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highplainsdem

Early indications show honeymoon period for Biden administration

(ABC News) President Joe Biden is held in high regard by most Americans, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, as he takes the reins of a divided country in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic and economic crisis. In his first week in the Oval Office, Biden yielded high approval ratings for his response to the coronavirus (69%) and confidence in his ability to unify the country (57%). The new poll was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos' Knowledge Panel.

RandySF

Joe Biden's new secretary of state Antony Blinken will allow US embassies to fly Pride flags again

(Yahoo News) Antony Blinken, who will lead the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of State, made the comments at his confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday (19 January), according to CNN. He outlined changes he would make to ensure that the US government was “standing up for and defending” the LGBT+ community once Biden is in office. Blinken said he would allow all US embassies to fly Pride flags, after Trump banned US embassies from flying it for the entirety of June, 2020.

Nevilledog

National Guard sets straight story about guardsmen in U.S. Capitol parking garage

(WCVB) Officials with the Massachusetts National Guard on Friday released a statement identifying and correcting falsehoods in a report that suggested a Massachusetts congressman was responsible for Guardsmen being sent to a parking garage. "It makes no sense and quite frankly could not be farther from the truth," Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement.

"The relocation of National Guardsmen within the U.S. Capitol building grounds has nothing to do with Congressman Keating reminding a soldier of the requirement to wear their mask," the general wrote. "What the stories failed to mention was that they were on a break, resting between shifts," Keefe said in his statement. "At the end of the duty day, soldiers returned to their hotel rooms."

JHB

Monday TOONs

Gothmog

Dominion has sued Rudy for defamation

(CREW) Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer for Donald Trump and former mayor of New York City who played a key role in the former president’s monthslong effort to subvert the 2020 election.

Nevilledog

Kevin McCarthy aide: "We're eating sh*t for breakfast, lunch and dinner right now"

(Axios) Kevin McCarthy is learning you can get torched when you try to make everyone happy, especially after an insurrection. The House Republican leader had been hoping to use this year to build toward taking the majority in 2022, but his efforts to bridge intra-party divisiveness over the Capitol siege have him taking heat from every direction, eroding his stature both with the public and within his party.

The latest proof: McCarthy's digital director, Caleb Smith, sent a blast email to a group of GOP communications staff Saturday afternoon asking them to show their support for his boss.

Nevilledog

Josh Hawley was an early defender of the Oklahoma City bombing

(Kansas City Star) Josh Hawley was a precocious 15-year-old in 1995, writing a regular column for his hometown paper, The Lexington News, when he was still in high school. He used the early platform to opine on politics, culture and those he believed had been unfairly maligned by the media — among them anti-government militias and Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman.

Hawley warned against depicting all militia members as domestic terrorists after the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who carried out the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, had ties to the Michigan Militia.

Hamlette

Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General

(New York Times) The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.

The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

'Go Back to Moscow': Airplane Banners Near Mar-a-Lago Taunt 'Pathetic Loser' Trump

(The Wrap) Florida is mighty chilly these days... if you're former president Donald Trump, that is. Hours before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president, Donald Trump left the White House and headed down to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, which he plans to make his primary residence. But his welcome to the coastal city was, shall we say, not the warmest. Two planes circled the skies near Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, each pulling behind it a banner with rather uncongenial greetings. "TRUMP WORST PRESIDENT EVER," read one banner; the other reading, "TRUMP YOU PATHETIC LOSER GO BACK TO MOSCOW."

avebury

Members are quitting Mar-a-Lago because it has become a 'sad' and 'dispirited' place

(Business Insider) Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort has become a 'sad place' since he moved in, an expert on the resort told MSNBC. Members are quitting and want nothing to do with Trump, Laurence Leamer told the cable channel. Previous reports said that Trump's Florida neighbors have taken legal action to stop him from taking up residence. The author of "Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace" then remarked that members are leaving due to concerns that they might be featured in newspaper articles.