In a browser dark or a webapp strong with links upon my screen, you know that tab is me ...
Deranged. Hasan Piker tells Axios that America is worse than Al-Qaeda… 🚨
— Nathan Brand (@nathanbrand) September 17, 2026
AXIOS: “You said that America is the top dog in terrorism.”
HASAN PIKER: “Yes”
AXIOS: “Do you think America is worse than Al-Qaeda?”
PIKER: “Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes. We have… pic.twitter.com/boqH7bLUgZ
Ed: Yes, I wrote about this earlier, but it's worth more commentary. I give Axios credit for asking the question and then actually publishing the answer. There's a profit motive involved, of course, but that is a rational signal and one that should ensure fair coverage. How many other mainstream/legacy media outlets picked this up? I'd put the over/under at 10 and then would take the under.
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Kyle Becker at Redstate: Eight jurors, he says, were already there on day one.
"He said that from day one, he said eight of them were going for Lindsay Clancy not guilty," Marcel recounted. "That was on day one. Eight were going not guilty. Two were for guilty. And two didn't know. They didn't make up their mind."
Desronvil reportedly had a word for those eight jurors: "Activists."
"He said to him those eight felt like they were activists," Marcel said. "Every day they would vote. The eight that felt that Lindsay was not guilty were trying to convince the other four, 'Hey, Lindsay is not guilty.'"
That description is particularly explosive in light of what one of those jurors has already said publicly.
Ed: As Kyle later writes, the narrative on this controversy has already begun to shift. That started when it became known that the 'holdout' juror is a black man, which short-circuited the "patriarchy" arguments coming from the Left. It seems very clear now that activists hijacked the jury and this one man refused to get bulldozed. It also seems clear that seating an unbiased panel in a second trial may be impossible in Boston, or maybe even in the entire state of Massachusetts.
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PAY UP: Highly provocative, popular children’s educator Ms. Rachel says she will match Macklemore’s seven-figure donation to Palestine and is calling on “every wealthy White celebrity” to do the same. Critics are questioning why she brought race into the appeal, pointing to… pic.twitter.com/8ClL9Kh6W2
— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) September 17, 2026
Ed: What does race have to do with it – except as to highlight the performative Karenism of the "Free Palestine" movement? That's a good description of 'educator' 'Ms. Rachel,' too ... a performative Karen.
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Forbes: Internet personality Dave Portnoy backed New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s decision to bar Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium after the rapper made “free Palestine” comments on Ed Sheeran’s North American tour, joining a growing list public figures chiming in on the controversy that has left Sheeran with no supporting acts.
Portnoy said in a video he supported Kraft’s decision, which he said may have been informed by past controversies involving Macklemore, one of which included the rapper wearing a “Jewish caricature” costume at a show in 2014.
British singer Boy George accused Macklemore of “hijacking” Sheeran’s shows and called the supporting acts who withdrew “spineless rats,” saying “well done” to Sheeran in a post.
Ed: "Spineless rats" is a good term to apply here. I still blame Ed Sheeran for choosing Macklemore as an opening act in the first place, though. The rapper has been politicizing his appearances for years, so if Sheeran really wanted to just play for the fans, why choose a washed-up act like Macklemore as an opener? Sheeran may be lacking a spine here as well.
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Terrorist lovers like @macklemore forget that the groups they fanboy over literally target concerts and kill their fans.
— Sarah Adams (@sarahadams) September 17, 2026
Bataclan in Paris, 2015⁰ISIS terrorists attacked an Eagles of Death Metal concert with 90 killed, 200+ wounded.
Ansbach Festival in Germany, 2016⁰An… https://t.co/fygYfO1pk3
Ansbach Festival in Germany, 2016
An ISIS-inspired suicide bomber attacked outside the festival with 1killed, 15 wounded.
Manchester Arena in UK, 2017
An Al-Qaeda in Libya suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande concert with 22 killed, 116 treated in hospitals.
Nova Music Festival in Israel, 2023
Hamas and terrorists from several other groups including ISIS and Al-Qaeda attacked the festival with at least 260 killed, dozens taken hostage.
Ed: For that matter, we can add in Munich 1972 when it comes to athlete activists, too. Terrorists have targeted transportation, music, and sports. And yet, activists from all of these industries keep advocating for the terrorists. Self-destruction is the ultimate in mindless nihilism.
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Niall Ferguson at The Free Press: I have no illusions that Zelensky is eager to cede the remaining 21 to 22 percent of Donetsk that Ukraine still controls. This is not out of sentimentality about square miles. The territory in question includes the so-called “Fortress Belt,” anchored by the key cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostyantynivka. On the other hand, both sides do appear to have stronger incentives to end their war than at any time since late 2022, the nadir of Russia’s fortunes, when Western leaders misguidedly urged Ukraine to keep fighting rather than seek peace.
A year ago, I was quite concerned about Ukraine’s thinly stretched armed forces. However, Ukraine’s advances in military technology have more than compensated for these vulnerabilities. The evidence is visible in Russian casualty figures, running at more than 40,000 in July and August according to the Ukrainian General Staff, as well as in the minimal territorial gains Russia made this spring and summer, compared with March through August last year. It is also apparent in the damage done by Ukrainian deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, especially oil refineries….
Nevertheless, Russia has responded in ways that dispel any notion of a Ukrainian victory. Russia continues to strike Ukrainian cities every day with drones and missiles, while Ukraine’s air defenses are much less effective than a year ago. Not only is there a shortage of Patriot interceptors; Russia has also switched to jet-powered strike drones that are much harder to intercept. Moreover, the Ukrainians are fearful that Russia is close to deploying its own version of Starlink. At the same time, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s biggest port on the Danube and on cargo ships in the Black Sea have brought Ukrainian agricultural exports from its Black Sea ports to a standstill.
Both the Ukrainian and Russian economies are showing signs of strain, but the strain is greater in Ukraine.
Ed: It’s a grim but realistic assessment, so be sure to read it all. I think it’s more likely that the IRGC regime will collapse first than either Ukraine or Russia, but Ferguson thinks Ukraine may not hold up much longer. Despite all of the damage that Putin has done to Russia to take by force what he already controlled, the Ukrainians can’t compete economically.
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ActBlue is a criminal conspiracy to commit election fundraising fraud. Indict and arrest them immediately so people see what the Dems are doing before our elections. https://t.co/swr0dsgdiB
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) September 17, 2026
Ed: It may not matter in this cycle; ActBlue has been neutralized to a large extent. The question is where the money’s going now. But it doesn't hurt to get the details out now ...
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NY Post: Democratic fundraising powerhouse ActBlue let overseas money illegally flow to US campaigns and causes with barely the appearance of proper vetting, according to a report released this week by three House Republican-led committees.
New documents obtained by the House Oversight, Judiciary and Administration Committees revealed that ActBlue’s fraud safeguards, including its methods for passport verification, “could be bypassed easily by foreign actors.”
“We use some very basic validation — number of characters — to ensure that the number entered is a valid passport number, but we do not verify the information in any other way,” the report quoted an ActBlue customer service webpage.
“We do not, for instance, check the information provided against a government database,” it added. “We merely store the information and continue with the contribution flow.”
Ed: Again, it's worth bookmarking, not so much to tackle ActBlue but to prepare for its next iterations under new labels. Don't think for a moment that the Left will dispense with such a successful model of money-laundering just because it got exposed this once.
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Kind of amusing how after contact with one competent, challenging interview, Pikar has collapsed into a puddle of self-doubt and regret https://t.co/Y6bqKVPspX
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) September 17, 2026
Ed: I wonder if the Detroit News endorsement has anything to do with this regret. I doubt it relates to Piker's positions. Don't expect him to suddenly embrace America; he might just shut up about it for the next eight weeks.
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Jonathan Turley: Krasner is accused of coercing prosecutors and allegedly encouraging false and obstructive conduct. Mason was trashed, but she insisted that she was scapegoated to protect Krasner and Stiegler.
In another signature moment, Diamond accuses Krasner of referring to state lawyers in the case as “Nazis,” his favorite label for any political adversaries.
The ultimate losers, however, are the victims like Kenyatta Smith and the others cast aside by Krasner in his use of his office to fuel racial politics and a radical agenda.
As I have written in prior controversies, Krasner appears to have exhausted the patience of courts and the loyalty of staff. He is accused of being a prosecutor who not only worked to undermine criminal cases but the justice system itself. For a man who ran on the slogan “F around and find out,” Larry Krasner may soon find out.
Ed: Let's hope. Turley sees it the way I do, which is that Judge Diamond's memorandum does everything but formally indict Krasner. Turley also connects some dots to patterns in Krasner's record of false representations and politicized actions. The Department of Justice should have plenty of material to use in whatever action it takes next.
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NEW from me:
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) September 16, 2026
Zohran Mamdani's newest senior adviser edits a magazine for "thinking gay communism," called for the "abolition of the police," praised a 1970s Marxist bank robber, called Gandhi "a racist anti-Black misogynist," signed a letter defending Hamas's "right to resist"…
... — and earns a cool $185,000 a year from taxpayers
Ed: That's a lot of money for a Marxist editor of a gay communism zine. Personnel is policy, of course, and this demonstrates that Mamdani is not a pragmatist or a realist. He's deep in the throes of Marxist utopianism, and he's surrounding himself with the similarly deluded.
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The Hollywood Reporter: When it screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, Musk got the kind of reception every international distributor dreams about. Attendees applauded enthusiastically for five minutes and saluted director Alex Gibney, even shouting “thank you” inside the festival’s Sala Grande for his hard-hitting investigation into the world’s richest man.
But despite that instant and reassuring focus group, Universal Pictures, which controls worldwide rights to the film outside of North America, now appears to be having second thoughts on a documentary it paid a significant sum to acquire. The company has not dated the movie, has not communicated with the filmmaking team about its plans, and generally appears to be rethinking the release of a project that it once showed high enthusiasm for but is now politically sensitive for parts of the Trump administration.
Two people with knowledge of the dynamic who were not authorized to speak publicly tell The Hollywood Reporter that while a final decision has not been made and that several outcomes were possible, they believed that Universal would ultimately decide against releasing the film and return rights to the movie to filmmakers.
Ed: The alternate headline was, "Universal Attorneys Finally Get Boss to Answer Phone." I don't think this has to do with the Trump administration; it may have something to do with Musk having lots of money for lots of attorneys and all the time in the world to pursue defamation claims. That's the only reason I can conceive for this belated onset of cold feet.
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In three parts, I explain how I was brainwashed into becoming a biased climate reporter.
— Lucy Biggers (@LLBiggers) September 17, 2026
Step 1: Deconstruct your identity.
When I entered a newsroom at 25, this was the pervasive ideology: The world is divided into two groups—the oppressed and the oppressors.
If you are… pic.twitter.com/gX1b2YDway
Ed: This gives me hope that young people can break out of the cult into which our education system has indoctrinated them. This is a whole thread with multiple videos, so be sure to click through and read/watch all of it.
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Hi @macklemore,
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) September 17, 2026
Wouldn’t a honest person who truly cared about Gazan’s loudly condemn Hamas for
- Murdering gays
- using innocents as human shields
- post ceasefire executions
- forced child marriage
- indoctrination of toddlers into death cult
- 10/7
Pls send tweets. pic.twitter.com/z4XfvgNmFI
Ed: Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.
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Last night's lyric: "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett.
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