Terrified by continued gains by the Ukrainian army, a Kremlin-back Quisling on Thursday is offering free passage to Russia proper for residents of its illegally claimed territory in the Kherson region of eastern Ukraine, the AP reports. “Cities of the Kherson region – Kherson and Nova Kakhovka, Hola Prystan and Chornobaivka – are subject to daily missile strikes,” Vladimir Saldo said in a video.

“These missile strikes cause serious damage, first and foremost to the residents. Among targets missiles hit are hotels, residential buildings, markets – (places) where there are lots of civilians. I would like to ask you to help organize this process. We, residents of the Kherson region, of course know that Russia doesn’t abandon their own, and Russia always offers a hand,” Saldo added without a hint of irony or any detail about what’s going to happen to these people.

The individual from Mar-a-Lago who informed federal prosecutors that Donald Trump ordered boxes of documents to be moved from a storage room to his private residence has been identified:  Walt Nauta, a 43-year-old Navy veteran who worked as a White House valet in Trump’s Oval Office suite and followed the one-term Trump to Mar-a-Lago.

The Washington Post confirmed earlier reporting by the New York Times on the individual’s identity.  The Post reports that while Nauta has been answering the investigators’ questions about the documents and has been interviewed, he is not formally cooperating with prosecutors.

Nauta told investigators that he moved boxes of documents from a storage room in the basement to Trump’s personal residence at the Florida geriatric supper club and Purgatory waiting room at Trump’s direction after Trump and his lawyers received a subpoena for any remaining government documents he had on site.  Security camera footage confirms Nauta’s account.  Later, Trump attorney Evan Corcoran would tell National Archives and Justice Department officials that they would find all the documents in the basement storage room, and there was no reason to check other areas of the property; it’s not known yet if he knew Nauta moved boxes of documents when he made that statement.

Don Coram, the Colorado state senator and hemp farmer who challenged indignant Barbie Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Q-Rifle) for the Republican nomination for the 3rd District seat, has endorsed the Democrat challenging Boebert in the general election.

In an opinion piece in the Montrose Press, Coram called Boebert the “poster child” for political extremism and said that while he disagrees with Democrat Adam Frisch on a number of significant political issues, Frisch would better represent the district in Congress.

“I believe Adam Frisch is a good man,” Coram wrote. “I have had the opportunity to visit with him and get to know him better over the last few months. I know him to be decent, honest, and persistent. He has demonstrated that he is more interested in representing the district than being a celebrity. That’s important. … Let’s elect someone who cares about representing the majority of people in the middle that are fed up with extreme partisanship and juvenile antics.”

Five people, including an off-duty police officer, are dead in a mass shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina Thursday evening, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.  As of a tweet issued at 8:27 p.m. ET, police report that the shooter is not in custody but is “contained.”

Two others were injured, including a Raleigh K-9 officer who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.  Police have instructed people in the Hedingham neighborhood to remain indoors until given the all-clear.

Update:  as of 10:04 p.m. ET, the Washington Post reports the suspect is in custody.

Upon being told that Donald Trump was considering coming to the Capitol on January 6th, Nancy Pelosi says, “I hope he comes.  I wanna punch him out. … I’m gonna punch him out.  I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.”  You can take the girl out of Baltimore…  [For those wondering, great video is available of Pelosi’s actions on January 6th because her daughter, award-winning documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, was with her that day.]

Asked to say one positive thing about their opponent, Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate, cited GOP incumbent Senator Ron Johnson’s dedication to his family. Johnson returns the favor, citing Barnes’ strong family ties, before asking where it all went wrong and Barnes started hating America. And the audience rightly boos the hell out of him.

Fat former President Trump told his minions Thursday that he wants to testify to the House January 6th Select Committee, as long as it’s live, the New York Times reports.

During the trial of Igor Danchenko, a key source for the Steele dossier, Special Counsel John Durham lost control of his first witness, an FBI intelligence analyst who testified he wrote glowing reviews of the defendant and wanted him to work as an FBI informant, CNN reports.  This caused Durham to try to impeach his own witness in re-direct.

Bruce Auten, the FBI analyst who oversaw early parts of the investigation into Trump connections, initially testified as a prosecution witness, backing up Durham’s argument that Danchenko held back information that would have helped the FBI’s investigation into the Steele dossier.  However, under questioning by the defense attorney, Auten acknowledged that he wrote glowing reviews of Danchenko’s cooperation, calling him “one of the best things that came out of” the Russia probe.

Durham took up questioning after the defense finished, with Durham pointing out that Auten had at one time been recommended for suspension by his FBI superiors, a fact not uncovered by the defense but one Durham used to undermine his witness’s own reputation.

In a report that we think is currently only available on a Bloomberg terminal, hence why we’re sourcing it from a screenshot tweeted by stupid Matt Yglesias, Elon Musk is “being investigated by federal authorities related to his attempted acquisition of Twitter Inc.” Clipped that verbatim as to not get ahead as we do not know which agency is looking at Musk or if it’s a criminal investigation.

“Elon Musk is presently under investigation by federal authorities for his conduct in connection with the acquisition of Twitter,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in an October 6th filing in a court in Delaware that was unsealed on Thursday. Fingers crossed this will stop the twisted son of a bitch from buying up Twitter and turning it into an unmoderated right wing shithole.

A most un-wizened and un-cunning mage of questionable skill at sorcery hath pleaded guilty in a court of mortal law Wednesday for crafting a most crude instrument of simple combustion to smite a rival in a failed quest for the affections of a fair maiden, the Daily Beast reports. Clayton McCoy, a former spellcaster of the Dragohir live action RPG from the ghoul-infested realm of Ohio, surrendered Wednesday to this most humiliating of defeats in a lawcourt in the shire of Baltimore.

Erek Barron, an enforcer of manlaw empowered by Dark Brandon, decreed that McCoy’s attempt to annihilate his rival with a packaged “pipe bomb” disguised as a gift of tribute shall be punished to the fullest extent of manlaw, with McCoy condemned to as many as 360 moons in a dungeon riven by fiendish vagabonds and vile shower goblins. Perhaps the most unforgiving irony of this tale is that the deprivation of female sexual contact that led him into a dark realm in which there will be none to be had at all. Now his quest ends in most ignominious defeat.

“On October 12, 2022, FDA posted a shortage of the immediate release formulation of amphetamine mixed salts, commonly referred to by the brand name Adderall or Adderall IR, on our drug shortage website. FDA is in frequent communication with all manufacturers of amphetamine mixed salts, and one of those companies, Teva, is experiencing ongoing intermittent manufacturing delays. Other manufacturers continue to produce amphetamine mixed salts, but there is not sufficient supply to continue to meet U.S. market demand through those producers.”

“Until supply is restored, there are alternative therapies including the extended-release version of amphetamine mixed salts available to health care professionals and their patients for amphetamine mixed salts’ approved indications. Patients should work with their health care professionals to determine their best treatment option,” said the FDA in a statement as millions of productive go-getters turn into depressed slobs who can’t even focus enough to play checkers.

The spice must flow. The shortage is ruining people. Part of it is the stigma attached to ADHD and the chemical dependency that results from the drugs that treat it, a stigma stemming from the widespread abuse of Adderall and similar medications, even among those properly diagnosed and prescribed. The lack of sympathy others hold toward Adderall users experiencing the crushing physical and emotional pains of withdrawal is in some ways understandable as a reflex.

Most folks were trained at a young age to look down on junkies and crackheads as if they were zombies and ghouls because that was thought to be the surest way to make sure they don’t become homeless drug addicts themselves. Probably the right idea from a utilitarian standpoint, cruel as it may be. But you wouldn’t say “just get over it” to an asthma sufferer who needs her inhaler to be able to walk up the stairs or a destitute AIDS patient condemned to death by that Martin Shkreli piece of shit. ADHD patients’ brains require meds to fully function, even if they sometimes overclock from Adderall. The Biden Administration needs to step in and fix this shit.

Mike Pence’s former chief of staff and a Trump loyalist he inserted into the Department of Defense were both seen today outside the DC courthouse where the grand jury investigating the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack meets.

Two journalists from NBC News, Fiona Glisson and Daniel Barnes, confirmed their presence at the courthouse.  Barnes reports Marc Short, Pence’s staffer, entered the building around 9 a.m. and left around 12:30 p.m.  Patel reportedly arrived around 1 p.m. and left soon after, transiting through an underground parking garage.

At the close of its hearing on Thursday, the members of the House January 6th Select Committee voted unanimously to take the bold and historic (though not entirely unprecedented as they noted) step of subpoenaing the testimony of disgraced former President Trump for his testimony on his failed attempt to overturn his humiliating loss in the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

UPDATE 10/13/2022 3:59 PM EDT: House January 6th Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson will issue the subpoena letter sometime next week, with the response date will be sometime after the midterms, Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan reports.

The United States Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, requesting the highest court in the land to intervene to prevent the Department of Justice from using documents found at Mar-a-Lago to investigate crimes relating to their removal from government possession, Reuters reports.

Trump wanted the Court to stop the Department of Justice from using about 100 documents marked as classified in investigations into their theft and in national security assessments.  Instead, Trump wanted a special master to review the documents, as was ordered by a Trump-appoint judge, Aileen Cannon of Florida, but overturned by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued an injunction on the handling of the classified documents.

Nearly 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts in a political stunt by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis using taxpayer dollars may now apply for a visa to stay in the United States thanks to a Texas sheriff declaring them victims of a crime, WGBH in Boston reports.

“Based upon the claims of migrants being transported from Bexar County under false pretenses, we are investigating this case as possible Unlawful Restraint,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement. “We have submitted documentation through the federal system to ensure the migrants’ availability as witnesses during the investigation.”

Salazar’s declaration now allows the migrants, who were in the United States legally due to their status as asylum seekers, may now apply to stay in the United States via a Class U visa, which allow victims of crime and witnesses to crimes to stay in the country.  These visas were designed to help victims of crime–particularly human trafficking–to assist law enforcement to investigate and prosecute crimes.

Two officers of the Bristol, Connecticut police department were killed and a third critically wounded Wednesday night in what investigators are calling an ambush by at least one man armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, the Hartford Courant reports.

Police received a 9-1-1 call that two siblings were fighting at a specific address.  When the officers arrived, 35-year-old Nicholas Brutcher opened fire on them from a position outside the house.  His shots immediately killed Officer Alex Hamzy, 34, and wounded 35-year-old Sgt. Dustin DeMonte and  26-year-old Alec Iurato.  DeMonte died later at a local hospital; Iurato was rushed into surgery with several gunshot wounds.

Nicholas Brutcher was killed at the scene by officers returning fire.  His 32-year-old brother, Nathan, was wounded in the incident and is expected to survive his wounds.  It’s unclear what role, if any, Nathan had in the attack.

Overnight Thursday and into Friday morning, North Korean fighter jets streaked toward its border with South Korea before breaking away at the last possible moments–mimicking a maneuver Chinese jets conduct toward Taiwan–while the North Korean military test-fired at least one missile off its east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports.

Starting around 10:30 p.m. Thursday (local time) and 12:20 a.m. Friday, at least ten jets took individual and group runs at the border before breaking off, coming within 12 kilometers of South Korean airspace over the Yellow Sea and 25 kilometers of the demilitarized zone in the central part of the peninsula.  South Korea scrambled its air force in response, but its fighters patroled well inside its airspace.

Minutes after the last flight of fighters broke off its run for the border, North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast, ABC News reports.  It’s the latest in a series of test firings North Korea runs when it gets angry, prompting response tests from US and South Korea forces.

In what’s reportedly the final televised hearing, the House Select Committee investigating the Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress will begin its session at 1 PM ET Thursday. No witnesses are slated to testify, instead it will be a presentation wrapping up the case the committee are presenting to the American public: That the seeds of the insurrection were planted even before the 2020 election, disgraced former President Trump knew violence was going to happen and approved of it, and that he and his minions are a continuing threat to democracy.

Ohio walleye fishing tournament cheaters Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, whose fish fuckery was exposed on stage last month when Jason Fischer, the organizer of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship event, thought something was fishy and found the fraudsters had stuffed lead balls and raw walleye fillets into their catches to increase their weight, have been indicted for their scam, according to a press release from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office.

“I take all crime very seriously, and I believe what these two individuals attempted to do was not only dishonorable but also criminal”, said Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley. “I would like to formally thank the officers with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Hermitage Pennsylvania Police Department, the Mercer County District Attorney’s Office, and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for their quick actions and their execution of a search warrant resulting in the seizure of criminal tools, including Defendant Cominsky’s boat and trailer.” Runyan and Cominsky were charged with Cheating (which is pretty prosaic-sounding for a criminal statute), Attempted Grand Theft, Possessing Criminal Tools, and the Unlawful Ownership of Wild Animals.

A Broward County, Florida jury on Wednesday recommended MAGA terrorist Nikolas Cruz be spared the death penalty for the 2018 massacre of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the city of Parkland, Florida. Cruz, who had been expelled from the school a year earlier, is a Trump fan who even registered as a Republican and voted in both the 2018 and 2020 elections while awaiting trial before he pleaded guilty in October 2021.

The trial was to determine if a jury would recommend the death penalty for the scumbag to Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who cannot override the jury’s recommendation that the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors presented by the defense. The convoluted verdict reading caused confusion with many outlets – National Zero included – incorrectly reporting the jury had recommended Cruz face death. Hopefully another inmate will correct the jury’s misguided decision.