Another shining example of "colored communism" in America. https://t.co/O9KXzy1ubn

— Michigan GOP (@MIGOP) March 29, 2024

Not a good look for a state party that, for all its obvious manifold other flaws, just fired its Black female chairwoman and replaced her with a white man. Or a good look for any state party for that matter. Might as well link a screenshot here juuuuuust in case they do end up pulling it.

Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a popular bill passed by the Democratic-led legislature that would allow retail sales of marijuana, apparently because the legislature killed a planned major sport-complex development in northern Virginia Youngkin championed, Politico reports.

Virginia allows for medical cannabis sales and already allows recreational users to grow their personal plants thanks to a law passed in 2021, but the law required another legislative step to legalize retail sales.  That happened thanks to Democrats taking over the legislature earlier this year.

In the meantime, Youngkin had negotiated with Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Capitols (NHL), Wizards (NBA) and Mystics (WNBA), to move his entire operation to a new bespoke entertainment facility in the DC suburbs.  At a cost of $2 billion.  Two billion dollars the legislature had not appropriated.  The deal fell through; days later, Leonsis extended the lease of his DC facilities until 2050; and Youngkin kills a popular bill favored by the Democrats out of revenge.  This is why we can’t have nice things.

One of the key disappointing witnesses in the House GOP’s effort to find something, anything, they could try to hand an impeachment on, Tony Bobulinski, filed a defamation lawsuit against Jessica Tarlov, the liberal commentator on The Five, a program on the Fox Republican propaganda network.

According to the Daily Beast, Bobulinski objected to Tarlov stating that his legal fees were being paid by Donald Trump’s Super PAC.  Tarlov subsequently read a statement clarifying that while the firm has received funds from a Trump Super PAC, there was no direct connection to Bobulinski’s representation.

In a completely rational letter, Bobulinski’s lawyer Stefan Passantino wrote to the network: “To be clear, we demand a complete retraction and apology by Ms. Tarlov AT THE TOP OF TODAY’S SHOW while showing this photograph in which Ms. Tarlov clearly states that she explicitly ‘apologizes to Tony Bobulinski and Stefan Passantino for making a false claim on the air which harmed their reputations.’ Ms. Tarlov must further state, ‘To be clear, it appears that Mr. Bobulinski has always paid all of his legal bills and there is no evidence that Mr. Passantino or his law firm accepted money from anyone other than Mr. Bobulinski for his representation.’ These statements must be made without the petulant innuendo or further attempted mental gymnastics as we saw from her yesterday.  Absent such statements, both he and Mr. Passantino will continue to be harmed.”

Never a group to fear pushing unpopular policies in an election year, Republicans from eleven states filed suit against the Biden Administration to revoke the Saving on a Valuable Education program, a student loan forgiveness program that eliminated payments for 150,000 people who had 10-year-old loans of less than $12,000 and reduced payments for tens of thousands of others.

According to the Washington Post, the states, led by Kansas Attorney General and guy who was assigned by Donald Trump to find all the illegal voters from the 2016 election (but never did) Kris Kobach, claim Biden overstepped his authority to eliminate debt or lower payments without ever explaining why eliminating the student debt would be a bad thing.

Kobach relies on the same legal arguments he used to undermine earlier Biden attempts for widespread loan forgiveness.  “In completely brazen fashion the president pressed ahead and implemented another version of the student loan forgiveness program,” Kobach crowed in a statement after filing the lawsuit, which was joined by the AGs of Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa,  Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.

An appeals court in Texas overturned the conviction of Crystal Mason, a Black woman who cast a provision ballot in the 2016 election because she mistakenly voted while under federal supervision for a 2012 tax fraud conviction, negating a five-year prison sentence, the ACLU of Texas reports.

Mason, who was not legally allowed to vote in Texas although she would be eligible for the GOP presidential nomination, claims she did not receive the letter from the county attorney’s office informing her she was ineligible because she was in jail when it was mailed.  Even though more than 12,000 people had voted using provisional ballots in 2014 and 2016 with more than 85% being ruled invalid or ineligible, Mason, a Black woman, was the only person prosecuted.

Critics said Mason’s punishment fell out of line with other similar cases, particularly various Donald Trump voters who were arrested after submitting multiple ballots, including a man who forged his dead mother’s signature; he was only sentenced to probation.

[Note:  Transcript annotated to highlight relevant parts.]. “Man, you watch that video and like, sp…sped up and it’s like, there’s the power outage and there’s the first correction and it’s like, well, it’s not quite perfect on the [indecipherable] so there’s another power outage and it ends up being perfect to hit the thing dead square.  I mean, that’s critical infrastructure.  Like, I don’t know about you guys, but I mean, any… any diesel mechanics watching right now.  I don’t know much,” Donald Trump, Jr. finally admits before continuing, “but I know that these big diesel engines, let’s just call it, like, really fuckin’ reliable and it seems odd that one would go out, that they could go out just conveniently and also conveniently within a couple hundred yards of a critical infrastructure bridge that’s there for transporting hazardous waste in one of our biggest port areas in the count– I dunno folks.”

Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort? @petehoekstra pic.twitter.com/3xFhIP1jf1

— Matt Maddock (@matthewmaddock) March 28, 2024

We’ve covered a lot of the antics of the Maddock clan here, from Matt’s secessionist speech to his ouster from the state GOP legislative conference to his wife and one-time GOP state co-chair Meshawn’s plight as a criminal fake elector in Michigan.  But Matt Maddock–who’s a Trump-endorsed Super Duper MAGA according to his profile–took his hysteria to a whole new level Wednesday night by alerting his 2,000 Twitter followers that the dang migrants were flying into Detroit.  But he should have put two-and-two together when the migrants were unusually tall and Detroit was hosting a round of the NCAA basketball tournament. Twitter’s community notes correctly identifies the group not as migrants, but the basketball team from Gonzaga University. But, nah, they’re definitely migrants. Very tall migrants.

Hearing that incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden is expected to bring in $25 million during a fundraiser Thursday night, adjudicated rapist and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s team is now touting an upcoming event where, they claim, they’ll net more for the Bible-hawking sneaker salesman, according to ABC News.

“The response to our fundraising efforts has been overwhelming, and we’ve raised over $33 million so far,” billionaire John Paulson, the host of the April 6th event in Palm Beach asserted in a statement. “There is massive support amongst a broad spectrum of donors. The dinner is relatively small in nature, and we are almost at our cap.”

Trump will want to drive donations at the event:  five percent of the take will go to Trump’s SuperPAC, which is footing the bill for Trump’s various legal teams in his multiple criminal indictments.

For the first time in more than a quarter century, the Office of Management and Budget has updated the way it categorizes people’s race and ethnicity including giving people the ability to choose more than one option, the Washington Post reports.

Federal forms will also include an option for “Middle Eastern or North African” heritage, the first addition to the listed races since 1997.  The changes will be used on all federal forms including US Census forms and the more-regularly-conducted American Community Survey, which is used to track employment statistics and other data.

Since he testified last week before the hilariously incompetent effort by the House GOP to weaponize its slim majority, Lev Parnas has been releasing evidence and documentation to support his account, which effectively ended any claimed legitimacy into Republicans’ investigations into Hunter Biden and Ukraine.  The information links key players in a conservative plot to smear Joe Biden prior to the 2020 presidential election.

Posted on his social media account, Parnas included the video above showing Trump lawyer and future co-defendant Rudy Giuliani on a call purportedly with Viktor Shokin, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, who tell Giuliani that he never found evidence of anyone Giuliani was investigating receiving kickbacks or bribes–something that directly undermines claims Giuliani himself and Donald Trump made later. 

Retired Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell on Thursday vented to CBS’s Scott MacFarlane about fat former President Trump’s campaign stop at the wake for slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.

“This is the same person who calls the rioters ‘patriots, political prisoners, and hostages’ instead of calling them for what they are… convicted criminals… Imagine Trump calling the criminal who killed this officer in NYC ‘a hostage’ or anything but a criminal. That’s what he is doing to the January 6 criminals who beat officers and breach the Capitol,” said Gonell. “The death of the officer in New York is tragic and reminds all of us of the sacrifices and commitment the men and women in uniform make every day… I hope the full extent of the law is applied to bring this officer’s killer to justice.”

A 22-year-old man who claims the marijuana he smokes must have been laced with an unknown narcotic stabbed a dozen people in Rockford, Illinois on Thursday, killing four and injuring seven, NBC News reports.  Officials say Christian Soto stabbed and ran over with a car one victim, the friend he was smoking with, then stabbed the man’s mother.  He then–allegedly–went into various houses stabbing and hitting people including a mail carrier, who died.

Soto entered a house through an unlocked back door and grabbed a softball bat, which he used to beat three teenaged girls watching movies in the basement.  One of the girls, a 15-year-old, was hit and killed trying to protect her sister and friend.

Unwilling to mix with the masses, middling podcaster and member of the US Senate Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) pushed an amendment into the Federal Aviation Authority reauthorization bill that would provide armed police escorts through airports for political figures who have received legitimate threats, as well as protection for some of their families and staff, the Guardian reports.

While he claims the measure is needed because public officials–including justices, judges (which are essentially the same) and lawmakers (like himself)–are facing increasing threats, Cruz may look back on his 2021 walk through a Texas airport as he traveled on a last-minute jaunt to a luxury resort in Cancun while the rest of the state which elected him suffered under a severe winter storm as impetus for his desire for police to clear his way.

“During the 118th Congress, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has been investigating influence peddling conducted by you and your family. The Committee has accounted for over $24 million that has flowed from foreign sources to you, your family, and their business associates. The Committee has identified no legitimate services to merit such lucrative payments.”

“You have repeatedly denied playing any role in your family’s business activities, but the Committee has amassed evidence – including bank records and witness testimony – that wholly contradicts your position on these matters. Additionally, the White House has taken a position hostile to the Committee’s investigation and refuses to release certain information or make available witnesses to testify regarding issues relevant to the ongoing impeachment inquiry currently authorized by the full House of Representatives. In light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White House’s obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so,” writes House Oversight Chairbilly James Comer in a letter to President Biden, just so he can scream “cover-up!” when Biden fucks off.

Disgraced former President Trump on Thursday made a campaign stop at a Massapequa Park, New York funeral home hosting a wake for slain New York City Police Officer Jonathan Diller, a 31 year-old patrolman shot dead last week in the Rockaway section of Queens. During the stop Trump spit out a few “law and order” platitudes just weeks after having promised to pardon the rioters who assaulted and injured at least 130 US Capitol and DC Metro police officers on January 6, 2021.

The vice-chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and a far-right talk show host who frequently ranted about how recent elections were stolen by Democrats illegally voted nine times while he was on probation for a forgery conviction, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Having been convicted of a felony for a 1996 check forgery scheme in Pennsylvania, First Vice Chair of the Georgia Republican Party Brian K. Pritchard was barred in Georgia from voting until he finished his probation, which was repeatedly extended because of noncompliance until it ended in 2011.  Pritchard claims that he thought his probation was over in 2008, when he registered to vote in Georgia; he subsequently voted in nine elections illegally.

Despite claiming on his radio program that the 2020 election was stolen and that those who voted illegally should be subject to various punishments and physical torture, Pritchard was sentenced to just a $5,000 fine and a public reprimand from the state election board.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities last week heralded the hiring of “Aurora,” a Boston Dynamics “Spot” model robot, to patrol the runways of the Fairbanks International Airport in diguise as a fox or coyote and chase geese and other migratory birds the fuck away from planes before they can get pureed by jet engines, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Alaska DOT program manager Alex Marlow told a joint session of the state legislature last week that the “sole purpose of this [robo K9] is to act as a predator, and allow for us to invoke that response in wildlife without having to use other means.” Later Marlow told the Daily News that the DOT – tasked with preventing another goose crash like the one that took down an AWAC out of nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base that killed 24 service members in 1995 – had tried some other ideas like spraying grape juice from aerial drones. “We decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to spray in these areas because we didn’t know what animals are attracted to grape juice… and how safe is it having these massive drones at an airport,” Marlow said. So they settled on the undercover robo K9.

And yes, it would appear that Yahoo News is algorithmically serving stories about Boston Dynamics robo K9s to National Zero based on our browsing history. We got that. We still took the bait.

Jesus dork Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Thursday sent Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a letter informing him that he will be sending the articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Alex Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10, nearly two months after the House just barely got them passed on February 13th, showing you how urgent the whole thing was.

Johnson even wrote “We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” lol. What a fucking dick. Anyway, it’s a sucker’s bet that Senate Dems will so much as bother with a trial.

White nationalist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday told Steve Bannon that the 11,780 votes fat former President Trump demanded Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” during the infamous phone call were simply lost in the mail and soon she will reveal the proof that she found them or something. Marjie also claimed Obama is still running the government.

Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday sentenced leftist supervillain and convicted crypto fraudster to 25 years in prison for his financial fuckery, CNBC reports.

This of course is the both the opposite of what fanboys said would happen to SBF when the scam was originally exposed AND a counterpoint to their bullshit about Kaplan, who was supposedly biased against fat former President Trump in both trials brought by rape victim EJ Carroll.