Trafalgar, the pollster that out-fanboys Rasmussen and famously predicted Trump would win re-election, is amazingly still in business despite that prediction failing to come to pass. Their presidential approval polls puts Biden’s approval and disapproval at 48% each. Read more here.

Right now Twitter is rife with tweeted photos of idiots hoarding gasoline all along the East Coast. A quick scroll reveals one photo or video after another of pudgy white people putting huge amounts of gas into as many containers as possible. This happened shortly after the Biden Administration and several state governors declared that there would be no gasoline shortages as long as people don’t start panic buying and hoarding gas. 

https://youtu.be/u7eGD2ohPvg

Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, on why immigration reform wasn’t passed in 2013 when it had overwhelming Congressional support:  “The then Speaker of the House, even though there were votes that would’ve passed it, refused to bring it up because it would’ve violated a rule he considered sacred. The Dennis Hastert rule. I think they call it something different now that former Speaker Hastert went to prison.”

“As the Manager, Cyber Security, you are accountable for managing a team of cyber security certified subject matter experts and specialists including but not limited to network security engineers, SCADA & field controls network engineers and a cyber security architect. As the Manager, you will lead the development of the enterprise strategy for cybersecurity; will oversee the development of standards and processes for cyber security; lead the recovery from security incidents; and guide forensics of incidents. You are someone who has an understanding of emerging security threats in order to design security policies and procedures to mitigate threats where possible” says the job listing posted Wednesday at Daybook.

The listing makes no mention of what happened to their previous cybersecurity manager, or if this is a new role, or really any reason why they find themselves hiring for the position. It does extol “a stable company which offers a generous compensation and benefits package that includes annual incentive bonuses, retirement plans, insurance coverage and a host of other features that support a happy, active, productive and rewarding life” however.

Consumer prices experienced the highest monthly rise they’ve experienced since September 2008, with April reporting a 0.8% in consumer prices for goods and services, worrying analysts that a spike in inflation could stifle a post-pandemic economic recovery.

According to Politico, the increase in prices have been simmering for months.  The new and used car markets contributed about one-third of the price increases due to a computer chip shortage that lowered the production of new vehicles and put upward pressure on used car prices.  Increases in housing, food and clothes also contributed to the monthly rise.

Year-over-year costs increased by 4.2%, the highest that figure has jumped since September 2008 when it increased 4.9%.  Taking out volatile energy and food prices, costs increased 3.0% over the last 12 months, and 0.9% in April. 

Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline.

— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) May 12, 2021

With the Colonial pipeline shut down because of a foreign ransomware attack, people in Southern states have started hoarding gasoline, causing numerous gas stations to run out of fuel and stoking additional fears of gas shortages, the Washington Post reports.

The Colonial Pipeline Company was targeted with a ransomware attack Friday, leading it to shut down the pipeline it operates which supplies approximately 45% of the processed fuel used on the East Coast.

Analysts have called the resulting shortage a “self-fulfilling prophecy” as consumers lined up to fill car tanks and hoard gasoline in gas cans, even though officials state the flow of gasoline will resume by the weekend.  One photo distributed by a wire service showed a couple filling a dozen 5-gallon gas cans and putting them in their minivan. 

A Minnesota judge announced that there were aggravating factors in the murder of George Floyd, allowing the state to sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to a longer prison term for the killing, the Associated Press reports.

Judge Peter Cahill determined that Chauvin acted with cruelty in his attack on Floyd and that Chauvin abused his position as a police officer.  Minnesota law allows for stricter sentences for crimes when extenuating circumstances are identified.

Chauvin was convicted of two counts of murder and one of manslaughter in the homicide of George Floyd, a Black man on whose neck and back Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on for more than nine minutes, causing him to die of asphyxiation.

The judge could sentence Chauvin to up to 40 years, although legal experts watching the case believe Chauvin will be sentenced to around 30 years.

“Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country. She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy. She is a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East Disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our Great Military, the worst decision in our Country’s history. I look forward to soon watching her as a Paid Contributor on CNN or MSDNC!” says the not at all bitter former guy on his blog.

“Cheny removed from her post by voice vote” reports Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman.

“Republican Rep. Liz Cheney says she will do everything she can ‘to ensure that the former president never gets anywhere near the Oval Office'” adds CNN’s Ali Zaslav.

1) Thread on @Liz_Cheney @SteveScalise and @GOPLeader:
Truth and lies cannot Co-exist. On January 6th, Liz and Kevin McCarthy have just about the same speech, rightly casting blame at the former President for the violence.

— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) May 12, 2021

Thread continued: “But Kevin wants to be speaker. He made the determination that if he appeased the Trump crowd, he could raise money and take the credit, when he was up for speaker. So he changed his tune and made the trek to Mar-a-Lago, in essence reviving the former Guy… he also (wrongly) assumes that people like me will vote for him for speaker, but the legislative terrorists in the freedom club wouldn’t, so he needs to be all in with them. It’s the cynical play that gives politicians the reputation we have… Anyway, he revived Trump and the panic spread through our conference, and Kevin made the decision for the party that Trump and not Kevin or Mitch, would lead us. Despite Trump being a loser and a choke artist as evident by our loss of all leg branches and presidency… Liz stayed consistent. She didn’t look for opportunities to attack Jan 6, but as conference chair she does press and is naturally asked about it. She responds truthfully. Kevin? He felt threatened, so instead of fighting for his job he went on offense against Liz…”

“Dozens of bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganges this week, most likely the remains of people who perished from Covid-19. States in southern India have threatened to stop sharing medical oxygen with each other, fiercely protective about holding on to whatever they have as their hospitals swell with the sick and infections skyrocket. And at one hospital in Andhra Pradesh, a rural state in southeastern India, furious relatives went on a rampage in the intensive care unit after lifesaving oxygen suddenly ran out – the latest example of the same tragedy repeating itself, of patients dying while gasping for air.”

“The desperation that engulfed New Delhi, India’s capital, over the past few weeks is now spreading across the entire country, hitting states and rural areas with many fewer resources. Positivity rates are soaring in those states, and public health experts say that the rising numbers most likely fall far short of giving the true picture in places where sickness and deaths caused by Covid-19 are harder to track. It seems the crisis is reaching a new phase. Cases in New Delhi and Mumbai may be leveling off. But many other places are getting bowled over by runaway outbreaks. The World Health Organization now says that a new variant of the virus detected in India, B.1.167, may be especially transmissible, which is just adding to the sense of alarm” – New York Times.

Axios: “As House Republicans meet to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post for criticizing Donald Trump, swing voters in Axios’ latest Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups hold a near-unanimous view that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his caucus are making a mistake. Nine of 14 voters said they could vote for a Republican for U.S. House or Senate races next year. All but one ruled out backing any candidate who clings to the former president’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. 13 of the 14 said Cheney (R-Wyo.) should not be removed and that it would be a mistake for House Republicans to go through with their plans.”

“These were the biggest takeaways from two back-to-back focus groups conducted Tuesday night, on the eve of an expected vote to purge Cheney from her No. 3 spot in the House GOP leadership. The two seven-member panels included women and men, from a mix of the most competitive swing states, who voted for Trump in 2016 but President Biden in 2020. While focus groups are not statistically significant samples like polls, the responses show how some voters in crucial states are thinking about issues that could shape next year’s midterm elections.”

More than 100 current Republicans, including leaders on the federal and state levels, have vowed to leave the GOP and form a third party if Republicans do not make fundamental changes in its leadership to minimize the impact of Trumpism on the Party, the New York Times reports.

The group is expected to release a letter outlining the ultimatum later this week in a move seen as a counter to House Republicans holding a vote Wednesday to remove Wyoming’s Liz Cheney from House leadership for voting to impeach Donald Trump and vocally opposing him.

“This is a first step,” said Miles Taylor, an organizer of the effort and a former Trump-era Department of Homeland Security official, told the Times.  “This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option.”

A Republican Michigan state legislator wants to make it a law that “fact checkers” must register with the state and may be assessed fines of up to $1,000 if they fail to comply, the Detroit News reports.

Republican state representative Matt Maddock’s draft legislation, called the “Fact Checker Registration Act” would also require all “fact checkers” to carry a bond of $1 million.  Maddock defines a “fact checker” as anyone who publishes in print or online in Michigan, is paid by a fact-checking organization and is a member of the International Fact Check Network.

FACT CHECK:  The “International Fact Check Network” isn’t a membership organization; it’s a group formed by the Poynter Institute to put out some basic responsibilities and standards for fact checkers working independently or through other media. 

Caitlyn Jenner, the athlete-turned-reality television star-turned political hopeful, stated unequivocally in a CNN interview aired Monday that she didn’t vote in the 2020 election, saying that she “couldn’t get excited” about the election.

Stating that she did a very Trumpian thing in going golfing rather than voting for her friend Donald Trump, Jenner said her vote wouldn’t have mattered in the election because she’s a Republican in Deep Blue California.

“I didn’t even vote,” gubernatorial candidate Jenner told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Out here in California, it’s like, why vote for a Republican president?  It’s just not going to work. I mean, it’s overwhelming.”

But also in a very Trumpian way, she’s been proven to be lying.  Voting records are public in California, and Politico found that Los Angeles County records show that Jenner did, in fact, vote in the November 2020 election.  While the candidates for whom she voted is confidential, the fact that Jenner voted is public record.

Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney is not going quietly into the GOP’s dark night.

“We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen. And America has not failed,” Cheney said.

Whether she’s doing it to save the American republic or to save her position as Republican Caucus Chair, Cheney laid it all on the table during an impassioned floor speech decrying the direction the GOP has taken:  in subservience to Donald Trump.

Actor Norman Lloyd, known for his television role on the 1980s television show St. Elsewhere as well as films directed by Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, died Tuesday at the age of 106, USA Today reports.

Typically, NatZero would not cover the death of an actor–no matter if his career was as successful and honored as Lloyd’s–but Lloyd wasn’t just an actor.  He was also someone who stood up to the bully of McCarthyism and the Hollywood Blacklist, one of the last living artists impacted by it.

The Hollywood Blacklist was conservative “cancel culture” at its worst.  Actors, producers, directors, singers–even low-level crew–were denied work because of alleged ties to communism and the Soviet Union.

A little history lesson:  In 1947, Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate during the Truman administration.  In the start of the Cold War, radical anti-communist Republicans took over the House Un-American Affairs Committee, a one-time ad hoc committee set up to investigate activities by communists, fascists and “enemy sympathizers.”

The Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department has been hit by a severe ransomware attack by the Babuk hacker group, who has released personnel files and is threatening to release information on ongoing investigations and informants, the Washington Post reports.

The group has posted a password-protected file that it says contains information on criminal investigations, secret informants and gang members, but it has not yet posted the password to unlock the file.  “You still have the ability to stop it,” the group wrote.

Babuk earlier released the personnel files of more than 3,600 current and former police officers and other employees.  The Department employs more than 3,800 officers and about 700 civilians.