Liberty University, the Falwell-affiliated college in Lynchburg, Virginia, has ordered all classes to be held virtually after in-person classes, started last week, sparked an outbreak of the coronavirus, the Washington Post reports.

There were 124 confirmed cases among students and another 35 among faculty at the university, according to the dashboard posted on the school’s website.  The university said its capacity at its 500-bed quarantining site is reaching capacity.  “The campus infection rate is higher than at anytime last year, our only local hospital is reaching capacity for ICU COVID treatment, and we project our Annex quarantine capacity to be reached soon,” school officials wrote.

Prior to being ousted by university leadership for financial and moral scandals, Jerry Falwell, Jr. ordered students and faculty to return to in-person classes last Spring semester without implementing any public health guidelines.  “Ninety-nine percent of them are not at the age to be at risk,” he argued at the time, “and they don’t have conditions that put them at risk.”

MAGA bro North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn told was asked by a constituent Sunday what he was doing to support the “535 Americans who were captured after January 6th”, to which Cawthorn replied “Political hostages, So this is something that we are trying to figure everything out about” and his office is “seeking answers” from federal investigators.

“And so, if we were actually to be able to go and try to bust them out… Let me tell you, the reason why they’re taking these political prisoners is they’re trying to make an example. Because they don’t want to see the mass protests going on in Washington” Cawthorn said. Another fan asked if Cawthorn was going to “call them to Washington again”, to which he answered “We are actively working on that one, I don’t have an answer for that one yet. We are actively working on this. We have a few plans in motion I can’t make public right now. But this is something we are working on.”

“Taliban guard at Kabul airport says last American planes have flown out after two decades of war, no US confirmation” the Associated Press reports.

Video taken in Luling, Texas and posted by Twitter user PermianLandman on Sunday.

“Cristhian Bahena Rivera was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2018 killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. Judge Joel D. Yates told Bahena Rivera, ‘You and you alone forever changed the lives of those who loved Mollie Tibbetts. And for that, you and you alone will receive the following sentence.’ Bahena Rivera, wearing a mask and headphones, was stoic as Yates sentenced him to a ‘lifetime sentence with no eligibility for parole.’ Bahena Rivera, 27, was sentenced to the maximum penalty under the law in a high-profile case that also became politicized, in part because of the defendant’s status as an undocumented immigrant. Earlier this month, Yates rejected a request for a new trial for Bahena Rivera. Bahena Rivera was convicted May 28 of first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Tibbetts” NBC News reports.

“As Rudy Giuliani navigates an increasingly lonely and stormy world amid a federal investigation and a billion-dollar defamation suit, he’ll now have to do so without his young but trusted communications director. Christianné Allen, the 22-year-old MAGA influencer who joined Giuliani’s team in August 2019, has resigned her post at Giuliani Communications LLC effective this week, The Daily Beast has learned. Allen says she has been replaced by Todd Shapiro, a former spokesperson for Lindsay Lohan’s family who also claims to have represented Trump properties, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Hooters of Long Island and New Jersey” – Daily Beast.

“Colorado’s secretary of state filed a lawsuit Monday to remove the clerk of Mesa County from her role overseeing elections because the clerk is under criminal investigation for allegedly allowing a security breach of election equipment. Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit in Mesa County District Court. Griswold can unilaterally require supervision of county elections, as she did in Mesa County earlier this month, but needs a judge’s order before taking the additional step of preventing county clerks from overseeing elections” the Denver Post reports.

“Monday’s lawsuit is the latest fallout from an alleged security breach at Mesa County’s election office. Griswold believes that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican, allowed an unauthorized man into a secure room in May. Images of the county’s election equipment passwords and hard drives were later posted online and presented at a conspiracy theorist conference that Peters attended. The alleged breach is under investigation by the FBI and the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office, with assistance from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Griswold’s office also investigated the matter and determined that Peters likely allowed the breach to occur May 25.”

DeadState.org: “On his Telegram channel this Sunday, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn said he received a letter from Chase Bank informing him that the bank is canceling his credit cards because he poses a ‘reputational risk’ to their brand. ‘After careful consideration, we decided to close your credit cards on September 18, 2021 because continuing the relationship creates possible reputational risk to our company,’ the letter stated according to Flynn, who posted a screenshot of the letter to Telegram. Flynn slammed the decision, saying Chase ‘has gone full blown woke!’ ‘They need to deal with their own reputation instead of persecuting my family and I, DOJ dropped my case for their own egregious government misconduct, appears you weren’t that lucky with the DOJ. I guess my America First political views don’t align with yours. Your loss.'”

In June, National Zero had (unwittingly) posted a story of what turned out to be a similar situation between Wells Fargo and Q freak former Republican Delaware Senate Candidate Lauren Witzke. Unlike Witzke however, at least Chase gave Flynn the courtesy of a heads up. No shortage of irony here that companies that fuck over middle class Americans at any and every chance they get are worried about incurring “reputational risk” from serving QAnon conspiracy assholes.

ICYMI: "43,000 Absentee Ballot Votes Counted in DeKalb County 2020 Election Violated Chain of Custody Rule"

Read the full article by Laura Baigert with the Georgia Star News here. https://t.co/GPgWodeW3d

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) August 30, 2021

“A Butler County judge ruled in favor of a woman last week who sought to force a hospital to administer Ivermectin – an animal dewormer that federal regulators have warned against using in COVID-19 patients – to her husband after several weeks in the ICU with the disease. Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital, part of the University of Cincinnati network, to treat Jeffrey Smith, 51, with Ivermectin. The order compels the hospital to provide Smith with 30mg of Ivermectin daily for three weeks” Ohio Capital Journal reports.

Howard is the former chair of the Butler County Republican party and there is a Jeffrey Smith, age 51, listed as a registered Republican in Butler County, Ohio. While that may not be the Jeffrey Smith, age 51 in Butler county, it’s probably still a pretty safe bet because of the ivermectin.

As MSNBC reporter Shaquille Brewster gave host Craig Melvin gave a live, on-the-scene update about the recovery efforts following Hurricane Ida hitting Gulfport, Mississippi, an angry fat white man pulls over his pickup truck and gets in the face of the reporter screaming at him for some reason.

CNN: “The House Select Committee investigating the deadly January 6 riot is set to request that a group of telecommunications companies preserve the phone records of a group of GOP members of Congress and former President Donald Trump, as well as members of the Trump family, who played some role in the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that served as the prelude to the Capitol insurrection. The records request is the first step in the committee’s investigatory process and could signal the direction they plan to go when they call witnesses. It is unclear what means the committee will use to compel the telecommunications companies to cooperate with their request. The committee does have subpoena power, but requesting the information – especially from members of Congress – could lead to a lengthy legal battle. The committee decided against making public the names of the lawmakers whose records they are targeting, three sources told CNN.”

“But multiple sources familiar with the committee’s work have confirmed for CNN at least part of list including many of the members of Congress included in the request. According to the sources, this group was targeted because the committee concluded each of these lawmakers played some role in the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally. They either attended, spoke, actively planned or encouraged people to attend. The list is said to be evolving and could be added to as the investigation steps up. As of now it includes Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar also of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jody Hice of Georgia and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.”

“The United States submits this pleading to inform the Court regarding the current status of defense counsel John Pierce, Esq., and its potential impact on the defendant’s case. Mr. Pierce currently represents 17 defendants charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol (Capitol Riot), including Defendant Casey Cusick, who has been charged in this case. I Sadly, Mr. Pierce is reportedly ill with COVID-19, on a ventilator, and unresponsive. For roughly the past week, Ryan Marshall – an associate from Mr. Pierce’s law firm who is not a licensed attorney – has been appearing in Mr. Pierce’s place at court hearings” – Court filing via NBC Washington’s Scott MacFarlane in the case against Capitol rioter Casey Cusick.

“All I know is the entire 82nd Airborne couldn’t make me get an experimental government vaccine stuck in my arm” Pierce tweeted on August 17th. He was probably already infected by then.

“China will forbid minors from gaming more than three hours most weeks, a dramatic escalation of restrictions which dealt a blow to the world’s largest mobile gaming market, as Beijing signaled it would continue a campaign to control the expansion of large tech companies” Bloomberg reports.

“Gaming platforms from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to NetEase Inc. can henceforth only offer online gaming to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and public holidays, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing a notice by the National Press and Publication Administration. The new rules, which limit teen playing time to three hours most weeks of the year, is a major step-up from a previous restriction set in 2019 of 1.5 hours per day, most days. The escalating restrictions on Tencent’s biggest business are likely to spook investors that had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days, exploring bargains after a raft of regulatory probes into areas from online commerce to data security and ride-hailing ignited a trillion-dollar selloff in past weeks.”

QAnon researcher and author Mike Rothschild reports Qniverse influencer and “former CIA agent” Robert David Steele “died of COVID after spending 18 months spewing conspiracy theories about it, refusing vaccination, and claiming until the end that he was too special to die from it”

USA Today:  “After slamming into Louisiana’s coast as a Category 4 storm, Hurricane Ida continues to batter the state Sunday night, cutting power to New Orleans and endangering millions of people with howling winds and a storm surge that partially reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.

“By 6 p.m. Central time, the storm’s sustained winds had dropped from 150 mph to 125 mph, the National Weather Service said, warning of ‘catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding.’ Shortly after 7 p.m., the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness confirmed the city had lost power.

“‘Due to catastrophic transmission damage, all of Orleans Parish is currently without power. More information will be shared when available,’ power company Entergy texted customers.”

Pic of a shelf at V&V Tack and Feed in Las Vegas, Nevada, via KNTV.

“After nearly three years of serving the Governor, first as a Deputy Chief of Staff and then Chief of Staff, Adrian Lukis is leaving the administration, likely in mid-September, with an announcement about the move to come some time after Labor Day,” reports Florida Politics.

“When he was asked to take over for Shane Strum, the Chief of Staff to DeSantis who had served for more than two years, Lukis made clear that his time in the most powerful staff position in state government would not be as long as his predecessor’s.”

Daily Beast: “Seated onstage at the most-hyped election conspiracy event of the year, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, Tina Peters, described herself as a crusader for election security. ‘I’ve looked at it objectively,’ Peters said of supposed issues in election data during her speech at MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s ‘Cyber Symposium’ this month. ‘There’s some discrepancies there that I cannot deny, and I tell people, ‘I cannot unsee some of these things.’ If I’m going to be honest with the people of Mesa County and Colorado and all of you, I cannot unsee some of these things.’ But at home in Mesa County, some current and former officials have a different recollection of Peters’ tenure overseeing elections.”

“During Peters’ first year as clerk, in 2019, her office was blamed for leaving more than 570 uncounted ballots in a box, long past an election. Less than a year later, one of her office’s drop boxes leaked ballots, sending some floating in the summer breeze. Now Peters has gone underground, reportedly hiding in a safe house provided by Lindell, after she allegedly participated in a breach of Mesa County voting machine data this year. That data soon wound up on conspiracy websites, making Peters a folk hero among the MAGA set and the subject of an FBI investigation. Peters (who did not return requests for comment) took office in 2019, after her predecessor, Sheila Reiner, reached her term limit. What followed was an unusually bombastic tenure in a typically low-drama role. While overseeing the November 2019 general election, Peters’ office forgot to count 574 ballots, instead leaving them unattended in a drop box outside her office for months.”

The awful insipidness of this show is something that need be experienced firsthand. It is so freaking bad that we’ve decided to inflict it upon our readers here at National Zero. Let’s enjoy the misery together in listening to Ramsey Mazda’s Sundays with Sinatra starring Joe Piscopo. Best part is this is a re-run, and we can tell because Piscopo is talking about a snowstorm.