TALES FROM THE SWAMPLAND: Law Firm ‘Investigating’ Lincoln Project Gave Thousands in Donations to the PAC.

IF ALLOWED, THEY WILL ABUSE THEIR POWER AGAINST ANYONE THEY SEE AS A THREAT — AND THEY’RE THE KIND OF PARANOID THAT PEOPLE WITH GUILTY CONSCIENCES TEND TO BE: FBI Arrests Activist Daniel Baker Over Posts About Police Abuse and Self Defense. “In the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot, many Democratic politicians and left-of-center pundits have been calling for the expanded use of ‘domestic terror’ laws against people whose social media rhetoric seems too radical. Those who warned that this would backfire—being used not just against those who have committed crimes but anyone whose political views or online comments are deemed risky—were accused of things like excusing terrorism or aligning with white supremacists. Yet it hasn’t taken long for these warnings to come to fruition. . . . If this is the standard going forward, a whole lot of people across the political spectrum are going to find themselves in trouble. Meanwhile, the work of stopping actual terrorism and violence will be made harder, as federal agents spend increasing amounts of time investigating, targeting, and prosecuting people for harmless posts.”

They’re much more concerned about stopping theats to their power than about stopping actual crime.

FROM ALMA BOYKIN:  Familiar Tale.

Smiley Lorraine: Wolverine. Rosie Jones: 100-lb. Skunk. Morgana Lorraine: Witch with Editorial Problems.

Welcome to a world where Familiars choose magic workers, and a few others, as their partners. A world of adventure, tax-deductions, bad publisher tricks, and odd veterinary clinics, where wolverines wear glasses and iguanas sing along with the radio—badly—while casting spells and keeping their chosen humans out of mischief.

Or try to.

(Five short-stories.)

Oh, and there’s a review of book sixteen here.

OH, YEAH, HE AND I GOT A PREVIEW OF ALL THIS 5 YEARS AGO:  ‘Monster Hunter’ Scribe Shares Cancel Culture Survival Tips.

SOME WORKERS ARE LESS ESSENTIAL THAN OTHERS:  Vaccine delays leave grocery workers feeling expendable.

TO BE FAIR, EXPERTISE ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE:  India’s dramatic fall in COVID-19 cases leaves experts stumped.

NAH. THEY’RE NOW DOING VILLAIN MONOLOGUES:  Officer Sicknick’s death: the only surprise here is that the NY Times actually issued any sort of retraction at all, even a mild one.

They want us to know how smart they are!

I’M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN SNOWFALLS WERE A THING OF THE PAST:  In Athens, rare snow blankets Acropolis, halts vaccinations.

EASY TO LURE SOMEONE WHO HAS NO OTHER OPTIONS:  Cryptocurrency Seeks to Lure Firearms Companies Amid Threat Banks Will Cut Off Gun Industry.

ANYTHING TO DESPOIL US OF OUR RIGHTS:  Media Applauds Biden’s Grotesque Exploitation Of Parkland.

WE KNOW: Government Health Care is Not Actual Health Care.

SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED. BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE: Wind And Solar TKO’d By Ice And Snow.

NOT VERY SHADOWY:  Kamala Harris Becoming a Shadow President.

IT AIN’T NO BIG THING:  An update on coronavirus from an Arizona doctor.

THE TRULY TERRIBLE THING IS THAT THIS IS A DAILY FEATURE:  Today’s blacklisted Americans: Ivy league students & teachers demand revocation of all degrees earned by Republican politicians.

SALENA ZITO: Texas grid trouble offers warnings about Biden’s anti-energy policies.

The images of frozen wind turbines and solar panels brought to life how one of the most independent and powerful energy states in the country could fall to its knees when snow, ice, and frigid temperatures battered its power grid.

It was imagery that tells a cautionary tale of what the future in this country could look like if the Biden administration continues its dismantling of fossil fuel and related infrastructure industries. In short, what happened in Texas could happen anywhere, whether under the strain of a winter storm in Texas and Oklahoma or a heat wave in California.

To be fair, pumps and turbines also froze. This was an unprecedented winter storm for Texas. But yeah, all the green BS will make it worse. And, in fact, already has.

Americans used to not tolerate stuff like that. And still shouldn’t.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Build some nuke plants. In 10 years you’ll be selling power to your unicorn-powered neighbors.”

HE’S BACK: Trump Says GOP Won’t Win With McConnell, Plans to Back MAGA Primary Candidates.

VIDEO: Mars Rover Footage Compiled Into an Astonishing 4K Video That Reveals the Surface of the Planet.

BOB MCMANUS: Expect more lies, bullying and pandering from a wounded Cuomo.

The Granny-killer isn’t going to give up. Plus:

Here’s a bold prediction: Never mind that New York City’s fiscally collapsing, rider-starved subways will spend years getting over the pandemic, the system itself won’t see a single work rule change not approved by Transport Workers Union Local 100. That is to say, there will be none. Cuomo, hogtied by his nursing-home debacle, will see to that.

And this speaks to the structural, as opposed to the human, tragedy generated by Cuomo’s decisions: A different governor might have used the dislocations caused by the pandemic to streamline government in New York, to make it more affordable and more responsive to post-pandemic realities.

But Cuomo is the governor New York has. He is an unprincipled actor to whom truth matters only when convenient, who has dug a political hole with his mouth — and who, rather than admit it, is using the power of his office to avoid a reckoning.

New York, in the event, is on its own.

Sad, but then they did elect Cuomo. And the even-worse (if that’s possible) De Blasio.

OPEN THREAD: Tell me something good.

SPACE FORCE: Despite its small size, Space Force plans to have its voice heard in the Pentagon.

WELL, THAT WAS BEFORE THE DEMOCRATS AND THE PRESS — BUT I REPEAT MYSELF — GOT HOLD OF IT: Sen. Ron Johnson: Capitol Breach Didn’t Seem Like an ‘Armed Insurrection’ to Me.

As far as I could tell, it was mostly peaceful.

COMING SOON TO OBAMACARE: Looks like Brits with learning disabilities who contract Covid are just plain out of luck because the National Health Service — Britain’s forerunner of Obamacare — has decreed resuscitation will not be available to them. This is called “rationing healthcare.”

JUST NBC THE SMUGNESS! Snarky Chuck Todd to Texans: At Least the Cold Will Make You Want to Wear a Mask!

TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Sparks a GOP Civil War With Scathing McConnell Rebuke.