Gunfire, smoke grenades, vehicles charging law enforcement: The scene in Minnesota looks like a war zone. Leftists are assaulting ICE agents, storming churches, threatening journalists, and ripping conservatives out of cars, all in one of the most frigid winters imaginable.

While CNN and MSNBC are treating ICE’s presence as a fascist takeover that every progressive foot soldier should travel to fight, they are increasingly frustrated that no one seems to really care. The left might be engaged in its own miniature insurrection, but the rest of America isn’t at war. The rest of America is watching football.

The average guy might catch an online video or headline and shake his head, but he goes right back to wondering if the Patriots are going to win another Super Bowl.

The summer of 2020 was truly a wonder to behold. After the entire country was locked down for months on end, tensions were boiling. The media had been steadily bombarding their captive viewers with different stories of police brutality against black people, the most sacred of all victims, hoping that one spark would eventually trigger a wildfire. It took a while, but once riots started, they spread to different cities quickly. Teachers had their students write essays about George Floyd, while churches baptized in his name. Statues were built, murals were painted, and companies donated millions to Black Lives Matter, even as rioters looted and burned down their stores.

It was a truly religious movement, supported by every major power center in the nation, justifying outrageous violence and property damage, while news organizations glorified the entire spectacle. Not since the 1960s has America been gripped by such a fervently spiritual devotion to revolutionary politics.

Now, Trump is back in office and the left is desperately trying to recreate the magic, but leftists can’t seem to get it done. ICE has started its deportations of the worst illegal-alien criminals. In most states, the operation has gone smoothly. Some blue states have decided not to work with ICE, forcing the agents to retrieve the illegal aliens themselves, often in very hostile environments, without the aid of local law enforcement. Minnesota has been a hotbed of domestic unrest, so it is no surprise that the state has also seen the most conflict during these ICE raids.

It isn’t just that Minnesota refuses to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The entire state political apparatus is involved in a conspiracy to foment violence. Government officials, including the lieutenant governor, have been caught in a group chat working to coordinate the revolution. Teachers’ unions and school boards collaborate to suspend school so that educators and students can join in the street protests and riots. Judges refuse to sign arrest warrants for obvious crimes because they agree with the perpetrators. Minnesota is in open insurrection. There really is no other word for it.

Despite the incredible level of subversive coordination occurring in Minnesota, events have failed to capture the popular imagination like they did during the summer of love. Some have blamed the winter, claiming that it is simply too cold for the leftists to maintain an overwhelming presence in the streets. Others have pointed to the lack of lockdowns or some other simmering psychological factor increasing political tensions.

The most likely explanation centers around the cause itself. Black criminals have gained an almost sacred status on the left, making them a far more animating cause, especially for the black community at large. No black activist is showing up to die for white lesbians who get themselves shot standing up for child-molesting illegal aliens from Venezuela. Without the sacred victims, it is difficult for leftists to get their most violent foot soldiers in the streets or to get corporations to sign on and push the agenda. Whatever the true explanation, the consequences are obvious. The revolution is not spreading, and most of America does not care.

If you are someone who follows the news obsessively, it is easy to overestimate the impact that events in Minnesota are having on the country. It’s not that what is happening between ICE and violent leftists isn’t serious. It is, but most Americans are barely paying attention. Most states are cooperating with ICE, and deportations are entirely positive, making very little noise. The average guy might catch an online video or headline and shake his head, but he goes right back to wondering if the Patriots are going to win another Super Bowl.

Progressive activists are posting on social media complaining about how most of the country just does not care about what they are doing. The revolution is contained, and the leftist insurgency is becoming demoralized.

Tim Walz has now agreed to involve local law enforcement if ICE reduces its direct presence in operations. Some disgruntled right-wingers have described this as capitulation by the Trump administration, but that simply is not the case. The goal was always to use ICE as a supplementary force in conjunction with local agencies. Anything else invites chaos.

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The refusal of local law enforcement to cooperate created a “city under siege” mentality, where progressives could sell the image of faceless authoritarians surging into their hometown, justifying all kinds of ruthless tactics. Now that local police are handling the riot control, they own the situation. It’s a lot easier to demonize and attack a faceless federal agent. Now the protesters are assaulting their friends, family members, and neighbors. Activists have even started to surround Tim Walz’s residence due to their outrage. Once revolutionary energy is redirected toward their own leaders, the movement is not long for this world.

Many GOP commentators and politicians have decided that now is the time to defect, calling for ICE to withdraw and abandon operations in Minnesota — a huge mistake. The progressives are outraged that their government allies have wavered and demoralized becuase their revolution has been contained. The worst possible move would be to rip defeat from the jaws of victory because a few MSNBC segments started to make the donor class squeamish.

Now is the time to break the insurgency and continue nationwide operations without hesitation. Americans are more interested in whether the Seahawks can pull this one off than they are in spreading the Marxist open-borders gospel. If conservative politicians and commentators can control their impulse to surrender like spineless cowards for a few weeks, the moment will pass and immigration law will be enforced.

​Minnesota, Radical left, Football, Super bowl, Ice, Trump, Trump administration, Ice protest, Law enforcement, Minneapolis, Tim walz, Opinion & analysis 

I know this guy, Richard. He’s friends with a couple of different friends of mine. He’s in his late 40s. He’s had a successful microbrewery business going for many years.

Last year, I heard that his business was in trouble. And then, more recently, his wife filed for divorce. He is apparently having problems seeing his kids.

Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need.

I saw him recently at a large gathering. He was in pretty bad shape. He was getting screwed at family court. He was blaming Trump for his business problems.

His blaming Trump was no surprise. Many otherwise intelligent people do that automatically here in Portland. Everything is Trump’s fault. I don’t really hold it against them. The propaganda is so thick here. And if you own a public-facing business, you probably have to go with the flow.

More likely, the true cause of his business problems is the economics of Portland. Taxes are up. Insurance is skyrocketing. Homeless people have invaded your neighborhood. Drug addicts are lighting your dumpster on fire.

Hitting bottom

So I was at this event, and I ended up in a small group with Richard and a couple of other guys. I could see that he was upset. He looked terrible.

I could relate to his situation. I had gone through a similar compound disaster when my father died, right in the middle of my own divorce.

So I had felt that pain. But I didn’t have kids. Which probably makes Richard’s situation much worse.

Eventually, the other guys wandered off, and I found myself giving Richard a little pep talk. I told him what happened to me and explained how at the time, I tried to think of it as a test.

I thought to myself: How often in life will I have to face two life-changing crises, coming from two different directions, at the same time?

I tried to think of my situation as a challenge, a rare opportunity to test my mettle, as I faced a mountain of emotional stressors and practical problems.

I couldn’t tell if he was buying it. And I didn’t know him that well. So I left it at that.

The soft life

But in the days after, I thought more about Richard’s situation.

He was a solidly upper-middle-class guy. His parents were well off. He went to a good college. He was a successful businessman and a respected member of the local microbrew scene. His brewery had prospered for years, before Portland took its current downturn.

He had really had an easy time of it, all things considered. So really, my idea that this was a “rare opportunity” was not far off. His current problems were easily the worst thing that ever happened to him. And they were all happening at once!

This also might have been a good time to try to red-pill him on local politics. Bro, Trump isn’t the reason you can’t run a business in Portland. But he wasn’t going to change on that.

But the “test” thing. That was still a valid point. Richard had never been hit this hard. And like a lot of men, he wasn’t ready for it. He had lived a relatively soft life.

RELATED: The American dream lives where people still choose to build

CS0523183 via iStock/Getty Images

Into the wilderness

People have been saying for years that part of the problem with American men is they don’t have any form of initiation ritual.

There’s no rigorous coming-of-age process. We have no “rites of passage.”

You can live your whole life and never have to endure any true hardship or serious deprivation.

Other cultures make a point of creating those “rites of passage.” Growing up in the West, I heard about young Native American men going on “vision quests.” They ventured into the wilderness by themselves, with no food and no protection from the elements or predatory animals.

In this way, they proved themselves worthy of their people, both physically and mentally. They were pushed to the limits of their endurance.

This was not only a physical ordeal, but a chance for spiritual growth as well. Becoming a man was not just about strength and skill; it was about humility and understanding your responsibilities within your tribe.

Once you had experienced the difficulties of fending for yourself, you would forever appreciate the security of life within a stable and healthy community.

The new vision quest

I thought about Richard’s predicament, which is now fairly common in America. What was happening to him was happening to men all the time.

Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need by your own social class, because they’re progressive Democrats as well.

That’s how I would think of it if I were him. What else are you going to do? Cry to your lawyer? Complain about Trump? Whine to your Kamala-voting buddies?

Or are you going to grieve your losses, accept your situation, and then respond with a new resolve, a new clarity of mind, and perhaps a stiffer spine?

I mean, I feel for the guy. He’s going through hell. But these kinds of men have got to stop crying and focus on what is really going on around them.

Think of your present difficulties as the rite of passage you should have experienced when you were 14. Think of them as your overdue vision quest. You’re in the wilderness now. You have only yourself to depend on.

​Lifestyle, Men, Hard times, Motivation, Donald trump, Portland, Business, Divorce, Family court, Blake’s progress 

A Missouri woman complaining about police at a city council meeting was recognized by the police as being wanted for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend.

Berkeley Police Major Steve Runge told KTVI-TV that Jameicia Moore was spotted as she spoke to the Berkeley City Council on Jan. 12.

‘You’re lucky I didn’t stab you in the f**king chest.’

“Are you kidding me? Was my reaction,” Runge said. “Because we were trying to get her to come talk to us and she just refused.”

Video from the city council meeting shows the moment Runge, who is sitting in the background, recognizes Moore and texts his officers to apprehend her.

“Then, not only that, [she] complained about the police. And I’m like, lady, you’re wanted by the police!” he added.

Runge said he told his officers to arrest her in the hallway in order to avoid disrupting the meeting. He said they had been seeking to talk to Moore for about two months, but she had refused.

Moore was being sought on charges of domestic assault and armed criminal action over an alleged stabbing attack against her boyfriend from Oct. 2025. Police said she stabbed him with a butcher knife in his left arm after becoming enraged when he mentioned another woman.

The woman was allegedly captured in a recording saying to the victim, “You’re lucky I didn’t stab you in the f**king chest.”

Three weeks later, there was another domestic incident that involved Moore wielding a baseball bat.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Melissa Price Smith said she had never quite seen anything like Moore’s arrest.

“Shout-out to the Berkeley Police Department, who were really on top of their game — very aware,” Smith said.

RELATED: ‘I killed Daddy’: Adopted 11-year-old killed his father for taking away his Nintendo game, police say

“She had refused to go to the police department to speak with them,” she added. “It’s actually quite surprising, though, that she then appeared at the Berkeley City Council meeting two months later on a completely different matter.”

Runge added, “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

Moore was given a $100K bond.

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​Jameicia moore arrest, Woman complains city council, Berkeley city council, Domestic violence charges, Crime 

On January 27, during a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, a man sitting in the front row suddenly charged at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and sprayed her with an unknown liquid using a syringe-like device. The alleged suspect, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was immediately arrested on suspicion of assault, and Omar, unharmed, was able to continue her event. He faces charges of third-degree assault and is currently detained at the Hennepin County jail.

Some people, however, are convinced this assault was a hoax. They argue that certain details in the video footage indicate Omar staged the attack against herself, perhaps to deflect attention from controversies she’s involved in.

On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz delivers a frame-by-frame analysis of the attack, dissecting seven details she argues might confirm the growing suspicion that the entire ordeal was manufactured.

Reason 1: Security dropped the ball — or did they?

The first suspicious detail, Liz says, is that Omar’s attacker was “visibly a weirdo.”

“Look at this guy. He is clearly under the influence of something,” she says, rolling video footage from the town hall meeting that captures the up-close profile of the attacker prior to the incident.

At a “town hall event for a sitting member of the U.S. Congress — if there’s a weirdo seated in the front row, the security moves the weirdo. That’s standard procedure,” she adds.

Reason 2: Timing a little too perfect?

“It’s interesting to note that he jumped up right after Ilhan Omar said that Kristi Noem must resign,” Liz says.

“It was as if that was his cue.”

Liz says the timing of the attack makes her wonder: “Is this some kind of stage/hoax/hate crime in order to protect Ilhan Omar from any kind of enforcement of her questionable immigration activities?”

Reason 3: Suspicious head nod?

“There’s also a moment where it appears that Ilhan Omar gives him the head nod, like, ‘Go ahead,”’ Liz says, playing another video clip that captures Omar’s face immediately prior to the attack.

While Liz wants to give her “the benefit of the doubt,” when she closely analyzes the footage, she sees a definitive nod.

“She gave him a nod as if to give him his cue,” she declares.

Reason 4: Zero panic?

“Then, of course, when he does lunge at her and squirts this foul-smelling unknown substance on her, she barely flinches,” Liz notes.

She explains that if Omar was truly unaware of the attack, then surely she would’ve shown concern about the substance — perhaps a “poison chemical agent” — that was just squirted on her. Or perhaps she would involuntarily flinch, assuming that the attacker was wielding a firearm.

“And yet, she barely reacts,” Liz says.

Reason 5: Omar charges toward the danger?

Liz also finds it suspicious that Omar’s initial reaction to being sprayed was to move toward the perpetrator. Video footage captures her immediately storming away from the podium, where she was speaking in his direction.

“Instead of the kind of self-preservation move-away, she lurches towards him,” she scoffs.

Reason 6: Why spare the face?

“It’s also strange, by the way, that he didn’t aim this substance at her face. He aimed it at her sweater,” Liz observes.

If he was a genuine attacker, he likely would’ve aimed to cause true damage and thus wouldn’t have projected the liquid in a “harmless” place, she suggests.

Reason 7: No medical checkup?

The most convincing evidence that Omar staged this attack, however, is that she refused any medical testing, hazmat evaluation, or decontamination at the scene. On the contrary, she demanded to be allowed to finish her speech before examination.

“To decline to even test what this substance is or to go to the hospital and to continue speaking — these are the reasons why … so many people are asking: Is this an authentic attack, or was this a staged attack?” Liz says.

“Well, my answer to that would be this: It’s a good thing that he was arrested because if it was a real attack, he deserves to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if it’s a fake attack, if this was some kind of hoax hate crime, then he deserves to be investigated, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

To hear more of Liz’s frame-by-frame breakdown, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The liz wheeler show, Ilhan omar, Liz wheeler, Liz wheeler show, Anthony kazmierczak, Blazetv 

Last Friday during the annual March for Life, President Trump delivered a pledge to the nation: His administration stands for the “infinite worth and God-given dignity of every human life.” Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at the rally were just as clear: We must “build up that culture of life” and “cannot be neutral. Our country cannot be indifferent about whether its next generations live or die.”

Vance and Trump were primarily talking about the unborn. But their principles clearly include providing the right to life — as well as health and safety — for all citizens, especially the most vulnerable among us.

We have entire policies at the FDA dedicated to making it more difficult for children inside and outside the womb to live the lives they deserve.

Unfortunately, these principles have been undermined by a few key officials at the Food and Drug Administration, and not just for unborn children. Thousands of kids with rare diseases have seen valuable treatments slowed or even halted since last summer, thanks to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Chief Medical Officer Vinay Prasad.

As one of the oldest living Americans with spina bifida (I celebrate my 60th birthday this year), I understand the value of providing children with rare and fatal diseases the ability to improve or even extend their lives from a personal, policy, and political perspective. I took that knowledge into the first Trump administration as the commissioner of the Administration on Disability at the Department of Health & Human Services. Today, I’m deeply concerned by what Makary, Prasad, and — at times — Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have done to reduce children’s ability to live the full length of their God-given lives.

Those concerns were why I raised the alarm when RFK Jr. was going through his Senate hearings a year ago. He had been openly supportive of abortion on the presidential campaign trail, but I and other concerned pro-life advocates were told that he would have plenty of pro-lifers around him and that people would become policy. They were right: People did become policy, but not the way we had hoped. Now, we have entire policies at the FDA dedicated to making it more difficult for children inside and outside the womb to live the lives they deserve.

Last October, the FDA outraged pro-life warriors across the country by approving a cheaper version of mifepristone, one of the most prevalent and notorious abortion drugs on the market. Women can have these drugs dropped off in their mailboxes and have abortions in the “comfort” of their own homes. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimates there were over 640,000 chemical abortions in 2023 — 63% of the total abortions that year.

In 2026, there will be even more.

That number, troubling enough on its own, understates the problem because it doesn’t account for the injuries these drugs inflict on the women who take them. One devastating fact I have learned in my advocacy for people with disabilities is the particular hazard the abortion pill presents for women who use wheelchairs or otherwise live with limited mobility. Any drug that causes blood clots — and abortion drugs definitely do — will be a deadly danger to people who have limited mobility.

FDA Chief Medical Officer Vinay Prasad is similarly problematic for those who support protecting life. He not only supports legalized abortion, but since his appointment in mid-2025, Prasad has held up the production of drugs and treatments that would make real differences in the lives of kids who suffer from rare diseases like Sanfilippo syndrome and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

In 2018, Prasad opposed the Trump “right to try” doctrine, through which hundreds of patients have seen amazing results from drugs still in their experimental stages or through off-label usage. That number could be higher if Prasad’s red tape weren’t keeping effective drugs in “pre-approval” limbo.

RELATED: No, President Trump: The sanctity of life is not ‘flexible’

Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

At HHS, the buck stops with RFK Jr. But ultimately in our government, the buck stops at the Oval Office. Trump and Vance recommitted to supporting life on Friday, and that commitment must be consistent throughout the administration. The FDA’s actions against the unborn and children with disabilities and rare diseases threaten to undermine what should be a slam dunk for Trump’s pro-life legacy.

In short, HHS and FDA appointees should be defending life, not quietly undermining it. Vance and Trump can make that happen.

​Fda, Pro life, Abortion, Trump administration, March for life, Jd vance, Food & drug administration, Martin makary, Vinay prasad, Opinion & analysis