-Candace Owens, on Minnie Mouse wearing a pantsuit

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has formally announced his retirement, allowing Republicans and allies to get on with the pressing business of pretending to be mad about the replacement President Biden hasn’t picked yet.
 

• After reportedly getting caught by surprise when news of his decision broke on Wednesday (note to journalists: please stop startling the liberal octogenarians), Breyer appeared with Biden at the White House for an official retirement announcement on Thursday. Breyer confirmed in his letter to Biden that would serve until the end of the current term in June or July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed.”
   
• Biden thanked Breyer for his service and reaffirmed his commitment to his campaign promise: "The person I will nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.” Biden noted that he will make his selection by the end of February, and that he’ll solicit advice from the Senate on potential nominees. 
   
• In the latest hopeful signs that this confirmation process won’t be another Smanchinema Special, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said on Thursday that he’s open to supporting a nominee who’s more liberal than he is, widening the potential short list from “Mike Pence; the ghost of Antonin Scalia; sentient gun.” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) said that she looks forward to evaluating Biden’s pick on three criteria: “whether the nominee is professionally qualified, believes in the role of an independent judiciary, and can be trusted to faithfully interpret and uphold the rule of law.” That’ll do, wig!

Powerless to block the confirmation if all 50 Democrats hang together, Republicans have settled for preemptively crying Radical Antifa Socialist. 
 

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who of course stole one Supreme Court seat and hastily filled another while votes were being cast in 2020, said in a statement that Biden “must not outsource this important decision to the radical left.” RNC Chairwoman Ronna “No Relation To Romney” McDaniel tweeted that Biden “will nominate an activist judge who will rubber stamp the far-left’s political agenda.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pointed out that any Republicans labeling Biden’s nominee “radical” before a single name has been released have “just obliterated their own credibility.”
   
• The premature attacks naturally include a strong whiff of racism, as right-wing dingbats suggest (or confidently announce) that Biden’s eventual choice will only have wound up on the bench because she’s a Black woman. Not that those bad-faith objections deserve a response, but Biden wasn’t the first presidential candidate to promise to make the Supreme Court more diverse. In 1980, Ronald Reagan pledged that if elected, he would nominate the first woman to the bench, and later followed through by selecting Sandra Day O’Connor. 

As long as no other crucial elderly people get startled, Democrats have the luxury of ignoring both fake GOP complaints about Biden’s eventual pick, and fake GOP Concerns about a swift confirmation process. Right out of the starting gate, all signs indicate they intend to do just that.

Check out the latest episode of Pod Save America! On today's episode, Jon and Dan discuss Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement announcement that will give President Biden his first chance to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Plus, former Obama White House lawyer Kate Shaw joins to talk about potential nominees and what it’s like to go through a confirmation fight. New episodes of Pod Save America drop every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

The U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in decades in 2021, in the latest, impressive clipping for the Biden Boom files. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the country’s gross domestic product (the total value of all goods and services produced) grew 5.7 percent last year, the biggest expansion since 1984. That’s far better than most economists predicted a year ago, partly driven by a higher-than-expected surge in growth over the last three months of the year, before the Omicron wave hit. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials signaled on Wednesday that they plan to raise interest rates in March in an effort to get the stubbornly high inflation-rate under control. 

• Russia has made no de-escalatory noises after receiving the Biden administration’s written response to its non-starter demands over NATO. President Biden held a call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday to see if he had any dirt on Don Jr. discuss the current risk level.
   
• A GOP Arizona lawmaker has introduced an elections bill with a provision that would allow the legislature to overturn election results, along with extreme voter-suppression measures. “We need to get back to 1958-style voting,” said Republican state-Rep. John Fillmore, shrouding his racist intentions in an uncrackable code. 
   
• Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) has vetoed congressional maps sent to him by the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania legislature, on account of all the gerrymandering. The final maps will likely be decided by the state Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority.
   
• Maus author Art Spiegelman denounced a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban the graphic novel about the Holocaust (purportedly over cuss words and a nude illustration), and the larger right-wing book-banning frenzy surrounding it. A normal story for a normal Holocaust Remembrance Day.
   
• The intelligence community’s overzealous approach to classifying information harms national security and undermines public trust, according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, in a letter she sent to senators who are pushing for an overhaul. 
   
• Spotify opted to remove Neil Young’s music after he issued a “me or Joe Rogan” ultimatum, ensuring that an audience of 11 million can keep learning about climate change from the likes of Jordan Peterson in a tuxedo channeling a stoned college freshman in his first-ever philosophy class.
   
• Sarah Palin dined out at multiple New York City restaurants after testing positive for COVID, but in her defense, she’s had a lot of time to fill since her libel trial got delayed because she tested positive for COVID.
   
• All monkeys are now accounted for after a truck full of monkeys crashed in Pennsylvania on Friday and a handful of them went missing. A weak sequel to the rogue zebras of Maryland, but the year is young. 

Gas stoves are constantly leaking a little methane even when they’re turned off, according to a fun new study that has errbody in the club googling “symptoms of methane poisoning.” The good news: the low levels of leaked methane from your stove probably aren’t a threat to your health. The bad news: you are not the only one with a stove. The study found that methane emissions from gas stoves that aren’t running are about equivalent to the greenhouse gases released by 500,000 gas-powered cars in a year—on top of the 6.8 million tons of CO2 that gas stoves emit when they’re in use. The findings help explain why researchers in cities have detected higher methane levels in the atmosphere than they could account for with pipeline leaks, and should bolster city and state efforts to transition away from gas appliances.

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So, what is therapy, exactly? It’s whatever you want it to be.

You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

President Biden has signed an executive order establishing sexual harassment as an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. 

Amazon workers in Staten Island have gotten the go-ahead from the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. 

New York City’s two supervised-injection sites have reversed at least 114 overdoses since they opened in November. 

TikTok users have enthusiastically spammed a tip line set up by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) for reporting teachers with “divisive” lesson plans.