Announcers for this Eagles-49ers game just spotted the First Lady in a box and of course call her “Dr. Jill Biden.” Wonder if she realizes what a wannabe she looks like insisting on this fake title. Get a real MD or just work on your self-esteem.

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 29, 2023

From deep within the desolate and isolated Caves of Earned Irrelevance, a faint voice is heard whining….  Remember Megyn Kelly, the one-time prime-time glamster of the glass table at Fox studios who decided to bravely share her account of systemic sexual harassment at the Roger Ailes-run network…. after about a dozen other women came forward.  Now that’s a courageous journalist!

Yeah, it’s petty and catty of me to call out the cowardice of a well-compensated victim of sexual harassment because she likely waited to see how the fallout that impacted the groundbreakers who broke the story could adversely impact her career.  I mean, I don’t know the trauma she went through, and fear for her career is a legit thing, but I can also recognize that the victim of sexual assault is also someone who empowered her abuser to fuck over the rest of us.

Now living in the dark corners of Podcastia after failing as a normal television host, not a pretty propagandist, Kelly propagates a truly boneheaded complaint about First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, who holds a Ed.D. in Education enabling her to justifiably use the title “doctor.”  Apparently, Kelly can’t get her one fully-functioning brain cell around the fact that the title “doctor” has different connotations to it.  Maybe her lapse is due to all those years of peroxide abuse.

An Oregon fugitive wanted for kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing a local woman–after a history of domestic abuse and weapons violations–reportedly uses dating apps as he evades authorities in southwest Oregon, NBC News reports.

Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, is accused of imprisoning and torturing a woman in Grants Pass, Oregon, keeping her “in a place where she was not likely to be found” and “intentionally torturing” her, authorities say.  On Tuesday, police found a woman, bound and badly injured; they have not released details of how she was found nor have they identified her.

Foster’s been on the run since Thursday when police raided his property, and police say he’s using dating apps to arrange for assistance from unsuspecting women he’s in contact with.  Police tracked Foster to a property in Wolf Creek, 20 miles north of Grants Pass, where they arrested 68-year-old Tina Marie Jones for hindering arrest.  Police say Jones helped Foster dispose of his car by pushing into a ravine, and then returned him to a property on which he had been hiding.

Prepare for some community-theatre-level of performance art from Republican House Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy as he tries (and likely fails) to elevate himself to the iconic status his predecessor Nancy Pelosi reached when she boldly confronted petulant president Donald Trump, as McCarthy sat nearby impotently watching.  The Associated Press reports President Joe Biden will meet with McCarthy Wednesday to discuss various topics including resolving the debt limit crisis without jeopardizing the full faith and credit of the US economy, as a faction of the Republican House caucus wishes.

“I know the president said he didn’t want to have any discussion [on cuts], but I think it’s very important that our whole government is designed to find compromise,” McCarthy Sunday fully aware that the White House meeting had previously been set to discuss the debt ceiling while his caucus held up his temporary appointment as Speaker because they want their demands and won’t compromise. “I want to sit down together, work out an agreement that we can move forward to put us on a path to balance and at the same time not put any of our debt in jeopardy at the same time.”

The South Dakota state Senate on Thursday voted to suspend Republican Senator Julie Frye-Mueller without explaining to the public why they did so, waiting until Friday to announce they formed a panel to consider expelling her and that it was over an accusation of “inappropriate behavior and harassment related to private maternal matters, including childhood vaccines and breastfeeding,” toward a legislative aide to the chamber, the Argus Falls-Leader reports.

Must’ve been bad. If the leadership of the Republican-majority chamber are only giving those surface-level details, which are bad enough, without getting more specific about what this psychopath said to an employee, whom we would imagine to be a young mom, then it had to be pretty bad. Like screaming at her for breastfeeding an infant after being vaccinated for COVID bad.

But we need not fill in those fairly narrow blanks here to see a far more interesting revelation: That the kind of shit Republican lawmakers screech on the campaign trail, in televised hearings, and post on Facebook about vaccines and what not – the garbage that gets the yokels to vote for them – is unacceptable during day-to-day business hours. It’s actually workplace harassment and you can get fired for privately talking that kind of shit to an employee. This episode alone might offer more insight into the nature of MAGA rhetoric than we could ever hope to write ourselves.

Why is it considered harassment to talk about sex in the workplace but not to children at school?

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) January 29, 2023

Yes, Kevin Sorbo isn’t a political figure.  And yes, we here at National Zero rarely cover celebrities unless they do something radically insane or criminal or slap happy.  But Kevin Sorbo, he of basic cable franchise series “fame” and little else, has the special ability of bringing his special brand of stupidity to political discussions, such as here, where he confused education about sex with the pursuit of sexual gratification, not an easy thing to confuse unless you’re a conservative looking to groom children to accept the unwanted sexual advances later, whether you’re an actress on a fourth-rate Sorbo production or a wrestler at Ohio State.

Spandex wearing grapple-freak Jim Jordan on Sunday struggled to pin down Chuck Todd during a contentious appearance on Meet the Press. Jordan first dismissed any movement in the House toward national policing reform after the murder of Tyre Nichols, and then got pummeled on MAGA bullshit to the point of Todd declaring “The issue is you do not seem to ever see the same conspiratorial problems when it’s a Republican.” This was devastating news for Joe Biden.

On a new CBS News/YouGov survey’s question of “Do you think the Department of Justice should be investigating the situation involving Donald Trump having classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, or should they leave the matter alone?” 42 percent of Republican respondents answered “Should be investigated,” while 58 percent said “Leave the matter alone,”

When asked the same question for former Vice President Mike Pence, 81 percent of Republican respondents said “Should be investigated,” and only 19 percent said “Leave the matter alone.” Joe Biden naturally scored worse with Republicans on the investigating classified docs issue, with 95 percent saying “Should be investigated,” but among respondents overall Pence and Biden tied for 80 percent for pro-DOJ investigation. Trump got 74 percent overall, dragged down by the responses from the Republican voters who evidently just really still fucking hate Mike Pence.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday fired UK Conservative Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi over revelations Zahawi had lied repeatedly about an investigation into his finances and paid a £4.8 million settlement over the tax fuckery with the British IRS last year, Sky News reports.

It’s almost like there’s some sort of contrast that can be drawn here between the willingness of the top Conservative leader in the British government to fire one of his top guys for dishonesty and corruption while the top conservative leader in the American government, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, does the exact opposite – and with not one of his top guys, but a backbencher former drag queen who lied about his mom dying in 9/11 and stole $3,000 meant to pay for veterinary surgery for a dog dying of cancer. A dog owned by a homeless, disabled veteran.

You could say that McCarthy acted exactly the opposite as Sunak, arguably promoting the backbencher by giving him committee assignments despite being under federal criminal investigation. It might even be said that, despite the differences being two completely different political systems and that the British Conservative Party is a shitshow that won’t ever be fixed simply by firing one guy, when the time came to act that Rishi Sunak did the right thing and showed at least some measure of integrity, and Kevin McCarthy did not when his time came.

Explosive drones launched by parties unknown struck a weapons factory in the central Iranian city of Isfashan on Saturday night, the AP reports, citing an Iranian Defense Ministry statement. The defense ministry claimed the damage was minimal and there were no casualties, which could be true or could also mean the place was blown sky high and hundreds are dead as authoritarian regimes like Iran’s aren’t known to be especially forthcoming when it comes to acknowledging setbacks.

The strike comes amid increasing tensions with both Israel and neighboring Azerbaijan, whose military have been supplied with drones by Israel. On Friday a gunman opened fire inside the Azeri Embassy in Tehran, shooting the embassy’s security chief dead and wounding two others before apparently escaping, possibly with the help of Iranian police.

Cody Rhodes wins Royal Rumble men's match, eliminates GUNTHER for victory https://t.co/CnMvKYMxnz

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 29, 2023

Former Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit on Saturday won the contest to replace “Chemtrails” Kelli Ward as state GOP chair, the Washington Post reports. “We will take our elections back, we will bring election integrity back to Arizona with me as the chairman,” said DeWit as he took the stage prior to the vote, while imploring the audience to remember that “the real enemy are the Democrats.”

Now that the proverbial lid is off of the cookie jar with the US vowing to send M1A1 Abrams to Ukraine’s defenders, some American military leaders in the Pentagon are now pushing to equip Ukrainian forces with F-16 fighter jets, Politico reports.

While no official word has come done, a senior defense official told Politico, “I don’t think we are opposed.”  One question within the military leadership, however, is whether it’s feasible to train pilots quickly:  experts say Ukraine has already identified 50 English-speaking pilots, with thousands of combat sorties under their belt, who could be trained and ready to fly in three months, in time for an expected Ukrainian offensive to reclaim captured territory.

Another concern within the Pentagon is the priority of needs for the Ukrainian government, which is still concerned with protecting the civilian population in the cities as well as proceeding with its planned offensive, meaning American resources for missile defenses while the pilots get trained and ready.

Officials in Teheran claim explosions seen at an ammunition factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan was the result of the successful deployment of an air defense system against a drone attack, Reuters reports.

“One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defence and the other two were caught in defence traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop’s roof,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.  This comes months after Iranian official claim to have thwarted a planned attack against an Iranian defense facility by Kurdish militia.

And in case you are wondering, yes, there are rumors that Israeli has a drone that can fly into Iranian airspace, but as this October 2022 report from the Arab Center in Washington, DC notes, there’s a smoldering war going on between proxies of Israel and Iran using the drone technology from those countries.  So it could be a regional group using foreign technology as well, or maybe it was just those meddling kids with too much time on their hands.

Acting as the petulant little dictator he aspires to be, guy who literally thinks he can decide what constitutes a religion Donald Trump starts calling out those he considers traitors to him so him pack of rabid cultists will attack–hopefully just metaphorically this time:  “So Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me. … So then when I hear he might run… I consider that very disloyal,” Trump says while aboard a jet in exclusive CNN video.  “I talked to [Nikki Haley] for a little while, but I said look, go by your heart if you want to run.  She’s publicly said, ‘I would never run against my President.  He was a great President.'”

Overcoming initial hesitancy to supply them with heavy armor, the Ukrainian government confirms that around a dozen Western nations have pledged to send 321 modern battle tanks made in Germany, Britain and the United States, CNN reports.

Germany’s Leopard II, Britain’s Challenger II and the American M1A1 Abrams tanks will come from the supplies of those nations as well as through client nations who have previously obtained the weapons systems.

The fact that Ukraine is getting the Western armor seems to really piss off North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, for some unknown reason.  The petulant stepchild of world leaders, heartbroken that his bestie is losing influence in the West, had his sister read a statement saying the US has a “sinister intention to realize its hegemonic aim by further expanding the proxy war for destroying Russia.”  Maybe he’s just hungry.

It’s like law enforcement leaders don’t understand when you train cops to be ride-or-die vigilantes with an us-against-them attitude and you unless them in a neighborhood with the mandate to control “criminals” who are actually just residents going about their business and don’t hold anybody accountable for their abuses, somebody gonna die eventually.

Adding to the legacy of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, Los Angeles CRASH unit and the entire NYPD, the Memphis Police Department has disbanded the Scorpion Unit that was tasked to control crime in city neighborhoods but turned into a bunch of murderers, NBC News reports.

Five members of Memphis’s Scorpion Unit were fired and indicted after they beat unarmed motorist Tyre Nichols so severely he died three days later.  The city released graphic bodycam and surveillance camera footage yesterday showing how officers tased, peppersprayed and beat Nichols, and then failed to provide him with medical care.  The video release prompted peaceful protests in the city.

Republicans in two key battleground states appear to be over Trump but still embracing Trumpism’s newest manifestation, which is perhaps why Trump is coincidentally visiting both states Saturday, so early in the election cycle.

According to Newsweek, two polls released this week show former president and ongoing lunatic Donald Trump substantially trailing up-and-coming fascistic Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by double-digits in New Hampshire (12 points) and South Carolina (19 points).

Trump attended a GOP meeting in New Hampshire Saturday afternoon before flying to South Carolina to hold an ego-pumping rally with his personal lapdog and ball washer–on the golf course, people!  Get your mind out of the gutter–South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

https://youtu.be/RrmLDDw6YBk

After shadow Arizona governor Kari Lake (Q) strokes the ripped foam salesman’s ego, amateur election sleuth Mike Lindell drops a bombshell, saying that fellow failed RNC chair candidate Harmeet Dhillon abandoned Lake’s effort to undermine the legitimate results of the Arizona election she lost.

After Lake makes a public appeal for Ronna not-Romney McDaniel to listen to her batshit claims about voter fraud and widespread election conspiracy, Lindell interjects, “Well, I wanna, I want us to correct somethin’ here, Kari, ’cause I have been wont to tell you Harmeet is part of that, too.  She’s a lawyer that’s in there and I talked to her and she has not [indecipherable] over there.  We have to pull her in, too.  This is election crime and you have to have the courage to take it on election crime because she did abandon you in Arizona.”

Apparently, Pillow Guy believes there’s a cabal within the RNC who actively worked against or passively hoped for Lake to lose the 2022 Arizona governor’s race because the conspiracy is bigger than even we thought.

Continuing a revocation of women’s rights Republicans aspire to, the Afghanistan government run by the Taliban banned women from taking entrance exams at private colleges and universities as it expands its elimination of women’s education in the country, Reuters reports.  The new regulation bars private universities from allowing women to apply for admission and told schools to ban female students from attending classes “until further notice.”

Unlike in the US where students sit for standardized exams and apply to colleges based on those scores, most private universities in Afghanistan have individual open testing sessions for admission to individual schools.  Admission may be based solely on scores on that test, regardless of previous scholastic credentials like a high school diploma, because many schools in Afghanistan are unregulated.

Since assuming control of the government and despite giving assurances to the international community, the Taliban has instituted a series of restrictions of women’s rights, including closing schools for girls and barring girls from seeking anything other than an elementary education.  It’s also barred most women from the workforce and banned female workers from foreign non-governmental organizations.

Fat former President Trump is hitting the campaign trail for his third bid to lose the popular vote in New Hampshire on Saturday, complaining to a live audience about how horrible he’s been treated by the Democrats and media for his corruption, incompetence, and racism, starting at Noon EST.