Daily Beast: “The far-right Proud Boys have been thrown into a tumult in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, with the group’s leaders facing criminal charges, their chairman exposed as an informant, and law enforcement investigating what role Proud Boys had in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, amid a brewing trademark dispute with their former lawyer, they might even lose the right to use their name. On Monday, former Proud Boys lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke, who holds the ‘Proud Boys’ trademark, released a letter revoking Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio’s right to use the name. Van Dyke’s reasons for revoking the trademark rights included what he sees as the Proud Boys’ association with Nazi groups, as well as Proud Boys burning a church’s Black Lives Matter banner in a December march in Washington, D.C.”

“Van Dyke doesn’t fit the profile of a typical Proud Boys opponent. Van Dyke has an elaborately checkered legal history himself, including a temporary suspension from practicing law after threatening to kill one of his legal foes. Police claim Van Dyke once used Proud Boys to surveil his legal opponent, and was allegedly recorded by an informant laying out plans for a violent terror campaign against the man. Van Dyke’s complaints that the Proud Boys are too close to white supremacist groups is especially bizarre, given his own history. As recently as 2019, Van Dyke was reportedly caught on tape attempting to join The Base, a neo-Nazi terrorist group, before being rejected by its members as a ‘huge liability.’ In the membership interview, a person identified by Vice News as Van Dyke can be heard praising neo-Nazi writers and discussing a crackdown on Jewish immigration.”

A policy to provide prisoners at the detention camp at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba which conservative media has lambasted as a Biden policy putting foreigners before Americans was actually part of the roll out plan initiated by the Trump Administrations Department of Defense, Politico writes.

The Trump Administration laid out a DoD plan that the priority for vaccines would be health care workers and their support staff, followed by those with critical national security jobs, and then the workforce over 65 years of age or with prior medical conditions.  Others at the base, including prisoners, were then to be inoculated.

Because of the unique situation at Guantanamo, the base rolled through the priorities quickly.  There was no rule to vaccinate prisoners before others, but they were the last in line when their time came.

President Joe Biden made an unannounced trip to the Capitol Rotunda where he and his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, will pay their respects to slain Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, killed during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack at the Capitol.

Sicknick, a veteran of the New Jersey Air National Guard, joined the Capitol Police in 2008.

His cremated remains were brought to the Rotunda with an escort from the Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police.  His family and his long-time girlfriend, as well as members of Congressional leadership, joined members of the Capitol Police in honoring Sicknick.  He is the third Capitol Police officer to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda; two officers killed on duty during a 1998 shooting at the Capitol were the first.

Current wannabe-relevant attention whore and third-favorite son Ewic Trump appeared on Sean Hannity’s show and said that Americans will soon miss Donald Trump.  Later in the interview, Ewic also stated that Donald was like “the father for the whole United States.”

https://youtu.be/a75qwmbASuI

“President Biden signed executive actions Tuesday ordering the review and potential reversal of the Trump administration’s deterrent policies along the Mexico border and the barriers it created to legal immigration, calling his predecessor’s actions ‘very counterproductive to our security.'”

“Senior administration officials described the actions as a warm-up to additional measures in coming months. For instance, the Biden administration plans to significantly raise the cap on refugees allowed into the United States every year, according to two people familiar with its plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. The goal, the people said, was to raise the annual cap on refugees to 125,000 per year. That would be a substantial change from the Trump administration, which slashed refugee levels to 15,000 last year – the lowest since the Reagan administration” – Washington Post.

CNN: “The House of Representatives has officially created a new rule that will fine any member for failing to complete security screening prior to entering the House floor. With the passing of this rule Tuesday evening, members who fail to comply with security screenings will be fined $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for a second offense. These fines would be deducted directly from members’ salaries by the chief administrative officer.”

A member of the Missouri State House of Representatives has been charged in a 20-count indictments with providing fake medical treatments at a clinic she ran in Springfield, NBC News reports.

Republican Patricia Ashton Derges faces charges that include claiming that she was inoculating patients with a coronavirus “cure” although she had been issued no vaccine.

An assistant physician with a medical degree from Caribbean Medical University of Curacao, Derges, 63, runs the Ozark Valley Medical Center, claimed that her treatments were stem cell-based regimens that could cure everything from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to erectile dysfunction.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Control of the U.S. Senate was on the line, but many Georgia Republicans – at least some deterred by Donald Trump’s loss – stayed home rather than cast ballots in January’s runoffs. Their absence at the polls helped swing Georgia and the Senate to the Democrats. Over 752,000 Georgia voters who cast ballots in the presidential election didn’t show up again for the runoffs just two months later, according to a new analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of recently released voting records. More than half of the no-shows were white, and many lived in rural areas, constituencies that lean toward Republican candidates. Trump’s message that the election was stolen discouraged voters such as Craig Roland, a 61-year-old Rome resident. Roland said he didn’t believe his vote would count. ‘What good would it have done to vote? They have votes that got changed,’ Roland said. ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever vote again.'”

“The AJC’s analysis found that the drop in turnout was most severe in northwest and South Georgia, areas where Trump held rallies, in Dalton and Valdosta, to bolster support for the state’s Republican senators. At those events, Trump both reinforced his criticism of Georgia’s elections, with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, and urged voters to support the state’s Republican senators. ‘Repeated attacks on the election system muddied the waters for Republican voters and may have convinced some of his strongest supporters that Perdue and Loeffler weren’t doing enough to support his claims and weren’t worth turning out for,’ said Bernard Fraga, an Emory University political science professor who researched voting data.”

Appearing on a Fox News show hosted by former Congressman and Deliverance banjo player stunt double Trey Gowdy, Republican Louisiana Senator John Kennedy tried to make a point about fossil fuels, but missed the history of alternative-fueled vehicles.

https://youtu.be/7zdPTHsxKhM

“I don’t know about you, Trey,” Kennedy ranted, “but my car doesn’t run on fairy dust.  It doesn’t run off unicorn piss.”

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is weighing whether to bring a state court case against Stephen K. Bannon, who was indicted on federal fraud charges for his role in a fundraising scheme to build a border wall but received a last-minute pardon from President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. Bannon, one of the architects of Trump’s 2016 election victory and briefly a White House adviser, was among 143 who received pardons from Trump in his last 24 hours in office. Bannon left the White House early in Trump’s term after he fell out with the president, who wavered until the last minute on issuing his former strategist a pardon.”

“Bannon and three others were charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with falsely claiming that they would take not compensation as part of their ‘We Build the Wall’ fundraising campaign to underwrite part of the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The three others charged with Bannon were not pardoned by Trump. Investigators working under Cyrus Vance Jr. in the district attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau are in early-stage discussions to determine if there’s a state case to be brought against Bannon for his actions in the fundraising campaign, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the office’s deliberations” – Washington Post.

New York Times: “The new head of the legal team defending former President Donald J. Trump in the Senate impeachment proceedings said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump had never pressured him to base his legal arguments on baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud. In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, the lawyer, David Schoen, said he believed that Mr. Trump’s comments at the Jan. 6 rally of his supporters, many of whom then took part in a riot at the Capitol, were protected speech under the Constitution.”

“Butch Bowers, the first head of Mr. Trump’s legal team in the impeachment proceedings, along with four other lawyers, parted ways with Mr. Trump over the weekend. People close to the former legal team and close to Mr. Trump said he had wanted the legal team to focus on his false claims that an election victory was stolen from him. Mr. Schoen disputed that was the case. ‘You know the president believes what he believes. He’s never forced that, in front of me,’ on the lawyers representing him, Mr. Schoen said. ‘It’s not my experience.’ Mr. Schoen, who described himself as a ‘First Amendment absolutist,’ said that he believed that Mr. Trump’s comments at a Jan. 6 rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol were protected speech under the Constitution. He added that he believed that a conviction of Mr. Trump by the Senate risked ‘chilling the rights on any passionate speakers.’ ‘We can’t control the reaction of the audience,’ he said.”

“I hadn’t decided whether or not I would start watching Newsmax. Now I have.”

– The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “WATCH: Newsmax Host Has Mike Lindell on to Talk About Tech Censorship – Ends Up Censoring Him As Well – Then Storms Out of Studio” posted Tuesday evening.

WSB-TV: “He has been one of the most vocal, visible and controversial critics of the integrity of Georgia’s election. Attorney Lin Wood filed lawsuits and held rallies, claiming people voted illegally in the 2020 presidential election. Now Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray has learned that the state has launched an investigation into whether Wood himself was a legal Georgia voter. Gray confirmed Tuesday that the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office has launched an investigation into whether Wood was eligible to vote in Georgia, whether he broke the law by casting his ballot and whether he was actually a Georgia resident. ‘It’s 1776 in America and we’re not going to let them take our freedom,’ Wood said in December, claiming that the presidential election in Georgia was stolen because of illegal voters.”

“Sources at the secretary of state’s office say an email that Wood sent to Gray caused them to launch an official investigation. In the email, Wood confirmed he moved to South Carolina, writing ‘I have been domiciled in South Carolina for several months after purchasing property in the state in April.’ Now state election investigators are looking into whether that means Wood legally should not have been able to vote in the November election. They site a section of Georgia code that reads ‘If a person removes to another state with the intention of making it such person’s residence, such person shall be considered to have lost such person’s residence in this state.'”

“Senate confirms Alejandro Mayorkas, Pres. Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security – making him the first Latino and first immigrant to lead the Department. He takes over a department that hasn’t had a confirmed secretary in almost two years” ABC News reports.

“In a sternly worded statement on the eve of the debate in the Scottish Parliament, the former US president’s firm dismissed the MSP spearheading the calls for the Scottish Government to pursue an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) as a ‘national embarrassment.’ The statement, issued by Eric Trump, executive vice president of his father’s company, accused elected representatives of investigating Mr Trump’s companies at the expense of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“It also claimed that by purchasing the world-famous Turnberry resort – a deal that will be the focus of tomorrow’s debate – the Trump Organisation had rescued a ‘national treasure on the brink of collapse.’ The Holyrood debate, which has been brought by Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Greens, will hear arguments for ministers to apply to the Court of Session and act on growing concerns over how Trump’s holdings in Scotland were acquired. The Scottish Government would not be legally bound to seek a UWO in the event of any vote, but a majority call for it do so would substantially increase pressure on the First Minister to act” – The Scotsman.

Daily Beast: “Signaling a seismic shift in the media landscape as defeated former president Donald Trump hibernates in strangely silent exile at Mar-a-Lago, Fox News’ two-decade-long winning streak came to an abrupt end Tuesday while rivals CNN and MSNBC claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings, respectively, in all of cable television. Fox News’ embarrassing third-place showing is the continuation of a downward trend in which the right-leaning outlet lost 2020’s fourth quarter to CNN and alienated Trump-supporting loyal viewers by calling Arizona early for Joe Biden during its election-night coverage.”

“This unwelcome development is predictably prompting internal panic among staffers, who fear it will result in additional job losses after recent layoffs – and gloating among detractors. ‘Fox has seen ratings dips before and has always come back. But there’s no denying this is disastrous for them,’ said a former on-air Fox News personality, asking not to be further identified. ‘They were out-crazied on the right,’ said television entrepreneur Jonathan Klein, the former president of CNN, noting that two of Fox News’ farther-right competitors benefited from viewers’ post-election anger. ‘One America News and Newsmax were more willing to provide the heroin that conspiracy addicts were looking for.’ Klein added: ‘For years Fox has been denying climate change, denying that social inequity exists, denying that Obama was a citizen. So they’ve bred a sizable chunk of viewers who routinely deny the truth – and those viewers punished Fox News the moment they reported that Biden won Arizona, and they haven’t stopped. It’s like when that chimp you raised from a baby tears your face off. Now the question is what is Rupert Murdoch willing to do to get them back?'”

“50-49, Senate votes to proceed to the budget resolution that can used to pass sweeping Covid-19 relief on a filibuster-proof basis. This train is officially moving” reports NBC’s Sahil Kapur.

The New Yorker: “During the final weeks of the Trump Presidency, dozens of companies announced that they would be halting political donations in response to the Capitol riots. Hallmark Cards, which is based in Missouri, asked Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall to return its donations of seven thousand dollars and five thousand dollars, respectively. Others, such as Amazon, AT&T, and Marriott, said that they were stopping donations to any lawmakers who voted against certifying President Biden’s victory. Several other companies, including 3M and American Airlines, said that they would pause all donations to either party and review their strategy for the future. One company, the brokerage firm Charles Schwab, said that it would permanently disband its PAC.”

“All of this suggests that leaders of large corporations are struggling to acknowledge, and perhaps mitigate, the damage caused by their past support of Trump and his party. Many businesspeople never liked Trump, finding his manner and way of communicating repugnant. But he offered them something that big-company executives desperately wanted: the promise of reductions in regulation and tax cuts. Only now, after the riots, has this compromise been broadly questioned within the business community. The question at the moment is whether the changes that companies make in response will be simply emergency measures to repair reputational damage, or something more lasting.”

“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dismissed hundreds of members of the Pentagon’s policy advisory boards Monday, ousting last-minute Trump administration nominees as well as officials appointed by previous administrations. By removing members, effective Feb. 16, Mr. Austin avoided selectively firing those appointed by the Trump administration. The defense chief also ordered a review of at least 42 boards to be completed by June, defense officials said. Mr. Austin believed ‘this was the most fair, most equitable way’ to address questions about the boards, a defense official said in a briefing with reporters. The move was foreshadowed last week when Mr. Austin suspended the onboarding process for Trump administration nominees to Pentagon advisory boards, effectively preventing them from being seated” – Wall Street Journal.