Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher destroyed the narratives pushed by revisionist historians on the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks.
Maher, during Friday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;Real Time,&#8221; reflected on the 25th anniversary of the attacks — through which Islamic terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 Americans — and ripped into those who still refuse to tell the truth about what happened.
&#8220;There was a war on terror, and we won. And yet, so much has changed since 9/11. For example, back then, we were against the terrorists,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now, a lot of media outlets don&#8217;t even want you to say the &#8216;T-word.&#8217; On the 20th anniversary, four American journalism associations put out guidance that said &#8216;terrorism&#8217; should only be used in quotes because it&#8217;s emotionally and politically loaded.&#8221;
Noting that a number of media outlets had advised employees not to refer to the attackers as &#8220;terrorists&#8221; or the attacks themselves as acts of &#8220;terror,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/billmaher/status/2098609787739226115">Maher</a> questioned the wisdom of failing to say aloud what the real cause of the attacks was.
&#8220;Really? We can&#8217;t anymore just say out loud who the bad guys were on that morning?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Those 19 hijackers, they shared something — oh, let&#8217;s call it a world view, and it wasn&#8217;t astrology. But somehow, over time, we&#8217;ve decided not to harp on that, the whole business about who wanted us dead and why. Let&#8217;s not put a name on it.&#8221;
&#8220;When it comes to terrorist attacks, please, there are very fine people on both sides,&#8221; Maher quipped, mocking one of President Donald Trump&#8217;s most often misquoted comments about the removal of Civil War era statues.
Maher went on to mock Canadian State TV (CBC) for telling reporters not to refer to the attacks as &#8220;terrorist attacks&#8221; laying out the definition of terrorism and explaining why September 11th was a textbook example of terrorism.
&#8220;What should we call it then?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Unruly passengers? A wrong turn taken at the Chrysler building? Why not just say the planes and the towers got into a fight?&#8221;
The BBC, he noted, told reporters that using the word &#8220;terrorist&#8221; could be a &#8220;barrier rather than an aid to understanding.&#8221;
&#8220;You know what&#8217;s really a barrier to understanding?&#8221; he asked before answering, &#8220;Lying.&#8221;
Maher went on to explain that 25 years later, some 20% of young people had a favorable view of al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
&#8220;Was this a clash of civilizations? It was, and it still is. Not between Muslims and Christians &#8230; But radical Islamism versus Western liberalism? Yes, that’s a real thing. Fighting people who hate freedom of religion and hate homosexuals. And hate the idea of women as equal and free humans, how did liberals wind up on their side? And many did,&#8221; Maher said.
The comedian then pivoted to call leaders in the Democratic Party &#8220;cowards,&#8221; saying that their failure to express the moral clarity of Islamic terror has bled into other areas of global conflict and political contention.
&#8220;Nowhere has this moral confusion become more obvious than in a place called Gaza, a little strip of land that was not part of the original Israel, but which they won in a war launched against them, but then gave back as a peace gesture. Did they tell you that part on TikTok, kids?&#8221; he said. &#8220;And the people who run Gaza, Hamas, who you celebrate as a liberation movement but are really a terrorist mafia gang, just like the one that terrorizes Haiti, only ever used it to stage attacks on Israel. I think Macklemore spoke for all clueless celebrities when he said, &#8216;I know enough to know this is a genocide.&#8217; Actually, you don’t know sh*t. It’s not a genocide, it’s a counter attack in a war.&#8221;

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Destroys Revisionist Historians On 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

bill maher

hamas

media bias

radical islam

real time with bill maher

september 11 attacks

President Donald Trump has promised an end to the 15% tariff on Irish whiskey.
Trump was attending the Amgen Irish Open at his Trump International Golf Links resort in Doonbeg, County Clare — and he took the microphone at the contest&#8217;s close to present a trophy to Irish golfer Shane Lowry, who won the tournament.
&#8220;This is an honor. We&#8217;re so proud. The whole Doonbeg — and frankly, Ireland itself has been so incredible, so inviting, and we&#8217;re very honored presenting you with a great course, it&#8217;s been great,&#8221; Trump said, but then he pivoted.
&#8220;I want to mention one thing. Taoiseach and I talked about it, and Shane talked about it, and everybody&#8217;s been bugging me, they&#8217;re saying, &#8216;Would you do me a favor? It&#8217;s so unfair what&#8217;s going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whisky?'&#8221;
The crowd roared with laughter, and Trump smiled before he continued, &#8220;And I said on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey.&#8221;
The crowd cheered so loud then that Trump was completely drowned out as he finished his sentence.
&#8220;Thank you,&#8221; Trump said, turning to Lowry and adding, &#8220;Shane, great job.&#8221;
Trump was not clear about when the <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/topics/trade/eu-us-trade-deal_en">tariffs</a> — currently set at 15% as part of the flat tariffs against many European Union exports — would be lifted. Those tariffs took effect on July 1, 2026.
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-irish-whiskey-e2eaed86e5c13013af92c102ad082b76?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+New+Content+%28Feed%29&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter">Previously</a> the president lifted tariffs on whiskey made in the United Kingdom — including Scotland and Northern Ireland — claiming that he&#8217;d done so in response to a request in late April from Britain&#8217;s King Charles III and Queen Camilla, who had been visiting the White House at the time.
&#8220;The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!&#8221; Trump said at the time.
The zero-tariff policy on Scotch whisky took effect July 24, a change the Scotch Whisky Association welcomed as &#8220;welcome news for business on both sides of the Atlantic.&#8221;

U.S. President Donald Trump Visits Ireland – Day Two Doonbeg

Crowd Roars As Trump Promises To End Whiskey Tariff

donald trump

european union

ireland

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whiskey

world

A legacy media outlet may be in a bit of a bind after an investigation targeted just one of the jurors from the Lindsay Clancy murder trial — the lone holdout who voted to convict.
NBC News affiliate NBC10 in Boston published an <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/lindsay-clancy-holdout-juror-had-history-of-domestic-violence-allegations/4013408/">exclusive</a> on Friday outlining their investigation into the one juror, laying out a number of their findings and suggesting that it was possible that he should not have been allowed to serve on the jury.
Citing court documents and interviews with members of the juror&#8217;s family, NBC10 reported that he had been accused of domestic violence and that there was an active restraining order against him — and that his current landlord was in the process of evicting him for nonpayment of rent.
According to the report, the juror was accused by a nephew of grabbing his then-wife by the throat in 2021; the couple divorced after the incident. The criminal charges against him were later dropped. The restraining order was reportedly taken out by that same nephew, who said that the juror had punched him and threatened him for calling the police about the first incident.
&#8220;Those details raise questions about the jury selection process,&#8221; the outlet reported.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t see how they would&#8217;ve allowed him to be a member of this jury,&#8221; NBC10 Boston&#8217;s chief legal analyst Michael Coyne said, noting that jurors in Massachusetts have to answer questions about whether they&#8217;ve previously been arrested, charged with a crime, or served with a court order. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see how, if those questions had been answered correctly, one side or the other would&#8217;ve taken the chance with allowing him to be seated.&#8221;
It is unclear whether juror questionnaires are retained after the trial, so it may not be possible to determine whether or not those questions were answered truthfully.
But according to <a href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-juror-eligibility-and-disqualification#who-is-disqualified-from-serving-jury-duty">Massachusetts law</a>, the charges that were later dropped would not have kept him off the jury. Only having a felony conviction within the last seven years — or pending felony charges — would have barred the juror from service.
A number of critics also pointed out the fact that Massachusetts state law prohibits the intimidation and harassment of witnesses, jurors, and others involved in legal proceedings in the state.
According to <span class="iNqyIf" data-sfc-cp="" data-sfc-root="ep" data-copy-service-computed-style="font-family: &quot;Google Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);">Massachusetts General Laws <a href="https://content.next.westlaw.com/Document/N0AB2ADC04C8A11E8AC66D29347B85835/View/FullText.html?transitionType=Default&amp;contextData=(sc.Default)">Chapter 268, Section 13B</a>, the section of the statute that covers the crime of intimidating or retaliating against witnesses, jurors, and other court officials:
<blockquote>(b) Whoever willfully, either directly or indirectly: (i) threatens, attempts or causes physical, emotional or economic injury or property damage to . . . or (iii) misleads, intimidates or harasses another person who is a . . . (C) . . . juror . . . with the intent to or with reckless disregard for the fact that it may . . . punish, harm or otherwise retaliate against any such person described in this section for such person or such person’s family member’s participation in any of the proceedings described in this section, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years or by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than 2 ½ years or by a fine of not less than $1,000 or more than $5,000 or by both such fine and imprisonment.</blockquote>
The statute covers both intimidation during the legal proceedings in question and harassment or retaliation after the fact.
NBC10 Boston does not appear to have launched investigations into any of the remaining jurors.
Several other members of the jury — along with defense attorney <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/make-no-mistake-lindsay-clancys-second-trial-has-already-started">Kevin Reddington</a> — have spoken out since the trial, and all have accused the lone holdout juror of failing to properly consider the facts of the case.

Nurse practitioner who treated Lindsay Clancy testifies about Duxbury mother’s desperation to improve amid postpartum struggles

The Lindsay Clancy Jury Rabbit Hole Just Keeps Getting Deeper

jury

lindsay clancy

massachusetts

nbc news

Republicans have resurrected an ad that was used by President Donald Trump to great effect in 2024 — but this time they&#8217;re using it against Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico.
The Dallas Express reported on Saturday that Texas PAC — a Republican-aligned super PAC — was boosting ad buys in support of Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) to the tune of about $51.3 million. Among the ads scheduled to run against Talarico is one that Trump used against former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election that highlights Democratic support for trans-identifying individuals, often at the expense of biological women.
&#8220;Radical liberal James Talarico is for &#8216;they/them,&#8217; not you,&#8221; the <a href="https://host2.adimpact.com/admo/viewer/28339fde-8d6e-4b70-95ba-56c85347e007">repurposed ad</a> blares, highlighting Talarico&#8217;s  record of support for trans-identifying people.
&#8220;What do we really know about James Talarico?&#8221; the ad asks, quoting Talarico as saying, &#8220;Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day.&#8221;
&#8220;Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children and even said denying your child&#8217;s gender identity is abusive. &#8216;Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day,'&#8221; the ad continued. &#8220;Radical liberal James Talarico, for they, them, not you. Texas PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.&#8221;
Talarico recently tried to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-undercover-video-exposes-talaricos-transgender-flip-flop">walk back</a> some of his previous comments, saying during a Fox News interview that he&#8217;d been wrong when he claimed that there were six genders.
&#8220;What I meant is there are two sexes and there&#8217;s a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities. Obviously I didn&#8217;t say it correctly. There are not six sexes, there are two,&#8221; he said.
During the <a href="https://19thnews.org/2026/09/james-talarico-views-transgender-lgbtq-sports/">same interview</a>, he tried to downplay Democratic efforts to allow trans-identifying males to play on female sports teams.
&#8220;I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness,&#8221; he said, but made no effort to clarify what criteria he might use to measure &#8220;safety or fairness.&#8221;
He also claimed that Paxton – who highlighted Talarico&#8217;s statements about God being &#8220;non-binary&#8221; — was using his past &#8220;cringey comments&#8221; in order to make sure that no one was looking too closely at him. He went on to claim that he&#8217;d meant that statement in particular to be &#8220;provocative&#8221; because he was making about point about God not fitting into any particular box.

Texas State Representative Talarico Campaigns Ahead Of Primary Election

Republicans Run Back Iconic Trump Campaign Ad — This Time Against Talarico

2026 midterm election

james talarico

ken paxton

politics

texas senate race

transgender policy

North Carolina Democrats are doing their level best to distance themselves from State House candidate Shelly Kates Headen after a series of inflammatory social media posts — inducing one in which she reportedly claimed Trump supporters belong in concentration camps.
In one post, according to a <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/11/north-carolina-legislative-candidate-wrote-trump-supporters-belong-concentration-camp-ovens/">report</a> from Breitbart News, Headen was <a href="https://x.com/jonathanturley/status/2098474279968927933?s=46&amp;t=5nB3R1hthzMlYMrXjZyN8Q">pictured</a> smiling in front of the ovens at Dachau — the Nazi concentration camp in Germany where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered — and the caption read, &#8220;Visiting Dauchau [sic] Concentration Camp in Germany… This is where Trump supporters belong.&#8221;
In another recently-surfaced post, Headen appeared to call for violence against Republicans: &#8220;I think our only hope is an attack on US soil … preferably Alabama, Louisiana … where the stupid people are.&#8221;
Headen, in interviews, said that she opposed President Donald Trump and admitted that she&#8217;d posted on social media to that effect — but claimed that she could not remember any specific posts.
&#8220;I can’t remember what I’ve posted. I’ve been very vocal against MAGA,&#8221; she said, adding that she&#8217;d paid a firm $30,000 to go through her social media accounts and flag anything that might be cause for concern.
Headen, who is running to unseat Republican John Blust, then compared herself to Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln, suggesting that she was a martyr for the Democratic cause.
&#8220;I’ve sacrificed myself just like Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and all the people that put themselves out there to sacrifice for our country,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If a few angry moments on social media are the end, then so be it. MAGA will keep winning if we continue with not standing up for what’s right.&#8221;
But Headen&#8217;s posts have <a href="https://www.theassemblync.com/news/politics/democrats-drop-support-headen-violence-against-republicans/">proved too much</a> for members of her own party to bear, and Sam Lozier, the communications director for the House Democratic Caucus, publicly condemned her comments.
“Shelly Headen’s posts are unacceptable and do not reflect the values we expect of our candidates. The North Carolina House Democratic Caucus condemns these comments without qualification and will not support Shelly Headen’s candidacy,&#8221; he wrote in a statement.
The Guilford County Democratic Party has also <a href="https://www.wfdd.org/politics-government/2026-09-11/democratic-party-pulls-support-for-nc-house-candidate">pulled support</a>, stating that they &#8220;unequivocally reject and condemn&#8221; her comments because they &#8220;violate everything our party represents.&#8221;
Others have raised concerns about Headen, citing two 2024 incidents detailed in Guilford County Police reports in which she was named as the suspect and her husband a potential victim of assault. Headen released a competing statement suggesting that she was the <a href="https://www.theassemblync.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Shelly-Headen-Statement-9-3-26.pdf">victim</a>.

Dachau Concentration Camp. Crematorium. Germany.

Democrat Compares Herself To Jesus, MLK After Wishing Death On Trump Supporters

Dems Drop Support For Candidate Who Says Trump Supporters Belong In Concentration Camps

democratic party

north carolina

political violence

shelly kates headen

Flight attendant Betty Ong spent the final moments of her life helping authorities identify the men who had hijacked the flight she was on — American Airlines Flight 11 — on September 11, 2001.
Ong, a San Francisco native who worked out of Boston&#8217;s Logan International Airport, had been on the job for 14 years and worked the rear cabin as the No. 3 flight attendant. She was aboard the Los Angeles-bound flight with 81 passengers and 10 other crew members when everything went wrong.
The last official contact from Flight 11 to air traffic control was recorded at 8:13 a.m., with the pilots acknowledging an instruction to turn 20 degrees to the right. Sixteen seconds later, Boston Center controllers told the pilots to climb to 35,000 feet, but received no response. After seven minutes of dead air, the plane had veered so far off course that controllers began to speculate that a medical emergency or hijacking had taken place.
At 8:20 a.m., Ong calmly picked up an Airfone to contact American Airlines, and confirmed officials&#8217; worst fears.
&#8220;The cockpit is not answering. Somebody&#8217;s stabbed in business class, and, um, I think there&#8217;s Mace and we can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; Ong said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, I think we are getting hijacked.&#8221;
Ong remained on the line for more than 20 minutes, describing the violence unfolding inside the plane. Shortly after she hung up, someone turned off the plane&#8217;s IFF (&#8220;identify friend or foe&#8221;) beacon.
<blockquote>Male voice: Can you describe the person that you said—someone is what in business class?
Betty Ong: I&#8217;m sitting in the back. Somebody&#8217;s coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second, they&#8217;re coming back&#8230;
Okay. Our number 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who, and we can&#8217;t even get up to business class right now &#8217;cause nobody can breathe. Our number 1 is stabbed right now. And who else is?
Male voice: Okay, and do we—
Betty Ong: And our number 5 — our first class passengers are — galley flight attendant and our purser has been stabbed. And we can&#8217;t get into the cockpit, the door won&#8217;t open. Hello?</blockquote>
Ong proceeded to give details about the hijackers — including their seat numbers — that helped investigators identify them based on the flight manifest. Men from first-class seats 2A and 2B had charged the cockpit and forced their way in, she said, and the person in seat 9B had also been involved.
Fellow flight attendant Madeline &#8220;Amy&#8221; Sweeney also made a call from Flight 11 that day. Filling in for a sick colleague, Sweeney had not been scheduled to be on that flight — but when it was hijacked, she too picked up an Airfone and called American Airlines Flight Service at Logan Airport, reaching her friend and service manager Michael Woodward.
&#8220;Listen, and listen to me very carefully. I&#8217;m on Flight 11. The airplane has been hijacked,&#8221; she said.
Sweeney proceeded to relay a lot of the same information Ong was giving to another colleague — that the cockpit had been breached and that two flight attendants and a passenger had been stabbed: &#8220;A hijacker also cut the throat of a business class passenger, and he appears to be dead.&#8221;
She went on to describe the hijackers as Middle Eastern, noting that at least one of them spoke English very well.
She also relayed three additional seat numbers that may have been connected to the terrorists: 9D, 9G, and 10B.
While the two flight attendants stayed on their calls, Flight 11 descended rapidly toward New York City. Before contact with Ong was lost, she made a final request: &#8220;Pray for us.&#8221;
Around the same time, Woodward asked Sweeney several times if she knew where they were, since by then the hijackers had disabled the plane&#8217;s transponder.
&#8220;I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings! We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. Oh my God we are flying way too low. Oh my God!&#8221; Sweeney could be heard saying just before the line went dead.
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center&#8217;s North Tower at 8:46 a.m., killing everyone on board. Much of what investigators learned about the first hijacking of September 11 came from the final calls made by Ong and Sweeney.

Septmber 11, 2001

9/11: The Flight Attendants Who Spent Their Final Moments Helping Identify The Hijackers

9/11: The Flight Attendant Who Used Her Last Moments To Help Identify The Hijackers

american airlines flight 11

aviation

terrorism

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&#8220;All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard.&#8221;
The voice of U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Michael Day cut through the static and the chaos as New Yorkers fled to the water&#8217;s edge, trying to escape the billowing smoke and ash from the collapse of the World Trade Center — and following that voice, boats came by the dozens.
Day was supposed to attend a meeting at Tower One of the World Trade Center that morning, but before he arrived, the call came out that a plane had struck one building — and then another plane struck the other. Running to the water to escape the dust and debris, some people jumped into the Hudson River without waiting for boats. Others lined the waterways and just waited, hoping that they&#8217;d be picked up eventually.
&#8220;We were unable to get any reports from lower Manhattan since all the communications systems failed. It was chaotic. People from multiple agencies were responding to the scene without any unity of purpose. There wasn’t a pre-planned response; there was no CONOP for how to respond to two planes crashing into the Towers,&#8221; <a href="https://maritime-executive.com/editorials/remembering-9-11-lt-michael-day-and-the-lower-manhattan-boatlift">Day recalled</a>.
Grabbing the closest emergency response plan he could think of, Day set to work: &#8220;I knew it had a lot of ambulance staging areas. We had a lot of evacuation points identified. Although it wasn’t necessarily a full-scale evacuation plan, it had information.&#8221;
&#8220;I remember listening to the radio because by this time we were underway on the boat and it was just … chaos. Every channel you clicked to, people were screaming, ‘Help, people are here … I’ve got someone hurt here.'&#8221;
With cellular phone service and radio communications unreliable at best, Day shifted to handheld radios and sent Coast Guardsmen to the piers to help coordinate the crowds of people trying to leave Manhattan.
And then <a href="https://www.atlanticarea.uscg.mil/Portals/7/First%20District/Bios/Day.pdf?ver=2017-06-23-103351-453">Lt. Day</a> picked up a radio of his own: &#8220;All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island.&#8221;
The boats were already on their way: ferries; fishing boats; tour lines; private yachts; dinner cruise vessels; and even a few dinghies that could only carry two people at a time.
Captain Richard Thornton, who normally ferried commuters from Manhattan to New Jersey aboard the Henry Hudson, <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/ferry-captain-all-available">answered that call</a>: &#8220;We immediately just took off. We stole the boat &#8230; we didn’t tell anybody.&#8221;
Joining in the relief efforts, emergency responders on the New Jersey side met the boats with supplies: food and water that could be taken back to those still waiting for a ride off the island.
&#8220;We set up three different staging areas because the supplies were coming in so fast and furious that we were running out of room, and we couldn’t distribute them fast enough,&#8221; Day said, later reflecting, &#8220;I broke more rules that day than probably I’ve enforced in my whole Coast Guard career.&#8221;
By the numbers, the September 11 evacuation of Lower Manhattan was bigger than Dunkirk, where between May 26 and June 4, 1940, civilian and military vessels evacuated 338,226 Allied soldiers who were stranded on the beach.
On September 11, approximately 800 mariners evacuated nearly 500,000 civilians from Lower Manhattan in about nine hours. Captain Thornton&#8217;s company alone — which would normally transport about 34,000 people in a day — moved 158,000 stranded New Yorkers to Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Smoke continues to rise from the destroyed World T

9/11: The Coast Guard Lieutenant Who Launched The Largest Boatlift In History

coast guard

new york city

The Democratic Party&#8217;s great white hope in Texas, Senate candidate James Talarico, visited a mosque in the days after the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks — a move that he now defends as being in the interest of &#8220;solidarity.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/james-talarico-next-great-hope-texas-democrats/">Talarico&#8217;s mother</a> was behind the trip — he was 12 years old at the time — and she took his sister Madeleine and two of his friends as well, to counter some of the distrust of American Muslims in the days after the attacks.
The Texas Democrat is an ordained pastor as well as a politician, and he often appears to blur the lines between the two. Brought up in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Talarico&#8217;s religion is rooted in activism, which in turn fuels his politics.
In 2021, Talarico sponsored a bill that would allow Imams to perform weddings in Texas. Talarico&#8217;s church has also continued to blur the lines, hosting an annual <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1364348429064065&amp;type=3">Iftar dinner</a> for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1364348429064065&amp;type=3">Muslim holiday</a> of Ramadan and inviting a local Imam to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB0qAj670VY&amp;t=29s">deliver a sermon</a> in 2022. Rigby himself has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jim.rigby.12/posts/pfbid0BkYNNezcsFEFk13otKbktiVwEjamGDB1hoQZ7Fa1HTco72SsJR3j1KpPLYdMLkc1l">touted partnerships</a> with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Pastor Jim Rigby of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church led a politically active congregation and preached social justice from the pulpit — and was even arrested in 2017 for criminal trespass after taking over the governor&#8217;s office to protest a bill that would allow police officers making traffic stops to check immigration status as well. Talarico said that Rigby inspired him to see politics as a way to practically implement the biblical call to love one&#8217;s neighbor.
As he became more active in politics, Talarico attended seminary.
&#8220;The whole reason I went to seminary is because I had a pretty big crisis of faith in our political system and in democracy,&#8221; he said, adding that he also wanted to make sure that when he discussed religious matters he was getting things right. &#8220;I wanted to have professional training, just because you can mess up people’s lives with both faith and politics, especially when they’re mixed.&#8221;
In 2021, Talarico&#8217;s particular blend of politicized religiosity led to a strange invocation in the Texas House — &#8220;Holy mystery, you have so many names,” he said, listing off names for God in a litany of religions before declaring simply that God is love. In his prayer before the body, he asked God to help the other members of the chamber to practice not just &#8220;personal love&#8221; but &#8220;political love&#8221; by embracing policies that would &#8220;welcome the stranger.&#8221;
The invocation ruffled enough feathers that the Texas House&#8217;s practice of rotating chaplains was abruptly discontinued.

Democratic Senate Candidate Talarico Participates In Juneteenth March

Talarico Visited Mosque Weekend After 9/11, Defends It As ‘Solidarity’ Moment

Talarico Visited Mosque Weekend After 9/11, Defends It As 'Solidarity' Moment

islam

Lindsay Clancy&#8217;s murder trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial — and while the prosecution must now weigh the potential costs and benefits of bringing the charges again, Clancy&#8217;s attorney and several members of the jury have already begun a second shadow trial designed to poison any future jury pool.
Within minutes of Judge William Sullivan&#8217;s ruling, attorney Kevin Reddington launched his second trial from the courthouse steps. When he criticized the lone holdout from the jury — the one man who&#8217;d pushed back against an emotional argument that was supposed to make him forget the underlying crime — he sent a clear warning to anyone who might serve on a future Clancy jury.
First, when he revealed that the holdout was a man, Reddington <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jonathan-turley-torches-utterly-reprehensible-move-from-lindsay-clancy-lawyer">all but identified him</a> by name. Because there were only three men on the jury, he had to be aware that internet sleuths would likely uncover the juror&#8217;s identity before too long — and that anyone who could serve on a future jury would know that the same fate awaited them.
&#8220;He effectively put a target on the back of a juror who committed the unpardonable sin of not being convinced by his arguments,&#8221; George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote regarding Reddington&#8217;s comments.
Second, Reddington&#8217;s willingness to use his position and his platform to attack a man doing his civic duty — a man whose only &#8220;error&#8221; was in not being convinced that empathy should supersede evidence — also sends an unequivocal message to future jurors.
But in addition to telegraphing the likely consequences to any juror who might dare to fixate on the evidence, Reddington has taken every available opportunity to hammer away at the narrative he presented in court: Lindsay Clancy was a good mother who was victimized and rendered helpless by a combination of mental health struggles and inadequate health care.
During an NBC News interview on Wednesday, Reddington claimed that Clancy talks about her children &#8220;all the time,&#8221; quoting her as saying, &#8220;I want my babies. I want my babies.&#8221;
Clancy &#8220;has bad days and she has worse days,&#8221; he added, claiming that she is a different person than she was at the time of the killings and that she should not have the rest of her life defined by those crimes because &#8220;that was not the Lindsay that is now living amongst us.&#8221;
Several members of the jury have also gone public with their thoughts on the case, complaining to legacy media outlets about the lone holdout juror who wasted seven weeks of their lives and refused to allow a desire for compassion for Clancy to eclipse the need for justice for the three young children she murdered.
Simultaneously depicting themselves as victims of the lone holdout and heroes who stood up for Lindsay Clancy, the jurors who have spoken out thus far have made themselves the protagonists of the still-unfolding drama.
The prosecution, they said, was &#8220;harsh&#8221; and lacked compassion for Clancy because they did not spare her feelings when they described the murders — which she has never denied committing — in detail.
&#8220;I honestly think the prosecutor did themselves more damage than good by just not thinking about Lindsay, I mean, the whole picture,&#8221; one juror said.
She also asserted that it was obvious Clancy was out of her mind because no evidence had been presented to prove that Clancy was a bad mother: &#8220;There wasn’t one person on either side that could say anything bad about her. Even the prosecution really couldn’t point to anything.&#8221;
Another juror echoed that sentiment, saying, &#8220;I just found it to be harsh — very, very harsh. The fact that they had no character witnesses in regard to Lindsay being a bad mother. I mean … you’re presenting all these medical professionals, but nobody’s presenting, for the prosecution, a woman and a mother of three children.&#8221;
What they didn&#8217;t mention was that the defense called Clancy&#8217;s mother, her sister, a former colleague, and her former mother-in-law, all of whom testified to her devotion as a mother — and that prosecutors could not have opened with contrary character evidence under the rules of evidence regardless.
As the jurors continue to speak out — and Reddington jumps behind every microphone he sees — it&#8217;s not likely that the shadow trial will end unless and until another official trial begins.

US-CRIME-TRIAL-CLANCY

Make No Mistake: Lindsay Clancy’s Second Trial Has Already Started

filicide

jury system

kevin reddington

mistrial

Attorney Kevin Reddington has attempted another Hail Mary in his efforts to get his client, Lindsay Clancy, a &#8220;not responsible&#8221; verdict in the killings of her three small children.
Reddington filed a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/10/us-news/lindsay-clancys-lawyer-files-hail-mary-bid-for-not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity-ruling/">renewed motion</a> on Thursday, asking for a judge to rule on the case and declare his client not guilty by reason of insanity.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Renewed motion for a required finding of NG for Lindsay Clancy, filed by Kevin Reddington in response to juror interviews. (1/2) <a href="https://t.co/ll4LTOxw29">pic.twitter.com/ll4LTOxw29</a>
— Kristina Rex (@KristinaRex) <a href="https://x.com/KristinaRex/status/2098081017936466182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Clancy admitted to strangling her children, Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months, inside the family&#8217;s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. Her six-week trial ended in a mistrial Friday after jurors deadlocked 11-1, with the majority favoring acquittal by reason of insanity.
The defense attorney claimed in the new filing that the prosecution had failed to prove Clancy had known at the time of the killings that what she was doing was wrong — and that she had possessed the ability to follow the law.
&#8220;No rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that she had no mental disease or defect when the Commonwealth’s own proof established that she did,&#8221; the motion states, suggesting that the first trial had ended in a hung jury due to an irrational actor and arguing that a bench ruling would eliminate the need for a retrial.
Referencing a number of statements made since the trial by the jurors, Reddington suggested that they could be considered an &#8220;unannounced verdict&#8221; — which would make a second trial on the same charges a violation of double jeopardy laws.
Reddington filed similar motions twice during the high-profile trial, and both times Judge William Sullivan denied his request.
The move is just the latest in Reddington&#8217;s efforts to avoid another jury trial. In recent interviews, he has told several outlets that he plans to push for a reduction of charges and argue for psychiatric treatment rather than prison for his client.
The attorney told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/lindsay-clancys-lawyer-reveals-post-mistrial-strategy-retrial-looms">Fox News</a> he first plans to argue that because the defense objected to the mistrial, a retrial would constitute double jeopardy. If that fails, he will push to have Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz consider a reduction in the charges to second-degree murder — in which case Clancy could request a trial before a judge rather than a jury trial.
&#8220;I would like to see Tim reduce it to a second degree &#8230; and fashion something where Lindsay gets the mental, physical help that she needs rather than criminal prosecution, because I would not ever, ever in a million years have that woman go to Framingham State Prison,&#8221; Reddington said.
Reddington continued to attack the lone holdout on the jury, arguing that his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jonathan-turley-torches-utterly-reprehensible-move-from-lindsay-clancy-lawyer">failure to agree</a> with the other jurors amounted to a failure to &#8220;follow the law.&#8221;
&#8220;I was angry because of his refusal to follow the law. That&#8217;s what I was angry about. That&#8217;s why I felt that the other jurors, after their seven-week sacrifice, were robbed. That&#8217;s why I felt for Lindsay, because she deserved to have the verdict that she was entitled to,&#8221; Reddington insisted.

Lindsay Clancy Lawyer Has One More Hail Mary Up His Sleeve

double jeopardy

insanity defense

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a pointed warning against blurring the distinction between 9/11 terrorists and first responders Wednesday, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood beside her, comments some observers interpreted as a veiled rebuke of the mayor.
Tisch delivered the remarks during the unveiling of a new 9/11 Memorial Wall at One Police Plaza honoring more than 469 NYPD members who have died from illnesses connected to their service following the terrorist attacks.
&#8220;Preserving that history also means preserving its moral clarity,&#8221; Tisch said. &#8220;The men who attacked this city were terrorists. The men and women who ran into the towers to save innocent lives were heroes. Twenty-five years cannot be allowed to blur that distinction and shame on those who do.&#8221;
Many who watched her speak on Wednesday immediately assumed that she was speaking to the mayor, even if indirectly.
&#8220;Jessica Tisch said this with Zohran Mamdani sitting beside her. Public officials must show &#8216;moral clarity&#8217; about 9/11 and never blur the distinction between heroes and terrorists. &#8216;Shame on those who do.&#8217; She didn’t say his name. She didn’t have to,&#8221; former financial exec Sam Antar <a href="https://x.com/SamAntar/status/2097739368622342489">posted</a>.
While the police commissioner did not mention anyone by name, Tisch&#8217;s remarks come just a few days after Mamdani signed official orders designating September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and addressing security concerns ahead of the 25th anniversary events.
After signing the orders, Mamdani gifted the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-marks-9-11-with-slap-in-the-face-move-tied-to-al-qaeda-terrorist">ceremonial pen</a> to his chief counsel, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-names-al-qaeda-defense-attorney-as-new-york-citys-chief-counsel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ramzi Kassem</a> — who has been directly linked to al-Qaeda terrorists — but because Tisch was standing between them at the time, he first gave the pen to her and asked her to &#8220;pass it&#8221; to Kassem. Witnesses noted that Tisch made an abrupt exit from the room after that.
Critics were quick to suggest that Mamdani had not done that by accident — that he knew the optics of such a move and did not care.
&#8220;This childish, calculated display of passive aggression was missed by no one, and will not be forgotten by Tisch or by NYC’s millions of 9/11 survivors,&#8221; Fox Business anchor <a href="https://x.com/DavidAsmanfox/status/2096445982997102742">David Asman</a> said.
Matthew Hennessey wrote in a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/mamdanis-pen-is-a-message-of-contempt-a0a3e9b0?st=TBKE8V">Wall Street Journal</a> op-ed, &#8220;Everyone deserves a lawyer. But by deliberately handing his ceremonial pen to this man, Mr. Mamdani mocked the loss his city suffered on 9/11. And he forced Ms. Tisch to participate in that mockery. He might as well have turned to the cameras and winked.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Mayor Mamdani Joins NYPD Commissioner Tisch At Unveiling Of New 9/11 Memorial Wall At One Police Plaza

NYC Police Commish Appears To Shade Mamdani In Pointed 9/11 Comments

NYC Police Commish Shades Mamdani In 9/11 Comments

jessica tisch

nypd

ramzi kassem

zohran mamdani

Before he became the center of a college campus drug investigation, accused Penn State cocaine kingpin Agostino Abbatiello attended a pricey New York Catholic school.
The Long Island native, according to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/08/us-news/penn-state-cocaine-scandal-agostino-abbatiello-was-loudmouth-at-private-catholic-school-sources/">report</a> from The New York Post, grew up in the wealthy suburb of Westbury and attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York — a private Catholic school that runs $19,000 per year and touts a record of &#8220;forming young men of character and purpose.&#8221;
&#8220;I could always see him getting in some kind of trouble because he was always on the edge,&#8221; one former classmate told the outlet. &#8220;Auggie was not this innocent boy. He had this group of, like, 10 boys who would hang out in parks after school and go to house parties &#8230; There were rumors some of that crowd were drinking underage, some people had fake IDs, that kind of thing.&#8221;
Another former classmate described Abbatiello as a &#8220;loudmouth&#8221; and &#8220;a jokester, always looking for attention.&#8221;
&#8220;He’d go around making noises, calling people names and doing his best to make people laugh when the teacher turned their backs,&#8221; the classmate said.
The 24-year-old was one of several <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/frat-bros-busted-after-pledges-forced-to-cut-cocaine-in-university-drug-cartel">Penn State University</a> fraternity brothers charged in connection with an alleged drug trafficking ring — one that prosecutors say roped young fraternity pledges into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/frat-bros-ran-a-cocaine-empire-until-one-boneheaded-move-blew-it-up">cutting and packaging</a> cocaine as part of their initiation.
Abbatiello, known at the university as &#8220;The Godfather,&#8221; appeared in court last Wednesday — where Lars Zeepvat, who was also charged in connection with the trafficking ring, testified that Abbatiello had bought drugs from a former classmate named &#8220;RJ&#8221; and had been instrumental in bringing the drugs onto the western Pennsylvania campus.
&#8220;First time he purchased from RJ it was the most we’ve ever seen and it was 100 grams,” Zeepvat testified. &#8220;People were enamored with how much it was. Abbatiello brought back the coke the first time he went to New York and put it on the social room [at the] frat house.&#8221;
None of the people who spoke to The Post were able to shed any light on who &#8220;RJ&#8221; might have been.

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Virginia Kruta