Florida Republican Governor and guy who thinks he’s being coy Ron DeSantis replied to a question from Fox propagandist Tucker Carlson about what position potential 2024 presidential candidates would take regarding Ukraine.  DeSantis broke with the Republican establishment, declaring the US would not provide aid to the nascent democratic government battling invaders:

While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. The Biden administration’s virtual “blank check” funding of this conflict for “as long as it takes,” without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges.

DeSantis goes on to say there’s no way America should pursue two things no one in Washington is talking about:  regime change in Moscow and putting US troops on the ground in Ukraine.  DeSantis disfavor the latter because he says it would lead to an endless morass and he doesn’t like the former because he’s answering a questionnaire from a Putin fanboy and knows how to stroke Carlson’s wattles.

A judge in California overruled a lower court, allowing gig-economy companies like ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft to treat their drivers like contractors, not employees, allowing the companies to save tens of millions of dollars in benefits and other regulatory issues, the Washington Post reports.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that California’s Proposition 22, which voters passed in 2020 with a 59% majority and which allows gig-economy companies to designate service providers as contractors, was operative, reversing a lower court ruling that Prop 22 was unenforceable.

Autopsy results of victim of the police shooting at the site of the “Cop City” protest in Fulton County, Georgia show that he had his hands raised when he was shot by police, NBC News reports, raising more questions about the incident.

Manuel Paez Terán, an environmental activist, was sitting cross-legged with his hands in the air in his tent when he was hit with a fatal shot by police, according to a private autopsy commissioned by Terán’s family.  Police say Terán fired a shot that hit one of the officers tasked with clearing woods of demonstrators at the future site of a police training compound; however, later analysis of police body cam footage showed that the bullet that struck the officer was likely fired by another law enforcement officer.  

First time Iditarod racer Eddie Burke Jr on Monday told KTUU he fell asleep and off his sled on Sunday during the Grayling to Eagle Island stretch of Alaska’s world-famously grueling annual dogsled race and – amazingly – his dogs found their way to the next checkpoint without him.

Fellow rookie musher Hunter Keefe came across Burke as he was walking along the trail after the unfortunately timed nap. “I thought I was catching a team because I saw a headlight, and then I realized that oh, it was a person walking,” said Keefe. “There’s the [International Trail Invitational] walkers and stuff, so I figured it must have been one of them. And hen he kind of stopped really close with trail and I was like, ‘oh, that’s Eddie.'” Keefe didn’t hesitate to give Burke a ride even if it would hurt his time, adding his dogs didn’t appear to notice the extra weight anyway. “It really showed how incredible my team was because he hopped on the sled, so we doubled the load, and you can ask him – not one dog ever looked back for even half a second wondering what was going on. They just chugged along like little freight trains they were,” said Keefe.

About 10 miles later a support staffer picked Burke up and drove him the rest of the way to Eagle Island where his dogs were waiting for him. It’s not clear why the KTUU article makes a bigger deal out of the sportsmanship and camaraderie between Keefe and Burke rather than the fact that these fucking dogs ran for about 15 or 20 miles by themselves in the dark to exactly where they were supposed to go. Maybe it happens more often than we think and the reporters on the Iditarod beat are used to it. Also unclear is which time counted. Was it Burke’s or his dogs?

See libs? You didn’t listen to “Go woke, go broke” even though the warning signs were all there. That Buzz Lightyear movie had lesbians in it and it didn’t do so great at the box office. And that gay movie Bros didn’t do well either. And that one book by liberal journalist Jemelle Hill sold poorly too. Fox News has a whole list of woke stuff that went broke in 2022. There are like one or two more examples than the ones we just listed above. It proves that wokonomics is bad for business.

But there’s no bigger example than what just happened to Silicon Valley Bank last week. They were so woke because they invested in that ESG and DEI commie bullshit that the Biden Administration has been forcing on Americans who see right through this charade. Woke just doesn’t work and a smart right wing businessman like Peter Thiel knew it. That’s why he pulled all of his deposits probably while shorting SVB’s stock. How dare you libs point out that Thiel is a homosexual and almost literal vampire on top of being a capitalist vampire? He’s been an important donor to America First candidates for years and you don’t get to blame him for destroying SBF.

Republican Senate Minority Leader has been discharged from the hospital after suffering a concussion in a fall during a dinner at a Washington hotel last Wednesday, NBC News reports.  McConnell will return to work slowly, likely waiting at least a week as he goes through physical therapy to regain strength, a common practice for octogenarians who spend a number of days in the hospital.

Daily Beast legal correspondent Jose Palgliery on Monday corrected his earlier story on Trump Org CEO Allen Weaselberg’s ex-daughter-in-law Jen Weaselberg’s claim that she had testified to the grand jury investigating Donald’s hush money payment to pornstar Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 election, explaining he later found out that Jen Weaselberg had been testifying to a different grand jury in another matter and had lied to Pagliery about why she was at the DA’s office.

“Bizarre: a one-time key witness in the Manhattan DA’s Trump investigation *lied* about testifying before that grand jury on Monday. She showed up outside DA office to snag media attention. Original tweet deleted to limit spread of bad info,” Pagliery wrote in a tweet linking his updated story.

And that, boys and girls, is principled, ethical journalism – Admitting you got hoodwinked by a an attention-whoring D-list Manhattan socialite rather than sticking with her sensational bullshit.

Non-Correction: The current version of this article and headline misspelled Jen Weisselberg’s last name as ‘Weaselberg.’ National Zero does not regret the error and will not be correcting it.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer confirmed to the New York Times on Monday that the years-long investigation into disgraced former President Trump’s finances had been killed off, with the dipshit even pretending he didn’t know what accounting firm Mazars USA was despite having sat on the committee for the entire time the lengthy court battles were going on.

“I honestly didn’t even know who or what Mazars was. What exactly are they looking for? They’ve been ‘investigating’ Trump for six years. I know exactly what I’m investigating: money the Bidens received from China,” Comer confirmed in a statement after a Sunday letter from ranking Democrat member Jamie Raskin pointed out the halt as well as a quiet subpoena of financial records of several individuals who had worked on business deals with crackhead virtuoso painter Hunter Biden.

Whatever. Mazars fired Trump, his taxes became public, the New York Attorney General is suing the fat fuck for $250 million over his fraudulent business practices, the Manhttan DA convicted his CFO and his company and is about to indict him over the Stormy Daniels payoff. Comer’s a little late if this is helping Trump out by killing off a zombie investigation. He’s better off wasting taxpayer time trying to make independent voters think Joe Biden’s just as corrupt as Trump by pretending to make progress investigating Hunter for the same made-up bullshit they’ve been doing for four years.

https://youtu.be/YhWt5mKLxYg

Scottish fraudster Alistair Greig, who was convicted in 2020 of running a £13.2 million Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 10 years in the joint, has been ordered by a judge to pay the entire remaining amount of his ill-gotten fortune to the victims of the scam, the BBC reports.

Problem is there’s only £814.33 left in the account since the asshole pissed it all away, according to prosecutors, so the 165 or so victims will have to split that. Grieg’s defense lawyer Ronnie Renucci said handing over the three-figure sum was not an admission of guilt.

The FBI on Monday published new figures supplementing an incomplete hate crimes report released three months ago, finding that hate crimes increased by 11.6 percent in 2021, CBS News reports.

The delay came in part due to slow participation from local law enforcement agencies, with cities including the NYPD and LAPD not even kicking in at all for unclear reasons, but of the 14,000 departments that did participate, a clear increase was found over 2020. Of the crimes examined, 65 percent were racially motivated, 16 percent were sexual orientation-related, and 14 percent religious. The five most targeted groups were Blacks, Whites, gay men, Jews, and Asians.

This is more panicked than usual right? Can’t even tell anymore. And this was just before the Daily Beast reported about some sort of possibly serious, major escalation in the Manhattan District Attorney’s all-but-certain indictment of the fat bastard, with grand jury witness Jen Weisselberg, ex-daughter-in-law to jailed Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg telling them that “something has changed and it’s up-leveled,” outside the DA’s office. “It’s bigger than any taxes, paper, insurance, banks, insurance… it’s bigger than money,” Jen Weisselberg added.

Another witness, ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, told reporters he felt “a little twisted inside,” and the new investigation has “been a long time coming, five years now, give or take. This is not revenge. What this is, is about accountability… he needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.”

UPDATE 3/13/2023 6:11 PM EST: Jennifer Weisselberg was lying to the Daily Beast.

Just hours after wishing a happy Friday to all the “POISONOUS HORSE PASTE EATING SURVIVORS !!!” in his Telegram dewormer support group “Dirt Road Discussions,” a Rhode Island ivermectin guru suddenly died of heart failure earlier this month, according to his group’s admins, Vice reports.

“Though it was obvious that Danny had the biggest heart, it was unbeknownst to him that his heart was quite literally overworking and overgrowing beyond its capacity, nearly doubled in size from what it should have been, We understand that this is going to raise questions for those who were following him,” wrote the Dirt Road admins in their paste-mortem on founder Danny Lemoi’s death. Vice notes that Lemoi was something of a hipster in the world of ivermectin, as he started taking the horse goo in 2012 to treat Lyme Disease, long before it was all the rage in the MAGAverse.

In his group however, Lemoi was far from alone in experiencing adverse side effects of long or even middle-term use of ivermectin, with fans complaining of migraine, vomiting, severe stomach pain, sciatic, shin splints, restless leg syndrome, and God knows what else from horsing around with it.

A previous version of this tweet had the incorrect spelling of Silicon Valley Bank. This has been corrected. pic.twitter.com/zY61i4Ijxy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 13, 2023

A new Public Policy Polling survey of Republican primary voters in Pennsylvania finds QAnon freak state Senator and 2022 gubernatorial election loser Doug Mastriano holding a solid 39 to 21 percent lead over plutocratic Glenn Youngkin-flavored 2022 GOP Senate primary close runner-up David McCormick in the race for the 2024 nomination to take on incumbent Democrat Senator Bob Casey, signaling yet another potential headache for NRSC chief Senator Steve Daines.

Neither Mastriano or McCormick have officially launched a campaign yet but both are reportedly looking at throwing in, as is other QAnon freak Kathy Barnette who pulls 11 percent support in the PPP survey. It was Barnette whose 2022 primary run took a huge bite out of support for the Trump-endorsed TV quack Mehmet Oz who just barely edged out McCormick by about 900 votes, so Daines would do well to elevate her and split the MAGA vote if both she and Mastriano run.

On the presidential side the fat bastard Trump holds a significant 49 to 31 percent lead over heels-wearing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, with Nimrata Haley and Mike Pence both pulling 5 percent.

Appearing on Hungarian Nazi “Doctor” Sebastian Gorka’s Newsmax show on Sunday, MAGA radio host Chris Plante bitched about how early reporting on the death of Capitol cop Brian Sicknick the day after the MAGA insurrection got it wrong saying he was hit over the head with a fire extinguisher by the pro-Trump marauders and then for some reason tosses in “We might also look into the vaccination history just to name one other possibility,” for Sicknick’s somewhat inexplicable death.

Now Plante did not say the COVID vaccine specifically but it’s hard to imagine he meant any other type of inoculation. Then there’s that it’s not clear if the vax was available yet to Capitol police at that point in early 2021. Members of Congress had been given their initial doses just two weeks earlier. So probably not and this asshole is just making shit up to rile the Newsmax fanboys.

A federal judge issued an arrest warrant for the chief of staff of former Republican Maryland Governor and one-time potential presidential candidate Larry Hogan after the man failed to appear at his corruption trial, the Baltimore Banner reports.

Hogan’s chief of staff for eleven weeks in the summer of 2020, Roy McGrath is facing charges of wire fraud, theft and falsifying official documents for directing $30,000 from Maryland Environmental Service, an independent state agency he headed from 2006 to 2020 before taking the executive office position.  On top of $233,000 in “severance”–approximately one year’s salary–approved by the agency’s board of directors, McGrath reportedly directed the agency to pay for a $15,000 executive training course at Harvard and he ordered  an agency administrator to pay $15,000 to a private organization to fulfill a personal pledge he made.  McGrath is also accused for forging an official memo from Hogan claiming the payments had his blessing.

McGrath fled to Florida after Hogan was term-limited out of office in 2021.  His trial was scheduled to start Monday morning, but McGrath’s defense attorney said he sent numerous text messages to both McGrath and McGrath’s wife but had no response by the 9:00 a.m. ET court time.

DC federal prosecutors on Monday filed a motion alleging that Capitol riot defendant Gabe Garcia, who under his pretrial conditions is prohibited from traveling to the DC area without prior permission from the court and for specific reasons, pretty much straight up lied when he drove his RV to the region from Florida earlier this month and attended CPAC after having told the court he was going solely to observe another rioter’s trial and meet with his former attorney.

“On Friday, March 3, 2023, defendant attended the Goss-Jankowski trial with his attorney for less than three hours. Defendant then traveled back to Maryland to attend CPAC DC 23, where he remained from approximately 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It appears that defendant’s last-minute request to travel to Washington, D.C. was not for the stated reason for the trip. In fact, although defendant’s travel request was justified by his need to observe trial to ‘assist in trial preparation’ and consult with his former pro hac vice attorney, he spent only few hours at trial – and did not, to our knowledge, meet with his former pro hac vice attorney – but spent about 12.5 hours in National Harbor at CPAC DC 23, taking pictures and socializing with fellow January 6 defendants,” prosecutors wrote in the motion, which includes screenshots of Garcia taking selfies at CPAC with another rioter.

Then there’s this post, included in the motion, showing just how seriously Garcia takes the whole situation. Notably the prosecutors aren’t moving to revoke his bail but instead simply ask that all future travel requests be denied. Not sure what the reasoning is for that, maybe they’re looking to have the judge or pretrial probation services make that call for them instead.

Chicago man Aimen Halim has filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain for false advertising, correctly alleging that the “boneless wings” served at its locations are not chicken wings with the bones removed, but chunks of chicken breast meat battered, fried, covered in sauce, and served as if they were wings, WGN 9 reports.

It’s not clear why Halim’s complaint left out that the Buffalo Wild Wings logo implies that buffalo have wings, the blue cheese isn’t really blue, the root beer doesn’t have alcohol, the potato wedges are really more crescent than wedge-shaped, or why he thinks a federal judge isn’t simply going to tell him to get the fuck out of the courtroom and don’t come back for this nonsense.