Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Barack Obama has said congresswoman Ilhan Omar is under federal criminal investigation simply because she’s an outspoken critic of the President Donald Trump. ‘The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president,’ the former US president wrote on X, calling the probe ‘so appalling’. The White House defended the inquiry, saying the justice department was ‘focused on restoring law and order’. Last week, homeland security agents searched the Minnesota Democrat’s Washington DC home as part of an investigation into her immigration status. Born in Somalia, Omar moved to the US with her family as a child. US media outlets have reported that the probe is tied to her American citizenship and whether she lied about her age when she arrived in the US in 1995.” (10/19/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr15jl7dd42vo
Source: The Atlantic
“Are We Too Political?” (10/18/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/10/are-we-too-political/689011/
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (10/19/26)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2611
Source: Axios
“Elon Musk said Monday he’d give one of his shares in SpaceX to every ‘kid’ in America next year. … Per the Census Bureau, there are just over 72 million people under 18 in the U.S. If each got one SpaceX share, at Friday’s closing price of $146.03, that’d be a market value of a little over $10.5 billion. …Musk’s announcement comes one day after Anthropic said it was setting up a new public benefit fund with 5% of the company’s equity, an entity potentially worth $100 billion or more. Musk responded to Anthropic’s news by saying ‘I recommend giving the shares directly to the public,’ later adding ‘This is what I will be doing.'” (10/19/26)
https://archive.is/UZdll
Source: Free Talk Live
“Elon Musk debuts ‘flying car’ :: ‘Irregular’: the company behind the rouge AI attacks :: Sarah in NM calls about the poor, unsalaried state reps 🙁 :: Tim in FL calls about the Jehovah’s Witnesses buying a data center :: Skeeter calls and makes false claims :: DST debate :: Houthis use Claude AI to develop missile guidance :: Tom in NH :: three reptilian beings allegedly killed near area 51 :: black market delivery for In-N-Out burger :: 2026-10-18 :: Hosts: Stu, Riley O’Bill, Rich E. Rich.” (10/18/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-10-18
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter
“In battleground races across the country, Republicans have lost access to one of the president’s most salient — and longstanding — campaign slogans.” (10/19/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-first-democrats/
Source: SFGate
“A visitor from Canada maliciously harmed a flamingo at an iconic Las Vegas hotel by removing the bird from its enclosure and taking it to his room earlier this year, prosecutors said Monday at the man’s trial. His attorney said it was a drunken act and no harm was intended. Mitchell Fairbarn of Ontario is charged with two counts of felony animal cruelty in Nevada district court. Authorities allege that on March 3, he entered the flamingo habitat at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino and took a bird named Peachy. Video played at the trial showed Fairbarn holding the flamingo in an elevator and carrying it down a hotel hallway. Fairbarn faces up to five years in prison on each count if convicted of felony animal cruelty.” (10/19/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/canadian-man-who-took-a-bird-from-las-vegas-22484337.php
Source: CounterPunch
by Eve Ottenberg
“All Iran must do to win is to survive. It has done so. The monstrously swollen heads in Washington and Jerusalem did not dream that would happen. They committed the fundamental error of believing their own ridiculous propaganda and in so doing committed a crime and worse, as they say, a blunder. So Trump’s useless fulminations against Iran will continue, but the jig is up, because Washington can’t win against either Tehran or Moscow, whom it has thrown into each other’s arms. Along, of course, with China.” (10/19/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/19/portents-of-yet-another-u-s-debacle-in-iran/
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“Donald Trump first came to Americans’ attention more than 20 years ago for gleefully firing all manner of people on his show The Apprentice. Today, even as every poll indicates that if there’s one person Americans most want fired, it’s Trump himself, Trump’s own orgy of discharges continues apace. In the past week, both our ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Trump’s blink-and-you-miss-her press secretary, Katie Zacharia, have been exited out. (Enterprising news producers might want to accompany the story of Zacharia’s in-and-out tenure with clips of Groucho Marx’s entrance song in Animal Crackers: ‘Hello, I Must Be Going.’) The well-earned departure of these two Trump loyalists has also prompted stories on Trump’s proclivity for firing his female appointees when he thinks they’ve betrayed him or otherwise let him down, while leaving in place his even more dubious male appointees.” (10/19/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/19/which-trumpies-heads-will-roll-next-kimberly-guilfoyle-katie-zacharia/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“French President Emmanuel Macron has declined Interior Minister Laurent Nunez’s offer to resign after nationwide demonstrations by students protesting educational conditions and groups angry over the high cost of living turned into widespread riots and looting, the Elysee presidential office says. Macron said Nunez should stay in his position to ensure the chain of command is maintained within the police and security forces and asked the interior minister to establish new methods to deal with looters, the Elysee said in a statement on Monday. … The Ministry of the Interior said more than 2,300 people were arrested and almost 1,000 police and gendarmes injured in protests on Saturday. Injuries were also reported among protesters, with one demonstrator’s hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.” (10/19/260
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/19/frances-macron-declines-ministers-resignation-after-violent-protests
