Hump Day!
AMERICA HANDS CONGRESS TO THE DEMOCRATS
Democrats took both chambers Tuesday. CNN called the Senate at 11:35 p.m. ET after projecting at least 51 seats, and MS NOW and CNN had already called the House earlier in the night. The AP still had not called the House majority while other networks were putting it on screen, because somebody in that building insists on counting all the votes first. Democrats needed a net four in the Senate against a 53-47 Republican majority nobody thought was in danger in January. They got Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maine.(Alaska and Michigan not called at the time of writing) Sherrod Brown came back and beat incumbent Jon Husted. Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley. Josh Turek beat Ashley Hinson. In Kansas, a pastor named Adam Hamilton beat incumbent Roger Marshall to give the state its first Democratic senator since 1932, a 94-year drought broken by a man whose actual job is forgiving people. Troy Jackson finished off Susan Collins, who conceded. Then Texas. Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over sitting Senator John Cornyn, Paxton knocked Cornyn out in the primary, and then Paxton lost the whole seat to James Talarico, a 37-year-old state rep and the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate race since 1988. Paxton conceded around 10:20 p.m., called it a difficult night for Republicans, and said he would pray for Talarico. Counting is not finished. Florida's Senate seat was still leaning Republican overnight, so the final numbers will move.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE BOOKS FOUR HOURS OF APPLE TV TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF
Variety reports that Justin Timberlake has a four-part "tell-all" docuseries arriving on Apple TV in December, sourced to three people and directed by Fisher Stevens, who made the Beckham series for Netflix. One source says Janet Jackson sat for an interview about the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. Another says Timberlake responds to recent comments from Britney Spears. So that's four episodes about things Justin Timberlake did in the early 2000s, produced at a studio Justin Timberlake walked into voluntarily. Refresher for anyone who was in elementary school. During "Rock Your Body," Timberlake pulled part of Jackson's costume off on live television, the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" entered the English language, and Jackson got frozen out of radio and video rotation while his career kept moving. He headlined the halftime show himself in 2018 and invited her to join him. She declined, which is still the most efficient response anybody has given to this entire saga. He apologized publicly in 2021, after Framing Britney Spears put it all back in the feed, writing that he cared for and respected both women and knew he had failed them. Five years later the apology has a budget, a release window and an episode count. One wrinkle. Reps for Timberlake, Jackson and Apple had no comment or never responded. The tell-all currently tells nothing.
Sources (3)
One Has to Go
Delete one. Keep the other two forever.
What are you choosing
JEANIE BUSS TELLS JUDGE HER FIVE SIBLINGS RAN A 'FALSE FLAG OPERATION'
The Buss family has owned the Lakers since 1979, and they are spending this part of it accusing each other of spycraft in Los Angeles Superior Court. In a 27-page filing Wednesday, Jeanie Buss's lawyers wrote that her siblings are casting themselves as victims when the whole episode is "their own false flag operation," and accused them of a "cloak and dagger" campaign of backroom votes that got shared with ESPN before they got shared with their own sister. Here is the actual money. Johnny, Jim, Janie, Joey and Jesse voted 5-0 to sell the family trust's remaining 17.8% stake using go-along rights tied to the latest sale, which values the team at $12.5 billion. Jeanie abstained. Each sibling stands to collect around $371 million. The catch is that the NBA requires a governor to hold at least 15%, so selling the stake quietly deletes Jeanie's job along with the shares. She wants Joey and Janie removed as co-trustees for breach of fiduciary duty and held in contempt, and wants Jim, Johnny and Jesse found liable for aiding and abetting a violation of a 2017 court order that said she runs the team for life. The siblings say the trust expressly gives them the right to sell, and that Jeanie's hypocrisy should not go unnoticed. Jerry Buss paid $67.5 million for this franchise in 1979. His kids turned it into a group chat with lawyers.
VANCE ANSWERED WITH NINE SECONDS OF A GUY FAKE-DRIVING A SUBWAY
On November 2, the eve of the midterms, the VP account posted a graphic titled "The Trump Admin Delivers for New York," with bullets on safer communities, tax cuts for working families and historic investments. "We got your back, New York!" Vance wrote. Mayor Zohran Mamdani quote-posted it with a nine-second clip and zero words. In the video, a guy in a high-vis vest walks up to a subway train, puts his hands out to stop it, opens the doors, waves riders aboard, closes up and sends the train on its way. He did none of that. The train was doing all of it anyway. The clip belongs to prankster Olly Bee, who bills himself as the world's hardest worker and posted it back in December 2025. Bee told HuffPost that Mamdani is the goat and that this was the best use of the video, then asked for a collab, which, honestly, he earned. Then the receipts showed up. Vance's post got hit with a Community Note saying several figures weren't federal results or NY-specific, that the $472B investment number lumps in nationwide pledges like Micron's $250B, and that the 48% murder drop comes from New York's state-run GIVE program. Worth noting the Note is user-written, not an outlet's fact-check, and the outlets enjoying this the most all lean left. Per People, the reply cleared 50 million views and 1.7 million likes. Vance's original: 27.4 million views, 9,300 likes.
Sources (3)
- huffpost.com - Zohran Mamdani Trolls JD Vance's New York Boast With A 'Brutal' 9-Second Video
- yahoo.com - Zohran Mamdani hilariously trolls JD Vance over his "historic investments" claims about New York
- rawstory.com - 'We all just witnessed a murder': Gasps as Mamdani humiliates JD Vance on colossal scale
FLORIDA LANDLORD CALLED THE COPS OVER HIS ICE CREAM, THEN ALLEGEDLY GRABBED THE SHOTGUN HIMSELF
On October 28, Ocala police rolled out to a house on Southeast 8th Street for a verbal disturbance. The complaint, per Chief Mike Balken, was that somebody ate somebody else's ice cream, if you can believe that. Officers interviewed all three men, decided it was handled, and left. Balken's own summary of the scene was one very young officer trying to calm down three men in their 60s and 70s over dessert, which he called a ridiculous situation to happen anywhere, much less in Ocala. The two tenants, Charles Etheze, 69, and Michael Menkes, 78, went out for a walk. They came back around 5:15. Police say the homeowner they rented from, Mark Robinson, 69, was waiting inside with a shotgun and a bottle and a half of white wine in him. Robinson told detectives one man came at him with a knife and he fired in self defense. Investigators say the other man ran for the door and was shot in the back on the front lawn. Robinson walked outside with his hands up and told officers he shot both of them. He is charged with one count of second-degree murder, the count tied to the man in the yard, and police say more charges are possible. Balken called the house a dysfunctional living arrangement and Robinson an angry old man with alcohol problems. Officers had been to that address three times. And yes, investigators believe someone really did eat his ice cream.
 | |||||
| Three clues. One secret number. See how close you can get. | |||||
|