Breaking Bad: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as stalwart and loyal a Republican as ever lived, widened a political split yesterday denouncing his party’s description of the January 6^th insurrection as “legitimate political discourse.” McConnell bluntly said the riot was a “violent insurrection.”

  McConnell also decried the Republican National Committee censure of representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for taking part in the House investigation of the January 6th attack, accusing them of “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

  Repudiating his party’s words, McConnell said, “It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”

  The party’s resolution has distracted republicans from their primary mission of fighting everything President Joe Biden wants to do and unifying in trying to take back majority control in the fall elections.

Viral News: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected today to join other states and drop her state’s strict indoor mask mandate, ending the order for businesses to ask customers for proof of vaccination or require mask wearing. 

  The decision comes as the winter surge of Covid-19 cases is receding. Across the country, new cases are down 62 percent over the past two weeks, although deaths are up 25 percent.

 Global cases surpassed 400 million in the past 24 hours with 5.7 million people dead of Covid-19.

Trucker Revolt: Canadian truckers protesting national Covid policies have blocked  the critical Ambassador Bridge between Ottawa and Detroit, cutting a vital link for the automobile industry in both countries. Speaking to the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the truckers are “trying to blockade our economy, our democracy and our fellow citizens’ daily lives.”  Trucks have also clogged the streets of downtown Ottawa.

  Right wingers and anti-vaxxers in the US, Australia, and Germany have praised the protests as a noble fight against over reach by government. Truckers in the US are talking about mounting a similar protest. 

  Canadian authorities have done little to directly to confront the truckers, but they have seized fuel supplies that have kept the trucks running and warm in the cab.

  Recent polls show that Americans share the truckers frustrations. A Yahoo News/YouGov survey found that 46 percent of respondents thought Americans should “learn to live with” the pandemic “and get back to normal,” while a slightly lesser 43 percent thought “we need to do more to vaccinate, wear masks and test.”

  Monmouth University poll found that 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that “it’s time we accept Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”

Crypto Crime: The Justice Department has seized over $3.6 billion worth of stolen Bitcoin stolen six years ago and arrested a married couple accused of laundering the cryptocurrency taken from the Hong Kong exchange Bitfinex. 

  It is the department’s largest financial seizure ever, officials said.  

  New Yorkers Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, have been arrested on charges of stealing and conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency funds. Lichtenstein is a Russian citizen and Morgan is a rapper who has dubbed herself “The Crocodile of Wall Street.” 

Five Ring Roundup: Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis delivered the US its first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, winning the snowboard cross event. It was redemption after a colossal that error cost her the win back in 2006.

  This is her fifth Olympic games and she’s the oldest American to win a medal in the winter games.

  In the most shocking development of these games, US skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin, already a two-time Olympic champion skied out in her second event, disqualifying herself from the slalom competition, her greatest skill. She had already fallen seconds into her first giant slalom run.

  A heartbroken Shiffrin sat by the side of the course for 25 minutes. She later said, “ It makes me second guess like the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing and slalom and racing mentality.” 

  Women ski jumpers are in an outrage after five of them were disqualified for wearing outfits considered by the judges to be too baggy, giving an unfair advantage of lift. Those disqualified are from Austria, Japan, Norway, and Germany. They were shocked because their outfits had been cleared for earlier jumps.

  The outfit rules are strict, even dictating what kind of underwear the jumpers can wear. 

The Spin Rack: The Peloton exercise equipment company announced that it fired chief executive John Foley, a co-founder, and that they will lay off 2,800 employees around the world. The company said it lost $439 million in its most recent quarter. — Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania has deemed eligible for the Ivy league championships despite complaints that she has an advantage because she was born male. She’s been breaking records. — One of the first things a Michigan mother did after learning her son had shot up his school was to beg her boss for her job. Jennifer Crumbley texted her boss at the real estate company saying, “I need my job. Please don’t judge me for what my son did.” Crumbley and her husband James are on trial accused of involuntary manslaughter for giving their son Ethan the rifle used to kill four people. 

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