If you were to very publicly ridicule someone for attending a maskless gathering during a pandemic, you would probably have a glance at your diary to see if you were imminently scheduled to make that exact same mistake. However, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appears to have overlooked that crucial step.

On Thursday, McCarthy admitted attending his son’s largely maskless wedding during a coronavirus surge in California on Dec. 5—the same day he jabbed Gov. Gavin Newsom for attending his own maskless party. The top California Republican owned up to attending the gathering after he was asked about it by the Los Angeles Times. Under the state’s coronavirus pandemic measures, wedding receptions are banned and wedding ceremonies, while allowed, require masks be worn at all times. Both rules appear to have been ignored at Connor McCarthy’s wedding.

According to the Times, videos of the wedding show that guests, including the Republican congressman, were not wearing masks at several points during the day. At one point, he can reportedly be seen addressing guests using a microphone. A dinner was held after the wedding that appears to flout the state rule banning wedding receptions or celebrations.

There would perhaps be more sympathy for McCarthy’s decisions if he hadn’t spent months repeatedly taking shots at Democratic politicians who have been criticized for flouting COVID-19 health advice. Last year, he ridiculed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she was captured in security footage without a mask while at a San Francisco salon, claiming that the footage proved Pelosi “thinks she deserves special treatment.”
(Read More)
https://news.yahoo.com/mccarthy-attended-son-maskless-wedding-133625450.html

(NBC5dfw) A man who took his life in front of the home of U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) Wednesday afternoon has been identified as a former staffer, according to the Irving police.

Irving police said officers were called to a shooting outside Van Duyne's home at about 3:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they found an unidentified man on the sidewalk in front of Van Duyne’s house who was dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday afternoon that the man was identified by Irving police as 55-year-old Richard Christian "Chris" Dillard, a GOP activist and former communications director for Van Duyne's campaign from November 2019 to April 2020.

Irving police said Thursday afternoon that there was no note left behind or any other clue as to why Dillard chose to take his own life in the manner that he did.

(Read More)

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/man-takes-his-own-life-in-front-of-congresswoman-beth-van-duynes-home/2548634/

that diverted the plane from crashing into the Capitol, I thought of the trump-fearing repugs in the Senate that were anything but brave as they diverted democracy with their votes NOT to proceed with the impeachment trial in the Senate. They should be known from this day forward as "The Cowardly 44".

results in GA, which included his phone call with GA Sec of State Brad Raffensperber, CNN has confirmed.

https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1359532004744790016

(The Atlantic) The emotional high point of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial probably came in its first hours.

Closing out the opening presentation from the Democratic House managers, Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland offered a powerful speech in which he choked back tears as he recalled the attempted coup of January 6. The speech was poignant for personal reasons—as members of Congress know, and as my colleague John Hendrickson wrote last month, Raskin’s son, Tommy, had died by suicide just days before the insurrection—and because, no matter how heartfelt it was, it is unlikely to have much effect on Trump’s expected acquittal. (Indeed, later in the afternoon, the Senate voted 56-44 to proceed with the trial—only one Republican having been swayed by the day’s argument to reverse his vote from an earlier procedural motion.)

But Raskin’s speech framed the attack on the Capitol fomented by Trump not just as a technical matter or a violation of law, but as a violation of something the nation holds sacred.

Raskin recalled the horror of January 6. “All around me people were calling their wives and their husbands, their loved ones, to say goodbye,” he said. But his focus was not on the fear he and others felt but on what was left after the riot. Raskin described two low points from that day. One was his daughter’s reaction. She had come to the Capitol and taken shelter under a table, fearing for her life. After the rioters were expelled, Raskin apologized and told her it wouldn’t be like this the next time she visited the Capitol.

“She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol,’” he said. “Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and heard on the day and since then, that one hit me the hardest.”

(Read More)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/jamie-raskins-appeal-to-the-sacred/617982/

(ABC13 Eyewitness News) BREWSTER COUNTY, Texas -- An attorney in west Texas received some unexpected attention during a Zoom call that involved the face of a friendly cat.

During a virtual court proceeding on Tuesday in the 394th Judicial District Court in Brewster County, Texas, attorney Rod Ponton logged on to the meeting with a cat filter emblazoned across his screen.

In the video, Judge Roy Ferguson warns Ponton, saying "I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings."

Ponton responds saying he's aware and says, "I'm here live, I'm not a cat." The video was posted to the court's YouTube page, which houses a series of its virtual streams.

(Funny Video)
https://abc13.com/zoom-cat-filter-judge-attorney-in-texas-live-stream-rod-ponton/10324229/

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan went inside a gathering of QAnon followers in Arizona, just a couple of weeks before the 2020 election.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/watch-cnn-go-inside-a-gathering-of-qanon-followers/vi-BB1dpdme

(NY Post)The suspect in the Florida shooting that left two FBI agents dead and three wounded was identified by sources as a 55-year-old man who lived alone in the Sunrise apartment complex.

David Lee Huber was the target of a child-porn search warrant being served by the agents early Tuesday when he spied on the feds through a doorbell camera and opened fire with an assault-style rifle, sources told The Post.

Huber largely kept to himself at the Water Terrace Apartments and did not appear to have befriended any of his neighbors, a former tenant said.

The shooting around 6 a.m. Tuesday left veteran FBI agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger dead — and three others wounded, two hospitalized in stable condition.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/03/suspect-identified-in-deadly-florida-fbi-warrant-shooting/

*the Post is not my usual choice of news sources, BUT I googled this guy's address (10100 Reflections Blvd #102 Sunrise, FL 33351 and it matches the address of the shootout.