Sources in Axios‘s conservative donor class demo tell the “Be Smart” outlet that the MAGA establishment has already decided who’s to blame for the impotent nothing burger that was the party’s campaign against California Dems’ all-but-certain to pass Proposition 50, the ballot measure allowing the state legislature to temporarily override the independent redistricting commission and kill as many as five Republican-held US House seats to offset Texas’s gerrymandering.

In one of their bullet points Axios writes that “some senior Trump political advisers and party strategists say a top operative of a pro-Trump group undermined their efforts to defeat a plan that could help Democrats gain five congressional seats,” before identifying the scapegoat as Ashley Hayek, president of MAGA slush fund America First Works. Last month Hayek had gathered a few dozen California GOP donors at a hotel in DC to pitch them on writing checks to support various MAGA propaganda campaigns. When one brought up Prop 50, Hayek cited public polling and gave an honest assessment, saying “There’s probably going to be redistricting in California,” prompting the plutocrats to deem it a lost cause and to instead look forward to the midterms.

Why exactly a high-level operator in a political power ecosystem that eats, sleeps, and breathes grift would’ve fucked up and momentarily spoke with such candor isn’t clear but the damage was unmistakeable – and worsened by the would-be donors’ impression that it’d been a White House-sanctioned event. “Because AFW has the imprimatur of White House support, Trump advisers worried donors would think they were bailing on California and close their wallets,” Axios writes. It may’ve been as simple as Hayek just wanting to preserve her relationships with these donors and not sell them a bill of goods on a doomed effort, but she also could’ve just told the puppetmasters that AFW wasn’t doing any anti-Prop 50 work and she’d connect them with people who were.

With the fall of a fan from the upper concourse seating of the Penguins’ home PPG Paints Arena early in the first period of the squad’s 6-3 win over the St Louis Blues on Monday night, Pittsburgh’s pro sports teams completed an impressive record of gravity-related incidents at their venues in 2025. Per the Associated Press, an unidentified male Penguins fan was hospitalized in critical condition after plummeting about 20 feet from the upper tier onto the mezzanine, possibly whilst cheering forward Anthony Mantha’s goal that put the home team up 2 – 0 over the Blues.

The fall came just two days after a man performing work on the scoreboard at the Steelers’ Acrisure Stadium fell 50 feet from his perch onto a lower catwalk. The man, also unidentified, was also hospitalized in critical condition after the Saturday night mishap. That awful incident came months after 20 year-old Kavan Markwood drunkenly fell over the railing and onto the field at PNC Park celebrating a two-run double during the 7th in the Pirates’ 4-3 May 1 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Markwood has since recovered from his injuries and hopefully the other two guys will as well.

Convicted felon President Trump’s lawyers are working to get the first two words of this lede erased for good and are appealing to New York State courts to overturn last year’s 34 count guilty verdict in the Stormy Daniels payoff/2016 election interference case, Politico reports.

…Bushart is clearly one of the unhinged voices on the Internet who trolls and inflames others. At his arrest, even Bushart admitted that he is a bit of “an a**hole,” but insisted that he is not a criminal. He appears correct on both counts.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 28, 2025

Right wing legal academic and TheHill.com columnist Jonathan Turley on Tuesday figured it was time to replenish his credibility tank as he’d been neglecting it for quite some time with nonsense about how NPR is a racket for disclosing its sponsors and that it was “disturbing” that one of former CIA Director John Brennan’s top aides once said he’s “not a Trump fan.” Seeing the legitimately disturbing story about how a retired Tennessee cop has been in jail for over a month on a charge of Threats of Mass Violence on School Property – because he posted a verbatim Trump quote “We have to get over it” in a Facebook comment under a planned vigil for Charlie Kirk – Turley picked the low-hanging fruit of a “principled free speech argument” and distilled it to fuel his credibility tank.

It’s not clear when the half-gallon of low-quality regular unleaded credibility will be squandered but the how is probably as simple as him going on Fox News and arguing the founders intended for convicted felon President Trump to loot $230 million from the Department of Justice.

A privately-owned Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane known to have previously transported weapons for Russian military and Wagner Group mercenary operations in Africa landed in Caracas over the weekend, DefenseNews reports while noting the probably-not-coincidental timing given convicted felon President Trump’s increasing threats of action against Putin-allied dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime. The plane, which took off from Moscow on Friday, landed in Venezuela’s capital after two days of stops in Armenia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, and Mauritania before crossing the Atlantic.

Whether these stops had been pickups, deliveries, or both – as well as what it was carrying – is unknown. DefenseNews however notes that the route was definitely one that would have avoided NATO/NATO-allied airspace or possible customs/cargo inspections in not-as-corrupt countries.

Also not in question is that the plane’s owner/operator, Aviacon Zitotrans, is under sanctions by the United States, Canada, and Ukraine for its ties to the Russian military and the Wagner Group.

“As Orkin’s annual Top 50 Rattiest Cities List enters its second decade, a new city is claiming the top spot for the first time in the list’s history. Chicago’s decade-long reign at No 1 is over, with Los Angeles knocking the Windy City off its long-held perch. In true Hollywood fashion, Los Angeles has taken center stage. With year-round warm weather, a booming culinary scene and dense neighborhoods that offer ample access to food and shelter, the City of Angels checks every box for rodent survival. From bustling commercial corridors to hidden alleyways, Los Angeles’ signature blend of glam and grit creates a perfect storm for rodent activity,” says a new press release from Orkin pest control that sounds almost like a real estate pitch brochure for rats if they could read.

“The shake-up in rankings signals a shift in rodent activity, likely influenced by weather patterns, urban infrastructure and human behavior. While Chicago has held the top spot since the list’s inception, this year’s data shows other major cities are seeing increased pressure, particularly as more moderate climates improve rodent survival rates and urban sprawl opens new pathways for infestations,” the triumphal story of feral rodent gentrification in the City of Angels continued.

Israeli dictator Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he was consulting with his war machine to respond after Hamas handed over the remains of a hostage whose body “Bibi” claims was already recovered two years ago, Reuters reports on the coming resumption of violence in Gaza.

“Today in Virginia, we filed a landmark, powerful, and necessary $150,000,000 defamation lawsuit on behalf of Paul J Ingrassia against Defendants Politico and Daniel Lippman. Our suit arises out of the following article: Daniel Lippman, Key Trump nominee accused of sexual harassment, POLITICO (Oct 9, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/09/ingrassia-trump-harassment-dhs-00596545. Paul has never sexually harassed anyone-full stop. This is a historic first step on Paul’s road to complete vindication. Although the last two weeks have been extraordinarily difficult for Paul and his family, he has displayed incredible composure under fire, even as he has faced challenges including the derailment of his nomination and death threats. We look forward to sharing more details very soon. I want to thank the other incredible members of Paul’s legal team for their tireless efforts,” says a statement from the Nazi streak guy’s lawyer Ed Paltzik.

Oooooooooohhhhh man this is gonna be a good one. Politico absolutely should NOT try to get it tossed before discovery. They have to take it at least that far if not before a jury.

A 27 year-old Vermont man is lucky to be alive after flipping his pickup truck onto the railroad tracks off of State Route 7 in Pownal early Friday – but also kind of unlucky in a way because it happened outside of a very specific window of time that would’ve made him a legend for all of mankind.

Local paper the Bennington Banner reports that Joshua Rand crawled out of the vehicle after it came to a halt on the tracks running parallel to the road in the area, sustaining only minor injuries in the accident. A state police press release fills in the rest: “A southbound train was unable to be contacted by the railroad dispatch. The train failed to stop in time and collided with the unoccupied vehicle. No one was injured as a result of this crash.” So the timing worked out for Joshua.

What would’ve worked so much better is if he had flipped his truck WHILE the train was passing and it landed in an empty open-top car. Seriously how fucking awesome would that have been? Yeah it would be kind of awkward to call 911 and explain what happened. Worse would be if he couldn’t get through and then had to wait until the train stopped God knows where it was headed. Could’ve been in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Still would’ve been worth it just for the story he could tell.

Definitely better than landing on the tracks with the train 200 ft away. That would’ve sucked.

And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job. https://t.co/N4vCl3lJx0

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 27, 2025

Yes, that’s a bit in media res, so a little background: Riley Gaines is a former University of Kentucky swimmer, a twelve-time NCAA All-American athlete who, in the final event of her collegiate career, competed against trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle.

Now, since the MAGA media lies by omission, they make it sound like Gaines was cheated out of the national championship because of Thomas’s superior strength and speed, when the reality is that they actually tied for fifth place. Even then Gaines said “I am in full support of [Thomas’s] and full support of her transition and her swimming career…because there’s no doubt that she works hard too, but she’s just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place, and that’s the issue.”

Sources tell CNN’s Annie Grayer that a coalition of Dem state attorneys general are planning to file a lawsuit on Tuesday to keep SNAP money flowing to recipients after the Trump Regime said they’re going to sit back and let poor families starve after current funding runs out on Saturday.

Pretty smart politics. The Dem AGs aren’t the Dems in Congress. All the messaging from both the Regime and the Congressional GOP is “THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO FORCE POOR PEOPLE TO STARVE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN!!!111!!” Now Trump’s DOJ will have to stand in front of a judge and explain why they won’t agree to just fund SNAP, every word of that horseshit defense packaged up neatly, attributable to “The Trump Administration” for the D talking points. And, who knows, they might actually get a win with an order to unfuck SNAP.

Almost a fifth of all US air travel – be it domestic or inbound/outbound international traffic – was hit with delays or cancelations on Sunday at 8,700 of around 45,000 flights on the busiest travel day of the week amid the ongoing shutdown caused by the Trump Regime and the supplicant Republican Party in Congress’s refusal to make health insurance more affordable for millions, CBS News reports.

The delayed flights dropped to 3,370 total on Monday, representing about 7.5 percent of typical 42,000-flight volume at the beginning of the work week, but this most likely can be attributed to more slack in the system when it’s a lower traffic level and thus further away from full capacity.

In related news, the Dallas Morning News reports that the FAA on Monday issued a ground delay at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, meaning that any and every flight bound for the city needs to be cleared by the federal government before it can even take off, which fucks up the schedule of those origin airports who have to manage and coordinate runway traffic on a tight schedule.

Because the holidays are coming up and getting a corrupt approval from the Trump Regime for the big Skydance merger is in the rear-view window, Paramount-CBS is laying off 1,000 employees under the tried-and-true imprimatur of “restructuring,” Bloomberg reports. It’s not clear if any of the soon-to-be-jobless were in favor of the Orbanist merger, but hopefully at least a few were.

BREAKING: Judge Gives Kirk Assassin First Legal Victory, Allows Tyler Robinson to Appear in Court in Civilian Clothing – Bans Media From Recording Him Entering/Exiting Courthouse https://t.co/odem7Ub3TT

— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) October 27, 2025

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez on Monday announced her regime had captured a group of alleged mercenaries with ties to the CIA, accusing the Trump regime and Trinidad and Tobago of coordinating military exercises, the Miami Herald reports. The communist witch’s statement ranted about a “false-flag operation” being planned from waters bordering Trinidad and Tobago, or from Trinidadian or Venezuelan territory, “to generate a full-scale military confrontation” against Venezuela but did not say anything about the number or nationalities of the supposed mercenaries.

Choose your own adventure on which authoritarian regime led by autocrats and their incompetent sycophants you want to believe here. It really could go either way with these fucking clowns.

Without offering much specific information about the content of their complaining – then again it’s pretty predictable – the Virginia Merucry’s Markus Schmidt reports that all five US House Republicans from the Old Dominion State are present at the capital in Richmond to protest the first step of the majority Democratic state legislature’s surprise plan to nuke as many as three of their districts, framing it as “election interference” that, per Schmidt, “undermines the will of voters.”

It’s not clear if any reporters asked where were these guys when the Texas and North Carolina Republicans obeyed convicted felon President Trump’s commands that they gerrymander out six Dem seats between the two states. What is clear is that if they were asked, the response would not be “Well we didn’t expect the Dems in the state legislature to come up with this plan that would affect us. This shit really came out of nowhere,” since that would be the honest and correct answer.

In related news, Politico reports the Trump Regime “has been backing away from campaigning against Democrats’ efforts to redraw California’s House map, appearing largely resigned to the idea it will pass given Democrats’ strong polling advantage. President Donald Trump still thinks he has the upper hand on Gavin Newsom on more salient issues.” Fat fucking baby didn’t even try, lol.