Thomas Bloom Raskin, the 25-year-old son of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, succumbed to the impact of depression on December 31st, a statement from the Congressman and his family confirms.

Raskin is a familiar member of Congress as a constitutional lawyer who frequently appeared on television, radio and podcasts particularly during the Trump impeachment hearings.

A graduate of Blair High School and Amherst College, Tommy Raskin was studying at Harvard Law School.

Tommy suffered from depression and apparently took his own life, leaving a note for his family:  “Please forgive me. My illness won today. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. All my love, Tommy.”

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the United States is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. Call them if you need to talk to someone.

In an interview on Fox News, Republican Georgia incumbent Senator apparently admits that he proudly outsourced jobs to China, including working with the Chinese government to operate manufacturing operations there.

https://youtu.be/QffmqLj9AQo

UPDATE (6:55 p.m.):  Enrique Tarrio was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in Washington, DC in connection to the burning last month of Black Live Matter banner that had been hanging outside a historic Black church, the New York Times reports.

According to the Times, “A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that Mr. Tarrio, 36, had been arrested on charges of destruction of property, stemming from a mid-December incident in downtown Washington. Upon his arrest he was found to be in possession of two high-capacity firearm magazines and charged accordingly with possession.”

In an interview with the Washington Post after the vandalism at the church, Tarrio said unequivocally, “So let me make this simple. I did it.”

It is unclear if Tarrio will face hate crime violations for targeting a Black church with his violent horde of followers.

(Editor’s Note:  This is most-definitely not a story on “The View,” the fodder of erstwhile media reporter for TheShill, Joe Concha.  This is a story on a political personality flip-flopping on her policy view because suddenly, the opposing position benefits her.  In its six-plus months of existence, NatZero is proud of the fact that we have never covered a daytime chat show as a news event, let along given it daily coverage–like someone named Oey-Jay Oncha-Kay did when he had a regular gig.)

Daytime talkshow host Meghan McCain, a newly-minted mother of a daughter whom she named Liberty Sage (a type of name right-wing sociopathic “patriots” are wont to use, like Justice, Freedom and Bristol), has done a 180-turn on her position of paid family leave, ABC News reports.

The daughter of long-time senator, the late John McCain, Meghan McCain has made a career of being the token aggrieved self-proclaimed conservative on television programs.  She would often spout the Party Line of Republicans espousing self-reliance and limited regulations on companies to provide for the well-being and financial security of employees.

Nearly four years after now-lame duck president Donald Trump worked to purge foreign intelligence services of anyone who wasn’t a straight white English speaker, the Central Intelligence Agency is now working to recruit employees from diverse cultures and backgrounds, ABC News reports.

CIA Director Gina Haspel has made diversifying the workforce a priority in an agency where knowledge of world cultures, languages and customs can lead to an important lead or vital tip in a national security situation.

The agency recently revamped its website to make the number and types of available jobs more readily accessible, and it streamlined its application process to encourage more people to apply for the thousands of jobs that open up annually.

In an effort to disgrace lame duck president Donald Trump in his final days in office, Iran has flouted its previous commitments to refrain from refining uranium above 20% purity, a level it agreed to in the Obama Administration-negotiated nuclear agreement, the Associated Press reports.

The Iranian military also seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker as it transited near the Strait of Hormuz, further escalating tensions with the West.  Last week, a limpet mine was found on Liberian-flagged tanker anchored off Basra, Iraq, an action suspected to have been done by Iranian military personnel.

Iran’s leadership said its actions were designed to encourage the parties who violated the multinational nuclear agreement to come back in compliance.  In 2018, the Trump Administration violated terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement even through it had certified that Iran was in compliance.

“Our measures are fully reversible upon FULL compliance by ALL,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted in a swipe at Trump. 

Police in Pittsburgh are investigating two incidents, two hours apart, in which explosives were tossed from a white pick-up truck Sunday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Around 9 p.m. ET Sunday, a white pick-up truck was filmed on a security camera in the Lower Lawrenceville neighborhood of the city.  An object was seen thrown from the vehicle, landing under a parked car, and that object exploded seconds later.

Ninety minutes later, another explosion was reported on in The Hill district.  Residents in the area said they heard a loud bang as their houses shook, and they reported a foul odor in the area.

Well that’s just fucking great. Developing…

In 16 days, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris will be sworn in as the next president and vice president of the United States. Nothing will change that.

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) January 4, 2021

With new coronavirus cases sweeping through England, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new lockdown in the country in an effort to stop the spread of a new, highly-contagious strain of the virus, the BBC reports.

Schools will be closed and people who can work from home will be told to do so, starting at midnight local time Monday.  The lockdown will last through mid-February  The British Parliament will vote to retroactively endorse the shutdown in its Wednesday session.

A new strain of the virus, called B.1.1.7, is reportedly 70% more contagious than the strains that impacted Europe and the United States earlier.  More than 26,000 people in England are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus.

“The pharmacist suspected of intentionally spoiling 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine at a Grafton hospital because he believed they were unsafe was released from jail Monday, after a prosecutor indicated he’s not positive the vaccine was actually destroyed.”

“Steven R. Brandenburg, 46, of Grafton, had been ordered held on a probable cause statement from Grafton police that he likely committed two felonies – first-degree recklessly endangering safety, which carries a maximum penalty of 7.5 years and criminal damage to property, which can result in up to 18 months in prison upon conviction. Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol told Circuit Judge Paul Malloy that the hospital had ‘walked back’ some of the information, that the vials in question have not since been destroyed, but are still in the hospital’s possession and might even still be viable. He said he’s working with Moderna to possibly test that evidence. If the vaccine is still good, Gerol said, the most he could charge Brandenburg with would be attempted criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor” – Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

“Dominion Voting Systems plans to sue attorney Sidney Powell ‘imminently’ for defamation, and is continuing to explore similar suits against President Trump and others, company founder and CEO John Poulos told the Axios Re:Cap podcast on Monday. Dominion, which makes the voting machines used in Georgia and elsewhere, has been the subject of baseless accusations of malfeasance during last November’s elections. Trump, during his leaked call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, called the U.S.-based company ‘corrupt’ and had to be corrected by Raffensperger after claiming machines had been recently removed and/or altered by Dominion employees. Dominion says that the rhetorical barrage has led to death threats against its employees, including one who remains unable to return to his home” – Axios.

Foley and Lardner, the Milwaukee law firm for which Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell is a partner, announced that they “are concerned by” Mitchell’s involvement in lame duck president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the November election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

“We are aware of, and are concerned by, Ms. Mitchell’s participation in the Jan. 2 conference call and are working to understand her involvement more thoroughly,” Dan Farrell, director of communication for the law firm, said in a statement Monday.

The language of the statement makes it appear that the firm was not aware of Mitchell’s involvement in the campaign prior to the release of the transcript of the January 2nd call by the Washington Post Sunday.

Foley & Lardner has more than 1,100 attorneys on staff and is the 11th largest law firm in the nation as far as personnel size.  It has 24 offices around the nation; Mitchell works out of the firm’s Washington, DC office.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will hold a news conference Monday at 3 p.m. ET today, according to WJBF ABC-6 News.  The event comes two days after lame duck president Donald Trump’s call with Georgia election officials begging, cajoling and threatening Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes to swing the state to Trump.

“The Constitution created a system for electing the President through the Electoral College that ensures the people and the states hold the power, not Congress. I cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters.”

“I voted for President Trump, campaigned for him as one of his Ohio co-chairs, and believe his policies are better for Ohio and America. Like nearly half the country, I was disappointed in the election results. Following the election, I supported the Trump campaign’s right to pursue recounts and legal challenges. There were instances of fraud and irregularities, as there are in every presidential election, and those who engaged in that conduct should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But after two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed a result and, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election. This was the finding of numerous Republican-appointed judges and the Trump Administration’s own Department of Justice. Every state has now weighed in and certified its electoral slate based on its vote and the process set out in the Constitution” – Statement posted to Rob Portman’s Senate.gov website.

US District Judge for the District of Columbia James Boasberg tossed out the motion for immediate injunction filed by the Republican-supported Wisconsin Voters Alliance against outgoing vice president Mike Pence to force Pence to throw out the state’s slate of electors in the upcoming Congressional Electoral College tally, saying they have “no likelihood of success.”

Appointed to the federal bench by GW Bush and named to the DC District Court by Barack Obama, Boasberg used unusually stark language to ridicule the case brought by the GOP-funded group.

“In addition to being filed on behalf of Plaintiffs without standing and (at least as to the state Defendants) in the wrong court and with no effort to even serve their adversaries, the suit rests on a fundamental and obvious misreading of the Constitution,” Boasberg’s opinion reads.  “It would be risible were its target not so grave: the undermining of a democratic election for President of the United States. The Court will deny the Motion.”

So you don’t have to rush over to Merriam-Webster.com, “risible” is an adjective meaning “arousing or provoking laughter.”

Just sworn in!!

It’s an honor to represent the people of Northwest Georgia!

Time to get to work. pic.twitter.com/HzwrJzd3kE

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 3, 2021

House Democrats Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York have called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to open an investigation into the call lame duck president Donald Trump had with Georgia state election officials in an attempt to undermine the state’s election results, NBC News reports.

“As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” the pair wrote in a letter sent to Wray Monday. “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.”

During the Saturday call, Trump pressed Georgia Secretary of State to find enough votes for Trump to overturn the election results, which have been certified President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the state’s popular vote. 

Noting that only the states have the right to appoint electors to the Electoral College to represent the will of the voters in those respective states, seven Republican members of the House of Representatives issued a statement Monday saying they would respect the electors as appointed by the states.

Representatives Thomas Massie (Ky.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Mike Gallagher (Wis.) Nancy Mace (S.C.), Tom McClintock (Cal.), Chip Roy (Texas) said that while there are questions about the process that need to be addressed in the way the election was conducted, the votes of the electors should be honored.

“But only the states have authority to appoint electors, in accordance with state law. Congress has only a narrow role in the presidential election process,” the statement says.  “Its job is to count the electors submitted by the states, not to determine which electors the states should have sent.”