https://youtu.be/pVA8iT9NPSY

Law professor and MSNBC contributor Neal Katyal threw shade on Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the night that the New York State Attorney General announced a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization.

Noting that the Trump Org’s website features Donald Trump’s personal story on its landing page, but says that the top executives of the company are listed as Trump’s sons Donald, Jr. and Ewic, Katyal said, “I suppose Donald Trump can pull a Ted Cruz and blame his kids here, or something like that,” calling back Ted Cruz blaming his escape to Cancun during the Texas power outage–as scores of Texans died from the cold–on his daughters.

The Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, the private firm hired by Republicans in Arizona to conduct an audit of the votes in the November 2020 presidential election in highly-Democratic Maricopa County, has rescinded a claim that data files with voting information had been destroyed so they couldn’t complete their audit, the Arizona Republic reports.

It turns out they had ’em all the time, and they just kinda misplaced them.  Oops.

Cyber Ninjas, supposedly a computer security firm, has never conducted an audit of any kind, let alone a recount of a presidential election.  And for some reason, they’re only recounting one race in one county while they–and one of the sponsors of the recount, One America News–claim there was widespread fraud. 

The New York Attorney General informed the Trump Organization that their state investigation is no longer a purely civil matter, but includes criminal allegations.

The Manhattan District Attorney is already undertaking a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, and the statement reads the two law enforcement agencies are working together.

From Sonia Moghe of CNN:  “‘We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the Organization is no longer purely civil in nature.  We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.  We have no additional comment,’ spokesman Fabien Levy said.”

In a study that will surely pop the single working brain cell of most conservatives, nearly 10% of high school students reported that they don’t identify with traditional gender labels, CNN reports.

Unlike previous studies which asked students if they were transgender or not, this study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, asked students if they identified their gender descriptor(s) of choice:  “girl,” “boy,” “trans girl,” “trans boy,” “genderqueer,” “nonbinary,” and “another identity.”

Previous polls that asked simply whether or not the individual identified as transgender found that only 1.8% of students identified as transgender.  In this survey, however, 9.2% responded with something other than “boy” or “girl.”

A Walmart shopper in DeSoto, Texas suffered a minor gunshot wound when a gun being carried by another customer allegedly accidentally discharged in the store in a Tuesday evening incident, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The man carrying the weapon left the store before police arrived and police are currently looking for him.  The victim of the shooting was treated and released.

“Trump Justice Department officials in Washington raised no concerns to Manhattan federal prosecutors when they said they wanted to covertly search Rudy Giuliani’s Apple iCloud account in late 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department’s national security division was notified by Manhattan prosecutors because the former New York mayor was being investigated for possible undisclosed foreign lobbying stemming from his work in Ukraine, an issue which falls under the division’s purview. Prosecutors didn’t need formal approval from Washington for the iCloud warrant, but senior officials could have raised questions or voiced concerns to Manhattan prosecutors that might have spurred them to reconsider the search or modify its scope, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private.”

“The lack of pushback in 2019 could undercut efforts by the personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump to cast both the iCloud search and the April 28 Federal Bureau of Investigation raids of his Manhattan home and office as the actions of politically biased prosecutors who ‘hate’ him and his most famous client. A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is leading the probe, declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Justice Department in Washington. Robert Costello, Giuliani’s lawyer, said he didn’t know who was consulted in Washington prior to the 2019 iCloud search by Manhattan prosecutors” – Bloomberg.

The FBI has apparently opened an investigation into a major donor based on a recently-disclosed search warrant for the phones used by executives of a defense contractor who, the warrant application alleges, made illegal contributions to Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins’ reelection campaign.

Collins had helped the company, the Martin Defense Corp. (previously known as Navatek), secure an $8 million contract for ship hull designs.  Executives at the company then directed $150,000 in campaign contributions to Collins, some using their employees who were reimbursed for their donations, according to Axios.

Former CEO of Navatek Martin Kao was indicted in 2020 for scams relating to obtaining millions of dollar in government coronavirus relief.  In the Collins scheme, Kao and his wife set up a phony non-profit company, Society for Young Women Scientists and Engineers, to which they wrote $150,000 in checks, all of which was then funneled to Collins’ campaign or super PAC.

KMOV’s Lauren Trager shared the video to her Facebook page after McCloskey’s campaign deleted it after having mistakenly posted it too early on YouTube. Evidently the asshole wanted to save the “huge announcement” for his scheduled Tuesday night appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show.

“Tomorrow, the House is expected to consider H.R. 3233 – National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act. Leadership recommends a NO vote. National Commission to Investigate the January 6th Attack: This legislation establishes a commission to only investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

“While Ranking Member Katko negotiated in earnest to improve upon previous proposals, Speaker Pelosi delayed for months and prevented the inclusion of a wider investigatory scope, proving her main concern is politics over solutions. This Commission cannot investigate the political violence leading up to and following the attack on the 6th including the June 2017 shooting at the Republican Congressional baseball practice, and the deadly attack on Capitol Police on April 2, 2021. The report is due too late to properly educate and advise on securing the capitol complex, and there is no prohibition against indefinite extensions. There are currently investigations ongoing by the DOJ, FBI, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, as well as an apolitical review by the Architect of the Capitol to find and remedy the security vulnerabilities. Lastly, this proposed text could interfere with and ultimately undermine ongoing prosecutorial efforts” – House GOP memo giving a bunch of perfunctory and somewhat contradictory reasons for House Republicans to use to justify voting no.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports that House GOP leadership had originally planned to let it be “a vote of conscience” for members, but it looks like McCarthy realized shit was about to get real and the Orange God Emperor would be most displeased with his failures to limit accountability.

https://youtu.be/6CWidGh4OeI

California Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter and her infamous white board took a pharmaceutical company executive to task on the costs pharma companies spend on marketing and profits, shooting down their talking point that they must charge high prices to make up for research and development costs.

“62 House Republicans vote against bill to combat hate crimes against Asian-Americans. It passed 364-62. The bill passed the Senate weeks ago with just Josh Hawley voting against it” – Manu Raju.

Washington Post: “A Michigan judge on Tuesday rejected an effort to force a new audit of the 2020 election results in a county that has been central to false claims promoted by former president Donald Trump and his supporters that the election was stolen. Michigan Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer dismissed a case brought by a voter in rural Antrim County who had argued that ‘material fraud or error’ had taken place in the election and that he was entitled to a new audit of the results under state law. The case was one of the last challenges to the November election results still pending in the nation’s courts. Its dismissal comes as Trump and his supporters have been pushing to conduct audits around the country in hopes of uncovering issues they say willsupport Trump’s baseless claims that he defeated President Biden.”

“Trump issued a statement last week referring to the case as ‘the major Michigan Election Fraud case’ and highlighting a new filing from the plaintiffs that argued votes had been switched from Trump to Biden. ‘The number of votes is MASSIVE and determinative. This will prove true in numerous other States,’ Trump said. But Elsenheimer ruled that a statewide post-election audit conducted by Michigan’s secretary of state’s office that concluded in March – which found the election had been conducted fairly and accurately – was sufficient to satisfy a state law that allows voters to request audits. Because of that, he said, the suit was moot, and he granted a motion to dismiss sought by Michigan’s secretary of state and the clerk of Antrim County.”

https://youtu.be/t6y-jcU7l60

Departing from a norm for a sitting president, President Joe Biden took the wheel of a prototype of a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup at a test track in Michigan Tuesday afternoon.  (Normally, presidents are prohibited from driving vehicles by Secret Service due to safety concerns.) 

A House bill introduced by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island seeks to censure three Republican members of the House for downplaying, dismissing or lying about the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, Salon reports.

The bill would admonish Republican Congressmen  Andrew Clyde (GA), Paul Gosar (AZ), and Jody Hice (GA) for their comments that portrayed the insurrectionists as benignly as peaceful demonstrators or even tourists, or which falsely identified the attackers as members of left-wing movements like Black Lives Matter or antifa.

“These members cannot be allowed to rewrite history at their convenience by disrespecting the sacrifices made by Capitol police officers and downplaying the violent, destructive intent that rioters carried into this sacred building,” Cicilline stated in a letter to fellow lawmakers urging support for the censure. “The January 6th insurrection was an attack on our democracy that we must continue to defend against today,” he added. As for the exact wording of the resolution slated to be introduced by Cicilline, that remains a work in process.

There are a number of problems apparent with Andrew Giuliani’s newly launched campaign website, a review by National Zero staff revealed on Tuesday. First of which is the domain name that – in contrast to examples such as Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s SarahForArkansas.com and Rep Lee Zeldin’s ZeldinForNewYork.com – is fucking backwards. It should be [Candidate]for[State].com, not [State]for[Candidate].com. And yes, AndrewGiuliani.com and AndrewGiuliani2021.com are taken, but there had to be some better option he could have bought. Probably.

The rest of the issues are mostly self-explanatory. Especially the lack of merchandise. We were really looking forward to the stupid bullshit Andrew would be selling to fund this dead end, but the website itself will have to suffice for article material here on National Zero.

“Schumer says he will put the Jan 6 commission legislation on the Senate floor for a vote He slammed McCarthy for his ’11th hour opposition’ to the 1/6 commission and said it ‘shows how difficult it is to negotiate with Republicans… If the Republican leaders are just going to throw their lead negotiators under the bus why do they even participate in negotiations at all?'” reports CNN Congressional correspondent Ali Zaslav.

“Governor Greg Abbott today issued an Executive Order prohibiting governmental entities in Texas – including counties, cities, school districts, public health authorities, or government officials – from requiring or mandating mask wearing. Public schools may continue to follow current mask-wearing guidelines through June 4. After June 4, no student, teacher, parent, or other staff member or visitor can be required to wear a mask while on campus. Beginning May 21, local governments or officials that attempt to impose a mask mandate or impose a limitation inconsistent or conflicting with the Executive Order can be subject to a fine of up to $1,000“ – Texas.gov press release.

Awesome! https://t.co/SH9h5Ia2n7

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 18, 2021

“Charles Grodin, the versatile actor familiar from ‘Same Time, Next Year’ on Broadway, popular movies like ‘The Heartbreak Kid,’ ‘Midnight Run’ and ‘Beethoven’ and numerous television appearances, died on Tuesday at his home in Wilton, Conn. He was 86. His son, Nicholas, said the cause was bone marrow cancer. With a great sense of deadpan comedy and the kind of Everyman good looks that lend themselves to playing businessmen or curmudgeonly fathers, Mr. Grodin found plenty of work as a supporting player and the occasional lead. He also had his own talk show for a time in the 1990s and was a frequent guest on the talk shows of others, making 36 appearances on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’ and 17 on ‘Late Night With David Letterman.’ Mr. Grodin was a writer as well, with a number of plays and books to his credit. Though he never won a prestige acting award, he did win a writing Emmy for a 1977 Paul Simon television special, sharing it with Mr. Simon and six others” – New York Times.

Pic of the stage at the Michigan Ford factory where President Biden is set to deliver a speech on Tuesday, posted by Voice of America’s Steve Herman, who says there will be a new Ford vehicle model unveiled at the event, presumably an electric one. This is exactly the kind of event the former guy would have loved, standing there on stage as the shroud is removed to unveil a shiny new piece of metal that he can take credit for even though he had absolutely nothing to do with its development. There’s a very good chance that the Orange Tyrant will be so triggered that his handlers will be unable to stop him from reacting publicly with an angry post on his blog.