MAINE MANHUNT: At least 30 people were also injured. Breaking details: https://t.co/vTR5oKalru pic.twitter.com/YT3a8mJbFS

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 26, 2023

“Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” now-anointed House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press briefing after winning the nomination in the Republican conference. “We’re going to restore your trust in what we do here.”  Well, yeah, democracy is messy, but what happened with House Republicans wasn’t democracy.

Democracy would’ve meant Hakeem Jeffries was Speaker after the first 14 ballots (the first time).  Even within the Republican caucus, democracy would’ve meant Kevin McCarthy be named the Speaker because he had the majority support of the Party.  When he lost it–remember, Kev only lost support of eight of 221 members, not a majority–Scalice had the majority.  Then Jordan.  Then Emmer.  Finally, it was the anonymously named Johnson.

Johnson didn’t win the majority like his predecessors.  He had to get everyone’s agreement that he carry the gavel.  That’s not democracy; that’s “Meh, alright,” political compromise.  The best candidate for the job (within the House GOP, which is a low bar) was never at issue:  it wasn’t Mike Johnson. 

As expected, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday flagged fat former President Trump’s freakout over the news that Mark Meadows had been granted immunity for his testimony to the grand jury investigating Donald’s failed post-2020 election coup attempt.

Smith included the Truth Social post in a motion opposing Judge Chutkan’s stay of the gag order she imposed on the fat fuck last week. “In the few days since the administrative stay has been in place, the defendant has returned to the very sort of targeting that the Order prohibits, including attempting to intimidate and influence foreseeable witnesses, and commenting on the substance of their testimony. For example, on October 24, 2023, the defendant took to social media to respond to a news report claiming that his former Chief of Staff, identified in the indictment, had testified in exchange for a grant of immunity… Today, in a courthouse press conference in New York, the defendant again commented on the Chief of Staff’s credibility and anticipated testimony.”

In a separate motion submitted Wednesday again asking the judge to force Trump to commit to his planned “advice of counsel” defense, Smith also hilariously pointed out that “If the defendant notices such a defense, there is good reason to question its viability, especially because in the time since the Government filed its motion three charged co-defendant attorneys pleaded guilty to committing crimes in connection with the 2020 election. At the very least, those guilty pleas highlight the complications that may arise if the defendant should assert an advice-of-counsel defense and underscore the need to resolve all issues well before the start of trial. If disclosure is delayed, it may result in disruption to the trial schedule.” Good shade there.

CNN reports that at least 16 people are reportedly dead and “50 to 60” wounded at two locations in Lewiston, Maine after a shooter with an assault rifle struck at a bar and bowling alley and at a warehouse distribution center about four miles away.  It’s unknown if it was the same shooter at both locations or if two separate shooters are involved.  The local sheriff’s office posted a photo on Facebook from a security camera of the shooter walking into the bowling alley, asking the public for help identifying him.

Update 9:42 p.m. ET:  MSNBC reports 22 dead and 55 to 60 injured at three different locations.  Authorities seem to believe one shooter is responsible for the shootings in the three locations over the course of an hour.

Update 10:45 p.m. ET:  MSNBC reports President Biden was informed of the shooting while at a State Dinner honoring the Prime Minister of Australia.  Biden began making phone calls to local officials and excused himself from the remainder of the dinner to oversee the federal response.  MSNBC also reports that law enforcement officials have identified the individual but have not confirmed the person’s name.  The network confirms that officials say the alleged shooter has had recent mental health issues.

Members of the United Autoworkers with the Ford Motor Company have reached an agreement with their employer to end their part of the ongoing labor strike, the Associated Press reports. No word yet if former President Trump will take credit for it now or wait until the strikers’ compatriots with GM and Chrysler (“Stellantis” is fucking stupid. It’s still Chrysler to us) reach similar agreements.

Several Republican Congressmen from New York State will again move to expel lying piece of shit colleague George Santos now that the whole Speaker clusterfuck is over with, CBS News reports.

Six of the remaining 15 defendants in the Fulton County, Georgia RICO case against the Trump Regime have been offered plea deals to get them to cooperate against the other nine, CNN reports while specifying that disgraced and obese former President Trump is in the latter group.

Dem New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman was charged with a violation of local code by the District of Columbia Attorney General’s office for pulling the fire alarm in one of the House office buildings a few weeks ago, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports on a development in the story that the MAGA freaks who screamed that Bowman was worse than a Capitol rioter are unlikely to be satisfied with since it sounds like a misdemeanor at worst… if it even is an actual criminal charge.

Yet again a federal prosecutor has told Jim Jordan’s minions that neither he nor Delaware US Attorney and now special counsel David Weiss were ever blocked from bringing tax charges against Hunter Biden, as US Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada further discredited the byzantine fairy tales told by IRS “whistleblowers” Gary Shapley and that other asshole whatever his name is in a closed interview with the House Judiciary investigators Wednesday, the AP reports.

Despite claiming the money used to buy the RV was a personal loan he was repaying, Clarence Thomas apparently never made a payment to Anthony Welters for the $267,000 Welters fronted in 1999 for the 40-foot vehicle, the New York Times reports.

The loan, Welters told the Times for a report it ran on the transaction last summer, was “satisfied” in 2003, but the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee found no evidence Thomas ever paid a cent toward the principle loan amount.  Instead, Welters told the Committee it was more like a balloon payment for a mortgage, where Thomas only paid the 7.5% interest amount, roughly $20,000 per year.  The principle amount was due at the loan maturity date, December 2004, according to paperwork Welters provided.

Welters also provided a handwritten note with Thomas’s signature, presumably written by Thomas, on Supreme Court letterhead in which Thomas specifies the loan agreement reflects their mutual understanding and that Thomas agrees to adhere to the letter of the agreement.  But no records show Thomas made the required balloon payment even though Clarence and Ginni retained ownership of the RV.

Furious over disgraced former President Trump again violating the gag order prohibiting him from mentioning any member of his courtroom staff even indirectly, New York Judge Arthur Engoron on Wednesday forced the fat fuck to take the stand and explain why the hell he screamed about how Engoron “is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even more partisan than he is,” almost certainly referring to the clerk Trump accused of being “Chuck Schumer’s girlfriend” a few weeks ago, Politico’s Erica Orden reports.

Questioned intensely by Engoron, Trump tried to claim he was talking about ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, but the judge said he “As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible,” and fined the Orange Loser $10,000, doubling the amount of the last fine imposed just five days ago.

While most readers are not doubt disappointed that Engoron just slapped him on the wrist slightly harder this time and dinging him for at most a few hours’ worth of small dollar donations at his campaign website, the truth is that Trump does have that tiny shred of plausible deniability, as Michael Cohen did in fact publicly “endorse” Joe Biden in the 2020 election out of personal animus toward his former boss. It’s just not a black and white violation of the gag order and was up to Engoron’s discretion. But this is very, very early in what’s going to be a very long year of sitting at the defendants’ table and screaming at news cameras as he steps in and out of courtrooms. Already twice in five days a judge has threatened toss Trump’s fat ass in jail for misbehaving, and this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. With the exception of Aileen Cannon, the three other judges who have to see his stupid orange face and ridiculously long tie in their courtroom are already going to be on alert before the first time they gavel in. Put simply, it’s only a matter of time before shit gets real.

Things got really gory in Palm Bay, Florida last Friday night when 70 year-old Sally Gore had a bit too much to drink before she got behind the wheel of her SUV to search for her lost dog without checking to see if her husband Gregory might’ve been standing in the driveway, Fox News reports.

The trouble started when the couple arrived home from a boozy dinner at a nearby Beef O’Brady’s location to find that their gate was open and the dog was nowhere to be found. The plan was for Sally to drive around and call out the dog’s name while Gregory would search on foot. Sally did her part, as witnesses said they heard her yelling out the window of the Honda Ridgeline. Gregory was indisposed however and only when Sally returned did she see her little alcohol-induced mistake.

Now Sally’s been charged with felony DUI manslaughter and is out on a $5,000 bond. Fox News’s article doesn’t say what happened to the dog, though the sentence “They believed their dog, which has a history of escaping the yard, had gotten out once again, according to the affidavit” carries an implication that the dog might not’ve actually escaped at all and that maybe the sheriff’s department purposely left that particular detail out of the arrest affidavit to not make it worse.

Louisiana MAGA Congressman Mike Johnson, architect of the brief supporting scumbag Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s stupid lawsuit seeking to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, hardcore forced birther, and probably dozens of other boxes that could be checked on his fascist card, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 22 days after cowardly now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed in a palace coup led by credibly suspected statutory rapist and sex trafficker Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.

We’ve now run these “House of Anarchy”-headlined live feeds more days in October than we did back in January when the House GOP struggled for four days. This may be the last one, as it appears Louisiana MAGA Congressman Mike Johnson has the wind at his back owing to exhaustion among the GOP conference after more than three weeks of this shitshow. At current attendance the threshold is 215 votes for Johnson to take the gavel, and about six or so Republican naming other candidates to block him. It will be very tight though again it would seem Johnson has it locked down.

Mexico’s Pacific coast is currently getting the absolute shit knocked out of it by Category 5 Hurricane Otis after what had been a normie tropical storm nobody had been worried about hit a warm patch of water and strengthened massively in less than 12 hours’ time, CNN reports.

“There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico,” said the National Hurricane Center in a statement ahead of the storm’s landfall earlier on Wednesday.

Screaming outside the courtroom again Wednesday during a break in his trial in the New York Attorney General’s $250 million lawsuit against his corrupt business empire, disgraced former President Trump again probably violated the gag order imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron proscribing any mention of his staff, bitching that “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even more partisan than he is.”

Indeed Engoron began ripping into Trump immediately upon reconvening, accusing him of violating the gag order while lawyer Chris Kise tried to argue Donald was talking about Michael Cohen.

A self-professed Christian Congressman on Wednesday cited a biblical justification for his political position during a House Oversight Committee hearing titled “Faith Under Fire: An Examination of Global Religious Persecution.” The Congressman specifically referred to the Book of Paul to assert a… Ah fuck that could only go so far. Listen to what Max Frost days here. This kid is good.

Russian fossil fuel giant Lukoil on Tuesday announced “with deep regret the sudden passing of” company chairman Vladimir Ivanovich Nekrasov, adding that “according to the preliminary conclusion of doctors, death occurred as a result of acute heart failure,” raising the intriguing possibility that maybe the 66 year-old Nekrasov did in fact die of heart failure under largely normal circumstances given his age and with it the likelihood of underlying health conditions.

Like we definitely can’t rule out that a guy who apparently worked in the industry since he was a teenager – per Lukoil’s statement – and as such likely spent a good portion of his career inhaling all sorts of awful shit while toiling in a Soviet refinery before landing a desk job wouldn’t be in great shape at 66. It’s also completely within the realm of imagination that Nekrasov liked to kick back and enjoy a little vodka after a hard day’s work that was only made tolerable by being constantly drunk on vodka. Heart failure is an unfortunately realistic outcome for such a lifestyle.

Now of course it’s reasonable to speculate that maybe the heart failure was precipitated by some external vector like ricin or polonium or novichuk. Or that it wasn’t heart failure at all since Nekrasov had only been at the top job since the last guy fell out of a hospital window which some bonehead at Lukoil mistakenly said was “a severe illness.” We get it. We’re just saying that Nekrasov might’ve just simply died on his own without any help. It’s not that wacky or paranoid to raise that possibility.

“A federal jury convicted the final defendant involved in an online romance scheme that cost dozens of victims more than $6 million. On Oct 19, 2023, a Utah County woman, was found guilty of one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering. According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial, Nelly Idowu, 39, of Provo, Utah, participated in an online romance scheme from 2017 to 2019 that involved creating fake online dating profiles to befriend and romance victims. These victims were primarily single women over 65-years-old who were led to believe the fake persona they were engaging with had an urgent financial need. Some of the bogus financial needs included helping family members with emergency medical costs, helping a United States military member stranded overseas, or claims of unique investment opportunities.”

“None of these financial needs were legitimate. Victims sent money to Idowu and her codefendants for these false purposes. Idowu and her codefendants then sent a significant amount of the victim funds to overseas accounts in China and Nigeria. At trial, the United States presented evidence that Idowu’s personal and business accounts received more than $1 million from 2017 to 2019, and that additional amounts were received by Idowu’s coconspirators. Victims testified they were victims of scams involving fictitious online romance partners. They testified they sent the money to Idowu or her coconspirators as a result of the scam involving fictitious online romance partners,” says a Justice Department press release that just needs a prince to bring it all together.