-Former Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), still dumb

Every time it seems like we have a handle on how extensively Republicans encouraged and cooperated with Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election, new evidence rolls in revealing the conspiracy to be Bigger Than Before. 
 

• CNN has obtained a trove of thousands of text messages Mark Meadows provided to the House January 6 committee, and they underscore just how central the disgraced White House chief of staff was to the insurrection—and its many supporters in the GOP—before January 6, on January 6, and even after January 6. Before the insurrection, Meadows served as a clearinghouse for right-wing conspiracy theories and strategies for stealing the election. Among those quickest to propose a coup was the embarrassing former energy secretary, Rick Perry, who lied about his behind-the-scenes role, only to have that role confirmed by text messages from his phone number that he signed “Rick Perry.” 
   
• During the insurrection, Meadows fielded a bunch of text messages from Trump loyalists on Capitol Hill and elsewhere pleading with him to get Trump to call off the mob, while at the same time he and those same loyalists fabricated the propaganda they would later use to deflect blame from Trump. At 2:28 p.m. on January 6, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) texted Meadows, “I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn't the way to solve anything." About an hour later, Trump aides were already messaging each other to suggest blaming the riot on Antifa. At 3:52 Greene wrote again, "Mark we don't think these attackers are our people. We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters."
   
• Speaking of Greene, she continued to push for blocking the handover of power even after January 6. Eleven days later, she wrote to Meadows again, "In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) law. I don't know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him.”

At least things couldn’t possibly look worse for Meadows, right?

• Haha! One Republican told CBS News reporter Robert Costa, "everybody texted too much" in the group chats and, “if they ever get out, we have a problem." If the committee gets ahold of them, it might answer some important questions like: Did Greene commit perjury when she claimed under oath she didn’t remember discussing the possibility of Trump declaring *martial* law after the election? And, how many House Republicans were promoting a military coup in the run-up to inauguration day? 
   
• The January 6 committee also has testimony confirming that Meadows was well aware of concerns that his plans for January 6 might cascade into violence at the Capitol. One of his own top aides, Cassidy Hutchinson, told the committee that a senior Secret Service agent (who, insanely, moonlighted as a Trump political aide) apprised Meadows that he “had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th. And Mr. Meadows said: All right. Let’s talk about it.” 

Check out a new episode of Tommy Gets Redpilled! This week, Tommy dives deep into the deranged world of 'Woke Disney' where he faces Republicans like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Marjorie Taylor Greene who are on a mission to cancel Disney. Subscribe to the Crooked YouTube channel to never miss an episode.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyed Austin traveled secretly to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The U.S. government would only acknowledge the official visit after the two had safely exited the country, citing obvious security risks, but the Ukrainian government was more than happy to confirm their presence in real time, as a demonstration of confidence in their ability to protect themselves and their allies from Russian forces. U.S. officials might not actually mind the bluster all that much. Speaking from the Polish border after his meeting with Zelensky, Austin said the U.S. ”want[s] to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine." The visit itself sure seems like a step in that direction.

• Emmanuel Macron thankfully defeated Marine Le Pen by a big, double digit margin, staving off a proto-fascist takeover of France. Less thankfully, Le Pen drew her support disproportionately from France’s younger generations, which seems like a bad omen for the future. 
   
• Welp, Elon Musk, one of the world’s most vindictive and careless right-wing men, suddenly owns Twitter, and everything under the hood.
   
• The company announced the deal just in time for this unrelated announcement of an Elon Musk exposé documentary, produced by FX and the New York Times, which will air this May. 
   
• A judge has held Donald Trump in civil contempt, and will fine him $10,000 per day, until he complies with document subpoenas from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
   
• Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has signed legislation creating a special police force to hunt down imaginary voter fraud and fan Big Lie panic on the right.
   
• A Trump judge will force the Biden administration to leave the Trump administration’s hideous immigration policy in place, rather than allow it to adopt a different policy within President Biden's legitimate authority to adopt, in another example of a system I see no reason for Democrats to change.
   
• After forcing Dems to abandon the centerpiece of their climate-change agenda in the Build Back Better Act, then killing the Build Back Better Act altogether, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants his fellow Democrats to “compromise” by pairing more modest clean-energy provisions with fossil-fuel production incentives in a scaled back version of Biden’s agenda (which he might also kill). 
   
• Utah Democrats will back Evan McMullin’s independent Senate candidacy challenging incumbent/pro-coup Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), instead of fielding a candidate and splitting the anti-insurrection vote. 
   
• Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) may have cost Texas, the United States, and millions of Americans billions of dollars by illegally stopping every commercial truck crossing the southern border into his state, but at least he turned up no trafficking whatsoever—zero migrants and zero drugs—officially rendering him an infinite failure.  
   
• A right-wing Michigan radio show host and Senate candidate ranted about commercials featuring multiracial families, insisting that families should be “a white mom, white dad, and white kids,” if you can even believe a right-wing Michigan radio host would say such a thing.
   
• Several hundred miles due south, meanwhile, the government of Alabama took the day off to pay homage to the confederacy. 
   
• Leslie Dowless, Jr. the Republican operative who orchestrated an absentee-ballot fraud scheme in 2018 that necessitated rerunning a House election in North Carolina, has died of lung cancer, shortly before he was set to face trial. 
   
• That sound you just heard is Joe Biden screeching with delight at the news that GM will roll out an “electrified” version of the Corvette, followed soon thereafter by a fully electric version.

The New York Times has published a granular look at the mental-health crisis plaguing American teenagers, particularly teenage girls, and the findings point to a problem whose scale and causes are vast and will be daunting to address. COVID-19 accelerated spikes in suicides and children reporting major episodes of depression, but those trends long predate the pandemic and point to social media as a huge culprit, both for what it does to young minds, and the spillover effects on their physical lives. Social media doesn’t just facilitate instances of bullying; it magnifies children’s view into the whole gamut of social and political ills, where past generations of children had been relatively (blissfully) ignorant of them. Along with other technologies, it also has precipitated a trend of teenagers doing less in-person socializing and less exercise. That latter phenomenon has ironically fed statistics (e.g. lower teen-pregnancy and drunk-driving rates) that create an impression that The Kids Are Alright; but the likely reasons for those trends explains why so many of them are not.

People don’t always realize that physical symptoms like headaches, teeth-grinding and even digestive issues can be indicators of stress. And let’s not forget about doom scrolling, sleeping too little, sleeping too much, undereating and overeating.

Stress shows up in all kinds of ways. And in a world that’s telling you to do more, sleep less and grind all the time, here’s your reminder to take care of yourself, do less, and maybe try some therapy.

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.

Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. This newsletter is sponsored by BetterHelp, and What A Day readers get 10% off their first  month at  BetterHelp.com/crooked.

A loose network of Belarusians sabotaged Russia’s ability to supply its war effort via rail lines running from Russia to Ukraine through Belarus; an incredible story of heroism and a testament to the power of historical memory. 

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has halted the execution of a death-row inmate and ordered a court to consider new exculpatory evidence, over a decade after she was imprisoned for killing her daughter after police coerced her confession. Listen as she responds to the news here.

Here’s a good story about anti-science identity, which offers practical ideas about how to battle reflexive skepticism of science in rural America. 

The Starbucks unionization drive has reached several stores in northern Virginia.