ‘dopey advisers like Jared Kushner’ for keeping the former president off the self-described ‘free speech social network’. Reports circulated on Friday that Mr Trump had returned to social media after being banned from Twitter and Facebook and following the demise of Parler.”

“In fact, the account believed to belong to the former president is not his. It is thought that confusion arose from the presence of a blue check mark indicating the account was verified. Mr Torba explained in a post on gab: ‘@realdonaldtrump is and always has been a mirror archive of POTUS’ tweets and statements that we’ve run for years. We’ve always been transparent about this and would obviously let people know if the President starts using it.'”

The government of South Africa is stopping the introduction of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in the nation because the company’s vaccine has not proven effective against the South African variant, the New York Times reports.

The South African variant, known as B.1.351, is more contagious than the European variant that swept across the United States.  It’s the dominant version in southern African, and cases of it have been identified in South Carolina and Maryland.

Clinical trials of the vaccine has been shown to be less effective in stopping mild to moderate cases of the strain.  It also showed that people who had developed antibodies from previous infections of different strains did not have sufficient immunity against the South African strain.

The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate has threatened the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors with contempt if the county officials don’t hand over all absentee ballots and voting machines used in the November 2020 election so the Senate can do its own recount, USA Today reports.

Even though the state certified its election results, Republicans in the state still believe there was malfeasance, primarily in the Democratic-leading Maricopa County, which has repeatedly been the target of baseless conspiracy theories that the counting of mail-in ballots was skewed to favor President Joe Biden.

Some of the Republicans state senators have threatened to arrest the local officials if they do not turn over the machines and ballots.  The rare, if not first-of-its-kind, demand by the Senate for local election records continues a Quixotic attempt to undermine state election results which show Donald Trump lost the state.

Recent rumors have suggested that Staples – the office supply store chain tolerated by shoppers worldwide – is actually a front for a global human trafficking ring where underage sex slaves are bought and sold by politicians and celebrities. These rumors are unconfirmed, but they sound like something our audience might be into, so we’re going to report on this continually going forward. We’re not saying Staples is definitely a human trafficking ring, we’re just asking questions, because that’s what real journalism is. Asking questions.

We’ll probably do five to ten articles a day on Staples here, citing all sorts of different “experts” on human trafficking (but only ones with questionable histories of Anti-Semitic social media posts) until this picks up enough steam to become “Staplesgate” and National Zero becomes renowned as the “leading proponent of Staplesgate conspiracy theories” in the mainstream media. Then when some maniac goes on a shooting rampage in a Staples store somewhere in Colorado, killing a dozen employees and shoppers, we’ll say that this is horrible but obviously his mental illness is to blame. Or he played too many violent video games. But our reporting on Staplesgate won’t have anything to do with it, even if it’s specifically cited in his manifesto.

“Kevin McCarthy tried to get Liz Cheney to apologize for voting to impeach former President Trump before last week’s highly anticipated House GOP conference meeting – a request she refused, two people with direct knowledge told Axios. Cheney rolled the dice, refusing her leader’s ask and counting on her supporters to keep her as conference chair, the party’s No. 3 post in the House. Newly empowered, she’s now embracing her role as the Republicans’ Trump critic-in-chief.”

“McCarthy, who hesitated in the first place about holding a vote to oust Cheney, told her privately hours before Wednesday’s caucus meeting that their members wanted to hear her say she was sorry. ‘Several members have asked me to apologize for the vote, they’ve asked my colleagues who also voted to impeach to apologize for the vote,’ Cheney (R-Wyo.) told her colleagues'” – Axios.