https://youtu.be/_0ntvEdD2Nw

I mean, I can’t really argue with Louie Gohmert’s self-assessment:  there are people who think Gohmert is the dumbest member of Congress.  Personally, I think he’s been surpassed by the likes of Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene–all of whom actively pursue stupidity.  And then there are old favorites like Virginia Foxx and Paul Gosar.

He’s making a strong case for his argument, given that statistically, SAT scores rose immediately after the Department of Education was created in 1979.  But hey… facts.  (He also makes you wonder how rigorous the Texas A&M “honors” program is–and what the hell is a college “honors” program?)

I think we can safely say Gohmert has secured the Idiot Emeritus title.

Who are they polling? Hamas? https://t.co/UTUr7VNw3E

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) May 20, 2021

Wall Street Journal: “Parler LLC on Monday named prominent U.K. conservative George Farmer as its new chief executive and said that its social network has returned to Apple Inc.’s App Store, the company’s latest steps to rebuild its business months after the U.S. Capitol riot. Mr. Farmer is succeeding interim chief Mark Meckler, who is leaving the company. Mr. Farmer joined Parler in March as operating chief and previously worked in financial services for a decade, the company said. He is married to Candace Owens, a conservative author and commentator known for being a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump. In 2019, Mr. Farmer was an active financial supporter and candidate for the U.K.’s Brexit Party, according to Parler. The company didn’t disclose the reason behind the executive change.”

https://youtu.be/R7_8ks7D3Io

Master of Unreality and Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy continues his quest to find an intelligent, fact-based question to ask Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who again slapped down the nepotistic opportunist who asked why President Joe Biden isn’t doing more to halt Israeli military attacks in Gaza or Hamas missile launches into Israel.

“Why haven’t the leaders and the people there benefitting from all [Biden’s] foreign policy experience?” Doocy asks, seemingly unaware that Biden is the President of the United States, not Israel.

“Do you not count the 80 engagements we’ve had with countries around the world including the president’s call with the leader of Egypt, the four calls he’s had with the Israeli prime minister and the fact that there have been reports of a cease fire, of movement toward a cease fire?” Psaki responded.

The BBC has issued an apology for the dishonest tactics used by prominent British journalist Martin Bashir to secure an interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, as her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales, crumbled, CNN reports.

The British population, in fawning loyalty to the family that essentially owns the nation, have their chins wagging that Bashir appears to have had a set of financial documents forged to show Buckingham Palace staff being bribed to spy on the Princess, who allegedly was not a favorite of the titular ruler of Britain, Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II.  The Queen’s issue, Charles, married then-The Honorable Diana Spencer in 1981, making her Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales.

The couple divorced in 1996 as His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales was shagging Camilla Parker Bowles, a woman who strangely was not related to Charles in a direct lineage, an oddity for many in Britain’s titled class.  (Diana and Charles were seventh cousins, likely making the relationship at least palatable to the Queen, who married the recently dead-as-a-parrot Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, her second cousin.)

“In connection with an ongoing grand jury investigation, this Court has supervised and authorized searches and related applications, including applications authorized by this Court on April 21, 2021 pursuant to Federal Rule ofCriminal Procedure 41 to search premises belonging to Rudolph Giuliani and Giuliani Partners LLC, and to seize and search electronic devices (21 Mag. 4335). On April 28, 2021, the Government seized 18 electronic devices belonging to Giuliani and certain employees of Giuliani Partners pursuant to those warrants. On April 22, 2021, the Government sought and obtained warrants in the District of Maryland, pursuant to Rule 41, to search premises belonging to Victoria Toensing and seize certain electronic devices. On April 28, 2021, the Government seized one electronic device belonging to Toensing pursuant to those warrants. On April 28, 2021, the device seized from Toensing was transported to the Southern District of New York and the Government sought and obtained a warrant to search that electronic device for evidence of enumerated offenses” – Clip of text of affidavit submitted by SDNY in ongoing evidentiary hearings since Giuliani was raided on April 28th.

Fox 13 reports that Hillsborough County, Florida sheriff’s deputies arrested registered Republican voter Anthony Michael Peace, 37, a registered Republican history teacher and former wrestling coach at Strawberry Crest High School in Dover, following an undercover investigation targeting suspects seeking to have sex with minors which found at least one Republican pedophile.

According to deputies, the registered Republican Peace initiated a conversation with an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old male on social media on March 29, 2021. Deputies say the registered Republican voter solicited nude photos from the decoy teenager and sent explicit videos of himself. Detectives did not say if Peace was wearing a MAGA hat in the videos, but they did say they gathered enough evidence to charge the registered Republican Peace on Wednesday. The almost-certain-to-have-voted-for-Trump-in-2020 pedophile is facing five counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor, one count of unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and one count of use of computer services or devices to solicit certain illegal acts.

Jim Jordan has not tweeted any reaction the arrest. However, a random Facebook user commented under Fox 13’s post linking the article that Peace had committed suicide Thursday morning but did not provide any additional details. The comment has two “heart” reactions as of 1:27 EST Thursday.

“See, 35 wayward Republicans – they just can’t help themselves. We have much better policy and are much better for the Country, but the Democrats stick together, the Republicans don’t. They don’t have the Romney’s, Little Ben Sasse’s, and Cheney’s of the world. Unfortunately, we do. Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak. The voters understand!”

– Statement from the Former Guy.

The mystery of how Tucker Carlson ended up interviewing a self-professed Rat Wrangler on his primetime propaganda show may have been solved:  Missouri Republican Senator (and ambitious domestic terrorist cheerleader) Josh Hawley was originally scheduled to be the guest, but he claims he lost power in the studio an couldn’t make the slot.

Sorry to miss everyone – Had a power outage at studio and couldn’t join @TuckerCarlson tonight. Hope to see you soon

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 20, 2021

Unfortunately for Hawley, people can look at weather maps.  The state of Missouri, which he supposedly represents, wasn’t experiencing any power outages.  Neither was northern Virginia, where Hawley lives with his family.  As one Twitter commenter noted, it may have been “A White Power outage.”

https://youtu.be/Lf83iJ65QoY

Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Q-Rifle) appeared on a webcast for Mar-a-Lago member Gina Loudon, claiming falsely that current mask mandates contradict science.  First, Boebert brags that she doesn’t wear a mask on the floor of the House, saying that the requirement to wear a mask violates science.  (In fact, with fewer than 50% of Republicans in the House saying they haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, it exactly follows the science.)

Then Boebert makes an astoundingly false claim:  “Since removing the mask mandate two months ago, Texas has not reported a single COVID death.  Not one.”

Weeellllllllllllll, that’s a lie.  Texas lifted its mask mandate March 2nd.  Since then, 6,827 people have died in the state from coronavirus, according to worldometers.  And 256,885 new infections have been reported.

Why Boebert insists on lying about easily verifiable information remains baffling.

Two former Loveland, Colorado police officers will face criminal charges for an assault on a 74-year-old woman with dementia who walked out of a store carrying $14 in merchandise, CBS News reports.  The incident left the woman with a broken arm.

Austin Hopp has been charged with using excessive force, including second-degree assault, attempting to influence a public servant and official misconduct for the incident that occurred in June 2020.  Daria Jalali faces charges of failing to report use of force, failing to intervene and official misconduct.

According to Hopp’s body cam footage, Hopp responded to a call from the store that the woman had walked out of the store without paying for the merchandise.  Hopp approached 74-year-old Karen Garner in a field as she walked away from the store.  Hopp attempted to talk to Garner, who appeared confused and unable to understand what the officer was saying.  Hopp then grabbed the arm of the 80-pound woman and pushed her to the ground, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder.

Ford Motor Company announced an agreement with SK Innovation, a South Korea battery manufacturer, to build two factories in the United States to build batteries for the ever-increasing catalog of electric vehicles Ford is planning, Techcrunch reports.

Done the same week President Joe Biden test drove a new all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the announcement demonstrates Ford’s ongoing commitment to promoting electric vehicles.

SK Innovation already operates a factory in Commerce, Georgia.  It’s constructing two more factories in Georgia and one in Tennessee.  The Tennessee plant will produce batteries for Volkswagen, which operates a major assembly plant in Chattanooga.

“I find it Hilarious that Trump exposed them all for the raving lunatics they actually are. Trumps not going to jail, Democrats gave him too much power by fighting him so much, making ppl take a long hard look at the Democratic Party. If you think Antifa and BLM know how to riot, wait till you see 10 million combat trained veterans get mad”

– The current top comment on the Breitbart article “MSNBC’s Figliuzzi on NY Trump Investigation: ‘You’re Going to See People Go to Prison’“, posted Wednesday night.

NBC News: “Lt. Gov. John Fetterman holds the lead in a rare early poll of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, winning 40 percent of likely Democratic voters, with Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa. – who is weighing a bid but isn’t officially a candidate – in second place with 21 percent. The survey was conducted by Data For Progress, a progressive firm tapped by the Fetterman campaign, and first reported here by NBC News. It’s based on a weighted sample of 302 likely Democratic primary voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.”

“A federal grand jury in Denver, Colorado, returned an indictment charging Norman W. Fries Inc., dba Claxton Poultry Farms (Claxton), headquartered in Claxton, Georgia, with participating in a nationwide conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products. According to court documents, from at least as early as 2012 until at least 2019, Claxton and co-conspirators, including current President Mikell Fries and current Vice President Scott Brady, conspired to suppress and eliminate competition for sales of broiler chicken products, which are raised for human consumption and sold to grocers and restaurants. Fries and Brady are among 10 individuals charged in a superseding indictment in October 2020 for their roles in the conspiracy. Pilgrim’s Pride, a major broiler chicken producer based in Greeley, Colorado, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February 2021 to pay a criminal fine over $107 million for its role in the conspiracy” – DOJ press release.

A search of OpenSecrets.org for “Mikell Fries” returns – shocker – a bunch of donations to Trump and Former Georgia Senator David Perdue. Perdue, who was unaffectionately nicknamed “Chickenshit” here on National Zero, is not actually related to the namesake family of the Perdue Chicken corporation. Perdue Chicken’s social media team were pretty emphatic about that non-relation back in October 2020, when dozens of Twitter users threatened a boycott of their products after Chickenshit mocked Kamala Harris’s name at a rally.

NPR: “A song alluding to Abraham Lincoln as a ‘tyrant’ and a ‘despot’ and to the Union as ‘Northern scum!’ is no longer Maryland’s official anthem after Gov. Larry Hogan this week approved its repeal – a move that some Republicans say is another example of ‘cancel culture.’ Hogan gave the measure his OK months after the state’s legislature voted to eliminate the long-controversial Civil War-era song, Maryland, My Maryland. ‘We’re repealing the state song. It is a relic of the Confederacy, which is clearly outdated and out of touch,’ Hogan, a Republican, said when he signed the measure on Tuesday… Ahead of the March vote in the Maryland House of Delegates, Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga, a Republican representing Baltimore and Hartford counties, said that although she was personally offended by portions of the song, she would not vote to repeal it. ‘We have a lot of cancel culture going on, and we’re canceling everything,’ Szeliga said. ‘So I’d like to relegate this song to history, but I’m not going to be able to vote to repeal it.'”

“A non-tropical low pressure system is located about 800 miles east of Bermuda. The low is expected to develop gale-force winds later today while it moves generally northward. The low is then forecast to move westward and southwestward over warmer waters tonight and Friday, and it will likely become a subtropical cyclone near and to the northeast of Bermuda on Friday. The system is expected to move toward the north and northeast into a more hostile environment by late Sunday into Monday… Formation chance through 48 hours…high…70 percent…Formation chance through 5 days…high…90 percent” – National Hurricane Center bulletin.

AP: “The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 444,000, a new pandemic low and a sign that the job market keeps strengthening as consumers spend freely again, viral infections drop and business restrictions ease.”

“A new name has surfaced tied to the scandal engulfing Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz: Joe Ellicott, a close friend and former employee of the elected tax collector who pleaded guilty to a host of crimes Monday. Nicknamed ‘Big Joe,’ Ellicott was listed in a federal grand jury subpoena sent to a different individual and obtained by POLITICO. The subpoena also lists Gaetz and two friends of his, including former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors as they examine whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old and paid her for it.”

“The Dec. 28, 2020 subpoena states that the grand jury is investigating alleged crimes ‘involving commercial sex acts with adult and minor women, as well as obstruction of justice’ and seeks any communications, documents, recordings and payments the individual had with Ellicott, Gaetz and Greenberg from January 2016 until now. Two sources familiar with the investigation say Ellicott is also being scrutinized for alleged sex trafficking of a minor. The grand jury subpoena provides new information on who federal investigators are looking into, as well as additional details on the kinds of information authorities are seeking – documents, video recordings and communications – as they looked into the Republican lawmaker earlier this year. The subpoena, as well as Greenberg’s cooperation with prosecutors, appears to increase the legal peril the congressman is facing. Ellicott didn’t return two messages left on his cellphone” – Politico.