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The Washington Post’s Tuesday pre-mortem of the 2024 GOP presidential primary titled “How Trump clawed back from distress to dominant Republican favorite” has some pretty funny shit from focus groups and interviews from Trump fans outside of rallies over the past year or so.

Verbatim from the section on findings from GOP primary voter focus groups for Trump’s rivals, cultish emphasis ours: “When they tried showing violent criminals freed under Trump’s criminal justice overhaul, known as the First Step Act, voters were unmoved. They just said they didn’t believe it. When they tried comparing rival candidates’ policy positions side-by-side with Trump’s, it damaged the other candidates’ favorability, because voters viewed the contrasts as an implicit attack on the former president. When they confronted a focus group with the facts about Trump’s failure to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, one woman explained that Trump intentionally didn’t finish the barrier so that migrants would bottleneck in the gaps and be easy to detain there.”

One Republican consultant observing the focus group told the Post “How do you engage with that level of creativity in finding a way to excuse Trump? Nothing could move them.”

We were going to skip this KKTV Denver story about an apparent road rage incident that randomly happened in front of the Colorado Supreme Court building in Denver at approximately 1:15 AM MST Tuesday morning – which then led to an asshole with a gun shooting out a window to enter the building, taking an unarmed overnight security guard hostage, firing some more shots, and then surrendering himself to the cops without further incident – but we kind of have to address it.

The source article’s headline “Man holds security guard at gunpoint in Denver at Colorado Supreme Court offices” is indeed technically accurate. It’s also a gross lie by omission that other aggregators who want you to think it was a MAGA terrorist attack would happily twist to get you to click on.

KKTV pulls from a Colorado State Patrol press statement to write that “the situation started with a two-vehicle crash at about 1:15 in the morning at 13th Street and Lincoln. One person reportedly pointed a handgun at the other before shooting out a window at the Ralph L Carr Colorado Judicial Center,” emphasis added to emphasize that it’s not only the Colorado Supreme Court’s home but also of the “the Colorado Court of Appeals and a number of other judicial and legal agencies,” per the state Judicial Learning Center’s website. So they could’ve just said “Carr Center” but didn’t.

Then down at the bottom of KTTV’s article is where they buried the part that says “The CSP and [Denver Police] are treating this incident seriously, but at this time, it is believed that this is not associated with previous threats to the Colorado Supreme Court Justices,” emphasis ours again.

We would like to take this moment to reaffirm National Zero’s pledge to printing clickbait for trolling purposes only. We will NEVER post misleading headlines to sucker readers to help increase advertising revenue. Our obnoxious clickbait is exclusively for our personal amusement.

UPDATE 1/2/2024 11:41 AM EDT: And oh, would you look at that. The Hill beat us to this story, headlined it “Man forces way into Colorado Supreme Court days after Trump ballot decision,” and didn’t quote the state police’s statement saying it appeared unrelated until the sixth paragraph.

The driver of the vehicle filled with gasoline cans that ran into another vehicle outside a Rochester concert venue was identified as Michael Avery, a Syracuse man in his 30s, according to Rochester Police Chief David M. Smith, RochesterFirst reports.  In a press conference, Smith said Avery filled gasoline cans at local gas stations at various locations after checking into a Rochester-area hotel on December 27th.  Smith said in a Tuesday morning press conference that Avery’s family told investigators he was experiencing mental health challenges.  Avery died of his injuries Monday night.

Investigators believe Avery, driving a rented Ford Expedition SUV, intended to strike pedestrians in the crosswalk and sidewalk after lighting a fuse in his vehicle, which he apparently believed would effectively detonate the dozen gas cans he had in the car.  After a rideshare vehicle exiting a parking garage unexpectedly blocked the way, Avery accelerated, pushing the vehicle into two other cars and then into the pedestrians, and starting a fire that ignited the gasoline in the cans, which burned but did not explode.

The Florida Center for Government Accountability’s excellent coverage of the sordid saga around Florida Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler and his scumbag wife Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget continues Tuesday, as the FLCGA reports that, although Christian has been all but exonerated on potential charges of raping he and his wife’s threesome partner, Christian still may be looking at a video voyeurism felony for having recorded the two-way encounter with the woman.

The voyeurism hitch stems from Christian Ziegler’s claim to a Sarasota police detective that the woman had sent him a “vanishing” Instagram message asking if his Bridget had seen the video, something that was not supported by either the woman or the wife. “Detectives spoke with both the victim and Ziegler’s wife… The victim did not give Ziegler consent to take this video of them having sex. Neither… Ziegler’s wife or the victim knew anything about this video that had been taken of the sexual encounter on 10/02/23, and neither had seen the video of this encounter,” wrote Sarasota Police Detective Megan Buck in an investigation affidavit obtained by the FLCGA.

For those keeping score at home, the very evidence that Ziegler used to escape prosecution for rape is itself now evidence of a his having committed a lesser, but still horrible, crime. It also raises questions about Ziegler’s level of familiarity with revenge porn laws, that he was telling the truth about the consensual nature of the encounter but not the video of it. Also, why the hell didn’t Ziegler just tell the cops he had been simply (figuratively) covering his ass by recording it because he had a hunch that he might end up getting falsely accused of rape? What a dumbass.

Seems like someone is starting 2024 hangry. @realDonaldTrump – you and your lawyers have had the J6 cmttee materials (linked below) plus the grand jury info & much more for months. Lying about the evidence in all caps won't change the facts. A public trial will show it all. https://t.co/9IlGWIviey

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 2, 2024

Former Congresswoman and House January 6th Select Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney on Tuesday responded quite cheerfully to fat former President Trump’s Monday night Truth Social tantrum over the evidence turned up in the committee’s investigation in which he wrote “Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney [blah, blah, blah] ILLEGALLY DELETE and DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits. THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME. All of the information on Crazy Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to guard the Capitol Building, and beyond, is gone. The ridiculous Deranged Jack Smith case on Immunity, which the most respected legal minds in the Country say I am fully entitled to, is now completely compromised and should be thrown out and terminated, JUST LIKE THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS DID TO THE EVIDENCE!”

A new Washington Post-University of Maryland survey following up on many of the same questions about January 6th and the 2020 election asked in December 2021 finds that two years of MAGA propaganda have been pretty effective, as the share of Republican respondents who said the Capitol rioters were “mostly violent” declined from 26 percent to 18 percent, who believe Biden’s win was legitimate down to 31 percent vs 38 percent two years ago, and that Trump bears responsibility dropping from 27 to 14 percent, while few similar declines were seen among Dems and indies. The vast majority of Trump voters – 80 percent – and Republicans – 72 percent – said also it’s “time to move on” from the Capitol riot, as if they themselves have moved on from the 2020 election.

The Post followed up with some of the respondents, getting quotes like “There were so many people that felt the election was rigged. It was not right for them to break in like that, but they were fed up and frustrated and they were whipped into a frenzy by the FBI and others,” said Ohio Trump fan Colleen Michaels, who said she would’ve gone to DC on the 6th if she hadn’t recently suffered a stroke. “In the beginning when I heard about it, I was very upset that Trump didn’t come out and say, ‘Stop,'” said 68 year-old GOP-leaning independent Florida voter Gloria Bowden.

“I still wish he would have [told people to leave the Capitol earlier], but I don’t know that it would have mattered. It was planned,” Bowden said. She found the January 6th committee hearings “totally one-sided,” and that criticism of Trump over the years was enough to give him a pass. “The man had been through so much in four years that at one point you finally say, ‘Let them do it,'” Bowden said.

As shitty as the MAGA voter response has been, there is better-ish news in the poll’s findings. A decent enough majority – 56 percent – say Trump is guilty of a crime for his coup attempt with room to grow in another 11 percent “not sure.” A similar number, 57 percent, say the DOJ is holding Trump accountable under the law like anyone else. Something closer to unanimity was found with whether Trump would accept a defeat in 2024: 70 percent of respondents said he would not.

Former Rensselaer County, New York Board of Elections Commissioner Jason Schofield, who in January 2023 pleaded guilty to federal felonies his involvement in an absentee ballot scam to help a GOP incumbent in a 2021 city council election needs a job while he awaits his sentencing hearing in May where he faces up to five years in the clink for trying and failing to “Stop the Steal.”

His buds on the incoming Troy City Council’s GOP majority were down with helping him out, as Majority Leader Tom Casey last week said Schofield “made a mistake that he quickly took responsibility for. In this state, we’ve had a lot of justice reform. When people make a mistake, it should not rob people of their life,” whilst defending plans to appoint the felon to an assistant city clerk gig even though, as we wrote, Schofield will proooobably only be able to work until May.

But it was not to be, as the Albany Times-Union now reports that Scholfield has backed out of the job after feeling shame or something. “I just wanted to help the guy. He didn’t have a job and I feel bad for him,” Casey said after Schofield backed out of the planned Thursday appointment vote.

“Can a steady diet of lies and innuendo overcome the truth? In November 2020, former President Donald Trump asserted that voter fraud had altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The day after the election, his campaign hired an expert in voter data to attempt to prove Trump’s allegations and put him back in the White House. I am the expert who was hired by the Trump campaign,” writes Simpatico Software founder Ken Block in a USA Today op-ed.

“The findings of my company’s in-depth analysis are detailed in the depositions taken by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The transcripts show that the campaign found no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of any election. That message was communicated directly to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows…”

“Claims of voter fraud made by others were verified as false, including proof of why those claims were disproven. And yet, the cries that the election was lost or stolen due to voter fraud continue with no sign of stopping. Whether a stump speech, outrageous lawsuits like the so-called Kraken cases filed by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani’s lies or the ongoing misguided efforts of people determined to prove the election was stolen, the constant drumbeat hardens people’s hearts and minds to the truth about the 2020 election,” Block continues in the piece.

Practicing the Christian faith and Southern manners he grew up with, the 57-year-old pastor of the Elevated Life International Ministries in North Carolina has been charged with assault after attacking his wife’s coworker at a local McDonald’s and trying to shove the man’s head into a deep fryer for disrespecting his wife, who was training to be a manager at the store, CBS News reports.

Dwayne Waden, whose Facebook profile also lists him as a part-time truck driver, walked into the High Point fast food restaurant and punched the unnamed cook before trying to McNugget the man’s head in oil. The cook’s coworkers pulled Waden off him before he went crispy but not before he sustained a contusion on the side of his face and a scratched neck.  Waden’s wife is no longer employed at the outlet.

WARNING:  Disturbing image!  The leader of the Democratic Party of South Korea was stabbed in the neck in an attack during a visit to the southern port city of Busan, CNN reports, with the event seen a live stream posted online.  The 59-year-old Lee Jae-myung was seen greeting a press gaggle when a man wearing what appears to be a blue crown or mask lunges toward him and stabs him in the neck with some type of blade.  Police say the attacker is detained, but they have provided no further information on his identity or motive.  Lee’s condition is unknown, but he was transported to a hospital for treatment.

The Washington Post publishes (available through gift link) a rather curious look at the disruption in the South Carolina Republican Party caused by former governor and current GOP presidential also-ran Nikki Haley’s response to a townhall question about the cause of the Civil War which did not include the word “slavery.”

Nearly 16 decades after the end of the civil war, the South Carolina Republican leaders aren’t concerned that Haley’s answer didn’t address the recognized cause of the war; in fact, one described it as a “trick question.”  Their mission is to try to modify the message of the Party to attract more minorities by whitewashing the racism and bigotry of the Party’s base.  Trump won 7% of South Carolina’s Black vote in 2020, a slightly greater share than Haley’s 6% in the 2014 gubernatorial election, and the Party leaders want to make bigger inroads.

Though Haley removed the Confederate flag from the state capitol after a racist gunman killed nine in a historic African-American church in Charleston in 2015, Haley is perhaps better known in GOP circles for breaking her 2010 pledge not to remove the flag, made to multiple “heritage” groups while campaigning.  When asked about racism, Haley’s canned response is that Americans aren’t racist.  “We’re blessed,” she’ll respond in a fully unfulfilling answer.

Soros' Southampton, NY estate latest to fall victim to fake 911 'swatting' call https://t.co/CQ3U5ihCuD

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 2, 2024

Okay this whole swatting thing has gone WAY too far now. Like it was fine when it was stupid skanky Marjorie Taylor Greene and that Brandon Williams douchebag but not anymore. Our stance has changed on it. This is NOT funny. People we care about could end up getting hurt. Stop this now.

A violent car accident in Rochester, New York after a New Year’s celebration concert by the jam band Moe let out around 12:30 a.m. is being investigated as a potential act of terrorism after authorities report finding the remains of several filled gasoline canisters in the vehicle that caused the accident, the local news website RochesterFirst reports.

As audience members were being escorted across a crosswalk from the Kodak Center in Rochester, a Ford Expedition t-boned an Uber driver coming out of a parking lot just before the crosswalk.  The Expedition accelerated and pushed the other vehicle, a Mitsubishi Outlander, into the pedestrians.  The cars then burst into flames, with firefighters taking an hour to get the flames under control.  The two passengers in the Uber were killed, but the driver escaped and survived, and multiple other pedestrians were injured.  The driver of the Expedition was last reported alive but in critical condition.

After the firefighters extinguished the flames, they found more than a dozen gas cans in or around the Expedition.  Information about the Expedition driver is scant, with early reports saying it’s a man from Syracuse.  Local authorities have called in the FBI as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force to help investigate.

Saying that he would assure the destruction of the United States if he’s threatened, Donald Trump’s lover Kim Jong Un said his North Korean forces would “thoroughly annihilate” the forces of both the US–which spells “us,” by the way; I’m the second person to notice that, apparently–and its South Korean allies if provoked, ABC News reports.

Foreign policy analysts believe two things are likely pushing Kim’s increasingly aggressive weapons testing and international posturing.  First, the US and South Korea are planning additional joint military exercises, so Kim’s saber-rattling.  But the second is more strategic:  Kim is escalating tensions with the US and its allies in the belief that if Trump gets reelected he’ll be able to get more concessions from him in return for photo ops.

Despite the best efforts of Republicans and the National Rifle Association, homicides in the United States dropped an amazing 13% in 2023, with roughly 2,000 fewer deaths according to preliminary data, ABC News reports. St Louis, New Orleans, Baltimore, Atlanta and Portland saw homicide rates drop by at least 20% each, with New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte recording reductions of at least 11%.

Philadelphia saw a 25% decrease after setting a record high in 2021, and Detroit saw its lowest homicide rate since the 1960s.  With American GDP rising 5.2% in the third quarter, a plummeting murder rate will give Jim Jordan–he who frequently posts about mass murders in other cities without proposing any solutions–less to tweet about.  Guns still account for roughly three-quarters of all homicide weapons.

The vileness of Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott knows no bounds:  to avoid fines and potential confiscation of buses transporting migrants from Texas to cities like New York in his bid to “own the libs,” Abbott has approved buses to drop off their passengers at various places in New Jersey, short of their claimed destination, ABC News reports.

The mayor of Secaucus, New Jersey said police on Saturday started to get migrants being dropped off at the city’s transportation hub located nine miles away from the designated location established by the city government.  Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli said buses are attempting to exploit a “loophole” in new policies in New York City that would lead to buses being confiscated or bus companies being barred from operating in the city if they drop off migrants in various locations.

Abbott continues his campaign to exploit human suffering by bussing migrants around the country using taxpayer money to try to share the load of migrants coming into the country.  The state of New York is already home to more than four million migrants, but Abbott has dropped off more than 100,000 people at various places around the city.  Since Abbott started the performance art in August 2022, Abbott has shipped his human cargo all over the US, including 620 buses to Chicago.

The Pentagon ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to return to the United States after extending its deployment to patrol the eastern Mediterranean Sea in support of Israel after the October 7th Hamas attack, Politico reports.  The carrier strike group included the cruiser Normandy, and the destroyers Ramage, Carney, Roosevelt and Thomas Hudner; some of those ships in the group have transited the Suez Canal to thwart Houthi missile and drone attacks on Red Sea shipping coming from Yemen.

It is unclear if any of those ships will stay in the region in support of that mission or to support the replacement US Navy group being sent to the region, which will led by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan along with its support ships, Mesa Verde and Carter Hall.

Fat former President Trump seemed a little more scared than usual on Monday, writing on Truth Social: “The Failing New York Times: ‘Prosecutors Ask Appeals Court to Reject Donald Trump’s Immunity Claims. The filing by special counsel, (Deranged) Jack Smith, was the latest in a fight over WHETHER FORMER PRESIDENTS CAN BE HELD CRIMINALLY LIABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS IN OFFICE.’ First of all, I did nothing wrong, and while it should not even matter, I was not campaigning – The 2020 Election was LONG OVER. What I was doing is bringing to light the fact that the Election was, without question, Rigged and Stolen. As President, and Commander-in-Chief, it was my duty to do so! If I did not do this, I would have been in violation of my Oath of Office…”

“We cannot let our Elections ever be CORRUPTED again. Many Democrats challenged 2016, and nothing was done to them. Biden had me Indicted! They spied on my Campaign, started the Fake Russia,Russia,Russia Hoax, Lied to Congress, Abused FISA, Stuffed Ballot Boxes, Misused 51 Intelligence Agents, Illegal FBI/Twitter Files, Facebook Lock Boxes, Never Got State Legislatures to approve Election Changes, Harassed Election Observers, and much more…” Trump continued.

We would like to think that, over the last year or so our track record with making calls or feeling the “vibes” of how a storyline, election, court case, etc is going to go is… alright. It would take a long time to do a tally but just anecdotally our skepticism that Jim Jordan would be elected Speaker while the mainstream media treated it like a done deal was right on the mark. We nailed it when we predicted that disgraced former President Trump would not show up in court in person in Atlanta in August because he didn’t want to be seen under the control of a judge on live television. Same story with the GOP primary debates. We knew the fat bastard wouldn’t show up for the same reason.

The only two currently living politicians disqualified for insurrection under the 14th Amendment.

Then there were some things that we didn’t get right. Our expectation that Ron DeSantis would actually prove a formidable challenge to Trump in the GOP primary (though Trump would most likely ultimately prevail) was not even remotely correct. At all. We definitely underestimated the House GOP’s willingness to formalize the Biden impeachment inquiry with a vote and, although we’re still skeptical they’ll pull the trigger, it’s certainly more likely to happen now than it had been. Our February 14th, 2023 headline “Nimrata Haley officially launches ten month presidential campaign” became officially wrong on December 14th, though we did hedge a bit in the text of that article.

Then there’s the Trump 14th Amendment efforts that, holy shit did we whiff in September when we wrote in the first “Disqualification Nation” that the push would most likely go nowhere.

Yes, it’s a clickbait headline, but it’s parallel to more situations than most similar headlines seen at National Zero:  Saying the law would do “severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of the State of Israel as a democratic country,” the right-wing dominated Israeli Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to weaken the Court’s power to check executive office power, the Associated Press reports.

Pushed through the Israeli parliament in July, the new law would have limited courts’ ability to use “reasonableness” as a benchmark to overrule decisions by government ministers.  When the Knesset passed the law, tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest, wary that the law would give Netanyahu virtually unlimited power because it stripped significant potential oversight from the courts.  The protests also included IDF reservists refusing to report for duty or if they did report, refusing to work.

The 8-7 decision by Israel’s Supreme Court–the first in Israel’s history in which a full 15-member panel ruled–puts the law and Netanyahu’s future in Israel at risk.  Netanyahu had attempted to manipulate Israel’s court system to amass political power as he faced corruption charges that also include members of his family.  In typical conservative fashion, Netanyahu’s Likud party decried the decision claiming that the Supreme Court’s decision would divide the country while it’s at war with Hamas and therefore, anything Netanyahu does should be legal because… patriotism.