Washington Post: “President Donald Trump’s onslaught of falsehoods about the November election misled millions of Americans, undermined faith in the electoral system, sparked a deadly riot – and has now left taxpayers with a large, and growing, bill. The total so far: $519 million.”

“The costs have mounted daily as government agencies at all levels have been forced to devote public funds to respond to actions taken by Trump and his supporters, according to a Washington Post review of local, state and federal spending records, as well as interviews with government officials. The expenditures include legal fees prompted by dozens of fruitless lawsuits, enhanced security in response to death threats against poll workers, and costly repairs needed after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. That attack triggered the expensive massing of thousands of National Guard troops on the streets of Washington amid fears of additional extremist violence. Although more than $480 million of the total is attributable to the military’s estimated expenses for the troop deployment through mid-March, the financial impact of the president’s refusal to concede the election is probably much higher than what has been documented thus far, and the true costs may never be known.”

Disgraced Trump advisor Michael Flynn gave a number of QAnon followers a slap of reality on a far-right podcast released Saturday, telling listeners that the QAnon’s long-anticipated “Plan” is nothing but “nonsense,” DeadState reports.

Asked by host Doug Billings on his The Right Side podcast if Donald Trump ever signed off on enacting the Insurrection Act–a key aspect of the QAnon conspiracy theory that would authorize the military to arrest tens of thousands of people–Flynn responded bluntly, “No.  Nonsense.”

Billings then asked if the military is currently running the country, a new part of the theory now that President Joe Biden has been inaugurated.  “More nonsense,” Flynn said.  “There’s no ‘Plan’.”  The Plan is a talking point and mantra of QAnon adherent:  “Trust the Plan,” they say.

If Trump asked me how to win again. I would run on being impeached twice. They are about to give him super powers. They just aren’t smart enough to see it. It’s why we laughed at Mike Tyson in the Hangover. They just don’t get it yet. They are about to make him a martyr.

— Brad Parscale (@parscale) February 6, 2021

New York Times: “In Washington’s respectable circles, Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, is a discredited and dishonored ex-general, a once-esteemed military intelligence officer who went off the rails ideologically and then was fired a mere 24 days into the Trump administration for lying to the F.B.I. about contacts with the Russian ambassador. As if he cared.”

“Where others see disgrace, Mr. Flynn, 62, has found redemption. Recast by former President Donald J. Trump’s most ardent supporters as a MAGA martyr, Mr. Flynn has embraced his role as the man who spent four years unjustly ensnared in the Russia investigation. He was one of the most extreme voices in Mr. Trump’s 77-day push to overturn the election, a campaign that will be under scrutiny as the former president’s second impeachment trial gets underway next week. Mr. Flynn went so far as to suggest using the military to rerun the vote in crucial battleground states. At one point, Mr. Trump even floated the idea of bringing Mr. Flynn back into the administration, as chief of staff or possibly F.B.I. director, people familiar with the conversations told The New York Times.”

“Former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) revealed he and other Republicans have begun discussing whether to form a ‘new party or a new faction’ in the wake of ‘ugly populism that we’ve witnessed the last four years under President Trump’ in a new interview. Speaking with CNN on Saturday, the former GOP lawmaker and longtime critic of Donald Trump shared how he had recently participated in a summit in which the idea of conservatives ‘united around core principles like democracy’ forming their own party had been discussed. ‘A new faction within the party or one that operates independently of the party,” he said. ‘That’s the conversation that many Republicans are having.'”

“Asked whether he was concerned about Republicans like him ‘surrendering the party to a fringe element’ of extremists and conspiracy theorists, the former congressman said: ‘Well, I think that’s a real fear.’ Reports in recent weeks have indicated tens of thousands of former GOP members officially removed themselves from the party following the deadly riots at the US Capitol. Mr Trump was impeached by the House for a second time for fomenting the insurrection, which left at least five people dead, including United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick” – The Independent.

The Bulwark: “Country music at its best is Russian literature set to song. Heartache from marriages gone awry or anxiety about losing a job keep the music in tune with the very real pains of living in a modern regime. Such themes speak to the souls of Americans who live in rural areas or who work with their hands. The pains of living in rural America and among the working class have never been more real, especially in the last generation. Scholars write of ‘deaths of despair’ from suicide or drug use or alcoholism among white Americans without college degrees. Manufacturing, mining, and other working-class jobs have fled. Marriage rates have plummeted over the last half-century, as has church attendance. The decades-long climb in the rate of out-of-wedlock births, especially among the less well educated, has far-reaching consequences: Many of today’s rural whites don’t know both of their parents, much less their grandparents.”

“It should be a golden age of songwriting, with sad songs dominating the airwaves. Instead, Nashville’s corporate Music Row acts like nothing has happened. Today’s bubble-gum country claptrap depicts easy good times and cheap thrills. Songs about drinking a beer on a tailgate on a dirt road after a Friday football game are in. Songs about divorce, alcoholism, prison, or drugs – once staples of country songs – are almost nonexistent on country radio. Mainstream Nashville just isn’t producing them. Of course, worries about the direction of country music are as old as the country-music industry. Many of the country greats of bygone days who gave voice to authentic concerns were Nashville outsiders (think Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson), and some classic songs bemoan ‘Murder on Music Row’ and how fakes have ‘Gone Country.’ Today’s disconnect goes beyond instruments and outfits. It goes to the connection between country music and its audience, between country music and the destiny of the nation. Nashville betrays its place in our polity when it ignores the deep despondency of the white working class and rural America.”

Washington Times: “Former President Donald Trump‘s defense at his Senate impeachment trial next week will include videos of Democrats encouraging violence, one of his lawyers said Friday. The clips would counter videos that Democrats likely will show of the riot at Capitol and Mr. Trump‘s fiery speech at a rally shortly before the attack on Jan. 6, which Mr. Trump stands accused of inciting. Trump lawyer Bruce Castor told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham ‘you can count on that’ when asked about using video montage of Democratic members of Congress calling for violence against Trump administration officials and law enforcement.”

“In a pleading filed in a Detroit federal court on Friday, Sidney Powell and other attorneys behind a Michigan election lawsuit filled with conspiracies argued they should not face sanctions for their unfounded allegations because, among other reasons, they claim the allegations are provable.”

“Powell and her team have not provided any credible evidence to support any of their incorrect claims that the Michigan election results were fraudulent, instead presenting false reports that rely on conjecture, inaccurate information or misleading testimony. In the filing, the attorneys repeat many of the allegations that have prompted widespread ridicule and multiple billion-dollar defamation lawsuits. They also include inaccuracies, such as a claim the city of Detroit does not operate local elections – it does – and that Powell did not sign the original lawsuit. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson want attorneys tied to the Powell’s efforts in Michigan to be sanctioned and disbarred” – USA Today.

KSDK reports the riot has been going on since 4am, but does not say if the inmates are dancing to the Jailhouse Rock. Video above by KSDK reporter Jasmine Payoute.

Daily Beast: “Many leaders of what has become the GOP ‘establishment’ have reason to fear the kind of thoroughgoing investigation of domestic extremism that law enforcement agencies have previously conducted of foreign extremist groups, one that extends to reach the financial and organizational support for domestic extremist networks. It not only appears likely that such inquiries will reach Republican officeholders, but also some of the party’s wealthiest donors, many of whom have previously been able to mask their identities and roles behind dark money conduits.”

“One can well expect those with the most to lose from an effective investigation of the nature and scope of domestic extremism will do everything they can to increase the political stakes, and to demonize the investigators, a strategy Donald Trump employed to great effect. Leaders on the right are already sending out warning flares to their followers, preemptively challenging the legitimacy of such law enforcement efforts. Tucker Carlson has declaimed to his audience that investigations of white supremacist violence will be an investigation of ‘you,’ and asserted that the direction of law enforcement resources against domestic extremism is a threat to the liberty of all on the right.”

One year ago today, Trump stood up to the crowd of MAGAchurch pastors in the White House at the National Prayer Breakfast and held up that day’s editions of USA Today and the Washington Post with “ACQUITTED” in the headlines. Libs were so OWNED that day. Let’s commemorate that moment in being so badly owned by replying to comments from the victorious Trump fans on The Hill article about the event (click on the comments to open it in a new tab via Disqus):

gzizzle • a year ago
What’s the difference between Epstein and the Democratic party?
Epstein didn’t hang himself.
Thu, 2/6/2020 1:36 PM on ‘Trump shows off acquittal headlines at National Prayer breakfast’

Verican Masik • a year ago
Trump on a victory lap now all the way til’ November…
Thu, 2/6/2020 1:25 PM on ‘Trump shows off acquittal headlines at National Prayer breakfast’

Zappa’s Slime are the Dems • a year ago
Anonymous reports are beginning to trickle in…liberals watching the President are shouting and smashing their televisions, head are exploding and people are being taken to the hospital for insanity
Thu, 2/6/2020 1:24 PM on ‘Trump shows off acquittal headlines at National Prayer breakfast’

Magic Sam • a year ago
What Trump should have done at that breakfast was to publicly forgive Nancy Pelosi and lead a prayer for the soul of the democrat party. Then shut up and break bread. He’d have destroyed her and her party right then and there.
Thu, 2/6/2020 1:16 PM on ‘Trump shows off acquittal headlines at National Prayer breakfast’

Politico: “In the span of five minutes Thursday, Ben Sasse may have torched whatever relationship he still had with the Republican Party in his home state. But in releasing his direct-to-camera video deriding a brand of politics animated by “the weird worship of one dude,” Sasse also seized a piece of political real estate that might yet have some value if the Nebraska senator runs for president in 2024. At the moment, those occupying the anti-Donald Trump lane in the post-Trump GOP are in danger of being run over. But in the event the party’s fervor for the former president fades to any degree, or there is a rethinking of Trump’s behavior in office, Sasse may be better positioned than anyone to capitalize.”

“His video ricocheted around the Republican universe on Thursday night and Friday not because it was critical of Trump – as Sasse and other traditionalists have been before — but because it so directly challenged Trump’s most ardent supporters. They constitute a massive base of Republican voters, striking fear in many party officeholders. On the eve of Trump’s second impeachment trial – and even with the former president’s poll numbers within the GOP falling off slightly – Sasse remains an outlier in his willingness to denounce the president‘s false claims and other actions. That makes him a study in contrast with pro-Trumpers like Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, two other GOP presidential prospects who led Senate objections to Joe Biden’s victory.”

• Senate Republicans face a reckoning:  for the first time in years, they’re going to have to vote and go on record against popular coronavirus relief and other favored Biden proposals.  When McConnell was in charge, he shielded them by never bringing the legislature to the floor for a vote. Now, he can’t protect them, and they’ve gonna have to legislate. 
• Maybe now Lou Dobbs supports the increased federal supplement for unemployment.
• Perhaps it’s because I have a brother who worked as a cop for more than two decades, but there’s something about a police officer’s funeral that I find poignant, even moreso than a military service.  
• The Smartmatic and Dominion lawsuits are going to bring a lot of conservative propaganda outlets down.  It’ll be like Gawker, but far, far more bloody.  

A Cook County (Illinois) judge has ruled that the Trump Hotel in Chicago violated environmental laws by illegally sucking water out of the Chicago River to cool the buildings HVAC system, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The building takes 20 million gallons of water each day out of the river to cool the system, sucking 14,000 gallons of water in from the river every minute, and dumping it back in up to 35 degrees hotter.

The judge ruled that the Trump Organization did not take sufficient measures to protect fish and wildlife that were being sucked into the water intake, nor did they take sufficient steps to reduce the temperature of the outgoing water to mitigate the impact on fish in the river.  Penalties will be levied during a March 11th hearing.

In his garish exile at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has spent the last two days screaming at aides about the betrayal he feels after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy endorsed Liz Cheney to keep her Republican House leadership position after Cheney voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection, CNN reports.

Cheney received a vote of confidence by more than two-thirds of the House Republican caucus during a Party meeting on Wednesday.  The vote was cast by secret ballot.

McCarthy and Trump had met one week ago reportedly to discuss how to take the House back to Republicans during the 2022 midterm elections, with Trump releasing a statement that he will “work with Leader McCarthy” to that goal.

That’s right! It’s that time of year for “Big Game” football action on Sunday and you can be a champ too… at Super Snacking! Here’s National Zero’s MVP guide to snacking your way through all the “Big Game” and “Super Sunday” eating while watching televised football!

The final contest of the 2020 election has finally been decided, as a federal judge ruled that Republican Claudia Tenney won the race in New York’s 22nd Congressional District by just 109 votes, the Associated Press reports.

Tenney reacquired the seat she lost in 2018 to incumbent Democrat Anthony Brindisi in a traditionally Republican region in central New York.  The Cook Political Report rates the district at R+6.

Tenney held the seat for one term starting in 2017 before losing it in the 2018 election.  Judge Scott DelConte of the 5th Supreme Judicial District of the New York rule that the judgement could not be appeal to the Court of Appeal and directed the state legislator to certify Tenney’s victory immediately.

“It wasn’t a law suit… It was a cancel culture shot across the stern… And fox folded like a dead mans hand” – The current top comment on the Breitbart article “Report: Fox News Cancels Lou Dobbs’ Show” posted Friday night.