On Monday Republican Texas state House Rep. Steve Toth submitted a bill to conduct another CyberNinjas-style “audit” of the 2020 election in the state – with a catch. Here’s the text of the bill:

The governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house of representatives shall appoint an independent third party to conduct a forensic audit of the general election that took place on November 3, 2020.

(b) The independent third party appointed under Subsection (a) shall audit every precinct in each county with a population of 415,000 or more.

(c) The audit under this section must begin not later than November 1, 2021, and be completed not later than February 1, 2022.

(d) Not later than March 1, 2022, the independent third party conducting the audit under this section shall submit a report to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and each member of the legislature detailing any anomalies or discrepancies in voter data, ballot data, or tabulation.

This bill of course is stuck at least until the Texas House Dems return from DC and restore quorum to the chamber. It’s probably not going to entice them to come back. Then there’s also the pretty salient fact that Trump won Texas by 631,221 votes, making this “audit” an even more completely pointless circlejerk designed only to draw attention and pre-justify voter suppression.

The annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was published Monday and for the first time features a transgender person on the cover. | Just The News https://t.co/Y5HpQcKUSv

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) July 19, 2021

“Brace yourself: Donald Trump plans to run for president again. At least that’s what the former president is telling his dinner buddies. Trump has told at least three people he’s dined with in recent months that he plans to run in 2024, a former senior official at the Republican National Committee tells Rolling Stone. ‘I have three friends who’ve had dinner with him in the last couple of months. All three reported that his current plans are to run for president in 2024,’ the former R.N.C. official says. ‘Now, whether he does or not is a different issue. We’ve still got three years to go. But he’s telling people that.’ The ex-R.N.C. official says the first two dinners took place in late spring. But the third dinner happened in the last two weeks, the official said. The first two dinner companions came away from their conversations convinced Trump was serious and he’s running, the official adds. The third said he left the dinner ‘not 100% sure Trump wants to run but he likes being in the conversation, he wants to freeze the field, and he wants his name out there,’ according to the ex-R.N.C. official” Rolling Stone reports.

“The second [Trump] says no, someone smashes a giant red button that says RON DESANTIS, a klaxon alarm goes off, and everyone focuses on him instead. He’s well aware of that issue, which sure seems like a problem for DeSantis… If you think Trump has a hard time getting his daily complaints about Twitter bans and which of his cabinet picks he hates into the national conversation now, imagine it’s 2023 and he’s clearly not running. Not gonna happen until the absolute last second even if he doesn’t do it” writes NBC editor Benjy Sarlin in a reply to the article.

The Christian-themed internet porn blocking software service Covenant Eyes made famous as the choice of Evangelical pederast Josh Duggar’s wife in her failed attempt to control her husband’s vile proclivities looks to be a little pricier than what it’s worth at $15.99, National Zero staff subjectively concluded Monday. The marketing copy on the website says Covenant Eyes blocks “access to all known adult, pornographic, and explicit websites… as well as proxy and VPN domains that are used to bypass the filters. A custom block list also allows you to block websites of your choosing” which probably works well enough, sure, but why pay that much money a month if an overly determined porn addict – like Josh Duggar – could just use a TOR browser to bypass it?

The description also reads “Our Accountability service helps you overcome porn by monitoring your screen activity and sending a report to a trusted ally who holds you accountable for your online choices” which tells us what you’re really paying for here basically a spyware-equipped babysitting service. Fine enough, but how’d that not work out for Josh Duggar’s wife? There’s nothing to a TOR browser that we know of that would prevent a monitoring program from taking screenshots or logging keystrokes while someone is browsing the internet with it.

Now maybe Duggar’s wife is lying and she did see what her dirty husband was up to online, choosing to willfully ignore it, but shouldn’t Covenant Eyes’ PR department want to call her out on that? Why don’t they say “No that woman is a liar, we caught her husband checking out sinful material and we notified her repeatedly, but she chose to ignore it”? Because the alternative is just sitting idly while perception grows that their product is worthless shit.

Politico: “Mike Pence was met by a respectful, even warm, crowd in his first trip back to Iowa since the election. Republicans at a picnic in the northwestern corner of the state stood and clapped for him on Friday. In Des Moines later that afternoon, a ballroom full of Christian conservatives did the same. He was ‘honorable,’ a ‘man of faith,’ attendees at the annual Family Leadership Summit said. Evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats called him ‘a very consistent conservative voice in Congress and then as governor, and then as vice president.’ What few people said they saw in Pence, however, was the Republican nominee for president in 2024. Many Iowa Republicans had seen the results of the most recent Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, released just days earlier, in which Pence flatlined, drawing no more than 1 percent support.”

“Before that, they’d watched the video of Pence getting heckled and called a ‘traitor’ at a major gathering of conservatives in Florida last month. ‘I don’t imagine he’d have a whole lot of support,’ said Raymond Harre, vice chair of the GOP in eastern Iowa’s Scott County. ‘There are some Trump supporters who think he’s the Antichrist.’ Harre said Pence ‘did a good job as vice president,’ and he called the vitriol directed at him ‘kind of nutty.’ Still, he said, ‘I don’t see him overcoming the negatives.’ Six months after he left the vice presidency, that is the prevailing view at the grassroots and among the GOP political class. By most accounts, both here and nationally, Pence is dead in the early waters of 2024. ‘Who?’ Doug Gross, a Republican operative who was a chief of staff to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, replied flatly when asked about Pence. ‘It’s just, where would you place him? With Trumpsters, he didn’t perform when they really wanted him to perform, so he’s DQ’d there. Then you go to the evangelicals, they have plenty of other choices.'”

In remarks highlighting the economic improvements seen by the nation in his first six months in office, President Joe Biden took apart the previous office holder’s “end of the world” threats made during the 2020 presidential campaign.

“Before I took office, there were a lot of folks out there making some pretty bold predictions about how things would turn out,” Biden said You might remember some of the predictions:  That, if I became president, we’d, quote, see a depression the likes of which we’d never seen,’ end of quote. 

Paul Hodgkins, a Trump fanboy who made it into the Senate chamber wearing tactical goggles and gloves and carrying rope on January 6th, is sentenced by a federal judge to 8 months after pleading guilty to felony obstruction of an official proceeding. NBC 4’s Scott MacFarlane reports the sentence is “LESS than the 18 months prosecutors were seeking… Judge cites lack of criminal record, lack of any leadership of mob on Jan 6, says Hodgkins statement to court as ‘sincere’.”

Sincere props to this Ryan Grim guy for the video op-ed. He gets to Fox News at 2:05, but the groundwork he builds beforehand makes the entire 11 minutes worth a watch. Shocking how well put together this was considering The Hill regularly publishes obnoxious screeds from assclowns and reprobates like Joe Concha, Liz Peek, Jonathan Turley, and Dersh.

A court hearing will take place in Henry County Superior Court on Monday, July 19th at 1:30 pm ET regarding the U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia, certified in January of 2021. The lawsuit, brought by Atlanta resident Mike Daugherty contests the certifications of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as the winners of the election for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats and seeks a new election conducted on paper ballots under Ga. Code 21-2-334. Listed defendants include Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Fulton, DeKalb, and Coffee County Election Boards, as well as the Georgia State Election Board.”

“The lawsuit alleges the results of this election do not accurately reflect the intent of eligible voters in Georgia and therefore should be overturned. The lawsuit points to significant misconduct, legal irregularities committed by election officials, procedural violations, and security breaches surrounding electronic voting equipment, among other things. A joint press conference will immediately follow the hearing outside the courtroom. In attendance will be former State Representative Vernon Jones, an election integrity advocate, as well as Mr. Mike Daugherty, and others involved in the case” – Statement from Vernon Jones’s campaign via Gateway Pundit.

While normally we at National Zero prefer to let these sort of images speak for themselves as much as possible, some context may still be necessary here: James O’Keefe (above on the left) is the founder of Project Veritas, a right wing “investigative journalism outfit” whose most recent exploits have amounted to dud after dud after dud. Hasbro is an American toy company who – among other major brands – manufacture and sell Mr. Potato Head, a perennial childhood favorite which underwent the mildest of branding updates earlier this year. All that was changed was the “Mr.” and “Mrs.” Potato Head were put together in the same “Potato Head” product line, while the respective characters retained their gendered honorific as individual products, and MAGA Nation freaked the fuck out over “woke cancel culture” nonetheless. Sex trafficker Congressman Matt Gaetz was particularly interested in discussing the Potato Heads’ non-existent genitals. One can only wonder at this point what O’Keefe thinks he’s “exposing” with this Hasbro “whistleblower”.

A gunman in Tucson, Arizona on Sunday made a series of 9-1-1 calls to lure emergency responders to three different locations where he opened fire on them, killing two, ABC News reports.  Several others were wounded and three children were reported missing.  The 35-year-old unnamed suspect was also shot during apprehension.

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said the incident began around 3:45 p.m. local time when a medical emergency call was called into 9-1-1.  Around the same time, a report of a fire at a residence in the same neighborhood was called in.

When the ambulance arrived at the address for the first call, the suspect exited his SUV and approached the ambulance, hitting the 20-year-old driver in the head and shooting the 21-year-old EMT in the passenger seat in the chest and arm.  The driver is in “extremely critical condition” and the passenger is in stable condition.

A research letter that has been touted by conservatives as evidence that wearing masks is not just useless in combating the spread of the coronavirus but actually to the people wearing the, particularly children, has been retracted by the medical journal that published it because of faulty research methods and disconnected conclusions.

Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson cited the study on his July 1st show claiming that the “study confirms that masking children wasn’t simply unnecessary and probably counterproductive.  Masking children was legitimately dangerous for the children.”  Frequent conservative media guest and vaccine conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson tweeted frantically, “Solid evidence here that masks may actually be DANGEROUS to kids – they raised the level of inhaled carbon dioxide six-fold in a short trial of 45 children. Younger kids had higher levels. CHILDREN SHOULD NEVER BE REQUIRED TO WEAR FACE DIAPERS.”

It turns out the evidence wasn’t so solid.  The Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics issued a retraction of the research as other scientists questioned the authors’ methodology for determining baseline carbon dioxide intake, the systems used to measure absorbed carbon dioxide and their ultimate conclusions.

AFP: “Suspected arsonists set fire to a Covid-19 vaccination centre in southwest France over the weekend, prosecutors said, as the government prepared to unveil a draft law on Monday aimed at pressuring citizens into getting jabbed. The fire early Sunday morning at the temporary vaccination centre in Urrugne in the southwestern Basque region is being treated as arson, prosecutor Jerome Bourrier in the local town of Bayonne wrote on Twitter on Sunday. The mayor of the town, Philippe Aramendi, said there was ‘no doubt’ about the intentional nature of the blaze, saying an inflammable liquid had been poured around the outside of the tent housing the centre.”

“‘Fortunately the fire brigade was able to quickly put out the flames and the tent has only been partially destroyed,’ he said. On Friday night, a vaccination centre in Lans-en-Vercors, southeast France, was vandalised and tagged with anti-vaccination graffiti. Around 114,000 people protested across France on Saturday against stricter vaccination rules which are set to come into force under new legislation that will be adopted at a cabinet meeting on Monday. The draft law will then be put to a vote later this week in parliament, where President Emmanuel Macron holds a comfortable working majority. Under measures announced by Macron last week, people will need to show either proof of full vaccination or a recent test to enter public venues such as restaurants, bars, shopping centres, long-distance trains and cinemas.”

Daily Caller: “Brandi Love believes being thrown out of the Student Action Summit is a brutal example of cancel culture. The legendary adult film star shared multiple videos on her Twitter account showing her excitement to be attending the Turning Point USA event, which is popular with conservatives of all ages. Love purchased VIP tickets – set at a price of more than five hundred dollars – but things took a turn for the worse after she arrived. Love, an outspoken conservative, was ejected from the event Saturday and posted a screenshot of a message notifying her that her pass had been ‘revoked.’ I reached out to Brandi Love for her thoughts Sunday afternoon, and asked if she thought getting tossed after purchasing a ticket amounted to cancel culture.”

“She told me the following: ‘Is this an example of cancel culture? It’s one of the more egregious examples of it. TPUSA literally opened the show talking about how we need to fight back against big tech censorship, cancel culture, the deterioration of our 1st Amendment etc. Charlie Kirk literally talked about making sacrifices as outspoken ‘conservatives.’ Something I’ve been for years at great risk and great loss. And then they expelled me. It’s hard to make that up. It’s a worst case example of cancel culture’… In a statement to Newsweek, TPUSA explained the ban by stating, ‘The Student Action Summit is a youth conference with 15- and 16-year-olds in attendance. As a matter of policy, TPUSA does not allow adult entertainers, influencers, or brands to participate in its events designed for minors. This was not a decision intended to be unkind to anyone, but in the interest of the student attendees in attendance, and their thousands of concerned parents.'”

Mediaite reports Love is now selling “I triggered Charlie Kirk” t-shirts, referencing the Turning Point co-founder and whiny, entitled man-boy we occasionally rip on here at National Zero.

“Just received this from someone in the military regarding possible compulsory COVID vaccines: ‘Good evening, Congressman. Just thought I’d pass word that >15% of the officers at my command will either retire early or resign their commissions if the mandate is given. Ours is a small command, so I’m not sure how the numbers look across the force. I cannot speak for the % of the enlisted force, but I know numerous senior and critical people who will likewise leave.’ Other members and relatives of other members of the military have contacted me as well. According to the GAO and congressional testimony, there were similar results (departures) when the military mandated the anthrax vaccine” – Rep Tom Massie (R-KY), not specifying which branch of the military this supposed officer is and also leaving out that service members are regularly administered vaccines and boosters for other infectious diseases as part of the job.

Axios: “Florida now leads the nation in coronavirus cases, with its biggest spike since last summer, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Hospitalizations and deaths are rising among the unvaccinated, while the small number of infected but vaccinated people are not getting seriously ill. Infections nationwide have tripled over the past three weeks, with about one in five new cases coming from Florida. Statewide, new cases nearly doubled in the past week. In Polk County, cases more than doubled from last week and hospitalizations doubled since 4th of July weekend, per the Lakeland Ledger. Most of Florida’s new cases are driven by the more infectious Delta variant, epidemiologist Dr. Vincent Hsu told WFLA. Dr. David Dowdy with Johns Hopkins Hospitals drove home to. the outlet that vaccines are still effective against the Delta variant.”

A federal jury awarded a former Walmart employee in Wisconsin who has Down syndrome $125 million after determining that the superstore intentionally altered her schedule to make it more difficult for her to get to work on time as a pretext to fire her, the Kansas City Star reports.

Marlo Spaeth had worked at the store for 16 years when managers started to randomly alter her schedule.  Spaeth’s condition makes having a regular schedule necessary to maintain her job and independence, so the disruption in her long-standing routine led to her being late for work.  Spaeth repeatedly requested an 60 to 90 minute adjustment to her schedule, but the store management would not comply with the request.

An eight person jury found Walmart did not make sufficient efforts to accommodate Spaeth’s disability under federal law, and it determined to award Spaeth $125 million.  However, federal law caps lawsuit awards at $300,000 for companies that employ at least 500 people, meaning Spaeth will receive less than one-quarter of one percent of the judgement.

READ!

"[Biden's] not doing well at all. He's way behind schedule, and people are refusing to take the Vaccine because they don't trust his Administration, they don't trust the Election results, & they certainly don't trust the Fake News, which is refusing to tell the Truth." pic.twitter.com/TItylmFd0g

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 18, 2021

Happy National Ice Cream Day, folks. pic.twitter.com/YsIgUzlrgO

— President Biden (@POTUS) July 18, 2021