MSNBC host Brian Williams deadpans a perfect troll of the meeting between Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Florida man Donald Trump held Thursday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, courtesy of Jerry Maguire.

https://youtu.be/GPvhJwe97io

A cemetery in Louisiana told the family of a man who died of bladder cancer a plot in the graveyard because the man was black, the Washington Post reports.

Darrell Semien, a 55-year-old sheriff’s deputy, died Sunday after fighting bladder cancer.  He wanted to be buried near their home in Oberlin, Louisiana, about 100 miles of Baton Rouge and near his workplace at the sheriff’s office.  At the suggestion of his coworkers at the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office, his wife and seven children found a spot at Oaklin Springs Baptist Cemetery, a graveyard surrounded by trees, that met his wishes.

When his widow, Karla, inquired about a grave site, the caretaker of the site told her bluntly, “Oh, we’re going to have a dispute. We can’t sell you a plot,” Semien recalled the woman saying. “This is a Whites-only cemetery. There are no coloreds here.”

Washington Post: “Air Force One was fueled and ready for the final flight. This was the end for Donald Trump, the last hours of a progressively more noxious and isolated presidency. But as he was poised to fly south from Joint Base Andrews into the uncertainty of his after-times, Ronna McDaniel was able to get him on the line. McDaniel, the unfailingly amiable chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, had stood by Trump, even as a trickle of GOP luminaries abandoned him. She had been Trump’s handpicked choice to lead the GOP four years earlier, and she had been loyal up to a point: gently critical of his most profane outbursts and divisive rhetoric, but buoyantly supportive of his policies and his often erratic conduct in office. She had also pushed early for investigations into possible voter fraud in the 2020 presidential balloting, a position that gave oxygen to Trump’s claim that the election had been stolen. But as time went on, she stopped short of endorsing many of Trump’s most outrageous and unsupported assertions and has since accepted that he was defeated at the polls.”

“She doesn’t say Trump will play a central role in leading the Republican Party; she doesn’t say he won’t. Yet there are subtle hints. She repeatedly talks about the need to change the party’s rhetoric to a more ‘civil’ tone, especially toward women, and focus the conversation on policy proposals instead of personality – all implicit criticisms of a caustic, name-calling and often petty president who loves to call attention to himself. She says in the interview that the party will be neutral, and that Trump has told her that he is supportive of that. ‘If he forms a third party, he would be letting down the 74 million people who supported him,’ McDaniel said in the interview. ‘Just like if the Senate convicts him, the Republicans who vote for it will be letting down the 74 million who supported President Trump and the Republican Party.'”

The single shot coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson has shown in Stage 3 clinical trials to be 66% effective in preventing the coronavirus, with higher effectiveness in treating severe cases of the virus, CNN reports.

The J&J vaccine is 85% effective against severe cases of coronavirus.  The results are significantly lower than the two dual-dose vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, on the market now, which show 95% effectiveness in preventing the spread of the virus.

Even with the lower effectiveness, the single-shot vaccine may have utilization in the fight to control the spread of the virus, public health experts say, by lowering the utilization of health care services.

“The lone Democrat on Georgia’s state election board plans to introduce a motion next month urging state attorney general Chris Carr to open a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The plan by David Worley has not been previously reported. The proposal follows other calls for an investigation into a phone call Trump made to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election results based on false voter fraud claims. The motion, which Worley plans to present on Feb. 10, would also urge a criminal probe by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat who has said she would ‘enforce the law’ in relation to Trump’s call. In the Jan. 2 phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss.”

“Legal experts and attorneys said Trump’s calls may have violated at least three state criminal laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, and intentional interference with performance of election duties. The felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment. Worley, an Atlanta attorney, told Reuters he was shocked by the transcript of the Jan. 2 call. ‘The more I read it, the more disturbing I found it,’ he said, calling it an unprecedented attempt to toss out certified votes that had been audited and recounted. The transcript quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: ‘All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes,’ which is the number Trump needed to win. On Jan. 6 – the day of the U.S. Capitol riots – Trump bragged about the call in a speech to supporters: ‘People love that conversation because it says what’s going on,’ he said. ‘These people are crooked'” – Reuters.

Politico: “The ousted leader refused to relent to reality. Set against a backdrop of avarice and inequality and persistent sickness, distrust and misrule, the leader exploited and exacerbated societal unrest to seize and flaunt vast power – doing anything and everything he could to try to keep it in his grip. He resisted pleas for unity and calm. He tested the loyalty of even his most ardent and important establishment supporters. He was censured and then toppled. Still, though, he declined to consider even the smallest acquiescence. Besieged and increasingly isolated, he faded as he aged – but he never yielded. Some people believed he had no less than the blessing of God. He was Benedict XIII – ‘the pope,’ said Joëlle Rollo-Koster, a noted scholar of the Middle Ages, ‘who never conceded.'”

“Benedict, who died in 1423, was the last of the popes of Avignon, in what’s now the south of France. He was an ‘antipope’ – in opposition, that is, to a sequence of popes presiding from the more customary hub of Rome – and insisted even as he was twice deposed that he remained the rightful pontiff. Weary, irritated leaders, both religious and royal, ‘said, ‘You’re out, you’re out, you’re out,’’ Rollo-Koster told me, ‘and he said, ‘No, I’m in, I’m in, I’m in.’’ Six centuries later, Donald Trump, twice impeached, is finishing his first full week as a dispatched post-president ensconced in his own Florida fortalice of Mar-a-Lago – committed by almost all accounts to do from his Palm Beach perch some modern-day variant of what Benedict pulled off for decades. The calamitous, lies-laced last few months of Trump’s White House term, and in particular the last few weeks, almost certainly will make this harder – the broad corporate blowback, social media silencing and historic congressional condemnation piled atop his already looming legal, financial and reputational peril.”

“In May, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ordered nonessential businesses to close as coronavirus cases spiked, Jacob Lewis refused to keep his Victorville, Calif., gym closed. The gym owner, who became a local face of the anti-coronavirus restriction movement, said he was reopening, and openly defying the state’s orders, to protect his customers’ mental health and personal freedom. ‘The Gym is ‘essential’ to people’s mental and physical health,’ he said in an Instagram post announcing his decision to reopen in late April. ‘With that being said, I, Jacob Lewis will take full responsibility for re-opening of The Gym.'”

“Now, he’s facing felony charges for allegedly storming the U.S. Capitol in the deadly attempted insurrection earlier this month. Federal investigators said in a recent criminal complaint that video showed that Lewis, wearing a black jacket and a red Trump 2020 beanie, spent seven minutes inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, as hundreds of rioters violently stormed the building and disrupted Congress. Lewis, 37, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with knowingly entering a restricted space and violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. He did not immediately return requests for comment late Thursday” – Washington Post.

Saying that Donald Trump “fomented” the violence that manifested in the January 6th insurrection attack on the Capitol, former Defense Secretary James Mattis said the United States faces a number of different threats from external and internal sources, Yahoo News reports.

“There are also internal threats right now,” Mattis said during an online forum, citing “the lack of unity on the consensual underpinnings of our democracy, and what we saw on Jan. 6, fomented by a sitting president.”

Mattis also noted that the US faces a number of foreign threats as well, including from North Korea, Russia, China and international terrorism.

David, please. We all saw how tough you were when questioned face to face.

Give your keyboard a rest, child. https://t.co/DDnpmkyfIS

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 28, 2021

The iconic 32-story condo towers that help define the skyline of West Palm Beach will likely strip the name that has graced the structure for nearly 30 years, as the condo board voted unanimously to strip the “Trump” from Trump Plaza, the Palm Beach Post reports.

“The Trump brand is damaged, so rebranding the complex is a wise move,” said Burt Minkoff, a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman on Palm Beach.

The slight is the latest to scar Donald Trump, a temporary resident of Palm Beach, whose residential situation at Mar-a-Lago will be decided by the Palm Beach town council.  At least four properties in the United States have stripped the Trump name from their properties, and his old Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City is slated for demolition.

Washington Post: “Open hostility broke out among Republicans and Democrats in Congress on Thursday amid growing fears of physical violence and looming domestic terrorism threats from supporters of former president Donald Trump, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leveling an extraordinary allegation that dangers lurk among the membership itself. ‘The enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about, in addition to what is happening outside,’ Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a Thursday morning news conference. But even as she and others sounded the alarm, Republicans continued to deepen their ties to the former president, who has been impeached on a charge of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Hours after Pelosi’s remarks, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with Trump in Florida. In a statement, the pair vowed to work together to take back the House. On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump acolyte, traveled to the district of Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House GOP leadership, to hold a rally criticizing her vote to impeach Trump earlier this month.”

“The events reflected the extent to which the country’s legislative branch, which has for years been mired in partisan bickering, has reached new levels of animosity just as newly inaugurated President Biden is seeking to win passage of a massive bill designed to help lift the country out of the pandemic. Some Democrats are expressing fears that Republican lawmakers – who in some cases have tried bringing weapons onto the House floor – cannot be trusted. Some have bought bulletproof vests and are seeking other protections. And Democratic leaders are putting maximum pressure on the Republican leadership to denounce freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who once endorsed violence against members of Congress. One Democrat advanced a resolution to expel her from Congress.”

“During previously unreported meetings last summer, House Republican leaders discussed – but then largely set aside – fears that QAnon-supporting conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene would end up a flaming trainwreck for their party. Greene has emerged not just as an embarrassment but a challenge for the GOP, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy now forced to weigh whether to maintain his policy of sanctioning members who make dangerous statements. In a series of conversations described to Axios by sources with direct knowledge of their contents, former Rep. Mark Walker was especially vocal about the ‘crazy’ Greene. Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise also spoke up. But McCarthy and others ultimately did little to stop her” – Axios.

With a 1993 agreement the limited stays at the Mar-a-Lago property to no more than seven consecutive days, Palm Beach’s town council members will take up a complaint from a neighbor that Donald Trump has already overstayed his welcome, the Associated Press reports.

Representing the unnamed neighbor, attorney Reginald Stambaugh submitted a letter to Town Manager Kirk Blouin saying that Trump’s violation of the agreement would reduce the value of surrounding properties.

In an email sent to the Associated Press, Blouin said that the issue may be taken up by the town council at its February meeting.

Republican Florida Congressman and Bob’s Big Boy cosplayer Matt Gaetz traveled to Wyoming today to rally Trumplicans to reject Liz Cheney, the Chair of the House Republican Caucus, for supporting the impeachment of Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection, Politico reports.

https://youtu.be/KSCxvPjU4SU

Taking a page from the Trump playbook, Gaetz attempted to cancel Cheney, claiming that she didn’t actually represent the views of Wyoming Republicans.  The Florida Man, dressed as an extra from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, told the few hundred people in the crowd that he would campaign against Cheney and the other nine House Republicans who voted for impeachment.

Trump supporting members of the GOP wish to cancel the memory of Trump’s malfeasance and failure, protecting a legacy for Trump that doesn’t actually exist.

KDSK: “On the eve of his arraignment, an attorney for the so called ‘QAnon-shaman,’ Jacob Chansley, 33, says he’s ready to turn on former President Donald Trump. Chansley is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds for his role in the unrest. St. Louis attorney Al Watkins tells KDSK, Chansley now wants to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial.”

“Watkins claims Trump’s words incited people, such as Chansley to enter the Capitol building. ‘It will be absolutely fundamentally necessary for those who are serving as the judges at that impeachment trial to hear the voices of those who were incited and there is no more prominent face of those were incited than that of my client,’ Watkins said. Watkins says prosecuting Chansley and others involved in the unrest sends a mixed message. ‘The government on one hand says, the President should be impeached and prosecuted in an impeachment trial for saying things to incite people to do things that they otherwise shouldn’t have done,’ Watkins said. ‘I don’t think any President, Democrat or Republican, Trump or Biden wants the government to send out a message to all of us…that you have no right to believe the words of your President, you have no right to rely on the truth of the words spoken by your President.’ Chansley is currently in custody in Washington D.C. Watkins says he will enter a not guilty plea at his arraignment Friday.”

“The chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill January 27 that would allow the Legislature to override the secretary of state’s certification of the state’s electoral votes” reports the Arizona Capitol Times and unfortunately the rest of the article is behind a paywall. Her name is Shawnna Bolick and her Twitter account is locked, which is always a good sign.

https://t.co/I9s2tv2KVu

— Madison Cawthorn (@CawthornforNC) January 28, 2021

The kid’s an asshole, but this is too close to National Zero-type humor to not appreciate. The unsubtle irreverence for a trope filled with gravitas, the shamelessness of the promotion, the wit applied with full awareness. Game respects game.

“There’s a fight over flags at the State Capitol in Harrisburg. Flags supporting the legalization of marijuana and LGBTQ rights were removed this week from outside and inside Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s office. The state Department of General Services said it removed the flags because of a provision in a budget bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The flags don’t qualify under the law to be displayed at the Capitol.”

“Fetterman said he’ll stop flying the flags when recreational marijuana is legalized and gay and transgender rights become protected under the law. ‘To use state resources during a time of such upheaval to worry about two flags that I have hanging from my balcony seems odd,’ Fetterman said. The lieutenant governor said he’s not angry at the state workers who removed the flags because they’re caught in the middle of a political dispute. Fetterman already put the flags back up. A spokeswoman said he’ll probably do the same thing Monday if they’re taken down again” – WGAL.