An OG Defamer, renegade rancher Ammon Bundy has fled his beloved home state after an Idaho hospital that won a $50 million suit against him took possession of his ranch and seized his family assets, the Daily Beast reports.  Bundy said on a livestreamed podcast that St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center not only took possession of his ranch, but it also “cleaned out” bank accounts belonging to his wife and 19- or 20-year-old son (Bundy couldn’t quite pin down his son’s age).

Bundy took offense to those in the so-called Freedom Movement for fleeing Idaho, feeling that he’s a spineless coward.  That’s not so, he claims.  “The Freedom Movement want to condemn me for leaving Idaho but the problem is I could not find people who would stand and stop what was happening to my family and the same goes with, you know, the sheriff,” Bundy said before condemning bankers, court officers and others who complied with court orders against him.

“As soon as some wicked judge, under the hands of some wicked attorneys, as soon as they say ‘hey give us that person’s property and that person’s money’ they just give it to them,” Bundy said. “This is the situation we’re in: no one will fight for anybody else, that’s why I had to leave Idaho.”

Days after former journalist Yekaterina Duntsova announced her candidacy, a Russian election commission ruled her ineligibility to run for President, challenging Vladimir Putin, saying that there were “numerous violations” in her candidacy filing, Reuters reports.  A critic of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the 40-year-old Duntsova denounced the move and said she would challenge it in the Russian Supreme Court, which consists of 115 judges appointed by Russia’s President and led by an 80-year-old Yeltsin appointee.

On Thursday right wing propaganda site Breitbart “reported” that an April 2, 2022 New York Times article on President Joe Biden’s privately-held frustrations with Attorney General Merrick Garland over being too slow to act against fat former President Trump had “resurfaced,” simply because some right wing douchebag named David Sacks (lol) tweeted a screenshot of this relevant section from the story: “Mr Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan 6.”

Who the hell knows if Breitbart had picked up that story when the Times published it. National Zero sure did. Our guess is probably not and their editors were like “WTF?!? HOW DID WE MISS THIS?”

They pretty much had to grab that dipshit’s tweet to frame the story as having “resurfaced” while their champion is being persecuted by a DC establishment whose power he gravely threatens.

“I said this was going to happen earlier this week. The case was pre-decided before it was even brought. Sad day for Wisconsin when the state supreme court just said last year that the existing lines are constitutional. Fortunately, the US Supreme Court will have the last word,” tweeted Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker on Friday after the state Supreme Court dropped the hammer on his extremely gerrymandered chamber and threatening his grip on power.

Problem for Vos is that the US Supreme Court is almost certain to reject any challenge to the Wisconsin state Supreme Court’s ruling, as UT Law Professor Steve Vladeck writes “The US Supreme Court has neither statutory nor constitutional jurisdiction to review how a state supreme court applies its state constitution to its state legislative districts… (Even at its most robust, the ‘Independent State Legislature’ theory would only authorize #SCOTUS review of how a state supreme court applied its state constitution to *federal* congressional or presidential elections.)”

So yeah, it’s over and, better yet, if for some reason Vos changes his mind again about not impeaching state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz – whose election in April flipped the court’s majority and made this ruling possible – the window to force an April 2024 election on Protasiewicz’s replacement closed on December 1st and if she were removed or resigned after being impeached then Dem Governor Tony Evers could appoint a replacement who wouldn’t face voters until 2031 due to some vagaries in state Supreme Court election law. Sucks for Vos.

• On Christmas Eve, we celebrate the misdated birth of a displaced impoverished liberal Palestinian Jew who was wrongly executed by a dictatorship at the behest of corrupt religious leaders–and whose most ardent modern-day followers believe would endorse a thrice-married adulterer who stole money from charities and continues to slander and lie to amass personal political power–by cheering on a dead Turkish Catholic bishop who commands a workforce of enslaved elves to make gifts for children he creepily spies on all year and then morphs into a psychic magical globetrotter with superpowered reindeer.  
• The “Trump was never convicted of insurrection, lib!” arguments are easily dismissed by pointing out that no one–not even Jefferson Davis–was tried for insurrection or treason after the Civil War, but no one would argue people like Davis or Col. Robert E. Lee was not covered by XIV.3.
• Let’s erect a statue honoring the conquests of Mexican General Santa Anna in San Antonio outside the Alamo and see how Texans like it.
• We knew Trump talked to Republican Michigan county elections officials; that was divulged in the January 6th commission.  The tape is new, and it begs the question:  how many state-level GOP officials in Michigan did Trump and Romney-McDaniel try to coerce before having to reach out to county-level officials to fuck up the election?
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CLII”

President Biden intends to issue additional blanket pardons to people convicted of possession of small amounts of marijuana on federal land and in Washington, DC, and he will grant clemency to eleven people convicted of non-violent drug crimes who have already served decades in prison, Forbes reports.

The move widens the move Biden made in 2022 to pardon people convicted of federal charges for simple possession and expands it to clear the record of people who attempted to buy marijuana on federal land and other minor non-violent possession charges.  Such convictions impacted these individuals’ ability to get a job, their ability to get credit or loans, and their eligibility for scholarships and loans.

“Let’s be clear:  the real win is for the court to rule that a President is Constitutionally immune for being persecuted [sic] for the official conduct of his office,” former Trump Administration Krampus Stephen Miller shouts as though he’s trying to convince himself that what he’s saying is true.  “A far-left prosecutor cannot say that the elected leader of the country can go to jail for using his judgment and discretion in carrying out his official duty.”

First, the President of the United States has no Constitutional role in appointing or counting Electoral College electors.  None.  Zero.  There is no role for the President of the United States in the Electoral College.  Second–and Miller needs to understand this–election interference is not an official duty of the President.

As much as we would like to leave this Truth Social push notification alone to speak for itself, some context is necessary to at least expand upon the stupidty – and Islamophobic fuckery – afoot here.

Donald Trump has reportedly been discussing the possibility of Republican former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be the VP nominee with him leading the ticket, a rumor that likely is not being accepted well either in the Haley camp or by MAGA supporters, CBS News reports.

Haley has been a vocal critic of Trump after initially saying she would support him if he chose to run for president a fourth time.  She’s also been gaining in the polls, consolidating support both among voters and with donors, who are looking for a viable alternative to Trump in the GOP.

“The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected Deranged Jack Smith’s desperate attempt to short circuit our Great Constitution. Crooked Joe Biden and his henchmen waited three years to bring this sham case, and now they have tried and failed to rush this Witch Hunt through the courts. Of course I am entitled to Presidential Immunity. I was President, it was my right and duty to investigate, and speak on, the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election. Looking forward to the very important arguments on Presidential Immunity in front of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals,” writes fat former President Trump on Truth Social, still not explaining why he cares if Jack Smith was trying to “rush” the case if the court was going to rule in Trump’s favor.

As expected, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled 4-3 in favor of voters who sued to break Republicans’ iron grip on power in the Cheesehead State, ordering new district maps drawn.

This bill was introduced in the People’s House on December 22nd at 0900 eastern.https://t.co/V3ONQIPomW

— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) December 22, 2023

Moron deleted the original because he’d written “This bill was introduced in the People’s House on December 23rd at 0900 eastern,” emphasis added because he’s dumb as shit.

In a Friday morning interview with right wing assclown Hugh Hewitt, disgraced former President Trump said a lot of deranged shit that we could pick up, but again we want to highlight the fat bastard tripling down on his obviously complete made-up secret fentanyl deal with Chinese dictator Xi Jingping, a rant prompted by Hewitt asking “I want to talk about fentanyl, because I asked the candidates about fentanyl. How do we stop fentanyl getting into the country, Mr President?”

Well, I had it done pretty much, and then we had the election result. I’ll tell you what happened. I met with President Xi. He was going to criminalize the making of fentanyl. Most of it comes out of China, as you know. And then it gets passed through the border. [Hewitt says only “Yes” here and lets Trump continue] And I had it down to the lowest level it was since it really, since its inception, which you know, was a sort of a more modern drug, as horrible as it is. It’s just horrible what they’re doing. They’re killing hundreds of thousands of our people. And I had, President Xi was going to criminalize it at the highest level, meaning the death penalty if you make fentanyl, send it over to the United States through Mexico or anywhere else. He was all set to do that, and then we had the election results, so he didn’t do it. And I don’t blame him for that. But he was all set to criminalize it, and there were going to be harsh penalties if he didn’t. This was not a nice conversation, and he was all set. We have to stop fentanyl. We have to stop it at the border, and we have to put tremendous pressure on China. And we have tremendous power over China.

Trump went on with “Biden doesn’t know how to use that power, I really believe, because he’s taken so much money personally out of China, that I really believe he’s afraid to talk about it. Because any money that Jamie [Comer], who’s done a great job, and Jim Jordan” and blah blah blah.

The Supreme Court has apparently denied Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s move for an expedited review of fat former President Trump’s claims of immunity from the post-2020 election coup attempt charges in DC, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports based on the court’s docket.

While this fucking sucks, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals have set an expedited review with the hearing set for January 9th, so it’s possible that the trial can still begin on March 4th should the Supreme Court refuse to hear Trump’s appeal after his loss at the intermediate court. Again though, the dumbest part about this is that you would think that, if the fat bastard was confident Los Supremos would rule in his favor that he would want them to take it up as soon as possible. It says a lot about how this is all about escaping justice than it is proving his innocence.

Leftist commie “RINO” Karl Rove on Friday told Fox News that fat former President Trump and feckless toady Ronna Not-Romney’s call to the two Michigan canvassers trying to get them to back out of certifying the election results in 2020 was not a “perfect call.” Rove seemed a little disappointed in Ronna because he thought she was good at staying out of stupid shit like this.

In a headline that writes itself, the pro-Ron DeSantis “Never Back Down” PAC has backed down from $2.5 million worth of ad buys in Iowa and New Hampshire as the dream of Tiny D defeating fat former President Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination fades, the Messenger reports.

Actually maybe “backs out” would’ve worked a little better since it’s a lateral transactional commitment to purchase something of value and thus a participatory engagement between two entities. “Backing down” implies voluntary withdrawal from a more confrontational interaction, perhaps even a “fight” of a verbal, physical, or political nature. However we’re stuck with “Never Back Down” so we have to work with it to maintain at least some patina of clever wit.

So yeah, they “backed down,” even if the more accurate means of describing the situation would would be that they backed out of the purchase. Come to think of it, between the Never Back Down PAC and the DeSantis Campaign that they’re not supposed to be coordinating with but do it anyway, you could say that they haven’t really backed down ever, continuing this fucking political kamikaze run that should’ve ended before it even started because their candidate sucks and badly needs a personality transplant. There’s some nobility and bravery in that, even if backing down and to wait out the Orange Madness still plaguing the Republican electorate might’ve been the smarter move.

Republican State Representatives Cory Mcgarr, Charlice Byrd, and Aaron Bernstine of Arizona, Geora, and Pennsylvania, respectively, have scored a major victory in the fight to gain exposure to national right wing media audiences by drafting bills to remove President Joe Biden from the 2024 ballot in each of their battleground states, Breitbart reports in a big “exclusive” top homepage story.

“We are joining forces to introduce legislation to REMOVE Joe Biden from the ballot in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania,” the three thirsty legislators said in the free campaign advertising space provided by Breitbart. “The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades. By their very own interpretation of the law, Joe Biden is 100 percent not eligible to run for political office. Democrats’ insane justification to remove Trump can just as easily be applied to Joe Biden for his ‘insurrection’ at the southern border and his alleged corrupt family business dealings with China.”

“While GOP elites are asleep at the wheel, the Democrats are very serious about destroying the American Republic. Thank God for patriots like Aaron Bernstine, Charlice Byrd, and Cory McGarr for stepping up to FIGHT back,” GOP “political strategist” Cliff Maloney told Breitbart.

It’s not clear why Breitbart reported on this now when the bills are simply being drafted and not maybe when they were passed by their respective legislatures and signed by the governors effecting Joe Biden’s removal from the ballot. That way Republican voters who regularly read Breitbart won’t be disappointed if the bills fail to pass, even though Mcgarr, Byrd, and Bernstine are telling them this is an 100 percent winner and to stick a fork in Joe Biden because’s so done.

House Republicans are having some trouble getting on the same page with the plans to impeach President Hunter Biden for taking bribes and smoking crack and stuff as some are reluctant to move forward with drafting articles that only implicate Hunter’s dad Joe in the supposed crimes to launch a dead-end trial in the Demo-controlled Senate (who could dismiss the articles right away) as there might be some advantage to dragging out the inquiry in 2024, NBC News reports.

“If I had $100 and a chance to bet to turn it into a million dollars, I don’t know that I’d risk losing that $100 on this process. Bottom line: I don’t know how it’s gonna turn out,” a “GOP member who previously served in leadership” told NBC. That was definitely Kevin McCarthy, lol. He’s still technically a GOP member of Congress as his resignation isn’t effective until December 31st.

Factcheck: according to Devon Archer’s actual testimony (vis @RepJamesComer misrepresentations), the mayor’s wife is a real estate investor who mistakenly sent $2.5m of a $120m real estate investment with Archer to a wrong account w Hunter.

Hunter was not involved in this deal. https://t.co/ouNx4au49G

— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) December 22, 2023

What a dick. Ted Cruz puts a lot of work into podcasting. He told everyone in Congress about it and doesn’t even hit them up for donations or anything like that. It’s totally free to listen and there’s no advertising for gold bars or reverse mortgages or any of the stuff other podcasters have to bug you with while you’re trying to listen. On top of all that Cruz is able to land important interviews with guys like James Comer and Dr Phil. Let’s see Dan Goldman start a podcast and get Dr Phil to come talk to him! He’d probably end up getting some “woke” doctor like (ugh) Fauci or Surgeon General Vivek Murty. Goldman would probably call it “Golden Hour” or something stupid like that. “Verdict with Ted Cruz” is such a cooler name for a podcast anyway. Ted came up with it himself.

The bloodhounds with the Florida Center for Government Accountability’s dogged pursuit of the personal lives of MAGA power couple Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler and homophobic Karen terrorist group Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler continues as it turns out investigators with the Sarasota Police Department have obtained another dirty video Christian recorded on his phone. Like the last time we’ll just lift the relevant paragraph of the FLCGA’s report.

“A second video has been recovered by police showing Bridget Ziegler, a cofounder of the conservative Moms for Liberty, engaging in sexual relations with a woman, sources said. It is not known if the woman in the video is the same woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Ziegler. Neither Christian nor Bridget Ziegler have responded to requests for comment from the Trident,” they write (“Trident” being the FLCGA’s nickname for their investigative reporting arm).

Sounds embarrassing. Maybe marginally less embarrassing for Christian than a somewhat similar situation Jerry Falwell Jr had going for a while given who was with his wife while he was watching from the co… Anyway, what a shitty Christmas for the Zieglers. Wife’s bisexual, husband’s totally into that, leads to him being falsely accused of rape and the complete implosion of their political power from all the dirt that got exposed in the process. Would feel bad for them if they hadn’t spent so much of the last few years ruining the lives of LGBTQ+ teachers and others by fueling heels-wearing Gov Ron DeSantis’s hateful, terroristic campaign to “save the children” from “groomers.”