In a unanimous decision, the Michigan Supreme Court dismissed charges against former Republican Governor Rick Snyder and his aides relating to the increased amounts of lead in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, the Associated Press reports.

The Court ruled that the indictments were obtained in a highly unusual way, through a “single judge grand jury,” that are not authorized to issue indictments.  In Michigan, such orders from judges–who typically act as a de facto grand jury in cases where witnesses’ safety are at risk–are limited “to investigate, subpoena witnesses, and issue arrest warrants.”

The ruling automatically drops cases against Snyder, former state health director Nick Lyon; Snyder’s longtime fixer, Rich Baird; former senior aide Jarrod Agen; former Flint managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley; former Flint public works chief Howard Croft; and Nancy Peeler, a state health department manager.  All played a role in the decision that changed the source of the drinking water supply for Flint, which caused the drinking water supply to become contaminated with lead.

Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join the NATO alliance finally got the approval of the one holdout member, Turkey, who had balked at their membership for the countries’ support of Kurdish independent groups, CNBC reports.

Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding, detailing Turkey’s support for the two nations to join the alliance.  All current members of NATO must approve the application of a prospective member; Turkey was the only country out of the 30 members to not immediately endorse the applications.

Finland’s location, with hundreds of miles of common border with Russia, will put further pressure on the Kremlin to address NATO’s increasing influence.  For decades, Finland and Sweden resisted calls to join NATO and opted to stay neutral, but with Putin’s increasing aggression, entering the alliance provides significant security.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
There is no cross examination of this so-called witness. This is a Kangaroo Court!

2,197 581 Jun 28, 2022, 15:07

More insanity from the fat bastard: “A Total Phony!!! NEVER SAID, ‘MIKE PENCE DESERVES IT’ (to be hung). Another made up statement by a third rate social climber… Wiill anybody ever be allowed to say that the Election was Rigged and Stolen? Will the Unselects EVER discuss that our Country is going to hell because of a fraudulent election? How about analyzing the Election Results?”

“Her body language is that of a total bull[shit] artist. Fantasy Land! Chaney [sic] conveniently left out the snippet in my speech to, ‘GO PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY.’ Isn’t she disgraceful???… She changed lawyers a couple of days ago, and with it, her story totally changed! SHOCKER???… Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is ‘sick’ and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself – Wouldn’t even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing. Her story of me throwing food is also false – and why would SHE have to clean it up, I hardly knew who she was?… Never complained about the crowd, it was massive. I didn’t want or request that we make room for people with guns to watch my speech. Who would ever want that? Not me!”

“Besides, there were no guns found or brought into the Capitol Building… So where were all of these guns? But sadly, a gun was used on Ashli Babbitt, with no price to pay against the person who used it! I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and ‘leaker’), and when she requested to go with certain others of the team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down. Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible? I understand that she was very upset and angry that I didn’t want her to go, or be a member of the team. She is bad news!”

Whatever. So what. Hutchinson was just saying what the Democrats and RINO Cheney wanted to hear. She’s trying to become famous. Nobody knows who she is. She’s a nobody making herself sound way more important than she actually was. Antifa intimidated her into testifying against Meadows and Trump. She made that story up about the ketchup and the dish being smashed.

It’s not illegal to throw ketchup at the wall anyway. It’s not a crime. So what. That was hearsay. The president has every right to grab the wheel when Secret Service aren’t obeying his commands. Read Article II libs. It was just lies to make your TDS go into overdrive. She’s trolling you libs. And what about Ray Epps? When is the unselect committee going going to investigate him and the FBI?

National Zero will resume our regular news coverage now that we’re done throwing some red meat to our right wing readers. We hope they enjoyed this “So what? Shut up libs” article.

Tuesday’s House January 6th hearing is a surprise addition to the schedule which apparently couldn’t wait due to security threats against main witness former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who was assclown former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ top assistant. Basically Larry Higby 2.0 for the Watergate nerds in our audience. Hutchinson’s video testimony was already featured in at least two of the hearings so far, it’ll be interesting to see what else she has to say.

The kilt-wearing part of Britain with the monster that lives in a lake and home to Glaswegian rock acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Fratellis, the Knopfler brothers of Dire Straits, and whole shit ton of other musicians, is taking a second blow at the bagpipe for independence from the monstrous tyrant Queen Elizabeth II with a referendum set for October 19th, 2023, the BBC reports.

The most recent attempt in 2014 ended with a 55.3% to 47.7 defeat for the Scottish nationalists, though things have shifted a bit since Brexit – which was widely opposed in Scotland. Some say Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will consume the English with fire from her eyes and bolts of lightning from her arse if independence cannot be achieved through democratic means.

A review of an “exclusive” report on a video which allegedly “exonerates” the fascist street gang the Proud Boys published Tuesday on the Gateway Pundit, a far right website founded by a guy who married a male teenage prostitute he met in the Philippines, reveals a number of possible factual inaccuracies and embellishments within the text. First off, the article purports this “video unquestionably proves that the Proud Boys never planned on going inside the Capitol on January 6th, let alone commit ‘seditious conspiracy,'” the use of quotations around the words “seditious conspiracy” falsely implying that it’s not a real criminal statute of a serious federal felony the Proud Boys leadership are currently being prosecuted for. The Gateway Pundit’s report also goes out of its way to mention Liz Cheney as being behind these charges several times as if the Wyoming Congresswoman is a federal prosecutor and not, you know, a Congresswoman.

Next, the Gateway Pundit offers no proof the video of the Proud Boys leaderships “livestream” was actually recorded on the date they assert, December 30th, 2020. If anything it seems kind of scripted and selectively edited. Indeed there are literally jumps in the video the Gateway Pundit claims “these DOJ geniuses did not realize it still lived on a hidden YouTube link or they surely would have forced their minions at YouTube to take it down,” as if YouTube’s algorithm would not have been able to find and delete an unlisted video of Proud Boys content.

The House January 6th Select Committee is looking into conversations and phone calls involving Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric Trump that picked up by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder before and after the 2020 election, the Guardian reports. Of particular interest is a conversation in which Eric Trump predicted there would be violence if his dad lost the election, probably the only time that fucking dumbass was right about anything. “When I asked Eric about the potential danger of sort of rhetoric and the sort of the belligerence, he felt that it was… fair game in that it… was sort of the equivalent on the other side of the political discourse,” Holder told the Independent in an interview, “or he felt that it was the right thing to do… because the election was stolen.”

Another point investigators want to explore is the night of the first debate on September 29th where Holder was with the Trump kids at the Washington DC hotel while talk of forcing some kind of contingent election was already going back and forth among them and Steve Bannon. “They’re going to try and overturn this election with uncertified votes… Right before noon on the 20th, in a vote in the House, Trump will win the presidency,” Bannon said that night to Showtime’s The Circus.

At Least 42 People Found Dead Inside Truck Carrying Migrants In Texas.

These deaths are on Biden.

They are a result of his deadly open border policies.

They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law. https://t.co/8KG3iAwlEk

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 28, 2022

Hey these now 50 people who died horribly of heat exhaustion are useful to you politically. Because Biden is president and this happened during his term, it’s his fault, even though you were supposed to be running your own border security operation and told your fans you had the situation under control. Even though you successfully thwarted his attempts at easing Trump’s border policies in court several times and the President himself and members of his administration explicitly said on multiple times migrants should not come to the US-Mexico border.

None of that matters because 50 dead migrants, who almost certainly did not cross the border in that truck and more likely assembled somewhere within Texas to board it, are a well-timed distraction from all the other damaging shit that’s been happening to Republicans politically lately. Forget that a similar, if less-deadly incident happened during the Trump years too, or that you never actually gave a fuck about these people in the first place. Celebrate and cherish this political gift.

Insufferable piece of shit Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson on Friday decried the consequences of the failed Trump 2020 coup attempt being visited upon cheesehead MAGA lawyers Cleta Mitchell, who was fired from a white shoe law firm after participating in the Orange God Emperor’s famous “Find 11,780 votes” call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge who tried to invalidate his own vote for the Donald in a lawsuit seeking to have every mail-in vote tossed in the deep blue state capitol area and also was in on Johnson’s plan to hand deliver fake Trump 2020 electoral votes from Wisconsin to Vice Former Guy Mike Pence on during the certification on January 6th, Madison.com reports.

“Cleta Mitchell is a hero,” Johnson said at the Wisconsin Statewide Election Integrity Summit, a gathering of Caucasian losers opposed to democracy. “There are so many people. The latest victim is Jim Troupis – there are so many victims of the radical left that need to be supported.”

When asked Monday about what makes Troupis and Mitchell victims, RonAnon spokesworm Alexa Henning, herself probably wrapped up in her boss’s attempted treason, said “The corporate media and the radical left are engaging in politics of personal destruction and it’s sick.” Henning then declined to answer to separate “sick” questions about the fake Wisconsin electors plan.

Russia on Tuesday banned First Lady Jill Biden and daughter Ashley from entering the irradiated shithole country Tuesday, the AP reports. The two were joined by Senators Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, Moscow Mitch, Kirstin Gillibrand, and historian Francis Fukuyama for some reason.

In 1992, the first female referee in the WWF franchise accused the chairman of the company, Vince McMahon, of raping her six years earlier, only to find out that the statute of limitations had expired, as New York Magazine reports.  With no witnesses to the crime coming forward, it was a he said/she said situation that reporters who covered the emerging WWE (then called the WWF) wouldn’t dare bring up with McMahon for fear of losing access.

Now, Rita Chatterton, the performer with a hall of fame career in the WWE universe, has a witness who corroborates her story has come forward:  a professional wrestler named Leonard Inzitari, known in the ring as Mario Mancini.  “I remember it like it was yesterday,” says Inzitari. “She was a wreck. She was shaking. She was crying.”

As has been previously reported here on NatZero, McMahon stepped down from his position as CEO, handing the reins to his daughter, while the publicly-traded corporation investigates money paid to former employees for their silence relating to sexual harassment accusations about McMahon, who is the husband of former Trump Administration SBA Administrator Linda McMahon.  With Chatterton’s accusation now substantiated, Vince McMahon’s history of alleged sexual abuse spans back 36 years.

Michael Stenger, who was the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms at the time of the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress in 2021, died Monday morning, numerous news sources report.  Stenger retired from his position the day after the attack.

Stenger served in the Marines, rising to the rank of captain, before leaving to join the US Secret Service, where he had a 35-year career.  He became 41st Sergeant-at-Arms of the United States Senate in 2017.

CNN reports Cassidy Hutchinson, the former executive assistant for Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is the sole witness testifying Tuesday at the last-minute hearing called by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress.

The California legislature passed a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone connected to the manufacture, sale or transfer of any illegal gun–mimicking a similar bill from Texas that rewards people who sought an abortion it deemed illegal after passing a draconian anti-choice measure, the Associated Press reports.

The bill will be returned to the state senate, where an earlier version of the bill passed in May, so the new bill can be voted on before being sent to the desk of Democratic President Gavin Newsom for his signature.

“This puts power back in the people’s hands,” said Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting. “This creates a private right of action that allows almost anyone to bring a lawsuit against those who manufacture, distribute, transport, import or sell illegal assault weapons, rifles, ghost guns or ghost gun kits.”

At least 46 migrants are dead Monday after cops in San Antonio, Texas discovered a tractor trailer in a remote area in the city’s southwest, and authorities expect the death toll to rise as the truch had at least 100 people stuffed inside amid temperatures that exceeded 103 degrees KSAT reports.

Not knowing anything about why the hell he’s broadcasting from Rio de Janiero in Brazil, but we’re guessing is the same propaganda service to far right President Jair Bolsonaro as he did for far-right Hungarian President Viktor Orban, Tucker Carlson hosted John Eastman on his Fox show to complain about being treated like the suspected criminal he is. After Tuck’ums advises his audience to delete emails and text messages every day because Joe Biden’s a-coming for ya, he goes on to say federal agents from the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice treated Eastman like “a drug kingpin or a rapist” and, um… [checks notes]… seized his phone(?). Gotta love the finger Fox News’s chyron is pointing at the House January 6th Committee for something the Department of Justice did pursuing its completely separate investigation too.

A Dallas cop endorsed by disgraced former President Trump for a state House seat was arrested on a felony charge of impersonating a public official over a long-running dispute with his now-vanquished primary opponent involving stolen campaign signs, the Texas Tribune reports .

The Dallas Police Department placed Freddy Frazier on administrative leave after he was indicted Friday on the charges stemming from allegations he posed as a McKinney city code compliance officer – even going so far as to wear a McKinney public employee t-shirt – and ordered the manager of a Walmart to remove Republican rival Paul Chabot’s campaign signs from the store’s parking lot last fall, among other allegations of sign theft. Frazier went on to defeat Chabot pretty badly in the March primary for the open Republican-leaning state House seat, but the investigation continued and finally caught up with the MAGA scumbag cop.

Frazier’s campaign blamed Chabot, a serial election loser, for the charges in a statement, saying the vanquished opponent is “trying to overturn the results of that election by bringing up trumped complaints to law enforcement and testifying before a grand jury. Frederick Frazier is looking forward to having the opportunity to defend himself in court, where we are confident jurors will see through Chabot’s lies in the same way that voters have five times before.”

Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff of Harris County, Texas, withdrew his nomination as President Joe Biden’s choice to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced, MSN reports.

Nominated to head the agency in April 2021, Gonzalez was told in March that the Senate was going to hold off on acting on his nomination until allegations that he had abused his wife were investigated.

“I arrived at this decision after prayerfully considering what’s best for our nation, my family, and the people of Harris County who elected me to serve a second term as Sheriff,” Gonzales wrote in a tweet. “I am grateful to President Biden for the honor of nominating me, and I wish this administration well as it strives to overcome the paralyzing political gridlock that threatens far more than our nation’s border. Frankly, the dysfunction threatens America’s heart and soul.”

Following the revocation of a woman’s right to choose her health care, Vice President Kamala Harris warned that the conservatives on the Supreme Court are going to continue the ongoing GOP war against the things they don’t like, USA Today reports.

“I think he just said the quiet part out loud,” Harris said of Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in his concurrent opinion that the Supreme Court should reconsider landmark civil rights decisions that recognized the rights to LGBTQ marriage, contraception, and non-procreational sexual acts. “And I think that is why we all must really understand the significance of what just happened. This is profound.”

Thomas’s opinion, as the Court overturned the right to privacy that underpinned a woman’s right to an abortion, said that the Court should revisit all the decisions based on that concept.  Thomas, who’s a Black man married to Ginni Thomas, who is white, did not list the Loving decision that made it illegal to ban interracial marriage as one of those cases to be reviewed.