Things are becoming maybe more than just a little bit heated inside the House GOP’s private meeting while they try to get a resolution empowering Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry to the floor, as Axios’s Juliegrace Brufke reports Kevin McCarthy “screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down when he went to the mics, with the source saying [Illinois Congressman Mike] Bost ‘almost lunging at him.'” Brufke added that McCarthy was advocating for the McHenry plan.

Leaving the Republican conference meeting, a “deflated” looking Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher told CNN’s Haley Talbot he was “going up to the chapel to pray the rosary.”

A Pembroke Pines, Florida GameStop employee has been charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting a shoplifter who stole $600 worth of premium Pokemon playing cards from the store on Tuesday, ABC News reports on a case that Detective Pikachu won’t have to work too hard to solve.

GameStop employee Derrick Guerrero, 33, probably isn’t going to be able to argue a “stand your ground” defense as security video reveals the unnamed suspect, who was able to flee but died at a hospital 3 hours later, did not threaten violence or have a weapon himself. It’s too bad that Guerrero didn’t have a Pokeball he could use to capture the guy and train him to fight other shoplifters.

Spandex-wearing grapple-freak Congressman Jim Jordan on Thursday morning scrapped another round of failing to become Speaker of the House and will tentatively back the plan to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, the Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

MAGA lawyer Sidney “Kraken” Powell pleaded guilty on Thursday to the charges of a RICO violation count, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state for her involvement in the Trump Regime’s post-2020 election coup attempt in the Peach State, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports on a massive surprise win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in her pursuit of the Orange God Emperor.

The Kraken was sentenced to six years’ probation and a $6,000 fine in exchange for agreeing to testify truthfully in all future trials against the 17 remaining co-defendants. The plea comes just a day before jury selection was to begin in the trial in which other MAGA lawyer Kenny Chesebro, whose crimes sat on a separate prong of the sweeping case from the Kraken’s and might’ve made for an unwieldy and awkward prosecution in front of a jury that could’ve ended up sparing one or both of them from conviction. The Kraken’s more direct co-conspirator in the breach of the Coffee County Clerk’s election server Scott Hall pleaded guilty last month and had agreed to testify against her.

Hamas terrorists likely used North Korean weapons during brutal attack on Israel, evidence shows https://t.co/FHddBOTXfR

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 19, 2023

We get why they had to back off from that “Biden gave $6 billion to Iran which then immediately got spent on supporting the Hamas attack on Israel” line when the Israelis themselves obviously didn’t buy into that bullshit and praised Biden for his support, but what’s the angle supposed to be here?

How does saying North Korea was behind it hurt Biden politically? If anything it was his fat, despotic predecessor who created a “beautiful relationship” with the fat, despotic ruler whose military is said here to have supported the attack on Israeli civilians. Is this going to be one of those times again where fanboys absolutely lose their shit over Fox News not telling them what they want to hear?

Sources tell CNN’s Manu Raju that spandex-wearing grapple-freak Congressman Jim Jordan is poised to lose as many as 30 votes on the third round of voting for Speaker of the House and it’s unclear if he’s even going to try to do it again as scheduled at noon on Friday.

To be fair on the numbers however, there was a shit ton of reporting saying that Gym would lose a double-digit number of votes between Tuesday and Wednesday and he only lost net two – or one really – because one member, Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakis, who was out of town for a funeral on the first vote showed up and cast a vote for Jordan on the second round.

A new survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University finds that 70 percent of New Jersey adults wanting DINO scumbag Senator Bob Menendez to resign immediately after being charged with taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt while he was serving as the chairman of the Senate’s top international policy panel, the New Jersey Globe reports.

Among those wanting the asshole gone are 71 percent of Dem and independent voters, and 80 percent of Republican voters. Only among certain demographics does the number dip slightly, with 66 percent of voters under 30 and 58 percent of Black voters saying Menendez should go.

Turgid Congressman Jim Jordan’s bid to become Speaker of the House is still doomed and even more doomed than it was two days ago when it was doomed from the get-go, Punchbowl reports.

“His entire brand is wrapped up in fighting liberals and being a winner. That’s why Jordan doesn’t want to go through a third roll-call vote on the floor, especially when he could lose even more votes, according to more than a half-dozen sources involved in the talks. Jordan’s office denies this, saying he plans to move forward with trying to become speaker,” they write in a run-down sent with the subject line of “Jordan’s off-ramp,” incredibly but accurately describing a grown man and an elected official whose ego needs to be given hospice care as it slides toward inevitable failure.

“On October 18, authorities in Kazan, Russia, detained Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir Service. Kurmasheva has been charged with failure to register as a foreign agent. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. ‘Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife, and dedicated mother to two children,’ said RFE/RL acting President Dr Jeffrey Gedmin. ‘She needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately.’ Kurmasheva is a dual US and Russian citizen who lives in Prague, Czech Republic, with her husband and children. Kurmasheva traveled to Russia for a family emergency on May 20. She was temporarily detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2. Authorities at Kazan airport confiscated Kurmasheva’s US and Russian passports. She was subsequently fined for failure to register her US passport with Russian authorities. She was awaiting the return of her passports when the new charge was announced on October 18,” says RFE/RL in a statement.

Matt Gaetz has been more destructive to Republicans in the last two weeks than Godzilla was to Tokyo (pre-CGI).  His latest nihilist, fame-seeking stunt of seeking the removal of the Speaker of the House has resulted in a series of dominos failing that exposed the GOP for the fraud it is.

Think about it:  Gaetz took down Kevin McCarthy, who is now reportedly considering retiring from the House.  Steve Scalice’s career is over; he’ll never advance in the Party and will likely be pushed out of any leadership position in a future GOP House regime.  And Jim Jordan?  Well, his grappling tactics may have served him well on the mat, but the strong-arming and threats have turned more against him.

And now, it’s possible the disembowelment Gaetz started could lead to a long-term schism in the GOP.  Most explicitly, Gaetz exposed the lack of depth of Republican leadership.  Not one person could rally the Party around themself.  Not only was there no bench, there wasn’t even a dugout.  The next generation of Republicans is full of social media stars and short of actual leaders.

Saying that his lawyer is irreparably conflicted, the Special Counsel’s office argued that Walt Nauta, Trump’s co-defendant in the federal documents case, should be advised so he can find a new lawyer to ensure he receives the full, competent benefit of counsel.  Stanley Woodward has previously represented Trump Employee 4, independently identified as Mar-a-Lago IT director Yuscil Taveras, whom the Special Counsel describes as “a significant witness at trial.”  Woodward also worked for unidentified “Witness 1.”

The Special Counsel seeks a Garcia hearing to advise Nauta of possible conflicts of interest his lawyer may have that may prevent the lawyer from fully and competently defending his client. Woodward has been a Trump-paid lawyer for a number of people attached to Trump’s various legal cases.  Taveras ditched Woodward after a conference with an independent lawyer raised doubts about Woodward’s loyalties.

“Mr. Woodward has also acknowledged that his ethical obligations may constrain his ability to discredit Trump Employee 4 or Witness 1 in closing arguments,” the Special Counsel argues in its effort to advise Nauta.  “Nauta should therefore be fully apprised of that possibility, as well as the possibility that Mr. Woodward may hold back in discrediting Trump Employee 4 or Witness 1 to ensure he complies with his obligations as a member of the D.C. bar.”

Reacting to Middle East leaders refusing to meet with President Joe Biden during his trip to the region in the midst of an active war between Hamas and Israel, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed shock, pretending that foreign leaders didn’t frequently mock the Trumps.  But in expressing his contrived outrage, Pompeo let the foreign policy initiatives of his administration out:  everything gets addressed in a tweet.

“Sean, it’s stunning,” Pompeo says to Trump advisor Sean Hannity, a host on Fox.  “I try to imagine them checking out of a meeting with President Trump like that.  I, w-we’d all be workin’ on a tweet really quickly.”

You may not have heard of Gabrielle Hanson, a GOP candidate for the mayor of Franklin, Tennessee, and frankly, why should you?  It’s Franklin freakin’ Tennessee.  Nothing against the 85,000 residents of the fair city–Except you, Scott.  You know what you did–but no one really cares about its municipal politics.

Well, Hanson has been openly courting white nationalist, far-right elements which are apparently not as scarce in Franklin as one might think.  Hanson has been seen with a bodyguard bedecked with a Proud Boys face tattoo.

Well, now the GOP candidate who wants to be seen as a tougher, more racist version of Donald Trump, has posed for a series of photos posted to Telegram with white supremacist Sean Kauffmann, leader of the Tennesee Active Club, a far-right group of intimidation agents responsible for attempted intimidation at drag shows and LGBTQ events throughout the state. 

The Biden Administration will lift some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas industry after the left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro came to an agreement with opposition leaders to hold elections in 2024, helping to further democracies around the world, Reuters reports.

The Treasury Department, the agent of the sanctions, will issue six-month licenses for the oil, gas and state-owned gold sectors in Venezuela, and it will allow some bond and equity trading involving state-owned companies.  A Treasury spokesperson stated that it would maintain the ability to reinstate the sanctions if the situation reverses in the future.

The goal is a savvy one for Dark Brandon:  it supports a struggling democracy and it opens up another source of oil into the United States, easing some market pressures and hopefully lowering prices… as the US enters an election year.

“Yesterday, I voted to support Jim Jordan’s candidacy for Speaker of the House. I voted for Jim Jordan for the greater good of the House Republican party, based on our Conference meeting and the test Speaker ballot that was cast earlier this week. However, after one round of votes, with my support, he was not able to secure enough votes for the Speaker nomination and my initial concerns about threatening tactics of Jim Jordan’s supporters, including from members of Congress, increased despite assurances. Today, it became abundantly clear early in the roll call vote, that Jim Jordan still did not have the votes necessary to become Speaker. Given the concerns I had before any vote and the ability of the speaker designee to unify the conference, I voted in support of Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger to serve as Speaker of the House.”

“I voted for Chairwoman Granger because she has demonstrated great leadership this year by bringing forth, and passing, fiscally responsible, single-subject appropriations bills and is a staunch conservative. However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully” says Iowa GOP Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a statement.

Weird how she didn’t claim it was some kind of Antifa false flag or whatever. Almost like she was too shocked to come up with an alternate explanation for her own party’s voters turning on her.

“We’ve had two rounds of floor votes, and the vote against Rep. Jim Jordan has only gotten stronger.  The hardball tactics haven’t worked. If we move to a third round, we already know the opposition is on track to grow,” Florida Republican MAGA Congressman John Rutherford said in a statement. “It’s time for Rep. Jordan to understand this race is over. Tonight, I suggest we either go to conference to show him in private or back to the floor to show him in public. Rep. Jordan is fiddling while the world is on fire. It’s time to get down to business and select a consensus candidate who can bring the Republican Conference together.”

Isn’t it about time for Republicans to understand Trump’s hand-picked candidates fail more often than they succeed?  Trump lost the 2016 popular vote.  He lost Congress for the GOP in 2018.  He lost the 2020 election.  His 2022 endorsements largely failed in 2022, costing the Republicans a shot at taking back the House.  And now this public humiliation, which will only grow worse, according to reports:  CNN’s Melanie Zanona reports Republican members of the House plan to increase the number of “no” votes to Jordan to illustrate the growing frustration with the leadership option.

Returning from a trip to Israel to show US support after a horrific attack by Hamas, President Joe Biden announced that the president of Egypt agreed to open up a key crossing into Gaza to allow 20 trucks of humanitarian aid into the zone, ABC News reports.  The White House also announced President Biden will make an address to the nation from the Oval Office about the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday night.  National Zero will cover the address live.

GOLBAL INTIFADA!!!

It’s an Arabic rebellion and uprising!!!

Photo of one of the insurrectionist phones!!!

These people are NOT for peace! pic.twitter.com/CH6j2LggEb

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 18, 2023

Angered that anyone should voice an opinion opposing her own, Georgia Republican Congresswoman and missing link candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene took to Twitter to stir fear and panic.  Going live, Marge claimed, “There’s an insurrection happening now on Capitol Hill[!]” before turning her phone to show a group of anti-war protestors doing an organized performance demonstration in the lobby of the building.  Later, she posted a photo of a group chat, titled “Global intifada” taken over the shoulder of a purported “insurrectionist.”  The conversation between a few friends seems to be centered on helping the members meet up during the protest.  Marge apparently doesn’t understand the self-mocking humor of college students.

Far right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s travel buddy/boss/mom’s landlord Harlan Crow gave $3,300 – the maximum personal amount – to the campaign of far left activist/third party presidential candidate Cornel West in August, NBC News reports based on FEC filings.

Weird how a Texas MAGA billionaire would support a crazy liberal extremist like West.