A partnership of two private companies–one led by an engineer who led the development of the SpaceX rocket system–plans an aggressive program that would land an unmanned robotic probe onto the surface of Mars in 2024 or 2025, the New York Times reports.

Relativity Space plans to conduct the first test its new rocket during a launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the next few weeks in which it will test systems designed for the much larger Terran 1 rocket, which will be comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Relativity is partnering with Impulse Space, a start-up founded by former SpaceX chief of engineering Thomas Mueller, who was the first employee hired by Elon Musk for SpaceX and who retired from that company in 2020.  Impulse was founded to design systems that can go from point-to-point in space.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott did not attend a single funeral for a victim of the Uvalde Robb Elementary School massacre in May, the Houston Chronicle reports based on a review of his schedule. Abbott’s last visit to the town was a community worship gathering on June 5th. “I don’t want this to sound like some political assault on [Abbott]… We had a failed response on giving resources to families,” said state Senator Roland Gutierrez to MSNBC on Monday. “He did not go to one single funeral – and quite honestly, many of the families didn’t want him there.”

“We’ve had Sen. Gutierrez in our living room, willing to come and talk to us,” said Angel Garza, father of 10 year old victim Amerie Jo Garza. “We’ve had Beto O’Rourke coming to our private meeting to fight with us. He marched with us. That means something to us. The fact that you’re reaching out just to see how we’re doing means something to us.”

Fat former President Trump and evil gnome Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are within the margin of error in a Detroit News/WDIV survey of Michigan 2024 Republican primary voters, with Don at 45 and Ron at 42 percent of support. Tracking with the findings of a recent New York Times/Siena College survey, DeSantis leads Trump 51% to 37% among college-educated MAGA Michiganders, while Trump leads with non-college graduates 55% to 29%.

Respondents were also told Republicans in the Michigan state Senate conducted a thorough review of the 2020 election and concluded there was zero evidence of any widespread fraud in the state that could have tipped the election to President Biden, and asked if they believed that finding or if they believed disgraced former President Trump’s stories. They chose Trump 59% to 26%.

Oy that’s a bloody scorcher, innit guv? Read more at the Independent.

“Look at the left, y’know, they can go out and say nothing about the Kavanaugh assassination.  Yes, the press secretary did.  The president didn’t.”

Of course, Kayleigh McEnany (a.k.a., Binder Barbie) vowed on her first day as Trump’s press secretary, “I will never lie to you.  You have my word on that,” and then she proceeded to tell the American people that Donald Trump would never allow coronavirus to get to American shores… in April 2020 after hundreds of thousands of people had already been infected.  And she continues to misspeak the truth by claiming BRETT KAVANAUGH WAS ASSASSINATED!!!.  (He wasn’t.)

A draft memoir written by the woman who set off the events that ultimately led to the torture and lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 details that she likely lied to state and federal investigators who looked into the murder over a half century, CNN reports, a fact that may open up the woman to prosecution, something that didn’t happen in 1955 because of the privileges of being a white woman in the South.

Carolyn Bryant Donham’s sealed memoir was given to the University of North Carolina to be released in 2036, and a University historian, Timothy Tyson, interviewed Donham in 2008 to provide historical context to her writing.

In the draft, Donham claimed Till was defiant when Donham then-husband, Roy Bryant, brought Till to their house to have his wife identify him as the “Negro” boy who wolf-whistled at her while she was at her job in a retail store.  Donham writes that after she told Bryant that Till was not the boy who whistled, Till wryly smiled at her and proclaimed, “Yes, it was me.”

Kentucky’s Republican Senate contingent need counseling because their relationship just isn’t working out.  See, one of the–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell–worked out a deal to have a suspected anti-choice jurist appointed to the federal court in Kentucky by President Joe Biden, but petulant junior Senator and Beaker cosplayer Rand Paul fucked it all up, Politico reports.

While it would have been highly unpopular with his Democratic base to appoint an anti-choice advocate to the bench, Biden has been working to re-establish a series of norms that were in place prior to the shitstorm of the Trump administration, and part of that process was to honor so-called “blue slips,” endorsements of home state Senators to a judicial nominee for the federal bench, and Biden was aware that neither Kentucky Senator would approve of an overtly pro-choice appointee to a US district court seat in the state.

Biden nominated Chad Meredith, deputy chief counsel to former Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevins, who defended a state law requiring doctors to force pregnant patients to view ultrasounds of fetuses they are carrying before getting an abortion.  While lawyers do not necessarily have to support the positions they defend in court, most lawyers would ask to be recused from such a high-profile case if they could not personally defend it. 

Two former Trump White House staffers, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and National Security Council member Matthew Pottinger, will testify publicly during Thursday night’s prime time House January 6th Select Committee hearing, NBC News reports. Matthews was previously reported here as testifying at a future hearing without a set slot, and Pottinger is not a terribly surprising addition to the witness lineup either given his background as a Marine, journalist, and actual dedicated public servant and not some MAGA Reichsminister.

“The United States Capitol Police (USCP) has been working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia on the June 16, 2022, Unlawful Entry case that involved a group of nine people associated with The Late Show. The USCP arrested nine people for Unlawful Entry charges because members of the group had been told several times before they entered the Congressional buildings that they had to remain with a staff escort inside the buildings and they failed to do so.”

“The United States Capitol Police was just informed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is declining to prosecute the case. We respect the decision that office has made. Any questions about that decision should be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia” says the US Capitol Police in a statement and ohhh man are the fanboys going to lose their shit over this one because it’ll “prove” preferential treatment of MSM libs and blah blah blah.

However if one small group of non-violent trespassers were just screwing around and filming a prank for a comedy show doesn’t end up facing charges while the other, much larger group of non-violent trespassers (who accompanied some very violent and destructive trespassers) were trying to end American democracy does face charges and fairly brief sentences in jail – or simply probation – upon conviction, then we guess the DC US Attorney’s Office does prefer one group over the other. It’s that reasonable application of prosecutorial discretion that the fanboys want you to think is somehow nefarious and lopsided with their bad faith bullshit. Don’t listen to their noise.

Republican leaders in Arizona are bringing out the big guns to stop the Trump-backed candidate in the state gubernatorial primary from winning the race, a potentiality that Party officials believe would doom GOP efforts in the state, the Associated Press reports.

The Trump-annointed candidate, drag queen show patron Kari Lake, is highly divisive within the state, advocating for things such as anti-choice legislation and homophobic policies that are significantly unpopular with Americans.  Leading the charge against Lake is Republican Governor Doug Ducey, whom Trump once called the worst governor in the country.

“In Arizona, people are independent minded, much like they are in Georgia, and they pick the person that they think will be best for the responsibility,” Ducey said in an interview with the Associated Press. “In Georgia, the voters said Brian Kemp, and I’m hopeful in Arizona, they’ll say Karrin Taylor Robson.”

The defense and prosecution at Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial have selected all 22 jurors, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports, adding that on Tuesday they’ll pick the 14 jurors who will actually sit for the trial and then start opening arguments. The DOJ reportedly expect to be able to wrap it up this week, despite Bannon’s claims he would “go medieval” and “put the whole system on trial” and all the other bullshit he said he would do before the judge ruined his plans.

Now that I think about it.

As Dr. Dick Levine advocates for “gender affirming care” for minors, has he undergone the #WeenieChop himself?

Or is he just pushing this on children?

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 18, 2022

The only reason scumbag Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene still has an account she can use at all is because she’s in office. Once she’s out it passes to her successor and she’s officially done, as her personal account received a lifetime ban back in January. However, this “official” US House Georgia 14th District account is by no means safe from being locked until someone else takes over.

Shortly after Trump’s personal account was nuked on the night of January 8th, 2021, the fat bastard socked into the official White House account, which Twitter then promptly locked until Biden took office, so the same could happen. What a sick fuck though. Who writes this shit?

GOP Maryland Senate candidate Ryan Dark White, also known as Dr. John McGreevey

Every once in a while, we here at NatZero uncover a story that perfectly encapsulates just how screwed up today’s Republicans are, and here’s today’s :

Ryan Dark White–with a name that one can only think is meant to express how deeply, inherently white he is–a 54-year-old self-declared GOP candidate running for the US Senate from Maryland, was arrested by the Harford County Sheriff’s Office for falsely claiming that a child was being sex-trafficked at the adult book store in Edgewood, where he worked.

“A criminal complaint was unsealed today in Brooklyn federal court charging Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo Wang with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the Federal Election Commission’s administration of campaign finance laws. Li and Wang, both naturalized U.S. citizens, were arrested earlier today in Oyster Bay, New York, and their initial appearance is scheduled for this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York.”

“Li and Wang charged twelve foreign nationals $93,000 per person for admission to a June 28, 2017 fundraising event (the June 28, 2017 Fundraiser) with the then-President of the United States. Li and Wang used the funds that they collected from the foreign nationals to unlawfully make $600,000 in political contributions in their own names – $270,500 from Li and $329,500 from Wang—to the joint fundraising committee hosting the June 28, 2017 Fundraiser. Li, Wang and their foreign national guests attended the June 28, 2017 Fundraiser and took photographs with the then-President of the United States. Li and Wang later used a photograph of Li and the President taken at the fundraiser to solicit investment in the TEC Project,” says a Justice Department press release.

Senate Minority Leader and amphibian-American Mitch McConnell signaled the downfall of Western civilization and utter contempt for his office by wearing a tan suit, an act that Republican New York House member Peter King said signals a “lack of seriousness.”

“What message is [McConnell] trying to send?” Lou Dobbs tweeted, outraged that the politician would dare stray from the traditional blue, black and grey suits of Capitol Hill, without commenting on Ohio Republican Congressman and rape misprisioner Jim Jordan’s habit of wearing ill-fitting suits and refusing to wear his suitcoat during official House proceedings.

Wait… what?  They weren’t talking about McConnell.  It was only an issue when President Barack Obama did it on a hot summer day in 2014?  You mean, Fox won’t dedicate entire segments to McConnell’s fashion choices like they did to the Obamas?  What do you think could cause such a double standard?

Take that Big Tech! Google has been fined $373 million for biased anti-Russian and anti-Putin content for not suppressing search results about military failures in Ukraine, the BBC reports. Among the transgressions listed by the Russian government were “fakes about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine, discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, materials promoting extremism and terrorism, materials promoting an indifferent attitude to the life and health of minors, information with appeals, including to minors, to participate in unauthorized mass actions.” Nice to see Russia finally repealed Section 230.

Record high temperatures across Great Britain have accelerated sales of fans and portable air conditioning units around the island as temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit sizzle the normally temperate nation, the New York Times reports.

Unlike Texas, where an outdated and overloaded electrical grid risks a breakdown if someone uses a hair dryer, England’s utility operator reassured Britons that their power grids can handle the excess usage, where most homes do not have whole-home air conditioning units.

The all-time high temperature in the UK is 38.7°C, or 102°F, set in Cambridge in July 2019.  Forecasts for London on Tuesday predict a high of 102°F.  Britons have been fleeing to beaches and seaside resorts in effort to find cooler climes.

Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck's 20-year journey to marriage and happily ever after https://t.co/HdL7CvJ89X

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 18, 2022

A deeply bitter middle-aged white man with a drinking problem married his long-estranged ex-girlfriend on an impulse in Las Vegas last weekend, Fox News reports on a story that no doubt resonates with a large section of their audience. It seems likely the man, whose previous marriage to a non-Hispanic white woman fell apart due to his gambling and boozing, and seen his once-vibrant career as an alpha settle into a pattern of dull mediocrity, and drifted back to the foul-tempered Bronx-born Latina out of some unspoken yearning to recapture the promises the future once held for him. As if she could somehow Make Affleck Great Again on her own.

It’s this kind of wish-fulfillment, with all the moral complexity of a Michael Bay script, that speaks to everyday Fox News fans experiencing similar difficulties and the dull, aching residue of decades-old disappointments in their own mid-lives. After all, celebrities are people, just like you.

At least half of the Republican candidates who have won their Party’s nomination for statewide or federal office in this election cycle have explicitly denied the legitimacy of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, a review by FiveThirtyEight discovered.

While no Republican has challenged the outcome of any race in which the GOP candidate won during the 2020 general election, even though they were conducted using the same machines, systems, technology and processes as the 2020 presidential election, many GOP candidates continue to pitch The Big Lie.  In total, one-third of Republican candidates expressed support for Trump’s lie.

In 91 races in which at least one candidate expressed support for Trump’s attempt to undermine the election and at least one candidate accepted the certified results, pro-democracy candidates won in 54% of the contests.  In many primaries, election deniers ran unopposed.

Biden has an extra busy schedule of 0 public events today.

— Ronna McDaniel (@RonnaMcDaniel) July 18, 2022

Oh, Ronna, poor womyn.  How the cognitive dissonance must echo in that empty shell she calls a skull when she has to complain that the President has a light schedule after a tour of the Middle East when her Orange Idol’s daily schedule was typically filled with “Executive Time” and media notices read like this: