In a sea of pumpkin-flavored foods, there simply aren’t enough pumpkin-shaped foods (actual pumpkins don’t count). In order to maximize our food’s festivity, let’s start making pumpkin-flavored dishes that also look like the cute calabasa. A handful of whole cloves and some dental floss is all you need to transform…

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San Francisco Police Chief William Scott strongly denounced the conspiracy theories that were spreading online egarding the assault on Paul Pelosi in an interview with CNN Newsroom anchor Ana Cabrera on Monday.

David DePape was arrested for allegedly breaking into the Pelosis’ home and attacking the 82-year-old husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with a hammer.

DePape was reportedly shouting “Where is Nancy?” and had brought with him duct tape and zip ties. His blog posts complained about a long list of grievances commonly associated with former President Donald Trump and his supporters, including denouncing the Jan. 6 committee, conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines,  and content supportive of QAnon. Since the attack, various conspiracy theories about the attack have spread online, mostly promoted by right-wing media figures — as well as new Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Cabrera asked Scott about the status of the investigation and whether police had determined a motive yet.

Scott replied that they “don’t want to jump out of the gate with so many things left to investigate” or “make premature statements and learn something that may be different to what we know now,” but did acknowledge that they “have some ideas.”

“Is political rhetoric to blame, perhaps?” asked Cabrera.

Scott replied that it was a “very, very sad state of affairs with all the rhetoric that’s out there, conspiracy theories that are out
there.”

The police had “spent a lot of energy just pushing back” on “really ridiculous conspiracy theories,” he continued. “These things are harmful to society, they’re harmful to the victims involved, they are just — it’s really sad that we are here in this place, but we are.”

“Obviously, there’s a political undertone on this,” Scott said, but prosecutors had asked them to not “get ahead of ourselves in terms of releasing information” prematurely, and they were committed to working together as a “team” and were onboard with that.

Cabrera asked Scott about the conspiracy theories that had come up about the attack. “Can you clear it up once and for all — did Paul Pelosi know his attacker?” she asked.

“There is absolutely no evidence that Mr. Pelosi knew this man,” Scott said emphatically.

He continued:

As a matter of fact, the evidence indicates the exact opposite. And again, this is — it really is sad that these theories are being floated out there, baseless, factless theories that are being floated out there. And they’re damaging. They’re damaging to the people involved. They’re damaging to this investigation.

And you know, people are running with this stuff. Whether they believe it or not, these theories can influence the way people think about everything that’s happening here. So I will be clear on this — there is absolutely no evidence of that at all. No evidence that he knew him. As a matter of fact, to the contrary.

Scott confirmed that Pelosi had called 911 from inside the house, but added that they were not releasing that call at this point in this investigation.

“Elected officials have a hard enough job as it is,” Scott added, criticizing how politicians’ families were being put at risk. “It’s wrong, and it needs to stop…these families aren’t in office, and even if they were, nobody deserves to have a violent assault and attack because they’re doing their jobs.”

“We can all disagree,” said Scott but “we need some civility here.” He called the conspiracy theories “pathetic” and “disturbing” and asked rhetorically what it would take to get people to stop promoting such “nonsense” — “Does it take somebody being murdered?”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

The PS5 has plenty of useful features disabled by default. From the ability to pick a default difficulty level for all games to automatically hiding spoilers, there’s a lot for you to explore. To make the most of your console, check out the following PS5 settings.

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L: Handout R: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images

Self-styled Chief Twit Elon Musk has deleted a reply to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the attack on Paul Pelosi in which he shared an outrageous conspiracy theory from a fringe website.

A suspect named David DePape allegedly broke into Speaker Pelosi’s San Francisco home early Friday morning and violently attacked her husband Paul while asking for the speaker’s whereabouts. He has since been found to hold a raft of MAGA beliefs and grievances promoted by Trump and his supporters.

The assault has shaken the political world and sparked blistering denunciations of former President Donald Trump and his political acolytes who have stoked the grievances that fueled the alleged suspect from people like President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Saturday, Secretary Clinton tweeted “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”

The Tesla CEO — who recently addressed concerns about his acquisition of Twitter by promising “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape” — responded to Clinton by writing “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” and linking to an article from a fringe website promoting an outrageous conspiracy theory about the attack.

As one Twitter user pointed out, the site is “the same outlet that reported Hillary Clinton had died and been replaced by a body double for a debate with Trump.”

The irony and the outrage were not lost on Blue-Check Twitter users.

“The owner of Twitter is literally spreading misinformation,” wrote Bill Scher of Politico fame – one of many to condemn Musk on his own platform.

After several hours of this, sometime before 3 p.m., Mr. Musk deleted the tweet without explanation — at least as of yet.

Face the Nation anchor Margaret Brennan absolutely fricasseed Republican Congressman Tom Emmer over a #FirePelosi post featuring video of him firing a gun, repeatedly blocking his attempts at evasion.

Just days ago, Emmer posted a tweet featuring video in which he fires a machine gun at a shooting range, and wrote “13 days to make history. Let’s #FirePelosi.”

Within 48 hours, a suspect named David DePape allegedly broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home early Friday morning and violently attacked her husband Paul Pelosi while asking for the speaker’s whereabouts, placing the tweet in a different light.

On Sunday’s edition of Face the Nation on CBS, Brennan pressed Emmer about the imagery, and repeatedly pushed back at his attempts to evade the issue. Things got heated:

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about this when it comes to political violence. On your Twitter feed, you posted this video we’re going to show – just a few days ago where you’re firing a gun and it says, “Enjoyed exercising my Second Amendment rights. Hashtag Fire Pelosi.” Why is there a gun in a political ad at all?

REP. EMMER: It wasn’t an ad. I was tweeting out –

MARGARET BRENNAN: A tweet. Hashtag Fire Pelosi with a weapon –

REP. EMMER – something I had just done.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Wouldn’t a pink slip be more fitting if it’s about firing her?

REP. EMMER: It’s interesting–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why a gun?

REP. EMMER: And it’s interesting, Margaret, that we’re talking about this this morning when a couple of years back when a Bernie Sanders supporter shot Steve Scalise–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which was horrendous and horrific–

REP. EMMER: When a Bernie Sanders supporter–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which is why we should not–

REP. EMMER: shot Steve Scalise–

MARGARET BRENNAN: be putting weapons–

REP. EMMER: I never heard you or anyone else in the media trying to blame Democrats for what happened. We need to stay focused on what we’re all doing–

MARGARET BRENNAN: We did extensive coverage of what happened to Steve Scalise.

REP. EMMER: Excuse me?

MARGARET BRENNAN: There was extensive coverage, sir.

REP. EMMER: Nobody tried to equate Democrats’ rhetoric- people–

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m not talking about your rhetoric. I’m talking about what you posted. You’re shooting a gun! Our viewers just saw it!

REP. EMMER: Yeah, right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Hashtag fire Pelosi.

REP. EMMER: Exercising our Second Amendment rights, having fun–

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s not a debate about the Second Amendment.

REP. EMMER: –shooting a gun. Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s not a debate about the Second Amendment.

REP. EMMER: Yes it is.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Hashtag fire Pelosi.

REP. EMMER: Yes it is. I- I’m running the campaign operation–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you not understand that that is suggestive to people who are in a bad state. And in this current environment, how risky it is as you’re talking about–

REP. EMMER: Well, I disagree, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –these issues of lowering the rhetoric.

REP. EMMER: I disagree with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why can’t you leave that out?

REP. EMMER: Again, I never saw anyone after Steve Scalise was shot by a–

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m talking about right now–

REP. EMMER: –Bernie Sanders supporter.

MARGARET BRENNAN: What just is happening right now.

REP. EMMER: Trying to equate Democrat rhetoric with those actions. Please don’t do that.

Watch above via CBS News.

The possible lack of content moderation on Twitter under new owner Elon Musk would actually not be beneficial to free speech, PEN America CEO and author Suzanne Nossel claimed Friday on MSNBC.

Joining Ali Velshi to discuss Musk’s recent takeover of the social media platform, Nossel argued Musk potentially rolling back safeguards and content moderation policies could lead to the “weaponization of human nature.”

Velshi began by quoting Nossel’s LA Times op-ed this week, in which she argued that easing restrictions on free speech could threaten it, a theme she echoed in her remarks to Velshi.

According to Nossel:

When it comes to a social media platform that, as Elon says, is trying to create an environment for public discourse, a place where people of different ideological persuasions can come together and can reason, in order to do that, you need to create some parameters. We’ve learned that. Speech in Twitter is not the same as a town square. It’s algorithmically driven. We’ve seen that falsehoods travel faster than than the truth on Twitter, that polarization can be stoked, that it’s a weaponization of human nature. You know and that can be for good or for ill. We can celebrate something and we can go down a very dark path if that’s where our nature draws us to.

Algorithms, Nossel argued, “fuel and supercharge” the spread of disinformation on platforms like Twitter. According to the activist, the approach to protecting free speech from the government and Twitter are two completely separate things, with protection from the government requiring more freedom.

“If Donald Trump had had the power to punish and throw journalists in jail, I think there’s every reason to believe he would have used it,” she said about defending free speech from a punitive government.

After his Twitter deal went through, Musk announced the creation of a “content moderation panel” this week and said no decisions on account reinstatements will be made until the council convenes. Musk previously stated he would be open to letting former President Donald Trump back on the platform.

“I don’t think the answer is a First Amendment approach,” Nossel said of Musk leading Twitter.

Watch above via MSNBC

More than 50 people were killed during what is being described as a “stampede” in Seoul, South Korea during a Halloween celebration, CNN reported.

Correspondent Will Ripley reported from the ground, showing footage of the first responders handling the scene after dozens were “crushed” in a massive crowd. According to Ripley, officials have revealed 59 are dead and more than 100 are injured. Ripley reported from the district of Itaewon where the reporter said many travel from across the country for holidays like Halloween. The correspondent revealed many at the scene were still in Halloween costumes from the holiday celebration. The Halloween-themed party was mainly held outside, according to CNN.

The Associated Press also reported on the incident, revealing a many got crushed under a “large crowd” on a narrow street in the area.

From AP:

Officials say it was believed that people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.

Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said bodies are still being transported to the hospital and warned the death count could grow, according to AP.

Officials reported that a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a high-frequented area, and many in the oversized crowd were crushed, leading to cardiac arrest and numerous injuries. Ripley reported many “could not breathe” in the massive crowd as more and more packed into the narrow street in the busy E Taiwan nightclub district during the night’s celebration.

Watch above CNN

Over the past several years, Taylor Sheridan has become one of the most important movers and shakers in television. I mean, presumably. Like the work Dick Wolf and Steven Bochco—two other writer/producers whose shows trade in violence and crime—I don’t actually watch anything Sheridan makes.

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If you’re moving or cleaning out your closet, it probably feels better to donate your old things rather than toss them in the trash. But your local thrift store doesn’t actually want all of your things.

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Former Jeb! Bush adviser Tim Miller called out the Herschel Walker campaign for ducking questions about accusations that the candidate had paid for an ex-girlfriend to get an abortion — oops, wait, that’s multiple ex-girlfriends making that accusation — saying that they were showing they didn’t trust their own candidate.

While the country waits to see if the total count of ex-girlfriends saying Walker encouraged them to abort his baby will outnumber the secret children he’s had (so far the score is two ex-girlfriends to three children), the Heisman Trophy winner and Word Salad Champion has been recruiting other Republicans to join him on the campaign trail.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke at a Walker rally Thursday morning and said that the candidate’s critics were “afraid” of him because if he defeated incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), then “that means we’re not racist.”

“And if you’re a Republican, aren’t you being tired of being called a racist all the time by everybody?” Graham added.

The South Carolina senator’s comments seemed “to echo a playbook” from former President Donald Trump, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing noted, asking Miller for his reaction.

“I’m not sure Lindsey understands the definition of what it means to be a racist,” replied Miller. “You can vote for a Black person and still have some racist views. Those two things are not incompatible.”

Miller added that he thought this issue was why Walker was essentially unchallenged in the GOP primary. “Let’s just be honest about this, that Republican strategists, Republican voters liked the fact that he brings diversity to the ticket,” and his campaign was “a finger in the eye of those critics” who had called out the Republican Party as “racist and bigoted for their corroboration with the Trump administration.”

In his view, this was “not really a winning message for the suburban swing voters” in Atlanta who voted for Joe Biden, Warnock, and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in 2020, but was merely a “base message that isn’t going to change anything.”

“One thing that stands out to me,” Miller continued, “is that the campaign isn’t answering the question about Herschel Walker’s abortions with anything beyond his own words — because they don’t trust their own candidate!”

He noted his own past experience as a campaign flak and commented that Walker had lied to his own campaign staff about those secret children, so now “they don’t know what is true, they don’t know what else might come out.”

“So that’s why they are not being clear in debunking or denying the allegations, because they don’t know what tomorrow might bring on that front,” Miller concluded. “I just think that’s really telling about where the Republican Party is, in having to cover for this guy.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

The Xbox is a fantastic console that ships with pretty good software. Fortunately, it has even greater potential: Your Xbox contains plenty of hidden features that are not enabled by default. All it takes is a deep dive through the settings, however, to make your great console even better.

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Ready to read something genuinely horrific, based on real life true stories of people who experienced unimaginable pain and suffering? No, I’m not going to recommend a spooky novel or true crime exposé. I’m going to tell you about parasites. And they’re all real.

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While you might think of fall as a time for harvesting and preparing your garden for the winter, there is still some planting to be done before the first frost sets in. Choosing plants for next year isn’t just about looking through seed catalogs and dreaming of spring.

You can plant shrubs that will fare better if…

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Adorable: This holiday season, married actors John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are getting matching series on Prime Video. The third season of Krasinski’s Jack Ryan doesn’t drop until right before Christmas, while Blunt is getting the pre-Thanksgiving slot with The English (Nov. 11), a Tarantino-esque revenge thriller…

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New molding can give a boring room more visual interest and look more expensive. While springing for the real thing looks great, it can be pretty pricey (hence why it looks expensive). There are some ways to fake the look of real wooden molding, though, without shelling out for it.

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If your only options when you’re sick are going into the office or calling off, then obviously if you’re contagious, you should call off. But now that so many of us have the option of working from home when we can’t make it to the office, the decision becomes a little trickier.

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Hiring a house cleaning service can be hugely helpful if you’re busy, unorganized, or in a rush, but there is some etiquette you have to know before hiring a stranger to clean up your messes. For instance, there are some things a professional cleaner shouldn’t—or can’t—clean. Sometimes it’s a time or efficiency issue,…

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Photo credit: Kevin Hagen, Getty Images.

A top lawyer for Fox Corp. failed to get his license approved by the California Bar for nearly four years — and the screw-up may provide an advantage to several plaintiffs who have filed multibillion-dollar defamation suits over Fox News’ coverage of the 2020 election.

According to a report by Semafor’s Ben Smith and Max Tani, Fox Corp’s chief legal counsel Viet Dinh’s licensing woes “could have major consequences” for the litigation filed by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic by strengthening the plaintiffs’ arguments that Dinh’s internal communications should not be viewed as shielded by the attorney-client privilege.

Dinh is a member of the District of Columbia Bar in good standing, first being admitted in 1997, but was not registered with the California Bar until June 10 of this year. He serves in a key role at Fox Corp. as the “effective second-in-command” to Lachlan Murdoch, the company’s CEO and son of founder Rupert Murdoch, according to Semafor. He’s had that job since 2018 and lives in Los Angeles where the company is headquartered. Smith and Tani assessed him as a “dominant figure at Fox” and noted his close ties to the Murdoch family, even being named godfather to one of Lachlan Murdoch’s sons.

Shawn Martin, a law professor at the University of San Diego who previously served on the California Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, called Dinh’s license problems “a pretty big screw-up for a major corporation and a big ticket guy.”

The rules for each state bar organization differ, but generally require attorneys practicing law in their states — as Dinh appeared to have been by working for a California-based company at their California headquarters with a job title of “chief legal counsel” — to complete an application and background check, pass the state’s bar exam, and then renew their membership on an annual basis by paying dues, completing continuing legal education (CLE) hours, report any pro bono hours completed, and so on.

Dinh’s listing on the California Bar website shows that he registered as RIHC status, or “registered in-house counsel,” on June 10, meaning he was subject to a more lenient set of requirements than general members of the state bar.

Under the California Bar Rules, attorneys who are already validly licensed to practice law in other states can register as RIHC to provide legal counsel solely to the company that employs them without taking the California Bar Exam or formally becoming a member of the California Bar. RIHC attorneys still must submit an application, pass the background check, pay annual dues, complete CLE hours, and must inform the bar if they leave their employment.

It’s far from a slam dunk that a court would order the production of Dinh’s communications, but his failure to maintain a valid law license does give one more argument in the plaintiffs’ favor.

And considering Dinh’s high ranking position and the time period of his tenure — overlapping the final years of the Trump presidency, the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and its aftermath — it’s conceivable that his emails, text messages, and other records contain information that is sensitive, confidential, or embarrassing for the company, or reference matters that are at issue in the various defamation suits against Fox.

“This news potentially opens the door to his communications with Fox executives,” J. Erik Connolly, the attorney representing Smartmatic, told Semafor after they informed him of Dinh’s license issues. “That is something Smartmatic will be asking for as we move forward with discovery.”

Again, during this period Dinh was a member in good standing with the D.C. bar, and the rules regarding attorney-client privilege are interpreted broadly for the client’s benefit, but in this case where the client was the company directly employing Dinh, the plaintiffs presumably will argue Fox Corp. would have been aware Dinh was not licensed in California for all those years.

Bolstering the plaintiffs’ argument are media reports that Dinh’s role within the company has not been limited to purely legal services. A Jan. 17, 2o21 New York Times article (written by Smith when he was The Grey Lady’s media columnist) about Fox News settling a previous defamation suit by Seth Rich’s family designated Dinh as “a kind of regent who mostly runs the company day-to-day.” Another Smith article for the Times from April of that year called Dinh someone who is “seen internally as the company’s power center.”

“While Mr. Dinh is not running day-to-day programming, he manages the political operation of a company that is the central pillar of Republican politics, and he’s a key voice on corporate strategy,” wrote Smith, citing multiple sources as describing the top Fox lawyer as “the omnipresent and decisive right hand of a chief executive [Lachlan Murdoch] who is not particularly hands-on.” (It should be noted that both Dinh himself and a spokesperson for Fox pushed back on this characterization.)

Semafor’s latest report noted this issue, pointing out that “much of [Dinh’s] role involves operating the business, rather than strictly legal matters,” and that his failure to register with the California Bar until June “could further open the door to questions of whether he was acting as [an attorney] in his job.”

Fox disputed Semafor’s reporting on the timing of Dinh’s application to the California bar:

A Fox News spokeswoman, Irena Briganti, said Dinh’s law license has “no bearing on any pending litigation or matter of privilege.”

“The registration process began years ago, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and was perfected in June,” she said. A Fox News spokesperson said, on the condition of anonymity, that Dinh applied in January of 2019, but the State Bar of California lost Dinh’s application; the spokesperson said he reapplied later that year, but COVID-19 delayed his application.

But the executive director of the State Bar of California, Leah Wilson, flatly rejected both claims.

“The assertions regarding lost or delayed applications are false,” she said in an emailed statement.

It’s understandable why Wilson, the bar’s executive director, might bristle at an accusation that they “lost” an application, but the denial of pandemic-related delays doesn’t square with the known facts.

The office that was tasked with processing applications for prospective new members closed down starting in March 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions. “More than 200 staff who had not previously worked remotely” were transitioned to remote work, according to the bar’s 2021 budget report, which also noted increased expenses for additional janitorial and cleaning services and decreased revenues from reduced tenant lease revenues.

Multiple communications from the California Bar make reference to pandemic-related delays as specifically affecting processing license applications:

• An April 17, 2020 press release announced the State Bar Board of Trustees had approved several emergency rules “to afford some timing flexibility for licensees who are dealing with the multiple impacts of the pandemic,” including extending several deadlines and waiving late payment fees.
• A March 22, 2021 press release cited 19 “performance metrics” that “fell short of targets, in some instances, due to staffing issues and the disruption and delay the pandemic has caused.”
• A May 24, 2022 email from Leah Wilson to the California Supreme Court requested an extension of provisional licensure programs due in part to lingering pandemic-related “processing delays” by the bar regarding the background checks needed for full licensure.

The details on when exactly Dinh applied for RIHC admission may seem a little “in the weeds” at first glance, but seem likely to be part of Fox’s defense against the plaintiffs’ efforts to access his internal communications. If, for example, Dinh had not bothered to apply at all until this year, that could be used by the plaintiffs to argue even the company wasn’t really viewing his role as purely or even chiefly legal in nature.

Still, if this comes up in court, Fox would likely be expected to present evidence Dinh was pursuing his California bar registration in a diligent and timely manner; the pandemic delays only explain part of the nearly four year period it took to secure his status.

Besides agonizing over the details of your elaborate Rings of Power group Halloween costume, part of the allure of Oct. 31 is the excuse to eat copious amounts of sweets. Although I truly believe that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are gross, I also recognize the flavor combination of chocolate and peanut butter itself is…

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