Georgia’s Youngest Mayor Lasts Ten Months Before History Comes Calling Again

Jayden Williams of Stockbridge made history in January as Georgia’s youngest mayor. Ten months later the City Council made a different kind of history by removing him.Williams, now 23, ran as a nonpartisan in the municipal election and has presented himself as independent of the two major parties. He has no official party registration. 

His background tells another story. 

He worked in the Georgia State House for Democratic Rep. Lydia Glaize and has publicly cited her as a former boss. He served as State President of the Georgia NAACP Youth & College Division. In interviews he described himself as “the Obama of my family.”

The City of Stockbridge confirms that the City Council has taken formal action concerning the Office of Mayor. "The Mayor has been removed from office," the city said in a statement on Sunday.

Williams faced accusations that he used a city purchasing card for more than $4,000 in personal expenses, including restaurant meals, clothing, haircuts and a movie. He reportedly spent $2,600 on gas and used a city vehicle for personal purposes. 

City workers noticed the unusual transactions and notified management and the city’s legal team. 

According to Williams’ testimony, he did not intend to use city funds and later repaid the money. He claimed the city-issued card looked similar to his personal card and said he later replaced the cards to avoid future confusion. 

Separately, Williams was accused of exchanging sexually suggestive messages and explicit images with an 18-year-old male high school student. So he likes young boys.

A police report noted that Williams did not commit any criminal violations because the student was considered an adult under Georgia law. Police referred the matter for administrative review over potential policy and ethical concerns about an elected official's interactions with a student in what investigators described as a city-affiliated mentorship program.

Williams said he met the individual before taking office and that the student never participated in the city’s "Mayor for a Day" program, which he described as not a mentorship program. "The individual was 18 years old at the time of our communication, meaning we were both adults. I met this individual on November 30, 2025, and our online communication occurred before I was sworn into office in January 2026," he said.

Williams campaigned for mayor while still attending Clark Atlanta University. He was stripped of certain official privileges on July 17 as the investigation unfolded. He was never criminally charged, but a scumcrumpet nevertheless.

The experiment in historic youth leadership is over. Stockbridge will now try competence.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Robert Kraft, Gillette Stadium Boot Macklemore From Ed Sheeran Tour Over ‘Free Palestine’ Rant

Anti Semite Pro-Terrorist Scumcrumpet Macklemore

There was a time when attending a concert involved listening to music. You bought a ticket, found your seat, endured the opening act and waited for the person you had actually paid to see. You probably had no idea what the performer's political leanings were.

This increasingly quaint arrangement appears to have become unacceptable to the blatant anti-Semite who calls himself Macklemore.

The creep has discovered that there are, in fact, limits to the amount of political activism an audience may be expected to consume along with its entertainment. He is learning this after being removed from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. stadium tour following a series of political speeches and performances attacking Israel and U.S. immigration policy.

The controversy began at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4 and 5, where Macklemore opened for Sheeran, whose judgment is on par with a sand worm. Rather than confining himself to warming up the crowd, Macklemore used the enormous platform to deliver a political message about ICE and Israel. He wore the Nazi equivalent of a swastika known as a keffiyeh. He displayed footage of destruction in Gaza, performed "Hind’s Hall" and led the audience in "Free Palestine" chants.

The distinction between a concert and a political rally became rather difficult to locate.

Macklemore has apparently concluded that the opportunity to address thousands of people about the Middle East is simply too valuable to pass up. The difficulty is that the people providing the stage are under no obligation to agree with him, or even to permit their property to become an extension of his political campaign.

That became particularly clear when Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and the Kraft Group, barred Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium. Sheeran is scheduled to play there Sept. 25 and 26. 

Kraft has a particular reason for taking the issue seriously. He founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019 and has spent years campaigning against anti-Jewish hatred. He also appears to believe that criticizing the Israeli government and vilifying Jews are not interchangeable concepts, a distinction that has become surprisingly controversial in some cultural circles. 

Robert Kraft

So let's not pretend that anti-Zionism is different from anti-Semitism; the are interchangeable terms.

Kraft cited Macklemore's recent conduct as well as what he described as a "broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery."

"Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech," Kraft shared in a statement made to ESPN.

"Based on Macklemore's recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran's shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th shows would not be permitted."

This is not entirely an unprecedented position.

In May 2014, Macklemore performed in Seattle wearing a bushy black beard, dark wig and large prosthetic nose, an obvious anti-Semitic trope. Civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, condemned the appearance as resembling historical anti-Jewish caricatures often seen in WWII Nazi posters. 

Macklemore subsequently claimed the costume was a random coincidence, obviously thinking people are morons.

That episode has inevitably returned to the discussion surrounding "Hind’s Hall," particularly because Macklemore's current political performances have been almost entirely concerned with condemning Israel.

There is, of course, a legitimate argument to be made about Palestinian civilians. There is also legitimate room for fierce criticism of the Israeli government. But any serious discussion of the present conflict has to account for the fact that Hamas launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, murdering civilians and taking hostages, thereby setting in motion the war that followed. 

Macklemore's critics argue that this part of the story receives considerably less attention in his performances.

FAFO Macklemore.

Kraft made precisely that point while insisting that sympathy for Palestinians and opposition to Hamas are not mutually exclusive positions.

"This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf," Kraft stated. "But that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization whose horrific actions have caused immeasurable suffering."

This is not an especially radical proposition. It is, in fact, the sort of proposition that ought to be possible to state without causing a cultural emergency.

Kraft went further.

"I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same: peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate," Kraft said.

Macklemore, for his part, responded on social media by blaming venue operators and Kraft for his removal while acknowledging that Sheeran had been put in a difficult position. He rejected Kraft's characterization of his remarks as hate speech and maintained that losing his place on the tour was a price he was prepared to pay.

Perhaps it is.

But there is another price that artists occasionally have to consider. If a performer uses somebody else's stadium, somebody else's tour and somebody else's audience as the setting for an extended political intervention, the people who own the stadium and organize the tour may eventually decide that they have had enough. 

That is not censorship. It is the rather ordinary exercise of deciding who gets to use your property. They have that right.

Eight of the remaining ten U.S. dates on Sheeran's tour were scheduled for NFL stadiums. The tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, confirmed that Macklemore had been removed from all remaining U.S. dates after multiple venue operators refused to allow him to appear.

There is something revealing about the entire episode. Macklemore believed that his political convictions entitled him to use a commercial entertainment platform to broadcast them. The venue operators apparently believed that they were entitled to say no.

The second position remains surprisingly popular among people who own stadiums, and is likely supported by people who own private property, as the law says they do.

Macklemore may regard the loss of the tour as the cost of speaking his mind. That is his prerogative. But the ability to speak does not create an obligation on everyone else to provide you with a microphone, a stadium and thousands of captive listeners.

Even rock stars, it seems, occasionally encounter the boundaries of someone else's property.

Oh, and let's not forget how much Ed Sheeran sucks too.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Talarico’s Kindergarten Republic Leaves Grown-Ups Reaching for the Door

Texas Democrat comrade James Talarico, currently trying to talk his way past Attorney General Ken Paxton and into the Senate seat held by John Cornyn, stared into a camera and offered the country a governing model that sounds like it was workshopped during circle time and cookies.

“What if we ran our world like we run a kindergarten classroom? Because at the end of the day, aren’t we all just really big kindergartners?” the asked.

Voters who still think adulthood involves mortgages, jury duty, and the occasional original thought did not greet this as statesmanship. They treated it like a substitute teacher who lost control of the room.

“He’s just so … soft. I hate it,” Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet replied. “How is it possible that a grown man thinks this is a winning idea? Where have all the men gone? It’s baffling,”The Blaze contributor T.J. Moe added.

“Really Big Kindergartner is actually the best description I’ve heard of what Talarico looks like,” another added.

Conservative pundit Chris Loesch warned, “Never let this gelatinous creep around a kindergartner regardless how he identifies.” 

The pitch is consistent with a politics that already prefers citizens as dependents. First the state wants to manage your doctor. Then it wants to manage your snack and your feelings. Talarico simply said the quiet part with finger paint and mucous.

His campaign has also spent considerable energy pretending his earlier creepy record on children and gender ideology never happened. That record included support for giving young children access to cross-sex hormones and surgeries, plus a vote for a measure that would treat parents who refused to play along as child abusers. “Some of us, I think, really do consider this abusive behavior … an unwillingness to identify, or, to acknowledge a child’s gender identity, we consider that abusive to the child, abusive and destructive,” he said in 2019.

On Fox News he announced a late conversion [leaving out the real reason: political aspirations]. He no longer believes there are six genders [unless elected]. He also said he would oppose biological males in girls’ and women’s sports if their presence affected “safety and fairness.”

What a transparent scumcrumpet.

So the man who once wanted the government to overrule parents of actual five-year-olds now wants the rest of the country to sit on the rug while he explains how grown-ups should live. Texas will decide whether it prefers a Senate that treats voters like adults or one that hands out gold stars and timeout chairs.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Randi Weingarten Has Entered the CDL Wars

AFT President discovers another oppressed class in need of immediate union protection: people with commercial driver’s licenses

The American Federation of Teachers has apparently decided that teaching children is no longer a sufficiently broad mission. I mean, after all, why stop at teachers, school bus drivers, and education policy when there are 17 million CDL (Commercial Drivers License) records sitting around just begging for union intervention?

Yes, Randi Weingarten is now involved in a lawsuit over the federal government's efforts to obtain commercial driver’s license records.

And if you are wondering what this has to do with the American Federation of Teachers, don't worry. The answer eventually arrives, although it takes a scenic route through the Democratic Party's favorite subjects: immigration, ICE, privacy, government power, and the mysterious belief that every federal database becomes sacred the moment someone proposes checking it.

Unions were originally created to protect American workers.

Then many of them discovered politics.

Then they discovered progressive politics.

And eventually some discovered that their membership rolls could double as a taxpayer-funded focus group for every Democratic policy imaginable.

The AFT says it represents about 13,500 transportation workers, including school bus drivers and maintenance drivers, many of whom hold CDLs.

Fair enough, but there is a slight complication.

These are not merely driver's licenses for people operating a family sedan. Commercial driver's licenses are used by people driving enormous vehicles capable of turning an ordinary Tuesday morning commute into a national emergency.

And some Americans have already paid the ultimate price for failures involving improperly qualified commercial drivers.

Marcus Coleman testified before Congress earlier this month after a 2024 crash caused by an illegal alien CDL driver left his 5-year-old daughters with severe brain injuries.

That's the part of the story where the adults in the room might reasonably ask whether every person entrusted with a massive commercial vehicle is actually qualified to operate it.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy apparently had the same crazy thought.

The administration shut down scores of commercial trucking schools over serious English proficiency problems among their students.

Apparently, federal officials would like commercial drivers to understand the language used on the road.

This has proven to be a controversial position.

The AFT responded by joining an ongoing lawsuit against the Department of Transportation.

The union explained:

..[T]he AFT moved to join an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation, seeking to stop the agency from seizing the personal records of 17 million commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the nonprofit that maintains the national database of driver records. The AFT is represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and Murphy Anderson PLLC.

The AFT says those records contain sensitive information, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, license numbers, and state of record.

That's a legitimate privacy concern.

But then Randi Weingarten entered the chat, apparently having been alerted that the federal government was attempting to enforce something.

“Many AFT members require a CDL to work as school bus drivers or Department of Transportation employees, and we must protect them and their privacy against the vindictive nature of this president and his cronies,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Just like we sued the Department of Government Efficiency for trying to mine personal information from millions of working-class Americans, today we intervene against the U.S. government’s attempt to strong-arm the AAMVA to turn over CDL holders’ private information. This illegal demand puts millions of people’s personal data up for grabs without their consent, people who had no choice but to provide their personal information to the states so they could simply work, and who have no way to remove it from the database.”

And there it is.

The AFT has apparently decided that the appropriate response to concerns about commercial driver qualifications is to make sure nobody looks too closely at the paperwork.

This is particularly reassuring for anyone whose child rides a school bus.

The federal government wants access to CDL records.

The AFT wants the government to back away from the records.

Twenty-two states, including Illinois, are suing because they apparently have an old-fashioned belief that commercial drivers should be properly licensed and that public safety might be worth considering.

What an amazing concept.

Of course, Weingarten has never been shy about getting involved in causes far beyond the traditional boundaries of a teachers union. Next she'll be trying to woo the National Cemetery Board of Trustees [no such organization--I made it up] in order to grab even more votes from the dead.

There have been anti-ICE campaigns, political battles involving corporations, international trips, and now the exciting new world of CDL database litigation.

At this rate, the next AFT convention may need to be held at an international summit because the union has apparently run out of domestic issues.

Imagine being an American teacher who pays union dues because you want better pay, better working conditions, and someone fighting for you at the bargaining table.

Then you open the newspaper and discover that your union is helping litigate a federal dispute involving 17 million commercial driver's license records.

Somewhere, a teacher is probably asking, "Did I authorize this?" and "Do I want the union to piss my money away for a cause I don't care about?"

And somewhere else, a union official is preparing a 47-page response explaining why the answer is none of your dadgum business.

The truly bizarre part is that the AFT's argument is being made in the name of working Americans while the larger dispute involves whether the government should be able to identify commercial drivers who may not meet basic licensing requirements. Apples and mangos. 

That includes drivers operating school buses. You know buses carrying children.

Children who generally have very little say in who gets behind the wheel.

There is a certain dark comedy in watching an organization dedicated to protecting children become deeply concerned that the government might investigate the qualifications of people operating vehicles around children.

But perhaps this is simply the modern union movement.

Protect the database.

Protect the driver.

Protect the politics.

And if anyone asks whether the driver can actually understand the road signs, immediately call the lawyers.

The old AFT protected teachers.

The new AFT apparently has enough time to protect 17 million CDL records, battle the federal government, fight ICE, weigh in on corporate politics, travel internationally, and somehow still find time to send out emails reminding teachers that their dues are due.

At this point, perhaps the next logical step is for the AFT to start representing air-traffic controllers, deep-sea fishermen, nuclear submarine crews, and anyone else who happens to possess a government-issued credential.

After all, once you've decided that 17 million commercial driver's license holders are your responsibility, there isn't much left to unionize.

AFT: Fighting for educators, transportation workers, and apparently anyone else whose paperwork the government wants to inspect.

Perhaps AFT should stand for: Any Freaking Thing.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Iran-Backed Houthis Capture Strategic Red Sea Island, Because Apparently One Middle East Crisis Wasn't Enough

Dance of the Fandango Cucaracha

The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen have apparently decided that controlling a country was not ambitious enough. On Friday, they declared that they had seized Perim, a small volcanic island sitting in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most important shipping chokepoints connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

Because when you're an Iranian proxy militia, nothing says "regional stability" quite like grabbing strategically important real estate in the middle of an international shipping lane.

The announcement came just one day after the Houthis seized the port city of Mokha with assistance from Iran.

Sources within Yemen's internationally recognized, but largely exiled, government confirmed the Houthi takeover of Perim. They also said the insurgents had seized Dhubab, the port city closest to the island.

Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen's government and has a rather obvious interest in keeping the Red Sea open for its oil shipments, responded Friday by launching airstrikes against the airport in Mokha.

It remained unclear whether those airstrikes would be followed by the slightly more complicated step of actually trying to take the city back.

Maj. Gen. Tareq Saleh, a commander in the Yemeni government's armed forces, said he was forced to order a "strategic retreat" from the Houthi advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb area.

"The armed forces in the western coast paid a heavy price — martyrs and wounded — over the past days as they confronted the Houthi attack planned by Iran, and supported by it," he said.

Apparently "strategic retreat" is the Middle Eastern military equivalent of "We are going to let them have this one."

A senior Yemeni military official told the Associated Press that his government was "stunned that the Saudi air force did not try to prevent the capture of Mokha" by "striking the Houthis as they advanced."

The official suspected the Saudis needed American approval for such defensive airstrikes and never got it. He also blamed a "lack of coordination" among forces allied with his government, giving the Houthis a "priceless opportunity" to seize strategically important coastal territory.

Nothing says geopolitical competence quite like watching an enemy advance toward a critical shipping chokepoint while everyone waits for someone else to make a phone call.

According to Axios, Saudi Arabia's de facto chief executive, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, personally called President Donald Trump twice on Thursday and "urged him to launch strikes against the Houthis."

Trump reportedly declined, at least partly because his administration does not want the United States dragged directly into Yemen's long and exceptionally ugly civil war, which has now been going on for more than 12 years.

U.S. officials reportedly told their Saudi counterparts that Trump wants American forces concentrating on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

Which, considering the Middle East currently has enough potential flashpoints to fill a large military planner's worst nightmare, is probably not the craziest position in Washington this week.

Another problem for Yemen's government is that it has lost the support of the United Arab Emirates, which fell out with Saudi Arabia in January over UAE support for a separatist faction in southern Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council, or STC.

The STC had proven to be an effective anti-Houthi force. Unfortunately, it also had the minor disadvantage of being at odds with the Presidential Leadership Council, the Yemeni government supported by Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis forced the UAE out of Yemen, and the STC subsequently decided it wasn't interested in fighting outside the territory it hopes to separate from the rest of Yemen.

So, to recap, the anti-Houthi coalition has managed to become sufficiently divided that the Houthis are now taking strategic territory while everyone else sorts out who is supposed to be fighting whom.

Iran, naturally, is thrilled.

Tehran has been desperate to open another front in the conflict and increase economic pressure on the United States and its allies. On Friday, Iran demanded that Saudi Arabia end its "blockade" of Yemen and return to peace negotiations with the Houthis.

A spokesman for Iran's terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps then raised the stakes by saying any future negotiations with the United States should include Yemen as well as Lebanon, another country where Iranian proxy forces are active.

Because nothing says "peace talks" like showing up with a shopping list of additional countries where you've helped create disasters.

The Houthis, meanwhile, insisted Friday that they don't intend to shut down the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for all international shipping. Apparently Saudi Arabia is the only customer they have in mind.

"Freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab are safe and orderly," promised Houthi Politburo member Hazem al-Assad.

This is certainly reassuring, assuming one has recently suffered a severe head injury.

Oil markets aren't nearly as confident.

Losing the Saudi oil shipments moving through the Red Sea would be a significant blow to the global economy. There is also the small matter of the Houthi track record when it comes to attacking ships. Their definition of "we only target the ships we mean to target" has not always inspired universal confidence.

Benchmark oil prices surged above $100 per barrel this week before retreating somewhat Friday, still finishing the week up 9 percent. Saudi oil exports were down 23 percent in August, falling to their lowest level since 1990.

"Once again, it is geopolitical fears driving everything," said Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank on Friday morning.

"In terms of the latest Middle East headlines, yesterday saw growing concerns over the safety of Red Sea shipping, and the potential knock-on effects for Saudi oil exports, as Houthi rebels captured Yemen’s port city of Mokha, which is located close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the southern end of the Red Sea, Reid said.

The Houthis have also continued attacking Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure directly, despite warnings from Pakistan that it might intervene to defend the Saudis under the trilateral Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed in August 2026 between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Then came another ominous development.

Satellite images prompted as-yet unconfirmed reports Friday that the Houthis had attacked Saudi Arabia's vital East-West oil pipeline, a 750-mile artery carrying crude from refineries in Abqaiq to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

The Houthis have targeted the pipeline before during clashes with Saudi Arabia. Following an April attack, the Saudis repaired the line and increased its capacity to approximately 7 million barrels per day.

Yanbu has been loading roughly 3.7 million barrels per day since the beginning of September as Saudi Arabia attempts to route more of its oil exports away from the increasingly problematic Strait of Hormuz.

Satellite imagery showed a massive plume of smoke, but the Saudi government has not confirmed an attack on the East-West Pipeline or provided details about possible damage.

For now, then, the situation is still developing.

But Iran has its proxies advancing, the Houthis are sitting on increasingly valuable territory, Saudi Arabia is trying to protect its oil routes, Yemen's government is retreating, America's allies are asking Washington what to do, and oil traders are watching all of it while reaching for the antacids.

In other words, just another quiet Friday in the neighborhood.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Nation Relocates Kids Of Dictator Who Massacred 200,000 To Ohio, Then Routes $1.8 Million In Medicare Their Way

COLUMBUS, OH - In another triumph of compassion, screening, and paperwork, the children of Somali dictator Siad Barre have been living quietly in Ohio for decades after their father was overthrown in 1991. 

Barre's regime is alleged to be responsible for killing as many as 200,000 people. A family-linked home health company later collected more than $1.8 million in Medicare funding. 

Ayanle Mohamed Siad and his sister, Deka Mohamed Siad, settled in Columbus after the family dictatorship collapsed. Deka and her late husband, former Somali ambassador Abdikarim Ali Omar, ran Vanguard Home Health Care, a company that received more than $1.8 million in Medicare funding, according to the New York Post. The company closed after Omar's death in 2021. 

Officials have not explained which box on the immigration form covers "child of the man who ran a 21-year slaughterhouse." They have explained that the billing looked fine.

Barre seized power in Somalia for roughly 21 years before being overthrown. Ayanle has been accused of serving as head of Barre's administration in the final years of the dictatorship. He currently lives in a $350,000 house with his wife and son, and his presence has left many in the Somali community outraged.

Survivors of the old regime now live in the same metro area as the old regime's children, which immigration planners apparently filed under "diversity."

“Siad Barre and his men committed so many war crimes so I was shocked to see his son [Ayanle] in the mosque enjoying his freedom,” one Somali, Ali-Guban Mohamed, told the New York Post. “My family were rounded up in a small township called Agabur and executed. Their bodies were put into a well, and that was happening across the board.”

“It was a 21-year military dictatorship, one man rule and a bunch of his men. Siad Barre dictated where you could go, where you could live, where you can travel,” he continued. 

Mohammad, who came to the US after Barre ordered the massacre of civilians in the Isaaq clan, said that “not a single person had been held accountable for the genocide that took place,” under Barre’s rule. “It feels very bad to know Ayanle is here. Others are scared to speak out but I don’t care. People need to know the truth. He was supposed to be the one who took over from his father, like Saddam Hussein’s son.”

American taxpayers, meanwhile, were held accountable right on schedule. Medicare sent the money. The house got bought. The mosque visits continued. The genocide file stayed in the "not our department" cabinet. 

Despite his atrocities, Barre is celebrated by the Somali Museum of Ohio, which has referred to him as its “honorable grandfather.” 

And let's also remember, AOC and Zohran Mamdani laughed out freaking loud at the 911 Memorial event. Of course, this has nothing to do with this story, but I had to mention it.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Conservatives Finally Find Yet Another Reason to Cancel Netflix

Netflix Discovers That Mocking a Murdered Conservative on the Anniversary of His Assassination Is Apparently Not Great for Customer Retention

Conservatives' latest Netflix boycott didn't exactly come out of leftist field [pardon the pun]. It's the result of years of cultural grievances, political battles, questionable children's programming, and now a social-media post that somehow managed to combine a much-loved murdered conservative activist, a neck wound, and a promotional campaign for a British gangster show.

What could possibly go wrong?

On September 10, 2026, the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Netflix's UK & Ireland account decided it was the perfect time to promote The Gentlemen Season 2 with the caption:

“Nearly did himself a neck injury.”

Charlie [I cannot bring myself to formally calling him Kirk], of course, was shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.

Conservatives on social media responded with the traditional consumer feedback mechanism of the modern age: canceling their subscriptions and posting screenshots to prove they had done it.

Figures including Libs of TikTok, Jack Posobiec, and Rudy Giuliani called for a boycott. I didn't because I was oblivious of the situation at the time since I have a life and don't live on social media.

Netflix, apparently realizing that this was not going to be one of those promotional campaigns where everyone simply shrugs and watches the show, insisted conservatives had gotten the joke completely wrong. Both sides of the aisle apparently have their own scolds who scour the internet to find the latest offense.

Anyway, the company called the interpretation “inaccurate and ludicrous,” explaining that the caption referred to a scene in which a character whips his head around at a wedding.

Which is certainly one explanation.

The post was not taken down.

And while Netflix may have been technically correct about what the caption referred to, the timing turned out to be about as strategically brilliant as announcing a half-price fireworks sale outside a gasoline station. What a pile of dolt bags.

For Charlie's supporters, September 10 was already a painful anniversary. Seeing Netflix use the phrase “neck injury” in a promotional post that landed on that exact date understandably struck many conservatives as another example of a company that simply does not understand why people are angry.

And Then There's the Rest of the Netflix Problem

The funny thing is that conservatives didn't need Netflix to post the “neck injury” line.

They already had a pretty substantial file folder labeled Reasons We Don't Like Netflix.

For years, conservatives have complained about the company's approach to children's programming and LGBTQ themes, in the spirit of a grooming maneuver. 

Critics, including Elon Musk in 2025, pointed to shows such as Dead End: Paranormal Park, The Baby-Sitters Club, and certain CoComelon episodes that include transgender or non-binary characters or themes. One can imagine Veggie Tales' Larry The Cucumber transitioning into a female cucumber named Loretta as this woke nonsense continues.

Loretta [formerly Larry] the Cucumber

Conservative reports have claimed that a significant share of Netflix's G- and Y7-rated programming contains LGBTQ content. 

And so the plot sickens.

Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt brought similar complaints to a February 2026 Senate hearing, describing Netflix's children's programming as “woke” and accusing the company of promoting a “transgender ideology.”

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has rejected the idea that the company has a political agenda, arguing that its enormous catalog simply reflects a wide range of stories.

Because apparently the solution to a culture war is to make approximately 7,000 television shows and then insist nobody should notice any patterns.

Netflix also has a multi-year production deal with Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions, originally signed in 2018.

Susan Rice, a former Obama administration official, sits on Netflix's board of mind controllers.

Conservatives became even more suspicious during the proposed 2025-2026 Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, with some MAGA influencers portraying the deal as “the Obamas taking over media.”

The bid ultimately failed amid political pressure and a competing offer.

But by then, conservatives had already filed the transaction under Things That Somehow Make Netflix Even More Netflixish--say that three times fast on helium.

The Politics Don't Help

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has donated heavily to Democratic causes and candidates.

Critics have also pointed to Netflix's statements following former thug and drug addict George Floyd's death and what they regard as a catalog heavily tilted toward progressive positions on race, gender, family, and other cultural issues.

From the conservative perspective, the problem isn't simply that Netflix has left-wing programming. It's that conservatives believe Netflix has spent years behaving as though there is only one acceptable political worldview and that anyone who disagrees can simply go watch something else. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what millions of people can now do with the press of a button.

Remember Cuties? The 2020 French film generated a massive boycott campaign over its sexualized depiction of young girls. That controversy never completely disappeared from conservative memory.

Apparently Netflix has discovered that people on the internet possess something remarkably dangerous: Screenshots.

Adding another layer to the situation, a Florida attorney general lawsuit filed around the same time as the Kirk anniversary controversy alleges deceptive data collection involving minors.

That case is focused primarily on privacy and advertising rather than the culture-war programming dispute, but it gives conservatives yet another reason to look at Netflix and wonder whether perhaps they would rather spend their $20 somewhere else.

At this point, Netflix may want to consider changing its corporate slogan from “Watch What You Want” to “Please Stop Canceling.” The “neck injury” post didn't create conservative anger toward Netflix, it merely poured gasoline onto a fire that had been burning for years.

For many conservatives, Netflix represents something much larger than a streaming service. It represents a culturally progressive institution that they believe has used entertainment, children's programming, political relationships, and corporate influence to push ideas they reject.

Netflix's response remains essentially the same: We're an entertainment company, not a political organization, and our library contains lots of different stories. 

So cut out the damn wokeness. Every hero in every movie doesn't need to be a person of color, or a woman who, in spite of weighing 100 pounds can beat the snot out of guys twice her size.

Conservatives' response is also essentially the same: That's nice. Here's the unsubscribe button. Buh-byeee.

The only question now is whether Netflix can survive the horrifying consequences of its latest promotional campaign.

Namely, conservatives discovering that canceling a streaming service is considerably easier than canceling cable and that dinner date at your in-laws. [Just kidding.]

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet

Declassified 9/11 Docs Reveal Government Had Apparently Heard About Hijacking Thing

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Trump administration has released a batch of previously classified documents showing that the Clinton and Bush administrations had been warned for years that Al Qaeda was interested in attacking the United States, including the apparently revolutionary concept of hijacking an airplane.

The documents, declassified on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, reportedly contain more than 100 pages of intelligence briefings seen by Presidents Clinton and Bush between February 1998 and September 2001.

Among the revelations is the stunning discovery that American intelligence agencies had actually received information suggesting that terrorists might use passenger aircraft as weapons.

In other words, the government apparently had some idea that something bad could happen involving airplanes, terrorists, and America.

Unfortunately, the information seems to have remained safely inside the federal government, where intelligence warnings are traditionally placed in a secure location where nobody has to do anything about them.

One 1998 intelligence report warned:

"Reporting suggests Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release of Shaykh 'Umar' Abd al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Muhammad Sadiq Awda. One source quoted a senior member of the Gama'at al-Islamiyya (IG) saying that as of late October, the IG has completed planning for an operation in the US on behalf of Bin Ladin but that the operation was on hold. A senior Bin Ladin operative from Saudi Arabia was to visit IG counterparts in the US soon thereafter to discuss options—perhaps including an aircraft hijacking."

Apparently, "perhaps including an aircraft hijacking" was intelligence-speak for "there is a possibility that terrorists could hijack an airplane," a concept that would become considerably less hypothetical three years later.

The documents also reportedly stated that:

"IG leader Islambouli in late September was planning to hijack a US airliner during the 'next couple of weeks' to free 'Abd al-Rahman and the other prisoners,"

The same source reportedly warned that:

"Bid Ladin might implement plans to hijack a US aircraft before the beginning of Ramadan on 20 December and that two members of the operational team had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport."

That last detail seems particularly encouraging, since it suggests terrorists were not merely discussing hijacking airplanes over coffee. They were apparently conducting practice runs at American airports.

The documents further warned that members of Bin Ladin's "network" had "received hijack training."

They also said Bin Ladin and his allies "are moving closer to implementing anti-US attacks at unspecified locations, but we do not know whether they are related to attacks on aircraft."

At some point, one imagines, the government had accumulated enough warning signs to fill an entire filing cabinet.

And yet here we are.

On September 11, 2001, 19 Al Qaeda terrorists ultimately hijacked four passenger planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, another struck the Pentagon, and passengers aboard the fourth plane fought back against the hijackers before it crashed in Pennsylvania.

More than 3,000 people were killed.

Among the dead were hundreds of firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, and other first responders who ran toward the danger while everyone else was desperately trying to get away from it.

Twenty-five years later, the release of these documents provides yet another painful reminder that the warning signs were there.

For decades, Americans have debated whether the government knew something was coming, whether intelligence agencies adequately connected the dots, and whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks.

The newly released documents are unlikely to settle every question.

They do, however, provide another remarkable glimpse into the world of pre-9/11 federal intelligence, where warnings about terrorists planning to hijack American aircraft could apparently make it all the way into the President's Daily Brief without making it quite as far as the people who needed to do something about them.

Because apparently the one thing nobody in Washington had thought to classify was the possibility that terrorists might actually mean what they were saying.

Thanks for following Brain Flushings. Please take time to check out the sponsors on this page--it's one way to support my work and you don't need to purchase anything to do so. Of course, you can Buy Me A Coffee at any amount if you want to support me directly. And finally, don't be afraid to subscribe if you enjoy the blog--it's free, and worth the cost.

Tweet