Commentary Culture Investigations

The only reason why The Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller is an MS NOW analyst is because he and his Bulwark colleagues have portrayed themselves as the epitome of moral virtue for leaving the Republican Party in the aftermath of the political rise of Donald Trump. However, on Wednesday’s edition of The Moment with Katy Tur, Miller pleaded with Democrats to stop “infighting about random streamers,” by which he meant anti-Semitic 9/11 apologist and Mao fan, Hasan Piker.Tur began by asking, “Tim, do you think Democrats are reaching out effectively, or are they battling their own demons?”Miller began his response by stating, “I think it’s a mixed bag. I think the one thing that Democrats are doing good is they’re talking about affordability. I think some Democrats think that, like, saying the word “affordability” is like an amulet that allows them to kind of check the box. And I think that they’re going to have to go a little bit further than that. You know, and I think that there’s some who are doing that really well. Like we’ve mentioned, Talarico. I think even the center-left Democrats could learn a lot from Zohran. Like he doesn’t talk about affordability, like it’s an academic exercise. If you listen to his speeches and his content, he’s usually giving, like, tangible examples of… people, you know, who are struggling and what he’s going to do to help them.” The Bulwark’s Tim Miller thinks Democrats shouldn’t reckon with Hasan Piker, “less infighting about random streamers as well” and “[El-Sayed’s] got to also convince the kind of Bernie to Trump voters, like these are the types of people that he needs to win over to get over the… pic.twitter.com/VxHNKbCMOH— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 27, 2026 He then added, “I think the Democrats could do a little bit better on that… less infighting about random streamers as well. So, you know, there’s a little room for growth, but they’re doing pretty good.”Piker is not just a random streamer. He is someone both El-Sayed and the media have tried to normalize. In El-Sayed’s case that meant campaigning with him and refusing to denounce him. In the media’s case it meant platforming him and giving him glowing profiles. Now that he has become politically toxic, they are now pretending they want nothing to do with him.As it was, Tur wondered, “What does that mean?”Miller responded that El-Sayed has to win over the “Bernie-to-Trump voters,” but that Democrats aren’t helping themselves, “I think that there’s a lot of fighting back and forth between him and, like, this Michigan Congresswoman Hilary Scholten and others, you know, about whether he’s too close to Hasan Piker or whether he’s not distancing himself enough. And they’re fighting back and forth. And, you know, he was on Jesse Watters this week, kind of like arguing about, you know, trans youth gender reassignment surgery. I’m not sure how helpful that is. So, you know, there can be a little bit of a—more of an eye on the ball in some of these races.”For Miller, Trump was a bridge too far, but Piker is just a minor irritant that Democrats need to ignore to win back power. Unfortunately for him, that is not how politics works. El-Sayed and Michigan Democrats made their bed, and now they will have to lie in it.Here is a transcript for the August 26 show:MS NOW The Moment with Katy Tur8/26/20263:21 PM ETKATY TUR: Tim, do you think Democrats are reaching out effectively, or are they battling their own demons?TIM MILLER: I think it’s a mixed bag. I think the one thing that Democrats are doing good is they’re talking about affordability. I think some Democrats think that, like, saying the word “affordability” is like an amulet that allows them to kind of check the box. And I think that they’re going to have to go a little bit further than that. You know, and I think that there’s some who are doing that really well. Like we’ve mentioned, Talarico. I think even the center-left Democrats could learn a lot from Zohran. Like he doesn’t talk about affordability, like it’s an academic exercise. If you listen to his speeches and his content, he’s usually giving, like, tangible examples of cab drivers or—trucks, like people, you know, who are struggling and what he’s going to do to help them.I think the Democrats could do a little bit better on that, and they could probably do—to hair less infighting about random streamers as well. So, you know, there’s a little room for growth, but they’re doing pretty good.TUR: Tell me about the hairless infighting about random streamers. What does that mean?MILLER: I just you know, I mean the Michigan Senate race. Abdul El-Sayed, look, it’s his job right now to go win over—Elissa Slotkin won in 2024, the senator, more of a centrist Democratic senator. She won. Kamala Harris lost on the same ballot. Sayed’s got to go convince those voters. And he’s got to also convince the kind of Bernie-to-Trump voters, like these are the types of people that he needs to win over to get over the hump. And I think that there’s a lot of fighting back and forth between him and, like, this Michigan Congresswoman Hilary Scholten and others, you know, about whether he’s too close to Hasan Piker or whether he’s not distancing himself enough. And they’re fighting back and forth. And, you know, he was on Jesse Watters this week, kind of like arguing about, you know, trans youth gender reassignment surgery. I’m not sure how helpful that is. So, you know, there can be a little bit of a—more of an eye on the ball in some of these races.

Nothing that more tariffs can’t make worse.

United Talent Agency, one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies, is apparently standing behind Mark Ruffalo after the Avengers franchise star’s latest antisemitic outburst, a stark departure from how the firm handled similar controversies involving two female actors.
Ruffalo, best known for playing the Hulk in Disney’s Marvel movies, stoked controversy this week after he criticized Paramount Skydance’s planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ruffalo, on Instagram, referred to Paramount owner David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, as “oligarchs” and “inhuman forces.” He asserted that Oracle has provided “profoundly scary technologies” to Israel, and that it will also merge into “one of the largest media conglomerates in the world” via Paramount.
He also denounced an Israeli-American Paramount board member, former Oracle CEO Safra Catz, saying she “revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
Last year, Ruffalo reposted a tweet that claimed “Jewish troops will be looking for Muslims” in its fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Ruffalo’s connecting the Paramount-WBD merger—the source of enormous tension in the contracting entertainment industry—to conspiracy theories about Israel elicited a sharp rebuke from Paramount. In an extraordinary response for a major studio, Paramount, which is now controlled by the Ellisons, accused the actor of spreading “antisemitic tropes,” an allegation he vehemently denied, issuing a strident rebuttal on X that argued he should be able to criticize Israel without being called an antisemite.
Creative Community for Peace, a coalition of “prominent members of the entertainment community” who aim to “counter the rise of antisemitism,” accused Ruffalo of engaging in “antisemitic messaging” and asserted that “nobody in Hollywood should platform” Ruffalo until he retracts his latest remarks.
But UTA seems to be standing behind Ruffalo. The agency declined to comment to Page Six Hollywood about Creative Community for Peace’s calls to deplatform Ruffalo, the gossip sheet reported.
In contrast, UTA kicked actresses Susan Sarandon and Kate Beckinsale to the curb in November 2023 over their criticism of Israel. The agency dropped Sarandon, the star of Thelma & Louise, after she said at an anti-Israel rally that Jews who were fearful amid a rise in antisemitism were “getting a taste” of what it was like to be Muslim in the United States.
In April of this year, Beckinsale alleged that UTA and her agent dropped her as a client the same day as Sarandon after the Underworld star “liked” a social media post that accused Israel of genocide. Beckinsale cited UTA’s handling of Ruffalo’s various anti-Israel remarks and accused the agency of a sexist double standard.
“I guess having a penis in Hollywood really counts for a lot, because you’ve not been fired by the same agent that I had,” wrote Beckinsale.
Beckinsale did not name the UTA agent, but she, Ruffalo and Sarandon have all been represented by UTA partner Shani Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig, who did not respond to requests for comment, is listed as Ruffalo’s point agent at IMDb, the Hollywood trade journal.
Ruffalo is a bigger box office draw than either of the actresses. He has appeared in several Marvel superhero movies, including the mega-hit Spider-Man: Brand New Day, now in theatres. He is also the lead in the HBO series Task, a surprise hit about a priest-turned-FBI agent who tracks a drug gang. Task was supposed to be a limited series but has been renewed for a second season after its success, with Ruffalo set to return.
Another contrast between Ruffalo in August 2026 and Sarandon and Beckinsale in November 2023 (just a month after Oct. 7) is that sympathy for Israel has ebbed considerably on the American left, and Hollywood’s power structure, not known for its strong principles, may feel less pressure to act when a star—especially a high-earning star—makes comments offensive to Jews.
UTA’s silence so far on Ruffalo is especially notable given that many of the agency’s executives, including Rosenzweig, are vocal backers of Israel whose support for the Jewish state has made them targets of anti-Israel activists.
Reverse Canary Mission, an anti-Israel group, lists Rosenzweig in its “complicit in apartheid” database for signing onto a Creative Community for Peace letter on Oct. 12, 2023, in support of Israel after the Hamas terrorist attack days earlier. Sixteen other UTA employees in addition to Rosenzweig signed the letter.
UTA vice chairman Jay Sures has also been targeted by anti-Israel groups. Last year, a cadre of masked activists showed up outside Sures’s Brentwood home toting banners that stated “Jonathan Sures you will pay, until you see your final day,” and chanting “intifada revolution,” a popular call for the eradication of Israel.
There could be some indication that UTA is distancing itself from Ruffalo. UTA Speakers, the agency’s speakers bureau, recently removed Ruffalo’s speaker request page from its website.
UTA did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment.
The post Major Hollywood Talent Agency Stands Behind Marvel Star Mark Ruffalo After His Unhinged, ‘Antisemitic’ Rant appeared first on .

Jon Stewart joined former First Lady Michelle Obama on her IMO podcast on Wednesday and struggled to say that political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show, are beneficial to America. But before Stewart was able to achieve full self-awareness, he would say that they are because they are made in “good faith,” and any good faith discourse is worth it.Obama wondered, “Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political climate? ‘Cause here’s what, you know, like, I mean, sometimes I just can’t watch anything political, right?… I wonder what you think because it—sometimes I think is it good that most young people are getting their news from The Daily Show or that they, you know, they want you to run for president, or you know, I mean, that we’re in that position of, where, you know, especially with social media. It’s like, ‘The funny guy—’” After Michelle Obama asks him if he thinks “comedy helps or hurts the political climate,” Jon Stewart rambles on about “I learned early on that the one of the frustrations of—one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked… pic.twitter.com/RehjlKk1nm— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 27, 2026 Stewart responded by claiming that “I never confuse cultural power with power. I learned early on that the—one of the frustrations of—one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about, like, ‘What do you want to be as a comic?’ I want to be—I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever art form it is that I’m pushing through.”However, Stewart wasn’t sure a liberal comedy show should be exalted the same way a liberal activist should, “Second item of it is but it’s impotent and does it—is it an opiate? Is it creating a, you know—and having worked on some of those things on Capitol Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn’t before. The difference between activists who are in the trenches doing that day-to-day work trying to bend that arc of the moral universe slowly towards justice not realizing there’s a bunch of people trying to bend it back.”The comedy shows are like opiates. On one hand, the usual “Republicans are dumb” or “Trump’s a fascist” quips don’t make anyone smarter or more well-informed and when they try to talk about serious policy issues, they end up just outing themselves as people who have passionate opinions about subjects they know nothing about.As it was, Stewart kept rolling, “I wish there was a double-blind study where you could find out like, am I hurt—like does this help? Does it corrode? Does it pervert? Is it something to be—is it ultra-processed, you know, food that’s given the country a kind of political diabetes?”However, Stewart ultimately decided his profession is good because it is, according to him, sincere, “You know, I don’t know. I think I also have to step back on—it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that it is not in bad faith. So the way that I try and judge it is any good-faith art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There’s so much bad faith, and I try to hold that but I can’t sit here and honestly answer, like, ‘It’s a win for society.’ Like, ‘What I’ve done over these past 25,’ — you know, I don’t—I’d hate to think, obviously, but there’s many people on social media who would tell me, you know, that that is the case.” Earlier in the show, Michelle Obama announced that we all have disappointed her again, “What we were saying about the rolling back of women’s rights. I mean, you know, if—when things are okay it’s easier to take what you have for granted and to think, ‘Wow, there will always be… pic.twitter.com/KtaEjFbCsw— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 27, 2026 In his rambling response, Stewart mentioned “that arc of the moral universe,” and earlier in the show, Obama made it clear which side she thinks she is on because, once again, Obama has made it clear that the country has disappointed her:What we were saying about the rolling back of women’s rights. I mean, you know, if—when things are okay it’s easier to take what you have for granted and to think, ‘Wow, there will always be somebody there who wouldn’t possibly do this.’… Because, you know, our kids didn’t witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn’t experience it, and that’s, you know, that’s the kind of growth you would hope for the country that each generation everything gets better and better and better, and that was actually happening, right? Until we get to a point where there’s a generation that didn’t even remember what was wrong in the first place? Never saw it, right?”Ironically, that is another problem with the comedy shows. It would be one thing if the comedy shows were equal opportunists in skewering the powerful, but they are not. They are just daily airings of liberal talking points with clapter increasingly replacing laughter as the language of affirmation.Here is a transcript for the August 26 show:IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson8/26/2026MICHELLE OBAMA: What we were saying about the rolling back of women’s rights. I mean, you know, if—when things are okay it’s easier to take what you have for granted and to think—JON STEWART: Right.OBAMA: “Wow, there will always be somebody there who wouldn’t possibly do this,” you know—STEWART: Right.OBAMA: Yeah, “we’ve never had somebody who would do this, right,” and you just assume that’s gonna be the way it is. I think at some level we were there as a country just a little unclear, just a little, like, “Maybe we can get a little more,” you know, “Maybe I can get more of a tax break—STEWART: Right.OBAMA: —you know. Maybe we can get richer than we are. You know, maybe we can get rights changed faster than ever before, right?” Because, you know, our kids didn’t witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn’t experience it, and that’s, you know, that’s the kind of growth you would hope for the country that each generation everything gets better and better and better, and that was actually happening, right? Until we get to a point where there’s a generation that didn’t even remember what was wrong in the first place? Never saw it, right?…OBAMA: Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political climate?STEWART: Oh, wow.OBAMA: ‘Cause here’s what, you know, like, I mean, sometimes I just can’t watch anything political, right?STEWART: Sure, sure.OBAMA: Especially then because—STEWART: Sure.OBAMA: —it was like, “Is this is this funny?”STEWART: Right. Right.OBAMA: You know—STEWART: Well, it’s personal.OBAMA: —or is it—yeah, yeah—STEWART: Yeah, yeah.OBAMA: —but I, you know, I wonder what you think because it—sometimes I think is it good that most young people are getting their news from The Daily Show—STEWART: Right.OBAMA: —or that they, you know, they want you to run for president—STEWART: Right.OBAMA: —or you know, I mean, that we’re in that position of, where, you know, especially with social media—STEWART: Right.OBAMA: —it’s like “The funny guy—“STEWART: I mean, social media has—look, I think the shows that that we do now, they go out on social media on the thing—OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: —but to a large extent because we are infrastructure heavy we are—we do—we are in some ways a relic of a previous era where it’s sort of like I’m running a Blockbuster, a video store inside of a Tower Records, you know what I mean, where people just be like, “So you sell what now? CDs?”OBAMA: Yeah. Right.STEWART: But in other ways, it has more reach because social media places at everywhere—OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: —the question is what does—I never confuse cultural power with power.OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: I learned early on that the — one of the frustrations of—one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about like “What do you want to be as a comic?” I want to be — I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever art form it is that I’m pushing through. Second item of it is but it’s impotent and does it — is it an opiate? Is it creating a, you know—and having worked on some of those things on Capitol Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn’t before.OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: The difference between activists who are in the trenches doing that day-to-day work trying to bend that arc of the moral universe slowly towards justice—OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: —not realizing there’s a bunch of people trying to bend it back—OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: —and so, you know, I wish there were metrics. I’d almost — I wish there was a double-blind study where you could find out like, am I hurt—like does this help? Does it corrode? Does it pervert? Is it something to be—is it ultra-processed, you know, food that’s given the country a kind of political diabetes?You know, I don’t know. I think I also have to step back on — it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that it is not in bad faith.OBAMA: For sure.STEWART: So the way that I try and judge it is any good-faith art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There’s so much bad faith—OBAMA: Yeah.STEWART: —And I try to hold that but I can’t sit here and honestly answer, like, “It’s a win for society.” Like, “What I’ve done over these past 25,” — you know, I don’t—I’d hate to think, obviously—OBAMA: Yeah, yeah.STEWART: — but there’s many people on social media who would tell me, you know, that that is the case. 

On Tuesday morning, there was a stark contrast in the kind of coverage ICE received from Fox News compared to MS NOW as the two news networks, within half an hour of each other, focused on vastly different stories.Fox & Friends covered the arrest of more than 1,300 illegal aliens in the D.C. area, listing out several violent criminals and their crimes, but Morning Joe featured an anti-ICE rant by co-host Mika Brzezinski over recent arrests of the father of a U.S. Navy sailor and also the arrest of a mother and daughter at a hospital after a car accident.At 6:37 a.m., beginning three minutes of coverage, Fox co-host Brian Kilmeade recalled:

Fox Highlights Arresting 1,300 Illegal Aliens in D.C. Area pic.twitter.com/NKxdDXFWRx— Brad Wilmouth (@bradwilmouth) August 26, 2026

Markwayne Mullin’s … DHS has really kicked it into high gear when it comes to illegal immigrants. Yesterday, same thing. ICE arrested 1,328 people over the course of two weeks, mostly in the Virginia-Maryland area, and they said 400 of which had criminal records or charges pending.Co-host Ainsley Earhardt soon listed several of those arrested and their crimes:This is a lot. Why are they going there? According to reports, it’s because both … counties across Virginia and Maryland have sanctuary-type policies in place. And, of those arrests, almost 400 illegals had criminal convictions, and, as you said, Brian, or pending criminal charges.Let’s go through some of them. First guy, warrant for murder and use of a firearm. Next guy, arrested for attempted murder, two counts of assault, possession of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure and reckless endangerment. The list goes on and on — convicted of felony hit and run, arrested for making a threat to bomb or burn, assault and battery on a family member, and violating a protective order. Some of these individuals were in gangs.After co-host Lawrence Jones noted the importance of local police helping ICE to catch illegal aliens, Kilmeade brought up another of the criminals:Yeah, so police in Loudoun County got one guy in particular — this guy Isaac Melendez-Carranza. He’s El Salvadorean in the U.S., but he’s wanted on felony charges of distributing fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a school. But they have done one thing that is unsung about this administration especially, is what they’ve done to crack down on fentanyl, whether it’s the cartels in Mexico, whether it’s the boats off the shore, or whether it’s the dealers right here in America.He then read a statement on the arrests by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.At 6:57 a.m. — just 16 minutes after Fox’s story concluded — Brzezinski brought up the two cases she ranted about, as previously documented by NewsBusters.It was just the latest in a long line of MS NOW hosts and analysts claiming that, under President Donald Trump, ICE is not going after “the worst of the worst.” But the liberal news network routinely refuses to cover the cases of violent illegal aliens when they are arrested. They suggest that ICE agents are the real criminals, not the criminal illegal aliens.

MS NOW Repeatedly Claims ICE Not Going After ‘Worst of the Worst’ pic.twitter.com/xBwx64tJw2— Brad Wilmouth (@bradwilmouth) August 26, 2026

Transcript follows:Fox & FriendsAugust 25, 20266:37 a.m. EasternBRIAN KILMEADE: So, yeah, Markwayne Mullin’s HHS, since he has taken over –LAWRENCE JONES: DHS.KILMEADE: — DHS — has really kicked it into high gear when it comes to illegal immigrants. Yesterday, same thing. ICE arrested 1,328 people over the course of two weeks, mostly in the Virginia-Maryland area, and they said 400 of which had criminal records or charges pending.JONES: So one of the things that he’s been able to do is get the focus back on what happens, Ainsley — getting the criminals out of the country. I think most Americans agree with this, and they were quiet about it, but they were able to get some really bad people off the streets.AINSLEY EARHARDT: Isn’t it amazing that, I mean, almost 1,400 — 1, 328 people. Like, you think, okay, maybe there are a few illegal immigrants in your community. This is a lot. Why are they going there? According to reports, it’s because both of which counties are counties across Virginia and Maryland have sanctuary-type policies in place. And, of those arrests, almost 400 illegals had criminal convictions, and, as you said, Brian, or pending criminal charges.Let’s go through some of them. First guy, warrant for murder and use of a firearm. Next guy, arrested for attempted murder, two counts of assault, possession of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure and reckless endangerment. The list goes on and on — convicted of felony hit and run, arrested for making a threat to bomb or burn, assault and battery on a family member, and violating a protective order. Some of these individuals were in gangs.JONES: Most of the people that you’re going to come into contact with are local criminals. So when you tell local cops that they can’t work with ICE, you’re never going to be able to find these guys. You’re never going to be able to coordinate to get them off the street. They were quiet about it, Brian, and they got some dangerous people off the street.KILMEADE: Yeah, so police in Loudon County got one guy in particular — this guy Isaac Melendez-Carranza. He’s El Salvadorean in the U.S., but he’s wanted on felony charges of distributing fentanyl within 1,000 feet of a school. But they have done one thing that is unsung about this administration especially, is what they’ve done to crack down on fentanyl, whether it’s the cartels in Mexico, whether it’s the boats off the shore, or whether it’s the dealers right here in America.And (the) DHS secretary came out and said, “The brave men and women of ICE are hard at work every single day getting these dangerous illegal aliens out of the country. Over the course of the last two weeks in Virginia and Maryland, they arrested sexual assailants, kidnappers, drunk drivers, robbers and gang members. While sanctuary politicians in Virginia and Maryland keep putting the needs of illegal aliens over the safety of American people … the Trump administration will always put American citizens first.”

Socialist Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon, the Israel-bashing state lawmaker who won her primary election in a shock upset over Democrat Alex Vindman last week, gushed over the notorious Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a series of speeches at fundraising events for the pro-Hamas advocacy group following the 2024 elections.
Nixon got her big break in November 2023, when she introduced a resolution in the Florida House calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas, a measure which was widely panned as antisemitic by many of her colleagues and roundly rejected on a bipartisan 104-2 vote.
But to CAIR—which was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator of a Hamas front group in 2007—the failed resolution made Nixon a star. CAIR’s Florida chapter honored Nixon by making her a distinguished speaker at three fundraising galas from November 2024 through February 2025, where she declared those who voted against her resolution her “permanent enemies,” ranted against the “false capitalistic American dream,” and praised CAIR as the “right vehicles” to secure electoral victories for Democrats in speeches she closed by quoting a notorious Marxist convicted cop-killer.
“This past presidential election was our Brexit event, and we need to start working on building the right vehicles. And the right vehicles are CAIR Florida,” Nixon said as she addressed CAIR Florida’s gala in Jacksonville in February 2025.
During her November 2024 speech at CAIR Florida’s Tampa gala, Nixon declared that “our oppressor” is “those in power” and that “we are in chains” because most politicians have embraced “respectability politics and assimilation.”
“Let me be clear, we are in chains,” Nixon said. “Those chains are keeping us from realizing our shared power of demanding and accomplishing a ceasefire in Palestine. … Those chains are keeping us from showing up and demanding the cops find the killers of black trans women.”
Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June, in January 2025 also spoke at a CAIR Florida gala hosted in Panama City, where she complained about having to “drive through some old sundown towns and saw some flags that I don’t like” to get to the event. Her three speeches on the CAIR speech circuit followed the same basic structure and were delivered with the apparent intention of raising money for CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a landmark 2007 terrorist financing case that culminated in the conviction of the founders of the Holy Land Foundation for funneling $12 million to Hamas.
“I’m really humbled to have been asked to speak again at a CAIR Florida gala. I’m happy that it is in Jacksonville because, whew, driving to Panama City and to Tampa is a lot,” Nixon said during her last appearance on the CAIR speech circuit. “We’re going to raise the most money in the state, right, today.”
During her three CAIR speeches, Nixon declared her campaign to secure a ceasefire in Gaza as the defining civil rights fight for Millennials and Gen Z. Nixon closed each of her speeches by quoting Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a Marxist militant group devoted to “killing cops.” Naturally, Shakur was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey state trooper but later escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba. Shakur was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list when she died of natural causes in Cuba in September 2025.
“As the famous freedom fighter Assata Shakur said, ‘It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love—we must love and support one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.'”
CAIR Action, CAIR’s political arm, congratulated Nixon on her upset primary victory last week in a Facebook post hailing her for “calling for a ceasefire and justice for Palestinians” and for having “consistently championed progressive causes.” Nixon will face incumbent Republican senator Ashley Moody in November in a special election to finish out the final two years of the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Recent polls show Moody is the overwhelming favorite in the race.
Nixon’s embrace of CAIR could land her in hot water due to two recent actions from Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.). DeSantis signed an executive order in December 2025 designating CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization, a ruling that a federal judge placed on hold as CAIR challenges it in court. Then, in April, DeSantis signed another bill into law that makes it a felony to knowingly offer “material support” to any state-designated terrorist organization.
The Nixon campaign did not return a request for comment.
The post ‘We Are in Chains’: Florida Socialist Angie Nixon Rants Against ‘False Capitalistic American Dream,’ Praises Marxist Cop-Killer on CAIR Speech Circuit appeared first on .

‘Distrust in higher education, it seems, is no longer a Republican concern.’

Is St. George of Minneapolis the only venerated holy man American cities can honor without incurring the wrath of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)?
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which once boasted a chief justice who attended a foundational meeting of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, issued a preliminary ruling against the placement of statues of the patron saints of firefighters and police officers outside a new public safety building in Quincy. The Italian-crafted, ten-foot-tall statues cost about $800,000, or less than half a percent of the project’s cost.
The ruling that sides with the ACLU-represented plaintiffs admits:
Saint Michael and Saint Florian have both religious and secular significance. They are recognized as saints in the Catholic Church. In Catholicism, Saint Michael is so recognized as a celestial archangel, the leader of God’s heavenly army who cast the devil, Satan, out of heaven. The sacred scriptures of other faith traditions, including Judaism and Islam, also recognize the archangel Michael as a significant figure. Saint Florian is canonized and venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church because “he was martyred for his faith and because he saved a town from [burning] by praying for divine intervention.”
The court also concedes that “municipalities across Massachusetts, including Quincy, use the ‘Florian Cross’ on their fire department badges; a union hall for firefighters in Massachusetts is called Florian Hall; International Firefighters’ Day is celebrated on May 4, Saint Florian’s feast day in the Christian tradition; and an oft invoked poem for fallen firefighters invites the deceased to ‘[r]est with Saint Florian.’” The Archangel Michael plays a similar outsized role for policemen.
The unanimous ruling claimed “reasonable support” for the supposition “that the statues have caused divisiveness.” Examples cited to buttress this belief include attendance of 200 — the judges do not break down pro and con — at a city council meeting that discussed the statues and an online petition that garnered 1,600 “signatures” in a city of 103,000.
The divisiveness standard, heretofore ignored whenever a handful of people dictate the removal of nativity scenes over the objection of vast majorities, itself seems divisive in that it only applies to those which progressives object. Presumably the perpetually reelected mayor for the last 17 years who authorized the statues, Thomas Koch, amounts to a more unifying figure in Quincy than the handful of people who sued. And, as the father of a Quincy police officer and a Quincy fireman, he presumably has a bead on the desires of first responders.
A similarly strange justification came from the decision’s reliance on the outdated Lemon Test. “We recognize that the Supreme Court has since abandoned Lemon and substituted in its place an analysis by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings,’” the court admits. Historical practices, as attested by the uses of St. Florian above, would certainly undermine the ACLU’s case. The Massachusetts high court nevertheless clings to the somewhat restrictive vision of religion in the public square found in Lemon and runs from the more expansive vision that now stands as Supreme Court jurisprudence. In a nod to the current prevailing judicial ethos, it excuses, for instance, the commonwealth’s use of legislative chaplains. How chaplains who represent specific denominations meet the amorphous standard but public art depicting holy men recognized in scores of religions do not lacks an adequate explanation.
One wonders whether the judges who cite the state constitution to justify the Talibanning of the Archangel Michael and St. Florian statues also regard the state constitution as unconstitutional.
Its third paragraph acknowledges “with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence” and “devoutly” asks “His direction.” Further therein, the oldest constitution in the U.S. states:
As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality; and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the institution of the public worship of God, and of public instructions in piety, religion and morality: Therefore, to promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.
Should this surprise? The primary author of that document, John Adams, descended from Puritans. Elsewhere in what became the state of Massachusetts, the Mayflower Compact, an antecedent to U.S. governing documents, listed four purposes for their community: the glorification of God, the advancement of Christianity, to honor king and country, and a better order. Not just the progenitors of Adams’s generation but posterity recognized the centrality of Christianity. Until 1833, Massachusetts supported, as the state constitution indicates, Congregationalism as the official religion of the commonwealth.
One can, and perhaps should, regard some such past choices as unwise. But the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court makes a farce of itself when it appeals to the state’s written constitution and past custom in its intolerant attempt to ban public art it dislikes.
Six years ago, progressive goons decapitated a local statue of Christopher Columbus and pressured Boston to tear down a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The censorship of public art that thugs achieved in 2020 robed jurists with law degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford effectuate in 2026.
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