If you talk to any experienced and honest teacher these days, from elementary school on up, one of the first things they will tell you is how quickly gender ideology has taken hold. Virtually overnight, students began adopting fake pronouns and made-up genders.
To call this phenomenon &#8220;unnatural&#8221; would be a vast understatement. It&#8217;s obviously engineered. Teachers and school boards are pushing this nonsense on children who are far too young to know any better. The public school system has committed itself to indoctrinating children, in many cases without their parents&#8217; knowledge or consent. But after what happened yesterday at the Supreme Court, it&#8217;s very clear that accountability is finally coming for these ghouls.
After many years of spewing LGBT propaganda with total impunity, school districts will soon face major new restrictions on their ability to pollute the minds of elementary-school-age children. Based on how the justices acted during oral arguments yesterday, “Mahmoud v. Taylor” could easily turn out to be one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings of this generation.
Before we review the oral arguments, here is some background. The case began after Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in Maryland — introduced a new &#8220;gender and sexuality curriculum.&#8221; Initially, students (or their parents) could opt out of this curriculum for any reason. But after a short period of time, the school district claimed that it wasn&#8217;t feasible to continue allowing opt outs. So it&#8217;s mandatory now. To give you an idea of what exactly this curriculum entails, here&#8217;s an image from one book that children are introduced to.
<div id="attachment_911559" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911559" class="wp-image-911559 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg" alt="Screenshot: What Are Your Words?" width="680" height="446" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U.jpeg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GpJWV7kX0AE7j3U-300x197.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Screenshot: What Are Your Words?</div>
This is what&#8217;s apparently known as an &#8220;LGBT storybook.&#8221; This one&#8217;s called, “What Are Your Words?” As you can see, one line of dialogue reads, “My pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is a nonprofit, reported on some other books that were included in this <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-scotus-back-parents-when-it-comes-to-lgbtq-storybooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new curriculum</a>:
<blockquote>[O]ne book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes &#8216;intersex flag,&#8217; &#8216;drag queen,&#8217; &#8216;underwear,&#8217; &#8216;leather,&#8217; and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to &#8216;make sense.&#8217; Teachers are instructed to say doctors only &#8216;guess&#8217; when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.</blockquote>
When parents of varying religious faiths — including Muslims and Christians — objected to the idea that their 5-year-olds needed to be taught about &#8220;sex work&#8221; and &#8220;gender transitioning&#8221; by Left-wing activists posing as teachers, the school district told them they had no recourse. In fact, the district slandered the parents as bigots. All these parents were seeking was the ability to opt out of this indoctrination. They didn&#8217;t even demand that the classes be removed from the curriculum. But the school district denied their request. So the parents sued.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1581-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Which brings us to yesterday&#8217;s oral arguments. I want to begin with this question from Justice Alito, because it gets to the core of the issue. Alito wants to know why the school district is so hell-bent on forcing children to read books about homosexuality, transgenderism and so on. (To be clear, that&#8217;s what the school district is doing. They&#8217;re not merely providing these books in the school library. Teachers are actively telling students to read the books as part of class.) The truthful answer to Justice Alito&#8217;s question is simple: The Left understands that, if the LGBT movement is going to survive, it needs to indoctrinate new members at a very young age.
But the school district can&#8217;t say that out loud, of course. So instead, the lawyer representing the Montgomery school district&#8217;s superintendent, a man named Alan Schoenfeld, starts talking in circles about how impossible it would be, at a practical level, for the school district to allow students to opt out of this curriculum. But nothing he says actually makes sense. It gets so bad that, at the end of his rambling non-answer, Justice Kavanaugh chimes in to confirm that indeed, no one has any idea what the hell this guy is talking about. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 alito, whats the big deal" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q118nmS1g2s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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As best I can tell, the lawyer for the school district is claiming that, because students might talk among themselves about certain LGBT books that are discussed in this curriculum, it&#8217;s therefore impossible to allow students to opt out of this kind of curriculum. In other words, whether or not students opt out, there&#8217;s a chance that they&#8217;ll hear about the materials that are discussed in these gay adventure books.
But this ignores a couple of obvious points.The big one is that, when a teacher is communicating a lesson to a class, it has a very different effect, as compared to one student talking to another student about a book during recess or whatever. The teacher is in a position of authority. It&#8217;s much easier for a 5-year-old to discount something another 5-year-old says, than it is to discount the wisdom of a 40-year-old teacher he&#8217;s told to trust. If this is an argument for anything, it&#8217;s an argument for not having these materials in the school to begin with. Which of course is the correct answer. But either way, it is not an argument against allowing parents to opt out.
The lawyer for the school district knows this but he can&#8217;t admit it. So he ends up confusing everyone in the room with a bunch of doublespeak. This kept happening throughout the oral arguments. Listen to this moment where Justice Gorsuch points out that, in Montgomery County, teachers are told to actively correct students who dare to suggest that men can&#8217;t become women. Gorsuch then asks the lawyer for Montgomery County whether this could constitute &#8220;coercion.&#8221; The obvious answer is yes. But instead of saying that, here&#8217;s the gibberish that the attorney comes back with:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 gorsuch, coercion, correcting himself" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x3sWOLDR4Q0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Justice Gorsuch gives an example where a student says, &#8220;a boy can&#8217;t be a girl.&#8221; And then the lawyer states that it&#8217;s not &#8220;coercive,&#8221; in any way, for the teacher to correct the student&#8217;s comment, in front of the entire class. He then changes his mind and says the opposite.
Even when he&#8217;s not contradicting himself, the school district&#8217;s lawyer managed to make a mockery of the entire case. 
Here&#8217;s his opening statement, for example:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 beginning with mr shonfeld" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkw27dw9T5g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, according to this attorney for the school district, there&#8217;s no difference between teaching elementary-school students about wars, and teaching them that boys can become girls. Telling students about the War of 1812 is just like telling them that it&#8217;s totally reasonable to chemically castrate minors.
One of the ways we know this isn&#8217;t true, aside from using basic common sense, is that there&#8217;s no army of parents demanding that schools stop teaching students about wars. That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s understood that teaching students about wars is not a general endorsement of violence. Additionally, everyone agrees that history is important and useful because it&#8217;s grounded in reality. On the other hand, gender ideology is just that — ideological.
This lawyer was not the only person to embarrass himself yesterday. That&#8217;s a given. After all, Ketanji Brown Jackson was also in attendance at the hearing. And as you&#8217;d expect, she did not disappoint. Single-handedly, she dropped the collective IQ in the room by about 10 points, just by opening her mouth. And of course, she opened her mouth on the side of indoctrinating children, because she takes the Left&#8217;s position on every issue. Behold, Ketanji Brown Jackson&#8217;s argument in favor of mandatory indoctrination in public schools:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 can just go to private school" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y-FJrhGbwrw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Yes, you can homeschool, says Ketanji Brown Jackson. You can pay for an expensive private school. Therefore, there&#8217;s no &#8220;burden&#8221; on these parents, apparently. It&#8217;s not a &#8220;burden&#8221; to have to pay more money, and change your child&#8217;s school, because Montgomery County decided to teach LGBT propaganda. And then the lawyer representing the parents responds, and points out that she&#8217;s completely wrong, and many other cases demonstrate why she&#8217;s wrong. And then she goes quiet and they move on.
Here’s one more clip from these arguments, involving Justice Alito questioning the school board&#8217;s lawyer. He follows up on this logic, about how the parents can supposedly just go to a private school. He begins by talking from the perspective of one of these parents:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 alito, too bad" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hgRo17KtvU8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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This is what it looks like in the Supreme Court when &#8220;sparks fly,&#8221; so to speak. Alito is making his disdain for the school district&#8217;s argument extremely clear, which is exactly what he should do. They&#8217;re trying to force-feed gender ideology to children, and instead of owning it, they&#8217;re lying and telling the parents to pay more money to find a private school that won&#8217;t interfere with their religious liberties. But the Constitution doesn&#8217;t work that way. And it appears the Montgomery County school district, and school districts all over the country, are about to discover that.
This is not a close case. That&#8217;s why even the far-Left outlet Vox <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250422191725/https://www.vox.com/scotus/409921/supreme-court-dont-say-gay-mahmoud-taylor">reported</a>: 
<blockquote>The Supreme Court’s &#8216;Don’t Say Gay&#8217; argument went disastrously for public schools.</blockquote>
At the moment, the most likely outcome is that, when very young children are involved, parents will retain the right to opt out of curriculums involving gender ideology, or any other extreme ideology that conflicts with their established religion. Everyone can see this coming.
And just to underscore that, yesterday Randi Weingarten, the head of one of the largest teachers&#8217; unions in the country, went on Fox News. And she admitted, right away, that she wouldn&#8217;t read these books in the classroom. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Randi" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/luc0jWbW_HA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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We all know that Randi Weingarten isn&#8217;t saying this because she believes it. She&#8217;s maybe the most calculating political operative in the country, after Nancy Pelosi. But Weingarten understands when the Left is overplaying its hand. She knows that they&#8217;re on the cusp of yet another crushing defeat in their efforts to indoctrinate children, and she&#8217;s trying to soften that blow when it inevitably comes.
Unfortunately for Weingarten, the truth is, there&#8217;s no way to accomplish that. Gender ideology and LGBT activists, as we&#8217;ve discussed many times, are now extremely unpopular. They have alienated the entire country, to the point that they may have cost Democrats the last election. The only way an ideology like this can survive is by targeting children before they&#8217;re able to develop their cognitive abilities. That&#8217;s their only viable play. And in a few short months, after this case is inevitably decided against the public school system of Montgomery County, it&#8217;ll be much, much harder for these people to accomplish that.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Parental Rights Regarding LGBTQ Books In Schools

The Lawyers Promoting Child Indoctrination To SCOTUS Were Absolutely Humiliated

Books

Brett Kavanaugh

Children's Books

Education

Elementary Schools

gender ideology

Ketanji Brown Jackson

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Neil Gorsuch

Opinion

Parents rights

Samuel Alito

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Virginia

In 2007, when Hillary Clinton was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/politics/26DEBATE-TRANSCRIPT.html">asked</a> in a Democratic primary debate whether she would be comfortable having “King and King” — a children’s picture book about a prince who marries another man — read to her second-grade child as part of the school curriculum, she responded that it was a “matter of parental discretion.”
It’s remarkable how far off the deep end the Left has gone in just a few short years.
This week, the Supreme Court will <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalApril2025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hear a case</a> brought by a group of parents claiming what Clinton argued years ago: Parents should be able to decide whether or not their children read LGBTQ storybooks at school.
Oral arguments will be heard for the parental rights case Mahmoud v. Taylor, which <a href="https://becketfund.org/media/religious-parents-ask-supreme-court-to-restore-opt-outs-for-pride-storybooks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">originated</a> when the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced LGBTQ storybooks to the elementary school curriculum and revoked its existing parental notice and opt-out policies. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian parents challenged the school district’s ban on elementary school opt-outs on the grounds that the policy burdened their constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
The diverse coalition of parents isn’t asking the school district to remove the LGBTQ storybooks from classrooms. They simply want the option to remove their children from the classroom when content is taught that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and that vocation doesn’t stop when kids begin to attend school.
The board of education added storybooks that introduce gender ideology and sexuality to children as young as three or four years old. These storybooks are transparently part of an activist push to introduce children to same-sex relationships, transgender ideology, and LGBTQ vocabulary at a startlingly young age.
“Born Ready” features a female main character who repeatedly claims, “Inside, I’m a boy,” and whose parents immediately start treating her like a boy. “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love,” Penelope’s mom tells her confused older brother. The book’s author, Jodie Patterson, serves on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical LGBTQ advocacy group.
Another book in the Montgomery County curriculum, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">titled</a> “My Rainbow,” is about a transgender-identifying boy’s desire to have long hair to fit in with “cisgender girls.” Trinity Neal, a transgender-identifying boy, and his mother, DeShanna, a nonbinary activist, wrote the story based on their experiences. DeShanna <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">advocated</a> for Medicaid coverage of Trinity’s puberty blockers, resulting in the first Medicaid coverage of transgender medical procedures in their home state of Delaware. Subsequently, Trinity <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">became</a> the first minor in the state to change his birth certificate’s gender marker from male to female.
“Jacob’s Room to Choose,” about a cross-dressing boy whose school accommodates him by abolishing gendered bathrooms, was <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">published</a> through the American Psychological Association’s children’s book imprint. APA has prominently <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/02/policy-supporting-transgender-nonbinary#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAPA%20also%20affirms%20the%20essential,appropriate%20youth%20self%2Dadvocacy.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> transgender medical procedures for minors and advocated for so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The other books at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor are similarly written at an elementary school reading level but focus on complex adult topics of sexuality and gender identity. “Love, Violet” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">focuses</a> on a same-sex relationship between elementary school classmates. “Pride Puppy” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">instructs</a> readers to identify leather, underwear, a lip ring, an intersex flag, and a drag king in its illustrations.
“What Are Your Words?” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">encourages</a> kids to change their pronouns, promoting confusing pairs like “ey/em,” “ze/zir,” and “xe/xir,” and using they/them pronouns to refer to individuals in the story. And “Intersection Allies,” another book <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">featured</a> in the case, includes a foreword by critical race theorist and activist Kimberle Crenshaw.
These storybooks are examples of radical propaganda written by progressive activists to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation. Kids may not know better than to believe what they’re taught, but American adults aren’t so convinced by these woke storybooks. Only 3% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that instruction on human sexuality and gender identity is appropriate for pre-K or kindergarten-aged children. And 77% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality instruction.
Just a few years ago, I pulled my children out of Fairfax County Schools because of the progressive garbage they were being exposed to in their classrooms on a daily basis. My family is not alone. There is a large movement of parents who have made the same decision we have, but not every family is in a position to do so. Parents should undoubtedly have the right to opt their children out of reading these radical activist storybooks: Children are not wards of the state.
When public schools add storybooks that teach gender ideology as truth, the state has violated the right of parents to raise their children in their religious tradition, along with teaching them the corresponding religious beliefs about gender, human sexuality, and the meaning of marriage.
The government has no business mandating that elementary students learn radical gender ideology. Fortunately, parents will do whatever it takes to protect their children and exercise their parental rights — even if it means taking the case to the Supreme Court.
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Terry Schilling is a parental rights advocate and president of the American Principles Project.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mixed race teacher reading to class

Will SCOTUS Back Parents When It Comes To LGBTQ Storybooks?

Children

Gender

Parental Rights in Education

Parenting

Public Schools

Schools

The following is an excerpt from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQQ47DR3">The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone Mad</a>,&#8221; by Israel Ellis (Post Hill Press/Wicked Son).
* * *
<h3>A Conversation on Healing and the Battle for Humanity </h3>
October 7 should be a traumatic jolt for anyone who is a lover of life. We must stand united and resolved to make the world a safer place for the future generations that will follow. For if the lovers of life cannot heal the hate, we are truly lost at sea.
I met George, a doctor from Germany, at a healing retreat on Koh Pha Ngan, an island in the south of Thailand. During the first of our many conversations, I described some of the ideas that would later become these chapters, and in answer to his piqued interest, I went on to explain to him the events that took place in Israel on October 7 and the theater of the world since. We got around to the existential question on what it takes to save our world from itself, and both readily agreed in the simplicity that peace comes from love. And to love is to heal. Our conversation turned to philosophy and the infinity of the cosmos. It’s the kind of place that leads you into these thoughts. I brought up the biblical story of Jonah, the unwilling oracle, who warned the people of Nineveh, who repented without question because they came to understand the severity of the warnings and the opportunity to change. I asked George: Where is today’s Jonah to tell the haters wrong from right? To warn us of the consequences of hate?
The next morning George sat beside me and told me had he reflected on the prior evening’s discourse. “I agree,” he said with slow, carefully chosen words. “Both sides need to heal.” He saw my body tense up at the reference to “sides.” The idea of shared moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas is a typical red herring of those that will not fully condemn Hamas and stand for Israel. George gently raised a placating hand and asked me for patience. “Can you for a moment accept that there is a part of Hamas within you?” I caught my breath.
We sat in silence while I pondered this and took effort to examine George through a different lens. He has no connection to Israel; he is not affected by what happened on October 7 except that he is a lover of life and a healer and he is saddened that this event has happened in a world he deems has turned itself upside down. He lives his life in a bubble, not intentionally, but rather because he was born into it; a privileged Western bubble with all the trappings, including the luxury to question his existence and the next steps in his life. He is a good person. He is not committed to any specific ideology, except for his life and those of his patients. He is not a liberal nor does he consider himself a conservative. He will not take up a placard and join a protest. He believes that all people should live together in peace. He stays out of business that is not his to judge, because he knows his opinion will have no effect on the outcome.
It occurred to me that his apathy is part of the challenge the world faces; he places his complete trust in his government to manage the situation. He corrected me when I suggested this, and instead claimed it is humanity itself that he trusts. “Humanity will eventually find their way, they always do,” he said.
But I disagreed. “This is not a stream of water trickling through the path of least resistance,” I said. “To avoid long and painful consequences, we sometimes must act to protect humanity from and for itself.”
The impossibility of the situation Israel finds itself in is a predicament for the free world. To counter the epidemic of Global Jihad will require some sacrifice of liberty, and this can be a slippery slope. And yet, it has already begun. The UK has the most extensive and sophisticated closed-circuit video monitoring system of its kind in the world, complete with facial recognition and AI capabilities. There are few places left in London where you can escape someone watching you. This invasion of privacy is the compromise for security. But this does nothing to weed out the problem of radicalization by its roots. These bandaid solutions will only drive the Jihad further underground into the metaphorical and literal tunnels. The only long-term solution depends on overhauling how the next generation comes to see their world. Confronting the hold that the radicals have institutionalized over young people, dismantling the arenas for hate, and policing the spread of lies and calls to Jihad, is of the most critical importance. Like the cameras in London, it is not pretty to impose law and confront hate.
<div id="attachment_901781" style="width: 383px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901781" class="wp-image-901781 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-373x576.jpg" alt="Post Hill Press/Wicked Son" width="373" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-373x576.jpg 373w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-194x300.jpg 194w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-768x1187.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_.jpg 880w" sizes="(max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px" />Post Hill Press/Wicked Son</div>
I returned to the present with the clang of a spoon against my metal cup. George waited for my answer. Can I accept that there is something of Hamas in all of us? It is a difficult question, because on the face of it it seems a bizarre and hurtful theory by someone who knows little about the situation on the ground. But I have come to respect George, and I knew he was not playing with me. What he asked me is if we are all capable of playing the part of Hamas if we were wearing the shoe on the other foot.
I looked across at George and asked him thoughtfully if he has siblings. “Yes,” he answered, not really sure of where I was going with this. “I have a sister, she is eight years younger than myself.” I asked him if he ever felt jealousy toward her. He assures me that he did. When she first arrived home, the focus of his entire world shifted to her. “Did you ever have evil and violent thoughts about how to deal with that? Did you plan to kill her?” I asked, to his wide-eyed look. Of course, this is extreme, but relevant. “I love my sister to this day,” he stammers. “I would never harm her.” He takes a slow breath in and admits “regardless of how much she may have infuriated me as a young boy.”
In the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, the older brother, is jealous at the acceptance of Abel’s’ sacrifice to God, and in response he kills him. Cain is new to all these powerful emotions, being only the third person to ever live, he has no context for dealing and how to manage these feelings. Leading up to the act, he could not have understood the consequences of his actions, yet as his brother lay unmoving beneath him, he realizes immediately by some intuitive force that he has committed a grave transgression. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he responds to God, when questioned of Abel’s whereabouts, a clear defensive diversion away from the moral consequence of what he has done. There are direct lessons that can be interpreted from this story; the moral wrongness of murder, the accountability, the shame and regret, and the divine justice that follows.
In my own paraphrasing of Genesis 4:11-12, I quote; “Cain, the earth received your brother’s blood from your hand, thereby the ground will give you nothing in return, and you are banished and will walk the earth without home.” This is a very clear and powerful statement that is made, one that neither Jews, Christians, or Muslims will disagree with. A person who commits murder will become a wanderer, a refugee wherever they go. They are Cain, who was deserving of justice, even though no lawbook had ever told him murder was wrong.
What happened on October 7 was a collective sociopathic act that crossed a line from which there can be no return, not just for the Hamas terrorists that came armed with guns and bombs, but for the people of Gaza who supported the invasion and followed in its wake, rampaging through residential areas, pillaging, burning, and committing barbaric acts of rape and live dismemberment. The people of Gaza, everyday citizens, came to set fire to buildings with people still inside. If you poll Gazans today, the majority will support Hamas and celebrate the events of October 7. If you survey the Palestinian people in the lands controlled by the PA, chances are there will be a strong empathy for the Gazans whose immorality brought them to their own destruction. If you poll the Pan Arab world, you will likely find an alarming number of people in support of Hamas. 
The October 7 attacks ignited global outrage, revealing deep-seated hatred and a disturbing lack of empathy. Those who march in support of Israel’s destruction or celebrate Hamas’s violence are morally complicit in these heinous acts. Like Cain, who committed the first murder despite having no explicit prohibition, these supporters cannot claim ignorance as a defense for their actions. And this is the difference between a terrorist, a terrorist sympathizer, and a fundamentally good person. The masked people holding placards celebrating Hamas and chanting for the genocide of Jews, participating in protests and encampments, these are not just the useful idiots of Hamas, these are useful evildoers for Hamas.
* * *
Israel Ellis is <a href="https://israelellis.com/in-the-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an entrepreneur</a> and the father of an IDF soldier. He is the author of &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQQ47DR3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wake Up Call</a>&#8221; (Post Hill Press/Wicked Son).
This excerpt is published by permission from Post Hill Press/Wicked Son.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

‘Am I My Brother’s Keeper?’: Cain, Hamas, And The Aftermath Of October 7

'Am I My Brother’s Keeper?': Cain, Hamas, And The Aftermath Of October 7

Anti-Semitism

Bible

Gaza

Hamas

Islamic Jihad

Israel

Jewish

October 7

The following is an excerpt from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1">The Children We Left Behind: How Western Culture Rationalizes Family Separation &amp; Ignores The Pain Of Child Neglect</a>,” by Adam B. Coleman (Wrong Speak Publishing, April 1, 2025).
* * *
“I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail”. 
These were some of the final words spoken by Jordan Neely, a homeless thirty-year-old man who died inside a subway after threatening frightened riders and being subdued in a headlock by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-daniel-penny-found-not-guilty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Penny</a> on May 1, 2023.
Neely had a long 42-arrest history of criminal activity, involving four violent offenses spanning from 2013 to 2021, only to eventually die on the floor of an F train subway car.
While most of the public has focused on his threats before being taken down by Daniel Penny or the racial differences between Neely and Penny, I want to focus on Neely’s origin story.
My interest in sharing Neely’s story is twofold. Objectively, Neely was a troubled man who had a history of terrorizing riders and was riddled with mental health problems. But he wasn’t born that way. No child dreams of being a homeless person on the street. How did Jordan Neely go from an innocent child to dying on the subway? As I hope to illuminate for readers, it all stems from his abusive childhood.
The second reason why I want to share Jordan Neely’s story is more personal. In Jordan, I see something of myself: a child who was abandoned by his father. After my father left me, my mom, and my sister, my entire life was uprooted. By the age of six, I had lived in three states and various towns, residing with multiple family members and spending months in and out of homelessness. My father’s absence and my mother being left to raise me and my sister on her own led me to suffer from depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal ideation. At age eight, I was admitted to a mental hospital.
<div id="attachment_900349" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-900349" class="size-large wp-image-900349" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-384x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Wrong Speak Publishing" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71DC2oU2QoL._SL1360_.jpg 907w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Credit: Wrong Speak Publishing</div>
Would Jordan’s life have taken a different turn if he had a loving father in his life? Why could he not have been one of the lucky ones, like me, who by the grace of God overcame a traumatic childhood?
Neely grew up in an abusive household with his mother and stepfather. This violence from his stepfather escalated to the point of murdering Jordan Neely’s mother, Christine Neely, by strangulation, subsequently stuffing her body in a suitcase, and dumping her body on the Henry Hudson Highway in Bronx, NY, when Jordan Neely was 14 years old.
In <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/subway-chokehold-victim-jordan-neely-spiraled-after-moms-death-aunt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an interview</a> with The New York Post, Carolyn Neely, Jordan’s Aunt, stated that his mother&#8217;s murder was the pivotal starting point of his mental downfall.
“My sister Christie was murdered in ‘07, and after that, he has never been the same. It had a big impact on him. He developed depression, and it grew and became more serious. He was schizophrenic, PTSD.”
After his mother&#8217;s killing, Jordan bounced around from foster home to foster home for four years, being left behind in New York City’s dysfunctional foster care system.
After Jordan Neely’s death, New York’s PIX 11 News <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iX7lkOZA_g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed</a> Neely’s foster brother, Larry Smith. Larry Smith viewed Jordan Neely as his best friend, big brother, and mentor.
Eventually, both Smith and Neely aged out of the foster care system, leaving them homeless on the streets of New York City. In the early years of their brotherly relationship, Neely would perform Michael Jackson dance routines on subway cars for money to feed themselves.
“He would do the whole Billy Jean [dance routine], and I would sit there and have the one hat that he gave me for Michael Jackson and collect a couple of dollars. He used that because foster parents were abusing us.”
It is Smith&#8217;s final statement that encapsulates the deep desire of every child: “Jordan never wanted money … Jordan wanted a home.”
Every child wants a home, and not just in a physical sense. It’s not enough for a child to have a place of shelter; they also need a place where they know they belong and are safe.
In various articles I’ve read about Jordan Neely in his teenage years, he was described as a quiet child who enjoyed Japanese anime. However, this quiet child was hardened like the concrete streets he’d occasionally sleep on.
There are only so many chances you’ll give the world to hurt you before you acknowledge your hopelessness by outwardly exclaiming, “I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail.”
He gave his stepfather a chance, who ultimately murdered his mother. He gave the foster care system a chance, and they abused and abandoned him. If every adult you encounter lets you down, you’d probably go insane too and grow a deep hatred for mankind, including hatred for yourself.
Jordan Neely’s situation isn’t abnormal, and that’s the problem.
The only reason we even know his name is because of a fluke circumstance of being filmed by a journalist. But if he had overdosed alone on a street corner, he would be just another statistic.
Thousands upon thousands of Jordan Neelys all over America are on the street. They are adults now, but they were once children left behind by nearly every adult they encountered.
I once felt all the rage that Jordan felt. I sometimes still do. My father chose himself over me, my sister, and my mother and neglected me until the day he died. Thanks be to God, I made it, but my successes should never be a reason for parents to risk playing Russian Roulette with their children’s lives.
I am also a father now. And as a father, my job has been to raise my child to become greater than myself and to be a healthy and functional member of society. Over the years, I became incredibly conscious of how my actions and lack of actions could turn my son into the man you’d never want to be alone with on the streets at night.
Raising children isn’t just about feeding and housing them. How we treat them and what we teach them directly affects their likelihood of success in the world.
If you fail your children, don’t be surprised when they fail in our society.
* * *
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Children-Left-Behind-Rationalizes-Separation/dp/B0DSJZWMDL/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mHwt-SB0BE6Z4SuvSL8BpJGq0o4KZKefFX7qCk2QDecQdDECQ5sacSwFhvoqNh0G.3kO-vQO6MHEer2Op5JTvskog7q0WE0RCOw0_toT-nOM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1738089124&amp;refinements=p_27%3AAdam+Coleman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1">The Children We Left Behind</a>” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on X: @wrong_speak
This excerpt is published by permission from Wrong Speak Publishing.
The views expressed in this book excerpt are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-JUSTICE-TRANSPORT-FUNERAL-NEELY

Let Jordan Neely’s Story Be A Warning To Parents: We Must Always Put Our Children First

Let Jordan Neely’s Story Be a Warning to Parents: We Must Always Put Our Children First

Daniel Penny

Foster Care

Homelessness

Jordan Neely

New York City

Subway

The Democrats continue to just flail around.
It is truly amazing and amusing to watch them flail.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, wrote a book about anti-Semitism. I usually don’t do “as a Jew,” but, as a Jew myself, the answer is no, Chuck.
You do not get to speak as a Jew about how you&#8217;re fighting anti-Semitism while you green-lit the Iran nuclear deal, made room for every anti-Israel, anti-Semitic person in your party, and refused to condemn the worst excesses of your own party.
The answer is no. Absolutely not.
Schumer had to postpone his book tour. Hilariously enough, the reason wasn’t that he has no moral leg on which to stand speaking about anti-Semitism. The reason he had to postpone his book tour is that so many Democrats are ticked off at him over green-lighting the continuing resolution.
That shows where violence is on the American spectrum these days, when even the Senate minority leader, a Democrat leftist, can&#8217;t face his own constituents in New York. Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/17/schumer-postpones-book-tour-over-security-concerns-00232634" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is postponing scheduled book tour events this week for ‘security reasons,’ as he faces intense backlash from the party base in the wake of last week’s government funding vote.”
That&#8217;s pretty incredible. When Right-wingers cancel events these days, they are doing so because of the violent Left. When Schumer cancels an event, it’s because of the — wait for it  —  violent Left.
I wonder, who is violent? I was told only the Right was violent, that the Right has a violence problem.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2161-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Schumer had planned several event stops to promote his new book, “Anti-Semitism in America: How I Did It.”
Just kidding.
His book is actually titled, “Anti-Semitism in America: A Warning.”
But none of this stopped Schumer from appearing on “The View.”
I have to admit: I am jealous that Schumer appeared on “The View.” It has been a lifelong dream for me.
I have a wonderful life. I&#8217;ve gotten so many things I want out of life, and I hope to get many more. And it&#8217;s a great life. But one of my unfulfilled aspirations as a human being is to be on “The View.”
It would make some of the best TV ever. Granted, it would be like intellectually clubbing a baby seal, but amazing TV.
Yet it was Schumer who was invited. Not because he&#8217;s a woman — I mean, I don&#8217;t know the answer to that, as only he can identify — but he was invited to talk about all of this.
He <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheView/videos/sen-chuck-schumer-defends-his-spending-bill-vote/1011871004224892/">explained</a> why he had not signed on to the filibuster of the continuing resolution: “There&#8217;s no exit strategy. How do you get out of a shutdown? Guess who determines it? Trump. Musk. DOGE. They&#8217;re the only ones, and one of the Republican senators told one of the Democratic senators, ‘You get us, you get us in this? We&#8217;re staying in for six months, nine months, a year till we decimate the entire federal government.’”
That&#8217;s not a horrible explanation as to why he voted in favor of the continuing resolution; if the government shut down, Trump would have the ability to decide who the essential workers are, and then fire a bunch of people. So that&#8217;s actually a pretty good explanation.
But host Sunny Hostin was having none of it. She ripped into Schumer. She was really irate because, as she sees it, what if Trump says “black”? You have to say “white.” If Trump says “day,” you have to say “night.” That’s how it works. 
“Governor Pritzker’s chief of staff Anne Caprara has said the following,” Hostin stated. “The fight going on in the Democratic Party right now is not between hard left, right, and moderate, it’s between those who want to fight and those who want to cave and it gives me no pleasure to say this to you because we are friends, but I think you caved. I think you and nine other Democrats caved. I don’t think you showed the fight this party needs right now because you’re playing by a rule book where the other party has thrown that rule book away.”
“True,” Schumer replied.
“So in my view what you did in supporting that GOP partisan bill that Democrats had no input in, you cleared the way for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to gut Social Security, to gut Medicare,” she continued. “Why did you lead democratic senators to play by that book that the Republicans are not playing by?
So, that&#8217;s the battle inside the Democratic Party.
Get out the popcorn.
But if you thought that Schumer was on the reasonable side of the Democratic Party, I beg to differ. He mocked Americans who want to keep their money, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/03/18/schumer_the_republican_attitude_is_i_made_my_money_all_by_myself_how_dare_your_government_take_my_money_from_me.html">saying</a>, “And you know what their attitude is? ‘I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me? I don&#8217;t want to pay taxes.’ Or, ‘I built my company with my bare hands. How dare your government tell me how I should treat my customers, the land and water that I own, or my employees.’ They hate government. Government&#8217;s a barrier to people, a barrier to stop them from doing things. They want to destroy it.”
He raised his fists, saying, “We are not letting them do it, and we&#8217;re united.”
The fists of uniting. Go, go, Power Rangers.
I would like to point out that I agree with everything he accused Americans. Our team built our entire company. The government did not help us. The government provided the basic law and order necessary to the preservation of private property in the United States, and the protection of free speech. That’s everything the government provided.
We built it, not Chuck Schumer. He&#8217;s not entitled to our money. Schumer is not entitled to money I have earned on behalf of my family.
He is not entitled. I don&#8217;t think many Americans believe that Schumer is entitled to that money, or that he&#8217;s likely to use it in good ways.
The Democrats cannot help themselves.
And watching Schumer flail about and castigate Americans while his party is lost in space is pretty darn amusing.

Democratic Senators Reach Enough Votes To Pass GOP Budget Bill

Democrats Flail, Schumer Fails

Ben Shapiro

Chuck Schumer

Democrats

Jews

The View

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Jester-Became-King-Unauthorized/dp/B0DV3W4QBN/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How the Jester Became King: Dave Portnoy and the Real Unauthorized Story of Barstool Sports.</a>&#8221; by Charlie Stanton (Post Hill Press, December 2024)
* * *
October 2003
Dave was sweaty and beyond exhausted as he bent down to drop off a stack of newspapers next to his bin at the Alewife T-Station in Cambridge. Sporting his questionable goatee and a beat-up Red Sox hat, his skin reeked of the cigar he had smoked inside his maroon 1992 Plymouth minivan while he trudged from station to station. His breath was a mix of tobacco and the hot Italian beef sandwich he’d ordered in between stops. Portnoy needed a shower. As he leaned over to fill the bin, he paused. The sound of fabric ripping echoed across the brown quarry tiles that lined the floors and walls of the subway entrance. Commuters turned their heads at the noise, and their eyes fixated on Portnoy. He knew immediately what had happened:
<blockquote>“It might as well have been like a gunshot went off in Alewife Station. Everybody in Alewife and maybe all of Cambridge just froze. And I was reduced to doing the ‘Oh my god did I just split my pants?’ maneuver. This, of course, is when you have a glazed expression over your face as you feel your ass to see what the damage is. Honestly, it was like time froze for a couple minutes.”</blockquote>
It was an unseasonably warm fall afternoon, just a few months after Mike Portnoy had given his son his $25,000 blessing. Dave, who had quit his sales job and moved back home with his parents to save money, was now spending it hand-delivering his newspapers to more than 100 Barstool Sports bins he had placed around Boston — a job that made grad school look like Margaritaville.
After all of his bins were filled, Portnoy would begin handing out his newspapers to the public, aggressively. The streets of Boston weren’t for the faint of heart. “When we upgraded from black and white to color copies, I would be just screaming things like ‘We got color now! We’re so much better than these other (papers)!’ Whatever the hook was.” Like a vendor peddling overpriced beer at nearby Fenway Park, Portnoy would yell at – borderline berate – commuters to take a copy.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-889947 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71YW4ed4iL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71YW4ed4iL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71YW4ed4iL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71YW4ed4iL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/71YW4ed4iL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></div>
Portnoy was on his own when it came to distribution following Barstool’s first issue on August 27, 2003, when the temp company Labor Ready he hired to help him sent him mostly drifters, half of whom didn’t show up. “Let’s just say they weren’t the most dedicated workers to ever come down the pike,” Portnoy explained. And according to Portnoy, the outfit in Atlanta where he bought newspaper bins, Go Plastics, wasn’t able to deliver the bins on time for the day of the launch, which only compounded this calamity. Most commuters were unable to find Portnoy’s newspapers, as Barstool Sports sat inconspicuously inside plastic bags next to other competitors’ fully marked bins.
Of the 40 train stations where workers were supposed to hand out copies of Dave’s paper that day, only about 15 operated as planned. Portnoy would eventually hire local models to hand out his papers, which, to no surprise, worked better but were too expensive to continue with. “Chaotic and nearly disastrous,” is how Dave described his paper’s first days in existence. Unbeknownst to Portnoy, it was a phrase that would become the narrative of Barstool’s entire operation for the next 20 years.
At the start of Portnoy’s maiden voyage, he was able to produce several thousand copies of his weekly newspaper. This was dwarfed by the daily circulation of the 450,000 newspapers The Boston Globe printed, and the 300,000 distributed by both The Boston Herald and Metro Boston, the city’s largest free paper. But eventually Barstool would reach a peak of 40,000 issues every other week, which was on par with most other alt-weekly publications such as The Phoenix or The Improper Bostonian. Reaching this number was an unlikely development to everyone around Dave in those early days, including his production manager Erin Boyce.
Boyce worked at The Daily Item of Lynn, a neighboring town’s paper; she had extensive experience inside the publishing industry and agreed to help Portnoy after connecting through a friend of a friend. “I really only thought it would last six, maybe 12 issues. I’ve been in the newspaper industry for many years, and to start a publication in a dying industry is kind of unheard of. Little did I know 200 issues later, it would become part of my life for almost nine years.”
Boyce’s help was invaluable, but there was no doubt the 26-year-old was doing the work of five people just to produce the meager eight-page publication. Originally, Portnoy published his newspaper once a week. Mondays were the busiest in terms of writing, and Dave often stayed up past 2 a.m. finishing the last articles for that week’s issue. Tuesdays, Portnoy took his work over to the nearby graphic designer, who worked with Boyce to lay out the paper. Later that day, the layout was taken to Boyce’s printer, and once the thousands of copies were printed, Portnoy filled up his beaten-down minivan to the brim. “When I pick up Barstool Sports from our printer company, I swear I can hear her scream. I actually think the bottom of the car scrapes against the cement when it is fully loaded.”
Wednesdays started at 4:30 a.m. Portnoy made the 45-minute drive south down Route 1A to Boston, dropping his publication off at the bins he had placed inside various T-stations. “I had bins at T-stops I didn’t know existed before that,” Portnoy said of his paper route. He also stopped at select stores, bars, and restaurants he somehow convinced to take his newspapers, like the Grand Canal bar near The Boston Garden or Bayview Liquors in Southie.
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After emptying his van around 9:00 a.m., Dave headed to a T station and handed out copies of Barstool Sports to commuters. Around noon, he drove back to Swampscott to write; call potential advertisers (the paper had fake ones and real ones); or fix whatever part of the business was melting down that day. Around 4:00 p.m., he drove back into Boston to hand out papers again until returning home, well after dinner.
As for the rest of the week, Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday, while Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were reserved for writing. And Portnoy would spend each Monday just like the previous one, cramming in last-minute changes until the candle was burned at both ends. Unsurprisingly, this routine began taking a toll on his health, but as 2004 approached, people slowly began to read Portnoy’s paper. “It was always a good reception and when I judged it, it would be 10 people who took the paper and said they enjoyed it the first time I did it. The next issue would be 20 people, and the next issue would be 40, and the next 80. So, it always was slowly growing and there was something in my gut that was like I’m on to something here.”
* * *
This excerpt is taken from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Jester-Became-King-Unauthorized/dp/B0DV3W4QBN/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0">How the Jester Became King: Dave Portnoy and the Real Unauthorized Story of Barstool Sports.</a>&#8221; by Charlie Stanton. Published by permission of Post Hill Press. 
Charlie Stanton currently resides in New York City. Stanton graduated from Wake Forest University with Honors in Economics in 2012. In his free time, the author enjoys playing pickleball, paddle, tennis, running, skiing, and spending time with his three younger brothers.
The views expressed in this book excerpt are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

Milwaukee Bucks v Boston Celtics

The Grind Before The Glory: Dave Portnoy’s Sweaty, Cigarette-Stained Rise

Barstool Sports

Boston

Dave Portnoy

Journalism

Social Media

Sports

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039">Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, And Traitors Who Killed The California Dream And Now Threaten Us All</a>” By Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. (Center Street/Hachette, March 2025)
* * *
The Failed Progressive Vision
Under Newsom’s watch, violent crime in California has skyrocketed. Homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent in 2022, with gun‑related homicides and aggravated assaults soaring by 37.7 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively. The actual rates are likely much higher. Crime data only captures incidents reported to police, and many crimes go unreported.
The rapidly rising crime rates didn’t just occur in a vacuum. They directly correspond with Newsom’s decade‑plus‑long progressive experiment with criminal justice reform, which has resulted in far lighter sentences and the premature release of violent criminals from jail. After Newsom released tens of thousands of prisoners during COVID, ostensibly to prevent the virus from spreading among California’s incarcerated criminals, the state prison population dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to around 91,556 by mid‑2024. As we discuss in Chapter 4, Newsom has been accused of releasing these prisoners under a false premise. COVID death rates in the state­ corrections system have been markedly lower than in the outside population. Even as crime surges, Newsom’s administration estimates the prison population will drop to roughly 86,000 by 2028.
Newsom is not only emptying prisons; he is also shutting them down. His administration has closed or is closing four state prisons, and has plans to “reimagine and transform” San Quentin, the state’s oldest and most notorious prison (and previous home to the largest “death row” in the United States), into a rehabilitation center. “We are literally tearing down walls to reimagine our prison system, incentivize true rehabilitation, and end cycles of violence and crime,” Newsom said in a 2024 press release. “Brick by brick, we’re building a new future that will make all of us safer.” But Newsom cited no evidence that the state is growing safer because there is none. As we will explain in Chapter 5 the state’s corrections agency won’t disclose rehabilitation results for the years Newsom has served in review copy office. Again, Newsom and the progressives’ failed COVID policies exacerbated the problem. During the pandemic, when millions were out of work and the state had the highest unemployment in the nation, flash mobs of masked robbers stormed through the doors of Nordstrom and other high‑end retailers in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles, stealing thousands of dollars of purses, clothes, and jewelry. This type of organized retail theft has become such a massive problem that many retailers are closing their doors for good. By mid‑ 2024, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Office Depot, 7‑Eleven, and Denny’s all announced plans to close stores in downtown San Francisco or nearby Oakland. Starbucks and Target have also closed locations.
<div id="attachment_890669" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-890669" class="size-large wp-image-890669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.</div>
Newsom attributes business closures in downtown San Francisco to “macroeconomic” shifts, not rampant theft, drug use, and violent crime. In August 2023, downtown San Francisco was such a hotbed of crime, homelessness, and drugs that the US Department of Health and Human Services advised employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in the Tenderloin District to work remotely “for the foreseeable future.” Showing up for work at the building had become just too dangerous.
In January 2024, California’s homegrown, beloved burger joint, In‑N‑­Out Burger, announced that it would close a store for the first time in its ­seventy‑five‑year history, citing crime. The franchise no longer considered the store near Oakland International Airport safe for operation. “We feel the frequency and severity of the crimes being encountered by our customers and associates leave us no alternative,” the company said. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break‑ ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
Southern California isn’t faring much better. More and more businesses in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, even on once tony and vibrant Wilshire Avenue, have boarded up due to vandalism, crime, and homelessness scaring customers away.
“Mayor, we need your help. We need your help in this area,” Sean James, an independent contractor who runs a business in Santa Monica pleaded in an interview with a local Fox News affiliate.
The surge in violent murders, rapes, organized retail thefts, and other crimes that shock the conscience are directly the result of Newsom’s failed progressive vision and can be laid squarely at his feet. Back in 2014, when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he was the highest‑ranking official pushing the specific progressive ballot measure responsible for the chaos: Proposition 47. This was the George Soros–backed policy that decriminalized drug, property crimes, and even certain sex crimes. Prop. 47 turned theft of items valued under $950, and some drug offenses, from felonies to misdemeanors. Newsom vocally supported the progressive activists and organizations pushing Prop. 47, while his boss, then‑Governor Jerry Brown, remained quiet. The measure passed by a wide margin.
Despite the bedlam that has ensued, Newsom now seems in denial over the disastrous effects of Prop. 47. In early 2024, he revealed that he witnessed a shoplifter steal from Target without workers intervening to stop. When he confronted an employee about it, the woman blamed the California governor for passing laws that emboldened criminals — before realizing he was in fact the governor. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Newsom recalls asking the Target employee. “The governor lowered the threshold &#8230; there’s no accountability,” the employee said. Newsom’s description of the encounter was widely ridiculed for his failure to recognize the obvious truth in the Target employee’s accusation. 
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fool’s Gold</a>” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2025 by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter.
Susan Crabtree is senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Jedd McFatter is the director of research at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

California Governor Newsom Announces New Funding For Los Angeles Communities Affected By Wildfires

Newsom Let Thousands Of Prisoners Walk During COVID. Then Crime Skyrocketed.

California

COVID

Crime

Criminal Justice

Gavin Newsom

Leftists

Prisons

Progressivism

San Francisco

Violent Crime

A romance novel due to be released in April has been canceled due to it having a line which is considered pro-Elon Musk.
“Sparrow and Vine” was written by Sophie Lark and was due to be put out by Bloom Books. But things took a turn when social media users who received advance copies started sharing screenshots of certain sections online.
“I was inspired by Elon Musk. I use his five step design process,” one of the characters says at one point. 
Leftists have been furious with the billionaire Tesla founder ever since he purchased the social media platform X, and later when he came out in support of Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. They’re even more incensed over Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration as part of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency).
Another line that’s been getting a lot of attention has a main character saying, “I don’t want to sound ignorant…But shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?”
One TikTok user responded by <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@leelovesbooks_/video/7477330393390370094?_r=1&amp;_t=ZN-8uPEzyLZsgQ">saying</a>, “Sophie Lark’s new book seems to be MAGA coded.”
Lark, whose other books include the &#8220;Kingmakers&#8221; and &#8220;Underworld&#8221; series, issued a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DGuAWjtSz4Y/?img_index=4&amp;igsh=MXMxN3o2emxnMnNwbQ%3D%3D">public statement</a> on her Instagram page.
&#8220;I want to start by saying how much I appreciate this community. Your passion, support, and willingness to engage in meaningful conversations have always meant the world to me. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so important for me to address something I got wrong,” the author wrote.
“It has been brought to my attention that certain lines in Sparrow and Vine were hurtful. Reading your messages and hearing your perspectives over the past twenty-four hours has been humbling, and I want to acknowledge the pain my words have caused. I am truly sorry.&#8221;
&#8220;My intention was to craft and demonstrate a flawed main character, but instead, I wrote dialogue that read as attacking a community that I care about very much.&#8221;
She went on to say Bloom recommended she remove the lines, but she decided to keep them, which she is now calling “the wrong choice.”
Lark also promised to “listen more closely to sensitivity readers” for any rewrites or upcoming projects.

Elon Musk

Publisher Pulls Romance Book For Having Pro-Elon Musk Line, Being ‘MAGA Coded’

Entertainment

General

U.S.

“Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.” — Gloria Swanson
&#8220;Fasten your seatbelt, it&#8217;s going to be a bumpy night.&#8221; — Bette Davis
“It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day.” — Kamala Harris
Yes, the former vice president <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/19/kamala-harris-caa-creative-artists-agency/79216896007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is going Hollywood</a>.
The Queen of Brat Summer inked a deal with CAA, one of Hollywood’s top talent agencies. She’ll be in heady company. Former President Joe Biden also joined CAA in recent weeks, proving the company knows talent when it sees it.
The CAA move likely means a possible book deal, speaking gigs and other politically-charged possibilities for Harris.
Why stop there?
Hollywood knows a star when it sees one and, during her brief presidential run, Harris proved she’s got charisma to burn. With that in mind, here are some possible gigs to keep Harris busy before she starts her 2028 presidential run.
<h2>MOVIES</h2>
<h3>“How To Lose an Election In 100 Days”</h3>
Harris takes the baton from Kate Hudson in this adorable, 21st century reboot. She’ll play a politician who can cinch the big election by pairing with a smart, handsome state governor. But who will she choose? Will she choose the smart Jewish boy from Pennsylvania or fall for the Jim Gaffigan look-a-like who ducked his military obligations?
<h3>“Weekend at Joey’s”</h3>
This ‘80s comedy remake finds Harris, playing herself, trying to convince voters that President Joe Biden is very much alive, thank you. Hilarity ensues when Biden is forced to do a second presidential debate with President Donald Trump and Harris has only hours to rig the leader’s body with enough marionette strings to convince viewers he’s awake. “Bernie’s” alums Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy make cameos as Biden officials telling journalists that Biden’s funeral announcements were merely “cheap fakes.”
<h3>“Harris’ Millions”</h3>
Richard Pryor’s 1985 comedy gets the reboot treatment. Pryor’s character, now an empowered cisgender black woman played by Harris, must spend every dollar of her $1 billion-plus presidential war chest in 100 days or lose the presidency.
<h3>“Talk Fear”</h3>
Kamala plays a political star targeted by a dude-bro podcaster. The misogynist dares to invite her onto his podcast, knowing she’ll crash and burn under the show’s withering spotlight. He’ll stop at nothing to get her in his studio. But does she really have to be in-studio? Really? Either way, will she be able to avoid his intense line of questions about MMA fighting, nutritional supplements and, gasp, vaccines? First, he&#8217;ll have to find her.
<h3>“White Dudes for Harris: The Movie”</h3>
Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jeff Bridges and Mark Hamill co-star in this raucous comedy set on the Harris campaign trail. The main players try to explain to everyday Americans why they should vote for Harris, but their subjects keep running away.
<h3>“Butch Cassidy and The DEI Kid”</h3>
This neo-western casts Harris as a train-robbing outlaw from Wyoming who steals from the poor to give to the rich. After witnessing an egregious example of unconscious bias and cultural appropriation, however, Harris becomes an ally of under-represented groups and vows to fight disrespectful cultural and racial stereotypes while robbing trains. But when she and Butch encounter a band of clever Latinx caballeros who effortlessly guilt corporations out of their cold, hard cash, they quickly trade in their six shooters for pant suits.
<h2>REALITY SHOWS</h2>
<h3>“The Real Housewives of DC”</h3>
The latest version of the hot reality franchise finds Harris and beau Douglas Emhoff struggling to rekindle their old marital magic after he’s spotted with Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s daughter at Starbucks.
<h3>“Off the Record” </h3>
This contest asks wannabe politicians to spend 48 straight hours dodging journalists’ questions. The speed round finds contestants sprinting through a mile-long red-carpet event. Whoever goes the longest without uttering an answer wins.
<h3>“VP and the Duchess”</h3>
Harris teams with former actress Meghan Markle for an episodic comedy series about a couple of oppressed, crazy old friends reconnecting on America’s wide-open roadways. Along the way, they protest an anti-abortion nonprofit office, deface a military recruitment billboard, and lecture citizens in every small town they visit, all the while squandering their life savings.
<h3>“Huh?” </h3>
Harris hosts this deeply personal show where contestants win big prizes by deciphering her classic speeches. The bonus round challenges players to decode her campaign text alerts.
<h3>“Top Chef: Word Salad” </h3>
The former VP oversees this cooking challenge where amateur chefs explore healthy salads made from locally sourced gardens. The focus is on health, not taste. Chefs lose points if they inject flavor into their salads.
<h2>BOOKS</h2>
<h3>“Dummies Guide to Border Czar-ing”</h3>
Harris shares how to duck all responsibilities when assigned one of the most challenging tasks. “If I can do it, so can you,” reads the author’s blurb.
<h3>“Laughter Is the Best Medicine”</h3>
In this self-help tome, Harris explores how humor and uncontrollable laughter can not only pave over the roughest patches in our lives, but also propel us to the top. Bonus chapter includes instructions on how to snag a gig solely due to immutable characteristics like sex, skin color, or online intimidation.
<h3>“Kamala’s Guide to Venn Diagrams”</h3>
It’s math made easy by the former vice president. Drawing from her vast experience calling for Venn diagrams in public, Harris guides us through the mystery behind overlapping circles in ways even Daily Kos readers can understand.
<h3>“It&#8217;s Pronounced KAMala”</h3>
Harris takes a page from Michael Knowles’s “Reasons to Vote for Democrats” with this cheeky tome. The content? The first page tells readers to emphasize KAM-a-la, not Ka-Ma-la in Harris’ first name. The rest of the 500-page book repeats those instructions.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-POLITICS-HARRIS

Kamala Signs With CAA. Here’s A Curated List Of Potential Movie And Book Deals.

Hollywood

Humor

Kamala Harris

Movies

Satire

Television

Vice President

Actress Julianne Moore claims that the Trump administration “banned” a children’s book she wrote from schools run by the Department of Defense, but a rep from the organization responded by saying that it’s one of several books currently under review and no permanent changes have been made yet.
The celebrity wrote a lengthy Instagram post about her book “Freckleface Strawberry” and how she believes it was removed from schools without good cause. The story follows a young girl who tries to get rid of her freckles before learning to accept herself and her differences.
Moore said “it is a great shock” for her to learn that her book was “banned.”  
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“Freckleface Strawberry is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them when she realizes that she is different ‘just like everybody else.’ It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but are united by our humanity and our community,” she said in the post.
The actress went on, “I am particularly stunned because I am a proud graduate of Frankfurt American High School a #DOD school that once operated in Frankfurt, Germany. I grew up with a father who is a Vietnam veteran and spent his career in the #USArmy. I could not be prouder of him and his service to our country.”
The “May December” star said she doesn’t understand what’s controversial about the book. “I am truly saddened and never thought I would see this in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right,” Moore concluded. 
Part of the preview of the book on Amazon says, “If you have freckles, you can try these things: 1) Make them go away. Unless scrubbing doesn’t work. 2) Cover them up. Unless your mom yells at you for using a marker. 3) Disappear. Um, where’d you go? Oh, there you are. There’s one other thing you can do: 4) LIVE WITH THEM! Because after all, the things that make you different also make you YOU.”
The Department of Defense&#8217;s Education Activity, the group that plans and executes pre-K-to-12th grade educational programming for the DOD, provided a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/actress-julianne-moore-shares-great-shock-claims-her-childrens-book-banned-trump-administration">statement</a> to Fox Digital on the alleged ban. &#8220;DoDEA is reviewing its current policies and instructional resources in light of recent Executive Orders and Department of Defense guidance,” it said. 
&#8220;At this time, we are conducting a review &#8211; no materials have been permanently removed from our school libraries pending completion of the review. During this period, materials under review will have access limited to professional staff.&#8221;

Julianne Moore

Actress Julianne Moore Claims Children’s Book She Wrote Was ‘Banned By The Trump Administration’

Actress Julianne Moore Claims Her Children's Book Was 'Banned By The Trump Administration' 

Celebrities

Department of Defense

Trump Administration

The federal government is out of control and President Trump is working overtime to fix it, but the bureaucrats causing the problem have powerful allies striking back at the president from outside.
The basic problem isn’t just the woke spending at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), though that is a prime example of the central issue.
The problem is that unelected bureaucrats have real power to determine policy, and they consider themselves intellectually and morally superior to the people and their elected representatives. This mentality explains why 64% of Washington, D.C.,-based bureaucrats who voted for Kamala Harris in November say they won’t follow a lawful Trump order if they consider it bad policy.
This should also remind Americans of how aggressively certain actors within the executive branch opposed Trump during his first term. Agents within the government helped prop up the conspiracy theory that Trump was a Russian agent, and a news outlet partially funded by USAID helped launch the first Trump impeachment. At least one bureaucrat openly described himself as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html">part of the resistance</a> inside the Trump administration.”  
The rot runs deep, and rooting it out won’t be easy. To make matters worse, the deep state has allies outside the government who are working hard to prevent Trump from changing the system.
<h3>The Freak Out</h3>
Democrats have taken to the streets of Washington, D.C., to protest Trump’s restructuring of the federal government, acting as though cutting waste and abuse from the bureaucracy amounted to a national crisis.
“People need to know how serious this is,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) whose congressional district is home to more than 70,000 federal workers, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/power-democratic-lawmakers-take-streets-rally-opposition-trump-rcna190842">said at a recent protest</a>. “You tear down the federal government, you also tear down our whole society. If you eliminate one of the three branches of government, you can’t run a country.”
Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aren’t tearing down the entire government, and they’re not even eliminating one of the three branches. Rather, they’re making the administrative state — effectively a fourth, extra-constitutional branch of government — accountable to the people’s elected president. 
The Democrats and their allies don’t like it because it involves rooting the woke activism out of the entrenched bureaucracy. 
For example, USAID had been funding Marxist “equity,” transgender activism, and climate alarmism, the woke ideologies voters rejected in November. USAID had partnered with the Open Society Foundations, the massive funding apparatus of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros and his son Alex. 
In one particularly egregious example, <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/07/usaid-george-soros-foundation-bankrolled-news-outlet-spurred-first-trump-impeachment/">USAID and Open Society funded</a> the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. This news outlet attacked conservatives for criticizing Soros and released the report that spurred the first Trump impeachment in 2019.
Conservatives should be familiar with George and Alex Soros. Soros and his son have bankrolled almost every leftist cause you’ve ever heard of, and the Open Society Foundations played a major role in propping up the leftist groups that called the shots in the Biden administration.
As my book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woketopus-Money-Manipulating-Federal-Government/dp/B0DFVK74TZ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government</a>,” reveals, woke activist groups fed staff into the Biden administration and pressed the administration to implement woke policies. Scratch the surface of any Biden policy, and you’re likely to find activists with the Center for American Progress, the Human Rights Campaign, or the Natural Resources Defense Council. America’s largest unions, such as the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees Industrial Union, also had tremendous access and influence in the administration.
Now, those same groups are gearing up to defend the deep state, and they’re doing more than just picketing outside USAID.
<div id="attachment_876335" style="width: 828px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-876335" class="size-large wp-image-876335" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2198968410-818x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 11: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, joined by his son X Musk, delivers remarks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is to sign an executive order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) &quot;workforce optimization initiative,&quot; which, according to Trump, will encourage agencies to limit hiring and reduce the size of the federal government. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)" width="818" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2198968410-818x576.jpg 818w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2198968410-300x211.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2198968410-768x541.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2198968410.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" />Andrew Harnik/Getty Images</div>
<h3>Anti-DOGE Lawsuits</h3>
Many activist groups have sued to block DOGE and SpaceX founder Elon Musk from accessing federal data.
The AFL-CIO; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; and the SEIU — three of the major unions that helped fund the Woketopus and influenced policy in the Biden administration — <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-unions-sue-doge-over-department-of-labor-data-access/">joined other unions in suing</a> DOGE and the Department of Labor to prevent DOGE from accessing the department’s data. A federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing the data. 
“DOGE seeks to gain access to sensitive systems before courts can stop them, dismantle agencies before Congress can assert its prerogatives in the federal budget, and intimidate and threaten employees who stand in their way,” the lawsuit states. “The results have already been catastrophic.” 
Democracy Forward is representing the unions <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/01/29/who-are-nonprofits-sued-block-trumps-federal-funding-freeze/">in the lawsuit</a>. Marc Elias, the left-leaning election lawyer who tried to reverse the results of the 2024 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, serves on the board of this group.
<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277055/gov.uscourts.dcd.277055.1.0.pdf">The SEIU also sued</a> Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, aiming to block Treasury from sharing data with DOGE. A federal judge <a href="https://fedscoop.com/judge-blocks-treasury-payments-systems-from-doge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">limited DOGE employees’ access</a> to the data in a ruling Thursday. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general, not to be left out, filed a similar case Friday, and a judge <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-doge-lawsuit-attorneys-general-5733f8985e4cf7ad5b233fddefef4d01" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued a preliminary injunction</a> blocking DOGE access Saturday.
<h3>Blocking Key Reforms</h3>
In addition to DOGE, Trump has directed key reforms to the administrative state that would make the bureaucracy more accountable to the people’s elected president. Schedule F, for instance, creates a new classification of federal employee that makes bureaucrats who make policy easier to fire. 
The Woketopus has taken aim at Schedule F. 
Governing for Impact, a shadowy activist group that advised top Biden administration bureaucrats after getting launched through the dark money network established by Arabella Advisors, released a memo outlining what it calls the “<a href="https://governingforimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Legal-Vulnerabilities-of-Schedule-F-2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legal Vulnerabilities of Schedule F</a>.” This document appears to be a roadmap to inspire lawsuits against the reform.
On Jan. 29, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, one of America’s largest unions and an arm of the Woketopus, teamed up with the American Federation of Government Employees — which represents 800,000 federal employees — to sue President Trump and the Office of Personnel Management. The same left-leaning law firm that <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/01/29/who-are-nonprofits-sued-block-trumps-federal-funding-freeze/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">represented left-leaning nonprofits</a> in attempting to block Trump’s funding freeze is representing AFSCME and AFGE.
AFSCME and AFGE claim that Trump’s executive orders aim to “politicize the civil service,” but these orders aim to prevent woke bureaucrats from undermining the president’s ability to deliver on his promises to the American people.
<h3>&#8216;Deferred Resignation&#8217;</h3>
President Trump has reversed policies that allow federal employees to work remotely. He has required all staff to return to work, but he also gave them an offramp should they refuse to return to the office. The Office of Management and Budget has offered to pay federal employees through the end of the year if they resign before Feb. 6.
The AFSCME and a few other unions filed a lawsuit to block President Trump’s offer. The lawsuit asks the court to issue a stay to block the deferred resignation practice. On Feb. 6, a federal judge <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-request-block-trumps-federal-government-employee-buyout/story?id=118535508" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extended the deadline</a> through Feb. 10.
As of Feb. 14, more than 75,000 employees have indicated they will resign, <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/75000-federal-workers-trump-buyout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to News Nation</a>. That represents over 3% of the workforce.
<h3>Constitutional Acid</h3>
Democrats and the Woketopus may act as though Trump’s reforms are the end of the world, but the president’s acts arguably represent a long-overdue attempt to bring a metastasized administrative state to heel.
As the head of the executive branch, Trump should have the ability to reform the federal government, and Congress should aid him in this task. The president has taken strong steps in the right direction, but the Woketopus’ response shows that the path ahead will not be easy.
The deep state isn’t just a threat to Trump — it’s an acid corroding the constitutional structure of our government. Americans cannot afford to forget just how corrupt the bureaucracy is, and we should support Trump’s goal of rooting out the deep state.
* * *
Tyler O&#8217;Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: &#8220;<a href="https://amzn.to/3Kmvi0u" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center</a>,&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woketopus-Money-Manipulating-Federal-Government/dp/B0DFVK74TZ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government</a>.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Capitol Building from Pennsylvania Avenue

Inside The Resistance: How Washington’s Deep State Counters Trump’s Policies

Inside The Resistance: How Washington's Deep State Counters Trump's Policies

Alex Soros

Deep State

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Federal Government

George Soros

The Swamp

Washington D.C.

The following is an excerpt from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Bud-Light-Americas/dp/1668070901" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last Call For Bud Light:</a> The Fall and Future of America’s Favorite Beer,” by Anson Frericks (Threshold Editions/Simon &amp; Schuster).
* * *
The wait for the seven-floor elevator ride was taking longer than usual. Anheuser-Busch had recently moved its sales and marketing team from St. Louis to New York City, and more and more people were crammed into the glitzy new office. One of the elevators was broken, and a mob was waiting in the lobby. I decided to take the stairs.
I was on my way to meet Brendan Whitworth, the North American CEO of Anheuser-Busch. The meeting was critical. We had an opportunity for a partnership that could breathe new life into a company that had entered something of a midlife crisis. I’d crunched the numbers. The capital outlay would be negligible, but the profits could be immense. Anheuser-Busch, where I was President of U.S. Sales &amp; Distribution, could make millions.
As I rounded the corner from the stairwell to Brendan’s desk, the office décor suddenly struck me with new meaning. A turn-of-the-century advertisement hawking Anheuser-Busch’s 10-cent Faust beers hung on an iron-textured wall. The rare visual indulgence among what was otherwise an efficient, modern, glass-walled space. Nearby, an oil painting of a bottle of Budweiser rested in an oversized gilded frame, just barely missing the exposed pipes in the ceiling above. It was the perfect juxtaposition of the old and new. The vintage and modern. Even the lighting was marked by contrast. Naked industrial Edison bulbs hung from the ceiling aside sculptures made from dangling Bud Light bottles that looked like they might have been enjoyed at a backyard barbecue the weekend before. The ways of the old guard and the new.
The company had gone through many big transitions. From generations of ownership by the famed Busch family to the takeover by the unstoppable global beer conglomerate InBev. From opulence and Clydesdales to efficiency and zero-based budgeting. From Saint Louis to New York. Somehow, all of it was captured on my way to Brendan’s desk. This could be a turning point, too: Anheuser-Busch could go from a storied brewery whose brands were getting a little flat to something modern, something of-the-moment, something more.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Bud-Light-Americas/dp/1668070901"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-874813 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>
The partnership wasn’t without its risks, of course. The proposed partner was controversial—polarizing even—in some quarters. Some of our customers might be turned off. There might even be boycotts, though I thought the risk was extremely low.
But the upside was huge. It was an expansion opportunity, a chance to introduce ourselves to a new community. To make an impact, in a way that aligned with our mission to create a future with more cheers. We could start out small, see how it went, and hopefully grow our relationship over time. Our partner’s existing fans would grow to become our fans, and vice versa. A partnership to expand our audience, to appeal to a younger, more contemporary crowd.
I made my pitch. The CEO wasn’t convinced. Neither was Legal.
“Denied,” Anheuser-Busch’s Legal &amp; External Affairs Chief, Cesar Vargas, decried. “The reputational risks are simply too high.” Brendan didn’t push back. The partnership was killed on the spot.
You might think I’m describing a conversation in which Bud Light decided not to pursue its ill-fated marketing partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. But I’m not. I’m describing a very real conversation about a different partnership: a proposed distribution partnership with Black Rifle Coffee Company in 2022.
If you haven’t heard, Black Rifle Coffee’s mission is to serve coffee and culture to people who love America. For many customers, it’s the American heartland alternative to Starbucks. Its founder, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, was fed up with the way that Starbucks seemingly caters to the coastal, latte-loving elites. How it pledges to hire refugees over American citizens and promotes progressive politics. Black Rifle would be different. It would be pro-veteran, pro–first responder, pro-America. Its name is a reference to the black training rifle issued to troops at boot camp. It hires veterans and military spouses. It hosts archery tournaments for disabled vets. For a time, the founder let one of his down-on-his-luck former military colleagues crash in a trailer on the office grounds. It is a brand for someone who wants a drink that respects freedom and the people who fight for it, that doesn’t hold rural and blue-collar workers in contempt.
The company’s coffee, by the way, is also quite good.
The combination of strong product and targeted marketing was proving explosive. In 2019, Black Rifle sold $82 million worth of coffee. By year end 2021, that figure had ballooned to $233 million. The company had opened a handful of brick-and-mortar coffee shops where baristas slung handcrafted drinks with colorful names like a “camo latte” with Irish cream and mint and what I presume must be a highly caffeinated beverage called only “jet fuel.” But the real growth potential was in selling ready-to-drink cans and bagged coffee through retail channels. In certain markets, Black Rifle was already on the shelves at Walmart, Publix, 7-Eleven, Sam’s Club, and more. But it wanted to expand.
That’s where Anheuser-Busch could come in. Since the end of Prohibition, Anheuser-Busch has invested hundreds of millions of dollars building out a world-class distribution network. Hundreds of wholesalers already managed routes to deliver Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois, and other Anheuser-Busch brands to these very same grocers, convenience stores, and retail outlets. They also distributed non–Anheuser-Busch brands like energy drinks, waters, and teas.
It would be a match made in heaven: Anheuser-Busch could distribute Black Rifle Coffee’s coffee cans on the same trucks that carried Bud Light. Black Rifle Coffee wouldn’t have to set up its own logistics chain, and Anheuser-Busch could grow its revenue.
But in January 2022, Anheuser-Busch’s top brass didn’t see it that way. Black Rifle Coffee may have been beloved by veterans and the Fox News crowd, but what would the New York City illuminati think of Brendan when news of the partnership spread at cocktail hours and dinner parties? Of course, they didn’t frame it that way. Instead, they invoked the mantra of “reputational risk” as though Anheuser-Busch’s customers would suddenly revolt if they knew that the truck that carried their beer to the store had also carried Black Rifle Coffee. &#8230;
At that moment, I knew that the company where I had spent eleven years had changed. And not for the better. Anheuser-Busch’s executives weren’t evaluating a partnership that could reach new customers and increase shareholder value, they were concerned because Black Rifle Coffee didn’t jive with their personal values and those held by their progressive stakeholders. They had lost touch with Anheuser-Busch’s brand. With its mission. With its consumers. And that’s what set the company up for a much bigger, much more public failure nearly a year later.
* * *
Excerpted from &#8220;<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Last-Call-for-Bud-Light/Anson-Frericks/9781668070901" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LAST CALL FOR BUD LIGHT</a>,&#8221; by Anson Frericks, published by Threshold Editions, a division of Simon &amp; Schuster. Copyright © 2025 by Anson Frericks.
Anson Frericks is the founder of Athletic Capital and the cofounder, with Vivek Ramaswamy, of Strive Asset Management. Prior to founding Strive, he led finance, sales, and marketing operations as president of Anheuser-Busch Sales &amp; Distribution Company. Anson is a frequent guest on Fox Business, CNBC, Fox &amp; Friends, Jesse Watters Primetime, and NewsNation, and his op-eds have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and more. He lives with his family in Cincinnati and received his BA from Yale and his MBA from Harvard.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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