IT’S POLITICAL: In a big hit to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, the well-funded Koch brothers political network yesterday announced it is suspending financial support for Haley after her defeat in South Carolina.

  The group, Americans for Prosperity Action, had spent millions of dollars supporting Haley attempting to prevent the renomination of Donald Trump. 

“Given the challenges in the primary states ahead, we don’t believe any outside group can make a material difference to widen her path to victory,” the chief executive of Americans for Prosperity Action wrote in an email.  

  As expected, Trump trounced Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday. It was 59.8 percent Trump, 39.5 percent Haley.

  The race was called the moment the polls closed, but Haley said, “Today is not the end of our story.” Despite losing the state in which she served as governor, Haley is soldiering on with the warning that Trump cannot win the general election. She also says a Trump candidacy would be a disaster down the Republican ticket for House and Senate.

  With pundits speculating when Haley will drop out, she’s off on a grueling schedule to campaign for Super Tuesday on March 5^th when 15 states vote from Maine and Vermont to Colorado and California as well as American Samoa. Francis Wilkinson writes in the Los Angeles Times, “The longer Haley stays in, the more she becomes a rallying point for Republicans who do not wish to be ruled by a degenerate cult.”

   Trump considers himself to be the anointed candidate even before he has the delegates to win the nomination. Haley said on Saturday that Republicans “have the right to a real choice — not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate.”

  Haley doesn’t need votes to stay in the race, she needs money. 

THE RUSSIA HOUSE: Russian authorities appear to have relented and released the body of dissident Alexei Navalny to his mother, Lyudmila Navlanaya. She had refused to cooperate with a secret burial the authorities had demanded.

  A family spokeswoman said funeral plans have not been made, but “We don’t know whether the authorities will interfere with it being carried out in the way the family wants and as Alexei deserves.” The government is clearly concerned that Navalny’s grave will become a shrine and rallying point for dissidents. 

THE WAR ROOM: Roughly 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the two years since Russia invaded, President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday, for the first time putting a figure on the toll that is far lower than the US estimate of 70,000.

 “This is a big loss for us,” Mr. Zelensky said at a news conference in the capital Kyiv. He declined to give the number of wounded or missing, saying that Russia could use that information to calculate the number of Ukraine’s active forces. The US has estimated that 100,000 to 120,000 Ukrainians have been wounded. 

  Zelensky said he revealed the number of Ukrainian dead to counter Russian clams that it is 60,000.

LATE BRAKING: A Los Angeles jury last Friday found prominent Angeleno Rebecca Grossman guilty of murder in the killing of two young brothers, 8 and 11 who she hit with her speeding Mercedes in September of 2020. Often described as a “socialite,” Grossman is prominent because she and her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, co-founded the Grossman Burn Foundation.   

  The accident happened in LA’s Westlake Village when Nancy Iskander was crossing the street with her three sons. Grossman had been drinking and was racing a male friend in another car at an estimated 81 mph when she hit the boys, throwing one of them 50 feet and the other 200. She drove another half mile before stopping.

  The 60-year-old faces 34 years to life in prison.

DRESS BLUES: The big debate in baseball this spring is not whether the runner was safe at home, but the look of the new Major League baseball uniforms designed by Nike. 

  The tapered shirts sometimes have team names that run into the armpits, the numbers and letters are smaller, and the white pants are semi-transparent, leading to some embarrassing press photos. Some players are remedying that by wearing last year’s pants.

THE SPIN RACK: The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments today about whether the social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok can block posts they find offensive. A ruling against the companies would expose users to more political viewpoints but also lies, disinformation, propaganda, and hate speech. — An active duty US airman wearing combat fatigues lit himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington yesterday in protest of the war in Gaza. Moments before igniting he shouted, “Free Palestine!” Secret Service agents put out the fire and the man is in critical condition. — Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel announced that she is stepping after seven years on the job.  Donald Trump says he wants to install an election denier and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to co-chair the RNC.

BELOW THE FOLD: 

Trumperlatives:

– “Like you’ve never seen before”

– “It’s a record”

– “The worst it’s ever been”

– “There’s never been a spirit like this”

– “The biggest officials”

– “Respected like never before”

– “Tremendous success”

– “America first”

– “We have a great family”

– “Incredible friends”

– “This incredible state”

– “A very special man”

– “We won in a landslide”

– “A high quality person”

– “They’re amazing people”

– “The greatest jobs producer that God ever created.”

– “The greatest president that God ever created.” 

– “I have the best words.” 

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