“Howard University is renaming its College of Fine Arts after one of its most acclaimed alums: actor Chadwick Boseman. On Wednesday, Howard renamed its performing and visual arts school after the “Black Panther” star, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in last year’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman, who graduated from Howard in 2000 with a bachelor of arts degree in directing, died in August at the age of 43 from colon cancer.”

“‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43 after battling colon cancer The renaming unites Howard and Walt Disney Co.’s executive chairman, Bob Iger, who will spearhead fundraising for an endowment named after Boseman, as well as help raise money for the construction of a state-of-the-art building on the campus. The new building will house the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, its TV station, WHUT, and its radio station, WHUR 96.3 FM. In the days following his death, Howard students circulated a petition to have the fine arts college renamed for Boseman. Unbeknown to the students, Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick said he, too, was thinking of a way to honor him. Before his death, Boseman had agreed to serve on the board of the fine arts college and was developing a Master’s Class series for students, Frederick said” – Washington Post.

People affiliated with the Proud Boys sued the Clark County (Nevada) Republican Central Committee seeking to prevent the upcoming meeting because, they claim, the state GOP is discriminating against them, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

The judge refused to grant an injunction blocking the Committee from holding its monthly meeting, where it would decide whom to allow on the committee and whom to remove or ban.  The ten people with Proud Boy connections claimed the committee was discriminating against them based on their affiliation, with the judge saying it asserts “allegations and evidence with regard to protected-class status.”

However, the judge found that there was no evidence of a “protected-class status” for the members of the Proud Boys.  “There has been no credible evidence presented that the (county GOP committee) is discriminating against any of the plaintiffs as a member of a protected class, which arguably I would have jurisdiction to help with,” Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez said.

MAGA meme merging actor/wrestler John Cena with Chairman Xi, retweeted by Dick Grenell. We skipped this yesterday, but not particularly long story short, the ChiComs were upset when Cena had called Taiwan an independent country (which it is) in an interview and threatened to block distribution of his upcoming Fast and Furious 9 film in China, which would’ve cost Universal Pictures the better part of a billion dollars in lost ticket sales. Cena apologized in Mandarin and naturally the red hatters are calling him a turncoat for prostrating to a tyrant. Which is a fair enough assessment, but it’s not really all that different from they way Kevin McCarthy, Nimrata Haley, Lindsey Graham, among other Republicans have behaved toward their Mandarin King in the last few months.

ABC12: “A preacher at a church in Morgantown has been charged after allegedly setting up a recording device in the men’s bathroom. On Apr. 28, members of the Church of God on River Road in Morgantown reported to deputies with the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department that ‘a smart phone had been placed upon a ledge above a urinal,’ according to a criminal complaint.”

“The phone, which was recovered from the men’s restroom at the church, was released to deputies and belonged to a preacher, William Page, 59, of Morgantown, deputies said. On the phone, deputies found ‘videos of two males using the restroom,’ as well as ‘several short videos of [Page] setting up the device,’ according to the complaint. Those videos ‘were captured without the victims’ consent in a place where privacy would be assumed,’ deputies said.”

A federal judge sentenced former Bordentown Township, New Jersey police chief Frank Nucera to 28 months in jail for lying to FBI agents investigating a hate crimes incident in which Nucera punched a handcuffed teenage Black boy, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said Nucera now has “a lifetime status as a convicted felon, a racist, a liar.”  Kugler said he wanted to send a strong message to deter other police officers around the country and the public that such misconduct as found in the Nucera case would not be tolerated.

In 2019, a jury convicted Nucera of lying to FBI agents who were investigating a complaint that Nucera handcuffed a Black teenage suspect at a Bordentown hotel in 2016.  The jury deadlocked on two additional charges relating to hate crimes, for which Nucera is facing retrial. Officers from his department cooperated with the investigation, wearing wires that recorded him using racial slurs.

Trump attorney and The Hill contributor Alan Dershowitz has filed an $80 million lawsuit against Netflix in federal court in Florida for his portrayal in a 2020 documentary mini-series “Filthy Rich,” the New York Daily News reports.

The lawsuit claims the streaming network propagated “false allegations of sexual misconduct” in its original, four-part series about Jeffrey Epstein, the million child trafficker accused of pimping out young girls to rich and influential men.

Dershowitz objects to portions of the documentary about Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s sex trafficking victims who claimed Epstein “lent” her to Dershowitz for sexual acts on numerous occasions, starting when she was 16-years-old.  Dershowitz denies ever having sex with any of Epstein’s victims. 

“Manhattan prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump, his company and its executives have told at least one witness to prepare for grand jury testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter” reports CNN’s Ana Cabrera.

Amy Cooper is suing her former employer, Franklin Templeton, for wrongful termination because they referred to her actions as “racist” after she called police with a false report of a Black man in Central Park threatening her when he asked to leash her dog, Bloomberg Law reports.

Amy Cooper was walking her newly-adopted dog off-leash in Central Park in May 2020 when Christian Cooper, a Black man who is no relation to Amy Cooper in the park bird watching, asked her to put her dog on a leash in compliance with park rules.  Amy Cooper immediately became agitated and called called police during the interchange, which Christian Cooper was recording on his cell phone.  Amy Cooper told police, falsely, that Christian Cooper was threatening her and stalking her.

Franklin Templeton fired Amy Cooper the following day after the video of her escalation of the situation went viral. 

https://youtu.be/vuqkDKgZO0Q

Retired New York City police detective Pat Brosnan, a contributor on Fox News and obvious idiot, on the mass shooting that happened at San Jose light rail facility that left nine, plus the shooter, dead:  “Once COVID starts to lift, these cowardly shooters will come out exactly in tandem with the number of vaccinations. You can be sure they probably got vaccinated.”

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on the company’s claims, which Dimon repeated in a hearing, that the bank worked to help people during the global pandemic, Slate reports.

Dimon testified repeatedly that JPMC helped small businesses and households by suspending payments to those who requested it and helped distribute federally-backed loans and grants.  Warren, however, found the claims hollow.

“No matter how you try to spin it, this past year has shown that corporate profits are more important to your bank than offering just a little help to struggling families even when we’re in the middle of a worldwide crisis,” Warren said before questioning Dimon about fees the bank did collect during the pandemic.  Warren specifically asked about overdraft fees levied against account holders.  “Do you know the number?” she asked Dimon about the amount collected.

A small hedge fund with an activist mission to address climate change has won two seats on the board of directors of ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, with two seats still too close to call, NPR reports.

The hedge fund, Engine No. 1, is a group started less than a year ago by Chris James, a technology hedge fund veteran, with the idea of using investment money to inspire change in the companies they invest in.

“The firm was founded on the shared belief that a company’s ability to create long-term shareholder value depends on the investments it makes in jobs, workers, communities, and the environment,” Engine No. 1 says on its “About Us” page of a site devoted to “reenergizing ExxonMobil” through the recomposition of the 13-member ExxonMobil board of directors.

The Oklahoman: “Attorney General Mike Hunter announced his resignation on Wednesday, less than a week after filing for divorce from his wife, Cheryl. The Oklahoman submitted questions to Hunter on Tuesday night about an extramarital affair that the newspaper confirmed through people familiar with the situation. The sources said the affair was with a state employee, who did not work in the attorney general’s office. In a statement, Hunter said, ‘It has been a distinct and absolute privilege of a lifetime to serve as the state’s attorney general. Regrettably, certain personal matters that are becoming public will become a distraction for this office. The office of attorney general is one of the most important positions in state government. I cannot allow a personal issue to overshadow the vital work the attorneys, agents and support staff do on behalf of Oklahomans.”

NBC News: “President Joe Biden has asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to get to the bottom of the origins of the coronavirus after new reports raised questions about whether it spread from a Wuhan laboratory in China. Biden said the intelligence community has been unable to reach a ‘definitive conclusion’ on the origins of the virus and is conflicted on whether it came from human contact with an infected animal or a laboratory accident, Biden said in a statement. ‘As of today, the U.S. intelligence community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question’. The president said he asked national security advisor Jake Sullivan in March to prepare a report for him on what was known about the origins of the virus. Biden said the findings, which he received earlier this month, concluded that while two elements of the intelligence community ‘lean’ towards the explanation that the virus came from animal contact, another leans towards the laboratory explanation.”

“Biden said each assessment has ‘low or moderate confidence’ and that ‘the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.’ He said he has asked for further investigation. ‘I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,’ Biden’s statement said.”

Eight employees and the gunman were killed in a shooting at a light rail facility in San Jose, California, perpetrated by a worker at the site according to police, CBS News reports.  Simultaneously to the shooting, police and emergency crews were also responding to a fire at a house reportedly where the shooter resided.

The shooter was an employee of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority facility, police said at a media briefing.  Police have not released the identity of the shooter or the victims.

Police responded to the shooting at 6:38 a.m. local time, when the staff at the facility are typically having a daily “stand up” briefing, when the gunman opened fire.

This is the 29th mass shooting in the US in 2021 with three or more fatalities, averaging approximately one every five days.

“The mother of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick is requesting meetings with GOP senators to push them to support a proposed bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which Republicans are poised to block as soon as Thursday. Gladys Sicknick is seeking sit-downs with every single Senate GOP office on Thursday to emphasize ‘the importance’ of establishing an independent body to investigate the deadly insurrection, according to a copy of one of the scheduling request emails obtained by Politico. Brian Sicknick died a day following his response to the Jan. 6 attack after suffering from a stroke. ‘Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day,’ Gladys Sicknick said in a statement provided to Politico. ‘I suggest that all Congressmen and Senators who are against this Bill visit my son’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery and, while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward.’ ‘Putting politics aside, wouldn’t they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6? If not, they do not deserve to have the jobs they were elected to do,’ she added.”

“Several Republicans indicated they’d be willing to sit down with Sicknick’s mother, including Collins, Romney and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, as well as South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. Others, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, deferred comment to their offices or said they had not received the meeting request yet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned his members behind closed doors that the release of the commission’s findings could drag into the height of the 2022 election cycle, when both the Senate and House majorities are up for grabs. Former President Donald Trump has also come out swinging against the commission and slammed the House Republicans who voted for it” – Politico.

El Paso Matters: “In 2018, faced with intense criticism, the El Paso Border Patrol sector scrapped a ‘crowd control exercise’ that was planned next to the Chihuahuita neighborhood on Nov. 6 – Election Day. The exercise was planned as the Trump administration, trying to maintain Republican control of Congress in midterm elections, warned of a migrant caravan ‘invasion’ that threatened the border. The exercise was scrapped after I wrote stories the night before for the Washington Post and Texas Monthly that raised questions of possible intimidation of Hispanic voters. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, put out a statement on Election Day that said the exercise was postponed ‘due to inaccurate reporting that caused unneeded confusion in border communities.’ The agency refused to specify any inaccuracies.”

“However, emails I obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the exercise was never anything more than a scheme for media attention that drew heavy criticism within the Border Patrol and CBP. ‘Essentially BP reached out to El Paso (CBP Office of Field Operations) and would like to run an exercise for media purposes at the (port of entry),’ according to an email sent on Nov. 1, five days before the planned exercise, to Randy Howe, the CBP official then in charge of the nation’s ports of entry. The name of the person sending the email was redacted by the government. Other media began asking questions about the planned crowd control exercise in the early hours of Election Day 2018, in large part because it was planned next to Chihuahuita, a heavily Hispanic neighborhood in South El Paso. And it was taking place in the hometown of Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic Senate candidate taking on Texas Republican Ted Cruz in one of the election’s most high-profile contests.”

The savvy fast food geniuses at McDonald’s have apparently taken a look at the fanbase that destroyed Brad Parscale’s reign as Trump’s 2020 campaign manager for the Tulsa disaster and very nearly got TikTok banned from operating in the United States in retaliation and decided “well shit, we might as well figure out a way to sell to them”. The resulting “BTS Meal” is described as a “10 Piece Chicken McNuggets. New limited-time sauces picked by BTS. Fries and a Coke. Plus, get behind-the-scenes content only in the app” on McDonald’s website, which is kind of lame when you overthink it, which I am. Of course they’re probably not going to make little BTS action figures and pack them in an adult-sized Happy Meal box with the food, but how about a t-shirt? A QR code for a new exclusive single? Or a collector’s cup (which in our opinion is a tragedy. The fast food collector’s cup is a treasured American tradition now in an irrevocable decline if not forever gone).

For all we know this “Behind-the-scenes content” is simply a McDonald’s employee training video on how to properly clean the McNuggets fryer. Or footage of live chickens being tossed into the grinder to make the nuggets. There’s no guarantee in the value proposition that this content is indeed BTS-centric. As such National Zero is going to take the editorial position that the whole idea is stupid and it would still be stupid if we knew anything about K-Pop besides where it intersected with American politics. We heart their fanbase for that epic trolling of Trump last year, but cannot and will not endorse this marketing collaboration between their premier act and McDonald’s.

ESPN: “In the spring of 2008, the NFL was in crisis. A hard-charging United States senator from Pennsylvania named Arlen Specter had launched an investigation into the Spygate scandal. He tried to determine how many games the New England Patriots’ illegal videotaping operation of opposing coaches’ signals had helped the team win and learn why the NFL, under the orders of commissioner Roger Goodell, had destroyed all evidence of the cheating. By May, Specter – a former Philadelphia district attorney and a lifelong Eagles fan – was so angry at the ‘stonewalling’ of his inquiry by the league and the Patriots that he called for an independent investigator, similar to the Mitchell investigation of steroid use in professional baseball. League executives and coaches might be forced to testify under oath. The prospect sent the league, and its new commissioner, into panic. ‘If it ever got to an investigation,’ Goodell said at one point, ‘it would be terrible for the league.'”

“The NFL tried to combat the Specter inquiry with public statements from teams that were the primary victims of New England’s spying saying the league had done its due diligence. It wasn’t working. But there was one man, a mutual friend of Specter and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who believed that he could make the investigation go away. He was a famous businessman and reality television star who routinely threw money at politicians to try to curry favor, whether it worked or not. He had been a generous political patron of Specter’s for two decades. One day in early 2008, Specter had dinner with the man in Palm Beach at his palatial club, not far from Kraft’s Florida home. A phone call followed. The friend offered Specter what the senator felt was tantamount to a bribe: ‘If you laid off the Patriots, there’d be a lot of money in Palm Beach.'”

“Republicans in at least nine states are moving to limit students’ exposure to critical race theory – a concept that links racial discrimination to the nation’s foundations and legal system. Why it matters: A year after George Floyd’s killing, how systemic racism is – or is not – taught in public schools has become a new fault line in the culture wars, with implications for how the next generation of Americans understands U.S. history. Conservative activists are pressing for less talk about racism and more talk about patriotism. Civil rights advocates and some educators say banning critical race theory from schools constrains academic freedom and suppresses the experiences of people of color” Axios reports, before rattling off a long list of efforts to ban any sort of racial education.

Sure looks like the right wing are giving up on trying to blame the Democrats of 2021 for the policies of Democrats from 1825 through 1965 or so. Never really made a lot of sense in the first place, unless Republicans were committed to keeping Confederate imagery from being associated with their fanbase, which they aren’t. Not even close actually, since – for example – Trump vetoed (later overridden by Congress) the 2021 defense budget which mandated that US military bases named for Confederate officers be renamed, signed an executive order forcing ten year sentence minimums for any person convicted of damaging a monument on federal property, and said there were “good people of both sides” of the brutal 2017 riot over a rebel statue in Charlottesville.

These instances, among many others, make it perfectly clear that – aside from the occasional MAGA troll comment and hillbilly dipshit Louie Gohmert’s “#CancelDemocrats” bill – Republicans believe they’re better off working to make it appear that modern and historical systemic racism is non-existent than they are putting in a sustained effort to make the case that modern day Democrats are responsible for it by association with their political forebears. MAGA Nation are practiced and effective hypocrites, but it’d take a Simone Biles-caliber mental gymnast to pull that trick off. Better to go with the easier lie than the harder one.