I am disappointed by Sheeran's cave to the mob. Can't say I'm a fan, but I understand he's very popular and probably has some nice songs. Now he is broken and may never fully recover. Had he stood and said, "Look, we are professional musicians under contract and Macklemore violated the terms of the contract. He hijacked the venue for his own political purpose and subjected fans and ticketholders to his personal advocacy. He can say whatever he wants ON HIS OWN NICKEL." He could have been a mature adult, but he melted down like a teenager. Frankly, the entire "Free Palestine" movement is an immature, adolescent reaction to a very complex problem. Ask them what they mean by the slogan and they can't answer. At least not without calling for the extermination of Israel.
What would happen if the atrocities were projected onto a very large private building visible to the public?
I don’t have the stomach to watch something like that, but I believe it, I shudder with horror. Gen Z has been completely shielded from the realities of that barbarism, CRT warped history lessons and Universities have been bribed to gut teaching about Western Civilization. THEY DON’T KNOW AND THEY DON’T BELIEVE.
Authoritarian states, like Iran, rely on mobs to fake support for the regime and to threaten the majority who would otherwise rise up against the authoritarians. The Bolsheviks used this tactic to gain power as have all other authoritarian regimes, now coming to America
Poor Ed Sheeran made the mistake of apologizing to totalitarians. He should read "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler; they made the prisoners confess to things they never did and then shot them anyway. You can't placate a mob.
The Left has figured out that small groups of crazy people acting in concert can dominate large groups of dispersed unorganized normal people. As long as the crazies can keep the normal people disorganized and afraid, the crazies win (it worked for the Bolsheviks in 1917, who were but a tiny % of the population). That's why the crazies must play whack-a-mole to smash any resistance (killing resistors if need be), and why organized resistance is such a threat to them.
As I post above, this is not a new tactic. I mentioned the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia. But the mob in Paris supporting Robespierre in 1793-94 showed the efficacy of that technique to bolster an authoritarian regime. Of course, Robespierre lost his own head when the mob turned on him. It is a dangerous game to play to make promises to a mob that cannot be upheld
The far Left is not forgiving. If you make them promises and don't keep them, the mob will make you pay. It has happened throughout history. Jesus Christ himself was a victim of implied promises to a mob. His promises may have been rhetorical / allegorical, but the mob was taking him at his word that he would deliver them from the Roman Empire. When he didn't, we know the rest of the story
That's not it at all. The Pharisees, Sanhedrin and Teachers of the Law were jealous, and despite all their knowledge of the Torah, didn't recognize their Messiah. They used the mob to get rid of their "problem."
Indeed, & they’ve known it for a very long time, at least as far back as the Bolsheviks & probably also the French Revolution. Part of the strategy is to so severely punish those who stray from the required dogma that other potential dissenters are discouraged from speaking up, preferring not to be ruined. It’s a lot like how the Mafia ruled entire cities or parts thereof.
This goes back much further than the Bolsheviks and the French Revolution. It's unfortunately an innate part of human nature to conform to the supposed consensus. Just look up the Asch conformity experiments.
I'm not saying this is a new phenomenon... clearly it is not. Merely that the Left ruthlessly and effectively uses this tactic, because it is not in the DNA of the Right to respond in kind.
To clarify, I was replying back to mrdoug1's response, not your original comment.
And the tactic is more prevalent with the Left today, but that's more because they control most of the levers of cultural power in many societies. I think the tactic itself is politically agnostic, though.
Sheeran says he doesn’t want to get political and then gets political, in a small way. His mistake was addressing it. Should have ignored it (why give it air) and just came out and sang. People bought tickets to see and hear him, not some two-bit has been. Macklemore? Does anyone line up to hear him? No. The ‘free Palestine’ crowd can pound sand. Just sing, stop apologizing, and those that refuse to join his tour, well who actually cares.
Look at the bright side. An "Oscar watching" business is about as lame and useless for a serious society as Silly-Putty. You're now a journalist. A serious one.
But it used to be awesome!! When movies were great, the awards shows were fun, we used to have Oscars parties and dress up as a character in one of the Best Movie nominees. We perhaps have forgotten those days since it has been so long. Now all of Hollywood acts like Vanessa Redgrave.
I wish I could take away the hurt of being ostracized by a bunch of clueless liberal sycophants. We lost family members for simply insisting that Trump was the lesser of two evils: Hillary, Biden, 🐪la. Biden, by default of the autopen, may be the worst president ever. We may never recover from the societal and financial costs of absorbing 20 million mostly male unvetted immigrants.
Who’s Macklemore? I had to look him up. Seems like just another washed-up singer, dime a dozen. Sheeran can do better for an opening act. And of course Sheeran had to beg for forgiveness. No balls.
...Macklemore is not some starving artist with an opinion ... he has Owl Records and a clothing line ... he knew where he would be performing and acted accordingly ... he got attention and threw Sheeran under the proverbial financial bus ... he lost nothing ... Sheeran has every right in the world to keep his private thoughts, private ... but professionalism doesn't matter when Macklemore has someone else paying the price.... Sheeran should not have to apologize but that he did makes it worse ... if Sheeran can decide what is unjustifiable and unproportional, then Sheeran can look into the eyes of those mothers who had their children held hostage for ~500 days and tell them about justice and proportion ...
Never heard of any of these people. But a dude breaking down crying in apology is NEVER a good thing.
By the way what do these guys do for a living? I see a photo of an overly-tattooed redheaded guy with a guitar and another photo in a fur boa so I assumes it might be something in either the music or fashion trades?
He's this generation's idea of a music superstar. I've tried to be fair with him, but I have never yet detected a tune of his which is catchy, let alone memorable.
He's the perfect mock superstar for a generation which has no concept of anything lasting or of moral/spiritual significance.
In 2014, I had a round trip ride in a medical taxi with an amiable guy about my age. The trip was three hours long, to my state's medical school, where I had an appointment with another useless doctor.
I was inherently disposed to like the driver; I'm Southern, and so was he. As we pulled away from my place to start the trip, he drawled, "I guess it's time to listen to Dolly." I admit that I was charmed somehow that he'd named his GPS.
I was wrong. He meant Dolly Parton's Greatest Hits. We must have heard it through three times before we got to the medical school. I was pleased with myself for not showing my stress.
As we started back, same thing. Time to listen to Dolly. I couldn't help myself: I sighed deeply. He got the message.
Yeah, why couldn't he have been playing Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks?
Yeah, Ella... point is, at the risk of sounding terminally curmudgeonly (?), the old music was better--more "authentic" (to use a popular word) if you will.. I think even many young'uns would agree with that. Wish it weren't so, but it is.
Today I was in the waiting room at Quest medical lab where I was treated to a screen running non-stop Pharma ads. I found out that there is a new home test for people assigned female at birth who apparently have a cervix. STFU.
I'm part of the Brain Donation program at Mt Sinai Hospital, in New York. I signed up gladly a decade ago. I have had second, long lasting, nearly decisive thoughts about whether I wanted to remain a donor since I got a routine form from them for me to fill out a few years ago.
They wanted to know my preferred pronouns.
I'm like anyone else who is part of any organ donation plan, whether it's donation for transplant or, as in my case, for medical research: we all want our organ donations to make a difference. In my case I want to know that my donation may possibly make some slight difference to the acquisition of medical knowledge.
Can I really expect that of people who want to know my preferred pronouns?
I have never cared for Ed Sheeran, who might be a decent, not a great musician, and this is the reason why. He is very beta, crying on stage because people left him. Grow a spine, dude!
Compare this with John Lennon's "We're more popular than Jesus" touch of verbal diarrhea in 1966. Lennon apologized, but The Beatles did not engage in girly sobs about the organized record burnings, especially in the South, and the laying waste to a significant number of their attending audiences in the United States during their summer 1966 tour, they simply went on with the business of being The Beatles.
I have to ask why anyone would invite a political diatribe at a pop concert. Why did Ed even invite this? Neutral seems to me to be we don’t discuss this period- not allowing one loon loser to spout poisonous nonsense and look the other way until consequences come.
These simple minded fools have been emboldened by our “giving them their space” to throw their little snits. Defund the police is one of their favorites. The fools don’t realize if the police are defunded there is no one to protect them from the vast majority of gun toting, God fearing, Americans.
The Left went sideways, but they are winning b/c of the tyranny of the minority.
Both sides are corrupt, “uni-party” corrupt. Human nature is self-serving as a survival instinct which is why we find ourselves losing even when voting the bad guy out.
As Frank Herbert noted in his novel, Dune, the truth about why government will always be corrupt is:
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible."
We had term limits in our original constitution, but Hamilton, as the tyranny of the minority, used the oldest neo-con trick in the book back in 1787: Be very, very afraid.
The more power we give the gov't (or any institution) the more it will attract the worst among us. Our founders understood this risk and designed a system that would provide both checks and balances, as well as make it "encourage" our better angels.
Hence my default preference for less power and less funding for gov't of any kind. Just say no to such pernicious ideas as "medicare for all", Nat'l healthcare, gov't funded grocery stores, child care etc etc.
On another note, i think about you and keep you in my prayers, Liz. All the best.
Never bend the knee to the Woke Rage Mob, especially now that Woke 2.0 (now with even more anti-semitism!) is the new thing.
I am disappointed by Sheeran's cave to the mob. Can't say I'm a fan, but I understand he's very popular and probably has some nice songs. Now he is broken and may never fully recover. Had he stood and said, "Look, we are professional musicians under contract and Macklemore violated the terms of the contract. He hijacked the venue for his own political purpose and subjected fans and ticketholders to his personal advocacy. He can say whatever he wants ON HIS OWN NICKEL." He could have been a mature adult, but he melted down like a teenager. Frankly, the entire "Free Palestine" movement is an immature, adolescent reaction to a very complex problem. Ask them what they mean by the slogan and they can't answer. At least not without calling for the extermination of Israel.
❤️Palestinian supporters should be tied to a chair and forced to watch the barbarism of October 7th massacre sponsored by Islamists.
Too many of them would get off on it.
What would happen if the atrocities were projected onto a very large private building visible to the public?
I don’t have the stomach to watch something like that, but I believe it, I shudder with horror. Gen Z has been completely shielded from the realities of that barbarism, CRT warped history lessons and Universities have been bribed to gut teaching about Western Civilization. THEY DON’T KNOW AND THEY DON’T BELIEVE.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-09-08/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/netanyahu-got-an-explicit-warning-before-oct-7-he-didnt-brief-security-chiefs/000001a0-7a3b-d7d5-a9fc-7eff3d0f0000
This is what happens when you have no spine.
More violent, as if Woke 1.0 weren't dangerous enough, as demonstrated in 2020 with the Summer of Love
Mob rule strikes again. Just remember, there's never been an intelligent, thoughtful mob.
Authoritarian states, like Iran, rely on mobs to fake support for the regime and to threaten the majority who would otherwise rise up against the authoritarians. The Bolsheviks used this tactic to gain power as have all other authoritarian regimes, now coming to America
I would say that anyone who supports a mob, regardless of the cause, is a totalitarian.
Agreed.... the two go together
Nietzsche: “Madness in individuals is rare; but in crowds it is the norm.”
Poor Ed Sheeran made the mistake of apologizing to totalitarians. He should read "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler; they made the prisoners confess to things they never did and then shot them anyway. You can't placate a mob.
Yes, Koestler's DAN should be required reading in 2026... never more relevant.
They can't read sadly. Too busy studying Critical Race theory.
The Left has figured out that small groups of crazy people acting in concert can dominate large groups of dispersed unorganized normal people. As long as the crazies can keep the normal people disorganized and afraid, the crazies win (it worked for the Bolsheviks in 1917, who were but a tiny % of the population). That's why the crazies must play whack-a-mole to smash any resistance (killing resistors if need be), and why organized resistance is such a threat to them.
As I post above, this is not a new tactic. I mentioned the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia. But the mob in Paris supporting Robespierre in 1793-94 showed the efficacy of that technique to bolster an authoritarian regime. Of course, Robespierre lost his own head when the mob turned on him. It is a dangerous game to play to make promises to a mob that cannot be upheld
Like making the buses free? Or a city-run, city-subsidized grocery store? Maybe Mamdani will have his own Robespierre moment...
The far Left is not forgiving. If you make them promises and don't keep them, the mob will make you pay. It has happened throughout history. Jesus Christ himself was a victim of implied promises to a mob. His promises may have been rhetorical / allegorical, but the mob was taking him at his word that he would deliver them from the Roman Empire. When he didn't, we know the rest of the story
That's not it at all. The Pharisees, Sanhedrin and Teachers of the Law were jealous, and despite all their knowledge of the Torah, didn't recognize their Messiah. They used the mob to get rid of their "problem."
Indeed, & they’ve known it for a very long time, at least as far back as the Bolsheviks & probably also the French Revolution. Part of the strategy is to so severely punish those who stray from the required dogma that other potential dissenters are discouraged from speaking up, preferring not to be ruined. It’s a lot like how the Mafia ruled entire cities or parts thereof.
This goes back much further than the Bolsheviks and the French Revolution. It's unfortunately an innate part of human nature to conform to the supposed consensus. Just look up the Asch conformity experiments.
I'm not saying this is a new phenomenon... clearly it is not. Merely that the Left ruthlessly and effectively uses this tactic, because it is not in the DNA of the Right to respond in kind.
To clarify, I was replying back to mrdoug1's response, not your original comment.
And the tactic is more prevalent with the Left today, but that's more because they control most of the levers of cultural power in many societies. I think the tactic itself is politically agnostic, though.
Are you still on powerline?
I gave up when they charged to comment.
I also hated the popups, more and more every day.
i would like to see each state organize a militia, identify the woke's power structure in that state, march on it, loot it and burn it to the ground.
Careful. We might agree, but we can’t say it.
"The Revolution eats its own." Karma has no time limit!
Never apologize - they won't forgive you.
Sheeran says he doesn’t want to get political and then gets political, in a small way. His mistake was addressing it. Should have ignored it (why give it air) and just came out and sang. People bought tickets to see and hear him, not some two-bit has been. Macklemore? Does anyone line up to hear him? No. The ‘free Palestine’ crowd can pound sand. Just sing, stop apologizing, and those that refuse to join his tour, well who actually cares.
Especially if there is nothing to apologize for.
Look at the bright side. An "Oscar watching" business is about as lame and useless for a serious society as Silly-Putty. You're now a journalist. A serious one.
And we appreciate you for it, Sasha.
No kidding. When you get right down to it, who GAS about who best so-and-so in a waste of time movie, as most of them are.
But it used to be awesome!! When movies were great, the awards shows were fun, we used to have Oscars parties and dress up as a character in one of the Best Movie nominees. We perhaps have forgotten those days since it has been so long. Now all of Hollywood acts like Vanessa Redgrave.
Silly putty was fun! Just don’t eat it. ( I wonder if there were cautions on the can DO NOT EAT) ?
Different time, different rules, different normal.
The last sentence is most important to remember: It is a tyranny of a minority.
Thank you, Sasha, for you consistent, courageous voice.
I wish I could take away the hurt of being ostracized by a bunch of clueless liberal sycophants. We lost family members for simply insisting that Trump was the lesser of two evils: Hillary, Biden, 🐪la. Biden, by default of the autopen, may be the worst president ever. We may never recover from the societal and financial costs of absorbing 20 million mostly male unvetted immigrants.
This:
"He didn’t have to go through this. He should have told them to pound sand."
One has to pay attention to this kind of thing for quite a while before learning that apologizing is almost never the right answer.
Never apologize! It’s never enough for them. They really don’t care and see it as weakness.
Who’s Macklemore? I had to look him up. Seems like just another washed-up singer, dime a dozen. Sheeran can do better for an opening act. And of course Sheeran had to beg for forgiveness. No balls.
...Macklemore is not some starving artist with an opinion ... he has Owl Records and a clothing line ... he knew where he would be performing and acted accordingly ... he got attention and threw Sheeran under the proverbial financial bus ... he lost nothing ... Sheeran has every right in the world to keep his private thoughts, private ... but professionalism doesn't matter when Macklemore has someone else paying the price.... Sheeran should not have to apologize but that he did makes it worse ... if Sheeran can decide what is unjustifiable and unproportional, then Sheeran can look into the eyes of those mothers who had their children held hostage for ~500 days and tell them about justice and proportion ...
Macklemore who
Good comment, but I doubt the ticket buyers bought it to see Macklemore. Sheeran is the artist with the top songs.
...true enough ... I am old and I never once considered what Beethoven's political leanings were ...
Ed Sheeran = Beta Male Leftist who definitely has no balls
he should have found upcoming talent who still played for the love of it and given them a start
Never heard of any of these people. But a dude breaking down crying in apology is NEVER a good thing.
By the way what do these guys do for a living? I see a photo of an overly-tattooed redheaded guy with a guitar and another photo in a fur boa so I assumes it might be something in either the music or fashion trades?
He's this generation's idea of a music superstar. I've tried to be fair with him, but I have never yet detected a tune of his which is catchy, let alone memorable.
He's the perfect mock superstar for a generation which has no concept of anything lasting or of moral/spiritual significance.
Can we all agree that the music of this generation--in any genre--basically sucks?
Sorry, Ella, I'm choosin' Dolly...
In 2014, I had a round trip ride in a medical taxi with an amiable guy about my age. The trip was three hours long, to my state's medical school, where I had an appointment with another useless doctor.
I was inherently disposed to like the driver; I'm Southern, and so was he. As we pulled away from my place to start the trip, he drawled, "I guess it's time to listen to Dolly." I admit that I was charmed somehow that he'd named his GPS.
I was wrong. He meant Dolly Parton's Greatest Hits. We must have heard it through three times before we got to the medical school. I was pleased with myself for not showing my stress.
As we started back, same thing. Time to listen to Dolly. I couldn't help myself: I sighed deeply. He got the message.
Yeah, why couldn't he have been playing Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks?
Yeah, Ella... point is, at the risk of sounding terminally curmudgeonly (?), the old music was better--more "authentic" (to use a popular word) if you will.. I think even many young'uns would agree with that. Wish it weren't so, but it is.
Robert, thanks for the explanation and for taking one for the team - John
Brilliant.
Don't forget that moms are classified as "Birthing Persons" by idiot Big Brother advocates.
Sheesh.
"Never complain, never explain" - Henry Ford II
I guess I could add "Never apologize" to the mob.
Today I was in the waiting room at Quest medical lab where I was treated to a screen running non-stop Pharma ads. I found out that there is a new home test for people assigned female at birth who apparently have a cervix. STFU.
I'm part of the Brain Donation program at Mt Sinai Hospital, in New York. I signed up gladly a decade ago. I have had second, long lasting, nearly decisive thoughts about whether I wanted to remain a donor since I got a routine form from them for me to fill out a few years ago.
They wanted to know my preferred pronouns.
I'm like anyone else who is part of any organ donation plan, whether it's donation for transplant or, as in my case, for medical research: we all want our organ donations to make a difference. In my case I want to know that my donation may possibly make some slight difference to the acquisition of medical knowledge.
Can I really expect that of people who want to know my preferred pronouns?
I have never cared for Ed Sheeran, who might be a decent, not a great musician, and this is the reason why. He is very beta, crying on stage because people left him. Grow a spine, dude!
Compare this with John Lennon's "We're more popular than Jesus" touch of verbal diarrhea in 1966. Lennon apologized, but The Beatles did not engage in girly sobs about the organized record burnings, especially in the South, and the laying waste to a significant number of their attending audiences in the United States during their summer 1966 tour, they simply went on with the business of being The Beatles.
Sasha----You are enlightened. Keep up the good work. May woke of any type burn in hell!!
I have to ask why anyone would invite a political diatribe at a pop concert. Why did Ed even invite this? Neutral seems to me to be we don’t discuss this period- not allowing one loon loser to spout poisonous nonsense and look the other way until consequences come.
Exactly. Should have come on stage and started the show singing, not groveling.
I gather it wasn’t Sheeran’s call.
These simple minded fools have been emboldened by our “giving them their space” to throw their little snits. Defund the police is one of their favorites. The fools don’t realize if the police are defunded there is no one to protect them from the vast majority of gun toting, God fearing, Americans.
The Left went sideways, but they are winning b/c of the tyranny of the minority.
Both sides are corrupt, “uni-party” corrupt. Human nature is self-serving as a survival instinct which is why we find ourselves losing even when voting the bad guy out.
As Frank Herbert noted in his novel, Dune, the truth about why government will always be corrupt is:
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible."
We had term limits in our original constitution, but Hamilton, as the tyranny of the minority, used the oldest neo-con trick in the book back in 1787: Be very, very afraid.
We have to stop being afraid to “offend” anyone, and then, maybe possibly, we can finally learn from our many past mistakes: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/america-was-not-created-to-become?r=76q58
The more power we give the gov't (or any institution) the more it will attract the worst among us. Our founders understood this risk and designed a system that would provide both checks and balances, as well as make it "encourage" our better angels.
Hence my default preference for less power and less funding for gov't of any kind. Just say no to such pernicious ideas as "medicare for all", Nat'l healthcare, gov't funded grocery stores, child care etc etc.
On another note, i think about you and keep you in my prayers, Liz. All the best.
Thank you and ditto!