“We must see the transcript.  It is our only long-form opportunity to see the mental incapacity of this president,” the woman who couldn’t recall anything she didn’t read out of a binder Kayleigh McEneny asserted vigorously.  I say the only one because you think that guy on your screen, President Biden, is going to go toe-to-toe on a debate stage with Donald Trump.  He knows he will get smoked, not once, not twice, but three times.”

House Republican Committee chairmen James Comer (Oversight), Jim Jordan (Judiciary) and Jason Smith (Ways & Means) have demanded the Justice Department turn over the transcripts and any audio and video recordings of the interviews President Joe Biden did with Special Counsel Robert Hur, CBS News reports, saying the information is key in their impeachment investigation.

But note:  their impeachment investigation is about $10 million in illegal payments Joe Biden got from China.  Or a loan repayment his brother made.  Or shell corporations.  Or Hunter’s penis.  But the goal of The Goober, the Bad and the Ugly is likely to release cherry-picked snippets of any recordings to make it seem as though Biden was senile.

Keep it in the family:  the titular head of the Republican Party has put forth his own daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to be a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Politico reports, although he supports North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley to be the actual chair of the RNC.

The pair would replace current chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who is being pushed out after years of election underperformance by the GOP; Romney McDaniel will reportedly resign after the South Carolina primary on February 24th.  Trump will also endorse Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign advisor, to serve as chief operating officer.

Trump doesn’t get to outright assign the leaders of the RNC; that decision comes down to the vote of 168 committee members.  But given that Trump pretty much controls the Party, any objections to his choices by members of the politburo will likely be met with immediate vengeance.

MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reports that Republican Speaker Mike Johnson will not move on the national security funding bill that the Senate is expected to move on later this week, refusing to bring the bill to the floor and opting to prepare legislation from the House, which has been the historically least-productive House in modern US history.   The this Republican chaos, no aid will be passed to help for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza or Taiwan.

“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” Johnson said in a statement posted online. “It is what the American people de1na nd and deserve. N ow, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”

President Joe Biden is working to negotiate a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in an ambitious effort to free hostages held by Hamas and get humanitarian aid to the Palestinians within the warzone, USA Today reports.  During the ceasefire, Biden said he believes “we could then take the time to build something more enduring.”

“The key elements of the deal are on the table,” Biden said during a photo op at a White House meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II. “There are gaps that remain but I’ve encouraged Israeli leaders to keep working to achieve the deal. The United States will do everything possible to make it happen.”

Disgraced former President Trump will take his fat rapey circus on the road Thursday as Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and her deputy special prosecutor Nathan Wade face an evidentiary hearing in allegations of an improper relationship brought by Donald’s post-2020 coup attempt RICO case codefendant Mike Roman, the Washington Post reports.

Willis’s bid to quash the subpoena to Wade’s law partner who supposedly could testify to the timing and nature of their relationship failed on Monday, however Judge Scott McAfee sounded, in our opinion at least, more cautious and tentative than anything else, that getting Willis and Wade disqualified from the case all hinges on the testimony of a guy who might be pretty unstable. The kind of thing that if it doesn’t go perfectly could prompt a meltdown from Trump in court, live on TV.

Toward the end of a long, multi–part Truth Social rant over the soon-to-be-concluded civil trial against his corrupt business empire, fat former President Trump actually posted something on top of the same old whiny shit about it, touching specifically on the mess caused by his former CFO Allen Weaselberg Weisselberg being reportedly in plea deal negotiations with the Manhattan DA’s office for a perjury rap incurred in this very trial, writing “Now, this Radical Left Judge, Arthur Engoron, is sending my attorneys inappropriate and possibly illegal emails based on Fake News Stories, in spite of the fact that he isn’t supposed to even be reading the news about me, or this Witch Hunt that he is heading, let alone making any decisions based on it. I hereby demand that the VICTORY already given to us by the Appellate Division” and blah blah blah he’s full of shit.

Engoron’s decision is supposedly coming on Friday and where we last left off he was informing Donald’s lawyers he was going to inquire as to the veracity of the plea negotiations and, if so, Engoron was prepared to invoke “falsus in uno,” which is not a Harry Potter spell but if it was it would be the one that completely fucks up your entire world. Probably why Trump is freaking out.

In relatedly bad news for Trump, Engoron’s colleague Juan Merchan will on Thursday make a ruling on whether the Stormy Daniels payoff trial can start next month. Considering the DC trial won’t start until probably May at the very earliest, the window’s open so might as well take him down.

Mazi Pilip has really grown into her role as the first Republican candidate in a major election in 2024 in just a short time. Last week she was kind of like a “moderate” wouldn’t even say if she was a Trump voter who denied knowing George Santos, now she’s all in on a “Trumpian agenda.”

Disgraced former President Trump on Monday officially informed the United States Supreme Court he was acting in his official capacity as the ostensible leader of the nation while attempting a violent coup to overthrow the government of the United States, also mentioning that he was already impeached for the same shit he was indicted for… All of which is false and not worth the paper it was printed on but that’s not now and never was the point in appealing his indictment.

“It deliberately sends the message that the Biden administration rigs outcomes in their favor” – The current top comment on the Twitchy article “Joe Biden’s Twitter Account Proves ‘The Adults are in Charge’ by Posting Pure Uncut Cringe,” referring to what you probably already guessed is the now-infamous “Just like we drew it up” tweet from after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in overtime.

“Country in deep trouble if anyone cares who TS endorses” – Top comment on Breitbart’s article

“His ‘Aides’ that come up with this [shit] are DEMONIC” – Top comment on Gateway Pundit’s article.

Aaaand that’s all we’ve got for Joe’s tweet. Seriously. It’s not like we’ve checked every right wing news website that has comments because we’re sure there are plenty out there that we’ve never heard of, but the absence of this story on Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, Townhall, PJ Media, Red State, Daily Wire, and so on and so forth is so conspicuous as to invoke some level of speculation.

House Republican leadership tell Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman they don’t see a path forward to get the 2/3rds necessary to pass their Israel-only foreign aid bill as a rule and will not be trying again this week, just as the Senate gets closer sending them a Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan aid bill.

For the second time in as many weeks a police K9 sniffed out unprescribed Viagra during a traffic stop in The Villages, Florida-area on Saturday, Villages-News.com reports, leading us to suspect that a wave of illicit trafficking of the erectile dysfunction wonder drug has hit the vast, sunwashed golf cart maze hard. Very hard. And it’s lasting much longer than four hours.

Worse, the personal circumstances of the arrest of 39 year-old Matthew Allan Kibbey – carrying 15 of the little blue pills as well as an undisclosed quantity of methamphetamine – and his 34 year-old passenger Jennifer Lynn Whitley – violating a drug charge parole as she was in possession of a pipe and two straws – could suggest that Kibbey and/or Whitley were on their way to make a delivery to an elderly Viagra user rather than Kibbey simply being a user himself. This in contrast to last month’s arrest of 68 year-old Marc Arlon Nuyen. That guy was probably stoned up to his waist on Viagra.

Honest, salt-of-the-earth yokel who done made gone of himself and published a heartbreaking memoir-turned-nihilistic white nationalist Senator JD Vance sounded the alarm Monday over an “impeachment trap” looming for disgraced former President Trump in the aid bill to Ukraine should Donald be reelected, specifically prohibiting the kind of shit that got the fat fuck impeached in 2019.

Said Vance to white nationalist alcoholic Steve Bannon: “In the Ukraine First funding bill, there is funding that is mandatory through 2026. If Trump wins, as I hope he will, he’s going to be President on January of 2025. So what happens if Donald Trump decides to force Ukraine to go to the negotiating table? What if he releases some of the money but not all of the money What if he decides to do what a president has to do, which is conduct diplomacy? They will impeach him under this legislation that may very well pass tonight out of the Senate. I cannot repeat this enough, The Washington Post has already reported that the purpose of the legislation is to control Trump. What they’re trying to do is create a dynamic where if Trump follows his own campaign promises, they’re going to say it’s illegal and we have to impeach you. It’s maybe reason number one why we’ve got to kill this legislation. We cannot pass a law now that ties Trump’s hands in 2026 and gives Democrats an excuse to impeach him. But that’s what way too many Republicans are talking about doing.”

Funny story: In 2018 after Dem Tony Evers defeated douchebag incumbent Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the GOP majority legislature used the lame duck period to steal basically every executive power that wasn’t nailed down by the state constitution, neutering Evers on an array of fronts. As shitty and fascistic as it was, and as much as Wisconsin Dems complained about it, none of them ever were worried that Evers would end up breaking the laws set forth by a gerrymandered, far right legislature that was nonetheless duly elected and legitimate. That’s not where Vance is right now politically… even when you skip the whole surrendering to Putin part.

“Speaker of the House Joe Tate (D-Detroit) today took appropriate action against state Rep Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) for the representative’s sustained campaign of racist rhetoric and hate speech on social media…. Effective today, Speaker Tate will withhold the office allotment for Schriver, and the representative’s staff will be reassigned. Schriver will be removed from the House Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Committee, and the resources typically made available to a representative will be held by the House Business Office. Such resources are provided at the discretion and pleasure of the Speaker. Schriver will fulfill his responsibility as a representative through his ability to cast a vote in the House of Representatives,” says a statement from Michigan State House Speaker Joe Tate’s office on how discipline is enforced.

Schriver’s in hot water for, in his words, “tweeting about what’s called the great replacement theory. Now I’m attacked for simply reading/retweeting a tweet by @JackPosobiec on the same topic. There is an anti-white agenda for sure,” after having tweeted a Posobiec meme of little white people icons being crowded out by little dark-colored people icons on a world map. “Illegal Immigrants should not replace Americans!” Schriver later tweeted. Maybe he should resign in protest of cancel culture.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday got a little too trigger happy and fired on a vessel in the Red Sea that was bound for Iran, the main backers of their pesky insurgency, the Associated Press reports.

“[We] will not hesitate to carry out more operations in retaliation to the Zionist crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip, as well as in response to the ongoing American-British aggression against our dear country,” Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement after the attack, not explaining at all why they would bite the hand that feeds.

It’s not clear if the vessel, the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Star Iris was ever involved in supplying the Houthis, though probably not since the ship runs a private carrier route between Iran and Brazil. Still it’s hard to imagine the Iranians were happy with these fucking idiots nearly sinking a ship bound with deliveries for them no matter what it was carrying.

With a forecast calling for at least six inches of snow to fall across a region that hasn’t seen any real accumulation in more than two years, it’s clear Winter Storm Kitara could have a significant impact on turnout in Tuesday’s New York 3rd District special election as both candidates – Democratic former Congressman Tom Suozzi and MAGA-shy Republican Mazi Pilip – on Sunday nagged voters to show up on the final day of early voting ahead of Kitara’s ostentatious and flamboyant arrival.

CNN’s coverage of the race with “New York Democrats are worried about Tuesday’s special election. They have good reason to be” paints NY-03 as a toss-up jump-ball overtime thriller heavyweight bout that Democrats have good reason be extra worried about because crimeflation border crisis.

Meanwhile in the non-horserace circlejerk real world version of reality it is Suozzi’s to lose as even fucking fake-mainstream, pro-MAGA Emerson College polls last week found Suozzi leading Pilip 52 to 48 percent among likely voters while actual mainstream pollster Siena College found the same delta at Suozzi 48 to 44 percent. Trump leads Biden 47 to 42 percent in the same sample.

Dem elections geek Tom Bonier reports that registered D turnout was +11 percent over registered Republicans in the early in-person vote and +29 percent in mail-in ballots, better than the +7.8 and +26 they managed in 2022. A reply from Princeton political science geek Sam Wang sounds a note of caution given Cameo star George Santos’s +7.5 percent win in 2022, which is about the only indicator we have that’s maybe, possibly working in Mazi Pilip’s favor right about now.

Kitara looms large over election day however, even as the snow gives way mid-afternoon to a slushy mess on the ground that those who haven’t already voted may be hesitant to trudge through.

Like The Weather Channel does of its own initiative for no discernible purpose whatsoever, National Zero’s editors refer to winter storms that hit the NYC area by non-canonical names of our own choosing – such as “Kitara.” Those Weather Channel assclowns are calling this one “Lorraine,” lol.

“Deschutes County Health Services has confirmed a case of human plague in a local resident. The individual was likely infected by their symptomatic pet cat. ‘All close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness,’ said Dr. Richard Fawcett, Deschutes County Health Officer. Symptoms of plague usually begin in humans two to eight days after exposure to an infected animal or flea. These symptoms may include a sudden onset of fever, nausea, weakness, chills, muscle aches, and/or visibly swollen lymph nodes called buboes.”

“If not diagnosed early, bubonic plague can progress to septicemic plague (bloodstream infection) and/or pneumonic plague (lung infection). These forms of plague are more severe and difficult to treat. Fortunately, this case was identified and treated in the earlier stages of the disease, posing little risk to the community. No additional cases of plague have emerged during the communicable disease investigation. According to Oregon Health Authority, plague is rare in Oregon, with the last case reported in 2015. It spreads to humans or animals through a bite from an infected flea or by contact with an animal sick with the disease. The most common animals to carry plague in Central Oregon are squirrels and chipmunks, but mice and other rodents can also carry the disease,” says a news release from the Deschutes County, Oregon Department of Health Services.

Sources tell NBC News President Joe Biden is getting increasingly sick of Israeli dictator Benjamin Netanyahu’s bullshit, privately calling the corrupt and failed leader of the Jewish state an “asshole” and referring to him derisively as “this guy,” though at this point the president believes it would be “counterproductive” to go after “Bibi” publicly. So this was probably a sanctioned leak designed to put the asshole on notice and the pain is incoming. We would like to think that, at least.

Waymo Vehicle surrounded and then graffiti’d, windows were broken, and firework lit on fire inside the vehicle which ultimately caught the entire vehicle on fire. #SFFD
Photos by Séraphine Hossenlopp pic.twitter.com/aOTqL3Rk8V

— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 11, 2024

Just to clear up any potential confusion: This was a Chinese New Year celebration that got out of hand, not any outrage over the 49ers losing the Super Bowl, as the torching was 18-ish hours earlier.