Obviously regretting his Orange Messiah’s impulsive decision to accept Joe Biden’s challenge to a debate without agreeing to the disadvantageous terms first, right wing radio dipshit Hugh Hewitt on Thursday tried to “work the refs” in a Fox News opinion piece with the subhed of “There are questions and phrases we should not hear tonight from CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper tonight.”

Lol. “Suspicion of the media is omnipresent and comes from both sides of the yawning divide between red and blue America. Which is why the category of questions that should not be asked tonight all begin with some variation of ‘That’s not true Mr President,’ or ‘Are you saying, Mr President, that [this or that] isn’t true?'” Hewitt writes to set his goalpost (for now) on whether the debate’s been “rigged” against the fat convicted felon or not… subject to change, of course.

“Fact checking has no place during a presidential debate. Fact checking by the moderators tonight or other moderators later in this cycle is anathema to productive debates. Asking straightforward questions should be the goal. A thousand analysts will descend on the statements made immediately after the conclusion of the debate (and throughout it online),” Hewitt continues. We’ll give him that part at least. CNN has already declared that moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper won’t be fact-checking in real time during the debate which, as frustrating as that might sound, leaves it to Biden to call Trump out and for Trump to flail while attempting to do the same. That’s how Biden’s going to win without making it look like Bash and Tapper gave him an assist.

But to demand the two don’t at least frame their questions about whether X or Y is true gives away how nervous Hewitt is and correctly so because that would seriously fuck up Trump.

Freedom Caucasians chair Bob Good – who is at this point pretty unlikely to be in Congress by this time next year – on Tuesday fired some d-bag named Ray Yonkura from running the House Freedom Fund and House Freedom Action campaign operations for reasons unclear, Punchbowl reports.

Younkura’s fundraising numbers this cycle – just $6.7 million compared to $18 million in 2022 and about $20 million in 2020 – make it obvious he sucks too but it’s possible this is a “burn everything down” type move as Good’s ouster at the hands of also far right primary challenger John McGuire.

NBC’s “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock,” a clip show of Olympic highlights available to the network’s streaming customers, will feature an artificial intelligence version of legendary broadcaster Al Michael’s voice, the network reports.  Michael’s “Do you believe in miracles?” call from the 1980 Winter Olympic US-USSR ice hockey game is one of the most iconic in American sports.

The move comes with Michael’s approval–something that was required thanks to new contracts secured by the actor’s unions.  Frankly, it was astonishing. It was amazing,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair magainze. “And it was a little bit frightening,” noting, “It was not only close, it was almost 2% off perfect.”

After his attempt to be coy by claiming the “race was over” failed, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp admitted that he left the top slot on his primary ballot blank, refusing to choose any of the eleven candidates that appeared on the ballot.  A relative moderate in today’s GOP, Kemp personifies a lot of Republicans who cringe at the Donald Trump reboot at the top of the ticket, but want to support lower-office candidates.

Two 19-year-old professional basketball players from France were the top two draft picks in the NBA draft on Wednesday, knocking an American job seeker to the third spot, ESPN reports, and this follows the 2023 draft when another Frenchman took the top spot.

Zaccharie Risacher, a 6’9″ forward playing in the top French professional league, was chosen by the Atlanta Hawks.  Seven-foot-one Alex Sarr, a center/forward who plays in the Australian professional league, was selected second by the Washington Wizards.  Risacher and Sarr first played against each other as 13-year-olds in French youth leagues.  Another Frenchman, Tidjane Salaun, was selected sixth by the Charlotte Hornets.

We don’t plan this; this is just how the ticker at National Zero sometimes runs, and it’s focused on Marge and “stolen valor” stories at the moment.  The military record of Hung Cao, the Republican candidate challenging Virginia’s incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, does not reflect his claims that he was disabled when he was “blown up” while serving in combat, USA Today reports.

Cao’s records show he was not awarded a Purple Heart, given to those wounded in combat or the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon, given to sailors who saw active combat.  Cao, who retired from the Navy in 2021 after 25 years with the rank of Captain (the same rank as fellow Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson), was awarded a Bronze Star, which may recognize “meritorious service” in a combat zone, as well as heroic feats in combat.

To be clear, Cao has not claimed he has a medal he wasn’t actually awarded, nor is the report challenging his official account of his military career.  Cao, however, has characterized himself as having been disabled in service of the country–as well as in a vivid combat situation–but there’s no supporting documentation to show he was actually “blown up” and disabled while in the Navy.

One of two Texas Republicans who falsely claimed military honors, Congressman Troy Nehls whined that he was being targeted for being Trump’s Number One fan in the House after he agreed to stop wearing a pin on his lapel reflecting he was awarded a Combat Infantry Badge while he was in the Army, Politico reports.

Nehls routinely wore a lapel pin in Congress denoting he was a CIB recipient, but the Army had rescinded the award in 2023 because Nehls didn’t actually qualify for it.  He spent a month in Afghanistan in March 2008 as a civilian affairs specialist; the Combat Infantry Badge is reserved for infantrymen and special forces operators who serve in combat.

Unfortunately, Nehls isn’t the only member of the GOP conference its members allow to dishonor the military:  Ronny Johnson Jackson still claims he’s a retired rear admiral from his time serving as the pill dispenser in the White House, but he was demoted to captain after a Navy investigation found he was frequently drunk on duty; tolerated sexual harassment in his command; sexually harassed people in his command; and handed out prescription drugs without proper examinations.

“A person who abuses her position in government to meddle in democratic elections should be nowhere near public office,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican Congresswoman from Georgia who clearly does not remember filming the video below showing her exiting the White House in December 2020, discussing how she and Donald Trump were discussing how to disrupt the democratic process. 

Online retailing monolith Amazon wants to undermine the footing discount Chinese fashion outlets like Shein and Temu by opening up a new section of its platform dedicated to cheap clothes made by slave labor that can be shipped inexpensively to Americans, NBC News reports.

Announced at an invite-only conference for Chinese makers, the storefront will feature Chinese-made unbranded clothing typically selling for less than $20.  The items sold through the discount store will not be eligible for overnight Prime shipping and will typically arrive at the US destinations in nine to eleven days.

Hi Marjorie! I’m Brigitte and I’m the queen in the clip. I’m born female and not a man. You are just proving that gender is socially constructed and have no idea what you’re talking about and why you should have no say in our lives. https://t.co/VjG81j2fO3

— Brigitte Bandit💘 (@BrigitteBandit) June 26, 2024

A nonbinary Texas drag queen who was labeled as female when born points out to Republican Georgia missing link Marjorie Taylor Greene that her gender stereotypes and biases are hilariously wrong.  Under laws proposed by Republicans in their culture war–undertaken because they have no policies or accomplishments to run on–Brigitte Bandit would be allowed to perform in full drag regalia while her male counterparts could not.

A former Georgia Garda armored truck driver spending the next 63 months in a federal prison has a lot of free time to figure out what he might’ve done differently in that armed robbery he staged with the help of four other dudes he recruited via Snapchat, per WSB-TV. Maybe 28 year-old Terry Pollard should’ve tried to be more convincing to the cops who responded to the scene in North Charleston, South Carolina and became suspicious during their initial interview, alerting the FBI immediately. Maybe he should have been a little more discerning in picking his accomplices because they all pleaded guilty and he Pollard was the only one to take it to a jury that convicted him quickly.

But we’d have to think that maybe, just maybe, the one thing Pollard wishes he didn’t do was hold up a wad of cash from the stolen $1.4 million in a video posted to Snapchat by one of his co-defendants while they were celebrating after the robbery. That’s the kind of thing that jurors are allowed to draw one of those “adverse inferences” in deciding whether or no the accused is guilty.

CORRECTION: I fucked this up. Pollard was not the Garda driver, he was one of the recruits. All other details are accurate. Leaving article intact because it was funnier this way.

Bragg's office faces bar complaint alleging discrimination in 'diversity' hiring practices https://t.co/QodUnUSmrg

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 26, 2024

Oh jeez. Bolivia’s army seems to be feeling kind of feverish and antsy, which is an early warning sign of the coups. Reuters reports heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles were seen assembling in the capital city of La Paz’s Plaza Murillo and the president, Luis Arce, denounced the “irregular mobilization” of the troops he’s supposed to command. Definitely sounds like coup symptoms.

Everyone in Bolivia should have some chicken soup and take a nap or watch soap operas on the couch for a while instead of arresting and summarily executing bureaucrats loyal to the regime.

A Republican candidate for the Hennepin County, Minnesota Board of Commissioners is facing fifth degree assault charges for tossing a live tarantula at her roommate in a rented home, KARE reports.

Marisa Christina Simonetti, 30, was arrested on Friday, June 21 after the roommate called cops to report Simonetti trespassing into her side of the house screaming and throwing stuff, including the giant spider, at the other woman. It’s not Simonetti’s first brush with the law as her ex accused Simonetti of creating a phony Grindr account using his name and photo and messaging several men who then showed up at his house expecting sex. They have a child and mutual restraining orders.

A new Marquette University Law School survey finds President Biden leading convicted felon former President Trump 51 to 49 percent among likely voters in Wisconsin. Incumbent Dem Senator Tammy Baldwin leads assclown Republican challenger Eric Hovde 49 to 40 percent.

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday accidentally posted to its website a ruling in Moyle v Idaho over whether abortions in the case of medical emergencies are allowed, Bloomberg reports, their brief viewing of the decision long enough to see that the case was deemed “improvidently granted.”

Oh look, Kinzinger finally came out of the closet.

As usual, we knew all along, so not a surprise and none of us care. pic.twitter.com/e9Sjj5z6fv

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) June 26, 2024

Kenyan President William Ruto on Wednesday announced he’s backed down from a massive tax hike plan that had sparked violent and sometimes deadly protests, one of which saw former President Barack Obama’s half-sister Auma tear-gassed in Nairobi on Tuesday, Sky News reports

“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this finance bill 2024. I concede. And therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Ruto said in the announcement of his surrender to the woke mob.

Police on Hawaii’s Big Island are investigating whether a 20 year-old Romanian man who on Monday emerged from a swim in the waters off Anaeho’omalu Bay in Waikoloa with bloody lacerations to his foot consistent with teeth marks was bitten by a shark, MauiNow.com reports.

It’s not clear why “consistent with” a shark bite isn’t enough to just say a shark bit the poor bastard since the available circumstantial evidence strongly indicates it was a shark. Unless they’re prepared to reveal knowledge of the existence of some kind of new form of predatory sea life previously unknown to the public they should just go ahead and blame a shark. Like what else is there to this “investigation” if the cops aren’t also considering that a radioactive bear with a mutated ability to breathe underwater found its way from Siberia to Hawaii? And if and when they find the shark and its teeth marks match perfectly to the bite are they going to say it “allegedly” bit the guy?