“I am Trying to Figure Out the Way to Do This”: MS NOW, Omar, and the Art of the Evasion

Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley

“‘I am trying to figure out the way to do this’. Those words from MS NOW’s Chris Hayes say all you need to know (and likely all you will get) from his interview on Wednesday with Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. There is a litany of questions the liberal host never asked of Omar. Those questions have only increased over the years, leading to the current criminal investigation into immigration fraud. At points, Hayes sounded more like a supplicant than a journalist given his discomfort with asking pressing questions. The interview had the journalistic nutritional content of a Slurpee that would give any liberal a sugar high and any non-liberal a stomachache.” (10/24/26)

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/10/24/i-am-trying-to-figure-out-the-way-to-do-this-ms-now-omar-and-the-art-of-the-evasion/

Steve Trinward

Israel: Regime to close West Bank crossings on election day as crackdown escalates

Source: BBC News [UK state media]

“All West Bank land crossings will be closed during Tuesday’s election in Israel, the country’s military says, and Palestinian workers will be barred from entering all [Israeli squats]. The restrictions come amid a crackdown in the occupied West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers in the territory. The Israel Defense Forces announced ‘a ban on the entry and exit of Palestinian workers throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including industrial zones, as well as the closure of all land crossings’ on Tuesday. It said most workers would also be barred from [squats] from Sunday, with the exception of industrial zones and a limited number of other areas. Before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, more than 100,000 Palestinian workers were permitted to enter Israel. Since then only a small fraction have had their permits restored.” (10/24/26)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6y93ylpl5p2o

Steve Trinward

Informal Rules for Americans in the US Empire

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“There are informal rules for American citizens about living in the U.S. Empire. Mind you, most of them are not codified into law. They are not found in an imperially published citizen’s manual. But American citizens are expected to know these informal rules and abide by them. Violations can result in criminal penalties or, more commonly, social ostracism, accusations of disloyalty and hatred of America, and even charges of sympathizing with terrorists or even being terrorists. In some circumstances, violations of the informal rules can also lead to criminal penalties. One informal rule is that when the Empire initiates a military attack on a small, militarily weak, economically impoverished country, American citizens are expected to cheer for the Empire and support the troops, even though the Empire is the aggressor in the conflict.” (10/23/26)

https://www.fff.org/2026/10/23/informal-rules-for-americans-in-the-u-s-empire/

Thomas L. Knapp

Trump Administration May Have Lied to Judge About ICE flight to Equatorial Guinea

Source: The American Prospect
by Gillian Brockell

“Attorneys asked a judge to bar an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter flight from leaving Equatorial Guinea Friday unless their client was onboard in an emergency motion filed shortly after the aircraft landed on the island city of Malabo. An ICE official had told the judge in a sworn statement a day earlier that the flight to Equatorial Guinea had been canceled, a claim the attorneys called ‘plainly false’. Flight data indicates the plane took off two hours and 30 minutes later, before the judge issued a ruling.” (10/23/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/10/23/trump-administration-may-have-just-lied-to-judge-about-ice-flight-to-equatorial-guinea/

Steve Trinward

New York Archdiocese agrees to pay $800 million to 1,300 sexual abuse survivors

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to pay more than $800m to settle the legal claims of about 1,300 survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said on Saturday that the settlement will be formally signed on November 6 after an agreement with the plaintiffs and their lawyers. … According to The New York Times, which broke the story, each of the approximately 1,300 survivors will receive at least $250,000 from the Archdiocese of New York and potentially more depending on the severity of the abuse suffered. The settlement is the second-largest of its kind after an $880m deal reached by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2024.” (10/25/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/25/new-york-archdiocese-agrees-to-pay-800m-to-1300-sexual-abuse-survivors

Thomas L. Knapp

The Founders Warned Against Secret Arrests. ICE Is Testing That Principle.

Source: Reason
by Autumn Billings

“Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims more than 1.1 million people have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined. But so far, the names of most arrestees have been kept secret. This lack of public disclosure threatens Americans’ ability to hold the government accountable.” (10/23/26)

https://reason.com/2026/10/23/the-founders-warned-against-secret-arrests-ice-is-testing-that-principle/

Thomas L. Knapp