Sources inside the US intel community tell the New York Times that Iranian leadership were surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend, but since they’re all “Deep State” and trying to run political cover for Biden there’s no reason for right wingers to believe this.

House Republicans are having their phones confiscated as they walk into a meeting to elect their candidate for Speaker, Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman reported Wednesday, adding that “these are adults with staffs who are not able to bring their electronics into party meetings.”

Shortly afterward Marjorie Taylor Greene replied, saying “All warranted criticism, which I am frustrated with. However, at least checking our cell phones has cut down on your live tweeting of what’s being said in our conference meetings and that part I’m happy with. Not of fan of snitches.”

Fun fact: This was may have been why George Santos claimed he didn’t know he had been indicted again on Tuesday night until reporters told him after the House GOP’s speaker forum, saying “I did not have access to my phone. I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Of course he could’ve just been bullshitting, but it’s just as possible he really was taken by surprise.

Money is fungible. We all know it.
 
Knowing that Biden was going to grant them $6 billion, Iran was able to allocate more of its money towards funding its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 11, 2023

After finally getting it through their thick skulls that the $6 billion in Iranian oil profits impounded by the Trump Administration and still under the control of the US Treasury Department that was made available for the Iranian government to purchase food and medical from approved third-party providers – of which a dime has not yet been spent – money unfrozen in exchange for the release of five Americans held in Iranian captivity, Republicans decided to move the goalposts to “Well the money is fungible, so that means it freed up other funds to be spent on weapons for Hamas.”

That where we’re at. They’ve decided that Biden still has blood on his hands because they know exactly what the Ayatollah and his minions were thinking less than three weeks before Hamas slaughtered innocent Israelis. What, again, they aren’t mentioning is the Navy seized more than 3,000 assault rifles, 578,000 rounds of ammunition, and 23 anti-tank guided missiles bound for Yemen in January of this year and probably would have done the same if they had intercepted a shipment of guns for Gaza if they had caught it. Guns and bullets aren’t as “fungible” as money.

President Biden’s Tuesday address denouncing last weekend’s Hamas terrorist attacks and pledging support was viewed by 48 percent of Israeli television screens, ratings that don’t include streaming numbers in the country, Axios’s Barak Ravid reports on numbers that you-know-who would be fucking furious to hear about given his obsession with ratings and repeatedly claiming he could be easily elected Prime Minister of the Jewish State if he wanted to move there and run.

Several former Ohio State wrestlers tell NBC News they would rather not see House Republicans elect their former assistant coach Jim Jordan to Speaker after he ignored the voluminous allegations that program doctor Richard Strauss sexually abused them and other athletes in the early 1990s.

Jordan “doesn’t deserve to be House speaker… He still has to answer for what happened to us,” said former wrestler Dunyasha Yetts, adding that the “hypocrisy is unbelievable.” Another one, Mike Schyck asked “Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys? Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?” Both are suing the university.

“My problem with Jimmy is that he has been playing with words instead of supporting us. None of us used the words ‘sexual abuse’ when we talked about what Doc Strauss was doing to us, we just knew it was weird and Jimmy knew about it because we talked about it all the time in the locker room, at practices, everywhere,” another one, listed as an anonymous plaintiff against OSU, said.

Republican Texas Governor and migrant kidnapping bandwagon jumper Greg Abbott has resurrected a nuisance program at the Mexican border mandating extensive checks of trucks crossing the border by state law enforcement officers, a process that has resulted in a 24-hour queue of tractor-trailers on the Mexican side, Bloomberg reports.

At the Ysleta bridge in El Paso, lines of trucks stretched 14 miles on the Mexican side as Texas officers took up to an hour to search some trucks.  The trucks are carrying products from fresh produce to manufactured parts, all of which are on strict delivery schedules being messed up at Abbott’s whim.

Abbott tried the same stunt in April 2022.  The results:  zero drugs or other contraband confiscated, but trucks were backed up for more than a dozen miles, causing food to rot.

Sean Hannity is a lying scumbag.  Had Rush Limbaugh never existed, Al Franken would have titled a book after him.  See, we know from Hannity’s texts that he was an advisor to the Trump ’20 campaign, and reports are that he had nightly phone calls with Trump.  So for Hannity to claim he’s not simply repeating Trump ’24 campaign attack and he’s using “Hannity Points”–and yes, Hannity did say that–is not just laughable, it’s more likely he’s dictating the talking points to his campaign associates.

As war porn plays in the background, Robert Kennedy, Jr. gets unfamiliarly difficult questions from the Trump campaign advisor, who obviously now views Kennedy as a potential threat to his vaccine-denying god, whereas as a Democrat, Kennedy was a useful idiot to the Hannity campaign.

“I hereby demand a full apology from the failing Forbes Magazine, and their third rate psycho writer, Dan Alexander, for the many false and libelous articles they have written about me, and for the cooperation they have given to the Racist and Incompetent AG of New York State, Peekaboo James. You see, Forbes is owned by the Communist Chinese Government, and China will do anything to stop MAGA. Forbes, a Globalist ‘Rag,’ is a propaganda play against TRUMP” writes the fat former president, still raging after Forbes dropped him from the 400 Richest Americans list.

Donald also continued melting down over the Middle East, screaming “the attack on Israel NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED if I were President” in another post. Same shit, different year and war.

Spandex-wearing grapple-freak and House Speaker hopeful Jim Jordan on Tuesday told CNN’s Manu Raju he’s not going to call on fellow Republican George Santos to resign after the scumbag was hit with a 23 count superseding indictment on top of the 13 charges Santos already was facing.

“I’ve always been clear – that’s up to members and their districts,” Jordan said. This was after Jordan has variously called for Joe Biden to resign after a suicide bomber killed 13 American troops in Kabul in August 2021, for Liz Cheney to resign after she voted to impeach fat former President Trump in January 2021, for Anthony Fauci to resign in October 2021 for whatever was itching Gym’s jock strap that week, who the hell knows. But Santos – who ripped off the NRCC – should be up to the voters next November, even though public opinion polls say they want him gone.

“In a statement, Mr Rittenhouse – speaking for himself and as a spokesperson for Texas Gun Rights – unequivocally denounced Nick Fuentes and the circumstances around the meeting taking place near Rittenhouse’s office. ‘While I have office space in the building Fuentes visited, I did not take part in any meetings with him, nor would I. As soon as I was made aware that Fuentes was in the office, I asked my supervisor to be excused for the day. I and the entire department were thankfully dismissed. Fuentes has attacked me personally, and his hideous views denigrate the memory and legacy of my Jewish family members, some of whom were victims of the Nazi’s [sic] holocaust.'”

“TXGR, as an organization, has categorically denounced Fuentes and his abominable positions. His invitation to the building was not disclosed to TXGR, and TXGR leadership has objected to Fuentes’ presence. The organization has communicated to building’s management concerns for Rittenhouse’s safety. TXGR has issued notice that moving forward, robust safeguards must be established to prevent extending invitations to individuals who espouse racist and anti-Semitic views,” says murderous right wing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse in a statement by his gun rights group.

This is actually one small incident in an absolutely massive clusterfuck involving a major political action committee tied to numerous Republican state legislators – and of course shitbag Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt Governor Dan Patrick – that we haven’t gotten into here yet. The topline is that former state House member Jon Strickland, who chairs the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, also runs a consultancy called Pale Horse Strategies – which hosted Fuentes for seven hours at their office last week, causing an uproar in the party. Funny how freaking Kyle Rittenhouse would denounce Fuentes this forcefully after briefly being in the same building as him for a few hours at most… while his Orange Jesus literally ate dinner with Fuentes and wouldn’t say anything afterward.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday hit lying piece of shit Long Island Republican Congressman George Santos with a 23 count superseding indictment on additional charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud on top of the 13 count indictment the scumbag former Brazilian drag queen was dinged on in May.

My statement on freezing Iranian assets: pic.twitter.com/JNpsp4woHd

— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) October 10, 2023

“United States Attorney Roger B Handberg announces that Wendell Doyle Goney (52, Mount Dora) has pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Goney faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. According to the plea agreement, on July 11, 2021, deputies from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to a burglary at a 10-acre business property in Mount Dora. As deputies were using a law enforcement drone to assist with the outdoor search, the drone was destroyed by gunfire from a neighboring property. Deputies responded to the neighboring property and were confronted Goney, who admitted that he had just shot down the drone with a .22 caliber rifle. Goney claimed that the drone had been ‘harassing’ him.”

“Goney then admitted to the deputies that he could not lawfully possess a firearm because he was a convicted felon. A record check confirmed his 29 prior Florida felony convictions, which included aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, illegal drug possession, burglary, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. As a convicted felon, Goney is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition under federal law,” says a DOJ press release

Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis on Tuesday petitioned a judge to issue a subpoena for the testimony of RNC Chair Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel and gay frog conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to testify in next month’s trial of MAGA lawyers Sidney “Kraken” Powell and Kenny Chesebro for their involvement in the post-2020 election Trump Regime coup attempt in the state.

If you’re an American liberal there’s a good chance your sympathies lie with the Palestinian people living on the wrong side of an apartheid state. Decades of teenagers getting shot and killed just for throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, people’s homes getting bulldozed to make room for far right settlers, denied educational and employment opportunities enjoyed on the other side of militarized borders, the imperialism made all the more shambolic by US support for it, and on and on and on.

The Israeli Defense Forces tells i24NEWS: Around 40 babies were butchered in the village of Kfar Aza, in southern Israel

'We're going to go after Hamas. We're going to hunt them down. We're going to eradicate them' Danny Danon, Former Israeli ambassador to the UN says pic.twitter.com/KoCzk6QJs8

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023

And you have something seriously fucking wrong with you if you can’t square that sympathy for regular Palestinian folk and outrage over the abuses they’ve suffered with the absolute horrors of what happened to regular Israeli folks on Saturday. We’re not Middle East history scholars, but we’d probably know if 40 Palestinian babies had ever been beheaded en masse by Israeli soldiers. This test is pretty easy yet some people on the left are still failing it. Failing spectacularly.

A motion filed Tuesday by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in disgraced former President Trump’s post-2020 election coup attempt case reveals that Donald’s lawyers are opposed to having to assert their supposedly planned “advice of counsel” defense exhibits to the court by Smith’s requested deadline of December 18th, 2023. Smith’s team doesn’t get into why they don’t want to do it, simply writing “through counsel, the defendant opposes this motion,” in the opening.

Thing is that it doesn’t appear that Trump’s lawyers have ever actually raised their intent to pursue the defense in any filings or arguments in pretrial hearings so far. It’s all been on TV and those are what Smith uses in the “background” section. Basically he’s saying “Hey you and your lawyer said all this shit in public about how you actually believed all that garbage stupid Rudy Giuliani and the Kraken were telling you about election fraud, so if you plan on bringing it into the courtroom you should tell the judge soon because we’re on a tight schedule here.” To which Trump’s lawyers are probably thinking “Uhhh shit… The fat idiot already imploded our case during his interview with freaking Kristen Welker. Are we still going with it? Goddamn it. Tell Smith we think we’re opposed to having to share the exhibits! For now! We’ll get back to him with something soon. Probably.”

Probably another sore spot is that if Trump does indeed go with it there are at least 25 witnesses who have claimed attorney-client privilege for their communications – including a Trump family member – all of which would be waived and subject to being entered into evidence.

An unnamed Pentagon official on Tuesday told Sky News Arabia that the administration does “not rule out carrying out a special operation to liberate our citizens in Gaza.” No further details were available as of yet. While obviously saying they’re not ruling it out falls well short of it definitely happening, the possibility that Navy SEALs or other special forces personnel could find themselves on the ground in Gaza is troubling. These things have a way of escalating.

Republican Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Monday did not answer an AP reporter’s question on whether impeaching liberal state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz for declining to recuse from a case that threatens to wipe out the extreme gerrymanders that have long kept Vos’s majority safe from the collective will of the voters, with Vos saying only that “Justice Protasiewicz should have recused herself. We think the United States Supreme Court precedent compels her recusal, and the United States Supreme Court will have the last word here.”

On Tuesday morning the AP reported that David Prosser, a Republican former justice appointed to a panel Vos had stood up to try to find a pretext for impeaching Protasiewicz had emailed Vos on Friday to tell him that he was recommending against it, writing “Impeachment is so serious, severe, and rare that it should not be considered unless the subject has committed a crime, or the subject has committed indisputable ‘corrupt conduct’ while ‘in office’… In my view, ‘corrupt conduct’ is not a term that is open to a mere political grievance. If that were the case, legislative bodies could be trading questionable impeachments with considerable frequency.” The email apparently came just before Protasiewicz announced she was not recusing from the case. What’s not clear is why Vos didn’t wait on the other two to overrule Prosser or something before Vos bitched out.