FAT CHANCE. Trump lawyers file brief calling for impeachment case to be dismissed. “They suggest that Trump was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he disputed the election results and argue that he explicitly encouraged his supporters to have a peaceful protest and therefore cannot be responsible for the actions of the rioters. They suggest the Senate is not entitled to try Trump now that he has left office, an argument that is contested by even some conservative legal scholars, and they deny that the goal of the case is about pursuing justice.” Secret ballot a possibility for Senate vote?
TRIAL PREVIEW. Cinematic presentation expected: “Armed with lessons from Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, which even Democrats complained was repetitive and sometimes sanctimonious, the prosecutors managing his second are prepared to conclude in as little as a week, forgo distracting witness fights and rely heavily on video, according to six people working on the case.”
I DON’T REALLY LIKE A BULLY. Roberta Kaplan on suing Donald Trump.
RON DESANTIS. Florida governor and Trump ally dodges question about 2024 presidential run: “The Governor did not close the door on the race in 2024, but as he did late last week, the Governor did not say no to a run that would happen at the beginning of his second term, should he be reelected in 2022.”
SUSAN SARANDON. She’s back to attacking Democrats.
INFOMERCIAL INTERRUPTION. Suzanne Somers shocked by near-naked intruder.
THE UNDOING. A Sydney opera fan swatted Nicole Kidman with his program: “At this point, allegedly, the gentleman swatted Academy award-winning Kidman with his program, prompting Urban to accuse the man of assaulting his wife. Quick as a flash, Urban summoned his burly security to escort the couple and Kidman’s mum out of the audience, while Opera House security were sent in to retrieve the aggrieved opera lover.”
NASHVILLE. Man shot dead during YouTuber’s “prank robbery.” “The homicide unit is investigating a claim of self-defense in the shooting, MNPD stated in a Saturday news release. Timothy Wilks, 20, was shot and killed in the parking lot of Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park around 9:20 p.m. When officers arrived at the scene around five minutes later, 23-year-old David Starnes Jr. admitted to shooting Wilks.”
WE LOVE BRITNEY. Miley Cyrus shouts out to Spears amid conservatorship battle during TikTok tailgate concert.
BITCOIN. Cryptocurrency surges after Tesla confirms it bought $1.5 billion worth: “Tesla, which last year became the world’s largest car company by value, said it bought the bitcoin for ‘more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash,’ according to the filing.”
RIP. Remembering Richard McCann: “The LGBTQ literary community suffered an incalculable loss when McCann—writer, poet, professor, and mentor extraordinaire—died on January 25, 2021. He was the author of the collection of linked stories Mother of Sorrows (2006), an ALA Stonewall Honor Book and Lambda Literary Award finalist rightfully described by Michael Cunningham as “almost unbearably beautiful.” It won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award. His poetry collection Ghost Letters (1994), also a Lambda Literary Award finalist, received a Beatrice Hawley Award. With Michael Klein he was editor of the important poetry collection Things Shaped in Passing: More “Poets for Life’ Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (1995) which included poems by Henri Cole, Melvin Dixon, Richard Howard, Marie Howe, Carl Phillips, and Paul Monette, among many others. His own work appeared in Esquire, the Atlantic, and Tin House, and was anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. He was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim, the latter for The Resurrectionist.“
MALE MODEL MONDAY. Delaney Ortiz, Dom Fenison, Jack Ellis, Adam Phillips, Bobby Penney and MORE.
BIG BROTHER BRAZIL. Contestant self-evicts after being accused of using gay kiss to further his game.
SCOTLAND. Transphobia wrecking golden opportunity for independence.
COMMON GROUND. Bruce Springsteen talks unity in first Super Bowl ad: “All are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle. It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately, between red and blue, between servant and citizen, between our freedom and our fear.”
LINCOLN PROJECT AD OF THE DAY. Don’t Be Distracted.
TEASER OF THE DAY. Old.
TRAILER OF THE DAY. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
MONDAY MEDITATION. Jwan Yosef.
