Not satisfied with Republicans’ failed efforts to block Joe Biden from taking office and their subsequent campaign to find a reason to impeach Biden, Florida Republican Congressman and man who creepily volunteers to be the girls’ school playground monitor Matt Gaetz is making the ballsy move to ask Democrats to help him oust House Speaker pro tem, Politico reports.

Emboldened by the mirage of power created by a razor thin Republican majority in the House, Gaetz has threatened to oust McCarthy if McCarthy sought Democratic to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown.  Ever the spoilt child, Gaetz demanded McCarthy acquiesce to every one of his petty demands–demands which would certainly plunge the country into a fiscal crisis.

But without an iota of self-awareness, Gaetz has now reportedly approached Democrats to enlist their help.  Gaetz approached Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, who advised he delay the maneuver until after the impending shutdown.  “He’s been talking to everybody about it,” she said. “I told him in our caucus, in the Progressive Caucus, we’re not planning to save McCarthy — for a whole host of reasons. And so, we really need to get through the shutdown first.”  Jayapal has stated the Progressive Caucus would demand a power-sharing agreement if McCarthy asked for help to save his position, and she’ll likely demand Gaetz bow to her demands if he wants her help.

Federal judge Steve Jones denied indicted coconspirator Jeffrey Clark’s effort to have his Fulton County, Georgia racketeering case removed to federal court, claiming that he was acting as a federal official while he tried to disenfranchise millions of Georgia voters.  According to Jones’s opinion, Clark was not working in his official capacity as Assistant Attorney General for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department as he tried to undermine the certified elections from Georgia to illegally reinstall Donald Trump for a second term in the White House.

“Accordingly, the Court concludes that Clark has not met his burden to show that he was acting within the scope of his federal office as AAG of the Civil Division in drafting the December 28 letter,” Jones wrote.  “The letter pertained to election fraud and election interference concerns that were outside the gamut of his federal office. Consequently, Clark has not shown the required nexus for federal officer removal.”

House Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy failed in his effort to pass a funding measure as the nation hurdles toward a fiscal cliff with the latest GOP funding bill failing by a final count of 198-232.  With his grip on the Speakership tenuous at best, this likely signals the beginning of the end for McCarthy’s leadership in the chamber, as the far-right wing of the Party will call for his ouster.

Liberal group Free Speech for People on Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to block disgraced former President Trump’s eligibility for the ballot in Michigan under Section III of the 14th Amendment, the fourth major challenge but the first in a 2016-2020 swing state, the Associated Press reports.

It’s not clear from the AP’s article if Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was named as a defendant, though it would seem likely given that Steve Simon, her counterpart in Minnesota, is named in Free Speech for People’s petition there and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was in a separate group of plaintiffs’ case as well. Earlier this month Benson ruled out any unilateral action to boot Trump off the ballot, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that she would only do what a court told her to do. It’s worth noting here that the Michigan state Supreme Court does have a lib majority though we think it unlikely that the final ruling would come from them and not Samuel Alito.

In his farewell speech to Defense Department personnel, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley on Friday had some choice words for the fat tyrant who called for his head recently, saying “We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution. We are willing to die to protect it.”

In a Friday hearing ahead of MAGA lawyers’ Kenny Chesebro and Sidney “Kraken” Powell’s upcoming October 23 trial for their part in the massive Trump Georgia post-2020 election coup attempt conspiracy, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee handed Chesebro back-to-back defeats in his motions to claim immunity from prosecution and suppress the content of emails from the evidence.

On the immunity bid, McAfee ruled Chesebro’s claim having “simply performed his legal duty to a client” is “irrelevant in the pretrial context of immunity, and this Court declines the invitation to supplant the jury’s role as the factfinder.” Almost literally writing “save it for the jury, my dude.”

Chesebro relies on more or less the same argument in the attempt to suppress email evidence, that it was a legal work product and thus subject to attorney-client privilege ends the same way, with McAfee ruling Chesebro had “not sufficiently particularized why the attorney-client privilege applies, nor does he contend inclusion of these materials affected the viability of the warrant itself” and that his motion “fails to state a legal violation that would require suppression… DENIED.”

Still ongoing flash flooding hit New York City hard on Friday, with low-lying streets becoming inundated with wetter than usual garbage and rats, National Zero reports citing its founder’s firsthand account of his building’s basement storage unit steadily filling up with water leaking in from the adjacent IND line line of the subway system. Service on which is experiencing heavy delays along with the every other route that wasn’t already suspended partially or entirely.

“A FLASH FLOOD WARNING is in effect for this area until 12:30 PM EDT. This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” said an emergency push alert sent to locals’ phones at around 9:25 AM EDT Friday. It may have kind of lowballed the estimate for the end of the rain given that the NWS also says that the region will remain under a flash flood watch until 6:00 EDT on Saturday.

California Dem Senator Dianne Feinstein died Friday at age 90, CBS News reports on a merciful end to the sad and frankly pretty disgraceful way she was treated by her staff and family members in her final year or so as they wheeled her around without gently and respectfully talking her into retiring.

Feinstein’s death leaves vacant a seat already contested in campaigns launched by California US House Democrats Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee beginning months before the now-late Senator had announced earlier this year she would not be running for reelection in 2024.

Just weeks ago NBC News reported that Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan is to appoint an “interim” replacement and let a special primary and general election play out between the three California representatives, whom now will not need to vacate their House seats to run in a 2024 primary.

Trump minion and shitty right wing children’s book author Kash Patel was more than underwhelmed with the Republicans’ performance during Thursday’s “Biden impeachment inquiry” hearing, complaining the House GOP members present were “more worried with getting their 30 second headline on mainstream media and being glorified in your little caucus circles on Capitol Hill than doing the damage op for the American people.” This guy’s such a freaking douche he can’t help but slip into MAGA conspiracy lingo and give away a little more than he intended by calling what was supposedly at least ostensibly legitimate function of congressional oversight a “damage op.”

The New York Times on Thursday obtained an internal memo by David McIntosh, the president of the anti-Trump Club for Growth, concluding that their expensive ad campaign to turn GOP primary voters on to another candidate has failed and resistance is futile. Some clips of their findings:

“Even when you show video to Republican primary voters – with complete context – of President Trump saying something otherwise objectionable to primary voters, they find a way to rationalize and dismiss it,” and yeah, no shit. It’s a cult. “Every traditional postproduction ad attacking President Trump either backfired or produced no impact on his ballot support and favorability. This includes ads that primarily feature video of him saying liberal or stupid comments from his own mouth.”

“Broadly acceptable messages against President Trump with Republican primary voters that do not produce a meaningful backlash include sharing concerns about his ability to beat President Biden, expressions of Trump fatigue due to the distractions he creates and the polarization of the country, as well as his pattern of attacking conservative leaders for self-interested reasons,” McIntosh wrote.

He then gets into the ads that did at least kind of work, writing they disarmed “the viewer at the opening of the ad by establishing that the person being interviewed on camera is a Republican who previously supported Trump… otherwise, the viewer will automatically put their guard up, assuming the messenger is just another Trump-hater whose opinion should be summarily dismissed.”

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 51 percent of respondents overall respondents and saying they want disgraced former President Trump disqualified from running again in 2024 under Section III of the the 14th Amendment barring from public office those who have engaged in rebellion or insurrection against the government, with 34 percent opposed and the remainder saying they don’t know. Among independents, it was 49 percent support for disqualification.

The survey also found that “just under a quarter of Republicans agree” and Politico cautions that although “Trump’s yawning margin in most primary horse race polls, the seemingly high percentage of Republicans calling for Trump’s disqualification may overstate his intraparty opposition, although few other public surveys have asked about the 14th Amendment push yet,” meaning that most of the Republican respondents will probably drop their opposition if Trump is the GOP nominee.

Florida Republican Congressman not accused of child sex trafficking (as far as we know) Byron Donalds got called out in realtime by New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for fraudulently editing a text exchange between an obviously strung-out Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim, the President’s brother.

Donalds only featured the second half of a discussion the pair had in which Hunter sounded hopeless about his family and financial situation, and his uncle attempting to be supportive, saying he would work with Hunter’s father to resolve some issues:

At a protest against a planned statue of a Conquistador in northern New Mexico, a man wearing a trademark red MAGA hat pulled out a gun and opened fire on the crowd, wounding one man, the Associated Press reports.  Prior to the shooting, the suspect identified himself to a local newspaper photographer, who took a harrowing picture of the suspect firing.

According to witnesses, 23-year-old Ryan Martinez of Sandia Park, wearing a MAGA cap, went to the protest organized by Native American advocacy group The Red Nation to stop the relocation of a statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate to outside an official county building and was confronted by a man at the periphery of the group.  A scuffle ensued, leading to Martinez hopping over a barrier and then pulling a gun, firing one shot and hitting a Native American man in the torso.

Martinez fled the scene in a white Tesla, but was soon apprehended by sheriff’s deputies.  It’s unclear if he’d been charged.  A Facebook page reportedly belonging to Martinez–it features photo of the man matching his description standing in front of a white Tesla and flashing a holstered handgun–featured in the bio, “Fuck The Chinese Communist Party and Fuck Joe Biden. TRUMP WON. (pre-law major).”

Skeezy British tabloid site Page Six reports something we probably all understood already but couldn’t confirm:  Former third First Lady Melania Trump renegotiated her pre-nuptial agreement with Donald recently, making sure the deal was done before her ersatz husband started facing trials in his multiple criminal and civil cases.

It was a smart move for the one-time soft-core model and incubator for Trump’s third acknowledged son, who secured value prior to a series of judgments against Trump that could disperse the scant remaining cash and assets he possesses.  Trump’s real estate empire is also heading into murky waters given the New York State civil decision against Trump in his financial fraud case.

David Wolfe, one of the two lawyers representing Rudy Giuliani in the Fulton County, Georgia racketeering trial concerning Donald Trump’s efforts to disenfranchise millions of Georgia voters in a vain attempt to maintain power, has left the case, a filing to the court announced.

It’s unknown if Giuliani has paid his legal fees:  a $100,000 per plate fundraiser held for him at Trump’s Bedminster golf course raised an unknown amount of money; it’s unknown if Trump took his typical 90% cut of funds raised.  During an interview earlier this month on CNN, Wolfe blew up at the announcer when asked who was paying his fees.  Giuliani’s sole remaining lawyer in the Georgia case is Brian Tevis, who is reportedly being assisted by Manhattan attorney John Esposito

Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal told Talking Points Memo that it’s going to cost titular Speaker Kevin McCarthy a lot if he wants Dems to help save his ass during an expected motion to vacate brought by the MAGA assholes in his caucus, but save him they will if the price is right.

The Progressive Caucus chief says if there “was any kind of a deal to be made, it would need to be written into the rules of the House. We would need to codify power-sharing because that’s the only way we can trust him… There are things we can do in codifying the rules of the House that would give Hakeem Jeffries, our leadership, real power over the floor, over committees, etc,” adding that a power-sharing agreement would be necessary “because of what happened with the debt ceiling. It’s because of what happened with the Biden impeachment. It’s because of the fact that he’s, depending on the day, either turned the gavel over to Marjorie Taylor Greene or to Matt Gaetz.”

In very related news, the Washington Post reports next week is when the ultra-MAGA hammer falls on McCarthy, with the palace coup plotters looking to replace him with majority whip Tom Emmer.

Talk about an accounting error:  According to documents filed by a real estate appraiser hired by Trump’s Mar-a-Lago supper club in Florida in 2020, Donald Trump’s official valuation of the facility was $27 million at the time, significantly less than the $1.8 billion touted by Trump and his spawn this week.

CBS News reports that a Palm Beach County assessor put the value of Mar-a-Lago at $18- and $27 million in estimates through 2021; that became the basis used by the New York State judge overseeing his state civil financial fraud case to determine Trump overvalued the property, a figure Trump mocked… but a value statement signed by the Trump-hired appraiser concurred with the range in 2020, while Trump was in the White House, after first filing a challenge.

The challenge is interesting because in White House financial statements from 2017 to 2020, Trump listed the value of the property at “over $50,000,000,” putting Trump’s financial statement at odds with tax documents Trump knew valued the property less.

Fat former President Trump on Thursday sued former British spy Christopher Steele, author of the infamous “Steele Dossier” which the chunky orange man has been obsessed with for years after the Marco Rubio/Hillary Clinton paid oppo research alleged Donald had watched Russian hookers – really don’t want to have to write this and everyone knows it already so we’ll just skip ahead – in a Moscow hotel room and the Russians had been threatening to release it, the Independent reports.

Notably the case was filed in a British court, not an American one. Aleksej Gubarev, one of the Russians named in the dossier, had sued Steele for libel in 2017 but the case was tossed in 2020.

Disgraced former President Trump’s Georgia legal team on Thursday informed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee they won’t be trying to remove the fat bastard’s RICO indictment trial for his post-2020 election coup attempt from state to federal court, a somewhat surprising shift considering that, even if it was very unlikely to work, it could have caused a delay.

“President Trump now notifies the Court that he will NOT be seeking to remove his case to federal court. This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case in the Superior Court of Fulton County,” they wrote.

If we had to guess, maybe it had something to do with Mark Meadows’s effort to do the same being likely doomed and that, since Meadows testified, Donald feared having to take the stand too.