Maga is sad. It’s true. All over social media, I see their lamenting cries. So what’s bothering them? It has to do, of course, with Donald Trump. Of course, it does. Does anyone in Maga even have a life outside of the Donald?

As you know, the resident Twitter mad scientist allowed Donald Trump to come back to Twitter. So one would think Maga would be happy. For about five seconds, they were. But there were some problems with this decision.

First off, as of right now, Trump has yet to tweet anything. Perhaps he’ll never come back, which is just fine with me, and I’m sure fine with you as well. But something else is bothering Maga. Who knows. Perhaps it hovers in their dreams at night. And that something is: Us.

That’s right. You and me. Us. We. The reason is that Maga feels we’re not upset enough about Trump coming back to the platform. They want to “own” the libs — but they can’t do that if we don’t CARE about Trump.

All over social media, I saw Magas vainly trying to find some good news in all this. “At least the liberals are crying,” one little Maga said with aching desperation as if to reassure themselves that we were at least getting owned.

Only we weren’t. Because truthfully, not many liberals I bump into on Twitter really even mention Trump much. The world has moved on. At least everybody has moved on, but Maga, who sits there, fingers on the keyboards, desperately seeking liberals to own.

I actually responded to one. This is not something I ordinarily do. But I could not help but be amused by Maga’s obvious yearning to own us. So I told one Maga frankly that we were all laughing at him. I don’t think he was too thrilled to hear that.

The fact is we’re much more well-adjusted than Maga and have no desire to “own” anyone. I am writing about this because the length Maga will go to be angry startles me — it still startles me, after all this time, even though it shouldn’t. Anger seems to be all they have. What WOULD these people do if happiness came knocking on their door? I suspect they’d likely not let it in.

The post MAGA flips out appeared first on Palmer Report.

(NewsNation) — A business owner in Northeast Portland, Oregon, shuttered her store for good, citing rampant crime, theft and 15 break-ins in the last year and a half.

Rains PDX owner Marcy Landolfo told a local ABC affiliate that she is at her breaking point.

“Those break-ins are not covered by insurance, because insurance drops you,” Landolfo said on NewsNation’s “Prime.” “So it’s, it’s a double-edged sword of what’s happening, and you just have to decide when you’ve had enough.”

Small business owners put everything that they have into their businesses and the decision to close isn’t one taken lightly.

“My final straw really was thinking about my employees’ safety,” Landolfo said. “During all of this, you know, you’re focusing on the 15 break-ins I’ve had after hours. But I’ve had countless other very dangerous interactions.”

Landolfo finally closed and posted a blistering note on the store’s door.

“Our city is in peril,” the note read. “Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished.”

Landolfo said nobody is going after the criminals.

“And that therein lies the problem,” she said. “Is that the criminal behavior, they know it will not be punished.”

Landolfo’s note said she simply can’t sustain doing business in Portland.

“Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses,” her note continued. “We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd.” 

Rains is just the latest store in Portland to close. According to reports, Nike’s first factory store, which opened in 1984, closed earlier after an uptick in incidents of crime. 

Watch the full interview with Marcy Landolfo in the video player at the top of the page.

Zelenskiy says Russia planning new missile attacks; Ukraine’s nuclear energy chief suggests Russian forces may be preparing to leave Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Continue reading…

It’s difficult to imagine the RNC allowing someone as mentally incompetent as Mike Lindell to become Chair, even if Donald Trump pushes for it. It would, obviously, be the end of the Republican Party. Ronna McDaniel is a corrupt and inept con artist who’s just there to do Trump’s bidding, but Lindell is literally an untreated psych ward patient.

It’s one thing to hand your car keys to a terrible driver, or even a car thief. At least there’s a likelihood your car will continue to exist in some form. It’s another to hand your car keys to someone whose only goal in life is to immediately drive the car straight off a cliff.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that the DOJ recently had the FBI seize Lindell’s cellphone in relation to attempts at overturning the 2020 election. With Special Counsel Jack Smith having recently taken over the DOJ’s Trump-related 1/6 probe, it’s entirely possible Lindell could soon be criminally indicted. By all means, RNC, give the keys to Mike Lindell. Please proceed!

The post Mike Lindell is trying to set fire to the Republican National Committee and we’re here for it appeared first on Palmer Report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russia would surely launch new missile attacks on his country, and warned defence forces and citizens to be prepared to withstand a new week of strain on the power grid.

Snow fell in Kyiv and temperatures hovered around freezing on Sunday with fog forecast overnight.

City authorities said workers were close to completing restoration of power, water and heat, but high consumption levels meant some blackouts had been imposed. Millions in and around Kyiv were coping with disruptions caused by waves of Russian air strikes.

“We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “And as long as they have missiles, they, unfortunately, will not calm down.”

Zelenskiy said the coming week could be as difficult as the previous week, when attacks on electricity infrastructure subjected Ukrainians to the most acute power cuts since Russian troops invaded in February.

“Our defence forces are getting ready. The entire country is getting ready,” he said. “We have worked out all the scenarios, including with our partners.”

There was no immediate response from Moscow to Zelenskiy’s claims.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Moscow has said it does not target the civilian population. The Kremlin said on Thursday that Kyiv could “end the suffering” of its population by meeting Russia’s demands.

Russia annexed swaths of Ukraine’s east and south in September and President Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s territorial demands are non-negotiable. After the annexation Zelenskiy said he would not negotiate with Moscow and also insisted that Ukraine’s territorial integrity cannot be negotiated.

Sunday was relatively calm with no devastating attacks on Kyiv or other major cities. Ukraine’s central army command said Russian forces launched four missile attacks and fired multiple times on civilian objects in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The situation, however, remained intense along front lines in various part of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.

“The most difficult is in Donetsk region as has been the case in previous weeks,” he said.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian troops had shelled a dozen villages in Donetsk, including the main targets of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The cold weather is gradually boosting energy needs as repair workers race to fix wrecked power facilities, grid operator Ukrenergo said.

Electricity producers still cannot resume full power supply after Russia’s missile attacks on Wednesday and must conserve energy by imposing blackouts, it said.

“The consumption restriction regime is still in place due to a capacity deficit, which currently stands at around 20%,” Ukrenergo said on Telegram.

Last week, Ukrenergo’s chief executive described damage on power generating facilities as “colossal”.

Moscow has targeted vital infrastructure in recent weeks through waves of air strikes that have sparked widespread power outages and killed civilians.

Fresh strikes last Wednesday caused the worst damage so far in the nine-month conflict, leaving millions of people with no light, water or heat, as temperatures fell below 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).

Zelenskiy said utility and emergency teams were working around the clock to provide power, with the situation “under control” though most regions were subject to scheduled blackouts to help restore the grid.

In Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine abandoned by Russian troops this month, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said 17% of customers now had power. Other districts would be connected in coming days.

Zelenskiy has issued constant warnings to consumers to conserve power, as have utility officials.

Sergey Kovalenko, chief operating officer of YASNO, which provides energy to Kyiv, said on Saturday evening the situation in the city has improved but remained “quite difficult.”

Zelenskiy criticised Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko, saying he had not done enough to help beleaguered residents. Klitschko, a former professional boxer, hit back at Zelenskiy, saying the criticism was out of place amid Russia’s military campaign.

“That is senseless,” Klitschko said.

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(NewsNation) — Congressman Jim Comer (R-Ky.) said Republicans are preparing for forty to fifty investigations once they have control of the House in January.

“We have the ability to investigate a lot of things,” Comer said.

Comer’s words are the first time we’ve heard the full scope of what Republicans hope to do over the next two years. He is the most likely congressman to run the House Oversight Committee, which is in charge of investigations.

Comer told NewsNation last month that work had already begun.

“Our committee has already done a lot of informative, substantive work,” he said. “Once we get the subpoena power, I think we’ll be able to accelerate and get some answers that every American deserves.”

Among the possible mentioned House GOP investigations are:

-Hunter Biden
-COVID-19 origins
-Ukraine spending
-COVID-19 spending
-Southern border
-Afghanistan withdrawal

Comer tells NewsNation that House Republicans will look into Hunter Biden, Dr. Fauci and the origins of COVID-19, money spent on Ukraine and the coronavirus and the southern border.

Republican sources tell NewsNation the withdrawal from Afghanistan will also be investigated.

Comer says the priority will be an investigation into the Biden family and Dr. Fauci.

“It’s not just Hunter Biden, it’s the president’s two brothers,” Comer said. “We believe they’re national security threats, and we believe their shady business dealings have compromised this White House.”

Even with their threadbare House majority, Republicans doubled down on using their new power next year to investigate the Biden administration.

“We’ve dug up a lot of emails and correspondents to show that Dr. Fauci knew this likely originated in the COVID lab,” Comer said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre fired back when asked about the Republican investigation plans.

“Their top priority when they get a majority is to talk about investigating the president’s family instead of doing what they said that they would do, is giving support to American families,” Karine Jean Pierre said.

For his part, Dr. Fauci says he’d welcome investigations and won’t shy away from testifying before Republican committees.

“I am very much in favor of legitimate oversight,” Fauci said. “I mean I have testified before Congress given the 38 years that I’ve been the director literally hundreds of times.”

Oversight is just one function of Congress.

According to an Emerson College national poll, voters have spoken up about what other priorities they want lawmakers to focus on.

A plurality, 46% say the economy. 12% say they worry about threats to democracy, even after the election. 9% said immigration, 7% said abortion and healthcare. 6% said crime.

Mexican prosecutors have filed charges against a suspect in the death of Shanquella Robinson, a 25-year-old American woman who died on Oct. 29 while on vacation with six of her friends in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Mexican authorities have not publicly named the American woman they are seeking to extradite, but have confirmed it is one of her friends. The FBI is also involved in the ongoing investigation.

“I feel so good, that’s a good feeling. That’s what we have been waiting for, for someone to finally be held accountable and arrested,” Salamondra Robinson, Robinson’s mother, told ABC News when she found out an arrest warrant had been issued. “I just can’t wait for justice to be served.”

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A viral video of a woman, who appears to be Robinson, being beaten helped Robinson’s case garner national attention. Robinson’s friends initially told Salamondra that she had died of alcohol poisoning, ABC News reported, but an autopsy listed Robinson’s cause of death as serious spinal cord injury and dislocated neck.

Here’s what we know about the case.

Shanquella Robinson’s Death and Family Outcry

Authorities found Robinson dead in the living room of her vacation rental in San Jose del Cabo on Oct. 29, according to an autopsy report, but initial local police reports offer different timelines on what happened that day.

A guest allegedly alerted medical staff at the resort where Robinson was staying that the victim had “drunk a lot of alcohol” around 2 p.m. that day, according to a local police report obtained by ABC News. A doctor advised that Robinson be transferred to a hospital due to dehydration, but none of her friends did so. She later died of cardiac arrest, the police report says.

The official autopsy report, however, says that medical officials came to see her before 3 p.m., after which she was rapidly declared dead from sustaining an injury to her spinal cord and neck. Mexican prosecutors have labeled her death as “a direct attack, not an accident.”

The day of her passing, Robinson’s friends initially told her parents that their daughter died from alcohol poisoning. Robinson’s mother, Salamondra, later told Good Morning America that the day before the autopsy report was released, Robinson’s friends went over to her house and each told her a different description of what happened in Mexico. She said she did not believe their stories.

Robinson’s family called for authorities to take a deeper look at the case and insisted that the 25-year-old’s death was not from alcohol poisoning, especially after the video of what her family believes is Robinson surfaced. It’s not clear when the video was taken, but Robinson can be seen being beaten as a male voice in the background says, “Can you at least fight back?”

The outcry of Robinson’s family garnered national attention, and last week the FBI then announced that they had opened an investigation in the case.

FBI Opens Investigation

Nearly a month after Robinson’s death, the FBI Charlotte Field Office opened an investigation as Mexican prosecutors attempt to extradite the suspect.

​​“The FBI Charlotte Field Office has opened an investigation in the death of Charlotte resident, Shanquella Robinson in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on or about October 29, 2022. Due to the ongoing investigation, we have no further comment,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Charlotte Observer.

Mexican authorities are investigating the case as a femicide, which is defined as the homicide of a woman because of her gender. Mexico has seen a significant rise in femicides in recent years, increasing from 427 victims in 2015 to 1,004 in 2021, per Vision of Humanity.

​​“There is already an arrest warrant issued for the crime of femicide,” Daniel de la Rosa, the attorney general for Baja California Sur, told local media outlets last week.

One of Robinson’s friends is being accused of the murder, though investigators have not identified whom. “We are already carrying out all the relevant procedures, both the Interpol file and the extradition request,” de la Rosa added.

The BBC said on Sunday that Chinese police assaulted and detained one of its journalists covering a protest in Shanghai, before later releasing him after several hours.

“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the British public service broadcaster said in a statement.

“He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist,” the spokesperson added.

Shanghai is one of a number of Chinese cities that has seen protests over stringent COVID restrictions, which flared in recent days following a deadly fire in the country’s far west.

Footage on social media showed a man whom other journalists identified as Lawrence being arrested by men in police uniforms.

The BBC said it had not been given a credible explanation for Lawrence’s detention.

“We have had no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught COVID from the crowd,” the BBC said.

China’s embassy in London has been approached for comment.