Category: Uncategorized

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow assclown Mike Lindell’s bid to dismiss the $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, Axios reports.

With Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, a former television commentator, trailing badly in the polls and major funders refusing to send good money after bad, Michigan’s Gratiot County Republican Party decided to produce it’s own ad showing representatives of the county’s populace.

Obviously not cast with professional actors or even people who performed in their junior high’s version of Guys and Dolls, the cast laments how bad Michigan has been under Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer while bedecked in their biker regalia.

The Supreme Court announced that one of the cases it will hear relates to Section 230 of the Communications Communications Decency Act, which shields websites from liability claims for content posted by third parties, NBC News Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley tweets.

The issue regarding Section 230 is a double-edged sword:  Conservatives believe revoking Section 230 would lead to laws that would prevent social media companies like Facebook and Twitter from censoring violent posts, misinformation in an emergency, and targeted harassment because it would allow conservatives to sue.  Democrats, on the other hand, advocate for the revocation of Section 230 will lead to social media platforms more closely self-regulating because they would be liable for the violence that stems from posts on their sites, like the domestic terrorist attack that happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

With at least 42 people dead, officials in Lee County, Florida face criticism for their efforts to evacuate residents in the path of Hurricane Ian last week, ignoring the county’s own emergency planning, NPR reports.

Prior to Ian hitting shore, the National Hurricane Center estimated the expected storm surge to be 4- to 7-feet along Lee County’s entire gulf shoreline, from Englewood to Bonita Springs to Fort Myers.  The county’s emergency plan called for the evacuation of of barrier islands, low-lying communities and neighborhoods bordering the Caloosahatchee River; those evacuation orders were not issued in advance of the hurricane reaching Florida.

With more than half of the hurricane’s current known 76 fatalities, Lee County didn’t issue an evacuation order until about 12 hours before the storm hit land Wednesday, with a notice going out Tuesday afternoon as winds and rain picked up.  Neighboring Charlotte County had issued an evacuation warning Monday, giving its residents more than 24 additional hours to vacate. 

National Zero is experiencing some technical difficulties from a really shitty old computer having to stand in for a less shitty computer that is shutting off repeatedly. This leaves this reporter unable to write articles with any actual worthwhile content until he can visit an Apple store around noon Eastern time on Monday.

“… should the government insist on holding us captive unconstitutionally as pre-trial detainees to be transferred and reside at Guantanamo Bay, a detention facility that actual provides nutritional meals, daytime sunlight exposure, top notch medical care, is respectful of religious requirements, has centers for exercise/entertainment for its detainees despite the fact that those residents are malicus [sic] terrorists, proud member of Taliban, and few are central (?) United States citizens.  Instead of remaining trapped within the wretched confines of cruel and unusual punishment of the D.C. jail.”

So writes a wannabe Patrick Henry in a letter signed by 36 defendants accused of crimes relating to the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, Ron Filipkowski reports.  They’re being held without bail because they are threats to themselves or others, or they are at risk of not showing up for their trials, given that they’re from out of the District and don’t have any connection to the community.  But hey, that’s just the Constitution and the law.  So if these guys want a trip to Gitmo, so be it.

“Tonight, M&M’s–you know, the candy we all grew up eating–well, they released their brand new character in over a decade, and their brand new character is Purple M&M, which is supposed to represent inclusivity and acceptance,” some unnamed host on a conservative network that has essentially no household penetration.  “I think it’s a female character, but I’m pretty sure they haven’t said.  Maybe it’s transgender.”

What kind of a sick fuck sexualizes M&Ms?  Oh, right:  conservative sick fucks.

https://twitter.com/glasskitchen/status/1576662226945343488

With 91.6% of the votes counted in the Brazilian presidential election, former Brazilian President Luis Lula da Silva leads Trump-endorsed far right asshole Jair Bolsonaro 47.3% to 44.2%, making an October 30th runoff all but inevitable, the Associated Press reports.

Although Republican Florida Governor and human trafficker Ron DeSantis kept the plans secret for shipping asylum seekers to Massachusetts from Texas via a stopover in Florida–not publically releasing information required by law and not even telling Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott–one item has leaked out:  the name of the coyote he used to recruit the uninformed victims of his scheme.

According to the New York Times, the woman known as “Perla” is Perla Huerta, a former Army medic and counterintelligence agent who had been discharged in August.  Apparently working as a contractor for the State of Florida, Huerta was identified by people she recruited to work for her in Texas as well as the migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard after being promised benefits from Massachusetts for refugees–benefits which the asylum seekers didn’t qualify for.

A Venezuelan man who worked with Huerta to recruit fellow migrants to make the trip to Massachusetts says he, too, was scammed by her:  she allegedly told him they were working for a group that would help people get assistance in Massachusetts.  He felt betrayed when told she worked for Florida’s governor.  “I was also lied to,” he said. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All he was told, he said, was that “she wanted to help people head up north.”

Speaking to a bunch of people scared to display even the slightest sign of disagreement for fear of being polonium’ed, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaches out to his base using the same talking points about fighting “the other” that you’ll hear from the GOP over the next two-plus years.  It’s almost like Republicans and their mouthpieces like Tucker Carlson are taking their talking points word-for-word from an authoritarian they admire.

Along with the conspiracy-laden Nord Stream II pipeline leaks touted by conservative media to be foreshadowing a nuclear war because obviously Biden did it, its partner pipeline Nord Stream I also suffered leaks this past week.

One day after the Nord Stream II pipeline leaks stopped, Danish authorities state the little-reported leaks in the Nord Stream I pipeline have stopped as well, according to the Associated Press.  The pipelines started leaking earlier this week after investigators say explosions requiring hundreds of pounds of explosives damaged the lines.

Thousands of tons of methane have escaped through the various leaks.  The leak stoppage is likely due to no more to all the gas in the pipeline being expelled.  Russia has called for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the incident, which it declared sabotage.  Norway has calculated that a massive methane cloud created by the leaks will hang over most of the Nordic area.

The background vocalists on "Monster Mash" are singing about shoes, and no one remembers why https://t.co/Bf7GJTMWdR pic.twitter.com/z7DdrhTibe

— The Hill (@thehill) October 2, 2022

At least 67 people have been confirmed dead in Florida after Hurricane Ian slammed into the state’s southwest coast, CNN reports. Another 4 people were killed in North Carolina after the storm reentered the Atlantic and strengthened back into Category 1 hurricane strength. The death toll is awful, but as of now still well below an estimate of “hundreds” by an area county sheriff. President Joe and First Lady Dr Jill Biden will visit the region on Wednesday.

“I’ve got a present for all of ya,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says on Sunday as he reaches into his jacket pocket to pull out a three-panel brochure that constitutes the entirety of the GOP policy pamphlet–which actually has no policy, just platitudes.  “Your own commitment to America.  And in here, we talk about a government that’s held accountable.  Wouldn’t we want to know where Covid originated?”

“We know though, Ke–!  We know!”  Birthing factory and former reality TeeVee star Rachel Campos-Duffy exclaims, promoting the disproven conspiracy that the virus was engineered.  “We know where it came from.”

The NFL Players Association exercised its option to fire the independent neurotrauma specialist who approved Miami Dolphin’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa reentering the game last Sunday against the Buffalo Bills after his head slammed the turf, CBS News reports.

After regaining his feet, Tagovailoa was clearly unsteady and ultimately fell to the ground again.  He was taken off the field, but returned three plays later.  Tagovailoa took another hard hit to the head during Thursday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, causing him to have an apparent seizure.  He was taken to the hospital where he was observed overnight.

Three independent neurotrauma specialists are hired for each game by the league and the NFLPA.  They are not affiliated with either team, and they are responsible for evaluating players with suspected head injuries to determine if they’re healthy enough to reenter games.  According to their agreement with the league, the NFLPA can independently fire any of the specialists hired if it feels the doctor is not acting in the interest of player health.

More than 125 people and two police officers were killed during riots at the end of a soccer match in Indonesia, ESPN reports, with most of the victims being trampled to death as they tried to flee the stadium.

Police attempted to use teargas to break up large fights going on in the stands and in the concourse, but that just drove more of the crowds to the few available exits to the stadium, causing more casualties.

More than 300 people had been taken to local hospitals, with some of them dying on the way.  The Indonesian Premier League game ended with Persebaya Surabaya beating Arema Malang 3-2.

President Joe Biden announced the release of seven American civilians, some of whom had been held in Venezuela since as far back as 2017, in exchange for two drug dealers who are related to Venezuela’s first lady, CNN reports.

Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, and Jose Pereira were executives for oil company Citgo when they were detained reportedly for signing an agreement “unfavorable” to the Venezuelan government, which controls the company.  The last member of the so-called “Citgo 6” was released in March.  Matthew Heath was detained in September 2020; Osman Khan was arrested in January of this year.

In exchange, the United States released two Venezuelans known as the “Narco nephews” because of their relationship to Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and the First Lady of the nation.  The two men, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, were convicted in 2016 of conspiring to smuggle more than 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

“I’m not going to mice, mince words with you all.  Democrats want Republicans dead and they’ve already started the killings,” newly single and ready to mingle Neanderthal-American Marjorie Taylor Greene announced at the Trump rally in a community college gym in Warren, Michigan.  “An 18-year-old boy was run down by a Democrat driver who confessed…”

Hi, Marge!  Just want you to know that your conservative brethren have been murdering people far more frequently.  We can look at Orlando, Buffalo, and the whole January 6th thing if you want to talk about conservative violence.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against rightwing media company Sinclar Broadcasting on behalf of a Black female former employee who discovered she was getting paid significantly less than white peers in similar positions, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The former employee said she notified human resources about the issue and instead of resolving the matter, forced the woman from her job.  “The EEOC is committed to eradicating discriminatory pay, including pay practices that disadvantage Black women,” said Debra Lawrence, EEOC’s regional attorney handling the case.

With a stable of 193 local television stations, Sinclair requires those stations to run conservative propaganda created at the home office in Hunt Valley, Maryland.  That propaganda takes the form of video packages formatted like a news feature pushing the same political agenda or scripted “ad lib” dialogue pushing the same political agenda or scripted editorials from the local station manager pushing the same political agenda.  Many times, it’s all three.