Let Them Come and Get Me: France Burns, Omar’s DNA & the Pipe-Bomb Alibi

Half a million people marched in France over bread, gas and schools that can’t keep teachers. A few thousand looted, and now nobody’s talking about the bread. That’s what riots do: they hand the guy in charge a better villain. Tonight on the Gonzo Lounge we went through the fire in France, the latest in the Ilhan Omar investigation, and a CCTV clip some say puts accused pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. on the wrong side of the Capitol. Tonight’s rule: the marchers aren’t the rioters, the headline isn’t the evidence, and charged isn’t convicted.

As always: investigated isn’t charged, charged isn’t convicted, and criticism of officials, parties and policies isn’t an attack on any ethnic or religious group. Theories are labeled as theories.

Topics on Tonight’s Gonzo Lounge

• France burns. More than 500,000 people marched Saturday over cost of living, fuel prices and school funding, according to France’s Interior Ministry. On the fringes, rioters looted about 3,000 businesses and burned the 1873 town hall in Limoges. About 2,400 arrests, nearly 1,000 police and firefighters hurt. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted police “lost control” and offered to resign; Macron said no.
• Pick your villain. Macron and PM Lecornu blame the “ultra-left” and delinquents. Mélenchon says show me the evidence. Le Pen blames an exhausted government. JD Vance blames immigration. The BBC says mostly peaceful, and the Federalist says “Islamo-Marxist.” We read Modernity and the Federalist, including a Fox News report (via the Federalist) listing 54 groups that backed the protests. Endorsing a march isn’t the same as running a riot, and nobody has released data on who the rioters actually were.
• The Second Amendment angle. DC_Draino’s “this is why you need a 30-round magazine” take on the Paris footage.
• The memes. The jogger who didn’t break stride, the “newest painting in the Louvre,” and the crying-girl “suicidal empathy” meme.
• It’s not over. Student groups called marches for Thursday and Saturday, a Yellow Vest revival is calling “Macron must go” protests Saturday, and the big unions rally Nov. 5. Partial curfews are set night by night.
• Omar, week three. The New York Post reports, citing sources, that federal prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence to try to prove a long-running allegation that she married her brother to help him get a green card. No charges have been filed, the DNA evidence hasn’t been made public, and Omar has denied the allegation for years. Her lawyers say there’s “no legitimate basis” for the probe.
• Empty barrels? Oversight Chairman James Comer told Fox News that her husband’s winery was, “according to the press,” selling investors barrels with nothing in them. That’s Comer’s claim; no charges. Omar amended her financial disclosure in March, citing an accounting error, and the winery’s LLC was terminated in April.
• Denaturalize and ship to CECOT? Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s proposal for anyone convicted in the Minnesota fraud schemes. I think CECOT should be saved for violent criminals; make the fraudsters pay it back.
• Brian Cole Jr. Steve Baker released Capitol CCTV he says shows Cole on the northwest side of the Capitol while the bomber was on the southeast side. The FBI and DOJ have not confirmed the man in the video is Cole, and the government says it has phone, license-plate and purchase records plus a confession, which his lawyers say was coerced. Cole has pleaded not guilty; trial is set for Feb. 16, 2027. Some, including Clint Russell, call it a frame-up; that’s their claim, not an established fact.
• Trump endorses Bibi. Trump’s Truth Social post: if Israel picks “the wrong Leader,” America would have to finish the job on Iran alone, “and I am not inclined to do so.” Israel votes Oct. 27.
• Laura Loomer for press secretary? After Katie Zacharia left the job after five days, Loomer floated herself and Candace Owens endorsed. Release the Kraken.
• The Cosmic Doom Carnival. Matt Walsh on the promise of $1,000-a-week AI checks, the Goonpocalypse, two AI agents switching to “GibberLink,” and a Tesla electrician warning that robots will take 80% of jobs.
• Song of the week. Kula Shaker’s “Broke As Folk”: a singalong for the peasants.

Chapters

• 00:00 Cold Open: Let Them Eat Cake, Let Them Come and Get Me
• 03:48 France: What Happened This Weekend
• 04:29 Vance: "Imported the Third World"
• 08:14 Limoges Town Hall Burns
• 09:01 The 30-Round Magazine Argument
• 10:27 Jogging Through the Riot
• 11:17 Modernity: "Mostly Peaceful"?
• 14:35 A French Activist's Viral Video
• 21:14 The Federalist: "Islamo-Marxist" Riots and the Palestinian Flags
• 23:44 The "Communists and Muslims" Report
• 25:02 "Poor Students"?
• 26:07 The Crying-Girl Meme and "Suicidal Empathy"
• 29:21 The Newest Painting in the Louvre
• 29:55 France This Week: Thursday, Saturday and Nov. 5
• 31:36 Minneapolis 2020 Flashback
• 32:34 Omar: Feds Have DNA (Sources Say)
• 33:55 Watters: Her Sister's Phone
• 36:14 Comer's Empty Wine Barrels
• 39:27 Her Father's Records and the Birth-Year Question
• 40:27 Luna: Denaturalize and Send to CECOT?
• 46:12 Brian Cole Jr.: The CCTV Alibi Claim
• 52:21 Clint Russell and Tucker on Bongino
• 55:23 What Happened to Kash and Dan?
• 57:28 Trump Endorses Bibi, "Not Inclined" on Iran
• 58:43 Laura Loomer for Press Secretary?
• 1:00:35 Cosmic Doom Carnival: AI Paychecks
• 1:05:37 The Goonpocalypse
• 1:09:30 Two AIs Switch to GibberLink
• 1:13:47 "80% of Jobs Gone"
• 1:16:10 Broke As Folk: Song of the Week
• 1:18:25 Close: Pick Your Villain

Fact Check Corner: What I Got Wrong (or Overstated)

Live, late, no script. Not everything I said Monday held up, so here’s the scorecard.

• “Only 12% of immigrants in France work.” I played that clip and ran with it. Wrong. France’s stats agency, INSEE, puts the employment rate for working-age immigrants at roughly 62%, compared with the high 60s for everybody else. There’s a gap. It’s not 12%.
• “Poland lets in no immigrants at all.” Nope. Poland refused the EU’s asylum-relocation quotas, but it hands out some of the most work residence permits in the EU and took in about a million Ukrainians. Hard line on asylum quotas isn’t the same as zero immigration.
• “Omar’s on the run / in hiding.” I called it a rumor, and that’s all it is. She posted that she’s OK after the raid, the feds have her passport, and Snopes rated the “fled to Morocco” story false. Not being seen in public isn’t fleeing.
• “She married her brother.” That’s an allegation, from New York Post sources, about DNA evidence nobody has seen. She’s denied it for years, it was looked at before without enough evidence (per the Washington Post), and she hasn’t been charged with anything.
• “Her father was some kind of warlord.” I was wrong. Her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was a colonel in the Somali National Army who led a regiment in the 1977–78 war with Ethiopia and also worked training teachers, according to his obituary and congressional tributes. His army career ended when the Barre regime fell in 1991. A colonel isn’t a warlord, and fact-checkers haven’t found a credible accusation that he personally committed abuses. I also saw a claim online tying him to a “warlord” named Ismail Ali Gabayle. I couldn’t find a reliable source for that connection, or for Gabayle as described.
• Statute of limitations. I said “usually five years.” Criminal naturalization fraud has a 10-year limit. Civil denaturalization has none.
• Brian Cole Jr. While laying out the FBI’s view I said “he’s a bomber, he’s a felon.” To be clear: he’s charged, not convicted. He’s pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for Feb. 16, 2027. The FBI and DOJ haven’t confirmed the CCTV alibi clip, and the government says it has phone and license-plate data putting him in the area.
• Tyler Robinson. I said they haven’t shown much evidence. They have: his preliminary hearing included DNA on the rifle trigger, surveillance video, the engraved cartridges and alleged admissions, and a judge sent the case to trial. Argue with the evidence all you want, but it’s been shown.
• GibberLink. I called that two-AIs video fake because “there’s no such thing as GibberLink.” There is. It’s a real open-source demo from a February 2025 hackathon. The video’s real; it’s staged to show off the trick, not two AIs deciding on their own to ditch English.

Receipts go both ways. If you catch me on something, call it out in chat.

Sources

• AFP: Police 'lost control' during French protests, says interior minister
• Politico Europe: French PM orders 'localized' curfews
• France 24: Curfews and planned protests this week
• DW: Macron slams 'failures,' refuses interior minister's resignation
• NBC News: France reels from worst violence in years
• Modernity: Media insists it's 'mostly peaceful' (opinion)
• The Federalist: 'Fiery but mostly peaceful' playbook (opinion)
• The Federalist: Report on network behind France's riots (citing Fox News)
• JD Vance on X
• New York Post: Feds have DNA evidence in Omar probe (sources)
• Gateway Pundit: Comer on the winery
• Jesse Watters on X
• Steve Baker on X: Cole CCTV claim
• WJLA/TNND: Massie, MTG back Cole innocence claim; FBI/DOJ unconfirmed
• NBC4 Washington: Cole's lawyers say interrogation was coercive
• Al Jazeera: Trump endorses Netanyahu
• Politico: Katie Zacharia out after five days
• Matt Walsh on X
• Kula Shaker: Broke As Folk

Pick your villain, but bring your receipt. Goodnight from the Gonzo Lounge.

About The Author

Blake Walley

Blake Walley is a writer, reporter and producer. An idealist and truth-seeker obsessed with the future. A new media trailblazer and outside-the box-thinker. Former Las Vegas bartender influenced by Gonzo journalism. Inspired, eccentric, and always up for a challenge. Blake has been making waves for over 10 years with his original analysis and creative style.

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