Rapey McForehead continued by saying the only way McCarthy “remains as speaker is if he makes a deal with Democrats,” a tantalizing possibility that would only come through a power-sharing agreement which would be very costly, according to Progressive Caucus leader Pramila Jayapal.

“When you host this show next week, if Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House, he will be serving at the pleasure of the Democrats. He will be working for the Democrats,” Gaetz kept going, threatening Americans with a good time of effectively ending the GOP House majority early.

Marion, Kansas Mayor David Mayfield on Saturday suspended Chief Gideon Cody over the fascistic August raid on a local newspaper over a complaint filed by some scumbag with connections to Republican Congressman Jake LaTurner, the Marion County Record reports on the ongoing fallout from the shitshow that saw their newsroom and publisher Eric Meyer’s home tossed by cops, which was so stressful to his 98 year-old mother (and co-publisher), Joan Meyer that it literally killed her.

“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Cody had told Axios just two days after the raid in response to Eric Meyer announcing a major lawsuit over the mess. Well the rest of the story isn’t available yet but already it’s obviously not going great for him. The whole drama is too detailed to reprint here – you can see our post on it from August 12th – but the gist of it is that for the Record’s “crime” of notifying the cops that a politically-connected local business owner’s estranged soon-to-be ex-husband had attempted to use them for a smear job (even though the smear was true) they were targeted in a raid and had their computers seized on a warrant. The Record’s newest report strongly indicates that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is pursuing Cody for the atrocity, hopefully the piece of shit judge that signed the warrant instead of a subpoena is going to have hell to pay too.

Some teachers are 'completely overwhelmed' by helicopter parents, suffering 'burnout': Essay https://t.co/rhdk98BQZd

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 1, 2023

Disappointed with the mockery they’ve endured since the televised impeachment investigation virtually started with a witness asserting there’s not enough evidence to actually impeach President Joe Biden, House Republicans are considering pulling the investigation from Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and handing the effort to avenge Donald Trump’s embarrassments to Judiciary Chair and sexual abuse misprisioner Jim Jordan, Politico Playbook reports.

While remedial Congress critters Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert griped about how unimpressive the hearing was, more mainstream Republicans are also annoyed with Comer’s production, saying having the first hearing feature legal experts and not fact witnesses was a serious error that disengaged voters.  Others complain that Comer’s strategy of exclusively releasing information to Fox’s cable propaganda network and other conservative media was preaching to the choir and ignored the need to convince non-MAGA voters about the seriousness of the charges.

Advocates for dumping Comer say the investigation should be handled by the Judiciary Committee, headed by Jordan, the traditional place for impeachment inquiries to start.  The quick-talking Jordan, who himself is not a good interviewee, would be able to doubletalk information into the record without really saying anything, something that might be necessary given the Republicans haven’t released any evidence supporting their claims regarding Joe Biden corruption.

I just signed a law to keep the government open for 47 days. There’s plenty of time to pass Government funding bills for the next fiscal year, and I strongly urge Congress to get to work right away.

The American people expect their government to work.

Let’s make sure it does. pic.twitter.com/ffjwUIPWIt

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2023

A member of the San Francisco Republican Party County Central Committee has been arrested after parts of a headless, handless, and footless body wrapped in garbage bags found in July were identified as his missing fiance, the San Francisco Standard reports.  A Navy veteran, 42-year-old Joseph C. Roberts was charged after DNA evidence connected him to the killing of 27=year-old Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner.

What makes this more than a typical Republican-kills-a-woman story is that Roberts made a name in conservative circles by vocally defending himself against allegations made by three women at Savannah State University in Georgia that Roberts sexually harassed them, which got him expelled from the school.  His cause was picked up by “men’s rights” activists and even Donald Trump, whom Roberts supported, as an example of the #MeToo movement gone wild.

The US Senate on Saturday night passed a 45-day bill funding the government just three hours and seven minutes before money was to expire. The margin was at least 88 yes to 9 no votes.

Joined by 126 Republicans, Democrats in the House largely united to pass a stopgap spending bill, saving the country from a federal government shutdown and likely all but ensuring a bid to end Kevin McCarthy’s time as Speaker, the Washington Post reports.

Only one Democrat voted against the bill–Mike Quigley of Illinois–with California’s Katie Porter absent, but 90 Republicans voted against the bill, forcing the effort to rely on Democrats to save the proposal.  Members of the nihilist Freedom Caucus have stated that they will push for a new Speaker if McCarthy relied on Democrats to pass the measure.

We missed some of the drama in Congress on Saturday but we heard that it didn’t go great for Republicans or Kevin McCarthy. He definitely doesn’t look very happy to be answering questions.

In a rare piece of actually original reporting – or at least more “original” than assigning a writer to watch The View or listen to a Joe Rogan podcast – Mediaite on Friday broke that antisemitic anti-vax freak Robert F Kennedy Jr is going to drop out of the Dem presidential primary and mount a third party run, news that was received well, not so well, and then like “Oh fuck” by the MAGA internet:

“If this is true RFK Jr just fired a shot across the bow of Biden’s sinking ship” – The current top comment on The Right Scoop’s story. That’s exactly the kind of enthusiasm we like.

“If he can get on the ballot as an independent, it will eliminate any chance the democrats may have had at winning. He should watch his back” – Top comment on Fox News’s article. Same as above.

“Awesome news, he will suck up demoRat votes” – Top comment at the Daily Caller. Still excited.

“Kennedy knows how corrupt the Democrats are” – Top comment at Breitbart and about the most generic take possible, like they couldn’t bring themselves to contemplate the actual real-world consequences of the anti-vax cult’s champion being on the ballot in crucial swing states next year.

“I hope he splits the Democrat vote in half. MAGA vote MAGA! Trump 47!” – Top comment on the Gateway Pundit’s article. Key word is “hope” followed by the call for Trump fans to vote for him again, like “Please don’t fuck around on this. The COVID vax thing isn’t more important than MAGA.”

A necropsy of an orca whose body washed ashore in Russia’s far eastern Bering Strait revealed the killer whale had eaten seven sea otters by simply swallowing them whole, with the last one getting caught in the beast’s esophagus, Live Science reports citing a recent study of the 2020 death.

“It is very unusual because orcas don’t normally eat sea otters,” study author and Moscow University marine biologist Olga Filatova told Live Science adding that the killer whales “normally don’t swallow prey whole – they usually tear it apart and eat only the best (most fatty) parts.”

• Dianne Feinstein was forced to remain in the Senate until her dying day because of a callous political calculation by Mitch McConnell and the GOP.  She should have been allowed to retire and spend her last days with family in California with her successor seated in DC, but because of McConnell’s craven desire to manipulate rules to his political advantage, Feinstein was denied that dignity.  That is disgusting and inhumane.  May she finally have peace.
• Notable:  in his Thursday speech, Joe Biden didn’t implore people to go out and vote for him to save our democracy.  He just implored people to participate in our elections.  Biden will never say “Only I can save you!” as Trump does.  Biden knows only the People can save the nation, at the ballot box.
• Remember when Lauren Boebert claimed she had a super-secret parliamentary way to force an impeachment vote on the floor of the House?  That ploy, like her high school education, failed.
• If it isn’t obvious enough, Trump is now trying to throw his Georgia racketeering case so he can (1) appeal and (2) play up how unfair the System is to him before the election.  It’s why he doesn’t want to remove the Fulton County case to federal court:  he believes he’ll appear more of a victim at the hands of those naughty (Black) Atlantans.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CXL”

Saying “The defendant should not be permitted to continue to try this case in the court of public opinion rather than in the court of law,” Jack Smith’s Special Counsel’s office argued Trump’s ongoing efforts to threaten and intimidate people necessitate a gag order to protect the integrity of the trial and keep court officers, witnesses and prosecutors safe.

“The need for the proposed order is further evidenced by a review of the defendant’s prejudicial statements in the weeks since the Government initially filed its motion on September 5. Since that date, the defendant has continued to make statements that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case and that fall within the narrowly tailored order proposed by the Government.”  Smith then goes on to list a number of violence-tinged statements made by Trump, including calling for the execution of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

“On September 22, on Truth Social, the defendant falsely claimed that the retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a witness cited in the indictment, had committed treason and suggested that he should be executed,” says Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in his motion in support of gag order on disgraced former President Trump in the DC coup attempt case.

Which means Trup already violated his release terms with the post calling for Milley’s execution.

Asked if the federal government will shut down this weekend, the bane of sandal designers, Georgia Republican Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene, shares a unique take on the week’s news, being certain to pat herself on the back in the process:

Yes, I do agree with that, Eric.  Um, now this is coming after a very successful week here in Washington, DC.  Ah, one of the biggest success that we had this week was passing our defense appropriation [sic] bill and stripping the Ukraine war money out of it.  That was a big win that I personally worked on, um, and I’m very proud to say that 117 Republicans, which is over half of our conference, voted against Ukraine war money.

The appropriations bill Marge refers to won’t make it through the Senate, which will fund the defense of Ukraine, regardless of what de factor Speaker Marge declares, so her claimed success for the week is a loss.  The dysfunction of the GOP was on full display this week, with a comical presidential debate and a hysterically meaningless “impeachment hearing” exhibiting Republican incompetence.  And calling the week successful when her antics will push the nation over a fiscal cliff demonstrates Marge is concerned with nothing more than her ego.

Regardless of if the federal government shuts down at midnight Saturday, student loan borrowers will have to restart their loan payments October 1st unless a different continuing resolution is passed by the House and Senate in the next two days, CBS News reports.

While President Biden has worked to forgive much student loan debt or at least tried to waive repayment requirements, Republicans are insistent that loan holders keep payments up, even while forcing federal workers to miss paychecks because of Matt Gaetz’s desire for notoriety.

A new set survey from Public Policy Polling finds President Biden leading disgraced former President Trump 48 to 45 in Pennsylvania and 48 to 44 in both Michigan and Wisconsin. This result was posted six hours ago and we just randomly see it on Twitter when New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz joked about how funny it would be if Biden won the Electoral College but not the popular vote.

Weird how we had to happen upon it rather than seeing it being reported by like say, Axios, the New York Times, NBC, Fox News, the Washington Post, The Hill, CNN, Politico, Mediaite, CBS, and so on and so forth. Now of course there’s a lot of other shit going on these days but it’s hard to escape the feeling that they might’ve kind of picked it up if the finding was reversed so they can be like “HOLY SHIT! TRUMP LEADS BIDEN IN SWING STATES TOO!” the way they were like “HOLY SHIT! THIS NEW ABC WASHINGTON POST POLL FINDS TRUMP UP 11 POINTS OVER BIDEN IN 2024! IT’S PROBABLY ACCURATE! NOT AN OUTLIER! AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS FUCKED! SO DEVASTATING! VOTERS ARE REALLY CONCERNED OVER BIDEN’S AGE TOO! THEY SAID IT! LOOK!” on Sunday.

And it’s not like Public Policy Polling is some fringe bullshit propaganda operation like Rasmussen or Trafalgar on the right or Center Street PAC on the left. The MSM outlets cite PPP findings all the time. They might not be a “household name” like Pew or Gallup, but they’re close enough. Their record’s okay, tracks with the industry at large in both 2020 and 2022. So there’s really no excuse for the MSM not to want to pick this up unless they want to further anger the liberals already constantly accusing them of, unconsciously or otherwise, pushing a certain narrative.

Christopher Worrell, a member of the Proud Boys who went into hiding days before his sentencing for his convictions for crimes related to his actions during the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, was captured in East Naples, Florida Thursday night, and apparently his neighbors were too pleased with the media attention their local insurrectionist spawned.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was one of the Republican operatives who illegally accessed voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, became the first of the 19 co-defendants in the Fulton Trump coup attempt RICO case to take a plea deal on Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Hall and several other unindicted co-conspirators had accompanied another defendant, fake elector and former Coffee County GOP chairwoman Cathy Latham to the county clerk’s office, where the then-clerk Misty Hampton (another one of the 19 defendants) had let them into the server room to take whatever software and voter data they wanted from the county’s Dominion Voting Machines equipment. Hall was charged with 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.

His buddy Sidney “Kraken” Powell was hit with same charges so it might be a safe bet we’ll see Hall on the witness stand (live on television) in her and Kenny Chesebro’s trial in November. NBC News reports that Hall has copped to all charges and is looking at five years probation with no jail time in exchange for agreeing to “testify truthfully in this case and all further proceedings.”