Ukrainian military leaders on Friday announced they had taken down a Russian A-50 worth about $300 million to $500 million over the Azov, killing 15 personnel on board and leaving Putin’s Regime with only eight of the flying command centers left in its arsenal, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Russian state media sort of confirmed it, with RIA Novosti reporting “an unidentified aircraft crashed in the Kanevskoy District in Krasnodar Krai,” referring to a district on the Russian side of Azov.

🚨FLASHBACK FRIDAY – 1985🚨

I’ve dedicated my life to fighting crime and serving others. Whether it was the Mafia, Wall Street cheats, corrupt public officials, or street criminals, I've always stood up for truth and justice. #FlashbackFriday 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/aRQ4bGVDqI

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) February 23, 2024

“A recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court is fodder for Democrats hoping to manipulate the abortion issue for electoral gain. There are zero Republican Senate candidates who support efforts to restrict access to fertility treatments. NRSC encourages Republican Senate candidates to clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF. This memo outlines key data points from a nationwide survey conducted recently by Kellyanne Conway: Key Survey Findings on IVF and Fertility Treatments: A staggering 85% of all respondents, including 86% of women, support increasing access to fertility-related procedures and services,” says a memo by NRSC executive douchebag Jason Thielman spinning up a “rapid response” for all GOP Senators and candidates.

“IVF procedures receive overwhelming support, with 86% of all participants and women advocating for increased access to these treatments… Express Support for IVF: Clearly state your support for IVF and fertility-related services as blessings for those seeking to have children. Highlight the importance of these treatments in fulfilling the dreams of countless families to conceive. Oppose Restrictions on IVF: Publicly oppose any efforts to restrict access to IVF and other fertility treatments, framing such opposition as a defense of family values and individual freedom.”

“When responding to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, it is imperative that our candidates align with the public’s overwhelming support for IVF and fertility treatments. By advocating for increased access to these services, opposing restrictions, and emphasizing the importance of supporting families in their journey to conceive, our candidates can demonstrate compassion, respect for family values, and a commitment to individual freedom. This approach aligns with the views of our electorate and positions Republicans as champions for accessible healthcare and family support.”

The Wisconsin State Ethics Commission has recommended that fat former President Trump’s Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, Republican state Representative Janel Brandtjen, and Adam Steen, the failed 2022 MAGA primary challenger to state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, face felony charges for a scheme to evade campaign finance limits in putting $40,000 BEHIND Steen’s bid against Vos, WisPolitics.com reports citing documents that haven’t been made public yet.

“The records also show the commission looked into a $4,000 donation MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell gave one of the county parties. But it decided there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he actually intended the donation to benefit Steen’s campaign,” they add in a paragraph we just had to copy.

Just to underscore how fucking stupid this is: Two years AFTER Trump lost the sate, two Wisconsin politicians are potentially facing prison time for a scam to take down Vos, a mini-Mitch McConnell in terms of right wing effectiveness, simply because they were mad that Vos had not allowed a vote on a bill to “decertify” Wisconsin’s electoral college votes for Biden. And they failed.

Two turncoats in the endless Biden-Trump war are now shit-talking each other publicly through their lawyers in the latest accusation over subterfuge from before and beyond the 2020 election and holy hell this report from ABC News is exhausting and difficult to summarize but here we go.

On November 1st, 2020, then-Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson was in a parking area behind the stage at a MAGA rally in Rome, Georgia when she saw her then-boss, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows talking to a man she believed to be former Hunter Biden pal Tony Bobulinski, the square-headed douchebag credibly suspected of being a Russian asset, during which she saw Meadows hand an envelope or something to Bobulinski. Hutchinson included an account of this in her book Enough and a photo she took of the encounter in a letter her lawyer William Jordan sent to House Oversight Ranking Member Congressman Jamie Raskin about Bobulinki’s shit-talk.

The letter, sent in response to Bobulinski testifying to committee investigators that Hutchinson was a “liar and a fraud” and that Meadows “didn’t hand me a single thing” while not denying they actually met, warned that Bobulinski’s testimony was “defamatory.” In response, Bobulinki’s lawyer Jesse Binnall – who just so happens to be a longtime Trump attorney – said “We will see to it that Ms Hutchinson soon gets her day in court to tell her story in front of a jury and the truth will prevail.”

Bobulinski’s other lawyer Stefan Passantino, the former Trump White House “ethics” lawyer now under a misconduct investigation by the DC Bar, who lol, used to represent Cassidy Hutchinson before she fired him for coaching her testimony, said he’s “shocked and disgusted that [Raskin] or anyone else would question [Bobulinki’s] motives, patriotism or sincerity when you dishonestly assert that Mr Bobulinski ‘did not offer any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden’ or ‘provide any evidence that President Biden was involved in his family’s business dealings.'”

People in and around the Republican National Committee tell NOTUS they’re starting to freak out over likely incoming co-chair Lara Trump’s plans to remake the party into a legal slush fund – oh wait, even more of a legal slush fund – for her indicted father-in-law, given they only have $9 million on hand which is like a month of his lawyers’ bills before he’s even faced a criminal trial.

“There is a lot of concern – from donors, state parties and campaigns that important funding could be sucked away by Trump’s mounting legal bills and that there’s nothing they can do about it,” says former RNC Communications Director Doug Heye. “He’s trying to hijack the RNC before he’s even the nominee. And it’s because he’s broke,” former South Carolina GOP chair Katon Dawson said.

“He has already spent millions worth of PAC money and he’s running out. So he needs another place to go raise money to pay his personal legal bills,” said Georgia GOP treasurer Laurie McClain, adding “we’d love to have a little extra help dealing with our own legal issues that result from the 2020 election,” referring to the millions they shelled out to defend now-former Peach State GOP chair David Shafer and others who were indicted or came close to it in the Fulton County RICO case.

Dawson claims not all resistance is futile. “The hijacking is not going to be as easy as everyone’s saying. People have to vote them in, and I promise you, I’ve been on that committee and those votes aren’t that easy to wrangle.” Always the famous last words with this crowd.

A Northern Alberta town on Thursday voted 663 to 639 to pass a measure banning rainbow crosswalks and the display of any non-Canadian flags on public property – which means the town’s one existing rainbow crosswalk outside of town hall will be painted over, the CBC reports.

Stephanie Bakker, the activist who gathered the petition signatures to put the plebiscite on the ballot after the Westlock, Alberta town council had voted to approve the crosswalk last June, told the CBC ahead of the vote that the council members had said “that they’re doing it out of compassion and caring and wanting to make the town inclusive, but… people are feeling a bit bullied.” Bakker said she was annoyed that the council members had campaigned against the ban/removal measure, which is “not really something you want to see from your elected representatives. Everything they’re doing is legal, I just really doubt if it’s ethical.”

Biden's GOP-Strom Thurmond comparisons anger conservative social media users: 'Always personal attacks' https://t.co/wDA5hukdq6

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 23, 2024

Conservatives are angry, Fox News reports while citing a major new source of that anger and subsequent angry reactions it prompted. The right wing media outlet gave no indication of when or how the anger could abate, nor did they attempt to balance it out with any sort of reporting on what is making conservatives happy or contented, raising concerns that they may be overly focused on anger – or worse that they could be playing a role in continuing to stoke and amplify that anger.

All three of the realistic candidates – including Trump-endorsed frontrunner Bernie Moreno – to take on incumbent Dem Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown have said publicly they favor some sort of national abortion ban, a potential vulnerability given that last year voters approved a measure amending the Buckeye state’s constitution to permanently enshrine the right to it, NBC News reports.

“I think abortion is going to be a pivotal issue that Sherrod Brown runs on,” said Republican strategist Mehek Cooke, who worked on the failed campaign to defeat the abortion measure. “For any candidate that emerges as a front-runner for the GOP, it’s really important for him to understand that this has to be more of a national discussion. A majority of Ohioans voted against a ban, and we need to figure out moving forward where that middle ground is so that as Republicans we can still protect life.” Already Moreno’s campaign is trying to spin away from his call for a 15 week ban, with his spokesworm Reagan McCarthy saying “Bernie is proudly pro-life and believes we can unify this country around ending late term abortion once and for all. He doesn’t believe in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good and his goal is to protect as many babies as possible.”

White nationalist conspiracy freak Georgia MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she’d “be honored to serve President Trump in his next administration in any capacity that he asks me. But I’m certainly particularly interested in Homeland Security.”

“I think it’s the top issue in the country,” she continued, reducing the Department of Homeland Security, a sprawling agency that oversees the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, FEMA, and all sorts of critical infrastructure cyberdefenses and other extremely important functions, down to just the border and immigration as the “top issue.” The former CrossFit gym owner/Jewish space laser research expert who also worked at her dad’s construction business before getting elected said she feels “very strong about being capable for that role” given her “background in an executive position.”

The sinful degenerate rapist adulterer pornstar fucker was at least an hour and a half late to his speech to the Christian Broadcasters Association on Thursday night, struggling to read the teleprompter as he outlined his agenda to deport millions of illegal aliens and people who look like illegal aliens, abolish the Department of Education, and somehow force auto manufacturers to keep AM radio in newer models because pretty much all Christian talk radio is on AM.

If it wasn’t already clear enough even before that Alex Smirnov asshole got cuffed, a number of House Republicans are now saying publicly on the record that their failed effort to impeach President Joe Biden for something, they never figured out what, is now extra failed, Politico reports.

“I happen to know there are like 20 Republicans who are not in favor of a Biden impeachment. Mainly because it smells bad what he did, it looks bad, but when you ask them what crime is committed – they can’t tell you,” said “moderate” Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon. On Thursday House Freedom Caucasians Chair Scott Perry told the crowd at CPAC he doubted the House GOP could “get to a point, quite honestly, where we’re going to be able to impeach him, especially with the thin margin that we have.” Ohioan David Joyce said he’s “not seen any evidence. I’ve heard a lot of accusations,” of theoretically impeachable misconduct by Biden in the years before he was sworn in.

Other Freedom Caucasian Ralph Norman said simply “no” on whether they’d be able to swing a Biden impeachment after squeaking through DHS Secretary Alex Mayorkas on the second try, especially since the House GOP “should have been at 100 percent” on that vote.

A New Orleans magician tells NBC News that Steve Kramer, a consultant working for dead-end Biden primary challenger Congressman Dean Phillips, hired him to create the fake robocall of the 46th president telling New Hampshire residents not to vote in last month’s primary.

“I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” said Paul Carpenter. “I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed,” even though it should’ve been pretty fucking obvious based on the content of the call telling people not to vote.

Once valued at around $5 billion, Vice Media announced Thursday it is essentially shutting down its eponymous news website and lay off hundreds as the company faces its likely breakup by creditors after declaring bankruptcy last May, the Associated Press reports.

Frequently lauded for producing pieces for the overlooked (and highly profitable) young adult news consumers, Vice was seen as a “new media” darling.  While the website was still available, the new management said it will not be updated.  Its publishing arm, Refinery 29, will be sold off.   The closure comes within a 12-month period where online media sites Jezebel, BuzzFeed News, and the Messenger all shut down operations.

“If your church is not talking about political issues, if they’re not talking about how to save our country, you need to find a new church!” RSBN host Brian Glenn proclaims to the audience before he denigrates various evangelical branches.  Extolling the audience to get political because “we saw what happened the last four years, exactly what the Biden Administration can do”–he talks about strong GDP growth, 13 million new jobs, deficit reduction, infrastructure upgrades and increased veterans benefits (among other things) like those are bad things–before launching, of course, into praise for Donald Trump, being thankful that he is so rich he can afford to fend off these godless attacks.

“President Donald J Trump respectfully submits this motion seeking dismissal of Counts 1 through 32 on the basis of presidential immunity, as these charges stem directly from official acts by President Trump while in office. Specifically, President Trump is immune from prosecution on Counts 1 through 32 because the charges turn on his alleged decision to designate records as personal under the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’) and to cause the records to be moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. As alleged in the Superseding Indictment, President Trump made this decision while he was still in office. The alleged decision was an official act, and as such is subject to presidential immunity,” write fat former President Trump’s lawyers in the intro to their motion to dismiss all the charges for stealing classified documents from the White House.

It wasn’t the only bullshit attempt to toss the charges Team Orange filed late Thursday. Next they claimed he was immune because of the “Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith by Donald J Trump” because “The Appointments Clause does not permit the Attorney General to appoint, without Senate confirmation, a private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States. As such, Jack Smith lacks the authority to prosecute this action.” Then it was “President Donald J Trump respectfully submits this motion to dismiss the Superseding Indictment pursuant to the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’). First, the PRA conferred unreviewable discretion on President Trump to designate the records at issue as personal. As such, President Trump’s possession of those records was not ‘unauthorized’ as alleged in Counts 1 through 32. Second, the PRA’s exclusive remedy for records collection efforts by NARA is civil in nature and forecloses criminal investigations,” and blah blah blah.

Lastly they also filed, as an exhibit, some bullshit lawsuit stupid John Solomon filed against Merrick Garland claiming something something “Crossfire Hurricane.” Solomon, lol.

Former South Carolina Republican Governor and last remaining challenger to Donald Trump in the GOP presidential nomination race Nikki Haley hummina-hummina’ed her way through trying to explain her support of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, saying on CNN Thursday that “if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby.”

On Wednesday, Haley, who herself had IVF to conceive her child, said straightforwardly, “embryos, to me, are babies.”  On Thursday, she tried to hone the edges of her statement, claiming that while she believes that embryos are babies, she’s actually okay with legally slaughtering those babies (like she opted to after her child was born).  “I think that the court was doing it based on the law, and I think Alabama needs to go back and look at the law,” she stammered.

In a week, the number of clinics providing in vitro fertilization in Alabama has been nearly cut in half as a third provider announced on Thursday it was halting treatments, further limiting reproductive care for couples seeking medical help to have children, the Washington Post reports.

Since the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that frozen embryos are legally children in Alabama, clinics providing IVF and freeze unused embryos for possible use at a future date have reviewed their practices for legal liability under the law.  Of the state’s seven clinics, three have shut down entirely; three have stopped disposing of frozen embryos; and the status of the last one is unknown.

The IVF practice at the University of Alabama Hospital’s reproductive care clinic in Birmingham shut down on Wednesday.  Later that day, a partner in the private practice Alabama Fertility confirmed they were ceasing operations.  On Thursday, the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile said it was closing.

Poor Jamie Comer. Less than a year ago, he was all over Fox “News”–they earned those quotation marks in 787.5 million ways–touting how important and vital the vaunted 1023 Form from the FBI would be to the impeachment of Joe Biden.

Now, not so much, given the witness has been arrested TWICE.  Now, the piece of vital information Comer insinuated the FBI was hiding to protect Biden is less than nothing, completely insignificant to Comer’s quest.  But yet, Comer still brings up “China and Bulgaria” while not providing any evidence of Joe Biden’s wrongdoing.  More gaslighting from a Party that has no policies on which it can run.