Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults. Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, “The Revivalist Manifesto,” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies. The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Other sections of the book defend podcaster Joe Rogan from racism charges after it was revealed he used the N-word, which Rogan later apologized for. The book also disparages poor voters as “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency” and easy to manipulate with “Black Lives Matter ‘defund the police’ pandering.” “Scott McKay presents a valuable and timely contribution with The Revivalist Manifesto because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing,” Johnson writes in his 300-word foreword.

The House on Friday voted to expel Republican Rep. George Santos on Friday, a historic move that hasn’t happened in more than 20 years.

For nearly two decades, a loose band of sheriff’s deputies roamed impoverished neighborhoods across a central Mississippi county, meting out their own version of justice. Narcotics detectives and patrol officers, some who called themselves the Goon Squad, barged into homes in the middle of the night, accusing people inside of dealing drugs. Then they handcuffed or held them at gunpoint and tortured them into confessing or providing information, according to dozens of people who say they endured or witnessed the assaults. They described violence that sometimes went on for hours and seemed intended to strike terror into the deputies’ targets. In the pursuit of drug arrests, deputies of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department shocked Robert Jones with a Taser in 2018 while he lay submerged in a flooded ditch, then rammed a stick down his throat until he vomited blood, he said. During a raid the same year, deputies choked Mitchell Hobson with a lamp cord and waterboarded him to simulate drowning, he said, then beat him until the walls were spattered with his blood. That raid took place at the home of Rick Loveday, a sheriff’s deputy in a neighboring county, who said he was dragged half-naked from his bed at gunpoint, before deputies jabbed a flashlight threateningly at his buttocks and then pummeled him relentlessly. The string of violence might have continued unchecked if not for one near-fatal raid in January. According to a Justice Department investigation, deputies broke into the home of two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, shocked them with Tasers and threatened to rape them. Deputy Hunter Elward shoved the barrel of a gun into Mr. Jenkins’s mouth, not realizing a bullet was in the chamber, and pulled the trigger. Mr. Jenkins was grievously injured, the incident was thrust into the national spotlight, and in August five deputies and a police officer pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

In ‘Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided,’ Scott Eyman tracks how a silent-film icon was driven into exile.

Christian Ziegler, Florida’s GOP chairman and husband of Sarasota County School Board member and Moms of Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, is under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging the longtime Republican official had raped her, according to a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Florida Trident. The complaint was filed on October 4 and the alleged sexual battery occurred inside the woman’s home in Sarasota on October 2, according to the report. Among the few words that went unredacted in the report are “rape” and “sexual assault complaint.” The woman, according to sources close to the investigation, alleged that she and both Zieglers had been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident. The incident under investigation by Sarasota police occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, without Bridget Ziegler present, the sources conveyed.

The big story mainstream sites have been avoiding: The IDF failed so catastrophically that it's difficult to find historical parallels. Many armies have failed to spot the signs, but they weren't dealing with a tiny, heavily-surveilled, fenced site...

Swiss bank favoured by super-rich says 1,000 billionaires are likely to pass on $5.2tn to their children over next 20 years Newly minted billionaires have collected more of their wealth from the deaths of relatives than through their own work and entrepreneurship, according to a Swiss bank favoured by the super-rich. Of the 137 people who became billionaires in the 12 months to this April, 53 inherited a combined $150.8bn (£119bn) from their family, the report by UBS found. This exceeds the combined $140.7bn created by “84 new self-made” billionaires over the same period. The bank said it was the first time in the nine-year history of its annual report on the fortunes of the richest 0.00004% of society that “the next generation of billionaires accumulated more wealth through inheritance than entrepreneurship”.

Damn, surprised he made it that far. RIP you magnificent, drunk bastard.

The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him

The first ever strikes and a solidarity blockade against the US carmaker could force it to rethink its entire anti-union model, says journalist Martin Gelin

DEAD AT LAST

They wield the important power of determining a victim’s manner of death—but they’re susceptible to both political pressure and racial bias.

The indictment for the brazen murder-for-hire plot brings more heat onto India for its alleged transnational assassination program.

Pope Francis is evicting US Cardinal Raymond Burke, an outspoken critic, from his Vatican apartment and revoking his salary. Cardinal Burke is part of a group of American conservatives who have long opposed the Pope's plans for reforming the Catholic Church. A Vatican source told the BBC that Pope Francis has not yet carried out his intention to evict the 75-year-old. And the decision is not meant as a personal punishment, the source added. Instead, it comes from the belief that a person should not enjoy cardinal privileges while criticising the head of the church.

An uncharacteristic level of honesty from Politico.

The Ohio Supreme Court suspended an attorney who defecated into a Pringles potato chip can and then tossed it into a parking lot of a crime-victim advocacy center. Criminal defense attorney Jack A. Blakeslee's conduct called into question his fitness to practice law, the court decided. Blakeslee's defense? He said he didn't target anyone but had a habit of putting his feces in Pringles cans and randomly throwing them from his car. He claimed he pulled the Pringles prank at least 10 times that year. But the court didn't buy it and said Blakeslee purposely chose the Haven of Hope in Cambridge as his "drop zone." Surveillance video captured the incident in November 2021. Blakeslee had known the victim advocates at the center for years and was scheduled to see them in court 15 minutes after the Pringles deposit. At the time, Blakeslee was representing someone accused in a capital murder case.

The 12-year-old boy stole the construction vehicle from outside a middle school, leading police in an hourlong pursuit without headlights on, police said.

With criticisms of Israel's conduct in Gaza mounting, the IDF is hastily organizing briefings for members of Congress.

In a shocking, horrifying incident at Shawnee Mission East High School, a Black student was hospitalized after being attacked by a white male student. Despite being the victim, she faces suspension in a case highlighting systemic racism and administrative negligence.

Netanyahu "boasted about having gone against" U.S. wishes by launching a ground invasion of Gaza and raiding the Palestinian territory's largest hospital on the pretense that Hamas was hiding a command center on the facility's grounds—a claim that has not been substantiated.