After former CNN host Don Lemon was arrested Thursday night for his part in the recent St. Paul church takeover, his former colleague, Jim Acosta, took to his podcast to hurl multiple “fascist” accusations at “MAGA World.” Also on Friday, on Lemon’s own podcasts, his substitute cast would throw in additional Nazi references to echo Acosta’s point. Speaking with former Capital and D.C. policeman Michael Fanone, Acosta ranted, “It should piss off every American, and it will piss off, I mean, every good patriotic American, non-crazy MAGA Americans will be pissed off about this. In MAGA World, they will whip this up into a frenzy and say, 'Aha, see,” but that's because they are part of a fascist movement in this country, and Americans are just not fascists. They're just not—they don't want that. And they don't want journalists getting arrested for doing their jobs. I mean, we're showing a picture right now, Mike, like he's holding a microphone. He's holding a micro—exhibit A, your honor.”   Jim Acosta reacted to Don Lemon's arrest pretty much how you would expect, "It should piss off every American and it will piss off, I mean, every good patriotic American, non-crazy MAGA Americans will be pissed off about this. In MAA world, they will whip this up into a frenzy… pic.twitter.com/wDHW2ygnkd — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 30, 2026   Of course, Fanone was only there to agree, “Yeah, I mean it, you know, you're right. I think that the vast majority of Americans recognize this for what it is. Obviously, you know, MAGA, it's, you know, it's, constitutional rights for me, not for thee. If you oppose the MAGA agenda, if you oppose Donald Trump, and his fascist authoritarian regime, then you don't deserve constitutional rights, which obviously is not up to them to determine, but in their mind, it is.” While Fanone wants to accuse “MAGA” of being hypocritical on who gets constitutional rights and who doesn’t, one can easily turn this back at him and Acosta. The left loves the FACE Act when it is used against pro-lifers in defense of abortion providers, but now that it is being used against left-wing anti-ICE activists in defense of a church, they are singing a new song. In related podcast ramblings, The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson joined The Don Lemon Show and huffed, “They’ve got people in the street shooting Americans because they want us to shut up. They’re arresting journalists because they want us to shut up. If you’re wondering, folks, what you would have done in Nazi Germany in 1936, this is the day.”   “They’ve got people in the street shooting Americans because they want us to shut up. They’re arresting journalists because they want us to shut up. If you’re wondering, folks, what you would have done in Nazi Germany in 1936, this is the day” – @TheRickWilson at 11:49 AM ET on… pic.twitter.com/9wXEDpPrs9 — Brent Baker

President Donald Trump is making a huge mistake campaigning on the economy -- an economy that’s projected to have expanded well over four percent at least in the fourth quarter of 2025.  At least, that’s the newest hot take being blurted into cyberspace by CNN. CNN Business Senior Writer Allison Morrow, who’s developing quite the reputation for mastering the art of incoherence, published yet another example of brain-dead anti-Trump screeds January 28, “Trump wants to refocus voters’ attention on the economy. He might regret it.” Yes, that's a real headline. So what exactly — pray tell — should Trump talk about before the midterms then, eh Morrow? She didn’t say. Morrow took aim at Trump's alleged whining about “how unfair it is that not everyone agrees with him about how great his economy is. And maybe that’s because this economy makes no sense.” No, what actually “makes no sense” is the logic she’s employed to castigate the Trump economy. Just a couple of days ago, Morrow once again butchered common sense by alleging that Trump’s economic agenda “could work” but would still somehow hurt Americans. Yeah, we couldn’t make sense of that either.  Just reading how Morrow described the Biden economy as far back as July 2024 showcases how incredibly dumb she treats her readers: “We did it, y’all! Get the Champagne on ice and gather the townsfolk because America hath slain the beast known as inflation. (Or, at least, it’s hit a turning point.)” Cue the canned laughter. At that time, the Consumer Price Index for all items year-over-year was sitting at 3.0 percent, 0.3 points higher than the current rate under Trump at 2.7 percent. In her mind, prices declining a paltry 0.1 percent a month-to-month basis at the time meant we knocked out inflation. Her headline for that story was glorious, “You might have just missed Earth-shattering economic news.” Yeah, that media spin probably rises to the level of sensationalistic “news cum” excoriated by comedian Jon Stewart when the infamous Mueller probe turned out to be a nothing burger. As Stewart concluded, "And if anything is going to kill our democracy, it's gonna be news cum." Oh but for Morrow now, “the economy isn’t exactly the feel-good story he seems to think it is.”  One element Morrow zeroed in on was the weakening of the U.S. dollar and the rise in gold and silver prices, which she argued “The dollar’s rapid depreciation signals that investors around the world are reducing their exposure to US policy volatility. That’s why silver and gold have been notching back-to-back record highs.” What she didn’t mention is that investors are already betting on Trump running the economy “hot” into the midterm elections on expectations of strong economic growth, according to The Financial Times. And, to her argument’s detriment, Trump’s new pick of former Federal Reserve Board governor Kevin Warsh to succeed chairman Jerome Powell two days after Morrow’s piece was published has sent gold and silver prices plunging for their "biggest slide in years" according to Bloomberg News. Not only that, but economist Daniel Lacalle also observed in a January 29 X post that “Relative dollar weakness is not a signal of loss of reserve status among fiat currencies, as there is no crossover nor substitution, just a reflection of an expansionary economic cycle.” In effect, Morrow’s kvetching is really just another much ado about nothing, as he tacitly implied, “A weak dollar isn’t inherently a bad thing — it can make US exports more competitive, giving domestic manufacturers a boost. But that’s not quite what’s happening here.” Or is it? Depends on who you’re talking to. Relative dollar weakness is not a signal of loss of reserve status among fiat currencies, as there is no crossover nor substitution, just a reflection of an expansionary economic cycle. Meanwhile, gold's strength signals the generalized loss of confidence in all fiat currencies.… pic.twitter.com/Sao5zJghc9 — Daniel Lacalle (@dlacalle_IA) January 29, 2026 She also tried to dump on Trump’s record on manufacturing, “US manufacturing — the sector Trump campaigned on propping up — has been steadily contracting, losing some 63,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis last year.” Interestingly, Morrow didn’t mention that U.S. steel production just recently surpassed Japan for the first time since 1999, riding on a 3.1 percent rate increase in crude steel output to 82 million tons and putting the country third place overall behind China and India globally. But by Morrow’s account, Trump shouldn’t bring up such things to the public. 

In the past 10 days, New York’s failure to honor detainer requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has resulted in the release of nearly 7,000 criminal illegal aliens, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned Friday, reacting to the plan of the state’s Democrat governor, Kathy Hochul, to legally prohibit state and local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. In a statement, DHS said that it “condemns Governor Hochul’s legislative proposal to bar local police departments from partnering and cooperating” with ICE law enforcement, warning that such partnerships are “key to removing criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists from American communities.” Since January 20, DHS reports, New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens. The crimes associated with those released – of which more than a than a third are assault charges – include: 29 homicides. 2,509 assaults. 199 burglaries. 305 robberies. 392 dangerous drugs offenses. 300 weapons offenses. 207 sexual predatory offenses. The threat to New Yorkers doesn’t end there, however, DHS cautions. An even larger number of illegal aliens (7,113) will be unleashed onto New York’s streets in the future, if local jurisdictions in Gov. Hochul’s state refuse, or aren’t legally allowed, to honor active ICE detainer requests, according to DHS. Crimes cited include: 148 homicides. 717 assaults. 134 burglaries. 106 robberies. 235 dangerous drugs offenses. 152 weapons offenses. 260 sexual predatory offenses. “I'm proposing a new law that'll ban these agreements,” Gov. Hochul announced on Friday: “We call it the ‘Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.’” Gov. Hochul said she’ll work to ensure the ban on cooperation with federal law enforcement is passed “as quickly as possible.” Hochul demonized and smeared ICE enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, accusing federal agents of murder and “unspeakable acts of violence.” The Democrat governor even went so far as to claim that ICE has no interest in enforcing immigration law and keeping Americans safe. Instead, she claimed, it is “a rogue federal agency that's been unleashed on the American streets for the sole purpose of creating chaos, carnage, and fear.”

On Friday morning, CNN’s News Central and The Situation Room were in a state of anger and mourning over the “disturbing,” “heartbreaking,” “stark,” and “terrifying” arrest of their “friend” and former CNN colleague Don Lemon for his role in the January 18 storming of a St. Paul-area church and, according to the Justice Department, violating the First Amendment rights of congregants to worship freely as well as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Over the course of roughly two hours, numerous CNN faces rallied to Lemon’s defense by citing his work badgering congregants and the pastor as “insightful” to the point that America is “better off for” Lemon having gone along and exercised a “foundational” tenet of “democracy.” More broadly, Lemon’s YouTube page was heralded as having yielded “opinionated” “videos” and “straightforward journalism.” A longtime friend to the Black Lives Matter movement, News Central co-host Sara Sidner first reacted by calling this “a stunning move” that “cannot be overstated,” leading chief media analyst Brian Stelter to immediately defend Lemon and even praise his actions: CNN’s Brian Stelter insists Lemon wasn’t there as “an activist” to disrupt a Minnesota church like “MAGA loyalists” want you to think, but provide “insightful” and “very valuable” journalism b/c he “interviewed some of the worshippers”... “Lemon has said all along that he was… pic.twitter.com/b877TqIYx6 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 No word on whether Stelter considers lecturing the pastor and congregants about their supposed lack of true Christianity his kind of interview. Of course, he phrased those believing Lemon shouldn’t be absolved of scrutiny as “MAGA loyalists.” Stelter also lobbed the claim that we’re all “better off for” having had Lemon show up: CNN’s Brian Stelter says America is “better off for” Don Lemon having joined the church-storming mob... “[Y]ou’re going to see some people, you know, on the MAGA right who are going to cheer this. At the same time, many First Amendment groups, many press freedom advocates are… pic.twitter.com/lPPLr8YJQZ — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Sidner reacted by declaring the whole matter “terrifying” and stunning” because “committing journalism is not a crime...in this country” since all Lemon did was “he went into the church and started interviewing people after the protest entered the church”: WATCH: CNN anchor Sara Sidner says it’s “terrifying” and “stunning” to hear friend and former colleague Don Lemon was arrested because “committing journalism is not a crime...in this country”.... “And we should be clear, committing journalism is not a crime. It is not a crime in… pic.twitter.com/FOXNd8pC1G — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Stelter assured her “journalists will not be deterred” in doing their jobs (i.e. hating Trump and MAGA voters) and laughably insisted Lemon’s work on YouTube contained plenty of “straightforward journalism”: WATCH: CNN’s Brian Stelter insists “journalists will not be deterred” despite “independent journalist” Don Lemon’s arrest, adding Lemon’s YouTube channel had plenty of “straightforward journalism” to go with “opinionated” “videos”... “Number one, journalists will not be… pic.twitter.com/oOPhqF3dWQ — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 In the next block, co-host John Berman spoke with Alisyn Camerota, his former partner-in-crime from the now-defunct New Day: Former CNN anchor Aliyn Camerota on fellow former CNN colleague Don Lemon being arrested: “[H]e said that he was covering a protest....[T]he way Don described it to me, is that he was doing what we do. He was covering a protest. He wasn't conspiring with them. He didn't — he knew… pic.twitter.com/FtCIRK1OAw — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 As another friend of Lemon’s, CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson called the arrest “heartbreaking” in “bizarre times” because his innocence should be clear to even “an eighth grader” who “knows something about the First Amendment” and the “freedom” Lemon had to act as he did: INSANE: CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson says it’s “heartbreaking” and “bizarre times” to hear his former colleague Don Lemon was arrested for doing something that’s “foundational democracy” and exercising the “freedom to do what you need to do” by “holding power” in that church… pic.twitter.com/Ba70cwAXuk — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Jackson added this is “particularly alarming” since “we know Don” and he was not “impeding, interfering, physically threatening, et cetera., someone’s worship,” but just “covering” what was happening. https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/2017283393679986909 Sidner found a second liberal legal mind to back up CNN’s full-court press to make this story all about themselves: CNN’s Sara Sidner: “[Don Lemon has] been very clear about what he was doing there as a reporter. He got a tip. He went there, he covered it. He went into the church. He talked to people. All of the people — he talked to the pastor, he talked to protesters. He talked to the people… pic.twitter.com/DNAy2CLsDx — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 She continued at the top of the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour by cloaking Lemon’s soul in the First Amendment while Stelter made it seem like Lemon was an American hero on January 18: CNN’s Sara Sidner laments the DOJ arrested “our...friend Don Lemon” even though the “First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason” and Brian Stelter replied this is “a disturbing escalation against reporting in America” with Lemon having been arrested for doing “a really… pic.twitter.com/yVgnQDkOKr — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 For good measure, Stelter invoked far-left podcaster Jennifer Welch’s comments from January 19 as well as an X post from a CNN colleague in Kenya: Brian Stelter heralds Jennifer Welch for telling Don Lemon last week he’s been targeted for being “an independent, gay, black, happy, successful man” as well as CNN’s Africa correspondent claiming Lemon facing any charges is “a gift to authoritarian governments worldwide” pic.twitter.com/LID7Kh77rc — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Since Stelter did it in the last block, Sidner offered her own rallying cry of sorts to continue what’s doing (which is being the unofficial CNN spokesperson for any leftist protest movement she connects with): It’s ALWAYS about them: CNN’s Sara Sidner says that even though her friend Don Lemon was arrested and it’s a “stark” “reality” of being a journalist, but “I certainly am not going to shut my mouth” about Minneapolis or anything the Trump administration does because journalists… pic.twitter.com/7CHIUCjaow — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Jackson had more insanity in round two, even suggesting the mob that stormed the church might not have violated the FACE Act because no one was physically hurt: WATCH: CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson says Don Lemon should have “free protections...of the First Amendment” to continue “holding power accountable, asking questions,” and “being present,” arguing the mob *did not* violate the FACE Act b/c they were never physically violent to… pic.twitter.com/tsSEIxwTzu — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Going to break, Jackson decried “troubling” and “selective enforcement of laws” based on Lemon being arrested, but not the ICE officer who shot Renee Good (click “expand”): JACKSON: So, understand this. The laws apply to us all. And I think the problem we’re having is the selective enforcement of laws, right? And not to get into this, but you don’t want to protest the actions as to Renee Good. And was there any illegality? Now we’re getting into the, you know, other issues, but you want to deal with this. Wow. But the bottom line is the laws are evenly applied or should be to everyone, but the application, depending upon the nature of what you’re doing, can differ. A protester is there for a specific intent. You’re voicing whatever objections or opinions you have as to whatever issues in this case, right? ICE and the pastor being ICE and whether or not you like their tactics. Many Americans are disgusted with the tactics, me included. However, saying that is different a protester from you going, John Berman, Don Lemon, or anyone else and simply covering the event. BERMAN: Covering the event. JACKSON: When you’re covering the event, you’re not engaging or involved in protested activities. You’re simply broadcasting those activities so that the rest of the country and community could know what’s happening and to that extent, to me, we’re in a different world when you’re applying the FACE Act, Freedom of Access to Clinics, to a journalist who’s covering the events of protesters. So, that’s the troubling thing. And then, John, it gets further troubling when a judge says, no, an appellate court says no, but you detain someone anyway, and then you allegedly, we don’t know, go to a grand jury, which, again, can indict a ham sandwich. The Boston Globe’s Jackie Kucinich and Axios’s Margaret Talev also joined in the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour to weigh in with Kucinich calling their pal’s arrest “certainly disturbing” to witness “another chapter in” President Trump’s “retribution campaign” that will require “a lot of norms...to be examined.” For her part, Talev compared Lemon to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in that “there is a through line and it involves freedom of speech and what voters told us pretty consistently in a lot of polling and focus groups...that they do not want any president to significantly curb free speech or the rights of the press[.]” Shifting to The Situation Room, co-host Pamela Brown insisted we all care as much as they do, calling the development “a significant escalation and a moment or a moment for our country.” Stelter offered a hilarious claim in which he doubts Lemon wants to be the center of attention; HILARIOUS: CNN's Brian Stelter insists Don Lemon "probably doesn't want to be the story" in the news today One of the biggest lies in America -- national journalists LOVE being the story. They THRIVE off of being the center of attention. pic.twitter.com/Mb44s4549W — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Referring to Lemon having been arrested in Los Angeles because he was slated to interview celebrities on the red carpet of The Grammys, Stelter said that would have been “an example of Lemon just wanting to work, sometimes covering entertainment, sometimes reporting the news in Minnesota” and “[h]e didn’t want to be the story today.” Stelter made sure to throw some love to Georgia Fort, another so-called journalist arrested, for livestreaming federal law enforcement arriving at her home and demanding she come out, saying it “really speaks and testifies to her journalistic instinct.” No, Brian, it testifies to how much she’s into herself. Speaking of being high on their own supply, Stelter and Jackson showed that in their own ways with the former again playing journalism superhero and the latter leveling a baseless claim about the Justice Department: CNN’s Brian Stelter says the arrest of Don Lemon will cause journalists in Minneapolis to double down and “take it even more seriously to make sure we are documenting what happens at these protests...so that everybody else can see what’s going on” Joey Jackson adds it’s possible… pic.twitter.com/HdoTJl4ZQt — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 Wrapping up the Lemon coverage for a few hours, Jackson again defended Lemon and the mob from the congregants: “If we’re in a society...where we’re not arresting people predicated upon lawful violations, but just predicated upon hurt feelings...where we’re just seeing the denigration of law and lawlessness, and it’s just — it’s alarming and shocking[.]” To see the relevant CNN transcripts from January 30, click here (for CNN News Central) and here (for The Situation Room).

"Trump, like Clinton, has not been implicated of wrongdoing, and the president has said he had a falling out with Epstein years ago." And with that brief observation by Politico on Friday by Hailey Fuchs in "DOJ announces full release of Epstein files," all their absurdly frenetic efforts last year to somehow implicate President Donald Trump via the Jeffrey Epstein files look like they came up empty.  Millions of the Epstein files were released and as Politico sadly conceded, Trump was not implicated of wrongdoing (although for  Clinton that might not be the case due to the Clintons refusing to testify on this matter to Congress). The best they could do is line up Democrats to keep complaining: "To be sure, Democrats were, in fact, not laudatory of the Friday release. Many of them have believed from the start the administration resisted releasing the Epstein files for months in an effort to shield Trump — who had a longstanding relationship with Epstein for many years — from scrutiny." Politico obsessed like the network newscasts, which spent over 1,000 minutes on this story in the second half of 2025. To get a sense of what a sad letdown this must be for Team Politico, one has to keep in mind that last summer, they were in the midst of an Epstein-files frenzy to the extent that we noted last July: "Politico Goes Full Frenzy with SIX Epstein Stories in 24 Hour Period." Their desperation to take down Trump became so absurd they even covered a South Park cartoon on this subject, "South Park skewers Trump over Epstein files, depicts him in bed with Satan." Even with stories that had absolutely nothing to do with Epstein, Politico stretched to invoke him with such laughable stories as "Deflecting Epstein questions, Trump urges DOJ to 'go after' Obama." So has Politico finally experienced a much needed reality check on the Epstein files? Probably not, because in their current Epstein files story they very noticeably avoid any mention of the revelation on the incredibly bizarre big elephant in the room which many other periodicals including even the staid Financial Times felt obligated to cover, "Jeffrey Epstein emails claim Bill Gates hid STD from wife after sex with ‘Russian girls’." Perhaps  Politico was too squeamish to report on that allegation but somehow they felt it was okay to report on the utterly fictitious cartoon of "'South Park' skewers Trump over Epstein files, depicts him in bed with Satan"?

An amazingly snobbish piece by New York Times labor reporter Rebecca Davis O’Brien appeared Friday on the front of the Business section: “Recasting Workplace Bias In Trump’s Image.” The online subhead provided the flavor: “Employment Commission Chair Recasts Workplace Discrimination in Trump’s Image -- Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has said she wants to undo years of what she describes as activist excess around labor law.” The opening paragraphs perfectly encapsulated the insufferable tone of the elitist media when the Left is on the losing end of policy: In December, a 9,000-word essay about white male millennials shot across the internet. The author, a ticket scalper and frustrated screenwriter, marshaled interviews and data to describe how the professional trajectories of members of his generation had been crushed by what he called the institutionalization of diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, a “profound shift in how power and prestige were distributed.” Vice President JD Vance reposted the piece, saying it “describes the evil of DEI and its consequences.” Elon Musk responded, calling D.E.I. “a great wrong.” The essay also caught the attention of Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency, born of the Civil Rights Act, that enforces laws against employment discrimination. O’Brien’s piece was initially published with no link to that thoroughly researched and influential 9,000-word act of journalism published at Compact magazine, and no mention of either the magazine or author’s name, Jacob Savage, only a risible description in the lead aimed to discredit him as “ticket scalper and frustrated screenwriter,” details Savage himself led with in his essay. After Compact editor Matthew Schmitz pointed out the omissions on X, O’Brien issued a personal apology on her paper’s behalf (“It was an oversight, lost in edits.”) and a link was added – but the snobby, dismissive tone remained unaltered. The story hardly improved from there: Critics of Ms. Lucas, including former commissioners of the E.E.O.C., say she is distorting the intent of the Civil Rights Act, paying lip service to equal treatment while using her position to write MAGA grievances into federal law. They noted that as she has solicited complaints from white men — historically a small share of complainants to the E.E.O.C. — the commission has dismissed cases that would defend transgender employees and job applicants with criminal records. Charlotte Burrows, Ms. Lucas’s predecessor as chair, who was fired by Mr. Trump last January, said, “Federal civil rights laws protect everyone, and the E.E.O.C. has a duty to engage in fair and evenhanded law enforcement.” She and others said Ms. Lucas’s message in the December video was that white Americans would receive preferential consideration under the Trump administration. “That’s the opposite of equal opportunity,” Ms. Burrows said. "Critics" aren't "Democrats" or "leftists." Any ideological labels for the several liberal groups O’Brien cited were also presumably “lost in edits.” Josh Boxerman was an Obama aide who gets quoted in Jerry Nadler press releases.  “She has closed the door of the E.E.O.C. to groups that are disfavored by the president,” said Josh Boxerman, who handles civil rights work at the National Employment Law Project, a workers rights group. “That is extraordinary. And it is radical and harmful.” O’Brien brought up the liberal concept of “disparate-impact liability,” which she called “a pillar of civil rights law,” when a seemingly neutral policy is deemed discriminatory toward a certain group of people, even if the policy itself seems neutral. In less sympathetic terms, a potential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEC) boondoggle. Times readers were supposed to be aghast over the example she gave, though the implication of group criminality were certainly not flattering to “applicants of color”: The move, denounced by civil rights and employment groups, had swift consequences at the commission. Within weeks, it moved to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit it had brought a year earlier against Sheetz, the convenience store chain, over its practice of screening out applicants with criminal convictions. The commission had previously found that the practice disproportionately affected applicants of color and violated the Civil Rights Act. Compelling a company to consider hiring you despite your criminal record is a protected civil right?

When New York Times columnist David Brooks is absent from Friday’s weekly news recap on PBS News Hour with MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart, there is a good chance the latter may be forced to confront an actual conservative perspective. Such was the case this Friday when columnist Gary Abernathy declared sanctuary cities are not actually real and blamed Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey for the unrest in Minneapolis. Capehart did not take that well, as he claimed people are “being abused” and simply exercising their First Amendment rights. Host Amna Nawaz asked Abernathy about a poll that said 59 percent of Americans think ICE is going too far, “Do you agree with the majority in this poll here that ICE has been too aggressive? What's your take?”   Pigs flew on PBS last night as David Brooks substitute Gary Abernathy said ICE is unpopular because of "of the media narrative about it." He says "because people are led to believe that these sanctuary cities are a real thing. And I'm not -- they're not a real thing....Federal… pic.twitter.com/uwyV1izeul — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   Abernathy blamed the media for giving them that perspective, “I'm sure that, you know, that's what they have been hearing. That's what—that's kind of the media narrative about it.” By contrast, he urged, “Let's remember why there's a lot of ICE enforcement going on in Minnesota and in Minneapolis in particular, because people are led to believe that these sanctuary cities are a real thing. And I'm not—they're not a real thing… Sanctuary cities, there's no sanctuary for being in the country illegally. Federal agents are allowed to come in and do their job and enforce the law. The only thing sanctuary cities does is, it allows local leaders not to cooperate with them, with the law enforcement, not to—they can tell law enforcement, we're not going to cooperate with them.” Abernathy then moved on to Minnesota officials: I thought Tom Homan did a really good job yesterday of laying this out—when that happens, it requires ICE, Border Patrol, federal agents to also then do law enforcement and to do crowd control. And these are not things that they're good at. And, to me—and I know people look at this so differently whether you're kind of from the left or whether you're more conservative, as I am. I look at this and I say, why is Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, why are they encouraging people to come out and confront law enforcement and to confront ICE agents, to confront federal agents? Conservatives who support ICE’s mission in Minnesota are often called hypocrites, but Abernathy suggested it was liberals who were being hypocritical, “You know, we were told back on January 6, 2021, how horrible it was that officers, that law enforcement had been attacked on that day of that riot. And I agree with that. I'm with you on that. But I'm also with you on it now. I'm saying it's terrible to confront these folks who are just trying to do their jobs to enforce the law that Congress passed.” He concluded, “And we need governors and mayors to encourage citizens, stay out of the way while they do this enforcement. Don't put yourself in harm's way.” Capehart did not approve, “Tell that to ChongLy Thao, U.S. citizen who everyone has seen the picture of him being hauled out of his home by federal agents clad in just boxer shorts and Crocs and a blanket thrown over his shoulder. Tell that to the—I can't remember the name of the young woman who had federal agents surround her car. And all she was trying to do was to get out of the way so she could get to a doctor's appointment, and had her window broken, forcibly removed from her car, cut—the seat belt cut away and hauled off by her arms and legs by federal agents.”   Of course, Jonathan Capehart didn't like that, "You know, look, the governor and the mayor are concerned about the people who live in their state and the people who live in their city. I'm coming at this as an American. There is no way you can expect people to see their friends,… pic.twitter.com/bzYzfhFBTp — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   If anything, that helps Abernathy’s point about the consequences of state and local law enforcement staying on the sideline. Nevertheless, Capehart defended Walz and Frey, “You know, look, the governor and the mayor are concerned about the people who live in their state and the people who live in their city. I'm coming at this as an American. There is no way you can expect people to see their friends, their neighbors, their co-workers, maybe even people they don't know, but who live around them, being abused, treated roughly by a government that folks are paying taxes to pay for.” Capehart was also offended by the idea people should not be demonstrating, “You're going to expect them to stay home and not exercise their First Amendment right to be, one, constitutional observers? Because that's what the folks in Minneapolis are doing when they're recording what's happening. They are making sure that people's rights aren't violated, even though they are right there on recordings.” He further added, “I think that the governor and the mayor when they're telling people to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest and have their voices be heard, they are also saying in the same voice, do so peacefully.” Eventually, Abernathy went again and listed off several examples of non-peaceful actions demonstrators have engaged in as well as urged viewers to go to DHS’s website to see all of the violent criminals being arrested. As for PBS, how many David Brooks substitutes is it going to take for them to realize that Brooks is not representative of the conservative half of America? Here is a transcript for the January 30 show: PBS News Hour 1/30/2026 7:43 PM ET AMNA NAWAZ: Gary, what about you? Do you agree with the majority in this poll here that ICE has been too aggressive? What's your take? GARY ABERNATHY: I'm sure that, you know, that's what they have been hearing. That's what -- that's kind of the media narrative about it. But let's remember why there's a lot of ICE enforcement going on in Minnesota and in Minneapolis in particular, because people are led to believe that these sanctuary cities are a real thing. And I'm not -- they're not a real thing. By the way, it's good to be back with you and Jonathan tonight. Sanctuary cities, there's no sanctuary for being in the country illegally. Federal agents are allowed to come in and do their job and enforce the law. The only thing sanctuary cities does is, it allows local leaders not to cooperate with them, with the law enforcement, not to -- they can tell law enforcement, we're not going to cooperate with them. And when that happens -- and I thought Tom Homan did a really good job yesterday of laying this out -- when that happens, it requires ICE, Border Patrol, federal agents to also then do law enforcement and to do crowd control. And these are not things that they're good at. And, to me -- and I know people look at this so differently whether you're kind of from the left or whether you're more conservative, as I am. I look at this and I say, why is Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, why are they encouraging people to come out and confront law enforcement and to confront ICE agents, to confront federal agents? You know, we were told back on January 6, 2021, how horrible it was that officers, that law enforcement had been attacked on that day of that riot. And I agree with that. I'm with you on that. But I'm also with you on it now. I'm saying it's terrible to confront these folks who are just trying to do their jobs to enforce the law that Congress passed. And we need governors and mayors to encourage citizens, stay out of the way while they do this enforcement. Don't put yourself in harm's way. NAWAZ: Jonathan? JONATHAN CAPEHART: Tell that to ChongLy Thao, U.S. citizen who everyone has seen the picture of him being hauled out of his home by federal agents clad in just boxer shorts and Crocs and a blanket thrown over his shoulder. Tell that to the -- I can't remember the name of the young woman who had federal agents surround her car. And all she was trying to do was to get out of the way so she could get to a doctor's appointment, and had her window broken, forcibly removed from her car, cut -- the seat belt cut away and hauled off by her arms and legs by federal agents. You know, look, the governor and the mayor are concerned about the people who live in their state and the people who live in their city. I'm coming at this as an American. There is no way you can expect people to see their friends, their neighbors, their co-workers, maybe even people they don't know, but who live around them, being abused, treated roughly by a government that folks are paying taxes to pay for. You're going to expect them to stay home and not exercise their First Amendment right to be, one, constitutional observers? Because that's what the folks in Minneapolis are doing when they're recording what's happening. They are making sure that people's rights aren't violated, even though they are right there on recordings. They're there standing at bus stops. They're there standing in front of restaurants ensuring that their neighbors can at least have some semblance of safety. The level of siege that is felt by the people in Minneapolis, and not just Minneapolis, down in Northfield, Minnesota, where my alma mater is. ICE has been roaming around the town. The level of fear that is out there cannot be underestimated and cannot be discounted. And I think that the governor and the mayor when they're telling people to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest and have their voices be heard, they are also saying in the same voice, do so peacefully. We saw it today in Minneapolis, when thousands of people took to the streets and in really cold temperatures in Minneapolis to make their voices heard. We saw it last Friday when thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis to make their voices heard.

NPR looks like National Propaganda Radio as it pumps out nasty articles against immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Their war on everything Trump continues. On Saturday, the NPR home page sported this smeary article by NPR desk intern Ava Berger: A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota Berger began this "happy news" story:  The weekly gatherings of knitters at Needle & Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, are typically filled with giggles and storytelling. But, earlier this month, a heaviness hung in the air. "It was just collective exhaustion," said Paul Neary, a shop employee. "Minnesotans — we're not going to say the big thing, but we often know what the big thing is just by looking at each other." The "big thing" being the presence of the ICE villains. Berger touts how this is compassionate charity work:  "What's been happening in Minneapolis has been so egregious and awful and so destructive to our community," shop owner Gilah Mashaal said of federal agents' use of aggressive tactics. It was obvious to her and Neary how the shop would protest. They pulled out their knitting needles and got to work. Neary created the pattern that has now become the well-known "Melt the ICE" hat, a red beanie-shaped cap topped with a braided tassel. Since making the pattern available for $5, the shop has raised nearly $400,000, Mashaal said Friday. So far, she said, they have donated a total of $250,000 to two local nonprofits focused on housing support for immigrants in the community — STEP (St. Louis Park Emergency Program) and the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund. The red hat has become a movement in the crafting community, popping up on social media and reaching other countries. Mashaal and her daughter have received messages from people around the world, from Israel to South Africa to Norway, expressing their support for the movement, Mashaal said. Berger may have just lifted this from the socialist British newspaper The Guardian. They included an image of "F--K ICE" in needlepoint. Their headline was:  ‘Rage knitting’ against the machine: the hobbyists putting anti-ICE messages into crafts. Then NPR had to underline their nasty historical analogy:  As a history buff, Neary chose the pattern based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s. The hats were called "nisselue," which roughly translates to Santa hat. "I brought this hat back for a reason," Neary said. To him, they symbolize resistance as they did in the 1940s. ….Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, said the Nazis were operating on "obviously a very, very different scale," but with ICE's presence in Minnesota, people can still feel "occupied." This is NPR, so obviously there is no one quoted as pushing back on this smear, like ICE agents of friends and relatives of ICE agents. Instead, NPR underlines the injustice that conservatives and Trump voters have had to pay taxes for decades of subsidized smears.

HBO’s Bill Maher’s habit of reducing a chaotic scene to one photograph continued on Friday’s episode of Real Time, where he compared a photograph of the Alex Pretti shooting to The Last Jew in Vinnitsa photograph during the Holocaust. Joining Maher at the table was MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, who, in other Minneapolis news, declared former CNN host Don Lemon’s arrest was meant “to scare other journalists.” Maher recalled last week’s show when he declared, “That’s why I showed this picture last week. We can show it again. Executions in the streets. This reminded me of the one from Vietnam in 1968 that changed hearts and minds. This week there's another one. We had a second shooting that looks just like this. That's what people are seeing. Pictures worth a thousand words. That did not happen under Obama.”     It’s ironic that Maher thinks pictures are “worth a thousand words” because when he compared Renee Good to the Viet Cong prisoner in the Saigon Execution photograph, he omitted that the man who took that photo acknowledged that photos, and his in particular, are incapable of telling the whole story. Now, Maher is comparing a frantic situation involving a man with a gun that is currently under investigation to a Jewish man being shot in the back of the head by the Nazis during the Holocaust in front of a mass grave full of people who had already been executed. Still, Maher kept rolling, “A viral video in Maine. ICE guys taking this woman's—picture of her license plate, and she says, ‘Why are you taking my information down?’ This is caught on tape, I guess, because they have the quote ‘We have a nice little database, and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.’ That's exactly what they do in fascist governments. Whenever you are a protester, you’re actually an enemy of the state, and we arrest you. That's what's going on in Iran right now.” It is unclear what that agent was referring to. CNN asked DHS about the video, and Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said no such database exists. Also, in Iran tens of thousands of people have reportedly been killed. Moving on to Lemon, Maher continued, “They arrested Don Lemon. I—somebody went ‘Yes,’ like good, I don't know. It’s not good to arrest him.”   During an argument with former Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, MS NOW's Joe Scarborough (yes that's a real sentence) says of Don Lemon, "So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists." pic.twitter.com/Z523JnRMVe — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   During the discussion that followed, Scarborough was arguing with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene when he tried to separate Lemon from the other church stormers: What I'm saying is, whatever the act is, if it is the FACE Act or the Faith Act or the Fake Act, whatever act it is, I think the people that went in and disturbed that church, if they want to prosecute them, then that is certainly, you know, their right to consider that. If you are Don Lemon and you are going up to the pastor and you're saying, ‘I'm not here with them. I'm curious, what are your thoughts?’ Was he aggressive? He was aggressive.  Was Mike Wallace aggressive? Were other journalists aggressive in their days? Yes, they were. I think there has to be sort of a differentiation between if somebody's going in there and saying, ‘I'm not with them, can I ask you some questions?’ because you're going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests. War correspondents and people who normally cover protests do not invade private property. If a group of people stormed the set of Morning Joe, Scarborough wouldn’t call someone a journalist just because they were asking questions while holding a camera. Nevertheless, Scarborough continued, “So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists. And when you have the magistrate in Minnesota see the charges and say, ‘Well, this is bullshit.’ When you had the chief justice, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, look at it and go, ‘Well, this is bullshit,’ and say, ‘You can't bring these charges,’ and so Pam Bondi goes, ‘Okay, I’ll bring them myself.’ Obviously that shows it's at the direction of the administration to intimidate journalists.” Or, perhaps, Bondi noticed that the protestors in Minnesota aren’t being as peaceful as people like Scarborough want to portray them as. Here is a transcript for the January 30 show: HBO Real Time with Bill Maher 1/30/2026 10:25 PM ET BILL MAHER: That’s why I showed this picture last week. We can show it again. Executions in the streets. This reminded me of the one from Vietnam in 1968 that changed hearts and minds. This week there's another one. We had a second shooting that looks just like this. That's what people are seeing. Pictures worth a thousand words. That did not happen under Obama. That's why you’ve lost—including rank and file—and that's not the only really chilling thing. A viral video in Maine. ICE guys taking this woman's—picture of her license plate, and she says, “Why are you taking my information down?” This is caught on tape, I guess, because they have the quote, “We have a nice little database and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.” That's exactly what they do in fascist governments. Whenever you are a protester, you’re actually an enemy of the state, and we arrest you. That's what's going on in Iran right now. They arrested Don Lemon. I—somebody went “Yes,” like good, I don't know.  MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I didn't hear that. MAHER: It's not good to arrest him. … JOE SCARBOROUGH: What I'm saying is, whatever the act is, if it is the FACE Act or the Faith Act or the Fake Act, whatever act it is, I think the people that went in and disturbed that church, if they want to prosecute them, then that is certainly, you know, their right to consider that. If you are Don Lemon and you are going up to the pastor and you're saying, "I'm not here with them. I'm curious, what are your thoughts?" Was he aggressive? He was aggressive.  Was Mike Wallace aggressive? Were other journalists aggressive in their days? Yes, they were. I think there has to be sort of a differentiation between if somebody's going in there and saying, "I'm not with them, can I ask you some questions?" because you're going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests. So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists. And when you have the magistrate in Minnesota see the charges and say, “Well, this is bullshit.” When you had the chief justice, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, look at it and go, “Well, this is bullshit,” and say, “You can't bring these charges,” and so Pam Bondi goes, “Okay, I’ll bring them myself.” Obviously that shows it's at the direction of the administration to intimidate journalists.

Ya gotta love it.  Writing from Pennsylvania, where outside my window sits 8-12 inches of snow, not to mention well below freezing temperatures with more snow coming in this direction, I scroll around and find no less than President Trump sharing my thought.  Here’s a sample headline from Forbes that appeared as the snow storm approached last week:  As 170 million Americans brace for major storm, Trump pushes global warming skepticism The story reports:  President Donald Trump mocked global warming Friday morning as the U.S. is set to encounter a far-reaching 'major winter storm' affecting more than 170 million Americans.  In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the country has rarely seen a winter storm like the one expected to begin Friday as he pushed climate change skepticism that has been frequent throughout his two presidencies, saying: 'Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING?' Bingo! I would add to the President’s question by asking where all the media stories pushing global warming have gone. Instead, here’s but a small sample of the headlines actually out there:   From Fox 9 in Massachusetts: Bomb cyclone threatens US after majority of nation hit by massive snowstorm  From the BBC:  Heavy snow and ice to impact millions as winter storm sweeps across US  From USA Today: 13 dead as winter storm strikes broad swath of US and extreme cold moves in  From The Guardian:  US gripped by severe winter storm with snow, ice and plunging temperatures – as it happened  On and on and on goes the seemingly endless flood of stories from the mainstream media about the approach or arrival of a torrential snow storm combined, of course, with severe cold. And, quite notably, the mainstream media is pretty quiet about global warming. Where is it? Why in the world is there all this below freezing cold with all of that white stuff? The Associated Press reported on the snow....and AP's Seth Borenstein fact-check attacked Trump's mocking message. The scientists he found say Trump's all wrong.  But there is one story from The New York Times that deserves media attention. The headline:  America Officially Leaves the Paris Climate Agreement. For the Second Time.   The United States is the only country to pull out of the global agreement among nations to fight climate change. European diplomats say the U.S. reputation is suffering. The Times reports, without a trace of irony, this:  As of Tuesday, the United States is no longer a party to the Paris agreement on climate change, becoming the only country in the world to abandon the international commitment to slow global warming. In other words -- and there’s no secret here -- the liberal media, devoted as always to whatever is the current liberal media agenda,  is flooded with the hard (cold!) fact that here we are at the end of January, 2026 and all that snow that’s sitting around huge swaths of the country in below freezing temps is not going away anytime soon. In a situation like this the best thing for the liberal media is to…..just shut up on the subject of global warming.  Don’t ask where it went to. Don’t dispute all that falling white stuff and freezing cold. And when President Trump observes the obvious:  “Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING?” Just…keep…quiet about what millions of Americans can see and feel for themselves. No sense taking on Trump when he clearly has the upper hand! And when it all goes away - as it will? When April showers bring May flowers? Then the media can hope that Americans will forget the whole thing and start running those global warming -is-killing-the-planet and the Trump administration needs to change its environmental policies stories. But until then? As the snow flies and the temperature plummets, the best thing the liberal media can do on the subject of global warming is just stay quiet. As quiet as a cold mouse. And wait for those warm April showers for the liberal media to get back to their mantra that global warming is doing us all in.