Jeffrey Epstein pal Alan Dershowitz asked Trump to preemptively pardon Ghislaine Maxwell in the final days of the Donald’s presidency, the Sunday Times reports. Dersh didn’t deny speaking with Trump about Maxwell to the Sunday Times, saying “It would not be unreasonable to report that.”

Trump, who publicly wished well for the now convicted sex trafficker in a fucking White House press conference, also reportedly took an interest in her behind the scenes, per Michael Wolff’s Landslide, writing Trump asked “Has she said anything about me?… Is she going to talk? Will she roll on anybody?” Maxwell’s faces up to 65 years in prison and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Marjorie Tayler Greene via Telegram (annotated): “In foreign countries, you can walk in a pharmacy and buy Ivermectin over the counter without a prescription like I did [So you’re saying you’re not America First?], and it has saved many lives [how many, Marge?]. In America, the FDA tells pharmacies not to fill Ivermectin prescriptions if it’s prescribed for covid, stopping sick people from taking a well known cheap safe effective drug that saves lives. The media makes fun of people for wanting to take it [yah, no shit, we do it all the time, lol], calls it horse wormer [its horse dewormer, you fucking idiot], and reported fake stories about hospitals overflowing with people overdosing on veterinary type Ivermectin. But the government can’t mandate a vaccine if there are treatments for covid [yeah, they can], and early treatment of Ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies is a CURE in most cases. Withholding these treatments is murder, and I believe the government is responsible”

The Omicron variant is largely matching earlier predictions of being a less severe COVID-19 variant for those who either have immunity from prior infection or who have been vaccinated, while still causing serious illness for those who are either not vaccinated, or who lack immunity from prior infection with COVID-19.

There appear to be a large number of mildly symptomatic infections nationwide and a trend of patients being admitted to hospitals and then testing positive for the Omicron variant, suggesting Omicron is causing physical stress on patients which exacerbates health impacts of pre-existing conditions. Given what we know of how COVID-19 impacts the respiratory and circulatory systems, it’s probable that the impact is greatest on those who have heart conditions, or breathing problems such as asthma or COPD.

Actually maybe McCarthy’s right and the Capitol riot was “apolitical”. After all, the supporters of the Republican president wanted to kill both Democrats and the Republican Vice President.

“In 2010 I promised I would always tell people the truth and that I would never vote with re-election in mind. When re-election isn’t your primary motivation, those are easy promises to keep. Today, I am announcing I will continue to fight for freedom in the public realm by running for re-election. It is a decision I haven’t made lightly” says GOP Wisconsin Senator and total asshole Ron Johnson.

American politics “news” site TheHill.com is publishing propaganda from scammy Chinese tech company Huawei via a splashy “native content” article, a link on the site’s home page revealed Sunday. Though ostensibly right wing in much of its opinion content and moderation, the presence of such content shows the site’s ownership are happy to sell out to a company whose products have been continually subject to sale restrictions imposed by both the Trump and Biden administrations over concerns they contain spyware and malware. Their money’s still green though.

Philadelphia centenarian Dorothy Nedd celebrated her 106th birthday on Friday, telling Fox 29 the key to her long life has been “Serving the Lord!” and a weekly Big Mac after church, per her granddaughter. Though not typically associated with living past 70, let alone 100, apparently consuming the signature burger gave this woman some sort of edge – one that the McDonald’s Inc would do well to incorporate into a marketing/public relations campaign. Maybe even a contest, like “Eat our food regularly and live past 105 to win a free Apple Pie! (Terms and conditions may apply. Coupon for one (1) free McDonald’s Apple Pie may not be honored at all McDonald’s locations).”

Republican Indiana state Sen. Scott Baldwin is trying to walk back his comments from a Tuesday session where teacher Matt Bockenfeld spoke, the Indianapolis Star reports. “We don’t stand up and say who we voted for or anything like that. But we’re not neutral on Nazism. We take a stand in the classroom against it, and it matters that we do,” said Bockenfeld on the Indiana ant-Critical Race Theory bill, SB167. “I have no problem with the education system providing instruction on the existence of those isms. I believe that we’ve gone too far when we take a position on those isms… We need to be impartial,” Baldwin said, adding I’m not sure it’s right for us to determine how that child should think and that’s where I’m trying to provide the guardrails.”

Baldwin tried to walk back from his “remain neutral” bullshit in an email to the Indianapolis Star on Tuesday, writing “When I was drafting this bill, my intent with regard to ‘political affiliation’ was to cover political parties within the legal American political system. In my comments during committee, I was thinking more about the big picture and trying to say that we should not tell kids what to think about politics,” confirming he considers anything bad mouthing white nationalism to be “political”.

“Next, breaking news about an alleged serial killer in Virginia who preyed on victims using dating apps,” Fox hostess with the coldness Drudge Jwerween says earnestly and somewhat excitedly into the camera… as the network shows a photo of a Connecticut high school hockey player who died Thursday after a freak in-game accident.

Li’l Joey Concha must be psychic:  he said there was a traffic jam caused by weather where people died, and it only took four days for it to be true.  In Pakistan.

A massive snowstorm in Pakistan led to a series of accidents and traffic jams on a road leading to a resort town of Murree, resulting in hundreds of cars being stranded overnight.  Twenty-two people were found dead, mostly from hypothermia, the Washington Post reports.

Photos of the scene show cars encased in snow, with military personnel marching to the scene because they did not have transportation capable of driving through the snow.  Others show a tree that collapsed on a car.

Date night in York 💕 letting him tell me all the things he loves about me .. while I listen. It’s a great tradition. 😏 pic.twitter.com/D7I4JsQcF5

— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) January 8, 2022

A large rock formation overlooking a Brazilian lake collapsed Saturday onto three tourist boats floating nearby, sinking all three boats, killing six people, injuring more than 30 and leaving 20 people missing, CNN reports.

The rocks apparently became unstable after heavy rains pounded the area around Furnas Lake in Capitólio, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.  Furnas Lake is a popular tourist destination, with parts of the lake bordered on each size by high mountain walls, similar but on a smaller scale to the Grand Canyon.

Dominick Black, the then 18-year-old Wisconsin resident who illegally purchased the assault rifle used by then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse to slay two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin during racial justice protests has taken a plea deal to avoid conviction on two felonies, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Black pleaded no contest to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and as part of the plea, two felony counts of delivering a dangerous weapon to a minor, resulting in death.  Rittenhouse sent Black cash specifically to make a straw purchase of an assault weapons in Wisconsin, where Rittenhouse was too young to buy one.

Rittenhouse was originally charged with illegally owning and possessing a weapon, but in a questionable decision, the judge decided to throw out the weapons charges because defense attorneys convinced him that Rittenhouse legally possessed the weapon under a law allow minors to carry rifles while hunting.

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (left) with former House Candidate Rick Saccone in front of the Capitol on January 6th.

Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano, a Q-curious “Stop the Steal” asshole who organized busloads of fans from his state to the DC on January 6th, and coming very close to the Capitol itself during the riot (if he didn’t actually enter), announced his bid for Governor on Saturday.

Mastriano, a former US Army Colonel, was first elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 2019 in a special election, his second campaign after a failed primary bid for the US House in 2018, first came on our radar – like many other cultist swing state Republican lawmakers did – in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election. Unlike Pennsylvania state GOP leadership, who didn’t want anything to do with Trump’s command to appoint new electors, Mastriano was all in on the coup plan, and continued fighting for the Donald in the year since, battling his leadership again to launch an “audit” in the state after attending the Cyber Ninjas shitshow in Arizona.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death in adults aged 18-45.

We constantly hear the government focused on COVID, but I’ve yet to see a federal mobilization to address the issue.

Perhaps our Border Czar has some ideas?

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 8, 2022

A simple Google search reveals an article from ABC 7 Denver which says “In the year ending in April 2021, fentanyl claimed the lives of 40,010 Americans ages 18-45,” two months and 11 days after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in to office. These sort of mistakes happen though.

Republican Attorneys-General from Missouri and Louisiana are continuing their push to aid Russian Intelligence agencies in maximizing the toll that Covid19 has on the United States. A piece published by FOX, the official propaganda outlet of the Republican Party and Russian GRU describes arguments before the Supreme Court to stymie the Biden Administration’s efforts to slow the spread of Covid19.

In his Twitter thread “Ten Don’ts for dealing with Russia“, analyst Keir Geils advises: “Don’t expect Russia to respect values and standards that were developed elsewhere”. Russian intelligence agencies are notorious for having a “living off the land mentality,” and taking advantage of situations on the ground to try to advance Russian military objectives.

Footage submitted to Patriot Takes on Twitter showing MAGA trolls waving Confederate and “FUCK BIDEN” fans near Reid’s memorial service, part of a thread showing plans by Las Vegas-area Trump fans to show up and protest a funeral. There was not, to our knowledge, any similarly disgraceful displays by libs during the funeral of former Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson on Wednesday.

The Taliban has deployed “suicide squad” bombers along the China Afghan border, in the region of Tajikistan, reports WION. The Taliban has always employed suicide squads to carry out bombings. There is some speculation that tensions with China may be related to the presence of Uyghur Muslims who fled China for the relative safety of Afghanistan. Many Uyghur families are worried that the Taliban may try to force them back across the Afghan/China border.

The Chinese have reportedly created “re-education camps,” for Chinese Muslims, similar to what Trump supporters have called for in the US. There have been reports of China providing inmates to Chinese companies as free, forced labor, but the Chinese government claims the camps are a national security matter, and are focused on fighting religious extremism.

Republican former Michigan State Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, responding to reports of a criminal investigation by the Lansing Police Department over a complaint filed by his own sister-in-law who alleges Chatfield, 33, molested her beginning in 2009 when she was 15 and continued “sexual exploitation” of her until July 2021, claims through his lawyer their sexual relationship was consensual in both her age at the time, 18, and she did so willingly, the Detroit News reports.

Chatfield lawyer Mary Chartier also admitted it wasn’t the only extramarital affair Chatfield has had. That the MAGA bro former legislator’s first public response to such a report is “limited hangout” type damage control is pretty impressive. This guy must really be fucked.

The unnamed woman’s lawyer, Jamie White, said Chatfield’s sexual abuse of her client continued well into her adulthood, even on her wedding night. Chatfield is the second Republican member of the Michigan State House to find his treatment of women scrutinized in recent months after Rep Steve Marino’s well-chronicled campaign of aggression against ex-girlfriend and out-of-his-league Dem colleague Rep Mari Manoogian ended with a House sergeant babysitting Marino on the chamber floor to ensure he didn’t violate the restraining order Manoogian filed against him.

UPDATE 1/8/21 1:59 PM: Bridge Michigan spoke directly with the accuser, who stepped forward and identified herself as Rebekah Chatfield, married to Lee’s brother Aaron, who also went on the record and says he fully supports his wife’s allegations against his older brother, Lee.

The week of Sunday, January 3rd through Saturday, January 9th, 2021 was a non-stop earthquake. Originally we had grander plans to commemorate it here on National Zero, but unfortunately here in 2022 life got in the way, with a sick toddler demanding more attention and time than could be devoted to recounting the crucial stretch as it we reported it here – and the many important developments behind the scenes made public in the year since. No regrets or apologies on that, just a simple acknowledgement of what could had been if the Deep State hadn’t invented germs.

Between the recording of Trump’s “I just want to find 11,780 votes” call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger being handed to the Washington Post, the split in the House and GOP caucuses over whether or not to certify the 2020 election, the stunning victory by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock in the crucial Georgia runoff Senate election, the heated run up over Pence’s role in the certification, the Stop the Steal rally on the Ellipse in Washington DC, the Capitol riot itself – and its immediate fallout, Congress’s final certification of Biden’s 2020 victory, the House Dems announcing they would soon impeach Trump for the second time in 13 months, and the blockbuster Reuters report on the discovery of dwarf giraffes living in separate parts of Africa, it was like seeing a whole year’s worth of news crammed into one week.