Apropos of nothing, Republican Florida Senator (and bottled water aficionado) Marco Rubio reintroduced legislation Thursday that would provide debtors a one year payment deferment for student loans if the individual survives a terrorist attack.

While others are discussing student loan forgiveness and free community college educations, the incumbent Senator and one-time GOP golden boy tried to get this legislation passed in 2016, but couldn’t even muster support for the measure in the then Republican-majority Senate.  The measure, called the Terrorism Survivors Student Loan Deferment Act, doesn’t define what terrorism is, nor does it give any deferment to victims of other types of violence, like domestic violence or hate crimes.

“We should do everything in our power to help those who survive a terrorist attack to get their life back on track,” Rubio said in a statement. “While in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, survivors like those of the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting, can be eligible for some relief, existing law does not automatically recognize these types of extraordinary circumstances.  Giving survivors some time to regroup by delaying their student loan payments is just commonsense.”

“A bipartisan group of Senators said they had reached an agreement on an infrastructure proposal that would be paid for without tax increases, pitching the plan to other lawmakers and the White House as they try to craft a compromise on the issue.

“While the group didn’t reveal details of its plan in its statement, lawmakers had previously been discussing spending roughly $900 billion on infrastructure. The agreement comes days after President Biden called off a separate set of negotiations with Senate Republicans over an infrastructure plan.” —Wall Street Journal

Jan 6th defendants are being mistreated in jail while awaiting trial.

Being held in solitary confinement is cruel mental abuse and is a violation of these defendants rights.

They have been charged and will have their day in court, and we must maintain a fair standard for all.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) June 10, 2021

After spending its first three months on the surface of Mars performing systems checks, the NASA Perseverance rover is starting the experiments that are part of its stated mission:  to investigate the potential that life once existed, or currently exists, on the Red Planet.

According to Space.com, NASA engineers signed off on the functions of the rover and the Ingenuity helicopter after scores of mobility, communications, technical and instrument tests.

“Over the next several months, Perseverance will be exploring a 1.5-square-mile [4-square-kilometer] patch of crater floor,” Trosper said. “It is from this location that the first samples from another planet will be collected for return to Earth by a future mission.”

“Months after he was fired from The New Yorker for masturbating during a work Zoom call, Jeffrey Toobin returned Thursday afternoon to CNN’s to face tough questions over the scandal that derailed his journalistic career. Toobin took a leave of absence last November as a CNN legal analyst after the debacle, and his appearance on CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota’s midday broadcast marked the first time he’s addressed the scandal on-air” reports the Daily Beast.

“After recounting all of the lurid details that led to his dismissal from The New Yorker after 27 years, Camerota flatly asked her colleague: ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ ‘Well, obviously, I wasn’t thinking very well or very much, and it was something that was inexplicable to me,’ Toobin replied. ‘I think one point – I wouldn’t exactly say in my defense, because nothing is really in my defense. I didn’t think I was on the call. I didn’t think other people could see me.’ While Toobin reiterated that he thought he was off-camera when he exposed himself to co-workers, Camerota wondered aloud if Toobin ‘ever thought about what it must have been like’ to be on the receiving end of the call.”

“‘Well, I haven’t just thought about it. I’ve spoken to several of my former colleagues at The New Yorker about it, and they were shocked and appalled,’ he said. ‘I think they realized that this was not intended for them. I think they realized that this was something that I would immediately regret, as I certainly did, and it was then – it was that day that I began apologizing, and that is something that I have tried to continue to do both publicly and privately.’ Noting that Toobin has extensively covered the sex scandals of prominent politicians and celebrities, Camerota asked why he failed to exercise better judgment. ‘Because I’m a flawed human being who makes mistakes, and you know, there is no defense for my conduct,’ he replied. ‘The only issue is what should be the consequences, and The New Yorker made one decision about the consequences. CNN made a different decision, fortunately, for which I’m very grateful.'”

NBC News: “A Michigan man was sentenced to one year in prison Thursday for sending an email threatening to hunt down and bleed out like a ‘pig’ an attorney for the whistle-blower who set in motion then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. District Judge Thomas Ludington handed down the sentence after the man, Brittan Atkinson, described his arrest and prosecution as a ‘blessing in disguise.’ ‘I’m now on the right medication for my mental issues and more importantly, I’ve walked back to the Lord so my spiritual health is better, too,’ Atkinson told the judge. Atkinson admitted to sending the email to Washington lawyer Mark Zaid the day after Trump held up a photo of the attorney and read some of his tweets at a rally in Louisiana in November 2019.”

“‘All traitors must die miserable deaths,’ Atkinson’s email read in part, according to the indictment. ‘Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate[.] We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are. We have nothing but time, and you are running out of it.’ The email came at a time when Zaid was facing sustained attacks from the president and his allies after he came forward as the attorney for the whistle-blower who had reported concerns about a phone call in July 2019 between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. During the call, Trump pressured Zelenskiy to announce an investigation into Joe Biden, who was then the Democratic presidential front-runner, at the same time as the U.S. was withholding nearly $400 million in military aid. Atkinson was arrested in February 2020 on a charge of violating a federal law banning threats communicated across state lines. He pleaded guilty last November. His lawyer, Donald Neville, told the judge Thursday that Atkinson was at a low point in his life when he made the ‘completely stupid and horrible decision’ to send the email.”

“Lin Wood has lost his lawsuit seeking to halt a psychiatric evaluation requested by the State Bar of Georgia as part of its disciplinary investigation” reports Reuters legal correspondent Jan Wolfe.

Wolfe includes a snippet of the court finding:  “Wood’s argument that he did not receive due process before the request for a mental health examination does not overcome Younger abstention.  He cites no law to support the proposition that he has a property right not to be asked to consent to a mental health evaluation.  And, as Defendants point out, he has been provided a notice of the claims against him and will have an opportunity to defend himself and raise any constitutional issues before any public discipline is imposed.”

A ten-foot tall replica of the Statue of Liberty, dubbed its “little sister,” has started its journey to the United States from France, where it had been on display at the National Museum of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) in Paris, CNN reports.

Retracing the route taken by the original in 1875, the one-sixteenth sized copy will stand on Ellis Island, across from Liberty Island where the 151-foot original sits, from July 1st to July 5th.  From there, it will be shipped to the French Embassy in Washington, DC, where it will be erected in the ambassador’s residence before July 14th, Bastille Day.  It will stay in Washington for ten years.

Weighing just shy of 1,000 pounds (versus 225 tons for the actual Statue of Liberty), the replica was made in 2009.  It will depart France from the port of Le Havre on June 19 and will arrive in New York July 1st.

“The statue symbolizes freedom and the light around all the world,” said Olivier Faron, general administrator of the CNAM. “We want to send a very simple message: Our friendship with the United States is very important, particularly at this moment. We have to conserve and defend our friendship.”

On Thursday morning’s edition of Fox and Friends, host Steve Doocy went on about a Chinese immigrant mom “ripping” Critical Race Theory education to a school board meeting in suburban Virginia, using her own experience as a survivor of Cultural Revolution-era purges as a warning to what might happen if schoolchildren learn more about the history of American slavery.

The other host, Brian Kilmeade then said: “So what you see is the Chinese also spending a ton of money to do just what she’s saying they did then. They are in every aspect of our system, the college system, the education system, the political system, the smallest congressman, the biggest university, the biggest school like The University of Texas. I would not be surprised if they are somehow pushing an agenda through willing surrogates that is helping to destroy our country first and foremost in our school system which is outraging us currently right now. My fear is we’re going to get used to it.” Female host Ainsley Earhardt did not say anything in this exchange, per usual.

The fashion choices a person in politics makes are revealing.  For men, it’s typically limited to the color and design of ties.  For women, it’s more complicated.  Democratic women tend to wear white on official occasions to remember the women’s suffrage movement.  Vice President Kamala Harris wore a strand of pearls to her inauguration to represent the Black college sorority she belongs to.  And former first lady Melania Trump famously wore a jacket bearing the words “I don’t really care.  Do you?” when she went to tour a warehouse storing migrant children.

Dr. Jill Biden, the current First Lady, selected a very different message for her first official trip to Europe:  “Love.”

Meeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his new wife Thursday, Dr. Biden wore a jacket she had worn when her husband, President Joe Biden, kicked off his campaign for the 2020 presidential election.  The black jacket had the word “LOVE” outlined in beads emblazoned on the back.

“We’re bringing love from America,” she told reporters, according to the Associated Press.  “This is a global conference and we are trying to bring unity across the globe and I think it’s needed right now, that people feel a sense of unity from all the countries and feel a sense hope after this year of the pandemic.”

DeBlasio reportedly got very heated about pineapple, began yelling about how his Italian ancestors would hate it, per Wall Street Journal City Hall correspondent Kate Honan. The New York City mayor also pointedly excluded clams from his choice for a topping, saying “We’re not New Haven”.

“A campaign email from Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, on Wednesday used his wife’s experience getting served with a lawsuit meant for him to solicit donations from supporters. ‘THEY CAME AFTER MY WIFE’ was the email’s subject line. It accused the legal team of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, who named Brooks in a lawsuit over the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, of trespassing on Brooks’ property and harassing his wife, Martha. ‘Swalwell’s ridiculous attorney, Philip Andonian, has denied that a crime was committed, but if that’s the case, why hasn’t he released the video made by his agent?! It’s because his team and the Fake News Media are straight up lying,’ the email stated.”

“The process server was a private investigator hired by Swalwell’s legal team after they said they were unable to locate Brooks for several months to serve him with the lawsuit, which was filed in March. The investigator, Christian Seklecki, can be seen on the Brooks’s exterior home security footage racing up the driveway after Martha Brooks pulls into the garage. She was returning from church, her husband said” – Alabama Reporter.

AFP: “A Peruvian prosecutor asked a court Thursday to order preventive custody for presidential hopeful Keiko Fujimori, who is accused of corruption and trailing in the final tallying of votes cast in elections Sunday. Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez asked an organized crime court to revoke Fujimori’s parole and remand her in custody for allegedly having met with a witness in a pending corruption case against her. The right-wing populist politician is accused of having taken money from scandal-tainted Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to fund previous presidential bids in 2011 and 2016. She denies the charges, but spent 16 months in pre-trial detention in the lead-up to Sunday’s runoff presidential election in which she faced off against far-leftist Pedro Castillo. With more than 99 percent of ballots counted, Castillo leads narrowly with 50.2 percent to Fujimori’s 49.8 percent. She has made allegations of voter fraud involving about half-a-million ballots. Fujimori, 46, was legally allowed to contest the election as she had not been convicted of a crime.”

Non-Correction: The current version of this article misspelled Keiko Fujimori’s first name as ‘Ivanka’ in the headline. National Zero does not regret the error and will not be correcting it.

https://youtu.be/UI71uuaGT1o

When Pennsylvania Democratic state legislator Brian Sims took to the floor of the state house to comment on a bill regarding the cremation or burial of pre-birth fetal remains, he brought up some inconvenient facts that his Republican colleagues called “inflammatory.”

“It is not lost on me and I’m sure it’s not lost on many of the members here today that this legislation is just one more unnecessary overreach in a grossly predictably misogynistic agenda,” Sims stated.  “An agenda pursued by a House–by a Party that is 100% white in a chamber that is 70% male.”  As the Republicans started booing his comments, Sims responded, “Aw, your boos mean nothing to me.”

“National House generic ballot polling can be a useful tool in projecting the overall results of House and Senate elections. The president’s party often loses ground in midterms, but the magnitude of those losses varies greatly depending on the national political environment and the seats held by each party prior to the election. A model using the generic ballot and seat exposure shows that a single digit lead on the generic ballot would give Democrats a good chance to keep control of the Senate. Given the expected impact of redistricting, however, Democrats probably need a larger lead to keep control of the House” – Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

“French court sentences man who slapped President Emmanuel Macron to 4 months in prison” reports the AP’s Jonathan Lemire.

Axios: “The U.S.’ image around the world has sharply improved since President Biden took office after dipping during the Trump administration, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 16 countries. The high marks come as Biden embarks on his first overseas trip as president. Though opinions of the U.S. have broadly increased internationally, people in allied countries did not express great confidence in the U.S. as an ally and were also concerned about its domestic politics. More than 6 in 10 people in the surveyed countries said they have confidence in Biden to do the right thing in world affairs. In 12 of the surveyed countries, a median of 75% expressed confidence in Biden, compared with 17% for Trump in 2020. A median of 62% across 12 nations had a favorable overall opinion of the U.S., while only 34% held that view last year. Across the 16 countries, a median of 56% said the U.S. is ‘somewhat reliable,’ 11% described it as ‘very reliable’ and 26% said it was ‘not too reliable.'”

https://youtu.be/6T9Ab17Q2Lo

Disgraced former general Mike Flynn continues pitching QAnon conspiracy theories, even though he now claims he’s not part of QAnon.  Now, Flynn claims that new audits of 2020 election ballots will begin in three swing states:  Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia.  “I’m telling you, next three to four weeks, I think we’re going to see a lot of, a lot of, uh, uh, uh truth.”

(Why is it always “three or four weeks away”?  I’m still waiting for the press conference about Melania’s immigration status Donald Trump said was going to happen in “a couple weeks”… way back in 2016.)

Politico: “It may not be Florida’s version of Bridgegate, but a dustup over the use of rainbow-colored lights for Pride Month on a Jacksonville bridge spilled over into denials (Gov. Ron DeSantis) and pointed fingers (Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried). It began when local officials in Jacksonville chose to light up a local bridge in honor of Pride Month. State transportation officials intervened, saying the lights violated certain permits, and they were switched back to blue late Tuesday night. This decision was seen as yet another slap to the LGBTQ community by the DeSantis administration given that the governor signed a bill banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls and women’s sports on the first day of Pride Month. The governor also recently vetoed money for those affected by the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (The 5-year anniversary of that tragedy is this Saturday by the way.)”

“Follow you, follow me – But the governor’s office insisted they had nothing to do with nixing the rainbow lights. The governor ‘was not involved in the decision and it’s absurd to think otherwise,’ DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said in an email. By Wednesday night, the lights were back to their rainbow-color scheme. The Florida Times-Union – which chronicled the lights drama in detail – reported that there were ‘several complaints’ about the lights which led to the transportation department to point out the scheme violated permit terms. But to some, this explanation rang hollow since the state also denied a request to use rainbow lights on a bridge in Sarasota. Beth Frady, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, said that ‘the assumption there was a decision to disallow LGBTQ rainbow-themed lights on bridges in cities across the state is not true.'”