The Sunday Times reports:

Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer lobbied Donald Trump to pre-emptively pardon Ghislaine Maxwell during the final days of his presidency after talks with her family. Alan Dershowitz, 83, a former Harvard Law School professor, represented Epstein during the noughties and Trump during his first impeachment trial. He has since been accused of abuse by one of Epstein’s under-age victims, which he denies.

Trump, 75, used his executive powers to pardon or commute the sentences of various convicts, some of them political allies, and even considered pardoning himself for unspecified crimes. He was also reported to have taken a sudden interest in Maxwell’s fate. According to Landslide, by the American journalist Michael Wolff, he asked aides: “Has she said anything about me? Is she going to talk? Will she roll on anybody?”

https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1480230729334366209

https://www.joemygod.com/2022/01/report-dershowitz-lobbied-trump-to-pardon-maxwell/

A teacher calls in to give her take on what it is like in schools during the omicron surge. Her district is teaching remote simply because so many teachers are out sick and there aren't enough substitutes to cover.

State Senator files bills to give Oklahoma sheriffs power to arrest federal officers, form posses against federal agents

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma State Senator filed three bills designed to increase the power wielded by Oklahoma sheriffs, including a bill that empowers sheriffs to arrest federal officers who attempt to confiscate guns.

State Senator Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, filed the bills on Thursday.

“I’ve heard from numerous sheriffs and constituents across this state who are concerned at the consistent ignoring of our Constitution happening by this rogue regime” Dahm said. “The Second Amendment was never solely about hunting unless you’re referring to hunting tyrants. It was about the people being able to protect themselves against a government that would seek to disarm them.”

Oklahoma Rep. Terry O’Donnell announces resignation as House Speaker Pro Tempore after he and wife processed at Midwest City Jail
Senate Bill 1199 allows sheriffs to arrest federal officers who attempt to confiscate guns in Oklahoma.

Senate Bill 1200 requires federal agents and officers to receive permission from the county sheriff before operating in their county.

Senate Bill 1201 expands a sheriff’s ability to form a posse to include prohibiting agents, employees and officers of the federal government from violating the constitutional rights of the people of their county.

“The full totalitarian leftist takeover of a society has always been predicated on confiscation of firearms,” Dahm said. “Thankfully in Oklahoma we have county sheriffs that would never allow that to take place. But we must do everything possible to help them stand up for our rights and this bill further enables them to do that.”

Such legislation is written to play to far right Republicans, said Michael Crespin, a University of Oklahoma Professor of Political Science and Director and Curator of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center.

https://kfor.com/news/oklahoma-legislature/state-senator-files-bills-to-give-oklahoma-sheriffs-power-to-arrest-federal-officers-form-posses-against-federal-agents/

Personally, I haven't had an issue finding items I need. I'm in a large city and have three grocery stores within walking distance. There are a few items I'd like to get that are currently unavailable but they're too frivolous to lose sleep over. I am very fortunate.

Where are you seeing shortages? Rural areas? Cities? Which states?

On the morning of Jan. 6, Caroline Edwards, a 31-year-old United States Capitol Police officer, was stationed by some stairs on the Capitol grounds when the energy of the crowd in front of her seemed to take on a different shape; it was like that moment when rain suddenly becomes hail. A loud, sour-sounding horn bleated, piercing through the noise of the crowd, whose cries coalesced into an accusatory chant: “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” Edwards, who is 5-foot-4, tried to make herself look imposing. Behind a row of bike racks, alongside four other officers, she stood in a wide stance, her hands on her hips. A man in front of her whipped off his jacket as if he were getting ready for something, flipped his red MAGA hat backward — and then the rioters were pushing the bike racks forward as the officers pushed back, trying to hold their balance.

A sergeant standing closer to the Capitol looked over just in time to see a bike rack heaved up and onto Edwards, whom he recognized by her tied-back blond hair. She crumpled to the ground, head hitting concrete, the first officer down in what would prove to be a bloody, bruising battle, the worst assault on the Capitol since 1814, when the British burned the building to the ground. The crowd howled and roared, rushing past the barricade as that sergeant started screaming into the radio orders to lock all Capitol doors.

Edwards’s blue cap had been knocked from her head. Once she got back on her feet, she stood, dazed and leaning on a railing for support, her hair loose and disheveled, as rioters flung themselves past the barriers, her colleagues punching back the few they could. Officers around the building heard, over the radio, an anguished call distinct from any other they had encountered on the job: “Help!”

:snip:

Nicole’s husband was one of a handful of officers still on medical leave in November. He and Nicole were deeply private people devoted to family, church and their children’s team sports. They were Republicans, and Nicole was frustrated by the narratives of the Capitol Police that were dominating the news: The force seemed to be represented by officers who struck her as Trump-hating radicals on the left, or else were portrayed as lax extremists who supported the rioters. She and her husband voted for Trump and still would again if he were the Republican nominee, but that did not mean they were not outraged — disgusted — by him and by the rioters. Even so, she believed that to focus on Trump would be to distract from the people who had most betrayed her husband: the Capitol Police leadership, who dared to send her husband into battle, as she put it, without so much as a helmet.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/magazine/jan-6-capitol-police-officers.html

Why did grandma not have enough swagger to survive Covid??! What a foolish man.

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1478009220624748545

...easy targets.”

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1477654919947571205

And beware!!!! Marjorie Taylor-Green's twitter ban will swing the election in 2022 to the GOP!!!! —DU right wing trolls

A Victorian man is fighting for life after setting himself on fire and screaming about vaccine mandates, leaving a woman who assisted with “skin stuck to her shirt”.

One woman who helped restrain the man, and asked not to be named, told the Herald Sun the man’s skin was burning until he was covered with water.

“His skin was burning, he was on fire,” she said.

“His skin is stuck to (my) shirt. He was off his face screaming about the mandates.”

Both police and paramedics were called to the grisly scene to treat and apprehend the man.

He was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Another witness who was dining nearby said the man “poured gas on himself and on his car” saying the act was “on purpose”. The witness said the man had been screaming “no vax ID”.

Officers have cordoned off the street with police tape.

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/melbourne-man-set-himself-on-fire-after-shouting-about-vaccine-mandates/news-story/1fc6f8a95bc99359a2e527c28d333f51