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Italian officials on Friday impounded the Scheherazade, a $700 million yacht docked at the Tuscan port town of Marina di Carrar whose owner is unclear but is widely rumored to be the property of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the Washington Post reports. The boat had been dry docked while undergoing maintenance and repairs since the Russian assault on Ukraine had began, giving Italian financial authorities time to try to sort out who exactly owns it, but when it was returned to the water this week they moved in to prevent the vessel from escaping to international waters. An investigation in March by an Italian newspaper determined the official owner is a former Russian oil executive named Eduard Khudainatov, however he’s almost certainly a straw man given his net worth is nowhere near the level required to buy a $700 million yacht, much less maintain it.

Republican Idaho State House Rep Brad Crane, chairman of the State Affairs Committee, starts off a roundtable about the leak of the draft decision from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade by bitching about the leak itself, before the moderator asks him to talk about the actual decision.

While he’s against punishing Idaho women for traveling to other states to seek abortions, probably because he doesn’t want to broadcast to Blue States that they can outlaw traveling to other states to purchase guns or marry underage girls, Crane says he would hear proposals banning morning after pills and IUDs, citing vague “health concerns”. The Democrat sitting across from the table, state Rep Lauren Necochea, is composed, but underneath that is just pure rage.

Spend the next three minutes and listen to this.  Republican South Carolina Congressman Tom Rice did not back away from his vote to impeach Donald Trump for his actions stoking the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress. During a primary debate Friday night, Rice calmly asserts, correctly, that it was the right thing to do to protect the Constitution, particularly after the nation came close to losing the republic on January 6th.

• Madison Cawthorn and Matt Gaetz are exactly why America needs abortion rights.
• Republicans believe an 11-year-old girl can get raped by a relative, be forced to have a child, must raise that child (including finding a way to pay for everything without government assistance), deal with the rapist in a co-parenting situation, find a job that provides health care coverage, AND complete school… but she can’t learn about LGBTQ people in school because  she’s not mature enough.  
• Fifteen months in, the Biden Administration has seen more job creation than the Eisenhower, Ford, GHW Bush, GW Bush and Trump administrations COMBINED. 
• How great was it to see a President laugh–like really laugh–because he was enjoying himself?
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume LXVIII”

With members of her staff calling themselves “trauma-bonded,” Republican Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz has been dubbed the Worst Boss in Congress by the nonpartisan website Legistorm, Politico reports.

Spartz has the highest staff turnover of anyone in Congress for FY2021, according to the site.  Reports from her staff and former staff relate stories of how she would enter her office suite and refer to her staffers as morons and idiots.

“That’s the common theme: Staffers do their job, and then Victoria comes in saying that they have no idea what they’re doing, that they are morons, calling them ‘idiots,’” said one former staffer. “Senior staff was amazing. That staff was really trauma bonded … we’ve all been through some shit.”

Democrats lead the GOP 44 to 39 on the generic ballot question on the Yahoo News/YouGov poll. It’s probably not “accurate” given it shows Dems with a bigger lead than others, most of which have put them more or less tied with the GOP, with a handful showing Republicans slightly ahead. But it’s the shift from 44-39 when asked “Who are you going to vote for?” to “Would you vote for a Pro-Choice Dem or a Pro-Life Republican?” at 44 to 31 percent that explains exactly why MAGA World wanted to focus on the leak and not the draft ruling overturning Roe v Wade itself this week.

That’s not a Blue Wave. That’s not a landslide. That’s a fucking massacre. No matter how badly YouGov may or may not have screwed up weighting the sample – like we said, it’s undeniably more favorable to the Dems than what we’ve seen elsewhere – we’re talking about a change within the same sample, and losing a fifth of support for their party on a single issue would be nothing short of apocalyptic for Republicans, no matter what the “actual” generic congressional ballot baseline should be. Keep an eye on other polls, this is the first survey since the leak, but if it sticks…

“You know what this rain is?” some warm up speaker at the sparsely-attended Donald Trump rally for Republican Senate candidate and carpetbagger Mehmet Oz declares.  (Clearly he doesn’t know what the word “rain” means.).  “This is God’s tears that Joe Biden is in the White House.”

Can someone please explain environmental science to this man?  Weather?  Physics?  And someone will have to also explain why the rally is being attended by a sparse crowd, because Oz is incredibly unpopular among Trumpians.

Mike Swift of MLexclusive reports that Judge James Donato of the US District Court in Northern California has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Twitter seeking to restore his account.  Twitter made the motion to dismiss, which Donato granted.

New York Capitol rioter Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a Brooklyn judge whose January 6th “caveman” costume makes him, in our opinion, the third most creatively dressed insurrection cosplayer (in the classical or primeval-themed category, the guys who cosplayed as 21st century militia soldiers are in a different one) after the QAnon Shaman Jake Chansley and “Captain Moroni” Nathan Entrekin, was sentenced to eight months in jail Friday following his February guilty plea on one felony count of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, the Associated Press reports.

A Florida public employee pension fund has filed a proposed class action suit against Elon Musk and Twitter to stop the proto-oligarch from purchasing the social media giant, Reuters reports.

The Orlando Police Pension Fund filed the suit claiming that Delaware probate law prohibits Musk from rapidly taking control of Twitter because he had discussed the purchase with at least two other shareholders, financial advising company Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, meaning the other shareholders have until 2025 to consider a takeover.

Musk made an offer to purchase Twitter a $54.20 per share, about 5% over the market price, putting the price at around $44 billion.  Musk says he has raised cash from sovereign wealth funds such as Saudi Arabia’s and friends in Silicon Valley.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry have combined their legal superpowers to take on the Biden Administration for colluding with “Big Tech” to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop and other stories, Fox News reports in an article that’s labeled “exclusive” because the Jewish woke communist tech companies and the gay socialist progressive lamestream media colluded with the Democratic Party to suppress it, or something like that.

The defendants Nina Jankowicz, the head of the Homeland Security Department’s new Disinformation Governance Board – which Fox News characterizes as having “received severe backlash from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for limiting free speech” – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Anthony Fauci, the CDC, now former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly are alleged by Schmitt and Landry to have “coerced, threatened, and pressured social media platforms to censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints by using threats of adverse government action,” on COVID-19 misinformation, the Hunter Biden laptop, mail-in voting, and probably Disney too. Might as well fucking throw them in.

In related news, National Zero seeks pro-bono counsel to prepare a federal civil complaint against Fox News for when this Schmitt-Landry lawsuit dies its inevitable death (with prejudice), alleging that they colluded with those two cocksuckers to suppress the news of its dismissal. We think we’ll have a solid case. Must use the word “cocksuckers” to refer to the attorneys general in the complaint. We’ll go halfsies on the $10 billion judgment when – not if – we win against them.

https://youtu.be/CYHU2RrIFSQ

Michele Bachmann still thinks she’s relevant.  She and ripped foam salesman (and martial law advocate) Mike Lindell adamantly tell unlaundered sock Steve Bannon that Donald Trump undoubtedly won the state of Minnesota in 2020 (when he lost by nearly a quarter million votes) AND in 2016 (when he lost the state to Hillary Clinton by 44,000).

The truly scary thing is, Bachmann–who not only pitches election fraud conspiracy theories but still believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya–is the dean of a law school, the ultra-right, hyper-christian Regent University Law School, where future practitioners are taught how to strike down laws that don’t meet their specific “christian” beliefs as radical fundamentalists.

In early March, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis’s office refused calls from Agricultural Commissioner and Dem gov hopeful Nikki Fried to take action against Russia over its genocidal assault on Ukraine by divesting the state employee pension fund’s $300 million holdings in Russian-headquartered entities, making some bullshit excuses that Fried’s letter demanding as such was too vague. While it would’ve been a largely symbolic gesture given the fund’s overall value is in excess of $195 billion, the $300 million was not nothing either. Two months later it’s now $100 million, because the assets have taken a beating because of the crippling sanctions leveled by the West against Russia, a hit that even a fucking idiot like DeSantis should’ve seen coming. But what’s more money than 99.999999% of all human beings would ever be worth in their lifetime if it means owning the libs?

Former Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper writes in his book that in 2020 the Orange Pharaoh wanted retired General Stanley McChrystal and retired Admiral William McRaven recalled back into active duty so they could be prosecuted for criticizing him publicly, Talking Points Memo reports.

“The president told Milley and me that he ‘want[ed] to call them [McChrystal and McRaven] back to active duty and court-martial them’ for what they said,” Esper writes, saying Trump ranted they were “so disloyal” and only backed off when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley “promis[ed] that he would personally call the officers and ask them to dial it back.”

McRaven had ripped Trump in an October 2019 New York Times op-ed in which he wrote the nation was “under attack” from the corpulent autocrat, among other public statements critical of the Trump regime. McChrystal, meanwhile at the time was working with a Dem-backed anti-COVID 19 disinfo campaign which got spun into a Breitbart article claiming he was building an artificial intelligence to steal the election from Trump. Ironically McChrystal’s military career ended in 2010 when retired after being quoted by Rolling Stone as fairly mildly badmouthing then-Vice President Biden. “Are you asking me about Vice President Biden? Who’s that?” McChrystal said.

The big pile of elephant shit in the room here is of course disgraced traitor former General Michael Flynn, who probably should’ve been recalled to face prosecution for his ongoing crime spree in Spring 2021 at the latest if Biden and the Department of Defense really wanted to do it.

The judge who heard the motion to exclude Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Georgia) from the ballot because she supported the January 6th effort to overturn the Constitution ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to keep nullify her candidacy, USA Today reports.

State Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot will send his decision to Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will likely rubber stamp the decision to allow Greene on the ballot.

During last month’s hearing, Greene stated some version of “I do not recall” more than 50 times during about 90 minutes on the stand.  She claimed she didn’t know if she discussed Trump implementing martial law, which may be true because she text White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about declaring “Marshall” law.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tore apart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership, stating that Putin and his oligarchs have robbed the Russian people blind, leaving the Russian economy depleted and preventing it from growing, to benefit the population.

Corrupt piece of shit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded to the Texas State Bar Association’s misconduct lawsuit over his failed 2020 election case against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by announcing on Friday his office is investigating the bar’s charitable arm for “facilitating mass influx of illegal aliens,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“I have recently learned that the Texas State Bar – which has been waging a months-long witch-hunt against me – now plans to sue me and my top deputy for filing Texas v. Penn: the historic challenge to the unconstitutional 2020 presidential election joined by nearly half of all the states and over a hundred members of Congress. I stand by this lawsuit completely,” said Paxton in a statement Friday. He then promptly announced his office was investigating the Texas Bar Foundation for donating money to entities that “encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.” Paxton, who cheated on his terrible country musician wife, is feeling the heat ahead of his May 24th GOP primary runoff election against Texas Land Commissioner George P Bush and called the bar’s timing politically motivated, even though he knew it was coming for months. “Texas Bar: I’ll see you and the leftists that control you in court. I’ll never let you bully me, my staff or the Texans I represent into backing down or going soft on defending the Rule of Law – something for which you have little knowledge,” Paxton vowed.

Rodent faced doomer Chuck Todd will frustrate the shit out of Americans five less days a week now as his MSNBC show Meet The Press Daily moves to streaming, TV Line reports. This is still somehow devastating news for Joe Biden.

I’m still trying to figure out the recent media outrage about my father possibly wanting to target Mexican drug cartel manufacturing facilities in Mexico… Is that supposed to be a bad thing???

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 6, 2022

“Mr. Rivkin: Thank you for empowering parents through the provision of tools that enable them to identify television (TV) content that is not suitable for certain ages. In recent years, concerning topics of a sexual nature have become aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming, including irreversible and harmful experimental treatments for mental disorders like gender dysphoria. To this end, we strongly urge you to update the TV Parental Guidelines and ensure they are up-to-date on best practices that help inform parents on this disturbing content… Recently, a video emerged showing a prominent executive at children’s entertainment giant Disney saying she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA+ characters in our stories.’ To the detriment of children, gender dysphoria has become sensationalized in the popular media and television with radical activists and entertainment companies. This radical and sexual sensation not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights.”

“This same company has concerningly denounced and vowed to work to repeal a recently passed Florida parental rights law that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade… Considering that the cognitive markers of sexual desire emerge during puberty when adolescents undergo natural hormonal and physiological changes, it is wholly inappropriate to display this content in a TV-Y7 category and for other young audiences… The Board is obligated to ensure the rating criteria helps parents be informed about mature content before it is displayed to their children. In light of parents raising legitimate concerns on sexual orientation and gender identity content on children’s TV shows, we expect the Board to fulfill its responsibility in updating the TV Parental Guidelines to reflect these concerns.”

“In updating the TV Parental Guidelines, please consider precedent on how the Board has rated sexually related, violent, and obscene materials to ensure it is applied without ideological bias. We would appreciate a reply on the Board’s plan no later than Wednesday, May 18, 2022. In addition, we request an in-person briefing with members of the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board. Specifically, this briefing will give the Board the opportunity to present its findings and answer questions about the Board’s review process. Thank you for reviewing this request and working with Congress to ensure this is done in a timely manner,” says a pretty twisted letter to TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board Chairman Charles Rivkin signed by Republican Senators Roger Marshall, Mike Lee, Mike Braun, Steve Daines, and Kevin Cramer