PLYMOUTH, MA — Reports indicated that a modern “Underground Railroad” had been established to help the lone black juror from the Lindsay Clancy case escape from angry, violent, white Democrats.

Though shrouded in secrecy, the new Underground Railroad would purportedly use checkpoints along the Atlantic coast to help shepherd the black man away from the thousands of white Northern liberals who have threatened him with violence.

“We’ve got to get him to the South,” said an operative, on condition of anonymity. “He’ll be safe if he can just get below that Mason-Dixon line. The Republicans won’t let anyone touch him. It’s not going to be easy, though. There are mobs of bloodthirsty white liberals all over the North, looking for a lynching. And the feminists. Dear Lord, the feminists. He’s secure right now, but we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Volunteers had reportedly prepared to hide the juror in houses, church basements, and Chick-fil-A stockrooms along the escape route. “We’ve got our people looking out for any sign of danger, like a shirt saying ‘Love Is Love’ or ‘Believe All Women,'” explained a pastor working the trail. “It’s a little different direction from the old Railroad, but it’s still black people fleeing angry white Democrats who want to do them harm and force them to do their bidding. Some things never change, I guess.”

At publishing time, the juror had reportedly made it safely across the Pennsylvania border after narrowly escaping a mob carrying “BE KIND” signs.

Babylon Bee

Many Republicans predict that if Democrats regain Congress (and later the White House), everything they do will be about retribution. They won’t do anything constructive to help people such as cut taxes, cut regulations, address Social Security and Medicare bankruptcy, etc.

Correct. However, it’s also true that Republicans missed their final chance to arrest and bring to justice the traitors and willful, open lawbreakers — Fauci, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Biden, Comey, their henchpersons, among many others. Not one has seen justice. Not one. Consequently, we angered the rattlesnake and should the rattlesnake return to power, there will be widespread retribution everywhere.

Unlike Republicans and MAGA, Democrats will not be concerned with rule of law, justice, or actually being guilty. Like all totalitarians, they are only after people who don’t agree with them. They will bring down all opposition with a decisive force and brutality seen throughout history whenever dictatorships come to power — but like nothing yet seen in American history.

So go ahead. Vote for the now fully radicalized Democrats, thinking you’ll get “affordability” guaranteed by politicians.  And enjoy.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Rights were never supposed to be politicized. The Constitution is in operation regardless of the Party in charge. Individual rights are not negotiable. You can debate who should be in charge of the government, but not the scope and limits of government — especially the preservation of rights.

Sadly, that seems to be all over. Democrats dislike the First Amendment, due process, Second Amendment, election integrity, private property, and borders — so they just ignore them. They don’t like voter identification, so they simply let in whomever they feel like to vote. This leaves the rest of us in a difficult position. Either we do like they do — ignore their rights, while upholding our own — or try to keep the Constitution going. Keeping it going is commendable and ultimately practical — assuming the Constitution was still in operation. Assuming elections were still honest. But in places run by Democrats, a sizable part of the country, there is no Constitution. They got away with suspending it during COVID fascism, and they learned their lesson well. Democrats tend to operate on the premise that Trump is not a “real” President, and use it to rationalize they can do their own thing. But not those who disagree with them!

MAGA and Republicans insist the Constitution still matters. It does. But it’s not in operation in Newsom’s California, or Mamdani’s NYC, in Minneapolis, and in none of the “sanctuary” cities and states where the President of the USA is denied authority over federal matters. The Supreme Court (except for two lone Republicans) mostly undermines President Trump, not because he’s unconstitutional, but because they don’t like him. So far as Democrats are concerned, the Constitution is over. That’s our core problem, and it’s why the USA is so dysfunctional despite Trump’s efforts to hold it all together.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Two days ago, the global media rushed to declare that the Iranians had outplayed Donald Trump and his blockade of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC’s proxies in Yemen seized strategic turf in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, damaging Saudi Arabia’s pipeline and sending oil prices higher. The Telegraph reported that the IRGC was “hitting [Trump] where it hurts,” while insisting that the Red Sea action effectively countered – or at least paralleled – the US Navy’s total blockade of Iranian sea traffic:

Iran’s leaders were never going to passively submit to slow strangulation. Facing Donald Trump’s blockade of their ports and the near-total loss of their oil exports, the regime is now striking back across the Middle East, aiming to inflict enough damage to force America to relent.

In the last seven days, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have broken out of their highland strongholds and advanced down the coastal plain, seizing key positions alongside the Bab el-Mandeb strait, where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean. …

Iran is now doing everything possible to wreck this alternative, which is why the Houthis have strengthened their hold on the choke point, where they have positioned Iranian-supplied anti-ship missiles.

Much further into the story, though, the Telegraph conceded that this was still both asymmetrical and likely very temporary:

So this is how Iran is trying to break Trump’s stranglehold. And there is plenty more that the Islamic Republic’s leaders might do. They could, for example, resume firing ballistic missiles at the other Gulf states with the twin goals of forcing the oil price still higher and inducing more US allies to implore Trump to reach a new peace agreement.

That option would, of course, risk heavy American retaliation. But, in their own terms, Iran’s actions are logical and effective.

It does not follow, though, that they will necessarily succeed. Some Gulf states, instead of trying to restrain America, might do the opposite and urge Trump to strike even harder at their common enemy. Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has already asked Trump to bomb the Houthis. The United Arab Emirates is officially co-operating with the US campaign to asphyxiate Iran’s economy, known as Operation Economic Outcast.

This is not a “stranglehold,” at least not by the Iranians or the Houthis. Significant amounts of oil are being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Scott Bessent claims that the US Navy now has about 65% capacity restored through its safe-passage corridor through the Strait; other sources estimate it somewhat lower, but everyone now acknowledges that the US has restored a significant level of commerce.

The Saudi-UAE pipeline backstopped that until this week, bringing total exports to nearly pre-war levels. That interruption has spiked oil prices, but it’s temporary, and the Saudis now have more reason to go fully into offensive operations to put an end to the partial Houthi occupation of Yemen.

The only ‘stranglehold’ that exists is the one on the IRGC. Even the Telegraph pointed this out, noting that oil shipments from every other Gulf state are increasing through the Strait of Hormuz, but not a single drop has come from Iran:

One certainty is that none of the tankers now passing through the Strait of Hormuz is carrying Iranian oil. By ruthlessly blockading the country’s ports, America is suffocating the regime’s financial lifeline.

The IRGC has countered this by attempting to bolster its trade routes by highway and rail, and across the Caspian Sea with neighboring trade partners. The regime has insisted that Iranians could sustain themselves through these distribution channels, both for exports and imports. Attempts to move oil by rail got stymied by US attacks on rail lines during the July clashes, but the highways were mainly open, and the IRGC propaganda organs painted them as a negation of the American blockade.

How’s that going? The Wall Street Journal reports today that even the open roads have turned into a disaster. Even without any other considerations, the capacity on those channels falls far short of what Iran is losing in the Hormuz blockade. However, the IRGC regime’s corruption and incompetence have made the situation at the crossings much worse, and similar problems in Pakistan aren’t helping either:

Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran’s border with Pakistan, unable to send their goods into Tehran’s neighbor. They say they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused by their own government. The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with Turkey, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.

Tons of stranded apricots have been spoiled because of the delays. Lucrative cargoes of iron ore, cement and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to the Pakistani and Afghan borders, truckers say.

“Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistan allowing us to unload our cargo,” one driver says in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran over the weekend. 

Some of these problems predate the war, the WSJ notes. The customs stations had been understaffed before, but now that traffic has nearly tripled during the blockade, processing on both sides of these borders has all but collapsed. That’s true even with Turkey, where one might expect a little more competence; at the moment, 3,700 trucks are sitting on the side of the road, unable to cross over and deliver their cargoes. 

The backlog is lower on the Pakistan border – 700 trucks are sidelined – but the conditions are much worse:

Iranian truckers trying to get into Pakistan say they can be stuck for several days without access to water, food or sanitation as temperatures rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, according to footage, published by the Truckers’ Union on its social-media account. The union said some bottled-gas tankers are crossing into Pakistan. But the Pakistani authorities asked Iranian drivers for the equivalent of more than $10,000 each to cross, an unprecedented amount, it said. A spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said he wasn’t aware of any new charges or restrictions at Pakistan’s border with Iran.

Meanwhile, at the border with Turkmenistan, the gateway to China, transporters complain of constraints tied to a lack of warehouses and of a proper registration process to bring goods by rail to China. One businessman complained it was increasingly difficult to bring in automotive spare parts from the Asian powerhouse.

At some point, Iran will run out of truckers, and may run out of refined diesel and gasoline even before that happens. Iranians are reportedly sleeping in their cars at gas stations in order to avoid losing their place in line for heavily-rationed fuel. Having thousands of trucks sitting idle for days and weeks on end not only reduces capacity to get goods to consumers, it also strands the drivers. It adds more costs per unit delivered in the end, both in real costs and opportunity costs. The added costs, both official and graft, are also adding to Iran’s hyperinflation crisis, the issue that touched off the revolt in January. Iran’s officially acknowledged inflation rate in August was a staggering 128% on food, thanks to the added costs and delays of using overland routes. 

That is not sustainable for an authoritarian regime, theological or otherwise. The US and its allies have options for getting goods to market; the IRGC is rapidly running out of options. If Trump keeps the blockade in place rather than attempt to cut a deal for an “October surprise” to boost Republicans’ election efforts in the midterms, he has a real chance to break the regime and force real change in Iran. 

So much for convoys, eh? Maybe Ahmad Vahidi was too much a fan of C.W. McCall. Pig Pen, this here’s Trumpy Duck, and he’s about to put the hammer down … we hope. 10-4?

Ed Morrisey, Hotair

September 11 is not a day for vague emotional uplift. It is not a seminar on American foreign policy. It is not an occasion to distort a massacre into “differences with the United States.” It is the anniversary of a morning when Islamist terrorists murdered nearly three thousand people on American soil.

Calls to unite Americans and “do a good deed” to honor those murdered by these terrorists are fine if they come with a clear account of who attacked this country, why they did it, and a hard commitment that it must never happen again.

The al Qaeda terrorists did not hijack those planes because of political differences with the U.S. They did it because they despised the civilization those towers represented: democracy, mixed societies, individual liberty, women in public life, Jews and Christians, and secular people living without clerical veto. Al Qaeda’s leaders said so. Their documents said so. Their sermons said so. Pretending otherwise is not nuance. It is amnesia.

There is a persistent effort to minimize that record or invent “another side” to the story. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reduced the attacks to “some people did something.” Hasan Piker, who campaigned with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11.” A New Jersey curriculum produced with CAIR-NJ and “Teaching While Muslim” has told students that the attacks were a response to U.S. support for Israel, the Persian Gulf War, and the American military presence in the Middle East.

Even worse, according to a September 5 New York Post article, two-thirds of American Middle East studies professors say college kids cannot identify who attacked the U.S. on 9/11 or why. The Post article attributes this to a lack of mandatory teaching standards about the terrorist attack, which has allowed woke ideology blaming the attacks on U.S. policy or “Islamophobia” to be taught instead. Some of these lesson plans reportedly have been funded by far-left billionaire George Soros.

This is not teaching history. It is a radical woke attempt to rewrite history and explain away murder.

Some school systems are fighting back. For example, the Texas Board of Education recently sparked controversy when it approved changes to the state’s high school social studies curriculum that say radical Islam motivated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This excuse-making matters because it is not unique to 9/11. The same instinct—to explain away Islamist violence as a response to policy differences rather than an expression of extremist ideology—shows up every time such terrorist attacks occur. London in 2005. Madrid in 2004. Paris in 2015. Brussels in 2016. Bali in 2002 and 2005. Mumbai in 2006 and 2008. The 2017 siege of Marawi in the Philippines. These attacks can’t be linked to differences with the U.S. or the American military presence in the Middle East. They were assaults on democracy, freedom, and modern society.

The October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre against Israel also belongs on that list. Hamas murdered about 1,200 people—including babies, children, and the elderly—burned homes, took hostages, and filmed their murderous work. Hamas did not raid Israeli communities over a zoning dispute. It attacked because its ideology cannot tolerate a free, neighboring society that it cannot defeat except by terror. Some details differ from 9/11. The civilizational contempt does not.

Remember this when radical leftists like Hasan Piker try to recycle their blame-the-victim arguments to explain the 9/11 massacre.

The morning of September 11, 2001, belongs first to the victims and family members of this massacre. It belongs to the heroic firefighters and police officers who ran toward the fire and climbed stairs while others fled. It belongs to the brave passengers on Flight 93 who understood they were already dead and chose to fight anyway. It belongs to office workers who carried strangers down darkened stairwells. These were acts of duty and patriotism under conditions designed to produce panic. Their sacrifice deserves a sober memory, not an effort to minimize this atrocity.

The killers were Muslim fanatics who rejected the modern world. That is not an indictment of every Muslim. The vast majority reject that fanaticism and have often been its victims.

We are seeing a version of this Islamist fanaticism now in Iran, where the IRGC and the ruling mullahs are executing protesters and people who talk to the Western media. A regime that hangs its own people for demanding a normal life is not resisting some vague threat from the U.S. or Israel. It is at war with modernity itself. When such a state talks about resistance, look at what it is resisting: dissent, pluralism, and the idea that sovereignty belongs to citizens rather than the regime’s armed thugs.

Good deeds are not enough. Name who did this. State why. And say, without embarrassment: never again.

Heroes. Sacrifice. A radical Islamist enemy that named itself. Reject euphemism and denial on this solemn day. Teach our children that kindness will not protect our freedom or our lives from those who want to destroy us. We must recognize the foreign threats to our nation, be willing to defend it, and be ready to fight.

* * *

Fred Fleitz previously served as chief of staff of the Trump National Security Council. He is a co-chair with the America First Policy Institute and is also the author of North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office, which was just released by Texas A&M Press. 

It’s easy to see why Abdul El-Sayed wants to separate himself from left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. 

In an interview with Axios, Piker said that he believes the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon. 

.@AlexThomp: “Do you think the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon?”

Hasan Piker: “I believe yes.”

(the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism) pic.twitter.com/S8uaLJEBMC— Sarah Gallagher (@sgallz_) September 17, 2026

Piker said that America conducts more terror than Al-Qaeda. 

“You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism,” Axios’ Alex Thompson said. “Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?”

“Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes, we’ve caused tremendous terror all around the world,” Piker said. “I think that that is not only terror that we are waging on regular civilians in nations in the periphery, but it’s also having consequences on ourselves. It’s having dramatic consequences on the home front.” 

“One clear example of this is what we did in MENA (Middle East and North Africa),” he added. “There’s no distinction between blowing up a school, triple tapping it with Tomahawk missiles. If you’re killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror. This doesn’t mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.”

👀 NEW: @hasanthehun joins @alexthomp on the Season 3 premiere of The Axios Show in what Piker called “the most contentious interview” he’s done.

Piker claims that “pound for pound,” America conducts more terror around the world than al-Qaeda. pic.twitter.com/c8xFVvbixl— Axios (@axios) September 17, 2026

👀 NEW: @hasanthehun joins @alexthomp on the Season 3 premiere of The Axios Show in what Piker called “the most contentious interview” he’s done.

Piker claims that “pound for pound,” America conducts more terror around the world than al-Qaeda. pic.twitter.com/c8xFVvbixl— Axios (@axios) September 17, 2026

Hasan Piker, who’s stumped for several far-left Democrats ahead of the midterms, says America is worse than al-Qaeda.

“We have caused tremendous terror all around the world.”pic.twitter.com/3Bn9BpPhGt— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 17, 2026

FETTERMAN: “[Hasan Piker] is an individual that just declared that we are worse than Al Qaeda and Democrats are campaigning with him, defending him!” pic.twitter.com/wahiLJrscS— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 18, 2026

Hassan piker was interviewed on the “Axios show” and had some interesting things to say.

Hassan piker is a famous streamer far left lunatic that wants socialism and Muslims to literally rule the world. He’s said it himself.

In the interview he states that America, where he… https://t.co/HANZYOdn2W pic.twitter.com/jwKpDTpok0— Faithful Patriot (@Omerta1926) September 17, 2026

👀 Hasan Piker admits he’d never go to Israel and post pro-Israel content the way he did in China.

Axios’ Alex Thompson presses him on why Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs gets a pass while Israel doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/xfx9AkV1BE— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 17, 2026

Piker previously said that America deserved 9/11.

Scott McClallen, Townhall

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter

The longtime pastor of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico was recently caught on camera promoting an “inclusive” translation of the Bible that strips the text of gendered language for God, including Jesus’ titles as Lord and Son of God.

The Rev. Jim Rigby, who has pastored St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) near Austin, Texas, for more than 35 years, discussed The Inclusive Bible with an undercover journalist posing as a prospective new church member, according to video recorded in August and first reported Thursday by The Daily Caller.

Noting the church typically provides new members with a copy of The Inclusive Bible when they join, Rigby claimed, “It’s good on the gender stuff.”

“The more, like, metaphysical stuff, it’s not a very good translation, if that makes sense. I think it’s really important to have a good translation, so you can let go of the stupid stuff,” he added.

The video also depicts a new member named Larry being given a copy of the inclusive translation to applause during a service at St. Andrew’s.

“And Martha’s here to give Larry his Inclusive Bible,” a woman says in the video. “It’s the Bible that we use at this church. It’s been rewritten so that there is only inclusive language and that it doesn’t use the gender-fueled language that the King James Version uses.”

First published in 2007, The Inclusive Bible touts itself as “the first egalitarian translation” and offers “a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them,” according to a description.

“Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original languages, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths,” the description reads.

The video also depicts a new member named Larry being given a copy of the inclusive translation to applause during a service at St. Andrew’s.

“And Martha’s here to give Larry his Inclusive Bible,” a woman says in the video. “It’s the Bible that we use at this church. It’s been rewritten so that there is only inclusive language and that it doesn’t use the gender-fueled language that the King James Version uses.”

First published in 2007, The Inclusive Bible touts itself as “the first egalitarian translation” and offers “a re-imagining of the scriptures and our relationship to them,” according to a description.

“Not merely replacing male pronouns, the translators have rethought what kind of language has built barriers between the text and its readers. Seeking to be faithful to the original languages, they have sought new and non-sexist ways to express the same ancient truths,” the description reads.

The translation was published by Priests for Equality, which is an extension of the Maryland-based Quixote Center. Co-founded in 1975 by Bill Callahan, a Jesuit priest who was removed from the order for promoting women’s ordination, the Quixote Center also served as the basis for the pro-LGBT New Ways Ministry, which helps Roman Catholics find “LGBTQ-friendly parishes.”

According to an explanatory introduction, the translators of The Inclusive Bible said they “had to consider whether modern renderings of sacred scriptures present modern sexist biases, in addition to biases of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean cultures.”

Claiming that “scriptural language specifically referring to God presents a major problem,” they go on to denounce “the Lord” as a “sexist and classist form” of God’s personal name. They replace it instead with “YHWH,” “Most High,” “Most High God,” “Almighty” or “Sovereign One.”

God the Father’s title as “Father” is replaced with “Abba” or “Loving God.” Christ’s titles as “Son of God” and “Son of Man” are especially “difficult,” according to the translators, who replaced such terms with “Only Begotten,” “God’s Own,” and “Eternally Begotten.” The terms “Chosen One” or “Promised One” are also used.

Acknowledging that Jesus’ title as “Lord” is “hard to replace because it is confessional,” the translators said: “To avoid sexist and classist connotations, we use substitutes for Lord that are meaningful in our own confessing of Jesus, such as Sovereign, Savior, and Jesus Reigns.”

In another undercover video released Thursday, Rigby boasted of speaking at an event with the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist nonprofit that wages legal campaigns often aimed at removing Christian expression from the public square.

“Because to me, it’s like, if you love humanity and you love nature, and that’s why you hate religion, then we’re on the same team,” Rigby said, echoing a similar sentiment from Talarico, who said on a podcast in 2021 that he thinks of himself “as a Christian who hates Christianity.” The video also appears to show the Rev. Babs Miller, who serves as “minister to the parish” at St. Andrew’s, claiming she doesn’t “have a need for a God” and that Rigby’s church is “not a worshipping church.”

Talarico, who raised eyebrows for claiming God is non-binary, has touted Rigby as one of his most influential mentors, whose church he has attended since childhood. The pastor baptized him, officiated his parents’ marriage and delivered the invocation before his 2019 swearing-in ceremony at the Texas House of Representatives. In a recently resurfaced clip from 2023, Talarico praised Rigby’s church by noting it taught him “the idea that Christianity is just another word for causing trouble.”

Known for promoting the liberal theology that Talarico has often echoed throughout his political career, Rigby has repeatedly clashed throughout his ministry with the dwindling conservative wing of the mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), especially over issues of sexuality and gender.

Rigby openly defied the PCUSA’s former prohibition on homosexual marriage and ordination since the 1990s, though he failed to trigger the formal ecclesiastical trial he said he wanted.

In 1995, when the PCUSA’s Book of Order still limited ordination to those living in fidelity in heterosexual marriage or chastity in singleness, he took to refusing to wear his clerical robe or share the Lord’s Supper at presbytery meetings in protest that the sacrament was not open to those who unrepentantly practice homosexuality.

Rigby has also compared aborted babies to “extracted teeth,” and appeared to deny the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection in a lengthy, sarcastic Facebook post on Christmas Day in 2015. In another Facebook post he made during the Christmas season in 2022, he called Jesus “the magical baby” and used the Nativity story to condemn gendered descriptions of God, claiming instead that “the transcendent does not need to have a gender.”

Was this in Stalinist Russia, North Korea, China, Iran? The Third Reich?

Eric Utter | September 17, 2026

We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” Those are the nine most terrifying words in the English language, as Ronald Reagan once said.

To what do I refer?

Per Life Site News:

A devout Catholic family in Massachusetts had their 15-year-old daughter taken away from them after they refused to refer to her with male pronouns while her school was secretly socially transitioning her behind the parents’ backs.

Joseph and Arlene Kutzko haven’t been allowed to see their daughter, Sophie, in nearly two years. Since then, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has housed her in a boys’ dormitory, put her on birth control pills and antipsychotic medications.

Dear God.

It is hard for me to fathom the words “had their 15-year-old daughter taken away from them …”

So, the state “took” the daughter from her parents because they refused to participate in a pernicious lie? And tried to “transition” her behind her parent’s backs? The state hasn’t “allowed” the parents to see their own child in two years? And has placed her in a boys’ dormitory and given her antipsychotic medications and birth control pills. Who the hell approved these actions? Does “The State” now trump parents? And do real, actual boys need birth control pills? For what other purposes does “The State” have the “right” to confiscate parents’ offspring? To force them into a certain approved political party or religion? To make them believe the Earth is flat? Can anyone else see how heinously dangerous and evil this is?

When I was young, my father took me to see our baseball team on “opening day” on several occasions. The “home openers.” These games, early in the season, were always played in the afternoon. One year, when I was in eighth grade and in junior high, he needed to take me out of school after lunch to attend the game. School officials frowned on this and were not going to grant permission for me to leave. During the 5 minutes we had between classes, I darted across the street to a convenience store and called my dad. I told him of my school’s reluctance. He said, “no problem, son, I’ll come right over and speak to them.”

About 30 minutes later, I was called into the principal’s office over the intercom. The powers that be informed me that it would, in fact, be perfectly okay for me to go to the game with my dad … who was standing far off to the side. The powers that be, my advisor and the principal among them, looked shaken and ashen as they proceeded to speak of the virtues of spring baseball.

Moral of the story? Screw the government. My dad was there to help me … confront the government.

Any — and every — society that allows government to have the ultimate power over parents and families is a society that is morally bankrupt and ultimately doomed to failure.

So now we know what happens if you refuse to prostrate yourself before the Gaza cult. If you politely decline wearing the keffiyeh like a holy shroud and chanting “Free Palestine” on a mindless loop. They will destroy you. They will hound you like an infidel and seek your excommunication from polite society. Just look at what is happening to Ed Sheeran.

Pop’s Mr. Nice Guy, penner of bloodless ballads, is being ripped to shreds online. He’s damned as a “coward,” a “lowlife,” even as “complicit” in one of the great crimes of the 21st century. “Call off the rest of your American tour!” cry the frothing Ed-hunters. What sin did he commit to warrant such venom? He refused to bend the knee to the Palestine mania and its truthless commandments about the Jewish state.

Sheeran’s US tour is falling apart following the removal of irritant rapper Macklemore as the opening act. Macklemore turned two Sheeran gigs in New Jersey into joy-sucking lectures about the wickedness of Israel. Images of the destruction in Gaza were emblazoned behind him on the stadium screens. It’s just what you want when you’ve forked out £200 to see your favorite British crooner – a deranged homily about “genocide” delivered by the Temu Eminem.

Other venues gave Sheeran an ultimatum: ditch the Gazaholic or we won’t host your gigs. So Sheeran and Macklemore parted ways. Then all of Sheeran’s other support acts walked out too – “in solidarity” with Macklemore – and even his backing band has now left the tour. A whole tour burnt at the altar of Israelophobia – behold the sanctimonious grimness of the Gaza cult.

Everyone is saying Macklemore has been censored. Leftists who giddily cheer the blacklisting of Israeli musicians for the sin of being Israeli are now posing as warriors for artistic expression. We weren’t born yesterday, lads. But here’s the thing: it’s not Macklemore who’s being shamed and silenced, it’s Sheeran. It’s our boy, Britain’s great pop export, for whom the knives of cancellation are being sharpened.

The digital invective being heaped on Sheeran is insane. They say he’s a Zio-cuck, that he has blood on his hands, that the hell of ignominy awaits him. He risks becoming a “pariah”, says Billy Bragg. He should call off this cursed, Zio-compromised tour, says the cyber mob. “Ideologically” it’s the right thing to do, says smug songstress Paloma Faith.

Ideologically! It’s like a Stalinist reprimand. Fall into line, comrade, and cancel this tainted tour. As to Sheeran’s plea that he leaves politics out of his shows because many of his fans are kids, Ms. Faith said: “I say ‘Free Palestine’ to my children every night.” Oh sweetheart, get out while you can. You know you’re in a cult when you find yourself whispering its daft mantras into your own kids’ lugholes.

The art-killing bozos of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) are calling on Sheeran’s fans to boycott his remaining gigs. It’s a “complicit tour”, they wail, as if Sheeran were taking a break between songs to fire missiles at Gaza. You almost have to admire the gall of people who pose as champions of free speech even as they wage holy war against a pop tour because the star refused to kiss the ring of their bankrupt ideology.

The anti-Ed hysteria really is spinning out of control. He’s a “gutless coward” who “should never feel welcome in Ireland again”, says a writer for the Irish Mirror. The vindictiveness is staggering. Perhaps Sheeran’s name should be added to all travel watchlists, so that we might shield nations from the toxic moral fumes of this heretic who failed to say: “Free Palestine.”

It was Sheeran’s statement following Macklemore’s removal that really enraged the mob. There is “suffering and pain” on “both sides” in this war, he said. Oh Ed, no. You must never acknowledge the suffering of Israelis. You must never mention that they were raped and slaughtered in a pogrom of Nazi proportions just three years ago. In the eyes of the Gaza cult, sympathy for Israelis is the greatest transgression of all. For it does something unforgivable: it humanizes the Jews of the Holy Land. It reminds us they are not in fact “genocidal maniacs.” It reintroduces nuance and truth, puncturing the infantile and bigoted dogmas of an activist class that insists Israel and her people are evil incarnate. Sheeran will not soon be forgiven for his sins of humanization.

Who will now deny the zealotry and intolerance of the Palestine movement? They pose as peaceniks but come off like inquisitors, expecting floor-scraping obedience from all and flying into a blind rage when it is withheld. I fear Sheeran will buckle. But imagine if he didn’t. Imagine if he carried on with his tour, just him and his guitar, bursting the deathless sanctimony of the Gaza cult with a little musical joy. Wouldn’t it be amazing?

Brendan O’Neill, The Spectator