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The scandal-embroiled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is teaming up with one of his most controversial (and annoying) colleagues, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), to do their dear leader’s bidding in Arizona.

Bob Dylan turns 80 today.

If you’re inclined to celebrate here’s a series of interviews from 1971 never published until last year. The interviews were conducted by Dylan’s friend Tony Glover, an accomplished musician and author in his own right. The two met when they were both kids playing in the Minneapolis music scene before Dylan left for New York City. Then Glover was the bigger deal. That was the start of a lifelong friendship. And the origin of the relationship makes these interviews much more expansive and open than Dylan’s frequently evasive and secretive way of approaching interviews.

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A handful of proponents of the Big Lie have launched bids for secretary of state — elected, state-level positions that will have a say in voting operations for future election cycles.

Another one of those sign of the times story. A bar owner in Troy, New York, Matt Baumgartner, reopens with a rule that patrons must show they’re vaccinated before entering the bar. He’s then inundated by calls, something threatening violence in response to his decision. “They’re all saying the same thing: that I’m a Nazi, that I’m anti-American.” Most of the calls seemed to be coming from Florida.

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As you can see we have a new installment in what amounts to an expanding vein of coverage of what we might call mini-insurrections across the United States in the aftermath the Trump presidency and the January 6th insurrection. Here Matt Shuham goes deeper on what is on the surface a recall effort in Shasta County, California. But it’s one that is moving in tandem with violent threats from the local “militia”. It’s really a must read piece.

It’s been a year since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes while he repeatedly told the officer he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin was found guilty of murder on all counts last month.

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Here’s yet another chapter in the unfolding story of extremist groups and threats of violence seeping into political life in communities across the U.S. in the aftermath of Trump and January 6th. In this case it’s an attempted Proud Boy takeover of the county Republican party in Clark County, Nevada, which is basically the Greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. (About three-quarters of the state’s population lives in Clark County.) As in the other cases we’ve discussed in recent days, the situation includes a confluence or amalgam of ordinary, if contentious, factional political battles with organized threats of violence and efforts to use force to take control of party committees.

Here’s a bit more on the situation in the Clark County, Nevada GOP.

Yesterday, Jon Ralston – the dean of Nevada political reporters – riffed on my post below. He also added some additional context that wasn’t clear to me.

The mother of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died after the insurrection, is trying to pressure Senate Republicans to take the Jan. 6 commission bill seriously.