“SAN DIEGO — California’s parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin after two of RFK’s sons said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison,” Politico reports.

“Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if he’s not a threat to others.”

“The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take up a conservative legal group’s challenge to Dane County’s mask mandate in a 4-3 ruling issued Friday afternoon,” reports Madison.com. “The court refused to exercise its own jurisdiction over the recent public health order, instead leaving it up to the state’s lower courts to consider any future legal challenges first.”

Let’s face it, people who insist that “I’m waiting to see the science,” regarding an FDA approved vaccine that’s been given to literally hundreds of millions of people, but who will drop everything and race off to the farm supply because a right-wing huckster or GOP lawmaker suggests people take a veterinary anti-parasitic deserve to be mocked and shamed.

In anthropology, public shaming is referred to as a means of “enforcing social norms”, which is meant to discourage individuals from engaging in behaviors that could be harmful to themselves, or the community. With that being said, let’s get to improving our country.

Chelsea Clinton spotted jogging in the Hamptons weeks before Lewinsky miniseries premiere https://t.co/al0aTWAikZ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 28, 2021

“Daniel Darling, senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters, was fired Friday (Aug. 27) after refusing to say his pro-vaccine statements were mistaken,” reports Religion News Service.

The association of televangelists reportedly firing Darling after he refused to bow down and beg for forgiveness for his sins against Trump.”

I just saw one of these little guys poking at the potted marigolds on my deck. Residents of Northeastern states are reporting that they seem to be noticing more hummingbirds this year. The species that’s found in New York and other Northeastern states is the Ruby-Throated hummingbird.

The website allaboutbirds reports that “Ruby Throated hummingbirds grow to an adult size of 2.8 to 3.5 inches, weigh about 0.1 to 0.2 ounces, and have a wingspan of 8 to 11 centimeters.”

The right-wing legal trolls at Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request over incidents involving President Biden’s dog Major. Just yesterday a New York Post reporter asked about it during a White House Press Conference, and received the appropriate “look of death” from White House spokesperson Jen Psaki. Now, NBC News apparently decided this bullshit was worth legitimizing by reporting it on their site.

WXYZ: “Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will not charge Ron Weiser criminally for using Michigan Republican Party funds to pay Stan Grot for withdrawing from the 2018 Secretary of State race. Last month, Weiser, chairman of MIGOP, agreed to pay a $200,000 fine after a review by the Michigan Department of State determined seven payments made from the MIGOP’s administrative account to Grot violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act. The payments, totaling $200,000, were made between Aug. 2018 and Feb. 2019. The fine was paid through a conciliation agreement, and because there has been no violation of that agreement, it bars additional criminal action by the Department of Attorney General. Additional legal analysis was done to determine if any other criminal statutes could apply to the payoff or against Weiser as the payor. In short, Weiser’s roles as chairman and previously as party delegate do not qualify him as a public official under Michigan law and therefore he cannot be criminally charged as such, the attorney general’s office said.”

Jim “Gateway Pundit” Hoft and husband in happier times.

“Google censored President Trump for years pushing hit pieces on the 45th President to the top of their search results. Google frequently censored top conservative websites like The Gateway Pundit and just this week news broke that Google-YouTube censored and removed over a million videos on COVID. On Friday we learned that Google demonetized The Gateway Pundit from their ad network. The Gateway Pundit is one of the top 200 websites in America today. The Gateway Pundit has an outstanding record of accurately reporting the top news stories of the day. Because of our continued success and our honest conservative bent we are regularly censored, shadowbanned and banned by the tech giants. Despite this, our numbers continue to grow year after year” reports the Gateway Pundit, biting the hand that feeds as they are wont to do.

Speaking of “censorship”, I personally and dozens of National Zero readers can attest that we’ve been banned from posting Disqus comments on the Gateway Pundit, so Jim Hoft and his staff are kind of fucking hypocrites. Does National Zero ban MAGA trolls? All the time. The difference is we don’t ban them for speaking a Conservative viewpoint, we ban them for being hateful, racist assholes. Gateway Pundit mods meanwhile ban center-left commenters constantly for the thoughtcrime of questioning they and their readers’ insane bullshit conspiracy theories.

“Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections. Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections – from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results – were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year’s election. The software copies came from voting equipment in Mesa County, Colorado, and Antrim County, Michigan, where Trump allies had sue unsuccessfully challenging the results from last fall. The Dominion software is used in some 30 states, including counties in California, Georgia and Michigan. Election security pioneer Harri Hursti was at the South Dakota event and said he and other researchers in attendance were provided three separate copies of election management systems that run on the Dominion software.”

“The data indicated they were from Antrim and Mesa counties. While it’s not clear how the copies came to be released at the event, they were posted online and made available for public download. The release gives hackers a ‘practice environment’ to probe for vulnerabilities they could exploit and a road map to avoid defenses, Hursti said. All the hackers would need is physical access to the systems because they are not supposed to be connected to the internet. ‘The door is now wide open,’ Hursti said. ‘The only question is, how do you sneak in the door?'” the AP reports

So yes, Mike Lindell and pals have quite literally exposed security vulnerabilities in Dominion Voting Systems software, as in he handed hackers proprietary software files and a road map to manipulate a vote tally if they physically infiltrate an election authority. Prophecy self-fulfilled.

“I don’t know if y’all saw, but a month after President Trump left office, the American Journal of Medicine came out with a great article that they had discovered a regimen of medication that when taken together early in Covid that – you may have heard of it: hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, a Z-Pak azithromycin, zinc” – Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) to the Texas Youth Summit, via Mediaite.

Politico: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been untouchable for the past year as he commanded the Republican culture wars to become heir apparent to Donald Trump. The latest coronavirus surge is starting to change that. Covid infection rates continue to climb as the state faces shortages of health care staff, morgue space and even oxygen for patients. About 16,000 people are hospitalized. Child infection rates have shot up. School districts – even in Republican strongholds – have rebelled against DeSantis’ anti-mask mandates. And cruise lines are resisting DeSantis’ vaccine passport ban. Even his recent poll numbers are slipping.”

“It’s new terrain for a Republican governor who defied dire expectation during the first wave of Covid-19 but has continued his hands-off approach as the more contagious Delta variant infects large swaths of Florida’s unvaccinated population. The most recent defeat came Friday when Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper ruled DeSantis can’t punish school districts for passing mask mandates, as his administration had threatened after instituting emergency rules aimed at banning mask mandates in schools. The DeSantis administration has said those districts are breaking the law, an assertion directly refuted in a blistering ruling from Cooper read from the bench during a nearly two hour hearing. The multi-front Covid-19 battle is becoming inextricably linked to DeSantis’ 2022 re-election bid, and more broadly his future White House aspirations.”

“The governor remains popular with conservatives across the country and in Florida, but his steadfast refusal to implement Covid-related restrictions amid hundreds of virus-related deaths in the state and rising infection numbers has the potential to threaten his electability. ‘There’s no question it’s impacting him politically,’ said a Republican consultant who has previously worked with DeSantis and requested anonymity to speak freely. ‘You can tout all the freedom and anti-lockdown that you want. There’s no political strategy for sick kids and tired parents.'”

• President Joe Biden said he took responsibility for what’s happening in Afghanistan.  That’s what good presidenting is about.  
• While no one should be happy at the events surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal, we should be more upset that we were there for nearly 20 years, not that we’re getting out now.  
• The mission of the soldiers in Afghanistan was to secure the evacuation of civilians.  More than 120,000 have been flown out.  I hope the 13 souls lost rest easy knowing their last mission will be a success.  
• I’m old enough to remember when Trump pulled US forces from Syria in 2019, without consulting military leaders or diplomats, stranding 130,000 US-allied Kurds and hastening the death of thousands of our allies.  Russians took over US bases, with tens of millions in equipment.  US allies were flabbergasted that Trump would make such a move at the behest of the Turkish government and Vladimir Putin.  The military had to bomb bases that US troops were in minutes before so Russians wouldn’t get sensitive equipment and ammunition.  And what did Trump do after the announcement, as thousands of US troops dropped their gear and evacuated?  He golfed twice that weekend.  
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume XXXIV”

Associated Press: “The United States military struck back at the Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an IS member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.  U.S. Central Command said the U.S. conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the U.S. in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.”

“It wasn’t clear if that individual was involved specifically in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation from the country after the Taliban’s rapid takeover. The airstrike fulfilled a vow President Joe Biden made to the nation Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. ‘We will hunt you down and make you pay,’ he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.”

“Terry McAuliffe is filing his own motion with a request for dismissal of the Republican lawsuit aimed at removing him from the general election ballot. ‘We haven’t even made it to Election Day and Virginia Republicans are already trying to undermine the election results in court using Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s playbook,’ said McAuliffe spokesperson, Christina Freundlich in a statement Friday night. ‘Terry McAuliffe overwhelmingly won the Democratic primary with the support of hundreds of thousands of Virginians – more than any other primary candidate in Virginia history – and this Trumpian attempt to distort the law and the will of the voters will not prevent him from becoming the Commonwealth’s next governor'” the Virginia Scope reports.

On Thursday the Virginia Republican Party sued the State Board of Elections alleging McAuliffe had neglected to sign an official declaration of candidacy in March, signaling they know their guy Glenn Youngkin is fucked. This week Youngkin even refused to commit to refusing to accept the result of the election if he loses, which shows his lack of seriousness in appealing to MAGA voters.

“Event: Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates.

“U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately.” –Security Alert from US Embassy in Afghanistan released around 8:30 p.m. ET.

KVUE: “A Travis County judge has issued a temporary injunction order against Gov. Greg Abbott and his ban on mask mandates, according to court documents obtained by KVUE. KVUE’s media partners at the Austin American-Statesman reported that lawyers say Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already appealed Judge Catherine Mauzy’s ruling. Mauzy’s order says that the challengers made “a sufficient showing” that Abbott is not authorized to declare by executive fiat that school districts are prohibited from requiring masks to be worn. According to the judge, Abbott’s ban was unlawful and exceeded his authority of the Texas Constitution.”

“The temporary injunction also applies to 19 school districts Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin Community College. Judge Mauzy’s ruling also stated that Abbott’s ban leaves schools unable to mandate masks to control the spread of COVID-19, which she said ‘threatens to overwhelm public schools and could result in more extreme measures such as the school closures that have already begun in several Texas school districts.'”

An unvaccinated teacher in Marin County, California who refused to wear a mask after knowing she had contracted COVID-19 is connected to the infections of at least 26 other people, including half of the students in her classroom, Business Insider reports.

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday, the teacher had been symptomatic two days and continued going to in-person instruction.  Twelve of the 24 children in her class later tested positive, as did six other students in the K-8 school.

The case, from May 2021, highlights the susceptibility of children to get infected with coronavirus as districts around the country prepare.

“Inside 731 Farm Store in Burleson, Matt Meredith has taped up a warning from the FDA about ivermectin. ‘Not for human consumption. It says it on the bottle,’ Meredith said. ‘It’s for deworming cattle, deworming horses.’ Many people have started taking it to treat or prevent COVID-19, despite an FDA warning. The North Texas Poison Center reports they’ve received 52 poisoning calls for ivermectin this year, compared to six through August of last year. The numbers are increasing, too. Sixteen of the 52 calls this year have been in August. In August of 2020, Texas received two reports about ivermectin poisoning statewide. This August, they’ve received 55. Last year, the state received 23 ivermectin reports from January through August.”

“This year, there have been 150, an increase of 552%. There is a human version of the product, but it’s not approved to treat COVID-19, because there’s no clear evidence from any major study that it helps. The poison center will now ask people where they bought it and which formula. Fox News hosts have pushed the drug as an effective treatment for COVID-19. A non-peer reviewed study that appeared to show a strong benefit was retracted, because of issues with plagiarism and manipulated data. Phil Valentine, a conservative radio host in Tennessee, had told his audience he found a doctor to prescribe him ivermectin. Valentine later died of COVID-19. His brother said the host regretted not being a strong advocate for vaccination” WFAA reports.

Texas isn’t the only state where Gullible MAGA-billies who “did their own research” by reading articles on Facebook are getting sick. The exact same thing is happening in other backwards red states like Arkansas and Alabama. Authoritarian movements frequently accuse those outside the movement of being “brainwashed” and “not knowing the real truth”, while simultaneously requiring absolute unanimity of thought among their followers. It’s really becoming interesting how the modern day GOP is like a huge real-time experiment in fascist ideology, and Trump supporters are providing modern examples of principles and behaviors that were described by fascism researchers in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

“Steven Seagal who starred in the film ‘Beyond the Law’ found out that even relocating to Russia doesn’t mean he’s beyond the reach of U.S. courts as the Securities and Exchange Commission won a judgment against him. A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, said the SEC can go through Seagal’s business manager to try and collect more than $200,000 that the actor owes the U.S. government for failing to disclose he was being paid to promote a digital token. U.S. District Judge William Kuntz signed the order Friday allowing the SEC to pursue collection of the remaining fines, penalties and interest. Seagal had agreed to pay a disgorgement of more than $330,000, but the actor made just one $75,000 payment and is delinquent on the remainder, according to a letter from Maureen Peyton King, a lawyer for the SEC” – Bloomberg reports.