Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses.

I issued an Executive Order protecting Texans’ right to choose whether they get the COVID vaccine & added it to the special session agenda.

Texas is already working to halt this power grab.https://t.co/TwoQMhDxoM

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 9, 2021

AP: “The Los Angeles board of education voted Thursday to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend in-person classes in the nation’s second-largest school district. The move makes Los Angeles by far the largest of a very small number of districts with a vaccine requirement. Nearby Culver City imposed a similar policy last month for its 7,000 students. The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 600,000 mostly Latino students, already tests all students and employees every week, requires masking indoors and outdoors and has ordered employees to be vaccinated. Under the vaccination plan, students 12 and up who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities need to get their two-shot sequence completed by the end of October. Others have until Dec. 19.”

Are you people trying to start a full on revolt? Honestly what the hell is wrong with Democrats? Leave people the hell alone. This is insanity. https://t.co/jmmjWdZscy

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 9, 2021

“With Republican figures simultaneously telling voters that Newsom’s defeat is inevitable and cautioning that Democrats will try to manipulate the outcome – and polls showing Newsom is likely to survive – it’s a combustible combination. It also might be a preview of what’s in store for the 2022 midterm elections in the wake of Trump’s barrage of false claims about the integrity of election results. Republican-turned-independent Assemblymember Chad Mayes said his phone has been lighting up with ‘texts saying ‘don’t let them steal it.’’ ‘It’s this constant messaging that somehow if Republicans lose elections, it’s because of voter fraud. It is wrong, it is dangerous, and it needs to stop,’ Mayes said. Republican frontrunner and talk show host Larry Elder, who has denied that Biden fairly won the 2020 election, is among those fomenting the idea of a tainted recall election.”

“He has urged his followers to report ‘suspicious’ recall activity, while saying he was preemptively prepared to file a lawsuit. As prominent Republicans and pundits fan the flames, social media has circulated a story about Torrance police arresting a man with drugs, a gun and hundreds of sealed mail-in ballots (police are still investigating) and a debunked claim that California ballots are designed to reveal how people voted. Polling shows a stark divergence in how voters in the two major parties view elections. Most California Democrats express confidence in California elections. But a plurality of Republicans espouses little faith, and most California Republicans say they are concerned that non-eligible people might vote. A majority of state Republicans still believe the 2020 election was ‘stolen’ from Trump, according to a recent YouGov/Hoover poll. At the same time, Republicans are confident that Newsom will be recalled even as polls consistently give Newsom a double-digit advantage. That disconnect all but ensures that a tight Newsom victory would spur a new wave of voter fraud accusations” – Politico.

The rate of stillborn births in unvaccinated mothers in Mississippi has doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, raising concerns among researchers that the virus has additional unforeseen complications for pregnancies, the Washington Post reports.

The statistic is based on unvaccinated people from the start of the pandemic in January 2020, including the time a vaccine was not available.  It includes fetal deaths that occurred 20 weeks after gestation.

Mississippi recorded 72 fetal deaths since January 2020, double the number expected based on the number of pregnancies reported.  The state is also investigating the deaths of eight pregnant women over the past four weeks as the delta variant surged in the state.

“The FBI seized an iPhone this week from a Texas attorney who volunteered for Lawyers for Trump and served as general counsel for the far-right Oath Keepers organization, and a search warrant indicates the seizure is part of an investigation into ‘seditious conspiracy.’ Kellye SoRelle, who was on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, told HuffPost that the FBI took her phone and presented her with a search warrant. SoRelle is closely associated with Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, who has repeatedly come up in a broader Jan. 6 case. ”

“A copy of the search warrant cover sheet, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui on Aug. 30, states that the FBI seized SoRelle’s iPhone as part of an investigation into conspiracy, civil disorder, false statements, destruction of government property, obstruction of Congress, and unlawful entry on restricted buildings or grounds. Most notably, the search warrant also refers to 18 U.S. Code § 2384: the ‘seditious conspiracy’ charge. The charge makes it unlawful for two or more persons to ‘conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof'” the Huffington Post reports.

SoRelle has never been mentioned here on National Zero by name, but her work has appeared here previously in the form of the absolutely fucking mindblowingly insane complaint against the entire 117th Congress (but also naming Pelosi, Schumer, Moscow Mitch, and AOC specifically) and Mark Zuckerberg on behalf of Blacks for Trump and Latinos for Trump, she filed on January 18th, two days before inauguration day, alleging “the entire 117th Congress is illegitimate and all actions taken since January 3, 2021, including the counting of the Electoral College votes and confirmation of Joseph Biden as President-Elect and the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump are null and void”, so small wonder she’s counsel for the Oath Keepers in their Capitol riot criminal cases.

SurveyUSA: “6 days till votes are counted in the recall of 1st-term Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, arithmetic catches up with those who put the measure on the ballot, according to SurveyUSA research conducted for KGTV-TV San Diego, The San Diego Union Tribune, and KABC-TV Los Angeles. At this hour: 54% of likely recall-election voters want to keep the Governor, compared to 41% who seek to have him removed from office before his term is up. In a state that is heavily Democratic, just 11% of Democrats defect. 85% of Democrats march in party solidarity, enough to give Newsom a cushion. Recall backers are male, unvaccinated, rural conservatives.”

“Newsom gets a ‘thumbs down’ from residents of the Inland Empire but has majority support elsewhere in the Golden State. Lower-income, middle-income and upper-income voters all want Newsom to finish his term. Both those with a high-school education and those with a college degree prefer the status quo. Newsom has 60% support among senior citizens, 61% support among women, 65% support in the Bay Area, where he began his political career 18 years ago as Mayor of San Francisco. 77% of Black voters, 57% of Latinos, 54% of Asian-Americans, and 51% of white voters all stick with Newsom. More than 4 in 10 tell SurveyUSA they have already returned a ballot. Among this core group, Newsom leads by 22 points.”

https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1436052951726903318

“A federal judge has ruled that Florida’s new ‘anti-riot’ law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The decision Thursday by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently enacted law ‘vague and overbroad’ and amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly as well as due process protections. The lawsuit was filed by the NAACP Florida conference, Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward and other groups who argued the law is intended to halt protests by Black people and other minorities” Local10.com reports.

“The Department of Labor will require all businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure all their workers are either vaccinated or face testing once a week. Companies could face thousands of dollars in fines per employee if they don’t comply” reports CNN’s Manu Raju.

NBC News:  “The Biden administration is filing a lawsuit to challenge Texas’ near-total ban on abortions, which the Supreme Court declined to block last week.  The Justice Department is announcing Thursday that it will file the suit, senior administration officials said. Attorney General Merrick Garland said earlier this week that the department was exploring ‘all options’ in responding to the law.

“The law, known as Senate Bill 8, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. It also has unique enforcement provisions allowing private citizens, rather than state officials, to sue abortion providers.  After the Supreme Court’s decision last week, President Joe Biden vowed a ‘whole-of-government’ response to try to safeguard access to abortions in Texas. Biden directed White House legal and gender policy advisers, the DOJ and his Health and Human Services Department to evaluate what ‘legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas’ bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties’.”

WESH: “On Thursday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a news conference regarding the massacre of four people in Lakeland that occurred over the weekend. ‘We have a family going through something right now no family should ever have to go through,’ Judd said. The sheriff stated he is going to try to answer the question: ‘How did this evil person’ find the victims? Judd reiterated there was no relationship between Brian Riley, 33, and the victims, but investigators now know why he came across the victims in the first place.”

“According to Judd, a witness that lives in the area said he spoke to his friend Brian Riley a few days before the massacre, and Riley said he was planning to help with Hurricane Ida. Judd said Riley was at his friend’s home picking up the first aid kit around 7 p.m. Saturday in the area. Just after 7 p.m. was when Riley approached noticed Justice Gleason mowing his lawn. Riley approached 40-year-old Gleason and told him God gave him a vision that his daughter ‘Amber’ would commit suicide. Gleason told him there was no one there by that name. Gleason threatened to call the police and Riley reportedly said, ‘No need to call the cops, I’m the cops for God’ before leaving. ‘He drove off mad,’ Judd said. ‘But never did Brian Riley make a threat – just a bizarre, irrational statement.’ Judd said investigators now know that Riley was ‘very angry’ because he thought Gleason kept him from seeing the person he believed would commit suicide. According to investigators, Riley said he then received another statement from God. ‘God told me to kill everyone and rescue Amber because she is a victim of sex trafficking,’ Riley told police.”

“Ex-Fox News anchor Ed Henry cannot dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of sex trafficking, as a federal judge advanced several claims against him and the network in a ruling on Thursday. The developments came in a lawsuit filed by ex-associate producer Jennifer Eckhart roughly a year ago, which opened with a ‘Trigger Warning’ cautioning readers with blaring red text in block capital letters that the complaint contained ‘Highly Graphic Information of a Sexual Nature'”

“‘She asserts that [Henry] is liable for sex trafficking because she says he used empty promises of career advancement to defraud her into coming to his hotel room, then used force to cause her to have sexual intercourse with him,’ U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams summarized in a 52-page opinion and order. The judge noted that Eckhart’s allegations are not what traditionally comes to mind when the public thinks of the statute. ‘To be sure, this is not a conventional claim of sex trafficking,’ the judge wrote. ‘Eckhart has not alleged, for example, that Henry forced her into prostitution or sexual slavery.’ During oral arguments in July, Eckhart’s lawyer Michael John Willemin described Henry’s conduct as ‘Weinstein-esque, but worse.’ ‘He hit her,’ Willemin said, referring to Henry and his client. ‘He handcuffed her. He bruised her up. He called her a ‘whore.’ He told her she doesn’t have a choice'” – Law and Crime.

“A Florida man, fed up with the potholes near his business, planted a banana tree in the pothole to make a point. Bryan Raymond planted the tree, right in the middle of the road in south Fort Myers, as a warning to drivers about the pothole. Raymond, who owns Progress and Pride Fitness Group, said he was tired of filling the potholes with cement, so he planted the banana tree instead.”

“Because the road is a private street, county officials said, it’s up to the business owners to maintain the street. For Raymond, the banana tree is an attention-grabbing repair. ‘If we have to maintain it and make sure nobody gets hurt, we are going to put something obvious there to make sure nobody gets in the hole,’ Raymond told television station WBBH. For some time, Raymond’s security cameras have captured problems along the street, including a pothole damaging cars and floodwaters causing his trash bin to float away. Some who work along the road say anything is better than potholes. ‘I love it, I think it’s hilarious. We should have more of these,’ said Scott Shein, who works at a nearby business, told WBBH. ‘I think it is sending a message'” – CBS Miami.

The prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who was allegedly shot in the head on a desolate highway Saturday afternoon, the day after he quit his law firm to enter rehab under suspicion of having embezzled money, two months after his wife Margaret Murdaugh and son Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death with an assault rifle and a shotgun, respectively, on one of the family’s properties, three years after Paul drunkenly crashed a boat into a bridge pylon, killing a 19-year-old female acquaintance and had been facing trial for felony charges related to her death, and six years after his other son Buster Murdaugh might have also kind of murdered another kid (got all that?) turns out not have had “any visible injury” when cops responded to the shooting, per a Hampton County South Carolina Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Daily Beast, and now I’m just seeing how long I can make a single run-on sentence into an entire article but seriously be warned, this case is fucking nuts and you’re going to lose a lot of time digging into those links.

Ron Brownstein, The Atlantic: “California Governor Gavin Newsom is confronting the toughest challenge Democrats may face in next year’s midterm election – and guiding his party toward a possible solution as the Republican-driven recall against him enters its final days. One key reason the president’s party historically fares so poorly in midterm elections is that its supporters turn out at lower rates than voters of the party not in the White House. Polling earlier this summer showed that Newsom faced an especially acute version of that challenge; California Democrats displayed far less interest in, or even awareness of, the recall than did Republicans.”

“But the large number of mail ballots already returned by Democratic voters, as well as the latest poll results, signal that Newsom has mostly closed that enthusiasm gap, placing himself in a strong position to defeat the recall when balloting concludes next Tuesday. And he has done so in a manner that could provide a crucial template for Democrats nationwide in 2022: Newsom has focused less on selling his accomplishments than on raising alarms that his Republican opponents will exacerbate the coronavirus pandemic by repealing the public-health protections, such as vaccine and mask mandates, that he has imposed to fight it. He’s linked the GOP candidates running to replace him not only to Donald Trump but also to Republican governors such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, who have blocked mandates and other measures to combat the disease. ‘People are rightfully freaked out at the Delta variant. They are angry at people who refuse to get vaccinated, and extremely angry at leaders who enable anti-vaxxers to endanger everyone else,’ says Nathan Click, the spokesperson for the anti-recall campaign. ‘They see what’s going on in Texas, they see what’s going on in Florida, and they don’t want that happening here.”

The Jefferson County (Colorado) Department of Public Health pulled three vans that travel through the county administering coronavirus vaccines from the streets over Labor Day weekend because the medical professionals were being harassed and targeted by miscreant passers-by, the Denver Post reports.

Health care workers had drivers passing by the vans shout vulgarities and hurl garbage at them, prompting county JCPH executive director Dawn Comstock to order the vans back to county offices for the workers’ safety.  In one case, a vehicle at a high speed approached the spot at which the van was parked and drove over the sandwich-board signs set up to promote free vaccinations, missing the workers by feet.

“Additional cars drove by screaming obscenities at vaccine staff and throwing garbage at them.  I will not put the hard-working public health staff in harm’s way,” Comstock said.  “It’s the epitome of selfishness and I am angry today.”

“McDonald’s is launching its first plant-based burger in the UK after three years of research and development. The long-awaited McPlant burger features a plant-based patty developed in collaboration with Beyond Meat and promises customers a pea protein-based vegan cheese that ‘tastes just like McDonald’s iconic cheese slices’. It will be served on a vegan sesame bun with a vegan sauce, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles, ketchup and mustard. According to McDonald’s, the McPlant is cooked separately from non-vegan McDonald’s menu items and uses dedicated utensils. The burger is certified by the Vegan Society and contains 429 calories” the Independent reports.

Newsmax host Greg Kelly, famous for his rants about “McSalad” and “McFish” (neither of which are canonical name of McDonald’s menu items), and harboring serious body image issues, would probably be a big fan of the McPlant should it ever come stateside. Even better would be if he read the Independent article’s headline (but not the text explaining that it’s currently only available at a handful of UK locations where it’s being test marketed), and then tweeted a lengthy rant about how his local “MACDONALD’S didn’t have any MCPLANTBURGERS so HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE A HEALTHIER DIET” and an argument with the manager that may or may not have actually happened.