US Park Service personnel have wraps the tree trunks of scores of giant sequoias in aluminum foil-covered insulation in an attempt to protect the centuries-old trees from two massive wildfires in the area, Axios reports.

The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Forest in western California, a 275-foot tree with a 36-foot wide trunk that thought to be up to 2,700 years old, is one of those trees threatened.  Cal Fire estimates that the Colony Fire is one mile away from Sequoia National Forest and could be at the park’s borders by Friday morning.

The two fires threatening the sequoias were both started by lightning strikes on September 9th and have so far consumed about 9,000 acres.

Daily Beast: “In late July, Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who’s made a new name for himself as one of Donald Trump’s most diehard political supporters and 2020 election deadenders, irately announced he was yanking his company’s pillow ads from the Fox News airwaves. The immediate source of tension between the MAGA pillow magnate and the pro-Trump cable-news giant – a relationship that for years has been financially fruitful for both, and led to Lindell’s seeming omnipresicence on the Fox universe – was the network’s refusal to run a TV ad mentioning Lindell’s then-upcoming ‘cyber symposium’ featuring baseless 2020 election ‘fraud’ conspiracy theories.”

“It was the latest salvo in a media mini-saga of bruised feelings, constant accusations of censorship and election-hacking, and political extremes, with the quarrel between Lindell and Fox serving as a microcosm of the ravingly anti-democratic state of U.S. conservatism in the long shadow of a Trump presidency. By August, however, according to Lindell and Fox, the pillow mogul began trying to rekindle the advertising bond with Fox, following the speedy MyPillow withdrawal. But the overture towards a Fox-Lindell detente only went so far, with Fox rejecting his new ads multiple times, including as recently as this past Monday and Wednesday.”

Justice Clarence Thomas told a crowd at the University of Notre Dame that media coverage of Supreme Court decisions based on the ideology of the jurists jeopardizes the faith the public has in the Supreme Court and the legal system, the Washington Post reports.

“Low hanging fruit…..more bs”

– The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “Hillary Clinton-Linked Perkins Coie Lawyer Sussman Indicted of Lying in Durham’s Investigation“, posted Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the federal government to stop enforcing a Trump-era rule that prevented immigrants from staying in the country if they’re determined to pose a risk of spreading the coronavirus, the Associated Press reports.

Judge Sullivan ruled that the Biden Administration has two weeks to stop expelling immigrants and families at the southern border based on the policy, which could theoretically apply to any living person entering the country.

The judge’s order was made because Sullivan ruled the argument against the policy, made by the American Civil Liberties Union and other counsel on behalf of migrant families, would likely be overturned in a pending case.

The United States recorded more than 2,000 COVID deaths overnight, marking the highest number of daily coronavirus deaths in the country since February, as Republican-led state struggle with hotspots but no public health policy, ABC News reports.

According to data from the Worldometers site, Texas, Georgia and California are leading in daily coronavirus fatalities; Florida registered only three deaths because they are backfilling fatality data to the dates of the individual’s passing, not the date it’s reported to the state.

More than 660,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus since January 2020.  Republicans have largely remained stubbornly against instituting mask mandates or vaccinations even while the delta variant has spread through their states.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The fight for a path to permanent citizenship for thousands of Venezuelans in the United States is an ‘uphill battle’ that needs the support of Florida’s political leaders, advocates say. ‘Now is the time for them to fulfill their campaign promises,’ said William Díaz, a community leader in Central Florida. Díaz, founder of the Casa de Venezuela network in the U.S., said Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott ‘promised to work for our Venezuelan brothers and sisters.’ Casa de Venezuela helps Venezuelans in areas such as language, immigration, health, education, cultural adaptation and work.”

“A recent poll suggests half of Venezuelans in Florida will withdraw their support for Rubio and Scott if they do not support permanent immigration status for Venezuelans. The poll showed that even though most Venezuelans in Florida disapprove of President Biden’s job performance, most also say that since he granted temporary protected status to Venezuelans in the U.S. this year, his support of a path to citizenship for them is favorable. The results of the poll, released Tuesday by the Venezuelan American Alliance, show that Venezuelans showed that they expect more from the two Republican senators who represent Florida, but above all ‘that they fulfill what they have promised us,’ Díaz said. The poll, conducted for IMPAC Fund by Integrated Communications and Research of Miami, found that 49% of Venezuelans in Florida would no longer support Rubio or Scott if they voted against permanent status, while 32% said they would continue to support them.”

The Washington Post reports Durham’s grand jury has indicted Mike Sussman.

“Congratulations to General Don Bolduc on his incredible presentation regarding Mark Milley, the Taliban and China’s all-time favorite General!” says the Orange Warlord in a statement, adding a link to an interview with Bolduc that I respect National Zero readers too much to suggest they waste their time with it. It’s probably either too boring or too infuriating to sit through, most likely both.

The real point is that Don Bolduc is running for the New Hampshire GOP Senate nomination, something current Governor Chris Sununu has not yet but is all-but-certain to be declaring for, as polling indicates he would be a very strong contender against incumbent Dem Senator Maggie Hassan. Sununu led Hassan 48 to 46 in a February poll by the University of New Hampshire. Another poll in August put Sununu up 49 to 41 over Hassan.

However, Sununu may be fucked no matter what in the contest, as in January he said Trump was responsible for the Capitol riot and called the MAGA horde “domestic terrorists”, a grave sin that is unlikely to be forgiven, forget about an endorsement from the Holy Orange God King. Plus Bolduc’s first name is also Don, which means they have another connection, unlike with Corky.

“WinRed, the GOP’s principal small-dollar donation processor, is lowering the fees it charges candidates and committees for each contribution they receive through the platform. The shift – which follows months of behind-the-scenes deliberations involving the party’s most senior officials – could result in millions of dollars more being funneled into campaign coffers next year. Under the new plan, which WinRed President Gerrit Lansing outlined in a memo sent to senior Republicans this week, the platform will charge a flat 3.94 percent fee per donation. Until this point, the for-profit outfit had been charging 3.8 percent per contribution, plus another 30 cents” Politico reports.

Quick back of the napkin calculation: In 2020, the average small-dollar donation to any given Democratic candidate via ActBlue (the Dem original from which the idea for WinRed was copied) was $35 and, assuming Republicans’ was similar, at 3.8% plus 30 cents the nick is $1.66. At a flat 3.94% the processing fee comes to $1.38. The delta between the 3.8% plus 30 cents and the 3.94% closes at roughly about $215 per contribution and only at higher amounts does the new fee structure cost more than the old one. Not having to pay 30 cents every time someone donates $10 or $20 to the campaign is probably going to be a big shift for a lot of candidates next year. They’re even very slightly undercutting ActBlue, who charge Dem candidates 3.95% per transaction.

Times of London: “In 2001 a Sunderland greengrocer arguably did more than any politician to set Britain on the path towards Brexit when he was convicted for breaching EU rules banning the sale of fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces. Now, 20 years on, Boris Johnson is to make good on a pledge to vindicate the cause of the ‘metric martyr’ by announcing the return of imperial weights and measures. Under plans unveiled by ministers today it will once again become legal for market stalls, shops and supermarkets to sell their goods using only Britain’s traditional weighing system.”

“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election. In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!” says the Orange God Emperor in a statement, and while this is a very cursory calculation, 58 of them were charged – to say nothing of probably dozens, maybe even hundreds, more who were identified and sought by the FBI – before Trump left office on January 20th, all of whom he could have pardoned, at least two of whom publicly asked for it, and didn’t.

Again this is just another prime example of how much Trump sucks for his fans who are too stupid to realize he doesn’t really actually care about them, just their money and their votes. And violence.

Just so you know who Stinchfield is screaming at here, this is from the New York Times reporting on Joe Saboe’s volunteer efforts to help coordinate evacuations for Americans and Afghan allies still stuck in Afghanistan after the withdrawal, dated August 28th and updated September 28th:

“Mr. Saboe, 36, deployed to Iraq years ago and now is the chief executive of a small start-up and a youth soccer coach. But this past week he became an unofficial commander in an impromptu network of veterans and citizen volunteers who came together to execute an ad hoc mission to get American citizens and Afghan allies safely out of Kabul before the American airlift ends. His group of about 200 volunteers, which calls itself Team America, is one of several grass-roots efforts that sprang out of the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal. The swift collapse of Afghanistan was deeply troubling to many in the United States, but military veterans felt a whole different level of anguish as they started getting pleas for help from Afghan interpreters and others they worked with.”

NPR: “A division of the Justice Department that serves as a watchdog over the federal bankruptcy system filed an appeal late Wednesday seeking to block the controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan. William Harrington, who serves as U.S. Trustee for the Justice Department, also filed documents requesting an ‘expedited stay’ to prevent implementation of the settlement.”

“The deal, approved Sept. 1 by Judge Robert Drain, granted sweeping immunity from opioid lawsuits to members of the Sackler family who own the drug company. The Sacklers, who are not bankrupt, were granted releases from liability after agreeing to contribute roughly $4.3 billion of their private wealth to the deal. Supporters of the settlement, including most state attorneys general, say it will avoid costly litigation while funding drug treatment programs over the next decade. But throughout a two-week bankruptcy trial, and in court documents, the DOJ repeatedly blasted releases from liability granted to the Sacklers as ‘unlawful’ and ‘unconstitutional.’ In an earlier filing, Harrington accused the Sacklers and their associates of using the bankruptcy system to avoid liability for ‘alleged wrongdoing in concocting and perpetuating for profit one of the most severe public health crises ever experienced in the United States.’ Introduction of Oxcontin in the 1990s is widely seen as one of the spurs of an opioid epidemic which has killed more than 500,000 people in the U.S. The Sacklers, who by their own reckoning earned more than $10 billion from opioid sales, have said repeatedly they did nothing wrong and acted ethically.”

“A Republican senator is demanding the National Archives stop putting warning labels on the United States’ founding documents. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., sent a letter to National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) archivist David Ferriero outlining his concern about the ‘blanket application’ of a ‘Harmful Language Alert’ on the nation’s pillar documents” Fox News reports.

“‘Most disturbing is use of the alert for our nation’s founding documents, including the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights,’ Lankford wrote in the letter exclusively obtained by Fox News. ‘It should be removed immediately.’ Lankford pointed out that NARA’s warning posted on the Constitution and other founding documents says ‘some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive and possibly violent views and opinions’ before tearing into the agency. ‘This obviously politically-charged qualifier goes leaps and bounds beyond the role of NARA, which has been established to operate as a nonpartisan entity responsible for providing public access to federal government records,’ Lankford wrote.”

OurDocuments.gov is also non-responsive (meaning it looks tiny on a smartphone screen) and has a “Get Flash Player” link in the top of the homepage, so if anything the “warning label” is about the least of its problems. Nevertheless these gentle disclaimers on a site housing the text of documents in which the word “colored” appears approximately 91 times, “negro” 5 times, and “lynch” once, among others, does seem a perfect cause for a Conservative senator facing a primary challenge on his right from some batshit insane QAnon-loving MAGAchurch pastor to bitch about that’ll almost certainly go nowhere and be forgotten about in few weeks, if not days.

Gregg Prentice, the Hillsborough County, Florida Republican Party official who dedicated the last months of his life to fighting Faucism, has non-tragically lost his battle with Coronavirus, the Tampa Bay Times reported Thursday. Faucism, a portmanteau of “Fauci”, as in federal health official Dr Anthony Fauci, and “Fascism” is a term made up by some asshole in the employ of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Just months before Prentice became a statistic himself, he posted “End Faucism” and “We need more socialist distancing than we do social distancing” on his Facebook page.

Prentice was also an advocate for 2020 election conspiracies and headed the county party’s “election integrity committee”, per the Times, who reported “For the better part of a decade, the cause Prentice took up was Florida’s election systems. Armed with analysis gleaned from self-sorted voter databases, he often levied severe accusations at local election supervisors, especially in Democratic counties. That work at times drew the attention of national conservative organizations and Republican lawmakers, who periodically consulted Prentice when writing voting laws” which just makes this preventable death so much more un-devastating.

A man was beaten to death with a trash can lid at Pat’s King of Steaks in the early morning hours Thursday during a fight following a professional soccer match in Philadelphia, WPVI ABC-6 Philadelphia reports.

Witnesses say ten people wearing the yellow jerseys of Club América, a Mexico City soccer club which had defeated the Philadelphia Union in a Wednesday night match, engaged in a fight with five other people.  One of the people in a yellow jersey picked up a trash can lid and beat the 28-year-old victim’s head with it after the victim fell to the ground.

“Sometimes when alcohol is involved there are fights… Normally, these are well-run businesses that are quiet, safe. People just come here for a good steak sandwich. However, once in a while you get a fight that escalates into violence,” Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

Insider: “Attorney General Bill Barr took a blunt approach with President Donald Trump in April 2020 while discussing his reelection chances. The crux of the problem, Barr told Trump, was that most suburban Republican voters ‘just think you’re a fucking asshole.’ That’s according to a new book by authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Insider obtained an early copy of ‘Peril,’ which is set to be released next week. ‘In my opinion,’ Barr told Trump during a tense Oval Office meeting, according to the book, ‘this is not a base election. Your base is critical, and you’ll get it out.'”

“‘And there are a lot of people out there, independents and Republicans in the suburbs of the critical states that think you’re an asshole. They think you act like an asshole and you got to, you got to start taking that into account.’ The attorney general went on to tell the president that he had become a Beltway ‘captive’ and needed to appeal to a broader group of voters than just his diehard base, the book said. Barr is said to have debated how best to approach the conversation with Trump last year, while the US was grappling with a deadly and widespread pandemic and as the president refused to acknowledge the reality of the threat. Barr reportedly addressed those frustrations, telling Trump that suburban Republican voters ‘don’t give a shit’ about Trump’s vendetta against his perceived foes. ‘Your base cares about seeing [former FBI director James Comey] and the rest of those guys held accountable, but these other people don’t,’ Barr said, according to the book. “They don’t care about your fucking grievances. And it just seems that every time you’re out there, you’re talking about your goddamn grievances.”

“Researchers from Australia, Canada and the US have found that female octopuses sometimes throw objects at males attempting to mate with them. Back in 2015, the research team had recorded instances of octopuses throwing things at other octopuses, but whether these actions were accidental or intentional had remained unclear. To answer this question, they revisited the same site in Jervis Bay, off the coast of Australia, where octopuses reside in large numbers. After recording more such instances and studying them carefully, it became abundantly clear that female octopuses were, in fact, engaged in several types of object-throwing behaviour.”

“In most instances, the females hurled materials like silt, shells and rocks simply to remove obstacles along their way or to build nests. But in some cases, these objects were clearly thrown at nearby male octopuses, especially the ones attempting to mate with them. Multiple instances of females targeting specific males were also observed. In one scenario, a female was seen throwing silt at a particularly bothersome male octopus at least 10 times! Females did the hurling by grabbing materials like rocks, silt or shells and holding them under the body. The material was then placed over a siphon that octopuses use for pushing out a jet of water very quickly, and subsequently propelled at their desired target” the Weather Channel reports.

Sounds like “grabbing them by the octo-pussy” is easier joked than done, even when you have eight tentacles to do it with. But when you’re a starfish, they let you do it. You can do anything.