Thousands have protested for a third consecutive night in Warsaw and other parts of Poland after the country’s rightwing government implemented a court ruling imposing a near-total ban on abortion.

Protesters have defied coronavirus restrictions and sub-zero temperatures to rally after the controversial judgment was given legal force on Wednesday.

In Warsaw, they waved Polish and gay rainbow flags and brandished the red lightning symbol used by Women’s Strike – the main organisation behind the protests. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/third-night-of-protests-in-poland-after-abortion-ban-takes-effect

Virgin Hyperloop unveiled its concept of the passenger experience in a YouTube video on Thursday that the company says speaks to its view of a “greener, smoother, safer and more pleasant mass transit experience.”

The hyperloop journey is viewed as being well lit, sleek with a minimalist design, fast and so smooth, a steaming cup of tea will sit serenely on a ledge while the pod travels at 670 mph.

“Designing a new mode of transportation from scratch is both an opportunity and a responsibility,” said Sara Luchian, Virgin Hyperloop’s director of Passenger Experience and one of the first people to ride the hyperloop in November. “Hyperloop technology – and what it enables – is paradigm-shifting. It follows that the passenger experience should be nothing short of extraordinary.”

The company worked with several partners to design “a comprehensive, multi-sensory passenger experience that surpasses that of any other form of mass transit.” .............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/alt-mobility/shared-mobility/article/21208029/virgin-hyperloop-shares-what-its-passenger-experience-will-be-like

(HuffPost) The Republican Party cannot survive if leaders continue to reshape it into an entity of “insane” QAnon conspiracy theorists and seditionists, freshman GOP Rep. Peter Meijer warned in a dark interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

The Michigan congressman said he has been stunned by Republican silence about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a QAnon conspiracist. She has advanced a nonsensical theory that a space laser beam ignited California’s 2018 wildfires. Greene has also said that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the horrific mass shootings in Las Vegas, at a Parkland, Florida, high school and at Sandy Hook Elementary School never actually happened but were staged by actors as part of a “deep state” conspiracy.

Meijer said it’s astounding the Republican Party appears to think it’s more important to condemn Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for voting to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol than to condemn Greene’s “insane” theories. (Meijer was also one of the 10 Republicans in the House to vote for impeachment.)

He also lashed out at the GOP’s failure to consistently condemn the Capitol siege by Donald Trump supporters.

“It’s just staggering how many folks continue to ... try to paper over what happened” at the Capitol, “try to move on, just say ... ‘Let’s forget about it.’ I’m just at a loss for words,” Meijer said. ................(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-meijer-conspiracist-seditionists-gop-trouble_n_60136c73c5b6bde2f5bdfe40?

(Axios) 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.

Why it matters: 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. Reps. Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise also spoke up. But McCarthy and others ultimately did little to stop her.

* A spokesperson for Greene did not respond to a call or email from Axios.

Behind the scenes: John Cowan, Greene's opponent in August's primary runoff for Georgia's 14th District seat, recalls separate conversations he had with McCarthy and Scalise, the House GOP whip, in which both men acknowledged Greene was a serious problem for the party. ..............(more)

https://www.axios.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-2621093b-13f1-491d-8256-366436171793.html

(Salon) After attending morning mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden stopped for a bagel.

Well, photos taken by White House press pool members showed a small swarm of black SUVs parked in front of Call Your Mother, a Jewish deli in Georgetown, while Biden and his granddaughters, Finnegan and Maisy, remained in the car. His son, Hunter, and a number of secret service members, waited at the take-out window where they retrieved a bag of sesame bagels and some tubs of cream cheese, according to the deli.

....(snip)....

But one interesting statistic emerged from tug-of-war between the "Oh, that's wholesome" reactions and the incessant calls from conservatives to revisit the invented Hunter Biden scandal. With that one Sunday afternoon visit — which took place after the president had been in office for about 100 hours — Biden had officially visited as many D.C.-area restaurants during his fledgling administration than former President Donald Trump did during his entire four years in the White House.

....(snip)....

Instead, he would send bodyguards on McDonald's runs and stock formal White House dinners with a buffet of Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and slices of Domino's pizza, all washed down with a dozen daily Diet Cokes, which were summoned using a special button on the Resolute Desk since removed by Biden. Trump occasionally teased visits to area restaurants like the Georgetown Italian restaurant Cafe Milano — which was so popular with his staff that Page Six dubbed it "the second White House cafeteria" — but nothing ever manifested.

....(snip)....

Why does it matter that Biden opted to support a local establishment within his first week as president? Local restaurants are hurting so badly right now, largely because Trump didn't take curtailing the pandemic seriously until it was too late. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/28/biden-has-already-visited-more-local-dc-restaurants-than-trump-as-presidentheres-why-it-matters/

On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that the self-styled "QAnon Shaman" who was seen in pictures of the Capitol riot wearing horns and red, white, and blue face paint is willing to testify against former President Donald Trump — because he feels "betrayed" he didn't receive a pardon for what he thought was following Trump's orders.

Jacob Chansley, of Arizona, is accused of breaking into the Senate chamber and leaving a threatening message for former Vice President Mike Pence — who became a target of the rioters' wrath due to his refusal to overturn the election certification using a fringe legal theory.

"Lawyer Albert Watkins said he hasn't spoken to any member in the Senate since announcing his offer to have Jacob Chansley testify at Trump's trial, which is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. Watkins said it's important for senators to hear the voice of someone who was incited by Trump," said the report. "Watkins said his client was previously 'horrendously smitten' by Trump but now feels let down after Trump's refusal to grant Chansley and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon. 'He felt like he was betrayed by the president,' Watkins said." .........................(more)

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-shaman/?

(Detroit Free Press) Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a motion Thursday for sanctions against the attorneys who brought a lawsuit that relied on conspiracy theories and misinformation in a failed attempt to overturn the state's election in favor of then-President Donald Trump.

The so-called "Kraken" lawsuit was filed by three Michigan attorneys and ex-Trump attorney Sidney Powell on behalf of presidential electors nominated by the Michigan Republican Party.

U.S. District Judge Linda Parker denied the request to overturn the election after Michigan voters handed the state to now-President Joe Biden by more than 154,000 votes. In her opinion, Parker argued that the lawsuit appeared to be an effort to undermine faith in the democratic process.

Explaining the request for sanctions, Nessel said, "These lawyers must be held accountable for betraying the trust placed in them as members of the bar." .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/01/28/attorney-general-dana-nessel-sanctions-election-lawsuit/4300338001/

(Independent UK) A nationwide exodus has reportedly begun to take shape within the Republican Party following the deadly pro-Trump attacks on the US Capitol, with tens of thousands of GOP members officially switching parties after the riots.

The Arizona Republican Party has lost more than 9,000 members in the wake of the violence, CNN reported, as it continued to face a backlash for promoting rightwing conspiracies and igniting public feuds with Governor Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain.

Republicans in Arizona have also lost both Senate seats to Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, while a majority of voters in the state cast ballots for the Democratic ticket in the 2020 presidential elections – the first time since 1996.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the office for the Secretary of State reported nearly 10,000 Republican voters had changed their party affiliation in January, with nearly one-third of those voters switching to the Democratic Party. ............(more)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-gop-republican-capitol-riots-b1794196.html

Mark Meadows performed life-changing favors for Madison Cawthorn, then turned on him. Why?
Former North Carolina congressman and younger man who replaced him have a long history. Somehow it went south

By ROGER SOLLENBERGER
JANUARY 28, 2021 11:00AM


(Salon) Last November, North Carolina Republican Madison Cawthorn became the youngest person elected to Congress in modern history, at age 24. He was homeschooled through high school, and does not hold a college degree. According to his own claims in a sworn deposition, his work experience as recently as two years before his congressional run was limited to a job at Chick-fil-A, along with a part-time gig in a district office of former Rep. Mark Meadows. He later supplemented that by creating a real estate entity that shares its name with a slogan often embraced by white nationalists.

Cawthorn claims the slogan is simply "a term for Rome."

Yet in the 2020 Republican primary for the seat that Meadows vacated when he resigned from Congress to become Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, Cawthorn beat out Meadows' handpicked successor, as well as a former top aide and old political hand. But perhaps even stranger, in a sense Cawthorn had to beat Meadows himself: The onetime leader of the House Freedom Caucus veteran went so far as to throw campaign funds and taxpayer resources — perhaps unlawfully — into an effort to defeat the young man who, by all appearances, just a couple of years prior had been his protégé.

Cawthorn's relationship with Mark Meadows and the Meadows family has shaped some of the most formative moments of the young conservative's life, including the 2014 car accident that left him partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Indeed, in the four years between 2013 and 2017, Meadows recommended Cawthorn for the U.S. Naval Academy; had his son, Blake Meadows, find a Florida attorney to handle Cawthorn's insurance case; hired Cawthorn in his congressional office; and apparently played a role in helping Cawthorn gain admission to Patrick Henry College, which he attended for just one semester, before dropping out with a self-reported D average. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/28/mark-meadows-performed-life-changing-favors-for-madison-cawthorn-then-turned-on-him-why/