Impeached Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton will make an appearance in a Houston courtroom Thursday in another legal issue he’s facing:  an eight-year-old felony indictment for financial fraud for defrauding investors in a tech start-up, the Associated Press reports.

Brian Wice, the state’s special prosecutor assigned to Paxton’s securities fraud case, successfully argued to move the case from Paxton’s home county to Houston.  Paxton continues to move to return the trial to his home county outside Dallas because he believes he’ll get favorable treatment in Republican-leaning Collin County.

The hearing is essentially a status update for the Court on the case, which has been delayed for years due to various frivolous motions from Paxton.  The latest issue will be trying to advance the case as Paxton faces 20 articles of impeachment, which also includes the securities fraud allegation.

So yeah, Devon Archer wasn’t under oath when the House Oversight Committee Republicans interviewed him on Monday. We get it. Why far right Texas Congressman Chip Roy is such a bitch that he can’t own up to that we don’t know. Well, we have an idea why but some specifics on the matter would be nice. It is funny to see Maria Bartiromo frustrated with this dodgy bullshit though.

The House Oversight GOP on Thursday published the full transcript of former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer’s interview with committee investigators and it’s simply not what the fanboys wanted to see at all. Rather than waste time sorting through it, here’s one key exchange:

“If someone were to conclude from this that this is evidence, this Form 1023 is evidence that Joe Biden was bribed by [Burisma founder] Mykola Zlochevsky, would you disagree with that conclusion?” asks the Republican investigator, lawyer, whatever.”Yeah, I would,” Archer answers.

A new Noble Predictive Insights survey finds Dem Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego leading both incumbent douchebag at 34 percent to edgelord “independent” Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s 26 percent and fascist MAGA psychopath “legitimate Governor” Kari Lake’s 25 in a hypothetical three-way 2024 race for Sinema’s seat. One-on-one Gallego leads Lake 45 to 35 percent.

Neither of the two women have declared yet for the race as Lake is just out of her fucking mind and Sinema is probably entertaining the top spot on the “No Labels” presidential ticket. The survey also tested Gallego against Reptilian 2022 Senate loser Blake Masters and already-declared GOP candidate Pinal Sheriff Mark Lamb, leading them 44 to 36 and 40 to 36 percent, respectively.

At least three of the now-former DeSantis 2024 campaign staffers let go in a cost-cutting purge late last month have found themselves new employment with the Florida state government, Axios reports, proving that the heels-wearing Sunshine State governor is not so cold-hearted after all and will help his most loyal people get right back on their feet using taxpayer dollars.

Some asshole rats chewing on broadband cables knocked out the internet to hundreds of homes in the town of Tring, Hertfordshire, England for four days this week, the Independent reports.

It’s not clear why the dumbasses thought the wires were food, but either way locals are pissed. “Very frustrating,” one customer told the Independent. “Totally outrageous in the modern age.”

The news that scumbag Trump minion Boris Epshteyn is quite likely the still-unknown “Co-Conspirator 6” listed in Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the disgraced former president over his failed post-2020 election coup attempt was met with elation among the other loyalists in the Orange Tyrant’s court, sources tell the Daily Beast, with one saying the Russian-born lawyer/MAGA operative/failed crypto salesman is “is so deeply, viscerally hated right now” and a second source saying it was “so sad!” coupled with a sarcastic meme sent via text.

“He’s the king of the court jesters,” the second source continued. “All he cares about is being close to Trump, and he’ll do or say whatever it takes to accomplish that. Mostly that means sticking his nose in everyone else’s business so he can run back to the boss and take credit or lay blame.”

Okay, ladies:  Line up!  He paints his body red and runs around a baseball stadium to support his favorite team!  He’s a Tucker Carlson fan!  He’s an avid Trump supporter!  He’s been the target of a Tucker Carlson conspiracy theory about January 6th!  He’s single (we assume), and he’s also an indicted felon.

That’s right, Rally Runner–he legally changed his name to reflect his role in the St. Louis Cardinals’ mythos; before that, he was known as Daniel Donnelly Jr.–was arrested in St. Louis on five charges for his role in the Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress.

According to NBC News, Runner was the target of a conspiracy started by a lawyer for a number of charged January 6th insurrectionists who stated on Carlson’s program that Runner was “clearly a law enforcement officer” and an “agent provocateur” who was sent to stir up trouble in the crowd.  Carlson would pick up on the conspiracy and repeat it on his show.  In fact, Runner was a fan of Carlson’s who simply attacked the Capitol because he believed the other conspiracy theories Carlson broadcast.  “Disappointed is an understatement,” Runner said. “For years, I believed Tucker was a responsible reporter focused on stopping ‘Fake News’ just to be hit with this story.”

Officials in Mexico said on Wednesday they spotted a body among the floating barriers Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered installed in the Rio Grande to block migrants from crossing, ABC News reports.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said government workers were attempting to recover the body, but that there were problems including dangers from the buoys themselves.  Reports claim the obstacles are covered in razor wire and that razor wire was in the water between the buoys.

“We made clear our concern about the impact on migrants’ safety and human rights that these state policies would have,” the department said in a statement.  The Mexican government maintains the barrier violates a number of treaties and agreements, as well as impinges on Mexican sovereignty.  The US federal government also objects to Abbott’s dangerous art installation, saying it violates various laws and regulations regarding river navigation and structural safety issues.

Due to certain time-zone and diurnal clock issues being experienced by one half of National Zero’s editorial team we published at an ungodly hour this list of currently sitting Republican Senators who voted to confirm DC District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to the bench in 2014, so if you missed it we would like to again ask readers to correct any fanboy complaining of an “Obama judge” by informing them she’s actually a “Cruz-RonAnon-Rubio-RandPaul-LindseyGraham-Obama judge.”

Not that you can directly respond to Lindsey Graham here, but his emotional meltdown during this Hannity hit over Chutkan and the venue – which under the provisions of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution could not be charged anywhere other than DC – serves as a satisfying reminder that, even if the Dem Senate majority would’ve confirmed the judge with or without his yes vote, he and a number of other fierce Trump supporters in his chamber did not say no to her when the time came. There will be many more moments like this in the year to come, and with it many opportunities to mention that it wasn’t just the “RINOs” that handed Chutkan the gavel.

This is why Republicans hate public education:  they know that people who understood history recognize the words and intent of Fox’s Jesse Watters as similar to those of people encouraging vigilantism and political terrorism.

If Trump wins, after he pardons himself, welcome to the Revenge Tour.  Oh, he’ll be out for blood.  You think he’s going to let bygones be bygones?  He’s gonna put his men at Justice, and the Clintons, Obamas, the Pelosis, the Schiffs and yeah, of course, the Bidens every one of them will be legally assaulted.  Their family members, their foundations, their businesses, everything’s fair game after this.

Hey, Jesse, “their family members, their foundations, their businesses, everything’s fair game after this”–Guess what, bud?  Everything was fair game before this, but there was no evidence of any criminal activity by anyone besides the Trump cabal.

Dutiful indictment-expecting son Eric Trump made a characteristically fabulist appearance on the Fox propaganda network, framing the indictment of his father on four counts related to months-long plots to undermine the Constitution as a Free Speech issue concerning his father’s infamous speech on January 6th.  In this telling, Eric says his father told people to be peaceful a bloated ten times; in reality, Daddy used the word “peaceful” or its derivatives exactly… once… in his speech that day.  And as for Eric’s later claim that his father–who was indicted by a grand jury of his peers and will face a jury of his peers in a trial to determine his guilt, as is laid out in the Constitution–is being unfairly persecuted by an unjust power, well… we’ll let the video show you the type of justice the Trumps endorse.

Following the swearing in of new Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz on Tuesday and with it the court’s ideological makeup flipping from a 4-3 MAGA majority to a 4-3 liberal one, a group of lefty Cheeseheads on Wednesday promptly filed a complaint seeking the drawing of new state-level legislative maps to undo the draconian gerrymanders that, for example, gave the GOP a 63 – 36 majority in the state Assembly in 2018 after Dems won the statewide popular vote 53 to 45 percent in that Blue Wave year which saw GOP Gov Scott Walker’s defeat.

“Wisconsin’s legislative districts are unconstitutional in numerous ways, ranging from an outright assault on Wisconsin voters in retaliation for how they vote. and what they believe, to the most basic violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s express requirements for district configurations. The current districts are invalid, the representatives and senators elected from them unconstitutionally hold office, and this Court’s urgent action is required to ensure that not one more Wisconsin election is held using state legislative districts that brazenly flout the language of Wisconsin’s Constitution and the rights of its residents,” opens Clarke et al v Wisconsin Elections Commission et al.

With the country unsettled from an ongoing coup that ousted a democratically elected leader, the State Department ordered a partial evacuation of non-emergency American personnel and families from the embassy in Niger, the Washington Post reports.  State Department officials had previously recommended all Americans leave the country.

The Pentagon has suspended cooperation agreements with the Nigerien military, a key partner to US forces in the region, while the military-led coup plays out.  The actions were announced to get as many Americans out of the region in case a full withdrawal becomes necessary later.

Matt Gaetz reportedly likes to commit crimes, from child sex trafficking to illegal drugs to money laundering.  Hell, he’s even been known to do some raunchy things that aren’t technically crimes, but still unsavory nonetheless.

Straying far afield from the intent of the laws into an overtly corrupt purpose (which itself is a crime for a public official), Gaetz lays out a convoluted plan to use the power of the House to undertake a clearly partisan plan to attack senior administration leaders and then use a trick to grant Trump an effective pardon by having him testify to a Republican-run House committee, citing Congress’s ability to issue immunity under 18 U.S. Code § 6002.

Beginning with “I don’t want to embarrass him any further,” California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell goes on to embarrass House Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy while recounting how McCarthy threatened to “kick the shit out of” Swalwell for calling him a “pussy” after the House voted to censure Democratic colleague Adam Schiff–only to have McCarthy retreat when confronted by Swalwell, repeating his comment, days later.

Federal authorities served a search warrant on former WWE chair Vince McMahon on July 17th, apparently as part of an ongoing investigation into the Trump ally’s management of the entertainment company when he used more than $10 million of the company’s money to pay off people making sexual harassment complaints.

Yahoo Sports reports McMahon paid four women more than $12 million over a sixteen-year period to settle sexual abuse, harassment and other employment issues without reporting the settlements properly through financial statements.  Similar allegations led to prison sentences for people like Allan Weiselberg and Michael Cohen.

The WWE conducted an internal investigation into the allegations, but did not release its findings.  However, McMahon was invited to continue on the company’s board.  Although he resigned as CEO, he continues to serve as the company’s executive chairman.

A one-time history major from a tony New England liberal arts college, Jesse Watters gained fame by being an ambush reporter for now-disgraced sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly.  He’s been elevated to a prime-time slot thanks to the “bro” culture Fox wants to attract among younger demographics (as in, those not getting Social Security).  But that jump to fame doesn’t come with a commiserate jump in intelligence:  here, Watters continues his crusade to turn a new Republican administration–he believes to be led by Donald Trump–into a Brownshirt-esque campaign of violence, revenge and score-settling, apparently unaware that what he’s calling for is the same destruction of the Constitution Donald Trump is facing charges for trying to enact.  And note that he casually admits the conservative justices on the Supreme Court are controlled by political interests, not the law.

The lawyer last night was on CNN, cleaned their clocks.  The guy said, they’re trying to speed this trial up; we need maybe nine months to a year.  This isn’t getting done before the election, and anyway, it’s gonna get appealed and it’s gonna go to SCOTUS and SCOTUS is gonna knock it down.  What the Republicans need to do is time the impeachment because THAT’S the main draw.  If you put up impeachment with the Trump trials, I don’t think the Democrats wanna stomach that.

A right-wing influencer who founded the now-defunct Rise Above Movement white nationalist group is being extradited from Romania to California to face charges for his role in organizing violent responses to 2017 protests against fascism and Confederate imagery, the Guardian reports.

Robert Rundo will face charges in a federal court in Los Angeles along with two co-defendants, Robert Boman and Tyler Laube, for training and organizing RAM into a militant group formed to commit violence against groups they objected to.  As protests against Donald Trump’s nascent administration and public memorials honoring slaveholders swept the country, Rundo aimed his members at the demonstrations in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley.  The trio face charges of violating multiple anti-riot statutes; Boman and Laube face additional charges for actually participating in the riots.  In 2019, RAM co-founder Benjamin Daley and two other members were convicted for their actions during the 2017 Charlottesville riot that left Heather Heyer dead.

Rundo is no stranger to extradition:  in 2018, he was returned to the United States by El Salvador after trying to travel to Ukraine.  Later that same year, he surfaced in London, where he claims he was turned away from a flight to Ukraine at Heathrow after his name appeared on a US no-fly list.  After the original charges were dismissed by a judge in 2019, Rundo fled the United States to Romania prior to the charges being reinstated on appeal.